What if you suddenly needed a better level of English for your job? Well,
you probably would wish that you had an English coach to help you
improve your level fast. Well, that's exactly what you'll get today,
my top three strategies as an English coach to help you
improve your English for work fast. Let's go. Hi,
I'm your English coach Christina,
and welcome to Business English with Christina,
where we solve your business English problems.
And this is the first part of a special four video
series where you'll learn how to improve any business English
skill that you need to work on fast. And before we get into this lesson,
be sure to sign up to my newsletter so that you get the next
videos in this series so that you can speak more confidently
in English and do your business better and share your
ideas and make your voice heard. And also,
you're going to get an exclusive invitation to a live
interactive workshop that's happening on November 18th, and it's totally free.
Now, first of all, let me reassure you if you're feeling like, you know,
your English level is making you lose credibility or
lose opportunities or maybe even the possibility of like losing your job.
I hope, I hope that's not the case,
but I have had clients who tell me that sometimes their level of English
puts their job at risk. Um,
the first thing that can maybe reassure you is
that you don't have to wait until you feel totally confident
to use your English for business. And in fact,
you don't need to be perfect at English to be good at doing your
job in English. And a lot of it is about confidence and mindset,
and that's always something that we work on.
But sometimes there is a time when you need more than just a change
in confidence and a change in mindset,
and you really do need to improve your level of English maybe
for something very specific.
And that is one of the key strategies.
It's to really start with the skills or the topics or the
problems that you need to deal with right now for your job.
Not, you know,
what is like in the next chapter of a textbook or something like that.
No, you need concrete lessons, like practical lessons,
not grammar theory.
So the first thing that you can do is to just take a few minutes and
think about like, like do an audit on yourself and think like,
what do I really, really, really need to improve right.
Now in my English for my work? And maybe you're thinking like, yeah,
lots of things. What, what is the priority thing? You know,
start with that most priority thing first.
And this answer, it's different for everyone because it,
it really depends on your level, on your job,
on the projects that you're working on right now, maybe on, uh,
what your goal is for your business or what your boss's goal is
for the business, et cetera.
But it's important to first identify that priority
that is specific to you. And I'll give you an example of, um,
a past student will call, uh, cls, let's say,
of course that's not her real name. Anyway,
she had to attend a week long training that was in English, not,
not like in English training, but a,
a professional training program that was delivered in English. Now,
she could understand English pretty well,
but when she had to speak it, she, like, she,
she just didn't feel good about herself. Like she felt like her words were
too simple.
She didn't feel like she had enough independence or autonomy
in her English, and she just didn't feel comfortable,
like just introducing herself or, you know,
asking for information or clarifications or anything like that. And I mean,
maybe, maybe you felt like that too, because it's a,
it's a pretty common feeling for a lot of students. And you know,
when you have to go into a professional situation like that, uh,
whether it's following a training program or, um,
giving a presentation or attending a meeting or, or whatever,
when you know that you're not at your best, like,
that's just not a very comfortable feeling.
But the good news is you can work on it. I mean, like,
I used to feel this way when I would go to like events
in French, like networking events, or I would have to, um,
stand in front of a group and give a presentation in, in French. And I just,
I was like, you know, if I could just do this in English,
it would be so much better for everyone.
But then I identified that problem and then I worked on it,
and now I feel totally comfortable doing that thing in a different language.
And so that's the first step to eliminating your problem.
It's to really identify it clearly and specifically
and then work on it.
And the third strategy that I can share with you today is to fix
something small, but that has a big impact.
Now what do I mean by something small that has
a big impact? I mean, it sounds a little contradictory, but it's.
Basically something that you probably do regularly every day,
but it's going to make your job just a lot easier and a lot more
comfortable right now.
And if you're not sure what that thing is,
it can be useful to work with a coach to help you to identify
that because they will bring an outside vision of
you and your work to help you identify it and advance faster.
Now, going back to the story of, um, my student Clarice,
she realized that she felt scared. And I mean like, really, like,
even like panicky, scared,
like totally blocked when she had to speak with people at these training
events. And I mean, Claire's is like, she's a smart woman.
She's very highly skilled, competent in her job,
but when it came to speaking to people and English,
like she just froze, like blocked totally.
And that happens to a lot of smart people. Um,
there's no shame in it. It's totally normal. Um,
and so when she had to introduce herself,
she just like didn't know what to say and maybe she would just try to avoid
those kinds of interactions altogether. And I mean, there's, there's simp.
It's a simple interaction to go and introduce yourself,
which means the good news is that it's easy to fix.
It's completely with within your English ability.
Like if you're watching this video and you're understanding it,
then I'm pretty sure that you're able to introduce yourself very
well in English.
But maybe you just need to work on it a little bit so that you can feel
much better when you have to do it. And like I said,
when you're really stuck in that kind of situation,
that's kind of the moment to call in a coach,
to help you to identify that small thing that's going to make a really
big impact on your everyday life. And so what we did for
Clarice was identify her problem, the,
the place where she was really blocking.
And then I just helped her to create a very super simple
but very, very, very efficient and high impact elevator pitch,
Like a quick introduction to her and her job and what she does, et cetera.
And we picked that because it's a great way to start a conversation
in English. And after she got into the conversation, she said,
You know, after I'm in the conversation, it's okay, I feel better.
But it was really starting the conversation that was blocking her
and that just like she, she just said,
It's so much easier now and I don't feel afraid and I have my elevator pitch.
And I master it. And it had,
it just changed everything for her and it,
and it was something that was useful for that specific situation when she
had to go into that training program, but also very useful for many, many,
many other business situations in her future.
And so that's like an example of something that seems small,
but they can have a really big impact on your English.
And I wanna offer you the same kind of help that I offered to
cls.
And that's what we're gonna do in the next video where I'll show you concretely
how to start your own pitch with a great, easy,
memorable introduction so that you know exactly what to say and
we'll start small,
but with something that you can learn and use immediately so that you feel
confident faster. Now, if you want to get that lesson,
be sure to sign up for my newsletter so that you get the next lesson where we'll
work on your introduction and your pitch,
but also the other two lessons in this very special series.
And my invitation for you for that interactive workshop that's happening
on November 18th, um, if you're already signed up on my newsletter,
great. Nothing more that you need to do. You'll get everything automatically.
Um, and if you're not signed up, then the link is down below the video.
And of course, I would love to help you with all this.
And as I always say, if you don't use it, you lose it.
So here's one question I have for you so that you can use your English,
tell me in the comments what you're struggling with in English at work,
and maybe your situation will become a topic for a future video
lesson. All right,
Thank you so much for improving your English and yourself with business English
with Christina, and I'll see you next time.