This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 82, how to avoid missing out on English opportunities.
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 Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Boston and New York City, USA.
Hey.
Are you taking big risks in your English life today?
Find out what risks Aubrey and Lindsay have taken and how these kinds of risks can help you learn English and have a better life.
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How's everything going, Aubrey?
How are you?
I am excellent.
How are you?
Good.
I'm excited to be here.
I love talking about risk-taking.
I know, right?
I think we're both risk-takers a little bit.
So this is going to be fun to chat about today.
Yeah, there's something a little bit enticing to me, intoxicating about risk.
Not in a bad way.
Yeah, I'm wondering like what types of risks because I know you and I have both traveled abroad.
I'm excited to hear a little bit about Your experience today.
But what about like physical risks?
Have you ever gone base jumping or skydiving?
Anything like that?
I don't think that qualifies for me in that same way.
It's interesting, right?
I'm like, oh, we're risk takers.
And I'm thinking our listeners might have a different idea than we do.
Yeah, we haven't been jumping out.
Have you never been skydiving?
I have never.
Nor do I plan to.
Okay.
So maybe we don't walk the talk or talk the walk or however they say that.
But...
I guess, in terms of life choices, we're both kind of risk takers and we're going to share some risks that we've taken today.
And we're going to talk about why you have to take some kind of risk, guys, to improve your English.
And we're not just talking about English on the show.
Right, Aubrey?
What are we talking about here?
Yeah, right.
We were.
I mean this show.
We're focusing a lot on business, on making connections with people, networking so that you can accomplish your goals and live the biggest life you can.
So today we want you to think about risk in a new way.
Not necessarily skydiving, but risks for your English skills, your experiences and your life as a whole.
Yeah, it's so true.
It's so true.
And it makes me think.
I have to look this term up, but it makes me think of the term that entrepreneurs use, something like they say, like a distorted field of reality.
They create their own field of reality when they build companies.
Because if they thought with a normal frame...
You know if you were looking for venture capital investment.
You're going after investors and you're saying I have this idea and I want you to put all this money into this idea.
I'm going to spend, you know, 50 hours a week, a day working on this.
If you're thinking in a normal way that no one would do that, right?
You would never start to.
You would never do that.
So they distort their field of reality and they teach themselves a new reality so they can take that risk.
That's kind of what we're doing here a little bit, isn't it?
Exactly.
Yeah.
And it's what we're asking of you guys, right?
Listening to this podcast, you're taking risks with English, putting yourself in situations where you'll be able to practice using your English speaking with other people learning English or natives.
And there is an element of risk there.
So tell me, Lindsay.
Yeah.
Tell me a little bit about the first time you went somewhere where you were trying to learn to speak that language and you were taking a little bit of a risk.
You weren't quite fluent yet.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
So I was living a pretty good life.
Granted not, you know, not a super luxurious life in New York, but I had found my rent-controlled apartment on the Upper East Side right.
I was good.
I could have stayed in that apartment.
That's big.
I could have stayed in that apartment until I was 40, right?
And paying very little to live in Manhattan.
I was like a 10 minute walk to Central Park.
Life was good.
I had a job.
I was living my New York life, but there was a voice inside me and it said I have to be fluent in Spanish.
It was just something that came from deep within me and said hey, I just, this was something I thought I would always do.
I figured I would always do and I haven't done it.
And I wasn't okay with that.
So I made the decision to pick up my life.
I got rid of my apartment.
Sadly my roommate moved to Brooklyn and I went to South America and I went backpacking in South America for a year.
And I just dove right in.
And it was scary at times, for sure.
Trying to figure things out, trying to learn the language, trying to find places to live in these places.
But I'm so glad I did it.
I'm so glad I did it.
Yeah.
Would you say that you learned faster there than you would have?
You know with textbooks and taking classes in New York.
Absolutely.
I know the answer.
Absolutely.
A hundred percent.
And I also have so many great memories.
The people I met, the conversations I had in Spanish and in English, but in Spanish just the moments that I will never forget.
I can't imagine if I didn't have those now in my heart.
I know, right?
It's similar for me when I wanted to learn French and my motivation was, you know, my dad's an artist and he would go to France once a year, every other year, to take pictures and to paint on location.
And he told me when I was pretty young that if I learned French, he would take me with him as his translator.
So I wanted that.
I was very motivated.
I took classes.
And then I went as an au pair to Belgium and realized oh man, my classes did not prepare me for French.
But once I was there, I took the risk of just introducing myself to everyone I could, making those opportunities to speak French.
And I learned 100 times faster than I did in classes.
And it was kind of scary going there.
I was very young, 18, didn't know anyone, right, to just show up.
Not really anyone, no friends, but just like you, so worth it.
I'm so grateful for the experiences I had, the people I met and how fast I was able to learn the language.
Now Aubrey, did you?
Because we've heard about this a little bit on a couple of the web classes, but did you have a?
Because often when you go abroad, there's I don't know whether it's a couple of weeks or a month or a few months where it's just awful.
Yeah.
It's just awful.
And then you have got a turning point, a moment where you start to gain some ground.
Something changes.
Yeah, that's exactly what happened for me.
When did that happen for you?
And I was invited to a dinner where there were a few au pairs and several French speakers.
And I had really been forcing myself to have these opportunities to speak French.
And I realized it had really paid off because at this dinner, I was able to actually communicate.
I could understand the conversations.
I could speak.
And I met a couple new French speaking friends, because up until there, on the au pairs, we were speaking in English together right,
Right.
So to be having those connections in French was so exciting for me.
I was finally able to understand and make jokes.
That was huge when I remember I could make a joke and understand a joke, right?
It's such a different level.
Yeah.
And so did you have to.
So you kind of had to attend that dinner that night, see yourself understanding and connecting, and then you had to come away and say, oh my gosh, something's changed.
But did you know that it had changed until you got to that dinner?
Or did you have to witness that moment?
Yeah, I didn't realize because I hadn't.
I was still really just speaking, mostly with English speakers.
But then just taking every chance I could to hear French spoken and to speak what little French I could with you know the kids or you know people out and about whenever I had a chance.
And it did.
It was sort of eye opening, like an aha moment all of a sudden.
Oh, I can come to a dinner and speak in French with someone and understand.
Yeah.
That's so cool.
And this is the kind of thing that we all.
This is an amazing moment in our lives that you know, in your English journey, guys are going to have a lot of moments like this is not just one moment.
It's a bunch of your moments, the light bulb goes on, and you've reached that next level.
It happens only when we take risks.
And it doesn't, of course, have to be about going abroad, right, Aubrey?
What are some examples of some risks our listeners could take, even if they, just they can't go abroad for whatever reason?
Yeah, we recently talked about volunteering.
This is a great one, right?
You may be a little nervous. to volunteer if there are other English speakers there.
Even if you don't live in an English-speaking country.
If you were to go to a school that's maybe dual immersion with English speakers and take opportunities to volunteer there and practice, then you're going to get exposure to English.
And it might be a little scary.
You might be worried that your English isn't good enough.
But if you take that risk, dive in, you'll never regret it.
Yeah, so these are other things we can do.
It doesn't have to be traveling.
But I'd say you live a life of risk taking, right?
What's the worst that can happen?
My dad also was a risk taker.
He started his own business.
I've shared on the show before.
And you know, he would kind of got that message into me somehow.
He would always say, what's the worst that can happen?
Right?
That's a good message.
A good message is such a down to earth message.
It's a good message.
I don't have a lot of chances to speak English or I just, you know what I mean?
The worst that could happen is no different than what would be if you just stayed home and didn't take the risk in the first place.
Exactly.
So guys, today you know your assignment after listening to today's episode is go figure out what level of risk are you taking in your life right now.
On a scale of one to 10,
How much risk are you actually taking?
And what could you notch that up to?
If it's a four, could you notch it up to an eight by doing one core thing?
Right?
Take that risk.
We're here to encourage you on All Ears English, but you guys have got to take the action.
Yes, sign up for a class, right?
And it doesn't have to be a language class.
You could take a dance class in English, right?
Online.
There's classes for anything.
You can imagine a cooking class online in English, whatever you're interested in.
That's going to feel like a risk, especially if you feel like your language level isn't as perfect as you'd like it to be.
Take that risk and you're going to see exponential growth.
I love that.
That is so good.
Guys, that's our message for today.
We encourage you to take those risks.
All right, guys.
So next time, in the next episode, we're going to talk about how to speak English at a professional event or a party.
So we're going to go into parties and events and all that good stuff.
Aubrey, thanks for hanging out today.
I appreciate it.
Yes.
Awesome.
See you next time.
Talk to you soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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