What if I tell you that you don't actually need to speak with other people to get better at speaking?

You can actually start right now through speaking to the camera like what I'm doing right now.

So in this video, I want to talk about the benefits of vlogging or just speaking to the camera to improve your speaking skills.

It could be in your second language, English, or even in your native language.

And this is something that I can personally say for myself because doing vlogging or like is doing YouTube consistently for the last decade,

almost a decade, actually 10 years of being on YouTube has really improved my speaking skills for the better in terms of being able to speak with structure confidently.

And of course, learning new words on the go.

It might be bold for me to say that vlogging has really helped my conversation skills or like my speaking skills better than actually going to conversation classes or even speaking with other native speakers.

Of course, yes, it is quite bold to say that, but speaking with native speakers in a foreign language can actually give you a boost of confidence.

Of course, being able to have conversations with a native speaker does give you that feeling of like, wow, I can speak it.

But sometimes speaking to yourself to a camera feels a lot more challenging because you are forced or like you're let's say pushed to speak more than you should more it's like you want to push the extent to which you know about the subject that you're talking about so when you're just getting started with speaking ideally you want to start off from a safe space right and a safe space can take form in multiple ways it could be going to a private tutor where you feel like you will not be judged by the tutor if they're a good tutor or you can also just do it yourself right now and And you can start like literally this moment in the comfort of your own home and also using the tools that you already have, which is a camera or a phone.

So now I want to talk about why vlogging really works in improving your speaking skills.

First, it because it forces you to speak with structure.

In my experience, when I'm, let's say, speaking with a native speaker to improve my speaking skills, oftentimes it goes very fast and also very brief.

They would ask questions and I would just react.

Right.

but in during vlogging when you're when I'm actually speaking to myself in front of the camera I'm actually forced to speak a little bit more a little bit deeper about the things that I'm talking about expand more and also recording yourself forces you to organize before you speak of course it doesn't really force you but for instance for my for myself since I know that a lot of people are going to be watching me thousands of people are going to be watching me online I would have to organize my thoughts so that my message can be easily followed.

And if I get in the habit of doing this every single day, this habit and also this way of thinking and speaking will also spill over in my real life when I'm actually speaking to real humans.

Of course, there are different ways to organize your thoughts.

I've made a lot of videos about that.

But to put it very simply is that whenever you want to speak about something, you will always have to start with your main point.

What is the point that I've tried that I want to make from this speech?

And then that becomes the anchor and everything that comes after that would be a support, would be used to support your main point.

For instance, in this video, my main point is that vlogging is great to improve your speaking skills.

And then everything else that I talk about would be to support that point, whether it be in bullet points or personal anecdotes or even examples from my students.

There you go.

And of course, over time, the more you do this, it will become a lot more natural for you.

And another reason why vlogging is great is because this is a safe space for you to try out new words that you just learned.

So let's say you have been doing your homework, you've been watching a lot of TV shows, videos, books or whatever, and you're collecting a lot of these new words and phrases that you want to start using in your day to day.

However, you start to learn that using these new words in the real world with real people is a little bit more risky.

You're afraid that you may use it the wrong way and people are just like, wait, what?

I don't really get it.

Or sometimes when you're actually speaking with real people, the moment goes by so fast that it hasn't become a habit for you to use these new words or phrases.

But when you're actually speaking to yourself in front of the camera, you have all of the freedom and all of the time and try out these new words or phrases that you just find and try out different styles where you feel comfortable, you know, so you have all of the room to experiment.

And then another reason why vlogging is great is that it's recorded.

It's actually a great way for you to reflect and to really look at your weak spots and where you want to improve.

If let's say I can see that right now, if I rewatch this video again, and then I think like, Oh, I think I repeat my point a little bit too often.

Oh, I think that the way I speak is a little bit too choppy or I use a little bit more too much fillers.

So these gives you some data on the things that you can do to improve better next time.

So yeah, being able to rewatch your video gives you that opportunity, that room to reflect and to improve as well.

So I truly believe in the power of vlogging and recording yourself to improve your speaking skills.

And this is why this vlogging is a mandatory exercise for my students who joined our program English Sprint Academy.

Another reason why this works very well is because in order for you to get better at speaking, you actually have to speak, right?

There's no way around that.

You cannot get better at speaking by reading more.

Of course it helps, but you cannot get better at speaking by just watching or passively read or just looking for tips online.

You actually have to start doing it and doing it consistently because only when you start doing it, can you see where you need improvement?

And also having somebody else to guide you and to really see where you can improve on also helps so much.

So many of my students who join ESA have gotten into the habit of vlogging and they were very surprised because they were like, a lot of them were thinking, my God, vlogging is not my thing.

I am not like an influencer and all of that.

But after a whole week of vlogging or even two weeks, that's when they start to understand the value of it.

And it doesn't only help them improve their speaking skills in English, but also in their first language in Bahasa Indonesia.

because that's when you can truly understand that communication to be able to speak better is not only about using fancy words or speaking in a cool accent, but being able to organize your thoughts, being able to articulate what you think fully in English, being able to use the words and sentences in the way that you wanted it to land.

But if you want to try it out yourself first to start off, these are the steps that you can follow.

first is to get input or deepen your understanding about it two is to write it out three is to record of course and four is to rewatch and reflect let's get into it Let's go.

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Sorry, I have to take a little pause because I was quite distracted because these boys were just misbehaving.

But I'm back here now, all present.

So basically, let's talk about the first step, right?

Getting input first.

What does it actually mean?

So by getting input as a first step, I don't mean just scrolling or watching or reading random content.

What I mean is to actually take the time to understand the topic that you want to talk about.

Of course, when you want to start vlogging, you have to know what you want to speak about, right?

At least you have to have that clear unless you just want to yap on camera without any um without any direction that is also a good exercise but let's say for the sake of simplicity in this video we want to vlog about one subject you want to make sure that you have a deep understanding a deep knowledge about this subject because shallow understanding means shallow speaking so i once um watched a lecturer that i found on youtube where basically he says that in order for you to speak fluently and confidently about a subject, your actual knowledge about this subject has to be 10 times more than what you speak about.

So this is why sometimes I wonder why some professors or like some teachers could speak one hour nonstop about a subject and that's because they have mastered their expertise, right?

So when you do that, when you have such deep understanding and mastery about a subject, sometimes you don't even have to prepare.

You have read, you have consumed so much input about the subject that sometimes words just come out naturally.

So that's what you want to do.

You don't have to reach mastery about a subject to be able to vlog about it, but you want to understand it so well that when you speak, it just comes out quite naturally.

So getting input could look different depending on the topic.

So if the topic is something external, you can deepen your understanding by reading books, by watching videos, by listening to podcasts, or having conversations with other people, right?

Let's say you want to speak about youth unemployment in the in the country and in order for you to have better understanding, gain clarity about it, simple, just consume as much content as possible about this.

But what if the topic that you want to talk about is your own experiences?

Let's say you've lived in Germany for five years, how can you actually get input from it?

Because it's your own experience.

You cannot get that input externally, right?

So this is why the input has to come from within.

What does that mean?

This means that you actually have to sit down and reflect and collect your memories, your reactions, your stories, your own interpretations about your own experiences.

In this case, writing really helps because it forces you to slow down, to reflect and to really see and understand what you truly think about it.

So anyways, the point of getting input is not just to consume more, is to deepen your understanding about the topic.

So you want to ask yourself what exactly happened?

Why does this matter to me?

And why do I think about it now?

And what am I actually trying to say?

Because when your thoughts are blurry, your speaking will sound blurry too.

But when you actually take the time to process, speaking becomes a lot easier because you're not trying to come up the ideas while you're talking.

You're already doing the thinking beforehand and the speaking just comes out more naturally.

And now step two is to write it out.

So you may be thinking, I thought it was supposed to be a speaking exercise.

why do I need to write it out?

So writing helps you two ways.

First is to help you with a structure and two is to actually explore what you truly think about it, your own interpretation about it.

So first structure, it helps, right?

Because like when you're writing, you actually have the time to figure out which comes first, what is the main point and how do you actually structure your arguments or your supporting points.

So for me, whenever I want to record a YouTube video like this, I will always have to come up with the script.

And this is not just me.

I'm pretty sure a lot of other content creators and YouTubers out there, they would always start with the script to give that structure first.

Like what the hell do I actually want to say?

And what do I want to talk about?

And two, sometimes as you are writing, whether it's typing or just writing on your notebook, some more ideas will come up in the moment of writing.

And this is why a lot of times journaling helps.

Let's say journal about your feelings, about your days, about what you were thinking about it, because for some reason, the act of writing and thinking at the same time when when you do that oftentimes new thoughts are generated as you're speaking I'm not sure why but that just happens so for me when I'm writing or when I'm scripting normally I would just write it in a very messy way even with like a lot of typos a lot of grammatical errors just to get all my ideas out there in let's say in a paragraph form and then oftentimes I would ask chat GPT if let's say I need a little bit more help in clarifying my understanding or my situation about it.

And then I would ask Chatipiti to let's say fill in the dots.

And once I actually have all of my ideas written down, that's when I can actually make the bullet points so that it's easier for me to speak about it.

Because if you rely on the paragraphs to vlog, you're going to be too fixated on saying the exact script.

Even though when you vlog, you want to, you want it to sound natural, right?

So bullet points help you sound that way.

It gives you some more points to talk about but it doesn't force you to follow it word by word but of course the writing part every person is different some people sometimes don't even like to write but they would just like to scribble down and make a mind map to deepen your understanding about it but whatever it is that you're doing the goal of step two the writing part is to organize your thoughts about the idea and see that if you can develop more ideas from your supporting points and everything.

And now we move on to step three and that is just to record and speak.

And this is sometimes quite tricky because sometimes you get so nervous and that nervousness gets in the way of you being able to speak at all.

Even for me sometimes it doesn't matter how much I've prepared, how much I've written down, how confident I am about the thing that I want to talk about.

Sometimes it just doesn't come out and this has something to do with my mood or like the emotional state I am in.

So sometimes I do have to give myself grace.

If I know for sure that I'm not in the mood to speak, I just shut it down.

But anyways, one thing that is extremely important to be able to speak in front of the camera and not just completely freeze is to get off performance mode.

So this is also a mistake that I do sometimes that when I have this intention of sounding smart or being as fluent as possible or not making any mistakes, that's when it actually becomes counterproductive.

That's when I actually freeze the most.

But when I actually just relax and I just talk about whatever it is that I want, I put less pressure on myself.

That's when the words come out more naturally.

Suddenly, like all of the stuff that I've already prepared just comes out.

Of course, sometimes I would have a bullet point next to me to help guide me on what to say next.

And of course, this only applies usually for like longer videos that I make.

But if you want to make just like a 60 second video, because that is a great way to actually start off doing just like 60 seconds or 90 seconds max to talk about a topic.

It's a lot easier.

You may not have to always look at your bullet points.

You can just look at your bullet points the first time and then just yap.

What's important in this stage is that do not get too fixated on perfection.

Because at this moment, your goal is not perfection, but just to practice and build that speaking muscles and that confidence.

And then step four is to rewatch and reflect.

So of course, it's pretty self-explanatory.

After you record, you watch yourself.

And I know it's difficult, especially if you're not used to doing that.

It's kind of cringe to see in the beginning.

But this is you training yourself to feel comfortable in your own voice, seeing yourself speak.

If you feel uncomfortable hearing or seeing yourself talk, it's completely normal.

It really just, it's a matter of getting used to.

And then of course, when you get comfortable in re-watching yourself, then you can really see, ah, I think this is where I fall short.

I keep on reusing this phrase.

I need to look for a different way to say this.

Or like, oh, I feel that I use a lot of filler words.

Or maybe I keep on repeating the same point over and over again.

Or sometimes I get sidetracked.

So this is the most important way for you to start improving.

So watch how you speak and see where you can improve.

Of course having a third person, a tutor, an expert or a coach can really help you.

If you want that you can definitely apply for ESA.

But of course this is something that you can do yourself although you're going to need a lot of self-awareness for that.

So there you go you have all of the steps and you can actually start doing it right now.

And with vlogging you don't actually have to wait until you feel confident to speak.

Because vlogging is actually the way you gain confidence, the way you build confidence.

So you can actually start doing it right now.

So you can start by thinking about a simple subject that you want to talk about, maybe about yourself, about what you do, maybe your experience about living abroad.

And then just start out something very simple, write out a couple of bullet points on what you want to do, a simple structure.

And then just press record with your camera or your phone that is just sitting right there.

You can start ugly, you can start messy, and then the more you watch, the more you see your weak points, and then that's how you get better.

So yeah, I hope that after this video, you can start implementing it right away.

And if you need help, definitely DM me Sprint on Nylingua's Instagram, or you can actually look at the link to apply for ESA in the comments or in the description box below.

And I will see you very soon.

Good luck recording and see you around.