The 5 Master Skills Of A Fluent English Speaker

see how we're doing

all right I think we're ready for some live  action here on YouTube I am Drew Badger the  

founder of englishanyone.com and the English  fluency guide it is a pleasure to welcome you  

to another live video here uh and today we are  going to be talking about the five Master skills  

of affluent English speaker all right let's see  if we've got uh live rolling over here I think  

chat probably is like not working like usual or  maybe it will be on let's see hopefully this is  

working let me know in the chat if this is  working and hopefully we should be going  

live here let's see how we're doing all right  looks like a chat is live all right very good  

all right let me get this set up here so  again my screen my phone is not displaying  

chat so I will take time while I'm looking at  things on my computer uh as I go through this  

this should be an interesting video I've never  talked about all of these things in one video  

before maybe some of them I've never even talked  about in any video but I thought this would be  

interesting because I like thinking about the kind  of deeper psychology and things about language  

learning rather than only uh like nouns and verbs  and adjectives and that kind of thing because a  

lot of because fluency is a skill that you must  develop you really have to have the right mindset  

and the right skills under the vocabulary in order  to use it fluently so that's what we'll be talking  

about today all right so let me know if you have  any questions let's see as I erase the board here

now it looks like the thumbnail went up  backwards for this video of course they're  

like doing something silly over here but nice to  see everybody here all right hopefully yes Chad is  

working it's good to see everybody here all right  so I want to get into this I will I will keep an  

eye on chat as I go through this but hopefully I  can get through all five of these different things  

and you'll see how they're connected and then  I'll be answering questions if people have any  

uh in between these but if you have questions  about I don't know fluency or other things in  

general this video should probably answer most of  those for you really I want to cover everything in  

one video so people can know what to do all right  so we're going to do today what we're going to  

do today is contrast uh basically two different  ways of learning or the different skills and the  

different mindset that uh that people have uh the  English learner that's still struggling to speak  

versus uh the let's see if we have enough space  for that okay how much space we have this goes all  

the way over here okay all right so we're going to  be talking about a couple of different things so  

we're going to have five spaces here so you can  keep track of everything see one two three four  

and then five down here all right and so what we  have on the left this is the typical things for  

we'll just say Learners uh but anyone who is still  like you would think of yourself as a learner  

rather than a fluent speaker already and these  are going to be the fluent speakers over here  

so flew into and I will do my best with my  handwriting I will actually try to write Less  

in this video to make this a little bit easier  for everybody all right so it looks like Chad is  

working let's get into this uh what you're going  to see in this video I want to show you how each  

of these skills it's really two different mindsets  for Learning and by mindset I just mean the way  

you think about all kinds of things related  to language learning so related to language  

learning related to communication and how if  you if you start thinking more like on this  

column over here rather than this one you will  really feel a lot more confident you will feel  

more relaxed you will improve faster everything  just does better on this side rather than on this  

one okay so it's not it's not like a bad thing if  you're over here this is kind of the natural way  

that most people learn and so we're going to talk  about like kind of different ways of learning now  

the last thing I will say before we get into this  list is that some of this uh some of these things  

that I'll talk about they might seem a little  bit weird or odd and you might think well that  

it like doesn't seem very rational or reasonable  but you have to just kind of trust me on this one  

so part of what we're we're looking at over  here again these are ways of thinking and so  

typically the learner way we can think  about this as there's a lot of if I can  

fit this in here there's going to be fear in  this approach and there's going to be worry

so a lot of Learners have various doubts  and fears and worries about things and  

so that's not just about the language  that's also about themselves and being  

able to communicate and so over on this  side we really want to think about trust

actually I'm going to say faith I know this sounds  a little bit weird but you'll see this in a minute  

you'll see why but as we go through the system  really there is it will make a lot of sense as we  

go through and each of these things is connected  to the others all right hopefully this makes sense  

learner for life let's go all right let's do it  all right so the first thing I want to talk about  

about mindset is all about listening listening all  right now the the first thing let's see I'll put  

our numbers up here let's see one two three four  and five so the first one has to do with listening  

and usually what you have for Learners uh is  basically have divided attention divided attention

now this marker might not be so  good let me try a different one  

so divided attention and this one over  here and this is a it's a tough skill  

to develop but I promise you it will it will  affect everything in your life not just your  

ability to communicate uh but this is actual like  complete attention or we'll just say 100 attention

now what do I mean by this when I'm talking  about attention I mean in a conversation when  

you're just listening to the other person's  speak or even if you're not in a conversation  

and you're listening to a lesson or something  like that so usually what happens with a learner  

so someone who is not yet fluent they  have many worries about what they're  

going to say or what they're going to  do or even their thinking about dinner  

or you know something that's unrelated  to the conversation so you might be in  

a conversation with someone and you might  be listening I don't know maybe 60 percent

if you're listening about 60 to what they're  saying so your attention is focused about 60  

on what they're saying and maybe maybe like 10 or  20 percent you're thinking about yourself like uh  

trying to really process what they're saying or  you're thinking about what you want to say next  

in the conversation there's a lot of preparation  that goes on uh in the mind of people when  

they're trying to speak and again this is not just  language Learners this is really people in general  

so often people will have divided attention where  they're speaking with someone but their attention  

isn't really focused on the other person okay  and this is a is a really tough skill to do so  

again this is not just language Learners this is  people all over but I promise you if you can have  

one hundred percent attention or get like as close  to that as possible that's really going to help  

you listen to other people and actually learn  more so again what happens in in the mind of a  

typical learner they have divided attention mostly  because they're worried about what what they're  

going to say next so they're trying to listen to  the other person that's part of this and they're  

also trying to think about what they want to say  and maybe their attention is also divided uh into  

something else like they're thinking about again  dinner or you know what did they do yesterday or  

well I'm kind of bored with this conversation  what do I want to do instead even as you watch  

this video you will notice that your attention  might shift to something else and then you'll  

think oh what am I doing for dinner tonight or  what did Drew just say I wasn't listening to that  

so this will happen this is a natural thing that  happens and it's it's very difficult to control  

your attention because your mind is always  thinking about different things all right but  

I promise you if you can really just try to do  this part of this just comes from relaxing but  

also the most important part that I like to remind  Learners of is that the fluency and the learning  

really comes from what the other person says so if  you're in a conversation you saying something to  

the other person isn't really helping you become  a more fluent speaker what you really should be  

doing especially if you're in a conversation with  a native speaker is you should be paying very  

close attention really 100 percent attention to  what the other person is saying and I noticed this  

in my own conversations remember I am a learner as  well so when I'm speaking with people some days if  

I'm tired I'm not really trying to focus or people  say things I'm just like yeah what did you say I  

don't really I'm not really paying attention to  that person very carefully all right and I noticed  

that I don't learn things I don't I don't absorb  as much information but when I do really pay  

attention and I make the effort just to focus on  them without worrying about what I'm going to say  

I'm really just listening to the other person and  often I will find just new things I can learn some  

new vocabulary new grammar structures whatever  but also I find I have better conversations with  

people so when I'm not worried about what I  want to say I'm only listening to the other  

person I'm really going to feel a lot better and  make them feel better too so people want to feel  

listened to everybody likes to speak everybody  likes to express themselves but fewer of us are  

trying to listen to the other person so there  are many good reasons to try to practice this  

skill to try to develop this but I promise you uh  it's often the fear and worry that you won't know  

how to respond that stops you from from really  just giving 100 to the other person by listening  

all right so you have to give again this is why  I mention a little bit of trust a little bit of  

faith on this side over here because this requires  you to relax and think okay I'll be fine uh maybe  

I won't get to say exactly what I want to say or  something we'll cover that in just a moment but  

the important thing here is that you're really  spending your time trying to listen to the other  

person as best as possible so you really want  to focus your attention because that's where the  

lesson is okay the lesson is not coming from you  you don't really become a more fluent speaker by  

speaking I know this sounds weird but you actually  become more fluent by getting lots more input from  

the other person so the more understandable  messages you get from other people the more  

you will feel fluent and it's much easier to learn  those things if you're paying attention for them  

okay I'm gonna go buy a chat uh make sure  everybody understands this should be going  

around okay should be let's see oh my God it's  my first time on a live stream glad to hear it  

all right it looks like everybody's still with me  though hopefully uh they're they're probably no  

questions about this it should be pretty easy to  understand this is one of those skills where it's  

easy to know what to do but hard in practice again  the mind is naturally looking for other things to  

do it's always you have like a monkey mind where  you're you're constantly searching for other  

things your mind wants to stay like interested in  in many things at the same time when you should  

really focus all right if you have any questions  about that let me know I think everything uh makes  

makes sense over here hopefully someone said  go to an English-speaking country this is not  

necessary again none of the things on this list  will be about going to an English-speaking country  

uh again like going to an English-speaking country  is one of those things that people think they need  

because they need to be like surrounded by English  but you can be surrounded by English anywhere in  

the world I mean actually it's much more efficient  with the internet to get this information than it  

is to try to go and maybe even if you're living  in an English-speaking country uh without having  

someone to explain things to you uh it's just  really much more efficient to to get lots of  

understandable messages even like this so if  you're watching this video you will be learning  

a lot from me just by getting this input even if  you don't speak all right hopefully everybody's  

everybody get this click click the like button if  if this makes sense that's going to be the fastest  

way for me to know even faster than you typing a  comment all right so remember listening is the key  

that's like the foundation of everything so if  you can listen I promise you you will you will  

feel much more relaxed you won't be worrying about  what you want to say we'll get to that but at the  

the foundation of having a better conversation  and learning more is all about listening so if  

you have divided attention because you're worried  about what you want to say you're feeling nervous  

or you're thinking about something else try to  control that and just relax and listen okay you  

have to have a little bit of trust and faith  in the approach I think everybody gets that  

though all right now moving on uh so related  to this the same kind of fear and worry we're  

going to have this idea connected to the next  one and the same thing over here now usually  

what happens with Learners is they're trying to  force they want to have like forced for whoops

I can never spell and speak at the same time  f-o-r-c-e-d forced I'm just going to say prep here

so if I have a shorter word to write I can write  it more neatly so forced preparation and then  

we'll contrast that with natural prep natural  preparation now again we still have this this  

element of fear over here that Learners want to  try to get as much information as possible because  

they never know what they're going to speak about  all right this is part of the reason uh why they  

want to just like learn give me a list of you know  the hundred most common words or something like  

that and that that information is really popular  for Learners because they think they need it again  

it's the worry and the fear that causes them to  think that they need this information and often  

what happens is they learn a lot of information  that either they don't remember it or they don't  

end up using it in real conversations okay so  it's I mean there's sometimes where you might  

learn something and oh you you actually get to use  it in a conversation but often that's not the case  

all right so by forced preparation I mean you're  you're trying to collect as much information you  

want to build a large vocabulary as quickly as  possible that's the goal and so what you do is  

you try to learn as much as you can you want to  get lists of vocabulary uh and and it might not  

even be about topics that are really useful or  applicable for your life and then the opposite is  

to have the natural preparation where you really  kind of trust and and you relax and you have the  

faith that you will get the right vocabulary when  you need it all right now this is something that  

I have been practicing for a long time as a  language learner so I used to be like this  

and used to think I should be trying to get as  much information as possible I really want to be  

prepared for anything but the preparation actually  comes from just being aware again it's it's really  

the same idea of listening of listening to kind of  like yourself listening to your life I know this  

might sound like it it almost sounds like it's not  very logical advice but the truth is you can never  

really be perfectly prepared for a situation  it's much better to just relax and know the  

kinds of things and focus on the kinds of things  that you need for your life at that moment all  

right so you really want to be focusing you'll  notice that's a trend with all these things on  

this column over here so these are more again  faith-based where we're trying to think about  

things and not worry so much about what we need  you really have to relax and allow these things  

to happen so as an example in my own life I didn't  think when I was first coming into Japan to learn  

lots of Japanese words about maternity or like you  know women you know in pregnancy and things like  

that like I could have studied that like I could  have studied that but I like other things that are  

related to that like it had no real use in my life  maybe there's a chance I might use some of that  

vocabulary but it just really wasn't a good thing  for me to focus on but when my wife was having our  

first child so my when my older daughter uh Arya  was coming along then it became important for me  

to learn that vocabulary so without me trying to  force that like oh I will probably be going to a  

hospital and talking with doctors and things like  that I should probably learn that vocabulary and  

that's when I naturally learned that okay so you  have people following uh uh what I'm saying over  

here hopefully this makes sense all right so again  the basic idea is it's it's typically like the  

fear and worry that people have that drive them to  do these things over here so if you feel nervous  

like you need you know security and you really  want to know every English word that's why people  

love to get all that information but the people  who who actually have some trust and some faith  

and and part of that is just listening like you  you listen you pay attention to what's happening  

in your life so if you know you're going to be  taking a trip or you're going to be going to this  

kind of restaurant or you're meeting certain kinds  of people then focus on that particular thing you  

don't have to know everything I mean even native  speakers don't know everything about every bit of  

vocabulary I've probably done this me showing  you this graph before but about two percent  

this is not going to be a very accurate graph  but about two percent of vocabulary is needed  

so this is the whole imagine all of the words in  the English language they're like I don't know 170  

000 words in common use something like that this  is not an exact number but the point is only two  

percent of this is used in 98 of communication in  written so like text form in magazines newspapers  

or on TV shows that kind of thing so even the  word the by itself just the word the is like seven  

percent of of all written communication and most  spoken communication as well all right so instead  

of trying to learn everything it's much better to  just focus on the things that you need for your  

life so rather than trying to get a list of you  know some you know particular idioms or something  

like that you should be focused on common  situations for your life and that's where the  

vocabulary comes from so you will get it naturally  if you relax and you pay attention so in the same  

way that you will pay attention to things in a  conversation so you're listening to what the other  

person says you should also be paying attention in  your own life to what you need so when people ask  

me Drew what should I be learning right now I ask  them tell me about your life what are what's going  

on in your life what vocabulary do you need what  are the situations all right so some people maybe  

they need to learn uh you know one kind of topic  and some people need to learn about something else  

but rather than trying to force yourself to cover  everything and then you you really don't get  

fluent in much of that vocabulary at all because  you're uh just like your attention is divided your  

your effort is divided among lots of different  topics or lots of different vocabulary or grammar  

and you don't really get fluent in any of it so  you have a very maybe low level understanding I  

talk about this and or I have talked about this  in other videos about the different levels of  

vocabulary knowledge all right so you might have  just exposure to the language where you've heard  

something before and then you've got awareness  where you really understand that and then you've  

got ownership where you have the highest level  where you really feel confident about using  

something so typically people who are using this  forced preparation approach where they're trying  

to learn as much as possible they have maybe an  exposure or an awareness level of that vocabulary  

but they really don't feel confident in using it  all right this is where you become confident using  

the vocabulary and the great thing about this is  when you focus on this vocabulary that allows you  

to speak about a wider range of things so even  if I'm learning a specific thing like the target  

is I don't know maternity vocabulary I can take  that same vocabulary and often use it when I'm  

talking about other things so I might use idioms  from you know relationships or other things while  

I'm talking about business or while I'm talking  about sports or something like that but the point  

is I know that information really well I'm fluent  in that vocabulary and so I know how to use that  

when talking about other things all right let me  follow the chat here hopefully this makes sense  

let's see all right so let's see uh Julian says  I'm focusing currently currently focusing on the  

most common phrasal verbs I believe that if you  don't learn phrasal verbs it's pretty difficult  

to get fluency yes so phrasal verbs are a very  common uh part of the English language I recommend  

people learning phrasal verbs as well this is how  people are going to understand and again the this  

like even learning something like phrasal verbs  that's a great thing to focus on because it can  

be applied to almost anything you're talking about  so again that's a great example of something where  

you would focus on that that's why we have a  whole program the visual guide to phrasal verbs  

is just talking about that because this one kind  of vocabulary is so useful and it's so easy easy  

to apply it to everything in life all right but  yes this is the this is the thing where we want  

to to really focus on whatever that is but the  point is relax and think about what you really  

need for your life now if you're if you're at like  an even higher level let's say you know a lot of  

phrasal verbs already then you want to be focusing  on a particular topic whatever that is so this is  

why fluent for life is structured the way it is  so people can learn with a particular topic and  

really focus on that so if you need to learn  about sports maybe you're going to a baseball  

game you watch the whole lesson set about you know  baseball and how the vocabulary from that can be  

used in different situations it's a really great  thing just focus on one specific thing all right  

so remember it's your your mind will be looking  for I need to get as much as possible but you  

need to control yourself and that's why this is  a skill that's why I call these the five Master  

skills so if you can do this and even if you might  not be doing it already just begin thinking like  

remind yourself yourself hey am I am I trying to  just learn a bunch of vocabulary or am I actually  

learning something that I can begin applying  in my own life that's really useful for me  

all right uh let's see levied red says how to  reach the level of ownership watch my video  

about that so I have a specific video about that  it's you should maybe look back like two or three  

months but if you look at the live videos on the  channel you should see that and you should be able  

to find the uh the specific video for that all  right so it just it actually says that it's like  

the three levels of vocabulary and you're probably  stuck here uh between awareness and ownership so  

watch that video does this make any sense to  people everybody understand where we're going  

so far so instead of trying this to be again you  notice how these are similar they one goes into  

the other very nicely here so divided attention  you've got divided attention here with what  

you're learning rather than being focused on one  particular thing all right Keiko says Hi teacher  

I have a question is please don't a word that  should not be used is that a shocking word it's  

very difficult for the Japanese to use please well  I typically no that's there's nothing wrong with  

that please don't please don't do something like  if you're working at a museum or something and you  

say like please don't take pictures over here uh  you you can there there's a more kind of passive  

way to say that you can just say like photography  is not allowed at the Museum or something so often  

and this is a cultural thing about Japan so if you  are if you want to say like directly to someone  

like please don't take pictures that might feel  a little bit forceful to you like you feel like  

you're being a little bit too strong but you can  say I'm sorry photography is not allowed here and  

so that way it doesn't sound like it's your fault  or you're telling you know a customer or or like a  

guest or something to do that so it please don't  do something is is perfectly fine uh and it also  

depends on who you're speaking with so I might  be if I'm talking with my daughters I might just  

say like stop doing that I I would I would I might  say like please don't do something typically like  

a parent will begin being a little bit nicer so  if my kids are they can't sit still at the dinner  

table we go out to a restaurant or something  they're climbing on the chairs the first time  

I might say like please don't do that and then I  say like okay stop doing that and like I I want  

to train them to like be quick about responding  to things so I will not continue to give lots of  

those I'll just say stop or I will like put  them down in the seat or something like that  

so these are a couple different situations  and it's important to remember the specific  

situations when you think about vocabulary all  right but certainly that's fine uh to use that  

so yes it's difficult because the nuances of the  languages on both on both sides don't don't much  

you probably mean match for that m-a-t-c-h they  don't match yes again it depends on the situation  

and this is why I often teach people pretty  much every video is really reminding you that  

the vocabulary by itself doesn't mean anything  you have to be connecting that vocabulary with  

a situation so are you speaking with customers  where you need to be a bit more polite are you  

speaking with children where you can be a bit more  specific and like command them to do something all  

right sayudi again uh what do you do when you come  across good expressions or vocabulary in real time  

conversations with native speakers I always take  mental notes about those and they are gone by the  

time uh the conversation ends often what I will  do this is a great thing but like I will bring  

that into the conversation so like uh today I was  just like uh I was trying to remember like the  

Japanese word for extension cord so like a power  a power chord and then uh like I was I was I asked  

somebody hey can I have like an extension cord  what do you call that and so I was asking that and  

then I will just to help me remind myself of that  thing I will talk about that specific vocabulary  

so I will have a conversation about the vocabulary  I will say wow that was a really interesting word  

like oh I didn't know you could do that so I get  excited about the language and that gives me the  

opportunity to use it and try to like repeat it  in the conversation to make it more memorable  

um and I can also say like is there another  way to say that so I I kind of turned it into  

a lesson but not like I'm asking them to be a  teacher it's more of a fun kind of game thing  

all right so if you can't just remember it maybe  you hear something I would I would highlight that  

in the conversation it's okay to do that nobody's  going to be upset most people will be happy if you  

you're interested in the language so if I use like  you know some weird expression and you understand  

what I mean you're like oh wow I've never heard  that before you could have a conversation about  

that specific word or just talk about it  for a little bit hopefully that makes sense  

all right do we need to focus on particular group  of words so speak fluently I'll talk about that  

in just a moment but so far the point is to is  to really think and listen to yourself listen  

to your surroundings listen to your life and  that just means to pay attention to the things  

that are interested or interesting to you so  what is useful and important for you at this  

moment in your life without trying to think  like well what what vocabulary will I need  

next week or what vocabulary will I need like  two years from now don't worry about that all  

right so that's the it's the worrying side  over here that will that will cause you to  

think about that it's much better just to pay  attention hey right now I work in a restaurant  

I should probably learn a lot of useful  vocabulary about working in a restaurant  

it's pretty easy all right but you don't have to  think well maybe next year I'll take a trip to a  

mountain and I need to learn this like don't worry  about that learn the vocabulary you need for your  

life right now all right the human mind again it's  the worrying all of the things over here about  

like fear and worry and doubt and the things over  here are just it's all about trust and openness  

and you allow yourself to get that vocabulary when  you need it you should know what you need for your  

life all right so just listen to that all right  hopefully this makes sense yeah it makes sense  

what up Drew just got here hello from Brazil nice  to see everybody over here let's see all right  

seems we need to yeah okay so remember I'll  talk a little bit about more like the kind  

of way we focus on things uh in just a  moment but hopefully this makes sense  

you'll notice the foundation of this like  instead of having fear and worry again we  

want to have trust openness relaxation because  those are the things that will help us learn  

also but help us speak all right so let's keep  going over here uh so what what we notice like  

again these things blend very easily into the  next step for each of these skills so when you  

have forced preparation what you're trying to do  is collect as much information as possible and  

it usually as wide as you can so you get a like a  vocabulary list of as many things as possible and  

so we have like typically we have like a focus  on individual lessons I'll just say individual

so individual lessons and here we're talking  about building Networks thank you [Music]

now I've given a similar lesson about this but  uh like a couple times but I'd like to do this  

again I know many new people watch my videos  and so hopefully they can all learn about this  

as well so if I imagine I'm trying to teach you  like a new word in an alien language so I begin  

let's say I have a flash card so this is a flash  card number one over here and I'm just going to  

show you one thing and I draw something on  it like this let's see here so I draw this

and I teach you the word let's just say awk now  it's it's going to confuse people like okay or  

something we'll do we'll do uh we'll do um okay  so this is not a real word this is not English  

I'm just using this as an example in an A in an  alien language if I'm trying to teach you an alien  

language I use an alien language because people  from all over the world watch these videos and  

I don't want to use like only Japanese or French  or something like that because the lesson is less  

helpful now if I show you a picture of this and I  say um so the word the the target word is um and  

I show you this you have a like a pretty general  idea of what I'm talking about I'm probably not  

talking about a car or something else you can  have a general idea of what I mean by this so  

just in the chat right now tell me what you think  this word means in the alien language let me know  

all right this is just a little experiment uh and  an example of how Learners and teachers are often  

thinking differently about information all right  so let me know what you think this is what is  

um what does that mean all right let's go  be quick so we can get through this let's  

go let's go all right this should be a  pretty easy uh thing if you can guess  

what that is what do you think this is let's  see someone's there it says drance is a chair

anyone else is on chair do I mean chair when I  mean this all right let's see uh uh Gertrudis  

is a chair Visa is a chair also a couple people  said a chair okay so again as a teacher I know  

what I mean by this word but you might not now  you can look at this and all means chair now  

I'm going to give you another lesson so imagine  this is just like a lesson by itself all right  

so I give you a picture of something and I tell  you what the word is and you think well it must  

mean chair so a couple of people had that idea  uh now I'm going to give you something different

now I give you the second lesson here and  something a little bit different in the  

picture now what do I mean by um um what do  you think um means does it still mean chair  

do you think it still means chair does  it mean something else what do you think

now these are not the best uh pictures  over here we got uh let's see spot spot  

I don't know if that if that meant let's  see what Furniture table so we got a table  

and Furniture what is put like Fern over  here so I can write quickly Furniture table  

all right and now let's say  I I do something else here

um so this would be lesson three what do you think  I mean by that well things yeah it could be things

I wouldn't make it that difficult  but I suppose it could be things yes

now I know you can uh please forgive  me uh if these pictures are not very  

good I'm just trying to do them very quickly  uh but hopefully this makes sense What would  

all right good thinking  over there interesting draw

all right so wood wood a couple different people  said would um isn't that interesting isn't that  

interesting so again I know what I'm talking about  but do you when people are teaching a lesson and  

when you learn a language as as a child in your  native language this is how you're really learning  

you don't really get one lesson and learn much  from it because your parents might say something  

and you don't really understand what that means  and I explain this typically like a Target

so at first you get something like um and and  you can imagine in your mind you're trying to  

understand what this word means and maybe you  have like I kind of think it means something  

like like it doesn't mean animal I'm guessing  like it's not an animal of some kind so your  

mind is like well it's not animal over here that's  a completely different thing but you still don't  

know exactly what I'm talking about and so the  answers here they show that people don't really  

understand because again like without me really  making it clear and without you getting a number  

of examples it's really difficult to understand  something in English all right or in the alien  

language and this is why most people teach using  translations so the opposite when I talk about  

individual lessons is you will just get a single  lesson about something and the teacher will just  

give you a translation of what that means and  so you will think oh okay like all means you  

know whatever that is in your native language  all right now in this example uh by um I mean  

Furniture now I'm just giving you a translation in  English I could give you many more but the point  

is that the actual way you should be learning is  the network is what creates the the memorable and  

understanding or memorable and understandable  lesson in your mind so yes I could be talking  

about furniture I could be talking about the  material as well like if I also gave you another  

like if I had like here's like a tree uh and  I've got you know something and I show an arrow  

pointing to some pieces of of you know like some  wood planks or something then you would be like  

wow okay now I really got it I know exactly what  he's talking about he's talking about the material  

okay now what people are usually doing in  like the kind of like fear-based and like  

the hurry way of trying to learn a language is  the only way really to do this is to just try  

to get one lesson you get a translation  and then you move on to the next thing  

okay but you really can't remember it  and you don't really understand it like  

a native speaker and it's the understanding of  it like a native speaker that gets you fluent  

all right now notice something else it's really  interesting about this I could I could give you  

these cards in a different order I could give you  these cards in a different order so instead of  

one two three four so let's say um so maybe I'm  I actually mean Furniture but let's say the the  

target word is wood instead now I might begin  with this one like begin with number one and  

then maybe two three four something like that but  the order of those things also makes a difference  

but in general it's the network it's all  of them together that improve your fluency  

is everybody is everybody getting this idea so I'm  trying to help you re try to basically remind you  

of how you learned your native language and even  how you learn things now in your native language  

because this is it typically you get one example  of something you might hear a new word or grammar  

point or something and you probably don't really  remember it this is where I talked about before  

in that previous video about getting exposure  to the language so if I just tell you something  

like this and I don't give you a translation  of it that's how you're learning it in your  

native language you really just have to try to  understand like do I do I really feel confident  

about my understanding of a particular word so  when you try to get individual lessons like this  

where you think of one thing like did I really  understand that someone told me this means chair  

and now I just need to remember that or it means  wood or furniture or whatever the word is but it's  

really the network that gets you fluent it's  the network that helps you understand like a  

native speaker now this is just one example  this is what I call naturally varied review  

this is just one example of this another one  is actually hearing the same vocabulary from  

different speakers so you might hear one person  say something and another person says the same  

thing all right so even if you remember something  a teacher in a lesson might be speaking very  

clearly but maybe in real life conversations  you hear something and it's not so clear  

so someone instead of saying um and being very  clear about it you hear something else like  

um and you're like what would it what did that  person say I couldn't hear it very well and this  

is why you need to get lots of different examples  to really make that vocabulary or grammar or  

whatever to make that clear in your mind hopefully  this makes sense let me see if uh people but  

I don't understand what you mean with home again  yes so Nils is just asking something and then like  

let me explain that again I really want to make  sure people understand this when you're learning  

a language even as a native speaker learning your  native language and you don't get a translation of  

something you will probably not understand what it  means like you might you might kind of get it like  

if again we have like a Target where you think  okay maybe it's a thing maybe it means would maybe  

it means this you have a general idea of what it  means so you might have let's say like 80 percent  

confidence that you understand what a word  means but this confidence level goes up as  

you get more examples of something all right so  when I'm like just right now for this example  

um is not a word in English it's like a  word in an alien language that I'm just  

making up for this example just just so you can  remember what it feels like to to learn this way  

so om like the the meaning of it for me right now  means Furniture so I'm giving you these different  

examples I just added this one as an example if  I mean would so if I mean wood I would probably  

not be like teaching it in this way I would  take like the order of these and change them  

I would give you this one first but even if  I change the order it's all of them together  

that make that vocabulary very strong in your  mind all right let me know if that makes sense  

all right uh so next what does the cat ruin all  the ohm in the house mean in the alien language  

yeah so in that in that case like if if the word  I'm actually trying to teach you is Furniture then  

like yes I would just keep showing you more pieces  of furniture and I would probably show you those  

pieces of furniture with different materials so  you might have a plastic chair or a metal table  

or a a stone bookshelf or something like that  so that's how I'm making it very clear for you  

that I'm not talking about the material I'm  talking about the thing and so this is It's  

why it's very important as a teacher for me to  understand the way people think about vocabulary  

all right and this is why I give a bunch  of different examples again this is why we  

designed Frederick like this so Frederick the  app when it's teaching you vocabulary we give  

you four different uh slightly varied images for  what each word means so you can start learning  

that and it's a lot easier to understand with  the network than it is with just one example  

all right so when people are trying to get as many  lessons as possible really the only way to do this  

is with translations and the translations stop you  from speaking because you're trying to think about  

translations in your conversations instead of  thinking about like okay I need to understand this  

in English and now I can use it fluently all right  but when you're building networks notice how these  

things are connected to each other because I'm  I'm I have like the idea of natural preparation  

I naturally want to just focus on this particular  group of words just like I'm doing here I'm trying  

to build a network whatever that vocabulary  is it could be working at a restaurant or it  

could be even buying food at a restaurant so  I'm ordering food whatever but I'm building  

a network just about this thing I'm not trying  to learn about every different thing and learn  

it very quickly and then forget what I learned I  want to spend time focusing on that information  

okay hopefully that makes sense let's see  over here Audrey you look just like Tom Hanks  

yes I continue I made a whole video about Tom  Hanks actually uh so people can watch that uh how  

can I build a network of something more abstract  for example the phrasal verb get over uh so uh  

Julian I think you have uh the visual guide to  phrasal verbs in your account and you see how  

how we use those different things so you would  get let's say we have just just focusing on the  

word get so phrasal verbs with get just by itself  like you have in the program and so you can hear  

and see and understand different examples of like  what it means to get something so it could mean  

taking a position you were controlling something  you were receiving something but typically it's  

moving from one position to a different position  like it's moving from someplace else to you or you  

are moving to take that position okay so that's  the the basic idea of get by itself now as we  

go a little bit deeper we might have like a get  up or get down or get something like that to get  

over whenever we're talking about these different  things as we get more examples of that and in the  

program we can't give like thousands and thousands  of examples because it's really not necessary but  

you can typically find those things by yourself  like if you go to Google and we want to look at  

like 10 different uh contexts for get up or get  over what was the word you asked uh yeah so get  

over so get over like I could have a physical  thing where like I'm on this side of of a wall  

and I need to get over the wall so I need to get  from one position to the other it's the same idea  

of me taking a different position so I'm in this  position here I'm taking a different one all right  

and so as you get these these different examples  of get then you really feel strongly about get  

even just the word by itself but you will also  like if you have get up or get over or get down  

it's the same thing so if I imagine I'm sleeping  and I get up like now I'm like oh I'm moving from  

a lower position to a higher position all right  it's the same basic idea so I can get I can have  

many examples of get I could have many examples  of get up also so I could have get up like I'm  

telling someone to get like to a physical higher  location like I'm I'm standing let's say I have  

uh I'm standing up here and my friend is down here  I say hey get up here get up here so I'm telling  

him like he's not waking up he's not asleep in  this example but he's coming up here he's taking  

moving from this position to this position up  here getting that position but you notice like  

if I try to explain this to you in your native  language it's a lot less helpful because you're  

just getting a translation is the same thing  of like okay it's it's difficult to help you  

understand something here's a translation but you  don't really get it you don't really get it all  

right so notice I'm giving you an even different  use of get here like to understand something so  

we're moving from a position of not understanding  to a position of understanding something ah now  

I got it I understand and as you hear all of  these different contexts just by focusing on one  

word like that it will really help you understand  that thing and you can get this information you  

know by yourself even we have a like a video  about git uh on on the YouTube channel yeah  

and as well again like the like you'll find this  in fluent for life in the visual guide to phrasal  

verbs all of those examples are about focus  and trying to give you naturally varied review  

all right let me know if that makes sense all  right Niels has got that all right let's see  

Drew how about the word rip how can we manage the  different meanings well again you want to take  

these things and you would hear them in different  situations so when does something get ripped so  

if I take a shirt or something I might like if I'm  like the Incredible Hulk I'm going to rip my shirt  

so I take something like that to rip something all  right so I might rip you might look at a physical  

example and this is why uh in the visual guide to  phrasal verbs and even in fluent for life we try  

to give physical examples of things you can see  how they work the same way native children are  

getting those examples so you might see something  like rip and then you just see that thing in  

different contexts and and as you hear these just  like the idea of get you really develop a strong  

understanding the same way a native understands  the word now a native is like not they probably  

won't explain this the same way I'm explaining  it because I've spent 20 years thinking about  

this stuff but this is kind of subconsciously  what's happening to natives when they think  

about getting something like oh I just got a job  so there was like a position over here and I took  

that position where I received something like a  present but that's what it means to get something  

so understanding get like a native we don't we  don't get that from just getting a translation  

notice I'm using get again and again in slightly  different ways it's all naturally varied review  

all right does everybody get it does everybody get  this do you get it are you getting what I'm giving  

you do you get it all right uh let's see learning  like a baby how much time getting fluency needs  

uh using this method excuse me uh it basically  as long as you need to like to feel that aha  

moment in your mind so if I'm teaching you like my  goal is to try to give you that feeling as fast as  

possible and then even then you probably should  be getting more examples of like understanding  

something so I could I could give you like a one  minute lesson about any vocabulary and then just  

to help you remember it and feel more confident  about it in conversations I would have you listen  

to that in a real conversation I would have you  listen to that from different people describing  

that same word or using that same word so the  the understanding is usually pretty quick if  

you understand like I'm teaching you here and then  maybe just a little bit of review like maybe the  

next day you're hearing it this is why we organize  fluent for life the way it is so all the lesson  

sets are structured so that you're listening  to something you learn it like a native but you  

continue to hear it in different ways throughout  the lesson or you might see it or read it or watch  

it in a video something like that and so the point  is to focus on something to hear things again and  

again in different ways or from different speakers  or in different tenses at different times whatever  

even at different speeds okay so it doesn't take  long to to understand when you learn this way  

and again again the goal of fluency is to get  to that point of that aha moment like ah now  

I got it I got it I understand I got it you get it  all right do you get it now you got it so get you  

will hear this word a lot a very common word and  this is why I try to cover this I've covered this  

actually many many times in lessons uh same thing  with like have so get and have because they can  

they can have like slightly different meanings and  as you as you learn all of these through different  

examples rather than trying to get translations  but this is the power of building networks because  

if you build a network around the word get and  you really understand that then you can start  

using get what whatever the the conversation  it doesn't matter what you're talking about  

so you know what talking about like to get over  so uh Julian mentioned get over before so I  

gave you the example of like here's a wall  I'm on this side of the wall I need to get  

to this position over here now there are a few  ways I could do that I could maybe I could get  

like I could get through this thing maybe if I  break a hole in this wall I could get through it  

or I could try to get over the wall now we take  a physical idea of this and then we have a more  

figurative meaning of like let's say I was dating  a girl for a while and we broke up so to break up  

that's another phrasal verb to break up to break  into different pieces all right so we split up  

all right so if I'm over here and now like the  thing that I need to get over is like my sadness  

about that so I'm thinking about this girl every  day oh I wish we were still together you know  

I need to get over her okay I need to I need to  forget about that I need to move on with my life  

okay so it's like an obstacle or something that  it's it's I can't I can't make forward progress  

I need to get over that so you often hear this  in movies where people talk about like getting  

over a relationship we're talking about moving on  just like we might get over a wall all right and  

as you get and you notice how you you get these  examples from me and your mind is like ah like  

now I understand that's that's the whole point I'm  trying to give you as many aha moments as possible  

all right but let me know uh if people did  not get this learning the second language and  

uh relearning the word the world yeah so again  what we're trying to do instead of uh learning  

individual words because we're because we're  scared we're nervous we want to learn as many  

things as possible we actually want to build our  Network it's the network the network that gets you  

fluent all right it's just another way of talking  about naturally varied review all right let's keep  

going here so we want to get through four and five  but let me know if anything so far does not make  

sense hopefully I'm getting this get over it can  be something like to give up something too yeah  

it's basically like like forgetting something and  moving on or moving away from that thing to get  

over something you can also get over a sickness  okay so same thing the sickness is the obstacle  

we need to get you know I can I can get over that  thing but again I can also get through that thing  

same idea so I need to get over my sickness

notice how these things they easily blend from one  end to the other so if we have divided attention  

and we're trying to learn too many things we  don't remember them very well and that's why  

we don't speak but if we have focused attention  and we just relax and let the things come to us  

as we need them and we build the networks we need  then we're naturally building fluency very easily  

I've just like proved that right in this video all  right let's see uh unisa got it glad to hear it  

all right moving on so we'll do uh number four  right here now notice as as we keep doing this  

look at this again each one of these things Blends  naturally into the next one so we have like rigid

so a rigid vocabulary and a flexible

so again notice how each one of these things  Blends into the next one they lead from one  

to the next so rigid vocabulary something that's  rigid like this marker is rigid if I if I put a  

lot of pressure on it I might snap the marker  I might break the marker but my hand is very  

flexible it's flexible like that and so what we  want to do is as we build Networks we really feel  

a lot more confident about our vocabulary because  we have different ways of saying different things  

so I just gave you the example before I could get  over something or I could get around it I could  

get through that different thing all right these  are different ways of expressing the same basic  

idea so I want I have a problem or an obstacle or  something I need to to you know I need to solve  

that problem so I can get over that problem I can  get around that problem I can get through that  

problem somehow all right but when you learn this  way when you try to get individual lessons you  

only get one thing you don't feel very confident  about it so you need to get a translation this  

gives you a very rigid vocabulary and this is  really what gets people stuck in conversations  

because they have only basically one way of saying  something so they have one idea this thing means  

this so this thing in English means this in in my  native language and if I forget that thing oh no  

that's where I get stuck and this causes a lot of  frustration in conversations okay but the flexible  

vocabulary comes from building the network you  learn lots of different ways of expressing things  

again like people will tell me about my programs  or whatever they might watch one lesson of  

something and think like like I didn't get fluent  it's like well you don't you don't get fluent from  

one lesson all right you can't get fluent from an  individual lesson it's really difficult to do that  

because the mind doesn't work that way like the  mind is looking for lots of different pieces of  

information to make something understandable all  right it's the same reason that you have two eyes  

okay or two years so if you take your hand and  cover one of your eyes and you try to look at  

something you can see generally where it is just  like this target up here I can see generally like  

I know there's something in front of me but I  can't tell how far away it is I need to open both  

of my eyes to know exactly where that thing is so  if I have only one eye it's like getting only one  

lesson but if I have like you know many eyes like  this that's how I really know I can I can focus  

and know exactly where something is all right  and that's why we have two ears same idea so if I  

cover one of my ears and can't hear something very  well I know there's a general area where a sound  

is coming from but it's it's much easier if I have  two ears I can find that much better it's called  

triangulation so I'm making a triangle between my  eyes and a Target or my ears and a Target triangle  

all right so you make sure everybody's getting  this uh you're really a great coach not only a  

teacher you give me self-confidence I appreciate  that glad to hear all right yes I'm glad to hear  

that's helpful remember it begins with with faith  I know I know this sounds like a weird word to  

use about language learning but you really must  relax all right the reason we do this is because  

we can't possibly like try to figure out like  everything that's happening or be prepared for  

everything it's just not possible but what we can  do is get very good at listening and get very good  

at being prepared for the right situations when  they happen and it's it's just a very natural  

process but it's it's kind of the opposite from  what we are told to do so almost like all advice  

about things is like you want to be on this side  over here the natural the natural like everyday  

common advice about things is like try to learn as  many words as you can here's how to learn like 20  

000 words or something but you don't want to  do that you want to actually just focus on the  

things that you need for your life and then you  build the networks around those that gives you a  

flexible vocabulary okay all right Dan G says it's  basically about forgetting your native language  

and creating the mindset a native speaker uses  yeah but just remember this is the same thing  

you do in your native language as well so it's  it's like applying the mindset and the learning  

strategy of your native language to English that's  all you're doing all right so we're not we're not  

giving you like any any new strategy really it's  just it's reminding yourself like these are the  

things you do naturally like when you're in your  everyday life you're typically not trying to learn  

a bunch of random vocabulary for something in  the future unless you're maybe you want to like  

become a lawyer and so you're going to school you  need to study a particular you know test like the  

bar exam or something in that case you would be  focusing on that building your networks around  

that so that's the the natural thing you would be  doing but typically you don't just get like random  

lessons of vocabulary that that you don't do  anything about that doesn't people don't do that  

in their in their native language so you don't  need to do it in English either okay I promise  

you and this is again like I mentioned Faith up  here and I continue to to repeat that word because  

it you must you must let go you must relax and  allow these things to come to you and be focused  

on that thing as you're learning it and it's very  difficult like if you're if you're thinking like  

often uh I I talk about stuff like this because I  have to teach people these things before they join  

my programs because if they don't they will be  expecting like well it's it's not what I expected  

I want I want like you know give me a translation  give me tell me what this means and and like you  

don't you don't get fluent that way it's not how  you get fluent all right you get fluent like this  

so as you get more information you absorb these  things naturally and that's how you start using  

them like a native speaker so when you understand  the language naturally you can use the language  

natural all right any questions about that  hopefully all right Keiko says thank you so much  

I'm relieved to hear that I think I used it in  the wrong way uh or used it in the wrong situation  

with the wrong person because I was so angry  sorry about that wow so this is what I love about  

Japanese people they can be really angry but still  say the word please yes and maybe I guess if you  

were speaking you can tell me more uh Keiko about  your particular situation but yes if we're being  

polite then maybe we want to say please don't do  something but if you're really angry at someone  

you say stop like don't ever do that don't do that  to me or don't do that whatever you know this is  

the the kind of thing that we would say to kids  but usually after we give them like hey here's  

a here's a quick like warning about something be  careful don't do that don't test me so I will say  

this as a dad like so my younger daughter Noel is  particularly like always trying to trying to see  

what she can do so she might take you know a pen  or something or like spoon or whatever and tap  

on the table and I would say uh thank you Noel  please don't do that so I give her one warning  

and then and then she will look at me and she  will like tap the table again and I'm thinking  

I say okay fine and I come over and just you know  take the take the spoon or whatever from her so  

I'm being polite but I'm being firm at the same  time so if I just say please don't do that please  

don't do that and this is just important you know  parenting advice or whatever if you tell your  

kids to not do something and then you don't stop  them then then they won't listen to you all right  

but I won't go it won't go off on that I am not  relaxed that is the problem yes so I know a lot of  

people Nils especially I was talking with a German  guy uh two days ago so like an older guy I think  

probably like maybe 60 or 70 years old German guy  I like you know very like German and we talked  

about like cultural differences and he was talking  about like part of this like the the rigidness uh  

typically in in German like German culture German  design so it it creates a lot of amazing things  

but remember the that we we like to think that  we that we can like figure out something if we  

have a problem or there's something wrong with our  life or whatever uh and that and that causes us to  

worry about things all right but I'll give  you like another quick exercise about this  

just to make this point because a lot of people  it's like they can't let it go they have to be  

thinking like well what's going to happen in this  situation where they worry about different things  

so let's say for an example uh people might do  something like this so let's say they have a  

problem or they have a decision they might  make and so they would have like the pros  

uh and the cons so these are things like what's  a good reason to do something or a good reason  

to not do that thing so maybe I have to move  I have an opportunity to move to a different  

country all right for for some reason so a pro is  like maybe I get to experience new things or maybe  

I get paid more or something like this and so I  list these different reasons up here and then the  

cons so the things that are negative maybe like  well I have to leave my family and maybe I don't  

know I don't like the I don't know the language or  something like that so people will will think like  

this and it's it's in this same kind of column  of of how can I uh like how can I how can I feel  

like comfortable because I've thought of enough  of these things all right now the truth is that  

like we don't really make decisions like this  really it's a it's a feeling we get we we do all  

of these different things we write the pros and  the cons and then we're just like all right well  

how do I feel about that and the reason we do that  is because it's impossible to get a correct answer  

from something like this it's impossible all  right the reason it's impossible is because like  

here's what happens today we don't know what like  decisions will happen like as a result of that  

it's just it's it's just too too many things  are possible you know we we call these like  

the consequences of our actions so this is the  we might be able to see this like if I do this  

then this happens all right and maybe we can see  if this happens then this happens over here but  

we can't see like 20 steps in the future it's  impossible and so you have to just you have to  

get much better at like relaxing into making  decisions like this so you can think a little  

bit about this but I I don't really spend much  time doing this personally because it's it's  

impossible to know if you made a good decision or  not using using this method all right I'm kind of  

going off on a tangent over here but hopefully  this makes sense all right so do your kids uh  

speak Japanese better than they do English uh  yeah I think they're they're Japanese is better  

than their English because they spend more time  in the day getting understandable messages in  

Japanese so my daughters uh both go to school  and so they will be getting like every day the  

teachers and other friends and things like that  uh they're using that so they only really get  

English from from me at home and like you know  their their mother speaks English as well or if  

they're watching some TV shows or something so I  have to be very specific and very focused about  

how I teach them so if I only have like an hour  or something with my kids then I have to give  

them a lot of good lessons to make sure they can  learn that but they are much better than often  

kids I will see who have like they don't speak any  English at all so even if one of their parents is  

an English speaker the kids don't really speak  much English all right so they would be better  

if I could have like even more time with them but  I have to have to make sure I give give them that  

how do you all greetings from uh Somaliland as  you see there hello practice makes perfect yes  

again like the practice that I'm talking about  the practice you get is when you're building a  

network of the different vocabulary that you need  that's the real practice you get the practice is  

not about trying to learn words very quickly and  then repeat those to yourself or to other people  

okay so we want to build the network and it's  it's again like I showed with that example of  

ohm you know that the the alien word that  means furniture or I just said it means  

Furniture it could mean wood or something but  if I'm teaching you different things uh then  

you will learn them naturally as you get more  examples but you have to trust that process  

you have to think like if if the first lesson  I'm not quite clear on it many people will just  

quit they're just like okay I don't I don't get  something I don't understand it uh and so like I  

just need a translation give me a translation you  have to control yourself you have to relax you  

have to let it happen okay it's the same way you  got fluent in your native language remember when  

you were young you would hear some vocabulary and  you were like I don't really know what that means  

like I've heard that but I don't I have a general  idea of what it might mean but I don't know for  

sure and so I need to hear that thing and as  you hear it again and again there is a moment  

where you're like now I got it and that's where  you can start using it fluently that's where you  

really feel confident about the vocabulary so the  confidence comes naturally as you go through this  

process it's really about relaxing and listening  and allowing that stuff to come to you without you  

trying to force that okay so you got to relax  especially the Germans watching this video  

all right let's see uh practice makes perfect  no pain no gain let's study no no no way  

again I don't want people to feel like this is  a this is a difficult process this is where all  

the pain is over here all right the gain is over  here so the the pain comes from like trying to do  

something that's not really working where you're  like okay I keep learning more words but why am  

I not speaking more fluently is because you're  probably doing this you're not getting enough of  

the few things that you do need and you're getting  too much of stuff that you don't need at all right  

so let's finish this up uh so number five what is  the the kind of natural conclusion of all of this  

and the natural conclusion is that you should be  focusing and continuing uh along the process so  

we like just basically uh I guess the best way  to best way to say it is to stick with the plan

and this is where we're going to jump  from like from one thing to the next

thank you

so and by this I'm talking about how people learn  all right so as you continue once you understand  

this is what you should be doing just keep doing  it that's it that's all you have to do just keep  

doing it so what happens with this is like this  all of this stuff it never really gets you fluent  

and that's why people try lots of different stuff  to get fluent they're like well maybe I should  

sing some songs or maybe I should I don't know I  should like write stuff why while I'm standing on  

my head or something all right so they jump from  approach to approach and they think that something  

like well I must be special there must be a  different way that I should be doing something  

this is this is the this is the conclusion  this is what people believe and so they try  

different things now as an example like this same  process happens in business so let's say you have  

someone who wants to start a business they might  try a bunch of different things they're jumping  

from one idea to the next maybe today I try to  sell ice cream and tomorrow I'm trying to sell  

I don't know like weather balloons or something  and and I think like the like the money is coming  

from the ice cream or the weather balloons or  whatever else I'm doing what I'm doing uh but  

it's actually the process that that builds wealth  it's not it's not like the particular thing I'm  

selling now there might be some things that are  good and sometimes or whatever like people don't  

usually have horse carriages now so you don't have  like little whips to whip horses that's something  

people probably wouldn't buy but in general if  you stick with the plan of like of how business  

actually works and and providing good value to  people you're probably going to do very well  

it's just can you continue doing it or not so the  natural thing that happens with people like all of  

these different things it's almost like two sides  of ourself and I know this is this all sounds  

a little bit like woo-woo or weird or something  maybe uh for a language lesson but I promise you  

like if you can if you you kind of get attuned to  this if you feel this if you recognize this about  

yourself if you think like I feel nervous like  you you can feel that oh this is like an actual  

feeling I have like I'm I'm trying to study  everything I feel overwhelmed I'm not really  

remembering what I learned it's because you're  doing things on this side of the like the this  

this way of thinking so you can do both of these  things but it takes a little bit of time a little  

bit of practice to train yourself to do this but  it really just begins with having 100 attention  

so while you're listening to a lesson  or you're listening to a person you're  

speaking with even in your native language  you can you can practice these things as well  

so if you're listening to your friend while  they're talking about something try to take  

care not to think about what you're going to say  next or what you're uh you know what your laundry  

is doing or dinner or something like that try  to give 100 attention because you're not worried  

about what's going to happen next like you just  you know it will naturally take care of itself  

all right so we cannot it's it's impossible for  us to try to plan everything and figure everything  

out so we relax we just we we just we have to  have to we call this word like to surrender to the  

process you just you just let it happen all right  and so if you apply that this is a systematic way  

of of understanding this idea but I promise you  if you can do this you will feel much better you  

will feel more relaxed and this will be not just  for language learning but for your life in general  

all right let's see if anybody has any questions  about this uh but that is basically the lesson  

hopefully uh you understood that all right let's  see here so I hope the moments is coming you would  

say the moments are coming yeah and so as you  learn the more you focus on something the the  

faster like that that thing will come to you  so you really want to get the understanding  

and and this is the kind of natural order of steps  that you would follow to to reach that all right  

uh let's see in this way low pain more gain yes  this is this is the natural way the pain the pain  

often comes from from trying to to to not do  this I know it's very hard I've told the story  

before about how there was a uh like a man I think  a Korean man who bought one of my programs for his  

wife but his wife really wanted translations and  so like she was still stuck over here and so if  

you can if you can make the mental switch to this  over here especially if this way is not working  

so often this way is not working for for people  this is what this is how they find me so they've  

been trying things and they're looking online  like how do you get fluent how does this work  

and like ah okay this is you know I I admit this  is kind of a crazy language lesson it's different  

certainly from from what most people are teaching  because this is really what you need to get fluent  

all right let's see uh thank you sir for the  motivation you just gave us I got all what  

you just explained my last question how can I  improve my speaking skills as I don't have any  

speaking Partners all right so great question  another common question notice on this like I  

don't mention anything about speaking with other  people as a way to get fluent that's not part  

of this process at all and so a lot of Learners  are they're still thinking over here about what  

I need to do in order to become a fluent speaker  but the fluency doesn't work like that it's the  

actual opposite of of pretty much everything over  here it's the opposite when you do it the natural  

way so just like I talked about before like the  the number one thing the first thing that you  

learn is about divided attention and this is  where you're thinking about what you want to  

say in a conversation because you think you need  to speak in the conversation in order to become  

more fluent but I've already shown you in this  video like as I've given you different examples  

of something it's your understanding that gives  you the fluency and what we're really trying to  

do we we want to have uh like no doubt about what  we're saying we want to feel confident we want to  

feel relaxed about things and the only way to  do that is to get more we're trying to get more  

naturally varied review where we're getting lots  of examples of things we're getting understandable  

messages rather than translations all right and  so you don't need to speak in order to become  

more fluent speech is the result of getting all  these examples because if we try to speak before  

we feel confident about something we're not really  improving we're just repeating information we've  

heard but we're not really expressing something  like we really understand it so you don't have  

to have a person in your life to speak you can  be living on a mountain by yourself not speak  

with anyone and still become more fluent it  just means you're understanding the language  

more so that when you do speak when you do have  an opportunity to communicate or you're writing  

or something then you will use the vocabulary  fluently all right remember that you probably  

spend most of your day not speaking most of  your day even in your native language you're  

just getting lots of information from other people  like watching TV or TV shows or news or reading  

newspapers or something like that most of it is  not you speaking but you're still learning more  

information and as you learn more you feel  more confident about talking about something  

okay so don't worry about not having again like  I don't mention anything about having someone to  

speak with because it's not necessary to do that  all right uh let's see uh how can one uh how can  

one get naturally varied review from Peppa Pig or  Paw Patrol good example uh so if you're looking  

for something like let's say there's a PAW  Patrol episode about a particular thing maybe  

like there's a an episode there there's there's  the kind of natural uh example of the vocabulary  

that you hear again and again as you watch a  bunch of episodes of it so just like you could  

watch a bunch of episodes of friends and you hear  certain words or phrases again and again that's a  

kind of General way to improve and so like in Paw  Patrol uh like uh like one of the characters or or  

a couple of them they say like Paw Patrol is on a  roll and like they're they're talking about like  

you know continuing to do something or they're  moving in some way like there's a physical idea of  

like rolling in a v in a vehicle to some location  but it also means they're like continuing to be  

successful and so there's like Forward Motion  all right as you get those different examples  

or you might even have like like Rider needs us  like that's a like a phrase you will hear again  

and again in the show and it's it's teaching you  at specific grammar point it's like oh this this  

thing needs that other thing uh and so you can  get specific with like let's say there's a TV  

show about them I don't know cooking something you  might want to also watch something else about like  

some other you know like it could be a cartoon  or even could be a live person talking about  

making something so some episodes are are like  more specific about I don't know maybe like some  

weird thing like they go into space or something  like that but look for more information that's  

about that same topic so it might not be coming  from the same source so it might not all be Paw  

Patrol videos or Paw Patrol whatever but you  can certainly look at like other TV shows that  

follow that same thing so it's same thing with  Peppa Pig or whatever so as you watch a bunch of  

episodes of something you will naturally get that  vocabulary but you can also focus on a particular  

topic from an episode and then maybe you get that  from different different TV shows or other sources  

like just regular YouTube videos I talked in the  uh I don't know what video it was a recent live  

video about how to get fluent with TV shows and  I talk more about this idea to watch that video  

all right uh Drew let's see how many lessons in  your program how long should we study each lesson  

please as Bruno uh if you're talking about fluent  for Life uh there's eight it's over eight years  

worth of content in that program and so you've got  like I mean many years of content that you could  

focus on uh the the way to go through the lessons  is again just like we're covering everything right  

here we want to be focusing on a particular lesson  set for a whole month and I know this sounds like  

a lot of time people like oh like I don't want  to review give me like individual lessons about  

like a whole bunch of different stuff but then you  don't remember it you can't use it fluently so you  

have to control yourself you have to go through  the process of like of learning more about the  

about the information going deeper into it hearing  it from different people and so you would focus on  

one lesson set for a month and you go through each  day learning in a different way with all of the  

lessons and that's how you do it and so as far as  the amount of lessons as I mentioned there are 100  

it's eight years worth of content but 100 lesson  sets in the program and so you can choose what  

you learn with so the reason we give you so much  content is because people have different needs  

just like I talked about the natural preparation  over here so you don't want to force yourself to  

learn about something like I'm not going to be  as a teacher okay today guys we're going to talk  

about how to fix motorcycles and maybe you don't  care about fixing motorcycles and yes you can  

learn some vocabulary there that will be helpful  in other situations but it's much better to learn  

with something you're really interested in so we  have like uh lesson sets about sales and marketing  

lessons about taking care of pets lessons about  all kinds of things like business or academic life  

or being a lawyer or whatever lots of different  things so that people can focus on the specific  

information they want but as you go through one  set you will feel yourself becoming more fluent  

within that first 30 days and then you just repeat  that process that's how it works all right uh and  

also like if you're not in the program you can  click on the link in the description below this  

video to learn more about that uh and the link  for Frederick is down there as well uh let's see  

and uh cab Deli if I'm pronouncing that correctly  uh personal imaginative thoughts often dominate  

the mental focus and attention so best how to deal  with this yeah so often you might be like I am not  

an expert about like how to how to calm the monkey  mind but I know that like often we get signals  

about the things we should focus on and so if I  feel like I'm naturally interested in something  

like me personally I like I don't know let's  say I like uh I don't know today like raising  

goldfish that's like a passion of mine all right  it's not really but just as an example but my dad  

he says like well there's no future in goldfish  you need to become a lawyer or something like that  

so there like he is the kind of rational mind  telling me like what I should do to make money  

and I'm thinking like well I really like goldfish  or whatever now I can probably figure out a way  

to make money with goldfish if that's what I'm  talking about but this is a way for controlling  

your mind is actually to like to to allow the  like the strongest Focus to feed that and so  

maybe you you probably know this maybe you've  heard this before the word flow or the phrase  

Flow State or you could we also describe this as  being like in the Zone in the zone in a flow state  

it just means like where you're you're naturally  providing focus into some area or whatever that  

is and you don't get distracted by other things  so this could happen while you're playing a sport  

or while you're learning about something or while  you're in a conversation so it's almost like time  

stops and you just naturally get absorbed in  that information and this happens if the more  

you start listening to yourself so you kind of  listen to your body you can feel what you're  

interested in and also like what what the things  you need in your life are so if you hear I don't  

know somebody like in your life is is talking  about moving or you keep getting like signals  

about that usually they start very quiet and they  get louder over time but if you listen to those  

things and you don't and you don't let the kind  of natural thoughts happen of like well what's  

what's going to happen if we do this that's the  kind of natural the fears and worries that come  

out when we start start living this way so I want  you to be living and learning this way as well  

all right let me know if that makes sense all  right uh let's see Richard says 100 all right  

hand cake was this I got glad to hear it with  a lovely smiley face all right like Eunice says  

perfect I appreciate your help teach you your  lessons are really helpful for me I wish you  

all the best and Happy Father's Day ah yes it's  uh Father's Day any fathers out there uh Happy  

Father's Day if you're watching this uh yesterday  so I'm already I'm already the day after Father's  

Day but I had a nice nice uh Father's day with my  family yesterday I went to the there was a Nils  

you will appreciate this and my German friends  out there there was an Oktoberfest in Nagasaki  

this past week so they had it in June instead of  October I don't know why they do that but it was  

great I had a lovely uh I had some German German  beer it was delicious all right uh let's see  

m-h-e-r Mar if I'm pronouncing that correctly hi  Drew can you tell us the importance of consistency  

in learning a language yeah so again that's the  last step down here so I could just put like being  

consistency I like to say to like stick with the  plan just to give you a more natural native way  

of saying this but this just means once you know  what works keep doing it that's all you have to  

do it's like the easiest thing in the world like  ah once you know like if I get fluent in English  

the way I get fluent in my native language I will  become a fluent speaker it's it's just it's it's  

like I I've never had anyone prove that that this  doesn't work never like not once not one person  

ever has given me a good argument as to why this  would not work not one but I do have people that  

will be like either lazy or they will just like  they really stick to these things and they feel  

they really have to learn this way over here and  so I can't I can't fight people all I can say is  

look like if this way is not working for you try  this instead all right so I I don't know anybody  

who gets fluent by doing these things but many  people continue to do them all right but I can't  

stop anybody I can only do this and this is what  I do personally for myself as a language learner  

all right so I'm I'm also doing these doing these  things and it's like oh like wow I figured out how  

to learn I should continue doing that all right  same thing all right uh let's see so flow state  

is when you're concentrating on one thing so much  that you can't get distracted easily yes that's  

a basic idea to be in a flow state so it can  happen while you're doing something physically  

or while you're doing something else whatever  all right roderico nice to see you again true  

in a typical week I'll speak in my mother tongue  for no more than half an hour and I'm still fluent  

just because I'm constantly getting in contact  with meaningful content in that language yes and  

so this is why I remind people it's like hey just  remember you're not speaking most of the day even  

a person who is a professional speaker like me  I'm not even I'm not I wouldn't call myself a  

professional speaker I don't go out and and  give speeches or whatever uh but even that I  

don't spend much time doing that at all most of  my day is just like listening and learning stuff  

and then when I have an opportunity I will  speak but it's amazing what happens when you  

start following like following this system you  let it naturally happen you will automatically  

find ways like hey I just learned that vocabulary  and here it is now I have an opportunity to use  

it in a conversation it's amazing how that happens  but you just have to relax and allow it to happen  

you can't try to plan it all out in advance I know  that's the natural thing but it's really just like  

the fear and worry that drives you for that if  you'd like to stop doing that the way to do it  

is just to remember it's it's not possible to have  complete control over that I think like the whole  

planet right now is a little bit messed up because  we have like there's so much fear and worry in the  

in kind of like the world generally people want to  try to control everything but if you can relax and  

let it happen like natural things will happen and  usually you will be successful as a result of that  

uh let's see Duran says can I do two or more  lessons in a day will still follow the monthly  

plan since one lesson may only take 15 minutes a  day is that advisable uh if you if you want to try  

to do that it's okay but I would I would caution  you like even if you feel like you know something  

like you could try to do more but if you're not  really feeling like you're remembering it more  

then it's probably not a good idea to do that so  I know it seems like like kind of a slower process  

where you're focusing and you really want to get  more information if you have a lot of time I would  

recommend like adding more to the lesson sets  so as an example if you're going to follow one  

lesson uh I would get more outside information for  that so if the lesson set is about uh I don't know  

fashion or whatever then watch some YouTube videos  about people talking about fashion so get more  

information about that particular topic that's a  better idea that will help you focus more and give  

you a lot more naturally varied review than just  what we cover in the lesson set so we can't cover  

everything that's not possible but uh but you can  add your own information on top of the lessons  

that will make the lessons more valuable all right  so I would I would recommend you do it that way  

uh Eunice again less is more stay tuned for more  tips with you good luck with everyone see you take  

care all right Neil says that is great glad  to hear it love to see the hearts and smiley  

faces over there our links is how much time  can it take while the quantity of information  

turns into the quality of speech I mean relaxing  version well again like if you if you've learned  

anything from me in videos I don't know how many  videos of mine you've seen but the the fluency can  

actually develop like almost instantaneously if  you understand something so again I'm trying to  

give you the aha moment and the aha moment is  like is the moment of understanding where you  

feel you really own something and now you feel  confident using it so as an example like in  

Japanese for for like years I had trouble with the  difference between like let's say like Monday uh

and I was just like oh man I can't like why can't  I figure this out like logically I understand what  

this is but like and it's it's so similar but  I can't I just couldn't get it and then finally  

I got the aha moment just it was just the right  example at the right time and that helped me so  

typically if you're learning by yourself like  you might have those instances where you're  

trying to learn something and it feels like  it's taking forever like you feel like it's  

ah like I don't get it I don't understand what  this is and so what I try to do as a teacher I  

want to I want to get like the lessons that  seem like they've been most helpful for for  

the most number of people and then give those  things as quickly as possible so that you're  

trying to move through those and you get the aha  moment as fast as you can uh and again like even  

in for people in fluent for life if they still  have questions they just post in the comments  

or send us an email and we answer that and most  people are like ah now I got it okay so that's  

how you would get the information and it really  can happen very quickly when you learn that way  

all right uh let's see and then cake it with more  smiley faces look at that all right well I think  

uh my time is almost finished here but hopefully  this makes sense I recommend you go back and watch  

this again if you started late so the video will  be available on the YouTube channel you can watch  

it there but hopefully I keep repeating myself  but hopefully you understand this this makes sense  

um this way over here like you were it's going to  feel like there's a lot of pain for very little  

gain over here this weighs much easier lets you  relax like you kind of let life come to you as it  

needs to come to you all those things will happen  and this took me a while to understand as as like  

a just like a person and a learner but I promise  if you try these things especially this one  

this is the easiest thing you can do right now  in your life uh it's also the most difficult  

so this one but about trying to give attention to  the things that you were giving attention to so  

if you're in a conversation with someone give them  your attention I know it's hard to not think about  

the laundry or whatever like this this mind will  will come into your mind it will say what about  

the laundry I said don't worry about the laundry  laundry will be okay you know I kind of have my  

it's like in my life this is more like my wife  over here will give me this stuff and so I have  

to my wife and I work well together because we  have this blend so I have to teach her about this  

and she's like well you know you gotta make sure  you wash your hands you know so she reminds me  

about this stuff but I say like look you know it's  there's a lot we don't know and it's much better  

if we kind of relax and let it happen all right  so I think when you're there uh let's say oh look  

we've got a few more comments uh very quickly Tran  says speaking of rip uh that's what Drew's brand  

of shirt are you wearing it fits you nice LOL ah  okay well just regular you know I can't really  

find uh shirts I'm looking for t-shirts here in  Japan people need to send me some some T-shirts  

I'm definitely not going to rip this t-shirt but  like girl like I could or I could probably maybe  

try to try to rip it over here all right a lot of  pain for a little gain I think that was like that  

yes is that an idiom well the idiom is no pain no  gain and that's typically like for this but the  

the the kind of pain that comes from this process  is just getting your mind it's reminding yourself  

hey relax relax I don't need to study 10 000  words I need to study 10 words and know them  

very well and in any area of your life like this  is the successful way that a few people are doing  

and this is the difficult way that most people are  doing doesn't matter if it's business or language  

learning or learning like a sport or anything like  that just relax relax remind yourself to relax  

all right Neil says thank you and thanks for the  great lesson as always I'm enjoying your programs  

yes I'm glad to hear it yes so sayudi started with  uh the visual guide to phrasal verbs I believe  

all right thank you drew says dran yes relax  get more information remember this is another  

thing you can think about like if you're still  not understanding something then go get more  

information about that thing don't move on to the  next topic or whatever if you're like yeah I don't  

really get it like it just means you need more  review of that topic but when you get that aha  

moment that's where you really feel excited you're  like yes I finally got it just like this for like  

I was like well look at that I got it now now I  can use it and I feel confident about that all  

right but it's not because I like repeated the  word again and again I just uh now I understand  

what that means all right all right if uh anybody  has more questions it looks like that's the end of  

this lesson but thank you very much for joining me  if you would like to please like the video click  

that little like button I should see like some  little likes going on click that like button click  

that like button let YouTube know that you enjoyed  this so more people can find videos like this that  

help them get fluent and also you can click on the  links in the description below this video to learn  

more about Frederick and fluent for life they  all follow these same principles and they will  

help you get flown much faster have a fantastic  day and I'll see you in the next video bye-bye