Welcome to the Listening Time podcast.
Hey English learners.
This is Connor and you're listening to episode 264 of the Listening Time podcast.
I hope you're doing great.
I hope you're ready to practice your English listening comprehension with another episode.
Today I'm going to talk about underestimating your English level.
A lot of people underestimate their level.
They think that their level is lower than what it actually is.
They underestimate their ability. their skills in English.
So today I want to talk about why this is why people tend to do this, and I want to talk in general about the language learning process and the feelings that come with it.
So I'm sure this will be relevant for all of you.
Remember that if you like this podcast, if it has helped you with your English, please press the follow button on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
That really helps me.
It really helps the podcast grow.
So I would appreciate it if you could do that for me.
And if you want my advanced podcast episodes in which I speak at normal speed so you can practice with higher level content, Then make sure to sign up to become a Listening Time family member and you'll get my advanced podcast episodes.
Also, check out my U.S.
Conversations podcast to practice listening to my conversations that I have with other native speakers.
This is a great tool to help you practice listening when more than one person is talking.
Both of those links are in the description below.
Okay, let's talk about underestimating your English level.
This is a very common tendency.
I've talked to hundreds and hundreds of English learners throughout my career, And this is something that occurs all the time.
I talk to the English learner and they express to me how they're not good at English, they can't do this, they can't do that, they express their doubts, their worries, And it's clear that they don't think highly of their level.
But in reality, we have a very good conversation.
They express their ideas in an understandable way.
So why are they so negative about this, their level, and why might many of you tend to underestimate your level or your skills in English?
Well, one reason is because we want to lower other people's expectations so that hopefully, we can exceed those expectations.
I do this.
I think many of us do this.
We don't want to talk highly of our level in a language because we don't want other people to get the idea that we are really good and then, when they actually hear us talk, they think that we're not as good as what we were saying.
No one wants this to happen.
This can be embarrassing when we don't meet the other person's expectations.
So we might feel better if we lower the other person's expectations.
And then after they hear us speak, they say, oh, you're better than what you said.
Of course, that feels much better.
Right.
So I think many of us do this and it's a natural thing.
We don't want to talk highly about our level in a language because we fear that the other person is going to get the wrong idea and think that we're better than we really are.
So that's one reason.
Another reason why people tend to underestimate their own level is because people often feel self-conscious about language skills.
This is different from any other skill, in my opinion, when it comes to math, when it comes to our knowledge of science or even sometimes, our knowledge of our career domain.
It's not the same as your knowledge of English in your case.
There are often feelings of self-consciousness and embarrassment and inadequacy, like you're not good enough, you don't speak well enough.
There are a lot of feelings like this. when it comes to foreign language acquisition.
When you can't express yourself like a well-spoken adult, when you are forced to say things in a simpler way, or you're making mistakes or It's taking you a while to express an idea.
You feel self-conscious.
You feel embarrassed sometimes.
You feel frustrated.
You feel these negative emotions inside.
If you have higher expectations for yourself and you just can't say things the way you want to say them in English, this all can make you feel like you have a low level, even though you don't.
And so people often underestimate their English skills, their ability to speak English, because of these negative feelings and because they feel like they're in competition with all of these other English learners who seem to be better or have a higher level than you.
All of this can lead you to underestimate your ability to speak English or to interact in English.
So that's another reason.
And then one other reason is that people genuinely think that their level is lower than what it is.
They just have this idea that they have a lower level, not necessarily because of other people's expectations or their own self-consciousness.
Maybe they just don't know how to correctly evaluate their level.
And I run into this a lot.
People communicate just fine with me, we have a great conversation, but then they say that their English is poor.
It's a low level.
They can't function in English.
And I'm thinking, what are you talking about?
We just had a 30-minute conversation.
You understood me well.
I understood you just fine.
What are you talking about?
Well, A lot of people don't know how to properly evaluate their level.
And usually it's because they think that if there are many mistakes in their speech.
This means that they have all of these problems with English and thus their level is low.
I don't agree with this.
I usually try to push back a little bit and argue with people when they come to me and start talking about all of their problems.
Quote unquote in English
I hear this all the time.
My problem is I have a problem with you.
Know, I hear that all the time and I tell them no, you don't have a problem.
That's not your problem.
That is language learning.
Every single language learner has this quote-unquote problem because it's not a problem.
It's part of learning a language.
You don't go from not knowing English to suddenly you don't make mistakes in English.
That doesn't exist. in order to reach a high level, you are gonna go through phases.
At the beginning, you can't even say sentences.
And then later, when you can put sentences together, they're still filled with errors.
And then even when you correct a lot of your errors, there are still a lot of other errors.
That's how language learning works.
And that's why it takes many, many, many hours.
I'm talking thousands of hours of really in-depth, meaningful practice in a language to reach a level where you don't have many mistakes.
That's a very high level of a language when you don't really have many mistakes.
That's my opinion.
Other people who are stricter, they don't agree with me.
They think that mistakes are problems.
For me, it's a problem only if it's causing the other person to misunderstand you, and so now you can't communicate.
But again, that's not even a real problem in the general sense, because that's what happens with language learners.
But I think you understand what I'm saying.
It's a problem in real life if it's affecting your communication In a way that's causing the other person to think you said something different from what you really said.
And now there's a miscommunication.
That's what we are trying to avoid.
And that's what we are trying to correct most importantly.
But all of these little quote-unquote problems because you used the wrong preposition or whatever, but people still understood what you said then that's just part of learning to speak better and you're just on your journey and who cares if you made a slight mistake, if the other person can understand what you're saying?
OK, so some people underestimate their level because they have this idea that they aren't supposed to make mistakes.
Otherwise, their level is low.
And that's just not the case in my opinion.
So language learning is hard, all right, and it takes a really long time, no matter what people try to tell you.
I don't think this can be argued.
I don't think learning languages is easy.
I don't think that you can just do it really quickly.
I think, in reality, we can all agree that learning a language is a hard thing.
It takes a really long time, and we're all in the same boat, meaning all of us who learn languages.
We go through the same struggles.
We deal with the same issues, the same challenges.
It's hard for all of us.
We all need to spend tons of hours doing this and we all experience the feeling of not being able to understand native speakers and not being able to express ourselves well, the feeling that we're not making progress.
This is all normal.
Don't think about this as your specific problem.
Okay, this is inevitable.
This is how we feel during different phases of the language learning process.
And remember that you are not viewing other people's, other learners' struggles and processes, okay?
You only know your own struggles.
You only see your own language learning routine and your own process.
You only know your own struggles, your own path.
You don't know what other people, other learners are going through.
You just see the product of all of their hours of struggle and study and all of that.
That's going to make you feel like you're struggling more because you only know your struggles.
You're not there with the other learners who are struggling with similar things, or maybe they're struggling even more than you.
You're not there to see that, so you only focus on the fact that you are struggling.
That's going to make you feel like you're worse than your level really is.
And when you're faced with all of the challenges of learning English, you might feel like you're incapable of overcoming them, and this leads you to underestimate your ability, underestimate your level.
We all probably do that.
Okay, when you are faced with a native speaker who's talking to you and you have no idea what they're saying, of course this is gonna make you feel like you are not good in English or whatever language you're learning.
We all go through this, okay?
So don't overreact.
Don't think that these are your personal problems.
These are the things that all language learners deal with.
And here's something you can do.
Think about the things that you can understand in English now, the types of videos or podcast episodes you can understand now.
And then think back to the time when you weren't able to understand these things, because there was a time when you wouldn't have been able to understand this podcast episode right now.
It would have just sounded like a bunch of gibberish to you. meaning unclear speech, right?
There was a time when this type of content would have seemed really challenging for you.
And yet now you're listening to it and you can understand most of it.
So that is something to think about, because right now you're dealing with the same thing, but with content that is a higher level or different just talking to native speakers right.
Well, at some point in the future, if you stay consistent with your practice, then the challenges you have now will one day feel less difficult And the things you can't understand well now will be more understandable.
This has already happened to you, right?
So just think of it like that.
Remember that this is part of the process.
And when it comes to underestimating your level, when people ask you what's your level in English or whatever, try to give yourself a little credit, right.
Don't just talk about how low your level is and how hard everything is.
Acknowledge how much you've already learned and how much you know now.
Like if someone asks me my level in Greek, for example, quite honestly, my level is not high.
It's low.
I'm just being honest.
However, I can understand a lot of words.
I know a lot of words, especially when I'm reading Greek.
I can understand a lot and I try to acknowledge this fact.
I don't just want to say, well, I can't speak well.
I can only have really basic conversations or whatever.
Right.
I also want to acknowledge that. how far I've come, right?
I can read a lot of Greek.
I can understand a lot, even when I'm listening to harder content, especially if I can activate the subtitles, I can understand quite a bit.
I try to acknowledge that and it helps me stay motivated, and it helps me not get discouraged, and it helps me remember that.
Hey, if I had watched this Greek video six months ago, I wouldn't have understood almost anything.
And now I understand a lot of it.
So I once felt like this was extremely hard and now it's not as hard.
Well, the same thing will happen with the content that I view as very hard right now.
Maybe a year from now, I'll think about how easy it is for me to understand that now.
So it's good to acknowledge what you've done, the accomplishments you've achieved so far.
It's important to give yourself credit. and not just always underestimate your skills, your level.
So I think that's important.
And I also wanna kind of encourage you to Use content that is challenging for you, even though it might make you feel like you're not very good.
You're listening.
Comprehension is not at a very high level.
Even though you might feel like this, using that difficult content will help take you to the next level, right.
If you're at an intermediate level and you just listen to content made for intermediate students, then you're not gonna improve that quickly because you're not exposing yourself to the content that you eventually want to be able to understand.
But right now it's challenging.
That's the type of content you need to focus on.
Right?
That's why, for example, I make my advanced podcast episodes, so people can start to practice with fast English.
And that's why I make my US Conversation podcast episodes, so that people can start listening to authentic conversations between native speakers.
Of course, at the beginning you might not feel very good when you listen to this type of content, especially the US Conversations podcast.
You might not feel super confident when you're listening to your first episode of it, but over time this type of content will help you reach the level where you're.
This content is not so hard.
You have to challenge yourself.
You have to use content that is above your level.
And this is what I always do as a language learner.
And this is what I recommend you do as well.
So I hope that this episode gave you some encouragement not to think so negatively about your own English level.
And I hope it encourages you to challenge yourself.
If you like this podcast, please follow it.
Please click on the follow button on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
That really helps me out.
And challenge yourself and use the advanced content that I produce my advanced episodes, my US Conversations podcast.
Check those out.
Give them a try.
Start to become accustomed to to that level of English and little by little your listening comprehension will improve and that content, which might seem challenging now, will feel less challenging as time goes on.
So if you want those resources, those links are down below.
Thank you all for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
