740. Are native English speakers bad communicators? (The Travel Adapter with Matt Halsdorff)
Matt Halsdorff and Christiain Saunders have launched a project which aims to help native speakers communicate more effectively with non-native speakers. In this episode I speak to Matt about the project, the reasons why native English speakers are often the worst communicators, examples of language they use which is confusing, not understanding the challenges of language learning and not feeling the need to build a bridge in terms of communication. This episode is all about how native speakers sometimes communicate badly in a global context, even if the common language is English, and what they can do to improve their communication skills on an international level. As a learner of English you could use this episode to get insights into the differences between native level English and the sort of global English which is used internationally as a lingua franca. They are two different types of English and should be identified as such. Again, it's a good idea to spot the different genres or registers of English and see how they are different to each other.
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Listen to Luke's English Podcast every day to improve your English. Over 700 episodes available free on a wide variety of topics. Luke is a stand-up comedian and fully-qualified English teacher with over 20 years of experience. In his episodes he aims to help learners of English improve their language skills in natural and innovative ways, while making people laugh at the same time. All episodes www.teacherluke.co.uk and available in the free app "Luke's English Podcast App".
Canguro English website for information about the various projects www.canguroenglish.com and Matt's website www.coyoteenglish.com
I feel like finally there’s someone understanding English learners and thinking in our shoes.
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I agree with your words
Thank you, gentlemen for your efforts in helping us, non-native speakers🌺
Luke, thank you for such incredible podcasts! You are the first person who really helped me improve my listening! I started listening you podcasts while jogging: no subtitles, no texts at all! At the beginning I hardly understood something. But some weeks later I realized that I could hear 98 per cent of your speech. I just click on the button "Listen" and enjoy! It means so much for me! Thank you so much for your work! I made a big step with your help 💚
💛 Luke, I was touched that you remembered my comment and raised the question here! The way you represented my question was sensitive and respectful...I appreciate that deeply.
Hi Dawn! Great questions and not easy to give a short answer. I think it always depends on our audience, but there are definitely times this isn't easy to measure or prepare for. What to do? I'd lean on adapting more if it is an international group mixed 50/50 with the native speakers. It's not nice to have 50% of the audience laughing while the other 50% is fake laughing (for example). That drives a wedge between people in the audience, which is never good. It's a balancing act, and it's impossible to adapt perfectly either way for everyone in a large group, but I'd aim for the middle. Both questions Luke passed on were important questions 😃
@@CoyoteEnglish I completely agree with you - it is a complex issue with maybe 80% gray area and not at all easy to give a simple answer! I tried to go into this complexity, but my comment disappeared after I submitted it. (Maybe there is a limit to the length of comments here?) So perhaps I'll share my thoughts elsewhere. In any case, I think the Travel Adapter will go a long way toward increasing native English speakers' sensitivity to the experience of the person we're seeking to communicate with.
A really interesting discussion between two excellent and pleasant English teachers! Thanks! Greetings from Austria!
I am and old man who came to Canada 6 years ago, with a very poor English. I was so glad to hear this video. Thank you so much. Lessening to you help me a lot to understand native English spikers.
Congratulations on all the work you have already done! Remember that if you can't understand someone, it could simply mean that they are not communicating very clearly. It's not ALWAYS because of OUR own English level 😃
HELLO, i would like to talk to someone to have practice conversation
I don't know if you, Luke, read a later comment on a video posted 2 year ago but, I'd like to say that THIS host, Matt Halsdorff, said the smartest, cleverest, empathic remarks I've ever listened to on your podcasts, about the problems we English learners meet. I really couldn't agree more. Such a sensitive man!
Hi Luke, hi Matt, I think your conversation here is one of the best examples of adapting the language to non-native speakers! I'm just an intermediate learner, but it has been so fascinating to hear your flow of words! I have understood almost everything. Thank you both I agree with you: it's so easy for me to comprehend difficult topics in English, but I don't understand simple conversation in TV series, because of the idioms and phrasal verbs ... So in an international environment, where people of different nationalities are, Christian's idea about the importance of an adaptation of the language for better communication and better communication for greater equality in the world is really powerful. Thanks everyboby and sorry for my English
Your English is great especially your writing you could wrote better than me
Congratulations Luke and Matt for this meeting. Thank you so much, Mat for your feelings, your sensibility, your "adapting" in communication with your learners. You have a passion for teaching, and we are lucky to be with you on our journey to learn English. I don't have words to express my gratitude for all you do for us.
True😌
Totally agree, I'm grateful as well.
Matt's conversación was incredible interesting!. He's touched on so many issues that block off communication that no-one touches in such a clear and brave way. He seems to be someone really understanding of the learning process, very intelligent, exceptionally humane and truly sympathetic.
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Dear Luke and Matt, I love this podcast the most. Language should be a tool for communication. People making conversation should serve each other for achieve the goal of communication.thank you so much for showing the new angle of thought for create better communication.
Good point about phrasal verbs. We, learners, usually know the core verbs but it's complicated to grasp their meaning and those mysterious changes in meaning depending on what we put after the verbs make the thing even more confusing. I've got to know quite a few of them and it always must be learnt by heart, it's not intuitive.
I really enjoy Matt speaking, very clear. I like the way Luke speaks as well.
I am so moved by you guys talk in this episode. You guys are such language teaching experts and have spoken out all my feeling towards learning and teaching languages in 4 countries… I am a Taiwanese, grew up and learned American English until high school in Taiwan, then majored in German at the university in Taipei, completed my post graduate studies ( major in education, two minors are music science and English) in Germany. For the time being i am teaching English and music at a local high school in Germany after teaching music at an international school in Singapore by using British English for 13 years. In my views, people, no matter in which of these four countries, often underestimate all my efforts which i have been putting in my studies or jobs. I really hope i could somehow help in some way to assist whatever projects you guys are up to in the future. It would be great fun to work with people of similar teaching backgrounds.
This is really a n encouraging content for me who has been learning English for more than 30 years but still cannot feel comfortable to speak out in a meeting in English 😆 I especially agree that native speakers simply don’t know the difficulty for non natives. Working in a global company, i had a chance to talk to an Australian sales person to ask his experience. He was very nice person and was very much willing to share a lot of stories. As a sales person, probably he didn’t have much experience to talk to non natives. It was so embarrassing that I didn’t understand anything!
I would like to have english conversation with somebody.
Thank you for uploading this episode. This is really interesting and important topic. I'm going to write down my thoughts as one of the non-native speakers who are learning English. I think this kind of issue should be spoken more loudly, frequently, and publicly in order to enhance the communication between people who have different backgrounds (including native speakers and non-native speakers.) Now that English has become "International language", and huge number of people in the world have already recognized it and even they have been working hard to learn it, English is becoming not only in the possession of native speakers, but also of non native speakers, isn't it?
Your guest is amazing just like you. I regard highly those who care about others’ feelings. This man happens to understand the challenges that we, learners of English, face on daily basis. We strive to be very good in English yet we come across some other issues like trying to familiarize with different English accents and most importantly the unlimited numbers of idioms and phrasas verbs. I, personally, don’t stop learning new vocabulary words on daily basis , and this has been the case for years now, but there are unlimited numbers of things I should learn. I’m happy to learn new things but I hope English native speakers cooperate to make our journey in learning their language smoother.
Excellent comparison with native speakers and students during an international business meeting. The the learners are in disadvantage to cross the "gate" any idiom expressions or slangs becomes an obstacle.
☘ Hi from Iran. You are both awesome. There was a huge pleasure in listening to your conversation raised about your experiences. I felt free while you were speaking in the podcast. Thank you. So helpful! Please meet each other again Asap to discover more fine stuff maybe are still hidden in learning and teaching region a new language and be sure of broadcasting another of these wonderful sessions. Great job.
Big thanks to you both! It was so interesting to listen to this episode. And special thanks for Matt's final words - so cool and true!
Agree with you man
Your podcast are the best thing ever , trust me I have lived in London for 12 years, currently been away and missing English a lot. I wish I had come across your stuff here much ealier because now I have like 100,000 episodes to catch up with😆 but not to worry I think I'll manage ... Love listening to ur podcast and rambling while sipping my coffee. Listening to ur podcast prevents my English from getting rusty. And obviously loving the accent u speak with . THANK you for all the hard work u must be putting into teaching us in such an engaging way 😀
I'M VERY HAPPY TO HEAR YOU AND MAT IN THAT MEETING "ADAPTING". IT WAS AMAZING, YOU BOTH MADE THIS CLASS VERY INTERESTING. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, YOU ARE VERY GOOD ENGLISH TEACHERS.
I am happy to watch Luke 's English podcast on KZhead! I have already been listening Luke 'English podcast for more than 4 years! Thank you very much Luke for your superb and useful podcast! It helps millions of people to improve their English!
Hey my favourite people together! I loved watching both of you here. The project is more than cool so I guess it's going to be launched and just hit. Thank you Luke for sharing. Sending both hugs from Argentina and The Chat Box, we love you!
Thanks for sharing, Katty 💛 I love how you bring together people who love to express themselves creatively...and who love English as the medium for doing that. I am glad people of the world are taking English into their own hands and making it their own.
Hi Katty! The Chat Box is an awesome people for exercising English AND it has a wonderful way of connecting people 😃
I consider by myself fluent in English but I realised just how much I've learned from listening to your Podcast. There is so much I have picked up listening to conversations between native speakers.
Congrats to you both on bringing up the solidarity project.
As a second language person living in the USA, most of phrase verbs confuse me when native English speaker use. Thanks for mentioning that. It will be wake up call for native speakers when communicating with non native English speakers.
This is one of the episodes that I like the most, very objectively discussed about how native English speakers should be thinking when they talk to nonnative speakers especially in a international environment, like meetings and conferences calls. You know what, it’s always been a nightmare when the calendar in my PC rings for a reminder of a conference call because we all can hardly get what the Aussie people say through telephones or Skype or Teams or whatever, not only because of the audio quality, more importantly, because of Aussie accent and slangs. What we did was most likely just dial in the meeting but say nothing and then just wait for the meeting minutes afterwards. So the company almost can’t get any feedback from China team. I have ever discussed this with my boss about this situation but, didn’t work much. Anyway, the company finally stepped out from China market.
Super teachers both, greetings from Costa Rica, Central American, thank you.
Thanks guys, so good to know we are on the same page 😊.
I discovered you some weeks ago and I so happy for that. I can hear these programs with interest and for long time than ever I did before. So for me the meaning is I can enjoy and is not frustrating to follow the language that I had tried to learn desperately by nine years. I had spent my time working hard for my family most of the time. Thank you so much for helping us.
Hi guys, I decided to learn french in english because I needed therapy, so hearing three hours from your work helped me thorough the night, with a melatonin gumbear. So if I see you tomorrow I hope I left a hello. Thanks
Thank you both very much for this episode.
Podcast 740 is best very clear and informative
Hello, Luke! This Episode with Matt is amazing! I couldn't agree more with the fact that native speakers can be very bad communicators when they are having conversations with non native speakers. I had a very unpleasant experience when I had to meet natives at the airport and accompany them to the plant I was working at. It was so embarassing. I thought i could understand English! But as I worked it out they spoke so quickly, so indistinctly, using so many phrasal verbs, much cultural content that I was not able to follow and basically put in a word. Finally when we were at the meeting with our boss and my other colleguaes, they were asked to speak with a slower pace and actually that helped!
Maria - thanks for sharing this! Hearing these stories is important (especially for the native speakers). Asking them to slow down and reminding them that they are in an international environment is not only helpful, but it's also fair. If they heard that every time they had an international meeting we could hope that one day they would start to adapt naturally. Experience is a great teacher here. I also look at it at defending oneself a little bit. An experienced native speaker could say something like "Let's remember English isn't everyone's first language here so let's be careful of using special expressions and try and slow down a little" at the beginning of a meeting. It only takes a second, but it can do a lot to help. Eventually, it will become part of the company culture also - or that's the hope!
Both great teachers! Thank you!
Mr Luke I am literally your fans even I have started watching your video recently you have nice way to explaining anything.its been a great time to watch your podcast.
Hi there! I'm brazilian and I would like to say that you do an excellent job. Thanks a lot!
Great chat . guys. Thanks a lot for your effort. I am encouraged by this wonderful conversation.
Thanks for your effort. It is a really inspiring discussion. Trying to build a bridge between native and non-native English Speakers is a great idea. Not only do non-native speakers work on it, but native speakers would like to make an attribution, which I think is more helpful and efficient!
I deeply appreciate the care that non-native speakers bring to communication. They choose their words and phrases purposefully and achieve a far better signal-to-noise ratio. Native speakers pepper the language with nonsense. It makes the work of understanding 10 times more difficult that it should be.
I loved that you (you both) have this sensitivity in realizing how complicated it is to understand a native, even though we have spent hundreds of hours studying English, but how to make all natives (or at least as many as possible) also have this sensitivity?
That's a great question and there isn't a perfect answer. I think that international companies should have their monolingual English staff do a very short workshop about it. Companies invest millions in English training every year, and working with the native speakers is much more cost-effective. It also helps everyone meet in the middle. That's one way to start. Simply making people more aware in our daily lives is important also. The more global the English language becomes, the more the native speakers may need to adapt. The best way to raise awareness would be to create a successful film where it's part of the storyline 😎🤷🏽♂️
Even I watched this episode few times still interesting to listen too,you all English teacher are amazing,I learned a lot from English teacher,I get frustrated when I couldn’t speak well in a group class,I had this experience long time ago,I get so nervous and feel embarrassed when I couldn’t answer correctly,that’s why,i have been watching these shows,it’s so helpful,I learn a lot from you,thank you.
I really loved this podcast Luke! I edentify my self the same you do wirh your students...thank you! Greetings from Mexico.
I loved this podcast and the way you treated the situation of learners of English. You both showed empathy towards us and it was very kind of yours.
I have noticed this in many settings when native speakers are talking to non-native speakers and not just in a work setting. They speak too fast, mumble and when not understood just repeat what they said only louder. I'm an online tutor and most of my students speak English as a second or third language. It's vital to slow down and use appropriate vocabulary. It always seemed really obvious to me to do this.
How wonderfully you are putting your stories here! Thank you so much for what you are doing for us!
Luke, I absolutely love your approach to reaching, I was looking for the right way of speaking language, from a teacher who can teach, not just speak English. Not a lot of so called “teaches” can actually teach. Please don’t adapt English to non-English speakers, this is nonsense. I am looking for a quality in my learning language. I absolutely love the way you teach English. All the best, Luke!
Typo *teaching not reaching.
Your guest is really a mature ,wise and admirable. He never missed a word
Thanks a lot. I m from Srilanka. Very useful your all lessons to learn English . They are creative as well. 😊
Lovely to listen to different accents in the same conversation, it's very useful for me, thank you both;) Funny about idioms and expressions, depending on the country (even city) the meaning can be different or not understandable (I don't know if I wrote it correctly, sorry!)
Thank you so much for your remarkable topic in this episode. I am also teacher of Turkish language. I teach foreigners. İt is quite different to teach native and non native. Now I am aware so much if I speak with non native speaker. But this sensitive comes when I also learn different languages. Yes you are right. Mostly native speakers of English dont know another language. That's why they don't understand the process of learning. As a Result it was so beneficial session. Thank you again
That was a significant topic for non native speakers. Apart from those academic or scientific stuff When it comes to communication, understanding each other is primary target. That’s it.
You are one of my youtube teacher.... Its hard to stay in Irland with low B1 . You and Canguro are my best friends in my free time nights....
Amazing episode! Thank you so much teacher Luke!
For me as a person who is not an English speaker, I have already worked out why English people don't understand what people who really try to learn their language, need to go through. They usually don't learn languages different than French which in some point is pretty similar in terms of family of languages, but when it comes to learn a language from a different family of languages, than is way more challenging. You need to put a huge effort to change the way of thinking in order to speak other language. But a lot of native speakers are not aware of that. They usually think it is all about words. Just if they are aware that and try to be a little less ignorant, they would somehow be more respectful.
Agree. As a native Spanish speaker (which is Latin language), it was kind of shocking to me understanding the structure of English, which is a _germanic_ language, strongly influenced by French maybe, but still a Germanic language. The grammatical structures can be very different between both. Can you imagine learning a language like Korean or Japanese? 😅
this was like open your mind your face and Matt Halsdorff. The knowledge is the gift from God. Thanks i enjoy this i repeat this 3 times
Nice one Luke! I watched your video podcast with Cristhian, and I couldn't be more agree about the responsability that we have as a learnest of English, and I remember being in class and some of the students were there oly waiting to be feeding buy their teachers and unfortunately it's not as simple as that but, sometimes some English speakers make our lives a bit miserable jeje making things hard for us and as Matt said, sometimes we need an extending hand jejeje. But I also know that everyone speaks from their position, and I what i mean about this, it's that emphatize with others can be diffcult especially if we haven't been in a same situation. And as Matt said keep motivated, but more than motivated remaind discipline, because motivation is an emotion as others emotions, as happines, as sadness, etc and keep motivated all the time is not easy, remaind discipline is not easy either jeje but it's going to make the difference in your study plan. Lots and lots of love from Colombia!
Motivation and discipline on ourselves sounds like a great combination 😉 I know in my own language learning I have felt very motivated and less disciplined, which has definitely slowed me down...
Thank you dear teachers.
Both amazing teacher In the world thank you for helping us
Good job guys, a very interesting talk, full of insight from two big teachers.
Really enjoyed this conversation, thank you for so many insights ❤
thank you for an amazing video and understand how non English native speakers have been through.
Fantastic.. Thanks both of you..
Hey Luke, I also follow you on Spotify and am really love it while I'm on the road to get somewhere. I find your podcast so useful. I hope to be on a programme with you one day so I can tell people about my experiences with your podcast.
I couldn't find in spotty. Could you tell me the name of it?
This is my favourite channel because i m learn English language
Thanks for bringing the point on the table that, most English native speakers don't feel the sacrifice the way non native English speaker face in english language learning process! Too much dedication they put in it while doing other tasks in their life. 😑
Please post all of your videos here on KZhead. I guarantee you within one 1 year you will reach more than 1 million.
Hey Luke, thank you very much! You are being very helpful to us English learners . and its very cool to learn English from you! Best ever.
Thank you very much! It was interesting and useful.
Fascinating conversation
The congratulations were an amazing interview.
Thanks to podcast between two speakers it nice to listen some thing like understand little more if l know english some more it happy to understand better l am injoy to listen any times
Great conversation!
You are the "fun" homework I give to some of the students to improve their listening skills, if I am being a "nice" teacher I recommend the video on KZhead but if I am being mean I send link to the podcast :) I have never had to do more "research" and planning as a teacher as I have to listen/watch too 😆🤣
Luke you are really great! Thanks a lot
Great! British schools should show this video to all the native English students. If native English speakers don't study global English, in the future they won't be able to communicate.
Thank you for all your words!!
great one! thanks!!!
I lived 7 years in the USA, then I came back to my home. My English is still weak. The American people speak so little with strange people like me and I was so shy to speak with them with my poor language. Many time I feel sad because I did not learn English very well.
I love your work both ❤️
Amazing stuff, nice talk!
In my opinion, the Californian teacher is so sympathetic towards non native speakers of Eng. and that's awesome! He's highlighting the importance of success in communication rather than showing high levels of proficiency in the Eng.language mainly when people al over the world are trying hard to convey their views as best as they can in a language they sometimes find tough to learn since they belong to different cultures and ethnic origins....in other words, if Eng.is generally considered a lingua franca , its main goal to me, should be to provide what's necessary to garantee good communication among non native speakers of the whole world thus , what's more crucial, getting to wipe out all sorts of racial intolerance .
Hi Martha! Yes I think there is a lot about EQUALITY buried in this topic. Communication should always be our first goal... always. That's why we're trying to learn a second language, right? To speak with others, listen to them, share stories, etc. I know many people have to learn English for a test - but that definitely is not the true reason to learn English. Many people say English is just a tool - a key - that opens up the world. The only important thing here then is that the key opens the door, not that's it's made of gold or without scratches 😃
Thank Luke, you are doing a very good work . l like so much to follow you.
Thank you very much
Kindness is good when communicating. if the goal is communication isn't good to correct the people every time if you understood what was said. If the name of someone is Carvalho and a native english speaker says 'Cavalo', trying to speak portuguese, it's okay he tried. I'll not say 'hey you called him Cavalo' that means horse. I expect the same when i'm speaking in English even I know I sometimes spell the words wrongly.
Thanks Luke!❤
This is actual problem that reveals a lot untold questions in it. I think this movement sounds like English Esperanto. I often ask myself, why I should 'learn' English while at the same time I can 'memorize' English. Because English basically consist of idioms, phrases that not allows me maneuvering. Luke said right that native speakers spoiled by privileges...
I don’t think English is only idioms and phrases. There’s also grammar which sets the various possibilities of different structures. Vocabulary is worth learning in phrases, but you can get lots of possibilities for manoeuvring by developing your grammar. Also don’t forget pronunciation and the way sentence stress and intonation allow you to convey different nuances of meaning. What native speakers need to understand is that they sometimes should meet non-native speakers half way when communicating with them.
Very, very, very interesting Bravissimi.
I like your topic. It helps me a lot. I hope I could learn more English.
I believe the speakers’ genuine attitude matters. If they really have the understanding and genuinely want to communicate, they don’t need to over think of patronizing; if they feel in the heart ”God why don’t you understand”, that personal he’s talking to picks it up even they pretend to be nice
Thank you
A respectful and a helpful persson...thats wath need humanity.thks .if only human use social media in a good things we will be better.
I've known the "rain check" idiom, Luke hasn't - what a great feeling 😁.
"I am on the case"! That was so funny! My goodness ❤️
I love it’s, thanks for sharing.
Interessante Beiträge zum lernen.es macht Spaß👍🤠
I love when u said improve my English
Hi Luke! Ninja lepster here. Quick question: I notice Brits add an "r" at the end of words like "saw" "idea" when the next word starts with a vowel. You did this too with "California" on this episode! What is the general rule behind this practice? By the way, I am addicted to your podcasts. I am a daily listener, even if I'm not studying English 😊
My husband who’s a native speaker sometimes says I know more English grammar than he does. Well he’d probably exaggerating…:)