"Struggling - Fluent": He Did THIS To Finally Become Fluent!

Hello everyone, today I'm talking to Zeeshan.

Welcome Zeeshan.

He's from Pakistan and he's going to share some secret tips and advice to help you improve

your fluency and tell us how he became fluent.

So Zeeshan, when did you Start learning English?

First of all, Jennifer, I hope that you're fine and good afternoon to you there in Costa

Rica.

Basically, I started learning English language from my school age.

You know, when I was studying in my school, we used to study English at school.

We had teachers and we had a setup.

We used to, you know, study English at school.

But it was pretty late when I came to realize that there is a lot of room for improvement

in my English language.

So after that realization, it was then that I basically started, you know, working on

my language skills.

I started working on my grammar, my pronunciation, accent, you know, sentence structure and all

those.

And it was about two to three years before when I joined the university, when I started,

you know, working on my English language skills.

And today I can say that I have improved a lot and I can jump start a conversation with

a native speaker just like I'm doing now.

So yeah, I've improved a lot.

I've improved a great deal.

And you said you started when you were in school, so did you go to an all English school

or did you just have one class in English but you studied in your native language?

How did that work?

No, it was not an all English sort of school, you know, it was an early medium school as

we have in our country.

But we used to study English, you know, every now and then we used to have a, a special.

That was dedicated for English language.

You know, we had a teacher.

So I just want to basically emphasize that, yeah, we, we are learning English from, you

know, our school level.

But basically, even after going through all those, you know, years of tedious learning

of this language, still there are only a few people out there who are really able to, you

know, jumpstart a conversation with a native speaker or who can speak fluently or who are

able to communicate themselves.

So yeah, we are learning in our schools.

But my school in which I was studying, it was not in all English school.

So yeah, we used to study English.

And why do you think that is?

Because I've heard many, many students tell me that that I studied English all throughout

my school years, which is very common for most countries.

I studied English all throughout my school years, but when I graduated, when I finished

school, I couldn't understand native speakers.

I did not feel confident having a conversation.

I couldn't actually use English in the world.

Why do you think that is?

I think that's a really, very important point.

And I think I really want to emphasize on this point 'cause I think that the education

system is, I would say, responsible for this 'cause we are, you know, just trying to teach

kids just, you know, a bunch of vocabulary and maybe about the grammar and all those

things.

But somehow we are not empowering them or motivating them to, you know, to be able to

speak.

You know, the main purpose of, you know, our learning English at our school or or university,

especially in non-native countries like Pakistan is to be able to communicate effectively in

their language.

But yeah, as you have mentioned that even after, you know, passing through all those,

you know, working through those tedious time, very few people can communicate effectively.

I think it has to do with the education system.

They are not empowering basically the the students in a way so that they, you know,

might be able to communicate themselves effectively.

Effectively, in English language, although it is a very important language, it is a dominant

language and we need in, you know, almost in every walk of life.

So I think it has to do something with our education system.

We, you know, need to upgrade our education system in a way that when students come out

of school or their university, you know, they should be able to confidently communicate

themselves to an English language.

Otherwise, what's the use of it?

Why teach English?

I mean, so, yeah.

Yeah, it's a very, very through point and something like I said, many students.

So if you're watching and you feel you went through your entire school.

And didn't feel confident at the end, just know that's very common.

So that happened to you.

You recognized I need to still improve my English skills.

So what specific steps did you take?

What, what process did you use?

What was your study routine?

Your methodology to improve your English?

Basically, first of all, Jennifer, I, you know, pointed out the Gray areas in my language

on which I had to work, you know, work upon.

And then I started consulting quality material for improving, you know, my language skills,

for improving my grammar.

I started reading newspapers.

I started, you know, listening to podcasts and most importantly, I want to mention here

two things which I did which really helped me in improving my language skills and #1

is diary writing.

I used to write diary a lot.

You know, at the end of the day, I would sit down and write about my daily routine.

How did my day went on, you know, So it helped me in refining my language skills.

Point #1 Second, I started speaking with my fellows, with my teachers.

You know, students feel very much hesitant or they don't feel at ease while speaking

with their fellows.

But in my case, you know, I thought let people say what they want 'cause you know, I, as

I mentioned that students are not motivated to speak.

You know, if people from my country are listening to this, I want to tell them we should motivate

students.

So when they are not motivated to speak, they don't really improve themselves.

So what I did did was I started speaking with my fellows at the university, with my teachers.

So it provided me confidence to refine my language skills more and more.

And that is the way I, you know, get a lot of confidence regarding my English language.

Yeah.

Excellent points, and I've recommended this to all my students.

You've probably heard me say you should keep a journal, diary, journal.

They're the same thing.

Keep a journal, Write about your daily routine, summarize your day, which is exactly what

you did.

And also you said you just practice speaking with people who were available to you.

Now, what if there's a student watching right now and they say, but Zeeshan.

But Jennifer, I don't have anyone available to me.

I work from home.

I live in a non-english speaking country.

There is nobody I can speak to.

What advice would you give to that student?

I think that the more methods and technologies have created, you know, a lot of space for

such people, you know, who are working from home, you know, you can book a tutor online

nowadays and you can have a conversation with him.

You can select a topic of mutual interest and then you guys can go on speaking about

it.

And if you're working from home, of course, you have your family members, your siblings,

brothers, sisters and all those, you should start speaking in English with them.

So in that way, you would be refining not only your language and communication skills,

but they will also be getting benefit out of it.

You know, I mean, nowadays I think it's not an excuse if I'm allowed to say.

That's a good point.

And I've shared this before that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it

to others.

So even like you said, if you're a brother or a sister or a family member, even if they

don't speak English or they have a very low level, teach them, teach them what you're

learning.

It's it's a great way to practice.

Now, what bad habits did perhaps you have when you were trying to improve your fluency?

Or what bad habits have you seen that many students have when they're trying to improve

their fluency?

I think that Jennifer, when it comes to language learning, I think that it's really very important

to_the psychological aspect, you know, of language learning.

Then we are exposing ourselves to a totally foreign language.

Then, you know, we are at unease, we are hesitant.

I think that's what most of the students are doing.

When, if I talk with respect to my own country, as I mentioned earlier, we study English at

school level, at high school level, at universities, but even then we are not able to speak 'cause

they are basically hesitant.

And deep down psychologically, I think they are not ready to accept their new language.

It seems alien to them.

And, you know, with that thinking, with that psychology, if I'm allowed to say that you

are with that sort of, you know, thinking, it's really difficult for you to learn something

new.

First of all, if you want to learn a new language, then you have to embrace the differences.

Of course, every language has its own, you know, pronunciation, accent and all those.

When we speak here in English in our country, sometimes people come and say, what is this?

Why are you speaking in that particular accent?

So they basically demotivate us.

So I think those are some factors which don't allow you or those are the bad habits.

I would say they don't allow us to study and apart from that, students at the school or

university level, I think they are not giving the due attention that should be given to

English language 'cause you know, let me elaborate on this.

English has become the lingua franca of the modern world.

You know, you find English speaking people in every nook and corner of the world.

With such an important language, you need to give the proper time and emphasis to it.

You know if I talk in in terms of my country, English is of very, very you know importance.

All the competitive examinations like CSS and PMS, if you have heard of those, they

are in English.

So we need to give the proper time and proper we need to put proper energy into learning

this language if we really want to improve ourselves in it.

I think these are some points which come to my mind.

Well, it's great that you spent the time and of course, all the students watching this.

You're spending the time right now.

So that's great.

You're showing that dedication and improvement.

Now, Zeeshan, you mentioned the the psychological issues, because I hear this a lot.

A lot of students say even if they do have a high level of English proficiency, they're

scared.

They're too afraid to get out there.

They're too afraid to go to job interviews, start conversations.

It's really that fear, which of course fear is psychological.

So do you have any specific strategies that you used to overcome that barrier and allow

you to start conversations with people?

I think that's a really very interesting and important question at the same time.

I think first of all, the first technique which I would like to recommend to students

is to practice a lot.

You know, you need to keep yourself in practice.

Like you can go and stand in front of the mirror and you can talk to yourself like in

English language about the topics which interest you.

So in that way, you can minimize your fear or any other psychological issue, if I might

say.

Secondly, you need to face your fears.

For example, if you are, if you're afraid to speak in public, if you're afraid to speak

in front of your friends, then you need to do the same.

Go and speak with your friends also engage them in language learning.

And I think by facing your fears and by practicing, there's a really very important point.

You need to keep yourself always, you know, in, in practicing.

You need to practice a lot if you want improvement, cause practice makes a man perfect.

You have heard the saying.

So there's the I think recommendation I would give.

Great advice.

Practice, practice, practice.

I say this all the time and I love how you mention that you just to do it.

There's that Nike expression.

Just do it.

It doesn't matter if you're afraid, just do it, just do it.

Great advice.

Now, I don't know if this is a issue you had, but I hear a lot from my students that I learned

so many different words.

I have this big vocabulary, but then when I go to open my mouth, I forget all my words

or the words just don't come out.

Is that something that you struggled with and if you did, how did you overcome that

or what advice would you give?

I think absolutely that is an issue or you know, with non-native speakers, you know,

when they try to use the vocab that they might have learned somewhere, you know, they just

sometimes forget 'cause you know, I think it's quite natural to be in that position.

And I also sometimes face that issue and what what do I recommend to, you know, overcome

that issue is you again, the, you know, concept of practice comes in.

You need to use those words which you have learned in your daily routine.

I mean, you need to incorporate those words into your daily life.

If you're just, you know, if you have a list of words, 100 words and you are just wrote

learning it, then I think it would be really difficult for you to use them when you when

you really need them.

If you want to have an active, you know, here comes the concept of active and passive vocabulary.

Active vocabulary is dead, which is in use, which you're able to use during your conversation.

So you need to practice a lot.

Incorporate those words in your daily routine to use them.

Secondly, I would say writing.

It is a habit which is diminishing, you know, from our society because we are too much attached

to the technology or, you know, people or all the youngsters are spending their holiday

surfing on the Internet.

And these arts, I would say arts, these skills are slowly and gradually diminishing.

So sit down with a pencil and a paper and try to write on a topic.

Start writing about something that interests you, about which you are, I mean about which

you have a particular interest in.

In that way, those words which are there in your unconscious when you start to write,

they will, you know, come down and in your expression.

So in that way, I think you can basically incorporate, or I mean use those words which

you have, which you had to learn someday in your daily routine.

I think that's the piece of advice I can give to students.

I completely agree with you and again, everyone, it comes down to practice.

So put that in the comments.

Practice, practice, practice.

And it's interesting you talked again about writing because I always have a pen with me.

It's by my side all the time.

It's in my purse.

Everywhere I go, I have a pen.

Writing is such a great skill and it does take that that passive and turns it into active

as well.

So great advice.

Now Zeeshan, you have made so much progress with your English, so share with us what are

your top goals for your future and why do you think your English skills will help you

achieve those goals.

I think it's a really very interesting question.

First of all, I am working so hard on my English language.

The first reason is I basically want to go for the top examinations in my country as

I had mentioned earlier for the CSS or the PMSI.

Think you might have heard of these examinations.

And in these exams, English is the most important component.

You know, we have two is about 12 exams and all those have English as a major component.

So I'm trying to work on my English language more and more so that I might be able to,

you know, crack those examinations and I might be the part of the bureaucracy of my country,

you know, and might be able to work for my people in my country.

Secondly, I think this is what really interests me.

I am not learning English for the sake of learning.

When you're learning a language, you are basically exposing yourself to a whole new culture.

You're exposing yourself to whole new ideas, philosophies, literature and all that.

So I also want to travel around the world in the future when I whenever I get the chance

to do so.

So I'm trying to improve myself more and more, more and more in this language so that when

I am able to go around the world, so I may not be facing any difficulty.

You're not talking to people and all that.

So these are my long term goals and English is really my love affair.

I'm so happy to hear that and I'm glad you have both professional goals and personal

goals as well.

That will really help you stay motivated.

So Zeeshan, if my students watching we're only to do one thing, they can only do one

thing this week to improve their English fluency.

What should they do?

I think that I should lay a lot of emphasis upon writing because nobody's talking about

writing out there.

You know, we are listening to podcasts, we are listening to audiobooks and doing all

sorts of things, but I think it's writing.

Writing is, you know, as I mentioned, is diminishing from our society where I, I don't think that

we write too much nowadays.

So I would suggest students to incorporate this habit of writing into their daily lives.

At the end of the day, just sit down with a pen and paper and try to write about your

daily routine, how, how, how did your day went on, your experiences and all those things.

It will not only help you in improving your communication skills, but it will also provide

you with an opportunity to do some reflection about their day.

So I think you know it would help you in both these both these ways.

I love that and I love that you include.

It's also a time for reflection.

You're writing about your day, your life.

You can look back on that a year from now and it will be the best story you ever read

because it's about you.

So everyone, I challenge you.

Follow Zeeshan's advice and write.

Write for three minutes, 5 minutes.

Just summarize one day this week.

So I challenge you, put challenge accepted, challenge accepted in the comments.

Put that in the comments.

Challenge yourself to write just one time this week.

Summarize one day.

Well, thank you so much, Zeeshan for being here and sharing all your amazing tips and

advice.

It was such a pleasure having you on and please everyone put thanks Zeeshan.

Thanks Zeeshan.

Put that in the comments as well.

So thank you again for being here.

I am also really thankful to you for having me here.

And I think it's really, it has really motivated me, you know, to improve myself in this language

further and further.

You know, it's really a great platform for students and youngsters like us where we can

come and share our experiences the way we learn our language.

And also it provides motivation to all those learners out there who, who might be struggling

with your language skills.

It's also, you know, a motivation for those people you know, to keep on learning.

You know, you need to constantly keep yourself in in a state of learning in only in that

way you can improve yourself in any language.

You don't need to give up.

Always keep in mind that whenever you are learning a new language, you should have determination

and perseverance in your mind.

You know, it's not a one day affair.

You cannot learn a new language in a month or two months or so.

You need to have perseverance and determination.

And with that, you will see that things will get bearer and bearer and you will start improving

day by day.

So thank you very much for having me, Jennifer.

Thank you.

See Sean.