Making mistakes

Many of my students tell me that they make so many mistakes, they’re embarrassed to even try to speak English in front of other people. They worry that everyone else’s English is better, other people know more than they do, other people will laugh at them, other people will think they’re idiots…

But you know, the crucial thing to remember is that there will always be people who have more advanced skills than you, and also people who have less advanced skills.  Almost everyone worries about not being good enough – and in the end, we waste our time and ruin our self-confidence comparing ourselves to others.  And frankly, if someone laughs at you or think you’re an idiot, then that is very unkind of them, and they have an issue - not you!

So who should you compare yourself to?  To yourself! You will probably find that as you learn more English, you will be good at certain things and not so good at others.  Perhaps this time last year you struggled to use the present perfect tense, but now you use it without even thinking about it.  Perhaps two months ago you couldn’t pronounce the difference between ‘now’ and ‘know’, but now you find it’s easy and you don’t know why you found it so difficult!

So, I hope you get the gist of what I’m trying to say: there will always be people who are more skilled, and less skilled, than you are.  The trick is to not compare yourself to anybody.  Be your own person and be proud of your own achievements.

So go ahead, speak English and make lots of mistakes.  Because the more mistakes you make, the more you will learn and the better your English will get.  Above all, rather than giving yourself a hard time about all the things you don’t know, enjoy learning, and give yourself a pat on the back every time you learn or understand something new!