The InFluency Podcast
The InFluency podcast is your go-to resource for learning, speaking and teaching English. Hadar Shemesh is a pronunciation expert and fluency coach with thousands of students around the world, though she herself was an intermediate speaker of English once. In this podcast she will share her best strategies for learning English, speaking English with confidence and mastering the American accent. Discover how becoming fluent has everything to do with acquiring the right mindset, setting goals and learning how to overcome challenges. Hadar will also share her teaching philosophy and techniques to support English teachers looking to help their students become fluent.
Episodes
Sometimes the best conversations are like a ping-pong match. 🏓 No awkward silences, no gaps, just fast flowing conversations. Today, we're taking a scene from the TV show, First Dates to practice exactly that.
We'll go sentence by sentence: you listen and test your comprehension, then we'll break it down, and shadow it together, paying attention to intonation, rhyth...
In this episode, I'm breaking down the real difference between three things people often confuse:
1: Reducing an accent
2: Acquiring a new accent
3: Speaking with clear, predictable pronunciation.
I'll share my story, why "accent reducti...
Who am I? That was the question Glenda kept asking herself when she first moved from Costa Rica to the US. She was not able to communicate and felt terrified to even answer the phone or turn on her camera in a video call.
In this conversation, my student Glenda shares her journey from feeling powerless and dependent on her husband for everything, to building her own dog training business, hosting conversation groups and book clubs,...
These Sprints are designed to set yourself up for success using daily articulation and speech exercises to make your pronunciation effortless and to be more clear in English!
Do this 10-minute pronunciation practice every morning before you start your day, or before an important meeting, and you'll feel the difference.
Get ready to read Atomic Habits Chapter 2 by James Clear out loud with me!
Follow along and improve your vocabulary and pronunciation with an excerpt from Atomic Habits!
Personally, I love this book. It's such a great book all about building habits that last (and these tips are great for language learning too!)
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The R is one of the hardest sounds in English…but it doesn't have to be after this episode ;)
In American English, there are two R sounds: the strong R (red, around, crazy) and the soft R, or R vowels. That's when the R appears AFTER a vowel (car, here, first).
In this focused practice session, we're working th...
If you've ever felt funny, smart, and expressive in your first language, but timid, or smaller the moment you switch to English, this conversation is for you!
In this interview, I spoke with Valentina, a longtime student of mine, to talk about something almost every English learner feels but rarely has the words for: the gap between who you are and how you show up in English.
We get into the difference between the language gap (kno...
Today's episode is a bit different. That's because today, I am going to talk to you about the 10 reasons why I ABSOLUTELY LOVE being a non-native speaker.
From having multiple personalities and voices in different languages, to the personal development journey that language learning truly is…this episode is not about pronunciation or grammar. Just the truth about what it means to speak more than one language.
If you've ever ...
Want to sound more confident in English? In this video, I'm sharing 4 speech patterns and speaking habits that may be making you sound less confident, less clear, or less certain without you even realizing it.
If English is your second language, these patterns may come from your first language or from habits you've built over time. The good news is that once you beco...
Shadowing is a great way to practice your pronunciation, prosody, grammar and so much more, but the key is knowing what to focus on. In this video, we'll practice pitch and rhythm using a scene from Breaking Bad.
Download the script to follow along with: https://bit.ly/4v8pa1d
Do you hear people say words like kitten, Manhattan, forgotten, or written in a way that sounds different from what you learned?
In this video, I'll teach you how the T is really pronounced in American English when it appears before a reduced vowel (schwa) and N, like in the words kitten, button, certain, written, and forgotten.
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Let's get ready to test your listening skills with a fast, fun clip from The Devil Wears Prada 2!
First, you'll listen to the full clip and answer a few comprehension questions. Then, we'll break it down together, fill in the missing words, then uncover the connected speech, rhythm, stress, and intonation, and finally shadow the scene line by line.
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Looking for new ways to practice your English? In today's episode, I'm sharing with you some of my favorite strategies that can help you improve your fluency, listening, pronunciation, and vocabulary.
I've used these myself learning English (and now Spanish!) and I've shared them with my students time and time again.
These strategies are simple, powerful, and will help you turn everyday Englis...
If y...
In today's episode, I'm introducing you to a dear, long-time student of mine, Elisa! Elisa is Italian, and works in hospitality, but her relationship with English started long before any of that.
One day, Elisa found herself stuck in a cycle: consuming English every day through music, YouTube and movies, but terrified to speak a single sentence out loud.
In this interview, Elisa will sha...
Want to speak English without freezing, overthinking, or needing a full script first?
In this episode, I'll show you how to practice impromptu speaking in English so you can talk more freely, clearly, and confidently, even when you have little time to prepare.
Impromptu speaking is one of the best ways to improve your fluen...
What happens when you prepare for your dream interview for weeks… and then get to the interview and realize you can't actually say what you want out loud?
That's exactly what happened to Monica.
In this student interview, Monica shares the heartbreaking moment that changed everything in her English journey. After bei...
Learn more about Beyond here: https://bit.ly/4nrfM5N
Feeling stuck in English and haven't seen progress, even though you've been working on your English for a while?
This is probably because of 1 of 2 reasons:
Reason 1: You're not practicing consistently
Reason 2: ...
In this pronunciation episode, we're breaking down the most common "CH" sounds you'll find in English (hint: there is more than one way to say it!)
Follow along and repeat out loud in today's pronunciation practice!
Did you enjoy this practice? Want more? Join my free 14-day pronunciation plan! https://bit.ly/3YAWcJ5
* There are two other pronunciations of CH not ...
Improve your vocabulary, pronunciation and pace while reading a story out loud with me! We're reading a part from The Housemaid by Frida McFadden.
Download the PDF to read along with me and learn the vocabulary from the episode! https://bit.ly/4sqQeb7
#readaloud #readoutloud #thehousemaid #reading
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