Polyglot Shares the LAZY WAY To Become Fluent (And It Works!)

Hello everyone, today I'm very  excited because I'm talking to Purly.

So Purly, how many languages have you learned  and when did you first Start learning English?

So I learned I'm I'm learning like English.

English is my first language that I like.

Started to learn first foreign language and  

then later I learned French,  Japanese, Arabic and Spanish.

So that's all the languages that I'm  learning and improving right now.

And for English, I first came in contact  with English around five years old.

At that time, it was just a  lot of like passive input.

So I remember like my parents bought  like a whole like Disney story series.

So I just listened to them a lot  when I was young, very, very young.

And that's how I started my  English learning journey.

Oh, that's amazing that you had  exposure through just learning English,  

real content and you kept going and very  inspiring that you speak so many languages.

Now on your YouTube channel, you talk  about a lazy way to become fluent.

And I know all my students are very  busy and they want results fast.

So can you speak a little bit  more about what this lazy way is?

OK, yeah, So my lazy way is basically I try to  integrate my language learning into my daily life.

So it's not necessarily like a sit down in front  of the desk and then open a book kind of session.

It's more like, for example, when  I'm just like doing household chores  

like washing dishes, I listen to like  English podcast or any other languages.

Or like when I'm like taking a nap, I also  put on something as like a background music.

It's always going to be like a language that  I'm learning at that time and what else?

For example, when I'm like doing exercise,  I also listen to a lot of like things.

And also I like to watch YouTube videos a lot.

So I also watch topics that I'm really  interested in in my target language.

So that's basically how I try to integrate  like language learning into my daily life.

So for me that that becomes  like a lazy way because it's  

not really that like a study session anymore.

It feels like I'm just like enjoying it  and it's like a entertainment for me.

I love that and what a smart approach  because like you said, we're all busy.

We don't have time to just sit  down and study for an hour so  

you can do it while you're doing other things.

I really love that approach.

Thank you.

One thing I noticed about your YouTube  videos and what I really loved is that  

you're very honest about struggles  that you still have with languages,  

even though you said you've been learning  English since you were five years old.

You speak very fluently, but you admit that  you still feel nervous when you're speaking.

So can you share some strategies that you've found  

helpful for yourself to overcome  those feelings of nervousness?

Yes, so I so like to be honest, I still just  like you said, I still feel quite nervous when  

I'm speaking like a foreign language, even if  if if it's in English like right now, I still  

feel like sometimes I need extra time to think,  oh, what's the next sentence I'm going to say?

And then am I going to make it  like a correct sentence or not?

But one thing I would really suggest  you to try is to when you first started  

to start speaking with others, you can  try to memorize some useful phrases and  

like opening talk or like phrases that  you use often in your mother tongue.

So like when you really you got really  nervous and your mind goes blank,  

you could just use the phrases  that you memorize right away.

And I think sometimes after you say something  like it helps already, helps ease your nerves a  

lot and you will feel better and ease easier for  your mind to come up with more sentences to say.

So I would say just get by the 1st,  the starting of the conversation.

And yeah, that might help a lot.

I think that would help a lot, yeah.

Yeah, that's great advice and can  let let's make that practical.

So for English, what would be a phrase that that  you have in your vocabulary that you memorize,  

that you can use when you feel  stuck or when your mind goes blank?

So for example, if I'm like going  to say something like usually if  

it's someone that I've never met before,  and usually that's going to be the case.

And then it's about maybe I would just say like  where I'm from and what I'm doing right now.

And I would just like imagine people  will start be very curious about,  

for example, I'm a YouTube right now.

So they will be thinking, wow, So what do you do?

And then I will started to just like memorize  phrases such as, oh, I create videos about  

the topics of travels and language learning  and self development and things like that.

So I think these subjects and topics  like we could imagine in advance,  

like what would people be curious about and  prepare them in advance and for other things  

like for example, like other group of a  group of people are talking and like you  

are just maybe just listening and  you're trying to agree with them.

So I think I find phrases  such as, yeah, I think so too.

Yeah, that's so cool.

Wow, that's amazing.

Things like that to be very useful  because sometimes even if I don't  

really understand 100% what people  are saying, like in the in the group,  

I can still say that sentences and usually  it's not going to be a weird sentences that  

people will find out that you actually don't  really know what they are talking about.

So I use this kind of techniques to  get by my speaking session with others.

That's a really practical tip and for all my  students watching, definitely follow this advice.

Think of some phrases and write them down,  

practice them, and then that will help  you feel relaxed going into situations.

Thank you so much for sharing that, Pearly.

That's awesome.

Now also you I have these videos on YouTube  which I absolutely love where you are practicing  

speaking and you're doing it alone, but you're  practicing speaking in a foreign language.

And a lot of my students say that I can't improve  

my English because I don't  have anyone to speak to.

So can you talk about your strategy for  practicing your speaking alone without anyone?

Yeah, So I think 1 misconception  a lot of language learner has is  

that we need someone to practice speaking with.

But a lot of time you can actually do it yourself.

For example, you can start talking to yourself.

I know it's not going to be something that is  that easy when if you have never tried it before,  

but I would really suggest with  the technology we have right now.

For example, right now, I often use ChatGPT  to generate some simple conversation for me.

So I could just like refer to it,  

start practice conversation using  like the sentences chat GPD generate.

And I think talk to yourself is  probably, I think it is one of the  

best methods when you have no one to  talk to, to practice your speaking with.

Because I think speaking skill is the coordination  of your, how do you say like your brand,  

your mental efforts and also your physical  efforts that you have to pronounce it.

And then your brand has to think  of a sentence, form a sentence.

But you don't necessarily need  someone to practice these two skills.

So as long as you that your mouth actually  open and try to say something and try to  

form sentences in your head, then  you are already practice speaking  

actually like you don't actually need like  a person there to be with you to practice.

And sometimes I think there are advantages  of practice speaking with yourself as well.

For example, if there is someone with you,  if if, if he or she is a native speaker,  

you might get very nervous and  you couldn't even say a sentence.

But when you are speaking with  yourself, you won't really feel nervous.

I I suppose.

So you will feel like more comfortable saying  a lot of things and just like trying to.

Yeah, just generate and form different  sentences and pronounce it out loud.

So I would say like you, like you couldn't  really, like try that out yourself.

Yeah.

Well, that's an excellent strategy since most  of my students don't have anyone to speak to,  

even when they live in in a  country with native speakers.

Still, you're not just out and  about talking to people all day.

Most people are just sitting in  an office or sitting in a room.

So that's a great strategy.

Now you mentioned using ChatGPT.

Can you give us a specific prompt?

What would you enter into ChatGPT first to  generate this conversation so my students  

can open up ChatGPT and try this themselves?

So I usually I usually use  like very simple prompt.

For example, just give me a conversation  with like 2 friends meeting each other  

for the first time and give me a  simple one, not like a difficult one.

Something like that.

Then yeah, it will all like just like  give you a lot of like versions of it.

So like the prompt itself doesn't  have to be that complicated.

I feel like because chat GPD is very smart.

Yeah, absolutely.

So.

You get ChatGPT to give you the conversation  and then do you read the first line and then  

imagine you're answering the the question or or  how do you use that to actually practice speaking?

So I usually do it like two ways.

First is that I only ask ChatGPT to generate  like the line for one person like my partner.

But sometimes when I couldn't  think of too many sentences,  

I also ask ChatGPT needed to generate like  two people, like lines for two people.

So like, when I don't want to think  too much and I'm really tired,  

I just read along the whole  conversation from like that,  

say, like Mary and Tom, like the whole  conversation that chat GPD generated.

And then just like, read, read it out now.

And that's all, Yeah.

Well, that's a great strategy.

It's free, you're practicing your  speaking, you don't need a partner,  

and you're learning vocabulary, grammar  and expressions at the same time.

So what a great approach that  everyone should try today.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Now thinking about speaking, a lot of my  students will send me messages and say,  

Jennifer, I've been learning English my  whole life, maybe since I was five years old.

I can understand native speakers, I can read,  

I can write, but when I open my  mouth, the words just don't come out.

What advice would you give to those students?

I would say, I think most of the time  we are really afraid of making mistakes.

And it is like mainly because like  how we have been taught in school,  

I guess because we are asked to  take a lot of exams and maybe you  

have to say something in front of a lot  of people, like in front of a classmates.

And when you say something wrong,  your teacher will try to correct you.

I mean in, I think with a good intention to start  with, but most of the time it will kind of scare  

you and then you will have this like trauma  that you don't want to experience this again.

So I would say like most of the  time when we like couldn't really  

say something even though we want to, it's  because we are afraid of making mistakes.

So like later I also experienced that a lot when  I'm like in the beginner stage of the language.

So I actually like just like push myself and  even like give myself a rule that you know,  

like today I'm here to make mistakes.

If I do not make at least one mistake  here like tonight in this like session,  

then I'm not reaching my goal.

So I'm not like my goal is never like  I couldn't make any mistakes tonight.

I have to make perfect sentences all the time.

It's never like that.

It's always like I need to make at least  one mistake today and that's the end.

Like that.

That's the goal of like my  language learning that day.

So yeah, I use that kind of like mindset  to push myself to make as many mistakes  

as possible because this is how you can actually  say something when your practice is speaking with  

others because it's just so difficult, especially  when you are talking with a native speaker.

They speak really fast and  you really don't have time.

It's not like when you write or when you listen,  you have more time to think through it and then to  

check whether like you understand it or not  or like your grammar and things like that.

Like when it's like very fast, then you have to  just make mistakes to make yourself to to improve.

Yeah.

That's very powerful.

I'm here to make mistakes.

I'm here to make mistakes.

I think everyone should write that  down, remember it, say it every day,  

not just with languages, with anything in  life, anything that you're trying to do.

Because if you're not making  mistakes, like you said,  

you're probably not trying very hard,  you're probably not pushing yourself.

That's very powerful.

I'm here to make mistakes.

Wow, thank you for sharing that.

You're welcome.

Now speaking about mistakes, though, what about  these students who just, they can't get over  

this fear of being judged by native speakers  or this fear that if they make a mistake,  

they're not going to get the job or  they're going to get fired or something,  

something really bad is going to  happen if they make a mistake.

What, what strategies have you  used to to overcome that fear?

Just to push that a little more so students do  

feel more comfortable to get  out there and make mistakes.

Yeah, it's a really good question and I think  

it's definitely something that  is not that easy to overcome.

But one thing that I would try to imagine is  that if this person that I'm talking to is also  

learning like a second language, for example, if  this person is learning my native tongue, which  

is native tongue, which is Mandarin, Mandarin,  would I care that this person make mistakes?

I probably wouldn't care that much.

And I actually, I think I would think  that this person like it's very brave.

And then like he or she is willing to try  to actually speak such a difficult language.

So I think with this mindset, I will feel more at  ease when and I am going to speak with people and  

when I actually make mistake, I would feel like  most of the people would just understand it.

And there are going to be some people  that who just wouldn't understand it  

and feel like how could you make such  a simple mistakes and things like that.

There are always going to be people  like that, but I would just ignore  

that kind of people and like basically  think that oh, those kind of people,  

they just don't understand the difficulty  and challenge of learning a foreign language.

So yeah, that's basically how, like  the mindset that helps me to overcome  

this kind of fear of trying to, you know,  speak with someone in their native tongue.

Yeah.

Especially when I'm still in the beginner stage.

Yeah.

That's a powerful strategy because you're right,  

if we all imagine ourselves as the native  speaker and someone talking to us who made  

a couple grammar mistakes, what  would our personal reaction be?

And most of the time, it's not going to be  what we imagine the other person's reaction is.

So that's a very powerful strategy.

Thanks for sharing that.

Now, if my students were only going to do one  thing this week to improve their English fluency,  

to improve their English confidence,  what would you recommend they do?

I would definitely recommend doing shadow in  

practice because I really  like this practice myself.

For those who don't know what shadow in practice  is basically like, to put it very simple,  

is that you pick like either an article with  an audio audio version of it or like a video.

I think it would be easier that with a topic  

that really interested you and  then like also with subtitles.

And then you just like follow along with it.

You can post it, pause it, and  then just like repeat after it.

And then you just do it again and again and again.

And I really like to do this  practice because I think it's a great  

way to practice my pronunciation.

And also it really helps me to be more confident  with myself, especially when it comes to speaking.

Because I think the more you speak and then  the more you are used to pronouncing like  

this language English, then it's easier for  you like when you actually meet someone in  

real life to open your mouth because you  will no longer feel like it's not scary.

And then you will realize that  your pronunciation is actually  

not that bad after you practice  this like shadowing practice.

So I really like this practice myself and  I would really recommend it to everyone.

So shadow someone, find a audio or video clip,  

listen to a short section,  pause it and repeat it out loud.

Emphasis on out.

Loud.

Yeah.

Thank you for emphasizing.

Yeah, emphasizing on that exactly.

And how do you find these clips  or audio that you listen to?

I usually just try to look for it on  YouTube and then I just type in for example,  

I like travel vlogs or like talking kind  of like self development related topics.

So I just look for that kind of videos.

But I would say for beginners, I usually look  for channels I specifically teach that language,  

like teach English, because the host  in that case usually speaks slower.

So it's easier to follow and  shadow after this person, Yeah.

OK, that's great advice.

So as a beginner, focus on language  teachers because they speak slower,  

and then as you get more advanced, focus  on real content that you're interested in.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Excellent advice everyone.

So make sure you commit to shadowing practice.

Put shadow.

Put shadow in the comments  so we know you're committed.

Now Pearly, you have an awesome YouTube channel.

I love watching your videos, so  tell everyone a little more about  

where they can find you and what they  can expect on your YouTube channel.

So I in my YouTube channel, it's called  Bao Bao Purli BAOBAO&PEARLY my name.

So I make a lot of like language learning  videos and also travel vlogs when I get  

the opportunity to travel abroad  and also self development topics.

I really like interested in those topics.

So that's basically the three main  categories that I do in my channel right now.

So yeah, just feel free to come, Yeah,  just like join my little community in  

my YEAH channel, or you could also find  me on Instagram and other social media.

So, yeah, thank you.

I'll put that in the description  so everyone can easily find Pearly.

Well, thank you so much for being here  and sharing your advice with my students.

Thank you so much to for your invitation.