ESL and Confidence!!

Narges, a woman from Iran that was one of my students.

Today I met with a woman from China that wants help with her English. This woman's English is great! If you met her on the road you would imagine she had been in the USA for a long time and had lived predominantly in English no Chinese. She works in a software company in Silicon Valley and has slowly moved up the hierarchy and is now a project manager and deals with teams around the country and around the world. I have been working with ESL people for 20 years. My own kids have English as their Second Language. Sometimes I teach a lower level class and I get an advanced student wanting to join my class. When I ask them why they tell me they want to learn the basics that they didn't learn before. I think a lot of this boils down to confidence. Why do people think their English isn't great when everyone else thinks so? They see that there is a problem, and don't always know exactly what it is. It is like the most beautiful women don't see their beauty, but see their blemishes. People need confidence in themselves, and their abilities. I always admire people that are good at what they do, and aren't  satisfied with where they are at. I think once people get their language at a certain level the whole thing has to do with confidence. I think if you believe you can speak English, then it improves by itself. Why do children speak better English then people from another country that have been here for over 20 years? I think it is because no one told them they can't speak English! So, if you are seeing problems that you have in your English then try to become more confident and happy about your English. Remember to relax and have fun and don't think about your English. When you think about your English you will find problems with it. Try to remember to speak English from your heart and not your head!!