This Is Why YOU Should Learn ENGLISH! | Lindsay from AllEars English

Start to change your focus away from the  perfection towards the connection, right?  

Find that moment that motivates you where you did  have a connection, you ask someone a question,  

you learn something about them and then use  that as your starting point to say "I want  

more of that" and less of the getting stuck  in your you know in your at your desk and  

worrying about grammar and feeling  like you're doing things wrong.  

Focus on that we can choose what to focus on  in any moment, so focus on that that's my ask.  

Welcome back to Beyond Borders. Today you will get  some great insights to guide you on your English  

learning journey as well as some motivation  if you're feeling stuck. This week I sat down  

with Lindsay McMahon from All Ears English. If  you don't know All Ears it is one of the most  

famous esl podcasts with more than 200 million  downloads. Lindsay welcome to beyond borders.  

Thanks, Ethan I'm excited to be here. Let's  get into this amazing conversation, but first  

would you like to understand fast English  and be understood by anyone when you speak?  

Do you want to use your English for connection?  Then hit that subscribe button and the bell below,  

because just like RealLife for  Pollock we will help you to do it.

I was backpacking for a year through South  America, I was with all native Spanish speakers  

from Spain and Colombia. Um... And I remember they  were... I was learning Spanish but I wasn't quite  

at the point where I could understand a group  of people on the beach drinking, speaking fast,  

all that stuff, right. And in that moment, I  heard my name. I actually heard like someone  

say something about the U.S and there was laughter  and I just wanted to know what they were saying.  

I felt so disconnected. So, the connection,  not perfection, the way I connect to that  

is I never want our learners to feel that,  right, I never want language to get in the  

way of human connection. That's what that's all  about. It should always be the number one goal  

is to maintain the connection. So if you  make a mistake don't drop your eye contact,  

don't feel embarrassed, don't move away,  look at the person in the eye and keep the  

connection going. It's up to you at that moment  whether you lose the connection or you keep it,  

right. So we have a lot more control than we  think we do. And was there anything that you  

found useful to keep that connection as you're  saying? So say that you were speaking spanish and  

you made a mistake, how might you not lose  the connection? I think just not, like...  

it's nice when you're at a level where you don't  necessarily know that you're making mistakes  

because you can keep speaking. And keeping that in  the back of my head like I actually want to know  

about this person, right. There's no way that we  can connect if we're focused on our own mistakes  

if you're back in your head analyzing the  grammar mistake you just made. You are not  

able to ask a good question of that person  in front of you, right. So actually your  

desire to get to know that person should  be deeper than your own self-consciousness.  

I think that if you're able to build that skill  set to be flexible no matter what culture it is  

to not maybe judge right away what you don't know,  then... That can also be... That's almost like a  

sub skill set that you can... you can build  is just like that asking yourself when you  

have a doubt and not being so quick to judge. Like  stepping outside of it and asking questions, being  

curious. I think it's curiosity, right. It's kind  of like a combination of curiosity that stems from  

empathy. Because you... I think that to be a good  language learner and like a citizen in the world,  

is like we will always want to be thinking why did  someone do that or how are they feeling, what are  

they thinking right now. At least I'm always like  consumed with what people are feeling or thinking,  

or why do they do that or not do that, right. So  like there's a reason and sometimes it is cultural  

or it's their personality, but... Yeah. So you  mentioned being a citizen of the world, would  

you consider yourself a global citizen and if so  what does that mean to you? I think it's a way of  

thinking, so being curious about the world wanting  to learn new languages as much as possible. I'm  

often consumed with my work here so there's  not a ton of extra time to focus on Spanish,  

but, yeah, I think it comes down to just  being interested and wanting to know "oh,  

this is done differently, why is that?", right.  So I would say, yeah, I'm a citizen of the world.  

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I would say, based  on what you're saying, a lot of it is just kind  

of the value set that you hold, so like you're  saying, you've mentioned. So far like curiosity,  

empathy, I think those are really big ones.  And there's a quote that we use a lot that's  

"no matter what divides us that which unites  us is far greater." So, that's kind of like  

the ultimate and everything that's a really  difficult ideal to live up to, obviously, because  

you... Even if you're just in your home country,  I mean, there's people that you're not going to  

always see eye to eye with, obviously, when we  have elections and things like that that becomes  

even... that gap gets stretched out, right.  But trying, you know, a little bit to build  

that mindset that, you know, as human beings,  we're so much more similar than we are different  

and we need to start following that more. Exactly  there's core human needs and people just kind of  

get to them in different ways, right.  So their behavior looks different and  

we may not agree with their behavior, but  if you get down to the problem they think  

they're solving with what they're doing, I feel  like we can have that empathy at that point.  

Exactly. If you start from that place of curiosity  and you're asking questions and stuff then  

you'll get to that place where  you're like "okay, I unders from."

I feel like you can't talk on a podcast about  a language without the culture, you just can't  

separate the two because if the ultimate goal  is connection, whether it's in business or life,  

culture is going to be a huge hindrance  if you don't understand it. So I like to  

think of it as cultural fluency. I  think the point is when it comes to  

culture there's always a reason that things  are done differently in that culture and  

I think with covid we're a little at risk of kind  of becoming a little like... uh... I don't know,  

unaware of that, because we're not traveling as  much, business trips aren't happening abroad,  

so we should always go below the surface why  it's history, it's the society, it's the economy,  

what is okay, what's the thing that's done a  little differently, why is it done differently  

there's always a good reason. That's my viewpoint  on culture. Yeah, I find a really... When  

I've learned languages I find something that's  really useful for this is TV series, actually,  

because... And movies to some extent, but I  think TV star is always more digestible as in  

as a language learner and it can be such a great  reflection of how people live in that country,  

because it's it tends to like follow, you know,  uh... There's like Friends or Seinfeld or any of  

these classic sitcoms. Follow the lives of people  who are living in that country and stuff and so  

it can give you a good window into that  culture. If you don't actually live there.

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I think what helped me the most learning honestly  any language, also I would spend some time in  

South America, so, learning Spanish, living in  Guatemala, living in a house in argentina...  

What helps me the most, the thing that I  absolutely need that I think our listeners our  

students need too, is inspiration. In the sense  that they need to see a model of the language  

being spoken and they need to kind of fall in love  with that language they need to see it it needs to  

be in front of them in front of their eyes and  say "oh wow" that's what that means, make the  

connections and say I want to be able to speak  that way someday. So I think it's like the heart  

piece that's often missing in language learning  that we try to bring it back to the heart, right.  

Involve your heart before you involve your mind  does that make any sense? I'm not sure if that's  

clear. Totally, yeah, we always talk about, like,  a deep burning sense of purpose that you need to  

connect to and I think that's probably something  kind of similar is, what is that that you can  

connect to deep within that's going to push you  through those challenging times right. Completely.

They're really scared of that person judging them  because of their accent, because of them making  

mistakes. Just because of the fact that they're  a non-native speaker and most of your experiences  

of course you can meet people who are who are not  very nice and stuff and you could have a negative  

experience, but in the most part I think if  people go to the United States or you go to most  

countries people are very helpful and you know  they're going to... They're going to be open if  

you're wanting to speak and if you have questions  and things like that so, it's going to be pretty  

rare that people are going to really be judging  you as a non-native speaker, because it comes  

totally to the connection, right. I think you're  right ethan and it's so true I think it comes back  

to this idea that we have total control over what  we focus on in any given moment, so, maybe they  

are judging you but if you're not thinking about  that, that doesn't have to hinder your connection  

with them, it's about what you say, right, it's  about what you do that opens the connection.  

So when you first approach them maybe they'll  think "oh I can't speak with this student" like  

i you know it's not going to work, but then you  say something or you make eye contact, you make a  

gesture, you ask them something about their lives,  that's going to open it up so who cares, right.  

If they're judging in the beginning, they're  not judging at the end of that interaction.

The part that's missing in a standard  teacher, uh, classroom experience is that  

longevity that motivation to keep  continually showing up and, you know,  

it's hard to do that in a really  traditional environment, but if you start  

pulling the experiences the topics the interests  that you have towards your learning experience.