Sacrifice Grammar To Improve Your English Fluency…?

Hello, how you doing?

I’m fine, thanks for asking! By the way – did you notice anything unusual about the first sentence? Read this again – how you doing? Oh, yes – I can hear you say – there’s a word missing! The grammatically correct sentence is – how ARE you doing?

Well, if I were your English teacher, you’d get A+ from me. The real spoken English though, can be quite different from the formal one and it’s not uncommon to drop some words when speaking just for the sake of simplicity.

So for instance, when you write an essay, use the ‘how are you doing?’ phrase which is grammatically correct. But when you meet up your friends at work in the morning – you can use the spoken English equivalent – ‘how you doing?’ It’s easier and faster to say, it sounds more native and most importantly – it’s not going to do any damage to your English grammar at all!

When you speak and write, two different areas of our brain are engaged, so you don’t have to worry that you’ll forget correct English if speaking more colloquial English. And that, by the way, is the reason why many foreign English practitioners find it difficult to speak fluently although their written English is perfect.

It’s all down to the lack of practicing spoken English phrases – and here’s another example for you – how’s things? The grammatically correct phrase is ‘how ARE things?’ But in spoken English you can simply say ‘how’s things?’ – that’s two syllables instead of three! Shorter, easier and handier – don’t you agree? So here are the two greeting phrases you can use – how you doing? And – how’s things?

It will cut into English grammar perfectionists’ ears, but you better not try being one of them. Being perfect and communicating with ease can sometimes prove to be quite the opposite!

Happy speaking,

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

English Fluency Issue Explained

Hi Folks,

Today I found a blog post called How to deal with hesitation in speaking English. The website’s author has described the English fluency issue from a slightly different angle and has made the concept very understandable.

I really wish I wrote his article – it’s that good! In a few paragraphs he’s explaining why so many foreign English speakers are hesitating when speaking English. He also tells how to rebuild your English so that you can start speaking fluently. And by the way – it’s exactly what the English Harmony System 2.0 does!

Talk to you soon,

Robby

Improve Spoken English – Stop Translating While Speaking!

Once you’re speaking fluently and confidently using your mother tongue’s accent it is the right time to start minimizing the accent and gradually move into a state of speaking English as you normally would.

The most important factors to watch out for are – slowing the speech down, the clearness of thoughts and simplicity of speech.

Because of the traditional English studies you first form the English sentences in your head (unlike native speakers who use word combinations instead!) and you also try to use the native English accent thus completely messing up your English speech!

On top of that your mind which is very well trained in the English classroom to do the translation job keeps on doing it the same when you speak in the real life! Real English speech isn’t the grammar-book-English you’ve been studying for years, right? There’s a huge difference between English class stuff and colloquial English you have to speak when facing native English speakers… The result – inability to speak fluently!

I know this feeling very well myself and it feels so uncomfortable!!! It destroys your confidence, drains away your self esteem and you feel like you are some complete beginner English student despite having been studying and speaking it for years! So at this stage it is very important to get rid of all the thoughts in your own language and leave only pure English.

But how to accomplish this goal if your mind works in a mode of looking up the words from your virtual vocabulary as you’ve been doing for years when passing English tests and exams?

Here’s the trick – you have to slow down when speaking English, control the speech and allow yourself time to think of the right word and eventually your English fluency will improve and you’ll slip into a perfect fluent English speaking mode!

And while you’re doing so, remember the thing I’ve already told you about – don’t you ever be afraid of using simple words! Way too often people feel embarrassed about that and will try to put in a word that sounds more professional.
Let’s say, you speak and you want to say that “playing soccer is something that really ….” and then you stop for a split second not being able to find the appropriate word. Well, don’t hesitate to finish off the sentence by saying “…makes me happy” or “…is so enjoyable for me” if you can’t find the right word “…excites me”.

I have often noticed that people whose native language isn’t English will try to say things using more sophisticated words. It will sometimes be hard for even native speakers to understand, so don’t be afraid of speaking simply.

Yes, your mind makes wonders and is capable of nearly everything so the less you worry about something the better you will perform – that’s for sure!;-)

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Do You Force Native English Accent When Speaking?

You’re speaking English with someone. You try to pronounce the words like they stand in the Oxford dictionary. You suddenly mispronounce one word, then another. Then you get confused and can’t speak fluently at all!

Does this scenario sound familiar?

It was happening to me all the time before I hadn’t realized a simple thing…

This may sound really strange, but if you don’t force correct English accent when speaking English, you will feel that you can speak much better and more fluently!

Don’t get me wrong – correct English pronunciation is important to speak the language and, of course, make others understand you.

What I meant here is – don’t try make yourself sound like a native English speaker by all means – most likely it will hamper your speech even to a greater extent. Instead of focusing on the correct pronunciation and native English accent just speak and if you allow your native accent to surface a little bit – there’s nothing wrong with that!

Remember – the key factors for improving spoken English and English fluency are to maintain a successful mindset and not try to use artificial vocabulary – just go for simple words you’ve learnt a long time ago! Personally I find that speaking with a slight native accent of mine I can maintain the fastest and most fluent English speech. Isn’t it odd? Well, I think it is!

And here are a couple of tips on how to forget about sounding like a grammar book and focusing on live English speech instead!

Next time you speak English try to use your own language’s pronunciation when speaking English. Just let it go and don’t try to force the super-correct English accent. It may sound really funny – like Italian mobsters from mafia movies – but you’ll discover that this way your fluency increases!

Nothing else counts now but your confidence, don’t bother yourself with thinking what your speech sounds like. The most important thing is that now you can speak fluently and your mind is being exercised in a similar way you exercise your muscles in the gym.

When you’ve spoken in this manner for a while, just stop and forget about English fluency and anything related to English. Do something you like for a while. When you speak with native English speakers next time you’ll discover that oddly your fluency has improved a bit!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

How To Always Maintain Fluent English

First of all (and probably most importantly!) – always have a successful mindset!

This is absolutely crucial if you want to succeed with achieving English fluency. When you think positive and don’t allow little mistakes and failures during your speech irritate and annoy you, you’re already one step closer to improving your spoken English!

When you worry you self-program yourself in a subconscious level that you speak poorly and that creates a vicious circle that is very hard to quit. It is difficult to maintain a positive outlook on something that is an issue for you, there’s no doubt about that.

However, you must try. Let it go. Don’t reproach yourself and don’t start frantically thinking – what’s wrong, what’s wrong with me?

The first thing you have to program in your mind instead is – I KNOW that I CAN speak very well, and I don’t allow anyone and anything make me feel embarrassed when I speak English!

Once you’ve programmed yourself that way you have done some 30% of the job!

The next thing you have to do to make your English speech more natural and easy - forget about words you have to force yourself to look up in your virtual vocabulary.

Most of them will be some difficult words you’ve learnt by memorizing. You can learn hundreds of words by heart but when it comes to a real life chat – we can’t just speak those words out because they haven’t been learnt as a part of a live language. In fact the language doesn’t consist of words – it consists of word combinations!

When a natural English speaker says: “How could you do that to me?” he doesn’t think about the separate words making up the sentence and how to stick them together. The whole sentence comes into parts – “how could you”, and “do that to me”. These things have been heard in the very childhood when mom told her child “How could you?” and the child’s mind memorizes the whole thing as one – “howcouldyou”.

When we, non-native English speakers speak English, we tend more to think about the things before we speak them out, we organize them into our mind, unwillingly translate from our native language (here I’m talking about us who haven’t learn the language the natural way and experience lack of English fluency!). This is why it is very important to learn new words as part of a live conversation.

I’m not telling here that all the vocabulary you have learnt by self-studies is useless, of course, it isn’t. Your mind is going to put everything in its places and the more time you spend in an English environment, the better the words will settle in your consciousness and will be associated with an abstract meaning rather than with a word from your own language.

What I’m telling is that while you experience the English fluency problem stick with simpler words which don’t require much of your will to speak out and don’t give a damn about how simply it sounds and what others might think about you.

So – when speaking English, feel completely free to use “go up” instead of “increase” and “drop” instead of “reduced”. By the way, it sometimes is quite surprising how simply some things can be said by a natural English speaker!

At work on many occasions the e-mails sent by my Irish boss sound as if written by a non-national worker and vice versa. Remember it and never feel embarrassed when choosing a simple way to explain something.

The two things mentioned above are very important if you really want to improve your English fluency!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

How English Fluency Issue Manifests Itself

You suddenly can’t pronounce the words normally – although you know how a particular word sounds, it seemingly comes out of your mouth and distorts itself – letters get mixed, endings change and you have an impression that it’s another person speaking – not you!
You can’t find the right words as you speak – you know what you want to say and normally you even don’t have to force yourself to consciously think about the words as such. However, when this English fluency issue is present, you seem to have lost it all and as you keep on speaking you can lose the whole concept of what you wanted to say – all because you concentrate on finding the right words!
You can’t maintain the clearness of thoughts – you are struggling to stick the words together but as a result the sentences coming out of your mouth are often hard to understand and lack the logical structure;
No matter how good your English grammar is, sometimes you get everything wrong – tenses mixed up, incorrect forms of the verbs replacing the ones you needed to use and so on
You have a notion as if hundreds and hundreds of English words are floating in your mind and it becomes nearly impossible to pick the right ones and form a proper speech. On the contrary, when your English speech is normal you just speak without having anything else in your mind!
To your utter dismay you can clearly notice that you think in your mother’s tongue and the resulting speech is a translation – not a normal speech!
Even if you don’t think in your native tongue you experience an odd thing – as you speak, wrong words replace the right ones – even if they don’t sound similarly and there’s no other obvious connection between them!
And, of course, the most devastating thing of all – your confidence is just literally draining away when you feel these symptoms take place! You won’t experience all the things simultaneously, that’s for sure. Most likely it’s going to be the first four things from the list and then one of the remaining four.

I guess by now you have certainly recalled nearly all the symptoms having manifested themselves at some stage.
This whole English fluency issue seems to be something like a mental syndrome and probably only a psychotherapist could help with it…

Once I had such a thought as well, yes, but since I dealt with this speech problem myself – I can assure you that you also do it without attending a doctor!

But now let’s talk about what’s happening behind the scenes when this issue occurs and let’s analyze the very roots of these sudden changes in ability to speak English normally.

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

English Fluency Problem

Let’s first talk about this English fluency problem so that you can analyze it a little bit and understand its nature.

Let’s say, you wake up in the morning and while doing something you just have an odd thought in English in your mind. And…you realize that you just can’t express yourself in English language as you’d normally do!

You try to say something in English to yourself and you feel that you can’t stick the thoughts together – your mind is full of different words and images floating and messing…

Another example. You go to work and greet the first person you meet. “How are you! I’m fine, what was the weekend like?” – And then you suddenly feel that you have to force yourself to get even these simple things right! And when you start chatting to your workmate at your desk, you feel that you can’t speak normally as you could before, although only yesterday you could speak fluently as a native speaker!

The usual mistakes you make when experiencing the speech problem are the following:

Not being able to find the right words
Mispronouncing words
Not being able to say the thought clearly!

You start a sentence, and then the very thread of the thought vanishes, and something like a blackout takes place in your head.

And then you get really anxious and nervous and it affects your whole day – your mood drops below zero, the self-esteem is gone, the confidence… well, it’s a disaster! I don’t exaggerate, I know the feeling all too well and I guess, so do you.

The most baffling thing in this all is that no matter how often you speak, no matter how long you’ve been living among English speaking folks, the things don’t change! It keeps on repeating constantly and with no obvious reason at all!

I remember myself being a job-seeker at one stage and I attended many job interviews. One day I could speak perfectly creating a really good impression about myself. The next day going to a different place I’d experience the issue described above – and, of course, I’d feel really low because the interviewer most likely thought – well, this guy can’t get the English right in the first place, what job is he dreaming about then?

And I know you have gone through a number of really embarrassing situations similar to previously described and you’d be more than happy to deal with the issue once and for all, wouldn’t you?

So first let’s list all the characteristics of this English fluency issue so that we can clearly see what we are trying to get resolved here!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

The Harsh Reality About Improving Spoken English

Dear English speaker!

I want to tell you about a really annoying English speech problem that was troubling me for years! Now I’ve successfully overcome it but until just a couple of years ago I felt devastated when I had to speak English at certain times.

Does this sound familiar to you – you KNOW that you can speak English normally but when you have to do it – you just CAN’T?

Yes, the problem we’re talking about here is the sudden inability to speak English properly that prevents you from fully enjoying the social life, move up the carrier ladder and most importantly – it damages your self-confidence.

And the funniest thing about this issue is – it happens only SOMETIMES!

The previous day you had a chat with your boss and you could speak just about everything – but today you just can’t tell the simplest thing to your English speaking work-mate without hesitating, forgetting words and making stupid grammar mistakes!

At the very beginning – when I became fully aware of this strange inability to speak English fluently only on some occasions – I thought I had to focus on improving spoken English.

Well – I guess you’re quite familiar with what they say you have to do to improve spoken English and English fluency in general. Read a lot, study grammar a lot and practice English in real life as much as possible. Do you think I didn’t do all this and even more?

As I happen to live in an English speaking country – namely, Ireland, English was all around me! At work, on the street, in shops – everywhere! But apart from the majority of foreigners who spent little time on improving their English speaking skills I literally immersed myself in English studies!

I was constantly reading English fiction, newspapers, magazines, I learnt hundreds upon hundreds of new English words – my hand-written vocabulary was always with me! All these things improved my general English fluency a great deal, that’s true.

However, there would always be days when I just couldn’t speak normally! Blushing, confusion – I just felt like a total looser!

Ultimately I came to understand that fluent spoken English has little to do with how hard you study. Of course – you need to have a solid vocabulary not to mention grammar and practicing.

But I think you got the point – no matter how fluent my English was, I’d still experience this stupid issue – inability to speak normal English on certain days…

Are you now curious enough to find out HOW exactly I overcame this mind-boggling problem and started enjoying life in an English speaking society at its full?

Then read on – I’ll give you plenty of advice!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Improve English Fluency… Have A Coffee Break!

I’d like to share a funny story with you this time. As you already know, I’m not a native English speaker – and I live in a country called Ireland.

I’ve been here for quite a long time and I’m not planning go back to my own country in the near future. And now I’m feeling like I’ve become a part of this whole culture, Irish traditions and everything else.

But the first thing that struck me when I just arrived here was the local accent. Yes, I had studied English at home – but the way Irish spoke was something completely un-understandable! I always had to apologize and ask to repeat the same question again and again until I was able to get it!

And I guess you may have experienced similar feelings having gone abroad or living in a foreign country, haven’t you?

But today’s story isn’t about how well we can understand other accents and ways of pronunciation. It’s about how well the native English speakers can get what WE say.

And here goes the funniest thing I’ve been telling my friends over and over again – and now it’s your turn! Whenever I go to some eatery to have a meal with my wife and daughters, or just myself, and order coffee, I don’t get coffee straight away.

And please don’t think I’m being discriminated in any way – no, Irish folks are very friendly and today around 10% of the whole country population is non-nationals. And we’re very welcome in this country!

No – it’s not that I’m ignored or anything similar. It’s just that Irish don’t understand I’m asking coffee…

Yes, it’s really weird! The word ‘coffee’ is very simple. The pronunciation: [kofi:] – am I not right? Yes – and everyone pronounces the word this way.

Imagine if you were an English national and someone asked you in a heavily distorted accent: [kofe:], or [ko:fe:] or whatever else – would you not get it? I guess – yes. But you see – I have to repeat the word around three times until the girl behind the counter says: ‘Ohh, right, you want coffee?!?’…

But am I getting annoyed by this? You think I’m giving out about how unfairly I’m treated?

Of course, not! It’s just another story about how different we people are and that our distinct accents and pronunciations are a part of the nature!

No matter if it’s the Irish girl behind the McDonalds counter, or it’s you who has to ask someone to repeat what they just said – it’s COMPLETELY OK! It’s absolutely normal sometimes to get a bit confused, not to understand, mispronounce words and make similar mistakes.

After all, we’re all humans, and humans do make mistakes, don’t we?