Facing a handful of laughs, speaking on the phone for the first time, is not an easy thing to overcome. Classic and Sacrum's Language Director Karen Heintz talks about overcoming some of the most embarrassing mistakes in language.
One of the New Year's wishes is to learn English, future speakers of the language idealize themselves by walking through the main streets of the United States, talking with the inhabitants, and you see yourself with camera in hand or working too. But the journey to becoming the inexplicable handsome fluent speaker will cost some emotional trouble.
When I arrived in Mexico, I already had an intermediate level that I obtained through courses in high school and a refresher course in some academies. I wish they warned me about the challenges one faces. I'm sure that learning a language involves an initiation. These are some of the things that will happen before mastering a language.
All languages have words that are very close in pronunciation to other more intense ones, and who more to notice them than classmates, in my Spanish class they asked the name of the letter J or jota. the letter t is soft in Spanish, I went soft and said very loud fuck it! my sound very prevailing, it sounds like a director of adult films. Also a colleague wanted to complain about how hot it was and many laughed when she said I'm hot and in Mexico, I'm hot means I want sex. The way to overcome it is simple, there is only than to tell the story, it is funny in the experiences for others, that will help not to commit them again and will give a guideline for others to tell their shameful anecdotes.
You may be understanding the talk, you want to participate but when you think you have the correct sentence, the talk has already advanced. It is overcome by interspersing with questions, so you show that you are following the talk and that they can include you, talk, the day will come when you will do it very naturally and no one will have to applaud you. Because it is natural.
As you know, 90% of communication is non-verbal and the remaining 10% is actually verbal, so you lose many factors that help in the exchange of words. When I first spoke on the phone I lost the thread in the middle of the conversation, so I resorted to yes ... aha ... aha until they hung up on me. It is overcome in the following way, to everything they tell you, answer yes ... aha ... yes. It was a joke, I said in a very calm way a question to which you know the answer, like "Are you going to class tomorrow?" this helps a lot. Also, talking on the phone is dealing with noise, a bad signal, therefore asking for words to be repeated will not make you look stupid.
That is, saying It's fine in response to What time are you arriving?, or that's hilarious! in response to and then he died. You overcome it by first making sure you really listen, some of us say that our weakest ability is listening, but what happens is that very often we replace listening to go into terror. You can free it with what was that word? I know I have heard it. This amounts to not listening. You can also admit by saying Sorry, I misunderstood . Memorize phrases like I thought you said something else. Sure, all the phrases you learn, learn them in English, just as you would say in Spanish, so you won't seem so much like a distracted beginner, because you will sound very natural.
The natives tend to teach you very quickly the expressions that are used in fun meetings, and of course you take advantage of the moment to say them informally to the talk. But instead of the locals being amazed, they burst out laughing. What you have to do is check if you were wrong, and maybe not, ask what's wrong? they will probably explain that you said it right, but that this is not the time to say it. At some point the expression may go, so make sure you pronounce it well, there are many platforms in which you can practice your pronunciation.
Motivation is an important point, by mastering the grammar, you realize that now you have to learn idioms, vocabulary, variations by places, formal versus informal, it seems an impossible mountain to climb. It is overcome by taking a breath, it is something that everyone faces, also if you really want to learn English or another language, motivation will come and grow like persistent grass, in terms of losing confidence, think that nobody is asking you to speak fluently, so declaring yourself a fool for the language is insane.