How is your spoken Spanish? If you’re anything like me, this answer could change on the day or situation. Some days my Spanish flows out with no hesitation (or at least, it feels like it), and other days I stumble to get my point across.

What gets in the way of relaxed conversation?

Barriers to relaxed conversation can be either external or internal and are different for everyone. See if any in the following list ring true for you:

You worry about what other people think

Especially if you are looking to impress with your Spanish, this creates additional pressure. It’s natural to want to give our best impression, and if we don’t get to show off our best Spanish it can be particularly frustrating. This mindset leads to higher pressure and performance anxiety – exactly what we should be looking to reduce.

You worry about making mistakes

If you constantly worry about making mistakes, this means you are more focused on speaking Spanish well than on actually getting your point across. To increase your Spanish fluency, you need to focus more on your message, rather than how you are saying it.

High pressure situations

Imagine chatting to a new friend over a couple of drinks in Spanish. Now, imagine giving an impromptu speech in Spanish in front of 200 people. Where would you imagine you would be more fluent?

These two situations represent two extremes, but all of our interactions contain a certain amount of essential pressure, which can be an irritating issue in your Spanish fluency (or lack thereof). While this is partially out of our power, the way we respond to situations, our over-all state of relaxation, and even conversation preparation.

Our spoken Spanish is tied to our overall level of Spanish – we need to take an open approach as we continue to learn.

What’s stopping us from speaking fluently?

In order to answer this, it’s actually easier to think about when our spoken Spanish is at its most fluent.

If you’ve had an evening speaking Spanish, you’ll no doubt have found that your Spanish miraculously improved after a couple of cervezas or copas de vino.

Why you may ask?

Alcohol lowers our inhibitions, and it’s actually our inhibitions which are the major impediments to our fluency. Having a drink or two puts you at ease and generally creates a lower pressure atmosphere, which both increase your fluency as well.

Ways to enhance your Spanish Speaking Abilities

Passport2Fluency hosts a monthly event inviting anyone who is wanting to enhance their Spanish fluency. This event is hosted at The Goldfish located in Downtown Corpus Christi. Oh yeah, by the way, if you order in Spanish, you will receive a discount!

I had the opportunity to speak with Sebastian:

“I am the co-founder of Passport2fluency – a company that creates opportunities to increase language fluency through overseas immersion experiences. In Corpus Christi, we host monthly Spanish Nights as an opportunity for people to practice their Spanish skills. We prepare a variety of activities to help participants get started in their Spanish fluency…and invite native speakers so they have someone to practice with. I wanted to host Spanish Night at a place where people felt comfortable going to and I thought the Gold Fish provides a really good atmosphere. Spanish Night is an event for people to practice their language skills but it’s also an opportunity to meet new people from all over the world.” – Juan Sebastian Garzon

#LearnSpanishNow #Bogota #Colombia

Join Passport2fluency for their next Spanish Night on February 26, starting at 6:00PM at The Gold Fish located at 724 North Mesquite! I hope to see you there!

https://www.passport2fluency.com

https://www.facebook.com/Passport2Fluency/

Talk to you soon, Friends!
-Brandon C.