We want to help people connect and communicate in positive and meaningful ways – and help them stay connected. Tomoe and I have been discussing this subject a lot and our ultimate goal is to use our seminars, lessons, and forums as a way to create strong communities. In traditional English conversation classes it’s easy to get too focused on tests, textbooks, grades, and “levels.” After some time, the student is so worried about these artificial measurements that they forget their ultimate purpose for study – to communicate with others.Īt the deepest level, English conversation is about community – building and sustaining meaningful connections between people. While this is obvious, I feel that many students forget the ultimate reason they are learning. We want to connect with professional peers. We want to connect with business partners, clients, and customers. We want to connect personally and emotionally. Its purpose is to connect people around the world. English Conversation is About Building ConnectionsĮnglish conversation is about connection. Learn that first… then, and only then, focus on academic English. You want to understand TV shows and movies. You want to make friends and understand what they are saying. The first need, after all, is to communicate with other people. I think this is totally backward.Ĭommon, casual conversation should be the first thing you learn. They have been trained in formal, academic English with a focus on grammar rules. They have absolutely no idea what us “normal Americans” are talking about. Yet, when they sit at a bus stop they cannot understand what the people around them are saying. In San Francisco, I have met many students with high English test scores and great grades in their English classes. That’s why so many learners come to the United States and can’t understand regular conversations. This is the common, everyday English that we constantly use.Īnd yet, this kind of English cannot be found in English textbooks. You need to learn the English that Americans use with their friends, their families, and their co-workers. In order to understand the English that native speakers use to communicate with one another. So why do you need to understand conversational English? Conversation uses a different type of English, including different vocabulary. English conversation is quite different from English reading.
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