How To Learn English Vocabulary Like A Native English Speaker

and we're going to try I've  got a brand new microphone

all right I should be looking  good let me lower this

all right I am Drew Badger the founder of English  anyone.com and the English fluency guide it is a  

pleasure to welcome people to another live video  here on YouTube we're going to be talking about  

learning vocabulary like a native as I regularly  do but I wanted to do uh kind of take you through  

the steps of this show you with some very  simple examples and also help you understand uh  

just through some stories of me teaching my own  kids uh all right Omar with the first comment  

there so I'm trying a new microphone in this  video let me know if that's helpful for you  

uh if you need me to turn the volume up or down  I can actually control that now yay but let me  

know uh hello let me know in the comments right  now can you hear me everybody coming in okay  

looking good all right not yet let me know if  it's good okay Omar says it's good all right  

I think part of the problem is I'm not using  a uh like a lav mic uh like the I don't really  

like those the mics on your on your chest but  uh maybe I'll get one of those in the future uh  

anyway this should be pretty good it's loud  enough though just want to make sure I need  

uh need to make sure everyone can hear me all  right um so anyway we're going to talk about  

vocabulary and I wanted to begin with just a  very simple story of uh teaching my own kids  

so I have two daughters uh my oldest or my the  older daughter is seven and the younger one is  

three she will be four years old in about two  months about a month and a half and I wanted  

to share just a quick story of how I'm teaching  them the language so one of the first things uh  

to understand about language learning is that  a word I'm just going to write this is not a  

real word I'm going to put on the screen  here uh let's just put some random letters

all right so this is not an actual word here but  it's hopefully helpful for you to understand how a  

native child or how you as a native of your native  language was learning so you begin with something  

when you hear a word you're trying to connect  that with a situation or a thing if I just hold  

this up and I say uh it's coming I'm probably not  even reading that correctly else else Mur career  

so remember this is not a word you don't need to  remember this but imagine if this is and uh and  

like an alien language and so when you look at  a word like this as a young child or you can't  

really read as a young child but you would hear  this example and when you hear something like  

this you don't really understand what's like what  the word means you're just getting a sound and  

connecting that with a word so if this is what  the word is for marker or something you would  

just remember that and hearing that again and  again so let me put something shorter on here

I'll try it with an actual native example  so if we have a word let's say one of the  

first words I'm teaching to  my children uh is triangle

triangle so all they're really doing is connecting  this shape with this word and they don't really  

have a strong understanding of what it means they  will probably forget the word if I don't repeat it  

again and again but the first time they're hearing  this they're just looking at this thing they don't  

really know what it is and then they're hearing  this word triangle and the next thing the kind of  

basic thing they're doing is they're getting  repetition of this so they're hearing me say  

the word triangle their mother maybe some other  people might say the word triangle and so they  

remember this over time but they're learning  it by just kind of repetition of hearing that  

now the interesting that happens uh the natural  thing that happens is over time they're not  

just repeating the word they're also getting  it in different situations and this is the  

really important thing about how natives learn so  typically you would take a word like this and just  

repeat it so regular like an adult English learner  maybe they would have a flash card they would have  

a word like triangle if they don't already know  what that is and then they would repeat that word  

again and again but a native speaker they're  actually hearing different words and slowly  

building a network in their mind so the kind  of non-native way you take like a word in your  

native language and then a word in the English  language so this one maybe like in the Japanese  

example would be like sankaku for Japanese and  then triangle for English and then this is really  

the only connection that you have here so you  have basically one point of connection between  

these two things but what a native is doing  is they're actually hearing different examples  

so let's say a little bit later usually natives  like native parents are not teaching their  

children very systematically they're teaching  their children just whatever happens in the  

situation they're not really trying to teach the  language they're just giving examples and then the  

language uh naturally comes out oh Fabio nice to  see you there well it's okay we just got started  

so we have uh triangle and then we hear  the word uh let's see we'll do tricycle

now as soon as a native child hears  this word their mind even before the  

child really realizes that the mind is  going to make a connection between this  

thing and then this thing over here so we have uh

foreign a tricycle a tricycle now this this  example is probably a little less obvious for  

you because you already know the words but in  English for a native child they don't know what  

any of this means so they just hear the sound  triangle They Don't Really they don't really  

understand what that means it's not until later  that they start really understanding kind of  

the pieces of the word or what something  means and so the the network the kind of  

different points of connection in a child's mind  develop as they hear more examples and that's  

what really makes the vocabulary easy for them  to understand so as soon as they hear tricycle  

they're going to make the connection between this  and this and they might not logically think about  

it that way and some natives will actually so  me when I'm teaching my kids I'm actively doing  

this trying to help them understand the language  systematically and I can teach them much faster  

this way because I'm instead of trying to wait a  few years between these lessons I'm actually able  

to teach them much faster and so this is how I  help adult Learners as well so they hear tricycle  

and if the parent doesn't say anything about like  oh look at that that's you gotta try in this word  

and try in that word you've got one two three  things over here and then you've got one two three  

things over here now a child again might not be  thinking about that so you know like they're again  

maybe like a two-year-old or a three-year-old  is not really thinking about that much maybe a  

really clever child would make that connection but  the more they hear this again if the teacher or  

the parent is not just explaining how this works  the more they hear this the more they will start  

to understand ah try means three and so they're  starting to make a connection between what these  

things actually mean and so when they hear new  things new words that hear word like maybe they're  

in a a science class many years later and they  hear a word like triglyceride it's like okay that  

probably means like three of something connected  all right does this make sense so the the point is  

they're they're kind of learning two ways there's  the there's the repetition of something like this  

and it's it's not just hearing the exact same  word the same way this is the naturally varied  

review of hearing it from different speakers  hearing it at different times in different  

contexts and this is where we're really trying  to build not just a translation where we have  

a single connection between one word and another  we want to build a network in your mind and it's  

the network well John see if I can fit a little  network over here we've got all these different  

pieces that are all connected together and that  makes it really easy to remember what you learn  

so over time again you're getting repetition but  you're also getting the varied review and you're  

hearing things in different ways so maybe  as I get a little bit older they might hear

foreign

Triceratops Triceratops you guys know what  a Triceratops is I can draw one here you  

probably know uh this is not going to be a  very good picture of a Triceratops but dude

everyone know what that is this is a not very good  picture of a Triceratops this is a dinosaur and  

you might think oh like look at that it's got one  two three horns on there and so a child would make  

that connection a very again a smart child would  kind of naturally make that connection but a smart  

teacher would help the child see those kinds of  things and say look look you gotta try here you  

gotta try here and you gotta try here and so you  go back and and again as the as the network builds  

then you start making more connections between  these other things I think I told a story uh a  

while back about uh it's kind of like when you  when you watch a movie when you're a young child  

and you see actors and you don't really know who  they are it's just like oh that's an interesting  

character in a movie but as you get older and  then you go back and maybe watch you know older  

movies or something you would see that same actor  in different things and you would think wow like  

that person is like you know they I saw them when  they were younger or when they got older that  

kind of thing so they're making the connection  they're building the network in their mind and  

it's the network that helps them speak now the  reason the network is such an important idea is  

because when you just translate something if you  forget that that's it you've cut the connection  

and then you're going to forget something in your  conversation when you speak so you're thinking ah  

okay what's the word for this and you can't  remember you have to think and translate and  

organize sentences and then oh no you've lost it  okay but with the network you might you know maybe  

forget one or two words and it doesn't matter  because the network is still here and it will  

allow you to maybe use something else when you  can't think of a specific word that you'd like  

to learn okay or like to use in a conversation  all right so hopefully this is making sense uh  

as far as trying to learn the vocabulary like this  so you're hearing triangle uh for the first time  

and it doesn't really mean anything to you but  as you get more examples you think oh okay huh  

that's interesting or maybe I might hear the word  angle over here and I think okay now I understand  

like triangle means it's got three angles but you  don't really learn that as a child unless a parent  

tells you that so the point of systematically  teaching I talked about systematic language  

learning or systematic vocabulary learning a  few videos ago but the systematic approaches is  

to take this and help you build this network much  faster than even a native would do this naturally  

because you're making these connections and this  is just one example of this all right does this  

make sense make sure uh let me know if you have  any questions about this this is very important  

because again what most people are doing is  they're getting just a single connection between  

a word in their language and a word in English  so they're not actually becoming fluent in the  

language the fluency is built here it's the more  examples you get of something the more you really  

understand something like a native the faster you  become a fluent speaker all right remember your  

goal is not really to learn as much vocabulary  as possible uh it's actually to understand like  

a native because it's much better if you look at  children they might know fewer words than many  

adult learners but they actually can speak much  better all right so remember that I know the the  

typical student and it's really it's not your  fault if you've been learning this way but the  

typical student is going to be just trying to  learn one thing and I'm going to have a flash  

card and go again and again and again trying to  get all these different vocabulary you know words  

or phrases or whatever trying to learn all those  things and then I I don't actually remember what  

I want to say in conversations so it's better to  have a smaller vocabulary that you can actually  

use rather than trying to know a lot of words  and you can't actually use them all right let  

me go back and take a look at the this but  hopefully this makes sense so very quickly  

again we're understanding something when you just  hear a word for the first time it doesn't really  

make sense as a word because vocabulary by itself  is basically meaningless I know this is it sounds  

like a weird idea but it's the network that  gets you fluent it's not the vocabulary okay  

it's the network the connection between these  different words that actually helps you speak  

so when you learn something over time you notice  I'm repeating myself in videos because I really  

want to help people understand but I always try to  explain things in different ways okay so it's not  

just repetition repetition is not going to help  you learn it's the naturally varied review we're  

going to give you different examples of things uh  and that's why we can actually help you speak so  

we've got triangle tricycle and you look at that  you go back like look at that oh angle and then  

we've got the word cycle in there or the piece  of the word and so look at that we've got three  

circles over there three cycles and that's how  you again grow the vocabulary uh and become a much  

more confident speaker much faster all right so  let me take a look and see if all right people are  

getting this all right well it looks like a lot  of people saying hello hello from from wherever  

people happen to be nice to see you there a guy uh  Brazil Ukraine Bangladesh representing over here

all right making sure we got that all right  so Mandeep says apart from vocabulary how  

to understand sentence structure how to  understand sentence structure all right  

uh great question so it makes sure everybody  understands this and I can explain a little  

bit more about working these into sentences uh  but the basic idea just like learning like this  

is that you understand the pieces of things  rather than trying to build longer sentences  

so if you can't make shorter sentences fluently  then don't try to make longer sentences fluently  

all right so give me if you want to uh  let's see what was that was that Mandy uh  

yes Mandy or or anybody else give me an example  of a particular sentence that you would like to  

practice and I'll show you how to do that so maybe  that'll be a little bit easier or if anybody else  

has a specific vocabulary that maybe they have  trouble remembering or other phrases anything like  

that let me know because I gave you a particular  example just from my own life teaching my own  

children but if there are specific things you'd  like to know let me know all right let's see  

let's see oh Abdul says 78 viewers but just  one thumbs up actually it's like more than  

that but yeah if you enjoy the video let  me know and share it with other people  

all right uh uh so start lesson on  Advanced uh grammar and natural way  

greetings from Venezuela usage of off words  or meaning like off to a place in aptitude  

ineptitude okay you guys always want to jump  right into something Advanced the survey  

proved very informative oh okay all right so  we got a couple of different things people  

are asking about all at one time all right let  me see if I can organize this a little bit uh  

let me know what you're I can't read uh like  Cyrillic the Russian let me know what your  

name is but thank you for joining me uh how  do you say that I'm sick like the cold flu  

let's give them a positive life folks yes thank  you all yes I'm here to help you learn my English  

is just fine so I'm not here for myself but I love  being able to help other people understand and  

when you understand like an 80 of you speak like  one all right so let's go back through some of  

these examples here uh so again the idea of like  of learning a whole sentence that the language  

is not about learning sentences and trying to  remember those it's about making connections  

just like I'm speaking right now so I'm I'll use a  word or a phrase and because I know each of these  

pieces very well I can connect them in different  ways so maybe I can change one thing I cannot use  

this I can put a different word in there instead  and that's how I'm able to speak fluently so I'm  

not I'm not trying to memorize sentences I'm  just trying to understand particular pieces of  

the language okay oh stanislav okay all right  thank you uh uh let's see so if I can get let  

me see a different I think I got the so the  survey proved very informative let's go with  

that one and we'll cover ineptitude also laughs he  ineptitude so you can also begin or we'll do inept  

first maybe we can weave both of these into the  uh into the sentence here because I know people  

want to do something uh more difficult everyone's  always trying to do the more difficult thing you  

guys in your difficult stuff all right the super  the survey proved very difficult the survey prude

very difficult

all right now we want to begin again with  just looking at the pieces of this and make  

sure you can understand uh all of the pieces  of it so the first one we can just look at is  

just difficult if you understand that I know  this is a basic a very basic lesson about this  

but a lot of people think they know something  and then they can't use it fluently all right  

so we begin with something just looking at  something as difficult like X is difficult

if x is difficult so if something is difficult and  we can just practice with this when you're getting  

lots of examples of this you will hear this uh  like I don't know learning uh particular language  

is difficult or uh trying to stand on your head  without using your hands is difficult so you  

can make longer sentences or shorter sentences  or like this this school is difficult or this  

exam is difficult so you can begin with something  very similar uh or again very very simple without  

trying to add a lot of sentence structure a lot  of difficult things into the sentence because you  

want to understand the pieces of something all  right now once we get something is difficult we  

can have X is very difficult and you probably know  very again this is a very easy thing very it's  

just we're going to make something a little bit  more all right so it's we have a difficult thing  

and wow this is very difficult so I'm going to  give you a a simple explanation in a very simple  

explanation it's just like maybe one word to  explain something all right so you know very we're  

just going to extend something or or change it  in some way to make it more extreme so we already  

have a difficult problem and then again you're  understanding these things like a native so you  

might look at if I'm going to compare two things  like if I'm going to climb something here so this  

mountain this mountain is difficult this mountain  is difficult but I might have like this one here

this mountain is very difficult this mountain  is very difficult now everyone watching this  

video probably knows what difficult and very  mean but again the point is you're trying to  

learn something and understand like it like a  native that way we can get to more things that  

it shows this is not really a difficult sentence  it's just understanding the pieces of it all right  

so X is difficult like climbing this mountain is  difficult or climbing this mountain this mountain  

is very difficult so you can see the the angle is  more severe more severe so we have a a much WoW  

like the angle of that it's it's like almost 90  degrees for that so the angle is more severe this  

mountain is much more difficult all right now when  we talk about something being like proved to be so  

something proves to be it means you usually like  tried that thing and then you found out afterwards  

that yes it actually is difficult so maybe I was  talking with a friend of mine my friend said oh  

this mountain is difficult okay this mountain  is difficult this mountain is very difficult  

all right so at first I'm just listening to what  people are saying they're telling me information  

about something this mountain is difficult this  mountain is very difficult all right everybody  

follow me so far pretty easy so this mountain  is difficult this mountain is very difficult  

but then when I actually climbed the mountain  by myself so I personally climb the mountain  

I climbed to the top yay I put my flag up there  wow that mountain proved very difficult so I I  

actually like show I was like I got proof that  the mountain was difficult so you can say that  

the survey proved and you can also put in here  to make it a little bit easier to understand  

to be so the survey proved to be  very difficult if we're talking  

about a survey but just for the the  it doesn't matter what the specific  

words are understanding the structure of this  the mountain so we'll put Mountain up there

m-o-u-n-t-a-i-n yes I apologize for my handwriting  I know my handwriting is not the best I'm trying  

to write very quickly uh I'd love to find some  kind of digital way to do this in the future  

that would be cool but the mountain proved to  be very difficult the mountain proved to be very  

difficult again it means that I did something  and that I found out actually that that's true  

so someone might tell me again we're we're trying  to get different examples of this and then use the  

naturally varied review to hear this in different  ways all right does everyone everyone get this  

everyone makes sense all right so maybe it proved  not to be or you can say it didn't prove to be  

very difficult all right so a friend of mine said  my friend said oh the mountain is very difficult  

so it's hard to climb the mountain but when I  did it oh it it was not difficult so it proved  

to be not difficult for me or it didn't prove to  be difficult okay you can say either one of those  

but this is how we're we're making sense of this  one piece at a time so you don't want to try to  

think like the survey proved to be very difficult  as it's it's kind of hard to understand that way  

so look at the pieces of things and then get lots  of examples with each one of these and that's how  

you understand the grammar so when I'm teaching  in something like fluent for life we're going to  

be looking at lots of different things and it's  it's the naturally varied review it's all the  

different examples that you get that really  help you understand something like a native  

and that's the whole point of this video all  right does that make sense so I try something  

and then I actually I have proof okay so the  mountain proved to be difficult or the survey  

proved to be difficult means that like we found  out by doing it we have proof now so we thought  

it would be easy but it proved to be difficult  all right so we got proof so before we did the  

survey we thought oh maybe the survey is easy I  can give the survey to someone or take a survey  

whatever but wow that proved to be difficult all  right so if you can't remember this you can say  

Well it actually was difficult so we thought  it would be easy but actually it was difficult  

all right all right let me see if I can  go back answer some more questions up here

it's like I don't I don't even let's see new  mode yeah it's like some kind of disease name  

I'm guessing if that's a real word from stennis  Lab over there all right let's see if I have all  

right so how do you say that I'm sick like  like a cold or flu or something like that  

all right so this is another good example  of how natives are learning vocabulary

and you will hear many different uses of something  all right a non-native speaker is typically using  

something uh in their native language they have a  word or an expression and then they connect that  

with English and they've got this one connection  between these two things usually a translation and  

they're just trying to memorize that English word  but if you don't hear that from a native speaker  

or you don't get the specific word uh like the  way you want to hear it you can't hear it clearly  

from a native speaker then you you panic in the  conversation because you don't know what people  

are talking about you're not prepared for the many  different ways that people can say something all  

right so if we're talking about I'm no this  is getting losing juice on these markers see  

all right now that was a perfect example here  I'll give you so the uh let's see my marker

my marker is running out my marker is running out  of ink all right now what did I just say though  

I didn't say my marker is running out of ink or  my marker is low on ink did anyone remember what  

I said did anyone hear what I said so the  same idea but I used different vocabulary  

does anyone remember what I said see if you're  paying attention out there that again this is a  

really good example for when natives are talking  about a particular situation and they're using  

uh different vocabulary all right so what did  I say instead I said oh my juice so I said oh  

my juice is low losing juicy yeah very very close  very close then you're very close so losing juice  

so juicy is more talking about like the like  the juice of a like something soft and Squishy  

like a fruit to something like that but losing  juice so juice is another word for electricity  

thank you I'm going to write that badly as well  so electricity I've Got Juice like oh no I'm low  

on power I'm low on juice I'm low on electricity  and even though this is not electrical this is not  

an electrical marker I can talk about just like  a battery it's running low on power running low  

on juice all right so getting back to the sick  example now you can probably think uh you can  

let me know in the comments so type a comment let  me know what you say if you're sick just tell me  

I'm sick or you're not feeling well whatever that  thing is and this will just give a good example  

or a set of examples of how we can talk about  something in different ways all right so I'm  

sick all right let me know in the  comments just type in I am ill okay I  

am ill anything else I am sick okay same thing so  you can have I'm or I am same thing not well okay

very good yeah so these are all perfectly  fine things I get sick or you can say it  

if you're it depends on the tense  like I'm getting sick right now or  

I got sick something like that under the  weather yep another good example under

foreign

under the weather not  feeling well catch a cold yep

now some of these are a bit more general feeling  lethargic yeah now lethargic lethargic lethargic  

lethargic just means you're kind of slow like you  like you ate a lot of I don't know a big meal for  

dinner and now you you're feeling fat and you  can't move around so much so you can have a  

general kind of feeling of uh feeling lethargic  but that's real it's not quite the same thing  

as feeling sick it might be a symptom of that or  feeling dizzy that's another thing that's a bit  

more specific so in general we can talk about uh  being ill or just you know like I'm I'm not well  

or I'm not feeling well very good another one a  mirror from coming down with something and this  

is where we we usually begin a conversation if we  don't know exactly what the problem is a friend  

of ours says oh how are you and I say well I'm I'm  okay I'm actually not feeling I'm not actually not  

feeling very well right now and then usually the  conversation is trying to figure out what happened  

so what are the symptoms what are the problems  that you have so I I have a cough or I have a  

fever or a stomach ache or a headache or something  like that and you're talking generally about these  

different things and the point is that you can  you can move from more General to more specific or  

if a friend just asks you a question then you can  do the same thing where you're just giving them a  

specific answer if you know so oh I've got cancer  or I had a heart attack or oh I you know you know  

exactly what the problem is but in general if you  don't know these are are the kinds of things you  

would use so I'm feeling sick or I'm not well  typically not well and you can you can use your  

intonation like I'm not I'm not well I'm using  my body language and my facial expressions to  

make this a little bit easier make it clear so  I could say yeah I'm okay not not feeling well  

so that's not so serious but um oh really really  not feeling well so that means maybe there's a  

more serious problem but you don't know exactly  how it is you can talk about being under the  

weather so to catch a cold means you you know  yeah I caught something I caught a bug there's  

a flu bug going around so right now like the  coronavirus or whatever it's going around to go

to go around and this is for understanding  things like a virus or whatever so I could  

be better uh you would say I could  be better Fabricio very good though  

I could be better yeah I could  be better or you can say I've

I've been better

I've been better I've been better and you can talk  about that for uh for work or for you like how  

you're feeling in general so how are you feeling  or how is your company doing like yeah I've been  

better it's been better you know depending on  what you're talking about but these are again  

very good examples of something general that you  can use when you're talking about feeling ill but  

the point is that there are many different ways  of using this and it's much better to spend your  

time focusing on learning a bunch of these  things and hearing them all used in similar  

situations rather than trying to learn one phrase  for I'm sick and then try to translate that when  

you need to use that in a conversation does that  make sense that's really the most important point  

about this video it's the naturally varied review  that helps you understand like a native the whole  

point of learning vocabulary like a native is  so you think like a native when you speak and  

natives even like right now I could be thinking  of something I want to say and then maybe I switch  

to something else you don't notice it because  I'm doing it so quickly but you can you know  

get the ability to do the same thing if you're  learning like this so remember to learn things  

systematically you want to spend time you want  to spend time with the language I know lots of  

people they worry about finding a native English  speaker to speak with but really the the thing  

that you need from the native English speaker  is just the input okay so if you can get the  

input by itself then you can become a fluent  speaker very quickly because you don't need  

to wait for a native speaker to talk with all  right does that make sense it's not it's not  

the native speaker that you're maybe you're  talking with that gets you fluent it's the  

input it's the information that you get from  that person that builds your network so if  

you can get that information without needing a  native speaker then you don't it doesn't matter  

where you live or how old you are that kind of  thing all right makes sense all right fantastic  

and so there are different ways I can  ask that often I will change these up

so if you listen carefully you can also hear  the Expressions that I'm using I try to use  

different ones to mix up to mix things  up for you uh so I I'll ask people like

like make sense they should be a capital I guess  makes sense or does that make sense does that  

make sense I'm pretty good is it correct yep I'm  pretty good I'm doing just fine I'm okay I'm all  

right I'm all right so when people if you want to  begin a conversation and ask someone how they are  

just so how are you or how have you been if it's  if it's been a while since you've seen that person  

all right let's see learning phrases of the same  topic and applying it yes Christian uh you got  

it so the the idea like the the application or  the practice of the practice that people think  

they have some years is long time no see nice  to see you there uh the the practice of it is  

right here all right so you're getting all these  different examples of something and that is the  

practice that builds your fluency all right so  you you don't what you don't need to do is like  

go repeat the same phrase again and again in  your conversations what you need what you do  

need to do is build the network of all these  different words and phrases so that way in  

a conversation you can use anything and if you  can't remember one thing you can easily switch  

to something else so this is how natives are  learning the language but they're just not doing  

it as systematically as you could be doing it all  right so how are you doing you would say how are  

you doing or how are you doing my brother  how you doing my brother how are you doing  

all right Amir asks could you please tell us how  much would prefix and suffix help to reorganize  

the unknown vocabulary yep so at the beginning  of this video I was giving the prefix try  

or just the kind of root word or the or the word  peace try and you will learn a lot of that often  

you will understand prefixes and suffixes later so  just like the native example before I talked about  

teaching my daughter triangle and then I teach  her tricycle and then she learns triceratops and  

so as she's hearing these examples she's kind  of learning the prefixes in Reverse so again a  

more systematic way is understanding something  like try and as an as an adult learner this is  

an advantage that you have over children who  cannot you know they're just not as smart as  

adults and they don't have the opportunity to  to ask questions and think like okay I wonder  

if there are other examples of things I can get  so you can direct your learning much more easily  

that way by you know asking questions about the  language and it works the same way and so you  

can focus on prefixes but again the point is not  to to try to learn like one prefix we're going to  

learn the prefix try Ai and then get two examples  and learn something else you really want to get  

many many examples of something and not just from  one teacher you want to hear many different people  

saying things hear them in different situations  because often people who may you might get like an  

English course or something or have a teacher in  a classroom if you listen to that teacher over and  

over again they will be easy to understand after  a while especially if they're not already from the  

very beginning but most people if you spend time  with that person you will get used to their accent  

and their way of speaking but the problem with  that is that if you don't hear lots of different  

examples when you get into the real world and  have many different speakers or conversations  

with many different speakers there will be many  people that you'll have trouble understanding  

so this is why it's again it's important to hear  many different people saying the same kinds of  

things all right so like uh like a triathlon same  idea it's like oh a triathlon what's that I can  

imagine Triathlon is probably something with three  three events maybe something like that all right  

so I heard from other teachers the repetition is  important to develop fluency now the the common  

here let me talk about the truth about repetition  of vocabulary or whatever uh inside your brain  

I'm gonna I'm gonna make this uh  my here's my picture of your your  

brain uh your brain is is naturally  excited by new information new new  

and the reason your brain is excited by  new information is because you're you're  

constantly looking around trying to find out if  if something is going to help you or hurt you in  

a new environment and so this is from many many  years of you know imagine you're living out in a  

jungle or like the planes and there could be wild  animals coming to get you you're always looking  

around trying to figure out what's happening or  you go to a new place and you meet lots of new  

people you want to know who are the nice people  who are The Not So Nice people your brain is is  

really using a lot of energy to do that so your  brain is always interested in something new okay  

everybody everybody understands that we're kind  of naturally attracted to things that are new uh  

and so if your brain already knows something so if  you meet 10 new people and you know okay most of  

these people are good that guy over there is not  so good maybe I should you know stay away from  

that guy once you know that information then okay  your brain is relaxing and you don't need to think  

about those people anymore you kind of understand  uh about those people and it's the same thing with  

vocabulary so you'll hear something and you'll  you'll you'll hear it and you'll know it and  

you'll learn it just a little bit but it's still  in your passive vocabulary uh without hearing  

something again but again the the trouble here  is that because your brain is always interested  

in new information when you try to repeat things  again and again it's really frustrating for your  

brain because your brain already heard that word  before okay so this is the the Nuance about uh  

like learning vocabulary and repetition so the  point is not to just repeat vocabulary again and  

again because this is actually forcing your brain  to do something it doesn't want to do this is why  

most people just like they can't sit and do like  you know one punch or whatever so Bruce Lee talked  

about the same thing I gave that example and he  says I fear the man who has learned one kick or  

practiced one kick ten thousand times so one  guy's like just sitting there doing that same  

punch over and over and over again really it's  the boredom of that kind of thing that makes it  

very difficult for people and the reason it's  boring is because it's not new okay so this is  

the really one of the big problems about language  learning that if information is not new you won't  

want to remember it all right so Christian right  now is I am excited about this new information  

all right so if you're talking about what I'm  saying right now like this is exciting because  

it's new you know it's like wow like this here's  some new information about how my brain works so  

it's not your fault you're not like a lazy  student if you don't want to study it's just  

your brain doesn't care about old information  so once you hear something this is why we watch

the news on TV okay I'll get back  to Solomon's question in a minute  

so we watch the news people want to know what's  new we're not watching the olds on TV or watching  

the news okay and so again the reason we do this  is because the brain it's always looking for new  

information this is why it's so difficult for  people to develop Mastery in something because  

Mastery requires that repetition you have to do  something again and again so the problem again  

just want to make this very clear the problem  is your brain does not like repeating things  

your brain does not like repeating things so  you really have to work hard you have to have  

discipline to do that so what I discovered is  that okay it's much easier just to understand  

things the way natives do and that's why we use  naturally varied review all right so the solution  

to this problem is naturally varied review it's  not to repeat things again and again even if  

you are like a great student and you just repeat  something again and again it's really not building  

your fluency it's kind of building your memory  a little bit but again the network is the thing  

that helps you speak fluently it's not trying to  learn one word and remember it and watch it again  

and again or hear it again and again it's that  kind of thing where you're hearing something just  

like the examples that I gave earlier in this  video of making connections between different  

words so we've got triangle Triceratops tricycle  triglyceride the same kind of thing all right so  

you don't if you take a flash card and you write  a word on it like we're going to write I don't  

know like try something it doesn't matter what  the word is so here's my flash card and we're  

going to write a word on there and I'm going to  do what people call spaced repetition so in five  

minutes I will review it again and then two days  I will review it again okay like whatever the the  

thing is it's much faster and easier to actually  try to try to learn it uh systematically okay  

let's see uh it's called incentation actually I'm  not familiar with that but if you're describing  

what this is then yes that's it typically  I try to just make it easy for people to  

understand without using a like a difficult  word to understand this but the point is it's  

learning vocabulary systematically and by keeping  things similar but not the same your brain thinks  

it's new information I mean it is new information  but the point is it's it's similar you're getting  

repetition so you might hear one word like you  know try sickle or triglyceride or whatever from  

different speakers and that's again it's new  so each time you hear it your brain is like  

oh okay that's the word sounds like this from  that speaker or the word sounds like that from  

a different speaker okay so it's not the same  thing you repeating something is not going to  

get you fluent faster oh incantation incantation  well an incantation would be like that's actually  

repeating something like or saying like a  magic spell something like that that that's  

an incantation incantation but I'm not talking  about that I'm really just talking about the  

straight repetition of something versus naturally  varied review all right so the way you learned  

your native language was by naturally varied  review you would hear a word you would hear it  

in many different ways from different speakers you  would hear it in different times you would hear it  

in different contexts you're learning the grammar  pronunciation the vocabulary building all of that  

is happening together so when I repeated I got  bored to it has happened with me yes it happens  

with everyone because that's how our brain works  and again the reason our brain works that way  

is because like you want to be very quick about  finding information in a new environment all right  

all right let's go back and make sure we  got everybody's uh questions over here uh

uh all right so salmon says I'm preparing  for competitive exam and they're about 5  

000 fixed words that are asked in the exams  how can I master these particular words uh  

you would probably benefit from my uh how  to remember any English word program if you  

go to englishanyone.com actually probably just  Google that I think maybe we don't even offer  

that publicly anymore it's only available in uh  fluent for life but you can learn about that in  

in the fluent for Life program but this is  about using this same idea of instead of  

taking vocabulary and trying to remember it we  want to make the vocabulary new in your mind  

all right so the we're using that it kind of a  strategic way of learning a bunch of words very  

quickly and that's going to help you do that so if  you'd like to do that look that up how to remember  

any English word go to our website and you can  find that all right let's see so Christian says  

it seems to me you should apply the information  you're listening listening news is good but try  

to use what you're listening um this is this  is probably the the biggest thing that people  

argue with me about for language learning about  well yes it's good to listen to stuff but yes  

you have to speak at some point and I say if you  can't actually use something fluently why are you  

talking the fluency is developed by getting all  this different review you you know it so well  

that it just comes out automatically so you can  try to repeat things you can say things if you  

like even if you're not really comfortable with  them like I could learn a word in Hungarian or  

Chinese or whatever someone could tell me  something and I could try to say that word  

again and again but I don't really understand  that it's not me saying something that gets me  

fluent it's me understanding something that gets  me fluent and then I can speak all right and I  

know this is a it's it's the opposite of what  everybody tells you to do so it's unbelievable  

so everyone says Drew you have to you have to  speak in order to get fluent but the truth is  

it's really the understanding of something so what  most people are doing and this is why most people  

don't speak all right now if if like the the  traditional way worked everybody would be speaking  

you know but the traditional way does not work  and I mean even for the people who are really  

good students they do a lot of practicing a lot  of trying to speak with people they're still  

not good speakers but the people who become good  speakers they're getting naturally varied review  

they understand the vocabulary really well all  right so what I mean by that just like the example  

I gave before we've got triangle Triceratops  triglyceride as soon as you hear these different  

examples you're like ding there's a little you  can actually feel yourself getting more fluent  

because you feel yourself understanding something  like a native all right how can I remember words  

with lots of meaning all right so that's that's  also a different a different thing you will have  

many words like the word bark so bark uh like  the bark of a tree and the bark is the same  

sound that a dog makes bark so here we've got a  word with two different meanings and this is why  

uh vocabulary by itself is really meaningless  it's all about the context of the word and then  

you get that in many different contexts okay all  right let's see here we got a couple more what  

does it mean lay off and take off so layoff would  mean there's a couple different meanings of that  

you could also have like the job layoff like  if you lay someone off it means to to say okay  

we're we're making you you're you're being fired  but it's uh maybe you it's it's less severe than  

being fired so if I get laid off maybe my company  sold something and they don't need my department  

anymore and they just stop doing it so they laid  me off all right but if I did something really  

bad I got fired kind of thing so that's laid off  uh but take off again there's different meanings  

of that but usually means to remove one thing  from another so these are examples of phrasal  

verbs I highly recommend you check out our visual  guide to phrasal verbs so you can understand these  

things like a native get the natural varied review  that actually helps you understand these things  

like a native rather than trying to learn like  a definition very quickly from an example all  

right so remember people always like like what  does this word mean what does this word mean  

you're only going to forget that if you just  get a definition or a translation so the point  

is not to get a definition or translation it's  to build and network take a word even one word  

it doesn't matter and then you're building  a network around that and then you you start  

doing that with other things and very quickly  because you're learning systematically so you're  

actually learning the native way but it's more  efficient it's faster than the traditional way  

that natives are learning the language because you  can you can be systematic with how you're learning  

all right let's see uh what else we got here how  to enhance public speaking skills yeah so that's  

a that's another thing usually the the public  speaking thing like for me uh number one is  

making sure probably the most the fundamental most  important thing about public speaking is to make  

sure that the the information you have to share  with people is valuable uh so even if you're not  

a very good speaker you can still share something  valuable and people will appreciate that so it's  

it's not about like holding your hands on the  podium or how you stand or whatever just making  

sure you provide value that's the most important  thing and that will also build your confidence so  

if you don't feel very confident about what you're  what you're saying or you don't think the value is  

very good then you won't feel very good and you  won't deliver a very good presentation but even  

a person who is a little bit shy that has good  value like a comedian who's a little bit shy but  

he's he's still speaking anyway and his jokes  are funny he will develop Confidence from that  

all right let's see so I'm enjoying your  videos and getting natural hair learned  

yep glad to hear it all right let's see  uh is it right the listening is the key  

to speaking all right uh I want to make  this very clear for people the network

the network you build from naturally varied review  is the key the network the network remember your  

brain your brain actually looks like this  all right inside your brain if you look at  

it like it's like a bunch of these different  connections and so when you learn words like  

this you make that connection very strong just  like having a building it's a structure that's  

very strong because it's got all these different  connections so you can't push it down it's all  

working together okay so part of this is listening  listening so we'll put an L here for listening  

part of this is writing they'll put a w here for  writing part of this is watching some oh it gets  

another W for watching so it's how you're getting  the information a small child uh if their mother  

tells them don't touch the stove it's hot don't  touch the stove it's hot and so they're they're  

hearing the word hot okay mom said the word hot  I don't know what hot means and so they touch  

the stove and oh now they understand what that  means so they weren't listening to anything they  

actually connected the word hot to the feeling of  being hot all right so it's the the point is not  

to just listen you're like listening to podcasts  or whatever the point is to develop understanding  

uh uh of of something really well okay and so you  get that from many different things it could be  

listening it could be watching it could be reading  something but you should be getting lots of these  

different examples in different ways and this is  why students in fluent for life they are doing  

reading and writing and watching and listening  and they even do a little bit of speaking like  

they try to teach something to other people but  the point is to develop this network because the  

network is the thing that gives you confidence  all right when you when you don't really know  

something very well you feel nervous about your  pronunciation or you're nervous about your grammar  

uh you're like okay do I say this or do I say  that I don't really remember so you get stuck  

in conversations asking these questions and that's  why people are always trying to speak and they're  

the teachers are saying it's okay if you make  mistakes go ahead and speak but that's not really  

very good advice for people what you really want  is to understand something really well and then go  

out and speak because the again the network is the  thing thing that gives you the confidence because  

you know the information so well all right nice  to see you there Ronnie all right so let's see  

so acting helping us to understand those things uh  very perfect equals Flawless well perfect equals  

flawless I mean very perfect is you wouldn't  really put like I mean you could put very on there  

but it doesn't doesn't really change anything  uh impel compel and impose and differences  

now if I if I explain something like that  you will probably forget it anyway again  

the point is to take words like that let me  give you a much better much better thing to  

do if you go to Google and spend some time with  those words so don't just look for a definition  

type in like compel and look at what all the  examples are all right so use Google as a way  

to answer questions for yourself uh and then  you can use that like for a verb you might do  

compel or impel or whatever these these various  words that you can learn it's much better to take  

some time with it and actually build some again  you're building the network you're not trying  

to get a definition what's the difference  between this word and that word the point  

is to spend time with the language okay so you  can build your network I just do this when I'm  

teaching lessons and helping people get lots of  different examples of things in different ways  

because regular repetition is not going to help  you get fluent it's going to be very difficult  

for you to get fluent you might know one example  of something you repeat it again and again and  

again but you're still not speaking fluently and  the reason is because you know this is just one  

way of saying something and natives may not use  that way of saying something in a conversation  

so if you've only got this one way of saying  something you will struggle in conversations  

all right so I use Google to understand the word  it shows in various ways exactly exactly so you  

want to spend time with the language and you  will see like if I go ahead and put put bark

put bark in in a Google search just just put that  word in there and you can do an image search for  

this as well and it will show you at least two  different things now I have not tried this but I'm  

sure it will doing a Google image search so not  just like a word search actually going to the the  

images and typing in a word this is a great way  to learn vocabulary this is why in Frederick we  

actually have four different icons for every word  because we want people to understand them and it's  

much easier to do that again from the context  it's a naturally varied review that helps you  

build this network each of the examples you get is  another way of helping you understand something so  

if you go go to Google type in the word bark and  you will see things like you will see pictures of  

trees and you will probably see pictures of dogs  like you know barking like that like all right  

you will see both of those all right does this  make sense so the the point is not if you you go  

to Google and say like what does this mean and  you just look up one meaning of it or you get a  

translation in a dictionary it's really going to  be more confusing so you have to spend time with  

the word and this is why the the whole point  is is to make sure you're building a network  

of something rather than just uh again getting  one translation this this is the most dangerous  

thing in language learning right here all right  having one connection most dangerous thing in  

conversational English most dangerous thing and  you know learning any language because if you  

lose that connection somehow if you forget that  word you can't think of that conversation then  

you're in uh whatever you're talking with somebody  and then I I can't remember what I wanted to say  

and so that's when you struggle that's where the  ah the nervousness comes from or if you only hear  

it from one person you're not really prepared  for other people giving you those maybe like a  

different different way of saying something in  a conversation all right all right let's see uh

uh all right so let's see Christian says or  Chris Christie and hopefully I'm pronouncing  

that correctly apologize if I do uh or I'm  not do you recommend apps for English writing  

in order to improve that field uh I don't I've  never used anything like that to improve my own  

writing I just I look at the kind of writing I'd  like to do better and then copy that and then  

actually with like a like a pen or a pencil and  paper and that's how it's going to improve my my  

writing I spend time with lots of different  examples it's the different examples it's a  

naturally varied review in all these different  learning situations it really builds your fluency  

all right Claudio says hi Drew long time no  seen uh and it is great to see you and learn my  

question is when we use the word upon can you give  us example detail please and use the word upon so  

again another example of when you would look at  something like Google or you can even do a YouTube  

search for something like a pawn I think maybe  I did a video about this but you could say like  

you know the the duck is sitting upon the water  and upon is often uh used just like on there's no  

real difference between those we could all say  once upon a time you'll hear that a lot in uh  

stories for children so once upon a time once upon  a time it just means like at this time once upon  

a time and the point is again not to get just one  example of something I'm trying to give you some  

different ones but as you learn these different  examples of words sometimes you will find that the  

word just it's the same word for two completely  different things so there's no connection between  

uh the bark of a tree and the bark of a dog it's  it's just the same word that we use for both of  

those things or you might have a word that sounds  the same but maybe it's spelled differently like  

night so you might have n-i-g-h-t for night like  morning when daytime and night time or you have  

night like k n i g h t where that's like a night  like fighting with a sword that kind of thing  

so there's no connection between any of those  logically even if there is like a historical  

connection it's not important for understanding  the words sometimes you just have to you break a  

word into different pieces or different parts and  okay uh there's no real connection here you could  

make a connection just to help you remember  it if you like but the point is you will have  

some things where you're you're building the  network for bark as its own thing and then for  

like barking of a dog as its own thing as well  all right uh the way you talk is so clear and  

perfect thanks a lot glad to hear it Louis yes  I am intentionally speaking clearly so people  

can understand what I'm saying so what I do in  fluent for life is I take you from understanding  

teachers like myself so trying to take you from  uh understanding something in a very easy clear  

way to how can you understand native speakers  in a conversation all right so we have to do  

that in simple steps helping you understand the  vocabulary giving you lots of different uh yes  

homophone again I'm not the reason I'm not not  using like the technical technical definition  

or the technical name for lots of things like  grammar points or whatever is number one natives  

don't know that information a lot of them don't  and number two it's not necessary to know that  

that that's the case but you would learn a word  like homophone and it's like homo like that means  

the same that's interesting like a homophone  same sound homophone homophone all right but  

yes you're correct uh so remember again it's the  network the network all right so how much let's  

say grammar is important or you would say how  important is grammar grammar is the most important  

more important than anything else but remember as  you're learning this you're learning grammar and  

pronunciation and vocabulary at the same time  there's not really like a native speaker when  

they're learning new words they're it's it's all  grammar and pronunciation and listening so you  

don't need like a separate the way I teach is kind  of helping people understand these in different  

pieces but a native speaker really they're just  hearing things even if I say I am hot I am tired  

I am cold okay those are basic examples of grammar  the grammar is is like identity so you're you're  

saying this thing is that thing or there's a  connection between these two things all right  

so the grammar and the pronunciation listening and  the vocabulary confidence all of these things when  

you understand like a native they all develop  naturally your pronunciation improves as you  

get lots of different examples number one of the  same vocabulary number two from different speakers  

all right so any tips to improve grammar it's  this it's all the the exact same thing so when  

you when you take something just like I gave an  example with some grammar earlier in the video uh  

I was talking about uh like the the mountain  proved to be difficult so understanding the  

pieces of that sentence so something is difficult  that's pretty easy something is very difficult all  

right that's a little that's pretty easy to  understand as well but then something proves  

to be very difficult as well like proves to be  huh I wonder what that means so rather than just  

telling you what something means it's much better  to understand something like that through a story  

and then you're hearing that in many different  ways so the mountain proved to be difficult  

after I climbed it all right so that's the the  whole point that that particular structure of  

something proving to be difficult means you have  proof now because you did that thing so as an  

example I might be worried about a test and then  I take the test and oh it proved to be pretty easy  

okay so I was worried about the test before I  took the test I'm worried I don't know what's  

going to happen will it be difficult will I  fail the test but then I take it and oh it  

proved to be pretty easy so it actually was  pretty easy and again the more examples you  

get and the more different ways you're hearing  something and from different speakers that's how  

you build your fluency automatically guaranteed  okay so you don't need to have a person there  

practice your speaking trying to repeat phrases  to yourself or trying to repeat them to other  

people you it's much better like if you've only  got five minutes or ten minutes a day to practice  

don't try to repeat something try to get more  examples okay get more examples of something  

it's much better you will you will improve your  fluency just in an incredible way just by getting  

more examples of something rather than trying  to trying to hear the same thing again and again  

all right so we already know that your brain does  not like repeating things so you have to force  

yourself to do it you get very bored trying  to practice things even people who are good  

students all right uh see if I miss anything else  so can we use extremely instead of using very yep  

so again this is another thing where Learners  are often worried about like uh like and you  

say like more frequently or quite frequently or  very frequently often your intonation is more  

important there so if I say like wow we did a lot  of studying a lot of studying okay so it sounds  

like wow that's that's a lot I said yeah yeah I  did a lot of studying I did a lot of studying then  

maybe it doesn't sound like so much so it's it's  less important to focus on vocabulary and try to  

think of like a like a word order about like this  word and that word and this is more extreme than  

that one your intonation is much more important  and it's also much easier to remember that and  

use that in a conversation so I could remember  a few words and just put more stress on those  

words so wow I did oh I did a lot of studying a  lot of studying or yeah I did a lot of studying

which one is more it's really how you say  it so the intonation is much more important  

in your actual conversations uh what about  the book word uh Power Made Easy for word  

building over building vocabulary uh pardon me  uh I actually I had that book when I was a kid  

my dad got me that book and you know so I'm  looking through the book and what you find is  

is that you're okay you're you're getting lots  of examples and a book like that is designed  

to try to teach you a whole bunch of information  uh when it's a little bit different for building  

fluency so you will probably remember some  of that vocabulary a lot of it you will not  

remember and then you will not be able to  use it fluently so you can think about it

like you have two choices very important for  language learning two choices so Choice number  

one you can try to learn like a one thousand words  and every day I'm going to try to learn 10 words  

and it's like okay here's I'm going to take 20  minutes and here's this word I get a definition  

maybe a mnemonic or something a memory aid I'm  using to remember something like that and then  

I've got all these different things so that's  Choice one choice two is try to learn 100 words  

but to know those words extremely well all right  so I'm going to learn one thing and then I'm not  

I'm not just going to jump to the next word I'm  going to spend some time with that word I'm going  

to hear this in different ways I'm going to hear  it from different speakers I'm going to hear it  

in different contexts and different uh maybe  the grammar for that purpose I'm going to hear  

it in the past the present the future or maybe  I what I would have done something like that  

I'm really going to spend some time with this  and as I do that this is actually building my  

vocabulary for like other things so I'm really  building my vocabulary it's giving me like this  

same amount of words but in a in a roundabout  way so I'm not the goal is not to learn 10  

000 words but you'd learn Ten Thousand Words  naturally and automatically by learning this way  

all right so it's much better to do this a  couple of times like each day you just spend  

spend a little bit of time with a few words and  hearing that from lots of different people and  

you will build a fluent vocabulary much faster  than you will doing like this I talk about this  

on the channel a lot but vocabulary building  is like planting seeds and you can get lots of  

seeds you can go get a book like the the word  power thing and okay I'm going to try to plant  

these seeds in my mind like that this is your  your head here and you can try to put all these  

seeds into your mind like that and then each day  you put more new ones in here but in this example

I'm actually going to put the seed into my mind  but I'm going to give it water and sunshine and  

I'm going to spend time with it so the plant grows  up in this example all these plants die you might  

remember a few things but really you're you're  wasting your time because you're you're just  

you're spending time with one thing and then  you kind of forget about it you move on to the  

next thing and you forget about it each time you  move on but with these you're building the network  

it's the network that builds your fluency all  right so it helps you remember the words helps  

you use them fluently all right see if we have  anybody else over here all right so how time  

you mean what time is it where you are I'm  dying to know Japan or USA uh wow it's 3 A.M  

where you are I don't know where that is uh it  is what time is it it's 1106 a.m here in Japan  

all right how can I stop translating in my mind  all right so this is the like the fundamental  

problem of language learning is because people are  learning one language through another language so  

they're using like my when I used to teach  in classrooms here in Japan uh my Japanese  

students they would have a bunch of Japanese  textbooks and the teacher would explain things  

in Japanese and then I would say something very  quickly in English and then they would move on  

to the next lesson it's like this everybody is  doing this and that's why everybody forgets and  

they can't use things in their conversations so  instead of trying to learn things through your  

native language you get naturally varied review  all right does that make sense so you're spending  

more time with fewer words but that actually  builds your fluent vocabulary much faster  

because this one you might be getting more words  but you're losing those words at the same time  

so you're just you're moving through your like  you're getting this word and you lose it and  

then you get a new word and then you lose it maybe  a few of them you remember but most of them will  

not be part of your active vocabulary and the  active vocabulary is what you need to have a  

conversation with people all right so if you're  if you're learning and you're trying to think  

and translate in your head this is because this  is the way most people teach and either like on  

YouTube you will find two kinds of video lessons  the first kind is going to give you translations  

so in most countries there is like a popular  YouTuber like we have them in Japan uh like  

popular YouTubers uh for a particular country  and so they will teach Japanese people English  

through Japanese and so the videos are like  it's much more entertaining than what I do  

so they spend you know they can spend much more  time doing things because they're using Japanese  

in order to teach but the problem is it's not  building fluency because those people are learning  

to think through their native language all right  so in like in Spain or Argentina or China or  

Russia it's the same thing everywhere people are  using their native language to help people learn  

English so the second way is that you're going  to see people learning through examples of native  

speakers so native English speakers this is like  what I do where I'm helping people learn English  

in English but the problem with most of those  lessons are there's no naturally varied review  

so it's still like this hey guys today welcome to  this video we're going to teach you uh 10 amazing  

new phrases and then you will forget those by  the end of the lesson okay so it's much better  

to actually spend your time okay guys we're going  to work on one phrase a day and by the end of it  

you're going to know it so well that when it gets  into a conversation you'll be able to talk about  

this and that and use it no matter what you're  talking about all right so samir's asking how  

do you think in English it's the exact same thing  all of the problems that people have in language  

learning is because they do not learn this way  every problem comes from that okay every problem  

comes from that so I have trouble uh remembering  words I have trouble thinking about grammar I  

have trouble with my pronunciation I can't  understand natives I have trouble all these  

things every one of these problems every one of  these problems is because you are not doing this  

all right and it's not your fault it's just the  way everybody teaches languages all right so the  

the way YouTube works for language teaching is  again remember we just talked about this before

okay new new new remember that your  brain is excited by new information  

and so people are always trying to make  new content Learners are always looking  

for new content and that's why they don't  remember anything so what you actually  

need is content that's similar so you're  getting the review you need to build fluency  

all right and that's what naturally varied review  is so do not learn through your native language  

it's much better to learn things and get examples  all in English and then you want to get naturally  

varied review because that's going to teach you  the pronunciation the grammar the vocabulary and  

it will develop your listening your confidence  and your fluency all by itself without you having  

to speak again it's getting the input all right  the naturally varied review is the thing that's  

going to get you fluent it's not trying to  repeat one phrase again and again that's not  

going to build your fluency the fluency is in  the network all right it's just the way you're  

it's the way your mind works but you have to kind  of trick your mind into giving it new information  

all right yes even uh Anderson excellent points  so even native speakers don't remember all the  

words yeah yeah and again the the thing about  being a native speaker so that's a really good  

point is it's it's in this network you will see  this all the time now kind of tricky thing that  

natives do this is even a joke for many native  speakers is they will be spelling something so  

a native speaker might try to spell something  now it's much easier because you can get the  

spell check from your computer or whatever or  your phone but if people forget how to spell  

something they will just use a different word and  so they will think like how do I spell restaurant  

like rest rest oh right I can't spell that let me  just use uh uh pasta place I went to a pasta place  

it's something they can't remember how to spell  something they will just they will just change the  

word and in the same way if they can't remember a  specific phrase they'll just use a different one  

and that's what I'm doing right now so you're  you don't see it but my I'm I'm fluent because  

I'm naturally just processing this information  without thinking about it all right so I'm not  

I'm not stopping to think oh no I can't I  can't remember that one thing I wanted to  

say because that would be a bad presentation  if I just if I stopped every five minutes and  

was thinking or that kind of thing and this  is what most Learners have to do because  

they didn't build the network and again it's not  your fault this is just the way everybody teaches  

they're they're using this like all of this uh the  stuff on YouTube it's giving you all this like new  

new information all the time it's it's basically  kind of tricking uh using using your brain against  

you and it's wasting your time all right but it's  more entertaining so people are like yes it's more  

entertaining to learn that way because it's new  all right but the the trick is to you got to trick  

your mind back and give it new information by  giving it naturally varied reviews so you change  

the information not just give it uh the same way  again and again uh Pawn says how to spell words  

correctly if you want to learn how to spell go  to englishanyone.com and get this f-r-e-d-e-r-i-c

this will teach you how to spell like a native  okay Frederick all right uh let's go back and see  

if we missed anything what zakiyama says Could you  teach me how to read documents written in English  

faster should I read books as much as possible  or should I combine reading with listening to re  

yeah I guess it depends on what your what your  reading speed is and what you have to read if  

this is uh like step four textbook reading like  your academic life or something like that again  

get more examples of the kinds of things you like  to read if you read one kind of book if you like  

mystery novels read a lot of those you will get  better at reading that information but make sure  

you can understand at least 80 to 90 percent of  the things that you're reading because if it's  

too difficult and you have to go to a dictionary  all the time it will be very frustrating for you  

uh what if I cover let's see I highly recommend  learning English grammar naturally without  

studying it a lot yeah again the the point is  not to not to try to force yourself to learn  

rules the point is really to understand it like  a native and you understand grammar like a native  

as you get lots of examples and that's what it  means to understand it naturally all right all  

right Solomon asks what if I cover only one  session a day of the book uh I don't know  

what what you're asking about specifically uh  but again the the point is to to focus and then  

spend time with the language about that thing  whatever that is all right um see if we have  

let's say good morning from India how to think  in English so same thing so this is this is how  

you think in English this is how you think like  a learner this is how you think like a student  

all right you mean we have to learn those words  which are common in speaking well it's I mean  

obviously you would learn words that are common  but it's the it's the words for your life if I  

am a doctor working in a laboratory then I will  I will use different words than a professional  

soccer player all right so it's not about like  getting a word list it's about thinking about  

the the vocabulary that I use in my native my  everyday you know regular life however you need  

to however you need to use the language now  some people are learning English and they  

don't actually need to speak they don't care  about speaking maybe they just want to watch  

movies or something like that if you want to do  that then focus on a particular thing like watch  

movies by a particular actor or a particular kind  of movie and you will see it's going to give you  

naturally varied review you're going to get the  different examples of something in different ways  

all right so the point is repetition doesn't  work all right and it doesn't work because  

your brain doesn't like to review because it's  boring your brain wants new information on the  

so you have to give your brain new information  but it should be related to what you're talking  

about so I can learn all about dogs like if  I just learn the word dog in one language or  

another I can learn that word dog but there are  lots of different kinds of dogs like a Dalmatian  

or a Rottweiler or a poodle or whatever you know  all these different kinds of examples and so I'm  

going to spend time with that so in my case  when I understood when I came to Japan this  

is after I had failed to learn languages for 15  years and I came to Japan and I thought wow the  

magic is that you're in a native country and so  I'm surrounded by Japanese people all the time  

I should become fluent and I did not it was only  more frustrating for me and the reason I became  

fluent is because I I just noticed how children  were learning the language and I said oh look  

at that they're not using flash cards and things  they're getting naturally varied review they're  

understanding like a native speaker it's like  that you can't use a translation to teach a child  

because they what other language would you use  you have to teach everything all in that language  

so you can't use anything else you can't use  textbooks or writing or reading things like  

that especially for young children because they  don't they're they're just learning everything uh  

like just either they understand it or they do  not so a good parent who's making the language  

understandable will have kids who are speaking  uh much faster and so me I can like really take  

that to a higher level with my own children and  even though I don't spend a lot of time with them  

speaking in English like I don't you know I'm  away from the house I'm out working or whatever  

they spend most of their day in Japanese but I can  spend an hour with them in English and actually  

teach them much faster because I understand how  to teach all right but all I'm really doing is  

giving them examples of naturally varied reviews  so I'm trying to help them understand something  

uh very rarely like really never will I try to  use Japanese to teach them English or the other  

way around is it good to use closed captions for  improving English skills yes that's perfectly fine  

what you don't want to do is get translations in  your native language you should be just reading  

the actual captions or the transcript of something  so this is why in fluent for life we have full  

transcripts you can click on specific words in the  interactive transcript and it will jump right to  

that section of the video so it's very convenient  for people to learn uh Juliana says what about  

the intonation I know some people who are very  fluent but the way they speak was absolutely  

monotonous it gives you a turn off where it turns  you off yes again the often you can you can tell  

how people are or the way their speech is by how  they learn and you can kind of guess oh I can I  

can look at speakers and okay this person learned  in this country or they learned in this way I can  

tell just by the way they speak the learning is  is obvious so I always say how you learn is how  

you speak how you learn is how you speak how you  learn is how you speak that's like a Mantra you  

know I just say that again and again how you learn  is how you speak and it's really important for  

people again if you only hear one speaker so you  have one teacher or one speaker or something like  

that that's giving you all your information like  if I live in a house with my mom in the middle  

of a forest and she is the only one talking  to me I am going to sound a lot like my mom  

because I have no other examples of how I should  sound you know it makes sense and so that's why  

like people sound like their parents but as you  get older and you start getting more examples of  

things from different people you know if you like  a student will maybe listen to an English like a  

textbook listening practice exercise or something  uh and they will sound like that they will try to  

repeat after that person but natives don't speak  that way so you need to get the naturally varied  

review you need that input from lots of people so  it's much better instead of you trying to repeat a  

phrase or something I like to go to the park or I  go to school I go to school I go to school so I'm  

going to repeat that phrase to myself it's much  much better for me to hear 10 natives 10 different  

people say I go to school so one person's like  I go to school and another person's like I go  

to school and another person's like I go to  school and your mom is like I go to school you  

know you're going to hear all these different  examples some of them will be clear some of  

them will not be clear but you will develop that  Network that allows you to understand how that  

works all right Isn't that cool though remember  this is how you learned your native language  

if you really think back you're like wait a  minute like my mom said wash my hands and my  

dad said wash my hands and you know that kind of  thing like all all of these different examples  

of things this is how you learned your native  language there's no difference between trying to  

learn English and learning your native language  but people think it's a different language so  

you have to learn it in a different way but it's  actually not true all you do is just learn it the  

same way you learned your native language and you  will learn to speak in the same way that you speak  

your native language now obviously you've maybe  been speaking your native language for 20 years  

or 30 years or 40 years or 80 years or whatever  and you will have spent less time with English  

but it's much better for you to spend your time  not doing this doing this spend time with the  

language you don't need to speak you just need to  get the input from lots of different people you  

need the naturally varied review all right let me  go back see if I had any more questions over here  

um which book do you learn or recommend to learn  vocabulary well it depends there isn't like a  

vocabulary book for learning what I do in fluent  for life is I let you choose the particular topics  

you're interested in so let's say you want to  learn about taking care of pets or whatever then  

you listen to the vocabulary about that thing you  hear it from different speakers you hear different  

people talking about it different speeds different  grammar all of that you're learning all of that  

about that particular topic so a book for for one  person might not be good for a different person  

right so you don't look for like a vocabulary  book look for like what are the things you're  

interested in if you like fixing cars then watch  YouTube videos about fixing cars you will learn  

a lot of vocabulary and you will hear different  natives talking about the same thing you could  

even watch like I don't know like take a video  game or a movie or whatever something you like  

you will find lots of people so the like the  video game Zelda breath of the wild if you know  

that game so there are tons and tons of videos  about people saying basically the same thing  

but in different ways about it you know so people  struggle like how can I say something different I  

want to say something new so people will watch  my video about it but as a learner this is a  

great resource for people all I've done is  influent for Life made it systematic so it's  

not just getting it often people have trouble  finding the kind of like the right information  

to learn what should we be focusing on how can we  learn it how can we understand it to make all of  

that simple I did all the hard work for you in  making the lesson sets for fluent for life but  

you could by yourself do that same kind of thing  uh how to pronounce schedule that's another thing  

get Frederick it will teach you how to pronounce  words like that and spell them schedule you will  

hear some people again it's not about one kind of  pronunciation like in British English they might  

say like schedule schedule all right uh I answer  a couple more and then I got like a little bit of  

time I'm probably going to lose my batter out here  Samuel asks why do you decide to live Japan I'm  

strongly eager uh to hear about it so my story I  came to Japan in 2003 to study Japanese gardening  

so I love Bonsai and wanting to learn how to build  that that's why I came to Japan but I couldn't  

get a visa to do that so I got a teaching visa  and I could come here and teach and I actually  

enjoy teaching a lot you know I proved to be a  good teacher I proved to be a good teacher and  

so it proved to be a fun thing for me to do so I  actually don't do anything at all with gardening  

right now except just enjoying gardens around  where I live and that kind of thing but that's why  

I came to Japan so again I came and I couldn't  speak so even living in Japan for a year and  

trying to do traditional studying I still couldn't  uh I couldn't speak I couldn't speak at all so  

even though I was living in Japan I was still  learning the traditional way and again I'm trying  

to do this like got to learn more words got to  learn more words gotta learn more words it's like  

no no you don't gotta learn more words you got  to understand like a native it's much better to  

think about children children often speak better  than adults even though children know fewer words  

all right do I understand the Australian accent  yes and the reason I understand the Australian  

accent is because I've spent time listening to  Australian speakers all right uh uh is it good  

okay I think we answered that one already stages  for beginners to learn languages you it's the  

same it's the same way you learn whether you're  a beginner or Advanced if you're learning the  

native way you still learn new vocabulary in your  native language the same way you learned it when  

you were a child you get understandable messages  and then you're getting naturally varied review  

lots of examples that help you understand things  uh Anderson's asked about Anki cards is the same  

that reading book to memorize and learn at the  same time the content uh again it the the format  

of the information like you might have a flat  a flash card by itself is not bad it's just how  

people use flash cards so trying to take uh one  flash card with one word and repeating that again  

and again it's going to be much more difficult for  you to remember because your brain doesn't want to  

do that so the flash card is not the bad thing  it's just it's much better instead of trying to  

give yourself a whole bunch of things to learn  so you don't you don't want to hear like just  

the same word in exactly the same way over and  over again but you do want to hear the word used  

in different contexts in actual situations from  different speakers and again this is what we give  

in naturally very important uh naturally a varied  review that you get influent for life uh okay so  

I'll get card okay I answered that one I uh you  need not a great idea at entrance [Laughter]  

yes yes uh is accent really important accent  is less important than uh grammar so grammar  

is going to be the most important thing you  should be focusing on but your accent again  

will develop naturally your speaking voice so you  have a particular English-speaking voice that will  

sound natural and lovely to people but you have  to get lots of examples from other people to find  

your voice so the the tricky thing is one teacher  in a classroom like if you are just trying to  

repeat after me yeah you will sound a little bit  like I do but maybe your voice is not is not like  

you know exactly right for the way I speak you  know I have a like you can hear me I have kind  

of a nasally sounding voice so I can copy other  people I can try to talk like Morgan Freeman or  

you know some like other famous actors something  like that but this is my natural speaking voice  

all right so it's not it's not about getting  one example and trying to copy that you want to  

get lots of examples and then you find the right  thing for you you will naturally develop something  

that's like ah this is this is like designed for  my speaking voice so you can hear the differences  

even in American English speakers like I can  I can close my eyes and listen to someone be  

like Ah that's probably an Asian lady speaking  English even if she's a native speaker born like  

in like a an Asian woman born in the United States  speaks only English I Can Tell She's Asian by the  

way she sounds isn't that interesting and it's  just again the natural speaking voice like the  

physical structure of your uh your face each  person has their own unique way of speaking so  

don't worry about trying to sound exactly like  somebody else but if you want to speak smoothly  

and naturally you get that by getting lots of  different examples not by trying to just copy  

one person you can you can if there's one person  like you like an actor or something and you want  

to sound like that person and they have a good  fit for your voice you can certainly do that but  

that's again going to be something that you get  for the review all right I'll take a few more  

already getting the low battery message over  here uh uh let's see so uh all right elderly  

elderly you're asking the pronunciation of that  okay elderly uh I've never got thinking in English  

I understand more Gringos than Latin people  when speaking in English and I'm a Latin man  

yep so thinking in English is what you get  when you understand like a native that's all  

it is you don't need to be a native to understand  like a native okay all right so again my install  

Frederick a few weeks ago uh you're a voice actor  in the app don't you why did you decide to start  

the create the app uh yes I began Frederick so  it's all my voice so if you actually enjoy my  

voice and you want to improve your pronunciation  with my voice uh that's what Frederick is uh but  

in the future I want to add like an American you  know female voice or uh like British pronunciation  

as well Australian English so that way you can  hear the difference between all these different  

sounds um so that will be in the future but that's  one of the things I'd like to do it'll probably  

make the app really big though so we might turn  it into a web app instead the reason I did it is  

because I wanted to show people that it's possible  to learn English all in English so I wanted to  

make like the name of my company is English anyone  and the reason it's English anyone is because it's  

for anyone to learn the language and so I wanted  to make one system that anybody around the world  

can use so you can take Frederick and I can give  it to somebody in China or Russia or Brazil or  

wherever and anybody can use it to learn English  and improve their vocabulary their pronunciation  

uh and yeah so it's one it's one system that you  can actually without using your native language  

actually teach yourself the language so it's the  world's first language Discovery system I call it  

and actually I was just showing Frederick over the  weekend so I went to the Japan what do they call  

it Japan uh language Japan Association of language  teachers the jult conference and so I was showing  

that to Frederick and everyone was like wow I've  never seen anything like this before because  

most people are just using one language to teach  another one all right almost any vocabulary app  

it's going to give you translations like here's  one thing and here's another but it's the nuances  

that help you become influence bigger all  right uh Samira is it good to improve English  

by communication skills by speaking in front  of the mirror no don't do that don't waste  

your time doing that if you've got five minutes  or 10 minutes or 15 minutes just get more input  

don't try to repeat things in front of a mirror  or whatever you don't need to do that your mind  

will automatically build your fluency just by  getting the input all right hopefully this is  

an exciting idea it was an exciting idea for me  when I discovered this and I said oh wow look at  

that I can become a fluent speaker without feeling  nervous about speaking because the goal is not for  

me to speak to get fluent it's to understand  to get fluent I know this is it's this is the  

opposite from what everybody tells you and the  only thing I can say like for you to believe me  

is just try it and so this is why I make a lot of  videos on YouTube which are just giving examples  

of this so helping you understand like a native  you notice I'm not using a different language  

to teach you English it's all in English  and giving you lots of different examples  

but even just me it's not really enough I want  to have uh people able to to understand things  

uh with like not just my voice but other voices  as well and so if you can learn that way you  

will become influent speaker very quickly without  uh trying to have a like a person speaking with  

you all the time so it doesn't matter where you  live or how old you are or if you have a native  

speaking friend or not all you need is the input  and that's what I give in fluent for life foreign

for life actually lets you go through and teach  yourself the language and get the input that you  

need to become a fluent speaker without needing  to go anywhere you can do it anytime you like  

and that's why it's the fastest way to learn  because you don't have to wait for anybody else  

whenever you want to learn that's going to give  you naturally very very varied review so you're  

not going to be bored you're going to learn like a  native understand like a native so you think like  

a native and then you speak like a native so  speech is the result of learning this way it's  

not trying to learn a word and then repeat it to  yourself in the mirror like science has already  

proven this doesn't work all right so the point is  to get more review if you've got 10 minutes a day  

just get the review all right just get the review  the more review you get the more confident you  

will feel as often people don't speak because they  they feel like uh okay I don't know the vocabulary  

well enough or my pronunciation isn't very good  my grammar isn't very good and it's because they  

don't get enough review that's why they uh  that's why they don't become good speakers  

my tutor always advised me to speak loudly but  I can't only when I speak English and also get  

nervous can you tell me how to overcome that  the reason people get nervous is because they  

don't feel confident about the vocabulary or  the grammar or the pronunciation so teachers  

will say all right like this is what  a typical English lesson is like this

you have uh like a lesson you're listening to so  like maybe the teacher will say something okay  

here's a word and now I want you to like repeat  after me repeat after me now you can do that but  

again as I've just explained it's much better to  do this than to do this so repeat after me and I  

like use a loud voice and say something but like  but I I don't feel confident about what I'm saying  

if you don't feel confident about what you're  saying then don't speak you don't have to  

speak it's not what's speaking is not what's  going to get you fluent it's understanding  

so I say like here's a word like bath repeat  the word bath and you hear and you're just kind  

of like maybe my pronunciation like the like the  Japanese uh pronunciation like like the th sound  

is not in Japanese and so Japanese people say like  it sounds like like bus a little bit bus so this  

sound is not in Japanese so a Japanese person it's  like okay I'm going to stand up in front of the  

class and try to pronounce boss like their their  mind is not actually processing that information  

because one teacher uh says something wow hello  from North Korea awesome hopefully everything is  

going okay please stop shooting missiles at Japan  please stop shooting missiles at Japan that's like  

in the news lately oh my goodness oh my goodness  is Kim Jong-il uh Kim Jong-un oh my goodness all  

right so remember if you get one example from  something of course it's going to be difficult  

but if instead you listen to 20 different  people say the word bath you'll be like ah  

I get it I get it you're hearing all these  different examples from people and you're hearing  

it in different ways it's the naturally varied  review all right so instead of spending your  

time trying to speak or speak louder or speak to  yourself in the bathroom or whatever like it's not  

building your fluency it's also not building your  network just repeating something again and again  

it's the input that gets you fluent and it's  the naturally varied review that keeps you  

interested in what you're learning so you can get  the review if you just repeat something again and  

again it gets very boring all right so this is why  I built fluent for life I wanted a system this is  

the same way I got fluent in Japanese so after  struggling for 15 years failing to learn Latin  

Spanish French and Japanese I finally became  fluent in Japanese when I just started doing  

this all right now it was trouble for me because  I had to teach myself how to do it so I would  

go to a cafe and just listen I would listen to  lots of different people ordering food at a cafe  

okay it's very simple so I sit down and listen I  can hear like a hundred people order some food at  

a cafe I pretend like I'm reading a book but I'm  just listening to other people and it's like oh  

yeah they use that expression and then oh that  person said it like a little bit differently  

how to pronounce dog dog it's like an ah ah  sound dog dog but some people in different parts  

of the United States pronounce it a little bit  differently in Frederick we put that so there's  

like there's the word Khan like the short vowel o  sound ah ah Khan and then dog a different sound ah  

ah but in Frederick it actually shows you how  to learn that so it teaches you these things  

in different so you would hear like dog and  Cog and other words like that that have the  

ah sound how to pronounce the the that's also  in Frederick anyone asking me questions about  

how to say something just get Frederick  it will tell you how to pronounce over 2  

000 words and sentences all right I'm  going to shut it down because again my  

battery is uh gonna run out on  us like very uh very very soon  

all right so should I focus only on uh listening  without speaking in front of the mirror yes so  

again uh it's not just about listening it's  about understanding and you might get that  

from touching something tasting something smelling  something listening to it watching it however you  

need to understand something and that's why we do  things in different ways in uh in fluent for life  

all right so from Burkina Faso this will be a last  question uh I would like to thank you for all you  

do for helping Learners uh improve their improve  the English level okay yeah it's my pleasure as  

again I struggle to learn languages I know what  it's like but once I discovered this I said I  

have to tell everybody this is amazing and more  people should know about this and if they do it  

then they can become fluent speakers Frederick is  an app I created it's the world's first language  

Discovery system for learning English so that  way you can actually develop your pronunciation  

all in English and the interesting thing is for  developing pronunciation is you're not trying  

to just hear uh like one person say something  you want to hear the differences between sounds  

and when you can do that when you can compare  the different sounds like we've got bit or bat  

or but when you can compare these and you can do  that without waiting for a teacher so teacher how  

do you say this how do you say that it's like  you can just the app will tell you exactly how  

to say it and you can compare these different  sounds bit bat but so if you'd like to have  

better pronunciation and understand natives more  clearly get Frederick so go to englishanyone.com  

and you can learn more about all of  these things I'm now about like five  

percent left in my battery so I'm going  to say goodbye for now but thank you very  

much for joining me it's been a pleasure  Patrick nice to see you in South Africa  

uh if you have any questions you can put them  in the comments later or send us a mail at info  

English anyone.com but if you'd like to learn more  about all the programs you can click on the link  

in this video it will teach you more about fluent  for life and you can learn more about Frederick  

as well on the channel have a fantastic day bye  bye and I will see you in the next video bye bye