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I am an office worker. Every morning, I wake up at 6 a.m. and leave home at 6:30. Then, I go to the Starbucks near the station. While drinking coffee there, I always study English. This is my morning routine.

Recently, I’ve been studying by listening to podcasts. While listening to a podcast, I read the script generated by AI.

"Alright, let’s do our best today!"

As usual, I started reviewing vocabulary on my iPad. The words and sentences I’ve studied many times and memorized come out smoothly, and I can read them fluently. But when difficult words appear, I can’t read them as smoothly.

"Uh… what was this word again? What does it mean…?"

Whenever I come across a word I don’t know, I make sure to look it up right away in a dictionary app on my phone. Then, I quietly mumble it out loud.

"Um… is my pronunciation correct?"

Thinking that, I keep mumbling and repeating the words. Honestly, English pronunciation is difficult. While I was muttering to myself, someone sitting nearby glanced at me. But I didn’t mind. Reading English out loud is important.

That person also studies English here regularly. Just like me, she comes to Starbucks every day to study. She always works on a TOEIC workbook. She probably hasn’t noticed, but sometimes she also mumbles in English.

"Everyone is working hard. I should do my best, too!"

I whispered that to myself in my mind.