[For people have stay “Foreign country” for a long time] The most necessary tips for speaking languages with native speakers

It has already been 10 years since I came to the United States.

I think there are many people who have been living abroad for a long time (working, students, married, etc.) who still feel nervous when speaking English (a foreign language) with native speakers, even though they have been here for a long time.

In the beginning, even after several years, I was still nervous even when ordering at Starbucks.

So, with that in mind, I would like to share my experience with you.

I would like to talk about the most important thing to keep in mind when conversing with native speakers abroad.

That is “Don’t think as if I am a foreigner”.

The mentality of many people who say they are not comfortable speaking English are:

• I am a foreigner. I am embarrassed of my accent.
• My English is terrible.
• I’m afraid of being understood or ignored.

I think that’s usually how they feel at most.

If you are thinking like this, you will be nervous when you are speaking, and you will not be able to express yourself in context or in voice. In particular, you may be thinking deep in their mind(either conscious or unconscious), “I am from a different country, so my English is not good enough with native speakers. Unfortunately, if it’s their unconscious mind then they are never aware of this without self-consciousness.

• Unfortunately, the unconscious mind makes us believe that we are not good at speaking English or foreign languages with native, and this is the reality.

This makes you afraid of making mistakes (overthinking) even though you can really speak with them.

• Fear of making mistakes (overthinking)
• The voice becomes quieter.
• It is difficult to get your message across.

And then “you lose confidence in speaking with native speakers”.

I used to be like this before I started speaking English. I would get nervous and not be able to speak well.

I was able to overcome this problem because I had a chance to change my mindset.

First, you need to change your mindset.

I had to change my unconscious mindset from “I am a foreigner” to “I am a man, just human”.

It is essential to change it to “I am me”.

If your mindset is as a “foreigner,” such attitudes and words will come out like I am a foreigner.

Let’s stop this. We are all “friends” no matter what country we are in. We are all human beings.

Another thing to keep in mind is:

Don’t give a fuck anything.

To be honest, and from my experience, people who have been to the U.S for a long time are more and more afraid to speak and losing confidence to speak with their English.

• “I’ve been here so long, why can’t I speak English well?”

This is it.

This is what we call “shame”.

You make a mistake in your native language, and it shouldn’t bother you so much. You can just say, “Oh no, you didn’t understand what I meant? never mind.” that is it, right?

Making mistakes in English or other foreign languages is something you really don’t need to worry about too much.

Let’s say it is the same thing as “your native language”.

To summary,

The tips for long-term residents in foreign language conversation are:

The most important thing to remember is to change your mindset when speaking with native speakers.

• Forget that you are a foreigner.
• Don’t care what happens.

To create this unconscious state, you need to do self-hypnosis.

It is very easy.

Before a conversation with a native speaker, say to yourself like:

• I am me myself. I don’t care what happens.
• “OMG,, you’re just ignoring me?? Well, Thank you very much.

It is effective to plant these feelings in your brain by saying them out loud.

I don’t give a fuck, I don’t care, I don’t care.

Let’s living simple!

zenjin