Not to blow my own horn here, but I'm pretty good at English (it isn't my first language). Knowing that I'm good at English also helped me gain confidence whenever it came to presentations or public speaking. So English really is my best friend.
However, I've noticed that of late, I have been messing up my grammar and even my pronunciation sometimes goes for a toss. I fumble with words, I use Spoonerism a lot, I make spelling errors while texting/writing and I get very flustered while having to speak to just about anyone who is senior to me. I just started working and this makes me wonder: Is the new job making me nervous?
Another thing is that some of my new friends at work are not really good at English. So I try to simplify my sentences and I intentionally use bad grammar to make it easier for them to understand what I'm saying. I've done this in college as well, around some of my friends who were also bad at English. I also use words from their mother tongue in between English sentences to convey ideas. I feel that this is a lazy way of speaking, because when you mix the grammar rules of two languages, you create your own rules which affects the way you speak both languages individually.
I think I should stop mixing languages, no matter how "cool" it makes me sound (in my mind, it does). I talk to myself often in English so that I don't lose my touch.
But is there any other way that I can stop being nervous about speaking in English, especially to seniors at work? I want to have a vlog, but I suddenly get conscious about the kinds of people who might watch my videos and judge my English, so I naturally fumble while speaking on camera. Even right now, writing this post is giving me anxiety about any grammatical errors I may have made. What do you think I should do?
Tl;dr: Used to be good at English, but is now getting nervous about using the language. I am nervous around people older/senior to me at work and that affects my English. I also have been speaking bad English intentionally to better convey ideas to my colleagues who don't speak good English. I need your help in knowing what I can do to get back on track.
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from B’a’ntulena | Languagelearning http://bit.ly/31Qhnsi
via Learn Online English Speaking
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