English Expert Shares How To Become Fluent Faster

Today I'm talking to Kris.

Welcome, Kris.

You're an English teacher.

You've created many training programs,  you've opened language schools,  

you've helped thousands of  students around the world.

So tell us, in your opinion, what makes an  English learner successful or unsuccessful?

Good question.

So for me, a successful English learner  is someone who's open to change.

Because so much of learning a language is about  changing something that you believe right First.

You believe that language works in a certain way.

And when you learn your first language, you  might think that everything works that way.

So when you learn a new language,  there's a lot of new things to learn.

And so some people are ready for  that, and some people aren't.

And I think that the people who are  ready for for changing something about  

how they think that those people  do better in in English courses.

Interesting.

So do you mean, for example,  if they're in their language,  

they have a certain grammatical structure or the  

way they pronounce sounds, they need to be  open to learning how it's done in English.

Is that what you mean?

Or something else?

Yeah, yeah, this is like directly  about about the language.

This is definitely true and I think it's true in  in maybe a a broader sense at the same time that  

when when we're approaching learning a language,  it's actually an identity level question.

It's about who we are.

And so you have to be open to changing a  little bit about how you see yourself, right?

Like, so those sounds in in one  language carrying over to another,  

you just believe that that sound is always  that made that way or by by forming,  

by shaping your mouth that way or  right putting those sounds together.

So you have to admit to yourself that oh, there's  another way and and I wasn't doing that before.

You have to admit that you didn't do  something before that now you have to do so.

A person who's very stubborn  doesn't like to do that.

That's a very good point.

Yes, you have to be very open.

You have to be willing to admit you're  wrong, willing to identify your mistakes,  

willing to accept failure, learn from failure.

And in your experience, the  students you've worked with,  

is that something that comes easy to them or is  that something you see them really struggle with?

Some people get it faster than others.

That's why I kind of characterize  it as openness to change.

And so I think that's just some  people naturally are are more  

open and and some are less and  it just makes it a lot easier.

But yeah, I think that someone can can work on  

that skill and it's not like a it's not  a static thing, it changes itself so.

So over time, I think that people as  they learn the language, they start to  

to think of it this way, that it's that it's  like something that's separate from them.

You might even see, maybe you've  seen with some of your students how  

they might have a different voice  when they're speaking a different  

language or or maybe you've done this  when you speak a different language.

For me, studying Spanish, I saw that like, I  would always make my voice go a higher register.

And speaking Russian, I was always  trying to push it a lot lower.

And it was just like mimicking the sounds that I  thought I heard from the from the other language.

But I found that sometimes for students,  

this happens when they kind of feel  like there are two different people.

Like, I'm this person when I speak this language  and I'm this person when I speak my language.

And so I try to help them bring those  two things together because you can't  

really have those two people your your  first person who you really think you  

are is going to fight against this thing  that's that's not really who you are.

So we try to integrate or bring together  those two those two parts so the person  

can have the identity, can feel like  they are an English speaker actually.

So really good point, because  a lot of my students, they will  

never label themselves as just an English speaker.

They won't say, oh, I speak English.

Even if they've been living in an English  speaking country for years and years,  

they'll always just say, oh,  I'm I'm learning, I'm a learner,  

And although I don't think there's anything wrong  with saying you're a learner, at some point you do  

just have to say I'm an English speaker, I speak  English and just accept that as your identity.

I I agree.

I see that with my students too.

Mm hmm.

And is there anything practical, any specific tips  

or advice or strategies that you can  share to help someone who's currently  

struggling with that try to embrace the  the identity of being an English speaker?

Yeah, I think, you know, I  I think that it ties into  

how you can connect learning with  real life, not just with language.

So it's like if you're going to  learn a language then you need  

to be able to apply it somewhere or  else you're going to lose it, right.

The the old rule, use it or lose it.

So I think that's putting it into  use is really the best way because  

it doesn't have to, like it's not supposed  to completely change who you are, right?

That's that would be a little extreme.

It's it's just a tool that you use.

So putting you in the situation  where you have to pull that tool  

out-of-the-box and and put it to use, it  lets you see how it fits into your life.

So, so yeah so I mean simple things like  if you, if you have a favorite activity  

maybe like maybe when you're driving the the  classic example like driving the car you're  

listening to a podcast or an audio book  or a YouTube video or something, right.

And so you're like driving time,  

now is English time or shower time  is another good one or something.

I think these, these or  cooking is another good one.

I think these situations where you have  to get out of your conscious mind and you  

go into some repetitive action that's autonomous.

If you can try to put a language there,  then you're kind of absorbing a lot in  

the process of doing this for for  me, it's Spanish in the shower.

I always listen to Spanish music in the shower  and I'm listening, trying to catch the sounds.

And yeah, that that's that's one easy  thing that I think people can do.

Yeah.

So just finding those times in their  day where they can add in English  

to their everyday routines,  that's really great advice.

And what about the students you've  worked with when they come to you?

Do they have this one thing they're  struggling with or they're frustrated with?

And what is that and how do  you help them overcome it?

Yeah, usually that is speaking.

They say I don't have anybody to speak with.

And so in the beginning what I decided to do was  

I would just teach a lesson  every day at the same time.

And I did that for like 40 days in a row  and then decided this is kind of extreme.

I need a couple days off sometimes.

And so then we started to bring on  more teachers and more teachers.

So now we have a a a place where we have  24/7 a person can just log in and and speak.

So this is, this is how we've tried  to to solve that problem basically.

I saw that there were a lot of different programs  and apps and things out there, but speaking takes  

a lot of human power, and it seemed like  there weren't a lot of options for that.

So that's when I I set that up.

But when I set that up, that was we  had to teach people how to use Zoom.

Nobody knew what Zoom was.

Nobody had been using that.

So there were a lot of little things  like that that came up along the way.

But but yeah, for speaking, I think  it's just there are a lot of people  

out there and you can find people to  practice speaking with and there are  

a lot of good teachers that  that can help with that too.

And so finding something that works for  you and someone you like practicing with  

who can help you, I think that's really important.

That's a great point and I echo that.

I would say the number one frustration  I hear as well is with speaking skills.

And sometimes my my students, they act like it's  difficult to find someone to speak English with,  

whereas in my mind, I think, but we're everywhere,  native speakers are everywhere around the world.

So, aside from using your program,  

maybe they don't have the financial  resources or the ability to.

How can students find, connect with  and and just speak in English with  

native speakers or just other  English learners practicing?

It's a good question.

So there's lots of groups, forums and and  places online to to meet other people.

We set up a a group has like  400,000 people in there now.

But but yeah, I always see the the funniest  thing for me is when I go in onto Facebook  

or another platform and I see people  commenting like who wants to speak with me?

Who wants to speak with me.

So that's not so successful.

And so, so a lot of times people  kind of think that it should be  

either that easy or or nothing  at all, all or nothing maybe.

And so like leaving a comment everywhere, I need  a speaking partner, it's it's not going to work.

You're going to find somebody maybe who will speak  

with you one time and they're  not going to be that serious.

So it's more about finding serious  speaking partners because you know,  

and that's that's the problem with a  lot of the apps that kind of connect  

you to a random person and you're  supposed to have speaking practice.

The the issue with that is, and this  comes kind of back to my whole philosophy  

of of teaching English, is that it's a  communication is built on a relationship.

So if I only see you once every year, then  the conversation isn't going to go very far.

We're always going to say, hi, how are you?

I'm Kris.

Is that a lot of students,  That's all they can say.Kris

Nice to meet you.

My name is Kris and I'm from the United States.

And then that's it.

And and they've had that  conversation 50, * 100 times.

They've done that a lot.

So the so you have to get past that.

And the way to get past that is to have a  longer relationship, a real relationship.

So I think that a student's  relationship with a teacher  

should model a real life relationship that  they're going to have out in the world.

So it's going to progress through stages.

You're going to start more formal and then you're  

going to get less formal as  you know each other better.

You're going to talk about more topics, right?

So, So if you just go online and just  try to find a random person like that,  

then it's not going to work.

So it should be based around some  kind of mutual interest, right?

So you asked about other learners.

So if it's other learners,  this is the issue I see.

And they need to find a common interest.

If it's with native speakers, then like,  

it's not going to just be interesting for  that person to just talk with you probably.

So again, it's like, what's the common interest?

What's the goal?

And probably that brings us back  to another big issue with students,  

right Is is what is the real reason  that you're learning English?

And why do you bring that up?

In your experience, what is it for students?

What's the real reason that  you you hear about your from  

your students of why they're learning English?

Usually when we ask them, though, they're gonna  say something like to speak better or to like,  

it's very like it, Like it's not a joke,  

but like, this is directly what  they're thinking about, right?

And it it it's sort of about what's  the want and what's the need.

So I want to speak more fluently.

I want to connect with more  people around the world.

I want to access more information.

I want to get a better job and all  of those things are just really like  

symptoms of them not finding comfort in  themselves of of using this thing right.

So maybe because of the level,  

like they feel like they don't have the  level of skill to do it or the experience.

Maybe they feel intimidated by it.

But but yeah, it's usually  something deeper, right?

And and so usually they're talking  about these things that don't really  

get at like how they're going to  use English, like get a better job.

This is, this is a good example, at least like.

But thinking that English itself  will get you the better job is wrong,  

because you still have to use  it somehow to get the job.

So I like to.

Sorry, sorry, it's talking too much.

No, no, it's great.

I was just going to ask you to clarify that point.

So instead of saying I want to get a  better job because that seems like a  

very natural thing to say,  I certainly hear it a lot.

It seems normal.

If I heard it So I want to get a better  job, What would be a a better phrasing or  

an alternative to that that would  be more helpful for that student?

Yeah, I think I want to get a better job.

Is a good like it is a good statement.

But I want to speak better or I want to be.

I want to be fluent, for example,  we hear that a lot, right?

I want to be fluent.

This one isn't so great because  like how do you define that?

Like what do you what is fluent to you and and  what level of fluency do you need for what?

And so it's very ambiguous, right?

And so it's an unattainable goal.

Get a better job, get a, get a  better job, higher paying job.

It's a it has at least the clear  result that you can get, right?

But I think that the the core thing  here is like thinking, thinking.

So the point I was trying to make,  

which I guess I didn't make very clearly,  was like language as the goal in itself.

If the person says that that language is the goal,  

then that's usually not the case in in my  experience that usually there's another goal.

There has to be something else.

And I like to compare language to  money in the way that it's a tool.

And like nobody just says, like  I want to have better money,  

you you want you want more units of it or  you want to use it to buy something else.

So by itself, it's not worth anything.

So language is kind of like that too.

It's like, what are you going to use it for?

You can have lots of words or not a lot of words,  and you can still use them to do different things.

So it's the emphasis on what  you can do with the skill.

I want to speak better English, so  I can get a better job, so I can  

provide a better life for my family,  help my parents support my community.

It's getting to the deeper motivation behind it.

Yeah, yeah.

The deeper motivation, Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

And for all the students listening,  it's something you should consider,  

because being motivated to improve your  English is one of the reasons that you'll  

either spend the time or you won't  spend the time improving your English.

And actually, Speaking of time, that is  something I hear a lot from my students.

They say, Jennifer, I need to improve my English,  

I want to improve my English,  but I don't have time.

Is that something you've  experienced with your students?

And how do you help them in a busy world that we  

live in when they have so many  other responsibilities as well?

Yeah, I think one of the things we talked about  

before which was combining English  with an activity that you already do.

I I feel like this is a good way  to to tackle not having time.

So you combine these activities, but  that's not always possible and that's  

like a a different kind of learning  than when you're focused, right.

So.

So how do you really find the time for it?

I would say it it's just like everything else,  

right if we're if we're if we're going to  talk about productivity and time management.

So it's it's about really identifying  which which blocks of time are not being  

used correctly now and and fitting it in there.

This can be challenging for students because  you have to sometimes balance your your your  

timetable with a teacher's timetable or with  another student or or something else and so  

that can be a challenge and so it's it's really  about prioritization at the end of the day right.

If if this is a priority then it will  take place of something lower priority.

And I think that it's also important to  note the cyclical nature that the cycle,  

the circle of of English, right.

Because it's it's like a lot of  people compare it to going to the gym,  

working out exercising or taking a shower.

Like you take a shower one time, you're clean.

That doesn't mean you're clean forever.

The same is true of of an English lesson.

So you take the English lesson one time,  

you you got some new information you got  added fluency but that doesn't mean you're  

going to be fluent forever and and  you'll lose it if you don't use it.

So so yeah you have to find the time as far  

as prioritization against other  activities you're already doing.

But you could.

You could connect those  activities like we said before,  

but then you also need to remember  that it has to repeat, right?

So you don't want to fall into the  trap where you do it a couple times  

and then you come back three months  later and then start from zero again.

Excellent points you provided.

I really love your use it or  lose it for everyone watching.

That's a proverb in English.

Use it or lose it.

I don't know if it translates into other  languages, but I'm sure you get the sense of it.

If you don't use your English,  you will lose your English.

So you have to like Kris said, that cycle.

You don't just shower once and  expect to be clean forever.

So the same thing with English.

I really love that analogy.

Thank you for sharing that.

No, Kris, you live in Florida.

Can you tell everyone about the diversity of  Florida from a language perspective and what  

life in Florida is like for you from  a diversity of language perspective?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

It's it's a really interesting place to live.

The part of Florida where I live,  it's mostly English speaking.

There's still a lot of Spanish speakers,  

but if you go to some parts of Miami,  then the majority is Spanish speaking.

So you can walk into shops and  people are only speaking Spanish.

I I mean I can find those places here  too, but it's harder to find them.

But Spanish is definitely the the major second  

language or or just a second  major language of Florida.

So that's a really interesting  environment to be in.

And I'm a parent, I have two daughters.

And so it's really interesting to see how families  

raise their children who who  speak more than one language.

So you know, some parents  who are Spanish speakers,  

they moved to the United States,  they both parents speak English.

Their child goes to school and and  maybe will struggle learning English,  

but some of them will say like, oh, I  want my child just to speak English.

I want them to.

So English is a real big thing for them.

Some parents maybe don't even  teach their children Spanish.

They speak Spanish, but they don't teach their  children Spanish and they say only English.

We just want them to speak English and then some.

Some families teach them  both and children speak both.

It's interesting to see people's choices,  

parents choices about raising  bilingual, bilingual children.

Apart from that, there's a lot of I don't live  too far from from the city here, Tampa, FL.

And there are a decent number of diasporas groups  of people from other countries who live here.

So you can hear.

My wife is Russian, so I I pick up on Russian  all over the place when we're walking around.

But but a lot of other languages too, yeah.

Well, thanks for sharing that.

And the reason I asked.

Because I wanted students get  some perspective of diversity.

And in North America because a lot of  students tell me they are very afraid  

of using their English with native speakers.

Particularly because they think native  speakers are going to judge them.

Judge them because of their accents, their grammar  mistakes, their lack of vocabulary and how they  

sound, and just those feelings really prevent them  from wanting to interact with native speakers.

So is that something that your  students have experienced?

And then how would you help them overcome that?

Yeah, yeah, there's the what did I say?

There's this phrase that I that I like to  say to characterize this Ah, it's so strange  

that people who are learning a language, they  they learn all of the rules of the language so  

that they can speak and sound like the people  who forgot all of the rules of the language.

That's.

A really good point.

So students are here studying rules, studying  the books and trying to speak correctly,  

but and trying to speak like a native when  the native people completely forgot the rules,  

don't care about the rules, and they're  not thinking about the rules at all.

So it's really like a language  learner thing to even think that  

you're that that someone's going to  care that you made a mistake, right.

Because the the first point  is you're just speaking.

It's just communication.

And then you have to consider how many native  

speakers that you meet have never  studied any other language before.

So they don't even know  what they're talking about.

So you you speak to them and they  might say, oh, you, what did you say?

Oh, I didn't understand.

They just don't have any experience  talking to foreign people and they  

don't have any experience with different accents.

If if a person from the other side of the country  came to that, they would hear that person say,  

oh you have an accent, they would say the  same thing to a person who's a native speaker.

So a lot of times non-native students  who are learning English to come to  

United States for example, they'll  get discouraged, upset, frustrated  

about about this that people might hear their  accent and and ask them to repeat something.

God forbid someone asked me to repeat something.

Native speakers ask other native  speakers to repeat stuff all the time.

It's it's not an issue.

But yeah, so I so I think especially the  rules when you when, when you're really  

focused on rules and being correct, then it can  really hold you back because you're thinking  

about the speech and and the language a lot  more than the people who you're talking to.

I'm glad you said that.

It's such a great point  for all of you to remember.

You spend a lot of time interacting with  English teachers, but just remember out  

there in the real world, you're talking to a a  regular person who is not an English teacher.

They know nothing about grammar rules,  although they speak the language.

Yeah, and I think most people are like  that, even in other languages too.

You kind of learn the grammar and the  rules when you're when you're young,  

but you learn how to speak from  your parents and your environment.

And so those rules were  kind of applied afterwards.

And that's a whole thing I think.

I think it's really a good idea  for learners to to learn about  

descriptive grammar and prescriptive grammar.

Basically, two types of rules, right?

Are these the rules that they  told me that I have to use,  

or are these rules to explain why people do this?

It's it's something that a lot of  students don't ever think about.

They just say book rule.

This person said it like the book that's good.

Didn't say like the book that's bad.

That's not really how language works.

Yeah, you're right.

It's it's everyone watching.

It's so much more flexible in the real world,  

which we both try to share with  you in our lessons, of course.

Now, Kris, you mentioned that  you you're learning Spanish,  

now you're married to a Russian, so I'm  sure you've learned Russian as well.

So tell us about your experience,  

learning languages, some of your successes,  failures, and anything you want about that.

Yeah, I I think I'm definitely not  a not like a polyglot or someone  

who has who can boast about a lot of  success of learning lots of languages.

I was just always very interested  in language as a child.

My dad just had different like  like dictionaries, like English,  

French dictionary, Romanian dictionary.

So I would just go through these things and and  it was like figuring out a puzzle and so then  

when I went to school I studied different  Romance languages in school and and so I  

was really interested in in in language and  just being open to kind of that like learn.

I like to learn about foreign  cultures and that stuff.

So one thing I noticed was that I had studied  Italian mostly through high school because I  

lived in Italy for two years and then in before  that in middle school I had studied Spanish.

So when I moved to Italy, my first instinct  was when I tried to speak Italian to people,  

Spanish came out of my mouth, the  Spanish that I had learned at school.

And I thought, that's weird.

And then when I went to learn Russian,  

Italian came out of my mouth and it  was like, what's what's going on?

Why can't I just say the language that I want  And and then I had it again after Russian  

when I completely forgotten Spanish, try to  learn Spanish again, Russian starts coming.

So I think what happens is you you like  make a place in your brain when you learn  

the first foreign language, you make like a part  of your your brain that says there's there's your  

first language and then everything that's not  first language is over in this other category.

And so everything kind of gets  put into this one category.

And then as you learn more languages, you  already have the skill of categorizing,  

but now you have to create another category.

And So what we talked about today  about connecting language learning  

to to activities, that really  has been a big thing for me.

So Russian is really the  only language that I became  

fluent in and it's definitely  because I had a real world use.

So I was in that place, I wanted to  connect with people and I there was  

a website that's like a like  a Russian version of Facebook.

And I would basically just go on  there and add random people and  

then they would send me these strange messages.

And so I that's how I started.

I would just go like step by step, like on a chess  board, you like moving one piece and one piece.

And I would see what they say back  to me and I'd say something and then  

I would see how far I could get the conversation.

Before they just got angry that I  was not writing the right stuff.

And eventually that turned into like being  able to write on the keyboard faster than  

most Russian people, being able to like,  write pretty well and and then from there  

speak well because on social media people  tend to write closer to how they speak.

So, So yeah, that that's kind  of my little language journey.

An interesting journey you had with Russian and  what I took away from that is you made it fun,  

you had fun with it, you had fun when you  were making mistakes and you just kept at it.

And like you said, you had the real world  reason to need to learn Russian as well.

So that's great that you had that experience.

So, Kris, if my students were to  do only one thing this week to  

improve their English fluency,  what should that one thing be?

Talk to somebody.

Have a conversation in English.

Just maybe you studied and maybe  you went to a class at a university,  

or maybe you maybe for work there was  something you had to do that was in English.

Like maybe you read an e-mail.

Whatever you had to do, just just practice  getting the words out of your out of your mouth.

You just have to do it enough times  for it to become more automatic.

So you know, if you want  to get strong, do push ups.

So do some push ups this week.

You heard it.

Everyone talk to one person this week.

That's a very simple thing to do.

That's achievable.

I know you can do it.

Talk to one person this week.

Great advice, Kris.

So Kris, where can my audience connect with you?

Well, they can find us at krisamerikos.com  or just go to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook,  

look for English with Kris Amerikos and you can  

connect with us there and and  get whatever you need from us.

And of course everyone, I'll put the links  in the description so make sure you check.

Thank you so much Kris for being here and  sharing your wonderful advice with my students.

Thank you so much.