STUDY WITH ME

Be my Homie: Join this channel to get access to perks

Daily English Vocabulary Email: Take your vocabulary to the next level with these daily vocabulary lessons in your email inbox

English With Tiffani App: Improve your English with my English App

Free English Newsletter: Receive English tips via email

Daily English Lessons Membership: Stop being stuck and finally go from the intermediate to the advanced English level with these daily English lessons

Speak English Like A Native Membership: Join this community and start speaking English more naturally

English Books & Resources: These resources will help you improve your vocabulary, sentence structures, interview skills, and much more.

---

“Who’s your best friend?”

Easy question, right? So you say: “She’s very nice. She’s funny. We met ten years ago.”

Three seconds. Done.

And then the conversation goes quiet, and you feel it — that little drop in your stomach. Because you have so much more to say about this person. You just couldn’t say it in English.

In a minute, I’m going to read you two answers to that exact question. Same friend. Same story. One sounds like a form. The other sounds like a real human being.

And the difference isn’t grammar. It’s three things — three things your answer is missing every single time you talk about a person in your life.

I’m going to show you all three, so the next time someone asks you about your best friend, your mom, your boss, anyone — you can talk about them in English the way you do in your own language.

And stay with me to the end, because I’m going to tell you the true story of a man who thought his new coworker needed a smack in the face… and ended up spending twelve years saving that man’s career.

Are you ready? Well then, let’s jump right in!

7 Parts

PART 1: The Question

“Who’s your best friend?”

PART 2: Two Responses

A. Learner Response

“My best friend is Juliana. She is short and she has curly hair. She is very nice and funny. We have been friends for ten years. We met at a wedding. She is a good friend. I like her very much. Thank you.”

B. Fluent Speaker Response

“Oh, my best friend? That’s easy. It’s Juliana, but everybody calls her Ju. She’s tiny, like barely five feet tall, with this huge curly hair you can spot from across the room. And she’s so exuberant. She laughs louder than anyone I know, she talks with her hands, and she’s always the one who gets everybody up dancing at parties. Honestly, she’s kind of known for that. If Ju’s there, it’s a good time.

We actually met about ten years ago at a friend’s wedding. We both got stuck at the random-people table, you know, the one way in the back by the kitchen. Neither of us knew a soul. So she struck up a conversation by leaning over and whispering, ‘Okay, be honest. Do you know the bride either?’ I cracked up, and we ended up talking the whole night.

And ever since then, she’s been in my corner. Every big moment- my first job interview, moving to a new city, the day I almost quit my English classes- she was the first person I called. She just makes me feel braver, like I can actually do the thing I’m scared of. So yeah, that’s Ju. She’s my person.”

PART 3: Why They’re Different

1. A Label vs. a Picture

The learner says Juliana is “very nice and funny.” That could describe millions of people. The fluent answer lets you see her: the tiny frame, the huge curly hair, the loud laugh, the dancing. You could pick Ju out of a crowd.

2. A Fact vs. a Beginning

“We met at a wedding” is a fact. The fluent answer takes you to the table in the back by the kitchen and lets you hear the first thing Ju ever said. You don’t just learn where they met. You watch the friendship begin.

3. A Statement vs. a Feeling

“I like her very much” tells you almost nothing. The fluent answer shows what Ju does to her: she makes her braver. That’s the real reason someone becomes your best friend. And instead of “Thank you,” the answer ends with warmth: “She’s my person.”

PARTS 4 & 5: The Method Overview + Method Deep Dive

Intro

Those three differences aren’t random. Each one is a part of a method, and it’s called People.

When someone asks you about a person in your life, that person will almost always fit into one of four categories: family, friends, colleagues, or classmates. So the first thing you do is figure out which category you’re in. “Who’s your best friend?” puts us in friends.

Then, no matter which category it is, you move through the same three parts:

• Part 1: Describe them in detail
• Part 2: How you met them
• Part 3: How they make you feel

Part 1: Describe Them in Detail

Paint a picture of the person: what they look like, how they act, and what they’re known for. Your goal is simple. When you’re done, your listener should feel like they could recognize this person on the street.

“It’s Juliana, but everybody calls her Ju. She’s tiny, like barely five feet tall, with this huge curly hair you can spot from across the room. And she’s so exuberant. She laughs louder than anyone I know, she talks with her hands, and she’s always the one who gets everybody up dancing at parties. Honestly, she’s kind of known for that. If Ju’s there, it’s a good time.”

• What she looks like: Tiny, barely five feet tall, huge curly hair
• How she acts: Laughs louder than anyone, talks with her hands
• What she’s known for: Getting everybody up dancing; “If Ju’s there, it’s a good time”

Advanced Vocabulary: exuberant (adjective)

Definition: Full of energy, excitement, and happiness in a way that other people can see and feel

Example: “My nephew is so exuberant. He runs to the door screaming my name every time I visit.”

Part 2: How You Met Them

Tell when and how the two of you first came together. Don’t just name the place. Take your listener back to that moment so they can see how it all started.

“We actually met about ten years ago at a friend’s wedding. We both got stuck at the random-people table, you know, the one way in the back by the kitchen. Neither of us knew a soul. So she struck up a conversation by leaning over and whispering, ‘Okay, be honest. Do you know the bride either?’ I cracked up, and we ended up talking the whole night.”

• When: About ten years ago
• Where: A friend’s wedding, at the random-people table in the back
• How: Ju started talking with a funny question, and they talked all night

English Expression: strike up a conversation

Definition: To start talking with someone in a casual, friendly way, usually someone you don’t know yet

Example: “I struck up a conversation with the woman next to me on the flight, and now we have lunch every month.”

Part 3: How They Make You Feel

Share the effect this person has on you. This is the heart of your answer. Facts tell your listener who the person is. Feelings tell your listener why they matter to you.

“And ever since then, she’s been in my corner. Every big moment, my first job interview, moving to a new city, the day I almost quit my English classes, she was the first person I called. She just makes me feel braver, like I can actually do the thing I’m scared of.”

• The effect: Ju makes her feel braver
• The proof: She’s the first call in every big moment
• The moments: A job interview, a move, almost quitting English classes

English Idiom: be in someone’s corner

Definition: To support someone and be on their side, especially when things are hard (from boxing, where a fighter’s coach and team wait in their corner to help them between rounds)

Example: “Don’t worry about tomorrow’s meeting. Whatever happens, I’m in your corner.”

Wrap

Pick the category, then move through the three parts. What they’re like, how you met, how they make you feel. And notice how she finishes: “So yeah, that’s Ju. She’s my person.” She brings it right back to the question. That’s the method.

PART 6: Call to Action

The People method is just one of six fluency methods I use to help you speak English with confidence. If you want to learn the other five and master every one of them, grab my Fluency Handbook. The link is right here on the screen and in the description below. Go get it, and let’s keep building your fluency together.

PART 7: Bonus Story Time

“The Friend Who Wouldn’t Let Him Quit”

Two men. One room. May 1926.

A faculty meeting at Oxford University in England.

This is a true story. And these two men would go on to write some of the most famous books in the world.

But I’m not going to tell you their names. Not yet.

The first man was quiet. Thin. Always holding a pipe. He spoke so fast and so softly that his own students sometimes couldn’t understand a word he said. Since he was a boy, he’d been doing something a little unusual. He was inventing his own languages. Full languages, with their own words, their own grammar, their own alphabets.

The second man was younger. Big. Loud. Exuberant. He had a booming laugh, he loved long walks, and he loved a good argument even more.

On paper, these two had nothing in common.

After the meeting, the two of them struck up a conversation. And that night, the loud professor went home and wrote about the quiet one in his diary.

His first impression? He said there was no harm in him… he just needed a smack or so.

Not exactly the start of a beautiful friendship.

But then they discovered something. They both loved the same old stories. Ancient myths from the far north. Dragons. Heroes. Long journeys. Stories most people around them didn’t care about at all.

Years later, the loud professor wrote that friendship is born the moment one person says to another, “What! You too?”

That was their moment.

They started meeting every week. Reading. Talking. Laughing late into the night.

And one day, the quiet professor shared something private. A story he’d been writing. A story about a small, ordinary creature who goes on a very big adventure.

The loud professor loved it.

That little story became a book. The book became a success. And the publisher asked for more.

So the quiet professor started writing again. A bigger story. A much bigger story.

And it was hard.

Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years. He was a perfectionist. He rewrote chapters again and again. He redrew maps. He doubted himself. Sometimes he stopped writing for long stretches of time.

He could have quit. Many times.

But every week, his friend was there. Listening to each new chapter read out loud. Laughing in the right places. Asking the same question over and over.

“What happens next?”

For years, he was the quiet professor’s only real audience. He was in his corner, week after week, year after year.

It took more than twelve years to finish that story.

Years later, the quiet professor wrote about what his friend had given him. He called it an “unpayable debt.” And he said it wasn’t advice. It wasn’t ideas.

It was sheer encouragement.

Without it, he said, he might never have finished at all.

When his friend died in 1963, the quiet professor wrote that it felt like “an axe-blow near the roots.”

So who were these two men?

The loud professor went on to write his own famous books. Seven of them. About four children who walk through a wardrobe into a magical land called Narnia.

His name… was C.S. Lewis.

And the quiet professor? The one who almost didn’t finish?

That small, ordinary creature he wrote about was a hobbit. And that big story he spent more than twelve years writing… was The Lord of the Rings.

His name… was J.R.R. Tolkien.

One of the most popular books in the world… exists because one friend refused to let the other one quit.

So what does this mean for you?

Your English journey can feel like that long, hard story. Weeks become months. Months become years. Some days you doubt yourself. Some days you want to stop.

You don’t have to do it alone.

Find the people who will be in your corner. The ones who ask, “What happens next?” And be that person for someone else.

And the next time you meet someone new, don’t stay quiet. Strike up a conversation. In English.

Your “What! You too?” moment might be one sentence away.