How "Aha Moments" Unlock English Speaking Confidence

all right I think we're getting kind of live  here here we go we'll give YouTube a moment  

to load up how is everyone doing out there let  me know where you're from as usual if you have  

any questions I'll be answering those as I go  doing the best I can to answer those for you  

uh we'll have our lesson portion at the beginning  today will be more of a vocabulary lesson uh and  

I really want to help people understand how they  can finally become become fluent speakers uh and  

become more confident speakers uh especially if  you've been learning a long time and you still  

struggle to speak so we're going to be talking  about that in this video specifically about how  

to understand things better uh because that's  really the goal to unlocking speech all right  

uh looks like we are going live now so I am Drew  Badger the founder of englishanyone.com welcome  

to another live video I am the English fluency  guide and today we're going to talk about aha  

moment ments and how to get them and uh especially  for new people watching this the main idea what we  

do on this channel is helping people understand  English like a native speaker uh because that's  

the way you start speaking fluently so most of  the people who watch these videos uh maybe you out  

there you have trouble maybe you can understand  quite a bit of English but you still have trouble  

expressing yourself and most of that comes from  doubts that stop you from speaking so maybe you  

have doubts about pronunciation or whatever so  we're going to talk about that in this video all  

right uh it looks like we are working over here  all right let me erase the board and we'll get

started now I wanted to do this video because  someone asked me in uh last the last live video  

I did I guess that was was that Thursday last week  um in that video uh so this person was saying well  

how do we get aha moments how exactly do we  practice the language uh to understand things  

better so let me Begin by talking about that very  quickly uh the traditional uh English as a second  

language way of thinking about language learning  is that you want to try to learn as much as you  

can try to get as much vocabulary as possible and  then try to speak as much as possible and that's  

how you get fluent but many people follow this  strategy uh including me I tried following this  

strategy for 15 years learning different uh types  of i' learned like French Spanish uh Japanese and  

uh and Latin and I failed to learn all of those  with this traditional method and most people are  

in the same situation so they spend a lot of time  trying to learn as much vocabulary as they can and  

they can often understand things logically like  grammar rules but they don't uh end up using them  

confidently INF fluently in their conversations  uh so the the basic problem is not how much you  

know so it's not how how many words you have in  your vocabulary uh or uh where you live or how old  

you are the this the trick really to fluency is to  make sure you understand what you're talking about  

because if you have doubts doubts will stop the  confidence uh from allowing you to speak so you  

basically have things you want to say but you're  unable to express them because you have doubt uh  

whatever those doubts are it could be doubts  about pronunciation or grammar or vocabulary  

use usage or something like that so I want to  talk about that in this video uh and uh in my  

thumbnail I drew some very simple images I like to  be very simple uh and so these are some images of

doors so just a very simple idea I thought the  door idea was an easier way to explain this uh  

but in the traditional way of learning what you  do is you will learn a word like uh let's just  

say the word fall for example uh and typically you  will get a translation of this from your native  

language now in English we have uh like the season  fall but we also have the the thing like you know  

something falling down uh and so typically you  will get like a translation from your native  

language and then you learn the English word like  that and then maybe you remember this with a few  

examples and you get this on a test and you  remember what it means for the test uh but in  

real communication real communication is dynamic  and that means that every conversation is unique  

and different and you never know what natives are  going to say or even if they're not natives what  

other people are going to say in conversations  and maybe their pronunciation is different or  

they're speaking faster or the vocabulary is  different or whatever uh so in when you're  

just learning it this way people will typically  get review that's just repeating the word again  

and again so I will write this word on a flash  card maybe I have my translation on the back uh  

so it's just here's a flash card with fall on the  on the other side of it uh translation and I just  

repeat that word again and again and hopefully I  remember it now what we want to do when we learn  

English as a first language the point is not to  try to repeat something uh I I think about this  

as opening different doors so if you maybe get one  example even if you understand a simple word like  

fall it's good to open other doors meaning  you get a variety of angles on the way you  

understand something so let's go through some of  those actually with the word fall because it seems  

like a very simple word but actually there are  a great many interesting uses for it uh so again  

if we just learn something as a second language  we get maybe one word out of that learning uh so  

we get fall and again you have a translation but  I'd like you to understand it as a first language  

and so rather than just repeating the word we open  different Doors by trying to understand a word in  

a different way so we try to get these different  angles and the purpose of this is uh if we just  

repeat something we're not really learning  anything new and without learning anything  

new you don't understand anything better and  the understanding is really what allows you the  

confidence to speak so if you still have doubts  about something even if you repeat this word many  

times then you're still going to struggle to use  it if people say something different or they use  

it in a different way or the pronunciation  is different so just to give you a very uh  

quick idea of how how fluency actually works uh I  explained this I think in the last video but it's  

I guess a good idea to re explain it here uh if  you think about like this is time over here and  

this is your progress so we'll just put a p for  progress and a t for how much time you're spending  

learning so the amount of time doesn't really  make much difference to how quickly you get fluent  

so I could spend a lot of time studying but not  actually make much progress and this is what  

happens with a lot of people so they spend a lot  of time learning but they don't really feel more  

confident so usually what happens is they're  spending more time learning and they increase  

their passive vocabulary and they can understand  things like maybe you can understand what I'm  

saying in this video but you can't speak the same  way I do and the the reason is like you're you're  

making more uh basically spending more time  but staying at at the same level of progress  

because you're not really understanding the  language better so what actually happens when  

you develop fluency is it's more like a kind of  staircase like this so you spend time with some  

you're you're just kind of moving forward in  time until you get an aha moment and the aha  

moment is what allows you to move up to the  next level and an aha moment just means you  

understood something that you did not understand  before and so now like oh the the language makes  

more sense I feel more confident about using it  and that's when you start speaking okay so even  

just using the example of fall so if I have this  marker right here so we're going to contrast like  

fall down very simple you can see this right here  fall down fall down versus fall over so something  

is standing like this and it falls over like fall  over okay so this is fall down fall down and fall  

over now the purpose of this is to give you  an aha moment I call this a fluency trigger  

it gives you an aha moment which actually moves  you up into fluency because you're feeling more  

confident because you understand something better  okay and so if you understand something well great  

you can move on to the next word or phrase or  whatever uh and this is how you continue to  

move up as you learn more so if you feel like  you're on like a plateau a plateau is kind of  

like a mountain it goes up and it just goes  across like that a plateau to so if you feel  

like you're not making more progress you need to  get more aha moments you need to understand the  

language better okay hopefully that makes sense  so let's get uh give you some examples I just  

gave you one with fall down uh but let's look at  some different uses of fall again I want to take  

a simple word like fall because many people think  they they learn a word like fall and then they're  

finished okay I understand like something Falls  but do you really understand it can you really  

use it in a lot of different situations let's find  out so instead of trying to again repeat the word  

we want to open different doors and think about  what are some different angles that might help  

us understand the word better so we want to get  different examples of the word u and that will  

help us understand the word better as opposed to  Simply repeating it okay so let's begin we've got  

something simple like fall let's just say we  have a falling snow now that's pretty easy you  

probably know that that usage of falling snow  so we got falling snow or maybe a falling rock  

or a falling rain or a person could maybe fall  fall down some stairs we could do fall down same  

idea now fall down is an interesting phrasal  verb because fall already means you're going  

down but often we will put these like someone  fell down like they're just kind of falling  

like that uh but again even though falling means  something is moving in a downward Direction but  

the interesting thing like looking at a word like  fall we can also compare this with a word like

descend so when you hear a word like this when  you understand words like a native you understand  

different nuances or slight nuances between  vocabulary something like falling and something  

like descending so to descend versus  fall so if something is falling like  

this marker right here we just have  an example of falling it's falling or

descending okay see the difference we've got  fall descend so when you look at those two  

things looking at fall just by itself it's  a little bit more difficult to understand  

but if you look at it compared with something  else again that's what we have these different  

doors for to try to understand things with  different angles so we get that aha moment  

so when we think about the word fall it  means going down but also in in like an  

uncontrolled way okay that's an important part  of the idea here so falling snow falling Rock  

Falling Rain somebody falls down you're moving  down quickly but it's uncontrolled that's why  

we don't fall down in an elevator I mean if the  elevator actually fall like fell down that would  

be you know some some real trouble right there  all right but we have fall down and then descend  

so the elevator might descend and Ascend but  it's not falling down okay see the difference  

now once we have some better understanding  now we feel a little bit more confident about  

understanding what fall means we can begin  extending this opening up even more doors so  

getting a different a variety of examples okay  so we want not just to repeat the word fall  

over and over and over in a flash card we want  to get different examples of it to really help us  

understand okay so we've got things like falling  snow falling Rock falling rain to fall down we can  

have something now a bit more figurative like a  falling price all right so instead of a physical  

thing you can touch like this marker we've got  we can see it moving down it's it's uncontrolled  

so there's nothing stopping it or making it  move down slowly we've got a falling price  

so a falling price would be like this like we got  a price going down if you look at prices in the  

stock market so a company might be valued up here  one day and then the next day oh no something bad  

happened to the company and the price fell okay so  if you listen to people talking about stock prices  

or even just uh prices at your local grocery  store it's the same idea so if we have for example

a price that's like

this we would probably say that's maybe going

down it's not fall because it's not moving  like straight down and it's not it's not like  

uncontrolled it looks like you know there's some  a little bit of pressure to put it back up but  

then more pressure to put it back down again so  it's not it's not falling down it's going down  

okay now somebody might say the price is falling  but typically if we're going to compare that with  

this one like w now that price is much worse this  one is actually it looks like it's really falling  

down or you could have even something that's just  wow going straight down like that that thing is  

really falling down all right so the price of the  the price of the thing is falling rather than just  

going down you see the difference all right so  it's important when we're looking at these things  

we want to look at not just the word by itself  we want to compare it with other things we want  

to really understand that word better which helps  us use that thing feel more confident about it so  

we use it fluently okay so the understanding is  what allows you to feel confident that you'll say  

something correctly and that's when you speak all  right so we don't practice repeating something we  

don't learn the word fall and then maybe get a  translation or a definition of it and then just  

repeat that and try to say that fall fall fall  I'm going to talk with my uh you know talk to  

myself in the mirror or something and just repeat  that word it's much better it's a better use of  

my time if I get a whole bunch of examples okay  so let's continue I'll go back and check chat in  

just a minute but I want to make sure this is  clear we're going to extend this even further  

give you some more examples all right but let  me know if this makes sense do click the like  

button if you are enjoying this and this makes  sense so YouTube can tell other people hey you  

should come watch this video all right so we've  got still some pretty simple things like here  

falling down now we're going to extend  this a little bit more I'll erase these

examples now if you can imagine like uh a holiday  so let's say we have our uh basic we'll just say  

this is a like a calendar here I'm not going  to draw the whole thing but this is a Monday  

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday uh and let's say  in uh this year so 2020 2 4 and what month is  

it July so July 2024 uh I don't or 2024 I don't  know what what day is it actually it's Monday in  

Japan right now uh and let's say on this day  uh let's say uh this day just for example is

Halloween all right so we imagine that's our  a little pumpkin over here a Jacko Lantern  

so a Jacko Lantern is a pumpkin with a face  you usually we put a candle inside a jack o

lantern a jack o lantern and so we can say  uh let's for for example uh Halloween falls

on so again we've got that word fall so Halloween  

falls on a Monday in July in 2024 okay  it doesn't really today is not actually h  

uh but we don't know maybe what day something is  falling on and so we think of this same idea of  

falling on a particular day like it's coming down  it's landing on this day it happens on this day  

and so we can say uh like Christmas falls on this  day or whatever you know falls on a particular  

day okay so it falls on whatever day or it falls  on a Monday or it falls on Thursday or falls on  

whatever okay so you can use that for the day  or the date like falls on September 28th for  

example all right but we can use this same idea  because it's it's kind of like a surprise so it's  

falling like oh look Halloween it's way kind of  surprising Halloween falls on a Friday this year  

or or falls on a Tuesday or something this year  the same idea all right uh again I'm keeping an  

eye on chat I want to get through this and then  I'll go back and answer these questions but let  

me know if this makes sense so this is is another  way you can use fall so like my appointment falls  

on a Thursday something like that uh or something  falls on a particular day so we've got that idea  

of something like it's kind of surprising it seems  almost uncontrolled we don't know when it's going  

to happen and boom look at that it fell on this  day so often people will be surprised oh look  

at that like Halloween falls on a Tuesday this  year okay Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year  

all right or my birthday is uh on a Friday or  something it falls on a Friday all right now same  

idea we're taking fall we've got that that kind  of quick movement uncontrolled we can also use

this when we're talking about work all right  so let's say I am I want to be a doctor so  

this is me uh I'm in school uh this is my uh  little stethoscope right here a stethoscope  

stethoscope so I want to be a doctor this is  like that old doctor you know reflector helmet  

thing little little headband uh so I want to be  a doctor but I did not become a doctor uh I fell

into I fell into a different job so I fell  into my career as an animal trainer okay so  

I fell into whatever job I'm in so when when  we hear someone talking about falling into a  

particular job again that same idea something is  kind of moving down it's unexpected uncontrolled  

we didn't anticipate it okay so I fell into  oh look at that I kind of fell into like I  

was walking and I fell into a hole the same idea  so if someone is walking up here there's a hole  

right here they're not looking oh no and they  ah they fall into a hole just like you can fall  

into a job when you get it accidentally it's  unexpected it's surprising in some way so I  

thought I would be a doctor but I fell into this  other career or this other kind of work okay  

pretty simple so you're starting to see how this  works like as we get more examples we feel more  

confident about the way uh a word works and we can  see how we can actually use this in many different  

ways that's the whole point uh of getting all  of these different examples to give you more  

aha moment it's like ah all right and canero  right here to fall in love is the same thing  

now why do you think we would call it falling  in love well again it's the same idea of like  

it's kind of an uncontrolled surprising happening  thing so we don't we don't talk about really like

getting nobody nobody talks about getting in love  like I got I got in love all right we fall in love

[Music] so I can't really I can't really get  in love I mean maybe you could you could kind  

of trick yourself or something but the point  of falling in love is that it's uncontrolled  

you don't really know what's going to happen it's  a surprising thing you you you don't uh have 100%  

control over that you just feel a certain  way so we fall in love all right but as you  

understand why we use one word and not another  word you should feel that aha moment of like  

ah like that same thing okay hopefully  that makes sense now I want to give uh a  

few more examples of this but just  kind of extend this a little bit

more now if we take a when when we get like  a like a kind of longer phrase even if you  

don't quite understand everything hopefully  you'll get it from the situation so so far  

I've given you some different uses of fall  and you should be feeling more confident  

about understanding fall okay if I've done my  job correctly you should feel that aha moment  

as you learn these new things so here's  a phrase that's uh commonly used for uh  

we'll talk about the situation first uh but let  me just write this down here uh fall through

to fall through the cracks to fall through the  cracks now what does that mean and this is c a  

c k s cracks to fall through the cracks and so  when we have something like falling through the  

cracks we can get a physical idea uh imagine  you're you're maybe looking down like you can  

see my hand like this imagine this is a floor  so you're looking at it from the top here but  

my hand would be like this but I can see right  here we have it looks like it looks like little  

spaces in between my fingers look at that so these  fingers you could think about them like fingers or  

spaces on a on a wood floor where maybe there  would be some some little little places little  

open areas between the wood so these would be  little cracks in the floor okay so just like I  

have little spaces in between my fingers if I  have some water in my hand the water is going  

to fall through I'll catch some of the water so  I will hold some of the water in my hand but some  

of the water will fall through the cracks okay so  to fall through the cracks or the little spaces in  

my hand so this is the physical use of physical  understanding the origin of this phrase when we  

talk about something falling through the cracks  falling through the cracks and when we talk about  

falling through the cracks we mean that like some  some like little information or something was was  

lost or something was not done and usually you  will hear this like oh no I I was I was trying  

to do many things at work and I'm sorry some some  things fell through the cracks all right so I did  

most of the work like I could catch most of the  work I did most of it but I forgot to do some  

things maybe there was just too some uh too much  information or too many things I had to remember  

and I'm sorry some things just fell through the  cracks some things fell through the cracks some  

things fell through the cracks so if I'm busy or  I'm not really thinking so much about something  

I could make a mistake and forget something  or maybe forget to do something uh and that's  

why something might fall through the cracks so  let's say you learn an expression like this in  

just an English class so like what you're doing  right now something falls through the cracks the  

point is not really to just remember the words  it's to understand the situation that way you  

can apply it to other situations okay so I can  talk about something falling through the cracks  

at work I can talk about falling through the  cracks like maybe I forget my I don't know I  

forget my wife's birthday so I remembered to do  10 other things but oh no I'm sorry that that  

fell through the cracks so that would be you know  she would probably be disappointed about that but  

again I can you can really use this phrase anytime  you have some information that's for forgotten or  

lost or just something so maybe you did some of  it or you even did most of that thing but some  

of that fell through the cracks all right so  we can also talk about maybe children so we're  

teaching lots of children in a class and as we're  teaching these children a lot of the children are  

are learning a lot of information but maybe some  children are falling through the cracks so some  

children are falling through the cracks meaning  that some children are not they're not learning  

as well or they're not remembering things or  whatever so they are maybe falling behind the  

rest of the kids they're falling behind the rest  of the kids okay so same idea we're trying to take  

something like this and understand that the same  way a native would and we think about like little  

pieces of dirt or something like if we sweep  the floor some little things are going to fall  

through the cracks and we can take that idea  and then apply it to many different situations  

does that make sense all right now the last  thing I'm going to do with this is in the same  

way that we we would have kind of different doors  uh we would have the the same idea we want to not  

only just learn one phrase for this but we also  want to learn different ways of expressing this  

information okay so we have a situation like oh no  I forgot something or some children didn't get the  

best result or something like that there are lots  of different ways we might use this but there are  

other ways we could express this as well if you  can think of anything write it in the comments  

but we can also just use some simple things like I  forgot all right very simple very easy or I missed

that so I forgot that I missed that thing all  right it's the same idea but these are just  

different ways of expressing it so you will  hear natives in real conversations yes it's  

okay to say I forgot something oh no uh like  my wife my wife asked me to get 10 different  

things from the grocery store I got nine  of them but I forgot one oh no I'm sorry  

the milk fell through the cracks the milk fell  through the cracks so I forgot to get that one  

or I could just say oh I'm sorry I forgot the  milk so when I say it fell through the cracks  

I'm I'm I'm making it sound like oh like it's  kind of wasn't my fault you know so like I I  

was thinking about this maybe I I you know I got  everything else see look I got nine other things  

I just forgot the milk so usually that will you  know something like that will happen oh I missed  

that I'm sorry I missed the milk I forgot the  milk oh no the milk fell through the cracks the  

milk fell through the cracks and so in this one  it's like the cracks of my mind or the cracks of  

the situation so it's fell through the cracks  I forgot I missed that you can probably think  

of of other ways to express this but the point  is in a real conversation you should be prepared  

for dynamic communication we don't know what a  native speaker is going to say so it's a really  

good idea to be prepared for lots of different  ways that another person might Express themselves  

now for you as a person like just using the  language you can pick one thing oh I forgot  

I missed something or you can say like I fell  through the cracks or something some information  

fell through the cracks or that did not get  done it fell through the cracks uh but when  

uh even if you choose maybe one thing and you  use that often that's fine but you should be  

prepared for other things so I'll give you yet  another one of these Expressions here uh it

slipped it slipped through the net slipped  through the net now fall through the cracks and  

slip through the net are basically the same idea  and we can think about how something like that  

would apply physically first just to understand  the expression so oh no ah I'm sorry I forgot  

to get milk that's that slipped through the net  that slipped through the net now why do we say  

this what does this mean you can imagine like a  fishing net and we have the net like the the size  

of the little squares in the net the size of those  squares is important so if we have a fish that's  

this big and pardon my bad drawing of a fish here  but if we have if we try to catch a fish this big  

we will catch that fish because it can't slip  through the net it can't just like swim through  

these little holes over here all right so a larger  fish cannot uh slip through the net so to slip  

through means like to kind of just swim through  it very quickly but if we have a smaller fish  

that fish can easily slip through the net look at  that it can just swim right through the net it's  

just going right through it slips right through  the net so to slip through like we're just going  

very quickly inside just like I slip through  like a small space in a wall to slip through  

all right so very quickly nice and easily I get  through some particular space so same idea just  

like we have little little cracks or little  holes in a floor we've got holes in a net and  

so it's going to catch some things maybe we're  we're just trying to catch these bigger fish  

we don't want to catch these small fish over here  okay so we will catch these ones but these little  

fish will slip through the net now sometimes we  have slip through the net uh again meaning like  

we we actually wanted to do that I want to catch  both of these fish but I'm sorry unfortunately  

that one slipped through the net Okay so so  another uh explanation similar to this is like to

slip to slipped my mind like you kind of forgot  about something oh I I I was supposed to have  

a meeting today but it slipped my mind I  forgot about it or I was thinking about  

something else I got busy and oh no I didn't  didn't remember uh that particular thing so to  

slip my mind it gave me the slip it gave me  the slip it like snuck away uh very quickly  

all right so there are more I could go on and  on and keep like giving you lots of different  

expressions for this kind of thing but the point  is we're connecting these with a situation this  

is how natives think about vocabulary so we have  a situation something is happening uh like oh no  

I forgot something so what are what are the  words that a native might connect with that  

like oh uh I fell through the cracks or or some  information fell through the cracks all right  

oh no it slipped through the net I'm sorry about  that or I just forgot I missed that okay so when  

you're thinking about learning things the same  way a native does what I call learning English as  

a first language you're trying to learn the real  vocabulary natives use but you also want to learn  

it the same way natives learn it if you just get a  list of vocabulary but you don't really understand  

that you're not going to feel confident using it  okay so fall through the cracks I forgot missed  

that slip through the cracks something slipped  my mind these are all very fine ways of saying  

I forgot something or something didn't get done  okay but it's kind of it's like a little bit not  

my fault all right so I tried I did a good job I  caught most of these other fish over here but I'm  

sorry I didn't catch that little one also okay so  it slipped through the cracks it fell through the  

cracks you can say both of those like to slip  through or to fall through or you can just say  

it slipped through a net typically we don't talk  about like falling through a net I mean usually  

when we think about catching fish we're kind of  maybe moving the net this way and the fish can  

just kind of swim through you can't really like  fall in the water I guess but you understand the  

idea are there any questions about this I will go  back and check chat now but hopefully this makes  

sense actually uh one last thing uh before I do  that uh as I mentioned before about getting these  

different uh aha moments about things another way  to improve your pronunciation is you actually take  

the same expression or the same vocabulary and  then you hear that spoken by different people  

okay so remember in real communication when you  were young when you were learning your native  

language You Heard lots of different people saying  the same thing maybe you heard hello in a hundred  

different ways like it could have been maybe  slightly different vocabulary but people are  

pronouncing things a little bit different okay  so each person sounds unique and as you hear all  

of those things that's what gives you a strong  understanding of what you should sound like if  

you only listen to one person or one teacher  you're going to try to sound like that person  

and especially if you learn with a teacher you're  thinking okay I need to sound like I want to have  

perfect English and I want to sound like this but  I'm just one voice and that's why like INF fluent  

for life we give you many many different ative  speakers that also give you examples of how to  

speak all right so the point is in real life you  should be learning that same way you should be  

getting many different many different examples  that those different examples it's another uh  

way to think about those different doors so if  you open the same door over and over and over  

again you're going to hear the same pronunciation  over and over and over again but if you listen  

to different people like opening different doors  then you will really get a strong sense of how to  

say something because okay now like each time you  hear a new person your your pronunciation gets uh  

your your pronunciation and your listening get  a Little Bit Stronger you feel more confident  

about how to say something because it's not like  one exact way you need to say something there's a  

kind of a range and you can find what's a good a  good way to say something for you and in the same  

way that many uh natives each have their own uh  unique voice you will have your own unique English  

voice too all right but if you listen into more  native examples it will sound more like a native  

speaker rather than you having some kind of accent  like you maybe you don't want to have an accent or  

you want to improve your pronunciation it's much  easier to do that by getting these same kinds of  

angles all right so today we've taken one word  we focused on one word really trying to help  

you understand how how to use it what it really  means different situations you can use it in and  

hopefully as we're going through this you should  be feeling some aha moments like oh look at that  

I did didn't know you could use the word that way  well that's an interesting expression all right  

and as you continue to do this that's how you  develop fluency so the fluency develops as you  

understand the language better not as you repeat  things to yourself or others okay hopefully that  

makes sense all right let me go back and check  chat uh but that's just uh just a really quick  

example of how you can become more fluent very  quickly by getting aha moments faster the faster  

you get those aha moments the faster you become  fluent all right so fluency does not it's not like  

how long did it take you to become fluent it's  like how quickly could you get aha moments and  

if you're trying to do it by yourself that's how  you would do it you would try to get many examples  

and many different examples uh in your you know  in your everyday life however you're doing that  

but if you don't understand one example don't try  to repeat it try to get something different look  

at look at it from a different uh perspective or  try to get a different example of like maybe maybe  

you're just looking looking up uh in chat GPT or  in Google like different uses of the word fall  

and as you get those different uses you you should  feel uh much more confident and maybe feeling more  

like you understand the core meaning of a word  like fall okay so words typically have a few uh  

important meanings and fall is usually we're we're  kind of moving down you know something something  

quickly like that but it's also uncontrolled in  some way that's why we fall in love rather than  

get in love all right it's hard to get in love you  know it's hard to like make yourself love someone  

you don't love you know that's why we fall in love  okay all right uh let's go back and check chat  

see if people have any questions all right let's  see Al Al if I'm pronouncing that correctly and  

let me know excuse me if I'm mispronouncing your  name Nona from Saudi Arabia nice to see you there  

no dap today I guess it's too hot for a Dap from  tubasa Rene says greetings from Brazil Mariah says  

hi Wicked vlogger fall versus fail uh I don't know  if that's asking about pronunciation or if you're  

talking about the actual difference between those  two words I don't want to cover that uh in a lot  

of detail but if you're asking about pronunciation  this is the kind of thing we cover in Frederick  

uh you can click on the link below this video to  learn more about that but this is an app that lets  

you compare the pronunciations of things things  like fall versus fail fall fail fall and fail so  

here the pronunciation is a l and here we have  ai that's a long a sound usually we say when two  

vowels go walking the first vowel does the talking  all right that's a a pretty quick way to remember  

this this rule often applies not always but  usually it does so f a i l fail instead of fall  

all right let's keep it moving all right let's  see H RAC say good morning from Osaka nice to  

see you there Lauren says hi drew the best  teacher that I've ever seen well you are  

too kind if you know other people who would  enjoy this video please share it click the  

like button and tell them hey come watch the  video prun says very nice video glad to hear  

it uh truth Trove hello sir DT with the American  flag the Algerian flag there from nir rogerio says  

greetings from Brazil sin says hail great  teacher says Ai and nir Brazil and arilla  

says hi imman says hello jerma says Hi teacher  excellent explanation and examples glad to hear  

it let's see La uh inria says from Egypt I want to  thank you without your video I wouldn't improve my  

English gramar and accent thanks it's my pleasure  uh can we say the prices drive up now typic  

typically when we talk about driving like driving  is another word you can look at in detail like um  

like like the word fall like any word so when we  talk about Drive uh I I think this is it's a good  

time to uh or I guess a good moment to explain  that um because it's it's another good example  

of people thinking they know what something means  but not really knowing it like a native speaker

so when people talk about uh drive like the word  drive this is another uh seemingly simple word  

like um like fall but if you get more varied  examples of it then you should be able to  

understand it better and then you'll know how to  use an example like the one you did uh so driving  

people typically talk about uh like driving a  car so that's the the simple typical here's a  

little steering wheel and a person driving a car  I got their hands on the wheel over here uh so  

when you're driving a car you're pushing the car  forward that's what it means to drive something  

so it seems like a weird idea because we are  inside the car and moving it Forward at the  

same time uh but we can also talk about pushing  something else like we have uh often the I'm not  

going to draw this very well uh but we have like  a bunch of cows over here oh man I'm trying to  

draw like a bunch of cows all right these are  supposed to be cows over here so like the horns  

on a cow you know uh and then we have a cowboy  so here's a cowboy hat and he's looking and he's  

trying to push the cows or the cattle that way  so he is driving he is driving the cattle okay  

so when we talk about pushing something forward  that's really what we mean when we talk about  

drive so we can talk about driving a car just  like we're sitting in the car we're pushing it  

forward or we can talk about driving cattle or  we can talk about like what is the motivation  

for something like my motivation like what is like  the drive that's pushing you to do something yes  

so these are supposed to be you know it's like  like a cow you know like so we have the uh like  

the head and the horns up here I'm just drawing it  very quickly uh yeah that's a cow you know here we  

go a cow so I'm trying to draw this very quickly  but we can we can express this same idea well some  

cows I guess well I guess you're right no I think  yeah some cows don't some cows have horns some of  

them do I think so uh but anyway like the the idea  there there could maybe be some Bulls in there too  

I guess I don't know anyway you know what I'm  talking about you understand what I mean so  

to drive something means to push it forward so we  can talk about like what's what's driving driving  

prices p r i c es so what's driving prices up or  driving prices down or driving you know driving  

this or what drives you as a person what drives  you to teach what drives you to to be a doctor  

what drives you to go to school what drives you in  the gym so all of these things it's about pushing  

something forward moving it in a certain direction  not just driving a car okay so again I I want to  

make this point clear I don't want to spend time  going over a bunch of different words but the  

point is it's another really good simple example  of you probably don't know things as well as you  

think you do all right and that's what stops you  from speaking all right so again to drive someone  

crazy like Bruno is saying right here the same  thing I'm pushing them to drive someone crazy  

now each word might not have that like one core  meaning but you can get the idea as you see more  

examples of the vocabulary varied examples that's  why I call this naturally varied review the point  

here is like you're getting lots of different  examples of something and that's what helps you  

understand the vocabulary better all right  I think that's a pretty good cow man some  

cows some cows have horns let me let me Google  that right quick somebody somebody Google that  

see do cows have horns look at that as the first  thing let's see here almost all cattle are born  

with the ability to grow horns even cows look at  that look at that see some cows do uh have them  

I'm not going to read uh most of the time farmers  will remove the horns on their cows to prevent any  

accidents look at that an aha moment all right  an aha moment so if you're if you're farmer I am  

not a farmer so I don't know much about cows but  cows I guess have horns and then maybe the farmers  

will will cut them off to make sure they're not  causing any trouble an aha moment look at that  

Tom's getting it so aha moments are not just  about language but that's the the way when you  

learn something and you understand something it's  the feeling you get ah now I understand something  

all right that's what we're looking for with  language learning the point is not to take a word  

and repeat it over and over and over again or to  get it translation of it it's to really understand  

what the word means because when you understand it  that's when you feel confident about using it all  

right look at all this proof that you're getting  right in this video and you learn something about  

cows too an extra bonus for you guys all right  hopefully that makes sense about drive though so  

we're talking about what moves prices up and you  can talk about prices you wouldn't you wouldn't  

say like the price itself is driving it's like  something is pushing the price because the price  

is is reacting to other people so the the price is  like like maybe everybody really wants some some  

stock or whatever so that's driving the price  higher so it's pushing that thing around that's  

what drives something to move it or to push it or  to motivate it in some way to drive the price up  

or to drive the price down oh no we got a lot of  comments to go through I'm trying to go through  

these quickly that was a a bit of an explanation  but I thought it was worth going over that uh yen  

says hello teacher I'm glad to see you adilo  says oh excuse me Aden adilo adilo if I'm not  

pronouncing this let me know uh from Brazil I'm  inspired by you I'm using your efl to teach here  

in Brazil great way to improve the learning glad  to hear it yes I recommend everyone do this so you  

really want to help people understand English as  a first language that means really giving them the  

real vocabulary that natives are using you're also  trying to help them understand it all in English  

all right just like I'm doing here help them  understand it all in English and we do that with  

naturally varied review because we really want to  help people not just repeat things but understand  

them by getting lots of different examples Richard  says what's the difference between the phrases  

fall down and fall off typically fall down is  like if you're just maybe like on a particular  

place like you can imagine a person and then they  just kind of fall fall down so falling but if you  

fall off usually you're on a particular thing and  we're talking about falling that way so something  

might fall off of a shelf or fall off something  else uh let's see I'm guessing I don't know is  

that is that Tatiana I don't know if I'm maybe  I'm not uh saying that uh I can't read the cilic  

anyway hi from Yakutsk uh the world's biggest city  in the permafrost nevertheless it's plus 30° over  

here oh my goodness uh sorry where is oh that's  in uh Russia I believe uh bear chances how to  

say I don't know what is is that is that Chinese  I don't know if that's Chinese or or Japanese let  

me know if what you're trying to say Siberia  Russia JP says thank you very much uh it is  

an excellent explanation glad to hear it says JP  many aha moments today yes that's the whole point  

so welcome uh let's all you guys are talking with  each other uh M says you are the best very cold  

and winter I can speak oh I can understand all you  say but I can't speak like you give me and advice  

so here we would just say give me advice give me  advice so this whole video is really advice for  

you so advice is uncountable so we would say give  me advice or you can say give me a piece of advice  

or give me some advice all right uh but the advice  is to understand more vocabulary like a native so  

you have to destroy the doubt that stops you from  speaking that's how you get fluent all right and  

saying I'm the best I'm guessing uh but thank  you very much if you know other people who would  

enjoy the video please share it uh let's see minoi  says good morning teacher good to see you Dennis  

says what is the right way to teach English for  foreign language Learners you teach them English  

as a first language the same way native parents  would teach their own kids all right but the  

benefit of of being a language teacher is you can  control how well people learn by how quickly uh  

they get aha moments all right so you don't have  to spend a long time getting fluent the point is  

really to get lots of aha moments as quickly as  possible because that's when you're feeling oh I  

really understand something that's when you feel  confident using it so there's very little practice  

you need uh if you're spending most of your time  just understanding the vocabulary all right uh and  

of course let's see YouTube chat is scrolling up  here Cano says in Armenian we have an expression  

fall in fire meaning being in trouble is there a  similar expression in English with the word fall  

uh you I mean you could you could say like he fell  fell into a trap or fell into trouble you could  

say that or I mean I guess you could say like fall  into he like fell in the fire or something you you  

could say that people would understand what you  mean by that so even if uh something might not  

be a like a a textbook or standard expression  people will will understand what you mean like  

oh no he really fell in the fire uh or he fell he  fell into a trap or he fell and you know just he'  

like in that way you could you could use it that  way Patricia says hello uh in Brazil I'm sorry  

I'm late Ohio go says Mr Tom uh let's see and CA  says hey Drew oh the manager is back the absentee  

manager long time no see hopefully everything  is fine there around here Rio De Janeiro Brazil  

everything is fine I know everything's always fine  in Brazil it's just like a a nice like Sunny place  

over there Andre let's see hi everyone this is the  best uh teaching English Channel I'm from Brazil  

living in the US the channel helping me a lot to  get fluent in English glad to hear it all right uh  

have you ever been uh think to learn J have you  ever been think to learn Japanese says Gabriel  

yeah I speak Japanese so I the the all the the  techniques and the things that I teach are what I  

discovered from learning Japanese so I speak uh if  you have any questions about that I don't really  

teach Japanese but I will use Japanese examples  in videos sometimes Sammy says Hi everybody from  

Yemen hello aha moments oh look at that un is back  all right let's see uh you guide us to listen to  

different English speakers to become fluent does  it also help us to listen to British speakers yes  

uh and especially uh I would begin with the kind  of English you need to speak for your life so if  

you live in the United Kingdom or you hear lots  of British speakers wherever that is I mean you  

could be living anywhere and maybe live around a  bunch of British speakers uh focus on that first  

but even influent for life we have people listen  to British speakers Canadian English Australian  

English New Zealand English we want you to hear  lots of different speakers from different parts of  

the world because you will hear them in movies or  TV shows or whatever so people travel around and  

you will hear like even me in my my life in Japan  over here I will meet British English speakers  

I have friends who are from New Zealand or from  Australia and they speak a little bit different  

than I do so as I get all these different  examples it helps me understand them better  

and you know and native English speakers are  doing the same thing uh so yes I I would get  

more examples for different kinds of things  but you can focus on the particular examples  

you need for your life whatever those are so if  you live in like Alabama in the United States in  

the Southern United States you should listen to  people around there uh to really get a good feel  

for that not just one person like one teacher but  really pay attention listen to lots of different  

people speaking it's the variety that gets you  fluent and prepares you for the variety of real  

speech so real communication as I said before is  dynamic all right it's not like in a test where  

the teacher tells you what to do you remember that  and then you have to say that thing or write it  

down on the test a real communication you don't  know what's going to happen so maybe someone does  

say something you expect but often times the  communication is unexpected so you have to be  

prepared for that that's the whole point point of  learning English as a first language all right uh  

let's see C again hi Tom oh you guys are talking  let's see talking to each other C says can you  

give us a different situations between forget  forgot and forgotten ah well uh that that would  

be a subject for a different video I don't want  to go into uh different grammar in that way but  

you would uh look at grammar in the same way  getting these different examples by focusing  

on the situation so you talk about like I uh  forgot something or I will forget something  

tomorrow or I like forgot something yesterday or I  had forgotten uh but rather than trying to explain  

all of those different things and do like I just  did with this um so that's the kind of thing we do  

in fluent for life we take you through vocabulary  grammar pronunciation all of that uh and we do it  

with uh lots of naturally varied review but yes it  would work in the same way at the airport says do  

you think English tend to use more metaphors or  descriptive Expressions compared to Japanese in  

Daily conversation uh I think it depends on  who you're speaking with and how good their  

language ability is so you could like people  people that know a lot like maybe more uh like  

not necessarily educated but more knowledgeable so  they maybe have a larger vocabulary and they they  

enjoy talking about movies and things like that it  depends on the situ ation I think in my experience  

like people speaking with me in Japanese like  people have been maybe I don't know kind of like  

literal they will use you know expressions and  things from movies and TV shows but it's not it's  

not like literary in the same way maybe English  would be but I don't know I'm just one person and  

so it's hard to hard to say about the language in  general um but I mean I know Japanese pretty well  

but like if you had a bunch of Japanese professors  sitting and talking with each other or maybe some  

poets maybe you would have a different kind of  experience they would talk about things in that  

way uh but daily communication is it's usually  pretty straightforward uh in my experience uh  

but that could also be maybe because they expect  me to know less so they're speaking like in a  

different way but but even when I sit and listen  just to Japanese people talking like I'm just kind  

of spying on people uh I will hear them saying you  know just straightforward kinds of things you know  

they're like not maybe using as many metaphors  or things like that maybe in English I don't  

know I don't have enough sample size that's an  interesting question though uh let's see Patricia  

says I agreed all you guys are talking with each  other Unice says fall apart means uh break up  

yeah so fall apart I mean it when we think about  something falling apart like your clothing could  

fall apart over time so right now you can see like  the seam in my in my shirt like over time it gets  

torn it starts falling apart and the the sleeve  maybe falls off okay so so something falls apart  

it means it kind of disconnects or gets worse  over time and things separate so breaking up is  

a similar kind of idea uh but typically breaking  up is like people are more um like if you if you  

hear two people talking about a relationship  and they say oh the relationship fell apart it  

usually means like over time it got worse but if  we broke up to break is like a more like if I take  

this marker and break it it's a more like quick  happening right now all at the same time kind of  

expression so we break up a relationship or we  break something off we're doing that right now  

all right so it's a little bit different but it's  similar idea uh okay here let's see where did I  

damn you YouTube okay here we go all right  thanks Tom Drew is the one on teaching glad  

to hear yes CA the manager yes get them in line  here we go Patricia I've learned a lot with him  

glad to hear it glad to hear people are improving  peris says Hi everyone I'm from Iran but living  

in Melbourne again this is another example like  you could have somebody from one country living  

in another just like we have Americans who live  in China or Britain and British speakers who live  

in Taiwan or whatever you know it's different  people all over the place that's why it's a  

good idea to get a variety of different speakers  and especially native speakers speaking normally  

not just like people in regular like an English  teacher or something that's going to get you to  

kind of a lower level of understanding uh let's  see greetings from bra Brazil says the toy Adele  

says hello uh thanks for all I'm guessing that  that's what that means let's see okay you guys  

are talking to each other I think nice sunny Beach  yeah it sounds nice over there it's really hot in  

Japan crazy hot um we finished the rainy season  I guess uh and now we have some comments about  

people not liking my cow pictures uh let's see  zenb says hello from uh Algeria I'm late what  

does aha moments mean never heard of that so an  aha moment is it's just the term for when you  

realize something or you understand something  and this is not just for language learning but  

the point is when you when you see something and  finally something becomes clear to you you think  

ah okay like aha like that's what we say in  English so we call that like an aha moment in  

Japanese it would be like n n so you you notice  something you discover something like ah so you  

understand something you you feel more confident  because you understand something all right so the  

opposite of that is doubt and doubt is what stops  people from speaking so rather than trying to  

study more your goal really is to try to eliminate  doubt as quickly as possible and that's how you  

become a fluent speaker faster all right uh let's  see here Thomas says hi greetings from Argentina  

could you explain what are the situations where  is proper to use the Jen form of the verb yeah  

I'm definitely not going to go into that in this  video but I have talked about that um I'm pretty  

sure we cover that in other YouTube videos but we  definitely do in fluent for life so if you'd like  

to learn more about like specific examples and  see lots of those again rather than getting a  

definition or an explanation about grammar it's  better to just see many many many examples and  

that's what gives you what we call a sense of how  to use grammar correctly so many people understand  

the rules and even if I told you like oh just  do this and this that's the actual rule for it  

you can see I'm spending a lot of time trying to  take even one word or two words and really show  

you what they mean by giving you lots of examples  so we don't want to just give you a definition you  

should spend the time to try to really understand  those things and as you do that with grammar it  

becomes a lot easier to understand so I recommend  uh searching for those specific things on our  

Channel or you'll just find them all influent for  Life uh let's see well look at that uh I think  

that's is that let me know if that's if that's  T is that taana is that this is that that name  

I'm like now I'm trying to teach myself some  I think I've told you all before the story of  

how I taught myself some Korean did I tell you  that story before I think I have let me know I  

I'll tell it to you again if you're curious but  it's a similar similar kind of thing I'm trying  

to do when when you're trying to get those aha  moments if you make it like a game then you feel  

much more confident when you understand something  rather than a teacher just telling you what the  

answer is uh and R ranesh says what is the correct  way to use a well you ought to look that up you  

ought to you should that's a good idea and again  better than giving one example or one definition  

of something get many of them all right I don't  want to spend time uh in this video we're already  

already going over an hour uh but just do the same  kind of thing so if there's something that you're  

unclear about what it means get lots of examples  all right you will feel much more confident Adele  

says hello from Paris Musta says hello sir wish  you are doing nice so i' say how are you doing or  

hope you are doing well doing all right uh let's  see Pauline says hello from Chile and look at that  

lots of folks from South America represented here  Patricia says thank you drew time for me to sleep  

watch it later uh let's see hello from Al maybe  that means Algeria I guess Amar C says cow may  

have horn on their body as humans as a tail but  it would would I see that's an interesting point  

there Nema says hi Lon Lomi says from Haiti hi  from Haiti all right and from uh New Zealand look  

at that uh you don't have to keep holding the  camera it sounds fixed you can use both hands  

no I'm I'm not use I'm not holding the camera  I'm scrolling through the uh through the chat  

that's what I'm that's what I'm doing with my  hand all right uh what is the best way to learn  

English as soon as possible uh I just gave you an  example of it you need to get uh aha moments as  

quickly as possible the point is uh if you know a  lot of English but still don't speak it's because  

you have doubts about the language it's doubts  about pronunciation grammar whatever so you have  

to destroy those doubts all right you don't have  to learn more you have to destroy the doubts about  

the vocabulary you already know so that's why  you don't really have to learn new vocabulary  

but you should understand it better okay so uh  as I've explained uh in previous videos we go  

through these different stages of understanding  as we learn more and we get more aha moments all  

right so we begin with just hearing something  for the first time this is exposure so you're  

just getting it you read some vocabulary you hear  it somewhere and then we want to go to awareness  

where we keep hearing more examples and now we  feel a little bit more confident we can understand  

it when others are saying but maybe we still don't  have the confidence to use it ourselves but as we  

destroy the doubt as we get more examples that  really help us understand something then we move  

to ownership and that's where we really feel like  we understand something very well and we'll use  

it fluently so most people uh if they don't feel  confident about saying something then they won't  

use that vocabulary they might say something  else or they might just not speak but most  

people if they understand things but don't speak  that's the real problem it's the doubt that stops  

you from speaking so you don't need to live in  an English-speaking country you don't need to  

be having a particular teacher or whatever  you just need to destroy the doubt so make  

sure you've understood something well and then  you will use it fluently all right peace lover  

says I've been following you for almost 12 years  now really appreciate your teaching wow 12 years  

oh my goodness well if you know other people that  would enjoy this let them know looks like some Tai  

there hello thanks uh for everything from Thailand  Antonio says which language do you and your wife  

speak every day uh I usually use English at home  because that's the main chance that my kids get to  

hear English so even if I'm just talking with my  wife especially like if I'm in if I'm in front of  

my kids I will usually speak in English uh but  if it's uh if we if my children are not around  

then I will use maybe more Japanese but sometimes  I will speak in English and sometimes we we have  

those typical conversations where like I will  speak in English and she will speak in Japanese  

and we're just it's just like faster to get the  information out that way but uh but it's a mix it  

usually depends on the situation though uh good  evening everyone from Rio more people from Rio  

says Andre W Musa says Tom ad ISS uh good morning  from India I would like to improve my fluency in  

English please tell me about the fluency course uh  well if you'd like to learn more about fluent for  

life you can click on the link in the description  to learn about that the things that we talk about  

in this video I've basically given you one example  of one word in this video just to prove to you  

that you can actually become a more confident  speaker even if you don't speak all right so  

you you become fluent by understanding and feeling  more confident and then you speak all right that's  

how the process really works and so what we do  in fluent for life is actually go through all of  

these different examples you get to choose what  you learn and then I I just get you fluent by  

helping you understand the vocabulary all right  so it's my job to get you fluent because I'm not  

just giving you some vocabulary and then telling  you to remember it or understand it by by yourself  

I get you fluent so I know how to teach to make  the language understandable so I can give you aha  

moments you can certainly do this by yourself if  you'd like but uh I've been doing this 20 years  

and I'm pretty good at doing that and if you'd  like me to do it for you it's much uh much faster  

all right Antonio says uh there is something  happening between you and me our hair is going  

away yes that's true yeah I like I I keep thinking  about maybe I should shave it off like just like  

actually do like a like a cut like shave it all  off but my wife is like no she wants she wants me  

to to to save it I guess for as long as I can  maybe I maybe I'll get a wig you know I don't  

really care uh but yeah I mean uh yeah I guess I  mean shaving is kind of a pain though uh let's see  

I'm curious about how you learn some Korean okay  I'll tell you that story uh let me check these  

comments I'll tell you that um let's see C says  uh is Yakuza still exist you would say do Yakuza  

still exist I think so uh I used to go to a uh  like a a like a bath like a public hot spring  

bath uh and there would be Yakuza guys in there  um and and uh yeah they had like tattoos all over  

their body and it's still it's still a thing  let's see uh right oh it is Tana okay you are  

right all right yeah I know there are different  spellings of that um and then uh like it's like  

t a TI like with t a TI or if it's a y something  like that uh but thank you Cano o Andre you should  

practice your English here yes again like  the practicing is just like I'm giving you  

the practice that's that's what that means so  you could do this yourself you could go out and  

find additional examples on your own and that  would help you even more uh but that's what we  

need for practicing I want some more aha moments  says Tom yes like aha moment say feel good because  

understanding feels good and often when we're  learning in a typical way we don't understand the  

language is confusing and that's why people don't  like studying languages even though they would  

like to speak so so it's like a very cool thing  to speak a different language it's uh it's like  

oh wow that person can speak or polyglots like I  am not a polyglot but I can look at those people  

and think wow that's very cool they can speak uh  many different languages uh but it's uh typically  

like people figure out that you need to get those  aha moments even if they don't realize uh that's  

what they're called but that's how you get fluent  faster that's really how you learn anything faster  

Edson says what is the correct way of saying this  something over there or S something something over  

there yeah you could you do you mean something  over there that's correct you can say that if  

that's what you mean all right uh Mustafa says  which state from United are you coming from and  

does it affect your uh English accent yes so where  you're from you would sound different there are  

different accents in the United States and I'm  from Chicago but I'm also from the south side of  

the city and so I have like more kind of southern  accent it's just the people I grew up with  

um but yep so if I if I were if I grew up in  Texas I would probably sound different or in  

California or uh you know Arizona or wherever  different places have different sounds there  

are only two reasons for Success practice  and trying uh well I mean you can you could  

practice and try a lot but that doesn't guarantee  success that's my that's my only uh problem with  

that now of course like I think people should  make an effort but the the point is is not to  

just like to try try try and do something like  like if I if I try to learn a word like uh like  

fall so just like what we did before so I could  I could say I'm working hard just repeating the  

flash card over and over and over again but is  that the best work is that the smartest thing  

for me to do now if I just repeat a word if I say  that fall fall fall fall fall is it going to help  

me probably not like I might learn a little bit  maybe how to pronounce it a little bit better  

but I will learn a lot more if I get various uh  examples of the word and from various speakers  

all right it's the variety that gets you fluent  it's not just hearing one example over and over  

again so I want to make it clear that yes like  practicing is a good idea but this is not the  

kind of practice that's going to get you fluent  uh or it will be quite difficult uh if you if you  

do all right uh but if you get more examples  the point is really to learn in a smart way  

that's going to get you uh to understanding faster  all right so there okay uh the ambulance yes the  

ambulance is back uh pilot says hello Drew what  is the best internet source for letting getting  

lots of examples of new words or Expressions  to understand them and to get confident without  

translating uh it's harder to do this by yourself  but I would recommend starting with something  

simple that you can understand so you we usually  begin with a situation like how to to grow flowers  

or how to bake cookies or something like that  but you would learn it at your level so if you  

are not a very good speaker or you don't know  much vocabulary yet watch videos on YouTube for  

children about how to do something so children  learning farming or children learning I don't  

know like how to build an engine or children you  know whatever like you can take whatever that  

information is and you can find uh lower or easier  content for that you can even say like Elementary  

School lesson about math or something like that  and just what like the content is already there  

now uh you you could also use something like  uish y u y o u g l i sh huglish decom this is  

where you can put in a particular word you want  to know or or a phrase or something and it will  

find examples of that so this is another way to  get naturally varied review if you already know  

the thing you're looking for but uh there are  lots of different ways to do this if you watch  

the espresso video on my channel I made a video  that's an example of naturally varied review about  

a particular topic like making espresso and uh so  like here another example for me in Japanese there  

was recently uh there's a holiday kind of like a  special day in Japan called tanabata um and it's  

like a story about a prince and a princess and in  the stars and little kids they put um wishes on a  

bamboo tree and other little things like that it's  almost like a kind of like a Christmas story in a  

way uh where there there's like decorating a plant  but um anyway the like when when you when there's  

a holiday or something like that and you go to a  bookstore or a library they might have a like a  

special setting with books about that thing so if  you read five kids books about a particular topic  

you're going to know quite a lot about that you're  going to get many aha moments as you learn some  

new vocabulary you hear that same vocabulary used  again and again but in slightly different ways so  

the point is not to like find a particular place  like you could go to the library or get it online  

wherever um but you want to find lots of varied  examples of that thing that's what's going to  

give you the AHA moments that help you understand  all right so you can do it anywhere uh YouTube is  

a good place to start because you're getting  video with it uh as well uh let's see C says  

uh who's Andrew Tate is he your brother uh no  wait you guys talking to each other I guess not  

talking about me I'm not related to Andrew Tate uh  let's see uh Tom says I prefer shaving my head and  

I do like it h maybe I will get I will get used  to maybe used to it uh over there at some point  

let's see Lawrence says my little children alen  says I'm late here what do you mean aha moments  

unlocking English speaking confidence thanks  uh just to give you that explanation again uh  

hopefully this isn't the same one but for people  asking I do recommend you go back and watch this  

video to understand what an aha moment means but  it's just the feeling you get when you understand  

something well so typically when you're learning  a new language it's quite confusing for people  

and uh because you don't really understand things  you have lots of doubt that's what stops you from  

speaking so as you really understand the Vo  vocabulary better by getting lots of examples  

that's what helps you feel oh like like now I  understand that thing so we call that an aha  

moment when you discover something it's like when  you watch a mystery TV show and you discover who  

did it you're like ah that guy did it you know  so that's an aha moment aha aha now I got you  

all right so it's just a moment of understanding  and the more you get those the faster you get FL  

uh NCO says hey I have a problem I have to  translate many things in English and can't  

understand the grammar how could I fix that well  you I don't know why you have to translate things  

or if you have to translate something for work  but if you're just trying to learn how grammar  

works I would just get examples of the grammar in  action so people talking about things in a certain  

tense or talking about things in a in a certain  way it just depends on the particular grammar  

uh but the more you understand it like a native  the faster you get flowing Lauren says excuse me  

Drew uh I don't know if you guys are talking with  each other or not Vin says Vin from South Africa  

morning my guy is an early hour here I'm learning  new things every time from you that makes me to be  

a confident speaker glad to hear it so he says if  I say aha moment it could be mean I have nothing  

to say next uh well you I mean if you if you're  talking about using that in a conversation do  

you mean if I say aha moment well if it like if if  you're in a conversation and someone is explaining  

meaning something to you and then you understand  like Ah that's that's just what it means it's like  

okay I understand what what's happening now ah but  you feel it you actually feel like a good feeling  

when that happens because now you're understanding  something and doubt so doubt is the opposite doubt  

makes you feel nervous so if we destroy the doubt  then you will feel confident it's pretty easy all  

right Mustafa says can you tell us more about  your English learning method because I saw an  

Andy talking about teaching your daughter the  word har and its various meanings and I think  

it's a smart way to increase yes Musta that's  what I'm talking about in this video as well so  

most of my lessons are giving examples of that  just showing you that it is possible number one  

to learn by yourself so I'm not speaking with you  you're not actually having a conversation with me  

and right now this is live but it will be just  a recording later uh but the point is that you  

just as you understand something better that's how  you really feel more confident about speaking all  

right so the traditional way of thinking about  about language learning is that you speak first  

and that's how you get fluent so you get fluent  by speaking speech triggers fluency but I'm saying  

it's actually the opposite so fluency triggers  speech so we need to figure out how do we trigger  

fluency and fluency is triggered by understanding  so as you understand the language better that's  

how you feel confident about speaking all  right so as I'm giving you more examples  

of things like that example of the word harsh  it's the same idea so you're not just hearing  

one example and a translation of something uh  you're thinking about like wow I really understand  

what this word means or I understand a really  good way to pronounce it or the correct way to  

pronounce it because I'm hearing lots of different  people say that word all right so you can hear all  

these different examples and as you get those you  feel more confident about speaking so the fluency  

comes first as you understand the language  better and that's what we do in fluent for  

life so the point is to help you understand the  language well and that's when you start speaking  

uh and vocab so what's the main uh oh I think  that's continuing to do that so that that is the  

main method so they're basically uh I I'll just  lay this out for people here make sure this makes

sense I haven't talked about this in a while  so maybe it's a good time uh what time is it  

now yeah we got we got a little bit of time then  I'll I'll tell my quick Korean story uh so we have  

two different triangles here so this one I'll  just call this ft for the fluency triangle uh  

and this will be the TP triangle so TP meaning  test prep all right so there are two different  

ways of learning English uh and the basic  idea is like when you're trying to become  

fluent the purpose of of learning this way over  here the fluency triangle the purpose of this is  

to actually prepare you for dynamic communication  all right so the purpose of this over here is to  

prepare you to pass tests by giving you specific  responses for questions that you might get on a  

test so a teacher teaches you something in a  classroom like hello so in in English people  

say hello when they greet each other all right but  in the fluency triangle we're actually trying to  

get real vocabulary where we understand that many  people might say something different than hello  

you might say hey hi what's up how's it going  where you been how's the family how's it hanging  

you get lots of different ways of expressing  yourself okay so the first difference between  

these two we're trying to get like real uh real  English over here and we're going to contrast  

that with uh what I call the textbook English I'm  sorry for my fast sloppy writing here but in the  

fluency triangle again the first part of this is  real English because if you don't understand real  

English you won't be able to communicate with  people or understand them in real conversation  

ations or watch people in movies and TV shows that  kind of thing so textbook English is included in  

this but often in traditional English lessons  you don't learn the real English that natives  

are using in real conversations okay and this is  why people often say it sounds like natives are  

speaking a different language than the English  I learned in school so people learn one kind of  

English in school natives speak a different kind  of English and so there is a disconnect here so  

if you want to move from here to here you have to  instead of just learning textbook English which  

is correct it's usually formal English that's  correct we want to learn real English all right  

pretty simple now the SE the second thing here  is how do we learn that all right so it's not  

just what we learn but how we learn this which is  really important all right so we're going to move  

here kind of going around the triangle but notice  all three of these things are connected you have  

to have all three if you want to be fluent all  right so the second thing here is learning English  

as a first language all right and so I've given  you an example of that here learning English as  

a first language just means you're able to  understand things all in English with lots  

of understandable examples and now this is where  people talk about comprehensible input or what I  

just say uh understandable messages or it's just  making it understandable all in English and so  

if you're learning any language you should be  learning that language directly this is how  

natives learn their native language because there  is no other way to learn so I have two daughters  

I have an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old and I've  never taught them uh English through Chinese  

all right probably not surprising all right so I  don't teach my daughters English through Chinese  

or through Portuguese or something like that  I teach them English in English because that's  

the only way you can teach someone uh their first  language all right now what happens is people get  

a first language like your native language and  then they use that to try to learn a different  

language and this is what we call English as a  second language all right so if you're learning  

English as a second language it means you're  trying to learn it through your first language  

and that's what causes you all the problems with  hesitating and translating and you have doubts and  

you don't really know how grammar works it just  becomes very confusing for you so the purpose  

here with learning English as a first language is  that you're trying to understand the language the  

same way a native does so in today's video we're  talking about the word fall I'm giving you lots  

of examples of how it works that's learning  and understanding the language the same way a  

native does okay so again this is the same way you  learned your native language whatever that is and  

because how we learn is how we speak that's all  you have to do to get fluent in English all right  

so a lot of people will still learn real English  like you can find uh examples of vocabulary videos  

lots of them on YouTube but they will teach them  as a second language all right they will give you  

translations for what the word means rather than  actually helping you understand it in English the  

same way a native would learn okay and so what's  the last thing we gave you an example of that  

today that is naturally varied review naturally  varied review all right and over here instead  

of naturally varied review we have repetition so  we're just going to repeat something this is what  

people talk about when they talk about practicing  the language like where does the practice come  

from so we'll just put a p for practice here and  naturally varied review is the natural practice of  

a native speaker uh of course they do speak but  typically even children or adults uh they don't  

talk about things unless they feel confident that  they're speaking correctly so everyone has that  

issue where we don't want to say something that's  incorrect because then we feel embarrassed or we  

look silly or whatever so it's not just for  English Learners this is for native speakers  

as well all right so we've got naturally varied  review over here and that's the example we gave  

today where we've got lots of different examples  of something we're trying to really understand the  

vocabulary hear it from many different speakers  uh and then we really understand the vocabulary  

that way all right so that's how you uh are able  to understand the vocabulary like a native that's  

the practice you get so you need to have all  three of these things uh and then you can see  

why this one would be much more confusing and more  difficult for people okay so if we have textbook  

English and we're learning it in a confusing way  so it's not the real language and then we're just  

repeating that so we don't really understand  the vocabulary better of course you're going to  

have trouble speaking of course you are all right  this is like this way this is not designed to get  

you speaking this is designed for test prep it's  designed to make you prepared for a particular you  

know whatever that that test is that you're having  in a regular classroom the teacher tells you  

this you remember that and then you repeat that  thing on the test that's how it works all right  

and there might be some speaking part of that but  it's it's usually just focused on the particular  

things this particular textbook English so you get  all three of these things together and of course  

that's what's going to cause the problems okay  so this is the real reason why people struggle  

to speak so all of this creates doubt all  right but this creates certainty certainty and

confidence okay so if we have certainty and  confidence that's what creates fluency even  

before we speak we feel more confident about  something as we understand it better then we  

have fluency then we speak speaking is the last  part of this at the bottom over here after we  

really understand the language well so here  we're trying to speak or we talk to ourselves  

or whatever the thing is okay so you see these  two different ways of learning the language this  

is the typical way that people learn and that's  why people struggle to speak all right so you  

need to have all three of these things if you  want to become fluent but if you have all three  

of them then of course you would become fluent  guaranteed because you would just understand the  

language very well very simple all right but this  one of course you're struggling to speak because  

you're not learning the real language you're not  really understanding it very well and then you're  

just repeating things over and over which doesn't  really help you understand anything better okay so  

it's not your fault if you've been learning this  way this is just the typical way that people are  

taught languages because the purpose is to pass  tests and the purpose of this is to actually have  

fluent communication all right so it's a different  goal and because it's a different goal it's a  

different process in a regular teacher like kind  of classro situation they don't care if you become  

a fluent speaker that's not their job the point is  for you to pass the test and go to the next level  

all right and so even people who take you know the  IELTS exam or whatever the purpose of that is test  

it's trying to prepare you for actual you know  whatever that the test questions are all right  

so you might know a lot and it will teach  you probably a lot of textbook English but  

it's probably not going to teach you all of the  real English and all of the examples of native  

pronunciation all of those kinds of things that  you will get from a real communication setting  

like when you're having an actual conversation  with someone okay so these are the three things  

you need and you need all three of them if  you just learn real English but you learn it  

as a second language you're probably going to  get stuck still all right so that's what again  

you'll watch there's there's lots of YouTube  content that teaches real English but most  

people forget this and this over here all right  so you will learn some real English like that's  

like a kind of in the- middle way over here  where you get real English but you learn it  

as a second language you don't really understand  uh what your what you're learning you're trying  

to get it through translations and you're  not getting a lot of naturally varied review  

so people will watch lots of lots of content on  YouTube but not feel more fluent because they're  

not really spending enough time they're not  getting that good review the varied review that  

really helps them understand things all right so  the goal is to destroy the doubt and if you have  

doubt that's what will stop you from speaking  all right if you have any questions about this  

let me know but this is the basic idea so this  is if you want to speak you should do this if  

you want to just pass a test then it's okay to  do this over here I mean actually if you want to  

pass a test to you should do this also but uh you  can see why people in regular uh conversations  

or excuse me like just regular classrooms for  learning languages they just do this it's just  

easier it's faster and it's easier to do it  that way all right so the the teacher uh it's  

not like they don't care if you speak but that's  not the purpose of the class the purpose is to  

prepare you for some kind of test so they give  you something to learn and something to repeat  

and then you say that on the test and you get a  good score all right great but does that really  

help you speak probably not all right so remember  this idea uh the point of fluent for life is to  

do this it's to give you the real language teach  you that as a first language and give you enough  

naturally varied review that you understand the  language fluently all right so we have to take  

our time and go through things but the the nice  thing about this is the process accelerates over  

time so it actually gets faster as you learn more  because when you understand something well now  

you can use that to understand more things all  right so that's what I do like if you watch this  

video again where I'm talking about uh fall I'm  using basic concepts and helping you understand  

more uh more complicated things and I do that in  a specific order to make those those aha moments  

much faster so as you learn this way you get  aha moments you feel more certain more confident  

and that's the process of developing fluency so  fluency doesn't happen as you repeat more because  

you're not going to be able to speak if you still  got doubt all right that's why the doubt is the  

most important thing so even if this like even if  you learn real English and you still like kind of  

learn it like a native with Native examples if  you don't get a lot of review a lot of varied  

review you're probably going to forget what you  learn so you need all three of these things but  

it's just that it's just these three things  all right that'll give you everything you need  

to become a confident speaker because it's all  you need to destroy the doubt all right uh and  

speaking about people in the program anybody  who still has uh like questions about things  

we we are always there 24 hours a day to answer  questions all right uh let's see Cano says my aha  

moment regarding today's lesson has been the  example about Halloween although we have the  

same expression in my native language but I never  dared to use it by translating thanks a lot true  

yes so excellent that's like an excellent uh usage  right there so you feel like that that moment of  

hesitation because like you know this seems like a  logical thing to say but I don't know if it's it's  

correct or not when you feel that that's great  fantastic excellent work all right uh so jimon  

says hello Drew can we use falls apart uh if a  land split into two yeah you could say that so  

something could something could fall apart like if  typically fall apart is like if you have one thing  

that splits into many pieces so if something  if it just like if it's two different things  

usually we would just say like split apart so  if we have two pieces of land like that to split  

apart but fall apart is like you know just there's  many different pieces are creating fall apart so  

if I talk about my shirt I gave that example  before like my shirt is falling apart it means  

they kind of different pieces of it are torn  uh and they're they're all separating in that  

way all right so that's a subtle difference about  falling apart uh and so typically in relationships  

when we're talking about a relationship falling  apart um you have like kind of different parts  

of the relationship are getting worse so not it's  not just one thing like we don't speak well but  

we don't like spending time together or whatever  there many different things that might that might  

mean the relationship is getting worse so that's  when we when we talk about it falling apart uh  

let's see Edon says hi what would you say is the  intuition of up preposition from the phrasal word  

breaking up I don't see it pretty clear uh yeah  in in certain situations like this like it might  

not be logical where you think about something  like breaking up like and often we will we will  

add a preposition like up uh in something just  to make it more casual or conversational um so  

you could have a situation where uh like things  are actually breaking up and like moving up into  

some other position but typically that doesn't  happen it just depends I would say people use  

breakup like it's it's like a I don't know  it would be it would be an interesting thing  

to look at the like the atmology of that so  atmology is the history of a word the origin  

of the word u but why we talk about breakup  versus you know whatever but typically it's  

like things kind of try I don't know I think the  the better way to understand it is like if we

have imagine like a a circle here and the circle  is more like a plan where if you have pieces of  

something like they they are moving in like kind  of different directions away away from something  

so it's the same idea of of like breaking apart  but the direction is not not so important here uh  

and you could even contrast this with something  like breaking down so to break down we have like  

a machine or something that doesn't work so well  anymore or it stops working so typically that's  

just kind of like like we're breaking something  breaks down all right but we can also break down  

something like I'm breaking down an explanation  into smaller pieces something like that all right  

so there different ways of understanding that  it's not always true that we will have an easy  

to understand um like logical relationship between  the vocabulary sometimes it will be almost like an  

idiom where it doesn't make sense why we would say  like for a relationship like two people breaking  

up but it's it's more like two things that were  joined together and now they're they're going in  

their separate ways for a relationship so they're  breaking apart or breaking up in that way so I  

wish I had a better explanation for that uh but as  you get more uh and I would I would look into that  

see if there's like uh you can look at the the  historical uses of a word like breakup uh and get  

those examples all right uh let's see almost Dani  Chris Christi chis christii if I'm pronouncing  

that correctly good morning sir from Hong Kong  have you been to Hong Kong It's seems that I have  

seen you in Hong Kong um let's see well I was in  Hong was I in Hong Kong I don't think so I think  

I would remember that no I don't think I've ever  been to Hong Kong no I have not but there might  

be someone who looks like me maybe goer says a  few days ago I tried to buy a fluent for life  

all each card I tried was declined although I  enabled the card for international transactions  

uh let's see I think we should be able to pay  in local currency uh yes number one you do  

pay in local currency when you join so the it's  automatically uh the currency it's automatically  

exchanged what for any any course you buy and this  is typical uh for buying things online so whatever  

your local currency is uh but I would check with  your bank so even if the the the uh the card is  

enabled for international transactions just for  security reasons so if you contact your bank  

and allow them to uh let the let the payment go  through then it should probably work person says  

uh hi Drew last couple good good morning last  couple day I couldn't come to the live lesson  

I'm person from Sri Lanka well that's okay you can  watch these any time eckan says so cool learning  

English as a first language is great to have thank  you for the idea never thought of that before yes  

so most people around the world are doing this  and that's for every language you're learning  

French or Spanish or Thai or whatever it's it's  almost always doing this so so so now if you  

understand this you know more than 99% of people  learning languages there you go it took me like  

you know 20 years to figure that out so I spent 15  years trying to do this trying to learn different  

languages but as soon as I started learning  Japanese this way uh I finally started getting  

fluent uh K says hello Ed I think oh difference  between listen to me and listen up to me I mean  

what is the up preposition add oh and this like  you wouldn't say listen up you wouldn't say listen  

to me you would just say listen up listen up  listen up it's more like you know you can if you  

want to think about a logical connection like like  that like listen up you know usually a teacher  

is talking to some students or somebody and and  maybe they're at like a higher level like you know  

listen up it's like you know I'm I'm specifically  telling you like pay attention up here not just  

like listen to the teacher or something down here  like listen up everyone listen up but we don't say  

listen up to me because we're it's either you're  listening up or you're listening to a particular  

thing so you would pick one what s Ohio I'm  sorry I'm a bit late today it's okay thanks for  

the explanation I appreciate glad here Vin says uh  thanks teacher for revealing the best way to learn  

English as opposed to learning the fake way that  creates doubts in Translation and speaking this  

reminds me of seven fluency guides uh that you  taught I review yeah so like the when I talk about  

this I I want to update those I'm actually working  on that right now so like a 20 years of teaching  

updates so everybody who's in fluent for life or  who has the guides they will get those updates um  

but I wanted to really make this clear for people  because I've gotten better over the years at  

explaining how this works but I I want to say this  is not like it's not like a bad way of learning  

it's just the purpose is different all right so  it's like if I want to if I want to drive to I  

don't know like I want to drive from here to Tokyo  uh I don't know then I should like or if I wanted  

to get from here to Tokyo like I could drive I  guess uh but I could also fly uh or I could I  

don't know I could take a boat there or something  there are different ways I could do that uh so  

this one like uh the the purpose of this thing is  is really just to prepare you for specific tests  

that's the purpose of it so it's not particularly  bad like but that's why people why people give  

you these kinds of lessons but for this like  the purpose is to be prepared for all kinds of  

communication because you don't know what people  are going to use you need to be prepared for lots  

of different things Elder says Su Drew nice to  hear you this morning thanks noan my pledge cake  

a summer vacation has already started in Japan yes  uh my children are on vacation now you know it's  

interesting like kids love summer vacation but  parents like don't like it at all so parents are  

like no the kids are at home now we need to find  something uh for them to do but we will take it uh  

we're going to take a few days go down to Okinawa  uh next week so I will do uh a video on Thursday  

I should be doing video Thursday but there will be  no videos here uh next week all right uh let's see  

mosta says but I can't really get the NVR part  of the triangle so naturally varied review is  

what I did earlier in this video with different  explanations and examples of the word fall so if  

you just hear like the the naturally varied review  example would be all of those different examples  

of fall that I gave you and the repetition would  be just repeating the word fall again and again  

trying to say that in conversations or or trying  to repeat it to myself or looking at flash cards  

all right so if you go back and watch this video  uh you will see lots of examples of that uh but it  

just means varied review so naturally varied  review the same way a native would get that  

different review eckan says Drew have you ever  worn a red t-shirt color on here thinking you look  

good in it because of your almost pinkish light  reddish face skin uh have I worn a red shirt you  

know I wear the shirts that are available at the  store so I don't I don't go out of my way to try  

to find like oh like a red shirt would look good  on me I should go get a red shirt I just buy you  

know the shirts that are available so I get I  get my my shirts actually the these are some  

nice shirts I like the the quality it's like a  nice nice uh cotton fabric I just I go to uniclo

CL that's my my advertisement for uni that's  just a clothing shop over here uh and sometimes  

I go to uh Muji doui but it which is another uh  another shop but they they typically don't have  

like bright red colors I've rarely seen that  maybe Japanese people don't buy that very much  

so people don't wear that I guess I don't know  maybe so that's it's not a thing so I have like  

Earth Tone colors or you know this like blue or  purple or kind of pinkish color I guess that's  

just what they have available and I I don't like  to buy stuff like clothes online because I I want  

to try it on first all right uh C says I think  uh I think to apply efl require at least B level  

so they can be able to build understanding of  words that have a bit harder diverse meaning uh  

no that's not true because again like this is  the process that native speakers use to learn  

their native language so just making it very  simple for them all right so again like I've  

given my uh like Japanese example before so many  people maybe new people this will be helpful for  

but if I'm trying to teach you Japanese as a  first language this is how I would do it MAA  

Maka Maka Maka Maka Maka AI Maka AI Maka shot  shots Mar shots Kudo Kudo Maka Kudo Maka AKA AK

Maka shot all right so when we're giving people  examples like this is the same thing teaching you  

real Japanese Japanese as a first language giving  you naturally varied review all right so you're  

understanding all of those things at the same time  and if I kept teaching you like that every day you  

would become fluent in Japanese all right now of  course it wouldn't be just me I would also get  

lots of examples of other Japanese people uh who  can give you more examples of pronunciation and  

other things like that but that's how the process  works so this is not for people at a certain level  

this is for everybody at any level it just depends  on the specific things you're teaching all right  

so don't worry about that uh it's it's making  it easy for people to understand the language  

it doesn't matter what level they are as so  I have a question now I focus to improve my  

learning ability after I feel more confident in  my listening ability I'll change to my speaking  

ability is this is it the correct way the point  it's it's not to listen it's to understand the  

language really well so the more you understand  the more confident you will feel and that's  

how you become a fluent speaker so the fluency  develops as understanding improves all right and  

then speaking is a natural result of that because  you understand and when you don't have doubt  

anymore you naturally start speaking all right  Jo says hi sir just want to make your living just  

with YouTube or there other more side incomes uh  well I mean this like helping people learn English  

that's that's the main that's the only thing I do  yeah I I don't have like a side job or anything  

like that if that's what you mean all right I  I'll very quickly tell my story about uh kind of  

a similar thing here uh but this is me learning  some Korean which I don't remember because I  

didn't get actually a lot of review about it  but uh I was sitting uh in I was in foka Japan  

so that's another city I live in Nagasaki but I  was in foka and I was at a barbecue restaurant  

so a Korean barbecue restaurant and interestingly  they had some uh like posters and things in Korean  

on the wall obviously it's a Korean restaurant  and there are quite a few Korean people in Japan  

or you'll have Korean visitors in Japan uh and  so I saw a poster uh for the movie After Earth

so after Earth this was a Will Smith movie from  I don't know 10 years ago or something I forget  

when it was made uh but it was called After Earth  AF t e r After Earth uh and so I looked at it and  

there was no English on the even the title was  not was not in English it was in Korean or huru  

or whatever you I think huru is if any of my  Korean uh Watchers are watching this video uh  

but anyway I was trying to use the the knowledge  I had to understand some of the Korean to see if I  

could figure out what some of it meant and so the  first thing was I was looking at I'm just going  

to draw some characters up here uh I've actually  not seen the movie so this is just this was a this  

is a a it's a poster uh about the movie but I did  not watch the actual movie so I'm sitting in this  

Korean restaurant I'm waiting for some friends  of mine and I see this poster on the wall and  

I thought oh maybe it's kind of like a puzzle let  me see if I can figure out what some of this means  

and so I I don't remember the huru so I don't or  this is like the the Korean language um but I'm  

just going to draw some characters up here so you  can understand the idea so I was uh like I saw the  

character for it was like this I'm just going  to do like triangle Circle or triangle square  

triangle uh and then there was another one for uh  also like a different character and it was let's  

see we'll just put like plus and then something  else and it was again I'm not writing some actual  

language here but looking at this and this is not  the full thing but I saw basically it looked like  

this it was like triangle square triangle uh and  then it was let's see like plus Circle and then  

maybe we had over here so there was it was two  it looked like names in the same way that you  

would have uh names in uh like on a regular  English movie poster so you have the names of  

the actors at the top of the poster actually have  a video I think there there's a video on YouTube  

where I explain this in more detail I show how it  works uh but then you have the other one it was  

like I don't know like Xs and then it was the same  triangle square triangle thing so instead of these  

little symbols here we had some kind of Korean  um but I couldn't read it but I was looking at  

it and just saying like oh isn't that interesting  so we have the names of two things up here it's  

the same characters these ones are different and  these are the names at the top uh up here like so  

they're at the top of the movie poster now in an a  regular English movie poster this is where we have  

the names of the actors who are in the movie and  the people in After Earth are Will Smith so Will  

Smith and Jaden I'm just going to put Jay here and  Jaden Smith so I thought oh isn't that interesting  

bet this means Smith and because this character  and this character are the same it probably works  

the same way in Japanese so like instead of uh  like they maybe don't have the like th sound  

they have like a sue sound so uh the like the  the Japanese way to say that that would be like  

Sue like me I'm not writing this very carefully  but the point is it would be like su su there's  

no th sound in Japanese like that so uh if we  have like Will Smith and Jaden Smith and I can  

learn oh look at that like this character means  Sue probably that's what I guessed uh and then  

of course in the name of After Earth that same  character like after Earth it looked like this you  

know you know something like that so that was the  actual character and I said oh look at that it's  

the same character and I was able to read some  of the Korean pretty cool all right so this is  

like in if you imagine me taking a class in Korean  and a Korean teacher is just like this character  

means that they're they're basically just telling  me the answer but if I have a way of figuring out  

the answer by myself I'm going to feel a lot more  confident I'm going to own that word now this is  

many years ago and I didn't get any review of this  thing so I forgot what it is but I think like at  

that moment I was like oh look at that like I bet  that works the same way in Korean that it works  

in Japanese all right uh and I think I found that  it did later so it's like suei Sue so that's how  

you would say that name and of course After Earth  it would it has that same Sue character in that  

as well so this is just another example of how  I was able to learn some Korean by myself just  

from like a Korean uh poster Korean movie poster  um and I don't I like I didn't know that that was  

for sure but most of my doubt was uh eliminated  about that particular character so I just thought  

it was a very interesting example of uh number one  how you could learn something as a first language  

but number two when you learn something and you  understand that thing you really feel much more  

confident because you understood that well all  right if I'd give you a riddle or a puzzle or  

some kind of thing to solve you will feel much  more confident about it if you get uh like the  

solution for that thing yourself if you discover  the answer to that so me while I'm teaching up  

here I'm trying to trying to make the language  understandable so that you feel uh very confident  

about about like how the how the language works  all right so again this was like I couldn't I  

couldn't read like everything else there were  many more characters on here uh that that don't  

make sense but I felt confident about that one  thing and was like look at that I figured out  

some Korean and I think I checked later and that  was correct and maybe anybody a Korean I think we  

had somebody that corrected me earlier um but yes  yeah we we do have a Korean learner right now but  

if you write like Will Smith out there you would  you would see what those characters are all right  

uh let's see so Alan says naturally varied review  to me you basically learn your English through  

experience speaking with people read a lot of  books sing karaoke songs in English watch American  

films Etc uh well again like imagine you're in a  conversation with someone you don't become better  

or more fluent by by you speaking because it's  really what the other person says to you that  

helps you understand the language better so you  do have like a maybe you feel a bit more confident  

that you did speak but that's not going to help  you use your vocabulary more fluently only if you  

feel confident first will you use the vocabulary  well so that means you have to understand the  

vocabulary well first so of those examples you  gave like like watching TV shows or whatever like  

basically all of that should be coming from input  rather than you trying to speak that means uh you  

don't need to live in an English-speaking country  you don't even need to have an English speaking  

person right there you just need that input to  become a more confident speaker so just like this  

example here uh there was no Korean person talking  to me during this I just got like oh look at that  

like I figured out what that means all right uh  let's see C thanks for explanation and a bit of  

Japanese lesson but what uh what if something  that we want to know can't be seen well you  

you typically take the language that you already  know and then use that so if I'm trying to explain  

something and I can't explain like I can't show  you what it means I I should and like it would  

be I don't know when you would when you would have  an example like that where you're trying to force  

someone to understand something only by listening  to it it's pretty rare I can't really think of  

anything um but in general we really want to make  sure people understand things and you would be  

able to use like even showing people in a like in  a situation like this so I I can explain things  

to you without giving you like a visual drawing  of it or whatever whatever but I can still give  

you like a mental picture uh often of how things  work and if you understand the basic pieces of  

that you can take those and then uh understand  some of those like some new things like that so  

canero says how did you read Tatiana the same way  as Smith uh yeah like again I'm I'm taking pieces  

of information that I know already and trying to  apply those so it's like I know like some of those  

Cilla characters have the same meaning in English  and I'm trying to guess like what would that mean  

thinking about other examples where I've heard  something like that before so I didn't know for  

sure but I was I guess the Guess was correct um  but that it would that again like the the the the  

moment of discovery that aha moment is the thing  we're like oh look at that something something  

makes sense and I understand a little bit better  C says thanks for sharing the story kle says thank  

you teacher de mat yes see you later and see you  next time all right looks like a good spot to end  

the video but if you joined us late I do recommend  you go back and watch it you will learn more uh  

usually like there actually is value in repetition  but there's only a little bit of value in that  

so if you're watching this video how long is this  like so we've been talking for over a 100 minutes  

now oh my goodness so if you're watching this  video you will uh maybe think about what you're  

going to have for dinner or think about something  else your mind will wander and you will not hear  

some things that I said so so if you go back and  watch it again you will think oh look at that some  

new information so even if you repeat the same  thing a few times it's okay but you will learn  

a lot more by getting uh naturally varied review  uh as opposed to just trying to repeat things by  

yourself all right hopefully that makes sense uh  if you would like to learn more about this you can  

click on the links in the description below this  video you can learn more about fluent for Life uh  

that's where we get you fluent so it's our fault  if you don't get fluent rather than the typical  

way where it's your fault if the teacher told you  and you didn't study all right anyway uh let me  

answer these last questions here you look like a  movie star I think Johnny Clooney I think maybe  

you're combining Johnny Depp and George Clooney  or maybe I look like or you're saying I look like  

a combination of both of them I guess I don't  know or maybe some different Johnny Joseph says  

what do you think about shadowing and a script  scriptorium technique uh is from the polyglot Al  

Ander ar ar arel Aris uh no idea I mean shadowing  is just repeating what other people say basically  

um but I don't know if there's a like u a specific  like fancy technique you have to do all what I'm  

doing when I think about teaching and think about  learning a language is looking at native speakers  

so I I think again about the the the fluency  triangle versus the test prep triangle and I  

just think about what is the result what is my  purpose for Learning and if my purpose is to  

speak like a native I should learn like a native  and if I ask natives like hey are you guys using  

a special technique are you shadowing or doing  whatever they'll be like no we're just you know  

get lots of examples of how of how like you know  um of of how the language works or whatever U but  

that that's basically the idea so I'm just going  to do what natives are doing and I'm trying to  

make that easier for other people to understand  so that's what I'm doing with with these videos  

here so I don't know what uh like what polyglots  are doing uh or what a particular polyglot might  

recommend for something um but often like I'm I'm  more like uh like Henry Ford so Henry Ford uh was  

a like a guy trying to make the automobile the car  available for everybody and that's where I like  

the name English anyone comes from that same idea  of like I'm trying to make a system that anybody  

could use to learn English so it's not about me  becoming like an awesome learner of many languages  

my job is uh it's actually more like entertaining  and important and uh just interesting for me to  

help other people learn the language so uh I'm  sure there are probably some people who are good  

speakers of multiple languages who might not be  able to help other people learn but I don't know  

I mean I I don't really follow polyglots uh but  again I think it's an impressive thing to be able  

to do um but I'm not I don't know maybe there  are good Pol lots that are also really good at  

helping people understand like like a native I  don't know if that's the case or not uh but it  

should be like a very easy thing and and I would  imagine like polyglots are probably doing a lot of  

that same thing even if they don't call it that  specific thing but it's basically just trying  

to understand something like a native um and I  don't I don't really have like a better uh way  

to explain it other than just how you learn is  how you speak uh C says have you taken or you'd  

say you'd say like did you eat breakfast yes  I did AR we got Drew says akan and thanks for  

the lesson shadowing can create muscle memory yes  I'm not saying it's not helpful at all but like a  

lots of people just repeat things and they don't  become confident speakers so again look at the  

purpose of something the result that you get from  a particular method is the important thing for  

me I want to become a confident speaker I want to  be able to express myself fluently to be prepared  

whatever the situation I'm going to meet somebody  for dinner or I see some someone unexpectedly on  

the street can I have a conversation with that  person all right that's what I'm trying to do  

that's my goal uh so I don't care about having a  like knowing a particular phrase for a test all  

right and so I'm looking at different techniques  and I've tried lots of different things over the  

years uh to try to learn but when I thought  about what you really need to communicate it's  

just those three things you need to know the real  vocabulary you need to understand it like a native  

and the naturally varied review is what helps you  do that all right so you will even if you learn  

some good vocabulary you will likely forget it if  you don't get different uh examples of the thing  

but repetition is very boring for people naturally  so it's much better to get varied review all right  

hopefully that makes sense we will shut it down  now but hopefully uh you guys have enjoyed this  

if you have do click that like button and  I will see you in the next video bye-bye