It's Not Your English That's Bad; You're Just a 'Food Critic' Who Only Observes, Never Acts.

Are you the same?

You've studied English for over a decade, your vocabulary probably exceeds ten thousand words, and you can understand about seventy to eighty percent of American dramas without subtitles. But the moment you get a chance to speak, your mind goes blank, and those familiar words and sentence structures feel like they never belonged to you.

Don't be disheartened, it's not your fault. The problem isn't that you haven't 'learned' enough, but that you've never truly 'gotten your hands dirty'.

Imagine this: learning English is like learning to cook.

You've spent a long time memorising recipes from around the world (learning vocabulary, grammar), and watched countless episodes of 'Hell's Kitchen' (watching American dramas, practising listening). You can rattle off the standards for a 'Michelin three-star' restaurant, practically a top-tier 'food critic'.

But the problem is, your kitchen at home has never even seen a flame lit.

Your brain is like a library filled with top-notch recipes, but your mouth and tongue are like novices who've never stepped into a kitchen. This is why we 'understand' English perfectly, yet can't 'speak' it.

It's time to stop collecting recipes, step into the kitchen, and cook a few dishes yourself.

Step One: Follow the Recipe, Get the Dish Cooked

To begin with, no one expects you to invent your own dishes. The simplest thing to do is follow existing recipes, step by step.

This is where 'reading aloud' and 'shadowing' come in.

Find an audio clip you like, it could be a speech, a podcast episode, or even an interview with your idol.

1. First, understand the recipe (comprehend the content): Make sure you understand what the passage is about.
2. Listen to how the master chef does it (listen to the audio): Listen repeatedly, feel the native speaker's tone, rhythm, and pauses. It's not merely a piling up of words, but a form of music.
3. Light the fire and heat the pan (speak aloud): Read it out loud, confidently. No need to be fast, but imitate it well. Your goal isn't to 'read it correctly,' but to 'perform it convincingly'.

This process is about training your 'oral muscle memory'. Just like chefs practice chopping vegetables – it's clumsy at first, but after a thousand repetitions, it becomes second nature. You're not learning new knowledge; you're synchronising the knowledge in your brain with your body's 'hardware'.

Step Two: Experiment Boldly in Your Own Kitchen

Once you're comfortable with a few 'signature dishes,' you can start to get creative. This step is called 'talking to yourself'.

Sounds a bit silly? But this is the safest and most effective step to becoming a 'master chef'.

In your own kitchen, no one will laugh at you. You can:

• Describe what's in front of you: "Okay, I'm holding my phone. It's black. I'm about to open the weather app." Directly voice your inner monologue in English.
• Practice role-playing by yourself: Simulate an interview scenario, ask questions and answer them yourself. This miraculously helps you practice the most challenging 'interrogative sentences'.
• Recap your day: Lying in bed at night, use the 5W1H (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How) method to recount what happened today.

The key in this stage is: letting go of your reliance on written text.

You're no longer cooking by looking at recipes; instead, you're organising sentences in your mind based on memory and feeling, then directly 'exporting' them through the 'outlet' of your mouth. So what if your grammar is wrong or your word choice is inappropriate? This is your kitchen, you're the boss. Keep making mistakes, keep correcting them, and your 'English brain' will slowly take shape in this process.

Step Three: Host a Real 'Dinner Party'

All right, your cooking skills have improved a bit; it's time to invite guests and host a real dinner party. This is 'conversing with real people'.

This is the most daunting, yet also the fastest way to grow. Because real conversations have pressure, surprises, and unpredictable turns you can never foresee.

"But I'm in Taiwan, where do I find foreigners?" "What if I don't speak well and they lose patience?"

These anxieties are completely normal. But fortunately, we live in an era of highly advanced technology. You don't need to rush to a bar or an international exchange event; you can easily host a perfect 'dinner party'.

Imagine how great it would be if, while cooking, you had an AI assistant beside you, able to give instant reminders when you forget the next step, and help you smooth things over when you mess up?

This is what tools like Intent can do. It's a chat app with built-in AI real-time translation. When you're chatting with friends from around the world and suddenly get stuck or can't find that perfect word, the AI can instantly translate for you, allowing the conversation to flow smoothly.

It's like your 'secret weapon' for the dinner party, allowing you to enjoy the pleasure of real conversation without worrying about the embarrassment of messing up the whole event due to poor cooking skills. It lowers the barrier to 'hosting a dinner party' to the absolute minimum.

Stop being that 'foodie' who only critiques but never gets their hands dirty.

You already have enough recipes in your brain. Now, all you need to do is step into the kitchen, light the stove, even if your first dish is just a simple fried egg.

Starting today, speak up. Your English is much better than you think.