- [Jack] Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com.
And this is episode 27 of the To Fluency Podcast.
It is great to have you here today.
and this is true on YouTube as well.
we talked about if you have to move
to an English speaking country
in order to become fluent in English.
And the good news was that no, you don't.
I know many people who have reached a high level
without moving to the UK or Australia or the United States.
But what they do is they create their own environment
and they get enough practice when it comes to speaking,
And today, we're going to talk about speak in English again.
And I'm gonna answer the question of what you should do
if you don't have the confidence to speak English?
Because this is a big issue for many learners.
A lot of people have a fear of speaking in English
And the issue is that if you don't practice,
then it will be difficult to improve.
But also, one of the biggest reasons
why people want to start learning English
is to be able to connect with English speakers
and to have conversations with them.
So, if you don't feel like you have the confidence
then you're not going to have these conversations.
So, hopefully after listening today,
I'm going to go through five things, five points.
Hopefully after listening to these five points
and by the end of this episode, or this video,
you'll have a good idea or a good plan
in order to move forward with this.
And so that you can speak in English more
maybe initially all in one go or step by step,
Now, before we get into those five things,
I just wanna talk about how when I lived in Spain,
I was also scared of speaking Spanish.
because I wanted people to think I had a higher level
There were some situations where I felt confident.
to my ten-year-old students in Spanish.
I felt confident because they made me feel good
But a lot of the time when we went out in crowds,
when we met people, I felt shy.
I didn't have confidence speaking,
because I don't think I also had the required level
to be able to express myself freely.
But let's start with the first point,
which is confidence in beginners
when they're speaking English.
I think this is really going to help you understand
So, when somebody knows a few basic phrases in English,
learns a few basic phrases in Italian.
Because this is what happened to me.
And I'll tell you this story in a second.
I've seen people in this situation being very shy.
Very shy, they don't feel they know enough English
or Italian or whatever language to be confident.
So, they avoid conversation because they say,
I've also seen a lot of people who are beginners
and they have a lot of confidence.
I'm sure you've seen this before
when somebody just starts learning the guitar for example,
and they just wanna play in front of people,
even though they only know one song.
Or people who learn a different type of skill as well,
let's say a sport and they just play.
even though they're not as good
as other people that are beginner.
And this is the same with English too.
I've seen people who are very outgoing.
It doesn't matter to them that they're speaking slowly
and that they have a limited knowledge.
So, their conversations are limited,
They just wanna speak the language.
when I learned some basic phrases in Italian
and we went to Italy and I just wanted to practice.
I wanted to order something in Italian.
I wanted to ask if there was Seton inside in Italian,
because I had just learned that phrase.
So, I felt confident about speaking Italian.
And I think, again, this goes back to the ego thing.
"okay, I want people to know I have a high level,
or I want people to think that I have a high level."
Then you might not practice as much.
because you don't want people to see that you make mistakes.
I knew I had a very basic level.
I just wanted to use the language,
the very very limited language that I knew.
So, sometimes confidence is not about how much you know,
it's just about your desire to speak
If you have the ego to say, "oh, I know English really well.
I don't want people to hear me make mistakes."
Then that's not going to allow you to express yourself
On the other hand, if you just think,
I don't care what people think.
And in fact, most people are going to be impressed
So, I've seen people's fear of speaking go away
because this could be the case with again, ego.
And when I started to improve my Spanish,
but also moved to the US I started to speak more.
Because again, my level matched
what I wanted people to think.
I was there in cafes and restaurants speaking freely,
trying to just speak to people in the restaurant
in a very basic way to say a few phrases,
because my ego wasn't involved.
dictating your confidence level, isn't always true.
But just ask yourself this question.
Do I want people to think that I have a higher level
And does this stop me from speaking English?
So, a good question to ask yourself.
and this is another question, is this, are you afraid?
Are you confident when speaking in your native language too?
when speaking in your native language too?
This is something that people don't think too much about,
because if you sometimes feel shy
or you have a fear of speaking in your native language,
then you will probably feel this way in English too.
when you were around a group of people
and this class is in your native language.
Were you fearful of speaking then as well?
then well, we'll talk more about how to overcome this later.
But I think it's a good question to ask yourself,
because that'll give you a good indication
of whether your issue of confidence
is related to English or just situations,
conversations being social in general
the third point I wanted to talk about
is probably one of the biggest points
that you're thinking about as well.
And that I think is just vital
when it comes to increasing your confidence.
A lot of people have a fear of speaking English,
because they don't want to make mistakes.
They don't want to look silly.
They don't want people to laugh.
Or sometimes even just to smile if you make a mistake.
And I think this goes back to point one,
because again, if you have this mind frame
of "I don't want people to think I'm not perfect English."
Then you will be fearful of making mistakes.
But this is what is important to know.
And this is what I learned as well,
in terms of speaking Spanish and Italian.
The vast majority of English speakers
do not care if you make mistakes,
And we can talk about this in terms of grammar mistakes,
sentence structure, but also accent too.
Because a lot of people think,
with that perfect American or British or Australian accent,
so that people will think, 'oh, I'm like a native.' "
But the vast majority of English speakers
love hearing foreign accents too.
Because it just sounds good, basically.
But think about making mistakes this way.
English is the international language of most things.
It's the international language of travel, business,
And English speakers, so native English speakers
hear non-native speakers talk all the time.
We are constantly hearing non-native speakers talk.
And therefore we hear mistakes all the time too.
So, we hear people make mistakes.
I have friends who are from foreign countries
And here's an interesting point.
I use British English and I live in America.
Now, some people will see this as me making a mistake
when I asked for water instead of warer.
Because people don't understand when I say water.
So in a way, this is like a mistake.
People just want to be able to connect with people
and don't care if people make those mistakes when speaking.
Now, sometimes someone might laugh at something you say.
People laugh at me all the time
when I'm speaking around others,
because I say things that are different.
But know that mistakes you make can be funny.
always talks about how she went to the eye center in Spain
to try and get some contact lenses.
And instead of saying contact lenses in Spanish,
Which is a type of food that you can cook.
So, she was like, "lentils for my eyes, lentils."
It's funny, those kinds of mistakes are funny.
It's part of learning a language.
And if you take it too seriously, make a mistake,
then you miss out on all the fun things
then you miss out on the funny things that you say,
And sometimes people may be laughing at you in a mean way,
in a way that's not very nice.
And that's obviously not a good thing.
And maybe you just don't have a conversation
people are laughing because of the situation,
because language can be funny.
It's funny, so just laugh along with them,
And then you learn something as well at the same time.
But just know that most people don't care.
And the main thing is that you make a connection
and express yourself in the best way
so people understand what you're trying to say.
Now point four, is to overcome your fear step by step.
So, if you do have a strong fear of speaking in English,
Or another way to say this is little by little.
You can also say, take baby steps.
So, it's fine saying that you shouldn't be worried
and that being confident results in the practice,
but sometimes you need to build that confidence slowly.
So, start off with trying to just move away from perfection,
because perfection kills practice.
You just won't practice and speak
if you're looking to be perfect all the time.
but find somebody who can help you
build up your confidence slowly,
to help you just relax when you're speaking.
For example, a teacher who you pay to listen to you,
will be patient with you and give you feedback.
to my favorite resource for that for online.
Then you can gain that confidence
by finding somebody who understands your situation,
is going to listen to you speak.
Who's going to give you feedback
and who can give you confidence as well.
get speaking with somebody in a non-pressure environment
and build your confidence over time.
where you can say little things here and there.
situations where you don't have to commit
because a lot of people are most fearful
Now, if you're in an English speaking country,
and you can do this various times throughout the day.
If you're in a non English speaking country,
But go back to that podcast episode,
if you're on a podcast app it's episode 26, I think.
And I'll leave a link to this in the description
if you're watching this on YouTube.
get speaking practice at language schools too.
So, if you're in a language school,
think about how you can practice little by little.
And a good idea is just to say in your head
3, 2, 1 speak, and then speak.
Countdown to doing it so you just do it.
And a lot of people realize after speaking in class
for the first time, it gets much easier.
You just need that first moment in every class
to start speaking and then you're good.
And then point five is to use any lack of confidence
where I've been in a situation
where I didn't have the confidence in Spain to speak.
So, what I did is I used this as motivation
to go and learn the phrases I needed to know
and have the right skills as well for that situation.
I've seen advanced learners with low confidence.
I've seen people who have advanced levels of English.
They just don't wanna speak again,
probably because they want to be perfect
and they want other people to see them as being perfect.
won't necessarily give you confidence.
But still use it as motivation to improve anyway,
The more you know in English the better.
Things like pronunciation practice,
and the repetition of audio sentences.
I'll leave a link to all these methods
in the description for you too.
So you can go through these step by step.
I think one of the biggest issues is ego.
And that it doesn't really matter what level you have.
It just depends on your mind frame
Because again, I've been in the situation
where I have a very low level,
but I just wanna speak with everyone.
And I've been in the situation
where I have a really high level,
because I'm worried about what other people will think.
And the key is to know that in the vast majority of cases,
which means they'll want to be friendly with you
and if you don't take it too seriously
So just having that ability to try
and to not take it so seriously,
will make such a big difference
when it comes to interacting with people.
you might want to build up this confidence step-by-step.
So, find somebody who can help you with that,
a teacher or a language exchange partner or a friend.
And then also use the motivation,
or use the lack of confidence as motivation
to improve your general English.
But again, know that it's not about the level you have,
when it comes to speaking English.
So, please share this with a friend,
somebody who you think will benefit from this lesson.
okay, this person should have more confidence when speaking
and that something that I've talked about
which means stopping them from speaking in English more.
if you're on a platform that has a comment.
tell me what you're going to do moving forward.
Well, thank you so much for listening to this episode.
check out the other videos in the description.
And if you're listening on a podcast app,
And if you don't have my book yet,
the "Five-Step Plan for English Fluency"