10 Things Every English Learner Should Know About Fluency

all right I think we should be live as always I am  Drew Badger the founder of English anyone.com and  

the English fluency guide uh hopefully you guys  are enjoying the beginning of this video let's  

see if we actually have people coming on live  hopefully we do all right I think we should be  

working all right let's see here all  right I think we're live let me know  

in the uh the comment section if everything is  working I think we should be doing all right  

hello all right uh in this video we are going to  talk about 10 things every learner should know  

about fluency uh this is probably going to be a  longer video Hello nice to see you there uh so  

what I'm going to do as as I go through these  10 things uh I'll let people answer or ask me  

questions if they have any but I want to keep this  moving so if you have questions about the specific  

things I'm talking about at that time please do  ask me and I'll make sure everything is clear  

all right but this should be an entertaining  video let me erase this and we'll get started

now this video will be for uh primarily people  who know a lot of English already but they still  

struggle to speak it's also for teachers so  again I am Drew Badger the English fluency  

guide and I've been teaching English now for  over 20 years and so I thought I would share  

a lot of the things that I've learned over  this time as I've improved in my teaching  

and helped helped a lot of people and also  learned a lot from students so we're going  

to cover these 10 things right now and I  wanted to start off just with something  

fun this is probably the most entertaining  thing that I explained to people and that  

is that you can actually become a more fluent  speaker without learning more words or grammar  

so number one uh make sure I have enough space  for this up here let me put number one up here

so number one is you can you can get more fluent

actually very quickly without  learning more words or grammar

it's all to say without learning more uh the  basic idea about this is that most people who  

are learning English they actually build up  a fairly sizable vocabulary but they actually  

have trouble communicating and so the problem  is not learning more so most people do not need  

to know more vocabulary they don't need to know  more grammar or even improve their pronunciation  

things like that those are all helpful but if you  already know a lot yet you still can't speak the  

problem is not learning more so let me show you  what you should be doing instead I don't want  

to cover this in detail in this video again I want  to talk about 10 important 10 important things but  

I Do cover these elsewhere and I think this will  be helpful for people just with a quick overview  

so this is what I call an English fluency  profile see if I got to make sure let's see  

so one two three four five six seven over here  I'm just going to connect these two like that  

so what happens when people are learning languages  fluency is actually a collection of different  

skills and habits so I'm not going to talk again  about each one of these things individually you  

can go to my channel and learn more about an  English fluency profile but this is different  

for each learner and it's different for natives  as well but the basic idea is that you start out  

at the beginning with basically no improvement or  no skills in any of these things these are like  

listening or your vocabulary your confidence your  ability to speak without hesitation all of these  

things are each they're your own or their own  unique skills so what this means is that you can  

actually know a lot of vocabulary let's say your  vocabulary is up to here like you know 500 or 2  

000 words but if your confidence is down here then  the confidence is actually what's limiting your  

ability to speak all right so what people often  do is they're trying to learn more vocab fabulary  

but their confidence stays the same so it doesn't  matter if you learn more words okay I really want  

to make this clear if you know a lot of words  but your confidence is weak what should you do  

should you learn more words or should you try to  improve your confidence which of those is going  

to be easier which is going to give you faster  Improvement obviously the answer is improving  

your confidence it's much easier to do that simple  psychological ideas even just changing the way  

you think about things again I don't want to talk  specifically about all these in this video because  

it would get ridiculously long I could talk all  day about these things but again the point is if  

you have let's say you're listening is okay but  maybe your pronunciation is really bad in that  

case again trying to improve your listening  you could try to learn more but really your  

pronunciation is the thing that's limiting you so  you can become fluent many times faster simply by  

improving your weakest skill whatever that is all  right everybody get this idea hopefully let me see  

here making sure chat is still working properly  all right I think everybody's working here but  

this again is the basic idea so instead of doing  what people normally do which is just trying to  

learn more vocabulary focus on your weakest skill  now if your weakest skill is vocabulary then focus  

on that but most people don't really have that  problem so people watching my videos they're  

probably actually quite knowledgeable they know  a lot of vocabulary but maybe they struggle with  

grammar or pronunciation or whatever that is but  if you focus on the weakest skill that's going  

to get you fluid faster all right so it will get  you fluent faster and without you needing to learn  

more words or grammar Isn't that cool so this is  what we focus on uh this is in the native fluency  

blueprint that is the focus of that program about  helping you improve all of these things whatever  

they are so whatever it is for you again each  learner has their own profile so some people are  

good with vocabulary but bad with listening other  people are bad with listening but they're good  

with confidence so some people maybe have a lot  of confidence but they just don't know very many  

words so it depends on the person and it's easy  to solve each of these things and that's what we  

do for them if you have any questions about this  let me know all right I think this should be a  

pretty simple idea again you can learn more about  this just on our YouTube channel Bob says I've  

been learning new words in the past two months  and end up getting no advance in fluency yeah  

uh apologies from my coughing over here again  a lot of people will experience this problem  

they will continue learning more and more and  even if they know Ten Thousand Words if they're  

still thinking and translating in their head  before they speak they're wasting their time  

so it's a much better use of your time to  solve the actual problem the real reason  

you're struggling to speak whatever that is and  it's your weakest communication skill I'll make  

one more quick point about this that all these  habits again they work together it's like a chain  

and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link  a chain is only as strong as its weakest link so  

whatever the weak link here is if the weak link  is confidence if this chain link is weak it will  

break and the whole chain breaks and you can't  communicate it all right that's the basic idea of  

this but the great news is that it is easy to do  this once you figure out and most people know what  

their issue is maybe if you if you if you think  you know my listening is really bad you can focus  

on that or if my pronunciation is bad you can  focus on that but the important thing is just to  

figure out what that is for you all right let me  know if you have any questions but we can keep on  

moving again we have 10 things to cover and I want  to make sure everything gets covered in this video  

and that we also have time to answer questions  and I'll see if I can put all of these things up  

here at one time they might not fit we'll see all  right checking questions all right so I do like  

to learn by listening to your classes and your  fluency I can understand uh you everything you  

say but I can but I can probably mean you cannot  speak fluently yeah so this happens again if you  

can understand me but you can't speak fluently the  issue is one of the things that I covered up there  

so maybe it's confidence listening pronunciation  grammar whatever those things are so it's your  

English fluency profile so the profile of a native  speaker is really filled completely so they know  

a lot of words and they're good with grammar and  their pronunciation is good and listening is good  

they feel confident all of those things okay all  right so moving on number two so I like to start  

with like the fun entertaining thing let's see  here so Lewis says I think your mevid is the best  

glad to hear it oh my goodness oh my goodness  now he's uh look at that now we're gonna have  

more people coming in I appreciate the comments  I'm really trying to focus I'm excited for this  

video and want to make sure I give everyone a lot  of good information valuable information I I have  

many uh videos on the channel and want to make  sure that people could come to this one and just  

get a lot of information from this all right so  the next secret the next tip the next thing that  

I really want everyone to know is how you learn  is how you speak now if you've been a follower of  

my channel for a long time you've probably  heard me say this many times how you learn  

is how you speak now this one this is probably  the most complicated thing so I need to get get  

a little bit maybe take a little bit of time to  explain the different pieces of this but it's it's  

actually quite simple so if we think first so uh  like the number one example that we gave up here  

the first thing on our list is that you can get  more fluent without learning more words or grammar  

and again the idea is that you should actually  stop learning more words or grammar if you're not  

fluent in what you know already you should  actually be going back and reviewing that  

vocabulary making sure you understand it well  uh and that's how you're going to get formed  

okay so how you learn is how you speak let's  get into the details of this again just like  

number one I really want you to think about this  in a different way than what what people might  

normally do so thinking about all the things that  you might do to get fluent uh or you could think  

about this as what do people think they need  to get fluent so one could be like being young

so I need to be young to get fluent I need  to live in an English speaking country I'm  

just going to abbreviate that so I need to  live in an English-speaking country so an  

English-speaking country to get fluent if you  have anything else you think you need let me  

know and I can put it on this list here uh what  else do you think you might need maybe private  

lessons or even just regular English classes

maybe a native friend let's see

[Music] uh or maybe you need to speak every day

all right I'm sure you could think of more things  but these are maybe the most common things that  

people think they need to become fluent so what I  want you to really understand uh this is probably  

the most important thing it's really the most  important thing I put number one as number one  

because it's just fun and it's easy I really want  to give people uh fast results so again if you  

try just finding the thing you're weakest at you  can get Improvement in that very quickly and then  

start becoming a fluent speaker much faster but  this one this is really about understanding how  

fluency works and so people think that they need  to be young or live in an English-speaking country  

they need private lessons they need English  classes they need to speak every day to get fluent  

but the problem is that a lot of people they  do all of these things so some people are young  

I think a lot of people who are learning with  me are probably a little bit older maybe like  

20 years old and older 30 40 even 50 some  people I help are over 80 years old people  

are still continuing to learn but they think they  need to live in an English-speaking country so  

many people even do live in English-speaking  countries they get private lessons they take  

English classes they have native friends they  speak every day but they're still not fluent  

so how is this possible how can you get all  of these things how can you be young let's  

say you're 25 years old you're 30 years  old that's still pretty young you live  

in an English-speaking country you get private  lessons or some kind of English class you have  

native friends and maybe even try to speak  every day but you still can't speak fluently  

how is that possible how is that possible to  get all of these things and not be a fluent  

speaker what is missing from this all right  now this is what I discovered uh when I was  

learning to get fluent because I spent 15 years  struggling to learn different languages I tried  

to learn Latin in elementary school I had to try  to learn French in high school and then Spanish in  

college and I failed at all of those even when  I came to Japan so I'll put immersion up here  

and that's basically the same thing as like having  a native friend or living in an English-speaking  

country these are all related but immersion  just being around the language all the time  

so even with immersion I was in Japan for about  a year trying to practice doing all of these  

things I was how old was I I was about 23 when  I came to Japan 22 23 so I was living in Japan  

I was getting some private lessons I tried  those for a little bit I actually took English  

classes I had some native friends and I tried  speaking every day and I still didn't get fluent  

still didn't get full yes don't worry I'm looking  at chat I'm trying not to pay attention to it try  

not to pay attention to it as I go through these  just to make sure that I get through everything  

all right so this was my situation too so none  of these things worked for me and none of those  

things worked for a lot of people and the reason  is because there's something much more fundamental

before all of this all right and if you do this  thing the wrong way then it doesn't matter if you  

get all of this stuff all right yes Tom hit  that like button hit that like button I want  

to see the little poop it would be nice like  Instagram does that little hearts that come up  

so this thing over here this is the  actual important thing and this is  

how you learn this is how you learn all  right Sheila is very excited over there  

with the heart eyes I like to see that all  right so even if you get all of these things  

many people who are learning languages this is  not just for English learning this is for any  

language you could learn lots of people get all  of these things are you fluent in Japanese yes

foreign so I will explain it right now so even  after living in Japan for a year and doing  

really most of these things actually all these  things I still couldn't speak and the reason why  

is because of this something much more  fundamental about how you learn and that's  

how you learn is how you speak so it's  really the way you learn and I'm going  

to explain this in actually just really right  now but what I discovered actually watching  

kids so playing in Japan while I was walking  in a park one day I happened to see some kids  

playing with their parents and I just noticed  how they're actually speaking with each other  

and so the parents are talking with the kids and  they're able to communicate and those children  

were maybe two years old three years old four  years old and they were speaking better than I was  

and the thing was because those Japanese children  were learning Japanese as a first language so  

they were getting Japanese as a first language  lessons from their parents but I was learning  

Japanese through English all right so over  here this is really the most important point  

about learning and if you get this part  wrong all of this stuff it doesn't matter  

you could try speaking every day and if you  mess this up over here it doesn't matter okay  

so this is how you learn how you learn how you  learn so let's contrast this very quickly so  

um like my personal example is from learning  Japanese and getting fluent in Japanese but  

the way I did that was because I started  learning Japanese as a first language  

and so all these things over here we're going  to just use the English example because all  

of you guys are English Learners over here so  English would it say English as a as a first  

language lessons so typically what people do in  school is they're getting English as a second  

language lessons and this means that you're  learning the language through your native  

language and remember that how you learn is how  you speak so if you translate when you learn  

you will translate when you speak if you think  about grammar rules when you learn you will think  

about grammar rules when you speak if you have  trouble with pronunciation when you learn you  

will have trouble with your pronunciation when  you speak okay so for me just again going back  

to the Japanese example I'm looking at those  Japanese kids and they're learning everything  

all in Japanese they're getting all of their  pronunciation they're learning grammar without  

studying rules they're actually understanding  what their parents are saying because their  

parents are giving them very simple things I'll  explain exactly what they're doing but really the  

most important point I really want to get this  clue uh or this like really the most important  

thing about language learning is it it's this  over here and for you English Learners how you  

learn is how you speak so if you're learning the  wrong way then it doesn't matter if you're young  

you can be young and get regular traditional  classes and it's not going to help you speak  

all right yin yang I want you to call a whole  bunch of people and tell them to watch the video  

let's get on the phone and call everybody  just so you got to watch this video  

all right so it's again it's awesome if people  like the video comment and share it and subscribe  

but I'm really here for the people that really  understand that they actually want to become  

speakers of you know fluent confident English so  some people are just they're really just trying  

to learn more vocabulary which is fine but for me  the smaller number of people who actually want to  

communicate fluently and confidently that's who  I'm looking for so if you know those people send  

them my way all right so remember most people are  learning through translations and that's why they  

translate when they speak most people are learning  through studying grammar rules and that's why I'm  

going to um I get stuck thinking about is that  word correct am I going to say the right thing  

is my pronunciation going to be correct I have  lots of worries because of how I learn okay so if  

you're learning a language you should be learning  that language as a first language so you need  

like in the English example you need English as  a first language lesson does that make sense to  

everybody I'm going to explain exactly what that  means but hopefully I want people to to recognize  

like the fluency is not over here it's over here  so if you get this right if you get English as a  

fluent language or English as a fluent yes English  as a first language now I'm confusing myself so if  

you learn English as a first language then these  things become much more powerful so it's fine to  

speak if you want to but speaking doesn't help  if you don't actually understand the language  

like a native so the goal of this is to actually  help you understand well so you feel confident  

speaking if you don't understand well you will not  feel confident if you are thinking about grammar  

when you're learning you will not feel confident  about speaking you will try to say something else  

or say something easier you will not want to use  certain grammar points or vocabulary or whatever  

because you just don't feel confident about using  them and that means you don't understand them like  

a native all right so let's talk about how this  works so again number one you can get fluent or  

become a more fluent confidence speaker without  learning more words or language can I be your wife  

look why I have like a wife let's say you put wife  on here so wife like even me so I am married I'm  

sorry I am spoken for oh my goodness but yeah you  could put wife or husband or whatever it's like  

boyfriend or girlfriend a lot of people think they  need that too so that's a good a good thing over  

there but it doesn't matter if they're giving  you horrible lessons so if you were married to  

someone or you have a boyfriend or girlfriend  or whatever then it doesn't matter if you're if  

you're you know if you're getting bad lessons  okay but nice to see lots of love in the chat  

all right so let's go on to talk about two  all right so we got two here we're gonna do  

three four and five and talk about exactly what  this means and how to do that thing okay so what  

does it mean to get English as a first language  lesson so what are the things you actually need  

but hopefully does everybody get this everybody  gets this idea so all the things that people  

think they need these are great if you can get  some private lessons like that's not a bad thing  

but if those private lessons are teaching you  English as a second language that's probably  

going to keep you stuck so even if you get private  lessons private lessons don't guarantee fluency  

okay all right here we go so let's go on  so we'll keep those things in mind as we  

talk about the next ones so the next three are  the different pieces of learning like a native  

all right so we have three four and five so all  three of these These are English as a probably  

not going to fit this on here but these are all  English as a first language so English as a first  

language lesson so the three things that you need  uh people who have been following me for a while  

will probably know uh like they probably heard me  talk about these many many times but especially  

if you're new these are very important  first number one is you need real English

now this should be a very obvious one uh so real  English meaning that if you have classroom lessons  

that are teaching you the vocabulary is more  maybe it's clearer and it's more simple maybe  

the vocabulary is a little bit more slow uh  or it's not actually the same vocabulary that  

natives would use so someone might say hello  in an English class but someone in the real  

world might say how's it going and if you're  not prepared for that then you're not going  

to be able to understand or communicate well  in real life so you can speak in a classroom  

but it's going to be more difficult for you  in real life all right so we need to learn  

real English this means just learning the same  things that natives are learning so things in  

the classroom are fine but you also need to be  learning the real things that natives are using  

so the real vocabulary real slang real phrases  all of the vocabulary the speed the different at  

like the different accents and pitches and all  those different things so howdy same thing so  

people say different things in real life and you  have to be prepared for that all right so real  

English this should be the most basic thing to  understand everyone probably has uh like a lot  

of you know the same things in their own language  while they're while they're learning their native  

language so how you learn in your classroom  when you're growing up and you're learning the  

language and then that's when you're maybe using  something different with your friends outside of  

classroom that kind of thing all right so real  English second thing we need understandable

messages

understandable messages now this is a  bit ironic because I wrote this and it's  

not very understandable what I wrote but  understandable messages this means when  

I'm teaching you something you can understand it  all in English so it's making sure that you can  

understand that's my job as the teacher to make  sure that you understand what I'm saying it's not  

your job to figure the language out it's my job  to make everything clear and easy to understand  

and that means showing you how things work all in  English so if I can do that then I'm helping you  

learn again as a first language the same way your  parents taught you when you were young the same  

way you learn new things now okay so I'm giving  I'm giving you real English but I'm not giving you  

traditional lessons where we're going to do some  Gap filling exercises or something or I'm going  

to have you like learn a bunch of rules I really  want to help you understand things as a native  

let me see if Bruno's got a question over here  you're teaching Foundation based on Craftsman's  

research about through comprehensible input makes  total sense yes so I discovered this same thing  

and then I found crashing and he confirmed what I  had what I had learned in the same way okay so Dr  

crash and that's because we all learn languages  the same way so this video the people I help  

are English learners but you can apply all of  these same principles to learning every language  

yes so Mrs David in real life people often Mumble  that's true so if I'm in this video and I'm if I'm  

speaking like that you can't understand what  I'm saying am I going to be a good teacher am  

I being understandable not really all right  but you need a combination of these things  

do do you sow courses uh yes if you're asking  about courses you can click on the link in the  

description to learn more about those but this I  really want to just make this this is everybody  

should have this information everybody should  know all this information but then people who  

would like to learn with me more they can feel  free to do that or they can try to do these  

things themselves all right so the third thing  let's see if anybody knows what this is everybody  

who's been following me for a while should know  this we talk about this all the time I'll give  

people a moment to to write something down there  as I check uh comments over here I do apologize  

if I'm skipping some comments again I'm trying to  be quick we've already been going for about half  

an hour let's see so although I'm always watching  your what Duran's got it very good all right so  

I'm always watching your videos offline it's my  first time watching so hi teacher I understand 99  

would still can't speak what should I do sorry  to get you out of this subject of the vid well  

actually that is part of this subject to the bid  that's what we addressed in the first number one  

over here so you can get more fluent without  learning more by focusing on the and this is  

really the fastest way uh to make progress so  if you want quick progress focus on the thing  

that you are struggling with most so don't try  to learn more words focus on your confidence  

or your listening or your pronunciation  or whatever and that's how you get fluent  

all right so let's see uh who uh that  so drance is naturally varied reviewed  

and he and I can't spell and write at  the same time n-a-t-u-r-a-l-l-y period

all right now this is really the most important  piece of the puzzle out of these three so you can  

really learn real English anywhere that's all over  the place and even understandable messages you can  

probably find those somewhere you really just  learn in the real world by getting examples of  

people doing different things so if I see somebody  drop something on their head and they say eat that  

and I'm in Japan then I learn oh really strong  understanding is with the naturally varied review  

because I need to hear different people saying  that I need to hear it in different uh situations  

hear it in different contexts or even different  grammar like so I could get different tenses or  

different situations so naturally varied review is  what simulates the native environment for learning  

okay so I don't hear like just someone like one  Japanese person uh something drops on their head  

and they say I hear like you know 10 other people  say the same thing but in different contexts so  

someone else gets hit and they're like eat and  they pronounce it a little bit different so each  

person is going to sound a little bit different  I'm not trying to sound like a Japanese textbook  

I want to listen to lots of different people and  hear how they sound and that's going to give me  

okay what my what what should my natural speaking  voice be in Japanese so should I say or something  

else or you know something whatever that thing is  all right hopefully this makes sense and this will  

make sense especially if this is your first video  of mine uh that that you're getting from like just  

watching my Channel or something I recommend you  go through and watch a few more videos so that you  

can see lots of examples of this especially the  espresso video I made so how to make espresso and  

that's just one example of naturally varied review  and so when you're going through and learning  

you will see lots of different examples of real  English you can understand what people are doing  

and then you're seeing lots of different examples  now A friend of mine uh they were talking about uh  

what was that maybe uh Duolingo they made some  change in their algorithm or what's something  

about like the learning platform recently  uh where there had there had people go back  

and review information but a lot of people left  the platform because they didn't want to review  

and so this is really the number one  problem that people have with language  

learning is they don't want to review because  old information is boring everybody wants news  

they want new information all right so the way  to keep the review to keep the information new  

while still getting the review is naturally  varied review you need to have varied review  

varied review so I'm not a fan of Duolingo I don't  use it personally and it's you know even having an  

app it's like it's one piece of something that  you should be learning but you really should be  

learning everything as a first language however  you learn all right hopefully this makes sense  

so we talked so far about number two how you  learn is how you speak so if you learn through  

translations you will think about translations  when you speak if you don't learn real English  

then you won't be speaking real English okay  you won't understand what people are talking  

about you won't get jokes you won't understand  references in you know English movies that kind of  

thing and if you don't learn with understandable  messages that means you're just learning through  

grammar rules or studying vocabulary lists or  definitions that kind of thing doing exercises  

and that's of course not going to help you  speak so knowing information is different  

from being able to communicate fluently and this  is why lots of people can pass tests so they can  

take an English test pardon me where there's  always some kind of fire something over here  

so you can you can pass an English test and  still be a bad speaker especially if that  

test is not testing your speaking ability so when  you're taking a written test especially you have  

time to think and maybe translate something  in your head but in a conversation you need  

to communicate quickly you need to respond  automatically and actually think quickly and  

without having to get stuck by thinking about the  wrong words or the wrong pronunciation or grammar  

or whatever that is all right that's why it's  so important this is the most important thing  

so before you're thinking about learning  in an English-speaking country or getting  

private lessons or any of that stuff you have to  be learning English as a first language foreign

let's see talking more about my purple shirt over  there all right so I think everybody's getting  

this over here three four and five all right uh  the next thing I want to talk a little bit about  

about this here uh so number six is if fluency  is really a feeling you get when you understand  

something so people will ask me how much naturally  varied review do you need and it just depends on  

the word or phrase or grammar Point some things  you can understand them very easily but maybe you  

should still get a few examples of review just  to hear different people pronouncing the word  

or phrase differently or hearing something  in a different context something like that  

uh and so again the number six thing is fluency

is a Feeling

so when you know something really well like  you don't forget it it really feels good you  

understand something very well it's a feeling  you get when you know something you really  

understand it so I'm going to give you just a  quick example of how this works just to have  

you feel that same feeling over here I'm gonna  have to erase this though just to make sure this  

is clear now if some people all right some of you  have been following me for a while will know this  

example but it's probably my favorite example  for helping people understand the feeling of  

understanding because it's really the feeling  that you're going for all right somebody uh

how many words in English written different from  pronunciation uh I don't know the answer to that  

uh there are too many words they're like a  hundred thousand some words in the English  

language and in common use and they're more words  than that but it depends on the pronunciation in  

general the rules of Phonics work about 84 of the  time and most of the vocabulary people using in  

their everyday life then they can understand  that quite easily if they know the rules of  

phonics so this is what we teach in Frederick  so actually how to learn the the phonetic rules  

of English as well as the sight words that are  common words that don't follow those rules okay  

so if we're going to go on here so number six so  how much review do you need you really want to  

review until you get that feeling of understanding  so let me give you just a quick example of this  

so traditional lessons they really want you  to maybe review something again and again and  

again and then hopefully you remember that but  repetition really doesn't help you learn anything  

new it's the varied review that gets you fluent  not just repeating things it's really difficult  

just to repeat more and try to get more  information out of the exact same thing okay  

so uh if you know the answer to this don't say  anything in the chat this is for especially new  

people who are just joining me but I'm going  to teach you a new language right here this is  

probably my favorite example so we're going  to teach you we're going to give you like a  

regular English lesson but actually this is in a  different language it's a new language it's not a  

real language though just imagine I'm teaching you  an alien language I'm just going to teach you some  

numbers here so if you've seen this before don't  say anything don't ruin it for people but I'm  

going to give you the alien list of these letters  or these numbers here and then I'm going to give  

you one minute to try to remember them we won't  even give you that long I want to keep the video  

going but I'm going to just draw them up here for  you so I'm going to write the alien let's see here

now I will give you a little bit of time to try  to memorize all of these now this is an example  

of a bad alien language lesson so I'm trying to  teach you a language that this is the way people  

normally teach languages here so they give you  translations and they're giving you information  

like this like okay we need to memorize this  just take some time make some flash cards and  

see if you can memorize this information all  right I'll give you a few more seconds see if  

you can memorize that and then I will give you a  test now most people even if you can memorize that  

you will probably not still feel very confident  using those things you have to think a lot like  

okay is that this thing and you're maybe trying  to remember it somehow but this is the typical  

way that people are learning so when I used  to teach in the classroom here in Japan when  

I first arrived then I would be like I was just I  was kind of team teaching with a Japanese teacher  

and so the Japanese teacher would usually write a  whole bunch of things in Japanese and then there  

would be the English example something like that  so they're again learning English as a second  

language rather than learning English as a first  language okay all finished time to erase this

all right time for your quiz you guys talking  about the times over there time zone all right  

uh I just want you to translate this in the chat  all right as a Chinese I'm desperate to find out  

no one in my town who speaks English yes but uh  as you will learn in this video you don't need  

anybody to speak with if you're learning as a like  if you're learning English as a first language  

you're getting English as a first language lessons  then it doesn't matter it's nice to have people  

to speak with but the most important thing as  I showed in number two is how you learn how  

you learn is how you speak all right so here we go  let me give you a uh a couple of numbers over here

and we'll do let's see

okay so just try to translate that just write  these numbers down in the chat if you know what  

this is even if you can just maybe get a few of  those so remember this is an example of a bad  

lesson if you don't know these things if you  can't remember them that's okay all right the  

whole point of this video uh is to show people  how you should be not learning a language all  

right let me check chat again again I apologize  if I'm skipping uh chats I'm trying to look at  

those quickly while staying focused on this but if  you can go ahead and translate this in in the chat  

I'll give you one more second to try to do  that or I'll give you the answers all right

um let's see

David hey Drew can you please make a lesson on  medical vocabulary if it goes along with your  

curriculum in fluent for life we have multiple  lesson sets about there's one about going to  

the doctor one about getting sick I think we have  maybe two or three about that so there are lots of  

vocabulary about medical stuff it's a little  bit different from like if you need to learn  

specific like highly technical vocabulary we don't  cover that but again what we do is focus on people  

being able to go to the doctor or doctors being  able to speak to patients in a regular human way  

that's the focus of the program all right let's  see here all right I'm going to write down the  

answers and you can check your answers over here  let's see what we got here well we got seven five  

two uh this is eight seven six and seven uh  let's see two nine two three six all right uh  

let's see so drain let's see seven two nine two  three six uh for the bottom one yeah very good  

so dran uh has probably seen this example  before all right but very good now if you're  

good some people are just good at memorizing  information and that's great but most people  

are not because this is not how we learn correct  you know this is not how we learn languages all  

right so let me give you a better way of helping  you understand these things remember this is not  

I'm not teaching you a real language this is  just an example of how people learn languages  

or even how the brain learns so I want to give  you a feeling it's a feeling you get when you  

understand something and when you understand  well then you can use that information okay  

here we go so I'll leave uh well actually I'll  just leave these up here but let me give you this

so here we have one two

three four five six seven eight nine so one one  two two three four five six seven eight nine  

all right so what I'm doing now when you when  you recognize this as soon as you understand  

it's a feeling you get of ah I call this the  aha moment so when you notice something like  

ah look at that now I got it so that feeling  as you're reviewing information you you should  

review something enough times until you get  that feeling where now you really understand  

it because when you really understand it then you  can start using it without thinking or hesitating  

or worrying it's because you you really feel  confident that you'll use something correctly okay

so this is a simple example and again a lot of  people if we just take it and and use this they  

might struggle with this uh but the the point  is really to have people seeing the difference  

between learning something uh as a as a typical  student versus actually making a connection with  

information now this is using a mnemonic so I  don't I don't really want to teach people to  

use mnemonics in this way for language learning  but the point is that you it's I'm trying to get  

you to understand that feeling that comes when you  understand something when you recognize something  

in like ah now I got it it's that feeling you get  when you solve a puzzle that's the feeling that  

comes with fluency okay hopefully that makes sense  see if anyone had any questions about this versus  

that give a quick explanation I know the meaning  of these words but I use them interchangeably  

which makes me less confident please help say  the devil King well this video is not really  

about specific grammar points like we do things  like that influence for life but in general it's  

just what's around you is this and what's a little  bit further away from you is that but it could be  

relative it depends on the situation but typically  what's closer to you is this what's further away  

is that so I could have even these two things like  this is a seven and that is a different symbol  

so even though they're both very close to  me this one is a little bit further away  

so it could be this this this that doesn't  it doesn't really really matter all right  

but typically it's something that's  a little bit further away from me  

but it's better to see lots of examples of people  doing that rather than try to understand it  

logically in that way so you see lots of different  people using it and you get a a much better like  

a much better understanding of something than  you do just getting a like a grammar example  

for non-native speakers aha moments comes when  we learn the grammar it's not just the grammar  

it's everything it's how you pronounce things what  the vocabulary is how we should speak what sort of  

gestures people use when they speak so Americans  and Italians or Japanese we speak differently we  

move differently when we when we speak and so you  learn all those things not from a textbook but by  

actually seeing examples of it okay all right  45 minutes so far and we got through number  

six any questions about that hopefully all right  yeah I guess you could think melee versus Range  

that's a good example again that's  another good example of that  

all right but the point is that you want to  review things uh if you can understand something  

immediately that's the best that's the fastest  you can learn something and see it exactly it's  

like if I try to teach you the phrasal verb take  off so if I take off the cap and put on the cap  

so I could take off my shirt and put on my shirt  in the same way okay I think people are getting it  

yes so drain is correct that even with the aha  moment you should still review many times it's  

just helping you get the like hearing it again  and again from different people because you could  

have understanding but maybe you still struggle  if someone maybe they're uh like mumbling or  

something like that in a conversation so there's  still lots of good reasons to review after that  

all right how do you write zero are you asking  me Elena like it is like a zero oh some people  

put the slash through it like that laughs yeah  everybody's getting it okay uh moving on to  

number seven so really the the core of how you  should be learning that's getting real English  

making sure you get understandable messages and  making sure you get naturally varied review if  

you do all of those three things and you must do  all three of them then you will get fluent even  

if you don't live in an English-speaking country  even if you're not married to an English speaker  

or you don't have a girlfriend or boyfriend  or whatever uh it all of those other things  

it's not examples it's not it's not necessary  to uh to have all those things it's nice like  

you could have a wife who speaks or a husband  or whatever my wife doesn't really teach me  

much Japanese not directly so I have to learn  like I watch what she says to our kids so if  

I ask questions about Japanese she usually says  I've got no time for that so if I pay attention  

then I can understand and then I can learn more  that way all right all right so number seven  

so another example of how we go through  and how we learn these things is situations

not vocabulary

are the key

foreign so situations not vocabulary are the key  to understanding you know usually when people are  

learning English as a second language they begin  with a word in their native language whatever  

that is uh and then we try to translate something  into English so this is going to be a translation  

over here we have some word like uh let's say  Chinese so we have a Chinese word over here  

and then we've got an English word over here and  then we try to repeat those things again and again  

all right that's typically how people learn uh  learn languages so again this is the English  

as a second English as a second language way  of learning but what I'm telling you to do  

is English as a first language so I'll put e  s l up here in efl over here and so this is  

where we begin with a situation and then we  watch what people say we get the vocabulary  

over here so we don't begin with the vocabulary  we don't begin with words in a in a different  

language we begin with some situation and then  see what people are saying in that situation  

isn't that interesting so if I go to a store and  people are buying things and when I walk up to  

the counter I might get like how are you today  or what would you like or a few other various  

things that people are saying and so I get the  vocabulary and that and the vocabulary might be  

a couple of different things that we get in that  situation so for that situation what do people  

say I gave a greeting example earlier so in the  situation where you greet someone hello might be  

one thing you say hello hi hey howdy how are you  how is it going how you been these are lots of  

different ways where you're expressing that same  situation you're greeting someone but you're using  

different vocabulary so when you learn this way  what you're doing is making a single connection  

between something in your language and something  in your or like the target language in this case  

it's uh it's English so if you if you forget this  word you lose that connection and that's where you  

struggle to speak because you forgot the word  that you're supposed to say for that situation  

but when you learn English as a first language  you get first language lessons this is where  

you're actually getting a situation and you're  learning lots of different ways of expressing that  

so it's not like a single a single thing between  these is actually like you're connected to all  

this different vocabulary so maybe you forget one  thing in a situation but you think of something  

else very quickly because you've learned it the  native way all right so hopefully this makes sense  

about the the difference between trying to learn  something as a non-native speaker and trying to  

learn it as a native speaker so you don't need to  be a native speaker to do this you just need to  

learn the native way you need to get English as  a first language lesson and again if you're just  

trying to learn by yourself you can see this  everywhere just pay attention to what people  

say in different situations what do they say  when they're surprised what do they say when  

they're happy what do they say when they're angry  all these different things okay so situations are  

the key I'm trying to get you to think more like  a native speaker so you learn that way and that's  

how you start speaking because if you think about  your language first you're going to hurt yourself  

you need to think about the situation and really  try to think like a native speaker and that's how  

you start speaking fluently all right let's go  back and check chat and make sure everybody is  

getting this over here Eunice is how to understand  a language using the method just showed I mean the  

alien language numbers so in the alien language  example uh it was it was partly a lesson about  

how uh typical language learning works where  it's giving you a translation so we're giving  

you the the numbers like the Arabic numbers  and then we're giving you the alien language  

numbers over here and just helping you translate  those and then you just have to remember them so  

there's no real connection there you don't really  understand it it's hard to remember it's just a  

very complicated and painful process but when you  get the the traditional lessons you're actually as  

as like a native speaker would get them you have  a situation like look there's a bird in my hand  

there's a bird in my hand uh do I speak Arabic no  I do not so there's a bird in my hand and then if  

I'm if I'm seeing like lots of birds in different  places then I learned the word bird that way  

okay so the situation is it could be like a thing  like this it could be a physical object like  

what is this thing so this  is an eraser eraser [Music]  

is this an eraser no this is a magnet but look  at that there's magnets on here too magnet  

magnet [Music] magnet back and so when people are  learning if you don't know the word magnet and  

you hear that and I show you a bunch of different  examples of these like magnet magnet magnet then  

you learn that because you're connecting it with  the situation the physical object is the situation  

so rather than trying to learn it through a  different language you're connecting directly with  

English and how you learn is how you speak so if  you connect directly with the language then you're  

able to speak directly you don't have to think  and translate things in your head before you speak  

okay yes there's no bird in my hand but you have  to you can imagine that but I can just say and  

or something you know marker or whatever I can  give you an example of that all right make sure  

everybody is on the same page here uh dragons uh  I get what Drew is trying to say about fluency  

however I don't have time to practice or most of  the time I get lazy yes so a lot of people like  

trying to do this by yourself is a pain it's a  pain for me even now trying to learn Japanese  

by myself because I don't have anyone who's  teaching me the language I'm teaching myself okay

make sure my

where my battery is going long all right so  hopefully this makes sense uh the point here  

is that we have like look an eraser with some  magnets on it and then we can understand look  

at that here's another example of that thing but  it's a little bit different this is naturally  

varied review if I just hold up the same object  and I say magnet magnet magnet magnet you don't  

really know what I'm talking about I'm not  teaching you anything by repeating myself but  

you're you're learning you're actually building  understanding when I show you something different  

look at that this is a magnet and  this is a magnet look at those things  

what do they do they let you  stick on to certain things  

that's what a magnet does and so you learn that  as you see these different examples all right so  

this is again like the situation is magnet and  there are lots of different kinds of magnets  

but because you're learning like a native  it's much easier to remember that way  

all right all right let's move on I think we got  everybody we'll check chat one more time see if I  

got let's see here uh uh isn't that alien language  example you gave a numbers usually translations  

you had English numbers next to the alien number  yes so again the the translation example is  

showing you how not to learn a language so giving  you translations that's what people are typically  

doing uh but the the kind of lesson itself is  really just to give you the aha moment and to  

to just show everybody what it's like uh okay uh  like I understand what something means so I don't  

actually recommend you're using that for language  learning because it's it's like okay we're having  

uh like we're still using some kind of translation  there but the point is you're making a connection  

in your mind and that connection allows you to to  understand something it gives you the aha moment  

all right so you should like I I can give you  the same thing by like if I teach you just some  

new vocabulary like in an alien language or even  in English and I help you understand that like a  

native speaker so you're able to understand it all  in English you get that same aha moment from that  

and that's what you should be looking for so the  reason it's difficult to do this by yourself is  

because it's hard to find the right vocabulary  it's hard to get naturally varied review it's  

hard to learn and understand things without  someone teaching you it's really hard to do  

and I know because it was hard for me getting  fluent in Japanese so if I have somebody like  

teaching me lessons or something then yeah it's  it's much easier and I can be lazy that's what I  

wanted to do that's why I created fluent for life  so I could help other people be lazy so I know  

it's it's much easier if you have everything just  already I tell you exactly what to learn here's  

how to learn it here's how to remember it here's  the order you should do it in it's all done for  

you so it's much easier than trying to do all  that hard work yourself so yes I know like it's  

hard to do it's possible it's possible to teach  yourself like a native it's just harder to do okay

uh let's see all right I'm gonna says what about  uh if even in a situation we don't understand a  

phrase what can we do well you just ask the  person if you don't understand something like  

what it What was what does that mean it's okay to  to ask you know ask people what something means  

all right uh let's see I have experienced that  the language is that are closer to your mother  

tongue are easy to learn like my native languages  yeah so again that that's that's one way to make  

a language easier like if I'm learning Spanish  so if I say like Univision in English but it's  

like in in Spanish or whatever like it's it's  basically the same word I'm just pronouncing  

it a little bit differently but uh it my point  is it doesn't matter so I I should logically  

be able to do the same thing in Japanese or  Chinese if I'm learning as a first language  

so yes it's easier because there are some things  that you already like know the vocabulary you just  

have to learn maybe a little something different  but logically it's not like from the beginning one  

language is more difficult than another language  so young kids they get fluent at the same rate  

across countries so it's not like in China people  don't start speaking until they're 10 years old  

like little Chinese kids are speaking Chinese  little English-speaking kids are speaking English  

you know there might I don't know I don't know  if there's like some slight variation but seeing  

little kids in different countries all speaking  it it doesn't really make much of a difference  

all right let's see here and again I'm  trying to go through these quickly over here  

uh what do I think says ganjam about Indian  English language 80 of people follow the  

British English well that if that's what they  use then you know it doesn't matter to me that's  

what they use all right says you are a good  speaker that's a nice name are you Japanese  

I watch a lot of lesson videos on YouTube but I  feel like almost all of them are reading something  

on a prompter only you sound so natural well  as I'm just speaking to you right now now some  

people prefer that kind of lesson where it's like  me reading something and we're and I do have some  

of those videos on the channel where I'm trying to  be very specific but I think it's really important  

for people to hear how I normally speak and so I  get you know some examples of that or or just so  

you can see me speaking fluently as an example  for yourself so you could watch this a few times  

and think about the same idea of situations so  when Drew is thinking a little bit or hesitating  

or explaining something what words does he use so  you can learn those same things from that example  

uh in the same way we can learn collocations  and words that come together yeah same thing  

so Carlos speaks Spanish let's see I know  

I now often watch videos on home workout for  beginners just to learn the way they speak it  

is different yes so that's an example of naturally  varied review so if we watch 10 different people  

doing an exercise video like how to do a push-up  or a pull-up or something even very basic it's the  

same thing I did with that espresso video so it's  just showing you there's not one way to express  

yourself all right Sheila is very excited over  there hello again with lots of Hearts over there  

all right uh Abdel motelib let's see I think the  aha moment comes when we feel the word deplorable  

the same as you feel the word love or f word  or non-native speakers is that what you mean  

no it just means you understand something it's  it's it's the feeling you get when you solve a  

puzzle when you're trying to figure something out  so your brain is giving you information I'll give  

you another example of this because it's important  for people to understand this uh so if I give you

if I'm teaching you a word in an alien language  let's see how many examples you need to understand  

something so this is a word in an alien language  this is not a real word this is not English or  

Japanese or French or whatever I'm just  going to put something in here let's see

uh we'll just say this is a uh a tan so that's  our alien word and I've given you a picture of  

something now what does what does tan mean do you  think what does tan mean there could be a whole  

bunch of different things and this is not colored  either but it could mean the color it could be  

maybe what you think that is it could be the name  of that thing it could be lots of different things  

all right but usually if you try to remember  back when you're learning your native language  

and this is the same thing when you're  learning English so Iran says duck foreign

so again we've got uh Iran and Carlos  said two different things so that means  

me being a teacher that's a problem for  me because I'm communicating something  

I'm showing you something but it's hard to  understand like what that what that thing is

let's see Duran are you in the program are you  influent for life because we have uh like there  

are lesson guides and there's a daily schedule  in the program let me know if you're actually  

a member of the program Drew would you please  uh more about Frederick I would get if I had by  

if I let's see what would I get if I buy the  product uh Durant send us send us an email and  

we'll we'll just we'll send you the the link to  that but there's a daily schedule and just going  

through the lessons but very very quickly just  so you understand it all you do is you pick a  

specific lesson set that you want to focus on for  the month and then as you go through the lessons  

you're getting naturally varied review by going  through each lesson in a different way each day  

so you would start with uh the grammar Focus  lesson typically you would go through on the  

first day just watch it on the second day you  would just listen to it on the third day just  

read the transcript on the fourth day maybe you  would try write some sections of it and then go  

to the next lesson in the set and then just go  through the set in that way so some things if  

they're really easy to understand if you feel  like wow this is easy and I can use all this  

then fine you can move on to the next thing but  the point is not to rush through it because the  

lessons get a little bit more difficult as they  go and then you finally have the conversation  

lesson and you watch that and that may be more  that you're spending time on so the conversation  

takes all of those things that you practiced  and it shows you how they all work together  

so you're getting some culture some vocabulary  some grammar some pronunciation all of that is  

all shown in the real conversation so another  thing you can do to test yourself if you like  

is watch the conversation first so pick a lesson  set whichever one you like there are 100 of them  

to choose from and you can learn with whatever  you're interested in we have so much content  

because we want people to choose what they're  interested in so you you pick a lesson set and  

then you can just as a test for yourself watch  the conversation first you might not understand  

everything or even if you do you might still not  feel confident using a lot of that vocabulary  

and no it's my pleasure you might still not feel  confident using all of that in your conversations  

but it's just a test for you to see how much  you improve so watch the conversation first  

and then go back and actually watch like all the  video videos go through the steps and then when  

you get to the conversation again you will notice  wow I really improved a lot you understand a lot  

more you're ready for the kinds of things that  the speakers are using and you will feel much  

more confident about using those things in your  conversation so that's how you use the program  

all right so just getting back to this example  very quickly so we had a few things was the owl  

again sham said or bird or whatever all right  now if I use a different word or I'm going to  

give you another example this is also tan it's the  same word but I'm going to give you a different  

example this is naturally varied review uh  let's say we're going to use uh here we go

so this is tan and this is tan also  now what do you think tan means

what is my target word do you think

I'll give you another one

yeah so Duran says animal animal so now people  what Nils is in the house yes and now people  

are starting to get it all right so the the  point of this exercise is the naturally varied  

review is actually what helps you understand  what that is so now everybody is on the same  

page everyone's like okay if I just see one  example I don't really understand what that  

means now Ms Davis could say small animals  so me thinking as a teacher uh yes it also  

means I can't draw that's true and so I could  like draw a picture of a shark uh or something  

else like that just to show you that it's not  about just small animals but I could mean that  

that's correct so the point is I want to make it  very clear and you get clear usually by having  

a few different examples of something usually  better pictures so what we do actually uh opossum  

is that so that's supposed to be it's supposed to  be a mouse I'm drawing a mouse over here uh but  

yes it doesn't matter it could be a an opossum  for for our example here but the point is uh  

when you're learning a language it's really the  different examples and this is just one example  

of naturally varied review so another example  is if you hear something like someone says like

and I'm like what what did that what did that  person say I didn't hear but maybe someone else  

says the same thing and now it's more clear  like an example I've told on my videos or  

like on the YouTube channel before uh is there's a  notification for a toilet near uh or at the train  

station by my house and for a long time I would  walk by and I would hear it just I couldn't hear  

it clearly so this is a Japanese notification and  then I asked my wife I said what is that saying  

and she was like oh that's like that's like and  I was like ah okay like now now I can now I can  

hear it clearly it's funny how that works so when  you're when you're not ready for that thing then  

then like it just is almost impossible for you to  figure that out it's like the example I've given  

before uh about the like the the guys or people  just passing a uh a basketball back and forth and  

then when you ask people how many times I say  please count how many times uh the people were  

passing the basketball and so you say okay that  they pass the basketball 10 times and after that  

I say did you see the gorilla and you say what I  wasn't I didn't see any gorilla at all I'm just  

watching like people passing a basketball and  it's because you're not prepared for that thing  

that you don't recognize it but there was a person  in a gorilla suit that walks by and he's like hey  

how's it going you know he doesn't say anything  but he walks up he's nice and clear in front of  

everybody but because you're not paying attention  for that a lot of people don't notice it okay so  

these are all examples of the same thing this is  how the mind works so the Mind wants to understand

your mind wants to understand okay  

and if you don't understand what the first  example you usually need some different ones  

but what what people typically do is they  just repeat the same thing so if I show you  

this thing and here's like a flash card it's  the same flash card again and again it's not  

going to help you understand that thing we're  in the same place I'm just repeating something  

but here if I show you something different but  it's related now the brain is trying to solve a  

puzzle and the Brain really enjoys that and when  you understand you get that aha moment like yes  

now I have solved the puzzle I understand what the  word means now we can communicate with each other  

all right now I don't know why like there are  sometimes movies about like teaching aliens  

about you know trying to teach them our language  or whatever it'd be like very simple to do it  

this way all right now hopefully hopefully this  makes sense all right so the point is when you're  

getting naturally varied review it's helping you  understand things like a native not like a student  

because we really want you to understand like what  does this mean what does this mean what does this  

mean it's all the same thing it probably means  animal and when you use it correctly then you  

feel great like yes I understood that and I  used it correctly and fluently that's how you  

get fluent so you become fluent in individual  words and phrases like this now just uh I think  

someone asked me about Frederick so Frederick  works the same way we're teaching you vocabulary  

and pronunciation uh but you're also learning  vocabulary and you have different examples of  

the vocabulary for all the words some of them are  pictures some of them are animations but you learn  

the vocabulary that same way so if you want to  download Frederick and teach yourself the same  

thing you can actually give the app to a small  child or even someone who doesn't know any English  

at all and they would be able to teach themselves  English with yeah that's how it works so it's  

the world's first system that actually gives you  English as a first language lessons all right it's  

focused on reading and pronunciation but anybody  in the world can use it and lots of people do  

all right so let's get done with this here uh  let's see so psychotic teaches us as a native  

speaker I can't understand half the things Denzel  Washington says in the movie yes so you know you  

have to be used to you have to be used to that  you have to be prepared for that uh and some  

people maybe they can't hear what he's saying  because they're just not prepared for that and  

it happens uh and also like I could not understand  maybe some like people in the southern part of the  

United States because they speak differently than  I do even though we're both native speakers of  

the language all right so pronunciation  is going to be a little bit different  

all right hopefully this makes sense  uh so I'm probably not going to get  

better at drawing pictures on here but I  think everybody is getting it all right  

so we got through seven we got eight nine ten  left to go already 72 minutes into this video  

oh my goodness I knew it was going to be a long  one this last three should be pretty quick though  

so all the the kind of deeper stuff we have  covered already really the most important thing  

to remember is that how you learn is how you speak  it's not who you're married to or where you live  

or what private lessons you take it's just how you  learn it's really that simple and that means that  

you can do that uh really you can do that anywhere  all right so let's talk about number eight  

very quickly so the next important thing  you should learn over here uh memory

really the key to memorizing  things and I've already shown  

you a few examples of this as categories

so when we when we think about like translating  from one thing into another so if I'm using uh  

let's say I'm just using Japanese as an example  so I've got a Japanese word and I translate that  

into English when I'm trying to think in English  and speak in English I'm going to have trouble  

because there's already a word there in my native  language for what I'm learning or what I want to  

say so I will think first about the word in  my native language and then I will translate  

and then I will speak that's typically what  people are doing and some people can do this  

very quickly but you shouldn't have to do this  at all if you're learning as a first language  

all right so if you want to remember things  and I just want to cover this very quickly  

because I I have a whole program about how  to remember any English word and even on  

YouTube you can find that if you look for the  video uh how to learn or it's like learn 10  

000 English words or something like that I forget  the title of the video but watch that video and  

it explains this in more detail but the basic  idea is that the mind works through thinking  

about creating categories so let's say as like a  business example a company would create a computer

so let's say this is company a so whenever you  think about buying a computer you would probably  

buy that computer from company a because  company a created the idea of a computer  

so company a wants you to know like this is  a computer this is what it does you should  

buy that computer from us so if you want to sell  computers if you just try to sell like the same  

kind of computer it's going to be more difficult  for you because most people know already about  

company a so the smart thing to do is to create  something different like a desktop computer

and so now Company B creates a desktop  computer it's a new category of thing  

and it becomes much more easy for your  brain to understand and to recognize  

that information because it's new it's a new  category and the amazing thing is that like  

your brain can have really an infinite  number of these different categories  

you could have lots of different kinds of  computers you could have a tablet computer

or a nano computer or lots of different kinds  of computers but the point is if you create a  

new category of that thing it becomes much easier  to remember and that's why the companies that are  

doing this they want to create a new category of  thing and that makes it memorable for the people  

buying that stuff so companies are doing this I  call this the billion dollar memory secret because  

lots of companies are doing this and if you want  to remember words much more quickly or much more  

easily to recall them easily this is what we're  doing we're creating categories for those things  

okay hopefully that makes sense now again  I don't want to spend a lot of time going  

through each one of these because  I've created videos about them you  

can learn more about these this is also  in fluent for life but for people who are  

just interested in that you can click on the  just looking videos on our Channel about that  

and hopefully that makes sense for people uh  let's see again Shams is the naturally very will  

naturally Elevate fluency that's a good way to put  it all right so that's about memory number nine

another quick win thing for people now that  you understand the foundation of learning  

how you learn is how you speak so number  nine if you would like to do one thing

to improve just learn phrasal verbs

now I talk about phrasal verbs a lot and they  are a common and popular thing to learn because  

they cover everything like number one that  I showed at the beginning of this video the  

English fluency profile so all the different  things your pronunciation your grammar your  

listening your general fluency and confidence  phrasal verbs can improve all of those things  

and so it's really the one thing if you're trying  to improve as quickly as possible that you can  

just learn just this learning phrasal verbs and  also you notice they're very easy to learn as a  

native okay so I'm learning some valuable useful  vocabulary that people use every day and I'm also  

able to understand it the same way children do so  very young children they begin learning phrasal  

verbs very young like one year old two years old  what are the most used phrasal verbs I don't know  

what they are offhand you can probably Google that  but you would it's probably the things that people  

are doing every day stand up sit down those kinds  of things so the things that people would say to  

children but you can Google that then just get a  list the important thing is not to try to memorize  

them it's to understand them like a native so  to learn them as a first language just like this  

so like take off and put on and the naturally  varied review comes when I do like take off  

and put on with something else like  I take off my hat and put on my hat  

or I take off my glasses and  put on my glasses the same thing

yes some people like my drawings it's okay  I'm not I'm not trying to draw well because  

I'm just trying to draw quickly but it would be  nice to have uh better images basically but in  

Frederick we did take time with that I spent  lots of time finding the right images drawing  

the right images and so everything in Frederick  looks very good all right because I'm taking time  

to do it all right you can learn languages  nosing phrasal verbs listening to names uh

uh there there are there are lots of things you  would still uh oh without excuse me uh yes you  

can so there there are always different ways to  pronounce things or to say things so if you like  

I could instead of using the word stand up I  could say like Elevate yourself or something  

you know it's it would it would sound a little bit  awkward but it's possible to communicate without  

using phrasal verbs but phrasal verbs allow you to  take a lot of simple vocabulary and just connect  

them together like like Lego pieces so you don't  have to know uh tons of difficult vocabulary you  

only need to know a few words and then how do you  put them together so when you start thinking more  

like a native then you can start putting those  together like a native and that's the same thing  

the Duran says look up to Google is that correct  you would say look it up in Google or look it up  

on Google both of those are fine so pick it  up drop something off yeah so that's another  

thing so I can if I can think about again picking  something up like physically lifting something or  

leaving something in a different place and so as  you see those different things it's much easier  

to learn them like a native and phrasal verbs  are easy to learn that way and so you begin with  

a simple thing like you know I'm like taking off  or putting off or putting on and then I can learn  

more difficult uses of those same things like wow  his career is really taking off all right so it's  

it's different like take off the cap and like  take off your career is taking off so you can  

think about that like an airplane is physically  on the runway like that and it goes off same idea  

so when phrasal verbs is another word between  yeah so again phrasal verbs and this is why  

it's important to get naturally varied review  because you want to hear lots of different  

examples about when uh when like you would be  using a phrasal verb when it's separable when  

you can separate it and when you cannot  so oftentimes you can or cannot it just  

depends and rather than learning a bunch of  rules for that you just need to get lots of  

examples that's going to help you understand it  a lot more easily okay and last one number ten

we're almost finished look at that 81 minutes  so far what time is it I think we're doing okay  

all right so number 10 is you can get fluent bye

by yourself so everything I've explained thus  far all these different tips you can do all of  

this by yourself it is possible to do it uh  It's Tricky and I know again as I mentioned  

earlier in the video about me learning Japanese  I don't have a specific Japanese teacher really  

I have Japan as the teacher and then I have to  be very smart about how I get examples and how  

I find naturally varied review and all of that but  it is possible to do and so you don't need to live  

in an English-speaking country you don't need to  be married to an English speaker you don't need  

to have a native friend you don't even really  need to speak the point is just to get enough  

examples just like I gave with the example of  animal in that native or in the alien language  

you didn't actually speak to me you were just  learning that and because you understood now  

you feel confident about using it all right so the  actual speaking that comes like speaking practice  

and all of that stuff is fine if you want to  do it but the most important part is making  

sure you understand what you're saying  if you're just repeating things and you  

don't really feel confident about what you're  learning you're just wasting your time alright  

so please don't do that please learn English as  a first language get English as a first language  

lessons if you want to become fluent that's the  point of this video and really just showing you  

all these different tips they're all variations  on this one idea but hopefully this makes sense  

all right Xavier says who created phrasal  verbs where is he I would like to tell him  

off no don't do phrasal verbs are great phrasal  verbs are it's it's again it's a way of taking  

a lot of simple things it's like if I if I give  you if you're a chef in a in a restaurant you've  

got eggs you've got milk you've got butter  you've got uh I don't know maybe like two  

or three other things you can combine these  in different ways to make all kinds of food

okay so if if I do like eggs and milk maybe  I can make an omelet or something or if I do  

eggs in I don't know eggs and sugar I can make  something else all right is there always a word  

equal to a phrasable uh sometimes sometimes not  but most people they like they will either just  

have a single word equivalent or they will just  have to explain it and so the phrasal verb is  

typically easier for people to understand but  the point is phrasal verbs are like this it's  

like in on at with or whatever like and I can  combine these in different ways so usually a  

verb and a preposition and I'm combining them  like to go on or to stand up or to fall over  

or to come with or whatever different things like  that it's just me taking simple vocabulary that I  

can combine in different ways rather than trying  to learn a whole bunch of difficult vocabulary  

so really I promise you phrasal verbs are easy it  just depends on how you learn them so actually uh  

dran if you've not gone through that program  already uh visual guide to phrasal verbs is  

also influent for life uh uh what are your go-to  phrasal verbs well it depends on the situation  

uh so if I'm using it also depends on who  I'm speaking with I don't really use a lot  

of phrasal verbs in in these videos because I  want to make sure people understand what I'm  

talking about there will be some phrasal verbs  some basic ones but they're maybe higher level  

phrasal phrasal verbs that I don't that I don't  use that are a bit more difficult to understand  

but it depends on the situation all right  native English speakers sense the meaning of  

the English words yes and so the whole point of  this learning as an English speaker so learning  

English like in the same way native would that  gives you that sense what crash and calls the  

uh sense of correctness so you feel that again  it's a feeling you get like that feels correct  

or that feels incorrect so often native speakers  they can't explain grammar the same way a teacher  

could but they know what's correct because it  feels right and so that's what I'm trying to give  

you when I give you English as a first language  lessons so the point is to help you feel ah I get  

I get it I understand you get that aha moment all  right 86 minutes so far oh my goodness it's 11 30.  

hopefully everyone is doing all right over there I  think I got everybody if you still have a question  

about anything I've covered so far let me know uh  but again it is possible to do all these things by  

yourself but remember remember the most important  thing is to learn it as a native so to get English  

as a first language lessons rather than ESL or  English as a second language lessons this is how  

you actually become a fluent speaker you become a  confident speaker when you understand the language  

not by repeating it or doing flash cards or  exercises or any of those other things the  

point is to understand something really well and  that's when you can talk about it it's just like  

anything else in your everyday life maybe you uh I  don't know maybe you you know you learn about you  

know some some hobby you're interested in and as  you know more about it you can speak more about it  

when you just start then you don't really know  much about it you can't do it well you can't  

explain it well but as you know it more as you  understand it better you can communicate about  

it well all right if there are no more questions  though let's see Ms David said we can understand  

your drawing it's the most important thing I think  it's easier for you to get your point across some  

artists aren't that clear in their art yes I  suppose that's true yes I understand my writing  

also is not very clear but I try to read what I  write so make sure people can understand me over  

there so Yousef says I'm you would say I am an  intermediate or I guess I I am intermediate yeah  

I guess you could say that I'm intermediating  I can reach a good level in just five months  

how can I practice all of that alone well again  like you're number one you need to be learning  

real English so whatever those examples are so  whatever the uh the the particular thing you're  

interested in whatever that topic is so try not to  think about the English language and think about  

what you're interested in like fixing motorcycles  or I don't know making stuffed animals or whatever  

it whatever the topic is it could be something  you're interested for your job or some video game  

or whatever but get lots of content from native  speakers about that stuff and then if you're  

trying to learn it by yourself then you need to  figure out what the words mean you need to look  

them up and try to understand that's again why  it's more difficult to do this by yourself so I  

do all the hard work for you in fluid for life so  the people who are in fluent for life they get all  

that done for them all the information is already  organized all the teaching is already done all you  

have to do is like sit back and get fluent but it  is possible to do it by yourself that's the same  

way I got formed it just takes more time so if you  watch search my channel for the espresso video how  

to make espresso and that's one example of this  so you could watch a bunch of different videos  

on YouTube about the same topic and that would be  a great way to teach yourself in English the same  

way a native is learning so often people like if  I if I want to buy a new car I might watch a few  

different people videos or I might uh like read  some different articles about that I'm getting  

different information from different people but  it's related so those specific words and phrases  

about that some of them will be more common  I might hear like if I'm talking about cars  

people will talk about the engine or the mileage  or other things like that and so I'll hear those  

words again and again just like I did for that  espresso video so before making that espresso  

video I didn't know anything about making espresso  I don't know or I'd didn't know what espresso is  

and I just I thought it was like a different kind  of coffee and I don't know how people make it  

but even just watching four different people  making espresso now I understand what it is  

it's like basically coffee that you press  and run Steam through it like and so when  

you're when you're learning that you learn the  vocabulary and I learned a lot of vocabulary  

that I didn't know even as a native speaker so  I know the word espresso or like cup of espresso  

or whatever but I didn't know anything about  that but after I watched those I really did  

understand a lot more so it's the same idea so  again this is possible for the people who would  

like help who really just want to get fluent as  fast as possible you can click on the link in  

the description below this video and that will  take you to information about fluent for life  

uh let's see I always watch the native speaker  does and not use the hard vocabulary as far as  

observations sometimes they will use yeah and  so remember there are lots of different ways you  

can express yourself so even if a native speaker  says this you could still say something different  

nil says that thank you for the lesson it's my  pleasure Carlos I'm 43 years old can I improve  

my English yes so I am 42 and this month I will  be 43 and I'm still learning new Japanese all the  

time and I'm getting fluent in new vocabulary and  grammar and other things like that because of how  

I learn so it's more difficult for me because  I don't have a teacher I don't have a program  

like fluent for life in Japanese if someone  makes that let me know because I would love  

to have something like that but again that's how  we get fluent so if you can do the same thing it  

doesn't matter how old you are you are probably  learning new things so new vocabulary all the  

time in your native language which is uh Spanish  I think so if you were learning new things in your  

native language you can easily learn new things in  English too uh let's see so uh is that either Ida  

if I do naturally varied review by myself should I  focus on the situation for example making espresso  

rather than focus on the word like you taught  about the word very before well it's all different  

examples of that the point is just to understand  something very well so there are different kinds  

of naturally varied review one of them is hearing  the same word or the same phrase or grammar spoken  

by different people so your mom says hello  your dad says hello your brother says hello  

your teacher says hello those are all different  examples of that same thing or you can take a  

greeting like a situation and get different people  responding or or saying something about that thing  

so it's not just one way to do it so you could  learn about a topic you can learn about particular  

vocabulary I know euglish is an example of that  like you can look up uh specific vocabulary  

uh like if I type in something in uglish I think  it's like uglish.com um I can get examples of  

other people doing that so they find that same  phrase in uh different YouTube videos so uglish  

is is helpful if you already know the vocabulary  and you just want different examples of it I don't  

think they do like naturally varied review by type  though where it's like you know what this phrase  

is but now show me a different way to express  that same situation I don't think they do that  

but that would be enough that's like what we do  in uh in fluent for light so you're getting lots  

of different examples in different ways but  again it is possible to do that by yourself  

and the teacher again Abdel get yourself an  American English teacher that teaches English  

as a first language and make your life easier  if you do it by yourself it can take years yes  

so a lot of people I mean even even  if you get a personal teacher uh  

they might not teach you English as a first  language and they might not even know what that is  

so if I just like like regular English teachers  I got I got an email from a guy uh a couple days  

ago who was thinking he was like you know why  don't people teach English as a first language  

and I guess he's looking on YouTube to see if  anybody has done that and he found me and was  

just like wow like all this like it's you know  you've been doing all this stuff for years and  

this is what I've been thinking about but very  few people are actually learning that way or  

teaching that way and the reason is because  it's just not necessary to do so most people  

especially in young grades in elementary school  or whatever when they're learning uh their native  

language or when they're learning English as like  an elementary school student or Junior High School  

student they don't actually have a speaking test  so they only need to know I have to memorize some  

vocabulary and then write it down on a test so it  doesn't really matter when uh you know for for the  

purposes of of them being able to speak it's just  not necessary but for a lot of people they don't  

think it's possible to do that so if I say hey you  can learn the language the same way a native does  

people just they're like no no that's not possible  to do and they don't listen so it's it's been it's  

taken me many years to just like how do I explain  this to people that it's possible to do and so  

I just started calling it English as a first  language because that's like people are open to  

that idea if I say learn like a native then people  don't believe it even though it's basically the  

same thing it's actually a little bit faster to  learn English as a first language because you're  

getting structured lessons rather than just  like actually how natives learn which is not  

very structured so you can get fluent faster than  a native if you learn English as a first language  

Drew can you teach how to focus how to teach how  to focus on what well Focus just comes from like  

being interested in something and you have  to have like a greater interest in something  

than your like laziness so we all have a natural  level of laziness but like if you're interested in  

doing something you're like wow I need to like I  need to be more interested than lazy about doing  

something and then I can focus on whatever so  even me for teaching it's taking me I don't know  

many years I've been teaching for 20 years and  I'm still trying to explain this idea to people  

so like me being able to focus on that  is just like because I'm it's a really  

interesting problem for me to try to solve  like a puzzle you know like how do we how do  

we get people to understand this idea of  learning English as a first language and  

more people are starting to understand it but  you have to be able to focus and maintain that  

Carl Drew what kind of situation when to use  come across versus run into I would like to  

Google those and you will see different situations  and see see what happens so usually like like come  

across as like I'm just kind of walking and I see  something I notice it but run into like it could  

be it could be it's I'll let you let you learn  it like a native rather than me try to explain  

it right now but just look up different  examples of that and you will see like who  

are using those and when are they using it why  are they using it you will start to understand  

Xavier is there a list of the most common phrasal  verbs used every day by native speakers uh I don't  

know if such a list exists I bet probably there  are lists like that but if you if you try to  

memorize those and you can't use it like a native  you're wasting your time so it's better to learn a  

few things and and just start understanding it  like a native that's what we do in the visual  

guide to phrasal verbs Neil's asked when exactly  is your birthday it is September 21st so that's uh  

uh like a week a week from today uh where can I  found or where can I find a partner for practicing  

my speaking says Jose as I explained in this video  uh speaking practice partner is not necessary it's  

nice if you want one uh but a majority of your  time should be spent understanding the language  

like a native and then you don't worry about  trying to find speaking partners because you just  

start speaking with people why a spelling contest  so popular in American schools uh it's probably  

because spelling is tricky so anything that's  difficult we create a contest around it kind of  

God you're appreciate it all right do meditation  yes I think it's more difficult like meditation  

becomes a difficult thing for people who can't  focus already it's more like find something that  

really captures your interest and then you don't  need you don't need effort to sit and try to focus  

on something all right Sandra says thank you very  much all right it looks like that is the end of  

the video thank you very much glad everybody  enjoyed this I recommend you go back and watch  

this again Drew can you explain get a hold of get  a hold of yourself Dre get a hold of like this  

I'm getting a hold of remember go back and watch  the visual guide to phrasal verbs in your account  

dran so you will see something like to get a hold  of and then you understand it physically and then  

you can think of like get a hold of something  like ah to understand it uh or to comprehend  

you understand the more figurative uses of that  thing but go watch that series of videos if you  

have not watched them already and anyone else  who would like to join and start learning what  

mine is September 17th look at that well happy  birthday happy birthday to everyone I'm sure  

there are probably many people you know watching  out there that has you know there's only 12 months  

so somebody else on here I thank you and happy  birthday in advance it's my pleasure all right  

I do appreciate what you do thank you again Duran  for enjoying the program let me know just send us  

an email tell us more about when you join if you  have any questions let us know how your progress  

has been going I'm glad to see you in these videos  and if you know other people let them know about  

us do you like baseball what's your favorite team  I used to play baseball I don't really watch it  

anymore I don't care I like going to baseball  games but all right let's make a birthday party  

all right well see if you can make a birthday  party in uh and take a picture you could send that  

to us all right we're we're going to grasp the  strategy all right you guys need to let me leave  

all right so remember uh go back review this video  this is really the most important idea is that you  

need to understand English like a native and you  do that by getting English as a first language  

lessons it's really that simple so you can either  do that by yourself or have someone like me help  

you but either way that's how you learn that's  how you get fluent and you really will become  

a much more confident speaker if you do have a  fantastic day and I'll see you in the next video