Learning a language? Speak it like you’re playing a video game | Marianna Pascal | TEDxPenangRoad — Transcript

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1. 0:00Transcriber: Phuong Cao Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
2. 0:22For the past 20 years,
3. 0:24I've been helping Malaysian and other Southeast Asians
4. 0:27to speak better English.
5. 0:30And through training thousands of Southeast Asians,
6. 0:34I've discovered a very surprising truth.
7. 0:38I've discovered that how well somebody communicates in English
8. 0:43actually has very little to do with their English level.
9. 0:46It has a lot to do with their attitude towards English.
10. 0:52There are people out there who have a very low level of English,
11. 0:56and they can communicate very, very well.
12. 0:58One of them that I remember was a student, a participant of mine named Faizal.
13. 1:02He was a factory supervisor -
14. 1:05English level very, very low -
15. 1:07but this guy could just sit and listen to anybody,
16. 1:11very calmly, clearly,
17. 1:12and then he could respond,
18. 1:15absolutely express his thoughts beautifully,
19. 1:19at a very low level of English.
20. 1:21So, today I want to share with you
21. 1:23what is so different about people like Faizal?
22. 1:27How do they do it?
23. 1:29And second of all,
24. 1:30why is this so important not only to you,
25. 1:33but to your children, to your community, and to the future of Malaysia?
26. 1:37And third of all,
27. 1:38what's one thing you can do, starting today,
28. 1:41if you want to speak with that calm, clear confidence
29. 1:45that people like Faizal have.
30. 1:47First of all,
31. 1:49what is so different?
32. 1:50How do people like Faizal do it?
33. 1:53To answer that question,
34. 1:54I'm going to take you back about 10 years, okay?
35. 1:56I was training staff at that time,
36. 1:59and my daughter, at that time, was taking piano lessons.
37. 2:03And I started to notice two really strong similarities
38. 2:08between my daughter's attitude or thinking towards playing the piano
39. 2:14and a lot of Malaysians' thinking or attitude towards English.
40. 2:19First of all, I should tell you
41. 2:21my daughter absolutely hated piano,
42. 2:24hated the lessons,
43. 2:25hated practicing.
44. 2:27This is my daughter practicing piano, okay?
45. 2:30This is as good as it got.
46. 2:32This is the real thing.
47. 2:34And she dreaded going to piano lessons
48. 2:37because to my daughter, going to piano lessons,
49. 2:41she was filled with this sort of dread.
50. 2:44Because it was all about not screwing up, right?
51. 2:48Because like a lot of piano students,
52. 2:51to both my daughter and her teacher,
53. 2:54her success in piano was measured by how few mistakes she made.
54. 2:59At the same time,
55. 3:00I noticed that a lot of Malaysians went into English conversations
56. 3:04with the same sort of feeling of dread.
57. 3:07This sort of feeling that they were going to be judged
58. 3:10by how many mistakes they were going to make,
59. 3:13and whether or not they were going to screw up.
60. 3:16Now, the second similarity that I noticed was to do with self- image.
61. 3:21My daughter, she knew what good piano sounded like, right?
62. 3:24Because we've all heard good piano.
63. 3:26And she knew what her level was,
64. 3:29and she knew how long she'd have to play for to play like that.
65. 3:34And a lot of Malaysians, I noticed,
66. 3:37had this idea of what good proper English is supposed to sound like,
67. 3:42and what their - I see a lot of you nod -
68. 3:44and what their English sounded like,
69. 3:47and how far they would have to go to get there.
70. 3:50And they also felt like they were - like my daughter - just bad,
71. 3:55bad piano player, bad English speaker, right?
72. 3:58My English not so good, lah. Cannot. Sorry, yah. Cannot. Ah -
73. 4:03So I could see these similarities,
74. 4:05but I still couldn't figure out,
75. 4:07okay, what is it about these people like Faizal, that are so different,
76. 4:11that can just do it smoothly, calmly, with confidence?
77. 4:16One day, I discovered that answer,
78. 4:18and I discovered it quite by chance.
79. 4:20It was a day when my computer broke down,
80. 4:23and I had to go to a cybercafe.
81. 4:25Okay, it was my first time,
82. 4:27and I discovered cybercafes are disgusting places, okay?
83. 4:30They're really gross.
84. 4:32They're smelly, and they're filled with boys.
85. 4:35And they're all playing noisy, violent games.
86. 4:38They're just disgusting places.
87. 4:41But I had to go there.
88. 4:42So I sat down,
89. 4:43and I started noticing this guy beside me.
90. 4:46And I became very interested in this guy next to me.
91. 4:50Now, this guy is playing this game
92. 4:52that is basically, it's like shooting people until they die.
93. 4:58And that's it. (Laughter)
94. 4:59That's the game, right?
95. 5:00And I'm noticing that this guy is not very good.
96. 5:05In fact, he's terrible, right?
97. 5:06Because I'm looking, and I'm seeing, like, a lot of shooting
98. 5:10and ... not much dying, right?
99. 5:13(Laughter)
100. 5:15What really interested me was
101. 5:17behind this lousy player were three of his friends,
102. 5:21sort of standing there watching him play.
103. 5:24What I really noticed was
104. 5:26even though this guy was terrible,
105. 5:28even though his friends were watching him,
106. 5:30there was no embarrassment.
107. 5:31There was no feeling of being judged.
108. 5:34There was no shyness.
109. 5:35In fact, quite the opposite.
110. 5:37This guy's totally focused on the bad guys,
111. 5:40smile on his face.
112. 5:43All he can think about is killing these guys, right?
113. 5:47And I'm watching him.
114. 5:48And I suddenly realize: this is it.
115. 5:53This is the same attitude
116. 5:55that people like Faizal have when they speak English,
117. 5:59just like this guy.
118. 6:01When Faizal goes into an English conversation,
119. 6:05he doesn't feel judged.
120. 6:07He is entirely focused on the person that he's speaking to
121. 6:10and the result he wants to get.
122. 6:13He's got no self-awareness,
123. 6:15no thoughts about his own mistakes.
124. 6:19I want to share with you a real, true example, to paint a picture,
125. 6:23of somebody who speaks English like they are playing piano
126. 6:27and someone who speaks English like they are playing a computer game.
127. 6:30And this is a true story.
128. 6:33It happened to me.
129. 6:34A while ago, I was in a pharmacy.
130. 6:38I had to buy omega;
131. 6:39my doctor said I should get omega.
132. 6:42And I go to the shelf,
133. 6:43there's tons of omega,
134. 6:44there's omega that's high in DHA,
135. 6:46omega that's high in EPA,
136. 6:49and I don't know which one to buy.
137. 6:52Now, the sales rep happened to be there.
138. 6:54And I saw she's like this well-dressed, professional woman.
139. 6:58I walk over to her, and I see this look as she sees me,
140. 7:01this sort of - it's a look I recognize very well.
141. 7:05Her eyes go all wide.
142. 7:06It's sort of that panic:
143. 7:07Oh my God! I've got to speak to a native speaker;
144. 7:10she's going to judge me and notice my mistakes.
145. 7:13I go up to her, and I explain my situation:
146. 7:16which omega do I get?
147. 7:18And she starts explaining to me
148. 7:20everything about DHA and EPA you could possibly imagine.
149. 7:26She speaks very quickly, goes all around in circles.
150. 7:29And when she finishes,
151. 7:32no idea what to buy.
152. 7:34(Laughter)
153. 7:35So I turn to the girl behind the counter.
154. 7:38Now, the girl behind the counter,
155. 7:40I heard her before, her English level is very low.
156. 7:43But when I walk over to her,
157. 7:44this girl,
158. 7:46there's no fear.
159. 7:48In fact, she's just looking at me.
160. 7:50You know that look?
161. 7:51Like...Yeah? Okay...So, how?
162. 7:53(Laughter)
163. 7:54Yeah, I've been in Malaysia a long time.
164. 7:56(Laughter)
165. 7:58So, I go up to her and I explain the problem, EPA and DHA.
166. 8:02She looks at me, she says,
167. 8:04"Okay, yeah. "
168. 8:06"Ah, EPA for heart."
169. 8:12"DHA for brain."
170. 8:14(Laughter)
171. 8:17"Your heart okay or not?"
172. 8:18(Laughter)
173. 8:20So I said,
174. 8:22"Yeah, yeah,"
175. 8:23I said, "my heart is really, I think it's pretty good."
176. 8:26She says,
177. 8:29"Your brain okay or not?"
178. 8:31(Laughter)
179. 8:33I said, "No. No, my brain is not as good as it used to be."
180. 8:38She looks and says,
181. 8:40"Okay lah, you take Omega DHA!"
182. 8:43(Laughter)
183. 8:44Problem solved, right?
184. 8:45So we've got two different kinds of communicators.
185. 8:48We've got the one who's got a high level,
186. 8:51but totally focused on herself and getting it right,
187. 8:55and therefore, very ineffective.
188. 8:57We've got another one,
189. 8:59low-level,
190. 9:01totally focused on the person she's talking to and getting a result.
191. 9:05Effective.
192. 9:06And therein lies the difference.
193. 9:10Now, why is this distinction so important not just to you, to your children,
194. 9:15but to the future of Malaysia and countries like Malaysia?
195. 9:19And to answer that, let's take a look
196. 9:21at who actually is speaking English in the world today, okay?
197. 9:26So, if we looked at all of the English conversations in the whole world,
198. 9:31taking place right now on planet Earth,
199. 9:34we would see that for every native speaker, like me,
200. 9:39there are five non-native speakers.
201. 9:44And if we'd listen to every conversation in English on planet Earth right now,
202. 9:49we would notice that 96% of those conversations
203. 9:55involved non-native English speakers -
204. 9:58only 4% of those conversations are native speaker to native speaker.
205. 10:03This is not my language anymore,
206. 10:05this language belongs to you.
207. 10:08It's not an art to be mastered;
208. 10:10it's just a tool to use to get a result.
209. 10:14And I want to give you a real-life example of what English is today in the world,
210. 10:19real English today.
211. 10:20This is another true story.
212. 10:24I was at a barbecue a little while ago -
213. 10:26this was a barbecue for engineers,
214. 10:28engineers from all over the world.
215. 10:31And they were making hot dogs.
216. 10:33Some of the hot dogs were regular hot dogs,
217. 10:36and some were these cheese hot dogs, you know, with the cheese in the middle.
218. 10:40A French engineer is cooking the hot dogs,
219. 10:43and he turns to this Korean engineer,
220. 10:46and he says, "Would you like a hot dog?"
221. 10:51And the Korean guy says, "Yes, please!"
222. 10:53He says, "Do you want the cheese?"
223. 10:57And the Korean guy looks around at the table,
224. 10:59he says, "I no see cheese."
225. 11:03The French guy says, "The hot dog is contains the cheese."
226. 11:07(Laughter)
227. 11:10The Korean guy doesn't understand him, right?
228. 11:12So the French engineer tries again.
229. 11:16"The hot dog is ... making from ... with the cheese."
230. 11:22Korean guy still doesn't understand.
231. 11:24He tries again,
232. 11:26he says, "The hotdog is coming from -
233. 11:30No, the cheese is coming from the hot dog."
234. 11:32(Laughter)
235. 11:33Korean guy cannot understand.
236. 11:35Now there's a Japanese engineer who's been listening to this conversation,
237. 11:39turns to the Korean engineer
238. 11:41and he says, "Ah! Cheese ... integrator!"
239. 11:45(Laughter)
240. 11:47He understands, okay.
241. 11:48(Laughter)
242. 11:49Everybody understands.
243. 11:50So, this is what English is today.
244. 11:53It's just a tool to play around with to get a result,
245. 11:57like a computer game.
246. 12:01Now, the challenge is that we know in schools all around the world,
247. 12:06English is not really being taught like it's a tool to play with.
248. 12:11It's still being taught like it's an art to master.
249. 12:14And students are judged more on correctness than on clarity.
250. 12:22Some of you might remember the old comprehension exam in school.
251. 12:27Does everybody remember in school
252. 12:29when you'd get a question about a text that you read,
253. 12:32you'd have to read through some text, right?
254. 12:35And then answer a question to show that you understood the text?
255. 12:40And this may have happened to you that you showed you understood the text,
256. 12:45but you got a big X because you made a little grammar mistake.
257. 12:50Like this student.
258. 12:51This student clearly understood paragraph four.
259. 12:55But no, not correct!
260. 12:57Because he left the letter N off the word "environment."
261. 13:02But in the real world, what would matter?
262. 13:05In the real world, what would matter is did you understand the email,
263. 13:08or did you understand your customer so that you can go ahead and take action?
264. 13:15Now, the problem that I see here,
265. 13:18over and over,
266. 13:19is that people take the attitude they developed about English in school,
267. 13:24and they bring it into their adult life and into their work.
268. 13:30And if you're in a stressful situation,
269. 13:32and you're having a conversation,
270. 13:33and you're trying to give a result to someone and say it correctly,
271. 13:39your brain multi-tasks, it cannot do two things at once.
272. 13:42And what I see is the brain just shutting down.
273. 13:45And you may recognize these three symptoms of the brain shutting down.
274. 13:51The first one is that your listening goes.
275. 13:55Someone is talking to you, and you're so busy thinking
276. 13:58about how you're going to respond and express yourself correctly,
277. 14:03you don't actually hear what the other person said.
278. 14:06And I can see a lot of nodding in the audience.
279. 14:09The second thing to go is your speaking.
280. 14:12Your mind sort of shuts down,
281. 14:14and that vocabulary you do know just disappears,
282. 14:18and the words don't come out.
283. 14:21The third thing to go is your confidence.
284. 14:24The worst thing about this is
285. 14:26you may only be [un]confident because you cannot express yourself clearly,
286. 14:31but to the person talking to you,
287. 14:33they may misunderstand this
288. 14:35as a lack of confidence in your ability to do the job, to perform.
289. 14:42So if you want to speak English like Faizal with that great confidence,
290. 14:48here's the one thing that you can do.
291. 14:51When you speak, don't focus on yourself.
292. 14:55Focus on the other person and the result you want to achieve.
293. 15:00Imagine a next generation of Malaysians,
294. 15:03all with that wonderful confidence in communication that Faizal has,
295. 15:09at any level of English.
296. 15:12Because let's remember
297. 15:13that English today is not an art to be mastered,
298. 15:17it's just a tool to use to get a result.
299. 15:21And that tool belongs to you.
300. 15:26Thank you.
301. 15:27(Applause)