The best way to boost your business English - With Expert Teacher Trisha

- Hi everyone, this is Christina

from Speak English With Christina

where you'll learn American English

and business know-how to become confident in English.

Today I am here with Trisha

who is another one of our expert teachers.

Trisha, how are you doing today?

- I'm doing great, thanks Christina.

How are you?

- Yeah, I'm good thanks.

Now, last week we talked with Cara

about how important it is for you

to make the time

to improve your English

because if you never change something,

all of those frustrations,

all of that personal dissatisfaction,

it's just always gonna be there

until you make the decision

to make the change with your English.

And today we're gonna talk with Trisha

about something a little different.

Trisha, before we get started,

would you maybe like to just introduce yourself?

- Okay, so I'm one of the Fluency Club leaders

and I also teach some of the people

that enroll in our programs,

and I've been teaching since 2002.

I'm originally from Southern California,

and I got my teaching degree in the Silicon Valley,

and that's where I began working.

So I have a background in Modern Languages

but also English and English as an immersion language.

- Got it, yeah, nice.

Okay, thanks for that.

Now, last week in the video with Cara,

we talked about this idea of getting a return

on your time and your effort investment.

How to use time

in a valuable, intelligent way

just so that the students

get the most out of

the time that they spend

doing their English.

I think with the people that you work with Trisha

they're probably pretty busy.

- Yeah. (laughs) - Yeah.

- Yeah. (laughs) - She's like,

"So many people, busy."

- Yeah, but I know how that is too because

since I began my teaching career in the Silicon Valley

and that's kind of how everybody is there.

I don't want to say everybody

but most of the people in our programs

have really fast-paced schedules

and so you can't afford to waste your time.

And so you need to make the commitment

to spend the time that will

give you something,

to get results.

But it's so frustrating to spend your time the wrong way.

So I think this is a good way to approach

the whole idea of

I want to change the way I speak English

because you get a chance to actually

speak several times a week,

so that's really important to speak frequently,

even though not for a long time possibly,

but at least in small frequent bursts

where you get to speak.

And then meeting with,

obviously meeting with somebody one-on-one

is really great because most of the time,

the things that we'll work on

allow people to meet their immediate goals

so it is a little bit of a,

it allows you to kind of ahead in one area,

even though you're spending this time

you kind of see something immediate that

oh, it didn't take me as long to write that email

or I don't have to panic on my conference call.

So it's a little bit of an immediate relief also.

- Yeah, and I think that that's important

because I think there's sort of the idea that

just that pain and that frustration

of oh, I have this phone call or this conf call

and I know I'm not going to be able to express myself.

And it's just yeah-- - I'm afraid to call people.

- Yes.

- Or I try to get through by email.

Or I've had people, when we work on an email together,

they say "Oh, it took 15 minutes,

"but when I write one it takes an hour."

And you know, so it's reassuring

to also have someone

to ask how can I say this diplomatically?

I'm going to talk to a client who always interrupts me.

How can I politely get my words in.

- Yeah, exactly.

- So often it's sort of an immediate relief for that, yeah.

- For those things.

And I think you know, like you said,

in this program which is

"Speak Business English Confidently."

That's the name of the program.

Yeah, like you said it's flexible.

So you've got this question or this thing

that you just wanna be able to ask someone

and get the right answer

and get the help, and feel a lot better.

And it saves you time.

Like you said, the client who says

"Oh, it normally takes me one hour,

"but with you it took me 15 minutes."

- Yeah.

- I think that's a good example

of the return on investments.

- Or if you're interviewing for jobs

or a position or something.

I mean, I've had people.

I prefer if I'm helping people

with an interview question

or something they're gonna send in,

a professional email or on a resume.

I prefer to see it before the fact.

- Yeah, sure.

- Because I've actually had people say,

"Oh my gosh, I sent it like that!"

And that is costing you time also.

- Yeah.

- I'm not saying that everybody's making giant mistakes

and sending things out,

but you know things like that are slowing you down

if you say, "Oh gosh, well I would apply for this job

"but I'm not sure.

"And it takes me three hours to write my resume.

"and then the person couldn't understand it."

So that is definitely,

it's kind of like a weight off.

And then another weight off is

sometimes people worry about things

they maybe don't need to worry about.

And you can sort of relax.

- Yeah.

- You know the good news is

oh, you know people understand me.

I was saying it right.

Or at least I got my point across.

I can do this.

And so there's kind of both, you know?

- Right, exactly.

Just knowing where to focus

your efforts and your energy

where it's gonna really help you

and where you can stop worrying

and focusing your energy

because you're fine, in fact.

And then also, you know

a lot of clients they talk about

getting confidence speaking.

They wanna feel more fluent,

they need to get that practice,

kind of in a safe environment

so that they can feel good about their English

when they're in a high stakes situation

like at work, meeting or an interview or something.

And I think that's kinda what is included

in the group conversation part of this program,

the Group Conversation Faster Fluency Conversation Club,

which you are actually one of the leaders of that program.

What are some of the changes that you have noticed

in people who come and who participate in

these conversation sessions?

- I think that the topics are often very conversational

and lead to friendly conversation.

There's also the fact that you get used to

seeing the same people over and over again.

So people become friendly,

they're happy to see each other.

You get to introduce yourself a lot at first,

and then you know people.

And I think that there's a lot of laughing.

You know, people have fun and

you get to have a kind of English conversation

in an environment where you can enjoy yourself.

And it's enjoyable,

and you can laugh.

Yeah, it's not fun to learn

in a high stakes situation all the time.

- Right, yeah.

- So I think it's really important.

And there are also some people that tell me that

just the socializing is actually really hard.

That they can talk about at work,

but they don't know what to say if somebody says,

"How was your weekend?"

- They're like, "Oh, good."

- Yeah, and so this is the sort of

okay, how can I actually socialize

if I go to a conference or there's a business dinner

or some colleagues call and I need to be polite

and ask them how they're doing

and see what they did this weekend.

- Exactly, yeah.

So there's that sort of socializing,

conversational aspect which is really important to develop.

That's a big important skill to have

in your professional life as well.

So for somebody, for a client

who is thinking about joining the program

"Speak Business English Confidently,"

which includes the private individual lessons

plus the conversation group,

what is the difference between this program

and like other options that might be out there?

You know, like apps or conversation platforms

or things like that.

- I think this one has a very personal edge to it

because of course when you have 12 individual lessons

with the same teacher,

they're gonna look at all of your goals

and they're gonna follow your individual questions.

If you need to change at the last minute,

if you need help on this specific thing right now.

- Right, yeah.

- It's really tailored to what you need

and what's going on in your life.

And I think that our fluency club

has the benefit of being not completely huge.

- Yeah right, yeah.

- A lot of people show up to it

and it's great and it's lively,

but it's not huge.

I mean I know people,

when somebody's new I immediately know

'cause I've not met you before.

And then in three months you have the chance

to get to know people and

you can feel comfortable.

And we remember parts of your story.

So I think that it's a community.

Some people have stayed much longer than three months also,

so they'll say,

"Oh," you know, "you're new,"

and they'll kind of take you under their wing a little bit.

I've seen those kinds of conversations

starting that way too.

- Yeah.

- So think there's a different feeling to it altogether.

- Yeah, definitely.

I think between, like you said,

you've got that teacher with you

for the entire time

so they really get to know you

and your objectives and your difficulties.

And then there's the community

and the conversation group as well.

Whereas you know with apps,

they're convenient because you can do them anywhere,

but it's quite lonely.

And I'm not sure,

it's good for doing something in English,

but I would never try to learn a language,

especially for a business situation.

- Yeah, I think at a lower level

when it doesn't matter what you are learning specifically

then it's fine.

But at a higher level

it's not tailored to exactly what you need.

- It just doesn't work.

It's not fit for your objectives I think.

Yeah, exactly.

And I think it's the same thing also

with some of these conversation platforms,

which I think are great for certain objectives

and certain needs,

but if you really got something,

like your career which is important for you.

- Right.

- You want something that's suited to that objective.

- Right, or something that's highly specialized in that.

And that's been specialized in that for quite some time.

- Exactly.

- This mainly deals with business.

- Yeah, exactly, right.

Okay, well great.

Thanks a lot, Trisha

for sort of coming on the video

and sharing your experience-- - Thank you.

- And your advice with the students.

Next week we've got another special bonus video

which is gonna be with Matthew,

who's another expert teacher

and fluency club leader.

And we're gonna talk about how

"Speak Business English Confidently"

makes just all of this possible for you to

get that individual help that you need,

to join that community,

to get the confidence and the fluency

in your conversations.

And how you can do that right now.

So if you wanna get the information about the program,

but also be sure to get the video next week,

go ahead and sign up at

christinarebuffet.com

and that way I can send you all the information

and you'll get an invitation to join the program

when we open up on Wednesday, March 18th.

Trisha, thanks a lot.

I'm sure the students will be looking forward

to seeing you in the program.

And I will talk to you soon.

- Yeah, it was great talking to you.

- Yeah, you too thanks.

- Bye. - Bye bye.