Making simple sentences in a conversation

I decided today to join a german conversation class in Basel. I was asked a question by the group leader in German and also tried to answer in German but what happened was that I really got off gear and started messing up with my tenses etc…

So my question, how doe one initiate talking in another language he/she is learning? Thanks for answering…

You make mistakes and don’t worry about it and continue doing a lot of listening and reading, focusing on the areas that gave you trouble.