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  • Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you a very, very important

  • secret. This secret is going to help you on your tests, such as TOEFL, IELTS, or university,

  • college; any English test. This secret is going to help you if you have an English job

  • interview. And this secret will also help you if you ever decide to ask out that special someone.

  • So, what is this secret I'm telling you about? Well, it is the secret of power pose. Okay.

  • So, first of all, what am I talking about? What is a power pose? Well, for starters,

  • let's look at the word "power". I've drawn this man here, and if you can tell, he has

  • a lot of big muscles, he looks very strong. Power is similar to strength. It's when you're

  • very confident, when you're strong and you feel strong.

  • Then we have our second word: "pose". A pose is where you hold a position, and you stand

  • still doing something. So, for example, this is a pose. Okay? These are poses. So, why

  • are we learning about power poses today? Well, a lot of the times, ESL students, students

  • learning English, their English level goes down because they don't have confidence. When

  • they feel nervous, when they feel scared, their language level goes from here, downward.

  • This usually happens in tests, and the reason is because... Because of fear and lack of confidence.

  • So, how do we stop this from happening? How do we make ourselves feel confident so we'll

  • do well on that test? Well, one way is by doing a power pose. Your body language, the

  • way you stand, the way you stand impacts how you feel, and it impacts how you will do on

  • your test.

  • I'm going to show you what I mean. Okay? Imagine I am a student and I am going to do my TOEFL

  • test. I go over to weak pose. Now, imagine before my test, I'm waiting to do it and I'm

  • sitting like this. I'm going to start feeling nervous, and a lot of it has to do with the

  • way I'm sitting. Notice I'm crouched over, my arms are folded, I'm looking downward.

  • Okay? Even doing this right now, I'm starting to feel a little bit nervous. This is called

  • a weak pose, and if you do something like this, your arms are crossed and you're going

  • small. It makes you less confident.

  • Whereas, if I go to do my TOEFL and I do a power pose, I'm going to be more confident.

  • What are power poses? They're poses where you try to be as big as possible. See how

  • more...? Much more confident I look now? Okay? So, notice my arms are taking up a lot of

  • space. I could go like this, I could go like this. The more space you take up, the more

  • confident you will feel.

  • Now, I'm not telling you that in the middle of an exam or a job interview you should stand

  • up and start flexing your muscles. No. What I'm saying is before your test, before your

  • job interview, before taking the IELTS or TOEFL, go to the bathroom. You have time before

  • the test, stand in front of a mirror, do these poses. They will make you sound more confident,

  • and they will make you feel more confident as you write your test.

  • While you're doing speaking, whether it's at a bar or whether, you know, in front of

  • a computer for TOEFL, or talking to an IELTS examiner, make sure you're not seated in a

  • weak position like this. Okay? If you're answering like this, your answers are not going to be

  • as good as they can be. You're going to be nervous, and as a result, you will not do

  • as well on your test.

  • So, my main, main focus here: be aware of your body language. By doing a power pose

  • before a test, you will do a lot better than if you just go to your test and sit like this.

  • Now, some of you might not believe what I'm saying. "Oh, Emma, this sounds wonderful,

  • but I don't know if it's true or not." Well, if you are interested in looking at the research

  • about this, you can Google Amy Cuddy. She's a very famous psychologist who has studied

  • body language, and she has a lot of documentaries and videos, such as TED Talks about this. Okay?

  • So, what is the point, again, what is the main idea of power pose? Before your test,

  • do power poses. Okay? So, until next time, take care and I hope to see you later.

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you a very, very important

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