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 Practice (La voix de la pratique)
The day of the audition is approaching and I’m ready.
Many people don’t like public speaking, but I think it is because they lack preparation and practice.
I prepared my one-minute speech a week ago and I have been practicing it every day.
There is no secret: practice makes perfect.
Yesterday, Pete Vargas, the organizer of the audition did a virtual meeting to give us some advice as well as some information on what to expect tomorrow.
I discovered that if I made it to round 2, I was going to have to give a two-minute speech.
No need to panic.
I spent the rest of the evening preparing it.
I also heard that people who had bought the VIP ticket were going to have a chance to practice their one-minute speech to coaches all day today.
I can’t wait to get their feedback so that I can give my best performance tomorrow.
The Voice of Surpassing Yourself (La voix du dépassement de soi)
Every Thursday at 5 pm, I participate in a virtual mentoring call.
For the first time yesterday, Jarrod, the president talked about the importance of goal setting and how to overcome the blocks that prevent us from reaching our goals.
I saw his presence as a sign that I had to surpass myself if I wanted to go on stage in April: I turned my camera on (which I never do), I sent him two private messages in the chat and I raised my virtual hand hoping that I was going to be able to talk to him.
It was after 6 pm (calls usually end at that time) and I was the next person in line to ask him my question. I thought I was going to be cut but, instead, Jarrod called my name.
I told him about my goal to get on stage in April at GrowthCon. I mentioned that my only block was trying to get him to watch the video I had made. I gave him the name of the person on his team who had it. I don’t really remember my question, but I managed to make him laugh and he told me that he was going to watch it.
Mission accomplished: I came, I surpassed myself and I conquered!
To be continued.
Some Study Points
- “To lack something” means “manquer de quelque chose”.
- “Ago” means “il y a” and it is put at the end of a sentence: “a week ago” (il y a 1 semaine).
- “Practice makes perfect” means “c’est en forgeant qu’on devient forgeron”.
- “Information” stays in the singular in English. In French it can be translated by “information” or “renseignements”.
- In English, you “spend time doing something” (“passer du temps à faire quelque chose”) so “I spent the rest of the evening preparing one” means “j’ai passé le reste de la soirée à en faire un”. “One” is a pronoun that replaces “speech” in that context: “I spent the rest of the evening preparing a speech” becomes “I spent the rest of the evening preparing one”.
- “To set goals” means “se fixer des objectifs”.
- “To overcome” means “surmonter”.
- “To turn on” means “allumer”. It is both used literally and figuratively speaking if you know what I mean!
- “To ask a question” means “poser une question”.
- “To make somebody do something” means “faire faire quelque chose à quelqu’un”.
- The original phrase of “I came, I surpassed myself and I conquered!” is “I came, I saw, I conquered” (veni, vidi, vici in latin).
- “To be continued” means “suite au prochain episode”.
Some practice questions
- Are you scared of public speaking?
- What are you going to do today to surpass yourself?
Tada! That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Subscribe to English with Languissimo®, practice, take care and have a great weekend! Big hugs 😊