From FEAR to FREEDOM: Inspirational Success Stories of English Learners

Hey, it's Hadar. Thank you so much for joining me. Today I'm going to share with you the success stories of a few of my students. These students have gone from speaking English with insecurity and fear to speaking English with confidence and clarity and freedom. This is a part of a panel that we held during our annual live event called the New Sound of English. If you're asking yourself how you two can also become my students, then check the link in the description below. I have an online program that I open doors to twice a year and check it out. Maybe now is that time. So I cannot wait to share their stories. Let's listen. Ladies and gentlemen, I am so happy to welcome, please a round of applause. We have a few coming up. Tati.

Welcome.

Tati. Isabel. Hi, Isabel.

Hello.

And we have Tatiana. Hi, Tatiana.

Hello.

We have Olga. Ladies and gentlemen, please, please receive Olga in the window. And Daniel. Hi, Daniel.

Hey.

And Alessandro.

Hello.

So hello Hadar. Hello all guys who is watching us all over the world. I'm so happy to be here and share my experience with you. So I'm originally from Russia, from Moscow, and nowadays I'm living in Dubai. It's an English speaking country. And yeah, I was able to speak English to understand people, but it was so difficult to feel more confident, more comfortable while speaking. And yeah, that's why I'm here, to gain more knowledge, more experience and more inspiration.

I've been working as an English teacher for 10 years, but I never wanted to teach anything related to pronunciation because I didn't know like how to do it. So I've been learning a lot because, well, I mean, I'm in two programs. I am in. Well, I studied in accent makeover and I am also part of eta, which is a program for teachers. It has helped me a lot in my teaching because now I know how to explain certain sounds. Now I know a little bit more about the techniques of how to explain words that can be challenging for the students. But it also helped me a lot in my job meetings because sometimes, like, I didn't want to participate or probably I saw that there was an opportunity for me to chime in in one of the conversations, but I didn't want to do it because I was like, like nervous. And I think this course helped me a lot because now I forgot about the pronunciation thing and now I can only focus on things that are more important for the meeting. And I know that if I commit any mistake, it's going to be okay. Like it's not the end of the World. Yeah.

Hi everyone. Happy to be here and share with you all my feelings and my emotions because there's a lot. I'm from Mexico. I have living in United States from three years right now. I'm very happy to be came across this program. It helped me a lot to express myself with everybody because even when I'm here in US I have struggle all the time. And that was a little like afraid to speak. My confidence has increased a lot. I feel more relaxed when I speak. I feel free to say anything I had in my mind. I know, I know I don't have the perfect pronunciation, but I don't care about that. I care about how I express myself, my feelings and how other people respond to me.

I am an architect. I am living and working mostly in Russia. But sometimes I participate in international programs, international projects. And certainly I need English. And I was all the time so overwhelmed with work and family issues and other stuff. But I never have time to improve my English. And I became ashamed and noticed that I started to deny some projects because of my English. And it was upsetting. But when I think, okay, and I thought, okay, I have to organize another task, like another process of learning English. It's too much for me. I can't hold it. It would be the last. And it broke my back. No. But when I have chance. And I was so happy to meet you, Hadar and because you did all my own work, you make suggest structure. You suggest structure and I have just to follow it and enjoy it. And also you have such an excellent team that just keep my hand and lead me somewhere and I enjoy it. I can imagine what I have to do. But for me it's more easy if somebody holds my hand, actually, because I'm like a kid. I already can walk, but I prefer to be with somebody beside me. And actually it's so nice to be with you guys. I just enjoy any interactions and I love to be in this community. We are like brothers in arms. When I met you, I. I was afraid and ashamed of record my video and I was ashamed to speak up. But now, you know, I am hosting a conversation group and I'm here to talk to a lot of people, which I don't know, I can't imagine it. It was just four months ago. Four months and I am here. Maybe I am not. Maybe I'm not improving my pronunciation very much, but I accept myself and it's the most important thing I believe.

Hello, everyone. My name is Tatiana. I'm from Russia and I want to tell you about My experience, unfortunately I have never been in English speaking countries. I don't have opportunity to practice it with native speakers or with their foreign as well. Makeover course. I was very, I was very astonished and amazed how these are perfectly, perfectly organized tools. That's why I'm very happy and very grateful to be here.

To me it was, to me it was, it was not only about English. So at the beginning I was thinking that it's only a question of pronunciation, how to become. In the past I wanted to become perfect. One of my mistake, as I told you many times in the past, I was maybe I was saying oh, sorry for my English, every kind of apology, etc. And then I understood that after some time I've been practicing a lot and I understood that it's not only a question of English, but as you told us, as you taught us, is also a question of change your mindset. So nowadays I think that also in front of the camera, I feel much more comfortable as I feel right now. And it's a joy to be here. I started to understand what means to enjoy the moment and also to feel much more confident about myself, to believe much more in myself.

So as I said, I live in an English speaking country for like two years. I've been living without any problem that people could understand me somehow and they didn't bother me much. But then, you know, like drop by drop, day by day, I started to hear such expression like hi, Tatiana, your exit is so heavy. Such a heavy Russian accent. You are definitely from Russia. It's not a phoenix, it's make you upset. Actually, you know, I want something different. You know, I want to be on the same level, let's say. And then I found your video on YouTube when you explained like just perfectly how to pronounce R and I was like, wow, this lady very nice. And then time, by time, like maybe after four or five weeks when we reach a point of practicing our tonation, different patterns, I found myself in different situation in different places. I actually can play with it and it's possible. And people around community, which was very supportive also can see changes.

Yeah.

And I was like, wow, okay, let me develop myself, let me discover more in this area. And I was so excited. If you remember, I always told you like, okay, it's very fun to drill our sound or ship, ship sound or any other sound, but play with our voice. It's completely different experience and it gave me more confidence. It inspired me to do something more. It even inspired me to practice different pitch in my daily Conversation, my daily talk with my friends or with my colleagues. And people started to pay attention of what I'm speaking, not how, but what they was like, oh, okay, something different. It wasn't monotone, you know, another thing. So instead of this question, like, hey, Tatiana, are you from Russia? Now I receive another question, hey, are you somewhere from Europe? So it means I sound different. And as like all guys mentioned, it's not only about English, it's not only about accent. Actually, accent took, I think, not the least, but not as such huge place like we expected. So first of all, it's about our mindset and we can use it in our daily life, as Olga did it, even in our private life. So many place where we can use it and apply your knowledge, which you share with us.

Yeah.

And as I before I join accent Mycova, I participate in challenge. It was loud and proud. And my son told me, you've been so happy during this course. I want you to be happy. Please just participate and do what you want and enjoy it. Because really, I have fun. And you know, it was all our way. It's your course. It was like Ariadne's threat. Do you remember the Greek hero Theseus, who came out from Labyrinth only because of Ariadne's threat. It was like we, all of us, we start from beginning of lockdown and your course, like we follow your course, like holding the thread. It was so amazing. And I don't know how you arrange it, but it was really hard job. But the same time it was so much fun and we laugh all the time. It's like, you know, we are in this community. It's again, again not about English, it's again about our community. Because in our adult life we play certain roles. We are sons, mothers, boyfriends, girlfriends, doesn't matter, professionals. But here in community, we can be just ourselves. And nobody from our everyday life can judge us or can see us, or stop us to be what we want to be. We can play absolutely different role. It could be like to achieve our dream to be beauty, or to be monster, or to be anybody.

I think that you need to commit mistakes in order to know like what you need to improve. And I think that sometimes many people feel afraid of being corrected. And being corrected is really one of the biggest favors that people can do to you. Because it's like, okay, you need to focus on this now. And if nobody tells you that, then you're never going to know exactly what to work on. If you feel afraid of committing one mistake, like, just go for it and commit that mistake. Even if you want to do it that. Even if you want to do it on purpose, but do it because otherwise you will not know, like, how to become like, better.

Absolutely.

When I find your program, I thought, oh my God, I never finished anything. When I get into the program and I see how it works, I feel I want to get to the end of this program because English was stressful for me. And now I don't feel afraid to speak with another people. I feel more when I read. I feel I have more fluency to read too. Because that affect me in that way too. Because before I read a sentence in parts and there I don't understand even what I'm saying. But now I feel more flow on the way too. I think it's improved a lot, my speaking, my reading. And it's amazing how I had changed. That was amazing for me to finish a program for the first time in my life. It was wow.

Yeah. At first I want to say that several years ago, when I went to a bigger city to visit some museums and other stuff, there were some foreigners and native speakers. I remember my feelings, how I was afraid to strike a conversation with the person because oh no, how to do this. Nowadays my feelings are completely different because I want to practice English, I want to speak. It doesn't matter if you're a just a foreigner or a native speaker. I don't have such a fear because I'm eager to do this now.

I want to put everything into practice. So when I learn something about grammar, I want to put into practice. But in the past I was watching some videos about repetition. There are many different techniques, but after some time it's boring. But doing it in a monologue or in a dialogue, so it's something totally different. And also you can put in practice your grammar skills, your listening skills. At the same time, you are doing many, many things. So mainly active learning is to put into practice to improve your confidence, but to be aware about what you're doing. It's becoming a joy. So I'm waiting for tomorrow morning to start my day and. And try to organize myself as better as possible to make practice. We are here because we have to challenge ourselves. This is the main purpose of this, working on acting together.

My favorite favorite was the power speech, because I mean, you can always. You use English like in the way you normally use it. Like, I never explored my voice being angry, like probably once or twice in the classroom only. But with the power speech like the monologue that I chose, it was Like a soldier. And I didn't even know myself being angry in English. The course really helped me to remove or to take off that mask that I had in my face. Because I think that before my speaking.

Was like this, and I never used mine.

If you feel that you are different or if you feel that this is not like how it needs to be to be, it's because you are on the right track. So I remember that at the beginning with the art, I felt super uncomfortable because I was like the rla. How am I going to be making those faces? Or how am I going to be exaggerating with the way I open my mouth or something like that. But in reality, that helps you a lot to be clearer. And not only in English, I have used or I have tried to also apply my. My intonation and to increase my voice in certain parts and to low it down a little bit in some other parts, even in Spanish. And it also, in Spanish, I think that it also helped me to grab a little bit more the attention of the other people when speaking. So that's what I learned, that we need to explore our voice. And that is really going to make a difference in our message. Now, when it comes to frustration and difficult moments, I think that silence is your friend. When you feel that there is one situation that probably you're not going to be able to handle, it's just like, okay, like, calm down, take a deep breath, think about it for a second, and then continue. Like, nothing is going to happen if you stop talking for one or two seconds. In order to rephrase your ideas, in to order your head, play a lot with your voice, like there is no other way. Like, play with your voice. And even if you feel that you are going to be a different person, like, go for it. Because I think that we don't have the same personality when we are speaking in our native tongue and when we are speaking English. Like, if you know me in Spanish, the Spanish means super serious. I don't know why when I'm speaking. Really? Yes. I don't know why. But in Spanish, I'm very strict and very serious. And it's always like this. But in English, it's a little bit different. But I think that it's because I have given myself the opportunity to explore something different. Like try to say one sentence, being angry like you didn't take the dog for a walk. And then change the stress to a different part, like you didn't take the dog for a walk. And then say, okay, what happens if I want to specify that it's the dog and not the cat. Hey, you didn't take the dog for a walk. Like playing with those different things. I think that that really helps you. And then little by little, you will never notice when you are going to start incorporating that into your normal speech.

If you feel uncomfortable, this is the sign that this course is working really good for you. Because otherwise, if you feel too much comfortable, easy to make some sounds, you are making some mistakes, you are doing something wrong. And also I think that sometimes when I. You have to visualize, it was really helping. When I visualize, I close my eyes and I try to make the sound and visualize the. So I have to become aware where to put my tongue, how to use my tongue. Because some sounds are not natural, are not part of my language, my native language.

I was in a fluency group for two years before I finally took the course. I kept it in my mind and I'm very happy that I finally did it. I'd like to say maybe personal thing that the day before the course, this course should start. I heard your Hadar's podcast with Paula, who was in this community in this course, maybe on the first round, I don't know exactly. And I was so motivated by her performance. And I understood that, okay, maybe it's enough to be inside my comfort zone. Maybe I should push myself out of it.

It's not an expense, it's an investment. So really think of this like as you were saying, if there is somebody out there that is thinking something like, no, I will do it later. Right now I have a lot of work or things like those, just like, forget about it. You are going to spend that money buying something that probably. And this is going to be something that is going to really help you to improve yourself. It's going to make you feel more confident with your English. It is going to make you feel more confident in your job meetings or even when you are traveling. You are going to feel more confident to get closer to people and make questions and so on. So really it's not an expense, it's an investment. And you are going to see all the benefits, like in the short term.

So I love that.

Don't hesitate.

I did not pay him to say that. I swear to God.

I am full of emotions and gratitude to you and your team because I came to another level, not only in English, but in my business. And it's great because I can not only obtain, but also give people being professional and being more free, more open. And I learned a lot from you to be people oriented and to be generous. Good luck and joyful traveling anyway and enjoy your mistakes and enjoy your fall down and enjoy your achievements anyway. It doesn't matter where you are and what you're doing. Just be happy and be safe and for all your guys and especially for your Hadar.

I'm very happy with my decision to gain too because it was the best decision I have in my life. It's one of the, maybe not the best. I think the best is my husband.

The second one.

We are self learners and we have been experiencing a lot of stuff before arriving here altogether. And I want to say that as I said at the beginning, it's not only about learning a language to develop new skills, but also to challenge yourself and to try to learn much more about yourself. It's not only about the language, it's a mindset and challenging yourself. So grab this opportunity right now and don't postpone because of something else because otherwise you won't be able to live your life completely. There is something that you're missing.

I would agree with Alessandra and I would say so we live right here and right now. And to be right here right now, we've got to take an action in any situation in our life. And like any action, it could be accent makeover, it could, could be any of your, let's say, podcast, YouTube, wherever you can follow guys, you can join fluency community and try to participate in different activities and try to show what you can do for yourself.

First of all, for those who think that probably you don't need this course, maybe your English is already good enough. I thought the same.

But.

To be truth here I discovered so many amazing new things for me that I was very surprised. I have never thought about prosody, that it's so important and so really it works a lot. So many things. Not only pronunciation. This course is not only about pronunciation. It's about probably boosting your confidence.

Really.

It's about your overall fluency. It's about huge support from everyone. From family members. Not community members.

Yeah.

But family members. Because I really want to hug everyone who is here and from our mentors who knows everyone's mistake, from our great teacher. Best teacher ever. I'm so grateful that Hadar is my. Is my teacher. Yeah. And it's just a really amazing journey and I'm really happy that I was a part of this journey.

Yeah.

I'm really happy. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Satyana and wow. Thank you so much, you guys, all of you here and all of those who also wanted to talk and speak and everyone else, you know in the program, in the community that is so supportive of you and of the rest of this community, the new people who have just come to learn about us or the members from the influency community because we have like mixed audiences here. So thank you. And I'm sending all of you and I'm just going to resonate what Tati said. It doesn't matter if you join the program, if you go to the influency community, if you do the work on your own, it's all about taking action and knowing that for you to see results, that's what you need to do. And to be clear about what you're going to do. And if I repeat what I said yesterday, to stay with integrity with the promises you make for yourself, okay? Because if you want to, if you make a promise to yourself and you say I'm going to change and improve my English, do not break that promise, okay? Whether you do it on your own and there are incredible ways to doing it on your on their own. This is why I create the free content every single week and I've been doing this for years. I know you can do it on your own, but you can also do it with the support to save you time and energy. And that is what we're there for. Whatever you choose, progress will be there, change will be there. Just keep a promise to yourself and stay in integrity with what you say that you're going to do. We're going to wrap up. For those of you asking questions about the course, all the information will be revealed. You'll get it once we open doors. Sign up on the main page to get early access to all the information and I will do a live to answer your questions about the program. My dear friends, I'm going to see you in the community. Thank you so, so much. I love you all. Thank you for sharing your inspirational stories with the community. Thank you so much. And thank you everyone watching and I will and I will see you soon. How amazing are they? So inspiring. Thank you again so much. Olga, Alessandro, Daniel, Isabel, Tati and Tatiana, you guys are incredible. You have come such a long way and thank you so much for coming here and sharing your stories with us. It is so incredibly inspiring. Again, I'm inviting you to check the link to see how you can also work with me and share this experience just like those six incredible students. Thank you so much for watching. Let me know and let them know what you think by commenting right below this video. Have a beautiful week and I will see you next week in the next video. Bye.