This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 65 your top six excuses for why you can't speak English.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection, not perfection, when it comes to learning English.
Now here are your hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and Boston, USA.
Hey.
Do you make excuses for why you can't learn English?
Today, hear the six excuses we hear most often and how to make sure these don't hold you back.
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How's it going, Aubrey?
How are you feeling today?
I am excellent.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
I'm doing great.
You know, sometimes when I talk to students or listeners, for example, who want to start a course, I hear excuses.
Do you ever hear excuses?
Yes, for sure.
And I make these excuses myself, right?
When it comes to learning French and Spanish, I find myself making excuses for why I don't spend the time that I want to and why I'm not hitting my goals.
We all do this.
We all do it.
This is a human thing, right?
And we have a quote we want to start off today's episode with because the really successful people in the world maybe they make excuses, but they just go past that.
They do it anyways.
Yeah.
So here's our quote.
I attribute my success to this.
I never gave or took any excuse.
And this is by Florence Nightingale.
That is really motivating.
She may have thought of excuses, but she never followed through on that.
Right.
She didn't accept that as a reason to not do something.
Yeah, it makes me think of the whole stoicism movement, right?
I haven't read a ton about it, but this idea that people just you know things are hard but you just move through it and you remain stoic and you just get your work done.
Exactly.
And that is I mean, that really does work when you, instead of focusing on everything that's difficult and we certainly have excuses we could make if we set that aside and instead focus on the goal, focus on what we can do, we actually get stuff done.
Yeah.
And once we start making one excuse, it becomes easier to make the next and the next and the next.
Right.
So don't go down that path, guys.
So we're going to call out a few things today.
Right.
We're going to call you guys out.
You know, these are some of the things that we have heard over the years from students.
Let's get into it.
And if you're hearing yourselves making these excuses, guys, go the other direction.
Yes, exactly.
Okay, so the first one this is very common is I don't have any opportunities to practice my English with native speakers.
We hear that a lot, right?
So we're able to spend time learning through podcasts, but we don't have a chance to speak to natives.
And so we let this hold us back.
Right.
But it's just not true.
There are a lot of places online where you can go.
I mean, you may have to pay something to talk with a native speaker.
People are busy.
But if you go to places like italkicom, you can hire a native tutor, a native speaker, and you can get on the phone with someone.
Or Aubrey, do you think it is even necessary to practice with a native speaker all the time?
What do you think?
No, that's the thing.
We do these clubhouse rooms and we'll have a couple of native speakers in there and we'll get them started.
And then so many of our students and listeners are able to stay and practice speaking together.
They're all, you know, at intermediate or higher level.
They're learning from each other.
I think it's so you're wasting such an opportunity if you feel like you can't practice and learn from other people who are also learning English.
And the other thing is I know you guys, a lot of you are doing business internationally and that doesn't just mean you're doing business with native speakers.
It might mean you're in Taiwan, you're doing business with someone in Brazil, but the language is English.
So you do need to get used to hearing different accents and using that international English.
I think that's where we're moving as a world culture.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
I think you just can't find it anymore.
A company where there aren't international employees, language learners from all over the globe.
Sure.
So I think that's the norm, which I'm very excited about.
I love the diversity of the language and cultural diversity.
So I think you're right.
You need to plan on having that practice often be with someone who's not a native English speaker.
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
Let's go into the next one, Aubrey.
This one is I have no time.
Well, you know, I actually was on the phone with a student this morning who brought up a version of this excuse.
He said, I have I'm too mobile.
This was the student I was mentioning is a pilot.
So obviously very, very mobile.
Um, and i encouraged him.
He decided in the end what he was going to do was he was going to do the courses on his ipad.
He realized that he could do that in the airport, so he he, at the end of our call, he recommitted to his course.
And I was so proud of that attitude that he took towards it.
Instead of giving up or trying something else, he said Oh actually, I can use my iPad, I can be mobile, I can do this when I do have time.
Yes, exactly right.
This excuse of not having time is just not true for any of us.
Even the busiest among us who have lots of kids, lots of responsibilities, we can carve out.
Even if it's just five, ten minutes a day, that still is building a habit.
It's amazing how much you can do in ten minutes a day.
You can listen to a podcast.
You can find time.
I think it's really key to look at your daily schedule and carve out that time and whatever is most important prioritize that.
Do it first and make your language learning that priority.
I know.
And you're the queen of this, Aubrey.
If anyone can do it, you can.
I mean, you have four kids and you're always off playing sports, playing volleyball.
I don't know how you do it.
You do it though.
So it is possible to have a full life. creative, right?
There are times where, if I'm helping my seven-year-old twins with their homework, really I'm just a presence there to make them feel supported.
So I sometimes will have in an AirPod and I'm listening to like a podcast in French which is taking about half my brain.
And then I'm also there if they need help because they should be doing that work on their own.
I don't like think about.
It's interesting because some parents would be like oh, you need to be 100 there for your child.
They don't care.
They need to be learning how to do this independently.
I'm just sort of there as a support.
That's really good insight.
I feel like that's going to raise very strong kids.
Strong and smart and independent kids.
We could talk about that another day, but that's really good, right?
You don't have to be 100% in that situation.
You can multitask and that is okay in so many situations.
Yes, exactly.
Right.
And I know a lot of parents debate about this, but I am fully on the team of multitasking so that I can still be learning and getting some other things done while still being there for my kids, right.
I see nothing wrong with that.
That's so good.
No, absolutely.
That's fantastic.
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OK, so the next excuse that we see we're going to run through a few of these is I have no money.
Well Aubrey, I mean, there's a lot of different price points out there in the in the world of learning English.
And you guys can find something that works for you.
Right.
And this podcast is free.
Right.
Allers English is totally free.
Yeah, there are so many free resources out there.
Online Clubhouse is free.
That's an excellent resource for learning English.
And there will be, like we were saying, where you're speaking with other language learners, but there are also tons of rooms with natives where you can listen and go up on stage and chat.
So many free resources.
It's true.
And Clubhouse is free.
Instagram is a great place to learn.
We're over there, you know, five days a week practically.
So go over to the socials, check out the socials, right?
Okay.
Next one is I'm shy.
I can't start conversations and I don't know what to say.
I think this is the hardest, right?
And we all go through this to get to that point where you feel confident enough to jump in to a conversation with natives.
That's a pretty big gap, especially for someone who's shy.
So I think this takes a lot of advanced preparation.
Yeah, for sure.
Be prepared.
And we did talk in episode 48.
Go back to that one.
What to do if you're shy.
I think you and I recorded that one today together the other day.
Yeah.
What to do if you're shy.
There are very concrete things you can do.
We won't talk about them right now, but go back to that episode and listen, then come back here.
OK, good idea.
Right.
Yeah.
What else?
OK, the next one is I can't understand everything people say.
That's just going to be the case forever.
And I'm sorry to tell you like I'm very fluent in French and every now and then there's a word I still don't know.
Right.
So if you're feeling afraid to enter a conversation because you won't understand everything, you cannot let those fears stop you.
You have to jump in anyway.
Don't be afraid to ask someone, what does that word mean?
Or to repeat something.
No one minds.
We're just excited to make those connections.
Yes, and you don't wanna spend your whole life on the outside of social connection, right?
We are all about connection, not perfection.
And that means you need to step forward, step into that group and understand the general idea.
That is enough.
People wanna know you, so let them know you.
Yeah, and I think the hardest thing there is there is not that much practice out there of listening to native group conversations at regular speed.
A lot of podcasts are scripted.
For language learners, things are slowed down.
So one thing you can do, we have an amazing product.
With group conversations.
If you go to allearsenglishcom, slash fast.
This is the best practice for learning how to understand multiple speakers in a native group context, and then you'll feel ready to jump in.
Yeah, that's so true, Aubrey.
There's not a lot out there to practice that kind of style of speaking.
So go get that, guys.
Awesome.
And then the last excuse that we hear, Aubrey what is it to get them to correct you?
But also, you shouldn't be emphasizing this so much right, every time you're chatting with someone, your goal shouldn't be to have your grammar corrected.
The goal should be making that connection connection exactly.
That's exactly the way i see it too, because if you're expecting, every time you're talking in english, that you'll be corrected,
That means you're still thinking of English as a classroom activity, as an academic.
But we don't think about English that way here at All Ears English.
We think about it as a connection activity.
So shift your mindset and then stop worrying about that.
And then there is a time and place, like Aubrey said, to find a tutor, but it's not every time.
Exactly.
Yeah, this will happen again on Clubhouse where students will want to have their grammar corrected.
And often that's not the venue for it, right?
Instead, you're answering interesting questions.
You're having these interesting conversations and it can derail it.
Thank you so much for having me.
Right, and I would just say one more thing about that.
This is so good think of yourself on the same level as that other person.
Once you expect corrections from them, the power kind of changes.
It's a weird change of level.
It's awkward, it's weird.
We don't want that.
If you want to have a healthy connection, you've got to feel like you're on the same level as that person in general.
Exactly.
It's hard to see each other as equals in a conversation where you're learning one from another, if one of you is sort of subordinating yourself to ask for corrections.
So instead, yeah, right.
So to become a subordinate or like an underling.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I love that.
Yeah.
So we don't believe anyone is in that position, guys.
So be an equal, connect.
That's what we're going to end on today.
I love it.
So good.
Exactly.
So if you have found yourself making any of these excuses, today is the time to turn it around.
Stop allowing an excuse like this to be your crutch.
Take our advice, right?
And get over that and definitely make those efforts to practice to speak, instead of making an excuse that keeps you from progressing.
Yes.
So good.
Guys, make sure you follow All Ears English.
We come out four days a week with new episodes.
It is awesome.
And check out the next episode, because next time we're going to talk about how not to respond to a greeting in American English.
I'm excited for that one, Aubrey.
It's going to be good.
It's going to be really good.
Awesome.
I will see you there.
I'll see you then.
Bye.
Bye.
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See you next time.
