Nervous and Confused

by Frustrated English Learner

Hi Robby, My problem is that whenever I try to speak English I get nervous and confused. I can't speak fluently and because of this, I become shy and can't talk with friends in English.

How can I overcome my fear?

Comments for Nervous and Confused

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Jan 26, 2011

Stop being Nervous and Confused when speaking English!
by: Robby Kukurs

Hi and thanks for the question!

How to overcome fear of facing real-life English communication - that's a question thousands of foreigners ask themselves every day!

There are several reasons why you might have this fear. You might be afraid of making mistakes because we believe incorrect speech makes a very bad impression. You might also be afraid of situations when you're unable to respond to the other person's questions at all because you get completely tongue-tied.

As for the mistakes - here I wrote an answer to a similar question on this website You can also watch this video of mine where I'm explaining how to overcome fear of making mistakes.

If you suffer more from the other condition when you get tongue-tied and struggle for words - here's what you have to do first of all:

1) Slow your speech down - try to speak in a controlled and slow manner.

2) Use simple words to describe concepts or respond to questions.

3) Try to fill pauses with filler phrases such as - well, you know... As far as I know... Well, this is a hard one to answer... To buy time during the conversation and make it sound more natural.

As for the actual fear itself - well, I don't think there's anything better than a nice session of meditation. Also reciting affirmations helps to become more confident and relaxed when facing real-life communication, and you can find it all in the Confidence Mentor Module in my English Harmony System 2.0.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Robby

Robby Kukurs is the creator of www.englishharmony.com, a website he created in 2007 to help struggling foreign English speakers gain real English fluency.

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