Bilingual news and shares about the brain, languages and coaching
Newsletter 8 - Social Pain
the C in NeuroLanguage Coaching®
“yes, I do have things to say during meetings, but I'm embarrassed”
― a great person I work with
“si, si j'ai des choses à dire pendant les réunions, mais j'ose pas”
― une personne formidable avec qui je travaille
I'm often asked how I can help someone learn a language through coaching instead of teaching. After a couple of years, people still say “English teacher" when referring to what I do. But I'm not. I'm not a teacher. I was a teacher/trainer for a while, but it never sat entirely right with me, something was missing. It wasn't exactly why I was doing what I was doing.
When I found out about coaching applied to language learning I think I might have danced with joy. I was so happy to know that it could be done, that it had been done, tried and tested and that it yielded great results.
So, what does coaching have to do with learning a language?
The answer might differ for every language coach but for me one of the main link between the 2 is Social Pain.
If you read my last 2 newsletters, you know what social pain is (if not find out more about what it is by clicking here).
I mostly work with people who have to learn English because of their job. Social pain in the workplace is a real thing and that pain, or avoidance of pain, is what results in people not wanting or daring to actively participate in meetings (for example). They login their Teams/Zoom meetings, sit there and speak only when they absolutely have no other choice.
Other examples of social pain at work occur when a company's main language changes. This often happens when a company goes international and the language shifts to English.
Possible social pain issues you can work through with a Neurolanguage Coach (ie: me) :
loss of status
job insecurity
unhealthy competitiveness
drop in productivity
feeling of unfairness
lack of motivation
With coaching, we specifically work on this. We find out why you're feeling that way (using coaching methods) and work on alleviating these feelings so that you don't feel “dumb”, “stupid”, “not intelligent” and start feeling like your confident self again, regardless of the language.
I've also been working (more and more) with people who need French because they've moved to France (expats). This also leads to emotionally difficult situations that can be worked through with a Neurolanguage coach.
A couple of examples could be:
feeling socially inadequate
being afraid of speaking up
feeling isolated and lonely
nervous about offending
being offended and/or frustrated for lack of cultural understanding
So if you feel any of these things, don't hesitate to contact me even for a quick chat.
If you're curious about social pain you should click here
And if you want to go back on my other newsletters that cover all kinds of brain related, language related, coaching related fascinating subjects, I suggest you go to my newsletter webpage
If you know anyone who'd be interested in signing up for my newsletter, don't hesitate to forward this newsletter to them :-)
Neurolanguage Coaching® is an amazing method that will help you learn a language more efficiently than you've ever experienced before. It brings together findings about how the brain learns bests and integrates these into a coaching process that will put you in charge of YOUR learning journey. As a Coach, I'm the GPS to your driving. If you want to try it but are not ready to commit, I have a 2H Discovery Offer that might be just what you're looking for. Or we can just have a casual chat about it, just reply to this email.
Good to know
The Neurolanguage Coaching® certification is accredited by the ICF
La certification est accreditée par la Fédération Internationale de Coaching