How To Speak Fluent English Like A Native In 3 Steps

Well, hello there. I am Drew Badger, the English Fluency Guide and in this video, it should

actually be a very interesting video, hopefully you enjoy it. I want to talk about my biggest

problem that I have as a teacher. It is actually not teaching. It is just convincing people

that they can learn, especially in the way that I try to teach people. So everybody knows

they can go to traditional lessons and try to remember grammar points or vocabulary.

But what I try to do is actually help people learn like native speakers. But the problem

is that a lot of people believe this is impossible. So even if they're living in a country like

maybe you're from Japan, but you live in the United States, you think it's impossible to

learn like a native. So I want to talk about how natives learn and how actually you can

learn not only like a native, but you can actually learn faster than a native if you

learn in a systematic way. So hopefully, this is exciting for you. This

video just came about, I was talking with my wife actually about our own daughters.

So my younger daughter, she's now one and a half years old, actually a little bit older.

Yeah. About one and a half, but she's already speaking and saying sentences in Japanese

and English. She really likes to say, "Oh my goodness." I don't know why she picked

that up. But I think it was just a kind of funny expression for her when we were using

it around the house. But she likes to say that.

Anyway, I want to talk very quickly about how actually kids learn. And this should make

more sense for you learning native or kind of learning the native way if you'd like to

communicate like a native speaker. And the reason this is so important is because you

can kind of memorize a lot of words and grammar and do that pretty quickly. But the problem

is that when you try to get into a conversation, you forget everything. And so there's basically

what I call the fluency gap. And so you're kind of stuck here because it's

really impossible for you to get across that. You know a lot of English, but you can't speak.

So let me just explain with a few quick stories about how kids learn. I want to make this

very simple so you understand this and so you believe that you actually can learn like

a native. Because once you believe that whether you're learning with me or you're learning

independently, you'll become a fluent speaker much faster.

the first story, I just want to give a very quick example about this, just using the word

daddy. Because this is something that both of my daughters can use. Obviously, my older

daughter is over five-years-old now, and it's amazing if you've been following the channel

for a while and you've seen Aria maybe grow up a little bit in the few videos that I've

released, but just this word daddy. So the first lesson I want to teach you about

how to learn like a native is how actually kids are thinking how the mind is trying to

process information when it hears it and how it's different from what people do in a classroom.

Now a native speaker doesn't have any language to translate from. So a young child is trying

to learn the language. They want to understand what's happening. They want to communicate,

but they have no real lesson that's trying to do what most people would do in a traditional

classroom, which is translate from one language into another language.

Now, what a child or what children are doing, they're actually connecting sounds, S-O-U-N-D-S,

sounds and meaning. So this very simple because that's all they can do. So they're kind of

getting sounds, and this could be sounds even something as simple as hi. And they're connecting

that with meaning basically the situation or when you would use a particular sound.

So again, the difference here, very simply, if I'm, again, just to use the Japanese example,

I'm a Japanese person trying to learn English. I would learn a word in Japanese, might draw

that quickly. And I'm going to translate that into English.

Now I would learn it, but this is different from acquiring a language, which is what a

child is doing. So they're actually making the language their own by integrating the

sounds with meaning into a kind of a larger puzzle about how the language works. Now,

the tricky thing about learning languages as a young child is there are many things

that you have to learn, just kind of how to think, but you're not learning the language

really in a systematic way. Most parents are just kind of using whatever

language. Maybe they're not thinking so much about how to teach in a systematic way. They're

teaching lots of different things and it's really up to a child to begin making these

connections, and the faster they can do that, the faster they can learn to understand and

then communicate and express themselves. So in the case of daddy, you can just look at

like my own younger daughter, Noelle. So Noelle looks at me and she calls me daddy, but she

really doesn't understand what that means. It's again, when I explained in videos, I

think I have a lesson a few videos ago talking about triangulation, because you really need

kind of like three points of meaning to understand something. if I just say, like in this case,

you've got the word daddy and me. So the actual person there, she's connecting these two things,

but that's not really a very strong ... I don't know what's the best way to describe

that, but it's not as strong as having another thing here or another one or another one where

you've got more bits of information that really make this meaning clear.

So she's hearing the word daddy, the sound, and she doesn't really understand anything

about vocabulary or grammar. She's not really thinking about it consciously and logically

about that, but she's connecting that. And she looks at me and she's saying daddy. Now,

if you're learning a language as an adult and you try to learn that way, if I just come

into the room and I say, "Oh." I just say the word daddy. You don't know if that's my

name or if that's some kind of title or something else. So again, Noelle and any child when

they learn something like mommy or daddy because she hears Aria or my wife or other people

using that word when they're talking about me.

But again, she doesn't know really what that means. It's not until either she gets old

enough for me to explain that. And for her to understand that this is a relationship

and not my name, or she sees other people if she goes to the park and she sees other

kids also using that same word to talk about their own father. So once that happens, this

is where the triangulation that I talk about comes into play and a child is saying, "Oh,

now I understand that this sound daddy, it's not only for my father, but also for other

men who are parents that look like they have a similar relationship." So she doesn't call

my wife, daddy. She calls her mommy or mom or mama.

And so that's how language is built, just in a very fundamental way. So the difference

between what a native child is doing is they're connecting sounds or vocabulary with meaning.

And this just means they're making a connection between sounds and what the situation is.

So when do you use some kind of a phrase or word or whatever, or some kind of sound? And

this is why you see little kids that copy even a young child when they're straining,

maybe they have to pick something up or move something they will make a certain sound in

a different language. And this is really interesting. So if you look at kids like little Japanese

kids, I'm using Japanese examples just because that's where I live. But in the Japanese example,

a child might say like yosha or like some word that. It's not even a word. It's just

an expression that people use when they're doing something. So when they're straining.

So in English, speaker might say like ... like they just might make that kind of sound. But

again, they're connecting that sound with a situation and that's where the meaning comes

from. So hopefully that makes sense, and you're

understanding a bit more about how this works. But you can see how it's not very systematic

and a child's brain is working actually quite hard to figure out what this is if you don't

explain it in a systematic way. And you don't need to give an explanation, but it's more

about showing examples. And this is how I teach in and Frederick is an example of this,

where you get to compare different things, because that's what builds your understanding

a lot faster than just learning different pieces of the puzzle and hoping to piece that

together. So that's the first part of this. The second part is when you're taking this

to a higher level, because ideally you want to learn everything in English. So the first

step is to learn everything in English, where you're connecting sounds and meaning. And

the second step is where you're beginning to integrate these different things by testing

different, we can call it even a hypothesis or just maybe a theory you have. Probably

a theory is not a good word, but hypothesis just means if, "I learn this grammar, maybe

I can apply it to this thing as well." And so you see kids doing this all the time. And

often, if there is a pattern in the language, they will use it correctly until they find

some example where it doesn't work. here's another example from my daughter Noelle,

this was just yesterday. She was about to go into the shower, but it wasn't ready for

her to go in there yet. So she said in Japanese [foreign language 00:10:05]. So it's just

like please call me. And so she actually used the correct grammar structure for that situation.

And you might look at that and think, "Wow, she understands the grammar." But if you really

look carefully, what's happening it's just the same idea of connecting sounds that she's

heard. She's heard many people use that expression for that situation.

But she's not like ready to apply that understanding to different other situations. So an English

example would be like big, bigger, small, smaller. So you might think, "Okay, if I'm

learning adjectives, maybe I can apply that same ... ending to something like that." So

if I learned big, big becomes bigger, small becomes smaller. And I hear the word tall,

I might guess, "Oh, tall becomes a taller." But then the problem comes once you hear something

that's irregular or it breaks the rules, then you learn a word like wonderful And it's like,

"Oh, it's not wonderful." Or it's like more wonderful or most wonderful. But you learn

those things over time as you begin to connect those sounds.

But the ideal way again, first step is you're learning everything all in English. You're

connecting the sounds or the words with situations and not trying to use translations. And then

you're beginning to kind of practice applying different things. And this is another example

or another reason why when I'm teaching students, I tell them even if it's a new word or something,

maybe you're not so comfortable with for using. Just try to make different words or try to

use different expressions that you learn in different situations. And see if maybe that

pattern will work. Sometimes you'll be wrong, but most of the

time you'll be right because that's how patterns work in languages. So hopefully this makes

sense. I know my videos are always kind of a little bit deeper going into the language.

But if you understand these really basic things about learning, it makes a lot more sense

and you'll be able to get fluent a lot faster. So we go to the third step of this. And again,

this is all kids are doing. It's really the three things that I'm explained to you here.

So again and again, I'm repeating myself because this is also what kids are doing. They repeat

themselves, they watch the same movies or songs or TV shows or whatever again and again.

And that's how they develop fluency. So you're learning, but then it's the repetition that

builds the fluency. So first step learning sounds connecting that with meaning. Second

step is applying patterns and seeing what works and what doesn't. And then learning

the exceptions for things like that. So my older daughter, Aria, she used to say, "I

[goed 00:12:55] to the park." So she would try saying that. And I would

say, "Oh no, no, no. It's you went to the park" or like something else she might make

a mistake with was like, "I found something." So she might say like I find, or I [finded

00:13:09]." Something like that. I say, "Oh no, no, no, you found it." So I ask her again,

sometimes when she's asking me something or saying something to me and she uses it incorrectly,

I'll say, "What was that? What was that?" And then she'll she'll think like, Ah, okay."

She'll try to correct it. And then she'll just say it herself. And again, it takes a

little bit of practice with some things because you're learning the exceptions to the rule.

So that's one, two and the third thing is where you really take it to the highest level

because many students actually ask me, they say, "Okay, "Drew, your system is great for

beginners, but how is it going to help me?" All you're doing again is you're taking the

language that you learn. So this is giving you the vocabulary, the pronunciation, the

grammar, all of these things as you're building that together, you're building this web of

all these different connections. And that's what gives you fluency, which is really just

another way of saying you're getting to speak continuously.

Because if you can't maybe remember this word, you can remember something related to that,

or you can explain it in a different way. And again, the same way I'm speaking right

now, I'm fluent because I'm able to talk. Maybe if I forget a word I want to say or

something, I can switch it to something else and explain that. But you take the vocabulary

that you're learning like a native and you begin applying that in more interesting ways.

I'll just give you one example. Because I could go into lots of them and you can watch

my other videos. There are over 500 free videos right on this channel that I've spent the

past 10 years making for you. So enjoy those videos.

But the last thing here is where you're taking things and one example is like moving from

a physical idea to something more figurative. And I explain more about this in my Visual

Guide to Phrasal Verbs where I'm teaching you how to think like a native. I'm really

just following these same steps. I really do that for all the programs that I teach.

But in this example, let's say I'm playing a game of poker. So this is a card game. I'm

playing a game of poker. There's a group of people sitting around a table and we're all

holding our cards like this. And in this particular game, instead of keeping

my cards on the table and just looking at them like that, I'm really holding them very

close. So no one can see what I'm doing. So sometimes you'll play cards and you'll see

people holding their cards very close to their chest like that. So this is just a physical

idea. And if I'm explaining this same thing to my daughter, I would explain it to her

in the same way. I'm sitting here with my cards very close to my chest like this so

no one can see what I'm doing. So other people are sitting close to me. I want to make sure

no one can see. Now from this physical idea, again, we're

using like cards close to chest. These are all basic words that you learn like a native

by just understanding them the same way native kids do. Because again, they all have to go

through the same phases, these same steps. But you take this like holding my cards close

to my chest and it comes a regular idiom with a more figurative meaning. And figurative

just means you can talk about something that's not physical like an idea or we're going to

describe something else that maybe is different from playing cards and to hold something close

to your chest or to keep something close to your chest in the same way that we're using

this idea of you can talk about anything where you're not trying to reveal much.

So you're keeping secrets from people. I'm building a business. Maybe friends of mine

are asking me, "Oh, what are you doing? What's the new thing that you're building?" I say,"

Oh, I'm keeping my cards close to my chest or I'm playing it close, close to my chest.

I'm keeping it close to my chest." It's just means I'm not revealing what things are or

I'm trying to keep other people from seeing what that thing is. But you can see how once

you understand these words and you understand what they mean.

So even a group of words like play it close to my chest. It's just a group of sounds that

you use in a particular situation. And when you play something close to your chest, now

that you understand that these sounds have the meaning of being secretive about something,

you can then apply that in many different situations. So I can be playing it close to

my chest. Maybe I'm dating some new girl or something like that. And my friends are saying,

"Oh, tell me about her." I say, "Ah, I don't really want to mention so much about that.

I'm like I'm kind of playing it close to my chest. I'm playing this one or I'm keeping

it close to my chest." And they will understand that I don't physically

mean that. I'm not physically keeping anything near my chest, but the idea becomes figurative

and I can use that for many different situations. So you see how easy this is? Now remember

that young kids, they are not learning systematically. Some of them are and it really depends on

the parents that you have. So if your parents are very good at explaining things, they understand

all these ideas about how to teach they can help a child speak much faster, because what

they're really doing is making it easier for the mind to just understand how the language

works and then actually helping them make these connections, understand when things

are regularly following a pattern or breaking a rule. And then showing how those same things

can be applied in different ways. That's all language is. It's really just those

three things. So hopefully you're starting to feel a bit more excited, especially if

you haven't maybe learned much with me before. People who have been following me for a while

will understand all of this, but I thought it was a good idea to just put all of it in

one video to make sure you understand how this works. If you don't have any kids yourself,

watch little kids and see what they do. And you'll notice that if you actually try

to teach them in a more systematic way, that they actually become good speakers faster

than you can take students that are a little bit slower and speed up their process, speed

up their fluency, their confidence, their ability to communicate just by making it more

systematic. And again, systematic means you're taking time to explain, to make these connections

so it becomes easy for them to understand what things are.

Another example recently. So my, again, just about Noelle, we were watching some TV show

and she saw a gorilla on the screen. So there's a picture of a gorilla or a video of a gorilla.

And she said, "Monkey." And I said, "Oh no, that's a gorilla." But to a child that logic

doesn't make any sense to them. So I knew as a systematic teacher teaching my own child,

I have to think, "Let me show her some pictures." So I actually took her to my computer and

I showed her some different pictures of things. I said, "Okay, we're going to look at this

picture, this picture, this picture, this picture, this picture." And then it's like

a very simple game that you may be even a show like Sesame Street will have something

like this. So Sesame Street will give you four pictures and they'll sing this song.

I don't know if they do this now, but when I was a kid and watched, they would say, "Which

one of these things is not like the other?" So they would have maybe an Apple, an orange,

a banana, and I don't know, some skis. So you would look at that and think, "Okay,

what's similar with these three, but different from that?" Now, interestingly, you could

probably find a way to make a connection between all of those things. But it's kind of an obvious

thing they're looking for. These three are different kinds of fruit and this is not a

food or fruit at all. So kids are thinking about things in this way. Actually, we all

are. We are doing this all the time, but we make it more difficult when we try to use

translations and try to force your mind to remember something. And this is a really big

principle that most teachers and schools are just not teaching because I don't know why

people forget this, but most people hate being told what to do or what to think.

And so if you tell your child, especially if you have children, you say, "Don't do that."

They're thinking, "Okay, I want to do that now." Even if you just for some reason make

them stop doing something, they'll just want to continue doing it because you told them

not to do it. It's really weird, but this is how people think. So if you understand

these ideas, it becomes a lot easier to teach. So when I showed Aria or when I showed Noelle

different pictures of animals, it was easier for her to understand what I mean by that.

What do I mean by gorilla? What do I mean by a monkey? So then we can show something

else or show it at a different time. If a child doesn't understand something, you

might show a picture of a gorilla and they say gorilla, and then you show a monkey and

then they say gorilla again. So you think, :Okay, they don't know the difference between

a monkey and a gorilla," which that's actually a pretty complex idea for a child to understand,

but you can tell their level of understanding by showing them something else. So she saw

a little bit later a bear and she said, "Oh, that looks like a monkey." So she saw a bear

and she said, "Monkey." So I'm thinking, "Oh, she's actually has like a kind of a broader

understanding of the word monkey as like animal" or something that looks like this, rather

than something else. So part of it is just the brain developing,

but also just understanding language learning from the perspective of the learner, not from

you as a teacher trying to teach something. It's this understanding that helps you teach

a child much faster. So if you understand all of these ideas, if you apply this to your

language learning, this is how you become a fluent speaker much faster. So you learn

the native way, but systematically and you practice, obviously if you practice in the

right way, it becomes a lot easier. So hopefully that makes sense. If it has please

click that like button and let me know in a comment down below if you have any questions

about that. And if there's anything maybe you don't understand, because I really want

this idea to be very clear for, wow, I guess 10 years, I've been trying to make this idea

very simple for people. Because there are a few different pieces that connect to it.

But really the idea is just learn like a native and you will speak like one. It's only if

you believe that idea or you don't believe that idea that really determines if you're

going to become fluent. But at the very least, people who are learning

like a student don't become fluent generally. So at first like okay, the traditional way

of learning through translations and studying grammar rules like that if that that doesn't

work, then you should be open to something different. And that thing that you should

try, even if you don't believe me, even if this maybe you think, "Okay, that maybe works.

I don't know how I could do that something." Give it a try because that's how you get fluent.

You have to learn like a native because you're making these connections and that's what lets

you speak fluently. So if you'd like to learn more about that,

you can click on the link in the upper right of this video or on the link in the description

below this video. So that will show you some of my programs, which explain in detail more

about the different ways you can learn like a native, so that you can become a great speaker.

So you can learn more about the Fluency Welcome Package or Visual Guide to Phrasal Verbs or

Fluent for Life. So that's where I really go into detail about lots of different topics.

I'll just leave one more final point about Fluent for Life in this video. But once you

understand this idea, you can become fluent in 30 days or less about a particular topic.

Now, this idea is only for people who understand a lot of English already, but can't speak.

So this is again, people who are struggling trying to cross the fluency gap. They know

a lot of English, but they can't communicate fluently. So they struggle with that.

But also if you learn the same kinds of ideas, you learn like a native in a structured way,

then it really becomes easy to communicate fluently about a particular topic. I want

to make that very clear. So that's how you can become a fluent speaker in 30 days or

less about a particular topic. Because what you're really doing when you develop fluency

is using these principles to build habits. And that just means the skill of communicating

automatically. So just like you brush your teeth maybe the same way every day, you have

a habit of doing that. And it takes roughly 21 to 30 days to do that. So if you can build

fluency in a particular topic, which is useful because most people don't talk about every

topic anyway. You talk about particular things and maybe talk about for your job or about

your family life or something like that. But most people are not talking about everything

and that's okay, why you don't need to know everything or every word or every phrase to

be a fluent speaker. And this is again why children, my daughter Aria five-years-old

doesn't know a lot of words, but she communicates fluently for the topics that she speaks about.

So if you remember that idea, you can become a fluent speaker in 30 days or less about

a particular topic. And then you just apply the same system again and again for different

topics. And that's how you become a great speaker.

Anyway, if you'd like to learn more about that, that's in Fluent for Life specifically,

but you can learn again the same way that I'm teaching and learning, helping people

learn like a native, but faster that because it's a systematic approach. Actually helping

people understand, make connections and then become fluent much faster because you're not

just teaching them random things and hoping they understand it.

If that makes sense, again, click that like button, post a comment down below and click

on the link in the upper right of this video or on in the link in the description below

this video. And I'll see you in the next video. Bye bye.

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