Meet the Three English Experts

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, welcome to The 3 English Experts. I'm Dave, I'm Rebecca, and I'm Birgit, and welcome to this episode. The 3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey. Hi, so welcome to this episode. We're all very excited because it's our first episode of our first podcast. So we're just going to quickly introduce ourselves so you know who the experts are. So I'm Rebecca. I have lived in Frankfurt in Germany for the last 20 years or more. Originally from Sheffield, like Dave, although we have never met, even though we're from the same city, but we've never even met. We've not actually, the three of us have never met live. This is very weird. So we are like remotely doing this now. And I'm an English trainer. I'm a coach. And I'm basically interested in anything to do with languages. I've been teaching for the last 20 years. I also translate. And strangely for a Brit, I speak various languages, which is not very common. I speak German because I've lived here for a long time. But I also speak Spanish, a bit of Japanese, bit of Swahili, bit of Polish, basically anything that's kind of a little bit exotic. I like to have a go. And I suppose my expertise, I am also a coach. So I'm very interested in mindset of learning languages. So why, you know, it's not an academic, it's not only an academic thing. It really is a mindset thing, an attitude thing. And I'm also currently studying to be a positive psychology practitioner. That's a very big word. So I'm looking at the way that psychology and linguistics are connected. So hopefully over the next episodes, I can also share some insights from that. So that's me. And I'm going to hand over now to my Sheffield buddy, Dave, would you like to introduce yourself to our listeners? We'll do, we'll do. Thank you very much, Rebecca. Yeah. So as you heard, I'm Dave. I'm also from Sheffield. And I would say I'm also an unusual Brit, because I speak one or two languages, not as many as Rebecca and as weird languages, you might say, if you think about Japanese and Swahili, I'd love to know how you learned Swahili. Anyway, like Rebecca, I was actually based in Germany for many years before moving to Spain. And I've had over 25 years in business English training. I'm a big believer in basically listening and copying. So listening to people who speak English well and trying to copy what they do. I always look at my son, Matthew, he's learned English that way and also German that way. And so I think it's a nice way to figure out how we can learn languages just by listening and copying. I think we adults often overcomplicate things. I love gamification. I love doing quizzes with my students. I hope they also love that too. And I also love learning about new techniques, technologies, and also apps for making students' life easier when it comes to learning English and also hopefully more enjoyable. So that's me. I'd like now to hand over to Birgit. Birgit, over to you. Hello. Thank you, Dave. Yeah, I'm Birgit. And I actually found those two British guys online. I'm a great lover of English and of England. So I went to live in England almost 30 years ago now. I stayed there for two years. And that's where I learned the language and I ever since used it. So when I came back from England, everybody wanted my English skills where I worked. I worked as a journalist and I wrote for English newspapers. And I was at university and there they asked me, oh, you speak English. So that's so fantastic. So I've never lost the contact with the language and to the country. I still have friends over there. And I've been to Sheffield actually, so I know where you're from. Very good. Yeah. So and I've been an English coach. I've been teaching English for a long time now, almost 20 years, I would say. And I love to help other people get better at English. I also speak Spanish and I'm now learning Dutch. I obviously enjoy languages and I've written three books on English grammar. I mean, me being a journalist coming from the writing background, that's what I do and what I enjoy. And I like and enjoy looking at the structures and to analyze what do people know about the language? What do they not know and what's missing? So this is what my focus is usually on. The big is officially our grammar queen. Thank you so much. Not everybody likes grammar, though. No, but it is essential and it's good if you are able to explain it in an interesting way and a useful way. So, you know, there's no getting away from grammar. No, it's a bit of everything. I think that makes a good balance. And that's what we are here for. Totally agree. Agree. So one of the things we want to talk today in first episode is about why is it still important to learn English or the languages in general? Because we all speak, as we said, various languages. And of course, today with you've got AI, you've got translation software, people say, oh, we don't need to learn language. You've got Google Translate. Why is it still important? Why do we still need to learn languages? Birgit, what do you think? Well, once you learn a language and go into the country, you emerge into a different world, don't you? I mean, that's when I first came to England. That's I really wanted to know what they think, what they talk. And I found it fascinating, to be honest. And I just liked it. Yeah, you get a different insight. I think when you speak a language, you know, to speak in German, you know, you understand humor, for example. The Germans do have humor and you can understand it when you speak the language. But I think if you don't speak the language, it's very difficult when you're speaking both, you know, they're speaking maybe English or you're both speaking a foreign language to each other. It's not the same, is it? You don't have the same feeling when you're not both speaking the same language, right? That sounds wrong, not speaking the same language, but you're speaking their native language. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, I think for me, the word is opportunity. So if you speak different languages, and in particular, from a German perspective, if you want to have the English on this as the main language, I think it gets you into a lot of different situations, whether it's on holiday, we have a phrase in English, the world is your oyster. So that basically means that if you have different languages, then of course, more doors can open for you, you can connect more. And I just think it's a great thing to have. So the many as many languages as possible, I'd say. Yeah, particularly about the English language, I must say, I mean, that's why I learned Spanish when I was in the beginning of my 20s. I thought then in the 90s, well, English, everybody speaks English. So that's not an extra asset. And so I started to learn Spanish to have something special. And now I'm discovering and finding out that a lot of people still find it difficult to be on a business professional level with English. So it's, you need to use the language and keep going and practicing before you really feel confident. And that's with English, I'm afraid, that's the one language people need at work, isn't it? Yeah, and I think we all know that from our clients that, you know, it's, there's no getting away from it. You know, it is there. And there are very few jobs today where you don't need some, even just some English. And I think you said something before about competence, that you said that people feel more competent, that they sound more competent if they can speak English. You think that's true? It's like a sort of, I don't know, an intelligence level. That's not the right word, but. Well, what I said, I know what you mean. I think I read somewhere that people who speak a lot of language are considered very intelligent and very competent people. Well, not to say we were or we are, but that's what I read because, and that's what people feel. Once you can express yourself in a different language, that's so great. And that makes so much to you personally, it does change something. And that's why a lot of people fear to speak English because they feel they're not good enough because their colleagues might speak better English and that's in making them feel inferior. It's about angst and fear of talking really. Absolutely. Dave, I mean, now you're in Spain, do you feel, do you feel pressure to improve your Spanish or do you, what's your experience with living in Spain and having a new language to learn? And do you think it's important or do you think it's not that, you know, a lot of Spanish people speak English? Is it important? Yeah. I mean, of course it's very important. I'm very lucky that my wife speaks very good Spanish and my son now speaks very good Spanish. So it takes the pressure off me, but of course I want to learn Spanish as well. But I realize also maybe with age, how more, how difficult it gets to learn the language. And so that's another thing I think that learners of English, maybe if they're getting that little bit older, it may be a little bit more difficult to remember all the words and to, and to practice and what have you. And also of course, with time, time is a big problem for everybody. All my clients, they're, you know, they're very busy. How, how do you find time to do all this practicing? So I think that's another thing that we'll be looking at in our podcast, how to do things efficiently that you can get as much as possible. Yeah. But back to the Spanish, yeah, it's very, very important. And I'm, I'm grateful that I hopefully can find more time to, to learn, to go to my Spanish classes and learn, but sometimes time, the time is a big problem. It really is a big problem finding time to learn. Yeah, absolutely. I think, and like you say, that's something we're going to address, how to learn, how to learn better, more efficiently. I just, I think finally as well, I just find it fun, you know, I just, I love just like, you know, like Swahili was such a random thing. I was on holiday in Tanzania. I was kind of, I wasn't bored, but I was just, our driver on our safari starts teaching me a couple of words. And I was like, wow, this is cool. And my husband was like, oh no, we've got a week of this now, parroting in the back. And that's how I learned. I just parroted. He taught me a phrase, listen, repeat, listen, repeat. Within a week, you know, I was chatting to the people at the lodges and I was having just so much fun. And I know that it's not, maybe it's not fun for everyone, but I think a lot of people who haven't experienced it before, when they finally do, they can, it can be fun. It can, languages can be a lot of fun. It's not all about awful grammar rules and, you know. And you do get so much appreciation usually. So for me learning Dutch, I, that was the same thing. I had a learner who started from scratch with English. So I thought, what is it like? I can't remember to start from new. So I thought, oh, well, I spent a few, a couple of weekends in the Netherlands nearby, so why not learn Dutch? And it's so nice when people appreciate. So you're a neighboring state, you don't need to, but it's just, that gives you motivation. It's a lot about motivation. I mean, as a trainer, we all, our job is also to motivate, isn't it? And to stay at it. I mean, that's one of the main things. And I think as a trainer, like you say, and the experience of being a beginner again is so, I did that with Japanese because I got so sick of people saying, oh, English is so hard. And you don't know what it's like. So I thought, you know what, I'm going to go out and learn one of the most difficult languages in the world. And I would do that. And it really did as a trainer, it helped me understand how my clients felt, you know, when you don't know the answer and you feel a bit dumb and you can't find the right vocabulary, you use completely the wrong word in the wrong situation. And so I think that's absolutely true to have that experience as a trainer is really good. And I'm having that with Spanish right now as well, I must say. Back to the beginner. It is rough. And how long it can take to remember one word and one phrase. So how long? I remember that's a long time ago that I read it takes about 10 years to learn a language, really, or is that too long or it's very individual? I don't know. There are these systems where they've calculated officially how many hours it's supposed to take to reach each level, like A1, A2, B1. Yeah. But I don't know. It's a long time. It's very individual though, isn't it? It's not a let's do this in six weeks and we're all fluent. That's for sure. We all know that. And with English, most learners start in the middle. I would say they're on a good level. They want to get better. Yeah, they've had school English and then they come back and they're kind of they're not at Stunde Null, you know, it's kind of starting normally around B1 generally. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mentioned a few minutes ago about time and not having the time to learn a language. And that's actually going to be our topic in the next session. When we look at how to fit language learning into your schedule, maybe how to start up learning languages again or English again. That's what we're going to give our tricks and tips from our years of experience, what you can do to fit it into your schedule. And I hope to see you there. Thanks a lot. Take care. Sounds good. I will be there too. Birgit, are you in? I will be. I will be there. Bye for now. Bye for now. See you. See you. Thank you so much for clicking play today. If you have any comments, questions, or perhaps suggestions for future episodes, feel free to drop us a mail at info at 3englishexperts.de. Have a wonderful day and see you next time.