Somewhere in your first minute of an international meeting, it slips out: “Sorry for my English.” It feels polite. It feels safe. And it does the exact opposite of what you want: it tells the room to start listening for mistakes.
Why “sorry for my English” works against you
Here is the uncomfortable truth: most of your colleagues had not noticed your accent as a problem until you framed it as one. Native speakers mishear, restart sentences and grope for words constantly. They just never apologise for it.
The apology also does something subtler. It hands the other side a reason to discount what you say next. In a negotiation or a board call, that is a discount you cannot afford, and it has nothing to do with your actual level of English.
What to say instead: the repair tools confident speakers use
So retire the apology and replace it with function.
- If you need time: “Let me put that another way.” It buys you five seconds and sounds like precision, not panic.
- If you lose a word: describe around it. “The document that summarises the terms” works fine while “term sheet” is hiding.
- If someone speaks too fast: make it their job. “Could you slow down a little? I want to get this right.” Nobody has ever refused.
- If you missed a sentence: “Sorry, say that again?” Natives say it ten times a day.
- If you want to check you understood: “So, if I’ve got this right, you’re saying…” This one also makes you sound like the most careful listener in the room.
None of these are excuses. They are the same repair tools confident speakers use in every language.
Confidence is a vocabulary you can learn
The moment you stop apologising, two things happen: the room relaxes, and so do you. Your English does not need to be perfect to be authoritative. It needs to keep moving forward.
That forward motion is trainable. Most of the professionals we coach already understand everything in their meetings. What they lack is a set of reflexes for the moments when a sentence breaks, and reflexes come from repetition, not from more grammar. Small talk works the same way, and we cover it in small talk is a skill, not a gift.
Try this in your next English meeting
Pick two repair phrases from the list, say them out loud a few times before the call, and use them at least once. Then notice what happens: nobody reacts, because nobody was keeping score in the first place.
If you want that reflex built faster, one-to-one business English coaching at Learnerds starts with a free assessment and then rehearses the real meetings on your calendar, with corrections on your recordings between sessions. See the coaching offers or book a free assessment call, in French or English.