Why you can’t remember words while speaking (and how to fix that)

you struck up a conversation in a foreign language and then this happens you don't remember a specific word you panic you feel bad you start overthinking it you doubt your language skills you think you should just quit this is something that was going through my mind a few weeks ago when I had a very stressful interaction with a hair stylist yeah the story is pretty interesting because I live in Mexico City I'm learning Spanish right now so I decided to go get get a haircut but before that I actually wanted to make sure that this

hair salon had specific hair treatments that I was interested in and I walk in I'm all happy you know I was going to talk to this amazing hair stylist right now and then I find myself totally blinking out what I mean is I couldn't say I need a haircut I couldn't ask oh what kind of hair treatments do you guys have here I did not remember any word connected to hair hairstyles and hair treatments and it was just like um so my hair um blonde uh dry uh get a haircut so it was just a

bunch of random words and I couldn't connect them together so what did I learn from that interaction why couldn't I remember words while I was talking to that person I think the first reason was definitely limited vocabulary I just didn't know enough vocabulary connected to the topic of hair and hair styling and it was totally okay again instead of approaching the situation as oh my God it's the biggest problem ever I saw this as an opportunity to grow I was like okay I don't know a lot of words that are connected to hair hair styling

let me learn them because I know that once I learned them I'm going to feel a lot more confident a small vocabulary restricts War choices leading to difficulty in finding the right words and it happens to every single language learner out there so when I came back home I watched a bunch of videos about hair in Spanish about hair treatments hairstyles so that I could feel more confident I messaged my teacher and I was like hey please can you prepare a lesson for me about hair everything connected to hair and my Spanish teacher was kind

enough to do so and I was so grateful I memorized all the words and now I knew what I wanted to say and I feel confident in my words the next reason was definitely the anxiety and the stress that I was experiencing in the moment to be completely honest now thinking back back I could have expressed myself in a good way even with the limited vocabulary that I had at the time I knew all the basic words and honestly they could have been enough like to cut or cool or yellow the only problem at the

time were the high expectations that I put in myself and the desire to sound perfect in Spanish I actually recently realized that I struggled with this like problem like high expectations a lot and as a language learner it is definitely not serving me I can expect to know all of these words connected to hair in Spanish because I'm not a native Spanish speaker but yet sometimes I do and analyzing all of those situations all of my past experiences helped me understand why I had those high expectations and how to deal with them and one important

thing that I've come to realize that I was actually afraid of making mistakes I want it to sound perfect in Spanish all the time and even though on this YouTube channel I talk about it this all the time you know it's okay to make mistakes sometimes it's easier said than done and now I always try to remind myself that mistakes are all a part of the journey and the platform life XP really helped me here with life XP you can learn at your own pace without the pressure of having to be perfect right away their

experienced tutors understand that everyone learns differently and they're here to support you every step of the way whether you're just starting with a new language or looking to improve your skills like I was with Spanish life XP offers one-on-one lessons with native speaking tutors from all around the world you can practice speaking in a supportive and encouraging environment where making mistakes is not only accepted but encouraged is a crucial part of the learning process life XP also has amazing filters that help you find a tutor based on your hobbies interests and goals so you'll be

able to find someone with whom you feel completely comfortable and here is the best part your first trial lesson is only 99 and if you decide to subscribe with my link you will receive a 30% discount so make sure to use my link in the description under this video and in the pin comment and give life XP a try the next reason why I felt like I couldn't really talk to that hair stylist was because of the interference of my native language in that moment I honestly felt like I knew all the words in English

I knew all of those words in Russian and honestly it's pretty funny how like I knew the words in English even though English is not my native language but of course right now my English level is a lot higher than my Spanish level but I feel like also because I put too much pressure on myself I couldn't just take a second and tell that lady in Spanish that I'm sorry I'm not from here I'm studying Spanish but right now I forgot all the words can you please help me unfortunately in that situation using English was

not an option for me because she told me she didn't speak English so I had to rely on my Spanish and probably that's also another thing that was increasing the pressure and I felt like oh my God Spanish is the only language I can use right now so take a moment to get yourself out of that negative Loop of comparing all the languages you're learning and feeling like oh my God in this language I could have said it perfectly in this language I can barely say it it is absolutely okay every single language you're learning

is a New Journey and you're at different stages of every single Journey if it's possible you can ask this person to switch to a different language and explain to them that you are a learner you're only learning this language you can also always use Google Translate deep Al or chat GPT to help you here don't freeze that's exactly what happened to me I froze and I was like that's it like I don't know how to say this word and I can't do anything about it no there's so many different things you can do and when

I started analyze the situation I realized that oh my God I had my phone like almost in my hand I could have opened Google translate and translated all of these words from English to Spanish okay now I think we can talk about the biggest reason why I kind of struggled at that moment I think I just didn't have enough speaking practice and especially enough speaking practice that is connected to this specific topic of hair treatments haircuts stuff like that when I came back home I realized that I had never actually talked about my hair in

Spanish like ever not only did I have limited vocabulary in this topic but I also never even talked about it so what I did was I booked a lesson with my teacher and you can do the exact same thing on life XP and choose fashion as your interest for example and I just spent an hour talking to my teacher about haircuts hair treatments hair styles and stuff like that and I feel like by the end of that lesson I was like I know everything like I feel extremely confident and I know that now I can

explain that my hair is blonde that I need this that I need a haircut it helped me so much did I feel confident after this class I sure did so it's not just about speaking practice in general sometimes we need to talk about a specific topic to get fully comfortable and learn new words because living in Mexico City almost every single day I interact with people in Spanish I do get speaking practice in Spanish the problem was I don't get a lot of speaking prti practice about hair in Spanish but now I did and I

feel a lot more confident so I think it's going to be it for this video for my story I hope you guys learn something new if you like this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to this YouTube channel only for you guys watching this video life XP is giving a 30% discount if you just have to subscribe make sure to use the link in my description and in the pin comment if you're thinking about what to watch next you can check out the video where I challenged myself to speak Spanish

for 24 hours this video was posted 5 months ago so enjoy [Music]