Day 1 - Introduction to the Challenge

Foster: Hello, hello. Hey guys and welcome to Day 1 of the First Impressions Challenge from Inglês Nu E Cru. My name is Foster Hodge, I will be your English teacher, your guide during this course. And of course, I am here with…

Alexia: Hello, everyone!

Foster: Hey, Alexia! How are you doing? 

Alexia: I am doing great. I’m excited to get started, that's for sure.

Foster: Oh yes. I am also very excited. So, on day one of this challenge, I really want to explain what we are going to be doing and why it is important. Does that sound good to you? 

Alexia: Yep. Let’s do it. 

Foster: Okay! So first of all, what are we doing? For one month we are going to focus on making good first impressions. That means we will talk about introductions, meeting new people and really making a strong impression in English. 

Alexia: Awesome. That sounds great. 

Foster: Yes, it is awesome. So first, why is this important? Why are we talking about first impressions? So, there is a famous quote in English that says something like, “first impressions are lasting impressions.” Do you understand what that means, Alexia? 

Alexia: Yeah, I think so. It's like "a sua primeira impressão é a que fica." "Sua primeira impressão é a mais importante." Something like that.

Foster: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So basically what we are saying is that first impressions are super important and we only have one opportunity to make a good first impression. 

Alexia: Yeah, so this means that we have to get it right the first time. 

Foster: Absolutely. So before we get started, can I tell a quick personal story really fast? 

Alexia: Yeah! Of course.

Foster: So when I was learning Portuguese, I really really focused on first impressions and introductions. So basically, I learned all of the normal things that people say to each other in normal everyday conversations. I learned all of the common questions and answers. And then I practiced this routine a lot. 

Alexia: Ok…

Foster: And what happened was, people always thought that my level of Portuguese was much more advanced than it really was. So almost immediately, people said, “Cara, o seu português é muito bom!”

Alexia: That’s true. 

Foster: And I know that this seems like a small thing, but I promise, it's really important. Because on one hand, it gave me a lot of confidence, I was much more confident when I was speaking. When people told me that my Portuguese is really good, I started to believe that my Portuguese was really good. 

Alexia: And that’s so important. That helps so much.

Foster: Yes, for sure! That extra boost confidence really helped me be more comfortable and more motivated. And also, people naturally started to have conversations with me. Because they thought my level of Portuguese was quite advanced, so they just started talking to me like a normal person.

Alexia: Yeah, that’s awesome, right?

Foster: Yeah, yeah. It’s really important because one of the most difficult things when you are learning a new language, it's just having conversations. Because when you are a beginner, when you're just starting, it's really difficult to convince native speakers to talk to you. And naturally, it is difficult to improve your conversational skills if people don’t want to have conversations with you. 

Alexia: And this is so complicated. It can be so so complicated.

Foster: Yeah, absolutely. But that’s the thing. When you make a really good first impression and people want to have conversations with you, this means it is a lot easier to practice speaking, it is much easier to learn new vocabulary and grammar in the most natural way possible. It just makes the entire process, it makes everything so so much easier. 

Alexia: Yes because one of the biggest problems for a lot of our students are having conversations. I know a lot of people that have studied English for years, and they still have a lot of difficulty having conversations. 

Foster: Yeah, precisely. So most students never actually arrive to the part of the language learning process where you are really having conversations with people. And making a really good first impression, it's like a language learning superpower that automatically lets you skip all of the really boring parts of learning a new language and just help you start speaking much faster. 

Alexia: And that sounds perfect. I wish I knew all of these things when I started learning English. That would be awesome.

Foster: Yes, me too. So, that's exactly what we're doing in this course. That is why we are talking about first impressions, about small talks, introductions. Really, the idea is just to help you have more conversations and also to feel really confident and comfortable when you are talking to native speakers. 

Alexia: Great. 

Foster: Wonderful. So, every day, Alexia and I will send you a short audio challenge to make sure that you are an English introduction master. So each day, we will send an audio your way with a transcript, so you can train all of these things every day. And by the end of the month, I'm pretty sure, I will guarantee that you will be speaking much more confidently. 

Alexia: And that sounds awesome. I can’t wait to get started. 

Foster: Yeah, I’m also really excited. So tomorrow, we will start training and start really learning a lot. So Alexia, I think that’s it for today. We’ll see you guys tomorrow. 

Alexia: And I'll see you tomorrow!

Foster: Yeah. Can't wait to get started.

Alexia: Yes.

Foster: Let's do this thing. 

Alexia: Let's do it.

Foster: That's the point of challenges, to be motivated. So let's do it. Our game face is on. Let's do it. See you guys tomorrow.

Alexia: Bye.