540. The Psychology Behind Your Fear of Speaking English: Conversation with Kara Loewentheil

What if the thing holding you back in English isn't actually your English? In this conversation, I sit down with my friend Kara Loewentheil, bestselling author of Take Back your Brain and host of the UnF*ck Your Brain podcast, to talk about the thoughts, fear, perfectionism, and shame that can keep us from speaking up, even when we already have the language to communicate. Learn more about Kara: 📖 Take Back Your Brain https://www.takebackyourbrainbook.com/ 🎙️ UnF*ck Your Brain https://apple.co/4yRtiVK Instagram: @karaloewentheil Kara Loewentheil is the founder of The School of New Feminist Thought, the host of the internationally top-ranked podcast UnF*ck Your Brain: Feminist Self-Help for Everyone (55 million downloads and counting), and the author of the instant national bestseller Take Back Your Brain: How A Sexist Society Gets in Your Head – and How to Get It Out, which made six bestseller charts including USA Today and The New York Times and has been translated into multiple languages.

Want to use English tenses correctly without stopping to think about the grammar every time you speak? In this lesson, we'll practice common English verbs across the past, present, and future using the simple, continuous, and perfect aspects. But we're not just learning the grammar. We're practicing how these structures actually SOUND when you speak English naturally. We'll practice with three common verbs: → MAKE → GET → TAKE Want more practice like this? Check out my Grammar Master training here: https://bit.ly/4o1PPdb

Want to improve your English pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary, and confidence? Read out loud with me! In this episode, we're practicing with an excerpt from Dare to Lead by Brené Brown. We'll practice together, break down useful vocabulary and expressions, work on pronunciation and rhythm, and shadow different parts of the text so you can practice sounding more natural and expressive in English. Check out my other read aloud episodes here: https://bit.ly/4cFoiJV

You asked, we answered! In this Q&A, Christina and I answer questions from our Beyond community, Instagram, and YouTube audience. We got questions about pronunciation, fluency, confidence, creativity, and finding your own voice in a second language.

How do you pronounce the -ED ending in English? In this pronunciation lesson, I'll break down the 3 ways to pronounce -ED endings in English and show you how to know which pronunciation to use. We'll practice words like: 👉 needed, ended, decided, waited 👉 played, enjoyed, called, loved, cleaned 👉 worked, watched, washed, laughed, asked You'll also learn what happens to these sounds in connected speech, how to pronounce difficult consonant clusters, and why dropping the final sound can sometimes make it sound like you're using the wrong tense

It's been nearly two years since I last shared a Relocation Diaries episode. In January of 2024, I relocated to Barcelona, Spain with my family. A few months later, my content-marketing director, Christina, moved to Spain, too! In this video, we share our experiences about how life has been now that we are more settled in the country, what it feels like to integrate into a new country, the challenges we've overcome, and the challenges we're still facing, and of course…updates about my language journey 😉 Check out more Relocation Diaries episodes here: https://bit.ly/relocation-diaries

Let's practice tongue twisters! These exercises are aimed at improving your pronunciation and clarity in English. These aren't easy, but hang in there ;) Want more tongue twisters? Check out this episode: https://hadarshemesh.com/podcast/458/

This conversation is a very special one for me. Danielle and I met many years ago when we were both studying acting in New York, long before either of us knew where life would take us. We were young, ambitious, certain about some things, completely lost about others, and both trying to figure out who we were going to become. And now, all these years later, I got to sit down with her and talk about her first adult novel, a story she has been carrying with her, in one form or another, for about 16 years. Danielle also shares a beautiful exercise for getting started with writing. This is a conversation about books, yes. But really, it's about friendship, identity, dreams, reinvention, and all the unexpected ways our lives unfold. Get the book "This Changes Everything" here: https://www.amazon.com/This-Changes-Everything-Danielle-McKechnie/dp/0063519399

Want a quick, effective TH practice? Do this every day for 2 weeks and I promise, you'll feel the difference! Practice words, phrases, sentences and minimal pairs.

Want to sound less monotone, more powerful and more expressive when you speak English? Then come shadow this scene! In this week's episode, we're practicing with a scene from The Morning Show, featuring Jennifer Aniston as Alex Levy. We'll break it down together and play with prosody, reductions and focus on how to use your voice to sound more powerful and expressive I'll walk you through it line by line, and then we'll shadow the scene together. Close the door, press play and have some fun with your voice! Get out of your comfort zone! By the end, you might not only sound more powerful in English. You might actually FEEL more powerful, too. Download the script to follow along with me: https://bit.ly/4wKi6Zl  Check out my other shadowing videos here: https://bit.ly/4fx9j4t