Hi Veronica.
Hi Steve.
Today, I'm gonna talk with Veronika Mark of Moscow about just how much can you
learn on your own in a place where the language you're learning is not spoken.
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So hello, Veronika.
Hi.
We are going to speak in English because Veronika's English is amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
Veronika has a website, a YouTube channel called English with Veronika
or with Veronika Mark, which is it now?
With Veronika?
With Veronika Mark, yeah you were right.
With Veronika Mark, okay.
And we just had a conversation in English, and her English is,
I would say flawless, flawless.
Now, would I say I would mistake her for a native speaker?
Not quite, but almost.
And the use of words, the way you put words together is completely native
speaker, uh, intonation, everything.
There's just very few little things that give you away.
But what I find very interesting with Veronika is you have basically
lived your whole life in Moscow.
Yeah in russia.
Yeah.
I I'm not from Moscow.
So I lived, yeah.
I lived in a different city until I was, uh, 17 and then I moved to Moscow.
Yeah.
Okay.
So we often hear people say, you know, to learn the language really
well, you have to move to the country where the language is spoken.
And so, and you are living proof that that's not necessary.
So how did you go about achieving such a high level of English
without really leaving Russia?
Yeah.
So thank you for your question.
Uh, when I was in school, like in Russia, it's mandatory for every
student, for every kid to start learning English at school as a,
as the first foreign language.
And, uh, obviously when I was a kid, like I was eight years old, I didn't really
care about foreign languages at all.
And for me it was just another subject that I didn't like.
And I feel like the moment that I realized that I actually really enjoy English was
when I was, it was my, uh, yeah, I think I was in high school, my junior year in
high school, and I was just so excited to learn, to start learning English.
And first of all, I only focused on the input
I was just listening to something, reading books, just...
first, I started with some stupid books for kids, because for me it
was really entertaining and they were actually really interesting.
And, uh, I had a, I had an English teacher, she was Russian.
So, but she had a very good level of English and she helped me a lot.
She was always motivating me and she, she was just amazing
and I'm really grateful for her.
And, uh, then there was time when I had to prepare to go to college.
I had to take some tests and exams, and I decided to take English as my
exam because in Russia we can choose.
Um, so, and then the, that is when I really had to prepare well, and,
but obviously when you prepare for a test, it's a little bit different
than what you actually need, like to communicate with people or to
just read something in English.
And when I moved to Moscow, this is when I realized that
I really lacked just, yeah...
I had a lot of things that I didn't know, like culture wise and just vocabulary,
my vocabulary wasn't really as great.
And, uh, one of my professors, English professors told me that I should really
look into accents and think about because my English was already pretty good.
And there was one thing that she said could be better,
which is my pronunciation.
Uh, because sometimes I mixed up accents, I would say something in
a British accent and then another word would be an American accent.
Then my Russian accent obviously would be also there.
And this is when I was like, okay, now I need to really think about
improving my accent and I try to focus more on the American accent.
And this is when I learned all those rules of connected speech.
Um, yeah, all of those different sounds in the American English.
And obviously still every single day I focused on the input because
I just read a lot in English.
I love reading in any language, really.
So for me, it was just natural.
It's just the reading in English.
And I really love listening to podcasts.
So I should probably add to that.
So you speak English, you speak Chinese.
What other languages do you speak?
French at a beginner level, yeah.
At a beginner level.
And your Chinese is...
How would you classify it?
Intermediate, sometimes when I practice more upper intermediate.
Yeah.
Okay.
And so basically when you were very young, you weren't that interested.
And then at the age of 16, you become, you, you became very interested?
Yeah, very interested.
And, uh, it's interesting.
A lot of parents, they want their kids to learn languages, English in many cases.
And so they sort of, they want to expose their kids to as much English as possible
when they're three years old or something, they really pushed this early immersion.
And my experience has been that if the kid is interested, that's fine.
But if the kid isn't interest, don't push because it's never too late.
If somebody gets motivated at age 16, they will, they will go and learn.
And at the other end of the spectrum, you have countries like Sweden, where all of
the television programs are in English.
Uh, I shouldn't say they're all in English, but they're
in the original version.
So if it's an American television program or a British television
program, all the kids are going to watch that in the original version.
So Swedish kids, without even trying, they show up at school, they already have
a fair level in English just through all of that input, but you would not have
had that because in Russia you would not have heard so much English on television.
Definitely not.
No.
So you would have to make a special effort to get that input, uh, through whatever
you can find on the internet and so forth.
Yeah.
So the podcasts that you listen to is that mostly for
pronunciation, is it for vocabulary?
Uh, how much opportunity did you have to use the language?
Um, I think right now and when I was like 16 or 18, I primarily focused more...
okay.
When I was like 16, 18, I focus more on the podcasts that actually taught English.
They were, yeah, the hosts were native speakers of, for
example, like American English.
And they would explain some expressions in English.
They would talk about the culture and it was really interesting
to me, but right now I never listened to these podcasts anymore.
I just listened to podcasts for native speakers news.
I love listening to the news sometimes and just some interesting
podcasts about anything, really, anything I'm interested in.
Is it easier to find, I presume it's easier to find the content of interest
in English than in Chinese, for example, or maybe there's lots of Chinese.
I'm not learning Chinese right now I don't know, maybe there's lots of stuff.
It's easier, I would say it's easier and faster to, to, uh, find some new
content in English than in Chinese.
But if you know where to look, then it's no problem finding anything in Chinese.
So if a person wants to achieve a high level, without having the opportunity to
travel to where the language is spoken, even though that might be a long-term goal
to go to the country where the language is spoken, that there is a lot that
they can do on their own, and that it's possible to achieve a very high level.
And what do you think are the, the main ingredients in, in order
to be successful in order to achieve a high level in language?
Uh, without having the opportunity to be in the country, what, what, what
would you say if you had to name, say three things that are essential in order
to be successful, what would they be?
Um, being consistent is definitely going to be one of them.
And I think it applies to everything we do in life, not just learning a language.
Yeah.
If you want to be good at sports, you need to be consistent too.
Uh, so yeah, it would be consistency, focusing on the input and I think the
third one is also going to be about something about not stressing too much,
not worrying too much because the thoughts we have in our head sometimes for example,
uh, it didn't help me at all when I was younger to think that my English was not
good, that I couldn't communicate with people because I would always feel scared
and not ready to talk to other people.
So yeah, definitely the thoughts we have, our mental state
is really, really important.
Well, you know, I completely agree with you.
Uh, we've got to give ourselves credit for what we achieve and not
criticize ourselves because we can always improve, but we all, we will
also continue making mistakes and having things we don't understand.
And none of that matters if we want it to be a hundred percent comfortable,
we stay in our native language.
Yeah.
Anytime we're speaking in another language, it's, it's less
comfortable, but it's more fun.
Yeah.
And I think you're a proof that great things can be achieved, even if
you're not surrounded by the language.
So thank you.
I hope that your example can, uh, encourage people.
And, uh, if we have, uh, as I do have viewers who are not native speakers
of English, uh, they may want to check out your YouTube channel,
uh, English with Veronika Mark.
And I'm sure they'll find many useful tips as well as lots of encouragement.
So, thank you very much and good luck in your language learning journeys.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye.