← RealLife English: Learn and Speak Confident, Natural English
RealLife English: Learn and Speak Confident, Natural English
#456 - 3 Tips to Speak CONFIDENT English at WORK, Interviews, Presentations, etc.
00:32:02
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- [00:00]
A
Alright, picture this. You're in a big meeting at work. Everyone's talking fast, ideas are flying around. Suddenly your boss turns to you. What do you think? Your heart races, your mind goes blank. You open your mouth and words come out slowly, awkward, not quite what you meant. Your boss nods politely and moves on. And you, you're left red faced, frustrated, asking yourself, why is this so hard? Sound familiar? Well, it doesn't have to be that way. Today, Izzy is going to share how he went from feeling lost and insecure to confidently using his English every single day at work, leading meetings, giving feedback, and expressing himself with clarity and confidence. Over the past 10 years, Izzy has taught English, worked in customer service, started his own business, and held various key roles here at Real Life. All of those in English. And the best part, he figured it all out mostly on his own. So if you have ever felt nervous, stuck, or like your English is holding you back professionally, then this episode is for you. Let's dive into episode 456 of the RealLife English podcast, joined here in the studio once again by the one and only Captain Immersion, AKA Izzy. You ready? He ready for some fun? Gonna talk about work, but we're not gonna have it be too boring.
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B
No, work doesn't have to be boring.
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A
Right. Okay, Izzy. So I thought we could kick this off by. I actually found a video while I was preparing for this lesson that I thought fit really well because we're talking about confidence at work. So I think having a short conversation just to start out about like what is confidence is helpful. Right? All right, so I have the short, very, very short video from Priyanka Chopra. Let me roll the clip.
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C
Confidence is something you can teach yourself. I learned it from the very, very strong people in my family that I looked up to that showed me that it doesn't matter what your circumstances are, it matters how large your dreams are.
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A
So what do you think about that, Izzy? Do you agree confidence is something you can teach yourself?
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B
Well, you know me, I'm a big start with why person starts by setting like your purpose, why you do what you do. And yeah, I don't know if like one can be confident without being purposeful so much. Right. I would not believe really that's possible. At least in my case. The more purposeful I am, I think the more confident I am.
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A
That's true. I think a lot of it too is just experience. Right. So we're talking about how to be confident at work. I think a lot of that comes out of just generally the fact you've Been working in English for 10 years. So you have some. Some confidence. Obviously, it just comes out of like, okay, I know I can do this because I've been doing it for a long enough time. Which anyone who's watching you must have something that you're confident in, and it's probably because you have the experience, you know you can do it. Right. So is there anything that you think that you do that most non natives don't do at work that maybe lends to that confidence?
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B
There is. So it's three important lessons from a decade of working in English. And I'm young, so a decade is like a lot for me. And yeah, these will help you go from feeling insecure to feeling confident and even like articulate in your speech.
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A
Right.
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B
You're going to be able to use more words and express yourself more clearly and just come across as somebody who really knows your thing, knows your shit, as we say. Right. Because you do.
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A
Right?
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B
That's the thing. English is a tool for you to express yourself. Like you have your own knowledge about your field, and you need to be able to just be that same person, that same professional at that same level in English. So let's talk about it. The first lesson that I learned that I, that I reflected on was that we need to ask questions, right. When you start a new job. So if we need to ask questions because we need to learn, why don't we make that a superpower instead of a liability, instead of a weakness.
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A
Right?
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B
So that's the lesson that I've learned eventually is like make asking questions a superpower. So that could be about a difficult word. I've had to do that so many times when I was starting, like, so many technical words. Each new job was in a different field. Right. First it was just teaching. Then I went to customer service.
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A
What does field mean in the context of work?
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B
Field is an area of work. Right. So I'm talking about customer service is a field. There's maybe books and experts in that area. So it's a professional field. You could say it. Right. But even in science, there's fields too, like physics and chemistry. Those are fields in that regard. So yeah, each new job I was in a different field. And yeah, that allowed me to always have so much to learn.
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A
Technical jargon, too, that comes with each field, each type of work.
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B
Exactly. So I'd find myself asking questions about jargon, technical words, but also about things that were being explained to me, you know, either because I didn't understand it or just simply because you're Just too complex. And I wouldn't shy away from asking.
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A
Right.
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B
The question.
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A
So that's something I've noticed from you actually is that I think that you're able to do that too unashamedly. So I think that a lot of that's kind of like what separates from most non natives in the workplace is that they feel like somehow it maybe eats away at like their, their credibility as a professional or something. If they are asking what does that mean? Or that they seem like they don't know English, if they have to ask, what does that mean? But actually it does show a sense of confidence because it's like you're, you're curious, you want to get better, you know, and that's something that makes the best professionals are people who are really committed to learning.
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B
It's vulnerability too. Right. And like if you, if you're starting at a new job and your manager knows you, they know your English level, what are you trying to hide? So just ask. And if they know exactly that also you mean to learn like you're establishing that you're in this position also to master your communication skills, they can help you and other people too. And then it will not come across as incapable, as we're saying, but rather there will be more trust, you'll feel more confident because there is nothing to hide. I think we feel insecure because we're hiding something oftentimes. Right. So if you don't hide it so much easier and you don't need to ask immediately. There's two ways of doing this, by the way, right? You can ask later, you can just take note. And you don't have to ask the same person who said the difficult thing, the expression or explanation. You can ask somebody else, but it's better just to ask the same person if you trust them. And that's what I did. Like I was telling you about my experience and at the ski resort that I worked in the United States that I worked at and man, everything was new. I remember my first night working with the supervisor. We, I was selling tickets. Like there's a ticket window. Have you ever been to a ski resort like that? They have the ticket window and there you go. Yeah, you're from Colorado. So, you know, and this ski resort, I think it still is the biggest in the United States that has night skiing. And they had like lights lighting up the entire mountain. It was crazy. And I was the only person on my first night doing it, like ticketing, like selling tickets. And it was really fast paced, long lines. And I had My supervisor by me. And everything was new. Like there's expressions about the software I was using greeting people. I was familiar with connected speech, but still like to, to have somebody say to me like, hey, hey, how's it going? It's like what, you know, everything was new.
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A
I think too, it can be really helpful in these situations if you can carry around a notepad or have a notepad app in your phone. So when you're asking these questions, you're getting the new expressions and so on, that you're actually cataloging them so you can study them later. Right. Because ultimately it's great if you're asking questions, but if you're forgetting almost all of the new expressions that you're learning throughout the day, it's like, you know, you're, you don't want to be the person who's having to ask three times what the same expression means. Right. So definitely having ways that you can say that. And of course for all you guys that are watching this lesson on the app, you have the flashcards. So like we're actually going to be publishing exclusive lesson next week just for app users and we'll be sharing a bunch. I'm not sure exactly how many, but we have like more than a dozen really common work expressions that Izzy and I use probably almost every day. Teaching, I think. Yeah. And so you can study those with the flashcard and all the advanced expressions that we're using today and that way they're in your long term memory so that you're able to actually use those naturally and confidently at work. And you just seem like that person who knows their shit, as you said, when you're at work. So highly recommend. If you guys haven't downloaded the app yet, you can do that by tapping the link down description below from your phone and get access to this premium lesson for free. I think something related to asking questions is like, maybe you're learning outside of work. Hopefully you are here like watching series or reading or like doing other things to buff up on to improve your English. And it reminds me of one of the people on our team who we work with, Mate, that he's really good at this is that he'll deliberately look for opportunities in our meetings to try out a word that maybe he learned watching a TV series and so on. Like just, I had a meeting with him yesterday and he, he brought kind of like an issue to me and he was like at the end he's like, I'm really glad we talked that out. Like, is, is that the right expression? Talk it out. And so I could confirm that. So I think that's a really great context to ask questions too, is if you're trying out a new expression you learned maybe outside of work, and you're wanting to confirm, like, okay, did I, did I use that right? Or am I like, throwing an expression out there that people maybe are nodding, but they didn't actually understand it?
- [10:08]
B
That's actually it. It already starts to introduce, I would say, the next principle or the next lesson learned that I have after just investigating my work life. And that is what Mata is doing. He's turning his workplace into free English practice, as I'm calling it, because it is like, okay, so definitely you can ask questions. That's great. But now if you are deliberately, intentionally looking for the opportunities to use your knowledge, to use the words that you're learning, then it's practice already. And it's free because your work is free, right? I mean, you get paid, obviously, but see, you're getting paid to practice. It's even better and within your field. So you're improving, like, professionally magic, like, it just depends on the way you see it. Now, there's three ways you can practice, right? You can just type, so you can send text, you can send voice notes, so just record your own voice. Or you can jump on a call. So this could be a quick call, or the longer meetings that you have already scheduled. And all of these are opportunities. Now, I wouldn't expect you to just immediately, if you're not feeling confident, for you to immediately start speaking too much. Like so much in long meetings with lots of people, right? But these are gradually something that you can implement. Like at first you just text more and you send more voice notes and then quick calls with one on ones, you know, just like one person. I have friends who, they work in English and I've asked them, like, hey, how many meetings you have in a week? How often do you speak with people? Or how often do you practice your English by actually speaking or typing? And they say, like, not much. You know, these are software developers, these people, these friends of mine, and they don't have to talk much. And they complain to me, they say to like, I mean, I was like, yeah, I'm not really haven't developed my English so much recently, man. Like, it's because you don't want to, right? Because you could be. You could be literally like every day you can text something. You can, but you need to be deliberate about it. So you would be going from the mindset of avoiding exposing yourself to communicating more so you can fail faster, improve faster. Kind of similar mindset from the first one.
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A
I really like some of the different vocab and collocations used there, like jump on a call or to send a voice note. I'm not sure if everyone is familiar with some of these terms, but of course you guys can practice flashcards on the app if you're watching it there. So did you have any experiences where you maybe started recognizing that this was really important to actually start using that environment, that work environment as a way to improve your English?
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B
Yeah, I mean, this started early for me too. In my first job at that point, I was teaching English. I was teaching kids initially, but I had my co workers, my teachers who I work with. Some of them were Americans. You know, after class I could just go home. Right. But I wouldn't. I would just hang out. I would just talk about how you went, ask about how their classes went. It's small talk, but it's useful and you have the option. It's all about just having the option. Right. But here I can give you examples that are more current to show you that this never ends. So you and I, Ethan, we were talking about the idea of inviting Ksenia to join us for the lesson that will release next week exclusively on app. The one with the workplace expressions. Right. Because she was for us. She was our game show host. It was really fun. And instead of just sending a quick text message to her, I sent a video because I know there was a lot to ask too, you know, so on Slack, the software we use for communication, internal communication, you can just easily send a video, but if not, you can even use like WhatsApp or whatever. Right? Whatever you use at work. And yeah, I just did that. And it was a video where I was explaining what she would do and then asking her if she could do that. And for me, that's a good practice. I need to practice not a native. So I. Right. Portuguese is ingrained in my mind. It's my native language. So I need to continue practicing English. And this is how I do it.
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A
Sometimes they're just kind of like flipping that switch even of. Kind of like you. You need to like, activate it even when you're at a high level of fluency and everything. Because sometimes if you haven't been speaking for a long time, it's kind of like you're tripping over your words and you kind of need to warm up, like any exercise. One thing it makes me think of is you said, like, you'd hang around after work. So there's lots of opportunities like this at most jobs. Right. Like if you're working in person, which I know for probably like a lot of you guys that are listening, watching, that might not be the case for you. But some of us, some, some people still work in the office. Right. Is maybe taking advantage of if you have like a cafeteria there and eating lunch, like trying to actually eat lunch with your colleagues. And you can use that as an excuse to especially getting more like more mundane, more kind of like everyday sort of conversations, stuff with people that doesn't necessarily have to do with work. And also like water cooler. This is like very classic, the water cooler, like the place where people go to drink water. So whatever place there is like a kitchen or something in your office where people tend to kind of gathering stuff, you know, for breaks and just finding opportunities. You can also, it can be a good, a good opportunity to, to just buff up on like your, your small talk. Like introducing conversations, maybe not just about the weather, but maybe like observing something that you notice with other person, like they're wearing a cool necklace or a cool shirt or you know, whatever the case is and like commenting on that or something. We have like as a digital. We're remote. Right. Something we have digitally is. It's actually inside of Slack. It's an app called Donut which will set up basically one on one calls with different people to have like a 20 minute call that's more informal. Right. So I think like here at Real Life English, for example, that can be a really great thing for people here to take advantage of, to be able to not only connect more with other people that they work with, but also just to have English practice at work. So I think just like looking for what are those opportunities? If you work at a big company, there might even be like clubs or committees or extracurriculars. All these things that are all opportunities for you to get to practice your English in and outside of work.
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B
Yeah. And when you don't, because oftentimes, as you were saying, you don't have the option. You can create your own opportunities. So you were talking about doing these things. So this can buff up your small talk, by the way, what does that mean? To buff up your small talk?
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A
Yeah, use that also before to buff up in your English or just to improve it.
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B
So yeah, small talk is an area of English. There's vocabulary that's more specific to it that maybe greetings and just asking how the other person is doing that. You can exercise these by simply just being More curious about the people you work with. This is something that I can honestly be vulnerable here and just say that I learned more to do here at RealLife English, you know, to. Because we don't work sitting next to each other. So it can just. It's very easy to just go about our day and not ask how you're doing. Like, to not even say hello. Just start by saying whatever task you want to talk about or project. So when you start a conversation by, hey, how was your weekend? If you truly care, Perfect.
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A
Monday morning.
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B
Exactly. It's really great. And it's Right. Practice that you wouldn't get if you didn't decide to do it. It's an option.
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A
Yeah. That's amazing. I think just you're killing two birds with one stone there for sure. Just by building those relationships, obviously it's in your best interest to be connected with people you're working with and at the same time getting that English practice. I know, like, I had students who were living in the States, and they wanted to improve their English for their job. And it was like something I said, like, you know, are you connecting with your colleagues? And usually it wasn't something they were doing. So it's exactly at this point that they weren't taking advantage of those opportunities to get that kind of free English practice. So I'm curious, is there anything else that you would do, Izzy, or that you still do to this day to take advantage of that workplace environment to improve your English to become more confident?
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B
Definitely. I mean, the three ones that I highlighted, I think are the biggest. So the next one, the next principle that I noticed, like, I adopted, and that made my life so much easier as far as being more confident speaking English is learning voraciously about your job in English. So again, it requires you to decide, I'm gonna do this in English. Also, I'm gonna learn, because maybe, you know, like, if you're on your way back home, if you. If you work in person, maybe you could listen to something just for, like, entertainment or maybe not listen to anything. But what if you could just, like, listen to one thing that's. That is both entertainment and useful, like, for your job? So I can give you so many examples here. This is another thing that I think I started to develop more here at Real Life before. I think when I was teaching English, like, by myself or in the language school that I used to work at, I would watch some videos from other teachers, definitely. But I think it was here that I evolved that into podcasts and books. And so Many things that we learned together. But I wanted to ask Ethan, I'm calling this principle learn voraciously about your job in English. And by the way, the word voraciously, we've explained that in another lesson. It means in this collocation of learn voraciously is like having a big appetite for learning. Voracious is actually literally about that. It's like a. Like if you're eating something literally voraciously, you're just like, like a lion, just like, wow, eating fast and a lot. But in this context we're talking about knowledge, right? Consuming. And I wanted to ask you if you give me a random profession so I can give you off the top of my head some examples of things that you could do if you were in that field, in that profession that you could learn voraciously with.
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A
How about like a UX designer, user experience designer for an app.
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B
It's very specific. So you're working in tech, right? UX designer, by the way, guys, like it's a designer of products, like a digital products, right. Or digital experiences, like an app or website. Usually you have a user experience designer there and it's a big areas. I think it's a lot. It's all related with marketing too and tech in general. So there are books that you know, hacking growth. Do you remember that one? We were reading it I think last quarter.
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Yeah.
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B
So this is one about like a. Not just product development but everything like marketing. And I think there are books that it's not just about UX design that you could read, but about the people he'll work with as well. Like your whole departments. For example, we work in marketing, so we've read books about branding, we've read books about communication, about copywriting and same thing here. So this is like a hacking growth or can read continuous discovery habits, you know. And there's podcasts too, like so many interesting podcasts. Even like Tim Ferriss, it's one that we listen to a lot. He talks about technology too and optimizing your life, optimizing your work. Newsletters maybe that you can sign up to. These are all things that you just need to be aware of what is out there. Again, the books, the YouTube channels, even Linus, Linus tech tips, the one that I follow. And it's about computers and phones and new technologies and you know, you just like you consume that kind of stuff and you stay on top of what's new.
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A
What does that mean? To stay on top of something?
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You are updated, you know what's going on, you know, it's new.
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A
Yeah. I think even beyond, like, the things that are necessarily related to your field, it can also just be like things that are related to being a better professional. Like, I was just doing an interview the other day, and the candidate she was telling me about that she read Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey. And it was. It was interesting to connect with her around that because I actually read that a few years ago. But it was nice because she. She said that she had read that because she has noticed that she could be more organized in her work. So even though she's. We're hiring for like a product manager, product marketer. Right. So even though that's not specifically about product marketing or marketing at all, it's just about being more organized or like the. We've had several people here at Real Life English do the Google Project Management course, which is like a free online course for learning about how they do project management at Google, which is like, it's kind of like a meta skill. Right. Like, that is good for anyone who has any sort of role in a company to be more organized. We've talked a lot about seven habits of highly effective people or getting things done. Like, so all these are just like, how can you be a better, more organized human being, a more organized professional? And so on. That it's kind of like base skills. They're going to help you with everything else.
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B
I know we're talking about so many different books and podcasts and titles of different things that you can find out there, but there's a reason for this. It's because, first of all, we truly consume these. Right. And so we love these. And you got to develop a passion for these two. And when you do, it really helps with your English because you're going to be. This is outside of work, you know, by yourself. So because the other two principles I shared, it's more about when you are working, so you're asking questions or you are looking for those opportunities for speaking, typing, for using your active communication skills. Right. Well, this is easier in the sense that you could even be at home, or it could be some time you're off, not really working, but just consuming something. And this is what is going to give you, I think, the most input, the experience that you need to actually later, because it's really hard to,
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I
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B
think, just out of nowhere start using advanced words and advanced terms. Obviously you can take note of the words that are coming up in meetings and stuff, but it would take longer if you're just relying on that to expand Your vocabulary. So that's why we say, if you live your English by first identifying what's fun to you, what's already the things that you do in your own language. So we call it make fun natural, convenient, right? Living your English great. And now also make it every day. That's the two aspects of live your English that we talk about. And this is what this principle here is I'd say referring to, you know, because it's really difficult to, I think, be impactful in your job and to develop confidence if it's something that's really distant from what your life actually is, from your own personality, from what you do during your day. So insert this in your day.
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A
You're also becoming the person, like a reference in the company or the place that you work, someone that people look to, because it connects really well, too, with the other tips that we're talking about. Because maybe you bring this as, like, a topic for conversation, like, oh, I'm reading this great book and, like, sharing some of the things that you're learning it and everything. And, like, that can wow people, right? It can impress them. And that will make you feel more confident because you're like, someone who's bringing just, like, interesting things. And you're showing yourself as someone who's proactive, learning outside of work, but also you like. It makes me think of. There's one guy on our team who's actually one of the developers of our app, Rodrigo, that he. We do, like, every two weeks, we do kind of like a review that we share with everyone on the team. And one of the things we do is share what we've been learning. And he has, like, his Rodrigo's AI corner. So he's so into AI and he's kind of like, being a reference on the. On the team and, like, sharing things that he's learning. And that's incredible because, like, I've discovered so many things and it helps me to stay up to date. You can be that person, right? For AI is like something super important, right? Because if you're not learning about that and using that as a partner in your work, you might be disrupted. So all of us should be learning about that. But it can be anything that you're fascinated about is like, be that person that people look to to know more about this topic.
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B
I just thought about this. Like, if you do this, then other people will come to you as you're saying. And then practice your workplace. Being free English practice will be even easier to make that happen because you won't be like it won't be you just going to people, people will come to you. So these are synergistic, right? These three, they kind of feed off each other and they support each other. These three principles, really, let's just think about it. Just to wrap up the whole overview of the three big ideas. The first one is that we need to ask questions anyway, so might as well just make them our superpower. But if we take note of words and concepts and ideas that we're curious about and that we don't know what it means, that will probably show up also in a book or in a podcast that we can look into. So it doesn't need to end there once we ask. Okay, so this is what it means. Okay, great. How about, how about listening to a podcast about that, right? Or just go on YouTube and look it up. And then once you learn, since your workplace is free English practice, you can talk about it with somebody. Maybe they give you an idea. Like maybe watching a video will give you an idea of something to implement. And now you can go to your manager or peer and say, hey, check this out. What if we did this? You didn't have to do it, but you're being proactive. It's valuable for everyone, especially for you. So, yeah, these are three big ideas that are really powerful, I'd say. And that's what I have for you. And it's honestly what I share. The other day, I think a couple months ago, I was training a person on our team. Exactly, coaching him, helping develop his English. And these were the three things that I would talk most about. And every week, every week we met to be like, hey, are you doing this thing? You know, and I could notice that when he would share his own opinion in a meeting or something that he would show some of that, some of the experience already, you know, that he was learning in practice, practicing here and there, kind of showing up and meaning he was speaking up more.
- [29:13]
A
Oh yeah, Great. Alright, Izzy. Well, before we wrap up today's episode, I wanted to not neglect to give some love to one of our avid fans, one of our avid app users. Voracious app user. You used that before. And so this week's shout out goes to Ibrahim Mohammed. Sorry if I mispronounce that. Do you want to do the honors of reading his five star review, Izzy?
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B
All right, so Ibrahim said this reallife English is one of the best apps for learning real everyday English. The lessons are engaging and full of useful express people actually use. The teachers speak clearly and with different accents, which really Helps improving your listening and speaking skills. Highly recommend for anyone who wants to speak English more naturally and confidently. Ah, yeah, Abraham and yeah, that's us. Right? The teachers. I always forget, like sometimes I read these, like, wow, these guys are really good. It's like, oh, yes, me.
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A
Thank you, thank you.
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B
I really appreciate it.
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A
Humble brag and, and it's great too. Like, so many app users have told us that the app is helping them to improve their confidence and that's includes in work situations. So like, that's one of the. I think applying the three lessons you gave us today, Izzy, is if you learn expression the app and then you can use it at work. Right? That's just a lot of app users have told us that it like gives them the best feeling inside when they can confidently use one of those new expressions they've been studying with the flashcards at work. So try for free if you're not there yet by tapping the link down description below. And we look forward to seeing you over there and really hope that it also helps you to feel more confident and natural at work. All right, Izzy, Captain Immersion, thanks so much for joining me today. It's great. Picking your brain a bit, gleaming some Expertise from your 10 years of working in English.
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B
I appreciate it. This is a great opportunity for me to review it too. Now I think I'm more confident in sharing these friends with students with anyone.
- [31:06]
A
Something I admire a lot about you because I have had very limited experience having to work in the languages that I speak fluently. Like I have, I'm quite fluent, I think, for like everyday use, which I think a lot of people, it's actually the opposite. Like they're good with English at work, but then they don't have like the real life experience. So I'm glad I can get some of your advice about it. Maybe I can start applying that to my own languages. That said, remember that no matter what divides us, that which unites us, like wanting to speak English better at work is far greater. 1, 2, 3. Ah,
- [31:40]
B
yeah, you've watched movies your whole life. They've made you laugh, they've made you cry, and maybe they've even changed a little bit of who you are. And yeah, it's no secret movies can help you learn English too. But here's something you probably don't know. You're only scratching the surface with them. And by that I mean you're just using about 10% of the total potential a movie has.