Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alright, Tiago. So we’re trying something a little bit different today. We have, uh, kind of a bit of a game, right? That we’re going to be testing each other on our abilities to think with a growth mindset. So Izzy was kind enough to prepare some example sentences for each of us of, of fixed mindset sentence. So each of us, I think, have three of these. And we’ll take turns saying these and we’re going to try and rework it into something that’s more growth mindset.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Sounds fun. Let’s do it. Yeah. Always in the mood for a game. Do the honors.
Yeah. I, all right. So the first fixed mindset sentence I have here is I’m just not good at English.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
So it’d probably be something along the lines of what we said. Like, I just need to work harder, I need to study harder. I need to dedicate more time to my learning. I feel like there’s so many things you could use here, right? Depending on where you’re feeling like not so confident with your English. So maybe if it’s speaking, I need to go and have some more conversations on the real lifting shaft. Or if its grammar, it’s like I need to start having a habit where once a week or a few minutes each day. I’m, I’m studying grammar deliberately.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Again, focusing on those actions, right? That you need to take to get the result you want. Nice. Uh, what I have here is a, a version of that, that’s a possibility. English is challenging for me, but I know I can improve with effort and practice. That is a good one. See the, the verb improve there. Yeah. I can improve. Mm-Hmm. With effort and practice. Uh, I like that because you know, you are acknowledging that yes, it is challenging. I’m not saying that it’s easy, but I can improve with effort and practice.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Alright, so are you ready, Jago for yeah. Hit me. Yeah. What does that mean? Hit me. Like, you know, give me the sentence in this context. Try it. Don’t mean this is too hard. I can’t do it.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I would say something similar. I would say, well this, this is not coming so easily for me right now, but I know that if I give myself enough time and if I keep practicing, I will understand it better. I will get it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The version I had here was I can’t do it yet. And that’s actually, that’s a really nice keyword also that you can, you can use that pretty much in any case, right? Is yet I can’t do it yet. Speaking isn’t fluent enough yet. I don’t have mastery over this certain grammatical structure yet. Cause like the yet always like, but I’m going to get there. Yeah. Uh, and then the, the rest of the part is I’m going to keep going, try new strategies and or ask for help until I understand it.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Nice. Yeah. I love that magical key word there yet. Alright. The next one I have here is I’m too shy to speak in front of people. Yeah. Depends
Speaker 1 (02:48):
What that shyness is based in. But like, let’s just talk typical shyness, which all of us have that the best way to overcome shyness is by speaking with people. So it’s kind of like what I was saying earlier is there’s seven days in a week. Some, some days not one of them. You got to start now. ’cause that shyness am not going to go away on its own. I need to look for comfortable situations to try speaking.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Uh, I like that because it’s like starting small, right? Set the bar a little bit low at first. Yeah. Start with a comfortable situation and then it can build up your confidence from there. You
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Can make a plan even for yourself. Like, I’m going to create a script for having my first conversation and decide what you want to try to talk about in that conversation. And Kind of like Jag was saying is practice some by yourself first. Right? Yeah. That could be another great growth mindset to have. There is like, I’m going to practice by myself, then I’m going to speak.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
The version I have here is with practice, I can become more confident and improve my public speaking skills. Uh, what I like about this one is that it starts with, with practice. Mm-Hmm. So that’s already predicated on, okay, I got to do something, I got to practice, right? I, I can’t just, you know, stay idle and oh, I’ll do anything. Right? So with practice I can do it.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
You used a couple of nice advanced vocabulary terms there. You said it’s predicated. What does it mean if something is predicated on something?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
That line with practice is already predicated on doing something like, you know, it already gives you the idea that you have to do something.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
It’s like something has to come before something else. Right. And then you said, I think something along the lines of, of waiting idly or standing idly. What does idle mean?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah. Yeah. When you are idle, you don’t move. I mean, you just, uh, stay somewhere. You don’t do anything. So what I meant was, you know, not doing anything, it’s not going to get you anywhere. So you got to do something. In this case practice. You might also say you’re a bump on a log. I didn’t help you bump on a log.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah. If you’re just being like, lazy about all day, for example, your mom might say like, you know, stop being a bump on the log and go outside. Enjoy it. It’s a beautiful day.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Alright, I, I got the meaning, but what’s the rationale behind this idiom? Stop being a bump on a log.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
If you imagine a log a bump, it like never moves, right? It’s just there, it’s useless. So you need to get off the couch or get out there, start speaking with people.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Isn’t it frustrating when you learn a new word and when it’s time to finally speak English with someone, you completely forget it. Now I find that the best solution for this is for you to use the new words you learn as soon as possible in conversation. But what do you do if you don’t have anybody else to practice speaking with? That’s exactly why we created the Real Life English app. With the app, you can have a short four to eight minute conversation with any learner around the globe at the touch of a button. You can also listen to the Real Life English podcast on the app with Ethan and myself. And the cool thing is that we give you an interactive transcript so you can read and follow along the episodes and some flashcards for you to memorize words faster. And the cool thing is that the app is free to download and try. I’m going to leave the link to the app right here in the description of this video. You can click here to download or you can go to Google Play store Apple app store, search for real life English and download the app from there. Give it a try. I’m sure you will love it. Now let’s get back to the lesson.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Alright, the next one I had is, if I don’t try new or hard things, then I won’t fail.
Talk about fixed mindset right there. My good. Can, can you say that again? If I don’t try new or hard things, then I won’t fail.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Uh, I would, I would tell myself something along the lines of, if I stop learning new things, I will start dying very soon. ’cause then I really believe in that quote. Like, you know, you, uh, when you stop learning, you start dying. And to me it’s just absurd. Go throughout life with this mindset of, oh, you know, I’m not going to try this. I’m not going to learn that because, you know, then, uh, I don’t fail. I would, I would tell myself that, uh, and failure is actually part of the learning process and it’s how you grow. Mm-Hmm. And growing hurts sometimes, but, you know, its part of the process. But what’s your version there, Ethan, for this one? This is a, a good one.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah. The one I have here is I have to try new and difficult things in order to grow, even if I fail at first. So I like that. Even if I fail at first,
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Even if, right. That’s another key, uh, phrase there. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
It’s also like mental preparation, right? Like I’m, it’s like the first time you try anything, the first time I have a conversation in another language, and I’m going to sound like a four year old. I’m going to, you know, I’m going to make a lot of mistakes. The other person might not understand me. Like, just preparing yourself mentally for these possibilities. Don’t let that debilitate you. Don’t let that make you just be idle. Be a bump in the log. But you know, use that to say like, okay, I can, I can expect these things. It’s not going to be anything surprising, so let me just do it anyway. I’m going to fail at first, but I’m going to push through this. And on the other side, I’m going to be stronger. I’m going to be more resilient.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And I like that the word grow is also in there. ’cause I don’t know, I think that if you ask everybody, hey, do you want to grow in your life? Everybody’s going to say yes. I mean, mm-Hmm. we all want that. Being reminded of that idea that, okay, but for me to grow, I have to be, uh, willing to go through these, uh, failure situations sometimes. Mm-Hmm. I have to fail first. Yeah. Before I can actually grow. There’s another good expression here. No pain, no gain.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah. Great song from the scorpions, by the way. No pain, no gain, German band, no pain, all sorts of no gain. I didn’t know they were German. So what’s your last one? The last one I have here is it’s embarrassing when I make a mistake.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah. You’re kind of like hinting a British accent there. That’s going to be like a, maybe another good tip is, is to embrace that silliness is like, try a funny accent, right?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah. You know, it could be from my favorite character or something. Yeah. So what would you say to this person, Ethan? It’s embarrassing when I make a mistake.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I can only grow if I make mistakes. I can only learn if I make mistakes. I like that. Mistakes are part of the process. Uh, what I have here is everyone makes mistakes and mistakes are opportunities to learn.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I had a, a guest on like a, a long time ago when we were doing beyond boards, I was talking about this, uh, word mistake is that you can rethink it, adding like an extra s miss take. So a take is, is when you have a try at something. Like in a movie, there’s a, there’s a take that try to act out the scene. And usually they have several takes before all the actors or the director’s happy with the performance. Thinking of like a mistake, like a, it was a miss take. Like you needed to do another take, you need to try again, right? To, to get it right. And you can kind of reposition in your, in your mind that the mistakes are just, it’s a failed first attempt, but that’s the only way you’re going to get better. You need to fail a lot of time. So you can learn from that and then you’ll know the correct way of saying it.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Nice. I like that. A miss take. Cool. So finally, successful people are lucky or were born with a gift.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I would say to myself, talent alone is not enough. I need to work hard in order to develop this talent. Even if it’s true, even if I do have a natural talent for something, uh, I have to work hard, uh, to develop it. And if I don’t have a natural talent for it, or if I don’t feel like I have it, if I spend enough time practicing it, uh, or developing it, I will become good enough to, you know, use it, uh, in my life.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
So what I have here is most successful people have failed many times, but they succeeded because they didn’t quit. Failure is part of success. We tend to position in our minds like the overnight success, which is like the, the people that we believe all of a sudden they’re famous. They’re, you’re seeing them everywhere and so on, that you think they just had something like some magical quality that they, that made them famous. But usually you’re not seeing everything that came before that. Like all of the hard work, all of the repetition, all of the mistakes, uh, all the failures and so on, that, that came before that overnight success before they were, they were finally successful. So we were talking about books in one of our recent, um, episodes, and we’re talking about biographies, right? I think biographies or listening to podcast interviews or watching documentaries to learn about people’s life stories, to learn how they got to that successful place. That can be really, uh, humbling because you see that this person, you know, I, I’ve just seen them as their famous, so I always thought they had this special something, but it really is humbling because you get to see all the failures that they made, all the things that didn’t go right and so on before you actually knew who they were.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I mean, sometimes we have no idea of what the background was for that person to be there. Yeah. To get to that point. And I imagine that it must be also frustrating for those people sometimes know those people who, uh, are overnight successes, let’s say, right? Mm-Hmm. They spend years of their lives working hard on that area. They become successful and then they must hear people throwing things at them like this, right? Oh, you know, you are an overnight success. You got lucky, right? Mm-Hmm, .And then
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Maybe I, putting myself into that person’s shoes, that successful person’s shoes, I might go like, oh, if only you knew, right? If only you knew the hard work that went, uh, behind achieving this, or the hours or the sleepless nights or whatever it is, right? Mm-Hmm. Uh, easy shared a nice phrase here. And I like that. The harder I work, the luckier I get. There’s no such thing as luck. I mean, yes, there is, but only if you are working hard towards your goal. And then you’re going to put yourself in situations where you can be luckier, let’s say. Mm-hmm. . But you got to be doing the work. Yeah, that’s a very, a very nice reflection.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Hey, so this is the end of this lesson, but if you enjoyed learning English vocabulary and pronunciation with it, you should know that this clip was just a part of an episode of the Real Life English podcast and we release a new episode every week. So come check it out right now by clicking here on this video.
