[7:04] Break Free from Textbook English: Learn Authentic Phrases from Madonna's Whisper

Learning English isn’t just about mastering grammar and vocabulary—it’s more about using the language naturally in real-life situations. However, textbook sentences are often too formal and far from how people actually speak. If you want to speak authentic, natural English, you need to engage with real dialogues in genuine contexts. Here, we’ve selected high-frequency daily English expressions covering social, work, and travel settings to help you move away from 'textbook English' and learn what native speakers truly say. Below is the content of this episode: Episode 1 Part 2: Madonna’s Whisper. Keep practicing—make your English more connected to real life!

I've been there, I was there in the blue, but you make me feel
Yeah, you make me feel shiny and new
Like a bird in it, just for the very first time
Like a bird in it, when you're heart beat
It's through my memory, giving all my love for it
My fear is fading, my fear
Rehearsing in the halls for you
You know, I think I'm in a state of shock, I don't
I know the tour's over, but it's like last week in Spain
I really felt like I was gonna have a nervous breakdown
I couldn't take the crowds outside, I couldn't do the show, it's too hot
Everything was getting to me and I thought, oh, I'm just...
I think I'm getting ready for the depression of what I'm gonna feel when the tour's over with
But I really didn't feel emotional last night
I know everybody else didn't everyone was crying, but I didn't feel emotional
It was like it already ended for me
It's like when you know someone's dying, you have to make your peace kind of before they die
I've done this with close friends of mine
Like I make my peace with it before it happens
So I don't get really hurt and then when it happens, like I don't feel anything
But I know I'm gonna feel something later
I just don't know why that's gonna be
I guess it's a protection device
I hope that it stays placed and it happens
There's some strange reason I failed to realize that the first leg of the tour was during the rainy season in Japan
So the three straight leads to perform the show in a blizzard
But the dancers are so excited to be performing for an audience the world could have been blowing up and they wouldn't have cared
I, on the other hand, was not in the mood for Eskimo's and I
And I think the only thing that kept me from flashing my wrist is the thought of coming back to America doing the show the way it was meant to be
By the time you left Japan, I found myself growing really attached to the dancers
And I started feeling like a mother to them
When we finally got to America, I got the chance to meet the mothers of all the children that I had temporarily claimed as my own
And the parents were usually as colorful as their kids
I think I'm unconsciously Joseph's people that are emotionally crippled in some way
Are honey mothering in some way because I think it comes very natural to me
I'd feel I think the need in me to be mothers
They're innocent
The innocent of the dancers moves me
You know, they're not dated in the least ever minute
This is the opportunity to live
And I know that they've suffered a great deal in their lives
Whether with their families or just being poor or whatever
And I wanted to keep them in trill if they're lost
I wanted to impress them, I wanted to love them
Well eventually I had to admit that I was a human being
And I agreed to cancel some shows
And I was told by the doctor that I couldn't speak and I had to write everything down in a piece of paper
Melissa, my assistant, became my only link to the outside world
I think in a lot of ways in New York
And the time that I spent there was the hardest on her
And since I was staying in my own apartment in New York
I lost contact with the dancers completely
I had to give all of my messages to Melissa
Through Melissa I heard that they were finding a lot to keep themselves busy
I guess I was a little jealous that their lives were going on without me too
Well, the panel is hard that way
I've always found it a little weird to celebrity to assume a friendship with you just because you're a celebrity too
You can get kind of awkward
The choice was definitely the hardest thing we went to on a tour
On an emotional level
God, going home
Well, it's just not really that easy for me
You know people always talk about how to start and change your view
They never talk about how it can change the people closer
Never forget the life
Keep them alive
Inside us all misjudge
It's not the same
I hadn't been to the cemetery since I was a young girl
I used to go right after she died
I don't know, my mother's death was just all a big mystery to me when I was a child
And no one really explained it so
What I remember most about my mother was that she was
She was very kind and very gentle and very feminine
I mean, I don't know, I guess she just seemed like an angel to me
But I suppose everybody thinks their mother's an angel when they're five
I also know she was really religious
So I never really understood why she was taken away from us
It just seemed so unfair
I never thought that she had done something wrong
So oftentimes I'd wonder what I'd done wrong
Don't see me in a higher place than a night when I cross
Where the way or your tears is gonna reach for a way
I thought to be so strong
I guess you knew I was a thing