Book Review: Give Me Tea, Please: Practical Ingredients for Tasteful Language by Natasha V. Broodie

Abstract

“Give Me Tea, Please: Practical Ingredients for Tasteful Language” is highly recommended. It is a wonderful and powerful guidebook that demonstrates how to improve communication skills. Powerful and insightful, the book is an excellent guide for anyone who wants to uplift their communication in English to the next level by skillfully highlighting cultural differences that lead to communication breakdowns in English when direct translation from a non-native English language fails. The author shares her highly valuable cross-cultural experiences in many different countries. Broodie has studied and practiced several languages, which shows in the book. The significance of her international and multilingual experience is key to how she deconstructs English language devices against non-English language systems. By analyzing the systematic construction of the English language, the author provides valuable advice on navigating the nuances of English-speaking etiquette by non-native English speakers. The guidebook demonstrates a high level of sensitivity to how and why English communication barriers and breakdowns occur in multicultural and multilingual environments.