Mastering English Without Visiting An English Speaking Country

English with Hadar Shemesh

158

Hey everyone, thank you for joining me.

Today we have a different episode.

In this episode I'm going to interview Anna

Anna is an English learner

and she is also a student of mine. She's a member of my online program

She's a member of the online Facebook community that we run of non-native speakers.

But most importantly she's a YouTube creator and she has her own channel

called the 'English Fluency Journey'

where she shares her experience as an English learner and as an English teacher.

We're also going to talk about how video can help you improve your English skills

and your speaking skills.

especially when you share it with a supportive community,

and we're also going to talk about her experience taking my online program

and how improving her pronunciation and her accent helped her improve her English,

her confidence and her speaking skills.

Okay, so let's welcome her.

Hi, Anna, welcome welcome to my channel. How are you doing?

Hi. Hi, I'm great

I'm great. Excited.

I'm so so happy and excited as well to have you here

I've known you for a long time.

And I think it's the first time we're doing this kind of interview together, right?

Yes, yes. The first time together the first time ever for me

So, I'm really honored to have you here and

for those who don't know you

why don't you just introduce yourself really quickly and share

share with them what you do and where you're from.

Okay, I'm Anna I am from Ukraine born and raised.

So I'm a Youtuber now... recently.

And I have a son, a toddler

and me and my husband we are entrepreneurs and

Yeah, and I learn and teach English.

So have you ever lived in an English-speaking country?

Have you ever had people around you who spoke English?

I've never even visited English... any English-speaking countries. So yeah..

And your English is fantastic!

So, how do you... what have you done?

What is the secret?

I mean there are so many ... I always get this question all of my followers

and all like they say, okay agree

but you lived in New York, you know for 5 years,

of course it was easy for you to accomplish this.

But I don't have anyone to speak with, right. I will never improve.

I will never be able to practice my English.

And here you are, you know, um

never in this room.

this is so are not true.

So yeah, so tell us, tell us a little bit about it.

Yeah, I I know a lot of people that live in the US

and they just literally can't speak. They don't know the language

although they live there like 20 years, maybe more even so or less and

my secret is my passion because I just love English and I just love learning and studying,'

all this process and

Practice and hard work.

So guys there's that's the I don't know

That's the only way for me because I realized that

that you have to practice, that you have to you have to do something

Because otherwise, no, you're not gonna speak

So, how did you even start this whole thing that your journey?

How old were you like? What what made you?

What what were the first few things that you started doing?

Okay, so it started when I was in kindergarten actually.

I remember yeah they were teaching us English

and I remember my first, first teacher, I still remember her face.

She was great, and my first word that I remembered,

that I learned was 'an apple'.

So I came back home and I was like: 'Mommy, I know that this is an apple, this is an apple!"

It was so exciting and I loved it.

and when of course it was school, but do you know our educational system it's not great.

It was like basic and we didn't have internet back then.

So I didn't have any opportunities that we have now, right? Yeah,

but I knew back then that I love this language.

And when I was watching some movies or TV shows

and I, I heard this, their voices to the background behind the translation

I tried to listen carefully and I try to repeat.

So that's when I started to apply this shadowing technique.

Although I didn't know about that.

Maybe explain a little bit. What is the shadowing technique?

It's when you hear something and repeat right away after the speaker. Yeah.

Do you speak English English with your son?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Only English, or?

When we're at home, it's only English

and when we were outside, of course I speak Ukrainian

because a lot of people are around and

the people that we know they like looking at us like we're weird or something

but you know even though I still speak in English with him outside.

and it's a to me. It's kind of additional motivation to learn English

and to drill sounds

to be, to be consistent, to you use a proper English and .. Right,

to learn grammar because it's important.

especially before a child. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and it's a gift, you know, you're giving him the gift of

having a second language and then it's amazing.

Yeah, I hope so

Although my mom says like because he says .... all these words and she's like, oh my god

he's speaking English and

'This R, this R-sound. Don't teach him this R-sound!

Teach him our R-r-r-sound!

Yeah, it's so funny.

He'll master both, he'll master both.

That's so amazing with kids is that they're able to hear an apply immediately

It's not like us. That it's hard for us now to move from R-r- to the Ur.

So yeah, that's the beauty of being a baby, you know?

So, do you ever feel judgement?

When you speak do you ever feel

What is your biggest fear when you communicate in English?

Do you ever, have you ever experienced judgment from other people?

even non-native speakers of English

that like do not understand why you're doing this English thing

Yeah, just of non-native speakers actually.

Yeah, native speakers, they don't judge they actually

well the ones I've talked to

they are actually fascinated by the fact that we learn English

and that we can master this language and I really like it because it's their own

language and a lot of

English native speakers, they don't know other languages. So yeah, but

Yeah, I am judged by people

So I get these looks all the time and these weird questions like

'So, okay, so you have a YouTube channel?'

"That's funny'. And like so so, do you know English? So do you teach English?

it's like and I'm like standing and saying well, yeah, so what? And

But actually it's um, to be honest I couldn't care less.

I'm just ending these conversations like they are and say: "Okay it was nice to talk to you, and goodbye".

Someone will always have something to say, you know.

I recently listened to Rachel Hollis. She's awesome and she had this

podcasts or she says it in their book.

'Other people's opinions of you are none of your business', right?

It's not it shouldn't interest you

It shouldn't bother you

and you definitely shouldn't make a decision

based on what other people think, you know.

And I think this is a great motto.

if you feel that this is something that you want to do

then do it, then don't listen to anyone. Yeah

Especially when it comes to English people feel that they're not enough

because they're non-native speakers.

They're new to English.

They weren't born into the language.

But it's more than enough, you know

It's more than enough

If you do the work, if you show up

if you're consistent, if you provide value to others then absolutely.

Okay, so Anna, what made you

decide to open your YouTube channel, and how did it all start?

Okay, so it all started when I

found, actually I came across your YouTube channel,

and then I found out about this community,

about this Facebook group of non-native speakers

that learn English and help each other

but actually back It was just just just a challenge.

So we had a challenge. Was that 30-day challenge, right?

Cuz I have up one before. The 30 day July challenge, right?

Yeah, and we had to make videos every single day

talking about some particular topic

that was intimidating

and terrifying experience for me

because I started from introducing myself and

It was so weird because I've never talked to anyone in English. Let's say like this

Maybe there was some time but especially I didn't record myself.

I haven't recorded myself ever!

So it was so weird, but then I decided that I'm gonna do it.

if I start it then I'm gonna continue.

How did you like once you posted the first video?

What did you think that's going to happen?

Actually, I was I was so terrified that I didn't think anything.

I was like, oh my god. Did I actually do it?

Oh my god, people are watching and they're commenting. Oh gosh

I had all these thoughts.

Then I watched a lot of other videos of other people

and I never judged, never judge.

And I was like, they are awesome. They're great.

They're speaking English. That's amazing.

Yeah, and I was like I can do it too and I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna be consistent. So I'm gonna

continue with this challenge

and yeah, and I did.

The comments what you got were amazing, right.

Like the feedback you've got, people loved you.

Yeah, yeah, the comments were great.

They were asking me like

what do I do to improve? What did I do to get this level of English?

Although I didn't think that it was a level at all

I was so stunned by those comments. I was like great. It's it's awesome.

And this is where that was a great motivation for me.

I was like, yeah I wanted to do it and now I have this confirmation that I need to continue.

Yeah, that was great

This is this is what I love about it so much

Is that people have these opinions about themselves and about their English.

How bad it is and how

Not interesting, they are and not engaging

and they take the first step and they post the video and

they want to you know like

Natalie one of our students, she's also from Ukraine,

she said that she posted a video and she turned off the phone and

and then she deleted the Facebook app from her phone

because she was so embarrassed

She was just like it's going to be terrible.

people are going to mock me and ridicule me

And then like the next day, she was just like I don't know

I don't want to know anything about it

and then the next day she turn it on

and there are all these amazing comments

'You're awesome' . 'Thank you so much for sharing'.

'You're so interesting and awesome.'

You're like wait, right.

It's like what exists in my head does not exist in other people's heads

Actually people are interested in what I have to say and they're curious

And and they're motivated and inspired by what I'm saying or how I show up

And that gives you an to continue, you know and from there

she was like she posted every single day and

they're super interesting video

and I think she created relations

like we all did, you know like created relationships?

And had impact on each other.

I mean there's such stong relationships

just by just because you connect to people who show up on video.

Because when you see someone you're like you really see the person

and you can get a little deeper than you can in

just writing a post, you know, so

The patience or their the skills

to write like exactly what they want to say, so

Taking a video. That's actually the secret. I would say

Making us you get supportive community

Yeah, yeah totally respond.

Yes, and the safe place, I think like a place like you said you never judge and just like you

people don't judge like in that community at least,

like like it was only support it was always only empowerment so

yeah, yeah a lot of support and a lot of feedback and I get some great advice and

corrections because we have a lot of teachers there.

So of course that my grammar wasn't great and I was struggling with it.

And I is still struggle, you know.

I still make mistakes, but that's okay I think.

And you know, it's it's so great because you get to improve just like this

You know what I loved as well that I had to make like 5 videos every single time

because I didn't like something,

because I made a mistake,

because I didn't say that I wanted to stay

because it forget

forgot something. Yeah and

It was great because every single time it was better and better and better.

That's how you improve when you don't have someone to talk to use video

This is like my new my new

Belief system, right if you don't have people you have the video thank God like everyone has a phone so yeah, yeah

okay, so so what so from that point where you saw that you're like

You know you you have people who want to listen to what you have to say

What was the moment where you decided that okay, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna open my youtube channel

Yeah, that was that moment

But actually I wanted to start my youtube channel a lot earlier me and my husband we were thinking about that

But we just didn't know

what to talk about

what would you show to people

what to share and how to help people

and that was the problem and

then when I told my husband, you know, I would like to I would like to try

because I think that

something amazing will happen and

and will turn work out from that and also that was another

opportunity for me to practice and to learn English and to stick to it.

Right, absolutely.

And you're always like if you have a dream you always have to go for it

I mean worst thing that can happen you fail you close the channel

That's it, like or you click but but it it and you only learn from it

you only learn and you start again doing something better because you learn

But the worst thing is just like not to do it

because you're afraid

you're afraid you're not gonna succeed,

you're afraid of of what people are gonna think I mean, you know

You're the only person who needs to face those consequences at the end of the day, so

You got to give it a try

Well, when we started the channel I didn't think about getting a lot of subscribers.

I didn't think about bad comments because I know that there always will be bad comments.

Always. There are people that like you and there are people they just don't like you no matter what

You say and just because you look this way. That's it.

Yeah, and I wasn't thinking about that man

I I just I just wanted to

when when I had my first hundred subscribers it was so exciting

I was like, oh my god a hundred people are listening to me

and are interested in what I have to say

This is so cool. Yeah, and I just wanted to I just wanted to share

then I start getting questions

That was exciting.

So what kind of content do you share on your channel?

like tips and advice how to improve how to learn

basically on your own

And I just share what do I do all the time?

And I'm gonna yeah, I'm planning to make a video like I'm explaining

and telling that

Describing my day.

What I do is every single day to practice like just to show people that

It's all achievable. It's oh it's all doable

You can't find time for that you can't make time for that.

It doesn't need to be much you just have to be very intentional about it, right.

So what was the video you had the most fun creating or you thought that was?

Like, you know you you really enjoy doing

Like the first 10 videos that we've made

Were really fun to shoot

because we didn't have a place so we don't have a studio or a separate room for that and

every single time we have to arrange here in the apartment

the place to shoot the video so we had to

We had to we had to buy these lamps, lights.

and yeah, my husband was arranging all that

it was so it was such a mess inside the apartment

We tried to that

Yeah, we tried to keep our baby away

Yeah, he was what you got a lot of your videos

I think on one of your videos you can even hear him right like

I remember watching one of your videos

I remember cuz when I just started out it was just the same way

waiting for the girls to go to the kindergarten and then

changing the entire apartment getting all the lights and everything

and then having to fix it all, right

Yeah. Yeah, and also I'm

Yeah, and it's a great experience for my husband as well.

Because he he's learning how to edit videos

and he's enjoying this a lot. So this is like his

This is like his

how to say it right?

Like yeah passion or this idiom, a cup of....

want to say something

yeah, cup of tea, yeah

So the coffee didn't feel right but the cup of something.

Yeah, I have this word. I was in the middle of a class

I had like 10 students in front of me

and I get stuck here just like no wait, I know this word.

And that was that what was the word I was looking for?

forbidding, forbidding or forbid

So it was just like, you know, I know this word

is just it was not very available and nothing else

was fitting enough.

So also, so once we started in the Fluency challenge

you also became a member of my online program, right

The Accent Makeover

Yeah, and you actually made a video about it

without me knowing.

So it wasn't like something planned

because I think it was worthwhile

So guys if you want to learn more about the program

I'm gonna I'm gonna put links to everything below

So go check out her channel, you know

because it's over there and

anyway, you need to go check out our channel

and subscribe to If you're learning English and

So, yeah, maybe telling a little bit about that about that experience

and why pronunciation was like,

why improving your pronunciation was a goal for you and why?

How it helped your English like I'm really curious in understanding

what led you to join this program and to

What impact did it have on your English?

So I gotta say that in the first place why I decided to

do at least something and to change my life, basically

starting learning English because of my son

better opportunities for him and better life.

So this is why and

for that reason if I wanted to talk in English to my son.

I needed to have a good pronunciation

So that was the main, the main reason.

that I have a YouTube channel,

and I have to like speak properly and I to know how to speak and

to be honest enrolling to this course was the best decision that I made.

It's so, it's so true because I

Could be frankly speaking. I didn't expect much.

I was like well, okay this is gonna be like some recorded video lessons

maybe I'm gonna practice

maybe I'm not gonna practice.

I don't know...

but it got so interesting

It was so engaging.

We have this group as well

We have another I think a Facebook group for the course numbers, right

Yeah, and a lot of people they're posting their videos

and drilling sounds and doing all the work

and it was so great, so exciting

and when I started, it was so hard.

I didn't expect that

so I

my face muscles literally hurt a lot

when I tried to speak properly and to speak like a lot like having a conversation

It was hard. It was so hard.

It was so tensed.

Like we resist, right.

We've learned something new

and the muscle resists it right like the muscles and

So you got to learn how to let go

and how to train those new muscles like the th, you know

we're starting with the th.

So the tongue does those things that it never used to do before so yeah, uh-huh.

when I practice I actually kind of saw the results right away like on the

Like on the other day, let's say it like this

So I practiced today a lot, a lot, a lot and then I I was so tired and exhausted

and then when I got it up

the other day and I tried all these words and all these sentences

It was easy and I was like, oh my god, this is so great

Now I can no I can't pronounce it actually

because I didn't have actually a lot of problems with the separate sounds or maybe words

but I had a problem with sentences.

So when we go to sentences, it's hard to

to try to repeat with the same intonation and speed and all the stresses.

Yeah that It's hard to be consistent especially when you get tired,

and you don't want to think about the accent, right

It has to be there for you

For that you gotta develop the skills,

and the pronunciation skills on the muscle memory, right

What was the most challenging sound for you?

Element of the speech that you worked on throughout the course

I'd say that of course th

because we don't have this sound in our language, in Ukrainian language

but particularly

this transition when we have voiceless th and S, voice th and Z.

And I still tend a bullet I

let's get a given example like voiceless th and s 'with some'

'with some' with some , PS

'with some people' or yeah

'Is that you?' , right

These transitions I get questions about those all of the time

so we have a few tricks there in the course, right

that we as how to practice and drill it

So this is like my number one problem.

Let's say like this

Yeah, we also do that. We prioritize our issues, right

So it's not like we need to learn everything.

I love it that you said it now I and that you pointed it

Yeah, absolutely. Cuz like if you're if something is not yet there or you

you get obsessed about a certain sound, but you haven't mastered

that's probably your number one priority

because if you get self-conscious about

especially when you're at a more advanced level where it's not a clarity issue

then you've got to figure out and bring the sounds that are tricky for you

or that you are that you're overly aware

and for people who have clarity issues that like they're really not fully understood

then they need to work on first and foremost

like all of the time

during the course and after you know to

to invest all the time to master the sounds that will get them

the best results, right.

So this is the system behind it. Yeah.

yeah, also of course that's

V and W, V sounds

The same problem here

For Ukranian speakers and Russian speakers. Yeah

Yeah, because we don't have these sounds in our languages and it's when people

When people do these sounds make these sounds it sounds

I forgot the word, you know all they we have this boring.

Well, it sounds like they're not speaking properly a bit weird

Oh that they have a list for they have a speech again.

Yeah. Yes. Yes exactly

I'm yeah is is something that we're trying to face? Yes.

And actually I still work

with your practice toolkits that you gave us

Once it over you get like two months

worth of recordings for every single day where it's like 10 minutes a day.

Do you find it useful, helpful?

Super useful, I'm on the day 45 right now.

Yeah, and I go back to those days that were

maybe, maybe hard or maybe that I want to drill them more and more.

So I always go back and I actually practice it throughout the day.

practiced throughout the day. So starting from the morning.

This is the first thing that I do.

I get up, I have my breakfast

and then I go and practice

with these practice toolkits because it's so convenient.

We have this already recorded, you know like

Yeah, you don't need search for the content

Yeah, you know I work with

So like the reason why I created it is actually for,

I created it for my online students

but the needs came from all of my students even the ones here in my

school in Tel Aviv

okay, there's all this content.

How do I know what to focus on?

How do I decide what to do every single day and

people are so busy that they don't have like that

because they need to take another action of opening the drive looking for the content

deciding, the decision

So I'm like I'm gonna stay here the decision.

I decided for you what you're gonna practice today

all you need to do is hit play, you know

and then I think it's very valuable of the responses are great

I feel that people do the work

And the most important that I've learned on this course

is to be consistent and to actually you taught us

You taught us what to do.

So you showed us all the tricks and hacks and like to

to practice with TED Talks.

So you get to choose some TED talks and you you can

You can do shadowing practice or whatever.

We also have the monologues where you did incredible work.

Right you have it.

Yeah, that was so fun each, right. You want to you want to tell us about that?

Oh, that was so much fun

I

I've chosen this monologue

I actually don't remember right now the name

"Hidden figures".

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah

I was really impressed by the power of this monologue

but by the power of power of the speech and I and I really wanted to

go out at the comfort zone one more time

because it was something totally new in this monologue

it requires to be so, so emotional

to play, to show yourself, to scream

and I was like okay

how am I even gonna do it?

but I just closed the door and I decided that yes

I'm gonna record this and actually the first so that was the first take I guess

that I that I did and my husband said that this one is just great

because you showed like

showed all the emotions and it was so genuine

You even picked up on the southern accent. It was so good. Yeah

So to wrap it up Anna

What is the best thing you can recommend our viewers

and the people out there learning English

or wanting to improve their English, but they don't live in an English-speaking country

So you talked a little bit about it at the beginning, but you know

if you can tell me in one thing that they can start doing as of today

tell me in one thing that they can start doing as of today

Even though they don't have a conversation partner

Like what can they do to improve their speaking skills?

Okay, if we're talking about speaking skills

that I would really recommend to do this mimicking, shadowing practice

and to need to record yourself

This is this is those are two main things that you should do to improve

and if you want if you can't if you're not shy then just

join this community, our community Facebook group

and post our videos there

but be consistent don't just post one video

don't just post one video and then people all people are like

oh nobody commented and I don't know

I'm so frustrated. That was so humiliating.

No, it wasn't. We have so many people there.

So maybe it's just lost in the feed

like it could be an hour when too many people posted at the same time

So you got a consistent you got to show up right now like

You know, we don't have the 30 day challenge

but we have weekly discussions right every week. We have a different topic

This week it's about privilege, you know,

What is being privileged mean and so it's like

and last week what was like your favorite movie seems

so we have different topics

so it's quite fun

like to talk about things enough of your comfort zone on video

and we have different activities

and we have Fluency talks where people give "mini-TED talks"

in the group so

I'd say that if you want, really want to feedback then you should post your video

You should take part in the activities

For example, we yeah, cuz then you're gonna get your feedback is for sure

and then you're gonna be

You're gonna be noticed.

So okay, there you are and

then people are gonna watch your weekly discussion video a lot more

and it's really about like doing the work and benefiting,

from, you know recording 5 videos and finally uploading the fifth one.

Even if you don't it's like

if people don't upload but they do the work

and they get inspired but by other people and they learn it.

That's also valuable, you know

I actually, I didn't have time to upload

and I forgot to upload a lot of videos of weekly discussions that we had

but I recorded them. Yeah, I have them to my phone and I watched

like the other day one of the videos and I noticed that I pronounced. I forgot the word

That I pronounced some word wrong

And I was like, oh

Great. Okay. Now I'm gonna check it out.

And now I know how to pronounce this word.

This is so useful.

So useful, so valuable. Absolutely.

Anna It was so much fun talking to you

So it was so much fun as well.

So first of all, thank you so much

I know your your baby boy is a little sick today

and you'd still took the time

and spend it with us and shared your knowledge in your journey

the English Fluency journey

And that's also your YouTube channel

and I highly recommend you all to go and check it out and subscribe

and go click on the link

So I will put a few links below check them out

if you want to know more about the program

so also go check out the video Anna made on her channel.

And of course join us, join our community on Facebook

of non-native speakers from around the world

maybe one day you will open your YouTube channel also

Because you'll get so freaking comfortable on video

and you'll see that you are a rock star

It's just like you Anna

Thanks for having me. That was awesome.

Yeah, thank you so much and thank you for all the value you bring to

English learners around the world. So thanks