4 things you must do to get

better at speaking english

By: Jacob Gershkovich
 This Letter
Was written to the part of
you that wants to quit
smoking, the part of you
that values and craves life
and that screams for you to
So, you’ve spent hours and hours studying grammar and vocabulary.
be your best self.
In your mind you understand English very well, and maybe you can even read
difficult books and articles. But for some Here’s one you
reason, when thing
open to
your mouth to
consider:
try and speak, the words just don’t come out right. You feel embarrassed and
lack confidence.

Sound familiar?
Most language learners experience this problem.

And it is a big problem.

Of course, we learn new languages so that we can speak them.

I experienced this myself when I was trying to learn Korean.

I studied and studied and listened to all sorts of lessons,
but whenever I tried speaking to a Korean person, it seemed
like they were speaking a language I’d never heard before!
In this eBook I’ll present 4
lessons that I’ve learned
about speaking new languages.

They come from my experience

both as a language learner
and as an English teacher.

Let’s get started...

Tip # 1 stop worrying so much about grammar
Take a moment right now and think about your native language.
When you speak in your native tongue, how often do you speak with
perfect grammar?

NO ONE speaks with perfect grammar. Speaking has a lot more to do

with how we speak rather than what we say.

A perfect example of this is Donald Trump. Trump, as many people

have pointed out, is not the greatest speaker. When he speaks
English he regularly makes grammatical errors—but he is the
president of the United States of America!

Too many people worry about speaking with perfect grammar. They
feel that if they don’t speak perfectly, the person they’re
speaking to won’t understand them. And unfortunately, the fear of
being misunderstood prevents many people from making the mistakes
they need to make to become better at speaking English.

This leads me to the second tip.

 Tip # 2 Make Mistakes and laugh at them

I want to tell you a quick story.

My girlfriend is Korean and her English is not perfect. On our second date she looked at my arms
and said, “Wow, you have so much fur!” In Korean the word for fur is “Toel,” and it is used to
refer to body hair as well as animal fur. Of course, it sounds very funny in English. It was the
perfect opportunity for a quick English lesson and my girlfriend and I had a nice laugh together.

Making mistakes is the best thing you can do when learning a new language. It is absolutely
necessary if you are to grow as an English speaker. Sometimes the mistakes we make can be
embarrassing, but they almost always make for excellent stories.

Too many people do all they can to avoid mistakes when learning a new language. They feel shy and
don’t want to look silly in front of native speakers, so they avoid conversation entirely.

The only mistake you can make when learning a new language is to not make mistakes!
 Tip # 3 Make sure you’re listening

This is how all of us learned our first language, right? To be a good speaker you MUST be a good
listener. And listening is much more difficult than most people imagine.

Many language learners will study for hours and hours and listen to examples of people speaking
very slowly; then, when they find themselves actually interacting with a native speaker who’s
speaking the language at a normal pace, they can’t understand a word that he or she is saying.

Try to listen to as many English conversations as you can between English speakers. Even if you
don’t understand everything that is being said it will be good for you.

AND LISTEN ACTIVELY.

It is easy to put on a podcast or an mp3 recording of an English lesson and listen passively, the
same way you would listen to music on the bus—but this is a waste of time! Listening is an
activity, and it requires our attention if it is to be of any use!
 Tip # 4 talk to yourself
Seriously! It’s not always easy to find someone to practice speaking English with—but you always
have your self.

If no one’s around (or if you don’t care who’s around!) try speaking to yourself in English.
Describe what you’re doing in the moment, where you’re going, what your plans are, etc.

Sometimes when we think about something we want to say in the language we’re learning, it seems
like it would be easy to say; often, though, when we actually try to express that idea in speech,
we realize that it is a lot more difficult than we had imagined.

The more we practice actually getting the things we have in our head out in speech, the easier the
process becomes. And the great thing is we can practice doing it even when we’re alone!
The key ingredient to everything here is
persistence.

A lot of the time it will feel like you

aren’t making any progress: it will feel
like you keep making the same mistakes
over and over again and that you aren’t
learning anything.

Then, on other days you will feel like

you are on top of the world, like you’re
the best English speaker on the planet.
Just keep at it.
Stay committed.
you will improve.

Best of luck,
- Jacob