There's a difference between speaking your target language with a teacher, a friend, or an AI and speaking in real life.

In the first case, you're with patient people who leave you all the time you need to express your thoughts.

In the second case, the people you speak with might not have the same patience, so let's say it adds a little bit more pressure to your interactions.

I wanted a simple exercise that would recreate the additional stress you might find in daily interactions.

Here is how it goes :

1. Listen to a 4-5 minute video/podcast, as many times as you need to understand it. This will help you work on your comprehension.

2. Record yourself summarizing it in less than 2 minutes. The 2-minute constraint is very important: it forces you to express your thoughts, knowing you don't have unlimited time to think about them.

3. Listen to Yourself and Write Down the Mistakes. People usually don't like listening to themselves, but it turns out that doing so is one of the best ways to adjust.

4. Repeat the Process of Recording and Reviewing Twice. By the end, you should have a third recording that sounds much better than the first.

This exercise will take you no more than 30 minutes a day, and I assure you it will improve your speaking skills quickly.