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many adults want to learn English for work purposes maybe you want to learn English because you want a job at a multinational company or maybe you want to get better at English so that you can get that promotion at work that you so want or maybe you want to improve your English so you can start having job interviews in English look I understand that we all need to make a living and learning English for work purposes is a valid goal to have but if the only reason why you're learning English has to do with work

your job or your career I'm afraid you might be doing something wrong and without knowing you might be hurting your overall English progress and development so in today's episode I want to unpack three reasons why I believe learning English just for work is a bad idea and what you should do instead hey there how's it going Thiago here and welcome to another episode of the podcast in case you're new here I've created this YouTube channel and podcast to help intermediate and advanced Learners of English communicate with more confidence more accuracy more clarity and more awareness

so if this sounds like something you want for yourself and your English subscribe to the on YouTube or follow the show if you are listening on Spotify or apple podcasts before we get started with the topic today I want to announce that I have decided to open my Black Friday deal again for my pronunciation course as you guys know I ran this deal last month in November it was really successful and many people later when I closed the deal when I closed the cart sent me emails asking me to extend the time a little bit

because they missed the opportunity so you know it's the holiday season so I decided to open up the Black Friday deal again for the pronunciation course now you have until January 1st 2025 to buy the pronun iation course at a very special low price okay so let me present to you the first reason why I believe learning English just for work is a bad idea the first reason is because you risk associating learning English with something you're not passionate about look I'm not going to generalize and say that most people hate their jobs I'm not

going to do that but guys I wasn't born yesterday I've been around I've talked to people I've read I've worked in companies and I can say with certainty that many people don't enjoy their jobs or they might like it enough to keep it because it pays the bills but their jobs their work is not the thing that truly fulfills them that truly inspires them that makes them excited Ed to get out of bed in the morning okay and if you're not sure about yourself here's a question for reflection think about this question and answer this

question truthfully imagine money was not a problem for you money was not a problem for you and your family you had all the money you needed for yourself for your family for generations to come money is not a problem would you still do the type of job or work you do nowadays if money was not an issue think about that would you work in the same company would you have the same boss would you maybe change Fields you know or would you stay in the same field you are in right now I'm going to go

out on a limb here and say that many people would say yeah yeah you know what Thiago I would change something that's for sure maybe I would change companies or I wouldn't do this kind of work anymore I would do this instead because I was always passionate about this as I was a child whatever it is so I would say that many people again not most people I'm not generalizing but many people would change all right right now if you are one of the few people in the world that truly love what you do that

really gets excited about it on a regular basis maybe you can't imagine doing anything else for work this is what you were supposed to do all along kudos to you good for you appreciate that because I view this as a privilege if you have this feeling of passion and excitement about your work and your work is actually part of who you are it's not something you do it's something you are kudos to you you know be thankful for that but I would say that for many people that's not the case so having said all that

thinking about many people here that don't enjoy their jobs or that would do something completely different if they had the chance why would you want to associate learning English with something that you're not that passionate about like your job your work with something that you view as an obligation it's something you have to do to pay the bills it's not something you want to do why would you want to associate learning English with that and it's inevitable if your only reason for learning English is for work purposes and you are not that passionate about your

work your work is like okay it pays the bills if you have that kind of attitude chances are even subconsciously you also have the same type of attitude towards your English learning if you view your job as an obligation something you have to do not that you want to do and you learn English just for that chances are you're also going to view learning English as an obligation as something that you have to do not that you want to do all right so what I want to propose here is instead of having to learn English

you should be wanting to learn English when you want to learn something your attitude how you go about it is completely different from if you have to learn something for a specific purpose so think about that that's the first reason you risk associating learning English with something you're not passionate about like work then you risk looking at learning English as an obligation instead of something that you really want to do for yourself that's the first reason now the second reason why I believe learning English just for work is a bad idea is because I believe

guys that learning English for work is not a compelling reason it's not compelling enough at least to me you know it's not compelling enough it's not inspiring enough I've already shared my story here on the podcast about how I started learning English I started learning English at 15 and back then I wanted to become bilingual I wanted to be bilingual I wanted to be able to use my native language and the English language very well I wanted to learn the language of my favorite actors my favorite musicians I wanted to understand my favorite rock songs

my favorite bands when they sang yes I knew knew that you know it might lead me to better opportunities workwise but that was never at the Forefront when I started when I started I just wanted to learn the language because I liked it the media I consumed was always spoken in that language and I wanted to be bilingual that was the main drive when I started then later when I got older and when I started started working I realized that knowing English was actually an advantage in many ways but I only found out about that

later it wasn't my main drive when I started okay so I believe that learning English just for work is not compelling enough it's not inspiring enough all right and it's very extrinsic as well usually people who come to me for class classes for example and who want to improve their English for work you know what is the main motivator there you want a better job you want a better position in The Company You Want More Money More status these are great things don't get me wrong I mean I like those things too but can you

see that they are very extrinsic they are very external which brings me me to the difference between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation here's an image to better illustrate that this image illustrates the difference between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation let's look at extrinsic motivation first you see there if you are learning something or doing something and all you have is extrinsic motivation that means means that you are usually driven by outside external incentives rewards you are driven by rewards you want to get something that's why you're studying that thing for example you want to win

you see winning you want to win in Life or you want Perks at work perks are benefits prizes benefits promotions pay raises bonuses you see this looks more extrinsic now take a look at intrinsic motivation and that's actually the type of motivation that I want you to start developing within yourself when it comes to you and your English learning but also in life because intrinsic motivation is much more powerful than extrinsic motivation look at some characteristics there of intrinsic motivation fun you do something you learn about something because it's fun you like it it's enjoyable

self-expression it's a way for you to express yourself fully to the world who you are passion it's connected to your passions your interests things that really ignite your curiosity your excitement about the world intrinsic motivation also has to do with curiosity you learn about something you study something because you're curious about it you want to find out more about it growth personal growth you want to grow as a person you want to be all you can be you want to live up to your full potential that's why you're learning English that's why you're study St

in this language you see the difference purpose enjoyment which is related to fun again you see so intrinsic motivation is something that comes from inside from you and is something much deeper all right now I'm not saying that extrinsic motivation is bad or that it doesn't work it does work extrinsic motivation can be power power ful as well and it can work for a while for a while and that brings me to the third reason why I believe learning English just for work is a bad idea because if you only learn English for work your

chances of giving up along the way are higher because we've already determined here that learning English for work for better money better opportunities better status position s whatever this is all extrinsic motivators and they can be powerful they can work for a while but it's going to be very hard to make your learning sustainable if you only have extrinsic motivators to make your learning sustainable you need intrinsic motivation intrinsic motivation is actually the drive that is behind you not giving up and I've already touched on this many times here on the podcast learning a foreign

language such as English very well and getting to a very high level of proficiency and fluency in the language is something that takes time it's a midterm to long-term process it takes you a few years at least to get there so you got to make it sustainable all right because if all you have have as extrinsic motivators maybe that initial excitement you have when you started is going to vanish very soon after a few months after a year and then if you don't have the intrinsic motivators to Anchor you you're going to give up all

right so you got to make it sustainable and the way to make it sustainable is by finding methods and habits that you can keep doing for a long time but also by developing more of this intrinsic motivation all right and not relying only on external rewards prizes all right so just to recap here the first reason why learning English just for work is bad is because you risk associating learning English with something you're not passionate about like your job many people don't like their jobs many people are not inspired by the work they do or

the companies they work for all right so associating English with that chances are you're going to view that as an obligation as well and you're not going to put in all you could put in because to you learning English is just an obligation it's not something you truly want to do for yourself reason number two I believe learning English just for work is not compelling enough as a reason it's highly extrinsic which brings me to reason three your chances of giving up along the way are higher if you only depend on extrinsic motivators so now

that we have defined intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation and we have also determined that developing more more of your intrinsic motivation is much better to make our learning sustainable and our studies sustainable let me give you here some tips to increase your intrinsic motivation how can you do that I actually found this really cool article on Forbes Magazine all right and this article is actually talking about that giving us some tips on how to improve our intrinsic motivation but first here I just want to read a couple of nice paragraphs from the article that I

found interesting check it out a 2021 study examining intrinsic motivation over time and how it impacts mental fatigue found that with high intrinsic motivation people can maintain their performance over time as they seem willing to invest invest more effort as time progresses than with low intrinsic motivation if you're hoping to improve your performance or general outcomes you're talking about learning English but it could be in any area of your life it could be personal or professional by the way it may be time to look inward inward is inside look inward to your intrinsic motivation increasing

your intrinsic motiv can help you harness skills and improve your performance and then the article mentions Stefan Faulk he is a performance expert and also the author of a book about intrinsic motivation here's what he says he says that during moments of intrinsic motivation you perform at your very best you lose yourself in what you're doing and become one with the task really cool right so when you are in the intrinsic motivation mode you perform at your best and I love this becoming one with the task have you ever done something maybe you are working

on a project or something or even studying and you just lost track of time you were so engrossed in the activity you were so involved D that you didn't even see time passing this is becoming one with the task and that's how I want you to feel when you sit down to have an English class with your teacher when you sit down to practice your English with a podcast a movie clip or just study some grammar I want you to be one with the task the way to get there is by having an intrinsic type

of motivation while while you're learning the language in the first place so here are some tips that the article gives us number one identify the big picture understand how your actions fit into the big picture if you don't feel like you're contributing value you're more likely to become demotivated as most people have a psychological need to feel their efforts aren't in vain so it's very important for you to reflect on why you're learning English in the first place what is the big picture of you becoming fluent in English and how is this activity of learning

English and improving your English adding value to your life to your family to you as a person and how is it going to add value to your future so you got to think about that reason number two or tip number two to excuse me start with easy tasks be action oriented and strive to perform simple tasks immediately the idea is to collect easy wins I also call them small victories or small wins right Feelgood hormones are released in our brains when we check items off our to-do lists this makes us feel accomplished and more motivated

so as a suggestion here maybe every morning you can write down a simple list of maybe three or five items related to English learning that you want to take off on that day maybe one of them could be listening to a podcast in English for 15 minutes the other could be studying about a grammar topic you really struggle with and the other could be having the class with your teacher if you have private classes or if you go to school and then as you do these tasks throughout the day you just take them off this

is good for our brains you know we start feeling good about it because we feel like we are making progress this reminds me also of that idea of making our bed in the morning yeah I'm sure you have seen that before the idea that the first thing you should do when you get out of bed in the morning is make your bed why because it already puts you in action mode for the day and it's already a small victory a small accomplishment or win that you have for the day it's like the first item is

already crossed you know okay my bed is made it's organized now what's next you see tip number three according to the article avoid mindless repetition changing how you approach something organically makes it more interesting the next time you're faced with what you deem as a Mindless task a boring repetitive task think about how you can make it more challenging What can you do to make something feel exciting for example can you set a goal to achieve something faster with the same result or better learning English for the most part should be fun but I also

know that there are certain aspects of English learning that are not so fun they're kind of boring and it varies from person to person maybe for you it's writing you hate writing maybe for you it's grammar you hate studying grammar you find it boring or maybe for you it's pronunciation you don't have the patience to really practice the sounds of English and really get them right whatever it is there is at least one thing about English learning that you don't feel very passionate about and that's okay so with those things how can you make them

more interesting for you more challenging think about that all right tip number four seek helpful opportunities practicing compassion benefits you in Myriad ways Myriad is like many ways okay participate in activities that you find rewarding especially if you're able to help someone or help a cause important to you this will energize you and boost your confidence increasing intrinsic motivation organically one of the things I always talk about is how teaching English has helped me tremendously it has helped me become a better speaker of English and also it's helped me like the language even more and

like learning about the language even more because now I'm helping people improve their language skills in English so if you are already at an intermediate level find someone who is maybe a beginner or not as advanced as you and help that person teach some things to that person be part of a community of like-minded people that are also interested in learning English you get help from them they also get help from you all this is good for increasing your intrinsic motivation okay tip number five it's a big one focus on Solutions negative thoughts when unmanaged

slow your brain down increase your stress levels and make it more challenging to solve problems overcome negative thoughts by focusing on Solutions instead set aside 15 to 30 minutes each day for self-reflection self-reflection helps to decompress and better understand what's driving your feelings allowing you to address those things as opposed to avoiding them making you more equipped to find Solutions and move forward I've already touched on this topic before the importance of self-awareness developing your self-awareness as a learner and having a moment maybe weekly maybe monthly where you actually sit down and reflect about your

overall English development your English progress your approach to learning the language maybe you have to change something in your approach maybe you have to add something delete something this self-reflection this checkpoint let's say should be done regularly check in with yourself and analyze your progress your approach to learning finally tip six from the article is reframe tedious tasks similar to Mindless repetition things you deem tedious may feel like a waste of time but reframing them from boring to rewarding allows you to tap into your intrinsic motivation all right so look for how a task when

whether tedious or not adds value and increases intrinsic motivation again maybe you're not that passionate about writing okay maybe you think writing in English is boring how can you make it more fun or more rewarding for yourself reframing is about changing the way you think about something maybe you think about something in a negative way how can you think about that from a more positive way all right one idea here about writing is understanding that okay if I want to be a better speaker of English I need to become a better writer because by becoming

a better writer I'm going to be better at organizing my ideas and presenting my ideas in a clear way and that's going to help me become a better speaker this is one example of trying to frame something boring into something more positive and constructive all right so Guys these are some final words that I have for you now remember why you learn English for work is a valid reason it is not compelling and inspiring enough and it risks the sustainability of your studies instead you should work on developing your intrinsic motivation for learning English intrinsic

motivation can be applied to all aspects of your life and it has proven to be an effective way to improve performance reach and exceed goals and boost your overall sense of well-being so think about that now before we wrap up today's episode it's time for the learner corner and I have here a very nice audio message from Christian parado from Colombia All right so let's listen to Christian from Colombia and see what he says hey shago how is it going I'm Christian from Colombia I just wanted to say that your videos I find them really

useful so entertaining yeah you have like all that magic to share your ideas and this moment I'm studying English because in the past I was doing it I was studying as well but then I tried to make a life as a musician playing my guitar from time to time and then all day long yeah you know 24/7 I didn't stop but at this moment I have to yeah I have to find new opportunities like a different kind of job with my my family and I want to study something else because making a life as a

musician as a professional guitarist that's really difficult you can't do that of course because it's a good habit like something to do in your free time to be relaxed you know to calm down all those bad feelings that you may have you know so yeah I just wanted to say that just keep it up up and continue like that and I'll be watching you all the time yeah don't worry watching you and listening to you with your podcast and yeah I just wanted to say that very nice Christian cool Christian well thank you for following

the work you know thank you for following the podcast the videos here it means a lot and I'm glad the content has been helping you and you speak English very well already I am I'm going to again go out on a limb here and say that musicians usually have an easier time I believe picking up languages because I'm also a musician as you probably know and I feel like it's kind of easy for me to pick up sounds so not only for Music Learning but also for language learning right so so I think it's amazing

because many very good speakers of English as a second language I've met they had something about music in them they were into music they played something they sang They had something related to music so you know maybe there is something there about that I might be completely biased here but it's what I observe you know no wonder many English teachers are also musicians there are many I think there are so many English teachers who play guitar who sing you know because I think there is something to it there is something related to music and language

learning for sure I totally relate with what you shared here you know for a while when I was younger I also wanted to make it as a professional musician but I realized that it wasn't going to be that easy and then fortunately I found English teaching which became the main thing that I do and nowadays I can't imagine doing anything else I mean I am a teacher yeah it's not just something I do but I totally relate to what you shared here and it's nice to keep music even if as a hobby right like you

said I mean it keeps me sane for example personally listening to music playing music keeps me sane so you know it's important for me to do that and it should do the same even if you're not going to pursue a professional music career for now but Christian thank you so much for sharing a little bit about you and sending us your audio message guys thank you so much for listening to today's episode I hope you found it useful the best way for you to support my work in a free way is by subscribing to the

channel here liking the video leaving a comment letting me know what you thought about today's topic and this idea of not learning English just for work and also developing more of an intrinsic type of motivation to learn English rather than only extrinsic motivation so leave your comments here letting me know what you thought about it and if you're on Spotify or apple podcast you can leave me a fstar review and follow the show so you don't miss a single new episode so I'm signing off I'm Thiago thank you so much and I'll be talking to

you very soon in the upcoming episode bye-bye