You DO NOT Need to Be Perfect

Hi Steve Kaufmann here today, and I want to talk about why you do not

need to be perfect in any foreign language that you're learning.

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So why do I want to talk about perfection?

First of all, I am a dilettante learner.

I also recognize that there are people who need the language for professional

reasons because they want to get into a school so that they're not just dabbling

in the language, exploring, having fun like I like to do, they actually need it.

So how good do they need to be in the language?

First of all, there is an expression many of you have heard and an expression

that exists in many languages uh, the perfect can be the enemy of the good.

So if you try to be perfect, you may end up not being very good.

Uh, if you are too obsessed with being perfect, you might not communicate

as well as someone else who is simply trying to communicate without worrying

about being perfect, because...

you know, speaking a foreign language is not like being in the diving

competition at the Olympic Games.

Uh, it's not like designing a rocket that's going to go to

the moon or building a bridge.

Uh, there, we have to be perfect.

Even if you're building a simple structure, you've got to have 90 degree

angles, things have to be straight.

There's no room for sloppiness.

However, in communicating in the language, there's lots of room for sloppiness.

Uh, you can still communicate.

You can still understand.

So how good do we need to be?

First of all, in my experience, as a person who has worked with people

from many different countries where sometimes we speak English and sometimes

we speak the other person's native language, rarely, rarely have I dealt

with people who spoke English perfectly.

It didn't matter whether they were Swedish, German,

French, Spanish, Japanese.

If they were speaking English, there was always something

there with which suggested that they weren't native speakers.

Uh, similarly, when I speak those languages, they know

that I'm not a native speaker.

However, we aren comfortable communicating with each other.

I do think that, uh, the standard required for written communication

is usually higher than the standard required for oral communication.

Uh, use of words, uh, some aspects of grammar.

I think we're more willing to forgive in spoken, uh, you know, conversations

than we are if you get a formal letter, you know, an extreme example would

be some legal letter or whatever, but even a contract, uh, there, I

think we have to be a little more careful and the fact that we sort of

give up on the idea of being perfect.

In other words, speaking with no accent, making no mistakes, we recognize

that we're not going to achieve that, but that doesn't prevent us

from wanting to continue to improve.

So the question is, you know, how do we continue to improve?

So, uh, and bear in mind that people who have, you know, I think of Henry

Kissinger who we, you know, you can still hear his German accent after,

gosh, I don't know how many years of working at the highest level of

diplomacy in the English language.

So once we recognize that there are limits to how good we can become, I think the

question then is how do we become better?

Because we would all like to be better.

We would all like to continue to improve.

And there, I think the, the, uh, the issue is we have to be so

comfortable, so natural in the language that without thinking about

it, we start to speak more correctly.

We start to use words and very often it's more a matter of use

of words then nitty points, nitty biddy, nitpicking points of grammar.

And I mean, you won't be surprised to hear me say that that just

requires an awful lot of reading and listening and particularly reading.

If we want to write well, let's say we have a job for a company that's uh...

deals in English and we're writing a, you know, commercial correspondence

you have to read a lot of that kind of material, so that you end up gradually,

naturally using words and using phrases and structures and terminology, the way

very proficient users of that language do.

Uh, I think it can help at LingQ to save key phrases that are very natural,

very powerful that other people have used so that we're imitating these very

good models of how to use the language.

And I think if we want to get closer to, if not perfection, a very high standard

in the language, I think it's important to focus on our ability to write the language

accurately, to use words accurately.

And when you are writing, you have time to think about what you want to say.

You have time to look words up, you have time to look even grammar rules up

and gradually develop, you know, habits that will carry over into your speaking.

And so the sort of emphasis should be on, you know, use of the language,

not necessarily on how you pronounce.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to work on improving or making the

pronunciation more native-like, but it's not as important.

And I think we've all had the experience of dealing with foreigners,

you know, as an English speaker, foreigners who use English very,

very well, but have an accent.

And we're almost more impressed with those people because they have an

accent yet they use our language so elegantly, so accurately, so powerfully.

And if we're able to do that in a foreign language, even

with an accent, that's fine.

I wanted to talk about people who have a need to perform in the language

and what is a realistic expectation.

And I don't think that perfection is a realistic expert.

But constant improvement, the willingness to constantly improve and

the desire to constantly engage with the language, those are the things

that, that will keep us moving forward.

I look forward to hearing rom you.