No matter how many tests you’ve aced or how many articles and books you’ve managed to read in the language you’re learning, nothing compares to actually talking to someone else who speaks that language fluently.
You think they might laugh if you say something or wrong and judge you if you make too many grammar mistakes, or worse – that they won’t even respond because they won't be able to understand what you're saying.
So you might go back to reading your books, telling yourself that soon you’ll be able to speak perfectly and without any fear.
But breaking the language barrier does not mean achieving fluency and then suddenly being able to speak perfectly. Breaking the language barrier means getting over that initial fear and starting to speak a foreign language no matter your level of proficiency. It means having the courage to talk to a proficient speaker and hold a conversation – even if it’s a short one where you’re only asking for directions.
So how do you do it? How can you learn to let go of the fear and break the barrier? Here are my 6 top tips that have helped me overcome the language barrier when I was studying English and then French.
1. Practice making speeches discussing common conversational topics
Remember when you were in primary school and you had a big presentation in front of class, so you stood in front of the mirror at home and practised it, imagining that you were in front of all the students?
It might seem silly to do that when you’re not actually giving a speech or practising for anything real. But pre-preparing common conversation topics might help you be more confident when speaking a foreign language to someone else. You don’t have to memorise it – otherwise you might sound like a robot – but just practising common answers to common questions might jog your memory the next time someone asks “Where are you from?” or “What do you do for work?” or “Tell me about yourself”.
If you pretend that the mirror is a native speaker who’s asking you all these questions, you won’t have to worry about nerves and you’ll be able to focus on what you’re saying. So the next time someone asks these questions, you’ll have practice in answering them and maybe you’ll even remember some pre-prepared phrases.
2. Remember to forget (your mistakes)
Although it sounds contradictory, you need to remember to give yourself a break and forget about speaking perfectly.
When you speak to someone else in a language that is clearly not your native one, they will understand that you might make mistakes and will not care about them. If you mess up a word or use the wrong verb tense, but the rest of the sentence makes sense, then the other person will understand – there’s no need to try to speak perfectly.
And if someone actually interrupts you to correct you, don’t take this personally – a little bit of embarrassment can actually be a very good way for you to remember not to make that mistake again!
3. When you can’t remember a word, don’t just stop: use comparisons, synonyms, noises, hand gestures and more!
At some point when speaking to someone, there will be a moment in which you will forget a word. It's bound to happen – and when it does, most people simply stay quiet while they try to remember, and the conversation comes to a stop. To avoid these awkward pauses, the next time you forget a word, push yourself to try to come up with ways for the other person to help you figure out what you mean.
For example, if you are talking about animals and you suddenly completely forgot the word for “lion”, then instead of going “Uhmmmmm……” for 5 minutes, try this:
- Use comparisons - think of how you would describe it with other words: “its like a cat, but big, it’s the king of the animals, it’s scary and orange/yellow coloured.”
- Use onomatopoeias - this might be my favourite way as it also makes the conversation hilarious and loosens up the mood: “it’s the animal that goes ROAR!”
- Use your hands! Your face! Your arms! - similar to the sounds, sometimes you just have to pretend you are playing a game and use your body to imitate a lion's paws, mane, or roar.
While some words may not be so appropriate for some of these tips, they can be very helpful in conversation and provide an engaging way for the other person to easily understand what you say.
4. Learn some idioms and common phrases
Most of the stress of listening and understanding another language is the fear that they will use very big and complicated words that you will not be able to make sense of.
To prevent this, learning common phrases and idioms that don’t mean exactly what the words in them mean helps a lot.
For example, if you don’t know the phrase “I’m feeling under the weather”, you might think that the person is literally under some rain or that they care about today’s forecast. However, the phrase means to be feeling a bit ill, sad or upset. These types of phrases are common in every language and the only way to understand them is to study their meaning. So if you prepare and know these phrases, you are more likely you are to be able to understand any conversation and respond appropriately!
And remember that it’s okay to ask them to use different words! If you tell them you don’t understand and ask them politely to re-phrase it they will be happy to.
5. Practice your accent
Another fear many people have is that when they speak a foreign language, their accent will sound funny and make the other person laugh. Although no one would do this (unless they’re really mean), it is still useful to try to improve your pronunciation.
The best way to do this is by listening to native speakers and trying to imitate them: TV shows, movies, music, radio or YouTube are your endless resources. Listen to a clip of someone speaking (with subtitles if needed!), pause it, and try to repeat it, imitating their intonation and pronunciation. Repeat as many times as you think you need to sound almost exactly like them, as you would when singing along to a song!
6. Keep practising
To truly break the language barrier, you also have to keep practising your new language – the more you learn and talk the better you’ll get and the sooner you’ll be doing everything in another language.
Keep on practising grammar and spelling, learn new vocabulary, and find great teachers to practice with. You can also try to incorporate ways of learning into your daily life, so you can learn a new language with minimum effort outside the classroom!
Good luck smashing that language barrier!
- Daniela Alvarez is a final year PPE student at Oxford University. She was born and brought up in Mexico, loves languages and is a marketing intern at Langu!