"I understand English lessons but NOT native English speakers..."

hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's

first and number one English Fluency

Guide and in this video I'd like to

answer a question that I receive a very

very commonly very frequently from

learners and hopefully I don't need a

really long lesson to explain this

because it's actually a very simple

thing but this is why can I understand

you so people are asking me or they're

talking to me about me or talking about

language learning language teachers in

general they say why can I understand

this lesson why can I understand the way

you speak but I can't understand native

speakers in everyday conversations or

music movies TV shows that kind of thing

so let me make this really clear the way

I'm speaking right now is different from

the way I communicate normally with

everyday native speakers and the reason

I'm communicating like this is because

it's easier to understand and I'm also

so I'm trying to speak clearly and might

you can hear my diction this is the wham

enunciate in words and saying them

clearly instead of mumbling - mumble as

I'm like you can't really understand

what I'm saying so I'm expressing all of

my words clearly but I'm also using

fairly kind of everyday language that

you might find in a textbook so you

notice I'm not using a lot of clever

idioms and slang and other expressions

like that because a lot of people don't

understand these and if you have all of

these things coming at the same time

that's what makes it really difficult

for most people to understand things

like movies and native speakers in

everyday situations the metaphor I like

to use is trying to drink from a fire

hose so if you go to a regular drinking

fountain it's a thin stream of water and

you can easily drink from that but if

you try to open up a fire hose in front

of you the same hose that you would use

to put out a fire on a house if you open

up a fire hose and try to drink from

that well it's coming at you and there's

way too much for you to understand it's

too fast the vocabulary is too difficult

and the accents are just really

difficult so you've got all these things

that are a part of conversational speech

and most people like maybe yourself are

learning languages not beginning in the

same way that a native speaker would but

on

completely different track of Education

and this is really beginning with easy

things to understand maybe slow English

simple English and typically it's taught

by people that are not native English

speakers so this happens all the time in

Japan if you go to a Japanese school you

might have a foreigner there that's able

to say things but typically it's a

Japanese teacher that really doesn't

have such great pronunciation anyway and

so they're trying to say things very

slowly and clearly but still they're

giving that bad pronunciation to the

students so this is and here's a great

expression for this this is called the

blind leading the blind I know it's kind

of a harsh thing to say but it just

means people that can't see where

they're going are also trying to direct

other people that also don't really know

where they're going

so people with bad pronunciation trying

to teach other people how to pronounce

things it's kind of a weird thing anyway

so you've got these two tracks if you

think about the way I'm helping my

daughter Aria learn she's getting access

to actual conversational speech but

we're also teaching her very you know

specific things about the language and

she's getting to see slowly but surely

over time we're making our speech faster

and faster for her so maybe a year ago

she's about two years old now but about

a year ago you know she's understanding

things and maybe she can like point at

something or understand what we're

talking about if we say where is the you

know like fish on the book and she can

point to it but now we can say where's

the fish and she understands what we're

saying because we've developed in her

that ability to understand that over

time so basically you have like a baby

like my daughter and you have a

non-native speaker they're both starting

at the same place neither one of them

knowing any English but they're learning

in two different tracks like that so

this track is the traditional way of

learning and this track is the native

way of learning the language and it's

really two different things now the

major problem here besides learning in

different ways is that you actually have

well it's just you're learning maybe the

best way to explain it is the way that

you speak or the way that you learn to

speak especially if you want to

communicate with people is

different than the way you learn to read

and write and it's the same thing

with the way you're listening so again

if you're listening to people and you're

only listening to that slow easy

textbook English that you would find in

a lesson or even the things that you're

seeing in a video like this I can help

you learn lots of vocabulary but really

it's hard for people to to go from this

to a conversation when people are

speaking in a different way so as an

example here's how I would speak maybe

normally when I'm talking with someone I

was just out visiting my younger sister

in San Francisco and they're kind of

different levels or different speeds

that you can speed grap when you're a

native speaker and people can still

understand you because they understand

the pieces of the words and the context

of the situation so as an example I

might say I'm going to go to the store

so my sister has a little store that's

maybe two blocks from her house and I

say hey I'm going to go to the store now

I could say that and she would maybe

look at me funny like why are you

speaking like that why are you sounding

kind of slow and like a robot and in

that case again I'm trying to make it

clear so you understand what I'm saying

but my sister doesn't need that because

she's already developed the ability to

develop the habit of understanding how I

speak normally and it's the same thing

for all native speakers now if I again

if I say I'm going to go to the store I

could say it a little bit faster and you

probably know the expression I'm gonna

go to the store I'm going to go to the

store but listen carefully as I get even

faster with it even shorter and smaller

with my language I'm gonna go to the

store I'm gonna go to the store I'm

gonna go I'm gonna go I'm gonna go I'm

not like you can't even understand what

I'm saying really unless you really know

unless you practice unless you've been

prepared for that kind of listening I'm

gonna go to the store I'm gonna go to

the store like I'm i'ma go to the store

this is like really I mean it's bad

English I mean it's something you

wouldn't write if you're writing a test

or an essay or something but casually

this is how we speak yeah I'm going to

go to the store I'm going to go to the

store I'm going to go to the store I'm

going to go to the store even like I bet

the like the subtitles the captioning

will be really messed up for this so

don't try to read it it won't help you

I'll put it up on the

screen anyway for you but i'ma go to the

store i'ma go to the store I'm gonna go

to the store it's like I'm gonna go I'm

gonna go to the store so even trying to

say it slowly it makes it a little bit

easier to hear but it's very different

from I'm going to go to the store so

when you're listening to things like

this you have to practice listening to

more conversational speech but really

the only thing you can do is transition

slowly and over time from this way of

understanding from the way of listening

to someone like this an English lesson

to listening to something that's an

actual conversation so being able to

understand all of these things and this

is exactly why in master English

conversation we have a series of steps

called the fluency bridge that takes you

from this level from this level of

understanding to okay first we're going

to learn some of the expressions we're

going to learn how you pronounce them

we're going to learn why people use them

and then finally you learn okay like

this is how they happen in real

conversations so in master English

conversation that's where I speak

normally I speak a little bit faster and

I'm using much more you know interesting

expressions and things like that but I

take people from this kind of textbook

level this english lesson level up to

that level but again the tricky thing is

you can't just jump up to that level you

have to go up in easy steps that's

really the only way I can think of it to

retrain your mind so that you can

actually speak fluently and confidently

and understand what people are saying so

for you now whether you join the program

or not whether you're actually learning

with me and something like mastering

this conversation or the fluency course

really what you should be doing is

taking small pieces of language that you

can understand

so going from maybe an English lesson to

a more native environment like even

children shows and watching those kinds

of things and then listening to that

first so you have to go back to what

native speakers are actually listening

to to develop your understanding this

takes a lot longer than doing something

like using the fluency bridge but if

you're just learning by yourself and

it's something you want to do for free

then it's easily something you could do

to improve so think about that again if

you want to improve if you want to go

from this level over here to this level

really to get higher you have to cross

what I

all the fluency gap and really the only

way to do that at a quick fast way or in

a quick fast way is to use something

like the fluency bridge or you're

learning all these different pieces and

then preparing to see them and hear them

when they're used in a real conversation

if you can't do that then again go back

to something like watching children

shows reading books that are going to

give you more something that a younger

child or even a teenager might use and

then work up from that so you have to go

back to where native speakers are and

try to improve the same way native

speakers are improving well that's it

for this lesson

I hope I've made it clear really it's

two different ways of learning the

language and the more you can learn like

native speakers the more you become able

to speak and understand what they're

saying so really it's the the best thing

you can do to improve and hope you

understand that I'm sure we'll get more

questions after this about how people

are understanding like natives but

really this is the most important one so

the reason that you can understand this

but not understand things like a TV show

or a movie or whatever is because of how

you learn you trained yourself to

understand slow basic things like this

and now it's really difficult if you try

to make that jump to movies TV shows and

conversations so you have to go back to

something more basic and work up it

takes a little bit longer but that's a

way to do it or you can use something

like the fluency bridge like we use in

master English conversation and the

fluency course well I hope you have

enjoyed this video and then it gives you

some food for thought so something to

think about and then it explains why and

kind of why you struggle to understand

but also what you can do about it so I

hope you have enjoyed the video do click

that like button if you have and I look

forward to seeing you in the next video

become the subscriber and also really if

you'd like to just learn more about how

to improve your listening in general

click on the button right here or

actually the link in this video and it

will take you to our English fluency

quiz and you can tell us that listening

is the thing you struggle most with and

will tell you exactly how to improve

that all for free so click on the link

in this video and I look forward to

seeing you in the quiz bye bye