"I can't speak English because I don't know enough words..."

hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's

first and number one English Fluency

Guide and in this video I want to talk

about a well a problem that a lot of

people have when they're trying to learn

and they think I can't get fluent or I

can't speak fluently I can't communicate

with people because I don't know enough

words so a lot of people struggle with

how do i express myself even if I don't

have a large vocabulary so there are

lots of may be specific problems about

that but I just want to talk about this

problem here first

about not knowing enough words I want to

keep this really a quick short video I

don't have much time to do it but

hopefully I make it a powerful video and

informative video for you

now there's really something important

to think about this first and this is

the difference between speaking fluently

and knowing a lot of words these are

actually two separate things and that's

the most important thing you should

remember from this video so it's not

like you need to know a bunch of words

and then you can speak fluently these

are actually two different things so I

could speak fluently with five words it

just means I can use them without

thinking and that's being able to speak

fluently within that vocabulary even if

it is really small but you could have

somebody like maybe you right now you're

watching this video and you know like

tons of words like a lot of people

actually I meet know way more Japanese

words than I do they've taken you know

tests and they've gotten to much higher

levels they can they know more Japanese

written characters they know more

vocabulary than I do but they're too

nervous about speaking so they don't

actually say anything so me on the other

hand I focus on the opposite which is

how can I actually develop fluency with

a smaller number of things so I focus on

that so you want to you want to really

develop fluency as a skill by itself so

that you can get more vocabulary words

and start to add that into your

vocabulary your active vocabulary and

this just means these are things that

you can use without thinking and that's

really what fluency is it's not about

knowing a lot of words because again

lots of people maybe can understand this

video but they actually can't speak so

you might know the word but being able

to use the words as a different story

so that first thing instead of worrying

about a vocab you

Larry first think about how can I use

the vocabulary I already have even a

limited vocabulary and use that fluently

and really the only way to do that is

just to practice and again it's about

taking things as I'm shown in a couple

of recent videos the way to practice

things and develop fluency is where you

take a word or phrase and begin kind of

playing with that language so as an

example I might say something like today

is hot where I could say today is really

hot where I could say yesterday was hot

or he thinks today is hot she thinks

today is hot all I'm doing I'm taking a

limited vocabulary of just a few words

and I'm changing them around to make

different sentences and it's actually

surprising how little vocabulary you

actually need people might know a huge

number of words but really the act of

vocabulary that people are using is

really quite limited maybe five ten

percent of their actual vocabulary their

use and you know their everyday life

think about how many words maybe if you

know like people in college although all

the words you learn for every subject

you don't use that most of the time when

you're just talking with people you talk

about the weather you talk about

relationships you talk about food you

know basic things like that and so you

don't need all that vocabulary so kind

of the first thing to do is even if you

don't know many words learn to use the

words that you do know fluently and then

just make some different sentences that

you can use and interchange those kinds

of things the last point I'll make about

this is that when I teach things like

like phrasal verbs like I do in our

visual guide to phrasal verbs what I'm

really showing you how to do is how to

play with the language and it's almost

like using Lego bricks or other things

like that where you're taking a few

pieces of something like a few simple

words and putting them together in

different ways in order to produce you

know new things and explain more

situations than you would if you had a

really large vocabulary so as an English

Learner if I were learning a language

really I would focus mostly on phrasal

verbs because this is exactly the same

way children learn like I'm teaching my

daughter I'm saying okay pick up or if I

want to say hey pick something out like

I'm Chum time

leaning to her okay we've got like pick

up and out but we can make you know

three different things from from you

know these three different words so I

could say you can you can choose some

clothing you can pick some some clothing

or you can pick out something like you

can pick out this thing or you can pick

up something pick something top so she's

learning that and thinking I okay like I

can develop a sense for maybe it's a

verb and then like an adverb or

something or an adjective or a noun or

something maybe I can combine these in

different ways in order to explain

different things and this is why

children they really start developing

their own fluency by making not

necessarily errors or whatever they're

not trying to do that but this is why

children often make mistakes within like

irregular verbs because they're saying I

go to the park instead of I went to the

park so they're using that same

knowledge of how it works and they're

trying that but when they discover I

okay it doesn't really work that way

that's when they think I okay they're

getting corrected by a parent so we say

it's not it's not you go to the park you

went to the park that kind of thing so

instead of worrying about having a large

vocabulary think about the words you

know and start practicing using these

mixing and matching these in different

ways and that's what's going to help you

build a huge vocabulary quickly but

first you need fluency so start using

these things and start practicing them

until you can use them automatically and

that's what's going to help you become a

much more confident fluent speaker well

that's it for this video well I'd like

just snuck in this video right before

time is up I'm in the studio right now

and had a whole bunch of things I needed

your record but anyway I hope you have

enjoyed this video if you have click

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if you'd like to learn more about

developing a large vocabulary and about

developing fluency click on the link in

this video to learn more by taking our

free fluency quiz you can take that and

tell us exactly what you're struggling

with whether it's maybe you don't know

enough words or you don't know how to

use them fluently or it could be some

other problem related to that but we

have solutions waiting for you and

they're absolutely free at English

anyone com so click on the link in this

video and I look forward to seeing you

in the next video

bye-bye