1. Talking to Yourself
👉🏽 Say out loud what you are doing, what you are thinking about, what happened to you, and what you plan to do.
You can imagine that you have an imaginary friend next to you. This friend only understands Czech. Tell your "Czech friend" everything.
2. Audio Messages
👉🏽 Record short audio messages where you talk about your day.
Think about who could be your "language partner" and ask them to exchange these kinds of messages with you. This is also a great way to stay in touch with someone every day and know about their life.
Maybe you have a Czech friend who would like to send you similar messages in English... Then it can become a fun "audio language exchange" between friends.
3. Summarize Something Out Loud
👉🏽 Summarize out loud something you saw, heard, or read - for example a video, a podcast, or any text.
Say what the main ideas were, what surprised you, and what you think about it.
4. Shadowing
👉🏽 Find an audio with a transcript (for example, my podcast) and read the transcript together with me. First, you can just listen. Then speak at the same time as me.
The goal is not to understand everything or think about grammar. The goal is to copy my intonation and speech rhythm.
5. Journaling
I recommend writing a short, positive journal every day.
👉🏽 Write down three small (or big) things in Czech that made you happy that day. Then start the next morning by reading these three things out loud.
This might also have a positive effect on your whole day.
6. Argument Practice
👉🏽 Set a timer and talk about one topic for one or two minutes.
This can be your last family discussion, a world topic, or a topic from your own real life.
Say your opinion (=what you think about the topic) out loud and explain why.
7. Life Stories
Did something interesting happen to you or someone around you?
It can be a specific event or experience...
👉🏽 Say out loud exactly what happened.
8. Talking with AI
Do you have a question and want to hear an answer?
I know that Chat GPT does not always tell the truth, and it is important to remember this. But it will always give you some answer. And this can be good language practice.
👉🏽 You can talk with it about topics like history, psychology, politics, and everyday life. You say your question out loud and ask it to answer in simple Czech and give you a follow-up question to keep the conversation going.
I know it is not always exciting to talk to a robot, but as a short conversation practice it can be fun.
You can find more tips on how to improve your Czech with AI in my blog article.
9. Preparing for Real Conversation Situations
Do you want to practice specific conversation situations?
👉🏽 Try to say out loud a simulation of an everyday dialogue, like small talk with family, a conversation at a shop, at the doctor's, or at the post office...
This is something Chat GPT can also help you with very well.
10. Conversation Proactivity
Do you live in Czechia?
👉🏽 Choose to shop in small stores, where you have more chances to say something nice to the shop assistant.
You can start with a sentence like: "Have a nice day!".
🦉 This text is from my newsletter, which I send FREE every two weeks.
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