Hey everyone, welcome to the English Fluency Journey podcast.
These episodes were created based on our videos on YouTube for those who'd rather listen than watch.
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In this video, we'll talk about the three must do things to improve your speaking.
Honestly, if I had a penny for every time I got a question about how to improve speaking, I'd be super rich right now.
On this whole journey of learning English, speaking is the most difficult thing to implement and succeed in. and is the most frustrating part of learning a language.
And these three things that I'll talk about really are the key things to do to improve your speaking.
Number one, be proactive. Let's just be real here, straight and honest.
There's no tricks and no cutting corners.
If you don't speak, there's no way you're going to improve your speaking, right?
You have to be practicing outside of social interaction.
Meaning that if you go out in the world and try to use English to communicate with other people, that's great.
And it counts, of course. However, it's not enough.
Speaking in general and especially if you want to improve your pronunciation takes a deliberate and repetitive practice. on your own or with someone who can help you with this.
There's also a question of how much you should speak. per day or per week to achieve that level that you want.
And it's different for everybody. For some, it's enough to practice speaking with someone once a week for an hour and their accent doesn't bother them, while for others, It even might be not enough to speak in English for half a day every day.
My personal advice is to try to speak English no less than three times a week for at least an hour at a time.
If you're attending English classes and your goal is specifically to improve your speaking, then make sure that you are the one who speaks for the most time in that class.
If you have a one-hour class and you speak for just 15 minutes out of that hour, well, you can think about that and account for yourself.
I understand that everyone's different and our capabilities and life's circumstances are different.
But every time you say to yourself or someone else, I can't do this because, and start making a list, I don't have the time.
I don't have the money. I don't have a person to teach me or to talk to me.
I don't know what to do and I don't know where to search.
Take a second and think about what it really means.
Now, don't get me wrong here, this doesn't apply to every single person.
However, sometimes it's really not a case of not having the money or... a person to practice with.
Sometimes it's a case of not being willing to put in the work and time and having the desire and enough motivation.
What we really have to ask ourselves. Is this what I truly need?
Am I ready to put in the time and work my ass off for this?
Because believe me, I know that sometimes this learning journey might be so overwhelming and tiring and disappointing even.
However, when there's a huge desire, there's a plethora of opportunities.
I know that not having enough time, for instance, is a real problem for some people.
But in this case, you have to prioritize if learning English is what you want or need.
You have to manage your time and create schedules but don't let it be your excuse because you're just going to waste your time.
And one more thing that I want to add to this.
You have to lower your expectations. I'm sure that you know that you can't become fluent in a language overnight.
Mahatma Gandhi said, To lose patience is to lose the battle.
Think about this. Sometimes it might seem to you that you're stuck and not improving, but have some patience and keep working.
Maybe change something your approach. And eventually you'll be amazed and satisfied with your progress and very happy that you didn't stop.
You just have to take a step back and take a look at your journey so far, where you were a couple of months ago and where you are now. and do this from time to time.
In the description box down below you'll find courses that I recommend and free sources that you can use to improve your speaking and English in general.
Be proactive. In other words, Do something, take action to change a situation.
I know that you watch a lot of videos where people give advice and share their experience and how to learn English. use that advice that people give.
Give the ones that you feel might work a try.
Be curious, explore, search for the ways to practice your speaking. actually open that description box and take a look at those options that are listed. don't sit and wait for someone to give you a perfect solution because it doesn't exist if something works for one person it doesn't mean that it'll work for another I might swear by some course or method or a teacher. but another person might think that it's a total nonsense.
The number two thing is you have to be a broken record.
There's an idiom to sound like a broken record, which means to repeat something over and over again even to the point of being annoying.
Have you heard me or other people saying that you have to be consistent?
Well, that's what it is. Doing something over and over again.
And the same way to hone something, some skill and be accurate.
Also, we can call this repetition. Repetition is the base and key. be it working on your pronunciation, eliminating the grammar mistakes that you keep making, applying and trying to remember new vocabulary or expressions, or working on your confidence in dealing with fear when speaking English.
Repetition will help you develop the habit of speaking in English.
Someone said that all people are the same, only their habits differ.
Isn't that right? You've made a grammar mistake.
You've used an idiom incorrectly. You've mispronounced a word.
Don't just leave it as is, correct yourself right away, make a note of it and practice it later.
If you keep making a sound incorrectly or putting the stress and the word in the wrong place, we'll work on that.
Dedicate some time to that single sound.
Practice it, repeat it a thousand times until you feel sick of that word or phrase or sentence, doesn't matter. you will see that after this what seems crazy practice, You're going to be saying those things correctly without even thinking.
You've heard a cool sentence someone said during an interview or in a movie.
Write it down and practice it later. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Or for example, I absolutely love the Accurate English channel.
It's mainly focused on pronunciation and American accents.
Almost in every video Lisa, the host on the channel, provides some words or phrases, their pronunciation, plus she gives example sentences.
She repeats them a couple of times so that you are able to practice with her.
This can easily be your daily practice routine.
This valuable information is for free. You can do it whenever you want but just do it.
And what do we have to do? We have to take one video and not just watch it or repeat those sentences once, but repeat them until we memorize them.
We have to repeat them until we can say them without looking at the screen, until you feel sick of that sentence, or if you're working on your pronunciation, until your face muscles hurt.
Let's say you're going shopping tomorrow and you happen to be in a place where people speak English.
Find questions, words, and phrases that you might use and practice asking them and saying them.
Basically, it's a rehearsal. If you repeat and keep practicing them lots and lots of times, they're gonna pop up in your mind just like that.
And this, by the way, will save you from social interaction anxiety and stress.
Remember that everything that you do adds to your ability to speak and to your fluency in general.
And the last thing is listening. Yes, you have to listen to English speech a lot to be able to speak.
And fortunately, these days, it's a very easy thing to do.
When your listening skills are developed and when you're listening to people speaking in English regularly, It helps tremendously with your speaking and pronunciation.
For one thing, you catch new words and phrases, and you hear different words and expressions used in context. you have the opportunity to understand the usage of grammar.
And another thing is that you're listening to natural speech and the correct pronunciation.
Your brain catches all these things. And when you speak, it gives you the opportunity to recognize your mistakes and correct them.
Of course, listening per se doesn't enable you to speak perfectly in English.
However, when you've said something and made a mistake, you'll notice that something didn't sound right.
Be it the pronunciation of a word or you didn't say a phrase correctly, or your sentence sounded weird, maybe you misplaced words. your brain will give you a signal.
And what is even better is that eventually it'll give you corrections.
Making mistakes sucks. I know. And it's so annoying, especially when you know the correct pronunciation or grammar.
But mistakes happen and it's okay. The bad news, or maybe it's good news, is that I don't know a single person person who doesn't make mistakes or mispronounces words.
Yeah, that includes native speakers. The good news is that over time, you're going to be making much fewer mistakes.
All it takes is to make practicing and learning your habit.
To conclude, let me remind you those steps.
Be proactive, be a broken record, and listen.
Okay guys, that's it for now. Thank you for choosing our podcast.
Until the next one.
