Whereas with English, that's not good enough.

而對於英語來說，這還遠遠不夠。

With English, there's a feeling that I have to be almost like a native speaker.

在英語方面，大家有一種「我必須說得像母語人士一樣」的感覺。

Hi, Jennifer.

嗨，Jennifer。

Hi, Steve. Thanks so much for having me.

嗨，Steve。非常感謝你邀請我。

Thank you. No, I'm looking forward to talking to you.

謝謝。不會，我很期待與你交談。

You do very important work.

你的工作非常重要。

You teach English.

你教英語。

And in particular with English, you often hear about people who are afraid to speak or think they don't speak very well.

尤其是在英語方面，你經常會聽到一些人害怕說話，或者認為自己說得不好。

And yet these are people who have spent years and years with English.

然而，這些人卻長年累月地與英語打交道。

And so I asked myself, there's more resources available for learning English than any other language.

於是我問自己，學習英語的資源比其他任何語言都要多。

So why is it that these people still feel not satisfied with their level in English, in your opinion?

那麼，在你看來，為什麼這些人仍然對自己的英語程度不滿意呢？

That's a great question.

這個問題問得好。

And a lot of it, I think, comes down to their expectation.

我認為，這很大程度上取決於他們的期望。

They have this expectation that they're going to be able to communicate the native speaker.

他們期望自己能與母語人士交流。

My students always compare the way they speak in English to the way I speak in English.

我的學生總是將他們說英語的方式與我說英語的方式進行比較。

They are upset because their accent isn't the exact same as mine or their vocabulary isn't advanced as mine.

他們不高興是因為他們的口音和我的不一樣，或者他們的詞彙量沒有我的先進。

And obviously it's just not a fair comparison.

顯然，這樣的比較並不公平。

And also I find that the students learning English, a lot of them that I have, they've been learning English their entire lives.

我還發現，學習英語的學生中，有很多人一輩子都在學習英語。

But throughout their lives, learning English, they've been in these environments where they're constantly assessed.

但在他們學習英語的整個過程中，他們一直處於不斷接受評估的環境中。

They're constantly assessed with language exams.

他們不斷接受語言考試的評估。

They're constantly told they're making mistakes.

他們不斷被告知自己在犯錯誤。

And they've developed this fear of using their English or they expect perfection because of how often they're assessed.

他們對使用英語產生了恐懼，或者因為經常接受評估而期待完美。

And then they don't realize when they get into the professional world, the working world, or even social environment, that the language is not so rigid and there's a lot more flexibility with the language in the real world.

當他們進入專業領域、職場，甚至社會環境時，卻沒有意識到語言並不那麼死板，現實世界中的語言有更多的靈活性。

I think you raised a few very good points there.

我認為你提出了幾個非常好的觀點。

First of all, it seems that people have higher expectations of themselves when it comes to English than they do for other languages.

首先，與其他語言相比，人們似乎對英語有更高的要求。

So if someone speaks a little bit of German and gets complimented or Japanese, they're very proud of themselves that they were able to say anything at all in those languages that they've learned.

如果有人會說一點德語或日語並得到稱讚，他們就會為自己能用所學語言說出任何東西而感到非常自豪。

Whereas with English, that's not good enough.

而英語就不夠了。

With English, there's a feeling that I have to be almost like a native speaker.

在英語方面，大家有一種「我必須說得像母語人士一樣」的感覺。

And of course, that's simply not possible.

當然，這根本不可能。

That's so true.

說得太對了。

And also, I find that my students, they also compare how they speak in English to how they speak in their own native language, which also is not a fair comparison, obviously.

我還發現，我的學生也會把自己說英語的方式與自己說母語的方式進行比較，這顯然不是一個公平的比較。

And this creates a lot of anxiety in them because they think about how they would answer a question in their native language.

這給他們造成了很大的焦慮，因為他們要考慮如何用自己的母語回答問題。

And then when they go to answer that question in English, they struggle a little bit more.

然後，當他們用英語回答這個問題時，他們會更費勁。

The words don't flow as easily.

文字不那麼容易流暢。

And they see this as a huge problem.

他們認為這是一個很大的問題。

And they see this as, well, "I'm not fluent."

在他們看來，他們英文說得不流利。

"I'll never progress."

他們永遠不會進步。

"My English is terrible."

他們的英語很糟糕。

But of course, they can't compare it to a native speaker.

當然，他們無法與母語人士相比。

And they can't compare it to how they speak in their own language.

他們也無法將其與自己的語言進行比較。

Oh, absolutely.

哦，當然。

I mean, when you consider how much we have read and how much we have listened to our native language, so the brain has so much experience with the language.

我的意思是，如果考慮到我們讀過多少書，聽過多少母語，那麼大腦就會有如此多的語言經驗。

So that's, again, why I emphasize input.

所以，這也是我強調投入的原因。

You can't get to that level of input experience with the language.

你的語言輸入經驗無法達到這種水準。

But the more you invest in getting exposure to the language, the more weapons you will have when you go to speak.

但是，你在接觸這種語言方面投入的精力越多，你在開口說話時就會擁有越多的武器。

Have you had success stories where people have come to you and obviously were struggling?

你是否有過成功的案例，有人來找你，但顯然是在苦苦掙扎？

And were you able to find ways to help them improve?

你能找到幫助他們改進的方法嗎？

Yes. Thankfully, I have had success with many students.

是的。值得慶幸的是，我在很多學生身上都取得了成功。

So first, I had to think about all the mistakes that students were making and what was really preventing them from reaching their goal.

首先，我必須思考學生們所犯的所有錯誤，以及真正阻礙他們實現目標的原因。

Again, their goal is just communicating in English.

同樣，他們的目標只是用英語交流。

I realized that there were really two things we needed to do.

我意識到，我們確實需要做兩件事。

We had to fix their mindset because they had to get over that fear of making mistakes, that fear of being judged, how critical they are of themselves when they're speaking.

我們必須糾正他們的心態，因為他們必須克服犯錯的恐懼、被評判的恐懼以及演講時對自己的挑剔。

So addressing those and just helping them relax and have fun speaking and just see it in a different way really helped them to progress with their speaking skills.

解決這些問題，幫助他們放鬆，享受說話的樂趣，用不同的方式看待說話，確實有助於他們提高說話技能。

And for the more technical language skills, vocabulary, grammar, expressions, it was by helping them get content, get input that they really enjoyed.

至於更專業的語言技能、詞彙、文法和表達方式，則是通過幫助他們獲得內容，獲得他們真正喜歡的輸入。

So for my students, I help them learn with TV shows, YouTube videos, movies, newspaper articles, short stories, and they enjoy learning with this content and it's natural content.

對於我的學生來說，我用電視節目、YouTube 影片、電影、報紙文章、小故事來幫助他們學習，他們喜歡用這些內容來學習，而且是自然的內容。

It teaches you how to use the language in the real world.

它教你如何在現實世界中使用語言。

There again, I think two important points that you made.

同樣，我認為你提出的兩點很重要。

The greater the variety of input, the more comfortable you're going to be in the language, you know, more than anything else, relax and enjoy the process.

輸入的種類越多，你就會越容易接受，最重要的是，放鬆並享受這個過程。

So I will leave a link to your YouTube channel in the description box.

我會在描述框中留下你 YouTube 頻道的連結。

Tell us again where people can find you.

再告訴我們人們可以在哪裡找到你。

Well, if you're learning English as a second language, then you can find me on YouTube at JForrest English.

如果你把英語作為第二語言來學習，那麼你可以在 YouTube 上找到我，JForrest English。

Well, I encourage people to go look for you and to enjoy the process.

我鼓勵大家去尋找你，並享受這個過程。

Thank you very much, Jennifer.

非常感謝，Jennifer。

I enjoyed this discussion very much.

我非常喜歡這次討論。

Thank you so much, Steve. It's been a pleasure.

非常感謝，Steve。這是我的榮幸。