perfectionism Archives - Every Speaker Counts

Motivation, VideoDecember 24, 2023October 20, 2024

This is why you are afraid to speak English

In this post I’ll discuss different phases that I’ve noticed English learners go through when they start speaking English. They are based on my personal experience and observation. So, if you are learning English, but feel stuck and shy away from speaking with native speakers, this read is for you. Understanding where you are in […]

Motivation, VideoJune 25, 2023July 3, 2023

Fear of speaking English and how to deal with it

Let’s talk about what happens in the brain when we are afraid to speak English and what to do about it. Many of my students tell me that they understand a lot when they read, write, or listen in English, but when they have to speak, they often get stuck. This makes them feel anxious, […]

MotivationDecember 11, 2022February 23, 2023

Enjoy the experience, don’t dwell on the goal

When I was in my first semester in college, the professor in the English class I was taking, commented on my writing. He looked at my paper, then looked at me and told me that I would probably not get an A in his class. My sentences were “awkward,” according to him, because they didn’t […]

MotivationNovember 13, 2022November 14, 2022

Do you feel your English is still not good enough?

Every Wednesday a food track with Mexican food comes to our neighborhood. And let me tell you, these guys are life savers for busy individuals who don’t have time to cook. A few months ago, when I was buying some dinner, I told the lively woman who took my order that I wanted to learn Spanish. […]

MotivationSeptember 18, 2022September 18, 2022

How to speak up – even in “imperfect” English

My last flight from Europe back to the US went so smoothly that I was almost suspicious. “Could anything still go wrong?” I asked myself when the plane landed at the San Francisco airport. My husband and I spent the last five weeks in Europe, splitting our time between our two respective native countries Poland […]

MotivationJuly 24, 2022July 24, 2022

How to be an effective communicator

When people choose a story to tell, most focus on their successes. But today I want to tell you a story about failure – my failure to help a friend “fix” her essay that she wrote for her English class. Years ago, when I first started college, I met an Iranian girl in the math […]

LanguageJune 12, 2022December 18, 2023

How to start thinking in English

When I first went to Poland many years ago, I didn’t speak any Polish. But somehow I wasn’t worried. I knew that I could learn it if I wanted to. Although now I attribute this self-confidence of mine to youth and lack of experience (I was 22 at the time), I still believe that what […]

MotivationApril 3, 2022December 18, 2023

Fear of speaking English and what to do about it

One day during our vacation in Cancun, Mexico, my husband and I went to a grocery store and asked one of the workers for something we couldn’t find. We didn’t speak Spanish, but we tried our best to communicate what we wanted using hand gestures and a few Spanish words. But she was so terrified […]

MotivationFebruary 20, 2022June 19, 2024

Almost native: the power of an adverb

When I was still learning English in one of my ESL classes many years ago, I remember when we had to write a short essay. I can’t recall the topic, but I remember that I had already started to feel more comfortable with the language and my writing skills. So I felt quite confident when […]

MotivationFebruary 13, 2022August 3, 2022

Shitty draft – embrace fear and start writing

Have you ever written a shitty draft? You’d probably say: “Of course, I’ve written many shitty drafts” 😅. But I’m actually asking if you’ve done it on purpose. Last month I was taking a class at the university, and because summer classes are only six weeks long, the workflow is heavy, to put it mildly. […]

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