درون گرا و برون گرا

Introvert vs Extrovert

Welcome to Speak English Now Podcast. With your host Georgiana. The podcast that will help you to speak English fluently with no grammar and no textbooks.

Hi, everybody! I’m Georgiana, your online English teacher, and founder of speakenglishpodcast.com

My mission is to help you to speak English fluently.

Today I’d like to talk about introverts and extroverts, and at the end of the lesson, you’ll learn how English grammar changes through a small point of view lesson. We’re going to meet Tom, a guy who doesn’t like to be around people much.

So… how was your week? I hope everything went well. I’ve already recovered from the effort of decorating my house. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can listen to episode #088.

Remember that you can find the text of this episode on my website speakenglishpodcast.com

Let’s start!

Extrovert

What is extroversion?

Extroverts are usually the life of the party. With their outgoing and magnetic personality, they easily draw people to them.

So, if you want to know if you’re an extrovert just think about how much you enjoy being and interacting with other people. Do you enjoy chatting and having long conversations with all kinds of people? Do you get bored when you’re home alone? If the answers to most of these questions were “yes,” then you are probably an extroverted person. That is, you are a very sociable person.

And apparently, there are more extroverts in the world than introverts.

Can you guess what Tom Hanks, Oprah, Johnny Depp, Madonna, and Jim Carrey have in common? That’s right. They are all extroverts.

Introvert

And… do you know how to tell me the opposite of extroversion? Well, this one is easy. The opposite word is introversion. If you like having your inner space, spending time alone with your stuff, then you are an introverted person.

By the way, make sure you don’t confuse the term introversion with shyness. A shy person is someone anxious about interacting with people, especially strangers.

However, an introverted person simply prefers to spend less time with other people.

In my case, I enjoy going out, and I have a lot of friends, though from time to time I need some alone time. If you’re an extrovert, you’re probably asking yourself just how an introvert survives alone. Well, as an introvert when I’m at home I enjoy cooking something healthy and watch my favorite TV show on Netflix, other days I just read an interesting book.

And what do I do when I’m not at home? Well, I usually love going for a long walk as much as possible. It’s a great way to relax and I often listen to an audiobook or a podcast. And no. I don’t listen to the Speak English Now podcast. :) Although if you want to improve your English, you should definitely give it a try.

Anyways, the bottom line is that I consider myself moderately introverted. What about you? What’s your personality type? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? I’d really love to know.

Famous people who are/were introverts:

Michael Jackson, Monroe, Britney Spears, Julia Roberts, and Lady Gaga.

Point of View Story

(Improve your Grammar)

This way you can practice grammar intuitively and without memorizing anything.

I will tell you the same story twice, but in the second part, I’ll change the grammar point of view. That way, you’ll be able to observe how a specific grammatical aspect changes. It’s a technique that I use intensively in my English courses. Let’s start!

The first time, in the present tense, in the third person: Tom is a very introverted man and not only that, he is also timid. In fact, Tom hates being with other people. He works from home and buys everything he needs online. He goes for a walk at night, because he doesn’t want to meet anyone.

Tom thinks his situation is miserable because he can’t lead a normal life.

So he hires the famous psychiatrist called Dr. Fraud. This doctor prescribes a shock therapy: he has to travel to Japan to take the subway every day at rush hour. Because Tom is so desperate, he follows the strange advice. After three months of treatment, Tom feels like a new person. He doesn’t mind being with other people anymore. In fact, the more people, the merrier. But now he has another problem: he’s afraid of being alone.

Now in the past tense, in the first person:

I was a very introverted person and not only that, but I was also timid. In fact, I hated being with other people. I worked from home and bought everything I needed online.

I went out for a walk at night so that I wouldn’t meet anyone. I thought my situation was miserable because I couldn’t live a normal life. So I hired the famous psychiatrist Dr. Fraud. The doctor prescribed shock therapy: I had to travel to Japan, and every day and take the subway at rush hour. Because I was so desperate, I followed the strange advice. After three months of treatment, I felt like a new person. I was cured because I didn’t mind being with other people. In fact, the more people, the merrier. But now I have another problem: I’m afraid to be alone.

Okay, great! This is the end of this little exercise practicing the past and the present. The grammar changes are subtle, but they need to be understood. That’s why it’s handy to have the same story told from different grammar points so you can easily compare. By the way, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to hire that doctor Fraud. :)

If you enjoy learning this way, how about more than 8 hours of exclusive content designed to take your English to the next level? I recommend one of my most popular courses:

The Fluency course. You can get at: fluency.SpeakEnglishpodcast.com Well, that’s it for today!

Please help me spread the word about the podcast. Tell your friends about the show and leave some comments on iTunes when you have some minutes. That would make me very happy!

See you soon! Bye! Bye!