A TOEIC 900 Scorer's Experience Living in the US: The Native Wall I Hit

・Introduction

I arrived in the US full of confidence with my TOEIC 900 score, but
the native Americans easily knocked my long-nosed self down a peg or two.

About six months in, I heard through the grapevine that a local staff member had said, "It's hard to communicate with Fuji (my name)"

I was quite shocked. I had tried my best. I was proactive in talking to people to try and get along. But, behind my back, they were trashing me.

After being knocked down, I spent about a year facing English head-on and fighting through it. I would like to talk about those days with complete honesty.

Perhaps because of that effort, I no longer have any trouble with English in my work or daily life.

I wrote this to be helpful even for language beginners.
I also made sure to write it so that it serves as a future reference, not just with my own personal experiences, but also with tips on how to communicate effectively.
I hope this will be of some help to English learners, those who want to move abroad in the future, and those currently on assignment who are struggling with English.

・A Brief Self-Introduction

・Living in rural America for over 3 years
・In my 30s, no children
・English proficiency: TOEIC 900
・Studied abroad during college

Even after entering the workforce, I studied for the TOEIC as a decoration for changing jobs.
I changed jobs twice to fulfill my desire to work abroad, and I finally achieved that goal at my current company (my third company).

When I studied abroad in Canada about 10 years ago, I was initially in despair because I couldn't speak English, but I think my growth speed was tremendous due to a combination of my own efforts and my youth at the time.

Looking back now, I think I may have developed the ability to think about and practice "how to improve" while I was studying abroad.

・About the Workplace Environment

Before I tell you about my workplace environment, I'll suddenly try to categorize people who speak English in America by how easy they are to talk to.

Here in America, my personal impression is that the ease of speaking differs even among those who speak English.
In other words, even if you call them all "natives," the difficulty level varies depending on the person.
(It's the same among Japanese people, isn't it?)

The more you go to the city, the more diverse the people are. There are probably levels from Lv.1 to Lv.5.
Conversely, my perception is that in rural areas, people from Lv.3 to Lv.5 make up a large percentage.
※There is also the separate issue of the difficulty of Southern dialects, but I will omit that here.

Also, as a supplement, for example, those who converse with in-house Americans, such as engineers or production managers, at work should be fine if they can communicate with people at the Lv.1-Lv.2 level.
For those who are accompanying their spouses on assignment, I think many are studying in environments where Lv.1-Lv.2 are common in ESL (English as a Second Language classes).
It's tough for those accompanying spouses, too, as some have to live in environments where Lv.3-Lv.5 are common depending on the location.

Americans working at Japanese companies often have many local employees at Lv.2, and they adjust the words, slang, and pace they use to the Japanese level.
This is a common occurrence for Japanese expatriates at Japanese companies.

However, there are also Japanese companies where a culture is fostered where people at Lv.3 or Lv.5, for whom conversation is more difficult, are the norm.
In other words, it is a hellish environment for some, where natives talk to us Japanese just as they would talk to other natives.

My workplace is close to this.

In addition, as a salesperson, I have to conduct business negotiations with Americans. Unfortunately, I have more American clients than Japanese ones.
I also work with people from the Amish, a devout Christian community.

*Since the Amish don't even watch TV, let alone talk to foreigners,
they are definitely people with a difficulty level of 4 or higher.

I thought right after I started my assignment that I had arrived at apretty tough workplace.

・Failure stories

Well, despite being in such a tough and somewhat unique environment, I still worked hard on my studies after arriving. However, six months into my assignment, my self-esteem was shattered. The reason is as I wrote at the beginning of this article.

When I analyze why this happened,my efforts in English were completely misdirected.

As for how they were misdirected, I wrote an article like the one below in the past, so please refer to it. The conclusion of this article is thatmy failure in English was due to trying to act cool and speak like a native speaker when I first arrived, which was a self-satisfying and unattainable effort.

And I was drowning in a kind ofnarcissism where I thought, 'I'm different from others,' by watching English dramas (Friends or Game of Thrones) to imitate cool phrases or listening to academic podcasts to memorize difficult words.
(There are quite a few people studying for Eiken or TOEIC who end up with this kind of self-satisfaction. Let's be careful.)

・How I recovered

Simply put, it's 'talking to a lot of people'.

...Well, that's obvious, and if I just say that, I'll have nothing left to write, so I will explain the points I was particularly conscious of.

・Created my own patterns
It's like karate forms.

For example, the topics for small talk are actually decided.

'What you did on the weekend'
'Differences between American and Japanese culture'
'About family'

These are mainly the three.
Well, that might be an exaggeration, butyou can generally predict what will be talked about in each field.
(Because it's predictable, for example, even if a technician who can't speak English at all comes overseas on a business trip, they can manage with gestures.)

Being able to predict means that even if you can only hear bits and pieces, you can understand what the other person wants to say.

However, that of course takes time.

So, I thought that if I built my own patterns firmly and communicated them, the other person would be able to understand what I was saying because I was saying similar things!
(It's a really stupid-sounding idea, but even I, with a TOEIC score of 900, was at this level, haha)

Focusing on topics that often come up,I refined my own "repertoire."
※I don't mean to say I made them funny.

Then, I would write down or speak out the refined material at home and practice it in my head.
※I used this method every time I learned new words or phrases.

And then, without putting too much pressure on myself, I would go into practice!

In the flow of conversation with the other person,I steered the conversation toward topics where I could naturally deploy these patterns and then used them.
Of course, if I had the same conversation and gave the same answers to the same person, I would be like an X bot, so I changed the words.

By doing that multiple times, it naturally became my own, and the "pattern," or in other words, the foundation of my English, was completed.

In English, this"pattern" is very, very important.Advanced English speakers also use this pattern as a base, rearranging or applying it to produce words.

It is no exaggeration to say that being able to do that naturally and fluently makes you an advanced English speaker.
My failure was that I was too caught up in "trying to use cool phrases or pronounce things coolly" without being conscious of the patterns.

…I understand. Failure is scary, right? Also,there are quite a lot of people who are afraid they won't be able to respond to what the other person says back.

I used an app called HelloTalk to practice these patterns with people I found easy to talk to.

・I made an effort to create a state where the other person could listen
This is similar to patterns, but the introductory phrases you use when talking to someone are very important. For example, "Excuse me," "I have something to tell you," "I wanted you to know something," "Can I talk about~"

Well, the list goes on, but if you say you want to talk about something before you start speaking, the other person can prepare to listen.
Even if you don't consciously do this as much when speaking only Japanese, it is quite important when speaking a second language. It also puts the listener at ease.

・Aside and summary

For the 10 years since I returned from studying abroad and have been in Japan, I have mainly focused my studies on TOEIC. (Although there were many periods when I didn't study at all.)

I think that was fine in its own way. It helped with changing jobs and I was assigned to work overseas.
However,there was a part of me that felt I had become complacent with the satisfaction of TOEIC, where you improve just by the amount you study.

I actually follow TOEIC learners on X, and there are many people who are obsessed and working like demons every day to raise their scores. In a sense, having your English ability turn into a score is a state whereneurotransmitters are firing like crazy.

But whether someone who gets a high scorecan speak Englishis a different story.
Even if you go to an English conversation instructor and gain confidence in being able to speak, you are only talking to someone at Level 1 or Level 2.

People who jump into the chaotic world where people from Level 1 to Level 5 are swirling are very brave and I think it is something to be proud of.

Whether I was on an overseas assignment or studying abroad, I struggled because I couldn't speak English.
So, I truly understand the feeling of struggling with a language abroad.

In times like those, things like 'I tried to go to ESL today,' 'I tried watching an English anime,' 'I tried to read a supermarket receipt,' or 'I tried to decipher a text while using a translator'

Please praise yourself for even such small things.

I hope this article makes you feel a little lighter knowing that even someone with a high TOEIC score struggles like this.

Regarding employment, job changes, overseas assignments, and English,
I have received requests for advice...

I was so happy that they were very pleased, soI am starting coaching!!!!
The fee can be whatever you feel like tipping ☺
I will start for free until August 7, 2025.
Below is the feedback.

Please feel free to DM me ☺
Voice chat is also possible if necessary. You can jump to X by clicking the image below ☺

Finally, I wrote an article for language beginners in the past, so if you are interested, please refer to it.