The phrasebook works right up until something goes wrong.
Anyone can memorise how to order a coffee. What nobody prepares for is the cancelled connection, the pharmacy at ten at night, or the hotel insisting your booking does not exist. This is coaching for those moments — airport, immigration, the airplane, and the rest of the journey — rehearsed before you fly, around your actual trip. Once you have arrived, Destination Expressions is the city itself.
Tell me where you are going and when. Three minutes, no cost, no obligation — and I reply within 48 hours with a plan built around your itinerary rather than a general course.
“You do not need more vocabulary. You need to have already said it once, out loud, before it matters.”
You prepared what to say. Nobody prepared you for the reply.
Travel English fails in a very particular way, and it is almost never the vocabulary that gives out first.
The answer comes back too fast
Your question was fine. Their reply was three sentences at natural speed with an accent you have never heard, and now you are nodding at something you did not understand.
Something goes wrong, and it matters
A missed connection, a charge you did not agree to, a medicine you need. These are the conversations with real consequences, and they are exactly the ones no phrasebook rehearses.
So the trip shrinks
You order the thing you can pronounce. You skip the tour that needs a phone call. The holiday still happens, but a smaller version of it than the one you paid for.
Six situations, rehearsed until they are boring.
Chosen because these are where trips actually go wrong. We adjust them to your route, your reason for travelling, and the people you will have to deal with.
Arrival and the officials
Immigration, customs, and the questions that sound like accusations when you are tired. Short, calm, complete answers — and what to do when they ask something you did not expect.
When the plan breaks
Delays, cancellations, missed connections, a booking that has vanished. How to state the problem, say what you need, and stay firm without becoming the difficult passenger.
Getting help you can rely on
Pharmacies, clinics, lost property, police. Describing a problem accurately under stress, and — the part people forget — checking that you understood the answer.
Food, and anything you cannot eat
Ordering with confidence, asking what is in a dish, and stating an allergy or restriction in a way that is unmistakable rather than merely polite.
Being understood the first time
Numbers, times, place names, your own name and address. The small set of things where mispronunciation costs you real time, drilled properly.
Not being rude by accident
Directness that reads as normal in one country reads as brusque in another. How to complain, refuse, bargain or decline without leaving the wrong impression.
Same English. Very different outcome.
The scenario we rehearse most often, because it is the one that costs people money: you are at the airline desk and your connecting flight has gone.
You: Excuse me… my flight. Problem. I cannot go.
Them: Right, so the next available is tomorrow evening, unless you want to go standby via Frankfurt, but there’s a fare difference —
You: Ah… yes. Okay.
You agreed to something you did not understand, and you never said what you actually needed. The desk moves on, and it is now much harder to reopen.
You: I’ve missed my connection to Rome. I need to be there tomorrow morning — what are my options?
Them: Next available is tomorrow evening, or standby via Frankfurt with a fare difference —
You: Sorry, could you slow down? Tomorrow evening is too late. If Frankfurt gets me there in the morning, how much is the difference?
The need stated first, permission to slow down asked for plainly, and one clear question at the end. No more English — just used in the right order.
Built around your trip, not a textbook.
One hour, live on Zoom, one-to-one. Most people take one or two sessions in the weeks before they fly, which is usually all this needs.
You tell me where you are going, when, why, and what you are most worried about. I prepare the situations you are genuinely likely to meet on that route.
We run those situations properly — me playing the desk agent, the pharmacist, the driver — and I deliberately reply the way real people do, at speed, so you practise coping rather than reciting.
A one-page sheet in your own words: the sentences that worked for you, in the order you will need them. Something to read on the plane, not a textbook.
Sessions run Saturdays and Sundays, 10:00 to 15:00 Korean time. $50 (USD) for 60 minutes. Trips have fixed dates and weekend slots are limited, so if you are flying soon it is worth starting the Fit Check today rather than at the weekend.
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 the experience of standing at a counter in a language that is not your own is not theoretical to me.
That is why these sessions are rehearsal rather than vocabulary lists. The words are the easy part.
International TESOL, 120 hours
Corporate training: Hyundai, Kia
12 years university faculty
The practical questions.
How far before my trip should I start?
Two to three weeks is ideal — long enough to practise, close enough that it stays fresh. A week is still useful. The day before is too late for anything except calming your nerves, and I will tell you so rather than take the booking.
My English is quite basic.
That is fine, and this is the course where it matters least. Travel English is short sentences under pressure. We work with what you have and make it reliable rather than adding more.
Can my partner or family join the session?
Ask when you get in touch. Two people travelling together can work well in one session, since you will be handling these situations as a pair anyway. More than two and it stops being one-to-one.
I am travelling for work, not a holiday.
Then say so — the situations change. Business travel adds hotel check-in problems, taxis to unfamiliar offices, and the awkward dinner with people you have just met. That last one overlaps heavily with the small talk coaching.
What does it cost?
$50 (USD) for 60 minutes, one-to-one on Zoom. The Fit Check itself costs nothing and carries no obligation — it just tells me what to prepare, and I confirm the available times in my reply.
The date on the ticket is not moving.
Everything else about the trip is still adjustable. Start with the questions — it costs nothing and takes about three minutes.
- Tell me where you are going, when, and what worries you most.
- I read your answers myself and build the session around your route.
- You hear back within 48 hours with the plan, the available times and the price.