CHAPTER 19
Why You Should Not Practice Speaking
During my first English teaching job in Korea, I worked with a staff
member named Seo. Seo worked in the sales office of the school. His job
was to convince parents to enroll their children. Seo was an energetic and
friendly guy. He was also determined to improve his English, which wasn’t
great.
Since Seo worked at an English school which employed over twenty
native speakers, his strategy was to “practice” his English with us at every
opportunity. Each day Seo would look for one of the teachers. When he’d
find one, he’d corner them and talk as much as he could using broken
English. He was especially interested in idioms and made a great effort to
use them during these chats.
During my year in Korea, I was cornered by Seo many times. Though he
was a likable person, I quickly began to dread my encounters with him. The
other teachers felt the same. Whenever we saw Seo, we walked the other
way. No one wanted to talk to him!
What was happening? Were we being mean? The truth is, we avoided
Seo because he was trying to use us as free English tutors. Rather than
communicate with us as friends, he “practiced” English on us. He asked us
to correct his mistakes. He asked us to confirm that he was using idioms
correctly. He asked for pronunciation advice. Chats with Seo soon felt like
teaching an English class rather than communicating with a friend.
By seeing us merely as practice opportunities, Seo killed the possibility
for a true friendship. We felt he was trying to use us. Conversations with
him were unnatural and annoying because his focus was solely on the
English language rather than on true communication.
