Is It Easy to Switch Between Your Native Language and English?

By Robby

If you are new here please read this first.


Improve Spoken English

Hello my blog readers!

Personally I sometimes find it a bit difficult to go back to using my language when I’ve been speaking in English all day long, and while it may sound a bit weird considering Latvian is my native language, I guess it’s not that uncommon among foreign English speakers living and working in an English speaking environment.

As far as my ability to switch TO English goes, I also experience slight difficulties from time to time.

If I’m surrounded by other Latvians and I have to start speaking in English for some reason or another  – a phone call, for example – I can’t just jump back into my most fluent state. Most of the time it takes a few minutes for my mind to adjust to the English speech, and then I can speak 100% confidently and fluently.

How to explain this phenomenon?

Well, over the years while working on my own English and trying to maintain a high level of oral fluency I’ve figured out a few factors contributing into this phenomenon:

Basically it’s all about the situations you’re in and the people you’re with.

If you feel uncomfortable speaking in English in front of some of your native speaking friends, for example, your fluency is going to deteriorate big time and you’ll find it difficult to switch from your mother’s tongue to English in a situation like that.

If there’s one English speaking person you’ve been communicating with most of the time, on the other hand, you’ll find it quite easy to switch to English despite not having spoken with any English speaker for a few days in a row.

And what about you, my friend foreigner?

Do you find it easy or difficult to switch to the English language right after you’ve been using your native tongue?

And what about switching back from English to using your native language?

Tell me about your experiences, I would really love to hear about it!

Thanks for tuning in,

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

 

English Harmony System

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!

English Harmony System
  • In this context it simply replaces “I have to” and “I had to” – simple as that! Don’t try to analyze it too much – http://englishharmony.com/analysis/ – just accept that’s how it’s used and you may as well start using this expression yourself!

    Regards,

    Robby

  • Nickolas

    Mr Robert, pls write on the “to be+ to” future. As in “I am to leave soon” and what it is for, also how it can be used past tense form like “I was to give her my bag.” I see it in newspapers a lot.