Hello, I'm Julian Northbrook from doingenglish.com, enjoying some oh,
so rare Irish sun. People learning English, especially at the higher levels, tend to
shun the basics mistakenly thinking that it's easy, that they get that, they know that
and that they need something more advanced. But true competence in English conversation is less
to do with learning more difficult stuff, but to do with understanding the deeper underlying
subtleties or to put it another way, how difficult sometimes the very basics of a language can be.
Good example of this. I've just filmed one of the next extraordinary English speakers lessons. The
lessons that my guys in extraordinary new speakers get from me every week to study. And it's based on
a real conversation that I had about going to the tailors to get some trousers altered. I'm
not super, super short, but I'm definitely below average for people in this part of the world. And
I cannot buy trousers to fit me properly for love nor money in this country, which means I've got
to buy them to fit on the waist and then get them taken up because the legs are always far too long.
And we rewrote that conversation to be from the perspective of Simon, one of the regular
characters from [inaudible 00:01:19], the company that we follow in the stories and the lessons that
I create for extraordinary english speakers. And Simon walks into the place with his trousers to
get them altered. But instead of just walking in and just saying, "I want these trousers
altered," which would be a very simple, very direct way to express what he wants. He says,
"I saw on the website that you do alterations. I wonder if it's possible to get these trousers
altered." Why does he say I saw on the website or on your website that you do this?
Surely it's obvious. It's a tailors. Of course, they do alterations.
Why would they not? That is the service that they provide. Well, he says this to leave room
for the person he's talking to to say, "No, we don't do this." It's extremely unlikely,
but it's not impossible. It could be that the website Simon saw is very, very out of date and
they no longer do this. It could be that he's walked into the wrong place. It could be that
the tailor is currently sick or quit and they don't have somebody on hand to do this work.
It could be that the place is so swamped with work right now that they can't take
any more. So by saying this, by saying that he got this information from a third party,
not that he knows it, but he believes it to be true he leaves this room for the guy he's
talking to, to say in a way that doesn't result in Simon losing face, we can't do this right now.
Again, it's a very small, very subtle difference. But the feeling that comes from this is extremely
different. If Simon had just said, "You do trouser alterations." And the guy said,
"No, we don't." That would have been a very direct contradiction, almost confrontational.
But because Simon has said, "I believe this to be the case, because I saw it on the website."
Now saying, "Sorry, we don't do this because that website is out of date. We don't have a
tailor right now." It doesn't come across as confrontation [inaudible 00:03:26]. It's much
softer, much subtler to be sure. But the point is, is understanding these deeper subtleties,
the social dynamics of conversation are essential for true competence in English conversation. So
don't shun the basics thinking you know them when actually you probably don't because
you really need to get to grips with the deeper level that we use language on.
Right. Hopefully that's helpful. If you want more from me, head over to doingenglish.com/emails
and sign up for my free daily email tips every single day at about 8:00 AM
Ireland time. I send a new email packed of all kinds of stories,
tips, and anecdotes for mastering the English language fast. I am now going to enjoy the sun
for a few more minutes before doing this week's members group coaching call. Bye-bye for now.