FAQ: I’m Afraid My English Fluency Isn’t Coming Back!

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Video Transcript Below:

Hi guys, hello boys and girls and welcome back to Robby’s English Harmony video blog!

Listen guys, I’ve had a crazy week and that’s the reason why I haven’t responded to your blog comments in case you’re wondering where has Robby gone, why he isn’t responding to the blog comments that I’ve made, right? Rest assured, I’m going to do it right now.

I just came home from college today and to be honest with you, college ends a bit sooner on Friday so that’s a good thing. I can catch up on the things that I haven’t done during the week. And to be honest with you, I’m very busy with my Fluency Star students so that takes up pretty much my entire time and I have very little time left for dealing with the comments and your emails and so on and so forth.

So I’m really, really sorry for not being able to get back to you sooner but now I’m going to rectify that mistake and I’m going to respond to one person’s comment, Indrajeet’s comment. And he commented on my blog post a couple days ago there. And his comment definitely merits a video response. So I’m going to read it out so you can clearly see what the whole thing is about, right?

Problem: English Fluency is Good, But Is It Going to Stay That Way?

Now, he is from India and his age is 18 and he says that as far as his English is concerned he thinks that he is completely fluent. And he’s been following my advice, he’s been hardwiring his brain to think in English, he talks to himself all the time. So it’s all nice and well, he’s following the right advice so he’s going down the right road.

Now, he said that he still has some serious issues. He knows that I’ve been addressing these issues in my articles on the blog but still he would appreciate some personal advice, right? And he says that actually he analyzes his speech too much. Every time he says something, whether it’s right or wrong, he would analyze it, right?

And I’ve got to tell you guys that this is typical of so many foreigners, right? I see it every day of the week. The foreigners speak and they constantly analyze their speech. They second-guess themselves thus making the issue even worse. And as a matter of fact I have actually addressed that issue.

You might want to click on this link right here and you’re going to get to read about the whole thing, why analysis is detrimental to your fluency and how to get rid of it, right?

Next up he says that even if he makes a small mistake all hell breaks loose within him and he tries all he can to amend it and then he stresses out over that and that basically makes his fluency disappear for a while and he feels very down and upset about it, right?

The second problem is that he’s very conscious of his English speech and whenever he has to speak among very fluent speakers, he immediately feels intimidated and then he would become nervous and anxious about it and he wouldn’t feel comfortable speaking, right? As a result, his fluency goes down again, right?

And yeah, that’s again something that I have addressed on my blog. You may want to read this article with the title “Don’t be Conscious of Your Own English Conversations”, right?

And in case you Indrajeet haven’t read these articles but I’m pretty sure that you have because you referred to that in your comments and you know that I have created the articles about it explaining this phenomenon but you – I keep talking to you Indrajeet and to the rest of the audience referring to you as he.

That’s why the confusion, right? Basically I’m pretty sure that you have read this article but please don’t ignore these links. Click on them, read them again, again and again. Maybe that’ll help you!

And then the last problem is that “Whenever I’m speaking and just because I am fluent in English and I have enhanced my vocabulary after all this long practice, sometimes I have to speak enough to realize that I really perform well and I would have doubts that maybe I won’t be able to perform as good in the future. And that makes me feel downcast and kind of anxious and nervous.”

So this is the issue that I want to particularly look at in this video response basically. What Indrajeet is saying and that’s very, very relevant to us foreigners, right? He’s saying that on some days he speaks very well, right? And then all of a sudden the fear kicks in, what if I’m not going to be able to speak like that again in the future, right?

And I’ve got to tell you guys I used to feel that way up until recently. And it’s not to say that I don’t struggle with my English fluency at all. I still do. And that’s another point that I want to make but I’ll go back to it later on in this video response!

Your Work on Your English Fluency Will NEVER Be Complete!

So first of all, let me tell you that up until recently I would always be fearful. I would be having my normal English fluency period but there would be all ways to fear at the back of my mind, what if all of a sudden the fluency goes down tomorrow? And sometimes it would happen. And it would be as if some sort of a prophecy has materialized. I knew that it was going to happen, right?

And I have actually addressed this issue before you may want to click on this link where it’s all about the English improvement general trend.

So basically it’s all about your fluency going up and down, up and down and up and down. But for as long as you keep working on it, you have to realize that it’s constantly actually going up so your new trough which is the very low fluency that you’re experiencing is the same as your peak fluency 2 years ago. You know what I mean?

So if you can compare certain periods in time going back a few years ago, you will definitely realize that your fluency has grown big time but it’s just that you are constantly kind of increasing your own standards, you are setting the bar higher and higher and higher, you constantly keep comparing your new standards against the bad fluency days.

And that’s when you think that your fluency constantly goes down and you don’t really realize that it’s a big improvement, that the worst fluency that you’re experiencing now is a major improvement on the way you spoke like 2 or 3 years ago.

So that’s a fact in itself that’s worth keeping in mind and you can find comfort in it, right? But here’s the deal. Your fluency or my fluency will never be perfect. The job is never going to get done. There won’t be such a moment in time when I’ll be able to just sit back and say this is it, I’ve accomplished this goal. I’m fully fluent and this is it. Like I don’t have to worry about it anymore. There will be no such moment in time and you have to accept it Indrajeet!

Being Anxious is Normal – It’s All About How You DEAL With It!

And I think that’s the key in order to resolve your issue. It’s all in your head. It’s not about actually fixing the issue as such. It’s not about not having those bad fluency days. It’s not about being perfect at all times. It’s about how you handle it. It’s about your attitude, your approach. It’s about how you go about it, right?

So I would say that that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to step back, look at yourself, see the bigger picture, look at it from a perspective and tell yourself “Listen Indrajeet, you know for a fact that your fluency is going up. You have ups and downs and fluctuations and all of that but that’s part of the game, right? We are foreign English speakers, we’re experiencing these issues and we just have to accept it, right?”

But the fact is, the fact of the matter is that the fluency is improving. And that’s the only variable to bear in mind, right? The constantly improving trend. Never mind those bad fluency days, never mind. In fact, you’ll be embarrassed when speaking with strangers that you will feel a bit down and anxious when among more fluent English speakers. It still happens to me. It happens to everyone. But it’s all about how you deal with it. It’s all about how you approach it, you know. And acceptance is the key word here, right?

There is probably no article on my blog about acceptance. Basically accepting all those things, all those bad things and just ignoring them. Well, there is an article about ignorance as a matter of fact. And I don’t have the link in front of me but I’m a 100% sure that I did publish such an article in the past so I’m going to look it up now after the video and then I will put the link right here. You can click on it here. It’s basically about ignoring – ignoring other people’s bad opinions of you.

Ignoring any bad emotions that might be happening as a result of these fluency issues. Just ignore it. I know it sounds easier said than done but it can be mastered. You know what I mean? It takes time and practice but it can be achieved. So ignorance is bliss as they say and in this case this old adage holds true. Ignorance is bliss. You ignore… I’m not saying you have to ignore the fact that for instance somebody’s English is bad and they don’t have to be working on it.

That’s not at all what I’m trying to say. What I’m trying to say is, what I’m getting at is, ignore any bad emotions or try to suppress them by telling yourself that in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter. All that matters is the fact that your fluency is growing over the years and you’re fine with that. Accept it, right?

So I hope that Indrajeet this is going to help you. And another thing that might help you is the fact that even I’m experiencing all these issues to this day. But I’ve learned to accept it, just accept it as part of the game. Even this morning, I got up in the morning and I couldn’t speak to myself. If you’ve been following my blog you know that I’m constantly speaking with myself and not to say that I was totally unable to speak obviously that wouldn’t be the case but I was struggling a tad you know?

But did I freak out? Did I start beating myself over the fact that I couldn’t speak? No, I just kept going, I just accepted it. And I accept the fact that I might even walk in the class in the college and struggle to speak with my college mates. I didn’t tell myself “No, it’s not going to happen.” I knew that it would probably happen but I was okay with it. I was grand with that!

But I walked into the classroom and for some reason or another my fluency went back to normal and I was enjoying a great day in college. But even if that weren’t the case, even if my fluency would be really bad, I would be fine with that because I know for a fact that at some stage in the future it would go back to normal and it would be even better than before, right? So just like I said you will never achieve the ideal state. But the key is how you approach it. And that makes all the difference in the world Indrajeet. All the difference in the world. Believe me, been there, done that!

So thanks for watching this video. I hope that I addressed your issue and I hope that you’ll find it helpful and I hope that everyone finds this video helpful, right? So thanks for watching and chat to you soon. Bye-bye!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

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