2 Strategies To Keep The Conversation Flowing (even when you don’t speak the way you want to yet)

Speaking Tips

11 Oct

Have you ever wished you could speak Greek the way you wanted to in just one day?

From my own learning experience, even if I don’t admit it, as much as I enjoy the process of learning, I sometimes act as if it’s possible to learn everything:

Diving into a sea of unknown vocabulary, piling up expression after expression, getting lost in a forest of new meanings and nuances.

Courageous? Sure.

Helpful? Not always.

And then there’s overwhelm and loss of motivation.

How to keep going? How to keep speaking?

If you reflected on the idea of a slow learning process, where the slow language journey doesn’t seem scary anymore, you might have come to realize that you need a “compass” to help you, when you still feel your Greek is not “there” yet.

Now, a note about this apparently generic and a bit simplified definition. You’ve noticed I didn’t say “when you’re a Beginner/Intermediate etc” or “when you hold the A1, B2, C1 etc. CEFR level”.

Levels and categories are all useful and give us some information about learning.

But if you feel you can’t speak the way you want to, or you can’t express your ideas and thoughts and can’t have the pleasure of a chat or a conversation, then levels don’t mean much.

In my teaching, I’ve seen “B2 students” writing perfect essays and get all grammar activities correct, only to be terrified at the thought of speaking.

So, back to the 2 strategies: here’s how they can help you find your focus and make connections with the person you talk to.

Strategy #1: Focus on what’s meaningful to you

Imagine you knew every single word in your own language.

Would you use them all in a conversation? You might had never had the chance to use them all in a lifetime.

The same way you don’t talk about everything under the sun, you’re not obliged to learn everything under the sun. You’re free to choose your focus.

When you realize you have a choice in your learning, this is when the magic happens.

You allow yourself to narrow down and target the areas that are relevant to your life. You can then focus even more on the things you mostly talk about.

By focusing on one area, one topic or theme, you’re eventually able to make the connections in multiple levels:

Connections within the language, between root words for example, which help you form associations, important to your learning (For more on why and how this is effective, read this great, geeky article here)
Connections to your own experience, which help you retain vocabulary better as it is relevant to who you are & what you like
Connections to the person or people you talk to, which eventually help you make a conversation

Let’s look at this example:

You’re a person who lives in the city, you like long strolls out in nature, you’re a science fiction writer and your hobby is photography. You also dislike cooking and are not interested in fashion.

How would you prioritize your learning?

Talking about cooking or learning a long list of words about clothes won’t make much sense to you when you feel you still need to find the right words to make a conversation about books or nature.

Focus on what you actually need and makes sense to you.

Strategy #2: “Jazz up” the chat with questions

When you don’t feel that comfortable with speaking, you might tend to answer to questions - but avoid making questions.

What this means though, is that the other person might start losing their interest in the chat, because they don’t get any sign you’re interested in them.

Think about a normal, everyday chat in your own language. Questions are part of the chat, aren’t they?

While there are legitimate reasons why you might avoid making the questions , spicing up a conversation doesn’t necessarily require a perfect use of vocabulary or grammar.

Yes, you might stumble. But showing your genuine interest to the person you talk to - that’s what makes a good conversation.

And the way to do that is with questions. Here is a blog article which might give you a few ideas about what to ask.

You might have noticed that personal questions such as asking about the family or the origin, are not uncommon in the Greek culture among people who meet for the first time.

Don’t hesitate to break the ice by asking (or asking back) about someone’s family or birthplace for example.

Next steps:

Here are some helpful ideas to practice more speaking:

Study with focused, bite-sized tasks and use recordings for your speaking.
Download the Free Speaking Guide with ideas & tips to improve your speaking
If you need some help & feedback, check my 1-Week Into Greek mini-course.This is a short but mighty immersion course to help you get started with speaking & expressing yourself.