Yesterday, we talked about that frustrating gap between your thoughts and your words.

Today, I want to show you exactly where that gap shows up most.

Here’s what I’ve noticed from my own language learning journey (Italian and Spanish) and from years of peeking inside English courses:

Traditional programmes teach vocabulary for situations that hardly ever happen in real life.

You get words to “describe your hometown” and “talk about hobbies.” You practise “making hotel reservations” and “asking for directions.”

And these are perfect...for passing language exams.

But in the real world?

• We use apps for reservations.
• We rarely ask strangers for directions.
• And if you do have a hobby, you probably already know how to talk about it.

When it comes to having the right words for real-life conversations, that’s where your vocabulary starts to fall apart. Think about moments like these:

→ You want to be funny, but all you’ve got is “that’s very funny.”

→ You try to give advice, but it sounds flat, or worse, condescending.
→ You’re in a disagreement and everything you say sounds either too direct or too weak.
→ You want to persuade someone, but don’t have the language to soften your tone.
→ You feel something deeply, but you can only say “I’m happy” or “I’m sad.”
→ You’re in a tricky situation at work and can’t quite find the right words to respond.

These are the vocabulary moments that matter. They’re subtle. Emotional. Complex.

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But no one teaches you how to handle them.

Instead, most courses throw a word list at you and say, “memorise this”. You do your best, and knowing you, you probably get a perfect score on the quiz. But these words and phrases never show up when you need them.

Because memorising a definition doesn’t teach you how a word actually works.

And it sure as heck doesn’t help you use that word under pressure.

Real fluency happens when vocabulary becomes automatic. When it lives in your mouth, not just in your head.

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That’s when you start sounding like you – the you that just so happens to speak English. And that’s exactly what I’ll show you tomorrow:

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How to make vocabulary stick and why the method I use is probably quite different from anything you’ve tried before.

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Oh, and I’m also sending you a vocabulary test. Just a quick one. It’ll be fun, I promise! It will help you see whether you actually have the words you need… or whether you’ve just been getting by.

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Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe your vocabulary’s exactly where it needs to be.

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Let’s see tomorrow, shall we?