By Robby
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Hi, guys! Hello my fellow foreign English speakers!
It’s Robby here from EnglishHarmony.com and welcome back to my video blog!
In today’s video, I’m going to touch upon a very interesting thing and, if I’m not mistaken, it’s never been spoken about before. I’ve never discussed it, neither on my videos, nor on my articles on my blog, and I think this is going to be a very interesting topic indeed.
Namely, not all foreign English speakers who struggle when speaking, not all of them actually have to improve their English. Some people are quite confident the way they are!
And here’s what I actually mean by this. I’ve come across a few such people in my life. And it was actually years ago when I was a young fellow, when I just came over to this country, and there was a bunch of guys living together in one house, and I got to know several new people time and time again.
There were a few guys whose English was so-so, but they were quite okay communicating with other people. Their English was broken. Their vocabulary wasn’t huge, and their grammar was quite bad to be honest with you, but they felt at ease when speaking with other English-speaking people. They didn’t feel it as a problem, right?
And that was the whole make or break factor for their confidence. They were confident and they didn’t need to improve their English. They didn’t work towards that goal that we all share, right, which is improving our English and achieving fluency.
They worked towards other goals in their life, professional goals, and personal goals.
But, they were happy with their level of English, and it was sufficient to get on with their daily tasks, to go on about their daily business, to work, to drop into institutions and get things done.
Yes, it might have taken them a little bit longer because the communication would have been slightly hampered and things would have had to be explained in a little bit more detail to get it all done, but eventually it wasn’t a big deal for them. And they were confident enough the way they were and that was it!
Their English was fine for them and they didn’t need to improve it. They’d never thought of – at least I didn’t hear them complaining about their English because they were quite happy the way they were, and it’s a funny thing.
Issue is Less of an Issue if You’re Not Aware Of It!
We, foreigners who are acutely aware of our shortcomings in terms of our language, we constantly strive for the betterment of our English. We work towards it. Or, some of us don’t. Some of us maintain at the level of wishful thinking if you like.
But, we are still aware of the problem and we wish that we would do something about it, but we never do either for the lack of time, or the lack of motivation, or whatever. But, the problem for us is the confidence because we are so aware of the fact that we struggle when communicating with other people that it makes us very, very self-conscious of it. And, then, the actual problem becomes much worse.
So, basically, when we compare two people, the likes of us and those type of guys who don’t really care about their English, they just care about getting stuff done, right, if we can compare these two types of people, we are actually in a much worse position because our acute awareness of the issue makes it even so much more difficult for us to communicate.
Whereas, those guys, who are full of confidence, they never even see it as an issue. Therefore, their English level is slightly higher even though, technically, we’re on an equal level, we’re on the same footing, or probably they’re even lower. It’s the confidence that makes the world of difference. Right? And, obviously, those type of guys wouldn’t be even watching my channel or my blog, right?
So, now, I’m actually addressing you guys, those who are actually acutely aware of the need to improve your English. And the thing is this video is not going to serve any real purpose. I’m just making you aware of the fact that there are such people who don’t really care about English. They just care about the end goal. They need to get stuff done, they get out there, they use whatever English they have to get stuff done, and then they just achieve their goal. And that’s it. And, then, they get on with their daily lives and they never actually think consciously about betterment of their English, right?
Well, to be honest with you, I was wrong in saying that this video wouldn’t serve any real purpose. It does!
Confidence is 50% Of Your Fluency!
It teaches us that confidence is half of the job done, right? If we look at the whole English improvement thing as a big job that needs to be accomplished, obviously it’s never going to be accomplished because your entire life is a long, long learning process. The same goes with me, right? I’m still learning, even though I’m having students as part of my Fluency Star program.
I’m still learning myself and I’m going to be learning until the end of my life, until the day I die basically, right? But, if we look at the whole thing as one big massive task that needs to be accomplished, then confidence really plays about 50% of everything, of the whole thing, right?
So, for as long as you are confident, you have half of the job done!
The rest is the technical job, learning new vocabulary, phraseology, and practicing. Obviously, practicing goes first always. It comes above everything else. But, basically, for as long as you are confident, you have all the bases covered so to speak.
So, that’s the lesson we can learn from those confident guys whose English might be actually much worse than ours, but who never actually think about it as a problem. They just focus on other aspects of their lives and English is 100% means to an end, meaning it just serves as a vehicle to get things done, to achieve their other goals, right? And, for as long as it’s sufficient, for as long as it’s just enough to get stuff done, they don’t care about the betterment of their English.
I’m not saying that I would like to be one of those guys because I’ve always emphasized the fact that it’s actually your awareness of your shortcomings, and in this case it’s awareness of your faults and drawbacks as an English speaker that actually drives you and motivates you to achieve a better English level.
And I’ve never actually made it secret that I would rather have been born a foreign English speaker, the way I am, than a native English speaker because I really enjoy the process of improving my English all the time and it provides an awful lot of enjoyment and joy in my life, right?
The success, enjoyment of success when you achieve stuff, when you improve your English day in, day out. And, looking back over the years, I can clearly see that I’ve come a long way and that feeling is just incredible. So, basically, what I’m trying to say is just because I’ve been struggling with my English my whole life doesn’t mean that I regret the fact that I’ve been born a foreigner.
It’s actually a good thing because that drives me to achieve even more. And I’m pretty sure the same thing goes for you. So, that’s why I would never want to be in those other guys’ shoes who don’t actually strive for betterment of their language just because they don’t see it as a real need, right?
But, yeah. That’s the thing that I want to discuss with you guys today and let me know what you think about it.
Post your comments in the comment section below, and thanks for watching my video, and talk to you soon again. Bye-bye!
Robby
P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!
P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!