120 - 6 Common Myths About English Speaking

conversations are not exams, right? People often treat conversations like it's a speaking test.

You know, they feel the need to perform in a conversation, right? They're not just themselves.

They're not enjoying the conversation.

They're not just... going with the flow they're actively trying like it's a speaking test on IELTS or something but conversations are not exams mate think about the point of a conversation what is the purpose of a conversation for me it's about connecting with other people and it's about sharing information that's it Right? That's the point of a conversation.

I either want to share information with somebody or I want to connect with somebody, maybe become friends or whatever, right? Build some kind of relationship.

Makes sense, doesn't it? Now, in order to do that, perfect grammar...

and academic vocabulary are not the most important thing here.

Now, if you're doing IELTS or something, probably you need that fancy stuff because that's what they want.

But this is the real world, my friend, not some weird test.

They're not the most important thing here.

If you can communicate the idea, even with single words, like if you stop me on the street and you're like, Dan, train, buy, ticket, wear, office.

There's no grammar, basic vocabulary.

I'm going to know what you meant.

I mean, it's not the best way of doing it, you know, but I would get the message, right? So you shared the information.

That's far more important than, hello, sir, excuse me.

I was pontificating on the fact that maybe you could perhaps point me in the correct direction of a facility where I could purchase a ticket to ride a train.

You know, like, what are you talking about? Grow up.

Nobody cares about it.

Stop trying to impress people.

and just enjoy the conversation, right? You don't need to try and impress me with your English skills.

One thing, if you spend a lot of time around native speak, because one thing you'll realize is that we want the easiest possible path to communication, right? We don't want fancy vocabulary and grammar.

If you listen to my other podcast that I do with Stu Sensei, the British Banter Podcast, We just have a chat.

And if you listen to it, there's no fancy vocabulary or grammar there, mate, because we're just communicating.

We're building a connection and we're sharing information because it's not an exam.

Nobody's going to give me a grade at the end, be like, nice conversation.