A Brazilian English Learner Talks about Overcoming Shyness to Speak

Hello! Excuse me! Hello! Hello. Hi, Francisco. How are you? Fine. And you? I'm great because I get to talk to you! So, tell me, where are you? I'm in Brazil. Are you in Brazil? Yes, I'm living in Sao Paulo state in the South of the City, a little city in the State of Sao Paulo. Okay. I live with my family, my wife, my daughter and my son. Oh, that's wonderful! Well, in this call, I would like to know more about you and your life and also to talk about your progress in the Fluent Communication class. So, is that okay? Okay. Also you can ask me questions, too. First of all, I'd like to apologize with you because I participate in the course, but my routine last month, it's very, very, very... I've been very, very busy because I change my work in some of the group. And we be with a new factory in a neighbor city, so I don't have time to participate which I would like to do. I understand. Thank you for telling me. So, the good news is that you can keep all of the course lessons for ever. So you can review them, you can watch them, when you have time. Let me ask you, before we talk about the course, let me ask you about your work. You said that you're building a new factory in a neighboring city. What kind of factory? What is your work exactly? It's a factory that is producing packages to... tetrapak factory to box, to fold any beverage. The factory it's made in Brazil. Basically caps to bottles. So last year, they started to building in the city. It's a standard city, if you look in the map, you won't even see the city. Okay. My area is technical. So, I am responsible for my team. I working this area from fifteen years. Wow. Tell me more about why you're learning English. Are you learning English for work? Are you learning English for personal reasons? Are you learning English for travel. Tell me more about why you are learning English, why you're becoming fluent in English. I learn I need for working. Because every day I have to send a report to supplier or the manager, Italy, Spanish, and the official language is English. English, yes. So, to write some reports, I don't have many difficults. But my pronunciation, it's difficult. Now, you're in the Fluent Communication course and you've been studying together with us, with the Go Natural English teachers for a few weeks. Do you feel... Have you learned something in the course? Has it helped you with pronunciation or with anything? Yes, it has helping me. Because my goal this year, it's improve my English. It's a compromise with you. Yes. A promise. So, I go home and say I only write in English. I meet some people and I needed to talk. So I had to improve my pronunciation. Wow! So just a few months ago, you were only writing in English and now you're speaking! Let me ask you, what do you think is the most helpful thing for you? What has helped you to improve your speaking? Until now, only videos and the Facebook groups because until now I can't to watch anything live lesson. Oh, okay. You can watch them anytime. When you have time, if you want to review with them, they are really good for reviewing the weekly lessons. Do you think it's helpful to practice your speaking with recorded speaking practice on Speak Pipe? Is it helpful for you? Yes. Do you like music? Yes, I like it. But I don't like Samba. I don't like country music. Okay. Brazilian country music, yeah? Yes. I'm a fan of Queen. It's my favorite. So, you like rock and roll? A little. Great. That's great. Because you can listen to rock and roll music in English and it will really improve your English. Of course, it's difficult to understand a lot of songs, but if you can find some songs that are easy to understand. Like, the Beatles are always good or maybe The Doors. Sometimes they have some small... no, sorry, not small, but slow songs. Or even, I know Queen has that song, it's very famous song, Bohemian Rhapsody, that is a little bit slow. Anyway, I like to listen to the music and read along with the lyrics. That's a great way to practice and to feel more confident because when you are singing, it's just for fun and you become comfortable with the words. So, I think that will help you to become more confident, less shy, and as I mentioned before, you can listen to the Go Natural English lessons and you can repeat what you hear. Now, we have all the transcripts, all the texts for all the conversations. So, you can read while you listen to all the conversations. I think that will be very helpful for you, too. So, I have to go soon because our time is up, but I want to again encourage you to keep studying and to take time to practice speaking with us before the end of the course. I think you'll benefit a lot, you'll improve a lot, if you practice speaking a little bit more. Maybe take ten minutes and leave a message, and I think that will help so much. Okay. Thank you. Great. Well, Francisco, it's a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you so much for taking time to talk with me tonight. Equally I'm grateful for you to help me a little more. Wonderful. Okay, well we will be in touch. Take care and have a good night. [Portuguese] Bye, Francisco.