ENGLISH, BUT… I Understand Much More Than I Can Say

You understand the presentation.

You follow the conversation.

You can read the emails.

Then someone asks:

“What do you think?”

And suddenly, speaking English feels much harder.

This is very common. Understanding and speaking are different skills.

One thing that can help is giving yourself a little thinking time.

Try:

“That's an interesting question.”

“That's an interesting question. I think the main issue is timing.”

“Let me think about that for a second.”

“Let me think about that for a second. I'd probably choose the second option.”

“I'd say…”

“I'd say the biggest advantage is flexibility.”

These expressions don't make your English more fluent overnight. They simply give you a few seconds to organise your thoughts.

And if you sometimes think in your mother tongue first, that's perfectly normal. You don't have to eliminate your own language to improve your English.

You may already understand much more English than you can currently use. The next step is making more of it available when you need to speak.