Smart Speak English

Everyone can learn to deal with their fear of speaking - it just takes 67 days

None of us like to be exposed, especially when we aren’t good at something, and that’s what causes so many struggling English students to avoid having conversations, continuously struggle speaking, and stay stagnant (even if they think they have confidence).

They key is your attention.

Are you focusing on yourself?
How other people’s English is better than yours?
How you still can’t put sentences together without putting in the right amount of practice?
It took me years to have the confidence and speak English at a proficient level - when you’re doing something with consistency and patience, the magic really happens.

But most struggling English students can’t even stay consistent for 67 days.
Successful English learners have all gone through this phase, and they kept at it, trained their attention, and focused on what really matters:
communication

Humans are designed to communicate
to learn from each other
to grow from other people’s perspectives.

Shying away from having conversations
also means you’re
👉 staying in your head because you can only think what you know without someone else’s perspective on your problem
👉 cutting yourself off other people’s thinking and perspective that could help you grow as a person
👉 not practising your conversation skills
👉 causing yourself continuous pain whenever you do need to communicate

The first thing that helped me gain confidence as a shy person was to continuously, consistently shift my attention: away from myself, towards communicating and connecting with other people.

This is what I teach my students inside The Proficiency Fortress where people have grown confidence not just to speak English but also to change their lives. TPF opens in just a few days and I’m inviting you to be part of the experience, too. Sign up for the waitlist to be the first to join - the link is in my bio.

You don’t have to hear it from me, listen to those who have got the results you want.

Why do I choose courage?

I saw how my parents were unhappy because they’ve given up on their dreams due to fear.

My dad loves plants, trees, and gardening. For some reason, he was too scared of starting that path, and now his job is excruciatingly exhausting for him.

My mum’s parents got divorced when my mum was young, and she most probably gave up believing in herself, she never kept studying after primary school and worked in a factory for 40 years.

They were invited to work in Germany, and in the US.
They were too scared to take the leap and move.
We could’ve had a much better life,
but they chose fear.

That’s why I set out to be courageous.
Everything that has made a huge difference to my life came from me taking the leap and being brave:
👉 my best friendships and relationships
👉 cultivating an open mind by moving to London
👉 building an online business by being courageous to show up on social media
👉 the self-discovery journey I experienced by moving to Japan

Fear is an illusion in your mind.
When you understand this and implement this,
your life will transform.

Most people spend their whole life avoiding what they’re scared of.
Little do they know that they’re not making it easier.
The fear amplifies by the passing of time.
They’re just delaying the uncomfortable feeling.

Learning to speak English fluently involves a lot of emotions, and if there’s one thing you work on this year, learn to manage your emotions. Your emotions are signals,
being scared, insecure and unhappy are just as normal human experiences
as being confident, joyful, proud and inspired
they’re not to be avoided, they’re to be felt.

The world is full of difficulties, horrible unhappy people who never support each other, it is only those who develop resistance who can find light and focus on the good.

My mission is to spread the word: have the choice every day to be brave, do one tiny thing towards your English fluency, have conversations with others, get feedback, listen to that podcast with the fast speaker.

Avoiding doesn’t solve the problem.
It delays it.

You’re soo much stronger than you think.
For your future self,
choose to be brave.

Every brain is unique
Every person is unique
Everyone’s life is unique

I know it must be frustrating to open up social and see how so many other English learners are making progress, and you might easily fall into the trap of comparing yourself to other English learners.

Comparing yourself to someone else, wondering how they could speak English so well never serves you.

We’re so used to focusing on results in our society that it’s easy to miss; there’s a lot of hard work, hours of watching movies attentively, taking notes of useful expressions, reviewing what’s important, months of coaching, mindset work, hundreds of conversations that lead to fluency.

It’s always easy to point at other people and say they’re talented. I get that a lot, which just invalidates all the effort and time I dedicated to my personal and skills development.

You have things you’re amazing at, use those skills for your advantage; and improve your weaknesses.

When you focus on yourself, the only person you can control in this world, and stop looking at what other people do, you’ll see how much quicker you will make progress with your English.

It’s never a question of what you can’t do.
Have little time? Spend it effectively using the language.
Difficult with focus? Learn to get back into focus.
Scared of speaking or taking risks in a conversation? Learn to manage your emotions so fear isn’t holding you back.

Successful English learners know that when they put their energy to the right place: improving what they can improve, things start to shift about their English fluency.

How often do you find yourself comparing your English with others’ English?

Let me teach you everything you need to know to make faster progress with your English fluency skills inside our Bring your English Alive challenge. With our fluency trainings, classes and the supportive community around you, you can early learn so much in this fluency experience.

Click the link in my bio to join us.

You can’t expect to build fluency continuing to follow exactly the same strategies that school taught you when those strategies didn’t help you get fluency.

Which of these stages are you going to start focusing more on?

Want a sure-fire recipe to improve your English fluency faster?

Secure your support on this long-long journey

If I look back at what helped me most to get to a confident C1-level of English by the age of 20 and reach proficiency by the age of 24 was:
👉 building habits so I make sure I use English in my life: listening to a podcast episode every morning, reviewing my vocabulary after my lunch break, going to a language exchange event every Saturday and taking regular conversation-centred classes
👉 learning effectively and doing what moves me closer to my goals (you can look at all the tips on how to learn English for fluency effectively on my YouTube channel)
👉 a bunch of amazingly supportive people who were my learning community and supported me along the way when I was having bad days and weeks
👉 focusing on making process - sometimes I was too tired to watch a whole episode, but I always made time for a 10-minute YouTube video or reviewing my flashcards a bit
👉 building your confidence - if you don’t believe that you can learn to speak English fluently, it’s going to be much harder to make progress - As a human being, you’re perfectly capable of learning to speak English freely and confidently.

Which of these are you currently relying on?

And if you’d like to learn more about what helps you learn English more effectively so it doesn’t take decades to develop a better fluency, gain confidence in not just speaking but activating more vocabulary as you speak, join our challenge, Bring Your English Alive for events, classes and trainings. Use the link in my bio to join us.

Are you overconsuming content and still feeling insecure or are you taking the time and reflecting on what you consume?

Studying English totally alone isn’t a badge of honour

First of all, studying is for school children, English isn’t a subject but a skill

I used to think all I needed was my textbooks, my notebook and taking countless pages of notes. I wrote example sentences after example sentences, hundreds of paragraphs, but I couldn’t communicate better, nor did my confidence improve.

Learning a language is challenging - why do you think so many people all around the world struggle with it?

When you decide to do all this alone, you’re overwhelming yourself.

Language is something we use to share ideas, challenge each other and connect with others to learn from each other. Or are you practising English to speak with your desk lamp and your wall?

Stepping outside your comfort zone, using the limited time you have to maximise your learning is the most courageous thing you can do to your English fluency.

It’s a decision you have the opportunity to make every day. Not doing anything about your fluency is also a decision, of course.

What’s the most challenging thing about learning English right now? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Don’t forget to save this as a reminder how overwhelming it is to study English all alone.

Merry Christmaaas🎄🕯⭐️

Christmas in my home country, Hungary, starts in the evening of 24 December, so here I am wishing you a peaceful, joyful, magical time with the people you love.

This time, instead of snow flakes, you get loads of sunshine and warmth from Kuala Lumpur, the heart of Malaysia, where I’m spending my Christmas. Hope this warmth will fill in your heart and your home around these festive times.

Christmas has always been a reminder for me: a reminder of the things we always take for granted. Christmas gives us an opportunity to appreciate what we have: the people who love us, the stronghold a family can provide in dark times, and the magic that makes the human experience so special: love.

Take time and appreciate what you have this time around.

It is only with the mindset of someone who doesn’t look for more, for things they can’t do, they don’t have that we can live a happy life.

Choose every day to be Christmas.
Say thanks to the support you have,
the love you’re surrounded by,
the life you’re experiencing on this planet,
and gift others with love - it’s free.

Thank you being in this space,
thank you for the likes, saves and comments,
you’ve been supporting my work with;
if we had conversations in the direct messages,
thank you for taking the time and telling me
how best I can help you.

And because Christmas is all about giving,
I can’t wait to show you what gifts I’ve got for you in the coming days. ♥️

Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart, English learner!

If you ever wondered why I don’t teach you vocabulary on my page

because my job as an English coach is to empower you.

English is all around you.
It’s in every article, blog post, Instagram caption.
It’s in podcasts, movies, practise videos - everywhere.

I believe that you have everything you need to learn to speak English fluently.

I can’t know what vocabulary you need.
You need to know what to prioritise.

When you take responsibility for your English, things will start shifting very very quickly.

Listening to an explanation won’t help you use that word, and it’s one of the least useful ways of learning.

I do my best not to explain but show my students what expressions mean. I let them practise, compare, contrast, categorise, use the vocabulary as much as they can.

Let’s not forget about the importance of reviewing, which soooo many English learners miss.

I could post a vocabulary video - what guarantees that you remember it tomorrow or next week, or in a year?

Instead, as an English coach I equip you with the tools you need so you can
✅ feel more confident because you do the work and you see how much progress you make
✅ learn to make your own decisions about your learning
✅ understand how languages are learnt and this way you know what you need to do to achieve your goals
✅ can work on your mindset so you have the mindset of an unstoppable fluent English speaker
✅ feel comfortable and confidenc when you speak English

Ready to become fluent and learn how learning a language effectively works? Join the Bring Your Alive challenge starting on 5 January and get all the fluency trainings and conversation classes you need to give your English a great start in 2023. Join using the link in my bio.

Leave a 🙌 if you’re up for the challenge

This is the most common question I get in my DMs, so I thought, let’s make a series out of it

Save this if you’d like PART 2 so you can hear about effective ways to keep words and expressions in mind and stop hesitating, translating, and looking for words all the time.

This little guy didn’t know how his superpower would help him have the happiest life

Born a Hungarian native speaker,
having parents who worked hard but could barely provide enough to their children,
being bullied and called gay just because I spent way more time reading books and making friends with girls isn’t exactly what I would call a happy, privileged childhood.

But this little guy didn’t give up.

He could’ve gone to the bar to drink with his high school friends.
He chose to tutor English in the evening.

He had to supplement his parents’ support for his university studies, so he did a part-time job with two majors at university, followed by 3 hard years of teaching English for 9-10 hours a day to save enough money for his master’s degree that he got in London.

Even when he fell into deep depression in Japan, locked into a country with closed borders, 9000km away from his family while being bullied by Japanese parents, he kept going, he kept meditating and focusing on self-care.

Consistency is what always brought this guy forward.
Consistency in putting into practice what he’s learnt.
Consistency with embracing the change, not resisting it, and experimenting with something new, and never giving up.

Most people come up with excuses why not do this, why not do that.

If you come up with a good reason to learn English, and never give up, you’ll be unstoppable.

To become a fluent English, speaker, it’s putting what you learn into practice that will always help you go further than anyone, and nothing’s more important than that in with the economic crisis.

No matter where you come from,
how much money you have,
what you’re bad at,
how many people make fun of you,
it’s taking consistent action towards your
goals that will help you speak English fluently,
and if you don’t believe you can do it,
use my life as an example,
that ANYTHING IS FU***NG POSSIBLE.