It happens that you learn and learn this English, but things just don’t work out. Marina Elchaninova, head of the online school for adults and teenagers English Dive In, talks about common mistakes in learning and teaching English. Maria Kostina, a geophysicist at a Canadian company who is now learning English in the fields, comments on the story.
“Oh, I made a mistake, shame!”
We are very critical of ourselves, and when we make a mistake in grammar or pronounce a word incorrectly, we immediately sprinkle ashes on our heads: “What a horror! That’s it, I’m generally stupid” or “I have a Russian accent, it’s a nightmare!”
Firstly, everything is not as scary as it seems. Our people speak normally. Yes, albeit with mistakes. I traveled to different countries and realized that people don’t always worry if they don’t speak English. They explain themselves on their fingers, on tambourines, on anything, but are not ashamed of not knowing English.
I’m currently attending a free conversation club for newcomers to Canada. People here are from different countries: Iran, Syria, Colombia. And only our Slavs worry about how bad their English is. There is one girl, she can express her thoughts, everyone encourages her, they say that her English is good, but no, she is fixated on the fact that her pronunciation is bad and that she speaks poorly.
Maria Kostina
Secondly, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Fear of them, of speaking English, prevents you from communicating. Let me give you an example. I go to a supermarket in Greece. I need to buy a souvenir, a Raffaello chocolate bar. I say: “Do you have Rafaello”? Saleswoman: “No, no English.” Me: “Raffaello.” She doesn’t understand. That is, a person, having barely heard that the speech is English, has already closed himself and sits in a shell. Also with us.
When we hear a foreigner speak Russian, we think: “Wow, great!” Why do we forgive others’ mistakes, but not ourselves?
Maria Kostina
Don’t close yourself off from communication in English.
“Everyone knows English, but I don’t. We urgently need to learn!”
Setting goals is important: why do I personally need this English? Because people from outside tell you that language is needed for travel? And I don’t travel. Should I watch original films? And I’m good in Russian too. You need your own goal in learning English.
For me, at first it was to overcome the fear that I was not capable of learning the language. Even my mother told me that I couldn’t do anything with English. It was later that my goals expanded and brought me to Canada, but 7 years ago I thought: that’s it, stop being afraid of English, and signed up for my first lesson with a tutor.
Maria Kostina
To understand motivation, answer the question: What if tomorrow you wake up and your English is perfect: perfect pronunciation, speech flows, you don’t think about how to say it, what word to choose. What will change in your life?
A woman of about 55 years old studied with me for two years. Studying was difficult for her. We began to analyze her motivation. She worked in one of the largest companies in St. Petersburg. She says: “If my English is good, I will go to India. I will have a lot of business trips, a good career and position. But I won’t be at home much, I won’t be with my family, with my sons. I won’t see them much, I’ll miss some holidays.” She turns out to be afraid of speaking English. And she sits in shock because she didn’t even understand this. This is how the fear of new opportunities and their consequences prevents us from developing.
In Kamchatka I worked with an Australian geophysicist; we usually communicated with him through a translator, but one day he was not there. The driller and my supervisor, the geophysicist, arrive. They had to figure out what drilling fluids were needed and how to conduct geophysical surveys. The driller doesn’t know English. Well, I began to translate the geophysicist’s speech about solutions and pipes. They understood each other! I then realized that when you speak English, you help people communicate!
And then I realized that geospecialists also lack English practice with an emphasis on geothematics. And she created her own speaking club. I talk about it in the article “How a geophysicist and a geologist practiced English together and what came of it».
Maria Kostina
Not everyone needs English. My sister knows hello, sister and that’s it. She is comfortable, she is successful, she has her own career in Russia.
If you like learning languages, if you have a goal related to languages, then you need to learn. But not because “it’s a nightmare, everyone knows, but I’m a fool.” This is wrong.
“I’ll quickly learn everything in one month, and then forget for three months”
There is no need to expect quick results from yourself and hope to move from the entry level to Upper intermediate in two months. Such promises are a common marketing ploy. Those teachers who speak well, not only worked for five or even six years every day for 6-9 hours, but then they went to America to test their pronunciation.
My cases. There is a girl with whom we have been studying since she was 14 years old, now she is 17, she has Advanced. She is simply magical! She had a weak Pre-Intermediate, and was not very conversational: “yes, no, okay” and that’s all. And now her English is excellent. We watch serious films with her, read serious articles. She studied systematically for all three years.
And in February-March, one student and I stopped classes. We have been studying since July last year, he was at the Elementary level. He either went on business trips or something else. And in March he says that he doesn’t feel well about the result. I answer: “Of course you don’t do your homework, you cancel a lot.” We divided the number of all classes conducted by time, and it turned out to be 1.2 classes per week. Therefore, when you miss, go to the fields for three months, take a book with you, download movies, prepare exercises.
To skip is to give up on what you have already learned and know.
Even the teachers maintain their language level. We watch films and communicate with the teaching team only in English. This way I check what they say without errors. We also speak rich, truly complex English, which we cannot speak with students.
“Now I’ll go to an English-speaking country and learn there right away”
If you arrive on Wednesday, you need not to lock yourself in the Russian-speaking circle, but force yourself to go and communicate so that the level of the language also rises. Look for communication to grow a little, when you need to understand more complex things, communicate in bars, at work, when you are completely immersed in the language. My friend moved to Canada with a very intermediate level of language, and for the first year she worked in a store as an assistant just for the sake of English.
In Canada I meet people who have lived here for 10–20 years, and their language level is worse than mine. They have it for household purposes to go to the store. I met a girl who even studied in Canada, but she speaks as if she had never lived in the environment.
Maria Kostina
“We just went through this, how did you forget?”
One of the most important aspects in learning a language is the teacher and his personality. If you are very active, you will find it difficult with a calm teacher. But for some, on the contrary, this option is just right. If you feel uncomfortable, if they put pressure on you: “I already told you, why did you forget?”, then no matter how great the specialist is, you will not be able to absorb the knowledge because of the tension.
Correcting errors is a separate topic. You also need to be able to correct them, and not “have you forgotten, you fool?” With a teacher you just have to make mistakes. You also need to tell the teacher what you like, for example, reading books. One student and I read the book for a month and then discussed it.
Now all schools are conducting demo classes. On it you can check your compatibility with the teacher and his professionalism. It’s a pity that not all students can determine how error-free a teacher speaks. You look at some videos and see that teachers speak with mistakes or even give incorrect material.
Contact trusted people who have good reviews, your friends. Come to demo meetings, see if you feel comfortable or not.
“The Most Important 50 Verbs You Need to Know”
Expressions need to be learned in situations. It is wrong to teach grammar separately and words separately. Why? Because knowing grammar or words does not guarantee their use in conversation. These are two different skills. It’s like learning to drive a car in theory, and then getting behind the wheel and driving out onto the highway.
Therefore, firstly, school assignments to translate texts or learn texts about sports, food, and travel by heart are outdated. Now the rhythm of life is different, the focus of attention is greatly reduced. All scientists are sounding the alarm that we cannot concentrate on one task for a long time. To maintain yourself and your interest, you need interactivity: interactive whiteboards, crosswords, cards.
Secondly, when you are engaged in your profession, you do not cover in lessons what you do not need, for example, sports. You discuss how to pack a backpack, how to outrun a bear.
There is a lot of entertainment in language learning now: films, cartoons. Do you want vocabulary about business? Watch films on such topics, for example, “The Billions,” where there are a lot of words and expressions from business.
From these thoughts our Movie Club was born. Why do I adore him? Because, on the one hand, learning a language from films and cartoons is fun and funny, but on the other hand, you prepare at home very thoroughly: watch the required part, work with words, expressions, idioms, phrasal verbs. It is very difficult to learn the same phrasal verbs separately; you need to learn them in a situation. You saw the scene and remembered it. You remember this or that phrase thanks to the scene you saw. You prepare at home, work with these words, and then at the meeting discuss the actions of the characters: “he did the wrong thing, but I would have done it.” You exchange emotions and insights. You have a lot of speaking practice. And there is a list of cool words that you learned at home, use them right now in conversation.
Don’t learn words out of context.
Mini checklist for learning English
What difficulties have you encountered in learning English? Share your stories in the comments!
