Does your mouth hurt when you speak in English?

Does your mouth hurt when you speak in English?

I remember when I was living in the US and I was working long hours, long shifts

at the restaurant or at the bar talking to people, I felt like at the end of

the day, everything here was so painful.

I felt my jaw so tight, my tongue was heavy, my throat was sore.

I felt exhausted, I felt my brain was about to explode.

And generally, I felt like I have put in so much energy just to speak in English.

If this is something that you are experiencing or maybe sometimes

experiencing, this episode is for you.

But even if you're not experiencing this and you want to learn how you

can feel more effortless and casual in English without putting a lot of

effort, then you are going to want to stay and stick around here as well.

If you are new to my channel, then please allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Hadar.

I am, as you probably already understood, I'm a non-native speaker of English.

Even though I'm very passionate about English, I love English.

And I...

my job here is to help you speak English with clarity, confidence, and freedom.

I have a lot of free resources for you on my website hadarshemesh.com, totally free.

So go check it out and download whatever you need.

And you can also find me on Instagram at @hadar.accentsway with daily tips

and insights about pronunciation, mindset, strategy, and fluency.

So come say hi.

I'll be waiting for you there.

Now, let's talk about what to do when your mouth hurts.

So again, what does this look like?

It looks like, first of all, feeling exhausted after speaking

for 10 minutes or one hour - the longer, the more painful it is.

You feel like your jaw is really tight.

You feel like your tongue is heavy and maybe swollen, maybe you have

cuts and bruises on your tongue.

Maybe you feel like your cheeks are hurting, like after you've

been smiling for a long time, maybe at a family reunion.

"Hi, good to see you."

"Hello.

Yes, of course, I remember you!"

"What's her name?

I don't remember her name."

"Okay, cheese.

Let's all smile for the camera."

So, you know this feeling.

And also, I think it has to do with the voice, like feeling like you

are almost running out of voice and vocal power, and maybe your voice

is a little hoarse at the end.

So all of that happens, and I want you to know that it's okay, right?

It's not just you.

It's not just you because I know that this has been the case for many of my students

and, as you heard, for me personally.

Thankfully, this does not happen again.

And I'll tell you how and what has worked for me.

But I think that this is something important to

understand and why this happens.

And also to understand that this is not what we want.

When we're so concerned about grammar and vocabulary and definitely pronunciation,

when we try so hard to be clear – which is an important part of pronunciation

and speaking a second language, but not when you are actually doing the speaking.

You don't always want to be so focused on what's happening here.

And the reason is because it's going to take up a lot

of energy and a lot of effort.

And ultimately, what happens - and let me explain why - what happens

is that you're investing a lot more energy than you need to.

First, by focusing on so many different things, instead of just

like, "Okay, how do I communicate this thought and allow it to come out,

and connect with the other person?"

But also, you know, how you use your muscles to articulate

the sounds that you're using.

The reason why that happens is a) dealing with a lot of things;

b) inefficient pronunciation.

Inefficient pronunciation is that you have a perception around how you

are supposed to pronounce a certain sound, let's say the TH, right?

You know that you need to stick the tongue out.

And you have practiced it in a certain way that required

you to put in a lot of effort.

You're so concentrated on the sound that all your facial organs are taking

part in the pronunciation of the TH.

'theory', 'authentic', 'something', right?

And then you use more muscles than you should actually use.

Because when it comes to the TH, all you need to do is stick

the tongue out and nothing else.

Not your lips, not your cheeks, not your throat - you don't wanna grab your throat.

You just release air, the tongue just happens to be out there.

And you don't also have to push it against the upper teeth, right?

So that's just one example of how much you can invest so

much more tention than needed.

I see that with open vowel sounds, like [æ].

Sometimes people invest a lot of energy into pronouncing the [æ] sound,

where in fact you just drop your jaw.

A lot of times working on your pronunciation is also making sure

that you're only using the necessary muscles, and not more; even though

the result might be the same in terms of the quality of the sound.

It's the same sound, but a totally different experience

when you're practicing.

And definitely, when you're speaking.

Now, if you have a lot of these vowels and consonants when you're speaking, where you

invest a lot more energy than needed, of course you're gonna feel like your mouth

is burning at the end of the conversation.

And of course, you're gonna feel exhausted.

And this is why it's really important to make sure that

your pronunciation is efficient.

Another reason is that maybe you invest and hold a lot of tension in your

throat, in your shoulders, in your arms.

And tension brings tension.

So you wanna make sure that everything is loose and you haven't

developed an unhealthy habit of holding tension when speaking.

Cuz that gets into your voice - it affects your voice, into your pronunciation, and

into your overall experience speaking.

And the result is that you're gonna feel tired and your mouth is going to hurt.

Now, as I said, this is something that I experienced when I just

moved to the US, in the first two years that I was living there.

Definitely, you know, the first year a bit more, cuz I was also

more nervous communicating.

But this feeling of like, you know, overusing my muscles was very

prevalent in the first couple of years.

Then I went to an acting school and actually had speech

and pronunciation classes.

And that's where I learned how to pronounce all the sounds of English.

And I think that that's when I discovered how I was mispronouncing

things or had the different perception around how to pronounce sounds.

And the feedback I had received really helped me to let go of a lot of

tension, a lot of unnecessary tension.

Also, I was, you know, working on scenes and memorizing monologues.

And in a way, I had to work with English a lot.

And when I had a lot of tension, it was not serving me: not when it comes to

English, but also not in my acting and my ability to connect to my emotions

and to understand how to deliver this text in the most natural, authentic way.

So, I have learned how to pronounce the sounds properly, and then lost a

lot of the tension that I was holding.

But also just the work and the practice on texts has helped me

let go of a lot of the tension.

Another thing that helped me is that we had vocal classes.

And in the vocal classes, we learned, literally, how to let

go of tension:, vocal tension and physical tension when speaking.

And that also helped me understand how to become a vessel for my voice, and how

the articulation organs are just helping form the sound that comes out of my mouth.

And I don't need to overdo it.

So these two things along with a lot of practice and a lot of speaking,

and a lot of text work has helped me let go of tension and stress.

And when I teach my students, for example, in my New Sound program, I

take all of that into consideration.

So pronunciation is a big part of my training.

Not just because I think that, you know, you need to know pronunciation or master

pronunciation to sound like a native, no.

But to speak efficiently and not to feel like your voice is on fire

after speaking for a few minutes.

So that is the main thing.

And of course, to sound clear and build confidence.

And when, you know, you are confident in your pronunciation, that affects

your fluency because you're more confident, you don't get stuck on things.

So, pronunciation is a big part of it, and this is why

it's a big part of my training.

So now I have a question for you.

Does this happen to you?

Do you feel pain when you are speaking in English?

Does your mouth hurt?

If so, let me know which part of it hurts the most.

Is it the cheeks?

Is it the tongue?

Is it the jaw - that means tension here?

Is it just like feeling exhausted after speaking?

And maybe you can't point exactly where it is.

Maybe it's your voice, feeling like your voice is hoarse, like a

sore throat, something like that.

So I'm very curious to know how that looks like for you.

I would love for you to share that in the comments.

And also, if you want a training that will help you overcome this challenge,

I highly recommend for you to get on the waitlist for New Sound, because I

will teach you how to do that along with reaching limitless fluency and building

the confidence, the freedom, and the joy when communicating in English.

And I have to tell you that this program and framework has helped over a thousand

students transform their English.

So if you're interested in that, get on the waitlist.

Thank you so much for being here.

If you haven't subscribed to my YouTube channel, please do

that so we can stay connected.

And come say hi on Instagram at @hadar.accentsway.

Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day.

Take a deep breath, let go of tension, focus on just communicating who

you are and what you have to say.

And don't think so much about the form.

Do it when you practice, not when you are speaking.

Thank you so much for being here.

I'll catch you next time in the next video.

Bye.