{"id":184,"date":"2020-06-03T12:03:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T10:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voxsprachschule.wordpress.com\/?p=184"},"modified":"2020-06-03T12:03:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T10:03:58","slug":"please-feel-free-to-be-quiet-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/2020\/06\/please-feel-free-to-be-quiet-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Please, (Feel Free To) Be Quiet – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wrong, this is not the end. I mean, we will eventually need to speak in order to\u2026 speak a (foreign) language: should I really point out the obvious (obvious-but-not-that-easy)? Yes, we will need to make aneffort. But. It doesn\u2019t need to be NOW<\/em>, in front of all these people you don\u2019t actually know. It doesn\u2019t need to be at the very moment your brain just stops doing its job because of the external circumstances, when breathing seems a hard enough task, and you feel like you haven\u2019t had any experience in your life, any ideas, anything relevant (or even dumb) to share \u2013 plus you seem to have completely forgotten how to articulate sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is: you will need to overcome your fears, the \u201clanguage-student\u2019s-block\u201d, but if you don\u2019t feel like it quite yet or here and now, feel free not to. Please feel free to be quiet. Your time will come and there is no need to try behaving in a way which doesn\u2019t suit you or helps your learning process in class or in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t misbehave or prevent the teacher or the others to go their way, don\u2019t evangelize as a professor of mine put it, but don\u2019t feel forced to follow blindly. Talk to the teacher, write a message, give a private feedback. Everyone has the right to be guided and considered in the learning process. Be patient, it IS hard work for the teacher and for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile\u2026 try and be your own teacher. Pick a shop or flight assistant whose face you like. Whom you feel comfortable to approach and talk to. Rehearse your question. Write it down. Go over and over the scene, consider all the \u201cwhat ifs\u201d, all the possible answers, scenarios\u2026 Then, jump. You will need to jump, but there is no shame in jumping safe. When you feel comfortable, level up \u2013 at your pace. Since you will probably feel like you failed, just don\u2019t let that feeling stop you from trying again. Reconsider, overthink, re-rehearse. Try again. Don\u2019t be afraid of opening your mouth with big motivation and deep focus, and\u2026 switching to English (or any other language you already mastered); or just\u2026 turn around and leave. The other person won\u2019t think about you a second longer, so no worries. Nobody really cares. There is no shame in giving it a try within a \u201ccomfort spot\u201d (and maybe fail). There is no shame in not wanting to speak for a long, looong time in the hope to \u201climit the damage\u201d. Of course, be aware: it probably won\u2019t be perfect anyways, your long-prepared question, speech or answer. But I think that, at that point, having done your best, you will be fine with your mistakes, right? Especially, if someone is there to help you to not make them again. And we are \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, about that, teachers, please: we are not all over-excited about or feel entitled to speak up, speak our mind, share stories, group work, leave our comfort zone and put ourselves out there. Try to keep that in mind and adjust\u2026 It will be just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wrong, this is not the end. I mean, we will eventually need to speak in order to\u2026 speak a (foreign) language: should I really point out the obvious (obvious-but-not-that-easy)? Yes, we will need to make aneffort. But. It doesn\u2019t need to be NOW, in front of all these people you don\u2019t actually know. It doesn\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[62],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/adobestock_287721867.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":62,"user_id":5,"is_guest":0,"slug":"valeminerva","display_name":"Valentina Carlini","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/692512b8254271ba076c8b020c13dc65?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vox-sprachschule.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}