When are you ready to use your new language?

In celebration of the launch of my Eureka Languages project, I am going to tackle another question about learning foreign languages. So you have started learning a new language, how many weeks or months do you have to wait before you're ready to use your new language? This is an issue that often fazes many learners of foreign languages: on one hand, you're very keen to try out your newly acquired language skills. On the other hand, you're nervous: what if the other party doesn't understand what you're trying to say? What if they start replying in the language and you're unable to understand their reply? Well, I shall try to deal with some of these issues in this post.

1. Find a willing party to practice with.

I go to a gym in London that is very international: when I am there, I have the opportunity to practice speaking mostly Italian and Russian, but also Korean, French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Czech and Polish. Now clearly, my international friends all speak English and that is the language they would use with me if I didn't specifically tell them to avoid speaking to me in English and use their native tongue instead because I really want to practice speaking their language. They understand that I am learning their language and would speak to me slowly and clearly, so that I may be able to understand more when they speak. Also, when I make a mistake, they would correct me. This is hardly a natural conversation between friends - rather, it is me struggling along in a language I don't speak very well and my friends acting the role of the teacher. Apart from French, Mandarin and Spanish, I cannot keep up with native speakers if they speak at normal speed hence that is why my friends at the gym slow right down when speaking to me.

It is important to practice your foreign language skills constantly.

2. Avoid practicing on impatient strangers.

There is the right time to practice and the wrong time to practice. Let me recount an episode in Ljubljana, Slovenia - I was in a crowded fast food restaurant at lunchtime, there was a long queue behind me and I was struggling to place my order in Slovenian despite the fact that the cashier who served me greeted me in English and asked me what I wanted in English. Still, I persisted in speaking Slovenian which I am clearly not fluent in. He got impatient and said, "look, I know you're trying to speak Slovenian but there's a really long queue of people behind you and they're all waiting, can you just tell me what you want in English please?" Oops. My bad, I had misjudged the situation. Usually Slovenians love it when foreigners try to speak their language, but clearly this was the wrong time and place for it.

3. Don't be afraid to mix languages.

This is something I have learnt from my time in Singapore - I spoke Singlish all the time as a child back then and didn't have any qualms about mixing English, Mandarin, Malay, Cantonese and Hokkien all in the same sentence. As long as it made sense to the person I was speaking in, it was a perfectly relaxed, colloquial way to communicate amongst friends.This created a less daunting way for people like my dad to speak a little English as he simply didn't have the confidence to engage in any conversation that is conducted only in English and nothing else. This allowed people like my dad to use what little English he had in a conversation by mixing it with other languages that he speaks fluently. Singlish isn't unique in this aspect - there are in fact many creoles/mixed languages around the world: Spanglish (Spanish + English), Wenglish (Welsh + English), Franglais (French + English), Medny Aleut (Russian + Aleut), Media Lengua (Quichua + Spanish), Petuh (German + Danish) and Daohua (Mandarin + Tibetan) just to name a few.

Mixing languages is done all over the world.

4. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Perhaps I am stating the obvious here, but nobody expects a learner of a foreign language to be totally fluent and speak the language flawlessly. However, many learners of foreign languages are still extremely nervous about making mistakes thus are very reluctant to speak up and use the language even though they may actually have a pretty good command of that language. Why is this the case? Well, my friend Japanese Ryohei's story would explain this mystery. Ryohei is doing his masters degree at university currently and speaks remarkably good English but until recently, had been painfully shy about speaking English at all.

"Yes we all had to learn English in my school in Japan from the age of 10, though some parents who recognize the importance of English will start sending their children to English classes from a much younger age. The problem was that nobody wanted to speak up in class - the teacher was strict and if you answered a question wrongly, you would be scolded, even punished. If you got the answer right, the teacher would barely acknowledge the answer is no more than a nod and move on to the next student. There was virtually no incentive to speak up in class, I kept a low profile, I never raised my hand and I dreaded being called upon to answer a question in English class. I guess my experience was pretty typical - it was until I came to England for university that I was forced to speak English every single day.

Japanese people often lack the confidence to speak English in public.

English is poorly taught in Japan, despite it being a compulsory subject in school, tourists are constantly frustrated when they try to ask locals for directions or try to get service in English at a train station or restaurant. It's not that English is not taught in Japan - oh no, so much time, money and resources have been dedicated to the teaching of English in Japanese schools, yet the results are dismal. Most Japanese adults can reaad and write English decently, they may be able to watch a movie or TV programme and understand the English but they totally lack confidence when it comes to using English to speak to a foreigner. They panic, become anxious, they get scared. They worry about sounding strange, making mistakes, being misunderstood and at that point, they just claim, "I don't speak English."

When I first arrived in the UK as a student, I was forced to speak English in everyday situations, like in a buying food in a shop or when I meet my neighbours, I realized, oh it's not a big deal to make a mistake or two when I speak English, like nobody was going to laugh at me or anything like that. I know that I still make mistakes sometimes when I speak English, my English is far from perfect today but the only way I can improve is by constantly using it, practicing it often and gaining confidence. When I make a mistake, my friends correct me and I learn from that process - thus one should not be afraid to make mistakes because that's how we learn. The vast majority of people are not going to laugh at you or make fun of you just because you're a foreigner struggling with the language. It takes a certain kind of juvenile, immature, stupid idiot to do that kinda shit. I have never ever encountered that kind of idiot in England, luckily!"

5. Recognize the Catch-22 situation

When you start making the excuse, "I'm not good enough, when I become good enough, I will start speaking it", then you are constantly giving yourself the excuse not to even try speaking your foreign language. No you're not fluent, yes you're going to make plenty of mistakes - but here's the catch-22 situation: unless you are willing to open your mouth and start speaking, make loads of mistakes and get that vital practice you so badly need, how are you ever going to improve? There's no minimum standard required for you to start using your new language - as long as you are willing to give it a go, it doesn't matter if you're making loads of mistakes or if you're only using a few words whilst using English to fill up the rest of the sentence. So, what are you waiting for? The perfect moment is now, so you may as well start speaking your new language right away and get that practice you need. 

So there you go, that's my take on the issue. Are you learning a foreign language? Are you getting enough practice with your new language? What are your strategies to get enough oral practice? Do let me know what you think please, kindly leave me a comment below. Many thanks for reading. Don't forget to check out the Eureka Languages Challenge - we currently have 11 languages on the programme but we are looking to add a few more this month!