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A Daily Habit to Quickly Build your Confidence in Speaking a Language
For the majority of people, speaking is the trickiest language skill to learn. It’s more taxing on the brain than the others and especially as adults, we often feel embarassed when making mistakes.
One of the key ingredients to learning a language successfully is practice - practice, practice, practice.
In English we say - “practice makes perfect”
In German it’s - “Übung macht den Meister” - “practice creates masters”
In Spanish they say - “la práctica hace al maestro” - “practice makes a master”
Of course, taking language classes is important to get feedback and find gaps in our knowledge. But, how can we practice speaking a language alone or when we don’t live in one of its native countries or we don’t get many opportunities?
Here is an insightful video to tell you how - from one of my favourite polyglots Robin MacPherson! All you need is yourself, a weekly topic, and a bit of dedication to make it habit.
Awesome technique right?!
This practice allows you to develop your speaking skills in your own time in the comfort of your own home!
Here are a couple of helpful tools I use to check if I’m using the correct grammar and vocabulary...
1. Google Chrome speech to text voice recognition
1. Google Chrome speech to text voice recognition
This tool is useful as you can choose from many languages and you can leave it switched on for as long as you need to speak for.
I then copy and paste the text into this translator and check if it was accurate. I do this by first translating what I said in the target language eg. German into my native language (English) and then translating it back to check it. I prefer DeepL over Google translate as it appears to provide more accurate and natural phrasing.
I have found this technique so helpful to build my confidence and feel comfortable in my language speaking abilities. With good daily habits such as this combined with our Oxinity classes, you’re invincible!
So, give it a try and join us in class to let us know if it works for you!
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