Hello and welcome to English with Languissimo®, the podcast in English where I share stories of my week with you.

My name is Vanessa. I’m the founder and CEO of Languissimo®. 

Let’s go!

The Voice of Perseverance (La voix de la perséverance)

On Monday, I had the opportunity to have a second chance at making it to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, I didn’t. Pete Vargas asked me if I was coming to the workshop at the end of February because he would like to coach me on the tone of my voice. He found that I lacked intonation and he was absolutely right.

Why?

Because I wasn’t myself. They encourage you to use a structure for the speech that is too artificial. It’s not my style. I’m more spontaneous and natural and I wasn’t in my one-minute speech. I had memorized it so my tone lacked vitality.

When I think about it, it is exactly what we teach at Languissimo®: to be spontaneous and natural and I did the exact opposite.

Shame on me.

Anyway, I hope I’ll be able to show them who I really am at the workshop.

On Wednesday, Pete Vargas said they still had a couple more tickets to give away for the semi-finals.

We’ll see.

Who knows?

Third time’s the charm, isn’t it?

At least, I have stacked all the odds in my favor. I have booked the hotel for the entire 4 days: the 2 days of the workshop and the 2 days of the semi-finals.

Worst-case scenario, I’ll have 2 days to work and I’ll be in the sun. 

Not bad, eh?

To be continued.

Some Study Points

-          “To lack something” means “manquer de quelque chose”. 

-          “To be right” means “avoir raison”.

-          “To encourage someone to do something” means “encourager/pousser quelqu’un à faire quelque chose”.

-          “To do the exact opposite” means “faire tout le contraire”.

-          “Shame on me” means “honte à moi”.

-          “Third time’s the charm” means “jamais 2 sans 3”.

-          “At least” means “au moins”.

-          “To stack all the odds in someone’s favor” means “mettre toutes les chances de son côté”.

-          “Worst-case scenario” means “au pire”.

-          “To be in the sun” means “être au soleil”.

Some Practice Questions

-          Do you persevere when it gets tough?

-          If you wanted to be in the sun, where would you go?

Tada! That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Subscribe to English with Languissimo®, practice, take care and have a great Sunday! Big hugs 😊