The Number 1 Reason to Learn English

What's up guys? I'm Ethan, your RealLife  English Fluency Coach and in today's lesson we're gonna go deep. I'm gonna try to give you  some different motivations that maybe you haven't thought about in the past.

They're gonna help  propel you forward in your English learning, so if you watch this video until the end you're  going to learn the powerful way to add purpose to your English learning, so that you don't give  up. You're going to learn why English is the most important language in the world, and probably  why it's one of the most important things that you can possibly learn. You'll also learn of  course the number one reason to learn English, and finally also how you can use your English to  make the world a better place.

So we're going to jump into all that in just a second but first I  want to let you know that if you are new here, every single week we make lessons like this one,  so that you can understand fast speaking natives, you can be understood by anyone and connect to  the world. Just like Jamg, who says that our lessons are helping him to overcome his fear of  speaking, and speak English confidently. And you can too join us by hitting that Subscribe button  and the Bell below, and you won't miss a single one of our new lessons.

So this is a concept  that was popularized by a guy named Simon Sinek, who through a ton of research about different  companies about companies that were really successful he found as a unifier that they started  with Why. Now, what does this mean exactly? Let me give you an example, this is one of the ones  that you'll hear from him most common and that is with computers.

Now, when you're shopping for  a computer often you'll see different companies telling you, "We have the computer that works the  fastest, it's the most powerful, it's the newest technology" but when you look at Apple, which  Apple has really created a cult following around its brand, they have a completely different way or  at least they used to have a completely different way of marketing their computers. They started  with Why. So all those other companies were starting with What: "Having the fastest computer,  having the most powerful, the best technology," and Apple started with Why.

Now maybe you remember  this if you've seen any old Apple commercials, but they would say that they wanted to help you  to think differently. Now people who use Apple computers, who have an iPhone, who have any sort  of technology from Apple do it because they're the kind of person who thinks differently they're part  of that counter culture. Now, this was immensely successful for Apple, and it really set them  apart and allowed them to do things that didn't seem like they would make a lot of sense for most  computer brands.

Like for example, creating a cell phone now Simon Sinek has an incredible Ted Talk  I highly recommend, that you check it out if you want to learn more about this, and we'll link that  down in the description below. But you're probably asking yourself right now "why is this relevant  to me? Like I don't have a company," maybe you're not an entrepreneur, but this doesn't apply just  to companies.

You can use this yourself you can create a really powerful Why for your learning  English, which is going to help to set you apart from most people out there, who have really  superficial reasons for why they're learning English. Now this is so important that I used to  have all of my students actually do an exercise to help them discover their own Why for learning  English. And I'll tell you more about that and how you can do it in a little bit.

Now you might  be wondering what is even the reason to do this, how's this going to help me. Now most people when  they think of learning English they think of it as something that they have to do. Now think  of anything in the past that you've had to do maybe when you were younger, chores around the  house, your parents would make you take out the trash or they tell you have to do your homework,  your teachers would tell you that you have to study this and probably those things weren't  things that you really wanted to do.

You probably didn't really care about them, they probably  didn't make you feel very passionate. However when you shift your attitude it allows you to take  your motivation to a completely different level. And that is why this is so important when you  discover your Why.

That's going to be the thing that pushes you forward that lights a fire inside  you, that makes you passionate about learning it. So you're going to change from thinking "I have to  learn English" to "I want to learn English, I love learning English, it's the most important thing  in the world to me now. " Every single person's Why is probably going to be pretty unique to them and  there can be different levels of Whys, that maybe are more deep or maybe more superficial.

Now most  people out there probably are thinking that they have to learn English or even they want to learn  English because they need it for professional reasons. And there's nothing wrong with this, of  course it can be really great if you are ambitious it can be very important to know English, so that  you can get a promotion or that you can start a successful company. But I think that there's also  much better and deeper wise that you can have for learning English than this.

The next level might  be thinking about needing your English because you want to travel. Because you're really interested  for cultural reasons, for example maybe you love French cooking and so you need to learn French  so that you can understand different recipes that you want to cook. Or maybe it's because you  want to form relationships like you're going to go live abroad in an English-speaking country, or  maybe just you want to make friends from other countries.

But if we take it a level deeper, very  few people out there will have kind of a concept of the impact that English fluency can have on  Human consciousness, on global interconnectivity, on the way that we perceive ourselves as  a part of the world. Now wherever you find yourself on the spectrum of motivations right  now, that's completely fine. Really your wife learning English can and should change as you're  kind of progressing on your learning journey.

Now, as I mentioned before, English can really  have a huge impact on your global consciousness and because of this your purpose for  learning English will evolve as you do. So all of that said now I'll tell you about the  exercise that I used to do with my students. So it's really super simple, you could even pause  the video right now and do it, or if you want to continue watching then you can come back and watch  this part of it again.

But really all you have to do is grab a piece of paper and a pen, and you're  going to write down "Why am I learning English? " So basically your first answer might be something  that's maybe a little bit more superficial, a little bit more simple, so let's take for example  that you said "I'm learning English because I want to get a better job," and then what you're going  to do is you're going to ask yourself "Why? " five times.

Okay so we have that original answer  to the question why am I learning English, because I want to get a better job, so then we're going  to ask why, so I want to get a better job maybe because I want to be able to provide a better life  for my wife and children. And then you're going to ask yourself why again: "because I want them to be  happy," and you're gonna ask yourself why again, maybe so that they can have more  opportunities in life than I did. And you can already see it just by doing  this a few times you've already got a much deeper response to why you're learning English. 

And this is probably going to be something for you that is much more motivating that really lights  a fire inside you that gets you passionate about learning English much more than just "I have to  learn it because I want to get a better job. " And then the final part of this exercise once  you've done that five why's, and you've gotten to your final answer, you've gotten to something that  gets you excited that lights that fire in you, you're going to either take a picture of it or  write it on a sticky note, and you're going to put it somewhere that you'll see it all the time.  And the reason that you're going to do this is because when you're constantly coming in contact  with us it's going to help you to continue that motivation to always feel inspired by it and come  back to the deeper purpose for learning English.

Now I even had a student who actually took a  picture of it and said it as the picture on his phone, so that any time that you would look  on his phone he would actually be seeing his Why learning English and that was just huge huge  motivation for him in learning the language. So that said, now we can move on to  "Why English is just so important? " Now why exactly is English so important why must  you learn this language.

Now whether you like it or not maybe this is already apparent  to you but English is the global language so when you're learning English you're not  just learning to be able to communicate with Americans or with Brits, or people from other  English-speaking countries. You can be learning it for travel, like if you go to Germany or Brazil  or Taiwan, and you don't speak the local language, what language are you going to communicate  with people? In English, right?

Or for business I believe it's about 80% of  business interactions are between non-native and non-native English speakers. So if you want to be  successful in business it's super important that you're able to speak English, unless you're just  maybe doing business in your corner of the world, but in a globalized world more than ever  it's super important to be able to connect your business to other parts of the world. And  naturally, for diplomacy maybe, you're interested in politics so if you want to be able to get very  far in a political career, of course you have to have impressive English.

So what all this means  is that for most people out there having a native accent in English becomes less and less important.  Now if you really want to then of course you can dedicate all the time and energy to that but  for most people it's just not going to be that important as long as you're able to speak clearly  and confidently. Now that's not to say that being able to understand natives isn't still super  important of course if you want to be able to consume any sort of media in English.

You're going  to need to be able to understand natives even when we speak really fast, but I created another lesson  talking all about connected speech and why this can make a huge difference in your ability to  be able to understand natives even when we speak super fast, so I highly recommend that you check  that out and I'll link it down in the description. So maybe it's already pretty obvious for you  that English is that key that you need to be able to communicate with people from anywhere  in the world, but maybe another aspect that you haven't thought about so much is that  English can open up a whole new world for you of different sources of information. So a great  example of this is with the internet.

Most of our information nowadays comes from the internet. Now  on the internet there are about as many English speaking users as Chinese speaking users, but  when we actually look at the pages on the internet there are 17 times more pages in English than  there are in Chinese. Now the reason that this is so important is because all of a sudden if you are  able to understand English you'll have all these sources of different information and it'll be much  easier for you to find sources that aren't biased.

Now why this is so important is because maybe  most of your life if you watch the news or you consume any other information like that all of it  might be coming from just your local TV station. For example in your local language but once you  actually start consuming more things in English you might realize that a lot of the information  that you've been getting throughout your life has kind of misguided you, it's been incomplete or  maybe it's been completely biased, or it's been lies altogether. And the reason that this  happens is because in most countries around 90% or even more of the media is controlled by the  same people, who usually have a very specific interest that might not be aligned with your  actual values.

And they might be trying to manipulate you and people in your country in  certain ways, so when you know English and you're able to understand a lot of different  information out there and able to compare different sources all, of a sudden you are able  to really get to the truth of different matters, but if you only speak one language then  you're just limited to that one point of view. Now if you get far enough on your English  learning journey you start to connect with people in other parts of the world. You start  to interact with different sorts of media and different points of views it's inevitable that  at some point you're going to have an Aha Moment!

Now if you haven't heard this term before,  it means an epiphany, a sudden realization. I can still remember my Aha Moment. I can remember  it crystal clear where I was, and who I was with, and what clothes I was even wearing.

So when  I was in high school I actually studied abroad in Germany when I was about 17 and this was my  first time really living outside of my country, or even my home. So I was living there already I  think for a couple months and I was starting to get more comfortable with the german language  and I remember I was in the classroom having a conversation with some of my classmates and  I just had this sudden realization, that the conversation we were having, the topic we were  talking about -which I can't even really remember specifically what we were talking about- but it  was something that I could have been having that exact same conversation with my friends back in  the United States. And this was really incredible for me because all of a sudden I realized you  know people my age in Germany are pretty much exactly the same as people my age in the United  States.

There's not really that much of a difference. Now I've been kind of told all my life  that you know people over there they're really different people who aren't Americans they're just  not the same as us, we're the best in the world or you need to be proud that you're an American,  and all this stuff so kind of all of a sudden for me it was like something broke open and I was  able to see the world in kind of a different way. Now this kind of as I continued along my language  learning journey and meeting different people from around the world especially when it had become  more and more easy with the internet.

I started to really deepen this realization. Now we're going to  talk a lot more about that in just a little bit, but basically what I'm wanting you to take  here is that when you start to consume different types of media, or you start to  make friends in other parts of the world, you're going to realize that people in other  countries aren't that different from you. And that a lot of the things that you've been told by  the media or other people maybe even your family maybe even the government just aren't true at  all, about other people in other countries when it comes down to it, we're all humans and  we all have the same basic fears and needs; and wants and dreams.

All right, so now let's  talk a little bit about Global Citizenship. Now if you don't know what this term  means we're going to define it for you if you already know what it means, maybe you're in  doubt about what makes a Overview Effect, am I a Overview Effect? How can I become a Overview  Effect?

So I'll answer all those questions. So I think a fantastic place for us to start  talking about this is with something that's called the Overview Effect. Now this is something that  was probably identified around 60 years ago or so, when humans first went to the moon.

Now  basically our goal was to go to the moon to go discover this thing that's out there  and to actually put our feet down on it, but that wasn't really the biggest discovery. The  biggest discovery came when they were going out in space towards the moon, and they were  spinning around and looking out the window, and at some point they could see Earth hanging  out there alone in the darkness of space, and it was unified. There were no borders.

This  was the first time ever that humanity was able to see Earth as something completely unified, without  any borders, and nowadays it's not necessary that you go out into space in order to have this  realization. Global Citizenship lets us see the world beyond those imaginary borders and of course  when you know English it's going to help you a ton to be able to access this information, and have  this realization for yourself. Now there is a fantastic documentary about the Overview Effect  about the astronauts that first went into space, and I highly recommend that you check that out. 

It's just 20 minutes and we'll link that down in the description below. So Global Citizenship  basically is a collection of the processes skills, character, traits, and attitudes that all  together form an identity that transcends the geographic and political borders, to include all  of humanity. And within these there are certain global competencies that you can develop, that  will help you to be a better Global Citizen, so let's take a look at some of those.

So one of  the most important ones is non-judgmentalness and curiosity. Now what does this mean? Basically,  nonjudgmentalness means that when you are talking to someone instead of right away  because they said something that is weird, or that's different than how you think, instead of  judging that thing you're going to become curious.

You're going to ask questions about it, you're  going to try to imagine why do they think that way or why do they act that way. That's different  than how you've been kind of brought up to act so you're going to change your attitude and you're  not going to judge before you really know the truth. Now another really super important global  competency for this is empathy.

Now empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person's shoes  to kind of understand where they're coming from, how they feel. Now this is much easier said than  done, it's something that if it's important to you, you're going to be developing it your entire  life because it's very easy to have reactions to other people and to not be able to take the time  and the focus to be able to really understand how they feel. But when you are able to do this, it  can have a profound change on your relationship with other people.

Especially as a Global Citizen,  when you're interacting with people who come from different cultures different religions different  national identities. Now when you do this you'll probably realize, you'll probably start to reflect  on that you know if I were to have been born in the same place that that person was born. I  grew up kind of with the same opportunities or limitations or the same circumstances as that  person, how would I think?

I would probably think a lot like that person, I probably would have  the same religion, I probably would have a lot of the same cultural beliefs or traditions. And  so when you're able to start thinking this way all of a sudden you might see that you know maybe  my way of doing things isn't the best, or maybe it's not right, it's not so black and white. So  it's not that I'm right and that person's wrong, I'm normal and that person's weird, you  start to see that it's just different ways of experiencing the world.

And in order to develop  empathy in this way, a really important skill, that again is much easier said than done, is  listening. Now that might sound like really simple but really to become a great listener is a huge  challenge because you need to be able to focus, you need to be able to kind of clarify the mind,  so that you're not thinking about like how am I going to respond, which the way that most people  listen is by their thinking in their mind "Okay, how am I going to respond to what this person's  saying? " But when you work on your listening, you're really present with that person you're  really listening to what they're saying understanding them, really trying to feel their  point of view.

Now a really great way to kind of cultivate these skills of course is through  meditation or other ways that you can kind of create more focus and kind of empty the mind,  so that you're not so caught up and you're more present in the moment and there's many more  global competencies, but just to give you one more that I really love it is called "Seeking the  third way. " Now basically when you have any interactions with another person, especially if  that person comes from a different place than you, then you're going to have different points  of views, and usually when this happens, especially if you're discussing something  especially, if you're having maybe some sort of debate or argument, you're going to come at it  with those different viewpoints. And one person's going to think one way the other person's going  to think the other way this person's going to think "I'm right, they're wrong.

I'm right, there  wrong" and you're gonna have a clash there, right? But it's not so black and white, there's not just  these two ways of seeing and doing things. There's always a third way and so as a Global Citizen, you  seek that third way.

You look for that third way of doing things, you're able to come to a solution  where you're both able to win, or at least you're both able to come to something that you're happy  about. Now as Global Citizen we can use English to solve the huge problems that all of us are  facing, no matter where we are in the world. Now one really important thing to do to start out  is to stop seeing other people as They and start seeing it as We.

So instead of thinking "They're  bad, they're wrong, they're weird" you start thinking, you know that "We want a better world,  we want a better future and life for our children, we can do this together. " This involves moving  past our petty differences. Now this is a really great term if you haven't heard it before: "petty  differences" are kind of the small unimportant differences and when you start to kind of  discover this viewpoint from Global Citizenship, you start to see that a lot of things like  religion or cultural differences, or race or other things really seem pretty petty when you  compare to what we all have in common as human beings.

And when you do this you're able to make  space for all nations, for all religions, and all cultures and celebrate those differences. Now it  becomes super interesting to actually be able to learn about traditions that they have in other  parts of the world, for example and maybe you really like these ideas you're really interested  in being able to experience having conversations with people in other parts of the world, so that  you can develop your global competencies, so that you can become a Global Citizen. Now in order to  do this it's really important that you build your global tribe.

Now a global tribe is basically a  group of people from different parts of the world who share your values for Global Citizenship. Now  we have our community of Global Citizen which is called the Fluency Circle. Now this is a really  amazing place, guys, because you go on there in the morning and you can talk to someone who is  having lunch in India and they show you what they're eating there, and maybe you see also  what someone was doing last night in Brazil, they had some tradition that they were celebrating  or you talked to someone from Japan who is maybe showing you some photos from their trip to  Kyoto.

Now lifetime access to the Fluency Circle is included with all of our courses, like  the RealLife Native Immersion Course, which is really fantastic if you're wanting to build your  skills, to be able to understand natives even when we speak really fast and that for example  might help you if you're wanting to be able to understand the news in English without getting  lost. So you can actually try that for FREE with our Power Learning Week, which you'll find  linked up here or down the description below. And now the other really amazing thing that  happens when you become a Global Citizen is that not only are you going to kind of see  the entire world for what it really is and start to value other perspectives, other cultures but  then you're able to turn back towards your own culture and have a completely different view of  it.

You're able to see it in a different light. Now in my own experience when I went to Germany  for the first time I remember I was actually really negative about the United States. I'd  been told all my life you know that the United States is the best country in the world,  that you have to be proud to be an American and I saw actually like a lot of things that  were better in Germany, and I started to think you know, "Really the United States isn't all  that great as I've been told my whole life.

" But actually as I kind of got older, as I started  travel more, as I started to meet more people, I was able to value a lot more things in the  United States that are really great. I was able to become more grateful about the things that really  are gifts for me, and the things that I really love about my own country and my own culture. So  something that's really important here is that when you start to have this goal of perspective  and discover other places in the world, they're not becoming cynical or critical of your  own place in the world and of those things that maybe seem too traditional, or the lies, or the  kind of misguided things that you've been told during your life, but that you're able to kind of  value both the good and the bad about that.

Now this all probably sounds pretty great to you but  I have to tell you it's really one of the hardest things being a Global Citizen because it's not  like one day you're not a Global Citizen and the next day you are and you're a Global Citizen for  your entire life. It's something that you have to constantly work at you really have to build those  competencies you have to make it a habit, and you have to remind yourself about it all the time.  I still struggle with this in my everyday life, and I think it comes down to pretty simple things. 

It's like when you are walking down the street and you see a homeless person you kind of realize how  grateful you are for the opportunities that you've had in your life, you know, that you have a home,  that you have family, that you have people around you, who support you, who help you to learn  English, who help you to be a better person. So I think it's really developing kind of that  gratitude and that self-consciousness. Now when you start to develop these skills the really great  thing is that you can use them and you can use your English to help to make the world a better  place.

Now as we talked about it's being more informed about how the world really is not just  what the media or people or your government tells you. Now we already talked about how being able to  experience other sorts of information is a really great way to do this, but another really fantastic  way to do this is when you have your global tribe and you start to meet people from different parts  of the world, if you hear something maybe about another country you're actually able to go  to one of those people and ask them about it, and kind of to discover the truth. So you kind of  use your curiosity to really get to the truth of the matter, and to really understand what's really  happening around the world.

Now one example of this is in the United States all the time we're  hearing negative things about russia because there's obviously a lot of conflict between the  Russian and the American government. Now kind of the sad thing that happens here is people hear  this on the media and they start to think you know Russia's bad and Russians are bad, they're the  enemy, they're really horrible, they're wrong, we're right and what happens here is it kind of  just creates a bigger and bigger divide. But when you have a different perspective, or even you just  get the opportunity to talk to someone who's from that country to ask them questions about it, to  just really be curious and non-judgmental you're able to see like this is a completely normal  person, they maybe have a little bit different way of thinking, but they're not my enemy.

They're  a human being just like me, they have their dreams they maybe you have children that they're that  they're trying to create a better life for and you start to see like really the deeper  values here as human beings are very similar. So certainly as a Global Citizen you always need  to be kind of skeptical about what you're hearing about other countries, and trying to be curious  and discovering the truth by actually talking to people or by fully researching it. Now again  the Fluency Circle is a really fantastic place for this because you know anytime there's  a natural disaster we actually ask people how they're doing we kind of care you know  and make sure that they're okay and if there's something happening, some sort of conflict or  something interesting that we heard on the news, we'll actually ask them, "Is this really the  case?

Is this so true? " and this is really fantastic because we have people from virtually  every country in that group. So another way that you can make the world a better place through your  English is to pay forward what you're learning.

So when you kind of talk to other people about what's  actually happening in their part of the world, or you're discovering it online by something that  you're watching or reading you can actually share that with your family, with your friends and  help them to kind of have similar discoveries. If you're enjoying this video, you could even  share it with like another friend or family member, or someone you know who speaks English.  And then you can have a conversation about these topics.

Now everything we've talked about so far  are things that on your own every single person can do. Maybe you want to take it even further,  so you can be the change that you want to see in the world, and there's so many different  ways that English can help you to do this. So for example you could actually use your English  to get different sorts of job opportunities, or you could volunteer, maybe you could get a job  at an NGO, that's a Non-Governmental Organization, that's doing something really fantastic to  bring about some sort of change in the world, that's going to make it a much better place to  live in, and you're going to be really proud of what you're working on.

You're going to use your  English every day and maybe another thing that you could actually do is actually teaching English,  then you're going to help other people to have these same discoveries. So whether you want to do  it professionally or you just want to help someone in your family or a friend who wants to learn it,  or just kind of providing them with resources even then you're going to be really paying forward all  the discoveries that you're having through your English, through your Global Citizenship, to a  whole other group of people. Now, right now is a really interesting time for Global Citizenship  with everything that's been happening in the last six to eight months with the Covid virus.

Now this  is a really kind of difficult time for everyone all around the world, and more than ever we can  start to kind of see the importance of Global Citizenship, so no matter where you are this is  probably affecting you and this really kind of shows us this need to take care of each other. So  for example again in the Fluency Circle, when this was first happening several months ago, we were  asking other people in other parts of the world if they were okay. So it's kind of like you had this  sense that everyone was taking care of each other and everyone was undergoing these same kind of  difficulties, and just this huge sense of empathy.

So I think this is a really great time to start  putting more energy into kind of these values into kind of building your global tribe, and to being  part of the solution. So we're almost finished, and I'm going to give you a challenge that I want  you to take, that's going to really help you with everything we've talked about today. But really  the final thing that I want to leave you with is this idea that no matter what divides us, that  which unites us is far greater.

I think that's the biggest message that you can take away from this  video, and really to be a Global Citizenship is to apply what you've learned in this video, to  try to make the world a better place. All right, so as I mentioned I have a challenge for you:  so after you finish this video what I want you to do is go down to the comments below and connect  with someone from another part of the world there. Now you could even agree to meet with that person  on WhatsApp or Skype, or something like that, and also leave a message if you're willing to connect  with other people, so that they can find you.

I don't recommend though that you leave your number,  your actual phone number, because that way anyone could contact you, but leave some other way that  people can find you. So I started out this video talking about the importance of having a really  strong Why. Our Why here at RealLife English is: To Create a World Beyond Borders.

And I  hope that you will join us in that mission, so we're actually developing an app. Now  that's going to make it super easy to connect with English learners from other parts  of the world, and to practice together, and to have these kind of cross-cultural discoveries  and really to deepen your global competencies. So if you want to learn more about that, the  easiest way would just be to subscribe down below and we'll be sure to publish all  sorts of information about that, once it's available in a couple months.

And  now it's time to go beyond the classroom and leave your English, and be the change that  you wish to see in the world. Aww yeah! !

Hey guys, what's going on? So in today's lesson  I'm going to tell you the secret to being able to understand, and even speak more like a native.  So, what is connected speech?

Maybe you have heard this term before, but if you haven't it's  going to really revolutionize your English.