If You Know English But Can't Speak, You're Stuck HERE - The 3 Stages Of Fluency

all right let's see if we get this working I  don't have my uh my usual clip over here for  

recording for so hopefully I get this straight  anything on me all right let's see if I can  

organize this a little bit all right let me know  how everybody is doing out there where you're from  

if we have any questions we'll see if we can get  this make sure that it doesn't fall down over here  

all right that looks okay okay  

it's not going to be baked unfortunately  but that's that's part of part of life  

anyway all right let's see if that works it's a  little bit crooked but yeah all right well I am  

Drew Badger the founder of englishany1.com and uh  in this video we're going to talk about the three  

stages of fluency and why most people get stuck  and where most people get stuck so I'll try to  

keep this video short as usual I've been doing  these lately where I have maybe the first 15  

minutes or so of the video I'm talking about the  kind of lesson or topic and then if you have any  

questions we can cover those as well so let's get  right into it uh well Dan says Happy Chinese New  

Year yes I think we have uh so here in Nagasaki  where I live we will be having the uh Lantern  

Festival very soon see if I can move this over  actually yeah it's pretty good this isn't going  

to be perfect but it should be okay all right  uh so we're going to talk about the three stages

of fluency

so if you're at my channel if you're watching  my videos it's because you want to improve your  

English you already know a lot of English but you  want to speak fluently so that's what we're going  

to talk about we usually talk about this but I  want to get I thought this was a really great  

explanation of it I did this video on Instagram  uh last week I think and people really enjoyed  

it so I thought I would do it here as well  all right so we're going to start very simply  

I'm going to cover at first the three  stages of fluency and then I'll talk  

about what this means and how it kind of uh  really changes the way people think about  

learning so number one uh it's going to be  very simple we're just talking about exposure

now to expose to be exposed to something means  like if I'm outside and I'm getting exposed to  

the sun I'm not covered there's nothing  blocking me something like that so if I  

have a little person here uh and here's the Sun  so the sun is hitting me I'm exposed to the Sun  

but if I put some some sunscreen on my face or  I'm I have a wall or something like that that's  

blocking this now I am not exposed so the basic  idea of exposure means that you're hearing the  

language you're understanding something maybe  read it but at a very a very low simple level  

maybe you don't even understand it's not  even conscious um someone asked me what is  

my Instagram account it's the same name English  anyone so being again exposed means that you're  

getting access or some kind of information  is coming to you you could be talking with a  

friend and maybe you hear something else but it's  not even conscious so the very basic level really  

going from zero to one over here is just hearing  that information getting it somehow you could be  

reading it or hearing it in some way alright so  that's exposure so the second level is awareness

and to be aware of something means you're  now conscious of it and you understand  

okay I'm hearing something I can recognize that  information you can recognize that information

and this is actually uh it's very very simple  I'll talk about the third step in just a moment  

uh but awareness is where most people get  stuck so they understand a lot of English  

certainly the people I help they understand  a lot of English they know a lot of English  

they can watch these videos of me talking uh  it's nice and clear you can understand you  

can follow what I'm saying but trying to get  to the third level up here which is ownership

ownership now I call it ownership uh because you  really feel in control of the language this is  

not about uh like only only recognizing it or  understanding the language this is really where  

you're at the level where you feel very confident  because you know the language so well now I'll  

cover these a bit more in detail if people would  like to know more but I think it will be easier  

if I compare two different Learners and explain a  few different things about this so if you have any  

questions let me know I'll keep my eye on the chat  so if we can imagine two different Learners over  

here uh we'll call this the ESL student so that's  English as a second language this is how most  

people are learning English and that just means  they're learning English through their native  

language okay so English as a second language and  then we have a native speaker or someone who the  

way I teach I teach English as a first language so  e f l meaning English as a first language now what  

does that mean it means you're learning everything  all in English you understand everything in  

English and we're not trying to teach you through  your your first language or your native language  

so you want to understand everything directly  and yes this is possible to do it's very easy  

to do when you stop trying to translate and and  really it's just basically bad lessons that stop  

people from understanding like a native so if we  look at exposure for the ESL student usually this  

means you're getting some kind of translation or  a definition or a word list or we will explain a  

grammar rule something like that the traditional  typical kind of lessons you would get in an  

English classroom but an efl student is really  just trying to get very basic simple information  

for their level so as long as they can understand  something all in English then they're learning it  

all in English and it's understandable but again  exposure if we're just going to start from from  

absolute zero so you don't know anything at all  we imagine some new word or phrase that you're  

learning you've not heard this at all and then as  soon as you hear it for the first time this is the  

exposure level so you've just you've come into  contact you've heard that thing somewhere you're  

being exposed to the language now as you hear that  a few times you'll learn something maybe you'll  

hear it again from different people or you're  trying to study it more in an ESL classroom  

or that kind of studying environment you develop  awareness awareness and I think this is a little  

bit easier if I give you an example this is my  bottle of water over here and I want you to take  

a look up here so these are uh kanji so these are  the borrowed Chinese characters that make up this  

is a one-third actually of the of the written  language of Japanese so it's kind of a you know  

it's a little bit trickier than something like  English for the written part English is a little  

bit trickier for the for for different reasons  but just looking at like this character right here  

now if you look at that you've just been exposed  to some Japanese if you've never seen that or you  

don't know Japanese you've probably seen some  Chinese characters or Japanese or Korean or  

anything like even even characters in a different  language you've probably seen them before but  

this doesn't mean it's it's like clear and easy  for you to understand all right so usually what  

happens is because the language is not is not  easy to understand for people they're learning  

it as a second language and it really makes it  just easier if they use translations and we're  

trying to understand something but looking at this  character just this one right here if I asked you  

to draw that character you probably wouldn't be  able to do it very well this is a very stylized  

way of looking at this and it's just like okay  like what is that what does that character even  

mean what is that supposed to look like I'll draw  it for you up here just so you can compare the  

difference between these two things but usually  when when young children are learning Japanese  

they're not beginning with something like this  they get exposed to something like this because  

they might see this bottle somewhere or you know  their parents might have something like that but  

the actual character is this now it looks pretty  simple and when you look at it like this it's a  

lot more clear than looking at something like  that so you can compare like this one over here  

with this one over here and again that's a  stylized version of the character uh but when  

you're going from exposure to awareness like  ah okay now we we have a better idea of what  

that character means all right so at each stage  of learning we're learning a little bit more  

but where we get the this this step right here  moving from awareness to ownership this is where  

most people get stuck uh and and most people it's  because they don't really understand something  

well enough to use it fluently all right this  is it's a little bit tricky to explain but it's  

easier if I if I just give you another example so  let's say you're a like a native English-speaking  

child and you're learning you're learning English  for the first time and you hear the word run so  

we begin with uh from zero to one we we learn  the word one I'll put this in the efl because  

we're learning English as a first language this is  just a simple example for you so we begin with the  

word run and when we go from zero to exposure  maybe you hear it somewhere or you you see it  

written somewhere it doesn't matter but you've  you've been exposed to the language so that's the  

first thing uh and so you've learned the word run  you've heard it maybe you don't quite understand  

it but as soon as you you have that level of  awareness where you think ah okay I made the  

connection between the word run so the sound and  the the physical action of somebody running okay  

so we begin with somebody running we have the  awareness level where we we get recognition we  

understand something ah okay when when someone  says run I understand what they're talking about  

but you really get to the ownership level run is  a is a simple example but you get to the ownership  

level of that when you start getting more examples  of run so you might have water that's running so  

if I turn on the faucet in my room and I have  water coming through that and the child hears  

oh the water is running or they hear the toilet  is running the toilet is running so the toilet  

maybe like it's it's not stopping properly you  flush the toilet and the water continues to flow  

through it we say the toilet is running the toilet  is running and so the child thinks wait a minute  

the toilet isn't like it's not running anywhere  it's not physically going and so they've they've  

broadened and deepened their understanding of  the word run all right and so as they hear this  

more and more it's it's at first down here just  something they hear some words maybe they don't  

understand exactly what it means then we move  to awareness where they have out okay they  

understand it's it's kind of like motion maybe I'm  running with my legs or something like that that  

and then we go to the ownership level where  they start hearing more and more examples of  

that thing and that's where they really feel  confident and comfortable using the word okay  

so I hear like the toilet is running or the water  is running the river is running or I might hear  

a machine like an engine is running so  something like a fan is running so all  

those examples we get ah it's it's a much deeper  understanding of the word run rather than just uh  

hearing one word and trying to get a translation  of it from a different of a different language  

all right so it's much different like if I were  to translate this into Japanese as like a basic  

example it would just be like kashiru to run  all right but that's only like you know if I'm  

thinking okay let me run with my feet and I want  to understand that but I'm not really going deeper  

into the Japanese language of understanding  like that particular verb uh or if there are  

other connections with other words or other  deeper meanings so usually what happens with  

Learners is they will hear something one time  or they will hear it maybe like a few times but  

they never really get to that ownership level  because they never really feel confident about  

the definition or the understanding of a word  all right so looking at this basic example I'll  

I'll check back uh comments in just a moment  but I wanted to explain three quick things  

about this all right so very simply you'll  notice that this is all about understanding  

and confidence all right so this whole process  here as we move up we're increasing in confidence

and understanding

pardon my sloppy writing here but the point here  is that we as we go from zero to three and it's  

really that simple so we can go from zero to  exposure to awareness to ownership actually very  

quickly depending on how well you learn something  so if you learn something and you understand it  

very well you can move to ownership that's  where you get that what I call the AHA moment

where you feel like you really know  something very well aha I got it okay  

and so as you as you work through these what  we're really trying to do is improve your  

understanding and build your confidence  and there's nothing here about speech  

okay isn't that interesting so we're not talking  about speaking at all there's nothing where you're  

trying to repeat uh phrases or or say something  or be in a conversation where you need to Shadow  

or repeat back or anything like that the whole  point is that you become a good speaker as you're  

understanding improves and if you don't get to  the ownership level this is where you you get  

stuck just listening to people you can probably  watch me or some Ted Talk videos or or even some  

movies but you'll struggle in a conversation  because you never really feel 100 confident  

about the vocabulary that you know and this could  be vocabulary or grammar or pronunciation all of  

these different things are connected so the  point is not to try to repeat something again  

and again until you understand it you don't  develop further understanding just by repeating  

something you need to get further uh examples  of something and different examples until you  

really get a strong understanding of something  so this is where you need naturally varied review

again pardon my writing I'm trying to go through  this very quickly here so we're about 15 minutes  

in so again we go from zero to one exposure one  to two is awareness where we can recognize things  

it's not like we just heard something we can  actually recognize that like oh yeah I know that  

but can you write it so if I cover it up and  I say hey can you write that kanji again you  

would probably not be able to do that so you're  not at the level of ownership yet all right  

so naturally varied review is where we're getting  lots of different examples and we're really trying  

to understand something like this okay so we  really want to get you to the ownership level and  

I really want to make this point very clear that  this is not about speaking practice fluency is not  

about speaking practice it's about how well you  understand the language and when you get to the  

ownership level that's where you really understand  okay so the first thing is about confidence and  

understanding the second thing next thing that's  very very important about this is that this is a a  

thing that develops word by word so as you improve  your understanding uh or your confidence by by  

going through these three steps these are things  that you do word by word so you don't get fluent  

in the whole language you get fluent in individual  words and phrases uh as your as you're learning  

okay so you're going through uh and improving your  understanding of words and phrases so I I want I  

want to make clear that when people think about  getting fluent in English what they really mean is  

that they're they're getting fluent in uh in some  words and phrases all right so you might be let's  

say you have like 10 10 words in your vocabulary  like a very simple vocabulary you have 10 words  

and you might have a different level of fluency  for each one of those words so some things that  

you talk about often maybe you have ownership of  that so you've got ownership of this and this word  

and this word but maybe you've only heard this one  one time you only have like exposure level to this  

one and this one and maybe just like awareness  level like you could recognize some words but you  

can't use them you don't feel confident about  their pronunciation uh or something like that  

all right but the point is you don't get fluent  in the language you get fluent in individual words  

and phrases as you learn them and the the goal  here is not to hear something or to translate it  

as a second language really the point is to get  as a first language going through these steps  

all right so we've got the first thing confidence  and understanding the second thing is that you're  

going through each one of these about particular  words and phrases so it's not about learning uh  

the whole language you want to get fluent in  particular words and phrases and grammar and  

pronunciation like that and hopefully this is this  is making sense I I it sounds like a complicated  

idea but really the the main point is that this  is about understanding the language really well  

so people who know the language really well can  speak the language really well all right so if  

you go through these different steps uh this is  how you will actually become a fluent speaker very  

quickly all right let me take a moment here go  back and see if I missed anything uh uh let's see

okay all right I'll go go back through the  the comments in a second uh the last thing  

I'll mention about this uh is that you can  actually go through these steps very quickly  

so you could potentially get fluent in some words  or phrases as you learn them in like one minute  

so you could go from zero so not hearing  something ever before going from zero to  

ownership of the language in one minute if you  heard something and understood it very quickly  

all right so the reason most people get stuck  is they're they're getting exposure at the kind  

of ESL level where they're learning something  and they're not really understanding it very  

well because they're learning it through their  native language they're getting translations  

and definitions and even if they are learning it  in English they don't really understand it like  

a native understands the language so the point is  to move up through these different phases or these  

steps and that's how we get to fluency all right  now I want to make sure everybody understands  

this so let me go back I can check comments  looks like we got quite a few of them here  

all right so let's see what about uh what's  about a similar method I don't know what that  

is what is your okay I answered that already  hi from Brazil my level of understanding drops  

down when the sound is too low however when  it's louder I can understand much better do  

you think this is an issue well that's just a  hearing issue Roger that's not about I mean I  

I'm guessing it's it's a hearing issue I mean  even if I uh if I can't hear somebody clearly  

then in the same way if I'm learning Japanese  and I don't hear something clearly then I'm not  

going to understand it so that's where we go like  this process can take a long time for individual  

words and phrases if you don't really understand  something so an example I think I gave in the uh  

that Instagram video is there is a a toilet near  my house at the train station so there's a train  

station near my house and when I go in there I  hear an announcement for the toilet I understand  

what the what the announcement is saying it's like  hey here's a tool toilet anybody can use it but  

I couldn't quite hear some of the language so I  was stuck at like exposure but I didn't I didn't  

get to the understanding part of of that where  it's like I actually understand and hear what  

they're saying uh and so I just asked my wife I  said hey like what what are they saying and she  

said oh they're saying this and then I could hear  it clearly and now ah okay I can I can move up to  

the ownership level where I'm getting that like  hearing that phrase or that word again and again  

in different ways and now I feel confident using  it but again I could be stuck at this level here  

like I'm getting exposed to something for like  five months or two years but I don't actually  

understand what what it's saying like well enough  to get kind of awareness of it and I certainly  

don't have ownership of that where I could use it  myself but again the point here is that you could  

go from zero to exposure to awareness to uh to  ownership in in a few minutes or less depending  

on how well you learn all right but you move  through this process much faster if you're  

learning English as a first language rather than  learning English as a second language all right  

but yeah you have to make sure you can hear  and understand what uh what people are saying

uh right next question I live in Canada and my  accent is an issue for me I am from Mexico I  

learned the most when I got the native Canadian  friend yeah so again when you get someone who is  

able to give you lots of input you're going to  improve a lot more when you understand something  

and you're again you're getting naturally varied  review from people so you're not hearing something  

just one time you're hearing something again and  again and usually in different ways from different  

people so that's the same way native learning this  is how again you should be learning English as a  

first language rather than a second language all  right looks like people just uh talking with each  

other good to see that just keep practicing on  your accent okay all right make sure that man I  

just love English but I spent more time practicing  listening than speaking I'm going to change that  

no no no the point is to actually understand  so I I don't practice I don't spend time like  

practicing my Japanese by speaking it I practice  my Japanese by getting many many more examples  

okay this is a big difference in how people learn  the reason people think that they need to have  

lots of speaking practice when they're when  they're learning is because they don't really  

understand what they're saying I know it sounds  weird but if you don't really understand something  

you you feel like you have to just keep repeating  it again and again uh until until you you somehow  

get fluent but that's not really how fluency  works it's just it's just repeating something  

and and continuing to get awareness but you get  fluency you get ownership so ownership is just  

my word for fluency because it's a it's an easier  way to understand that you really feel confident  

using something all right so there's nothing about  this process that that means you need to speak in  

order to get fluent all right I know that this  it's like the opposite of everything you hear  

from from pretty much every teacher they will say  well you got to speak to get fluent but if you if  

you're at these stages if you get exposure but  you don't really understand what you're saying  

like sometimes even in your native language  maybe you will hear a song on the radio and  

you think the song is saying one thing but it's  actually not saying that and so you might repeat  

that but you're saying the wrong thing and this  happens to English speakers as well so some new  

English song like even some you know something  you know some common songs that people don't  

know the actual lyrics to those songs but once you  understand what it is you move to ownership when  

you really feel confident about using that all  right please could you say that again thanks all  

right hopefully let me let me go back uh let me  go back and make sure these are under these are  

these are clear but again I want I want to make  it clear for everybody that if you just try to  

expose yourself to more English that's not going  to get you fluent all right just being exposed to  

the language is not going to make you a fluent  speaker you need to be exposed to it enough to  

get to the ownership level of fluency that's where  you really feel confident about using the language  

all right lots of good questions coming up  here let's see let's see let's see let's see  

um uh all right I see now let's see the chat and  the chat like Scrolls back on me okay here we go  

all right let's see here so I'm gonna I'm  gonna try to hold the chat here make sure  

it doesn't scroll past me I think I am speaking  too fast people told me to speak slowly ah well  

if you're again if you can understand people and  they can understand you maybe some people might  

think you're speaking quickly but that's probably  a good thing if you can use the language correctly  

and you're speaking well but uh often you know  some people speak quickly especially in in bigger  

cities people will speak faster I worry more about  my pronunciation than my accent my accent is my ID  

but pronunciation is absolutely important uh Roger  real yes that's correct so you will have lots of  

different accents in the same way that people  even in the United States have different accents  

and you might hear people with a different dialect  from Georgia or Chicago where I'm from or New York  

or Boston but the accent and the pronunciation  you're correct are two different things and so  

if you want to be again getting to this uh this  highest level up here uh this is where you you've  

heard something from so many different people  that you really feel confident about how to  

pronounce it all right so your pronunciation in  your native language is really the it's just the  

influence of all the different people in your life  so your parents or friends or other people in your  

community uh and as you hear all those examples  that's where you develop your own unique way of  

speaking so you have an accent that's similar to  those other people but it's because you've heard  

all those different examples all right uh let's  see so I recommend an app called Duolingo yeah I  

I'm actually not a fan of Duolingo um the reason  I'm not is like the basic idea of trying to trying  

to learn through uh anything other than learning  as a first language I think is a waste of time for  

people who want to speak there are lots of ways  to learn English but if you actually want to speak  

English as a first language is a way to do it so  I used to speak very fast too yeah so if you if  

if you find you're making mistakes because you  speak quickly then you should slow down I can't  

understand uh local British is Russell people here  in the UK though I completely understand you even  

you have an American accent strange I always  listen to them but it's very difficult to catch  

them uh so I'm I'm being intentionally easier to  understand so I really want to make it clear I  

want to get people like from exposure to awareness  very quickly so I'm always trying to speak more  

quickly or not necessarily quickly but I want to  speak clearly to make sure people can follow me  

pardon me as we get another siren coming this  way but when you move through these different  

steps the point is to understand as easily  as possible and so usually what I do like for  

the lessons especially in fluent for life if you  only listen to me you will not get to the fluent  

level because you need really exposure to lots of  different native speakers you can't only listen  

to One easy to understand teacher you need to get  to the level where the the real speakers are at so  

Regular People speaking in the UK they're going  to be speaking faster they've got conversational  

speech they're going to have accents that are  different or difficult to understand so that's  

why it's easier to understand me in these kinds  of lessons but what I do is I help people work  

through these stages in fluent for life so we  want to get people to understand but not just  

understand teachers we want you to understand  natives as well it's just a matter of time  

when you put effort into it like I said just  keep practicing and listen as much as you can  

uh uh okay so Jonathan says that yes  again like there I wanna I wanna be very  

be very clear for people that the the point is not  just to like do something a lot if you're if it's  

not working for you don't do more of it and don't  don't think like well we gotta just continue doing  

more of this thing that's not really working  the point is actually to be very efficient  

with your language learning uh and this means  you're going through something without wasting  

a lot of time so me with that toilet example  I gave before uh when you're you're learning  

something and you don't understand it very well  or you're trying to repeat something but you're  

not pronouncing it uh quickly or correctly then  there's no point in in trying to go through that  

um go through that go through that process so  don't just repeat doing something because like  

practice makes perfect or whatever it's it's  when you you have to understand something and  

the understanding is much faster uh if you  have like you know good teaching and you can  

go through something and really understand  the process uh let's see all right so did I

I don't know all right so someone so molode  

what about the SML I don't I don't know what that  what that is you keep posting that comment though

basically for for learning any language there  is only learning as a first language that's it  

I mean that's that's if you want to speak that's  it that's the that's the only thing you have to do  

and what's great about it is it's really just  about understanding it's not about you trying  

to repeat anything or speak after people it's  just how well you understand the language and  

as you work up through these different phases  once you get to ownership speaking comes out  

automatically so you don't have to sit and try to  repeat phrases in your car or anything like that  

uh yeah so if you're if you're trying to learn  languages with the book you're you're probably  

wasting your time uh you need to hear it's  just like you don't give a book to young  

children to learn the language you help them  understand the language that's how it works  

uh let's see nice to have you live again yeah I've  been doing these lives lately I think people don't  

get notified though I don't know why YouTube  isn't telling people I have no idea but the  

usually about weekly so if you check my YouTube  channel look at the live videos you will see more  

of those recently Adrian says I got a job three  months ago in a call center in English and after  

one month I quit and I am feeling that I am losing  some skills and now I'm afraid to apply again to  

the same place or other places so Adrian I would  focus on understanding and again you can you  

can tell exactly where you where you are on this  scale for for any particular words or phrases and  

if you don't understand what people are saying  it's very difficult to just join a call center  

and and be really good at communicating so  it takes a it takes a while unless you have  

really good teaching to make sure you understand  the vocabulary and you can use it fluently but  

the goal is uh remember that individual words and  phrases you might be good at some things you might  

have ownership of some words and phrases like you  can use them very well but others you cannot all  

right Rogero says you're welcome all right let's  see here and something happens to me something I  

have to use headphones to understand better movies  or short videos when I don't use headphones I tend  

to fail in listening a little bit yeah it just  means it's easier for you to easier for you to  

hear and understand so we're going from exposure  to awareness there uh please can you say again  

one is two is three is thanks I'll go I'll go  over a review after I go through these I can  

understand very well but I get stuck when I speak  why it's like forget vocabularies and stress how  

to overcome it that's this so you're you're stuck  at this level this is where most people get stuck  

they get stuck at the awareness level of speaking  so they can understand people but they haven't had  

enough naturally varied review I want to highlight  this because it's so important naturally varied  

review the point when you're when you're learning  a language is not to learn a word or phrase and  

repeat it a bunch of times that's not how you get  fluent you get fluent by learning a situation like  

what people say in a situation and then you  hear lots of different examples of that thing  

so you want to hear not just me say something  you want to hear other natives say the same  

thing and and hear other things that people  might say so if I'm if I'm really hot I could  

say man it's crazy hot over here it's crazy  hot or I can say oh it's hotter than hell  

or I could say oh it's like uh it's just  like extremely hot so there are different  

ways I can say that and if you're only trying to  learn one way of saying something then you will  

not understand when natives are communicating in  real conversations all right so it's a completely  

different way the ESL way will help you learn  some things but it will get you stuck at the  

awareness level you really need to have the uh the  English as a first language approach that's where  

you're really starting to understand and that's  where you get to the ownership level all right

uh okay so thank you uh but do you still need  your wife to go to ownership but you still need  

your wife to go to ownership no that's not true my  wife actually is like she's a pretty bad teacher  

so she's not very good at explaining you know  some things to me even in Japanese if I need  

an explanation uh and like occasionally I will  ask her but she will usually say I'm busy like  

you know she's she's got two kids to take care of  and so this is not about like me like the secret  

ingredient is my wife or anything I got fluent  uh even before I met my wife so I was learning  

things again getting fluent in individual words  and phrases uh even before I met her uh and so  

it's nice if you can have someone to teach but a  lot of people can be married I know plenty of uh  

foreign men out here who are married to Japanese  women and they still can't speak so even after  

many years it's not about having a Japanese  boyfriend or girlfriend or in your case like  

an English-speaking girlfriend or boyfriend  or whatever the point is can you understand  

the language or not that's really it all right uh  let's see so awesome class uh let my leg glad to  

hear it thank you Rogero don't forget to hit  the like button yes yeah I don't know why uh  

uh yeah YouTube doesn't doesn't like send my  videos out so very few people see them I guess  

I'm not that for for learning English on YouTube  this is like a very I don't know it's like a a  

smaller number of people who are interested  in this kind of information most people just  

want to hear more words and phrases at the  awareness level but then they they get stuck  

so my video uh is for people who have already  tried to learn like a bunch of words and phrases  

on YouTube but they still can't speak that's  because they're at the awareness level usually  

they forget things and they can kind of hear them  they can recognize them in uh in a conversation or  

a movie but they don't feel comfortable like  really understanding that uh so isila says  

at the beginning it was very hard for me to read  books now after four books I lost the I mean you  

lost the fear I can read faster and put my ideas  yes so again like you're still getting naturally  

varied review as you continue to go through  different books uh Hazel says good evening  

teacher rogerio good for I don't know if that's  somebody who is if rogerio is a teacher also  

I'm from Brazil and I really like your classes  thank you so much for teaching us uh let's see

all right all right you're pretty close to fluency  then just keep practicing and get involved with  

native speakers as much as possible yeah I  like to be very specific and give like really  

specific advice to people about how to learn  because if you just say like keep practicing  

or like spend time with natives it's like it's  not it's not really a specific enough you know  

really good point that someone could learn  like okay what's a specific thing I can do  

to do this and so the specific thing is really  moving up through these and getting many more  

examples of the vocabulary that you're  not feeling very confident about foreign

let's see malude all right I think I answered that  already you're spamming the comments though stop  

just answer your spam it post your comment  one time so I understand native properly and  

accurately but I don't feel like speaking with  them because I'm afraid of being stuck what can  

I do to figure this issue out so John uh your  problem is exactly this so you understand but  

you're just you're just not getting enough  naturally varied review and that's why  

you're getting stuck so you don't feel confident  enough about the language and that could be the  

vocabulary or the grammar pronunciation anything  else uh you're just like you're you're learning  

what maybe one phrase or one word and you're only  hearing it a few times but if you really spend a  

lot of time uh learning a particular word or  phrase that's where you get to that level so  

you will feel much more confident uh about about  using a language you will get to that ownership  

level and you you know how that works like you can  feel it when it happens all right so I started to  

learn a connected speech with music of Madonna and  Frozen yeah so I can't understand native speakers  

yes so again I'm trying to give you like exposure  and awareness and then take you to the ownership  

level just by giving you simple explanations  of things and lots of naturally varied review  

but in if you go try to go directly to the native  level it's going to be much more difficult for you  

all right let's see at what stage can we come  to thinking in English well that's really like  

uh this this is you can think of it as like a  Continuum so it's a scale so you go from zero  

to one and then one to two and and then uh two to  three and that's how we're improving our ability  

to think in English as well but the point is  to understand the language like a native rather  

than trying to think about it um like you know in  the ESL way where you're translating or thinking  

about rules when you speak uh so I'm not a fan of  Duolingo yeah so again you should be getting like  

real uh like actual examples of stuff and so the  more real examples you can get of the language  

and naturally varied review and again it's really  important that you learn like a native so natives  

get more than one example so you might learn if  you remember how you learned your native language  

you heard your mother and your father and your  friends and your teachers and all these different  

people often saying the same thing and so because  you're getting all of that input it's a naturally  

varied review that gets you fluent and so once  you feel very confident about using something  

then you use it okay and what often you try to do  in a like in an English as a second language class  

is you're trying to trying to just repeat things  before you really understand what they are and  

so people that's why they struggle and the teacher  says like okay repeat after me like and I want you  

to say something but I noticed this even you know  when I'm teaching my own kids if they don't really  

understand what I'm saying then they can they  cannot yet feel confident about using something  

they can try to repeat what I'm saying but it's  really my fault for not having to understand that  

so what is your recommendation to get more  vocabulary okay uh so geovong if I'm pronouncing  

that correctly uh the point here number one is  not to try to just learn more vocabulary the  

point is to increase the ownership level of the  vocabulary you already have and then you can start  

learning more so it's about spending more time and  really understanding the particular vocabulary you  

already know rather than just trying to learn more  words and phrases but whatever you're learning you  

really should be going through these steps for all  of that information so you understand something  

very well and that's how you're able to use it  fluently hopefully that makes sense so the goal  

you don't become fluent by learning more all right  if you and I just sent out an email to subscribers  

yesterday or two days ago talking about this but  a lot of students they mistakenly believe that  

you get fluent by learning more but you don't  get fluent by learning more you get fluent by  

understanding the information you you already have  and this is why children can speak fluently even  

though they don't know a lot of words okay so it's  really important to remember remember that if you  

look at little kids they have a smaller vocabulary  than adults but they can often speak better than  

adults because they know that vocabulary so well  they're at their that the the ownership level of  

that vocabulary uh let's see uh let's see uh  usmanov says why are you teaching on YouTube  

rarely if you look at the YouTube channel you'll  see videos up here like almost every week lately  

again you're just not seeing them maybe you're  not getting notified by YouTube about the the  

videos being released but if you go to the YouTube  channel you can go back and watch the recent live  

videos like this I remember all the phrasal verbs  I learned with your videos any topic to create new  

videos on that topic uh uh Rainier says yeah well  I'm glad you enjoyed those so if you've already  

gone through the uh the visual guide to phrasal  verbs then I would go up to fluent for life so  

fluent for life has like hundreds and hundreds of  phrasal verbs in it and so you learn all of those  

not just phrasal verbs but the whole language I  take you to the ownership level of that if you'd  

like to learn more about that you can click on  the link in the description below this video  

hello from Venezuela says Tulio like what is your  okay I think I passed that array the point is that  

I can understand more and easily than I can speak  uh also sometimes it's difficult to understand  

some accents especially from the south yes so this  is again this is why like you you move up through  

this process and you always get recognition before  you get ownership so that's why you can understand  

more than you can speak so if you spend you have  to they have to move up to that level and you move  

up to that level by getting many more examples  of that thing uh is it wrong is it wrong way  

learning a language with a book and a waste of  time no I I didn't mean that like books are a  

bad thing for learning languages I meant like if  you're trying to learn a language with only a book  

all right again you need lots of different  examples you will get language so right now I'm  

reading uh like a Japanese cartoon or a manga it's  like a Japanese comic book uh and so in that I'm  

getting lots of naturally varied review but I'm  also hearing those same things from TV shows or  

other people speaking that kind of thing so it's  not about like reading one book is going to get me  

fluent because I need to hear examples of that  and the spoken language is much different many  

times than the way people are in conversations  uh in a book even I remember that at call center  

they told me that I have some issues organizing  my ideas yeah so that's another thing you get  

much faster at organizing ideas and thinking  like a native as you go through this process  

uh let's see so I've been working in a call center  for more than three years and I'm still having  

issues to communicate and pronounce a bunch of  words how can I improve it it's about spending  

more time with the vocabulary you need to use now  I imagine at a call center there is probably some  

vocabulary that you use more than others so  I would spend more time really listening to  

that vocabulary getting examples of that whatever  that vocabulary is I don't you know I don't know  

what that is maybe you have specific things for  products or company or whatever you have to speak  

for that but if you if you watch like let's say  a bunch of YouTube videos about customer service  

you will get lots of naturally varied review  for that specific purpose so you'll see lots  

of people like how they how they check in at a  hotel or how they order food at a restaurant that  

kind of thing so the point is really to get more  naturally varied review that's how you move from  

awareness to ownership have the same problem of  my dog uh we both can understand but don't speak  

very good tulillah Yes actually dogs are dogs  are pretty sharp you know they can they can  

understand quite well really uh so let's see all  right so people people still saying like I need  

to practice I want to make it clear practice is  not getting you fluent I didn't write anything  

up here about practice there's nothing here about  about practice this is about understanding like  

a native okay and this should be exciting I don't  know who who out there wants to try to spend time  

practicing the language I mean wouldn't you rather  just understand like a native and start using the  

language I would when I'm thinking about you  know learning Japanese I don't I don't want  

to like okay I'm going to practice the language  try to repeat phrases to myself I'm not doing any  

of that I'm going to get more examples until  I really understand something and then I get  

that aha moment it's like ah something Clicks in  my mind I really feel confident about something  

and now I can use it fluently uh yes yes friends  uh don't forget to like the video there's a quick  

psychology thing you should tell people remember  to like the video If you say don't forget to do  

something people will think about forgetting  uh hello there Drew could I ask something what  

do you think about listening and speaking are  like brother and sister well yeah I mean it's  

it's two it's two parts of the same system  but the the listening is really what builds  

the speaking ability so you don't get fluent by  speaking speaking is the result of how you learn  

okay so you it's it's not like I wouldn't even  say they're like brother and sister it's more like  

like speaking is the child of listening if that  makes sense so speaking is the child of listening  

brother and sister kind of implies you do both  of them at the same time when really it's just  

like until you understand something you will not  feel confident using it all right so you really  

should focus on understanding and then the the  speech just comes automatically uh let's see on  

Anonymous okay so sometimes my concentration  going out when I remain in listening after  

that automatically come back does it working  or not my increase I think I understand what  

you're saying all right usually what people are  doing let me let me clear this up a little bit

so hopefully you remember these I can  put them up later if you need them

so why why is it so difficult to go from the  awareness level to uh to the to the ownership  

level all right so why do so many people get  stuck I've tried to explain it but I really  

want to make this clear all right so here's the  ESL so English has a second language English as  

a second language approach and we'll put efl what  I do this is English as a first language over here  

all right I want to make this very clear English  as a second language usually you begin by learning  

a word or phrase so imagine I don't know like how  are you all right so you hear a phrase like how  

are you and then you try to hear that over and  over and over and over and over again all right  

now there are two big problems with this approach  number one it's boring to your mind each time you  

hear this your mind is less interested so you  hear it again your mind is like ah like again  

I don't want to listen to this again and again  and again and again so you think like listening  

practice this is what people normally think of as  listening practice where it's like just repeating  

something again and again is listening practice  all right so that's the first big problem the  

second big problem is that in a real conversation  you might hear lots of different things and might  

not hear this thing at all okay so I might  learn in an English classroom how are you  

so that's my my target vocabulary how are you  and my teacher tells me okay Drew I want you to  

listen to this audio and it will repeat how are  you how are you how are you and then my teacher  

wants me to repeat that how are you how are you  how are you and each time I'm repeating that my  

brain is getting a little bit more uh more bored  less interested because your mind is naturally  

interested in new information okay it always  wants something new and each time you hear the  

same thing again you think oh I know this already  I already know how are you okay so you get to the  

level of exposure and you get to the level of  awareness but you don't get to the level of  

ownership because you're not really understanding  this like the this this this phrase here like how  

are you because in a real conversation you're  going to hear lots of different things for a  

greeting like this you might hear what's up hey  how's it going how you been what have you been  

up to lots of different examples like that okay  and so that's the ESL approach and this is why  

people get stuck so they get exposed to something  the teacher tells them some information some word  

or phrase or something uh very clearly and then  they go up through these different levels here  

and uh but it's really is really not getting them  anywhere so they they think they think they're  

like ah okay I'm I'm practicing by repeating that  same phrase again and again but actually they're  

just staying in the same place okay it looks like  you're you're doing something but you're not okay  

it looks like it hey I'm spending time repeating  this I should be getting fluent but you're not  

the real truth you know the actual thing that's  happening is that you're making your brain bored  

and you're not getting prepared for a bunch of  different situations or a bunch of different  

phrases in a real conversation so what's the  difference here so this is why you get stuck  

like you get to like exposure we'll put an  X here for exposure and you got awareness  

awareness means like if someone else says how are  you you can really understand that but you might  

not feel confident using it maybe you don't know  about how or you you confuse like basic grammar  

rules something like that where you're worried  about pronunciation so there are lots of reasons  

why you would not get to the ownership level  of that so you get stuck here okay now going  

to the efl approach what do we do here we're  looking first at situations like a greeting

and so what I want to do as a teacher as a guide  I want to help you just the same way I help my own  

children learn is I'm going to begin with like  right now we're learning different greetings so  

ways that people say hello how do they greet  each other so I'm going to teach you lots of  

different phrases and you're not only going  to hear different phrases you're going to  

hear like different speakers you're going to  hear different accents different speeds and  

because you get all of this you automatically  move from exposure to awareness to ownership  

okay so the point here is like you're you you  want to be prepared for real situations because  

that's how conversations work in uh in like  a regular conversation you don't know what  

people are going to say so there is a general  idea people will probably say that but you will  

usually not be prepared uh for the different  accents or the different speeds or the slightly  

different vocabulary that people might be using  so it's a completely different approach all right

what's cracking yep so another thing  like someone someone might you know  

that's not really a business term so you  probably would not hear that you know in  

an office or something but casually  someone might say hey what's cracking  

what's cracking what's new what's going on what's  Happening and so they'll say it quickly you  

might have an accent or a different dialect there  pronunciation might even be a little bit different  

uh and the vocabulary will be different as well  so it's a completely different way of learning  

but with this way you very quickly move from  exposure to awareness to ownership but for  

this way over here you get stuck at this level  and that's why so many people who are learning  

English as a second language they get to ownership  or they get they get to awareness and so they can  

understand me they can understand movies or you  know talking about like Ted Talks or whatever  

but they struggle in real conversations  because they're just not prepared for that  

all right you have to be prepared for real life  you have to learn for real life in that way  

all right let me go back make sure uh we  got all that but hopefully this makes sense

um

yeah so that so that idea about how to overcome  like uh uh like getting more concentration or  

whatever like this is you you don't have  to worry about concentration your mind  

will naturally be interested in this because  it's a bunch of new information all the time  

okay so this way it's the same thing which makes  you naturally bored your mind is bored by that  

information that's why people hate studying  because studying means repeating the same stuff  

over and over again but you don't really get tired  of studying you know like learning you don't get  

tired of learning in your native language because  you're getting new information all the time  

it's like a different speaker saying something  or a different accent or different like slightly  

different vocabulary okay so you don't have to  worry about about like feeling bored feeling bored  

is the whole point of the ESL approach it's just  like trying to make you practice things that you  

don't really understand so should I keep thinking  about uh the rules and try to learn new things  

when listening to others or should I just focus on  the content I don't quite understand what that's  

asking for but the basic idea is that until  you really understand something whatever that  

is it could be pronunciation grammar vocabulary  until you really understand something you will  

not feel confident using it all right so you don't  build confidence by by repetition you don't build  

confidence through uh through speaking you build  confidence through really understanding something  

very well so when you understand something very  well like the the way natives do then you can use  

it like a native do you agree John asks uh with  the nurture mature exposure some teachers tend  

to nurture mature exposure I don't know what that  means specifically but this is this is basically  

what I'm what I'm describing here is how natives  learn languages this is how you learned your  

native language and and the great news is that you  can do the same thing for learning English that's  

it so instead of trying to do the boring way you  get the actual native input and the naturally  

varied review that gets you fluent automatically  uh let's see thanks so much for your advice it  

gave me a different point of view and now I know  what to do glad to hear it says Adrian uh hello  

from Canada oh poor dog let's see hi from India  hello from Argentina said yes it changed my habit  

of just translating what I wanted to say because  it's not a natural common way to say it uh as it  

is in a regular conversation I'm guessing what's  up how you been let's see hello everyone how are  

things was okay that thing went through all this I  thought about asking you shouldn't you be actually  

working and then I remember that your dad was  a great philosopher are you talking about me

I don't know if that's talking about me my  I wouldn't say my dad is a great philosopher  

but uh I came now and I'm very confused I don't  understand any of those Scribbles the teacher did  

on the board l-o-l-l-o-l all right so the basic  idea is it if you understand something you can  

speak that's That's the basis of everything I  teach so if you understand something you can  

teach very well if you don't understand then you  can't speak all right so you don't get fluent by  

repeating information again and again you get  fluent by really understanding what you learn  

and the only way to do that is to get lots of  different examples until you really feel that  

you're you're understanding something very well  all right uh thanks a lot I understand now how  

to learn a language as a question how to always  be motivated well this this the ESL way requires  

motivation this way does not do you feel you need  to be motivated to learn your native language  

do you need motivation for that it's like  every day you just do it automatically you  

do it naturally and so this way requires  motivation because you don't want to do it  

that's why people ask like ah like how do I  stay motivated to learn it's like if you need  

to be motivated to learn you're learning the  wrong way okay you don't need to be motivated  

when you're learning this way because it's just  interesting and you're improving all the time  

okay so that's that's the difference I mean there  are many big differences here but uh this idea  

about motivation I I talk about that with students  and like how to stay motivated is like keep the  

information new and keep the information fresh  and this means learning about a situation like a  

greeting or something and then you're getting lots  of different examples and then you're hearing them  

from different people and at different speeds all  right so as you're getting all of these different  

examples it's improving your understanding until  you get to the ownership level of understanding  

the vocabulary or the grammar or the pronunciation  and that's when you can use it fluently  

all right so hopefully let's see thanks so  much sir for our need to keep up new things  

from my listening there are some schools teach  English the way you're there are some schools  

teach English the way you were talking about yeah  there I'm sure there are uh I don't I've never  

heard of any but I'm sure somebody must be doing  it this way and I've been teaching this way for  

20 years so I'm sure I'm sure somebody else has  to be teaching this way now remember the point  

is to get to the level of understanding  where you don't have to speak to do that  

the point is to understand the language very well  so if you want to get lots of good input whatever  

your thing is as an example if you want to learn  more about I don't know talking about Gardens so  

I have to speak about Gardens I learned gardening  that's why I came to Japan and so I got lots of  

information from different places about gardening  and I would listen to different people talk about  

that all in Japanese and because I did that I  got got fluent in talking about that kind of  

vocabulary okay so I I'm not fluent talking about  nuclear physics in Japanese or English really so  

I couldn't explain how Nuclear Physics Works  in English and it's not because I'm stupid or  

because I can't learn the vocabulary I just don't  know it I don't have that even the basic uh level  

of understanding for that so I'm not familiar with  like the vocabulary that you need or the processes  

I could probably learn them but this shows you  that you can be fluent in some things and not  

fluent in others so there's some things you can  speak about because you know them really well  

and other things that you can't but you don't get  fluent by just trying to repeat various vocabulary  

over and over again okay that's going to make you  bored demotivated and then you will be frustrated  

when you were in a conversation and you hear  other people saying stuff that you didn't you  

like weren't prepared for okay so if you want  to become a fluent speaker stop trying to speak  

and just get lots of great input so if I want  to learn about uh uh like learning let's say  

like like the like fixing cars or something that's  another example I'll give so I could go right here  

on YouTube and watch 10 different videos about  people fixing a like a car engine and I'm going  

to hear lots of different people talk about some  of the same vocabulary and there will also be some  

different vocabulary as well but I'll hear their  different accents and soon it's like I'm really  

starting to understand this I'm really getting to  the ownership level and it will click for you in  

your mind when you really understand something and  that's where you will feel very confident using it  

so if you hear 10 different native speakers say  something one way then you should probably say it  

that same way that's how you get the pronunciation  all right but if you only listen to one person  

like you know if here I am in Japan and lots of  my or not even my personal students just lots  

of like young kids that are learning English in  Japanese school it'll be a Japanese teacher who  

doesn't have like a perfect natural accent and so  they're teaching kids and that that's like their  

only source of learning English maybe they watch  some movies or something on TV but they're not  

really getting very much of the uh the naturally  varied review that they need to become fluent or  

that they need to develop a natural accent but  you don't need to speak to do this this process  

is not about developing fluency through speech you  develop fluency through understanding all right  

now hopefully this is exciting is this exciting  for people hopefully it is so for me personally  

I don't want to spend time uh you know trying  to go out and like and meet people to practice  

speaking with or try to go online or do that I  don't care about doing that I don't have time  

for doing that I just want to to spend some time  being very efficient with my learning so I want  

to learn some new phrases or whatever and just  spend time until I really understand those and  

then I can use them so again fluency and speech  that's the result of understanding you don't  

Begin by repeating phrases you you end by being  able to just use the vocabulary automatically  

all right and let's see if I missed anybody oh  my God I'm late for this wonderful teaching I  

miss a lot I guess well you can easily go  back and watch the video again after it's  

finished does easy English teach your way I  don't know what that is yes these are very  

technical words in every field yes let me sleep  please almost 3 A.M yes go ahead and go to sleep  

all right you're the best Professor teaching  online now remember I am not a professor I don't  

have an advanced degree in I don't have a masters  in any particular teaching you know like teaching  

teaching English as a second  language or whatever all I know  

is what I've done personally as a learner  and as a teacher and now as a parent also  

teaching two different languages to my own  kids all right so that's enough for me I  

don't need like a fancy degree and most of the  people who have fancy degrees are doing this  

so they're trying to teach you a bunch of rules  and not really help you understand the rule like  

a native okay so I think I gave um some examples  before you probably seen my basic Japanese example  

here just uh I think I don't know if anybody  speaks Japanese on this particular chat but uh  

if I can give you a very simple explanation in  Japanese I can teach you Japanese all right so the  

point is to make the language understandable for  you maca Maca Maca AO AWI maca kudo kudoimaka oh

hakka Kudo AO now you understood what I'm talking  about there even if you don't quite remember it  

I'm just exposing you to the language and I want  to get you to awareness where you really start to  

recognize and you understand what I'm talking  about and then I can get you to the ownership  

where you really feel confident because you've  heard so many examples okay all right let's see  

here you are not a professor you are a philosopher  [Laughter] he has a good professor without degree  

all right is it bad uh when I always compare  English expressions with the words in my native  

language yes so if you're if you're still trying  to translate in your head it means you just don't  

feel confident enough you don't understand  the vocabulary now it's some people are just  

interested in that like I will I will notice  similarities or differences between English  

and Japanese and so I might notice something  like oh like that's interesting like aoimaka  

blue marker so the the adjective comes before  the noun in English but I I recognize that but  

I'm not trying to think about the language I just  notice it's similar okay so this is not about uh  

trying to translate the point is to understand  something very well all in English when you do  

that that's when you speak so people everybody  watching this uh hopefully your goal is speech  

that's what I focus on so it's not about uh just  like teaching you a bunch of words and then you  

can't use them that would be kind of sad for me  there is uh there are lots of videos like that  

on YouTube though and I certainly do teach lots  of vocabulary I think fluent for life has like 13  

000 expressions and phrases and things in it it's  like a crazy amount of information influent for  

life but how I help you learn it is the important  thing because I want to take you through these  

steps to get you to ownership where you feel very  confident about using the vocabulary that's why  

you're going to hear it from different people  in different ways at different speeds Etc uh off  

topic but have you heard of subliminals before  like subliminal learning or subliminal messages  

especially the ones that help you  pick up a language while you sleep  

Sam Walton is back nice to see you uh yes of  course I've heard of you know sleep learning  

or whatever I don't I don't have any experience  of that I think people do it's because the ESL  

way is so bad it's so frustrating and it takes  so long and so few people actually go through  

this process and become fluent that you have all  this other like tricky stuff about how to learn  

languages okay like just learn while you sleep  it's like okay like let me let me see if I can  

go to sleep and wake up whatever it's like I can  teach you while you're awake I mean maybe maybe  

you don't have any time to do that but like think  about how you are learning your native language  

every day you are learning new words and  phrases or new ways of expressing things  

in your native language and you're learning them  from newspapers or movies or books or TV shows  

or podcasts or whatever and it's just you getting  naturally varied review you're interested in the  

information because it's new you're hearing it  from different people in different ways and you  

get to learn something that just do the same thing  for English that's it all right see if I have any  

more before I lose my voice over here well I  think we've been going for what over an hour  

oh my goodness I'm learning a lot watching your  videos glad to hear it is it possible to learn  

English as you are explaining watching movies or  listening music yes so it's like you can you can  

learn English from lots of different ways you know  you could listen to music or watch movies or TV  

shows the point is how well do you understand that  if you only get to the exposure or awareness level  

then you will hear things you will recognize  them when people say them but you will have  

trouble using that information so the point is  to understand it well enough that you can use it  

that's where we get to the fluent level that's why  I call it ownership because you own the language  

it's yours it's not like a second language it's  your language so Japanese is my language now and  

I don't know all the words it's not necessary to  know them but like the the things that I use I own  

that vocabulary it's like my first language that's  why it's just learning English as a first language  

I hope to download your app next month yes Dustin  uh so we have two different apps if you are not  

familiar already so there's the regular app that  we have for the video courses uh and so you can  

get that whenever you join so fluent for life or  the native fluency blueprint uh but also Frederick

foreign so Frederick is free to download and  try and this is our ultimate pronunciation and  

listening app and so it gives you all of this  so we're going to give you lots of different  

input we're going to teach it to you in different  ways and then you actually get to play the game  

and discover the rules for yourself so rather  than someone teaching you pronunciation rules  

I actually just take you through the app what  basically you take yourself through it so it's  

the world's first way for anyone like if you  have young kids that want to play through the  

app as well so you want to teach them the basics  of pronunciation vocabulary listening and grammar  

all of that is it's all one thing in that system  in Frederick so you can join that whenever you  

like so how can we speak English with how how  we can speak so how can we speak English using  

linking sounds leaking sounds you mean like the  way like the way sounds blend together Frederick  

will teach you how to do that it will teach you  the individual sound rules of the language and  

it will show you how to blend them together  automatically all right you are a philosopher  

because your wife keeps asking you to get a job  and then you think about your answer it was why

now this is this is somebody either who knows  me very well or or or knows that reference from  

uh what is that Family Guy I I I'll I'll tell  that quick story because I I there's something  

actually I like to tell people a lot I don't  know if I've mentioned that on the chat before  

um any time in my videos but so this is uh Peter  Griffin he is the the main kind of Homer Simpson  

character uh of Family Guy it's just a like a  cartoon about his family but you can find this  

clip on YouTube about if you look up like  Peter Griffin philosopher you will see it  

and so this any Peter Griffin's like my  great-grandfather was a great philosopher  

and I can't do the Peter Griffin voice perfectly  but that's basically what he's saying and uh and  

his wife they show him like many years ago  he's sitting back relaxing in a chair and  

his wife is like you know she's holding a  baby and trying to clean up the house or  

whatever and she said why don't you get a job  and he looks up and he says why this is my my  

philosopher joke but yes that's exactly that  Family Mart or family Family Guy Family Mart  

uh is a convenience store in Japan all right did  you rock uh thank you very good I'm glad to hear  

it so please recommend us some English learning or  listening YouTube channel not without you not with  

you mean with like not without me you mean  with me if you want like what what I do  

in uh all this stuff I've explained uh this  is in fluent for Life I'll put this up here

and you can learn more about that by clicking on  the link in the description but you can go through  

this process by yourself as I just explained so  if I'm trying to learn more about whatever the  

topic if I want to learn more about Family Guy  as an example or philosophers or gardening or  

baking cakes or roller skating or planting trees  or anything I would look that up in English on  

YouTube and I would watch a bunch of videos about  that same topic and like if I'm trying to learn a  

different language I would learn a lot about how  to do that thing in that language it'd be very  

easy to do that's what this is so you're hearing  about a topic hearing lots of different examples  

from different people okay all I've done in fluent  for life is make this like a very simple standard  

process that you can go through and the topics  are already done so this is for people who want  

to get fluent as fast as possible so if you go  through this you get fluent in that vocabulary  

for each lesson set in 30 days or less I prefer  watching your videos not without you ah okay well  

I mean I've got a bunch of videos on YouTube that  you can watch those or again you can join fluent  

for life or any of my other programs uh and you  will see that Jonathan Paz you skip my comment  

I probably skipped a bunch of comments here I  don't know if I'm going through all of them you  

can post it again if you like so I'm already  accumulate in enormous oh enormous English  

influential but how can I flow them and where  yeah so I can I can tell by looking at the the  

grammar errors and the spelling errors in your  English that you you went you went past like the  

basics of stuff that you're trying to learn and  you're trying to learn more difficult words but  

you can't use them correctly so this is a perfect  example of students trying to learn more but not  

be able to use any of that information correctly  okay so spend more time with the with like a  

smaller amount of vocabulary learn those things  well and as you get fluent in that vocabulary it  

will help you understand lots of more things and  that will that's really how you become fluent like  

a native this is how you got fluent in your  native language just do the same thing for  

English all right does anybody have a reason why  this would not work has anyone disagree with me  

I'm happy if anybody does if they have like a  reason like nah Drew this wouldn't work it's  

like okay you know let me know the best  way to flow is heavy flow that's right

please show your appreciation by liking  the video yes thank you very much  

I prefer okay I think I got everybody

yes so we'll leave it on the heavy flow the  heavy flow Mark over there Anderson nice to  

see you there from Brazil I'd like to go down  to Brazil at some point but if anybody has any  

last questions let me know but I really want to  make it clear if you learn this way you will get  

fluent if you continue to learn this way you will  continue to struggle all right I'm a big fan of  

you glad to hear it anybody have any questions any  arguments against learning like this who thinks  

they should continue learning English as a second  language rather than learning as a first language  

anyone agree my favorite album

nice wait is that Florian Florian is that you  I think man I think that is your that is your  

uh that's right that is you man give me a call  man you should be working right now what are you  

doing you should be working right now yes I think  I remember that yeah it's like it's been a long  

time I think since you posted anything on your on  your YouTube channel but make sure I'm correct it  

all right fantastic yeah let me know if you  have any questions so this is a probably a  

friend of mine he will sometimes ask  me questions about English [Laughter]  

but he's a native speaker also all right  let's see so someday which I speak this  

sound like your accent yes if you watch enough  of my videos and also if you get Frederick you  

will start sounding like me my dream is to have  the whole world sounding like me that would be  

very funny no I actually don't want that but I  think it would be interesting if a whole bunch  

of people started learning like my way and then  like all just started sounding exactly like me  

please don't do that though remember the point  is to learn to get lots of different examples of  

different speakers the point is to have diversity  in your learning because you will experience  

diversity in your conversations all right the  learning should be like the real life experience  

okay all right people keep coming back with  more you guys won't let me leave why [Laughter]

all right English language I have just  difficulties with reading and writing  

so I use speech to text yes so if you want to  cheat that way it's okay if you don't need to  

you know communicate or or have a conversation  with people or whatever then if you just need  

to get information then do you know speech to  text or you're just reading whatever but if you  

actually need to speak the important thing  is speaking this is how you can do it why

where are you from Chicago or San Francisco  I'm from Chicago I've been in San Francisco  

a little bit though do you think by being  in my 40s will affect my learning and the  

opportunity to get a job in English I would  say no to either of those so I am 42 years old  

and remember you are continuing to learn  things in your native language right now  

so it's it's not like you turn 40 and you stop  learning you just learn different stuff you know  

you're not learning basic math anymore you learn  new things and so you're learning new things all  

the time in your native language and you can do  the same thing in English all right you helped  

me a lot says Julio glad to hear it uh let's  see So I listened to a lot of video in English  

now and I can understand without subtiting and  translate in my language very good so the more  

again you want to go from the awareness level to  the ownership level that's where you really start  

getting lots of varied examples and make sure  you focus on something to understand it very well  

do you prefer British or American English for me  I don't know if that's asking me or not I don't  

have like a preference for one or the other I I  try to listen to both because again I will hear  

and meet people from all over the world so I will  speak with Australians new zealanders Canadians  

or quite similar to American speakers but again  when I'm teaching people like influent for life  

we give you access to all these different speakers  so you're going to listen to examples of British  

English American English even people who are like  just like we have like one one woman who grew up  

in Zimbabwe so she is a native English speaker  but she has a different accent as well because of  

where she grew up I've scored band eight in IELTS  glad to hear it I guess that you uh the younger  

you are the less stuck you get learning English  now I wouldn't say that's true at all I mean  

unless you're like 90 years old and you just can't  think kind of like Joe Biden you know he's like  

I don't know I don't know if Joe Biden is learning  learning anything right now you know he's getting  

pretty old uh but yes if you were 40 years old  you should be just fine for learning anything  

so learning new languages whatever it's just  about how you learn if you try to learn the  

the ESL approach gets more and more difficult as  you get older because it's so boring uh but you  

always are continuing to learn this way because  this is how your mind naturally likes to learn  

all right well Brazil here kisses glad to hear  it thank you very much oh my God you helped me  

a lot all right how to remember words I can't  practice naturally some words in X conversation  

yes again it's not about practicing vocabulary  it's about understanding the vocabulary really  

well so you don't you don't need to repeat things  uh and and hope that you get fluent by repeating  

things over and over again that's not how you  get fluent you get fluent by understanding the  

language really well okay so as you as  you get more and more understanding you  

you feel more and more confident about  that that's where you start to speak  

so don't try to force yourself to speak  about things that you're not confident about  

uh and that's how you and again this this same  process works for everything it's how you remember  

vocabulary how you improve your grammar your  pronunciation you're listening all that stuff  

develops automatically as you learn that way so  you don't have to force yourself to do anything  

I managed to change my girlfriend when  I was 17 speaking of subliminal messages

let's go to brain let's go Brandon  look at that let's go Brandon  

here we got some maybe not so not some big  big Biden fans in the uh in the audience here  

are you still in Japan yes I'm in Japan  I mean Nagasaki right now come say hello  

uh could you give a couple more examples in real  life not only in class how to learn English as a  

first link so right now this video is an example  of how to learn English as a first language  

all right I gave I gave this uh example a  little bit earlier in the chat or in the video  

but you you tell me if you have a particular word  or phrase that you don't understand I can help you  

understand it like a native so why don't we do it  that way so if you have a question I'll give my  

uh my memory example though because this is one  of my favorites about understanding something

if you've seen this example before  you've probably been learning with  

me for a while but I think you will enjoy  this if you are new so just to give you  

an example of of like how understanding  works and the the aha moment aha moment

the aha moment is something you feel you can  physically feel it happening when you understand  

something you're like ah I got it okay so let me  give you an example I've done this before if you  

have seen this before already don't spoil it for  other people because this is always fun for new  

people uh when you know when they're when they're  learning learning something new so we'll begin  

a normal English lesson well we won't even say  English so this is learning a different language  

I'm going to teach you an alien language right now  so one two three four five six seven eight nine  

so you already know these uh these are Arabic  numerals and we're going to teach you a new  

language what usually happens in a language  learning classes people will give you a  

translation so I'm going to give you a translation  right now and I want you to memorize these  

I want you to memorize these are the teachings  influent for Life the same as those posted on  

YouTube I think there are like maybe 10  example videos but there are over 500  

video and audio lessons in fluent for life so  it's you get like less than one percent is on  

YouTube so we do have some samples but you get  the complete system in fluent for Life nobody  

has access to that on YouTube all right so let  me give you this very very quick lesson here

all right I want you to take the next  minute and try to remember those I want  

you to memorize this now this is an  example of bad teaching but I think  

it's important so you can understand the  difference between learning uh as a first  

language and learning as a second  language but really this is about  

getting that aha moment when you learn all right  I've got a couple more seconds I'll check uh chat  

while people are looking at that uh let's see what  no no no from Japan I'm tired of studying English  

yes that's because uh because of how you're  learning it you're probably not tired of learning  

Japanese even though you've been learning it all  your life all right now I'm going to erase this

now I'm going to give you some uh some  characters here I want you to translate this

can you just write what that is in the chat so  we got one two three four five six characters  

just write down the numbers of those in  the chat if you remember what they are

all right so remember this is  an example of a bad lesson so  

if you can't do it it's okay that's  that's kind of the point of the lesson  

all right let's see here uh well I learned kick  the bucket from you let's grab some grub from you  

actually yeah uh-huh that's right yeah so if it's  if it's entertaining for you uh it just means your  

your brain is active and it's trying to like solve  a puzzle kind of like what this is up here indeed  

the method used in ESL is too boring yep could  you please make a video about how to master or use  

Frederick uh Khalid yes if you go to uh go to our  Channel you can find videos on Frederick I think  

uh yeah just search our channel in Frederick  and you should you should you should I think  

it's like the ultimate uh pronunciation system  or something like that I forget the name of it  

all right let's see if we have any any  chat here uh is it bad for English learn  

to learn British or American yeah it  doesn't matter it's fine to learn both  

I've learned okay we got that are the teachings  of okay I got that on here how many languages do  

I speak uh Japanese and English the aha moment  is when is when you take on me that's right  

heavy flow days baby all right let's see uh things  I will definitely take fluent for Life yes we hope  

to welcome you to the program Americans like  to use ain't and even in your videos maybe  

it's something you use without thinking uh but  nobody teaches that yes exactly so if you're  

in a conversation you will hear if you'll hear  incorrect English all the time and so if you're  

not prepared for that because you didn't you  didn't spend time with real English then of course  

you're not going to be uh uh you know you're going  to have trouble with that so I don't remember  

anything oh I don't get the symbols meanings  actually learned by exposure I've consumed so much  

English content yes so again you're learning it  by exposure how much uh does one need to have the  

whole tools for what uh first and last number is  one all right very good somebody got one of them  

very good all right let's see if we can figure out  the rest of these let's see this is going to be  

if I remember is going to be that and uh six all  right now I gave you like a a bad lesson I call  

this a bad language learning lesson because this  is what most people do this is the second language  

approach where we're going to try to translate a  bunch of things uh and and there's nothing where  

you feel any kind of aha like you understood  anything all right so let me put these examples  

back up here one two three four five six seven  eight nine and I'll put my examples up here again  

to three four five six seven eight nine all  right now here's how this gets interesting  

I really want you to have an aha moment and  uh this is just one example of this but you  

will notice this all the time when you learn  when you really understands them are you ready  

for this this is the aha moment especially  if you've not seen this before here we go

one two three

you get it did you feel that this is brand  new to you you should be like ah I got my leg  

okay this is the point of an aha moment  where you really understand something and now  

understanding this you could go on  and translate a bunch I could give  

you a thousand of these characters and you could  understand them all right so the point of this is  

the aha moment you should feel that when you're  uh when you're learning and until you feel this  

you have not really understood all right so now  it's like I get it now it makes more sense okay  

so this is just one way I'm helping you uh with  a visual mnemonic a visual memory aid for this  

uh but the the point of this is that when you  learn the right way you actually understand  

something so you really feel like ah it's it's  it's something you understand like a native so  

this is different from understanding something  intellectually or understanding like a translation  

you really know it it's like I know that now and  now you will never forget this example you had  

the aha moment you will not forget this exam try  it on your friends and they will have some fun  

all right let's see here any any final questions  over here uh how much does one need oh I think  

I answer or maybe did not answer that uh it's  awesome okay people gotta buy tools I mean you're  

learning materials like fluent for Life Frederick  um so fluent for Life works with Frederick fluent  

for life gives you everything you need but we  recommend people get Frederick as well because  

this is focusing specifically on the rules of  pronunciation and it takes you through all of  

those like a native again we want to give you  more naturally varied review so you're going to  

get lots of that through fluent for life but we  when you when you play with Frederick if you've  

not played with it already you'll you'll have  a lot of fun with it as well it's a game that  

lets you discover The Language by yourself  all right the aha moment in later headache  

all right I think that's it that's enough for  me I'm losing my voice I've been speaking for  

an hour I think oh my goodness 90 90 minutes  90 minutes all right but remember I give a last  

for the for the people coming at the very end and  they say drew what were you talking about what was  

the point of this so the point of this is if we  begin from zero so you've never heard a word or  

phrase you don't know anything about it we move up  to level one remember what this is exposure where  

you're just hearing something maybe maybe this  is even subliminal like you didn't uh you didn't  

recognize it you didn't hear it you don't not  consciously aware of it so we move up to awareness

when you really understand something very  well you can recognize it but until you get  

to the ownership level so this is level three so  ownership meaning you can use something fluently

and to move from this level to this level you just  need to get lots of naturally varied review this  

is really the only way you do it it's the only  way you feel comfortable about the language so the  

more you learn the more you will feel confident  about using the language and none of this is about  

speaking you don't get fluent by repeating phrases  or trying to say things or shadow people like that  

you can you can do that maybe to to get a little  bit of help for pronunciation or listening but the  

basic idea is uh really the the biggest factor for  your learning is how well you understand something  

so you're understanding and your confidence  increase as you understand the language better  

and that's how you develop speech so speech is the  result of getting to this level if you've already  

been trying to speak and you're not fluent now  then that's that's this it's just showing it's  

proving that this works is it important to learn  the phonetic characters yes uh so you learn the  

the sounds of English and then you learn how the  words blend together those are the two things you  

need for pronunciation and listening so as an  example we begin with something simple like cat  

at cat and then we put an e on the  end of this and now we have Kate  

Kate and so we learn ah okay if we have  an e at the end of a word like this  

then it changes the pronunciation of that  sound and Native children in uh in the  

United Kingdom in America Australia they're all  learning this way so if you can learn this way  

too you will become a fluent speaker this is  what we teach in Frederick all right foreign

let's see all right any final questions there  is it Monday in Japan yet yes so it is Monday  

uh there is no easier than this explanation  Glenn here tick toe is it okay are you let's see  

are you telling students to stick around or  give up and get to the get to the chopper

Florian I'm telling you to get to  work you should be working right  

now you already speak English what are  you doing over here give me a call later

get to the chopper yes so it is uh

it is yes it is about 12 almost 11 30 here in  Japan Anonymous says sir every day I accumulate  

a lot of things in my brain but I can't  retain it long all right so this happens  

let me erase this you'll notice I repeat myself  a lot I repeat myself a lot but I try to say it  

in a different way because people need to  you get you it's like it doesn't click in  

your mind until you get enough examples so what  most people do when they're learning you can do  

this in red is this red working yeah it's  pretty good all right so what most people  

do when they're learning is they will  they will learn a new vocabulary word  

uh and then they will learn another new vocabulary  word and then another and another and another but  

really all of these are kind of staying at  like this we'll just say this is like level  

level one level two level three and so they get  maybe like level one level one oh maybe they got  

like level two awareness for this one level  two awareness and so they never really reach  

instead of staying with one word and learning  it up here they just move on to the next word  

and that's because the reason people do this is  because it's boring to learn it the traditional  

way all right so it's boring to just repeat  that word or phrase again and again so if I  

give you a listening exercise and it's just like  it's teaching you a new word like participate  

participate participate participate participate  if you just hear me and only me repeat the same  

thing over and over like a mantra then of course  you will find that boring and you would rather  

learn something new and so you never you never  reach this level of ownership over here you  

just okay let me get something new because it's  more interesting for for the brain to learn new  

information so the way I overcome this problem is  with naturally varied review the point is to get  

lots of different varied examples until you feel  very confident about that vocabulary and remember  

that this process can happen very quickly you can  learn something in in a minute or two you go from  

zero to fluent in that vocabulary you know in a  minute if you learn it and understand it very well  

all right so if you understand or you know a lot  of vocabulary but you can't speak it's because  

you're continuing to learn more without actually  knowing that vocabulary very well so you're  

basically wasting your time you're building a a  passive vocabulary but not an active vocabulary

oh

all right how many words in average a native  speaker uses uh I don't know they're they're  

different different uh estimates of this but I  will say this uh if you if you just look at the  

let's say the total number of words in the English  language in active use so somebody is using these  

let's say it's like a hundred and seventy thousand  words okay as an example uh so I think it's around  

this number uh but only and this is even like  small but this is this is basically two percent  

two percent of the language is used in everyday  uh reading and writing and if you know this two  

percent then you can understand most books  TV shows movies that kind of thing so you you  

can not know all of this information out here and  young children know even less young children might  

know like point you know as like point zero zero  two percent or something like that but they still  

speak fluently okay they still speak fluently so  fluency is not about how much you know it's not  

about like knowing all this fluency is up here  like this it's how well you know the vocabulary  

okay hopefully this makes sense I'm happy  to explain it more but really the basic idea  

if you got e s l if you learn English as a  second language that's like this down here  

efl is like this where we really  help you understand something and  

as you get fluent then like this your your  ability to speak goes way up very quickly  

because it's not boring it's not frustrating  you're actually learning more and you you get  

this the the aha moment that you have it makes  your brain feel very good that's what your brain  

really wants so when you can discover something  like I get it I get it that feeling well that's  

that that's really the greatest motivation of all  but that's how you you learn your native language  

and you're still doing that every day as  you learn more words in your native language  

all right it looks like we're getting down to the  end here and hopefully I've answered everybody  

but if you have any more questions you can post  them in the comments below this video or to send  

us an email at info English anyone.com and again  if you'd like to learn more you can click on the  

link in the description uh and that will explain  a lot more about the fluent communication switch  

in your mind and if you trigger that switch  that's what you get the aha moment for that's  

how you speak so it's really a very simple  process you can do it anywhere you can do it  

by yourself because you don't need to be speaking  in order to do this it's how well you understand  

the information all right and DK says thank you  and thank you for joining me all right I want to  

have another aha moment talk to your wife maybe  she will give you an aha moment later at home  

if you if you've been good today all right I'm  going to call you in a second you'd be good over  

there everyone else have a fantastic day thank  you for joining me remember don't learn as a  

second language learn as a first language and you  will become the speaker you want to be bye bye