How to speak English CONFIDENTLY My Top 5 Tips
hello everyone and welcome back to
english with Lucy today I’m going to
talk to you about confidence confidence
is something that a lot of language
learners lack i know because i myself
speak some other languages and when i
was learning them i really felt quite
shy at times and I could have used a
video by someone to give me a boost
so this is what I want to do for you
today I’ve got five tips that I can give
you that will help you learn to speak
more confidently more fluently and I
really hope that my tips will motivate
you a bit more so that you can really
learn English with lots of enthusiasm
now I’ve got an Instagram account and i
like to chat with my students on there
and this morning I posted a video asking
my current students what made them feel
more confident when speaking english and
i got lots of replies and at the end of
the video I’m going to show some of
those replies to you and see if you can
relate with them see if you disagree or
agree i think it’s really important to
get opinions and information from people
who are learning English right now
they’re just like you in the same
situation so a little bit about me first
so obviously i am English with Lucy I am
an English teacher and I have been
teaching for over three years now its my
love it’s my passion it’s what I want to
do for the rest of my life now part of
the reason that I enjoy teaching so much
is because i have also been through the
language learning experience I’ve been
through it with Spanish I now speak fluent
spanish y si me quereis ver hablando en
pues podeis ver este video aqui
que grabe hablando de los errores que he
cometido en español right so let’s get
started with the tips
the first and most important tip i can
give you is laugh at yourself have a
sense of humor
don’t take it too seriously on this
channel I like to laugh I like to have
fun and sometimes I will sort of make
fun of the errors that my
students normally make and this is
because I want them to get used to
laughing at their own errors enjoy your
errors your errors are not bad
and if you can laugh at them it will
make the learning experience so much
more pleasant now my teaching methods aren’t for
everyone for every 99 positive comments
I will receive a negative one saying you
shouldn’t laugh at your students you’re a
terrible teacher now I can laugh at your
errors but i can also laugh at mine and
I do so frequently so that’s why I include
the outtakes at the end of some of my
videos and that’s why i filmed my
perra choriza video which is actually in
Spanish but it’s of me talking about
these stupid ridiculous hilarious errors
that i made in Spanish I once asked for
a penis Caesar salad I want also made an
awful mistake in an ice cream shop the
word for a cone of ice cream is un cono
de helado and the word for vagina in spanish
is coño and I think you can probably
imagine what i asked for un coño de helado
yeah I was kind of embarrassed in the
moment but now i can laugh about it and
it’s a great story to tell
I always find that if you’re finding it
hard to have a good conversation with
someone that’s also learning another
language while a really good way of
starting a conversation is by talking
about the errors that you’ve made with
learning languages it’s always a really
good conversation starter for me now
number two is all about your mistakes
again so we’re not just laughing about
them we are intentionally making them i
want you to make mistakes i know many
students that would go long periods of
time avoiding making certain mistakes
they are trying to achieve 100-percent
perfection
I want you to laugh at your mistakes learn
from them and move on
mistakes are essential even in English I
make mistakes and you guys love pointing
them out so you need to accept your
mistakes learn from them love them and
move on
okay number three is pretend that you
are confident when i started teaching
english i was only
nineteen and I remember walking into
classrooms of 20 to 30 adults nervous
low-level adults in Spain and just
thinking wow I am the youngest person in
this room I have to get this group of
scary scary adults to trust me and
believe what I’m saying and and listen
to me and also to respect me and I never
really felt truly nervous before in my
life but walking into big classrooms
especially on the first day was
nerve-racking it was it made me really
nervous and really anxious and i found
that the best way of gaining confidence
was to pretend I was confident i hadn’t
been teaching for long
I didn’t have much experience but I
tried my best i prepared hard and I
walked in held my head high and I spoke
to everyone confidently and I really
pretended that I knew what I was doing
more than I actually did and this
actually created real confidence not
only in me but in my students I looked
as if I knew what I was doing and they
trusted me and respected me and once
I’d spent enough time pretending I was
confident i actually started feeling
genuinely confident though I had real
confidence but it came from that initial
fake confidence so how can we apply this
to your language learning well when
you’re speaking English hide those
nerves body language is key pretend that
you know what you’re talking about
don’t be arrogant but show that you are
not afraid and people will trust you
listen to you pretend that you’re
confident
ok number four and this is something
that I really really believe in and this
is talk to yourself I always talk to
myself in the language that I’m learning
and it really serves as a preparation
for when you’re in situations in which
you will need to use the language the
main things that I like to practice on
my anecdotes the stories that you
typically tell to each new person you
meet things that you generally say on a
weekly or daily basis it’s also good to
practice funny stories that you think
will make people laugh because you want
them to come out in the right way so if
you’re a lower-level make sure you
practice your daily conversations how
are you how’s the weather what your
hobbies are what you do for a living and
if you’re a more advanced learner make
sure you talk to yourself about funny
anecdotes your life story things that
happened to you that were interesting
observations about other people’s
cultures when you give a presentation
for university or for work you don’t
just wing it you don’t just walk up and
speak you practice it so it should be
the same for these stories as well
number five immerse yourself and you can
take whatever you want from this immersion
in my case would be going to the country
of the language you’re learning and
living there
integrating yourself into the society
into the culture just absorbing the
language and the feeling and the in the
atmosphere that for me is the best form
of immersion now that isn’t possible for
everyone
immersion for you might be a narrow week
in a language academy it might be a
language exchange with a native speaker
it might be an online language exchange
with another English Learner it might be
watching an episode of your favorite TV
show in English with english subtitles
every night but in order to build your
confidence you need to get used to
listening in English so you need to find
the right immersion technique for you
there is always a solution we have a
brilliant saying in English called when
there’s a will there’s a way
so when you intend to do something
there’s a way of doing it
and if you want to find a way of
immersing yourself into english or the
language that you’re learning there is a
way now I want to read a few of these
suggestions from my students on
Instagram and one I really like and not
all of you are going to like this this
is from Ilich from Venezuela and he
says hello
I believe that drinking is the way to
get more confidence i went to Brighton
for a year and the best classroom was
the pub brilliant look Ilich has
really made the most of his situation he
was in brighton he immersed himself and
he found native speakers Micarla from
Brazil that she likes watching movies
without subtitles again it’s that
immersion technique i was talking to you
about Alejandra for a mexico has a really
good piece of advice people should not
be afraid to ask natives when they don’t
know how to say something
it’s the way that I’ve increased my
vocabulary and improve my pronunciation
and of course your videos help haha
that’s sweet and yeah I had that is
absolutely right
Muhammad has also got some really good
advice he says speak English with your
close friends
yeah you can speak English with people
you trust he also says to imagine
yourself in different daily situations
in which you have to speak English again
it’s that talking to yourself technique
that i mentioned before Paco says the
more he speaks with natives the more
confident he feels and yes it’s the
immersion again Roy says get a girlfriend
who is a native speaker yes if you can
manage that that’s fantastic but make
sure you’re with her for the right
reason
Hectore says speak slowly at first and
then build up
absolutely i completely agree with
Hector ok guys that is it for today’s
class i really hope that it’s helped you
and I really hope that you feel slightly
more motivated now don’t forget to
connect with me on all of my social
media and i will see you again soon for
another lesson
alright big kiss and I will see you soon