Stop saying what you can.
Start saying what you want.
CreamTea is somewhere to say it out loud first: the pitch, the pushback, the small talk before the meeting starts. It listens for what you meant as well as what you said. Behind it is Monika Kokoszycka, who uses it herself to stay sharp: a simultaneous interpreter who spent years training new ones.
“Do you even know how smart I am in Spanish?!”
Your English is good enough.
But good enough isn't you.
The moment passes
Your ideas are right there. But putting them into English takes that bit longer (and is it PROG-ress or PROH-gress?), and sometimes that's enough to miss the moment.
You settle for less
Under pressure, you reach for the safer phrase, the simpler word, the one you know won't go wrong. You said what you could. It wasn't quite what you meant.
You miss the subtext
Someone says “Computer says no” and people laugh. Scones are mentioned and a colleague declares “I'm with Devon on this one.” Another laugh. You follow the words, and the joke still lands late or not at all.
Not a language app.
No lessons, no levels, no drills.
You talk, out loud and in real time: for the practice, or to get ready for the room where it counts. Four modes, each for a different moment:
Coach
An ordinary conversation, about anything at all. Your coach is AI, so the kettle's always on. CreamTea remembers what you talked about last time, and what keeps tripping you up.
A comfortable cuppa.
Before the Room
A rehearsal for the interview, the pitch, the pay conversation. CreamTea plays the other side; you set the temperature of the room.
The Apprentice boardroom.
No Sugar
You talk, or read something aloud, and CreamTea stays quiet. Instead, it writes a sharper version of what you said, right next to your own words.
Marmite: you'll love it or hate it (possibly both).
House Blend
English at its best (and most useful), hand-picked by Monika. Talk about what's going on underneath the words, and walk away with something to borrow.
How can brevity be weaponised?
What many of us keep seeing
People second-guessing themselves before they speak in a language that isn't their first. Or not taking the floor at all. Especially women, who often aren't in the room (sometimes literally). Women who have the answer and don't trust their voice to carry it.
They already have enough working against them. Language shouldn't add to it. Reaching for the right word in your second language while someone talks over you: the deck is stacked twice.
Monika
CreamTea is made for women first. But anyone who doesn't always trust their voice when it matters most is welcome here (it was born in interpreting, from exactly that need).
Your voice belongs
in the room.
Leave your email and tell us what you're preparing for. We'll be in touch when there's a place for you.
Polish-born, London-based for nearly twenty years. Monika is a freelance simultaneous interpreter, working for the EU institutions among others, and used to train interpreters. Her day job is finding the right words in real time, with no pause button, in a language that isn't her first.
Tom does the actual engineering bit (all of it, really). Polish-born and London-based, he has spent over twenty years working across countries and cultures, so he knows what it means to build a career in a language that isn't your first.
Ready?