Good at English, but still feel FEAR of Speaking?

So in today's lesson, we're going to look at

4 different reasons why you might lack confidence when you speak English.

And if you stick around until the end,

then I'll give you 3 simple ways that you can use to gain more confidence

speaking English now, because here at RealLife English every single week

we help you go from being a lost and insecure English learner

to being a confident and natural English speaker.

So if that sounds like what you want for your English then be sure to hit

that subscribe button and the bell down below now!

Now, a very possible reason that you might not feel

confident speaking is that you simply have not practiced doing it enough.

This is because the more that we practice

doing something, the more confident that we feel doing it.

For example, imagine that you just have gotten your driver's license.

Now you might feel comfortable driving around your neighborhood,

but if you have to go to another city or you have to drive on the highway,

then it might be a really nerve wracking experience for you.

And now think about anything that you do well,

maybe you're great at playing the guitar,

or maybe you can cook amazing meals for your family and your friends.

But can you remember back to when you were first learning doing that thing?

Do you remember how insecure you felt?

How many doubts and questions you had?

How unsure you were,

maybe having to do that thing in front of or for other people, feeling unsure

about your skills when you're learning something is just part of the process.

And the same is true if you're English.

The more that you practice it in a variety of situations,

the more confident that you're going to feel using it whenever you need it.

Now, another

reason why you might not feel very confident speaking English

is because you simply have a lack of feedback or validation.

This is especially true for those of you that have been learning English

alone at home.

Now, if you don't have an English speaking friend or a teacher that you're

practicing with, then it's natural that you could feel a little bit insecure

even though you might already have pretty good speaking.

One great way to boost your English fluency is by talking to people.

You get to have a live conversation where you can, in real time,

see if the person is understanding you or not.

You can gauge your English fluency and see what vocabulary you might be missing.

Now it might not seem like it by watching our videos, but all of my life

I've suffered from shyness.

Now I have found that for myself, a great way to increase my confidence

was by getting out of my comfort zone and going to language exchanges in my city.

This forced me to actually start practicing the language

that I was learning with other people, and I could get instant feedback from them

and see where I still need to work on it by myself

when I got back home.

And the really great thing is that this not only helped me to increase

my confidence in these other languages I was learning,

but in my mother tongue as well.

Now, maybe it's your case that in your city

there aren't any language exchanges or you simply live in a small town

and you just don't know anyone who you can speak English with.

Well, we created the perfect solution for you on the Real-Life App.

You can speak English anytime anywhere with people

from around the world and discover other cultures.

Check out one of our app users, Ariixx said about her experience using the app.

It is an incredible opportunity to practice.

The people on the other side of your car are usually super cool and patient

if your English is not very good. Thank you.

So just like Alex, you can have really fascinating conversations

with people from around the world and improve your confidence speaking.

Maybe you can even share these tips with someone else

and help them to improve their confidence too.

So what are you waiting for?

It's absolutely free to get started.

Just click up here or down in the description below to download it.

Or you can search for RealLife English in the Apple app or Google Play Store.

Now, having a past

traumatic experience with English can also cause you to lack confidence.

Maybe you had a conversation with someone, but you completely froze up and forgot

everything that you had learned.

Maybe you said something wrong and someone laughed at you,

and this made you feel super insecure about your speaking.

Or maybe you even had a bad teacher who humiliated you and was overly critical.

Maybe you got the chance to go abroad or to travel and you just felt stupid

because you couldn't get what was in your mind out of your mouth.

It's super important

that you reflect a bit on your own experience

and think about any of these negative experiences that you might have

that are affecting your current relationship with using the language.

Let's go back to the drive, for example.

Maybe you feel like a really confident driver, but then you get in a crash.

This might make you really doubt your skills as a driver.

Some people might even choose to never drive again,

but most likely, at some point you're going to need to drive yourself

from one place to another.

You can't completely depend on other people to do it for yourself.

And the same is true for your English, right?

You're at some point going to need to use your English to get something

that you want, be that that you want a job opportunity,

or you just want to be able to travel and speak to locals.

So just because you've had negative experiences in the past,

does not mean that it needs to repeat itself in the future.

The only way to regain your confidence is by using your English

as much as possible and practicing it deliberately.

But maybe nothing that we've talked about so far actually applies to you.

Maybe you've already had plenty of opportunities to use the language.

You've never had a traumatic experience,

and you have plenty of people surrounding you that support you.

So if it's the case that none of these

things are affecting you, then you might need to look inside.

You might need to look at your own mindset.

Now, your mindset is your beliefs and how you view the world.

And if you have a fixed mindset, then this might be limiting you in a lot of ways.

It might be causing you to think that you will never be able

to be fluent because maybe you don't have an innate talent

or because you weren't born with parents who are rich

and could pay for you to have private classes. However, when it comes down to it,

passion is so much more powerful than talent.

If you create a really deep burning desire, a really deep purpose

for why you need your English and why it's important for you to be fluent

then nothing can stand in your way.

And this will help you to change from having a fixed mindset

to having a growth mindset, which means that you start seeing that

you just need to work harder in order

to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish.

Your results aren't just based on your genetics

or based on the opportunities that you were born with.

Now, we've looked at some

of the reasons why you might not feel so confident speaking English.

Let me give you some practical tips

that can help you start improving your English confidence right away.

So the first one is to speak from day one,

which probably isn't possible for you if you're watching this video.

You've already been learning English for a long time.

So the advice for you would be to start as soon as possible.

Start right now.

Download the app and go have a conversation there.

Or if you have an English speaking friend, ask them to start practicing with you.

Or even better, if you can hire a teacher.

I highly recommend this because that gives you a place where,

you know you have a lot of trust with this person and that will help

to cut down a lot of the uncomfortable and insecure feelings.

Ultimately, confidence comes from practice.

The next step is to create scripts.

Now, this could be

thinking about any sort of situation that you need to use your English in

and trying to write yourself out a guide that's going to help you

get through that situation and to really practice

this already at home so that when you get into that situation,

you will feel a lot more confident in it because you've already done it.

So just to give you some examples, one really simple one,

even if you're an absolute beginner, is to write out your introduction.

So this could be saying, Hi, my name is this is what I do for a living.

I'm really passionate about A, B, and C, these are my hobbies, my family.

I'm married, I have a wife, I have a husband, whatever it is for you.

Thinking about this, writing out some bullet points

and practicing that over and over and over again by yourself

because you're going to need to do this all the time anyway.

So whether you go have a conversation with someone on the really fap

or maybe you get the opportunity to travel and you meet other travelers

you will feel so confident talking about yourself

because you've already practiced so many times at home.

And this could also be for a job interview, writing out what questions

you might expect and answers to that.

It could be ordering your coffee at the cafe that you like to go to.

So the more that you create

different scripts yourself for a variety of different situations,

the more confident that you'll feel in virtually any situation.

Because you've already done so much practice,

you've figured out what vocabulary you need

and you are really just ready to up front any challenge.

Finally, just memorize some really interesting questions.

Now, this could be, you know, how are you?

What's up? These kind of things that we use as greetings.

But they could be also things like what are your hobbies?

What do you do for a living?

What did you study at university?

What are you really excited about in life right now?

And you can get super creative with this, but just have them already

prepared, already thought of in your head.

So that when you get in a conversation with someone,

you won't have these kind of stalls, these pauses

where you're not sure what to talk about

or you're not sure how to keep the conversation going.

And this is really great because it takes the pressure off of you to speak.

You can just be a really good listener because everyone loves to talk

about themselves.

And usually this will still give you a lot of speaking opportunities

because after you've asked someone, what are you really excited about now?

They would explain theirs,

maybe they have started brewing their own beer and they might ask you,

Do you like beer? What kind of beer do you like?

So I want to hear from you.

Did you find any of these tips useful, or are you going to try them out?

Or what

other things are you going to do to start increasing your confidence in English?

Let me know down in the comments below.

Check out what other learners said, because maybe

it'll give you even more ideas.

Aw yeah! But wait, we're not done yet.

We prepared a special treat for you.

Now, before we talked about mindset

so what we're going to do now is give you a reflection exercise

that's going to help you really think about your attitude

towards learning the language,

because it's really going to help you break down your barriers.

So that you feel more confident, more courageous

and more able and natural in any situation that you find yourself in

speaking the language. So find a nice, quiet spot, grab a piece of paper, maybe

grab your favorite tea, coffee or drink, and let's do a little bit of reflecting.

Feel free to pause at any moment if you need a little bit more time.

Let's go

Are you shy or an introvert?

This can greatly affect how confident that you feel

speaking English or even speaking your mother tongue for that matter.

This may even cause you that when you get opportunity to speak,

you avoid them because they make you feel uncomfortable.

Well, believe it or not, I'm an introvert as well and have no worries

if this is getting in the way of you being able to communicate confidently.

Because I made this lesson to help you do just that.

If you are shy or introverted. Let's check out a clip from that.