Transcription
Guys, how's it going? How's it going? These days I'm celebrating, I'm celebrating that I've been in England, in London, for almost 30 years, 29 years ago. This week, this week it's been 29 years since I first came to London, and it's rained, huh? It's rained a lot. It's rained a lot since then, especially here in London, where it rains so much, right? I came to improve my English. I didn't, I didn't intend to stay here for so long. I didn't, I didn't come to emigrate to England. I didn't, I didn't want to emigrate. I didn't want to come here to live. I came to spend 3 months here, the months of the summer months. More or less in September, October, I planned to return to Spain. I thought, look, I thought if I spend 3 months in England, if I spend 3 months in London, my English, my English will improve a lot. After 3 months, after 3 months in London, my English will be good. Hmm. Perfect. I thought that 3 months would be enough time to speak English very well, right? Because I had studied English in Spain, I had been studying English for several years and I lacked practice, right? I lacked coming here and speaking English with the English, right? Living here day-to-day speaking. I thought that if I spoke English every day in the shops, in the supermarket, if I met people, in short, if I used English, if I forced myself to speak English every day, my English would improve a lot and after 3 months I would return to Spain with good English, well, perfect, that not even the Beatles, not even the Beatles would speak better English than me, right? That was my idea. And of course, what happened is that after 3 months here in London, I realized, I realized that 3 months was not enough time. So I decided to stay for another three months, three more months. So I said, "Look, three more months, yes, I'll stay here until Christmas, more or less, huh?" Of course, that's 6 months, right? 6 months in London, in England, speaking English. My English will be perfect. My English will be amazing. Christmas arrived. Christmas arrived that year, 1997. Christmas 1997 arrived and I still didn't speak English well. I wasn't happy. I wasn't happy. Here in London, I realized that my English was very bookish, that I had a lot of trouble pronouncing, that there were many things I didn't understand. I lived the first few months, I lived as if in a, as if in a capsule. Yes, I felt isolated from the rest of the world, right? Inside, inside my, inside my bubble, hmm, inside my crystal ball, I looked at everything from the outside, I saw them, but I couldn't touch them, I couldn't communicate with people, I walked down the street and understood nothing. Uh, so of course, 6 months later, I realized that neither, that neither, that 6 months, 6 months were not enough either. So I decided to stay, well, I went back to Spain that Christmas, I spent that Christmas in Spain with my family, but then I decided to return to London again and if I have to be in London for another three months, okay? I returned to London to stay for another 3 months and then another 3 months. Another 3 months because I was never happy with my English. And well, here I am, here I've been, here I've been since 1997. I've been here for 29 years, 29 years here, here in London. And I'm not happy with my English, guys. I'm not happy with my English. I don't speak English well after so many years here. I don't speak English well. No, this isn't the first time I've said this, that I don't speak English well. I remember that a few years ago a lady, a girl, I don't know, a Spanish student wrote me an email and told me, "Juan, please, you can't say, you can't say you don't speak English, that after so many years in London you don't speak English well, because if you don't speak English well after so many years in London, what hope do we have?" No, please, you can't say that in the videos because you discourage, you discourage people a lot, right? Um, and well, I find these kinds of comments a bit childish. I'm sorry, I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but the truth is that asking me not to tell the truth because I might disappoint or frustrate or sadden other people seems a bit childish, right? I make videos for adults and an adult should have a bit of, in short, a bit of common sense to face reality, right? What I mean, what I mean is that, well, yes, it's like that. I've been here in London for many years. I speak English, of course I speak English, I speak English every day, but let's say I'm not happy with my English. My English isn't very good, my English, in short, I don't speak with good pronunciation. There are many expressions I don't know. Uh, sometimes it depends on the accent of the person. Um, well, I don't know what they're saying, I don't understand some accents, right? And when I have to speak, well, it depends on the topic. Uh, there are very everyday topics, in short, going to the supermarket, uh, going to buy something at a shop, greeting neighbors, which of course, naturally, that's something I do know how to do, I do that well, right? But let's say there are situations that, in short, that are different, that are a bit, that are situations I'm not used to, that, in short, well, of course, if they talk to me about a topic I don't know well, then sometimes I don't know what to say, I don't know the expressions, I go blank a bit, I get nervous, right? I'm also a very shy person and I get nervous easily, I hesitate, I don't know what to say, I get a bit nervous and that makes it worse, right? It makes it worse. In short, I'm not happy with my English. I'm not happy with my English and that's something that, well, that's good, that's how it is, right? Asking me, asking me, asking me not to say it, asking me not to say things as they are, because people might feel bad, is a bit childish. It's a bit childish. It's a bit like treating people like children, right? And that, in short, I'm not like that. I'm not like that. I like to talk to adults, but this is very interesting because many people think that to speak a language well, you have to go, you have to go to the country where the language is spoken, right? In this case, for example, if you want to speak Spanish well, then the only thing you have to do is go to Spain, spend some time in Spain, immerse yourself, right? Immersion in the language, force yourself to speak the language in Spain or in any Spanish-speaking country, right? And it's not true, it's not true, it's not true. Uh, there are many people who live here in England and who don't speak, who don't speak English, who have lived here in England for many years and who don't speak English, who don't speak English well. And there are also many English people, many Germans, and people from other countries who live in Spain and don't speak Spanish. They don't speak Spanish because, because the important thing, the important thing is not being physically in the country, right? That's not the important thing. The important thing is what you do. What you do. You can live in England and spend all your time speaking in Italian or French or Polish or, in short, in your language, in your native language, in your mother tongue, and speak very little English. So, of course, if you're always with people from your own country, from your own community, using other languages, naturally you're not going to, you're not going to, you're not going to learn English well. And conversely, conversely, there are also people who have never been to England or who have never been to Spain and speak very well. There are people, there are people, there are people who have never been to England, nor to the United States, nor to any English-speaking country and speak English very well. They speak English very well, better than me, better than me who has been here for so many years. And there are people, there are people who have never been to Spain or to any, or to any Spanish-speaking country and who speak very well, much better than many foreigners who live in Spain. Because the important thing is not being physically in the country, the important thing is what you do, what you do to practice the language. Okay? And if you want to learn Spanish, it's not really necessary to go to Spain. You can learn Spanish in your own country, in your own home. You can do, you can do immersion in Spanish in your own home. You can, you can, in short, we've already talked in other videos about all the things you can do to be in contact with Spanish. If you want to, if you want to, you can spend more time in contact with Spanish in your own country, in your own home, without leaving, without leaving your country, without leaving your city. You can be more in contact with Spanish than many foreigners who live in Spain. That's how it is. That's how it is. In my case, in my case, what happened was that when I came to London, I wanted to improve my English. That was, that was my obsession, that was my goal. So for a few years I didn't speak with Spaniards, I didn't speak Spanish at all. One day I remember I woke up in the morning and my head hurt. I needed to speak Spanish. I needed to speak Spanish and I didn't know anyone. I didn't know anyone to speak Spanish with because all the people I knew, all my friends from that time were English or spoke English. And then I got a little scared, uh, it gave me, it gave me a bit, it gave me a bit of stress, right? What I mean is that I made a great effort to speak only in English. I didn't want to know anything about Spaniards. I came to London to meet English people and I did a lot of things in English and I took a theater course in English. I also took psychology courses, uh, on other topics, to meet English people. I went every day to the pub with the guys or the girls from here in London. Uh, in short, I socialized with a lot of people and little by little my English improved a lot, it improved a lot. But what happened was that, let's say, when I had been here for about six or seven years, I started working as a Spanish teacher and when I started working as a Spanish teacher, everything changed because in my classes, of course, in my classes I had to speak Spanish, I thought, "No, in my classes I can't speak English." No, there are Spanish teachers who speak English in their classes. Not me, not me, I didn't like that. It seemed, no, it didn't seem pedagogically sound, right? So, in my classes, 99% of the time was Spanish and of course, and also with my colleagues, I worked at the university here in London and my colleagues were, uh, from Cuba, from Mexico, from Spain too, from other cities, right? From Salamanca, from Zamora, from Barcelona, and in short, I also went out with them from time to time. We went out for a beer or to have dinner in Spanish. Of course, little by little I started speaking less in English and more in Spanish. Then, uh, I met Cristina, who is Italian, and with Cristina I speak in Italian, uh, Cristina is my partner, right? And so, of course, I also like Italian a lot and I loved it, I love speaking in Italian. So, at home with her and with her friends, with her family, I speak in Italian. So, I mean, the reason, the reason why I speak English worse now, right? The reason why I still don't speak English well is simply because I don't practice it enough. It's not because I'm stupid, it's not because I'm an idiot, uh, no. Uh, the reason is that life simply takes you down different paths, right? So, in recent years, I haven't practiced English much. Uh, my English is a bit stagnant, right? That's the truth. That's the truth, right? But of course, if you, if you come to England and you start speaking English every day, you make an effort to speak English every day, you meet people from here in the city, people from the country, people who speak English well and you use it every day, of course your English will improve, right? And the same in Spain, the same in Spain. If you go to Spain and instead of being in a ghetto with foreigners, you start speaking Spanish, of course, of course your Spanish will improve a lot. The important thing is not the place where you are, it's not the physical place where you are. The important thing is not being physically in a place, the important thing is what you do, what you do. If you live in Spain and you speak English or French all the time, obviously your Spanish won't improve. And that's what's happening to me, right? That in recent years I haven't practiced enough. That's the reason, right? So, the conclusion of all this, I think it's quite positive, right? The conclusion is quite positive. You don't need to come to England to speak English. You don't need to go to Spain to, to, to speak Spanish, to speak Spanish. You can speak Spanish, practice and reach a very high level simply in your country, simply in your city. What you have to do is be in contact with Spanish, listen a lot, speak, read and write everything. Everything. You have to, uh, be in continuous, regular contact, okay? A little bit of Spanish every day. Hmm. And in that way, well, sooner or later your Spanish will improve. Perhaps it will never be perfect, but you will improve. That, that too, that too is something important. My English isn't perfect, but learning English for me is one of the most beautiful things in my life. It's something I'm most proud of. Hmm. I don't speak English well, of course not, but even without speaking English well. For me, learning English or Italian, learning languages, is something that has changed my life, it's something and it has made me see things very differently and it has given me incredible personal satisfaction. No, you don't have to speak perfectly. That's another topic too. I don't speak, I don't speak, I don't speak English perfectly, of course not, but here I am in a pub having a beer. When the girl was talking to me, there were some things I didn't understand well about, she explained something about the beer, but I didn't understand well. But, what does it matter? What does it matter? Uh, I have my beer, I'm here calmly having my beer, enjoying this day a bit, the weather isn't bad, right? Learning a language, even when it's not perfect, even when you make mistakes, is something that can change your life. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. It's something, it's one of the things, in short, one of the things I'm most proud of, uh, and that has given me so much happiness, so much happiness and so many good times. I'm going to finish my beer before it gets warm. Before it gets warm. And that's it. Thank you very much. In other videos I'll talk more about this topic because I think after being here for so many years, uh, I'm doing a bit of reflection on these topics and it's interesting, it's interesting. There are, I'm reaching some interesting conclusions. In the next videos I'll talk more about this topic and I'll also tell you a bit about my first days, my first weeks, my first years here in London. Guys, thank you very much for listening to this rambling a bit, I'm sorry, but I wanted to share these things with you. Come on, see you later.