These Books Get You Fluent In English

thank you

that picture took me a long time to draw because  I'm not the best artist well I am Drew Badger the  

founder of englishanyone.com back for another  video I am the English fluency guide and in  

this video I want to talk about reading which is  actually a fantastic way to improve your fluency  

and you can do this all by yourself so let's  see if chat is working first of all if you are  

able to see this let me know post something in  chat let me know where you are and we should be  

ready to roll let's see here I think all right so  hopefully this is working people should be coming  

in I want to get started this actually should not  be that long of a video all right shark is back  

nice to see you there good afternoon good evening  wherever you happen to be hopefully you guys are  

all enjoying your day or your evening or wherever  so as I mentioned we're going to be talking about  

reading and one of the things I often tell  students is that they really can become more  

fluent confident English speakers even if they  have no way or no one really to practice with  

so the practicing actually comes from getting lots  of input and so in this video I want to talk about  

how you can do this with reading a lot of people  ask me what books they should read or whatever so  

I want to talk about that and actually show some  examples I brought some with me Yes actually some  

some visual aids so I can show you what these look  like but the most important thing to understand  

is that there really are two different ways of  learning there is the way natives learn and then  

there is the way that most people learn really  any language so most people are learning a second  

language or what they what they call a second  language usually through their first language  

so they're trying to learn through translations  studying grammar rules that kind of thing but  

I want to show you some examples that are  really what I talk about often in lessons  

which is how to learn like a native speaker  and again you can do this by yourself so it  

looks like people are coming through if you  do have questions as we go through this uh  

let me know and I can answer any of those but if  it's anything about reading specifically save that  

for the end of the video because I want to go  through these and give a bunch of examples and  

I will need your help for those so hopefully  you will find this entertaining but just a  

quick hello for the people who are with us so far  nice to see everybody joining us we got a ding uh  

hello teacher I'm from Cambodia in Southeast  Asia yes uh jacinta nice to see you there I  

know from Sudan aren from uh uh June from China  look at that we've got people all over the place  

from Cuba and Watson from Haiti all right well  looks like that's enough people to get started  

should be an entertaining video all right  so before we talk about the native content  

I want to just give an example of the kind of  non-native stuff that people usually learn with  

I don't actually have an example of that because  you've probably seen this already but typically  

this is just an English textbook and usually  what you find in an English textbook you will  

have like some English vocabulary maybe it will  explain some grammar something like that and then  

it will often have translations in your native  language so I am in Japan and this is the typical  

thing you find you've got the Japanese text under  there explaining what everything means and it's  

really making it difficult for you to understand  so if you can get a translation of something you  

will think about translations when you speak and  this is why it's important not to learn this way  

if you want to become a fluent speaker if you just  want to pass tests it's okay just to learn a bunch  

of translations that you don't care about because  you just need to say that in information or write  

it down on a test but if you actually want to  communicate fluently the whole idea of fluency  

is that we're not thinking about what we want to  say and translating and hesitating and worrying if  

we're using the right word or something like that  all right so this is the example of an English  

textbook so again we've got often some very basic  things we're talking about vocabulary we're going  

to explain something very quickly and then usually  on the next page is a completely different lesson  

Okay so we've got one lesson here and then  often it's like on the next page you will find a  

completely different lesson so there's very little  review so people forget what they learn in this  

lesson they go to the next lesson and then they  forget that lesson okay if if you were familiar  

with this this is this is basically how everybody  learns any language and this is why so few people  

become fluent speakers the traditional way all  right so let's get right into the native content  

this might be surprising for people maybe they're  thinking I'm going to pull out some Shakespeare or  

something like that something very amazing but I  really want to show you how simple and easy this  

is and so I actually have some books for children  all right pretty amazing stuff over here so let's  

go through these uh so the first one this is an  example of something this is the first book I read  

to both of my children when they were just born  so they couldn't even understand or hear anything  

it's a book called Goodnight Moon uh this might  even be the second copy of it that we have and  

so we've got uh there's still tape on here because  we've read this so many times but I want to and I  

know people might think oh like children's books  like maybe that's all too simple or too easy or  

something but I do see so many people making  basic mistakes with English because they don't  

learn like natives they don't learn real English  and they don't get naturally varied reviews I want  

to show you how these examples of children's books  these are things that you can use and these are  

things actually I do the same thing when learning  Japanese so once I discovered I should be learning  

like a native one of the first things I did was  get books for Japanese kids because I wanted to  

understand the language the same way they were  learning so let me show you exactly what's  

happening with this now in a book like Goodnight  Moon if you have not seen this before one of the  

things you will find in children's books is lots  of naturally varied review this means they're  

going to take an idea and repeat that idea in  slightly different ways again and again and again  

okay so remember remember the textbook example  we've got one example of something maybe we teach  

some vocabulary or grammar that's what the lesson  is about and then that's it then you move on to  

the next lesson after that but this whole book  is about one idea the greeting of saying good  

night all right and so what we don't do in this  we don't do like a bunch of different examples  

about different greetings we're not focusing on  good morning or good afternoon we can see from  

the context in the book we've got stars in the  background here so out through the window here  

kids can look at this and they recognize what's  happening so without a parent even explaining to  

them look we've got a little like a rabbit child  getting into bed all right so we've got a child  

in bed we've got some stars out there and then we  know the book you know the children have probably  

heard that word many times good night Moon good  night Moon all right so we're going through just  

uh just introducing a few of the different  things and then usually parents are touching  

things or asking kids to find where they are so  in the great Green Room there was a telephone  

so this is like an old school telephone on old  telephone right there the telephone and a red  

balloon and a picture of so they're actually  two different pictures in here but this one  

a cow jumping over the moon now I'm not going to  read the whole book for you but the point is you  

can look through these different pages and you see  oh that's interesting we're looking at different  

parts in the room we're not going from different  rooms in the house we're just really focusing  

on one place okay so we're looking at all these  different things you're teaching some vocabulary  

here so we have we're saying good night and we're  talking about the different things in the room  

like we've got two little kittens and a pair  of mittens so here you're learning about pears  

like you might have a pair of socks or a pair of  mittens or a pair of kittens so two things that go  

together in that way and then we've got some other  things like a bowl full of mush it's kind of like  

oatmeal and a quiet old lady who was whispering  hush so we introduce all of these different  

characters and then we go back through it again  okay we go back through this again good night room  

good night room so you're just teaching kids to  say good night to all the different things in this  

room good night room good night red balloon good  night light good night kittens good night mittens  

good night clocks and good night socks so you  hear a little bit of that rhyme as well okay  

so this is just one example of this again the  point is not to take one thing like the word  

good night and then just repeat it again and  again and again we want to hear it in slightly  

different situations in slightly different ways  and this is a great book for introducing that so  

of course people can learn good night they also  learn good morning good afternoon but this is  

how they learn greetings so they're learning  this by understanding the situation and then  

practicing that in different ways even just  by hearing that so even without speaking you  

can improve just by reading even reading to  yourself so it's a very simple process go on  

to another slightly higher book yeah so mini  book but this is the barren stain Bears this  

is a cartoon actually I watched when I was a  little kid there's an interesting controversy  

about this a lot of people think it's Berenstein  bear so people think it's like Berenstein but it's  

actually Berenstain Bears but I want to show  you you just how simple this is and again it's  

the basic idea of taking a theme or an idea and  helping you understand something like a native  

so this means you were not trying to translate  there's no Japanese or Thai or anything else in  

this book it's just helping you understand  the words but also giving you the context  

so you can really understand things and then we  practice it again and again and again all right  

so let me give you some examples so very simple  book Big Bear small bear Big Bear small bear  

so this is a kind of level level one just for  reading practice it's a little bit different  

for actually teaching reading so like the level  of big bear or small bear these are different  

levels of difficulty for the words themselves  but kids actually know a lot of the vocabulary  

so even if they can't read it by themselves  this is the kind of thing they would practice  

with their parents so we have very simple look  at this big bear small bear and so this is the  

exact same thing I'm doing in the classroom if I'm  teaching young kids I'm just saying look Big Bear  

small bear and the Brain automatically recognizes  okay like what's the same and what's different  

about these so looks like that one's big and that  one's small and after we get a bunch of different  

examples with that we really get a good example or  a good understanding of what these things mean so  

we've got Big Bear over here small bear [Applause]  and now we're going to look at small hat Big Bear  

small bear big hat pretty easy right so big hat  or a small hat big bear and a small bear big hat  

or too small too big so when kids are learning  this they're not trying to think about what the  

grammatical terms for things are they're like wait  a minute is that what tense is that in they're  

not thinking about any of that at all they're just  looking at the situation and understanding oh that  

one is it's not just small or big it's too small  or too big so this one is well that's way too  

small can't fit on his head properly and this one  is way too big it's too big now they switch the  

hats and then the kids learn another expression  that just means like Ah that's perfect just right  

just right all right so this is another thing that  kids learn it's like oh that's perfect it's just  

a perfect fit all right I'll give you one more  example so they go again they're now they're going  

uh to get some swimsuits over here and the big  bear says one big one small so this is the kind of  

thing like kids are also learning like okay when  I'm ordering something at a restaurant I do that  

okay so when you're trying to get somebody's  attention all these little things that kids are  

Learning Without You Know parents even spending  any time doing that it's just seeing the context  

of this and in this situation what do people say  okay so if I go oh excuse me please uh one big one  

small so we need one big suit and one small suit  oh no you can imagine what's going to happen next  

and this is again the point of naturally varied  review the point is to learn the patterns of  

things and as kids see these again and again they  really feel confident using them because they know  

what's going to happen next all right they can  guess and that's why they feel more confident  

that's how you get naturally varied review rather  than just repetition where we're repeating the  

same the same thing over and over so here we  have small suit Big Bear and big suit small bear  

oh no and now they're learning some new vocabulary  too tight too loose so too tight too loose  

and then they learn that same vocabulary again  just right just right now just to give you one  

more bit of practice with this one this is a  little bit tricky for you one big one small so  

look at that he's pointing to his butt over here  the same thing with the little bear so they're  

pointing back here so they're talking about  the seats on the on a little boat over here  

so big bear small seat and small bear  big seat and so we can guess what's  

going to happen well too heavy  too light too heavy too light

just right just right all right so even if  you're reading this by yourself both most  

books like this they will have a particular  uh it could be a some language pattern like  

too big or too small or we're talking about  as I'm going to show in the next book I have  

um like an example phrase so these are all  language patterns that you review in slightly  

different ways but you understand them from the  context hopefully that this makes sense because  

this is the kind of thing where if you focus on  this you can actually look for specific books  

that have things where you might struggle with a  particular grammar point something like that all  

right we're going to look at one last example and  I'm going to ask for your help for this one in the  

comments so you can let me know if you understand  the context and what's happening here so the whole  

book is called I like it when I like it when  and it's really it's it's it's basically like a  

textbook for native speakers but you don't think  about it that way all right so I like it when  

it just means like during this time or when this  thing happens I like that thing so it looks like  

there's a little hug happening here on this one  so I like it when and then we're going to look at  

some different situations I like it when you hold  my hand I like it when you hold my hand so all  

these things were just practicing this particular  phrase here I like it when I like it when so I  

like it when you hold my hand I like it when  you hold my hand all right now for the next one  

oh this one's gonna be a little bit trickier  I'm gonna have to try to cover this up  

but let's just see I'm going to put my hand  over here what do you think is happening in  

this situation now this could actually be a lot  of different things I'm just covering up the I  

like it when part but Post in the comments what  do you think is happening here so I like it when  

I like it when you can actually just use this by  yourself in the same way that we might look at  

this now this again is going to be it's a little  bit vague it's called I like it when you help me  

good one I like it when you help me so the same  thing even though you might think it's a simple  

idea we could make the the expression really long  like I like it when you take time out of your day  

to help me do something so we could make an even  longer sentence but we're still using that basic  

pattern so I like it when you are tight yep  another good example Sarah very good so I like  

it when so this one is I like it when you let me  help okay so you offer help so in this one so like  

the the little baby penguin the young penguin  is trying to help and then mama says thank you  

so I like it when you let me help I like it when  you do housekeeping or something like that very  

good all right well here's the next one I like  it when so what's happening in this situation  

so kids are looking at this and remember even if  they don't understand all of the vocabulary the  

point is to understand what's happening and some  of these they might be a little bit vague some of  

them are a bit more clear obviously so I like it  when we cook that's a good one so I like it when  

we cook I like it when we what do you think so  again as you go through these different examples  

you can actually become more fluent and you feel  a lot more confident about using these so you can  

say I like it when you do something also or  I like it when she does something so I like  

it when or if I'm talking about maybe petting  my dog or something so my dog likes it when I  

scratch you know scratch his head or something so  my dog likes it when and so you're learning all of  

these different examples again this is naturally  varied review so I like it when we share food I  

like it when we eat all right so this one is  I like it when we eat new things so everyone  

had basically a good grasp of what's happening  in this situation so we've got surprise up here  

we're going to try something new I like it when  we eat new things I like it when we eat new things  

cool what about this one so I like it  when now what's happening in this one  

this might be a little bit these stories are  very simple yeah again the point is not to be  

complex the point is the system is to master all  these different language patterns and so this is  

how natives are learning the language the point is  not to read like The Hobbit or something like that  

and try to and try to understand the language  because it's going to be a long process you're not  

going to get very much review and it's going to  be again a much more frustrating thing especially  

if you don't understand the language so I like it  when you help us learn English well there you go  

excellent example shark again I like it when you  scare me this is I like it when we play peek-a-boo  

so if you don't know this this is when little kids  you know they cover their eyes and say peekaboo  

peekaboo this might be uh like in Japanese we  have the same thing as well it's like peekaboo  

we probably have something similar because  kids it's almost like you disappear when you  

cover their eyes peek-a-boo I will do maybe uh  let's see if I can find well here's another one

so another situation here I  like it when I like it when yep

so I like it when we play games so again it would  be we play games or I like it when we play a game  

very good I like it when you dance with me  so there are again different ways of saying  

this I like it when we dance I like it when you  dance with me I like it when we dance together  

okay so as you're seeing these different  examples of things ah you you really start  

to think about it more like a native remember  that young kids they're not spending their  

time speaking most of the time most of the time  they're just getting lots of input from their  

parents or teachers or TV shows or something  like that peekaboo is an enemy and Batman  

that doesn't surprise me all right we'll take  maybe uh take one more oh there's another good one  

I like it when wet what's happening in this one I  like it when I like it when listening to music yep  

I don't speak people I can  speak Spanish too [Laughter]  

I like it when what's happening in this one it's  the same thing I'm doing right now what I like it  

when you read for me that's right I like it when  you read I like it when we read we read together  

I like it when you read me stories all right but  we don't use book sentences and real speaking  

time for that will not work I know that I don't  understand that question remember uh each time  

you're learning this this is how kids are learning  all these different pieces of the language and  

they just start getting more complex ones over  time but what I see a lot of students especially  

in conversations or when they're writing there  are lots of basic mistakes that come from people  

not getting enough of this and this stuff  will get you fluent automatically if you read  

through it all right so I like it when we read  a book let's see what do what we'll do one more  

what's happening in this scene I like it when  what how would you describe this in English  

I like it when what all right remember there  are multiple ways to say things so you might  

not just say like oh I like it when I well I like  it when we hang out with friends I like it when I  

hang out with friends that's right I like it when  you hug me that's right I like it when you hug me  

I like it when you give me a hug very good Isaac  that's another way of saying it so again you  

notice like when parents are reading these uh like  often if I'm reading these to a very young child  

I will give lots of those different examples  I won't just read exactly what's on the page  

which is I like it when you hug me tight now this  is something people did not write in the comments  

but notice this is a thing that native speakers  will add to like when you're hugging someone so  

I like it when we cuddle that's another good one I  like it when you uplift me oh very good all right  

so like picking me up like uplifting me that that  actually can mean uh like to support someone to  

encourage them so I like when we hug but hug me  tight again this is a native thing that a lot of  

people would not learn if you're just learning the  translation of this word uh or this situation you  

might learn like hug all right so I like it when  you hug me tight like you really like squeeze me  

tight I like it when you hug me tight all right  see if we have any more well this is another good  

one that'll teach you some native vocabulary  I like it when we what I like it when we what  

so what's happening in this situation again kids  are looking at this they're seeing what happens  

okay there's a there's like a little baby penguin  in the bathtub and mom or dad is laughing about  

that so drawing Illustrated with gestures who  doesn't get it right yep take a bath take a shower  

so it could be take a shower we don't have  like the shower head over here but they're  

certainly in a bath so have a shower splash water  I don't know why but I can't use book sentences in  

conversations I mixed up everything I wanted to  see how to solve that problem okay I'm going to  

answer salima's question in just a moment this  will be the last one we cover from this book  

but I like it when we Splash about all right  so this is a phrasal verb an advanced phrasal  

verb that most Learners would not learn because  they don't learn this way they're learning more  

okay what does it mean they might learn Splash  which somebody did have but Splash about so it  

means we're kind of moving around in the water  playing in the water and splashing you could  

say also Splash around okay everybody getting  this Splash about or Splash around all right so  

just to add answer uh salima's point about like  not being able to understand book reading or not  

not using book quotes or or phrases from books  in conversations typically the problem is that  

people don't get enough review so if you try to  learn in the same kind of textbook way where where  

you just get like let's say this was an English  textbook so I like it when and then you learn I  

like it when and you don't review that at all then  of course the next time you try to use that in a  

conversation then you will probably forget that  but kids I mean my kids you can see this book is  

is fairly worn we have read this I don't know how  many times a hundred times more than that maybe  

look again at Goodnight Moon the first book we  started reading and this is maybe not even the  

actual first book this might be the second copy  or third copy of the book that we have and it's  

got tape on it so this is the kind of review I'm  talking about do your books have tape on them  

do your books have tape on them probably not and  that's because most people will try to learn like  

a larger book that's going to have them you're  going to read a really long story and you will  

learn you will follow the story especially if  you can understand what I'm saying right now but  

you will still have trouble using those things in  conversations because there's not a lot of review  

all right so Dennis I like it when you say hello  to Mexico yes to Mexico all right it's not talk  

taking it's not taking a bath in a sense of  the figure and another figure like in another  

sense yes so we could have again it's not it's  not perfectly clear and you could even write a  

different story or tell a different story those  are just the specific words that are on the page  

for that but you could make up your own thing  the point is to look at all of these different  

examples and how there's there's a general theme  uh so what's the best book to learn English  

so hopefully you just you got the the the point  of this the the best book to learn English is  

the best book for you which is which problem do  you need to solve and so when you think about  

particular things like let's say I wanted to learn  some I don't know Japanese grammar Point like a  

basic thing rather than trying to get a textbook  I would look for a book in the actual library or  

something that covers that and it's just giving  me lots of examples of that thing you know I can  

find that in YouTube videos or whatever but I'm  not trying to learn it uh in the textbook way  

I'd much rather get lots of different examples the  same way natives are learning the vocabulary okay  

so if you're if you're if you're learning a  book or phrase and you're not remembering that  

in conversations it means you haven't reviewed it  enough I talk about this in another video where  

I'm talking about getting to the uh like the  highest level for uh for moving through fluency

I'll introduce that very quickly but  I think uh I forget the name of that  

video but it's like if you can't if you  can't communicate fluently you're stuck  

here something like that you can search the  channel for it but basically you have like  

three different levels so the first level is  we're just getting exposure to the language

so if I expose you to the language it means  you're maybe listening to something on TV or  

the radio or you read it in a book and you  think ah okay I I kind of understand that  

or even if you don't really hear it very  well you're still being exposed to the  

language when you actually understand what  you're hearing you're moving to awareness

and this is where you actually feel I feel I  feel pretty strong about this vocabulary I'm  

I can recognize it this is where we have the level  of passive vocabulary so passive vocabulary rather  

than active vocabulary so if you have passive  vocabulary it just means you can understand  

something you recognize things but you might  not recall that or use it well in conversations  

yourself and that's where we get to the  highest level and this is what I call ownership

foreign so to get ownership of the language it  means you really have to spend a lot of time  

getting lots of naturally varied review and that's  what we do with books like this so these are just  

some level and you can kind of pick the various  levels and there are different skills you might  

try to improve with reading a book like this is  not really about fluency this is more about really  

trying to understand language patterns so a higher  level book that obviously you know it's like more  

more words on the page and we're really focusing  on fluency and trying to read very quickly so like  

as you teach young children to read you you would  begin with just helping them understand individual  

words and really making sure they understand  those sounds and then we start adding more  

words you get sentences and paragraphs and and  books things like that so if you want to move  

from exposure to awareness most people are stuck  here so most of the people who watch my videos  

and they still have not become fluent it's there  at the awareness level of of learning language  

so they understand the language they can  hear it but then they get frustrated when  

they can't recall those words and phrases in  their conversations and the only way to get  

from here to ownership and ownership meaning like  like the language feels like it's yours so I feel  

like Japanese is a first language for me because I  learn it as a first language rather than me trying  

to learn I don't know like Spanish or French which  feel like kind of second languages to me because I  

don't really understand them I can't recall words  and phrases very well I tried learning those the  

typical way and that's why I can't speak them  so I can recognize some vocabulary if people are  

speaking French or Spanish to me but I wouldn't  be able to have a conversation with people okay so  

again awareness really good for just understanding  movies or TVs TV shows that kind of thing but if  

you want to communicate then you need to get  more naturally varied review all right Waseem  

says you're absolutely right boss yes this is very  basic information but you can think about how this  

applies to your language learning Israel as well  remember native speakers like you probably did  

this same thing in your native language you're  learning with books for uh for native speakers  

and your parents were not using one language to  teach you another language so if I want to teach  

my daughter English and I'm giving her examples in  English I can't use Chinese to teach her English  

okay so I have to use English and then make it  understandable like oh okay there it looks like  

there's some food here that's pretty clear okay  we're trying to cook something oh and look at  

that we've got a spoon and a fork so it looks like  uh somebody should still be trying to improve uh  

like if they don't if they don't quite understand  that something like that it's like oh okay look  

at that you can you understand from the uh from  the situation we got food and we're talking about  

eating and so it's the the understanding of that  rather than trying to just tell you a definition  

or explain what something means okay and I'll  mention very quickly I think somebody just talked  

about somebody mentioned uh you should start  practicing your speaking skill yeah so a lot of  

people think that they need to practice speaking  in order to improve but really what happens when  

you practice speaking before you get to the  ownership level is you get into a conversation  

with people and then you just speak simply or  you can't really remember words and phrases very  

well uh or you say something and you're worried  about am I using the right word or not am I using  

the right pronunciation or not and all of those  things come because you don't have a strong enough  

understanding that the foundation of communication  is understanding so it's the understanding that  

gives you confidence that lets you speak I will  give again my little Iceberg example we have the  

water floating here when you see you're out on  a boat here's your little boat right here and  

you see an iceberg so this is a big block of ice  floating in the water and when you look at that  

you think oh wow that's not very big at all but  the actual the the whole iceberg is much larger  

and it's floating uh with most of the mass of it  most of the size of it are under under the water  

and so this is exactly the same thing for learning  to speak what you what you see here you see native  

speakers communicating speaking fluently without  having to think about words or translations  

anything like that and that's because they spent  all this time getting lots of naturally varied  

review lots of understanding things in context  and these books are just kind of like one small  

example of that okay so we have like like this  book like it's kind of like a piece of this puzzle  

all right so we have this book here is going to  teach me this and then I'm going to hear that same  

thing again in another book and maybe some related  vocabulary over here and even if you don't speak  

you're still getting all of this review and when  you feel very confident about saying something  

because you know it so well that's when you speak  okay so the big mistake people make is they're  

trying to go to the speaking part first they're  trying to say okay how do I practice speaking  

but remember uh a lot of people don't really  understand like how how speaking practice works  

so the the basic idea uh for studying something  like an instrument or trying to learn a sport is  

that you would take something like trying to play  the piano so my older daughter now is uh learning  

to play the piano and she takes one song and  just practices it again and again and again and  

it's again the repetition of something just simple  repetition because the song doesn't change but in  

real life in real communication it's a different  conversation every time so we can't just try to  

practice the same song I can't try to repeat a  phrase over and over again and then hopefully  

somebody uses that it doesn't work that way so  what you do is you actually get lots of review  

and you can do that all by yourself so the point  is to get lots of review get naturally varied  

review this is where again just like this we have  a basic theme and we're trying to learn something  

and hear it in many different ways so we're going  to hear I like it when we go to school I like it  

when we eat together I like it when we go camping  something like that and so as you hear all these  

we're learning all these different phrases but the  I like it when part is what we're focusing on and  

then you can take that in I like it when you do  something or she likes it when I do something okay  

hopefully that makes sense so the point is not to  try to repeat things and try to practice speaking  

it's just to get more input so if you don't  feel uh confident about something it's because  

you don't understand it well enough so right now I  can speak very confidently about fluency because I  

understand how the process works I'm fluent in two  different languages and so I can understand and  

speak confidently about that I could not speak  confidently about I don't know how to build a  

house or how to fix a car or something because  I just don't know much about that I could learn  

about that but if you notice uh if you are new  to the channel and you have not seen the how to  

make espresso video on this channel you'll see uh  making espresso so this is like a little you know  

cup of of coffee and pardon me I don't use the  terminology or the terms correctly but I didn't  

know anything about how to make espresso but after  watching four different people make espresso I  

feel much more confident about that I learned new  vocabulary I understood the different steps that  

are required to do that and that's how I feel much  more confident about that all right so the goal is  

to get lots of input to feel much more confident  about that and then the speech is the natural  

result of this okay so most people are doing this  backwards they're trying to put lots of pressure  

on themselves to speak okay I have to get out I  have to find lots of people to practice speaking  

uh and then I'm going to have trouble uh like I'm  going to make myself feel nervous and have a lot  

of pressure on myself and that's what's going to  stop me from communicating okay all right let's  

go back through these that was that was the  whole lesson hopefully people understand that  

I will hang around for a while let's see okay  we got some time uh and answer questions but  

hopefully this makes sense all right all right  let's see so okay I answered salima's question  

all right let's see so I like it when you take  a shower uh teacher I live in the moon you live  

inside the moon you live in inside the moon  like this so you're like on the inside of it  

inside or do you live on the moon like that  now this is another naturally varied review  

example of something where we're going to compare  different things so someone says I live in the  

moon I understand it's it's a joke but or maybe  they do actually that'd be pretty cool but I live  

in the moon I live in the moon and I say really  you live in the moon or do you live on the moon  

and then people get it like I I get the difference  now so the first step is is really understanding  

what's happening so the difference between these  and then obviously the Second Step the even more  

important step is the naturally varied review so  you continue to get lots of examples of something  

because if you just even understand something  you won't develop fluency in that remember the  

examples of going from awareness up to ownership  the only way to get that is by actually having a  

lot more examples of that thing so you really can  do this by yourself it's really easy you're just  

getting lots of input all right all right now if  you if you already did a comment don't post it  

again because I will go through uh go through lots  of examples uh as I go through these different  

ones all right so what did okay answer that one  so can we use video instead of a book does it work  

the same uh yes but it's actually it's actually  really helpful for you to do the active process  

of reading rather than the passive process of  watching a video so you should get lots of these  

things what we do in fluent for life is give you  both so actually you get Reading Writing listening  

speaking and even try to teach different things to  other people but that's how you get fluent you're  

getting the same information in slightly different  ways and that also means you might read the  

information or hear the information or write the  information see the information that kind of thing  

uh so Rommel says this could work with AI uh  yes so actually I've like thought about trying  

to turn this into kind of uh like a thing with  AI but the thing that people are missing with  

AI is that they're they're looking for like a  speaking partner when what they really should  

be looking for is like how they can get a lot more  review a lot faster and you don't need AI for that  

uh let's see spark spark fee spark feed two days  left for my certification exam what advice can  

you give and how should I spend the rest of my  time I don't know what certification for what  

I'm guessing English if you mean English uh look  at whatever the specific information required for  

that test is and just do that just just you just  have to cram for the test there isn't really much  

much better I can give you uh so Dan C tell me  the best way to learn phrasal verbs option one all  

phrasal verbs that I can think with the phrasal  verb go or option two all the phrases I can think  

with the preposition over ah so that's again  another good example of how we might have like  

something like a go so I actually show you how  to do this in the visual guide to phrasal verbs I  

recommend you actually do it with the verb rather  than the preposition I'll show you why right here  

but you might have so like go like go I don't  know go four go to or whatever or we could have  

different prepositions like like spill over um or  we could have I don't know fly over or whatever  

or something just some examples of things  like this uh you could really do both  

um it's a little bit easier number one to find  things based on a verb like this so if I look  

for like prepositions with go or prepositions  with something I mean phrasal verbs with that  

it would be a little bit easier to find those you  can find that like like phrasal verbs that have  

the preposition for or of or something in them  it's a little bit more complicated to search for  

but go is certainly easier and you will find lots  of lists for those and like this is actually how  

we organize it in our own program the visual guide  to phrasal verbs But whichever one of these you do  

it's not very important the most important thing  is that you understand it by the core meaning of  

the word so if you're going to learn it by go  or you're going to learn it by over either one  

of those would be okay but the important thing  is to understand the core verb and then really  

see how it works visually because that's what  phrasal verbs are based on and then learn the  

more figurative meanings of that if you look for  phrasal verbs on our Channel you will find more  

videos about that specifically uh so go through  go over excellent okay yeah glad that makes sense  

all right uh so your approach is great couldn't  agree more glad to hear it Tariq thank you very  

much Margo says is there another language that  you want to learn um you know they're actually  

like many languages I'd like to learn I like  to learn different kinds of languages though  

so maybe uh something like Arabic would  be interesting because it's a different  

a different written language and a different  spoken language as well so very different from  

English some may like Chinese might be good too  but that's it's like almost a little bit easier  

because I know a lot of the written language now  uh in Japanese and there's some overlap there  

uh let's see circuit says so getting enough  input would be enough to reach fluency yes  

that's what I'm saying getting enough input is  like this is 90 95 of what you should be doing  

you should be spending a lot of time listening  to people and understanding things that's how  

you get fluent so it's not about like trying to  repeat words and I made another video recently  

um and I think that's called like if you only  have 15 minutes a day to learn do this so if  

you only have 15 minutes a day to learn do this  and in that video I talk about spending time and  

what's a better use of your time so if you had to  choose between two things one of them is trying  

to find people and practice speaking and the other  is getting more input the input one is going to be  

much better for you only when you really feel  confident will you want to speak and you will  

until you reach that point probably not feel  uh very good about using things you will you  

will be in conversations but you will not feel  so confident about a lot of your vocabulary so  

usually what happens is you have a person that has  like a large passive vocabulary so they know many  

words but then they only use a very small amount  of them and this small amount is not surprisingly  

what you feel confident using so of course people  will feel confident about using this they will be  

able to understand the rest of this information  likely in a conversation but they will not feel  

confident about speaking so this is why a lot  of people know a lot but they don't really speak  

and they often if they do speak they're using  very simple sentences so they don't feel very  

confident again when you when you learn the native  way you really do spend a lot more time just  

getting understandable messages that's how you  get fluent all right uh I think uh let's see here

all right so it did what is it I can't read that  my eyes are getting worse over here so Adele Hello  

My Teacher hello teacher I'm a Brazil I learn  English alone today I'm learning Spanish alone  

in my own yeah I'm glad you're here it's possible  to do especially with all the information on the  

internet now it's very easy Gabriel I don't know  what is the best book to study for C1 test uh I  

don't know if you're if you're looking for a  specific English test I would look for just  

information about that I'm sure you can Google  that exact question it would tell you I focus  

on conversational fluency and if you learn the  way natives learn you will have much better test  

scores also but if you're just trying to improve  for a specific test then get whatever you need  

for that uh let's see and again all right same  question about the certification test a friend  

of mine said that Empower Cambridge works good  it works well it works well I don't know what  

that is but if that's if that's uh you know it  sounds empowering if it gives you power that  

must be a good thing then all right uh I gotta  answer that question does anyone can help me out  

here you can say can anyone help me out yes I  would have Google help you out with a question  

like that maybe instead of books you could try  with AI yep I mean I there there are some things  

AI can do like language is going to be the most  difficult one with AI because there are so many  

things that AI it's still even like AI translation  is it's getting better but it's still not very  

good but you really should just have lots of  native examples and those already exist you  

can find lots of them on YouTube this is what we  do in fluent for life you can find them anywhere  

so I live on earth yes so you live on Earth  you could live in the earth as well if you  

live like inside of it I think you already  have ready to everything and we'll handle it  

I don't know what that means all right I think we  got that question about phrasal verbs uh let's see  

gear man let's see question is there some book who  makes a good review upon anaphora and kind of form  

with examples of both phenomena I would Google  that I have no idea maybe I don't know say the  

planet's names like the planets names like Mercury  Venus Earth Mars like the name of the planets  

I'm not going to say that you say the plan today  Google that you guys are wasting my time let's see  

uh where are you living right now still in Japan  yes I'm in Japan I'm in Nagasaki Japan currently  

says but I've always read online that the only way  to reach proficiency is to practice the language  

yes so that's absolutely true but practicing  the language is different from what most people  

think it is so that's the big thing I will I  will leave it up to you though so if you and  

pardon me there's of course a uh a fire truck or  an ambulance or something as usual so if if your  

way is working for you and you are going out and  you are using the language and you are becoming a  

fluent speaker fantastic continue doing that most  people are going to struggle with that because  

they don't feel confident enough about what they  know so it's much better to feel confident about  

the language when you really feel like ah now  I got it then you will speak okay so you just  

do that for more things and as you continue to  feel better about the language you will speak  

fluently so the fluency develops and then it kind  of comes out so that the speaking is the result of  

your understanding and the understanding leads to  confidence okay so you can try to try to get out  

and speak and the practice the practice like  that kind of practice is repeating things or  

or listening to other people but research has  proven the same thing I talk about this when  

I'm explaining to people about fluent for life  so you can learn more about that by clicking on  

the link in the description below this video  but it talks about the exact same process  

uh uh I live on the moon okay  

all right let's see uh so yes you'll find lots of  people that say that but again if if it's working  

for you continue doing it but a lot of people  still try to speak but they don't feel more fluent  

and this is the reason why they just don't know  the language enough and I I don't people should  

be very excited about this I was excited when  I found this because I was like wow you mean I  

don't have to go out and embarrass myself and  and speak in front of people before I'm ready  

that sounds like a good way to learn to me but you  know to to each his own whatever you like this is  

what I recommend because it's worked for me and  my students all right so how can I speak English  

fast so the same answer to that question is the  same answer to every other question about this  

you have to know the language so well that you  use it without thinking and that's when you speak  

fluently that's when you speak quickly that's  when you can respond confidently and make jokes  

and all those kinds of things okay so if you want  to speak faster spend more time really getting to  

know the language I've used flow charts and they  help me a lot uh flux fluxo charts I don't know  

what that means for learning languages if that's  helpful yeah that's I guess another way to set up  

naturally varied review uh Thiago what books  with easy vocabulary can you recommend to us

boom same same stuff that you would go to a uh  like I like it when good night Moon Big Bear  

small bear so these are the kinds of things  you can just find either on Amazon if you're  

just looking for different examples or you go to a  local children's like the children's bookstore or  

area of a bookstore for kids so if you can't find  that where you live in person go online look up a  

book for kids like popular English children's  books and you can even look that up by age so  

Amazon will give you books for four-year-olds  books for five-year-olds that kind of thing  

and so look at that stuff and really look at  the books and think even if it sounds uh like  

a simple or easy book can you use that fluently  in a conversation if you can move on to another  

book but if you read something and you're like you  know what I don't really feel so confident using  

that maybe I should spend more time reviewing that  but remember the point is to get naturally varied  

review you don't want to just repeat something  again and again that's not really going to make  

you understand it better the reason get matte  naturally varied review is because you're getting  

to see it in many different contexts and that  makes the understanding of it easier for you okay  

so that's why we do that uh let's see all right  so uh Dan see are you the only one talking about  

this way of learning uh well I'm I might be the  only one who talks about it and actually has a  

system to help people do it so Stephen crashing is  a linguist among others who who knows about this  

and he discovered this like in the lab you know  actually testing different people I discovered  

it myself just failing to learn languages for  different or different languages for 15 years  

and so when I came to Japan and still struggled to  learn and I was very surprised because I thought I  

thought you get fluent by speaking I thought you  get fluent by by immersion you know being around  

people but really you have to get that language  very systematically if I put you in an ocean  

you're probably going to have trouble swimming  if you don't know how to swim so I should teach  

you how to swim first and then I put you in the  ocean so it makes you a lot more prepared for  

being able to swim so in the language learning  situation it's much easier if you get not just  

immersion but systematic immersion so I don't  want to just hear lots of the language that I  

don't understand if you put me in Germany today  like in some Parliament building or a government  

building and people are just speaking German  to each other I'm not going to learn German  

that way but I would learn German if I go to a  German kindergarten and I watch a teacher maybe  

a few days they're trying to explain something  and I learn it all in German that way okay

all right let's see here uh do we have here so  could you reckon okay I have to answer that one  

so who many who are definitively not fluent in  English are like sea level uh like level C3 yeah  

again I I don't even focus on the particular  like a1b2c all that it's just like can you  

in can you enjoy a conversation or not it's it's  really that simple for me all right can we become  

fluent without idioms and slang I'm very poor in  these selima asks yes remember that the fluency  

doesn't mean what you know okay there's there's  information remember that people can know a lot  

of words you can have some slang phrasal verbs  idioms you can have lots of vocabulary in here but  

not be fluent okay so you can still have a passive  vocabulary but not be fluent in that information  

fluency is how well you speak it's not what  you know I'll say that again fluency is how  

well you speak it's not what you know and remember  that young kids a lot of native English-speaking  

children they can speak better than many adults  even though those adults know more words so my  

daughters so my two-year-old or my four-year-old  and my eight-year-old daughter now so this is  

let's say the vocabulary of a of an adult English  learner and this is the vocabulary of my like  

eight-year-old or four-year-old or seven-year-old  they have a smaller vocabulary but they speak more  

fluently and the reason is because it's not that  they know like more words because they don't they  

know fewer words but they actually know that  vocabulary very well because they review it  

so much so it's not it's not even like that they  practice speaking something again and again they  

review that they hear it again and again from TV  shows and parents and school and friends that's  

how they learn the vocabulary so most of the  learning is not speaking most of the learning  

is not speaking okay if you think about yourself  during the day most of what you do during the day  

is not speaking you are like you know doing some  work or maybe listening to something or watching  

TV or whatever you're just getting lots of input  you're not speaking okay so speaking is a very  

small part of what you do even a professional  speaker so someone like me like I'll spend I  

don't know what is this like an hour or something  we've been talking for almost an hour but that's  

only you know how how many hours do I have in my  day most of my day is not speaking most of my day  

is is like reading things or writing things or or  listening to things watching things and I spend  

very little time speaking okay so you don't  need to spend a lot of time speaking in order  

to become a fluent speaker the whole point is to  understand the language really well all right uh

let's see here so can we okay I answer that  question so Mr Mark please use the learning  

please without using Google translate yes  if you can you should be learning things at  

a level that's understandable for you so do you  think listening is better to be fluent yes it's  

not about just listening it could be watching  or reading or writing something even the point  

is to get the same vocabulary natives they're  learning so you really need three things the  

first is native vocabulary the second is you  need to understand it like a native so this  

means you're not using translations or trying to  study grammar rules that kind of thing and then  

the third thing is you're getting lots of review  so you need that naturally varied review to give  

you many different examples of that thing so that  could be examples in different tenses examples  

about different situations examples from different  speakers but that's all naturally varied review  

the point is to simulate how a native is learning  but you can actually do this much faster than a  

learner or than a native speaker excuse me because  you can systematize how it how it works all right  

so you can get the specific information you want  rather than a child who a child really doesn't  

control their own learning environment they're  just getting information from from people and  

either you have a good teacher or you do not and  that's you know kids walking obviously like learn  

the language over time but you can become fluent  much faster even as a child learning the language  

if you have parents who can teach you well so my  kids are learning to speak Japanese and English  

and they don't even have much time to listen to a  lot of English they spend more time with Japanese  

during the day so I have to be very efficient  with how I teach them all right let's see here  

uh I dream of talking and going to the USA well  come on over is it normal that I can't understand  

almost anything in some English songs uh yes  that's depending on what the music is that's music  

can be quite difficult to understand so I I still  if I'm listening to some Japanese music I can't  

understand a lot of it it's it maybe is like a a  phrase I'm not used to or some slang or something  

or it's just not spoken very clearly so don't  feel bad about that uh often I will I will read  

the transcript or the song lyrics and think like  wow that's that's what they said but even even  

like native English speakers there's some songs  that people like they don't actually know what  

the words are and and you'll see videos online of  people asking like can you sing this song and they  

sing it incorrectly and these are native English  speakers all right so Maya when do you broadcast  

you give such information I'm excited and I  want to study immediately well uh usually I'm  

doing these these live videos I've been doing  them lately in Japan time so it's it's Monday  

morning in Japan uh so Mondays and Thursdays  usually but I don't have a schedule I enjoy my  

freedom and I might not be available sometimes  but I enjoy teaching and it's nice to see you  

all but if you'd like to get me like teaching you  actual stuff most of the things I cover in YouTube  

videos it's trying to help people understand how  fluency works and that they should stop learning  

the traditional way so stop learning English as a  second language and learn it as a first language  

the same way natives do but if you want the actual  lessons if you're like really excited to learn  

just click on the link in the description below  and get fluent for life just join that program

let's see here uh okay so how how are you my  teacher I love English to talk glad to hear well  

I can easily talk to anyone in English have long  conversations about any topic but when it comes  

to movies and songs I don't understand some things  any advice for improving that yep and that's just  

you just have to focus on the particular content  there's a lot of cultural information in movies  

and uh even even conversations but you learn that  by spending more time with it so again it's it's  

just a process of time but it's much faster if you  learn the native way rather than learning like a  

student uh Hi how are you says uh Elizabeth I'm  doing very well I'm confused grammar yes so again  

even even basic books like this will teach  grammar this is the same thing we do if you  

if you struggle with basic grammar get Frederick  so that's also in the description below this video  

uh it takes you through through basic grammar but  helps you understand it like a native all right  

so we're not teaching you a bunch of rules the  point is to learn the language the same way native  

natives do so the uh salimis is my son three years  old speaks good English so you'd say he speaks uh  

better better English than me speaks better  English than me I won't lie to you my English  

has gaps in speech uh there are phrases and words  that I forget to say yeah Mario don't feel bad  

about that there's nothing you know again if you  want to fill those gaps this is how you do it it's  

learning like a native I couldn't remember words  when reading yep so uh when if you if you have it  

usually means uh you're you're probably learning  or reading something that's at a higher level so I  

recommend people learn with things they give you  about 80 to 90 percent of the of the vocabulary  

in the book that you can understand so that way  new information it's easy to understand but that  

way you won't forget words so find something at  a good level for you and you will build fluency  

that way as well I too think speaking is the  strongest if you can speak it you can write it  

let's see maybe maybe we're losing losing  our connection we have to see here let's see

I don't know we'll see if anybody  posts on this but I might maybe  

um maybe I've lost the connection oh no but uh in  general if this can if this is still hearing me uh  

you want to make sure your you're understanding  things well enough to be able to speak but some  

people like you can develop speaking before you  learn to read and write like that's what I did in  

Japanese so I learned my learning to speak is much  better than uh learning to read and write so I'm I  

like have to go back and do that now uh let's  see so hi I love your videos my born language  

is Chinese I learn a lot from the videos glad  to hear it yeah so if you'd like to learn more  

if you're not already a member of fluent for life  this is where we really go into detail about all  

these different things we cover all the grammar  pronunciation listening to different native  

speakers and we basically teach you how to have  fluent conversations it's a pretty cool program  

so you can click on the link in the description  to learn more about that uh let's see again like  

these many books are great yeah and like it's  just it's it's just instead of thinking about  

it like oh that's for children and she's like  oh that's a book that focuses on just this one  

grammar point or whatever so get that and and you  can learn a lot about that just you know from from  

particular kids information even watching kids uh  YouTube or cartoons on TV about that will help you  

as well Muriel I thought muscle memory is a key  for fluency because oftentimes I can understand  

others speaking English perfectly but when I  want to speak or respond my words don't come out  

spontaneously uh Muriel I would imagine that that  has very little to do with muscle memory muscle  

memory is a is like a very tiny part of this this  like last step for communication most people can't  

remember what they want to say because they don't  know it well enough it's like trying to remember  

a password so if you if you hear the password one  time you will forget it but if I if I tell you the  

password like again and again you will remember  that password and so especially if you get it  

in many different ways I can give my like a quick  example for like how to learn an alien language I  

haven't given that in a while but if you'd like  to see that example it will help you understand  

what I'm talking about let me know if you want  to see that in the comments all right so uh how  

to get rid of let's see language hesitation would  you recommend giving us books recommendations uh  

Abdullah Roman says uh yeah so the the basic idea  here is that you just need more naturally varied  

review so if you're hesitating in conversations  it means you don't feel confident about what you  

know so you think you know what you have maybe a  passive level of vocabulary but you don't have an  

active uh really strong fluent understanding  of that so it's not about having one book in  

particular it's more about getting that from lots  of different lots of different people okay and it  

could be when I say people I mean books or movies  or TV shows or actual people you're listening to  

all right so I would try to focus on a particular  thing like me if I have a particular grammar point  

or something that I that I need trouble or that  I have trouble with I want to focus more on them  

all right and then comprehension obviously this  this improves over time as you get these things  

but you re the truth is you get fluent in  particular words and phrases as you know  

them better so you build fluency word by word  rather than in the language itself and the the  

fluency in a language improves as you get fluent  in particular words okay so if you're not fluent  

in any words so if you know a lot but you're  not fluent in any of this then you won't speak  

fluently but you will be fluent in maybe some  of this and you can use that fluently okay

uh let's see okay Ariel says how natives  understand could you give us an example on  

the last English or Japanese word you learn the  last Japanese word I learned um well something  

interesting I'll I can talk very quickly about  me learning Japanese and this is learning kanji  

and so like I learned just an interesting  example I probably won't even remember

so again the whole idea of naturally very review  is is you're really making uh connections with  

lots of different things and so you're what you're  trying to do here is build a network in your mind  

and the network it's like a spider web that  really becomes stronger because it has so many  

connections so even if you lose one connection  like you can't remember something you can easily  

switch to something else that you can remember all  right so this is the kind of spider web example  

and these are connected to other things and you  you develop a strong web of understanding that  

really helps you communicate fluently and this is  different so this is the native way of learning  

vocabulary rather than the uh the non-native  the traditional way what people are doing is  

they're taking a word in their language and  then trying to get a translation in English  

okay so they're beginning with a word in their  language and then trying to connect it with a  

word in English now if you look at the difference  between these two approaches so this one again if  

you forget something it's like your brain just  switches to something else and you will see this  

in conversations even with native speakers if  you watch carefully and really skilled speakers  

even just native English speakers they can easily  switch from one thing to something else so maybe  

they forget a word and you can see in like a  moment like they they forgot maybe one word  

or they couldn't think about that but they easily  switch to something else okay so this is the magic  

behind fluency is you're really just moving from  one thing in this web of understanding to another  

but with this one if you just try to learn a  translation if you lose this connection here  

you're screwed you can't remember what  that particular word is and you only  

have one example so now oh no what do I  do you're stuck in the conversation you  

forget words and vocabulary and now you can't  communicate so as I mentioned before uh like  

learning some new kanji that I'm learning now  uh see if I can if I if I can remember this

foreign

which is it's like school lunch and so when I'm  learning kanji like this like rather than trying  

to trying to translate something from one uh  language into another like okay let me like  

get a translation of this what I'm looking for  is different examples in Japanese and so another  

example that uses this same kanji is like Cujo  which is salary and so if I'm just getting a  

translation it's like oh look at that that's the  same it isn't that interesting it's the same it  

means like it's like a portion or a ration or  a bit a piece of something so this is the kanji  

for like for eating or for food and it's probably  the same thing in Chinese I would the the way you  

say it would be different the Chinese speakers  maybe if you know Japanese you can answer that  

but the basic idea here is we're getting this and  then I connect this kanji with a different one  

okay yeah yeah so I don't know do you have is  it the same the same word in Chinese or like  

do you do you have like something like this  so this is the Japanese for for school lunch  

but it would be different but also we have like  kyudo which is like salary okay so as I get this  

example it's the same idea of building this  web over here so when I'm learning something  

new I already know the words like I already know  kyushoku I've heard it many times but I see the  

kanji I learned the kanji for it like ah okay  that that's interesting so it's like a portion  

of food and I'm not really trying to translate  that I just understand it like a native speaker  

okay so as you get more examples you build the  network and then maybe this one it's like there  

might there might be like a shokuji or like  shokpong or I might have like other just other  

examples of words that I'm learning like it's the  same thing so that's interesting like we might  

have kind of food like kyushoku or like taberu  and there's different ways I can write that but  

the point is I'm building a network in Japanese  in my mind I'm not trying to make a like a connect  

I'm explaining it to you now in English because  maybe you don't know Japanese but the point is I'm  

making connections in my mind and the connections  are what enable me to use it fluently so remember  

as I just said it's important to understand that  even natives will forget vocabulary from time to  

time it happens it happens pretty frequently  often people will often or they will forget  

how to spell words so people people like want  to say a word and they can't remember how to  

spell it so they write a different word and this  is kind of a joke among native English speakers  

because spelling can be uh like a a tricky thing  for people but that's a common a common problem  

so don't feel bad it's not just Learners it's  not just you native speakers have this as well  

but the main difference is that you have  your it's the way of learning the language  

okay so speaking is a consequence of understanding  yes Julian that's it exactly okay so we don't  

begin with speech because if I if I can't say  something if I can't remember it well how would  

I be able to use that anyway it doesn't make any  sense so if I get into a conversation and like  

people are saying things to me and I don't know  what they're talking about I'm going to feel very  

embarrassed and frustrated about that but if I'm  well prepared for that conversation I know the  

vocabulary I feel very confident about it then of  course I will have lots of fun and the speaking  

will happen automatically okay so there's a  slight difference here at the the very edge  

uh where you're actually feeling more confident  about speaking where you still might have a little  

bit of shyness or something and that's where you  might have a muscle memory issue or you remember  

something but you don't pronounce it perfectly  like that's a very tiny part of learning the  

language you will feel much better if you get lots  more examples of something now another example of  

this for improving your pronunciation is is this  this same idea so if I want to learn uh how to  

how to pronounce something it's much better for me  to hear 10 different people pronounce that word so  

if I can hear that then I feel okay each of these  people is pronouncing it a little bit differently  

so there is a kind of correct pronunciation  but everyone sounds a little bit different  

okay so all these things are connected you should  stop learning the traditional way stop trying to  

make connections in your mind between your  native language and English and start making  

more Connections in English all right okay let me  see that was a long response okay let me see how  

much time we have okay we're still doing all right  got a little bit of uh a little bit of time left  

which accent is the hardest one in  the U.S I think New York Italian huh  

actually I don't know it it depends on  who the speaker is and where they're  

where they're coming from but there are  some some I like you could be in like the  

southern like Creole accent something like  that that could be even more difficult but  

it depends on on who you're speaking with  and some some accents are faster than others  

all right so how natives understand okay I  answered that question already all right so  

comprehension is more important than remembering  a signal words I don't know what that means when  

but but the basic idea is that you get fluent in  individual vocabulary as you understand it so you  

can remember one thing really well because you  understand it very well but something else you  

would not so you don't get fluent in the language  you get fluent in individual words and phrases as  

you understand them well all right uh so dribos  what kind of things should I focus on Japanese for  

books I'm completely beginner and Japanese teacher  I know that you know a lot of Japanese as well  

any recommendation I would start with these in  Japanese it's that simple so get lots of get lots  

of input watch Japanese for for kids and it can be  tricky because in Japanese like there are a lot of  

um like sound words it's called gyeongo which  is uh like sounds for sounds so sound names  

like onomatopoeia I guess um but it's like like  bang crash snap that kind of thing so those those  

things like like or like other things like that  in Japanese which can be a little bit tricky but  

usually in a in a book like this that's not for  like super simple beginners like a little bit  

higher so it's a little bit more clear but you're  looking for things like this and most books will  

naturally do this like a good book if you  look at the most popular books I'm pretty  

sure most of them it's just a lot of repetition  so it's naturally varied review we're going to  

take something and review it in many different  ways okay or we will take like there you will  

find series of books uh like another book that  I read to my kids is the Clifford books Clifford

so this is I don't know how if if this is even  around still but uh so this is Clifford Clifford  

Clifford the Big Red Dog there might even be  I think cartoons of that as well that I have  

not seen those um but the the books often have  the same kind of format and so you get used to  

that format you look you read the book it's  like okay here's a thing Clifford tries to  

help and he does something stupid or you know  but accidentally he's a lovable dog a giant  

red dog but it has these little adventures  and so if you read a bunch of those books  

you get used to that so another thing in  Japanese I've used the example before is  

doraimo which is a slightly higher level I don't  recommend that for beginners because there's a  

lot of kanji in it even though it does give the  hudigana which is how to read that but like the  

it's the same basic format for all of those  stories it's like here's like a problem we  

need to solve and then like they do something  and usually the main character a little boy  

and nobody he thinks he like has a good idea about  how to do something but then it doesn't work and  

so it's kind of uh an interesting story but you'll  see that again and again all right uh let's see

okay so now I get stuck because we get a bunch  more comments in here all right so I got the  

Japanese question all right so Abdullah Ramen  says thank you very much Fannie hi Drew thank  

you for these classes they are extremely helpful  what do you think is much better reading the book  

or listening to an audiobook uh Fannie I would  not choose between either those I would do both  

but the interesting thing is like an audio book  or a book The reason I'm showing these examples  

of stuff for little kids is because it gives  you something it's a small chunk a small piece  

of the language that you can review again and  again and it's much faster to review that if  

you have a hundred page or a 200 Page book you  are probably not going to read that again after  

you finish reading it so this is why a lot of  people like the the video I made about how to  

speak fluently about almost anything and that's  another popular video on my Channel right now  

um is talking about like people making the  mistake of learning a lot of information  

but they don't know it very well so it's you  have like a very wide passive vocabulary but  

it's very shallow so you don't you don't have  depth of ability to communicate so most people  

if you read a long book you just get the story  for that but it would be quite boring for you to  

go back and and repeat it so it's not very good  for naturally varied review because you wouldn't  

read a book like that many times but you could  watch a movie about it you could listen to the  

audiobook about it you could watch the you know  some like different things like the Lord of the  

Rings read the books then watch the movies then  listen to the audiobook then try to you know read  

some sections or look at some Comics or something  like that the point is to focus on information and  

it's much easier to focus when it's something  short like this that's why I recommend this  

so find something for your level even if you think  it's too easy but review it anyway uh Steve says  

should I practice the words which I think I really  understand well you I mean you don't have to like  

you don't have to say anything if you really  understand something and you remember it then  

move on to the next thing and then just use that  in conversations uh when when the conversation  

opportunity arises so if you're in a conversation  and it's like oh they're talking about this thing  

I know about that then you can talk about that but  if if there don't if if it's something you don't  

know much about spend more time listening even in  the conversation and you will hear and understand  

more so you learn a lot even in conversations  just by listening and understanding from the  

context so Julian I agree with you that nobody  can speak about what they don't understand the  

real problem with English is not speaking but  rather understanding what you're listening to  

yes and so that's exactly my point so like people  uh either either you don't understand the the  

vocabulary very well or you don't understand  what other people are saying to you but either  

it's the same it's really the same problem so I  like English Spanish Portuguese Italian languages  

that I understand playing GTA very good yeah so  speaking is the consequence of understanding so  

sometimes I can predict the meaning of some  words without looking them up on that because  

I've been reading a lot since I was in college  yeah so you will find language patterns that's  

your brain recognizing patterns that's the whole  point so that's why we read Big Bear small bear  

where it's like teaching us the patterns about  that like too big too small too loose too tight  

and then you also learn like the pieces of  words like prefixes and suffixes and they  

will help you understand things too so it's the  same thing for me learning Japanese so I will  

find some example of something and it's like oh  I don't actually don't know how to read that but  

I can understand what it says so it's kind of a  tricky interesting thing so the network idea is  

quite insightful yes so this is again your brain  your brain is it is like a network system so you  

should you should give it information like that  uh you wouldn't put up with me for a second yet  

so the first connection could be a connection  to a translation couldn't it be or would it be  

better for an absolute beginner build his fluency  fluency is English web from zero yes so you would  

do that all in English if you're absolute beginner  so anybody watching this who has children and you  

want to teach them English get them Frederick  just download that you can start that for free  

uh it's in the description below this video and it  will show you how to learn English all in English  

and that's not even like the highest level of  what we will do or the best example of that but we  

wanted to do that first to help people learn how  to read uh but yes you it's it's possible remember  

that when you teach your kids your native language  you're not using a different language to teach  

them that so if I am a native Spanish speaker I'm  not using French to teach Spanish to my child so  

again it's the same thing you would be learning  all things in English you wouldn't be trying  

to use a translation for that you want to start  that right from the beginning all right uh okay  

so it's the k Kim this is my first time of live  streaming from Korea welcome nice to see you I'm  

facing challenges when I study phrasal verbs how  should I master phrasal verbs get our visual guide  

to phrasal verbs you can find examples of this  on our YouTube channel so to go to our YouTube  

channel and just in the search you can type in  like phrasal verbs and we have examples from that  

like phrasal verbs with run is very a very good  example it shows you exactly how to learn those  

uh Julian again says is it true that online  messages claiming you can learn English in  

just three months are false advertising it seems  like they are very short amount of time to become  

proficient in a language I don't know what  the what the like specific claim is like what  

it means about like learn English in three months  or whatever actually what I claim and my claim is  

very specific for people who already know a lot  of English but can't speak so I tell people you  

can get fluent in or speak fluent English really  is the actual message to speak fluent English in  

the next 30 days or less because again you get  fluent in individual words and phrases the point  

is not to get fluent in the whole language that's  impossible in three months I don't care who you  

are and unless you're like a robot or something  and you can get all the information uh it's not  

even useful though because even native English  speakers we only use like like if you look at  

I don't know it's like 90 percent I forget the  exact number but a very small number maybe like 2  

percent so less than two percent of and  this is this looks even bigger than two  

percent unfortunately again I'm a bad I need to  make this like a better Circle over here so two  

percent is like very very tiny so two percent  of the vocabulary so this is all the vocabulary  

of the language which is like I don't know let's  just say uh 170 000 words in common usage in the  

English language but you only need two percent  of that to actually have communication okay so  

most Reading Writing all of that is is all done  with two percent and I think even uh the word the  

just by itself is seven percent of all printed  text seven percent like if you look at a page  

like seven percent of that is just the word  the isn't that interesting so there's a uh

there's a power curve of vocabulary so if we if we  were to draw like a chart of like all the words in  

the English language and how often they're used  it's it's going to be a power curve like this  

so you have a word like the up here and like other  very frequently used words and then most words are  

not used at all so if you're learning you can  become fluent if you learn the most commonly  

used stuff for the things you want to talk  about so what we do in fluent for life is we  

take you through the most commonly used things  for different situations so if you're trying  

to learn how to have a conversation about I don't  know like family or relationships or going to the  

doctor or playing sports or any other common  things like that in business or professional  

life or just everyday common common things you  can get fluent in the next 30 days about that  

so the process actually happens very quickly so  you could learn if you're learning to to know  

like a few words if you imagine like on day one  you would you would learn like I don't know 10  

new words or something like that and on day two  you would you would review some of that again  

and learn a few new things so you build vocabulary  fluency grammar pronunciation all of that just by  

going through this process so it's it's basically  helping you learn like a native but much faster  

so it's possible I don't know what most people  are doing for like getting fluent in in 30 or  

like three months or whatever it just depends on  and I don't know what they do but if they don't  

do this it's probably not going to help you speak  very well because you can learn a language quite  

quickly but you actually won't be a good speaker  if you learn it the traditional way and the reason  

is because how you learn is how you speak so if  you spend a lot of time learning the language  

through translations then you will translate  when you speak but if you learn like a native  

if you develop this little web this this network  of understanding in your mind that's how you get  

fluent all right Ariel greetings from Cuba I've  been following you for a time now glad to hear it  

uh let's see I grasped English for two  months I think but uh my English isn't  

much good as a native learning but what is  the meaning of learning a language is a key  

Point yeah so again just to be clear about  that you get fluent in individual words and  

phrases as you understand them better  so usually you you like you hear a word  

and like if you only hear it one time you will  forget that but if you hear it again and again  

and you hear it in a different context that's  what that's how you build fluency so you don't  

have to repeat that you don't have to say that  word again and again to remember it you need  

to hear it and see it and use it in different  ways like that that's what builds your fluency

foreign all right well I think we're getting  to the end of this here let's see how much time  

I have well I'm gonna have to leave in a little  bit your video and voice are not matching oh no  

that sounds like trouble uh I understand English  when listening but I'm still not fluent in  

speaking yeah it just means you don't have enough  review that's really the the answer to that  

I overestimate that or I estimate that you are  35 years old is that true that's interesting you  

think I'm 35. I'm 42 42 years old and what I said  here the English natives talk are hidden here I  

don't know what that means I bet and you bet I  can't tell them I'm not clear about them could  

you tell me the difference oh it just means like  I'm guessing so again this is where you you learn

native speakers are learning the language through  situations so just like we showed at the beginning  

of this video so if we have I like it when  so we're looking uh looking at this book like  

what's the situation happening here they've got a  radio or some music or something they're jumping  

around so it means they're maybe having a party or  dancing or something like that and so you can see  

ah like we we understand from the situation now  we can learn a couple of different ways to express  

this and so we might have uh like a particular  word or phrase and then we learn like I guess

like I guess your your name is something  or I guess you probably like skateboarding  

so if I look at you and you have a skateboarding  hat and you're holding a skateboard and like  

other things like that like I can I can guess  you're holding a skateboard okay but another  

way of saying the same thing is I bet so it's  like you're you know you're kind of gambling  

like I would pay money I would bet you probably  like skateboarding and just the short way to say  

it is I bet you like skateboarding okay I bet  all right does that make sense so we have one  

situation where we're where we're uh we really  understand the situation itself so we're talking  

about somebody and maybe we're we're guessing  about something but we can also just say I bet  

okay so this is how natives are learning the  language they will hear or experience this same  

situation again and again in their life and  then they will hear different natives saying  

different things but it's still describing the  same the same thing okay if that makes sense  

uh let's see all right what time is  it where you are now it's like 11  

20 a.m on Monday morning hello from Colombia  says Dave and I see you there I struggled in  

reading section in IELTS yeah it just means  you need more practice with it from Yokohama

uh what is the very best way to learn phrasal  verbs yeah people very interested in phrasal  

verbs yes click on the uh just go to our channel  search phrasal verbs and you will find uh more  

about that uh but yeah definitely watch our verb  our phrasal verbs with run video and that will  

show you how it works Naruto from konoha nice to  see everybody there is it good is it a good idea  

to learn English through jokes yeah sure if  you understand them it's interesting to watch  

like uh especially now that my my daughters are  a little bit older they're learning puns so a pun  

uh is usually like we call  this the lowest form of humor  

that's an interesting way to describe  it so a pun is like like night  

okay n-i-g-h-t and nitrogen so we will take  uh two words that sound the same but they  

have different meanings and make a joke about  that so as an example uh what animal give you

so this is the kind of joke that a child would  learn because they're they're learning different  

different uses of vocabulary for the same sound  so what animal [Music] is always ready to travel  

travel so that's your joke what animal is always  ready to travel and kind of like jokes we have  

riddles so this is a bit more of a riddle than  a joke but uh you can you will learn like the  

the kind of culture and other things at a higher  level with higher level jokes but these words are  

these these kinds of jokes are almost always  about vocabulary and learning different ways  

of of saying things so you might hear like one  word that has two different meanings or one word  

that it could be again the same sound when you  hear it but it's talking about two completely  

different things so what animal is always ready  to travel I forgive my my fast handwriting here  

I'm like a doctor a doctor so that's a joke  for you I write like a doctor so what animal  

is what animal is always ready to travel see  if anybody comes up with an answer for that  

Miguel says what about start reading even though  even don't know how to pronounce some words is  

important to pronounce pronunciation before you  start learning a language yes if you'd like to  

do that just get Frederick go down below this  video you can click on the link for Frederick  

it will tell you more about that but this is  the world's first program that actually takes  

you through the pronunciation of a language  step by step all right so Bird that's your  

answer why why is why is a bird an animal  that's always ready to travel various all  

right uh so dribbles I grasped English from the  English not with using my native language trust  

me guys our teacher has the best tips yes the  point is like you you will it sometimes it takes

I want to give this example because I know  I know a lot of people struggle with this  

so the the the traditional way that people learn  languages is like it's kind of like junk food so  

junk food means it's like oh I want to eat some  candy or some chips or something but then I feel  

bad afterwards or maybe I wish I didn't I wish  I had not eaten that uh and so that's kind of  

like learning through a translation so if I give  you a translation of something uh like here's the  

Japanese word and here's the English word over  here I get the translation it's the fastest way  

to get that translation okay the fast fastest  way to learn something is to get a translation  

unfortunately when I get into a conversation then  I'm trying to think about that translation again  

so the native way of doing this is we get one  example then another example another example  

another example and maybe on the first example  you don't quite understand something that's okay  

if you if you watch young kids listening to  teachers or parents a lot of them they don't  

understand everything that they're being told  a lot of them do not but they get after you get  

many many examples it might be like the third  or the fourth example when you're like I got it  

now I got it okay so I've given examples before  uh like if I draw something if I here's a here's  

a picture of something and I'm trying to teach  you a native uh like a native alien language and  

I don't want to use your language to do that so  I give you a flash card and I say this is like Ma  

ma what am I talking about now you might think  like oh that means flower or it could mean I don't  

know it could mean life it could be talking about  the color of that thing you don't really know so  

the next example maybe I give you like I don't  know a different I don't know looking looking  

thing like that and you're like oh like okay  now now maybe we're not talking about like just  

the leaves or or life or something interesting  like that I'm actually talking about you know

so if I say

then you probably mean I mean flower you  probably think okay so my job is to give  

you enough examples to really help you understand  something this is why in Frederick we actually do  

this so most programs it will give you a single  flash card or a single image for something but  

often especially for a more like difficult word  it's it makes it more hard to understand but it  

makes it harder to understand but in this  case it's like okay we see many examples  

so you get four different examples for all of  the vocabulary in the app so if we're teaching  

you something you're learning it the whole  point is to learn it in English you can just  

scroll through the different images of that  and it will help you understand that okay  

so that's how we do this the point is always  to be learning it in English all right shout  

out to you the camel so the camel has  a suitcase on him Turtles they animal  

as the elephant is always ready with its  trunk very good that's the answer all right  

Mary uh Mari knows the answer that is the  correct answer so that make sure everybody  

understands why this is so the joke is or the  riddle what animal is always ready to travel

the answer is the elephant all right for the  purposes of this joke so I'm going to draw I  

drew an elephant before I'll try to draw  it's it's pretty pretty good elephant oh  

that's kind of an elephant all right  so why why is an elephant why is an  

elephant always ready to travel this nose  the nose of the elephant is called a trunk

and a trunk is also the same word for like a box  that you you travel with a trunk all right so most  

people do not travel with these anymore so it's  an interesting kind of older thing you you will  

not see you know people taking a trunk like on  the airplane with them most people don't travel  

with that anymore but you know when when people  are on the Titanic or like a big steam boat you  

were traveling for a long time people would have  a trunk with all of their information in it okay  

so an elephant is always ready to travel  because he always has his trunk with him  

okay and so now you will like you will probably  not forget that example and it's because instead  

of just saying like oh this is a trunk you will  forget that that's just giving you a definition  

or even worse if I just give you a translation of  that all right but now you're like oh an elephant  

always has a trunk yes Birds could also like  travel or whatever but any any animal that can  

move can travel but an elephant only the elephant  has a trunk now remember another thing if we could  

make a joke about it here's a tree this is also  the trunk this is the trunk of the tree your body  

this is the trunk of your body okay it's the same  word but different meaning okay that's how you  

learn like a native pretty cool right so the point  is to help you understand like a native build your  

network in your mind this is what we do in fluent  for life all right all right now I'm gonna have to  

get out of here in just a moment so let's see if  we have any final questions but yes Mario does get  

the uh the candy I wish I had a prize you could  give you a prize over here but the prize is the  

knowledge itself very good and the good feeling  that you get from from having the answer all  

right let's see Congo America TV says you are one  of the best online teacher ver your explanations  

are very clear glad to hear it good morning  sir all right look at that 97 minutes almost  

got 100 minutes in here you guys making me lose my  voice let me get my delicious natural spring water

ah I always lose my voice if you if you go back  and watch the beginning of the video my voice is  

like nice and clear what is the meaning of Kudo  in the Japanese kudo Kudo I don't know what that  

means Kudo that might be a word kudo kudo where  did you hear that what is the context of that word

I don't know I can't read that is that  that looks like some Chinese though  

but we have something I mean we have  something similar if you want to have like um

I'm not going to write this I'm not going  to write I can't even write English well

take my time let's see here

actually I wanted to get to the point where I can  write sloppy Japanese so most people when they're  

trying to learn a language they they really try  to write it well you know they're like oh let me  

let me get every every stroke looking perfect  but when Japanese people actually write it's  

like you know some some very very hard to see  stuff but that's my goal this is my goal to get  

here and this is actually the same thing with  learning learning English you know people want  

to they they want to get here but you got to go  through this part first okay so spend your time  

get your naturally varied review learn like  a native and that's how you become a fluent  

speaker so if you're looking for books the best  book for you is the thing that's really going  

to help you understand uh like like a native  that's really the whole point that's that's  

my whole message if you learn English like a  native you will learn to speak like natives do  

it's that simple all right talk to him you  are not a Japanese teacher yes so yes I'm  

not a Japanese teacher all right uh so this  live show is so long you're very good it's  

going too long yes and I don't know if that's  not Chinese either there I mean there might be  

a word Kudo in Japanese but I've not I've not  heard that I don't know maybe maybe there is

oh I don't know that's too long for that anyway  that's interesting I don't know I'll let you to  

continue that conversation with Google or  look around on YouTube but that will do it  

for me I don't want to lose my voice anymore  but hopefully that makes sense hopefully you  

understand now if you're looking for specific  books that can help you that's the thing that  

can help you okay so don't try to read a  big novel you want something that's going  

to help you focus on particular things and let  you review that in different ways okay this  

is the same way you got fluent in your native  language and it is the same way you get fluent  

in English have a fantastic day if you'd like  to learn more especially about Frederick and  

fluent for life you can click on the links in the  description of this video that's how we do help  

people speak more fluently in the next 30 days  or less really we just apply all this to helping  

people learn particular vocabulary and grammar  pronunciation that kind of thing but that's how  

we help people get fluent have a fantastic day  again and I will see you in the next video bye