Your First Time Speaking

Freeing yourself from the silent period

Welcome, aspiring polyglot! One of the greatest feelings on the planet as an educator is seeing all of the hard work students put in starting to pay off. Nothing makes this more clear than when people begin to converse in their target language. Over the last week I have had the absolute pleasure of witnessing this happen first hand once again. This is a feeling I want you all to experience. The liberation that comes from finally being able to express yourself in a new language.

Making mistakes freely and willingly

In order to get to the point where you can speak fluidly, you have to be willing to make mistakes. Perfection is the enemy of done. This is true in language acquisition as in many things. If you are constantly putting off speaking because your phrasing is less than perfect, you will find yourself in the silent period indefinitely. For more on the silent period and its effects on your language acquisition, check out this article:

Communication will always be more important than perfection. Most bilinguals you will ever interact with have learned this. Think about the conversations you’ve had with people who speak English as a second language. Do they always use the proper pronoun? Is the word order perfect? Do they usually understand the intricacies of English grammar? No to all of the above.

However, that never stops them from speaking because they have learned that communication is far more important than perfection. You can even bolster your language acquisition by speaking incorrectly because it will reveal in no uncertain terms precisely what you need to work on to get better. It is impossible to solve problems you don’t know exist. Making mistakes is crucial to your linguistic development.

Learning from your mistakes is better than just about any other form of learning because your mistakes are unique to you. Maybe in life you should aim to learn from the mistakes of others, but the chances that you make the same language mistakes as someone else are far lower. Therefore, the more mistakes you make and are able to learn from the less time it will take for you to reach the point where you are comfortable speaking.

The primary danger of not learning from your mistakes is that you risk making the same mistakes indefinitely. If you constantly make the same mistake, not only is it demoralizing but you will eventually give up trying to fix it which is also not a good solution. You have to start somewhere and irrespective of how many mistakes you are making, five minutes speaking is always better than zero.

Thinking things through

A pervasive problem that many people run into during their transition out of the silence period is the desire to translate word for word. I am a huge proponent of direct translation. When you are learning that is what you are going to be doing. There is no way around it. Eventually, you will want to get away from it, but when you are starting it is a powerful tool that you have at your disposal. For more on maximizing that tool, check out this article:

Fortunately, there is a way to get beyond this common issue rather quickly. The only thing you have to remember is to work through your entire English sentence before you try to translate it. Your target language is dependent on context, if you try to go word by word you will find yourself struggling. Go through the entire sentence, translate it, and unleash it on the world.

An advantage of thinking all the way through your sentence is you won’t pause halfway through. It can be difficult to pull yourself together if you make your way successfully through half the sentence only to be stopped by missing a single word. If you think through it all ahead of time there may very well be a longer pause up front, but the rest will be fluid.

There is no shame in taking time to think through the things you say, irrespective of which language you happen to be speaking in that moment. Translating the entire sentence ahead of time also gives you the opportunity to think of other ways to approach different topics. At the end of the day, the likelihood that you will be able to say things the way you want to is low. People simply express things differently in different languages.

You can get close, you might even find a better way that doesn’t exist in your native language, but if you get hung up on trying to say the exact same thing in either language you will psych yourself out. Do your best to think of alternative approaches to ensure you are able to express anything, even if it is not as eloquent as you aspire for it to be. Over time you can amplify your eloquence through a larger vocabulary base and a better grasp on grammar.

Everyone starts by translating in their head. You will start that way too. If you to expedite the process you can start thinking in your target language. Instead of asking yourself questions in English, stop yourself and think about how you would ask them in your target language. Whenever you are forming sentences in English, ask yourself how you would form them in your target language. Any time you are reading something in English, ask yourself how it might be written in your target language.

Conclusion

Your first conversation is going to be the moment you realize every ounce of effort you put in was worth it. Until that point you may find it difficult to open up your books and study day in and day out. The longer you wait to start speaking the more time it will take you to feel comfortable speaking. Whether you are reading aloud, mimicking after people, or forming your own broken sentences, some speaking is better than none.

There are ways to start speaking within a year. It is even possible to start having conversations after a few months. However, it is by no means easy, it will demand lots of time, and you will feel demoralized more often. When it comes to language acquisition, the only way out is through. Once you get through the time commitment, the demoralization, and the challenge, you will come out the on other side prepared to speak with anyone about anything at anytime. For more on that, check out this article:

Want access to premium content?

As we discuss often around here, creating is vital in second language acquisition. Speaking and practicing with written language will help you in accelerating and enhancing your language learning process, so start having conversations as early on as possible. It will be difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So go do some difficult things and become great.

Eager for more Second Language Strategies?

For more content find me on Twitter or Instagram. If you are struggling to get speaking in your target language, get up to 55% off a Babbel subscription using this link. I look forward to seeing everyone’s progress in the months and years to come. Be sure to check out the YouTube channel as well!

Learning Spanish? We have begun aggregating resources in you ​Spanish Resource Newsletter​!

Don't forget to pick up your very own ​French Language Logbook​ or ​Spanish Language Logbook!