How fluent are you in English?

Hey, E, how you doing?

Actually, E, that's a good question.

Hi.

James from engVid.

You see, some of you guys have been with me for a few years, some of you have been just

recent additions to engVid or my channel, and I think it's a really good question to

ask because a lot of times we're studying and we don't know what we're really doing,

right?

So, let's get a little comfortable.

I'm going to give you a quiz about fluency.

It's a little quiz, and what I'd like you to do, if you have them available, get a pen

and paper because you might want to score this quiz down.

If you don't, don't worry about it.

Just keep in mind what numbers apply to you.

In this quiz, it's not scientific.

I'm not going to say you do this.

You can run to Harvard, "I'm an advanced student", but it's going to give you a general idea

of what ballpark you're playing in, so you will know what to kind of expect as you continue

in your English journey, or maybe you might be a little surprised and realize you have

a bit of work to do.

Either way, it's good news for you, right?

If you've got work to do, you know you can move up, and it's not for no reason that you're

working.

And if you're higher than you thought, great.

All your work is paid off.

So, let's go to the board.

Let's go through the quiz.

I know, usually I do quizzes at the end, right?

Because this is a fluency thing, there's no point in having a quiz at the end.

What you want to really know is where are you right now, right?

So, let's do that, and afterwards we'll go through what you can expect, right?

So, why are we doing this?

We know what we're doing.

Why?

Because sometimes it's great to see the future, see where you're going, and see what's going

to come to you that's going to make you really happy that you've taken the time and energy

to put into what you're doing, right?

Now, when and where are you going to use this?

We want you to start using it when you have conversations or you consume media, that you

take these hints, keep them in your mind, and realize these are things you're going

to have to work on, or areas you can use to improve.

And don't worry, I've got you covered when we do the next segment.

I will give you some actionable things to do to improve your score, right?

And yeah, of course, some homework.

So, ready?

Let's go to the board.

Now, the first thing we're going to do is - you'll notice over here I have "advanced",

"intermediate", and "beginner".

That's the answers to the quiz.

We'll come back to that in a second.

And let's go to the quiz.

Now, I said before that this isn't scientific, but what it will do is give you an area where

you are.

All I want you to do is checkmark the ones you think apply to you.

Hint, hint, you cannot be all nine, okay?

So, those of you going, "Oh, I'm all nine!"

You don't even speak English, I'm just going to say it right now.

Now, some of these, you might get four out of five, you may get two or three, or maybe

you'll get three or more, then we can - it gives us a bit more of an idea of where you

are.

Cool?

So, let's do it.

Number one, grammar is difficult for you and you don't use tenses.

It means you have to think about it before you speak, it's really difficult.

If that's you, check it off, all right?

Oh, by the way, this is my crystal ball.

You know, when you see those women and go, "Oh, I can tell you the future", well, I'll

know where you are now and I'll be able to know your future.

Or at least you will.

Ready?

So, next, you dream in English, whoa.

You go to sleep and you hear, "You're speaking French, but you're speaking - you are speaking

English, everyone speaks French and everything is perfect!"

It's not bad, my friend.

Check it, see where you are.

Number three, conversation - your conversation in English is only 80/20.

What does that mean?

That's a weird sentence.

It means when you speak with a native or, you know, someone who has a high level of

English, you can only really speak about 20%, that's all you're capable of.

I'm not talking about when you're shy, because you're probably shy in your own language,

right?

You don't like to speak, you don't like to speak.

I'm talking about what you could actually do if you were working as hard as you can.

And in something, a case like this, the other person probably has to explain things to you

or whatnot because you just really can't express yourself.

So, if your English is 80/20, right?

Next, you know, so check that one.

Next, you feel like you are truly yourself when you speak in English because you can

express yourself.

I should - I've got - one second, I have a confession to make, alright?

I'm learning or I'm practicing German and I like languages, and this quiz came about

for me because I started realizing I don't know where I am in learning this language,

so I started to look at sources to help me out, alright?

One of the things I find in German, when I try to speak German, I get this silly kind

of - this New James kind of thing, like "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"

It's like, "Who is Mighty Mouse over here?"

But I don't really know how to use all the words to express myself, right?

So, that's what that's about, you know?

I know when I'm higher when I can feel comfortable using the language, but that's just me.

Still doing the quiz.

Number five, your conversation in English is 60/40.

There is a difference between these two, alright?

So, try and figure out, are you closer to almost 50/50 or on this end, alright?

How about this?

You understand humor in English.

When someone tells a joke, you're like, "That was funny.

There's a reason why I can't tell you now where it is."

But if you understand English, humor in English, that's not a bad sign.

Number seven, native speakers must speak slower for you to understand.

I have a number of students who will come and watch my videos, and unfortunately for

them, they kind of miss it.

I'm usually, I guess, more of an intermediate/advanced teacher, just because of the speed at which

I speak.

So, it takes you - you have to have a little bit more language skill to catch and comprehend

what I'm saying.

In an easy lesson, where I may expand on something that's, you know, a simple concept, but I

try and give more information, I generally speak faster than more other teachers.

So, I sometimes get students going on, "You speak too fast, slow down, slow down!"

And I sometimes want to say, "This is an advanced lesson.

You need to be a little higher to be doing this lesson."

And it's, you know, usually marked on EngVid or on YouTube anyway.

But that's not a bad thing.

Some people want to improve, so they want to try something harder, and I'm all for that.

I think you should do it.

But if you find it's a bit fast, if you read other comments, they might say, "Hey, listen,

it's okay.

Just work a little harder and you'll get it."

And I promise, you will.

All right?

That's what this lesson's about, how fluent you are and how we can help you.

All right?

Next, number eight.

You use grammar naturally without having to think about it.

What that means is you just speak and it comes out.

It feels natural as if it were in your own language.

Meaning in your own language, when you say "como se va", you don't think and go, "Oh,

como se va.

Okay, what is the verb?

What is the..."

No, you don't.

You just say it.

Just like in English when you say, "What's going on?"

You don't have to go, "Okay, is that 'hello' or 'how are you'?"

No.

Just natural.

And you change the tenses without thinking about it.

Number nine, you slip into English sometimes when you speak your native language.

Okay?

I had students who would do that.

They would say, "It was really funny."

They would say, "I was talking to my mother and I said, 'Good'.

I said, you know, 'Como está hoy, bien?'

But instead of 'bien', I would say, 'Como está hoy, good?'"

And their mother or father would go, "What did you say?"

"Oh, sorry.

It just happened."

Now, this is very specific because people who are of really high language level, they

can actually choose to speak one language or the other.

But sometimes when you're moving through languages, your brain understands that they both mean

the same thing and it just throws out whatever one comes out first.

And I'm going to tell you this much, I'll give you this, it's a good sign.

So, if you've done all three, if you had pen and paper, great, mark it down.

I'm going to go through it quickly in case you don't so you can go over it and quickly

catch which ones you think you are, right?

Is grammar difficult for you?

Do you dream in English?

Is your conversation 80/20?

Do you feel like you're truly yourself and express yourself fully?

Is your conversation 60/40?

Do you understand English humour?

Do native speakers have to slow down to speak to you?

Do you use grammar naturally?

And do you occasionally by accident slip into, you know, slip English words in your conversation,

right, when you're speaking in your native tongue?

Now, now that you've got that down, you've got those numbers, let's go to the board.

I should do a click, right?

No, I'm not going to.

And let's take a look at where you might be.

Da-da-da-da-dun, da-da-da-da-dun, dun-dun-dun, I know, you're like, "Ah, I think I'm really,

really high, I'm really, really low."

Well, I'll tell you number one, the minimum score you should get is at least three numbers,

because actually each section, I've got three numbers to indicate you're probably advanced,

intermediate or a beginner.

Now, you might get four or five and you go, "James, I don't get it."

Well, that's when you're going to become, like, an intermediate beginner or an intermediate

advanced student, right?

And that happens, right?

Because you've got this, but you've also got that.

That's good, it means you're moving, you're progressing.

So, let's see if you're a beginner.

What would happen if you were a beginner?

One, three, and seven, okay?

If grammar is difficult, you don't use tenses, 20% English means the other person has to

carry the conversation.

It means they have to keep it going because you can't do it.

And what did I say, number seven, native speakers have to slow down to speak to you so you understand

you're a beginner.

Yeah, that's okay.

People think that's bad and I think that's crazy.

What that means to me is you're starting a great journey, you're in the beginning and

you're moving up.

Now, if you've been doing this for 10 years, you should have been watching my videos.

You wouldn't be there, you wouldn't be at the beginning still, but that's besides the

point.

All right, so you're a beginner.

So, what about intermediate?

If you've got two, five, and nine, you're beginning to dream in English, right?

Five, your English conversation's 60/40, you're actually carrying almost half the conversation,

right?

That's not bad.

Number nine, sometimes you slip into English and these are the intermediate students, you

see them right away.

They'll be talking, talking, talking, and you'll hear them even talk to other students

and they'll say an English word, and if the other student is lower, they'll go, "What?

Why do you say that?"

They'll go, "I don't know."

It's like your brain is starting to go, "It means the same thing", right?

It just means the same thing.

"Hola" is "hello", it means the same, right?

It won't be as simple as that, it might be more complex ideas, but your brain is what

we call, I don't want to say equivocate, but it's saying like, "These are equal ideas,

so we can use them", and that's a good thing.

The dreaming in English is your brain's actually working on it, right?

It's not some strange thing anymore, okay?

And what was the other one we said?

Number nine, so you slip into it, and I said, "Conversation", yeah, you're holding your

own in a conversation.

A lot of people would say that's like higher intermediate.

Now, you might get some of these other things, which is going to be for advanced.

Ow, it's like a rip in my underwear, ow, ow, that's bad.

Anyway, four, six, and eight, four, six, and eight, four.

You feel like yourself, it means you can express yourself.

You know how to say, and this is what doesn't happen with intermediate students, and I know

this, they get frustrated, because they're like, "My English is pretty good, but I can't

tell people what I'm really thinking."

Advanced, and this is what I meant by the future for you.

You'll be able to express in your language and in English exactly what you mean, and

you don't have to always say, "Oh, if only it was in my language, I could tell you."

No, you'll be able to go, "No, I know how to do this.

I can tell you exactly how I feel."

And that's really cool, feels great, okay?

Next, six, you understand humour in English.

This is incredibly important, because humour is playing with words, playing with culture.

That means you don't only just know the English, you know about our culture, music, plays,

writing, slang, you know that stuff, so that one's a really good one, all right, because

you have to be able to play with the language.

And finally, number eight, you use grammar without having to think about it.

Well, of course, it's now your language, son, or girl, I don't know who's watching this,

so of course you don't have to think about it.

You don't think about grammar in your own language.

In fact, sometimes you forget, you don't know how to explain it, because it's just such

a part of you.

And that's where we want to go, ultimately, okay?

Now, as I said, some of you might have picked, you know, like, you might have picked two,

four, six, eight, or five, six, eight, and nine, intermediate advanced.

This is not a quiz you can take to Harvard, but you're going to get the idea and you should

get it.

And I'm going to say now, and I'll say it again probably when we come back, keep your

results and maybe come back in two or three months, right?

And then you might see there's a change, like maybe you're getting...

If you're here, you're getting two of these and one of these, or from here you're moving

up.

And that's really kind of cool to know, because it's nice to take these lessons, but if you

don't know if you're progressing, what's the point?

Speaking of which, I've got something to give to you to help advance you in your English,

whether you're beginning, a beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

Ready?

Oh, yeah, and we're back.

Sorry.

Long break.

So, we're going to go to the board and I'm going to expand on what we did before, talking

about where you are.

Now, the quiz, I gave some of it away by telling you this, this, this, but I'm going to take

the time now to expand and maybe give you a deeper understanding.

And you can also see how some of these things start to slide or morph.

Morph meaning to change.

Changing to the other one, and why we go from beginner to intermediate/beginner, intermediate/intermediate/advanced/advanced,

and hopefully the last tip I'm going to give you today is going to take you into what I

call superhero mode, like you can put an S on your chest and fly off, right?

Okay.

Let's go to the board and take a look.

So, fluency, what does it mean?

Fluency is to be able to express yourself easily, and I didn't put the word on the board because

I want you to get this one accurately, which means people understand what you're saying

and you get the meaning of what they're saying, not just an idea, okay?

That's what this is all about, and why we're doing this is because you want to see how

fluent you are and where you sit right now, where you can move to, and what's possible.

And I always say don't settle for good enough, you know, or say it's very good, or it's very

- no, I've actually got a lesson on very, and we'll come back to that, why you want

to get synonyms, or why you want to do this and that, because it helps to express your

fluency so you can be more accurate and express yourself easily.

Ready?

Let's go.

So, in blue we have beginner.

I got bad news for you.

Blue is work.

This is when you're learning English, it's not a lot of fun because it just seems hard.

But I would tell you anything, like if you're working out to try and get muscle, it's lots

of work at the beginning, it's not much fun.

This is not fun, this isn't fun, you don't see the results for the work you're putting

in.

But it's like starting a savings account, you put a dollar here and a dollar there,

20 years later you're buying a house and you're a millionaire.

But you've got to start somewhere, it's just work.

Right?

So the sacrifice you do here is you have to put the time in and know that you're going

up a hill, and the funny thing is the hill seems like this, but when it starts to change

it goes up quickly.

Right?

So, what does it mean to be a beginner and at work?

You need to translate directly from your language.

When someone says to me, I was going to say, "Entschuldigen Sie bitte, sind Sie", or you

know, like do you understand, I translate, "Entschuldigen", okay?

I'm translating in my head, I'm a beginner, and I have to catch that word or I can't do

it, right?

So, it's translating directly from my language and back, it takes a long time, right?

Speakers have to change their speaking speed for you.

Almost every language people blur the words, "como estas", it's actually "como estas",

it's not "como estas".

You blur because it's something you say normally and regularly, but for a beginner you actually

have to break the words and make it slow enough that they can actually go, "I learned this

word", "I learned this word", alright?

So these are, just to clarify, when I said there are three points, you notice there's

more than three points to tell you if you're a beginner.

So if before you were thinking, "Well, James is wrong because I'm not a beginner because

I work so hard", I'm like, if you're finding more and more of these are true and you thought

you were intermediate, drop yourself down to maybe beginner-intermediate, okay?

So, maybe not, maybe you've got less of these and you're more in the black zone.

So, we're still in beginner.

Number two, you have only one way to say things.

I have a friend, Natalia, Natalia, I was in Spain and one day I was practicing my Spanish

that I had learned and she was kind of impressed until she started noticing I kept on saying

"vale", "vale", "vale", "vale", "vale", and she was like, "You only know one word in Spanish,

don't you?"

And I was like, "Si, it's true, but it works", but I couldn't say anything other than, "Yeah,

okay, okay, okay, okay".

Sort of similar to English, but in English I can say, "Okay", or maybe, well, somewhat.

Not in Spanish, and then I realized I'm a beginner.

No problem with that.

I like the fact she understood me, so I knew it was the first step.

And that's what beginner means, first step, right?

Okay, so, grammar is difficult, especially the tenses, all right?

So, you probably don't even use the tenses.

I had students all the time go, "Teacher, I work yesterday", and I go, "You work yesterday?

You mean you worked?"

They go, "Yeah, teacher, you understand".

Tenses were gone.

They were like, "I got this verb, I know it's a verb, I know this is what I mean, but I

can't change it to past, present, or future", and it's okay because the native speaker basically

gets the understanding, right?

But you have work to do, right?

You got to master it so you can get to this stage, and we'll talk about that where you

end up forgetting it.

Yeah, but it's a good forget, don't worry.

80/20 conversations.

You cannot - when we say, "Carry a conversation", carrying it means you can hold one.

So, when we - when you carry a conversation, it's 50 me, 50 you.

It's 80 me, 20 you, because your English is here, and I have to pick you up, explain,

go slowly, and then you slow down, and then I have to pick you up.

If you find you have to ask people to slow down, explain a lot of words, you know, they

don't quite understand and they ask you to repeat, you're a beginner.

So, now you can look at that test a little bit more honestly and kind of go, "I think

I fall here", or "Congratulations", you're like, "No, none of that's true for me".

I'm like, "You're probably beginner-intermediate".

It's good.

So, let's look at the intermediate part.

I put "frustrating", but it's not just frustrating, it's also a little exciting.

I didn't put that because I didn't have room, as you can see, but you go, "How can it be

frustrating and exciting?"

Well, frustrating when you get to "why", and then exciting because of where you're going

to go.

You're no longer at this beginner stage where people have to hold your hand for a conversation.

You can do much, much more.

And this, beginners, by the way, this is what you have to look forward to.

It's not always going to be work.

It's going to start getting to be exciting when you can say something in more than two

or three sentences, and people go, "I understand you", and you're like, "Yes, yes!", all right?

Olé.

All right, so here, we go from 20-80 to 60-40.

You are now participating more in the conversation, and that's a really cool thing because, you

know, you get to say more, right?

You can use the proper tense with some thought.

So, you might say, "Teacher, I worked yesterday", "Oh, hang on", "Teacher, I worked yesterday",

just a little bit of thought.

It's not, "I don't know" the tense.

You got it, and maybe it takes a second for you to do it.

You are aware of your mistakes when you make them.

In the beginner category, they don't even know they're making mistakes.

They think it's okay, it's good.

They don't even know they don't know.

You are at a point where you're consciously aware of your mistakes, so you're like, "Ah,

okay.

I'm not in, I'm not conscious, it's not unconscious learning yet that it's in my brain and in

my heart, but I'm aware enough to go, 'Oh, that doesn't sound right.

That's not quite right.'"

So, you're intermediate.

All right?

That gives you the opportunity to fix it because you're aware of it.

Nice, right?

All right.

So, you can fix these things, all right?

Next, you have two or three words.

My poor ba-le, ba-le, ba-le, ba-le, ba-le.

You can say more than that.

I've got a video on "very", for instance, did it a while back, where I introduced that,

that many students will say, "Teacher is very good", "Teacher is very hot", "Teacher is

very poor", and I went, "No, you've got to learn, like, desolate.

You've got to learn, like, I don't know, I can't even think of words to change it up."

But I gave them an opportunity to say you can learn different words for "very".

"Very" is just one way of saying big or small, right?

It's just talking about magnitude.

And in that video, I gave them examples, and you, when you're an intermediate speaker,

won't just know "very".

You can know "extremely", right?

You can know...

It's like, what?

Yeah, you have different ways to express yourself, so you're getting closer to being able to

speak the way you want to speak, right?

Not like a grammar book, where...

And I love those grammar books, but "Tom has very big hands.

Mary is especially kind."

Like, we don't speak like that.

So, you start moving from the beginner, you know, English books to speaking like a fully

functional human being, alright?

You can speak, and this is the frustrating part, but not fully express yourself.

And that's why I said "frustrating", because you get your message out, but it's...

It's like a cake without icing.

It's a cake.

You can see it's a cake, it's soft, it's sweet, but the icing, mmm, that's when it's chocolate

icing, vanilla icing, maybe strawberry icing, it changes it.

It's just cake.

So, that's the frustrating part, because you're like, "Can we add a little icing to make it

a little sweeter?"

And they're like, "Not yet.

Not at your level."

But it's exciting, because at least you have a cake, you're going to start somewhere, okay?

You can watch, and I would love to watch my students say the first time they came back

from a movie, going, "I went to a movie theater, an English movie theater, I watched the movie,

and I understood 70% with no subtitles."

And they were excited, it wasn't frustrating.

Right?

Here, it'd be very frustrating, because you don't understand most of what they're saying.

But they could watch the movie and get a pretty good idea what's happening and what's going

to happen next.

So, it was exciting, because they're like, "And imagine if I knew 100%, I would know

exactly what happened, but I have an idea what's going on in the movie."

And that's a really good feeling, right?

It leads you to be excited.

Okay?

So, we've done that, and now we're saying if you're in between these two and you see

some of this here and some of this there, you know you're a beginner-intermediate, okay?

And that's also exciting, because you're moving up the ladder, you're going up the hill.

Now, what about advanced students?

What makes them so different from these guys, because this seems pretty cool, right?

Pretty good?

Well, this is when it becomes fun.

I know when I was really kind of studying Spanish a while back, and I was actually in

Spain, and I might have said this story before, so if you've heard it, I wouldn't say fast

forward, maybe it's still a good lesson for you to listen to.

And I went to a museum, and this woman, I asked her for something, like "¿Dónde le

bajan banjo?"

And then I asked her something else, and then she...

I said it in Spanish, and she gave me the thing for the museum, and it was in Spanish,

and I said, "I can't read this, I don't speak Spanish."

She's like, "Yeah, you speak good enough, goodbye."

And I was like, "Yes, I do!"

It was exciting at that time, it was fun, because I thought my Spanish was really bad,

and here was someone I spoke to who was Spanish, who was like, "You seem to know how to ask

for these things, you can understand that."

Right?

So, you understand everyday humour.

Oh, you understand humour is such a big thing, because in understanding humour, you have

to understand the culture, you have to understand what wordplay is, and that's very difficult

for a beginner student who only has one way to express and doesn't realize that some words

can have multiple meanings, so we're playing with the words or the language, or there's

cultural reference.

And that's why I say it's fun, because now you're really listening to our music, watching

our television, playing our video games, and that's fun stuff.

It's no more open a textbook, read chapter two.

Right?

Now you're able to just jump away from the school stuff, pick up a newspaper, have a

conversation, go on a dating app, and have fun with people, and not like I have to translate

everything because my English is low.

Okay?

You understand everyday speech, and some of you are going to go, "Duh, duh means stupid

in English."

Right?

Of course.

No, of course.

A lot of people actually, high intermediate or they're intermediate advanced, because

they understand, and I'm going to use something on you to prove my point, they understand

their work jargon, but actually everyday conversation that has slang and other things, they're not

so good at.

Huh?

Well, they learn enough business English to speak about contracts, and exports, and expansion,

and maybe a contraction, but as soon as you throw in a, I don't know, that chick's kind

of fat.

They're like, "Huh, she's big and fat."

I'm like, "No, no, no.

I mean, like, she's fat and tempting.

Like, she's good."

They're like, "Pretty hot and temp-" Whoa, whoa.

It's like everyday speech, which includes slang, contractions, idioms.

You can just...

You can converse.

You can do that.

I use the word jargon.

Jargon is like specific language, like idiomatic language for a certain set.

So, some people who are doctors can speak very high-level English, but they don't understand

everyday English.

Perfect example, I had a student, I think he was a banker or businessman.

His English was amazing, and there were a few of us students who were sitting out one

time, and I had a drink, and I put a straw in my drink, and some of you have heard this

story before.

I put a straw in my drink, and he goes, "What's that?"

I went, "Coke?"

He said, "No, what's that thing?

What do you call that thing you put in?"

I went, "Straw?"

He goes, "Oh, I didn't know that."

High-level English, but something that every day a child would know in English was beyond

his capability.

So, it was...

His jargon was excellent.

And you've heard me say before, you want to learn bar English, common English, and you

want to learn business English.

It's not just business, but I mean formal and informal English, so you're fully functional.

All right?

And that's an advanced student.

Speech flows naturally with no translation.

They speak, they don't have to think first, then speak, it just comes out as if it was

their native tongue.

Okay?

So, that goes without saying, and that will happen with the everyday speech, because it's

something that's normal for you.

All right?

Notice that dream speech we talked about, intermediate?

That's your brain processing all of that information, and now it can just use it.

It's like, okay, we got it.

We know what is right, what is wrong, da-da-da-da.

You don't need to think anymore, you can just have it.

It's like a child learning its first language, okay?

You understand sarcasm.

Okay, sarcasm.

If you're advanced, you already know what this is.

If you're advanced-intermediate, I'll tell you.

It's when somebody says something like, "Hey, that's a really cool shirt you're wearing",

and they don't mean it.

It's being sarcastic.

Right?

A sarcastic, like, "Yeah, you're the best one we've ever had working here.

Best employee."

They're being sarcastic.

If you only know literally what the words mean, it means the exact meaning of the word,

you don't get the fact they're playing with it.

And it's similar to humour, but sarcasm can be rude and can be used to hurt you.

So, as an advanced student, you know when someone's joking with you, being humorous,

saying, "Nice shirt, guy!"

And they're joking, it's fun, and "Nice shirt, guy!" and they're making fun of you.

Right?

Very big difference, so sarcasm.

And if you live in the UK, you really want to learn this because British people tend

to be rather sarcastic.

Right?

Okay.

You forget grammar rules and speak naturally.

Do you remember over here I said intermediate?

You start...

You're aware of the grammar rules, you should be proud of yourself, yay.

Well, this is why it gets fun.

You forget them.

And sometimes, just like native speakers, you might have a hard time explaining them,

because you just...

"Well, that's just the past tense.

It's just the past tense.

That's what we say."

Always some student goes, "But why, teacher, why do you have to do this with present perfect?

Why do you have to have..."

And they're like, "I don't know, that's what you do.

Everybody knows that's what you do."

You will get there, where it's just so natural that you'll have to think, "What are the rules?"

But your speech, and here's the key part, your speech will be correct.

It's just...

It's now that whole dream thing I said, and you know, you slip into it, you slip sometimes

into language, it's so inside of you that you don't think about it, you just do.

Like walking.

You don't think about, "Will gravity help me, and how do I move my next leg and arm?"

You just do it.

That's what's going to happen.

Once again, fun.

If you speak Italian, you know what I'm saying, what I'm saying this to you, okay?

I can fully express myself by using my...

Some Italians go, "He's so rude.

Do you see what he's doing?"

And other people go, "I don't know what he's doing, he's just moving his hands."

But you can express yourself fully, you know?

It's exactly who you are, the way you want to tell people, just using funny words in

another language.

You feel completely comfortable in the situation, knowing that they know not just what you said,

but who you are behind those words.

And that's really kind of fun and cool, right?

And the last one is reading between the lines.

A lot of times, speakers - and this is similar to sarcasm - they're saying something and

they want you to get what they're saying because they're not saying it directly.

"Johnson, the company is experiencing some bad times right now, and we're going to have

to let a few people go.

People that we like a lot, like you.

You know, we like you a lot, right?

You're being fired."

The guy's not saying it, but read between the lines, you should go, "Should I get my

stuff and go now, boss?"

He's trying to be nice to let you know you're being fired, that's reading between the lines.

It's not sarcasm, it's not humour, they want you to read between the lines.

Or another one could be this, "You know, that girl that I met at the club, she said she

wants to go out with me, and she said she might come to my house tonight, she might

come to my house."

I'm going to go, "Dude, she's not coming.

What do you mean?"

I'm going, "Read between the lines.

If it's a date, there's no'might', she's coming.

She said'might' to be nice to you, and you were supposed to understand it's not going

to happen."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I know what you were taught in grammar,'might' is a possibility, but in this case,

no way."

[Laughs]

Sorry, that's - an advanced student would get that right away.

An intermediate student would go, "What are the grammar rules for this?"

And a beginner student wouldn't even know.

[Laughs]

So, pat yourself on the back, and maybe it's a good thing or a bad thing, but you'll understand

real intent.

All right, so I've covered all of these things, right?

And now I want to go - because it's not a quiz, it's to help you to, once again, find

out what your real level is, so we started with a simple quiz to give an approximate.

Now you can see how far, how many of these things - and they will travel in a bit of

a pack, right, as a group, so you might not be blue, you might be blue and black, or you

might be black and a bit of red, or all red.

Let's see what practical advice I can give you to help you make that shift from beginner

to intermediate to advanced.

I'm going to go over here, I'm going to do advice, and of course, we'll have our homework.

You ready?

Let's go to the board.

Okay.

So, my first advice, if you are a beginner, make shorter sentences.

What?

Yeah, say, "I am happy.

I like to work.

I like it here."

This way you will have to - you will get away with not saying so many grammatical forms,

you will be clearly understood, which is important if you want people to keep talking to you.

If I have a difficult time because your grammar is exceedingly poor, or very poor, I'm probably

not going to talk a lot to you, and nor will many people.

But by making your sentences shorter, you'll have more time to think about them, get them

to be correct and accurate, making it easy for other people - fluency - to understand

you and continue conversation with you.

How can we push this forward?

Because this is just to make sure you're able to continue a conversation.

Start writing out two or three sentences every day in English.

I would also recommend reading a book and write, you know, to get an idea of how English

is spoken.

By the way, this lesson isn't about, as I said from the beginning, it's not, you know,

the be all and end all about your level is this and that, because I'm not talking about

your reading skills, I'm not talking about your writing skills.

A lot - for a lot of people, fluency is the ability to communicate by listening and speaking,

because it's instant, so you're either right or wrong.

That's basically what this is about, so I know I'm introducing now reading and writing,

but I have done other videos where I talked about the importance of reading and writing

to actually enhance your speaking skills, right?

I've had some good students who talked - said things like they watched movies and they were

able to improve their writing skills with the subtitles, because they were reading and

listening, putting together the words with the sounds, right?

And that's what I'm kind of saying here.

Start writing out sentences, because it gives you time to think about what you're doing,

and that's why this is you short sentences, but then I'm saying write out two or three

that go together, so ideas start to flow and you can put in the proper grammar, okay?

And I'd also say - sorry, as I said, write, read.

Reading will help you see the language on paper, and it's slow enough because you read

as slow or as fast as you want for you to take that information in.

Next, if you're into media, start two or three sentences, write out a page in English.

I went to the store and bought some milk, and then I went - then I went home, and then

I slept.

That's easy.

Now, write a page.

It's that whole journey, okay?

I woke up in the morning, I took a shower, and then I went to the kitchen, I opened the

door, I bent down to pick up - a lot more, right?

So we're moving from two or three, writing a page, I'll take more.

Notice I said "read" here?

I didn't write it down, because here I'm like "read more".

So, if you're reading, like, you know, the cereal box in the morning, that's all you

read?

I'm saying grab a magazine, grab a book, grab - I don't know, grab whatever you can and

read a paragraph.

Spend at least 15 minutes a day reading in English, and that's the bare minimum, the

smallest amount you can do.

Probably be saying do 15 to 45 minutes a day in English, reading it.

Because it's not just the idea of reading, it's getting in your brain how the language

works, okay?

And I've talked before about strong focus and soft focus, that's a kind of strong focus

to get your brain to actually hit that language, right?

Make a progress video, and some of you go "what the hell does that mean?"

Start today.

If you're watching me, it means you're on some type of machine that you can see the

internet.

So, that could be a phone, or a laptop, or a tablet.

Press record, give yourself two or three minutes, and speak into it.

Try and see how far you can go before you're like "uh, ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch,

nur ein bisschen, aber", and it's like, do you have to stop and go "oh, what's next,

what's next"?

Watch yourself.

Put on three minute, five minute timer, whatever, see how many breaks you take or how fluent

you are.

And keep doing that.

Okay, and see what happens after a week, two weeks, three months.

See what the change is.

Also, see what mistakes you're still making and how you can improve them.

Yes, it's a tool, okay?

Now, here.

Watch movies with subtitles.

I didn't say TV programs, I have said that in previous videos, and I think it's...

I prefer to tell students not to watch with subtitles first, because you want to hear

the language naked and see what you can hear and not hear, taking notes and then seeing

what's going on and what you're missing, then put on the subtitles to compare, and then

try and say the lines with the actors.

This is...

Do it in another video or I've done one.

Go check it out, just listen for my listening skills, you'll find it.

So I'm saying watch movies, not TV programs.

TV programs can be 30 minutes, a movie is up to two hours, maybe more, so it's going

to take a lot more focus on your part.

But you're intermediate, so at least 70% of the movie you can get because you have enough

English in your arsenal, which means in your pocket, right, or your weapons.

So watch it with subtitles, all right?

And I would say at least the first time, watch it without, and then put it on and see what

happens, see what you're missing.

Why you're missing it is a lack of vocabulary, complex grammar, speech patterns, the British...

The English speakers were putting the words together, and then you can figure out that's

the area I want to move to in order to improve, okay?

Now, you're going to see this weird thing where I've got "no", because I'm saying no

subtitles here, like, right, so here, we're going here, no.

So when you go into the advanced, take the same thing, advice I just gave you, but don't

have subtitles.

So, here, intermediate, watch the movie with subtitles, advanced, no subtitles, so we're

going from here and moving down, okay?

Now, this is where it gets fun, because even for a beginner, you're like, "Oh my gosh,

I have to write two or three sentences in my English, it's going to be so hard, and

I said it's going to be work."

But you're going to go from two to three sentences to be able to write a whole page in a foreign

language.

That's kind of cool.

You'll be able to read and understand things.

You'll be able to make a video in another language.

You'll be able to watch a movie in another language, and at least understand 70%.

That is a cool step to go from beginner to intermediate, but why stop there?

[Laughs]

Let's go to the advanced.

In advanced, notice how I said stop watching movies with subtitles?

Just don't do it.

Force yourself to learn more.

Write out the mistakes without having the subtitles and figure it out.

That's a power.

Some people can't even do it in their own language, but that's another story.

How about this?

You want to up, you know, take another level up, go take a step up?

Learn a skill using English, and if you go, "Well, that would be difficult", no it's not.

Right now, you're on YouTube, so what you could do is stop for a second, go watch a

cat video.

No.

Don't do that.

[Laughs]

But what you could do is, after this video, go put on a video on, like, how to make...

How to make an omelette, a Western omelette, in English, and watch it, and learn how to

cook.

So, you're taking one skill, language acquirement, you've just got language, and you're using

it to learn another skill, how to cook, or how to build a birdhouse, or how to put together

Ikea furniture.

I don't know how to do that.

I don't know anyone who does.

[Laughs]

I think they do that on purpose, you know.

Learn in English, and then perhaps you could learn how to put together Ikea, then you're

a superhuman being, you know, it's good.

But speaking of becoming a superhero, you know, and this is...

This is not for a normal person.

Most people will get here, and that'll be good enough.

And actually, I would expect you to get here, because if you've learned English and you

start a new job, and you can't learn any new skills on that job, your English is actually

pretty low.

So, when people say, "Oh, you learned English, you can learn new skills, yay!"

That's what you're heading for, because once you have that language, you should be able

to learn it to learn skills.

But if you want to put the "S" on your chest and become a superhero, learn another language

using English.

What?

Let's just say you speak Russian.

"Да, I speak Russian, yeah."

Don't learn, say, French in Russian, use English to learn French.

"Yeah, my friend, you are that good.

Da."

If you can do that, using your new English skills to learn another language, you've stepped

up to another level, because not only have you mastered the skill, the language of English,

you're actually using it to master your brain, really, because you've got neurons firing

and growing from what you've done, and then you're using it, again, it's like adding on,

top, you know, thing upon thing, you're adding on, neuron to neuron, you're building a structure

of your brain, right?

You can do this, I don't know many people who can do this, this is like Olympic level.

So, go here, good, and then when you're done, say, "You know what, I'm not done with this

thing, because I'm going to learn it to learn another language", and not only will you have

one language, but then you'll become, my friend, what they call a polyglot.

Not many of those around, all right?

And that's truly impressive.

So, I've got to get going, but before I go, I've got a simple homework assignment for

you to do.

Let's just see what your language level is, and everybody will be able to tell you, so,

it's going to be really easy.

Oh, it's going to be really terrible, too, thumbs up and thumbs down.

So, if someone says, "I'm a beginner", so in the comments, I want you to write out your

own tip.

What tips do you have, because I've given some tips here, and students have done so,

for people to move up in language?

So, you say, "When I was a beginner, I used to do this", right?

Or "When I was intermediate, I would do this, and it helped me advance".

So, write out your tips in the comments section, whether on engVid or on YouTube, okay?

And students are going to give you two options for this one.

Give them a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Thumbs up, so they're going to say, "My tip is I'm a beginner", so first say, "I'm a beginner",

"I'm intermediate", or "I'm advanced", and then leave your tip.

Now, depending on how you write it, students are going to get a choice.

They can give you a thumbs up, meaning yes, you are, or you're higher, or a thumbs down,

which is you're not advanced, you're more like an intermediate, and you're going to

see by other people's impression, by how many ups and downs you get, whether you're truly

advanced like you think, or maybe you're lower than you think.

It's going to take some really - you're going to have to be really strong, because people

can be brutal, trust me, I know.

Second, if you don't want to do that one, write out a story of your own improvement.

What I mean is the time you realize you improved, because learning a language is like taking

a trip.

You hop in your car, or your bicycle, or whatever, you start driving, and sometimes you arrive

at your destination, and you didn't even know what took place prior to, like you forgot

half the journey.

And it's kind of too bad, because when you forget half the journey, you don't realize

how much work you've actually put in to appreciate the work you've done, right?

So anyway, leave your improvement story, you might say, the first time - and I remember

the first time I was sitting in a restaurant with a friend of mine when I was doing some

German - like, studying German, and there was a German couple, and they were speaking, and

they were like, "Haben Sie Milch?"

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, it wasn't that, it was chocolate cake.

It was like, "Ich" - I remember them saying, like, "I would like ein Stück Schokoladenkugeln."

It's like, you're going, "What is that?"

They wanted a piece of chocolate cake, and I was like, "Really?

You want chocolate cake?"

And I realized I didn't translate, I just knew what that guy wanted, and it was in a

foreign language, but to me, it was just like he spoke English.

It's the coolest feeling to have.

Anyway, I've got to get going, but before I go, I want to talk to you, because I want

you to go to www.engvid.com, where there won't be a quiz on this, for obvious reasons, but

you can see other languages, other lessons where I've taken the time to give you some

deeper advice on how to improve your language, on grammar, conversation, listening skills.

There are other fantastic teachers.

And just to tell you, you know, like, everybody's got to learn something new.

I just learned a new trick.

Let's see if I can do this.

Well, not really, but like everybody else, we learn and we get better, right?

Have a good one.

See you soon.