Have the last one is also my favorite.
So personally I think reading writing and listening are all training for speaking.
Now when I took French in school I took French for years and I don't remember ever speaking or having
a conversation.
So that was a million years ago and now I've forgotten all of it because I never used it and that's
where I have a problem with some traditional method where it's just about reading writing listening
and then you can talk that to me is the whole purpose of language and it's how to communicate.
So all those three skills are amazing as part of your speaking plan.
That's why I wanted to tell you earlier that you were an English speaker.
I don't want you to learn English.
The rest of your life and never be able to talk to somebody.
Like that's really upsetting me.
I can't have that.
I want you to be able to be free.
And whether that means talking to a teacher on Skype whether it means traveling to an English speaking
country and meeting new friends whatever that looks like for you.
That's our goal communicating.
Are you ready for some tips now when you're listening.
I think you should expose yourself to all axent.
But when you're training for speaking.
Pick one.
And even if you can't tell the difference it does make a difference to the people listening to you.
So if you're using a little bit of British a little bit of American it sounds weird to a native speaker
and think about your own language.
Like I also speak Spanish.
And for me the Spanish in Argentina is very different than the Spanish from where my family is from
in Mexico.
And that would sound really funny if somebody used like the s from Spain to be orderly for Mexico.
The zoo via.
From Argentina.
When I hear those mixed it's kind of weird in the same way when you're speaking pick an accent and focus
on that one when you're listening.
Listen to all of them.
This also plays into what you're learning because if you're focused on let's say the American accent
you're also focused on American word choice slang and contractions.
Like in England they say lift but in America we say elevator.
Everywhere else they say.
Q In America we say line so when you're focused on one accent you're also focused on one culture and
one set of other words that we use frequently.
That's why with listening it'll help you feel comfortable with anything but speaking it will give you
consistency which also gives you confidence.
Now when you're practicing your speaking skills especially conversational English if you have a dialogue
to practice between a conversation with two parts if you're practicing with a video I want you to practice
both sides of the conversation because I see students who learn English but they all know how to answer
questions and you don't know how to ask questions so you miss out on a really fun opportunity for small
talk.
You don't want people to feel like they're interviewing you.
So I want you to feel comfortable answering questions but also know how to ask them and that will give
you the chance to feel comfortable in conversation instead of just a little interaction.
And then you both are bored and you have nothing to say.
So practice both sides also practice in front of a mirror or take your phone or your computer and record
yourself because I want you to see what you look like especially if you're listening face because this
is what happens.
You say what you practice like.
Yeah.
It's a great day today.
And then when the other person speaking your face goes from like practice a hot to because you don't
realize that you're used to making this like serious listening face.
That feels kind of awkward for the other person.
So when you record yourself it's really cool because you can see what you look like and you can practice
OK when I'm listening to someone relax my face muscles smile a little bit and that looks natural.
So this will help you have more genuine more natural interaction.
OK so the other thing that I'm super excited to share with you is if you have the opportunity to pay
a teacher for help wonderful this will still help you.
And if you don't and you're like How can I correct my English if I can't afford or don't have time to
take classes with a native speaker.
I gotcha.
So what you do is pick a TV show or a YouTube clip that has a really clear pace.
So something that is that you can understand well and what you do is you pick a sentence of your favorite
character or person you look at the sentence listen to them say it read the captions pause the video
take your phone do a voice memo or a video whatever you want.
Record yourself saying that line so you can read it in the captions but then don't just read it look
away and say it again because when we read we speak differently than when you speak from memory.
To say it again then what you do is you listen to yourself and if you're thinking I hate the sound of
my voice who cares it's you listening to it.
So listen to it and then listen to the TV or YouTube clip compare.
So I want you to think OK do you sound like this person if you do fabulous you're doing well if you
don't identify where is it every time that you have to say the letter or is it that the person links
their words and it sounds smoother and when you say it it sounds more like if you notice it's a letter
R then you can practice with our sound.
Go on YouTube you know American are fine videos that will help you train.
This will help you to improve your own English and again focus on the accent that you want and you immediately
notice what you have to improve.
Honestly if you just practice one line and you include saying it a couple of times and you include listening
and you include looking up a video to strengthen like whatever your weakest point is it'll still take
you less than five minutes.
So this is an activity you can do in less than five minutes.
Or if you have more time do it for 20 minutes.
I don't recommend doing anything for more than 20 minutes if you have a four hour free for English then
do three 20 minute activities.
So you want to make sure it's always interesting and fresh.
Otherwise our brain goes into autopilot and you're not learning as effectively are you so excited.
Now you know how to correct your speaking.
Now the other thing for speaking is a lot of people that I work with when you speak you immediately
start translating or you think about the structure or what you want to say.
And I need you to stop doing that because it hurts the way you speak you speak more robotically or you
have no energy because you're out you're just thinking about the grammar.
Instead I want you to visualize something I do with my learners is I tell them tell me a story but think
about it like if you're telling me a story about the beach I want you to feel the sand on your toes.
I want you to remember notice I'm closing my eyes.
I truly visualize feel the sea breeze and tell me about it.
And as soon as people start doing that I see their body relax.
It might take you a little bit to think about the words but when you're visualizing you relax and then
you have a different sense of purpose.
And I can also tell the second they go from the memory to focusing back on English the body tenses and
then the sound of the language the story becomes more awkward.
Digital choppier.
So this is something that takes a lot of practice.
And I just want you to keep doing it.
Look in the mirror when you're telling a story just say something that happened at work but practice
visualizing it.
It can be a story that's 20 seconds long.
And when you finish then you'll know.
Were you able to visualize the whole time.
What was difficult like.
Did you know the vocabulary but you weren't sure what tends to use or did you know what you wanted to
say but you didn't have the words for it.
So you identify the weakness and you go and strengthen it.
Lack of vocabulary words for work.
Look up tenses for maybe the past tense or a habit that you did and you don't do now.
So this will help you immediately strengthen and do better stories because this is all about communicating.
So storytelling is a huge part of speaking when you're having small talk when you meet a new person
when you're traveling.
What do we do.
We tell stories.
So for me storytelling and confidence and public speaking skills are all really really important for
us speaking.
Which brings me to my next point.
When you're looking for things to improve your speaking I want you to use things that are not English
related.
I recommend looking up public speaking skills charisma how to tell an interesting story.
These videos are designed for native speakers because believe it or not speaking is actually very difficult
for a lot of native speakers.
People get shy.
Not because of the language but because of the communication.
I mean there are tons of resources out there for you learn to be more enigmatic to be interesting.
You know these are things that will help your confidence not just in English but in social settings
which is the goal.
And my last hope for you is and this is something that always makes people feel awkward in my classes.
And for and they love it be theatrical.
When you're reading outloud if you're reading the quotes outloud if you're reading your book out loud
whatever it is you're doing if you're not reading it if you're just speaking I want you to exaggerate.
For example if you're talking about your day and you say today was really busy at work I had a lot of
client meetings.
The grammar is correct.
My speech is correct but it's boring boring.
Now look at the difference.
Today was so busy I had a ton of client meetings.
OK.
Now I don't want you to say it like that when you're in public but when you practice it that way immediately.
My body language changed when I first said it.
I was just calm series whatever.
When I got theatrical my hands came up my body came forward.
My voice was louder.
So that's when you're practicing.
From a scale of one to 10 an energy level.
I want you to practice at a 12 or 15 and there is a reason in real life when you have a conference call
when you meet someone in person when you're talking to someone.
You get a little nervous or you start thinking about the English part of it and your energy level will
drop.
On average I find that your energy goes from the 12 that you practice for the 15 to like a six if you're
lucky.
So can you imagine if you're practicing at like a seven or eight energy level in real life.
That's going to translate to like a three or four.
And that's going to make you look insecure.
So if you're learning English for business this is the difference between training your English in a
way that will help you close a deal and make money or lose a client.
It's going to feel silly if you have family at home.
They're going to laugh at you and think what is he doing.
But I promise you it works.
So when you speak practice speaking on your own and when you practice slowly clearly like your onstage
project your voice move your body relax your face.
All of this will help you look normal in real life.
I know that sounds great but it's true because when your energy lowers you'll actually be in a really
natural confidence level.
All right so I know I gave you a lot of tips.
I hope you were taking notes.
You have this video so you can read watch it as much as you need and start implementing this whenever
you're planning later on or later next month or later this year when you're planning your new strategies.
Watch this video again and get re-inspired.
Maybe you really remembered one technique but you forgot another one.
So the more you watch this video the more you'll remember like oh yeah.
Tanya said to be theatrical I forgot.
OK.
Or Oh I forgot.
I should record my voice and compare it to the video.
So these are things that will help you forever.
The Watts's a lot as much as you need and have fun.
Which of the techniques that we talked about are you most excited to try practicing both sides of a
conversation practicing in front of a mirror recording yourself and comparing your audio to a video
clip visualizing while telling a story or speaking trickily whichever one you pick try it right now
before you continue.
Pick your favorite wine and let's do it.