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Nyckelord
2016
28 Okt

Har du kommit över din "critical bridge"?

2016-10-28 15:11
Har du kommit över din
För att som svensk bli riktigt bra på engelska behöver man nå fram till den punkt där man till och med tänker på engelska. Mike kallar det för att nå sin "critical bridge" och det är något han ofta pratar om under coachningen. Han pratar också om värdet att sätta realistiska mål med sin engelskaträning.
Chapter 6 - Critical bridge
Har du kommit över din "critical bridge"?

M – I tried to call you Karina, couldn’t get through.
K- Sorry I was ehm, eh – at… in the phone.
M – Eh, in the phone? That’s not possible Karina, I think you mean on the phone.
K – Ah, okey, I never get it right, in or at or on or…
M – Well, with prepositions such as in, at, by etc.; If you translate directly from Swedish, you have around a 50% chance of being correct.
K – How can I stop doing these mistakes?
M – No, no, no, no – not doing – it should be making. Making a mistake!
K – Alright, how can I stop these sorts of mistakes?
M - Ok, it depends on what your objectives are. Which is most important for you; is it to communicate adequately or accurately? 
K – I want to be perfect! 
M – Karina, it’s difficult even for native speakers to be perfect! it is very important to set yourself reasonable objectives. You must decide what your objectives are; I can only guide you.
K - Well, it is important for me to speak correctly.
M – Which language do you normally think in, when you speak English?
K – Mostly in Swedish and then I translate it in my head before speaking. 
M – So, the result of that will be that you speak Swenglish!
K – Ja, you could say that!
M – In language learning there is an important position to reach; I call this “the critical bridge”.
K – Oh, never heard of that!
M – Ah, this is the point where you start to actually think in English rather than in Swedish. And that is very important. Up until you reach this bridge you’ll tend to speak Swenglish. It is a gradual process and that is why I call it the critical bridge, you have to pass over it.
K – How do I come to this bridge then? 
M – We need to establish how you learn, are you an intuitive learner or are you more of a technical type of person?
K – I think I am an intuitive learner, at least a listening one. I tend to imitate people when I hear them.
M – I do get a very strong feeling you are an intuitive learner. If you want to speak correctly you might need a bit more technical training. Let me come back to the importance of setting objectives. It is important that the goals you set yourself are reasonable, that is to say that you can reach them. Perfection is a difficult objective to attain and it is better to be realistic. It is important for your learning morale that you reach some, if not all of your objectives. It’s positive to set demanding goals but they should be reachable, remember that goalsetting is a progressive matter. In other words you can set one goal and then reach it, and then you set another goal – instead of aiming for the top of Kebnekaise directly. 
K – Thank you Mike, for explaining that. 
M – My pleasure, I am happy to help. And if you, who are listening to this – and feel like Karina in our dialogue here – that you could benefit from some support in this area, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You’ll find our contact address on the blog page.
K – Du har lyssnat till ett avsnitt av Mr & Mis Understandings podprogram för dig som ibland behöver hjälp med att hitta rätt uttryck eller snabbt förbättra och komplettera din engelska. Programmet är ett samarbete mellan Karina Sannefjordh på produktionsbolaget Med enkla ord - och engelskacoach Mike Ward. Vi hörs!

Useful hints from Mike:

As outlined in the blog above, determining your objectives is an important point when learning or developing your competences in any foreign language. If accuracy is key to your requirements, you will need to work on the structures (grammar). If you wish to develop your fluency, it will also be necessary to increase your vocabulary. To some extent, this is also necessary for native speakers, but they have easy use of idiomatic expressions to help them out. Most important of all, set realistic objectives and be progressive in your development.
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