The airport is behind you. Now you have to live in the city.
Destination Expressions is the English of a specific city or region once you have arrived — neighbourhoods, menus, directions, and the local phrases people actually use there. It is not the journey. Airport, immigration, and the airplane belong to Travel Expressions.
Tell me the city or region, and what you need to do there. $55 (USD) for 60 minutes, one-to-one on Zoom. I reply within 48 hours.
“Travel gets you there. Destination is what you say once the suitcase is down.”
Two offers. Two moments in the trip.
People mix these up. They are not the same lesson. Travel is $50 for the journey. Destination is $55 for a named city after you arrive.
The journey: airport, immigration, the airplane, missed connections, and the process language of getting from home to the gate and through the border.
See Travel Expressions if that is still the hard part.
The place: a named city or region, and the expressions used there after you have arrived — streets, shops, food, small talk with locals, and how English actually sounds in that destination.
This page. Book it when the flight is the easy bit and the city is the work.
You can land. You still cannot move around the place.
Phrasebooks teach “where is the station?” They do not teach the answer you get on that street, in that city, from someone who also speaks English as a second language.
The city has its own English
A visitor in Bangkok, Paris, or Johannesburg is often talking to another non-native speaker. The words, the speed, and the shortcuts are local. A general travel list does not cover that.
You need a neighbourhood, not a terminal
Directions to a market, a dish you cannot eat, a building that is not on the tourist map. These are place problems, not airport problems.
So you stay on the safe streets
You eat where the menu has photos. You do not ask. The trip happens, but a smaller version of the city than the one you came for.
Your city, not a generic abroad.
You name the destination. We rehearse the English used there after arrival — not immigration, not the cabin announcement.
Neighbourhoods and getting around
Streets, districts, buses, and the way locals give directions in that city. How to check you heard the right corner, not the next one.
Food as it is ordered there
Menus, markets, and the phrases that mark you as someone who has arrived — including allergies stated so they are unmistakable.
Local expressions, not textbook ones
The small-talk and service English people actually use in that region, including when both of you are speaking English as a second language.
Telling the story afterward
How to describe the place you were in so it sounds like you were there, not like you memorised a brochure.
What not to say in that city
Directness that is normal in one country is rude in another. We practise refuse, bargain, and ask without leaving the wrong impression on that street.
Your reason for being there
A week’s holiday, a posting, or visiting family changes the English. We build the session around the city and the reason, not a ten-destination slideshow.
Same traveller. Different English.
At the airport desk you need process language. On the street the next morning you need the city.
You: I’ve missed my connection. I need to be in Rome tomorrow morning — what are my options?
Airport, immigration, airplane, the broken plan. That is Travel. Keep it there.
You: I’m looking for Testaccio, not the centre. Is this the right bus for the market, or do I change at Piramide?
A named neighbourhood, a local transfer, a check that you heard it. That is Destination. $55 for 60 minutes — a small premium over Travel, because the hour is built around one named city.
Built around the city, not a phrasebook.
One hour, live on Zoom, one-to-one. Most people take one or two sessions before they go, or in the first week after they land.
You tell me the city or region, why you are going, and what you need to do once you are there. I prepare the English of that place, not a generic abroad list.
We run the streets: directions, a counter, a table, a misunderstanding. I reply the way people in that destination reply, including second-language English.
A one-page sheet in your own words for that city. Something to keep in your pocket, not a textbook of ten countries.
Sessions run Saturdays and Sundays, 10:00 to 15:00 Korean time. $55 (USD) for 60 minutes. This is a live lesson, not a self-paced course.
Someone who has done the arriving, not just the teaching.
I have spent nearly two decades coaching English in Korea — senior executives and managers at leading Korean chaebols, corporate training for Hyundai and Kia, and twelve years on the faculty of SoonChunHyang University, where I am now Emeritus Associate Professor. I am a South African living and working in Korea, so standing in a city whose English is not your own is not theoretical.
That is why this is rehearsal for a named place, not a free self-paced slideshow of ten destinations.
International TESOL, 120 hours
Corporate training: Hyundai, Kia
12 years university faculty
The practical questions.
Is this the same as Travel Expressions?
No. Travel is the journey — airport, immigration, airplane, and the process of getting there. Destination is the city or region after you have arrived. Travel is $50 / 60 min. Destination is $55 / 60 min. Different English. Book Travel if the hard part is still the trip. Book this if the hard part is the place.
Do I have to pick one city?
Yes for a given session. A city, a region, or a short list of neighbourhoods in one destination. Ten countries in one hour is a brochure, not a lesson.
My English is quite basic.
That is fine. Place English is short sentences: where, which way, this one, not that. We make what you have reliable for that city.
Can I take both Travel and Destination?
Yes. Many people do Travel in the weeks before they fly, then Destination for the city. They are two bookings, two hours: Travel $50 and Destination $55.
What does it cost?
$55 (USD) for 60 minutes, one-to-one on Zoom, paid through PayPal on the calendar. The Fit Check itself costs nothing and carries no obligation.
Name the city. We will work on the English used there.
Start with the Fit Check, or book Destination Expressions on the same calendar as the other five classes.
- Tell me the city or region, and what you need to do once you have arrived.
- I read your answers myself and build the session around that place.
- You hear back within 48 hours with the plan, the available times, and the $55 fee.