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Speaking in Front of Other People | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| PicturesAre Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5451 days ago 13 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Haitian Creole Studies: Tok Pisin, Spanish, Mandarin | Message 9 of 28 24 December 2009 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think I can do small talk. I can't even do language in "critical situations". Like, I can't use Chinese at
restaurants when the waiter speaks no English. Like, it really is just the most absolutely terrifying thing I can possibily imagine. I'm getting a little nauseous reading this forum. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| wildweathel Newbie United States Joined 5565 days ago 32 posts - 71 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Japanese | Message 10 of 28 25 December 2009 at 3:22am | IP Logged | ||
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There are two possibilities.
First, you're in your silent period. This is normal and will pass with more exposure and learning. A lot of exposure, and a fair bit of learning. Listen to you target language whenever possible (even if you can't pay attention). Focus on reading and understanding simple stuff. Pay attention to filler phrases, the things people say when they're speaking off the cuff to get themselves more time to think or correct their mistakes--and practice them so well they become automatic. Second, you could have speaking anxiety. You feel that trying is the first step towards failure. Well, you're right. You need to put yourself in situations where it's safe to fail. Then fail. Repeatedly. So you can get a gut sense that failing is okay, that you just have to get back up and try again. Then, you won't be so scared. If possible, I want to try being part of a small group conversation about something interesting, one where you don't have to say anything, but you can if the mood strikes you. If the topic is interesting and you can follow the conversation, that mood is bound to strike. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| PicturesAre Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5451 days ago 13 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Haitian Creole Studies: Tok Pisin, Spanish, Mandarin | Message 11 of 28 26 December 2009 at 12:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Ugh....maybe....
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ulmo Diglot Newbie Joined 6088 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English | Message 12 of 28 26 December 2009 at 1:21am | IP Logged | ||
I have once tried some Korean practice being drunk. I wish I could forget this horrible experience. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Silvance5 Groupie United States Joined 5496 days ago 86 posts - 118 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, French | Message 13 of 28 26 December 2009 at 1:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't do well speaking either. I run into a lot of people that say stuff like "Hey, say something in German!" and I freeze up. I usually just string a bunch of random words together and call it a day.
However, if someone actually asks me a question in German, I still freeze up a little, but not near as bad. I think once I get to a point where I don't have to sit there, think of the answer in English, then translate it to German, I'll be okay. If you're in that stage where you have to translate everything from English to the target language before you speak it, that could explain it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| burgler09 Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6050 days ago 72 posts - 88 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 14 of 28 26 December 2009 at 3:23am | IP Logged | ||
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When i get trashed i switch to foreign mode and only speak in foreign languages, hey who knows how i sound but at least i feel like im the best speaker in the world.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5705 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 15 of 28 26 December 2009 at 5:04am | IP Logged | ||
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If your a linguistics major then surely your school has a foreign language lab, lounge and possibly even "table" sessions where students studying X come together just to speak that language.
You should try going to lab or the foreign language lounge and just listening a lot to other people speaking so that you can get used to hearing the languages you need to speak. Try and make a friend there and start speaking. Make it your mission to speak 100 words of X in front of at least one or two people every week. Go to the tutors if your school has them and practice speaking with them. Or, tutor a jr. student so that you can be confidently in the Alpha-speaker position and not feel so nervous. trong>Only cowards need a bottle of liquid courage to do something. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5555 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 16 of 28 26 December 2009 at 8:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Here in Finland for a while I had a language tandem, and we would converse in Finnish. I'll be honest, it made me so tense and nervous that I couldn't stand it. The girl was a great person and I really enjoyed my time with her. We became real friends after a while, not just each other's language teacher. But speaking in Finnish was just... ugh. It was uncommon for me to grasp what she would say to me entirely and usually I would just latch onto the 1 or 2 vocabulary words I would hear from her and build a response off that, hoping I'm not changing the subject. It was always such a relief when we switched to English.
I just chalked it up to having absolute abysmal Finnish skills. Also, the phenomenon of not being able to express yourself in 1 language (when you know how to in your mother tongue) because you lack the vocabulary or have no clue how to construct such a sentence, is QUITE frustrating, and really knocks your confidence down a few notches. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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