Aubrey Carter

This is a very common experience for many people learning a language.

And we want you to be able to move from being a spectator, especially in group conversations, to be able to participate, to be able to jump in and connect.

It's really terrible to feel like you're being overlooked, whether that's in a social situation, maybe at a party or at work, to feel on the outside with coworkers or friends.

When you want to feel connected, you want to feel like you're a part of the conversation.

Exactly, right?

Knowing the right words and then being able to recall them fast enough and feeling confident enough to dive in and use them.

All of these are skills that must be practiced.

We can't just hope to have them and suddenly magically we have them.

Yeah, we're going to give you three tips that you can do to immediately jump into conversations.

We can't, you know, yes, there's a lot of work.

There's a lot that needs to be done in order to know all of the vocabulary you want to know.

There are things you could do if you're going to a party tonight to be able to jump into that conversation.

Our first tip is to don't overcomplicate.

Don't feel like you have to use the biggest, most impressive words, right?

Use simple words and then explain around any gaps, right?

You don't need the perfect word.

You can describe the idea.

Native speakers do this all the time.

Often the word's just on the tip of our tongue and we can't come up with it, so we sort of explain it.

Yes.