Original Source Episode: 2180 Show: All Ears English

This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2180. Do Americans expect you to be fluent in English? Welcome to the All Ears English podcast. Downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We’ll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email, every week go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe.

Today we answer a listener question. When you move to the US, do local people expect perfect fluency? Find out today. Hey, Michelle, what’s going on? How are you today? What’s shaking? I am good. I am good. How are you? Oh, I’m feeling good. We’ve been getting a lot of listener emails lately. We have a few super listeners out there who have listened to all of our episodes and it’s just incredible. It’s been very heartwarming lately to hear from our listeners by email. Don’t you think? Absolutely. Yeah, you sent one. Was it yesterday? Yes, and it was just beautiful and it really does mean a lot to us. So guys, just know that we see your emails, we see your reviews and we’re really touched and thankful for you. Yeah, leave our show a review, guys. Let us know what you think. If you’ve listened to many episodes, tell us your opinion and we absolutely love to hear from you.

All right, Michelle, today we’re getting into an episode topic. Do you have a question to open the topic today? I do. Linda, you’ve learned a lot of languages and I just wanna know what kind of pressure do you feel to be fluent in a new language? Yeah, I mean, I think my scenario is different as a native speaker of English going out and learning different languages. My angle on these languages is enrichment and it’s kind of as a hobbyist, right? So I recognize there’s privilege just in that. So I would first say that, right? So I haven’t really felt pressure to be fluent. Although I would say when I went to South America, this is a long time ago, 2008, I set myself a goal of a year of backpacking in South America. I wanted to come back fluent in Spanish so that I could then work in Spanish. I wanted to work with immigrant communities in New York and I did actually got an internship after that. So I did have some personal goals. I don’t like uncompleted loops, incomplete loops. If there’s a loop in my head, something I wanna, I say I’m gonna do, I have to do it. And so I ended up putting myself in situations in Argentina and Guatemala where I had to speak and I did basically achieve conversational fluency. Maybe not, you know, C2 level fluency, perfect, but enough to really feel confident to a presentation, that kind of thing. So yeah, personal pressure, but not systemic pressure, not pressure of a society or of a job opportunity, that kind of thing. Right, interesting, interesting.

So that’s what our question today is about. This question is from Leo Hamawaki. And Lindsay, would you like to read it for us? Yeah, so Leo is from Brazil. He says, I’m from Brazil. Here in our English courses, we have a lot of pressure to be fluent. Does the pressure exist when we arrive in America or do Americans require this fluency? Thank you.

Oh, it’s a good question. It’s a good question. Yes, this is a meaty one. We could really get into. So thank you for this question. I mean, right off the bat, Lindsay, what do you think? Do you think Americans want people to be fluent? No, I think that people want people to be earnest in working hard. Like a hard work is such a fabric of our society. You know, so many of our innovations in the last 100 years, if you look back, have come from immigrants, people who have immigrated to the States and created companies because they’re coming with such motivation. So much innovation, so motivation and needing to succeed leads to innovation. So I think what people want here is they want people to work hard, invent something, create something, add value to society. That’s what it is. What do you think, Michelle? I totally agree. I think just showing that you are interested in learning, putting in effort, I think that is everything. I don’t think that most people are looking for someone to be completely fluent. So, of course, this can depend on the context. But guys, if you want to listen to an episode about getting your English better, to be better, listen to episode 2171, was take your English up a notch with this episode. Yeah, so I do think people are very tolerant, especially the more you get to know them, they’re going to love you for you. They want to know you for you. So beyond just the fact that they want you to work hard and go out and create and add to the community, they also just want to know you. And once they know you as a person, it’s like once you know someone personally, it’s we don’t push them away or put them in a box, right, Michelle? So there’s something to that, that human connection that we want to find beyond language. For sure. And I also think it depends on the context of this personal pressure you put on yourself. I mean, so work, I mean, work or school, you may have to achieve a certain level of proficiency. And so in that sense, there is that pressure. If there are certain benchmarks that you need to complete. But social, I think it goes back to what Lindsay was saying, is showing that you’re trying, people getting to know you, things like that. Or day-to-day life, going to the store, going to all of these things. I think if you show that you’re trying, I would hope that most people don’t have this feeling like, oh, others have to be fluent. Oh, 100%. I think it also depends on we can make choices as to where we go, where we live in the States, living in a place where we do hear more accents. I find that very enriching. And a place like New York, it’s just so international, Michelle. And so, and I think people love accents. I think they love to hear that international, those international accents, it’s kind of fun. It gives you personality in a way. I think so too. And that’s one of the reasons why if I have a student come to me and say, oh, I don’t want to have my accent, well, let’s talk about that. I think what is more important is to focus on being understood. But the accents, that’s such a special thing. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So all right, what else do we need to know to answer our question for our listener today? What else can we say? Let’s talk about what doesn’t mean to be fluent. I mean, the definition from Cambridge is it says, able to speak a language easily and well, spoken easily and without many pauses. But I think that fluent can be different depending on the context as well. I mean, Lindsay, the question is, do you think you can make mistakes and still be fluent? Oh, 100%. Yeah, because I would say we are fluent in English and we make mistakes, right? And so 100%, you guys know, our listeners know that our philosophy is connection, not perfection. So maybe another podcast, maybe a linguist would answer this question a little differently or a grammarian. So it kind of depends on your angle on life and language. What is your goal? Is your goal to be perfect and to be a grammarian and write dictionaries? Then maybe you do. Maybe fluency is different than if you want to just build a life, have friends, be happy, have a job, and connect, right? Right. I don’t think that you have to speak perfect English to be fluent at all. I think it’s more about being able to express your ideas. Having a little bit of a confidence behind the way you speak, I think, is also a sign of fluency. But in general, I don’t think Americans require this kind of fluency. I think most people are understanding. However, Lindsay, if you touched on this a little bit, you will encounter, you may encounter, I hope not, people who could get frustrated or feel like everyone should know English. And to me, that’s very upsetting when those things happen. But that’s not to scare you. But I also don’t want to pretend that those kinds of people don’t exist. No, I do think that right now, sadly, there’s kind of a movement and uprising of people of sort of a sense of protectionism, especially in certain political parties. Protectionism of certain slabs of society, like chunks of society feeling left behind in a way, right? And so they’re getting angry. And there is something, if you follow politics, you should follow this, because it’s kind of scary what we’re seeing happen in our society right now. And so that can’t be denied, I agree, Michelle. We have to acknowledge that. But even within a city, let’s say Denver, if you’re coming to Denver, if you’re moving to Denver, you can decide what neighborhood to live in, who to be around. So you would face less of that kind of anger that’s seeming to crop up and show up in places, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Imagine how great it would be if you could answer just seven questions and find out your English fluency level in a simple, easy way, and find out what to do to reach 99% fluency. Well, you can do this by taking our quick fluency score quiz. What is your fluency score? Find out in just a few minutes. Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. OK, Michelle, what’s next? OK, so should you put the pressure on? That’s the question. Should you put that pressure on yourself? So I don’t think so. I think even if work requires it, the thing is pressure is not going to help you. You’ve got to motivate yourself. And I think that those two things are a little bit different. What do you think, Lindsay? I think it could be the same thing. Just it depends on what you’re doing. I think it could be the same thing, just a personal thing. My pressure and motivation, like for me, when I went to South America, I said I have a year and then I’m going to go get a job in New York. I would it would be a really great professional asset to have Spanish. So that was pressure and motivation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, this goes back to what is an internal and external motivation. Yeah, sure. Yes, absolutely. But you guys, you know, motivate yourselves by having fun and making small, measurable goals. And again, thinking about why do you need to achieve a certain level? Is it for work? What is it for? But today, I also thought we could talk about how to ask someone if you need to have a certain level of English for something. OK. So let’s just go over a few different things that you could say to give you guys a little something to walk away with here that you could practice. All right, here we go. So here’s something we could say. So guys, write this one down. Is there a certain level of proficiency I need to achieve for this position, this job, this university, to matriculate at this university, for example, right? Yes, yes. Or you could say, are there any tests I’m required to pass to show my proficiency? Or do I need to fulfill any specific requirements as far as my English goes? These are wordy questions, but they’re good. They’re important, right? We need to know about this. Yeah. I could see somebody maybe you could even have these in an email. Maybe you are making phone calls to different schools. You’re considering coming to school here, and you want to find out the requirements. So you could use things like that for those scenarios. Yeah, and I know that schools are reevaluating their entrance exams, what’s required. We obviously provide training in IELTS. So go over and find the IELTS Energy Podcast. That is a great resource if you’re getting ready to take the test. But there are other resources if you need to take TOEFL or dual lingo English test. There are places you can go to get trained and prepped for these things. OK, guys, so you’re not on your own. That’s the key, right? But I think, Michelle, if you have the dream, the motivation, you’re going to do fine. If you surround yourself with the right people, right? Yeah, absolutely. Put your mind to it, and you can do anything. It’s true, though. Yeah, any other takeaway for today before we finish up the episode? Any final thoughts? I mean, well, yeah. Yeah, go ahead. No, I was just going to say, it depends on what you’re learning for. What is the purpose of you practicing your English? Is it a little bit more for fun? Is it for social interaction? Is it for a job? We have to think about those contexts. And don’t be afraid to ask if you’re not sure. And then also that piece Lindsay mentioned surrounding yourself with people who are open-minded, who are willing to, who don’t feel like you need to be perfect all the time, because that actually is going to hinder your fluency, in my opinion. Yeah, and I think we put up these blocks in our minds. We put up these blocks like, I can do this with what I have, my level of fluency, but I couldn’t do this. So I’m going to put up a brick wall between me and the thing I really want to do, the level at which I want to operate, right? I mean, so an example, a little bit of an analogy here is the types of people we interview here on this show. We’re looking to up our game, interview more famous people, right? So there’s an author that I’ll be interviewing that this episode will be coming out in the next few months. And he was just on MSNBC last week, okay? He’s going to be on All Ears English very soon. Now, I’m a native speaker of English. It’s a little bit different, but it’s not, because I also sometimes have the block in my head, not for language, but for different things. Oh, that wouldn’t be suitable for that kind of high profile author. Actually, his topic is exactly what we talk about every day on this show. And he’s a perfect guest. He wrote back to me right away and said, I’d love to. Wow, nice, that’s exciting. Your level of what’s possible changes in your mind. So I want to encourage our listeners, if you’re at that party, you know, there’s that person, maybe they’re a icon in your field of study your industry, go right up to them. There’s nothing stopping you. There’s no block there. You put that brick wall up for yourself, so you can take it down, okay? Oh my gosh, what an inspiring way to end it. That was beautiful, beautifully said Lindsay. Thank you, that’s absolutely right guys. So thank you so much for listening today. Thank you for that question. That was a deep question. And I’m glad we got to really explore it today. So guys, you can do it. All right, good stuff guys. Hit follow if you love our philosophy of connection, not perfection. This is it right here. All right, Michelle, I’ll see you in the next one. All right, bye. Take care, bye.

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