Why do I write in English? 為何改寫英文？
I’m not an English native speaker
I never study abroad or work abroad. I am a Taiwanese.🇹🇼 I live in Taiwan all my life.
I do work with people from other countries, and of course, we use English to communicate.
I do chat with people from other countries, and of course, we chat in English.
I google words at chatting or reading. Actually, I don’t think I know each word. It’s about 60~80% depending on the context. My vocabulary is more about work things; If they talk about other domains, I may not understand totally.
Some words even I know, I don’t understand the meaning. e.g.
- “Ball park what are we talking about.” Why use “Ball park”?
- “That’s ok IMO.” What’s “IMO”?
I struggle to express myself well. So many times, I don’t have perfect words to explain things. I pause for a few minutes to think. I use 3 sentences to describe something that can be said in 1 sentence. I rewrite my message in slack several times before sending it. I use tools to check spelling and grammar errors.
So many people, including English native speakers, ask if I have studied or worked aboard. 😳 😅
Wow, you are good. My English is not good enough
I always tell the person who wants to improve English to immerse himself in English. The first step is to change your phone and computer language to English. Read English articles. Listen to English podcasts. Watch English movies…etc.
That’s not a big deal. But few people really do that. The most common excuse is, “oh, I don’t know how to change that?” Come on. Can’t you google that?
The second one is, “oh, I just don’t get used to it.” Of course, you don’t get used to it. That’s the point! 🎯
Growth pain
When you step out of your comfort zone, the first thing you encounter is not uncomforted; It’s pain. 😩.
The pain will turn to discomfort, then become a comfort. Your comfort zone expands.
📍 Please make yourself uncomfortable — Ken Norton
📍 Your growth as a conscious being is measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have. — KK
Don’t worry too much
There are so many languages in the world. I feel sometimes other people, Spanish, Korean, struggle to express themselves 100%. They pause for a few minutes searching for words in their mind. They use 3 sentences to describe things that can be said in 1 sentence.
It’s OK. ❣️
Even when you chat with people in your language, you don’t remember each word. You don’t check each word.
We use language to communicate. Communication is the thing that matters. Not the spelling or the number of words.
… if it’s just to point out a grammatical or spelling error (which I can never really seem to get rid of)
from Jeff Patton. He puts it at the end of almost all his articles.
It’s nothing about native speakers
I thought my English resume is good above average. However, the first time my coach read my resume, she said: “un…what does that mean? I don’t understand this one at all.” while reading at EACH LINE. 🥴
I was frustrated. Even my coach explained that she wanted my resume to be polished, I still didn’t buy-in. Because I’m not a native speaker. 😭 I thought I never reached the standard she asked.
Until I saw she gave the same feedback to other coaches who are native speakers. 🤣 Suddenly, “I’m not a native speaker” is an excuse.
It’s an excuse I tell myself to give up because I never will be a native speaker. Now I know it’s an excuse. I break it. I just don’t do my resume well enough YET. Since I receive so much feedback, I know how to modify it.
The power of YET. I really enjoy this talk. 🥰
Growth mindset vs. Fixed mindset.
Practice, Practice, Practice!
Just like shaping your body. This is how a 10 years change. You don’t feel the change in 1~2 years.
Of course, we want to express ourselves precisely. It needs practice.
- Find ways to practice. Join communities, meetups, 1:1 chatting. e.g. ADPlist, Lunchclub
- 🧑💻 PM slack communities: Mind The Product, Product School
- 📊 Data slack communities: dbt, Locally Optimistic
- Check the dictionary when I see words I don’t know.
- Ask when people say or write something I don’t know. e.g. IMO = in my opinion
- Try not to use the translate tool too much. Just write and think in English.
- Grammarly is a great assistant! I use it everywhere.
- Read and learn great sentences.
- Write and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite…. many times until I can express myself.
- It’s not easy to write a great article even in my native language. Of course, it’s harder to write in English.
✏️ Putting idea into words. See how this great leader writes his articles.
This is my practice
I write in English for practice.
英文是我的第二外語
我從來沒有留學或出國工作。我一直都住在台灣 🇹🇼。
當然有跟外國人一起工作過，我曾有任直屬老闆是外國人，還有許多同事是外國人。
也當然有跟外國人聊天過，不管哪個國家的外國人，英文是共通語言。
聊天或者信件、訊息中，很多字我都要默默查字典。我其實不敢說理解每一個字，大概是理解全意的 60~80% 吧。我的英文字彙集中在工作相關，如果聊到藝術、音樂，感想這種，我真的是說不出來，有次跟同事說我會切生魚片，我就寫 “ I’m good at 🐟 → 🍣 ” 。
有些字就算我完全認識，我也不懂為何會這樣使用？例如
- “Ball park what are we talking about.” 這句講到棒球場是要幹嘛？
- “That’s ok IMO.” 這 “IMO”是什麼鬼？
我沒辦法很清楚、簡單明瞭的表達我想說的事情。沒有太精美或精準的用字，我大概都用滿簡單的字而已。有時候我要停下來在腦中搜尋一下我的字彙，有時候別人可以用 1 句話表達的意思，我得花上 3 句。經常在傳 slack 訊息或者寫信的時候，我都是寫下來之後又改過好幾次，無法像寫中文一樣一次完成。我滿依賴 google, words 等自動檢查拼字錯誤。
滿多人，甚至英文母語者，都稱讚過我的英文不錯，問我是不是有出國留學過。😳 😅
喔，你英文好好唷，我的英文沒這麼好
我就會跟對方說，你要把自己放在英文的環境裡。第一步就是把你的手機跟電腦語系改為英文。讀英文文章、聽英文的 Podscast、看英文影集…等
就這樣。可是很少人會真的去改設定。最常聽到的回答是 “ ㄟ，我不知道去哪裡改耶？ “ 拜託，你可以 google 一下就有答案。
或者是說 “可是我就不習慣”。當然會不習慣呀，就是因為不習慣才要改呀！ 🎯
成長痛
當你踏出舒適圈的時候，迎接而來不只是不舒適而已，是痛苦 😩。
這個痛苦會變成不舒適，然後變成舒適。你的舒適圈就擴大了。
不要太擔心
世界上有太多語言，不是全部人都是英語母語者。有時候，我可以感覺到其他國家的人也跟我一樣無法很順暢地表達自己，像是有一次跟西班牙人聊天、還有跟韓國人開會。他們也會停頓一下去想要怎麼說比較清楚，也會用較多句子來描述一個簡單的概念。
It’s OK. ❣️
就算你用中文跟朋友聊天，有時也會誤解彼此的意思，也不會去在意每一個字是否用字精準。語言是用來溝通的，能不能溝通才是重點。跟拼字正確、口音、還有用字精簡都沒關係。
… if it’s just to point out a grammatical or spelling error (which I can never really seem to get rid of)
from Jeff Patton. 世界級的產品大師！在幾乎每篇文章下方都這樣寫
是不是英語母語根本不重要
以往我認為我的英文履歷算寫得不錯。但我第一次被我的教練 (美國人) 修改履歷的時候真的很慘，她每一句，真的是每一句都說🥴 ，「你到底在寫什麼？這句話是什麼意思？」到後面就看不下去….
我超挫折的。就算她跟我解釋她是為我好，我還是不太能接受。我就覺得因為我的母語不是英語，我怎麼也無法達到她要求的境界。😭 我就覺得我有寫清楚呀。
但我下次看到，她對其他美國同學也說一樣的話。🤣 我突然明白，「英語不是我的母語」，這只是我自己找的藉口。
這是我給自己的藉口好讓我放棄，因為這個事實不可能改變。但我現在知道這是藉口了，我知道英語是不是我的母語根本不重要，重要的是，我得到很多建議，我知道該如何修改我的履歷。它只是還有很大的進步空間。
YET 的力量。我很喜歡這個演講 🥰
成長思維與固定思維
練習、練習、再練習！
就像健身。這是 10 年的改變，不是 1~2 年看得出來的。
當然想要讓自己的英語表達更上一層樓。就需要更多的練習：
- 找機會練習。參加社群、聚會或聊天，例如 ADPlist, Lunchclub
- 🧑💻 PM slack communities: Mind The Product, Product School
- 📊 Data slack communities: dbt, Locally Optimistic
- 每次看到不懂的字就查字典
- 或者直接問對方這是什麼意思，例如 IMO = in my opinion
- 盡量不要用翻譯。一開始就用英文思考
- Grammarly 很好用，我所有書寫都用它檢查
- 閱讀並學習優美的句子、表達方式
- 寫文章、修改、修改，再修改，直到我覺得意思清楚或找別人看給建議
- 寫一篇中文文章都不容易了，要寫英文當然更難呀
✏️ Putting idea into words. 看看這位科技大老，他寫文章有多精雕細琢
這是我的練習
這是最後一篇中文文章。
🤩 I’m happy to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn Karen Hsieh or Twitter @ijac_wei.
🙋🙋♀️ Welcome to Ask Me Anything.
