How To Speak English Like a Native in 3 Simple Steps

hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's

number one English Fluency Guide and in

this video I'm going to help you improve

your listening so you can understand

native speakers much more easily with

one simple trick now typically i'll

receive a comment or question from a

learner and they'll give me some phrase

like a whole sentence that they heard

and they're asking me what it means

so in this video hopefully i'll give you

a way of correcting that yourself so

that you don't have to mail a teacher

and say what does this mean when i

received recently was a friend of mine

had food on the brain so someone sent me

this sentence they're talking about like

a friend of mine had food on the brain

so they heard this phrase they heard

this sentence a friend of mine had food

on the brain

now this is an ATM so you're thinking

okay how does this work like what does

that mean a friend of mine had food on

the brain food on the brain

if you don't know this idiom it was

obviously sound quite strange and

interesting to you but before we get

into that let's just look at the phrase

or the whole sentence itself so a friend

of mine had food on the brain and you

can think about this how do i how do i

take this and be able to search it on

google or whatever search engine used so

you have to first break down that

sentence into a couple of pieces and

think about okay what's the part of the

sentence that I don't understand that

maybe I can try to figure out a search

for online so if we think about like a

friend of mine had food on the brain

like a friend of mine so I think I

already know what that means it's just

somebody I know a friend of mine so we

can forget about that part and to have

food on the brain

okay so have food on the brain now i

cant maybe I could search for that so

maybe we forget about the friend part

and just search for having food on the

brain but we might even try to go

smaller than that where we look for on

the brain or to have food on the brain

so maybe research for that if we can't

quite find something we keep making it

shorter and shorter trying to get to the

the colonel the like the smallest bit of

something that we don't understand and

then we can work out from there

so if i look for on the brain what I

find is that it's actually an idiom for

something that I'm thinking about a lot

so when you have something on the brain

it just means

ok like something is on my mind it's

really that it's really the same thing

but people will use I have something on

my mind where I have something on my

brain

so even though mind is more of a mind

would actually be a better idea or a

better way to express it native speakers

will use both so if there's a girl I've

been thinking about for a long time I've

got this girl on my brain I've got this

girl on my mind or if it's a young kid

who's it's cool and he's always thinking

about playing his instrument or playing

some video games he's got his instrument

on the brain or on his mind all the time

now when you're getting something like

this you can again begin with the whole

thing and start making it smaller and

smaller until you get to a part of the

phrase that makes sense but then it's

much easier if you start trying to

connect that thing to something you

already know where to create some kind

of story

so if you think about maybe even your

physical head once you understand what

on the brain means then try to create

that story so either the origin story

that you know because you research that

or because you just created that origin

story in your own mind and again the

story is something that you should be

connecting in English either a visual

thing I've got water on the brain so

literally it's like on on my brain as an

example maybe I'm talking with you and I

say yeah I was like with this girl and

you know we were talking and like I

really like her but maybe she's not

really interested in me so much and i'm

talking talking I'm like wow I've really

got this girl on the brain

now you can think about that like what

is the larger context of that what's the

main idea not really the words I'm

saying but what is the conversation

about some talking about

ok I'm like thinking about a girl i'm

talking about her she's a focus of my

attention she's on my brain so I'm kind

of reviewing that and saying I really

got this girl on my brain

I can't get her out of my head so just

an example obviously you can use it for

like sports or anything or business

whatever it is you're focusing on or

that you can't stop thinking about when

you've got something on the brain now to

make sure this is clear let's try

another one so suppose you here i'm

talking with a friend of mine you know

we were i was going to the wedding and

I'm like describing the wedding story to

him so hey man I went to this wedding

I and you know it seemed like a really

great occasion lots of people were

having fun but right before the ceremony

was about to begin the bride got cold

feet and left so the Brad got cold feet

about the wedding and left so i'm i'm

saying this whole phrase the bride got

cold feet about the wedding so the Brad

got cold feet about the wedding now

maybe if I searched that whole thing I

might find something because this is a

pretty common usage but again if I

understand most of the parts of this and

I understand the whole context

ok maybe like we're talking about a

wedding and like so so I'm describing

things is happening in like a good way

so that like everybody was happy things

were going very well but then the bride

got cold feet about the wedding so I'm

describing something happy and then

using but then as ok now we're going to

introduce something that's contrasting

to that so maybe the opposite situation

so something that's kind of sad so

you're getting clues about what

something might mean so you really have

to listen for these in the conversation

so I got the bride and groom so we

already know about that and about the

wedding we already know like a marriage

or a wedding we already know what that

is so we can forget about those other

things and just focus on searching the

thing that we don't understand which is

to get cold feet so to get cold feet

means that you're having maybe second

thoughts about something or you're

nervous about something typically right

before you have to do it so if I'm going

to get in an airplane and jump out of

that plane to go skydiving maybe I'm

really prepared i'm excited i get on the

plane and no and then when I look out I

get really scared about that and then

maybe I decide not to so I could

describe that is I got cold feet about

jumping out of the airplane so the bride

got cold feet about the wedding I got

cold feet about the jumping out of the

airplane that kind of thing

and speaking of being up in an airplane

i'll give you one more example just to

make sure this is really clear to you

so this example maybe I'm talking with

someone I'm like yeah we're we're we're

trying to decide what we want to do with

the company i said i wanted to do this

and a friend of mine said you know maybe

we should do this other thing we're kind

of up in the air about it

we don't really know what to do now

again again again listen carefully

what's happening in this conversation so

we're describing something like i'm

saying i'm setting the stage i'm

explaining what's happening in our

situation so in this case we've got many

different options or at least two

different options we can use and I could

say something or do something and maybe

somebody else says something else

so this is describing indecision so we

don't know what to do we're trying to

figure out the best way to solve

something or what choice we should make

so I'm describing that and then again i

come back at the end and this is what

native speakers will often do they

explain something in regular everyday

English that most people understand but

then though using adium after that to go

back and kind of recap to to really

explain the whole thing but in a

conversation away time describing

indecision and then i use an idiom that

explains indecision so to be up in the

air about something just means you don't

know what to do

imagine I jump up like I'm holding a

basketball and I like in the rules of

basketball you can't hold the ball jump

up and then come back down again

so if i hold the ball and I jump up i

have to figure out what to do i'm up in

the air i can't come back down i have to

throw the ball to somebody else or it

would be any legal play

so just thinking about that same idea

i've understood the whole the whole

conversation or at least this part of

the conversation and then we say like

we're up in the air about what to do so

like what to do okay that makes sense so

we know that like about what to do yet

where we're focusing on that but the

part I don't understand is up in the air

but if I still don't understand what

that is

I've removed the things from that

sentence that I don't quite understand

and then I can use that to search for

specifically so i go to google and type

up in the air and then typically when

you're searching for something like this

add the word idiom as well so if you're

searching for it like or English phrase

it's a it's much faster that's a quick

tip for you to be able to find things

much more easily typically when you're

speaking with natives or you're just

listening with them you can understand a

lot more than you think you can if

you're just a bit more strategic about

how you think you have to not pay

attention to like the individual words

but first try to understand what's

really happening in the situation

is somebody sad somebody happy are

describing an adventurous situation or

something else and then from that are

they are they explaining something or

using simple things like and so or but

that is going to indicate a change in

that or a continuation of whatever it is

they're talking about and then when you

get to the part that you don't

understand eliminate the pieces of that

that sentence that you do understand and

then you're left with just that one

thing that you can search and remember

to put medium next to that now even if

it's not a medium it doesn't matter but

typically the word medium also helps you

find things much more clearly are much

more quickly and easily when you're

using a search engine for them

well that's it for this video if you

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quiz have a fantastic day and i'll see

you in the next video bye bye