5 Things I No Longer Believe About Fluency - EnglishAnyone.com

find here let's see how we're doing

all right hopefully everyone can can see this  it usually takes a moment for YouTube to to  

fire up and tell people I am Drew Badger the  founder of English anyone.com in the English  

fluency guide and it is a pleasure to welcome  you to another live video here let me know if  

sound is coming through correctly you want to  make sure everybody can uh can hear me see me  

I think we should be doing all right uh so  I have been teaching now professionally for  

this is my 20th year so we're starting uh 20  years now amazing uh and I've actually been  

helping people learn for a lot longer than that  back in like college and high school but now I  

get to help lots of people all over the world  and all right Robert says we're doing good we  

should be all right so in this video I wanted  to talk about five things I no longer believe  

about fluency I'll be answering questions as well  I'll try to keep the video short I know I like to  

explain things in detail but I'll leave that  to you if you have any questions so these are  

five things that I no longer believe after I've  been teaching for a number of years you start  

believing one thing and you're doing things one  way when you begin and then over time you learn  

more you improve and you figure out better  ways of doing things so let's talk about that  

so I'll talk about a wide range of things uh and  just to keep this simple I'll talk about before

and now and these aren't necessarily uh  like like this isn't like a timeline of  

things these are just to make it very simple  for people I just want to focus on the ideas  

and hopefully this will make sense so  the first thing I want to talk about  

uh is confidence so what I used to believe  about confidence uh and this is what you'll  

normally hear from teachers is that you  have to get out and kind of power through

this is a very useful  phrasal verb to power through

if I can fit that in there so to power through  means to use your effort or energy and and try  

to push through something even though it's  difficult for you so what I used to believe  

about language learning is that even if you make  mistakes you should still get into conversations  

and try to speak with people now this seems like  a reasonable thing that you should be doing but  

what I discovered and again this is me evolving  as a teacher but also as a learner myself so  

I'm trying to improve my own language learning and  become a better language learner influence speaker  

myself in Japanese as I'm helping people learn  English so all the things that I learn I want to  

share those with Learners as well as I teach so  what I discovered not only about myself but also  

about the people I help is that the powering  through idea that really comes from teachers  

who are not doing a good job of helping students  understand vocabulary or grammar or really just  

use the language that they're learning and so  the the easy thing to say for a teacher is is  

like just you know keep trying to speak even  though you make mistakes but it's not really  

dealing with the the the basic problem of why  people make mistakes and that's because of a lack  

of understanding so what I now believe is that  it's the teacher's fault so it's the teachers

so it's really the teacher's fault if you do not  feel confident and it's because you don't really  

understand what you're learning so often we'll  talk a little bit more in this video about how you  

should be learning and how I do things differently  now than when I began teaching but the basic idea  

here is that if the teacher is not actually good  at helping you understand something then of course  

you will not feel confident in conversations  so rather than trying to power through and to  

try to try to maybe convince yourself that it's  okay to make mistakes sure you will make probably  

some mistakes and there will always be new things  that you learn but in general you really should  

be feeling very confident about what you know  and it's the confidence that helps you speak  

so what I really understand now is that if you  don't feel confident it's because you just don't  

understand something and it could be vocabulary  or pronunciation or whatever but it's usually the  

doubt that you have in your mind that stops you  you from speaking so rather than just trying to  

power through to say the wrong thing and and then  feel bad about that that's actually going to stop  

you from improving so there might be a few people  that really just have like a lot of confidence  

even if they're making mistakes but it's much  easier and you improve much more smoothly if  

you do this over here you rely on a teacher to  actually make things understandable or if you're  

learning them by yourself so you make sure you  really understand something very well and then  

you start using it okay so hopefully that makes  sense so fluency really relies on your ability  

to understand the language rather than you trying  to repeat things that you don't really understand  

does that make sense hopefully uh people get this  but this is a very basic thing that instead of  

just saying well the teacher will put some things  on the board and it's your job to remember it and  

understand it no no no I don't believe that  at all I believe it's my job as the teacher  

to make something understandable if you don't  feel confident and you don't feel comfortable  

then you're not going to speak so if I can  make the language understandable that's when  

you start speaking hopefully that makes sense  all right let's go on to the next thing again  

I want to keep this short we're at six minutes  already if you do have questions about anything  

I'm talking about just put them in the chat  I'll go back and check the chat after I'm done  

but let me know if anything is not clear so that I  can make it clear while I'm covering each of these  

things so the first one was about confidence  number two is about memory so what I used to  

believe is that you want to use like mnemonics  we'll make sure I can spell this properly m n e  

m o n i c so mnemonics so this has a silent M at  the front of it mnemonics so mnemonics are a way  

of remembering something as an example here in  Japan uh there are lots of places that sell or  

they like restaurants that have barbecue and the  Japanese word for meat is so this is also like you  

can write it like we'll just write it in English  here so niku but niku is also like me for number  

two and coup for number nine so often on days  of the month uh like the 29th day of the month  

other than February every month has the 29th  day uh so this would be like niku nohi so this  

is like meat day and you get a discount on meat or  something like that so this is a mnemonic a way of  

remembering something or a way of making a kind  of mental Connection in your mind so I used to  

believe that mnemonics were very useful uh for  speaking uh and what I what I thought about as  

I was trying to build the vocabulary uh and  also help people learn is that this is less  

effective uh than helping people learn and build  new categories of words in their mind so this is  

really important if you want to build a vocabulary  quickly so we'll just call this a category

medically so new categories of things in your  mind as an example we begin with a computer

and I call this really uh the billion dollar  memory secret because this is what companies  

are doing in order to help you remember words  are in their case like Remember products and  

remember their company specifically so the  first company or the first you know person  

or whatever to to come out with the idea of  a computer uh you will remember that person  

because it's first it's essentially first in  your mind when you think about that so you  

might think about like if you think about those  large you know like big towers those big boxes  

of computers you will see those inside uh like  a large Warehouse or something like a Mainframe

Mainframe computer or you can think about  this in really any any industry but when you  

think about like going to different levels of  this we might have a desktop computer as well

so if every company begins making these large  boxes and then a new company makes a laptop  

computer then they have created a new category  in your mind that makes it very easy to remember  

this new thing of a of a laptop computer or  a desktop computer or a tablet computer and  

so each one of these things that you think about  you you have this kind of space in your mind for  

for that thing now the reason it's important to  think about vocabulary this way this is really  

how you learn your native language and how  you build vocabulary in your native language  

by getting kind of more specific things like  we might have in in English well these are  

you know examples of the English language as  well but another example for me like learning  

Japanese is when I'm trying to learn vocabulary  I might have like yeah there's a special kind of  

it's a little decorative Moss ball usually with a  little plant in it and you can buy these in Japan  

and often like you can I think maybe these are  sold in other there's no voice can you not hear  

me really you should be able to hear me make sure  make sure you turn up your your volume it looks  

like people should be able to hear me uh but in  Japanese to try to remember this this is called  

a Koke dama so ball I know black ball means  Tama or ball and coque means moss and so when  

I'm learning this I think I've created this new  category in my mind for a moss ball so Moss ball

and you can think about this the same way so  if you're learning English and you don't really  

remember the word Moss but you learn Moss ball  first you've created a new category in your mind  

for a way to remember this and as you build these  categories it creates these networks in your mind  

about how to remember things and as you learn the  native way and you do this so these two things  

I'll talk a little bit more about the second one  in a moment but it's much better than having a  

mnemonic so what a mnemonic does it makes you  take time to think about uh like something you  

have to create a story or think about something  in your mind and as you create more steps in  

your mind to think about something then you have  to think about these same steps when you speak  

all right so some people are saying they can't  hear or is that the same person let me see

yes all right so I think that's the same person  uh sound sound is not coming through is sound  

coming through or is it not coming through  this is weird should be okay let me know  

everybody let me know if sound is coming through  it should be working fine I got the microphone on  

sound is coming in yes yes it is okay everything  is okay all right you guys making me nervous  

everybody with the individual check your  check your device turn your volume up  

all right so hopefully this makes sense I don't  want to spend too much time talking about this  

because I've covered this in many videos but  again the idea is anytime you have to add steps  

to your thinking before before you think or while  you're trying to speak that's going to create more  

steps that you can't respond automatically and  confidently in conversations so with this you're  

really trying to build a strong memory that  you can use automatically and in speech this  

is helpful now I will say that mnemonics are  very helpful for learning to read and write so  

it's less helpful for speech because you need to  communicate quickly but for reading and writing so  

again like using Japanese as an example I can  remember something like if I'm learning kanji  

so these are like Japanese borrowed Chinese  characters that are written in Japanese so I  

can remember oh that's a person kind of leaning  on a tree and because I have time to think when  

I'm reading and writing it's okay I don't mind  having steps in my in my learning of something  

like that so the the the kind of the test of this  is whether you have time to use the uh like use  

the information in a conversation or not so when  you're reading and writing it's okay to take time  

and think but when you're in a conversation  you really need to communicate quickly does  

that make sense so the the better idea is as  you're understanding the language like a native  

speaker so you're learning English as a first  language not trying to learn it through your  

native language you really should be building  new categories of words and that will help you  

remember things much easier and you can learn more  about this just check the YouTube channel for like  

how to remember any English word we have a program  about that as well but you can learn about this  

basic idea it goes into more detail there so let  me erase this we'll get into the next thing so  

we've covered two things already we're talking  about memory and we're talking about confidence

number three is that there are different  kinds of learner so I used to think there are

different kinds of learners

there are different kinds of Learners so people  believe that you know I need to learn English in  

a certain way like I like to sing songs or  I need to play music or I need to you know  

whatever the different different ways people are  learning but now I believe there's really just one  

there's really only one kind of learner because we  all learn in the same way now I really want to be  

clear about this idea because I know it's useful  to learn in many different ways so you might be  

getting information from an audio podcast where  you're only listening to something or if you're  

watching a video like you're watching this video  or if you're reading a book these are all ways of  

getting information but the reason there's only  one is because the only the only really important  

thing is do you understand that information or  not so we all eat the same way digest food the  

same way look the same way all these processes  like hearing is the same for all of us so there's  

no logical reason why language learning would  be different for all different groups of people  

or people in different places so the truth is  even if you're using video or audio or whatever  

and you should be using lots of those things when  I'm teaching people I often use all of these even  

reading and writing to help people get fluent  point but the point is that understanding is  

the key so if you don't understand what I'm  saying it doesn't matter if it's reading or  

writing or a song or anything like that the point  is to help you understand and you should be using  

different ways to to reach that so if you're just  watching you know YouTube videos it could be a  

video but if it's not helping you understand  the problem is not video it's just that you  

just don't understand the content and again as  I mentioned the first thing I talked about for  

confidence is that really you want to have people  understand and it's the teacher's fault if you  

don't understand all right so this is again the  number three thing that I wanted to talk about  

but Learners often because traditional lessons  don't help people understand very well they think  

there's a different way that they need to learn  when really the problem is just that most lessons  

are not taught in a way that makes a language  understandable so if the teacher is doing a bad  

job of making the language understandable then  of course the students will struggle all right  

so all of these different things you will notice  they are connected if you have any questions about  

this let me know again I'm not getting like a  lot of comments other than people can't hear me  

but hopefully uh people understand where I'm  going with this and I'll go back and check  

comments and answer questions all right we're up  at 16 minutes now all right so I've covered three  

things so far uh hopefully again let me know if  you have any questions but we'll continue going  

uh so next before I used to think you need a  live teacher uh and now I believe you do not

so I used to believe you need to have a live  teacher in order to get fluent uh but a few things  

made me realize this is not true number one many  people learn with live teachers uh for many years  

and still don't become fluent speakers okay let me  repeat that many students learn with live teachers  

like in a classroom or online or whatever and they  still don't become fluent okay many teachers you  

know they've been teaching students I know people  that have you know gone to classes with people  

like once a week classes or many times a week and  they're still not becoming fluent all right even  

with a live teacher all right so that's one thing  uh and the second thing you understand I'll talk  

about this with uh with the last uh the last thing  that I've changed my mind about and that is that  

you don't you don't really get fluent by having a  live teacher you get fluent by understanding the  

language like a native all right so if you have a  live teacher that can help you understand like a  

native that's fantastic most people do not do that  and really it's difficult even with a live teacher  

who is who is making the language understandable  so right now I'm just talking generally about  

language learning I'm not really giving you  English lessons even though you can learn some  

English from the way I'm speaking right now uh the  point here is that even if you have a a particular  

live teacher that can help you understand like  a native you still need to get naturally varied  

review meaning you need to hear language from  actual different native speakers so you need  

to hear different accents different dialects and  you need a lot more examples than just one live  

teacher so really the the best way would be if  you had a live group of teachers and make it all  

all work with you and help you learn that would  basically be like learning in a native environment  

but it would still be helping you understand  the language like a native all right so I don't  

believe you need a live teacher what you really  need is the information that a teacher can give  

you and as long as you understand something that's  really the key so again you can study with a live  

teacher for years and if you're not becoming  more fluent it means that the live teacher isn't  

the essential thing you need the essential  thing is that you understand like a native

[Music]  

now when I say understand like a native what I  really mean is that you without having to think  

or translate in your native language the language  is understandable so if I'm teaching you something  

I want to use a visual example like I'm going  to teach you the color like this is blue and I  

show you other things like this is blue blue blue  blue this is a very basic lesson but rather than  

me translating from one language to another I'm  going to give you just the lesson in English or  

if I'm teaching you Japanese or German or French  or whatever the language is you're learning it all  

in the language and it's understandable okay so  the understandable part is is like really really  

important now I'm getting getting some comments  from people like haven't seen me in a long time  

that's I think maybe YouTube doesn't tell people  when I do lives I guess or whenever I release new  

videos but yes I'm still here I'm still alive uh  just helping mostly uh all of all the students  

we have like 40 000 students in our programs so we  spent a lot of time helping people who are already  

joining us so I do like to go back on YouTube and  make sure people understand but really it's been  

it's been like a week or maybe two weeks I guess  so this is my first video of the new year uh but  

if you go back and look at the channel you'll find  live videos look at the live tab on the channel  

rather than just videos I don't know why YouTube  does that they really should put everything in  

one tab but yes Happy New Year it's been a while  I don't know when you can like stop saying uh like  

happy New Year but uh anyway it's good to see you  all yes double check your notifications but but do  

look at look at the the two tabs on the channel so  you've got videos and then you've got live and I  

don't know why they separate that but check live  because you'll see all of the recent videos that  

I've had uh often I'm on around this time so  it is my Thursday morning uh and uh yeah you  

can you can find me here and on Instagram usually  my Monday morning around the same time all right  

so this is the the number four thing so having  a live teacher is not necessary the important  

thing is just understanding like a native and  so if you can get that information that's really  

what gets you fluent all right and so that  leads us into the number five thing [Applause]  

now this is probably going to be the  like the uh the most unbelievable

all right so before I used to believe this  speech so speaking we'll just say speaking

foreign

speaking where speech is essential so it's  essential that you speak if you want to  

become a fluent speaker and now I no longer  believe that's the case isn't that crazy  

so a teacher who thinks that speaking is no  longer essential to becoming a fluent speaker  

I know this sounds weird this is probably the  most unbelievable thing that I talk about but  

if you if you paid attention to the other things  I just listed it makes sense so understanding is  

really the key I'll just put this back up here  again because this is so important foreign

so understanding is key we can imagine uh like  when people talk about speaking practice usually  

they mean repeating things uh maybe you're  sitting in your car as you drive to work and  

you're repeating things to yourself like repeating  phrases or you're listening to a speaker and  

you're trying to repeat after that speaker or even  if you're in a conversation and you're trying to  

use what you know if you don't first understand  uh the language really well or whatever that that  

word or phrase or that grammar point then you will  not feel confident using it and you will probably  

make a mistake and then you will feel worse about  trying to uh like trying to trying to communicate  

and again it will it will make your progress  worse it will harm your progress all right so  

I used to believe that speaking is essential  you have to speak but really what I discovered  

is that it's actually understanding that makes  you fluent so just to give you uh an example of  

this my my younger daughter Noel she just turned  four years old uh last week uh so we were doing  

um what was it I was I was talking about I've  been teaching them I'll teach you kind of an  

advanced word to see if I'll give you a quick  quiz just to keep you guys excited over here  

uh what's the name for see if anybody knows this  this is pretty Advanced vocabulary uh so animals

that are awake in the daytime  so let's just say like awake  

or active during the day and then animals  that are active and awake at night

do you all know the name for this  this is some Advanced vocabulary but  

this is this is one of the things  that you know because I'm able to  

teach my own kids I teach them lots of  advanced vocabulary or oh very good wow

very good yeah most people don't most people  don't know that one very good very good  

yeah so we got uh the active  in the daytime is diurnal  

and usually more people know the uh the  nighttime one that's it's a bit more common

so the the the night one uh night one is nocturnal  so animals like a bat or often like lions like  

even Lions you know they they sleep like 20  hours a day but then they're awake at night so  

they're active at night so you could say lions  are nocturnal Hunters uh so we got nocturnal  

and diurnal nocturnal and diurnal and so I'm  teaching uh this vocabulary to my kids especially  

my younger daughter Noel who loves animals uh  Batman that's correct so Batman is nocturnal  

Batman is Batman is nocturnal and  Spider-Man is diurnal I guess you could say  

yeah crime if there's no crime at night  let's see I can't get your handwriting  

okay let me let me make this more clear yes  I'm I'm trying to in 2023 try to have better  

handwriting if you look back at the chat  you'll see both of them written already

and knock

nocturnal nocturnal so diurnal meaning you're  active during the day yes uh thank you Elena  

uh so active during the day in nocturnal means  you're active at night now here's how I taught  

these to my kids so when I'm talking  about different animals I kind of like  

I'm kind of explaining things to them  I say oh they're they're awake at night  

uh they're awake at night it means they're diurnal  or they're they're nocturnal excuse me so I'm  

talking about them I'm describing bats or we're  looking at some pictures and I say look they're  

flying around at night there's the moon and they  come out of the cave they sleep during the day  

and they come out at night they're nocturnal and  so after repeating this a few times and using it  

in different situations so this is what I call  naturally varied review we might be watching a  

TV show I'm just putting that vocabulary into  their mind even if they don't repeat what I  

say I'm just giving them the vocabulary the same  way they might get it from a TV show so you don't  

repeat back to a TV show a TV show or a movie  or a book you're just receiving the information  

and then one day uh like maybe a couple days ago  Noel just said oh look like nocturnal like the bat  

like this animal is I don't I don't remember what  animal it was but we were talking about something  

in like oh that or maybe it was like fireflies  or something it's like look they're nocturnal  

and I was just like oh yeah look like she got  it all right yes John is nocturnal as well  

yes you can be nocturnal you can have like a  nocturnal lifestyle where you're awake at night  

like you're a vampire or something uh but this  is the basic idea and so the point is it's not I  

don't I don't teach my own children by having them  repeat phrases over and over so I don't say repeat  

after me nocturnal nocturnal nocturnal nocturnal  because in a in a weird way that actually makes it  

less vote it it makes you forget the vocabulary so  you take any word and try to repeat it again and  

again the vocabulary uses its meaning but as they  learn it and they understand it they understand  

it like a native oh and they they understand the  word nocturnal means animals that live and fly  

around at night and as they hear more examples  they might hear it from me or from a TV show or  

somebody else then they really feel confident and  that's when the word comes out all right so they  

can try to repeat something even if they don't  really remember it or know it but you build the  

the memory and the understanding and the ability  to speak over time Time by getting that input all  

right hopefully this makes sense but these are  the five things really uh pretty good we kept  

this under half an hour very nice so these are the  five things uh that I now believe about fluency  

that I did not believe before so just to recap  to recap this is a good word for you to recap  

so to cover everything again to explain it again  very quickly to recap so number one I believe that  

if you're trying to build confidence you should  really understand everything very well rather  

than try to force yourself to speak before you're  ready if you don't understand things and you're  

just trying to repeat things you will not have a  good time learning you will not feel good about  

expressing yourself in conversations so it's much  better to understand everything the second thing  

is for building memory you really want to create  new categories of words as you learn like a native  

speaker so you're learning English as a first  language rather than learning it through your  

second language or through your first language  so everybody it doesn't matter where you are can  

learn English like it's their first language  it's not about living in an English-speaking  

country it's just about learning the same way  native speakers are learning all right and I  

also talked about again understanding is key  and that goes really for everything so that you  

don't need to have a live teacher with you and you  don't need to be like a specific kind of learner  

there's no specific method that's special for you  because we all learn the same way but either you  

understand the information or you do not okay  either you understand the information or you do  

not and this means you also get fluent without  speaking so fluency is actually something you  

develop as you understand the Ang the the English  language or whatever language you're learning if  

you understand that really well that's when you  feel confident using it okay but if you don't feel  

confident it means you don't really understand  it it could be watching it like watching a video  

or listening to something if you don't really  understand that then of course you're not going to  

feel confident using it so you notice all of these  things are connected and it's really fundamentally  

about two different ways of learning so the  first is kind of learning as a second language

so I'll just put that there my writing is not  very clear I apologize just writing this clearly  

so learning as a second language and this is your  first language over here so if you learn English  

as a first language you will speak like English  is your first language and if you learn English  

as a second language you will learn it and try  to think and translate and you will hesitate  

and forget words when you speak then you will  certainly not feel confident because you just  

won't really know everything well enough to feel  confident enough to speak all right so these are  

the five things uh just at the start of this New  Year again happy New Year uh to everyone out there

now people are looking at  everybody using nocturnal very good  

so it's okay uh there are some people who like  learning at night to some people who like learning  

uh you can yeah you can use diurnal and nocturnal  for for anything you could talk about people who  

people who are awake at night you could talk about  I'm I'm a diurnal learner or a nocturnal learner  

people would understand what that means and  again the the understanding the you can you can  

tell when students uh when students are trying to  ask ask questions it means like they're trying to  

develop and refine their understanding so I might  I might teach you a word like nocturnal or diurnal  

and then immediately your mind is like well what  about this situation or can I talk about that or  

can I talk about that and as you're understanding  improves it's like ah okay so I can use this for  

Animals I can use this for people I can use this  for I don't know rock bands or something like  

that as you get more examples of something that's  really what develops your confidence because you  

really understand something very well all right so  the first time you hear vocabulary if I just write  

the word Nocturnal on the board and then I give  you a like a translation of that thing you will  

most likely forget that vocabulary and probably  not understand it when people are using it in  

conversations but if I can give you lots and lots  of varied examples this is what I call naturally  

varied review if I can give you all these  varied examples that's when you finally become  

fluent because your understanding improves as you  get every example for each example I should say  

all right let me go back through comments  and see if anybody has any questions  

this is some strong Market this is difficult to  take off here but uh that was the the the basic  

lesson just the things that I wanted to cover the  five things I no longer believe in the things that  

I now do believe about fluency and these again  are things that I've tested with myself so I  

wouldn't teach you anything that I'm not also  using that's why I use a lot of life examples  

about my own learning or teaching my children as  I talk about teaching Learners all right let's go  

back through and see if we have it's like a couple  of good comments here all right yeah so people are  

it looks like there are quite a few people who are  saying like they hadn't they didn't know I'm still  

alive or or they're not getting uh notifications  again I haven't released a uh like a regular video  

where I where I you know edit a video and update  a video upload a video I should say uh in a long  

time and the reason is it's much faster for me to  just make content like this I don't have to worry  

I can just plan something very quickly and then  talk with Learners and answer questions if I if  

I get any questions from people it's just much  faster and easier for me to do that uh let's see  

yeah so you don't have to worry about missing me  it's good good to be missed though all right uh  

uh let's see all right so Elena all right we'll  go back from this one so I understand everything  

you say I just get slow when speaking all right  so this is about uh this is a very common thing  

Elena not just you but many people around the  world experience this really in any language  

um and again the the the problem with the  problem most people have is that their level  

of understanding is not very good so they might  hear a word one time like the word nocturnal

so Nocturne null uh and then if you only hear  something one time you will most likely forget  

it and you will also not know well how is the  pronunciation of this like maybe it sounds a  

little bit different from you know different  people if someone in Texas says it rather than  

someone in Boston or something like that and so  your mind always has these questions because your  

mind is really trying to understand something to  protect you from making an embarrassing mistake  

in a conversation so your mind is like trying  to trying to prepare you uh for that uh and  

so you you go back and as you hear lots of these  different examples uh so from different speakers  

in different situations okay you learn that a bat  is nocturnal but you also learn that maybe someone  

formatting newspapers in the middle of the night  is nocturnal as well all right so you're learning  

ah okay your mind is getting these questions  answered automatically and that's how you develop  

confidence all right so if you if you understand  what people are saying it means you can recognize  

words you understand at a very basic level but  to use that you really have to get more and more  

examples until you really feel confident in your  understanding and that's when you become fluent  

all right so fluent you don't you don't become  fluent by repeating something again and again you  

could get fluent by understanding it very well and  then you will become really just naturally a great  

speaker automatically and the great the great  thing about this just to make it clear is that  

you don't need to have a live teacher there so  whether you're watching this with me now or you're  

watching it later like a year from now you're  still getting the same benefit from this video  

all right oh no now I lost my place because  we got more comments then all right uh I'm  

gonna try to hold this here and answer all these  yeah so still people saying like we miss we miss  

okay it's good to be missed all right let's see  here uh uh happy to see you again hey it's been  

a while happy New Year you were my first teacher  I've learned all by myself online many years ago  

nowadays I'm fluent already traveled the world  has so many places thanks a lot Drew fantastic  

that's great yeah that's what I want to hear  I will double check my notifications all right  

so happy New Year yes lots of people getting  a happy New Year uh Ronald says uh how is it  

for Foreigner being a foreigner living in Japan I  really like Japan a lot it's a great country for  

me personally for a number of reasons I can talk  about those if people are interested but I've also  

talked about that uh quite a bit on the channel  if you have any specific questions about that let  

me know we'll see how these other questions go so  Sam wow Sam Walton like the original the founder  

of Walmart or is that just a coincidence that you  guys have the same name but thank you for changing  

my beliefs it's my pleasure remember my my beliefs  just like I'm showing you here I've changed my  

beliefs about learning uh and that's why I'm able  to speak Japanese fluently now so happy birthday  

to my daughter yes thank you very much Elena uh  yes she is uh four years old she turned four on  

January 7th so what last week I think that was I  know you're my teacher glad to hear it so Batman  

okay uh I can't wholesale I got all these already  so hello from Brazil so how did I oh so so Sam is  

also asking how you learn is how you speak thank  you drew yes yes exactly so how you learn if you  

have steps in your learning or you have to  think and process in your head while you're  

trying to trying to speak then you will obviously  communicate uh poorly you'll struggle with what  

you want to say or forget your words uh Ellis  I wish I could meet you in your hometown yeah  

are you in in Chicago let me know if you're over  there I haven't been back to Chicago in a while  

I'm sure I will get back at some point though  uh Elizabeth nice to see you there so nocturnal  

watching me all right every day let's see  uh okay I think we answered these already  

so what languages do you speak by the way so I  speak Japanese uh and English English is obviously  

my native language but uh I speak Japanese  fluently as well all right would you like to  

please to repeat the pronunciation of the word  diurnal Dior null die urinal di urinal all right  

yes yes Ellen are really excited to meet me back  in Chicago I'm guessing you're in Chicago let me  

know so your channel is genuinely informative  uh says lately hopefully I'm pronouncing that  

correctly and you literally changed my whole  mindset about getting fluent I've been following  

a channel since like six years ago wow thank you  so much I didn't know you were still doing live  

videos so I was pretty unsure trying to purchase  the fluency tools online now I can do it without  

any fear yes so again most of what I do on YouTube  is is helping people change the way they think  

about learning and then like all of the lessons  and things like I have that's it's taking people  

through the steps so the people who are who are  best able to go through that they already believe  

what I believe about language learning so if you  think you need a live teacher then you should go  

find a live teacher and and people many people  do do that and it's okay if your live teacher  

is teaching you the way I teach then fantastic but  even then you really need to have multiple uh real  

examples of native speakers and that's why what  I do in fluent for life is giving you not only  

me if you only listen to slow easy to understand  English like the English I'm using then it will  

make it more difficult for you to understand  people if you're not also prepared for that so  

that's why I need to give you my English also my  English at a faster speed as well as the English  

of many many other people and at different speeds  in different accents in different situations and  

that's what's going to automatically build your  fluency so you don't need to have a native speaker  

with you or a native friend or a native teacher  you really just need to understand the language  

very well and you do that by getting lots of  varied examples right the best the best way of  

learning that's probably way uh is analyzing  less and enjoy the whole thing by performing  

imitating in a in a repeating practice yes you  again I wanted to tell people like repeating  

things doesn't get you uh fluent repeating  doesn't get you fluent repeating repeating  

things especially if you don't understand them  very well is not going to get you fluent either  

it's getting different examples so rather than  getting and I've given this example many times  

but we always have new people joining us so  maybe some new people can benefit from this  

too so there are three basic ways of learning  the first one is you you hear a word or phrase  

and you don't repeat it all right so this is  the first way and most likely you will forget  

that vocabulary way number two is you hear  something and then you try to repeat it again and  

again and again and again and you might remember  that but probably not uh and so this is a like a  

little bit more memorable but the best thing you  can get is naturally varied review where you're  

getting lots of different examples all related to  a particular topic and the reason we want to do  

this is so that we're prepared in a conversation  for different kinds of speech so the the the art  

of conversation is really about being able to  deal with Dynamic situations so you don't know  

if someone will say hey or hi how's it going  how are you how you been where are you going  

people are asking all these different things  in a greeting and if the only thing you learn  

in an English class is hello you're going to be  overwhelmed and not prepared when you actually  

have to be in a real conversation with real people  so what we do when I'm teaching is I want to begin  

with a kind of topic or a situation and then  help help you understand the different ways  

that people might respond to that or the different  things people might say in that situation so I've  

often talked about how one of the things I've  done to get naturally varied review by myself  

in Japan is I would go to a cafe and just sit  and listen to different people ordering food  

I know it sounds like kind of a silly thing to do  but if I go to a cafe in Japan and I sit near the  

counter I can hear all of these different people  ordering food and they're going to use slightly  

different vocabulary their pronunciation will be  a little bit different and some really developing  

my understanding like a native and I might find  some phrases that are easy for me or some that  

are more difficult but I'll learn a lot of new  things and really become a much more confident  

speaker and I will feel much more comfortable  in conversations because I can understand a  

much wider range of things so this is where we  get naturally varied review and it's much better  

I made a video if you go back and watch the live  video I did about 15 if you only have 15 minutes  

to learn do this and that's where I'm talking  about the way you should be getting naturally  

varied review all right so rather than learning  something once and then forgetting it so if you  

watch a YouTube video that teaches you 10 phrases  and you never see those again you're basically  

wasting your time second thing is even if you  try to repeat something again and again it's not  

really preparing you for dynamic conversations  so if you want to be able to communicate  

dynamically to understand and to express yourself  spontaneously you need naturally varied review  

all right let's go back see  if uh all right okay and

okay so Abraham asks uh am I think about releasing  any new courses um I might actually I have I've  

had an idea for a few years about a new kind of  course to create but it would be quite different  

from what I've been doing so far but right now  I've created like everything I need to help  

anybody get fluent so anybody who joins fluent  for life today will be in the next uh within the  

next 30 days be speaking fluently so you won't  know everything about the language but you learn  

and you get fluent in certain vocabulary as you  learn it so as you know something really well you  

get fluent in that vocabulary then you move on to  the next thing and get fluent in that as well so  

you don't have to spend time like me you know me  creating new information or you learning lots of  

other new things you just focus on the things in  the program that we already have so we don't need  

to release anything new do I have any Japanese  lessons uh no I do not there I'm sure there are  

lots of other people teaching Japanese I don't  know if there's anyone who teaches Japanese the  

way I teach English I've not heard of anybody like  that but I don't use any I don't watch like like  

YouTube videos like language learning lessons  on YouTube for learning Japanese or anything  

all right so Atlanta says yes Chicago uh why do  I live why you went so far from here so I I moved  

to Japan because I wanted to study Japanese  gardening that's why I came here all right  

uh I speak English Italian French nowadays I'd  love to learn Japanese with you pretty please  

yes you don't need me specifically to  learn Japanese learn Japanese the same  

way I'm learning it like begin with basic  information like watch Japanese kids shows  

and you're starting to understand the  vocabulary like a native sometimes I'll  

give a few Japanese lessons like you  probably seen my quick marker lesson

a

Kudo akka AO Kuro kuroi shots and remember the  first time you hear this if you're if you've  

never heard any Japanese or you've never heard me  give this lesson before you will likely forget the  

vocabulary I just gave you but if tomorrow we came  back and I could give you another lesson about  

this and talk about other things so kudo kudo I've  made the language understandable so your brain is  

like ah okay it probably means black all right  so what is the topic today Kudo yeah and it's  

sound and again like you might think like k-u-d-o  uh but the like the Japanese here like uh kudo  

it's the this this dough is like a  combination of R D and L together Kudo kudo  

so another just like very simple example this  like if you're if you're hearing that from  

many different people then over time you will  understand ah he's saying this because you will  

hear me say kudo and someone else will say kudo  Kudo Kudo and after a while you will you will  

actually understand the the pronunciation very  well so you really you don't learn as well from  

one teacher and that's why I have like I think  they're probably over 100 I think uh different  

native speakers influent for life that you learn  with uh so another another quick example this is  

just an example of naturally varied review but  also helping you understand like a native so we  

use this same example so this is coup uh and if  we're getting let's say we'll just give another  

example here this is key so these are Japanese  characters now let me see if I can teach you  

a lesson and I bet you could figure this out  for yourself so this is coup and this is key

I put these little lines over  here and this becomes goo crew gu

what do you think that is

key what do you think that  is I bet you could guess coup

yep very good very simple  all right so this is coup

ghee so you learn ah okay if I  if I put these little little we  

call it 10 10 in in Japanese uh you  learn like ah I understand now it's  

going to change the the character uh  so another thing like you might hear

so let me give you the simple  example so this is a cot

goop Ki gee

Google Ki ghee Ka what do you think that  is God all right very simple all right so  

part of part of like good teaching is is to to  help you understand something and that you feel  

good like ah I came up with the answer so if the  teacher tells you everything you're really losing  

a chance of learning this is very powerful thing  for you as a learner when you understand something  

yourself and this is why I try to give you lots  of examples of things rather than just tell you  

what a definition or a rule is okay because when  you discover it for yourself you're like ah oh my  

God like yeah I got it like he said cool and like  so I'm teaching you a rule here and then I give  

you another example and then I give you another  example cop GA and you can probably guess how it  

works all right so this is just learning like the  basic uh writing system I'm not I'm not trying to  

teach you Japanese but the point is to have the  understanding of when you're learning something  

understanding is the key and also helping  you understand it like a native so that  

you really discover things for yourself and and  you you feel confident about using the language  

uh let's see okay what can one do to speak for  three to five minutes without being stuck so John  

asks that uh so the answer to John's question is  to understand the language very well so whatever  

your your grammar point or your topic whatever  it is you want to talk about uh the more you  

understand or the better you understand the easier  it is for you to speak if you don't feel confident  

talking about something then you will not it  doesn't matter if it's in your native language  

or not but you will not feel confident talking  about something but if you know about something  

really well you will feel confident about speaking  about it all right uh Regine if I'm pronouncing  

that correctly it's my first time here I have  difficulty with listening but I understand you I  

hope to uh to come back here yeah it's my pleasure  so remember I'm trying to make the language  

understandable uh so I do that I know that most  of the people who watch my videos have have like  

a certain maybe intermediate or advanced level  of understanding if I speak slowly and clearly  

all right so if I speak slowly and clearly  uh but you really want to get up here to this  

like higher level where the natives are  so the natives are speaking fast they're  

using conversational English maybe they're  saying things that you don't quite understand  

because the accent is difficult so this is  why like in a program like fluent for life

let me write this clearly ah I'm trying to be good  for 2023 fluent you guys already know this word  

I'll write it all capitals the flu d n t four now  I can't write I can't write properly I can't speak  

and write at this time at the same time or life so  fluid for life is basically this process where I  

move you from your current level of understanding  up to uh the basic native level so you can  

understand people and have real conversations it's  really difficult to jump from here all the way up  

to the native level but if you go in simple steps  you understand the vocabulary you hear it used by  

different speakers you automatically become fluent  I just had someone today mail us uh so we get lots  

of emails from people and he was like hey how can  I get more lessons because they're working very  

well for me but everybody's using this process  because this is how everybody gets fluent all  

right let's go back and see I think there are like  a few more all right I'm Arturo hope to I hope the  

name rings a bell yes yes oh is it you have like  a different uh uh did you change your your screen  

name because I think it used to say Arturo maybe  you're is that AI or Al I can't tell yeah yes I'm  

living in Chicago I want to meet you glad to hear  it uh what is the topic today so the topic today  

uh is five things I used to believe about fluency  that I do not so perfect lesson will be uh that  

I would subscribe for sure yeah uh I don't know  maybe I'll teach Japanese in the future but I'm  

sure there are plenty of people uh uh anyas and  Ellen is also getting emails glad to hear uh so  

you'll be awesomely awesome teaching Japanese can  you give us a quick review on how to blend words  

in sentences while speaking okay so another thing  uh if you want to learn more about pronunciation

so the two things you need for pronunciation I'll  

cover this very quickly number one  is understanding the sound rules

the sound rules of English I just read a a  newspaper article uh like a week ago it was  

talking about uh these are like teachers in the  United States so American Native English teachers  

they're not teaching the English language they're  just regular like kindergarten or Elementary  

School teachers and they don't know some of these  rules about how to teach reading so this is not  

just non-native Learners this is even a lot of  native people don't know how to teach reading and  

so in the English language we have the the English  language is a tricky language to learn because we  

have like two different kinds of words the first  kind of word is about 84 of the languages words  

that have sound rules as an example I can learn  like let's see uh what's a good word so this is  

not a word I'll just put it up here anyway  just for the for the purposes of the example

so if I have a word like back this is not a word  but uh it might you know you might hear it in  

something else uh bake is a word but what you  notice is that when there's an e at the end of  

the word like this it changes the sound of this  so this is ah and this one is book a all right  

so because the E is here we change the the sound  of this so it goes from a short vowel to a long  

vowel now it's not important that you know that  but as you learn the rules of how pronunciation  

works then it becomes very easy to pronounce words  really like a native I'll give you another example  

so again point is to get lots of different  examples so pin is still the short vowel sound

now if we put an e on the end of  that this becomes the long i i sound  

it pin becomes I Pine all right pin Pi so  this is the first thing we've got the sound  

rules that are about 84 percent of the language  and the remaining ones are the rule Breakers  

I can't speak I can't speak and  write at the same time rule Breakers

so a rule breaker is a word like the if we try  to pronounce this with sound rules we would get  

e like a short e sound but we don't say fair we  say the the the so when you're learning English  

if you learn the sound rules which are which  are really easy to learn and also the rule  

Breakers and there are not that many of them for  a conversational speech if you know these two so  

this is the the first part of pronunciation  uh then you really start sounding a lot more  

like a native now the question was asked about  pronunciation in sentences and so that's the the  

second part of pronunciation here is where  we're connecting different sounds like that

train now English Learners might say that  train and they would pronounce it clearly  

to make sure they can say everything and that  they're understood that train that train but if  

you listen carefully in a conversation we don't  want to have this sound because it just it makes  

it more difficult to to say what you're trying to  say so that train if we have the same sound here  

this is just one example I call this the one rule  for pronunciation because it applies to so many  

different things and it really helps you sound  much more like a native speaker we just eliminate  

the first sound and we get that train that  train that train so we leave a little bit of  

space here we don't say it that train that train  that train and you really sound native and smooth  

even if you speak smoothly or slowly all right  so I can still sound like a native speaker that  

train that train but I sound less native if  I over pronounce like that train that train  

all right now natives will sometimes keep the T  in there if they're trying to to be very clear  

like oh that that tree that train over there all  right but in general we're trying to blend the  

sounds of things together and as you learn both  of these things you become a fluent speaker you  

understand natives much more easily and you really  communicate smoothly uh with a nice smooth accent  

uh and if you'd like to do both of these  things I show you how to do that in Frederick

if anyone has the app already uh let me know how  it's going please leave a review for it as well  

but we're releasing updates all the time for  it so this is a new kind of app first app of  

its kind that takes you all the way through the  pronunciation step by step and lets you teach  

yourself so you discover like I was talking about  before I want you to discover the pronunciation  

by yourself so you really feel confident about  it like ah I learned that I taught myself that  

thing and that's how you feel really confident  about pronouncing words so we get lots of males  

for people who go through the program and they've  gone through the whole thing like 2 000 words and  

they're still looking for more information uh but  get Frederick you can find about more uh on the  

website at englishanyone.com all right uh see if I  got anybody else all right so joke in Spanish how  

do you say secretary secretary and is that a joke  in Spanish secretary in English what is secretary  

actually I don't know the word for secretary I  don't have a secretary so I guess I don't like  

I don't know if there is like uh that same there  must be somebody who has that kind of job that's  

a good question let me check I have to check  what that is Japanese I somebody looked that up  

because I probably maybe I've heard that before  but I never use the word secretary I don't really  

like think of it's not it's not people don't  have like a kind of secretary in the same way  

here but I don't work in the corporate world so  maybe there are there are people again another  

reason why maybe I should not be teaching uh some  Japanese it's always good to learn with a native  

who can actually help you understand some things  uh that a non-native would not uh so is input 90  

important in speaking 10 I would say input is  100 of of like what you're doing for Learning  

and then the speech just comes out naturally so as  you as you understand something there's a very I  

mean you could say like five percent I wouldn't  I don't know uh like an exact scientific number  

for how much so some people will say you need  to think about muscle memory and how the mind  

you know how the how the mouth moves but really  if you see enough examples of somebody actually  

speaking you can copy those people pretty well  so the point is understanding and then that last  

little bit is maybe some muscle memory but  most of that like we can get even mentally  

with uh like mental rehearsal of things like that  so if I'm trying to learn a language like Spanish  

or something I can usually copy the pronunciation  pretty well like almost perfectly especially if I  

hear it from enough examples but remember the  reason you shouldn't be learning only with me  

or only with one teacher is because you need to  get lots of different examples of pronunciation  

and vocabulary in different situations that's  how you get fluent so it's not about trying  

to repeat you know one teacher or copy them or  something like that um then you know that that's  

that's how you actually become a fluent speaker  so understanding really is it's like it's like 99  

of percent of it because if you don't understand  you don't get anything else all right uh why do I  

have to say I was this much to winning last  time when I was this much to win last time  

I don't know what that means that sentence doesn't  I was this much to winning do you mean this close  

to winning Arturo let me know if you if you're  thinking about something different if I'm not  

understanding it correctly hi I'm Bangladeshi I'm  getting better with you glad to hear wow do you  

have any lessons or seminar uh on Zoom I'm from  South Korea nice to see you uh just get fluent for  

life really that's all you need uh don't waste  your time with live lessons and another good  

reason not to use live lessons is because you have  to schedule your life around that when it's much  

better just to get all the input you can so if you  can spend like 15 minutes with one teacher or you  

can spend 15 minutes getting like five different  examples from different speakers it's much better  

to get this one over here all right so remember  live teachers are nice if you can find them uh  

I don't do live teaching anymore actually I did  a live lesson I taught for a friend of mine who  

was uh he was well he was sick I think or his  daughter was sick or something he couldn't he  

couldn't teach I was taking over for him so I did  get to teach do a live lesson which was fun but  

I told them like you you don't get fluent by by  like repeating things you get fluent by getting  

lots of examples and so these were adult Japanese  Learners that have been learning English for many  

many years and still were like I could I could see  they were thinking and hesitating and translating  

before they were speaking so again you don't  get fluent by having live lessons uh okay let's  

see so hey I want to meet you directly but how I  don't know why do people want to meet me directly  

the whole point of what I do is that I can  I can be out there and help everybody there  

there's nothing different that I would tell you  in person uh that I would that I would like you  

know not tell you online or whatever uh by the  way are you still active on Facebook Messenger  

yeah we don't we don't uh communicate with anybody  there if you need to contact us just send us an  

email info englishanyone.com uh let's see natural  varied review you got it from Kazakhstan uh ill  

can't see that ildar you're so smart Drew those  English teachers on YouTube should take notes  

actually a lot of them a lot of them do  if you if you look up uh this is pretty  

funny now I learned a lot from from from  like you know just experience and having  

seen what other teachers have done also uh  but my my most popular video is get fluent

with one trick I think it has maybe 20 million  views at this point uh but this if you search for  

this on YouTube get fluent with one trick you will  find like lots of people who did the same thing  

and I haven't watched all those videos I don't I  don't know if they uh if they even talk about the  

same thing but I the same thing I'm teaching you  today in this video is the same thing I teach in  

that video which is you have to understand like  a native if you want to speak like one so you  

should learn like a native learn like English  is your first language rather than learning it  

like it's your second language so that's the  same thing I've been teaching for uh 20 years  

uh but yeah so lots of people have copied that  and I've seen this like in Japanese get fluent  

in one trick in French in German I think they're  different uh different examples of that uh thanks  

a billion it's worth learning glad to hear it live  I have the app glad to hear yeah Elena let us know  

how it's going for it Secretariat really I don't  think so maybe uh joke secretary in Spanish means  

something like office assistant perhaps taking  notes from her boss now I know what an assistant  

is okay that's interesting oh sorry my Vault yes I  have seen some examples of his eye was this close  

to winning uh in my head I thought it would be  correct to say I was this close to win I was  

this close yes it like and again it's helpful  to understand that visually so if you're if  

you're running a race and uh and right before so  here's we'll draw the the Finish Line over here  

and here are two people running so this is this  is you and then the other the other person like  

right in front of you they like just step on the  line like you're you're that close to winning  

that's how close you were so you owe me  you were that close you were that close  

to winning now you can use this again and we the  the naturally varied review comes in when we talk  

about I was this close to doing something so I  almost it's just another way of saying almost  

and this is again why we use naturally  varied review because we want to know we  

want to understand the situation so you almost did  something you were very close to doing something  

so in my case maybe I was very close to becoming  a doctor I almost became a doctor almost but I  

missed my and I was late to my appointment for  something now this is not true I I wasn't about  

to become a doctor but as an example so I was  I was this close to becoming a doctor I almost  

became a doctor like something I was I was almost  going to do it and then maybe something happened  

or something changed okay so the more examples  you get the more you feel confident of like I was  

this close to to doing something I was this close  to uh to traveling to Thailand instead of Japan  

all right and then you can again get the  naturally varied review with different examples  

from different speakers so you listen to someone  else say the same sentence or you hear related  

sentences like she was this close or he was or we  were so my family was this close to moving we were  

this close to moving to a different place now you  notice there's nothing fancy about what I'm doing  

I'm not trying to give you uh lots of examples  like like linguistic explanations of things it's  

really just helping you understand the same way  a native would understand so natives think about  

situations and then there are different ways  of expressing this so I almost did something  

or I was this close I was this close and you will  often hear that in conversations like people use  

like I was this close to winning I was this not  why I was this close to when uh that's a that's  

like a bit longer of an explanation but the the  basic idea like if we say I was this close I was  

this close to win you're you're I'm trying  to think of like a simple explanation for it  

but basically uh we're talking about the action  happening right now even if it's in a different  

different time period so you're you're talking  about it like it's kind of like in the present  

um you you could say like I  was about to win or I almost  

won but in this particular construction this  is how we use it so I was this close to when  

to winning I was this close to winning okay so  I rather rather than thinking about like why is  

it why is it not this like this is this is the  the general construction this is different from  

something where you're saying like uh like  I like I like to eat or I like like eating

here both of these are fine and we're just talking  about in general um like I like eating or I like  

to eat both of those are fine you can use either  one but in this one you're talking about like and  

and a specific activity happening like right at  that moment and often stories are told uh that way  

like in a kind of like an active it's happening  right now just it makes it more exciting that way  

but you you still are using like the infinitive  plus two I don't even want to say infinitive  

just the the basic the basic verb and two will  say that so I was about to win or I almost won  

but I was this close to winning here it's  like happening right now in the moment  

all right I was this close to winning we were  this close to move but again when you're in a  

conversation you will learn these simple examples  oh I almost want that's the most basic thing I  

almost won so the most basic is if you won like I  won yay I won but ah I almost won I almost won I  

was so close so another another example like I was  so close to winning same thing so I was I was so  

close to winning or I was this close to winning  all right so you will learn for this situation  

to talk about being close to doing something  we have many different ways of expressing that  

and the more examples you hear the  more confident you feel about that  

all right uh do you think mimicking lines  from dramas or film would help uh Jericho asks  

um it's helpful if you first understand what  people are talking about remember understanding  

is the foundation that's the most basic thing if  you don't understand what people are saying uh  

like like children will repeat things all the time  even though they don't understand what what adults  

are talking about they just repeat stuff but you  can tell they don't really understand what they're  

saying they just think like something sounds  funny or something but when you can tell when  

they actually understand something first so if you  understand something first and then you're getting  

uh information like you want to repeat something  you can do that but really the understanding is  

the most important part uh and it's also better  to spend your time getting like those same  

like speeches or lines for movies and things from  different people so you can go watch like watch  

different people impersonate Arnold Schwarzenegger  so he'll give you know Arnold Schwarzenegger in  

movies he has all these we call them one-liners  so he'll say things I think I gave an example  

before in the movie Predator so he goes into a  building it's like a little a little Shack so  

like a small wooden wooden house and he goes in  there and there's a guy with a gun about to shoot  

him and Arnold takes this big knife that he has  and just like throws it into the guy's chest like  

and it kind of goes almost through  him and like sticks this guy onto a  

pole a wooden a wooden beam in the in the  room he's in and Arnold says stick around  

stick around now if you go to if you look up  on YouTube like Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger  

impersonating so people like mimicking Arnold you  will see lots of different people and like most of  

them are are not very good some of them are really  good but it's a good idea just to hear all these  

different people saying that as a learner of the  language so you will learn that and it's funny to  

think like Arnold is also you know his English is  like it's pretty good but because of his accent  

you know that's that's what kind of one of the  the kind of funny things about him you know it's  

like he'll he'll play a person in who's been like  living in the United States for a long time or  

something like he's in the Army but he can't speak  very well but I love Predator it's a it's a great  

movie again the point is to get lots of different  examples all right let me see if I got everybody  

here all right if people understand me I can make  shadowing with you uh in the same time yeah so you  

can you can also copy what I say but you should  be doing that with lots of different speakers the  

the multiple examples uh is the is the the most  important thing but I can talk like you where  

where my I can talk like you wear my problem I  don't understand that I am regularly keep up a  

lot of listening to Native can I become native yes  if you understand what natives are talking about  

then you can become the point is to learn English  like it's your first language so if you if you're  

listening to lots of natives but but you don't  spend time uh really focusing on a particular  

thing then you're probably going to forget a  lot of what you learn all right so I talk about

a lot of a lot of lessons are like helping people  plant seeds so I want to teach you something like  

nocturnal or diurnal but then I want to give you  water and sunshine and and fertilizer to really  

help the plant grow into like a big strong tree  that's how you remember the vocabulary again the  

first time you hear something you might understand  it but you will probably forget that vocabulary  

and I got the sun coming in right here good thing  I'm not a vampire I'm not nocturnal like that but  

here we are again I'm trying to give you more  examples and you should get them from different  

people in different uh in different you know from  different people in different situations this is a  

naturally varied review that we give in fluent for  Life uh but this is how you how you become become  

fluent automatically so the the if you're learning  uh Native like you're watching native TV shows  

or getting uh uh I don't know like where wherever  the content is coming from let's take the TV show  

Friends I know that's a popular TV show for people  if you watch one episode of friends and then  

watch another episode of Friends and watch another  episode you will learn quite a bit of the language  

but it's much better to focus on one episode  make sure you really understand the vocabulary  

read the transcript of it you know spend some  time with the language you will the the thing  

that you will really get uh across the episodes uh  is like catch phrases so one thing like in in the  

TV show Seinfeld there's a character named Elaine  she's like Jerry's uh like the woman female friend  

of Jerry uh and she will hear something  unbelievable and she will say get out  

and you will hear like when it's unbelievable get  out and you will see her you know like saying that  

again and again those are the kinds of things  again it's naturally very review you're hearing  

it in different situations over time but this is  the thing that's going to get you fluent so lots  

of people who can understand these episodes uh  but they still don't speak fluently it just means  

they don't really understand because they didn't  spend enough time with the language all right so  

that's that's the important thing that's why we  get naturally varied review uh all right so John  

says is it a gerundive sentence a gerundif  sentence well if we're I'll let you let you  

look that up I don't want to spend much time going  over like I I really dislike uh covering like like  

the kind of linguistic uh understanding of  the language you're talking about like is  

it a gerund or is it not because it's not  helpful for people uh like natives would  

not know that information so it's not helpful  for you to know that information either it's  

much better to spend your time looking at  different examples of that same situation  

but if you if you want to look up like particular  grammar things like just type you know whatever  

that grammar point is into Google and it will give  you examples of anything you like uh uh let's see  

so Sam asked me speaking of movies what's your  favorite film of all favorite film you've ever  

seen my favorite movie uh I don't know if I I mean  I have like a couple different movies that I like  

a lot I like um well I like Untouchables so that's  a Kevin Costner movie The Untouchables uh I like  

Shawshank Redemption I like Karate Kid lots of a  lot probably lots of movies if I if I saw like a  

list of them I could tell you but yeah I don't  I don't really have like a number one favorite  

movie there's lots of lots of movies I enjoy hmm  hasta la vista baby yes there's another example  

hasta la vista baby and so that's from uh  Terminator Terminator two all right Ellen is  

Asa how to get your full app so if you're talking  about Frederick uh when you're inside Frederick  

go to the level select uh screen so after you when  you turn on the app you'll see the little triangle  

play button if you if you already have the app  installed uh you should see that go to level three  

and then you can uh hit the buy button and get  all access to all the all the levels in the app  

all right well let's see so it's 8 15 p.m in your  hometown right now all right we should be getting  

ready for bed then it's time to go to sleep let's  see how long have you been going well it's already  

11 o'clock oh my God it's getting late over here  uh and any thanks with some hearts that sounds  

like a great place to end all right if you have  enjoyed this do go back uh and share it with other  

people go back and watch it from the beginning  as well remember the more review you get you  

obviously learn new things each time you you learn  something new uh all right Sam's got one more  

question here does fluency have to do with being  intelligent uh nope I I I think fluency doesn't  

have anything to do with being intelligent because  there are lots of stupid people who can speak well  

you know like if we're going to rank intelligence  like basically everybody on the planet can speak  

their native language all right so it's kind  of like a basic thing we can do in the same way  

people can like eat and move like really everybody  learns a language and a way of communicating and  

we do that automatically so there's nothing um  I don't know nothing nothing to me that's like  

special about uh language learning and this is  another like belief that people have about it it's  

like oh you can speak multiple languages it's like  well pride has learned them like a native in the  

same way that you might speak you know like most  people uh like even if you think you speak one  

language you actually speak many so in Japanese  for example there's the way you would speak to  

children and the way you would speak uh in like  a public speech or you're talking to your boss or  

something so these are two different languages  with two different uh kinds of vocabulary so I  

might uh say like like iku for go and ikimasu for  like go but it's the same word but I'm speaking  

in a more kind of like prop way and again so  everybody knows different languages you might  

know different languages like the language  of your company so your company might have  

particular words or ways of doing or describing  things or if you're learning math or science or if  

you're learning computer programming these are all  different languages so in the same way you might  

become a doctor or a lawyer you're learning the  different languages for those particular things  

so it's very easy and we have the ability to  learn these different languages it's just whether  

you learn them as a first language or you're  trying to learn them through another language  

so the number one thing that I teach and this  is the big thing that has not changed for me uh  

like all over the 20 years that I've been teaching  and that's that you should be understanding like a  

native you should be learning the language uh like  a native and then that's how you become a fluent  

speaker all right someday I'm going to meet you  glad to hear it all right well come to Japan there  

you go so if I can't come to Chicago or if I don't  make it back to Chicago anytime soon uh people  

can come out and some some people have met me just  walking around Nagasaki they're like hey it's Drew  

and so I know I have to be on on my best behavior  that's a good expression for you to be on my best  

behavior it means I'm behaving well I don't  walk around the streets you know hitting people  

or stealing stuff you know I have to be good  because I don't know who's watching me out there  

all right well I think that's a good  place to end thank you for joining me  

if you'd like to learn more about not only  Frederick but fluent for life you can click  

on the link in the description of this  video but really there's one thing I've  

been teaching for 20 years and that's really  helping people understand like a native so if  

you understand the language like a native you  will speak like all right one way or another  

I'm going to get you like the song One Way oh  another I'm not I'm not a great singer but yes  

be careful all right everyone have a fantastic  day and I'll see you in the next video bye-bye