Arm themselves with phrases that they can say during their first conversations like "Oh wow
I've never heard that word before! Thank you." You know? Or "What does
that mean? Sorry, I've never studied that." Some little explanations that sound friendly,
that give you information and that make the other person feel comfortable too.
If you are a Brazilian then you are no stranger to my guest today: Gavin Roy from the USA became
an overnight celebrity in Brazil thanks to his YouTube channel Small Advantages.
He blew Brazilians minds by teaching English while he taught himself Portuguese he has
acquired more than 2 million subscribers and has repeated his success by starting a second
channel where he does the same through a completely different language: Czeck.
So Gavin welcome to the show. Hey thanks for having me!
Gavin is going to give you some phenomenal English learning advice today, but quickly
before we get into that if you are new here every week we help you to understand fast speech, to be
understood by anyone and to connect to the world. So hit that Subscribe button and the Bell down
below so that you don't miss a single new lesson, just like RealLifer Lucy
who says that she has finally discovered that learning English can be fun!
The Nike slogan "just do it" I've heard so many so many people saying "I'm so afraid for my first
conversation, can you give me tips?" and yes, I can give you tips but at the end of the day
you are gonna have to do it and it won't be easy. That first conversation will probably be
the worst conversation you've ever had, you know the awkward, you're going to feel bad
about yourself, there's no way to go around it but there's so much good that comes out of it.
And every following conversation gets easier. It's just having that first conversation and the
same thing applies for my fellow Americans-- but there's a great word in Portuguese. Like
earth, like people who share the same country as me.
And no one hardly anyone learns languages here but since I've become famous in Brazil and in
the Czech Republic my friends have come up to me like "Oh I want to learn German," or "Oh I
want to learn Spanish, can you kind of give me some tips?" and so yeah I sit down with them,
talk about it and it's probably happened maybe 50 times that someone has approached me and to
this date only one person has actually sat down and taken the same journey that I have,
and she has become remarkably fluent in Spanish and it's the kind of thing--
like if you're thinking about it, stop thinking about it, just do it. You know,
same thing with creating YouTube channels, so many people come up to me like "I have this great idea
for a YouTube channel: a ninja cooking show." Awesome dude, like here's some tips you should
do that like okay sweet yeah. Not a video is created, you know, so many things just echo in
the chamber of the mind for forever and never become reality and so that over and over again-
I see this piece of Nike advice "Just do it." It's gonna be imperfect but you're gonna improve
and let's make it a reality that would be my Ted Talk, I'd figure out a nice and eloquent
way to deliver this message in a 12-minute space. You're easing people and do it in some sense but
that part is in some sense self-development in English, so I imagine it's things that would
carry over into their life so you're kind of using your English as a portal in that
sense to not just improve your English but also to improve other aspects of your life.
That's true, yeah, whether it's going to law school or playing the guitar or getting better
at painting, I mean and in language learning specifically the first time you learn a
foreign language you're learning two things: 1) you're learning the language and 2) you're
learning how to learn a foreign language, which is why polyglots are amazing but every single
language that follows your first language gets easier and easier and easier, because you know
the hacks, you know, that you don't need to be afraid for your first conversations, that
spaced repetition system, flash card apps work. You know what to do, you know what works for you,
you know you don't need to focus on grammar and so in how to fly in these classes.
In my course I try to focus on that part of how to learn a foreign language any foreign language or
any skill really when I'm speaking Brazilian Portuguese to my followers there in Brazil
it helps them to see that I'm not speaking perfectly, that I still have a bit of an accent,
you know, and it makes them realize that they can let go of their standard of perfection.
They need to sound like a native speaker with zero mistakes. You know, I'm making mistakes
and I struggle to find words every once in a while but that's okay, like that adds to your
charm even when you have an accent and so uh yeah to add to a point that I was just saying
earlier_ I think that that helped me get rid of my perfectionism too and it's a beautiful
part of being able to have this exchange. Yeah I could not agree more. I heard you
say something-- because people obviously see you too nowadays they probably if they haven't
tracked you so much they might think it was really easy for you or maybe you have some
natural talent that they don't have or whatever excuse, that you can do it but they can't.
But I saw you saying in interview something like that you're not a language genius,
that your passion makes you good at the languages that you learn,
so where would you say that that passion comes for you for learning Portuguese, Czech, Spanish?
Yeah I remember saying passion, and I think passion is a good word I would
say even more precise word would be "dedication." In terms of
when you're learning a language you need to dedicate that time to studying flash cards, to
scheduling conversations online, and for me it's just something that I'm interested in.
That's like an easy answer. Two pieces of advice that helped me with this too:
1) is one that my dad always told: "Always finish what you start" and I've always had
this feeling I can never just read the first sentence of a book and say like "Ah this isn't
for me." If I pick up a book I'm gonna finish it, dang it, you know, I'm gonna finish it.
Same thing with the language, if I start a language I have this desire to reach fluency
which is why I know that I could study 20 languages if I wanted to but
I want to be conversant in the language that I start and so I limit myself to three or four
for now, and once I'm good I'll go from there. The biggest thing that I do before starting a
conversation or starting to speak in either Spanish or Portuguese is imagining myself
either in Brazil or in Mexico. I've had very strong positive experiences in both countries,
so I picture myself in the Yucatan Peninsula in Merida, in Mexico where I've spent
several summers and I like get in this mindset. It's more than just the language it's like the
feels, the smells, the tastes of the food and I prep myself that way before I'm gonna speak
and then there after that during a conversationm, you know obviously still trying to feel that way,
but there are certain sounds that just don't work in Spanish that work in Portuguese or vice versa,
and so it's just this sort of feeling that I have, that each time that I'm
going to say something in in Spanish that wouldn't work in Portuguese I'm trying to
foster that those feels a little more this that would be awkward if I try to say in Portuguese.
I don't have a good example right off the top of the head but
I love that kind of mental visualization exercise, in a sense of trying to really put yourself
in-- like something that excites all of your senses into the language, right?
Yes, exactly, yeah, that's really interesting I've never heard anyone do that. I mean I've
heard about a lot about using mental exercises for different things and
the visualization they even talk about pro athletes, for example, visualizing
themselves in the competition or something. So thinking about that for a language
and that is true when you-- especially if you have the opportunity to travel,
there's tend to be like very strong smells you can remember, or sites, or like the sounds, obviously,
of the different languages and everything. Or maybe the music that you love in that language.
That's such a good point. I've heard of like Michael Phelps visualizing
each race before he, you know, swam and I've never thought of it that way. But that's
exactly what I suppose I'm doing in language too. It's visualizing how it's gonna go.
Yeah the topic of passion, dedication and everything because I'm the same I would never
consider myself a good language learner at least not from the the place of talent, like it doesn't
come out of any natural talent that I have, but the thing that's always been key for me has been
the the passion, like figuring out something that I really adore about the culture or something.
Like Catalan is the language that I speak the best, foreign language I speak the best, but it's
on a global scale completely useless language. It's spoken by six million people, but for me it's
something that I absolutely love and everything and so I'm able to connect to that passion.
I'm able to connect to the culture and everything and I live now in Barcelona so it's very important
to my day-to-day life, but I think that when you have that passion and everything
it definitely makes you unstoppable compared to someone who just has the natural talent.
That's true, yeah, and every when you have passion your reasons are different too,
whereas the talent is just the propensity for that skill in and of itself.
Yeah you're probably more likely to give up anyway. If you have the talent but you don't
have the motivation then it's like when things get tough or something you might not be willing
to push through that. I 100% agree.
There's a ton more for you to learn with Gavin and other incredible teachers and experts.
You can get the full interviews from Beyond Borders anywhere you listen to podcasts.
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You always hear people saying I would learn English but I don't have time for it and I think
I understand this sentiment but I think a better way to phrase
this "I don't have time for it" is "I don't-- it's not a priority in my life,"
essentially because you make time for the things that are important for you,
you know, the things that are most important for you, you will find the time to do and if English
isn't important enough for you in terms of you think like "Ah you know, that job promotion or
that that travel opportunity isn't as important as this" or you know "my family comes first," which
is totally understandable, that's totally okay- It's just you need to phrase it not as I don't
have time for it, but instead it's not my highest priority, right?
And really it's one of those things you were saying for check I believe that you
spent 10 minutes a day studying flash cards for example that it's really hard to come up with
the excuse that you don't have time. Because you can always find like 5 minutes, 10 minutes
here and there. You can listen to a podcast while you're commuting to work, you can listen to music
while you're cooking your dinner in the evening, whatever's the thing it's always like there's
that excuse that "I don't have time" really isn't valid when you get down to it, it's just a sense
like you said it's really looking at clearly your your priorities or maybe your motivation, you know
your why are you learning the language and stuff. And being able to kindle that so that it helps to
push you through those kind of excuses of not having time or when you're just
too tired at the end of the day you're still going to watch that series in English instead
of in your native language for example. Exactly and you know that's a great point,
like, again there's never been a better time to be a language learner because we can have
our phone with the flash card app while we're waiting in line at the supermarket or on the bus
but even smaller chunks of time like changing your phone language to English is something I
was recommending to my students because when they look down for 10 seconds they're getting one or
two words like swipe you know or click like any of those words or um putting a list of words on your
mirror that in your bathroom when you're brushing your teeth for two minutes
in the morning two minutes at night these are tiny chunks of time but yeah you're still
you're still doing something so there are ways to hack life where you're always doing something
that's pretty cool now Gavin has such an inspiring story how he has helped English learners while
achieving his own language learning goals now you don't need to be a native English speaker
to do this two of my previous guests anna from ukraine and veronica from russia both have created
successful English learning channels sharing their own journeys of learning fluent English without
living in an English-speaking country let's check out a clip from my interview with veronica when I
was still in middle school or in high school it was really hard for me because I was trying to
learn English I was like constantly doing something and a lot of my classmates didn't
really understand me they were like why you're studying like you should go party and not study
and I just really liked it they didn't understand me and at first it really hurt me because I was
a teenager I was like oh my god I don't have any friends no one understands me.