No-one to Talk to? Practice English With Yourself!

by Robby on February 23, 2011

Find out how to improve your spoken English is 30 days or less :!:

Today’s video topic is about the importance of practicing English speaking on a regular basis. In other words, if you want to be a fluent English speaker, you have to speak, there are no magic shortcuts :!:

There are, of course, shortcuts in terms of efficiency of the learning process, and you’re welcome to check out my blog to found out more, but in this video lesson let’s focus on the importance of speaking English every day.

By the way, did you know that the most viewed video on my YouTube channel so far is the one where I’m talking about the importance of speaking English with yourself in case you’ve got no-one else to talk to? I guess it’s a good indicator of a typical situation that foreign English speakers find themselves in.

You know – even if you live in an English speaking country, there might not be enough face-to-face communication with other English speakers. On many occasions foreigners living under such circumstances won’t go the extra mile to practice some English because it’s not a necessity and they can do without it.

If you’re willing to improve your spoken English, however, you can do so much more to step up your English fluency and having regular conversations with yourself is definitely better that no spoken practice at all!

Talking With Myself? Isn’t That a Sure Sign of Insanity?

First of all, the best occasions for speaking English with yourself is when you’re alone or when there’s no-one in close proximity. That way you’ll make sure no-one overhears you and you’ll avoid embarrassing situations. I’m pretty sure that anyone has at least 10, 20 minutes a day when you’re completely on our own and that time can be very well spent improving your spoken English.

Secondly, you don’t actually have to talk out loud as you’d normally do when communicating with others. Just a slight whisper would suffice to exercise your vocal cords, so even if you’re overheard on rare occasions, it’s not going to sound bizarre.

 

Let’s say for instance, that you’re working at an assembly line in a manufacturing plant. Most likely you spend your working day thinking about all sorts of things and daydreaming. What I’m saying is – why not use at least part of that time practicing English with yourself? There would be no-one to hear your quiet whisper at the assembly line anyway, right?

But if you think it’s not really necessary to engage in weird activities like thinking out loud in English because you get to speak some English with your English speaking supervisor and you also watch some English TV channels in the evening – I’d say you should think twice.

You simply have to speak as much English as you can, and no amount of time spent in front of TV and reading newspapers will make you into a fluent English speaker :!:

Besides, those few sentences you swap with your supervisor count for virtually nothing considering that an average person speaks at least a couple of thousand words a day.

And you should also bear in mind that by practicing spoken English as often as you can you’ll facilitate your ability to think in English and you’ll add more words and phrases to your active English vocabulary!

Huge Benefits – Thinking in English and Widening Active Vocabulary

You know, it’s one of the biggest issues that foreign English speakers face worldwide – they can’t help thinking in their native language and translating into English. It results in a very slow and hesitant English speech, and it also drains off that person’s confidence. One of the reasons for this issue originates in the very English learning process; yet the lack of English speaking practice also accounts for much of that inability to think in English.

Also the size of your active English vocabulary plays a crucial role in maintaining fluent English speech when you communicate with other English speakers. Active vocabulary consists of all those words and phrases you can use when speaking as opposed to English vocabulary you only recognize but you can’t really use in real-life conversations. Normally foreign English speakers don’t dwell upon these matters and you can often here statements like “How come that I can understand everything that I’m being told in English but I can’t speak anywhere near as fluently?”

 

Well, my friend, the answer is simple – it’s the lack of spoken English practice and apparently you don’t get enough opportunities to speak with other English speakers. You’re being mostly exposed to passive English input and your English understanding is quite good, but when it comes to speaking, you still have to come along.

So my answer to all these problems is – engage into regular English monologues, and you’ll feel your spoken English improve radically! :-)

You definitely have situations when you are on your own and you’re actively thinking about something – your future plans, events from the past, and so on. So why not turn that thinking in your native language into a purposeful English speaking practice session? It’s easy, it’ll cost you nothing, and it’s a brilliant way of improving your English fluency and also preparing for important events like interviews and appointments!

Robby

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

English Harmony System

  • Jfbssp

    Hey Robby! I just wanted to let you know that I agree with you 100%!. I’ve spent the last five years reading and watching Italian tv with very little progress. Yes, I understand almost everything but speak like a 2 year old child. It has taken my 5 long years to discover that the #1 thing to do is to think in the language!. Thanks, you have been a big help. Jerry from New York

  • http://englishharmony.com Robby Kukurs

    Thanks Jerry, I’m glad you find my advice helpful!

  • http://mytravelflavor.com Veronika

    Oh Robby, you’re totally right. we also have this problem (understand everything but can’t speak like a dog) at school, even if we study English during all school years (in russia they are 11), we perfectly know grammar, but no speaking practice at all. So, this article is really useful. thanks))

  • http://englishharmony.com Robby Kukurs

    Thanks for your comment Veronika! I’m glad you found this article helpful, and yes – the problem you mentioned in your comment is widespread. Well, that’s why I’m running this blog after all – to show people that to become fluent English speakers we need to SPEAK!

  • Abhishek9757

    hi sir,thanks to keep me in touch i am following your rules to seaking my self and i realy i am feeling improvement,I am very thankfull to you that u given me advise and i am just foliowing You and now i Opened My own English Spoken Class from Today if i get a chance to teaching to student then i will help them by all means to lear and will get aquainted them with you.Thank Sir.

  • http://englishharmony.com Robby Kukurs

    Hi Abhishek,nnThanks for your comment and I’m glad you’re feeling improvement in terms of confidence. Let me know how your spoken English class goes in a while!

  • Paul Phoenix

    Grettings!nnMy name’s Sergey Dragunov.nnI really enjoy reading stuff on the site and I’m sure many people will improve their spoken English by following the great tips given here.nAfter about 7 months of learning the English language on my own I’ve come to understand it’s not a big deal to learn to speak any language about ordinary things that happen in your daily life. Learning to speak English very well, however, is an extremely hard and time-consuming task, a goal which I believe soo few people actually manage to accomplish even though too many would claim otherwise.

  • http://englishharmony.com Robby Kukurs

    Hi Sergey,nnThanks a lot for your comment!nnI completely agree with you. I wouldn’t call it a hard task tough, because if you like the language you learn you should enjoy the learning process. Still you’re correct in saying that to learn English VERY WELL would be a time-consuming process.nnFrankly speaking, I can’t speak English up to the highest standards. I’m not nearly as eloquent as other foreign English speakers I’ve met in my life, not to mention industry professionals. But then again I think our individual fluency requirements differ depending on what activities we engage on a regular basis – and that’s one of the main points I’m making on my blog.

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