Trying hard to be fluent in English?

My written German is pretty good for the most part, but if you put me under pressure, I definitely make mistakes. Even more so for my spoken German. It's normal...

My trainer before once said that I am good at writing in English and with good grammar but when it comes to being interviewed, my nervousness really gets in the way that's why I sometimes don't get to answer the question or sometimes would go around the bush before getting to the point. In fairness to Venus, I know we all were confident that she can really make it, she is an intelligent beautiful lady but her nervousness got in the way causing her to fail to answer the question coherently. I think she should have built "more more" confidence when answering questions on stage so she won't be answering a "major major" senseless answer :D

It's really hard to be completely fluent in English because this is an ever changing language. This language changes quite often and words that had a certain meaning in Shakespeare's era, don't have that same meaning anymore. The best way to become truly fluent in English is to watch American, Canadian, or British television, read books in English, watch movie in English, and listen to a lot of music in English. That's all that you can really do. Another thing I find great is audio books. Reading a book and listening to the tape that goes with the book at the same time. That does help when acquiring a second language. There are so many ways to learn English. Holding conversations with people also helps greatly.

i think she is just being nervous that time.........it is really hard to answer question specially if the question is personal and the whole world is watching you.

I feel the same way when I am nervous my english tends to break and this results in poor grammatical sentences :) Though after a few seconds I loosen up and my natural english abilities just flow from with in. I guess as a speaker of another language you need to do excersises that boost your confidence to be able to break the shyness barrier. I guess trying to speak infront of your peers in straight english would be a great way or practicing oratorical with things such as speeches and the like.

I think what happened to Venus Raj just shows that she's a human being, capable of getting mistakes like us. It's cliche, but nobody is perfect. What happened is just a plain example of stuttering because of nervousness. I don't think it happened because she's not fluent in English. I'm still impressed with how she delivered herself actually. In front of a lot of people, she was able to finish her answer with grace and confidence. Believe me, even fluent Americans stutter.

i think we filipinos always exagerate i guess. we always use doubles when saying something. like "thank you , thank you very much" "happy happy birthday", "im very very sorry" so i guess thats where the major major came from. a mannerism that is hard to correct. i also agree with you that that when nervousness gets in the way it is hard to focus. still she did great. remembering charlene gonzales's high tide or low tide.

lets give credit to her.. i mean.. its been a long time a filipina has landed top 5 in the Ms. Universe Pageant. You cant help but get nervous especially an actor like william balwin at that. I'm still thankful out of 80 girls.. she landed number 4. not bad at all.

That what happens if you are not really adept in speaking the language. One more thing, it is very difficult to lie. It is impossible that a person does not have any major mistake in her life. If she told the truth the it will just go spontaneous.

Nervousness is really a big factor that will hinder someone from expressing her thoughts properly but personally I think Venus doesn't really have what it takes. It's not just her nervousness. If you take a look at the video of the previous pageant that she joined before Miss Universe you will notice that she doesn't really have the command of the language. I am wondering though, if candidates from other countries like the Latin countries are allowed to have interpreters during the pageant how come Filipinas are not? She could have probably expressed her answer in a much better manner using her native tongue.

Sometimes, we fail to express our feeling thru communication, specially when we feel uneasy, shy or nervous. Like what happen to Ms, Venus Raj. And for goodness sake, English is not her first language, She has the right to make a major,major mistake when speaking. Just kidding,!!! Anyway im not good in english too. What matters is, she still made it to the top 5.