Why Your Brain Freezes When Speaking English

[Music] hey everyone welcome back to Learn English Daily podcast improve your English daybyday i'm Max and I'm Lisa today we're diving into a topic that's super important how to speak English with confidence even if your English isn't perfect absolutely if you've ever felt nervous about speaking English because you're afraid of making mistakes this episode is for you oh I've seen this so many times people study grammar memorize vocabulary but when it's time to actually speak they freeze it's like they suddenly forget everything and it's not because they don't know English it's because of fear exactly so today we're going to break that fear we'll share why confidence is more important than perfection and how you can start speaking naturally without worrying too much and we have some really interesting stories to illustrate this point oh I love good stories but first let's talk about the real problem why do so many people feel scared to speak English so Max let me ask you have you ever been in a situation where someone knew English but was too nervous to speak oh all the time i remember this one guy let's call him Sam we were in a cafe and he wanted to order in English oh no what happened the waiter asked "What would you like? " And Sam just stared like a deer in headlights he turned to me and whispered "Max you order for me my English is not good. " But he knew what he wanted right exactly he could have just said "I want coffee.

" Super simple but he was too afraid of making a mistake that's a perfect example so many people have this fear they think if I make a mistake people will laugh at me or they will judge me but the funny thing is native speakers don't care about small mistakes we just care about understanding you right and this fear often comes from school many of us were taught that English is about correctness not about communication ah that's so true in school if you wrote a sentence with one small grammar mistake you got a big red X it made people feel like they had to be perfect but here's the problem real life is not an exam nobody is going to give you a grade when you're ordering food or having a conversation exactly and that brings us to the first big idea speaking English is not about being perfect it's about being understood and you know what even native speakers make mistakes all the time we say things like "Me and my friend went to the store instead of my friend and I. " But does anyone care not really true i think people forget that language is alive it's not a static set of rules it's a tool for connection exactly and that's why we need to shift our mindset instead of focusing on perfection we should focus on communication okay let's talk about two different ways people approach learning English the piano mindset versus the gaming mindset ooh sounds interesting what's the piano mindset so imagine you're learning the piano if you play a wrong note you stop and think "Oh no I made a mistake. " You feel stressed you try again and again but you're so afraid of making mistakes that you don't enjoy it ah like my cousin she took piano lessons but hated them because she was always afraid of messing up exactly and a lot of people treat English the same way they think I have to get every word right they're so focused on being correct that they forget to actually communicate okay now what about the gaming mindset think about video games if you play a shooting game and you miss a shot do you stop playing no way you just keep shooting until you hit the target that's the difference when you have a gaming mindset you're not afraid of mistakes you're focused on the goal just like when speaking English the goal is to communicate wa that actually makes so much sense saw this firsthand with a friend of mine he had terrible grammar but when he spoke he was so confident what happened he was playing an online game with people from other countries he had to communicate so he just spoke no fear no hesitation just speaking to get the result and that's the key so listeners here's the big question for you are you playing English like a piano or like a game and here's another thing when you're playing a game you're not thinking about the rules all the time you're just playing right right you're in the moment you're not overanalyzing every move exactly and that's how you should approach speaking English don't overthink it just speak i love that analogy it's like when you're playing soccer you don't stop to think about how to kick the ball every time you just do it yes and the more you play the better you get it's the same with English the more you speak the more confident you become let's talk about this idea english is not an art to master it's a tool to use yes people think of English like it's some beautiful masterpiece they have to create but in reality it's just a tool like a hammer you don't need a perfect hammer to build a house exactly and here's a crazy fact 96% of English conversations in the world happen between non-native speakers whoa so most English speakers are actually not native yes that means your English doesn't have to be perfect it just has to work i love that i actually met a guy who spoke with terrible grammar but he closed a business deal in English he was confident clear and got the result he wanted that's the point focus on the result not the mistakes and you know what even native speakers sometimes struggle with grammar i mean have you ever heard someone say "I could care less," instead of "I couldn't care less.