Do you tense up in certain situations when speaking your second language?

[003]

Yes, because I have to think a lot and do not consider having mistakes. I have to think about the word, the grammar, the correct pronunciation and the proper enunciation. There are so much to think a lot on when you are not that accustomed yet to the language you are speaking. Sometimes, you think you can't just do it, but you have to do. This is where the real tense up comes from.

[Trellum]

I live in an area with quite a few Spanish-speakers.  When I worked retail in a terribly large chain store, a lot of people would walk up to me and start talking in Spanish.  Since it was so unexpected, I used to lock up and panic a little.  My weird mixed background tends to make people think I've got some Mexican heritage, so ...

I'm pretty bad at handling people in general, but the sudden thrusting of Spanish on me used to take my by surprise and ended up making me forget all I knew, haha.

Ugh, I hate it when they walk up to me and assume I'm of certain ethnicity because of the way I look.  That's so rude!  I really don't mind the fact they think I'm of x ethnicity,  what I mind is they try to push their language on me!  If they can speak English they should try to speak it with me.  This happens to me every time I travel, those flight attendants are so rude, hehehe!

[AmYy]

When I started learning foreign languages, I was too nervous while talking to native speakers, even through microphone and with people I will never actually see. I used to mix up all the words and sentences and sounded so weird that I almost gave up on learning and speaking. But now I have become much more confident and fluent and do not tense up that much anymore.