Passive and Active Vocabulary

passive and active vocabulary

Most language classes focus on the development of receptive and productive skills; hearing, reading, speaking and writing. But, as language teachers and avid language learners, we’ve observed that it requires more than that. The reason why language learning often feels like an obstacle is that there’s too much of a static approach; exam focus, textbook learning in which the material doesn’t relate to the student or there’s too little attention for effective vocabulary learning. In this blog, we’ll take a look at how your knowledge of passive and active vocabulary can immensely boost your language learning. 

What is the difference between passive and active vocabulary?

Keen language learners learn new vocabulary every day. First, you learn to understand the word in context, recognise its spelling, and overtime, the more you read it or hear someone use it you start to understand the meaning and how it’s used in context. This is called passive vocabulary.

Passive vocabulary are all the words and expressions you see (read) and hear other people use. This includes the people around you, what you hear on TV, the internet, the radio, but also in films, lyrical music, and much more. In other words, passive vocabulary is produced by others but is subconsciously perceived and understood by you.

The words that belong to your passive vocabulary bank have the great potential to become active vocabulary. Active vocabulary are the words that you, next to understanding them, can also accurately use in your own speech or writing. These are the words that you’ve integrated in your communication and feel confident using.

The Collins dictionary defines passive vocabulary as all the words, collectively, that a person can understand. They describe active vocabulary as the total number of words a person uses in their speech and writing.

Needless to say that the number of words you can understand (passively) will always be bigger than the number of words you can use in your communication (actively).

How understanding the difference between passive and active vocabulary can improve your language learning

A lack of active vocabulary hinders learners from expressing their ideas clearly and fluently in their target language. This is what makes the right words take forever to come from your brain to your mouth. Passive vocabulary might help you understand the overall idea of a writing, a talk, or a conversation, but it is active vocabulary that helps you to actually communicate with others.

So, how could understanding the difference between active and passive vocabulary boost your language learning? 

Once you are able to tell the difference, you will realise that learning vocabulary is all about becoming an independent learner so that you can gain confidence, fluency and make the language your own. That means you can actively produce your vocabulary instead of only understanding it. It helps you to take a step back from grammar and exam exercises and instead focus on learning what you need for your communication purposes. As well as learning how to speak as your authentic self and conveying your ideas, beliefs, opinions and much more, the way you truly want to. It’s a way of finding the words to express your personality and no longer feel like a stranger speaking a foreign language. 

How do you make your passive vocabulary active as a yoga teacher?

When you are new to teaching yoga in English, it’s natural that a lot of your vocabulary will be passive at first. Most of the time, it simply is because you haven’t had the opportunity to use these words and expressions before. Think of the asana names, the anatomical terms for body parts, or the language for movement. You might understand the terms, expressions and vocabulary when you take yoga classes in English or watch videos on yogic topics, but all of this won’t become part of your active vocabulary until you take the plunge and start using it yourself.

So, to make your passive vocabulary active vocabulary, get out there. 

To develop your passive vocabulary you need regular practice of all skills and constructive feedback. It’s not an overnight miracle. You need to put in the work.  

Choose to consume materials that match the topics you teach or goals you have for your teaching career. Immerse yourself in the language, look up the words and expressions that are new to you in glossaries, dictionaries and other material to understand their meaning. Read books and articles, watch videos and listen to podcasts to observe how your passive vocabulary is used in context. Then, to increase your active vocabulary you can journal or write about those topics, practise teaching, or participate in tandem or conversation classes, for example Learning how your active and passive vocabulary work together is key to achieving fluency and start feeling confident teaching in the language you’re learning.

The Yoga Vocabulary Builder

At the end of the day, it’s key to have goals and choose the methods and strategies that best suit your learning style. There isn’t a rule on how to turn passive into active vocabulary, it mostly requires studying what you’ll truly need for your objectives, what resonates with you and gives you a sense or purpose. Then determination, making an effort, as well as timed repetition and constructive feedback. 

Our Yoga Vocabulary Builder for non-native English speaking yoga teachers is designed to help you expand your knowledge of yogic terms and expressions so that you can cue effectively and offer well-rounded yoga classes in English. The builder helps you understand words in context and unlearn inappropriate words and phrases such as non-inclusive language and out-dated cues. 

We’ve put together four steps to optimise your learning journey. 

  1. Understand your learning style and find the techniques that help you learn and absorb new knowledge
  2. Find memorisation techniques that match your learning style and help you remember new vocabulary
  3. Define your teaching style and choose the right vocabulary in the right contexts for the purpose of each class or service you offer 
  4. Discover new words and practise using them accurately in context to finally expand your vocabulary bank

I’d love for you to have the opportunity to kiss goodbye standardised learning and finally feel capable, knowledgeable and confident teaching and communicating in English. So, if you’re ready to elevate your expertise, check out the Yoga Vocabulary Builder here.

How you can better memorise yogic vocabulary

memorise vocabulary

Most language learners say that one of the most challenging things about learning a language is memorising new vocabulary. People have diverse opinions on this. Some argue that it’s due to the information we already store in our brains. Others say that they’re too old and only young people can memorise well. It may also be a lack of concentration that makes you lose focus. But I believe, it’s the standardised study techniques that aren’t working for you. In this blog, I’m going to explain how you can better memorise yogic vocabulary. 

What is memorisation?

The human mind is fascinating. Sometimes you remember something random a friend told you ten years ago, and sometimes you finish reading a paragraph of a book to realise you weren’t even aware of what you were reading. The Cambridge dictionary defines memorisation as the act or process of learning something so that you will remember it exactly. According to Rick Huganir, Ph. D., this is not a simple task. He claims memorisation is a biological process. He explains that when we learn even the simplest thing, we form neuronal connections called synapses. The more we practice or repeat what we learn, the stronger the synapses get. Therefore, the information will stick to your brain, and if you do not practise or repeat it, the synapses will get weaker. Resulting in forgetting the information you’ve once had integrated.

Understanding your learning style can help you memorise vocabulary better

Forgetting things or not memorising them is not as bad as you may think. It’s just your brain doing its job selecting the information it considers important and discarding what it believes to be  irrelevant. 

After years of teaching English to many different personalities and people from different cultural backgrounds and observing these techniques in practice, I know it’s not you or the method that doesn’t work, but you’re most likely using a method that doesn’t match your learning style.

However, it’s not your ‘fault’ to not memorise well. Our standardised school systems have taught us a lot of myths regarding memory, which have led us to believe we are not good enough and that we’re bad at memorising in general. Plus, when you try to learn something and find it difficult, you may feel stressed. The stress hinders your ability to focus and concentrate, and this can turn into an infinite vicious cycle. So, if you want to learn how to memorise better for your personal or professional language goals, the first thing you have to do is accept that we all learn and process information in different ways. Next is uncovering your learning style so that you can choose the techniques that work for you personally and will help you process and memorise (new) information more easily.

What’s your learning style?

Learning about learning styles could give you a great insight into why learning in the past could have been challenging. Predominant educational systems around the world, the typical classroom setup and environment do not benefit all types of learners in the same way. Unfortunately, although often unintentionally, they are not inclusive of all types of learners. That’s why some of us find it hard to learn and memorise information through the traditionally taught methods and techniques.

Now that you know that when you’re struggling to retain information or memorise something new, it’s key to uncover your own learning style, let’s have a look at some learning styles to find out what yours is and how to find memorisation techniques that suit you personally.

VISUAL

Visual learners find it easier to learn by looking at pictures or images. They tend to close their eyes to remember for example shapes, colours, or location of things. Effective memorisation techniques for visual learners are flashcards, imagery, connecting mental images and symbols and colour coding things.

KINAESTHETIC

This style is also called tactile learning. Kinaesthetic learners use movement and often want to touch material in order to memorise it. Kinesthetic learning involves a lot of hands-on experience, think of for example, touching or moving the body parts of which you want to learn their vocabulary. Effective memorisation techniques for kinaesthetic learners are: acting it out, the mirror technique and even dancing!

AURAL

This style is also known as auditory learning. Aural learners prefer to learn by listening to information. They love listening to music, podcasts and often read aloud to memorise new things. Effective memorisation techniques for aural learners are: reading out loud, recording yourself speaking and then listening to the recording, or using music, lyrics and rhymes to memorise new material.

SOCIAL

Social learners find it easier to learn through social interactions. They easily learn by participating in group activities. They exchange ideas with each others and learn by conversing. Effective memorisation techniques for social learners are: studying or working in teams, group discussions, dialogue and conversation.

SOLITARY

Solitary learners prefer to work independently. This style is also called intrapersonal learning. They feel more comfortable studying in quiet places where they usually have the ability to concentrate well. They are known for keeping journals, setting goals and plans for self-analysis. Whatever study method they use such as reading out loud, watching videos or listening to audios, they prefer to do it alone. Effective memorisation techniques for solitary learners are: independent study, using writing, reading and observation in secluded places.

VERBAL

Verbal learners are also called linguistics learners and use language to learn. So it won’t surprise you that these people naturally also have the great ability to learn foreign languages. They also like to explore different ways to use language. Effective memorisation techniques for verbal learners are using rhymes, wordplay and acronyms. They love to read, and often write detailed summaries, make use of bullet points or even write their own stories. 

LOGICAL

Logical-mathematical learners use numbers, sequencing, abstract visual information and reason to learn. Effective memorisation techniques for logical learners are: chunking information into charts and graphs, categorisation or classification, and the use of visual materials.

It is worth mentioning that you may identify with more than one learning style, but there’s usually one that you’ll feel most drawn to. 

At Enga Unite, we pay a lot of attention to these types of learners. Especially since our community is international and comes from many different educational backgrounds, we focus on making our resources and learning materials as accessible as possible. This is why we intend to equally focus on all the learning styles, in order to provide equal learning opportunities to all our (future) students, including you!

In our blog ‘Your Learning Style is Unique’, you’ll find various quizzes to help you discover your learning style. So head over to the blog and take the quiz. 

Very soon, I’m launching the Yoga Vocabulary Builder. This builder is designed to help you expand your knowledge of yogic terms and expressions so that you can cue effectively and offer well-rounded yoga classes in English. The interactive dictionary helps you understand words in context and unlearn inappropriate words and phrases such as non-inclusive language and out-dated cues. All of that according to your learning style, providing memorisation techniques that suit you personally. 

On top of learning the language you need for your teaching purposes, you’ll receive 3 hours of video training on how to recognise your learning style, memorise better, and optimise your study techniques for an effective learning journey. You can check out the Yoga Vocabulary Builder.

10 categories of yogic words you should know

10 categories of yogic words

The most common challenge our students claim to have is that they don’t know the right vocabulary or cues to effectively guide their students. They deal with the common misconception of believing it’s necessary to have a proficient level of English. So in this blog, I want to address 10 categories of yogic words you should know to teach with confidence and clarity. 

How fluent do you really need to be?

Enga’s team are English language and yoga teachers, so of course we teach our students to speak English for yoga as perfectly as possible. Yet, we often see our students overthink their language use, vocabulary knowledge and, or trying to translate every word as precisely as can be. The problem with direct translation is that it loses meaning and it doesn’t always make sense as many words, phrases and terms simply have another association or connotation in the language you want to use it.

Direct translation is one of the first things we help you unlearn, but not the purpose of this blog. If you want to know more about translating effectively, check out our blog on Why it’s a bad idea to translate your scripts. With this blog however, I want to reassure you that your English doesn’t have to be ‘perfect’ in order to teach yoga in English amazingly!

There are 527 million people who are native or bilingual speakers and use English as (one of) their first language(s). In return, there are 1.5 billion English learners like you, around the world. That is to say that there are way more English learners than people who have English as their first language. 973,000,000 more, to be exact. ⁠So, English is a global language spoken by so many different people that imperfection and variation is inevitable. 

How many words do you need to know?

The Common European Framework of Reference for Language describes the type of tasks, performance, expectations and language skills needed for each level. They say that to pass an exam a beginner knows about 2,500 words, whereas an advanced to proficient speaker knows about 10,000 words. 

But as a yoga teacher, your goal isn’t to pass a language exam. The language skills you need for teaching yoga are completely different and depend on the context of your services and your professional goals. Think of yoga for starting yogis, which often focusses on the body, anatomy, and alignment or yoga for mental health, which focuses more on emotional and mental fluctuations.

Instead of learning general classroom English, I therefore invite you to reflect on the type of services you offer and the language you truly need for it. Then focus your learning on the language you need for your specific field in yoga.

Passive vs active vocabulary

Before I dive into the 10 categories of yogic words you should know, I also want to point out the difference between passive and active vocabulary. Keen language learners learn new vocabulary every day. First, you learn to understand the word in context, recognise its spelling, and overtime, the more you read it or hear someone use it you start to understand the meaning and how it’s used in context. This is called passive vocabulary.

Passive vocabulary are all the words and expressions you see (read) and hear other people use. This includes the people around you, what you hear on TV, the internet, the radio, but also in films, lyrical music, and much more. In other words, passive vocabulary is produced by others but is subconsciously perceived and understood by you.

The words that belong to your passive vocabulary bank have the great potential to become active vocabulary. Active vocabulary are the words that you, next to understanding them, can also accurately use in your own speech or writing. These are the words that you’ve integrated in your communication and feel confident using.

Understanding this difference and embracing the fact that you don’t need to be able to use all the vocabulary you know actively, even less so if your purpose is learning English for teaching yoga. 

Your teaching style

Remember I spoke about choosing the type of language and vocabulary you need for your specific field in yoga. This also refers to your style of teaching voice. If you’re a teacher that loves to speak about alignment, give detailed instructions and educate your students on anatomy, it may be clear that your language learning focusses on words to do with directions, movement, and the human body’s anatomy. But, if you’re more of a motivational speaker, spiritual leader or want to help your students with their body and mind connection, you’re more likely to focus on adjectives that describe the body, mind, characteristics and personalities, but also metaphors, phrasal verbs and quotes.

To find out what type of language you need or which of the 10 categories of yogic words you should know about you first need to become clear of your style of teaching voice. To do so, take this quiz so that you can make your language learning more personlised and effective.

The 10 categories of yogic words you should know

So, let’s have a look at the 10 categories of yogic words you should know about to teach with confidence and clarity. 

1. Asana names in English

The language used in English yoga classes is universal. There are synonyms and other options, varying from teacher, place, country and continent, but generally speaking the asana names in English are the same or very similar. No matter how fluent you are, knowing the asana names is the very first thing that will help you teach a class more confidently. Even if you don’t know how to cue an asana, the name will give your students a great deal of information about what you expect them to do. If you don’t know them already, make learning the asana names your priority.

2. Language for movement

When teaching asana, you want to be able to guide our students from point A to point B. To do that, you need cues and instructions that are clear and easily understood. Especially if your classes are dynamic or fast-paced, you want to use as little words as possible, helping your students to move while listening to your guidance. Language for movement include verbs, prepositions, and nouns, adjectives that describe directions. You will use them to guide your sequences, communicate direction and position, and to describe alignment. 

3. Body parts

The third category of the 10 categories of yogic words you should know about are body parts. First of all, general body parts. These are the common, everyday words that are used by most English speakers from a young age. They’re the general terms that refer to areas of the body. If you take a more anatomical or medical approach, it’s wise to also inform yourself on bones, joints, muscles, tissues, ligaments, tendons, and organs especially if you teach using the meridians.

4. Physical sensations

Dive deeper and learn vocabulary that describes physical sensations. Sensations are the things we feel in our body, but often find hard to describe. Some of them are pleasant, some not so enjoyable, or even irritating or painful. It’s especially necessary to know about physical sensations if you have people showing up to class with injuries or physical conditions or help your students explore their own bodies by making them aware of the possible physical sensations they could experience.

5. Adjectives 

Adjectives are words that describe or say something about a person, the body, hair, skin, emotions, characteristics, personality and relationships. Appropriate use of adjectives is extremely beneficial if you want to speak about certain things in more detail. It can help your students to dive deeper into their practice and personal development by teaching them to take their practice off the mat. 

6. Ethics

Ethics relate to morals, values and principles that define a person’s thoughts, beliefs and behaviour. Learning vocabulary to do with ethics greatly helps you to teach your students about the philosophy and lifestyle of yoga, including the yamas and niyamas. Your ability to speak about them accurately introduces your students to something more than asana, which in return helps them to dive much deeper into their spirituality and or sense of self. Ethics don’t have a specific word sort and vary from nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and more. 

7. The language for mindfulness

Next to ethics, mindful language opens up a whole new world. It’s obvious that you want your students to move, think, act, react and behave mindfully, but describing it without becoming too repetitive or feeling stuck using the exact words can be challenging without consciously learning language for mindfulness and leading meditation practices. This category includes idiomatic phrases, expressions, and metaphors.

8. Equipment

One of the 10 categories of yogic words you should know about is equipment. Equipment in the field of yoga is another word for props and attributes. This category contains some objects commonly used in yogic practices. You might find that there are other words for the same thing, depending on the place or who you’re teaching. Especially if you want to ensure an accessible and inclusive learning environment, you’ll need these terms to increase your ability to accurately describe objects you come across in almost every yoga setting.

9. Outdated language

Speaking of accessibility and inclusivity, knowing which cues, words and terms are outdated and having accurate synonyms or alternatives is a must. Outdated languages are instructions that include words you no longer want to use because they’re inappropriate, not effective or not inclusive. It’s important to understand why some things are wrong so you don’t have to take the risk of offending or excluding someone or activating trauma or traumatic events.

Inclusivity and accessibility are a responsibility. They are constantly evolving and the point is that you stay up-to-date and informed about the most recent advice. For now, become more aware of the negative associations and connotations some words and cues have. They may not have a bad reputation for you right now, especially if you’ve no personal experience of these words, but we advise thinking about your word choice carefully, considering what they might mean to others.    

10. The Business of Yoga

Finally, the 10th category of the 10 categories of yogic words you should know about is the business of yoga. Now that yoga is becoming more and more popular online, you’re more likely to be self-employed and in need to know a little bit about how to launch your business, grow your clientele, create offerings and sell them with success. The vocabulary of the business of yoga includes marketing, content, design, people, services, and money.

How do you learn the 10 categories of yogic words?

Now you may wonder; where do I start? How do I find the right resources? And how do I learn all this vocabulary?

Especially for this purpose, we’ve designed the Yoga Vocabulary Builder for multilingual yoga teachers that want to learn the right words, cues, and phrases to make themselves better understood and guide their students with confidence and clarity.

In the vocabulary builder you’ll be equipped with language that deals with all the 10 categories of yogic words you should know about, as well as video training to help you optimise your learning techniques, find out about your learning style, memorisation techniques and much more. 

To know where to get started, I suggest that you first take the English Grammar and Yoga Vocabulary Test. Check which words and phrases you need to learn according to your style and teaching purposes and then invest in your language learning, according to your personal preference. Below find the links to help you get started:

  1. English Grammar and Yoga Vocabulary Test
  2. Take the quiz: What’s your style of teaching voice?
  3. The Yoga Vocabulary Builder

What’s your style of teaching voice?

What's your style of teaching voice

‘Find your voice’, ‘Use your voice’, ‘Teach as your own authentic Self’. In the world of yoga, you may have heard these expressions before. But what do they really mean? And what’s your style of teaching voice? In this blog let’s explore the usage of communication in the yoga room, different styles and the importance of developing your own authentic teaching voice.

What’s your teaching voice?

Your teaching voice goes further than the tone, volume, or the way you sound when you speak. It also deals with your word choice, communication style, and how comfortable you feel when speaking staying true to your personality: your authentic Self. Using your voice and teaching as your authentic Self means you teach without trying to be like anyone else. Teaching as your true self means you don’t try to hide your personality, values, background, natural behaviour or your natural way of speaking, even if you teach yoga in a foreign language. 

Every teacher has their own unique and personal way of teaching and approaching their students. This depends on the teacher’s knowledge, experience, personality and preferences, and also on the types of people they teach and work with and the ability to adjust their communication accordingly.

Teaching yoga can be quite challenging, especially if you’re teaching in a foreign language. As a teacher, teaching in a foreign language, you may be tempted to imitate the way our own teachers speak, to use their cues, terms,  words and expressions or even copy their accent. This copying behaviour means that you act in a way that doesn’t feel very natural to you, which causes you to lose your authenticity. When you behave and act like somebody else, you are repressing and hiding your own Self, which can harm your self-esteem and feel extremely exhausting at times.

How defining and understanding your voice improves your teaching

When you use somebody else’s voice to communicate with your students, it’s quite likely that you won’t get the message across, simply because it’s not really you who is speaking. But when you know and use your own teaching voice, effective communication is granted.

Accepting yourself and owning your style of teaching voice offers multiple benefits. Let’s have a look at a few of them:

Effective cueing

Effective cues are the ones that you know work and are easily understood by your students, but also roll off your tongue, without having to think about them. By exploring and deciding on cues that make sense to you and your students, it’ll not only be easier for you to remember them, it also offers consistency. This consistency allows you to be less in your head, thinking of the words to use, and instead guide your students through their practice while staying focussed and present with their experience.

Improve student-teacher relationships

Genuine communication encourages healthy relationships. Using your own voice and showing up as your authentic self, will show your students that they can be themselves too. Especially in yogic environments, where unfortunately, competition can be very high, this transmission of self-worth is extremely comforting. As an educator, set an example and allow yourself to be human; laugh, play, and make mistakes. All of this results in that your students will feel at ease with you, strengthening your student-teacher relationships. At the same time, seeing that you can be yourself, will encourage them to develop their own sense of Self, too.

Adjusting your language to your students needs/experience with yoga

Every student comes to yoga with different needs and in search for different ‘solutions’ to the obstacles they’re facing in their lives. Their needs vary from physical injuries, emotional burden, mental health to challenging situations in their private life. As a teacher, you can’t always know everything about a student, but it’s important that you can adjust your language and your communication style to the needs they have.  The more you can empathise and acknowledge your students, still speaking and sounding like yourself, the deeper your connection with your students will be and the more progress they’ll make in their practice.

How do you find your style of teaching voice?

At the beginning of your teaching journey you may lack practice and confidence feeling uncomfortable with your teacher Self. Especially, when you’re teaching in a language that’s foreign to you. It may be that you’re unfamiliar with words, terms, expressions and cues, but all of these things you can learn. With time, practice, continuing education, support, constructive feedback and discipline, you’ll learn to own your style of teaching voice little by little and finally start feeling more confident, thriving in your yoga teaching career.

So, let’s get started by defining your voice and understanding what you need to further develop it! 

Take the quiz: What’s your style of teaching voice and follow the steps I’ve laid out for you to speed up your progress and work towards the goals you have for your international teaching career.

3 beliefs that make you lack confidence teaching yoga in a foreign language

3 beliefs that make you lack confidence

Teaching yoga can be a challenging task, especially if you teach yoga in a foreign language. Let’s face it; being in front of a group of students alone can make you feel nervous, but if you add the fact that you are teaching in a foreign language it’s not uncommon to feel insecure about your word choice, pronunciation and even your accent. In this blog find out about 3 beliefs that make you lack confidence teaching yoga in a foreign language. 

We asked our community of non-native English speakers when they feel most confident teaching yoga in English. Their answers were 

  • ‘feeling prepared’;
  • ‘when having consistent students that appreciate me and give positive feedback’;
  • ‘when I know my sequence very well’; 
  • ‘when I have the ability to adjust my class plans to my students’ needs or energy of the day’. 

Next to feeling confident, they described that in those moments they feel centred, present, grateful, joyous, energetic and capable. 

However, when we asked them when they feel unconfident, they all came up with very similar answers that I think will be very useful for you to know. This way you can analyse if they’re true for you too and reflect on what they mean for your professional development to overcome these obstacles and speed up your learning process to no longer doubt your teaching and communication skills, while teaching yoga in English. 

3 beliefs that make you lack confidence teaching yoga in a foreign language

Let’s take a look at some common thoughts and beliefs that hinder you from teaching with confidence, developing your authentic teaching voice and style.

‘My students don’t understand me or my accent’

  • The first of the 3 beliefs that make you lack confidence teaching yoga in a foreign language is feeling embarrassed or fearing sounding different.
    You might be afraid of being misunderstood or judged on your accent by others. But, when you speak a foreign language, it’s only natural to not exactly sound the same as others. Many students however, aspire to sound like a native speaker but let’s remember that the actual purpose of speaking a foreign language is to be able to transmit thoughts and ideas clearly. As a yoga asana teacher, your first aim is to guide  your students with instructions to get them in or out of a posture, or hold and explore it. The main goal here is using appropriate grammar and vocabulary that form effective cues. For this purpose your speech needs to be clear and pronounced, but sounding like a native is not required. Having an accent is nothing to be ashamed of, on the contrary, it’s something you can be incredibly proud of. Instead of comparing yourself to a native speaker or someone that has dominated the language for a while, think of your accent as a sign of courage. It shows that you’ve put in hours of work, studying and learning a language. That you’re committed, disciplined and have made an effort to learn to communicate with others that don’t speak the same language. That you allow yourself to be vulnerable and not afraid to get out of your comfort-zone. And that you are interested in developing yourself; learning about other people and their cultures. A foreign accent truly, is a sign of bravery.

‘I don’t have enough vocabulary’

  • One of the signs of a confident teacher is the acknowledgement that they don’t know it all. As the famous poet Alfonso Reyes said: “Amongst all, we know it all”. It means that one individual does not possess all the knowledge in the world, but someone else will know what you don’t, and you know things that they don’t know. So see understanding your limitations as a gateway to keep up your development. In the case of now having the right vocabulary, become clear on the types of words you need to learn. Look them up in a dictionary. Get productive and practise using this new vocabulary teaching yourself. Then practise speaking with friends, the people in your communities and immerse yourself in the language. If you’d like to learn more vocabulary for teaching yoga, read our blog of 10 yogic vocabulary categories you need to know.  

‘I’m (still) making too many mistakes’

  • It may be that you’re afraid of making mistakes, judge yourself or think that others will notice and judge you for it. But, who’s ever learned anything without making mistakes?
    Making mistakes is inevitable when it comes to learning to teach yoga, learning to speak another language and even more so, learning to teach yoga in a foreign language. To gain skill, making mistakes gives you the opportunity to find out what works, doesn’t work and how to do it better or improve. Not making mistakes often means that you’re playing it safe and are stuck in your comfort-zone. For you and those that are reading this, you can no longer afford staying there. Avoiding making mistakes will slow down your process leading to procrastination and result in you giving up on the dreams you have as an international teaching career. If you truly want to teach yoga in a foreign language with confidence and success, let go of shame or embarrassment and instead think of mistakes as learning opportunities to reach your career goals.

The negative effects of not gaining confidence 

The negative effects of not gaining confidence may be clear to you already. Self-doubt, embarrassment, comparison and all other feelings that you possibly experience when feeling stuck in one of these three beliefs that make you lack confidence teaching yoga in a foreign language make you want to give up on your career goals. So, let’s have a little brainstorm to check in with where you are now and where you want to be. Take a pen, journal or piece of paper and reflect on the following questions:

  1. I want to teach in … (place)
  2. I want to teach to … (people)
  3. I want to help them … (purpose)
  4. I want to feel … (emotions/feeling)
  5. I want my students to feel … (emotions/feeling)

I dare to bet that to get where you want to be in your teaching career (teaching in, to, sharing your purpose, feeling yourself and making others feel), your self-belief is the very first thing you need to give attention and put in the right place. A lack of confidence causes you to not trust yourself, your abilities or even your previous achievements. This in return causes you to delay your goals, dreams and purpose, making you feel lost, stuck, unsupported and give up. So, after reading this, take a moment to reflect on the 3 beliefs that make you lack confidence teaching yoga in a foreign language and think of some activities or types of support that could help you overcome it. 

And remember, we’re here to help you too. 

  1. Check out the Teach Yoga in English Support group to feel supported by a community of like-minded people. 
  2. Listen to our podcast Your Yoga in English for a weekly new episode to help you improve your language and communication for teaching and business purposes
  3. If you haven’t already, take the quiz to find out about your style of teaching voice and receive personalised recommendations to help you improve your authenticity 
  4. And… sign up to the waitlist of the Find Your Teaching Voice in English mini-course

Practising yoga off the mat 

Listen to Annie speak about Practising yoga off the mat during the holidays

To be able to ‘take your practice off the mat’ is one of the biggest intentions of our practice on the mat. The lessons we learn on the mat prepare us for the challenging situations we face as off it. In others words, when we aren’t doing asana, or practising mindfulness. 

 

They help us to consider our thoughts and decisions, and teach us about appropriate behaviour. In addition, they offer guidance for setting boundaries, and building healthy relationships, among other things. During busy periods, holidays, celebrations or other commitments, many of us can’t stick to our routines. So, during those busy times, practising yoga off the mat is a great option for so many of us who get less time to ourselves. But let’s look at how we can actually practise yoga off the mat, even when we’ve got our hands full. 

Busy spells + less practice = emotional changes

We all experience times where our other responsibilities take over. Maybe work requires you to travel, you’ve got family gatherings, or friends who need you. Birthday presents need buying and the washing machine needs fixing, and you’re running out of groceries… 

 

Whatever it is that requires your time, less time on the mat can feel a little unsettling. For many, their yoga practice is something we do alone. And that’s even when you practise in a class. Many of us depend on this ‘me time’ for creating balance and peace in our lives. So, it can feel challenging to lose it. 

Less time on the mat might cause you to feel: 

  • unbalanced
  • unstable or unsettled  
  • ungrounded
  • anxious
  • frustrated
  • irritable  
  • guilty
  • sad

All of these are normal, and you’re definitely not the only one. Despite what society might tell you, these feelings are nothing to be ashamed of. 

Getting support from another yogi, a friend or family member can do wonders. But what about simply finding other ways of practising yoga off the mat?

Your yoga does not always have to depend on asana practice, meditation or mindfulness. 

In particular, the Sutra by Patanjali, the Yamas and Niyamas, are an example of this. For instance, they teach us to deal better with our own thoughts and behaviour in social situations. All of these are tested during busy times, or when we spend more time than normal with other people. 

Practising these things when it is not possible to practise as normal, can provide a remedy for any negative emotions. For example, those could be feelings of imbalance, anxiety and irritability. 

Yamas: their meaning and application to real life 

The Yamas represent ‘the right way of living’. Specifically, these refer to types of self restraint and ‘ideal’ behaviour. For that reason, people often describe them as morals or ethics. Also, they could refer to the way we speak to and behave around others. They particularly affect our relationships. So, you can see them as a ‘don’t do’ list for nurturing your relationships with others, the world, and yourself.

  • Ahimsa (non-harming or non-violence in the way you think, speak and act)
  • Satya (truthfulness)
  • Asteya (non-stealing)
  • Brahmacharya (right use of energy)
  • Aparigraha (non-greed or non-hoarding)

Niyamas:  their meaning and application to real life 

The Niyamas are positive activities. So, they can be having responsibilities, or being observant, thoughtful and considerate. Similarly, they teach us healthy habits and discipline. The Niyamas help us find contentment and ways of feeling liberated. I see them as tools for creating an idea and a responsible lifestyle. But also for reaching spiritual enlightenment. In contrast to the Yamas, many describe them as the ‘to do this’ list. 

  • Saucha (cleanliness)
  • Santosha (contentment)
  • Tapas (discipline)
  • Svadhyaya (study of the self and of yogic texts)
  • Isvara Pranidhana (surrender to a higher being, or contemplation of a higher power)

All of the Yamas and Niyamas are social ethics, moral, or rules for behaviour. Whatever your background or opinions are, your interpretation of them will differ. Learning about them in, for example, your YTT is great. However, it can’t stop there. 

To practise yoga off the mat, you need to reflect on the meaning of the Yamas and Niyamas. How you can live by them? What does ‘non-harming’ (Ahimsa) mean to you?

For each of the 10 in the list, give yourself a moment to think think of real life examples. That is to say, in every day activities, like your job. A translation is not enough! So, give an example of how you would not hurt anyone, anything or yourself in your job. 

Practising off the mat could look like this

  1. Situation: At a family meal, everyone’s eating meat.
    Immediate reaction: Say ‘you shouldn’t eat meat! It’s bad!’
    Practising yoga off the mat: React by practising Svadhyaya – study of the self and yogic texts. And Satya – truthfulness. Explain to them calmly why eating vegan is an ethical choice for you.  
  2. Situation: Your sister says ‘I hate your last Instagram post’.
    Immediate reaction: You get defensive.
    Practising yoga off the mat: You practise Ahimsa – non-harming or non-violence. Also Brahmacharya – right use of energy. Instead, think ‘the important thing is my community will find my post useful’.
  3. Situation: You’re at a party that’s too crowded and loud.
    Immediate reaction: You get irritable, and people think you’re rude.
    Practising yoga off the mat: Take a deep breath and appreciate by focussing on the fact you’re surrounded by your loved ones. That is to say, practise Isvara Pranidhana – surrender to, or contemplation of, a higher being/power.
  4. Situation: Some the food is burned.
    Immediate reaction: You cry, consider it a disaster, and don’t eat anything at all.
    Practising yoga off the mat: Despite the burned food, instead you choose to have an equally good time. You practise Santosha – contentment – by appreciating the rest of the food that is edible.
  5. Situation: Your grandparents give you clothes you know you’ll never wear.
    Immediate reaction: It’s awkward and difficult to show appreciation because deep down you don’t like them.
    Practising yoga off the mat: Recognise this as an opportunity to give them away to someone else that will enjoy them. As a result, you’re practising Aparigraha – non-greed, non-hoarding – and Asteya – non-stealing. 

Reflecting on practising yoga off the mat

As practitioners and educators of yoga, it’s really important you to reflect on the Yamas and Niyamas. In other words, you need to know what these guidelines for ideal behaviour mean to you. In addition, you must consider how you can integrate them into your lifestyle. Not only because we can stay faithful to the real teachings of yoga, especially if we teach in the west. But also because we can apply them directly to our personal lives, and our behaviour as teachers.

To give you a little extra help to get started with this reflection, consider the following journal questions. So that you can see if you already apply the Yamas and Niyamas to your life. You might find you don’t really, in which case focus on what they mean to you personally. For example, consider what real-life situations (might) occur, during which the Yamas and Niyamas could come in handy.

Grab your journal:

  • How has yoga changed or affected your life off the mat already? 
  • In what ways do you apply any of these things to your life already? 
  • What (new) lessons have you learned today about the Yamas, Niyamas, or yogic philosophy in general? Which can you take into your daily life the next time things get too busy to get on the mat? 
  • Write some examples of how you could start practising yoga off the mat during the next busy period you experience.

Understanding the Yamas and Niyamas fully will help you give yourself quick reminders when you can’t get on the mat. This can help you in all the areas of life that the Yamas and Niyamas cover. 

 

Further, this type of study helps you to accept other people’s thoughts and behaviour without the urge to change them. As a result, you have tools for communicating with students, colleagues and collaborators who do not always think like you do.

 

Your self-study and the development of your practice off the mat teach you not just to tell others that they’re wrong and need to change. Consequently, you understand your real purpose – Dharma. It probably isn’t to create tension or bad energy. Practising yoga off the mat with the Yamas and Niyamas, you learn to take care of yourself and others better, and cultivate deeper and healthier relationships. 

Join the community of multilingual yogis and feel supported on your journey as an international yoga teacher.

Watch out 10 tips for multilingual yoga teachers.

Visit our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers to keep up with your personal and professional development.

Book your free discovery call to find out what you can improve and create an action plan to achieve the goals you have for your career as an international yoga teacher.

Learn these lessons before teaching yoga

Listen to Annie speak about what she wish you’d know before becoming a yoga teacher. 

Becoming a yoga teacher is a transformational experience. You find out so many things about yourself, about teaching and about life that you wish you had known before. You learn some of the biggest life lessons – think of all the new knowledge, practices and interesting people you(’ll) meet. It also requires introspection. In this blog, I’m sharing the things I wish I had known before becoming a yoga teacher. It includes the lessons I’ve learned on this journey. I want to give you the chance to learn these lessons before teaching yoga, so that you can navigate your own journeys more quickly than I did.

I hope that if I share these things, you can save yourself the some time and worry that I couldn’t! 

There are some things you need to know…

  1. I was embarrassed of my teaching voice, which stopped me teaching for an entire year after completing my YTT.
  2. I didn’t know how to express myself in English as a teacher. Especially when speaking about anatomy and technicality. 
  3. As I didn’t value my ability and skills, I didn’t have the courage to apply for a job at a yoga studio. I didn’t see the point because I wasn’t a native English speaker.
  4. After my YTT, I dealt with extreme self-doubt and frustration. I felt incapable of teaching yoga, despit it being my passion. And I believed students  would not like me. 
  5. After obtaining my 500YTT, every mistake I made caused me to doubt my knowledge and experience. I didn’t have the mentality that helped me use mistakes as an opportunity to advance.

Confidence is one of the biggest teaching lessons 

Unfortunately, I learned these lessons after I had already started teaching. And I was too busy to see them for what they were. Now I can see that these experiences display insecurity, low self-esteem, and perfectionism. They suggest I put myself under a lot of pressure to reach unrealistic goals. Maybe my expectations were too high. 

But I think my experience is a common pattern in most other (non-native English speaking/multilingual) yoga teachers. 

Please remember that your insecurity, fears, self-doubt and low-esteem are most often not because you don’t have the necessary teaching skills. For example, I already had excellent skills and knowledge for teaching yoga. And I had been developing them for a long time. The problem was I didn’t have the confidence to take opportunities to help my career take off. I needed more confidence to develop as a teacher, because without it, I couldn’t deal with challenges, like pursuing teaching practice as a newly qualified teacher. This delayed my learning of the most important lessons of my life.

I wish I had learned some of these lessons before teaching, knowing there were some personal issues I needed to deal with before I could expect myself to feel good about teaching. 

Sometimes you need to try and overcome scary and difficult things without having learned these lessons, in order to progress in your career. But how can you do that if you feel the way I did about myself? Don’t underestimate the importance of learning to be confident!

We often say to ourselves I wish I had learned that before teaching yoga! ‘I wish I had known that earlier’

Throughout our lives we often have moments where we learn something new and it makes us think back to our past. You reflect on past moments and comment on how things would have been easier, or decisions would have been different if you’d known then what you know now. 

I know that for me a lot of my difficulties in the past were a result of my childhood and my learning experience at school. When I look back now, I sometimes wish I could go back to those moments and tell myself what I was going to learn all these years later. I wish I could reassure myself and teach myself why I was finding everything so impossible. I wish I could teach myself important lessons to know before teaching, before going to university, and before sitting any high school exams.

Now, I want you to reflect on any moments in the past where you’ve had a realisation and thought ‘I wish I had learned these lessons before teaching yoga!’ 

‘Go to theContinuing Education Membership and start your trial to receive some journal questions that’ll help you reflect’.

 

Learn these lessons before teaching yoga! 

Please, let me tell you the lessons I wish both you and I had learned before beginning teaching. You’ll save yourself a lot of time:

  1. You can learn. And that when you feel you ‘can’t’, it’s often because you aren’t getting what you need, like from your education or the people around you. We are born with the ability, but we all have learning and support needs.
  1. Speaking like ‘a native’ in English is unnecessary. Speakers of other languages can’t always naturally produce every English sound like a native speaker can. Learn to be proud of your accent.
  1. Exams and grades don’t define your ability. Learn and believe in other ways of measuring your progress that are more constructive. 
  1. All opportunities are a chance to learn. You don’t have to wait until you have learned more. Learn to see new challenges as essential opportunities to gain skills and experience. 
  1. You don’t have to reject or postpone an interview because you might not understand the interviewer. You can ask them to repeat or to say it in a different way. You can ask them to write it down.  
  1. Feel safe to make mistakes by practising with people who will support you. Making mistakes in conversion, at work or while socialising directly develops your own skills and fluency. What’s the worst that can happen? Someone corrects you, and you learn! 
  1. Learning alone limits your progress. Meeting others like yourself is a massive learning tool. You can learn more from others, ask questions and share resources. Even if others are experts or more confident than you, remember they were learners once, too! Don’t walk this path alone.

2 facts

Last year, approximately 1.35 billion people worldwide ‘spoke English either natively or as a second language’. And worldwide, the number of English language learners world is about 1.5 billion. English is a global language, so the world is used to imperfect use!

Over to you!

Integrating these lessons into your own life will create a path to success, which you create for yourself. Learn these lessons now before teaching or trying to take the next step so that you can move forward. Depending on your goals and where you are now, your outcomes will look like a million different things!

Some tips for doing that  

Here are some ways you can start learning these lessons now!

  1. Get to the root problem: if you keep delaying your projects, wishes and goals you have for yourself as an international yoga teacher, I suggest you get to the root problem. Use the tools I gave you in the Defeat Your Yoga Teacher Impostor Syndrome Webinar.
  1. Identify your areas for improvement: if you reject or miss out on job opportunities because you (feel you) lack practice and skills, I suggest you define what skills you need to improve and search for the tools to gain them. These might be things like getting teaching experience, vocabulary practice, and yoga business knowledge.
  1. Build a support network: if you feel bad and insecure about your pronunciation and accent and prefer to just quit your international career, I suggest you search for someone or a group where you can practise speaking in a safe space. So that they can guide and correct you to gain confidence and fluency. Try for example our weekly conversation classes on the Continuing Education Membership. 
  1. Introspection: if you experience an identity crisis because you don’t even understand yourself and/or ‘who’ you really are in this foreign language, I suggest you go back to your self-practice, and reflect on your values and beliefs. On our Continuing Education Membership you can do just this, and you will learn the vocabulary that you need to express yourself! 

So, now let me ask you: what do you need to feel more confident, knowledgeable, and skillful to successfully teach yoga?

Send me an email at annie@engaunite.com with your answers to the questions in this blog/training and check out our resources below to find out what steps you can take next:

Join the community of multilingual yogis and feel supported on your journey as an international yoga teacher.

Watch out 10 tips for multilingual yoga teachers.

Visit our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers to keep up with your personal and professional development.

Book your free discovery call to find out what you can improve and create an action plan to achieve the goals you have for your career as an international yoga teacher.

Why it’s a bad idea to translate your scripts

Listen to Annie speak about Why it’s a bad idea to translate your sequencing scripts.

Today learn, why it’s a bad idea to translate your scripts!

‘Learning to become fluent in a language depends on your willingness to make an effort.’

I typed this quote into Google translate, hoping I could simply copy and paste. But this is what happened: ‘Vloeiend leren worden in een taal hangt af van uw bereidheid om u in te spannen.’ 

This is in Dutch and for those who don’t speak it. Can you see how Google translate ruined the word order and made the pronouns too formal? And, most importantly, lost the meaning of the sentence? 

When you translate it directly back to English, it says: ‘Fluent learning becoming in a language depends on your will to strain.’ 

The word order is wrong, the use of tenses is incorrect, and the final verb has a totally different meaning.

I know this, because I speak both languages fluently. But imagine if I was less familiar with either language – the translation would seem fine to me. I’d post it on my social media feed and wonder why no one was engaging with it. So, if you’re trying to attract new students, it is a bad idea to translate your content directly.  

Direct translation

Direct translation can mean translating something literally from one language to another. It can also mean translating each word individually. But think of all the expressions, idioms and synonyms that each language has, and how different their grammar can be. Unfortunately, language just is not that simple!

At times you might be lucky and translating directly will work. But most of the time, languages work in different ways. That’ why, if you want to maintain the same meaning, it’s a bad idea to translate your ideas in such a robotic and literal way. Languages express ideas differently:  they have unique words, varying cultural associations, different structures and distinct ways of ordering information. They also come with their own sense of humour and ways of showing emotion. Each language, and even their dialects, has its own style of communication, and there is often no direct equivalent of the same expression in both languages. 

When, at the moment of translation, the meaning, feelings and the effect of language change, we use the phrase: ‘Lost in translation’. 

Lost in translation

Lost in translation means that when we translate something, it loses effectiveness and meaning. Translation apps (even though many have improved a lot) aren’t always correct, are often too literal, and don’t consider wider contexts or alternatives.  

This is problematic because it means there is no intention behind the words we choose.  Instead, they’re selected by a robot who only had one option in the first place. You don’t have the  freedom to choose which word out of several, or your tone of voice, or whether to speak with humour or seriousness. As a result, you can no longer communicate the authentic message or your feelings that goes with it. 

It’s not only a bad idea to translate this way because it isn’t accurate, but it can also really affect your students. It can result in confusing, offensive, non-inclusive language. And especially in the context of teaching yoga, this can be harmful to your students. 

The language we use in our yoga classes is very specific. It’s descriptive, it can be instructional ormetaphorical, and our students can  be very sensitive to it. People come to your classes to connect mind, body and breath. They come to find a type of relief, become present, disconnect from the outside world, and for other personal reasons. Your students want to be able to follow your guidance and words without having to think and, or look up to see what you’re doing. It’s also important that your language is considerate and appropriate for them. For those reasons, paying attention to the words you use is crucial.

Why translation can be problematic

As an English learner, you may have studied prepositions. Prepositions are an excellent example of types of words that get misinterpreted and cause confusion when you try to translate them directly. If you’re a Spanish speaker, think of ‘sobre’ which in English means ‘on’, but also ‘upon’, ‘over’, and ‘above’. Translate ‘sobre’ to German: ‘über’ and in English next to ‘over’ and ‘above’ it also means ‘about’ and ‘across’. 

Any English teacher will tell you it’s a bad idea to translate prepositions into or out of your own language. But for yoga teachers it can be very tempting to do this. In yoga, we need prepositions a lot to describe where to move or position something, and how we should move there.  

Now imagine you had to ask your students to ‘Lift your arm ____ your head’ or ‘Place your left foot ____ your knee’. Which preposition would you choose? I’m afraid that simply translating the word you’d use in your language doesn’t always communicate the same meaning. 

Mistranslations of prepositions are easy to do but can be very confusing and can cause people to stumble and fall over. Directly translating other types of language like phrases, expressions and vocabulary can have a negative effect on your students’ emotions and your relationship with them, too.

Language is deeply linked to our cultures

There’s a book I love called ‘Lost in Translation’ by Ella Frances Sanders. It explains the meaning of words that only exist in one language. These types of words tell us a lot about a culture. About a local attitude to life, lifestyles and perspective of the (rest of the) world.

Saudade

An example I learned from a Brazilian friend is the Portuguese word ‘saudade’.  I understand this is a sad but loving feeling of really longing for something or someone. In English, a bad translation might be nostalgia, but that focuses on the past. Saudade can also be, for example, missing someone present, or a dreamy wishfulness that something will happen in the future and probably can’t/won’t. When a concept like this simply doesn’t exist linguistically in English as one word, it’s such a bad idea to translate directly. You will lose the essence and feeling of this unique idea in its cultural context.

The words and language we use have strong emotional associations and whenever we translate a single word, the translation doesn’t necessarily carry the same meaning. A good translation communicates the same messages and feelings that come with a word, not just a line of individual letters and words that aren’t connected to wider significance. 

There are other things you need to take into account when you translate in a context where lots of different languages, cultures, opinions and lifestyles meet, like in an international yoga class. If you, as a teacher, want to communicate humour, what you find funny may not be funny at all for your students. For example, many people (and possibly you) sarcasm just seems like a lie! But in some countries, it’s a common sense of humour to have. Things like humour, irony, and the expression of emotion and tone through language choice change when a person identifies more easily with the culture(s) of a different language.

Language is personal 

The language you use as a yoga teacher is deeply personal. Not only are your words your own expression of your personal ideas, knowledge and feelings, but it can really affect your students, and in many different ways. We don’t always know about their background, culture, beliefs and perspectives and so it’s our responsibility to pay attention to the words we use in our classes and overall communication. 

I have mentioned it’s a bad idea to involve direct translations in your content because it can result in confusing, offensive, non-inclusive language. I’ve also explained how translation apps are often incorrect, too literal and don’t consider context or alternatives.

So let’s take, for example, the word ‘thin’. Being thin/fat and big/small depend on your environment and personal experience. For a person who struggles to find food or has a health condition or lifestyle meaning  they never gain weight, then being thin is a symbol of ill health and struggle. For others, whose environment has been influenced by media that promotes thinness as a beautiful thing, being thin might feel like a good thing. Depending on your personal situation, ‘thin’ can have both or either positive and/or negative associations.

Words have connotations, so choose them carefully

As a yoga teacher, to help you choose your language wisely, you need to consider what the connotations are of the words you use. Another reason why it’s a bad idea to translate your content directly is because it doesn’t take into account the strong associations, feelings, ideas and opinions that  individual words suggest. 

Think of the very similar words: ‘skinny’ and ‘slim’. One of these has more negative connotations and could activate negative emotions for your students. Which of these words is best to use for your classes? I’d personally say ‘slim’ is safer, to me based on my understanding and experience of its associations. ‘Slim’ is probably the most neutral way to explain that something isn’t ‘thick’, ‘fat’ or ‘big’. But these also have their own problematic associations. The point is that direct translations can not only be incorrect, but also very activating for those suffering from any type of trauma. And that personal experience and cultural background influence those feelings. 

So, how can you translate your scripts more accurately? 

The students that are taking our English for Yoga Teachers Course, as well as  those who  are on our membership are immersed in their language learning for their job as a yoga teacher. Immersion isn’t only necessary to gain confidence and fluency, it’s also the only way to get used to hearing and seeing it regularly, making the language your own and learning to use the language as native speakers do. 

Developing your English for yoga teaching in an immersive way will give you the skills you need to translate in a more accurate and knowledgeable way. But importantly. Immersion helps you not to depend on translation. Through immersion, you get a feeling for a language, and that’s what stops you needing to translate directly. It’s also what gives you a better understanding of the associations different words have. Why? Because you experience it for yourself. Through language exposure, you gain your own experience of the connotations and feelings a word brings up.

Working with other yoga teachers and students who are international helps you start considering how different our experiences can be and how you can accommodate them in your teaching. You start to develop your own experience of the connotations and associations that language can have, and how they differ between individuals, because you yourself see and hear it in usef.

Immerse yourself so that you understand the connotations of language

In order to start understanding the significance of words and their associations, you need to be exposed to the language as much as possible. While immersion is different for everyone, it involves regular practice of all the skills:  listening, reading, writing and speaking. And it also includes active practice and revision of vocabulary.  I call that one  ‘independent learning’ and consider it a fifth skill. 

It’s key to read about the topics that you teach in English. To sign up for classes and workshops with your English speaking teachers and practise your listening skills. Find opportunities to speak about these topics. That could be with other learners, someone who understands the struggle of learning a language, or who can help and correct you. Meanwhile, make sure you record whatever you’re learning and make an effort to practise all of your new learnings in context.

Continuing Education Membership

In the world of teaching yoga, I believe there’s too little attention paid to non-native English speaking yoga teachers. When I completed my first YTT, I felt misunderstood and undervalued for not knowing the right vocabulary for my yoga classes. I doubted my ability to teach yoga in English even though I was teaching English as my full time job. And that’s why I’m here. To help you learn to communicate what you truly want to say and offer effective, accessible and authentic classes your students will love. To no longer doubt your translations, but speak and teach with confidence and clarity. 

Join the community of multilingual yogis and feel supported on your journey as an international yoga teacher.

Visit our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers to keep up with your personal and professional development.

Book your free discovery call to find out what you can improve and create an action plan to achieve the goals you have for your career as an international yoga teacher.

6 Mistakes that Stop your Professional Growth

Train your listening skills and listen to Annie speak about the 6 mistakes that stop your professional growth on the podcast:

6 Mistakes that Stop your Professional Growth

The route to achieving big goals naturally involves making mistakes and lots of learning. Even the best planners come across situations they’d never thought of before. The most experienced entrepreneurs have had to overcome self-doubt and the fear of taking risks. Wherever you are in your journey right now, I’m sure that there are things that hold you back from making big progress. That’s why I hope this blog helps you gain some insight into the 6 mistakes that stop your professional growth! 

1. Self-doubt & Limiting beliefs

If you focus on the bad, you can’t take advantage of the good. 

Thoughts such as ‘I can’t do it’, ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘people don’t understand my accent’ could be an indication of your fear of making mistakes. It might also be a sign that you’re scared of people judging you. 

We often focus on what we don’t know, don’t understand or think we ‘need or ‘should know.’  but this means we never take the opportunity to practise despite all the things we don’t know lots about or feel comfortable with. And of course, if you don’t practise, you can’t learn, nor can you know how to improve. This negative approach distracts you from using the knowledge you have now to get some practice! 

Learning English to teach yoga has specific needs and requires a new approach: concentrate on learning the information and knowledge you need for it. And to get this new knowledge, use the knowledge you already have now in the present moment and use it to learn more. For example, if you don’t know the word ‘mat’ you can ask your teacher: ‘What do you call the long thing that we put on the floor to practise yoga on?’ 

Here, you use all the vocabulary and structures you already know to learn something new. 

‘Celebrate your wins’

Look at how far you’ve come and what you’ve learned – that fact that you’re reading this says that you know a lot already and at least are trying to become better!

So, reflect on what you already know, what you’re good at and praise yourself for all of the effort you’ve made so far. I’m very sure that you can think of at least 1 or 2 little successes you’re proud of! 

2. Having unrealistic plans, goals or expectations

Our expectations of ourselves are extremely high – we compare ourselves to others and often get competitive! . But when you focus on the things you can’t do or aren’t good at, you forget to look at your own qualities and talents and  it can make you feel down. 

Losing sight of what you’re good at may result in giving up on your goals or plans because your plans take too long, your goals are too difficult, or your expectations involve too much pressure. But actually the root problem is that they’re simply unrealistic.

Having a big goal in mind is great, but that should be your end goal. Before then, plan a path leading up to it, containing lots of step by step mini-goals. Create milestones and set deadlines to achieve them on your way to your bigger goals. Celebrate all the little successes, all the little wins, and keep track of your progress to remind yourself of how far you’ve come! 

Unrealistic goals often have a reason, and the reason brings me to mistake 3. 

3. Not knowing your purpose or not knowing the reasons ‘why’

When I teach general English classes, most students start by saying they want to get an exam or certificate. And my question is always ‘why?’ Are you applying for a job or university? Do you need this, or do you just think you need it because everyone else is doing it? Is it because, without that bit of paper, your learning doesn’t exist? 

What you learn in exams is not what you need in your normal life; it simply shows that you can memorise, follow a format, and have exam technique. How much of that is the English you will use as a yoga teacher?  

This is why I focus on English learning designed especially for yoga teachers. This means you learn English with a clear purpose. The language you need for teaching yoga is very specific and isn’t something you find in a normal exam textbook.

When you’re practising language for cueing asana, you’re clear on why you’re learning it: it’s relevant to your life now. It isn’t just an examiner’s box you want to tick. 

As a yogi, you probably want to be as present as possible, live in the moment and focus on everything that is happening now. But as a teacher and human, in our modern society, you need to plan ahead. You need to make a living, care for your loved ones and take care of yourself. 

We need to look at the bigger picture. Knowing the reason ‘why’ you want or do something is a priority. Without knowing the reason why, you can’t understand your objectives. Therefore you can’t plan how to reach them or measure your progress. The result is that you lose motivation, which understandably stops you achieving your goals.

Start exploring your reasons why…

…your purpose and your intentions for  your learning journey! After reading this, go to your Continuing Education Membership and download the worksheet.

4. Trying to figure it out by yourself

Often at school we are encouraged to work alone and to do everything ourselves. But how else would we learn if we didn’t look to others? Even learning from a book is learning from someone else. 

If there’s one thing I’ve learned this last year, it’s that we need other people around us in order to grow. We need to be in contact with people to learn from, be inspired by, to help us, to reflect, and guide us. We need people you can rely on and who positively influence your life. Together you’re so much stronger than you are alone, if you are around the right people. 

Think of all the successful people you know and think of the people that have helped them – we’re social beings and need each other to lean on.

Using google translate, finding exercises online, and watching videos without human assistance will only get you so far. But they’re time consuming and often of bad quality. Only through contact with a person can you get feedback, speak and think spontaneously or be corrected. 

For example, when developing language and teaching skills, you can ask for explanations, clarifications and different types of support. Support could mean recommendations of other books, materials, documentaries or learning techniques. Learning with others can help you with pronunciation, understanding and human interaction, all of which are essential in teaching yoga. Learning language alone postpones your growth and, with no opportunity for real life practice, it causes a lot of frustration.

So, ask yourself: in what areas of my professional development could I use more support from other people

Is it in learning, business development, teaching techniques, or finding students? Again, get clear on your purpose so that you can understand what kind of help you need. I promise that receiving help makes a big difference and can give you a great sense of relief!  

5. Postponing your plans and waiting for a better time

Do you know the expression ‘time is money’? 

And I also want to ask you this: ‘what is the cost of not investing now?’

How many classes do you need to teach in your own language to make a living? How many classes would you have to teach if you could teach in English? And how many more students could you have? Postponing your plans to  teach yoga in English could have a really high price. The longer you don’t take the opportunity, the longer you’ll: 

❌ Keep declining international job offers because you think you can’t speak English well enough

❌ Miss out on collaboration opportunities because you don’t have the vocabulary or speaking skills to communicate

❌ Lose engagement online because you can’t express exactly what you want to say

❌ Keep committing the first mistake of this training: Doubt your teaching skills because of your language and communication abilities or simply think that your accent makes you a less effective communicator/teacher?

❌ Spend time trying to educate yourself, getting frustrated, giving up, losing momentum, starting over again and hit the same wall over and over.

6. Not investing time in skills, knowledge and education

The value of education is so underestimated. Education is an investment which always pays back. Skills, knowledge and the opportunity to put these skills and knowledge into action are key. And when you can put these skills and knowledge into action, you can expand your services. For you, those could be your classes, your workshops or retreats. 

Good education isn’t hard to find these days. On the internet you can find great teachers and, even better, teachers that aren’t normally accessible or available to you because of distance. 

Think of all the investments you’ve made so far to get where you are now. They aren’t always big ones, like living or working abroad, although they are obviously very beneficial to your development. What about the small ones you can do now? Like taking half an hour to revise that vocabulary? Or taking an hour or two a week to attend a language exchange or yoga class in English? The best investment is education because, no matter how small it is, it always pays back. 

Do any of these 6 mistakes stop your professional growth?

And what have you tried doing in order to defeat them? 

Go to the Continuing Education Membership to download your worksheet and start working on your professional growth.

Book your free discovery call with Annie here and find out what you can do to overcome them!

7 Ways Yoga Helps You Learn New Things

Listen to Annie speak about 7 ways yoga can help you learn new things.

7 Ways Yoga Helps you Learn New Things! 

Today I’m writing  about two of my biggest passions. Learning and yoga. Specifically 7 ways yoga helps you learn new things! 

As a yoga practitioner or teacher you know that yoga and learning go hand in hand. For most people this starts when they first practise asana, when you start to learn more about your  body. For others it could be meditation that teaches them about the fluctuations of their mind or spiritual texts that teach them about lifestyle, ethics and philosophy. 

Whichever came first and however you started your yoga learning journey, it’s a path of never-ending learning. 

Practising and teaching yoga opens up a whole new world. It gives you new perspectives on behaviour, actions, knowledge, but also culture and beliefs. It teaches you about your relationships with yourself, the people around you, and the world as a whole. Yoga takes you on a transformative journey which often makes you rethink all your previous thoughts, words and decisions. It helps you develop awareness, including self-awareness.

Why self-awareness is needed for learning new things

The self-awareness we develop through yoga is something we need when we want to learn anything. It’s something many school systems don’t pay attention to. When you’re in school, many classes are taught the same way, to all students. But every student has their own learning style, talents, strengths, interests and needs. For many, either in school or coming out of school we believe we’re not good at learning. Bad at memorising new information. And sometimes even think we’re not intelligent enough. As a result we focus a lot on what other people think of us, our answers and our grades. We develop a perspective of ourselves that may not be accurate or true, but from my own experience, practising yoga helps you gain a more correct and fairer awareness of who you are and what challenges you face.

Self-awareness is a product of your yoga practice which changes any false perspective you have of yourself and of what you can do. With this, comes a total change in attitude towards your learning journeys (yoga related or not)  meaning you can learn anything. 

Why would you want to learn anything?

I believe learning is one of the most valuable assets of our human experience. We continue learning and evolving throughout our personal and professional lives.

Without continuous learning, you wouldn’t be where you are today. On a learning journey that lasts a lifetime, you probably experience lots of different ways of learning. Some are more helpful than others, depending on your personal learning needs. 

For example, many school systems are designed to suit only one or two ways of learning which might be perfect for you, or completely wrong. And sometimes finding support from teachers or colleagues to help us and give us advice or to share resources can be a massive help. But they’re not always going to suit you, even if they’re offered to you with the best intentions. 

That’s why self-awareness in any learning is fundamental: really it’s you who can make the biggest difference to your learning. Rely on your knowledge and understanding of yourself, because nobody can know you better than you can.

Transferring the skill of self-awareness that yoga teaches you, to anything you’re learning, makes you an independent learner. That means you can use your self-awareness to know what you need in order to make progress, and understand where you need to improve and, importantly, where you do well! 

Today, I’m sharing with you 7 Ways Yoga Helps You Learn New Things. To stay on top of your goals, and enjoy learning faster and more effectively. For the purposes of this training/blog,  I’m going to give examples that are specific to  learning languages, because that’s what you’re doing. But these skills can be used for any other type of learning journey, too. If you’d like suggestions or help with any of these points, just write to me at annie@engaunite.com. 

7 Ways Yoga Helps you Learn New Things

1: FOCUS💡

One of the first things you learn by practising yoga is focus. ‘Find a focal point in front of you’ – ‘Bring your focus back to your breath’. ‘Focus on the sensations in your hip area when you’re in Pigeon Pose’. Yoga helps you learn not to listen to distracting thoughts, sounds, and other disturbances. Thi  can really help your brain use its energy where you want and need it to be. This focus training will become a transferable skill meaning that you can now apply your ability to focus when learning anything. 

2: COMMITMENT 🗓️

Commitment is a value and whether or not you find learning something easy or challenging, whether you really have no desire to or you can’t wait to learn it, doing it anyway is a huge achievement and a valuable learning skill. 

In yoga, many students value their commitment to their practice as an important part of their (daily) life. Their practice and self-care become a priority and this commitment is easily translated to any other learning journey. That feeling of getting on your mat on the easy days and the challenging days. No matter the distractions in your life, even if it’s for 10 minutes only, you’re showing up for your practice; you’re committed to your learning and your progress. 

Yoga teaches you you can only develop or improve yourself when you put in the time and effort. It teaches you that committing to your learning, no matter how much patience or hard work it requires, will be worth it in the future. That helps you face the vocabulary exercises, grammar tasks and learning objectives that intimidate you the most. 

3: IMMERSION ☸️

Yoga is practised on and off the mat. What you learn in class or have read in a book, you’ll apply in your daily life. For that reason, many teachers say that yoga is a lifestyle rather than a practice. In the same way we practise a yogic lifestyle on and off the mat, we can learn new things inside and outside the classroom. Learning something new is a way of life, particularly when learning languages! 

Consider your language learning journey a lifestyle, too, and bring it into your free time: read books and watch films in the language you’re learning, go to social events where you’ll speak/hear that language, watch documentaries about places where that language is widely spoken, meet up with people who are also learning the language, have learned it or a native speakers. Immerse yourself in any activities that expose you to learning more, and help you embody what you’ve already learned.

4: PATIENCE 🧘🏻‍♀️

Patience is a skill that you can train by regularly practising yoga. You’ll find that you have easy days and challenging  days. You’ll find that some asanas or knowledge come easily or naturally, and some take longer. But your inner patience tells you ‘ It’s okay. If it’s not today, it might be another day.’  This is having patience: being ok with the fact that something doesn’t happen when you want/expect it to.

Prioritise the quality of what you learn and how you learn it. Worry less about how much you learn in how short a period of time. There’s also no point in rushing your learning if you aren’t actually absorbing the knowledge you need to. People will ask you ‘how did you learn to do this asana?’ not ‘how long did it take you to learn so many asanas?’. 

The way you learned to do something so well is more important than how many other things you can do/know.

The same goes for learning to speak, write, listen, read and communicate effectively. Learning something like a language is never a fast process. Too often, students and teachers focus on quantity rather than quality. In your yoga practice, you must have heard the expression ‘less is more’. This is true for yoga asanas and for learning languages, too. 

5: LISTENING 👂🏽

Yoga teaches us about union of the mind and the body. It teaches us to listen to both things so that they can connect. It teaches you to be selective and only listen to things that really matter; to what  keeps you healthy and helps you grow. 

Learning to listen to yourself is a tool that improves the quality of any learning journey. Listening tells you when to take a break, when you don’t understand, or when you’ve made a mistake. But it also trains you to listen for the good things! Listen out for that new word you used, or that great answer you gave. Listening helps you nurture and reward yourself, fuelling your next step.

6: POWER of IMAGINATION 🌈

‘While in Warrior 2, imagine you’re a warrior, a fighter and a seer’, ‘While in Standing Forward Fold, imagine looking at your reflection in a pond between your feet.’Even if you aren’t aware of it, yoga trains your imagination. Think of all the imagery you experience during yogic and meditative practices. 

Has a teacher ever asked you to invent an example of something? To try to use a new word in a sentence? They do this to help you train your imagination so that when the correct context comes up in real life, you can use your imagination to create a correct sentence without the help of a teacher or an exercise. 

Your imagination can help you to visualise how you’d feel after achieving your language goals, for example. It can also help you to simply take a moment to visualise the image of a new word or piece of information, increasing your understanding. 

Imagining new knowledge in a visual way can help you absorb it. For more abstract ideas, imagining the concept in a real-life moment can help us relate better to what we’re learning.

7: ABILITY TO ACCEPT 😌

How often have you fallen out of Tree Pose? As a yoga teacher, how often have you mixed up left and right? And how do you respond to these tiny ‘errors’? 

Yoga gives us the ability to accept the present: the what is or isn’t. It helps you to be comfortable with your mistakes or the things you would like to be different. It teaches you to not judge yourself for the fact you might make more human errors in the future. Yoga shows you how you can accept the things you want to change first so you can take control and turn them into learning opportunities.

To summarise

7 Ways Yoga Helps you Learn New Things

1: FOCUS💡

2: COMMITMENT 🗓️

3: IMMERSION ☸️

4: PATIENCE 🧘🏻‍♀️

5: LISTENING 👂🏽

6: POWER of IMAGINATION 🌈

7: ABILITY TO ACCEPT 😌

These are the skills that yoga develops and which I believe are extremely valuable for improving the quality of your learning. I would love to know if you have ever thought about yoga as a learning skill too. Which of these have you thought about before? Are there any you think you already do? Which might you try to pay attention to in the future?

WEBINAR: Overcome Procrastination by Using Your Yoga Teacher Toolkit

I’d love to invite you to a free webinar I’m hosting on the 3rd of November. In this webinar I’ll share how to overcome imposter syndrome (procrastination) and hold yourself accountable for your learning journey! 

If you’d like to become more productive and stop yourself from postponing the task you know will actually help you grow, I’d love to see you there!  Simply register here!  

Did you already see our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers? In our membership you can further explore how yoga can help you learn new things and gain continuing education hours by joining the live yoga teacher training events. Visit our online learning platform and find out what else is included.