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Become a member and start practicing your English skills the new way - https://nataliatokar.me/community

Sign up here - https://nataliatokar.me/community

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To access my free self-study recourses, create an account here

Free Synchronization Exercise to improve your listening skills: subscribe on Telegram and Youtube

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To join small group classes with Dela, become a member https://nataliatokar.me/community

Dela's instagram https://www.instagram.com/delateaches/

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To join the Community of Practice, get on the waiting list here https://nataliatokar.me/community

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Leave a comment there if you have questions for us.

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To read out loud with me, open any video episode of Natalia Reads and practice too! Here is an example https://youtu.be/CBsFyEdq_4g

If you need native-like fluency in English, you need a system to make English practice a lifestyle. You will find hundreds of creative exercises and endless inspiration in our community of practice. Request to join here https://nataliatokar.me/community

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https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/podcast-native-like-fluency/podcast-accent

You will find over a hundred creative exercises in the community of practice (it keeps growing!) to help you achieve native-like fluency in English. Start your practice routine today and receive human, caring feedback. https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/how-things-work-here/how-to-use-the-community-and-where-to-begin

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Take the free welcome video course "A Daring Learner" here - https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/welcome-course/

The book - https://www.amazon.com/Global-Dexterity-Behavior-Cultures-Yourself-ebook/dp/B00B77AINY/

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I am passionate about helping people achieve native-like fluency in English. To achieve mastery, you need a practice routine. Join the community of practice and start building yours. Start a free trial and take the free video course "Daring Learner" https://cutt.ly/ACNAepY

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www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literatu…borska/lecture/

To see all video episodes of Natalia Reads with transcript and to practice with me, join the community of practice

community.nataliatokar.me/c/read-out-loud/

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You will find grammar books, self-study tips, creative exercises, and interactive challenges to continuously improve your grammar and to eliminate some old grammar mistakes that you've been making without knowing.

Start your free trial and get serious about your practice.

Free interactive challenges -

https://nataliatokar.me/challenge

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To start practicing, check out the FREE interactive challenges: https://nataliatokar.me/challenge

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You will see the quotes and the video I'm referring to.

Go ahead and practice with others!

https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/updates/exercise-focus-word

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Practice reading these thoughts together with me.

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Here is the text I was reading www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/670293…4836/excerpt

To find more exercises that can help you get better at reading out loud, check out this collection raindrop.io/NataliaTokar/reading-out-loud-22525828

nataliatokar.me

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I show strategies and tools to build a meaningful practice routine for those who need more than the "advanced" level. I share my own process, and I teach the system of very concrete yet very creative exercises that help us develop the necessary skills to get to native-like fluency.

They are:


- attentiveness


- listening & short-term memory


- clarity


- brevity


- writing


- rhythm


- articles


- questioning your own ideas


- diction


- LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

This episode is about brevity - the art of speaking less while saying more in a foreign language.

I'm going to share:

- Why it's frustrating


- Why it's normal


- Tips to include brevity in your practice routine


- Exercises that help

Find more exercises on BREVITY in our Community of Practice (use the search bar to find hashtag #brevity)
https://community.nataliatokar.me/

See the post in the Community of Practice to see the links I mentioned in the podcast community.nataliatokar.me/c/ask-anything/brevity

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We had an insightful conversation on what it takes to continue practicing when you're already good. We talked about English practice that can open doors to great career opportunities if you choose not to quit and continue investing in yourself.

Nuri is not a native speaker; she's originally from Kyrgyzstan, and she's currently in HR, helping Getir, a Turkish company, hire legal teams across Europe.

• How do you define the purpose of learning?
• Why watch movies and TV shows in English and HOW to watch them?
• Improving English skills vs improving communication skills in English
• Is Native-Like Fluency a job requirement in international companies?

You will hear us talk about these things, and I hope you'll find this conversation useful and inspiring. #nataliatokar #nativelikefluency

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Meet Jill - www.youtube.com/c/JillDiamond

Join Jill's program "Find Your Stage With English Communication Confidence" - www.byjilldiamond.com/a/2147503351/ahXUjtis

Use this coupon code to get 15% off until Feb 28, 2022 - "SPECIAL15"

Join Native-Like Fluency. The Community of Practice - pages.nataliatokar.me/community

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She lives in the US, and she still puts the work in to continue improving her English skills.

Even though Russian is her first language, she had to do a lot of work in Moscow to improve her Russian to the level where she could enter Moscow State University.

If you already live in an English-speaking country or if you're planning to move, her story may answer some of your questions.

- What do you do when you already have the right environment?

- Why do some people never see any substantial progress with their English skills, even though they've lived in Canada/US/England for quite some time...?

- What kind of everyday routines can advanced learners create to continue progressing?

Enjoy the episode!

To join our Community of Practice for advanced learners who need a deliberate & sustainable practice routine, visit pages.nataliatokar.me/community

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written by Ash Ambirge

First of all, if you're actually crying into your vodka, you must be drinking from an exceptionally wide glass. I commend you.

Second, I made this list the other night when I was awake at three o'clock in the morning because isn't that what everybody does at three o'clock in the morning? Makes lists? And then publishes them on the Internet? Fuck, how I love the Internet. Though I do not like having to capitalize “Internet” because it reminds me of having to capitalize “God,” and all of that feels really extra—but then again maybe this is really just a way of saying that the Internet IS God. And I am high key okay with that.

So, darling Internet, here are some things that I'm thinking we could really use some reminders on—because no one can live their best life while actually, ahem, hating it.

The full text is here https://www.themiddlefingerproject.org/10-reminders-we-all-need-when-were-ugly-crying-into-our-vodka-and-hate-our-jobs/

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I’ve always been a fan of humour in advertising, and most of the ten-thousand-plus commercials I’ve directed over the last twenty-five years were humorous. All marketing is an intrusion. It piggybacks on the real reason people have focused their attention—watching television, listening to radio, perusing a newspaper or surfing online. They are there for the content, not the advertising (though the Super Bowl may be the one exception to this rule). So if advertising is an interloper, how do you make that interruption the most polite or, at minimum, the least intrusive message possible? Even more, how do you give something back in return for the loud knocking? Humour is one answer.

It’s important to understand the difference between humour and comedy. Humour is giving, it’s generous. Comedy subtracts and is usually sarcastic or biting. That’s why humour is better suited to marketing. To make someone smile, or laugh, forges an emotional connection. Humour gathers people. Think about people you know. The ones who make you smile are the ones you most want to be around. Humour doesn’t pursue, it pulls.

Not long ago, I attended a talk given by filmmaker Richard Curtis at the Cannes advertising festival. Curtis is a very successful screenwriter and director whose credits include Mr. Bean, Blackadder, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Notting Hill, to name but a few. Not a bad resumé. He was in Cannes to unveil a new marketing campaign he was spearheading to tackle extreme poverty and climate change. The campaign was going to begin with a cinema ad that would be shown on the same day in every movie theatre in North America and Europe. It would be the first global cinema ad ever done. When Curtis previewed the ad during his talk, the press was surprised that its treatment of extreme poverty and climate change was humorous. Didn't the subject matter call for a more serious tone?

Here’s what Curtis said: In his early days as a writer on Blackadder, he realized the only way to get the audience to remember an important plot point was to attach it to humour. So if Sir Nigel Ridgley was coming for dinner, few people would remember that beat. But if Sir Nigel Fatbottom was coming, no one forgot. Humour made it stick.

Now, humour isn’t the only answer to effective marketing, but it illustrates the rule. Emotional content makes people care. That said, most learning institutions put much more value on intellectual reasoning than they do on emotion. Yet emotion fuels the world. Even in a math-and-science-driven institution like NASA, the decision to go to the moon wasn’t driven by rational facts. It was propelled by the emotion of John F. Kennedy’s challenge of landing a man on the moon by 1970 to prove American superiority. Throughout the 1960s, NASA continually marketed the moonshot with emotion. It signed an ongoing contract with Life magazine to feature full-colour stories on the astronauts and their families; it framed the new satellite communications technology and even the small RCA cameras the astronauts took onboard as innovations that would have a beneficial impact on the daily lives of Americans. Maybe the most emotional pitch was the one that warned of letting the Russians (read: Communists) control outer space, dropping bombs on America “like kids dropping rocks from a highway bridge.” That pitch alone persuaded the government to keep signing those big cheques.

Full text is here www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/258334…0373/excerpt

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In modern life, we are encouraged to listen to our hearts, listen to our inner voices, and listen to our guts, but rarely are we encouraged to listen carefully and with intent to other people. Instead, we are engaged in a dialogue of the deaf, often talking over one another at cocktail parties, work meetings, and even family dinners; groomed as we are to lead the conversation rather than follow it. Online and in person, it’s all about defining yourself, shaping the narrative, and staying on message. Value is placed on what you project, not what you absorb.

And yet, listening is arguably more valuable than speaking. Wars have been fought, fortunes lost, and friendships wrecked for lack of listening. It is only by listening that we engage, understand, connect, empathize, and develop as human beings. It is fundamental to any successful relationship — personal, professional, and political.

So it’s striking that high schools and colleges have debate teams and courses in rhetoric and persuasion but seldom, if ever, classes or activities that teach careful listening. You can get a doctorate in speech communication and join clubs like Toastmasters to perfect your public speaking, but there’s no comparable degree or training that emphasizes and encourages the practice of listening. The very image of success and power today is someone miked up and prowling around a stage or orating from behind a podium. Giving a TED Talk or commencement speech is living the dream.

Social media has given everyone a virtual megaphone to broadcast every thought, along with the means to filter out any contrary view. People find phone calls intrusive and ignore voicemail, preferring text or wordless emoji. If people are listening to anything, it’s likely through headphones or earbuds, where they are safe inside their own curated sound bubbles; the soundtracks to the movies that are their walled-off lives.

The result is a creeping sense of isolation and emptiness, which leads people to swipe, tap, and click all the more. Digital distraction keeps the mind occupied but does little to nurture it, much less cultivate depth of feeling, which requires the resonance of another’s voice within our very bones and psyches. To really listen is to be moved physically, chemically, emotionally, and intellectually by another person’s narrative.

This is a book in praise of listening and a lament that as a culture we seem to be losing our listening mojo. As a journalist, I’ve conducted countless interviews with everyone from Nobel laureates to homeless toddlers. I view myself as a professional listener, and yet, I, too, can fall short, which is why this book is also a guide to improving listening skills.

We are, each of us, the sum of what we attend to in life.

To write this book, I have spent the better part of two years delving into the academic research related to listening — the biomechanical and neurobiological processes as well as the psychological and emotional effects. There is a blinking external hard drive on my desk loaded with hundreds of hours of interviews with people from Boise to Beijing, who either study some aspect of listening or whose job, like mine, is listening-intensive; including spies, priests, psychotherapists, bartenders, hostage negotiators, hairdressers, air traffic controllers, radio producers, and focus group moderators.

READ MORE here

www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2019/de…d-listeners.html

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The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

I remembered it before I turned the corner and saw it, in all its dilapidated red-brick glory: the Hempstocks' farmhouse.

It took me by surprise, although that was where the lane had always ended. I could have gone no further. I parked the car at the side of the farmyard. I had no plan. I wondered whether, after all these years, there was anyone still living there, or, more precisely, if the Hempstocks were still living there. It seemed unlikely, but then, from what little I remembered, they had been unlikely people.

The stench of cow muck struck me as I got out of the car, and I walked, gingerly, across the small yard to the front door. I looked for a doorbell, in vain, and then I knocked. The door had not been latched properly, and it swung gently open as I rapped it with my knuckles.

I had been here, hadn't I, a long time ago? I was sure I had. Childhood memories are sometimes covered and obscured beneath the things that come later, like childhood toys forgotten at the bottom of a crammed adult closet, but they are never lost for good. I stood in the hallway and called, "Hello? Is there anybody here?"

I heard nothing. I smelled bread-baking and wax furniture polish and old wood. My eyes were slow to adjust to the darkness: I peered into it, was getting ready to turn and leave when an elderly woman came out of the dim hallway holding a white duster. She wore her gray hair long.

I said, "Mrs. Hempstock?"

She tipped her head to one side, looked at me. "Yes. I do know you, young man," she said. I am not a young man. Not any longer. "I know you, but things get messy when you get to my age. Who are you, exactly?"

"I think I must have been about seven, maybe eight, the last time I was here."

She smiled then. "You were Lettie's friend? From the top of the lane?"

"You gave me milk. It was warm, from the cows." And then I realized how many years had gone by, and I said, "No, you didn't do that, that must have been your mother who gave me the milk. I'm sorry." As we age, we become our parents; live long enough and we see faces repeat in time. I remembered Mrs. Hempstock, Lettie's mother, as a stout woman. This woman was stick-thin, and she looked delicate. She looked like her mother, like the woman I had known as Old Mrs. Hempstock.

Sometimes when I look in the mirror I see my father's face, not my own, and I remember the way he would smile at himself, in mirrors, before he went out. "Looking good," he'd say to his reflection, approvingly.

"Looking good."

"Are you here to see Lettie?" Mrs. Hempstock asked.

"Is she here?" The idea surprised me. She had gone somewhere, hadn't she? America?

The old woman shook her head. "I was just about to put the kettle on. Do you fancy a spot of tea?"

I hesitated. Then I said that, if she didn't mind, I'd like it if she could point me toward the duck pond first.

"Duck pond?"

I knew Lettie had had a funny name for it. I remembered that. "She called it the sea. Something like that."

The old woman put the cloth down on the dresser. "Can't drink the water from the sea, can you? Too salty. Like drinking life's blood. Do you remember the way? You can get to it around the side of the house. Just follow the path."

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Here is the passage I am reading. Try reading it as well.

First there was nothing. Then there was everything.

Then, in a park above a western city after dusk, the air is raining messages. A woman sits on the ground, leaning against a pine. Its bark presses hard against her back, as hard as life. Its needles scent the air and a force hums in the heart of the wood. Her ears tune down to the lowest frequencies. The tree is saying things, in words before words.

It says: Sun and water are questions endlessly worth answering.

It says: A good answer must be reinvented many times, from scratch.

It says: Every piece of earth needs a new way to grip it. There are more ways to branch than any cedar pencil will ever find. A thing can travel everywhere, just by holding still.

The woman does exactly that. Signals rain down around her like seeds.

Talk runs far afield tonight. The bends in the alders speak of long-ago disasters. Spikes of pale chinquapin flowers shake down their pollen; soon they will turn into spiny fruits. Poplars repeat the wind's gossip. Persimmons and walnuts set out their bribes and rowans their blood-red clusters. Ancient oaks wave prophecies of future weather. The several hundred kinds of hawthorn laugh at the single name they're forced to share. Laurels insist that even death is nothing to lose sleep over.

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It's not how listening works.

First, we need to learn to hear what we're listening to. Then, when we hear it, we want to learn to identify what's new and what's familiar information.

Then, we need to be aware of the following elements and how they work:

Stress, Rhythm, Emphasis, Pitch, Melody, Diction, Thought Chunking, Intonation, and Tone.

And then comes understanding.

*****

Here is a passage I was reading at the end of the episode. You're welcome to use it to practice with me.

It is difficult to arrive at a precise definition of the term intonation. However, in simple words, it refers to the melody that every language manifests in speech. During speech, the voice goes up and down (known as the pitch) and these different notes of the voice make up the tone patterns or intonation of a language. In some languages, if you pronounce the same sequence of syllables, i.e. the same word, in different tones, it changes the meaning of the word. For instance, in Mandarin Chinese the word maː said in different tones changes the meaning of the word: if said with a level tone -maː means mother; with a rising tone ̗maː it means horse; and with a falling tone ̀maː it means scold. Such languages are called tone languages. However, in many languages, the tone does not belong to an individual word but to a word group. Such languages are called intonation languages and English is one of them. If we say yes in any tone in English, it will still mean “yes”. Tones, nonetheless, play an important role in English. They give the listener an idea about the speaker's emotions and/or intentions. Intonation can reveal the speaker's interest, anger, anxiety, surprise, etc. When we add such elements to our speech, we are using intonation.

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This time I picked a new memoir by Will Smith (written together with Mark Manson).

Listen to this piece and see if you want to read the book.

You can read the same excerpt here and practice with me

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/606827…781984877925

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How long will it take to achieve native-like fluency?

How many exercises a day precisely do I need to do to get there?

How much time will it take per day?

Yes, mastering a skill is an infinite process. But how do we fit this infinite learning process into a very finite day that we all have?

In the second part of this podcast, I'm sharing personal stories about building new routines. I see 3 stages of building a new routine (you need a routine to master a skill): Optimizing, Adapting, Innovating.

This part is devoted to my cooking and English practice routines. I share examples from everyday life that so many people can relate to.

Once you accept that this is a lifetime journey, it makes sense to include very tangible and concrete activities/exercises in every one of your days. That's what both episodes are about.

Enjoy and share your stories and questions in the comments.

Let's chat on Instagram - @nataliatokarr

My website - courses.nataliatokar.me/

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Listen to how beautiful and meaningful human communication can be, how much wisdom we possess as humans... and think how many words are wasted today to convince people to buy life advice or printed words of wisdom.

*****

The inimitable Hunter S. Thompson was just 20 years of age and still in the U.S. Air Force when, in April of 1958, he wrote this profoundly wise letter to his friend Hume Logan in response to a request for life advice. It would be another ten years until Thompson’s own career gathered pace, due in no small part to a brave exposé of the Hell’s Angels that he wrote after a year in their company. Arguably his most famous book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, soon followed, as did much of the Gonzo journalism for which he is now known. In 2005, with his health in decline, Thompson took his own life.

From Letters of Note

https://books.lettersofnote.com/products/letters-of-note-paperback

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How long will it take to achieve native-like fluency?

How many exercises a day precisely do I need to do to get there?

How much time will it take per day?

Yes, mastering a skill is an infinite process. But how do we fit this infinite learning process into a very finite day that we all have?

When people say they're ready to commit, but they're not sure what this journey will look like... they're not really ready, and that's why they do not commit. Some do not begin because they're afraid they won't be able to commit.

In the first part of this podcast, I'm sharing personal stories that lie behind acquiring new skills and building new routines.

How I build my fitness routine. How I run and why I do it. How I learn a language... All these activities have been in my life for at least a decade. Once I started, they seemed overwhelming. I wanted to achieve a lot but had a limited resource - time.

The same applies to language learning. Once you're already fluent, you want to keep going. You feel that the more you know the more there's to learn for you. Once you accept that this is a lifetime journey, it makes sense to include very tangible and concrete activities/exercises in every one of your days. That's what this episode is about.

Enjoy and share your stories and questions in the comments.

Let's chat on Instagram - @nataliatokarr

My website - courses.nataliatokar.me/

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In this episode, we talk about:

1. The reasons why people translate every word (and keep that habit)

2. Why you should not translate the word order. Examples of miscommunication

3. The exercises you can do instead to improve your vocabulary and your listening comprehension skills

4. Things you can try in case you read a book and you do not understand some words. A step-by-step scenario of what you can do instead of rushing to Google translate

5. Examples! Lots of examples from real situations that demonstrate what can go wrong and how to fix it.

This is a conversation between Natalia Tokar and Jason Farrell.

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If you don't have a speaking partner, the general advice is - "talk to yourself".

Many people embrace this idea with enthusiasm, but they quickly give up on the exercise... In this episode, I'm sharing the most common reasons people quit practicing (no feedback, no fresh ideas, no sense of progress...)as well as many ways to make this exercise work.

I'm analyzing feedback from people I've been teaching over the last 15 years. People usually quit if they haven't seen immediate astonishing results. Nothing is immediate when we speak about mastering a skill.

Hopefully, the examples in this podcast will help language learners enjoy the exercises and improve the quality of their spoken and written communication in English.

The podcast is recommended for intermediate, upper-intermediate, advanced + levels.

Music credit - Gavin Luke - Paradigm Shift

Instagram - www.instagram.com/nataliatokarr/

My website - courses.nataliatokar.me/

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I am using a movie in English and a video tutorial in German (if you don't speak German, that will not be a problem:)

The link to the video on Intensive Listening Practice & Short-term memory is here youtu.be/PZzdzWM2Jqc

To view my courses, visit courses.nataliatokar.me/

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John Dewey

Big thanks to www.learning-knowledge.com/ for sharing wisdom.

courses.nataliatokar.me/

My YouTube – https://youtube.com/c/NataliaTokar

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Intonation helps us hear the essence of what's being said, the shades of meaning, the context, the attitude and the intention of a speaker. People who learn a language to succeed in sales or business communication in an international team, rarely pay attention to the effect that intonation can have on their relationships with people.

Non-native speakers can improve the quality of their communication in English if they learn to hear and use intonation and stress patterns correctly.

The episode was created primarily for native speakers of Russian who are working on advancing their communication skills in English.

Why can't we hear certain sounds?

What can poetry explain?

What if you can't tell the difference between the falling and the rising intonation in English?

How to divide your speech into clear "thought groups" or "chunks"

and a lot more in this episode.

Here is another video with examples of what rising and falling intonation sounds like in English - youtu.be/HgRTig8Cpk8

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