The Problem Is Not Your English.
The Problem Is Your Structure!
Three weeks ago, a student sent me a message after our lesson. “I had the right answer in the meeting. I knew it. By the time I worked out how to say it in English, someone else had already said it.”
She wasn’t frustrated about her English. She used excellent English in that message. She was frustrated about timing.
Sound familiar?
Most professionals who communicate in English at work assume the problem is the language itself. Grammar. Vocabulary. Accent. After 25 years of coaching, I can tell you it almost never is.
The real problem is that nobody ever taught you how to structure a thought before you say it out loud. So when the moment comes to speak, all your attention goes into finding the right words, and there’s nothing left over to organise what you’re actually trying to say.
Five ways this shows up
• The blank page problem: you know what you want to say, but not where to start.
• The rambling problem: you start strong, then lose the thread halfway through.
• The avoidance problem: you dodge the difficult conversation because you don’t have the words.
• The wallpaper problem: you’re in the meeting, but invisible.
• The lost in translation problem: the knowledge is in your head, it just doesn’t come out clearly.
None of these are language problems. They’re structure problems. And structure problems are fixable, usually faster than people expect.
What I’d actually do about it
I made a short video about this, and why the fix isn’t “learn more English.” You can watch it here:
I also put together a free five-day email course. Sign up here:
If you want the full picture afterwards, Say It Better has fourteen frameworks built around the same idea: structure, not perfection.
Pick one thing from this post. Try it in your next meeting. Tell me how it goes.
