Your English Coach: 3 top strategies for improving your English at work —fast!

7,820 views ・ 2022-11-01

Business English with Christina


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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What if you suddenly needed a better level of English for your job? Well,
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you probably would wish that you had an English coach to help you
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improve your level fast. Well, that's exactly what you'll get today,
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my top three strategies as an English coach to help you
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improve your English for work fast. Let's go. Hi,
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I'm your English coach Christina,
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and welcome to Business English with Christina,
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where we solve your business English problems.
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And this is the first part of a special four video
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series where you'll learn how to improve any business English
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skill that you need to work on fast. And before we get into this lesson,
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be sure to sign up to my newsletter so that you get the next
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videos in this series so that you can speak more confidently
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in English and do your business better and share your
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ideas and make your voice heard. And also,
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you're going to get an exclusive invitation to a live
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interactive workshop that's happening on November 18th, and it's totally free.
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Now, first of all, let me reassure you if you're feeling like, you know,
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your English level is making you lose credibility or
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lose opportunities or maybe even the possibility of like losing your job.
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I hope, I hope that's not the case,
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but I have had clients who tell me that sometimes their level of English
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puts their job at risk. Um,
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the first thing that can maybe reassure you is
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that you don't have to wait until you feel totally confident
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to use your English for business. And in fact,
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you don't need to be perfect at English to be good at doing your
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job in English. And a lot of it is about confidence and mindset,
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and that's always something that we work on.
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But sometimes there is a time when you need more than just a change
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in confidence and a change in mindset,
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and you really do need to improve your level of English maybe
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for something very specific.
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And that is one of the key strategies.
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It's to really start with the skills or the topics or the
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problems that you need to deal with right now for your job.
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Not, you know,
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what is like in the next chapter of a textbook or something like that.
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No, you need concrete lessons, like practical lessons,
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not grammar theory.
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So the first thing that you can do is to just take a few minutes and
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think about like, like do an audit on yourself and think like,
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what do I really, really, really need to improve right.
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Now in my English for my work? And maybe you're thinking like, yeah,
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lots of things. What, what is the priority thing? You know,
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start with that most priority thing first.
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And this answer, it's different for everyone because it,
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it really depends on your level, on your job,
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on the projects that you're working on right now, maybe on, uh,
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what your goal is for your business or what your boss's goal is
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for the business, et cetera.
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But it's important to first identify that priority
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that is specific to you. And I'll give you an example of, um,
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a past student will call, uh, cls, let's say,
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of course that's not her real name. Anyway,
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she had to attend a week long training that was in English, not,
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not like in English training, but a,
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a professional training program that was delivered in English. Now,
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she could understand English pretty well,
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but when she had to speak it, she, like, she,
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she just didn't feel good about herself. Like she felt like her words were
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too simple.
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She didn't feel like she had enough independence or autonomy
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in her English, and she just didn't feel comfortable,
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like just introducing herself or, you know,
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asking for information or clarifications or anything like that. And I mean,
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maybe, maybe you felt like that too, because it's a,
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it's a pretty common feeling for a lot of students. And you know,
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when you have to go into a professional situation like that, uh,
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whether it's following a training program or, um,
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giving a presentation or attending a meeting or, or whatever,
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when you know that you're not at your best, like,
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that's just not a very comfortable feeling.
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But the good news is you can work on it. I mean, like,
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I used to feel this way when I would go to like events
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in French, like networking events, or I would have to, um,
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stand in front of a group and give a presentation in, in French. And I just,
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I was like, you know, if I could just do this in English,
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it would be so much better for everyone.
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But then I identified that problem and then I worked on it,
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and now I feel totally comfortable doing that thing in a different language.
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And so that's the first step to eliminating your problem.
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It's to really identify it clearly and specifically
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and then work on it.
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And the third strategy that I can share with you today is to fix
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something small, but that has a big impact.
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Now what do I mean by something small that has
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a big impact? I mean, it sounds a little contradictory, but it's.
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Basically something that you probably do regularly every day,
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but it's going to make your job just a lot easier and a lot more
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comfortable right now.
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And if you're not sure what that thing is,
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it can be useful to work with a coach to help you to identify
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that because they will bring an outside vision of
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you and your work to help you identify it and advance faster.
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Now, going back to the story of, um, my student Clarice,
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she realized that she felt scared. And I mean like, really, like,
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even like panicky, scared,
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like totally blocked when she had to speak with people at these training
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events. And I mean, Claire's is like, she's a smart woman.
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She's very highly skilled, competent in her job,
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but when it came to speaking to people and English,
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like she just froze, like blocked totally.
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And that happens to a lot of smart people. Um,
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there's no shame in it. It's totally normal. Um,
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and so when she had to introduce herself,
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she just like didn't know what to say and maybe she would just try to avoid
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those kinds of interactions altogether. And I mean, there's, there's simp.
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It's a simple interaction to go and introduce yourself,
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which means the good news is that it's easy to fix.
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It's completely with within your English ability.
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Like if you're watching this video and you're understanding it,
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then I'm pretty sure that you're able to introduce yourself very
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well in English.
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But maybe you just need to work on it a little bit so that you can feel
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much better when you have to do it. And like I said,
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when you're really stuck in that kind of situation,
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that's kind of the moment to call in a coach,
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to help you to identify that small thing that's going to make a really
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big impact on your everyday life. And so what we did for
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Clarice was identify her problem, the,
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the place where she was really blocking.
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And then I just helped her to create a very super simple
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but very, very, very efficient and high impact elevator pitch,
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Like a quick introduction to her and her job and what she does, et cetera.
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And we picked that because it's a great way to start a conversation
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in English. And after she got into the conversation, she said,
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You know, after I'm in the conversation, it's okay, I feel better.
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But it was really starting the conversation that was blocking her
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and that just like she, she just said,
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It's so much easier now and I don't feel afraid and I have my elevator pitch.
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And I master it. And it had,
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it just changed everything for her and it,
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and it was something that was useful for that specific situation when she
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had to go into that training program, but also very useful for many, many,
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many other business situations in her future.
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And so that's like an example of something that seems small,
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but they can have a really big impact on your English.
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And I wanna offer you the same kind of help that I offered to
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cls.
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And that's what we're gonna do in the next video where I'll show you concretely
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how to start your own pitch with a great, easy,
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memorable introduction so that you know exactly what to say and
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we'll start small,
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but with something that you can learn and use immediately so that you feel
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confident faster. Now, if you want to get that lesson,
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be sure to sign up for my newsletter so that you get the next lesson where we'll
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work on your introduction and your pitch,
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but also the other two lessons in this very special series.
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And my invitation for you for that interactive workshop that's happening
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on November 18th, um, if you're already signed up on my newsletter,
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great. Nothing more that you need to do. You'll get everything automatically.
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Um, and if you're not signed up, then the link is down below the video.
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And of course, I would love to help you with all this.
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And as I always say, if you don't use it, you lose it.
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So here's one question I have for you so that you can use your English,
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tell me in the comments what you're struggling with in English at work,
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and maybe your situation will become a topic for a future video
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lesson. All right,
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Thank you so much for improving your English and yourself with business English
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with Christina, and I'll see you next time.
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