The True Test Of Fluency: Do you know English well enough to SPEAK?

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back for another live video I am Drew Badger  the founder of englishanyone.com and the English  

fluency guide welcome here again and today we're  going to talk about something uh actually pretty  

interesting hopefully you enjoy it this is the  really true test of fluency most of the people  

who follow my channel actually want to communicate  it's okay for some people if they just want to  

understand movies or things like that but if you  want to speak really we're going to be talking  

about that in this video so let me know in the  chat if you can hear me hopefully everything is  

working well and we will get right into it so  again as I mentioned in this video we're going  

to be talking about fluency as we always do but I  want to get more specific and the reason I want to  

talk about this is because over this past weekend  all right so we do have the chat working over this  

past weekend uh I was at a local park near my  house with my family I live in Nagasaki Japan  

and it's now election season so people are  it's an interesting thing in Japan people  

drive around in little cars and they have loud  speakers and they they're like they try to say  

hi and hello and please uh you know vote for me  or whatever so people are driving around uh and  

one of the politicians came out of their car so  it was a guy and he came out and started talking  

with us this was a few of us sitting uh or just  kind of playing with our kids at the park and  

so he he walked up and introduced himself and  he was speaking all in Japanese so I understood  

what he was saying but it was interesting  he didn't say anything to me in English and  

uh the reason I thought that was strange is  because after he talked about making our town  

kind of more International again he's talking  all in Japanese just talking to the different  

um you know the few of us that were in the park  but after he left he he gave us a brochure and  

we were reading that and the first thing I saw  listed about his accolades so these are like the  

important things or his Rewards or good points  or whatever was passing the highest level of  

the official Japanese test of English this is the  acan test and he also had pictures of himself on  

the back of the brochure showing that he lived  and studied in the United States for some time  

so I thought that was very interesting uh he  wanted to make or he said he wanted to make the  

place more International there were only a few of  us there maybe 12 people so some adults and some  

local kids as well but he didn't try speaking to  me at all in English and that was a big part of  

his you know like who he was or his personality  or his abilities or whatever and so I thought  

well that was a perfect opportunity uh to to show  who he was you know this this is his time to shine  

so time to shine someone's time to shine means  like just like the Sun so you have your time to  

shine so other people are watching you you can do  something amazing but he didn't speak any English  

at all so I thought that was very interesting  and I wanted to make this video really talking  

more about the difference between knowing a lot of  English and actually being able to speak okay I'll  

come back and check comments in a little bit uh  but what's I should do this next yeah nice to see  

you there hopefully I will come back and check  comments in a minute but I wanted to get right  

into this video we're already a few minutes in and  we're going to cover two things because really the  

most important thing to remember if you want to  become a fluent speaker is that fluency really  

measures how well you know the language it's  not how much you know okay so it's not how much  

grammar or how much vocabulary you know it's  how well you can use the vocabulary all right  

so we're going to cover two things in this video  the first one is going to be depth and then the  

second one is going to be Precision Precision so  often a lot of Stu a lot of students the kind of  

typical way people will learn the language uh they  will often begin with a we'll just call this a t  

here for translation in their native language uh  and then they learn that thing in English so often  

a Japanese learner will learn they begin with a  Japanese word and then do the English translation  

of that but then they can't actually use that  information in a conversation so what we want  

to do is have you understand everything all in  English and really develop a long and deep depth  

you know the really deep understanding of the  language rather than a very shallow understanding  

which is just maybe having a translation or a  definition of the word so I'll come back and again  

in checking comments and things in a minute but  the first thing let's talk about is depth depth

so depth meaning how deep how how  strong is your understanding so  

rather than having if we imagine like  a pool of water here uh the depth  

going from the the surface of the water down here  so if you only know maybe one meaning of a word  

or you can't really use it you can't remember it  you can't recall it in conversations you have a  

very shallow understanding of the word but fluid  speakers have a very deep understanding of the  

word and that's how they're able to communicate so  well so they remember things well they use them in  

interesting ways and especially words that might  seem like they're very basic so I wanted to give  

one example of this when we're talking about depth  and we're going to use the word coat for that

so again I'll try it I know I get to talking  and I start talking a lot so I'll try to keep  

it short here uh but we'll look at just again uh  whoops spell this correctly c o a t now if you ask  

a child even a native English-speaking child what  is a coat what is a coat they would probably tell  

you or probably describe you know something like  this we got like a long sleeve thing uh often like  

the coat will go down kind of below the waist  so a jacket might be something like a lighter

a jacket might be for spring or for fall  weather but a coat is maybe something  

thicker for winter okay so this is a very  beginning basic understanding of the word coat  

camera is blurry it shouldn't be blurry it should  be okay let me know if anybody's having having  

issues with the camera it looks fine to me I  don't know maybe if you're shaking your camera  

or something but my camera is stationary let  me know if uh let me know in the chat if it's  

not coming through if you're not getting sound  correctly or video correctly it looks fine to me  

though so anyway if you look at the beginning if  you're trying to learn the word coat you will just  

again maybe see something like that again there  might be different kinds of coats but again we we  

want to go deeper than this because as even young  children as they learn more English and they spend  

more time with the language they develop but  deeper understanding of it so we can go from a  

beginning to a more uh kind of a deeper or I guess  a more uh well I guess deeper is just the best way  

to describe it but a deeper understanding of coat  it's the same word but we can talk about the coat  

on like like this like I have like a coat of fur a  coat of hair all over my well not actually not all  

over my body but really on my arms my arms are  people people in Japan actually sometimes they  

touch my arms they're very curious about wow like  look at all that hair I have a coat like a coat

of hair or you can talk about  an animal having a coat of fur  

the same idea but notice as we move from from  here to here again when children talk about a  

coat they think about like the definition of the  word ah okay we mean a jacket your mom says hey  

put your coat on or put on your coat so put  your coat on or put on your coat if you're  

going outside and kids understand they connect  this word with this thing but as they learn more  

they're deepening their understanding of the  word and so ah they learn coat it doesn't just  

mean this physical thing it's really talking about  covering something in a in like a strong way okay  

so yes so again edson's got the idea so a coat  is kind of like a skin it's like a covering of  

something so I have a like a coat of skin on me  in the same way we might have a coat of paint  

or we could have a coat of gold  we can also talk about a coating

a coating of something all right listen carefully  to how this Blends here we got Co and this is a  

an American English pronunciation coding coding  it sounds like the word coding like I'm coding a  

a program on a computer but it's the same idea  coat becomes coding coding all right so if I'm  

coding something it means I'm covering it in the  same way that I would coat my body with a coat  

okay all right does that make sense so as we  move from a basic understanding of something  

usually we begin with just connecting  one word with one idea or one thing  

and so a child again we have a word like  coat and they would hear this many times  

so ah put on your coat put your coat on it's cold  outside you should wear a coat okay and so as we  

hear more examples the child's understanding  deepens and they understand ah we don't just  

mean like a physical a physical kind of clothing  we're talking about covering yourself and covering  

yourself pretty well okay and so we can even take  this to a higher level an even deeper level where  

we talk about maybe sugar coating something so  if you imagine uh like some medicine or a pill  

we'll draw our little pill right here or you  might have a uh try to draw this so these are  

like a tablet or a pill some medicine that you  might take often the medicine might not taste  

very good maybe it has some kind of flavor on it  so the pill will be sugar coated sugar so sugar

coated

so you can have a sugar coated pill and  in this way we often talk about not sugar  

coating something so you can also sugar coat to  sugarcoat the truth so some people as an example  

maybe I I want to tell someone you know I I don't  really like their I don't know their fashion or  

something like that so someone says hey do you  like my jacket and I say oh yeah it's pretty  

nice you know I'm kind of sugar coating sugar  coating my words a little bit all right so I'm  

not giving them like the real truth I'm putting  putting a little bit of sugar around my words  

okay so this is just one example of how we can  take something basic like this like coat bring  

it to a deeper understanding and then even deeper  understanding as we use more words and expressions  

okay hopefully that makes sense so this  is just one way that we're covering

fluency by depth so you can tell really how  fluent You Are by how much depth you have and  

how much use you have with your vocabulary so if  you only know this very surface level one where  

you know maybe the yeah so a cake has a chocolate  coating excellent example same thing all right so  

again we're covering something like that there's  a coating of snow there's a coating of chocolate  

there's a coating of of fruit or whatever  something like that but again we're deepening our  

understanding and and as you learn these things  so code is just one example I wanted to share uh  

but as you learn these things you will feel your  fluency developing automatically you will actually  

feel that your brain will be like ah so you can  also use it that way isn't that interesting okay  

so this is talking about depth and now I'll  give one more example where we're talking about  

Precision Precision means how accurate you are  when you speak so if you want to describe maybe  

your feelings or how how you like something or  don't like something we'll talk about that in just  

a moment but let me go back and look at comments  looks like we got a bunch of comments over here  

I'll try not to get uh stuck on these too long but  let's see all right so people can hear me loud and  

clear nice to see everybody it's a pleasure  watching you nice and clear from Korea good  

to see you there looks like we got people from  all over the place from Japan we got no no no no  

yes I'm happy to see actually more people from  Japan uh watching my videos I have like one of  

the top 300 channels in Japan on YouTube  and and almost no Japanese people watch me  

so it's nice people like people don't think  I'm famous out here I can just like walk around  

uh we are all your fans mate glad to hear it  uh nice to see you here got some flowers what's  

the difference between can tail and I don't know  what that means ask me again and read realize is  

that what you mean can tell and realize ah  you mean like you notice something you see  

something uh Ralphie you're asking like what's  the difference between I realize something and  

I can tell yeah that would basically be the same  thing and again uh I often in this same idea I  

don't want to give just like a surface answer for  something because often there will be words where  

sometimes the meaning is the same sometimes the  meaning is different so it's better to just get  

lots of examples just like I'm doing here so as  I give you more examples you naturally develop a  

much better understanding a stronger and deeper  understanding of the language and that's what  

makes you feel much more confident so you could  say in a situation I can tell like I notice  

something usually I I'd like I see something like  I can tell I can tell it's it's raining because I  

look outside so usually realize is a is it maybe  a stronger deeper kind of word where you where  

you kind of discover something so even if you if  you don't see it usually usually tell something  

is uh it's more about visual understanding but not  always all right but again this is why we get lots  

of examples of things and I don't want to spend  too much time in one video going through a whole  

bunch of different examples for one example uh all  right so everything it looks like we got people  

coming in Kazakhstan Peru Japan astina says what  time is it in Japan it is what time is it 10 30 10  

30 A.M all right at last I can get to your stream  thank you for helping us to learn English yes it's  

my pleasure all right making sure I don't like  skip all of these over here uh uh let's see okay  

here we go Fernando says hello hello worlds as I  am sleepy from Brazil hey in an interview I think  

I said very bad the concept of focus and after  that I and after I think I said focus and laughing  

I guess that means uh can you give me a tip for  good pronunciation of focus focus focus focus  

focus if you want pronunciation specifically me  giving you pronunciation of over 2 000 words get  

Frederick you can find the link in the description  for that below this video all right nice to see  

you uh you are shining glad to hear it all  right we got Muhammad great over here all right

let's see here

all right hi teacher uh is this stream will be  uploaded as a video yes I share all these streams  

all right good greetings from Latin America so  this is at least I get okay so I read that one  

already all right hello from Peru okay everybody's  looking good I'm like going back in time as I read  

through these comments over here yes so fur yes  so some people actually Japanese people like wow  

they're like look at all that all that uh fur you  have over here pardon me is we have a an ambulance  

coming through all right we got  everybody talking about their different  

uh uh let's see so Lewis says I do not find the  cash symbols to send you a present for all that  

I've learned from your classes oh it's my pleasure  to help people learn but if you would like to  

send some actual cash you can certainly join our  programs or recommend other people do all right  

let's see hi Drew and everybody from Brazil it's  a long time no see I got lots of hands up Olivia  

is a wonderful country I strongly recommend you  visit it all right and this is another thing like  

uh my wife will will make this mistake in English  sometimes like I strongly recommend you to do  

something we just say I strongly recommend you do  something so I recommend you visit I recommend you  

go I recommend you listen you don't have to put  the two in there all right please talk about your  

courses uh what would you specifically like to  know I can mention more about those if people like  

um all right I love your pronunciation so clear  and easy to understand yes and again if you'd  

like to learn how to pronounce words the same  way I do you should get Frederick you can find  

that in the link below all right uh Suresh where  were you and I were waiting for you so much happy  

to see you again I have a question for you can  you please tell me uh what I can do for speaking  

well this video is all about speaking just like  all of my videos are really about speaking and  

this is one example of getting more depth most  people do not have very much depth and this is  

why they have trouble communicating so they  think they know something but they just have  

a very surface level of it and you don't really  make that connection uh like if if I say like  

don't sugarcoat that and people might think wait  a minute I thought cope meant like a thing you  

wear on your on your body like that but only  as you get more and more examples do you really  

develop a strong understanding of what the word  means uh yes so there will be a recording of this  

because I feel I can understand speaker pretty  well but I can't speak yes so the main reason  

that most people understand but can't speak is  they don't have a very good depth of knowledge  

of English so they think they know something but  really they don't and so that's the point of this  

video so the true test just like that politician  that came up to me and my family he said in his  

little brochure that he can speak English that  he knows English that he has actually a like a  

certification for an English test at the highest  level but he didn't even say hello in English so I  

thought it was just like a wasted opportunity that  was his time to use his English but he did not so  

either he he was just feeling very shy or whatever  but that would have been a good time to speak  

all right hello Professor studying English for  one year improved my listening from Brazil glad  

to hear Ann says can you please give me uh an  advice and again for the word advice we can just  

say please give me advice so advice is uncountable  if you want to talk about one thing we would say  

a piece of advice give me a piece of advice about  this but it's much faster to just say give me some  

advice about this about how I can speak fluency  or how I can develop my conversation so that's  

exactly what this is this is one part of that  so in this video we're talking about depth and  

we're talking about Precision which I'll cover in  just a moment uh do you know that you are amazing  

well I'm happy to hear that I was glad to hear uh  let's see good morning thanks for your response I  

love you what Tokyo Sky Tree wow there's someone  has a name either maybe is that the actual Tokyo  

Skytree following me that would be pretty cool  well I love you too glad to hear it hello from  

New York first time let's see took us guide you  every day I listen to your live lessons over and  

over make sure the right way of learning English  and then listen to your lovely Wonder americ uh  

wonderful American English yeah I'm glad to hear  it are you from are you from Tokyo or are you or  

in Japan at all or just you just like Tokyo Sky  Tree hello from Argentina uh Eritrea recommended  

uh you visit yes so I recommend you visit yeah uh  hello everyone and hello teacher how are you doing  

I'm doing well hello first time to join your class  glad to hear it talking to myself can improve my  

fluency uh tadeo I it can but it's much better  if you can spend more time getting input just  

like I'm doing here so if you get 30 30 minutes  of just learning like lots of different uses  

of coat you will actually build more fluency for  talking about anything you like because you will  

know at least this word fluently and so instead  of trying to repeat things to yourself it's much  

better to just get more input all right that's  really like the fastest way to build fluency  

all right I think we're getting to the bottom  of these over here hello everyone all right  

so nice to see you all right got that all right I  would like to join your course well you can click  

on the link in the description to learn more  about fluent for life if you would I do like  

your channel and I recommend to your student glad  to hear it Wilson thank you very much all right  

what's it what do you mean by depth so depth  is like again how deep you go so if you jump  

into a pool you could be at the top of the water  that's called the surface or you could go deeper  

and deeper that's the depth so your depth of  understanding that's another again another  

good example of like the depth between something  physical and also the depth of your knowledge so  

you can talk about how much you know and how  well you know that information okay so Tokyo  

Sky Tree is Japanese I love you speaking  proficient I understand Japanese as well

I'm Japanese and I love you speaking proficient  outstanding Japanese as well I gotta I gotta  

improve my my understanding of Japanese as well  and also so I have two children now uh a uh

so she got my older daughter just started  second year of elementary school and my  

younger daughter is a second year in kindergarten  and they're Japanese is like already better than  

mine so I have to keep practicing to  make sure make sure they don't beat me  

all right uh Ahmed says uh what is the best way  to increase vocabulary so remember this is the  

exact point I'm making right here in this video  the idea is not to learn more vocabulary it's to  

really understand this vocabulary well so as you  see even with one word we have lots of different  

meanings of it that are related and this is even  it's just one example of a word where these are  

slightly related meanings that really help you  understand the word but many words actually have  

completely different meanings and each one of  those things you can you can learn more about  

so the goal is not to know more it's to know  better to know uh deeper about the language  

all right let's see uh hello from Poland uh  tedious if I'm pronouncing that correctly  

uh Kent Clark how do native speakers think  of grammar and form sentences quickly when  

speaking well the secret is Kent that they're  not thinking about grammar at all if you ask a  

a native English speaker especially a speaker  who is not an English teacher if you say hey can  

you give me an example of the past perfect or  the present you know whatever present even the  

present simple if you just like find a random  person on the street I should do a video like  

that just asking uh random people hey what's an  example of the present perfect and most people  

would not be able to tell you what that is so  they're not telling you about grammar rules  

and they don't know the names of grammar rules  and they can't give you an example of a grammar  

rule most people but the interesting thing is  if you ask people like what something means  

the first thing they're going to think of is  when would I use that when would I use that so  

if I ask someone like hey what's a coat usually  they would just describe oh like you know a big  

thick jacket that you wear in the winter time  so they're going to talk about when you use  

something or when you hear something and the same  thing with adjectives or grammar for like verbs  

or whatever but they're looking for when you use  something so natives aren't thinking first about  

the grammar they're thinking about the vocabulary  and what situations they learn that in so remember  

what often uh like the kind of English as a second  language approach this is where you take something  

in your native language so I'll just use Japanese  as an example uh we're going to translate  

something we've got a t here for translate into  the English word over here so I'm going from  

Japanese into English and I don't have any depth  of understanding I'm really just trying to connect  

a word in Japanese with a word in English and this  is what most people are doing it doesn't matter if  

it's German French Italian whatever Taiwanese or  something uh whatever the the language is people  

are just trying to make a connection between two  different languages but I just showed you with  

the the depth example that we're trying to do  so this is the the English as a second language  

approach so what I do the English as a first  language and this is what native speakers are  

doing so the English as a first language approach  is where we're taking something like a situation  

so like the situation might be a physical like  of the physical coat and then we connect that  

with the vocabulary so it's all done in English  all right and then we're getting the depth we're  

getting like way more uh deeper understanding of  that here so this is why people are able to speak  

they're able to understand things because they're  just making lots of connections and they're using  

that as a way to build fluency and the great  news is that you can do the same thing so as  

we just proved with the coat example that's all  we're doing in this video so we're looking at not  

trying to translate a word in you know uh Spanish  to English we're looking at what is the thing and  

then what is the vocabulary for describing  that so it could be a physical object like  

this is a marker or we could be talking about a  situation you know like uh like even voting in an  

election something like that so we talk about  specific things and we have a situation that  

we're connecting with the vocabulary but it's all  done in English all right so this is how you're  

actually able to learn a lot more and the key  really here that I just showed with the depth  

of understanding is that you focus on a particular  word or phrase and really understand that thing so  

what we do in fluent for life we actually have  have a bunch of different things that we teach  

you but really the the goal of the program is to  help you have good conversations so you're going  

to see a lot of the same kinds of things like what  happens when a person doesn't know what to say or  

what happens so what do we say when when we're  angry or we're upset or we're disagreeing with  

someone or we're excited so these are the same  things that a child would learn if they're looking  

at their parents every day they see their parents  like I know my mom is on the phone right now she  

looks upset but I can hear her her word she's like  oh no what's going on what's wrong with that uh  

and and then like kids kids are watching that and  they can see oh there's actually uh you know like  

an issue with her whatever that situation is but  they can hear the vocabulary so they're connecting  

the situation with the words okay they're not  trying to translate from one language into another  

all right so hopefully I'll give  another example as I go through these uh  

uh as well all right but hopefully that makes  sense all right uh okay so from Poland hello  

dude thanks for your teaching videos you're  one of the best I'm glad to hear it why don't  

you share some idioms as before some idioms about  what what do you mean share some idioms the point  

of this video also is is really to take something  that people think is basic because occasionally  

I will get Learners that tell me like oh I don't  like your lessons are like too easy because you're  

covering basic words it's like what do you mean  to sugarcoat something would you know how to use  

that expression most Learners would not and that's  something that they learn over time if you spend  

enough time with the language so the point is  not to just repeat the vocabulary again and again  

it's to really understand the deeper meanings of  things so that way you're learning and thinking  

about it the same way a native does so when you  think like a native you will speak like one the  

goal is not to try to remember vocabulary or  grammar so you don't want to have a flash card  

like okay what's that vocabulary word it's much  better to get a bunch of review the varied review  

what I call naturally varied review just like we  covered here with the word coat all right so you  

don't try to memorize things or repeat them you  want to get varied review so that builds your  

fluency the same way natives do all right uh  and hopefully okay so I answered that question  

uh Claudia says hi I'm from Uruguay nice uh  barbecue here oh well I have to come over and  

get some some uh barbecue uh meat I think all  right so let me talk about your course yeah I  

can talk about uh I'll talk about fluent for life  at the end of this Dunya I understand the language  

but I can't speak it because I don't know how  to tie sentences yeah so again the the really  

the answer to every question people have is is  more depth and understanding of the language and  

the way you get that is with naturally varied  review oh depth yeah so again we don't want to  

translate though the point for me is to help you  understand it just like we're looking at a pool  

here's a pool of water so how deep how deep is  the pool so we can measure it like here's the  

here's the width here's like the the height of  it we can talk about the height of the pool or  

we can also talk about because there's water  inside a thing uh the depth the data so we  

have the width of the pool and the depth of the  pool but notice as we get more examples you feel  

more like a native speaker because you're  understanding it all in English all right

uh all right

okay Brazilians love their classes I don't know  what that's referring to but hakan says thanks to  

my thinking way of English has changed positively  I feel more confident when I speak English with  

someone great that's the whole point that's what  we do uh have I ever been to India since again  

sham no I have not but I'd like to go let's see Dy  Aid why wait I understand you very well but I have  

difficulty to understand people in Street language  yes so what we do here in these videos is I'm  

really trying to make it clear about how to learn  so something we do in fluent for life is we're  

going to take you from speech at my level so I'm  speaking very clearly I'm not using a lot of uh  

idioms or slang or other things that I might use  in a conversation so we take you from this level  

up to the native one by helping you understand  uh real conversations and actual native speakers  

oh no another course we get an ambulance  or a fire engine or something over here  

all right nay says could you explain the  difference between the sounds of uh ah  

okay yeah if you if you want to hear like the  difference between that get Frederick go in the  

description below this video download the app  because it covers all these sounds Rosie could  

you please kindly suggest how to improve English  at work because I'm currently a I'm currently a  

remote Supply at a global company from China uh  what do you mean specifically like if you mean  

like learning more vocabulary or you're trying to  learn for uh like the the specific vocabulary you  

need for work or talking with co-workers or  what if you can be more specific about that  

about that let me know but in my general advice  for how to improve is really to spend more time  

focusing on the specific English you need for  your life whatever that is so I made a video  

recently the espresso video it's a naturally  varied review example where we're talking about  

uh the vocabulary that people would use for making  espresso and as we watch four different videos of  

people doing this you're automatically improving  your fluency because you're hearing lots of  

people do this so the more input you get that's  going to help you really feel confident in such  

situations so if you watch you know movies about  people I don't know like in meetings or whatever  

if if that's the video or if that's the specific  vocabulary you need uh but let me know Wilson says  

your channel is excellent glad to hear it Amanda  saying uh thanks for your help would love to see  

you here in Morocco yeah I've actually never been  to Africa I think it would be cool cool to visit  

I struggle with that English language has a lot  of meanings of words and I'm not sure if I use  

the correct one yeah so that's another thing as  you spend more time with vocabulary you naturally  

develop a strong understanding uh of what words  you should be using or what meaning is correct for  

that situation so it's okay to communicate simply  and it's better to be correct and be simple than  

to try to use something that that maybe like the  the vocabulary the grammar sounds weird so often  

we will get emails or comments from Learners where  they have basic mistakes so basic grammar errors  

in what they're in their writing but they  will use they will will have like a like an  

interesting phrase or something like that so it's  like okay it looks like they've been studying some  

interesting phrases but they still can't use the  language correctly so it's much better to just  

communicate simply and correctly and then start  adding more examples of interesting vocabulary as  

you learn you know more more things like that but  always begin you want to have make sure the the  

foundation of your vocabulary and grammar should  be very good then you start adding more things  

people are always very excited to start learning  more advanced stuff but as I just showed you you  

can have even a word that seems basic like coat  it seems basic but actually you can look at that  

word and study it in depth and you understand wow  that word is actually more advanced than I thought  

okay so don't look at vocabulary and think oh well  that's just a basic word I know that already you  

probably don't you probably could understand it  more and again that's really what's going to help  

you learn it and really use it confidently  in conversations things all right let's see  

hello from Turkey I have a weird question it is  out of speaking topic how can we understand the  

difference between night and night words both of  them are the same to say uh yes so there are these  

are called homonyms so these are words that have  the same sound meaning like uh same same sound  

um so if we if we listen to words like that just  by themselves then there's no way to tell the  

difference if I say hey night a native speaker  would hear that word but they don't know if I'm  

talking about like day and night or a night like  a fighting Soldier night so the only way to know  

is just to have more context for that but if you'd  like to hear things like night and understand the  

differences between words that sound similar so  not the same words but they actually sound similar  

and you'd like to learn more things this is again  in Frederick which you can click on the link in  

the description below to download so we have  examples in Frederick where we have things like  

hair and here so both of these are the exact same  word so this is like a magic e word or a uh people  

call it like a bossy e or silent E so a or hay  or here so here is a kind of rabbit and this hair  

is the hair on your head okay so it's easy to if  you like natives will not understand those words  

either but if you do get lots of uh examples of  things it makes it a lot easier and usually it's  

just the context that helps you understand what's  what uh okay again I often have problems with  

more subtle parts of speech like determiners uh  yeah so determiners can be can be tricky or some  

adjectives like are some adverbs like even excuse  me when putting them in a sentence oftentimes I'd  

mess up the order slightly yes can't so this just  means you're not getting enough input so rather  

than trying to speak more and this is it should  be like really exciting advice for people because  

you don't have to go out and try to speak and  try to use these things really what you should  

be doing is relaxing and just getting lots more  input so if you have a particular thing that you  

want to focus on then focus on that and just get  lots more examples of that input all right so you  

could be you could go to Google and even just do  a very simple search for like examples with this  

word and Google will give you lots of examples you  can read you know 10 different articles that are  

talking about that and not I'm not talking about  like a language learning site where where you  

would try to try to study it like a linguist or  a student a language student you're just looking  

at lots of regular examples of it like for me uh  like one one thing I had trouble with was like uh  

like in Japanese the difference between like  made so the in this again is just a Japanese  

example but I it took me a while to figure out  like what what it means and even if I look at  

it like a translation or something it's not so  helpful but if I can look at lots of examples  

after after I look at a number of examples that's  where I really start feeling confident it's like  

ah okay I understand so I'm doing it all in  Japanese just like you would be learning all  

in English for this so focus on one thing and then  you will become much more fluent in that all right

uh uh okay next we have Brittany I have two  questions what does ain't mean and how to  

use though ah well though it's like it's like a  butt basically uh but ain't ain't is just it's  

incorrect English but it just means is not and  that's one thing you will hear if you look up  

a word like that like what does this word mean or  get lots of examples and you will hear what that  

means all right teacher you are amazing Claudine  glad to hear it and Daniel from Egypt tadio says  

could you please talk about slang and how to get  used with that informal phrases used by natives  

in their country all right so as I just explained  before about the the different uses of the word  

coat so what happens remember this example over  here we have a situation and vocabulary now slang  

just means vocabulary that only like a subgroup  of people would know so if we have this is like  

the whole population of English speakers most  people know the word the I mean really everybody  

who's an English speaker especially native  would know the word the but there might be  

some smaller group of people here that that only  knows specific vocabulary like slang or idioms  

or something and so one example we had in my uh  in my video two days ago I think it was two or  

three days ago here on YouTube a live video we  were talking about uh car so I drew a picture  

and I'll try to draw it a little bit better  so this is a car supposed to be a car

here's some wheels down here and so if I'm let's  say I'm talking to my child and I say oh like I I  

like that car I like that car and now they might  hear like okay they know the word like and car  

and I'm talking about a car over there so I like  that car the child understands the situation they  

understand what I'm talking about and they're  understanding it uh without me translating  

anything so I'm not saying like anokudumagaski  like in in Japanese or whatever uh so I'm I'm  

giving an example it's all in English and it's  understandable and if I switch this now by adding  

something different like some slang like ooh like  I like I like that that whip and I didn't change  

anything else about this like the the situation  I'm still talking about the same thing the child  

would probably guess that I remember the first  time you hear something remember it's it's like  

trying to hit a Target the first time you  hear vocabulary it's your brain is trying  

to understand what something means and it's like  okay maybe it means this and maybe it means that  

and each time you get another example of something  you finally get to the Target in the middle here  

where you really understand what something means  so I say oh look at that whip like I like that  

whip over there now whip is a slang term for car  okay and and again like like an old person an 80  

year old person would probably not know what  a whip is uh and again they would think like  

if you say look at that whip they would think you  mean like you know like a like a whip like Indiana  

Jones whip that kind of whip like the weapon um  but this is how you would learn it so the the goal  

is again to understand it in context and you're  kind of replacing the regular word with a slang  

word or a slang term something like that all right  hopefully that makes sense so the goal the goal is  

not to try to like study the word whip by itself  it's to it's like I do in in that naturally varied  

review video about uh about espresso so in that  video you will see four different people making  

espresso they're doing the same thing so that's  the situation the situation is making espresso  

and doing it in English and some of the vocabulary  they will use will be different all right so one  

example they have uh from that video if you go  back and watch it there's a like a part of that  

an espresso machine and you have to take a filter  and and you you place it inside this little thing  

I'm not going to draw it very well you should  watch that video so you can see it but there  

are different ways of describing this so I can  talk about place place the filter in the machine  

like this so place the filter in and then turn  it all right but another person said pop it in

pop the filter in all right so again they're  talking it's the same situation but they're  

using different vocabulary for that so natives are  learning the same way so natives take a situation  

oh my dad said place the you know place this  thing in that so place the marker in the cap  

place the marker in the cap  okay or I could pop it in  

it's the same thing okay same thing but this  is how people are learning vocabulary all in  

their native language this is how you learn  in your native language so when you learn  

new vocabulary and new vocabulary is created  all the time maybe there's something new in  

the news and you hear like some new word like  oh I didn't know about that like like an nft

I think this is it's like non-fungible token or  whatever it whatever it stands for but this is a  

new thing that like three years ago nobody was  talking about nfts but now it's a common thing  

because people heard it once again another  time and they hear it from different people  

and that's how you learn the vocabulary but  you're not trying to translate anything you're  

just getting lots of examples and they're  varied examples so different people are  

saying things you're hearing it in  different accents in different times  

you're getting different grammar so maybe  someone is using it in the in the past or  

the present something like that so that's  how you get all these different examples

uh all right we're getting we're getting too many  

questions I can't go on to the next part  of this video all right let's see here uh  

uh okay I think I got that all right but  hopefully today let me know if that makes  

sense claudini Brazil uh sir let's see nourage  is uh how many active vocabulary need for being  

fluent okay as I just showed in this video the  number of words is not the number of words you  

know has very little to do with how well you speak  so young children might know a few words but they  

know them really well that's the whole point of  this video so it's not how much vocabulary you  

know it's how well you know the vocabulary all  right so you don't you don't become fluent by  

learning more you become fluent by getting deeper  in the vocabulary you know and only then should  

you try learning more stuff Eric English I'm just  joining in the middle of streaming can you re-say  

the main point you're talking about in this video  but my question I'm thinking recently about doing  

a YouTube channel teaching things okay well the  basic point of this video is that it's better to  

learn more deeply so to really under understand  vocabulary that's how you unlock fluency you  

don't get fluent by learning more and hopefully  people should be discovering this from themselves  

but most people do not what they think is if  I know a hundred more words or even 10 or 20  

more words then I will be become a fluent speaker  but it doesn't work that way fluency develops as  

you get fluent in specific vocabulary so you  learn a situation like putting a filter into  

a machine and then you hear how different people  describe that and that's when you feel confident  

about understanding people and you also feel  more confident about using your own vocabulary  

all right so Eric English again let's see can  you recommend something to begin with thanks  

Drew well I don't know you mean like making  a Channel about teaching English or something  

let me know Abby says does uh does one always  put one's tongue out for voice and unvoiced th  

sound how does one get one's ears trained to  hear the real sound of th again just like all  

the other examples I'm giving you it's lots of  examples so you can hear this in Frederick you  

can hear all the different examples of th and  when you would make those but if also you just  

watch people talking about things like like look  for a word that has th in it and put that into  

Google and then you can hear people talking about  that thing so even me when I'm saying is that  

thing so one is voiced and the other is not hi  everyone oh my God I have many questions actually  

like what's the difference between weather and  yeah yeah so we cover like all of those things  

about uh grammar questions you can search our  YouTube channel for that and also in fluent for  

life we cover all that stuff so we have a hundred  different lesson sets that cover present perfect  

continuous past that have lots of different  speakers teach you thousands of vocabulary words  

but it's helping you understand it like a native  that's the point of the program uh again sham says  

one thing that is very helpful for me is choose  whatever topic we like to watch choose different  

people on the same topic yes again that's  naturally varied review Brittany again thank  

you for the answer hater says I have a question  sometimes I speak fluently and sometimes I don't  

like one day I will speak fluent in the other  uh why that happens uh part of that is just the  

natural everyday it's kind of like the stock  market like sometimes the stock goes well and  

sometimes the stock does not go well but more  typically the reason is because you're fluent in  

some things but not fluent in others so I might  talk very well about I don't know raising a pet  

alligator but not talk well about rebuilding a  car you know so it's not I don't have fluency  

in the language I have fluency in particular  vocabulary and grammar all right remember that  

Maria says hola okay nice to see you there Maria  all right so can't again thanks a bunch probably  

my last question now how would you recommend  people to go about learning phrasal verbs and  

collocations or idioms I usually have to learn  them by heart but no logic derived at all uh  

you should look up our visual guide to phrasal  verbs if you go to actually right here on uh  

right here on YouTube you can search for phrasal  verbs with run I think we have two sample videos  

from the program right here on YouTube but I take  you through my three-step process for learning  

them so this is the same way I teach my children  phrasal verbs and so you can you can actually see  

how that works it's very logical it's very simple  and it's very fast uh Britney says where am I from  

I really like your accent so I'm from Chicago uh  and I intentionally speak in a kind of General  

clear way for people to understand Marion's is  true I know a bunch of words but can't use them  

on a daily basis they don't come to my mind yes  so as I I often give this example for learners

so what's happening here we've got this is time  and we could actually put vocabulary here as well  

and then we have F over here for level of fluency  what's happening is over time natives are are very  

quickly building fluency but Learners are kind  of stuck like this because they continue to learn  

more but they actually don't get depth in their  vocabulary so they're trying to learn oh it's a  

new word new word new word but they're missing  the the deeper more interesting opportunity to  

learn like oh here's a new use of that word here's  another new use of that word and as you get these  

different uses as you understand these then your  fluency accelerates so your learning ability and  

again this is why Learners like young kids  you could have like you know in four years  

and it can be much faster like this for adults  if you start learning the native way like I  

teach people to do but this is why you have this  this what I call here this is the fluency Gap

so the fluency Gap the space between where people  are and where they should be all right and it's  

not because they live in you know non-english  speaking countries or whatever it's just because  

they don't spend more time learning the vocabulary  and really knowing it well that's really it  

so I spent a lot of my videos like kind of  talking about this same problem in different ways  

all right Dana from Dubai now see there Charlie  hello this is my first time watching you live  

I love your lessons glad to hear it if you know  other people who would uh benefit from them please  

recommend us Brittany this is a golden opportunity  your classes are utterly fantastic very good glad  

to hear it again recommend us tell other people  hey you got to watch Drew's videos if you want to  

become fluent I want to learn English but I don't  know where I'll ever be I don't know what that  

means yes teaching English for Vietnamese um so  I would be careful about that again like there if  

you look on YouTube for people teaching language  there are there are a couple different kinds of  

teachers so there is the country specific person  who will like let's say I I don't know if I speak  

English sometimes but use Japanese in my videos a  lot to teach only Japanese people there are people  

who do that so they could be native Japanese or  foreigners or uh you know somebody who knows the  

Japanese language really well the problem is you  can teach the language but there's a difference  

between teaching a language and helping people  really understand it so they get fluent all right  

so you have to think about what you want to do and  even just like from like a channel like business  

side it's easy to make more content where you  just like hear 10 more phrases or hear like 10  

you know things like that and so you will see  a lot of that this is both teaching English in  

English and also people teaching English through a  different language but really teaching it through  

a different language is the worst thing you can  do if you want to help people speak now again  

not everybody needs to speak some people don't  care about doing that or they just need to pass  

a test that's fine but really even for passing  a test you should be learning much faster the  

native way anyway so I don't know why everyone  wouldn't do that but the point of my channel is  

to make it so that anybody that's why we call  it English anyone the point is to have anyone  

be able to learn the language most of the videos  are at a higher level and that's why I created  

Frederick as well so people could start learning  English in English from absolute beginning  

all right uh let's see and Daniel  again wait a minute do I skip somebody  

all right okay yes all right all right so  all right so today says thank you I get it  

all immerse myself in on English content so you  immerse yourself in so remember just like you  

put yourself inside something to immerse yourself  in the content so I'll be able to stop thinking  

in Spanish and start trans and stop translating  yeah so I totally understand you're an excellent  

teacher glad here yes just do in English what  you do in Spanish for learning Spanish so this  

is not a complicated thing I'm not teaching you  like a secret new strategy for learning English  

it's just telling people hey it's okay to learn  English in English that's what you should do just  

like you learn Spanish in Spanish glennis says  hi Drew nice to see you there and hater again  

thank you for the way he teaches outstanding  uh tell me my problem in 10 seconds okay  

Glenn here yes I've been doing this a long time  Daniel says last time I watched your video I  

hear ambulance and it is just accidentally or  you're live close by hospital by the way how  

do I uh now now I can decide yes I know  what ambulance means thank you so much  

yes so you just learned ambulance in context very  good yeah so I am not the room I am in is not  

sound proof unfortunately it's pretty quiet but  it's not soundproof and I'm downtown in downtown  

Nagasaki and so there are I'm not like by of like  actually there is a fire station a few blocks  

away but there are a lot of old people around here  and so you know maybe they need help or something  

all right Daniela uh hello dear friends I'm  from Brazil and my husband is from Poland that's  

interesting but he's been living in Chicago  for 30 years there's actually a lot of Polish  

people in Chicago applying for a spouse visa soon  I'll be there enjoy good luck Abby says I'm from  

India in your opinion what is the most common  mistake made by Indians when speaking English  

uh I would imagine it's the same mistake that  everybody else makes where they're trying to  

learn more without trying to go deep that's  that's the number one problem uh that most  

people make and now I'll explain very quickly why  this happens so why do people continue doing this  

instead of doing this so they they're going this  way they're trying to get more vocabulary instead  

of really understand it deeply uh the answer is  because the brain is naturally attracted to new  

information so like you walk into a party you want  to know what's new who's new what's going on you  

don't care about what's old or what happened last  week or whatever so if like people think oh okay  

like I know the word coat I don't need to learn  that more give me a new word and I say no no no  

maybe you don't know the word coach so I could  give you an example of a deeper more advanced  

usage of it and if you don't understand that then  it means you're not going deep enough you don't  

really have a strong enough understanding and you  get this by just again spending more time getting  

input so rather than speaking get more input  so just like I show in that espresso video I  

made that so people can see what it's like to get  naturally varied review the same way natives do  

you're seeing the same thing from different people  okay you're learning the same way natives do  

all right so hello Drew I speak English but it's  difficult for me to translate could you please  

help help me please yes so the basic idea is that  you should be learning English in English at your  

level so you should understand at least 80 to  90 percent of what you're reading or watching  

or whatever I'm morning I'm from Hong Kong this  is my first time to join your lab I do agree with  

your advice how to learn fluent speaking  Yeah so again uh this is not it's not new  

information and I'm it's not a special technique  that only I know how to do I mean I'm I think I'm  

the only person who really like spends a lot of  time explaining to people how to do it but it's  

the same way you learned your native language  so that's how we know it works but you just  

learn English the same way uh I can't how can  we let's see and Charlie says will you focus  

on British English in the future so what we do  in fluent for life we give you British English  

Canadian English American English American  and even different places in America so we  

cover all that in the program so I don't I don't  have like I mean if you want to watch something  

um like British English or whatever if you if  you need to improve your British English you  

can listen to more examples of native speakers  so find something you're interested in like  

growing roses or whatever I'm like a gardener so  I naturally come up with these gardening examples  

but whatever your thing is it could be building  ships or painting little models or something but  

find British English speakers who are doing that  and then listen to their content and read the  

same things that they read and you will naturally  develop an understanding of that Francis says how  

can you get the insight about language teaching  and learning you mean like how did I discover  

what I know about this um if that's what you mean  my very quick story is that for about 15 years I  

struggle to learn different languages and I lived  in the United States I'm from Chicago and I failed  

to learn Latin and then I failed to learn French  and then I failed to learn Spanish and even when  

I came to Japan I lived in Japan for almost a  year and still couldn't speak and the reason  

is because I was still learning the traditional  way I was still trying to learn Japanese through  

English and even after a year I said hey I'm I'm  pretty smart I should be able to figure this out  

why can't I speak even though I'm studying  a lot I'm not becoming a better speaker and  

the problem was that I'm again using traditional  methods and learning English through or learning  

Japanese through English so when I learn that way  I'm going to speak that way too remember how you  

learn is how you speak so if you learn through  translations you will speak through translations  

also so what I saw one day while I was walking  through a park I was very frustrated in trying to  

think about why I was making these mistakes and I  just stopped and looked at some kids talking with  

their parents and I it just struck me I understood  very quickly oh these kids are not using English  

to learn Japanese they're learning Japanese  all in Japanese and their parents are just  

giving them understandable messages so in just  a very simple way I was able to see okay if I  

do what those kids do then I can start speaking  like them all right so how you learn is how you  

speak so instead of learning the traditional way  with translations you start learning everything  

all in the language you're studying so if you want  to become an English speaker learn the same way  

native English speakers learn it's really that  simple uh so hopefully I've understood that uh  

if if I did not let me know uh but that that's  basically the idea for uh for how to get fluent  

all right uh uh Brittany says my classmates are  about to join here I told them about you glad  

to hear when you say classmates are you like in  college or high school or something let me know uh  

do you know about remembering the kanji by hastig  yes I'm also learning uh Japanese and studying  

kanji with that book yeah actually what I did um  uh hasig has the right idea about about learning  

kanji and it's interesting how it's organized so  how like the way like this this is like a really  

like a really funny really funny thing about  Japanese and organization the the kanji that  

and kanji for people uh that don't know Japanese  this is just the the Chinese characters uh that  

are borrowed from China uh because Japan did  not have uh its own language system it had  

like spoken Japanese but it did not have its own  language system so that was taken from China and  

then this was turned into three different written  languages so kanji would be like so here's like uh  

like this is a combination of a kanji and a  hiragana so like iku it means to go and so  

when you're learning these things uh the way  they're taught in elementary school in Japan  

is it's actually quite frustrating I I think for  kids like because the order is not really helping  

you learn them in a in like a logical order  of the kanji itself it's more how frequently  

they're used and so it's much easier like I I took  actually when I was when I was learning uh more  

basic kanji and now I'm trying to go up through  the higher levels of kanji and I'm trying to do  

that so I can obviously for myself learn the  language but also to teach my older daughter  

and my younger younger daughter too so I want  to be ahead of her for learning kanji so I take  

uh like the whole Year's worth of kanji uh  like it's I think it's about a hundred maybe  

something for for first for Elementary first  years and then you start getting more and more  

so I took all the kanji and then reorganized  them so for example like you would learn

learn like a like a kanji I don't  think they teach it in this order  

uh but you would learn this one like if I'm trying  to study these myself I would learn more first and  

then I learned okay like Ida or Kang and then I'm  learning Kiku to listen so you're you're learning  

like all the the various I shouldn't be there so  you're learning like the various things in that  

uh in like in an order that makes sense to you so  if you're using haysig's book uh his idea about  

learning them through understanding the story  is a very good idea so I recommend you do that  

again I can understand American English but  British accent is hard can you suggest to me  

yeah again Watch so watch a video by an American  English speaker talking about something and then  

watch a British English speaker talking about  the same thing you can do this even with English  

lessons I mean if you if you want to just learn  like an English lesson about things so often  

many teachers will cover the same topic so look  for a topic in English if you just want to learn  

from clearer English speakers watch a couple  of different people making a video about about  

something that's how you do it hello sir I'm from  India thank you for your teaching and Miriam says  

to watch anime without subtitles ah yeah uh so  again the point like I would watch it with with  

Japanese subtitles if you want to do that so I  would do that uh Charlie again thanks for your  

advice do you think that writing a journal every  day for improving uh makes English fluent uh it  

can help you review sure uh it's not a bad thing  to do but the the best thing the fastest thing  

the best use of your time is to get more input  and then you can practice writing something down  

to make sure you really understand it but also  try using your own sentences the the reason I  

call it naturally varied review is because the  varied part is important we don't want to just  

repeat something if you want to write something  down you could have a journal where you just  

practice a particular phrase but you write it in  different contexts or different grammar tenses  

that kind of thing so really play with the  language I began Drew you explain the concepts  

well I have mastered my American English sounds I  can pronounce individual words well how does one  

move to Connected speech with linking and all any  tips again you will find this in Frederick so we  

have sentences in the app as well and also as you  just listen to people speaking you will develop a  

natural sense for that but it's helpful if you  find particular things like a song or a speech  

and listen to different people talking about that  uh if you go to actually the for talking about  

pronunciation I just released a new article  about pronunciation on my site so if you go  

to englishanyone.com I don't have a link in this  video but if you go to englishanyone.com and click  

on free lessons it will be the the top listed  one there so it talks all about pronunciation  

uh well I'm studying at College okay great yeah  so let other people know and it's College where  

you mean college in the United States or college  in in a different country by learning English all  

right fantastic I got through the comments  all right the second thing so we talked  

we've spent an hour an hour oh my goodness  talking about this see how much time I have  

left all right I don't have a lot of time  left because I answered a lot of questions  

so we talked about depth in the first part of  this video now I want to talk about precision

Precision so Precision this is another test  of your fluency it's another measure of your  

fluency and I'll do this very quickly let's  see time goes by really fast yes it does so  

when you're first learning something and  we can use native children as an example  

so you have like uh and maybe  don't like or you can say dislike  

but typically when you're learning a new  language you have a very limited way to  

explain something where you like if I say hey do  you like I don't know whatever do you like pizza

so this is a common question in a Japanese  classroom for Japanese kids learning English  

do you like pizza and so they would ask each  other do you like pizza and I can have them  

practice this but a faster way for them to  develop precision and by Precision I mean  

accuracy so our how how well can they really  explain their actual mood do you like something  

or do you not like something or there's a whole  grade of liking from like love it to Hayden and  

so there are lots of different words that we  can use to describe all these things and the  

goal of this video is not to give you a bunch  of words and help you memorize all of these the  

point is to listen to lots of examples about  that so if we hear people if we pay attention  

when people are talking about liking something  or not liking something what are the different  

words we might mean so if we say like I  really love something like I love pizza  

you might even say something like a more advanced  phrase you would use for that would be something  

like like I could die for X I could die for some  pizza I could die for some pizza right now I could  

die for some pizza right now and the point again  is not to memorize this it's to recognize the  

vocabulary by understanding oh wow the person  is like really really excited about something  

and they're talking about like yeah I like I  like this but I really love this thing up here  

okay so I could die I could die for some  pizza okay or you could go down to hate  

and even a different word than hate you might  think like detest yeah really detest that so I  

detest like people talking about things when  they don't know what they're talking about I  

detest that it's just another word for hate all  right crazy for something another good example  

crazy four you could say crazy about same idea  but again the the point is not to try to like  

get up like a phrase book and memorize all these  it's really to watch a bunch of people in this  

situation talking about if they like something or  not um so do you prefer this you could say I'm a  

fan of something so to say you like something like  I'm a fan of something and then we can make that  

even more precise I'm a big fan of something so  I'm a fan is like here I'm a big fan is up here  

okay we don't really say I'm a small fan  of something just because either you don't  

like it or you do but yeah I'm a fan yeah do you  like tea yeah I like tea a lot I like tea a lot  

all right so the goal is like I've been talking  already about learning vocabulary but this is  

really about being able to communicate in  situations or to talk about situations okay  

so can you talk about liking something  or disliking something like a native  

and this is what natives are doing very very  rarely do people just say like I like something or  

I don't like something yes I'm craving something  that's another another idea so I could really  

die for some I could die for some cheesecake  right now oh I love some cheesecake please send  

me some cheesecake all right so I could die  for some I'm crazy about it I love it so much  

and when you listen to more people if you  really pay attention and you open your mind  

up to focusing on situations rather than  trying to learn a translation of something  

so I can I can do like a translation like the  translation for like in Japanese is like Suki  

I like something all right but there are lots  of different ways of describing things and if  

you listen to to Japanese people like in my case  as a Japanese learner I'm hearing like a mitch

so it's like oh they're they're like even more  excited so I'm paying attention to what the  

person says it's like I like oh I really like  that so you're looking at their face you're  

paying attention not just to the language but the  situation has everything how they look what they  

say Okay so the two things we talked about in this  video we're talking about the depth of vocabulary  

the Precision of vocabulary how well can you  communicate your thoughts and feelings about  

things and this is just one example of that all  right let me answer a few more questions before  

I lose my voice all right Danielle says did you  draw I know a lot of words Expressions phrasal  

verbs in English but sometimes I see myself  committing mistakes in very simple things what  

can I do to fix that all right everybody should  know the answer to this question and it is spend  

more time with the stuff you make mistakes about  it's really that simple so if I struggle like  

uh whatever the particular English might  be like if I can't remember like have to

I'm not trying to memorize all of the uses of  have I want to get a lot of examples of have to  

man I really have to go I have to go bye

I have to go so I have to I must do something and  as you hear more examples of that thing and not  

just one or two or ten like a hundred of them lots  and lots of examples and the reason we get so many  

examples is because it's not just about the words  we want to hear lots of different speakers talk  

about these same things I want to hear uh like  a woman from England how does she say have to  

I have to I have to do something or I have to  I have to you know and I'm being a little bit  

funny but again when you hear different people  saying these different things it's helping you  

understand it and develop your own pronunciation  okay so we're hearing the grammar we're learning  

the vocabulary all these things are are  done as a native would do that all right

all right let's see here and Dennis says a teacher  you have said that we could get deep in a topic  

to be fluent in a specific theme but we will be  fluent a theme or it would be fluent and different  

but we will be fluent Theme by theme or it  would be helpful in different topics okay yes  

so this is a thing that some some Learners worry  about they think okay if I focus on something  

if I focus on this topic and I learn you know  I've really learned this very well what about  

like all the other topics and the truth is that if  you focus on this it automatically makes you more  

fluent in other things as well and the reason  is because like like the example of coat that  

I gave at the beginning of this cl18 coat the  example I gave at the beginning of this video  

so if I learn just one meaning of coat like the  coat that I have on my jacket uh then I can only  

really talk about wearing a thick jacket but if  I hear a bunch of different usage now I can talk  

about like the coating of chocolate on a cake or  the coating of paint on a car or the coating of  

gold on a building like King kakuji which is  uh it's like a gold covered building in Japan  

okay so I'm able to talk about more things  because I got more depth in the vocabulary  

now I talk about this this idea in detail uh  in my what was that video but it's it's got  

like half a million views now from maybe two  or three weeks ago uh and it's like how to  

speak fluently about almost anything and the  the secret is really focusing on one thing  

that allows you to speak about lots of different  topics in that video I talk about the word harsh  

so my older daughter Arya we were walking to  school and she asked me oh what like what does  

harsh mean so she heard that in a in a movie or  something or a TV show and I said oh where did you  

hear that and she said oh I heard it from this and  I asked well what was happening in the situation  

so I'm trying to get her to think about when what  why what's the situation and then I don't I don't  

just give her a definition I start giving her lots  of examples we could have like harsh Sunshine out  

here I really need some sunglasses because the  sun is so harsh or I've got this this new soap  

I'm trying it's very harsh on my skin and as I  give her these examples she's like I understand  

and maybe two days ago I said hey Aria what  does harsh mean and she just said difficult it's  

basically what it means but again she's thinking  about it like a native speaker and I'm training  

her specifically to understand what these things  are so this is what we do in fluent for life we  

give you lots and lots and lots of varied examples  so you're reading writing listening speaking even  

like along with the videos but this is how you  get fluent in the same way natives do you don't  

have to live with an English speaker you don't  have to be living in an English-speaking country  

you don't even have to speak the point is just  to get lots of this input so even as you focus  

on something it's expanding your vocabulary at the  same time so don't think or don't worry that okay  

if I if I really like study this word then I'm  I'm like wasting my time and not studying other  

things because you know this well you can use that  vocabulary when you talk about other things so if  

I focus on like one grammar point and I really  understand that grammar Point very well then  

of course I can use that grammar point when I talk  about other things okay makes it all right [Music]

so I'm okay in my opinion uh did I maybe I skipped  that okay all right all right so uh maybe is that  

Palm or foam funkyat in my opinion from my  learning experience we just know the B part  

of speech and then we just put it in a position  based on its function agreed uh I don't know do  

you speak well that's really the answer to that  question if you're if what you do gets you fluent  

then keep doing it but if it's not getting you  fluent then you should do what I'm telling you  

to do because this is how natives get fluent  Jose says hola I'm a Britney's classmate I'm  

new here and my English is so basic we are from  Peru wow you guys well I'm glad you're skipping  

class or whatever or you are you like you don't  have class right now you're just at home or  

something uh but I'm glad to hear learn English  with Mata have students practice this technique  

when dishing on politics especially regarding  great practices and fun yeah glennis is Drew I  

often feel shy nervous when I meet and speaking  English with foreigners I'm not confident enough  

to speak with them what do you have to do to  improve listening skills and speaking again  

it's one answer isn't that great it's one  answer for all these questions so the reason  

people don't have confidence is because they have  doubts about vocabulary or grammar so if I like

if you hear a word like uh like harsh in a in a  situation like wow there are like harsh conditions

harsh conditions in in like a desert or something  like that uh if you just hear this this is kind  

of a more advanced usage of it I mean harsh is  we it's the the meaning doesn't really change  

it means difficult but if you just say wow it's  really or we are experiencing harsh harsh weather  

if you hear that you're like I don't really know  what harsh means and so you don't know if that's  

like a positive thing or a negative thing and so  the more you get examples of this it's going to  

help you with your listening your pronunciation  your grammar your vocabulary everything so  

everything is improved as you focus on something  more and more so that's the that's the answer to  

really every question that anyone asks about  fluency all right only a few more minutes here

uh let's see I'm craving chocolate cake yes  chocolate cake would be great right now Dennis  

says thanks for your explanation I appreciate it  it's my pleasure Brittany yes we are from Peru  

actually the teachers here teach using the  traditional method yes and again I hate to  

laugh about that uh it's typical this is the  way everyone teaches every language so don't  

feel bad this is not just English speakers if I'm  German trying to learn Thai I'm probably going to  

learn Thai through German and it's going to mess  up my ability to learn so basically nobody I'm  

not familiar with any courses that actually teach  the way I teach certainly not in other languages I  

have no idea Sergio says I'm Sergio from Peru yes  so more more peruvians are going to enjoy this now  

South America thanks for your explanation uh you  are the best glad to hear it and Nick let's see  

here hello I'm Brittany's classmate as yes we are  pleased to meet you teacher I really like the way  

you speak glad to hear it yes yes Brittany get  your whole school or at least your whole class  

all the people that are watching this and if you  don't get the live video you can go back and watch  

all the other videos as well and I will make  this one available too uh little berries along  

the path nice to see you again yes your teaching  is absolutely focused on one point to help people  

eradicate the problem completely yes that's the  thing you want to eradicate that's a great word  

to really destroy something to solve the problem  completely Cass is a low from Saudi Arabia and I  

see you there Francis again can I get your regular  streaming schedule or is it random uh I did I I  

think I like my personal freedom maybe I'm like  an American or something like that I don't know  

but but I don't have a specific schedule for  streaming but I do make the videos available uh  

lately I've been doing them maybe once or twice  a week on Monday and Thursday my time in Japan  

I think probably next Monday I will not do one  but maybe a week from today I will actually it's  

night here yeah okay I figured it was probably  night time over there so I made the eight parts  

of speech like noun verb adjective Etc yes uh if  that's working for you like some people they they  

like studying the language logically like that  uh like oh there are eight parts of speech and  

we can you know do this and try to learn the  language that way um but most people are not  

computers actually none of us are uh and so it's  it's quite difficult for most people to learn the  

language that way and speak fluently but if you  are if you are watching my videos either you are  

a language teacher or you were a student who who  knows a lot of English but doesn't doesn't speak  

that well yet uh so if you're already fluent you  should probably not be watching these videos you  

should be watching something else so if you're  if you're the kind of student that just wants  

to study uh you want to try to memorize vocabulary  or grammar if that's helping you speak then great  

it's probably not helping you speak I I would  I would probably say your language is I don't  

know I I have not heard you speak before but  for most of the people I help they know a lot  

but they can't actually speak and that's usually  because they're trying to use traditional methods  

that don't it basically it teaches you the  language but it doesn't develop your fluency  

Emanuel says from oh from the Congo thanks for  everything I've been following since 2017. glad  

to hear how long do work a day how long how long  do you work you mean like how long do I work a day  

like for what I what I do um I don't know depends  on the day some days I don't do much some days I  

I'm inspired to do a lot you know I'm My Own Boss  so I do I do what I want when I want that's what  

I do Brittany yes sir I'll bring my whole College  yes bring the whole College actually get everyone  

in Peru not just your college get everyone in Peru  everybody everybody I would like to go to Peru it  

looks like a nice place I was in Columbia a few  years ago so this is closer than Japan uh no uh I  

think what we can speak is what we should know how  to form the sentence to write or speak again like  

I don't want to argue with anybody if you want  if you have a way of learning and that's working  

for you then keep doing it but what I do is just  help people understand and use the language like  

a native speaker because most people would have  trouble following that method if it works for you  

then great keep doing it Otto says in my case it  changed when I felt excited to speak with someone  

else and being listened there is no right or  wrong way when we are trying to communicate  

something tears from Brazil yeah so again some  people are actually a lot of people are they  

they have trouble expressing themselves because  they just they worry about making mistakes and  

that kind of thing and so like if you're  working at a company there is a right and  

wrong way to communicate so you can it just  depends on what your particular situation is  

uh-huh you are great you're the boss yes I am the  boss of me I'm My Own Boss uh let's see so Annie  

says sir I saw your English lesson sell online can  I buy directly in Japan because I will visit uh  

Osaka next week uh yes it does it doesn't matter  where you live that's the great thing about online  

training you can be in Japan or China or Taiwan  or whatever yeah I think we even like we probably  

have a lot of Chinese students that use um uh like  vpns or people in like even like Russia or Ukraine  

right now or like we still have people joining our  programs uh it's amazing I still see like people  

in Ukraine and Russia joining joining programs  and like a lot of them are it's it's on they're  

unable to use a lot of systems right now but yeah  so if you actually if you look at the link in the  

description in this video so right under this  video you will find the links to Frederick and  

to fluent for life Brittany come here to visit  us someday uh we have very delicious food yes  

that sounds good I would like to come down there  yeah I haven't been uh Colombia was the last time  

I was in South America so I understand your way  which is the best way to study by just adding my  

input to no part of speech we can study English  effectively I am from Thailand yeah I figured  

you were you were Thai from your name I've  been to Thailand as well it's a lovely place  

all right let's see here well now I'm officially  out of time but just to give a quick review  

remember the idea is not to learn more vocabulary  the idea is really to go deeper and to become more  

precise with your language okay so that's how  you know that's the real test of your fluency  

it's not how many words you know it's how well  you can speak so if you're not feeling fluent  

you're not feeling confident you feel like you're  making mistakes you have doubts in your mind about  

translations or you have to organize sentences  sentences in your head it just means you're  

trying to learn more and typically you're doing  this through your native language rather than  

learning it all in English the same way natives do  so if you'd like to learn more just click on the  

links in the description to do that uh now what  I can now now you say I can understand good but  

I cannot speak good yeah so again uh understanding  comes first you spend a lot of time doing that and  

then speech will follow automatically because  when you understand you can speak all right  

so keep practicing out there follow the links  if you'd like to learn more even if you do not  

join fluent for Life click on the link in the  description below the program to learn how it  

works because it's taking a lot of the things I'm  saying and it it lays it out very simply it makes  

it just nice and easy for people to understand  what the problems are what you need to do to speak  

fluently and you can do it by yourself I just make  it a lot easier and much faster if you do it with  

me and that's the value of having a guide like me  to show you what to do all right so you can do it  

by yourself that's how I did it in Japanese but  it is possible all right thank you Master Shifu

well on that note we will say goodbye but thank  you to everyone so do click on the links in the  

description if you'd like to learn more okay uh  let's see Canadian linguistico says accumulate  

words is the most important thing in learning  industry what do you think well again that  

like you know uh Kaufman I've never spoken  with Kaufman and I think he speaks a couple  

of different languages so maybe speaks some I  think he speaks more than I do which is great  

um but I would I would be more clear for students  that like the goal is not to learn more words it's  

to get like deeper understandings of words and  it's so it's the same thing you're still you're  

developing your your ability to use words uh  rather than trying to learn a bunch of words  

that you don't remember all right so you don't  want to accumulate words there's lots of students  

who are doing that already and they still can't  speak so even without asking me as a teacher or  

someone who speaks different languages or  whatever you should just ask yourself think  

to yourself is what I'm doing working for me so  I'm doing something to learn is it helping me  

speak if not then stop doing it but if you  want to try something different like what  

I'm recommending like do this and I guarantee  you will become a better speaker because it's  

how you got fluent in your native language  you didn't just learn a bunch of different  

words you really got good understanding uh  and and as you do this you're you're also  

getting a larger vocabulary as well well Elena  right there at the end with konichiwa now it's

all right so I have a fantastic day  remember think about what you're  

doing if it's helping you great keep  doing it if not give this a try bye bye