How Many English Words You Should Learn Every Day To Speak Fluently

looks like we're live we'll give uh YouTube a  moment and see hopefully it should be working  

though nice to see you out there hopefully  everybody is enjoying their day assuming YouTube  

gets working I don't know why it's it's always  faster for other people I don't know how everyone  

can get in the the video so much faster than I can  uh but it looks like we are working so hello I am  

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

video on YouTube and today we are going to talk  about how many words you should learn each and  

every day if possible to speak fluently all right  uh nice to see everybody out there uh I wanted to  

cover this topic because it's one of those things  that people ask me all the time and you know I  

just want to make a video about it so I have this  and anybody can can watch this video anytime get  

my complete answer on this it's actually very  simple so probably this won't be a long video  

we'll see how many questions people have uh but if  you want to know exactly what to do and how to do  

it this video will show you all right let's begin  all right uh so the basic idea as I normally cover  

uh since we'll probably have new people watching  this video uh I wanted to make this very uh quick  

point at the beginning uh the typical way that  people are learning languages what I call just  

the English as a second language approach this  is how people usually learn and often the goal of  

learning English as a second language is to get a  large vocabulary as quickly as possible so we can  

imagine like each one of these little little  checks or ticks here is a new word you might  

learn so you try to go through and as quickly  as possible learn as many words as possible but  

but often you don't really remember what you're  learning and in conversations you will forget or  

maybe you don't know how to pronounce something  basically this will create lots of Doubt d u b t  

I'll just make this a little bit little bit  cleaner so you have no doubt about what I'm  

writing here uh but this is really the reason uh  people can know a lot of English but they still  

struggle to speak so they still have doubts that  stop them from communicating uh so what we do on  

this channel and what I do with my Learners is  uh English as a first language and the goal is  

really to focus and so just to give you uh the  quick picture of what this video is about the  

basic idea is that you should learn at least one  just one new word each day uh so it could be one  

word or one phrase but I'm going to explain how  this is uh a little bit different actually really  

quite different over the long term than trying  to learn English the typical way so when you're  

learning English as a second language you might be  using translations or trying to get definitions of  

words and and you're trying to maybe uh repeat  those words again and again uh to to hopefully  

remember those maybe for a test but this typically  doesn't help you speak but with learning English  

as a first language really I want you to do at  least really just one thing each day and part of  

the reason there going to be just two reasons for  this uh the first reason is for motivation if you  

have a goal and you try to tell yourself okay I'm  going to learn 10 new words each day or something  

really ambitious so a really big goal like I'm  going to learn a hundred new words or something  

like that if you start having days where you do  not accomplish this you will feel bad about that  

uh and it will hurt your motivation and you will  notice your speaking is probably not influenced uh  

much better by learning that way either uh but  again the idea about focusing here the second  

reason to do that is because it actually helps  you speak and the reason as you'll see in this  

video is because it deletes or destroys or ends  the doubt that you have about vocabulary so as  

you learn more like a native you start learning  English as a first language you understand English  

like a native does you will start speaking more  like a native does so this is learning like a  

student this is learning like a native and that's  what we're going to do in this video all right so  

it should be a pretty short video you'll see how  this works and then you can apply it uh as you're  

learning and getting fluent but really I promise  you it might seem like just from this example here  

like you're learning less but the truth is you're  actually learning a lot more as I'll show you in  

this video all right before I do let me see if  anybody has any comments or questions all right  

Nils is there Annette nice to see you therea good  morning rutson Nils from Wisconsin yes let me know  

if you're not in Wisconsin I think you're just  in Wisconsin all the time uh game money says uh  

Hy or maybe that's high uh and coo oh no it's  too late in my country it's never too late all  

right first time to be here says F nice to see  you there HR good morning uh I can't read the  

cill but good morning it's the first time when  I caught your stream glad to hear it remember  

if you don't catch the live streams all of them  are available and you can learn with them just  

the same it doesn't need to be live in order for  you to uh participate and learn you know you can  

still make comments uh let's see and then some  more is that ckit hopefully I'm pronouncing that  

hello uh you can evaluate things identified in a  project what is the function of identified what is  

the adjective uh that's not the subject of this  video but I would put that in chat gbt and they  

will just give you a very simple answer for that  uh hello teacher I'm Marcela from Brazil God bless  

you all right good afternoon are you an actor an  actor no good morning says Shang what's up guys  

this good another credible class and Manuel says  hello all right so let's get started so if the  

basic idea is that we want to remove doubt then we  need to focus on something to really understand it  

so let me give you uh as I as I often do in these  videos we will talk about situations and how you  

learn vocabulary from situations so let's say I  have a very strict teacher like a strict teacher  

in my class so strict so I am not that strict  of a teacher strict so to be strict means that  

you're uh often telling people to follow the  rules and if they make even a small mistake you  

can get very angry or uh you might uh reprimand  your students so to reprimand meaning to punish  

or just do something bad to people so typically  this is like a strict teacher or a strict parent  

uh but let's say I'm talking about my friend  who is a strict parent uh or a strict teacher  

but I say you know actually they're really a  softy they're really a softy so if I just put  

this into a sentence so he seems let's just say he  seems a strict but he's really a softy where's my

R so he seems strict but he's really a softy  now what do you think think softy means from  

the context I bet you can guess so when you're  learning English as a first language you might  

hear it in a conversation or see some  other people talking or maybe you watch  

a movie or read something but typically  you will learn more by hearing things in

context all right let's see here one second

all right just making sure the the video  is working over here let me know in chat  

if uh if it's working I think it should  be uh but hopefully we're okay haven't  

seen anything wrong yet but pardon me for that  all right so he seems strict but he's really a  

softy he's really a softy now you probably  know this part of the word here soft softed  

and so to call someone a soft D what do you think  that means just anybody can post that in the  

chat let me see if anybody had a comment about  that over there lenient says game money no not  

necessarily lenient uh but that's a good idea and  so when you get one example of something uh you  

can think about having kind of like a Target like  this and you might think like okay from this one  

example softy means lenient which is it's pretty  good let's just say that's right here uh patient  

another example if I got that correctly if I'm  reading this softy or softy softy is the opposite  

of strict of patient so you mean patient uh so  patient it's kind of that's kind of close not  

exactly what we're looking for uh but typically  kind is more what we're looking for in the middle  

here and as you get more examples like let's say  uh my dad he's always telling me to do my homework  

and he's got all these rules around the house and  sometimes he he even gets angry at me but deep  

down but deep down he's really a softy all right  so he's really a nice so you could say maybe nice

nice like nice kind caring compassionate all right  yeah so it's basically like nice or and you can  

think about that like some nice soft sheets or  a soft pillow that same kind of thing so people  

will typically have like a a or an impression of  someone and so if someone seems like you see like  

you know often people will look at me and they  will say oh I I look like I'm in the military or  

something just because of my haircut uh but you  can maybe you see somebody and he looks very uh  

very strict or he looks like he would be a serious  person or maybe even a mean person sometimes you  

see this in movies there will be like a really  big strong looking guy but he has a teddy bear  

collection at his house so that would be like he  looks one way but he's really a softy so he's kind  

of a kind and caring emotional person in that  way so very relaxed very gentle and actually a  

softy so we're kind of contrasting this with even  though someone seems strict he's really a softy  

we're talking about who they are as a person  so when you get one example of something you  

understand the word a little bit you might still  have some doubt about how to use it but as you get  

more examples you feel better about the use of  it so let me have I have a couple of just quick  

sentences let's see though so another example  so even though he seems tough uh or in the same  

way like someone might be strict you could have  tough here like a parent might might be tough on  

their child so the child is trying to learn how  to ride a bike and the parent is maybe getting a  

little bit angry or they're um they're  like you know they're yelling at their  

child doing something like that complaining  but really like so the parent is really a

softy okay so it's not weak it's not  weakness it's just kind of a a gentle  

uh relaxing but you know part of that uh  just part of their emotional character  

so to be a softy a softy okay so as you you begin  like most people probably watching this video  

would know what soft means but again we've taken  one word like soft that you even something you  

already know but just by adding this why on the  end we we change the word we make it a bit more  

interesting and now we reveal kind of the the true  nature of how learning English as a first language  

really works and so what's happening is that we're  not learning words what we're doing we're really  

learning uh different situations where we can  apply words so it might seem like you're only  

learning one thing like the word soft but it's  more about now how can I apply this word if you're  

learning like a native you learn you understand  how to apply a word in different situations like  

this okay so typically when people are learning  like the ESL way they have maybe one word that  

they learn and usually it's a translation and they  think maybe there's one way to use it but when you  

understand something like a native you learn oh  okay like you know this marker is hard but this  

bottom of the Eraser here this is it's pretty  soft okay but I can also think about a person  

being soft or gentle and we can call that person  a softy a softy so someone might seem tough or  

strict or severe or mean or maybe something like  that but but really deep down and this is another  

way of expressing this like to talk about who they  really are we say deep down so deep down so who  

they their real personality is on the outside they  might look serious maybe they dress uh with like  

you know someone has a spiked suit on so the lots  of spikes or something like that on what they're  

wearing but really who they are on the inside  so deep down yeah so they could be gentle or  

understanding or a softy a softy okay so this is  just one example of how this works where instead  

of taking a word maybe you learn the word soft and  you learn what that means we really want to help  

you understand what soft means by really getting  lots of examples and that's really what's going  

to build your fluency so as you understand the  word better you hear new examples new situations  

where you can use a word and that's where you  feel wow like I actually understand this word  

very well and you can own that word like a native  does that make sense all right so even though I'm  

saying you should learn one thing if you look  at this lesson that we've covered so far we're  

looking at a bunch of different words and even  learning phrases like deep down down so where  

you're talking about someone who someone really  is all of this is coming from a basic word like  

soft but if you spend a little bit of time looking  at the word you will come to understand it better  

more like a native and that will help you use  it confidently and fluently all right pretty  

cool right so even if we're only looking at one  thing rather than trying to learn 10 words or  

20 words or a 100 it's pretty easy to learn one  new word each day at least everybody can do that

okay so the point is again to try to understand  things we get more examples we learn things and  

and think oh look at that like yes it does  mean soft like I've got soft skin or we have  

a hard whiteboard here but we can also talk  about people being soft in the same way a  

softy all right let's see if I have anything  else yes like generally generally they're  

they're used in this way another uh kind  of similar phrase we'll use here is a rough

exterior so someone might have a  rough exterior so a the exterior  

like the outside we contrast that with the

interior so someone might have like a rough  exterior so they have maybe we take a person  

here uh they have some clothes on that has spikes  or something like that so something looks maybe  

dangerous or something like that uh but actually  the person is really a softy so really or deep  

down so in their in their heart over here they're  actually a very a very sweet person so they  

might look one way but they're really a softy and  often when you hear people use this word uh softy  

they're talking about some kind of surprise they  had because they expected one thing and they found  

out that the person is actually not like that so  they look at the person wow the exterior they have  

a rough exterior so maybe they're not smiling  you don't see anything they're just standing  

there like this they look scary but really they're  actually really on the interior deep down they're  

really a softy okay is everybody getting the  idea here let me check chat make sure people are  

understanding this so far I think people are get  getting it though yeah so like people are as I'm  

explaining more people are getting getting more  on the bullseye of what this means uh so but he  

uh really is a softy but he is a softy so so he's  really a softy a softy so we can describe someone  

as soft or soft and gentle but we're talking  about a person in this way we say a softy like  

he's really a softy when you hear that it just  means oh they're they're really a gentle and kind  

person okay so usually nice to people generally uh  on the inside anyway even if they look different  

all right uh Ned says we move from Germany to  Wisconsin 2.5 years ago is that what you mean  

no I no I know you're already in Wisconsin but you  always say you're in Wisconsin so I'm wondering if  

you if you were going to different places after  you moved to the United States all right uh  

says hello teacher how are you I'm doing wellis  Iris says I would like that one class you can  

share us many important words for our Improvement  please well that's what we do in these lessons and  

actually if you watch uh many of my videos you  will find many useful words but the important  

point about this lesson is if you try to just get  a video with a bunch of words in it but you don't  

remember those or you don't really understand what  you're learning you're wasting your time okay but  

if you can pick one thing at least and you can  see how it would be very easy to go through a  

few words like if I'm teaching you we can go  through many different words I'm going to give  

you another example in a moment but the basic idea  here is that for you especially as an independent  

learner if you're learning by yourself you want  to find something that's easy for you to do that  

doesn't take a long time that you can continue to  do it I remember reading a story I think I shared  

this with fluent for Life members a few years ago  um but but there is a guy who said like if I if I  

have a plan to leave a a rock like one rock on  the side of a bridge as I walk you know during  

my like take a take a walk to work or something  like that so each day my plan is to leave one  

Rock by this bridge and if I failed to do that I  would feel like really bad about that and so even  

though it's it's just it's like an arbitrary thing  I mean you decide how many words you want to learn  

uh but it's much better if you can choose at  least one thing which is very easy to do if you  

find this is easy for you and you can learn words  quickly then raise that but start at least with  

just one thing okay so it is possible to learn  many words and we'll do another example in this  

video all right Shang says I have a question about  the word use when do we use use and when do we use  

usage uh use well use use would be like I don't  know rather than go into a whole lesson about  

use versus uh usage uh that would be something  for chat gbt actually or Google actually on our  

website we have a new guide up for uh usage isn't  covered but we have it's talking about use versus  

used to uh and like used to doing something like  us us Ed like used to like I used to do something  

uh but typically usage is is like one example of  something like how we might use something and then  

use would be the verb where we talk about using  a particular thing so I might use uh like use the  

word soft in this way uh but a like one usage of  the word soft is this so it's it's it's explaining  

the same thing I could go into more detail about  it I don't have time to do that in this video uh  

but that's the kind of thing you would get from  uh Google pretty easily so usage is typically like  

a noun like a particular example of something  all right C says good morning uh in my country  

by the time good morning over there John says  gentle English words are more interpretation than  

translating them yes and especially if you're  learning them as a native would learn them you  

really want to understand them like a native the  whole point is to understand it by just getting  

lots of good examples rather than trying to  translate them because translating when you  

learn will make you translate when you speak all  right all right let's see deep down in my heart  

says John yes the same idea deep down so you can  say deep down or deep down in my heart cam nice  

to see you there from Thailand John says ugly I  don't know what that's referring to Daniel says  

hello from Argentina how about it empathy yes you  can think of a softy as an empathetic person so  

someone who feels well or is they uh they could  be gentle but again and that's the basic idea  

all right K says can we say he has Brave instead  of he is tough well tough tough and brave aren't  

necessarily the same thing they could be similar  uh but you would say he has bravery you would  

say he is brave if that if that's what you're  talking about but he has like uh he has bravery

bravery bravery or he is brave you can say  both of those things so you could be tough  

but not necessarily Brave so you could you could  be like tough but still like like physically tough  

but still scared of things and not and not want  to challenge something because you feel nervous  

about that all right Abdul says I really like  your teaching style I have my toal test after  

16 days please advise me what to do most in this  16 days so uh first of all I would focus on basic  

grammar because you have basic grammar errors  in your writing here so if you say I have my to  

full test after 16 days uh I made a video about  this before talking about time fluent for Life  

members have more detailed stuff about this uh but  remember just because I I'll be kind and go over  

this because it is you can see I'm I'm a softy you  know so I want to help people help people learn so  

if we're talking about now now so anytime from  this point you would say it's in 6 16 days in 16  

days but if we're talking about from a different  point you would say like 16 days from this date  

so in 16 days from here so you could say like 16  days from now if you want to say that uh but you  

wouldn't say like in like from from 16 days you  would have to say because people will think when  

because when you use from it's you it's always  talking about some other point of time that's  

not now so from from 16 days uh rather than in 16  days but when we hear in we we know we're talking  

about now we don't need to say the word now so  I would focus on uh wherever you have doubt and  

particularly uh you would be look like look at the  things where you feel nervous about speaking so if  

you have a speaking component uh component to the  test I believe you do uh but if it's just writing  

or whatever or you know reading passages and doing  multiple choice questions focus on wherever you  

have errors but I would just looking at the way  you write I would focus on Basics make sure you  

have those correct uh but also find someone who  focuses on a test specifically if you'd like help  

specifically with like whatever test you're doing  so I what I do can be helpful for tests and my  

students do well uh on tests but it's not because  I'm focusing on a test per in in particular it's  

just because I help people understand English  like a native so they feel confident using it  

all right hard to breathe this is good morning H  sorry for the Sidetrack asking question about the  

function of identified thanks for your guiding  to cgb uh it says that it's used as adjective  

uh I don't remember what question I was about but  glad to hear it uh if also like softy itself is is  

that's like it's a you're you're describing  someone but you're saying per a person like  

is a softy kind of like I would describe someone  as like he's nice but he's a softy that's how we  

would use it all right uh jungar says teacher  I love your lessons glad to hear it uh if you  

do click the like button and let other people  know about the lessons so we can help them too  

uh Baron says teacher what exercises can we do  to have better pronunciation I would listen to  

more varied natives talking about things so  just listening to one person like me you can  

learn to sound more like me but if you want to not  only improve your pronunciation but also you're  

listening you should be getting examples of lots  of different speakers okay so especially if you  

need to work with a certain kind of person like  in a certain country or in a a certain place then  

you need to listen more to that kind of person and  that would be better uh the other thing obviously  

is Frederick which we have uh at the link or you  can click on the link in the description below  

this video for that uh and this will help you  control kind of the different sounds and compare  

the different sounds so that you can really feel  more confident that you understand the language  

really well so uh the two parts of pronunciation  are basically understanding individual sounds so  

if we have something like at versus a app if I  got that fitting in there so cat versus cap or  

rat as you compare the different sounds it's much  easier for your brain to hear those so this is  

understanding the individual sounds and then the  second part is getting lots of examples of how  

natives would say things because the pronunciation  can change when people are speaking so people  

might think about a word like uh like can so if  I learn this word and say it just by itself can  

can you can hear me quite clearly can but if  I'm speaking quickly uh as I'm speaking with a  

native friend of mine I might say can can you come  can you come can you come it's like k i n or k n

like can you come tomorrow can you come tomorrow  can you come tomorrow okay so that's why we want  

to do both we want to be able to understand  and to differentiate the different sounds but  

also we need to prepare ourselves our ears uh  and that will also improve our pronunciation  

so your your listening in your pronunciation are  linked in that way if you can hear a sound well  

you can probably make that sound well also okay  so this is how you got fluent uh in your native  

language and how you improved your pronunciation  as well so you listen to different people in your  

your community or your parents your family  uh you heard different people and as they  

said different things you got a nice comparison  again here we're comparing individual letters to

the see what I saying uh or we got um  we're going to compare like different  

different words from different speakers  so one example I I often tell people is  

listen to the same song or the same  speech given by different people or  

sung by different people so the same thing  but you want to hear it uh performed by  

different people all right uh let's see elae  says hello teacher from Brazil nice to see there  

morat says hi good work this lesson I'm from  Turkey good luck caros says I'd like to learn  

Japanese someday could you give me some advice  uh also for advice it's uncountable so we just  

say give me some advice we don't say advices if  you'd like to talk about different things like I  

have a few things to say you would say pieces of  advice and we're getting too many too many oh my  

goodness too many things on the board over here I  broke my Eraser let's see if I can fix this very

quickly

boom okay so a piece of

advice so if you can think about like a piece  of cake it's the same thing like here's a piece  

of cake here's a piece of advice so here's a piece  of advice for you or you can just say some advice  

but we don't say an advice or advices we don't say  that and that's because advice you can't count it  

you can't count it okay so a piece of advice uh  so as far as learning Japanese goes it depends on  

what your goals are so for me I want to be able  to read uh not necessarily write but I should be  

able to read quite well um so I need to study the  written language as well uh but also I spend time  

learning Japanese uh with lots of native examples  it's all the same things I do for helping people  

learn English so I learn Japanese as a first  language uh like as I explained at the beginning  

of this video rather than trying to study Japanese  through English I want to get lots of examples of  

Japanese in Japanese so I can understand and hear  oh like that word is used in this way in it's like  

the exact same thing that I do with what I teach  here all right so think about what your goals are  

uh and then get lots of good understandable  input that helps you remove any doubt you  

have about understanding things okay that's my my  quick interpretation of that uh but if you if you  

want to learn like what I talk about for fluent  for life or on this channel uh if you click on  

the link in the description for fluent for Life  uh it it's just the first link at the bottom uh  

that what I do for teaching people English that  that same thing applies for any language I'm  

not aware of a program that does it for different  languages if there is one for Japanese that would  

be great I would love to join it uh but I have  not found any program that teaches Japanese the  

way I teach English like not uh that they're able  to make the language really understandable there  

are lots of people who teach it uh but people  are typically like explaining Japanese through  

English which I don't want um or they're they're  kind of just giving a bunch of grammar rules and  

not really making the language understandable all  right so that's what I would look for so whether  

you're trying to learn with me or not that will  teach you how to learn any language it's just so  

so when I'm learning like the the things that I  do influent for life are what I do for myself as  

I learn uh and it's it's just easier to do if you  have a teacher so I wish I had a teacher my own  

wife won't really teach me if I have questions  about stuff she's just like n I'm busy I'm not  

going to not going to teach you anything right  now but anyway that's how you do it all right  

Maria says alello I get it but when my teacher  explained in the class I fa me what does that  

mean I don't know if you're talking about me or  somebody else like in a different class Abdullah  

says can you tell me the usual time when you're  alive it's usually around this time Mondays and  

Thursdays but actually I it's probably better  that I don't give the time because then I would  

have too many people on these videos and I can't  get through all the questions we've already been  

going for half an hour and I focused on one  word just giving you one example but I would  

like to give you at least one more danilla says  Hi teacher I've been learning English during 10  

years but I'm not fluent do you have some advice  uh typically it's it's because you have some kind  

of doubt that stops you from speaking uh and  usually that doubt comes from learning English  

as a second language so you spend 10 years trying  to learn English uh and you probably know a lot  

you can understand what I'm saying but the the  reason you can't speak is because you don't know  

the langu anguage as well as you think you do so  you might he you might for example know the word  

soft but you might not know the word softy and as  you get more examples you will feel uh much more  

confident that you understand the language really  like a native and that's why you would start uh  

start speaking so I began this video talking about  the difference between trying to learn a lot of  

words and when people try to learn a lot of words  they usually learn them badly and that means that  

they don't actually remember or really understand  what they're learning or they have a very like low  

level of understanding so I'm trying to give  you a higher level of understanding I'll give  

you another example of that in just a moment  after I get through these comments over here

okay uh Jose says it's like lay and lie with  as almost the same pronunciation uh if you're  

talking about pronunciation in general then yes  there there are words that can be similar like  

that yes uh HR says listening and understanding  dialogue for from a movie is very tough compared  

to listening to YouTube like you why is that uh  it's because the language is different so the real  

language that natives use in real conversations is  different from the way people teach the language  

in a in like a lesson like this so I'm trying to  be understandable uh I think maybe maybe I'll do  

like a future video will be I'll compare how I  normally speak versus how I speak in a lesson  

like this so for like members of fluent for life  will get that already because in that we're we're  

looking at uh like the way people normally learn  uh is we want to for the first step we want to  

make sure you understand something really well  okay so I should speak clearly a bit more slowly  

uh make sure you can really understand the word I  write it down probably the worst thing I do is my  

my poor handwriting but at least I try to speak I  know some people maybe are just listening to this  

rather than watching the video uh and I don't  like to take a long time I should do this with  

a computer maybe I'll have a setup like that uh  but the first thing is just to really understand  

something and then we want to get lots and lots  and lots of varied examples of that and so you  

hear me say something clearly then when you hear  someone else use it you are prepared for that uh  

and so like influent for Life the lessons are  organized like this so at first you're learning  

a bunch of vocabulary so it could be grammar or  pronunciation uh with with vocabulary like this  

uh but then you hear how natives really use it in  a conversation so you hear how the pronunciation  

changes a little bit you hear how people are  speaking more uh maybe maybe less clearly or  

they're mumbling they're speaking faster so you're  prepared because this whole thing is what helps  

you understand it like a native so if you think  about how a parent teaches a child typically the  

parent is like maybe a child hears something  on television and they and they turn to their  

parents say say like what is what does that word  mean so they heard something and it wasn't very  

clear and then the child says to their parent what  does that mean and the parent usually will give  

them like some kind of clear easy to understand  explanation so now when they hear that thing  

again they're prepared for that okay so you need  both you need the way I'm speaking now and also  

me speaking at like a regular a regular pace and  not just me but like lots of different examples  

of natives so whether you learn with me or not  this is the way you should be learning if you  

want to speak all right if you don't care about  like having conversations with people or really  

understanding movies well maybe you just need to  read books or something that's fine but I help  

people who need to actually have communication  in their life so it could be speaking with other  

people or for their work or social life or family  life or something um or whatever the reason is but  

but they actually need to understand people well  and communicate so that's how you do it and and  

this is why uh usually I mention like people  get like a lesson on something if you watch  

uh typical YouTube videos about teaching English  you get one lesson about whatever some vocabulary  

or grammar point and that's it you don't you don't  get more about about that same thing you could you  

could find more like you could find 10 different  people who talk about something and then get more  

examples of natives who were talking about that  same thing that would actually help you improve  

uh but just getting one example from a teacher  even from me um it's it's not going to prepare  

you perfectly for uh for real communication that's  why like for for what I do on YouTube it's just me  

right here I don't have a bunch of other natives  like I do influent for life so in that example  

we have all of that's already prepared for  you to help you understand those things so  

if you want to understand movies and community  Comm unicate better that's what we do influent  

for life all right uh let's see thanks L says  Carlos and morat and KO uh he is a bravery you  

would say he is brave so he has bravery so uh he  is tough means he is difficult sorry again no so  

again like tough again and this is another thing  about the language where one word you could get  

a translation like let's say I'm learning Japanese  and I I want to learn the word word free free like  

do I mean free as in as in money like price or  free like Liberty like I can do what I want there  

are different words for this in Japanese and  the same thing in English so even if we have a  

word like tough just trying to get a a definition  or a translation of that like I could be eating  

something like like this marker is pretty tough if  I try to chew on it all right it's a tough tough

it's tough like you could have a tough steak all  right so like you go to a steak restaurant here's  

a steak but the it's it's cooked it's cooked too  well like it's really well done it's a little bit  

tough the meat is a little bit tough so I can also  talk about a test being tough like being difficult  

and as you get these different examples of tough  you you start to think about the word more like a  

native and you understand oh I can understand how  how how it could be tough like the the texture of  

something or like the thickness of it or like  how hard it is to chew or I could talk about  

something being uh difficult or I could talk  about a person being tough meaning like they  

uh and even within people like a a like a teacher  could be tough like they're strict or or a person  

could be tough like they're able to fight lots of  people and they have lots of energy and strength  

okay but you see the the that's another example  of the difference between learning English as a  

second language where you just get a word like  tough and then you get a translation of tough  

and then you have just one example and you  try to repeat that and you wonder why people  

say like oh my stake is tough it's like what  your stake is difficult what do you mean by  

that and a native would just understand ah  like you mean like there there's something  

like Difficult about it and the difficult thing  is it's hard to chew so when we're when we're

learning just to make this idea very clear for  people because this is really important it's  

really the idea of this video uh if you have a  word like tough and then we get a translation in  

whatever your language is so Japanese or French  Chinese Tibetan you know whatever um so you have  

this in your mind and if someone uses something  different then you will not be prepared for that  

you will be surprised and you will be it's it's  like it kind of breaks your world a little bit  

but if you remember in your native language you  probably have many uses for particular words okay  

uh so the the native way is is is more like this  like you hear an example like uh the test is tough  

so if I just hear that example the weather is  tough well we would we wouldn't really hear we  

would hear the weather is rough actually similar  thing uh but if I hear like the test is tough so  

if I take a test and then someone else is asking  asking me oh how was the test I was like oh that  

was a that was a tough test so what I mean in  that example is like the test is a little bit  

difficult so here's tough and we have kind of  a general idea of what the word tough means so  

the first time I hear something I think tough  means hard okay so imagine like this is how a  

native understands vocabulary over time so a  native gets one example like oh the test is  

tough uh and so they think tough means difficult  but then later they hear like the stake is tough  

and now wait a minute like is the stake difficult  what do they mean by that and like if you get the  

example it's like oh it's hard to chew so there's  something there's something similar about this and  

this is what I call the core meaning of a word  like this and sometimes you could have multiple  

core meanings but generally when you're learning  vocabulary as a native you're you're building a  

stronger understanding of what this word means as  you get different examples so the test is tough  

the person is tough uh something else is tough  the situation is tough the stake is tough as you  

get all those you really feel confident that you  understand what something means because you're  

eliminating the doubt okay does this make sense  so this is very important and you can see how  

different this is from the typical English as  a second language approach so if you're trying  

to learn engl English as a second language  you have kind of one connection here and if  

you hear something different it will break that  connection and now you will feel bad about that  

okay you will feel nervous or like ah I don't  understand what that means but when you think  

about it like a native a native is always getting  more data or more input to help them understand  

words so what we do in fluent for life or what I  do in these videos is I try to take that process  

and and compress it so if you think about how a  native native speaker might learn this so like a  

native speaking child so they're born zero years  old and let's say they're 10 years old here so a  

young child might hear like like the word tough  let's say they're I don't know three years old  

and they don't really understand what that means  like they just hear the word tough they'll hear  

the word many different times okay so maybe  3 years old like maybe they're 5 years old  

and they hear an example like oh this the steak  is tough so they hear oh it's like hard to it's  

hard to chew so the child maybe tries to chew on  the steak and they're saying oh like like Daddy I  

I can't chew this and the and the parent says  oh like is the steak tough It's too tough for  

you it's too tough okay so the child learns oh  okay like tough means it's like yeah I I I get  

the idea here so they get one example and then  they're in school and a friend or a teacher says  

oh like the test is is is tough so maybe they're  8 years old and they hear that example so you can  

see how much time is going here it's like from  3 to 5 to 8 that's a number of years and they  

they start to understand things as they get more  examples of that so what I try to do is I want to  

take this and compress it and try to give you  a bunch of good examples this is what I call a  

fluency trigger okay so the point is not to take  a word and like study it and memorize it like this  

it's to get lots of good examples in a compressed  time frame so you really understand something well  

okay so which do you feel better about like if  I just say the word and give you a definition of  

it or if I give you a bunch of examples and you  start to you start to think about it more like a  

native and now you feel oh like I'm I'm getting it  I feel more confident because the doubt goes down  

confidence goes up and that's where you want to  start speaking okay so that was a long explanation  

about that but it it ties in nicely ly to tie in  you think about different things coming together  

to tie in so it ties in with what we are teaching  in this video okay all right I'll go through last  

couple of comments here and then give one more  example just to make sure this is very clear for  

people deep down I'm a softy you know I really  want to make sure people understand all right  

let's see any final comments here uh that I missed  let's see uh seit says there's their word toughy  

uh that's a good question that's thinking like  a native very good uh but no uh we don't talk  

about like a person being like a toughy rather  than a softy uh but you will hear people say  

something like uh like a particular situation  like if I give someone a difficult question uh  

you could say like oh uh that's a hard or that's  a difficult question I just say that's a difficult  

Q so I don't have to write out the whole thing oh  that's a hard question or I could say oh that's

a that's a toughy that's a toughy and you will  hear this why used a lot the same kind of thing  

like a person like asks me for something I say wow  that's a that's a biggie that's a biggie actually  

we would usually b i g g e Big E instead of a y  but it sounds the same oh that's a that's a bigie  

you're asking for like a lot that's a big request  you're asking for a favor so a friend of mine says  

I need to borrow $10,000 I say whoa that's that's  a big favor that's a biggie oh that that question  

that's a toughy that's a tough situation that  sounds like a toughy to me okay but good question  

good thinking so as you start thinking more like  a native you will naturally ask these questions I  

made a video about like what did I call that the  Five Laws of thinking in English and I actually  

talk about these specific things about how you  start asking more questions about vocabulary you  

will naturally do this because your brain is  trying to understand the language more uh so  

good question but this is how we would use it so  we don't typically typically talk about a person  

being a toughy like was oh he's a toughy but we  would talk about a situation being tough in that  

way oh that's a toughy that's a tough question  tough situation okay good question uh and also we  

don't we don't say like SMY we don't we don't use  that we don't say SMY we just say Big E because if  

it's just a normal request can I borrow $5 I would  say okay here's Five Doll uh but uh if they say  

I want like a million dollars say whoa that's uh  that's that's a biggie that's a toughy I I don't  

think I can give you a million dollars all right  uh let's see hello from Nepal nice your teaching  

style says ran is my pleasure Twan says do we can  get examples of words in YouTube yep you certainly  

you certainly can so it is possible the the things  I'm telling you to do as an independent learner  

you can I mean you can go to uh like uglitch as an  example you put in UGL do.com uh and you just type  

in a word and you can find people using specific  vocabulary uh it it kind of takes a little while  

to get lots of examples so if you're doing this  by yourself it is possible to do uh but obviously  

it's much faster if you want to to if you want  to get fluent faster a teacher is going to help  

you do that faster uh but you can get examples of  that and uh not even just uh individual vocabulary  

you can think about about topics so it often can  be easier to find topics rather than individual  

words so if you want to learn about cooking like  maybe grilling if you want to learn about grilling  

grilling G whoops g r i l l i n g grilling so  if I'm grilling food uh I want to learn about  

that maybe I might hear the phrase tough steak  or something or if you just Google Google the  

phrase tough steak or put that in YouTube you can  probably get some good examples of that as well  

okay so yes you can do that we do all that work  for you in fluent for life but if if you're just  

wanting to learn by yourself you can do that all  right creative says hey I asked my teacher about  

a word in English and she didn't know the meaning  of it by the way the word was perspicacity persp  

perspicacity I don't know what that word is either  perspicacity I don't know uh but I'll tell you  

something there are a lot of words I don't know  uh so yeah that's a good word you can look that  

up and uh I'm sure you can stump me with many  different words all right Jong here says how  

can I improve my English in 60 days four sections  I will take an exam so give me advice thanks for  

your answer I'm already an intermediate candidate  uh again like the same advice I'm giving everyone  

else here which is focus on the particular thing  that you need help with uh and you'll know that by  

what you have doubt about so if you're worried  about a grammar Point focus on that if you're  

worried about talking about whatever you need for  your test then Focus on that that's how you would  

do it uh let's see which books I will read could  you please recommend me to practice uh I don't if  

you if you're trying to get fluent quickly don't  don't sit and read a bunch of books you need to  

get lots of examples to help you understand the  language that's the fastest way to do it if you  

only read books you're not going to hear lots of  examples of how natives are really communicating  

so books are a good way to do it but it's a slower  way to do it and if you think about how uh Native  

children get fluent they're typically not getting  fluent by reading books because they speak before  

they're able to read all right uh and Amir says I  think the better way to learn English is reading  

a lot about something like one in English or the  Native American and step by step you will improve  

uh well that's a way to improve certainly reading  will help you and I read as I improve my [ __ ]  

improve my Japanese but uh I I don't recommend  that as a way to become a confident speaker  

reading is helpful though our M says the bread is  tough yes could that could be true morat says I  

agree we move from kosha to Pleasant Prairie not  far apart but still in Wisconsin all right mad  

says uh no study no gain uh again like what I'm  recommending is not really study it's the it's the  

same thing you do in your in your everyday life as  you learn more things if you think about watching  

videos on YouTube that are not about learning  English you just probably find some topics that  

you're interested in and watch more about that  and that's all you would do just do it in English  

and you will improve naturally so I don't I  don't like sit down the only studying I do  

really for Japanese is just about learning the  the writing because I have to do that I have to  

actually look at how how it is and and practice  it uh so do we say I had a toughy day no you  

would say I had a tough day a tough day but you  could say oh that day was a toughy uh typically  

though like toughy is more for like questions  and situations rather than a specific day  

all right uh Lou says I'm here just to say thank  you your videos are very helpful glad to hear it  

click that like button all right uh let's  see gradu I have a nice range of vocabulary  

what should I do to improve my oral English  you should focus more on the vocabulary you  

already know and maybe you thought I was going  to say that already but yes so as we we gave  

one example that was solved I'll give you another  quick example I'm going to stop uh just so I make  

sure this uh it's already 54 minutes but just  to give you another example just more proof  

that this works and this is what you should be  doing and that as I'm teaching here you should  

be feeling more confident and fluent because  you understand the language better so even if  

we take something simple like on okay we  can begin with a very simple thing again  

a a native child would learn the word on while  they're very young like one year old two years  

uh and you just think like okay here's a box  and here's something on the box like the ball  

is on the box very simple okay so a child learns  like this spatial usage or this physical usage

physical physical usage of on okay so they  hear just like we've got our our timeline  

over here so the child hears probably  many times like on on on on like oh you  

are on the table or the ball is on the floor  something like that so there they're getting  

all these examples while they're very young  and they understand this usage of on but as  

they get older they start hearing more uses of  that uh and without giving like every use of  

the word on because there are a lot of them  you might hear somebody say like like I'm

feeling on today and so a child hears that like  I'm feeling on today like I'm what do you mean  

you're feeling on like you're feeling on like  being like physically on something and the idea  

here is like you're feeling positive like oh  I feel like I could do a good job maybe I'm um  

I'm going to give a presentation or I have to do a  video like this like if maybe I'm I'm not feeling  

so good like I could be feeling off you know like  something something doesn't feel quite right it  

feels a little bit off something is a little bit  off about this situation uh but if I'm feeling on  

it's like ding like a light I'm ready I'm excited  I'm able to do something I'm feeling good about  

it I'm feeling on okay so he he feels on or he  looks he looks on he looks ready okay so you  

might hear like a later example of like feeling  on or something feels off about this situation so  

you feel maybe a little bit nervous something is  not quite right you don't know exactly what the  

problem is but you feel something something feels  off about this like maybe I heard something in an  

old house something feels off or something feels  wrong or strange about this situation okay so the  

same basic words but a native has much more  command of the language okay a command of the  

language ownership of the language so you know how  to use something and you feel very confident when  

you read like a good writer and they know how to  play with the language well this is what a native  

speaker is able to do but you can do the same  thing if you learn that way all right so another  

example you might hear uh what's another good  example like you might be hearing like oh like  

dinner dinner is on me dinner is on me okay so  if I'm I'm taking a friend of mine to dinner and  

I say oh tonight dinner is on me that person will  understand oh okay like Drew is going to pay for  

the meal dinner is on me and so what this means  is like the responsibility for something is on me  

rests on me okay so this is again another  idea it's not really like a physical it's a

figurative figurative example uh of of  understanding some vocabulary so this is  

a physical thing you could see it you could  touch it and when you think about dinner is  

on me like there's not like physical dinner  sitting on top of my head or something it  

just means the responsibility is on me so  the responsibility to pay for that thing  

so if I give uh an assignment uh like that yes  uh says Shuan so falling on someone so I could  

put responsibility on someone else so if I am the  boss or a manager and I say okay like it's on you  

to to do this thing it's on you to do that it's  on you okay so the responsibility or just it's on  

you so native speakers I promise you uh they're  not they're not good speakers because they know  

more words they're good speakers because they know  how to use their language well okay so and I know  

it it seems like here uh we're just taking a look  at one word but it's really not one word because  

vocabulary is connected so we have this we have  on and we have like I'm feeling on today or I'm  

feeling off I'm feeling off today something is not  quite right or oh it's on you the responsibility  

so it's on me to get you fluent that  responsibility is on me not you it's on me dinner  

is on me tonight lunch is on me it's on me okay  so as you understand the language better you feel  

more confident about using it you will understand  it better when you hear it in real conversations  

and so you will feel much more confident about  speaking all right so notice you're not speaking  

with me in this video I'm I'm telling telling you  I'm helping you understand something and because  

you understand it you should feel more confident  about understanding it in real life when other  

people use it or feeling confident yourself  about using these things okay all right let  

me go through answer uh some last comments over  here hopefully this makes sense all right Jose  

says Hi I normally watch you in Brazilia but today  I'm in Tokyo best regards as well welcome to NE  

let's see here can't tell if that would look like  there's some some cherry blossoms or something  

behind you these pictures are tiny I can't  really see all right K says I appreciate it  

glad to hear it hi it's just start or you can see  it just started and the big GK and guys uh Andrew  

yes so it started about uh 60 minutes ago our  pill says your face is similar to Steve Jobs uh  

I guess maybe I don't know I've never heard that  before but that's an interesting thing about like  

people like people in America would no one has  ever told me I look like Steve Jobs so I have  

like people have said I look like uh like Mr  Bean uh or I mean even like maybe maybe with  

this haircut yeah I could see how I look like  Forest Gump you know Tom Hank says Forest Gump  

all right abdell says I'm struggling so you would  say I'm struggling to remember the English words  

even I learn a lot every day yes yes well that the  the learning a lot is the problem so because you  

learn a lot you can't remember okay that's the  whole subject of this video so stop learning a  

lot try to learn a little and you will improve  and you will me uh remember that vocabulary  

all right morning Drew I'm late today oh no it's  okay uh don't worry you can go back and watch it  

uh let's see uh perspicacity says the quality of  having a ready insight into things shrewdness oh  

okay well there you go all right so I if you if  you're trying to remember that word now I would  

get a bunch of examples of it uh it is good to  look up words if you don't know what they are  

uh I'm I'm not able to do that while I'm doing  this video though all right how can I improve  

my English with a book why does everybody want  to improve their English with the book is it  

I think are people asking about that because  because they they would rather improve their  

English with a book rather than speaking is that  it because you don't have to speak to improve your  

englage so if you think it's either like I I'm too  shy to speak so I'd rather read a book if that's  

the answer that's not an actual problem that's  like the good news is that you don't have to speak  

with people to improve just like if you're able to  improve with my videos and you have never spoken  

with me you're improving without actually speaking  with anybody okay so don't worry about like trying  

to find books to improve uh books can be helpful  but books are one piece of understanding that can  

that can help you become fluent so you need more  than uh just a particular book uh and so T te you  

please tell me which accent is right to speak and  learn British or American uh it doesn't matter  

it's just uh I in INF fluent for life we give you  both but plus more than that Australian English  

Canadian English because you will meet people from  all over the world or you will hear people like  

in different movies or online or whatever uh and  so like when I'm learning Japanese I'm not only  

learning one like one Japanese like Osaka b or  Tokyo or whatever I'm hearing lots of different  

examples so Nagasaki has its own dialect uh and  it's different from Osaka or or other places but  

I want to uh if I'm traveling around or meeting  different people from different parts of Japan I  

want to be able to understand those people too  uh but if you are trying to get a particular  

accent or something for where you work or where  you live then then use that so if I live in uh  

like if I work at a fish market in Tokyo then I  should probably get used to that Japanese so I  

don't need to spend time learning a bunch of other  things because that's that's what my life is and  

so that's why people that's why people develop  Accents in the first place so if you're a child  

living in a community you will start sounding  like the like the parents or other people in  

your community that's how people improve all right  but if you want to uh understand more people then  

you would uh broaden that you should be trying to  learn with lots of different people rather than  

just a particular accent n says can you recommend  ways on how to improve listening skills so I've  

already given a bunch of those in this video all  right uh your face is also similar to Eminem now  

if you look at Eminem and Steve Jobs like they  actually look very very different but I can see  

depending on who you are like we might we might  look similar like I have a I have a joke here uh  

like a friend of mine is a barber uh he he cuts he  actually cuts my my hair uh and I have a joke with  

him that like every like because they'll say like  oh you look like somebody and I like some you know  

like I look like uh Mr Bean or whatever and I say  oh everybody in Japan looks like Ichiro and like  

and everybody doesn't you know but like you can  you you become better at seeing these differences  

when you when you really look at people and so now  I can actually say oh that person looks like this  

other person over here uh but it's it's much  more subtle and and more uh more appropriate  

people you can find usually all right he is brave  he has bravery correct you got it okay and now  

like uh you can take that and like he is brave he  is smart he is fun you know look at other examples  

and that's how you how you will understand the  uh understand the grammar better all right ER  

says hello my friend hello and joean again what  I like that with the capital letters there what  

is the difference between misunderstanding and  misunderstood well typically a misunderstanding  

is is like the noun and like you misunderstood  something means you didn't understand something  

or it was not communicated to you well that's  how you would understand that but again uh for  

little examples like that you don't need a live  teacher to tell you that put that in chat GPT or  

uh or Google and I'm not trying to be lazy when I  tell you that but my time uh is better for helping  

you if if I can help you understand something  and remove some doubt that you really can't get  

quickly or easily from Google or chat GPT so if  you have an interesting question about like why  

people do something something or uh some other  interesting grammar that I can I can like show  

you how it works and make it easier to understand  that's what I should be doing all right TB says  

I tried to read a book Animal Farm by George oal  but I was surprised at how many words I couldn't  

understand each page of the book is that normal  yes well obviously Animal Farm is a higher level  

book but when I tell people that you should  be learning with reading if you want to read  

you should find something that you can understand  at least 80 to 90% of the page so if you look at  

the page and you don't understand most of the  words uh then it's going to be more difficult  

for you to understand and then you will you  will get frustrated you will look at um like  

I have to look at a dictionary or something  every two seconds that so so find something  

you can really understand easily that if you if  you have let's say we've got like five words or  

something and you know all of these words and  here's the new word then you think oh I can  

actually understand this new word from these  other words so we call this understanding from

Context so rather than just getting a definition  of this you understand this word from the sentence  

you understand from or because of the context so  if you have too many words that you don't know  

you can't learn that way so it becomes more  frustrating so I I do not like I don't learn  

Japanese by reading a Japanese novel I'm just my  reading ability is not at that level yet um and  

Japanese is a bit more frustrating uh because  you really need to know like all of the all of  

the characters uh for for for reading higher  level information uh but I think the Japanese  

government or somebody makes U like they make like  uh like newspapers and things that are easier for  

for lower level like young kids and foreigners  so people who are trying to learn the language  

they they make it easier for you but that's one  of the tricky things about Japanese is that you  

have to learn like the whole thing rather  than just pieces of it but with English if  

you understand how the pronunciation rules work at  least you can read what the words are um you might  

not understand them but at least you can you can  read what those are uh let's see I think I already  

answered that right the word decipher can you  please use it in different contexts well again  

the the typical examples I give for people and I  I don't want to spend time giving lots of examples  

this is a good question just about how to learn  uh but as I gave before like the physical and the  

figurative so if I'm looking at uh like when I'm  when I'm here let's let's in case anybody else  

doesn't know what decipher means I will give you  the same kind of lesson about understanding that  

so if we have a word like decipher uh but I have  one example where uh like I'm looking at some like  

strange characters on a board like this I can't  decipher what that means I can't decipher what  

that means okay so here you understand it's  like ah I don't quite understand something  

I can't like take something and translate it  into something I understand so I can't decipher  

something okay so to decipher is like to remove  the cipher uh from that thing uh but I could  

also look at like somebody's face so if I just  make a face like this like can you decipher my  

face so decipher in this case would mean can you  tell what emotion or how I'm feeling by the way  

I look if it's just can you decipher decipher my  mood from my face so those are physical examples  

of something like that so getting like looking  at uh letters or some characters or something so  

this is not not Japanese or English or whatever  it's just like some some letters here but you  

can't decipher what that is you don't know what it  means and you can't decipher my face if I'm like  

yeah like have a big smile like you know you can  decipher that quite easily but if I'm you know you  

know making different faces or something like that  maybe it's more difficult to decipher all right uh  

so you could anything where we're we're looking at  something and even the facial the facial example  

it's a little bit a little bit non-physical  I mean you're you're kind of looking at like  

deciphering someone's emotion decipher  someone's emotion okay uh but that's the  

basic idea so as you get more examples you get  the understanding of like oh it's like it's like  

a cracking cracking the code up here if you look  at chat if you look at chat uh somebody put the

decipher you'll see it up  there here I think let me see

here because you'll hear it uh like people  using both you hear it with like a DI like

Di and D like d

y decipher

oh wait a minute so now I can't I  can't I can't spell when I'm when  

I'm writing over here when I'm trying to read as

a is that correct now now I'm now I'm I'm  confusing myself over here got look at

that yeah I think it's uh yeah I I don't know  why I'm like struggling with being able to write  

this at the same time but you might hear both  of those or see both of those decipher anyway  

uh so like the cipher of something if you're if  you're trying to make a cipher a cipher is like  

a it's like a code so we could have something like  like a b c d and it's like triangle lines and two  

lines that way like that so I'm making a cipher  like that all right but yes like since I'm since  

sometimes I make spelling errors because I'm I'm  like trying to think at the same time while I'm  

spelling you can just do a spell checker and get  it uh but there will be words like this where you  

get like multiple uh multiple meanings of it or  multiple spellings of it all right uh let's see  

uh let's see Ken Manco what if I cannot hear the  difference when I do minimal pairs training uh  

what training are you using for that are you using  Frederick for that you should be using Frederick  

if you're trying to do that uh the the best way  to do that is like to hear the differences one  

after the other so if you can hear like cap and  can usually you can hear the difference between  

these like if you look at them or compare them  very quickly cap can cap can cap can uh and so  

this is like what we do in Fredericks you can  actually test your ability to understand these  

things and you can look and train your ears that  way uh but you should be looking at that and then  

also if you can watch people speaking uh watch  the way like cap versus can okay so if you hear  

some people will say the can and can't they sound  the same or they sound similar and usually this  

happens in a conversation uh like I can't go I  can't go I can't go uh but you can hear the T like  

the space for the te is there even though I'm not  saying it I can't go I can't go but you can tell  

by my my face like no I can't go so I'm shaking my  head like this I can't go I can't go so if I say  

yeah I can I can go I can go rather than I can't  I can't go so if you listen really carefully you  

usually can tell the difference uh but Frederick  will help you do that if you click on the link  

in the description below this video all right  uh where did I go okay I love your example says  

Elaine glad to hear it K says it's tough for  me to understand core meaning of English did  

I write this correct you write it correctly yes  so it's tough for me to understand core meaning  

in English uh it gets it gets easier as you get  more examples that's how you that's how you do  

it so it's if you only get one word with a  definition or translation you don't really  

understand the core meaning of something you  have one meaning uh to a non-native speaker it  

seems like the core meaning but you will often  find that you get many different meanings of  

words or a much broader use out of that uh as  you get more examples all right ran says Drew  

can you organize speaking workshops with one or  two people uh there's no reason to do that because  

you don't need to speak in order to get fluent  it's much faster like you can improve faster just  

by understanding the language better I don't have  speaking workshops with people to learn Japanese  

I just listen to people speaking Japanese and I  learn different different ways of using vocabulary  

and that's how I get fluent it's pretty simple so  I don't I don't take lessons or or go to anybody  

specifically there there's no reason to schedule  anything like that uh and if I did it would it  

would be like way too expensive for anybody all  right hello teacher I have a question what is  

the difference between hearing and listening uh  I'll tell you that very quickly the this is like  

basically hearing something is something coming  into you but listening is you like kind of going  

out to to to kind of catch information so if I'm  watching something I'm intentionally like you're  

listening to me right now because you're trying to  do that it's intentional you want to do that but  

maybe you hear a bir heard outside or something  it's just something that comes into your ear okay  

so hearing something versus listening to something  what one is uh so listening is what you want to  

do and hearing is just something that happens  automatically all right uh hello Drew R2 here  

I hope you remember me uh I think so let's see are  is are you using a different uh because we have a  

couple of os they come here wrestling says do you  have any cheaper course because paying 5,000 $500  

on is too much for me but I'd like to get some  from you uh just go to English anyone.com you  

should join at Native fluency blueprint join the  native fluency blueprint all right K says hello  

teacher I'll give it a try making lots of examples  how to spell this ver okay I got that Danielle  

says good evening I'd like to know if it's  better to learn a new word every day or study the  

synonyms uh that words I already know well even  like like there there's the third option which is  

what I've done today so taking words you already  know in just understanding those words better now  

you could learn synonyms as well synonyms are  helpful or phrases that could be used in the  

same situation uh so that's another another way to  improve your vocabulary improve your understanding  

um but yeah so that's helpful but think about the  the vocabulary that you know that's the foundation  

so you want to make the foundation very strong uh  because other things will sit on that foundation  

so if you have uh like like we talked about about  the word on if you only know on like this but you  

don't know on like that's on me or it's on  somebody to do something uh then you should  

spend more time learning this rather than synonyms  of the word or something all right but the goal  

whatever you're learning is to understand it well  because when you understand it well you will feel  

confident about using it all right uh thanks so  much as already I got this you have great talent  

to explain knowledge glad to hear it yes so I I  recognize guys I know that if you don't understand  

something then you won't be able to use it so I  it's okay I'm here to answer questions for you  

guys I know what it's like Augustin hey Drew glad  to be here again watching your video but let me  

tell you that the volume of your audio is low  and greetings I guess you mean greetings from  

Nicaragua you have been my mentor since many years  ago or you can just say uh you have been my mentor  

for many years glad to hear yes uh like usually  this mic microphone is fine it's just it's a  

stationary mic rather than having like a like a  lab mic which I've experimented with before but  

haven't really like them very much uh but maybe  I will try that again it just depends on where  

I'm looking but the volume is should be up pretty  loud uh it's pretty loud for me when I listen back  

all right tandro says I've got a big difficulty  with in on and at could you give me some tips to  

improve that well you can look at just look  at my channel you will find lots of videos  

about prepositions like that maid or mahid says is  there any dictionary that can help with learning  

phrasal verbs but in the way you give a common  verb and you get its meaning and phrasal verb  

option thanks um I would just use chat GPT for  that so if you're looking for phrasal verbs for a  

specific preposition or for a specific verb Google  will give you lists of those as well uh whether  

you understand that list or not that's that's  a separate issue but you can find lists of that  

information so we have a whole program about that  the visual guide to phrasal verbs um but that's  

uh so that's included in fluent for Life uh but  again it's it's not just knowing the vocabulary  

it's how well you understand the vocabulary so  if you just get a list of various phrasal verbs  

you might not understand them or understand the  many different and interesting uses you have of  

vocabulary all right pillar Chiller says it always  seems difficult to to understand IDM light at the  

end of the tunnel that's interesting why would  that be difficult I mean typically you have a  

you have a tunnel if you imagine a tunnel like the  tunnel is dark and you're coming out on the other  

side if you can see the light at the end of the  tunnel it means you're almost through that tunnel  

so if the tunnel is very long usually you walk  in and the tunnel just looks dark so you don't  

know what's what's in there you can't see it but a  short tunnel obviously you don't have that problem  

you can see to the other side but a long tunnel  is going to be dark and so that's the physical  

idea again we have like the physical idea and the  figurative idea um of of like a tunnel in life  

like a difficult situation so you're going through  some difficult situation in your life that's a a  

problem for you so you're going through whatever  it's like a tunnel but uh but thankfully it  

looks like we're almost finished with the problem  there's some light at the end of the tunnel okay  

so it looks like you're getting getting close to  the other side after going through that difficult  

thing all right it says my partner is from the US  but she usually can't explain uh me anything as  

good as you well yes I I've been doing this a long  time so I'm pretty good at explaining explaining  

stuff that's why people join my programs all right  no says God bless you glad to hear it uh again if  

you would uh please bless the like button uh  let people know this is entertaining for you  

and it's helping you uh then we can help more  people all right Sam crook says my wife failed  

four times in O listening any tips for her I don't  how are you how is she learning tell her to watch  

my video that's the best advice I can give like  once you understand how to learn it's much easier  

to do it so improving your listening vocabulary  pronunciation all of that if you understand it  

like a native with lots of native examples you  will improve all of your skills and then the  

question is do you want to do it faster with help  or are you going to do it by yourself so you can  

do it it is possible uh like that's how I'm doing  it now but I wish I had an actual teacher who knew  

how to teach like I do you know it's it's kind of  like the struggling thing about it but I know how  

to create that in English and that's why I made  that for my my students all right uh like 108 good  

job let's see and K says teacher it's about time  to drink mint water yes uh I think we're we're  

at the end of the lesson because we have reached  the end of the comments section but look at that  

I did it again and here we are with the uh look at  that my uh 2 L bottle over here with my mint mint

water it's pretty good I do like some mint water  I like uh you know like some little Mint or little  

pieces of fruit or something just a little bit  of little bit of flavor to my water okay uh just  

a last review before we close the video down  for today the basic idea is that rather than  

learning a bunch of words that you probably won't  remember take one thing and go deep into that and  

I promise you it's not just learning one thing  you're actually learning uh a bunch of different  

and interesting and useful words because the  value of vocabulary is really how you can use  

it how many different situations could you apply  something rather than just thinking about like  

the number of words that you know okay hopefully  that makes sense so always be learning uh if you  

want to become a competent speaker as quickly as  possible you should be learning English as a first  

language and the fastest way to do that is with a  teacher like me who can help you if you would like  

to do that click on the link in the description  below this video to learn about fluent for Life  

uh Frederick as well so we designed that so you  can teach yourself all about pronunciation it will  

help you with your listening vocabulary building  as well uh but again I'm Drew Badger it's been a  

pleasure uh speaking with you today and I look  forward to seeing you in the next video byebye