Natalia Tokar | Native-Like Fluency

If you decide to learn something SO THAT you never have to learn it again, you're not going to learn much. Most online courses sell you the idea of taking ONE course and changing your life forever. For example, there're many courses titled "From Intermediate to Advanced". They promise to take your English skills to the advanced level. I don't know EVEN one person who took such a course and immediately after completing it started speaking, writing, and thinking in more "advanced" English. What these courses do is they explain to you the grammar that you need to know to pass the language exam and get the "advanced" certificate. Listening to someone explain grammar to you or doing a few grammar exercises from the course will not help you speak with correct grammar in spontaneous situations. Only regular practice and quality feedback will transform your skills and change your current norm. You need a practice routine, and it must be deliberate, well-structured, sustainable, and creative. It must bring you JOY. Join the community of practice and learn to practice the right way. All members get access to my course "9 essential skills to native-like fluency" as a gift. I don't explain grammar in the course. I show you the exercises that you can do yourself, without the "experts". I also give everyone individual feedback. Learning is not suffering.... It's not what you do SO THAT you never have to do it again. Learning is change. If you're ready for a real change, you will find a way to practice daily.

CLARITY is when you see the reality of things, not the potential of things. A lot of people are so in love with the potential of having a better life, as promoted by influencers, that they refuse to see the reality of their situation. 🙍‍♀️ Here is a story of Jane. Jane wants a promotion because she feels she deserves it. Her English skills are not enough to lead team meetings and do product webinars for clients, but she doesn't do anything about it because the promotion interview is scheduled for the end of the year. She thinks she has time. She has a plan: she'll hire a coach two weeks before the interview, and the coach will help her nail that interview! She puts all her faith in the coach, having no faith in herself. When December comes, she realizes she can't afford the coach that she wants. She hires another one only to find out that she is not ready to answer spontaneous interview questions in English, and there is no way she can learn that skill in just two weeks. Jane lost her money and her promotion. She waited until December refusing to see that learning a skill takes longer than 2 weeks. 🙍‍♂️ Here is a story of Ben Ben has put on some weight and doesn't like his physique any more. He doesn't go to the gym or do any physical exercise because he assumes that he will need about two months to get in great shape. This is what he remembers about his 25-year old self who used to go to the gym 5 days a week. He tells himself that he will start going to the gym and gain muscle in a matter of just 2 months ...when the time comes. But for now...let's have another beer. Time passes, he ignores his regular workouts, only to find that he needs more time to reach his fitness goals as he gets older. Ben spent two months in the gym, working his ass off, and all he has achieved is that he's feeling tired all the time. Ben's reality is that he has lost muscle, and his metabolism has changed too. He needs to go back to basics and learn to eat well again. He needs to start with easier workouts and give his body time to adapt. But Ben doesn't want to see this. He's is in love with the potential of getting fit. Jane's reality is that her English skills are not enough. She needs to work on them every day instead of looking for a crash course. She needs to make time for her practice and give herself time to internalize the new skills. But she doesn't want to see that. She is in love with the potential of getting promoted and refuses to recognize or actively change her reality.

Meet Alex. He recently moved to the UK, where he leads a team of English native-speaking consultants in a life-science company. It warms my heart to see that students continue doing the exercises AFTER the course, in their daily lives because now they CAN. Thank you, @lxsavin, for allowing me to share your insights and conclusions after taking the Native-Like Fluency program. I met Alex 5 years ago. I watched him change jobs, get promoted a few times, relocate to a new country, and gain a lot of confidence. I'm asking you to start taking your life and your practice seriously. You have no idea how much power you have if you stop giving it away. What you do every day matters a lot more than what you do once a year. Choose active practice over passive learning. I'm inviting you to join the upcoming cohort of the Native-Like Fluency. I will show you what you need to be doing every day to get to that level. I will walk this path with you and give you a lot of honest, caring, human feedback. Don't wait another 6 months waiting. Use the next months to finally take your English skills AND your career to the next level. https://nataliatokar.me/nativelikefluency P.S. To watch the full interview with Alex from 2021 and see his transformation, click here

When something is a "red flag", it is a sign that you must stop. It's dangerous. Read the definiton and see more examples here. Listen to the video and leave a reaction if you could hear and understand EVERY word that you see on the screen.

Have you seen the new practice videos in my new channel “THE Exercises?” Join and do your daily practice ❤️

Listen to my conversation with a student who completed the Native-Like Fluency program. She kept answering the question “What do you want to be seen, valued, and appreciated for?” for 6 months. Listen to what she has discovered and learned.

Watch the full interview with my student on Youtube. It was an insightful conversation for both of us! Mistakes are necessary to learn. However, it's dangerous to celebrate mistakes without ever correcting them. It's dangerous to live on autopilot for years and listen to soothing self-help videos that tell you "it's a journey" and kind of give you permission to watch 10 other videos instead of going and making that phone call, doing that exercise, or finishing your website. It doesn't matter how many mistakes you make. In fact, the more mistakes you make, the faster you learn .... ...IF you self-correct. What matters is the speed of self-correction. Join my 6-month group coaching program "Native-Like Fluency", and I will teach you. I will take you by the hand and walk this path with you. Your English skills will never be the same again. Learn to see your mistakes and self-correct. It's the fastest way to learn. Start date: August 6

P.P.S. Even two years ago, I couldn't write like this in English. Two years ago, I wrote 90% of my blog posts in Russian. Even though I did ALL my videos in English, I didn't practice writing enough. It took ONE decision to write every Instagram post in English and two years of consistent practice and feedback to see a dramatic improvement. How do I feel seeing this improvement? Unstoppable. That'd be the right word.

People say I’m serious and strict. In other words, I am 'not fun'. Throughout my twenties, people’d often say I was disciplined, but it was rarely a compliment. Rather a sigh of disappointment. They’d say “Just relax and have fun”, but my definition of “fun” has always been very different from what most people do on a Friday night. I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t go to the bars unless there’s live music, and I love taking long walks in nature. My dating experience has often been awkward. ⁃ Can I take you out for a drink? ⁃ I don’t drink ⁃ Okay…well, bye, I guess ⁃ Do you wanna hop the bars all night? ⁃ I’d rather take a walk along the beach tonight ⁃ Walk? Why are you so obsessed with walking? It’s tiring. ⁃ Can you skip your workout tomorrow so we can party all night? ⁃ Sorry. I don’t skip my workouts. I felt awkward at so many networking events because people wouldn’t see me as a good enough conversation partner if I wasn’t drinking with them. I was no fun. When I was still an employee, I avoided going to corporate parties and earned the reputation of an outsider. When I started my own business, I had to become even more disciplined. I had to take things even more seriously. But suddenly, my clients appreciated that. Suddenly, my clients wanted to take long walks with me or spend a week with me in a training room without the usual attributes of “fun”. Suddenly, I was surrounded by people who were working hard to get their life together and unfold their true potential. They told me they were learning discipline from me, and that was mindblowing. I attracted the clients who also loved deep conversations, saw value in self-discipline, and valued relationships over acquaintances. Suddenly, I felt like I was not going to be judged for my strict discipline and my definition of “fun”. When I started my business, I wrote long reads to explain why I cared about teaching and learning. I was unapologetically me. Those texts attracted my most loyal clients, who still follow my work. We’re still friends. My willingness and readiness to dive deep, as well my dedication to cultivating discipline is what makes me great at my job as a teacher and helps me be a good learner. I wouldn’t be able to teach at a master’s level if I had no discipline. I wouldn’t be able to help people learn to learn if I wasn’t serious about it. I wouldn’t be able to even write this text in English if I hadn’t been dedicated to my practice over the last 17 years. P.S. The downside of being so serious was that I rarely smiled. I had to fix that:)

Another deep interview with a student. The idea behind doing these interviews was to show the beauty of these people and my admiration for their dedication. They may feel stuck at times, but they keep going forward. Learning is not what you do in class. It's what you take home from each class. It's what you apply with confidence in real life because you can do it. https://youtu.be/92PZYkxkEpk

If you didn’t learn much from an online course or didn’t improve your English with private lessons, they make you believe it’s your fault. They say you didn’t work hard enough. You tell yourself the story that you were “lazy.” That's not true. ➡️ Here is the truth: the person I’m interviewing is one of the most hard-working people I’ve ever met. She’s definitely not lazy. If she were, she wouldn’t have been able to expand the business to 50 new countries. Most likely, you’re not lazy either. You just don’t know what exactly you should do to improve your English fluency because you are “done” with taking numerous English courses and seeing little to no improvement. Most online courses are made for beginners. They take you from Zero to Mediocre. If you want more than that, stop wanting to “learn” English one day. Start “practicing” it every day. Look for people who have achieved mastery and continue practicing. You need people who can give you feedback because they care. You need people, not courses. Most online courses give you information. You don’t necessarily need more information about English, because to inform a person is not the same as to teach them. You need someone who can help you implement information and speak with clarity and confidence in everyday situations. It doesn't matter if you completed an online course. It’s not competition that matters, but implementation. If you successfully completed an English course, but you can’t tell your story in English, communicate your ideas, or connect with people, the course was not successful. You’re not lazy. You have simply outgrown the methods that used to work. No online course will take you to fluency. That’s why I stopped selling them. Only consistent, deliberate practice will yield the results that you want. If your English level is upper-intermediate and above, consider joining the community of practice where we do the exercises to attain Native-Like Fluency. We meet weekly and you get individual feedback on everything you do.