#432 - Why Some People Have SUCCESS Speaking English... and Others Don't
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Awww yeah, RealLifers, Global Citizens, this is Izzy from RealLife English, where it is our mission to guide you beyond the classroom to speak English confidently and naturally, to connect to the world, and to actually use your English as a doorway to the life of your dreams. If you watch this lesson until the end, you'll learn what is the number one reason why some people have succeeded learning English, but you haven't.

Yes, because maybe you have that one friend who puts as much effort as you do, but they have succeeded and you haven't yet. What's happening there? And no matter how many times you try every year, you start over every month, you try a new method. You can't seem to stay consistent.

And today I'm going to help you not just know the information of why, but really change the way you think about English because that's the only way you'll be successful. And I'll give you some tips at the end so you can start taking action today. Okay, so let me tell you right off the bat what is the number one reason why successful people will succeed.

That is, they have a strong need to learn English. Now, I just said the expression right off the bat, which means instantly, immediately, at the very beginning. So right off the bat here, that's the reason. Now, if you feel that you do have a strong need, but you're not making progress, let me tell you that you don't have a strong need. It's not strong enough. I've had students in the past who did have that strong purpose,

And that motivated them and that pushed them to achieve their goals. Because if they didn't, they would lose money, they would waste time. For example, there was one guy who applied for a master's degree, you know, to study in France. And they had, he had to not only take an exam, but there would be a conversation exam, you know, an oral test. And you'd have to speak with this person, the teacher, for 10, 15 minutes.

Now, in order to achieve that, we had conversation classes and that pushed him forward to the point that he was really fluent by the end of our little program and he would use his English there, you know, so he knew that it was not only important for the tests, but in order for him to live his English at college there in France.

This is why we say on this podcast that you need to use your English as a doorway to the life of your dreams. It's not just, you know, a motto, like a thing we say, like a slogan. This is essential. If you don't do that, you don't succeed. Same thing happened with me. I shared in previous lessons that I had a dream to study in Vancouver, Canada, to go to college in Canada. In order to do that, which I didn't ultimately do, I actually went to Seattle, which is close. It's a city in the United States to work there.

But he was close enough, you know, I was happy with it. And what pushed me to get there

was exactly the goal, you know? And then the goal created all this lifestyle for me that I was suddenly living my English. We call that lifestyle English. It's like doing the things that you would do in your own native language, but doing those things in English. So I mentioned that one students that I had who went to France, but I've had other students too. And in fact, like all of the ones that were successful had a strong purpose. So this other guy wanted to become a pilot, like an airplane pilot.

and they need to learn English, right? Because they speak English. You've probably heard that when you're on a plane. Good afternoon. This is your captain speaking with just a little flight information. And he did it. So same thing. It pushed him to get there. So the first thing that I ask you to reflect on is what is your dream really? And don't just say like to get a new job, although that is a very nice start.

But think what is behind that dream as well, because that will really ground it and really give it more roots. Think about it right now. What is your dream that is related to English and how can you pursue it?

because it's not just about pursuing English learning. It's pursuing the dream, which makes you just commit more. So in my own example that I wanted to go to college in Canada, it was not just learning English so I can do that. I committed by going to college fairs here in my city, exchange program, conventions. If you look, you know,

If this is something that interests you, go and look. I bet that close to you, maybe not in your city, but in a neighbor city, there's probably something like that happening once or twice a year. And you go there and you get to speak English with people, get to see the options, you know how much it costs. Don't think that your dreams are too far away. That is something that I just dove into recently.

the process of achieving my goals by not bothering whether or not they were impossible. I just wanted to know if they were at all possible and how much it would cost, what it would take for me to get there. I discovered for some of those dreams that

Yeah, they were practically impossible. You know, they would cost like almost like millions of reais, which is the currency in Brazil, which is ridiculous, right? But at least that gave me the awareness so I could look for the actual viable options. The word viable means possible, right? Like the possible options. So there's a quote that I just think is perfect for this. That is, a strong why can bear almost any how. Have you heard that before?

the word bear in his quote by the way is not the animal it's to support like to endure to put up with it's the same thing like put up with to support to be able to go through something so if you have a strong enough why

It'll be able to support you through any process, any how. That's the word how is related to process in this case. And by the way, I've been using some expressions here like right off the bat, right, to bear, to put up with. And all of these are advanced expressions. And I'm going to use more in this lesson because I'm feeling really loose, right? This is a solo lesson and my second solo lesson on this podcast is

and I may not explain all of them. So if you don't want to get lost when I use these expressions, and if you also want to integrate them into your own vocabulary, so you can speak like this, like I'm doing right now, a great way for you to do that is on a real life app,

where you can watch these lessons and practice with all this vocabulary with our own flashcards. I'm going to leave the link in the description below so you can continue watching it from there right now. Just click or you can search for RealLife English on your favorite app store. So I'll see you there. OK, so now that you know what is this number one reason as I'm calling it, let's understand why that's the case.

Because I'm not just saying this today like, "Oh, this is the number one reason and then tomorrow I'll say there's another number one reason." I don't do that. I'm pretty consistent with my beliefs and I'm telling you to focus on this, you'll succeed. So there is a little bit of a story that I came up with, that I created, that I think helps making this point. So imagine this situation. Somebody forces you to walk 20 kilometers today. They say, "You're gonna walk 20 kilometers or I'll hurt you." You know?

and they force you to do that, you're going to be feeling maybe a little bit miserable. Maybe, you know, by the end of that very long walk, you're going to be super tired and just not feeling very good. But if you travel to your favorite place on Earth, you know, as a tourist, and then you do a walking tour that you end up walking 20 kilometers total, you know, you look at your smartwatch at the end of that, wow, 20 kilometers.

In that situation, you wouldn't be feeling miserable at all, right? You'd be feeling great. You'd be feeling like tired maybe, but that it was worth it. Now, the reason why these two situations, the effort was the same, but the outcome was different was just because of meaning. I believe that as human beings, one of the biggest things that we need to keep track of is meaning. You know, how we are attached or assigning meaning to things and how much we are pursuing meaning

the things that are meaningful to us because that's, I believe that's where happiness lies. That's where happiness is, is within the things that have more meaning to us. There's another piece of scientific fact that I think supports this. That is, if you try to teach children something that they don't know why they're learning that, like math in school, if they don't know why that's important, they're going to struggle, you know, and there's research backing this up, supporting this.

showing why it's true. And that happens to us all, not just children, to adults as well. If we don't dig deep on why that's important,

For us, ultimately, we may not do it at all. And that's why the real life way or method for teaching focuses a lot on practical use of the language instead of just like theoretical. Another way to illustrate this that I think is just perfect is the following little story. Imagine you're at college and you need to learn how to use certain tools. You need to learn about tools like a screwdriver or a wrench for fixing objects like mechanical stuff. Now, what is the best way to learn about that?

Would it be by taking a course on each tool? It sounds like you'd be like that, right? Like people take courses on stuff like we have. There's English courses, music courses, right? On any topic you'd like. But I'm going to tell you that is actually not the best way. And it's not even the way that we naturally learn. The best way would be, for example, if I invited you to fix a car engine.

And in the process of fixing that engine, we would be using the tools. And I'd be telling you, hey, grab this tool and do this with it. And then we start fixing it with those tools. And by the end of it, we will have learned one application, at least for each one of those tools. Now, you're not going to have learned all the applications, but that one application would be so deeply engraved in your mind. Like you just have internalized the use of that

completely, that your knowledge would have become wisdom. I like to think as knowledge as the difference between knowledge and wisdom as like wisdom is when you have the capacity to use it to do something productive, something good to you with that knowledge, that piece of knowledge. Otherwise, it just becomes information, right? And this is why there's another quote that

that just fascinates me how it makes you change the way you view learning English or learning anything that here's a quote, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." A pail is like a bucket, right? Like a bucket that you can fill with water. So education that is learning is not filling a bucket with water, with information, with just knowledge.

Education is the lighting of a fire. Now, what does that mean? If you think about the symbolic representation of that. A fire transforms, right? Like water accumulates. Accumulating information doesn't do much.

because it'll just be more of the same and it'll not transform. Now, FHIR does transform. And the approach to learning that I just shared about the car engine and learning why something matters and learning how to use it is what I'm talking about here, because it's the understanding of the purpose behind the knowledge that will help you feel motivated to apply that knowledge in meaningful ways.

Now to close the lesson, I'm going to give you some practical tips on how to apply these ideas, how to seek real opportunities in your life to pursue your dreams, dreams related to English learning. So first of all, there's my own story. I wanted to study somewhere else in another country. And what I did was looking for opportunities in my own city that I could connect with these institutions outside. A lot of these activities, a lot of these tasks, these actions,

didn't involve English necessarily. I was not speaking English all the time, but I was just getting more and more committed, more and more involved, and it was just taking over my mind, right? And my thoughts, my dreams. So when I would arrive home, I'd be just so in the mood of watching a TV series because I was already within that whole vibe, that whole movement.

of learning English so I could live that reality. Now let's say you want to get a job where you're going to be using your English. What could you do? Maybe you could update your LinkedIn profile today if it's not yet to English and write a summary of yourself, like your profile summary in English as well. So you can learn how to speak about yourself in English. Or you can start reading a book in your field in English

That's also going to be really helpful for you in your job interviews because all that knowledge may come up. Or let's say your dream is something a little bit more casual. You just want to travel. What could you do? Well, start planning your trip. Have you started doing that yet? You know, maybe use ChatchPT to plan your trip. Know where you want to go, what places you want to visit. And just by, again, getting more and more committed around all these things, you're going to feel that pressure. It's like, wait, wait.

I'm committing, I'm setting a deadline, I'm setting a date, maybe I'm buying ready to fly a flight ticket. That's amazing. If you do that, you're going to feel all that pressure. You're going to be really lighting that fire under you. So you're going to start moving. So what else? Like maybe you want to start watching different videos of people who have gone to that place you want to go to. This is all really productive. And let me remind you, this is all related to that number one reason why the people who succeed do in fact succeed.

Because at the end of the day, what's really important is to find a way to make it happen. Now, you may have noticed that I am in a different studio today. If you're watching this lesson on a real life app, you can see what's happening here. And this is a different place. I'm actually at my own producer's studio here, the producer of this podcast, T.

And this is all really cool because it makes me feel excited. Very soon I'm going to be moving myself to a new place where I'll have a new studio. And we're doing all of this to make better lessons for all of you guys.

And for all of you guys who are watching us on YouTube, you can support us by hitting the subscribe button, the bell also down below and the like button because that helps YouTube know that you find these lessons valuable and that maybe you can help other learners as well. And if you're listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any streaming platform, again, you can follow us because that helps other people find us.

And finally, if you're not watching or listening to this lesson on the RealLife app, what are you waiting for? It's the best place for you to learn with these lessons because we give you amazing resources like vocabulary practice with them. And we're going to leave the link in the description below so you can start practicing with all the expressions that I used today right now. Or you can simply search for RealLife English on your favorite app store. So thank you so much for joining me today. And remember, as we always say on this podcast, that no matter what divides us,

that which unites us is far greater. One, two, three. Ah, yeah.