Transcript

LEARNER 1

When I have to speak French, I am mostly nervous because the people I practise with or speak to regularly are native French speakers or always appear to have much more of an understanding of language than I do, even if they're studying beginners level the same as me. They just seem to be so much more confident or competent than I do. So nerves is the main factor that I have to overcome.

LEARNER 2

I found the bit where you have to actually talk just incredibly difficult. I would learn the content and learn the words and have an idea of what you needed to say, but then actually faced with a human being where I needed to produce the stuff, I was just so inhibited about saying anything because it wasn't going to be right and I wasn't sure. Did this agree with that, or was this the right tense of the verb? And so, I would just say nothing, complete silence, which most people know is not very characteristic of me.

LEARNER 3

When I'm speaking French to native speakers or other students who I feel have got a much better grasp of French than I have, I feel very self-conscious. I'm always afraid that I'm going to make myself silly or make loads of mistakes when actually I know that the best way to learn is to actually practise. So it just takes the extra courage to do so.

LEARNER 4

Well, the way I feel about speaking Spanish is I tend to get very nervous, probably because unlike with writing, you have to react quite quickly. And so I worry about being correct. I worry about the grammar. I worry about my pronunciation. And I worry about whether I've understood the person who's talking to me.

LEARNER 5

I find Japanese conversation the most difficult part of studying the language because I get a mental block about the words. I know what I want to say, but I can't get them out in the right order.