Who here wants to speak Spanish really fast?
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I use to think like that. I use to think that to be good at your second language you have to speak really fast, but often second language learners get delusional and try and compare themselves to native speakers that they hear on TV or radio or something like that. Let me tell you that this isn't exactly the case.
For example, Spanish has a reputation for being a language that is spoken very fast. The perception that it's spoken fast is another post, but imagine in your native language....there are so many people that just...talk so slow. When I was trying to get better at public speaking in English my teacher used to tell me that I said "um" a lot because I was trying to say things before I thought about what to say. So the advice that she gave me was to just slow my speaking down, think about what I am saying, and THEN say it. This pretty much got rid of my habit of saying "um" in English but guess what returned when I started speaking Spanish? The dreaded "um"!
Of course, it came back, I'm thinking MORE in Spanish than I am in English! But, also I was trying to speak super fast. The thing is that I was trying to speak fast because I had this idea in my mind that speaking fast is how I can prove to others that I'm fluent. But in English, I speak super slow, take my time, think about what I am going to say. So why should it really be any different than Spanish?
Well, after that I started to really listen to the speed of how other people talked....everyone has their own speed of speech. Some people speak super slow, some super fast, some normal, some with a high-pitched, or some with a low-pitched voice. Everyone was different and kind of just did what was comfortable for them. Of course typing it out it sounds SO simple, but when you're learning a language these are the kinds of thoughts that are crossing your mind.
Well, after that I started to really listen to the speed of how other people talked....everyone has their own speed of speech. Some people speak super slow, some super fast, some normal, some with a high-pitched, or some with a low-pitched voice. Everyone was different and kind of just did what was comfortable for them. Of course typing it out it sounds SO simple, but when you're learning a language these are the kinds of thoughts that are crossing your mind.
When I realized that I should probably just speak at my normal speed and go back to thinking about what I was going to say, everything about speaking Spanish got so much easier. The irony was that by slowing down my speech became more fluid and it sounded more natural. I started to get compliments on how well I was sounding. It was because I wasn't making mistakes just solely because I was going too fast, I was only making mistakes that I legitimately didn't know about, which of course are the kind of mistakes you want to make to get better!
