1. Native English speakers will judge your ability to speak English based on their experiences with you – not your true knowledge. Why? Simple – all they can see is your performance, they can’t get inside your head!

It’s just a fact of life – you’ll be judged based on how you respond to certain situations, and you’d better be prepared to face up to some challenges if you want to come across as a good English speaker!

Basically what I’ve learned is that it’s not necessarily about how well you ARE ABLE to speak in English; on most occasions it’s more important to be able to react fast, not get tongue-tied and ignore your own embarrassment (seriously, it’s not that hard. If it helps, tell yourself that even native English speakers get tongue-tied sometimes!).

Let me give you an example.

The other day a big customer of ours had arrived and we were all having a chat in our knitwear factory’s hall. A couple of Polish girls happened to walk by having just finished their shift and our man said something to one of them – just a friendly jest.

The Polish girl obviously didn’t get what he said to her, but instead of saying “Excuse me, can you say it again?” she just smiled awkwardly and walked away.

I know for a fact she has no problems speaking in English despite her language not being grammatically perfect – I’ve heard her speak with other foreigners.

Such and similar experiences, however, have given my Irish colleagues enough reason to believe her English is nearly non-existent. How can I be so sure of it? Well, I’ve heard quite a few comments made about it, and it saddens me to witness the Polish girl being spoken to as if her understanding of English was very, very basic.

Not standing up for herself in situations like this, however, is the main reason why it happens, so please bear in mind – regardless of how good your English is, you’ve got to make effort to get involved in conversations – even if you make a few mistakes here and there.

The latter ones might be even ignored, but the fact that you blushed and didn’t know what to say sends a completely wrong message to your native English speaking friends at work or college.

Not that you should be overly concerned with what others think about you – it’s just that you should be aware of the fact that native English speakers don’t realize how difficult it sometimes is for us, foreigners, to make out what they’re saying, for example.

Your task, therefore, is to be PROACTIVE and dissipate that impression by proving you’re capable of participating in a normal conversation.

Just brooding to yourself over how stupid everyone is not to see your true potential as an English speaker won’t make you better at speaking with people!

2. Your ability to understand what native English speakers say depend not so much on your academic knowledge than on your time spent among them!

All those years ago back in 2002 when I came to Ireland, there were a few of us, Latvian chaps, who stuck together to make our lives easier in the foreign country.

One of them was particularly good at English. To tell you the truth – he was much better than me in terms of fluency and pronunciation, and I was actually envious of his ability to speak with a near-native American pronunciation.

Sadly, that’s where his brilliant English communication skills often ended.

He was quite bad at understanding what the locals were saying to him and he found himself in all sorts of awkward situations. Of course, he could have made it much easier for himself had he just admitted he didn’t understand something. On most occasions, however, he was too proud to admit that someone with such a perfect American English pronunciation could not understand simple things that local Irish people were saying.

Another fellow who’d been living in a number of different countries all over the word including Australia and Sweden, on the other hand, was completely comfortable among Irish. His own English was far from perfect, but he had spent plenty of time among English speakers from different geographic backgrounds and that made him really good at understanding most of what others would tell him at work.

I actually remember this chap telling me how he and the other guy were having a chat with a couple of Irish truck drivers and they were telling a joke. When everyone broke out in laughter, the perfect American English speaker was looking at them perplexed, and later on he asked his fellow Latvian what the joke was about…

The whole point of me telling you this isn’t to prove that trying to speak with proper pronunciation is bad, or that you shouldn’t be striving for constant English improvement and just speak without caring about flaws in your English.

The bottom line here is the following – you may find that your understanding of native speakers differs greatly from your English understanding in terms of reading, for instance

Cure?

Maximum exposure!

And don’t you worry, I’ll reveal my personal little secret to you – I’ve personally never been particularly good at understanding native English speakers in real life, on TV etc.

I still have my moments when I get them wrong – especially when someone says something to me I don’t expect. For instance, one of the managers at my work said to me today as he walked by “You’re a devil tearing up cardboard!” because I was cutting up cardboard boxes at that moment.

What I heard was – “You’re given terrible cardboard!” – which didn’t make any sense to me. The reason why it happened is because I’d never heard something like that before and my mind was just trying to make up something. I did hear the “you’re a…” and “cardboard” parts, but the rest just didn’t come together until my colleague Will explained to me what the manager had actually said.

Make no mistake though, my English understanding is very good after so many years spent in the country, all I’m saying is that your ability to understand others may lag behind other aspects of your English language.

What you should do with this information?

Well, basically there are two things you have to bear in mind:

• always ask to repeat or say it in other words;
• comfort yourself with the knowledge that your listening skills will come along – there’s no way you won’t improve your English understanding over a longer period of time!

3. Many of your mistakes will pass unnoticed as far as you’re sociable, friendly and you speak fluently irrespective of those few imperfections.

IMPORTANT! This lesson is actually probably the most important thing you’ll learn about communication between foreign English speakers and foreigners

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes.

This is one of the biggest fears so many foreign English speakers are facing – fear of making mistakes.

Its roots go deep inside your subconscious and at a primal level you actually fear of being rejected because you’re not able to speak the same way as the native speakers around you. Being part of a group is crucial for survival; it’s wired into us so this fear is good from the evolutionary point of view. At the same time this fear of being rejected makes some of us very bad at communicating in English with others.

It’s a self-perpetuating cycle:

• you’re dreading to make mistakes so you become super-conscious of your own speech;
• in that state of mind you start second-guessing yourself;
• it leads to making even more mistakes!

What I’ve realized over the years is that when native English speakers speak with a foreigner, they don’t necessarily watch out for mistakes and flaws.

It’s only our heightened awareness of our own mistakes that makes us believe everyone else is feeling the same way about our performance.

In fact, sometimes it couldn’t be further from the truth!

When a native English speaker is speaking with you as an equal and not being judgmental, their perception will often ignore imperfections of your speech and they’ll perceive your verbal message as a whole.

It happens to me on a regular basis when I’m having conversations with my work colleague Will – I catch myself making a small mistake, then I correct it, but if I ask Will if he’d noticed me making that mistake – the answer often is “No, I didn’t even notice you said that!”

It’s very important that you understand the full extent of this principle, my friend!

The moment you realize it’s NOT the eradication of mistakes you have to aim for, but rather natural fluency at the best of your ability – that’s when your confidence and ability to communicate with native English speakers reach new heights.

Your date with an English speaker will go down perfectly – as far as you’re confident he or she doesn’t notice your mistakes.

Your job interview will possibly land you that job you’ve been wanting badly – and all because your positive attitude creates an easy-going atmosphere and your interviewer doesn’t notice that clumsy choice of words when you describe your job duties in a meat processing factory.

Your meeting with a property agent will hopefully result in a great deal because you’re making a couple jokes and despite the wrong English grammar tense you just used the agent is actually laughing his head off and never notices the small mistake.

So, these are the three lessons that my 10 year long stay in Ireland among native English speakers has taught me, but I assure you they’re not the only ones.

Just stay tuned in and I promise you’ll find out more in the future!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

The other day one of my Irish workmates was telling me a joke. He started off speaking the way he normally does and I could easily make out what he was saying. After all – I’ve spent nearly ten years in Ireland and by now I’ve managed to understand different regional accents and also different types of speech – muffled, very fast, with word endings dropped and so on.

It’s not always possible, however, to understand native English speakers, especially when they throw in some slang words and expressions you haven’t heard being used before, and the indistinct speech makes it every harder to figure out what they’re saying

As you can imagine, I had to pretend that I got the joke my workmate Louis was telling me and I just gave a short laugh as a sign that his joke was really good…

Please, don’t blame me!

I know that it’s not quite right to pretend to understand what native English speakers tell you because you run the risk of making a fool of yourself.

In fact, you shouldn’t pretend regardless of the speaker’s national background. It should never be a problem to admit that you didn’t get what was being said, even if it’s another foreigner trying to explain you something!

You see, denial originates in fear of being perceived as a poor English speaker, but then you can get yourself in even more embarrassing situations trying to conceal the fact that you didn’t understand something.

Admitting the truth almost always pays and you should treat such moments very casually; don’t make a big deal out of them.

If you radiate confidence, few people will ever think of associating the fact that you asked them to repeat what they just said or to explain what they meant with bad language skills.

If, on the other hand, you’re trying to end the conversation quickly and avoid discussing the same topic, it might give an impression of someone who’s not very comfortable using the English language.

So how do you know when you should definitely tell your conversation partner to repeat what they just said or say it slower and when it’s OK to pretend you understood them?

You Can Annoy the Hell Out of Others
If You Just Smile and Agree!

When I just started all those years ago in Ireland, I worked in a large warehouse. It was a mixed nationality team – Russians, Romanians, Latvians and a few Irish to supervise us, hard working foreigners. To be completely honest with you, in those early days I spent more time learning conversational Romanian than speaking English, and it just goes to show how easy it is to pick up a language by speaking it.

Anyway, what I wanted to tell you about is that I noticed on many occasions that my Romanian friends just agreed with the supervisor (to be fair to them – he was a really mean dude so no wonder no-one wanted to get involved in lengthy conversations with him!) when he was giving them instructions.

On quite a few occasions I witnessed our supervisor make remarks like “Yeah, sure…” after asking if everything was clear to that worker and I started to suspect, quite rightly, that he was making general assumptions about all foreigners.

Could I blame him though, for doing it?

I mean – if he can’t be sure whether someone understands him when he talks to them, is it hard to imagine why that person would think you can’t speak proper English?

I’m not saying our supervisor was doing all he could to make his subordinates feel comfortable. Yes, he was pushing us very hard and most of the team were just too scared of him to admit they didn’t understand what they were told!

Nonetheless, I believe our supervisor would have appreciated honesty much more than compliance, and even I have to admit it can be irritating to face a nervous smile and a nod of approval while you see incomprehension in the person’s eyes…

So let me tell you this – keep agreeing to something you don’t understand if you want to:

• reinforce the notion your English is poor even though it might not be – and since you’re reading this blog, I have a feeling that it’s most likely not!
• face really embarrassing situations when your initial shyness to admit you didn’t understand something suddenly backfires on you!

Believe me, I know only too well that often it’s not the lack of English language skills that lead to these issues. Fast speech and specific way of pronouncing words are the most common reasons why foreign English speakers might find it harder to understand part of the message.

If you look at the bigger picture, however, it doesn’t really matter if you WOULD understand what you were told if the person slowed their speech down or you WOULDN’T.

By concealing the fact that you missed part of the communication and you’re not sure what the message was, you confuse your chat partner AND make the whole communication ineffective!

When it’s OK to Go With the Flow &
A Beautiful Method of Fixing
Potentially Disastrous Situations

Remember I told you I laughed about Louis’s joke without actually getting it?

Just think what would have happened if the scenario goes something like this:

Louis: “… he… (something unintelligible) and then he (something unintelligible followed by sincere laughter)!!!”
Me: “Sorry Louis, can you repeat the last part, do you mind? I just didn’t hear it properly!”
Louis (laughter dying down) “well, he … (and then he goes on to tell the joke once more).”

Can you see now why I preferred to pretend and laugh about the joke I didn’t understand?

Yes, I just didn’t want to kill the joke!

I realized that there would be no harm done if I helped Louis to feel as the best joke-teller in the world. On top of that, I knew him well enough to be sure that he’s not going to ask me if I got the joke.

So is it a big deal if I laughed without understanding what I laughed about?

I don’t think so – especially considering I already know that my English is good enough and that I’m not doing myself a disservice. I spend the whole day in an English speaking environment, and I understand 99.9999% of what’s being said to me; the rest accounts for new words and expressions I haven’t heard before and I always make the point to ask for their meaning if I can’t guess it from context.

Anyway, the only situations you can afford pretending you understood what was said to you are:

• when you’re told a joke and everyone gets it except you;
• you can clearly see that you’ll get away with pretending you understand on that particular occasion;
• you can infer meaning of the message from context, body language, reaction of others etc.

The best strategy of all, in my opinion, is admitting you didn’t understand and asking to say it again or to explain it using other words.

All you have to do is just master the art of letting it go, and you can also learn the method of averting disasters I mentioned in the subheading above.

It’s as simple as it’s genius – if you’re caught with agreeing with someone on something you didn’t have a clue about, just ADMIT IT ALL and MAKE A JOKE ABOUT IT!

If you’re asked – “You didn’t actually get it, did you?” – you can easily get out of the potentially embarrassing situation by saying “Yes, sorry, I actually didn’t quite get it but I didn’t want to sound rude and interrupt you!” – or something like that.

And even if you’re not told anything, but you can see that you just won’t get away with it, you can come clean and say “Hey guys, I was in a hurry and didn’t fully understand what you said to me, but hey – I’m too important to bother with such details!” (this is meant to be a joke – but of course you have to make sure you know those people well enough to predict such a joke will go down well with them!)

Remember – it’s not actually others who make you embarrassed; it’s up to you to control your own emotions

As far as you radiate confidence – you’re fine!

But of course – it’s best not to be lackadaisical when it comes to your spoken English improvement and you better not be ashamed of asking to explain something you don’t understand in the first place.

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Hi my fellow foreigners, it’s been another month at English Harmony and here I am again to deliver another monthly highlights report to those of you who didn’t get a chance or were too busy to read my blog posts regularly.

First of all, I’d like to tell you about a motivational poster I created on the New Year’s Day. Many of my mailing list subscribers and blog visitors have already printed it out and stuck it up on the wall, and you’re welcome to do the same. Just Click HERE to Open the Poster, and a large format image is going to open up so that you can conveniently send it to your printer.

The poster consists of the main premises of the English Harmony project such as – “Focus on what you CAN say instead what you CAN’T” and “Don’t mind your mistakes. Even native English speakers make plenty of them!” and many more; and the whole point of having the poster printed out is to keep yourself motivated to improve and maintain your English fluency throughout this year.

As you might have noticed, my approach towards English improvement is a bit different than you’d see elsewhere. I don’t preach grammar perfection and I don’t promote sophistication when it comes to speaking in English. Basically what I’m saying is – stop giving yourself a hard time, have an open mind and you’ll stand a much bigger chance to succeed as a foreign English speaker, and this poster is the essence of my English fluency philosophy.

A very important part of the whole English fluency improvement thing is acceptance of your mistakes made when speaking with others, and I want you to read this blog post to understand better what I mean by that.

In this article I’m sharing quite a funny yet very embarrassing personal experience with you, and I’m sure you’ll remember similar situations having happened to you in the past. This particular blog post adds to the traditional storyline of us, foreigners, making mistakes while speaking in English by highlighting the fact that even native English speakers can experience moments of confusion and inability to speak properly. As you can imagine, the whole point of this article is to make you realize that you’re not unique, and that such situations aren’t limited to foreign English speakers only.

It can happen to anyone, and the key in dealing with such embarrassing moments is in accepting them as part of our lives, and moving on instead of getting stuck in the moment and re-living the shameful experience all over again.

On a more entertaining note, I want you to read an article I wrote about one of my favorite TV shows – Mythbusters. Personally I don’t miss any new episodes when they’re released on the Discovery Channel, and in case you’re not a big fan of theirs, I want you to read this article and find out for yourself why watching Mythbusters is not only great fun, but also a way of passive English immersion and improving your English!

The five Mythbusters – Jamie, Adam, Tory, Grant and Kari – are covering a wide range of topics on their show and testing different widespread beliefs to see if they hold true, and it’s all done using quite a simple and easy to understand language so that the average foreign English speaker will find it fairly easy to enjoy the program without much difficulty.

You see, if you’ve followed my blog for some time, you’ll know that I’m in favor of enjoying life through the English language rather than using conventional language learning methods. Speaking as much as possible with others and with yourself, using English to enjoy your hobbies and also spending your free time doing things that involve the English language will be very beneficial to you as a foreign English speaker, and here’s another example – reading English newspapers.

When I just came over to Ireland 10 years ago, I made it my habit to read a newspaper every morning and build my English vocabulary, and it’s a decision I’ve never lived to regret. Phrasal verbs, expressions and simple English language used in tabloid newspapers is what you need to communicate effectively with people at work and on the street. On top of that, you’ll keep up-to-date on current affairs and other news which will serve you as source of conversation starter topics – in case you ever run out of things to talk about with your English speaking friends or if you don’t know how to start a conversation.

Making small-talk and discussing simple topics actually is often problematic to many foreign English speakers, because real life conversations require you to be able to improvise and produce speech instantly.

It’s something that I was struggling for a long time, and it took me years to realize that speaking is a completely different process from writing. You see, when you write, you can carefully pick the best fitting words, choose the most appropriate English Grammar Tenses and construct nice English sentences. When we speak, we can’t do it because we simply haven’t got time for it, so it’s hardly surprising that our English writing is much better that speech.

It’s normal, yet I keep seeing the question popping up regularly – “Isn’t it weird I can write better than speak?”

If you’ve been wandering the same thing please read this article I wrote in the beginning of January – it will shed light on the issue and give you a piece of mind in case it’s been troubling you lately.

The last blog post I want you to look at today is about how I use every available moment to practice my spoken English, and you can do the very same to get your English going. It’s called “How to improve spoken English while entering sales orders on a PC” and it’s yet another article dedicated to the topic of speaking English with yourself.

It’s how I keep myself immersed in the English language for long periods of time during the day, and you can do the same to drastically improve your English fluency!

These were the English Harmony Blog highlights of January 2012, and I hope you’ll find at least a few of my articles worth reading! I also hope that you’ll gain something for your own English fluency improvement in the process, and you’re welcome to post your feedback in the comments below!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Let’s imagine you have to pick only one English learning and improving material to take with you to a remote island. What would it be? An English grammar book? A fiction book in English? An English workbook? Never mind them all! What you need is a bunch of newspapers and your English will come along nicely!

The reason why I value newspapers so highly – especially tabloids – is because their purpose is to provide normal, everyday people with easy-to-digest news and English used in them is very close to the spoken language heard on the street, at work, on TV and radio. You can read tabloids very easily and in the process you’ll acquire the same means of expression used in interpersonal communication.

While some academics might hold to a view that spoken English has low standards because of abundance of phrasal verbs and informal expressions, my experience tells me tabloid language will make your communication with other English speakers so much easier. After all, what kind of conversations are you involved on a regular basis – normal, everyday chatting or highly intellectual, academically inspired discussions?

I think that without a shadow of a doubt the former kind of communication is by far more necessary for the average foreign English speaker, so let’s look at the benefits of reading English newspapers and tabloids in a bigger detail. Also, you’ll find out how just by scanning tabloid headlines you can stay up-to-date with current affairs and offer your opinion on different topics when having a chat with your friends at a launch table!

Mark any expressions and word combinations
worth memorizing with a highlighter pen!

Whether you have a habit of grabbing the morning paper on the way to work and having a read on the bus or train, or you just occasionally read newspapers left behind on a canteen table, there’s no excuse for you not to have a pen or a highlighter on you!

When you come across phrases and expressions you haven’t heard before but you feel they’re worth memorizing, just highlight or underline them.

If you’re wondering HOW to determine if a certain expression is worth memorizing, please read another article of mine called How to Decide What New English Words to Learn

Next thing – don’t throw the newspaper away! Have it with you for the evening and next morning so that you can look up those highlighted expressions. Every time you do so, please make a point to speak them out loud and also put them in a couple of different sentences so that you add those expressions to your active English vocabulary!

IMPORTANT! Always learn new vocabulary in context – don’t highlight separate words and don’t translate them into your native language

But if you’re wandering why I insist you should speak them out loud – remember that your goal is to become capable of using those newly acquired phrases and expressions in your conversations! If you only read them, there’s less chance you’ll be able to do so because your mouth needs to be trained in order to speak fluently.

So it’s very important you combine the two – newspaper reading and speaking – for the biggest benefit to your spoken English improvement!

Use tabloid topics as conversation starters
with other English speakers!

They don’t write boring news in tabloids, full stop. Yes, some people will find certain topics more interesting than others, but generally speaking, you just can’t get it wrong if you strike up a conversation with someone touching on a subject mentioned in a tabloid newspaper.

Shocking crime stories, celebrity gossip, latest news in politics and showbiz updates – that’s what tabloid journalism is all about, and the very same topics dominate ordinary people’s conversations. If you want to blend within the society you live in – and I’m sure you do! – you’ll make it so much easier for yourself to integrate if you come across as a friendly person who knows just the right things to say at the right moments.

It’s especially relevant for you if you’re just starting out in an English speaking country, but even if you’ve been around English speakers for a good while, you may often find yourself being the quiet person sitting in the corner and not saying much.

So if you’re anything serious about your English fluency improvement, you’ve just got to speak, and finding inspiration in tabloid newspapers might just make all the difference for you when it comes to being able to participate in daily conversations and comment on things people find important.

And bear in mind, tabloid English is by no means some vulgar gibberish; I’d rather look at it this way – it is language for the people as opposed to a language used in very specific industries.

Here’s an excerpt from The Irish Sun, January 3, 2012: “Another year but already the gloom is deepening. 2012 started with citizens being hit with the household charge, VAT hikes and increased transport fares.”

Would you rather read the same news written in a very formal language – “We’ve just entered the New Year but already the effect of crisis is tangible. 2012 started with citizens facing the new household levy, VAT increase and rising commuting costs.” ?

Well, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you just have to know that in daily conversations the verb “to hit” can be used in that particular context, and it’s not something you’ll come across in an English textbook!

Yes, it’s only beneficial to your overall spoken English level if you can say things like “commuting costs are on the rise”. Yet it’s equally important to be able to speak using simple language, and frankly speaking there are occasions when foreign English speakers are overdoing their speech in terms of grammar constructs and vocabulary because we don’t want to look bad in front of others.

“Transport fares are going up” is totally fine to say, it’s not too simple, and that’s exactly how English speaking people speak in normal, day-to-day conversations!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

I thought I’d become immune to embarrassment because I’ve been following my own advice on using decent doses of ignorance whenever I encountered embarrassing situations.

Last weekend, however, I realized that I’m not as emotionally tough as I thought because I got to experience immense embarrassment while I was doing my weekly grocery shopping in the local supermarket…

To cut a long story short, I ran into one of my work colleagues – he’s a nice Irish fella – and somehow we both got completely tongue-tied when facing each other. To make the matters worse, he had his wife with him and obviously the whole situation became extremely awkward because I’d never spoken to her.

Also considering the fact that I’ve rarely said anything more to him than “Hello!” and “See ya!” at work, I don’t think you’ll find it hard to imagine how two adult men may not find ANYTHING to say to each other. Well, to tell you the truth, the resulting situation was so embarrassing that I literally lost control over it and it started to resemble an accident scene unfolding before my eyes.

Do you know the feeling when you’re witnessing something terrible happen but your body freezes up and you’re unable to do anything? I was experiencing something similar at that moment because I felt I was losing grip on reality. Clearly the totally confused red-faced person who just stood staring at the other two people with no ability to say something sensible in English wasn’t me; it was someone else having taken over my body!

And the Irish fella wasn’t in a much better position – he was as tongue-tied as me unable to come up with anything reasonable to say to me.

As you can imagine, the morale of this story is that it doesn’t matter who you are – a foreign or a native English speaker.

Either one of you can get tongue-tied BECAUSE OF EMBARRASSMENT and the language actually plays a little role in it!

Blame Anything Else BUT Your English!

It’s quite natural for native and also other foreign speakers to assume that once you have difficulties expressing yourself properly in English, it must have something to do with English fluency.

More often than not, it’s actually embarrassment and awkwardness itself that make you lose the ability to speak in English properly on that particular occasion, it’s just that others might assume your English is poor. Sadly enough, it may have an even bigger detrimental effect on your English fluency!

Therefore it’s critical for your confidence as a foreign English speaker to mentally distance yourself from the awkward situation and develop the ability to remain subjective

Yes, I know it’s easier said than done, but listen to this – even as I walked away from the mortifying encounter with the work colleague and his wife, I knew EXACTLY WHAT went on during our attempted casual conversation, and WHY we both failed miserably even to exchange any small-talk phrases:

• he wasn’t sure about my level of English, and that factor alone would make him a bit unsure as to how to speak with me;
• we’ve never spoken about anything AT WORK; so no wonder it was an awful lot more difficult to find something to say to each other OUTSIDE WORK;
• his wife was also with him, and he felt a bit uneasy in her presence;
• I half expected him to take initiative with the conversation so when he didn’t say anything I couldn’t get a word over my lips;
• I was surprised about his awkward reaction which made it even more difficult for me to think of anything to say (I guess on that particular situation it went both ways…)

All the above factors combined resulted in one of the most embarrassing moments in a long time, and please note that lack of spoken English skills isn’t one of them

It could happen to two foreign English speakers meeting up.

I also don’t see any reason why two native English speakers couldn’t get tongue-tied running into each other.

And it can most definitely happen to people speaking the same foreign language – it has happened to me and I’m sure you can think of at least a couple examples as well!

So blame bad luck, bad timing or bad manners – but stop blaming your English skills ONCE you know that on most occasions you’re perfectly capable of handling encounters with other English speakers.

And of course, don’t forget that any native English speaker can also get tongue-tied in a middle of a conversation!

Make no mistake about it – it’s not that easy to ignore such embarrassing situations, but it’s a MUST because you’re mental state is crucial in maintaining your English fluency.

The Right Thing to Do is to Say SOMETHING.
It’s Not Always Possible, Though…

I’ve provided loads of advice on this blog about overcoming similar situations when you just can’t think of the right thing to say.

You should use hesitation filler phrases to fill gaps in your speech while you’re searching for the most fitting phrase, expression or words to say.

You should slow your speech down because speaking fast makes it nearly impossible to pronounce words and sentences properly in English when you’re agitated.

You have to look at the actual topic at hand and you’ll probably realize that you’re trying to say something just to please your conversation partner. If that’s the case, you have to make conscious effort to get yourself really involved in the conversation and that might just do the trick.

Sometimes you can stop second-guessing yourself by simply spitting out the first thing on your mind.

None of these strategies will work completely, however, when you’re as embarrassed as I was when running into my work colleague in a supermarket last weekend.

I was doing my best to break the ice and say something meaningful, but the few sentences I could utter where so clumsy and stupid that I cursed myself for being such an idiot…

I was trying to frantically think of something else to say, and normally I’m quite successful at putting on a performance even in an awkward atmosphere, but my mind just had blanked out and I couldn’t think of anything!

Well, what do you think I did right after that?

I just let it go.

Yes, I just shrugged it off, and even though it stayed with me for a while, I just forced myself to forget this incident and move on.

You see, there was a time when I let such situations get on top of me, and I would have been terribly distraught for days. I would have been very depressed because I would have assumed such a situation occurred because of my poor English skills.

Now I know better, my friends foreigners, and so should you.

As they say – ignorance is bliss!

Next time I go to do my weekly groceries, however, I’ll have a few conversation topics prepared in case I run into the same chap again…

Better be safe than sorry!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

At the moment of writing this article I’ve posted more than 150 posts on this blog, and they’re all dedicated to the topic of spoken English improvement.

That’s why I find it slightly strange to receive e-mails asking a question “Robby, can you help me improve my English?” Normally I would reply with another one-liner – “Please feel free to browse around my website, there’s plenty of articles and videos and they’re all about improving your English fluency!” – because I just couldn’t fit everything there is to say about improving your English in one e-mail!

Also, I was under the impression that such queries are most likely asked by those who haven’t bothered checking out my blog. After all, all the information is available right here, on my website, and all you have to do is just read a few articles to start seeing the big picture, right?

Recently, however, I realized that it’s probably not as easy as it looks to me.

First of all, I’m dealing with a host of English fluency related issues and I have to admit not all of them are relevant to those who just want to IMPROVE their overall level of fluency. For example, if you have the typical English fluency issue whereby you can’t speak on certain occasions but you’re perfectly find on others, your main concern isn’t spoken English improvement as such; in this case you want to learn how to manage your fluency and make sure you don’t get severe anxiety and lack of confidence when you experience reduced ability to speak properly.

Secondly, I can also imagine that the abundance of information on my blog might be a bit overwhelming and it’s not that easy for someone having arrived here for the first time to figure out what EXACTLY they have to do to improve their English.

That’s why I decided to write this 5 step plan with easy, to-the-point instructions on how to make sure your English is experiencing constant growth and improvement.

Enjoy!

1. Stop using your native language
when learning English!

Have you always assumed that explaining new English words using your language is the only way you can build your vocabulary?

Can you not imagine speaking in English without thinking in your native language and translating into English as you speak?

Well, if you want to see any significant improvement to your ability to speak and also write in English, you just have to eliminate your native language from the equation.

You have to make it your point to learn new vocabulary through the English language – if you keep translating into your mother’s tongue, you’ll never get rid of that bad habit of translating in your mind when speaking because of the wrong mental associations between your language words and the English counterparts.

I’m pretty sure you’ve noticed that if you translate from one language to another word-by-word, it just doesn’t sound right. Wrong expressions, awkward sentences – anyone who’s spent some time among native English speakers will notice the difference!

So you definitely want to make sure you are able to THINK IN ENGLISH when you speak or write in English and the first step towards it is very simple – explain new English vocabulary ONLY using other, simpler English words and also force yourself to stop worrying about knowing the exact translation of a certain word or phrase in your language.

You must keep English and your native languages separate, remember that

2. Speak as much as you can and whenever you can!

The sole reason languages emerged during the evolutionary process is so that human beings could COMMUNICATE with each other.

Passing knowledge from one to another in written format and being able to retrieve it by reading is language’s secondary purpose and even though nowadays it’s probably just as important as the interpersonal communication factor, spoken word always comes first.

Yes, fluent speech is what underpins your general English knowledge in its every aspect – reading, writing and speaking – so you have to make it your aim to speak as much as you can and whenever you can

You might have realized by now that the traditional approach towards English learning yields mediocre results because of the main focus on writing and reading, so believe me – if you become a good English speaker, you’ll also be able to read and write very well whereas the opposite statement isn’t always true.

You have to embrace every opportunity to speak with other English speakers.

You have to embrace every opportunity to speak with YOURSELF – yes, speak a lot with yourself! – if there’s no-one else available (you can plan your day and think aloud at moments when you’re alone – and it helps greatly, believe me!)

There are no quick-fixes.

The ONLY way to improve your English – especially spoken English – is by speaking it, full stop.

3. Stop studying English grammar workbooks!

If you’ve been having this idea in your mind lately that you should improve your English, and you’ve been considering purchasing some study materials, please listen to this:

DON’T FOCUS ON STUDYING ENGLISH GRAMMAR!

I can’t stress it enough, so I’ll say it once again – Don’t Focus on Studying English Grammar!

You should think of English grammar as something that is present in every English sentence, every word combination. It’s what binds words together and allows them to come out of your mouth freely and effortlessly.

So, as per your initial e-mail, you wanted to figure out how to improve your English. Well, quite obviously it can be achieved by learning how words go together in the English language so that you can speak them out fluently and freely, isn’t that right?

Well, then can you tell me why on Earth would you want to analyze sentence structure, learn English Grammar Tense tables and irregular verb tables INSTEAD of learning how words are arranged in natural, fluent English speech?

I’ll give you the real answer – because you didn’t know any better.

Sorry, I know, the truth hurts, but I’d rather you swallow the red pill and wake up from the English grammar Matrix.

Once your English grammar basics are covered, I suggest you opt for the following print media in order to improve your English:

• English Collocation and English Phrase complications (go to Amazon.com and type in “English collocations in use”) so that you can learn and incorporate English collocations in your speech and writing;
• English fiction – you can most definitely start reading English fiction even with a limited vocabulary;
• Any hobby and pastime related literature – magazines, newspapers etc.

4. Mimic other English speakers and
stop just sticking words together!

Here’s another thought for you – to speak fluently you need to be able to replicate native English speakers’ speech.

If you just keep sticking words together – or even worse, translating directly from your native language! – you won’t develop that special feel for “Yes, that sounds right in English!”

And you know what this “Yes, that sounds right in English!” feeling is?

It’s an acquired entity of idiomatic expressions, collocations, phrases and expressions you can quite successfully learn and add to your active vocabulary by doing the following:

• Whenever you HEAR or READ a new phrase, expression, or just a word, repeat it to yourself and try to use it in a sentence or as a part of speech as soon as possible. Ideally you should jot it down in a notebook for later REPETITION, and remember – no translation in your language! You’re only allowed to use other English words to explain it!
• Don’t try to analyze and figure out WHY words are used in a certain way. For instance, you might start questioning the phrase “I’d rather you don’t do it” because the word “you” doesn’t seem to fit in right after the “I’d rather” part (and I thought the same when I heard it first!) Your job is to learn TO USE it without questioning – the moment you start equaling English to your language and you want to figure out what EXACTLY it means in your language – you’re done.

5. Buy the English Harmony System!

Yes, that’s the final step in the five step program, and I’d be lying if I left the English Harmony System out – after all, I developed it with one purpose in mind – to help struggling English speakers to achieve fluency!

At the moment there are 60 speech exercising lessons included in the System (every lesson is around 10 minutes long). They’re video lessons where a digital character of me speaks and you have to repeat and memorize different English phrases, idiomatic expressions, and sentences.

The voice has been recorded by a native English speaker and all of those phrases, phrasal verbs, idioms and sentences included in the lessons have been purposefully selected by a native English speaker to provide the best mix in terms of relevance and usage in everyday conversations etc.

After the repetition stage you’re required to take part in a dialogue where all those phrases have to be used again. Every lesson is to be done twice over the course of two months; after that you should repeat the whole set of 60 lessons again to revisit the phrases and make sure you imprint those natural speech patterns into your mind.

What’s very important – it’s not only about memorizing the phrases; your mouth gets trained to produce English sentences INSTANTLY and you can easily REPLACE some words to create new sentences depending on an occasion; it becomes your second nature instead of racking your brain and trying to stick words together as you speak!

Also, there’s a set of 10 meditation lessons included in the English Harmony System and they’re based on using affirmations and visualization to build one’s confidence.

This is very, very important because most of my fellow foreigners who struggle with English fluency also experience confidence issues and are afraid of making mistakes while speaking, which in turn leads to all sorts of problems – getting tongue-tied, hesitation, and others.

So as you can see, the English Harmony System is going to address ALL the different aspects of your English – it’s going to re-build your active vocabulary according to natural speech patterns, it’s going to enable you to speak instantly and without thinking, and it’s going to make you into a confident speaker who’s not afraid of making mistakes BUT also speaks with confidence and can speak about any topic with anyone!

OK, so let’s recap the five point plan:

1. Stop using your native language;
2. Speak as much as you can;
3. Stop studying English grammar;
4. Mimic other English speakers;
5. Buy the English Harmony System!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

I have to make a confession to you, my fellow foreigners… Despite having struggled with English fluency myself, and despite making mistakes while speaking myself, I do sometimes make assumptions about other foreigners and their level of English …

You see, the strange thing about it is that I’m fully aware of the fact that making mistakes and struggling for words is normal.

I know only too well that there’s a multitude of different factors affecting one’s spoken English performance – starting with stress and anxiety and ending with such complicated English fluency issues as preparing speech in one’s head before speaking and a total information overload. After all, I have a first-hand experience of what it feels like when you know EXACTLY what you want to say, but your mouth suddenly disobeys you and says the wrong thing…

So quite naturally I’d expect myself to be the last person to draw hasty conclusions about somebody’s level of English, yet it does occasionally happen!

Of course, the moment I catch myself thinking something like – “All right, I have to choose slightly simpler words when talking to him because he just used a completely wrong English Grammar Tense, so most likely he won’t understand me if I speak the way I speak with native English speakers…” – I immediately say to myself: “Robby, common, don’t be such a meanie, are you always perfect yourself?!”

Imagine, if it takes me so much effort to stop patronizing others, how must native English speakers feel when they hear me make some stupid mistake when speaking to them?

Can I blame them for assuming that my English is poor just because I mispronounced a very simple word? I, for instance, stressed the wrong syllable in the word ‘monopoly’ the other day. I said [‘monopoli] instead of [mo’nopoli], and had my workmate Will not known me for years, he probably would have judged my English skills by that one stupid mistake!

On another occasion, I made a mistake by misplacing a word in a phrase. I said “Fair done!” which is a mix of two phrases – “Well done” and “Fair play to you!”

Once again, for someone who doesn’t know me this would be a reason good enough to extrapolate that mistake to everything I might say. It’s the so called reverse halo effect, and now let’s look at this phenomenon in depth!

The Reverse Halo Effect

To better understand the nature of a reverse halo effect, I think we should start with looking at a halo effect. To put it simply, it’s a psychological phenomenon whereby people’s perception is clouded by a certain positive trait of a person and they are lead to believe that other traits of that person are very positive as well.

So for instance, it has been proven that good looking people are judged by their good looks and are generally perceived to be better employees, better partners and friends and they’re thought to do better in life while in reality it might not be the case at all!

I can even think of a perfect halo effect example in terms of English fluency – it’s when foreigners speak with a near-native pronunciation. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re fluent, however, majority of other English speakers will extrapolate that person’s success in mastering perfect pronunciation onto other aspects of their English and they’ll be perceived as fluent English speakers.

Not that there’s anything wrong with speaking with a perfect pronunciation, all I’m saying is that one can be fluent even when speaking with a strong foreign accent, but quite often the reverse halo effect will kick in and you’ll be perceived as a so-so speaker – just like when making an odd mistake!

So that’s what the reverse halo effect is all about – you just have to possess one bad trait, and people will judge other aspects of your personality by it.

Do you lose your temper easily? Then you must be a terrible person overall!

Is your English pronunciation flawed? Then your English must be poor!

Did you just make a grammar mistake when speaking in English? Then your English is definitely bad because all fluent foreign English speakers speak without mistakes, isn’t that right?

That’s the reverse halo effect. As I said, it’s been proven that people can’t help it, and it’s only human to make assumptions about your English based on a mistake you’ve just made.

Still, I’m willing to fight for the cause and appeal to every native English speaker and also those foreigners who speak impeccable English at all times – please don’t judge others by one or two mistakes they might make when speaking with you!

Mistakes Rarely Paint a Full Picture

I’ve said it countless times on my blog – even native English speakers make mistakes, so is it not only fair that a foreigner whose English is their second language, gets some sort of a concession to make an extra mistake?

I can tell you right away – I still make mistakes every now and then, and it’s mostly down to slight embarrassment, speaking with certain people or English fluency fluctuations that so many of us experience.

A few years ago, however, I was so bad at making mistakes when speaking English that I was told on one occasion that I should go and learn to speak properly… It happened during a phone interview, and I was mortified because deep down I new my English was very good, it’s just that I made a few mistakes when speaking with the interviewer on the phone…

Anyway, the reverse halo effect kicked in and that particular job was gone for me forever. I guess that even if I got to speak with the same person once more and performed brilliantly, they’d still say ‘no’ to me because of their initial perception which is very difficult to change.

So, the moment you judge the other person when hearing a wrong grammar construct – such as “Did you went to your supervisor to complain about that issue?”, say to yourself – “Common, give him a break, anybody can make a mistake, it doesn’t mean his or her English is worse than yours, and after all – are you sure you’re not making ANY mistakes when speaking?!”

I’m pretty sure you are, despite being a very decent English speaker, so I think you have to admit that you can’t really tell what somebody’s English level is just by hearing a couple sentences from them!

Worst Mistakes May Go Hand in Hand With
Superb Expressions and Sophisticated Vocabulary!

Another reason as to why you shouldn’t be rushing into making hasty decisions about a fellow foreigner’s ability to speak English properly is the fact that you might just hear perfect and really sophisticated English right after a clumsy and incorrect sentence.

I think you don’t need a better proof that mistakes don’t paint a full picture in terms of an English speaker’s ability to speak fluently than this!

For example, a couple days ago I heard a radio interview with a foreign taxi driver and initially he was hesitating a little and struggling to answer the questions. I thought to myself – “well, I guess this fella is struggling to speak and it means he’s come to the country only recently…”

Next thing I knew, the chap starting speaking using very specific phrases and his choice of words immediately suggested that he’s a very good English speaker.

It made me realize for the hundredth time that you can’t tell what a foreigner’s English is like just after hearing him utter a couple sentences

Of course, there are plenty of our fellow foreigners who DO struggle to get the message across due to genuine lack of vocabulary and means of expression such as idiomatic expressions; I’m not trying to convince you that every single foreign English speaker is fluent!

All I’m saying is that any foreigner despite having made a bad first impression might just have a surprise in store for you, and I know only too well that stress and anxiety can get the better of anybody.

And I can tell from my personal experience that the worst thing about being judged by the mistakes you make is that sometimes it’s very hard to make a good impression after the harm is done. No matter how well you speak, the other person might be oblivious to the fact that you just said something in perfect English. The reverse halo effect results in a completely wrong judgment, and they might keep speaking to you as if you were a child just because you struggled to pronounce a word properly or asked to repeat the question at the start of the conversation.

So please, don’t be too judgmental of a foreigner who just made a few mistakes when talking to you or someone else. It doesn’t necessarily mean his English is poor; you’ve got to spend a bit more time with that person to figure out their real capacity as a foreign English speaker

On the finishing note, I’d like to remind you of a very interesting fact.

I’ve met quite a few foreigners in my life whose English was terrible in terms of grammar, YET they spoke fluently.

By ‘fluency’ I mean their ability to express themselves in most daily situations, and those particular foreign English speakers had obviously never bothered with acquiring correct English speech patterns; they spoke by simply sticking words together and it worked for them because they were understood.

Not that I would think it’s the right way to speak in English – personally I always aim to mimic native English speakers and you don’t even need to know grammar rules to speak correctly.

The point I’m trying to make here is that nothing is straight cut when it comes to a foreign English speaker’s fluency and you just can’t make a first-minute decision when hearing somebody make a stupid mistake when speaking in English!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Sometimes I find it hard to believe myself that I run this blog part-time. Yes, in case you didn’t know it yet, I have a full-time job and all the writing and video production I have to do for this website is done in evenings, at night, or early mornings.

Anyway, I don’t regret any of it because I’m surrounded by English speakers while at work and it provides me with full English immersion. What better conditions can a foreign English speaker wish for in order to constantly improve and maintain English fluency? When I came to Ireland first, for instance, I had a warehouse job working with other foreigners and most of the time I was speaking with myself, so I really don’t think I should be complaining now!

Even my current job, however, entails duties and responsibilities which see me spend a lot of time on my own – such as organizing and counting stock and entering data on a PC. Quite naturally, I’m not involved in any lengthy conversations with my colleagues when performing those duties and a few times a year there are periods of a few weeks straight when I’m sitting at the PC and entering new sales orders.

Do I miss out on my full English immersion sessions when it happens?

Not at all! I keep speaking English with myself even when entering new product specifications on the computer and it helps me greatly to constantly stay in the English speaking mindset.

I Speak Out All Details of the Sales Orders
As I Enter Them to Get My English Going!

Thursdays are normally my busiest days at work and that’s when I get most of my spoken English practice. I have to make sure certain orders are going out on Thursday and it involves a great deal of communication with knitting and production departments as well as updating my colleagues on those orders.

When I’m sitting at my desk, on the other hand, I have no other choice but to speak with myself, and in real terms it means I speak out all information I’m entering. If I enter a sales order, I name the type of a product and quantity ordered. If I enter a new product on the database, I comment on the specifications that have to be entered and it actually helps me organize my work on top of being a great way of maintaining full English immersion and thinking in English.

And the great thing about such spoken English practice is that it doesn’t look weird at all!

If the first thing that crossed your mind when reading about speaking out details of information being entered on a PC was – “What the others will think about me if I did the same?” – you can rest assured that it’s by far less embarrassing than if you’re caught simply speaking with yourself while doing some other task. (And again – it depends on circumstances and HOW LOUDLY you do it – I, for instance, always pack orders and count stock in a slight whisper to maintain full English immersion!)

When people see you sitting at the desk and typing on a keyboard, they actually half expect you to be moving your lips. It helps many people to concentrate on what they’re doing, so why would you be any different?

Remember – there’s no need to speak out very loud; all you have to do to get your spoken English going is move lips as you pronounce the words and I personally have achieved a state when I can speak in the ‘mute mode’. My lips are moving, but I speak in a very, very slight whisper; it’s some sort of an inner chat.

Automatic Speech Helps You
Ingrain English into Your Brain!

If you want to speak English fluently and naturally, you want the process to happen effortlessly, without any conscious effort. In order to achieve that, you have to make speaking English your second nature.

Personally I’ve found developing a habit of commenting on mundane tasks in English one of the best ways to make sure your English speech process happens automatically

I’ve noticed many foreign nationals switching between English and their native language when performing such tasks, and I believe they’re doing themselves a disservice.

For example, I had visited a doctor and when he was writing a prescription, I could hear him mutter to himself in his native language. On another occasion I had dropped into my local bank, and the same thing happened – when the girl at the information desk looked up my details, I could hear her use her native language.

Maybe those particular occasions can be put down to embarrassment to use English when speaking with oneself, or simply lack of awareness of benefits of maintaining constant full English immersion. Another argument in favor of doing it is simply because it sounds more professional in front of customers and work colleagues, but I would warmly suggest you to do it even if you’re alone.

The benefits of ingraining English into your brain by far outweigh any embarrassment you might experience, and to be completely honest with you – I personally don’t see any reason why you should be embarrassed when doing that.

Even if you live in your home country and work in a job where daily procedures are conducted using your native language, you can still comment on mundane tasks in English in a slight whisper.

Well, probably entering information such as sales orders would prove problematic if the information is given in your language so you’d better not run the risk of making mistakes while entering the data. Still, it is totally possible to have the inner chat with yourself in English while doing simple tasks such as counting stock or packing orders.

Remember – to become a fluent English speaker, you need to learn how to switch off your native language completely, and developing a habit of commenting on entering data on a PC is a great way of making it happen!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Short answer – “No, it’s not weird at all! It’s actually completely normal for any English speaker – be it native or foreign – to be able to write in English better than speak!”

However, having said this, the reverse isn’t always true and I’m not claiming that all English speakers are better writers than speakers. It’s just that it’s NOT WEIRD if you happen to be a better writer than a speaker.

Now, would you like to get a bit more elaborate answer to this question? Well, it’s going to take me more than just a paragraph or two to say all I have to say in this regard, so I’d better settle down in front of my laptop with a mug of coffee because writing this article is going to take me a little while.

There are many aspects to the curious problem of differences between writing and speaking in English and who else would be more qualified to answer the above question than me? After all, I live in an English speaking country and I spend the biggest part of my day at work communicating with native English speakers; most of my evenings are spent writing articles for my blog and answering e-mails.

Years spent on analyzing English fluency related issues have left me with a very good understanding of how one’s writing skills influence one’s ability to speak and vice versa, so let my long answer begin!

So, is it weird that you can write in English better than speak?

NO, and the reason number one is…

1. If You Learnt English the Traditional Way,
It’s Hardly Surprising Your Written English is
Better than Your Spoken English!

In a nutshell, if you’ve learnt the English language by filling in blanks in workbooks and constructing sentences based on English Grammar rules, you’ve become very good at it. So, why would you be surprised to find out in a few years down the line that you’re much better at writing in English than speaking?

Do you think that the ability to create a piece of writing must somehow result in ability to produce verbal content of the same quality?

I’m sorry to disappoint you my friend, but it simply isn’t true!

Just think about it from this perspective – when you write, is your mouth engaged in any way in the text creation process? Is your ability to deliver fluent English speech being developed while you write? I don’t think so, because were the opposite true, you wouldn’t be asking the question in the first place, isn’t that right?

2. If You Spend Most of Your Time Writing,
It’s Rather Common Sense You’re Better at It!

I spend plenty of my time writing articles for this blog, and after a good few years doing this on a regular basis I want to believe I’m good at it! It’s a result of years’ hard work, and if you’re anything like me, you must have experienced a considerable improvement in terms of your ability to deliver very well written English content.

At the same time, if you don’t have much interpersonal contact with other English speakers, your spoken English improvement is lagging behind. The funny thing is, YOUR EGO WANTS to see the same improvement in terms of verbal fluency, but the obvious answer that it’s all down to the lack of practice just keeps eluding you.

It actually boils down to a single premise – YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO If you write a lot – you’re a good writer. If you speak a lot – you’re a good speaker.

Yet interestingly enough, even if you spend an equal amount of your time on writing and speaking, the chances are that you can express your thoughts slightly better in writing. Well, it’s actually quite obvious as well because…

3. You Have an Awful Lot More Time
For Planning When Writing!

When you write, you can stop for a second, think on a few different ways of putting the particular thought into words, and then write it down on a piece of paper or type it onto a computer. There’s nothing preventing you from creating perfect sentences in writing simply because you can always take your time and choose the best fitting words!

Those who face real people in real life don’t have such a luxury – when you speak you have to produce your speech pretty much instantly. Of course, sometimes you will hesitate and think of the best fitting word, phrase, or English Grammar Tense.

By and large, however, an English speaker – be it foreign or native – doesn’t have as much time for planning the speech when speaking as when constructing sentences when writing.

So if you’re bugging yourself about not being eloquent enough when speaking, you can rest assured that millions of native English speakers are probably feeling the same way. After all, when you create a piece of writing, you can always proofread it, polish any imperfections and make it sound as perfect as possible.

And, if you know how to make use of Google and online dictionaries to make sure you use the same means of expression as native English speakers do, your writing really might not differ from that of a native English speaker!

So is it surprising that if you have access to so many extra recourses when writing, that your writing is actually better than your spoken English?

4. When Writing, You’re not Emotionally Affected!

When you interact with other human beings, there’s always emotions involved.

Your new work colleague might make you too conscious of your own English speech, the girl or the handsome guy sitting at the workstation next to you might make you embarrassed, and your boss is probably pissing you off every time he walks by and makes some non-sense comment!

Add on some foreign English speaking perfectionists who’ll scowl at the slightest mistake you make, and some who’ll be always rushing you speech making you completely tongue-tied, and the overall picture all of a sudden gets very grim indeed!

Personally I tackle such emotional pressure with a decent dose of ignorance, but at the same time I’m fully aware of how difficult it sometimes is not to become emotionally affected and maintain your English fluency.

When you write, on the other hand, you are emotion-free for the most part (unless someone is peeking over your shoulder as you write and making you irritated!) And even if you’re frustrated and moody while writing, it will affect your ability to create that piece of writing to a lesser extent than if you were speaking.

So, did I convince you of the fact that there’s nothing weird about being able to write better in English than speak?

I hope I did, and I also hope you enjoyed reading this article!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

I’m a huge fan of Mythbusters and I’m eagerly awaiting every new episode of their show. In case you don’t know what Mythbusters is (which I don’t think is very likely…) – it’s a show where assumptions and popular beliefs are tried and tested to see if they hold true or they’re one of so many misconceptions the human kind has amassed over time.

For instance, in one of the episodes they’re testing an English idiom “a bull in a china shop” to see how the situation pans out in real life. This particular myth was actually busted because the bulls kept avoiding the shelves in a makeshift china shop even when running around at high speed thus proving that the proverb “a bull in a china shop” is just something people believe but wouldn’t prove right were it to happen for real!

Here’s a list of most Mythbusters myths and I bet you’ll find most of them interesting and even fascinating! And, if you haven’t watched the Mythbusters show on Discovery TV yet, I warmly suggest you start doing it! Especially considering how fast your spoken English is going to improve if you keep watching it over a longer period of time!

Why? Well, read the rest of this blog post and you’ll find it out!

And by the way – even if you don’t have access to the Discovery Channels, you can still watch loads of free Mythbusters content HERE on their website or on YouTube – check out the short video below:

1. Mythbusters Use Simple Language

The English language used by Jamie, Adam, Tory, Grant and Kari – they’re the Mythbusters testing the myths – is quite simple for the average foreign English speaker to understand, and you can watch the episodes even with not so huge English vocabulary in store.

Yes, technical terms are used quite often in the show, yet when you watch the Mythbusters in action it’s always obvious what they refer to and it’s actually a great way of building your English vocabulary.

So, for instance, if you find it slightly difficult to watch movies in English without subtitles, you’ll definitely have by far less problems understanding the language used in this entertaining program. And what makes it ideal for improving your spoken English is the fact that when you start understanding nearly everything they’re talking about, you can repeat phrases and idiomatic expressions used in the show as you’re watching it thus adding them onto your active English vocabulary.

2. Mythbusters Use Plenty of English Idiomatic Expressions

In so many ways Jamie and Adam are just like any other guy you may run into on the street when it comes to using plenty of figurative language, and that’s exactly what you need in order to improve your conversational English!

Why? Well, it’s because they use plenty of idiomatic expressions when conducting tests, blowing up stuff and making jokes about each other, and that’s something that makes a big difference when it comes to English fluency.

In ordinary, daily conversations idiomatic expressions play a huge role, and even knowing a handful of them you can get by in many different situations when you might be looking for the right words to explain a certain thing.

I, for instance, remember hearing a sentence – “Let’s see how it stacks up!” – in the episode about the bubble bike and it was quite obvious what it meant. They had created the best possible aerodynamically shaped frame around a bike and wanted to compare its gas emissions with a normal bike. So quite obviously ‘to stack up against something’ means to compare it with something; it sounds friendlier and it’s something definitely worth memorizing.

I jotted the phrase down in my pocket dictionary for later repetition, and now I can produce it instantly when a similar occasion arises!

Another idiom I learnt from Jamie is “up the ante” which he uses when it’s time to take the testing to the next level. It was quite obvious what it meant from the context alone, and I don’t think you’ll have to use any dictionaries to figure out the meanings of the various idiomatic expressions used by Mythbusters.

3. Mythbusters Use Plenty of Phrasal Verbs

I’ve mentioned this on my blog many a time – phrasal verbs along idiomatic expressions make up a significant part of spoken English and it’s also much easier to speak if you use phrasal verbs instead of their formal counterparts.

“Crank up the volume!”; “Let’s step it up a gear”; “I think we should scale it up” are just a few of the phrasal verbs I’ve learnt while watching Mythbusters and I have to tell you that they’ve come in handy countless times in my English conversations at work.

Don’t forget that Mythbusters is all about practical things which we all have to do either at home or work therefore the phrasal verbs you’ll learn from the show are invaluable for your active English vocabulary!

And again – don’t forget to jot them down within a context because you’ll definitely want to repeat that phrase a few times before it settles into your memory.

4. Mythbusters Speak Quite Slowly and Very Clearly

All Mythbusters are Americans and you must have definitely noticed that your average American speaks quite slowly and pronounces words clearly enabling you to understand exactly what they say 99% of the time.

It’s important for three reasons. First – you wouldn’t enjoy the Mythbusters show if you couldn’t make out what they’re saying half of the time. Unlike listening to music or watching action movies, you have to be quite focused on what’s going on in the show at any given time. Their tests are often of a technical nature and amidst all the bomb blasts, car racing and smashing things together at high speeds you really want to make sure you follow what they’re doing.

Second – it’s great for building your English listening skills .Even if you don’t notice considerable short-time changes, your fluency trend is actually going up as you engage in all types of English-related activities. Today it is Mythbusters, in a year or two it might be some other program or TV series you’ll be able to enjoy just because you built your listening and understanding skills while watching Mythbusters.

And lastly, their clear pronunciation enables you to write down any new idioms, phrasal verbs and technical terms in a notebook so that you can memorize them for using in your own English conversations.

5. Mythbusters Cover a Wide Range of Topics
Which is Great for Building Your Vocabulary

From flying planes to shooting machine guns, from stuffing a cement truck with so much explosives that it simply annihilated it to smashing a glass using nothing else but a high-pitched voice – it’s really hard to think of something that the Mythbusters might have left out since the show started back in 2003!

I’m pretty sure that no matter it is that you do at work and in your free time, you’ll definitely acquire significant relevant vocabulary if you watch Mythbusters on a regular basis.

And if you’re anything like me, you’ll simply enjoy the ability to speak about a wide range of topics and use specific terms to tell your story.

“The shock wave propagates at a speed of 5 K per second.” (Technical term describing movement of a shock wave after an explosion).

“Now it’s time to crunch the numbers.” (A typical English collocation meaning to sum up figures).

“Let’s rig up the frame first and then we can see how much more timber we need.” (A very practical phrasal verb meaning to set up, to erect, to build something).

Personally I’ve learnt all these and a whole lot more new English words thanks to the Mythbusters show and it has enabled me to talk about technical matters more fluently.

And let me say it to you one more time – you should most definitely learn all new vocabulary as part of context in order to create associations between the new words and your existing English vocabulary!

6. Mythbusters is Simply Too Good To Be Missed!

Do you think I’m watching Mythbusters with the sole purpose of improving my spoken English?

Do you think I’m constantly writing something in my pocket dictionary with shaky hands just so that I wouldn’t miss another new phrase or expression?

Of course I don’t! And the purpose of this article wasn’t to convince you of the need to focus solely on the language side of the show.

You have to ENJOY LIFE THROUGH THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, all the English learning and improving comes with it – that’s the point I’m trying to make here!

Mythbusters are great fun, and the two teams – Adam and Jamie and Grant, Tory and Kari are constantly making jokes, mocking each other (Adam always makes jokes about Jamie’s moustache!) and having a good time while experimenting with electricity, high explosives and crashing cars.

On top of everything else I said about Mythbusters in terms of relevancy for your spoken English improvement, we may add another important factor – they’ll teach you how to have fun while being around other English speakers. And if you think about it, it’s very important for the moments when you might feel a bit down because of re-occurring English fluency issues, for instance.

They’ll cheer you up, and you’ll find it much easier to forget yourself while watching their show which is going to help you ignore the bad emotions within.

Can Mythbusters help foreign English speaker to improve their spoken English?

MYTH CONFIRMED!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!