Do you ever talk to yourself in English?
In the shower.
Around the house.
Waiting in line at the supermarket.
According to experts, this is because the language acquisition circuits in your brain have started to warm up. A bit like an athlete warming up before a race.
The noise of all these English words and phrases in your head is called The Din.
A Russian Din
Archeologist and linguist Elizabeth Barber experienced the Din on a work trip to Russia.
When she arrived in Leningrad her Russian was extremely rusty. Ten years had passed since she last studied, and she had only read a little in the years since.
On day one she couldn’t find the words to speak.
But by day three, even though she made a lot of errors, she was beginning to communicate. And she started to notice a rising Din in her head too.
“Words, sounds, intonations, phrases, all swimming about in the voices of the people I talked with.”
After five days with this constant Din, she found it easier and easier to speak quickly.
“My overall command of Russian improved more in a single week than it would have in a month or two of intensive reading.”
Sounds fantastic, right? You spend time immersed in the language and all of your abilities improve.
But what if you only have hours instead of days?
Overcoming German Shyness
Linguist Stephen Krashen was at a mixed German and English conference in Los Angeles one day. At that time he hadn’t used German for 18 years.
“When German was used it made me feel somewhat uncomfortable - I felt ‘German Shy,’ not sure I would understand, and in the casual talk that evening, not at all eager to use German.”
On day two Krashen attended a long presentation on a topic he was very familiar with. After a while, he was so absorbed by the presentation that he ‘forgot’ it was in German.
Later that day he travelled to San Francisco for another German-focused event.
“On the plane, walking to the hotel, I felt the Din rattling in my brain […]. When I got to the workshop I was, for the first time in years, not only willing but eager to communicate in German, and I chatted in German with the participants during the breaks and at get-togethers in the evening. I noticed that I was confident and fairly fluent, but not perfect [...].
After a few days back in Los Angeles, with no contact with German, the Din started to stop. And soon Krashen was German-shy again.
My Quick Fix For Portuguese
Krashen’s story sounds a lot like my relationship with Portuguese, a language I last actively studied about 8 years ago.
An important point to mention is that Barber and Krashen had probably developed some speaking fluency before their long breaks from Russian and German.
This was true in my case with Portuguese, but if you asked me to have a conversation in Portuguese now it would be embarrassingly difficult.
If I spend a couple of days listening to podcasts in Portuguese however, I can start to experience a Portuguese Din again.
This works quite well at reactivating my Portuguese before trips to Portugal. But what works even better is combining listening with a few hours of speaking to a tutor online.
For my first trip to Portugal as a ‘Portuguese speaker’ I prepared by speaking to tutors for 4-5 hours a week. I did this for around 1 month.
My confidence lasted several months after this intense period of speaking practice, instead of only a few days as was the case for Krashen with his shorter practice opportunity.
Speaking confidence is kind of like a phone battery: the longer you charge it, the longer your phone has power.
And the more you speak, the longer your confidence lasts.
How to Warm-up Your English Brain
1. Create an English Din in your head by listening to lots of English a day or two before you need to use it. You can also listen to content that is similar to the scenarios you will find yourself in. 2. Speak to real people in English as much as possible.