Don’t Believe These 5 Myths About Learning English

Hey everyone I'm Andrea your  Reallife English fluency coach  

and today's lesson is all about assumptions that  learners wrongly make when learning english so  

I'm here today to tell you all about  these myths and why you should not  

be paying attention to them because they  might actually be limiting your progress

before we get into the lesson I want to let  you know that we are here to guide you beyond  

the classroom to live and learn and speak  english in the real world so be sure to hit  

that subscribe button and the bell down below  so that you don't miss any of our new lessons  

so myth number one is that fluent speakers don't  make mistakes and this is a really big one that I  

think many people believe that is really not true  even native speakers make mistakes all the time  

and fluent speakers do as well so you shouldn't  be afraid of making mistakes when speaking  

in fact as a language learner you should be making  lots of mistakes and you shouldn't be afraid to  

you should actually see these mistakes as  incredibly valuable to your learning journey as a  

language learner myself when I make mistakes those  are the ones that I really tend to remember so if  

I make a mistake and then I reflect on it I will  work on that so that it doesn't keep happening  

again so you need to do the same and it's really  going to help you to progress further what it's  

all about is connection over perfection so you  want to be connecting with the person that you're  

speaking with you want to be able to communicate  your ideas with them but you don't need to speak  

perfectly so my advice to you with this particular  myth is to relax and make lots of mistakes  

okay so myth number two is that you must  study or live in an english-speaking country  

now this definitely also is not true as well you  don't need to rely on doing something like this  

to be able to speak english fluently whilst it  would be a wonderful experience for sure and  

traveling is amazing it might actually be a lot  more difficult now with everything that's going on  

in the world but it can also become very expensive  what I would recommend instead is actually maybe  

planning your own trip that can be a lot cheaper  and you can get to travel around and see lots more  

different places but you do need to make an effort  to actually mix in with locals because what can  

tend to happen is that you meet people from your  own country and then you just get speaking to them  

and spending a lot of time with them rather than  immersing yourself in the english language if this  

isn't an option for you that's totally fine we  live in the technology age which is incredible  

there are so many resources available to us there  are so many options for you to be practicing your  

english and to meet like-minded people I highly  recommend that you join an online community where  

you'll meet people that are learning the english  language just like you and you'll probably find  

people with similar interests to you as well  that you can communicate with and connect with  

in fact our fluency circle global community is  a great place for this and one way of doing this  

is by joining our fluency circle global community  which could be a great place for you to start  

if you join our real life native immersion course  you have access to not only a 41-week course  

that's going to take you on a global adventure  of learning english and speaking english in the  

real world but you will meet like-minded people  where you can practice your english daily and  

the best part is you can try it right now for  free with our three-part learning power series  

so all you have to do is click up here or in  the description box below to learn more and  

sign up now that's a great way for you to join  a language community and I highly recommend it  

so my advice to you with this myth is to  make english a lifestyle and immerse yourself  

in the language by doing some of these  things whichever option is available to you  

now myth number three is that you need a  certificate or external validation to be fluent  

now again this is a really big one and it is not  true at all and that's what I'm here to tell you  

so I have many friends who have studied  english with a particular institution  

and they go through all the different certificates  that you can get and they might actually on paper  

have a really high level of english but when it  comes to speaking they find that they cannot speak  

english and they get very frustrated because  they find it so difficult to communicate so  

it's important to note that this might actually be  necessary for you for your studies or for your job  

and I completely understand that and that's where  it can be quite useful but don't rely on this only  

you will need to use other methods and to practice  speaking english more so that you can become more  

fluent don't just rely on that certificate on the  other hand I know many people who have never taken  

any of these tests and are really confident when  speaking in english so it just goes to show you  

that it's absolutely not necessary but if you do  want to go down that route and get these external  

validations for whatever reason maybe you actually  really need to or maybe you just want to mark your  

progress and know roughly what your level is  that's completely fine my advice to you is not  

to rely on it completely and look at other options  as well in fact ethan shared some really valuable  

advice about this also over on our instagram so  i'll link that in the description box below so  

that you can check it out after this lesson okay  so myth number four is that when you're fluent you  

understand everyone now again this is a really big  one that many people assume will happen when you  

are fluent but it is really not true as a native  even I don't understand everyone fully there are  

certain accents certain english accents that I  have not been exposed to as much and so sometimes  

I struggle to fully understand every word but  that's not necessary it's more important to get  

an understanding overall of what's being said  and not expect to understand every single word  

this is a time where survival phrases will  really help you so I highly recommend that  

when you're learning english you learn these types  of what we call as survival phrases such as saying  

things like can you repeat that please or saying I  didn't quite catch that can you repeat it or even  

saying I'm sorry I don't understand so rather than  having a very confused look on your face or saying  

what or or like something that culturally isn't so  great it might be considered rude learning these  

types of phrases where you don't fully understand  someone can really help you in those situations  

it's great to watch tv series and movies and  listen to songs but don't forget that some of  

these can be really fast there's also lots of  connected speech and the reduction of words and  

lots of other things sometimes people even  mumble like for example I sometimes find it  

difficult to understand ariana grande because  in some of her songs it sounds great but she's  

mumbling and I have no idea what she's saying  so if you are watching tv or listening to songs  

don't expect to understand 100 of it you know  try and listen to it see what you can understand  

and keep listening and the more you do that I'm  sure the more you'll start to understand but it's  

not necessary to understand everything do remember  also that natives miss things too it's not really  

important to understand everything it's about  understanding the context so next time you're  

watching tv in your own language or listening  to a song really pay attention and think about  

whether or not you're understanding everything  or you're just understanding the context of it  

and that's a really great measure so that you can  see the difference in your native language and the  

language that you're learning english so my advice  to you for this one is don't feel bad if you don't  

understand everything just try and expose yourself  to more diverse range of english accents and media  

and things to listen to so that you're listening  very much to a whole range of things whether  

it's tv series movies people you're speaking  to or listening to music okay so our fifth  

and final myth for you today is that fluency is  permanent this really isn't true because lifelong  

learning demands lifelong habits so unless you are  particularly skilled at learning languages you're  

going to have to continue to keep up with it and  to keep speaking in english you don't ever stop  

you're going to have to create a structure or  habits and really a lifestyle that allows you to  

keep on learning and to keep on using the language  because if you don't use it you might lose it  

and this is really true and really important to  remember so the most successful learners are the  

ones that treat it like a craft so they practice  daily in one way or another so that they don't  

lose their english fluency or their abilities at  speaking and communicating effectively with people  

in fact I highly recommend that you check  out this lesson with ethan where he spoke  

about ways that you can improve your communication  skills in english so you can click up here or in  

the description box below to check that out next  so my advice to you with this myth is to use it  

or lose it plain and simple okay so now that we've  covered these myths about learning english it's  

time for you to reflect and think about whether or  not you have actually accepted some of these myths  

what is your belief system that guides your  learning process can it be improved in some way  

have you accepted any of these myths in your  own learning or can you think of any others  

let me know in the comments below because i'd  really like to find out how it relates to you  

as well and if you'd like to learn more about  the myths of english fluency I highly recommend  

that you check out our podcast where ethan  justin and I discuss this in more depth as well  

so you're going to find some new content there  and some new ideas that will probably help you  

in your english language journey so i'll put  that link in the description box below so you  

can check that out in your own time as well and  if you haven't seen it already I highly recommend  

that you check out this lesson with me on the  seven things not to do when speaking in english  

so i'll see you in the next lesson and I  hope you enjoyed this one take care everyone