Why You Can Understand English, But Can’t SPEAK it

You understand many words and expressions when you listen to English, but when you speak

it, how come you can understand a lot of that but you cannot use it?

You're going to be successful, it might take your time, but you're going to be successful

inevitably.

You know, insanity is trying the same thing and hoping for different results.

I'm joined here in the global studio by the one and only Axl Pose, aka Thiago, who's rocking

a raspy, sexy voice today.

Oh, yeah.

I, I thought you were gonna talk about the shirt again, but yeah, today's the voice.

Yeah.

Hey, Ethan.

Hey, everybody.

As you guys can hear, I have a little bit of a cold today, so bear with me.

Okay?

Ooh.

There's some nice things there.

So you said, um, you just said, bear with me.

What does it mean if you ask someone to bear with you?

Yeah.

Usually, uh, a situation might be unpleasant or uncomfortable, but, you know, stick around.

Yeah?

Like, hang in there, bear with me.

Yeah.

Like, you know, forgive me for my, uh, cold voice today.

And you said to muster up the courage to speak with a friend.

What does that mean?

To muster up?

To gather, to collect it so that you can then go ahead and do it.

And it's kind of a colocation, like, muster up the courage or muster up the, the confidence

or something like that.

Like, we wouldn't say muster up the, I dunno, muster up the fridge or muster up the, the

flowers or something like that.

You really only use it for that kind of thing.

Like you're, you're getting something up to do a difficult situation.

Right.

Awesome.

The, the thing about the, the raspy voice - it reminds me my grandmother always used

to tell us, uh, when I was, when I was a kid, that she and my grandfather, they met actually

by corresponding letters because my grandfather was in the war, in World War II, (Really?)

and he (Wow) didn't really have any family or anyone to write him letters.

So kinda like a family friend convinced my grandmother to do correspondence with him.

And when he came back from the war, he, you know, they, they kind of built a relationship

and everything.

He called her and she had this really, like, sexy, raspy voice.

And then they, you know, they set up a date and they went to meet, and her voice was completely

different.

And it turned out that she had a cold.

So he was kind of disappointed cuz he thought that she had, you know, this, that, yeah,

that kind of cigarette, you know, smokey, smokey voice.

(Right.

Yeah.)

And in fact, she did not.

And today we're talking about a hot topic, not, not a sexy topic, a hot topic as in a

popular topic, because it's, uh, something that we hear all the time from learners is

that they understand really well, but then when they get the opportunity to speak to

someone, maybe they're, they're traveling, maybe they're using the RealLife English app,

and they're, you know, put in a, connected to someone in another part of the world for

a conversation, for example, and they just go blank, or they're paralyzed, or, you know,

all the words that they know are in their brain, they just don't come out of their mouth.

There's all these sorts of different things that can happen, right?

So it's really frustrating feeling because you are, you feel like your English at a certain

level because you have this confidence and understanding, but when it comes to speak,

you're kind of dumbfounded.

You're, you, you, you don't know what to say.

That's a great word you used there.

Dumbfound.

Can you say that again?

Dumbfounded.

Yeah.

Silent B. What does that mean?

If you're dumbfounded, it's, it's like you're, you're left without words.

You're, you're caught without the knowledge that you need.

So what would you say is really important that people know about this topic?

If someone is themself suffering from this problem.

Yeah.

I think you described very well the, the profiles, I guess it was two profiles there.

Situation one: you understand a lot of English when you consume it, but you freeze up when

it's time for you to speak it.

Yeah?

Why I believe that happens, I think the second case happens more often with intermediate

learners that you described.

The person has maybe a good, uh, array, let's say, of words or vocabulary passively.

Like you understand many words and expressions when you listen to English, but when you speak

it - though you can speak it, maybe you, you only use 20% of what you know.

And it feels frustrating too, because how come you can understand a lot of that, but

you cannot use it.

I guess what these situations have in common is one thing, and that is the main point we

are making in today's episode.

Discomfort.

You know, it feels uncomfortable.

It feel, you feel discomfort when you, when that happens to you.

You wanna speak something in, in a certain way, you can't, even though in your mind it

sounded beautiful, maybe, you know, it's not so eloquent.

But, the point that we are making today is embrace that, embrace the discomfort, embrace

that uncomfortable feeling, because it's part of the process.

It will feel uncomfortable for a while, but if you keep practicing, it gets easier with

time.

Alright?

But you gotta continue practicing.

You gotta continue putting yourself out there to speak your English, to speak it with people.

Let's say, uh, turning on the light, you know, and your room is a mess.

You know, your room is a mess, but you don't wanna turn on the light because, you know,

once you do it, you'll see that, Oh my God, it's so messy in here.

But eventually you gotta turn it on to see what's happening so that you can do something

about it.

Um, in my case, learning to play guitar, the same thing.

When you start learning to play guitar, it hurts.

It physically hurts your fingers, you know, for a while until you develop the calluses

in your fingers and then, you know, it doesn't hurt anymore.

Yeah.

Or just like working out at the gym.

You know, maybe when you start for the first two, three weeks, your body feels completely

sore because your body's still adapting to it, but it feels uncomfortable.

But if you keep doing it, it will stop feeling uncomfortable at some point.

So that's the main point here we, we, we wanna communicate today.

And you actually have also a very nice thought about it, right, Ethan, related to the water,

right?

That you shared the other day with us.

Yeah.

There's a saying, I believe it comes from stoicism, from stoic philosophy that says

that "the obstacle is the way".

So the thing that is actually challenging us is, uh, what we actually need to face in

order to grow.

And everything.

With everything you're saying, it's basically that you are being forced or you're being

called to leave your comfort zone.

So, for example, going to have a conversation, maybe going to a party, uh, where people would

be speaking English or another language, uh, jumping on the RealLife English app and having

a conversation with someone.

In all these situations, you're going to be pulled out of your comfort zone and put into

a new situation or a situation you don't have so much experience with.

Right?

And when that happens, just like all the examples you gave, there's, you're kinda like stretching

yourself, and eventually, you know, you'll grow if you keep at it.

And of course, there are things that you can do that help to maybe reduce the pain or that

help you to get through it, uh, a little bit better.

But you can't, like, there's expression, right, No pain, no gain - you, you can't achieve

good or great things without going through the pain.

And yeah, it was actually just kind of serendipitous that I heard this quote yesterday and then,

you know, we're recording this topic today because it, I thought it, uh, it goes perfectly.

I believe it's from James Clear, at least he's the one who shared it, but maybe it's

actually from someone else, but I'll read it here.

So, uh, it says, "Water never complains, but always pushes back.

Always.

Drop a boulder in front of a stream, and the water will simply flow around it, taking whatever

opening the landscape will give, or - when nothing is offered - patiently building up

its resources until it rises to a height where a new gap is found.

Flow like water.

Never complain, but always push back."

Be water, my friend.

We talked about actually a, a few podcasts ago, right?

Uh, where we talked about values, and you said one value that's always been really important

for you, Thiago, is that sense of resilience.

So I think this really is a place where resilience can be immensely helpful to learners.

Because, you know, if you are, if you're really dedicated, if you're really always pushing

yourself, if you're like water and any obstacle that comes up, you're like, I'm going to find

a way around it, then you're going to be successful.

It might take your time, but you're going to be successful inevitably.

That actually reminds me of a, an Netflix show that I love to watch.

It's Cobra Kai, and, uh, it's all about karate and stuff.

And, one of the lessons that Daniel Sam, I think, uh, is trying to teach one of the kids

there is that like, you know, while the other dojo is all about pushing forward and, you

know, like brute force, it's all about brute force.

That could work depending on the situation.

But, you know, his philosophy is different.

It's more this idea of the water and moving in circular, you know, fashion and, yeah,

going around your obstacles, not necessarily like, you know, head-on against the wall,

you know?

I might say, like, beating your head against the wall.

It's kind of when you're, you're faced with a problem and you just try to keep going past

it in the same way.

So it's, you know, it's as if you're banging your head against the wall.

It's kinda you're doing something that is, that's never going to work, right?

You're just wasting energy, you're hurting yourself.

So there's also that part there of being creative, finding new solutions, being curious, finding,

um, yeah, trying different things always instead of just trying to always do the same thing.

Because there's, I think it's attributed to Einstein, but it might be misattributed that

says like, you know, "Insanity is trying the same thing and hoping for different results",

something like that.

Yeah.

The definition of insanity.

You don't wanna...

I do wanna go back very quickly to that nice word you used a while ago - serendipitous.

You (Right) said that this quote was kind of serendipitous how it happened.

Serendipity, it basically means like, happy opportunity or happy, happy luck.

And it's, you know, basically this, this thing that, uh, it's basically just the, the fact

in this case that I just happened to find this quote that was relevant to today's podcast

yesterday, you know.

I could think of like a quote that I heard a long time ago - that wouldn't be serendipitous,

it would just be recall.

But it's serendipitous because it happened almost at the same time.

You know, it could be a lot of relations...

A lot of relationships start because of, uh, serendipitous like encounter, right?

That both of you were at the, the fruit section, the produce section of the supermarket, and

you both were buying apples and you reached for the same apple at the same time, or, you

know, whatever the case is.

So we mentioned that we will give you guys some, some exercises because you can just

go, like Thiago was saying, with brute force, and that might work for you, you might break

after a little while.

But, uh, but of course, always having different things that you can do.

For example, if your problem is that you understand well, but you can't speak, you can just throw

yourself into situations where you're forced to speak and you will get better.

Uh, probably.

But there are things that you can do at home so that those situations are a little bit

less uncomfortable so that you feel a little bit more confident and so that you, uh, you're

able to, I don't know, act you're able to perform in a better way, ultimately with your

English.

So the first one, we've talked about this a lot on, on this podcast because we, we have,

uh, the part of our methodology, the RealLife Way, where we say, you know, that you have

to be humble and you have to always be learning.

So one way you can do this is by actually looking for opportunities to create scripts.

So if there's something that you're really having a challenge speaking about, even if

you are, say like, starting to learn a brand new language today, I would still say this

is the first thing that you should do.

You should learn how to introduce yourself.

You should learn how to, for example, say where you live, uh, say what you do for a

living, the things that are most important, that in a very first conversation, you would

need to talk about with someone.

Before you memorize conjugations, before you, you know, are worrying too much about different

mechanics language - get down to like a really confident self-introduction.

And, you know, if you're already at an intermediate level, maybe you can already do that confidently.

Maybe not that I've met a lot of intermediate learners who still struggle even with something

like that, that seems basic, but it's just because they haven't done this practice.

But it could be a script for a presentation you have to give at work, or it could be a

script for talking about a topic that you're really passionate about.

And basically, you just do this, you know, you, you look for the different words and

phrases that you would need to have for this situation.

And then kind of bonus here is you, you actually practice it yourself.

You could practice it in front of the mirror.

You could even record yourself, listen back, correct yourself, because there's already

a lot of things that we can correct on our own, (True) right?

About creating scripts.

I think that that is particularly useful for situation one that we described earlier, when

the person completely freezes up when the person has to say something.

Yeah?

So, you know what, create a script with maybe useful phrases that can get you started.

Uh, I had this experience with a student once he was preparing for, uh, a test.

Like a speaking test, yeah, at one of the colleges he was going to.

And, uh, I would ask him a question, he, he, he wouldn't know how to begin, and then he

would completely freeze up, even though he knew the language.

But, you know, the getting started was a problem.

So we worked on some useful phrases for that.

Maybe some filler phrases like, well, let me see.

Hmm, let me think.

Or, oh, that's an interesting question, you know, uh, phrases like that.

So just to get you started.

So creating scripts can be very useful for that.

Those filler phrases are also a really great tip, cuz there's, there's a list of these

that you can learn that just give you, it's kind of another exercise, right?

But it gives you a moment.

Maybe you're short of a word.

So you can use one of these to give yourself a moment to think.

You're kind of giving a cue to the other person to say, you know, wait a moment, let me, let

me think.

And then you have a few seconds, and then you can say it, or you can find a different

way to say it, uh, or whatever the case is.

But it's kind of like having some tools in your belt, right?

I like the phrase you use just now, because you know, when you are short of a word, cuz

you know, I think, oh, short is like this, right?

Like, I, I am a short person, but in that context you used is a different meaning, right?

When you are short of a word.

You're short of a word.

Or you could be short on money, short on change.

It means you're, you're lacking in something, right?

So yeah, the scripts, that's, that's something really valuable that I, whatever level you're

at, even if you're at an advanced level, there's still places where you can stretch yourself.

There's still going to be words that you don't know, right?

So you can, you can still use this as a, as a tool that's going to be really valuable

for you.

I, I like to, earlier you talked about music, right?

And I know you're a good musician, so if we're together in person, you have a guitar, and

I said, you know, play such and such song, you've never played that song before.

You can, you can figure out how to play it, right?

Most likely, if it's not like a really, really technical, difficult song, but if it's, if

it's, uh, uh, if it's a song that has, you know, like chords and stuff that you already

know and stuff, then you can listen to it and more or less be able to play it.

But you won't play it the same as you play a song that you've already practiced at home

a hundred times, right?

Because you, that one, it just, it just flows out of you.

It's, it's almost like a part of you.

So I think that's kind of like a similar thing.

If you already have like all the, you have a lot of vocabulary, you have you, you know,

the grammar, you have good pronunciation and everything.

If you have to talk about a new subject that you're not so comfortable with, it's, it's

going to be bumpy.

But if you've already practiced it at home a lot, then it's going to just, you know,

flow out of you more naturally, even if you're nervous.

What you mentioned about that, about music is very true.

So it shows the importance of preparation, prepping by yourself at home.

The more you do that, the more comfortable you feel when it's time to actually perform.

I have been in situations where I hadn't rehearsed the songs that I was supposed to play with

the band, and even though I could do the gig, I could play the songs.

I was kind of winging, winging it, you know?

And it's exciting in a way because you don't know where it's gonna go, but you are, you,

you are very stressed also, yeah, all the time because you didn't prepare before.

So you go like, okay, what's gonna happen now?

Where should I go now?

You know, in terms of keys or chords, but if you prepare, if you rehearse beforehand

and then you feel very comfortable, very natural when it's actually time to do it.

The same thing applies for your speaking.

Yeah.

So creating scripts, practicing by yourself, mimicking, mimicking.

Right?

That's really crucial.

I wanna go back and just point out some of the words that you used there, which are very

music specific.

Well, some of them you can use in different situations.

You said rehearsal, you said gig, and you said wing it.

So can you define those really quickly?

Yeah.

When you wing it, you kind of improvise.

Yeah.

You maybe you don't prepare before.

You don't study something, but you are throwing in that situation and you gotta wing it.

You gotta make it happen somehow.

Yeah.

It's kind of improvising.

Uh, what was the, the other word you said?

Rehearse and gig.

To rehearse is to practice.

So musicians usually rehearse or practice before doing a concert, but you can also rehearse

a presentation that you have to give at work, for example, or rehearse a test, a speaking

test that you have to, to attend.

And, uh, a gig, A gig is like a small show, a small concert, let's say concert is more

like Metallica level, you know, Metallica does concerts.

Okay?

Uh, with my band, I did gigs.

It's like a, a smaller concert, a smaller show, usually at a bar, something like that.

It could also sort of be like a, a job, right?

It's in the sense of you might get a gig at a wedding or a gig at a birthday party or

something like that.

A lot of times, um, artists who are starting out to might use that word because it's, it's

kinda like, uh, a way, a job, a way to make some money doing their craft.

There you go.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It could also be used for freelance work.

Yeah?

You have a gig, like freelance work or temporary job, right?

And as long as we're talking about music and other, you mentioned mimicry, and I think

something that's similar, that's a really valuable tool.

I've used this in every language that I've learned, is singing.

If you, if you enjoy music, singing can be really great.

Singing or rapping.

Rapping they say goes really well because it helps you to pick up the, the rhythm of

the language very well.

But if you're not into rap, then use the music that you do like, because it's, it's really

like taking your muscles of articulation to the gym.

Uh, this is like something you can do to train those muscles in your mouth so that when it

does come time to speak, they roll out more or they flow out more naturally, right?

(Yeah.)

So if there's certain sounds that are really difficult for you, really exaggerate those

sounds every time you're singing a song with it.

I know this is something like, I learned like the Rrr in Spanish, because there were certain

songs where this came up a lot.

And so every time I sang it, I would try to do it.

And by just doing it over and over again, eventually that sound just became natural

(Yeah.) for me.

The cool thing about music is that the repetitive quality or nature of music you have the chorus

that tends to be the same words repeated throughout the song.

So yeah, that can be really useful.

That reminds me of a famous 80s song.

I've forgot the name of the band and the song, but the chorus goes like this - You spin me

round, round, baby, round, round (Ah) like a recorder, baby, round, round, round.

Like that, that song.

But it's a great chorus to practice the R sound if you struggle with it.

The R R. Yeah?

You know that song?

You spin me round <Music playing>.

What other exercises can people do to help the prepare them for these situations?

Um, you mentioned mimicry, mimicry, that's very important.

I did that a lot imitating what I heard mostly in movies and series, but also speaking to

yourself, uh, narrating your day as you are maybe going to work or cooking something in

the kitchen.

Mentally you are narrating to yourself what you're doing, or even out loud, ideally out

loud, like you are talking to yourself.

Something like, oh, now I am doing the dishes.

I'm going to grab this, uh, liquid soap or detergent and, uh, put it on the sponge and,

you know, uh, wash up the plate.

You know, you do is narrate what you see, what you hear.

If you are maybe stopped in traffic, you look around and you see the people walking on the

street, you can tell yourself, oh yeah, that, that person is walking with a dog and the

person seems happy.

You know, like that.

Just practicing like that.

And I think the great thing about doing this is that maybe you'll come up, you, you mentioned

detergent, so maybe that's a word you don't know in English.

And you're, you're washing up the plates and everything.

You're lathering up the sponge, and then you're like, oh, I don't know what this liquid's

called.

I should look that up.

And you (Yeah.) can, as you're doing this, it gives you an idea of all sorts of gaps

in your English words that you can learn.

So just take note of that if you can, or take a mental note to, to look it up later.

(There you go.)

And it can help you to expand your vocabulary.

And it's so easy to do.

You're, you're usually just there thinking in your native language anyway.

And so many learners say they want to be able to think in English.

So this is a way to start training yourself to think in English.

And maybe if you're doing this, maybe throughout your evening as you're washing your plates,

you'll go to bed and you'll even start dreaming in English.

So that can be a magical experience when you're learning another language the first time you're

dream in it.

Just a funny story about that.

Uh, many years ago, I think I was 18 or 19, I still lived with my parents then.

Yeah.

At my parents' place.

And, uh, I, um, I was very much into English already, like studying every day, you know,

with DVDs and grammar and everything.

I was literally living and breathing English.

And then, uh, one time my dad actually, uh, the other day in the morning, he said, Hey,

did you know that you were speaking English in your sleep yesterday?

And I was like, no, really?

He said, yeah, you were speaking English.

I, I didn't understand what you said, but you were speaking English.

In your sleep.

So that's usually a good sign that when you start dreaming about it or talking in your

sleep in English, like, oh yeah, so I should keep doing what I'm doing.

And of course, you don't want to just always stick to speaking to yourselves, to something

else you can do.

We've been mentioning a few times the RealLife English app.

If you have not yet checked that out, it's a free resource that we have for you.

And it's the only place where anytime, anywhere you just press a button, you're instantly

connected to another learner in another part of the world for a fun and dynamic conversation

in English.

So if you are this person who really needs to gain confidence in their speaking, this

is a great way for you to start finding that practice.

It doesn't take very long, it's very convenient.

So, you know, go on there, give it a go, try some of these exercises other exercises.

Maybe first, like practice your introduction script, for example, if you don't have a lot

of speaking experience.

So then when you go there, it'll flow much easier.

All right, so today Thiago found a really relevant clip from The Lion King, which connects

very well to everything that we've been talking about.

Yeah.

It sure does.

Because we are talking about embracing discomfort, embracing, uh, your fears maybe.

And um, those of you who know the story of the Lion King, um, you know, uh, Simba's father

dies when he's young trying to save him.

And, uh, Simba feels, um, guilty about this.

So he runs away and he grows up away from his home.

But then, um, in order for him to get back home and, um, you know, do what he has to

do, which is, you know, becoming king, yeah?

He has to face his past, which is uncomfortable and painful.

And then in this scene, Rafiki, which is kind of a, a mentor to him, yeah, uh, helps him

realize this.

Like, hey, yes, it is painful and uncomfortable, but in order for you to realize your true

potential and become the all you can be, you have to do it.

You have to go to that place.

Yeah.

So, uh, we're gonna watch the first clip here and see what happens.

What was that?

The weather.

Very peculiar, don't you think?

Yeah.

Looks like the winds are changing.

Ah, change is good.

Yeah, but it's not easy.

I know what I have to do, but going back means I'll have to face my past.

I've been running from it for so long.

Ow.

Jeez.

What was that for?

It doesn't matter.

It's in the past.

That's such a beautiful movie, man.

It really is, yeah, it's no surprise that it's one of the most popular Disney movies

of all time.

So he said that the weather's peculiar there.

What does it mean if something is peculiar?

It's one of a kind, uh, it's different.

It's unusual, right?

Unusual.

Yeah.

It doesn't happen so often.

Yeah.

And there was some nice connected speech there.

So Simba says, But it's not easy.

And he has an American T there.

He drops the T in It's, so it becomes: Buh-dis Buh-dis.

And then in Not we have another American T. So there's T between two vows where it turns

into a duh sound.

So it becomes: naw-dizi, naw-dizi.

Not easy.

Nice.

Yeah, but it's not easy.

And also the next phrase, right after that, there was some nice connected speech.

So, uh, he says, I know what I have to do, but he, and he doesn't say it that way.

He says, What I have to do.

I know what I have to do, but.

We have What I, so there's another American T there happening between these two words.

And this would happen also if, for example, if you had, But I, it changes at least with

some Americans saying it to "What I" or "But I".

And of course if it were, for example, At an, I'm at an, uh, I dunno, astronomy class

or something like that.

Then you couldsay: Ad-in Ad-in.

So what I, but I, at an, uh, any, any time where we have this T between two vowels.

So he says, I know what I have to, so this is really interesting: it becomes, when we

have "have to" oftentimes it will morph to haf-tuh, haf-tuh, I know what I hafta do.

And then finally, But ends in a T and oftentimes we will convert to this when it ends in a

word and it's followed by a consonant or as is here, it's followed by kinda like a pause

in the phrase it becomes: Buh.

so, I know wha-dai-haf-tuh-do, buh.

I know what I have to do.

But...

And then he says that he's been running from his past for so long.

I've been running from it for so long.

What does it mean if you are running from something?

Yeah.

This is a nice, uh, expression first that when you run from something, you try to escape

it, you don't face it, you run away or you run from it.

And he's also using a nice grammatical structure here.

Uh, he says, I've been running from it for so long, this is what we call the present

perfect continuous.

And it's formed by have been or has been and the verb in the -ing, the main verb.

So I've been running, I've been doing, I've been going.

So we use that structure when you talk about an action or activity that started in the

past, but it's still true now in the present moment.

And your focus here is also on the duration of the activity, not on the activity itself.

Because, you know, hear his says "for so long", that's the emphasis of the sentence.

He's focusing on how it's been a long time that he has been running from his past.

Right?

So you can, you can say FOR here, for example, I've been working at this company for five

years.

Or you can also use SINCE: I've been working at this company since 2010, 2005, whatever.

And what would be the difference between, for example, if you said I was running from

it for so long and I've been running from it for so long.

If you use it in the past, I was running from it for so long, I understand that you were

doing it, but now you're not doing it anymore.

So now you know, you've decided to face it.

You were running from it, but now you're not doing it anymore.

If you say, I have been doing it, I have been running even today, you still haven't stopped

doing that.

Nice.

So we have, uh, the continuation of that clip.

Let's, let's take a look.

Ow.

Jeez.

What was that for?

It doesn't matter.

It's in the past.

Yeah, but it still hurts.

Oh yes.

The past can hurt, but the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.

Ah, you see?

So what are you going to do?

First, I'm gonna take your stick.

No, no, no, no, no.

Nice lesson there.

Yeah?

Yeah, Rafiki is a great teacher.

(Yeah.)

Let's see, we have another connected speech there: But it still hurts, right?

Again, this is the American T: buh-dit, buh-dit, we talked about that earlier, uh, and then

Still hurts.

Even.

You could have the t be a bit silent and hurts.

So instead of saying a strong Hurts, you could say Hurts, Hurts.

So it's very subtle there.

Following that, he says, uh, Rafiki says, The way I see it.

What does it mean if you say the way I see it?

This is a great phrase you can use when you wanna give your opinion.

Uh, it's a nice alternative to the phrase: In my opinion.

You can say in my opinion, but you can also say, well, the way I see it, blah, blah, blah,

and then give your opinion.

So it's a nice variation there for that.

In my opinion - it sounds more, a bit more formal or a bit more, it's something you use

more in writing.

And even nowadays, we'll do an abbreviation.

If you're doing a work correspondence, for example, you might say IMO or IMHO - it's

like, in my humble opinion, which makes it more humble, it makes it even more like, you

know, this is just the way I say things.

I know it's not the, it might not be the truth.

Uh, those can be really great abbreviations to use if you work in English and you have

to, to often write.

But the way I see it, I think to me that sounds much more conversational than if you say,

in my opinion, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, uh, this can help you just sound more, more

natural if you were actually speaking to someone.

And then a nice structure that he used here, that Rafiki used here, that I've seen a lot

of learners actually will make mistakes with.

For example, I think Spanish and Portuguese speakers will make the same mistake of saying

like, or... or, or if it's in the negative - nor... nor, but in fact in English we have

two words that you need to use in this phrase, which are either... or, or in the negative

- neither... nor.

So do you wanna explain exactly what this means, Thiago?

Yeah.

Basically when you present, let's say two options or two alternatives to someone.

So for example, hey, uh, are you hungry?

Great.

Uh, we, we can either have sushi or Japanese, sorry, that was, you know, sushi and Japanese.

That's the same thing, right?

Let me say that again.

We can, we can either have sushi or Chinese for dinner today, you see?

So either sushi or Chinese.

Also, what's interesting is the pronunciation, because I think Rafiki in the clip he says

either, which is a possible way of pronouncing it, but you can also go either depending on

the speaker.

Yeah.

So it might be either or either, but yeah, both are fine.

And you could respond to that person saying, I don't want, uh, I neither want Chinese nor

Japanese food.

Can we have something else?

So...

That is a good one.

It's the negative one, right?

It's the negative.

Yeah.

To me that sounds rather, rather formal.

It's, I'd probably say like, I don't want either of them or, uh, yeah, neither of those

sound good.

But you know, if you're using a negative, maybe negatively talking about two things.

I dunno, it's neither raining nor sunny, you know?

So it's, you can imagine it's cloudy out, right?

It does sound more advanced.

Yeah.

Maybe for writing is a, an excellent structure to use.

Yeah.

Most definitely.

But you see, I mean, uh, the point of this clip is exactly that.

Like, you know, we are talking about embracing discomfort and embracing fear, and that's

what Rafiki is helping Simba to do.

Yes, the past can hurt, but you can either learn from it or run from it.

Yeah.

So then you know, Simba is convinced that he has to go back, face his past and do what

he has to, what he has to do.

So at some point you have to stop running from your fears.

Be that, you know, having to face your past, like in, in the Lion King, or simply having

to go and have a conversation with someone in English.

That's a paralyzing fear for some people.

At some point, if it's something that's really important to you, you're going to have to

say, you know, enough is enough.

I'm gonna stop running from it.

I'm gonna face my fears.

There you go.

Yes.

All right, so let's check out today's Big challenge.

All right.

The Big challenge is, you know, we gave you guys some practical exercises you can use

today, uh, to improve your confidence when speaking English.

But what other exercises have you found valuable to practice your speaking skills?

Is there anything else that you do that we didn't mention today?

Make sure you share that in the comment section below here on YouTube.

Or if you're listening to us on another, uh, podcast platform, you can send us an email

at [email protected].

Aww yeah!

And for sure, be sure to check out those comments because you might see some great exercises

that we missed that your fellow learners have found really valuable.

And you can put any of those, I mean, I'd say part of this too, actually, try one of

these, you know, don't just listen to this podcast, put it down and go on with your day.

Actually put one of, at least one of these to practice.

So that said, we wanted to finish up by sharing from a recent episode.

We gave you guys another Big challenge and we want to share what some of you said.

So in one of our past episodes, we talked about grammar.

And at the end of that episode, we asked you to write a sentence in the comments with one

interesting grammatical structure you learned from that episode.

And then I have here two sentences that people sent to us.

Alex says, "I wish I had started learning English before, however, I try to compensate

now.

Keep inspiring us."

What does it mean if you compensate?

You make up for it.

Yeah.

You make up for something, you compensate it.

Maybe you didn't do it before, but now you are doing it maybe more deliberately.

Yeah?

And uh, Anna says, "I wish I had found this YouTube channel earlier.

Liked this structure."

So we can see here that both Alex and Anna, you guys enjoyed the "I wish + past perfect"

structure.

Very nice to express regret.

And just one final comment on that episode that Michela shared.

She says, "Inspiring episode!

At the beginning of my journey towards becoming a fluent English speaker, I thought it would've

been a great goal to become able to understand the language and being understood, but the

more I study, the less satisfied I was with my achievement.

Now I'm trying to perfect my English, so I agree with the importance of mastering the

grammar structures and becoming confident using them".

Thank you so much, Michela.

I'm glad to to know that, you know, maybe that episode helped to see the value and importance

of studying a little bit of grammar also, yeah, in your routine.

Yeah.

Maybe if you've been running from grammar, maybe you have some fears or some resistance

to improve your grammar, maybe you just had some bad experiences from your past, you can

check out that podcast cuz it might just change your mind.

There you go.

Follow Rafiki's advice.

So thanks so much for joining us this week on the RealLife English podcast, and we look

forward to seeing you

in the next episode.

1, 2, 3.

Aww (Aww yeah) Yeah!