let's be real

✦ let's be real ✦

English is
my second heart

and sometimes it beats out of rhythm — and that's okay

📅 june 17, 2026 ⏱ 6 min · honest & raw ❤️ for the brave souls

🌻 ✨ 💛 🌸 🌟

👋 Hi. Let's talk about the elephant in the room.

You know that feeling when you're about to speak English and your throat closes up? Like every word you've ever learned just evaporates into thin air?

Yeah. Me too.

Last month, I was at a party. Someone asked me what I do for work. I opened my mouth and said, "I'm a ... um ..." — and then my brain just shut down. I stood there, mouth open, like a fish on dry land.

My friend jumped in: "She's a designer. A really good one."

And I thought: why couldn't I say that? I know the word "designer." I've said it a thousand times. But in that moment, fear swallowed my vocabulary.

“Your English doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be brave enough to show up.”

— something I wrote on my mirror after that party

📝

the next morning, i journaled:

"I froze. I forgot how to say my own job title. But you know what? I'm still here. Still learning. Still showing up. And that counts for something."

💭 your worth isn't measured by your vocabulary — it's measured by your willingness

tools that saved me
(not hacks — lifelines)

• 🎵 singing along to mitski — i don't understand every word. but i feel every emotion. and that's how i learn the soul of english.
• 🎬 watching the same scene 20 times — first with subtitles. then without. then i turn off the sound and do the voices myself. my neighbors probably think i'm a one-woman show.
• 📱 texting my best friend in broken english — she corrects me sometimes. but mostly she just listens. and that's all i need.
• 📖 reading children's books aloud — "the giving tree" makes me cry every time. simple words. big feelings. that's real language.

🎯 progress over perfection 🌱 growing daily 💪 showing up ✨ doing the work

🌻 where i'm at

76% confident · 24% terrified · 100% not giving up

👤 my friend Carlos (from Mexico)

“I used to apologize for my accent. Now I wear it like a badge of honor.”

He told me this after a meeting where he mispronounced "focus" as "fuck-us" — and everyone laughed with him, not at him. That's connection.

✦ ✧ ✦

the moment everything changed
(and it wasn't a grammar lesson)

I used to think that one day I'd wake up and finally be fluent. That I'd open my mouth and perfect English would just flow out like water from a tap.

But that day never came. Because fluency isn't a destination — it's a practice.

The moment everything changed was when I stopped asking "am I saying this right?" and started asking "am I being understood?"

Because here's the thing: connection doesn't require perfection. It requires presence.

I've met people with flawless grammar who can't hold a conversation. And I've met people with "broken" English who light up rooms. Which one do you want to be?

Mangata (swedish, but we're stealing it)

The road-like reflection of moonlight on water. Like the way English sometimes feels — beautiful, shimmering, and just out of reach. But you keep walking toward it anyway.

💬 okay, your turn. what's your most embarrassing english moment?

i once said "i'm very horny" instead of "i'm very hungry." at a family dinner. with my grandmother.

share below. let's build a library of beautiful failures.

so here's what i need you to know: you don't need to be fluent. you just need to be brave. — and you already are, just by reading this

“the most beautiful thing about learning a language is that you get to become a slightly different version of yourself — one who tries.”

with all my wrong prepositions,
Maya

✧ P.S. my dog just chewed my notebook. she's learning too — by eating my mistakes. we're in this together. ✧