Namaste: How Can I Speak Better English?

by Subina
(Kathmandu,Nepal)

Hello mam,
I'm from Nepal and I would like to talk in English but I'm afraid to talk. I don't know in which tense we should talk. I notice many times while talking with friends that I make many grammar mistakes, so I hesitate to speak.

I have read so many English learning books but in practical ways my level is zero, so I would like to respectfully request your help to give me some idea on how to speak fluently in English without mistakes in my grammar.

If I get some suggestions from you I would be really glad and plz do not hate me because I'm from Nepal...I look forward to hearing from you very soon ok and do take care!

Hi Subina,

Thank you for taking the time to submit your question (it is a very common situation). I am going to refer you to Robby (my fluency guru) because he can give you some great advice on improving your spoken English. (He will post his advice shortly).

My personal advice is: speak as much as you can, even if this means by yourself. The more that you speak (even if you are speaking to yourself) the more comfortable you will become when you speak and this will directly influence how you speak with others.

It sounds like you are scared of making mistakes as well and this is something that you must face and overcome.

Making mistakes is not a bad thing. It is a way for you to identify areas where you need more practice.

All the best,
Diana

Comments for Namaste: How Can I Speak Better English?

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Mar 22, 2011
 A Few Tips for Speaking Correct English
by: Anonymous

I have some tips to improve our speaking..

Please have a look here
http://www.saburai.us/2011/03/10-tips-to-speak-correct-english.html
Mar 22, 2011
 How to Speak Better English
by: Robby Kukurs

Hi Subina,

And thanks Diana for passing Subina's inquiry over to me!

All right, so let's begin with the fear of making mistakes. I've answered quite a few related questions so you may want to check them out:

www.helping-you-learn-english.com/im-afraid-of-making-mistakes.html

www.helping-you-learn-english.com/how-to-speak-in-english-without-making-mistakes.html

It seems you have a typical English fluency issue whereby you have the knowledge, but you can't use it in real life conversations.

Many of us foreigners are trying to prove our knowledge when speaking but you must have noticed that even native English speakers speak using very simple words and expressions. So I'd suggest you to build up your confidence from the ground up. Maybe your lack of confidence originates in your hurt pride that you can't speak the same way you'd write.

You have to begin by accepting that it's normal and even though your passive vocabulary is large, your active one (words you can use when speaking) is much smaller and you need to practice a lot to achieve a satisfactory level of fluency.

Next step - accepting mistakes as normal occurrence. As Diana writes below your original inquiry - mistakes help us identify our weaknesses and you have to view them as stimuli to learn more and more.

So every time you make a mistake - make a note what EXACTLY you couldn't say and look it up later on. Then repeat that phrase until it's ingrained into your mind and you can automatically produce it whenever needed. You'll have to make a lot of effort in the process because there isn't a magic trick that would help you eliminate mistakes from your speech simply because you have to teach your sound producing organs to speak CORRECTLY.

The bottom line - it's all about repetition and memorizing. Start a notebook where you'd write down phrases you want to learn, then repeat them until you're comfortable using them.

You can also get a hold of a phrasebook which would be very helpful when learning how English is used in everyday conversations.

And, of course, you can consider joining the English Harmony System's customers' circle - it's all about imprinting naturally occurring English speech patterns into your mind so that you can speak automatically and correctly!

Regards,

Robby

Robby Kukurs is the creator of www.englishharmony.com, a website he created in 2007 to help struggling foreign English speakers gain real English fluency.

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