Advanced English Listening Practice - Fluency Training To Speak Automatically

68,429 views ・ 2020-07-06

EnglishAnyone


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi there I'm Drew Badger, the English Fluency Guide, and in this video, I'm going to talk
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about some basic training you can do to help develop your fluency. It should be a fun video.
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I hope you do enjoy it and hopefully it gets you thinking in a different way about how
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to practice and how to develop fluency. Now, fluency, that's what I do, really helping
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people use all of the language they already know and one of the most fun things or the
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most interesting things I like to tell my students is that you can become fluent without
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learning any new words or grammar, because likely if you're watching this, you already
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know a lot, it's just a question of, how do you develop fluency? How do you learn to use
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all these things without having to think about things and translate things in your head?
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And that's what fluent means, it means to communicate automatically and often people
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get stuck, and I'll explain a little bit about why this happens in this video.
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But if you look at little kids, it will remind you of a very important and powerful truth
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about language learning. And that is that the amount of words that you know has no real
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connection to how well you speak. So your level of fluency is not really connected to
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the amount of words you know. Obviously, if you know maybe two words in a different language
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that you're learning, it doesn't really matter how confident you feel, you don't have enough
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words to express yourself. But if you can understand this video, and most of the people
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I help they already have a good level of vocabulary, you should be able to communicate fluently
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if you practice and actually develop fluency, rather than just learning more words. Now,
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we know this is true because you can look at little children, and I have two young daughters
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right now, a four year old and a one year old, and the one year old is already starting
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to speak more. I should get her in a video. Let me know if you want to see Noelle in a
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video too. I'm actually in the studio again. Coronavirus
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is still happening, but now I am back and I can record videos. But we'll see. Maybe
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I will bring them to the studio sometime. So, anyway, if you look at little kids and
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watch how they speak, they're able to communicate and express themselves quite well. Now, they
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might not know a lot, but they're able to take the words that they do know and use them
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very well. So understanding all this, really, the idea of developing fluency is, can you
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just communicate and express yourself without having to stop and think about things? And
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so what I'd like to help you do in this video is just give you some basic training that
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I do, even myself as I'm just trying to think about ways to improve my Japanese or talking
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with my own kids or just helping personal students when I meet them or other students
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like yourself online. So a way to do this, again, because fluency
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is really about making connections, so what happened for many learners in a conversation
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or if they're trying to think of something they're practicing by themselves is they will
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maybe have an idea in their mind, they want to say something, there's a particular expression
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or some situation or something that they want to communicate and they're using or thinking
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of a specific word or phrase to express that thing. And if they don't remember that, then
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their mind just goes blank. Does that ever happen to you? If it does, it's very common.
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And again, the reason it does is because most people are learning through translations.
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And even if you're not doing that now, so it's great that you're watching this video
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because it's all in English, but you've probably spent many years learning through your native
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language and often when you're learning through your native language, you have kind of a one
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to one connection between the native vocabulary and whatever that word is in English. So when
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you want to express something in English, there's usually just one way to express that.
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But if we're going to talk about the same situation, so you've got the situation, and
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then here's the vocabulary you use to describe that. In your native language, maybe you have
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10 ways of expressing that. So maybe you can even take something very basic like snow and
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you could describe that with many different words in your native language, whatever that
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word happens to be. So the idea here is that what you've really developed in your native
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language, the fluency comes from making connections and what you're also doing kind of as a child
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when you're learning is you're making these same kind of connections just in the world
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and then you're learning to make those same connections with language. So I'll talk about
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two basic things that you can do. The first one, makes sure this is coming up here. So
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the first one is connecting words. And then here, we'll get to the second one in a minute.
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But the first one, just talking about connecting words, to develop fluency, all you want to
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do is just take two words, it doesn't matter what they are, you can take words that are
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maybe related or you think they're similar to each other, like we could take cat, I'm
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going to put this here. I almost misspelled the word dog. That's pretty funny. So if we
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take the words, cat and dog, now I want to free associate and try to make as many connections
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between them as I can just to practice speaking. So I could begin with something very simple
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like, cats are scared of dogs. So that's one sentence I could make. And again, this can
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be very simple. Cats are smaller than dogs. Cats don't like dogs. Or I could become much
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longer depending on what my level of ability is. But if you really struggle with expressing
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yourself, you're looking for a way to make a connection between this word and that word
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just to get your mind used to making connections between different things.
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And this is a pretty easy one because cats and dogs, it's kind of a common thing. Maybe
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I have a cat but my neighbor has a dog. Again, it doesn't matter what the situation is, but
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you're just trying to connect both of these words and allow your mind to make that connection.
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So your mind will make a connection between two different things naturally if you just
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allow it to do that. Now, again, this is a basic example where we're taking two things
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that are often related where people, when you think about cats, you kind of naturally
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think about dogs. But maybe we talk about a cat and we think of something a little bit
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more different or less connected, obviously connected like a pencil. You've got that in
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there. So we have, cat and pencil. Now, what you should be doing is thinking, how can I
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come up with a sentence as quickly as that just by looking at this? So, my cat is bigger
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than my pencil. Again, it doesn't matter what the exact sentence
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is, but the point is you're just making connections between just individual words like this and
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seeing if you can make those connections faster, because that's what fluency is. It's enabling
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you to think of different things and make connections between these different things,
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and especially more like the crazier thing is or the more obviously different they seem
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the more training you're getting. So we could have this word be battleship or snow snowstorm
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or something like that. And as you make it a little bit less obvious, you just take some
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random words, this can even be a thing that you do if you have some vocabulary flashcards
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or even you have a dictionary, you open up one page and you look at one word and then
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close the dictionary again and open it up and find a different word, and as quickly
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as you can try to make a sentence about that. It's really very simple and you can begin
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with a one word thing, one word here, and maybe two or three words between them.
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So I like cats and pencils. Very simple. I mean, cat and pencil is even a very basic
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way to connect this. Cat or pencil. Very simple. So whatever your level is, you can and you
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should be able to make some kind of sentence out of that thing. But this will train you
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to develop fluency and this is why I call it basic fluency training. So it's not about
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just knowing these words, it's about, how can I make a connection between these? And
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then you should challenge yourself to try to make something more interesting, try to
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make it longer. So many years ago, I had a cat and he ate one of my pencils and he had
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to go to the hospital. Now, that's not really true, but I'm just making this as an example
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of how I can practice that. So if I'm doing this in Japanese, like similar thing, like…
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So here I am using Japanese when just comparing these two things or figuring out what's a
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way to connect them. A silly story of yesterday, I saw one of those cats that's walking around
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the neighborhood. I tried to give him a pencil to eat, but he didn't want to eat it, basically.
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So again, when you're looking at these, this is just one very simple way. Even as a teacher,
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you can do this in the classroom, just giving people two words and letting them free associate
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to make some sentences about them. So that's a very simple way to do this. The second way
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to do this, and this is what you do in your native language already, is to find alternatives.
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So again, I mentioned at the beginning of this video that we come across a problem when
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we're speaking where we have one way of expressing something and if we can't think of how to
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say that then we're stuck. So you need to train yourself to find different ways. If
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this way doesn't work, we find some other way of saying that.
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So if you think about water, like moving down here, I talk about this in my Speak Like Me
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program, which shows more about how to communicate like a native in the same way that you're
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developing fluency. So what water does, water is very lazy and so water is moving like this.
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Usually, water is just going in a straight line unless there's something in front of
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it like a rock, but then the water will go around that. The water doesn't really get
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stuck unless this is just a really big wall, but over time the water will fill up and then
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overflow that thing. So water is always finding a way to move around something and you need
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to be thinking like that when you're speaking English as well. So if you have to express
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something and you don't know how to say it, try to think about what's a different way
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you can say that thing instead of being worried about not having something to say.
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So there are different ways of doing this. One way could be, you could describe that
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thing. So if I'm talking about an animal, so "Yesterday I saw an alligator." Now, if
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I want to talk about the word alligator but I don't remember the word, so I know I have
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a picture in my mind of an alligator, so this is the situation here but I just don't have
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the vocabulary. I don't remember what that is. So yesterday I saw a ... What's the name
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of that thing? It's like a big lizard, lives in the water, and so I'm just describing that
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thing right now. Usually, the listener, if I give them enough clues, I could use some
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gestures or something like that, people would say, "Ah, you're talking about an alligator."
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And I say, "Ah, oh yes." And natives do this all the time. You probably do this in your
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native language as well, because we often even forget words or some person's name or
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something like that and we have to kind of, like water, move around that thing.
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So what you don't want to do is just freeze and say, "Ah, I don't know how to say that."
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So you practice finding alternatives by just trying to speak for as long as you can in
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the same way that I'm doing right now. Now, I've practiced this for a long time and that's
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why I can continue to speak the way I can. I could probably talk for hours, but maybe
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that would bore you I think so I don't want to talk to them long. But what I'm doing is
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coming up with alternatives, especially I might be saying something and then actually
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make a mistake. I noticed this yesterday when I was saying something to my daughter, I was
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saying something and I noticed I was about to say something incorrect.I used some kind
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of grammar correctly because of how I said it. So I thought in my mind, "Okay, I'm good
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continue talking," but I switched to using the passive voice or something like that.
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I don't remember what exactly the example was, but I recognize them when it's happening.
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And often when you see people who can speak continuously, that's what they're doing. So
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they're thinking a little bit, planning a little bit in their mind what they're saying,
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that's exactly what I'm doing right now. And then, like the water, you let yourself, you
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trust yourself to do that. But part of this comes with just practicing. So you've got
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both of these very simple, basic fluency building techniques. You're connecting words and then
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you're also finding alternative. So if I can't think of a cat, I have to think of, what's
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a different way of describing that? Or if I can't remember some other situation or something,
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how can I find an alternative? What's a different way to do that? But these are what you do
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instead of just freezing and saying nothing. And it's easier if you do these while you're
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just practicing by yourself, especially something like cat, dog, or whatever. And a way to check
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this would be just to, again, you're going to maybe a search engine like Google and you
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just type in both of these words, cat and dog. And after you've maybe taken some time
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to practice that, type in cat and dog and then you will get lots of examples of sentences
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that contain these. And so you can practice, you can check your grammar, you can see, "Oh,
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did I say that correctly?" Or, "What are some other ways I could do it?" I was being interviewed
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recently and talking about this, about how you can even take something as basic as a
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pencil or a pen, or this is a marker here, and I can describe it in many different ways.
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And that's, again, another very simple way to develop fluency. It's not about learning
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new words all the time. It's about taking the words that you do know and learning to
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make connections between all these things so when you're in a conversation you can speak
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without hesitating. Does that make sense? All right. Well, I don't want to talk too
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much about that, but this is really simple, basic stuff, but a lot of people don't think
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about it because most teachers are focusing on, how can we teach more when you don't really
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know how to use the words you already know fluently. Does that make sense? It doesn't
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really make sense. So that's why, again, even with a very small vocabulary, you can learn
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how to speak fluently about those things or with that vocabulary rather than worrying
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about trying to learn lots of words that you can't use. So improve your fluency, and that
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will make you feel more confident. It will help you just enjoy conversations more, understand
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more native speakers, and really you will just develop much faster because it's a skill
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that builds on itself. Hopefully, you've enjoyed that. If you have,
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let me know. Click the like button and also be sure to share this video with other people
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who also struggle. Maybe they know a lot of vocabulary but they can't quite communicate
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fluently. This is part of the way you develop it and this is exactly what kids do. Just
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talking with my daughter today and she was saying, "This thing looks like that thing."
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Again, this cat looks like a dog. Again, it doesn't matter if it's true, but you're using
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the language in a fluent way. That's the key. All right, well, if you have enjoyed this,
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do can do click that like button, subscribe, click the bell icon. And if you'd like to
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learn more about this, this is what I do in premium programs like the Fluency Course,
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Fluent For Life, and you can click on the link in the upper right of this video to learn
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more about that. And if you'd like to continue learning with me right here on YouTube, just
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do these three simple things right now: 1. Click on this link to subscribe to my YouTube
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