3 Myths That STOP You From Speaking English Fluently

all right I think we're looking good let's  see yeah I am Drew Badger the founder of  

englishanyone.com and the English fluency guide it  is a pleasure to welcome you to another live video  

here on YouTube we'll give a moment for YouTube to  catch up it always takes a while to get people in  

on the lives but this should be a very interesting  video especially if you are not familiar with me  

and what I help people do but I'll be talking  about three myths that stop people from getting  

fluent this is really the same thing for any  language although I focus on helping people learn  

English but we I also have a a guide I recently  released it's a free article you can click on the  

link in the description below this video to learn  more about that I didn't want to talk about all  

12 myths that I Do cover in that article so you  can click on the link in the description to read  

that but I wanted to talk three of the ones  that are as I say these are kind of closest  

to my heart so these are the things that are most  important to me and the biggest things that I see  

Learners struggling with so if you can actually  do the opposite of a lot of the things that most  

Learners think they should do I know that sounds  a little bit complicated but basically if you do  

the opposite of what most Learners think they  should be doing to learn English that's how  

you get fluent the basic idea is to learn English  the same way you learned your native language and  

I'm going to show you how that's possible so very  quickly if you have any questions let's see if the  

chat is working just post a comment let me know  that Chad is actually working over here I think  

it should be working but yeah let me know where  you're from if you have any questions I'll try to  

keep this short but I will stay around to answer  questions for as long as I can if people have them  

but let's get started all right Chad is working  boom all right let's begin so the first thing this  

is really the most important one for me because  this is really the biggest limiter for lots of  

students I've got some new markers over here  pretty cool and I've got a green marker a green  

marker nice to see you there everyone let's see  from uh Kevin is over there from Hong Kong make a  

playlist from zero to Advanced English a playlist  well it depends on what the I can talk more about  

that actually remind me about that comment later  in the video but nice to see everybody there from  

Spain Hong Kong United States all right so the  first myth myth number one this number one but  

I don't need both of these Dot and the hash  mark here but myth number one is that practice

comes

from speaking

practice comes from speaking this is the first  really biggest myth that I like to dispel for  

Learners that I liked it did like to debunk  because really practice actually comes from  

understanding the language rather than repeating  it all right so as I cover in many videos I talk  

about the about this idea but I often have lots  of new people joining me which is great we're  

always trying to help more people stop learning  the traditional way and actually learn the same  

way they got fluent because once you do that  or the same way they got fluent in their native  

language because once you do that you become a  fluent speaker of English all right so practice  

what people think they need to do is they need to  find someone to speak with and it's the speaking  

that lets them kind of rehearse or practice what  they'll know or what they've learned so you might  

have two people like let's say uh you have this  this learner AAA over here and they want to find a  

native speaker to practice with so they might you  know maybe they learn like this phrase and this  

phrase and this phrase and now they want to try  saying those things again and again to somebody  

else and usually practice doesn't work like this  way like in the real world the way it works in the  

classroom so this the teacher will teach something  okay here's a phrase I want you to learn or some  

vocabulary and then I want you to have a partner  and practice saying that with the other person  

but the problem is the the input here you really  don't have enough input because in conversations  

the communication is actually Dynamic and this  means that it's not just these specific phrases  

that you might use or even a native speaker or  another speaker might not use those phrases at all  

and so instead of trying to practice an instrument  so a lot of people make this analogy where they're  

they're talking about practicing an instrument  the same way they would practice a language but  

the the actual output is different so if we  have like an instrument let's have the guitar  

we'll have a this is uh what yeah it's a guitar  or kind of actually I don't know we'll say we'll  

say that's a that's a guitar here we've got the  hole down here that's a guitar uh so when you're  

learning to play a song on an instrument like a  guitar you have a specific set of notes and then  

you play those again and again and you get used to  playing that same thing so there is repetition and  

that kind of practice needed to play an instrument  but it's different in a conversation because you  

actually need to be prepared for lots of different  speech so you don't know what people are going to  

say you don't know what their accent will be like  you don't know if they'll speak clearly or not uh  

you don't know if they will be maybe mumbling  again it's the same kind of thing but there's  

a lot of variation you need to be prepared for in  conversations and so the actual practice that you  

get really comes from getting more of this input  and we get this not only by hearing a teacher but  

actually hearing that same thing from lots  of different people so even if I think I'm  

a good teacher I'm not enough for people to get  fluent you really need to have exposure to lots  

of different native speakers so this means you  might read something like you're reading a book or  

a magazine or you might see it from a new like a  news show or maybe a television drama or something  

like that but you're getting lots of different  input and you're hearing it and seeing it in many  

different ways so you might read it again you're  listening to it watching it and this is what's  

building your fluency in many different ways so I  call this naturally varied review because instead  

of playing a note and trying to practice that  again and again you're getting the variation  

you need for real communication now this is a  little bit different from practicing a speech so  

may maybe you need to say there's like a thing you  need to rehearse and you want to say it correctly  

or you were in a play or something like that where  you have a specific set of lines that you need to  

say and so in that case you actually do have a  particular script that you can rehearse but real  

life conversation is not like that so it's not  like getting a few lines and repeating those again  

and again so this is why repetition just by itself  even if you hear the same phrase from the same  

teacher even if I told you the same thing again  and again it's not going to help you as much as  

getting the naturally varied review with lots of  different speakers okay so the practice that most  

people think they need is talking but actually  talking is the result that you get from actual  

from the input that you get from lots of different  sources so it can come from a teacher but often as  

I'm speaking right now it's quite clear and easy  to understand and often you will hear uh students  

who kind of speak in a maybe unnatural sounding  way and that's because they're really trying to  

focus on one teacher or one person speaking but in  your native language you're really getting input  

from lots of different people you're hearing your  mother and your father and your sister and your  

brother in your community or teachers or people  on television or on the Internet whatever there  

are lots of different examples even right here on  YouTube you will find many different people and  

having ways to practice this so when people think  I think somebody mentioned uh shadowing before so  

shadowing is basically you're repeating after  what other people are saying and it's helpful  

to do that if you're trying to match uh the  way other people sound but if you're trying to  

go for fluency really fluency is your ability to  communicate without thinking so this means you're  

not taking time to translate or hesitate and  worry about grammar rules or pronunciation and you  

actually develop the speaking confidence after you  get a lot of this input so the first time you hear  

a phrase I remember my wife taught me a phrase  in Japanese yesterday and I already basically  

forgot it because I heard one example of it and  I I okay I need to get more examples basically  

but that's what causes you to struggle to speak  so if you only get one like one piece of input  

like one teacher tells you one thing even if you  practice and repeat that after the teacher that's  

different from being able to communicate fluently  so saying something well I could say a phrase well  

or I could say a phrase badly so if I'm learning  a different language maybe Japanese in my case  

I could pronounce like konichiwa I could say  Konichiwa and I'm shadowing I'm listening like

so I'm hearing like different people uh say it  in different ways and this is what's going to  

improve my accent my pronunciation so that's the  shadowing part uh that is valuable where you are  

listening to different people and trying to refine  your accent or trying to refine maybe you hear  

something some grammar that's a little bit tricky  but remember that fluency is really about getting  

the varied input it's the varied input that gets  you fluent all right so before we go on to uh  

instead of practicing uh coming from speaking  we're just saying that practicing comes from  

the input you get from many different sources and  in many different ways so that's really the truth  

about how you practice so this is the first one  I'll go back and look at more comments before we  

move on to uh the second one here but it's great  to see everybody here hopefully you're enjoying  

the show if you have any questions do let me know  I'll stop what I'm doing and go through and answer  

these and make sure I answer questions at the  end as well so nice to see people let's see we  

got from Indonesia Vietnam Brazil Korea hello  everyone so I answered the question about uh  

shadowing hopefully that makes sense so Kevin  says I'm from oh I'm in the USA for about five  

years and I still have an accent what do I have  to do so the shadowing part is helpful for trying  

to reduce an accent but really you should be  learning systematically and actually helping  

yourself get again lots of input so there are  different things you can do depending on what  

your specific issue is but that's another thing I  I won't really cover it in this video but general  

advice I give to Learners excuse me general advice  I give to Learners is that you should really try  

to focus on the specific issue you have so really  think deeply about that if you say I have trouble  

with grammar that's a bit more difficult to  find a solution for but probably you have a  

maybe a difficulty with a particular grammar  point or maybe like a kind of pronunciation  

or something that's really tricking and causing  you trouble so if you can think more specifically  

about that that's going going to help you focus  your attention and find the exact problem then  

it's much easier to deal with that but again if  you'd like to learn more click on the link in  

the description of this video for the the whole  list of the 12 myths I'll cover the next two of  

them in a moment but hopefully that makes  sense so you can actually learn to improve  

your pronunciation your grammar all of that by  yourself just by getting the right input and all  

of these things they will naturally improve your  grammar your pronunciation Etc I don't believe  

in speaking as a way to improve don't well you  don't believe in speaking as a way to prove all  

right so you don't believe in speaking as a way  to improve speaking but I learn more whenever I  

speak even babies speak and say words like Mom  and Dad yeah so babies have learned to speak  

after hearing lots and lots of input again we we  agree that the goal is communication that's where  

we want to be all right I know this seems like uh  it seems like a really weird idea to many people  

because everyone tells you that you have to  speak everyone says okay you have to speak  

and that's the only way you improve but let's  look at kind of a case study here and compare  

this I really it's important for me to make sure  this is clear imagine two Learners over here we've  

got learner a and learner B so learner a uh they  let's say like learn a phrase or another phrase  

another phrase and they spend a lot of time trying  to repeat those so this is what would be speaking  

practice imagine if they're just starting to learn  a language and they learn the like words for ball  

and play and I don't know tennis or skateboard  or whatever they're just learning some basic  

vocabulary and then immediately the teacher says  okay I want you to practice saying those things I  

want you to practice saying those things so this  is learner a this is the typical way people learn  

a language learner b instead is actually and let's  say this let's say this takes like 30 minutes  

30 minutes here so the teacher will will give some  phrases and try to teach something like marker  

hand or whatever and if they're doing it in  English that's even better but this is again  

just trying to teach some basic vocabulary you  introduce something and then you try to make the  

student repeat that now student B over here is  learning you know the Drew way the like the way  

that natives get fluent in their native language  and this is getting lots and lots and lots and  

lots and lots of input and they're getting related  input like they're hearing the word marker from  

many different people in many different ways  so they're hearing it in different situations  

and this is what really builds the confidence to  use that vocabulary okay so it's really important  

uh you could spend a little bit of time like  let's say you cut this time in half you've got  

15 minutes of trying to say or trying to learn  these phrases and then 15 minutes of trying to  

say them but this one you spend basically all of  your time we could even spend like 30 minutes or  

29 minutes just getting input and by hearing this  even without you speaking because just really the  

way we're able to understand things and we can  imagine how we might speak it's really easy to  

get lots and lots of input feel very confident  and then naturally you want to speak all right  

so this is just one reason why you would want  to spend your time learning getting lots of  

varied input rather than speaking now people  will often disagree with me about this because  

they're still thinking in the traditional way  about learning and they think like you should  

basically you're trying to like spend all of your  time studying and you don't speak and this is not  

what I recommend at all I don't recommend you  like sit and try to study vocabulary or try to  

memorize grammar rules that kind of thing what  you're doing is actually getting native input  

the same way a baby would so babies again they  spend all of their time I give this little Iceberg  

example of here the speech happens up here after  all of this vocabulary has been learned simply  

by listening and understanding okay and you  don't I want to make it clear also that it's  

not only listening that you need the point is  to understand the information and rather than  

what you would do in a typical language lesson  where I translate something it's easy when you  

take something like this I can show you a physical  marker and it's easy to see what that is but maybe  

I'm trying to explain something more difficult  if you can't understand it this is when people  

will use translations to help you understand but  that actually stops you from communicating because  

you're trying to think about the translation when  you speak all right so again the the speech comes  

out naturally and automatically after you've  gotten a lot of input because the input gives  

you the confidence to speak okay so first you  get lots of input and as you get this so each  

time you get something you feel more confident  about it all right so let me give you another  

quick example of this I want to spend some time  on this because it's such an important point  

and if people do not believe this then they will  continue trying to learn the traditional way and  

speak before they feel comfortable all right so  here's another example so let's say I'm teaching  

trying to teach you like an alien language  or something so I'll use my red marker here

now imagine I show you a flash card and what  do we have here so I'm going to draw let's see

again not a very good picture but let's say  I just call this uh we'll just call this  

10 that's the word all right okay now if I just  tell you this and I'm not trying to give you a  

translation I'm trying to teach you what this  thing is now I have an idea in my mind of what  

this is but you do not so maybe you can guess it's  a few different things so what do you think tet  

means just put that down in the chat right here  okay again this is how uh you learned your native  

language and this is how again you will become  fluent in English if you learn this way as well  

so if I just give you a translation of what this  is you will not learn to use it fluently okay car  

all right anything else so what  does Ted this is just imagine  

it's an alien language or from a  different country vehicle uh-huh

very good anything else so Ted it doesn't  doesn't it's not like a real language a whip  

a whip you mean like the slang for car or whatever  I like T and ah t in Spanish yeah so again like  

this is word you know like it's also it also  means like like in Japanese uh let's say you  

could say that again but here in Korea most  parents like traditional way and learn other  

languages yeah yeah I actually I I think I told  a story one time about a woman from Korea uh so  

her husband uh learned about me and what I do and  he bought a program for his wife but she was uh  

really too scared to use it because it doesn't  have Korean in it so again like it's it's a it's  

a very common thing people want to continue using  that language even though it doesn't really help  

them speak all right so we got a whip and again  like that's the slang term for car uh that many  

people might not know if we're talking about car  we couldn't mean vehicle uh we could be uh talking  

about Auto again these are related things that you  might guess from this a picture again another good  

example a picture I could also be talking about  a shape or I could be talking about again this is  

a this is a thing where a person will hold up a  picture and they know what they're talking about  

but the student does not so it's not immediately  clear what I'm talking about I could be talking  

about uh like the wheel so even though I show a  picture of this whole thing I could be talking  

about a wheel of the car so automobile Auto same  thing I could be talking about uh red like if I'm  

just using the color now these are not so great  examples but again you can imagine what something  

like this is if I give you one example of it so  we have two ways of learning a language one is  

that I give you a translation of something the  other is that you kind of over time get a really  

strong understanding of what the word means by  learning it in the language okay let me say that  

again there are two different ways of learning  a language the first way is that I give you a  

translation so I tell you the word tet and then  I tell you what this is in your native language  

or English or whatever or I can say I can give  you this example and then I can give you some  

more and then we slowly start figuring out what  it means now it doesn't need to be slow you'll  

see it's actually a pretty fast process but the  point is that you'll you'll actually feel it in  

your mind mind as I give you more examples  of something all right so here's a tit over  

here and let's say I'm going to give you this  one over here I'm going to try to draw this  

a little bit better I know I'm not the best  artist see if I can give a good example here

10. so this is also what okay so so now  

for origami Japanese words well I'll come  back to that question in a minute uh so  

again when we're looking at something  like this as I give you more examples

as I give you more examples it becomes clearer  what I'm actually talking about okay so the  

first time usually native children hear something  they might not understand it usually they don't  

okay and so it's when you get more examples of  something that really make it strong in your  

mind all in English or all in the language you're  you're you're trying to learn yes so we could call  

this modes of transportation so Roxanna is getting  like we're trying to figure out getting a little  

bit closer what this could mean it could be modes  of transportation it could be vehicles but we're  

getting we're getting closer to what we think is  the idea of it and so as you get more examples  

of this that's when you really feel strongly about  understanding that thing okay so now it's not just  

about a car or maybe this is just you know maybe  it's a turtle or something I just drew it badly  

but each time I give you an example of something  like I could give you here's another one this is  

like let's say it's a a pogo stick so pogo stick  is something you stand on and jump up and down  

like that pogo stick uh these are all uh what we  could call maybe just Transportation or Vehicles  

so ways of getting around and so as I give you  more examples it becomes more clear so this is  

the way you learned your native language and  you don't really think about it now because you  

understand everything but when you were young or  even if you just look at children as they learn a  

language right now you will say things to them  and they don't actually understand everything  

you're saying they have it's almost like a like  a puzzle so they might understand like one piece  

here and one piece here and one piece here but  there's a lot that they still don't understand  

but over time as they learn more they fill in  these pieces and maybe you've had the experience  

happen maybe you're young like you know five years  old 10 years old something you don't really know a  

lot of vocabulary but you might watch a movie and  hear something and then later many years later you  

hear that same vocabulary again and you're like I  understand what that means so you got a new piece  

of the puzzle and you went back and and understood  something from many years ago this usually happens  

to everybody because people don't really learn  languages very systematically we get lots of  

different pieces of things as we maybe watch  movies or hear from our parents or something but  

the the the big idea here is that you're spending  all of your time getting input because if I just  

say something and if especially if I if I just  tell you what this is in English or I give you  

a translation then you will not feel confident  knowing what all these things are and really  

understand what the word means so the goal if  you want fluency and this is just one example but  

it's to get get lots of input and the input makes  you really understand and this is how you get it  

so this is a kind of what I call naturally varied  review and so we're taking something getting lots  

of variation of it another kind of review would be  if we're hearing different speakers say the same  

thing so if we hear mom say tet and dad says tet  and other people say say the same kind of thing  

then we're really going to get a good sense  for how to say something and how to pronounce  

it ourselves okay so the speech is the result of  this we don't we don't learn like one example of  

this and then try to repeat that it's hearing  all of these and now we really feel confident  

about that hopefully that makes sense let me know  if you have any questions about this still we're  

still only on the first one and we've been going  for 25 minutes already all right let's see here  

all right and I'll just I'll I might come across  this uh this comment already but really the goal  

here is if you don't understand what you're  saying you will not feel confident speaking  

it's really that simple so it doesn't matter if  you learn something and then try to repeat it to  

yourself or to other people again and again you're  not really communicating fluently so this is why  

it's so important to spend all of your time really  99 of your time getting lots of input because then  

you feel very confident about uh you know whatever  the conversation is so it could be talking about  

you know animals or pets or something like that  um but the same kind of thing so Kevin asks how  

to learn slang and it's the same idea so usually  slang is a different way of saying a particular  

word or phrase and usually that slang is for a  group of people so maybe some old people would  

not call this a whip you know or if it's a car  they would not say like oh that's a whip like  

maybe young people would say that but so that's  slang for young people so you know what a car is  

if this is a car if I'm talking about that then  that's when it that's when it's going to happen  

all right somebody said it just lagging over here  but let's see if we're if we're going all right  

all right so we have let me see if I go back  and answer okay hopefully I answered that that  

question so really again the point is to  spend all of your time getting input and  

then the speech comes as a result of that all  right uh let's see again sham says if you want  

to learn a song maybe you need to iterate that  specific song but if you want to learn English  

you must learn a natural varied review yep that's  a basic idea so anything that you know it's going  

to be the same thing every time like a song on  the radio or you're learning an instrument or  

something like that then of course repetition is  a good idea but you need varied review because  

conversations are varied so you have to plan the  kind of learning you are for the kind of uh kind  

of like the actual use of that thing all right uh  Yvonne says hello from Cambodia I have a problem  

with pronunciation and communication please help  me let me know what specifically your itch your  

issue with pronunciation is also if you click  on the link in the description below this video  

you can learn more about Frederick which will  help you with your pronunciation and listening  

and as well as fluent for like so both of those  things we use those together my students do to  

actually improve their their listening and their  communication and pronunciation as well all right  

uh Raymond says what do I do when students  speak too much my native language please RT  

what do I do when students speak too much mining  of language you mean if you're teaching you mean  

if you're a teacher of the language so if you're  trying to if if students are speaking like let's  

say you're an English teacher and you're trying  to teach English more uh it's usually because  

students don't understand that they start using  their native language but if you can really make  

the lesson understandable by really focusing on  something students will get very excited about  

them because this is how we get fluent in our  native language the brain is naturally excited  

by trying to solve puzzles so if you teach the  language that way rather than try to tell people  

what things mean this is why we made Frederick  like a whole puzzle that you can discover so the  

really the discovery of something by yourself  is the highest form of learning because that's  

what's most memorable for you you found that  yourself and like a teacher my job really is  

to try to make the language understandable so  you think to yourself ah I got it okay because  

when you got it when you understand something very  well then you feel very confident about using it

Dimitri says the first picture is a penguin lying  on its back yeah again when teachers are trying  

to communicate something like typically  one flash card is is Almost Never Enough  

all right I think we got through those those  who live in English-speaking countries feel more  

stressed for the speaking side like me yes salima  uh that's very common as well and again people who  

are in that situation uh the next thing I'll talk  about uh is like trying to force yourself to speak  

so it's related to the first myth uh but I'll  just quickly get into it to make sure like we're  

already half hour into this video but the basic  idea of the second myth is that you don't want to  

force yourself to speak so it can be a very very  stressful for people what you should be doing in  

a native environment is really just like spying on  people this is what I do all the time in Japan so  

I listen to what other people say and what they're  saying specifically for different situations so I  

give the example often of me going to a cafe and  just listening to people talk so I hear how do all  

these different people order food at a restaurant  and then I copy the same thing or I can learn oh  

that's a new way of saying something it's kind of  like learning slang that the example I gave before  

for about whip so you know what a car is and when  you know people are talking about that and someone  

says wow that whip looks really cool then ah we  know from Context that they're talking about the  

car and then you discover that yourself it's like  oh yeah I recognize that so an example of this  

for me when I was uh maybe I don't know was that  maybe a month ago something I was talking with my  

accountant in Japanese about when we should meet  and she used the Japanese like at the head of  

the month so we would not use head in that way in  English at least I've not heard that before we'd  

say at the top of the month or the stop the the  start of the month but she said oh at the head of  

the month so at the beginning like early in the  month and I I just heard that in context and I  

thought oh wow I just discovered a new way to use  the word atama in English or in Japanese so head  

so again I'm learning it in context and I felt  really excited about that because I discovered a  

usage of the word that had not been taught to me  so this is why like Discovery is so important as  

you're trying to learn things all right let's see  if we all right so okay I think I answer that one  

uh jerwin you're welcome uh thank you for  your answer about shadowing and vong okay  

I answer that one too all right so welcome to  the classic car okay everybody has given me  

good examples over there so uh kyung says oh  yeah we answered that one as well you can say  

that again that's a really great expression  too you can say that again you can say that  

again I've actually taught that in quite a few  lessons uh but this phrase you can say that again  

is when someone says something and you agree  with it very strongly you can say that again  

I am from uh Balochistan watching your lecture  glad to hear it stick together Fields our origami  

Japanese words I don't understand that question  origami is a Japanese word Odo is to fold and Kami  

is paper so origami origami all right uh let's  see Mohammed says if it's the right process so  

when and how should we start building chunks and  sentences again the point is just to be getting  

understandable messages so some of them will  be individual words some of them will be like a  

group of things so let's say you know that this  means car I can start teaching different things  

by just giving you understandable messages so  I might have like so here's our Badly Drawn car  

or Badly Drawn car so I might have a person  in here and it's like oh look that's Drive  

to drive a car so children are learning they  already know what car means so usually children  

learn the word car before they learn Drive okay  so they learn the word car they know what this  

is oh that's a car I see a car that's a car  that's a car but now they hear driving a car  

and so they see someone driving a car and then  they would also understand oh look here's a boat  

here's someone you know here's a little like  the wheel up here here's someone driving a boat  

here's someone driving a bus so here's our  bus over here pardon me I'm just trying to  

do these very quickly to make these examples  but the point is as you get more examples you  

basically build a network in your head of what  the vocabulary is and this expands naturally as  

you get more examples so again you begin with  one vehicle and now you've connected the word  

drive to that so we understand the physical  action of somebody doing this and even after  

you get to higher levels where maybe you can't see  something physically usually you understand from  

the context uh you can actually start I might  be like maybe driving like driving people away  

so if I like don't want people to come visit  me and I'm always angry I'm driving people away  

I'm driving people away so people can get oh like  here's a here's a different usage of Drive where  

I'm not physically driving a car or something but  I'm like I'm kind of like pushing people back the  

same way I might drive some camels I'm driving  some camels so here's me like I'm a camel driver  

over here so I'm not physically with the steering  wheel but I'm kind of controlling them here's a  

camel oh my goodness I'm gonna draw a bad picture  of a camel it's kind of a camel because I'm a  

camel driver again like we're we we understand  the idea does not just mean to to have a physical  

steering wheel but as we get more examples we  deepen our fluency and we come we become much  

stronger at using these particular things but it's  like a web of connections that you build when you  

learn it all in English Okay so you don't only  learn individual words these are really the the  

kind of first puzzle pieces you get when you're  just learning a language because the point is to  

learn everything all in English if I just start  speaking some Japanese and you don't know what  

Japanese like if you don't know any Japanese at  all then you're not going to understand anything  

but if I can give you very simple explanations  and show you something visually then we can start  

building your Japanese fluency so even from day  one you can actually start speaking if you like  

but you don't have to force yourself to do this  all right keep going 35 minutes in oh my goodness  

all right uh so remedies in does does English  learning have to do with IQ of a country no uh  

the reason language learning doesn't have anything  to do with the country IQ is because you can  

go anywhere in the world and you'll find people  speaking English so almost everyone all over the  

world we have a natural ability to speak we don't  have a natural ability to read this is a skill we  

acquire but almost everyone develops the ability  to speak it's really a skill even though people  

don't they just think like everybody naturally  does it but really the point is that you're  

getting understandable messages because that's  all you can get there's no way to translate for  

young kids you just have to make the language  understandable so this is why young children  

they usually get slower language it's more clear  they're getting actual examples or parents are  

really trying to make sure the child understands  what's happening and the child is also seeing  

lots and lots and lots of examples so most times  when people say well Drew children are speaking  

aren't they yes that's true but again as I gave my  little example over here with the iceberg that's  

floating in water the speech is a tiny result that  happens after you get all this input so children  

are spending years even a baby is not really doing  anything but they're getting lots of input and I  

think even by six months a young baby can tell  the difference between different languages okay  

all right let's keep going here so how can I know  my level in English is it something important to  

know says sleep uh remember that like fluency is  a collection of different skills so you might be  

good at understanding but not good at speak speech  so it depends on what you mean by your level and  

for what situation so maybe you are good in like a  professional speaking capacity but you would have  

trouble maybe watching some movies or something  like that so it just depends it's hard to know  

what your level is or or able to give you or or  for me to be able to give you advice like that but  

again remember that we're trying to get specific  about what issues we have so again not to say  

grammar but what grammar Point are you struggling  with or not pronunciation but what specific sounds  

do you have trouble making because often people  can make like in the same thing so this is like  

the hiragana for KA in Japanese so this sound is  in English as well but this sound like d is not  

in English so this is why people have a like  a difficulty saying this and going from one  

language to the other so you might have an overlap  like this so this is like Japanese pronunciation  

this is English pronunciation and there are  many things that are the same but some of  

them are different so focus on the things that are  different for your situation uh whatever that is  

uh let's see and Adrian G asks hi how accurate is  the b-e-l-t test I don't know what that is belt I  

did a test on the government's official job fair  website and got B2 plus certified but I'm curious  

if a 60-minute test can give you an accurate  result yeah I don't know what that means and there  

are different different language tests but again  as I just mentioned there are different kind of  

like the the situation you would have on a test is  different from a situation you would have in real  

life so often like a lot of the people I help they  have good test scores but they still struggle in  

real conversations because a test is a different  environment than uh than real communication and  

also they will be good in some things but not  others so it's really important to look at what  

you're weak in and then focus on that Saleem says  shy people have a big problem when it comes to  

speaking even if they know the language better  yeah so that's also an issue and this is why I  

just mentioned if you have like we're looking at  all these different skills that work together this  

is what I call your English fluency profile and  you might have really high vocabulary knowledge  

so you know a lot of words but you still have  trouble communicating because you're shy so this  

means you should focus on improving your shyness  and overcoming that which is pretty easy to do  

and then you'll become a much more uh well just  a confident speaker much faster so you're trying  

to unlock the other abilities you have by focusing  on your weakest skill uh let's see and Yehuda says  

how can I work on achieving an American accent I  would listen to lots of American people saying the  

same speech so listening to people in movies or  like you might hear people doing plays or giving  

speeches or something like that again the input is  the important thing so you will find a natural way  

of speaking that's good for you and you need to do  that by listening to lots of different people so I  

recommend sometimes that people have a particular  actor or actress or something that they want to  

sound like that's fine if you want to do that  but it's even better to develop your own natural  

speaking voice that's good for you so we actually  sound a little bit different because like you can  

hear my voice is a little bit nasally it's just  how my nose is so I can try to change that if I  

want to but this is my natural speaking voice the  way I would speak without you know I'm trying to  

change anything I can certainly copy different  accents if I want to but I have my accent in the  

way I'm speaking because I listen to lots of  different people okay so not just one teacher  

all right uh have I ever tried kickflip uh no I  have not I don't know what that is uh opinionated  

reviewer I speak Mandarin Chinese although my  English pronunciation is okay when I pronounce  

some rare words that I first saw in English  like Zenith uh the result might be slightly  

wrong any suggestions yes I would listen to lots  of native speakers say those particular words and  

this is like an example we do in Frederick it's  only my voice but you can listen uh in that way  

you're getting the review of comparing different  sounds so here we really want to isolate like we  

want to to figure out what the specific issue  is so if you get regular pronunciation training  

with someone they're going to try to figure  out what sounds you make are and there are a  

couple ways to do this I have an article coming  out soon I'm working on all about pronunciation  

so check englishanyone.com in the future for  that but should be maybe this week but that's  

all about pronunciation I can talk a little  bit more about that but the basic idea we can  

even take random words or words that uh that  aren't real so we have a word like zenith  

now for people if I want to teach you the  word Zenith we talk about like oh here's  

the Zenith of the mountain or the Zenith  of somebody's career so as I give you more  

examples this is just understanding what  the word means but we can also make like

zanith or zundith  

or like zoo with we can change the pronunciation  and try to figure out what exactly uh the issue is  

with your pronunciation so is it like the th sound  or the e or the I or whatever that is but that's  

how you would be able to to learn how to say this  so again the answer to pretty much every question  

is more naturally varied review you want to try to  get lots of different input and try to isolate the  

particular sound that you have trouble with or the  particular grammar point or whatever if you have  

trouble listening to more people that's how you  would do it so you would focus on the particular  

thing in Frederick we let you do this by changing  different sounds so you would learn like bad  

bed bid like that and so we're hearing oh this is  the same this is the same but this is different  

bad bad bid bad bad bid and I talk in this new  article about uh sound transitioning so this  

is when you you try to take a sound that you  can make so if I can say this one like bad I  

know the ah ah sound I want to play with my mat  with my mouth and maybe my vibration to hear if  

I'm making something correctly so it's hard if I  just give you a word and try to say that but it's  

easier if you take a sound or a word a similar one  that you can say and then just try to move your  

mouth a little bit until you can get the sound so  like from this one to this one so bad bad [Music]

uh so I'm just moving I'm trying to keep making  the sound so I can hear when that's the right  

sound for me so I'm listening for maybe I hear  an example like bed and I'm starting with bad  

bad ah okay that sounds a little bit better  bid bad bad so again the point is to try to  

focus on the particular things that you have  trouble with and then use the sounds that you  

can make and then transition to that new sound so  rather than just trying to repeat after a teacher  

see if you can produce the sound and you will  naturally know ah okay I move my mouth in this  

way or like the difference between th like if  we have an unvoiced sound like or voiced sound  

so you hear my uh like hear my throat so I'm  making a vibration there all right so we have

ah okay so now I hear the difference I one is not  using vibration and the other one is okay so you  

can play around with that as you try to figure out  what sounds work uh to understand things better  

uh let's see your drawings are a total go yes all  right uh your driving is just as good as mine when  

I'm trying to explain something in my classes  glad to hear it uh let's see Channel 11 full I  

enjoyed your phrasal verb course it's wonderful  to know conversational English is a lot simpler  

than a written one yes and again children learn  phrasal verbs from a very early age that's how  

they go from often using just individual things  to saying much more complex ideas even with  

simple vocabulary so she's talking about or he I  can't tell who that is but this is talking about  

my visual guide to phrasal verbs program and  you can find this in fluent for life [Music]  

I think we answered that my savings is my  pronunciation have issues like on my mind  

can say the literally like native but when I say  it it's no air no or literally yeah and there are  

different ways to pronounce things and again you  feel better if you have if you have one teacher  

we imagine like like a class of students over  here and here's the one teacher now the one  

teacher will say thing like a car and all of  the students will try to repeat that that thing  

exactly and each of them will sound a little  bit different some people maybe will be good  

at producing that sound and some people will not  but in a real life learning situation you've got  

actually a student that's getting lots of other  people say car so even in the United States one  

person says car another person says Ka so if I'm  in Boston or something a different part like in  

the United States it might have like a car or  car a car so it's it sounds different so instead  

of worrying about the way one teacher pronounces  something you're hearing ah all of these different  

examples and they're all correct okay so we have  different accents different intonations and when  

you hear all those you find one that's the best  for you so it's finding your own English voice

uh let's see here so Lance is what's up idol  I'm not an idol I'm an idol let's see what about  

repetitive English courses where they repeat the  same teaching style and then Academy forces you  

to follow that style of non-freestyle well yeah  obviously I would not recommend that that's not  

what I do repetition is good but it's it's very  limited in what it can help you do it's much  

better to to get the naturally varied review  that's repetition but in a varied way so it's  

really important like you don't say the same thing  over and over again you're actually hearing lots  

of different ways of pronouncing it uh saying  things you're hearing it in different tenses  

like trying to understand uh you know different  vocabulary and grammar that way but it's better  

to not try to just repeat something over and  over again that's going to waste your time  

all right Fannie says thanks for these classes  I just download Frederick it seems great I am  

curious what did the name uh why did you  name the app is Frederick good question  

Fanny uh it's actually an interesting  story the original name for the app

maybe someone who's been following me for a long  time will know this so we've been developing the  

app for many years I actually had the idea back  when I was a classroom teacher I wanted to make  

it out of wood so you would have these different  like pieces over here like you would have a little  

a bar with uh with like a block that you could  spin so you would have like are you in and you  

could turn either you know one of these things  and the teacher would say it and the goal of the  

app is to teach you the sound rules of English and  those are phonics so the original name was scroll  

phonics so on an app I found okay we like if we  use something made out of wood you still have to  

have a teacher there to tell you the sound but  if you can play with it on a phone so when I was  

thinking about it uh scroll phonics is the name of  the app but the problem with that name is that a  

lot of people uh they they don't like phonics  like they think it's a bad idea to teach even  

though it's actually really good and very helpful  uh there's what's called in the United States uh  

maybe in other countries as well the reading Wars  the reading Wars you will hear this like reading

reading Wars so people arguing about how we  should teach reading the big problem with  

learning English especially for even native  speakers they have this problem is that about  

84 of the language you can decode this means  that you can look at it at a letter and know ah  

okay this letter makes this sound especially in  this word so we have rules for how we pronounce  

different letters uh based on based on the rules  of phonics so phonics meaning sound phone sound  

and 84 percent of words can be like that but  other words are not and they break those rules  

this is a word like the so if we look at this  and try to pronounce it with phonics we get

but we don't say fair we say the or the all  right so when I was thinking about this if  

I call the app scroll phonics people are going  to be angry and not use it or some people will  

some people really like phonics will love the  app but uh when I was riding my bike one day  

it occurred to me oh like I just had like a  flash of inspiration I'll call it Frederick

now this name actually comes from an American  slave many years ago who taught himself to  

read that's basically the story of him what he's  most famous for so this is a man named Frederick  

Douglass Frederick Douglass so I thought oh wow  what a great way to to like make an app kind of  

like how Frederick Douglass taught himself how  to read we can make this available for anybody  

around the world and that's why I decided to call  it Frederick it's also a kind of more fun name  

than something like scroll findings so there's  your answer kind of long answer but uh I think  

it's important for people to understand  how that works but that's why we have it  

uh okay next we got Zachary but memorizing  words through translation seems faster and  

more efficient yes so here's another argument  that people have about learning a language  

people again are trying to trying to learn as  many words as possible and then and then try  

to start using them so people will like you can  quickly get a definition or a translation of a  

word and let's say I can like in 10 minutes I can  I know try to learn 20 different words like that  

using translations the problem with this is that  when you go into a conversation how you learn is  

how you speak and so when you learn through  translations this is what gets you stuck in  

conversations trying to think about translations  okay so it seems like a faster way to learn it's  

like it goes faster at the beginning but then you  you basically you can't you can't actually get to  

the fluent level you stop over here uh because  you're you're stuck thinking and translating in  

your head so even though at the beginning it  seems like a faster way to learn the way I've  

talked about where you're trying to understand uh  understand things like a native it might seem a  

little bit slower at first because you're getting  way more examples but then the fluency comes a  

lot faster and you actually become a confident  speaker much faster all right so this is why we  

do it but the basic idea is how you learn is how  you speak so if you learn through translations  

you will get stuck thinking about translations  you will forget words when you speak okay so  

even though it might seem faster it's actually  a slower way to learn and it's not likely to  

lead to fluency it's a good question though uh  samorin says hello from Cambodia I love learning  

vocabularies with explaining its meaning of each  word is this good for as good for learning for me  

uh it's it's okay to get Tran like a definition  or an explanation about it so I teach vocabulary  

all the time but the point is to really spend time  getting lots of different examples of that thing  

so the explanation is helpful just to understand  something but the fluency comes from the review  

all right so let me say that again it's important  to understand this when you you learn something  

like if I teach something very quickly to my  daughter or my I can like or anybody in a class  

I can just give a definition or a quick example  of something or even a translation but it's  

really the review of that thing that builds the  fluency so if I teach you something today you will  

probably forget it just like my wife taught me a  phrase yesterday and even if I heard that phrase  

I would recognize it but I would not be able  to use it fluently because I haven't had enough  

review of that and it's not me me like practicing  that phrase it's me not hearing at from lots of  

different people in lots of different ways so it's  again easy to get translations or definitions or  

a quick example of something but it's the review  that actually builds a fluency uh wild Zoom says  

thanks a lot Master you're uh it's my pleasure mom  it says so we can use chunks of native speakers in  

Clips movies and songs to memorize and then juggle  with them changing some few words yep again this  

is this is what you would do when you're learning  your native language so you might hear something  

new on the news and then you hear other people  talking about it it's the exact same thing the  

point is to get more review and when you when  you learn that so I made a video recently about  

what was the name of that it was like how to speak  fluently about almost anything and that's talking  

about focusing on vocabulary rather than trying  to learn everything and that's what's going to get  

you fluent so if you can get fluent in specific  vocabulary then you can use that to watch or to  

understand lots of different things let's see CX  John says you'd recommend to watch movies without  

subtitles without care of our English level no  I would not recommend you do that that's going  

to be it's going to be difficult for you there's  going to be a lot you miss you will get a flow  

or a sense for the flow of the Lang which but if  you're really really trying to understand things  

you should understand at least 80 to 90 percent of  it already so that new information is easy to get  

how to ignore shyness uh the very quick answer  to that is to remember the value you can give to  

People by even just listening in a conversation so  you don't need to feel bad if you're not speaking  

um but also you ignore shyness by by getting more  input so the the shyness is there because you  

have doubt about pronunciation or vocabulary  or grammar or something and so if you erase  

the doubt then the shyness goes away now you  might have a particular shyness like in your  

native language as well that's where that's a  kind of a separate issue where the problem is  

just a general shyness like if you don't want to  speak in front of a group of people rather than  

um like like an actual problem with the language  itself but again pretty much every uh every  

problem is solved by getting more review and so  even if you don't speak with other people if you  

spend time getting more review your shyness will  go away by itself uh let's see Kevin says practice  

can conference speaking because it forces you to  engage with the language and entails both input  

and output whereas only reading and listening is  only input which is valuable too of course yeah  

so again uh the speaking is helpful it's where  we want to go but if you don't already understand  

something very well then you're just going to  struggle in communication let me just hop right  

to the second the second myth that people have uh  because we're talking about this specific issue

uh and this myth is so number two

you should force yourself to speak

so this myth a lot of people believe yes you  should force yourself to speak so it's okay you  

get into a conversation even if you don't really  know what you're saying or you don't understand  

things and just try to do that now I don't really  I don't really give this advice to students you  

can try to push yourself but it's much easier and  it's more comfortable if you already spend a lot  

of time understanding things and then speak when  you feel comfortable so in your brain you actually  

have there's like basically a filter uh I call it  like a switch in your brain that stops you from  

communicating when you don't understand messages  where you're not feeling comfortable about that  

so even today so I'm like in my usual place but  there's a completely new staff here and so they  

they all it's like all new for everybody and  so I'm like forgetting random words and they're  

forgetting like they're not speaking clearly  either like this is all in Japanese uh but  

they're like uh just because everything is new and  so there's a little bit of nervousness that comes  

from that and it's not about our knowledge of the  language it's just kind of physically preventing  

people from speaking well but when you're with  people that you feel comfortable with and you feel  

confident about what you say then you will speak  so again we we all want to get to speech I'm just  

recommending people spend a lot more time trying  to listen and to understand and get more input  

and that's actually going to lead to speech much  faster so you can speak if you feel comfortable  

but if you do if you do not feel comfortable  it's really going to hurt your ability to speak  

is this a live stream yes it is a live stream  right now but it might not be a live stream in  

the future if you're watching this later let's  see what time it is all right we'll keep going  

here all right so this is very closely related to  the first myth where practice is or speaking comes  

from or practice comes from speaking and this is  again trying to trying to really make it clear  

to people that you should not force yourself to  speak so you don't have to do that that's not the  

secret to getting the secret to getting fluent  is not repeating words again and again that you  

don't really feel comfortable about the secret  to fluency is actually understanding what you  

say and I do that by getting lots of naturally  varied review so I want to learn like a native  

really understand like a native and that's when  I feel confident doing things now here's a just  

a very simple example of this I was watching my  two daughters yesterday uh they were watching a  

TV show and uh it had like a theme song at the  beginning so the end so the beginning uh theme  

music for the song uh and so they were watching  this and I could tell like so here's the beginning  

of the song Here's the end of the song over  here and I could tell when they knew the words  

they felt very confident they're like singing  out loud like yeah I don't remember the song but  

they're like they know the words they're singing  well but then there was a part of the song that  

they did not know well they got very quiet and  they're just kind of like and then and then like  

they they know the next Parts like yeah they get  much more confident about that so this is a very  

obvious example of when you know the vocabulary  you feel confident about it and when you do not  

you're just gonna you know you're singing along  maybe you know the melody of it but you're not  

actually confidently communicating so it works  exactly the same way in a conversation when you  

know what you're talking about you feel good you  feel strong the words are flowing but when you  

don't that you're just yes no you know you don't  really feel actually confident about that so it's  

important if you want to have confidence spend  more time getting input this is really easy to  

do you can get it all over the place and this  is what we do in fluent for life but the point  

is to focus on something to really learn it  very well and then you feel confident speaking  

all right all right so we'll cover the last one  very quickly here uh and relate it to this so  

again all three of these things are related but I  have 12 different ones that I cover in the article  

on my website uh so you can go back and learn  about that it's a free article it has all these  

things listed you can click on the link in the  description of this video to find those but uh I  

figured this video this video is already gone for  an hour and we've only talked about two of these  

uh the article is actually not that long but it  goes into good detail about all these different  

things and explains it very well so here's number  three and this is that you should learn more words  

so the myth that people believe they need  to learn more words they get fluent if they  

learn more words this is what people believe when  the truth is you should actually focus on fewer  

words and really get fluent in that vocabulary  because if you do that that's going to help you  

speak confidently about lots of different things  okay I'll explain a little bit more about this  

but let me go through any questions and see if I  didn't cover anything else already all right uh  

let's see let's see sir I'm trying to memorize  sometimes the pronunciation of some difficult  

words however it's a little bit difficult the  pronunciation of difficult words I would get  

Frederick uh and that will teach you step by  step how to learn the pronunciation of words  

the same way natives do so there's a specific  order that you should learn words in rather  

than trying to learn a bunch of random words so  if you if you start out with a word like Crystal  

if you just see that you don't know like oh why do  we pronounce the Y like e in this example Crystal  

Crystal Crystal so you might look at that like  Crystal but there are actually rules for each  

of these sounds in here and if you learn them in a  nice easy step-by-step way crystal is like up here  

so we start down here with the alphabet  then we start with like two letter words  

three letter words and going up like that  to learn the pronunciations of these things  

and as you go through the steps of the app so  this is in Frederick you can click on the link  

in the description below this video for that  it will take you through all of these things  

and you'll know how to say words when you see  them okay so don't try to just learn random  

words if you don't already know uh the kind of  pronunciation rules for these various things so  

Frederick covers words plus words that break these  sound rules and it's got sentences in it as well

all right

so greetings from uh Spain thanks master I  will do that uh there wait okay I got that  

one already I'm uh from Tibetan like from Tibet  I really enjoy your videos and the way you have  

teaching glad to hear it it's my pleasure I do  appreciate you sir please how can I review uh  

certain vocabularies so you can pick a particular  thing you're interested in it can be a topic it  

can be uh like even a phrase you can hear this  there's a good site called youglish.com uglish  

so you can type in a phrase and it will find lots  of examples for you uh this is like it's it's a  

little bit trickier because you should listen to  actually more of the the speech than just that  

example I think you can do that I haven't tried  the app in a while but this is one way of getting  

this different input and again the great thing  about this is you can focus on the thing that  

you need so if you already know vocabulary but  you have trouble hearing it then your goal should  

be to listen to different people speaking that  word or phrase so you can do that in English but  

if you have trouble learning the vocabulary itself  again you should be getting more let's see another  

good way to do this is I released a video recently  about naturally varied review for making espresso  

you should go back and watch that recent video on  our Channel but that's just me going through four  

different videos of people doing something very  similar so making espresso so there will be some  

vocabulary that people use a lot like people  talk about tamping down the espresso and even  

me I didn't know anything about making espresso  before I watched those videos but after I watched  

all of them now I feel much more confident about  that because I'm getting naturally varied review  

all right and let's see Maya says do you recommend  to focus on the quiz on the quiz and remembering  

to learn English I don't know what you mean by  quiz but the basic idea is to do what you do in  

your native language when you learn something new  you usually hear it again and again in different  

ways rather than just like you don't learn  new vocabulary and then try to write it down  

and repeat that you might do that maybe just to  understand what something is but typically it's  

just getting lots of examples of that thing  again and again that's how you get fluent  

uh and Yehuda says can I learn grammar Naturally  by listening to English a lot and not focusing  

on grammar books so much yes and again this  is the same way that you got fluent in your  

native language so you're looking for examples  of different things uh and you might find like  

um like we we have this organized all in uh in  fluent for Life by grammar point so you can look  

at it by grammar point if you want to know about  like the present continuous you get lots and lots  

of examples in different ways in that lesson set  so we'll be talking about whatever the topic is  

I don't know what topic that is but you also hear  those examples after focusing in that lesson set  

you will hear them again and again you will be  really uh kind of mindful of those things you  

will recognize them very easily and it will help  you get fluent in those much faster to look at  

some basic examples of this we have a playlist  for beginners on our Channel and so you can find  

that on the YouTube channel you can see lots of  different examples of this and how I teach without  

using people's native language as well but you  can certainly do that with reading or listening  

or watching things all right and let's see e  Mundo thank God you are try for your teachings  

glad to hear it all right let's see Ricardo says  thanks from Brazil it's my pleasure let's see uh  

uh Malaya let's see from the Ivory Coast welcome  and Freddie says reading aloud is really helpful  

in learning words as well as I improved speaking  I realized that the myth is incorrect about if  

you don't speak you can't speak would you agree  uh yes reading aloud is a really great way to  

improve again it's it's not about like the the  particular activity so you could read or write  

or listen or even speak but it's it's you could do  all those things the traditional way and still not  

become a confident fluent speaker but you could  do those things as you're learning them and if  

you really understand what you're learning so as  an example me like I'm reading a comic book in  

Japan in Japanese called Doraemon and this is it's  like a little cat robot character and his little  

friend that you know they do lots of different  things they have all these little adventures and  

stuff and there's a kind of theme there in all  the comics and as I read these things sometimes  

I'm reading aloud sometimes I might write down  something I hear from that but I'm getting this  

naturally varied review I think I talked in an  email about uh coming which is like swear to God  

so I had heard like Chicago which is a verb in  English or verb in Japanese mean to like to vow  

or to swear like I I pledge allegiance that  kind of thing but I never really used it in  

a sentence but after hearing it in different ways  in different contexts then I really felt confident  

about that vocabulary and I could start using it  and so when I did it just happened to be the same  

day I came home from work and my wife said hey did  you wash your hands I said yes I washed my hands  

and she looked at me like she didn't believe me  and I said like I swear to God I washed my hands  

so my wife is Japanese but I did not learn that  from her anyway the point is I'm getting lots of  

buried input reading out loud is another great  way to get that but it's not the point is not  

like reading out loud or or watching something  or whatever the point is to learn like a native  

all right but reading aloud is a great way to  do that all right love your teaching says a lot  

junior thank you it's my pleasure uh again sham  says uh almost a year ago I learned almost 200  

Advanced random words and have now forgotten yeah  so that's the example I gave before well people  

people think they're trying to learn a lot of  words but you don't get fluent by learning more  

words like if you only remember one thing from  this video remember that little kids don't know  

as many words as you do but they probably speak  better because they spend a lot more time getting  

input of course they do use their vocabulary but  it's really them hearing it again and again it  

makes them feel confident all right but little  kids are still learning the language just like  

just like you so if they don't feel confident  about something then of course they will not  

feel good about using it all right let's see if  we got let's see uh I think we're at the end over  

here which is great because I got to get out of  here in a minute also uh let's see jodalin says  

hi sir I'm from the Philippines but working in  Hong Kong thanks for teaching us it's my pleasure  

uh and jiksha says what time is it out there  it's 12 44 a.m here it is what time is it 11  

44 p.m so it's almost noon here all right you  wore my favorite shirt you were looking great  

glad to hear it all right I actually I only  have like three different shirts I have more  

shirts than that but it's just like black black  or this kind of purple color or white or gray  

I don't it's kind of hard to find shirts where  I am I really like just regular shirts and I  

don't like ordering online because I want to try  this shirt out but yeah these are okay just just  

regular stuff I know some people want you know  maybe I should have a suit on or something like  

that to teach but really the whole point of my  teaching is for things to be vocabulary uh and  

grammar and pronunciation all that but make it  be casual you know you should be you should be  

learning these things in the same way that I  would teach my own children uh well glad you  

like this one all right but hopefully that makes  sense just a very quick review for everybody so  

the first myth that people think is that that  speaking is practice when actually listening  

and really understanding the language very well  is the practice so if you especially don't have  

anyone to speak with don't worry about that it's  not important that you do that it's great if you  

can speak if you do understand and you do feel  comfortable but really the most important thing  

is just getting lots of input so find something  you're interested in and get lots of input about  

that thing so if you like gardening watch a bunch  of YouTube videos about specific kind of gardening  

or whatever same thing that's what's going to get  you much fluent or get you more fluent much faster  

all right Bushman says uh thank you teacher yeah  it's my pleasure so the second thing uh is that  

you should force yourself to speak so that is not  true you don't have to force yourself to speak  

just force yourself to get more input that's  really all you need to do if you if you feel  

unconfident it means you have a doubt about  grammar or pronunciation or something so you  

should really be spending more time getting more  input until you can end that doubt and as you get  

more input you will feel more confident about that  last thing is that instead of trying to learn more  

words you should learn fewer words but really  understand them well all right so if you'd like  

to learn more I've covered three of these myths  here you can click on the link in the description  

of this video to go and get all 12 of those  things I cover these things all in detail you  

also find other articles and good videos on the  site as well and if you'd like to learn more about  

pronunciation specifically you can also click  on Frederick you'll find the link for that in  

the description as well as fluent for life which  is our complete fluency program that takes you  

through everything but hopefully if you have any  questions you can let me know I think that'll be  

it though I think people just are saying goodbye  rear crafty says could you please recommend any  

methods on how to practice how to active the  passive vocabulary yeah so the answer to that  

is just more input so if you have a passive  vocabulary the way to get it to active is to  

get more input it's really that simple so if you  know something but you can't really speak about  

it well you just need to get more input about that  thing feel much more confident and then I promise  

you watch that uh watch the espresso video on our  Channel it will prove what I'm talking about you  

will feel especially if you don't know anything  about espresso at the beginning you will feel  

more confident about that at the end hello sir is  it beneficial for us to imitate native speakers  

speaking manner pronunciation stress uh it's  it's helpful if you want to do that but again  

I would rather rather than like imitate one  person I would rather get lots of different  

people saying the same thing okay so I want to  hear lots of different people and this the point  

is to help me find my own English speaking voice  so if I'm speaking English and if I'm trying to  

speak Japanese like I want to find something that  sounds natural but it's speaking for me so I know  

many people who are fluent Japanese speakers but  they're not born in Japan they don't look Japanese  

and so their their pronunciation sounds a little  bit different but it kind of goes with their their  

their body and their face and and that's it's  going to be a little different for everybody  

all right so is uh is it necessary to write  new vocabulary while watching a video which is  

interesting me yeah it's it's great again that's  a different kind of naturally varied review so  

what we do in fluent for Life we'll have you watch  something then just listen to it then try writing  

it and try reading it as well and again these  different ways of thinking it's going to be a  

little bit of repetition but it's in a different  way and so this is why we always want you to to  

review things but the point is not to just repeat  the same thing in exactly the same way but if  

you write something down it will slow down the  language for you really make it clear what you're  

reading or especially if you're watching something  you have subtitles for it which is fine to do that  

will really help you understand but it's better  to get the actual English than like a translation  

in your native language all right hopefully that  all makes sense you are a Superman says Hano and  

uh dinosaurs uh hello from Iraq all right it looks  like we've gotten to the end nice work everybody  

so remember these three if you'd like to discover  all 12 of those just click on the link in the uh  

thanks to you yeah it's my pleasure yeah again I I  know what it's like to learn languages and I spent  

many many years trying to do things a traditional  way and once I found actually how to get fluent  

then my fluency became uh it really it progressed  very rapidly and now I can learn new things in  

Japanese much faster as well so I hope uh the  same for all of you that's why I do what I do  

and hopefully you'll become a much better speaker  remember go out find the things you're interested  

in you get that naturally very reviewed you will  become a fluent speaker much faster all right have  

a fantastic day I think we covered everything  we appreciate your time and patience to help us  

enhance our English yeah as a good note to end on  a good note to end on have a fantastic day click  

on the links in the description if you'd like  to learn more and I'll see you in the next video