Hey guys and welcome back to the Understandable English Podcast.
Today we are going to be talking about how to overcome your fear of speaking English in public.
To overcome means to solve a problem or to beat something.
Does the idea of speaking English in front of others scare you?
Well, to be honest, we've all been there.
It's often so much easier to read, write or practice English grammar on our own.
And for many speaking is the biggest difficulty with learning English.
During all of my time teaching English.
It is the number one problem that I see when someone is nervous or worried or scared about speaking English.
Perhaps they are worried about making mistakes or having incorrect pronunciation.
It is so common and if you experience this, you are not alone.
So today I want to give you some tips to help you speak English more confidently.
So the very first step to stop being worried or scared, to practice your wonderful English skills is to understand why you're feeling worried or anxious.
For most people, the key reason is a lack of confidence, so they don't feel confident, or a lack of belief in their English skills.
Perhaps you don't think that your English is very good.
Another common reason is perhaps you have had a negative or bad experience in the past when speaking English.
Or maybe you just think that your English has to be perfect when you speak it.
The solution for all of these reasons is to have realistic expectations.
What that means is that you don't need to expect or want so, so much from yourself.
Learning a new language isn't easy and mistakes are an important part of the process.
It doesn't matter how much time or effort you put into it, you will still make mistakes.
You need to accept the fact that you will make mistakes, you won't have perfect pronunciation and you won't speak like a native speaker immediately.
And here's the big secret.
No one else expects these things except for you.
The fact that you are trying to speak a second language is already impressive.
Most native English speakers can not even speak another language even a little bit.
So don't feel sad or upset if you make a small grammar mistake or you don't know a word.
If no one else is judging you or testing you like an exam, why should you do it to yourself?
When I first started studying Russian language, I was very scared to speak.
I was worried that people wouldn't understand me because of my accent, my bad pronunciation.
And one day I just realized that I have to speak.
I have to speak and not worry about mistakes or grammar or any of those things.
And when you do that, it becomes so much easier.
Whenever you make a mistake maybe a bad pronunciation or the wrong words it is a moment that you can use to learn.
Maybe your conversation partner will explain the correct answer to you or you can ask them if what you have said is correct.
If we change our mindset, how we think, to look at mistakes and conversations as lessons, as learning, it really, really helps us with this.
Honestly, some of the biggest mistakes I have made when learning Russian.
I have remembers and I haven't made those mistakes again.
They have helped me to learn perhaps a grammar rule or new vocabulary and going forward in the future I can improve and do even better.
The number one way to improve your speaking and to feel better about it is to build confidence, and the only way you can build confidence is by practicing.
It doesn't matter how much grammar you do, how much you read, how much you use English books or watch YouTube videos.
The only way to truly build your confidence is to speak, is to practice as much as you can.
This might include communicating with native speakers, perhaps taking part in English language classes or even just having a practice conversation with yourself.
The more you practice and communicate, the easier it will become for you.
That is the simple truth.
It's the same for other activities and skills in life. and language learning is no different.
The worst thing that you can do is to avoid or not speak when you have the opportunity.
There are so many times when I've had students or friends who let me speak instead of them, when they had an opportunity to speak English.
And this mentality, this idea, it really holds you back.
It stops you from progressing.
So, even if you don't know the words you're looking for or exactly how to say something, use the words that you do know.
Say something in a more simple way and really, really try, and with time you will get better.
I promise you that when you speak, try not to think about grammar.
All of the grammar that you have learned is in your brain somewhere.
It's in your mind.
And when we speak, we shouldn't think about how to correctly say something.
This is difficult to do, but with practice you need to just try and say what comes to your mind.
And at first you may make sentences with strange grammar and strange words.
But the most important part about speaking is that the other person will understand you.
It is not about whether you have used the correct tense or correct pronunciation.
Your conversation partner won't care and actually it will be a lot more strange for them if you're stopping and thinking and speaking very slowly because you want to speak correctly.
It is more natural to speak with the mistakes that you make and with time you will learn from these and improve.
When I speak Russian, I speak with pretty bad grammar.
But the main point is that people understand me.
I'm able to have fluent or quite fluent conversations because I don't stress and I don't worry about grammar too much.
My main advice for you with English is to practice and find someone to practice with.
There are so many websites and applications out there where you can find a language exchange partner.
So someone from another country who wants to learn your language.
And of course, you are learning theirs.
So you can talk to each other in a casual and stress-free situation.
This can help you so much to practice and build confidence.
In my opinion, speaking English or speaking a language is the most fun out of all aspects of learning.
It's more fun to me than grammar or reading or listening.
And honestly, I think once you practice it too, you will think the same.
You might already think the same, and if you're in a position where speaking doesn't scare you that much,
I still have the same advice for you.
Speak, speak, speak, and speak some more.
Speak as much as you can.
Speaking and listening are the basics of language.
Think about a child.
When a child learns a language, they are hearing it from their parents.
They are speaking.
They are repeating.
And for us too, it is the same.
Of course, grammar is important.
Learning new words is important.
But the fundamentals of speaking and listening are the number one way to learn a language for communication.
So I hope this episode was useful for you and I really hope that you come back for the next episode.
Have a wonderful week and I will see you soon.
