Natalia Tokar | Native-Like Fluency

Have you watched the new Episode of The Synchronization Exercise? Try it! It’s so worth it❤️

MYTH: Never say "I don't know" to a client or to a boss. You risk losing your competence and your job. TRUTH: When you say "I don't know" and admit that you're useless in some situations, you practice honesty. When you say you know when you actually don't, you lie. Liars tend to lose their competence and their jobs faster than those who admit their mistakes and fix them. There's a way to say "I don't know" in such a way that you keep your job and increase your competence. Watch the video 😉

Exercise #148 from the Community of Practice. 1. Read each sentence out loud. Can you HEAR the mistake? All these sentences sound OFF 2. Swipe and check yourself. If you're a member, see the step-by-step protocol and a video tutorial where I demonstrate the process of questioning each sentence. Join the community of practice and start doing the right exercises correctly.

❌ Common mistake: 1) I was waiting for an hour! ✅ Correct: 1) I waited for an hour ❌ Common mistake: I was travelING 1st class, transatlantic on BA last month and was awarded 240 points. ✅ Correct: I TRAVELED 1st class, transatlantic on BA last month and was awarded 240 points. ❌ Common mistake: The reservation agent with whom I was speakING on Tuesday advised me to book by Friday ✅ Correct: The reservation agent with whom I SPOKE on Tuesday advised me to book by Friday ✅ When it's OK to use the Past Continuous form: 1) He WAS speakING on the final day of the International Energy Forum held in Rome. (it's important to show that he was on the stage, giving a speech) 2)Sue, who WAS travelING alone, was removed from her car by Holley firefighters. (a process was interrupted by another action) 3) No one WAS waitING for me to come home, no phone WAS ringING to ask where I was. (it's important to show a process that could have been interrupted by another, desirable event) *The examples above are not my own. They're from fraze.it. Go and see for yourself. Learn directly from the source. Don't believe what you're told, challenge the beliefs you formed a long time ago, and question everything. To check your understanding of grammar, click on the "Grammar" collection in the community of practice. You will unlock the exercises that will help you find your blind spots and finally fix what needs to be fixed. Join the community of practice and dive into practice. You will always receive individual human feedback.

Watch the full video in the community of practice. ** Presence is where you begin practicing clarity. Most people are distracted by their own thoughts and their own expectations of themselves while speaking with other people. What you're seeing is the result of my own practice and the exercises that I've been sharing in the community of practice. The most important exercises are "physical presence" and "self-correction". Find them in the "Speaking" collection in the community of practice. Apply today and start practicing clarity in English on Sep 5.

Watch the full episode on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. "Authentic as F*ck", Episode 59. What's the point of doing this exercise? I hear this a lot too. The point is that you can change something only if you change your practice, not if you watch others talk about their practice on youtube. "Practice" is a big concept, that's why you want to start with simple exercises that you can complete. These exercises become a "practice" when you do them regularly. You will have a moment of "Oh, it finally clicked!" only if you practice regularly. Self-reflection and self-evaluation are two important meta-skills that must be practiced too. The reward is massive. My advice: if self-reflection is hard for you, find people to learn from. Find someone who can guide you and who can openly share their process with you. We can't see what we have never seen before. Often it takes as little as seeing someone else do it to know that you can do it too.

👩‍💻 Here is a story of Maria. Maria wants to lose weight. She says she has tried everything, but nothing seems to work. She keeps a strict diet for a few weeks, and then a friend invites her to a birthday party. She eats a piece of cake ...and ends up having a binge day, which turns into a week-long downward spiral of overeating and blaming herself for every bite. She's been repeating this cycle for years, not knowing how to break free. Finally, she decides to go on a fasting retreat. She loves it! She eats the right foods every day, feels light, sleeps well, does a week of cleansing, and ... finally loses 5 kilos in just 3 weeks! She is determined to continue eating healthy. But...the retreat is over, she flies back home only to find out that she has learned nothing about eating heathy. She has learned to follow directions but she still has ZERO skills to regular her emotional hunger, cook healthy for herself, choose healthy foods, and stop eating when she's full. The retreat was amazing.... but she returns to her daily practice of giving in to her eating habits, and puts on 5 kilos again. It doesn't natter how badly you want to change something if you refuse to change your daily practice. Stop looking for online programs that take you far away from the real world. Fasting in Costa Rica is easy. Try choosing heathy meals every day in the streets of New York. Try saying NO to pasta & wine when you're meeting with friends. I have done meditation retreats, fasting retreats, intensive English and German courses, 2-day cooking classes, and many other short-term, promising programs. Nothing worked long term. As soon as I got back home, I would go back to my old habits. Nothing worked until I made the decision to practice daily instead of practicing once a year at some fancy retreat. It turned out to be not only less expensive, bit also 1000 times more effective. I stopped craving and eating sugar. I became leaner and stronger. I learned to self-regulate my energy and take care of my inner state. I significantly improved my English. I create practice routines for English learners who choose to improve now rather than wait for later...

Meet our new pronunciation coach. Dela will be helping me in the community of practice. Starting from August 14, she'll be teaching a small group. You get 4 pronunciation lessons with a professional pronunciation coach (in addition to everything else in the community) for only $60 a month. 4 private lessons with a native-speaking professional would cost you at least $300. Dela will make sure that you master your vowels. She'll help you understand what you're doing wrong in your mouth, and how to fix it. The FOCUS of each small group class is immediate self-correction and conscious application of correct pronunciation patterns in spontaneous conversations. To join small group classes with Dela, become a member If you're a member, apply here

Many people pay hundreds and thousands of dollars to get their resume done. Non-native speakers pay even more because they don't know how to show their expertise in English and create a professional document. Your resume is your #1 marketing tool when you're looking for a job. I paid career coaches too...so that I can write and update my own resume any time, without needing a coach again. I have helped hundreds of non-native speakers (mostly C-level executives) write a professional resume. I work with both employees and independent creators and teachers. You need a resume in any case: either to get a job or to get clients. When you know what you're doing, it's easier, even when it seems difficult. When you've done it before, it's easier to do it again, even it it looks insurmountable again. If you need a professional resume in English too (including a cover letter and a strong LinkedIn profile), you can do either of the two: 1. Do it yourself. Join the community of practice and do the SPRINT! Resume (as a community member, you get 50% off) 2. Book and individual session with me and let me help you write a winning resume. Leave or comment or email me at support@nataliatokar.me

"I lost 10 kilos and stopped procrastinating at work as I did the program", she told me. Listen to my conversation with a student in the UK who completed the Native-Like Fluency program. Isn't it beautiful that a human can heal, self-regulate, and improve all areas of life once their meta-skills become strong enough? Once I realized that learning any skill must help people develop their meta-skills, I started developing down-to-earth methods to improve meta-skills. They help you learn new skills faster and boost your ability to apply new knowledge quickly. You can't learn them in a book. You can't learn them separately from the subject you're learning. They must be practiced. So, we practice them. And the results have been....astonishing. Join the new cohort and start taking your practice seriously. You have no idea how much power you have. Take your English confidence to the next level and practice CLARITY in your communication. We start on August 6. The link to apply is inside ⬇️⬇️⬇️ http://newsletter.nataliatokar.me/nlf-q2

When I started helping people with their Writing skills, I had no idea where my own practice would take me. Writing FOR native speakers and getting reactions like this is priceless. It means I have learned something. It means I CAN write for native speakers. I CAN reach their hearts and tell relatable stories. And most importantly, I'm so much better at learning today than when I started my practice. I learn faster, I make new iterations with less effort, I see more, and I write more. If you're a community member, please WRITE! Post your work in the Writing Studio. Go back to the Creative Writing Practice if you participated and listen to the editor's feedback again. It might seem like it's taking forever, and you're moving one millimeter a year.... But it's not true. You're probably one millimeter away from making better progress. Stop doiing the things that don't matter and start spending more time doing the things that help you achieve your goals. Stop scrolling. Start practicing. We learn from people. That's the only right way to learn. Don't try to do it alone. You can gain information on your own. You don't need people to scroll, read, and watch Youtube. However, to implement what you've learned, you need people and their feedback. If you're not a community member yet, join us! Apply here. Start practicing the right way and enjoy your progress. P.S. Remember to send a video/audio message! Without it, the applications won't be considered.

I asked my American tutor to give me feedback on my writing skills. Watch his reaction :) If you haven't read this story on CLARITY in my last email, read it here

A new episode with @delateaches is coming out soon! Dela will be helping our community members with their pronunciation. I know from experience that the hardest part about improving pronunciation is mastering the English vowel sounds. Listening to correct English all day long is not enough. Producing the right vowel sounds consistently, especially in spontaneous situations, takes a lot fo work. You should not be doing this work alone. The fastest way to learn is to learn from caring, human feedback. Dela will help the community members correct their unconscious speaking patterns and teach them the correct mouth position for every sound of English that they're struggling with. To learn in a small group with Dela, you need to: - be a community member - have the Daring Learner + membership - be active in the community Fill out the form to get on the waiting list (as of now, the group is full). But in case someone cancels or gets sick, you'll be the first person we reach out to! The link is here