Overcoming The Fear Of Speaking A Foreign Language

The fear or anxiety around speaking in a new language is something I think all language learners experience to some degree. For many people this can be a true obstacle in reaching our dreams of speaking our target language fluently. In this video, I share my own anxiety about my second conversation in Mandarin Chinese just minutes before I would be speaking, and discuss some thoughts on overcoming this fear we all experience.

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Watch this whole series (playlist):

My whole journey learning Chinese (playlist):

[ginaherold]

Although I've talked my tutor many times and a friend twice, I was still nervous about talking to anyone else. I promised myself that next time I went to the Vietnamese grocery store I would at least try. Then last night I went to my fave local restaurant and the owner introduced me to his new Vietnamese-speaking employee. Boom! Somehow my brain actually made some Vietnamese come out, and I didn't even have time to be nervous. I guess what I'm saying is: get someone to spring a surprise attack on you :)

[caterinascarpelli]

This is such a common issue and I feel we don’t talk about it enough! I tried to give my advice in a similar video but what I love about this community is that everyone has always a slightly different approach; And I love hearing yours! Thanks for sharing 🥰

[eaglenoimoto]

2 years of learning without a conversation 🤯 I really like your videos, even though we learn in entirely different ways. I've learned 6 foreign languages to varying intermediate/advanced degrees (two of them non-related, non European ones), and never felt that vocabulary was a limiting factor. However, I have also always spoken from day 1, which doesn't mean I ignore grammar. I'm a grammar nerd and understand the concepts easily... The hardest thing for me is when I want to express myself at an advanced, intelligent level with complex sentence structures, although I know full well I'm not at that level in that language yet. My own frustrations to sound "not like myself" are the hardest for me.

[Cloudyvi]

I am not a confident person in general, but I don't mind making mistakes or forgetting words.
I guess I'm afraid to jump the few minutes/seconds before it actually happens, but I'm even more eager to go through the experience. I see myself as a kid that's curious and excited about learning something new!

It's very reassuring for beginners to see how anxious you can be, even for a polyglot like you~ Keep it going! And enjoy your lessons!

[travellinman]

I find my French improves with wine! It’s magical. 🤣🍷🇫🇷

[AnaBeatriz-fcmm]

You are amazing! Even though I already have conversations in English, I still feel very insecure when I speak :(

[shadowkatzchen]

Robin, I'm so glad you made this video! I have a bit of a fear of speaking Korean and I'm moving to Seoul in 6 days (!!!) so I need to get over that haha. I've done 1 italki conversation lesson but it wasn't the best, the teacher didn't let me talk about what I wanted to talk about. Deciding the topic and practising vocabulary beforehand is a great idea, I'll do that next time. I want to take a lot of italki lessons during my quarantine so this video is just the push I needed, thank you!

[brucehinkley]

Good luck, looking forward to your lesson, it's real brave of you to document it for us.

[deadfolk]

Looking forward to the follow up. We're all rooting for you!

[nickstevens]

Thank you so much for this video! You describe exactly how I have been feeling lately with my German. Even though I study every day, I have some sort of mental block that keeps me from talking, even with my partner who happens to BE German 😅. I feel a bit overwhelmed by vocabulary and all the subtle nuances between similar words, and my perfectionism is getting the better of me.

[adakadak]

Thank you for yet another AMAZING video, Robin!!!! Love the new background decor by the way!!! Very cool😎😊👌🏾

[Sóumit-qz]

My problem is contrary to residue guys...when I speak new language I can retain my aplomb but...when time comes to read or listen I lost every confidence..., I was possessing beforehand

[alobo_]

happy monday Robin! it is 6:20 am right now... to me it would be enough to overcome my fears a big cup of coffee jajaja Depende de cuan preparado estés, de cuanto hayas practicado... me parece excelente que seas tan honesto y que sigas tu camino a la fluidez con todos sus pro y contras.... un abrazo gigante...!

[schoolingdiana]

. . . but is that a Jack Davenport approved cushion??? 😜

Excellent point on it being an issue of amount of time practicing speaking rather than an issue of vocabulary recall. Thank you. 🙏🏽

[jahayrac]

You're awesome 🥰 thank you for this. You've really hit the nail on the head with this video.

[SteAndRach]

Wow Robin, you have such an amazing personality!! Totally resonate with the message of needing to get out your "bad drawings". We try to apply that mindset to our videos on youtube too haha. Keep up the great work and happy to have found your channel from Slow Growth's slack community 💛

[danieltemelkovski]

This is something I've always intuitively done. It's like the 'training wheels' that I've got to have. One 'problem' (not a real one) with it is that the other person can get the impression that you're better at the language than you really are, especially if you combine it with a convincing accent. It's only a 'problem' in that the other person then feels comfortable speaking to you more quickly or colloquially and about a wider range of subject matter, which has meant that... let's just say I've had plenty of occasion to 'fake it till I make it' haha.

[Taradays]

Practicing it a lot with strangers is actually scary as approaching a new person in English. I still can't believe how fatigued I feel checking out in a grocery store in my native language. Then again I do have a central auditory processing disorder.

Anyways just want to brag that while at work I meant someone who has a name that looked 2nd generation Korean. So I wanted to bond with the customer and get to know him a bit (aka show off my language skills). It's been a year since I have been studying hardcore and got to an Intermediate High level. It worked well and thank god he was 2nd gen so I didn't have to worry about going with a higher respect level. Plus I only really spoke about myself then we deranged back into English because we needed to get work done lol.

I used LingQ to make me feel comfortable with anyone's input when they reply to me. I also did all the 324 hours of active listening that was recommended for my level of vocab/standing.

Always start with "I can speak a little of this language" no matter how far you are. By the time your ready not to say that to strangers automatically you will be able to flow it well.

@Robin if you ever see anybody speaking to the bottom of their phone while pressing a button (WeChat voice messages). Just say in Chinese "你是中国人?" and then wait for a response, if no response (never happened to me before) then they aren't. Regardless to say I got to sit with a few Mandarin speakers this way in college.

[InquirywithHelena]

Mmm…. Public speaking is rated as the number one fear, for Americans, at any rate, and research recently (over this last pandemic year) shows that zoom calls, because of their intimacy, are rated similarity. I wonder if fear of jumping into a conversation in our target language with a native speaker falls into the same category. Apparently there is some genetic correlation too, to having glossophobia - fear of public speaking.

In my experience one simply has to accept it’s going to be messy, go off in unexpected directions and feel awkward at first. But it can also be a surprising and exciting experience - I often find I know more vocab than I thought I did, thanks to doing a lot of reading from various sources. LingQ is a great help for this. Also I like to prepare navigation phrases to help me - “can you repeat that, please could you speak more slowly, sorry, I didn’t get that, could you write it down, sorry, I don’t understand. Hang on, I want to look something up. How do I say….. in (language)? “ And yes, absolutely, I build language islands on topics I want to be able to converse on.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ll have a fascinating time. And it’s such a thrill to do it, however it turns out. And agreeing with everyone else here, wonderful of you to go public and open and honest about it all, really courageous and inspiring!

[dias]

I have a friend who can speak with people, but he can't speak with me cause how he said "He is shaming" I think it's a new topic of fear