Hey there! This is TOP episode 255. One Obvious Thing You Miss Learning English
Are you tired of lacking confidence when speaking English? Does it block you from achieving your true goals? This podcast is the place for you. This is Teacher Ola Podcast. My name’s Ola Mierniczak and I empower English learners to become confident speakers. The key to fluency is in your pocket. You’ll boost your vocabulary, brush up your grammar and improve your pronunciation. Enjoy your journey to fluency!
Hello and welcome! Thank you for coming! I’m pumped because the doors to SIOL are open! If you don’t know what I’m talking about you should head over to siol.pl. Say It Out Loud, SIOL is my online course + 12h of speaking club that will make you feel confident speaking English. This is a program that will teach you how to speak English. Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Foundations and Speaking Club. And so much more! Extra Class, bonuses, Mini Course Articles. Check out the offer at siol.pl but remember you can join us only until Friday 9 August! And now let’s talk about The One Obvious Thing You Miss Learning English!
Learners of English, you. Yes, you! You are learning English. You’re doin it right now in fact. Listening is a very good, very important practice. You should do more of it. But it’s not about listening today. This episode is not about listening.
What about grammar? Well, yes! Definitely. You do need grammar for communication. Not only does it help you understand people better it also allows you to get your message across. You make a decision on how to present a given situation. Grammar elements are tools and when you become familiar with them, language comes together and you feel so much more confident. Grammar, hell yes! But, it’s not about grammar today!
Ola, it must be about pronunciation. You keep telling us that pronunciation is that hidden reason for our fear of speaking. And I couldn’t agree more, yet – I’m not going to explain that today.
So what is it? What’s left? What puzzle are we missing? Vocabulary? Oh, of course you need vocabulary to express yourself fully. You need words, phrases, phrasal verbs and idioms. But that is not the obvious thing you miss learning English.
The 4 elements I’ve mentioned are usually the ones you do remember about. Listening, grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. The obvious thing is sooo obvious you don’t see it!
The obvious thing is speaking. Listen up! All skills must come together to give you that bliss of fluency. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not prioritising grammar or vocabulary. It’s an impossible choice! You need all of it. But speaking? Speaking is above all of it.
Speaking comes first. You need to speak English every day. Out loud. You have to say things out loud, every day.
Speak to yourself. Lack of a speaking partner is not a reason for not speaking. Self-talk is just as good. Thanks to your imagination you can have a conversation with anyone. You can run the dialogues endlessly. But always say it out loud.
In a moment I’ll give you some tips on speaking, but I have to tell you one thing before it’s too late. You can enrol on SIOL till Friday 9 August, ok? Inside the course you have access to the Speaking Club. In that club you hold weekly conversations with various speaking partners. You speak an hour a week for three months. The Speaking Club is the heart of the course. Even though the course is very rich, there are video lessons, pdf files, all materials you need to communicate effectively. Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Foundations AND Speaking Club. The Speaking Club is the heart of this course. I’m there with you, you speak in pairs which change every 10 minutes. All conversation topics are detailed and delivered to you before the Club so that you are not surprised and much less stressed.
If you have any questions about the SIOL course, contact me ASAP, email me at contact@teacherola.com or dm me on Instagram or Facebook so that I can help you make a decision. If you worry about your level of English let me tell you this. If you are here, if you understand my podcast episodes, even if not 100%, yet you are here and you enjoy learning this way – well, SIOL course will structure, organise, and complete your knowledge. SIOL has been made for YOU. For my podcast listeners. If you find these 255 episodes helpful just imagine what’s inside the course. Just imagine. Have I mentioned you have Extra Class once a month with me? Forever? Yep, that’s exclusively available to my dear SIOLers. SIOL is for people who have started their language learning journey some time ago but still don’t feel fluent. Still feel like they are not progressing, they got stuck. Do you feel this way? Do you need a roadmap to fluency? Well then consider getting onboard the SIOL course. Say It Out Loud – SIOL. The enrollment page will show you a detailed agenda of the course as well as my student’s opinions. Go to siol.pl.
Coming back to speaking. How to do the speaking part? Well first of all, you have to face the fact that saying things in your head only will never work. No way. You need to hear yourself speaking. You have to teach your mouth, your jaw, tongue, pallet and teeth how to behave. It’s a muscle memory that you need to get in shape. Speak out loud. No discussion. I do not take no for an answer in this case. Speaking must be done out loud.
Drill. Drill is a kind of exercise where you practise one thing several times. It may seem like a waste of time, like a boring chore but I don;t care. You may be bored but you must practise in order to speak fluently. Drill everything. For instance, You heard an interesting phrase in a movie, and it goes:
“I’ll be right back”. It wasn’t hard, it wasn’t complex, it wasn’t rocket science, right? Sure, but you know, deep in your heart that in a given situation you would not use it. You would forget it. Zaraz wrócę. OK. Make a note and drill. For example and now I will give you a presentation of a drill exercise live, here goes:
I’ll be right back
I’ll be right back.
She’ll be right back.
He’ll be right back.
We’ll be right back.
He said he would be right back.
You said you’d be right back.
See? You take one natural, useful phrase and drill it. You change the subject, you change the object, you change the tense and you say each sentence out loud. Does it feel silly, hell yes! But only to ignorants! Only at the beginning. Pro English learners fully understand the power of drill exercise. It;s not funny, it’s not silly. It’s powerful and effective as hell.
Having said that, I must admit that speaking to yourself after some time will become your comfort zone. And being fluent at home, when the only audience is your cat or your dog can get you only this far. You know what I mean? It won’t make your dreams come true. It won’t give you the job, the promotion, it won’t organise travel and so on. It’s a necessary step but there are more steps you need to take.
You have to go out there, speak to other people. Go out there to that airport, to that job interview. To your colleagues, to that call at work. Talk to your manager, talk to your daughter’s or son’s partner who is a speaker of English. I know it’s scary, I know it’s outside your comfort zone. But what can I do? All I can do is this podcast AND the SIOL course. But first and foremost Speaking Club, which is, again, a part of the SIOL course. In that SC I created a bridge so to speak. A bridge between speaking to yourself and realising your dreams. I have created a safe space in which you can practise small talk, reacting, asking questions, in short SPEAKING English with other people. But the best part is: all other people inside the Speaking Club have the same goal. Nobody judges you. We’re all on our language learning journey and if we can help each other, why not? Ok! See you inside the SIOL course, go over to siol.pl to enrol if you wish. If you feel it’s calling you.
And one more thing. Time flies. Very soon we’ll have Halloween decorations everywhere, then November, then we start thinking about Christamss decorations and of course, as always: Now Year’s Resolutions. Oh! Don’t you want to do it differently this year? How about going to 2025 with spoken, fluent English? How about that? Just imagine! If you start the course now, with the 5th edition you will start Speaking Club 22 August. 3 months later, in November we’ll be good friends from SC and we’ll gain that beautiful confidence we need so much. Have I mentioned you can get money back if the course is not right for you? I’ve forgotten. Well, so you have 15 days for tests. If you don’t want the course for any reason, just email me. I’ll send your money back.
Now! Let’s practise speaking! Listen and repeat these sentences out loud:
It allows you to get your message across.
It’s the hidden reason for our fear of speaking.
Don’t get me wrong.
It’s an impossible choice!
Speaking is above all of it.
Self-talk is just as good.
Do you feel this way?
You need to hear yourself speaking.
That’s it! That was a reminder for you. I wanted to remind you of speaking English out loud. Don’t forget the Worksheet. Download it from teacherola.com/255 or check your inbox, if you’ve subscribed to my newsletter you have the Worksheet in your inbox.
I’ll be back next week with another episode. Until then … Stay fearless, take care and say it out loud! I’m your teacher, Teacher Ola, and you were listening to Teacher Ola Podcast. Bye for now.