My Journey to Becoming Fluent in English

I'm sure you've already noticed that I'm not a native speaker and I'm far from speaking English perfectly. I mean, who speaks any language perfectly?? Even in our mother tongue, we are bound to make mistakes when we speak.? Unless you have to write and rehearse your speeches as politicians do. But who does that on a daily basis? NOBODY!

So, stop worrying about how perfect your English should be! This will only lengthen the time it'll take you to achieve a fluent conversational level.

All you really have to do is stop wasting time on insecurities, and find the courage to put everything you've learned into practice. Especially if you've already reached an intermediate or advanced level.

Take me, for example, I studied English for about 7 years when I was a teenager, but I didn't consider myself fluent until 5 years later. Why?

Well, when I was a youngster I was very quiet and shy. In fact, even though I studied four years of high school in the US, I hardly ever spoke English. All my friends and family spoke Spanish, so I didn't really need to say a word in English, and all I really had to do for school was turn in the assignments.

I realized I needed to speak English more until I went back to Mexico and became a teacher. Listening to music, watching movies, and reading books in English was no longer enough.

My comprehension of English was really good, but I didn't want to be the boring teacher who just sits at his desk and fills up the board with nonsense. I wanted to speak English with ease in front of my students. So, I tried to speak it with my colleagues as much as possible, but very few people would play along. I even got a lot of bad comments, like, "Roger, you're not in the US," "You're not American," or "Don't be a snob!"

So, in the end, I realized that if I wanted to improve my fluency I just needed to take the bull by the horns and speak away! I made my classroom the place where English was spoken all the time. It was hard at first, but little by little, everyone around me got used to it. I even started an English conversation club in college and I spoke English with my older brother as much as possible. Oh, and I also volunteered as a teacher trainer for SEP as much as possible, which made my colleagues respect me a little more.

A few years later, I started to notice that words were coming to me a lot faster. Understanding different accents and communicating with others became a lot easier too. People around me would no longer say negative things about me for trying to speak English in Mexico.

So, during my teaching years at Instituto Tecnológico de Coahuila, Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, and Normal Superior del Estado, I always tried my best to instill that same principle of determination, self-teaching, and commitment in my students, which always resulted in a more significant learning environment.?

Everything was great and I felt very happy for helping so many students reach a conversational level.? However, when I came back to the United States I realized that even my English communication skills needed a bit of work. So, I once again ended up pushing myself a little harder, to improve as much as possible.

I became friends with native speakers, joined a church for native speakers from many different backgrounds, and I volunteered at the local library to help English adult learners in their pursuit of fluency. All in all, I was able to interact more with native speakers of the language, which gave me the opportunity to fine-tune my listening skills and eventually helped me reach native-like fluency.?

Remember: determination is the key!!!

?Now, I'm part of a network of international online coaches that provide inspiration and help for those who struggle with reaching a fluent level of communication in English. I’ve met a lot of teachers from around the world, native and non-native speakers of English, who wish to share their personal experience and knowledge with professionals like yourself so that you too can reach your next level of fluency and move forward in your career.?

If you would like to know more about our programs and methodology, feel free to contact me so we can schedule a free 30-minute consultation.