The Definition of Progress: An NBA Comparison
What is progress to you?
When learning a new language like English or aspiring to be a better English communicator, what exactly does that look like?
Better.
Better in your pronunciation?
Better in your understanding?
Better in your use of idioms/phrases/colloquial slang?
Better in terms of other people’s understanding of you? How would you get that information? Would they rate the ease of understanding on a scale of 1 to 10?
Better in terms of your confidence and comfort in speaking English?
Better in terms of your ability to express exactly what you mean in English?
Sometimes, putting into words how we want to be better is hard. Especially for something as abstract as communicating.
Some people are great communicators without even speaking English.
Others are great communicators despite having limited substance or content to talk about.
Through their gestures, their voice, their intonation, their stage presence, they can impress, charm, and convince you they are effectively communicating. But on closer inspection, they may not be communicating anything of substance.
The opposite can also be true.
You may have important and meaningful content to communicate, but if you don’t use your gestures, voice, intonation, and stage presence to impress, charm, and convince your audience, then you are not effectively communicating the content you have.
You have no way to transmit what you have in your brain to others in their brains.
The challenge is that English communication is hard to easily qualify. It’s hard to know how to excel, how to monitor your progress, how to have clear daily goals, and how to stay motivated for lifelong improvement.
But let’s reframe it for something like basketball, because basketball is a much more physically apparent and clear metaphor (most physical, athletic endeavours are more easily understood by the general public).
Here’s the Scenario.
You want to be an NBA player and play basketball in the NBA.
What do you need to do.
Do you practice?
This first question is a given. If you don’t practice, you won’t be an NBA player.
How often do you practice?
Do you practice monthly? weekly? daily? How often do you think an aspiring NBA player needs to play?
Do you feel like if I practice once a week for 2 hours, I will be able to make it to the NBA?
What do you practice?
Do you show up to a drop-in basketball session at a community court and just hoop? Or do you take training camps focusing on passing, shooting, positional scoring, dribbling, rebounding, defensive schemes, explosiveness and athleticism, reading the defence.
What Playing Experiences Are Necessary?
If you play basketball at YMCA open court times is that enough to become an NBA player? Or do you need to play in elementary school teams, high school teams, college teams, AAU leagues, regional teams, or tournaments?
What Other Important Factors Are Involved?
If you do everything else perfectly, what else needs to happen to be an NBA player?
Can you skip or not care about nutrition and eat all the junk food you want?
Can you skip going to the gym? Just hoop and not lift weight or work on flexibility or reaction time?
Now let’s reframe those same questions for English communication practice.
Here’s the Scenario.
You want to be a professional English communicator. Someone who speaks English in their professional setting, talking to clients, stakeholders, your CEO, and pitching your product to the general public.
But you don’t speak English.
What do you need to do.
Do you practice?
This first question is a given. If you don’t practice, you won’t be a strong English communicator
How often do you practice?
Do you practice monthly? weekly? daily? How often do you think an aspiring professional English communicator needs to practice communicating?
Do you feel like if I practice once a week for 2 hours, I will be able to make it to the professional English communicator?
What do you practice?
Do you show up to a English-speaking group in the community and just talk? Or do you target specific skills focusing on pronunciation, understanding, using idioms/slang, using effective body language and gestures, vocal volume, intonation, sentence stress, syllable stress, pause use, grammar, persuasiveness, and stage presence.
What Communication Experiences Are Necessary?
If you practice English communication by yourself in your room is that enough to become a professional English communicator? Or do you need to practice English communication in social settings, in professional meetings, in public speaking presentations, with colleagues, with bosses, with stakeholders, with strangers, when requesting help, when helping others, when teaching others, when convincing/persuading others, when apologizing to others.
What Other Important Factors Are Involved?
If you do everything else perfectly, what else needs to happen to be an effective English communicator?
Can you skip or not care about your appearance and show up to meetings wearing whatever you want? (Or do you need to present yourself physically in an appropriate way for social, business, formal settings differently?)
Can you skip or relax on the actual professional discipline you do? Just communicate in English and no longer progress professionally in your industry or work on your career growth (aside from English communication)?
Are These Comparisons Fair?
Now, obviously playing in the NBA is a far more far-reaching goal. There are about 450 basketball players in the NBA whereas there is over a billion English speakers. So the skill threshold to be an English speaker is much lower than the skill threshold to being an English communicator.
But…
There is a distinction between people who speak English and people who are strong English communicators.
And it’s important to recognize there are very clear and specific things you can target to better communicate in English.
Furthermore, it strongly identifies that intentional and conscious effort in deciding how and what you focus your English language learning towards will dictate how you improve. If you passively recognize the general gist of what you want to accomplish, then there is a chance that your journey and growth will not be as clear cut, defined, or measurable in the specific areas you aim to improve.
Presenting the concept for NBA aspirations seems so straightforward and objectively logical, but when those same principles and goals are applied to the topic of English language communication, it quickly shows the same mental fortitude and pointed attentiveness and dedication necessary to see meaningful change in your English communication proficiency.
