English Listening Practice - Embrace Your Achievements Without Doubting Yourself
An English listening practice lesson that will change your relationship with self-doubt! Have you ever felt like a fraud, even when you're crushing it? Discover the secret struggle of high achievers while working on your English skills. This mind-bending lesson reveals why smart people doubt themselves and how you can overcome it. Ready to improve your English skills and unlock your true potential?
A lesson packed with:
- Effective English listening and speaking practice.
- Enhance your vocabulary and grammar effortlessly.
- Develop confidence in conversations.
- Easy-to-follow, fun, and informative content.
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Self-doubt is the anchor that keeps our ships from sailing.
⭐ Suze Orman
✔️ Lesson transcript: https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/english-listening-practice-imposter-syndrome-tips/
This kind of content kills two birds with one stone. You're picking up natural vocabulary and expressions while engaging with a topic that's relevant to many high achievers.
Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.
⭐ Suzy Kassem
It's a great way to make your English learning more meaningful and memorable. Remember, the best way to learn a language is through interesting, relevant content.
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More About This Lesson
Practice your English listening skills while learning about 'Imposter Syndrome' and how to overcome it. This lesson helps you understand Imposter Syndrome and provides practical tips to boost your confidence. You'll also improve your English listening skills with authentic British English.
You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
⭐ Rosalynn Carter
Learn practical tips to overcome self-doubt and speak English fluently:
- Improve vocabulary: Learn new words like 'aspiration' and 'imposter.'
- Practice listening skills: Enhance understanding through listening to fluent English.
- Understand idioms: Grasp phrases like 'Imposter Syndrome' in context.
- Learn pronunciation: Hear correct pronunciation of words and phrases.
- Gain cultural insights: Understand concepts relevant to English speakers.
- Expand comprehension: Follow complex ideas and explanations in English.
- Engage with real-world topics: Discuss relevant issues like self-doubt and achievement.
- Learn grammar in context: See correct usage of prepositions and verb forms.
- Improve listening for details: Focus on small details to understand the full message.
- Boost self-confidence: Gain confidence through comprehension of advanced topics.
This lesson not only improves your language skills but also makes learning more meaningful. Understanding Imposter Syndrome is relevant to many high achievers and can resonate with your own experiences. This type of interesting English listening lesson can enhance vocabulary retention and overall language acquisition.
Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity.
⭐ Mae Jemison
So are you ready to improve your English and your self-belief? Follow and subscribe to our podcast now for more eye-opening lessons that will transform your language learning!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- What is 'Imposter Syndrome'? Imposter Syndrome refers to the feeling of not being worthy of one's accomplishments. Even when you achieve something significant, you might doubt whether you truly deserve it. This can happen to anyone, especially high achievers like PhD students, who often feel they are not as competent as others think they are.
- How can practising English listening skills help with understanding 'Imposter Syndrome'? By practising your English listening skills with lessons about Imposter Syndrome, you enhance both your language abilities and your understanding of this common issue. Listening to detailed explanations helps you expand your vocabulary, comprehend complex topics, and improve your fluency in British English.
- Who commonly experiences 'Imposter Syndrome'? High achievers and highly intelligent individuals, such as PhD students and professionals, often experience Imposter Syndrome. Despite their success and qualifications, they feel they do not deserve their achievements and fear being exposed as frauds.
- What are some practical tips for overcoming 'Imposter Syndrome'? To overcome Imposter Syndrome, consider avoiding all-or-nothing thinking; accept that 100% success isn't always possible. Recognize and challenge your inner critic. Learn to believe in your achievements and accept positive feedback. Understand the level at which you're working and appreciate your place among top achievers.
- How does this lesson help improve my English fluency? This lesson on Imposter Syndrome not only explains an important psychological concept but also provides a rich context for enhancing your English fluency. By listening repeatedly, you will improve your vocabulary, better understand British pronunciation and idiomatic expressions, and enhance your listening comprehension and overall confidence in using English.
For further improvement in your English listening skills, check out our Activate Your Listening Course at adeptenglish.com. It offers vocabulary lessons on common conversation topics and techniques to advance your English conversation skills.
Most Unusual Words:
- Imposter: Someone who pretends to be something they are not.
- Syndrome: A condition or state of being.
- Aspiration: A strong desire to achieve something.
- Aspire: To want to achieve something.
- Unworthy: Not deserving respect or success.
- Doubt: To feel uncertain about something.
- Critic: A person who finds faults or problems.
- Proactive: Taking action before something happens.
- Spontaneous: Happening naturally without planning.
- Relative: Compared to something else.
Most Frequently Used Words:
| Word | Count |
|---|---|
| Imposter | 21 |
| People | 19 |
| Syndrome | 12 |
| Their | 9 |
| Other | 8 |
| Often | 8 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
Transcript: English Listening Practice | CHANGE Your Relationship with Self-Doubt
Hello, I’m Hilary, and you’re listening to Adept English. We will help you to speak English fluently. All you have to do is listen. So start listening now and find out how it works.
Do you have ‘Imposter Syndrome’?
Hi there. Have you ever suffered from 'Imposter Syndrome'? This can be very uncomfortable for you, especially if you are keen to achieve things in life and be successful. Stay with us while I explain what 'Imposter Syndrome' is, who experiences it, and how you might overcome it. Discover some practical tips for overcoming self-doubt and embracing your achievements all through watching this podcast. You'll find lots of interesting material here while you do your English language listening practice with us. Don't forget to listen to this podcast a number of times. It is an English listening practice.
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A mans face reflected in a fragment of mirror. Discover how to overcome Imposter Syndrome while improving your English.
I like the word 'aspiration'. And 'aspiration' is something that's very important to a lot of people. The noun 'aspiration', A-S-P-I-R-A-T-I-O-N, means 'a want to achieve'. And there's a verb 'to aspire'. So we would say that you 'aspire to' certain things. So you use it with the preposition 'to'. 'Aspiration' and the verb 'to aspire' both concern your hopes of achievement and success. In your life, you might aspire to own a nice house, a nice car, or perhaps you aspire to success in your career or both. You may also aspire academically. That means 'in your studies'. And if you aspire and have aspiration, you probably care quite a lot what other people think of you.
Is feeling out of place at work or school common among high achievers?
So you don't need to be a genius to suffer from 'Imposter Syndrome'. But actually high achievers like PhD students often feel unworthy of their success as though they don't deserve it, in other words. So what do we mean by the phrase 'Imposter Syndrome'? Well, the word 'syndrome', S-Y-N-D-R-O-M-E, just means 'a condition, a state of being'. And the word 'imposter' on its own, that's I-M-P-O-S-T-E-R. Well, an 'imposter' is somebody who is pretending to be something that they are not. You would be an 'imposter' in a hospital if you put on a white coat and hung a stethoscope around your neck and you pretended to be a doctor when you weren't one and you treated patients. That would make you an 'imposter'. So an 'imposter' is a person doing a job or playing a role that they're not qualified or experienced to do. They're pretending, in other words!
But I'm saying lots of us suffer from 'Imposter Syndrome'. This is different. It doesn't mean we go around pretending. 'Imposter Syndrome' would mean actually being a qualified doctor but still not feeling good enough to be a doctor, not feeling as though you deserve to be in that role, even though you've earned that right and you've done well in medical school.
Does this kind of thing sound familiar at all to you? People who have 'Imposter Syndrome' doubt themselves. That's D-O-U-B-T. They doubt their own value and whether they really should be in a certain position of responsibility, even though they're capable and they deserve that position. That set of thoughts is 'Imposter Syndrome'.
New Activate Your Listening Course - check it out!
Before I go any further, just a reminder that our New Activate Your Listening Course is available to buy on our website. If you want to improve your vocabulary on very common conversation topics and indeed improve your English conversation, then this course is for you. Go to the Courses page on our website, adeptenglish.com to find out more.
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Success without belief in your own abilities?
So 'Imposter Syndrome' is often something that highly qualified and intelligent people can suffer from. In my experience, there's perhaps even more 'Imposter Syndrome' amongst people who are very able, very capable. To say someone has 'Imposter Syndrome' is another way of saying 'they have a lot of self-doubt'. But they question their right to be there. They doubt whether they're truly good enough to be in the role or position they're in.
The group of people that I've worked with who seem to suffer from 'Imposter Syndrome' most of all, actually - they're PhD students! So these are students studying at university way beyond their first or 'undergraduate' degree. They're studying to have the title 'doctor' and they're probably doing research at a very high level, which may take five years or more to complete. So you might do a PhD in Biochemistry. You'll probably already have a degree in a related subject and maybe even a Master's degree as well. That's before you even start your PhD. So people studying for a PhD are amongst the most academically able and achieving people. Yet this is the group where I observed most 'Imposter Syndrome'. Interesting.
Why is it common for PhD students to feel like imposters?
Why is that so? Why are the most gifted and able people the ones who doubt themselves the most?
Well, firstly, it's important to say if you're doing a PhD, you're doing research. You're covering ground that no one else has covered before or not quite with the questions that you're trying to answer. So PhD students often feel out of their depths. Maybe 'Imposter Syndrome' happens to the most able people because they challenge themselves the most or expect the most from themselves. On the whole, people who study for a PhD are pretty intelligent. Many have gone to good schools where there's perhaps been a real emphasis on academic achievement and they've achieved a high level all the way through their education. Sometimes schools are 'selective'. That's S-E-L-E-C-T-I-V-E. That means you have to sit an entrance exam to get in. So everyone within that school is already at a certain level academically. And in those types of schools, there's a real push. There's a real pressure to do well academically. It's a bit like a race you have to keep up. And there's often a lot of fear of falling behind other students. Very intelligent people, probably most of the way through school and college are top of the class or near the top. And this may become a very important part of their self-image. Often people hold this internally very quietly. Doesn't necessarily mean that they show off, but they have high expectations of themselves. However, by the time you get to study at PhD level, pretty much everyone around you is super intelligent too. So there isn't that difference between you and them. You don't stand out. And this can be disconcerting and troubling for people, if your self-worth depends and always has on you being top of the class.
English Listening Practice | Your FINAL Moments In Life
Another factor, if you know yourself as someone who is academically able, you're not used to struggling, having to put huge amounts of effort in or failing. So sometimes it can be failing a driving test because that's a completely different type of test, isn't it? That can represent a big crisis if academically you're very able and used to doing well. I think that 'Imposter Syndrome' is suffered by very able people who've tended to enjoy success and for whom not achieving high success all the time can feel like a disaster. People sometimes feel 'Imposter Syndrome' in their jobs. They can't quite believe that they've been trusted to do this job, to take this responsibility and that they are 'worthy', W-O-R-T-H-Y.
Tips and advice for handling ‘Imposter Syndrome’
Yet often it's the people who are most able, who find it the most challenging to believe that they really are the right person. All of this is 'Imposter Syndrome'. So what to do about it? Here are some tips for you if you feel that you suffer from 'Imposter Syndrome'.
When only 100% success is good enough!
Firstly, don't fall into 'all or nothing' thinking. If you expect yourself to achieve 100% all the time and anything less than that is 'failure', it's going to be very difficult to maintain your self-esteem in the real world. 100% success is not going to happen all the time. Sometimes this comes from expectations of other people. If when you got 98% in a test, your parents said to you, "Great, but what happened to the other 2%?" then maybe that sets up that thinking in you. There's not a lot of kindness-to-self here and it's not very realistic. So having these sorts of expectations on yourself that nothing other than 100% is good enough, that's just 'self-cruelty'.
Beware - the ‘Inner Critic’ is not always your friend!
Notice your 'Inner Critic', that's C-R-I-T-I-C. That's the voice inside your own head that criticises you. It says all kinds of negative things about you. Just consider the possibility that the 'Inner Critic' is not always right. Many of the people who do a lot of self-criticism really don't deserve it and they don't recognise how much self-criticism robs your confidence.
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Learn to accept and ‘own’ positive feedback as deserved!
Thirdly, try to believe in your achievements and try to believe positive feedback. Often people with 'Imposter Syndrome' don't really fully 'own' their achievements. They don't allow themselves to feel pleased with what they've succeeded in already. And often people with 'Imposter Syndrome' just don't believe it when other people say positive things to them. Look out for times when people give you positive feedback that's spontaneous, that's proactively given. You didn't ask for it. The situation didn't demand it. They simply offer it to you. They didn't need to say that positive thing about you or your work, but they did. So consider the possibility that it's true, that it's valid feedback. Learn to own positive feedback. Work on trying to feel that you actually deserve it.
Success is relative!
Fourthly, notice the level at which you're working. For example, if you're studying for a PhD and feeling as though you're unintelligent, just remember it's all relative. To even be on such a study programme probably means that you're in a top percentage of people in your country intelligence-wise, even just to be there. If you suffer from 'Imposter Syndrome', I hope this podcast help you recognise it.
Goodbye
And I hope these tips help you. Pass it on to someone else if you can see them in this description. Enough for now. Have a lovely day.
Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.
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