An advocate of the Natural Approach to second language instruction discusses problems associated with error correction, highlighted in her personal experience when she visited Italy to explore her heritage and use her Italian language skills. After requesting to have her errors corrected by a native-speaking friend, the visitor experienced great frustration, then diminished self-esteem about communicating in the second language. Underlying thoughts and expectations are then examined and their implications for classroom second language error correction are discussed. Beliefs and thoughts explored include the following: "I'm Italian-American; I should be able to speak Italian"; "I don't care that there are four levels of acquisition; I want to skip the first three"; "I want to be as loquacious in Italian as in my first language"; "I don't want to embarrass my friend"; and "I don't speak Italian as well as my friend speaks English." It is concluded that while error correction should not be eliminated, the language teacher should first spend time learning the feelings and expectations of the students in order to anticipate counterproductive responses to correction. Several techniques for classroom use are discussed, drawing on recent research. Contains 15 references. (MSE)