Learn English Through Real Conversation | Powerful Practice Session

Learn English Through Real Conversation | Powerful Practice Session

Unlock The Mind Atlas
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We can't see the woods for the trees. I uh read, but in a very different way. I read some motivational quotes to see the lifestyle, the lavish lifestyle of ours.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

You want to see that uh you want to see that cup there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Whether it's the cup they talk about and a cup of tea for rupees 72. Yes, my sister always says one thing. Good afternoon, sir.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Good afternoon, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Yes, I'm doing exceptionally well. Thanks for asking. And how are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:31

I'm also by the grace of God very well. Okay, thanks for your concern. So, how's your day progressing so far?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

It's progressing uh nicely as planned. No worries, uh, yes, no worries, no hurries, no worries, no worries, no mess, nothing chaotic. It's all uh it's all in uh in one place, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

So, best way to live, right? With no worries, no worries. Yes, so we are very grateful to God, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yes, this should be the essence of life. We need to be grateful, that's what we uh often forget. Uh, we are so into getting one thing or the other, and we forget to cherish those things uh and to uh pay our gratitude for those things which we already have. So, yes, once you get this realization, you are good to go. And that's uh what I was about to say as you asked, how's your day progressing? So, I guess it depends on your mindset, the way you see the things. Okay, I could say the day is very slow, I didn't do anything productive or constructive, but I did not want to say that. So, yes, I chose to be positive. Uh, and I said that yes, day is going well, and I am happy and content.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Wonderful, great. Because you know, life is as we see it. I mean, life has as many definitions as people maybe probably more than that. Yes, for life. Uh so tell me uh what's on your mind today? What do you want to divulge in? What do you want to jump in in today's conversation?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Uh, I truly don't have anything, but yes, I can ask you certain questions, or and if you have anything, you can also we can discuss that thing, otherwise, there is nothing specific. But I want to know, I want to know your perspective towards learning. Uh, since uh my channel deals with communication skills and spoken English. Yes, learning is a continuous process, and when we learn something new, when we polish our skills or learn a new skill, it's uh it's not only about learning that particular skill. We learn how to grow, how to be more patient with certain things. So tell me, um, you have enough experience. How should we take learning in a positive way? Because most of the time we have a very negative approach towards learning. My English is not good, I'm not good uh in English, I'm not good at English, sort of things. So, how to adapt a positive approach towards your learning?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

See, the way you said it, I mean, positive or negative is a state of mind, right? So, every learning can never have a bad effect or a side effect, it will only produce good results. I mean, whether to some extent or to a great extent, but degree may vary. Yes, but the side has going to be positive only, you cannot go negative with learning, yes, right. So, students or the learners should see that they will be a better person tomorrow by that learning, to you know, lose. So, I think first first of all, with the learning, we need to tell the students that you know we should uh have a holistic approach towards not just the same subject or a particular point in that learning, but we should see the bigger picture. Yes, what are we going to achieve or attain through that learning?

SPEAKER_00 4:01

True, very true, very true. And then comes comparison. We are very quick to compare our journey with others. Uh, she is growing very fast, her channel is growing rapidly, or uh, we started together, but now I can see uh that person speaks very well. So, uh, have you ever compared yourself with others throughout your journey? And if yes, then how did you get that realization that we should not compare?

SPEAKER_02 4:33

See, if you want to be miserable in life, then do this exercise.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Yes, too.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

So I learned it early in my early times because uh I learned a lot from my father. I mean, unfortunately, I lost my mother very young when I was around nine years old. So, father figure like I we only know one figure, which is our father, and he used to tell us you know that we don't know the story behind somebody's uh life. Yes, yes, we only see the you know outer picture, right? Right, we don't see the sacrifices or what they have gone through. So, before comparing, put yourself in their shoes and then see if you know there is something to complain about. Yes, so very early on, I learned this that you know there's no point uh myself with others because I am different than that person. So maybe I got spared of this misery from I'm a very content person. Whatever I have, I may have achieved or not achieved. I do not compare with anybody but with myself if I am better than yesterday or not today. So that gives me opportunity to grow and not you know uh be limit limit myself with somebody else's abilities or abilities for that matter.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Yes, yes. What I have observed or what I have learned uh through my experience, through my experiences, uh when we are into comparison, it's uh I'm not talking about learning English. Uh, when I started um conducting sessions, when I start created my channel, I learned low lot of things, so many things, and not only about English, but about life skills. So, what I believe that we are so quick to judge people, okay. And what uh normally uh if you are if you have that average mindset, what you do? Uh you turn your resentments into criticism. Okay, we hold grudges against people and then we criticize those people. I think we should uh take a shift rather than criticizing people or holding grudges if we focus on our own growth, we can do much better. People ask me this question, ma'am. Tell us something about your journey. How did you learn? You you told that you are a homemaker, you come from a Hindi medium background, and so on. So, for to learn anything, you need to be a good human being first. You need to be a positive person first, right? Then only you can learn anything quickly. So, when I started my journey, I never, first of all, I never compare myself with others, and I never feel never felt jealous of people, right? So I take inspiration from people rather than criticizing them or being insecure. So if you have this quality in your personality, I think you can learn anything.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Of course, we see even the worst person can teach us something, yes, right, at least not to do what he's doing, at least that much we can learn, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yes, truth.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Oh, so we should take it as a kind of a guide, a person. He's also God sent person, right? We should whether irrespective is of his qualities or disqualities, we have to mind our own business.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

We have we are nobody to judge anybody, exactly, exactly, yeah. This is this is, I mean, what my point of view was, or what I wanted to tell, that we should mind our own business, right? Because uh learning is not only about learning a language is not only about cramming words, vocabulary, or uh mugging up certain grammatical concepts, yes, right? So you yes, you have to be a positive uh person from within, not for uh the namesake, just for the namesake that you're just pretending, oh, I'm very positive, I am very optimistic, it's nothing like that. You have to work in a very uh positive way. My English is very weak, so I tell just replace this line, just say that I'm working, I'm learning, and I'm growing every day. That should be the approach. For this, you need to have this realization, okay? It is not ki manipola or rap karrey, you should feel that from within, then only uh it'll start working for you.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

See, whenever a person uh starts or admits his problem, right? Half the battle is won at that time, right? Because now you are going to make some efforts to correct that before that you have not admitted or you are unaware about the situation, maybe but so nothing can be done till the time you are aware, right? So awareness is very important if we have realized that we need some attention in a particular area. Now the journey has begun. We have taken the first step, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

And journey of thousand miles starts with a single step.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Single step, yes, very impactful line, and whenever I feel down, I go through some motivational course and I feel that instant instant spark. Okay, now I'm good to do. Yeah, so if I ask you whenever you feel down or you feel low, so uh what is that uh instant recharge for you? What what is that activity which uh makes you feel better?

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Like when I talk about my younger days, I was very vocal about my feelings at that time. I used to call a friend or a family member, like my sisters. I had I have three sisters and we had a great bond. So they would always come up with some answers or the other. I was feeling uh like kind of uh there was some kind of doubt in my life at that time about my stream, but should I pick up or so? I would either pick up uh phone and call my friend, one or two friends who could tell me, but mostly I would uh you know revert to or resort to calling my sisters, and uh they would give me suggestions. May maybe I like I like those suggestions or not was another story, but at least that gave me some kind of insight about my lately, like say for the last 10 years, uh everybody's got busy, my sisters they have their own life, so I do don't disturb them anymore that much, and and I'm more aware also about my situations now than earlier. So I write it down now. I have a diary which I maintain, and I write the problem I may have. And believe me, that by the time I finish writing, half the answers or 90% of the answers I I get already from this. True. So now it is replaced. My writing has replaced that uh you know, talking.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yes, yes, and when you write, you get a chance to introspect yourself, and that's how we get answers to our questions, right? Now you don't look up to other people for certain kinds of uh solutions or validations, it's all about you find your uh solution, it's kind of inner peace that you find.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

I mean you know, emotional juggernet that you have in your mind. Okay, you are dealing with two or four models and you don't know how to sort them out. By the time you write those issues or dilemmas, you you it by itself, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Sometimes we uh we don't or we can't see the woods for the trees, right? Uh right. So what we do, we need uh we find uh or we want to listen to certain bigger things, right? Some gurus or somebody, but yes, I guess uh we should be our own sunshine, and uh uh we should uh have that motivation from uh within rather than uh self-motivation or self-information. Yes, yes, we can uh take inspiration from people from situations, but to some extent, at the end of the day, it's only you who knows you better and who knows the solution to your problem. So, yes, and um um when it comes to build up your building up your um confidence, so how would you suggest people to work on their confidence? Because it's also one of the major problems people deal

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SPEAKER_00 12:54

with.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Confidence is something you know which is uh linked to your maybe the way you were brought up,

(Cont.) Learn English Through Real Conversation | Powerful Practice Session

SPEAKER_02 13:38

how secure or insecure you were early on in your life. So it is a lot of you know mental uh structure which is there within you. So it is a different story for different people. I mean, some people may be a little bit underconfident for a skill, that is one thing. They may be very, very confident in other fields of mind, too. So it is very easy to guide them in that way. So that this is just a skill. For example, I tell my I think I shared with you if I you know if you have to go for a skill like cycling or swimming, right? Yes, you may you will fall, or you may drown also for some time, or you know, you may drink water in the pool. Yes, so the hazards or the dangers are there, but if you overcome those dangers, then you have the skill at your command. Yes, so initial issue in habitations, or you know, those uh uh wavering or unwavering of your uh mind, but later on you will reap the fruits of that labor of that skill. Yes, so you have to tell them that you know, look at the big bigger picture. Once you achieve this, what are you going to get? A better growth, maybe a good interview in your life or better career, then it motivates them.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Yes, true, true.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

But for a person who is uh underconfident in all the aspects of life, yes, then it's a different kind of a matter. Maybe a psychologist is needed or a psychiatrist in that case, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Right, very practical approach towards this answer because um it's not only that. Uh yes, confidence, I believe it's a skill, and we need to upscale it, we need to learn uh how to be confident enough. But if you're uh if you are very timid, then then we need to adapt certain more uh strategies, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Yes, we can pat the bad uh you know back of some person, but that's maybe a little bit jovial at that time. As soon as he's out of sight, he again becomes like that, you know. Yes, and very scared. So those problems are to be dealt with in an expert, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Yes, right, right. Yes, uh, I can tell you I uh I'm confident and I used to be confident enough, but there came a stage or a phase uh in my life uh when I was uh diffident enough, when I was uh I started feeling that I'm losing my confident confidence. Then I started working on it by upskilling myself, by working on my communication skills. So, yes, um, sometimes you are born confident and you you don't have to work hard, uh right? Sometimes you are not that much confident and you need to work harder and harder to to sharpen this skill.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Hone the skills and sharpen the skills, yes, you're right. See, that's what I'm saying. Everybody's story is different, everybody's journey is different. So comparing to each other is just a waste of time. Yes, true, true.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Listening works for me, but for you, it'll work, it's not sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

I'm not into reading newspapers. I can't read a Hindi newspaper, let alone English. So I never try because I I feel bored instantly. So I uh read, but in a very different way. I read some motivational quotes, okay. Okay, that's how I read. I do have a good collection of books, but I never start any book uh from you know beginning to the end. I just uh skim through the pages, I just find which uh topic or which chapter appeals to me, and I I start reading that chapter.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

Okay, even if it's in the middle of the book, yes, that's how I read.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

That's how I read. Recently I bought one book of uh Robin Sharma, the 5 a.m. Club. Okay, so I started the first I read the first chapter and then I just jumped onto the last one or a few in between. This is how I read. Yes, because I can't read the entire book as it is. That's me. And I know I know if I uh imp if I compel myself to read the whole book, the whole chapters, I lose the interest, and then I'm going to keep it away. So better uh to read something, something is better than nothing. Of course.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Yes, so whatever we can connect with, we are only interested in that. Some some chapters might not uh like they are not your interest, or you don't find a connect with them.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Yes, yes. So sometimes, yes, sometimes I repeat those chapters, sometimes I read one chapter again and again. So, yes, that's how um I read earlier, I wasn't into reading at all. Yes, but once I started working on my communication skills, I came across a lot of good uh voracious readers, and I felt like uh reading karnicha because sometimes my audience, yes, my learners asked me, ma'am. Suggest us some books, and uh yes, but uh as I mentioned, you that I am into a motivational quote. So uh during my uh school days, there were lines from uh a poem uh from Robert Frost's uh poem, The Woods Are Lovely, Dark and Deep, but I've got and miles to go before I sleep. These lines are my instant uh yes inspiration. Yes, so whenever I feel uh low or down on my energy, I just keep uh rhyming these lines and I feel like okay, now I I can do anything. So, yes, my way of or my idea of reading is very different, whatever works again.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

That comparison is not needed, right? We all are our own beings, right? We have our own individual characteristics and attributes. We should own those rather than you know try to be somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yes, why to pretend we all are unique and accept yourself the way you are, and yes, that's how we can uh grow and we can groom our personality as a whole.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Wonderful. Your life is uh inspiration for a lot of people, you have changed course, right? Suddenly earlier when you were let's say 10 years or five years ago, if you remember yourself, you wouldn't have thought about this day, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:57

I um yes, I can say that, but I tell you, I was always very ambitious, that's for sure. I mean, I was an ambitious lady, I wanted to do something in my life, so yes, that's how what I believe that uh uh if you keep showing up for yourself and if you keep moving uh or growing in your life, hard work pays off at the end of the day, of course, it's for sure, it's for sure, and yeah, it may be delayed, but it's never denied, it is never denied. Yes, that's it. So work on your uh on self rather than uh maybe cribbing about problems, people, discussing people, just uh try to work on yourself and love yourself, value yourself. That should be the motive. Sometimes we just take ourselves for granted. Specifically, I guess we homemakers or we uh women do the same, we take ourselves for granted. Uh, but I can't say time has changed now. Uh time is changing now, girls are doing everything, and uh everything comes with pros and cons. But yes, if if I talk about uh homemakers, we need to value ourselves, so that's how we can work on our lives.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Wonderful. If you were to switch your life as the topic is with somebody, do you think that you could uh swap places with that person?

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Any uh no, not in in reality, I am not going to do that. I'm very happy, right? But if I have to imagine, so um I would definitely uh want to live the life of Neetam Bani. Okay, yes, Nita Ambani.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Yes, what particular aspect of Nita Ambani do you agree?

SPEAKER_00 21:48

I I when I go through certain news, so uh some when I go through uh some articles, then they uh write that uh the tea, the cup she uses to have uh to drink tea is that much costly, right? It costs in lakhs. I just want to feel how it looks when you have a lot of money, right? Because they say money talks and uh a rich man's uh joke is always funny. I just want to feel the rhythm. Is that so? And that is it, nothing special. It's not that I am very materialistic, but sometimes I feel people exaggerate, or maybe these uh journalists exaggerate things, and uh I want to feel that uh the life of a celebrity. Or if I get a chance, so I would like to uh swipe my life with the Sushma Swaraj. She's no more uh a very strong uh politician, right? Uh but yes, I uh I would love to uh be, I I would love to feel that strong personality because I love the way she used to speak, she used to express herself, very clear, very very uh coherent. She was very coherent when it comes to speaking or expressing herself.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

The remark or she made a great mark on Indian politics.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Yes, yes, and uh I would say that she had those oratory skills which I would love to uh feel to have. So, yes, Sushmaswaraj or Sudha Murtiji, I discussed, or Nidamani. I would I would love to see the lifestyle, the lavish lifestyle of ours. You want to see that uh you want to see that cup, you know, whether it is talk about her uh home and uh her saris and everything. So, yes, I want to feel that.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Is that is this true or or you want to find out if the tea or the coffee is tastes the same, yes, it becomes the same right.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

I tell you, uh last month we visited Himajal on our way. We uh uh took a halt just to grab some snacks, and we had a cup of tea for R 72, and it was a waste, it was pathetic. And I was uh um yelling at my husband, oh why did you why did you pray or why did you get this uh cup of tea? So he was like experience karke pata jalkai, right? I was the one who was telling that I'm having uh headache, so I need uh some refreshment. So he got for me, and I blamed him. Let's see, a cup of uh tea for 72 rupees. I found it very expensive, and it was it was pathetic in taste.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Yeah, had it been good, so you would have you know let go, right? Right, which which make a learning experience for us, yes, yes. So what to do and what not to do, exactly, yes. So life is a journey, you know, which must be enjoyed. I mean, rather than you know looking for destination or chasing destinations, yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

So if you enjoy the journey, then you are bound to reach a destination, yes, even even if you don't, at least you have enjoyed the journey, yes, and uh it's an uh it's an irony of life that we have this realization quite late, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Yes, people learn from mistakes, and I think that people have mistakes to learn.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Yes, my sister always says one thing. Uh, we she lives next door to me, and sometimes when we discuss uh some something philosophical about life, so she's M Fell in Hindi, so she says one thing, one thing that uh uh she she calls me Shika. My uh pet name is Shika. So I I just feel it, it's true, it's true, it's true, yes, and we waste it on petty things, you know, like complaining and like bickering, we we just uh throw it away, I think. Yes, we need to be grateful, you know, patience and uh gratitude. Gratitude of life, yes, when we have these virtues, we all have, but we forget to practice uh exercise them. Exercise, yes. Once we know how to practice these virtues, I guess we we know that rhythm of life, and uh we start living the life to the fullest.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Yes, we have to be harmonious with you know things around us, right? Right rather than you know, on the tree or you know, at a loggerheads with people and things. Yes, we need to be in sync with them. Wonderful catching up with you as always. So enjoy life, have a great time. You're doing good deeds. So continue that.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Have a nice day.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

You too, you too enjoy. God bless.