How can I improve my fluency?
Posted by CalmGarlic01@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 18 comments
I don't think I have hard time understanding someone who is speaking to me in English or even writing or reading in general. For example I'm able to write this thing without having an issue. But when it comes to talking in English, Idk what goes wrong. I draw a blank, I just can't use good vocabs or make proper sentences. I get stuck after speaking a few words. I just don't feel fluent enough. What can I do about this? I don't have anyone to talk to in English.
tygeorgiou@reddit
put chatgpt or Gemini in voice mode, ask it to practice your English and have a conversation, do it daily, whenever you can
if you live in the UK, find some mates since that's probably the better way
if you're not in the UK but you have some like of computer based hobby whether it's gaming or art or something, find Brits to call with
at the end of the day, only way to improve is to practice
bambiiambi@reddit
There are TikToks and videos which can provide tips and aid on improving your fluency in English. I will edit this and add the names for you.
Also it might more of a confidence issue so just remind yourself that native speakers make mistakes too. The difference is they don’t second guess every sentence :)
prawntortilla@reddit
play online games with guilds
notThaTblondie@reddit
Try reading outloud. It'll help you get used to the flow of a sentence and forming the words. Your written English is great, so you do have a good understanding of the language you've just fot to get used to speaking it. Try reading the comments from a thread on here out to yourself. It'll become more natural and you'll find it easier in real life situations.
SarkyMs@reddit
I would start with children's books they are designed for reading our loud and flow well.
SarkyMs@reddit
And poems
Esie666@reddit
How old are you? Hobbies? Online games with discord might be a good way of learning to converse in english
C2H5OHNightSwimming@reddit
I just went to the r/learnenglishonline sub and the top post is someone offering to help people practice their English online for free
https://www.reddit.com/r/learnEnglishOnline/s/sZTyHmUGuo
I'm in the same boat, I can read quite a lot of Dutch, my listening is so so and I can barely hold a conversation at the checkout. In my case it's down to being a lazy piece of shit and not practicing, my partner is a native speaker. Though we've recently been doing some every day and it helps a lot.
There's probably more online groups and discords you can join to practice speaking. Google or chatGPT for suggestions or post on the Reddit sub to ask if anyone knows of some. It all comes down to how used to it your brain is. If you're not used to speaking your brain won't build as many connections in that bit of your brain.
chatGPT also has a programme called language teacher ms (or miss, I forget) smith and I think it has a speaking option.
eweedster@reddit
Living in Spain and leaning Spanish and feel the exact same my friend!!!
Saxon2060@reddit
Get a bit drunk. I have some Spanish friends who are a LOT easier to understand in the pub because they stop worrying so much about being perfectly accurate and use the first word or phrase or sentence construction that comes to mind and it's usually 90% right and totally understandable.
When they're trying to be perfectly accurate they are nowhere near as fluent.
I guess it's a bad idea to be drunk all the time... But if you can, don't worry so much about perfect accuracy and if you have a sentence in your head that you know isn't perfectly accurate but you're grasping around in your mind for how to make it perfect, stop doing that and just say the imperfect version.
Poo_Poo_La_Foo@reddit
When I lived abroad and taught ESL people would pay me by the hour literally just to chat. It's all very well and good to have the technical language skills but conversation is quite different. What is your native language? Luckily, in the scheme of things, English is quite easy to learn for most people - as our language is a lot simpler than many European languages (eg. we don't have different gendered words, etc).
If you can't find someone locally, you may find someone to chat to remotely via zoom, etc.
Good luck!
met22land@reddit
There’s only one way to do it: get out there and talk to a native. Most English will try to understand you and help you (the ones that don’t aren’t worth your time!). Failing that, listen to English on YouTube and reply; make up conversations in your head and reply. You learn by doing. Don’t worry about mistakes: if you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t learning. Source: am English.
I_waz_Perce@reddit
Try reading English articles and books out loud. Keep practising until you get more confident. If you live in the UK already and like animals, get a dog. You'll make loads of friends and, if you only train the dog using English, you have a friend that you can practice on at home.
twogunsalute@reddit
You could try r/language_exchange or Preply if you're willing to pay for a tutor.
Alternative-Ad-2312@reddit
I'd look for a tutor but failing that, I'd be looking to ask for help from a native speaker. Ask the. If they'll spend a couple of hours here and there with you practising and explaining. That will make a huge difference.
OldManGravz@reddit
Honestly you seem to have a very good grasp of English, it might be more of a confidence thing than anything else, you start to worry about what you're saying and then you trip over it more and more. Are there any ESL schools/tutors near to you, they may be able to help practise your verbal communication.
If you're in England, trying going for a walk down to your local park, and say hello to people, ask them politely if you can speak to them and explain you're trying to improve your English.
Alternatively, join a club for an activity you're interested in, the other members of the club will be there for the same reason so you'll already have a topic to discuss. I tend to find when learning languages that it's easier to learn about your passions first as you already have opinions and you don't get as stuck for something to say
farraigemeansthesea@reddit
This might be better reposted to r/Englishteachers
qualityvote2@reddit
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