Chef Method for Speaking Fluently in English

let's see if we're live on YouTube as  always let me know where you're from  

and if you have any questions as I go  through my usual lesson here lives on  

YouTube I'll do my best to answer those but  make sure first that we're working come on

YouTube all right I think should be  loading in see if we have people watching

here and of course we start as usual with a uh a  fire truck or something well I am Drew Badger so  

we are working now the English fluency guide  and the founder of englishanyone.com welcome  

to another live video here on YouTube today we're  going to talk about something uh I think should be  

very helpful for many people especially those who  know a lot of English but have trouble expressing  

themselves so we often talk about this on the  channel pardon me as I fix my mic stand over

here I think we should be all right one moment  but nice to see everybody here and we'll get  

started look at that from Argentina Brazil  I will keep my eye on comments as usual I  

try to keep the lesson portion of this to the  beginning of the video hopefully it won't go  

too long uh but if you do have questions let  me know uh today we're going to be talking  

about what what I call Chef method uh and this  again should be a uh maybe a clearer way to  

understand about how to get fluent so people who  struggle to speak again I think you will enjoy

this so I was having a conversation with a learner  and they were asking me about how to become a  

more confident fluent speaker and I was also  explaining to them what I do and how I help people  

and they were it it wasn't until I started  explaining this idea that uh it made more  

sense to them and how they can actually become  fluent so I think maybe this uh this kind of  

Chef method explanation should be easier for  people to understand uh but as I try to do I  

like to give different ways of explaining things  so different kinds of people can understand things  

in different ways uh anyway uh I want to talk  about uh let's see if I get a marker here uh  

so this idea of Chef method I want to begin  with just some different kinds of food so if  

we imagine uh you know I'm not the greatest drawer  here but let's imagine we've got uh some chicken  

this is like a you know chicken drumstick or  you know chicken breast or whatever so we got

chicken and let's say we got some onions I'd put  a little kind of round you know that kind of looks  

like an apple or something but it's supposed to  be an onion so an onion maybe we have some green

peppers if you can think of some other  ingredients let me know um but again I'm  

just trying to think of just some some basic  things that most people might know about the  

pictures will not be that great uh but hopefully  you will get the idea anyway um so let's take  

uh I don't know let's see some I don't know  some kind of lettuce or something like that  

or some noodles Let's do let's do like some  kind of noodles we just imagine these are

noodles uh and then maybe we take some garlic  like a little bit of little little bit of spice  

over here if that's fitting on there whoops l i  c garlic all right uh so we've got chicken garlic  

onion green peppers and noodles over here now  I am not a chef and I don't actually know very  

much about cooking I'm not really that good of a  cook if I have to make something I'm okay I can  

usually just take different things and put them in  a pot or a like a fry pan or whatever uh and start  

cooking them so it's not very not very difficult  for me uh so when I look at these things I would  

probably just combine all of them uh in uh in a  like in a pan or whatever and maybe fry them up  

or something so I look at these things and I don't  I don't really see very much but uh I want you to  

imagine maybe you are actually a good Chef you are  good at cooking or finding different uh ways to  

combine ingredients but a chef could look at these  exact same ingredients and probably create I don't  

know 10 different dishes 20 different dishes out  of these things uh and so the interesting thing  

or the the main difference between someone like me  and someone like a chef is they actually know how  

to take these same things and really do something  with them because they know the ingredients really  

well all right so me I know what these are I know  what they taste like but I have a very low level  

of understanding of these ingredients so I know uh  if you take garlic I guess you could maybe roast  

it or heat it up or something I don't really know  much about garlic I know what the flavor tastes  

like I've had garlic before I've had all of these  different foods so I know what they taste like but  

a chef uh like a really good Chef is going to know  all of these things like they could take these and  

make a hot dish so they could actually cook these  things or maybe they could make a salad you could  

make like onion and green peppers and put them on  noodles and have a actual a cold chicken salad so  

you could take these different ingredients and  combine them in different ways you could do just  

maybe taking two of them some kind of chicken and  garlic thing or chicken and onion or green peppers  

and onions or not using chicken at all the point  is you can take these exact same ingredients and  

a chef will look at them in a completely different  way all right uh now why am I bringing this up uh  

because when I usually explain this idea to  Learners they think about like understanding  

vocabulary in the same way that I'm trying to talk  about explaining or trying to explain excuse me uh  

different kinds of ingredients and when like a  regular person is trying to think about learning  

a new language it's kind of like how I'm learning  about food or my kind of lower level knowledge  

about food so I've tried garlic before I've had  it maybe different ways I don't know how to cook  

garlic in different ways but even garlic itself  a chef would know well if we cook it to this  

temperature maybe we get a slightly different  flavor or if we crush it up or if we just add  

a little bit or even if we take different pieces  of the garlic itself so maybe you have like the  

little green little Sprout part that comes over  the top uh or you take the roots or the inside  

or something like that there are lots of different  things you could probably do but I don't know what  

those are all right so the point is that would  be the difference uh between someone who actually  

knows a lot about cooking especially cooking with  garlic uh versus me who doesn't and so when I  

think about cooking uh I I look at cooking in the  same way that a lot of people are trying to learn  

languages is especially uh learning English and so  in my case when I'm talking to Learners I say well  

basically how well do you know your ingredients  all right and by ingredients I mean the vocabulary  

the grammar all those different things that people  think they know they think they know them so again  

uh a person who doesn't know about cooking they  probably know what these things are you could go  

to a store maybe and and buy these things and  maybe you could follow a recipe all right so  

the recipe says you know take this chicken and  Fry this and do this other thing but if you told  

that person to just create their own thing like  me if I had to make my own thing out of these I  

would probably not do a very good job okay so I  know what these are but I know what these are to  

a lower level than like an actual Chef would and  so why is this idea important I like this idea  

of Chef method thinking about vocab ulary and  language learning in the same way is that there  

are actually different levels of understanding  okay so I know what an onion is but I don't really  

know I don't really know what an onion is okay I  know this sounds like kind of a silly idea but I  

like I know what an onion is at a very basic level  I could find that if someone showed me a picture  

of an onion I could tell what that is but I I  wouldn't know what happens to an onion if you cook  

it like let's say there's a certain C degree you  have to cook it this much temperature like I don't  

know 90° or something uh and if you cook it like  80 or or 90 or 100 the flavor actually changes  

now I don't know that I don't know if that's true  or not maybe it does maybe there's some kind of  

thing about onions in this way uh but the point is  a good Chef would and so if you go to Chef School  

imagine you start you know you want to become a  chef and you go to a chef school and the teacher  

says okay today we're going to learn about onions  and one student raises their hand and they say oh  

well well why why am I taking this class I already  know what an onion is and the teacher says well  

okay tell me about onions and the and the student  says well you know it's like a little round thing  

and you could put it in some salad or something  like that and they would probably give a very low  

like not not very intelligent way of describing  what an onion is compared to a chef Okay so  

like a professional really good Chef could  probably take an onion and make all kinds of  

really interesting things out of it that a regular  person that doesn't know about cooking would think  

of all right so when I think about explaining  vocabulary to people I want you to think about  

it in this way if you want to speak okay so when  people think well I already know that vocabulary  

I say really how well do you know that vocabulary  are you actually good like do you really know how  

to use something could could you take the same  five words and create wholly different sentences  

out of them could you take two or three words  and make one thing or make a make a joke out  

of one thing could you really use that uh that  vocabulary or these ingredients really well okay  

and so this idea of of like people being able to  take ingredients and follow recipes that's one  

way where if you're trying to learn something uh  especially learning a language it's easy to find a  

recipe for something in a cookbook like a language  textbook and in that way we would have like this  

is a particular grammar structure like vowel and  then consonant and this and we're going to make  

a word that way or we're going to take a noun and  a verb and an adjective and combine them in this  

way but a really good speaker knows how to combine  these different things automatically and can make  

lots of different interesting words and phrases  and sentences and stories and all kinds of things  

Okay so I want to remind people that even if you  think you know something if you are not speaking  

fluently there's a whole a whole other level like  many many other levels really uh of understanding  

that you could get to and if you think that you  if you think you know something but you actually  

don't you are hurting yourself and hurting your  ability to speak okay and so I'm going to take  

this little little chef idea I'm going to have  just another way of explaining this I'll look at  

chat and in just a second uh but hopefully this  idea is very clear uh when I was explaining this  

to a student they really got it they were like ah  like like yes like I can get a like a translation  

of this like I can I can learn the word onion like  tamanegi in Japanese I can learn a a different  

word for that but that doesn't mean I really  know what to do with an onion the same way a  

chef would okay so I can get the translation  of a word also but I don't really know all  

the different and and various uses of vocabulary  and the ways I could use things the way a native  

would so if I want to become a fluent speaker I  need to be thinking more like a chef and actually  

respect the ingredients and learn more about them  rather than just try to think well I already know  

that I know that word I know that uh that in that  ingredient that vegetable really and people will  

often be surprised at what a really good Chef can  do with something that that person had not thought  

of before remember the first time I had a uh I  think different different restaurants call this  

different things but basically you take an onion  and you you batter it like you put some kind of uh  

like frying stuff on it and then you deep fry that  and cut it and so it looks like a big flour and  

people call that like a I don't know a blooming  onion or whatever you call that but I remember the  

first time I saw that I said oh my God I never  thought like I'd never occurred you know that  

thought it never occurred to me to take an onion  and cut it that way and serve that as as like a  

meal for people and so again that's me thinking  like well I know what an onion is now for my like  

me personally I don't claim to know anything about  uh about cooking I'm you know I can I can cook a  

little bit but I don't know things the way a great  chef does and so I wouldn't tell that Chef well I  

know what an onion is all right so if I want to  become a chef then I need to be thinking more  

like a chef and that the the potential of these  various ingredients I could even just focus on  

these and learn to become a really good Chef  just by learning a few different things like  

this okay so what does a typical language learner  do all right instead of taking a few things and  

really understanding them well what do they do  they do the opposite they try to learn you know  

100 words a day or whatever how many words it  is but they don't really understand them very  

well okay they can tell you what they are they can  probably understand them when they hear them in a  

conversation but they still don't feel confident  about using them okay and so this is where a lot  

of people get stuck they understand something to a  very low degree or maybe well enough to understand  

when people maybe you hear those things in a movie  or something but you don't have that level that  

that Chef level of knowledge about something  where you really feel confident that you'll  

say it correctly and that's why a lot of people  know a lot of English but struggle to speak okay  

so hopefully this idea makes sense uh I want to  continue with this explain a little bit more but I  

want to look at chat just to see if uh people are  getting this idea or if they're not hopefully they  

are let me know uh and you know let me know where  you're from or if you have additional questions  

that are related to this or not uh but in general  uh when I get questions from Learners about how  

to learn everything about the language like your  vocabulary or your grammar or your pronunciation  

your listening all of that comes comes from this  idea and so at the very beginning if you choose  

to understand the language the way a chef would  understand food you will become a fluent speaker  

very quickly but if you're just thinking about it  like a regular person that doesn't know much about  

cooking you will probably just learn about more  ingredients to a very low level and not really  

become a very good cook you could probably follow  a recipe if you had one but again a good Chef can  

take things and they just know how to deal with  them they can actually what you might call Cook  

fluently all right so fluently uh again it  just means that they're able to do something  

without thinking about it without hesitating or  translating uh and that's how you can do the same  

thing again notice we're just talking about a few  ingredients I'm not talking about everything in  

a kitchen and I've never been to Chef school but  I would imagine they probably learn about simple  

things first and they build on that and they  actually learn more and go into more detail about  

well look at that they're actually different you  know like layers of heat or whatever that you know  

particular thing is so people learn how to cook  with fire or oil or whatever uh and that's how  

they become more confident speakers all right let  me look at chat see if people have any questions  

about anything and we'll continue from there I  want to show you exactly how to do this and uh  

how you should be learning more like a native more  uh like a chef would be learning these same things  

all right say tail says hello George tan nice to  see you there uh fapple nice to see you there hi  

everyone Ola greetings from Argentina says Dario  Patricio from Brazil and Ma Chang Hello nice to  

see you there Paris hi Antonio hello my hero from  Brazil wow I didn't know I was anybody's hero but  

you're welcome it's it's my pleasure to have  you have you here T again from Colombia from  

Chile up from Morocco uh regards from Mexico  best regards from Brazil Somalia oh hi m

Patricia says did you eat cashew uh like ever or  do you know cashew like do I know what cashews are  

yep I do one of my favorite little nuts actually  actually I think I have some cashews with me right  

now let's see uh body says hello and Dennis hello  from USA and Kurdistan bridet says Drew you are  

a good teacher trying your best for your learner  to grasp the understanding uh yes well thank you  

Bridget uh I'm very I know what it's like when I  don't get something and I will spend a lot of time  

personally struggling as I try to learn different  things about a language or whatever most mostly  

about language stuff that's frustrating for me uh  because I don't I often I can try to find examples  

of of how to understand something but often it's  very difficult for me to find those maybe I'm slow  

like that uh but I know other people can probably  be slow like I am so I really want to make sure  

people understand what I'm talking about Patricio  says great class I am a very good cook I learned  

from my grandmother glad to hear it yes so a  person who is a good cook a good Chef can look  

at these ingredients and actually know what to  do with them uh and they would know how to take  

like the kind of goal of okay we need a salad  can you produce a salad from these ingredients  

like a really good Chef I could say hey can  you make a birthday cake all we have is these  

ingredients and they could probably do that all  right so just like a fluent speaker could take  

a few words and actually do something with those  create some interesting sentences or stories uh  

a chef could do the same thing so Richard says  good morning sometimes I come across words with  

the same spelling but different pronunciation uh  yes so they uh there are actually many words like  

this and sometimes even the word like read so the  pronunciation can change depending on the context  

and and this is why it's important to always learn  vocabulary uh in context uh which we'll be talking  

about in just a second so this could be read or  it could be read depending on what you're talking  

about so if it's the past tense like yesterday  I read a book and so typically what natives  

are doing is they're connecting vocabulary with  situations which I'll show you in just a minute  

but yes that's uh that's what happens and that's  why it's important to connect the vocabulary uh or  

the pronunciation the grammar all of those things  with certain situations that that way it's much  

easier to understand uh when you're learning and  then you can learn to speak fluently uh Pana says  

hi Drew uh very good morning glad to see you  I got up early today join your lesson welcome  

from Sri Lanka Fabio greetings from Malta look at  that I think that might be our first person from  

Malta well that's cool Paris from Iran living  in Melbourne look at people all over the place  

here hello from Kurdistan again how to understand  sentences well uh we we'll be talking about this a  

little bit more in this video as well but the same  kind of idea um it all comes from whether you want  

to understand sentences well or use sentences well  uh it comes from really understanding the language  

very well all right and by very well I don't mean  like spending a lot of time studying the language  

I mean just understanding it well and you can  actually do this uh very quickly which I'll  

show you in a moment uh Greek say hello to you  Georgia is spaghetti new noodle or pasta well you  

spaghetti a noodle just means like a long kind of  thin thing like that pasta is just a type of that  

so noodle like you could have noodles that are  spaghetti or noodles that are ramen or noodles  

that are I don't know Linguini or different  different kinds of pasta so there's usually  

different shapes of pasta or different thicknesses  or the different material so maybe rice noodles or  

wheat or something else you could be using uh but  it depends on the ingredient I talked uh I talked  

a little bit ago about uh when we're talking about  uncountable and countable nouns and so you have  

something like a cup of rice and a cup of rice  the like whether it's countable or not it really  

just depends on the container the thing is in so  we could have a cup of rice or a glass of rice  

or a bowl of rice or a rice noodle if we take the  rice and press it into that form just like water  

all right Bridget says uh I was brilliant at math  in school because I was taught the four rules and  

the times taes I struggled with English yeah it's  hard to get the uh like the English equivalent of  

that of like learning math because it's much more  when math you you understand a concept very easily  

and uh like they build on each other very well  but language it's a little bit tricky because  

you can you can have these different pieces  of the language and not learn them in uh any  

particular order it can be very frustrating  for people when I find a new word I check  

where and how to use it at first I find at least  10 examples with that word and only after that  

write it down and try to use it in my speech yes  that's a good idea again we want to make ourselves  

feel confident by knowing that vocabulary very  well and what you're talking about here this is  

what I call naturally varied review where you're  getting different examples of the vocabulary and  

understanding that well so you understand it much  better uh from many examples rather than just one  

I it says big fan of you from Egypt nice to see  you there and hasham says sir I can understand you  

but when it come time to speak I get stuck what  to do please tell yes that is what we are talking  

about in this video Armondo says are you following  the Copa America which is hosted by the US uh I  

don't know what that is so I guess not Franco says  good sharing greetings from Indonesia and Paris if  

we talk to someone who is the same level as me or  if uh does that help to both sides to improve our  

English uh I I probably wouldn't wouldn't do that  I I mean I don't know it could hurt you actually  

and it's probably not going to improve your level  very much so I I would look for either people who  

are much better than you like native speakers if  you can find them or you don't actually need to  

have a person to speak with you just get lots of  good examples of spoken English and as you get  

those different examples you will naturally feel  more confident about about using those things so  

don't feel like you have to practice speaking in  order to become flu ah it's a Soc ah okay uh no  

no idea I'm not following I think isn't there like  a isn't there a like a soccer like a World Cup or  

something happening right now in Europe or is that  and the Olympics are happening soon right I think  

I don't I don't follow any of that uh but yeah I I  think I think it's happening let me know I'm sure  

maybe somebody will talk about Olympic vocabulary  something like that sun says can you speak Chinese  

no I can kind of pretend like I'm speaking Chinese  but I cannot I can speak Japanese and English  

andite says I was trying to find out if the  program was difficult for people in Africa what  

program hi my great teachers my first time here  football all right yes well yes we we call soccer  

in the United States because we also have another  sport called American football or just football  

all right uh so let's take a look at uh this this  same kind of idea apply this I wanted to show you  

how a chef would actually learn to do something  and I really like the chef example because it's  

a it's a physical thing that you learn to do and  you typically learn to do it by doing that thing  

and so let's look at how language is learned in  the same way by native [Music] speakers now this  

is a really uh fascinating thing uh you will  probably see this I wish I I wish I had like  

a video example of this but uh it will make sense  anyway I want you to imagine you have a a mother  

so let's just say a mother and a child uh so let's  just say a little girl and a little boy over here  

uh make that a little eyes over there so they are  in the kitchen and they are learning uh to cook I  

don't know some pancakes or something like that  now listen carefully to the conversation here  

so the mother here has an egg and she is going  to crack the egg and then put the egg into the  

bowl over here and so she does that she's holding  on to the egg and she cracks the egg and she says  

if I write this down here I broke the egg so very  simple the children can usually see like it's her  

talking I did something so at this point when  when kids are learning to cook obviously they  

would know the language pretty well but this  is again how they learn subtleties about the  

language and uh I forget who mentioned before  about different readings for the same word or  

different understandings for the same word but  hopefully they should make that a little bit  

more clear as well and so the mother has an egg  over here and the kids are just watching here  

and she is talking and she says I broke the egg  so she breaks the egg open uh and the egg falls  

into the bowl and they mix it up and make some  you know pancakes or whatever so here uh they  

have a very simple example of of you know the  subject verb agreement we make sure we've got I  

broke and then what we're talking about breaking  so you can see uh an actual example over here uh  

I broke the egg I broke the egg now let's say uh  after that the mother is holding another egg and  

she accidentally drops that egg on the floor  she accidentally drops that egg on the floor  

and now in this case she could say I broke the  egg but in this case she actually says the egg

the egg broke make sure that can fit over

here so I

broke I broke the

egg and the Egg broke now what happens when the  kids are watching this and they're hearing these  

examples and they see the difference they think  oh look at that so even though my mom actually  

dropped the egg on the ground she uses oh look at  that the intransitive uh the egg broke like the  

egg did it by itself and so the kids are learning  a very subtle but important use of the language  

here where we can take the same word but in one  way we're talking about someone doing something  

and the other way we're talking about it doing  something by itself okay so even though the mother  

was the one who dropped the egg she said oh no the  egg broke and very quickly kids learn that oh look  

at that like when I make a mistake I can use the  language in this way to take some responsibility  

away from myself all right so I broke the egg or  the Egg broke and so they start learning different  

examples of that you'll notice the mother is not  trying to teach them hey class today we're going  

to talk about transitive and intransitive verbs  and I'm going to give you a bunch of examples  

they're actually just learning it very naturally  the same way a chef would learn by doing something  

all right now I'm not suggesting you need to be  in a family with native speakers although that's  

very nice if you can do it most people don't  have that opportunity but you have the next  

best thing which is to watch lots of examples of  natives doing things and actually learning the  

language that way and so you learn the language  the same way a chef does we take a word like broke  

and we understand that it could be transitive or  intransitive depending on the situation and notice  

I I don't really spend much time uh doing grammar  lessons where I talk about the names of verbs or  

or like the kind of verb like transitive versus  intransitive uh or passive versus active things  

like that because you don't need to know that  vocabulary in order to speak the point is really  

to understand the thing like a native and that's  what's going to get you fluent okay so when people  

talk about this the kids they can then apply this  understanding to something else like oh no uh I

broke the toy so this is how kids learn  language and then begin applying it in  

different situations but they're doing it  not because they studied it in a textbook  

but because they understand the vocabulary well  and they understand the nuance of oh look at  

that I can make this transitive or intransitive  and it's not about caring about the the grammar  

point the point is wait a minute what do I  want to communicate to people what's really  

the idea here the idea is like oh it's my  fault I broke the toy but if the child is  

trying to say well it's not really my fault  I don't know what happened we would say h the

toy the toy broke oh no it broke

okay so if we're talking about like a problem  with a car or a computer or something like that  

typically uh maybe we did do something to it  but we often Begin by saying oh well like the  

thing just like it broke by itself you know like  I didn't maybe I touched it but I don't think I  

did anything okay so all of this children are  learning that just by doing and really when I  

say doing they're actually just getting examples  from from their mother okay and they're not only  

getting examples from their mother they're getting  examples from their father or friends or cousins  

or whatever School teachers or actually lots  of examples from television or radio or news  

or books or lots of things like that and so as  you get all of these different examples it's  

exactly the same way that a chef would learn uh  the way a chef is like actually experimenting  

with different things and learning all of these  different ways of using something just by getting  

these varied examples Isn't that cool so I broke  the egg this is just one example and usually uh  

when children are learning the language this  is how they begin to understand the language  

because parents parents are not going to explain  well this is a transitive verb and this one is  

intransitive they're just like oh look the door  is open I open the door I open the door or look  

at that it's an automatic door so the door opens  the door opens so one of them is transitive one of  

them is intransitive but it it doesn't matter  like and when I say transitive it's like you  

are the one providing some transit or motion or  something else is providing that so here like I  

broke the toy I broke the toy I'm I'm providing  the motion for that so I did that thing so it's  

transitive here but the toy broke is intransitive  it's just doing it by itself nothing is causing  

that thing it just did it by itself okay but  the the whole point of understanding a language  

so you use it is if you understand the language  really well you don't need to think about rules  

so children like most children most adults  could probably not tell you or give you an  

example of a transitive verb if you asked for one  you could ask an adult native English speaker you  

could put a gun to their head and say give me  an example of a transitive verb and they would  

say well I guess it's I guess I'll just have  to die because I I don't know what that means  

okay and again they can know how to use a  transitive verb or an intransitive verb but  

it doesn't matter to them what those what those  names are because it's not necessary to know that  

for actual communication okay hopefully this  makes sense uh very important idea about how  

you should be learning the language too so if  you are doing the opposite which is learning  

the traditional English as a second language way  where you begin by like okay today we're going  

to look at transitive verbs in transitive and I'm  going to give you a list of all these things and  

it's probably going to be more difficult for  you to remember that and also to use it in a  

conversation without thinking okay but if you  learn the language like this learning English  

as a first language the same way native children  are learning then it really becomes clear very  

easily because you can see the connection between  the situation and the vocabulary you understand  

the vocabulary in context so if someone asks me  hey Drew what does broke mean I can say well you  

know it's like something that's getting worse  or it's disconnected or something's not working  

anymore but you typically learn the vocabulary  from a situation the situation and the vocabulary  

are connected so it's very difficult to try to  learn just the vocabulary and then come back to  

situations after that okay does this make sense  hopefully this does uh but again you can see  

how this is then applied to other things so very  even young children they would say oh no like the

milk or way would just say maybe it

spilled so if you have a child sitting at a table  and they they knock some milk over uh especially  

if it's their fault they will just say oh no it's  spilled oh no it's spilled and Mom knows or dad  

knows or the you know the adult there knows  uh will the child probably knock that over  

over but the child understands the use of the  language where it's not my fault if I use the  

language in this way so they're not thinking  about like you know what the what the particular  

transitive or intransitives of the of the grammar  is they're just using it because ah this is how  

you use uh like for this situation this is the  vocabulary you use okay yes so Bridget actually  

just had another another good point there uh  chefs are always trying to improve their skills  

and it's usually because they're interested in  that uh they they actually they like learning  

more about uh like good cooking or they want  to learn more about meals or whatever there  

are always new things to learn deeper things  you could go to I mean you could probably take  

a class in just how to cook with eggs just using  an egg and maybe two or three other things I bet  

you could you could make a whole cooking class and  like series of TV shows or a book I bet there are  

I don't know much about cooking but uh if you go  to maybe Amazon or a bookstore or whatever and you  

look there and you find uh cooking books just for  eggs I'm sure you could find lots of recipes for  

that and you would be astonished surprised Amazed  by how much wow look at all these different things  

you could do with just eggs okay and you could  do desserts or like regular maybe Savory food so  

Savory means like you know like like chicken and  and like meat and things I can't even explain it  

well because I'm not a chef but when we talk about  like the like sweeter things versus like a dinner  

kind of thing uh that's when we're we're talking  about uh like those different kinds of things as  

a as a chef but I'm not a chef and I know some of  that vocabulary to a little degree or a low degree  

I guess uh but the more important thing is if  you're interested in that uh and uh even if you're  

not like for the language learning example maybe  some people don't care about English which is fine  

but if you care about communicating with other  people and especially if you need English for your  

life it's actually very easy to get excited about  things like this especially when you see them in  

context so if you watch a YouTube video and just  get a list of vocabulary you're probably not going  

to feel very excited about that but if you also  see that natives are using these things and you  

see proof like look at that these actual natives  are uh describing these things in this way or or  

expressing themselves in this way then you will  feel much more confident and actually be happy  

that you spent the time to do that okay let me  take a look at chat but hopefully uh people are  

understanding this idea it's actually a quite  simple idea but I I really wanted to make this  

to remind people that if you're not speaking  as well as you'd like you need to go more into  

detail with things and actually learn them the  same way natives do all right so however you do  

that whether you're doing that by yourself or  you do that with my help in fluent for life or  

whatever uh but that's how you should be doing it  uh so that's the same thing I do in Japanese as  

well as I'm learning that I'm always trying to get  different examples and when I think I understand  

something I will typically hear a new use of  it and I'm always surprised and very excited  

when I do because oh look at that I leveled up  my ability to use that word and that improves  

my conversations all right uh marsiliana  from Brazil always lots of Brazilians there  

uh let's see Armando okay you got answered  that one already let's see I was trying to  

find out if the program has a discount for  people in Africa uh what program uh you're  

talking about our programs um well we don't we  don't really have like a discount for people in  

particular regions um but we have different  programs so if people are unable to join  

a like a more expensive one we have lower  priced ones as well let's see uh maner from  

India hi from Vietnam says truck and subasa  nice to see you there with the de Ohio gas  

di says hello from Mexico your draw is good and  funny yes my my drawings are not very good my I  

can actually draw pretty well sometimes but I'm  trying to draw very quickly for these videos I  

don't want to sit and draw like take a long time  to draw somebody very nice uh because it doesn't  

really help me Teach anything better all right  who wants some pie says are yes bring bringing  

some uh some old school uh references over there  y'all want some pie yes that's a good idea for  

for our Chef cooking example over here so we  have the same thing in airbook says nul and  

Carolina from uh or Carolina from uh Dominican  Republic how much time to learn English per day  

uh well how much time do you want to spend per  day I I would I would rather think like the the  

more important question is how you learn rather  than the amount of time you spend because I could

take I could take I could take let's say I have an  hour so one hour to learn 1 hour uh and I have two  

different ways of learning if I do the E uh FL  way the English as a first language way I could  

actually make a lot of progress in an hour I  could make a lot of progress in I don't know  

5 minutes depending on the particular lesson  I'm getting uh but if you're learning English  

as a second language typically you could spend  an hour and not really feel more fluent if you  

don't understand anything better so I could take  a I don't know some flash cards and review these  

again and again but did that really help me maybe  maybe not uh often people are not really feeling  

that much more confident after they learn and so  if a lesson does not help you feel more confident  

uh by eliminating doubt that you have then it's  a waste of time so the the point is more first  

how to learn and then I try to spend as much as  as much time as I could learning the language  

especially if I need that language for my life uh  let's see Lily says could you save this live yep  

I will we always save these lives and people can  come back and watch them anytime Dragon says hello  

from Morocco vanilla said what's the difference  between the perspectives and point of view and in  

my opin opinion ah uh well like perspective and  point of view like that as as literally talking  

about like which way you're looking at something  uh rather uh or whether it's like a physical thing  

or you're you're thinking about it figurative  figuratively mentally um so I could be thinking  

like from my point of view and typically people  use this in a uh like a actually people use this  

in both ways but like point of view like if we're  looking at something so if I'm standing over here  

and I'm looking this way and you're standing over  here and you're looking that way at it so our  

point of views or our perspectives are different  uh and that's typically where we're we're we're  

talking about a particular thing and what we think  about it now this is similar to an opinion about  

something but uh my my opinion is like it's it's  I don't know I mean you could use that with uh  

like my perspective I I suppose you could say but  it's it's typically perspective and point of view  

are used for a bit more maybe important kinds of  things like like a more professional situation  

or you're having a more educated conversation but  if you're talking about a movie you just saw your  

opinion would be more like the particular thing  you're just kind of sharing your thoughts about  

it um another difference between like opinion and  perspective is typically a perspective is maybe  

a more thought out or a deeper or broader way of  explaining something so I might have a perspective  

on life where like I have different values or  different ways of thinking about life something  

like that um and I don't really and but like  having an opinion about life is just like what do  

I think about it so it's a little bit different um  and you could people people again could use these  

things like you could have a perspective about  something or an opinion about something or a  

point of view uh about that thing but generally uh  you will find like perspective and point of view  

are used for a bit more elegant or educated or uh  more professional things or uh if you're talking  

maybe more deeply about a topic so like again my  perspective on life rather than my opinion about  

life you would you would typically hear that more  all right where did I let's see uh da from China  

here uh here is Egypt's mother world uh when will  we end this live uh whenever it ends I don't have  

a specific time I can't be here forever though  uh let's see Ki says have a good one and Leo says  

yesterday I was watching your class about the word  gritty nice did you learn something uh hopefully  

it made sense and I can't read the cerlic is  English your first language yes it is does it  

sound like it's not my first language hopefully  my English is pretty good I try to practice it  

every day you know let's see Wendy language  Enthusiast again sorry I'm late hello I'm uh from  

Nagoya Japan yes it's rainy over there it's rainy  in Nagasaki as well and site says I'm in that  

program fluency for Life uh if it has any discount  for someone like me in Africa yeah we we don't  

have like particular country specific discounts  uh benj says from Haiti George John do you know  

what bullet climbing means no bullet climbing no  never heard of that is that a video game thing or  

something else some new expression and there like  again lots of words or Expressions I wouldn't know  

especially some uh new vocabulary or something  that maybe like people from previous generations  

used or Old English from you know a couple hundred  years ago something lots of English that I do not  

know but I can still speak fluently all right  Wendy again I hear that our rainy season is  

about to be over it is rain in is it raining andu  yes it is uh wait are you not are you not from  

you're you're in Japan but you're not Japanese I'm  guessing let's see uh English grammar and tense is  

important or not well uh as I just showed you with  this lesson here of course grammar is important  

and you're basically learning grammar right from  when you start hearing the like the language from  

your parents or other people because the grammar  and the vocabulary it's it's one thing it's kind  

of like saying like is a color necessary for an  object it's like well if you have like something  

it will be some kind of color or maybe you can  make it clear I guess uh but the point is you you  

can't really separate grammar and vocabulary and  you can't separate pronunciation either so natives  

are learning all these things at the same time the  important thing again is how are you learning the  

grammar or vocabulary or pronunciation whatever  um so uh if you're learning English as a first  

language you will be understanding grammar like  this where you're hearing these different examples  

from different people in different situations and  that helps you intuitively understand the grammar  

so you use it correctly confidently and fluently  all right so if you're not really understanding  

the grammar because you're studying it like  a typical language student uh maybe you're  

trying to follow the rules but you're not really  understanding it in context then it's going to be  

much more difficult for you to learn that way so  again uh the goal is not to like spend a lot of  

time doing something it's to just do it well and  the more you understand the language like a native  

the better you will become a good speaker or the  better you will speak I should say hopefully that  

makes sense so again whenever people are asking  me about how they can solve a particular problem  

or if they're asking me questions about like  learning grammar or vocabulary it's like yes  

obviously grammar is important but the important  thing is how you learn the gram grammar because  

this is still a grammar lesson so like the the  child uh is still understanding the grammar from  

the parent but the parent is not explaining the  grammar rule they're just giving an example of the  

grammar Rule and the more examples you get the  more you understand the thing intuitively okay  

so I could I could give like I mean often I will  give examples like this to my kids and they just  

understand the vocabulary and they understand the  grammar and the pronunciation but it's not because  

I I gave them a textbook or some flashcards or  something I just said look like let me show you  

the difference between these two things or where  you know they just see this naturally and so the  

more you can do this as well the faster you get  fluent all right Ben Wong recently I'm playing  

Red Dead Redemption on switch yeah I thought about  getting that game but I it seemed like it was like  

I don't know takes a lot of time I guess Bruno  says hey Drew glad to be here Nice Class by the  

way it's my pleasure to see you again sir Elder  says the day before I saw the video the welding  

instructor showed how to use a penetration method  and it said uh bloody like a stuck pig it makes my  

day yes and so you will learn some interesting  things like that especially if you're learning  

from natives Ben Wong gang says uh it's night in  Europe but I feel hungry I lost my sleep a bit uh  

recently oh no you lost your sleep oh no you're  not getting enough sleep hopefully well uh then  

don't play Red Dead Redemption you know get some  get some sleep instead uh let's see a AF says from  

Chicago you are you would say you are a good  teacher but it's my pleasure happy to help uh  

I want to go to McDonald's where near my apartment  enjoy Bruno again says do you think we should aim  

for a C2 level I think C2 is so academic would C1  be any better I don't know I I can't really tell  

people what their what their particular goals are  because each person has their own thing for their  

life so if you need academic English for your life  then get that academic English but if you don't  

and it doesn't matter then you know it's it's it's  just not that big of a deal but you might uh again  

you might like as a native I don't need to I don't  need to go to uh like college in order to get  

academic level English I can just read higher  level books or I can read science fiction or  

something like that uh but again it just depends  on what you need for your life so I wouldn't  

waste my time doing something like if you're let's  say we just had the McDonald's example if you're  

working at McDonald's you probably don't need to  know like academic English you know uh so it just  

depends on what your what your situation is or  or even maybe if you're working as an executive  

in McDonald's then you would probably need to  know that but again it depends on your life um  

uh let's see Wendy says I'm Japanese and I think  you might recognize me if you remember me we've  

met before Wendy the language Enthusiast you're  [ __ ] a Japanese person named Wendy is that your  

real name but I we've met before Le says actually  I was watching your class and you were speaking a  

bit fast and I look up and went back to the video  very good yes I try to speak a little bit faster  

in some videos or at some times in videos just  so I can I can shake things up a little bit I can  

give people a little bit of a challenge a superb  presentation says food challenge sister now this  

is going to be someone who would appreciate  a lesson like this if you're a food challenge  

sister then there you go uh let's see an aara  says hi Drew all the time that you always live  

video lessons what kind of camera are you using  this is an iPhone 8 plus I think uh so maybe I'm  

a little bit out of date uh but I I try to keep my  setup very uh very easy for me to do so I can take  

the camera I have a like just a blue microphone in  front of me nothing fancy I should probably get a  

lav mic I I think I have some but I didn't really  like using them uh this is just easier and I don't  

have anything attached to me I don't really like  the the motion of something like that but maybe  

the technology has improved uh but we we'll see  anyway it's a it's very simple setup uh Miguel  

says could you recommend a book to help me become  more fluent in English you should check my channel  

and just watch the videos about uh I have a video  specifically that says these books will get you  

fluent in English and what I recommend in that  video is lots of lots of things about the same  

topic uh especially CH uh children's books uh and  again you might think that well well children's  

books I don't I don't need children's books that's  Beneath My Level and uh thinking that way is is  

like the chef example I gave before like well I  know an onion is of course well who cares I mean  

anybody can you know that's easy to know what an  onion is but do you really know what an onion is  

could you cook an onion very well and could you  cook it in 20 different ways could you do the same  

thing with vocabulary and so when we get a lot  of these examples I personally enjoy children's  

books a lot because I'm getting usually lots  of varied examples that naturally varied review  

often children's books I should brought some  today but uh I didn't make that example before  

um but in in that video you can see those uh  examples uh but when we had uh in that in that  

video I'm showing you typically a children's book  will give you like a grammar point or something  

and they will they will use it again and again so  I gave an example in that video about like I like  

it when we do something so I like it when we try  new food I like it when you read me a story or I  

like it when we whatever so lots of different  examples of that uh and so children they're  

actually getting grammar lessons without realizing  it that way and that's how you should be learning  

grammar too so it's important to understand that  like grammar is important I want to reiterate that  

to say that again grammar is important but how you  learn the grammar is even more important because  

if you're trying to study lessons that you don't  really like or it's not really making much sense  

to you then you probably will not enjoy that  very much and so uh again the like the example  

before about I broke the egg versus the egg broke  it's very clear to people what this means and now  

they can start applying that in other situations  like oh no something spilled or this thing opened  

or that thing closed or this thing started or  that thing stopped and you can really understand  

the grammar that way even though you might not  know if it's transitive or intransitive because  

again it just doesn't matter if you know those  uh those particular terms but if you're trying  

to learn uh with books and books should be part  of the way you learn but uh you still need to get  

lots of examples of how natives actually speak  because anything where you have text uh it's a  

lot easier to understand than the natural real  way that people communicate that is often not  

very clear or sentences are not gramatically  correct uh and so again when you hear me uh  

speaking in these videos I'm not not speaking the  same way I would speak normally and I'm making an  

effort to be more understandable that way you  can actually follow particular sentences and  

it the grammar makes sense and my speech is clear  I'm not slurring my words or using uh things that  

would be a bit a bit more difficult for people to  understand uh let's see oh no I got lost again all  

right uh and Ben Wong okay I feel there are always  a lot of vocabulary I don't know when I watching  

YouTube even already reached B1 B2 and when when  people talk about English levels like that like  

uh it's the same thing for passing uh tests so I I  will I will actually help lots of people who have  

good scores on tests but they still have lots of  trouble with native speakers and that's because  

again uh like the the way people regularly speak  is just different from the way most people would  

get lessons in classes uh and so rather than  thinking about like a particular level like I  

was explaining earlier uh think more about the  the kind of English you want to use than the  

kinds of speakers you have to encounter in your  daily life so if you work for a company and those  

people are harder to understand than that's it's  kind of different from B1 or B2 or whatever you're  

actually paying more attention to those particular  speakers so really focus on listening to them and  

that will make your life much easier uh but  yes there will always be new things to learn  

and new situations uh where people are trying to  uh maybe teach you something or you want to learn  

something new and as you go deeper into something  just like becoming a chef I think there there was  

a series of videos I don't know if this these are  still around but um or they're still making them  

they're probably still on YouTube but this was uh  like a beginner and a kind of intermediate person  

and an expert uh Chef making different different  kinds of food so you would take something simple  

like a hamburger or like seemingly simple so you  take something that a lot of people might know how  

to make but then see how different people would  make that and then uh try to get the different uh  

like examples of that and you would see wow like  the expert really knows a lot about how to make a  

hamburger taste perfect and again like looking at  the uh the egg example it's the same the same kind  

of thing where a a beginning English learner  just learns the word egg but a fluent native  

speaker knows 20 different recipes or 20 different  ways to cook an egg all right so I want you to get  

to that level where you uh where you're actually  able to use things without thinking about it uh  

so I feel textbook English is limited whether  it's higher or lower level yes and it's always  

limited again because it's text so text is going  to be clear usually grammatically correct but it's  

just different even a transcript of a conversation  would be better than a textbook for understanding  

how natives really speak so even me right now  I'm trying my best to speak clearly to speak in  

grammatically correct sentences you know the the  kinds of things you would expect from a lesson  

like this but it's a little bit better than just  reading it in a textbook so if I had to take my  

time and and think and write down everything  I wanted to say it would it would look much  

different than the way I'm uh saying it right  now uh let's see did I skip anybody here okay  

I got those Dario says I always put or I put you  always to hear as a background music while I work  

glad to hear it what do you do all right hopefully  you can uh you should be able to learn a little  

bit try to learn maybe one or two new things each  day don't put a lot of pressure on yourself but  

yeah it's good to keep something good in English  in the background I think people actually do enjoy  

having these longer videos where they can listen  to something you can put it on without needing  

to change anything uh but I'm glad some people  are enjoying that Ben will said Ben Wan what is  

the meaning of laidback uh it means someone  having a break well laidback uh typically  

it's talking about a person's personality so the  idea of laidback we usually as I often teach we  

have a physical uh Like An Origin of something  you can see so a person who's in a chair that's  

reclining they are laying like kind of laid back  like that and then you can take that feeling of  

how you are sitting in a chair like that and apply  it to a person's personality so you can think wow  

he's a very relaxed person in general like people  don't maybe something happens in her life or his  

life and and they don't really feel very worried  about things they're very relaxed about things  

they're very laid-back so it would mean uh talking  about a person's personality in that way uh or you  

could also talk about an event or something rather  than as opposed to a company board meeting where  

people are maybe they're wearing suits and they're  sitting around a table and they're having a very  

professional conversation you could also have  a company meeting that's very laidback so it's  

more relaxed maybe people are sitting around a  campfire instead so it's like a camping trip and  

uh it's just a more relaxed feeling and people  maybe feel more comfortable talking about things  

so it's more relaxed more laidback all right so  remember when you're learning vocabulary often  

we learn things at a kind of higher level so a  friend of mine says oh like you should meet this  

person he's very laidback and if you only hear  that it's not really clear what laidback means  

so you have to go and and get these examples of  like all right well what does that mean but again  

this is this is like the way we teach INF fluent  for life to really help you understand uh how the  

vocabulary works so whenever you're trying to  think about that look for some kind of physical  

example and it's often easier to find these as you  get many examples of whatever that vocabulary is  

so if you if you learn a new word try to get I  I forget who that was that mentioned that before  

about getting different examples of vocabulary  uh but everybody should be doing this and it's  

what I'm talking about with this uh Chef example  as well uh and let's see Wendy again no Wendy is  

not my real name and we've never met either we  communicated through email several times back  

in around 2011 when I was one of your students  oh well look at that well uh hopefully you're  

speaking much better now and hopefully uh wow  it's good to see you that so you're are you  

still learning or teaching let me know what you're  doing D Tran says morning sir I always watch your  

live but do not always have a leave a comment  I like the way you explain something it's very  

clear thanks for teaching us it's my pleasure yep  you don't have to comment I'm here and I just make  

these videos people can join them live or just  watch them later and while again sometimes I  

forget the word temporary or can't remember the  meaning clearly yeah and often this will happen  

even natives have this happen to them but uh as  I explained in my what was that Monday's video I  

think where I was talking about moving like water  natives are able to use a different thing so if  

maybe I forget a word and that does happen to  natives so if I am thinking about something but  

I forget that word okay maybe I need to switch to  something else and I'm able to do that very easily  

because just like the chef example up here if I  know that thing very well if I know 10 different  

ways to cook eggs then it doesn't matter if I  can't cook one way I just switch to something else  

it's very easy but it's because I've I've built up  that knowledge I understand those things uh very  

well uh let's see darl says let him cook there you  go and while I feel Burger King has bigger Burgers  

than McDonald yeah I don't know if that's true  or not and I guess it depends on the burger but  

I thought I saw an image of that was comparing  McDonald's burgers now to them I don't know 20  

years ago or something and I think the burgers  have gotten smaller so I I don't know for sure but  

they do have like I don't know like McDonald's  I haven't been to Burger King in many years  

we don't have a Burger King around here uh but I  I I thought the Whopper was larger than a Big Mac  

I think I think it is I don't know for sure I've  never seen them side by side so I don't know maybe  

I'll do a video Lesson about comparing Burger I'm  sure somebody has done that already uh hip nice to  

see you there how can I think by other language  without translating when I speak with a foreign  

person often I try to translate word by word from  English to Vietnamese when I hear native people  

speak yes and the reason you do that is because  you learned English probably for many years  

in school as a second language so if you learn  English through translations you will translate  

when you speak so the solution to this is to not  learn English through translations it's actually  

to learn English as a first language and so that's  what we're talking about here I gave that example  

if you just joined us go back and watch earlier in  the video uh but I just gave an example about how  

a mother might be teaching uh her kids something  about cooking but she's also giving them a very  

good language lesson and really everything the  language is everywhere and it's easy to get lots  

of examples of it if you're paying attention  and you think oh like that's a new way of using  

something or now I understand what that grammar  really means rather than trying to learn it  

through textbooks or through translations so the  first step is to learn everything in English and  

then what you're trying to do when you learn is  to eliminate any doubt you have about that thing  

so if you're still translating it means you  you're not really confident about the meaning  

of something in English but when you understand  something in English then it's easy for you to  

learn all right so uh learn more about this uh if  if you don't know already uh you can click on the  

link in the description below this video to learn  about fluent for Life uh even if you don't join  

the program it will help you understand how you  should be learning all right Leo again says I'm  

doing a degree in English I'm the sixth semester  but they only teach linguistic philosophy well  

that sounds interesting do you tend to use simple  or similar words when talking to us all the time  

uh I do usually what I do with lessons is I will  speak mostly simpler or easier language and then  

uh if I'm teaching something you will you will get  some more advanced vocabulary or some maybe more  

native natural vocabulary how I'm speaking now  is it's it's perfectly fine English there there  

nothing bad about that I'm just maybe speaking a  little bit slower um I'm also trying not to give  

as many idioms or phrasal verbs or uh movie  references that kind of thing that I would if  

I'm if I'm speaking with um with like a person  I know and I think I mentioned this in Monday's  

video also but typically uh communication is  about understanding the person you're speaking  

with so we call that like speaking that person's  language and often you will hear this used like oh  

now you're speaking my language like you're you're  communicating in the way I I understand something  

very well so if I know someone came from New York  City uh and I know things about New York I can  

use that in the conversation and have a better  conversation with that person so it's not just  

about the language it's about making assumptions  or uh connecting with that person based on what  

you know about them all right it's like the same  thing uh for for standup comedy so if you're if  

you're like trying to tell a joke to someone and  that joke relies on that person understanding  

certain things then you shouldn't tell that  joke if that person doesn't doesn't know that  

information so and this is like it becomes more  an inside joke so an inside joke is when I would  

tell something um if I have a group of people  around me and I say something that only maybe  

somebody else would understand but most other  people would not get that that's an inside joke  

so I'm not I'm not thinking about the actual group  and trying to say something funny that the whole  

group would understand all right but typically  when we're communicating with people we're trying  

to think about ways in which we can uh really  connect with that person or those people uh and  

so like think about more uh what's the best way  to put that uh know the audience that that's the  

the best advice I would give about that all right  let's see here and L says do you okay I answered  

that one already uh philosophical Linguistics I  see uh I use chat gbt it said you be 1 B2 level  

it correct or not I don't know well based on the  grammar of your comment there I would say no but  

maybe I don't know and again like how you're if  you're able to read or uh or write things that's  

a different level in chat GPT would be not really  able to to tell you what your level would be just  

like a computer being able to do that I would  I would find someone that actually is is very  

good at like knowing those particular levels and  their able to check that kind of thing chat GP  

chat gbt might be able to help you but uh another  thing to remember about language levels just like  

vocabulary is that you can know some things but  not others so you can be fluent in some vocabulary  

but not be fluent in other things uh let's see  so when again surprisingly even after more than  

10 years uh so you would in here in this case you  would say surprisingly after more than 10 years or  

you would just say surprisingly uh 10 years later  or more than 10 years later you wouldn't use both  

though uh I'm still practicing speaking because  I've always been lazy this year I'm determined  

and practicing daily on my channel I really enjoy  your live oh glad to hear it you mean you mean  

like you speaking in order to improve your speech  is that what you're talking about uh remember as  

I always say uh speaking is great if you can do  it but again knowing the language is is the most  

important thing because if you really remove the  doubt you have about being able to speak then you  

will speak much more confidently and fluently so  you will know the difference between like using  

something like after more than 10 years or 10  years later so you would pick one of those and  

you would know the difference and you would know  to use that correctly or not so I would spend more  

time uh really trying to know the language if  you are trying to speak though that's nice uh  

do you try to use more okay answer that let's  oh maybe I maybe I didn't or two people are  

answering me this uh because of the large number  of begin who's watching your videos well we get  

we get it's it's not usually beginners who find  my content because it's all in English and if you  

don't already understand something you probably  would not watch it so I mean and also remember  

you will have people that can understand a lot  but they still don't uh speak very well all right  

so it's just a typical thing so people might be  again you can you can have good listening ability  

but not good speaking ability because again uh  as I as I continue to repeat as I'm mentioning  

over and over again there are different levels of  understanding and so if you start with uh just the  

kind of exposure or awareness level of something  but you don't really get to that ownership level  

that's where a lot of people are but in general  I'm just yes I'm trying to make sure more people  

can understand me uh but we do have a wide  range of of people actually quite people who  

who actually understand quite a bit um and even I  can make some joke sometimes and people will will  

understand those they will they will get those  things uh Ben W again I feel my mother tongue try  

to make me speak Chinese word when I speak English  my mother tongue try to interrupt yes so the uh  

same advice I gave to someone else asking about  that I think that was was that hip uh I think from  

Vietnam I'm guessing um spend less time thinking  in English or excuse me less time thinking and  

translating in your native language and more  time thinking in English and getting more native  

examples so if you it's it's more like you kind  of turn away from Chinese or whatever your native  

languages and focus on getting uh native English  examples of things and it's often easier to do  

this with new information so if I start learning  about I don't know like like when I came to Japan  

and started learning about Japanese gardening I'm  learning all these things that I didn't even have  

a name for in English so it could be names of  flowers or gardening things that are specific  

to Japan because we just don't have that in the  United States so all of that became like a first  

language for me all right now that that's you're  kind of doing that just to prove that you can  

learn a new language as a first language rather  than as a second language through your native  

language because often you don't have that ability  when you you know doing something new I couldn't  

really learn Japanese gardening in English  especially when I came to Japan there weren't  

a lot of resources for that anyway uh but all the  particular things I'm learning I'm still learning  

that all in Japanese um so when if you're uh if  you are trying to trying to not think in your  

native language then spend more time learning  things in English okay let's see okay you've  

already answered my question thanks all right  uh when you again I appreciate the correction  

I'll try to listen more yes and remember I'll  I'll like refine that comment a little bit the  

point is not really to listen a lot it's just  to understand better and eliminate the doubt so  

as like another example I give often is if I'm  trying to explain to someone what like a color  

is so if I let's say I hold up a different marker  over here but I don't show you what the color is  

so there's a marker hiding behind my hand right  here and I'm trying to describe what it is it's  

much more difficult than just showing you what the  marker is and say oh look like blue you know so if  

I if I tell you that and I'm going to to show you  that with with something else like red black oh  

look black you know we we we've got a black marker  here and a black shirt so as you hear those you  

think ah okay now I get it and it's much easier  it's not about listening to what I'm saying it's  

just can I be understandable can you understand uh  making that connection between the sounds of the  

language and and the situation whatever it is I'm  I'm talking about so yes listening uh is important  

but it's just one way that you would be able  to understand a language better so another way  

you would see something or try to write something  down try to think about it in a different way try  

to taste something or feel it so I can tell the  difference between something is hard um like hard  

versus soft if I just touch that thing it's much  faster and easier than someone trying to explain  

me what hard means imagine trying to explain like  hardness to something like hard what does that  

what does that mean but if I just touch something  thing is like ah okay this is a hard thing and  

this other thing is soft now I get it all right so  keep that in mind the goal is the elimination of  

Doubt not just to like learn through listening or  whatever uh I understand your speech more clearly  

what do you think about that I understand your  speech more clearly more clearly than what uh  

batter says uh as a non-native speaker is speaking  formal English better than informal it depends on  

the situation uh like some people maybe they  need you know professional English for their  

life other people need uh regular informal English  or casual communication it just depends on what  

you're interested in maybe you don't speak with  anybody but you enjoy watching different kinds of  

TV shows so if you watch a higher level more like  academic show or like a a law I don't know like  

a law TV program or something like that is much  different than than watching a cartoon for kids  

all right so just keep that in mind and and you  don't need to ask uh a teacher like what should I  

learn it's just what what do you what do you need  for your life what is what is your life situation  

okay so when people ask me what English they need  I ask them you tell me what do you need what do  

you need for your life and and then it's it's much  easier to talk about how you can how you can uh  

achieve fluency uh as an okay answer that one here  Kevin again hi I've been studying in dual lingo  

for four years four years wow and it surely did  give me a good experience in the overall practice  

lessons that you daily have to complete sir is  this text correct what can I improve I don't I  

don't understand like it's I don't understand what  you're I've been studying in dual lingual for four  

years and it surely did give me a good experience  in the overall practice lessons that you daily  

have to complete I don't know what that means like  what what what daily lessons you mean dual lingo  

helped you get good at dual lingo is that is that  what you mean like like practice lessons that they  

have or uh or whatever and remember something like  dual lingo it's it's it's again it's going to be  

different than how natives actually speak so it  will help you get to a certain level but to get  

beyond that you really need to get real examples  of natives uh thank you for the great advice is  

Wendy is my pleasure oaba says for or obada excuse  me for non-native speaker how long does a person  

take the sit for the I exam I have no idea I don't  do the I exam or focus on that so I would uh look  

for people who do I mean being ready for the exam  yeah I guess it depends on where you are now and  

when the test is so I don't know uh it depends  on the person and also I'm not the expert about  

taking particular tests so I would look for  people who do do that uh look for people who  

can can help you with a particular test what we do  uh is help people speak fluent English confidently  

which obviously helps you on a test like that  but if you need to do certain things to pass a  

particular test then find specific information  about that uh let's see and Kevin again sorry  

jez I wasn't being exactly concrete uh ba based  on your comments I would say like this is a good  

example of someone who knows a lot of English but  you're not really putting it together well so I  

like in in your spoken community communication  is is probably not or probably less good I would  

imagine um but think about that whatever your  goals are if you have to speak then I would spend  

more time watching natives speak and that way  it will actually show you the same way children  

are learning the language like the example I gave  before about the eggs so uh again trying to think  

about this more like a chef you probably don't  know the language as well as you think you do  

you should spend more time focusing on fewer  things really understand those well and it's  

much easier to take things that you understand  well and then apply that in other situations or  

with other vocabulary uh I've been trying to watch  English about police about but 50 or 60% of the  

words use I have never seen those words yeah uh  so I would watch I mean you can even start with  

something something very simple like Paw Patrol  so Paw Paw Patrol like my my kids watch this p a w

so Paw Patrol is it's like little dogs that help  people in their Community it's a very it's a it's  

a fun show but they they start using uh that kind  of vocabulary where like that police would use  

about whatever and so again like I know you're  you know you're you're doing like a much higher  

level uh like you know higher level learning in in  school or whatever but the the whole point of this  

video is to remind people that even if you are a  graduate level student that you like respect the  

ingredients and that you could always learn more  and you should probably spend more time focusing  

on some few basic things and I promise that will  help you understand um you know more complicated  

things and you will feel more confident about  that so don't feel bad or that you're wasting  

your time if you watch an episode of Paw Patrol I  bet you would probably find some some vocabulary  

in there that you're like oh look like I didn't  know that or it's interesting that they use that  

vocabulary uh this way so like keep that keep  that in mind uh but don't feel bad about that  

so I'm not not trying to make anybody feel bad or  say like you know well you know I don't watch that  

like I watch that I watch uh kids shows or read  books for kids because I can I always find some  

new Japanese in there that's that's surprising  or interesting to me and it's taught in a way  

that makes it easy because you've got pictures  that actually show you what's happening so the  

same way a children's television show would  help you understand something as well so if I  

try to watch Japanese news it's going to be more  difficult for me because they will use some some  

things I will know because they use them all the  time it's like Cas like it's like according to  

police or whatever that that same kind of thing  those same Expressions that are used but again  

there will be other things uh that are used and  often uh in kids programming or kids books you're  

taking those things and trying to teach those  to kids as well so don't feel bad about doing  

that I know it sounds funny to watch PAW Patrol or  something but but I recommend it uh because I do  

it myself and it helps me improve and it it should  help other people as well no reason why I wouldn't  

Kevin again yes that's the main focus for me uh  now on trying to find content creators like you  

that spend a period of time explaining a certain  topic or a bigger range a bro couldn't finish the  

sentence no's what's what's going on you're you're  okay you're okay don't feel bad uh find like you  

can find something like me uh but usually what  I recommend is having a teacher and then uh if  

if I'm able to help you understand something then  that's the first step that's great uh that's like  

really the hardest part the next step after that  is to get lots of examples of that thing but if  

you don't understand like if you watch I don't  know 10 different teachers explain something and  

none of them are really making something clear for  you keep going until you find someone who does if  

that's not me I understand but find someone who  does for your situation uh and then look for lots  

of examples of that vocabulary and remember like  maybe I explain one thing well and you understand  

it easily but I say something else and you're  like ah I don't quite get it or whatever get  

more examples but the first step is really making  sure you're you're understanding something very  

well uh and you will feel much more confident  about that also uh one more note about kids  

TV shows uh less so for kids books but more for  kids TV shows and movies they do put in jokes and  

vocabulary for parents that that often little kids  don't know but they put that in there so parents  

who are watching it can understand that and and  kind of have some fun too so remember there there  

is content for adults in uh even kids animation  or kids books uh Armando says is it possible to  

have a good conversation in English even using  translation from native language uh I guess  

you could I mean it's like anything's possible  but um it's probably less it would be slow I  

guess and probably not communicate exactly what  you want to say because often translating things  

like they won't it won't Express exactly what  you want to say uh unfortunately we're still  

not there yet Kevin again I think that  my problem is the over is that I over  

complicate everything well keep it simple then  very easy most English teacher on YouTube is bored  

or you mean boring boring so in that case like if  you're talking about them you would you would be  

bored by them so they are boring and you are  bored by them when again uh I just like to  

listen to you speak Japanese from time to time  you're Japanese sounds Charming Charming G yes  

usually uh yeah I don't I don't spend much time  speaking Japanese in lessons like this cuz most  

of the people watching do not understand Japanese  but I will use some occasionally especially my  

charming Nong Ben Wong says I will feel tired  to watch it yeah so like like this when when  

parents are teaching things to their kids that  is a language lesson they don't think about it  

that way but it is a language lesson and so you  can also watch kids and parents doing things like  

my kids will watch um like howto videoos about  drawing so like art art things and like there's a  

I think it's called what's it called it's like  art for kids Hub or something I forget the name  

of it but uh they enjoy those videos it's often  a dad or the like the the host or the artist guy  

I guess he's an artist or something I guess um  and so usually he's drawing something with one  

of his kids and that's a that's a really great  way to learn because you know he says something  

and then the child says something also and then  he's teaching them uh and you know like they're  

they're actually having a like it's an interesting  conversation and you can learn a lot of language  

at the same time and again the visual nature  of something when you're when you're seeing  

somebody do it like draw a line like this like oh  look at that draw a line or if I'm cooking like  

put in two scoops of this thing and you see like  one scoop and one more scoop and so this is how  

natives are learning the language like do the  same thing I'm going I'm going to get uh like  

but that's basically the that's the idea keep it  simple do what natives do if you want to speak  

like natives all right uh Kevin says you are very  understandable yes that's the point and Danny says  

finally I got a live from Drew YouTube hasn't been  sending your videos to my timeline lately yes I  

don't know uh why that is I don't know why YouTube  will recommend or not recommend or whatever even  

to my own subscribers but I don't know if you  find out let me know I'm creating my own phrase  

about specific topic and I'm studying them do you  think it's a good idea when you say creating your  

own phrases what do you mean by that like you're  you're just creating phrases by yourself hopefully  

they they are correct English but assuming they  are you can certainly do that and again I can  

understand very well but when it comes to speaking  I'm having difficulties in regards of connecting  

the sentences while thinking in my head with my  native language I have tried a lot to fix it yes  

uh I I have like if you if you go to my channel  and click on the tab for live videos and then  

one for the click on popular you'll see one of  those videos that has a little chain on the on  

the bottom of it like a chain picture um or chain  image or whatever I drew uh but that's talking  

about how to continue speaking and uh it's been  again a popular video but it solves that problem  

really all of the videos I'm making they teach  the same basic lesson that if you learn English  

as a first language you will will solve those  problems but the idea is really uh to destroy  

the doubt that stops you from speaking that's when  you naturally become a more confident speaker Leo  

says uh you should be kidding us uh and then says  hi and Ariel says I don't have fear anymore to  

make mistakes when I speaking English glad to hear  it uh oh no I'm late says Anish it's okay you're  

never late because these just get saved on YouTube  and you can watch them anytime and Kevin again I  

think the fact that people don't get notified is  because the amount of people they have subscribed  

to maybe just a few pop out in the notifications  it's an assumption uh yes that's possible I don't  

know but yeah I mean my my channel is interesting  like that because I don't I don't know I don't I  

don't get like a lot of people for the number of  people who are subscribed I don't get many views  

and so I as probably me not being very good at  what I do I guess I don't know like maybe I'm  

I'm like something is uh I don't know I don't  know I I wish I knew what that was but uh but  

it's interesting like I do have a good group  of people who follows me and and those people  

are improving which I like to see uh I wish more  people could find me especially the the people who  

are subscribed to my channel because I will often  hear from people that they could not get notified  

but yep just check the channel and do what you can  uh cam says hello nice to see you there all right  

uh Marie Jean Felix says what does insight mean  typically it's like a uh Discovery or noticing of  

something actually have a program called the  Insight uh and it's just like thinking about  

something in a different way so usually if you  have an interesting way of seeing something or  

an idea comes to you it's an Insight you can think  about like sight like on the inside of your head  

like it's an idea that comes to you all right good  morning sir says lucky and Kevin again you are  

great at this let's supposedly say that is mere  luck whether notification appears or doesn't I  

no I always want to take responsibility though  so it's my channel and if it's not getting good  

views then I'm probably doing something wrong but  who knows uh but it's interesting yeah don't don't  

really know what what to do about it because  like logically uh I I mean that one one reason  

that maybe people aren't notified or that I have  fewer views on the channel is because I spend more  

time trying to help people understand the language  so they get fluent when a lot of the the popular  

content is just giving people more vocabulary  so even though they probably won't remember it  

or use it fluently you know that that's a kind  of natural thing people are interested in uh  

and that's another reason like people continue to  learn new things so people will continue to give  

them new content even though they don't really  become fluent in that content but I'm really here  

for the people who who want to break that cycle  so of of just learning new words but not really  

feeling more confident in them for me that's  really frustrating I think that's why I do it so  

me actually trying to become a fluent speaker of  a second language uh it's frustrating for me when  

I learn a word and then forget it so I want to  learn something get lots of good examples really  

understand something well start using it in my  conversations and then I can feel more confident  

about moving on to something else hopefully  that makes sense uh but that's why I do what  

I do and looks like we're at the end of the line  here uh but if you have enjoyed this if you are  

the kind of person who would like help with this  you can click on the links in the description to  

learn more about Frederick as well as fluent for  Life uh but again the point is to help you in the  

doubts and any kind of fears or worries you have  about the language because that's really the thing  

that's stopping people from speaking it's not  where you live or even how much you know or how  

old you are it's just if you're in a conversation  but you don't feel like you can remember remember  

things or you feel nervous if the pronunciation  or the grammar or the vocabulary or whatever uh is  

not correct then you won't speak that's the real  reason that doubt is the actual thing that stops  

people from speaking so if you can clear the doubt  away if you destroy the doubt the confidence will  

naturally take its place and help you communicate  all right uh we will say byebye last kind of uh  

comments over here what canero look at that just  at the end uh I believe people who let's see right  

without mistakes have more trouble with their  speaking that's possible possible uh Claudia says  

thank you you are amazing uh as my pleasure if  you know other people who would enjoy the videos  

do click the like button it supports the channel  uh you'll notice we don't have advertising on our  

Channel either I want to get people right into the  content uh so you can say hey come watch this guy  

he can actually help you improve thank you for  your support uh says Kevin and Danny says your  

lessons made me a better teacher here in Brazil  oh glad to hear it awesome yeah we actually have  

quite a few uh teachers that that follow us and  join our programs uh and ta says thanks for all  

this high quality content well it's my pleasure  and I will see you all in the next video bye-bye