You think you need more English.

More words.
More grammar.
More checking.

But what you’re really missing is permission.

Permission to speak before it’s perfect.
Permission to sound like yourself.
Permission to stop hiding behind “I’m not fluent enough”.

Confidence doesn’t come from vocabulary lists.
It comes from using the English you already have.

Quick win: Say one thing today without checking it first.

Welcome to this week’s Sparks Plus — your quick, practical boost for clearer, more confident English.
Six short sections, all easy to read and use right away.

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1️⃣ Quick Win

Don’t say “back in the work.”
In English, we say:
✔ I’m back to work.
✔ I’m back at work.

At work = physically in the workplace
To work = returning to working again

Both are common after the holidays.

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2️⃣ Real-World English in Action

Denglish rescue:
A client said: We see us next week.

In English, we simply say:
✔ See you next week!
✔ Talk to you next week!

Short, friendly and very natural.

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3️⃣ Christine’s Pick

New Year Resolutions — Simon’s Cat
A light, funny video about New Year resolutions… with a little help from Simon’s Cat.

🎥 https://youtu.be/KNEVjhCXZB4?si=pGmZpzcmGFPqh8ae

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4️⃣ Reader Question

Q: Can I say “We start in calendar week 3”?

A:
No. English speakers don’t use “calendar week.”

Say:
✔ We start in Week 3.
✔ We start in the third week of January.

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5️⃣ AI Prompt to Test

Try this in ChatGPT:

“Give me 5 short New Year messages I can send to colleagues when we return to work. Make them relaxed and positive.”

👉 Ideal for office small talk or Teams/Slack chats.

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6️⃣ Spotlight

Useful Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional phrases are small expressions that make your English sound more natural – phrases like at least, at once, at first sight, or at long last.

I’ve put together a simple list of the most common ones, arranged by preposition.
Perfect as a quick reference for writing and speaking.

📘 Download it here:
https://english-trainer.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Prepositional-phrases-22.1.2014.pdf

I like the quiet of the first morning of the year. Everything feels possible. And nothing demands perfection.

Something I see every January. People make BIG resolutions. Then feel bad when life gets busy and the plan falls apart.

My clients do it with their English, too.
“Daily practice. 100 new words. perfect grammar.”
It sounds impressive. It rarely works.

You don’t need a big resolution. You need one tiny thing you can actually keep.

Maybe it’s:

• speaking up once more in a meeting
• starting emails with simple, clear lines
• choosing plain English over complicated words
• practising for ten minutes instead of waiting for the “right moment”

Confidence grows from habits you can repeat. Not from perfect plans you cannot keep. 

If you picked one small thing for this year. what would it be?

A friend sent me this beautiful Irish blessing:

“Count your blessings instead of your crosses.
Count your gains instead of your losses.
Count your joys instead of your woes.
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears.
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full times instead of your lean.
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth.”

It’s a soft reminder to look at what is working.

We often focus on everything we didn’t do.
Didn’t finish. Didn’t achieve.

My clients do the same with their English.
They count every mistake.
But they rarely count the moments they spoke up, asked a question, joined a meeting.

Those moments matter more.

Starting the year by counting what you did do builds a quiet kind of confidence.

Want something simple to try?

Write a short letter to your future self.
Tell them what you hope this year will look like.
Keep it calm. Keep it light.
And see what happens.

 

A client told me a story recently. And it stuck.

A tiny snail starts climbing a cherry tree in the middle of a cold, grey spring.


The birds laugh. “There are no cherries. Why bother?”


But the snail keeps going and replies,
“By the time I reach the top, the cherries will be there”.

And isn’t it true?

Not everything in life gives instant results.


Some things grow while you’re moving.
And you only see the change because you didn’t stop.

Steady beats impressive. Slow beats stuck.


Keep going. Even if others don’t see the point yet.

What’s your “snail climb” right now. The thing you’re doing even if the results are not visible yet?

A small ritual that helps me is a list of forty clear questions I work through over a few days.

Nothing fancy – just simple prompts that help me see the year as it really was.

The good.
The hard.
The “oh right, that happened” moments we all forget.

And here’s the surprising part:
The power isn’t in each individual answer.
It’s in the patterns you start to notice when you’ve done this for a few years.

You begin to see what keeps repeating.
What’s quietly shaping your choices.
And what you’re finally ready to change.

Reflection doesn’t need drama.

Just a few good questions and a quiet moment.

Curious what patterns you might uncover?

The list is here: https://stephango.com/40-question