How To Get Rid Of Your Fear Of Speaking French

How can you get rid of your fear of speaking French?

Quick tips series

Hello, amazing French learners!

In this quick tips series, I am going to give you some easy yet powerful tips to get over your fear of speaking French. If you feel nervous when you start a conversation, and if you feel like your stress gets in the way of your learning, read on to find out how to tackle this issue and reach fluency!

Quick tip 1: Understand what is causing your fear, and then move on!

Your fear could be caused by a variety of factors. Perhaps you ve had a bad experience in the past and you struggle with that memory. It could be something your classmates laughing at you in class or a negative interaction while traveling in France for example. Take a moment to go back and identify where the fear comes from. Do you see that memory? Now, acknowledge the memory and MOVE ON! I want to share with you that one of the most determining factors in overcoming your fear of speaking is to understand that one negative experience, or many for that matter, DO NOT DETERMINE your ability to make progress and reach fluency in the future any way! With the right techniques, you can become an amazing speaker. YOUR PAST DOES NOT DETERMINE YOUR FUTURE.

Quick tip 2: Redefine what it means to make mistakes

One of the most damaging misconceptions out there is the idea that making mistakes is a bad thing. But is it really? Can you learn anything without making mistakes? I believe that you can, but, how much progress are you really going to make if you aim for zero mistakes along the way? What I want to offer you is a new perspective about making mistakes. I don t just want you to allow yourself to make mistakes, I also invite you to AIM FOR MISTAKES and to look at the mistakes you make as the most valuable tools and STEPPING STONES to success. Look at it this way: have you ever played a video game and set the difficulty level to easy, to then notice how boring and uneventful the game was? It only becomes interesting and rewarding when you set the difficulty higher. Well, when it comes to learning, it s exactly the same thing. If you re not making any mistakes, you re not making any progress. WHY PLAY IT SAFE? IT S ONLY FRENCH!

Quick tip 3: Practice failing as much as possible

This leads me to my quick tip number 3. What if instead of doing everything in your power to avoid failing, you started to look at failing as a positive thing? What if failing became your goal? But first, what is failing? Failing is only a mental construct. You never fail until you decide that you fail. You could be doing a lot of mistakes in French, and look at this as failing, while another student could be making a lot of mistakes and believe that they are learning and experimenting with the language. Because they have a different relationship to mistakes, they also have a different relationship to the concept of failure. The truth is, failing only becomes a reality when you concluded that you re never going to be good at French and you give up. That s when the failure actually happens because you won t do what you need to do in order to progress. So in a way, there are two types of failures, one you want to practice as much as possible, and the other one you should avoid. Failing because you ve tried to have a conversation and you made tons of mistakes is LEARNING, IT S PUTTING YOURSELF OUT THERE, GETTING OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. However, if your fear of speaking

makes you so nervous that you avoid practicing conversations, that s the wrong kind of failing, FAILING BECAUSE YOU AVOID THE DISCOMFORT IS THE BAD KIND OF FAILING. In the first case, failing gets you one step closer to success, in the latter, it pushes you one step further from success. HOW DO YOU WANT TO FAIL? DECIDE AND THEN GO FOR IT!

Quick tip 4: Use live materials and true interaction

This one is so obvious, and yet it is overlooked. Live materials, true interaction, and realistic, purposeful COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS. You have to remember that a language is a means to an end, learning French is going to allow you to COMMUNICATE. However, so many learners forget to puts the books and lessons aside and have true interactions, WITH REAL PEOPLE, IN REAL LIFE. If you want to reach fluency you are going to have to put theory aside at some point and focus on practicing. Now when it comes to practicing conversation, you may feel like you are limited. How can you practice in real life if you don t know any French speakers or if you cannot travel to a French-speaking country? Well, there are plenty of ways that you can get involved and meet speakers. Your best ally: the Internet. Language exchange partners, virtual language caf s, apps such as Whatsapp and Discord that hold conversation practice groups There is so much out there. YOU JUST NEED TO START LOOKING.

Quick tip 5: Should you really try to get rid of the fear?

Now have you noticed how my quick tips never really mention the fear itself? What if trying to get over your fear of speaking was not the most important goal in your learning? I mean, should you focus on getting rid of your fear at all? You ve been asking THE WRONG QUESTION THAT WHOLE TIME. Spending your energy worrying about getting rid of your fear is not the most efficient use of your energy. Instead, I invite you to acknowledge the fear, experience it, observe it, and then DO WHAT SCARES YOU ANYWAY, GO AND SPEAK. Thinking that you will reach fluency after you get rid of your fear is borderline self-sabotaging. What I mean by that is that in my experience, the learners who achieved a high level of proficiency and fluency in French were not the ones who never got nervous or who found that French was easy. If anything, those high-performing learners were the ones who continued to push through even when things got uncomfortable. The fear will be there. But it s not relevant. What s relevant is how you are going to find ways to push through the fear. BEING BRAVE IS BEING SCARED AND DOING IT ANYWAY. BE BRAVE.

If you want to find out more about ways you can improve your conversation skills, get in touch to work with me. I will be your very own French personal trainer and you will make amazing progress. Thank you and happy learning!

Nah ma

French language coach and tutor

Tutorhunt profile: www.tutorhunt.com/users/4491311669349/