The moment you forget you’re speaking English

Monday’s session had a list. Technical vocabulary, a company presentation, all of it ready.

We talked about wine. Then football, then school sports, then what my client had done at the weekend.

By the time we reached the football, the sentences were longer and the pauses were shorter. He wasn’t checking his grammar, because there was a wine walk to describe and the price of sixteen glasses of wine to calculate.

You already have that English. You use it when the subject matters more to you than the grammar does. You can’t make it happen on purpose, because the moment you try, you’re checking again.

(The list stayed shut.)

Quick win: In your next English conversation, notice the moment you forget you’re speaking English. That moment is your level. Everything else is the checking.