How My Children Learn English - 5 Native Tips For Fluency

the founder of englishanyone.com and the English  fluency guide today we're going to talk about how  

I teach my own kids English and so we're going to  give you a bunch of tips one two three four five  

tips these are the things I was thinking about  recently as I teach my own children and help  

them get fluent now even though I am a native  I don't have a lot of time with my kids where  

they're they're getting to listen to my English  specifically so I have to be very strategic I have  

to be very efficient so my children spend most of  their day speaking Japanese so their Japanese is  

going to be at a better level than their English  but their English is still very good and so I  

wanted to talk in this video about how I do that  well Arturo's back nice to see you there hopefully  

everybody is doing well wherever you happen to  be I want to get right into this and I'll ask  

questions as we go through so this is a live video  but people can obviously go back I'll save this so  

people can watch it later but the the main thing  I want to talk about you'll you'll notice this is  

a theme throughout this whole video and this is  that natives spend a lot of time getting lots of  

understandable messages so this is all of the  input that natives are getting and so my kids  

they're they're doing really what it's like the  the kind of practicing of the language is all of  

the different things that they're hearing and I'll  I'll give you the five specific things that we're  

doing I do a lot more than that uh but I thought  these would be most helpful for you so these are  

things that you can do as well but again I do  spend a lot of time uh the time that I do have  

with my kids when they're not in school or you  know out doing whatever but focusing on really  

giving them lots of input and repeating a lot of  things but giving them naturally varied review  

this means I'm trying to give them information in  different ways as you'll see in the video alright  

so if you have any questions as we go let me know  I'll keep my eye on the chat but I'd like to go  

through this pretty quickly and you can start  using these tips as well so remember the basic  

theme the basic idea is that we want to unlike  most Learners so most adult English Learners who  

think they know the language well so they think  okay I know this vocabulary but they can use it  

as well as my kids often and so you will have this  experience because you don't get enough exposure  

or you're not familiar enough with the language  and that's really what stops people from speaking  

fluently so they might know the language but not  know it well enough to speak fluently all right  

so the first thing uh what did I want  to talk about first so first thing this  

this might seem like a very basic or  simple thing and this is just subject

verb

subject verb agreement subject verb agreement  all right so very basically this just means  

you're connecting who you're talking about  with what's going on all right so I go  

we don't say I goes okay so this is one  of the first things that little kids are  

learning and especially my younger daughter  were still practicing a lot of this and I give  

her lots and lots and lots of examples  so we usually have things like I like  

this where I go here or I play this or then this  but we really want to practice a lot with making  

sure that she can use so not just my younger  daughter but both of them can really use this very  

automatically very fluently without thinking and  hesitating uh and so especially if they're talking  

about different people or different things so we  might be watching a movie and like he plays guitar

or he likes something or they like something  this might seem like a simple idea for people  

even you know especially if you know and you  can understand what I'm saying right now the  

interesting thing is I will read lots of YouTube  comments get mails from Learners even hear videos  

from Learners where people are making these basic  mistakes and a lot of these things they Learners  

are very excited they want to learn something  more advanced all the time when they're still  

not making these things correctly okay so I really  recommend you spend more time with these things  

the very Foundation of English especially if it's  different from something like your language so if  

you don't have subject verb agreement like in  Japanese we don't have this so it's not like I  

go he goes it's just I go you go they go he go  It Go like that it doesn't matter who you're  

talking about so some languages are a little bit  easier some languages have other issues you know  

different different things like that for different  languages but this number one thing that I really  

spend a lot of time on I give lots and lots of  examples I might say like does the marker like  

this or does the marker like that so even though  the marker might not like something my kids are  

getting that input like ah we can still use the  language that way okay so the marker likes Pizza  

it sounds like a funny example again I try to  give them some silly examples but the language  

still works grammatically the same way okay so if  you want to spend more time uh with this if you  

if you still don't feel 100 confident about this  kind of thing so subject verb agreement and I do  

see it a lot uh I recommend you spend more time  with this alright so this is really the number  

one thing that I'm doing with them we do this a  lot really making sure they understand this and  

even having things like like he uh and she he and  she do something and understanding that this means  

they can do something but again I highly recommend  you focus on this first let me check chat before  

I go into the next thing here nice to see people  from all over uh I don't want to get uh to let's  

see all right looks like mostly just greetings  from people which is nice Kamal says uh all I'm  

worried is about my academic writing I tried hard  to improve for the past two years but couldn't  

Ace it believe me I'm damn horrible and writing  skills can't even write a good essay yeah well I  

would in that case I'm sure your writing is okay  you have a few errors in there but your writing  

is okay I would spend time looking at basically  number one the format of how lessons are and just  

look at very simple things without trying to write  along I don't know what you mean by academic like  

do you mean higher level like graduate school  or something or do you just mean like an essay  

um because you the essay has like a pretty  simple structure you have some kind of opening  

where you state some kind of claim you've got  some supporting conclusions about that or some  

proof and then you just repeat what you said  in the beginning it's pretty simple but I would  

recommend you read lots of examples of this  there's an interesting thing a professor of  

mine did in college he actually uh had he saved  old papers that other students had written from  

previous years and he made those available for  us at the library so I could go there and look  

at other students and how they're writing and  obviously you can't just copy what they do but  

you can see what makes a good paper and so there's  markings on it like oh this is a good point and  

it's a really interesting idea about getting more  feedback and even if you're not getting feedback  

on your own writing you're still here getting  examples from other people and seeing how that  

works all right so look for more examples that's  pretty much the answer for for anything like that  

is looking for examples of how people do it it's  like if you want to learn how to make ice cream  

you should watch other people who make good ice  cream and you will learn how to do that as well  

all right uh let's see sorry to be late what's  the topic today the topic today is how do you  

learn neighbor native English or how do you  learn English like a native I've talked about  

this a lot but you don't become uh uh Native  isn't it's not it's not oh no here comes the  

fire truck or an ambulance so being native is  not something you're actually born with you  

develop native ability to communicate by how  you learn and that means anybody can do this  

obviously natives spend way more time doing it  but you can become much a much better speaker  

if you start learning more like a native which is  what we're talking about in this video so these  

are the things that I do uh when I'm trying to  help my two daughters learn English and then you  

can do them as well so the first thing the first  tip over here is just really focusing on subject  

verb agreement even if you think it's boring  even if you think you know it already if you  

are still experiencing errors in your speech or  you feel unconfident like ah couldn't I couldn't  

quite say that very quickly really practice that  thing the basic things like this this is what's  

going to give you the confidence to to express  yourself in conversations because if you don't  

even feel good about simple things then more  complicated things are going to feel worse  

all right let's see here the Romney official says  or the roaming I also teach English in Colombia  

and that's exactly how I do it I never go beyond  Advanced topics but they can't uh but they can't  

use like the simple present properly yeah so  again yeah it's like it makes sense for us but  

the reason people struggle with this is because  the mind is naturally interested in new things we  

always want new give me new vocabulary new stuff  but you have to learn to control that and focus  

on the things like instead of trying to get like  a new grammar point you should get new examples  

of this same stuff all right if you know it well  and you use it confidently and fluently move on  

that's fine but if you don't focus on this all  right that's what's going to help you improve  

I know a lot of people will uh not a lot but a  few people will be worried they will say drew  

I'd like to join fluent for life but I'm worried  it's too easy I'm worried it might be too easy  

for me and I say well if you know the language  already but you're not speaking the problem is  

not learning more vocabulary it's not like you're  you're missing some words and if you learn those  

words then you can speak that's not what's  happening what's really happening is you don't  

know the language as well as you think you do and  so people think something is easy when they know  

it but being able to speak fluently is a different  thing and you need to develop that automatic habit  

of communication which is why we practice these  things all right the good news is you don't need  

a speaking practice partner to do this with you  just need to get lots of input all right so this  

is the kind of thing we do in fluent for life but  you can obviously do it by yourself if you like  

all right let's see anybody else over here yes  University level yeah so I would focus on that so  

which language does your wife speak uh my wife is  a native Japanese and her English is really good  

too but she spends more time speaking to the  kids in Japanese and obviously my children go  

to Japanese schools in order to write effectively  it is essential to read extensively yes it's also  

helpful hey bro I love you and thanks so much for  all yeah it's my pleasure I can understand English  

hey Drew fellow from Brazil I do not speak proper  way yes will you got to get more examples of  

native speech which is what we talk about in these  videos all right uh Amana says I'm from Argentina  

and my girlfriend she's from China English is  a communication bridge between us was it the  

same story for you and your wife yep Mike her my  Japanese improved over time so I didn't know any  

Japanese when I came to Japan and I had to learn  it but when I met my wife her English was at a  

higher level than my Japanese I think probably my  Japanese might be better than her her English now  

so she knows more more words but I I like review  the language in a different way so I have uh like  

a like a higher degree of fluency and I have more  more confidence to be able to go out and speak  

with more people well Nils is back hopefully  you watch it die hard uh since we last spoke  

all right next I want to get uh keep moving over  here make sure we don't get stuck for too long  

how are we going 12 minutes so far all right  so remember focus on subject verb agreement

I know it might seem boring if you already know  something already but remember you don't really  

know it you don't really know it uh until  you can use it fluently all right that's  

the real test it's not whether you can like  pass a written exam or something we want to  

really know something and that's when you  know we can use it fluently all right so  

the second thing I work on with my  daughters is exceptions exceptions

so we started number one with basic things about  the language especially subject verb agreement  

because this is so important for English and  especially for my daughters because they don't  

have that in Japanese but I want to have them  focus on exceptions so one of these would be  

like irregular verbs irregular verbs all right so  this is again I gave the example before about I go  

but then I went anytime you have something  that's easy to understand like I played I  

talked I listened anything that just ends in an  ed like that anything like that it's going to be  

nice and easy to remember so you don't need to  spend much time on it so you need to spend more  

time on the exceptions okay so the the things  that break the rules because when little kids  

learn the language the first thing they try to  say is I goad so I go to the park I go to the  

park now logically this makes sense there's  no reason why we should make it went why do  

we make it completely different word I don't  want to get into the history of anything like  

that because I don't teach that to my kids but  the point is we have to correct them and spend  

more time with these things all right so I went  to the park I went to the park so we focus on a  

lot of exceptions and especially things like like  singular and plural so if we have like one foot  

then I'll give them little quizzes  like this like okay I've got one foot  

this is another exception where we're  doing something like you know one hand  

becomes two hands so two hands but one foot is  two feet okay again the things that are different  

are the things you should focus on because your  mind once your mind gets the pattern you really  

only need three examples to get a pattern  okay so you get like your first one like  

I let's say we got play and we have talk and  we have uh let's see I don't know uh listen  

so the past tense of all these when we're  just saying oh like what did you do yesterday  

oh I played I talked I listened okay so as  you get these most of the language will be  

the normal thing and you start developing the  pattern recognition for this and that's what will  

help you speak but when you experience something  new your brain kind of goes like ah what do we  

uh what happened here one foot two feet one Mouse  two mice one Mouse two mice put these up here too

okay now remember even if you know all of these  examples this is not about you knowing the  

language it's can you use the language fluently or  not all right and so when we have these examples  

you should be able to automatically count like  one Mouse two mice without saying anything okay  

without even thinking about it same thing one foot  two feet two feet so we focus on the exceptions  

and I spend a lot of time with my kids giving  them examples of things like this like I just  

ex like just talked about so we talked a lot  about like what did you do yesterday where did  

you go like oh we went here what did you do there  well we did this and we did that so we practice  

a lot of these things okay they don't realize  it's practice but I'm just giving them lots of  

input and even if they're not speaking I'm the  one saying a lot of things to them and that's  

how they become good speakers because they're  listening to my examples and and also this is  

not just me like they're they're also getting  you know like other examples from like their  

mother or you know other other people in their  life or TV other things like that but it's my  

job really to to give them lots of specific input  so I can really help them understand these things  

all right so I recommend again these are the  same kinds of things that I see Learners making  

mistakes with so remember if you can understand  this but you can't use it fluently spend more  

time on this stuff all right I promise you if you  listen to a lot more examples if you listen to a  

hundred examples of okay he went she went they  went you will feel very confident about that  

and it doesn't matter what the verb is it could  be run so that's another one we don't say a run

run and actually be like ruined if this is Fran  so yesterday my kids ran at the park they ran at  

the park all right so this is another example we  would spend more time on all right if you have any  

questions about that let me know before we move on  to number three all right hopefully we're moving  

along here 18 minutes so far I'll see if anybody  had any questions all right let's see all right  

my nation is the Iranian my son uh English native  speaker well that's nice please suggest something  

method book video anything if you've been  conducting any writing skills Improvement program  

let me know well there again I'm sure other people  already have made some kind of thing but the most  

basic thing is read essays and and physically  write them by hand copy what they do and you  

can do this with shorter things especially if it's  a college essay and maybe two pages of something  

spend time looking at how people write and you  can also I'm not really very specific or getting  

specific information about what the problem is  if you don't understand the structure or you're  

writing like your English is just not good enough  for that I don't know you can let me know but if  

you if you copy if you read what other people  are doing and then actually copy by hand with  

the paper and Pen then you will start improving  and learning to write better all right just fun  

I am a law faculty student and my all lesson in  my all all Less in English so all of your lessons  

are in English all of your lessons are in English  notice how I go through some of these comments and  

and rephrase so to to help people kind of correct  these things and try to help them think about it  

more like a native so you can say my classes are  all in English and my English level is not enough  

for my lessons do you have any suggestion for me  you have to spend more time learning like a native  

getting more examples all right if you look at my  channel uh look at some of my more popular videos  

recently uh the live videos I've done like the  like three levels of fluency or if you only have  

15 minutes to do this so these are the different  things that I focus on but it's really just one  

it's really one lesson that I repeat again and  again in different ways and that's how to learn  

like a native English speaker so you understand  English like a native and that's when you speak  

all right the main like core idea of what I do  you for everything all of the videos all of my  

programs is that you don't become fluent by  repeating things over and over again you get  

fluent by understanding the language like a native  and it's for any language all right so I'm trying  

to learn Japanese in the same way and that's how I  become fluent I learn things like oh look at that  

I just understood something new like a native and  now I can use it like a native rather than trying  

to trying to take vocabulary and repeat it so I  can spend my time trying to repeat things or I  

can spend my time getting many more examples  so I just call this understandable messages  

it's also known as comprehensible input but it  just means you're getting a lot more examples  

of language and that's what's going to help you  speak so the more examples you get the faster  

you get fluent really if you don't feel confident  about the language you know then you're not going  

to feel confident about speaking right so you need  to have a good solid understanding of the language  

and then you become a much more confident speaker  all right see if we have anything else over here  

uh uh let's see oh it looks like we had a couple  more uh R says sir how to make complex sentences  

while speaking I just made a video about  that check my YouTube channel about that  

uh thank you Jose says for sharing your knowledge  a lot of help Brazilian living in Australia things  

I don't know what happened I don't know what  happened either I watched but I don't know it  

all right Nils all right we'll give it a try but  hopefully you saw that one line Nils is dead Nils  

is dead oh no yeah it's a funny movie uh Richard  hi Drew from Colombia in the house let's see says  

Richard finally caught you live watching from  South Africa look at that people all over the  

place Tim Paul and uh India over there hi from  Uzbekistan my son is English native speaker I  

don't know how it happened and now I need  to learn English well ask him to teach you  

thank you probably how it happened is the same way  it's happening for my kids where you're getting  

exposure to lots of of lots of English all right  and if you can understand that you will learn to  

speak fluently because fluency comes from  understanding the language well it doesn't  

come from just reading textbooks and practicing  vocabulary like that uh yoy uses what is living  

the dream mean so usually if you think about what  a dream is a dream is a fantastic uh like ideal  

state or mind like it's like wow I'm getting I  get to travel the world and uh you know I'm like  

I can just imagine that eat whatever I want to and  I don't get fat and you know all whatever that the  

dream happens to be but if you're actually doing  that thing you are living the dream so you can  

look at someone like wow it's a professional  athlete and I don't know maybe they they get  

lots of money and they can travel around and do  lots of things that person is living the dream  

living the dream so it says what about people who  say learning English the efl way is just learning  

how to use vocabulary in different contexts for  example I call it the ball and I caught the live  

Act well yeah that's I mean it's it's just  understanding the language like a native you  

might call it something else I I don't know what  else you could call it I call it learning English  

as a first language because you're not learning  it through another language it's learning it  

through your native language it makes it more  difficult for you to understand like the whole  

reason people use translations is because they  don't understand what they're saying and so if  

you learn the language that way you are teaching  yourself to translate and that's what makes it  

more difficult to speak all right so if you learn  the language in the language and that means like  

for me learning Japanese in Japanese or for you  learning English in English whatever language  

it is then that's what's going to help you speak  all right so you don't want to spend time uh like  

reviewing grammar tables or translations that are  going to stop you from speaking but you should be  

understanding things and the more examples you get  the broader and deeper your understanding becomes  

uh Isaac says do we need to spend time learning  those exceptions what's the best technique to  

learn exceptions that the problem with exceptions  is the only way to do it is really just to get  

lots of examples of it so you do because your  your brain is a pattern recognizing machine your  

brain is like look it's like square circle square  circle square circle and then you get a triangle  

in there and then whoa your brain is like wow  what happened so you just have to spend more time  

practicing these things and I mean as far as like  specific tips go there there really aren't many  

things that you need to do for that there aren't  a lot of irregular verbs that you use in everyday  

life most of the things the reason we call it an  irregular verb is because the the regular verbs  

are more normal thing that's that's the regular  thing so think about the the specific errors that  

you might make and I would focus on those so if  you're if you're if you know how to use go and  

went then you don't need to review that anymore  but if there are other words that you do use but  

you notice you don't use them correctly I would  spend more time in them Miguel hi you are awesome  

I'm learning a lot with your lessons glad here I  came from Thailand I strongly believe that reading  

books is the most effective approach to mastering  grammar yeah it's certainly a good way to do that  

uh but remember that in real conversations you  have to be prepared for how other people speak  

and so I could read a book and I could continue  to read books and I could actually become like  

I wouldn't I wouldn't really call it fluent egg  for conversations but I could certainly become  

a fluent reader of the language but it would  be much more difficult for me to then go to a  

party and then if I'm not really hearing lots of  other people and I'm not prepared for people who  

have different accents or people who are using  vocabulary differently or slang and idioms that  

kind of thing that part of the language is much  more difficult to learn by reading so you really  

need to get lots of naturally varied input in  different ways so this is why I have reading  

and writing and watching videos and listening  to things all of these examples get you fluent  

uh let's see so how good to speak with other yeah  it's it's not is like the the final communication  

with other people is a very small piece of  the the learning that you should be doing by  

yourself if you actually are learning and  you understand the language very well you  

will feel more confident when you do speak  all right so speaking is the the the final  

thing that you do after you understand I can't  avoid translation while uh listening or reading  

says Miguel well the way to avoid this is to is  to go back to something that's at your level so  

you should understand at least 80 to 90 percent  of what you're learning so whatever that is if  

I'm watching a movie and I don't understand  most of it I'm watching a movie that's too  

difficult for me I can certainly push myself  and try to try to watch it but it's not going  

to be very enjoyable so I should I should dial  it back there's a good phrasal a phrasal verb  

for it to dial it back I'm like turning it  down a little bit dial it back dial it back

there we go down it

dial again so remember a dial like you're  turning something down like that all right  

this is the same way I would teach my kids all  right we'll talk about that in just a moment  

as well so to dial something back uh I really  want to help people understand things and so  

if you like in like in my videos that I make I'm  using English but I'm not I'm not using a lot of  

complex idioms or references for movies other than  something for Nils about die hard but in general  

I'm I'm being very very strategic about how I how  I teach you and this is why people say wow Drew I  

really understand your English very easily so I'm  being very clear and I'm helping people understand  

without using a lot of complicated vocabulary so  you really have to introduce those things in steps  

as you learn all right let's see what else we got  here before we move on Selena is back learn with  

learn English your ears now your eyes I don't  know why people give that advice learn English  

with your ears not your eyes and it doesn't  make sense to me that you would learn with your  

ears and not with your eyes because children  don't learn a language that way so you don't  

you don't have a child like I don't take my own  daughters and put a blindfold over their eyes so  

they can't see what I'm talking about language is  about triangulation where we want to use as many  

senses as possible to understand something like if  we have uh if I'm trying to taste some ice cream  

I could explain to you what vanilla tastes like  I could try to explain that it's like okay let's  

learn about vanilla with our ears not our taste  buds it doesn't make any sense so you should be  

learning about that I want to learn the color  how it sounds if there's like a sound to the  

ice cream or whatever but that's what's going to  help you speak so don't don't I would not listen  

to any advice that people are saying you only  should listen to something when like of course  

you should be seeing it and really understanding  what the thing is the goal is understanding that  

however it works so I might like taste the ice  cream and that's going to be the fastest way  

to understand what an ice cream flavor is rather  than hearing a bunch of people talking about it  

all right so it depends on the case uh let's see  thank you for a response it makes so much sense  

I teach English online and I'll be buying the  fluence for life course you've completely changed  

my mind about teaching English glad to hear it  I look forward to welcoming you to the program  

if you have any questions let us know uh let's  see hi teacher you are very good explaining glad  

here give me a hello please hello Gio Carlos from  Brazil Niels is laughing over there Ronnie again  

what do you think is more influential for an adult  to learn a new language what is more influential I  

don't know what you mean by that influential about  what he might say the most important thing is to  

get lots of native input that you can understand  that's really the basis of how you get formed  

all right uh let's see I've watched all  your lives I've started uh teaching some  

of my students the efl way and the progress  has been remarkable so many aha moments yeah  

if I'm pronouncing that right is slee that's an  interesting name um yeah and and so it like people  

think it's like wow it's such an amazing thing but  this is how they're using the native language that  

they use every day so all I'm doing is making you  learn English or helping you learn English like a  

native speaker so that's what we're talking about  in this video these are the things I do with my  

own kids all right uh let's see I don't only learn  my ears but that's popular advice I guess yeah so  

I don't know why that's popular but uh yeah I've  heard that before Julian I have adopted a highly  

effective strategy to enhance my English language  skills that involves engaging with English  

language videos on YouTube that depict the rituals  of My Religion yep again you're focusing on on  

something interesting and getting lots of uh lots  of examples of it that's it's naturally varied  

review Max says good morning sir greetings from  India I have a question in my mind since you have  

been telling us about natural very review and how  do you get it I mean how could I practice it so  

naturally varied review means that you're getting  lots of different examples in different ways and  

that's what's going to it basically simulates how  you're learning in in a real real life situation  

so going back to my own kids I will tell my  daughters hey wash your hands my wife will also  

tell my daughters or our daughters like wash your  hands alright so they're saying the same thing  

um and and they're hearing that from different  people they might watch a TV show and the the  

characters are washing their hands and so  they hear that same English from different  

people they're getting used to the grammar  the pronunciation different ways of of people  

communicating so some people might be clearer  or less clear all right so this is why we get  

naturally varied review but there are different  ways of doing that so number one I could take  

something like like a piece of content like this  video that you're watching right now so after this  

is finished if they're like a transcript will  be available I don't know maybe in two days  

or something but you can go back and review just  reading the transcript after you watch the video  

or you could take a movie and do the same thing so  you watch the movie and then just listen to it all  

right so your ears will become more sensitive I  recommend you watch the video first then without  

watching it just listen to the video you know put  on the the movie or something while you're doing  

dishes or you know cleaning your house or whatever  dry driving just so you can listen to that all  

right and then read the transcript of that thing  so read the the script of that movie and then  

watch some people talking about that movie on  YouTube there are lots of people especially  

content uh that's popular you will have many  videos talking about that thing so any popular TV  

show you will find people talking about specific  episodes and this happened and that happened and  

the the deeper you go into the language the more  fluent you become okay so that's how we get these  

are different examples of naturally varied review  but it's just the the most basic idea is that most  

Learners they will get one example of something  like one translation I learn a word like go and  

then I learn a word in Japanese like okay so I'm  gonna think like okay go just means but like maybe  

that means something different in a different  context all right so that's why we spend more time  

getting lots of this input so it's much better to  be very very good at using 10 words rather than  

no 100 Words and not be able to use them fluently  okay all right now I'm getting getting behind over  

here I'm already at 34 minutes let's see here all  right uh it's pronounced asleep without the P oh  

okay oh excellent excellent uh explanation very  good thank you all right how do native speakers  

design let's see how do native speakers decide  on decide on which grammatical structures they  

would use when they want to express an idea uh  Kent this is an idea I call moving with uh or  

moving like water where natives are they basically  have a few different ways of expressing something  

and then maybe they just naturally pick one in  the moment that without thinking about it and  

you do this by getting naturally varied review  so I might have us I might want to say let's  

say I say x some something I have an idea to say  whatever I might Express that in a few different  

ways as an example uh here in Japan I've seen on  like written on toilets some of the toilets are  

automatic flushing toilets and the like these  are different like different toilets made by  

different companies and they each have a note on  there that says this toilet will automatically  

flush but I notice that they're not written in  the exact same way so some of them it's like

or something like that and so it will it will  say like like even if there's nobody there that  

the water will still flush but it will Express  that in slightly different ways and the reason  

that is is because there are different ways  to express that all right so it's like if  

you're like you're walking like walking this  way this way that way that way I want to get  

here but I could take a like a different  different route and get to the same place  

so natives natives learn these different ways  of doing something but mostly non-natives when  

they're learning the we're learning English  or whatever the language they will focus on  

a particular way of doing that a particular  translation and then when they forget that  

translation then they think ah like now I can't  speak I forgot the one word that I needed to say  

but natives don't care because there are different  ways I could say that even if I forget something  

basic I had a like a discussion with a guy I was  giving him an example of this and I was saying oh  

I can't remember the word cat as an example so I'm  into conversations like yeah my friend has a pet  

and I can't just say my friend has a cat I  would say oh my friend has a has a pet you  

know it's like a small thing you know it's about  this big it's got a like a long tail it lives in  

the house it's not a dog and I'm I'm talking I'm  explaining all of this just as an example like I  

know what a cat is but I'm explaining this just  showing that it's another way of talking about  

what a cat is so I can I can describe a cat  or I could even draw a picture it's like yeah  

you know what what's the name of that animal  where you know it's got like a face like this  

and kind of some pointy ears and they they live  in the house they don't really go out you don't  

walk them like a dog you know as some whiskers  and a little nose and a mouth like what's the  

name of that animal and the other person says Ah  it's a cat then I think ah okay so what happens  

a native speaker will do that they will find  a different way to explain something because  

there's usually not just one way to do that  I actually I cover this specific idea in a  

recent live video uh what was that where I  was talking about like native it might have  

been strategies for for continuing to speak  for like maintaining fluent con communication  

or fluent conversations so go watch that video  and we'll explain more about that all right um  

let's see uh Richard again I'm so grateful about  Drew because I reach fluency I want and I make uh  

and make me feel confident about my speaking glad  to hear it glad to hear it so remember even when  

people are feeling confident I'm always trying to  get people to a higher level so right there like  

there's a lot of good English in that sentence  in that comment but it still had an example of  

uh like an incorrect use of subject verb agreement  all right so you can still have like and it make  

me feel confident now it might be a typo which is  fine but remember like it makes me feel confident  

it's still the same basic idea of subject verb  agreement but that's why we review these things so  

it makes me feel she makes me feel happy it makes  me feel good all right I make her feel good all  

right so I make her so her make we're changing the  order of this but it's still that basic subject  

verb agreement this is why I practice this so  much with my own kids uh how many times should  

I review naturally to reach that level of fluency  uh Isaac it just depends on what the thing is and  

sometimes you can get an example of something and  you understand it like that so it can be a very  

quick thing it's the point is just to understand  something until you you should feel it it's like  

an aha moment in your mind where you're like  ah now I got it now I got it all right so it  

might be one time it might be many times okay  uh so I'll give you an example of that but I've

I've done before so if I'm trying  to teach you a new word and if I  

just have a flash card something what  what will I do today uh let's see I'm  

so I'm thinking of a word let's see  I can communicate that word to you

all right this word is uh we'll just call  this goo this is not an English word this  

is just an example of something all right if I  give you this picture and say this word do you  

understand what I'm talking about maybe maybe  you do maybe you don't you might have an idea  

you might be thinking oh that's a fish could  be something else so I give you another example  

let's see we're going to use the  example we just just gave over here

so now your brain is getting a little  bit more aligned it's like ah okay goo  

goo so now my my brain is trying to think what is  

the common thing between these two  examples maybe I'd do another one

all right so we're getting closer you can  probably imagine I mean something like animal  

okay and so as I give you more examples of  something that's when you really feel confident  

about the vocabulary and often you need a few  examples because your mind is trying to it's like  

it's like triangulation to triangulate something  like just like a regular triangle so you can test  

this for yourself if you cover one of your eyes  and try to look at something you can see generally  

where it is but you can't tell how far away it  is that's why we have two eyes so we can see that  

thing clearly and our eyes are like they're not  we don't have two eyes in the same place they're  

they're here and here to make a triangle so we  can see something easily and it's the same thing  

you're making like a triangle in your mind  and the more examples of that thing you get  

the broader perspective or the better your  understanding becomes all right hopefully  

this makes sense so teachers have to think they  have to have a lot of empathy they really need  

to be imagining what it's like to be a student so  when I'm doing videos or talking about things I  

have to imagine you as a learner out there and  thinking does this person understand what I'm  

talking about and sometimes like people won't  say they don't understand and often people can  

go through whole years of school and like the  student didn't actually understand something  

all right but this is how it works so it's it  it's it's a it's a different thing for each  

um for each example so some vocabulary  might be easier some vocabulary is not  

and also it depends on the teacher and how  how good they are at explaining something  

uh let's see okay so hopefully that  makes sense so am I living in Japan

looks like yes I'm living in Japan uh I follow  let's see I focus says salima I focus the language  

for a few weeks and I feel improvements but  I'm like the learned and lost I have a problem  

procrastination huh well find something you're  interested in then see most people are are not  

they don't procrastinate about the thing that  they really want to do maybe really love a book  

or whatever I'll tell you something I've recently  got uh tears of the kingdom and so I'm always like  

excited like oh yeah I want to go play play the  game I don't know if anybody else here has that  

game so this was it's the new Zelda game that  was just released I think a week and a half ago  

um but so like I'm never procrastinating about  that all right so that's just one example but if  

I'm procrastinating about something else it means  I I should figure out a better way to do that  

thing all right so for learning English if you  have a textbook that you're learning and you don't  

like that and you're not you're not interested in  that then of course you will procrastinate but if  

you can watch videos of about something you're  interested in like I could watch videos about  

Zelda in Japanese and I'm learning Japanese and  learning more about the thing I'm interested in  

at the same time all right so make it interesting  for yourself so Solis says by the way why can't we  

watch any ads on your channel there are so many  gems here uh is it not monetized yet uh sleep I  

I turned off all the ads many years ago because I  don't want to interrupt people watching my videos  

so I I I I I I I don't know I I don't know I don't  know if that like if that hurts me financially or  

not the the people I can help like usually join  fluent for life or other programs I have and those  

are the people that support me financially but  I don't like putting ads in front of my videos  

and I think it's it's a waste of time for you to  come here and and do that so I'm happy to to not  

get that so if you're not a member of my program  and you'd like to support me feel free I don't  

ask for donations or anything but the point of  YouTube is really to show people how to learn  

and then I I take people through that process  in programs for people that would like help  

all right uh are those videos they claim to  enable learning English while sleeping actually  

fraudulent I don't know I've never tried that  before I suppose like you could you could kind of  

learn more maybe while you're falling asleep but I  I don't know if any any of that is if any of that  

is is true I have no idea give it a try I don't I  don't offer anything like that because that's not  

how I get fluent but who knows uh Demi says I've  tried several times to learn Japanese but remember  

hiragana and Katakana are so hard maybe you have  some recommendations for memorizing the alphabets  

um well I'll give you I can give you a very quick  lesson about that depending on what your native  

language is um reading and writing are are like  the one thing that I do say it's okay to use your  

your translation or or some kind of like a like  a mnemonic so a mnemonic I'll write that for you  

I have to clean this up oh no we're only  on number two and we've been going for 45  

minutes you guys have a lot of good  questions though all right mnemonic

all right so it starts with an M here  there's a silent M at the front of  

that a mnemonic so we pronounce  this with an amnemonic this is a  

memory aid memory aid as an example  uh in Japan uh the word for meat is

so I might write it in Japanese like  that niku or I might write it in like  

uh Japanese characters like that niku and so the  word like knee is also two and KU is 29 so on  

some months where we have uh like a 29th day we we  don't have that in February but we do have that uh  

like the 29th day of the month in some restaurants  they have the meat at a lower price so if you go  

to a lower price you can go to niku it's like meat  day all right so this is a mnemonic to help you  

remember that all right so I do recommend uh using  mnemonics for reading and writing so especially  

if I'm trying to learn something like a written  character uh it's okay to use mnemonics because  

I have time to think when I read and write I don't  want to use mnemonics when I'm speaking because I  

don't have time to think I need to just respond  to people automatically so mnemonics are okay  

for this and so as an example like native  English speakers typically learn Japanese  

through mnemonics like this so I'll just teach  you some characters very quickly uh like as an  

example like this is the hiragana for note uh but  it looks kind of like like a No Parking sign or  

like you know don't do that kind of thing and so  you're learning the shape of that thing along with  

the sound of it so I could just say like okay  I want you to repeat this again and again and  

again and you will probably not remember that but  with one example and a good mnemonic I can help  

you remember that very quickly or you might have  another character like she and so I could make a  

little face on there and it's like a lady like  she has long hair she has long hair all right  

and so here again I have time to think and and I  can I can do that while I'm writing because I have  

time while I'm writing all right so it's okay  to use that kind of thing so I don't know what  

your native language is but if you're learning  Japanese that would be a very quick way to do  

that and then when you're learning things like  this the characters you you really get good at  

this by telling stories with the characters as  well so these are the kinds of things that you  

can do when you're reading and writing that you  don't do when you're speaking all right so I don't  

recommend mnemonics for learning speech be doing  that all in all in English all right uh let's see

so all right next Ken is back I have gotten close  to that water like thing I think but at times I  

still find my head goes fuzzy and I'm unable  to keep my grammar right or be decisive about  

choosing one yeah I think you're still you're  still overly conscious about it you're you're  

probably thinking about grammar because you've  studied grammar for a long time so natives don't  

even know the names of grammar points they're just  thinking about what do you say in this situation  

all right so perfect example uh so my younger  daughter Noel she was watching a cartoon and  

all of the characters like they said hooray when  they did something well and so like later that day  

Noel did something well and she said hooray like  she just she saw in this situation when you're  

excited about something then you see uh okay  they say these words all right so that's how like  

typically people are learning the language that  way so don't think about the grammar just think  

about what are the kinds of things people say in  that situation and remember that you can see many  

examples of something or native speakers might  Express many different ways of saying something  

you might say like let's say uh yesterday I went  to uh my friend's house to do something you can  

also say yesterday I was over at my friend's house  so I don't even use the word I don't even use a  

verb at all all right well I guess you could say  I was over at like my I was at my friend's house  

but I'm not using go all right so I went to  my friend's house or I was over at my friend's  

house there are different ways of expressing the  same thing and so natives I give the spelling  

example all the time because natives make a lot  of errors in spelling it's just part of how the  

language is difficult but people make errors with  spelling and a native will be writing something  

and they will think oh I don't remember how to  spell that so they will use a different word  

so like if I if I'm if I'm  writing at something like

like I I watched a movie it  was hilarious hilarious and  

I'm trying to write it's like Hillary

mad it was funny it was a funny movie okay so  these are the kinds of things like it might not  

be perfectly exactly what you want to say but  it doesn't matter nobody for most conversations  

it's not really that important uh uh all right  hopefully that makes sense though all right uh so

all right all right uh La says how many years did  it take you to be fluent in Japanese so this is  

an interesting question uh with an interesting  answer so as I explain to people you get fluent  

in individual words and phrases so you become  fluent like I learned how to use a word like go  

and I become fluent in that word and then I learn  other words and I become fluent in using those  

things as well so it's not like it took me many  years to get fluent I just got fluent in things  

over time like different things but each one of  those if you become fluent in each one of these  

things then your your fluency improves uh much  faster but I can learn something like a better  

example is like learning vocabulary for when my  wife was pregnant so my wife became pregnant I  

didn't know a lot of that vocabulary for you know  having kids or going to the like the I don't know  

the women's clinic or whatever so I had to learn  that vocabulary but I could get fluent in that  

very quickly because I just started getting  lots of examples of that so it's not like it  

took me three years to become fluent about like  the whole language but I'm getting fluent in  

the particular things as I as I need them for my  life it's like just in time learning or whatever  

uh but yeah it took me like for the first year I  was in Japan I didn't really improve much at all  

because I was still learning the traditional way  but once I started changing the way I learned I  

noticed I was becoming fluent much faster and  that was in individual words and phrases As I  

understood them and even now I will learn new  uses of things that are words I learned you  

know 20 years ago or something or not that long  ago but yeah almost wow in uh actually in like  

three months it will be 20 years so I came to  Japan 20 years ago uh uh let's see here [Music]  

all right so slices is the efoa still applicable  to beginners who don't even know a single word  

of English apart from hot yep absolutely uh watch  the uh the video series I have on YouTube about uh  

best beginning English grammar playlist so it's  even it's it's actually most important for the  

beginning learner so you need to make the language  understandable for them otherwise the language is  

boring and frustrating and you you like start  them learning off on a really like basically a  

horrible way and that's why people often or they  don't like learning languages everybody wants to  

speak but nobody wants to learn it's like people  want to go to heaven but nobody wants to die you  

know the same kind of thing but language learning  actually should be very easy if you're making it  

easier for people to learn all right uh uh barrows  says how long does it take to speak fluently in  

general topics currently intermediate uh level  one I suppose I'm at IBT 80 or il-6 it depends  

on the topic and what your what your actual fluent  level is so not just the vocabulary you know but  

if you if you feel confident what we do in fluent  for life is we get people fluent in particular  

Topics in 30 days or less and then you move  on to the next topic but then you can also use  

the vocabulary and the fluency you built for this  topic to talk about something else so natives are  

talking about it could be dating and relationships  or whatever but we use that same vocabulary when  

talking about business or war or sports or  anything like that so the trick is to get  

fluent in the vocabulary which you can then use in  in many other things so I have a whole video about  

this it's like uh what did I call that um it's  like one like one one thing to do it might have  

been the 15 minutes one like if you only have 15  minutes to learn do this I think I forget uh but  

it was no I think it was how to speak fluently  about almost anything so it's the same idea  

uh all right so the rich says thanks Drew Neal  says love your example glad to hear I intuitively  

learned the language as a Discoverer yep that's  that's the name of the game right there to  

Discover It All my life I studied only through a  strong passion for something greetings to all from  

Russian uh I wish peace on the entire planet  as soon as probably possible uh oh okay glad  

to hear it uh so everybody here I appreciate  your teaching says izaki uh hello my name is  

uh savanas I love your English I love English  very much glad to hear it hi there what's up  

just arrived so Frederick is amazing my students  love it it's really amazing because it allows them  

to fiddle with the language yep that's it exactly  so they learn pronunciation at one way so the the  

thing that's fun for language learning is when you  get to discover what something means by yourself  

so if I just tell you the meaning of everything  then like it's it's like if you watch a TV show  

and they tell you what the answer is that's  not fun the point is the discovery of it and  

so that's why you should be trying to make make  the discovery as easy as possible for learners  

I also learned the word zap yeah so again it's  like it's there there are actually a lot of  

people think Frederick is for beginners  but it's actually for for anybody trying  

to learn the language and wants to understand  it and there are many Advanced words that are  

even short like zap or vat or let's see  what are some other short ones like jut  

that's another one that a lot of people don't  know but it's it's all explained in Frederick  

uh which I didn't know but completely forgot  it because I was so used to using shock yep  

and again it's another uh another thing that you  can learn so if you're using that with students  

if you have paid for the whole app you can go to  the unlock button on the title screen if you click  

that then it will take you to a little section and  just a screen where you can hold down I think the  

red square and the blue square and if you shake  your device it will unlock all the levels and  

modes for you so some students want to start at  a higher level if they already know easier things  

uh Antonio says do you think listening is  the best thing to do no it's not listening or  

watching or whatever it's just understanding and  however that is possible do that thing so like I  

gave the example earlier about trying some food I  don't want to listen to the food if I'm trying to  

understand what's what pizza tastes like I don't  listen to that I want to try it I want to taste  

that thing all right so the goal is understanding  we want to get that as quickly as possible  

uh let's see all right here we go hi there again  I try to be creative XXX Brave yes remember that  

you don't need to be brave in order to learn a  language it's just about being understandable so  

I don't actually recommend people get out and try  to speak you can but if you don't feel comfortable  

and confident then it's because you don't know the  language as well as you think you do so spend more  

time getting more examples and then you will feel  confident you don't have to be brave just like  

you're not really Brave in your native language  you're just using the language all right it's  

fluent instantly or it takes time uh so it's not  again like you could it's you you get fluent in  

individual words and phrases as you understand  them so I might know one word but not know  

another word and I can get fluent in that word  instantly if I understand it instantly like if  

I hold up a bunch of markers and it's like if I'm  teaching you some Japanese and I want to help you  

understand that I would still need to have some  review of that but it's like Maca Maca Maca kudos

and if you heard me review that  again and again you would start  

to get it but without me giving you  translations you're like akka foreign

so when you're hearing uh different examples  of these things that's what helps you get fun  

all right and Julian says I find myself in a  situation where I'm conversing in English with  

someone and I happen to forget a word what do you  recommend use something else use a different word  

so you you have like I can tell you were an  intelligent person and you have like you're  

like the the same comments uh you're you're saying  like you have like a very thoughtful and kind of  

longer way of expressing something but natives  can again have different ways of speaking so  

just let me re-read your comment and express your  own comment in a different way so Julian says if I  

find myself in a situation where I'm conversing  in English with someone all right so there's a  

lot like you could eliminate a lot of the the  vocabulary from that from that uh like even  

that just that Clause of that and then we're not  even through the full the full sentence yet so if  

I find myself in a situation where I'm conversing  in English with someone so like conversing implies  

someone else so we don't even need to put that  like the the additional person in there uh and I  

happen to forget a word what should I what do you  recommend I do so an even simpler way is just like  

what should I do when I forget a word in  conversations what should I do so we wanted  

we were looking for advice what should I do if I  forget a word in conversations okay so what's the  

I'm looking for advice here's the situation and  and what's the answer to that all right so just  

like I I I changed the same thing I expressed the  same thing in a different way and this is what  

you learn to do as you get naturally varied review  so you hear different examples you hear different  

natives talking about something just like I  showed in the uh the espresso video that I have  

on the channel so watch that video if you have not  seen that already but this for for any new people  

this is where I give examples of different people  making espresso so you have four different people  

making espresso and talking about it in slightly  different ways and so you will notice some of the  

vocabulary is the same some of it is different and  you can hear how different people Express things  

differently so it's important not to be focused on  a specific word or grammar point you want to look  

want to use in a situation you should be thinking  this is what I want to express and actually there  

are many ways to do that so I can relax and let  the easiest one flow out so this is moving like  

water uh let's see it's uh I didn't say that one  here I'm from Tajikistan love your pronunciation  

and a textile or maybe teach me Andrew what  about students who are learning English for  

job interviews well I would again like it depends  on uh like what their level of English is already  

but they're different I don't know this that like  talking specifically about interview English or  

whatever that's beyond the scope of this video  but these same principles would apply I would  

watch people I would watch like 10 different  people in an interview same thing so saying  

like Okay how do 10 different people respond  to that same question and you can see how that  

works but at a deeper level I would actually  recommend people like if I'm trying to get a  

job at a company I don't wait for a job interview  I would try to contact like the person higher up  

and see if I can if I can speak with them and and  say hey your company has this problem and here's  

how I can solve it for you and most people  would be happy to hire you if that's true  

I love your pronounce Okay add that one already  I'm Rocky from Windsor Ontario in Canada pleased  

to meet you nice to see you there how do they  go about practicing English are they focus on  

memorizing answers to focus on no no the point  is not to memorize answers I mean you basically  

learn kind of Trends or patterns that people would  use so if I say good morning then usually people  

will say good morning back to me that's the kind  of typical thing but you might hear other things  

someone might say well good afternoon good  day how are you they might respond back in  

a different way and so as you get more examples  of that uh that's when you start like developing  

that native sense for how to how to respond to  people konichiwaju I just wanted to tell you that  

I love Frederick glad to hear Elena if you know  other people who would like to play Frederick  

and improve their pronunciation you can click on  the link in the description right here in this  

video I tried several ways to keep up improved  General English but failed any advice this is  

uh yes follow what I'm telling  you to do in these videos  

so my advice is to understand English like a  native so you speak like a native it's really  

that simple all right so this is what we do in  fluent for life but you will get lots of examples  

of this uh through the the various videos I have  on YouTube uh let's see good evening teacher I'm  

from Peru I don't know if you remember me oh  yes uh the one of my Peruvian students yes  

yes we need the whole university of Peru  watching these videos all right Brittany  

says what did I miss go back and watch the uh  watch the video uh hi SAR Namaste makes sense  

thank you okay all right now let's move on we only  got the level two or thing number two but I have  

five things I want to teach and we've already  been going for one hour see what time it is

all right I'm gonna go quickly faster with  these so we get to the point and if you  

have questions I'll say those for the end all  right let's see Racers is not not very good

all right what are we talking about next okay I  gave some examples of this before let's use uh  

let's use blue maybe this is easier to erase so  number three here we want to go from physical

figurative

So Physical meaning I have like a physical thing  in my hand or something I can touch or see and  

then figurative is more like a just a an idea so  something maybe I can't physically touch it but  

often these things are linked and especially  in language when we're learning something as  

an example I might have you know where is a like  a piece of paper and get a piece of paper where  

this I have a file folder over here so I have this  file folder and I'm if I'm teaching my own kids  

this I can physically show them look I'm going  to turn it over turn over turn over so very easy  

thing nice simple phrasal verb that you can learn  turn over so I'm switching from one side of this  

to the other to turn something over turn something  over all right so this is a physical example you  

can see of learning the language but we want  to maybe see how this might work figuratively  

in other situations and so this is a phrasal  verb it's two different words right here turn  

over but maybe we get a phrasal noun which  really just become its own word right now

turn over so turn over like if we're talking  about this in a business context this is the  

turnover of Staff or the turnover of employees  where we get somebody comes into the company  

and they quit and then we get somebody new that  comes in and then they quit and then somebody  

new comes in and they quit like that this is  known as turnover so how how high or what is  

the rate of in of uh like employee turnover so  maybe at like uh like the first level the lowest  

level of employee at McDonald's or something  maybe the turnover is I don't know one year or  

six months I don't know how long it is but it's  just how long does someone stay in a job before  

they quit that's the turnover turnover okay so  we begin with something again a physical idea  

and this is how most kids are learning they're  not I don't begin talking with my kids about  

turnover at jobs so they would not understand what  that means but I could get them to understand if  

I begin with something like this and I say look  so we're going to turn something over here's my  

hand I'm going to turn my hand over turn my hand  over or if I'm lying on my back I might turn over  

I might tell someone to turn over so it means  go over on the other side the opposite side  

and so it's the same thing here we begin with  something and now we're on the opposite side  

figuratively okay so we get turnover same  kind of thing so when I'm teaching my kids  

we're always focusing on physical things first we  very rarely would start with something figurative  

and then try to help them understand it  like that it is possible to do that but  

most of the time kids are learning things  physically and understanding a lot of the  

differences like that I'll give you some more  examples so let's say we have where's my recent

another thing we want to do that natives  are learning is we're trying to compare  

different things so imagine I have two flash  cards over there I'm teaching tall versus high  

and I could explain that I could like you know try  to give a figurative or more complex explanation  

of the difference between high and Tall but it's  much easier just to see the difference to see the  

difference so if we're talking about something  being tall like let's say we talk about I don't  

know a tall building or even like a tall like  a tall let's say they say this as a person all  

right just draw this as a person like wow that  person is very tall so this person over here  

is short short person but this person is tall  this person is tall but how do we express high  

so we have a tall person like this is a tall  person compared to this one but a high person  

well I suppose is there might be some different  different uses of high in this but if we're just  

talking about the physical one I might be talking  about like a person up here so there's some space  

between that person and the ground so this person  from the ground to here means tall but from here  

there's actually space this person is up higher  all right so this person up at High and this  

person is lower down okay so when I'm teaching  kids I really want to make sure they understand  

physically something they can see and to try to  help them by comparing things it's more difficult  

to just try to show one picture and say what is  this this is why you often see maybe adjective  

flash cards it's like hot and cold or short and I  don't know short and long or fast and slow people  

often teach these things in the same way because  the brain understands them another one yes so  

we've got the high example as well so that's a  different example I'm not teaching my kids hi in  

that sense but they would still if we want to use  that example like to think even more figuratively  

about like someone getting high and you could be  high on many things you could be high on alcohol  

or high on some kind of drug high on life it means  you're just like wow like really feel I'm in a  

good mood all the time I just feel I'm in like a  high State of Mind okay so it's not only talking  

about drugs or whatever but you get the same kind  of idea of you're moving up like wow I'm feeling  

feeling High what what konnichiwa here it is Rocky  another ride we got two Rockies in the chat right  

now all right so if you remember this again we're  going from physical to figurative we really want  

to help kids understand we get a foundation  of things you really so you get fluent in the  

physical thing then you can also become fluent  in the figurative examples as well all right if  

you have any questions about that let me know see  if I had any more examples I'll give a few more  

just about this because this is another thing  that I notice adult Learners also struggle with

so we might have something like like which do  we use if we're talking about a day or a Time  

so do we do something at sometime or on sometime  or in sometime we could use all those even for  

um like particular like each one of those could be  in a situation but if I just want to do something  

like I have gym class on a particular  like on a particular day so I can imagine  

like days of the calendar like Monday Tuesday  Wednesday and I can be physically on these as  

I'm walking so I'm like walking on them and trying  to help my kids understand these things physically  

so if we use a day like this we say on that date  so if I'm walking like or I could put a magnet  

on that day okay so they wreck they remember ah  okay so on this date on this day we do something  

all right or if we talk about time we can have  like the hands of a clock are moving like this and  

so the hands of the clock are moving around and so  we have like one hand over here so this hand is at  

this part in the time so if I talk about  like a Class A Class is on so on Tuesday at

10 o'clock so the right right now the hand  is at this time where the hand is at that  

time all right it's like where am I where is  the location it's at this thing so we don't  

really say on because it could be like you  know almost like upside down or something  

but this is again just using a way of taking  something physical to help a kid understand  

something that's figurative like time all right  so time isn't like a physical thing you can touch  

but we have you know a way of explaining that  using something physical all right makes sense  

so all the the things that I'm doing with my  kids I'm trying to be uh very systematic and  

trying to make it very easy for them to  understand so they become fluent speakers  

all right let's see if I have anything else uh  I think the last two things I'll do very quickly  

they are connected with each other and these are  also notice uh things that you can do as well

so look for ways to understand things physically  number four this is something especially for kids  

it's very important but it could be important  for you as well and this is the morning

I'm not writing very well

m-o-r-n-i-n-g so the morning routine  and we'll do an evening one as well

evening

so we have the morning routine and  the evening routine and usually

routine morning routine so you might have  something like this in you know whatever as  

you get ready for work or something maybe you have  some shows in the morning that you like to watch  

children usually have something similar there are  some TV shows like Japanese TV shows uh you watch  

those in the morning and it's the same thing every  morning almost the point is to make it nice and  

easy for kids to have a routine but this is giving  them naturally varied review naturally varied  

review yes a doctor's handwriting I know yes it's  my it's me trying to be fast as I as I go through  

these examples all right so what I recommend you  do is you get a same or the same kind of morning  

routine that kids have and I recommend you watch  something that it's it's got lower level English  

so don't watch something difficult or listen to  something difficult if you're not ready for that  

again you should understand at least 80 to 90  percent of what your your like the content that  

you're trying to learn so in this one maybe you  watch or listen to like a couple of kids shows I  

think maybe a few a few students use like Sesame  Street or uh like Peppa Pig or I don't know Paw  

Patrol or whatever it could be anything like that  but something that's a nice simple kids show that  

will still give you lots of input and actually  teach you a lot of things if you pay attention  

to that all right but you should think about this  for the morning even 15 minutes or 20 minutes of  

just listening to some shows if you don't have  that on television just make it on YouTube all  

that stuff is available and you can create like  a morning routine that's just for you okay boss  

baby there you go so all those things you could  watch and then the same thing for going to bed  

so usually we have in the evening some kind of  bedtime story some kind of routine like we're  

brushing teeth and I'm talking about how the day  was or asking questions or something but then we  

usually have some reading that we do so I might  have my kids read something they are practicing  

reading but I also read them stories as well and  I will read the same story in different ways I'm  

trying to give them more naturally varied review  all the same things that I recommend you do again  

these are the same things I teach to my own kids  all right so these are the things I recommend we  

want to if we go back and let's see I'm going to  get too high on the board here getting too high up  

all right so there again we have another example  of that to get high up on the board right down  

here is low on the board but high up on the board  here so the first thing we had was uh subject

verb agreement oh my goodness I agree

subject verb agreement and then  we had number two exceptions

oh my God that's really loud

and then we've got learning from physical to the  figurative we got a morning routine and we've got  

an evening routine as well so these are all things  that you can do very easily and also if you have  

kids and you want to help them learn English these  are the same things you can do with them also you  

should get Frederick for especially for kids if  they're trying to learn uh the language but you  

can find that in the description below this video  and now I will answer some questions with the time  

that we have left all right uh anybody here let's  see yep so turn over a new Leaf in that way we  

would we would use like turnover it's actually two  different words to turn over because we're talking  

about what like turn over a new Leaf turn over  a new Leaf but you might have turnover for the  

year turnover for the year and if you listen to  the slight difference in the pronunciation like  

turn over turn over turn over but the opposite is  turnover so the phrasal noun uh I erased it but so  

this is like more of like a rising intonation  it's a turnover turnover or we have it turned  

down like for for the phrasal now turn over turn  over all right uh let's see all right I got that  

already my classmates couldn't come here they're  already asleep I am the only night owl well that's  

why we have recorded videos so tell them to watch  it in the morning they're gonna that can be their  

morning routine is it still live yes it's live  for a couple more minutes all right uh sleep  

makes sense hi on wheat oh my goodness someone had  to go there yes of course doctor's handwriting yes  

uh Brittany I just watched the movie Joker in  English actors speak very very fast and I got  

to know about Cockney accent uh can you speak  in a cockney accent not not well it's like Shia  

boots Governor you know like this is this is the  the idea of the Cockney accent that uh that that  

Native Americans or American speakers would know  about that what we see in movies it's like like  

wait like you call a license for that you know  asking asking people if they have a license for  

something uh but that's the Cockney accent  accent we know so what is Frederick uh it is  

the world's first app that will teach you English  all in English which is especially important for  

kids but it also shows adults step-by-step how  to learn vocabulary and improve pronunciation  

A lot of basic grammar the kinds of things that  we talk about subject verb agreement that's all  

reviewed in the app without teaching you grammar  rules so you learned it all naturally all right  

uh did you please what's the difference between  specialty and S Voice especially and especially  

especially before you go I like the difference  between those two words especially uh

like we I mean I don't know if people would  use like especially like especially would be  

the correct way for most most situations like I I  especially like doing something but it's longer to  

say so people will eliminate the E from it and  just say like yeah especially especially like  

doing that but especially would be the thing you  would say so maybe there's some other example I'm  

not thinking of at the moment but I mean  in general that that would be what it is  

all right duck says sometimes it's frustrating to  speak with native speakers yeah uh you can explain  

a bit more why that is but typically Learners  have trouble with natives because the speech  

is too fast uh there are too many difficult  words and phrases like slang or idioms or  

it's just hard to understand and then you also  have your own speech so maybe you're not able  

to communicate as quickly as you'd like or you  still have to think and translate so really the  

solution to that is to stop trying to speak and  start just getting more input more understandable  

messages that help you understand English like  a native so that's what we do in fluent for life  

all right uh La Vida red I understand everything  but when it comes to expressing my opinion I'm  

going blank so it could be again like this is  the typical problem Learners have so if you watch  

the video recently I have about um like the three  levels of fluency so we begin with exposure where  

you're just hearing something you might recognize  a word or know it as as kind of at like the like  

the the understanding the recognition level so we  have just being exposed where you hear something  

but then you're you're able to recognize it uh  and most people are at the recognizing level  

uh they're not actually at the the fluent level  where they own the language the ownership level  

but watch that video and it talks about that and  really the the way to get from the second level  

to the third level is to get more naturally buried  review more examples so you just need to know the  

language and understand it much better especially  that the video about how to speak fluently about  

almost anything is also talking about that same  idea where students think they know something I  

gave the example in that video about my daughter  Arya I was walking with her to school and she  

asked me what does harsh mean so some people who  watch my videos regularly you will remember this  

example but new people uh maybe you will not so  I'll just give it again quickly so typically in  

a regular English class someone would say okay  here's the word harsh harsh means this and then  

we're going to like maybe give you a translation  if you still don't understand it but what I want  

to do for my kids just like we're talking about in  this video is really help them understand things  

like a native so they speak like one so children  are not born native they become native over time  

as they learn English as a first language and so  you can do the same thing all right so when I'm  

giving her examples of that I say wow like the  sun is kind of harsh today so it's it's really  

really very bright then in the example she was  asking me about the word because she had heard  

that in a TV show in Boss baby and so she's she's  like what does harsh mean and I say well what  

does that like what was the situation what was  happening when you heard that and one character  

was yelling at another and another character said  uh don't be so harsh so like don't say like harsh  

things or don't be too cruel or too difficult  or too severe and so as my daughter gets more  

examples of that she feels more confident about  it without me telling her what the definition is  

so I want her to discover that rather than me just  tell him all right so people definitely need more  

examples of things and that's what's going to help  you speak rather than trying to study more words  

and phrases you should get more examples of the  vocabulary you already know but don't use fluently  

all right uh let's see I don't know what the with  the pronunciation there sir how do you actually  

speak I mean you say in these video you might you  speak a bit slowly for people to understand but  

how do you naturally say something all right well  I'll give you a quick example of how I speak uh  

number one I'm a little bit faster like this but  I also might use some like slang and idioms it's  

like yeah the other day I was I don't know what  was I doing yesterday I was getting into some kind  

of trouble uh doing doing whatever and and even  right now I can't think of like a specific thing I  

wanted to say I was out actually with my family we  like we went to town on this uh I don't know this  

there was like a buffet we went to at this party  it was actually really interesting there's a lot  

of Japanese people there I was speaking with them  as well um but like we like yeah it's even kind  

of like hard to explain uh what we were doing  but it was a lot of fun you know we went there  

had a lot of good time and you know tried a whole  bunch of different food and and it was a potluck I  

think so we had to bring some things and my wife  was like I don't know what to make you know and  

and I was thinking all right well we could just  buy something you know it's maybe that's not as  

cool as taking something by yourself and making  something by yourself like you don't have like the  

love in it if you just buy something but whatever  so there uh that was me just quickly explaining  

something and not doing like a very good job  not being very thoughtful about it but maybe  

you heard a few phrases in there that I would  not use unless I'm actually doing like I don't  

know trying to teach people about uh particular  words and phrases like to go to town on something

to go to town on something to go to town  on something so this is me number one I'm  

speaking like I'm mumbling a little bit more so  I'm not as clear I'm using some idioms like that  

some faster language and things that it's it's  really going to be more difficult for people to  

understand if I don't make it clear about what  that is so if I say we went to town on a buffet

a lot of native speakers will actually pretty  much any native speaker will understand what  

I'm talking about but many Learners will not they  will be like what does that mean went to he went  

to town on a buffet what does that mean like was  I like riding on that so a buffet is you have like  

a big like an all it's like an all-you-can-eat it  wasn't really all you can eat but you had it just  

means like lots of lots of food laid out uh on it  on like a long table something like that a buffet  

so we went to town on that it means like we  we got there and we were like everyone came  

and we were eating lots of food we were like I  don't know like a locusts yeah like a pig out  

kind of same kind of thing so we went to town  on something to go to town on something all  

right but notice that if I'm if I'm not taking  time to explain that it's often going to be uh  

it's going to be too advanced or too fast for a  lot of people to follow so they will be thinking  

like what does that mean he went to town on  something but and I'm still talking so I'm still  

going and explaining and talking about whatever  but it's going to be more difficult for people all  

right so I don't I don't necessarily speak quickly  all the time but the the more difficult thing is  

the vocabulary so I don't use a lot of idioms and  slang and things like that that I might use in a  

regular conversation with friends of mine so  it's again if you're over here then you want  

to get to fluency which is like a higher level  of vocabulary and communication and vocabulary  

it's really difficult to jump directly up  here this is why we take you up in steps  

in fluid for life all right so we want to make  sure you understand the vocabulary and the grammar  

and the speed and all of these things and as  you go through the steps it's much easier to  

understand the conversation at the end all right  and that's how you get fluent all right you can  

hear I'm losing my voice over here how much time  we have I've got like only a little bit left  

how many less how many times do you live lessons  here on YouTube monthly says Andre uh I don't have  

a like a specific schedule lately I've been doing  maybe at least once a week I don't have a specific  

schedule but it's usually around this time I've  been been doing that uh let's see sleazes with  

all said and done how does one choose which  vocabulary uh uh they should learn or teach  

should it be vocabulary that resonates with the  student's life like when your wife was pregnant  

um yeah it just it just depends on the situation  and then I would see what what did natives do in  

that situation and that's all I was doing with  the like the the pregnant wife example so I'm  

not I don't go into a textbook and think about  like what does like what do you need for that  

I just look at like what are these doctors talking  about what are the specific situations that I need  

to talk about and it's like oh what's the name of  like I don't know gynecologist or whatever how do  

you say that in Japanese or how do you talk about  pregnancy or how do you talk about you know like  

certain cultural things and you learn that by just  focusing on on the different examples that natives  

would have for that same thing so if I just like  in the espresso video how do you make an espresso  

so someone if you have a student who works at  a coffee shop then that would be a good a good  

thing for them to focus on so how do you how do  you respond to customers when they order something  

and I gave the example or I have given the  example many times on the channel about when  

I was learning uh Japanese and I came to Japan  and after I I struggled for a year and still  

couldn't speak and I discovered oh like you just  need to understand the language like a native  

and so I would go to coffee shops and sit near  the counter and listen to people ordering food  

so I would sit there I'd pretend like I'm reading  a book but I'm just spying on people I'm just  

listening what are they saying so you have a  whole line of people it's like free naturally  

varied review so all these people are going  to order they might order you know a coffee or  

different things but they're going to have like  a similar range of things that they would say  

so I'd say like I don't know like listening to  different people order stuff if I'm if I want to  

know how to order food in in like a country or  whatever I want to get a bunch of examples now  

you might see this sometimes on YouTube like  people will give an example of one situation  

so how to order or how to check in at a hotel  all right so they will give like one example  

of that what you should see is like 20 different  people checking into a hotel and that's going to  

make you feel very confident about that so you can  find lots of these examples on YouTube as well but  

these are the kinds of things we do in fluent for  life like what do we do when we're talking about  

like relationships how do different people talk  about that or how do we have um I don't know like  

explaining idioms in one situation in another  one so we cover all this stuff in the program  

uh uh see and Julian says when engaging  in conversation with non-native speaker  

it is natural for a native speaker to adjust  their pace of speech speaking more slowly in  

order to ensure better comprehension yes so  people will I I like the the word for this is  

code switching code switching if you've not heard  that before but yeah so people will speak one way  

I know like my mother would do that to so  there's like a and this is like the really  

bad way of speaking to non-native she was like  like my mother will like she comes out to Japan  

to visit and when she's trying to speak English  to some Japanese people like or even to my own  

kid she's like she's like you go you go there  like why are you speaking to them like that  

speak speak normally like the whole point is  for them to understand how you speak uh not for  

you to like code switch and start speaking in an  easier to understand way uh there are some times  

when it's useful to do that but don't go to like  the really like really low robot level because if  

people don't understand go or you or whatever then  they're not going to understand anything at all  

all right harshness builds character  that's true all right uh let's see  

and okay I got those already watching from India  aha naturally varied review yes that's that's  

the secret I try to make this very simple for  people when they're like what should I do what  

what do I do naturally varied review that's the  answer so you're you need to get understandable  

messages and that means you're needing real actual  native speech and then you're getting natural  

lessons that help you understand and really  discover the meaning of things for yourself  

and you do that by getting lots of examples so  that's what the naturally varied review does  

all right hello again this is dim Paul all right  looks like we got through everybody 92 minutes oh  

my goodness an hour and a half all right let me  celebrate with my if you remember what this is

it's not Rome I know you might be  thinking it's room but it's not room

it's some delicious mint tea that my wife made  for me some delicious mint tea all right so very  

quickly to sum up to conclude this number one  I really want you to to to take this to Heart  

take this to heart really listen to this really  pay attention to this use it and it will get you  

fluent subject verb agreement and you will see  this like even higher level ones like I just  

covered in this video with examples if you master  the basics conversation becomes much easier much  

much smoother and then you don't have to think  about like basic errors in in conversations  

and be worried about that number two we want to  think about exceptions so these are things like  

irregular verbs or plurals that change like going  from foot to feet or from go to went all right so  

if it's like play played listen listen talk  talked but then we have I don't know run ran  

that's a difference you need to pay attention to  because you need to hear that again and again in  

different ways to really get that pattern in your  brain you know to push it deep into your mind  

number three we want to go from physical  things to figurative so the example I  

gave we have turn over so we have physical  hand like this it's easy to see I want to  

show the other side of that I'm going to turn my  hand over or I could turn my whole body over like  

if I'm getting a massage and the masseuse says  hey could you please turn over turn over so that's  

another situation I had to learn like the Japanese  for that all right so it's like so like okay I  

have to learn like what what are people telling me  to do and I understand like oh like oh okay like  

looking looking up and people even use different  different terms for that but in English just turn  

over or you could say lie on your back go lie  on your stomach same kind of thing all right but  

we want to go from physical to figurative and  then four and five we have different routines  

which you can create for yourself usually in the  morning when you're getting ready for work or at  

night before you're going to bed those are good  times when you have your own time to do something  

but plan this out all right if you don't have a  TV or don't have particular channels just watch  

something on YouTube kids cartoons or kids TV  shows are great for that you can find lots of old  

examples as well if you want to remember I don't  know like like let's say you are I don't know 40  

years old so if you meet with native English  speakers who are 40 years old like within that  

same age group if you watch kids cartoons from  the 1980s then you will be able to talk with  

people about that hey do you remember that show  we used to watch like yeah that was like oh I know  

that show so I know like Thundercats as an example  from the 1980s when I was a kid and so if I meet  

someone and they understand that reference like  ah like I can talk about Thundercats so it's the  

same thing so you can you can think about what you  need for your life but also the kinds of people  

that you speak with in your life so if I spend  my time taking care of old people then I should  

probably learn some vocabulary about you know the  kinds of things that they watched or whatever and  

I can also learn about the things that they that  they use like the vocabulary they use all right  

so these are the like the native tricks the  native Secrets the native strategies that I  

use because I don't honestly have a lot of time  to teach my own kids English so I had to be  

very strategic and and really do my best to give  them a lot in a little amount of time all right  

all right let's see answer some last  questions here uh and then that should be uh  

uh let's see can you make a new video like the one  with espresso oh like another another naturally  

varied review video uh well if people have a  particular topic they'd like to see that really  

you can do this by yourself the the benefit of  having a teacher is I can explain the vocabulary  

but you can certainly go and find even more  videos of whatever topic you're interested in  

and learn about that same thing uh CeCe Lisa  thank you so much Drew glad to hear it uh  

uh you don't understand how much you've made my  job so much more easier and enjoyable glad to  

hear it nice uh do you teach like by yourself or  do you have a school you work for or or something  

else uh I'm join uh ffo before the end of this  month it's quite challenging to convince some  

students ah you you want to like get get them in  the program I'm guessing but if you do yeah it'd  

be a pleasure to welcome you let's see so let's  say okay we've got like a couple of videos asking  

about that can I make a new video like this one  Julian says thank you uh because they're so used  

to traditional ESO way yeah uh I would have your  students watch some of my videos and explain like  

why people can con I remember having a uh like  there was a guy I think a Korean guy and he lives  

in Texas with his wife and uh he bought one of my  programs he had to return it because his wife was  

like no I can't learn it unless there's Korean so  she wanted to learn Korean and he just like felt  

really bad he was like I don't know what to do my  wife really just wants the Korean in the examples  

you know yeah I understand but it's going to stop  people from communicating all right uh I teach on  

italki and privately ah glad to hear it uh what  is the best how the best a way to watching movies  

to learn yeah I would I would watch shows for  kids based on your writing like the like the the  

errors in your writing your English is probably  not good enough to watch movies all in English  

and you should be watching stuff all in English  that you can understand in that language all right  

all right well it looks like that's it it's been  a pleasure hopefully you guys take these tips and  

you apply them to your learning once you start  understanding like a native you really will see  

a difference uh in the way you communicate and  I promise you will feel a lot more confident and  

fluent can you say thought thought if you'd like  to hear me say over 2 000 words and sentences just  

get Frederick you can hear me you can hear me hear  me say thought like a thousand times if you like  

all right have a nice day from Brussels  have a fantastic day wherever you are if  

you'd like to learn more about both fluent  for life and Frederick you can click on  

the links in the description below this  video and I'll see you next time bye-bye