It's On The Tip Of My Tongue - Speak English Fluently - Advanced English Listening Practice - 82

hi there I'm drew badger the world's

number one english fluency guide and it

is a pleasure to welcome you to another

advanced listening practice lesson in

today's episode what I'd like to talk

about is what to say really when you get

kind of tongue-tied or you lose your

words and so we'll talk kind of about

why this happens because we get lots of

new students coming to the channel and

we often get the same questions over and

over again so i have to kind of go back

and welcome people again with the later

or kind of recent video so if you're new

to the channel hello and welcome

this should be a very interesting video

which we'll explain why you have

problems sometimes expressing yourself

trying to organize your thoughts in your

head and then what you can do about that

so going back to the very beginning and

we like to talk about the root of things

on this channel we don't want to just

give you some tips about how to remember

the language we want you to understand

why you have the problems in the first

place so that you can you know solve

those problems and then start learning

the way you should be learning so let's

go back to the beginning of when you

were starting to learn English versus

when you were learning your own native

language this is kind of a long

explanation so i'll keep it very short

and simple

the main point of the main idea is that

you have the native way of learning

something and the way of learning

something as a student one of these

lessons or the way of learning as a

native speaker is complete it gives you

the written and spoken language it gives

you the grammar and everything else you

need but it's taught in a native way

without having to focus on rules

individually so this is why native

speakers learn to use things

automatically because they're learning

things as their understanding it in the

real world as opposed to what a student

would be doing where they're learning

maybe just enough so they can read write

and listen so they can pass a particular

test but they're not really becoming

good speakers but in doing that they're

often learning English through their own

language and this is what contributes to

them having to think and translate in

their head before they speak so these

problems are created by the way you

learn and when people think about okay

we should be learning like native

English speakers it makes sense after

you understand i like I am learning

English and I know another language

already so just think back to the

different ways that you learned

the native language that you speak your

own language in the English language

that you're learning with these videos

so the two different ways of learning

produce two different kinds of habits

and now you speak your native language

without thinking about it but you

struggle when you have to speak English

and this problem of having to organize

sentences in your head there are

different reasons why this happens one

of them is because it's a pronunciation

problem where you're thinking about i

want to express something in a

particular way but when you say it it

doesn't quite sound right so you have to

try to say it in a different way just to

make sure your understood it could also

be a grammar problem again you're

thinking like if I'm trying to speak

Japanese and then I think of a sentence

in my head first in English I organized

the grammar then i have to translate in

that hit in my head before I speak into

japanese i reorganize the sentence and

then I try to say it but when i speak

it's like I and its really slow and it

comes out that sound like an idiot when

I'm trying to speak as opposed to like a

confident speaker like and when I'm

speaking English so now I speak Japanese

fluently even though there are some

words actually many words in fact i

don't know but i have plenty of

confidence to get into any conversation

with anyone at anytime and start

speaking so the way you can get to that

and where will kind of talk about that

later but the very specific problem want

to address in this video is what happens

when you're in that situation in a

conversation and maybe you want to

express something but you don't know

exactly how to say it so I just wanted

to focus on one expression that you can

use that helps you sound more native at

that time in the conversation but also

can get the other person that kind of

help you explain something and this

phrase is it's on the tip of my tongue

it's on the tip of my tongue so the tip

of my tongue means there's something I

want to say but i just don't know how to

express it or there's something I want

to say but i don't remember the word and

this is a problem that happens to

everyone

people speaking their own native

language will often forget a word for

something or maybe like in my case if

I'm living in Japan for a long time I

may forget on english word or it maybe

doesn't come to me as quickly as when it

did you know like when i was living in a

mirror

so I it doesn't really happen so often

but in general people will have problems

even in their own language trying to

remember a particular word and when that

happens native speakers say I what was

that word again it's on the tip of my

tongue so you can see it's on the tip of

my tongue or what was that word again or

what was I trying to say what was I

trying to say

so it's like when people are thinking in

a conversation itself typically even if

you're speaking your own native language

you will be maybe trying to think about

an idea or a general idea even though

you don't figure out exactly what you

want to say before you say it sometimes

you do it's a different process when

you're speaking then when you're writing

and it happens much more quickly but

it's the same kind of idea where you

will think about something in at least a

general way and then say it

so that's what I'm doing when I'm having

these videos right now so I have kind of

a general idea i don't have exactly what

I'm thinking it's not like I have like

my thought in my head about what exactly

I'm going to say and then I say it out

loud i have just a general idea of where

I'm going and then I let I'm kind of

letting that idea pull the words out of

my mouth now you train yourself to do

this again when just speaking and I've

talked about this before on the channel

when you're just describing a particular

item so I like to explain like the kind

of typical thing is this is a pan and I

was just thinking about this recently

because when i was at the pool doing and

doing some exercises one of the staff

members walked up to me and he said hey

have you seen that new pineapple pin

video and I didn't know what he was

talking about he was it's like you know

really famous on YouTube and it's like a

Japanese guys so they were asking us and

I saw it actually on the regular news in

the evening this guy on the news about

pineapple pen and I just you know I

don't get it if you like that video

that's fantastic apparently it's like

number one on the charts for music or

something like that right now here in

Japan which is really weird but you know

it's one of those i'm sure a

flash-in-the-pan a one-hit wonder

these are two great phrases you can use

to describe something that appears

quickly and then goes away so a

flash-in-the-pan like when you're

cooking you get a quick flash it's very

bright everyone notices it but it goes

away quickly or you can say one

hit wonder this is typically something

you would use when you're talking about

like a music artist or a group that

produces one song that's really popular

and then they don't produce anything

else after that so they had one hit one

great song there a one-hit wonder

anyway getting back to what I was

talking about when you get into these

situations where you're trying to think

about what you want to say but you don't

quite know you can see out what was it

what was it I wanted to say what was it

I was trying to say or it's on the tip

of my tongue

it's on the tip of my time and if you

prepare these kinds of phrases before

the actual conversation happens you're

ready for them when you want to speak as

an example so the equivalent thing in

Japanese like how do you say this or

something and you can say that when you

actually don't know what an expression

means or I guess what a word is you're

trying to think of a word or you're

asking someone hey what is this object

or what do you call this but you can

also use it as like I what was I

thinking and this is just the Japanese

expression like 90 you know 90 know like

how do you say it or what do you say

what do you call this so i can't think

of what i want to say and when I was

just learning Japanese this is one of

the first phrases i learned because i

wanted to have something to say when I

didn't know what to say

so again you're you're using something

to indicate to someone that you're

trying to say something but also in a

native way that indicates that person

that you're not just like a stupid

person you know like I thought I was so

if I just sit there uh uh it's much

different than if i say on what was I

trying to say was I trying to say what

was I going to say what was I gonna say

so going to becomes gonna what was I

going to say or you can even ask for

help to say what what do you call like

something like this so what do you call

and that's the same thing in Japanese

like 90 no no this isn't a japanese

lesson but the idea here is that I'm

trying to learn a particular phrase so

that i can use that in conversations

when my dad Manny's is particularly weak

and I don't really know how to express

anything so you have to develop number

one the ability to just talk about

things in and kind of make a crystal

clear idea of what you want to say and

then let that pull the words out of you

but you do this by practicing with

really basic things like this

is a bottle the bottle is blue i have a

bottle do you have a bottle and again

I'm it sounds like really basic stuff

but you're taking the same basic

sentence structures that you would have

been even longer or more difficult

conversations but everybody is still

using the same grammar so and this but

that so this other thing now doesn't

matter how long the sentences are you

still training yourself to be able to

formulate sentences and then paragraphs

and whole story's so that you can

actually express yourself confidently so

think about this when you're in a

conversation and you don't quite know

what to say and you can just say up like

what did I want to say or what was I

going to say what was I going to say so

it's almost like you're wanting to say

something but you kind of forgot about

what it was this is more v what was I

going to say what was I going to say

what was I going to say kind of

expression or you can say is it's on the

tip of my tongue when you know what you

want to say but you just don't have the

right words to express it but these

kinds of sentences these kinds of

expressions are things you can use when

you're just having a conversation with

someone again you don't know what to say

but it will help you sound much more

native and build your confidence

try these in your conversations and let

me know what happens in the comments

section down below enjoy this video go

back and review it just so you can

practice with me the way these things

sound what was I going to say what was I

going to say what was I going to say

what was I going to say it's on the tip

of my tongue

what's the name of that it's on the tip

of my tongue

I zoo so i was trying to go to the zoo I

was trying to think of the words do but

i forgot it was on the tip of my tongue

it was on the tip of my tongue

yeah anyway if you have enjoyed this

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look forward to seeing you in the next

video bye bye

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