How to overcome the fear of speaking English – Mistakes that help you succeed

Are you afraid to speak English and worry about making mistakes? You’re not alone. As an Italian business professional, you want to communicate confidently — and avoiding that fear is the first step.

Why we're afraid of making mistakes when we speak English

I remember the first time I had an important business meeting in Italian. It was with a large company considering me for a lot of business English courses. The meeting was scheduled for 9 am with the HR department and I really wanted to close the deal.

They would have been a great new client.

Just before the call, my head was filled with thoughts: remind myself to be professional, “dare del Lei”, and of course: don’t make any mistakes!They joined the call and after saying “buongiorno” I promptly forgot 100% of all the Italian I’d ever learned. A disaster. I switched from formal to informal language at random. I had great answers to all their questions, but the words just wouldn’t come to me in Italian. I couldn’t have made more mistakes if I’d tried.

And yet: did I get the contract?

Absolutely.

Good mistakes vs. bad mistakes

When you’re learning a language, you will make mistakes. It’s unavoidable. But here’s the good news: not all mistakes are bad.

After my linguistically disastrous meeting, I thought about what had happened:

• What was the goal of the meeting? For me, it was to give the company enough information so they would accept my proposal and sign the contract.

  
  

• Did I reach that goal? Yes! Of course, I would have preferred to do it with perfect Italian — but that wasn’t actually the goal.

If you can achieve what you want from any interaction when speaking English — whether that’s closing a deal or ordering a drink — then that’s the true measure of success. It’s not whether you used the present perfect correctly or remembered the irregular verb.Then, later, you can spend a few minutes reflecting on what you could have said better — and next time it’ll be easier to avoid similar mistakes.

Good mistakes are those that don’t interfere with you reaching your goal. You get what you want from the interaction and you also learn something.

What makes a mistake “bad”?

Let’s look at two examples:

• “Tomorrow I going to the office meeting” isn’t perfect English, but would the other person understand that tomorrow you’ll be at the office meeting? Yes.

  
  

• “I worked there since 2013” is also incorrect. In this example, however, the listener wouldn’t understand what you mean. Do you still work there? Did you mean you worked there until 2013? This could cause confusion. That’s what I’d call a potentially “bad” mistake.

  
  

  So as you reflect on your conversations, ask yourself: “Did my mistake cause confusion or not? Did it stop me from reaching my goal?” Then you can categorise your corrections into two groups:

• Things I really need to remember

• Things that would be nice to get right

This is where a few lessons with an English teacher can be super useful, because they can highlight exactly which parts of your speech to focus on — helping you prioritise your learning for maximum results. Feel free to contact me and we can explore private sessions together.

How to learn from mistakes and speak confidently

Take a few minutes after a conversation to reflect — what did I say well? What did I struggle with? How could I improve next time?

When you do this regularly, every mistake becomes one more step forward on your journey to English fluency.

And I mean this genuinely: no one cares if you make mistakes — so don’t be afraid of making them. Focus on getting what you need from any conversation, then use any mistakes you notice as opportunities to improve.If you’re an Italian business professional working with international colleagues or clients, start using this mindset today.

Ready to speak confidently?

If you’d like personalised help to change your mistakes into strength and speak English with confidence at work, I’m here for you. Visit my 1-1 Private Courses page or contact me here for a free consultation.

Have you ever felt afraid to make mistakes in an English conversation? I’d love to hear your stories. Share them below (or send me a message) — because you’re not alone, and we’re all learning together.