Look around your office. Everyone’s English skills are better than yours. Fact.
Or are they? How do you know? Probably you have never actually heard most of your colleagues speak English. If you have English training, you do it in separate groups, not with your colleagues. Because you don’t want them to hear you speak English. Because you’re embarassed and are afraid they will laugh.
The good news: From top management to the trainees, everyone is afraid of what people will think of their English. They are only happy to speak in front of others if
♦ they are exhibitionists and really don’t care what anyone thinks, or
♦ their English skills are at such a level that could be described as „high“ and feel completely comfortable speaking in front of groups, or
♦ they are English trainers.
Language skills are like salaries. No-one talks about their salary openly (except in countries like China) unless they really earn a lot and then they want to let everybody know how rich they are.
Warning: unrealistic expectations!
What is „better“ anyway? Where is the „standard“ against which you measure your skills? I once was among a mixed group of British people and Germans. The two Germans were equal in terms of fluency. The one German didn’t care about his level, the other felt that everyone else was better than her and that she really had a hard time following.
We talked about and discovered that behind this statement there was a lack of self-confidence caused by her measuring her abilities against the other German person. She felt that he was more relaxed because he was better. In reality, he felt that she was better than him but that it was okay for him. He was having fun.
