This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1343.
How to prime your mind so you don't freeze up in English.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast downloaded more than 130 million times.
We believe in connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Los Angeles and New York City, USA.
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Do you fear those moments when you have to speak in a group or give a speech and you can't quite grip the vocab you need?
Today, get a six-step framework to move beyond this problem and start speaking impressively.
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Hey, Lindsay, how's it going?
Hey, Michelle, I'm feeling pretty good.
I'm actually getting ready to go to Egypt this week.
We have a trip planned going to Egypt.
So I'm ready.
Awesome.
Oh, my gosh.
I can't wait to hear about that.
That is so exciting.
I know it's going to be so cool.
It's going to be so cool.
I figured this is one of the places I need to have on my life list.
And so I'm going to get it in.
Yeah.
I'm reading like a romance novel right now from ancient Egypt to get ready.
What's the name of the book?
Oh, I don't remember what it's called, but it got a lot of good reviews on Amazon.
Oh, okay.
You'll have to tell me.
I didn't realize it was like a trashy romance novel until I got into it.
And now I'm like, okay, I see what I'm reading.
This is like the equivalent of it.
But I feel like I'm going to learn a lot about ancient Egypt, about the pharaohs and the gods and all that stuff which you have to know if you're going to go touring around these places.
Of course.
How exciting.
Oh, my gosh.
That is very cool.
That is very cool.
Yeah.
Well, very exciting.
Can't wait to hear about it.
So, I mean, Lindsay, I have a question, though.
When you are learning another language.
I mean, in the experience you've had, have you found that it's been easier to understand or to speak?
To speak for sure.
Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I find it because I'm more of a speaker than a listener.
I don't have the best listening skills, even in English, socially.
I'm not the best listener.
I've been told that I need to work on it.
And so I would rather be articulate, but I need to get better at listening.
So that translates into my actual skills in a second language.
Does that make sense?
Interesting.
Yeah, I mean, I actually always find it easier to understand.
Yeah.
Because for me it's like you don't need to get a basic idea to get the gist of what somebody's talking about.
You don't need to understand every single word.
But when you speak...
If you don't have the words, you feel lost and you don't even realize sometimes, the words that you don't have.
And it's like to prepare for that, you know, it can be frustrating.
It can be hard.
Like I can watch a show.
I have minimal French skills, but I can watch a show in French and understand bits and pieces.
But if you wanted to start a conversation with me, I would freeze up.
I wouldn't know what to say.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's true for most people when they're kind of like in that beginning level.
But once you get over the hump with a certain language, I feel like it then for some people it may become easier to speak because you have the words.
You have the ability to reframe and rephrase something if you don't know exactly what.
Right.
But until you have those vocab words.
Probably most people struggle more with speaking than listening.
Yeah, yeah.
Interesting.
Well, yeah, we've talked about this kind of stuff on the show.
But today I wanted to touch on it more because we have a great question from a listener on Instagram about this tricky issue.
We keep talking about these types of things, guys, because it's important.
It's relevant to our listeners.
And we're going to continue to talk about these kinds of topics and try and motivate you and give you advice.
Yes, I love it.
I love it.
Really important to touch base on this and show our listeners hey, where are we at in terms of our path to learning English and how can we help you guys.
It's not always all about vocabulary, right?
There's so much more.
But first, Michelle, what do we want to ask our listeners to do so they don't miss a single episode?
Guys, you're missing out if you have not hit subscribe.
Okay, we give out things like we have bonus episodes.
You're not going to know about these things unless you hit subscribe now.
So we want you to hit subscribe on your podcast player.
We'll give you a second.
Okay.
And now we also want you to tell a friend about the show, right?
Spread the love, guys.
Don't keep this show all to yourself.
Yeah, don't keep it to yourself.
If you have a friend who is struggling to learn English and they want to be a part of something big, right.
Our idea here is connection, not perfection.
The reason we are learning English over here at All Ears English is to help you connect, right?
We want to connect with another person in front of us and connect with the world so we can have the ability to do bigger things in life.
Okay,
That's what we're here to do.
So if you have someone that would like to do that too, just bring them along on the journey here.
Yeah.
All right.
Awesome.
So, now we have a question.
It was on one of my posts.
Our listener, Taha Ramzi from Iran.
So, Lindsay, could you read that question for us?
All right.
Hello, Lindsay, Michelle, and Jessica.
Thank you for providing by far the best and most active English podcast for advanced students that I could experience.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
I've been studying English for almost 12 years now since I was eight.
One of the problems that I think a lot of learners, including me, struggle with is the fact that, although we know the vocab, we tend to find it difficult to use the vocab, especially when we're giving a speech or even when having a friendly conversation with people.
I don't know if I could explain myself, but words just simply don't come up.
And I have to think about what words I've got to use in that moment, rather than focusing on what I want to say.
Take a debate, for example.
You have to be ready about instant responses, but you end up bumbling on it.
Interesting word.
You end up bumbling on it.
What do you suggest?
Taha Ramzi from Iran.
Oh, very cool.
Yeah.
I love this question.
I think that, you know, a lot of our listeners can probably identify with this, as Taha said.
So I really think this is an important one.
So, yeah, thank you for that.
Guys, here are some other episodes that could also give you some good tips.
We have 1187, which is how to think in English on the spot.
What else, Lindsay?
1310, how to seamlessly move between languages.
Okay, that's a good one.
And then 1161, get out of your head and speak more English.
Guys, we know that this is one of your core pain points, one of your core problems.
So we're going to try to take a stab at it today.
But I mean, this is really about getting into kind of a system and a study plan.
And we do have programs to get you to this goal, right?
It's not just listening to a podcast episode here and there.
It's about getting a plan for this.
Okay.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Okay.
So we're going to try and help you guys out.
So here we go.
What's the first tip we have, Lindsay?
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Thanks for listening guys, All right.
So you've got to find someone that you're comfortable with to practice, whether it's online.
It's a tutor, it's a friend.
So that way you can ask them when there's a word that you don't know.
You guys need to take that active role and just say, hey, I don't know how to say this.
Could you help me out for a minute?
Or was that right?
Did that sound right in that moment?
You got to be a little bit more aggressive.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
And to be more comfortable.
So being aggressive, that's going to help you.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
What else?
What's the next tip?
Write it down, right?
In that moment, in that moment where you realize, hey, oh my gosh, I didn't know what to say.
I'm a little bit frustrated.
Write it down.
What was it that you couldn't say?
Write it down after it happens.
Don't let it just pass you by, right?
Don't let it just float away because this is actually an opportunity for learning.
You should look at it as an opportunity for learning.
Okay. so this happened and you didn't quite have the words, write it down.
What was it?
And have like a little journal and review what you wrote down later.
And then you can practice to them and look into it, because then you'll know what do I actually need?
Where are these holes?
It's kind of like a sense of getting traction, right?
Because that means that things aren't just flying by you.
You are actively taking that step, writing something down.
It's like a gesture you're sending to the universe and you're saying, no, I can do this.
And even if it's just one thing you write down each day, that's okay.
Yeah.
Right.
And also Michelle, I would say for our listeners guys, you can send those questions to us and we can make an episode on
Oh, for sure.
Oh, for sure.
That's what we're here for, guys.
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, what else?
Okay, well, of course, you know, have a goal, right?
Maybe you're going to try a certain number of new vocabulary words in a conversation.
You know, just have a little goal.
You do need to have some, or it could be.
I'm going to speak in English for five minutes today, straight.
Right, exactly.
Or I'm going to have three conversations this weekend.
You've got to have some kind of numbers-based goal, okay?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It makes it more real, right?
And it makes it measurable, because by the end of that time period did you do it or did you not right?
And there's no in between.
You either did or you didn't, okay?
And then you can have a serious conversation with yourself and know whether you're truly committed to this or not.
Right.
That's a really good point, Lindsay.
Yeah.
So another tip is to watch a TV show and summarize sections out loud.
Right?
Yeah.
So like watch, like do this quickly.
So I'm thinking like watch two minutes, watch three minutes, then summarize it.
Record yourself or summarize it to someone.
So you're going to be paraphrasing and you're going to be paraphrasing quickly.
So this is a way to kind of take something that you're looking at.
So you have a topic, right?
And almost imagine like you're telling someone about this show and what happened, right?
So that gives you real practice in the moment and try and do it for, like you know, maybe the first day you just do one minute of the show and then you try and explain what happened.
And the next day you do three minutes, right?
Whatever it is that works for you.
Yeah, I like that idea, Michelle.
And what I like about this the most is I think we should get away from this idea that we always need to be corrected.
I think a lot of our listeners may feel like every single time they speak, they want to have corrections.
But there's something to the idea of building a sense of fluency outside of just being corrected, right?
You can summarize this TV show.
You can speak to your wall, speak to the mirror.
It doesn't matter.
There are times when you shouldn't be corrected, okay?
Because you're gaining fluency.
You're learning to put the words together.
Yeah guys, when I was getting my master's in teaching English as a second language, that is definitely one of the things that we spoke about a lot.
I mean so as a teacher in the classroom.
You know.
I know my students always want to be corrected and I'll correct as many as I can, but there's always.
There's always, there's a time and place for like heavy correction.
But I also believe that sometimes we should focus on fluency, being comfortable.
And, you know, maybe we're working on the past simple or we're working on something.
I'm going to correct that, but I may not, I may not correct everything else.
But in some classes, maybe I will correct more.
It kind of depends on the situation.
Yeah exactly, and if our listeners have been kind of like traumatized in the past by too many corrections, maybe when they were growing up, maybe they never got their legs in terms of speaking, then that's not what we need is corrections.
What we need is fluency.
We need that free speaking Time.
For sure.
Exactly.
And going along with this.
Just another idea is you know, when you're watching the TV or a movie, stop and express not only what happened, but also maybe how you feel about that particular point.
I like that.
Like articulate it out loud, you mean?
Right, exactly.
So maybe you're going to have a real conversation.
Like we said, maybe you're going to talk to your friend about this TV show, or maybe it's something you know everybody's watching, so you might actually have this conversation.
Maybe it's about the news.
Maybe it's about whatever it is.
Have a little rehearsal so you can express how you feel about that.
So maybe pause it and just say oh, I think this part is awesome or I totally disagree, whatever it is.
Ooh, I like this strategy.
We could do another episode just on this strategy, because what you're doing is you're priming your mind and you're preparing yourself for where and when it could fit into a real conversation.
Yes.
Right.
And so you'll be ready now to either bring it up or chime in when someone is already talking about it.
So you'll be primed.
This is powerful right here.
You know, this idea.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, you are going to be ready, right?
So you can kind of organize your thoughts a little bit ahead of time in case it comes up.
And that goes along with the last tip, which is to practice these conversations.
And like Lindsay, you mentioned the mirror.
I also agree about the mirror.
I mean, why not?
So think to yourself.
This kind of wraps it all up.
What do you like to talk about?
What are your interests?
What do you talk about on a daily basis?
Like maybe it's a conversation that always comes up in work, whatever it is.
What might you, our listener mentioned a debate, what kinds of things might you be debating?
Try and rehearse it a little bit spontaneously by yourself first.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Yeah, these are really good tips, guys.
I mean, even if you just take one or two of them, just run with them.
You know what I mean?
Whatever you take, just go deep with it because these are really smart.
I love this.
I mean, because you have a master's in TESOL, right?
You went really deep into this stuff.
What actually helps people learn and what doesn't?
You guys are getting tips from a real professional here.
So this is great.
Thank you.
Well michelle, what should we do?
What should we come away with today?
What do you think for uh?
Yeah guys, don't get frustrated, you're doing great.
It's really just about like your brain meeting your mouth in these situations.
Right, sometimes it may be your mind, may it may be in your mind.
You're having a hard time articulating it.
Whatever it is, It can be a real challenge, but start little by little and you will notice improvement.
Try to practice as much as you can, even if it feels silly, right?
Just try to get your mind and your mouth to meet somewhere so that in these situations, you can express yourself and feel more comfortable.
Yeah, exactly.
And just remembering that corrections are not the be all end all.
That's a good phrase.
Are not the be all end all.
Getting corrected is good.
There's a time and a place for it, but it is not the only way to learn English.
There are a lot of other important things that we need to do to build fluency.
So cool.
So cool.
And Michelle, our listeners, what should they remember to do?
One more time.
Go ahead and hit subscribe.
Yeah guys, if you like today's episode, if you want to be part of this community, hit subscribe on your podcast player.
All right.
Cool.
OK.
All right.
Thanks again for that question.
Have a good one, Lindsay and everyone.
All right, Michelle.
Talk soon.
Bye.
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