Here, I would gladly present you 5 quick tips to help you improve your speaking skills!
1. Do not mind the grammar too much.
A lot of us, despite speaking brilliantly in front of you, you might notice that most of us are not perfect in our grammar. The reason is because, grammar is a boring place to go to, and many of us, especially myself, tend to avoid studying any grammar at all.
2. Wrong content is perfectly fine.
You seem to wonder that, where all these English speakers get their content from. Most importantly, is to talk about things you like, because most probably, you would remember something because you like it. Second, if we have no content, most probably we would just put in words like:
-"oh, really?"
-"maybe, but I'm not sure.."
-"That's interesting! Tell me more about it!"
3. Don't only learn what you need to learn.
Some students come to me and they tell me, "I would only like to learn about what's useful for my work." But the real fact in life is that, a language is not a tool for work, it's a communication medium that is basically used at home, in the society and everywhere. So, use the language to anyone, talk about any topics and make some jokes!
4. If you don't know THAT word
Most of the time, we tend to forget some vocabulary or, we have never come across of that word before. You can substitute that word in Japanese and then, explain it in simple English that you are capable of. For example:
Yumi: Hey, do you know Japanese people have a tradition of sitting under a .. erm.. kotatsu, and eating mikan?
John: What's a kotatsu and what's mikan?
Yumi: Oh, kotatsu is a kind of heater, like we sit around a table with a blanket covering our legs. Under the table, there is a heater which warms our legs. Mikan is a kind of orange, erm... oh yeah, it's tangerines!!
5. If you feel shy
This is the easiest. If you feel shy, but you want to talk to others, ask questions. Let the other person talk instead of you. This may also work if you don't have content! Ask simple questions, for example:
-Do you like sushi?
-Have you been to Hokkaido?
If asking questions might be too difficult, you can also start a conversation about the weather. Or, you can also share about what happened today. For example:
Tommy: Hey, Glen. What's up?
Glen: Hey, you know what, the train was really crowded today. I could barely breathe!
Tommy: That's too bad!
Good luck!
