A short instructional video by Hadar Shemesh explaining what to do when you get stuck speaking English. She gives three in-the-moment strategies—restart the sentence, ask for help, or acknowledge you lost your train of thought—and recommends post-conversation analysis (identify the trigger, look up missing words, and practice grammar/words in context) to turn mistakes into learning opportunities.
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Now the first thing that usually happens when you get stuck is that you get s. And if it was a grammar rule or if it was a hey, it's hadar and this is the accents way. Today we're going to talk about what to do when you get stuck in English. You probably know this feeling where you start speaking and then all of a sudden you go blank. You have no idea what you're trying to say, you don't even know where started and the words just don't come up. Now it happens to everyone, even in their native tongues. But for you, probably when you're speaking English and let's say that you're not super confident about your English anyway, when it happens, you can actually freeze up, get super self conscious and be afraid to talk what you do during that moment where you get stuck and what you should do afterwards to prevent those moments from happening. Now the first thing that usually happens when you get stuck is that you really stress out, you get nervous about it, you get self conscious and you just freeze. So what you can do is just start your sentence again. Go back to the beginning of the sentence. You can say something like, oh, let me start again or let me try to rephrase it, as if you were just going on a wrong direction, not like you just got stuck and you can't think of the next word. So you start the sentence again, trusting that your brain will direct you around that moment where you got stuck. So if it was a word that you couldn't find, or if it was the idea that was not fully structured by the time you start again, you know better where to go. You may not say exactly what you meant to say at the beginning, but you will come out of it rather safely. Another thing you can do is ask for help. So you got stuck. So let's say I'm starting a sentence like, well, the political situation in my country is really what's the word I'm looking for? So that way you're taking off the weight of coming out of this situation on your own and you're sharing it with the person in front of you. And it doesn't matter if it's your friend, your co worker or your boss. So it's totally legit. And people are usually very much inclined to helping other people in those kind of situations. One more thing that usually happens, and I do it all the time, especially in live sessions where I try to teach something and then I get distracted with comments or other ideas that come up to my head. What I usually do is Just acknowledge it. I say something like where was I? I lost my train of thought. And then either the other person will remind me what I was talking about and even if I remember what I was talking about, that will buy me some time to understand what I'm trying to say and restructure it. Now, once the moment has passed and you continued with your conversation, what you can do is observe the situation and try to figure out what happened. What was the trigger that got you stuck? Was it a specific word you were looking for and you couldn't come up with it? Or did you try to say something that is a little more complex or use a certain grammar rule that you weren't sure of? For example, an if clause. If it was if I had had had it been. Try to discover what was the cause for it and learn just that. So for example, if you were looking for a word that you couldn't come up with and then that got you stuck, and then search for this word afterwards, write it in a place that is available to you and say it out loud. Use it in context. Use it in a sentence. Always use it in a sentence. Memorizing words separately is worthless to my opinion. You always have to use it in context. That's how it actually sticks. And if it was a complex grammar rule, then either study it or go online and search for examples, but do something that will make it clear for you. So next time you need to say something and to use this grammar rule, then you'll know what to do and how to use it. So those situations where you get stuck are actually opportunities for you to learn because it focuses you on what your issues are, where you still struggle. And then zooming in and practicing just that will help you overcome a struggle that is relevant just for you. And that is how you can become more fluent and more confident in English. Okay, that's it. I hope you liked it. Don't forget, it's not about getting stuck. It's about learning from the experience. Please share this video with your friends and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on the bell to get notifications every time a new video is released. Remember that every struggle is an opportunity to learn. So don't be afraid and stay. Speak up, have a great week and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.
