The Cheat Code For English Fluency

we'll give YouTube a moment Here  YouTube looks like they change the  

way their live setting is I have to do this  differently now but hopefully we'll see if  

this works I'll give people a moment  to to join pardon me as I adjust the

camera and we can get started  all right I think that's working  

pretty well we'll see it's a new year  let's see if we're working on YouTube

also all right I think we are make sure here  beautiful all right I am drew bger the founder  

of Englishanyone.com and the English fluency  guide and welcome to another live video here on  

YouTube Welcome to 202 five nice to see everybody  there uh I wanted to do uh just something because  

of my nice vacation hopefully you guys all had  a nice vacation as well uh I had a lot of time  

with my family and just enjoyed a nice Christmas  with them and some time off of school and some  

traveling I hope you all had a nice vacation as  well I spent a lot of time playing some games  

with my kids they got some new games for Christmas  as well uh and one of those I thought it would be  

interesting to make a video about this this is a  game called Battleship we've played this uh many  

times let me know if you know what this game is I  thought uh I would have like you know uh just like  

an an interesting you know explanation about how  the game works and uh how it relates to fluency  

because I had an interesting idea about this uh  but I'll check uh comments right quick let me  

know if you know what this game is so I will take  some time to explain it for people who don't know  

but it's an interesting game uh for kids and I  think you guys would probably enjoy that now let  

me take a look uh comments very quickly here where  did comments go are they still okay they are still  

here now that changed too nice to see you there  George and Louis and Diana and Adam and George  

and Renee greetings from Brazil and Adam says  I can't speak I have four month I Le burn but  

nothing oh that's unfortunate hopefully if you  have any specific questions let me know uh but  

I want to talk in this video uh I want to use  this game of Battleship I'll explain how this  

works I haven't seen that anybody knows what the  game is do you know what this game is have you  

ever seen this before uh so this is actually  half of the game I'll open it up for you just  

so you can see how it looks on the inside uh  it's a kind of try to find where the boats are  

game uh and each player has one of these things  so I would be looking at this one and the player  

on the other side would have their own game board  the same kind of thing but what you're doing is  

you're taking these boats I'll get uh these five  boats over here so here's one of them this is an  

aircraft carrier uh and you put them down wherever  you like on the game board so these are my boats  

down here and the other player these are their  boats that I'm looking for and so you take turns  

asking questions trying to find where the boats  are so you would just say like is your boat on for  

example uh A5 so we have this grid here with the  numbers across the top and the letters across the  

side and if they have a boat on that space then we  can put a uh a red so if they do have a boat uh we  

put a red peg in there and if they do not then we  have a white Peg there so the goal is to find the  

five boats or depending on how you play the game  if you're just trying to find the battleship uh  

which is uh this guy right here so the little  uh four space boat so again you just put them  

anywhere you like and then the goal is to try to  find these as fast as possible so just by asking  

where are you and so usually what happens is if  you get a hit so you're asking the player like  

someone asks me hey is your boat on C4 so yes I  will get a hit like this the boat is on C4 uh and  

then you don't know which way is it like is  it going up and down or left and right so you  

ask again like is the boat on C5 no so we know  it's not over here it still could be this way  

or up and down so there is a two booat like  this so it's only got two spaces on it uh and  

then we have others as well uh but there are five  different boats that you need to find that's the  

basic idea and whoever finds the boats first is  the winner of the game uh so yes so some people  

are mentioning uh that they have played this on  paper this is actually commonly used in English  

lessons not the physical game like this but you  can use a grid like this when you are asking  

people questions like you put like how are you or  I am or something like that and then you can make  

different sentences by combining these two things  anyway uh the reason why I wanted to talk about  

battleship is because I I was thinking as I played  the game uh with my girls that there there's a  

really interesting metaphor here for how people  try to learn English uh and how people try to  

speak so usually what happens is uh I'm going to  let me erase the title of today's video the cheat

code and then we'll get into it oh nice to see  you there an IT and uh I wouldn't uh have will  

that game Oh you mean like wouldn't win well  the interesting thing about Battleship uh is  

that it's not really a game of strategy I mean  maybe there are some strategies but basically  

you're just guessing uh what you know like where  somebody is so you think maybe the boat is over  

here or over here or something like that but you  don't really know so you're just guessing uh but  

if you could the kind of cheat code for the  game would be knowing where the other players  

boats are before you start the game and obviously  that would make it maybe not very interesting but  

this idea of instead of trying to guess where  the uh where the where the boats are you would  

actually just know where they are and the game  would be much easier for you all right so when  

I was thinking about this it it occurred to me  the uh the way people often try to learn English  

is this typical way of playing Battleship so let  me explain usually what happens when people are  

in a I think I'll use blue today so people are  in a conversation uh and the first thing they  

experience is some kind of doubt or uncertainty so  even before the conversation begins you're nervous  

about whether you'll say something correct or  if your pronunciation is correct you know your  

grammar whatever uh or if your understanding  people properly or how to connect things there  

are lots of different worries that people have  when they're in conversations so if the first  

thing you experience even before you get into a  conversation is doubt then that's going to lead to  

a lot of problems going through the conversation  so uh just trying to walk through what happens  

to people when they're feeling this way when  you begin with doubt here are the couple of  

different things that happen as a result of that  and it's a lot like playing a game of Battleship  

because you begin by just thinking about what you  want to say but you're not really very you're not  

really uh certain about it but you're really just  guessing so you guess what you want to say in the  

same way that I might be playing Battleship and I  doubt where the other players boats are so I don't  

know where they are I I know they're they're  somewhere I have some kind of idea obviously  

they're on this board somewhere I don't know  where exactly they are but I'm just guessing  

so the only thing I can do is guess and hopefully  I say something correct all right so we don't like  

I just say Okay is your boat on C5 and the other  person says yes or no so you just try to sa things  

and like you make a guess you're just thinking in  your mind okay maybe I'm translating uh maybe I  

have to think about uh exactly what I want to say  I have to organize my sentences in my head before  

I speak uh and then then you try to speak H but  you're not very confident uh so you try to speak  

this is that the speaking part so after you you  begin with some kind of doubt you're not really  

sure what you want to say so you guess you're not  really sure again you're beginning with doubt then  

you try to speak and you hope you say something  correctly uh you can just say hope you're

correct so again same thing exactly the way  a game of Battleship would be played because  

you're not sure what happens so obviously the  next step here when you're playing a game of  

Battleship I don't know where the where the boats  are so I'm going to guess and then I say okay is  

your boat on C4 or whatever and the person  says yes or no so they give me some kind of

feedback and here is what a lot of Learners  are looking for when they're they're telling  

me or just thinking in general I need to  have a personal teacher who can correct  

my English okay it's exactly the same way a  game of Battleship would be played so it's  

my turn I don't know where the players are so  I I can only guess and then I tell the player  

hey are you on this place and the player says  yes or no and then uh I use that English and  

maybe for next time hopefully like if I get  feedback and you do get feedback in a game  

like Battleship you know if you're correct or  not because either you hit a boat or you do  

not very simple but in a regular conversation  maybe you don't get feedback maybe you do so  

if you're talking with a teacher that teacher  might correct you but a lot of times people  

are saying things they're not correct and they  don't get Corrections so they're thinking okay  

I need someone there who's actually going  to correct every single thing I say so they  

make all these errors and then hopefully they  say something and then hopefully they remember

so remember for next

time and that's the basic idea so that's how  Battleship works so you're playing the game  

you begin with doubt you don't know where the boat  is especially at the beginning of the game so I'm  

thinking these are these are my boats down here  and these are the others the other players boats  

up here and I'm just asking questions is a boat  here or is the boat here is the boat there if I  

get something correct even then I'm still not  sure where the boat is so if I got it up here  

the boat could be here uh like let's just just  say I put their boat I imagine the boat it could  

be like this or it could be here or here or even  up and down this way so it's more difficult for  

me to know exactly where people are because I'm  beginning with doubt and that's the whole point  

of the game of Battleship can you quickly  find the other players boats but it's not  

particularly strategic because really you're just  guessing from the very start okay so I thought it  

would be interesting to talk about this because  the whole idea about what I do is instead of  

beginning with doubt what if you knew where the  other players Boats were what if you knew that  

instead of having doubt what if you knew where  the players's boats were you would just say ding  

ding ding ding you know exactly where the boats  are and you win the game very quickly okay now  

it would probably not be a very fun game because  you're cheating in the game by knowing what that  

is but in a regular conversation you're not it's  not cheating at all to know what other people are  

going to say and you feel very confident about uh  the conversation before you speak so wouldn't you  

rather do that okay so if there is a cheap code  for being able to speak fluently it's not having  

doubt before you begin a conversation in the same  way that if I know exactly where the other players  

boats are I know they have a boat here and here  and here that's my cheat code so I know exactly  

where the boats are and I can find all of them  very easily because there's no guessing I don't  

feel unconfident or worried about what I'm going  to say all right so uh again remembering from the  

the basic idea of how people learn English most  of the lessons and training people get it doesn't  

answer all of your doubts or it causes you more  doubts it makes you ask more questions you don't  

feel certain so you don't communicate fluently and  so it creates all of these problems just because  

of this one thing here feeling doubt about your  English before you get into a conversation so  

when you try to speak you have to guess you speak  you say something but you're not really confident  

about it you hope you're correct then hopefully  you get some feedback maybe you don't maybe you're  

just talking the other person listening to you  they know you're making some kind of mistakes  

or something doesn't sound very natural and they  don't say anything because that would be impolite  

so even a teacher sometimes may not correct  all of your English unless you're specifically  

asking for that and then hopefully if you get  a correction to remember that for next time so  

you don't make the same mistake twice but often  we do we often make the same mistakes again and  

again and that's just part of remembering and how  people learn where if you don't really remember it  

you don't have a good reason for remembering it  or a good way to remember something uh we often  

forget it for next time so I see this this same  process the same Battleship process happening  

for English Learners who don't feel confident  again if you begin with doubt you begin with a  

lack of confidence you don't feel very fluent  even before you speak then it doesn't matter  

how many speaking opportunities you get because  having more chances to speak isn't going to help  

you if you still feel doubt when you do speak all  right but if you could instead of feeling this way  

we'll just erase this over here so we contrast  this with instead of feeling doubt you feel

certain when you speak so if you felt certain  before you had a conversation so that way anytime  

it doesn't matter you're going to be walking  outside and unexpectedly you meet a friend or  

you go to go to a store or something and you have  to speak you feel certain about that communication  

you feel certain that you will speak correctly  that you will understand what the other person  

is saying so when you feel certain when you  begin a conversation with certainty there's  

no guessing what would you have to guess about  because you already know you know what's correct

so you speak

fluently this is the only difference here feeling  doubt versus feeling certainty before you get into  

a conversation so when I first came to Japan I  felt lots of Doubt all the time and that's why  

I didn't want to speak so I would I would hear  people and some people may maybe tried to speak  

speak with me but I was very shy and nervous about  speaking because I had all this doubt I had all  

these questions I didn't know if something was  going to be correct or not I wasn't sure about  

how to express myself if I should say this word  or that word and even if I remembered something  

I I couldn't connect all these things together  to form fluent communication so I couldn't speak  

continuously and continue flowing with my word  so all of these things are doubts before you get  

into a conversation but today I feel certain now  this isn't necessarily being perfect I might still  

make some mistakes with my Japanese but I feel  certain and confident when I speak so I can walk  

out of this room right now I'm in Nagasaki Japan  and I could talk with anybody and I wouldn't feel  

nervous discussing anything even if I didn't know  much about the subject because I could probably  

learn about it and communicate with people anyway  so this one difference in how you learn can change  

everything about how you speak and this is the  certainty before you speak that is the cheat  

code that allows you to communicate automatically  so what I'm what I'm suggesting to people here so  

if we draw a line I want to make this simple  let me know if this if this idea makes sense  

so this is the like this this part here this  this kind of flow this is what happens when  

you speak this is what happens when you speak  so you begin with doubt and then you guess you  

try speaking you try to get some feedback maybe  you try to remember next time but usually this  

process just repeats itself so you make the same  mistake again and hopefully you get a correction  

and maybe you do maybe you don't remember for  the the following situation so these are the  

same things over here if you feel certain when  you speak then you know what's correct and you  

speak fluently because why wouldn't you you know  what's correct you don't have any doubts so if if  

you have doubt then you you're lacking confidence  and if you have confidence then you're you don't  

have any doubt you can't really have both of those  at the same time but uh this is what happens when  

you speak and the reason this happens is because  of how people learn like so we'll just say this  

is the the speaking part of the process here and  we'll just put an L uh up here for the learning  

part so in the learning part uh what typically  when people are learning languages they're not  

really being prepared for real communication  and this means you might hear like me right now  

you're getting one example or one voice from one  person uh but typically in an English lesson you  

would get maybe one voice you would have a teacher  who's telling you things and they're telling you  

one correct way to say something but in real life  people speak uh many different ways and often they  

don't speak very clearly they might Mumble they  might have difficult accents and they might say  

things that you're not prepared prepared for  so even if I if I learn good morning uh from  

my teacher another person in real life might say  how's it going how's it going and they might blend  

that together like how's it going how's it going  how's it going and if I'm not prepared for that  

before the conversation then I'm probably going  to feel quite nervous when I speak all right so  

the preparation up here it's a different kind  of preparation require ired for communication  

because communication is unpredictable so I don't  know what other people are going to say I don't  

know how they're going to say it it's not like  trying to practice an instrument or even taking  

a speech and trying to memorize that because I'm  not controlling everything in a conversation in a  

real conversation I don't know what other people  will say so we need a different kind of training  

that will prepare us for that okay we need to we  need to be able uh number one to feel certain but  

we also need to feel certain about how to connect  our ideas and and be able to to continue speaking  

so we don't get stuck so even me right now as I'm  explaining this I don't have a script in front  

of me I didn't memorize anything but I'm able  to speak fluently I have certainty about what  

I'm saying and I understand how to connect ideas  because of how I learned okay now I want to stop  

here I'll go back and look at uh questions but let  me know if this makes sense but the point here is  

T typically when people are learning they're not  learning in a way that prepares them for real  

communication so they're not seeing lots of good  examples of how natives communicate how natives  

connect their ideas when they speak they're  usually just getting lists of vocabulary and  

they even don't understand those all in English  often they're learning through translations and  

that causes even more doubt so because you have  uncertainty in communication and communication is  

a stressful thing if you don't feel certain about  what you're saying or you don't feel certain that  

you will be able to handle yourself or to feel  prepared in a conversation and so that leads  

to all these problems and this is why a lot of  people know a lot of English but they still avoid  

speaking anyway because they feel doubt and they  know they're going to experience all these things  

that don't feel very good when you're trying  to communicate with somebody else and you can't  

really express yourself or you don't understand  what they're saying so instead of feeling doubt  

wouldn't you rather feel certain before you  speak wouldn't you let me know I'm going to  

check uh comments as I go back but this is the  basic idea and I this just struck me as I was  

playing Battleship like look at this this exactly  the same thing that happens uh when people are  

learning and uh if you knew or you felt confident  and certain before the game started like if I knew  

where that player's Boats were then of course I  would win I would I would feel very confident I  

would win immediately I say oh okay your boat is  here here and here and here okay so you can do the  

same thing it would be cheating and it wouldn't  be very fun in a game of Battleship because the  

point is just trying to guess and see who can  guess faster really uh but in real communication  

you can cheat you can know what other people are  going to say and you can feel certain before the  

conversation begins okay all right uh let's look  at comments questions see if anybody let me know  

if this makes sense all right I'm trying to break  this down uh but the most important thing here is  

how do you feel before the conversation begins do  you feel excited about having conversations or do  

you feel nervous about having conversations all  right uh let's see okay so some people have uh  

played this game again and BR says Happy New Year  I hope you and your family had a good Christmas  

yep we did that's exactly what we're talking  about in this video uh let's see Stefan says I  

can read but I don't understand what he talking  you probably mean what he is saying or what I'm  

saying uh let's see cine Lee greetings from  New York uh Mr Drew can you tell when's going  

to be the next sale for fluent for life I don't  know exactly we did do that last year uh but if  

you were on our uh mailing list so if you already  learning with me like if you have native fluency  

blueprint or something like that you're already  getting emails from me then you will be notified  

uh if and when we do do something something uh but  if you'd like to learn more about fluent for life  

you can also click on the link in the description  below this video and learn more about how we  

do that because the point here this is fluent  for Life uh rather than traditional methods we  

actually make you feel confident and certain by  erasing your doubts before you speak that's the  

whole point of the program all right sad says  Hi teacher I discovered you a few days ago and  

started listening to you and realize that you talk  fastly in English basically like B1 and because  

if I can understand and the fast speech thanks a  lot uh and also how I can open a topic with AI of  

open ey AI of no friends oh no I'm sure you have  some friends but uh even if people uh don't have  

anyone to talk with yes you can use chat GPT to  do this uh one of the limitations obviously with  

chat GPT is it's going to give you everything  nice and clearly uh and unless you tell chat  

GPT how to teach you it will usually just give you  answers that you will forget and this is a kind of  

tricky thing about learning where if you just  get a translation or a definition of something  

it's usually more difficult to remember but if  you're able to discover the answer for something  

yourself it becomes a lot easier so I made a  video specifically about how to use chat GPT  

uh if you're using that this going be for like  answering that question specifically uh how to  

talk about a specific topic or if you want even  specific vocabulary you want to know know about  

something but this is a prompt so just look on my  channel for the video uh about chat GPT for that  

uh and it will explain uh how to do that but just  remember also for your first comment the way I'm  

speaking in these videos is different from how  I normally speak so I'm making an effort to be  

slower clearer and making sure I'm not using a lot  of difficult vocabulary or movie references and  

things like that that you might not know all right  so that's Again part of the reason people get into  

conversations after they've had lots of English  lessons and they find that natives are using a  

different kind of English so they're speaking  more quickly uh they're not using the same  

formal expressions or or pronouncing things in the  same way that they learned in in school uh because  

again the language is unpredictable it's really  difficult to communicate uh if you feel doubt in  

that situation but if you see lots of examples of  natives communicating before you speak then you  

will feel a lot more confident in conversations  all right uh Hassen says hello sir how are you  

why you always start with doubt not confidence uh  because most people are are here because they feel  

doubt so I'm beginning with uh I'm beginning where  people are so I like obviously it would be great  

to begin with confidence and certainty that's what  we do for learners influent for life and whether  

you learn with me or not this should be the goal  so you should be feeling confident and certain  

before you get into your conversations and I'm  saying what I call the strangest fluency secret  

is that you can actually do this by getting lots  of good examples from native speakers and seeing  

how other people talk about things so instead  of learning the language like I would learn  

English by getting a list of um like a list  of words or something like that I want to see  

how people put those things together it's like  the difference between getting some Lego pieces  

like a bunch of little you know little square  uh Lego pieces and you you put them together to  

build something just like any kind of block thing  so if someone just gives me a bag of Lego pieces  

maybe I am creative and I can take those pieces  and build something with it but it becomes a lot  

easier if other people just tell me how to build  something so here are The Specific Instructions  

and and how how you would do that uh so anyway  when people are typically learning a language it's  

like they get all these bricks but they don't  really feel confident about how those bricks  

connect with other bricks because they're they're  just they're just collecting more bricks instead  

of spending time seeing how natives connect those  bricks and so as you get examples of that this is  

part of what we do uh in fluent for life but  that's what actually prepares you for real

communication uh let's see and a Mosen says  I think native English speaker don't do these  

things yes if you're talking about these things  over here uh no native speakers don't have to do  

these things because they don't have doubt  about what they're saying most of the time  

uh they're usually certain certainly they're  certainly about the language they're using even  

if they might not feel certain about you know  a particular topic or whatever uh but they're  

certainly not worried about the language itself  uh let's see and how s again says why in English  

language what we pronounce not the same  what we write not like in Arabic what we  

pronounce is the same with writing uh I can't  speak about Arabic but certainly with English  

uh often the pronunciation is the same but what  happens in conversations is people will shorten  

things so if I'm reading this like going to so  this is it's written the same way I should I  

should say it or speak it and going to I'm  speaking it nice and clearly but in a real  

conversation people don't need to say going to  like I am going to the store because usually in  

a conversation people will understand what I'm  saying without pronouncing it so clearly so I  

could say yeah I'm going to I'm going to do  something I'm gonna so this is why uh we we  

would shorten this to something like GNA so I'm  going to do something so instead of I'm going to  

do something I'm G to do that thing because people  understand that and it's faster and easier to say  

so the actual way you would write it phonetically  like this way like G uh that changes as well but  

if you're actually going to read English like  the way it's spelled It's usually the same

pronunciation uh let's see but here says  uh hello Badger I used to hear you say I  

am Drew Badger instead of badger  I'm Drew Badger instead of badger  

well I don't I don't just say uh Badger by  itself I don't think I've ever done that uh  

presumptions are deceptive when you work out  your brain instead of listening carefully I am  

Drew Badger instead of uh Drew ah you H you like  misheard me say that I see ah Drew bad Drew yes  

I guess if you're not used to the name uh then it  would be more difficult for you Mr larner says you  

are amazing sir glad to hear it uh if you are  enjoying the stream do click that like button  

uh what do you oh talking with each other all  right Neil says or n says uh to me it makes sense  

glad to hear Adam says I want to speak the cowboy  accent what should I do all right now somebody  

asks me this question I want to speak like this  or sound like this what would be my advice do you  

think especially people who have followed me for  a while what would I recommend this person do so  

anybody who wants to sound like this or talk like  a particular thing whatever that is what would be  

my advice what do you think I going see if you can  figure this out I bet you could I'll come back to  

that if uh if I don't see an answer but for Adam's  question I want to speak the cowboy accent what  

should I do what would what would I recommend all  right danis says uh I'm nervous because I don't  

know if I know if I know their vocabulary yeah so  again that's another thing like there can be lots  

of doubts in conversations about your English or  you think other people are going to say so it's  

much different or much more different uh than  trying to speak by yourself to yourself so if  

I'm just talking to myself I'm trying to have a  conversation to practice my English or something  

just talking to myself uh it's going to be much  different or it's it's just a much different  

environment because I can't control what other  people are going to say so of course when I'm  

talking to myself it's easy I feel more confident  and comfortable and I might not even notice my  

own mistakes but when I'm speaking with someone  else now things are changing and uhoh I don't  

know what other people are going to say I have  to be prepared for those commun for those uh  

communication situations and again the problem you  might have is uh just doubt about what the other  

person would say even if you feel confident about  your own words uh we don't know what you might say  

uh let's see and Adam says just try and practice  makes perfect uh yeah so I would not give that  

advice about about like practice makes perfect  and the reason we don't like do like practice  

makes perfect is because it's it's doing this kind  of Battleship approach which takes a really long  

time and it's very frustrating instead wouldn't  you rather just feel certain before you speak what  

if I knew what other people were going to say  and how to how to respond to those people and  

I knew the kinds of responses that people might  say if I knew all that before the conversation  

I would feel very confident okay so instead of  getting into a conversation and feeling doubt  

and then trying to guess and then say something  and then get feedback and hopefully I remember  

something if I said it incorrectly I don't want to  do all that do you want to do all that hopefully  

not the people who are usually the people who  are watching my channel are the people who don't  

want to have doubt in conversations they want to  feel confident and certain and I'm saying what  

most people think happen this is the the kind of  typical thing that people think is happening is  

they they feel doubt when they have conversations  but if they keep speaking more they they can erase  

this doubt and that's true all right it just takes  a really long time and it's a very inefficient way  

to do that and maybe it doesn't happen Okay so  it is possible to have lots of conversations but  

most people can't really do that it's it's you're  not speaking all the time or you don't have a lot  

of time to to speak in English or have people to  speak with anyway so there are lots of reasons  

why it doesn't work even if you have lots of  opportunities to speak so it is possible to become  

fluent this way but it's a really frustrating  way like playing a game of Battleship where  

I'm always guessing about where something is it  would be much faster and easier if I just knew  

where the boats were okay so in conversations  yes like when people talk about practice makes  

perfect that's what they that's what they think  they're doing okay I'm going to speak more even  

though I feel doubt I want to push myself to try  to make myself feel confident it doesn't feel very  

good it's frustrating I maybe don't have many  opportunities to speak so I'm going to do all  

these things and maybe hopefully over time after  enough conversations I will feel more confident  

maybe okay it's not not guaranteed but maybe you  will feel confident and certain after that so it  

is possible to improve this way but remember when  people talk about practice like practice makes  

perfect what exactly are you practicing remember  that in conversations it's unpredictable you don't  

know what other people are going to say so how do  you practice for the unpredictable okay learning  

how to communicate with people and you don't  know what they're going to say this is not the  

same thing as trying to learn to ride a bicycle  or trying to practice an instrument or learning  

like you know a punch or some kind of sports  move or something like that with something like  

that like if I want to try to draw like let's say  I'm trying to learn how to draw uh I don't know  

whatever some kind of character I want to learn  how to draw a smiley face very simple so let's say  

the first time I draw like uh my circle is not  very good I don't know my eyes don't look very  

good and uh I don't know is that a good smiley  face not really but I keep practicing because I  

I know what a smiley face should look like so the  next time I draw it it's like oh my look at that  

my circle is a little bit better uh here are the  the eyes on there and uh yeah that's that looks  

a little bit better look at that practice makes  perfect right see I have a very specific goal of  

a particular smiley face I want to make so I can  practice that until I get to the point where I  

can do it perfectly because there is a specific  goal you want to get to so look at that like oh  

oh my circle is getting better look that's a  pretty good Circle and let's say I draw you  

know here's one eye over here and look at that I  [Music] can that's pretty good smiley face look at  

that so my first try was not very good second one  was H okay third one uh this is like better than  

my usual drawing all right so this is what people  think is happening when they talk about practice  

making perfect but again there is a specific Final  End a specific one thing I'm trying to do but in  

conversations it's unpredictable I don't know  what other people are going to say so I can't  

practice in the same way that I just like say a  phrase over and over again so my teacher tells me  

a phrase I practice it like how are you how are  you how are you I say that over and over again  

I feel confident about that phrase but in a con  ation what if somebody says something different  

what if their pronunciation is something I'm not  used to what if they speak too quickly they could  

say anything and what am I going to do my teacher  told me one thing to say and I I practiced that I  

was you know I was a good student practice makes  perfect okay it's a different thing this is not  

like trying to practice an instrument or a  sport or something like that practice does  

not make perfect in this way what you need to  is adapt your mind for flexibility to be able  

to respond to different kinds of people and  to to to change if you need to change things  

in conversations all right so you can't do that  same kind of thing and this is why I don't just  

tell people hey practice makes perfect get out  there and practice what I want people to do is  

feel certain about their English by seeing lots of  other different natives communicating if you watch  

people communicate and you do it strategically  you learn how people are using the language and  

you can understand things exactly then you feel  confident when you get into conversations it's  

that simple all right so that be just be careful  uh recommending about like you know people going  

to uh like just like practice more until you feel  confident because it's it's a really painful way  

to learn and the problem is really that teachers  are not making the language certain or you're not  

making Learners feel certain about what they know  that's the real problem so it's not it's not what  

you're doing in a conversation it's like before  you have a conversation the teacher didn't help  

you feel confident about what you're learning all  right uh Louis says I disagree with sad your way  

that you speak is very clear yeah well yes so  my my speaking right here uh chat GPT so g g PT  

chat GPT this is artificial intelligence that  you can speak with and you can have some very  

interesting conversations with it but uh you have  to be careful about how you're learning with AI  

because number one it can make mistakes and number  two the really the bigger problem that most people  

don't think about U is that it's giving you nice  clear easy English and it's not preparing you for  

all the variety of the unclear fast or various  accents that you would hear in real life so we  

we don't have that with chat with chat gbt or  like typical AI learning so people can learn  

languages but learning a language is different  from being able to communicate fluently in that  

language so I can memorize a bunch of phrases  uh but that doesn't mean I can use them all  

confidently and fluently all right so again one  for example goes and does are different vowel  

sounds ah you're talking about that I see sure  sure yeah so there are examples like that English  

can be tricky in that way where we have like I  mean even even this like we could take a word

like how do we say this word it depends on the  context actually if we're talking about read  

like I am reading a book or we could say I read  a book it's the exact same word but we pronounce  

it differently depending on the situation  uh there's I don't want to go into like the  

history of all that which is interesting and  part of that is getting words from different  

languages and how the the language evolves over  time and there are people who talk about this  

uh much more in- depth than I do uh but you  can certainly look for that information but  

yeah so some of this is It's just getting lots  of examples and making sure you understand for  

the context how people speak and this is why I  often say uh it's very important to connect the  

situation with the vocabulary you're using so  you learn a word like read for talking about I  

am reading a book but then you learned oh I I  read a book yesterday and so your brain thinks  

oh that's interesting it's the exact same word  but we pronounce it differently depending on the

situation all right uh uh let's see Lou  actually I don't live in a country English  

speaking so I don't mind uh speaking a lot  but I can speak to someone normally all  

right how to unlock many aha moments while  I'm speaking uh so this is an interesting  

thing like the the Hass is asking about aha  moments this is where you discover things or  

you learn uh language and think like oh  like so I had an aha moment when I was  

playing Battleship and thinking wow this  is a lot like how people communicate and  

and Battleship can be a frustrating game for that  reason so we play it sometimes but usually my my  

daughters they kind of get tired of it very  quickly because it's a slow game and you know  

they're they're just basically guessing there's  not a lot of Strate like strategic thinking uh  

required for it but so that's an aha moment is  you make a connection that allows you to remember  

something I'm trying to think about one I had  recently uh or like my kids all right this this  

is kind of a topic for another video I thought  I would do uh but I'll give you an example of it

now so in the same way that we get a  word like read but we can also read  

it as red so we can pronounce it  in two different ways often what  

happens when uh when natives are learning  a language they can connect directly with  

some kind of situation uh and some kind  of vocabulary whatever that is so as an  

example uh let's say what's a thing I like for  my daughters or whatever uh they know the word

short so when they hear something like this they  usually connect it as a as a kind of contrast like  

a short thing versus a long thing like that so  instead of getting a translation they get a kind  

of aha moment where they understand uh okay  one thing is short and another thing is long  

like that now what's interesting is that they  understand just like the word read here they will  

get different meanings of the word or slightly  different ways of thinking about it that give them  

more aha moments and help them understand it even  better so they feel more confident and certain  

when they speak and they're doing all of this even  before they say anything so they're just getting  

examples and hearing how people might use the  language for example this word short here so most  

people want in this video probably know uh like  hey this thing is short versus something being  

long short or long uh but you might also think  about someone being short uh on [Music] money or  

short of funds I'm a little bit short this month  I'm a little bit short this month that means it's  

a it's a kind of similar example where we don't  have as much as we need so we're kind of short  

on something so I'm short I'm short on cash it  means I I don't have very much very much money  

or I don't have as much money as I need so uh  let's say I go to a store and buy this eraser this  

eraser costs uh what is say $5 but I only have  in my pocket uh $4.50 I'm short okay and so when  

people hear this they're connecting this situation  with the vocabul and you have an aha moment that's  

like oh that's interesting look at that something  is short like we we understand short and long but  

now I can understand like I'm I'm I'm like I need  to get from from like five from $0 up to up to $5  

over here that's like this is the goal but oh  no a I came up short so I didn't get exactly  

look at that I'm too short I'm not long enough  and so we can use the vocabulary in this way  

and so when you're talking about getting uh more  aha moments the way to get lots of those is the  

same way I teach in fluent for life where  you're getting lots of good examples of how  

natives use the language but you're also learning  strategically so for my kids like let's say when  

they're one year old or 2y old or three they learn  short and long and so they know that definition  

but as they get older they hear more examples  that give them a deeper understanding of a word  

so this seems like a a simple word but actually  we could use it in many different ways that are  

related so as natives get these examples they're  still connecting the situation to the vocabulary  

but look at that like now we have a few different  situations that are related and so this gives us  

a much deeper and more confident understanding of  the word short so as you get lots of good examples  

of things like that that's how you develop this  real certainty with using the language so for me  

like when I learn a new word in Japanese I I  don't I don't want to just get one example I  

want to I want to hear like how else might this  be used like I heard I heard a word like cidu  

which is a it's just like a saying or you know  phrases or something like that and then there's  

also like Kimu which is like a catchphrase and I  thought oh that's really interesting so I'm I'm  

looking specifically for strategic examples  and when I mean strategic it's like as soon  

as you learn something how quickly can you learn  more examples of that thing and this is one way  

to give yourself more aha moments so if you're  trying uh excuse me if you're trying to do this  

in real life by yourself uh then just get lots  of examples of the kind of English you want to  

speak so if you want to talk about uh farming  then get lots of uh examples about whatever so  

it doesn't doesn't matter what the topic is and  you can probably find most of that uh on YouTube  

even difficult stuff about I don't know whatever  technical subjects in various Industries or you  

know science or something like that but that's how  you do it so we're not looking to memorize a word  

with a translation we want to understand a word  connecting that vocabulary with a situation and  

then as we see more uses of that word it will help  us feel much more confident about it all right so  

that's a very long uh answer to your question  but a lot of people are are wondering about how  

they develop fluency like that and that's how  you do it uh so you get more examples of things  

they erase doubt that's really the goal so  whenever you're if you if you feel uncertain about  

something like a grammar point or pronunciation  or whatever get more examples of that you don't  

need to try to get a uh like a specific rule or  something it's more get more examples that help  

you understand that thing like a native rather  than a translation or or a definition uh let's  

see and Adam says what's your advice to speak in a  cable accent for me sir I like that way you teach  

thanks a lot all right since nobody gave me that  yet the answer is spend a lot of time watching  

cowboy movies or watching you know videos about  people with a particular Accent on YouTube that's  

it it's really that simple if I want to know how  to do something I should spend my time learning  

about that thing and if I want to learn to have a  particular accent uh then I should spend my time  

watching that so that's why people like young  people in cowboy families they start sounding  

like Cowboys because they're just listening to  all of those examples so again you can do all  

of this before you speak even before you say a  word you can spend a lot of time up here feeling  

certain about things because you're getting lots  of examples like if a cowboy says things in a  

certain way or with a certain accent that's how  you would start using them and you would know oh  

in this situation A Cowboy would probably say this  or in this situation here are a few different ways  

of expressing something okay so uh it doesn't  matter if you have people around you to speak  

English or you don't live in an english- speaking  country like all of this happens before you speak  

before you speak so you're not you're not waiting  for like the the typical way that people try to  

learn is this practice makes perfect thinking  where okay I need to First find someone to  

speak with but oh no I don't feel certain about my  speaking so you can see the problem here it seems  

like a very frustrating way to learn so I want to  begin uh I need to speak in order to improve so I  

need to do this like the practice makes perfect  thing I find someone to speak with but oh no I  

don't feel confident and then I go through these  these steps and it's a very painful way to try  

to improve so instead instead of trying to improve  in the conversation itself now you can do this and  

you will do this uh it will happen more easily for  you as you start learning uh the native way but if  

you can do that if you can feel confident before  you speak you don't need anyone physically with  

you you just need lots of examples of the language  and you can get that online anytime you like right  

now so this is part of what we do INF fluent for  Life uh but again the point is to feel confident  

before you speak not to uh not to try to get into  a conversation and spend a lot of time trying to  

learn in the conversation uh itself uh let's  see uh brid says lately I am noticing myself  

not rehearsing what I have to say but allowing  my words to float thanks for you banging on  

about doubts I'm getting the understanding awesome  that's great so when you're in a conversation uh  

you shouldn't have to have that like guessing  period where you're like unsure about the  

words or you're rehearsing things or organizing  sentences in your head before you speak you just  

know what you want to say and you develop that by  seeing lots of examples of how natives do it all  

right so not just listening to teachers tell you  specific things like in this situation we say this  

or here's the one correct way to pronounce things  that's just it's just not true I mean you get into  

a real conversation and people will say things  differently they will pronounce things a little  

bit differently too or they might have a different  accent or whatever people on this channel will  

know uh I had a a family friend this was a  southern from the United States like Southern  

United States I think she was from Georgia and so  she had a nice uh southern accent and she would  

say uh like in kind of the way I would ask you  here is do you want some pie like after dinner  

for dessert do you want some pie and she would say  y'all want some pie y'all want some pie y'all want  

some pie so if you go to an English class and the  teacher says do you want some pie but in the real  

world people don't speak like that they say y'all  want some pie y'all want some pie or just you want  

you want some pie you want some pie so you want we  don't even say do you it's just you want some pie  

you want some pie so again this is why uh instead  of trying to learn one specific way of saying  

something from a teacher you get lots of varied  examples this is that naturally varied review  

where we see different people talking about things  if you see those different examples then you learn  

how to get fluent because you feel confident  because you've seen so many examples it's the  

same way you got fluent in your native language  you hear your dad say something and your mom says  

something and your friends and your teachers and  and as you get all those examples you integrate  

all of that together and it makes you feel  confident and certain before you speak okay so  

you don't have to spend your time trying to learn  more or trying to practice things in conversations  

and not feel confident about it you can do all  that before you speak why not feel confident and  

certain before you speak I know it seems like  such an odd thing to do but the the easiest  

way to remember this is that the idea of practice  makes perfect that works for things where we have  

a specific outcome where I have a goal like trying  to draw this smiley face over here but in real  

communication it's unpredictable we don't know  what other people will say so before I speak it's  

probably a good idea if I see lots of different  people talking about things so if I know today I'm  

having a conversation about I don't know how to  how to have an ant farm you know what this is an  

ant farm I don't know why I'm thinking about that  but as an example it's like uh having a little a  

little plastic or glass case in your house you  put a little bit of dirt in it and then ants you  

watch them make little little tunnels like that  you know the ants are climbing around inside this  

is called a like an ant farm so you keep this in  your room and the glass is very thin so you can  

watch the ants uh crawl around in there now if I  know today I'm going to be going to my friend's  

house and he has an ant farm and I don't know much  about ant farms or talking about the English even  

in English like I can do the same thing in English  it's probably a good idea if I watch a few videos  

on YouTube about ant farms don't you think that  would prepare me before I get to my friend's  

house of course it would I if I watch 10 videos  up here about ant farms then when I get to my  

friend's house I'm going to feel quite confident  in and certain maybe not perfect but I will feel  

very confident and certain about like how to  talk about ant farms all right it's the same  

for anything you can prepare for it before the  conversation you don't have to wait for somebody  

to speak with because it's not practice makes  perfect it's really like training your brain the  

same way you train an AI to understand language  you give it lots of good examples but if you do  

it strategically making sure you're like you're  you're watching a bunch of things or reading a  

bunch of things about ant farms or whatever that's  what's going to prepare prepare you before you  

speak does anyone not want to feel prepared before  they speak I just want to make sure if anybody is  

in the wrong video right now let me know if it  does anybody like doing this I don't like doing  

this I don't I hate getting into a conversation  and not knowing you know like and this is how my  

my experience for learning languages was for  15 years even when I had people to speak with  

who were native speakers so even living in Japan  uh for a year and trying to learn the language I  

would still feel out in conversations I would  guess try to organize sentences and translate  

then I would say something usually it wasn't  correct or I didn't feel very confident as I  

said it I would wait for some feedback and usually  like Japanese people are not going to correct me  

if I say something wrong unless it's my family  or a teacher or something like that U and so I  

usually won't get a correction but if I do maybe  I will remember it maybe I will not and then the  

process will repeat itself the next conversation  it's really frustrating so it occurred to me what  

why don't I prepare before I speak it doesn't  that seem like a reasonable thing to do all right  

just remember this practice makes perfect idea  it's much it's like practice make makes perfect  

that that's a true idea for things that have a  specific outcome but conversations do not okay  

you never know what people are going to say so  there are patterns you can learn but it's much  

better to to spend time uh watching other people  do things like that uh let's see make sure I'm  

I'm kind of I'm talking for a long time about  these but she says the pronunciation of some  

words in English is delusional I come across a  word like Civilization am natives use pronounce  

the I the short eye instead of I like an i yes  uh and again that's that's part of the language  

so each you know each language or culture has its  own imperfections or whatever but that's you know  

it's it's typically easy to learn that and if  children can do it we can do that as adults all  

right and it says perfect oh look at that with a  metal and a smiley face awesome in addition they  

are copying copying at me copying at you you mean  copying you you would just say to copy someone uh  

where is the alarm I missed it uh I don't know  if about alarm you mean a notification I don't  

know why you YouTube doesn't really tell people  about my notification so thank you for joining me  

if you are here uh but YouTube often uh does not  for whatever reason it's it's probably because  

I turned off monetization it's either because my  videos are bad which is possible or it's because  

I turned off uh monetization years ago so that's  why you don't see ads uh on most of my videos uh  

J genin one says did chat Duty speak like native  speakers nowadays yeah it's it's pretty it sounds  

pretty good it sounds pretty good uh R says Happy  New Year from you uh you and his lovely family I'm  

from Brazil glad to hear it welcome so Louis car  what about oh you guys are talking to each other  

Fabio says hello nice to see you there uh okay  you guys are talking Dan says uh I give him my  

like thank you so much it's my pleasure I have to  be a soothsayer that's a great word a soothsayer  

ganes nice to see you there and all right I'm  a biomedical engineer I'm certain about it but  

but when I'm into another Topic in speaking  I feel my brain and not like I'm brainwashed  

I forget everything yes and so when you this is  a perfect example of how you can talk about your  

job because you're getting all these examples of  it before you speak so you've spent lots of time  

studying a thing you know it very well so when you  get into a conversation then you feel confident  

but for the things that you don't know very well  you don't feel confident that makes perfect sense  

okay that's everybody experiences that right  now I can speak very confidently about this  

topic because I know a lot about it I spend a lot  of time thinking about this researching talking  

with Learners about it but I couldn't tell you how  to fix a motorcycle I don't know how to do that  

so if someone said hey Drew please teach a lesson  about fixing motorcycles I would I would say oh no  

I have a lot of doubt about fixing motorcycles I  don't know how to do that but if I watched a bunch  

of people making uh like videos or whatever about  fix motorcycles and I spent some time with people  

doing it I'm sure I would feel pretty confident  about how to fix a motorcycle probably all right  

the the point here uh is that I don't I don't  try to like learn how to fix a motorcycle by by  

like just trying to fix people's motorcycles all  right I'd rather like see other people doing that  

and understand how to do it first this is why  people go to school before they actually become  

professionals at particular things it's good to  get experience doing it but I wouldn't just have  

someone bring me their bike and say please fix  this because I I don't know anything about doing  

that okay so the point is either you you prepare  before you get into the conversation or you do  

not and then you feel doubt and that that's what  causes all the problems look at that our first uh  

fire truck of the New Year all right Louis says  I live in Brazil and my concern is improving my  

English every day mainly understanding few times  I talk to another person yes so Louis remember  

you don't need to spend your time speaking with  others in order to improve your English what you  

do need to do is spend time watching other people  speak because even in conversations the way we get  

most of our Improvement is by learning new things  from other people talking if I'm only talking and  

uh maybe I say things correctly maybe I don't  I improve a little bit by maybe feeling more  

confident just saying my words but I'm actually  learning way more from all the new information I  

get from other people which helps me understand  things better so again before you get into  

conversations you can spend a lot of time learning  about whatever seeing lots of examples and you  

don't have to wait for anybody you don't have to  wait for a teacher or practice partner anything  

like that Brad says hello sir and in Brazil people  often don't speak English yeah so again it doesn't  

matter where you live remember people living  in the United States or other English-speaking  

countries they also have trouble communicating all  right so why is that it's because they feel doubt  

before they speak they don't really feel confident  about what they're going to say but as they get  

more examples they feel more confident they feel  more certain when they have a conversation they  

feel wow that was easy I was able to express  myself and say what I want to say so don't wait  

don't think you need to have this this situation  here practice makes perfect I'm going to spend a  

lot of time uh talking with people to improve  and if I don't have anyone to speak with I  

can't improve all right it's not true you spend  your time up here getting lots of examples of  

other people speaking just real natives talking  about whatever it is you're interested in at at  

your level so for me like you know I might watch  some Japanese kid shows or you know some nature  

program or something just like something that  I can understand quite easily um if I if it's  

something I'm interested in uh so I might you  know depending on my level or what the what the  

particular topic is uh I can learn about different  things without me speaking so I don't have to be  

there like having someone to talk with I can just  get lots of examples of other people speaking  

because remember the the point is not to like be  perfect about your speaking it's to be able to  

communicate and communication is unpredictable  so we can't prepare for communication the same  

way we prepare for riding a bike or practicing  a sport or something like that all right so even  

when people do practice sports uh there's a  difference between like shooting a free throw  

where you can just practice that by yourself you  don't really need to think about other people but  

people play games because that's the kind of  practice you need to do like for actually uh  

developing skill within a game itself but again  you don't need to have people to do this with  

you just need to see lots of examples of people  in the real world speaking you can do that right  

here on YouTube or this is what we do in fluent  for life we we actually just show you how to do  

this we give you all the examples we make you  feel confident before you speak wouldn't you  

like to feel feel confident before you speak I I  know it seems like a weird question to me but a  

lot of people have just been told this is how  you're supposed to get fluent and so they tell  

each other the same advice like yeah just get  out and practice like I don't want to do that I  

don't have time for that I want to feel confident  before the conversation not like hopefully after  

the conversation finishes I want to feel confident  before I speak all right Brad says I want to learn  

English well you're learning it right now welcome  to the program spelling some vocabulary extremely  

hard see how to be good at writing words correctly  and is it possible for me to learn how to write  

well there are two different things if you're  talking about uh spelling specifically you  

should get Frederick just click on the link in the  description below this video that's our our app  

that will show you basically it will let it will  give you like tons of aha moments it will let you  

discover um like how the how the pronunciation or  the spellings of things work but it it will let  

you teach yourself instead of trying to memorize  a bunch of rules but go through that app and you  

will learn to be a good speller as a result of  that um had another good uh comment from somebody  

on that that was like oh it like Frederick taught  my child to read I said look at that that's  

exactly what we designed it to do that's awesome  uh so do that uh so there's the spelling part and  

then there's actually being a good writer which is  a different kind of skill so that's it's kind of  

like being a good communicator where you're able  to uh flow well in conversations you can follow  

what other people are saying and you're able to  connect your words uh smoothly and quickly and  

correctly so being a good writer uh like being a  good speaker it often uh comes from getting lots  

of examples of other people speaking that's how  you do it so get examples of other people writing  

uh and you will feel more confident about that  uh ADM says you know God bless you sir you have  

a great skills to deliver the informations to  us thanks again all right I will correct this  

English thank you for that so you know God bless  you have a great skill or you could just say have  

great skills or you could say you have a great  skill just in general talking about that uh to  

deliver information so information is uncountable  to deliver information uh could I create my own  

figures of speech even if I'm not a native  speaker sure people do that all the time I'm  

talking about the alarm that we hear while you're  streaming ah it's a it's like a fire it's not an  

alarm it's like a fire uh fire you know station or  something like that an ambulance uh but I'm glad  

can't hear it if you can't hear it uh let's see  one day the textbook teachers uh they will file a  

complaint about you in the police station because  of your program now I don't it's it seems when  

people ask me like why why do more people not do  this or why why do people not know about this the  

the real answer is it's not necessary to do this  and it's faster to memorize some translations  

for a test that's basically it so if you think  about being a teacher in a classroom I have two  

ways of teaching like this way it it seems like  a slower way to learn it's actually not because  

it speeds up over time uh but if I if I have  one class and I need to I need my students to  

remember some things for a test I'm just going to  give them the translation of that and hope they  

remember that for the test so they'll remember it  for a week but then the next week they will forget  

it so so the the the goal is not to prepare people  for confident communication it's just to pass the  

next test so that's why most people don't know  this but uh obviously if you use this approach  

it will help you pass tests very quickly too I  would love to test this uh with anybody but when  

I used to teach in the classroom uh this is what  I did so actually uh Preparing People for tests  

but using the same method that gets them speaking  as well because why not do both you know you don't  

have to do only tests or only speaking if you're  a good speaker you would you would be able to pass  

those tests easily as well but yes I don't know I  don't know if they'll call the police on me maybe  

they will we'll see uh Jefferson says good evening  teacher I just arrived from work I'm in Brazil wow  

look at that lots of people uh lots of Brazilians  over there Su says hello and Abdul says sir I  

understand other people's English but I can't  speak how do I speak uh would you mind giving me  

the process to improve watch this video again that  is the process remember the important thing what  

I'm talking about in this video uh since we've  come to the end of comments here just giving you  

a quick recap this is a game uh I've played many  times with my children it's called Battleship see  

if they have the title on there guess upside down  uh Battleship where you're trying to look for the  

other players boats in their little ocean uh so  I can put my boats wherever I like and then we go  

back and forth asking questions is your boat here  is your boat here we try to find those boats and  

so I thought it would be interesting to use this  as an analogy a like a metaphor uh for talking  

about how people learn speaking uh so if people  feel doubt like you you feel doubt when you're  

playing Battleship because you don't know where  the boats are so I begin by asking is your boat  

here is your boat here or something like that uh  and the other person says yes or no and so it's  

very similar to the way people try to improve in  conversations where they say something they're  

not sure about it maybe they make a mistake maybe  they get feedback maybe they improve but there's  

a lot of maybe maybe maybe in this approach so it  is possible to improve but it's a very frustrating  

and long and painful process and wouldn't you  rather just feel certain in conversations instead  

so the cheat code for Battleship would be knowing  where the boats are before you start the game  

because if I know where the other person person's  boats are then I can I can kill their boats very  

quickly and I win the game now obviously  this is cheating in a game of Battleship  

and it wouldn't be very fun but it would be  fun in a conversation and this is how natives  

communicate so conversation is is like it's a fun  and enjoyable experience because people know where  

the boats are wait I don't have to spend my time  guessing and thinking and wondering and trying to  

get feedback from the other person I already have  everything like I I don't feel doubt over here  

so when I'm talking with I meet my friends I say  hey you know let's go to the coffee shop and we  

can sit and talk for two hours about whatever uh  yeah like I would feel great about that a lot of  

people would feel nervous about that though wow  you want me to talk for you know five minutes in  

English I don't know if I can do that they feel  nervous about that so if you feel doubt it's easy  

to instead of trying to have conversations and  meet people to practice speaking with just erase  

the doubt first erase the doubt before you get  into to conversations by seeing lots of examples  

of natives talking about things before you speak  all right so if you like it is possible to improve  

this way and some people do but a lot of people  struggle for many years because they're just like  

wow I I don't have anyone to practice speaking  with or I feel shy and it's really difficult  

for me to communicate so okay then it's all like  you don't have to force yourself to speak spend  

your time with with uh learning more to understand  real communication better and then you will learn  

what you should really be saying in different  situations and you will learn how to connect  

those things from natives the same way natives  learn it's really very simple so you can choose  

which way you learn all right both of them uh can  get you fluent but this way it's just a really  

frustrating and long process uh if you learn it  that way and this works for any any language you  

want to learn we just help people do it in English  uh with a program called fluent for life and you  

can click on the link in the description  below this video to learn more about that  

uh let's see but I do recommend this is like a  good overview for uh comparing these uh different  

ways of learning and how people think about that  so if you're new to the Channel please go back and  

watch this video when we're done with it uh let's  see H says a Subway subtitle submitted submarine  

what is the link between each of those words  it starts with sub uh it just means under or  

below sub so like when you when you think about  all these things the AHA moment comes like oh  

wait a minute like a submarine is under the water  it's like sub and Marine meaning like ocean water  

whatever so sub marine and we got subtitles now  the interesting thing I actually I tell people the  

story about this how my mom uh took me to an opera  like a like an opera play on a stage and instead  

of having subtitles usually the the words at the  bottom of the screen they had a little screen  

because they had to translate it from Italian the  Opera was in Italian uh and they had the English  

uh translation above that and I said oh look  at that Mom like there the writing is above the  

screen and it's above the screen so everybody can  see it if they put it under the screen it would  

be hard for people to see it but the subtitles  are at the bottom so the the word for the ones  

above the screen those are called super titles  supertitles isn't that interesting so when when  

I heard that from my mom I thought oh wow that's  really interesting just like Superman you know so  

like when we when we hear about uh like certain  words we start getting examples of them it's  

the example I gave like uh the word short so when  you hear about long and short and then you hear a  

different usage of that you really start feeling  more confident like oh I'm short on money I'm  

short on time all right so in those examples it's  similar to like a physical length of something  

but we can use it in a slightly different way  and as you get more examples of that you feel  

more confident and the whole Magic of all this  the the strangest fluency secret is that you can  

do all this before you speak so even if you don't  have anyone to practice speaking with you can get  

lots of good examples of the language and if you  do this strategically systematically then you can  

be really feeling very confident when you do speak  so whenever you do have those conversations you  

will feel uh much more confident so that's the  whole process and how it works so when you when  

you get like when you see a bunch of examples like  what is the link between these try to think about  

that you will get an aha moment for yourself like  oh look at that like sub I think someone else just  

gave the example of submissive to be submissive  is like to put yourself below someone else to be  

submissive all right or to subtract is to take  away something else so as you get all these  

different different meanings of sub the point  is not to memorize all these things it's to make  

the connection in your mind of like oh look at  that it's interesting that uh that we have these  

different uh Connections in this way so typically  when I hear the word sub something uh I know it's  

probably going to mean below or under something  else all Bashir says how to practice pronunciation  

I mean sometimes I can just guess the right  pronunciation get Frederick it will it will teach  

you how to do that uh just click on the link in  the description below this video so if you want to  

learn pronunciation first thing is understanding  the IND indidual sounds of English and the second  

part of that is seeing lots of examples of natives  pronounce things that's how you do it uh Abdul  

says sir is the native fluency blueprint enough  for me to speak in English y so the native fluency  

blueprint this is another program we have uh it's  for people who are independent Learners and they  

just want to know how to improve and we give you  that and we also explain like we go through all  

this of uh explaining what the strangest fluency  secret is so that's some kind of bonus training we  

provide uh in email followup uh which is new for  2025 for new people in the program uh but uh for  

people who just want to learn by themselves and  they just want to know how to do it yeah native  

fluency blueprint is just fine for the people  who want to get fluent faster who want guaranteed  

fluency uh as quickly as possible that's what we  do for fluent for life so you just decide what  

you want to do you can certainly do this part you  can do all this by yourself you can look for your  

own example try to teach yourself the language or  find uh ways to do that so that's basically how I  

learn Japanese so I don't have a teacher telling  me specific things but I have lots of different  

examples that I use to try to understand the  language better all right so I'd much rather  

have like a system set up just to just to make  it really easy for me that erases all my doubts  

I haven't found that for Japanese uh if I do that  would be great I would join that program but uh  

fortunately I can make that for English Learners  so even if I can't like help myself so much uh  

I can make it for you all and that's what I did  with flowing for Life uh but again uh if you want  

to just know how to do things by yourself then  you can do that um yeah it's easy to do that uh  

by yourself just getting lots of examples so find  the specific things you're interested in you begin  

with the doubt so what do you have a doubt about  I have a doubt about like pronunciation or talking  

about a certain topic or listening to certain  certain accent something like that you can erase  

that doubt by yourself before you speak uh George  says a couple cans a shot of a six-pack ah you  

would say very very closely a couple cans short  of a six-pack that's right a couple cans short of  

a six-pack for other people this mean this is a  a kind of common way of phrasing that someone is  

not very smart or there's a problem with them like  like there are like a few cards a short of a deck  

so they like again the same idea of not having the  complete amount of something required so they're  

they have like some brain or some smarts but not  enough or there's some kind of problem with them  

but yeah so a couple of cans short of a six-pack  uh let's see MC nice to see there at last long  

time no see yeah I still never I never got that  chocolate I don't know what happened with that  

I think probably someone at the post office  is eating that all right trug says hi from  

Vietnam and S says a Thumbs Up kidss Entertainment  good morning sir and I said how can I monitor my  

progress if I don't have a live teacher tracking  my fluency rating well how are you how are you  

tracking your fluency rating now the for me just  when when people are like wait a minute like how  

can I how can I improve without a uh without a  person telling me exactly what's wrong that that's  

this kind of thinking over here where I need  someone to give me feedback but if you already  

know what's correct before you speak what is the  feedback for when I'm talking with my friends in  

English I'm not I don't need any feedback from  them I don't need them to correct me or anything  

I like I already know what's correct and so you  can do the same thing in English so instead of  

waiting for someone to tell you and most people  don't get this anyway so like where where is  

the personal teacher who's going to correct your  English do you have this person already are they  

with you 24 hours a day whenever you want to  speak I mean you can ask chat GPT or something  

if you want to get uh specific Corrections on  VOC ulary but again it's not the same thing as  

preparing for real conversations you can't just  get like uh here's a grammar point and I'm going  

to try to remember that and then I practice that  with chat gbt that's not how you get fluent in a  

language because you never know what people  are going to say it's just it's a completely  

different environment a completely different skill  you're trying to develop so when people say hey I  

need feedback what if you just had no doubt  before you spoke wouldn't you rather do that  

why do you want to go through this process of  not feeling confident then I try to speak now I'm  

going to wait for feedback maybe you get feedback  maybe you do not all right and then if you get  

feedback do you remember it you need all of this  stuff and you need it all to be working perfectly  

and really to have access to that whenever you  like and almost nobody has that even people living  

in native english- speaking countries don't have  this I have a wife who is Japanese and I can't  

even do all this I ask my wife sometimes I say  hey I have a question about this and she's like  

ah like I'm too busy I can't help you right now  so even my own wife in my own house that I pay  

for I can't get this okay sometimes I can't but  a lot of times I don't you know so she's a busy  

anyway so when people are saying like I'm waiting  for feedback the feedback comes before you speak  

by seeing all of these examples of how people  say things or pronounce them or uh different  

ways they connect vocabulary so I don't need to  watch uh like one teacher do something and then  

try to repeat them and say it exactly the way they  do what I need to do is see a bunch of different  

natives talking about something and then as I  watch that I will feel very confident about how  

to do that too okay so the feedback comes before  you speak before you speak all right you can get  

get it here but it sounds like you're not getting  it now so how else are you going to get it are you  

getting lots of feedback right now do you have  someone that's like live correcting you all the  

time or no so this this is kind of like a I don't  know it's like a almost like an imaginary thing  

like a like a standard people have about how they  need to learn languages nobody's giving you this  

all right for Mo for most people they're they're  not getting this anyway even in conversations  

people are not just correcting you all the time  people don't want to do that they it's it's often  

impolite uh and they they want to make sure like  you can you can understand things and just keep  

the conversation going they don't want to stop and  correct you all the time so instead of trying to  

improve this way why not improve before you speak  all right this is the strangest fluency secret and  

if you try to get fluent before you speak you will  surprise yourself like oh it's actually working I  

think some like some other people maybe I missed  those comments before but people were saying I'm  

using this for like for learning Spanish or  whatever or other language and it and it works  

and of course it does because why wouldn't it  it's it's the same way people get fluent in any  

language it's how we learn our uh regular language  uh or native language and you can just apply that  

same thinking to learning English that's how  you do it so when I'm learning Japanese I'm not  

waiting for people to correct my Japanese I just  get good examples of how people use the language  

if I see some fluent speakers use something that  I know ah like I understand how it works you know  

so I feel confident about that okay all right uh  let's see so monitoring your honestly monitoring  

your progress comes from from getting examples and  then basically copying what they do and feeling  

confident it's it's a it's a process you can  actually feel you don't need a person to tell you  

if you're correct you you just know what's correct  again one says hello from Thailand have you ever  

been to Thailand have you been to Thailand yes  Thailand is a nice place I've been there before  

uh the logic good morning from India what's your  thought on practicing selft talk about specific  

topics is it really helpful uh to encounter real  time situations uh I I don't do that I don't sit  

around practicing talking about stuff if if I have  any time to learn like to actually spend some time  

uh focusing on language learning I I want to spend  my time getting examples from other people that's  

how I improve all right it's it's it's amazing  because this is something you can do by yourself  

anywhere anytime you don't need anyone to practice  like speaking you don't need to wait for teachers  

or whatever and it's fun so it's an easy thing to  do it's just getting lots of examples about the  

things you're interested in already so if I like  watching action movies and I want to learn how  

to talk like action you know heroes or whatever  in action movies I watch a bunch of those movies  

very easy okay if I want to learn about I don't  know how to draw smiley faces well I watch a bunch  

of videos about that and I should feel a lot more  confident uh maybe if I can't draw well at least I  

can talk about it well uh let's see and from zomia  says power grass g about Thailand so have you been  

to Thailand let's see hi how you doing English  how you doing teacher I'm doing well and BR says  

aha I don't know what that's referring to M say  I'm furious about that they said the chocolate  

arrived to Nagasaki but they didn't find your  right address until now what that's weird I don't  

know I don't know I I think you know Japanese the  Japanese post office is usually pretty good uh you  

are DD of fluency so you are designated driver  to rate us in our own fluency because we are ESL  

all I I I'll explain this in one in a different  way if you're listening to a song on the radio I  

can try to sing that song along with the person  singing I don't need someone to give me feedback  

because the person is already giving me feedback  like they sing the note Ding and I sing the note  

ding like obviously they're incorrect but if I can  get my note where their note is if I can sing the  

same note then I'm probably going to feel pretty  confident and know I'm correct so I don't need  

that person I don't need the singer of a song to  physically be in the car with me to do that all  

right and if you're waiting for that it's never  going to happen so like people who get this either  

you're paying a lot of money and spending a lot  of time doing this uh and it's probably not it's  

not going to guarantee fluency for you anyway uh  because having one person correct one thing for  

you it doesn't prepare you for all of the other  kinds of speech you will encounter in real life  

okay so the number one reason to do things this  way is because it mirrors the way communication  

actually happens I'm not just learning from one  clear teacher I'm learning from a bunch of real  

native examples and that's going to help me feel  much more confident about speaking I'm going to  

learn the real language people use I'm going  to remember it and recall it when I need it in  

conversations I'm going to know the right things  to say for particular situations and I'm going  

to know how to connect those things so I speak  fluently okay I can get that very easily just  

by seeing lots of good examples in a structured  systematic way all right it's not just watching  

a bunch of random content like I need to be doing  that in a structured way that erases my doubts  

and then if I get that how will develop fluency  all right so the lesson here today is you can do  

things this way it is possible to get fluent that  way but why wouldn't you just use the cheat code  

and get fluent before you speak by erasing your  doubt all right if you'd like help doing this  

this is what we do in fluent for life but whether  you do this with me or not I promise you if you  

begin applying this idea the things I'm talking  about in this video and the other videos on my  

channel you will improve your fluency in English  or whatever other language you'd like to learn all  

right Jefferson here Professor I understand this  level of understanding very well excuse me what uh  

would it be like studying three years listening  to a lot of English well you would you would be  

fluent you would be fluent faster than that you  don't need three years to do that but you would  

be flowing very quickly uh Hassen says how phrasal  verbs important to us in casual conversation well  

they're I don't know I make you just click on any  video about phrasal verbs uh in my my channel so  

any anything on my Channel about that but they're  very important uh and I actually call them uh the  

world's greatest English fluency hack so it's the  one thing you could learn that would improve all  

of your communication skills together as well as  prepare you for confident communication because  

people use lots of phrasal verbs in everyday  speech then break the logic is how reading books  

helps me to improve my fluency do you believe that  having 10 different complicated stories all the  

time in my my mind would enable me to have a great  conversation with them well you're kind of framing  

this in a way that's like 10 different complicated  stories I mean no but if you're asking how does  

reading improve fluency for my example like I've  and you should watch my uh watch my video about  

these books get you fluent if you're curious about  uh if you have like a genuine question about that  

but the basic idea is that um I'm looking at  things to get real examples of the language  

so in this situation what do people say and then  I'm also looking for how might different people  

express the same situation so for example uh I  read uh in Japanese I have I don't know three or  

four different versions of like the Three Little  Pigs story S no so I can I can read that and and  

say oh this person tells the story this way and  this person tells the story this way and this  

person tells the story that way uh and so that's  how you're again reading strategically I might  

take the same kind of book or I might watch  a movie about something and read the book and  

listen to some people talking about it I'm being  strategic about my learning I'm not just like just  

getting a bunch of random stuff and and expecting  to get fluent from that the point is erasing the  

doubt if I don't erase the doubt I won't feel  confident when I speak so the whole point is  

to erase the doubt before you speak wouldn't  you like to do that you know it seems like a  

a reasonable thing I know a lot of people are told  they need to do this and they think okay I have to  

speak I have to have to find people to practice  speaking with but I promise you it will come a  

a lot easier if you spend more time watching  people speak strategically okay the strategy  

is the important thing here it's not just reading  one book here and watching some other random video  

over there like there needs to be overlap uh of  this different content so it needs to make sense  

uh watch the uh the naturally varied review  video on my Channel about making espresso  

it's another good example of this uh naturally  varied review all right that says thanks Drew  

English and Spanish let's see how often do you go  live uh usually like once or twice a week I think  

lately it's more just once a week uh Thursdays uh  my morning here in Japan so today is uh Thursday  

what day it uh the 9th uh see Juan Carlos says  fluency don't come that easy for everyone I've  

lived in the US for 18 years and still can't speak  yeah it's it's more about how you've learned how  

people have taught you the language ju it's not  your fault you you learn Spanish presumably I'm  

guessing Spanish is your native language uh but  you learn that because you got a bunch of good  

examples from people even before you spoke then  you felt confident you were speaking okay now  

I I know how to express myself I know the right  thing to say and so you started speaking that's  

how it worked just do that same thing in English  again uh how can I remove the French tone while  

I'm speaking because I feel it gives me doubts  again like the if you have doubts about anything  

grammar pronunciation whatever see examples of  people using that so if you if you don't want to  

sound like your native accent you want to sound  more like a native speaker in whatever language  

spend time listening to real people speak the  language that's how you do it you want to sound  

like a cowboy listen to people who are Cowboys  talking about different stuff all right that's  

how you do it anyway uh that should be the uh the  end of this video look at that an hour and a half  

starting 2025 but hopefully you have enjoyed this  video remember either you can try to improve in  

conversations which is possible but it's just very  frustrating uh especially if you don't have anyone  

to speak with or you can erase the doubt before  you speak so that when you do speak you feel much  

more confident and you're able to express yourself  all right seems very easy all right this is the  

way I learned this is how I started getting  fluent in Japanese and that's how I get fluent  

uh as I learn new words in Japanese and this is  why I've been teaching the same thing for 20 years  

all right uh couldn't you ask the clo the clo post  office about this CH well I I don't even know who  

I would ask about that I don't I don't think I can  ask anyone about about the chocolate I don't know  

how I would call them and say hey I call the Post  Office and but you know what's interesting is in  

Japan like people would probably make an effort  to do that that's what I love about Japan like  

you can give people an impossible task and and  they'll still like try to make uh make an effort  

for that so if I go to the post office and I say  hey MC in France sent me some chocolate where is  

it at first they'll kind of look at me in in a  funny way but like uh may they they may try to do  

something you know anyway but I I you know either  it's eaten or it's gone or whatever or it'll come  

back to you or something like that I don't know  I'm not worried but it's the thought that counts  

I appreciate that you sent me that though uh  break the logic in could you please succinctly  

explain the whole process step step by step real  quick it's one thing erase the doubt before you  

speak by seeing lots of good examples of native  English strategically that's it that's it go back  

and watch the video uh I explain this process in  different ways in different videos but that is the  

idea if you could erase the doubts you have about  English before you speak then when you get into  

conversations you will feel confident and express  yourself fluently that's the idea if if you'd like  

to learn more about this click on the link in the  description for fluent for Life Below this video  

you can also learn more about Frederick in that  link and I'll see you in the next video bye-bye