I’ve just come back to my “home base” after about two and a half years away and I was surprised at how hard it was to get back into the flow of the language. While away, I listened to the radio and wrote emails in the language, but except for the odd phone call, I hardly ever spoke.

I’m used to being able to express whatever I need to in this language without thinking much (which has its own hazards!), so it was a shock to find myself unable to say the simplest things sometimes. I could communicate fine, but not fluently. Most of it was that “tip of the tongue” feeling, but some was also strange grammatical errors that felt like somebody else talking. Meanwhile, I could understand with no trouble at all. Very frustrating.

It’s taken me almost two weeks to really get back up to speed again. Below, I’ve listed a few things that have helped me. If you have any suggestions for anyone trying wake up their hibernating language skills, please leave a comment, because I’d love to hear about them.

Here are a few tips I can pass on for reviving speaking skills…

Listen a Lot

Load up on auditory input. By “load up,” I mean get as much as possible and preferably all in your target language. You’re not trying to learn anything new, just bring up things that are already firmly planted in your memory. Reading helps, too, but listening lets you review more words faster. Chatty friends come in handy here. Ideally, talk with people who know you understand and used to speak better, so they aren’t tempted to slow down or simplify too much.

Adjust Your Thinking

Until you get your language skills back to where they were, try to think only in the language you’re re-activating. It’s probably impossible to do 100 percent of the time, but aim for as much as possible. This helps re-set your “first reaction” language so you’re ready to answer in the local language when someone speaks to you. I’d spent several months speaking a lot of Russian and based on the grammatical errors I was making in Hungarian, I realized I was trying to make Hungarian fit Russian grammar. That situation quickly improved once I stopped thinking in Russian so much.

Talk Anyway

If you mispronounce things and stumble over grammar, it’s only natural that multilingual people are going offer another language to try to help you (or themselves) out. I got this a couple times in the last few weeks and my tactic was to completely ignore the fact that they switched languages and continue in the local language. I wouldn’t try it with airport security, but talking to a cashier or taxi driver, you’re probably fine.

Of course, this works best when you’re fairly sure all you need is a few seconds to remember a word or arrange a sentence and then you can continue. If you’re having trouble saying anything at all, you might want to accept the offer of an easier language and save your practice for friends. It depends on your tolerance for trying other people’s patience.

If you feel uncomfortable because of your tongue-tied-ness and don’t have another language to use, try mentioning that you used to speak better, but haven’t had a chance to use the language in X-amount of time. It seems to reassure people that you can understand them and will manage to get your thoughts out if they give you a second.

Lean on Another Language

When you’re trying to learn a language, giving yourself time to remember a word or construct grammically correct sentences is good practice. Taking time to work things out for yourself helps you build mental connections so you’re more likely to remember the next time. When you already know, though, just asking will save you from a lot of frustration. If you’re talking to a friend you have another language in common with and you can’t remember a word or can’t remember how to phrase something, asking them to translate will get you back up to speed faster.

Ever been in this situation yourself? If so, what helped you recover your language skills?

Related posts:

1. Fear of Speaking a Foreign Language? Consider This When You Travel
2. The Communicative Approach is Bad?
3. Learning a Language in a Bilingual Culture: Getting the Locals to Talk with You

Don’t Let Yourself Get Stuck

Sometimes letting yourself get too comfortable in that silent period only makes it harder to get out. First of all, you slowly discover that it’s possible to get around without using the local language. You get so used to figuring out ways to manage without it that you forget how much harder it is to live that way than it is when you can talk to everyone everywhere. Needless to say, that alone can lower your motivation.

Another problem is that the people you interact with regularly get used to talking with you in a certain language. Switching languages seems unnecessary, and therefore socially awkward. How to you ask them to switch? What if they refuse because it’s too much trouble? What if they forget and switch back? Oh, the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth! Better just stick with the language we’ve been speaking, eh?

Getting used to an intermediary language puts a psychological barrier between you and the local language that can be very hard to overcome, especially if you’re the type who doesn’t like to rock the boat. If you just go for it right when you arrive, sure it will be awkward sometimes, but you’ll never have to worry about working up the nerve to make a sudden switch.

Instead, you move forward a little at a time. Your first venture into the language doesn’t have to be much. It can be just asking for a kilo of apples from a fruit stand or exchanging a greeting with your neighbor. Grab any opportunity you can to jump in and then move on to more complex tasks as you progress.

Take Advantage of Your Second Childhood

Learning a language is one of the few times you get to be a kid again. Sure, no one’s going to clap and coo when you first utter “Mama,” but you might be surprised how genuinely delighted people will be to see you progressing “just like a little kid.”

It’s fun to watch someone accomplish something challenging like learning a whole new language and people want to contribute to that accomplishment. So they’ll feed you new words and “test” you with mini-conversations to give you a chance to impress them.

When you first move to a country, it’s understandable you won’t know the language. People who know you just got off the boat will cut you some slack as long as you’re putting in some real effort and making progress. So take advantage of that first three or even six months to learn voraciously. [Try this plan for getting conversant in a foreign language in eight weeks at Hubpages.] The praise and encouragement you get for “knowing so much already” will lower your affective filter (nervousness level, that is) more than a few awkward moments will raise it.

Once you’ve been in the country for a year or two, though, the fact that you’ve learned a little of the language is no longer impressive. If by that time you can hold a simple conversation, instead of “Wow, you’re learning fast!” you’re more likely to hear, “You mean, you’ve been here that long and that’s all you know?” Speaking less fluently than you feel you should becomes embarrassing, so you’re less likely to seek out opportunities to practice.

If you’re struggling to find ways to speak the local language where everyone seems to speak your language, check out these tips for talking with the locals in a bilingual culture.

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2. Learning a Language in a Bilingual Culture: Getting the Locals to Talk with You
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Understandable as it is, it can still make you feel a little slow-witted. You wonder if you really know the languages as well as you think or your ability to fluently switch from one to another.

Don’t Worry, You’re Normal

Rest assured that having trouble switching between languages or mixing vocabularies (heck, even grammar structures) is not a sign of some linguistic incompetence on your part. It’s completely normal and just about everyone does it. As for the so-called “amazing” ability of bi-lingual kids to separate languages…it’s not so amazing. Multilingual kids can mix languages like nobody’s business and not even realize they’re doing.

Pros do it, too. I once saw a Candid Camera-type show in which two people played a joke on an interpreter. One person spoke Spanish and the other English, with the interpreter between them. In the middle of the conversation, the Spanish speaker switched to English and vice versa. The interpreter didn’t notice. She kept on “interpreting”…Spanish into Spanish and English into English. She was concentrating on the meaning of what was being said, not the way it was expressed.

One Idea, Lots of Labels. Not Wonder Your Brain’s Confused.

It happens because when you’re speaking a language you’re comfortable with, you’re thinking about the ideas you want to communicate, not about “vocabulary” and “grammar.”

You want to tell someone you’re feeling chilly, you mentally call up words to express that idea and depending on what languages you’ve been using recently, your brain might come up with “I’m cold,” “Mir ist Kalt,” “Mne holodno,” “Samui desu” or some other way to express the same thing. But on a subconscious level, it seems like the mind just doesn’t see the point of picking one over the other.

Fluently Switching Languages Takes Practice

I think of being “ready” with more than one language at a time like having different windows open on a computer. You’ve got your Web browser, your word processor, and your music player. They’ll all up and ready to react to input withing seconds. But if you need to edit some photos, it’ll take a few seconds to start up Photoshop.

Likewise, if you’re in an environment where you’re constantly switching between two different languages, you won’t need to make any extra effort to understand or speak one or the other. But if someone suddenly starts speaking a third to you, you’ll need a moment to start up your “program” for that language.

In fact, even if you could have understand had you been expecting that language, the words might register as gibberish just because you automatically filtered them through “programs” for completely different languages.

How to Practice On Your Own

All it really takes to get used to switching back and forth is practice not with the languages themselves, but with switching between them. If you don’t have much opportunity to practice both languages frequently, try writing or just thinking in one language while listening to the other.

Better yet, turn on the TV or radio and talk back to it in the language other than the one your thinking or writing in. Talk to the TV in one language and your dog or your fern in the other. It might sound a little funny, but if you’re trying to prepare for an environment where you’ll need to switch fluently, it really can help.

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This is especially a problem in bilingual countries where the locals are just as comfortable with their second language as with their first.. It can be extremely frustrating when you’d love the chance to practice and no one seems to want to give it to you.

Benny at Fluentin3Months offers some good tips for encouraging locals to talk with you in their own language, but you do have to be fairly sociable to use them. I wanted to throw out a few more that have helped me get more practice even though I’m not particularly chatty.

All of these tips, however, are dependent on getting away from your “comfortable” languages and mixing with the locals. They won’t help much if you spend most of your time with non-native speakers.

Find a Language Mentor

If you don’t feel your language skills are up for talking with random locals or you need to build your confidence, find just one, relatively patient native-speaker who’s willing to talk with you.

Let them know them they don’t have to teach you, they don’t have to correct your grammar, they don’t have to translate anything; they just have to talk with you only in the language you’re learning.

A roommate is ideal, but it could be anyone you meet with on a daily basis. With roommates, one good method is to speak whatever you want at home (to avoid wearing on their patience), but agree to speak the local language when you’re out and about town or when local friends visit.

Dress like a Local

It might sound strange, but I’ve found this can make a significant difference even when you don’t physically look like a local (you’re a different race, etc.). Living in rural-ish Georgia, I noticed people tended to start conversations in Russian only when I was wearing clothes I’d bought in Central Europe. If I wore what I’d bought there or in neighboring Turkey, they spoke Georgian. And I don’t look Georgian.

If you stand out as an obvious foreigner, people are liable to speak to you in some international language they believe you’ll understand. It’s then all too tempting to reply in that language and miss an opportunity to practice.

But if you blend in just enough, they probably won’t even give a second thought to speaking the local language with you. You may think you’re dressed more or less the same, but go out and buy some clothes and a pair shoes locally and see what happens.

Let People Know You Understand

Even if you’re too shy to say much, show an interest in conversations and pay attention so you can react to whatever you do understand. I cannot overstate this. Pay attention!

Your chance to demonstrate your abilities could come via some minor incident like someone making you coffee and absentmindedly asking in the local language if you take sugar, giving you a chance to oh-so-naturally answer, “A little, thanks.” without missing a beat.

Suddenly everyone within earshot notices you understand at least a little and you’re willing to speak when given the chance. But if you’d been spacing out, thinking in your own language, you’d have had to ask them to repeat the question, “proving” you don’t understand even simple questions and giving everyone a reason to avoid using the local language with you.

Politely declining the assistance of volunteer interpreters also helps. If someone starts to translate something you understood, say thanks, but you got it. You may have to be a little insistent and even offer your own translation to prove you understood.

Do either of these things a few times and you may find the people you spend time with will go from assuming you can’t say much to pushing you to talk just to see how much you’ve been hiding.

They may start asking if you understood something they just said or tossing words at you to see exactly how much you know. If you’ve been reluctant to speak the language, this little extra push might get you started.

Be Polite, but Stubborn. Very Stubborn.

Even when you love the language, it takes consistent effort to get to the point where you can hold a conversation. You’ll have plenty of frustrating and awkward moments along the way. That’s par for the course. That’s why aiming to get “conversational” quickly is so beneficial. The faster you get through that awkward stage, the less likely you are to lose your motivation and give up.

In an immersion situation, you can’t take too much time off if you really want to get fluent soon. Keep pushing and make progress everyday so you can really feel like your getting somewhere. It’s that sense of accomplishment that will fuel your motivation.

Set a schedule for yourself and keep it, no matter how discouraged or sick of the language you feel. The longer you avoid using the language, the longer you’ll stay frustrated. Change up the way you interact with the language, but don’t avoid it. If you’re tired, skip the grammar study and intense conversations and just watch a movie or flip through a magazine. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, try these techniques for overcoming foreign language learning burnout.

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Now, I do understand what the author is saying—you should get input and lots of it before you produce output. While I agree that that’s the ideal, there are a few problems with that and some reasons why the Communicative Approach is better in certain cases.

Language in the Real World

I’m very utilitarian about language learning. Most of us don’t learn under ideal conditions, not all of us can reasonably stick to one language until we “master” it, and we don’t always have the luxury of waiting until we’re comfortable with a language to begin speaking or writing.

Often, life throws us into situations where we have to sputter out whatever words we can and hope they work. And we certainly can’t wait until we’ve had 18 months of exposure to native speakers before we venture the word “Mamma.”

Language Class is not for Input

Presuming you’re a reasonably motivated adult learner, you have the foresight and wherewithal to get your own input. You can listen to audio lessons and music, watch movies, or read the newspaper. You have the Internet, the library, and the bookstore for that. You don’t need a professional native speaking teacher or even a partner.

But unless you’re studying in-country, your language class is probably the only time you have to speak and write and get useful feedback. That is why so many teachers make speaking the focus of class (speaking, because it’s like pulling teeth to get students to write).

Most students would get thoroughly annoyed with us if we just handed out newspaper articles to read or put on a video and told them to watch. “We can do this at home!” they’d protest, and they’d be right.

The jump-in-the-deep-end Communicative Approach isn’t perfect, but it is practical for today’s world. Imagine a nurse looking for Spanish lessons so she can talk with Spanish-speaking patients. She’s not going to choose a course in which she’d have to wait a month to begin speaking. She needs it yesterday.

Be Greedy with Input

Personally, I see no reason to hold back on input. You don’t have to understand everything you hear or read to benefit from it. Early on, if you listen to a song and understand one word, hey, that’s great!

The author of Antimoon is certainly correct that you won’t build your vocabulary or learn new grammar by repeating what you already know. This is why so many “conversation classes” improve fluency (speed and ease of speaking), but fail to move the student up a level (from beginner to intermediate, for example). Unless new words and grammar a systematically introduced and practiced, you won’t improve.

Being deeply immersed in real life is the only substitute. Of course, you can learn from only conversation in something like a homestay situation where the sheer volume of input outweighs the lack of lesson planning. But we’re talking 6+ hours of active conversation day in, day out for months.

What Really Counts

So if you’re trying to learn a language fast, it’s worth it to start communicating as soon as you can. If, however, you’re an academic or hobbyist with years to dedicate to attaining perfection, you have other options.

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