What Happens When You Stop Being Afraid of Speaking Your Target Language
And how to start reducing discomfort
I’ve learned foreign languages for more than 15 years and am still afraid of speaking them.
You know this shaking feeling you’re having right now at the simple thought of speaking your target language with someone else? I have it most days.
I’ve come to live most of my life using English. Sure, I used Japanese daily while living in Japan and now do so in Korean too as I live in Korea, but it’s always taken me months before I completely stopped worrying about my level with the people I spoke to.
And yet, your world changes drastically as you let go of the overly high expectations you’ve set for yourself.
I’m now reminded of this daily.
Nobody’s asking for perfection
One of my deepest regrets from the two months and a half I spent in Thailand in 2022 was not actively trying to speak Thai during daily interactions with Thai people.
Every time I’d go to a restaurant, I’d mumble in my beard one or two words in Thai before panicking, turning back to English, and pointing to what I wanted. I knew how to order and didn’t do it.
