Irina Lutsenko

This is a guest post by  Anna Pakhomova , my C2 Proficiency student whose skillful use of fancy language will completely blow you away. In this post, she shares her story and her tips.    I realize how disgustingly self-assured this sounds, so I’ll just go ahead and burst my own bubble here. In this guest post, graciously suggested by Irina, I’ll try to show the darker, duller and more mundane part of putting together your own personal toolbox (or, more precisely, a warehouse) of fancy lexis. First off, the way I learned most of my so-called “fancy” vocabulary was by being a decidedly lonely kid at school. I was a full package – I wore thick glasses, had braces permanently in, and was too smart for my own good. At that point, reading virtual tons of books and learning English was my super power, my magical shield against the world I didn’t particularly enjoy. It wasn’t that I was bullied – oh, I was unapproachable in my little ivory tower. It’s just that I, as any self-re...