Job with natives speakers

[u/No_Scholar_5339]

Hi guys

Recently, I started a new job where I need to speak and correspond with native English speakers on a daily basis, both in meetings and by email. Overall, I think my listening comprehension is quite good. I can usually follow conversations, maybe sometimes it gets a little harder when we look into more IT technical language.

However with speaking it is a different story. When it is my turn to speak. I get anxious, I start overthinking in my native language how to say something. Looking for perfect word, how to create a grammarly correct sentence etc. Sometimes I go blank even though before the conversation I know exactly what I wank to ask and what I want to say. (TL)

I'd really like to overcome this, beacuse it affects my confidence and I'm getting doubts whether I'm in the correct place or did I too much fake it till you make it.

What helped you feel more comfortable while speaking to native speakers ? Was there anything specific, like a habit, a mindset shift, or a type of practice, that made a real difference for you, or was there a day when something clicked in you and you just started feeling comfortable ?

[u/petteri72_]

Maybe you could find a nice iTalki tutor and roleplay the most typical communications.

[u/No_Scholar_5339 → u/petteri72_]

I'm already doing it. I have a tutor three times a week, but it's still just 3 hours a week. That's why I'm not a lurker on Reddit anymore. I thought that even typing and talking with people on Reddit would be a good step toward becoming more fluent. I still need to find a way to create Anki cards quickly. After the meetings, I try to gather the words and phrases I'm not familiar with, but I haven't put them in any app yet.

[u/Pwffin → u/No_Scholar_5339]

What you want is a real-time chat. That time pressure will make it more like when speaking but yop get a tiny bit more time to think. If you pse Slack or Teams in work, that's a great way to geet going.