Speak from Day 1?

Some people (and I'm looking at you, Benny Lewis) would tell you to speak from your first day of learning a foreign language. That's advice that most people ought to weigh up very carefully.

Maybe it would work for you. Maybe you are that sort of person, so it may be worth gold in your particular currency. But I would warn that it's not a universal rule.

Me, I prefer to wait before speaking. I need to wait. Speaking too soon would simply stop me in my tracks. It would kill off my second language aspirations.

For many people, and for entire cultures (I'm looking at you now, Japan) speaking is simply too stressful. So for those of you . . . us . . . in that camp, don't do it!

Einstein didn't speak until the age of 4 or 5, I read. And he ended up doing quite well, I believe.