Why do I feel stuck and nervous when I introduce myself to new people or at a job interview?

Why do I feel terrible taking about myself and how to deal with it?

Some advice in the voice message above⬆️

Please let me know if you can relate

An example of using strong verbs and adjectives. We're finishing our SPRINT! on Clarity. Level #2 today, and this is from the final assigment one student submitted:

TASK: “The movie was great.” Really? Can you say it better? Can you help us SEE why you liked it?

ANSWER: “The new indie film struck a chord with the audience, who gasped in horror over the grisly murder, but tittered when the murderer slipped on a bloody banana peel.”


pretty good, huh?!

The SPRINT! will be available for purchase later this week. You get lifetime access and can do it again and again. The content will be updated as new peole join. The section "Sprints!" in the community will be available for you so that you can post your work, ask questions, and get feedback.

What we do here is simple: we improve our skill of communicating with clarity. We unlearn to say "The trip was nice" or "The movie was great" or "The project was good". We learn to SHOW and let people SEE what we mean.

More examples ( I can relate to these because I ride a horse):

You can say: The racehorse went around the track three times.

But how about these verbs?

The racehorse trotted around the track three times.
The racehorse galloped around the track three times.
The racehorse limped around the track three times.

“Trotted”, “galloped”, and “limped” are all fine synonyms for “went” in this sentence, and each one delivers a different image of our horse.

Our job here is to deliver the IMAGE, to help our audience SEE what we mean to say. I'd say it's one of the essential skills for anyone who delivers presentations or writes. All five levels of the SPRINT! on Clarity teach you to be more precise in YOUR situations. We don't do exercises from a book. We practice expressing our own ideas with clarity - when we write and when we speak in English.


Level #3 begins on April 8. Join the practice https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/calendar/clarity-sprint3

Let's do an exercise together. Which verb would you have chosen, or do you have an even better suggestion?

1. The jockey nearly flew off his saddle as the horse went (raced, ran, bolted, galloped) for the finish line.

2. The ghost faded before their eyes as he went (floated, disappeared, evaporated, glided) through the closed door.

3. The old jalopy went (zigzagged, lumbered, hiccoughed, bumbled) down the street, belching little clouds of black smoke in its wake.

4. Even with a fever of 104°, the dedicated nurse went (dragged herself, made it, schlepped, trudged) to the hospital.

5. “You’re going to miss my exit!” shouted the passenger, as the taxi driver made a hard right and went (careened, rolled, skidded, screeched) onto the ramp.

6. The passengers heaved a collective sigh of relief as the airplane went (lifted, rose, glided, elevated) silently up into the sky.

7. After months of suffering, the cancer patient went (passed away, perished, died, expired) quietly in his sleep.

8. While the grownups around him carefully avoided the puddles, the little boy went (jumped, skipped, splashed, pranced) right through them.

9. “I’m not tired and I don’t want to go to bed!” Tommy protested as he went (stomped, scrambled, trudged, stumbled) up the stairs.

10. Batman went (dove, stormed, swung, soared) into action, taking the bad guys by surprise.

Post your choices in the comments 🙂

Our next SPRINT! on CLARITY. LEVEL #3. Structure (telling facts from details) starts on April 8. I'm inviting learners who want to improve the structure of their stories, messages, and presentations in English https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/calendar/clarity-sprint3

https://youtu.be/Qo2JcgFr3wo

Probably the best message I’ve heard about the importance of having a routine.

https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/calendar/clarity-sprint3

Highly recommended to all language learners who need to deliver compelling ideas in a structured way.

Join and learn the difference between stating facts and cluttering a message with irrelevant details.

We begin in 30 min. Join us. Everyone is welcome https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/calendar/a-live-call-to-improve-your-punctuation-and-listening-skills-how-does-punctuation-matter-if-our-goal-is-fluency

We continue with the work on CLARITY. LEVEL #3. Structure. The next 30-min session is today at 14:00 (Moscow time) UTC+3. You can still join the work. We have 9 more sessions ahead of us and at least a year of practice and contirnuous feedback in the community of Practice. https://forms.office.com/r/X0z4zH1A2L

You don't need to be a professional baker to create healthy desserts for your family and friends. Is there such a thing as a "professional parent" or "a professional creator of the "feel-yourself-at-home" vibe? Human heart can't be trained professionally. You can only learn to trust it, you can let it lead you, and you can learn to listen to it... All the things we created in the kitchen this weekend are made with love, intuition, and healthy ingredients (no sugar, no white flour). We improvized a lot too.... because you always improvize when you follow your heart.

See the full report and more pictures here https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/ask-anything/our-weekend-baking-party-in-english-thank-you-it-was-fantastic

https://youtu.be/YqsOSNny-lg

I think she made it perfectly clear in less than 1 min 🙂

I mean, that's a good example of a well-structured and precise message.

So many students want to finally add the "DONE" tag to their English practice. The more advanced you become, the better you realize that you're never going to be done, but the better it gets, the better it gets.

In this video, I talk about 5 levels of clarity and how to practice each in English