With the knowledge of only a small vocabulary, lots of confidence and enthusiastic hand gesturing few people can move straight into foreign language conversations. However, for many of us first conversations can be difficult.

Understand your fear

Fear of speaking Russian will usually be afraid at first when you start speaking the language. If you have noticed any different words during a job interview, judgement and failure do not cause anxiety. Anxiety will reduce your brain’s ability to do normal tasks such as processing the language in real-time. Usage of vocabulary and grammar will make you feel your brain is not working properly.

Take a deep breath and speak without any barrier, gather your thoughts and remember that no one expects you to speak correctly if it is not your native language.

Identify your problem areas

Your brain needs more time to process incoming words when you are new in speaking Russian, when you need to translate them and think of a response for that, this is more difficult than speaking your own language!

If you struggle in forming sentences together or understand what’s being said to you then rather than trying to get an answer while the other person is still talking, listen to what they’re saying. Then take time to gather your thoughts and answer and put all your effort into listening!

Practice your listening

When a language is new to you, then you will not be able to understand every word and also not many words at all. If you improve your listening ability by listening to the radio or watching TV in Russian language then it will help you with your speaking skills. Only through listening can you improve your vocabulary and pronunciation  and you can get rid of fear during real conversation.

Stop the need for perfection

You’ll never speak a language fluently without making mistakes at first! The faster you start talking, the faster you will reach your conversational level. It will be frustrating when you make mistakes, by the reward of using the language long-term. So accept your mistakes when you are speaking.

Have one-on-one conversations

When a group of native speakers are there then have a conversation with them. This will speed up your speaking level and become more complex. One-to-one conversations will make it easier. Having private lessons will give you a way to experience input from an expert.

If you want to speak with a stranger then do not get embarrassed. The longer you think about speaking with a stranger then it will be harder to improve your speaking skill. If you are learning a language in the immersion method then conversations with strangers will prevent the fear of speaking the language.