Mastering English Without Visiting An English Speaking Country
Hey everyone, thank you for joining me.
Today we have a different episode.
In this episode I'm going to interview Anna
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
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.
Hi, Anna, welcome welcome to my channel. How are you doing?
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
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.
Yes.
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?
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
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,'
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
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.
Although my mom says like because he says .... all these words and she's like, oh my god
'This R, this R-sound. Don't teach him this R-sound!
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
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
English native speakers, they don't know other languages. So yeah, but
yeah.
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.
Yeah.
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
and you definitely shouldn't make a decision
based on what other people think, you know.
And I think this is a great motto.
Yeah,
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 weren't born into the language.
But it's more than enough, you know
If you do the work, if you show up
if you're consistent, if you provide value to others then absolutely.
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.
Yeah, and we had to make videos every single day
talking about some particular topic
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
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
The comments what you got were amazing, right.
Like the feedback you've got, people loved you.
Yeah, yeah, the comments were great.
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.
This is this is what I love about it so much
Is that people have these opinions about themselves and about their English.
Not interesting, they are and not engaging
and they take the first step and they post the video and
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.'
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?
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
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 didn't say that I wanted to stay
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
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
But actually I wanted to start my youtube channel a lot earlier me and my husband we were thinking about that
what to share and how to help people
then when I told my husband, you know, I would like to I would like to try
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.
Yeah.
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
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
Yeah.
Yeah.
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
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
So what kind of content do you share on your channel?
like tips and advice how to improve how to learn
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
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
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
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
yeah.
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, 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
Like yeah passion or this idiom, a cup of....
So the coffee didn't feel right but the cup of something.
Yeah.
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
Yeah.
So also, so once we started in the Fluency challenge
you also became a member of my online program, right
Yeah.
Yeah, and you actually made a video about it
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
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.
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
Yeah.
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.
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
Yeah.
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
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
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
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
because we don't have this sound in our language, in Ukrainian language
this transition when we have voiceless th and S, voice th and Z.
let's get a given example like voiceless th and s 'with some'
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.
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
during the course and after you know to
to invest all the time to master the sounds that will get them
So this is the system behind it. Yeah.
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.
I'm yeah is is something that we're trying to face? Yes.
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.
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
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
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
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
So you showed us all the tricks and hacks and like to
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.
Yeah, that was so fun each, right. You want to you want to tell us about that?
I
I actually don't remember right now the name
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
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
showed all the emotions and it was so genuine
You even picked up on the southern accent. It was so good. Yeah
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
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
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"
I'd say that if you want, really want to feedback then you should post your video
You should take part in the activities
Yeah.
For example, we yeah, cuz then you're gonna get your feedback is for sure
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.
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
Yeah.
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
Great. Okay. Now I'm gonna check it out.
And now I know how to pronounce this word.
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 spend it with us and shared your knowledge in your journey
And that's also your YouTube channel
and I highly recommend you all to go and check it out and subscribe
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
Yes.
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
Thanks for having me. That was awesome.
Yeah, thank you so much and thank you for all the value you bring to