271. Real Stories About What's Possible | Interview with Szilvia

Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, your host, and today we are going to hear success stories.

Hey, everyone.

Thank you so much for tuning in for another episode of the Influency Podcast today. I'm super thrilled to have you here because today I'm going to share with you an interview that I conducted with a few of my favorite people in this world. And those people are my students, my dear students. And they are going to share with you their English journey, where they used to be and where they are today. And there is quite a difference. And they're going to share with you what they've done to reach that place of freedom and confidence and success and all their accomplishments, thanks to that shift and change in their English and approach to English. And also they're going to share where they were and the limitations and the things that held them back and what they did to let go of those limitations. So this is such an inspiring episode. And it's not just me telling you this because I'm not objective, obviously, but people who heard them speak kept sharing how inspiring it was and motivating, and I think that you deserve to hear that too. And this is why I'm sharing it here. Once you listen to this episode, I would love for you to come back to me and share with me what you feel about this and about their stories. You can find me on Instagram Hadar Accentsway and tell me what you think. So, thank you for being here and I can't wait to share with you today's episode. So let's listen.

Hi, Hadar. Hello, my dear. Hi.

How are you doing?

Fine, thank you so much. It's so nice to see you and I'm so honored to have this opportunity to share my story.

And for those who don't know you, do you mind introducing yourself?

Sure. So I'm Silvia from Hungary. I live not far from the capital, Budapest. It's the smallest city and I started learning English in high school. But actually that was it because after I went to college and at college I didn't have to learn the language because I graduated in the public administration and I've been working there for 18 years now. So English is not a must for me because I don't have to use it on a daily basis. But it's a passion. And during the years I realized how important it is for me. And actually my turning point was when at work there was a situation where I did have to use the language because a foreign customer came to the office. And my Boss came to me to handle the situation and it was so, so scary. I was so afraid to open my mouth after 20 years of silence, you know. But I had to do it and I could handle the situation more or less. And after that I realized I wish I had this customer every single day because that's how I could improve. So that was the turning point. It was a year ago that I decided to make a change.

And when you changed, what was your main like the ideal dream or goal? What did you want to happen when you said okay, I really want to work on improving my fluency? Why did you have that need especially?

I wanted to improve my speaking skills because I think I was pretty good at writing communication, but speaking, I was really scared of speak and I didn't have a real goal, you know, just I realized that I'm happy when I'm using the language and I, I was quite envy about others. But in a positive good envy, I love using it.

I'm like, I'm envious of you. I'm good envious of you right now.

Good envious, yes.

Supportive envy. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's how I realized that it's my dream so I have to work on it, but I didn't know how. So I remember after I have two children birth, I I start over my language learning because I had the time to work on it but I realized that it's not enough to attend one or two hours class and since I didn't have the space where I, I used the language, I just couldn't find the point. And after that, after this situation at work, I, I started to listen to podcasts in language learning topic and watching YouTube videos. That's how I found you. Fortunately and you know, in every single podcast suggested to, to take action to interact with people, join communities where you can actively use the language. So at first I joined an international online community which was designed only for women and it was really scary but I did it. I just pushed myself to do and I remember after my very first event I was shaking but I did it. And you know, after that I realized that I was still alive and I was quite proud of myself to do so. And this feeling was moves the needle for me. But after that I had my speaking partners from that community. But the reason why I was looking for something else because I wanted to improve, because I wanted to, to gain more staff confidence because inside that community I was scared to join events. I, I didn't really speak up. And when I found you, I really like that your course is special, it's unique. And actually, to be honest, at first I didn't really understand what's the connection between pronunciation work and fluency, but maybe that's why I joined because, you know, I was like, I had never tried this before, so maybe it helps. And of course, I read so many wonderful comments, so I decided to join. And I definitely don't and won't ever regret it because, you know, if someone had said to me that one day you and me have a conversation like this.

Yeah, yeah. From being scared speaking to people one on one, to like, being able to use your voice and talk about your story in front of a lot of people. And we've done it many times in the coaching sessions and in the live lessons in the group. So you build that confidence. What are the biggest wins that you can talk about? Because in. In the program, you went through some kind of a process and journey, whether it was pronunciation work or mindset work. And I remember that in one of the coaching sessions, you shared with us a win, actually a few of them. So I would love for you to share it with us here and also tell us what was the, the reason that had gotten you to reach that win, to get there. Right. Like, what was the cause?

Okay, so one of my wins, which I'm really proud of, that I visited sightseeing tour in Budapest, actually, because it was in English, and I'm. I'm passionate about English. So I. I decided to, to visit. And among the tourists, there was a lady who turned out to be a native speaker, and she was. She was standing right next to me. And I was really surprised by my reaction because before, no sound, my reaction would have been to step back, you know, just not to avoid. Yeah. Avoid the communication or even an eye contact. But this time my reaction was totally different. I felt something like, you know, I had been practicing with your pronunciation exercises so many times in my working room that I. I had this feeling to. To prove it, that I'm capable. So it was a strong desire to initiate. So I was the one who initiated the conversation with that lady. I asked her how she liked Budapest. And we started to chat. And there was one thing which I was quite proud of because she said that she's from Dublin and her pronunciation was totally American. So my second sentence was to her, that really, from Dublin. I thought you were American because you have American, like, pronunciation. And she said, yeah, I'm from original, from California. So that was. And, you know, during this tour, we were talking, and by the end of the Tour. She offered me to be my speaking partner if I'd like. So. So of course I was over the moon and we changed our phone numbers and the next day she. She went back to Dublin. So I thought maybe in the future we can meet. And I went home, I just study at home. And I got a text message from her that if I was still around in Budapest, maybe we can meet again and having a longer conversation somewhere. And I wasn't in Budapest, but I didn't care, of course. I just jumped in my car, went back to Budapest and we sat in a nice place and having our hot wines and having a three hour long conversation. Wow. It was really meaningful. She shared many things about her private life and at some point I was so engaged in that conversation that I didn't even realize that we were talking in English.

Hold on, hold on, hold on, wait. I just want to linger on that part that you just said. Because a lot of times when I talk about limitless fluency, I'm not talking about perfection or no mistakes or like perfect pronunciation. I really talk about this experience where you are so involved in the language and you're so sucked into it and you're using it until you don't even realize if you're using your native language or English. Right? Like that is the essence of limitless fluency. And this is why I wanted you to talk about it. Because I feel that this is proof that the work you've done has paid off and worked. And you allowed all the work that you did without like obsessing over it or without forcing it, right? You allowed it to come out and this is why you were able to experience it. Plus all the confidence work and the mindset work that you've done that allowed you to not only take action, but also to be present, you know, to be present and be about there about the conversation without thinking about the performance, right? Without looking at yourself from the outside. Absolutely huge win. It's so important for everyone watching right now to know that wins are not finding a job or all the big things or, you know, opening a YouTube channel. Wins are small or they're big, but they're in the small nuances of life, right? It's that you not taking a step back when you saw that you're standing next to a native speaker, you saying yes when she wanted to talk to you. Right? You being present in the conversation. These are the small wins that lead to huge results. That's really the compound effect. So I love what you just shared. I also wanted to talk to you about the importance of having a community around you to practice and get supported. Because I know that not only that you took active part in the community, but you also really worked hard on building that community of students from Hungary. So do you want to talk about that a little bit?

Absolutely, yeah. You know what was really inspirational for me at the beginning during the Influence the festival, that I watched Orfi, one of the ambassadors who is also Hungarian. And I admire her because of her, what she achieved. And I thought maybe I could do the same. So she was really inspiring for me. When I joined, she was greeting me and said hello. And I started to follow what she's doing and watching her videos. And I realized that actually she's my neighbor because she lives the next city. And I texted her, even if I. I was scared in that situation because, you know, you have always that negative self talk if I have to do something or not. But I just went for it, you know, and texted her. And she was really happy to get to know that we are neighbors. And I started to attend op. Her and Sergio was one of the other ambassadors in. In this community event. And both of them were so inspirational. And after one of these events, I get in touch with or she and asked her if we can meet. And she offered, of course we can meet even in person, since we live quite close to each other. And we met in person. And when she asked switch the language, I chose English, of course, just the sake of English practice. So it was also for me, an unconvenient situation because I had never done this before and I was really scared of going outside. And we were sitting in a restaurant and talking to each other in English. It was totally unusual, those.

Barriers, right? Like smash one after another. I love this.

Absolutely. Yeah. And there's one more wonderful lady who I got to know. Her name is Monica, or she and Monica had already known each other. So we met, the three of us in person, sat in another restaurant in Budapest. And really we made a lot of fun with the waiters because they could hear that once we were talking in English, after that in Hungarian, they could catch one or two words. So they just somehow know that we are not foreigners. But it was so funny, even the waiters laugh. So, yeah.

You know, I think that first of all, having this community around you, online community is key. This is what we do. Like our work is, you know, we teach knowing that you can't learn English alone and being in a community. But this idea that you were able to move from the online, which is Amazing as it is to the offline. And having those Hungarian New sound meetups was so incredible. They kept sending us pictures from different places and that was so much fun and so nice to see. We had other meetups in different cities around the world of new sounders, but this was definitely the one consistent meetup that we kept seeing. So, Sylvia, before we wrap up, I have two more questions for you. One, now that you have completed the program and you have reached this transformation, what are your goals and have they changed because of that journey that you went through?

Absolutely reaching the end of your programs? I. I signed up for a master course for becoming an English teacher. And unfortunately last week I had to cut it for a while because of sorrowful family reasons. But of course I'm gonna keep going. And what I really proud of enrolling this master course is that there was an interview to be accepted. And I remember on that hot seat we were talking, I asked you, okay, I'm quite confident inside. No sound, but what if I had to go to the real world? How can I bring my confidence there? And you suggested me to try myself out in a job interview. And I haven't done it so far. But this interview related to this master class was quite similar. So it was stressful. It was, you know, not with full of smiling and supportive people, but still I was able to be so natural that I was accepted. And one more thing that I'm really proud of that right before that interview, of course I was a bit stressful because as I said, it was a different situation, but I could use the mindset shift you taught me. Right before the interview, I said to myself that I'm Hadar's student for me, the best teacher ever. So nobody has the right to say to me that my English is not good enough. And I sat in front of my computer to making that interview with this mindset and. And I did it. So I love this so much. So thank you.

I love this so much. I'm so, so happy for you and proud for you. And when you mentioned that this is something that you want to do, like, I know that this would be amazing because you have so much to give, especially going through this transformation and being able regardless of the training and regardless of what's going to happen in the future. And by the way, I. I'm deeply sorry for you having to go through these sorrowful events. But you know, when you do get back on track with this goal, I have no doubt that you'll have so much to give to your students because you know what it's like, and you know what's needed and you know what caused you to make this transformation in not a long time, right? Like, a few months?

Yes.

All you needed was already there. You just needed to give yourself permission to use it. Sylvia, what would be the piece of advice you would give to people who were where you were six months ago?

Yeah, my advice is be brave enough. Take action. Get out of your comfort zone, even if it seems scary, because that's what I was constantly doing, even making this interview with you. I'm so excited that my heart is almost out of my chest. But that's the only way. There's no other way. Because speaking confidence comes when you take actions. And after that, being proud of yourself is such a wonderful feeling that after that, you won't stop.

So, yeah, like, you want more of that. You just need to take the first step, like the first few steps and turn it into a habit. Absolutely.

Absolutely. I experienced that. Life rewarded me. Every single step I took life. Get me something.

Well, you attracted it, and you deserve it. And you've worked hard for it. And you. You own that because you did it and you created this reality for yourself. And I'm so proud to be able to be there, to see you in this journey and to help you, even if it's just a little bit. And I'm also proud of this interview and seeing your beautiful, confident performance, which is like another, you know, another joy that is happening for me right now. Another piece of joy.

Thank you.

Sylvia, thank you so, so much for being here and for sharing with us your story.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you so much.

It's a great honor. Thank you.

Thank you. And good luck with everything.

Like, guys. Bye. Bye.

Bye.