Helena - Barcelona

Today’s episode is an interview with a Spanish student of mine, Helena. She tells us about her English-speaking journey, which is really relatable to a lot of English learners, so I think you’ll find it very interesting and maybe even a little motivational. Helena is a big fan of idioms so you’re gonna hear a bunch of those, there’s plenty of phrasal verbs too, some compound adjectives and lots of nice organization to admire.

Thanks so much to Helena for contributing!

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Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Real Exam English podcast. Today’s episode is an interview with a Spanish student of mine, Helena. She tells us about her English-speaking journey, which I think is really relatable to a lot of English learners, so I think you’ll find it very interesting and maybe even a little motivational. Helena is a big fan of idioms so you’re gonna hear a bunch of those, there’s plenty of phrasal verbs too, some compound adjectives and lots of nice organization to admire. 

Remember you can get the transcript for this and all episodes over on the Real Exam English website – realexamenglish.com

Here we go:

Do you remember when you first started learning English, what your first English classes were like?

It was a long time ago, indeed. I started learning English when I was in primary school. I'm not too sure how old I was, to be honest. I think I was like maybe 10 years old. I'm not too sure. The level was very basic, I would say, and I don't think that it was very helpful, to be honest. I mean, I was a kid. I was not really concerned about it, but yeah. Like, for instance, teachers, English teachers, like basically speaking in Spanish in class or not talking to us in English, so yeah.

That's pretty standard, I think, at the start, really. 

And what about work? Can you tell us what you do and if you use English at work?

I work in a law firm. And I mean, I use English here at work, but not on a daily basis. But it really depends on the project that I'm working on, to be honest, because I do have a lot of international clients. So this means that I can talk to them in English or write emails, write reports, or have video calls in English

And I know that you went to Ireland on a sojourn, like for a period of time, you went to work in Ireland. And how was that experience in terms of English and interacting with the locals at work and out of work as well?

Very rewarding, I would say. It was my first experience abroad because when I was at uni, I couldn't do the Erasmus thing. So I was very, very excited about going abroad and living there for a while. I didn't live there for a long time, to be honest. I just stayed there for five months. And actually it was before the pandemic. So like when the lockdown started, I had to come back to Spain. But….like before going there, I thought that my English was okay, and it was. Don't get me wrong, but it's true that when I arrived in Dublin, I realized that everything that I had learned previously was not as useful as I thought it would be. So it was because, well, first of all, because of the accent, because some people have a very strong…thick accent and it's just difficult to understand them, especially if they speak fast. and secondly, because I was like all the time surrounded by Irish people who were talking to me in English and it was a little bit overwhelming because I have never, I had never been in such situation before. like here at work, for instance, I have a video call in English. Then I go back to Spanish or I go back and go back to Catalan. So my brain has time to relax, you know, whereas there I was working in the office and I was doing, I had to do everything in English, like writing reports, emails, writing emails, calling someone. Even when we were having lunch together during our lunch break, we were in the canteen and I was surrounded by Irish people who were talking to each other, going back and forth in English. So I couldn't actually relax. Then it was overwhelming a little bit and also tiring. And like I remember like arriving at home at night and being, like, really exhausted, especially the first weeks. Then it got better. You just get used to it. And yeah, you get better like super fast actually when you are like all the time with locals and speaking English.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so you noticed the improvement, but it probably wasn't like the textbook English, right? It was more real-life expressions.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, it was more real life expressions, like things that, like a lot of, I remember like a lot of phrasal verbs that I didn't know back then. And all the phrasal verbs that I knew, they weren't using them. 

Hahaha

And I was like, what's wrong with me? They're using like, because I thought that I knew a lot of phrasal verbs and I tried to use them as much as possible. Well, just when they come to mind, really. I mean, I'm not like, okay, let's try to use a phrasal verb like, you know, when I am speaking. But it's true that I'm aware that native speakers use phrasal verbs quite a lot. So, if it pops into my head, I use it. But I remember that when I was there, they were using, like, phrasal verbs that I didn't know. And it was, like, weird. And yeah, but thank God that I had like very nice colleagues. And they were, I mean, they were, like, extremely sweet and like whatever, you know, when I didn't know something, they would say, hey, this means this or, you know.

Awe, Irish people are so nice! Great phrasal verb here, if a phrasal verbs pops into my head I use. If something pops into your head it suddenly appears in your head, like instantly, you didn´t spend any time thinking about it. We can also use pop into for a quick visit to someone or somewhere, like I popped into the shop to buy some milk. She also says he just uses phrasal verbs when they come to mind, similar meaning really, just when they occur to you. 

I love the organization in the answer before that. She started with first of all, then secondly, also she used for instance to give an example, whereas to make a contrast, especially to highlight something. Aside from that she has lot of filler words, which are very standard in casual conversation, such as I mean, like, you know. She even used don´t get me wrong, to clarify what she was trying to say, excellent stuff.

The grammar was good too, we had two examples of the past perfect. Everything I had previously learned and I had never been in such a situation before. So, remember, we use the past perfect for something that happened before something else in the past. So before going to Ireland she had never been in that situation. We often use the past perfect with before, already, just, never or ever, or previously as she used in her example. 

Lastly, there was plenty of nice vocabulary with rewarding, overwhelming and having a thick accent, very nice. So, a thick accent is very strong and maybe from a particular part of the country, and is usually tricky to understand. 

There was just one little pronunciation issue to pick up on, and that is with the word colleagues. So the stress is on the first syllable, coll, colleagues. The reason I highlight it is cause it just came up in one of my classes last night too with an Italian student, so it seems it is not unusual for people to stress the second syllable rather than the first one, but it should be colleagues, not colleages. I’ve got lovely colleagues. Apart from that, everything was good!

I know you're a big traveler. How useful do you find it to be able to speak English on your travels?

Extremely useful. extremely useful, to be honest. I mean, I know that there are people who travel who don't speak English and…or maybe like their English level is more basic, so they can get by basically, survive, I'd say, like when they travel. But for me, you know, being able, being able to have meaningful conversations with people who live in the countries that I have been visiting, make friends. So I do have a lot of friends who are not from Spain and those people live like, for instance, in India or in the Philippines. And I have been able to do this because of my English, to be honest. Because you can be, like, super social, but if you don't speak, like, the same language, like, although you're super social, you can have fun. Like, I don't know, I'm just like thinking of being in a club and dancing and you can have fun, but that's all because you are not going to be able to maintain like a friendship or like create a friendship from there. So like, first of all, like, yeah, like making friends, like being able to, to know the culture better. And I think it's just like useful if something like if a problem like comes up really, like if your English is good, you, you will have like more chances to fix the problem.

Absolutely, and about challenges - do you have any big challenges or what's the biggest challenge with learning English? You mentioned phrasal verbs in Ireland earlier. Any other big challenges?

Oh, I… to be honest, I don't know. I'm trying…..on the top of my head, being able, being fluent, being able to speak fluently. I think that's the biggest, the biggest challenge because I mean, when you reach a certain level, and then you have, I mean, the grammar, all the words, vocabulary. But being able to speak fluently is a challenge if you don't live in an English-speaking country because you don't practice it as much as much as you would like. So for instance, like I'm talking to you right now, but I haven't used like my English like for, I don't know, like 3, 4, 5 days. So, like, maintaining that level of fluency is hard when you reach, like, a certain level.

Totally. Something I can say about you is that you're very consistent with your classes. Like some people take a break for a few months or something, but you kind of maintain it. And I know like a lot of my students who are really good, like yourself, are the same. Like they kind of keep it going. They might miss a few weeks here and there, but they never have like a three month break, you know, like that.

No, I know that this is like an ongoing process that if I stop doing classes or I stop watching series in English or listening to music, like my level, it's gonna, it's gonna get worse. That's why I put like a lot of effort into it. And because I really like English. So for me, it's not like it's I mean, I don't see it as an effort. It's true that I'm very busy and I have, I mean, I would like to, I don't know, like right now, like summertime, like, be at the beach, on Fridays instead of maybe doing English with you. But I like it and I feel it's very useful and I don't want to get worse. I want to keep my fluency as now.

Some lovely phrasal verbs here. People with basic English can get by if they travel, meaning they can survive a difficult situation. We most commonly use this when speaking about languages, like I have enough French to get by while on holidays, or about money, like my family didn’t have enough money to get by when I was a kid, or I reckon you can get by on 20 dollars a day in Thailand. 

The other phrasal verb was come up, as in to arise or to occur. She said, if a problem comes up you can fix it. You often here this one when people are late for something, they say: sorry, something came up at work. Or another example would be, something came up during the testing phase so the launch was cancelled. 

One little mistakes came up, actually, in these answers. She said on the top of my head. Ok, the correct version is off the top of my head, meaning to think of something in the moment, not giving it much consideration. Really handy that one, she nearly nailed it.

Can you tell me what is your favorite word or expression?

So I really like idioms. So I think it's very cool to use them. And it's very funny because whenever, if you're talking to a native speaker and you use an idiom, they get super impressed. And they are like, how do you know that? And I'm like, well, you know, I've been studying for quite a while. So I don't know, I like idioms for instance. I really like the one that you live and learn. You live and learn. And also, I don't know, it's like I'm trying to come up with like fancy ones, like, blessing in disguise. I don't know. Like, yeah. I really like the one like this. I think that I use this quite often. This person is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

I don't know, like, yeah, I also like the ones that have animals, they have like, they refer to animals like. For instance, you're missing the elephant in the room. And this is something, yeah, and this is something that I use, not in English, I use this expression in Spanish a lot. So that's why I really like it in English too. 

Awesome, and lastly can I ask about your attitude to making mistakes with English. 

It's a trial and error thing and making mistakes and learning from them and, being more relaxed about making mistakes because people who are not, I mean, who are not native speakers tend to be like extremely….very self-conscious, right, about making mistakes and being correct all the time.

Yeah, very self-critical, I suppose.

Yeah. And I'm very self-critical and I'm very demanding of myself. And whenever I remember like I was making mistakes and I was like, dammit, you know, I know how to say, how to say this correctly. Helena! You just have to be like think faster or like you know I'm like being too hard on myself and then you realize that if you're too hard like being hard on yourself or like pushing yourself a little bit is like.

Yeah you got to you got to have a bit of that because if you don't feel that you never learn right you're like oh yeah whatever, you know.

Yeah that's true yeah like, like, being demanding of yourself and pushing yourself is great when it comes to in like we are talking about English or learning English for instance, but like being too hard on yourself makes you less relaxed when it comes to practice, to talking to someone and you may end up not saying things just because of….y´know… of being afraid of making mistakes.

Yeah, your self-esteem is so low. You're like, yeah, you don't want to chance things.

You enter in this kind of like vicious cycle, which is not good for you either. So it's just like, push yourself a little bit and get out of your comfort zone, but like, recognize the effort that you're making and….and do not be so hard on yourself.

Pat yourself on the back

Exactly!

What fantastic advice! Push yourself a bit, get out of your comfort zone but recognize your effort and don’t be so hard on yourself. Brilliant advice. She also got a vicious cycle in there, which is where one negative action leads to another negative one, which reinforces the first negative action again. This is more commonly called a vicious circle, but vicious cycle is acceptable to use too. 

There was a bunch of great idioms in there too. The first one she mentioned was you live and learn. So this is something you say after you, or someone else, has made a mistake or had a negative experience and you learn a lesson from that situation. Afterwards, you say, you live and learn. Like I knew I shouldn’t have bought a car off that guy, oh well, you live and learn. 

The next one was a blessing in disguise. This is where something appears negative at first, but ends up being positive. Like if you miss the bus, and then the bus has an accident, you missing the bus was a blessing in disguise.

Next was he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. You say this when someone is not very intelligent or astute, like they lack common sense. For instance, the bank robber forgot to put petrol in the getaway car, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. 

Lastly, she had the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room is the obvious problem that everyone is avoiding talking about, because it’s too difficult or too awkward. For example, imagine you are at your work Christmas party and you sleep with your colleague, oh no. Then the next day you go to work and carry on as if everything is normal, you don’t mention it all, well, you got yourself an elephant in the room.  So, eventually after some time tiptoeing around the subject you might say to your colleague, look, we have to address the elephant in the room, I was drunk and made a mistake last night. 

Maybe you woke that morning, you said dammit, and you were very self-critical. Ok, these two words came up in the answers too, so dammit is an expression of anger. It’s kind of mild and family-friendly. A more adult version would be shit, fuck or bollocks, and there’s loads and loads of other alternatives too. 

To be self-critical is obviously to be critical of yourself, to judge your actions, harshly I would say. There are loads of great compound adjectives beginning with self, we also had self-conscious here, other good ones are self-made, when you did something all on your own, often about a business, a self-made millionaire, self-deprecating when you are kind of modest and maybe make fun of yourself or your own limitations, and self-indulgent, when you allow yourself to do something that’s nice for yourself, maybe something luxurious. Like, it was a bit self-indulgent of me to eat lunch in the Michelin star restaurant, but it was delicious so it was worth it! As Helena said, don’t be so hard on yourself! 

And that’s all from Helena today, what a fantastic interview. I thought she explained really well some of the struggles that all of us, as language learners, go through. And her positive drive and attitude is truly inspirational. So thanks very much to Helena for that. 

And that is all we have time for today guys. If you enjoyed that, you can leave a comment in Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to these podcasts.

All the best!

Trevor