In this solo podcast episode, Hadar Shemesh addresses a common problem among non‑native English speakers: they can communicate fluently but rarely "show up" – that is, they hold back their personality, humor, opinions, and stories when speaking English. She distinguishes between merely speaking (answering questions, providing facts) and speaking up (sharing unsolicited opinions, telling stories, making jokes, disagreeing, expressing emotions). She attributes the reluctance to an internal "speaking police" that judges pronunciation, grammar, and content, especially when a real audience is present. To overcome this, she introduces the "Show Up and Speak Up" 7‑day Speaking Power Challenge, beginning October 1. The challenge provides a safe, repetitive environment with practice groups, coaches, video challenges, and a speaking marathon. Its curriculum focuses on quieting the speaking police, quickly forming and organizing opinions, delivering concise points, storytelling, and recovering from mistakes. She also teases a proprietary framework called the "3 gaps" that explains why even advanced speakers feel stuck. The episode serves as both a diagnostic of the hidden barriers to authentic English expression and a promotional call‑to‑action to join the challenge via hadarshemesh.com/challenge.
Chapters
If you know English, maybe even speak English every day, maybe you even live in English or work in English, I have an important question for you. How much of you, you, you actually shows up when you speak English? And by you, I mean your personality, your humor, your charm, your intellect, the nuances in how you think and how you see the world, how much of that are you actually allowing to be expressed when you speak English? Because here's the thing, I know so many people who speak English really well, who know English, they work in English, they have conversations in English, they practice English, meetings, all of that. But when it comes to actually speaking up, this is where things get a little messy and unstable. And speaking up is different from just speaking, right? Speaking is like you communicating what you need in the moment. But speaking up, the way I see it when it comes to speaking English as a second language, is sharing an opinion nobody asked for, telling a story instead of giving the short, safe version or just the facts, It's making a joke, it's disagreeing with someone, it's expressing frustration or anger, or even starting an argument with someone. It's saying what you really think without spending 3 minutes explaining yourself, repeating the same idea, or circling around the point. And instead of speaking up and having that ideal version of themselves, Here's what a lot of people do. They do the bare minimum. They respond when people ask them questions. Okay, check. They speak when it's their turn. Check. They speak when there is no one else to do the speaking for them. And if they have to, they will, which is what ends up happening. But for the most part, they end up keeping some of the most interesting parts of themselves Hidden because they're afraid that if they let those parts come out, something's gonna happen, something's gonna break. They're gonna make mistakes, they're gonna sound awkward, they're going to feel embarrassed, they're going to make a fool of themselves. So they keep their speaking to the bare minimum. If you are listening to this and you recognize this in yourself, then I want you to know that I created something super exciting for you. It's called Show Up and Speak Up. It's a 7-day speaking power challenge, and I am inviting you to join. And the whole purpose of this challenge is very simple, to get you out of your head and get you speaking a lot. And not just speaking, but speaking up. Because even if you already know how to speak English, speaking up may still be hard for you. And that's the part that another app or another AI tool or another YouTube video cannot fully do that for you. And yes, I get the irony. This is a YouTube video telling you exactly that. But listen, at some point you just have to speak, okay? And even though you're speaking, there is like a way in which you have to speak to finally feel the improvement that you're looking for. 'Cause it's not just speaking, it's not just putting the words together, it's not just like getting the pronunciation right. It's forming the opinion quickly. You know what? Before that, it's, it's knowing what you even wanna say. It's having an opinion, right? Having an opinion, forming it quickly, knowing what you wanna say, saying it without going in circles, without apologizing, and without feeling bad. Listen, like there's a lot we can say about English practice strategy, confidence, pronunciation, vocabulary, but if there is one thing I know after almost 2 decades of teaching, it's this. It doesn't matter how good the strategy is. I have some good strategies, I promise you, but it doesn't matter how good it is or how much English you know or how great your grammar is. If you don't actually do the thing you want to improve again and again, which is speaking up, you're not going to improve it. So speaking up is not just a skill that you can understand intellectually and then magically do it. Implemented seamlessly. You need repetitions, you need experience, you need to try and fail and adjust and try again. Whether it's sharing an opinion, getting to the point, using better grammar, choosing the right words, recovering when you get stuck, starting over. The way you get better at this is just by doing it repeatedly. And usually in real life, You don't get the opportunity of doing that. And that's exactly what this challenge is designed to give you, this playground, a clear plan, guidance, support, and most importantly, a safe environment where you don't have to figure out how to create the practice yourself. Because fluency needs safety. When you build your confidence, you need safety. And sometimes when you speak to people you don't know, when you feel evaluated, when you're at work, When you don't feel safe, you don't get to do that because there is something else that happens when you speak in front of other people. And this is something you'll never fully experience when you're talking to yourself in the mirror, practicing alone, or even talking to your AI tutor or real tutor. The moment another person is in front of you, the moment you feel evaluated, the moment the stakes feel a little higher, Something changes. Suddenly, what I call the speaking police shows up. There is something else that happens when you speak in front of other people, and this is something you'll never fully experience when you're talking to yourself in the mirror, practicing alone, or even talking to your AI tutor or real tutor. The moment another person is in front of you, the moment you feel evaluated, the moment the stakes feel a little higher, something changes. Suddenly, what I call the speaking police shows up. Is this correct? Was that the right word? How did you say that? Mm, your pronunciation sounded weird. Maybe you shouldn't say this. This is awkward. And while you're trying to communicate, you're also translating, editing, correcting, judging, and second-guessing yourself. It's almost impossible to succeed this way. So even though you know how to speak English, suddenly your thoughts become harder to organize when you hear that speaking police in your head. Things don't come out the way you planned. You start making silly grammar mistakes you normally wouldn't make. Your pronunciation gets messier. And because of that, so many people choose to stay safe and do The bare minimum. They speak when needed instead of speaking up and showing up like the person they actually are. And I have to tell you, I know this feeling in my body. I used to think that I wasn't interesting, so I wouldn't open my mouth. And then when I finally did speak, I could talk for 3 minutes just to make one simple point. And I always felt self-conscious, like asking myself, is this interesting? Why are they even talking to you? And it took me years to build the speaking skills and the confidence I needed as a teacher and a content creator, and especially as a non-native speaker communicating in English. So I know what it feels like to have so much more inside of you than what other people actually get to see, to feel like you're showing up as 20% of who you really are. And I also know what helped me. Repetition, speaking again and again, working on my confidence. And when it didn't come out perfectly, I did it again. And I've seen the same thing happen to thousands of my students from around the world when they applied this method, no matter what their speaking level was or how fluent they were. The patterns are surprisingly simple. They hesitate, they overthink, they hold back, they avoid. And the thing that consistently helps is taking action in a safe, supportive environment with clear guidance and clear next steps. And that's exactly what these 7 days are going to give you. Here's what I'm going to do. This is not going to be 7 days of me telling you what you need to do to speak more. You already know that. This is 7 days of actually speaking up and speaking more. We're going to start by learning how to recognize and quiet the speaking police, so you can keep going even when your English doesn't come out exactly as planned. Then we're going to work on something that I think is incredibly important and that we don't talk about it enough in language learning, which is knowing what you wanna say. How do you form an opinion on the spot? How do you organize your opinion or your thoughts quickly? How do you deliver it in a clear way? How do you get to the point without overexplaining? Explaining, repeating yourself, or losing your idea halfway through. And we are going to practice a lot. This is not one of those challenges that you sit back and you just watch the replays and you don't take action. No, we're going to work on bringing more of you into your English, your voice, your emotions, your intentions, your stories, your personality. And throughout the entire challenge, you'll have practice groups with coaches, a speaking marathon with other community members, video challenges, and implementation activities to put everything you learn into action. You'll form opinions, tell stories, speak up, get stuck, recover, keep going. And towards the end of the challenge, I'm going to teach you one of the most important concepts I've developed around why smart, capable people can use English for years and still feel stuck. It's called the 3 gaps, and I cannot wait to share that with you at the end of the challenge. So if you want to join me and make a change in 7 days and feel so much better about your English and about your ability to communicate, go to hadarshemesh.com/challenge. And this is the first time I'm running this particular challenge, and I've taken so much I've learned over almost 2 decades of teaching and put it into these 7 days, and I cannot wait to do it with you. Consider this as your electrical jumpstart to your English. 7 days where you stop waiting to feel ready and you just show up. Show Up and Speak Up, the 7-Day Speaking Power Challenge. We start October 1st. The link is below the video. Or go to hadarshemesh.com/challenge. Come show us what 100% of you sounds like. I'll see you inside.
