Dear Sir/Madam,
I am working as an HR Assistant in a steel manufacturing company for the last nine months. I am not fluent in English. Whenever I meet my boss or any other superior, I am fearful of communicating with them. I can understand their speech and everything, but I struggle to respond adequately, even when I know the answers. Sometimes, this fear overwhelms me, leading me to provide incorrect answers.
I kindly request suggestions on how to overcome this behavior.
Thank you.
From India, Madras
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1I am working as an HR Assistant in a steel manufacturing company for the last nine months. I am not fluent in English. Whenever I meet my boss or any other superior, I am fearful of communicating with them. I can understand their speech and everything, but I struggle to respond adequately, even when I know the answers. Sometimes, this fear overwhelms me, leading me to provide incorrect answers.
I kindly request suggestions on how to overcome this behavior.
Thank you.
From India, Madras
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Please find the attachment and also consider reading an English newspaper, listening to English movies, news, or songs. Observe the lip movement of a person who speaks English well, and try to practice by learning and implementing new words.
Regards.
From India, Bangalore
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Regards.
From India, Bangalore
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Hi, Thank you Mr.Gladish In future I will follow your guidance which you have given me. i will let you know if i find any improvements in my behavior. thanks a lot sir.
From India, Madras
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From India, Madras
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Hi Nasarudeen,
I do agree with Mr. Jacob; he has given very good guidelines. Kindly follow them, and surely you will improve a lot. Be confident enough - until you start talking in English, you will not get the hang of this lovely language. Best wishes.
Jacob,
I have been reading your blog! Very informative. Thanks a lot for your guidance and suggestions.
Regards,
Honey
From United Arab Emirates, Dubai
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I do agree with Mr. Jacob; he has given very good guidelines. Kindly follow them, and surely you will improve a lot. Be confident enough - until you start talking in English, you will not get the hang of this lovely language. Best wishes.
Jacob,
I have been reading your blog! Very informative. Thanks a lot for your guidance and suggestions.
Regards,
Honey
From United Arab Emirates, Dubai
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Hi,
Remember, there are multiple reasons related to communicating in English that have created this fear in you. You did mention that you understand what others speak, so comprehension is not an issue. However, others are Vocabulary, Accent/Regional Language influence, and Grammar (Sentence construction/Tenses, etc.).
Out of these three, if Grammar is your area of concern, then you should certainly seek professional help and join an English speaking course. That will really help. For the other two, our fellow members have provided the right solutions.
Wish you all the best.
Dheeraj
From India, Pune
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Remember, there are multiple reasons related to communicating in English that have created this fear in you. You did mention that you understand what others speak, so comprehension is not an issue. However, others are Vocabulary, Accent/Regional Language influence, and Grammar (Sentence construction/Tenses, etc.).
Out of these three, if Grammar is your area of concern, then you should certainly seek professional help and join an English speaking course. That will really help. For the other two, our fellow members have provided the right solutions.
Wish you all the best.
Dheeraj
From India, Pune
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Hi all,
I was also having the same problem, mainly with sentence formation while speaking and searching for words. I started using the following techniques:
1. I downloaded a mobile dictionary. Sometimes words randomly come to mind for which you don't know the meanings. Remembering or noting them down and checking the meanings in the dictionary later is not always possible. So, a mobile dictionary helps a lot.
2. I began reading self-help books, which can help you build your wisdom and improve your language skills.
3. I watch HBO, Star Movies, and other English movie channels that have subtitles, which also aid in building language skills.
4. I also started writing my thoughts on paper, which helps in examining sentence formation.
I am seeing gradual improvement in my communication.
From India
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I was also having the same problem, mainly with sentence formation while speaking and searching for words. I started using the following techniques:
1. I downloaded a mobile dictionary. Sometimes words randomly come to mind for which you don't know the meanings. Remembering or noting them down and checking the meanings in the dictionary later is not always possible. So, a mobile dictionary helps a lot.
2. I began reading self-help books, which can help you build your wisdom and improve your language skills.
3. I watch HBO, Star Movies, and other English movie channels that have subtitles, which also aid in building language skills.
4. I also started writing my thoughts on paper, which helps in examining sentence formation.
I am seeing gradual improvement in my communication.
From India
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Nice suggestions given above. However, I think that reading the newspaper for 1-2 hours daily and listening to the news is the best way to improve English. After reading an article, try to speak more about that article in your own words; this will also help you improve your communication.
Regards,
Shalini Verma
From India, Delhi
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Regards,
Shalini Verma
From India, Delhi
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Dear sir/madam,
I am working as an HR Assistant in a garments manufacturing company for the last three years. I am not fluent in English. Whenever I meet my boss or any other superior, I feel a lot of fear in communicating with them. I can understand what they say and everything, but I struggle to answer them properly even when I know the answers. Sometimes, this fear overwhelms me, leading to incorrect responses. I would appreciate your suggestions on how to overcome this behavior.
Thank you.
From India, Coimbatore
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I am working as an HR Assistant in a garments manufacturing company for the last three years. I am not fluent in English. Whenever I meet my boss or any other superior, I feel a lot of fear in communicating with them. I can understand what they say and everything, but I struggle to answer them properly even when I know the answers. Sometimes, this fear overwhelms me, leading to incorrect responses. I would appreciate your suggestions on how to overcome this behavior.
Thank you.
From India, Coimbatore
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Hi all,
I know exactly what your problems are. Mr. Jacob has provided you with guidelines for improving your English. Follow that; I do not disagree.
The core problem lies in your thinking. Do you follow me? What is English, first of all? It is like any other language or medium that you choose to communicate your feelings, right?
Prima facie, you cannot speak any language without first feeling it within, i.e., in your heart. People want to speak in English, but their thought process is in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, etc. Then you will never be able to deliver your feelings or expressions in English.
TO SPEAK IN ENGLISH, YOU MUST THINK (I REPEAT, THINK) IN ENGLISH.
Assume that you are going to a local shop to purchase some material. When you walk or drive, your thought process is active. You start thinking (I assume your mother tongue is Hindi), "How long will it take to reach that shop? If that particular material is not available in that shop, what should I do? Should I choose another brand? While coming back, I must fill up my petrol tank; should I finish my dinner near the shop and come home, or can I do some cooking and manage dinner?" etc.
On the other hand, you must start thinking these things in English like this: "How long will it take to reach that shop? If that particular material is not available in that shop, what should I do? Should I choose another brand? While coming back, I must fill up my petrol tank; should I finish my dinner near the shop and come home, or can I do some cooking and manage dinner?" etc.
You can watch English news, observe people as they interact with each other. If you develop the thought process fundamentally in English, only then will you be able to deliver it in English.
Thinking something in Telugu and wanting to speak in English is not possible at all. Maybe you may speak, but you won't get the flow and rhythm when you want to deliver it.
Going through newspapers, magazines, vocabulary-building will help you, but these things come later.
YOUR IMMEDIATE REQUIREMENT IS TO START THINKING IN ENGLISH, OK?
All the best,
Balaji
From India, Madras
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I know exactly what your problems are. Mr. Jacob has provided you with guidelines for improving your English. Follow that; I do not disagree.
The core problem lies in your thinking. Do you follow me? What is English, first of all? It is like any other language or medium that you choose to communicate your feelings, right?
Prima facie, you cannot speak any language without first feeling it within, i.e., in your heart. People want to speak in English, but their thought process is in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, etc. Then you will never be able to deliver your feelings or expressions in English.
TO SPEAK IN ENGLISH, YOU MUST THINK (I REPEAT, THINK) IN ENGLISH.
Assume that you are going to a local shop to purchase some material. When you walk or drive, your thought process is active. You start thinking (I assume your mother tongue is Hindi), "How long will it take to reach that shop? If that particular material is not available in that shop, what should I do? Should I choose another brand? While coming back, I must fill up my petrol tank; should I finish my dinner near the shop and come home, or can I do some cooking and manage dinner?" etc.
On the other hand, you must start thinking these things in English like this: "How long will it take to reach that shop? If that particular material is not available in that shop, what should I do? Should I choose another brand? While coming back, I must fill up my petrol tank; should I finish my dinner near the shop and come home, or can I do some cooking and manage dinner?" etc.
You can watch English news, observe people as they interact with each other. If you develop the thought process fundamentally in English, only then will you be able to deliver it in English.
Thinking something in Telugu and wanting to speak in English is not possible at all. Maybe you may speak, but you won't get the flow and rhythm when you want to deliver it.
Going through newspapers, magazines, vocabulary-building will help you, but these things come later.
YOUR IMMEDIATE REQUIREMENT IS TO START THINKING IN ENGLISH, OK?
All the best,
Balaji
From India, Madras
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I have a few questions and a few suggestions also.
What about the standard of your written English?. If you are satisfied that you are able to write without errors of grammar and have adequate vocabulary, then the problem should be addressed in a different manner.
Problems only with oral communication means, lack of practice (or opportunity) when you learnt the language and fear when you actually use it, particularly in office and in front of the boss.
The fear, hesitation parts should be handled by building up confidence and I have seen great results in use of NLP for this purpose.
But still, you can not, in conversation, take time to compose a grammatically correct sentence and rehearse it before you deliver it. Our speaking should almost be spontaneous – perhaps we thing and speak simultaneously.
For this purpose you may read “conversations oriented tests” – these are comics. Writers of comics use very simple sentences, generally the way children speak. Read them repeatedly, (with good attention, of course) - you will soon become familiar with the structure of communicative form of English.
There are about 50 to 100 sentence patterns generally required for office conversations – we only change the subject, verb, objects etc in these sentence structures.
Repeated reading of such sentences in comic books, you will start using correct grammar, without being conscious about it. You will only notice, if the grammar is incorrect in a sentence. When you read a sentence with correct grammar, you will not notice it, you will only pick up the meaning of the sentence and go to the next sentence, quickly.
Once you are able spontaneously form a sentence, that is grammatically correct, you can focus on the contents of what you communicate rather than the syntax.
(At present, as you strain to get the syntax correct, you may lose focus on the content, this means disaster and loss of confidence etc. etc.)
Late “uncle Pai”, the journalist who created comics and children books, (amar chitra katha, for example), rendered a great service to the present age Indian school children, he made them to read English with interest and made them talk with confidence.
This method will work very well with children. But I am sure grown ups will also be benefited with requisite practice.
Listening to conversations, talk show, drama etc will also help in “spontaneous sentence framing”.
Only after we achieve this “spontaneous sentence framing”, our vocabulary, pronunciation, punctuation etc will help.
With best wishes.
srinivasan
From India, Madras
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What about the standard of your written English?. If you are satisfied that you are able to write without errors of grammar and have adequate vocabulary, then the problem should be addressed in a different manner.
Problems only with oral communication means, lack of practice (or opportunity) when you learnt the language and fear when you actually use it, particularly in office and in front of the boss.
The fear, hesitation parts should be handled by building up confidence and I have seen great results in use of NLP for this purpose.
But still, you can not, in conversation, take time to compose a grammatically correct sentence and rehearse it before you deliver it. Our speaking should almost be spontaneous – perhaps we thing and speak simultaneously.
For this purpose you may read “conversations oriented tests” – these are comics. Writers of comics use very simple sentences, generally the way children speak. Read them repeatedly, (with good attention, of course) - you will soon become familiar with the structure of communicative form of English.
There are about 50 to 100 sentence patterns generally required for office conversations – we only change the subject, verb, objects etc in these sentence structures.
Repeated reading of such sentences in comic books, you will start using correct grammar, without being conscious about it. You will only notice, if the grammar is incorrect in a sentence. When you read a sentence with correct grammar, you will not notice it, you will only pick up the meaning of the sentence and go to the next sentence, quickly.
Once you are able spontaneously form a sentence, that is grammatically correct, you can focus on the contents of what you communicate rather than the syntax.
(At present, as you strain to get the syntax correct, you may lose focus on the content, this means disaster and loss of confidence etc. etc.)
Late “uncle Pai”, the journalist who created comics and children books, (amar chitra katha, for example), rendered a great service to the present age Indian school children, he made them to read English with interest and made them talk with confidence.
This method will work very well with children. But I am sure grown ups will also be benefited with requisite practice.
Listening to conversations, talk show, drama etc will also help in “spontaneous sentence framing”.
Only after we achieve this “spontaneous sentence framing”, our vocabulary, pronunciation, punctuation etc will help.
With best wishes.
srinivasan
From India, Madras
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Hi,
I think you have received enough feedback on the topic to feel motivated and chalk out an action plan for tackling the challenge of speaking English confidently.
I have one small suggestion to add to the above - in our school days, way back in the '80s, our English teachers always encouraged 'Extempore' classes. For this class, each student was assigned a topic, given exactly 3 minutes to think about what to speak on it, and then called up to speak. Each student had to stand right in front of the class (the teacher usually left her chair and joined the students on one of the benches) and speak on the assigned topic.
This, I think, was a wonderful way to learn speaking confidently in front of a fairly large group of people.
You can substitute the class and teacher by simply standing in front of a mirror and speaking out loud, or you could perhaps request a small and close-knit group of friends to watch while you speak and give you feedback.
English is not our mother tongue, though it is very important today as it is the language of business communication. But you can speak well and confidently if you keep practicing.
All the best, and do keep us posted on your progress!
Gurjeet Walia
From India, Calcutta
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I think you have received enough feedback on the topic to feel motivated and chalk out an action plan for tackling the challenge of speaking English confidently.
I have one small suggestion to add to the above - in our school days, way back in the '80s, our English teachers always encouraged 'Extempore' classes. For this class, each student was assigned a topic, given exactly 3 minutes to think about what to speak on it, and then called up to speak. Each student had to stand right in front of the class (the teacher usually left her chair and joined the students on one of the benches) and speak on the assigned topic.
This, I think, was a wonderful way to learn speaking confidently in front of a fairly large group of people.
You can substitute the class and teacher by simply standing in front of a mirror and speaking out loud, or you could perhaps request a small and close-knit group of friends to watch while you speak and give you feedback.
English is not our mother tongue, though it is very important today as it is the language of business communication. But you can speak well and confidently if you keep practicing.
All the best, and do keep us posted on your progress!
Gurjeet Walia
From India, Calcutta
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I guess going through an english newspaper and following english news channel for about a month will be more than handy to bail you out.
From India, Delhi
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From India, Delhi
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As someone else rightly mentioned above, you need to transform your thinking. Instill confidence in yourself and your abilities. Learning English, or any other language for that matter, isn't a tough job. All the resources you require are available online or around you. What you need to do is put in a determined effort and follow through for as long as required. You may see gradual improvements but over time, and with consistent efforts, you will improve.
Best of luck!
From India, Bangalore
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Best of luck!
From India, Bangalore
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Hi,
Language should not be a barrier when you need to communicate with someone. Regarding English, please try and dare to speak, and ask your friends to correct you if you are wrong. For more learning, as others on board guide the best. My advice to you is to read newspapers, listen to the news, improve your word power, and learn grammar as much as you can.
Thanks,
Bijay
From India, Vadodara
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Language should not be a barrier when you need to communicate with someone. Regarding English, please try and dare to speak, and ask your friends to correct you if you are wrong. For more learning, as others on board guide the best. My advice to you is to read newspapers, listen to the news, improve your word power, and learn grammar as much as you can.
Thanks,
Bijay
From India, Vadodara
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Hi All,
Greetings from Naresh Reddy,
Thank you all for your replies and suggestions. I have learned new things from the various suggestions provided by different experts. I have decided to follow some of them as I am weak in world's standard English. Therefore, I need to concentrate on addressing my weaknesses to improve where I am lacking.
I believe that implementing these suggestions will assist me in enhancing my communication skills and reaching the peak level of proficiency. I am starting to follow these suggestions right away.
Thank you all and have a great day.
From India, Bangalore
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Greetings from Naresh Reddy,
Thank you all for your replies and suggestions. I have learned new things from the various suggestions provided by different experts. I have decided to follow some of them as I am weak in world's standard English. Therefore, I need to concentrate on addressing my weaknesses to improve where I am lacking.
I believe that implementing these suggestions will assist me in enhancing my communication skills and reaching the peak level of proficiency. I am starting to follow these suggestions right away.
Thank you all and have a great day.
From India, Bangalore
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Dear Mr. Balaji,
Very good advice: "START THINKING IN ENGLISH." What great advice! I really appreciate this. Thank you so much for your advice. I am also suffering from this problem, but now I am going to try your advice. Thanks again :)
Neelam
Administrator
All you guys,
I know exactly what your problems are. Mr. Jacob has given you the guidelines for improving your English. Follow that, I do not say no. The core problem lies only in your thinking. Do you follow me? What is English, first of all? It is like any other language or medium that you choose to communicate your feelings, right?
Prima facie, you cannot speak any language without first feeling it within, i.e., in your heart. People want to speak in English, but their thought process is in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, etc. Then you will never be able to deliver your feelings or expressions in English.
TO SPEAK IN ENGLISH, YOU MUST THINK (I REPEAT THINK) IN ENGLISH.
Assume that you are going to a local shop to purchase some material. When you walk or drive, your thought process is on. You start thinking (I assume your mother tongue is Hindi), "wahan jaane ke liye kitna time lagega? wo samaan nahi hai toh, hum kya karen?, etc." [I am not a Hindi-speaking person, if I have made any mistakes here in putting it in Hindi, please do not ridicule me and do not take it seriously. I am only trying to give some examples here].
On the other hand, you must start thinking these things in English like this: "How long will it take to reach that shop? If that particular material is not available in that shop, what should I do? Should I choose another brand? While coming back, I must fill up my petrol tank; should I finish my dinner near the shop and come home, or can I do some cooking and manage the dinner?"
You can watch English news, observe some people while they interact with each other. If you develop the thought process fundamentally in English, only then will you be able to deliver it in English. Thinking something in Telugu and wanting to speak in English is not possible at all. Maybe you may speak, but you won't get the flow and rhythm when you want to deliver it. Going through newspapers, magazines, and vocabulary building will help you, but these things come later.
Your IMMEDIATE REQUIREMENT IS TO START THINKING IN ENGLISH, OK?
All the best,
Balaji
From India, Gurgaon
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Very good advice: "START THINKING IN ENGLISH." What great advice! I really appreciate this. Thank you so much for your advice. I am also suffering from this problem, but now I am going to try your advice. Thanks again :)
Neelam
Administrator
All you guys,
I know exactly what your problems are. Mr. Jacob has given you the guidelines for improving your English. Follow that, I do not say no. The core problem lies only in your thinking. Do you follow me? What is English, first of all? It is like any other language or medium that you choose to communicate your feelings, right?
Prima facie, you cannot speak any language without first feeling it within, i.e., in your heart. People want to speak in English, but their thought process is in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, etc. Then you will never be able to deliver your feelings or expressions in English.
TO SPEAK IN ENGLISH, YOU MUST THINK (I REPEAT THINK) IN ENGLISH.
Assume that you are going to a local shop to purchase some material. When you walk or drive, your thought process is on. You start thinking (I assume your mother tongue is Hindi), "wahan jaane ke liye kitna time lagega? wo samaan nahi hai toh, hum kya karen?, etc." [I am not a Hindi-speaking person, if I have made any mistakes here in putting it in Hindi, please do not ridicule me and do not take it seriously. I am only trying to give some examples here].
On the other hand, you must start thinking these things in English like this: "How long will it take to reach that shop? If that particular material is not available in that shop, what should I do? Should I choose another brand? While coming back, I must fill up my petrol tank; should I finish my dinner near the shop and come home, or can I do some cooking and manage the dinner?"
You can watch English news, observe some people while they interact with each other. If you develop the thought process fundamentally in English, only then will you be able to deliver it in English. Thinking something in Telugu and wanting to speak in English is not possible at all. Maybe you may speak, but you won't get the flow and rhythm when you want to deliver it. Going through newspapers, magazines, and vocabulary building will help you, but these things come later.
Your IMMEDIATE REQUIREMENT IS TO START THINKING IN ENGLISH, OK?
All the best,
Balaji
From India, Gurgaon
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I am a student of YCMOU MBA 2nd year. I want to improve my English speaking more and more. I have faced some problems communicating in the classroom with my teachers and also with the friends studying MBA with me from YCMOU. In the future, English speaking is more important for my future.
So, I want to speak English fluently with my clients, teachers, and friends. Please help me to improve my English speaking fluently.
From India, Nasik
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So, I want to speak English fluently with my clients, teachers, and friends. Please help me to improve my English speaking fluently.
From India, Nasik
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Improving English Fluency
Our friends have been suggesting "reading news" and "listening to news," etc. All these are fine, but my experience shows that these will produce slow results and will not help in speaking English fluently.
For building up fluency, one must listen to conversations and read comics or short stories.
Newspapers generally use tough vocabulary. Great vocabulary, though respected very much, is not essential for effective communication and fluency.
As a person listens to or reads conversations (in stories, comics) repeatedly, they learn to frame sentences correctly. They should not struggle to put the object or verb in the right place. They should spontaneously generate the sentence; they just think of an idea, and it comes out with the subject, object, and verb all in the right places—perhaps there is no time lag between their thought and delivery of speech.
If a person keeps reading or listening to grammatically correct English, they need not worry about grammar—by practice, they will speak in a grammatically correct manner.
Of course, after acquiring some fluency and confidence, they may have to work (hard/smart) towards better usage of words, vocabulary, and grammar.
This is the way all of us learned our mother tongue.
Best wishes
From India, Madras
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Our friends have been suggesting "reading news" and "listening to news," etc. All these are fine, but my experience shows that these will produce slow results and will not help in speaking English fluently.
For building up fluency, one must listen to conversations and read comics or short stories.
Newspapers generally use tough vocabulary. Great vocabulary, though respected very much, is not essential for effective communication and fluency.
As a person listens to or reads conversations (in stories, comics) repeatedly, they learn to frame sentences correctly. They should not struggle to put the object or verb in the right place. They should spontaneously generate the sentence; they just think of an idea, and it comes out with the subject, object, and verb all in the right places—perhaps there is no time lag between their thought and delivery of speech.
If a person keeps reading or listening to grammatically correct English, they need not worry about grammar—by practice, they will speak in a grammatically correct manner.
Of course, after acquiring some fluency and confidence, they may have to work (hard/smart) towards better usage of words, vocabulary, and grammar.
This is the way all of us learned our mother tongue.
Best wishes
From India, Madras
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Improving Your English Communication Skills
Communication is a broad subject that can be mastered through constant practice. The best way to achieve your goal is to start speaking in English without the fear of embarrassment. However, for speaking, you need to equip yourself with a rich vocabulary. I also suggest reading newspapers and watching English movies, especially documentaries by BBC, Discovery, etc. You can also take help from the following site for vocabulary improvement: QuizMantra: Verbal Ability
Regards
From India, New+Delhi
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Communication is a broad subject that can be mastered through constant practice. The best way to achieve your goal is to start speaking in English without the fear of embarrassment. However, for speaking, you need to equip yourself with a rich vocabulary. I also suggest reading newspapers and watching English movies, especially documentaries by BBC, Discovery, etc. You can also take help from the following site for vocabulary improvement: QuizMantra: Verbal Ability
Regards
From India, New+Delhi
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