How Your Religion Affects Your Fluency - The English Fluency Guide

Hi there.

I am Drew Badger, the English Fluency Guide.

In this video, I'm going to talk about how your religion affects your ability to speak,

affects your fluency.

Well, this is going to be an interesting video, got my whiteboard here with me and today I've

got a black marker.

Yeah, because some people I guess couldn't read my writing.

I apologize for that.

Hopefully, you got the message anyway, but I'm going to talk about something.

Well, let me start at the beginning here.

First of all, I was talking with a friend of mine recently and he was saying, kind of

talking about me about what I do.

I was explaining to him about the difference between a guide and a teacher.

So, an English Fluency Guide is thinking more about the student and a teacher is thinking

more about the language.

This is a really important distinction because a teacher is really going to be thinking more

about how I can push the language onto a student, and this is why teachers are going to be giving

you just more rules and vocabulary.

As a guide, I'm thinking more about the student, how to protect the student, guide the student,

and show the student really what's actually important and dealing with maybe the problems

that the student has and then trying to integrate the language with the student.

Now, most people are pretty similar about this.

Lots of students have the same kinds of problems, but most of that is because of how traditional

teachers are teaching the language and they're focused more on the language than talking

about how the student or beginning with the student and thinking about how they really

need to learn and what their problems are.

So, I was explaining this and it's important to share that with you because what we're

going to talk about today has very little to do with the actual learning of an English

language or any language, whatever language you want to learn or anything else that you'd

like to do and be successful at.

So, when I talk about religion for this video, religion really refers to what you believe

about certain things.

So, these are convictions you have or beliefs that you have.

So, we'll just write the word belief.

Now, I always thought it was interesting when I was younger, a little kid, and first learning

how to spell, I was like, "Huh, it's interesting that the word lie is in the word belief."

I want to talk about this because the beliefs that you have about how you learn are incredibly

important to whether you become fluent or not.

It really is as strong as a religion for many people, so like Christianity or Islam or whatever

the religion may be.

I'm not really focused on that kind of religion.

This is more a secular religion or just thinking about the traditional things you believe.

Often as you'll see in this video, the beliefs you have about how you learn come from traditional

teachers and the lessons that you have.

So, if you begin by thinking about the beliefs you have, even before you're learning more

words and grammar, it will help you clarify or think about or understand what you should

really be doing to become a fluent speaker.

Because for almost anything that we want to do that we want to be successful at, we are

the ones who stop ourselves from doing things because of our beliefs.

So, I just want to just cover a few of these things and hopefully this will become more

clear as we go through the video, but this is an incredibly important thing to remember.

I know many learners and many really just videos on YouTube that are teaching English,

they're just going to give you, "Hey, here's five more phrases or here's this more vocabulary

or whatever some grammar point."

The worst is just grammar videos that show a grammar table and teach you a whole bunch

of vocabulary like that.

If you have beliefs that are telling you language learning is difficult or it's going to take

a long time, then you're really going to struggle with that no matter what you're learning with.

So hopefully, we can change some of those beliefs.

If you already have these beliefs, this is fantastic and that's going to lead you more

to success.

Many people have said this, but whether you believe you can do something or you can't,

you're correct.

So, think about that idea, whether you believe you can do something or you can't, you're

correct.

So, one of the beliefs, and if you have these, again, this is usually because teachers are

making people believe these things the way they teach.

The first one is that fluency takes a long time.

Write this very quickly here.

So fluency takes a long time.

It looks like you can see that, but the idea here that fluency takes a long time, this

is a belief that people have.

It's not true.

It's a belief that people have, and I know this may be shocking to some people, especially

if you've been learning for a long time and you've been struggling to speak.

Oh no.

Of course, fluency takes a long time.

You have to learn for 10,000 hours or whatever the rule is, something like that.

This is a belief.

It's not true it's a belief, and I'm going to show you why it's just a belief now.

The idea that fluency takes a long time is it really comes from people having this idea

of you study for a long period of time.

You continue to review things, you learn more and more and more and at some point people

never can tell you how long this is.

That's why there's lots of videos telling you, you can get fluent in a day or you can

get fluent in 5 months or 10 months or whatever it is.

The reality is that fluency is actually something that it occurs instantly and it occurs word

by word or phrase by phrase.

When you understand something, that's what it means to understand something fluently.

When you understand something fluently, you can use it fluently.

As an example, if I'm trying to learn something in Japanese and I'm trying to learn through

a translation, which is what most people do, then I'm not really understanding fluently.

I'm understanding through a translation, so I have to speak through a translation as well

and this is why so many people have to stop and hesitate and think about what they want

to say before they say it.

Then finally they say something but it's usually not correct.

They obviously feel a little bit nervous about saying that thing and the whole conversation

just doesn't flow very well because of that.

So the reality is if I teach you something, here's just like a basic example in Japanese.

If I have like we have two squares here basically.

I'm not the greatest artist, but here we have two squares over here.

So, I'm going to color one of these in.

Now, if I were to actually teach Japanese in Japanese lesson, I wouldn't be using any

English at all but just for the example here.

We can have like [foreign language 00:06:55] and [foreign language 00:06:56].

Now, just by using that [foreign language 00:06:59] and [foreign language 00:07:02],

you can see what's different between these two examples.

So, this is a black square.

It's supposed to be black.

It looks almost a bit more gray, but we'll just call this a black square and this is

a white square.

Now, if you understand the colors, even just by listening to that, the thing that's seen

between these two is [foreign language 00:07:18], which is the name of the shape.

The thing that's different is the color.

So, [foreign language 00:07:24] like kuro meaning black and shiro meaning white.

So, if I use these two, you're actually learning.

You might not understand everything perfectly, but basically, the idea, you're connecting

directly with the language and so you learn it instantly.

You've understood what [foreign language 00:07:40] means so square, [foreign language 00:07:41]

and you're learning basic colors as well.

So kuro and shiro for black and white.

Again, it's not perfect but it's the same way children are learning and this is how

children learn their native language.

So, they're learning all through their native language and they're putting the language

together like a puzzle piece.

So again, we have these two beliefs or these two ideas about fluency and whatever you believe

is true for you because of how you learned.

So this belief here about fluency taking a long time, it's because of the way traditional

teachers teach.

A guide, what I'm doing, is I'm going to help you understand the language by making you

contrast things, keeping things very simple, only having one variable that's different,

one thing that's different.

So, I made a whole app about this, the whole Frederick app that I made to help people learn

pronunciation and reading and spelling.

It's all this idea.

So learning everything in English, and this is the way a guide teaches, not the way a

teacher teaches, but because of this difference.

If you have these different beliefs about how the language works, does that make sense?

So, language learners typically think it takes a long time because it takes long time.

So, it's true for them as part of that religion about traditional language learning.

So for my religion, for language learning, fluency is instant.

You build all these different things that you learn instantly together, but you're learning

each one of these instantly that's why you can communicate fluidly at any level.

You see this with children when they're learning a language.

So, my daughter or both of my daughters, now my second daughter, she's one year old now

and just starting to speak, but she's understanding body part names and colors and things like

that.

She can use that fluently even for this limited vocabulary.

A non-native learner who's learning the traditional way is going to have this problem because

they're thinking about each one of these as, "Okay, I learned this, but I learned just

the translation of it.

I didn't really learn it fluently.

So hopefully, in the future I become fluent out here."

But, it doesn't work that way.

So, this is a misunderstanding of how fluency develops.

It's not something that happens over time.

It's something that happens instantly, and the more things that you learn fluidly because

you study the right way, the more you become fluent.

Again, you can use this even you're using a limited vocabulary fluently just like children

do or you're a non-native speaker having trouble using even a large vocabulary because you

didn't learn any of these individual pieces fluently.

Does that make sense?

Hopefully, this does.

Let me erase this.

So again, it's a belief that you have about something like fluency taking a long time.

The next one is that you need a teacher.

This one is a really challenging belief to get over for many students because everyone

just thinks you need a teacher when you're learning all throughout your life, not just

languages, but anything.

Almost always there is a teacher who is showing you how to do something rather than the discovery

or discoverable learning, explorative learning that I do.

So again, just using the app as an example.

When you're learning with that, you're teaching yourself.

In this example, when you're in the everyday world, this is a great proverb of it takes

a village to raise a child.

It takes a village to raise a child.

What that means is that like a child in a community is learning lots of things from

different people.

A student in a classroom is usually learning something from one one teacher, and now that

teacher again might be teaching the traditional way.

They're not really helping them understand things without using translations or they're

just teaching more rules and vocabulary lists that aren't really working with the brain.

In this example, for me, learning Japanese, I took only four Japanese classes in an actual

classroom with a teacher and I quit because it was so boring.

It didn't work for me.

I didn't enjoy learning that way at all and it's because of these same kind of things,

more trying to teach me rules and have me remember things the way most textbooks would

teach.

So, what I did instead is I'm actually learning from many different people.

I'll get to another thing about beliefs, another thing about beliefs here.

This is the word, one of my favorite words, excuses.

Excuses.

So, what is your excuse?

Or talking about anyone out there for not getting fluent or for not doing something.

Humans are very good at coming up with excuses rather than reaching goals.

So, it's much easier to think of an excuse why you can't do something than to reach that

goal by taking action.

So people will tell me, "Hey Drew, you got fluent in Japanese because your wife is Japanese."

Well, that's true and not true.

Again, in my case like I don't really want to say this, but my wife would agree with

me.

She's not really a very good teacher.

She thinks about things like she'll often try to translate words for me when I say like,

"No, no, no, tell it to me in Japanese.

Explain it to me how you would tell a child and I'm asking in Japanese."

but she's also saying, "Well, I'm busy.

I don't have time to think about that."

Just because someone is a native speaker of their language doesn't mean they're qualified

to teach.

You've probably seen this like anybody can get on YouTube and teach English just because

they know English but doesn't mean they know how to teach.

Anyway, what I did instead is I'm actually looking for lots of different examples of

how to do something.

It could be from various people I meet and this is in person or online or whatever.

I'm looking for different people using the same expression or how other people, like

maybe there again like it could be TV shows or actual people or radio or whatever.

I'm getting lots of feedback from many different people.

So, it takes a village to teach someone how to really develop fluency because you don't

want to just get it from one source.

Another thing about needing a teacher, and again, there's nothing really wrong with having

a teacher, someone to guide you, but don't depend on just one person to teach you how

to do something.

So, this is why in my lessons I teach people ... I'm giving them pieces of that, but showing

how native speakers are using the language.

I'm also saying, go out and here are strategies you can use to meet native English speakers

to practice with, so that you have a whole community that it's actually teaching you

the language.

You're not depending on just one person to get language learning lessons from.

Does all this make sense?

So the need for a teacher, people have been learning with teachers usually for many, many

years.

Even though that hasn't been successful for them, they haven't become fluent yet.

They still are looking for more teacher.

It's like a crazy thing.

It's like they've been getting beaten by teachers for a long time.

I know some teachers are going to be upset at me for making this video.

I apologize.

I think teachers are fantastic.

I was a teacher for many years as well before I became a guide, but it's still the same

idea.

As a teacher, you can learn how to teach in a better way that helps students discover

ideas for themselves rather than try to teach them more words.

A big problem, if you're looking for more of the same kind of thing, this is just a

belief that you need a teacher.

I don't want to go through too many of these because this video is going to go too long,

but I really just want to explain these in depth about the reasons why people don't become

fluent speakers.

So, I'll just give you one more and this is that no one to practice.

I'll just put a P ... practice with, PW.

So, no one to practice with.

Now, this is another one.

This is again a belief that people have where hey, I have no one to practice speaking with.

Again, if you believe this is true, then it is, but if you don't believe that's true.

So for me, even learning Japanese when I was back in the United States and early when I

was learning Japanese, I spent more time living in America than I did in Japan.

I improved more when I was back in America than in Japan by just figuring out a better

way to learn, but also finding people to practice with.

I was living ... I found people in Chicago.

I found Japanese speakers in Seattle.

I found Japanese speakers in ... Where else was I?

Let's see.

I was in ... Even in Europe, so in London I found Japanese speakers.

In Amsterdam, I found Japanese speakers.

Even on a little tiny island in Alaska, I found Japanese speakers.

Isn't that crazy?

Now, Japanese speakers are more difficult to find than English speakers because they

are just so many English speakers around the world.

I mean if you are anywhere, even if you're just only online, like you live on a mountain

or some tiny village, if you can watch this video right now, you can connect with native

English speakers.

So, this is a belief that people have.

If you want to find people to practice speaking with, you can.

It's not difficult, but you have to think like a native speaker about how you contact

people rather than thinking like a student.

I don't want to go into too much detail about this, but this is really important.

Just as a kind of contrast, I'll talk about business beliefs in the same way.

So one idea, like let's say right now the economy is not doing well because of Coronavirus

or whatever.

Now, you can believe that.

You can just say, "Well, the economy is really bad.

So now my business must be going bad as well."

Or I could believe maybe because of there's competition ... Now, here's some beliefs about

business.

Even for me, so I've been teaching on YouTube for 10 years and now a lot more people are

on the platform and helping people learn and I think that's great.

At the same time, it could mean there's increased competition for what I do.

So, there's a fact about more people being able to do it, but I wouldn't use that as

an excuse for not doing well or whatever.

Because the interesting thing about business for that, like you could say, "Well, now there

are too many people in the market, but if business is not going well, there are now

maybe fewer people in the market."

A business owner is worried about that.

Or if there's only the one business in the market, they think, "Well, my thing is too

unique or different so it can't be successful."

So, some people are worried about too many people in the market, others are worried about

not enough competition in the market.

Isn't that crazy?

But, it's all about the beliefs that you have.

Now, again, I don't want to take too much time in this video explaining this, but the

beliefs that you have about learning, whatever you think.

So, if you think about something and say like, "I can't do this."

Like I can't practice because I don't have anyone to practice speaking with or I need

a teacher to get fluent or fluency takes a long time, stop and ask, "Is that really true?"

And, is there an example of someone who's done the opposite or proved that the opposite

is true?

If that's the case, then likely you just have a belief and you can change that belief first

and that will open up your mind to lots of opportunities.

So if you think, "I don't have anyone to practice with or there is no one around me in my community

to practice speaking with."

If you just switch that belief, if you think, "Well, maybe that's not true."

then you can think, "Okay, maybe that's not true." and your mind begins to open up and

all of a sudden you begin to find people.

So, because I believed Japanese speakers like I could find them anywhere I wanted to and

if I couldn't find someone personally right where I was, I would find them online but

I was going to find people.

Because I believe that, I made it happen and you can do the same thing too.

So, either you are good at believing what's correct or you were good at making excuses.

So, this is a little bit of a tough love.

This is a great expression for you, tough.

Make sure you can see this.

Tough.

Tough love.

It means I'm going to be a little bit strict.

Sometimes as a guide, I have to hit people a little bit and say, "Stop doing that.

Do this in a different way.

Stop believing things that stopped you from getting fluent."

Does all this makes sense?

All right.

I don't want to take too much time in this video, but it's a very important video and

hopefully this makes sense.

If you have other beliefs and you want to argue with me in the comments, go ahead and

post them down below.

If you see a comment below that says, I can't do something because of something, give them

a counter example.

Say like, "Well, I live in this country too and I found people to practice speaking with."

I'm not going to tell you how to solve every single thing.

The point is think about the bigger idea of how to get fluent by thinking first about

your beliefs before you think about more vocabulary and grammar.

All right.

Well, that has been me, the English Fluency Guide explaining more about this very important

idea.

Remember to take your time, go back and think about what beliefs you have that are stopping

you from getting fluent, because all you have to do is reverse them.

Try thinking the opposite.

Even if you don't believe it, it might be hard at first, but just try believing the

opposite because a negative belief won't help you at all.

So, try the opposite.

Make sense, right?

All right.

Well, that's the end of this video.

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how I guide learners to fluency, where I'm talking not just about the language and all

the great phrases and expressions that I help people learn, but thinking about these kinds

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