Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hello, guys.

  • My name is fanny.

  • And in this video, I want to talk to you about communication problems.

  • And when you're an English teacher working abroad or even if you've traveled,

  • you do know that there are often communication problems.

  • And from my experience as a teacher, I think these problems and often arise because

  • people try and translate their mother tongue into English.

  • And my main piece of advice as a teacher, to you, is don't do that.

  • Don't try and translate.

  • Because every language has their own words and expressions you knowand

  • I know that when you're not that fluent, it's reassuring to use your own language and

  • translate it.

  • Unfortunately, it doesn't, it's not going to work out.

  • And, umm, For example, let's just and take an example.

  • I taughtumm..

  • English in France for a few years.

  • And French has a lot of expressions and we for example say, umm,

  • To get a blue.”

  • So that's the expression in French.

  • Avoir un bleu.”

  • And that means 'to get bruised'.

  • Okay so 'a bruise' in French is literally 'a blue'.

  • So.. but, you can't say, “I got a blue.”

  • If you say, “I got a blue,”

  • youyou're actually translating the exact words from French into English.

  • And I'm not gonna understand what you mean.

  • And I've had people say that.

  • I've had someone one day, umm, sayoh I got a blue,” and I obviously didn't know

  • what that meant.

  • So

  • And that is something that you should avoid doing okay?

  • Umand I got a story about that.

  • For example, umm, I was correcting an essay once because I worked in a high school

  • And somethis student had written you know an essay in English.

  • I think she was describing a holiday or something.

  • And, umm, at some point I can read, “Oh on the last day, I was so sad and because

  • I was walking in the garden and suddenly I fell and broke my face.”

  • And it honestly took me a good 10 minutes to understand what she meant.

  • And it's actually because there's an expression in French,

  • "suis cassé la figure" Which is literally, “to break your face,”

  • and it means to hurt yourself.

  • And so, she wanted to say, “I was walking in the garden, suddenly I fell and hurt myself,”

  • But she translated French into English You know

  • Thinking umm, and I guess you know we all think that.

  • We all think, oh my language is the reference.

  • It's the standard and every other language imitates mine.

  • And just you know I can simply translate.

  • But, unfortunately, you can't.

  • So as a teacher, again, with years of experience, umm please don't try and do that.

  • Don't translate your mother tongue.

  • You just have to learn as much as you can.

  • Watch films.

  • Read books.

  • Try and understand how people talk in English.

  • You know the expressions that they use, remember them and use them.

  • But don't translate your mother tongue into English.

  • Okay?

  • I hope this helps.

  • Umm thank you very much for watching guys and see you in the next video.

  • Thank you guys for watching my video.

  • I hope you've liked it.

  • If you have, please show us your support.

  • Click 'like'.

  • Subscribe to the channel.

  • Put your comments below and share with your friends.

  • See you.

Hello, guys.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it