Pratique du Shadowing: M41: Six steps to a better speaking English for a software developer - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Hey, morning all Today the question is not exactly about programming, not about computers But the question which so many of you keep asking, so I decided finally to record the video The question is about English, the speaking English, you know English is not my first language But some of you asked how do I learn English and how do I practice it So some of you may like my level of English, even though it's not perfect at all It's far from being perfect But some of you may potentially have something similar and you wonder how I practice myself, so I prepared Six points of recommendation for you to share and then you may use that and improve as well You know the problem with the language which was the problem for me when I was younger is that I was trying to construct Sentences in English the way I construct them in Russian Russian is my first language, and it doesn't work that way and that's the typical mistake people are doing, they are just Translating a Russian thinking into English thinking and it shouldn't work that way You shouldn't think in Russian and translat it, or in Spanish, in German, in your language and then go into English translating that sentences. It shouldn't be that way For example, like I'm saying it shouldn't be that way. I would not say that in Russian There is no such phrase in Russian, like it shouldn't be that way We don't say that. We don't say it that way. We don't have that way It's perfectly English, you know phrase, in Russian, I would say it completely differently So if I would think it in Russian and I would say, how do I say I don't do it like that Then I would say I don't do it like that, but it doesn't sound English. So I'm thinking in English immediately I'm not translating from one language to another and that's important once you achieve that, there will be no problem so the problem is how to achieve that, how to break that language barrier, how to stop thinking in your first language and Start thinking in English Recommendation number one, I read technical books only in English about object-oriented programming, software development, design DevOps, everything, you can of course find them in translated versions Like you can find a translated version of Elegant objects, my book it is already published in Russian and it will be published in other languages and people sometimes keep asking me where I can find a localized version of Elegant objects and I point them to Russian shops and they go there and buy Even though I don't understand why they're doing that. I don't think it's the right way to go I think that you have to read in English as much as you can, especially technical books because it's easier I cannot read for example Theodore Dreiser in English, it's difficult for me. I will be bored to death to read, you know, fiction classic book in English I can barely read modern English fiction in English, because it's difficult not my language and I will get through it quite difficult but technical stuff about Java, about programming, about DevOps, about computers having in mind that majority of those books are written by people who don't have English as a first language Like myself, Elegant objects is written in English, even though it's on my first language Second recommendation is watch movies, every time you have an opportunity to watch a movie English movie, many movies are English, actually made by Hollywood studios and made by America, try to watch them with the original sound, with subtitles maybe if you don't understand English that well, but with the original sound It's important that you hear how people really talk in English Not how teachers are teaching you to use English But you have to hear how Tom Hardy is speaking English, how Robert De Niro is speaking English. Sometimes they will use it Not the way you expect them to use it. Sometimes it's not going to be the English from the book it's gonna be a different language and sometimes they cut corners and sometimes they use the words which you would never expect to use that way and you hear that, you keep hearing that, you keep getting into the Environment where people use English, you keep diving into the English sound and also YouTube channels, when you have a chance to watch something on YouTube, educational entertainment, some jokes, some funny stories, something which you can watch over lunch, you know Just to entertain youself, trying to find something which is in English. That's how you help yourself to you know, to get closer to people who speak that language Point number three - find somebody who can chat with you informally, in English specifically like a real native English speaker and preferably make sure that person is somehow interested in you and you're interested in that person. I did that when I was younger I was constantly chatting with some girls online About different things, but not about work, not about computers, not about programming, but just about life, if you are a programmer you most likely have some customers. You have some people around your projects, try to find informal contacts with those people don't talk with them only about Java programming, talk to them about something else, about weather, about politics about sport, about games, about live, sex, whatever any subject you find, but make sure this channel is informal and you keep talking every day you will seriously change your expectations about English language Point number four When you travel, well of course point number four is that you have to try to travel to America and stay there for a few months and Never talk to anyone using your language, but only use English, that will seriously improve your skills. Be there alone Don't contact anyone who is not English speaker and that will be very stressful for you But three-four months and your English will just jump very high, your English level.

I had a chance to do that a few times in my life and that was really helpful for me and when you're there, even try not to stay in touch with your family or contact them as infrequently as possible in order to Completely change the way you think, so you start thinking in English while you live there in America Maybe you can't go to America. Try United Kingdom Try some other countries where English is also used and even when you travel to other countries Which have their own languages, English is the language for tourism When you travel there, they may understand your local language For example, you speak German and you travel to Turkey and in hotels They may understand German and they may try to speak it and you will feel comfortable using your own language Don't do that, switch to English, every time you travel, every time you have an opportunity To speak English, use that opportunity, even if the person in front of you is not a native English speaker Point number five, I'm getting from the easiest to the more hard is to try to give some lectures in English. What I'm doing is I'm recording this video. For example, I am speaking at software conferences I'm doing trainings for software companies sometimes and sometimes they're in English So they invite me from different places in the world and I get there and I speak English, of course But I started that when I was a student I was like 17 or 18 years old and in the university I just volunteered to organize lectures for students in English Of course, I was studying in Ukraine and everybody were speaking Russian But some of students were interested to learn English as well and we together decided to organize sort of classes after normal classes, we just got together there were like 10 or 20 of us, just a small group, and we were One of us was giving the lecture, everybody else were listening It was allowed only to speak English during that one hour and a half That's how I started when I was a student. You can do the same. I would recommend that inside your company You have some people in the office who also want to learn English So tell them, how about we organize lectures once a week, one of us stand in front of everybody else speaking English explain us how certain features work in Java just tell us something technical which is interesting to know So don't tell us about the weather, politics, sport because they'll be boring or not interesting or not relevant to us But tell us about the work we do, so explain, for example, what are you working on right now or explain the design of your solution, something which is relevant to our work But you have to do it in English That's sort of you know training for all of us. You speak English. We listen to you Maybe we record that, then you get that video later, you can watch it later You can see how your English is good or bad But you practice it, so you practice by talking and the more you talk The larger the practice, the easier it will be for you. Don't pay attention to mistakes you make just make sure people understand you. Don't try to make it the right way Don't try to say it the right way, but make sure people easily and fast Fastly, I don't know if I can say that fastly but people understand you and that you know They say that you can really use the language, not only English, but any language if you can explain the meaning of any word using other words So let's for example say that I forgot the word lamp So I have a lamp which is in front of me now, and I have to explain to you what it is I'm saying it's a round thing which is standing in front of me and it's connected to electricity And in order to make my face brighter for you, it gives me light. Do you understand what I'm talking about?

And you say oh yeah, sure, lamp so I managed to explain to you using other words the meaning of Something which I forgot, you can do it with mistakes. You cannot be perfectly in grammar. That's all secondary. It's less important What's important is that you can quickly deliver your thoughts quickly without any hesitation, without any bottlenecks, without waiting and hesitating and thinking and translating, but just delivering your words as fast as you can, that's important and when you give lectures That will be a great opportunity for you to train yourself in that, to make sure that you can't deliver, because people are sitting in front of you and they're not going to wait for half a minute until you remember that specific word They will say okay, whatever just say, just keep going, we will get it later And then you will train yourself to just keep going that will be helpful And point number six, you may want to write in English. Well, I write blog. I write my books I have Twitter channel. I have Facebook. I have Instagram and everywhere I try to write in English as much as you can. Sometimes I use Russian, but very rarely and not because I don't like Russian as a language. I love it. I even have have a blog in Russian but because I need to practice, I need to stay in English as much as I can and I feel that more people will be able to Get my ideas, to get my thoughts, to read me if I use international language, English is an international language It's not anymore the language of Shakespeare It's not anymore a language like all other languages. It's not the same as German, as Spanish and it's not the English which English people know, we all know the English, which is very restricted, we know just maybe a thousand words from the English and just four or five tences or how do you call them? It's not the language for writing fiction or for writing poems. Not at all Of course that English exists as well But I don't know that language, all I know is just international tool to communicate with other programmers, with business people with people around me. So that's all I wanted to say. That's all I know to say actually Practice, practice and practice, I gave you six recommendations. If you follow all of them, in a year, you will be way better.

I guarantee you that. Thanks for listening. Stay tuned. Bye-bye.