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In today's episode, we'll take a look at the notion or idea of speaking like a native speaker, what it means, if it's possible, and just some general thoughts on it. Also, we're going to work on a phrasal verb that has been coming up, that has been coming up a lot in my life. So let's do this. You are listening to episode 148 of English with Dane. Hit it.
Okay, we have officially started the show, so let's talk about whether or not it's possible to learn a second language to the point of using it like a native speaker. First, let's discuss what a native speaker is. A native speaker is simply someone who speaks a language as their first language rather than learning it as a second language later in life. Again, someone who speaks a language as their first language rather than learning it later in life. That's it in basic terms.
So when it comes to the question of can you become as proficient and effortless as a native speaker of a language? No, I don't think you can get there. I think you can use expressions that native speakers use, you can adopt idioms, sayings, slang, intonation, but you will very likely never get there. Your brain hasn't developed from the earliest of ages using that language, and that's fine. Here's the thing though, that shouldn't be your goal. That shouldn't be your objective, your end game.
I think it's healthy to want to improve and have goals as long as they're achievable. That's the key word here. Achievable. I think people get hung up on trying to speak like a native speaker one day when they just won't. Now, I promise this little speech isn't meant to curb or dampen your motivation. My intention is rather to stop you from falling into that trap.
I think there are a lot of courses and methods and books out there that promise you you'll speak like a native speaker, and I just want to tell you that it's bullshit. I might have been guilty of it myself at some point, but now I've switched sides. And I'm here to tell you not to fall for it. No caigas, don't fall for it. I think what people mean when they say, quote, I want to speak like a native speaker, is that they want to be fluent and proficient.
They want to be comfortable and feel like they don't have to translate everything in their head. They want to feel confident and they want to get to that point in which speaking English is easy. Sure. That's okay, that's achievable. I think it's important to frame these things correctly in your head. You're not going to sound like a native speaker ever, probably. Just like if you start playing the piano at 16, you won't have the dexterity of someone who started playing at two.
It's that same thing. I'm sure there are some savants out there, some geniuses, who can, but odds are it's not you, nor me. Again, not trying to bring you down. I think it's healthy to be driven and motivated by a desire to improve. And if English is your passion and you think about it all the time and you're really motivated, then that's awesome. But again, have achievable goals. I'm really torn about the accent thing, guys. I'm sure you can tell.
And if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you definitely know this. But yeah, I'm torn. I don't know what to believe. I'm a big fan of people doing what they want. I love when people do what they want as long as they're not being assholes to other people. So if you want to dedicate most of your time to mastering a certain accent or trying to quote get rid of your accent, then cool. I won't try to convince you otherwise.
But if you're trying to get rid of your accent because of insecurity, because you think you sound too Spanish, too Italian, too Brazilian, too whatever, then maybe you're wasting your time. Because I promise there won't be a moment where you think, oh, okay, now my accent is good enough. And you'll be a slave to it, so to speak. So yeah, I don't know what to tell you. I think I'm just thinking out loud. Um let me know what you think about this.
Write to me at English with Dane on Instagram or send me an email or something, because I'm genuinely curious about what what you think. This is these are just my thoughts and I want to know yours. Alright, sorry about that rant. Let's shift gears. Cambiemoso de marcha, let's shift gears and talk about a phrasal verb that has been coming up, that has been coming up or popping up in my life a lot recently. The phrasal verb I'm talking about is to burn out.
Burn as in quemar o arder and out as in out. You know that word. So let's start by talking about it in the context that I've been hearing people use it in first. To burn out, to ruin, arruinar, to ruin one's health or become completely exhausted through overwork. Again, to ruin one's health or become completely exhausted through overwork, like sobre trabajo, through overwork.
I'm not going up, I'm just dead.
So recently I've heard people say that they are burnt out or burned out because they are working too much. I have friends that work at startups and they have to do a million different things with little to no resources. I have friends that work in finance and it seems like they have to be available 24-7 to talk to clients, manage accounts, or do whatever it is finance people do. And I have friends that started their own businesses and now have nobody to rely on but themselves to get things done.
And what they all have in common is that they feel burnt out. I was going to say remember, it's a T, burnt out, but actually you can use both. You can write burned ending in ED or ending in T. Both are acceptable. The ED version is more common in American English. If you've watched Game of Thrones, you have heard people say that Daenerys is the unburnt, as in La Noquemada.
I've been really into Game of Thrones recently because I've been watching House of the Dragon, and then that made me go back and start watching Game of Thrones from the first episode again. Best show. Anyway, so if you are exhausted from working too much, if you are feeling overworked, overworked, and you can't even think about work without feeling defeated, defeated, derrotado o derrotada, defeated, or depressed or stressed, you might be burnt out.
You can also use it in the form of a noun, un sustantivo. You can be experiencing burnout, todo junto, burnout. The definition is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. So it doesn't have to be because of your job. Life in general can make you experience burnout or can make you feel burnt out. Obviously, this has always been a thing.
It's nothing new. But maybe nowadays, because there is more emphasis on mental health, it's a term that we hear more and more each day. I feel like a lot of us felt burnt out when the pandemic hit and a lot of people had to suddenly work from home, work more hours, or worry about not having work. So again, nothing new, but now it has a more widespread name. There's a good word, widespread, dolar. Something that is widespread is spread everywhere, right?
To spread means difundir, propagar extender, and wide means ancho, but in this case, far from a particular point. So yeah, widespread. The term burnout is now widespread. So now you know. We also use to burn out to say apagarse. Candles or fires burn out, for instance. You can see why we use it for the emotional fatigue aspect too. In Spanish, you can say que estás muy quemado, quemada with something, right? To say that you are sick of something or that you've had enough of something.
Informally, you can refer to a person as a burnout. A burnout in this case would be a drug abuser or a dropout, that typical character portrayed in movies that just smokes weed on his couch all day. Oh, and actually a burnout can also be that thing where people burn the tires of their cars, Los nomáticos, and they produce a bunch of smoke. That's also a burnout. Is there another meaning?
I can't think of another meaning off the top of my head, but like with most phrasal verbs, I'm sure I'm missing a few at least. If you know another use, let me know. Again, write to me at Englishwith Dane on Instagram. Alright, that's it for this episode of English with Dane. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you learned something. If you made it this far, see you raste hasta aquí, if you made it this far, give it a five star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
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