You understand the meeting. You understand the Netflix show (with subtitles). You read your client's email and know exactly what they want.

But when someone looks at you and says, "What do you think?"... Nothing comes out.

It's not that your English isn't good enough.  You just having been practicing the wrong thing, you should be practicing speaking.

Understanding and speaking are two different skills

Listening and reading are recognition. The words comes to you and inside your head you match it with something you already know.

Speaking is producing something new. You find the word, build the sentence inside your head and say it out loud. That takes time and usually someone is waiting. 

Most of my Taiwanese students have been studying for years. Since they were in Elementary school and some even before that. Almost all of it was recognition: read the passage, choose A, B, C or D. I like tease and call them test machines, but in reality that's what they were studying for. To pass a test. They didn't train to be in a conversation.

That's how you end up with a great score and "Fine, thank you, and you?"

Three things happen when you freeze

  1. You translate in your head. Chinese first, then English. That's two jobs at once, and by the time you finish, the conversation has moved on.
  2. You wait for the perfect sentence. Perfect never comes. The meeting ends and you said nothing.
  3. You're afraid of losing face. One mistake in front of your boss feels worse than silence. So you choose silence. Silence is safe.

None of these are English problems. They're your problems.

Speaking is a muscle

You can't learn to swim by reading about swimming. I love playing soccer and watching the World Cup does not make my legs any faster.

Speaking works the same way. Your mouth needs move and others needs to listen.

Five ways to stop freezing

  1. Speak before you're ready. Say the simple version first. "I agree, because..." is much better than trying to find a perfect sentence nobody hears.
  2. Steal phrases, not words. Write down whole sentences you hear and like. Use them this week and next week and the week after that.
  3. Shadowing. It's how I learned English. Play one minute of a video, pause, and repeat it out loud. Copy the speed and the style, not just the words.
  4. Talk to yourself. Describe your lunch. Explain your day while you brush your teeth. It feels silly but just say it outloud. It works.
  5. Practice with the same people. Mistakes are easier in front of people who know you. That's why you need to find people to practice with. It doesn't always have to be a teacher, that can take too much time or cost too much.

Final thought

You don't need more English. You need more reps.

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