Overcoming your Fear of Speaking Foreign Languages | Ellen De Visser | TEDxWolverhampton

[miranne]

I share this talk with my ESL students to help them see that language isn't about being perfect, it's about creating authentic, human connections. It's a great conversation starter!

[nikseptember]

I am learning Spanish right now. Sometimes it's a bit scary to speak it, but whenever I do it's very rewarding.

[hibaalsiyabi]

You can record yourself speaking, it’ll make you confident because you’ll hear how well you speak 😉

[WPIE]

You're right, one should always try to overcome the shyness. I'm not good at languages and haven't come around that much yet, but I always tried to learn at least the absolute basics (about 20 words) and pronounce them correctly. It has always been an extremely rewarding experience to see a face light up with a big smile as soon as they heard me, the more or less "alien" guest from Germany. And this has been exactly the same in Shenyang, China, as well as Sao Paulo or even when visiting our friends next door in the Netherlands.

[kjurpjdpihe]

Keep in mind that making small mistakes and having an accent are nothing more than a constant reminder of the work you had to put into learning more than one language. Do not try to cover it up!

[lynntfuzz]

Thank you very much. The whole ping pong comparison will really really help me. When I speak to someone in a foreign language, I take it way too seriously!!!! It would be so much better to imagine it as a light-hearted game. Thank

[colivri]

I'm seriously here because I work with an English speaker that simply refuses to speak the language of the country she is in and has been living in for 20 years. And she just says it's because she's not interested. While I and everyone else must speak in English in order to communicate with her. As a speaker of four languages this simply blows my mind.

[parlarediparole.....]

I'm trying to overcome English speaking fear. Hoping to find someone who practice with.

[alekseikolupaev]

She mentioned Blagoveschensk is my hometown, and I live in China and learning English now

[datoed_sloth]

I have xenoglossophobia but for me it's more specific. As a child of a Chinese family, I have to speak write and read Chinese. My mum's expectations were more harsh, she would make me do a spelling test (no Ping Ping but the actual words, I know it sucks) and every word I get wrong I have to write it 100 times, and that's if I'm lucky. If im not, dang you got yourself to write 1000 words for just one word you got wrong, since I had a bad experience as you can tell, when my mum tried to send me to Chinese school because she stopped giving me those tests, I started crying which is how I discovered I have this phobia.

[FriedToenail]

I still can't get myself to speak in English out loud XD

[Urla]

Wat if your experiences of learning. New language have been all negative? Like with dutch.

[theultimatereductionist]

I've learned to hate speaking/communicating in the foreign languages of Python, Java, & C++ with the ONE other person on the planet (a close relative) who understands these languages at all. He has caused me to absolutely HATE computer programming and taught me NEVER to discuss programming languages with him or anyone else ever again.

[mannaporanna]

Really? Today, we discovered that through learning foreign languages we can connect with people from other cultures? Seriously? Does this really require a Ted TALK? Is it a discovery?

[peterreed]

If you don't speak English I have no need or desire to speak you.