Why you should stop apologising for your poor English (and what to do instead).

Photo by Zachary Spears in Unsplash

Have you ever apologised for your ‘bad’ English?

You know, those situations where:

• You’ve written an email to a supplier requesting information and you end the email with “Sorry for my English. I hope you can understand my email.”
• You’re on the telephone to a client and they ask you “what do you mean” and you respond by apologising first “ Sorry, my English is not very good. What I mean is…”
• You’re in a meeting and you’ve just given a brief update on a project your team’s working on. One of your colleagues asks you a question that you don’t understand. You automatically assume it’s because of your ‘bad’ English skills and reply: “I’m sorry, but my English is not very good. Can you repeat that?”

Why did you apologise? Let me guess.

• You were so conscious of making mistakes in English that you thought by blaming your ‘bad’ English for those mistakes, the other person would understand better why you’re making those mistakes and have more sympathy for you.
• You so badly wanted to make a positive impression on your audience that you thought if you apologised for your ‘poor’ English, they would treat you more leniently and give you a chance.