How to overcome fear of speaking a language 🙈
(PS...new video coming on Monday about whether or not introverted language learners REALLY need to practice speaking or not ... keep your eyes peeled for that discussion!)
Anyway, here are some tips for overcoming fear in those situations where you do need to use a foreign language. 👀
1. Analyze the situation and go easy on yourself 🥰
Identify WHY you’re afraid of speaking a language. It could be because you’re too shy or because you don’t know enough vocabulary. If you use the wrong particle, grammar structure or word, what’s the worst that can happen? If people laugh at you, that’s a reflection of them as a person, not you.
2. Prepare vocabulary and phrases in advance ✍🏽
When I was working as a design intern at a Japanese company, I was really scared that I wouldn’t understand anything during meetings and presentations. It helped me a lot to look up words I suspected I might hear during the internship. I built vocabulary lists and example sentences of design-related vocabulary. You can’t find a textbook for every topic, so taking matters into your own hands and creating your own language learning materials boosts your confidence.
If you cannot remember or don’t know a word, you can always talk around the word and describe it in another way. If you don’t know the word for “cake” for example, but you know the words “sweet” and “food”, you can say “sweet food” and they might say “cake?” in return.
3. Practice beforehand 💬
Just like practicing a speech for a presentation, you can practice using new words and phrases in a safe environment until you’re ready to use it with a native speaker. This could be talking to yourself, a pet, a chatting partner online, or a tutor. My favorite method is talking to people on voice apps. When I can’t see someone’s face and they can’t see mine, I feel less ashamed of making mistakes.
4. Record yourself 🎥
You'll hear your mistakes easier and be able to correct them if you need to, but you'll also gain confidence over time hearing that you aren't actually as bad as you think you are! You can use sites like Forvo to hear a native pronunciation or ask a native speaker friend you trust to correct you first, if you like.
5. Relax ☺️
Remember not to take language learning too seriously. Your goal is to communicate with others, right? It’s counter-effective to worry about using the right words and grammar each time you try to say something. And it's always OK if you prefer to do other activities rather than speaking - we all learn languages for different reasons and if you prefer reading books and watching movies, that's totally fine too 💕
