A while back I read an article by Hannah Yurk about finding the courage to speak up in meetings even when your English is not perfect. It stuck with me, because I hear the same worry all the time from people getting ready to move abroad. The fear of saying the wrong thing does not stay in the meeting room. It follows you to the market, the doctor, the school gate, the new job.

Picture this. You are standing in a busy market in New Zealand. You want to buy some fruit, but you hesitate. What if you say it wrong? What if they do not understand you? That little knot in your stomach is something almost every English learner knows. Here is the thing I want you to hear: that discomfort is not your enemy. It is part of how you get better.

If you have ever stayed quiet when you wanted to speak, this post is for you. The road to speaking with confidence is built out of the very mistakes you are scared of making.

The fear gets smaller when you actually use the language

There is a study by Thompson and Lee that looked at how living abroad affects anxiety about speaking English. The finding is a hopeful one: putting yourself in situations where you have to use English tends to lower your anxiety and lift your confidence over time.

Why? Because when you are abroad, you use English for real things, not just for a grammar exercise. You ask for directions. You order food. You sort out a problem. You are practising without even thinking of it as practice. Every small exchange, every stumble, moves you forward. You learn that a mistake is not the end of the world. It is just part of learning.

How anxious you feel depends on a few things: how motivated you are, what you believe about yourself, and the worries you already carry. The study found that a trip abroad can spike that anxiety at first. Talking to native speakers is hard, a new culture is a lot to take in, money is on your mind, and everyday interactions feel stressful. But here is the encouraging part: after people come home from time abroad, their anxiety about the language usually drops.

The same research noticed something else. People who speak more than one language tend to be more comfortable with not understanding everything. That comfort matters. Speaking a new language is not about knowing every word. It is about making peace with not knowing, and pushing on anyway. Curiosity helps here more than perfection ever will.

There is a common belief that to communicate well, you have to speak flawlessly. It is just not true, and it weighs heavily on a lot of English learners. Perfection is not the goal, and honestly it is not even possible.

Think of all the people living daily life in a foreign country with a small vocabulary and plenty of grammar slips. They make plans. They make friends. They laugh together. And they get understood. Why? Because communication is about connection, not about getting every word right.

Mistakes are the point, not the problem

The shift happens when you stop dreading mistakes and start expecting them. You begin small: ordering a coffee, asking for directions, then slowly holding longer conversations. Each slip turns into a little lesson. The café where you once worried about mispronouncing your order becomes the place where you get a bit braver every day.

You start to see that the fear of mistakes holds you back far more than the mistakes ever do. They are not failures. They are signs that you stepped outside your comfort zone, and that is exactly where progress comes from.

Turning the hard parts into wins

If you are thinking about a move abroad, for study, work, or just the adventure of it, my message is simple: use your English. Yes, it will be hard sometimes. Yes, you will make mistakes. But every hard moment you get through is a win, and every mistake teaches you something.

I am not pretending this is easy. It takes stepping out of your comfort zone, being willing to get it wrong, and sticking with it. But the payoff is real: more confidence, better English, and all the personal and work doors that open because of it.

So the next time you catch yourself hesitating to speak, remember that every word you say is a step toward speaking with more confidence. Let your time abroad be the thing that pushes you forward. The truth is, the only real mistake is staying silent.

If a move to Australia or New Zealand is on your mind and the language worry is part of what is holding you back, I would love to talk it through with you. You do not need perfect English to start. You just need to start.

Suzanne