Making progress in your career with English - With Expert Teacher Cara

- Hi everyone, this is Christina

from Speak English with Christina

and today I'm here with a special bonus video with Cara.

All this month we're gonna be doing a special series

which is all about becoming more fluent

and more confident to help you to boost your career.

Cara, you may know her

from our faster fluency conversation club

or maybe you've already worked with her individually.

But for those of you who don't know Cara,

Cara do you wanna go ahead and introduce yourself?

- Yeah, sure, so I'm from the UK,

I live in France and yeah, I'm a fluency club coach

and I also do some individual coaching sessions with people.

- Yeah, exactly and I think your big specialty

is all about helping people to understand spoken English

and things like that, is that right?

- Yeah, that's it.

So I work with people who want to move abroad

or travel a lot to English speaking countries

so that they can understand native speakers

when they talk fast.

And I do that a lot through TV shows and movies

'cause I like watching them.

- Yeah, exactly, it's always fun

and might as well actually get some benefit out of it

instead of just watching it,

(Cara laughs)

and not learning natyhing.

Right, so, let's talk a little bit about

why it's essential for people

to make time to improve their English.

Because, sure you've heard this from

the clients that you work with,

where they say, "I have a good level of English

"but if I wanna evolve in my career,

"to get a better job, to be more credible, etc.."

they need to improve their English.

They can express themselves but not really at the level

that they need to or they want to.

And they're really motivated

and then they say, "But I don't have time to do this."

Yeah, I think You know what we're talking about here.

(both laugh)

- Yeah, no, it's true.

It's really easy to use time as an excuse.

But I think in this stiatuion,

you have to really make the time

because if improving your English

is what is going to lead to a better job

or more responsibility, then why.

Why wouldn't you improve it?

So I don't know if the issue is just time,

there may be other things there.

But definitely you have to make a conscious decision

to improve it if you want it to

improve your career prospects, for sure.

- Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It's like this idea of,

maybe like immediately it's kind of hard to find the time

because you've got work, they've got family commitments,

maybe personal hobbies as well.

And it's almost like English is that thing

that they know it's important

but it's never super urgent.

There's never something that it's got to be done tomorrow.

It's like, "Yeah, I know I need to do it

but there's other things that I have to do first."

And I think that's,

it's hard to, like you said, to make that conscious decision

and say, "No, I'm going to find the time."

Because I think it's, when you make that decision

or let's say you choose to not properly invest the time

in improving your English,

they're gonna always feel that blockage

or continue to feel just embarrassed

or annoyed or frustrated

when they're with their colleagues or their clients

and they see that they speak an English level.

They seem more confident and better.

And then there's just that pain, I think.

You can either continue to feel that pain,

or like you said to make that decision

like I'm gonna change something to fix that situation.

- Yeah, like prioritize it.

Yeah, if you really need to use it a lot,

if you're working internationally,

then you kind of have no choice

but it has to come from you

and you have to decide to change.

To prioritize it and make the time to,

if you really feel it needs to be improved

for the sake of your career,

then yeah, you have to do it.

And it's hard actually, to see people frustrated

because of the language side of things.

They know how to do their jobs,

it's just really not a problem.

But yeah, English can be the issue

and it's a pity because there's no reason why

you can't improve it

and improve your job prospects with it.

- Yeah, exactly, I think a lot of the people we work with

they're very qualified and they're good at their jobs

and it's just like the English is the one thing

that is holding them back

or making them feel less confident

when they're in those situations.

But I think, like you said, if that's the one thing

that's holding them back,

once they realize this and once they accept it,

it's like you have the power to decide

what you do next.

You can decide to open that door

to take steps to find the time, or to make the time maybe,

to improve your English

because you know it's gonna lead to better opportunities,

maybe a better salary, maybe the chance to work abroad.

But I think also it's just

the more personal satisfaction

that you don't feel that frustration all the time

because after a while, you're just (groans).

It gets just very tiring and annoying after a while.

- Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.

To not feel good about your English

and to maybe question your qualities

as a professional because of English.

- Yeah, I think it's yeah, that,

just when you start questioning yourself like that.

It kinda can, I guess, transfer over

to your personal life 'cause then you feel

that kind of frustration and the negativity.

Yeah, and it's just I hate when I see people

in that situation 'cause I'm like, you can change that.

You have the power to change that.

It might not be easy but it can be done, yeah.

- It can be done, yeah. - Gotta have the time, yeah.

- You have to find it somehow.

So I think that's what you're discussing

in your next video, right, is how to find time?

- Yeah, next Thursday we'll actually do the second video

in this sort of bonus series

ad you'll get to meet Trisha

who's another one of the teachers on our team.

And we're gonna talk about how to get the best return

on your investment of your time and your effort.

What to do when you don't have a lot of free time

but you know that you have to do something

about your English sooner rather than later.

So Cara, yeah, just thanks a lot

for some of your insights

and sharing that with us and with the students

and everything, it's very helpful.

But I think like you said,

it's just they have to make that conscious decision,

"I'm gonna change something."

Yeah, right, yeah, thanks a lot.

And for you guys, if you wanna be sure

to get the next video that's coming up with Tricia,

go ahead and go to christinarebuffet.com

so that you can sign up.

You can get that next episode

and you'll also get some more information

about our new program, which coming up soon,

called Speak Business English Confidently.

And that's gonna open up on Wednesday, March 18th.

All right, Cara,

thanks a lot! - No problem.

- I know you've got to go

and work with some of the students now.

So thanks for taking some of the time

out of your calendar to talk with us today.

- No problem, Christina.

- All right, see you later, bye.

- See you, bye.