How to speak English well

07/15/2017

I find a fact that reading helps me improve my listening a lot but about spoken English, it helps little.

Yesterday night I prepared for my second job interview which required an English self-introduction in fist sections. I thought it was east, however, it was not. When I opened my mouth to introduce myself, I couldn't wholly introduce myself. I could imagine how embarrassed I would be if I acted like that. So, I google self-introduction and got answers. Compared to the search results, my version was simple and low. So I cerrected it and rehearsed my introduction by myself.

I rehearsed over and over, at the same time, I recorded what I said. I found that I was not natural. Talking was not as influent as reading. So if I want to act and speak like an English native speaker, reading is not enough. Talking to people is necessary. I also have to memorize regular situation conversation in order to speak more spontaneously and fluently.

Why reading is not enough if we want to speak well. Here are my reasons:
First: reading only help us practice our facial muscles. Except speaking, we also have body language and facial emotion in daily talking. Practicing them is inevitable.

Second, most readings are formal paper language. It is not the same as spoken English.

Finally, my English mindset has not been set up. When I am trying to express thoughts, I intranslate Chinese into English. So It doesn't look like natural. The only way I have to solve this problem is to speak as much as possible and to memorize more correct sentences.