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How to Be Comfortable Speaking a New Language
5 easy techniques to add to your life
Despite spending months learning a language, you still feel unease speaking it. You’re starting to understand more but it still feels foreign to you. The words coming out of your mouth feel wrong, even when they aren’t.
This is a struggle all language-learners have to go through. One we’ve all stumbled against at least once. One we fear we can never pass. One we wish never existed.
The journey to becoming comfortable in a new language isn’t the journey to become fluent. It’s only part of it. An important part, to say the least.
How can we feel comfortable speaking the language quickly when it took us years to be at ease with our native language? Do we have to spend years to reach such a level?
We don’t. As adults, we have more tools at our disposal. We don’t have to be passive and wait for this unease to disappear, we can tackle it head-on.
How? Here are 5 ways I’ve used in the past decade to rid myself of this feeling and enjoy the journey even more.
Extensive Listening
It goes without saying but I will either way. If you want to speak a language, you have to hear it. A lot. Like, a whole lot. No, more than what you’re imagining now. Way more.
The language needs to become a part of your life. You don’t have to wonder how to eat because you’ve seen other people do it and you’ve done it thousands of times. Speaking a language is similar.
You can’t say the right words with the right rhythm if you have never heard them. Even if you did hear them once in the past, you need to hear more. The language’s flow should become second nature, like the way you hold your fork and knife.
If you spend time wondering how to hold the fork, you can’t concentrate on the food in front of you. If you spend time pondering where the intonation should rise or fall, then you can’t concentrate on what you want to say.
Watch series and listen to podcasts in your leisure time and turn your attention to the flow. Do it while you’re cooking or cleaning so your attention isn’t on the content itself. Listen a lot and let the…
