Tom Hanks & The Truth About English Fluency

all right I think we're live

hi there I am Drew Badger the English fluency  guide and founder of englishanyone.com and  

welcome to another live video here on YouTube  this should be an interesting video we'll wait  

for a few people to come in uh make sure the  chat is working so if you're here let me know  

where you're from or why you're learning that'll  help me help you but this is just a good thing  

make sure the chat is working as well it always  takes a while for uh for YouTube to notify people  

uh but I'll get right into the lesson today  so I wanted to make this video uh all right  

Chad is working how you asking nice to see you  there so the reason I wanted to make this is  

because enough people in comments have said I  look like Tom Hanks really uh and so I thought  

actually you know this would be a very interesting  thing to talk about because it reveals something  

interesting about fluency uh so hopefully you'll  enjoy this video so the basic idea uh or I guess  

something I notice it's very interesting so many  Learners from you know different countries or  

whatever uh if they say they look like or say I  look like uh Tom Hanks it's a pretty common thing  

I've seen like Forrest Gump and Saving Private  Ryan and quotes like that uh in in comments uh  

but what's interesting is that I don't think I've  ever heard that from people in the United States  

so nobody uh I mean maybe one person maybe but  in general nobody says I look like Tom Hanks  

and this isn't like a good or bad thing if you  you know whatever maybe you think Tom Hanks is  

a good looking guy or not it doesn't really matter  uh but the basic idea is that it's interesting to  

see lots of people from various countries who  say I look like Tom Hanks even though you know  

people in my own country would not say that let  me make sure I got my microphone working here

maybe no are we not working today it's  always got to be some kind of issue

let me see here

all right we should be  looking like that yes Tom Hank

all right guys again and make sure everybody can  hear me because I don't know if sound was coming  

in properly before but anyway so I'm Drew Badger  the founder of englishany1.com in the English  

fluency guide and the reason I'm making this  video is because I have had lots of comments  

from Learners who say I look like Tom Hanks so  uh why am I making this video again you know I  

thought it would be an interesting thing to talk  about specifically because it affects your fluency  

so anyway most people in the United States uh  would not look at me and think I look like Tom  

Hanks maybe a few would but most would not but  it reveals something very interesting about how  

we all get fluent uh and so here's something  like I mean imagine me I've been living in  

Japan for many years uh before I came to Japan  I can maybe like even before I came to Japan I  

was pretty good at telling like you know Chinese  versus Korean versus Japanese by looking at people  

but I know many people especially in the United  States like they think lots of people look like  

like Ichiro you know in Japan even though he  has a very unique looking face so this is uh  

Ichiro Suzuki the baseball player and what it  reveals is that how uh kind of nuanced and deep  

of a connection or knowledge or understanding  you have about something uh really determines  

like how well you can talk about it or how well  you know that thing so just as an example I want  

to compare like the people who think I look like  Tom Hanks versus the people who do not think I  

look like Tom Hanks so the people who think  like I look like Tom Hanks they they would  

like if you put us next to each other you would  probably notice some pretty big differences and  

I don't have a picture of him right here to do  that but the point is that the deeper you get or  

the more familiar you get with looking at people  you start you start to notice those differences  

uh it's like if we you know look at different  animals or something and like it's hard for  

humans to tell them apart but each of those  animals knows the difference you know from  

like like this horse and that horse or something  like that so just to put this in the context for  

language Learners I thought I would give kind of  a surface level language lesson and then more of  

a deeper level uh kind of the way you would  actually understand something like a native  

so I'm going to cover some vocabulary because  usually what people have is they have like a  

very surface level knowledge of something so they  have a surface level a kind of basic understanding  

of something and then they wonder why they can't  speak so the same person who might look at me and  

think oh what looks like Tom Hanks like another  person who who really understands the differences  

between even two people who might look similar now  I look closer to Tom Hanks than maybe Shaquille  

O'Neal or something but you can look at still the  differences and see why a lot of people would not  

say I look like this person so it's interesting  it's more like how familiar you get with the  

vocabulary so let me give you a basic vocabulary  lesson to to explain this and kind of show why  

this is a very interesting thing about fluency so  I'll just put let's see I have uh I wrote down a  

couple of verbs here a couple of or just a couple  of words so let's see we got play go eat run

lose stay

commence and reverse

okay so here's how an irregular English lesson  and this is not just for the English language  

almost everybody teaches any language  this way but what the teacher will do  

they will give you a bunch of words like this  and then either we will give you a translation  

of like one word into the other language or we  will give you a basic definition and then maybe an  

example or something so let's do that so we begin  with the word play uh you know this is something  

you could go to a park and play uh or maybe  you could uh you could even play an instrument  

uh and then so yesterday I played basketball  a very simple lesson here we go yesterday I  

played basketball next is go so here I'm  pronouncing the word for you I say go  

so yesterday I went somewhere or I will go  somewhere tomorrow so go means to move from one  

place to another to go now we have eat and that is  to like put some food in my mouth again this is a  

very basic easy definition of the word eat uh and  maybe tomorrow I will eat I don't know tomorrow I  

will eat a cake for my birthday tomorrow I will  eat a cake for my birthday next we have run now  

the word uh run it just means you know you're  running with your your legs on the ground and  

you're trying to move quickly and it's faster  than walking all right so I'm walking but now I  

move faster than that and I'm running okay next is  lose so this is just the opposite of win so maybe  

I will lose the baseball game tomorrow or I lost  a baseball game yesterday so the other team win  

and I lost next we have stay maybe I will stay at  a hotel tomorrow I will stay at a hotel tomorrow  

so this just means to be at a place maybe you're  staying some play uh staying somewhere overnight  

or you were staying someplace for the weekend and  then we have commence which is a more advanced  

verb than we have for these other ones up here  just means to start to begin doing something to  

commence doing that like I just commenced this  video so we've been talking for about eight  

minutes now and then we have reverse so reverse  means to go one place and then turn around and  

go the opposite direction so I'm walking this way  and then I reverse and go back this way reverse  

now if I ask most English Learners do you know  what all of these mean and when I say most English  

Learners I mean most of the people who watch my  videos I think everybody almost everybody would  

know all of these and so they would say oh okay  like yeah I know play I know go I know eat I know  

lose I know stay and commence and reverse all  right but do you really that's the question now  

again this this lesson that I'm giving here this  is a very surface lesson so maybe some of you know  

all of these words or some of them most of these  are pretty common commence is probably the most  

advanced of these uh again like a child with no  play go eat run lose maybe stay the last three or  

maybe a little bit more difficult for for children  because they're less common but I haven't really  

taught you anything I'm putting the words up here  on the Whiteboard I'm giving you a basic example  

if this were an English lesson in your native  language like the regular ESL lesson maybe I'm  

giving you a translation like I would give you  a translation in Japanese of all of these words  

okay so but this is a very surface lesson I'm  not going like deep into any of these things at  

all and even if you know all these my guess is  you probably don't know all of the varied and  

deeper and nuanced meanings of all of these words  that natives really use all right I'll give you an  

example in just a moment but the important Point  here is like looking at all these words and when  

you say you know a word like this like yeah I  know play I know go I know eat I know all of  

these words it's kind of like saying I look like  Tom Hanks it's like yeah like he looks like Tom  

Hanks like really you really think he looks like  Tom Hanks like if you look at it closely you look  

at these two people now they might look similar or  more similar than somebody else but how really uh  

like how detailed or how nuanced are you looking  like do they have the same eye color is the same  

no shape the same height the same look or even  the same voice so again this is a surface level  

uh explanation of something and Learners even if  they know all of these are usually not prepared  

in conversations even when they hear these words  because they will hear them used in different ways  

so let me give you now a deeper meaning of one  of these or kind of go deeper into giving you  

a much better lesson that's much more memorable it  will make you feel much more confident about using  

these and you will think wow like just a much  more interesting and valuable lesson that actually  

builds your fluency so we'll just take lose here  we're just going to focus on one word now even if  

you think yeah I know lose I'm going to give you a  whole bunch of uses of it that are related to you  

know various different things that you could use  in many different situations but you will see wow  

like now my understanding of lose is actually much  stronger and I feel much more much more confident  

about using the word and for lots of different  ways of using it so we're going to cover and you  

can put some of these in the comments as well if  you can think of any uses of lose that I did not  

add but let's just go through a couple of them  so the first is a basic thing like lose your keys

so you could lose anything really maybe I'm  walking around and uh maybe I had a marker or  

my keys or something and now oh where did it go I  don't know what happened to my keys or my marker  

or something I lost them I lost my keys or I lost  my marker okay so something I used to have and now  

I do not something I used to have and now do not  so I lost my keys again if you think of anything  

as I start covering these different examples you  can just post them down in the comments I'll go  

back and answer different questions after I go  through these so you lose your keys can you think  

of anything else that you can lose can you think  of anything else that you can lose I'm trying to  

get you to think more like a native and that's  why I'm going to cover a bunch of expressions and  

different ways of using lose right now all right  so if you think of anything put it in the comments  

so next we might obviously we have lose as I  gave the example before about losing a game  

so maybe I'm playing Othello or chess or something  and I lost the game so I might lose a game now you  

might even probably have heard these before  hopefully you've heard these examples before  

but I will give you some more that maybe you have  not all right so we got lose a game lose your keys

[Music] about lose weight yes so Maya says lose  your phone same kind of idea so lose your keys  

lose your phone lose your wallet so any kind  of physical thing that you might lose all right  

to lose weight to lose weight now lose  weight just means okay I'm I'm Getting  

Thinner I'm losing weight yep so you lost your  pencil the same thing so any kind of little  

physical object we can talk about having  something and then not having it anymore I  

lost it I misplaced it I don't know where it  went all right but when you lose weight like  

if you haven't seen someone in a long time  and they say wow like it's you're you lost  

weight like did you lose weight you often  hear this question did did you lose weight

lose weight so again it's not like I like took  it off my body and left it somewhere it's you  

know it just goes wherever it goes but I  lost some weight yeah I lost some weight  

I lost some weight lost some weight so maybe I  was a hundred pounds before now maybe I'm you  

know 95 pounds so I lost my weight yep  so another idea so lose your knowledge

foreign so knowledge is a hard  thing to lose Yep lose your wealth

so if you lost your money again same kind  of idea I might like lose my money like  

physically lose my money or if I have you know  a big bank account and suddenly you know all  

of my stocks are going down oh no I'm losing  my wealth I'm losing my wealth so knowledge  

is more difficult to lose it's possible yep  you could lose your friend so here we have uh  

actually two different meanings of this  yep you could lose your mind too [Music]  

I lost my mind I lost my mind so if you have a  friend or maybe some family so you could lose  

someone and this is even like two different  ways of thinking about this let's say I go  

to the mall I'm at a department store with  my family and one of my children gets lost  

one of my children gets lost so I might lose my  child physically I don't know where they are I've  

lost them okay so maybe just like this like you  lose your keys you could lose your child as well  

but you can also talk about losing someone like  they died so if a friend of yours dies you might  

lose a friend or a family we lost our our uh you  know great uncle two weeks ago so we lost them  

and people understand I don't mean like at the  mall or something uh but there was actually a  

pretty just on this particular particular usage  of lost there's a famous comedian a comedian  

named Norm Macdonald he actually died last year  I think so we lost Norm Macdonald last year but  

he was telling a joke about how he had he had met  someone uh actually no it was a different it was  

uh who was that uh Bob Saget and a Bob Saget is  another comedian and he was telling this telling  

a story about how he met some kind of famous hero  like someone that he really liked uh and and Bob  

Saget said yeah the guy had just lost his son the  guy had just lost his son and so he's telling this  

whole story uh and he's and he's explaining that  and then Norm Macdonald kind of comes in at the  

end of the story and he says when you when you  met that guy oh you've like I found your son  

so he's using these two different meanings of  the word in the same joke all right so just to  

make that clear Bob Saget was telling a story  about a guy whose son had died all right so  

he had just lost his son that's what he said but  Norm Macdonald says oh like hey I found your son  

like and you should you should watch if you can  you search on YouTube you can find this joke  

but it's actually uh I mean it's it's a weird  kind of dark humor uh but very funny as as Norm  

Macdonald comes in at the end of the joke or at  the end of the story and says oh I found your son  

so he's talking again these two different  meanings of lost all right two different  

meanings of laws all right so we've had a few  more we've got lost uh lost and opportunity

you might lose an opportunity to  do something to lose an opportunity  

see if we can fit a few more on  here you could lose your temper

to lose your temper becomes meaning becoming very  angry about something you get very passionate  

maybe you you start you know you're getting  frustrated you're driving your car and you  

have to keep stopping and starting you're in a  traffic jam you get very angry about that and  

you start yelling at people ah you're losing your  temper losing your temper so you're becoming kind  

of uncontrolled so you can talk about losing  [Music] losing control losing control all right  

Alfonso says lose your money again the same idea  all right and you could also lose your weight  

if you personally become lost you know you're  walking around like you become lost I'm lost  

you can be physically lost like I'm walking  around in the woods and oh no I've lost my  

weight I've lost my weight or a group of people  like we have lost our way and in the same way we  

have these different meanings of it we have we  have like lost our way physically like we don't  

physically know where we are or we could talk  about maybe spiritual spiritually or mentally  

like the community has lost their weight it's  like they lost faith they lost faith [Music]  

in something so they don't believe in it anymore  or they're they don't feel very strongly about  

that they're feeling unconfident about something  so you might lose your confidence in the same way

to lose your confidence all right so what do  we notice differently about these two kinds  

of lessons the first one it's teaching you some  vocabulary but you will probably forget most of  

these or maybe you learn some of them even if  you remember these words you will likely not  

be prepared for all of these different things  especially if you uh you know you don't hear  

natives using them in all these different ways  the important thing here is this is where we're  

talking about one thing so we're going to focus  on one word and we really want to understand it  

very well all right it's the deeper understanding  that really makes like all of these different uses  

of it you really start to understand what lose  means and you're thinking about it like a native  

rather than trying to just translate something or  get a definition of the word does that make sense  

so the reason I thought about doing this is again  people think I look like Tom Hanks and like yeah  

I guess maybe I kind of look like Tom Hanks but  that's like a very a very kind of surface level of  

looking at me and thinking I look like Tom Hanks  when almost nobody in the United States would say  

that about me maybe a few people but not many I've  never heard that growing up maybe one time all  

right so that's a surface level understanding of  something and when people say they know something  

do they really know it all right this is like  really knowing the vocabulary over here and this  

is just getting a surface level understanding of  something yep it's possible to lose hope excellent  

so the same idea so you're starting to think more  like a native and so the great thing about this  

is even in a conversation uh even if you didn't  know like all of these you don't have to think  

like like can I lose this or can I lose that like  you probably can because you're thinking about it  

like a native like it's not just losing your keys  you could lose hope you could lose confidence  

you know like the the company or maybe some group  of directors or people they lose confidence in  

the president so maybe they don't think he's a  good leader anymore they lose confidence in that  

person you might lose confidence in yourself  or I just I lost my confidence I lost my mojo  

Mo Joe I think there is a whole uh Austin  Powers movie about him losing his Mojo Mojo  

is like your kind of your uh like your special  quality or your like ability to do something  

your talent your mojo oh no I lost my mojo so  maybe you're doing something very well and then  

suddenly you like can't do it anymore oh no I  forgot how to do something you know like you  

lost knowledge of something or you lost your  skill you lost your ability okay your mojo  

and all of these things you learn as you focus  on vocabulary and the point is this is the deeper  

lesson and this is the shallow one so when you  when you think you know something or when you  

say you know something do you really know it do  you really know it so often Learners will tell me  

like yeah I know all this I know all these words  and I say really do you know all of these words  

and can you do that for all of these if you can  do that then you can become fluent very quickly  

all right but this is the key here so not  looking at it just from a surface level  

but really going deep into the vocabulary and  actually learning that uh really well now this  

is one form of naturally varied review uh very  good uh Jose valdo yeah to lose touch to lose  

touch now you could lose touch with a person like  we don't keep in contact anymore so I had friends  

back in the United States and I haven't spoken  with them in a while we lost touch we lost touch  

sometimes you lose touch with people  after you haven't been seeing them in  

a while to lose touch or I could talk about  losing touch in the same way I lost my mojo  

like I'm losing touch with reality so I like I  think they're a little little aliens and stuff all  

around me I'm losing touch with reality I'm losing  my connection so I'm losing losing myself you know  

you know these are all different examples  but each one of them helps you understand  

the meaning of lose better and the point is not  to use a translation to connect any of these words  

with a translation it's to really understand the  vocabulary so well by getting lots of different  

examples of it and this is one example of  naturally varied review all right so in addition  

to this you can also hear lose or hear these  different examples used by different speakers  

so not just me you hear on a TV show or on a  radio program or you know anyone of another  

places that you might hear it Claudia asks  what is this uh you mean synonym synonym for  

Mojo uh was synonym for Mojo uh you could say  you're I don't know lose your cool or lose your  

I mean probably Talent OR kind of unique ability  or like your love of life it's a pretty it's this  

like even Mojo itself has has kind of a broader  use and you will understand the word Mojo better  

as you start looking at even more examples  of things uh it's not really slang though  

all right is everybody getting this though  everybody getting this when you say you know  

something do you really know it when you  say you know something do you really know  

so I would encourage you to go go deeper so if  you want to learn more about like any of these  

examples you could even put Mojo into Google  and then see what you get like what does mojo  

mean what could we what could we talking about  would be possible learn just listening uh yeah  

I'll come to that in just a second but I want  to make sure everybody understands this point  

very important so when when students say that  I look like Tom Hanks it's like on a surface  

level yeah we maybe look a little bit similar  but the people who know the nuances they know  

the differences the deeper looking at two people  and like oh wow they actually look very different  

all right so if you think I look like Tom Hanks  that's fine I don't have a problem with that but  

I just thought it was interesting that enough  people said that that okay it's it's a lot of  

people make that same kind of mistake with how  they learn and it's really just like saying that  

they know something when they really don't  all right and so again like you can have a  

surface level understanding of vocabulary but then  struggle in conversations because you don't have  

this deeper level of understanding so the deeper  you go into the language and notice we did this  

with just one word lose so I'm not trying to teach  you 50 verbs or something that have no relation  

to each other really in one less that would be a  waste of time all right but I will pick something  

that like you can see obvious connections and see  how these how these things work together all right

weibo could I demonstrate how to learn such an  abstract word such as Oblivion Oblivion what about  

the verb to miss yeah so that's another thing and  again like we could do this with with pretty much  

any vocabulary so Oblivion it would again you  would see lots of you know like examples about  

using the word Oblivion uh but I would again  uh look for different varied examples of that  

thing so you would even go on a just a Google  search or go type in the word Oblivion and do  

like a Google image search and see what you get  and it's like Oblivion is like it's almost like  

timelessness or emptiness but it could be a couple  of different things and so I encourage you to look  

at something like that and so even an abstract  idea the more examples you get of that thing the  

better your fluency becomes and so all of these  things are developing a network in your mind that  

really helps you understand things alien says  konichiwa I would like talk to you so let's see  

so I keep in touch yeah very good yeah so keep  in touch so if I'm talking with someone keep in  

touch don't lose touch don't lose touch with  me all right I think this makes sense I'll  

go back and answer questions now if you have  anything uh new let me know let me start at  

the beginning over here uh let's see so hello  from Ecuador Brazil Dominican Republic India  

what my favorite part of my Sunday Lucas you're  too kind over there uh what does mustn't grumble  

mean so must not Grumble well Grumble just  means you're complaining about something like

it's like I don't want to go and you're kind of  grumbling to yourself you're not really speaking  

uh clearly so people can hear you usually like  kids their parents says why don't you you know  

clean your room and the kids like I don't want  to clean my room so you can't hear it very  

clearly they're grumbling like that to grumble  all right konichiwa yes and so we've got some  

good examples lose my phone lose my mind love  and respect from Pakistan sir I learned a lot  

from your teaching glad to hear it Muhammad and  Gertrude says lose my pencil yep Pakistan please  

teacher what is the best method to assimilate  Connections in the speeches so this is it  

you focus the point is to go deeper  in the level because uh or deeper into  

the language because fluency doesn't  come from building a larger vocabulary  

so notice the difference here there are more  words but this one actually covers more situations  

okay so we we could like we could go into all  these different things I could spend an hour  

talking about each one of these things and there  would still be more to talk about because you  

always need more review all right it's the review  that gets you fluent and now you should have a  

much better understanding of the word lose and  because of that you will feel much more confident  

using it in conversations and you will even use it  in new ways maybe none of these examples maybe you  

like lost something else but you feel confident  saying that and natives understand what you're  

saying okay and the great thing really the best  part about this is you can do this all by yourself  

so you got all of this understanding of  the vocabulary without you having to speak  

so some kind of basic truths about fluency number  one having a larger vocabulary doesn't make you a  

fluent speaker it's not like oh I know a thousand  words and now I'm a fluent speaker really it's  

even just knowing a few words but you can use them  really well that makes you a fluent speaker all  

right and you can do this all by yourself it's  just about getting the right input if you can  

find more of this maybe you're hearing the word  lose from me or you're hearing it in uh I don't  

know a radio show or a TV program where you read  it somewhere else okay but you can do this like  

anything you want to go into and notice like where  people might think okay I know the word lose why  

are you still talking about lose it's like do you  really know the word can you really use it can  

you understand all of these examples if you can  great then that means you're fluent in this word  

but knowing the word lose it's not just win or  lose it's all of these different things so you  

can talk about losing an opportunity losing  your keys losing time oh no I'm losing time  

I'm spending too much time talking about this so  I'm losing time talking about lose okay it's all  

of these different examples that really help  you understand something and so we have again  

one word but all of these different situations  in which we can use the vocabulary I'm losing  

my mind I lost my child somewhere oh no or maybe  they actually died I lost them okay I'm losing my  

confidence losing touch losing faith losing wealth  all right let's go back make sure we got all these

um

come on YouTube why does it always  like sends me all the way back to  

the end of these over here now I have  to stand here with my finger on my phone  

all right so we gotta lose mind lose confidence  lose a friend uh lose a doll Yep lose an  

opportunity Elena says again I'm about to go  to sleep why don't you try to do this class at  

different times so all of us would have different  chance to chat with you I want to listen to you  

but I'm sleepy right now yes uh I I think probably  in the future I will I will try doing these at  

different times this has just been when it's  convenient for me now plus I make all of these  

available so you don't lose them later you don't  lose your chance to enjoy the vocabulary lesson  

possible to lose hope important word first time or  uh for understanding songs in English do I have to  

look for the song lyrics yes Alfonso if you don't  understand them then you should look up what they  

are I do the same thing uh again let's see can you  explain more examples about okay we did that area  

uh why I understand everything in this video says  someone because I'm an awesome teacher really what  

I'm doing is number one I'm using a clear Voice  number two I'm not using any difficult vocabulary  

number three I'm really going into detail  about things to make sure you understand them  

all right so this is why uh only having my voice  is not even enough to get fluent so you really  

should be listening to native speakers using these  examples as well so this is what we do in fluent  

for life we want to give you lots of examples  hundreds of different I don't know how many I  

think we have at least I don't know probably 100  more uh different native speakers that you listen  

to from all over the world talking about different  things like this so it's really training you to  

have a a conversation uh with lots of different  examples because that's how you get fluent the  

fluency doesn't it doesn't come from learning  more vocabulary it comes from going deeper and  

from that now you can talk about all all kinds  of things with just the word lose Isn't that cool  

with just one word look at all these different  examples we had and all and you're also getting  

a stronger connection with these other words  too like losing control losing contact losing  

losing your mind losing your emotions all these  different things you can now understand to lose  

all right make sure I didn't uh  skip anybody up here all right

except losing my money yeah  okay we got those already

all right uh Eduardo says would be possible  to learn just listening uh yes and I know some  

people say like you know listening is the key  really understanding is the key so it doesn't  

matter I don't know why people say you should  just listen to the language when that's not  

how natives learn natives don't learn by only  listening natives learn by you think natives  

are doing this they cover their you know they  cover their uh their eyes or they don't taste  

or smell anything in order to get fluent  they don't touch anything natives want to  

you want to get as much input as possible and  in different ways so you want to see something  

to help you understand it better or taste it  so if I try to explain to you the difference  

between an orange and an apple it's much easier  if you just taste the Apple but if I say oh you  

only have to use listening it's like okay I'm  going to listen to the orange and listen to the  

Apple you know it doesn't make much sense so you  want to be doing anything that a native would be  

doing these are the same things that you do when  you're learning your native language all right

and let's see Anna says please teacher what is  the best method to assimilate the connections in  

speeches okay I think I answered that all right  did I yeah I think I did yeah so it's about  

making connections the connections are the thing  that helps you uh helps you speak all right and

well let's see uh again Shams is  uh love you drew glad to hear it  

it's possibly okay we got that one too all right  I apologize if I'm reading some of these again uh  

let's see give more examples please even more  examples of lose Fanny says I love this class  

uh what do you suggest to pass from B2 to C1  uh if you're trying to pass like a specific  

exam uh I would focus on like whatever the  vocabulary or things you need for that but  

if you're just talking about raising your level  it's almost always going to be just more review  

that's that's the thing that really stops people  from from learning so they they think they know  

something so they stop learning they think they  know something and so they stop learning and so  

that's that's it's really like uh part of this  is most teachers are just giving a very surface  

level uh understanding of vocabulary they don't  go much deeper into things like this again this  

is one example of naturally varied review  there are many but this is just one where  

we're going to take one word and really focus  on it and really help you understand it like a  

native so the more you learn new things  like a native the faster you get fluent  

if you just keep learning more words but you're  translating them or only getting definitions it  

will be much more difficult for you to go  from a passive vocabulary to an active one  

all right so yes connections connections are  the key this is how the brain works this is  

how you learned your native language and it's  how you will get fluent in English as well

uh let's see all right I think I got that  could you demonstrate all right I think

uh

give more examples hello from Brazil  from Canada hello from Canada how  

can I keep Pro City smoothly what do  you mean by that proceeding smoothly

explain what do you what do you mean by that  awesome examples man I really found interesting  

your idea I'm going straight uh I'm going to give  it a try yeah remember this is how you get fluent  

in your native language and it's better to not  even really think about fluency this is really  

more like taking something you're interested in  in learning more about that thing so if you have  

a hobby or your job or something and you want  to you want to like really become a master at  

that thing you spend a lot more time learning  about that specific thing foreign so for me if  

I'm learning gardening in Japan then I'm learning  a lot I learn about even different kinds of moths  

it's like different varieties of moss you know  it's such like a small basic thing but again on  

a surface level you just have Moss but on like  a gardener is thinking like okay we've got all  

these different kinds of moss and how they you  know how they deal differently so you can't just  

use any Moss anywhere you have to use a specific  kind in the right place or it will probably die  

all right so Lose My Religion yep There You Go  konichiwa again greetings from Brazil thanks  

for excellent work you are awesome I got confused  when Americans use anachronisms in news or radio  

program it makes me lose track yep you could  say lose track as well yeah so if you're uh  

I'll email anachronism acronyms I'm sorry  I read that wrong acronyms yeah so that's  

another thing that you will learn as your  uh you will hear many many new things are  

being created all the time especially as the  language gets uh the language itself kind of  

degenerates over time so people are creating  new words but also people are especially if  

they're typing on their phone then people just  I mean they'll they'll write a word like lol lol  

which means laughing out loud but some people  now will say this in a conversation when I was  

younger people were not using the word  like they were not saying like lol like  

they would write that maybe but uh they're  not actually doing that all right LOL LOL

uh

all right so let's say sure  sure if I'm pronouncing that  

correctly are you really Tom Hanks  or does he just look like you oh

yes so we again I you could say I look like  Tom Hanks you could that'd be kind of a surface  

level way of saying it but if you go deeper and  like really compared us you would be like wow  

they don't really look alike at all you know  again it's just going from surface to deeper  

and as you go deeper into something this is where  the fluency really comes from it's the people who  

know the nuances and the subtle differences about  the language that they know all of these different  

examples and then they can really feel confident  about using something so fluency is not coming  

from learning more it's coming from going deeper  into vocabulary and getting more examples again  

this is one example of naturally varied review  so you can go deeper into vocabulary you can go  

deeper into listening as well pronunciation is  the same thing so if I hear 10 different people  

say the word lose or pronounce you know any any of  these words or say all of these phrases I'm going  

to be much more confident about hearing those  things in conversations even at Native speed  

okay so it's more more and it's all about  the input it's not about you speaking or  

trying to learn more words all right so if  you're trying to learn more but you're not  

actually using this vocabulary fluently  already then stop doing that all right  

is why it can get fluent without studying more  because if you already know a lot but you can't  

speak fluently then you don't need to keep keep  learning more I've lost my heart these days what  

does that mean yeah to lose heart to lose heart  again instead of saying like lose my heart we  

would say you lose heart heart means in this case  uh like maybe you're kind of losing confidence or  

you lose your desire to do something or you  don't feel um maybe I guess a better example  

would be like like I've lost heart in uh let's see  what's a good example like let's say there's like  

a political party just to give that example so  they keep losing again and again and like people  

are kind of losing heart in that organization so  they feel like I've lost heart I don't believe in  

them anymore I don't feel confident in them so  it's kind of a range of or a general grouping  

of things like that but to lose heart in general  means that so you're losing your confidence or  

you're losing your your like love of something  I don't really care about something so much  

anymore I've lost heart I've lost heart  typically heart is that really Tom Hanks  

see it and it's if you think I'm if if you're  if you're asking seriously like is that really  

Tom Hanks it's like yeah you have a surface level  understanding or or like idea about who Tom Hanks  

is but if you look at a picture of me and Tom  Hanks at the same time I bet Tom Hanks would not  

even say that he would say ah this guy doesn't  look like me at all what are you talking about  

uh I do enjoy some Tom Hanks movies  though so I drew if you look at the  

thumbnail for this I drew the uh the Wilson  volleyball from Castaway I enjoyed that movie  

all right uh let's see and again sham says  uh should I use slang or not yesterday I saw  

a video of Stephen Kaufman who said not to use  slang in any situation what do you think I don't  

know I don't know what kind of advice is that that  sounds that sounds just dumb I mean like it's like  

saying like should I use I don't know should  I use uh I don't know like the the important  

thing is to pay attention to the situation  you were in let me erase all these over here  

if I spend my day uh like talking with  kids or young people like they're going  

to use a different vocabulary than  talking with adults all the time so  

if I this is like let's say 100 year old  people and this is uh 20 year old people  

I'm going to use different vocabulary for both of  these there's going to be some overlap like some  

vocabulary that will be the same for both groups  but there will be some vocabulary that's different  

so when you when you tell people like don't  ever use slang ever it's like well you know it's  

it's it's kind of silly advice also it's important  to remember that even if you don't speak you will  

hear slang used everywhere so you will hear it you  know in movies or radio programs or things like  

that so even if you don't use it it's a good idea  to learn it because you know if you watch that  

kind of content or listen to those kinds of things  you will get those examples all right so you don't  

need to don't like limit yourself uh for no reason  but obviously the most important thing is think  

about the the everyday life that you have and  the English in that life so if you enjoy watching  

action movies then you should get familiar with  that vocabulary and really get familiar with it  

it's not like okay don't don't learn this  vocabulary or that vocabulary it's it's  

what's important for your life all right so think  about that I know maybe maybe um like Kaufman is  

trying to give general advice for people about  I'm trying to make it easier for them to learn but  

I would be again that's like surface level advice  I want to give you deeper advice about your life  

so think about what you need for your life some  people don't have any contact with slaying at all  

maybe they only read academic papers in English  where there really isn't any slang but you will  

uh you will learn a lot again focusing on the  information you need for your life foreign

hello everyone Melody says I'm too concerned about  grammar vocabulary and sentence patterns to speak  

fluently my attention is occupied by the concern  how should I do yeah so again you're you you  

learned the kind of uh traditional way the English  as a second language approach where you're uh  

you're trying to think about a grammar rule in a  surface way rather than like doing this so this is  

a vocabulary example but you're also losing excuse  me I've said the word lose too many times you're  

also using using uh grammar pronunciation all of  that is included when you learn the native way  

all right so I'm saying lose your temper lose my  temper lose control as you hear these it's like  

okay we're talking about like a verb and a noun or  a verb and an adjective or something but you don't  

think about it like that you're just thinking  like oh okay this is how you use these words so  

I lose money I lose this I lose that it's like  oh okay my brain is naturally understanding the  

grammar without me uh trying to study a bunch of  grammar books so the more you learn like a native  

speaker the faster you get fluent okay and that's  for grammar pronunciation vocabulary all of it

uh

uh all right I think I got that one hopefully  that makes sense uh so I do think connection  

is a key it's great uh teacher I can't understand  marwa uh yes well if this if this video is already  

too difficult for you go to the link in the  description for uh easier content much easier  

content we have this uh especially for absolute  beginners the this would be Frederick and also  

the video playlist that we have for for absolute  beginners which is also good for uh people who  

are still kind of thinking more even if they know  the vocabulary but they're still continuing to uh  

to make mistakes especially basic mistakes we  get that a lot actually a lot of people send  

us emails they will have advanced vocabulary in  them but basic mistakes so these are people who  

learn the traditional way they're trying to  get a larger vocabulary but still not really  

having a a really deep native understanding of  lots of basic words do you have a video on how  

to link words when speaking uh well I mean every  every video is really about that that's the thing  

like you will find pronunciation videos on our  Channel but if you listen to me speaking you will  

hear how I blend sounds together even when I speak  slowly I'm still blending my sounds like a native  

so being fast doesn't make you native it's really  how you blend words together blend words blend  

door do words together you hear that blend words  together so don't look for a specific lesson on  

that because almost in the opposite way it  will prevent you from hearing how natives  

really speak but if you watch a video like this  many times or a bunch of people talking about  

something you will naturally understand the flow  of how natives blend words blend words all right  

laughs uh hater says is the master program good  for beginners if you mean like fluent for life  

master English conversation uh no I would not  recommend that for beginners but Frederick I  

would I would recommend for absolute beginners  really people a lot of natives or I guess not not  

natives but non-natives who are learning will  say I'm a beginner or whatever and they often  

don't understand what their level is and this is  a tricky thing to do because fluency is really a  

collection of different skills working together  so you might know a lot of vocabulary like our  

word list over here you might know many words  but you're not able to use them fluently so you  

might have a maybe a low level of understanding  or a passive vocabulary but not an active one  

hello from Vietnam says Peter and I see you  there I really feel dumb what I think about  

this before so cool you don't have to feel dumb  about this in in a weird way you're doing this  

already in your native language the problem  is most people don't teach a second language  

this way because they think you you have to do  something different because it's like another  

language so there's no reason to do that  I don't I don't tell people that there's a  

second language I just say there are different  languages and you learn them all the same way  

there are different languages so if I'm going  to learn French I will learn it in French like  

a native speaker if I'm going to learn German or  Italian or whatever the language is I'm going to  

learn it like a native speaker it's just I  don't really know who teaches the languages  

that way but if somebody did like that's how  I would learn it so when I was trying to get  

fluent in Japanese I didn't find any lessons that  really taught me like that so I had to make this  

up myself so I'm I don't know trying to watch  kids TV shows but I have to also teach myself  

the vocabulary without really having a teacher  to tell me things so it's a long process when  

you try to do it yourself but this is why we  created fluent for life just to make it very  

easy for people all the information is already  there and you just follow the steps all right

okay I think I answered that one already

all right Taurus you're against Spectra I'm using  Frederick but how do I know if I'm pronouncing  

what I'm hearing correctly so Frederick is one  thing that like you will listen to the words and  

you can kind of test your still test yourself uh  with your listening rather than your speech and  

in the same way that you would learn a new song on  the radio you can actually improve your speech and  

improve your listening without having someone to  check it for you so you're really trying to make  

the same sounds the same way you would hear them  spoken and so one thing I do for if I'm like with  

a student in a classroom or something I would test  myself listening to those different sounds so you  

go to level three as an example and you can just  close your eyes and spin the wheels and uh and  

listen to what sound you get and see if you know  like Ah that's the letter A or that's the letter  

o or something then that will really train your  listening which will automatically improve your  

pronunciation so if you want to speak you can  try to get it at the same pitch or the same  

sound the same way you would listen to something  on the radio so if I hear a sound on the radio  

like ding then I know if I'm saying okay that's  that's the right note all right so I'm not trying  

to like it's going to be more difficult for me  to say something maybe directly but if I can if  

I can get to that I call this sound transitioning  where I'm trying to move my mouth or my pitch or  

something like that to try to hit the sound but  you can probably hear something and copy that  

same sound the way you do in your native language  so that's how you do it with Frederick you don't  

have to spend a lot of time speaking something you  really want your listening to be very good so you  

know the sound and your pronunciation will improve  automatically uh Fanny says do you give this kind  

of classes only once a week I mean live uh lately  I've yeah it's about once a week and I sometimes  

give them on Instagram uh uh and yeah I liked it  I like to speak with people because I don't have  

in-person classes anymore I haven't taught people  in class in years only my own children now or you  

know sometimes people ask me questions about  English and I will I will teach like lessons  

you know wherever but because I I miss actual  teaching I'm I like to do these videos from time  

to time but I've been enjoying doing them lately  so that's why I'm doing them now uh Tariq says  

I'm sorry if the question was not clear enough I  meant while speaking how do I switch from focusing  

on pronouncing the vocabulary correctly I move  on to focus on intonation and Melody yeah I tar  

it sounds like you're you're thinking too much  about about the language like natives natives  

would not spend all this time thinking like am I  am I worrying about pronunciation or intonation  

or something like that they're just listening to  what people say in situations and and starting to  

repeat after those things and the more examples  you get like we have all these examples of lose  

over here uh again hearing me say that you will  hear the word lose many times in this video and  

then you will hear other things as well and if you  hear also like other people like if you look up I  

bet if if you go to different uh YouTube videos  right here on YouTube and just look up the word  

lose you'll get other pronunciations of that kind  of thing as well but I wouldn't spend so much time  

we say you were in your head you were in your own  head or you were you were kind of Trapped or stuck  

in your head so you're overthinking too much you  know you're like thinking too much or overthinking  

so try to relax the main idea of  learning like a native is that instead of  

translating something like if I if I give you a  word like play and I'm going to give you either  

a definition or a translation of that word it's  not really going to help you understand that but  

if you see uh like a native English speaker in a  situation doing something and you see 10 different  

people doing that in that same situation they will  talk a little bit differently about it I made a  

recent video with some naturally varied review  about different people making espresso it should  

be the most recent video at this time on the on  the YouTube channel so if you go there and watch  

that you will see ah okay I'm like all I have to  do is really just relax and get lots of input so  

don't don't try to spend too much time thinking  about things the pronunciation and all that  

will develop naturally it will improve naturally  without you thinking about it even if you don't  

speak alright the important thing is you get lots  of input it's the input that leads to confidence  

all right because it's understanding that it gives  you the confidence that lets you speak so speech  

is the result you don't try to learn play and  go and sit and then try to repeat these words  

and then think you're going to be a fluent speaker  and have good conversations it doesn't work that  

way so you focus on one thing really learn it  well and then move on to the next all right  

I did it was a wonderful approach actually yeah  glad to hear it yeah so remember relax take it  

easy all the things that people think they think  they need to study hard to become fluent or they  

think they need to speak a lot to become fluent or  they're really putting pressure on themselves to  

be correct one interesting thing you'll notice  uh if you remember how you learned your native  

language so here is you you know and this is  like anybody watching this video so when you're  

thinking about pronunciation your pronunciation  is coming from all these different people  

so your dad says something your mom your friends  your brothers and sisters or your teachers or in  

the community people you hear on television and  as you hear all of those you you kind of come to  

the right sound for your voice so you will hear  each one of these people has a unique sound their  

intonation might be a little bit different so you  don't need to be don't be so harsh on yourself  

other uh viewers will probably remember that  word harsh from uh from the recent video as well

all right uh

it is Daniel wait a second is  that Forrest Gump teaching us yes  

all right uh that's why look you remind me of  Forrest Gump yeah again like on a surface level  

I do I mean you could say a lot of people look  like Tom Hanks but as you get uh as you get deeper  

and you compare the two of us if you spent like an  hour or a week or a month like with both of us you  

would not think we look the same at all you'd be  like oh wow like these guys look really different  

all right but it's it's a matter of  perspective so are you learning it  

in a shallow level or a surface level are you  going deep and really learning about that well

all right [Music] all right if I'm  pronouncing that correctly you are uh  

awesome thank you very much glad to hear and  uh again from mcconnichiwa Elena in Chicago  

greetings from Brazil's is Dario I lose my  religion man I found your interesting idea  

I'm going to give it a try for sure glad  to hear it yep all right I think maybe I  

got some of those previous ones I uh  okay I think I answer those as well

yeah so like in general relax you're putting  a lot of pressure on yourself uh to continue  

speaking or to think about grammar rules and that  kind of thing a lot of people need that advice

all right it is about the the quantity  he's not he's not about the quantity but  

about the quality yep that's correct  Jose Baldo so lose heart meaning lose  

confidence in something yeah it's it's  like kind of lose confidence or you don't  

you don't care about something  so much anymore to lose heart uh

uh do we really need slangs yeah again it  depends don't like people have lots of general  

questions about this like like what what native  English should I should I I don't know watch or  

whatever it's like you know what do you what do  you like what are you interested in do I try to  

think about it the same way you would learn your  native language so you don't you don't think about  

learning Italian or you know Swahili or whatever  you're just thinking about like oh I want to watch  

a movie about this topic and that's what you do  in English and there's plenty of content like that  

English is really the easiest language on the  planet to learn because there's it's all over  

the place and it covers every almost really  almost every topic you'd want to learn about  

uh perhaps a big difficulty is practice some  conversation no the the the difficulty is not  

more conversation practice the difficulty is  not getting enough input so people think that  

they need to like go out and practice speaking  but usually that just means repeating things  

that they know already and most of those things  are only at a surface level but if you took if  

you took two people one person is learning in  the ESL way and one is learning in the efl way  

so learning as English as a first language then  you're going to get a lot more ability to speak  

about many more topics just by following this  approach but this person will have a very kind  

of surface ability to speak they will understand  quite a few things but they will still likely have  

trouble communicating [Music] Martinez says  how to get the most out of a book do you have  

any special tricks advices uh I I mean I would  imagine the same kind of thing um like there are  

some books I read multiple times and usually the  more you get into a book again it's it's almost  

everything in life works like this so you can have  a shallow understanding of the book so let's say  

I try reading a book and I only look at the table  of contents okay so this book is about this or it  

has these chapters I have a very surface level  about the book where I read the back cover and  

it says like this book is about this or the story  is about this or maybe it's non-fiction about you  

know uh business or something and so I can get a  very surface level then I can get a deeper level  

by reading maybe the first paragraph of every  chapter and then I could go deeper read the  

whole thing then I could go deeper than that and  listen to other people talking about the book or I  

could read article reviews about the book again  the deeper you go into something that's where  

the value comes so you can get a surface level of  something and it's much better rather than trying  

to read like I see people like how can I read  50 books a year it's like why do you care about  

reading 50 books a year it's much better to like  if you could read books just because it's 50 books  

all right so don't put pressure on yourself to to  kind of think in a general way like that follow  

your interest best I use your videos for the past  five years and try to mimic the way you speak now  

people think I'm a native English speaker oh  glad to hear it yeah I think in the future like  

as you know especially Frederick is getting more  popular like the whole world will start sounding  

like me so people start mimicking my accent so  yes I'm I'm speaking in a particularly clear  

way for these videos and you will see some  of the conversations that I have uh on the  

on the channel as well as me being a bit more  relaxed speaking a bit more how I do naturally  

uh double comparative grammar you used uh okay  hello from Hong Kong I'm very happy to find your  

Channel Through the YouTube algorithm yes who  knows uh you know bless the YouTube algorithm  

for for getting me to more people I'm happy  to hear that though teacher the most reason  

for difficulty speaking is less listening or what  no the the reason for difficulty is that people  

don't know the language as well as they think  they do people don't know the language as well  

as they think they do so most Learners they  have a surface level understanding of English  

not a deep level of understanding so that's why  Learners and natives they communicate in almost  

a different way so they just it's it's like you're  starting uh from from shallow over here and moving  

to deeper things so if you just have a vocabulary  of a hundred words but you don't really know them  

very well you don't feel very confident about them  then of course you will struggle in conversations  

but the the really great thing about  this is again all you need is the input  

you don't need to spend your time speaking have  you if you spend your time doing this you will  

automatically become a better speaker all right  because you will feel more confident about using  

the language most Learners even if they know a lot  of words and phrases they still feel unconfident  

in conversations because they don't really  know the language as well as they think they do  

so there are some things that maybe they know  about quite well and others if they do not but  

that's really the main problem teacher I can  share the video yes absolutely so I will make  

this publicly available on our Channel as I  always do after the video is finished and you  

can come back and watch it again or share it with  others uh Maya says I know how to speak English  

and I don't know much about some vocabulary I  know how to speak English yeah so again it's  

it's for your level and for your life some people  don't even need to speak you know whatever maybe  

they don't they don't uh ever talk with native  English speakers or they need to use English in  

everyday life but often uh even just trying to  understand movies and TV shows you will have a  

lot more fun watching them if you can get lessons  that really train you in this so if you get uh if  

you get lessons that take you deeper into the  language that's how you're going to get fluent

all right Elena again konichiwa Drew if I'm not  able to talk with you I would like to meet your  

dad so I can practice your lessons yeah yeah if  you see him around yeah he'll he'll be here maybe  

he and I will do a video uh when he comes out here  he should be out here next week uh for the first  

time ever coming out to see me Cece says it is  too difficult to pronounce the difference between  

short vowels and long vowels for example ship and  sheep so you see you can do it and if you have not  

downloaded Frederick and installed that on your  phone or tablet do that now so this is where we  

actually take you through all of these different  pronunciations and you can do this if you learn it  

step by step again the problem with uh with a lot  of people learning pronunciation is they're alert  

they're learning like random vocabulary so they  would learn like rows and then big and then tough  

and it's just a bunch of a bunch of  random words when you really should focus  

and and get that naturally varied review so we  want to have you compare different sounds we want  

to have you compare like big and bug and bag and  bag see all these different things we're focusing  

on one sound like and as you hear these again  and again and just like the advice I gave earlier  

if you're playing level three you just spin the  letters and you can listen like okay what sound  

is that and then I can focus on these individual  things and then learn the difference between the  

short vowel e like ship and the long vowel e as  in sheep but we cover all of these in the app  

all right so ship sheep and then you're even  uh learning the the difference between like  

EE and EA all right so we might have like like  s-h-e-e-t like sheet sheet sheet all right

all right let's see

all right I think I got caught up again all right  uh particle says hello from Java Indonesia I am  

now listening to the English language yes glad  to hear I'm so harsh actually as I am a teacher  

yes I know I know how you feel this is uh is a  common thing with uh with teachers as well uh  

pratik said do you provide paid classes yes we do  of course uh so if you look at the links in the  

description below this video you can learn more  about fluent for Life uh and Frederick as well  

tarsier special what if I can't make a specific  sound for example I can't say cull I can say call  

and cool but cold doesn't come right out I ca  I can hear the difference yeah in that case I  

would again use sound transitioning where I'm just  trying to I I would repeat a sound like for the  

sound you can make to the sound you cannot make so  if the if the problem is like call and I want to  

say call then I'm experimenting with my voice and  the shape of my mouth to try to find that sound so  

it might take some time especially if the sound is  not in your language like in Japanese they don't  

have L and R these are not in Japanese so they  can't pronounce like I don't know lots of like  

lice and rice are the same word in Japanese if  you're pronouncing it in English but if we have  

call and call so let's say I can't pronounce cull  let me get up close over here so a call call oh

I'm just moving my mouth around and still  trying to produce a sound so I can hear the  

difference and ah if I move my mouth like this  like oh wow so I'm still making the same sound  

but I'm just moving my mouth in a different way  to try to try to hear okay if I could if I can  

make that sound because you say you can make the  sound and so again you don't want to just like  

make a sound you want to try to transition  from one thing to another so call all all

so I can hear when when the difference  comes like oh like the uh comes a lot  

more in here but you will feel this it's much  more difficult for a teacher to like tell you  

how to do it hey put your tongue like this and  it's it's much easier for you to feel this by  

comparing the different sounds all right  also I would practice uh like going back  

to these individual things if you have  trouble it might be like the all sound  

versus o and we have we compare both of these  in Frederick also but if you can say a word  

like bug and a word like bag you can get the  sound from that so you take the sound where  

you can pronounce it and then practice it for  where you have trouble so if you can say bug

then you can move to bag bag bug and  then call call call o o all right so  

you can watch somebody but it's much easier  if you just try to transition your voice so  

try try moving like where where you feel the  vibration or the sound of your mouth or where  

your tongue is and you will get it but these  are two different ways you can do that foreign

again I hope you can make a live on diphthongs  and digraphs so Tariq just get Frederick we  

cover all of that in there it's it's the  best way to learn all of that stuff so we  

go from uh from the alphabet all the way up to  difficult words like synthesis and apocalypse  

uh but we cover everything like vowel digraphs  diphthongs and it's all in it's all in the app  

just click on the link below uh this video Lucas  is it best to try to understand the words in a  

video without reading the subtitles or reading  them uh it's either one is okay and you can you  

can make it easier when you're just starting it's  more of a challenge or you're testing yourself to  

see if you understood a word but that's a good  way to do that you can you can do it either way  

it's not like one is good and the other is not  but usually if I'm trying to learn something new  

uh unless I am just testing myself for fun I want  to spend more time like reading something to make  

sure I really understand that so especially like  I mean even some things now children's programs  

that I watch in Japanese I still need to get  the uh like read some subtitles it's like oh  

that's what they're saying like and I'll be  surprised by that it just means like I'm not  

not quite hearing it the way I should be hearing  it or they're not saying it clearly or something  

but usually when I read it it's like ah okay it  makes it makes it clearer uh so in that way when  

I'm trying to learn something I'd rather learn  it faster and just understand what they say and  

then try to connect with the pronunciation  there then maybe I would test myself later

all right and uh origin or regime if I'm  pronouncing that correctly people you can put  

your pronunciation in the in the in the comment  as well make sure I say it correctly most of  

the time I feel shy when I'm speaking English I  feel uncomfortable about my accent yeah so again  

the more time you spend listening to  natives speaking the more you will feel  

confident about about your accent your listening  will improve as well but often uh like isolating  

these particular sounds like we do in Frederick  that will help you a lot uh and again this is how  

you can compare these different sounds and really  hear them so you're spinning these different  

wheels and testing different letter combinations  so you want to make sure first that you can hear  

things very well and that could be also just  natives speaking about things but if you can  

do that like I just mentioned in the previous  comment about testing yourself so when you're  

listening to things like this it's it's helpful to  get lots of different input and you will feel much  

more confident about that so especially people who  listen only to a very clear teacher you don't have  

to model your speech on my speech or any other  teacher you see you can just listen to lots of  

different Natives and then you will find your own  voice and feel more confident about that but don't  

worry about trying to be perfect because everybody  has a slightly different way of pronouncing things

all right good thanks uh thank you my level is  B1 but it's not improving then I would go deeper  

into the language it usually means that you don't  know the language as well as you think you do so  

people who know the language it's like what do  you mean by no what do you mean by that how how  

well do you know the language do you know it like  if I just teach you the word lose okay what does  

that mean okay it's like the opposite of win all  right but can you use all of these examples of  

Loops that's the difference all right so it that's  this is usually the issue for people and remember  

that you don't really get fluent in a language  you get fluent in vocabulary as you learn it  

well so when you spend a lot of time learning lose  and you hear all of these different examples you  

will feel more confident about that uh but you can  say you're you're getting fluent in the word lose  

and this can happen very quickly and as you  get fluent in more words and phrases and  

grammar then you will feel more confident in the  language itself but again don't try to be like  

fluent in language focus on getting fluent  in vocabulary by spending more time with it

all right teacher looks just like  Forest come back to Tom Hanks

you guys are funny see I knew this would happen  so even if I make a video specifically that  

talking like the title of the video is Tom Hanks  like people still think I'm looking like Tommy  

all right uh weibo again do you  think learning collocations will  

help us with fluency yeah absolutely  these are all collocations right here  

again collocations really just mean uh it's  like word patterns and this is part of uh  

developing your your memory as well as your  fluency but yeah absolutely collocations will  

help you so you can find words like this like  even if you're trying to learn something like  

lose if you look up collocations with lose  then you will find lots of examples like this

so very very simple stuff Again Naturally very  naturally varied review is what I recommend  

and this is one way of doing that all right  next what is the best way to learn new words  

do I need to make flash cards or write in a  notebook uh number one I would say it's not  

I would not worry about trying to learn new  words I would focus on vocabulary you already  

know and really try to understand that very  well all right so if you want to learn new  

words that's fine but if you you should only be  learning new words if your current vocabulary is  

is already something you can use fluently if  you can use it fluently great then learn new  

words but I would usually just focus on when  you are learning new words uh you you would  

pick a topic that you're interested in and then  learn more about that so if I like fixing cars I  

would watch different videos or read articles or  listen to radio programs about fixing cars and  

I would learn a lot of vocabulary naturally  that way and I would really understand that

all right what's about okay I got that all right  Mr Mario teacher I'm kidding with you sorry

all right but uh but from a store the actor's  physionomy looks good all right glad to hear it  

and I'm not mad about that I mean  like if people think I look like  

Tom Hanks I don't think that's  insulting or whatever it's okay  

all right Lionheart again why I understand you and  other teachers online but don't understand movie  

and TV reporters and such and such like that again  I'm speaking particularly clearly and I imagine  

most of the people who are trying to teach English  and it could be reading articles or listening to  

things on you know whatever BBC learning English  or whatever all of those things are going to give  

you the basic uh very clear English that you  hear in a regular classroom lesson but it's a  

different language than what you have in a real  conversation so if you can understand me but you  

can't understand that higher level you need to go  up to that level in basic steps this is what we do  

in fluent for life so we're not we don't we don't  try to get you from like here to here the higher  

level in one step the point is to give you lots of  lots of this kind of input and so you can really  

feel something you read something you listen to  it you watch it you write it down you get lots of  

different input from different speakers you're  hearing about things in different ways getting  

native examples of things all of these things  are going to improve your fluency but again the  

basic reason is because it's really a different  language it's a faster speed usually more Blended  

speech mumbled together and also you've got  all the native vocabulary like like and weird  

contractions and other things that aren't really  correct English but everybody uses them anyway

all right uh Bridge says you are an amazing  educator thank you very much Lucas again let's  

see when I start watching new content I feel  that it's very difficult to understand this  

conversation and when I stay watching about the  topics that I already know about even if it's  

by natives I can understand yeah so that again  that just proves the more you spend time with  

something of course it's like a new thing like if  you go to a new school everything is new you're  

overwhelmed by all the new information the new  people new situations new places you can go but  

if you spend more time each day it becomes more  familiar that's the point it's like you want to  

make the language familiar you want to become  very deeply familiar with the language and  

don't put pressure on yourself to try to learn  everything this is this is why I made a video  

recently uh about what was it what was the title  of that video it's like how to speak fluently  

about almost anything and that's like you're  you're doing the opposite of what you really  

should do to learn so you notice how I focus  on just one word but I'm actually learning a  

lot of vocabulary connected with this and this  will allow me to talk about different things I  

can talk about losing money losing friendships  losing like my you know desire to do something  

so all of these just because I'm focusing on  one word and so now all of these different  

situations I can speak fluently in them at least  using just this vocabulary so when you focus on  

one thing it actually it it increases the the  ability of things or the uh the breadth that  

you can speak about so you can speak about way  more things even if you're just focusing on one

all right

Angel Heart uh you are the best teacher in the  world I like you so much so I always imitate  

your pronunciation thanks a lot for the efforts  oh well I don't know about the best teacher in  

the whole world I'm just trying to do something  different really helping people understand like  

a native but thank you tarsier that's spectral  see I couldn't even read that I'm sorry I was  

saying tarsier special and it's like this font is  so tiny over here I feel like an old man trying  

to read this so it's tarsier uh spectral pardon me  uh to go deeper on a word do you Google that word  

to see how it's used so you can see how it's used  in different uh different sentences yeah I would I  

mean you can go deeper into a word like that and  I would I would try to focus on uh it could be  

articles or YouTube videos or something if you're  just trying to do this by yourself and focus on  

one word but the a little bit maybe more fun easy  way to do it would be starting with a topic or a  

specific activity so making a birthday cake so  how to make a birthday cake you will learn a lot  

of of like specific vocabulary about that thing  and you will be more interested in the lesson so  

I'm just giving you one example of how this is  and it's it's much easier to do this with a t  

teacher who can kind of explain things and make  sure you understand it very well that's like  

the main value of fluent for life because you can  choose the particular topics you're interested in  

and I walk you through it all there's like I don't  know hundreds of hours of content in it's some  

like incredible amount of content but again you  can choose it and you have a teacher but if you're  

doing it by yourself it's probably better to focus  on a particular topic rather than just like a word  

by itself you will just become more emotionally  interested in so watch that recent video about  

making espresso if you have not watched that  already and it will give you an example of that

Saleem again are there any books that you can  recommend to us read in order to enhance our  

vocabulary again this is the same same question  uh if you're interested in something read that  

book it could be a magazine or it could be videos  or whatever so don't I can't give you the best  

advice for for your situation just think about  what your interests are what do you do in your  

native language so if you are an Italian speaker  or an Arabic speaker or you know what Portuguese  

or whatever your language is what do you learn  about what do you like doing so if you say oh I  

like uh I know I like pets or I like I don't know  like I want to have a pet turtle or something or  

you have some Goldfish or something so you like  learning about how to take care of that animal  

just do that in English it's that it's that  simple you're just doing the things you would  

normally do if you like watching videos about  video games then watch videos about video games  

in that language watch it in English so for  me like I like uh I don't know like I'll use  

video games as an example I could watch a video  in English about video games or I could watch a  

video in Japanese about video games or something  like that all right so whatever that thing is I  

can watch that uh in two different languages  and I would watch not one video but like a  

bunch of different videos about people talking  about that thing it just becomes a little bit  

more difficult because I have to teach myself and  figure out you know sometimes I have to look up  

the vocabulary or something because I don't have  a teacher helping me do it but it's possible to do

all right Regina uh yes you're pronouncing my name  uh very well thank you for your explanation I'll  

try to push myself I'll try not to push myself  too much yes good idea how important is it to  

learn slang people really interested in slang in  this video it's only important if it's important  

for your life for your life don't worry about what  another teacher says about like slang is good or  

slang is bad like those are like this is this is  part of the problem with teaching on YouTube uh so  

and it's not even teaching on YouTube  specifically but just like education in general

so if I make a uh make a YouTube video that's like  like you see the the thumbnail the picture for the  

YouTube video and it says like slang slang is bad  never learned slang and I'm basically trying to  

scare you so you watch the video This is how  human psychology works so you're more like oh  

no I shouldn't use slang this is why you see  so many videos that are like like don't say no  

don't say no why not people use no all the time  with stupid advice don't say no it's like actually  

you know you want to be more nuanced about it  so think about your life like so what is the  

best content for your life I should just make  that video what is like like watch this content  

for your life but you have to think about what  that is so focus on the thing that you need for  

your life if you need uh like you know you're a  doctor and you need specific vocabulary for that  

watch Doctor videos about that stuff or read  articles or whatever but just do it in English  

uh tell him again I speak the language every  single day native speakers and non-natives but  

I'm still stuck in one level yeah then I would  just go it's probably you were using more basic  

speech instead of feeling comfortable with  more advanced stuff and the only way you do  

that is to spend time getting more input so you  don't have to speak to do this and you can start  

impressing more people especially if you already  speak English every day you can impress way more  

people if you just spend a little bit of time  each day learning more so rather than trying to  

again like learn more go deeper into the language  rather than rather than trying to just learn more  

random vocabulary Bridge again I am from India  you are really awesome different style to make  

us understand yep glad to hear it DJ again do you  think there is a difference in efficiency between  

uh just listening and listening plus watching  when getting input uh absolutely there's a  

there's a difference in that and that's why even  in in fluent for life like you spend some time  

just watching and sometimes only listening you're  going to get like it's kind of like uh uh there's  

there's different ways to think about this but  if you if you close your eyes your hearing is  

going to get more sensitive because now you're  okay I'm closing my eyes or I close my nose I  

can't smell anything now my ears are really  going to listen carefully to what's happening  

in the environment but also if I'm trying to  understand something it's much easier if I get  

more uh like using more senses to understand  something just like I gave the example before  

about tasting something so rather than trying to  explain what an orange tastes like I just give  

you an orange and you taste it and children when  they're learning they're hearing vocabulary and  

they're seeing things at the same time so they're  making a connection between one or the other if I  

put a blindfold on my children if they were blind  it would be much more difficult to explain what  

things are it's much easier for them to just  see something all right but when I'm trying  

to practice that thing sometimes I just should  listen or sometimes I should write that thing  

all right so take your time and do try to learn  things in different ways but you should like you  

know as much as possible when you're learning use  all your senses use everything you can uh let's  

my name is Somali oh I just say salima  okay I don't read it all okay oh I see all  

right matters is appreciate your work brother  wishing you uh from hellscape of San Francisco

yes I'm I'm kind of watching things unfold  in San Francisco now I hear you can go into  

a store and steal up to like a thousand dollars  worth of merchandise and not go to jail for that  

as incredible are they still doing that are they  still allowing allowing that I haven't been back  

to San Francisco in years uh I I really like  you know I like the city I always thought it  

was a nice place I like the feel of it  but I don't think I would live there now  

but now that it's a hellscape oh my goodness  all right let's see uh I'm gonna pronounce this  

I always have like trouble with these kind  of French French sounding names let's see

if I if I forgive me if I have mispronounced  it uh do you think it's okay to stop working  

one year just to have enough time to learn English  intensively on the internet and by watching movies  

uh that's an interesting question it depends  actually I think the better thing to do would  

be like get a job using English so you can do  it's more about like forcing yourself uh or not  

like not forcing yourself but putting putting more  like real English environment or real English uh  

content in your life so if you can do things  that will again give you more like if I if I  

go to Japan but I can still learn the native way  and I understand things that would be better than  

me watching videos online so it's possible the  problem is most people would go to a different  

country and not actually learn like a native  so it depends on what your job is uh if you're  

if you don't use any English at all for your job  then maybe it's a good idea to do that if you can  

you know take time to do that but just make sure  you learn like a native however you're learning  

all right I think we got to the end all  right beautiful and the tarsier back  

so if you watch a video on a topic would you  write down the new vocabulary you just heard  

yeah some of it and then I would watch more  videos about that same topic Maya again I'm  

trying to study English but I feel lazy why this  happens yeah so the the probably the biggest  

the biggest problem with uh this is not probably  be a good oh my goodness it's already been like an  

hour and a half doing these videos you guys always  keep me on for a long time so the major problem  

people have is like I'll just like write this down  for everybody so this is like the major problem

all right uh so two uh to become fluent

you must read all right I think everybody  agrees with that I didn't write it very  

clearly but this is to become fluent  you must review to be confluent you  

must review so this is number one  number two here's the problem but

but review is boring all right so the human  mind your brain is naturally interested in new  

information all the time you go to a new place  oh what's new it's like the news every day like  

we call it the news the news we don't want to  know about what's old we don't watch the olds  

we watch the news we want to know what's new  

so if there's new information our brain is  always interested in that and when we see  

something again and again it gets boring  we're just not interested in that we lose

we lose interest there's that word lose again  we lose interest in that vocabulary to lose  

interest so you begin it's like oh it's  new vocabulary and as you review it again  

and again I'm losing interest I'm becoming  less interested over time losing interest  

all right so if we need to review but review is  boring how do we solve that problem and get fluent

there's a three I can't even write a number so

we need naturally varied review naturally  varied review naturally varied review like  

the example I gave before we're focusing  on one word like lose but we're going to  

hear it in many different contexts and see  how people would use it in different ways  

all right that's one example or we would hear  one word spoken by different native speakers  

okay those are two examples of naturally varied  review so the point is to review but you need to  

hear it in different ways from different speakers  at different speeds in different time periods so  

you're understanding the grammar naturally rather  than trying to uh to study a bunch of words  

all right so in order to get fluent like it's  boring if you learn something and just repeat  

the word again and again you will lose interest  over time but if you get naturally varied review  

you're reviewing something in different ways and  another way we did that is with that naturally  

varied review video I did on making espresso so we  have four different people making espresso and so  

you can hear how sometimes they're using the same  words sometimes they're using different vocabulary  

uh but that's how you get fluent all right so  you have to review to get fluent but if you just  

repeat something again and again uh there's a lot  of reasons why that's bad but the biggest reason  

is that it's it's boring to your mind so you have  to get varied review all right it's a very simple  

so to become fluent you must review review is  boring so we need to get naturally varied review  

all right so if you want to become fluent this  is what you must do if you some people like they  

can like review again and again like if they put  a lot of pressure on themselves to do that and  

those are like you know like really good students  or whatever if you can do that that's great most  

people cannot all right uh but even if you can  do this even if you can repeat the same thing  

again and again conversations are not like this  conversations are Dynamic you can't just like  

hear the same word again and again because you  will hear lots of different things in a real  

conversation okay so even if I repeat something  okay okay class let's repeat repeat repeat repeat  

so it's the same teacher same voice you're  hearing something it's very very limited for  

the real world like the real world is like this  but the classroom lesson is like this it's giving  

you a very very limited amount of vocabulary  in a limited way and it doesn't really help you  

use it fluently so you have to make it easy for  yourself you want to make the process easy make  

it fun that's how you get fluent all right and  now this is the same way you're getting fluent in  

your native language right now you are learning  new words you know there's like new words and  

things like that uh coming in radio or on the  Internet or wherever you're learning vocabulary  

but even in your native language that's how you're  learning so make it fun make it easy all right uh  

uh let's see original now I forgot if I pronounce  it correctly or not you said I pronounced it  

correctly but I said like a couple different  is it a couple different ways I'm going to say

because your last name is a bezier and I don't  know if I'm putting like a Spanish like flavor  

on that but I can't let me see your picture yeah  I can't tell all right uh please talk please talk  

about your classes you mean like fluent for Life  uh it's easier just to click on the link in the  

description but it will it talks about this  process so you need to review to get fluent  

and you need to understand you basically need to  understand the language like a native and this is  

how you do it so if you'd like to do that that's  what we do in fluent for life but everything  

is already written down so you can learn about  the whole process if you click on that you can  

also learn more about Frederick which is another  class it's it's basically you're teaching yourself  

listening and pronunciation and vocabulary and  basic grammar uh all by yourself and so you can  

do that with Frederick and you can click on the  link in the description to learn more about that  

all right uh George or is that Jorge says  thank you very much glad to hear it saludos

maybe from uh from Peru if I'm pronouncing that  

rolling off uh jazz is uh wow sir glad to hear  it and Mr miles is C uh you are fabulous salima  

try again and again one day you'll be needed uh  do you think the part of speech is important in  

English well yeah but it's it's like asking  if pronunciation or grammar is important it's  

it's all it's all important but the point is  to learn it like a native rather than like a  

student so if I'm thinking about grammar rules I  don't really understand what I'm saying I really  

want to understand what's happening uh in a in a  conversation and it begins usually I give a lot of  

vocabulary uh lessons rather than grammar because  this is you know one more people are really  

interested in learning more words but number two  it's a little bit easier to just show them like  

that but if I'm trying to teach grammar it works  the same way uh where I'm giving you the like  

we're talking about one thing but I'm I'm going  to tell you a story uh in different time periods  

so you would hear the difference and understand  it naturally so if I'm teaching my children and  

we learn like go and went all right so I like  I go to school in general but yesterday I went  

to a store and so oh okay we know go becomes  wind but I don't think about it like that it's  

just they understand how it works because they've  they've heard it many times and they they connect  

the vocabulary with the situation so you don't  try to learn you don't try to connect vocabulary  

with rules or try to connect vocabulary with a  translation or definition you want to understand  

the situation when are people saying words and  that's when you understand it like a native

uh let's see so regarding the r in  English perfect read what they are

if I'm pronouncing that correctly yes  it's hard when you're trying to do it  

with text can it become fluent if I learn  English by myself absolutely yeah that's  

the whole the whole point of this video is  you can become fluent by yourself because  

fluency comes from understanding the  language really well and then when  

you get into a conversation you will feel  more confident and you will start speaking  

so I noticed this like when I learn new  things in Japanese most of my time is spent

so if I if I learn a new word let's say  I don't know this is like I don't know  

one day just as an example so one day uh  most of my time will be getting review and  

then finally over here I speak I would say  the word whatever that is I gave an example  

of this recently uh what was that word I  learned what was that I can't remember now  

I remember the vocabulary but I can't remember  the specific situation but this happens this  

this happens to me every day I'm just trying  to think of a specific example what was that uh

ah okay here's an example so this is one  I sent to people on like email subscribers  

maybe three weeks ago or something uh so I I  knew the word like in Japanese uh means like  

to vow something or whatever but like I had  heard it and I knew the word so I had like  

a surface level and I never really used  it in a conversation before uh but then  

I read it a few different times in a book  and in different in different context in  

the book and then finally it like it clicked  for me because I had heard it a few times and  

it was like ah like I swear to God so that's  how I would say it in English but it was like

so if I'm speaking Japanese and and and like  using it in that way and so I had learned it  

and I I basically became fluent in that vocabulary  as I learned it and then finally I used it with my  

wife later that day she asked me when I came back  from work she said hey did you wash your hands  

I said yeah I washed my hands and she looked  at me like I don't believe you and I was like

like I swear to God I did it  so the Japanese just came out  

okay so you spend yeah this is the the when you  get fluent like a native this is how you're doing  

it you spend most of your time just getting more  input until you feel like ah I really get it now  

that's the goal and again amazing thing is  you can do it by yourself so you don't need  

to spend time practicing and when you finally do  speak you will feel confident about what you say  

oh my goodness got about one minute left so  you have any any final comments over here

uh can I become okay I learned that one and  uh slim again I have a requirement English  

proficiency for my University I feel too  much stress and wasting my time here of  

classes what advice to me do you think  IELTS exam will help me the last question  

uh it depends on how much time you have and  like when you need to do something I would  

do whatever for a test that you need to do just  try to memorize the vocabulary but if there's no  

speaking part then do that if you actually have  to speak like learn how I'm showing you over here  

Enrique says uh thanks for a lot for I guess  uh sharing I just came to attend the class  

here glad to hear it huh actually most videos  that promote never say this are not realistic  

as native speakers use them all the time actually  yes again it's really interesting if you look at  

the like the timeline so I've been teaching on  YouTube for 13 years now man that's a long time  

so I started my channel uh and people like me  Andrea like you're losing your hair I said well  

yeah I'm getting older you know what happens uh  but to watch like the beginning videos many years  

ago it's like learn this phrase and of course  over time like the internet marketing and like  

that kind of stuff gets into it and it's like we  like never learn this phrase you know and like  

and I'm guilty about this too you know I have  to like get pretty good about making videos but  

my challenge to myself is like how can I make a  crazy title but actually like follow that up with  

a good video because I don't have advertising on  my videos so the big difference between me and a  

lot of the channels you see is I do not have any  advertising that like coming I think you YouTube  

might force me to do that uh for some things but  you'll notice uh there should be like little or  

no advertising on my videos because either people  watch my content and join my programs or whatever  

and I'm doing a good job or I I don't eat  so it's a big difference for that stuff  

all right again uh salima approached me I  don't care pronounced plural to pronounce the r  

plural plural video was loading how's everybody  I love it uh it's like you said the first time  

ah it's like the r for red for rows or  repeat uh okay all right thanks for trying  

all right let's see entire spectro again  if I heard a word and want to learn more  

uh what would what would I do it's like say  the word I heard is irrascible that's a good  

word uh what videos would I look for type the  word irascible into go to euglish actually  

uglish while uglish.com if you want to find  specific vocabulary like that but it will  

give you examples of that Ian in YouTube videos if  you want just a specific word you want to focus on  

all right I think that's it though hopefully this  makes sense remember really the the secret simple  

secret the truth about fluency just go deeper  into the language whatever it is you're trying  

to learn focus on that particular thing it could  be vocabulary or grammar or a topic but really  

get comfortable with that and then you will feel  confident using it it's that simple all right you  

can do this all by yourself oh no loading I  don't know if it's saying my video is loading  

right now or not I don't know but the comments are  still coming in that's weird is the video still  

coming in can you like hear me live am I am I live  hopefully I am I'm done with the video anyway but  

hopefully you all have enjoyed this and it's not  just running I don't know loading or whatever but  

hopefully you all have enjoyed this and I will see  you next uh in the next video click on the link in  

the description uh you can find that more about  fluent for life and have a fantastic day bye-bye