Perfection

Hello and welcome to Effortless English, I'm back! Yes, I'm back, sorry. I've been working a lot, teaching here in San Francisco, and also working with my Effortless English club.

So I didn't have much time for the podcast, but things are slowing down a little bit, so here we are again. Today's topic is perfection. Perfection. many English learners want to be perfect they want to speak perfect English maybe you want to speak perfect English well I need to tell you something I need to be totally honest with you

You will never speak perfect English. Never, never, never forget that goal. Perfection is impossible. I am a native speaker. I have two master's degrees.

I studied teaching English. I've written professionally. I do not speak perfect English. I make mistakes all the time. When I write something, for example, if I write an article for a magazine...

There's always a lot of mistakes. I just made one just here. There are always a lot of mistakes. Always. I have to write it many times. I write the article one time and then I go back and there are a lot of mistakes.

I have to change it. Oh, that's a mistake. That's a mistake. Sometimes there are grammar mistakes. Sometimes spelling mistakes. Sometimes the English just is not clear or powerful.

When I speak, I make mistakes. Sometimes a little tiny grammar mistake. You might notice in my commentaries because I don't edit these podcasts very much. If I make a little mistake, I don't change it.

Why not? Most English teachers try to be perfect. They want you to think they are perfect English speakers. And if they have a podcast, they will always eliminate the mistake.

After they record it, they go back and they cut out any mistakes. I don't. Why not? Because I want you to get real English. And real English includes a few little tiny mistakes sometimes.

Every American makes mistakes when they speak. Little tiny mistakes. and every canadian does and every british person does and every native speaker because nobody is perfect therefore you will never speak perfect english so many students they're so stressed because they worry about making mistakes they think and they think and they think before they speak

Because they think and think and think, their speaking is so slow. Now, let me tell you a little secret. This is very important. Most Americans are very, very casual.

I think that's true of Australians and people from New Zealand as well. British, I'm not so sure. But Americans, Canadians, Australians, very relaxed, casual people.

We don't care if you make a mistake. What we do care about... is if you speak really slowly. Most native speakers, most Americans, for example, they're happy to talk to you.

If you try to communicate, if you're smiling, if you're enjoying speaking English, they will enjoy speaking to you. They will be very happy to talk to you. In fact, Americans are famous for liking to talk. Americans love to talk.

You can sit next to one in a bus station. They will tell you all about their life, their whole life story. They love to do it. so you don't need to worry about making mistakes if you make a little grammar mistake most americans don't care even if you make really big bad grammar mistakes they don't care but if you speak very slowly and you think about every word no one will want to talk to you

even if your grammar is perfect even if you use perfectly correct vocabulary even if your pronunciation is perfect if you think and think and everything is slow and it's obvious you're not having fun you're not enjoying English you're worried and tense and stressed

then nobody will want to talk to you very quickly people will say oh i'm sorry i have to go and they will not talk to you your attitude is more important and your speed of speaking is more important than grammar or vocabulary or anything else in fact

What's the point? The point is to communicate. I just did a commentary for the Effortless English Club and I talked about this topic, that communication is the goal, not perfection.

So if you really want to speak English well, if you really want to improve, You've got to focus first on communication. And you must eliminate, delete, destroy the idea of perfection.

This idea will hurt you. The more you worry about perfection, the slower you will learn, more slowly, right? You will learn more slowly if you try to be perfect.

If you focus on communicating, on just getting your ideas out, even if you make mistakes, you're going to learn more quickly. You're going to speak faster.

You're going to talk to more people and therefore learn more. That's what you want. So you must forget this idea of perfection. You'll never be perfect.

Accept it. Smile about it. Laugh about it. It's the truth. And what you have to do is just laugh about your mistakes and enjoy them. Just enjoy them. Because you're going to make mistakes.

I make mistakes. When I make a mistake in English, do I get upset? Oh my God, I just made a grammar mistake. No, of course not. I just laugh about it.

Usually I ignore it, right? Because I'm speaking quickly or I'm thinking about two or three things at the same time. And so I make a little grammar mistake. Usually I just ignore it.

If it sounds really stupid or funny, I might laugh about it. But I certainly don't get upset and I don't worry about it. And you shouldn't either. So forget this idea of perfection.

Focus on communication. And most of all, enjoy yourself. Laugh a little bit. Have some fun. You've got to love it. You've got to enjoy it. You are never going to speak really well.

Until you start enjoying English. Until it's fun. Until you like the process of communication. Until you enjoy meeting people and communicating with them.

Until you stop trying to be perfect. Okay, then. So, what's our lesson for today? Our lesson for today is very easy. Stop trying to be perfect. Stop worrying about being perfect.

Make mistakes. Enjoy your mistakes. Laugh about your mistakes. Please don't get upset about them, okay? They're natural. You cannot avoid them. All right.

Enjoy your English learning. Have fun. And I'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Oh, and as always, you can go to www.effortlessenglish.org.org, get my seven-day email course.

Of course, it's free. See ya. Bye-bye.