Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World

The Glass-Clink Trick
I remember hearing an “I’m too shy” excuse from a German woman I met
in a bar in Berlin. I told her I had developed a wonderful technique to get
over shyness called the glass-clink trick. I had piqued her curiosity and she
wanted to know how it worked, so I walked toward the Americans she
wanted to practice English with and told her to walk with me while I
explained the complexity of how this advanced social technique worked.

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She was very interested indeed! I said, “The first step involves
redistributing the blood around your body by raising your arm a little,” and
I grabbed the wrist of her hand holding a glass of Coke. She continued to
listen attentively to this strange technique I was explaining, but by now we
were moving just behind the Americans, and I took this chance of
controlling her arm to extend it toward them to clink one of their glasses . . .
and then I ran away! The Americans then turned around, saw an intriguing
lady, waited for her to say something, and she mustered out a “Hello . . .”
and a wonderful conversation began. Two hours later, she told me she had
spent the whole evening practicing English with the Americans and was so
proud of herself.
Of course, I explained to her that there was no special trick to getting
over shyness, and my rambling was just to buy time until I had her in the
right position to make the initial contact herself. All I did was move her arm
muscles for her; the fact that she was in front of a group of native English
speakers without any time to think herself out of talking to them meant that
she had no choice but to start a conversation.
So next time a chance to use your target language with a native speaker
comes up, consider my glass-clink trick—the only trick is to stop thinking
yourself into shyness. Just approach the person and say hi. Shoot first and
ask questions later, when it comes to talking to strangers. Remember that
saying I mentioned in the previous chapter? “There are no strangers here,
only friends you haven’t yet met.” When you speak to enough people,
especially those who can encourage you in your target language, you start to
appreciate how true this is.