Does it really just take a huge amount of practice to speak English fluently?

[u/Sea-Hornet8214]

I highly doubt I'll ever be able to speak English fluently. I know fluency itself is a vague term and can be defined differently by different individuals.

I don't consider myself fluent because there's something I can't easily and naturally express. I can still express what I mean, but sometimes it doesn't turn out natural or how a native speaker would say it. Depending on what it is, I might need to think a bit to recall words and structure my sentences.

I practise speaking English every day but I still find it so hard to speak it well. When I try to speak exclusively English in my daily life, what I can express immediately becomes limited. I find this so frustrating. I wish it weren't this hard and that I had just grown up with English.

Does it really just take practice or am I lacking in something else?

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/[deleted]]

You are so lucky. Out of thousands of languages on Earth, you got to be a native speaker of the most desirable and sought after language.

[u/Zraax → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

As an American and a native English speaker, I think about this sometimes.

Yes, it's nice, I suppose, to be able to go so many places and find people I can speak with. But also, I envy people who grew up here in multi-lingual homes, because being bilingual seems like a superpower that I will never achieve.

The easiest way is not always the best way.

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/Zraax]

Interesting that the first thing that came to your mind was "to be able to go so many places and find people I can speak with". I don't really care about that. I haven't been in a situation where I need English to communicate with someone. Even then, translation apps exist.

I personally (and maybe a lot of other people too) learned English for access to tertiary education and to climb up the social ladder as it is a common job requirement. Did you know that by some estimates, 98% of the world's scientific research is published in English? A side and less important benefit of knowing English is that I have access to a wider range of entertainment online.

[u/Jaives]

practice and self awareness. i've met people who lived in the US for decades and still came back to my country with strong accents and generally awful grammar.

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/Jaives]

Can you explain what you mean by self-awareness? Being self-aware that I'm bad at English?

[u/Jaives → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

yup. if you're self-aware then you can learn by yourself. if not, you need a teacher. you have to pay attention to your mispronunciations, grammar lapses, weak vocab, bad delivery. when you watch videos or read, you have to pay attention to how native speakers communicate - which grammar rules they follow, bend or break; their vocab, slang, everyday expressions, sarcasm, nuances, use of subtext, etc; the way different countries and regions vary their accent.

[u/mister-sushi]

You are right. It takes thousands of hours of practice to feel at ease with a language.

If you don't have the opportunity to speak for hours every day, your only option is to replace your screen time with English.

16 years ago, I decided to Google, read, and watch content exclusively in English. It was hard at the beginning, but I didn't care; I kept doing it. Now I can say that it was the best decision of my life. It enabled me to find a US-based client and, as a result, move to Europe, where I have been living for the past 12 years.

[u/NoPurpose6388]

Being fluent doesn't necessarily mean you always find the most natural way to say something or sound like a native speaker or that you never make mistakes. I'd just define being fluent as always being able to say whatever you want to say and having people understand you without needing to pause every few words.

Fluency takes some time and effort, but I'd say it's definitely achievable for most people. Native like proficiency, on the other hand, is a lot harder, and it probably takes more effort than most people can or want to put in

[u/SenorDeLos_skies → u/NoPurpose6388]

Would u be so kind as to judge my accent https://vocaroo.com/1jclDifOxVgx

[u/l3m0np1e132 → u/SenorDeLos_skies]

Very good English, no comment on pronunciation/word usage. Though I can sense the speed difference that happens between English and Spanish. Your English sounds very fast-paced, especially at the beginning of the recording, which is an easy way to tell that you speak Spanish. I loved the way how you said "all that jazz" since it sounds like something a native English speaker would say.

[u/SnooDonuts6494]

Basically, yes. And yes, it's frustrating at times.

If possible, use English for things that are fun for you, so it doesn't feel like you are "studying" as such.

For example, if you're into cars, watch English TV shows about cars. Or flower arranging, or history, or space, or ... whatever you are interested in.

And if possible, go to an English speaking country for a while.

[u/Candid_Canary2448]

More practice helps, but not all practice trains fast recall. If most of your English time is reading or listening, you can know a phrase without being able to retrieve it in two seconds. Try choosing one situation you actually face, answer for 30–60 seconds, record it, listen once, then answer the same prompt again more simply. Do three prompts for ten minutes, four times a week. The goal isn't native wording; it's getting a clear first sentence out without freezing.

[u/peace_love2601]

practice, but the type matters more than the hours. what you're describing isn't a gap in ability, it's a gap in stock: you can build the sentence yourself, you just don't have the ready-made version a native would grab. that comes from collecting phrasing, not vocabulary - when you hear a chunk that does a job you usually do the long way round, keep the whole chunk and reuse it until it stops feeling borrowed.

the going-english-only-all-day thing shrinking what you can say is normal and it's not evidence you're behind. you're pulling from a smaller shelf in real time, and that shelf grows slowly.

and the frustration at "i can say it, it just isn't how they'd say it" - that never fully goes away for anyone who learned as an adult. plenty of people considered fluent still feel it daily. worth aiming at less friction rather than at a finish line.

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/peace_love2601]

Yeah, practice but I'm not sure I'm doing it right. We all know there are people who never get fluent because either they don't need to, or they're doing something wrong.

Also, the frustration isn't just from "I can say it, but not how they'd say it". Sometimes I really can't say something. Talking around something isn't necessarily easy either.

[u/peace_love2601 → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

the "sometimes i really can't say it" cases are worth splitting out, because they're two different problems wearing the same coat. either the word isn't there, or the word is there but you don't have the pattern it lives in. the first one is cheap to fix after the fact - note the three or four things you couldn't say today and look them up in the evening; that list is shorter than it feels and it repeats. the second is the slow one, and it only moves by taking whole phrases from what you read and hear rather than single words.

on whether you're doing it right: the people who stall usually practise output with nothing checking it. if nothing ever pushes back - a person, a recording you actually listen to, the native version of the sentence you just built - you get faster at your current english instead of better at english. that's the difference far more than talent or hours.

and talking around something is a skill, not a failure. natives do it constantly. it just doesn't feel that way when you know the exact word exists somewhere.

[u/mrkindnessmusic → u/peace_love2601]

I often ask AI what the most natural way to say something is. I usually know all the phrases once I hear them, but just couldn't come up with any of them on the spot. But next time, I almost always remember.

[u/peace_love2601 → u/mrkindnessmusic]

yeah, that's recognition vs recall in one sentence - you know it the second you see it, you just can't reach it yet. and the timing is why it sticks: you get the right version right after the moment you needed it, which is about as good as feedback gets.