3 Ways To Respond Fluently In English Conversations Like A Native Speaker

over here all right I think we're working  I am Drew Badger the English fluency guide  

and it is a pleasure to welcome you to  another live video here on YouTube this  

should be a good one we're talking about  ways to respond fluently in conversations

I know this is a really big common problem that  a lot of people have and so we want to talk about  

specifically not just learning vocabulary but  how to actually communicate how to have better  

conversations and to not feel really nervous  when speaking or you know feel like you can't say  

anything because ah your mind gets stuck and you  don't really know exactly how to express yourself

so hopefully looks like all right so we should  have some people in the chat right now but it  

looks like we're doing all right I want to get  right into it uh hopefully this video will not  

be very long again usually what I do is try to  have my lesson at the beginning and then I'll  

stay around to answer questions if people have  them uh but it's nice to see you there everybody  

I'll come back and answer questions later if you  have questions as I go through these also I'll ask  

you to do some commenting uh because this will  help you communicate better we'll give you some  

good practice all right so the three basic things  I want to talk about in this video These are going  

to be three strategies very simple things that you  can do right now today in your conversations even  

right after you finish this video it will help  you feel more confident and also over time so  

we want to give you some things like some quick  wins this just means something that you can feel  

great about right now that will help you again  in your conversations today but also help you  

for your conversations in the future so really  show you how to learn the language well so you  

communicate in general more fluently so the first  thing you can do very simply is to mirror people  

to mirror what people say to mirror so just put  number one up here make sure people can see that

all right to mirror what other people are saying  now this is a very simple thing you can do all  

you can really do is uh or all you have to do I  should say is just repeat what the other person  

says now there are a lot of good reasons to do  this but the most important number two and one  

uh are number one that you can really have  empathy with the other person it shows that  

you're a good listener and really they want  to speak with you more if you are listening  

more and then the second thing that's really  important about this is that it doesn't stop  

the flow of the conversation and it doesn't  matter you don't need to know any phrases or  

prepare anything beforehand so this should be  a really simple way for you to communicate and  

just being in the conversation with the other  person really you're focusing on listening uh  

and again you're just repeating what people are  saying so I'll go back in just a second look at  

comments but I want to give a very simple quick  example of this and then let you kind of have a  

conversation with me so as simple example  I might say let's say let's say tomorrow

I am going

to the beach see to the beach  

so if I'm in a conversation with someone and I  tell them hey tomorrow I am going to the beach a  

very simple way they can respond to this is just  repeating back to me what I just said the beach

very easy now I know this is very simple  but a lot of students forget to do this  

because they they are uh the English  expression we use here is to be in

your own head so to be in your own head means  you're spending a lot of time worrying you're  

trying to listen to what the other person is  saying and you want to think about what you  

want to say next so my advice really is to clear  your mind really try to pay attention to what the  

other person is saying just relax don't worry  about having a perfect response to people just  

listen really to what they're saying and try  to get the other person to speak this advice  

is particularly important for people who feel  very shy but you're in the conversation someone  

is saying something to you and you have to  respond or maybe you will feel nervous about  

that so the easiest simplest thing you can do is  simply to repeat back what the other person is  

saying and you can ask this like oh the beach  so you're asking a question without making a  

long question all you're doing is having a rising  intonation like you're asking a question oh the  

beach and then you just pause and let the other  person explain more that's all you're doing so  

you're trying trying to get more information  from the other person and you're letting the  

other person speak because people love to talk  about themselves and explain what's happening  

and so you can do this and you will actually  be seen as a greater conversational list so  

a conversationalist is someone who can have good  conversations and really this is just by listening  

even if you're not saying anything so really  pay attention for key words in what they are  

saying forget about your own thoughts or trying  to prepare responses or anything really focus on  

the other person it's much easier and you can  relax you can get out of your own head and not  

worry about what you're trying to say all right so  tomorrow I'm going to the beach now I could also  

change the focus of this I could instead of talk  about where they're going I could say oh tomorrow

so I'm focusing on tomorrow so maybe I  thought like they're going on a different  

day or something it doesn't really matter  but I can change the focus of what I want  

them to speak about by what word I repeat but  notice I don't have to think of my own phrases  

I don't need to remember any vocabulary  the point is again number one to keep the  

conversation flowing and number two just to  get more Rapport in the conversation rapport

so Rapport is your connection with the other  person your Rapport is the connection you have  

with the other person so if you are thinking  about what you want to say next and you're not  

really listening to the other person then of  course they won't feel listened to they won't  

feel listened to and they won't really want  to talk with you more so you want to get more  

people relaxing more people using their vocabulary  whether it's a native speaker or not but getting  

them to speak you see how easy this is though  you're really just repeating back what the other  

person said usually asking as a question now you  can also use this so the same thing you're just  

taking these things let's say they ask you a  question so they're asking me a question in  

this situation oh what are you doing tomorrow so  what are you doing tomorrow I can say same thing  

tomorrow I'm just giving myself time to think  so even in the conversation like maybe I don't  

remember because remember that native speakers  are having these same things in conversations  

as well so they might not remember what they  want to say in a conversation okay so they're  

thinking okay someone asks me like hey what did  you have for dinner yesterday what did you have  

what did you eat for dinner yesterday what did  you eat for dinner yesterday and I'm thinking  

yesterday yesterday so I'm kind of asking myself  as a question and usually people people feel the  

need to to say something to have some kind of  sound coming out uh because if they don't do that  

then the other person will just start speaking  again this is why people usually say uh or  

um and these using these filler words just to  have some Voice or some kind of sound coming  

out so that the other person doesn't just get  into the conversation and continue talking so  

if a waiter comes up and asks oh what would  you like for lunch I might be thinking oh  

what would I like for lunch if I don't know so  I'm I just I repeat the conversation or repeat  

the question back to myself so again this works  whether you're using it just as a way to to kind  

of pause or slow down the conversation or as  a way to get more information from the other  

person now this is great practice just listening  to what the other person says because remember  

the real practice that you get that builds  your fluency is from what other people say  

to you especially native speakers so you really  want to get more details about the information oh  

you're going to the beach now if you're feeling  a bit more confident you can ask oh which beach  

which beach or you can ask a question about this  like are you going with anyone are you going with  

anyone okay but again the point is that this  is the the really magical simple thing you can  

do where you don't need to remember or prepare  anything there's nothing you need to think about  

like okay do I do I remember the right words or  phrase before you get into the conversation all  

you're doing is listening and repeating back  to people what they say okay so right now I'd  

like to do this with you I'm going to have  a conversation with you and I'd like you to  

just type in the chat just respond back to me  using this same simple idea just to make sure  

everybody understands what I'm doing I know this  is a very simple exercise but it's important and  

it will hopefully get you doing it automatically  it will feel much more confident or you will feel  

much more confident you will feel more comfortable  in conversations if you can start doing this so  

tomorrow I'm going to the circus tomorrow I'm  going to the circus tomorrow I'm going to the  

circus tomorrow I'm going to the circus so imagine  I've just said that to you just type a response  

using my words back to me in the conversation  all right so keep the conversation flowing by  

typing in the chat right now a response to me  so tomorrow I'm going to the circus the circus

tomorrow I'm going to the circus tomorrow I'm  going to the circus just type in the chat right  

now just make this very easy tomorrow I'm going  to the circus so I want you to respond to me  

very good so Christian right there the circus  look at that so basically the same exact thing  

as this uh this example over here so tomorrow  I'm going to the beach and Christian responds  

with the beach but in this one I'm talking about  going to the circus yes I'm going to the circus  

okay so you don't need to respond with exactly  the same thing you could do that so there are  

longer ways I could I could respond and  actually repeat actually the same thing  

so tomorrow I'm going to the beach or in the  example I just gave tomorrow I'm going to the  

circus I could repeat that whole thing back  to you oh tomorrow you're going to the beach  

tomorrow you are going to the beach so I  changed the sentence slightly because I'm  

talking about the other person but again I  can make that longer if I want to it's not  

necessary often native speakers are just looking  for key information and they're asking for more  

okay so you're just repeating a little bit back so  tomorrow I am going to the circus so I want you to  

respond to me so uh Christian already said the  circus so he responded back to the circus uh yes  

uh I really like the circus my favorite animal  at the circus is the elephant I really like the  

elephants I really like the elephants I really  like the elephants now you can pay attention to  

what I'm doing here I'm giving you clues in the  conversation about what I'd like to talk about  

but I'm looking for you to ask me all right  Andreas again the elephants yes so when I was  

young uh I I used to go to the circus with my dad  and we would love to feed peanuts to the elephants  

okay so you see how this works so you can get more  information from me you don't have to continue  

like continue repeating or everything like that  if you want more information that's that's fine  

again this is just to keep the conversation  flowing and to let the other person speak  

okay so a couple of you guys have got it there  pretty easy all right any questions about this  

all right uh do that type of questions break the  grammar rules no remember that grammar is less  

important in a spoken conversation uh especially  if we just want information but grammatically I  

can say like the beach question mark I can say  that and even in like a novel or written form  

like I would I would you know I I could I could do  that if you're writing maybe an essay or something  

for professional work uh maybe you might not want  to do that obviously you would have some kind of  

uh subject an object and you're talking about what  what the thing is the point is to be clear but in  

this case if if we know what we're talking about  that's the whole point of the conversation so just  

to keep the conversation moving and just asking  for key information uh where you're getting that  

response from the other person so I feel excited  because I said yeah I really like the elephants  

and most people will like to continue talking  about things if you let them but most people do  

not they are they want to like they want to say  something in the conversation so a conversation  

becomes much more enjoyable especially if you are  feeling shy if you just let the other person speak  

and let them continue to speak by you directing  them and if you listen for the key words they're  

intonation what they're interested in talking  about uh then they will obviously feel more  

confident about speaking all right so the mirror  technique very simple you're really just repeating  

back to other people what they're saying all right  and then again you can you can if you're feeling  

more confident obviously you can bring up your own  stories or you can ask different questions I just  

wanted to start this lesson in this video with  something very very simple that anyone can do so  

even if you don't feel confident about making your  own sentences or you're worried about how do I how  

do I have maybe five or ten words I don't want to  give you a long list of phrases or something that  

you need to remember the point is the information  is right here in the conversation already  

so if you're just listening to people you will  become a better listener and you will improve  

your fluency and have better Rapport at the same  time in a conversation so let me go back make sure  

I don't like the beach yes so I'm surprised a  shark would not like the beach but it happens  

now maybe you like the beach sharks like the beach  so they can come up and you know get the get the  

swimmers who are by the beach but even if you  don't like the beach you can certainly use that  

in a conversation so if I say oh I'm going to the  beach but then you say oh I don't like the beach  

you're kind of ending the conversation right  there so often in conversations you can talk  

about things or get the other person to speak  more even if you don't care about that thing so  

an example I might be talking with my daughters  about something they are interested in but maybe  

I don't really care about so they bring me look  daddy here's a here's a doll that I'm playing  

with and I say oh like tell me about the doll  and I'm asking them questions about that part  

of that is for me to get give them lots of input  so that I can help them improve their listening  

and their their fluency as well but also I'm  just encouraging them to speak so encouraging  

them to to feel confident about that so even if I  don't really care about a doll I don't have a doll  

myself I don't do anything with that but it's  important to the other person and that's okay  

all right so remember again there are lots of good  reasons to do this but this is very simple anybody  

can do this in a conversation any questions about  this let me know I think people got it though all  

right I haven't been to any one of the circus you  can also yeah so you can you can ask again like  

same questions about that let's see why we don't  use the future tense well again this is there's  

nothing about like uh tenses you don't have to  think about any of that in in this example all  

right so it's understood that they will be going  to the beach from this so tomorrow I am going to  

the beach like I am going uh it's just another way  of saying you will be going to the beach because  

you're not doing it right now you were talking  about when you will do it so tomorrow I will  

go to the beach you can use both of those all  right remember there are usually more than one way  

or there are often many ways to express yourself  in a conversation okay so when we're talking about  

the future tomorrow I will go to the beach or  tomorrow I am going to the beach you can use both  

of those all right this is why we put tomorrow in  there if you just say I am going to the beach it  

means I am doing that right now but if we talk  about when we're doing it next week I will be  

going to the beach or I will go to the beach or I  am going to the beach okay often we we use the the  

kind of present continuous like that to just make  it sound more like it's it's happening and it's  

it's something we're doing right now even though  we're not physically going to the beach right now  

okay I think we got any questions unconditional  uh what specifically so if again like it the the  

point is to listen for the key words and what  people are saying because it doesn't matter  

what the tense is or whatever this could be about  the past yesterday I went to the beach Okay so  

yesterday I went to the beach I can still respond  in the same way because this is about uh keywords  

oh the beach so yesterday I went to the beach oh  the beach tomorrow I will go to the beach oh the  

beach the response is still the same it doesn't  matter what the tenses are uh or like if you want  

to use a conditional we're talking about like  if I do something so if I go to the beach then  

I will do this so I could say oh like the beach or  or where I could be talking about what they what  

their what they want to talk about so if I go to  the beach I will surf if I go to the beach I will  

Surf and I could say oh you will you will surf  we're surfing all right so I'm just I'm asking  

without without making a longer question that  could be grammatically correct I don't have to  

worry about that again uh this this specific thing  this specific idea about mirroring is for people  

who really don't have a lot of confidence about  making longer sentences or having more information  

in the conversation so you can respond simply  without having a whole bunch of things to say okay  

so you see how easy this is so this is not about  like I could ask a longer thing oh tomorrow if you  

will go to the beach what will you do if if it's  raining so I could answer something and and go on  

and talk about something else oh I remember when  I was young I used to go to the beach all the time  

okay isn't it dangerous to do surfing for children  I don't know that's a good question dangerous so  

look at let's say you just asked me that question  is it dangerous for children uh to do surfing or  

is it dangerous for children to Surf a way I could  respond to that is just dangerous and then I just  

wait and let you ask me more questions about  that so is it dangerous for children to serve  

dangerous so you might be thinking okay well  let me let me think about what I mean by that  

maybe they get I don't know maybe they fall off  the surfboard or they do something I don't know  

uh I took my my older daughter in Hawaii one  year we went uh did a little bit of just kind  

of standing on a board and obviously she was  too young to do it by herself but standing with  

me I could walk her through and she enjoyed  standing on the uh standing on the surfboard  

so that was something we could do so again I  could take a story if I'm feeling confident  

about telling a story or explaining things in more  detail but I don't have to you can still keep the  

conversation flowing just by using the vocabulary  that the other person said okay so it doesn't  

matter what it is usually you could go back and  continue adding more and more things or getting  

into more detail or doing something else and then  as you feel more confident or you're using other  

things you want to tell your own stories you can  do that all right but this is great for people who  

lack confidence and really just want to have more  uh just better conversations and not feel nervous  

about about having to say something okay so really  just use the other person's words all right let me  

go back before we go to number two uh let's see  if it's raining you better stay home yep do you  

know speak Spanish a little bit I can understand  some Spanish but I don't but I don't speak Spanish  

who are you going who are going with you do you  have any company yep you would say like who is  

going with you or is anyone going with you or are  you going alone are you going by yourself so there  

are lots of ways you can do this and as you listen  to more examples of native speakers you will feel  

more confident about that so I could say oh you  are going to the beach like the key word could be  

like you know if someone says tomorrow I am going  to the beach oh I say you were going to the beach  

so in that case they might they might think oh  like I'm already asking the question like who  

is going to the beach and I don't mean like are  they going or not I already know that but the  

idea is oh like are they going by themselves  or are they not so I could say oh just you  

so here I'm adding a word but I'm just  if I want to do that I could just say oh  

you're you are going to the beach so the the  emphasis is on you you are going to the beach  

but again I'm just using their vocabulary  back to them okay I don't need to prepare  

anything in advance I don't need to think  about anything I'm just listening the whole  

point is just listening for keywords just  to get that conversation flowing that's it  

all right I think we're doing well all right  let's see uh what will bring when you go to  

the beach beer yeah so what will you bring or will  you bring anything what will you bring all right  

what will you bring all right as I like to learn  from lesson and watching but I have a problem  

with writing also with grammar I understand  everything you're saying but at the same time  

my brain stopped yeah so we have lots of lessons  that cover like things about even writing like you  

should be just actually writing more if you have  trouble writing so find writing that you like and  

then copy that like actually write it by hand  but most of the time you can if you look on the  

the latest videos we have the latest live videos  specifically on the channel uh where we talk about  

fluency pretty much every video is talking about  fluency this one is specifically about responding  

in conversations so how to answer people how  to respond to people easily but you will find  

things pretty much everybody has the same kinds of  problems and the most basic issue people have with  

fluency is they just don't know the language as  well as they think they do so they have usually  

a definition or a translation but they haven't  really gotten enough examples of the language and  

that's why they don't speak as well as they like  to speak as well as they would like to all right  

so I would love to zip a cup of cappuccino I  sip a cup of cappuccino while I'm at the beach  

should we prepare food before we go to the beach  yeah so people you can again there are other  

things you can add you can ask your own questions  if you're feeling confident but if you are not  

don't put pressure on yourself that's the basic  idea here all right let me go back and make sure  

before we go on to the second example here uh that  I got everybody Elena says how can I pronounce  

the word Beach properly without cursing Elena you  should have Frederick our app if you do not have  

that already click on the link in the description  below this video I believe Beach is in there if  

it's not I think it's in there but you will  learn other things even they are related uh to  

the e a sound and Beach like teach it's the same  sound all right let's see if anybody else here  

all right so my favorite animal is the shark ah  okay I gotcha all right uh said uh it's like you  

do in your native language when you repeat some  parts of your opponent's speech yes so you can  

call them your opponent I suppose or the just the  person you're speaking with tomorrow I'm going  

to the circus yeah so it looks like you guys  you guys got it over here and if remember we  

get lots of questions and comments so if I don't  get to yours uh repeat that again let's see what  

naoko says good morning from Tokyo nice to see you  there from Toronto okay all right we're going back  

to the bottom here all right what is the  difference between will be and going to be yes  

uh in this video I'm not going to cover specific  grammar points uh but again we've covered lots of  

those on the channel already and this is also the  kind of thing we do in fluent for life it's much  

better to get many examples of things to learn  nuances like this rather than try to get a quick  

explanation because you're just going to forget  it anyway all right so what we do we want to give  

you many many examples of things and that's how  you understand them I've watched your video since  

many years ago and I've learned a lot thank you  so much your videos are really helpful it's my  

pleasure Danielle thank you all right so moving on  to number two all right so this is you can think  

about kind of the next step up if you're feeling  a bit more confident and this is to respond  

and this could be respond or if you're  starting a conversation uh imperfectly

all right so the imperfect is  important here respond imperfectly  

remember that when most people are learning a  language they usually get one example or one  

definition or one translation of a word and then  they feel that they really need to remember that  

specific thing but natives don't learn a language  that way natives learn situations they see what  

happens a situation like a parent is yelling at  a child or a person is ordering some food or I'm  

talking with my friend and laughing and smiling  and answering questions all of those things begin  

with the situation and then the vocabulary we  use is kind of learned from seeing those many  

examples okay so here's what I mean by responding  imperfectly or just imperfect communication anyway  

so by Perfect communication this might be you  have an exact word that you want to use and you  

can use that word perfectly and automatically  you can recall exactly what you want to say at  

the right time in conversations this is pretty  rare even for native speakers and so what we do  

instead is we usually like a native speaker  will have a few different ways of explaining  

something and if they can't remember a specific  word they might get stuck for a moment but usually  

they switch to something else and so they will  respond imperfectly native speakers will still  

have those same issues that English Learners  have where they're trying to communicate but  

they actually it's like right now I don't have a  specific lesson plan or an exact thing I want to  

say I'm letting my language just flow naturally so  if I can't think of a specific thing I just switch  

to something else I can switch to a different way  because again how I've learned I'm thinking about  

situations specific ideas I want to express but  I know there are different ways of doing that so  

I could use this phrase or that phrase or that  phrase so this is a story from yesterday I was  

going out with my family we were going to this  blueberry picking place it's a little bit early in  

the season here in Japan for picking blueberries  but we just went to this restaurant and my older  

daughter Arya was saying oh I want to go to that  American Store I want to go to that American Store

[Music]  

so I want to go

to that

American Store

are you going to yell at me for my writing or did  

I do I need to make that clear for  people s-t-o-r-e or is that worse

s-t-o-r-8 store and American

store okay so I was standing there my wife and I  uh we are talking and Arya says I want to go to  

that American Store and at first we didn't know  what she was talking about all right so she was  

she was confident like she had a specific image oh  she knows like she's thinking of a specific store  

uh space specific store uh so she's thinking  about that I want to go to that American store  

but we don't know what you're talking about or  we don't know what she's talking about so we  

start asking her some questions what do you mean  American Store what's an American Store and again  

we're not we're not being like Oh no like that's  like that's a stupid thing there's no such thing  

as American Store what are you talking about we're  not getting angry at her we're just asking oh what  

do you mean American store because she has in her  mind a specific thing she wants to say all right  

but she just doesn't know the name of the store  all right it's not like the airport or a specific  

park or something it's just a place she's been to  before but she calls it or she thinks of it as the  

American Store and so we begin talking with her  and we go back and forth what do you mean American  

Store uh and she was like you know that the place  where I got that doll and we thought for a minute  

and oh okay yes I understand now so that the doll  you got uh that was at the it was a mini Costco

Costco so if you don't know what Costco is I think  they're in various countries but definitely in the  

United States Costco is a place where you can go  buy a really big uh like bulk bulk bulk bulk items  

so a huge container of peanuts or a huge ketchup  or something like that but so she called that the  

American Store I thought that was very funny when  I realized what she was talking about so in Japan  

we do have Costco as well and it's interesting  uh that so let's say Costco I'll just draw this  

imagine this is a map so we have a Costco up here  but we are maybe two or three hours away from  

Costco so now recently some some businesses  are opening up where they have they sell  

they basically buy stuff from Costco bring it to  another store and then sell it for a slightly high  

higher like higher price all right so like there's  these mini things so it's like they I think  

this the name of the store is like mini cost or  something like that but it's a miniature a smaller  

version of Costco they go buy some popular things  bring them back here and then sell them for a  

slightly higher price all right so of course Arya  doesn't know the name of that but she's thinking  

American Store American Store all right so she's  speaking imperfectly obviously the perfect answer  

would be oh can we go to the mini cause and  then uh yes okay we understand exactly what  

you're saying okay yeah so there's uh yeah I think  there are Costco's in uh in different countries  

all right but the interesting thing here is that  the only difference between Arya and a non-native  

speaker is the confidence that's it all right  so Arya is not communicating perfectly because  

she's not using the exact word that we might be  expecting but she has the confidence to continue  

explaining something all right now what most what  what happens often uh very often in conversations  

is a native speaker might be speaking with a  non-native so I'm speaking with a learner and they  

say like oh I want to go to that American Store so  an adult learner says the exact same thing I want  

to go to that American Store and I say oh what  what do you what is an American Store what what  

do you mean and then the person freezes up like  oh no I said the wrong thing ah what happened okay  

but Arya didn't do that she just said oh maybe  I should try explaining it in a different way  

all right so this is the courage to respond  imperfectly remember that there are many  

ways to explain things and sometimes if I can't  remember the exact word it's not important it's  

not necessary to do that I just need to explain  something and ah okay now I get it all right so  

if you if you try to explain something like if  I'm trying to explain I forget what a word is in  

Japanese or whatever I can I can go around that by  trying to explain it in a different way and it's  

just the courage you have to continue going on  with the explanation so the other person usually  

wants to understand what you're saying that's the  point of a conversation you're trying to connect  

with the other person you're saying something  they're saying something you're having a back  

and forth you want to understand each other and  so I want to understand my daughter and now I  

so she calls that the American Store all right is  this sentence this whole story here does this make  

sense so remember that the only difference is that  a non-native speaker might say the same thing but  

they would get flustered it's like oh no they're  going to start panicking because the other person  

doesn't know what I'm talking about oh no I use  the wrong word oh no all right you don't need to  

do that you are creating that by getting in your  own mind when you start doing that so it's okay  

to just try to explain something and do the best  you can with the other person and it's really just  

your confidence where I'm saying like yeah I know  like what's the name of that thing and I'm working  

with the other person can you what's the name  of that do you know that store we went to you  

remember I got that doll and Noel got a doll  too and we ah okay now we remember ah you're  

talking about the mini costs okay so remember  the confidence is really the thing that that  

makes it different native speakers are still  in these same situations so native speakers are  

also communicating imperfectly most of the time  they might have a specific thing they want to  

say but it could probably be spoken better or they  could use fewer words or something there are lots  

of ways that you could make communication more  perfect or more efficient but most people don't  

communicate that way okay so don't put pressure on  yourself remember first thing is just responding  

to other people by repeating what you have or  what you hear from that person second thing  

if you're feeling more confident is just trying  to express something without doing it perfectly  

all right it's not about making mistakes it's  just about a different way of getting to the  

same conclusion all right so ideally like let's  say you were right here and you want to get to  

this point if you can go straight to that with  the perfect language that would be great but it  

doesn't matter if you need to go around here  and come back you still get to the same place  

and often you have a good connection with the  other person as you try to figure that out but  

don't feel bad about that any questions about this  all right let me go back before we go into number  

three which is a little bit uh even higher level  for even stronger students but that's really what  

you should be doing or this is what you should  be doing what I'll explain in a moment to become  

much more fluent and really be talking about  anything you like in these conversations all right  

the chat got a little bit quiet over here but  hopefully everyone is still paying attention  

is everyone asleep or people there is this  making sense are people feeling a little  

bit better about conversations now or am I  wasting my time let me know because these  

are the exact same strategies that I use in my  own conversations in Japanese and and the same  

things I'm doing teaching my children as well  all right so I encourage them to find different  

ways of expressing themselves there isn't just  one way to say things all right hopefully this  

makes sense if we got no more questions  let's see all right to go back through  

let's see to the Julian the whale beached on  the Cornish Shore due to dehydration oh that's  

interesting uh Tristan says you're my savior been  sick to uh stick to your lesson for almost four  

years now and I can say I totally communicate like  uh with a native English people glad to hear Bravo  

that is good to hear Tristan keep up the good work  Bruno hey Drew what's up glad to be in your lab  

lesson glad to hear you uh nice to see you there  Bruno I arrived I like your channel glad to hear  

it all right hey we have a hundred people in the  live yeah call your friends they get more people  

in here where my Peruvian students also I think  I had some Peruvian students in class uh one time  

over there Isaac says pretty easy Japanese I just  got here too uh do you say this video yes I will  

save these perhaps yes I got the point what's up  what was that all right moving on so the final  

level uh again I don't want to cover everything  you can do and teach you a whole bunch of phrases  

these are usually just principles because a lot of  people they they want specific phrases you can use  

in a conversation but then they just forget those  okay so in order to actually become a confident  

speaker start with these things that will  help you improve in your regular conversations

thank you and you will feel much more confident

all right so the third and final thing we'll talk  about here this is something uh if you've been  

on my channel a while you should be familiar  with this and this is naturally very reviewed

okay so naturally varied review what we've talked  about for number one especially and number two uh  

is that when you're repeating things you're  listening to other people especially native  

speakers in conversations that's the real practice  you're getting with the language so especially if  

you talk with 10 people about doing a particular  thing this is getting naturally varied review  

where you're hearing one person say something  so let's say I'd speak with one person about I  

don't know raising pet rabbits or something or  pet frogs or whatever I'm just I'm I'm talking  

with one person so this is one person is maybe  teaching me about something where I'm talking  

with them about that thing even if I don't know  much about it then I talk with a second person  

who's going to give me more information about that  same thing but they're going to use that in maybe  

slightly different ways they may give me some  phrases that are both talking okay you need to  

raise a frog from a tadpole so a tadpole like this  is a baby a little that's a bad picture every time  

so we got the little head here and a little  little tail like that here's a a tadpole a  

tadpole so we have okay we're learning like this  person says tadpole that person says tadpole as  

well and that helps me remember the word tadpole  so rather than just trying to repeat it put it on  

a flash card and review it again and again I want  to listen to lots of people talking about that  

so I get a third person that also is explaining  to me about how to raise frogs or something  

okay so notice how like the more overlap  there is the better my fluency becomes  

the more overlap there is the better my  fluency becomes about this particular stuff  

so if I continue to have more and more  conversations maybe I talk with this person and  

this person over here so each of them like there's  some phrases that only this person will use  

there are some phrases that only this person will  use but there are some phrases that everybody uses  

okay so a tadpole is a is a young frog so  frog we got an egg like this goes into the  

tadpole form it grows up into oh man this  is going to be a bad picture of a frog

that's a frog all right and then the frog  makes eggs and the cycle goes around like that  

okay so as I'm getting naturally varied review  and this is specifically for building vocabulary  

all right where I'm listening to different people  it's improving my vocabulary it's developing my  

memory it's improving my listening as well which  also improves my pronunciation it's teaching me  

grammar all of these things it's doing naturally  without me having to study a bunch of rules it's  

by understanding the context of the situation and  it's through this process that I build fluency for  

conversations so the first thing here we talked  about mirroring people means I'm just repeating  

back what other people are saying I could be  in a conversation in a language I don't even  

speak and if I know what the words are you know  if someone could like tell me okay this word  

means this like I understand like this is a word  this is a word I could repeat back to that person  

and they would it would feel to them like it's a  conversation all right so that's what we're doing  

with mirroring the other person so even if I have  a limited uh conversation so maybe I know a lot  

of vocabulary which is the case for many Learners  so they have a limited uh active vocabulary they  

have a large passive vocabulary but they don't  really feel confident using the vocabulary they  

have so mirroring is great for that and then if  you're feeling a little bit more confident you  

can respond imperfectly so you don't have to put  pressure on yourself to say this exact one thing  

try to explain things try to communicate in a way  that's understandable even if it's imperfect and  

it's your confidence about wanting to explain  something that that will help the other person  

relax as well so if you start to panic oh no I  forgot the specific word I need to say for this  

it's it's okay you don't need to worry about  that just like a young child like I told with  

that story with my daughter you're just expressing  yourself in a different way it's not about being  

incorrect you're just expressing yourself in  a different way all right and then naturally  

varied review this is where we're getting lots  of different input so all of these are really  

about improving through input anyway even in  conversations you were really just improving  

your kind of your confidence that you have uh by  feeling more confident about like using specific  

words in a conversation but that usually comes  from you actually understanding that vocabulary  

really well and you can do that by yourself so you  don't have to be in a conversation to do this just  

like right now I'm teaching you things and I'm  reviewing things again and again in different  

ways to help you remember them so that when  you are in when you are in a conversation you  

will feel more confident about using these things  all right so naturally varied review this is the  

highest level and this is really for the for the  long term fluency development it's something you  

can begin doing immediately if you're not doing  it already but this is really how we help people  

in fluent for life so you begin in the program  and you start going through things again and  

again in slightly different ways so you might  hear the same vocabulary from different people  

you might hear it in different tenses you might  see it like maybe used by a person like me if  

I'm teaching something and then hear it in an  actual conversation so all of these things are  

giving you lots and lots of review without you  needing to respond or actually say anything all  

right the the actual communication part it's a  very small part of the learning process and just  

like me out here even living in Japan I don't  spend most of my day speaking Japanese I spend  

a very little amount of time speaking Japanese  I would say maybe all together maybe like it  

depends on the day I might have a day if I go out  with a friend or something maybe I would speak to  

them for an hour or something in Japanese but  most days I'm not doing that and if I'm getting  

any Japanese at all it's like reading something or  watching something or listening to it rather than  

me speaking all right so it's because I'm able  to understand I feel very confident because I'm  

getting all this naturally varied review all right  let me go back and check questions but that's the  

basic lesson look at that 45 minutes very good  all right so mirroring responding imperfectly  

and then getting naturally varied revealed these  are all things that you can do without having  

to put a lot of pressure on yourself and again  these uh these very simple three simple things  

you can do in conversations or even if you're  learning by yourself you will still get lots  

of great input and you will still improve your  fluency and all these things can work together  

all right uh is it not persons it is people it is  not persons it is people huh I think I don't know  

if that's for me or not uh Athena says thank you  teacher it is bedtime getting myself ready for  

another work day uh uh it nearly it is nearly 22  hours in Montreal all right uh is the mirror same  

thing as shadowing well shadowing is your your  repeating after people like if like you're not  

doing anything even in a conversation uh that's  where you're just like you could be listening to  

me right now and trying to repeat after what I say  but this is it's less important uh to do that this  

is specifically about being in conversations and  this is advice that I would even give to native  

English speakers just to have better conversations  with people so just having Rapport feeling uh  

confident making the other people the other  people or person feel listened to so if they feel  

listened to they will they will enjoy speaking  with me more even if I'm not speaking very much  

so a lot of this is just it's just general  advice about communication and conversation  

specifically so like you can just by shadowing  someone like repeating back after what they said  

um but you can do that by yourself I'm talking  about in conversations when you want to respond  

on automatically okay do you have an accent well  I suppose everybody has an accent but I try to  

try to communicate very very cleanly uh to make  sure all my words are easy to understand even  

though I'm blending my speech like a native  speaker are you American yes I am uh uh okay  

got it all right can I you okay thanks Dad  Lewis says I do not have the opportunity to  

talk with other persons ah okay maybe that's  what that's about yes talk with other people  

yes again you don't need to have other people  in order to improve your fluency this video is  

specifically about people who want to communicate  and who are in like who do have that opportunity  

but Again Naturally varied review will get you  fluent even if you don't speak with anybody else  

because the whole point of fluency is that you  develop an understanding of the language like  

a native speaker that's the whole point so when  you understand a language like a native speaker  

you can use the language like a native speaker  okay so if you're just learning uh by yourself  

you don't have anyone to practice with then  you're just using like translations or trying  

to learn the the traditional way by studying  grammar rules you are going to think about  

those things when you communicate but if you're  actually learning and trying to understand like  

a native English speaker which is what we do with  naturally varied review that's how you can become  

a fluent speaker by yourself all right then when  you are in a conversation you will feel much more  

confident about speaking and you can follow these  simple things in order to do that all right so  

let's say you you're you're getting naturally  varied review like you start doing that and in  

the next you know 30 days you're feeling much  more confident about using specific vocabulary  

when you get in a conversation you can use that or  if you're still feeling shy you don't want to say  

something whatever the reason is you can just  mirror the other person or respond imperfectly  

all right yes the psychotic teacher is back what's  up all right Shivan says how to be fluent in a  

long conversation yes this is it so remember  a long conversation is a series of shorter  

like shorter back and forth things like this  so there there's nothing special about like  

being in a longer conversation rather than  a short one but usually the complaint that  

Learners will have is that the conversation  uh like becomes boring usually because the  

learner doesn't have anything to say so they  think well I'm like a learner says or a native  

speaker says yes tomorrow I'm going to the beach  and the the natives and the learner says oh okay  

and so that's the end of the conversation so I  mean you got to think about it like like a game  

of uh I don't know volleyball or something so you  have one person over here and another person over  

here first person hits the ball to the other  side now you can respond excuse me you can  

respond by hitting the ball back to the other  person that's what mirroring does or you can  

just let the ball fall down over here and then  that's the end of it so I say hey tomorrow I'm  

going to the beach so I've hit that over to you  tomorrow I'm going to the beach and you say great

that's the end of the conversation  okay or you can respond back the beach  

well yes I like going to the beach  I have been going to the beach since  

I was a little kid and so you hit that back  maybe I'm feeling a little bit more confident  

I want to respond maybe imperfectly  oh what do you like about the beach  

okay I'm answering them I'm responding  back again the the length of a conversation  

increases by going more usually usually you  go either deeper into something or you're  

jumping from one topic to the next that's  how you would have a longer conversation  

okay but it's it's still using these basic ideas I  don't need to have like Advanced uh vocabulary in  

order to do that I'm really just using their  vocabulary I could I could probably be in a  

conversation with people uh and in uh in master  English conversations so these are the specific  

conversation videos that we have in fluent for  Life uh when I'm going in those I mean I've spent  

a long time just having like basically not really  interviewing people but just getting to know them  

and so I let them speak I ask them questions and  I often just repeat back what they said to me  

so I have been in the Army for a long time oh  a long time so I'm looking for more specific  

information one person says I have been in the  Army for a long time now I could respond back to  

different things about that sentence I could say  oh the army so like rather than the Navy or rather  

than you know like the Navy SEALS or whatever or  you know something else so I'm talking about you  

or I'm talking about the army or I'm talking  about how long they've been doing that thing  

so I'm listening to what to what the other person  is saying I forget myself I don't worry about  

what I'm trying to say I just listen to the  other person and continue trying to hit back  

the thing back to the other person just by using  their words so we can have a long I could have  

an hour-long conversation with someone just  repeating back what they're saying I usually  

would not do that I would like add something or  maybe we talk about something else whatever but  

if you're not feeling so confident about that  it's easy just to repeat back what they say  

and it's still a great conversation because  really the a great conversation comes from  

the other person feeling listened to from them  feeling like they got to talk about something  

so most people they will begin a  conversation like hey like what's up

because in a conversation we expect  the other person not to care or to  

not really be listening or whatever  it's just hey what's up I have nothing

so what's up and the other person says nothing

okay I guess that's the end of the conversation  then okay and like so I might respond back like  

hey what's up nothing oh really nothing so I could  just I could repeat this back to them and I'm  

really getting like oh this like really nothing  like there's nothing happening in your life  

so the the the the goal here is to to make  that person feel confident that they can speak  

okay so they they're looking for permission to to  actually talk about something because most people  

don't feel listened to okay so if tomorrow  hey I'm going to the circus wow the circus  

I get excited and just repeat back what they said  

wow the circus I added the wow part but I even  if I forget the word wildest Circus the circus  

it's the same thing all right so hey what's up  so what's happening what's going on oh nothing  

nothing now this is this is like speaking to to  teenagers or to like kind of older children where  

I say oh what did you do at school today nothing  really nothing you did nothing at school you did  

nothing you know what what are we what are we  why are we sending you to school if you don't  

learn anything okay so we we have to kind of go  deeper and we encourage the other person to speak  

when we do that that's how we get more information  so when kids feel that they are listened to they  

will speak more but most times parents are like  be quiet you know we don't want to have you know  

don't want to hear you hear you say anything  all right so people are looking for permission  

to speak let them speak so a lot of Learners think  it's a bad thing that they feel shy or they're not  

feeling confident it's actually a good thing okay  so you can feel wow I don't have to worry about  

myself I can be a good listener and still respond  back to the other person to keep the conversation  

flowing all right and again we do this we  want to have Rapport and we want to develop  

fluency because fluency comes from us paying  attention to what the other people are saying  

okay that's how we're building fluency all  right a couple of responses here let's see  

all right Julian again I prefer not to practice  English with another learner because I believe  

that one bird cannot uh guide another yeah so  if you I also would recommend you you actually  

practice with native speakers if you have someone  to speak with if you can your accent is very clear  

and not like all Americans I hear on YouTube  what is the secret well I'm speaking clearly I'm  

intentionally being clear so people can understand  what I'm saying so what we do in fluent for life  

is we take you from understanding my voice to  understanding more difficult native speakers  

all right so it's much more difficult to just to  watch me if I'm giving a like a long explanation  

or a difficult thing if I'm using idioms slang  faster speech if I'm not communicating accurately  

then of course it's going to be more difficult  so a lot of people enjoy watching my videos  

because they can understand what I'm saying  it's pretty easy okay but if I want to take  

you from this level to understand me I want  to get you out of the the learning English  

phase and into the native speaking phase and  so that's where you start understanding more  

native speakers and you have to learn a lot of  the vocabulary and things in steps if you try  

to jump directly to that it's much more difficult  that's why we do it in steps in fluent for life  

all right I think natives speak too fast yes it  just sounds too fast because you're not used to  

it yet but when you are used to it it's actually  not very fast at all all right but what if I don't  

have a partner to speak with what can I do again  Isaac you don't need a person to speak with this  

is for if you do have that situation or that  opportunity great if not you really get fluent  

by getting the uh the net the naturally varied  review the comp the comprehensible input so it's  

just understandable messages that you get from  native speakers but the point is to focus on that  

for a long time so I don't like this example  here I don't watch just one video about how  

to do something I watch a whole bunch of videos  about how to do something I listen to many people  

speaking about how to do that thing so if you have  not watched it already I have an example about  

this specific kind of learning on the channel it's  about how to make espresso so if you've not seen  

that video already go to the channel and watch  that because it will show you and make you feel  

more confident about making espresso even if you  don't care about making espresso so I don't care  

about making espresso but now I understand and  I could have a conversation with someone about  

making espresso okay but the point is it's because  I watched a couple of different people doing it  

all right It's always important to get lots of  real examples and varied examples that's why  

this is called naturally varied review because  we want to hear lots of examples the same way  

natives learn if you only listen to me or any  other teacher then you will only really you will  

really try to focus on sounding exactly like I do  and your voice is going to be different from mine  

maybe you have a higher Voice or a lower Voice  or maybe you don't have the kind of nasally sound  

that I have in my voice so my voice sounds a  little bit different and you will feel much  

more confident if you listen to a varied group  of people the same way you got fluent in your  

native language so the way you speak is actually  a different it's kind of a combination of all the  

people especially when you were young so your  mother and father and any friends or teachers  

those are the people that really helped you  develop your accent and your pronunciation  

but you still have a unique voice so you should be  doing the same thing in English all right hablamos  

hablamos Como hablamos thanks coach I agree and  then it says I suggest that you should make a full  

video speaking the way you normally do so people  can see the difference so if you go to our Channel  

you can find conversation videos of me of me just  speaking I'm like a little bit a little bit uh  

I'm not I'm not as fast as I could be because I  really could speak much faster and depending on on  

how I'm speaking with people or who I'm speaking  with uh like if it's a bit more of a professional  

situation I would speak a little bit more like  this but if I'm just talking casually with my  

friends it's not even just the speed it's also  the vocabulary that I'm using so I intentionally  

am not putting a lot of phrasal verbs or idioms  or other things like that in my speech I'd really  

just want to make it understandable okay so  it's not just the speed of the speech or the  

accent the vocabulary is really the most important  part of that or it can be the biggest thing that  

stops people from understanding okay so you'll see  that in those conversation videos so rather than  

doing it in this kind of thing that will help  you understand yeah uh Nadia says always with  

the same response our child in all language uh  nothing I don't know what that means let's see uh

uh the more I listen the more I feel confident  in speaking but I'm still very afraid of making  

mistakes as Gilson yep that's common again if you  just respond and repeat what the other person says  

you can't really fail you're just repeating  what they said so that's the easiest way to  

do that just to get confident about repeating  things and then the next level up is trying  

to respond imperfectly so you don't have to  put pressure on yourself to communicate just  

like a child would where they're trying to say  something and maybe they don't know exactly how  

to say that okay so there are many ways to say  something there's not only one correct way to  

say something so don't put pressure on yourself  to do that it's typical lessons that tell you  

this is how you say something or this is how you  pronounce something so a perfect example is like  

if I'm learning uh like Japanese characters  like how to write something so if I'm trying  

to teach my teach my daughter the alphabet yeah  and if I'm if I'm being like very precise about  

the the language like if I'm teaching or  English like that if I do this if I do this  

I say look there's like a certain amount of space  between this part of the A and that part of the a  

so you you have to write it perfectly every  time you have to write it like this like there  

there's a certain distance between this line  and this line now this is the kind of thing  

in Japanese that you will see but often like  in real life there are different fonts so font  

like a different way a character might be written  so the letter A might be like this might be a  

little bit closer together so I'm I don't put  a lot of pressure on my my girls to teach them  

like you have to write it perfectly like this  what I do is try to give them many examples and  

say look like these are the kinds of things you  will see okay so like some people will have the  

letter A like that some people have the letter A  like that some people have the letter A like that  

they're all correct okay so this is why we get  naturally varied review the point is to make you  

feel confident that oh yeah look the real world  is varied like this okay so we're not worried  

about trying to be perfect like all this and  you see this in in learning Japanese but when  

people write normally like their writing looks it  looks horrible okay so somebody else asking about  

writing the same thing advice I gave before  is actually write stuff just fine writing and  

copy it by hand the same kind of writing you would  like to do so read more and and uh and write more  

uh uh let's see okay so if you'd like to like  to hear more me speaking more normally with more  

idioms and phrases and things like that uh it's  in the conversations so this is again what we do  

in steps in fluent for life uh let's see who John  says I heard someone said don't keep asking kids  

what they did at school unless they want to share  um yeah well it's it's more like letting them know  

hey like we we are interested in what you're doing  I don't force my kids to speak so if they if if  

I say hey what did you do in school today uh and  they say nothing I say really you did nothing and  

and again part of my communication with my kids is  so that I'm giving them English input even if they  

don't speak they're still learning the language  from me all right so part of that is just me me  

giving them input they can listen to me talking  about things and I will say oh really like maybe  

you like did you did you go to the park today  did you play with your friends so even if they  

don't speak even if they didn't do that thing I'm  giving them examples of how that would sound so  

sometimes kids don't speak because they don't feel  confident about language sometimes they're just  

lazy or they're they're busy doing something else  so like they're playing with something and I say  

hey what what did you do today and they said I'm  busy I'm playing with this thing over here okay  

I'm not going to give them like I'm not going to  force them to speak all right but I can especially  

if they if they're if they're listening to me  at all I can give them lots of input all right

let's see uh next one uh I move in USA four  months ago with intermediate knowledge of  

English I participate ESL classes and training  myself but sometimes I think that I with that  

progress from that time can you give me advice  yes uh so I I without knowing more about your  

situation I'm sorry I don't know your name  I can't read the Cyrillic there but if you  

you can live in the United States but still learn  the traditional way so there's nothing magical  

about being in the United States except you have  more opportunity to listen to English input but  

now you can do that on the internet anywhere so  it doesn't like there's there's no like additional  

benefit of being in the United States other than  maybe having some opportunity to to communicate  

with people all right but you can still get  fluent anywhere in the world by yourself if you  

get naturally varied review so if you're getting  lots of examples from people you're hearing how  

natives are communicating and that's what's making  you feel much more confident about the language  

so if you're in the United States you should be  doing these things up here if you're in a position  

where you can talk with people if you have that  opportunity then you can either repeat after them  

or you can respond imperfectly to that person or  after getting naturally varied review and you feel  

confident about using something making your own  complete sentences all right so these are are the  

things you can do but they're not necessary if  you just want to learn by yourself just getting  

more naturally varied review is perfectly fine but  it doesn't matter where you live if you're still  

learning like a student you want to be learning  like a native English speaker so that's the most  

General basic advice for people for improving  grammar pronunciation listening vocabulary  

everything do what native speakers are doing  copy native speakers if you want to sound like  

native speakers if you want to speak like native  speakers if you want to speak like a student  

then do what students do all right it's really  that simple so how you learn is how you speak  

uh let's see I have arrived late well I have  arrived right now it's okay Lewis no worries  

you can you can watch that uh everybody loves the  Cha Cha Cha let's see all right Tim that's your  

name okay well it really is your name your name is  Tim or if you're not speaking to somebody else or  

maybe that's like Timothy or something like that  something longer I'm guessing so little children  

love the Cha-Cha okay how many words do we need  to be able to speak fluently in English has anyone  

heard my response to that already because I've  given it many times I bet someone else in the chat  

can answer that if nobody does everyone should  know the answer to that question but I can answer  

that if so if nobody does I want to see if anybody  knows my answer to that how many words do you need  

to speak fluently how many words uh solicit trunks  I just finished 50 lessons of uh uh Japanese  

teaching Center what do I do next to improve my  Japanese well how is your how is your Japanese  

not like can you can you can you understand  everyday conversations so I I think I I think  

I remember like Mina no nihongo uh like if that  was a textbook many years ago uh that I looked  

at I think I stopped using that uh but you should  be getting more uh input from people from native  

Japanese speakers if you're in if you're in Japan  I don't know if you're in Japan or not uh oh it is  

Timothy okay um but yeah so if you um yeah if  you even say it so Japanese teaching Center I  

don't know if that if you're in Japan doing that  or not but you should be getting more naturally  

varied review in Japanese so find things you're  interested in at your level and get lots of that  

input so like reading uh Doraemon is something I'm  doing so as an example let's see if I have that

so just reading uh reading is an excellent  way to do that in bam look at that  

it's a bunch of stories that have a similar  like similar vocabulary level because this is  

written for young kids and so like some of the  vocabulary I don't know but most of it I do so  

I can learn new things like oh yeah look at  that like I just learned some new vocabulary  

so Discovery I talk about that in my recent video  about the four different levels of learning and  

Discovery is really the highest level for  being able to when you discover something  

yourself like ah like I actually figured that out  for myself so you should be getting at your level  

so something you can understand maybe 80 to 90  percent of and that will help you feel much more  

confident about that so learn with that whatever  whatever the thing is you're interested in

um okay how can we make the letter T sound  like the D like a native speaker you should  

get Frederick so we cover that in Frederick  and you listen to the different examples of  

that you can compare those but this is listening  to words you learn the individual sounds of words  

and then also hear how words blend together so  you should be doing that in Frederick you can  

click on the link in the description below to  do that uh did you ever listen to James Taylor  

songs I don't know if that's for me or not  but uh probably thank you for feedback says  

Timothy my pleasure all right Shibu says that she  being says 2 500 Words 2500 words you just need  

the words you have as long as you practice you  can speak should be fluently yes that's correct  

uh you speak very clearly I didn't understand  when Canadians spoke because it's so fast could  

you please give me advice for understanding  when people speak thank you remember there  

are many there are many pieces of this all  right let me answer both of these questions

all right so the first question was how many  words do you need to speak fluently uh and the  

answer my answer specifically is that there it's  the wrong question to ask the question is how well  

do you know the individual vocabulary because  you get fluent word by word as you understand  

that vocabulary so if I teach you some words so  if I just give you a translation or a definition  

translation or definition translation or a  definition of these but this one wow I'm actually  

going into a lot of detail and I cover this word a  lot you will be fluent in this word you will feel  

confident using this you will not become fluent in  these you will not feel confident using them all  

right so people think that fluency is something  that happens after you learn enough vocabulary  

they think that you like okay I learned one word  and I can't speak because I only have one word  

now I know two words ten words 20 words I keep  learning more and more but they still can't speak  

they think okay maybe if I get oh okay I got 2500  words now like Bing now magically I can speak but  

that's never happened to anyone ever okay like  maybe someone could find an example of someone I  

would love to meet that person who couldn't speak  and then so they were at word like 24.99 and they  

couldn't speak but then they get to word like 2500  and then they could speak as I don't think that's  

ever happened ever okay so the goal here is to  become fluent in individual words and phrases you  

become fluent in individual words and phrases  as you understand them very well so you feel  

confident about using them you erase the doubts in  your mind about is this the right tense am I using  

this the right way is the pronunciation correct  all right so if you just get a quick definition  

of something like this okay I'm going to try to  learn 10 new words every day I have my flash cards  

and that's it you're going to waste your time  trying to learn more and more and more and you  

will probably go past 2500 words all right but no  one maybe someone could prove me wrong that would  

be amazing if I met someone like that but I have  never met anyone who could not speak for the first  

24 99 words so the first 2499 words but finally  when they learned that next word bam magically  

they became able to speak I don't think that's  ever happened to anyone okay what actually does  

happen is you get fluent in individual words and  phrases and then because you can use these words  

individually you can connect them together to make  longer sentences it's that simple so most people  

they don't spend enough time actually getting  like they're going deeper into the language to  

really learn more about those specific words and  phrases and that's why they can't speak okay so  

it's not how many words you know it's how well you  know the vocabulary all right so these ones again  

not all words are created equal in your mind some  of them maybe you've heard them once or twice you  

don't really feel very confident about using them  but other words maybe you've heard them many times  

lots of people have said that word to you  it's like a young child hears the word stop  

or don't do that you know like 20 times a  day at least so of course they know don't  

do that you know their parents are like  no don't don't do that don't touch that  

kids hear the word don't it's like the first  word they learn don't okay so the point is that  

they hear so they are fluent in the word don't but  maybe they are not fluent in the word electricity  

all right so if we have like a I don't  know a higher level word uh like status

as an exam so my my children maybe they have heard  that word before but I they would not be able to  

use that in a sense so they are fluent in the  word don't they are not fluent in the word status  

okay all right so Sarah says I know five  thousand words but I can't speak English  

fluently yes another perfect example of people  continuing to do this and if you have done this  

don't feel bad this is the way everybody  really like almost everybody I don't do  

this but this is the way almost everybody  teaches any language the point is to get  

more and more vocabulary instead of knowing the  vocabulary you have very well so this is why I  

tell students hey I can actually help you become a  more confident speaker without learning more words  

it's true people think well that's impossible  you can't help me become more fluent without  

learning more vocabulary how can you do that and  the interesting thing is look it's because I can  

take the vocabulary you already know and help  you use it better help you know it better help  

you understand the pronunciation and the uses of  the things you already know is everybody getting  

this does this make sense so when people ask  how many words do you need to speak fluently  

one word really either you can use the word  fluently or you cannot all right and then over  

time if you have a bunch of words that you can  use fluently you begin to weave them together  

into fluent conversations but if you don't first  get the individual words fluent if you don't get  

fluent in that vocabulary then of course you can't  have longer conversations and that's why we have  

naturally varied review up here as the main driver  the main thing the main Foundation of fluent  

communication so if you're in a conversation and  you don't feel confident about anything because  

you really don't know anything you're saying  you've studied a whole bunch of words but you  

still can't speak just mirror people if you feel  a little bit more confident you can respond and  

try to express what you want to say even if it's  imperfect but if you're getting naturally varied  

review you will communicate fluently that's all  I'm doing right now all right I did not become  

fluent in English because I lived in the United  States I became fluent because of how I learned  

so there are I can imagine there are non-native  speakers living in the United States maybe some  

people have been living in the United  States for 20 years 30 years 40 years  

and they still can't speak think about that  they probably know a lot of words but they  

still can't speak all right so notice how these  things are connected together if you want to  

become a fluent speaker you have to become  fluent in the individual words and phrases  

it's pretty it makes it makes sense doesn't  it okay so either you do this or you do this  

and I like to I like to do this up here and  it's more interesting too you get lots of the  

whole point of getting naturally varied review  is that it's interesting each time you hear a  

different person talking about something or you  hear it in a different tense or in a different  

setting like I just showed you the example of uh  Doraemon here for learning Japanese so I might  

like read something here and then I hear it in a  different place all right now I want to be clear  

so she is saying uh repetition is the key I'm not  saying that straight repetition is the key this  

is the like the core difference for what I'm  talking about this is the difference between  

naturally varied review and repetition repetition  means I take a flash card and I repeat the exact  

same thing over and over and over again where  I only listen to one speaker over and over  

and over again what I really want to do is get  lots of different speakers or I want to focus  

on different things like even listening to me  in this conversation right now maybe the first  

time you watch this video it's just listening okay  how is Drew speaking about this how is he asking  

questions what's his intonation like I'm focusing  on a particular thing okay and the next time I  

watch the video I focus on something else so it's  not just repeating the same thing it's not like  

shadowing the same thing either the point is I'm  getting naturally varied review I don't have to  

speak I'm just listening to other people and it's  not even just listening I'm like watching people  

or reading something or writing something  or listening to people on the radio or TV  

I'm getting lots of different input and the  whole point of that is to get me fluent in  

that particular vocabulary because when I  feel confident about that then I can speak  

all right it's the doubts you have about  vocabulary or pronunciation or whatever  

that stop you from speaking it means you don't  know the vocabulary as well as you think you do  

and so you overcome this by getting naturally  varied review reviewing that uh reviewing that  

thing again and again all right hopefully that  makes sense uh uh let's see all right so answer  

yes I'll go back to answer uh that's our our let  okay I can't see that l or if it's an L or an  

I so Arlette is asking how to understand uh like  Canadian speakers or American speakers or whatever

so remember that there are different parts  of speech now we can just break this down  

very simply so we've got the accent  and again you can you can even maybe  

put it into more pieces than this but the  basic idea is the accent and pronunciation

so pronunciation we'll just call this the sound  of the language and we've got the speed and then  

we've got the vocabulary and vocabulary means the  grammar and the words so we just call this vocab  

all right if I put you in a conversation so  imagine like there are two two speakers over here  

so these are both native English speakers if  I put you in a conversation with them it would  

probably pretty be pretty difficult for many for  many Learners maybe the people watching this video  

also might be difficult for them all right and  the reason it's difficult is because we've got  

maybe some difficult accents maybe people aren't  communicating clearly they're mumbling their words  

it's going to be fast so that's a lot  of information to process at the same  

time if you're not familiar with it  and of course they're going to have  

slang idioms and other things like  that that make it more difficult  

okay so how do we complicate this like or how  do we how do we take this complication simplify  

it we want to split these up into different  pieces so you learn each of them individually  

all right we want to take the conversation and  break it down into different pieces all right so  

we want to help you understand the vocabulary so  here's some of the key vocabulary that you will  

hear in the conversation here is the that same  vocabulary at different speeds so you can get used  

to hearing it hearing it at different accents so  hearing different speakers again we're trying to  

control how we learn that and then we also want  to hear of course like the slang we're trying  

to learn uh like maybe some of the grammar and  understand how that works and if you take these  

different pieces and you learn them when you get  back to the conversation again it becomes a lot  

easier to understand all right this is what we do  in fluent for life so we're taking a conversation  

and we're separating it into different pieces so  you can go through these and again the naturally  

varied review that comes is by getting all these  in different ways so we're going to read listen  

write some of that read listen write some of  that too and each time we go through these we  

feel a bit more confident we learn a little bit  more [Music] and that's how we understand that  

okay so it's very difficult to start over here and  jump right to the conversation that's what people  

are complaining about they're saying I can't  understand Canadians or Americans or whatever  

okay so if you go from here to hear it's going to  be frustrating most likely but if you go from here  

to here ah okay I understand this and then here  to here okay I understand a little bit more now  

here to here I understand more and then finally  you get back to this and now you understand a lot  

more and you feel much more confident about that  okay so it's the review and then we this is just  

one conversation we go do that with another one  and another one and another one and another one  

and over time you get fluent just like natives  do but it's just a much more systematic approach  

than how native speakers learn the language so  it's really even better than learning the same  

way a native would oh yeah so that's how you  do it it's really it's really impossible or not  

impossible but very difficult to try to go from  uh by yourself to try to understand conversations  

it's much easier and you will feel much better  if you do it in Little Steps in the same way you  

like try to walk across a room I can try to jump  across the room that's going to be difficult or  

I can just take some simple steps and I'll get  across the room quite quickly all right remember  

that naturally varied review is what we use to  build the habit of communication we're not trying  

to memorize a bunch of vocabulary words and then  forget them in conversations we want the habit of  

using these things fluently and automatically all  right do I understand or speak German no I do not  

all right so I could stop learning from live  internet face-to-face teaching it cost me a lot  

of money actually yes absolutely I don't I don't  learn Japanese from live face-to-face lessons and  

again the reason I don't do that is because most  of the time it's going to be more of the same  

like it's going to be more of the same lessons  that don't actually help me speak all right even  

me I don't recommend you only watch videos of me  like I know I think I'm amazing but I don't want  

you to do that if you only watch videos of me  it's not going to get you to the highest level  

okay you really need to listen to me and other  speakers or maybe you don't like listening to  

me and you listen to somebody else that's fine  whatever you want to do it needs to be a mix  

of naturally varied review okay that's the  whole reason we do this the whole point is to  

simulate the native environment and so if you're  it doesn't matter if you're in a live class like  

sitting in a classroom like I used to teach in  the classroom or you are learning through online  

teachers if they're teaching you like a student  then you're going to be stuck at the student level  

okay all right Neil says I make a great job glad  to hear it I'm glad to hear I'm being helpful  

over here all right so let's go back and answer  some more questions I really want to spend time  

on these things so people understand the answers  to them it's also good to have that review so I'm  

I'm not trying to repeat I want to give you maybe  different stories each time explain with different  

examples and that's going to help you become a  much more confident speaker all right so Mom says  

I can understand English but I can't speak yes so  again like we will hear we will still see people  

in this video and every other video I do and every  other video that you find about learning English  

with people talking about this same problem I  understand but I can't speak I understand but  

I can't speak okay and the reason is they don't  know the vocabulary as well as they think they do  

having a definition or a translation or a passive  understanding of something is not the same thing  

as knowing it and using it fluently all right if  you want to be able to communicate you have to  

know it fluently all right really just think more  about fluent understanding of the language rather  

than uh like trying to speak so you want to have  fluent understanding all right uh uh let's see

all right so there's illnesses when you in Rome  do that the Romans do yes when in Rome do as the  

Romans do yeah yeah so learn like a native if you  want to speak like a native those again thanks  

teacher for your class I will continue tomorrow  because it is a little late where I live okay  

Demi says doesn't that depend on how much words  you know it is important is understanding yes  

correct Julian says when it comes to speaking  I believe the key is to focus on the situation  

rather than specific words you want to use yes  so this is what I recommend so you you begin  

with a situation because that's how natives are  learning the language so a a child in one family  

might hear different vocabulary than a child in  another for the same situation so Mom says clean  

up your room another mom says clean your room  another mom says tidy up your room another mom  

says what are you doing put your toys away you  hear lots of different people explaining things  

in different ways so if you dwell too much on the  words themselves you might find yourself mentally  

translating them yes however if you concentrate  on the situation uh the appropriate words will  

naturally come to your mind yeah so this is what I  teach again this is the same way you get fluent in  

your native language that's why I worked all right  uh let's see and if you okay answer that question  

but yeah very good you got it so I said uh I know  if I okay answer that one already uh it's about  

being a confident a he he Olga says I guess our  fluent depends on the environment we're in for  

example our job uh no it's helpful but again you  are watching me right now and you are improving  

your fluency just listening to this video or  watching this video uh wherever you are in the  

world so you create that environment yourself this  is what we do in fluent for life you don't need  

to be in a particular place I can get fluent  in Japanese anywhere and actually I improved  

a lot of my Japanese in the United States just  learning by myself and trying to get input from  

Japanese people I actually worked at a I worked  at a Japanese restaurant in the United States  

and in there most of that was me not speaking  Japanese it was just listening to people speak  

all right repetition okay answer that one already  so between pronunciation and fluency which one  

should be improved first uh uh it depends on  how bad your pronunciation is most people their  

pronunciation is okay uh or at least like you can  you can kind of understand what they are saying it  

might not be perfect but like grammar is the most  important thing because that's you know trying to  

actually communicate correctly is more important  than than like sounding perfect so if I'm saying  

the wrong thing or explaining something  incorrectly then that's going to be worse  

so what if native speakers don't get me when I  speak because I have an accent even though it is  

not a thick accent yeah then uh I would just  try to ask them like oh if you're if they're  

having a problem understanding you it's usually  because they're not prepared for that accent so  

you could again get more try to improve your own  accent by listening to different native speakers  

and so if you listen to lots of people like what  I'm talking about with naturally varied review or  

you could just ask them like how can you like make  a game out of it ask them how to how to pronounce  

something a lot of people are actually kind of  happy to help out with that uh if you can if you  

can make it make it more of a game so like oh like  can you can you say this word for Me Maybe I have  

like two or three different Japanese speakers so  they can do the same thing with English speakers  

so you see these videos on YouTube sometimes  it's like an American and an Australian speaking  

English or whatever so you can get a couple of  different people to give you live naturally varied  

review and just say hey I'd really like to improve  my pronunciation so I'm understood can you help me  

do that and you know if it's for work or something  then often people would be willing to do that they  

might not be able to teach you the language but  certainly everybody understands pronunciation and  

so they can you don't have to have them like  coach you about that but just to hear them  

speaking and then watch how they move and you'll  you'll get very good at pronunciation that way  

Otto says my click to be confident uh speaking  was taking uh talking to an officer in my first  

visit to the U.S he tried to speak Spanish once  I'm from Brazil and I asked him just to speak  

uh slower I could understand his words yep you can  just ask people to speak more slowly that's it too  

so it's good to sing to practice speaking Yeah  you can you can sing yeah it's another another  

way as well Ellen says it finally uh understand  your way of teaching I was at my at a restaurant  

the other day and my husband asked the waitress  for a doggy bag and she didn't understand so I  

told her it was a to-go box yep boom there you  go and so in even like as a as a non-native  

speaker if you ask for something like oh can  I have a like a doggy bag or whatever like not  

everybody knows the same vocabulary and that's  why native speakers are prepared for lots of  

different people like using the vocabulary that  they know or or learning the different vocabulary  

or even just understanding what you mean by  something like oh we need a box to go okay  

so I think it's yeah excellent uh very  good that you that you're figuring that  

out sometimes you know we need lots of examples  to to really make that point clear but remember  

that these are the the same things that  you will experience in your native language  

all right let's see I want to read  more yes you can definitely do that uh  

uh let's see so my strategy is to listen to anyone  speaking English such as news broadcast from BBC  

and Fox as well as different accents yep all right  I speak three languages a day a lot of times my  

brain freezes when I talk as a paralegal I don't  feel confident enough pursuing my career what to  

do oh my goodness well you'd have to think about  what what the I don't know maybe either either  

you're trying to like your your frustration is  about the career itself or just the language use  

maybe you can focus on a particular language and  just use that one or get a different career you  

know it depends on what what the specific issue  is all right I recorded myself then I listened  

to me trying to improve my accent maybe reading a  book yep you can do that but again if you just get  

naturally varied review it will improve you a lot  more than taking time to record yourself you can  

do that but uh if you the more review you get from  other people that's going to get you flowing much  

faster because the goal is not not only to just  hear your own voice which is often like kind of  

weird for people they're like oh I don't like the  sound of my voice you know uh but if you get lots  

of input from other people that would make you  feel much more confident so it's about reducing  

the doubt that you have in your mind uh let's  see 100 gratitude says Omar it's my pleasure  

all right uh and shipment how to get rid of the  Native accent influence you get naturally varied  

review so you listen to lots of different people  talking about something so you listen to the same  

song sung by different people or you listen to  like the same speech or even just just hearing  

a different different group of people speak and  you will hear them say the same words in different  

ways and so that will help you improve your own  accent as well because you don't want to try to  

have one one I mean you could have one person  maybe you want to sound like a particular actor  

or something but your voice will always sound  a little bit different even if you're even if  

you can mimic them perfectly if you can copy them  perfectly so just find a kind of range of people  

and then listen to them and then you can find  a good a good spot for your voice in there I've  

been pushing myself to read says Otto some English  books through Kindle it is a great tool to learn  

in some vocabulary but I have to practice right  away at my job to fix it in my mind yeah so again  

using uh the vocabulary is is one way to to make  it more memorable like if you can kind of stress  

yourself out a little bit uh it might not be the  best way to learn but you can learn that way so if  

I'm if I really need to know some vocabulary for a  particular speaking session or whatever uh then I  

can I can do that and I can have I might remember  the vocabulary but it's much easier if I just hear  

that same vocabulary from a bunch of different  people or review it in different ways so if I  

see it in a movie or hear it on the radio or TV  read it in a book or whatever that will actually  

help me remember the vocabulary and feel much  more confident about that way all right Amanda  

says dang it means my English is so bad I don't  even have those mix of environments yeah again  

you don't need to be in a different environment  you can do that right on YouTube it's pretty easy  

so right now you can bring the English speaking  world to you so when you're out on the bus or the  

train or at work or whatever you can get that  information uh anywhere okay so that you don't  

need to go anywhere or do anything it's all right  here if you're watching this video right now this  

is one example of this is is a person speaking  pretty clear English and helping you get some  

some tips about learning the language obviously  you can learn how I'm communicating and if you  

focus on like how is Drew saying this and how is  he moving from one thing to the next if you really  

pay attention you will learn a lot about that  without even me giving you a lesson about it this  

is how kids are learning they're paying attention  to what their kids are doing or what their parents  

are doing or even what other kids are doing and so  if you're listening to people you don't need to go  

anywhere you can just get that information right  here like I do in that espresso video again this  

is what we do in fluent for life so we've got all  these conversations all of the learning thousands  

of vocabulary words grammar pronunciation all  that taught just step by step in the program  

it's already ready and waiting for people so  you don't have to go anywhere or do anything  

all right let's see here all right food chain  says so the point is speaking how do I improve  

my writing I'm stuck uh try typing sometimes even  though going to help uh uh Google help to write  

your word ah so again if you're if you're if you  mean like how to write better again looking at  

more examples of how people do it the same way  you would learn to speak is really the same way  

you would learn to write so you're getting lots  of examples of how other people do it is accent  

different than dialogue well dialogue means like  you're having some kind of communication between  

uh two people an accent is just the the sound of  your voice like the if you have a particular egg  

I can tell you're from a particular place by how  you sound the difference is in your in your voice  

uh how can I improve my listening skills same  thing listen to lots of different people naturally  

varied review naturally varied review solves  all look at that it's amazing remember how do  

you improve your listening in your native language  same answer all right uh so I should focus on the  

situation and not the words yes so mcales is uh  focus on the situation again if you you begin with  

a situation like a focus of some kind so you want  to learn a particular word or you want to learn  

how to talk about something just like I do in that  espresso video so in that video the situation is  

how to make an espresso and so I watch a couple  of different people do that and I hear how some of  

them use the same vocabulary maybe some people use  different vocabulary but I become more confident  

as I get these different examples all right  so remember like the the way to learn it as a  

student is you begin with a word in your native  language and then try to translate that so it  

really stops you from having a much wider use of  the language because either you know that one word  

or you forget it in conversations but a native  speaker doesn't learn the vocabulary that way they  

learn it by beginning with the situation so they  see what do native speakers say in this situation  

so what do I say when I'm teaching what do  I say when I'm uh I don't know ordering some  

food on the phone hello yes I'd like to  place an order for something now I might  

say it that way but someone else might  say it differently and that's why we get  

naturally varied review the point is not to  have a single point of failure all right so  

you don't want to have like one one point of  failure like a spider web example I often give

so if you've ever touched a spider web before you  know it's a little bit a little bit sticky and  

you can rip a hole in a spider web but it's it's  it's quite difficult to rip the whole thing down  

I mean you could I guess if you took a big  stick or something and just that's the end  

of it but in general the spider web is really is  really strong and it's strong because all of the  

different connections there and so that's how  native speakers are learning the language and  

so if they forget a word that's what we're talking  about about responding imperfectly in this video  

if they forget one word it doesn't matter because  they just switch to another one so it's the same  

situation but maybe they express it in a different  way so different vocabulary or maybe they I don't  

know they think about something completely  different like completely different topic or go  

on to something else I've given the example many  times of native speakers and again this is native  

English speakers not knowing how to spell a word  so they might be writing something like writing it  

by hand it's easy if you have a computer because  the computer will spell check you but if you're  

writing something by hand they might think how  do I spell that word I don't know how to spell  

restaurant or whatever so they can't remember how  to spell it so they switch to a different word  

okay and so they write that one because they  can spell it same idea so you begin okay I can't  

remember that word let me switch to something else  that's because we're learning from situations not  

trying to have that there isn't there is no  one single point of failure in this all right

all right let's see how much time we have left  oh my goodness we gotta shut this down we're at  

100 minutes you guys keeping me keeping me way  too long over here all right uh I think part  

of being fluent is also going to pause and when  talking don't you think so yes so obviously there  

will be some some pausing in conversations all  right contest is Hooper important we need real  

situations yes sis how can I learn phrasal verbs  uh we have that in fluent for life so the visual  

guide to phrasal verbs is in there you should be  learning them visually just like native speakers  

do and then understanding the more figurative  uses of those as well all right uh and let's  

last questions here from Trin how can I learn  the intonation and accent again you want to  

hear a lot of different people and that will  that will help you understand the accent the  

intonation and this is what we do in Frederick  as well so you're listening to my voice but  

you're hearing it kind of in different ways you're  learning the vocabulary hearing it in sentences as  

well but then you should also hear it from many  different people so all these things whether it's  

pronunciation accent vocabulary grammar all those  things this is everything we cover in fluent for  

life which you can learn more about by clicking  on the link in the description below this video  

all right Neil says good night and thanks a lot  so you would say either thanks Lots or thanks a  

lot both of those are fine but that's a good note  to end on 101 minutes oh my goodness I need to  

rest my voice but if again if you'd like to learn  more about how we get you fluent automatically by  

following these same principles you can click on  the links in the description below this video get  

Frederick get fluent for life and get fluent have  a fantastic day and I'll see you next time bye-bye