“I’m Kind of Shy”: The Bakery Story Every Nervous English Learner Should Hear
The owner of The Spice Rack, a bakery and spice shop in Estes Park, Colorado, shares about the time she was in China. She talks about the weeks she spent too nervous to order food in a restaurant.
What makes the story worth studying is how she tells it. She isn’t reading from notes. She’s reconstructing a memory in real time, with all the hedges, restarts, and vague filler (“and whatnot,” “and stuff”) that real spoken English actually has. If you’ve ever avoided doing something at work because you weren’t confident doing it the right way yet, her answer, eating at the same bakery for weeks because she could point at food instead of order it, will sound familiar. So will the moment she finally got tired of it and pushed through anyway.
What do you want to do today?
Watch the clip.
Type what you hear.
Now say it with her.
Five situations. Which phrase fits?
Cultural Notes
A hedge word that isn’t measuring anything.
In casual spoken English, “kind of” and “sort of” often don’t describe degree at all. They cushion a personal admission so it doesn’t land too heavily. She isn’t saying she is fifty percent shy. She’s using “kind of” to soften the vulnerability of admitting shyness at all, especially on camera, in an interview, as a business owner. The same softening shows up constantly in professional settings: “I’m kind of new to this” before asking a question you’re worried sounds basic, or “it’s kind of a long story” before deciding how much to actually explain.
A filler that stands in for a list you don’t want to finish.
“And whatnot,” along with its cousins “and stuff” and “and things like that,” is a way of saying there’s more like this, without spelling it out. It’s extremely common in relaxed spoken English and almost never appears in writing. It works well in an interview like this one, casual and personal. It would sound underprepared in a written report or a formal proposal, where a reader expects the actual list rather than a wave in its direction.
Naming the breaking point, not just the change.
She doesn’t just say “then I started speaking Chinese.” She names what finally broke the avoidance, getting tired of the workaround itself. “Eventually I got sick of…” is a useful pattern anytime you’re describing how you finally pushed through procrastination or avoidance, at work or otherwise: “eventually I got tired of asking for help with the same spreadsheet” or “eventually I got sick of waiting on approval and just sent it.” It turns a vague “and then I changed” into a concrete, relatable reason.