00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast!
Yay!
Alright.
So, I've got a message from Momoko-san today.
Momoko-san! Thank you Momoko-san.
Do you think I'm clear enough?
Clear?
I mean...
Your voice?
Yeah.
Is it possible that you make it like more...
Can you adjust yourself to make it more clear?
Of course, yeah.
That's pretty...
Okay.
That's skilled, man.
Yabachan-san!
Kevin-san!
Konnichiwa!
Is that...
Oh, sorry.
I think that's a little like...
I don't know.
Like, from my perspective, I'm sorry, but like...
From my perspective, right?
I'm not always the right answer, but like from my perspective,
that might be a little bit like...
Oh.
I don't know, like...
Like, I don't know, like...
Like...
Was it a little loud?
Like, too loud maybe?
Like, I don't know, like...
Yeah.
Okay.
Like, what do you think?
Uh...
Yeah, I can adjust that.
You can adjust?
Yeah, I can adjust that.
Yes, maybe...
Okay.
So, my idea would be like maybe...
Maybe make it a little bit like less intense.
Okay, of course.
Like, Matt...
There was lots of like...
The intensity was pretty extreme there.
I can adjust that.
Yeah, like...
Make it more a little bit like easier to listen to.
Of course.
I do voice training every day.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Of course.
Like, kind of...
Of course.
Yeah, just make it like medium level, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yabachan-san!
Okay, okay, okay.
I...
Yeah, like, you know, that wasn't a little...
That didn't really change much, man.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Like...
Maybe make it a little bit less intense.
Can you lower that intensity a little bit?
Alright.
Yeah.
You're doing...
Hmm?
Like...
This is what we are.
This is the podcast, guys.
This is...
I mean...
This is...
Who we are.
Yeah.
You're right, man.
This is...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is...
Now is a good time to give us a one-star review.
Yeah.
That's good.
That's right.
Right.
Alright.
Sorry, guys.
Sorry, guys.
Okay.
So this is from Momoko-san.
Momoko-san, thank you.
Thank you.
Yabachan-san, Kevin-san,
Hello.
Hello.
I'm always enjoying your show.
Thank you.
Today, I have a topic I want you to deal with on the podcast,
so I sent you a message.
Yes!
At work,
I have a web meeting with someone who is not native English.
Yes.
I've been able to get a lot of conversation with my colleagues,
but because we're both not native speakers,
it's been a while since we've had a good conversation.
Yeah.
I see.
Do you two have any points to be careful about when you talk to someone who is not native English?
Hmm.
Also, if there are any expressions you can use, such as "how to listen back",
I'd be happy to hear them.
Hmm.
The bad weather continues, but I'm still rooting for you.
Wow.
Hmm.
That is a nice topic.
That is a nice topic.
03:01
Well, I want to ask you, because you often speak to non-native English speakers.
Oh, yeah.
So, what I would do,
I have two points here.
Oh, right.
One is never make it too complicated.
Never make the sentence like a complex sentence.
Hmm.
Like just keep it simple, use simple words,
keep the sentence structure very, you know, to the point.
And yeah, just make it very easy to understand.
And cut the sentences so that it doesn't...
Okay.
It's not a long sentence, right?
And build up that logic.
Hmm.
Just piece by piece.
Hmm.
Don't put them into like the whole, whole like big sentence,
like using "that's therefore, whereas."
That's, that gets way too complicated.
Yeah.
So like, yeah, that's one.
Okay.
And the second one is use lots of body language and facial expressions.
Oh.
Yeah.
One of the, one of the, my student that's in the IA class,
she had his background in studying the language communication.
She told me that a study showed that, I forgot, I forgot the numbers.
So this is not accurate.
But a heavy amount of the percentage comes from not what you say,
but like how you say it and the facial expressions
and the hand gestures that you do when you're saying it.
That holds a huge percentage.
Hmm.
More, probably I think it was more than what you say.
Hmm.
So like the facial expressions and like those things,
the visual things has a much heavier responsibility
with how it's being communicated.
Okay.
So I would try to smile a lot.
I would try to use hand gestures that they could understand.
Hmm.
Like one, two, three, and like wait, just hold that hand.
Uh-huh.
Or like, uh, uh, good job sign.
Or like, yeah, yeah.
And those two would be things that I would really be careful with.
Oh, right.
Yes.
Yeah, that would be like so helpful to me, like to understand what you say.
Right, right.
Hmm.
Right.
Wow.
I didn't know that you did so many effort.
Oh, yeah.
You know, I do try my best, man.
I do try my best.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do you do anything to like...
Ah, you know, I, when I speak with you, you know,
in all conversation, even I made some mistakes.
Yes.
You will be like able to understand.
Yes.
Even though I made like bad sentences.
06:00
But you still can understand.
So, but when I speak to non-native English speaker like me,
I have to be like much more careful and have to rephrase.
Yeah.
When I, you know, when I finished one sentence, but I noticed that I made a mistake,
then I would rephrase that in a right way.
Yeah.
That's what I do.
Mm-hmm.
But I actually haven't been in a situation that I speak to non-native English speaker.
Mm-hmm.
Because...
Not your job?
Actually not because it was British people.
They were like British native English speaker.
So it was their native language.
Yeah.
Okay.
And when I spoke to the French people, then we spoke in French.
So I was always like, it was me who was non-native speaker.
So actually I haven't been in that kind of situation in that mind, actually.
Did you feel like they were doing, making any efforts?
Oh, yeah.
To make sure that you understood things that they say?
Yeah, yeah.
Like, like speak in, speak slowly, first of all, like really slow.
You know, in addition, we were on the phone.
Yeah.
So it was, condition wasn't that good.
Yes.
So they were like really slow and clear, like word by word.
Okay.
So that I can understand.
That was so helpful.
Mm-hmm.
Sometimes English speakers are really fast and, you know, put everything into one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vroom, vroom.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sometimes that's hard to people like me to understand.
So, yeah.
Going back to what you said on the several episodes before about, you know, have the confidence.
Oh, yeah.
Of like, you're the one adjusting, right?
Like, it's not your fault that you're not speaking the language they're speaking, right?
I think it all really comes down to "omoyari."
You know, when you're communicating with somebody.
Yeah.
And if that communication goes well or not is when the players in the conversation have the "omoyari" or not, right?
Because if they do, like language barrier isn't the only way to solve it, right?
True.
Isn't the only problem there.
It's like, you know, you can, when you have "omoyari," you can sleep slower.
You can maybe do a chat, you know, that can make the conversation easier.
A little text, right?
Or, yeah, so.
Yeah, that is really important.
Yeah, I think so, too.
I agree with you.
09:00
Like, when I speak with you, you know, our communication is kind of very smooth, I think.
That's because, well, it's not my English ability, but it's like you who try to understand what I'm trying to tell.
That's the biggest role.
Right.
So, yeah, that's really important.
Right.
I agree with you.
So, maybe start with yourself having the "omoyari" and trying to make sure that you're communicating
in the easiest way possible.
Maybe you could start off with that, if you're, you know, that question.
And also, what you said, try to make sentences short is really also important and effective, I think.
Right, right, right, right.
Keep it simple and not to be complicated.
Yes, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Okay, perfect.
Great.
Yeah, we've been doing a really good job here.
Thanks for listening, guys.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.