"I feel less stressed, and I feel I truly speak English" : Sabine's Successful Small Talk story

- Okay so,

hello everyone.

This is Christina, from Speaking English With Christina

and I'm here with Sabine today.

Sabine is an artist,

she is living in France

and she recently went through the

Successful Small Talk programs.

Sabine, I just want to say, first of all,

thank you for doing the program with us.

And we're gonna talk a little bit about your experience.

So, maybe the first question is

why did you decide to join

the Successful Small Talk program?

- I decided to,

to join us,

to join your program

because I have

a client

in many countries.

The English, the language, English is obviously...

- Like the main language.

- Yes.

So very useful to speak English with

other people who don't

speak

another language.

- Yeah.

Yeah exactly, exactly.

And so, okay, so you had, sort of, a business

motivation for joining the program.

Which I think a lot of people who

join, it is for like business

context and things like that.

So, you know, when you're looking at a program

online or

in real life,

you know sometimes you're like, hmm,

I don't know, maybe,

I have to think about it,

so like before you joined the program,

what sort of questions

or what sort of hesitations did you have?

- Basically,

I was afraid

to speak with other people

- Yeah. - because

I thought

I didn't speak very well in English,

so

I made mistakes

and it's difficult to

speak

fluently.

And smoothly in my profession.

- Yeah, right.

Yeah, that's right

and I remember before,

before you started, we actually had a talk.

And you were like,

I don't know if I can do this, and

do I have the right level

and you know, I do.

Yeah. I remember that conversation exactly.

And I think a lot of people have that feeling.

Like,

I don't know.

I don't want to be the worst person in the group.

You know, that kind of feeling.

- Yes. - So, yes.

It's a very normal hesitation.

Yeah.

So, from a student's perspective, I guess.

How would you,

describe the course.

You know maybe, to someone's who's wondering like

what is this like?

- I think it's quite,

the course is, it's beautiful for me.

it's a beautiful boost of confidence,

and - oh okay.

- It help me really to increase my

English and to feel

confident with other

native English speaker.

- Right exactly, cause yeah,

just before we started this video

you were telling me that you had

an event with a lot of Americans.

- Yes. And plus,

they are very,

your courses

they are very well structure

and very well done.

So,

it's always,

I continue to learn English.

And it's always neat to

have your courses

as a reference.

- Okay. All right.

Well thank you.

- Yes.

- Yeah. Yeah us. - Always.

- Yeah, it's you know,

I always try to,

like especially for the on-line courses

if somebody's working on the on-line course

like, alone for example,

it has to be easy to follow.

It has to be easy to,

like understand how to do the exercise.

Because I think like,

like already trying to learn another language

it's frustrating sometimes,

and if you're frustrated because you can't figure out

how to do the course,

like that's just no good.

- Yes.

- So yeah, no, I'm glad that you found

that it was very structured.

Yeah, no, that's great.

- And the,

the small talk

pushes me

to work regularly,

because I know,

this day I meet

all students.

- Yeah.

- I need to prepare the courses

in advance if I want to exchange with

other people.

- Yes. It kind of puts a little pressure on you.

Yeah.

In a good way.

Right.

- It's a good pressure.

I think. - Yeah.

- It's a booster. Yes.

Good, good.

So, how would you, you know

concretely, how did the course help you

with your, I guess your conversations skills

or your English level.

You mentioned confidence.

Like how did it, how did it help you concretely?

- Because in your courses,

the vocabulary, vocabulary.

And they are many tools,

it's many tools to

to manage a conversation with

with other people.

So it helps,

it helps me

a lot.

Vocabulary

strategy.

To manage conversation.

So, all is,

all are, or is? I think (giggling)

- Is. That's right.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. We would say maybe everything is, yeah.

- Everything is a

very good tools

to speak.

In your conversation.

- Yeah. Got it yeah.

Cause it's true.

You know, I think a lot of times people,

when they think of, you know,

conversation in English,

their first reflex is to say,

I don't have the vocabulary.

But, often, you know like to be able to do a good

conversation in English,

it's a mix of

vocabulary surely,

but also like, social skills,

conversation skills,

knowing how, like you said, how to

manage the conversation,

it's a lot,

it's not just vocabulary.

- Yes it's a package.

A package in your courses.

- Yeah.

Okay yeah that's a good word.

It is.

It's a package, yeah of social skills yeah.

- It develops

to

skills,

to speak

English

too.

- Yeah, yeah, it's right, yeah.

You can take the techniques,

and transpose them to your native language also.

- Yeah it's very useful to speak

and to learn your,

your courses.

- Okay. No, well thank you.

Thanks. Yeah.

So, I guess the last question is

you know, what has changed for you,

from before you did the program,

and now that you have finished the program.

- I feel

less nervous.

I feel

less stress, or

I feel

I can speak.

- Okay. - I speak

I can speak naturally

with people

and I can express myself.

- Right. - Not

completely, not completely, but

I can express some ideas.

- Right, yeah.

And I think a lot of,

for a lot of people,

it's just having that confidence.

And to say like, I can do this.

And I think, its even more like you said,

I'm like oh, it's not perfect

which is, which is fine in a lot of cases,

but also being able to say I know

that I'm not always gonna have the right word.

- Yes. - I know

I'm gonna make some mistakes,

but I can do it anyway.

- Yes.

- And that's just, even that is just a big step,

I think for a lot of people, so.

- And it

reassure me,

a lot.

- Oh, good good good, yeah.

- Yes. Yeah.

- Because you saw that you were, you could do it.

- Yes. - Very good.

- And when I speak

and learn with other students

I think we are all in the same boat.

- Exactly.

Yeah totally, yeah.

And you see that everyone's got the same problems

that you have and you're not alone, in fact, yeah.

- Yeah. I'm not alone, and it's important to feel not alone.

- Yeah. Exactly.

Because I think that sometimes we ask like

you know,

it's only me.

Only I have this problem because I'm,

you know, - Yes.

- You know.

It's yeah, and in fact,

it's a lot students have the same problems.

So,

right?

Is there anything else you want to add.

- Thanks

of your

courses.

And

when I was,

with American people

I could recognize

a lot of sentences.

- Oh, okay good.

- From your, your courses.

- Things that you learned, that you picked up from,

from the course.

- Yes. Yes.

- Awesome, very good.

Yeah, so it's like real world, stuff.

- Yes. Right.

Okay, very good.

Well Sabine, I just want to say

thank you, so very much

for sharing your experience,

with us.

And I'm really happy also,

like I'm very happy that you've made this progress.

Cause I remember like how kind of afraid

and shy you were at the beginning

and there's definitely a big change in that,

so good for you.

- I think you, you give me

a gift.

- Oh,

oh wow.

Oh well thank you.

That, I'm really touched by that.

(women laughing)

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

It's really a great pleasure to hear back, yeah.

- You're welcome.

- Thanks a lot.