Fluency isn’t speaking fast

 At some point you decided that fluent means fast. So you speed up. And the faster you go, the less you sound like yourself.

You don’t take the second you needed. The easy word comes to you after the sentence is over. You finish a bit out of breath, and what you said was close to what you meant, but not quite.

In most meetings the clearest speaker is the slow one. They stop for a moment and pick an easier word, and everyone can follow them.

In every language, a pause means someone is thinking. Nobody thinks your English has run out.

Quick win: Say „Let me think for a second“. Then take the second. It’s yours.