How to Understand Native English Speakers with One Simple Trick

Hi there, I'm Drew Badger, the world's number

one English Fluency Guide, and in this

video we're going to be talking about

the hidden superpower that all fluent

English speakers have I've been excited

about making this video for quite awhile

but I've waited because it's a little

bit more advanced it is a challenging

idea but I will do my best to explain

and keep it very simple for you

I don't want to keep you in suspense so

i will tell you this superpower right

now and then we will explain what it

means so again don't be nervous if you

think maybe you don't quite understand

it because I will go into exactly what

it is and how to develop it

so this superpower and its really a

quite simple thing actually is the

ability to understand things by their

meaning and to adapt your understanding

of words as you learn more

now I know this is kind of a weird idea

and maybe I haven't even explained it

very well it's kind of a new thing that

I'm trying to help people learn but it's

really very important it's one of those

things that native speakers don't even

realize that they're doing so it's quite

difficult to teach and I've never heard

anyone teach it before

anyway let's explain what it means so if

you're thinking about maybe learning a

verb and I've covered this or I covered

this quite recently when I was making a

video talking about the different uses

of get and this is the most powerful

verb that you can learn the English

language because it's so common and so

useful but in that video what I talked

about is number one the most important

thing you should be doing for building a

huge vocabulary quickly is instead of

trying to learn English word through

your language you need to be

understanding everything through english

so when you're watching people maybe

people are like there are lots of

English teachers actually from all over

the world that are teaching but they're

using their native language to help you

learn now I think there is value in this

because there may be are a few things

that are maybe specific to a person's

language or maybe some difficult

pronunciation things that are required

by having someone do that but you must

also be learning with the native speaker

and someone that understands things in a

way like i do that can pronounce them

perfectly as well as present them in a

visual weight because you want to be

focusing as much as possible on learning

things the same way native speakers do

so you don't want to put any steps

between the language you speak your

native

language and the language you're trying

to learn you don't want to learn things

and get explanations and definitions and

do all these other things where you

translate in order to understand

something because that's why you would

translate when you speak so if you have

a problem with maybe translating in your

head before you speak so you're in a

conversation someone says something to

you and you want to respond but wait a

minute you have to think okay is this

grammar rule how do i translate this and

then you start speaking after that so if

you don't want to do that if you have a

problem with that

it's because you're learning things

through your native language so the most

important thing you should be doing

really for anything any aspect of

developing fluency whether its

vocabulary building or listening or

pronunciation practice you want to get

that connection to the language directly

so this is just the foundation of this

idea but let's say I see somebody buying

something and then I hear the word get

ok so now I've made an association in my

mind a connection between the word get

and the like the situation of someone

buying something so i make that

connection I ok to get means to buy

something but maybe like the next day I

hear somebody else like like they find

something on the street and they pick it

up and maybe they like oh I got I got

twenty dollars off the street and I say

wait a minute like yesterday I heard get

and it means to buy something doesn't it

but wait a minute i guess it also means

something else and this is the this is

the part where like your mind opens up a

little bit more and you've probably

noticed this if you've learned anything

like a word like get like we covered in

that video and i gave you a whole bunch

of different uses of that word so again

do go back and watch that video the most

powerful verb in the English language if

you've not seen it already but this idea

of taking something and then expanding

your understanding of it through the

language itself

you're not trying to get a whole bunch

of translations of something what you're

doing is making a connection with a

language okay so I see somebody buy

something so i'm looking at a situation

and then i connect that with the word so

to buy something to purchase something

I'm giving someone money and I get

something so i'm buying something from a

person now if I think about that and

that's the only meaning that i

understand like I will continue to go

through life thinking that by means get

so it's the same thing but as soon as I

hear

something else now my mind has to change

my mind has to open up a bit more to

start receiving other definitions of

what what something like that means oh

ok get does not just mean by something

it could also mean to find something on

the ground and then I start thinking

okay if get means like buy something and

find something what else might that mean

now this is really important because

this idea this is the superpower that

people have that native speakers have

the people who speak fluently have it's

the ability to understand things in the

native language by studying it directly

again you're focusing on the meaning of

something not translations so if you can

develop this superpower then it's really

going to help you build your confidence

because you'll be able to adapt to new

language or new meanings of words when

you hear them and then it expands your

meaning for your understanding of the

meaning of that word

I hope your understand what I'm saying

because this is such an important idea

to click that like button if you are

understanding what I'm saying right now

or if i need to go back and make a new

version of this video to make it even

easier but really it is a very advanced

idea and most people don't even realize

they're doing it when they are doing it

so I'm trying to make it very clear here

so you understand that there's more than

one meaning typically for a word and

then as you learn that you expand your

understanding of that idea or that word

to really push this deep into your brain

let's look at the word take now in the

same way let's say I'm a young child and

I see my father maybe take a piece of

bread off of the table and he said I'm

taking a piece of bread say okay like

take I get it like I understand what

he's saying to remove something from one

thing and put it in something else but

maybe I go to school later that day and

my friends are talking about taking a

test i say wait a minute like I thought

take this meant physically moving

something from one place to another I

don't understand quite how that works

all of these will have larger meanings

and then kind of under under that

umbrella so I call this an umbrella

where we have kind of smaller more

specific examples of something so under

the umbrella of get you have maybe to

buy something or to receive something

but really you're transferring something

you're taking possession of that thing

finally we'll look at the verb to say

something to say like I'm sitting down

in my parents are talking I'm like a

couple of years old and my dad says oh

like my mom said how are you today so my

mom said how are you today so I think

okay say say means to have words coming

out of your mouth so that's my

understanding of that word but maybe I

here later my dad and I are looking at a

picture book and there's a picture of a

cow and he says oh the cow says Moo the

cows is moved so I'm thinking wait a

minute like a cow's and actually

speaking like a cow doesn't have words

that it's maybe trying to communicate

well maybe it doesn't mean we don't

really understand it but in that case

like okay my understanding of say is not

just words but it's expanded to having

like some kind of sound coming out of

like a mouth or something like that so

I'm expanding my understanding and this

is how I developed a superpower of doing

this so when i'm working with Aria my

daughter when I'm trying to explain

things to where I have to make it very

clear what I'm talking about so I can

help her understand her our expand her

understanding of particular things

because you can notice like if you're

maybe specifically your you're doing

something or if I'm teaching a class i

will look at students and if I say

something I can tell if they understood

it or if they didn't and usually it's

because they haven't expanded their

their understanding of something so the

more you can develop this being able

this ability to expand your

understanding of phrases or verbs or

vocabulary in general the faster we'll

be that you get fluent because the more

it will lead you to want to think like

what else could i use this for or what

other meanings like especially the

literal vs figurative meanings of

something so I cover a lot about this in

our visual guide to phrasal verbs the

difference between a physical thing and

a literal or i guess a figurative thing

so one example I given that program is

to go under now to go under if you think

about physically moving under something

else this is a literal understanding of

the phrasal verb to go

under but the kind of more figurative

understanding about is like a company

going under when it goes bankrupt so to

go bankrupt means to lose all of your

money and in that way we're taking an

idea we're expanding our idea we're

expanding our understanding of what to

go under means and so you can find this

everywhere and the more you can do this

the more you don't like lock yourself

into a particular understanding of a

word the more you can keep open and

always be learning kind of knew it new

things like one trick i'll give you

right now

like if you take even a basic verb like

get just search the verb get on google

and you can look at a huge list of all

these things read through them you see

like you know five ten different

meanings of the word get but they all

have an umbrella and if you find that

umbrella then that's what's going to

give you a great understanding so again

that's exactly what i do in the most

powerful verb in the English language

video that's a few videos before that

one so do go back and watch that video

after you've seen this one even if you

have seen that video already you will

look at it in a new way if you go back

and watch it now anyway I don't want to

give you too much information but this

superpower this is such an important

thing and hopefully i have explained it

quite well if I have do click that like

button and then again go out and try to

do a little bit of research on your own

just pick a verb like take or grow or

give or anything just a simple verb for

an example and notice all the different

meanings that you might not have heard

before but again if you can do this you

will expand your understanding and

become more fluent and more native like

really

anyway it's a great superpower that

anyone can develop and you can start

doing that right now if you have enjoyed

this video do click that like button

become a subscriber to the YouTube

channel and if you have problems you

know you want to be able to think more

like a native speaker this idea of

understanding how to expand your way of

thinking how to expand your

understanding of vocabulary is one of

the habits of a fluent English speaker

and if you want to develop all of these

you can click on our button right here

in this video or on the link in the

description below this video to take our

free english fluency quiz and it will

help you understand exactly what you're

struggling with and give you specific

advice you need to help develop that

habit so all these things are required

becoming a fluent speaker does not mean

learning more words it just means

developing the habit that native

speakers have and we can help you do

that

have a fantastic day and i'll see you in

the next video bye bye