Hey there, this is Teacher Ola Podcast episode 96: Success Stories – Mariusz. How To Eliminate Your Language Blockade in 4 Months. 

My name’s Ola and I’ve overcome a massive language blockade myself and now I help you do the same. If you want to eliminate your fear of speaking and boost your vocabulary, brush up your grammar, improve your pronunciation, this podcast is for you!  Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!

Hello and welcome. This episode is going to be so very different from what you are used to here. I can’t wait to let Mariusz speak and tell you some more about himself. But before that please let me tell you how much I appreciate the fact you’re here. I know there’s so much content online to choose from and that is why I’d like to say thank you for trusting me. If you wish to support this podcast please subscribe, rate, and share with your best friend. Or any person you think might benefit from it. 

Mariusz is one of TOP listeners who trusted me and decided to follow my advice, my footsteps and give my methods a shot. Mariusz thank you for that belief, faith in me, and in yourself because that’s what drove you along that way. You believe in yourself. And however cheesy you may think it sounds, this really is the foundation. Generally I think that all those cliches we know are actually wise, and I love cliches. Thank you Mariusz for that belief you have in yourself and that amazing perseverance of yours. I don’t want to spoil the fun for you, spill the beans, but it all boils down to being consistent. I really appreciate your message, receiving it was certainly one of those highlights of my career, and I’m not overreacting. Let me break down today’s special episode.

First of all Mariusz will tell you about his journey, his language story. What he struggled with, what learning methods did he use in order to combat those struggles. You’ll hear about his stay in the UK and how it helped all in all moving forward. You’ll find out what and why did not work for him. The story has a COVID 19 background because as we all know the tourist industry was hit hard by the pandemic. The whole situation drove Mariusz into making a career pivot and as you may have guessed English played a huge role. 

Mariusz will tell you how he came across this podcast and how he gave me the chance even though until that time he had been listening to native English teachers only. At first he was suspicious, it sounded counterintuitive, because no books. Just saying things out loud? That can;t be enough, right? But still, I had a similar success story so I was kind of like Mariusz says, in his shoes.  I certainly was! I was even working in a hotel as well! So we have a lot in common. 

Now, listen carefully. Mariusz is going to give you the exact formula. You’ll learn what he did in order to succeed in eliminating his language blokade. What, how, where, how often, he’ll tell you all of it. I am dumbfounded at his super hard work and exceptional persistence in doing this. You will also learn what additional method, also recommended in this podcast (by the way I do it all the time, every day) anyways, you’ll learn what additional  method helped him. Mariusz said it acted like a wrecking ball on a language blokade. Lastly you’ll get one piece of advice from Mariusz, and I couldn’t agree more. Alrighty, without further ado, let me leave you with Mariusz. I’ll come back at the end of the episode to give you a practical task, you know the drill. 

Mariusz:

I have been encouraged by Ola to state my journey with English language. It’s about learning, motivation and fighting language barrier – my so ‘success story’.

I am not a good speaker, but I’ll try my best to present my story to you.

Speaking in English was always a huge problem. We all know it – stress, stuttering, having so called eclipse of a brain, forgetting simple forms, fear of asking question or a small talk. It wasn’t different with me. Despite the fact, that I had been living in England for 6 months in 2007, after I came back, I had been studying English with Spanish – it didn’t influence my ability to speak in English. It was some kind on the contrary. My stay in England made me realize in how miserable place I am when it comes to talking or listening.

I tried learning with many forms: starting from foreign language studies from which I resigned as I wasn’t good at it, through free internet courses, apps, books, flashcards, watching Netflix only in English or with English subtitles, podcasts. My enthusiasm and flow fell down just after 2-3 weeks and I resigned bored. That’s why it’s hard for me to state for how long I learn English as my trials are since ages with worse or better effect.

I have been listening to Ola’s podcast since February (I apologise for lying to you by saying that I do it for 2 years now – I just checked it in the e-mail ) – so it’s just for more than a year. I decided to begin once again as I had been working in hotel in which I wanted to develop my carrier and English was essential. I found this podcast by accident by scrolling Spotify. For the first time I decided to give Polish teacher a chance as until then I have only chosen podcasts lead by native speakers.

“She was in my shoes and she knows what to do so that I can speak” – that was my first thought after getting familiar with firsts episodes. I believed her, because she said that she was in my shoes, that she defeated many barriers and knows how to take care of that. She also stated that she will take care of me, but I need to subject to one simple rule – speaking out loud.

I thought that it will only take my time – no flashcards, books or exercises.

I wasn’t that scrupulous and systematic until December 2020 when I decided to change my job field into IT or finances – because pandemic ruined all my plans connected to hotel industry. Job interviews and work itself is being lead in English in most cases. It was my trigger. It took me four months to transform from stuttering guy which could not explain simple directions when asked by foreigner to the man who can answer for an hour to questions asked by three inquisitive recruiters – in English, of course.

Steps that I have taken were as follows: I used only two suggested elements – systematic listening and repeating various sentences aloud so that one can get used to speaking in foreign language. As if one teaches one’s face muscles to perform in another mode I did it every day and everywhere for couple of hours (of course not in continuous time, although sometimes I could perform 2 hours a day) – in public commute, while walking a dog in a park. I used to hide in rooms during my work in hotel and exercise, same in home. It also creates processes in mind so they can be used during job interview. It was exactly like that in my case when I used learned schemes and sentences which Ola wants us to repeat in her podcast. But beware, I am able to listen to one episode 20, 30 or even more times while speaking out everything loud. Second technique, in my point of view brilliant in its simplicity which Ola also mentioned in one of episodes is shadowing – immediately repeating just after speaker – one or two seconds after listened content. And that in my opinion gives huge improvement in fluence in speaking, kind of like wrecking ball to language barrier and this irrational fear of speaking.

I got my job. I fought my barriers. Of course, there is a huge workload ahead of me – I am just during the beginning but I fought and defeated what was my ball and chain for ages in just under 4 months of intense work.

If there is one advice that I can give you is what you already know. Say it out loud!


Mariusz, thank you so much for this meaningful share, I am more than sure that it can help many people with language blockade. Thank you. 

Not, as always, I’m not gonna skip that part today. Listen and repeat sentences, say them out loud. 

I have been encouraged to state my journey with English language.

It didn’t influence my ability to speak English.

I’ve been listening to Ola’s podcast for more than a year.

I found this podcast by accident.

She was in my shoes.

Pandemic ruined all my plans and it was my trigger.

I was asked questions by three inquisitive recruiters.

I was listening while walking a dog.

This method is brilliant in its simplicity.

Repeat immediately after the speaker.

It gives you a huge improvement. 

I got my job and fought my language barrier.

There’s a huge workload ahead of me.

I defeated what was my ball and chain for ages.

I did it in just under 4 months of intense work.

So inspiring! I love that story. I’m delighted that Mariusz agreed to record those words for all of us. Hey, maybe you feel you would like to share your story on this podcast. I’m here for you, please be my guest. Whatever the story is, whether you’re just at the beginning or at the end of it, of eliminating a barrier, please share it. Write to me. Just do it. Would you like to share your language struggle, your language success? Tell us all what fears are holding you back, what methods have you been exercising and how do you approach your fear of speaking? Or maybe you are past that fear, maybe you’re already flying, speaking fearlessly and confidently? Fluently? Oh, do tell us.  contact@teacherola.com

Please don’t forget your homework, it’s waiting at teacherola.com/96 or if you’re already a member of TOPeople you have to find an email form me. There’s your worksheet. Become a member, it’s free, and all you need to do is download the latest or any worksheet from my website: teacherola.com/96. 

Thank you for tuning in, for staying till the end. If you want to support this podcast please Share this episode with someone you think might need it. I would love this podcast to reach people who feel blocked when it comes to speaking English. And I’d like this podcast to give support and hope and belief to all of you who are still in the process. 

Next week we’re going to talk about accents. See you next Wednesday. Till then have a great, fearless week. Remember to say it out loud! Happy learning bye-bye!