Overcoming The Fear Of Speaking A Foreign Language

The fear or anxiety around speaking in a new language is something I think all language learners experience to some degree. For many people this can be a true obstacle in reaching our dreams of speaking our target language fluently. In this video, I share my own anxiety about my second conversation in Mandarin Chinese just minutes before I would be speaking, and discuss some thoughts on overcoming this fear we all experience.
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Watch this whole series (playlist):
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[@ginaherold]

Although I've talked my tutor many times and a friend twice, I was still nervous about talking to anyone else. I promised myself that next time I went to the Vietnamese grocery store I would at least try. Then last night I went to my fave local restaurant and the owner introduced me to his new Vietnamese-speaking employee. Boom! Somehow my brain actually made some Vietnamese come out, and I didn't even have time to be nervous. I guess what I'm saying is: get someone to spring a surprise attack on you :)

[@travellinman382]

I find my French improves with wine! It’s magical. 🤣🍷🇫🇷

[@adakadak1012]

Hahaha!! That's awesome.

[@danieltemelkovski9828]

In vino, fidentia.

[@caterinascarpelli]

This is such a common issue and I feel we don’t talk about it enough! I tried to give my advice in a similar video but what I love about this community is that everyone has always a slightly different approach; And I love hearing yours! Thanks for sharing 🥰

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

I totally agree that it's really common and should be talked about more! It's always great to get lots of different perspectives. Even just myself, on a different day I might have focused on a different area such as the challenge of understanding the other person, haha. Thanks for sharing and for your support! ❤️

[@eastcoastsnob]

I joined a Toastmasters in Paris (via ZOOM) last year to force myself to speak in public - in French!!!! Even now 6 months later having to give a speech is stressful, but the practice is helping little by little. The more you speak in that foreign language the easier it will get.

[@danieltemelkovski9828]

Not to take away from your willingness to confront your fears, but I think giving a speech is a different kind of fear to the fear of looking like an idiot when you're stumped by how to answer a question in a live conversation. With a prepared speech, sure, you still risk sounding like an idiot with your horrible foreign accent and on top of which there are the 'standard' fears you'd experience with public speaking in your native tongue, but if you master THESE particular fears, you're not necessarily going to have overcome your conversational fears.

[@nickstevens769]

Thank you so much for this video! You describe exactly how I have been feeling lately with my German. Even though I study every day, I have some sort of mental block that keeps me from talking, even with my partner who happens to BE German 😅. I feel a bit overwhelmed by vocabulary and all the subtle nuances between similar words, and my perfectionism is getting the better of me.

[@nickstevens769]

@@fuuny100vedios I think Robin has been a great source of both validation and fantastic advice for all of us intrepid language learners. 😊

[@brucehinkley3813]

Good luck , looking forward to your lesson ,it's real brave of you to document it for us.

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Thank you, Bruce! I really appreciate it 😊

[@AnaBeatriz-fc4mm]

You are amazing! Even though I already have conversations in English, I still feel very insecure when I speak :(

[@Cloudyvi]

I am not a confident person in general, but I don't mind making mistakes or forgetting words. I guess I'm afraid to jump the few minutes/seconds before it actually happens, but I'm even more eager to go through the experience. I see myself as a kid that's curious and excited about learning something new! It's very reassuring for beginners to see how anxious you can be, even for a polyglot like you~ Keep it going! And enjoy your lessons!

[@JonathanOlelo]

I can totally understand you, the first (or second 😃) conversation in a language is always challenging no matter how experienced polyglot you are

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Absolutely! That's why I love showing these moments so that people can see this is something that all of us experience with a new language 😄

[@eaglenoimoto]

2 years of learning without a conversation 🤯 I really like your videos, even though we learn in entirely different ways. I've learned 6 foreign languages to varying intermediate/advanced degrees (two of them non-related, non European ones), and never felt that vocabulary was a limiting factor. However, I have also always spoken from day 1, which doesn't mean I ignore grammar. I'm a grammar nerd and understand the concepts easily... The hardest thing for me is when I want to express myself at an advanced, intelligent level with complex sentence structures, although I know full well I'm not at that level in that language yet. My own frustrations to sound "not like myself" are the hardest for me.

[@shadowkatzchen]

Robin, I'm so glad you made this video! I have a bit of a fear of speaking Korean and I'm moving to Seoul in 6 days (!!!) so I need to get over that haha. I've done 1 italki conversation lesson but it wasn't the best, the teacher didn't let me talk about what I wanted to talk about. Deciding the topic and practising vocabulary beforehand is a great idea, I'll do that next time. I want to take a lot of italki lessons during my quarantine so this video is just the push I needed, thank you!

[@deadfolk]

Looking forward to the follow up. We're all rooting for you!

[@adakadak1012]

Thank you for yet another AMAZING video, Robin!!!! Love the new background decor by the way!!! Very cool😎😊👌🏾

[@alobo_78]

happy monday Robin! it is 6:20 am right now... to me it would be enough to overcome my fears a big cup of coffee jajaja ...... Depende de cuan preparado estés, de cuanto hayas practicado... me parece excelente que seas tan honesto y que sigas tu camino a la fluidez con todos sus pro y contras.... un abrazo gigante...!

[@danieltemelkovski9828]

This is something I've always intuitively done. It's like the 'training wheels' that I've got to have. One 'problem' (not a real one) with it is that the other person can get the impression that you're better at the language than you really are, especially if you combine it with a convincing accent. It's only a 'problem' in that the other person then feels comfortable speaking to you more quickly or colloquially and about a wider range of subject matter, which has meant that... let's just say I've had plenty of occasion to 'fake it till I make it' haha.

[@SteAndRach]

Wow Robin, you have such an amazing personality!! Totally resonate with the message of needing to get out your "bad drawings". We try to apply that mindset to our videos on youtube too haha. Keep up the great work and happy to have found your channel from Slow Growth's slack community 💛

[@jahayrac8636]

You're awesome 🥰 thank you for this. You've really hit the nail on the head with this video.

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Woohoo thanks so much for the supportive and encouraging comment, Jahayra! 🥰

[@Promit533]

My problem is contrary to residue guys...when I speak new language I can retain my aplomb but...when time comes to read or listen I lost every confidence...,I was possessing beforehand

[@Taradays]

Practicing it a lot with strangers is actually scary as approaching a new person in English. I still can't believe how fatigued I feel checking out in a grocery store in my native language. Then again I do have a central auditory processing disorder. Anyways just want to brag that while at work I meant someone who has a name that looked 2nd generation Korean. So I wanted to bond with the customer and get to know him a bit (aka show off my language skills). It's been a year since I have been studying hardcore and got to an Intermediate High level. It worked well and thank god he was 2nd gen so I didn't have to worry about going with a higher respect level. Plus I only really spoke about myself then we deranged back into English because we needed to get work done lol. I used LingQ to make me feel comfortable with anyone's input when they reply to me. I also did all the 324 hours of active listening that was recommended for my level of vocab/standing. Always start with "I can speak a little of this language" no matter how far you are. By the time your ready not to say that to strangers automatically you will be able to flow it well. @Robin if you ever see anybody speaking to the bottom of their phone while pressing a button (WeChat voice messages). Just say in Chinese "你是中国人?" and then wait for a response, if no response (never happened to me before) then they aren't. Regardless to say I got to sit with a few Mandarin speakers this way in college.

[@Taradays]

also @Robin Chinese students abroad will understand if you insert English verbs and subjects in English into your Chinese sentences. It's actually ones of the reasons when I spoke a lot of Chinese my English grammar would start coming out very oddly. "Did you eat yet?" "No eat yet" 不吃了

[@Ewan_Smith]

做得好 Robin！我说中文的时候， 因为我連簡單的詞都忘記所以我也很紧张。我尊重你發布你說中文的視頻，把所有的錯誤给我們看一下。我祝你學中文萬事如意！

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

謝謝，Ewan! 最後，跟Joyce說話很好玩了！我希望視頻很有意思 😄

[@Ewan_Smith]

非常有意思! 從現在開始,為了讓你練習中文,我要用中文留言哈哈 😃

[@schoolingdiana9086]

. . . but is that a Jack Davenport approved cushion??? 😜 Excellent point on it being an issue of amount of time practicing speaking rather than an issue of vocabulary recall. Thank you. 🙏🏽

[@TomasSchertel]

I have problems with vocabulary too. Then, after a few minutes of conversation, I hear that I can speak really good german 😂

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Haha yes this is often the case! It's often just about building our confidence up and I think if you're getting that positive feedback from people you're speaking with, that's a great sign and hopefully helps! 😄

[@dias7956]

I have a friend who can speak with people, but he can't speak with me cause how he said "He is shaming" I think it's a new topic of fear

[@jorgeromera3861]

Good luck with that conversation.

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Thank you Jorge!

[@plumhead195]

I'm usually more worried about understanding people, i think, actually. I know a lot of vocab and mostly know sentence structure/grammar, but sometimes I do struggle to put the words together, correctly, as I get into my own head and try and directly translate it, rather than relaxing and thinking in that language instead. That's usually the issue for me.

[@1hinita]

I have that same problem. Sometimes i have to translate to English before forming a sentence. Comprehension is kinda difficult for me regardless of how many words i know.

[@jaysargeant3416]

Robin, I have 25,000 words and can construct lots of conversations, but I find comprehension ridiculously difficult. How about you?!

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Hi Jay! How much reading and listening have you done relative to other activities? In my case, I focus quite heavily on input during the initial phases of learning a language, so I've done things like the extensive and intensive reading with materials like graded readers as well as things like transcription and general listening practice. I've documented all of this on the channel in case you haven't seen those videos, they might help give you some ideas! 😊 I'm glad you brought this up because this is certainly the other major thing that very often causes anxiety around speaking! If we can't understand well then it's hard to engage in a conversation and thus can definitely impact our confidence. My suggestion would be focusing in on lots of input at this stage! Keep in mind that even Extensive Reading (I have a whole series about that which you can find here: kzbin.info/aero/PLuIhQdwUVqqryPfMtqNyc_-gI1C15S-Mf) will also improve your listening comprehension due to things like improving your automatic processing. I'd highly recommend trying the method I outlined in episode 2 of this series, as I really think that transcription is such an amazing way to really boost your overall comprehension! I hope this helps 😄

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

The radio is your friend. Nothing will improve your listening skills like listening to the radio will. At first just listen, when you start to understand what's being said, you can consider moving on to more difficult things like transcription or shadowing. But, if you know that many words, then you're probably going to get nearly the entire rest of the way just listening.

[@norma94]

Reading, my friend. Focus on the plot and accept you might not understand everything. Just focus on understanding the story. You can also record parts of conversation from vlogs or tv shows (short 1 or 2min) and listen them on your phone on repeat while you walk or wash dishes, then come back to it and study the subtitles or transcript ;)

[@InquirywithHelena]

Mmm…. Public speaking is rated as the number one fear, for Americans, at any rate, and research recently (over this last pandemic year) shows that zoom calls, because of their intimacy, are rated similarity. I wonder if fear of jumping into a conversation in our target language with a native speaker falls into the same category. Apparently there is some genetic correlation too, to having glossophobia - fear of public speaking. In my experience one simply has to accept it’s going to be messy, go off in unexpected directions and feel awkward at first. But it can also be a surprising and exciting experience - I often find I know more vocab than I thought I did, thanks to doing a lot of reading from various sources. LingQ is a great help for this. Also I like to prepare navigation phrases to help me - “can you repeat that, please could you speak more slowly, sorry, I didn’t get that, could you write it down, sorry, I don’t understand. Hang on, I want to look something up. How do I say….. in (language)? “ And yes, absolutely, I build language islands on topics I want to be able to converse on. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll have a fascinating time. And it’s such a thrill to do it, however it turns out. And agreeing with everyone else here, wonderful of you to go public and open and honest about it all, really courageous and inspiring!

[@solea59]

Hello Robin, How have I missed episodes 4, 5 and 6 here on youtube ? I have been looking for them constantly but no joy as yet :-(

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Hi Brian! You can find all of the episodes in the series playlist here: kzbin.info/aero/PLuIhQdwUVqqqCtn3xUyVeNp9v6tsWKX43

[@solea59]

Great stuff , thanks muchly Robin. I can catch up now 👍😁

[@aware-ness9993]

Hi Robin, I am in a weird situation...would like to know what you think! I am not sure how other people keeping up there in this situation. Basically when I was hired here in Germany, my boss knew i could not speak German, but in the meanwhile they arranged classes for me. The language learning is going slow...I manage to have some conversations on the phone to book appointments, speak to my GP, speak to my sons caregivers at the kindergarten, but unfortunately at work I still feel very afraid to try to speak within work meetings. Sometimes i get involved in meetings that end up being held in German by the limitation of some colleagues expressing themselves in English (though most of our conversations with colleagues are held in English otherwise I would take really long to express myself and get work done). Generally when I am included in such meetings, i just get lost in the whole conversation because my level is not all that good yet (A2), I lack business vocabulary and people just speak really fast for me. I usually leave such meetings feeling stupid, overwhelmed, unmotivated and like the day will never come when I can speak fluently. My boss makes some pressure that I explain some things in German (in a joking way), but I just don't feel comfortable to yet, sometimes I try to explain something to myself in German, but I always lack the words I need...besides this situation, I just don't have much time on my hands to study the language (I try to have lessons twice a week). I feel that this "pressure" is affecting my language learning in a negative way and don't know how to handle these situations. It's causing me so much anxiety...you will not imagine :( What would you do in my place? What is the smartest way to handle this?

[@anasshatla6509]

Hi Roben, I am struggling also exactly the same thing with german, but when i get anxious i suddenly forget everything especially before the interview "that i actually failed before cuz the same situation lol", so my question is how can we manage to control talking about any further questions outside the words i prepared for the interview, like if the HR was asking unrelative questions just to mess with me!!? Do you have any advices? And thank you so much for the Extensive reading method it helped me a lot ❤️💯

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Hi Anas! I think there are a few principles you could try following to address the struggles you outlined here 😄 • With the method I've been showing in this series so far, the cool thing is that with each iteration you can change topics, and so over time there is more and more overlap and you start to become more comfortable and able to improvise with spontaneous conversations that don't have a set topic. • You can also do something similar with perhaps my podcast interview method (I explain it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqi4hIV9q9yMf7c), just to really emphasise the speaking element. Perhaps you could even modify that method to have a new random question every day using a random topic generator online or something 😄 I hope these are helpful!

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That's a bit of an issue for me where I don't really know what to learn. I've been seriously considering just getting a journal and writing, in English, the things that I like to express and then learning whatever relevant vocab and grammar is relevant to that. I've got enough of the basic grammar and vocab that I can communicate reasonably well the things I'm likely to want to express, but the limited vocabulary covering my interests and needs is the biggest issue. My Mandarin isn't as far a long, so I need more grammar there, and I've also got the bits about the characters as well to contend with.

[@gururtuncozen3645]

Hi Robin i like your videos I'm old follower of you.

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Thanks so much for your longtime support!

[@fizzbangwhizzpop]

🦔

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

🐈

[@basuSolanki07]

Hi Robin How are you.

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Hi 로히트 , that's very nice of you to ask :) I am doing well! It has definitely been a lot for me to deal with these last few months, experiencing such a huge transition with moving back to the U.K. and also the big career change at the same time. I do have quite a lot of anxiety about the future and my decisions 😅 But I am feeling positive, optimistic, and hopeful! How about you? How are you?

[@basuSolanki07]

@@RobinMacPhersonFilms I am also doing well. Enjoying reading my first novel in my target language.

[@RobinMacPhersonFilms]

Oh that's fantastic! A huge moment in your language journey. Which novel are you reading and in which language?

[@basuSolanki07]

@@RobinMacPhersonFilms I am reading a novel called "Pls look after mom"(엄마를 부탁해) in korean.

[@lauraleutprechtperes2582]

Is there someone interested in talking in English with me? 🤗 My English level is B2 I’m from Brazil 🇧🇷

[@andrewcoggins6802]

You joke about alcohol, but if you're a drinker, a single drink can actually help!