Help me!

[Milli]

Hello!
I am a business student.During my studies i am required to make a lot of presentations and we are encouraged by our teachers to discuss different things and all the discussions takes place in English and also in my native language.While making presentations i am able to speak english as the topic is usually given to us before and so i prepare myself for it.

My problem is that, i cannot converse in english as fluently as my other classmates. I mean i can understand english but i cannot speak it.Its not that i have never tried it. Every morning i say to myself that today i'll definitely speak to my friends in english but when the time comes i am unable to utter even a single word thinking what if i say something wrong, and also what my friends will think of me and therefore i usually end up speaking in my native language.

Please help me what sholud i do as this is very bad for my career.

[Lalee]

Hello!
My problem is that, i cannot converse in english as fluently as my other classmates. I mean i can understand english but i cannot speak it.Its not that i have never tried it. Every morning i say to myself that today i'll definitely speak to my friends in english but when the time comes i am unable to utter even a single word thinking what if i say something wrong, and also what my friends will think of me and therefore i usually end up speaking in my native language.

Please help me what sholud i do as this is very bad for my career.

Hi Milli,
Welcome to English Club!
I think you are so afraid of making mistakes while you're expressing your ideas with your classmates. I'm sure you are able to speak the language.
But if you keep talking in your mother tongue instead of using English, you will always have this kind of problem. And in the long run, you won't be as fluent as the others.
I had the same problem, but once, a teacher advised me to just open my mouth without feeling embarrassed or scared. Besides, we are learners and learners make mistakes, aren't they?
Anyways, I took my teacher's advice, and it really worked for me. While speaking, I sometimes mispronounce words, or I make grammar mistakes, but you know what? That's all part of learning. You should talk to yourself in English. I do that! I also talk to my dog in English. I know it sounds kind of crazy, but it's a good way to become fluent. Also, while speaking, you are able to hear yourself, and find out what your problems are. For instance, when I pretend that I'm talking to someone or having a conversation, I listen to what I'm saying, and when I'm not sure about something, I write it down and then, I ask for help.
Don't be afraid Milli. You'll see that the more you talk, the more fluent you get. Just open your mouth, and spit it out!

[Milli]

Hey Lalee
Thanks a lot for the advice. Your advice have given me a lot of confidence! Okay from now on i'll try to speak in english with my friends. I know it'll be a little difficult for me in the begining but now i've made up my mind , i am definitely gonna do it!
Thanks once again

[Lalee]

Hey Lalee
Thanks a lot for the advice. Your advice have given me a lot of confidence! Okay from now on i'll try to speak in english with my friends. I know it'll be a little difficult for me in the begining but now i've made up my mind , i am definitely gonna do it!
Thanks once again

Milly, it's nice to hear from you again. I'm so happy for you that you have changed your mind about using the language without feeling embarrassed. Good choice! :R:

[Chet Baker]

Hi, Milli, thank you for sharing your feeling with us. Also Thanks to Lalee. I find that your advice is very useful. :R:

Sometime, I found that I have the same kind of problems, I am afraid of speaking in English in telephone conversation, but don’t have such a problem when I speak in English to someone fact to fact. It is so weird, isn’t it? Hehe.

So, I try to find out why I have such a problem. Eventually, I understand why. It is likely that the problems are caused by 2 major reasons, namely, lack of self-confidence and lack of vocabulary. These 2 reasons relate to each others, because lack of vocabulary lower the abilities to describe things, if I want to say something but don’t know how to describe, it will make me lack of self-confidence and make me feel afraid of speaking in English. Therefore, It may be argued that lack of vocabulary is one of the most fundamental problem for English learner.

To solve this problem, I insist to watch English TV news and newspaper everyday. It is quite helpful to improve vocabulary. I tried to speak to my friends in English when we go drinking. Also, I used a method which was as same as Lalee used, I speak English to myself. Sometime, I don’t speak it out, but sometime I do, but usually when I am alone. As a result, I can use the word I have just learned and also able to practice my oral skill.

I am still learning English, I hope you would find my experience useful.

[radu]

Hi,Chet Baker!
I think you are right!
Reading everyday an English newspaper and listening to the TV news are two good ways to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation.
I use an online newspaper with an online dictionary and when I don't know a word,I just copy->paste it in the dictionay.It's very easy and fast,the only problem is that I don't write it by my hand,but it doesn't metter very much.
I don't try to memorize very hard the word,just to understand the meaning of the whole text;when I meet the unknown word again,it'll sound familiar to me at least.

[Chet Baker]

Happy to receive your reply. You know, I use online dictionary too^^, it is so convenience. In term of memorizing the spelling of word, I find that trying to understand the method of pronunciation will help you to memorize the spelling without tears.

[Lalee]

Wow! It seems that you two guys really want to enhance their English, huh?
I'm glad to hear that you do various things in order to enrich your vocabulary skills. That's great! I find it very useful to watch tv cable, too. You know, only English programs. I've doing that for nearly 5 years. Now, I can see that my listening skills have improved so much.
Well guys. Keep studying hard.

[sunshine81]

I would say: Welcome to the club, guys! I had exactly the same problem as anyone of you! I remember my first day in my international exchange class! Jesus Christ, after ten years of studying English I had the impression I simply don't know anything! Everytime the teacher asked a question I was so busy with translating the question for myself in my mind that I missed the answer! After a while I started realizing that it might be better to just follow the conversation an not to force myself to understand every single word! And it worked out. One always catches new words that will stay in ones mind!
Additionally I was that lucky to have very international roommates We spoke four different languages! The only language we all could communicate in was english! If it was necessary we used our hands and feet to make us understand each other. Well, it was funny sometimes. But after three month we all improved our english and spoke quite fluently.

I remember, once somebody told me when you wanted to learn a languge the best thing was to start THINKING in that language! Try that - it works!

[Milli]

I think you guys are right. I do read english newspaper but now i'll start watching english news channels.
All i have to do is to stop worrying about others that what they'll think of me if i'll say something which is not correct and stuff like that.Actually once when i was asked to make presentation in my class, i got so confused that i ended up speaking english witj LOTS of mistakes! and after that i heard on of my classmates saying to my english teacher that "how can you give her such good grades in class test when she cannot even speak english properly!" and that was the day when i decided that i wont even try to speak english. But now i have realized that the decision that i made was wrong as now i am facing a lot of problems due to that!
But now i have taken the first step as after lalee's advice, the next day i spoke to my friends in english as well as my native language as i know that it will take me some time to speak entirely in english.