Why Does My Brain Freeze When Speaking To A Native Speaker?

I’m sure you have all suffered that awful experience, when you go to speak and nothing comes out, luckily this is quite rare in our own language, but that can’t be said about a language you are learning.

Speaking a foreign language seems to cause our brain to freeze pretty much every time we open our mouths. Even a simple interaction with a native speaker can be awkward and something we dread.

This problem is pretty common and extremely frustrating. I will go through some of the reasons why you might be suffering from this, but basically the cure is to keep practicing and fight though, eventually you will become more comfortable and confident when speaking to a native speaker. 

You Are Suffering Form Language Anxiety

Probably the most common reason for your brain freezing up is fear. You are anxious about messing up and looking stupid.

The problem is that second you start to panic and get stressed, your ability to think clearly disappears and guess what …now you mess up.

It’s a vicious cycle and it’s easy to get stuck in a loop of thinking you’re going to mess up then actually doing it.

You need to just know it’s okay, try to relax and not worry. Mistakes will happen and it’s not the end of the world, the native speaker isn’t going to laugh or think you are stupid.

(Read more about – Overcoming The Fear Of Speaking A Foreign Language)

Natives Can Work Around Your Mistakes

If you are getting worrying because you think no one will understand you, just take a minute to think about when you have spoken to non-native in your own language.

Think about how you have spoken to someone who was dreadful, almost talking to you in baby talk. I’m sure you’ve met someone like this in your life, their grammar was all messed up and their pronunciation just awful…

But, did you laugh at them? Absolutely not. Did you think they where stupid …nope. 

Did your advanced native brain just work out what they were trying to say and then you just replied like normal?

Natives can work around a non-natives mistakes, so calm down. It’s okay if you conjugate your verbs wrong, they will still get a rough idea of what you are trying to say. 

You Are Lacking Confidence

Fear and confidence are very closely linked. We really do have a huge problem with being judged, and since we are not confident with our language skills, we get scared to speak.

A lack of confidence is really going to slow you down and cause your brain to stop working when you are speaking with a native.

You are just not comfortable with the language and don’t believe in your own skills, so it’s easy to allow the feeling of fear take over and as we know, that is never a good thing.   

(You can read more about – How Important Is It To Listen To Authentic Native Material In A Second Language?)

You Are Overwhelmed

Speaking in your new language can be pretty intense. There will be a lot going on inside your brain and you can be very easily pushed out of your comfort zone as you will be working at nearly full capacity.

If you then add external factors on top, it is very easy to get pushed over the limit and overwhelmed. Maybe the native is speaking too quickly, or talking about something you can’t grasp and this can make it very easy to get lost and struggle to know what is happening.

Basically you will become overwhelmed with trying to process too much at once. This can cause your brain to freeze and you will suddenly lose the power to speak or even understand what is going on.

Being overloaded like this is not a nice experience, but it can happen very easily when you are learning your language.

(You can read more about – How To Think In Another Language)

You Don’t Know What To Say

You will often find that you may understand what is being said to you, but you don’t know how to reply, well not in your new language.

Your brain can often struggle to find the words that you need. This might be because you are overwhelmed like I discussed above or it could be that you do not know certain words that well, or maybe you have never learned the word you need.

Having these knowledge gaps is annoying, but totally normal. It can take you a few seconds to sort of scan through your memory to try and find the words and it can feel like your brain is freezing on you, but the reality is that the words are just not there to be found.

You then have to think of a different way to say something, but you will probably still be thinking of the original thing you wanted to say and  this sort of double thinking itself can easily cause you to become overwhelmed and freeze up.

(You can read more about – How To Memorise Vocabulary)

How Do You Overcome This?

As you can see there are a number of different reasons why you may get brain freeze when speaking in your new language, but how do you stop this from happening?

The first thing to do is to try and stay calm, and not worry. Getting yourself worked up is 100% going to make the freezing worse, so while it is easier said than done, just try and relax.

Practice More General Conversations

Practice is the key when it comes to trying to prevent brain freeze. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will become with the language.

Start getting really comfortable with talking about the weather, where you are from, asking for a coffee or basically just think about anything that you might say in a general conversation and practice it more and even do it out loud, by yourself. Just go crazy with it.

I know this is boring, but it will make it much smoother when you interact with real people. You will be able to just automatically reel these phrases off and you won’t need to use much brain power for it, so then you can focus your energy on other things.

Have Some Basic Responses Planned

While practicing general conversation is great, you should also learn some phrases that are going to be useful if you are struggling.

Again learn these so they are almost automatic and you can then blurt them out even if your brain has stopped working.

Learn how to ask for something to be repeated or said more slowly. You should also-learn how to say “give me a second while I think”. These may be total lifesavers when you are feeling yourself getting overwhelmed.

A native speaker is not going to mind that you say this, they probably have no idea you are struggling, so just let them know, it won’t be a problem. 

(You can read more about – How Do You Get Faster At Speaking A New Language?)

Be Honest and Say You Don’t Understand

Sometimes you will pushed too far out of your comfort zone and get totally lost. If this happens, just admit it. Instead of getting flustered and try to think of something to say, that will ultimately lead you to brain freeze, just be confident and say you don’t understand what is going on.

You are sort of admitting defeat, but this is easier than trying to fight through and cause yourself more stress by trying to process something you clearly don’t understand.

If you think this might be too awkward, just try and make a joke out of, which isn’t always easy in a second language, but worth a try.

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Speaking In Your New Language)

Just Go For It

Sometimes you need to just fight through your doubts and go for it. You need to have confidence that the native will be able to see past your mistakes. Just try and say what you want to say, even if you know there is going to be huge errors.

Stressing yourself out trying to reach perfection is going to cause your brain to freeze, sometimes it’s better to just say something badly, rather than say nothing at all. If you can’t remember the correct verb ending, just get it close enough, it’s better than nothing.

If a native can’t work out what you are saying, they will tell you and you can try something else.

(You can read more about – What Are The Most Common Challenges When Speaking In A Second Language?)

Keep Learning

Really the best way to overcome brain freeze is to keep pushing yourself in the language and keep learning and practicing.

Keep speaking and keep listening, it all helps you get more comfortable with the language and the more you can do this, the less likely you will have a brain freeze when you are talking to someone.

(You can read more about – Resources To Help With Your Speaking In A New Language)