5/11/2019 0 Comments Learning a language? Speak it like you’re playing a video game | Marianna Pascal | TEDxPenangRoadThere was no feeling of being judged. There was no shyness. In fact, quite the opposite. This guy's totally focused on the bad guys, smile on his face https://aura2game.com/the-last-you-need-to-know-about-card-games/.
All he can think about is killing these guys, right? And I'm watching him. And I suddenly realize: this is it. This is the same attitude that people like Faizal have when they speak English, just like this guy. When Faizal goes into an English conversation, he doesn't feel judged. He is entirely focused on the person that he's speaking to and the result he wants to get. He's got no self-awareness, no thoughts about his own mistakes. I want to share with you a real, true example, to paint a picture, of somebody who speaks English like they are playing piano and someone who speaks English like they are playing a computer game. And this is a true story. It happened to me. A while ago, I was in a pharmacy. I had to buy omega; my doctor said I should get omega. And I go to the shelf, there's tons of omega, there's omega that's high in DHA, omega that's high in EPA, and I don't know which one to buy. Now, the sales rep happened to be there. And I saw she's like this well-dressed, professional woman. I walk over to her, and I see this look as she sees me, this sort of - it's a look I recognize very well. Her eyes go all wide. It's sort of that panic: Oh my God! I've got to speak to a native speaker; she's going to judge me and notice my mistakes. I go up to her, and I explain my situation: which omega do I get? And she starts explaining to me everything about DHA and EPA you could possibly imagine. She speaks very quickly, goes all around in circles. And when she finishes, no idea what to buy. (Laughter) So I turn to the girl behind the counter. Now, the girl behind the counter, I heard her before, her English level is very low. But when I walk over to her, this girl, there's no fear. In fact, she's just looking at me. You know that look? Like...Yeah? Okay...So, how? (Laughter) Yeah, I've been in Malaysia a long time. (Laughter) So, I go up to her and I explain the problem, EPA and DHA. She looks at me, she says, "Okay, yeah. " "Ah, EPA for heart." "DHA for brain." (Laughter) "Your heart okay or not?" (Laughter) So I said, "Yeah, yeah," I said, "my heart is really, I think it's pretty good." She says, "Your brain okay or not?" (Laughter) I said, "No. No, my brain is not as good as it used to be." She looks and says, "Okay lah, you take Omega DHA!" (Laughter) Problem solved, right? So we've got two different kinds of communicators. We've got the one who's got a high level, but totally focused on herself and getting it right, and therefore, very ineffective. We've got another one, low-level, totally focused on the person she's talking to and getting a result. Effective. And therein lies the difference. Now, why is this distinction so important not just to you, to your children, but to the future of Malaysia and countries like Malaysia? And to answer that, let's take a look at who actually is speaking English in the world today, okay? So, if we looked at all of the English conversations in the whole world, taking place right now on planet Earth, we would see that for every native speaker, like me, there are five non-native speakers. And if we'd listen to every conversation in English on planet Earth right now, we would notice that 96% of those conversations involved non-native English speakers - only 4% of those conversations are native speaker to native speaker. This is not my language anymore, this language belongs to you. It's not an art to be mastered; it's just a tool to use to get a result. And I want to give you a real-life example of what English is today in the world, real English today. This is another true story. I was at a barbecue a little while ago - this was a barbecue for engineers, engineers from all over the world. And they were making hot dogs. Some of the hot dogs were regular hot dogs, and some were these cheese hot dogs, you know, with the cheese in the middle.
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