Solve your work problems AND your English problems, with this lesson from a Neurolanguage Coach

- Don't you just love problems?

Like, no really, like yes, I meant to say that.

Because in business, in life, in English,

I mean solving complex problems,

that's just kind of what we do.

So today, you'll learn the expressions in English

that you need to solve your business problems.

But together, we are going to solve your English problems.

Hi, I'm your English Coach, Christina.

And welcome to Business English with Christina,

where you become better at English and better at business.

You know, the world is full of problems.

But problems that are really

absolutely interesting to solve.

And I'm sure that you're probably

already working on solving

a lot of problems yourself.

And I know that because when I work

with a lot of my clients,

we talk about the really interesting problems

that they're trying to solve.

It might be trying to solve problems

of like ending poverty in the world

with some organizations they work for.

It might be trying to solve problems of growing economy.

Maybe even something is, I don't wanna say basic

but more down to earth

like solving logistics problems

or supply chain problems

so that people can get the products that they need.

I really feel like I get to hear

a lot of inspiring stories

and a lot of inspiring searches for solutions let's say

to some of the world's problems.

So, today is part one of a two part video,

all about solving problems

in English and solving your English problems.

So, we'll tackle your problem together,

that means we'll solve your problem together.

And in the process,

you'll get a lot of great business English expressions.

So in part one we'll focus on,

understanding the problem better,

so that in part two

we can look at how to best solve your problems.

So, what's a problem that you have in common

with all of the other very smart people

watching this video?

Improving your English, probably

because otherwise you wouldn't be watching this video.

So the first thing is understanding the problem.

If you're like the people on my team

you get really excited about getting stuff done

like making things happen, solving the problems

but before you can sit down

to work on that problem

you have to really take a good look at the problem

because it's important to have

a good understanding of the problem,

if you're going to solve it,

you wanna look at it and analyze it

before you just jump into getting stuff done.

Hey did you know that what we're doing in this video,

it's what we neuro language coaches call natural learning?

Basically learning expressions and learning English

through exposure in a natural context,

the same way that you would learn things

in your native language.

But you're also are gonna need a little bit of work,

a little bit of deliberate learning

to really assimilate everything in this lesson.

So, that's why you can go over to,

christinarebuffet.com/worksheets

and get a free worksheet

that goes with this video

to help you learn naturally

by watching the video and learn deliberately

by doing some exercises with the vocabulary

from this video.

All right, go and get your worksheet

and let's continue the video lesson.

And to go even further,

you might ask yourself some very specific questions.

Now, the website, indeed.com,

which has a lot of great career advice.

And you can use it to learn a bit of English

while you're reading their articles.

You know, they suggest that we start

by asking ourselves some specific questions

to allow ourselves to find smarter solutions.

So, let's put all of that in action

by asking ourselves some questions

to solve your English problem.

Here's the first question that you can ask

about any complex problem.

How does it affect your daily life?

So let's take an example of like,

pushing your English beyond intermediate level.

Now, when I meet with a new client for the first time

and we talk about their difficulties in English,

I always ask them,

what are your biggest difficulties in English?

What are your biggest problems?

And people will often tell me,

I translate in my head, I hesitate too much,

I lack vocabulary, etc.

But that's really like just the surface of the problem.

So we often dig deeper to see how that problem

affects them in their daily life.

Because when you know how the problem affects you

in your daily life, you know, or you don't know

but you start to know and to discover

like how you can fix that problem

so that it makes your life easier every day.

So, another question you can ask

to help you really to define your problem is,

does your problem hurt the wellbeing

of yourself or the wellbeing of others?

Okay now I know that like,

fixing your English problems is not the same

as curing a rare disease.

I think we can all agree on that.

But a lot of my clients say that

their problems with English, it hurts them,

it hurts their confidence,

it hurts their credibility,

it hurts their opportunities

for better jobs and better salaries.

So, looking at that and understanding

how the problem is hurting your wellbeing,

it can be a first step to finding a solution.

Does your problem hurt your productivity?

Like, does it make it more difficult

or more complicated for you to do your work

at the level you would like to do it?

Again, taking the example of your English,

maybe your level of English today

it means that you can't contribute

as much as you you would like in meetings.

Maybe it means that you hesitate

to respond to a job offer or a client's request

because they say that they need

a really good level of English.

Maybe it also means something other clients have said

is that they limit themselves.

If there's something that requires

a really good level of English,

they automatically say,

I don't even dare to ask

to be a part of the project

or to go visit a specific client

because I know that English is gonna be very important

and I don't feel confident about my English level.

Does your problem hinder your communication?

Basically, does it make it more difficult

to communicate with others?

And especially if you're working with others

to solve problems, in order to work together

to solve a problem

you have to communicate together

to try to find solutions.

So, if your English is making it harder

for you to collaborate with others, to ask for help

maybe that means that you need

some help with your English and that's okay.

Does your problem decrease your efficiency?

I mean, very concrete example

that lots of clients have shared with me.

For example, you spend, I don't know

maybe an hour or 45 minutes writing an email

that normally should just take you,

10 or 15 minutes in your native language,

or maybe all of those times that you see someone

you see a phone call coming in

and you see that it's from a different country

you know that you're gonna have to speak English

and you let the person leave you a message on voicemail

that you can listen to several times later

or you just ignore the call totally.

And then either you maybe prefer

to write them an email in response

so that you can read it.

But I mean, think of how much time that takes

and just how it's decreasing your efficiency.

I mean, we can solve that problem.

Okay, you might start feeling a little uncomfortable

now that we're really

looking at all your problems so closely,

it doesn't feel comfortable at all.

But it's important to remind yourself that, it's okay,

clearly understanding the problem

and how it affects your daily life

is actually one of the first steps

to really taking action to solve that problem.

And so there's something else

that you have to really understand if you want to

let's say start that process of solving the problem,

of eliminating the problem,

of eliminating that pain.

And the first thing that you have to understand

and really convince yourself is that,

you can fix the problem, you have that power.

Maybe it's not easy, but you can do it.

I wanna share with you a little piece of advice

and some great business English expressions

from Gemma Leigh Roberts

who is an Organizational Psychologist.

Roberts writes about resiliency

and a thing called mental agility

which basically means your ability

to respond in new ways

to problems that are always changing.

Anyway, here's that quote

from Roberts that I find so inspiring,

"It's not about having all the answers

but about being confident that you can figure out

a new way of doing things

to get where you want to go."

Which basically means, it's okay to have complex problems.

I mean, we all have complex problems

but what's really important is

to believe, to truly believe

that you can find a way to solve them.

So, are you one of the many

problem solvers in our community?

Today you're probably working on solving

a lot of problems, more than one that's for sure,

because we all are.

But that's why I'm really excited

about next week's episode

where we're gonna look at together

how to take the steps to solve those problems

now that we've identified, what they are,

how they're affecting your wellbeing,

your daily life and all of that stuff

that just makes problems problematic.

And just like with this video,

you'll be able to use those tips

for your business life, your business problems,

and also we're gonna look specifically

at how to solve your English problems.

And as I always say, if you don't use it, you lose it.

So here's how you can use

some of the things that you learned in today's lesson.

Down in the comments below,

tell me a little bit about how your English

is affecting your daily life.

And if this lesson was useful for you,

I would love to know.

And there are three ways that you can tell me.

First of all, give this video a thumbs up

and subscribe to my channel on YouTube

so that I can continue making

more business English lessons for you,

'cause I love it,

and I hope that you're learning with them.

The second thing is go over to my website,

christinarebuffet.com and get the worksheet

that goes with this video.

It's absolutely free and it's gonna help you

to better learn the things

that you're learning in this video,

but I mean better like assimilate

and really, really learn them.

And the third thing is,

go ahead and watch this other video.

It's about concretely how to solve a problem in English

dealing with unhappy customers.

So if you've got that problem,

we're gonna solve it together in that video.

All right, thanks a lot for improving your English

with Business English with Christina,

it's a privilege and I'll see you next time.