How to speak English CONFIDENTLY | My Top 5 Tips

hello everyone and welcome back to

english with Lucy today I'm going to

talk to you about confidence confidence

is something that a lot of language

learners lack i know because i myself

speak some other languages and when i

was learning them i really felt quite

shy at times and I could have used a

video by someone to give me a boost

so this is what I want to do for you

today I've got five tips that I can give

you that will help you learn to speak

more confidently more fluently and I

really hope that my tips will motivate

you a bit more so that you can really

learn English with lots of enthusiasm

now I've got an Instagram account and i

like to chat with my students on there

and this morning I posted a video asking

my current students what made them feel

more confident when speaking english and

i got lots of replies and at the end of

the video I'm going to show some of

those replies to you and see if you can

relate with them see if you disagree or

agree i think it's really important to

get opinions and information from people

who are learning English right now

they're just like you in the same

situation so a little bit about me first

so obviously i am English with Lucy I am

an English teacher and I have been

teaching for over three years now its my

love it's my passion it's what I want to

do for the rest of my life now part of

the reason that I enjoy teaching so much

is because i have also been through the

language learning experience I've been

through it with Spanish I now speak fluent

spanish y si me quereis ver hablando en

pues podeis ver este video aqui

que grabe hablando de los errores que he

cometido en español right so let's get

started with the tips

the first and most important tip i can

give you is laugh at yourself have a

sense of humor

don't take it too seriously on this

channel I like to laugh I like to have

fun and sometimes I will sort of make

fun of the errors that my

students normally make and this is

because I want them to get used to

laughing at their own errors enjoy your

errors your errors are not bad

and if you can laugh at them it will

make the learning experience so much

more pleasant now my teaching methods aren't for

everyone for every 99 positive comments

I will receive a negative one saying you

shouldn't laugh at your students you're a

terrible teacher now I can laugh at your

errors but i can also laugh at mine and

I do so frequently so that's why I include

the outtakes at the end of some of my

videos and that's why i filmed my

perra choriza video which is actually in

Spanish but it's of me talking about

these stupid ridiculous hilarious errors

that i made in Spanish I once asked for

a penis Caesar salad I want also made an

awful mistake in an ice cream shop the

word for a cone of ice cream is un cono

de helado and the word for vagina in spanish

is coño and I think you can probably

imagine what i asked for un coño de helado

yeah I was kind of embarrassed in the

moment but now i can laugh about it and

it's a great story to tell

I always find that if you're finding it

hard to have a good conversation with

someone that's also learning another

language while a really good way of

starting a conversation is by talking

about the errors that you've made with

learning languages it's always a really

good conversation starter for me now

number two is all about your mistakes

again so we're not just laughing about

them we are intentionally making them i

want you to make mistakes i know many

students that would go long periods of

time avoiding making certain mistakes

they are trying to achieve 100-percent

perfection

I want you to laugh at your mistakes learn

from them and move on

mistakes are essential even in English I

make mistakes and you guys love pointing

them out so you need to accept your

mistakes learn from them love them and

move on

okay number three is pretend that you

are confident when i started teaching

english i was only

nineteen and I remember walking into

classrooms of 20 to 30 adults nervous

low-level adults in Spain and just

thinking wow I am the youngest person in

this room I have to get this group of

scary scary adults to trust me and

believe what I'm saying and and listen

to me and also to respect me and I never

really felt truly nervous before in my

life but walking into big classrooms

especially on the first day was

nerve-racking it was it made me really

nervous and really anxious and i found

that the best way of gaining confidence

was to pretend I was confident i hadn't

been teaching for long

I didn't have much experience but I

tried my best i prepared hard and I

walked in held my head high and I spoke

to everyone confidently and I really

pretended that I knew what I was doing

more than I actually did and this

actually created real confidence not

only in me but in my students I looked

as if I knew what I was doing and they

trusted me and respected me and once

I'd spent enough time pretending I was

confident i actually started feeling

genuinely confident though I had real

confidence but it came from that initial

fake confidence so how can we apply this

to your language learning well when

you're speaking English hide those

nerves body language is key pretend that

you know what you're talking about

don't be arrogant but show that you are

not afraid and people will trust you

listen to you pretend that you're

confident

ok number four and this is something

that I really really believe in and this

is talk to yourself I always talk to

myself in the language that I'm learning

and it really serves as a preparation

for when you're in situations in which

you will need to use the language the

main things that I like to practice on

my anecdotes the stories that you

typically tell to each new person you

meet things that you generally say on a

weekly or daily basis it's also good to

practice funny stories that you think

will make people laugh because you want

them to come out in the right way so if

you're a lower-level make sure you

practice your daily conversations how

are you how's the weather what your

hobbies are what you do for a living and

if you're a more advanced learner make

sure you talk to yourself about funny

anecdotes your life story things that

happened to you that were interesting

observations about other people's

cultures when you give a presentation

for university or for work you don't

just wing it you don't just walk up and

speak you practice it so it should be

the same for these stories as well

number five immerse yourself and you can

take whatever you want from this immersion

in my case would be going to the country

of the language you're learning and

living there

integrating yourself into the society

into the culture just absorbing the

language and the feeling and the in the

atmosphere that for me is the best form

of immersion now that isn't possible for

everyone

immersion for you might be a narrow week

in a language academy it might be a

language exchange with a native speaker

it might be an online language exchange

with another English Learner it might be

watching an episode of your favorite TV

show in English with english subtitles

every night but in order to build your

confidence you need to get used to

listening in English so you need to find

the right immersion technique for you

there is always a solution we have a

brilliant saying in English called when

there's a will there's a way

so when you intend to do something

there's a way of doing it

and if you want to find a way of

immersing yourself into english or the

language that you're learning there is a

way now I want to read a few of these

suggestions from my students on

Instagram and one I really like and not

all of you are going to like this this

is from Ilich from Venezuela and he

says hello

I believe that drinking is the way to

get more confidence i went to Brighton

for a year and the best classroom was

the pub brilliant look Ilich has

really made the most of his situation he

was in brighton he immersed himself and

he found native speakers Micarla from

Brazil that she likes watching movies

without subtitles again it's that

immersion technique i was talking to you

about Alejandra for a mexico has a really

good piece of advice people should not

be afraid to ask natives when they don't

know how to say something

it's the way that I've increased my

vocabulary and improve my pronunciation

and of course your videos help haha

that's sweet and yeah I had that is

absolutely right

Muhammad has also got some really good

advice he says speak English with your

close friends

yeah you can speak English with people

you trust he also says to imagine

yourself in different daily situations

in which you have to speak English again

it's that talking to yourself technique

that i mentioned before Paco says the

more he speaks with natives the more

confident he feels and yes it's the

immersion again Roy says get a girlfriend

who is a native speaker yes if you can

manage that that's fantastic but make

sure you're with her for the right

reason

Hectore says speak slowly at first and

then build up

absolutely i completely agree with

Hector ok guys that is it for today's

class i really hope that it's helped you

and I really hope that you feel slightly

more motivated now don't forget to

connect with me on all of my social

media and i will see you again soon for

another lesson

alright big kiss and I will see you soon