Advice for learning a new language

[kenzkat]

Hello!

I'm new to this forum~I was hoping that I would be able to get some advice related to language learning!
I'm currently living in South Korea and despite living here for a couple of years, my Korean language skills aren't as good as it should be considering how long I've lived here. When I'm alone and practicing, I can clearly think and express my ideas in Korean quickly. However, in front of Korean people, I suddenly lose my thought and I speak without any confidence and at such a low volume too...It is quite frustrating...I have an Asian appearance (I'm not Korean though); it occurred to me that maybe that since I fit in physically, people expect me to speak perfect Korean, but when they find out that I don't, I'll feel embarrassed. I can't really pinpoint what's preventing me from opening up and speaking comfortably in front of people. Has anyone experience a similar feeling or have any helpful advice to help me overcome this language learning barrier? Thank you =)

[tarvos]

You can't learn to ride a bicycle without falling, so you can't learn to speak Korean without screwing up. When I learned Korean and went to South Korea, my level was much lower than yours and I couldn't even string together a proper sentence. I've still managed to communicate in Korean with people and get them to help me, just using other cues, tricks and context to help me out.

Making mistakes is normal. People will not bite you and they won't swallow you whole. The most important thing is to learn why something was a mistake and how you can improve on it next time.

Sitting at home agonizing isn't going to help you. If you want to learn how to communicate, you have to go out there and do it. No one ever became champion of Wimbledon just by watching Roger Federer play on TV.

[Ani]

I think Tarvos has good advice, but how about trying to start small with a paid tutor? Someone you meet in person out in public so you get used to talking in regular situations, at a regular volume to be heard over common background noise. You wouldn't need to find anyone particularly skilled just to be encouraging and help you loosen up. And you wouldn't need to feel badly about imperfect conversation since you are paying them to listen

[DaveBee]

Hello!

I'm new to this forum~I was hoping that I would be able to get some advice related to language learning!
I'm currently living in South Korea and despite living here for a couple of years, my Korean language skills aren't as good as it should be considering how long I've lived here. When I'm alone and practicing, I can clearly think and express my ideas in Korean quickly. However, in front of Korean people, I suddenly lose my thought and I speak without any confidence and at such a low volume too...It is quite frustrating...I have an Asian appearance (I'm not Korean though); it occurred to me that maybe that since I fit in physically, people expect me to speak perfect Korean, but when they find out that I don't, I'll feel embarrassed. I can't really pinpoint what's preventing me from opening up and speaking comfortably in front of people. Has anyone experience a similar feeling or have any helpful advice to help me overcome this language learning barrier? Thank you =)

There's a portuguese YouTuber who suggested, among other things, having some scripted responses that you can fall back on. I think this is sometimes also called 'language islands'. Responses to predictable topics: What do you do? Where are you from? etc

13m into video.

EDIT
On p.52 of Paul Nation's free PDF book:What do you need to know to learn a foreign language [PDF] there are many examples of "common spoken language use situations" which you could use as starting points to compose some scripted responses.

[tarvos]

I think Tarvos has good advice, but how about trying to start small with a paid tutor? Someone you meet in person out in public so you get used to talking in regular situations, at a regular volume to be heard over common background noise. You wouldn't need to find anyone particularly skilled just to be encouraging and help you loosen up. And you wouldn't need to feel badly about imperfect conversation since you are paying them to listen

This is good advice and I second it. I can give you the names of a few tutors I've used

[Tristano]

You can write down topics you discuss often, you can read about them and keep in mind that you have more expectations from yourself than others do. I guess nobody insulted you because of your skills.