How to Measure Your Fluency in English

live we'll give people a moment to come in I am  Drew Badger the founder of Englishanyone.com and  

the English fluency guide welcome to another live  video here on YouTube today we're going to talk  

about a very simple way to measure your fluency  this is how I think about fluency for myself even  

speaking Japanese uh but when people uh ask me how  they can kind of check their progress It's really  

your ability to communicate in conversations  or when you're speaking uh rather than maybe  

how much you can listen or how much you understand  uh and I I thought I would do a video about this  

because people are always curious about being  able to check their level but also because I  

see videos here on YouTube where people talk  about if you can understand something you're  

fluent uh and that always makes me laugh because  these are two different skills you can obviously  

understand some things and still not be a  communicate or still not a communic came

fluently make sure this is straight over here so  nice to see everybody uh out there this should  

actually be a pretty quick video but I thought  uh I would make this anyway and see if anybody  

had any questions uh as well uh but I'll get  straight to the point uh because again I want  

to keep this short but uh the basic idea is that  communication uh is really about your ability to

adapt so in a regular conversation or really  anytime you could be speaking with anybody  

like I don't know ordering some food at  a restaurant or paying a toll on a a toll  

like at a toll booth uh on a toll road or  whatever uh you never really know for sure  

what people are going to say because conversations  Communication in general is unpredictable so your  

ility to adapt to the situation is really uh  the key skill here for being able to communicate  

fluently so as an example uh maybe you go to  an English class and you study some specific  

vocabulary and you feel very confident about that  vocabulary but maybe in conversations people say  

something different or they are communicating  uh faster or they are blending their speech  

or they have an accent that you're unfamiliar  with there could be lots of different things  

that uh we say it throws this is a really good  uh expression for you to throw a wrench into the

works so just so you understand this uh this  phrase from the situation so you can imagine a  

bunch of Gears like I'm going to draw some not  so that's a pretty bad looking gear all right  

here's a circle I'll try to draw a better  looking gear like that so this is a gear  

and they they work together they turn you'll see  some gears like inside your watch or whatever uh  

and they're turning together and when the the  gears are moving smoothly you have a lovely  

operation everything is you know the like the  teeth these are called the teeth just like your  

teeth and your mouth these are the teeth of the  gears they move together yes it's supposed to be  

a gear uh so well well there are different kinds  of Gears but this that's the basic idea so the  

Works The Works refers to all of these gears  or different pieces working together so imagine  

opening a watch or a clock and looking at the  pieces inside that how all of these things fit  

together and uh if you throw a rent so I'll  draw a picture of a wrench it's just like a uh

tool like that that you use to turn bolts and  other things uh so this is a wrench over here  

so if you throw a ren a wrench inside this  oh no we've stopped the gears we've messed  

everything up so this situation uh of having  a problem everything is working smoothly and  

then something causes a problem that stops or  breaks everything so to throw a wrench into the  

works this is often what happens when you're in  a conversation with someone and someone might use  

some English you're not familiar with or you hear  something you don't know because you didn't know  

the vocabulary or they have a different accent  or whatever so all of that can throw a wrench  

into the works of your ability to communicate  so uh throwing a wrench into the works because  

we never know what people are going to do the  greatest skill you can have is the ability to  

adapt all right and the best way to do this is  to see lots of examples of how n uh natives are  

speaking so the the the kind of two skills you  really need to have in a conversation number one  

you need to know the right things to say for  a situation and there are many so we'll talk  

about that in this video uh and the other thing  is how to connect all of these different things  

together as you're speaking okay so right now  I'm able to communicate fluidly and smoothly I  

can think of something and continue talking that's  the skill that's the ability to adapt so even me  

looking at comments I'm trying to read these as  I'm speaking and paying attention to what other  

people are typing uh that way maybe I can adapt  and change what I'm saying or Express things in  

a different way if I need to all right so I'm  still uh I'm I'm not trying to answer people  

right now just cuz I want to get through this uh  but I do see everyone there and nice to see you  

so uh this is the basic problem of when you're  in some kind of communication with people then  

you might have uh a wrench thrown into the works  the uh I don't know if the Brits use this uh but  

Australians will talk about a spanner throw  a spanner into the works that's the way they  

would use that so this is a spanner in like to  cuz you can change the uh the span of it but I  

I don't know if that so the span just means how  wide something can move uh or how how far away you  

can stretch something or open it uh but that's  the name of this Tool uh you can correct me if  

I'm wrong anyone in Australia uh but they use the  same expression it's just different vocabulary so  

they talk about a spanner in the works all right  so uh how do you measure your fluency then if  

the ability to adapt is really what you need to  uh if you really need to be able to communicate  

well and of course we get a uh a siren like usual  so your ability to adapt how do you think it would  

be a good idea to measure your fluency I'm going  to see if you can uh have any any good ideas about  

that let me erase this so I'll ask the question  one more time and see if you have any good ideas  

about how we might do that so again if your  ability to adapt in conversations that's really  

the key skill for communication then how might we  measure your ability to speak fluently how might  

you be able to measure that for yourself uh see  if anyone can uh come up with anything for that  

I will check over these uh comments as I wait to  see if anyone has any good ideas because you can  

probably think of something I bet uh let's see  got some nice uh look Tom is there good to see  

you co co Cati if I'm pronouncing that correctly  sis good morning Julio nice to see you there uh  

some Chinese I can't read let's see Paul Raul  excuse me says hello uh and pero says I'm here  

with you drew congratulations well thank you very  much Steven says hello from Panama City and aunis  

says fantastic Miriam says hello from Vancouver  Marcela from Brazil Diana nice to see there  

from Mexico and Annette there from Wisconsin  again hopefully you had a nice Thanksgiving  

and to anybody out there who also celebrated uh  Thanksgiving I did that a little bit early over  

here Steven says Diana all you guys are speaking  with each other and hello again from Korea let me  

know what your name is so I know what I can't  read the hongu up there let me know uh if you  

would like me to note uh note that oh Mal happy  to be here live I a member of fluent for Life  

nice to see you there hopefully you're enjoying  the program if you have any questions right  

now in the middle of a lesson set or something I  can help you with do let me know but we all all uh  

here to help uh Tom says again welcome and we're  get the overnight shift oh wow what do you do are  

you like in a like Hospitality or something I'm  glad to see your you're learning English instead  

of uh like instead of doing your work all right  let's see good evening everyone glad from Columbia  

and greetings from Poland nice to see everybody  there all right so no ideas yet so how might we  

measure your fluency now remember fluency is not  your ability to understand people because that's  

it's a different skills so there might be lots  of vocabulary you understand oh is a quality  

controller awesome all right well hopefully we can  control the quality of this video here uh if you  

have any questions we can improve the quality  of it we'll also try to improve the quality of  

your communication all right uh since nobody is  giving me an answer here all right very good uh so  

the the basic idea here if we want to talk about  uh how we actually measure your fluency this is  

the way I do it the way I do it is what is your  next best option so your next best option so your  

ability to think of something else if you can't  remember a particular word or phrase or whatever  

that's really your ability to speak all right  so your ability to communicate fluently is I'm  

trying to say something but I hit a block there's  a roadblock here in some way I can't cross it and  

continue speaking because I don't understand  something or maybe I forgot a word or whatever  

that thing is so your ability to continue speaking  despite there being a roadblock here that's how  

you can actually measure your fluency and what  we'll talk about in this video specifically uh is  

talking about your next best uh option for being  able to express something so remember that there  

always are many many many many many different  ways you might Express something I'll give you an  

idea uh or an example of that right now so let's  say uh I need to go shopping all right so I have

to go shopping but uh for some reason I  forget the words I don't know go shopping so  

know what I want to say but I forget I forget  how to say go shopping all right what is what  

is something else I could say uh or even  like I have to you don't necessarily need  

to use that but if I can't think of this or I  can't remember it what's the next best option  

so what is another way I might Express that  I'll give you a moment to think about that  

uh I can put some examples up here but let's  say I'm talking to my friend and I and I'm  

thinking so the idea is I have to to go shopping  okay what are some other ways that I might say  

exactly the same thing even though I might use  different words all right R says I have to buy  

some stuff buy some stuff yep you could say you  could buy something to buy something as well buy

something buy something pay something important  buying stuff yeah people get the idea of like  

buying for shopping uh but hopefully  I'm I'm trying to get your mind thinking  

about this idea of there are usually actually  almost always I can't really think of a Time  

unless you're talking about a very specific name  for a thing where there's only one way to describe  

it but typically there are many ways to describe  things and so this is a very common situation  

uh you need to go shopping and you're telling  someone I need to go shopping so you could say  

I have to buy stuff uh I have to buy something you  could also say I have to I have to run out right

quick what's another way we could uh another  way to say that well I'm going to get some  

stuff there you go you could say get instead  of buy so if you forget the words go shopping  

you're in the middle of a conversation but  I I forgot I forget how to say go shopping  

instead of getting stuck yes so you might say  I need to run out like to leave my house or  

something like that I need to run out to the  store we can talk about going to a different  

place or running to like we're going there quickly  uh and there could be more specific examples about  

like how we might uh how we might find something  uh like let's say I need to do some some bigger  

shopping like I'm shopping for a wedding dress  uh I don't really run out to buy a wedding dress  

I wouldn't buy one anyway but you understand the  idea of buying a wedding dress is something that  

maybe takes more time and thinking so you go  to a I guess a wedding dress store I don't know  

what you call that a bridal store um but you sit  down and you look at different pictures of wedding  

dresses and things like that so like that's a  different kind of shopping it's still shopping  

but we wouldn't talk about running out to go get  a wedding dress unless you're getting married in  

five minutes and you need to just go get whatever  you don't care what the dress is okay but uh you  

can see how we can change the wording depending  on the specific situation or how exactly we want  

to express something so let's say the situation is  I'm cooking something at my house and I'm missing  

some ingredients so I want to make some cookies or  I'm making some dinner but oh no I don't have milk  

or eggs or something else like that so if I need  to describe this to my friend I might say oh no I  

have to go shopping or I have to buy some stuff  or I have to buy some things you could also say  

things th i n gs some buy some things or buy some  stuff or I have to get something or I have to go  

out or I have to run out so typically when you run  out you're physically leaving your house quickly  

so you can go to the store or uh and buy something  so whatever that is but uh the point of this  

General exercise is just to get you thinking about  different ways and these are all perfectly fine to  

use it's not like one way is better than the other  but here's the interesting thing native speakers  

they're they're kind of using these different  uh these different ideas and combinations in  

their mind and they're able to assemble to put  these things together in different ways and  

do that very quickly so even me as I'm talking in  these videos it might seem like I have a plan or  

I have everything written down or I have a like  a I don't know a list or an outline or something  

but I don't what I'm doing is I'm as I'm speaking  I'm able I'm I'm I'm able to excuse me I'm able  

to assemble these different pieces because I've  seen so many different examples of combinations  

before okay so what we do when we communicate  the first thing we're doing we're really  

just paying attention to lots of other people  and so when I'm a young child and watching  

what my parents say or friends or characters  in television shows or whatever cartoons or  

listening on the radio all of those examples are  giving me different combinations of things and  

saying oh like it's possible for this situation to  express this thing so for the situation of making  

something at home I need to go out quickly to buy  something these are the way ways that we might  

Express that and these are just some of the ways  we could continue I could probably do a whole hour  

uh of talking just about different ways we might  do this and so I'm trying to use a few different  

things just to show you that we can take these  pieces and actually combine them in different ways  

so I could say I have to buy some things or I have  to go out or I have to run out and buy some things  

or I have to get some things so after you've seen  many different people use these these words you  

get to understand how they're used and how you can  combine them in different ways so this is like how  

chat GPT would be working it's it's getting lots  of different examples of how language might be  

connected and it's able to reconnect them in ways  that make sense that's how we're able to speak so  

we do the same thing so the purpose of developing  fluency uh is so you're able to do this when you  

speak and again the way you do this is by seeing  lots of examples of other people doing it so the  

more you have a a connection of a situation and  how natives are speaking with the particular  

vocabulary they're using that will automatically  develop your fluency because it's giving you lots  

of examples of how you might use something all  right I'm going to go back and check uh comments  

but let me know if this idea makes sense so your  uh your ability to communic unicate comes from or  

can be measured by what is your next best option  so if you can't think of anything else then you  

probably lack fluency this is where you're  getting stuck in conversations because okay  

maybe remember you know one thing like I have  to go shopping but maybe in a conversation you  

forget that word and if that happens and you  can't think of a different way to express the  

same idea then you get stuck okay so a fluent  person is able to think of the next best thing  

and actually could probably think of many next  best things all right so as we get more examples  

I have maybe in my lifetime heard thousands  of examples of different people talking about  

this situation so my mom is baking something she  needs to run out to the store and buy something  

or she needs to run out and get some eggs or she  needs to run out for some eggs okay so a lot of  

people they they focus on learning grammar and not  really about how we might just Express different  

things using even different grammar for the same  situation okay so again someone is like my mom is  

cooking I need to run out and get something or  I need to run out for some eggs I need to run  

out and buy some things I need to run out and  go shopping I need to get some eggs I need to  

go get some eggs I need to go find some eggs or  whatever so there are lots of different ways you  

can do that and so the next best option that's  the thing you need to be thinking of in the in  

the back of your mind if you're trying to express  something and you get stuck you have to think wait  

a minute what's a different way I might Express  this instead of just I I don't know what to say  

so for me like I this is a perfect example is  I was out yesterday and I was looking for uh  

well I'll just tell you the the name the thing  actually I'll see if anybody knows what this

is so I'm I'm building a bookshelf in my house and  I was looking for like the problem one of the kind  

of problems with my house is it's not perfectly  straight so there are like some imperfections or  

one side of a wall or something might be slightly  higher or whatever it's not my fault I didn't do  

that but uh anyway so it's not perfectly level or  straight so I need to have let's say I'm going to  

put a a piece of wood here and it touches the  ceiling over here but there's like a gap over  

over on this side something like that so there's a  space there and I need to fill in that space and I  

want to get it's basically like a piece of wood  that looks like this I'll draw a bit more of a  

kind of a 3D version for you if that makes sense  but so it's it's like a triangle a triangular  

shaped piece of wood that you can put in something  and you maybe use a hammer or something or push  

it in there uh to make sure it gets stuck and  can kind of hold something even though it's not  

perfectly straight so I knew what I wanted to get  but I did not know the Japanese for this word so  

what do I do I go to the local uh Home Center here  where I live and I start talking with a guy about  

uh like trying to explain what this thing is so  uh one way of describing this thing in English uh  

this is called a shim so a shim this is a it's a  little piece of wood or something it could could  

be a different material but I was looking for  wood specifically uh where you can you can kind  

of put something into a into an area and so this  area is smaller than this one and so another way  

you might describe this is a wedge a wedge so  a wedge I'll draw a bigger one for you a wedge  

looks like this so part of it it can go inside  something like it it works the same way if you  

have like an axe for example so the shape of  an axe it's thinner over here and thicker on  

that side so it forms a wedge as you're trying  to cut into pieces of wood uh and this forms a  

wedge as well you have a smaller edge here and  then it gets thicker as it goes up a wedge uh  

so I did not know what that was and and for about  3 minutes I'm trying to explain to the guy at the  

Home Center what I'm what I'm looking for uh so  I'm doing this in Japanese and explaining I was  

like well it's it's kind of like a like a shape  like this it's a little bit triangular it's a  

small piece of wood you can use it when you're  You're Building to make things level and he was  

like he was like ah okay I think I understand  he took me over and and he he showed me that  

thing and I said yes this is what I'm looking  for U and so like I learned like saabbi is the  

uh the Japanese for this I don't know if there's  a kanji for it uh I don't know if there's a kanji  

for this there probably is but uh wedge is the  name of that and this so this the same idea of  

a wedge this is also where we get like a wedge  uh of cheese like a piece of cheese like that  

a cheese wedge a wedge all right anyway uh so  I could go into the the home center and say  

uh like I can't explain this I don't know what to  do I don't know another way to express this or I  

just tell a quick story and try to explain what  I'm looking for um I don't know what the kanji  

would be I don't know if that if that's it or not  um but it might might be U but anyway kabi was  

the uh the name of the uh the name of the thing  so it was like uh it was like is like moku kabi  

like a wood a wood wedge um so you could have a  wedge again wedge just talks about the shape of  

something it's not only a particular material  but the point is uh my next best option when  

I did not know the word would be uh to to try  to explain it in some different way okay so uh  

the purpose of this is you need to develop this  skill and you develop this skill by getting lots  

of examples and seeing how other people do it okay  so you don't need to spend a lot of time speaking  

you do need to see a lot of examples because this  is what eliminates the doubt that stops you from  

speaking so if you get stuck here you're trying  to say something but you don't know exactly the  

right way to say it so you can't really think  of other options whatever your next best option  

would be that's where you get stuck and that  means you lack fluency at least about that  

particular thing now some people might be able to  speak very fluently about certain topics because  

they know a lot about them uh and you usually in  those cases they have this ability they're able  

to think of the next best thing or the third best  thing or whatever uh and again it's it's not like  

there's a ranking of these it's just how quickly  can you think of another way to express something  

and how many different ways could you think of  to do that so A really fluent speaker would know  

many ways of doing that and that's how they're  able to continue speaking okay so uh if you're  

trying to measure this uh by yourself you can just  think about particular situ sitations like I don't  

know I want to talk about my job or talk about my  weekend or something but I don't really feel very  

confident doing that because I don't I can't think  of some ways to express that so I get stuck if  

that's the case then you want to watch a bunch of  natives talking about their particular experience  

for that so people talking about their work or  people talking about their weekend uh or whatever  

but that's how you would develop that skill so  you don't need to spend a lot of time talking  

it's much better just to see how other people do  it and then as you get these different examples  

your brain naturally learns how to combine or  recombine or make new versions of things just  

by seeing all these different pieces but you  really need to see native examples in order  

to get these different pieces and know how to put  them together okay I'll go back and check chat uh  

let me know if this idea makes sense but again the  purpose of being able to communicate is so you're  

uh able to express different things you want to  for that situation and you don't get stuck if you  

can't think of one thing to say because you know  there are always multiple ways to express yourself  

so if you're not feeling very confident and fluent  uh even about specific situations then the way to  

solve that problem is to get more uh examples from  natives talking about that thing it's pretty easy  

all right uh looks like we did have some good  examples here for going shopping and running  

out uh let's see and Samantha says can you make a  video about the best way for learning vocabulary  

I've already made a bunch of videos about this  just search my channel for learning vocabulary  

but I think there's even a video it's like the  best way to learn vocabulary for fluency like  

I actually made that video or a couple of videos  talking about that same thing uh but you can watch  

those and they're already waiting for you so go  watch them ABDO says uh I have some okay so I  

have some order I have to order some ingredients  yeah so that would be a little bit different like  

if you're physically at home maybe you don't have  time to order something unless you going to get  

someone delivering to your house so that could  be an option uh but if you're dis specifically  

describing going out like running to um you know  somebody's house or going to the grocery store or  

something like that some people might even go to  a friend's house and get some sugar so I remember  

I I used to live in a like a three-story apartment  building and maybe one family like they're making  

something and they don't have some sugar so  instead of going out to the grocery store you  

would just go downstairs or upstairs and ask if  they have some sugar and just say hey can I borrow  

some sugar or some eggs or something like that so  that's another thing you could do it gets a little  

bit more specific about that but uh that's another  way to express it uh the great Marcus Phoenix is  

here hi Drew What routine do you recommend to be  fluent currently I can't afford a course I need  

to be fluent ASAP can you explain how to organize  and do a routine to improve my English skills um  

well I don't really talk much about like routines  because I know a lot of people would probably not  

follow them anyway so there's always the great  idea about a big plan and that's why even members  

of fluent for life I only expect them to do like  15 minutes of learning or more than that if they  

like some people actually want to spend a lot more  time or they can uh so they can get fluent faster  

but the basic idea is that you should be focusing  on sit situations to eliminate your doubt that you  

have about expressing particular things so if I  as an example pardon the uh the fire truck or the  

ambulance as usual um let's say I want to speak  about uh I don't know ambulances or something like  

that just as an example so in my life I commonly  talk about ambulances for whatever reason so maybe  

I work at a hospital or something like that  and this is the the kind of core for uh people  

thinking about like a routine or something or just  some way to get fluent focus on the the particular  

vocabulary you need for your life and you get that  from the particular situations in your life so if  

I have to talk about ambulances every day because  I work at a a fire station or something like  

that um then I should probably watch some YouTube  videos about people talking about ambulances that  

would be that simple so begin with the particular  English that you need for that situation whatever  

those situations are in your life so you know  each person will have a different set of needs  

maybe some people need to have English for uh  professional communication like at their office or  

some people just need to use it in their everyday  life at uh you know like shopping or something  

like that so if you need examples of that you can  find all of those on YouTube the purpose is not  

to spend a lot of time talking it's just to spend  time getting examples of how people speak so for  

for me what I do as like a more of a routine  is uh I'm trying to improve my reading so my  

my ability to read Japanese so my speaking ability  is good but my my reading ability is much worse um  

I don't know maybe I have some kind of Dyslexia  or something like that but my reading is still  

quite slow and also I'm trying to learn a lot of  kanji so those are the written Japanese character  

uh and I I drew like an example over here my  writing is pretty sloppy as well in English  

and Japanese uh but I I need to spend a little  bit of my time doing that and often I will just  

read maybe some children's books or some Japanese  Comics or something like that that's part of my  

routine just for getting some practice doing that  uh but again you need to focus on the thing that's  

important to your life whatever that English is so  if you need to learn uh how to talk about I don't  

know your stuff at at your office don't spend your  time learning some other I don't know stuff that  

you just don't need but uh it's important that you  will find uh vocabulary for one thing like if you  

like learning about sports you can learn that  vocabulary and also understand how to apply it  

in other situations so I might like talking about  football I really like that like I could actually  

learn a lot about football and football vocabulary  and expressions that from football could be  

applied in other situ ations like talking about  uh relationships or War business or even cooking  

whatever uh so those are all things you get as you  watch natives do that so the the routine is more  

the same way a native child would be getting that  information is looking at how natives describe  

things for particular situations so if you see  your mom washing her hands what is she saying  

or if she's cooking some food or what are you  know what are people talking about so you begin  

with your interest or your needs and then look  for the spefic specific information about that  

just specific examples uh and then it should be  something you're also interested in in some way  

because that would get you a lot more excited  to uh to spend time learning about it hopefully  

that makes sense uh let's see a chalk would be  another one ah for a for a wedge yeah I think  

that's true uh Mina says what about someone who  speaks well but when it comes to speaking with  

others get stressed rushed to speak fast or even  focus on the language and how it looks much more  

than delivering the message well that I mean when  you talk about speaking well do you mean speaking  

well by yourself I I did a whole video about this  too if that's what you're talking about the the  

difference between speaking alone or talking in  your head or even talking to yourself like talking  

to a mirror uh versus speaking with other people  is that when you're talking with yourself you can  

control that situation so I know exactly what I'm  going to say there's no unpredictability there my  

brain is it's kind working with me but when I'm  in a conversation with other people that's when  

I start worrying because I don't know what other  people will say all right so uh to bridge that  

gap between talking with yourself and talking  with other people this is where you need lots  

of examples of how natives talk about things  and it's really that simple so instead of you  

trying to think like well gee how do I do this  like uh the expression we use in this uh for

for English uh is to reinvent so to invent  something so to invent like I create something  

I like I I build the first microphone or the first  computer or something uh to re invent to reinvent  

I'll put a little I put a little Dash there it  doesn't have to be there but so to reinvent the  

wheel so this is a common English expression for  talking about again we begin with the situation  

and that's how we get the vocabulary the situation  is someone who even though there's already a  

perfect solution for something they still try to  create something new anyway okay so it's like hey  

like I I really want to be able to write things  on a board like this that's my problem and I say  

hey here's a whiteboard marker just use this  and then you can write on the board and they  

say well no no I I need to create my own thing  I say no no don't reinvent the wheel don't like  

the wheel is already made you don't need to make  a new wheel it's already done just use the wheel  

and I'm bringing this up because a lot of people  they they put a lot of stress on themselves in  

conversations trying to think of ways to express  things when you don't have to reinvent the Wheel  

by thinking of things to say everybody has already  really said everything if you see lots of examples  

of of of native speaking you just take those and  then either use those Express or you see how you  

could recombine them and make your own vocabulary  but that's how language works so instead of you  

trying to put pressure on yourself to think about  oh like what are these different ways I should do  

something don't reinvent the wheel just get lots  of examples of how natives are doing that okay so  

if I want to talk about cooking what should I do  I should probably watch a bunch of cooking shows  

where native speakers are are cooking things  so I could watch even specific shows is like  

how to make a soup how to make barbecue how to do  cooking desserts or cakes or something like that  

but all of this vocabulary is already there it's  waiting for you you don't have to go even find it  

in a difficult way like go to YouTube and type in  how to bake a cake and I'm sure you will find lots  

of videos about native speakers just describing  baking a cake and they'll talk about it first  

we need to put the eggs into the bowl and mix  the bowl and then what you do is not just watch  

one example of that you watch 10 different people  making cakes and I promise you you will see a lot  

of similarities and you will see a few differences  in the way people might speak or the vocabulary  

they use but as you look at all those examples  that's what will get you fluent because you're  

learning oh in this situation I can say this so  what do we say when we like even like something  

very simple like a just a simple movement like  opening an egg all right so you watch a cooking  

show about baking a cake for example we have  an egg here uh and we want to open the egg how  

might we say that well some people might say open  the egg or some people might say remember we got  

our next best option over here someone might say  break open so break open the egg or maybe someone  

else says a crack crack the egg or someone says  crack open the egg you will hear a few different  

versions of the this it's all describing the  same action of breaking open or cracking open  

or uh opening an egg okay so someone say okay we  want two eggs so now I'm cracking the egg I open  

the Egg and I put two eggs into the the pancake  or the cake or whatever the thing is I'm making  

okay so you will see lots of examples of like very  specific actions or things that you could describe  

uh in like a variety of ways it it's still  following this same rule of what is the next  

best option or really what's just another way of  expressing this so when I say next best option it  

doesn't mean like there's a ranking there it just  means there are different ways I might Express  

this I might crack the egg I might break the egg  I might crack open the egg or break open the egg  

there's really no difference to these things it's  still describing the same action and so as you see  

these examples that's what prepares you to do the  same thing because your brain is like oh look at  

that for this action here are some different ways  I could describe that and because you know more  

than one if you forget one you can easily switch  to something else that's the next best option okay  

so uh whatever it is you're trying to learn  this is exactly what we do in fluent for life  

where we're we're looking for specific situations  like how do people talk about being angry or how  

do people talk about having a relationship or  dealing with I don't know sickness or anything  

like that so you want to see natives doing that  and seeing different examples of how people do  

things and as you do that you will naturally  become more confident and fluent because the  

doubt is gone you erase the doubt as you see oh  here's the how do we describe that like how do I  

describe opening an egg and these are different  ways I can do that okay let me know if uh if  

this makes sense over here but um just just that  that specific thing about like focusing on the  

the language and how it looks much more than  delivering the message like that is the kind  

of thing that people get stuck on where there's  this there's a specific thing they want to say or  

that's the thing they they were they were taught  by their teacher so the teacher says okay you say  

hello when you greet people but in real life  people say hey hi what's up how's it going how  

have you been how is the family so people use all  of those different Expressions so you need to you  

need to kind of forget or ignore the traditional  lesson about just one way to say things um and  

often there's a lot of pressure there because  people are taught that way to have one answer  

for a test so you learn something in a classroom  and then on the test you have to write down that  

answer or give that specific answer but in real  life there are lots of different answers and  

many different ways you might Express something so  just keep that in mind uh and you can develop your  

ability to communicate about whatever you want  just by seeing lots of examples of how natives  

do it so it doesn't take a lot of time to do that  uh but that's how you should be spending your time  

learning so influent for Life uh like each person  goes through the program in their own way so some  

people might need to learn more business focused  stuff so they spend more time doing that uh other  

people maybe they just spend more time talking  with their relatives or something like that so  

maybe let's say there's a woman in uh France or  Germany or Italy or whatever and she has family  

in the United States and she wants want to be  able to talk with them so she would spend more  

time seeing how people do that and if you see  lots of examples you will feel more confident  

the same way you learn things in your native  language uh all right hopefully that answers  

your question but if not let me know uh Unice says  hello teacher Drew hello everyone and m g says I'm  

so happy when I watch some videos and I know the  vocabulary used there from your course yes so we  

teach the real vocabulary that people use and then  when people hear it in real life they think oh wow  

look at that like this is the actual language that  people use and remember uh we can't even teach  

everything there are so many different examples  of things that people might know even though there  

are thousands of examples like actually I don't  know I think like 13,000 or something I've never  

counted all of them but just thinking about how  much we teach uh in the particular lesson sets we  

really do give a lot of examples of vocabulary  but the more important thing is once you start  

understanding how it works you you can start  start learning the same way to get even more  

specific information so maybe you learn about  I don't know like let's say you work uh as a  

quality controller you could probably find videos  on YouTube specifically talking about that so  

maybe everyday people like I don't know much about  quality control or whatever for even a particular  

industry or a particular company uh but I could  probably find information about that online and  

the more examples I get the more confident I will  feel about using those things in my conversation  

but I'm very happy you're enjoying the program  I wish I knew about your course before yes so Mo  

most people who join the program they're like ah  why didn't I just join earlier uh but hopefully  

uh we can't save everybody now but I can do  my best to make sure the future Generations  

don't have those same problems so like things like  Frederick uh the app we have which you can click  

on the link in the description below this video  to get uh that's part of that process so trying  

to make sure that even young people just starting  to learn the language can actually enjoy it a lot  

more and learn it without having to use their  native language uh you says I think she said  

that the language comes out automatically when we  understand it very well yes so you to understand  

something really well and I want to be clear that  there are different levels of understanding so  

I've I've talked about this in videos where you're  just being exposed to something at first maybe  

you hear something but it's not very clear the  second level is awareness where you recog recogniz  

information and you know it when you hear it but  maybe you still don't have complete confidence  

about it about using that in your conversations  like you saying that thing uh but when you do  

have confidence when all the doubt is gone you  have ownership of that vocabulary so right now I  

have ownership over talking about these kinds of  things because I understand them very well I've  

I've researched them and learned about them for  many years so I have ownership over the ability to  

talk about this I wouldn't really be able to speak  fluently about I don't know fixing cars I use that  

reference often because I don't know much about  cars I could probably learn pretty quickly but I  

don't really know much about cars or actually a  lot of things uh and so of course I wouldn't be  

able to speak very confidently about that if  someone told me to give a speech about fixing  

cars I wouldn't really know how to talk about that  I would just say oh you should talk to a mechanic  

that would be my whole speech uh or somebody who  knows a lot more about cars than I do U but again  

as you get more examples of things you will feel  a lot more confident and that's the same way you  

learn things in your native language so it's not  just understanding it's making sure you understand  

it well enough that you have no doubt about using  it so if you want to understand things and be able  

to speak fluently you really need to eliminate all  that doubt and you eliminate that doubt by getting  

more examples seeing how other natives are talking  about things let's see uh so everything is clear  

glad to hear and says I can't think on my toes  like when I'm on on a phone call any help with  

that uh yes so this is the same kind of thing like  the being able to think about the next best option  

or being able to think on your feet we say think  on your feet you could say think on your toes but  

uh the more common expression is to think on your  feet uh like I'm standing up right now and able to  

to move and change if I need to for the situation  um but uh if to to be able to do that it might not  

necessarily be on the phone although uh phone  conversations can be difficult because we can't  

see things as clearly obviously you're not seeing  the person there uh maybe it's a zoom call or  

whatever but if you're only talking on the phone  and you only hear that voice it can be much more  

difficult to make things clear so I understand  uh that's more of an issue but just talking  

about whatever the subject is if you can first  see more examples of that so if I'm on a let's  

say a customer service call about computers if  I know a l about computers before I have um like  

before I have a phone call or before i' I've been  in you know having like customer service meetings  

with people or calls or whatever then I will feel  a lot more confident about speaking so it doesn't  

really matter where you use the language if I feel  confident about using it because I've had many  

examples that's when I will be able to uh to have  a lot more I don't know a much easier conversation  

my language will flow a lot more easily because  I'll know about the next best option so if I'm  

explaining to someone about a computer but I can't  remember that or maybe they don't understand what  

I'm talking about I can switch how I'm talking  about that so that if I say I don't know like  

my computer monitor something like that like maybe  they like let's say I'm talking with a person who  

doesn't know what a doesn't really know anything  about a computer so I know a lot about computers  

and I'm on a customer service call with I don't  know somebody's grandmother and she doesn't know  

what a computer is and at first I say oh I think  there might be a problem with your monitor so I  

use the word monitor I know what that is that's  that's like the term for the you know the physical  

box the screen uh but the grandmother is like uh  I don't know what a monitor is you what what are  

you referring to and maybe she doesn't understand  so I have to what's the next best option I have to  

explain that in a different way I might say oh the  monitor it's like the screen like your television  

and so here I'm explaining something in a  different way but I'm still talking about  

that same thing so that's my next best option all  right I don't know exactly what the problem is  

about like the phone call but typically in general  it's more your ability just to communicate about  

particular things rather than the like the medium  like if I'm typing an email or I'm on the phone or  

I'm talking in an actual conversation with someone  all of those things are really still my ability to  

use the next best thing okay so uh whatever you're  trying to talk about uh you need to pay attention  

to the the information or the cues you're getting  from other people so if they don't understand you  

and you need to explain things in different ways  just like me uh if I'm explaining something and  

it seems like people don't get it then maybe I  have to explain things in a different way I have  

to find the next best way to exp express myself  and and say what I'm trying to say all right uh  

let's see Jose says hello from New York uh okay I  got that one already and okay Mina says now I see  

your point thank you glad to hear it all right  I know what you mean says Annette and Bri says  

Drew would you say some people are born with a  gift for languages well um I don't know I mean  

I I wouldn't say I wouldn't say anybody's really  born with a gift for languages because I've never  

heard a baby speak but I I understand what you're  saying I'm I'm being a little a little bit silly  

but let let's let's try to explain this uh as a  it because it's sometimes an excuse for people  

who are unable to get fluent for I don't know  whatever like or they've been trying to learn  

languages for a long time uh and they don't so for  me uh as I struggled for 15 years to try to learn  

different languages I thought well gee maybe  I'm just stupid or I don't have you know like  

a gift for languages or whatever but try to think  about when people say someone has a real gift for  

language it's typically people who are really  good speakers within their native language so  

let's say if we're going to just kind of rank  I like I mentioned you know talking about this  

video for measuring your ability to speak like  regular just average Everyday People speaking in  

their native language if we just have like zero  to I don't know 50 this is not very scientific  

but hopefully you get the idea um so we start out  as a baby not knowing anything about the language  

and you know over time like you spend a few years  as a native speaker just getting lots of examples  

from different natives you will learn more and  more uh and as an adult you're this is just you  

know everyday average people talking in their  native language um this is the just perfectly  

fine use of the language now I would say like  when when people talk about having a real gift  

for languages I would talk about a person who's  like you know level 100 over here uh but with  

within their native language so there there's kind  of like the the gift for different languages like  

maybe you spend a lot of time learning various  other languages but it's really difficult to  

become a really good speaker in many different  languages most people like even even polyglots  

like I I mean I've not spent a lot of time with  people who speak different languages but the basic  

idea about how much time you can spend on things  typically you will have like let's say you have a  

native language the one you were born within you  know you're speaking that one and let's say let's  

say there's like a polyglot with I don't know  they know five or six different languages now  

probably uh a lot of them it's going to look like  a it's not going to look like this where they're  

all at the same level you're going to have more  of like a power curve uh where you've got the  

the native language over here and then you got  the next best one and then something like that  

so when they say like I know five different  languages it's really more like this where you  

got like the native language they're really good  at that one another language here and then this  

one because most people you can't really spend  a lot of time even if you only spend your time  

learning different languages um you're still not  going to get the same level at all of them it's  

just really difficult to do because you don't  have enough time to do that now there might  

be some people who are like perfectly awesome at  all these different languages maybe but I mean I  

would imagine some people are they're just good at  speaking about some things in some languages and  

not in others so like in my case I speak English  and Japanese and I know a little bit of French and  

Spanish so I would not say I'm a polyglot mine  is like this like English up here Japanese and  

like French and Spanish are down there you know  like I could probably U understand some things  

and and and follow people like I would have a low  level of awareness for some things in Spanish or  

French uh but I would not be able to communicate  fluently so I wouldn't say like if if if you just  

even talking about people who are good speakers in  their native language um I would not like I would  

say o that person's like he's just like a really  good speaker or she's a really good speaker uh  

but that that can be applied to people who speak  their own language very well and typically like  

they have this ability of just being able  to find the next best thing I've given this  

example before of there's a a sports uh a sports  commentator in America his name is Stephen A Smith  

and uh sometimes I'll watch his shows but I can  tell like because I'm very good at spotting this  

in other people I can tell like when he was saying  one thing but then switched to something else or  

like talking about whatever like he's able  to move very quickly like that but you can  

see how he does that the ability to continue  speaking so some people are really good with  

that but most of the time that just comes from  getting a wide range of examples that show you  

how different ways of of speaking might work so  you you see like not just your parents but you  

see lots of different people and you see different  environments and the more uh wide range of things  

you get uh that's much more preparing you for  real communication and this ability to to to  

weave things together uh without thinking about  it so a lot of students have a difficulty doing  

this because they only learn with one teacher so  they learn one way to express something from one  

teacher they hear one clear voice and then they  go into the real world and wonder why don't I  

understand natives like I understand my teacher  or everybody's speaking differently it's a whole  

different way of speaking but natives they often  spend more time listening to different kinds of  

natives so not just listening to Native like an  English class or something um you would you would  

spend more time um like seeing a wide range  of things and so me like uh like I might be  

interested in in listening to I don't know like  let's say a Shakespeare play but then I'll listen  

to some rap music or something like that and so  it's more the variety of these things that give  

you uh different ways of communication because  you think oh like it's possible to do this like  

maybe I had not thought about expressing myself  this way but here's another way to do it so uh  

I don't I don't know if there is a specific gift  for languages person but for most people they're  

really trying to get to this level over here which  is just every day being able to speak fluently all  

right I wouldn't call this a gift with languages  I would call this just being human basically  

everybody does this anyway the only reason people  have struggling or have struggles with doing this  

in learning a second language is because they  don't they don't learn a a second language the way  

they learn their first language that's the main  difference so it looks like when you meet someone  

else who speaks more than one language especially  if they learned it as an adult not like they live  

in a country where they have to speak French and  English and Spanish or whatever ever but I'm I'm  

talking about an adult that learned a language in  a different place uh it looks like a miraculous  

amazing mysterious thing but um assuming they  got fluent it's probably just because they've  

seen lots of examples of people speaking and  they understood how to do it from that so that  

would be the fastest way that I've seen how to  do that but uh it doesn't look like a mysterious  

thing to me anymore it used to when I was younger  and I thought wow it's impossible why am I not  

getting fluent there's some people wow it's like  they seem really able to learn lots of different  

languages and and if you if you really talk to  those people you would probably see them spending  

time just getting lots of um like it's input  not just comprehensible input but making sure  

it eliminates any doubt they have okay so we don't  just listen to lots of random stuff we want to be  

focused about it and make sure we eliminate any  doubts so we want to get lots of variety and make  

sure we eliminate the doubt we have about speaking  all right uh let's see so most people again just  

to give you a simple answer to that you don't  need to become this like a worldclass speaker  

or whatever like I'm not a world class speaker I'm  just I'm just a regular guy speaking in the same  

way most people I would just have conversations  with all right so most people are really just  

trying to get to that level in English or whatever  the language is you're studying so you don't need  

to have a gift for that the only gift is like  just the gift of all this content that's freely  

available uh so like we make it much easier and  fluent for life but it's certainly possible for  

you to do Orlando says why understand English  spoken at a natural pace become hard sometimes  

um well it's just because it's a different English  that you're not used to that's it so if you want  

to become used to doing something like if I  go into a barber shop the first time I go in  

there and try to cut somebody's hair and I don't  know anything about it I'm probably not going to  

be very good but if I see lots of people cutting  hair and I talk to people and I get some tips or  

some education about that I'm going to get better  at doing that so the more you spend the more time  

you spend uh listening to native speakers so right  now like listening to me this kind of explanation  

is much better for uh understanding how to learn  and the ways like specific tips about what you  

might want to focus on so that's like this kind  of video so what we do influence for life is  

there are some of these kinds of videos but others  where it's more focused on helping you understand  

particular things about the language like grammar  or vocabulary and then you see natives actually  

using the language so you need to have all of  these pieces and whether you're in the program or  

you're not like you're just trying to do this by  yourself it's certainly possible to do but people  

who only spend their time watching English lesson  videos like this their English ability is going to  

be much worse than people who get like the English  lesson but also get lots of exposure to natives  

talking about particular things okay so I've  talked about this uh before this is like one of  

the uh sections of my book uh as well uh but I use  a uh just an example of a rainbow it's not going  

to be a very good rainbow with just one color but  you can imagine this so usually what non-natives  

are doing they will only study like one color of  the rainbow like they only get slow clear English  

instead of hearing all of the whole like spectrum  of the language all the different colors and  

shades that you get in real life so you get faster  speech and people who use slang or idioms or movie  

references or whatever so all of that is what you  find in real life but in a language classroom it's  

typically just this one little bit so it's much  more difficult for people to go from a classroom  

into the real world because it's more overwhelming  for them they're just not used to that they they  

aren't getting all of those examples so when you  learn whether you're learning with a teacher like  

someone who can help you learn like me or you're  doing this on your own you need to get examples  

of all of this speech so some polite speakers  some impolite or some very casual speakers  

faster speakers slower speakers uh different  accents and dialects like people from the UK or  

from Britain or whatever ever like some people ask  me you know should I learn UK English or British  

English the first thing I say is it depends on  where you live so if you're living in the United  

States it's probably better to learn uh British  English but like influent for life it's important  

to learn a lot of different or get exposure to a  lot of different people from different countries  

because you will hear those people in real life so  there are people from the United States living in  

England or Australians living in Canada or  whatever or you'll hear these people on TV  

uh so anyway uh this does not mean I want to be  clear here this does not mean you should study  

the whole language like oh no I need to know every  word it's more like you just have to get exposure  

to a wide range of the real language okay so when  I talk about like one of the the main causes of  

Doubt so there are three main causes of doubt that  stop people from speaking uh one of them is that  

they're just not learning real language so they're  they're not getting exposure to the full uh the  

full what do you call it like the full spectrum  or like the the wide range that you would find  

in in real communication so yes it's good to get  some kind of video Lesson or something like this  

where there's a teacher to explain things but one  of the reasons we don't offer private lessons for  

what we do is because it would still be giving you  a lot of that easier teacher English rather than  

the real exposure you need to lots of natives okay  so I know it seems like o I should get a private  

teacher but I know people who have spent Years  Learning with private teachers and still have  

lots of trouble speaking and the reason is because  they're not getting exposure to all of the real  

language so if you do that in a systematic way if  you learn efficiently then you really can become  

a much more fluent speaker much faster uh because  again you're being prepared with lots of examples  

from how people really speak uh let's see now  this ISS very insightful would love to see more  

of these live streams well we've got a bunch of  them so you can you can watch these live streams  

for days we've got lots and lots of content on the  channel so enjoy Rocky says I'm not a talkative  

person I run out of topics to talk about or cannot  extend a conversation in my mother language does  

that affect the fluency of another language not  necessarily I mean you could be a good speaker in  

one language and not a good speaker of another or  maybe you even adopt a different personality maybe  

some people like they speak German and they kind  of act one way they speak I don't know a different  

language and they speak differently so I don't  know it just depends on what your goals are but  

I don't know why you would why you would want to  be not talkative in your native language but be  

talkative in a different language so I it's more  about your goal I don't know uh what specifically  

uh if you have an issue with that or whatever so  it's not like talkative or not is a good or bad  

thing it's just if I'm not talkative in Italian  and that's my native language anguage but I want  

to learn French and I want to be talkative in  that language I don't know why I would like do  

one and not the other but uh again your ability to  use a language when you speak is not really from  

you speaking a lot it's from you getting lots of  examples so you don't have to speak a lot to get  

fluent uh in my previous video I think it's the  previous video uh the strangest fluency secret uh  

I talk about there basically two paths to becoming  fluent so one is forcing yourself to speak before  

you feel comfortable and the other is just  eliminating doubt so if you see lots of examples  

of how people speaking you will see like other  people like right now you could you could kind of  

describe me as being talkative kind of I mean not  really but I mean I'm here like the the purpose  

of the video is just to give you lots of exposure  to me uh speaking so you can see examples of how  

I talk about things um but uh you don't need to be  talkative to become good at speaking a language so  

as an example uh I don't spend much time speaking  Japanese in my day so like in in 24 hours most of  

that time is not me speaking I might speak for  like five minutes or maybe an hour at most like  

I don't know a couple days ago I went with some  friends of mine and I was spending the day with  

them and I did a lot of speaking in that time um  but most of my time is not that it's really just  

getting examples of how other people speak so that  that's the that's the secret there uh without you  

know even if you you don't have anyone to practice  speaking with the more examples you get of other  

people speaking that's what's going to eliminate  the doubt so when you do speak even if you don't  

speak much even if you're not very talkative  you will feel much more confident about speaking  

uh Stephen A Smith is a great pun yeah he he's  he's an interesting guy to listen to but he he's  

a perfect example of this like you can see when  he might like incorrectly say something or he'll  

even start a sentence and say something else and  and express it in a different way but you can you  

can catch it if if you're if you're good at paying  attention for those uh brilliantly explained Drew  

says Bridget you would say brilliantly explained  but glad to hear it uh malaz I have a question  

uh to the t is the same as like t uh this is what  chat GPT said you mean like like doing something  

to the T like like to the to the letter or  making sure you do it perfectly um I don't  

know the history of that actually that's kind of  surprising though I don't know if that's the or  

of that or not uh and chat GPT can be incorrect  sometimes so and this is another reason I tell  

people to get lots of examples of things because  if you only listen to chat gbt or only listen to  

your teacher then you might get some incorrect  examples or answers or whatever so I would search  

Google or look for some other examples to see  what that is because I I actually don't know I  

mean I know how to use the Expression like he did  something to the T or whatever but or like to a t  

uh but I've never heard like the golf tea I don't  I don't I don't know if that's the example uh from  

that or not but I would get some more examples  and and see what that is uh let's see Orlando says  

thank you teacher for sharing us those advices uh  to become more fluent in speaking English uh it's  

my pleasure remember we say advice advice is  not countable so we don't say advises if you  

want to talk about different things you can say  pieces of advice so different pieces of advice  

uh what's the time in there you mean over here  like where I am let's see what is the time it  

is uh 10:45 A.M uh and Sammy is asking what is  my native language this is my native language  

it is English uh and it's really only my native  language because I learned from lots of different  

examples of people speaking English I spent much  more time getting English examples than getting  

Japanese examples and so that's why my English  is better than my Japanese but over time I will  

continue to get more Japanese examples and my  Japanese is getting uh getting much better so  

uh that's what I recommend other people do instead  of me uh trying to spend a lot of time talking I  

just get lots of examples and I every day I learn  new things like oh like that's interesting you can  

express something in that way just like I I go  to the hardware store and learn like uhy like oh  

that's interesting that's a new word I learned  and I remember it and I understand it from the  

situation uh thanks for responding you would say  say thanks for responding to me to me so thanks  

for responding to me or you could just say thanks  for responding all right well it looks like uh  

that is the end of comments which is the end of  the video so hopefully people get it uh if you'd  

like help doing this this is what we do in fluent  for life and we do guarantee fluency because we  

just eliminate the doubt and when you don't  have the doubt you express yourself much more  

confidently uh but if you have any questions about  that you can email us at info@ English anyone.com  

or just post a comment here uh we do our best  to answer those uh but we definitely respond to  

people email us uh but you can click on the links  in the description below the video uh not only  

for fluent for life but also for Frederick and  have a fantastic day remember if you're trying  

to uh uh if you're trying to do something like  especially becoming more fluent think about the  

next best option uh and whatever things you might  be struggling with personally uh then you should  

focus more on that just getting more examples  of those particular particular things Sam says  

do you do lives every day no I do not but uh you  can go back and watch the previous live videos and  

the content is the more uh important thing chat  said it's another form oh okay that's interesting  

H well I'll leave it to chat gbd then chat gbt  does know a lot chat gbt is interesting but I  

I've actually been teaching chat gbt a lot about  how to teach because if you ask chat GP chat GPT  

uh how to learn a language it will give you  a lot of the same traditional advice because  

it's just getting examples from what most people  would do so it can be incorrect it can give you  

information that's not going to help you so much  so just be careful try to get multiple sources  

the same way you feel more confident about  multiple uh kinds of expressions or multiple  

uh accents other things like that so the more  variety and diversity you get in your learning  

uh not only with your language but also chat GPT  or whatever the more confident you will feel when  

you speak have a fantastic dat click on links in  the description and I'll see you next time byebye