Your English Enemy Is...
hi i’m vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm today we’re going to talk
about your enemy let’s get started
first let’s talk about what is an enemy
an enemy is the opposite of a friend
someone who hates you someone who is
really mean to you rude to you the enemy
not a friend so as I said in the
beginning of this video today we’re
talking about your enemy who is your
enemy well as an English Learner I think
that your enemy is perfectionism
perfectionism being perfect will never
happen even for me as a native English
speaker I’m going to make mistakes to
perfectionism is the enemy of the
English Learner English learner or any
other kind of learner I want to give you
some positive examples today of some of
my students who have overcome
perfectionism they have realized that
even though they aren’t perfect English
speakers it doesn’t matter
they’re going to try anyway the first
example is one of my Japanese students
he told me that he’s a little shy maybe
he feels uncomfortable meeting new
people but he said I don’t care I feel
good when I go out and meet new people
and try to speak English with them he
recognized that it’s difficult for him
it’s not something that comes naturally
that’s easy but he decided you know what
I’m going to do this anyway and he said
that when he does it you feel so proud
of himself
so great that he went out and talked to
other people if he said I’m not sure if
I’m going to go out and speak English
today it’s not going to be perfect
maybe he would feel unmotivated
depressed upset about his decision so he
decided I’m going to go out and do it
I’m just going to go on skype and speak
English or I’m going to find a group in
my city who’s speaking English he went
out and he conquered his fear
another example is one of my students
who is from France now one of my
students from France she said that it’s
difficult for her to go and speak
English because she’s worried about her
accent that when she says things other
people might not understand her so after
talking with me about this and how she
felt like her accent isn’t perfect and
that this is holding her back we decided
to have a little challenge and I told
her I want her to go and try to speak
English with someone every single day
she lives in the u.s. so I said hey go
to the grocery store and try to speak
English every day even if it’s just a
little bit if they can’t understand you
just repeat yourself don’t feel upset
don’t feel depressed about it just do it
and you know what she did this for a
whole week every day she went to some
store to someone and tried to speak
English a little bit and by the end of
the week she wasn’t scared about making
mistakes because a few times someone
asked her to repeat herself but it
didn’t matter she just repeated herself
and the next time she learned and she
wasn’t afraid of being asked to repeat
herself she wasn’t afraid that her
accent wasn’t perfect because she just
tried and I think this is the kind of
thing that gives you confidence it gives
you motivation to continue and to really
be a confident English speaker because
perfectionism it’s the enemy it’s the
enemy of English learners of learning
anything you are not going to be perfect
I’m not going to be perfect so you have
to realize it’s okay it’s okay to not be
perfect it’s okay if someone asks me to
repeat myself because I’m practicing I’m
trying and the next time maybe they
won’t ask you to repeat themselves to
repeat yourself so thanks so much for
watching this video and I hope that you
realize that perfectionism don’t think
about it put
it away it is the enemy I encourage you
to just try so leave me a comment below
and let me know do you feel like it’s
difficult for you to speak English
because you want to be perfect do you
feel like ah I need to be perfect before
I can have conversations in English let
me know in the comments below and please
join me on my website where I’m going to
be talking a little bit more about
perfectionism and how you can overcome
it
thanks so much and talk to you later
good bye
the
you