Are you ready to relax when you speak English?

I hope so.

Let's talk about it.

Today I'm on the beach, and it's very sunny, very hot even though it's 7 o'clock in

the morning.

Costa Rica, it's beautiful, and what better place to relax than at the beach, right?

But you can't always be at the beach when you're speaking English.

So today, I want to give you my top tip for helping you to relax, de-stress and feel comfortable

when you're speaking English.

I know that a lot of you use English for your job.

Maybe you need to speak in English with a foreign company, or maybe you need to speak

with your clients that are from other countries.

This is a pretty stressful situation because number one, you want to be polite, you want

to represent your company well.

But also you want to represent yourself well.

You want to be confident, be an adult who can express yourself completely.

So when you speak in a business situation, I would consider this the top maybe most stressful

situation in English.

What about another level down from that?

Maybe you're walking around New York City on your vacation, and you get lost, or you

want to find a good restaurant, so you want to ask for a recommendation, and you decide

to approach a stranger.

You want to talk with a native English speaker.

Well, this is also can be pretty stressful, but it's a little bit less stressful than

a business situation because you're not going to lose your job.

What if you go to an English class in your city?

You're surrounded by other people who are also learning English.

This is slightly different than approaching someone in New York or having a business meeting

because they understand exactly the situation that you're in.

They understand exactly that kind of nervousness, that kind of stress or fear about speaking

another language because that's what they're doing too.

They are also English learners.

What about if you're just at home watching this lesson, and you're repeating it out loud?

You're maybe watching the subtitles, which you can always click on on YouTube.

You're watching the subtitles, and you're trying to repeat out loud after me.

No one's listening, you're just at home by yourself, but you still need courage to be

able to use your voice, to use your pronunciation muscles and speak out loud and hear your own

voice in English.

This is I think, the least stressful situation and this is my tip.

This is where I recommend starting.

If you feel super stressed about speaking English, start at the easiest level and this

is by yourself.

No one else is listening.

No one else is watching you.

Just by yourself at home.

You can shadow or repeat directly after me in these videos, you can look at the subtitles

below the screen if you're on the computer.

You can just click CC in the bottom corner or if you're on your phone you can click those

three little dots at the top of the screen, and you'll see the subtitles.

You could just repeat out loud after me and get used to hearing your own voice using English.

I know for me when I visited other foreign countries, like in Costa Rica here, they speak

Spanish.

I feel a little bit strange at first hearing my own voice trying to say something in another

language and maybe you felt that feeling too.

So when you get used to hearing your own voice using English, you'll start to feel a little

more comfortable and then you'll be able to work up to the next level.

After you've mastered speaking with yourself alone, no one's watching.

Then you can go to that next level, which is speaking with other people who really get

and understand how you're feeling.

Maybe other English learners are here on YouTube, or I know a lot of you who are part of my

course, the Fearless Fluency Club, a lot of you speak together on Skype.

You connect with each other daily, maybe on WhatsApp, on Skype on Google Hangouts and

just try to connect, get to know other cultures, other people, but also you can get over your

fear of speaking together because you're both in the same boat.

This is a wonderful idiom that means you're both in the same situation.

That involves maybe a little bit of risk, a little bit of stress.

You're both in that situation, and you can both understand each other.

So speaking with another English learner is a great next step up to help build your confidence.

After you've mastered speaking with yourself.

You've done that for a little while.

You feel more and more comfortable.

You've spoken with another English learner, now it's time to speak with a native speaker.

Hmm.

This could be really anyone.

It could be a teacher.

It could be someone who lives in your city, who you trust, maybe a co-worker who is from

the US and you want to just have some coffee together and chat together.

You already have a little relationship.

You already know each other and trust each other.

Or maybe you just go to another city, like you go to London and you want to order in

a restaurant.

Maybe you can watch my video about how to order in a restaurant up here.

You'll be able to just feel a little more comfortable because you've already worked

those steps starting small than working more and more and more, and now you're speaking

with a native speaker.

Personally, I think something really magical happens when you speak with a native English

speaker, and they can understand you, you can understand them, and you just have a real

conversation.

Something happens that is amazingly magical for your confidence.

When you realize, "Vanessa can understand me?

This other native speaker can understand me, and I'm communicating?

This is amazing."

You have this beautiful boost of confidence, and it really helps you to just increase your

English in every other way.

What do you think happens next after you've spoken with yourself, you've built your confidence,

you've spoken with other English learners, you've built your confidence and then you've

spoken with native speakers in a kind of casual situation?

Now, it's time to move on and speak at your job.

Maybe you have a presentation.

Maybe you have to make phone calls with some other clients in other countries.

You've really prepared yourself well.

You've started small, and you built up to this most stressful situation.

It might still be a little stressful, but it's going to be way better than if you just

started with that, and you didn't prepare little by little along the way.

When you do this, you're building your confidence, and you're really giving a gift to yourself

that, "I will grow.

I will improve, and I can do it.

I can relax, I can de-stress."

You don't need to be at the beach.

You don't need to have the waves and the sounds and the trees and the monkeys behind you.

You just need to really build your confidence day-by-day by starting small.

And now I have a question for you.

Have you ever spoken English with a native English speaker?

How did you feel?

What was that experience like for you?

If it was a positive experience, congratulations.

If you felt really stressed, really worried, just take it back a little bit.

Start small.

Start with these steps I'm talking about; shadowing my videos, speaking and repeating

after me, then working up with another English learner, and then with a native English speaker,

and then if you need to use it for your job, you will be well prepared at that point.

Before we go today, we're going to see some beautiful scenery of the beach.

You're going to see the waves rolling in, and we're going to repeat an important phrase.

I want you to repeat it with me.

This is starting at the base level, repeating and shadowing by yourself.

I want you to say this phrase with me, and I hope that it will help to build your confidence.

The waves are beautiful, aren't they?

I want you to repeat this sentence with me.

Just imagine the waves.

Take a deep breath.

Let's say it together.

"I can speak English confidently without stress.

I can speak English confidently without stress.

I can speak English confidently without stress.

I can speak English confidently without stress."

You can do it.

Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you next Friday for a new lesson

here on my YouTube channel, bye.

Why did I choose a spot where I'm staring directly into the sun?

Ah, whoo, it's hot.

Can you guys see how much I'm sweating right now?

I hope you don't see my skin burning as we speak.

There're monkeys in there somewhere.

They stole my snack yesterday.

Hope they enjoyed it.

I guess there's jaguars there too, so it's got to be safe.

The next step is to download my free e-book, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English

Speaker.

You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

Thanks so much.

Bye.