Can You Say This English Word Fluently?

let's see if YouTube gets working hello out there  all right I think we'll get started in just a  

moment if you are let's see if you're seeing this  post a comment let me know where you're from again  

it always takes YouTube a little while to fire  up over here but we should be okay all right

and let's see if we're live I think we are we  are all right great well I am Drew Badger the  

founder of englishanyone.com and the English  fluency guide welcome to another live video  

here on YouTube today we're going to talk about  fluency as usual uh I wanted to teach you some  

useful vocabulary uh but also to prove a point  uh and that is that we really become fluent as we  

understand vocabulary better not as we try to  learn more words all right so knowing a lot of  

words is certainly useful if you can use them  fluently but if you can't use them fluently it  

doesn't really help you very much if you're trying  to speak so let's erase the board uh we'll get

started so hopefully uh this won't be too long of  a video actually uh because I don't want to keep  

you too long this is actually a pretty simple  idea uh but hopefully this makes sense this is  

also for new people who are joining the channel so  we get new people joining us all the time uh and  

I want to make sure people understand uh how we  help people get fluent Verdon says what time out  

there if you're talking about Japan it is let's  see what time is it 9:42 a.m. in Japan all right  

uh so this uh video came because I got a question  from a student uh so usually and I will probably  

get some examples of this in this chat here as I  usually get uh but a student had asked me about a

word gritty so they said well I I heard this word  uh can you tell me what it means and this is a  

story you know this happens to any of us when  we're trying to learn a language and we hear  

something and we want to know what it means uh but  hopefully this little explanation should make it  

a bit more clear uh how you learn words and that  the goal is really to get fluent in them rather  

than just kind of understanding them to a small or  a low degree so a student heard a word like gritty  

and the first thing I asked them is you know where  did you hear that what what was the particular  

situation where you heard this word uh and they  were explaining they heard it in a movie and so  

this often happens you hear some vocabulary in  a movie or TV show or something uh and oh that's  

maybe a new word for some people or you don't  quite understand a particular usage of the word  

uh so before I I teach this or explain what it  means help you understand it like a native U often  

the tricky thing with vocabulary is that even if  you know a word or you've heard a word like this  

before um there are kind of levels of vocabulary  and vocabulary use so what do I mean by this uh I  

mean like we're I'm going to put this kind of at  like level level one level two uh level three and  

level one is usually like the physical use of a  word all right so as an example not gritty let's  

say I'm talking about um I don't know something  something physical like sharp so I have a knife  

uh and I I learn a word like sharp and this is  just the opposite of something like dull so we  

hear a word you know like a young child would  see an example like this they get to see a nice  

uh here's a knife right here and look at that  that little Point here oh that point is sharp  

so this is a sharp knife and in contrast we might  show a child uh here's like kind of a child's dull  

maybe play knife like this it's rounded so this  is a sharp knife up here and this is a Dull Knife  

over here so the dull knife maybe it's just not  very sharp or we would actually have something  

like this that's we call this maybe a blunt so  this is another word b l u n t so blunt means  

we have kind of a rounded Edge to it you're not  supposed to make this very sharp it's for kids so  

they can enjoy you know playing with cooking or  something like that so A typically a Dull Knife  

is a sharp knife that gets weaker over time all  right so we cut many things and slowly The Edge  

gets a little bit rounded a little bit weaker and  so we call that a Dull Knife so this is level one  

where we're getting usually some kind of figure  narative or or excuse me a literal or a physical  

uh understanding of a word it's easy to understand  simply by seeing it or touching it or experiencing  

it and I don't need uh any translations or  definitions or anything really I can just show  

you what this is I can have you touch a sharp  knife and have you touch a dull knife and you  

can experience the difference so this is like a  what I call a fluency trigger where you actually  

understand something just by experiencing it so  this is how you can understand it like a native  

so you use it fluently all right so this is our  level one vocabulary level two is where we start  

using something maybe in a bit more figurative or  interesting way like we talk about a person having  

a sharp mind all right so someone who has a sharp  mind or someone who has sharp eyes it's a it's  

a little bit tricky because it's not really the  same thing but we're taking this this same kind  

of word and and using it in a kind of connected  way uh and when you say someone has a sharp mind  

it means they're smart all right so someone is  able to solve problems quickly oh that's a sharp  

person you can just talk about oh that person is  very sharp or that's a that's a sharp child when  

you're talking about uh mentally how they are so  again we we go from a level one use to a level  

two use over here and the same thing with sharp  eyes like if I'm good at seeing things you can  

say I have sharp eyes eyes now interestingly we  don't really talk about having dull eyes but we  

do talk about having a dull mind a dull mind isn't  that interesting so you can have a sharp mind or  

a dull mind like oh that that guy is kind of dull  like you know not really thinking too much or not  

too smart so a dull person or you could have a  dull conversation where something is a little  

bit boring but you see how these these different  words start to connect with each other and it's a  

lot easier to understand it if you start from the  bottom and go up rather than something like up at  

the top and then try to understand what that  means because you're you're kind of starting  

with something up here where you hear a word like  gritty and maybe you don't understand the origin  

of the word or what that really means or what the  context for that is and so this is one of the one  

of the reasons why uh learning vocabulary can be  very tricky especially if you're trying to watch  

movies and TV shows or the news or whatever um and  you just hear something like this so often regular  

conversational speech will use a lot of this like  third level stuff which is maybe even higher than  

this so it could be movie quotes or using it in  just a reference that maybe non-natives would  

probably not know so we take something uh again  I'll explain gritty in just a moment but hopefully  

this makes sense where when children are learning  vocabulary they typically build a foundation of  

understanding like this and this is how fluency  develops so it's much more difficult to go like  

from your language directly to something like this  in English rather than to start with something and  

then actually build up your understanding in this  way so build up all right just like we're building  

a building this is a really useful phrasal verb to  build up all right so when people ask me questions  

like hey I heard a word like gritty typically  I will ask well where did you hear that or what  

was the context because the meanings of words  can change depending on the context so I could  

have something that's gritty and like it could it  could mean something different depending on the  

situation and so let's understand the word the  same way I would teach it to my own kids so we  

begin with just the basic thing like grit grit now  grit when we're talking about grit if you don't  

know what this means already uh another simple  way just like we're contrasting or comparing uh  

Sharp versus dull or Sharp versus blunt we can  look at the grit on something like sandpaper  

so sandpaper is it's literally paper that's got  kind of sand or you know grit basically glued on  

there kind of stuck on there uh so that when you  polish something you rub the Sandpaper you can  

smooth something else all right so maybe you are  making something out of wood and if you look very  

closely you can see maybe you're you're trying  to make something uh very smooth you have like a  

like a a pole or a railing or something that you  made out of wood and you want to take this rough  

Edge and make it smooth and that's why we take  some sandpaper and rub that on there to try to  

polish it down okay so sandpaper looks like this  there's usually it's just some kind of paper and  

it will have different kinds or different  you can say like the how fine uh the grit  

is or how gritty the paper is so there's different  levels of that you could have uh fine which is  

like very very tiny pieces of grit where you  would use something for like polishing metal or  

something or you could have even a thicker grit  where you're really trying to shave something  

off that's maybe some rough wood or something like  that uh but there are different different kinds of  

grades of this so you might have some coarse so a  coarse uh level of grit where you have like a kind  

of thicker larger pieces of stuff on there and  then for fine it's like tinier pieces of stuff but  

that's what grit is so grd is basically these tiny  little pieces like you might go walking on the  

beach and you have your shoes on and you find oh  I've got some some grit in my shoe all right so as  

you're walking on the beach a little bit of sand  or tiny rocks or something like that gets inside  

your shoe and that is grit so I've got some grit  in my shoe uh there's actually kind of food called  

grits so it's a little bit different than just  sand it could be dirt it could be kind of uh tiny  

rocks lots of little things like that so you might  have some grit even like I got a little bit of it  

feels like some grit on my teeth or something like  that so there is a kind of food uh called grits  

also which kind of looks like that you should just  Google a picture of the food grits uh and you will  

see what it looks like but it's kind of similar  to this like lots of little things like this Grit  

so when we talk about something having uh grits  maybe we have uh again like the sand example I'm  

walking on the beach uh or maybe something is a  little bit rough maybe you use a like a special  

kind of uh soap and that soap might be for for  scrubbing your skin so we might have like a scrub  

so scrub this is like to scrub something so it's  a verb to scrub something but it's also a noun so  

if we talk about a facial scrub maybe you use  something special to wash your face and that  

scrub has a little bit of grit in it so it's got  a little bit of sand or it could be it's usually  

not sand it's often th those kinds of things they  take uh like old shells from peanuts or something  

like that or some kind of harder shell and they  Crush those up to make them very fine and then  

they use that so if you're washing your face  usually some kind of scrub like that has some  

grit in it all right so this this is a level one  understanding of the word grit so even a child  

is walking oh I feel some grit in my shoe like  there's some tiny rocks or sand or something like  

that but we want to move up uh so we can get to  this understanding of gritty over here uh again  

depending on where we heard that so another like  kind of higher level level two might be taking  

this idea and applying it in a more figurative  way so I think about like what might a GD  

person be so a gritty person or someone with  grit you could say both of those thing so maybe a

gritty so a gritty person or you  can say like a person has grit so  

if you think about uh now aarz is a  different word but grit grit gritty  

uh when we're I think like you're  you might be confusing this with

greedy which sounds similar all right so  notice this is a t here but I have the  

more flap D gritty GD gritty gritty so a British  English pronunciation of this would be more like  

gritty gritty they actually say the T sound  but American English we say gritty gritty all  

right so it sounds more like a t but this word  here this is greedy greedy so this is the short  

vow i i i gritty gritty so gritty and this is  the long e greedy greedy uh if you'd like to know  

more about being able to hear these differences  between sounds you should get Frederick you can  

click on the link in the description below this  video for more about that but it will teach you  

to distinguish these sounds so you hear them  correctly and use them correctly as well all  

right that's a good question though so greedy is  a little bit different actually quite different  

uh from gritty but they do sound a little bit  similar all right so if we go here we're talking  

about a gritty person a gritty person is a little  bit rough in the same way that kind of physical  

sandpaper is a little bit rough because you need  to be rough if you're going to maybe have some  

experiences which are a little bit difficult or  trying or there's a challenge you need to keep  

working at something the same way that sandpaper  continues to polish something okay so you see the  

connection here a gritty person or someone has  grit we talk about ooh that person having grit  

if maybe you know they do a really good uh a  job at something they are persevering they are  

working hard even though there are challenges  they don't quit that person has grit all right  

so instead of a smooth soft kind of person like  if you compare tissue paper with sandpaper it's  

two different things so sandpaper is going to  be stronger it will last longer it can polish  

things it will go up against maybe some kind of  trouble uh and then that will be a different uh  

a different thing than maybe tissue paper which  rips very easily all right so a gritty person or  

someone who has grit like you might talk about  a leader who has grit uh or an athlete who has  

a lot of grit or a person who's very gritty uh  like they're they're able to persevere because  

they really try very hard and they don't quit all  right but hopefully you see this connection and  

it's much easier to make this connection if we go  from bottom up like this rather than just hearing  

some random vocabulary and you think well I don't  maybe I don't quite understand what that means but  

this is this is how we go back and understand  that so if you're prepared for vocabulary in  

this way before you hear it then you feel wow  I actually understand what people are talking  

about in real conversations and I feel much more  confident about speaking okay so this is how you  

should be learning vocabul and understanding it  so we can continue to go up when we hear things  

like gritty we we could it depends on the movie  or maybe the TV show uh but gritty in the same  

way is usually talking about things are rough  or true it's describing real life which isn't  

always beautiful or happy or Sunshine there could  be problems or things that might be a little bit  

difficult there's there's some some rough Parts  about life it's gritty so when you hear about  

usually a gritty movie uh it's usually talking  about showing like a like a gritty crime drama  

or talking about uh maybe something that's a bit  more like kind of showing the the real life or  

the way people really live rather than a a fiction  of how maybe a kind of movie might may maybe look  

you know so we have like a a kind of a TV show for  kids that's usually maybe colorful or we have some  

some easy lessons we have some good characters  and some bad characters but when you have more  

adult shows usually there are some characters  who are kind of gritty uh or the the the scene  

the whole story could be quite gritty where they  talk about the truth about maybe police officers  

have to do something evil or you know the bad  guy does something good or something like that  

but usually it's talking about uh more kind of the  reality of something which is like sandpaper so  

it's not always smooth there's some kind of grit  in there so we're talking about the way real life  

is or real examples uh something that's again  different from nice and smooth and easy all  

right so when people ask me what something means  there are two ways of teaching this the first one  

is just say oh like it just means this and I give  a definition or I give a translation and that's  

it but then if I do that usually the person maybe  they get the answer very quickly but they don't  

really understand it very well and they can't  use it fluently and they probably forget what  

they learn and this is why I wanted to just  give you an example with one word about how  

to use one thing fluently so if you can use one  word fluently by understanding it really well  

that will prove to you that you can do this with  anything so you really could learn any word you  

want or any phrase you want same kind of idea uh  but it's much easier to go from bottom up where  

we start with the simple and go to the more  complex rather than starting with the top and  

trying to go back down all right so hopefully  this makes sense this is the kind of thing we  

do INF fluent for life but you can also do it  by yourself just getting very simple examples  

of things uh like if you're looking on chat GPT  or I don't know what like Google or YouTube or  

whatever for for simple examples of things uh but  like again asking chat gbt like what is what does  

grit mean just on a very basic a very basic level  uh but then you could ask like well what are some  

more figurative or difficult or more kind of  interesting uses that that a native might use  

so how might a native use the word gritty rather  than uh like a non-native or a physical use of it  

so I can talk about a road being kind of gritty or  something physical like that but really what I'm  

talking about this typically if you hear this in a  movie like a gritty crime movie then we're talking  

about something that's trying to show real life  and the the real situation rather than just kind  

of a like a Hollywood or a uh kind of a nice or  clean version of how something would look gritty  

all right uh I've have uh some more examples in  the description below this video so if you'd like  

to learn more about that so even more applications  the more important point is understanding how  

vocabulary works and how new meanings are created  from a foundation of things but words typically  

work in this way and when we learn something  new uh it try to try to spend a little bit of  

time understanding the foundation and you know you  understand the foundation when you feel confident  

about saying something so if you learn something  new and you just get a definition or a translation  

but you don't really feel very confident you  might maybe recognize it when you hear it in  

conversations or in movies but if you want to use  it fluently that's why the point of this video is  

to understand something and use it fluently all  right so we don't get fluent simply by repeating  

a word we get fluent by really understanding the  word well hopefully that makes sense sense all  

right let me go back and check uh comments if  you have any questions about this or something  

else let me know but I wanted to just again make  a quick video uh explaining something very simple  

like this and helping you understand this because  if you can understand even something simple just  

trying to understand a simple word like this uh  you really can develop a broad vocabulary and get  

very fluent in that vocabulary very quickly  and you notice even if we just focus on one  

thing we've got other words and other topics  and things and you can hear me uh explaining  

grammar points but not really it's kind of using  grammar but I'm not really uh focusing on a on a  

particular grammar point it's really just helping  you understand the word but we actually combine  

this with other words like sharp and dull and  sandpaper and other things like that all right so  

you if you pay attention even just focusing on one  four-letter word like grit you can actually learn  

a lot and become a much more confident speaker all  by yourself all right uh let's take a look and uh  

see here George says hello all right uh Na says  hello from Morocco Danielle says hello from  

Brazil always happy to see you sharing your  knowledge Dre thanks a lot it's my pleasure  

Wellington says hello from also from Brazil  Judy says hello uh ragad says hello teacher  

from uh Libya nice to see you there look at that  we got people represented uh all over the place  

uh and Talisman you got that hard to read font  over there hi Drew nice to see you live again  

R said I can tell you're very smart you can how  do you know that good evening teacher says jerma  

so Nat says sir I'm spending most of my time in  listening almost three to four hours daily but  

I'm still not able to speak fluently how will it  take how it will take more time do you mean how  

much more time will it take I can think better  in English but not speak way I think I see uh  

good morning from Pakistan uh the simple answer  to your question is it depends on what you're  

listening to uh let me erase some of this I think  people hopefully have this understanding pretty

well so I mentioned at the beginning of this  video the reason I'm talking about this is  

because a student asked me about the word gritty  uh and I wanted to show kind of the deeper way of  

understanding this I know it might seem slower  because I'm spending more time on the word but  

the focus is the key that's the thing that  actually gets you fluent because the whole  

point is to understand the vocabulary really  well so you eliminate any doubt okay so the  

fastest way to become a fluent speaker is to  eliminate or to destroy or to get rid of the  

doubt that stops you from speaking it's the  doubt that stops you from speaking all right  

uh so let's take a look at this example now I'm  going to guess you probably you can correct me if  

I'm wrong this is actually a great expression I'll  put this up here for everyone uh correct me if I'm

wrong so correct me if my if I'm wrong this  is a great way to start an explanation like  

if you're asking for clarification or you're  trying to explain something uh but you want to  

make sure you are properly understanding  something so that I understand uh so  

what was your name again make sure I got that  right Nat slowed if I'm pronouncing that correctly  

uh yes but hopefully I'm hopefully I am if I'm  not correct me if I'm wrong uh but again when  

we're starting something like an explanation like  this correct me if I'm wrong but so correct me if  

I'm wrong but most people who are like they're  spending a lot of time listening uh it's often  

just some random content about whatever so let's  say I spend 3 hours a day listening to YouTube  

videos about learning English so I watch  uh one video here's like 10 phrases uh and  

here's another video about confidence uh here's  another video about uh I don't know just some  

random video about like a TV show or something  and so each one of these things you can probably  

find a connection between these but usually  people are just watching random content and so  

you will you if you look at YouTube it's designed  to give you a bunch of maybe some things you're  

interested in but you will see little videos on  the right side ooh that video looks interesting  

I will uh I will watch this video over here all  right so you're like talking about this thing  

that thing uh and you so you're watching this  video and then you go to the next one and the  

next one and often there's no plan for that and  so if you watch a bunch of random things you're  

not really giving your brain enough review  to really understand something okay so this  

is this is the example of even spending  you know like three four hours a day just  

watching random content all right so it could  be for natives it could be for people learning  

English but this is what I recommend instead  so this is what I actually do uh for learning

Japanese so I think maybe I'll I'll make a video  uh about this but uh just giving you this little  

little bit here about uh trying to find content  to learn with um so if I typically I will be I  

will be trying to make a connection uh between  a like a phrase or a grammar point or something  

like that so whatever like the particular topic  is uh it could be I mean if I'm trying to focus  

on something very specific like a grammar point  or a phrase it's pretty easy to get that um and  

then I want to connect that with some interest  so I'm interested in whatever that topic is so  

typically you can find some content uh even if  you don't know exactly what what words will be  

used in the content the point is really to to  keep your ears open for that particular thing  

so as an example uh I want to learn about  I don't know like a present continuous so  

I'm just talking about something like go in or  doing or something like that uh but I also like

flowers what I would do is I I might uh if I if I  really don't understand this point at all I might  

watch a video about going uh but I would spend  more time watching videos about making flowers  

and I will probably find some content that will  talk about this so right now I am watering the  

flowers or right now I'm reading or seeding the  ground or right now I'm doing something and you  

will hear if you are paying attention for it  that particular phrase or vocabulary or the  

grammar Point whatever you're listening for so of  course there will also be other things so maybe  

two people could even watch the same content and  get different vocabulary from it so they're paying  

attention for different things so if I'm walking  with my wife like let's say we are taking a walk  

somewhere uh maybe she is interested in rocks  so she keep keeps her head looking down and she  

notices a lot of rocks on the ground but I don't  really care about rocks I like birds and so I'm  

looking up in the trees and I notice a lot of  birds up there and after our walk she says oh I  

saw all these beautiful rocks did you see those  and I said oh no I'm yeah I didn't notice those  

and and I say oh well I was looking at these birds  in the trees did you see those beautiful birds and  

she says oh I I wasn't paying attention for that  all right so the birds and the rocks are still  

there just like in a a topic about whatever the  particular vocabulary is there but you don't have  

to focus on everything you focus on the particular  thing you you just want to like listen to some  

content and just pay attention to the thing you're  interested in all right so whatever that is it  

could be something specific like a grammar point  or whatever or you could also be just you know  

don't worry about the specific topic the topic  itself is like the topic and the interest are the  

same thing so you're just interested in learning  more about how to talk about a particular thing in  

general so I want to know how to raise chickens or  I want to know how to draw a picture or I want to  

know uh I don't know the life of a particular  person like I'm interested in biographies  

or something like that so I can watch content  specifically about that but it's the focus that  

really helps me understand something so I can  use it fluently okay so remember we have these  

different levels of understanding if you just get  exposed to vocabulary maybe you might understand  

it or hear it oh like I think I've heard that  word before or you get to the awareness level  

where you really feel more confident that you you  understand what something is and you recognize it  

easily uh but you won't get to awareness from  or from awareness excuse me to ownership where  

you can actually use something fluently if you  don't get enough examples to remove any of the  

doubt that stops you from speaking all right so  at at each level where we're trying to understand  

something better that's how we actually can  understand things uh by eliminating the doubt  

at that level so at the lowest level just are  you hearing a word correctly or not so we saw  

some examples of that in this video where we're  talking about the word gritty and people are are  

saying well it does he mean greedy all right so  that means there's a there's there's doubt about  

actually hearing what I'm saying okay so it's it's  it's good for me then to go back and compare these  

two things so we have gritty gritty or greedy  which are two different sounds when you hear  

them next to each other okay this is why we built  Frederick to actually let you compare two sounds  

together like that you can actually compare many  different sounds uh but that's how you understand  

and you develop really good hearing because you're  hearing the differences between sounds rather than  

just listening to individual words by themselves  okay so again this is the basic idea uh where  

if you're trying to learn something uh I could  spend 20 minutes a day I could spend more time but  

even if I spend maybe 10 minutes or 15 minutes 20  minutes just on focusing on the particular thing  

I'm interested in okay so whatever that is if I  want to use a word more more fluently I want to  

really understand different people saying it that  this is what I should be doing so this is what I  

call naturally varied review again uh this is what  we do in fluent for life so if you really want to  

understand like the way we built fluent for life  this is what I'm recommending you do if you learn  

by yourself with YouTube or whatever all right but  the point is to focus whatever you're interested  

in uh so I would usually begin with whatever  you're interested in or if you have a particular  

doubt about something so for me learning Japanese  if I hear a grammar point or some vocabulary I  

don't quite understand what it means then I should  focus more on that I think oh I've I've heard that  

I've heard people use that a few times S I should  maybe get more examples or hear more situations or  

something like that but if I focus on that I will  become fluent in that thing very quickly and as I  

get fluent in more words and phrases I become  fluent in the language all right so we don't  

become fluent in The Language by learning a bunch  of random things to a shallow level we understand  

a few things deeply and that really actually  helps us understand and communicate about many  

things really actually quite quickly quickly all  right hopefully that makes sense that was kind of  

a long explanation but I know we get new people  all the time asking about this uh but it's a it's  

a big problem probably I would say really the  biggest problem for people um trying to learn  

languages so they're they get like a very shallow  understanding of a of of many words and then they  

can't understand uh like kind of these higher  level uses that people have of those words and  

they also can't use them fluently uh so I would  I would recommend people do that all right let's  

see uh good morning from okay I got that one  already sand so hack Wizards again Kenneth Hi  

Drew how is everything in Japan tell me about the  weather it's raining or not yes it's raining over  

here uh Fabio says a vegetal good you mean like  a gourd is that what you mean uh let's see now  

Ser SP okay answered that question already  Tam says how about the word grifter grifter

so again this is one of those things it sounds a  similar but completely different meaning gritty  

and grifter grift grift usually means you're  trying to trick people or to get people to you  

want to take their money or something like that  that's a grifter so someone like you will hear  

about this in in popular culture now uh like if  let's say there is a there's a a natural disaster  

and everybody sees that and then I open a like a  GoFundMe account and say hey like please donate  

money to the to This Disaster and I just collect  the money and I keep it I'm grifting right there  

so I'm using something uh or I'm trying to trick  people in some way to get money from them to grift  

all right so grift or and a person who is doing  this is known as a grifter a grifter all right  

so greed yes I answered that already Gloria says  hello Tam says I need to explain more about the  

word grifter hopefully that makes sense cam nice  to see you there being how to find out phrases  

for understanding new word well I would focus  on the particular uh vocabulary of it and this  

is where uh chat gbt is actually very useful where  it can help you understand these different levels  

of vocabulary so if you don't have a teacher  like me like we have in fluent for life to  

actually help you understand things uh you can get  explanations it's just more difficult to try to  

get them by yourself but it is possible to do um  but again uh the point is to get lots of examples  

and and pay attention for the connections between  things so as you hear some new words we we talked  

about the word or excuse me grit uh but you hear  how we have different uses of other vocabulary  

like sharpness and dullness because I'm using one  thing to explain something else and so typically  

your your journey to understand particular words  will lead you to other words as well hopefully I  

answer that correctly let me take a look at that  again make sure I Mak explaining that properly  

uh let's see so how to find out phrases for  understanding new words yeah so that that's that's  

how I would do that so if your question is again  correct me correct me if I'm wrong but if your  

question is asking how do we find out phrases for  understanding new words it's really like how do we  

understand new vocabulary that's how you would do  it though all right so this video is is basically  

talking about that explaining that if you want to  understand something better you should try to work  

get the get like the very Foundation like what is  the origin of something or what is the physical  

use of that word um and typically that will help  you understand something because often again uh  

you might hear something in a TV show or a movie  or whatever and it's a higher level use of a word  

where it's not really connected or not logically  in your mind so it's more difficult to understand  

something like that so if we talk about a gritty  scene in a movie it's not really clear what that  

means like what exactly is that referring to  but if you understand from the foundation like a  

native does if be if you're doing that because you  understand like a native you will be able to use  

it more like a native all right uh Vos says kisses  for your daughters well thank you very much happy  

to see you from Ethiopia C says hi and ser says  hello from Bolivia and from Lou from China Ser  

says uh thanks I'm each time learning more glad to  hear it uh so yes the point like I If you if you  

watch enough of my videos even if you watch just  a few of them you should get a sense for how I'm  

speaking and if you're paying attention for the  different ways I speak not only uh the specific  

grammar we're focusing on or the particular  phrases or whatever but actually the way I I weave  

all of this together so if you're paying attention  for that you will become a more confident speaker  

all right and Hera do you have Discord Community  server to improve our speaking in English well uh  

you don't need a Discord server to do that uh and  you can probably find lots of Discord servers now  

if that's what you're interested in uh but this  is the this is kind of the funny thing about about  

being a teacher where the things that most people  want are not actually what they need to get fluent  

so they they kind of they want fluency but they're  doing these other things over here that aren't  

really helping them so they think but because  they've been told by so many people you have  

to speak to become fluent when they're reality  is you you won't speak if you don't understand  

the vocabulary first so it's actually quite easy  to find people to speak with the more difficult  

thing is having the confidence when you have those  opportunities all right so lots of people like I  

could I could you know join a club or I could find  some people online or in person to speak with but  

if I don't feel confident about speaking I'm just  going to sit and listen to them talking anyway and  

if I'm doing that I can do that by myself so I  don't need to like either I'm feeling confident  

and I will speak with people or I'm not feeling  confident uh and I will not speak all right so  

you don't need a Discord server you don't need to  spend a lot of time talking with other people you  

just need to understand vocabulary better all  right so spend more time excuse me uh if you if  

you spend if you spend more time paying attention  to uh how the how the language works and you focus  

on what you're interested in you will get fluent  in that thing and that will help you understand  

more uh like saw you in Chinese social media I  don't know if that's referring to me you saw me  

in Chinese social media or something else V says I  love the video that you talk about uh mythological  

creatures oh you like that video yeah people still  watch that video that was a couple of years ago  

that was a book I found after I had been searching  for that book for years but I think I talked about  

that maybe I will make some more videos about uh  explaining things at different levels so I did  

some I kind of a series before about talking about  simple things or things that could be simple but  

you can actually explain them at different levels  so even talking about something very simple like a  

marker I could talk about the um like I don't know  like the color of it or how I don't know where I  

bought the marker or something but I could take  it to a much higher level where I talk about I  

don't know where I found something and the story  behind markers in general or something like that  

so depending on my ability to speak I could take  that that and and talk about it in many different  

ways uh let's see and JRA oh is that is that one I  don't know if that's a if that's a name Jay no the  

best how are you I'm doing all right M says you  are an American right Yankee yes that's correct  

I'm from the United States person says hi Drew  very good morning I am watching your lesson it's  

very good sir I am from Sri Lanka welcome uh gabri  says hello from Mexico I understand you perfectly  

but there are people who I don't understand a word  for example Demi Moore Stone yes so this is what  

I just explained about vocabulary I could explain  the exact same thing about ways of speaking so I'm  

speaking to you at like first level not textbook  English but I'm I'm really making my language  

clear and understandable on purpose okay so I know  I'm speaking to people who might not understand  

regular native speakers especially if they're  speaking quickly or they're using these higher  

level forms of vocabulary uh or they just don't  speak very clearly uh so again like the reason  

you could understand me but not those people is  because we're speaking a different kind of English  

all right it's the same vocabulary kind of it's  the same speed kind of but it's not really at the  

same time like if you it's it's it's like a grade  like we go from kind of easy to difficult but it's  

I mean you can you can feel like this is easy and  this is kind of medium and this is more difficult  

stuff over here um but what we do in something  like fluent for life is we start you with this  

kind of English where I'm speaking to you he and  then you get to hear it from different speakers  

and you get to see it in actual conversations  how natives would use it right so you need to  

you're either doing this with me or you're doing  this with somebody else or you do it by yourself  

but this is how you move from that level to  understanding Demi Moore and Sylvester Stallone  

so still still Sylvester Stallone also is like  he's like quite quite difficult especially as  

he's gotten older but he's that's kind of a joke  among English speakers that he's not a very clear  

speaker all right and so that that's that's part  of understanding the culture of of these kind of  

higher level regular everyday speech whether  it's just regular people or movie stars or  

celebrities or whatever so you you have to focus  and get these these kind of different levels of  

understanding rather than just trying to watch  a bunch of different celebrities it's going to  

be much more difficult to do that all right so if  you understand me but you don't understand them  

it's much easier to go in simple steps rather than  just try to jump directly from here to there okay  

so if you can't find this anywhere else like it's  hard to get examples this is what we do in fluent  

for life all right uh make sure I'm moving along  here we have some good questions though and just  

Sendo his back 104 people watching there and only  34 likes let's go ahead and hit like for Drew for  

his great job teaching us today let's go team yes  glad to hear it if you do enjoy the video if you  

have learned something if it has been helpful let  me know if my videos are not helpful let me know  

why I'd love to love to know how I can uh help  more people and I'm always trying to improve so  

I spend lots of time thinking about uh how to make  the language easier to understand uh and it it can  

be difficult for me I could make just a bunch of  random vocabulary videos and maybe those would get  

more views uh but they would not really get people  fluent which like I care about that personally  

and you know most of the people who follow me are  actually here trying to speak so uh that's why we  

make things for those people all right so Melly  says I'm from South Korea see there abdos says  

hello teacher thank you for your effort you have a  special way how you explain thanks again for your  

effort please I want to ask you is the stress  in words make different with the same sound is  

the stress in words made you mean made different  with the same sound I don't know what you're what  

you're referring to if you mean like individual  stress on individual sounds in words or if you're  

talking about like accents or pronunciation but  typically like I could change the way I say a word  

and and by changing my tone or changing the speed  or something so if I'm talking about someone I  

say oh do you think she is coming to the party so  I'm just focusing on that uh like stressing that  

particular word because that's the the purpose of  that sentence I want to know like is she coming  

rather than someone else or is she not coming or  is she coming to the party so I'm emphasizing the  

word party so I'm I'm changing the meaning of the  sentence even though the words are still the same  

so we can change a lot about changing the stress  or the speed or other things like that uh and this  

is again it's a skill you develop as you spend  more time paying attention to the language and  

Tom says good morning everyone Ohio goas Kaz says  hi from Bangladesh Bangladesh uh let's see maybe  

some people there might be some some nion Jing  or some other people in Japan watching this Tommy  

you you live in Japan right now I I don't know  where you live uh better enjoyable says hello  

Drew I can't thank you enough because of you I've  reached the point where I can speak almost without  

hesitation hello Drew okay got that a quote there  is that from you personally or somebody else but  

welcome if that's you great fantastic whoever that  is learning here is much better than using Discord  

yeah so again like getting getting feedback  on your English is fine or asking questions  

or whatever all of that is useful but I'm I'm  typically trying to get the most Improvement  

for the least amount of time so I want to spend  just a little bit of time learning and actually  

improve much faster and and I do that by focusing  on things so it seems like you know I like if we  

if we compare two different people one person is  learning a 100 new words a day and I'm learning  

only 10 new words a day it might seem like the  other person is learning faster but I I can I  

can guarantee I'm going to be I'm a more confident  speaker faster because I understand my vocabulary  

better all right and then I will actually be able  to learn many more new words much faster because  

the other person is like like they actually are  trying to balance something where they don't  

really feel uh very confident about what they're  using uh hello from Greece says uh Mariana nice to  

see you there we got some fans in Greece I'd like  to go to Greece seems like a nice place I like  

Greek food actually I have a lot of uh we have a  a Greek town in Chicago I used to love going there  

haven't been there in a while though Ms MH says  thanks a lot my teacher this is me S nice to see  

you there Vos again uh you could read different  books for us teaching the difficult word what  

you think I suppose I could do that I mean you can  you can find lots of that already just watch there  

are lots of people reading books I mean maybe  they don't explain the vocabulary but if you're  

watching uh typically children's books that could  be some useful things uh often like like if you  

look at your uh like you could read different  books for us teaching the difficult word like  

there there are some basic mistakes in that in in  what you said I'm sure maybe you're just writing  

it quickly but the typos or whatever uh but if  we want to become a more confident speaker and  

speak correctly if that is your goal uh I would  be focusing much more on that and there are lots  

of people who already you know you I can I could  search YouTube right now and find people who are  

uh reading books to kids or even reading more  difficult stuff is getting audio books of things  

my D do you need to watch your videos in some  particular or or do I need to watch your videos  

in some particular order uh if you're in fluent  for Life yes but if you're in just watching videos  

here on YouTube you'll notice a lot of the the  videos I make they cover some of the same general  

topics but I try to teach different vocabulary in  each one um just so I can help people understand  

how they should be learning so if they either  want to continue doing that by themselves or  

they join me and let me kind of get them fluent  automatically um but you don't have to watch them  

in any particular order it's more uh focusing on  the particular things you need so we cover quite  

a few different things but if you'd like to hear  more about listening or pronunciation or whatever  

you can search my channel for those things uh  let's see and Lewis says Will Smith is also simple  

to understand oh it's not uh not also simple to  understand I think yes it depends on the speaker  

and what situation they're speaking in and like if  you if you watch people in a movie rather than an  

interview also if you watch a a movie actor in an  interview in a different country they will change  

the way they speak a little bit so if you watch  for like J like the Japanese audience you know  

Tom Cruz or somebody comes to Japan and they do  an interview they try to speak a little bit you  

know make just they might even throw in a uh  like a Japanese word or something like that  

uh but it depends on the audience if it's if it's  for native speakers usually they will speak faster  

or they will speak in a different way uh Obrigado  says uh valir and hyp hip if I'm pronouncing that  

correctly uh from Vietnam I see here and what  kind of exercise will you recommend to improve  

my speaking speed uh I would just understand the  language better so understanding the language  

better is is the that improves every skill so  if you if you learn a lot of words but you don't  

really understand them very well then you can't  use them faster all right so if you want to be  

able to speak quickly I could speak much faster  than how I'm speaking now but I don't uh but  

I could because I know the language very well  so if I don't if I'm talking about something I  

don't know very well then I'm not going to speak  very quickly about it all right so the key is  

really to spend more time on something but I'm not  suggesting you do it in a boring way just keep it  

interesting by taking something you're interested  in and connecting that with the English all right  

so it doesn't need to be boring it should just  be actual content you're interested in I'm Korean  

living in Malaysia thank you for your videos glad  to hear it says megi and again just sento says one  

of the ways I improved my English by watching  cartoons and comedy sitcoms friends was a good  

show yeah I know a lot of people watch that show  yeah it's it's interesting like friends I I don't  

know if people if ative speakers still talk about  friends that show is uh you know it's been off uh  

maybe it's still in reruns I guess I don't know uh  but usually now I guess more things on Netflix or  

something like that but friends is is pretty easy  to understand uh and there's lots of videos about  

understanding that show uh the video is useful for  me appreciate it glad to hear it yes if you know  

other people we can help who would like to learn  English the native way like this send them our  

way Luciana says hello Drew thank you for all the  videos can you explain the difference between also  

and two and the context in which we can use both  words well it's better to get like this is a kind  

of question for chat GPT I would go there or go  to Google because you can already find examples of  

that I'm most useful for when you have a specific  example of something you don't really understand  

so let me know if you have a specific question  about that but if you're just talking about like  

like also and two it depends on particular  situations and and rather than try to cover  

a bunch of those you can just that information  is already just sitting there waiting for you  

it might even be in other YouTube videos as well  uh Bane says how are you Tom again let's practice  

our English making question to teacher Drew and  hitting the like button yes you could do that so  

you could say like making uh making a question for  Teacher Drew or you could just say like asking a  

question to teacher Drew everon says what do you  think about change the language of cell phone and  

another devices and other devices uh yeah I think  that's useful if it's if it's kind of fun for you  

and depending on how you use that for me like  I don't do that in Japanese because there are  

a lot of written characters that I can't read and  it would be more difficult for me uh for for some  

things like changing the settings or whatever  I I just don't know some of the characters uh  

so it depends if you're like if you're coming  from French or Spanish or something that also  

uses uh similar alphabet then you could probably  do something like that and it would be useful  

for you um but I don't I don't know like th those  kinds of things like they can be interesting kind  

of putting changing your environment I talk about  that as like a way to be helpful but you don't  

have to do those things the more important thing  that you have to do is actually focusing on the  

particular vocabulary and spending enough time  that you eliminate doubt about it so if I took  

two people and one of them was like okay I'm I'm  even going to live in a country and set my phone  

to that thing and and whatever like a couple  of other things and another person just got a  

lot of really understandable input like that the  understandable input person uh would get fluent  

faster because the goal again is to understand  the language really well so you feel confident  

about speaking okay so if your if your phone it  kind of reminds you of that that's useful but  

I don't know it's it's not not as useful as just  getting a lot of good focused input about a thing  

until you clear up whatever doubt you have about  that so that's what I was doing with this example  

about the word grit today and gritty and we could  even cover more examples and there are some more  

examples if you'd like to read some sentences uh  in the description below this video uh but again  

the point is to focus on something rather than  try to get a bunch of random vocabulary um but  

you can see so people are naturally interested  excuse me people are naturally interested in in  

kind of getting a wide range of stuff and they  don't like reviewing information but uh but they  

also do like reviewing information that they're  interested in so it's a it's a tricky thing where  

if you if you learn a new language in a way that  that is like how you enjoy uh let me make this  

easier uh let's say I like I personally like a TV  show like if I like the show Friends for example  

I I'll probably watch watch lots of episodes of  friends and and I don't uh I don't need anyone to  

remind me of that I don't need any motivation to  watch the show I just enjoy watching the show and  

so if I can take something like that uh but also  connect it with the review I need for learning  

English then I'm I'm probably going to enjoy that  more uh but uh even watching like Random episodes  

of friends like there will be some things that  are similar and some things that are not about  

the vocabulary um so it it you know it just it  really depends on what you're learning uh but  

again focus is the key and I would I would do that  uh make sure I'm not getting I'm not losing track  

over here getting more comments did I miss these  up here wait a minute oh I think I got this one  

all okay I did those already yeah pardon me as  I as I lose my place it would be awesome YouTube  

If you could push a button and it just took me  back to the comment where I was so I don't have  

to keep scrolling back uh but let's see okay I  think I answered that one Melly uh Melly says  

I really love the way you teach it's so helpful  for improving my English glad to hear it yes and  

so if you feel more confident about speaking  because you understand the language better it  

means what I'm doing is working so when people  say it's helpful like that it should be what's  

happening and and as you feel more confident you  should be uh trying to speak more or trying to  

use the vocabulary more I'm trying to give you aha  moments where you understand something better like  

like oh that's what that means okay now I feel  more confident about using it uh R says how not  

to forget words that are used so often greetings  from Brazil um well if you're if if you are using  

the vocabulary often you probably shouldn't be  forgetting it but it depends on the vocabulary  

again I would get more review of that just to  make it more obvious for you uh and see people  

in those situation so watch watch those people do  it so the reason children learn their own language  

very well is because they see so many examples of  adults doing that situation or whatever that using  

those phrases or things like that so every day if  my I hear my mom on the phone she says hello this  

is blah blah blah you know this is Judy whatever  you know she she's I hear the way she answers the  

phone and then I'm going to start copying what  she does oh hello this is Drew you know may I  

ask who's speaking or uh something like that so  it depends on uh on what you what you're trying to  

learn but like the the answer is typically focus  on that thing don't make it boring for yourself  

get varied review that's why what I call naturally  varied review is so important because we're not  

just watching the same video again and again you  can get more uh review from that like if you watch  

something and then listen to it and try writing  it down that's how you're really trying to get  

all the value out of a particular video because  usually what happens is maybe you're watching this  

video right now but you're also thinking oh I'm  a little bit hungry what should I get for dinner  

tonight or something like that so you're not  you're not paying attention to me 100% of the  

time sometimes you're thinking about something  else or whatever like ah I got you right there  

you're thinking about something else all right  so that's why it's a good idea to review even  

the same piece of content a few times uh but it's  less uh interesting for your brain uh than trying  

to get like a bunch of different things all right  so you want to combine this this natural desire  

of your brain to learn new things uh but you also  learn more about the things you're interested in  

so maybe if you if you like a particular sports  team then you know all the information and you  

want to get new news about that team you really  know that thing well so that's that's the same  

kind of thing you're trying to apply uh to be  learning English and getting fluent in English

faster uh okay I think I got those already uh  Alexander from Brazil nice to see you there  

and Russ Rika if I'm pronouncing that correctly  correct me if I'm wrong from Sri Lanka Tom again  

good question Ro I think I answered that one  though friends is very popular in China every  

English learner knows it yes I I figure that might  be Diana says what is the best advice to study for  

doing the exam TOEFL greetings from Mexico uh I'm  not the best person to ask about particular tests  

I focus on conversational fluency and speaking  confidence uh but if you're looking for test I  

would you can probably find lots of people on  YouTube who do that kind of thing so what I do  

is actually helpful for tests but I'm probably  not the best person to ask about like taking a  

particular test uh how can I become fluent in a  language what are the key steps and strategies  

says Tam uh it's just finding information that  that is helping you understand the language like  

a native that's basically the idea so if you  want to speak a language fluently you have to  

remove the doubt that stops you from speaking  you will find some people who can who just have  

confidence and they just say things and they're  not correct but lots of people are worried about  

making mistakes and so they would rather uh feel  confident when they're speaking and that that's  

just like a normal thing so if you can find more  information about things that help you understand  

like a native so this is what we do on our videos  here uh or influent for life we actually take you  

step by step through understanding the language  really well so you feel confident about speaking  

but that's how you do it so there it's not like  a lot of really complicated steps I made a video  

uh years ago called get fluent with one trick uh  and it's interesting to see that video was copied  

by a lot of people I've seen it like get fluent  in Japanese with one trick or whatever but the  

uh the basic idea of that video is that you just  have to understand English like a native speaker  

so instead of trying to learn the language like  a native you understand it or excuse me like your  

like you're learning through your native language  you understand it like a native English speaker  

and so that means getting lots of examples lots  of naturally varied review lots of input that  

help you understand the language and that's what  eliminates or destroys or ends or gets uh gets  

rid of the doubt that stops you from speaking so  you you already want to speak you already have  

things you want to say you just don't know how  to put it together in English uh and those are  

the doubts right there and as you remove those  doubts you feel more confident about speaking  

because you know how to speak correctly uh and  that's when you start speaking so that that's  

really just the one thing you don't need like  a lot of tips in order to do that it's just  

focusing on understanding the language like a  native rather than like a student so you like  

what what most people do you should not do that  uh they understand a lot of English but they  

still have trouble speaking uh because they  don't really know the language very well Sak  

ni see there from Al Mor uh thank you for your  uh the eye opening explanation and help us uh  

un uh help us easier to understand yes you would  say thank you for the eye-opening explanation uh  

that helps us understand more easily or actually  there are different ways you could say that but  

yes I understand what you're trying to say uh  let's see good to have more Japanese Watchers over  

here better enjoyable says I've been studying  English for almost a year and a half I can  

understand over 80% but struggle with speaking  where I often make mistakes what do you advise  

to help me speak more like a native you have to  learn like a native so as I've been explaining in  

this video and all of the videos I make the whole  point is to instead of learning like a student you  

learn like a native so I I have many videos where  I talk about this like English learning English  

as a second language and learning English as a  first language and so when you learn English as a  

first language this means learning English all in  English and trying to understand it the same way a  

native does rather than trying to get explanations  or translations that make communication more  

difficult so it's faster to learn a bunch of words  and just get some translations and make flashcards  

and try to remember that vocabulary but that's  not really going to help you speak because how  

you learn is how you speak so if you learn like  a student you will speak like a student if you  

learn like a native you will speak like a native  okay so you want to focus uh more on understanding  

the language like a native and that's what we do  in all these videos and I know we get like not  

everybody is going to watch all of my videos here  so I like to re explain these things each time I  

do videos so it's good to get these questions  but you can see how common these problems are  

because they come up in every video so lots of  people have the same kinds of issues and even  

though I'm explaining basically the same answer  I try to explain it in a slightly different way  

each time uh what do you think about flashcards  says it's hard to choose a name uh flashcards  

are useful after you already understand  something well so perfect example example  

for me learning kanji uh so these are Japanese  Japanese written characters and uh if I if I

begin so the the typical approach like I'm  talking about here like learning English  

as a second language I'm going to give the  example for learning uh Japanese so it would  

be like learning Japanese as a second language  so I take a character uh that I don't I don't  

really understand let me let me just uh what's  trying to think of something more difficult even  

even like a like a simple character if I if I  just write this um as a as a character and I try  

to read that like the flashcard way to do this is  just okay here's a card and this is the the like  

the character I'm trying to remember and on the  back of that card it tells me what it is um and  

I'm just like okay I'm trying to remember okay  I have to I have to like look at the flash card  

many times many times and hopefully I remember it  so this is the typical way of learning something  

so the flash card becomes useful over time as  hopefully I recall something like or if I write  

it enough times I should be able to understand  that or the faster way uh to understand something  

like would be like understanding like Japanese  uh as a first language where I don't want to  

just start memorizing something I really want  to understand that thing and so uh this char  

for example uh so we have like uh the character  for person and the character for tree and I know  

what these are and so I can create a very  simple story about like a person relaxing  

on a tree U and you can do this like not not all  characters work this way physically but you can  

create stories as an example for doing that and  so before you start reviewing a flash card you  

really want to understand the thing you're  learning and so it's the the it's the same  

lesson uh that I I use uh for for me learning  Japanese that I'm also teaching for English  

so I take the character I really understand it  first and then I don't really need to review that  

character many times to understand it because  I already remember what it is all right so the  

flash card is useful for just a little bit of  review but I should be spending more time at  

the beginning really understanding something well  all right so it's like you can think about like  

sharpening your uh your knife or something like  that or you're going to sharpen your axe before  

you cut something so I spend my time like really  understanding something that's the sharpening the  

axe part and then when I go to review it it's  very quick that's the chopping using the axe  

part okay so a lot of people they just get a word  and they start chopping but but the ax is very  

dull there's that word dull again see how I bring  back the vocabulary so I can give you that review  

all right uh so when we're when we're hearing  something like this like like if I learn some  

new vocabulary the basic way most people do it  is they just try to repeat the same thing they're  

trying to hit their head with a hammer I got to  review this thing over and over and over and I'm  

going to force myself to do that maybe I remember  it for a test I probably won't remember it later  

okay but I'll remember this forever all right  so if you learn like if you you you're trying  

to learn Japanese and you're like oh look at that  like that's the that's the the kanif for person  

and it kind of looks like a you know a person  like walking like the legs or whatever and anybody  

could remember that that's pretty easy it's a  little bit of a a story there and then maybe  

I have this like here's a a tree character over  here and look at that yeah it kind of looks like  

I could I could imagine that's you know kind of a  tree with some roots or something like that and so  

as I learn these things because I understand these  two things well I can easily put them together to  

create this new thing over here all right so  the basic idea uh flash cards by themselves  

are not good or bad it's just how you use them and  typically you should be spending more of your time  

like sharpening your knife by spending more time  with the vocabulary itself to really understand  

something if you really understand it you don't  really need much of the flash cards all right yes  

and Tom knows what's going on so you have like  like stoy or something like that like something  

something uh easy where we're making making  combinations but yes somebody is reminding me get

my ah all right but let us continue so hopefully  that makes sense so I use flash cards myself I can  

show you let me show you some so I actually  have and my writing is really tiny as usual  

so this is actually like a pack of uh flash cards  just to show you that I do actually spend my time  

learning but this is what I'm doing basically  and I don't know why I wrote them so tiny I've  

got lots of space on the so don't make flash cards  like me like my my my writing is typically small  

and not very not very neat uh but as an example  this is the kind of thing I'm doing so I have a  

flash card and then on the back like it's more  of like a story to help me remember the flash  

card uh rather than something else but this is  basically what I'm doing so personally as I'm  

learning I do use flash cards but how I'm learning  them or how I'm using them is important all right  

here we go all right let's see if we can get  through these last comments over here all right  

I think or and ilder nice to see their hrew let  let's learn some English with you this morning  

welcome to be honest with you I can understand  over 80% even difficult native speakers that's  

great and so understanding is the the first  step but you want to understand well enough  

that you can speak so if speaking is your goal  that's what you should be doing all right why  

says how can I learn vocabulary useful well  just pick a few things that you need for your  

life and focus on them that's how I would do  it so when I hear things in my life I think oh  

that's probably some vocabulary I should know so  I spend some time learning it and then uh I want  

to you know I want to want to spend more time like  reviewing something until I feel confident using

it uh let's

see Tom says listening to and understanding what  teacher Drew says is already a test for the toal  

exam yeah you could you could think about that  that way again I'm not I'm not an expert uh on  

the toal exam I actually have friends who do  um but I don't focus on that specifically Lewis  

says blah blah blah I think that expression  is universal it doesn't need translation in  

in English blah blah Portuguese a blah blah too  uh yeah you could say something I think wasn't  

there like a friends oh no I'm thinking of like  a Seinfeld episode that was like yada yada or  

something like that fisherman says Ah when you  say focus in a particular topic I was thinking  

feeling hungry and saying what shall I eat is so  funny uh blah blah in Japanese is there exists uh  

blah blah blah I don't know actually maybe Koo  can can answer that question cuz I like it's a  

bit more of a uh it's kind of like using it in  that way it's like a pretty rude thing to do in  

Japan so I'm like I've not I've not heard people  use that with me so there might be something  

like that but I don't use that personally and um  yeah yeah so maybe Koo can answer that question  

so is there something like it blah blah blah like  someone else is talking to you but you don't care  

what they're saying or it's just like they're  saying something it doesn't mean anything it's  

nonsense like that blah blah Everton I'm work with  programming and I try don't type it with my native  

language meanwhile I use chat GPT so yeah it's  okay to use chat GPT but like remember chat GPT  

can't speak for you and chat GPT will also make  mistakes I I I catch many mistakes from chat GPT  

and so I have to be careful that I'm not like  learning something that's too difficult for me  

like if I I I never feel very confident with  chat GPT unless it's just some basic things  

that I'm getting more examples of that I I know  it's correct uh and that's for both English and  

Japanese uh I make a mistake Tom I've always  done leis you made a mistake again no says I  

have toal test this week and I am super nervous  wish me luck well good luck I can't really help  

you prepare for it but good luck uh focus on the  whatever you need for the test find out what that  

is and focus on that and if you need to prepare  prepare for a test like don't follow my advice  

here my advice is for people who really need to  speak and so they have kind of like a longer term  

uh use of something but if you have a test today  or this week just go get your flashcards and try  

to memorize stuff and cram it into your head  as fast as possible so that that's what I guess  

that that that would be my advice for that just  for taking a test but if you actually want to  

speak you should follow what I'm recommending  give it a try see if I'm correct or not uh  

let's see uh good luck Nona yes all right Nona  everyone congratulating Nona over there saying  

good luck all right thank you teacher you have  been an amazing teacher all the time glad to hear  

iller says yesterday I saw the UK sitcom mind mind  your language oh like Mi I it's spelled like that  

mind your language so many funny accents nice for  training listening in fun mode yeah a Drew Sensei  

with a cat in a box says subasa hello how are you  says Elizabeth I'm doing well Tam says thank you  

drew for providing such a helpful explanation to  the question the key steps and strategies your  

Insight and guidance are greatly appreciate it's  my pleasure remember I want to make this simple  

for people so I know and also like when you get  what we call aisal alytical it's kind of a funny  

word for like those you know like uh like a list  of something like on a on a blog post it's like  

here 10 ways to to do something like that uh if  you're if there are actually 10 steps in order  

to do something you you know like if I'm trying  to build something there are specific steps but  

typically for getting fluent I really want to  make it simple for people just understand uh  

understand the language like a native it's really  that simple so if you have doubts about something  

you need to clear up those doubts you need to  answer those doubts or destroy those doubts and  

that will help you speak confidently so that's it  yes I had some water already uh let's see here so  

always learning a lot here glad to hear it why  so small yeah I don't I don't know why I write  

so small I think maybe I started doing that my my  writing typically is quite small though and so I  

have to think hard to write on these whiteboards  here in the future I'd like to have just like a  

nice Studio where I can type something and then  it just appears nice and clean on the screen so  

I think I'll do that I think I've seen people do  that uh but I don't have that set up now let's see

yeah hi Sensei says nice to see you there uh let's  see bling bling lay one person lean on a tree for  

rest yeah that's the basic idea uh Alexander says  when you give classes here typically Mondays and  

Thursdays Japan time uh not always but usually  uh usually this time Taylor Taylor how can  

how I can understand you well I'm I'm being  understandable so I'm I'm being understandable  

so I gave the explanation earlier about having  different levels of English speaking so the  

way people speak in real life in movies and  TV shows is different than how I'm speaking  

now they're using the same language but they use  it in a different way it's much faster or there  

might be uses of vocabulary that are it's just  much more difficult to understand that uh so  

that's why influent for life we actually take  people through uh through understanding these  

different kinds of English so you go from this  easier teaching English to the native level and  

so you can understand it well and you can use  it more confidently in your own conversations  

all right hello this is Korea look at that Korea  representing uh hack Wizards over there uh sir  

any future plan for buying a smart board uh yeah  like that that would be kind of cool I would need  

a place to put it though so that's since they also  Ed in Chinese oh that's interesting I'm guessing I  

don't know how you pronounce that though h me oh  my goodness but since in Chinese language means  

sir yeah I don't know what that would what that  would mean exactly but yes it's a it's teacher  

in Japanese or may I mean listening and reading  is input then writing and speaking is output so  

we need partner for speaking because input and  output must be balanced no no no no no no no no  

what do you what do you mean they must be balanced  you spend most of your day uh not speaking I mean  

unless you are a professional speaker or you are a  door-to-door Salesman or somebody that's actually  

speaking a long time like if you're on the phone  like you're doing phone sales or something like  

that uh typically most people are not spending  their their time speaking they're getting lots of  

input and the thing that allows the output is the  input so if you get more input you will have more  

output but you don't have to try to balance those  where I spend 10 minutes reading and 10 minutes  

trying to speak that's not the way to get fluent I  should actually spend an hour trying to understand  

more and then I could spend 10 minutes speaking  really well because I understand the language well  

all right so don't worry about trying to balance  out like input and output just spend your time  

really understanding the language maybe you do  it quickly maybe it takes a while but until you  

remove the doubt you're going to have trouble  speaking so just remove the doubt don't worry  

about repeating things or looking for a practice  partner or something like that just just eliminate  

the doubt all right R says mind your language  di says I can see the word could you write  

a little down I can't see the word which one  listicle hopefully that's that's on there I  

think that's on the screen I can see it uh and  Danielle says Drew I'm following your video since  

2019 it's been a while huh thanks for everything  go I'm glad to hear it uh Lo says excellent D no  

no s adise is always encouraging glad to hear  Pana says uh you are very happy mode when you  

are teaching I am very happy to learn with you sir  well yeah I enjoy teaching it's it's fun to fun to  

help people understand things all right uh prianti  says a good morning uh how is everything going on  

everything's going well I can't stop thinking  everything in Spanish what do you recommend to  

be able to think in English you have to learn in  English that's the easy answer so if you're if  

you're thinking in Spanish it means you're still  learning in Spanish but if you get one example  

of how you learn something knew in English you  will understand that thing in English and not  

have to translate anything so that's why we  like you you see I'm not I give maybe a few  

Japanese examples because I learn Japanese but  uh I don't I'm not using Spanish or Italian or  

French or Russian or anything to teach English  I'm teaching English in English and helping you  

understand English in English and as you do  that you will stop translating naturally okay  

so don't worry about trying to force the Spanish  out of your mind you should just spend more time  

getting more input in English English uh with  a village guy from India zuas says how is your  

workout going we know you have a kind of home  gym the home gym yes tuas is asking about the  

gym uh the only thing I have for a home gym I'll  draw it for you this is pretty cool got this on

Amazon it is a uh jushi so a freestanding uh  parallel bar that's it this is this is the  

only piece of gym equipment I have so this is I  can so I can hang from this this is me the belly  

over here I can hang or I can raise it or lower it  or whatever but that's the only I don't I don't do  

any uh like weight training really uh it's all uh  body like what do you call it Callis calisthenics

so calisthenics or body weight training uh so  if I'm I can do pretty much everything if you  

have a uh like a parallel bar uh you know you can  this is you know I'm not like a great artist when  

I'm drawing these pictures uh but yes I can do  different um the only problem is I can't do like  

muscle ups or something because I don't have  my my roof like the ceiling in my in my room  

is really short so I have like the where I have  the uh where I put this up and it's foldable so  

I I can put it away and the kids they sometimes  hang on it so I can put rings on this too so I  

use Rings sometimes uh but I I don't that's all  I do for for exercise it works well though I I  

recommend it so I mean you don't you don't need  to go to a gym or go to get uh lots of equipment  

just you like you already have weight with you  just use the weight that you have and then it  

will naturally build build up and you get kind of  heavier and then you use that weight continue to  

do stronger exercises or heavier exercises but I  kind of hurt my uh my left shoulder a month or two  

ago and it's it's it's starting to get better but  like it was kind of a pain I was doing um what do  

you call like upside down push-ups like standing  like freestanding push-ups and I maybe I kind of  

heard it I guess uh let's see here and Diana says  the last and Ariel says I have to learn uh native  

English speaker I have to learn native English  speaker because I don't understand when they're  

speaking uh the teacher would speak more in their  native yes so again if you want to understand  

Natives and speak well then you have to understand  the way natives do that's how you do it all right  

uh and then Gian says hello teacher all right look  at that we made it to the end of the comments very  

good all right uh just a quick recap for the end  of this especially people who joined us late uh  

the basic idea is that you want to understand  vocabulary like a native and often when people  

are just hearing something it's a higher level  of vocabulary rather than uh the kind of lower  

or easier vocabulary understanding that a native  would know so if you can take more time and spend  

more time understanding the foundation of that  vocabulary then you can use that fluently and  

I really want to make it clear that you become  fluent in any individual words and phrases as  

you become fluent or as you become confident uh  because you've eliminated the doubt about those  

things so you can still talk about some things  fluently but other things you cannot all right and  

so that's that's like the kind of uh the reason  why uh is because we actually get fluent in some  

things as we understand them well one thing at  a time okay so focus on something become fluent  

in that thing so I wanted to call this video  like can you get fluent in one word uh but it's  

basically the same idea of can we learn something  and understand it really well and then start using  

that fluently that's the basic idea all right all  right make sure I didn't miss any last comments  

here L says what is your opinion some people say  so would be some people say that just by listening  

to a language we could get it they say it isn't  necessary to study just by listening we could get  

English well uh as I always say the the point uh  is not to is not to only listen to the language  

it's to understand the language and so if you  took took a small child you would want to uh help  

them see the language and touch something or taste  something all of those things help you understand  

the point is not just to listen to the language  like I wouldn't just I mean I I would learn much  

more slowly and it would be I would I would create  a lot more doubt if I only listened all right but  

the point is I think people are trying to to  say that you need input and that's correct uh  

but I want to make it clear what what's actually  happening so if you can get enough input that  

helps you understand something well enough that  you feel confident using it then you will speak  

all right but if you just get kind of surface  level uh you don't understand something very well  

then then you're not going to feel very confident  speaking okay so spend more time understanding the  

language really well and that's the thing that's  going to help you speak all right so whatever it  

is you're learning focus on on that uh and that  will get you uh get you the fluency you're looking  

for all right but it's not about just listening  it's about understanding the language really well  

so you remove the doubt all right think about that  like I want I want people to start spreading this  

around so it's not about just listening it's about  removing the doubt all right so destroy whatever  

doubt that stops you from speaking and that will  get you flowing faster all right uh let's see  

itrain says good night and L says uh it's like an  international class with so many students from all  

over the world yeah isn't this interesting so I  can be here in one room and someone can else uh  

you know other people can be in different rooms  uh it's amazing anywhere in the world so it like  

there's never been an easier time to get fluent  it's really like the opportunity right now is  

just incredible because the the information is  all over the place but the point is there's so  

much information that people get you know they  can't focus on a particular thing and really  

understand it well so the people who Focus are the  people will get fluent uh and let's see how many  

hours or time per day is it recommended to spend  listening to English movies or videos in English  

well whatever you can do you know if you can  do five minutes a day 10 minutes a day great if  

you can do more that's great too but how you use  the time is really most important so how you use  

the time if you if you take 10 minutes and focus  on some lessons that really help you understand  

something like a native that's a much better use  of your time than just watching some random part  

of a movie all right so you want to again the  point is to eliminate the doubt that stops you  

from speaking don't lose the belly yes we want  to my my I my my wife is like my belly manager  

to make sure it doesn't get too big so she'll let  me know you know if my if I if I need to lose a  

little bit of weight thank you drew uh see you yes  Luman all over the world bye Min see you see you  

and see you then all right Georgia says how to say  complicated things with simple words you should  

watch my video about that I made a whole video  about that how to say like uh like it's basically  

that that idea but look at my live videos you will  find something like that uh thank you to everyone  

who has joined me today uh I hope you have learned  something if you have do click the like button and  

let other people know that they should watch the  video too oh now look at of course everybody has  

to come right here by the end of it let's see  I imagine you uh hanging on the tree standing  

parallel bar with Stallone face yeah so if I  if I I mean the the reason I got the parallel  

bar for the for the inside of my house is because  we have mosquitoes and so in the summertime when  

I'm outside if I'm trying to do exercising on that  I'm just getting I'm getting torn up by mosquitoes  

so I wanted to have something nice I could just  relax and do stuff whenever I want to and I can  

get up so today I was up at like 4:30 you know get  like exercise in and then uh I can I can enjoy the  

rest of my day uh let's see Daniel says teacher  uh I think you're similar to Dave Matthews from  

Dave Matthews Band you know I actually saw him  in person one time uh I was working actually  

at a sushi restaurant in uh in in Seattle and  he came to the restaurant and I didn't think I  

look like him but uh I guess maybe I could see  that uh let's see hi from Brazil says Paulo and  

Alejandra what's up from Mexico and times say do  must C Ando and look at that you can use a whole  

bunch of look at Tom is just the the ultimate uh  polyglot over there very good all right well I'm  

going to shut it down now take your time focus  on something I promise you you will become a  

fluent speaker faster without having to spend  lots of time studying things if you focus on  

understanding and you get understanding by getting  lots of varied review about a particular topic all  

right hopefully that makes sense uh Jon says uh  I'm new here I came across your streaming video  

by YouTube recommendation I'm enthusiastic about  learning English I'm delighted to be here well  

we've got lots of videos uh we do do these lives  occasionally actually usually like once or twice  

a week oh my goodness you guys stop commenting  you guys are making this difficult for me uh but  

yes welcome to the program it's always nice to  see more people with little like Emoji hearts  

and flowers and things like that all right thanks  uses Tom uh chronog go says Drew do you plan on  

making Japanese lessons as a first language  uh I think there's probably enough Japanese  

content already I don't really need to do that  I think if I were to teach Japanese like that it  

would probably be just using other content that's  already available the term filial in English why  

is not commonly used in everyday conversation  particularly in American English I don't know  

like I it's like like filial like filial piety  like that kind of thing like it nobody would you  

know we just talk about you know maybe respecting  your parents or something but people don't people  

don't respect their parents enough that that's a  that's a bigger issue before we worry about that  

but all right thank you all have a fantastic day  and I'll see you in the next video if you'd like  

to learn more about actually getting fluent uh you  can certainly apply these principles by yourself  

but if you'd like me to just do it for you so you  can get fluent faster click on the links in the  

description you can learn more about Frederick  and fluent for Life I'll see you back bye-bye