Today’s guest is a former employee turned start-up CEO turned freelance innovator whose training workshops are delivered either in Czech or English. You will hear how enthusiastic Jiří is during our conversation, something which he also produces in his training sessions. Welcome back to Rich English episode 4.
In this episode, we talk about:
Effective v efficient
Being a start-up CEO
Presenting and training in English
Innovation
Lean Six Sigma
Artificial Intelligence and more…
Next week: I will be back with another solo show to help you create good English and business habits. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.
Rich English – Opening the door to a whole world of English content
Certainly Rich English won’t be for everyone, but if you’re interested in hearing real conversations with people who are entrepreneurs, business owners, self-employed or career-minded then it might be for you. My hope is that by interviewing (mainly but not exclusively) non-native English speakers about how they got started in business and their English learning journey, you, the listener will gain insight, knowledge and confidence to carry out your own plans and ideas. You will also hear me explain some of the industry-specific words and phrases allowing you to better understand the conversation and open the door for you to listen to other similar podcasts and read blogs, websites, books etc. in English.
Do you struggle to remember new words is it hard for you to recall a new phrase you think you learned just yesterday? In today’s show I’m going to explain to you how you can drastically improve your recall system and implant new vocabulary in your memory, long term. Welcome back to Rich English episode 3.
So what do you do when you’re trying to learn new vocabulary? Well, there are many good ways to help you remember your new words and phrases and traditionally people have written them down folded over the paper, written their other language on the other side. If you’re like my dad, you might cut up those pieces of paper and use them like mini flashcards. People these days are practising with an application, something like Duolingo.
In this episode I’ll talk to you about:
Hooks
Sketchnotes
Mind-mapping
Visualization
Spaced repetition
So, if you want to find out any more information about any of these things you’ll find it on my blog https://www.richardhill.cz/blog
Next week: I will be back with another interview to help you better understand business English terms. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.
Next week I will be back with another interview. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.
Richard.
Rich English – Opening the door to a whole world of English content
Certainly Rich English won’t be for everyone, but if you’re interested in hearing real conversations with people who are entrepreneurs, business owners, self-employed or career-minded then it might be for you. My hope is that by interviewing (mainly but not exclusively) non-native English speakers about how they got started in business and their English learning journey, you, the listener will gain insight, knowledge and confidence to carry out your own plans and ideas. You will also hear me explain some of the industry-specific words and phrases allowing you to better understand the conversation and open the door for you to listen to other similar podcasts and read blogs, websites, books etc. in English.
When I first moved to the Czech Republic, I had decided to reduce my reliance on technology, especially where phones were concerned. Needing a new phone I opted for the most basic Nokia without even a camera let alone anything as smart as a touch screen. I wanted to be able to call and text, only! Then I met Peter and his team…
On my first visit to Flow Studio, Peter’s original mobile game company, we discovered a shared interest in orienteering. But we’re not here today to talk about running around a forest in all weathers with a map and compass. No, it was Peter and his team’s enthusiasm for tech that reinvigorated me and put me back in touch with my younger self. That sounds awfully serious but really, at the time I met them I had a strong suspicion of all things tech and marketing. Through helping his team with English by researching useful articles on tech industry websites, I remembered that not so long ago I had had more than a passing interest in computer technology, marketing and business entrepreneurship. I can’t state this boldly enough but without my meeting Peter and his colleague Richard, I probably wouldn’t have built my own website, which led to blogging, video courses and now this podcast. Thank you guys.
A Podcast for entrepreneurs, wantrepreneurs, solopreneurs and all those other …preneurs whose native language is NOT English
Peter Fodor is the Founder and CEO of a company called App Agent who help companies producing mobile applications and games to grow their user base and revenues.
In this show we discuss how Peter began learning English and how he continues to improve as well as talk about his business life, starting out with Flow Studio, producing their own mobile games to making the transition into a mobile marketing agency.
Please Donate to Help make Rich English sustainable
You can help to make Rich English even better by making a small monthly donation of 99kč to cover production costs.
Season 1, Episode 2 with Peter Fodor
In the course of the conversation, you’ll hear a few phrases and words I thought you may need explaining. Here they are:
User acquisition and acquiring clients – these are from the verb to acquire meaning – to get. Basically, user acquisition is how you go about finding new users for your application.
Getting into the flow is about becoming used to a particular situation and maybe getting your head in a particular space where you’re feeling comfortable and concentrating.
Workflow is the sequence of events or stages that a project might pass through to go from its initial start to completion.
To have many hats really means that you have different roles you might have a role as the owner of a business but at the same time you also might take on a more menial task such as sending out invoices for example. So you could say I have an administrative role or an administrative hat as well as my owner hat.
A worker bee is a person who is doing the detailed work, so it might be somebody in administration or might be somebody in design but worker bees are the people who are carrying out the larger ideas conceived by the boss.
A pool of talent is the number of people who are available in any given sector of business who might be your target to take on as an employee.
Collaborative tools are platforms such as Slack, Trello, Asana or even your Google calendar which is open to other people to view. Basically, any kind of platform where you can work closely with other people in order to further your project.
CV curriculum vitae is a document outlining your education and work/training history and personal interests.
Next week I will be back with a solo show to help you with remembering your new vocabulary. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.
Richard.
Opening the door to a whole world of English content
Certainly Rich English won’t be for everyone, but if you’re interested in hearing real conversations with people who are entrepreneurs, business owners, self-employed or career-minded then it might be for you. My hope is that by interviewing (mainly but not exclusively) non-native English speakers about how they got started in business and their English learning journey, you, the listener will gain insight, knowledge and confidence to carry out your own plans and ideas. You will also hear me explain some of the industry-specific words and phrases allowing you to better understand the conversation and open the door for you to listen to other similar podcasts and read blogs, websites, books etc. in English.
You know as a child the first job I can remember wanting to do (after footballer and rock star) was to be a DJ (disc jockey). I mean the radio presenter type rather than the club version…
My father had a small portable cassette player/recorder which I used to borrow (he owned it and lent it to me) and I would record little radio shows where I played a record then back announced the song in my best radio DJ voice. When I was a little older, around 13, I would take a posh Walkman (personal stereo, remember them?) that had a record mode to football matches with my cousin. During the game, we commentated on the match and recorded it.
So jumping forward about 20 years I can remember the first time I heard the word ‘podcast’. It was in 2003 and a friend of mine had just bought a first generation iPod. He told me he was listening to podcasts on it and I had to ask what they were. “They’re basically radio shows but you can download them to your iPod and listen to them whenever you want”, said he. I thought that sounded like a brilliant idea but then forgot about them for about 10 years or more. Podcasts didn’t really come into my life until around 2015 when I started to listen to a couple of them to learn more about online business (thank you to the Fizzle Show in particular).
A year or two ago I was asked (by next week’s guest Peter Fodor from App Agent) if I could with producing a podcast. I duly obliged (I said yes) and they were more than happy with the results. They praised my work and suggested that I find other companies for whom I could also produce a podcast. I did nothing…
A Podcast for entrepreneurs, wantrepreneurs, solopreneurs and all those other …preneurs whose native language is NOT English
Now here we are in 2021, I’m 45 years old and only now am I starting my own podcast. Why did it take me so long? I don’t know but it certainly feels like I’ve come full circle and so far, so good. I have found the experience a great one as I enjoy every aspect of the process from idea, recording, interviewing, editing and promoting. (You can help me with that last bit, the promotion, by sharing a link to my podcast and recommending it on your Linked in and Facebook feeds etc.)
Opening the door to a whole world of English content
Certainly Rich English won’t be for everyone, but if you’re interested in hearing real conversations with people who are entrepreneurs, business owners, self-employed or career-minded then it might be for you. My hope is that by interviewing (mainly but not exclusively) non-native English speakers about how they got started in business and their English learning journey, you, the listener will gain insight, knowledge and confidence to carry out your own plans and ideas. You will also hear me explain some of the industry-specific words and phrases allowing you to better understand the conversation and open the door for you to listen to other similar podcasts and read blogs, websites, books etc. in English.
Please Donate to Help make Rich English sustainable
You can help to make Rich English even better by making a small monthly donation of 99kč to cover production costs.
Season 1, Episode 1 with Markéta Horáková
Markéta is from Terapie v Lese (Therepy in the Forest) who provide therapeutic journeys in the countryside, forests and Prague’s parks. Welcome to the first episode of Rich English and a chat with Marketa about her business experience and English learning journey. Before you get into the interview with Marketa I thought I should explain one or two phrases that myself or Marketa to use in the interview just help you better understand
Further afield means places away from the specific location you’re in.
Donkey work and heavy lifting meaning the nuts and bolts (there’s another phrase for you – it’s the details) – carrying out the actual work. You might have a great idea but then who’s going to do it, who’s going to do the data input, who’s going to build physically the website, who’s going to put their fingers to the keyboard and do the actual work? That’s the donkey work or the heavy lifting.
Down the road – in the future, at a more advanced stage than now.
To cover plenty of bases which means to involve everyone or everything in a situation.
My conversation with Marketa is an interesting one and I’m sure there’s a lot to learn so without further ado press play and get on with the show. I hope you enjoy it, I’d love you to leave me a little review and leave me any comments. Of course, you can get in touch with me here on the website and I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn the usual places.
Next week I will be back with an interview with a really interesting guy Peter Fodor who is from a company called App Agent and they help companies who are developing applications for mobile phones. His company helps them to market those applications. That’s a really interesting chat and I hope you can join me. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.
Today I am going to tell you what have I learnt (or learned) about the best ways to learn English (or any foreign language). For the last five and a half years I have been living in the Czech Republic, helping Czechs and Slovaks to learn English. Mainly, I have focussed on spoken English because my clients want to improve their speaking and there is no better way to do that than to simply speak. Or is there?
During these last six years, I have learnt a huge amount about how to teach and how we learn. It is my intention, over the next few weeks, to tell you just what I have learnt and to go in-depth into each of the ideas. Today I will give you an overview of what to look forward to in the coming weeks and it is my hope that you can use this information to create some kind of personal plan for learning. First things first, have you read my introduction to Speaking Better English? Great, so now let’s take a look at the main areas I want to focus on…
Motivation
Before you even start to learn English, you need to have motivation, a reason for learning. This could be as simple as wanting to take a holiday in a foreign country, where you know English will be indispensable, or it could be because you want a new job and English is a prerequisite for getting the position. If you have a solid reason for learning it can help motivate you to learn. If you are studying English because your boss told you to, I recommend you find some real motivation to spur you on and give you a reason to learn English. To continue reading more about how to motivate yourself, click here.
Goals
Having difficult but attainable goals will also spur you on. Long-term goals are good but you also need more short and medium-term goals, which, when you achieve them, will give you a boost and show you that you are making progress. I suggest even making goals for each learning session and gamifying the tasks you have. Then there’s the Pomodoro technique. You can read more about that and other goal-setting ideas here.
Habits
Decide to have good habits. That is a choice you must make; to practise regularly and frequently. You simply must make time and prioritize your English. It doesn’t have to be THE most important thing in your life but it must have a prominent place. More on habits here. To get into the habit of improving your English regularly get my FREE English Habit Blueprint here.
Repetition and Review
I know this is one of the 150 year old schooling methods that I mentioned earlier but it does have it place within an ultimate learning method. There are two reasons why it has remained the mainstay of the mainstream school and that is primarily through laziness/conservativeness of the school system in general but secondly, because it does work as a way of fixing information in your memory. A future blog post will go into more detail on the pros and cons of how you can utilize this technique.
Confidence
Build your confidence right from the start. There are numerous ways you can do this, even if you are a really shy person or someone who is ashamed of their level of English. One quick tip for you today is to make a list of all the words you can find that are the same or similar in Czech and English. You immediately then have a ‘go to’ vocabulary. Start using these words as often as possible to send your brain the message that these words are OK! You can meet with a native speaker, read books and watch videos/TV/films; label everything in your home or office; Take risks and get out of your comfort zone. Take a holiday in a native speaking country and use what you know. Read more about confidence in speaking English here.
Make Mistakes
I am always telling people to STOP APOLOGIZING when they make a mistake. This is a terrible learned habit from your childhood when you were chastised for your errors by your parents and teachers. You were only trying to answer a question or do some task and because you got it wrong they shouted, scolded, punished, restricted, and withheld. It is difficult to overcome these feelings but it is possible. Visualization is the key, more on that later. Basically, be able to laugh at yourself when you make mistakes. Make mistakes your friend. RELAX, it’s OK, but DO LEARN FROM THEM. I also have a video course to help Czechs and Slovaks correct some of the most common mistakes they make when speaking English.
Grammar (Oh no!)
Don’t learn English grammar in the traditional way (unless you’re a polyglot and find it easy), use my Faster Grammar For Speaking method. I will explain more about this is a later post but essentially it is a mixed tense way of learning that focuses firstly on the grammar you need to speak about yourself. This is a system I have been developing for some time and I hope will be a massive help to anyone who considers themself a false beginner. For those of you who are struggling with the Present Perfect tense here is a little freebie for you. Just fill in your name and email address and I’ll send you the Easy Guide to the Present Perfect ASAP.
Easy Guide to the Present Perfect FREE ebook
Visualization
Without doubt, the biggest elephant in the room that the education system, the world over, is ignoring. Visualization is the best way to remember vocabulary, full stop (or period if you want to speak American English)
Learning Styles
I have written and spoken many times on the subject of learning styles and thankfully it is something that is creeping into education systems. Using as many learning styles as possible and finding your most prominent learning style will increase your learning effectiveness. I will write more on this later but for now, you can check out this older post of mine which will give you a basic understanding of what learning styles are for the uninitiated.
Listen
Unfortunately, I find this to be the one area most neglected by Czech and Slovak English learners. You should try to listen to native speakers as much as possible. Radio, TV, films, podcasts, music, documentaries, and real people. If you are lucky enough to live in Prague you have an unending supply of native speakers. Teachers of course, but also on the streets, in the pubs, restaurants, shops, and cafes. Get out there and listen.
Immediate Action
When a word randomly comes into your mind, immediately (or as quickly as possible) find out its meaning, write it down, and visualize it. Start using your new words in your writing and in conversation frequently to fix them in your vocabulary.
Ask for Help
When you don’t understand something, write it down and ask your English teacher/helper to explain it. If you have no one, find someone or at least try to find some advice on YouTube.
Learn English language online with a personal native teacher! Register to italki now.
Get Creative with Your Notes
Write down anything interesting you find in English, new nouns, verbs, phrases, grammar rules, idioms, expressions, or just interesting facts in English. But don’t stop at just writing in the usual boring (school-taught) note-taking way. Get creative with your notes. Fill the page with your own drawings, cartooning the vocabulary and using different font styles, shapes and sizes.
Copy What You Hear
Imitate what you hear. Copy the speaker instead of just pronouncing words as you read them. If you really want to have something like a native speaker’s accent you need to copy what you hear. Don’t just say things the way they’re written or the way you learned them, listen to how a native speaker says it. Be consistent with your pronunciation though and choose a particular accent rather than mixing and matching because this will lead to misunderstandings for sure. There exists an idea of a generic or stereotypical British and American accent when there really is no such thing. Both countries have a multitude of different accents. If you are interested here’s a funny picture
Next week I will expand upon motivation to learn English and try to help you find yours and give you actionable steps to find it.
Do you have a plan for learning? A method? A system? Tell me how you learn English in the comments below.
“The pen is mightier than the sword”, but is it better than the spoken word? In today’s article we are going to look at how to improve your English speaking.
If speaking English is more of a problem for you than writing, then you want to read this article. I explain the best ways to improve your speaking, from my own experience and from knowledge gleaned (got) from the highest authorities on the science of learning. And, there’s going to be one or two new idioms and phrases for you, so, as always, pen and paper at the ready to take notes. (Sketchnotes preferably) Read on…
Knowledge or Confidence?
First things first, do you lack knowledge? I mean vocabulary, tenses, how to pronounce things? Or, is it a question of confidence? If your reading and writing are good but you feel you are unable to communicate verbally then you may need to improve your English speaking confidence. As you are reading this article, you must have a decent level of understanding and because I believe it is much more inportant for communication than being a grammar expert, let’s start with confidence.
Confidence
Confidence is the key to beginning to improve your English speaking. Without it you will continue to struggle with self doubt and it will be a mental barrier blocking you from being able to effectively input, retain and recall new information. There are many ways you can increase your confidence in speaking English but they all require practice. Actually speaking, whatever level you are at, is the key. So, are you too shy to speak or have you not found the opportunity to speak English? The answer to the second question is easy (see my free tips sheet), but to answer the first question you will have to do a little personal psychology. Shyness comes from either a fear of failure or a fear of success. It’s therefore about mindset and how you think others percieve you. Try to start focussing on enjoying the journey of learning, ‘every day’s a school day’, and the results will take care of themselves.
On the other hand, we can all improve our speaking somewhere, so even if you are a very confident speaker, what else should you focus on to improve your English speaking? Without doubt I would argue that the most important area is your pronunciation. When you start to hear that you are sounding better, it will boost your confidence and enthusiasm. It will also make you more intelligable and less frustrating for others to listen to, leading to better conversations.
The best way to better pronunciation is to listen more, and I mean listen more in two ways. Firstly, actually spend more time listening to native speakers of English. Secondly, listen more intently and make real improvements to your English speaking by then copying what you hear. Take my free 5 day challenge on some of the basic English pronunciation areas to start to improve your English speaking. One great quick tip to check your pronunciation is to try using something like Google Translate’s microphone. See if it recognizes what you are saying.
How to Improve Your English Speaking – In a Nutshell
By listening more, you will improve your English speaking vocabulary and pronunciation. By asking yourself some deep questions and forcing yourself to practise speaking more (with a constantly improving pronunciation), you can increase your confidence.
Today I am going to tell you what have I learnt (or learned) about the best ways to learn English (or any foreign language). For the last five and a half years I have been living in the Czech Republic, helping Czechs and Slovaks to learn English. Mainly, I have focussed on spoken English because my clients want to improve their speaking and there is no better way to do that than to simply speak. Or is there?
During these last five years, I have learnt a huge amount about how to teach and how we learn. It is my intention, over the next few weeks, to tell you just what I have learnt and to go in-depth into each of the ideas. Today I will give you an overview of what to look forward to in the coming weeks and it is my hope that you can use this information to create some kind of personal plan for learning. First things first…
Motivation
Before you even start to learn English, you need to have motivation, a reason for learning. This could be as simple as wanting to take a holiday in a foreign country, where you know English will be indispensable, or it could be because you want a new job and English is a prerequisite for getting the position. If you have a solid reason for learning it can help motivate you to learn. If you are studying English because your boss told you to, I recommend you find some real motivation to spur you on and give you a reason to learn English.
Goals
Having difficult but attainable goals will also spur you on. Long-term goals are good but you also need more short and medium-term goals, which, when you achieve them, will give you a boost and show you that you are making progress. I suggest even making goals for each learning session and gamifying the tasks you have.
Habits
Decide to have good habits. That is a choice you must make; to practise regularly and frequently. You simply must make time and prioritize your English. It doesn’t have to be THE most important thing in your life but it must have a prominent place.
Repetition and Review
I know this is one of the 150 year old schooling methods that I mentioned earlier but it does have it place within an ultimate learning method. There are two reasons why it has remained the mainstay of the mainstream school and that is primarily through laziness/conservativeness of the school system in general but secondly, because it does work as a way of fixing information in your memory. A future blog post will go into more detail on the pros and cons of how you can utilize this technique.
Confidence
Build your confidence right from the start. There are numerous ways you can do this, even if you are a really shy person or someone who is ashamed of their level of English. One quick tip for you today is to make a list of all the words you can find that are the same or similar in Czech and English. You immediately then have a ‘go to’ vocabulary. Start using these words as often as possible to send your brain the message that these words are OK! You can meet with a native speaker, read books and watch video/TV/films; label everything in your home or office; Take risks and get out of your comfort zone. Take a holiday in a native speaking country and use what you know.
Make Mistakes
I am always telling people to STOP APOLOGIZING when they make a mistake. This is a terrible learned habit from your childhood when you were chastised for your errors by your parents and teachers. You were only trying to answer a question or do some task and because you got it wrong they shouted, scolded, punished, restricted and withheld. It is difficult to overcome these feelings but it is possible. Visualization is the key, more on that later. Basically, be able to laugh at yourself when you make mistakes. Make mistakes your friend. RELAX, it’s OK, but DO LEARN FROM THEM. I also have a video course to help Czechs and Slovaks to correct some of the most common mistakes you make when speaking English.
Grammar (Oh no!)
Don’t learn English grammar in the traditional way (unless you’re a polyglot and find it easy), use my Faster Grammar For Speaking method. I will explain more about this is a later post but essentially it is a mixed-tense way of learning that focuses firstly on the grammar you need to speak about yourself. This is a system I have been developing for some time and I hope will be a massive help to anyone who considers themself a false beginner.
Visualization
Without doubt, the biggest elephant in the room that the education system, the world over, is ignoring. Visualization is the best way to remember vocabulary, full stop (or period if you want to speak American English)
Learning Styles
I have written and spoken many times on the subject of learning styles and thankfully it is something that is creeping into education systems. Use as many learning styles as possible and finding your most prominent learning style will increase your learning effectiveness. I will write more on this later but for now, you can check out this older post of mine which will give you a basic understanding of what learning styles are for the uninitiated.
Listen
Unfortunately, I find this to be the one area most neglected by Czech and Slovak English learners. You should try to listen to native speakers as much as possible. Radio, TV, films, podcasts, music, documentaries, and real people. If you are lucky enough to live in Prague you have an unending supply of native speakers. Teachers of course, but also on the streets, in the pubs, restaurants, shops and cafes. Get out there and listen.
Immediate Action
When a word randomly comes into your mind, immediately (or as quickly as possible) find out its meaning, write it down and visualize it. Start using your new words in your writing and in conversation frequently to fix them in your vocabulary.
Ask for Help
When you don’t understand something, write it down and ask your English teacher/helper to explain it. If you have no one, find someone or at least try to find some advice on YouTube.
Learn English language online with a personal native teacher! Register to italki now.
Get Creative with Your Notes
Write down anything interesting you find in English, new nouns, verbs, phrases, grammar rules, idioms, expressions, or just interesting facts in English. But don’t stop at just writing in the usual boring (school taught) note-taking way. Get creative with your notes. Fill the page with your own drawings, cartooning the vocabulary and using different font styles, shapes and sizes.
Copy What You Hear
Imitate what you hear. Copy the speaker instead of just pronouncing words as you read them. If you really want to have something like a native speaker’s accent you need to copy what you hear. Don’t just say things the way it’s written or the way you learned it, listen to how a native speaker says it. Be consistent with your pronunciation though and choose a particular accent rather than mixing and matching because this will lead to misunderstandings for sure. There exists an idea of a generic or stereotypical British and American accent when there really is no such thing. Both countries have a multitude of different accents. If you are interested here’s a funny picture.
Next week I will expand upon motivation to learn English and try to help you find yours and give you actionable steps to find it.
Do you have a plan for learning? A method? A system? Tell me how you learn English in the comments below.
Pamatujete že ja jsem Anglický rodilý mluvčím? Tak že, tadz mám problěm protože dneska musím napsát vaše blog v Čestině. Asi, ne, určitě, poynáte že muj řada slovu je jako Anglickz.
Ahhh… musím vzpnout 4esk7 kl8visnice kvůli muj y a z je správný.
Pokračuju… Zkouším napsát bez používajici slovník i překládač tak uvidíme jestli umíte mi rozumět. A, proč udělám Český blog kdzž vždycky psám v Angličtině? Odpovězda je ukázat že nemusíte být perfektní být rozumění.
Jestli vaše gol je být rozumění je to duležitý jenom že máte důvěra zkoušit ynova a znova (Sakra!) Mnohu Český lidi vubec říct ani nic protože “to není perfekt”, “to není dobrý”. Slište mě! Ne bude lepšit bez zkoušení. Nevadí jak špatně vás Angličký jazýk, většinu rodilý mluvčí vy pomoc s trpělivostem.
Dneska ten blog bude krátký protože pro mě napsát na počitač trvalo mi hodně dlouhá. Měl jsem nějáký knihy se učit Česky ale pro mě nefungovat. Ja vím že dělám hodně chyby. Máte nějaký jiný nápady pro mě? Doufám že ano. Dolu mužete mi pomoc v commentsu. Dík. 🙂
Přes přístí dva týdnu budu napsát o vaše nejběžnější chyby a jak je opravit. Těšte se na videa mini kurz Zdarma.
Dolu řeknete mi co myslíte co je nejběžnější chyby.
It seems to me that every Czech person can speak at least a few words of English even if that is only ‘Hello, how are you, I’m fine thanks, goodbye’. So why is it that many of you are scared, too shy or even ashamed to use the English you already know? (Note that there is a difference between shy and ashamed) So what can you do about it? How can you overcome your shyness or reluctance to speak English?
Improving your spoken English and your ability to understand other English speakers requires you to practise, a lot. So, putting yourself in situations where you have to listen to and speak English is certainly one way of doing it. This takes courage though, and that means overcoming your fears. So what are your fears? Do you think you will be laughed at? Misunderstood? Make mistakes?
Growing your confidence is the key thing. Here are three ways you can do that..
1. Allow yourself to make mistakes and try new things.
School teachers, peers, and for most of us, our parents, started from a very early age to point out our mistakes and chastise us for making them without thinking of the future consequences this has on young children. We are conditioned to feel bad when we make a mistake and not to use it as a learning experience (which is exactly what it should be).
I may be wrong here but I would suggest that your shyness or fear to speak English comes from your upbringing. As a child were you given red Xs in your school books, shouted at or worse and generally made to feel very stupid for not knowing something? Addressing these issues to conquer your fears is the way to building your confidence and allowing yourself to speak and understand more.
If your English teacher is someone who tells you off for making mistakes, I would consider looking for someone new to help you. You want a person who will pleasantly explain your mistakes and help you to practise corrections a few times. If you are consistently making the same mistakes, take some time to look at each one individually and work on it until you feel confident you have corrected it.
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You should also be going outside of your comfort zone in terms of the vocabulary and grammar you use. Yes, you can stick to the same words and phrases you already know but it’s much more exciting and rewarding to try out new things and not be scared to make mistakes when doing so. I know this personally from learning your Czech language.
2. Put yourself in situations where you have to speak.
This could be finding someone to practise with; a native English speaker (anyone English, American, Canadian, Australian, Irish or from New Zealand) or someone who speaks English as a second main language like Indians, Mexicans and many Africans. You will of course encounter many different accents and dialects within this diverse group of people. My wife has excellent English precisely because she worked in a pub in Cambridge, England where there were Americans and Irish people as well as others from all over the UK with very different accents (yours truly included). So that’s two more ways you can go out of your comfort zone; visit a native country for an extended period of time or go to one of the many Irish and English pubs in the Czech Republic’s bigger cities. If you already have a native English teacher then why not practise what you learn on other natives who you will usually find happy to tell you about their homeland.
3. Ask for help.
This can come in two forms; firstly, ask people to slow down and repeat things if you don’t understand what they are saying and secondly, ask them for specific words that you don’t know by using alternative words to describe it. Don’t stop at just using the word once though, repeat the word aloud a few times and use it again in the same conversation to help it stick. As soon as you can, write it down and think of a mnemonic for it; a drawing or visual image or put the word/phrase into a poem or song. If you don’t know about mnemonics go here to find out.
If you follow these three steps you will soon notice a big difference in your ability. You should become more fluent, more confident and even take pride in your level of English, whatever stage you are at.
So why do you think you are shy or embarrassed to speak the English you know? Let me know in the comments below and subscribe to this blog. Good luck with your English and feel free to ask me any questions. Richard.
Immediate Action
Ne bude lepšit bez zkoušení. Nevadí jak špatně vás Angličký jazýk, většinu rodilý mluvčí vy pomoc s trpělivostem.
