4 - What's REALLY holding your English back?

Have you ever said:

“Yo entiendo el inglés, pero cuando intento hablar, me bloqueo”?

I’ve heard many English learners say this. And I feel you. At the end, I think almost all of us, have felt this way some time. 

Since this expression has become very popular, many English academies and teachers are using it to offer their courses, telling you indirectly that you need to learn more English in order to overcome this blockage.

Now, when you still don’t know enough English, you may feel very limited if you try to say something, which is completely normal, it’s part of the learning process because you DO need to know words and phrases to verbalize your thoughts.

So, if you’re a beginner, feeling limited is part of the process. A wouldn’t call that being blocked. 

The story is different if you’ve been studying English for some time now, you understand other people, or written English, but when you want to speak, you feel the way you do it doesn’t reflect everything you know. You don’t feel comfortable speaking, you feel like “stuck” in slow motion. And that’s a different case. 

Probably, in this case, learning more English won’t help you. Because you already know enough to communicate, so you need to figure out how to use what you already know to speak. 

You need to understand why you feel blocked. 

And, in my 14 years of experience as English teacher and coach, I’ve identified the 3 most common blocks for English learners and how to overcome them without focusing on learning more English, but on implementing strategies to overcome that specific block. 

For some reason, your brain has understood that speaking English is a threat. You’re in danger and that’s why your “emotional brain” activates and the priority is to be safe.

When your emotional brain activates the cognitive functions are thrown to the background, and that’s why it’s not easy to remember the English you know, and you start feeling symptoms:

sweaty hands

increased heart rate

trembling

muscle tension

These signs are a manifestation of you feeling nervous, anxious or stressed in certain English situations.

Emotional blocks usually come from:

Perfectionism: the fear of making mistakes, mispronouncing a word

limiting beliefs: I’m not good at English, I suck at speaking in public

bad experiences related to speaking English

In this situation, is key to implement emotional management tools. Little by little, you teach your brain that speaking English is OK. it’s safe. That you’re not in danger.

So, if you see, an emotional block cannot be released by learning more English. You understand why this emotional block happens and by implementing emotional management tools, you release this block.

And this is the most common one nowadays that we suffer from information overload. We have all the information we can imagine in the palm of our hand. You’ve done the work: you’ve studied the grammar rules, memorized vocabulary lists, but you hardly ever actually speak. Your mouth doesn’t feel comfortable producing these new sounds, so you tend to speak slowly, you constantly run out of words.

So, let me give you a clear example:

Imagine that I want to get toned arms.

And to do so, I watch tons of reels with upper body routines and exercises. 

I watch them every day. 

But, I hardly ever grab my dumbell and do the arms routine. 

Do you think I will get toned arms just by watching the videos?

I don’t think so!

If this is your block, you need what I call a “mouth gym”. Practice of speaking and pronunciation to help your brain and your mouth to work as a team when you are speaking.

So, if you see, an emotional block cannot be released by learning more English. You understand why this emotional block happens and by implementing emotional management tools, you release this block.

You know that you need to improve your English. and you try to do it.

But you’ve been jumping from program to program, from method to method because you don’t find the real usefulness for your life of the English you’re learning.

You don’t need to learn all the English of the world. 

You just need the English for your life. 

Example here for you to understanding better:

I need English for teaching, for traveling and socializing with international people. for reading academic articles and magazines related to coaching and emotional intelligence. That’s my every day.

However, my husband, he’s a mechanical engineer, and he’s taking a course about machinery maintenance. so, sometimes he tells me about the course, and starts talking about the parts of the machines and maintenance procedures and he uses jargon I’m not used to. I don’t know. But that’s fine because I don’t need to know the exact parts of a machine that’s located in a cement factory for my everyday life. 

So, let me say it again:

You don’t need to learn all the English of the world. 

You just need the English for your life. 

And that gives you clarity on your English journey.

So, now that you’ve heard these 3 blocks:

emotional block, study-mode block, and uncertainty block, let me ask you:

👉 Which one do you think is yours?

Sometimes it’s easy to guess… but many learners discover that the real reason why they feel stuck is not the one they imagined.

That’s why I created a free quiz for you:

✨ “What’s REALLY Holding Your English Back?”

It takes just 2 minutes, and at the end you’ll not only discover your main fluency block, but you’ll also unlock an exclusive workshop designed for your specific result.

• If you’re the Overthinker → you’ll get tools to calm your nerves.
  
  

• If you’re the Passive Learner → you’ll learn how to turn knowledge into active speaking.
  
  

• If you’re the Unfocused Learner → you’ll gain clarity to focus on the English you really need.
  
  

So, don’t just guess. Find out for sure, and take your first step to speaking English with clarity, calm and freedom.

👉 Go here or to my Instagram bio to take the quiz today.

And remember:

The goal is not perfection.

The goal is conversations that flow and connect.