About

Lori - English teacher at Better at EnglishWelcome to Better at English! My mission is to help non-native speakers improve their English, one step at a time. In addition to my Real English Conversations podcast, you’ll find short lessons, listening activities, language learning tips, and other info that can help make learning English an enjoyable part of your day.

Meet your podcast host, Lori
Hi, I’m Lori the founder and content creator of Better at English, and the one who talks directly to you in the podcasts. My love affair with EFL teaching began in 1996, when I sort of fell into it while living in Indonesia (I lived there for about 18 months). To learn more about teaching I completed the RSA CELTA at The British Institute in Jakarta, and later down the line add a B.S. in Education and an M.A. in English from Vaexjoe University in Sweden. All told, I taught EFL for about 10 years. I also worked as a translator (Swedish to English), focusing mainly on academic papers in education and the social sciences.

I started Better at English in 2006 while I was still working in Sweden as an English teacher. Because there was so little authentic English conversation available online back then, I started recording real conversations between me and my boyfriend to play for my students. The students really enjoyed them, so I decided to make them available online as a podcast, so English learners all over the world could benefit. Learning to make podcasts was also a fun experiment!

In 2007 I quit my teaching job and moved to the Netherlands, where I now spend most of my time working behind the scenes in the music business. That’s right, the music business! It’s truly never too late to “do a 180” and try your hand at something completely different!

My number one goal with Better at English is this: to nudge you gently outside of your comfort zone and encourage you to take action to improve your English a little bit every day. Spending time learning 5 foreign languages (Swedish, Spanish, Dutch, German, Indonesian) with varying degrees of success has shown me that pushing yourself to do things that challenge you is key to continual progress. But it’s also the hardest thing to do.

My Real English Conversations podcasts give teachers and learners of English examples of authentic conversations. I hope you’ll find them entertaining alternatives to conventional EFL / ESL materials. To make it easier for learners at all levels, I include complete transcripts and vocabulary notes. The vocabulary notes highlight notoriously tricky language items such as idioms, slang, phrasal verbs, informal colloquial English, and technical terms.

I hope you’ll enjoy your visit to Better at English and that you’ll find the materials here useful. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, I would love to hear from you!

Best wishes for your continued English language learning,
Lori