How I Overcame My Fear of Speaking English as a Non-Native Speaker

hello guys and welcome back to my YouTube channel  in this video I wanted to give you five tips that  

will help you lose your fear of speaking English  and become more confident and to make this video  

a little bit more special I decided to ask  my non-native speaking friends to help me  

and answer this one question how did you overcome  the fear of speaking English and throughout this  

video tip after tip I'll be sharing my thoughts  you know my ideas and you will also hear their  

ideas because they have managed to stop being  afraid to speak English at least to some extent  

and I think they have a lot to share with you  guys because I only speak to some of them in  

English that's the only language that unites us so  let's start with the first step the first tip is I  

think you should surround yourself with people  who are also learning English basically create  

some kind of community for yourself and this is  something that helped me so so much because when  

I was still living in Russia when I was in  high school I felt so sad and lonely because  

I couldn't share my passion towards English with  anyone else right I feel like no one could really  

understand me but the reason why was because I  hadn't found any people who also liked English I  

was completely alone and that's why I was always  sad and depressed but everything changed when I  

discovered English-speaking clubs but for you it  might be something different and maybe joining a  

language course or attending an English learning  school anything really anything where you'll be  

able to interact with non-native speakers you're  also learning English and who are going through  

the same struggles this has helped me so so much  because I got to ask tips from people who have a  

higher level on English and I also got to interact  with people who have the same level in English and  

I also saw people have a lower level in English  and I was like yeah that's where I was like two  

years ago but now I'm here and I'm proud of myself  but I guess an important note here please don't  

only interact with people who have like a way  higher level in English if you're a beginner  

and if you are in a class of students with like a  C1 like a very high and advanced level at English  

oh you know it's gonna be a little bit hard for  you not just because the level is a lot higher  

but also like mentally you're gonna feel bad  about yourself and you shouldn't any level in  

English is fine and at any level you will find the  same people so if you're an elementary student I  

would say it's okay to interact with people who  are at like B1 like intermediate students right  

it's totally fine but like Advanced not for now  not for now because what we want is for you to  

lose your fear of speaking English not become even  more afraid who says I have well the fear I have  

of speaking English is basically having the other  person mocking me mocking my English the way that  

I speak my accent and the way that I deal with it  is by trying to focus on the message on the thing  

that I'm trying to communicate with the other  person sure I'm still making lots of mistakes but  

I get to practice and practice makes perfect so  that's a good thing I've never had such a very big  

issue with speaking in English with my friends my  family but when I was living in the United States  

I had this little issue everyone used to ask  about my accent oh where are you from oh you have  

an accent oh you're not from here so it was like  kind of hard because I felt like I didn't belong  

there but here's the thing you have to practice  and practice and practice as long as you keep  

practicing you're gonna be better at anything that  you do and in this case speaking English you will  

feel more confident and guys if you don't know  which language course to join I highly recommend  

lingoda because it is an online language school  where you can study English French German and  

Spanish and I study Spanish on their platform and  I absolutely love their classes the reason why I  

like them so much is exactly because of the sense  of community lingoda offers group classes led by  

professional native speaking teachers and that's  exactly what helps me lose the fear of speaking  

English or any other language Spanish for example  because I get to interact with non-native speakers  

at my level and I am corrected by a native speaker  this is like the best thing in the whole world  

the best combination because you get to see other  non-native speakers and you get motivated you see  

that other people struggle too and it's completely  okay to sometimes feel demotivated and scared and  

this realizing that can help you lose the fear  of speaking English and the best part is if you  

want to lose the fear of speaking English as fast  as possible and improve your language skills you  

should join lingoda's language Sprint which  is an intensive language course where you'll  

be challenged to take classes every day or every  other day for two months straight and guys listen  

to me very carefully here if you attend all the  classes lingoda will refine you up to a hundred  

percent of the course fee and if you attend 15  lessons per month for two months lingoda will  

give you 50 cashback for attending all the classes  hundreds of students participate in lagoda Sprints  

every month and if you want to become one of them  make sure to use my discount code Veronica Sprint  

and the link below to join the Sprint and lose  your fear of speaking English let's now move  

on to the second tip developing your language  skills guys there always comes a point in life  

in your language learning when you realize that  unless you actually start actively developing  

your language skills nothing is going to change  this is something that is happening to me right  

now in Spanish because typically honest I skip a  lot of days I don't study Spanish every single day  

and it's completely on me and that's why I still  have this fear of speaking Spanish and if you guys  

study English consistently if you develop a good  routine you will naturally lose this fear because  

you will become confident in your language skills  and this is something that happened to me when I  

lived in Moscow I remember that a very long time  ago when I would go to my parents Town my hometown  

on the train I would take like all the grammar  books or all the books in English and I was just  

studying English for four hours straight because  that was the trip from Moscow to my hometown and  

that was amazing this is how I was developing my  language skills and that's how I was becoming more  

and more confident which in turn in the future  allowed me to lose my fear of speaking English  

at first I want to emphasize that I had several  of them for example I had a huge language barrier  

what I mean by that is that I couldn't even say a  word I knew grammar rules I had a good vocabulary  

which was passive but I couldn't physically  open my mouth and say something the second  

one was a fear of making a mistake not knowing  grammar rule or Awards and the third one was  

um not actually fear but being ashamed of my  Russian accent which I still have not fear but  

accent uh what did actually help me here help  me overcome all these fears the first thing is  

a regular practice speaking English every single  day I had a great opportunity because they had a  

native English speaker with whom I could I could  speak but even if you don't have anyone around  

you who speaks English you can talk to yourself  you can join some English-speaking clubs download  

some applications where you can speak with  people from different countries there are so  

many ways to do it nowadays but what I always  say is just every single day a little bit just  

speak say things out loud it helped me a lot the  second thing is giving yourself inner permission  

to make a mistake and making those mistakes  intentionally what I mean by that is when you  

speak with someone when you have a conversation  and you have this thought on the back of your  

mind like oh maybe maybe I won't say anything now  because I don't know how to say that and I can  

build a sentence and I will make a lot of mistakes  that's exactly when you have to go say things make  

a lot of mistakes maybe feel awkward a little  bit you can apologize and say oh I'm sorry I'm  

not a native speaker and like I need some time  to like you can say people understand actually  

that's what I noticed I'm currently living in the  United States and I noticed that no one actually  

cares about how many mistakes I make they want  to understand me people want to understand me  

and this leads us to my third recommendation is  to focusing on transmitting a message on being  

understood because any language in English as well  is just a means of communication right we use it  

to express our thoughts and to be understood  and that's what I'm focusing on right now I  

still feel a little bit uncomfortable when I  speak with that here like with Americans who  

speak very fast and I don't understand them and I  feel a little bit awkward that I can't understand  

them fully and I can express my thoughts in a way  that I want to express them but I stop myself and  

remind myself if I want to do that I just need  to focus on transmitting a message first yeah so  

these three things have how helped me a lot and I  hope they will help you tip number three is guys  

we should all forget about reaching Perfection  Perfection doesn't exist unless you were born  

with the ability to speak two languages you know  as a bilingual but even bilingual people struggle  

sometimes even native speakers struggle sometimes  there is no such thing as being perfect and you  

will always find words you don't know you will  always find your vocabulary new like complicated  

grammar things that you don't understand which is  completely fine our whole life is learning we're  

always learning something new and you should  not be afraid of not knowing something right  

it's good it's good to be curious It's good to  learn something new all the time and usually  

guys the craziest part is that people who want  to reach Perfection those are the people who are  

are afraid of making mistakes the most and the  reason why I know about that is because I was  

one of those people when I was still in high  school I was actively learning English I was  

always so afraid of making mistakes I thought that  right now okay I'm gonna speak English right now  

my teacher just asked me a question in English  I have to respond but if I make one teeny tiny  

little mistake the world is going to end I don't  know why I was so afraid I was so afraid just  

because I wanted my English to be perfect all the  time but right now guys believe me or not I feel  

so much better because I don't worry about it if I  do make a mistake one day it's okay guys it's not  

the end of the world this is how we learn and if  somebody corrects my mistake even better because  

I'm actually going to learn from my mistake that's  why mistakes are great and learning from them is  

even better hi everyone my name is Tay and I am  one of Veronica's many friends around the world  

um one thing that I did in order to overcome my  fear was to write down what's actually stopping  

me from speaking to people in English and ask this  question is this true or is this false and then if  

it's false I move on from that fear so here's what  I mean by it let me break it down for you whenever  

I was trying to speak in English to a foreigner  the first thing that I would say was this  

I'm sorry my English is not good I mean I said  this in order to you know feel better about me  

not being really good at English but I wonder if  this actually was one of the hindering factors  

that stops me from being confident because I  was basically you know talking badly about my  

level of English so what I had to do was to ask  this question after writing it down is this true  

or is this false and it actually turned out to be  false because my English is getting better day by  

day so I don't have to worry about my English not  being good another one that that I used to think a  

lot was this they will not understand my question  so whenever I asked a question I was afraid that  

people would not understand the way I formed the  sentence or I would ask a question and I had to  

also write it down and ask it if it's true or  if it's false and the answer is false because  

actually people are willing to understand your  question and they are patient enough to listen  

to you and also your English is not that bad  so that's one thing that I had to realize and  

write it down and move on from one last thing  that was a big thing for a long time was this  

everyone will laugh at my accent and is this true  well for some mean bad people they might laugh at  

you but in most cases it's false why because  your accent is not what defines your ability  

to speak it's actually the way that you ask and  what you ask that matters so my accent was not  

a big deal but I used to be so afraid of it so  I had to write it down ask a question of Truth  

or false and I had to move on from the sphere so  doing this exercise really helps me improve in  

the different areas of fear that I had when it  comes to speaking in English I don't know if it  

helped but I hope it does and I hope you continue  with your English Journey with Veronica Mark so  

thanks for watching bye-bye my tip number four  is guys you should keep speaking English even if  

you're scared there's this basic rule that a lot  of people know about the more you do something the  

better you become it's the same thing but speaking  with English with your fear even if you're afraid  

sometimes guys you just have to push through push  through your fear so how can you do that obviously  

you have to speak English regularly every day even  better if you have an opportunity to take classes  

every day for example if you join the lingotist  language Sprint you will have this opportunity  

because you will be taking English classes every  day this way you can lose your fear of speaking  

English sometimes people talk to themselves or  they record videos of themselves they create a  

YouTube channel that's actually something I did so  yeah there are so many different things you can do  

to help you improve your English skills and  lose the sphere of speaking English okay guys  

get ready for a little embarrassing story right  now because as I lived in Mexico City there are  

a lot of people who understand English and who  I can communicate in English with to some extent  

obviously I'm learning Spanish right now because I  live in Mexico City and it's important to be able  

to speak Spanish here however it's always easier  for me to choose English and now every time I want  

to say something in English I have to stop myself  I have to stop myself and tell myself Veronica no  

you're not going to say sorry I don't speak  Spanish you're going to try at least try guys  

because this is what I'm experiencing right now I  do have this fear of speaking Spanish because my  

Spanish is not good enough and I can't explain  almost anything so that's why I'm afraid but  

that's okay people generally understand me and if  not of course at the end of the day I can always  

use Google Translate or switch to English hi guys  today I want to share with you three things what  

helped me to overcome my fear of speaking English  I think first and most important that you need to  

try to speak even if it feels very scared even  if you're making mistakes people sometimes don't  

understand you interrupt you and all this stuff  you know but you need to try speak any way every  

time use any opportunity of it second try to  watch a lot of TV shows in a regional language  

read subtitles sometimes results subtitles because  you will hear a lot of different accents so try to  

watch TV shows in English even in British English  if you understand what I mean and third thing  

I don't think it will work for everyone but I  found American boyfriend so it's really helped me  

a lot to improve my English and fight my fear of  speaking English so just try to find old friend or  

boyfriend or somebody else who speak English who  won't condemn you who just accept you who you are  

and now guys let's move on to tip number five  which is all by changing your mindset to become  

more confident okay I understand that some of  us are very unconfident by nature but guess if  

you really really want to change your current  situation and not be afraid of speaking English  

you have to become a little bit more confident and  there are so many different things you can do to  

become more confident and one of the things that  I recommend is reading reading good books and here  

I want to recommend three amazing books that help  me and a lot of other people become more confident  

and by reading these books you can first improve  your language skills right because you're gonna be  

reading you're going to be learning new vocabulary  but you will also be making yourself a more  

confident person which is amazing so the first  book with a pretty funny name is you are a badass  

and I loved the book A lot of people always talk  about the book when it comes to confidence when it  

comes to becoming a person who can do almost  anything and everything this book is amazing  

it makes you more motivated it makes you more  productive and it's written in a very fun way so I  

highly highly recommend this book the second book  is called The Happiness Project and I really love  

the storytelling aspect of it and the last book is  the gift of imperfection by brene Brown and brene  

Brown is a really famous Professor and author  and she has her own Ted talk so you can check  

it out as well hi this is edu from Mexico it's  a really good question how do they overcome the  

fear of speaking English as a teenager I didn't  realize how important English would be few years  

later I comprehend that there's a high correlation  between how far you want to go I mean regular case  

I work in the business world and what is it right  nowadays startups and most of the capital that  

these Enterprises raised comes from United States  if you want to get a high position and as a result  

a high salary English is essential another example  is everybody of us have the dream of traveling a  

no matter where the most likely language which  you are going to be understood is English so the  

language is a tool to enhance to improve and to  boost your travel experience last but not least  

English has given me the opportunity to meet some  of the most interesting and amazing people I have  

in my life and without English there would have  no way to connect in conclusion how to overcome  

the fear for me it's more like a choice you made  to cross the line to open the gate to amazing and  

exciting experiences so yeah yeah I think that's  it for this video again guys make sure to use my  

discount code Veronica Sprint and the link in the  description to join lingoda's language spread this  

is an amazing opportunity for you guys to become  more confident with practicing English every  

single day and also receiving cashback which is  just amazing as usual if you like this video make  

sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my  channel and I'll see you guys in my next video bye