Back to the journal
Speak before you're ready
You don't wait until you're good enough to speak — speaking is how you get there. In defence of imperfect sentences.
« I'll start lessons once I've revised my basics. » I hear it every week, and it's exactly backwards.
Basics settle by being used, not before. A rule read in a textbook stays theoretical until the day you need it mid-sentence — that's when it sticks for good.
What actually blocks people is almost never their level. It's the fear of the imperfect sentence. And an imperfect sentence that is understood is worth infinitely more than a perfect one never said.
So we start by talking. Badly, often, at first. I note what deserves correcting and hand it back at the end, calmly. The rest of the time, we keep moving.