Nervosismo na hora de falar inglês atrapalha

Hey Guys!

Faz 08 meses que estou fazendo inglês, e já tenho um bom vocabulário, a qual consigo ter uma conversa com alguém.
Sou recepcionista, e hoje veio um americano no meu trabalho. Era minha chance de testar meu conhecimento, só que fiquei muito nervoso e acabei falando em português com ele. :(
Vocês já passaram por isso? Alguém tem alguma dica para perder esse nervosismo?

CENTENAS DE EXPRESSÕES DO INGLÊS
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9 respostas
Ordenar por: Data
Daniel Reis 2 16
Olá,

A dica que tenho é continuar estudando duro e se possível ter uma conversa em Inglês todos os dias com alguém de nível avançado pra cima, mas uma conversa que agrege algum valor e não somente os ''where are you from e afins''. Seria interessante uma espécie de ''debate'' mas, sei que é muito difícil conseguir fazer isso todos os dias.

Aproveitando o tópico, queria saber do pessoal aqui se já enfrentaram dificuldade na hora de utilizar expressões e phrasal verbs com pessoas que não são nativas do inglês(mas que tem um inglês avançado) e na hora elas não compreendem o que você quer dizer e então você tem que explicar em outras palavras. Aconteceu comigo esses dias e na hora de explicar a expressão acabei com um branco na cabeça pois nunca tive a necessidade de explicar expressões para alguém e, a partir disso, acabei aprendendo outra lição, na hora de estudar expressões/phrasal verbs, o ideal é saber explica-los de forma simples pois certamente iremos passar por isso em algum ponto. Enfim, é nessas horas que é bom conversar com um nativo, pois mesmo que ele não conheça a expressão, a capacidade de captar a mensagem é maior do que um não-nativo.

Valeus
PPAULO 6 49 1.3k
Gustavo, you need more Americans and English speaking people in your life, he hee, just kidding around buddy! :lol:
That happens all the time, don´t sweat it, don´t worry. That happens to singers, students (it gave me the creeps to know that I had to speak something on class when I was at the Uni., let alone make any kind of presentation...), and in English or Portuguese.
That happens to people when they are going to take a drive test (mostly so, when it´s the pratical test), there are people that get so anxious that they take some anxiety medication, what sometimes makes things worse yet. One has to know that life has challenges and we have to go out there, and do what have to do (not because we are brave, but because we trained to do that and we know the ropes).
I am not the talkative sort, but I have met some English speaking people in some places (a Chinese asking me where the Embassy was, in Natal, for example), a Russian guy in Joao Pessoa asking for directions and where he could find some ATM, and so on. It just happened, without planning, not by design, spontaneous.
On the other hand, when I had some English test it drew me a blank, zilch, nothing! perhaps because it was forewarned! it gave me a sense of importance, something big to happen, it had to happen! Fortunately, my teacher figured that out, I was very participative but when a test was announced, it frooze me in place! Thanks God she took that into consideration.
Buddy, my advice is, admit that you are human, you get edgy as anybody else. See? anybody else, not only you.
That said, you can express that out loud by saying something like "excuse me, I am a bit nervous/anxious because I don´t know English much, but the case is...we have apartments with two rooms and with three rooms, blah blah blah"
When you express that you are a bit awkward at something people get sympathetic towards you.
Other thing, breath, make stops don´t try to speak machine-gun, like some natives they were brought up using English (speaking, listening etc) whereas you weren´t.
Another thing to do away with nervousness will be, smile while speaking (a smile brings good vibes and a synergy effect), along with having a positive mind.
Take your time, don´t get harried to end, as if transmitting your message was a heavy task.
Use what you know/learned and you will be improving, if you won´t use, you get rusty.
Cheers!
PPAULO 6 49 1.3k
Daniel, I didn´t had such problem, perhaps because I keep it simple.
Anyway more often than not, people in chats ask something, an idiom for example, and I have to rephrase to better understanding. It´s normal, happens all the time. So, I think one has to be ready to express himself in more than one way, it´s indeed advisable that the learner develop this skill.

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And Gustavo, another way to think of speaking to a stranger (I mean to someone for the first time, Brazilian or from another country) is, what do I have to lose? what is the worst scenario? There are millions of people talking to someone else and they aren´t going to be punished because they did, nobody is going to punish you with 50 strokes of lash just because you engaged in conversation.
So go ahead, enjoy English!
Daniel Reis 2 16
Olá PPaulo,

Sim, venho treinando o ''keep it simple'' mas no meu caso estavamos conversando pessoalmente e quando a pessoa pediu para eu explicar a expressão, me deu uma mistura de nervosismo e esquecimento do idioma Inglês, e ainda tentei ''embromar'' dizendo ''let me think of a way to explain it to you'' e coisas do tipo mas não deu, não apareceu um exemplo na mente a tempo, mas com certeza se fosse em um chat eu teria conseguido explicar, num chat é mais fácil pois você tem um tempo razoável para pensar na resposta. No mais, você tá certo, são coisas que acontecem e devemos estar preparados.

Valeus
PPAULO 6 49 1.3k
Yeah, I know well how it works! blankets is my department! hehe.
Imagine that even in Portuguese I get some lapses like these, when I want that stapler and guess what? I don´t know what to chall that thing!
Sometimes I get just like this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To5YHzqxPAg

Like a kid trying to pretend he knows math with the math tables. My kids used to answer me (when I asked addition tables to them)
1+2=

...five, twenty, six, eight, nine, ninety-one?


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That´s hard, then I use an artifice, I point out, or I describe what it is: "aquela coisa/aquilo que grampeia" etc.


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Of course, drawing a blank is one thing and failing to know what it is, or to say something in a more natural or terser way is another.
Anyway, the more we build up vocabulary, the more we are able to describe it when we draw such blanks! :lol:
CENTENAS DE EXPRESSÕES DO INGLÊS
Preparamos um plano de estudos para ajudar você a dominar centenas de palavras e expressões do inglês em tempo recorde. EXPERIMENTE AGORA
Daniel concordo com você. O inglês deve fazer parte do nosso dia a dia, e conversar com alguém seria muito bom! Eu sei que esse americano vai voltar no meu trabalho, e já sabendo que ele é estrangeiro, vou me concentrar e perder o nervosismo. Essa é uma oportunidade ótima, tendo em vista que para se ter contato pessoal com um nativo, é necessário um intercambio, pois não é muito comum encontrar por acaso algum por aqui.
PPAULO como você disse, se alguém estuda inglês e não pratica, não usa, certamente ela vai esquecer. E se alguém quer dominar a língua não pode se delimitar somente às aulas com o professor.

Thank's guys!
PPAULO 6 49 1.3k
Perhaps I expressed myself bad, which is no surprise, he hee. :lol:
To sum up my opinion in another way, you are allowed to be anxious, you can make mistakes and speak in English or Portuguese, even when the chance comes. This can be liberating, relieving - sometimes".
Once I was at the Manaíra Shopping mall, buying a novel, when that little girl (Brazilian, I must say), seeing me with the novel on my hand tried to strike a conversation with me. I noticed that she knew a lot of English.
Yes, she did know the real Mcoy! I got a bit shy...she asking "Do you speak English?" and then disparaged a series of questions more. I said "so so", I was learning, then she switched to Portuguese. Next, she said that she watched a lot of TV series, had English classes, went abroad, the works!
So, I never postulated that one have to learn English by just taking English classes (if I somehow did then excuse me, I was dead wrong.)
Not to mention that a teacher can be fluent or not.
If one don´t have such encounter with an English-speaking person, how is he going to know his forte and his weaknesses? where he needs improvement? where he stands? how is his level? or that or a test that emulates real conversations and listening.
English can be learned everywhere, in many ways.
Quando tento conversar em inglês, fico tão tenso que minha memória para de funcionar, esqueço o pouco vocabulário que tenho e gaguejo sem parar.
Tenho tentado usar o método de repetição, sempre que ouço alguma frase ou expressão em inglês, fico repetindo para ver se meu cérebro se acostuma.
Tenho bastante dificuldades, mas não vou desistir.
PPAULO 6 49 1.3k
No, don´t give up, it pay off in the end. As I pointed out, we have to give ourselves a bit of leeway; the very fact of we forcing ourselves to speak in English when we feel like can be liberating. Of course, there are situations in wich one has to push himself to, like when someone is going to a job interview, but then, he has trained his English to the challenge.
And sometimes we really have to go out of our comfort zone, it´s normal to have fear, but it doesn´t have to be that paralising effect.
Many people when learning to drive get that excessive sweating in the hands, they drive like a robot, each leg look like lead, but they keep practicing, then they get less self-conscious (inibido/inseguro/excessivamente sobressaltado por dúvidas sobre cada detalhe o que tira a espontaneidade).
And, the more self-conscious, the more we make mistakes, who didn´t stopped at a light (put the car into 1st gear) and... when was to go, it stalled? because the driver was intimidated...even when the car stalls, one now knows that it can be re-started in seconds!
So that´s it! that´s why they say that "practice makes perfect". But the newbie has to be easygoing, don´t sweat the small thing.