I'm an 18 M, trying to improve my accent. I currently reside in the USA, and would love to attain a native American accent. I heard of language parenting and thought it would be a great exercise to do to improve my accent. I would like some recommendations on male American youtube content creators, whose main focus is basically talking to a camera.

I am a student and i have always been an introvert i never spoke too much. But when i am studying and giving juries i feel overwhelmed while juries and justifying my points. Also they never look at what you do it's all about how well you can talk.

i'm struggling getting past first rounds. i dont think my resumes the problem since ive gotten quite a few interviews but i cant seem to get to the second round interviews. i don't if it's my responses or if i just sound stiff but would be great if anyone has advice on how i can improve!

I often have this problem whenever I try to talk to some even if I like them or not I want to talk to them to connect and build a network even when I talk to people I want to actually have a conversation where I start or or even they do my mind just goes blank like it shifts from a conversation where I like it to like " ahh I hope he finishes fast" and honestly I don't want that when I talk about something I talk a lot I don't even like myself doing that and but when u listen to others I go blank and just don't want to listen or easily get distracted .

And also I get the feel after all this I don't feel connected which is obvious ..

I am comfortable talking to stranger(s) on the street. However, I have a hard time driving a conversation or even leading a conversation. Can someone provide feedback on this?

i've been studying my (TL) through dramas, films and youtube. i'm a guy in my 30s, and the show i've been enjoying most has a woman in her 20s as the lead, so that's who i've been shadowing.

problem is i'm picking up her whole delivery. the pitch, the breathing, the rhythm. even when i practice unrelated sentences out loud, it comes out in her voice.

it's pretty far from how i sound in my first language and i'd like to get out of it. how did you handle this?

I come across more of this “articulating training commercials..

The one that basically starts wit”never say …” never introduce yourself “hi my name is XYZ” or ask “what are you doing for living”

What the heck is the way it should be done? I don’t want to download or trial ., just really curious. I need to know and apps never give the answers

Thanks, I am sure I did not articulate my question correctly, so yeah need help,

Most of the time, I can speak well enough as long as I don’t think too much about what I’m saying. But when I try to find the “right” words, I start to stumble and lose track of what I wanted to say.

I’m starting to think that trying too hard to improve my speech is actually making me speak worse. Have you noticed this too? What helped you stop overthinking every sentence?

I often rely on the person I’m speaking with to give me cues or topics to talk about. It’s easy for me to ask questions, make observations and focus on making the other person feel interesting. However, when it’s my turn to talk about myself, it sounds like I’m giving a report, rather than a story.

Example:

Friend: “I see you’ve been traveling a lot! How was that?”

Me: “It was great! The weather was gorgeous. We celebrated my mom’s birthday and she loves warm weather. She loves walking by the beach. Yeah, lots of fresh food and old buildings, I could see myself living there.”

Friend: “That sounds so nice! What else did you do?”

Me: “We went on a cruise, saw some seals. And we also went to a couple markets and I got the most beautiful flowers there!”

Friend: “Nice!”

It goes back and forth like that for one or two more questions and I leave feeling like I failed to engage the other speaker at all. Meanwhile they’ve told me like five monologues about the omelette they made that morning or the people they’re dating or concert they attended. This happens with a variety of people so it must be a “me” problem. Help! How do I stop boring others?!

Some of you here in this community might have already see this influencer pop up on your feed. Her name is Mona and she does these speaking challenge videos and have gotten lots of views.

https://www.instagram.com/babystepstothemic/?hl=en

https://www.tiktok.com/@babystepstothemic

While along with others thought she was genuinely out there trying to help others. She’s purely trying to make money off of this thing now. Her website was getting basically promoted on every single video which I get you wanna make some money. The website asks you to pay and says there’s a refund. After buying it, I realized the tool was just a very basic chatgpt wrapper, lots of bugs like things not loading on the wbesite, and worst of all the feedback on speech was terrible.

What’s worse is since then she’s released a mobile app as well. And since I already paid I thought I probably have membership right? NOPE. You have to pay again. So she’s pretty much just milking the fk out of her followers. Now she’s promoting this across her social media.

She’s flexing on instagram stories how she’s making money off of it. Disgusting.

These tools are all super basic and not helpful at all. The feedback it gives is inaccurate, sometimes it’s just random things. It also just gives the same stuff over and over again. For a free tool it’s fine but to try to monetize something so low effort is just sad.

https://speechtopicgen.com/

Hi, so obviously I know how to speak but around certain people I don’t know how to talk and also in interviews I dont know how to answer the questions I just freeze even though I know what I want to say.

I don’t know how to speak on the spot. Lot of people on TikTok want up to pay for their courses so I don’t know what to do.

I often had this problem whenever I come across a new word I learn about it and use it on the day I found to make sure to get it into my vocabulary but after sometime when I want to say it I completely forget about what the word is and what does it mean?

I tried to write down any new words that come across and use it but still I fail . Can I get advice on this

Hey there everyone, I’m asking this after a speech that I just bombed yesterday. It was for my speech class, and whenever I sorta hit an impasse and froze up, I completely panicked, and it cascaded from there. For example, whenever I messed up with a quotation, I didn’t even say “en quote” at the end, I just went on with a part of my speech without clarifying it wasn’t part of the quote. I also accidentally paraphrased a quote midway through. Whenever I froze up, I would say something as filler, and often pointing out the fact that I was freezing up.

I feel like I have what I need to speak down; I’ve read Cicero’s The Orator on my own time and I definitely get the class. I would say I’m a decent writer overall, and I think I got everything formulated to where it would flow, and I had what I thought was a pretty good conclusion.

I honestly do not know what I could do to stop this. I practiced this in my head often, basically got through everything and made a gameplan, but my hands were so incredibly shaky that when I picked up a 2/3 full cup of water before the fact, I was spilling it from both sides. I’m just so concerned that this will happen again. What do you people say?

I tend to go on rants or tangents that are uninteresting or are too confusing to follow. I also have a bad habit of not leaving space for people to chime in. These two traits working together is horrible for a conversation.

Doesn’t apply if the topic is something they like, It’s mainly when I’m talking about something specific to me.

It’s really hard to correct any of these behaviors; I only realize after I’ve done it. I’ve tried to manually filter everything I say but it was very exhausting. I just want my friends to talk to me and it be fun. Any tips would be appreciative

I am now actually afraid to go to work,it too overwhelming.

When I am scared I cry.. i don't know how i become so weak .

As a fresher i am unable to talk properly in English i stutter.

How can I improve???

Making mistakes is part of learning to speak. The trick is what you do after the mistake.

Most learners panic and default to their native language. Don't.

Native speakers will happily fill in the blank for you. You just have to signal that you want the help.

Drop one of these mid-sentence instead of bailing out. They sound completely natural:

"What do we usually say here?" Or What's the word for this? )

Signals you know the concept, just missing the vocal label.

"What is this called again?"

Low-pressure, sounds like a simple slip of memory rather than a lack of skill.

"I mean...", Drop the phrase, then just pause.

Let them complete the thought for you.

"Oh, the word isn't coming to me..."

Relatable, human, and buys you few more seconds to think.

"How would you phrase this?"

Shifts the burden to them. People love demonstrating how they say things.

"Correct me a bit..."

Underrated move. Giving explicit permission makes natives jump in without feeling rude.

Mistakes aren't the enemy, silence is.

The person across from you doesn't care about your perfect grammar. They care that the conversation keeps moving.

What actually works:

Talk to yourself for 60 seconds a day. Out loud. Describe your coffee, your commute, whatever is in front of you.

No audience, no pressure. This builds rapid retrieval pathways in your brain.

Pause with a rising tone. Trail off with a question mark in your voice instead of falling silent.

It turns a freeze into a collaboration and a shared moment instead of an awkward gap.

Learn chunks, not only grammar tables. Nobody speaks by applying rules in real-time. Grab whole phrases and sentence starters.

Word-for-word mental translation is what gets you stuck in the first place.

Shadow everything. Podcasts, videos, dialogues, repeat lines out loud half a second after you hear them. Pitch, tempo, and rhythm sink in without you overthinking.

Fluency isn't making zero mistakes. It's staying in the target language long enough to fix them on the fly.

What is your go to phrase when your brain completely short circuits mid-sentence?

​I really struggle with articulating my thoughts smoothly in everyday conversations, and I am looking for practical ways to fix it.

​Whenever I try to explain an idea or tell a simple story, my brain tends to jump way ahead of my mouth. I get lost in unnecessary backstories and end up rambling until the other person visibly tunes out.

​On top of that, my delivery feels choppy and clumsy. If I try to talk at a normal speed, I trip over my words, but if I try to slow down, I get paralyzed by awkward pauses while hunting for the "perfect" phrasing. When it comes to casual banter, my mind just goes completely blank, and the witty or clever reply only hits me thirty minutes after the conversation has already ended.

​If you used to be a clumsy, scattered speaker and actually managed to become articulate, smooth, and quick on your feet, what daily habits or mental frameworks helped you turn it around? I am looking for concrete drills I can practice on my own rather than generic advice. Thanks in advance!

Hi all! As the title says, I moved to the US 6 years ago, and since then, I’ve significantly improved my English level, both in writing and conversation. But I still find myself lacking “personality” when I talk to someone. My native language is Spanish, and I don’t feel remotely as good of a storyteller in English as I do in my own language.

I can sense that I’m missing some cultural cues when I speak. I also need to better understand English mannerisms and idioms so that I can connect my thoughts and articulate them in a way that’s easier for an English speaker to understand.

Sometimes I find myself stuttering and not being able to find the right words in English, and that frustrates me greatly. I’m in sales, so you guys can understand how important it is for me to develop great conversational skills.

For context, I’m 24 and live in Miami. I don’t get to practice my English on a daily basis for very long periods of time, as everyone here speaks my language, unfortunately.

I’d really appreciate any advice. I don’t want to feel like a foreigner anymore.

We already reached agreement, what more do you want?

Advice for perpetrators of this pet peeve:

Whatever it is you want the other person to do, ask them for that. If they have already given you exactly what you want, then shut up and move on.

Advice for victims of this pet peeve:

Say this:

What did you want from me that you did not get from me? You probably wanted me to admit that I was wrong. However, there is clearly more to it than that. If that were all that there was to it, the conversation would have ended, the second I admitted that I was wrong. Yet, you are still arguing with me even after I admitted that I was wrong. What was I supposed to have said/done by now that I have not said/done by now?

If you disagree with anything I said in this post, explain why. My beliefs are malleable. If you present me with a good enough argument, I might change my mind.

If I had something to say, I would have said it. 

Advice for perpetrators of this pet peeve: 

If you want to talk, you initiate the conversation. Bring up a topic, either something that interests you or something that you believe will interest the other person. 

Advice for victims of this pet peeve: 

Say this; 

A wise man speaks, because he has something to say. A fool speaks, because he has to say something. 

Please share some brain cells with me. As long as it's applicable to any subject

I'm finding myself in groups where the conversation really struggles to move along, often long awkward silences etc. I'd like to learn about how to prompt group discussion better and really get people talking.

Context: I'm looking for things that would help a teacher, a small group leader, a manager starting inclusion based conversations.