The Ultimate Guide to English Fluency Myths

hello Naturals I'm Gabby Wallace your American  English fluency coach from gural english.com  

here to help you break through to fluency have you  ever felt stuck in your English learning like you  

don't know how to reach fluency to speak like  a native to feel strong in your English skills  

well I can understand that because I felt that way  learning other Lang languages and what I realized  

is that there are myths or big lies that many of  us accept because maybe you heard them from your  

friend or your teacher or somewhere but these  things are holding you back from achieving your  

fluency dreams they are not true and so in this  video right here right now together we are going  

to bust seven of the biggest language learning  myths specifically for English learning and in  

this video I'm going to recommend a great way for  you to practice your English one onone online in  

live time yes live online tutoring with live  XP the sponsor of this video so stick around  

because I will show you what the site looks  like and how you can get a very special offer  

only 99s for your first 30 minute trial lesson and  if you sign up for their tutoring using my promo  

code then you can get 30% off so to get the 99  c special make sure to use my link I'll show you  

more about the platform in just a minute but let's  jump into the seven myths number one the size of  

your vocabulary equals your level of fluency this  one might ruffle some feathers ruffle feathers  

means to upset some people but Size Doesn't Matter  as much as you think it might now I'm talking  

about vocabulary here what I mean is that many  English Learners ask me to learn more difficult  

vocabulary more advanced vocabulary longer words  but these words are not necessarily going to help  

you speak fluently what you need to be learning is  high frequency vocabulary like the words that we  

use in everyday conversations so if you have  a thousand vocabulary words that's enough to  

participate in most everyday English conversation  if you need English for specific purposes like  

you're a doctor or a medical translator or maybe  you're a pilot well yes then I understand you need  

more vocabulary but that is specific to you and  your goals for most people you don't need a huge  

vocabulary to get your point across and in fact  the most important thing to understand is that  

you can still have a conversation with a fairly  small vocabulary and learn words as you go so do  

not hesitate do not wait to start speaking English  in real life with real native English speakers  

just because you don't think you have all of the  vocabulary you might need the most important thing  

is to be able to learn as you go ask questions  describe words that you want to know and people  

will help you along the way or if you realize that  you need to know a word that you don't know you  

can look it up as you go so the important thing is  to take action and learn as you go and speaking of  

taking action I have a suggestion for you number  one join the complete go natural English course  

including recorded video lessons a private podcast  a forum and support only for course members and  

the perfect companion to that or whether  you're taking my complete English course or  

not the perfect companion is to take live online  tutoring English lessons with live XP let me show  

you inside their website I don't know if you've  seen it before so I want you to see how it works  

so let's take a look at how to sign up for live  private tutoring with live XP show you really  

quickly this live XP website that I found out  about you can practice English and over 30 other  

languages All For One Low affordable price so if  you're like me and you love learning languages  

maybe you want to practice your Portuguese or  your Finnish or a little French it's up to you  

so if you want to learn a new language English or  another one this is an amazing site to know about  

they have over 2,000 tutors in fact 1500 over 1500  English tutors so if you want a live lesson if you  

want to ask questions get feedback Corrections  improve your fluency then this is the place to  

do it and you can get a 30-minute trial for just  99 Cents and remember your subscription is 30% off  

when you use my promo code so really check this  site out I think there's a lot of opportunities to  

practice English and of course other languages too  and remember use the link in the description I'll  

also add it into the comments where you can get  a 99 cent 30 minute trial lesson this is a great  

way to try out live XP without any commitment  without spending a lot of money see if you like  

it see it's for if it's for you and if you want  to continue then use my promo code which I'll  

also put here in the description in the comments  for 30% off when you sign up for live XP lessons  

this is an amazing value and the best way to  practice in live time so let's get on to the next  

myth about English fluency fluency equals perfect  grammar okay so many English Learners ask me how  

can I make longer more complicated sent sentences  and I would say to that why do you want to make  

longer more complicated sentences because if our  goal is to communicate clearly often times long  

complicated sentences do not achieve that goal  fluency means you are communicating and expressing  

your ideas your feelings and when we make long  complicated sentences with the most advanced  

grammar possible that actually doesn't help yes  it can make you sound smart if you're writing an  

academic paper or giving an academic presentation  then sure I could see why you might want to do  

this for you know professional or academic reasons  however perfect grammar does not equal fluency yes  

we should strive to have correct grammar however  don't let that stop you from speaking because many  

people native speakers ERS non-native speakers  it doesn't matter our grammar is not perfect when  

we speak so writing is one thing but speaking is  another so before you speak don't wait until you  

have the perfect grammar structure thought out  in your head because you're going to miss the  

opportunity to join into a conversation that  way so think less speak more the next myth is  

that you have to sound like a native speaker  in order to be fluent so many students come to  

me to improve their pronunciation and there's a  balance here because no it's not necessary to be  

completely native sounding however you do want  to be understood so for example I interviewed  

some people recently and I'm open to interviewing  people from all around the world one person had a  

strong accent but I could understand him clearly  he made his experience his expertise known and  

I felt good about hiring him another person had  a very strong accent so strong that I could not  

understand several sentences that he was trying to  say so that is not good so we definitely need to  

have your pronunciation at a point where other  people can clearly understand you however do  

you need to sound exactly like a native speaker no  sound like yourself because having an accent isn't  

a deficiency it's actually a sign that you know  more you know another language you have more life  

experience so wear that accent like a badge of  honor and oftentimes it's a conversation talking  

point people will ask you where are you from  what other languages do you speak so don't be  

ashamed or shy about people hearing your accent  many people find it very interesting and even  

attractive watching movies Netflix TV shows in  English is not going to make you fluent so the  

myth is that you can just watch these programs and  then you'll be fluent you can learn to understand  

English through movies through TV shows Etc  Netflix can definitely improve your listening  

comprehension but listening is just one of four  four skills in English we have listening Reading  

Writing speaking so if you can understand if you  can have great listening comprehension that's  

great it's not a problem to watch programs in  English it's definitely helpful but it is passive  

learning and we have to understand that there's  passive skills like listening and reading where  

you are consuming English and then there are  active skills writing and speaking where you  

are producing the language so it is is not enough  to focus on passive learning we also have to push  

ourselves to do what's often more difficult  actually producing the language so that's why  

it's so important to practice your English maybe  practicing with friends practicing with apps  

there's a million ways to practice these days but  the important thing is that you focus on all four  

skills that is how to truly become fluent next  there's a myth that you have to study English for  

like 30 years to become fluent this is not  only impractical but it's not true it's not  

about the time or the duration or length of your  study it's actually about the intensity and your  

focus have you ever thought about when you go to  work let's say you work 9 to 5 the same number  

of hours every day but some days you are so much  more productive than others what makes those days  

more productive what makes you actually do more  work you're probably focused maybe you had a good  

working environment maybe you slept well the night  before maybe you had your favorite beverage I like  

to drink coffee that always helps me and makes me  feel nice when I study but think about what is it  

that helps you to stay focused and productive when  you study and when you apply those things you will  

advance in English much faster than than simply  thinking about I'm just going to put the time in  

because it's not just about the time someone who's  unfocused passively learning might take 10 hours  

to learn the same thing that you could learn  in one hour when you're focused and learning  

actively and really putting your all your 110%  into learning so it's a great way to learn faster  

when you're thinking about active productive  learning if you have questions about this let  

me know in the comments because it's a really  important concept next kind of related to time  

there's a lot of people who think that it's too  late to become fluent you know maybe you're not  

in college anymore you're in your 30s 40s 50s 60s  7s 80s I mean I have helped people well into their  

70s and 80s to become fluent in English and I will  tell you one thing it's not your age that matters  

it's your interest your engagement your passion  your motivation your inspiration for learning if  

you know why you want to learn you will figure out  how to do it what I see as more of a problem is at  

any age if you don't know why you want to learn  if you're just doing it because you know somebody  

said you should that's not as motivating you have  to know why you want to learn and the thing about  

learning as an adult is it's just different than  learning as a child or a teenager or even at 20  

years old I mean once you're into your 20s 30s  40s 50s 60s 7s ' 80s '90s if you're 100 the idea  

is you know a lot about the world you have life  experience you know your first language very well  

hopefully and you can apply what you know already  to learning English so that can be helpful because  

at first when you're learning it can be very  helpful to apply the context that you know about  

the world to learning new vocabulary or concepts  in a new language so it's just a little bit  

different but it's never too late so don't give  up finally a huge myth is that you have to live  

in an English-speaking country in order to become  fluent in English so while this can be helpful to  

be immersed in an English-speaking environment  I mean if you can come to work or travel in an  

English-speaking country like I live in the United  States it can be helpful I'm not saying it's it's  

a bad thing but it's not necessary you don't need  to live in an English-speaking country to become  

fluent and in fact there are many many people who  come to English-speaking countries and then just  

hang out with other people from their country  because it's familiar and comfortable but you  

end up speaking your native language and you're  not really learning English as quickly so it's  

not about living in an English-speaking country  it's actually about how you spend your time the  

environment that you create for yourself  because even in the United States you can  

create an entirely non-english-speaking Community  I recently went to Miami Florida which is clearly  

in the United States but many people joke that  it is not the United States because everyone  

let's say 90% of people there speak Spanish now  that's just a rough estimate but I will tell you  

that every single day and in most interactions  whether I was going going to get a coffee taking  

an Uber uh going out going to the grocery store I  mean everyday activities I was doing them all in  

Spanish every day so for me as a Spanish learner  I loved it because I was creating my own immersion  

experience without leaving my home country so if  you can't go to a place where they speak English  

you have to create your own immersion experience  at home what does that look like it could be  

listening to music radio news TV programs Netflix  movies in English for your passive learning for  

your listening comprehension could also be podcast  YouTube I mean we have so much access to Media  

these days for that listening comprehension  or for reading comprehension for practicing  

speaking and writing of course there are so  many options online practicing your speaking  

and you're writing with a tutor online practicing  your speaking and your writing even by yourself  

it's fascinating when you record yourself speaking  you often realize the mistakes that you make and  

where you can improve when you listen to yourself  afterwards it's actually a great tool even if it  

feels a little bit funny or embarrassing I highly  recommend that you do this so that is helpful  

joining a course like my complete English course  fluent communication can also help you to create  

that immersive environment from home so these  are some of the myths that hold us back because  

we think oh I don't live in an English-speaking  country oh I'm too old oh I can't speak English  

because my grammar is not perfect and oh I've  only you know I don't have that much time or I  

haven't been learning English that much time or I  don't have time to start learning English or like  

my vocabulary is really small so I don't know if  I can actually have a conversation or my grammar  

is not perfect I can't speak fast enough I have  to plan out these elaborate sentences in my mind  

I mean these are all excuses everything I just  said there is very normal and common among English  

Learners I've heard these things over and over I  have thought these thoughts for myself learning  

Spanish I'm a native English speaker so I wouldn't  think them about English but these are so common  

the powerful thing that you can do that we can  do is to stop these thoughts when we have them  

and replace them with the solutions that I just  gave you remember it's never too late to learn  

it's not really about how much time you have  it's about your focus it's not about living or  

traveling to an englishspeaking country it's about  providing yourself those resources materials and  

the environment that make it conducive to learn  English it's about having enough vocabulary to  

start even if it's just to say hello how are  you that means you can start right now you can  

start having a conversation right now even from  the first day day one learning English you can  

start having conversations as long as you just  you know throw yourself into them and learn as  

you go and grammar is important but it's not  everything so again learn as you go you can  

always improve your grammar and learn more  advanced ways to communicate but that comes  

from all of these other things living English  making it part of your lifestyle noticing where  

you can improve as you go so at the end of the  day the most important thing is to take action  

and don't let these myths or these excuses be a  barrier to your taking action so if you're ready  

to take action with your English learning my two  suggestions for you are the go natural English  

complete course and live XP which I showed  you let me know if you have any questions  

about either and I'll be watching for you in the  comments thanks so much for watching bye for now