Social Skills | San Diego Voice and Accent

I'm Julie Cunningham, MA, CCC-SLP, a licensed speech-language pathologist. I help people whose work English is fine, but who want social conversations in English to feel more comfortable.

Prefer one-on-one help? See my private accent reduction training.

You can start for free with English Pro Lite, my online American accent course, with 45 lessons and 2.5 hours of video.

English Pro is my full program, for intermediate learners and above. It's $49.99 a month or $479 for lifetime access, with a 10-day money-back guarantee.

Does this sound like you?

Small talk feels awkward, and you're not sure what to say next.
You're not sure how casual or formal to be.
Humor and sarcasm are hard to understand or to use.
You'd like to build better relationships with your coworkers.

English Social Skills: What We Work On

Social English has its own phrases, tone, and timing. We work on:

Small talk: how to start a conversation, keep it going, and end it politely
Tone and intonation: how your voice shows interest, friendliness, or humor
Formal and informal English, and which one fits the situation
Common idioms and casual phrases
Listening for meaning, including jokes and sarcasm
Pronunciation and rhythm, so you're easy to understand

How I Can Help

In private sessions on Zoom, we practice the social situations in your life, like lunch with coworkers, a networking event, or meeting new neighbors. You try different ways to say things, and I tell you how they come across.

English Pro includes my Natural English Conversation course, with lots of practice for everyday English.

Start practicing now with these free lessons:

Questions about training? Contact me.

Common questions about social skills in English

What are the biggest communication challenges for speakers who struggle with social skills in English?

The most common are awkward small talk, knowing how casual or formal to be, understanding and using humor and sarcasm, and building relationships with coworkers.