if you aren’t consistently putting yourself out there and embarrassing yourself in front of native speakers… are you really even a language learner?
#im trying to grow a thick skin in terms of this shit lol
How to be confident when you talk to natives
pretend you’re someone else; think of 1 person/character who you know it’s confident and act like them
ask yourself, what’s more embarassing, saying something wrong to a native on private or saying that at an international conference?
remember that only you and the native know your mistake and others don’t care that much about what you’re doing; only assholes will remind you of a simple mistake over and over again
remember that you learn more from mistakes than from talking “perfectly”; have you learned from it? you’re doing great!
would that mistake matter in 5 years? if not, don’t think of it for more than you need to learn from it
the world won’t end and that mistake won’t be the last one so why stress over something that won’t affect your life?
you’ll have funny stories to tell, see the funny part of your mistakes and smile while learning
Also: that native speaker has very likely gone through the trouble of learning a foreign language themselves. They are probably the last person that is going to judge you for your mistakes!
Every native speaker will most likely appreciate the fact that you chose to learn their language of all the languages out there. They will probably also boost your confidence by complimenting you on how well you can speak their language, even if all you can do is the most basic small talk with a heavy accent and the worst grammar in the world. Speaking to a native speaker not only improves your language skills, but also confidence in them and therefore motivate you to learn more and to talk to even more native speakers!!!
