First Class IELTS Tuition

This is what a band score 8.0 result panel looks like:

I started teaching IELTS 16 years ago and since then have helped numerous students get the band score they need to move on towards their dreams. Here's the latest recommendation from a happy student:

Peter has provided essential support for me throughout my preparation for IELTS. With his help, I could improve my performance in all IELTS exam subjects, reading, writing, speaking and listening, and additionally, Peter helped me target the exercises which were the most challenging. He was patient, experienced and helpful all the time, and explained how I can enhance my skills, and how to approach tasks which were exceptionally difficult for me. He not only taught me how to solve different tasks in general, but also meticulously analysed my hand-in homework, which helped me see my mistakes and correct them. Throughout the course, we also discussed several different topics which he specifically picked to make me practice speaking, and gave insightful feedback every time. The lessons were professional, well structured and easy to follow. To help me prepare, he also introduced me to supplemental study material, which was also beyond useful. 

I am very happy and content with the course and Peter’s teaching methods, and also with my overall test results, which could not be so great without his professional skills and hard work.

Native speaker English teacher with 27 years experience currently providing online lessons and discussion sessions to students internationally, and in-person tuition and linguistic mentorship in the Belgrade and Pančevo area.  IELTS, Cambridge exams, Business English, English for IT professionals, Interview English, Presentation English, Proofreading.  +381 61 140 9180, +381 61 600 7083, ultimatebusinessenglish@gmail.com 

I strongly recommend Peter – he is a sensitive, well-rounded, really supporting guy and is an excellent teacher.      Marton, Budapest  

Why English, and Why Ultimate Business English

Native speaker English teacher with 27 years experience currently providing online lessons and discussion sessions to students internationally, and in-person tuition and linguistic mentorship in the Belgrade and Pančevo area.  IELTS, Cambridge exams, Business English, English for IT professionals, Interview English, Presentation English, Proofreading.  +381 61 140 9180, +381 61 600 7083, ultimatebusinessenglish@gmail.com 

I strongly recommend Peter – he is a sensitive, well-rounded, really supporting guy and is an excellent teacher.      Marton, Budapest 

On a daily basis our experience highlights to us the importance of maximising our English skills. In the world of work, business and education, it becomes increasingly difficult to function effectively without the ability to communicate in what has become the world's de facto lingua franca.

Ultimate Business English (UBE) will help you make progress in your language skills by using what is important and of interest to you as the guiding principle of the language development programme. You may be looking to develop specific language to make sure no detail is missed in talks with a key supplier, or to help you upgrade the quality of your discussions with potential customers. Alternatively, you could be the type who finds an open-ended conversation provides the ideal combination of language and life learning experience.

Either way, UBE will provide you with the ideal language learning experience, applying the expertise gained over a quarter of a century working with business owners, senior managers, professionals, government officials, academics and students, (and more than twice as much wider life experience) to fine tune a customised package with the combination of structure and spontaneity that best suits your needs.

If, for whatever reason, you're not ready to join a course right now, please feel free to interact with us through the blog. We'll be posting regularly and will welcome your requests and views.

Services Provided by Ultimate Business English

Ultimate Business English (UBE) provides a number of targeted native-speaker led courses and services to help companies maximise their communication and strategic effectiveness.

General English for Individuals or Groups

Develop your command of English under the guidance of a native speaker using state of the art materials providing a multi-aspect approach: Starter to Advanced levels

Business English for Individuals or Groups

Learners at intermediate level and above can focus on business-related language whilst stills developing their broader skills; Intermediate to Advanced Levels

Strategic Reflection for Business Owners and Senior Management

 Company owners and senior executives face numerous complex issues. UBE discussion sessions dealing with business studies topics such as Goals and Values, Sales and Marketing, Time Management, Teams, Communication, Processes, Finance etc. provide a refreshing space in the week in which to step back and reflect in a way that can bring immediate benefits and provide much needed solutions for longer term issues. "The answer is in the room", but it often needs to be coaxed out 

Native speaker English teacher currently providing online lessons to students internationally, and in person tuition in the Belgrade and Pančevo area. +381 61 140 9180, +381 61 600 7083, ultimatebusinessenglish@gmail.com 

A minor traffic accident on the motorway in Serbia

At around 9:00 p.m. on Saturday evening, we were driving back from a friend's birthday party and came to the main toll station heading into Belgrade. The car was stationary as we waited in line to pay.  Suddenly "crunch!" - I immediately knew that someone had run into us from the rear. Behind us was a Mercedes saloon with moderate damage to the front and the rear window completely blown out, and right behind that a Mercedes Jeep with quite heavy damage to the front. We had moderate damage to the rear but the hatchback door could still be opened and closed. What had happened was that the Mercedes behind had also been stationary and the Jeep which was traveling in convoy with the saloon had run into the back of it.

Communication was set to be problematic as neither of the Mercedes drivers could speak English or Serbian. They had Greek and Turkish passports but we're apparently driving together to Germany. As one of them said he spoke Greek, I asked "what happened?" in that language, but at that point there was too much distraction for any interaction to take place. 

Eventually, the police came and we made our way to their prefab office on the other side of the toll booths. The front of the jeep was in pretty bad shape and a panel from around the right headlamp fell off. After a while, the other drivers and myself were called into the office and the admin process commenced. I was presented with a declaration form in Cyrillic Serbian. The gist of it was clear enough to me, but knowing exactly what data was required in each empty space required a fair amount of help from one of the police officers and Google translate. The process of recording data from documentation turned out to be lengthy. The other drivers did not seem to have basic intuition about the most essential information that would be required in the situation, and I was engaged by the police officers to clarify such issues as distinguishing between a first name and a surname, and street with house number as opposed to a town with a postcode.

In addition to completing the pro-forma part of the declaration, it later emerged that I needed to write a statements in my own words on the same sheet. This was dictated to me by one of the officers and was a very useful Serbian learning challenge for me. When I was beginning to think that they might let me go, completely unfilled declaration forms for the other drivers were placed on the table and of course it was my task to fill them in in the same manner as I had done my own. This is when it was confirmed that the saloon driver had also been stationary and we agreed with the jeep driver that he had been moving at about 20 kilometers an hour. The waiting time for making claims on insurance in such cases is apparently about three weeks.

In downtime, the policeman who had first come on the scene started a conversation with me and we found out that he had a relative in our village. At around 11, my wife who had been patiently waiting in the car, occasionally calling me to monitor progress, came on the scene with our 16-month-old son. This raised spirits and boosted momentum, Soon we were headed off home, about 2 hours behind schedule. 

How's that spelt?

 For speakers of languages that are highly phonetic (i.e. there is a very predictable relationship between what is written and how it is said) such as Spanish, Russian, German, Korean, and Hungarian, the idea of having spelling competitions (sometimes known as "spelling bees" - don't ask me why!) may seem odd, but any familiarity with the huge disconnect between how you write words in English and how you say them will give insight into how useful such contests might be as part of the process getting a proper command of the language. 

The three forms of the verb "spell" are  spell     spelt/spelled     spelt/spelled  , both forms being used in the UK, and "spelled' being the standard in the US.

As a noun "spelt' refers to a grain like wheat, the consumption of which as a wheat substitute, e.g. as flour to make bread is spreading rapidly as it has many health benefits.

Read about some of them here:

Health Benefits of Spelt

For English language tuition online or in person in the Pančevo area and related services. contact us at ultimatebusinessenglish@gmail.com or call on+381 61 140 9180, +381 61 600 7083

Snapshot of challenges in Vojvodina and Danube-Balkan agriculture.

A contact in the farming scene in Vojvodina provided the following insights.

Price per kilogram of corn is in the mid teens of RSD per kilo, having moved from the mid-thirties a couple of years ago. A level of 13 or 14 RSD means that production takes place at a loss.

Export of grain from the region is currently being held back by a lack of ships at the Romanian port Constanta.

In Vojvodina, a multi-ethnic part of Serbia, farmers with only Serbian passports see themselves at a disadvantage to those who also have either Hungarian or Slovakian passports, because the latter receive additional support from the governments of Hungary and Slovakia. The differences in income are substantial and mean that those with dual nationality are able to buy much better equipment and more land.  

A similar situation exists in Romania but the contrast is less extreme as local support is stronger. However, there as in Bulgaria, a lot of agricultural land is being bought up principally by foreigners from western Europe. Only those with degrees in agriculture can buy farmland in Germany, for example, whereas in Balkan countries, no such restrictions exist.

For English language tuition and related services. contact us at ultimatebusinessenglish@gmail.com or call on+381 61 140 9180, +381 61 600 7083

Vocabulary 1: Experience, Cheer up

Experience (noun)

1.  Uncountable: knowledge or skill from doing, seeing, or feeling things

You can't get this job if you don't have a lot of experience in this field of work.

2.  Countable: something that happens to you that affects how you feel:

Our trip to Tamil Nadu was an amazing experience.

Two significant experiences changed his life for ever.

Cheer up  (phrasal verb)

1. Intransitive. To become less miserable

He cheered up when he heard the good news.

Cheer up! Things can only get better.

2. Transitive: to make someone less miserable.

They cheered us up by playing upbeat music.