Who Are You in English?

https://yourenglishtoolbox.com/episodes/204-who-are-you-in-english/

This podcast is created through a human-led editorial process. Every episode concept, educational strategy, narrative direction and final editorial decision is developed and reviewed by people committed to making English learning meaningful. Artificial intelligence supports script development and editing, while ElevenLabs provides the synthetic voices of our hosts. Human judgement leads the process; technology supports its production.

Do you ever feel less funny, confident or expressive when you speak English? Martin and Julia explore that feeling through research, a fictional story and practical ways to find your voice.

Discover a study in which Spanish–English bilinguals answered a personality questionnaire in both languages, and learn about cultural frame switching as one possible explanation for differences in their answers. Meet Camila, a fictional engineer whose conversations in Dublin feel different from those with her friends in Brazil.

The hosts also look at a laboratory study of moral choices in a foreign language. Its findings describe a specific experiment; they do not prove that decisions in another language are always better or explain everyone's experience. Researchers continue to debate how such effects work.

Practise three useful rescue sentences with time to repeat, and learn phrases that give you a moment to think. Learn with this episode on Your English Toolbox: explore how language and confidence connect.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How language and cultural context may affect the way people describe themselves.
• Why speaking a second language can change how expressive you feel.
• Three practical rescue sentences to give yourself time to think.

Useful language: cultural frame switching, psychological distance, scaffolding and words that buy you time.

Sentence of the day: You are not a worse person in English. You are a younger one. The episode uses this as a metaphor, not a scientific measurement.

Free study materials

Download the complete learning materials for this episode:

• Full transcript (PDF)
• Vocabulary guide (PDF)

Follow Your English Toolbox on X: https://x.com/JArthemis38328 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yourenglishtoolbox72/

💬 We’d love to hear from you!

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a comment, share your thoughts, or tell us how you’re using these tips to improve your English. Your feedback helps us grow and create even better content for you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.