Pronunciation practice with confidence at the center.
The InFluency Podcast treats English fluency as a practical speaking habit, not a test score. Hadar moves between mouth-position detail, connected-speech practice, vocabulary choices, and conversations about confidence, anxiety, consistency, and community.
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The InFluency Podcast is built around a simple but demanding idea: English becomes useful when it is spoken, practiced, and claimed. The show gives careful attention to pronunciation. A lesson on CH separates chicken, chef, and school, while a connected-speech lesson shows how don’t you, did you, and would you can fuse in American English. These explanations are not abstract grammar notes. They often move into the physical mechanics of speech, from tongue placement to stopped air, friction, and the way two nearby sounds can become one. That makes the show especially concrete. It asks learners to hear English as it is actually spoken, not only as it appears on a page. At the same time, the show keeps returning to confidence. Progress is framed through consistency, action, and the decision to communicate before speech feels perfect. Mistakes are treated as part of the work, not as proof that a learner should stay quiet. Vocabulary gets the same practical treatment. Rather than praising every new word, the show pushes learners to question which words they truly need and how to move passive vocabulary into active use. Read-aloud practice adds another mode. In an episode using The Housemaid, pronunciation, connected speech, vocabulary, and storytelling all happen through a short fiction excerpt. Conversations give the teaching a human scale. Monica’s story centers on rebuilding after a difficult English moment, with community and steady habits playing a major role. Jelena describes stress, anxiety, confidence, and what became possible through English after moving to the US and working on her PhD. Across the recent material, fluency is not reduced to A1 through C2 labels. It is presented as a set of speaking stages, habits, beliefs, and real-life uses. The show’s editorial shape is part pronunciation lab, part coaching session, and part learner testimony. Its strongest value is the bridge between exact sound work and the emotional reality of speaking a second language in public.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants practical English speaking work, especially pronunciation, connected speech, vocabulary use, and confidence. It also fits learners who need encouragement to practice consistently without making perfection the goal.
What sets it apart: The show connects detailed sound instruction with the mindset and habit work behind fluent speech. Similar language shows may teach rules; this one repeatedly ties pronunciation and vocabulary to confidence, community, and real speaking situations.
The InFluency podcast is your go-to resource for learning, speaking and teaching English. Hadar Shemesh is a pronunciation expert and fluency coach with thousands of students around the world, though she herself was an intermediate speaker of English once. In this podcast she will share her best strategies for learning English, speaking English with confidence and mastering the American accent. Discover how becoming fluent has everything to do with acquiring the right mindset, setting goals and learning how to overcome challenges. Hadar will also share her teaching philosophy and techniques to support English teachers looking to help their students become fluent.
The Matrix stops being movie night when Hadar asks you to say the line out loud.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Monica's dream interview turns mental preparation into a clearer test of spoken confidence.
A dream interview marks Monica's turning point after seven weeks of preparing only in her head. When she finally begins to speak, the obstacles she had been circling become harder to avoid, and the episode traces what changes next: steadier habits, more consistent practice, and…
A thriller reading turns into focused practice in pronunciation, connected speech, and vocabulary.
This single-episode review treats a psychological thriller as a hands-on English lesson, turning a passage from Frida McFadden's The Housemaid into practice for pronunciation, connected speech, vocabulary, and storytelling.
A student's relationship with English shifts as pronunciation work and confidence make more of life feel possible.
This single-episode review frames English learning as something measured less by scores than by what it lets a person do. Jelena, originally from Serbia and now living in the United States while working on her PhD, talks through the anxiety, stress, and limits she felt when she…
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Monica, Hadar’s sister, describes how a failed English panel interview after seven weeks of preparation pushed her to change how she learned.
This episode explores two main reasons why English learners feel stuck: lack of consistent practice and ineffective learning methods.
Pronunciation coach Hadar explains the three different ways to pronounce the 'CH' letter combination in English: as in 'chicken', 'chef', or 'school'.
Hadar Shemesh uses an excerpt from Frida McFadden’s The Housemaid to teach pronunciation, connected speech, vocabulary, and storytelling through read-aloud shadowing.
This episode explains how two words like 'don't you' merge into 'donchu' in spoken American English through the linguistic concept of fusion or coalescence.
Jelena, originally from Serbia and now a research fellow at the University of Michigan, says she moved to the United States about five years ago and felt anxious, isolated, and unable to speak comfortably in English.
Hadar defines fluency as freedom and service, not reaching C2 or using sophisticated phrases.
Hadar Shemesh uses The Matrix scene to practice pronunciation, intonation, rhythm, stress, grammar, and vocabulary.
Hadar, host of The InFluency Podcast, reads an excerpt from Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist with vocabulary and pronunciation coaching.
Aubrey, an IELTS teacher and All Ears English co-host, says monotone speech can limit IELTS pronunciation scores.
Hadar reads an excerpt from 'The Let Them Theory' by Mel Robbins, explaining pronunciation, vocabulary, and connected speech for English learners.
A pronunciation expert teaches English shadowing techniques using a scene from The Last of Us, focusing on specific sounds and stress patterns.
Hadar guides listeners through reading an excerpt from Atomic Habits, teaching vocabulary, pronunciation, and intonation for English practice.