Natalia Tokar | Native-Like Fluency

Join the Sunday Practice tomorrow https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/calendar/sunday-practice-for-daring-learners-a56a4f

This little lady has been following me everywhere. She joins every class, listens to all the feedback, and insists to sit on my lap whatever I do. I picked her up on the street 2 months ago. Her name is Marshmallow. Honestly, this has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember: to sit in my garden, read a book, and know that I’m home. My dad built a house for us when I was 16. I’m grateful that I learned very early what it means to take care of a house and a garden and to appreciate things like having our own apple trees, drinking our own well water, and the discipline of physical work. Physical labor is what so many people in the cities have forgotten and unlearned to do. Yet it is the best remedy for a cluttered mind. I’m saying this because I cleaned the house today 🤪

Reading out loud is THE most beautiful practice that yields the best results. Your pronunication will improve BIG TIME if you devote yourself to conscious practice. We had a class on Monday. Today is Wednesday, and I did my practice. It took me 10 min. You don't need to do more. But you need to be focused and present during those 10 minutes. You need to know what you're doing and how you'll be doing it. My FOCUS was "cost". The same vowel as in the words "job", "calm", "hot", "not", "stop".... Try reading this piece too. If you're a community member, check out the replay and post YOUR reading. Practice using the two resources that I shared with you on Monday. They're precisess for independent practice.

My client got accepted to Stanford today. He’s very proud of himself, and I’m really happy for him. I helped him write the application letter for Stanford. The application to their Executive Education program is a few essays, each answering a specific question about business.

The biggest mistake that people make when they want to learn something new is that they try to put their life on hold hoping to make room for that new thing. Monday through Friday they live their old life while trying to build a new one on a weekend. A winning strategy is stop separating learning new skills from everyday life, and to integrate learning in your daily life instead. If you learn "clarity' in English, don't practice clarity only in class. Practice clarity when you speak to your child, your spouse, your boss, or your friend. Listen to your voice messages before you click "send". Are you communicating clearly? Try writing your ideas down and learn to structure your thoughts before you put them in an email .... in any language. If you practice reading out loud, don't wait for a weekly class. Make it a habit to read a quote every day from your phone screen. This way you will also practice listening to yourself and being more in control of how you sound. Always seek feedback from someone who has mastered the skill, but remember to show up for yourself every day too. Attending classes is important. Integrating practice in YOUR daily life is mandatory. If you're a community member, make it a goal to do one exercise a day. That's more than enough. Don't do random stuff. Choose focused practice (every exercise in my community meets this criterion). nataliatokar.me/community

About the roles of a teacher and learner ⬆️

I put together MANY free resources that I use in my practice. They are free, useful, and they do not distract me from my practice. They help me stay focused. Find the ones that will work for you. If you want to receive such content in your inbox, subscribe ⬆️️️️️️️

I spoke about breaking “world records” without even trying in the previous post just a few days ago⬆️ Yesterday I broke my 10k record…without trying.

What if “giving your best” is actually holding you back? People see one of my exercises and they think “I must do it correctly! I must give it my best” People think that “giving their best” means doing whatever it takes to achieve a perfect result, and most importantly, making no mistakes in the process. This creates tension in their body, and worry in their head. They start worrying. “I need to give it my best. But what if I can’t?” They act out of fear, feeling all tense, afraid to not live up to their own expectations, holding themselves to an unattainable standard. Most athletes who broke world records gave their best in the training, when they weren’t even trying to achieve their best result. They all report that if they tense too many muscles, they can’t do their best. If I worry about doing the exercise correctly (so that I don’t look stupid), all I am focusing on is my worry, and not the exercise. I am not present, I am consumed by my worry. Giving your best actually means to be fully present with a task, with yourself, and with a situation. Next time when you see a new exercise that you want to get better at, start the stopwatch. Then remove distractions and be fully present with the task. The more attentive you are, the more rewarding the exercise will be. Instead of tensing and worrying about the final result, let the process flow freely. Follow the protocol, and when you’ve finished, look at the stopwatch. How long did it take? Did the time fly? If it did, most likely you were present. It the time was dragging, and you couldn’t help looking at your phone, you were worrying. Now, look at your result. The point is not to do each exercise 100% correctly. The point is to learn to do the exercises correctly. Have you improved your understanding of how to do this exercise? Did you learn something about your focus? Did you understand what not do to next time? For example, I learned that my maximum is 7 iterations. When I do the exercise “Reading out loud”, I don’t do more than 7 attempts. That feels liberating. I never feel tired after my practice. I also learned that the optimal duration of my focused practice is 20-40 min. The minimum is 15 min. That feels great because now I start the timer, not the stopwatch. If I am busy, I set my timer for 15 min, and I devote every cell of my body and mind to every minute of my practice. The results are astonishing, because I truly give my best. “Giving your best” means giving your WHOLE self to your practice instead of ignoring yourself and the practice because you’re consumed by the fear of not being able to give your best.

Watch the full interview on Youtube! I'm thrilled to introduce another conversation with my student who runs a VC fund. Kirill wanted to learn to sell the value of the fund and the acceleration program in spontaneous conversations in English. I show you these interviews to introduce you to the people I teach, their beautiful thoughts, and their depth. What people really want is to have long, deep, inspiring conversations in English. Yet, even though they know a lot about the target language, they can't communicate their complex ideas in the target language. It takes practice, dedication, and focus.

In 2020 I said "Enough!" I had been working out for years, but I still didn't know how to stay lean. I was in a perpetual cycle of gaining and losing 5 kilos. I still didn't know how to eat well, and what foods worked for me. I had digestion issues. I still didn't know why my skin would breakout again and again, and how to heal it. I didn't know what to do. I waited for experts to tell me what to eat, how much to lift, and how to take care of myself. I didn't know much about myself because I hadn't taken the time to learn. I followed popular advice: keto, paleo, low-carb, high-carb, vegan, fasting, you name it.... Nothing worked for me. Nothing felt right. I would either hurt myself, or not know how to sustain the results, or not see the wanted results. Once I said "Enough", I started listening to myself and learning about myself. I stopped my keto experiment and started eating carbs. My sleep immediately improved. I started a stretching routine. I doubled down on running. I increased my weights. Since 2020, I've learned to choose and put together 40-60 min workouts that I LOVE. I learned to FEEL what workout I need on a given day. I learned to lift and run without hurting myself. I quit sugar. I learned to TRUST my body. I haven't completed a single fitness course. I have been committed to the daily practice of being attuned to my body. Nobody knows you better than you. If experts say "keto is healthy", but my body hurts on keto, I'm going to trust my body. I don't wear a Garmin, I don't know my pulse when I run, I don't measure my glucose levels... I rely on what I know without the technology. Because I know. Learn to learn about YOU. This will open doors to learning anything.

Try the NEW Episode of the synchronization exercise. We create FREE and useful exercises to help you improve your listening skills and hear 100% of what people say in English. This time, we're challenging you to work with a British accent. Watch Episode #13 Practice Line by Line to deepen your understanding