Day 24 Your English Enemy Is

Hi, I’m Vanessa from speakenglishwithvanessa.com. Today, we are 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 are 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 too. Perfectionism is the enemy of 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 are going to try anyway.

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’s difficult for him, it’s not something come naturally, that’s easy, but he decided. You know what? I’m going to do this anyway. And he said when he does it, he 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 going to go on skype and speak English. I’m going to find a group in my city who speak 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 who from France, she said that it’s difficult for her to go and speak English because she’s worried about her accent. When she said things, some other people might not understand her. So, after talking with me about this and how she felt like her accent isn’t perfect and 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 US. So I said “Hey, go to the grocery store and try to speak English every day. Even 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 stores to someone and try 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 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 kind of thing that gives you confidence, gives you motivation to continue and to really be a confident English speaker. Because perfectionism is the enemy, is the enemy of the English learners of learning anything. You’re not going to be perfect, I’m not going to be perfect. So you have to realize it’s OK, it’s OK to be not perfect. It’s OK 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 yourself.

So, thanks so much for watching this video and I hope you realize that perfectionism, don’t think about it. Push 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 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. And 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. Goodbye.

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