Forced English Speaking

Hi, I am AJ Hoge, the director of Effortless English. And welcome to today’s student question. This is also very common question. Here’s the queststion: AJ, shold I force myself to speak English?

My short answer is no. In general and in the Effortless English system, you do not force yourself to do anything. You know, In English learning especially, there are kind of two general attitudes. One is the willpower idea. So willpower is kind of mental force.

You push yourself to study, you make yourself to study. It is kind of an idea, feeling that English is difficult. English is not enjoyable, it is not fun. And you need a lot of dicipline and willpower and force to improve.

That’s the kind of anormal idea or method. Anormal attitude actually, it is not idea, it is attitude. Now another attitude, wich is the Effortless English attitude is that English can be very fun. English can be enjoyable and you shold not force yourself, you shold want to learn English, study English, practice English because you like it. Because it is so much fun.

I’ll give you an example of this. Let’s say you enjoy playing basketball, you love basketball. It is so much fun, you love it. Do you need to force yourself to practice or play basketball, in that situation? No, you want to. Every free moment, you want to run out and play basketball right. Some people are like this some kids love basketball so much, they alwasy want to play. There is no force, no willpower.  Is’s effortless because they love it so much. It is so fun and enjoyable for them.

Those people learn faster and get better and become more skilled then other people who trying to force it. So imagine the opposite; someone who really does not like basketball but they feel must learn it. So everyday they get out and say i must practice basketball, they may go out and trying to force themselves practice.

We know, everyone understands that with basketball the person who loves it is going to learn fasterand become better. And the person trying to force it, eventually they’ll want to quit or they’ll learn much more slowly. They will never be is good.

We know that with sports. But English we have a different idea somehow. With English we think, “oh it is painful and we must force it. It is not true, it is exactly the same. If you use the right method, you will enjoy it. You will have more energy and you will want to do it everyday.

We have Effortless English members, who listen to English, practice English, two hourse, three hours and four hours a day. Now, they are not forcing themselves, it is fun for them. Thew love it, they enjoy it, they enjoy the lessons, they enjoy English. They enjot talking to people. It’s fun, it’s hobby. And those people learn so much faster. And their skill is so much higher because ther are not forcing.

So that’s why i say, never force yourself. If you feel you are forcing, that means something is wrong. It means, you have to change your method. Change your feelings, your motivation. You need to change something. You shold not need to force yourself.

And with speaking, specifically with speaking, don’t force yourself. If you want to speak, then of course speak English anytime you want to, sure speak English. Don’t worry about mistakes just speak. But if you feel really nervous and it makes you feel a lot of stres to try to speak then just relax.

Focus on more listening for a while. If you want to, you can focus on just listening for six months or seven months. By doing that, you will really improve your speaking a lot. By improving you listening, you will improve your speaking. And it is less stressful maybe. And after four months or five months or six months of just listening, you will eventually want to speak. You won’t need to force it. So do not force speaking. Speak when you want to, but don’t force it.