Natalia Tokar | Native-Like Fluency

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Develop the skill of SCANning sentences for the subject and the verb. Many people try to guess what the sentence is about without even trying to make sure they do. I want my students to replace "I think I understand what this is about" with "I'm confident that I understand the meaning of the text". Instead of repeating "I believe it's correct" we practice saying "I know it's correct" When students are not used to scanning information, they find it difficult to see relationships between words and ideas. Do this practice: scan every sentence you read for the subject. Then, when you're ready, make sure that every sentence you say has a subject too. Too many people start their sentences with random words, adverbs, prepositions...anything but the subject. This problem becomes obvious when people practice explaining big, complex ideas in English. A subject in English is not always one word. It can be a whole phrase. Can you find a subject in these sentences: 1. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. ( Albert Einstein) 2. Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office. (David Broder) 3. The majority of my blood is Asian (Tiger Woods) 4. Seventy percent of success in life is showing up. ( Woody Allen)

Watch the interview with Linda! Do you also think that you’re a disorganized learner? https://youtu.be/5LsRE_HFa3c?si=SLCyMpOrICDK9qN4

I say "NO" to "Learning a new skill in 30 days". That's not what I practice or preach. However, I say YES to consciously changing an existing pattern through deliberate, focused practice. This idea is at the heart of my work. You CAN change the way you speak in English spontaneously. You can change the way you structure your thoughts and influence people with your ideas. I develop practice routines that help you get what you want. I create the environment, in which it becomes possible. I unite people who practice the same because they need the same. Watch the full video in the community of practice. If you're not a member yet, and you want to be in a small group with a native-speaking pronunciation coach, apply today. If you watch my videos from only 2 years ago, you will see that my vowels were a mess. I didn't see what I didn't see. You don't know what you don't know. That's why professional human feedback is so powerful - it brings your unnoticed patterns into the light of consciousness. You can't learn this from AI. Humans learn best from each other. nataliatokar.me/community

https://youtu.be/L9Gpr7PEnbs?si=rEmI3M1hgE4uC12G Unfortunately, this is true.

They say "it's not that simple" but it is. FOCUS means you do ONE thing while voluntarily ignoring all the other things. I created the community of practice NOT because I wanted to add to the industry of distraction, but to help people practice in the absence of distraction of social media. It's that simple. You are already committed to something. Many people are committed to checking their feed every 10 minutes. To make progress, I had to FOCUS on one thing and ditch everything else that was not working and eating up my energy instead. Stop scrolling. Try to focus on ONE exercise every day. That is more than enough to make meaningful progress. Make it your goal to do one exercise every day and to listen to the feedback. The progress will come in no time. It IS that simple: you focus on what matters. You stop doing the things that don't matter, such as: - Watching Netflix hoping that it is practice. It is not. It's entertainment - Watching endless English lessons on Youtube and never opening your mouth to repeat anything - Listening to "successful" people who sell you English courses that you will watch. Watching doesn't help with speaking! Please read this again - Watching native speakers on Youtube who say "English is easy". I say "of course it's easy when it's your first language. Try making the same videos in a foreign language" - Paying for English classes and hoping for the best... if you need exercises and feedback, apply here and choose specific practice routines to improve specific skills with caring human feedback. nataliatokar.me/community

If you want to be truly fluent, you need to understand the articles and what they do. Articles are in fact adjectives. They modify nouns. They also add context and help you SEE what's going on. The best resource to learn more about articles is grammar books written FOR and BY native speakers. In the community of practice, you will find two workshops on articles where we work with these books, the books themselves, three specific exercises to practice articles, one practice routine for 30 days, and dozens of creative exercises with individual feedback. We use only authentic content and no textbooks. We don't memorize the rules about articles. We learn to understand what they mean. I don't sell every workshop and every exercise separately, even though I could put them together in an online course. You can access everything as a member and do only the exercises that YOU need. I highly recommend the workshops that are in fact follow-along exercises. You will understand what articles do and practice making the right decisions in spontaneous speech. Apply today. The deadline to join is Oct 7, 2023. nataliatokar.me/community

When was the last time you wanted to do your homework?

I think that's the right answer:) Can you hear every word that this kid is saying?

Episode #15 is out! Some of you asked for Sherlock, and here he is! Watch Episode #15 and hear 100% of fast, natural English speech Practice Line by Line to enhance your practice

NEW episode!