Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
It seems as if some people are just naturally at home on stage. Whether they’re acting in a play or performing a concert, these people are great at being the center of attention.
Then there are the people who suffer from stage fright. They might enjoy acting or performing, but they’re also terrified about being in front of an audience. Their stage fright might be so bad that they need to take anxiety medications or do yoga before they go on stage. Learn performance English and find out if Sara or Vanessa has stage fright in this English lesson.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Vanessa: Do you like to be the center of attention?
Sara: You know, I know it’s sort of…I’m not supposed to admit it, but I kind of do.
Vanessa: Really? So do you like to perform, do you sing or act or anything like that?
Sara: Yeah, I like to be the center of attention when I’m performing. I don’t like to be the center of attention in a group, like in a social situation, but give me a stage and I’m fine, I’m great.
Vanessa: Do you ever get stage fright?
Sara: I don’t, really. I get way more nervous in, like, an ordinary social situation than I do on a stage.
Vanessa: I just freeze up when I get on stage now. I don’t know, I think… Something really embarrassing happened to me on stage, and I have to just get myself psyched up before I go out now.
Sara: What happened to you?
Vanessa: Well, I was in a play, and I had a wardrobe malfunction. The strap broke on my dress.
Sara: Yikes.
Vanessa: It was so embarrassing.
Sara: Oh no.
Vanessa: I was humiliated.
Sara: And did you ever get back up on stage after that?
Vanessa: I did, but it took a long time to build back up to it.
Sara: Yeah, I’m lucky. I should knock on wood because nothing like that’s happened to me yet, but we’ll see.
Grammar Point
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Discussion
Vanessa asks Sara if she likes to be the center of attention. Sara says that she does like to be the center of attention when she’s performing in some way. In fact, she prefers being on stage to being in a social situation. Sara doesn’t really ever get stage fright.
Vanessa, however, does suffer from stage fright. She gets very nervous when she’s on stage, because of an embarrassing event. She was acting in a play, and the strap broke on her dress. She was so humiliated that it took her a very long time to get back on stage.
Sara hopes that nothing like this ever happens to her!
Do you like performing on stage? Have you ever gotten stage fright? If so, why did you get it, and what did you do to get over it?
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