65- Your Top 6 Excuses for Why You Can't Speak English
Lindsay: This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 65, Deep Thoughts Thursday: “Your Top 6 Excuses for Why You Can't Speak English.” Gabby: Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, where you'll finally get real, native English conversation. Now here are your hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer' and Gabby Wallace, the ‘Language Angel,' coming to you from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Lindsay: In today's episode, you'll learn six common excuses that you are using for not improving your English and you'll also learn how to take back your English power and how to stop using these excuses.
Lindsay: What's going on Gabby?
Gabby: Hey Lindsay. I'm good. How are you?
Lindsay: Good. I'm happy to be here. (I'm) ready to record another episode.
Gabby: Excellent.
All Ears English. Here we go.
Gabby:
Me too.
Lindsay:
What are we talking about today?
Gabby:
We're talking about excuses.
Lindsay:
Oh my gosh. Excuses. Do you use excuses a lot?
Gabby:
I try not to.
Lindsay:
Yeah.
Gabby:
I know you try not to…
Lindsay:
I try not to.
Gabby:
…as well.
Lindsay:
I try to get that (sort of) inner – (sort of) monitor myself and when I hear myself making excuses. I say, ‘No, no, no. Come on.
Gabby:
Yeah.
Lindsay:
‘ Let's be honest.'
Gabby:
Well and you have a, a quote that you wanna (want to) share with our listeners about excuses today.
Lindsay:
Yeah.
So there's a great quote here from, from Florence Nightingale and she says “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.” Gabby:
That's great. That's good advice.
Lindsay:
Yeah, it is.
Gabby:
So we were just talking and (you know), we were reflecting on some of what you all have told us, (you know), about your challenges and we respect that for sure. (Um), we know there are a lot of challenges to learning a language, but we would like to go through some of the top excuses and talk about how you can overcome them. So to give you your power back and control your language learning.
Lindsay:
© All Ears English www.allearsenglish.com
Yeah.
Absolutely.
So the top six. Here we go.
Number one “I don't have any opportunities to practice my English with native speakers.” Gabby:
Right.
Lindsay:
Have you ever heard that excuse?
Gabby;
Oh definitely.
Lindsay:
Oh, my gosh.
Gabby:
Even from people living in the US or living in an English-speaking country. Sometimes if you live with people who speak your language, it can be difficult to get out and speak English, (um), but Lindsay, I know you have a great program to help people.
Lindsay:
Yeah, so I'm working on a program. I will connect you with a native English speaker and help you to practice conversation and to be corrected at my new program called Speakative and that is at www.speakative.com, s-p-ea-k-a-t-i-v-e.com. So come on over and we'll solve your problem there.
Gabby:
Great.
Lindsay:
What's number two?
Gabby:
Number two is ‘no time.”
Lindsay:
I have no time.
Gabby:
Yeah.
I think it's really a matter of your priorities. We all have the same amount of time in the day and we all have to choose what gets done and what we leave for tomorrow.
Lindsay:
Yeah.
Gabby:
So the idea that ‘Oh I'll start the diet tomorrow' or ‘I'll leave, (you know), my chores for mañana,' it's not gonna (going to) work with English.
Lindsay:
Yeah.
So what – yeah, what are you doing with your time? Analyze your daily schedule.
Gabby:
Yeah.
(You know), are you gonna (going to) sit and watch TV or are you gonna (going to) work on your English.
Gabby:
Whatever is most important to you, do it first.
Lindsay:
Definitely. Next excuse: “I have no money.” Gabby:
Right.
Well as you know if you're listening to this podcast, there are a lot of free resources out there, (uh), and (you know) of course we recommend to (you) invest in your learning, but it's really not an excuse. You can still get out there and access a lot of good materials for learning.
Lindsay:
Definitely. Next one, “I'm shy. I can't start conversations with people. I don't know what to say.” Gabby:
Yeah, we've offered some advice for shy students out there, for you guys to (um), (you know), to prepare yourselves and advance so that you can build your confidence, maybe (you know), think of some phrases that you could use in advance to start a conversation. (Um) there are other techniques, too, that we've mentioned before in other episodes.
Lindsay:
Yeah.
So please go back into our old episodes. We have more than 60 episodes up in iTunes now, so please go ahead and check those out.
Gabby:
Yeah.
If you go to our website, too, there's a (um) field where you can search episodes. So if you type in the word ‘shy,' you can find all the places where we talk about what to do if you're shy.
Lindsay:
Yeah.
That's a good idea.
Gabby:
Yeah.
Lindsay:
Okay. Great.
And the next one, “I can't understand everything that people say, so I'm not gonna (going to) try to go into a conversation ‘cause (because) I'm afraid of what's gonna (going to) happen.” Gabby:
Well, it's a real fear that you're missing out on some information, but it's still not a valid excuse right?
Lindsay:
Definitely. You cannot let those fears kind of stop you from going out and speaking.
Gabby:
Yeah.
Try to understand the main ideas and then ask questions if you're not sure.
Lindsay:
And the last one is “No one corrects me.” Gabby:
(Hmm) that's interesting. (Um) we're gonna (going to) talk more about that in another episode about, (you know) why we don't, as Americans we don't correct… Lindsay:
Yeah, that's gonna (going to) be interesting.
Gabby:
Yeah, (um) but it's not, it's not a reason why you can't improve your English, right?
Lindsay:
Absolutely.
Gabby:
If you work with a tutor or a teacher, (uh) you can certainly expect them to correct you.
Lindsay:
Yeah.
Or even just a conversation partner. So find an opportunities, (um), to actually actively have people correct you.
Gabby:
There's (there are) even ways to correct yourself.
Lindsay:
Sure.
Gabby:
Right.
Lindsay:
Absolutely.
And as I mentioned before, Speakative, our program, the conversation program is a good way to do that, to be corrected too.
Gabby:
Excellent.
Lindsay:
Okay. Well that was fun. Thank you.
Gabby:
So no excuses guys.
Lindsay:
Good luck.
[Instrumental]
Gabby: If you want to connect with us, come to our website allearsenglish.com/win. That's w-i-n. We want to share the four ways towin at English. So again, come to allearsenglish.com/win to connect with us and learn the four ways to win at English.
Lindsay: If you like to put your ears into English with Lindsay and Gabby, be sure to subscribe to the podcast audio in iTunes for free on your computer or on your Smartphone. Thanks for listening to the All Ears English Podcast. See you next time.