- Hi everyone, this is Christina
from Speak English with Christina
and today I'm here with a special bonus video with Cara.
All this month we're gonna be doing a special series
which is all about becoming more fluent
and more confident to help you to boost your career.
Cara, you may know her
from our faster fluency conversation club
or maybe you've already worked with her individually.
But for those of you who don't know Cara,
Cara do you wanna go ahead and introduce yourself?
- Yeah, sure, so I'm from the UK,
I live in France and yeah, I'm a fluency club coach
and I also do some individual coaching sessions with people.
- Yeah, exactly and I think your big specialty
is all about helping people to understand spoken English
and things like that, is that right?
- Yeah, that's it.
So I work with people who want to move abroad
or travel a lot to English speaking countries
so that they can understand native speakers
when they talk fast.
And I do that a lot through TV shows and movies
'cause I like watching them.
- Yeah, exactly, it's always fun
and might as well actually get some benefit out of it
instead of just watching it,
(Cara laughs)
and not learning natyhing.
Right, so, let's talk a little bit about
why it's essential for people
to make time to improve their English.
Because, sure you've heard this from
the clients that you work with,
where they say, "I have a good level of English
"but if I wanna evolve in my career,
"to get a better job, to be more credible, etc.."
they need to improve their English.
They can express themselves but not really at the level
that they need to or they want to.
And they're really motivated
and then they say, "But I don't have time to do this."
Yeah, I think You know what we're talking about here.
(both laugh)
- Yeah, no, it's true.
It's really easy to use time as an excuse.
But I think in this stiatuion,
you have to really make the time
because if improving your English
is what is going to lead to a better job
or more responsibility, then why.
Why wouldn't you improve it?
So I don't know if the issue is just time,
there may be other things there.
But definitely you have to make a conscious decision
to improve it if you want it to
improve your career prospects, for sure.
- Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's like this idea of,
maybe like immediately it's kind of hard to find the time
because you've got work, they've got family commitments,
maybe personal hobbies as well.
And it's almost like English is that thing
that they know it's important
but it's never super urgent.
There's never something that it's got to be done tomorrow.
It's like, "Yeah, I know I need to do it
but there's other things that I have to do first."
And I think that's,
it's hard to, like you said, to make that conscious decision
and say, "No, I'm going to find the time."
Because I think it's, when you make that decision
or let's say you choose to not properly invest the time
in improving your English,
they're gonna always feel that blockage
or continue to feel just embarrassed
or annoyed or frustrated
when they're with their colleagues or their clients
and they see that they speak an English level.
They seem more confident and better.
And then there's just that pain, I think.
You can either continue to feel that pain,
or like you said to make that decision
like I'm gonna change something to fix that situation.
- Yeah, like prioritize it.
Yeah, if you really need to use it a lot,
if you're working internationally,
then you kind of have no choice
but it has to come from you
and you have to decide to change.
To prioritize it and make the time to,
if you really feel it needs to be improved
for the sake of your career,
then yeah, you have to do it.
And it's hard actually, to see people frustrated
because of the language side of things.
They know how to do their jobs,
it's just really not a problem.
But yeah, English can be the issue
and it's a pity because there's no reason why
you can't improve it
and improve your job prospects with it.
- Yeah, exactly, I think a lot of the people we work with
they're very qualified and they're good at their jobs
and it's just like the English is the one thing
that is holding them back
or making them feel less confident
when they're in those situations.
But I think, like you said, if that's the one thing
that's holding them back,
once they realize this and once they accept it,
it's like you have the power to decide
what you do next.
You can decide to open that door
to take steps to find the time, or to make the time maybe,
to improve your English
because you know it's gonna lead to better opportunities,
maybe a better salary, maybe the chance to work abroad.
But I think also it's just
the more personal satisfaction
that you don't feel that frustration all the time
because after a while, you're just (groans).
It gets just very tiring and annoying after a while.
- Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
To not feel good about your English
and to maybe question your qualities
as a professional because of English.
- Yeah, I think it's yeah, that,
just when you start questioning yourself like that.
It kinda can, I guess, transfer over
to your personal life 'cause then you feel
that kind of frustration and the negativity.
Yeah, and it's just I hate when I see people
in that situation 'cause I'm like, you can change that.
You have the power to change that.
It might not be easy but it can be done, yeah.
- It can be done, yeah. - Gotta have the time, yeah.
- You have to find it somehow.
So I think that's what you're discussing
in your next video, right, is how to find time?
- Yeah, next Thursday we'll actually do the second video
in this sort of bonus series
ad you'll get to meet Trisha
who's another one of the teachers on our team.
And we're gonna talk about how to get the best return
on your investment of your time and your effort.
What to do when you don't have a lot of free time
but you know that you have to do something
about your English sooner rather than later.
So Cara, yeah, just thanks a lot
for some of your insights
and sharing that with us and with the students
and everything, it's very helpful.
But I think like you said,
it's just they have to make that conscious decision,
"I'm gonna change something."
Yeah, right, yeah, thanks a lot.
And for you guys, if you wanna be sure
to get the next video that's coming up with Tricia,
go ahead and go to christinarebuffet.com
so that you can sign up.
You can get that next episode
and you'll also get some more information
about our new program, which coming up soon,
called Speak Business English Confidently.
And that's gonna open up on Wednesday, March 18th.
All right, Cara,
thanks a lot! - No problem.
- I know you've got to go
and work with some of the students now.
So thanks for taking some of the time
out of your calendar to talk with us today.
- No problem, Christina.
- All right, see you later, bye.
- See you, bye.