The Secret to Understanding Native English Speakers

- Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com.

Get your free book in the description.

Welcome to this English lesson

where I'm going to talk about the reason

why you can't understand native speakers.

You see, I get emails about this all the time.

People tell me, "I have a conversation with someone,

"and I don't understand anything they say,"

or "I watched this movie,

"and I can't understand a single word."

And this is a common problem,

and I'm going to give you three reasons why

this is a problem for you too.

I'll go over the first two problems very quickly,

because they're quite obvious.

And the first one is a lack of vocabulary.

So, if you don't understand what a word means,

then if somebody uses this word in conversation,

then it's difficult for you to understand

what they're saying.

And obviously the more words that we understand,

the better we can understand people when they speak.

So lack of vocabulary is number one.

Number two is not understanding grammatical terms.

So, for example, if somebody uses the third conditional

and you don't know how to use the third conditional,

then you won't understand what they're trying to say.

For example, I can say,

"If I had more time, I would've done it."

If I had more time, I would have done it.

And if you don't understand what this means

and if you don't understand

how to use this third conditional,

then you won't understand what I'm trying to say, okay,

and you might be a little bit confused.

Is he talking about the present, the past, the future?

Is he talking about a real possibility,

or a hypothetical situation?

It can be really difficult.

And this goes for all different types

of grammatical terms, okay.

So grammar plays a big part in this.

But let's say that you have been studying grammar

and vocabulary for a long time,

that when you take a test online

about the third conditional, you understand it,

you get 100%.

You have a large vocabulary base

that you can understand when you're reading,

that when you read a text you know the words

that are being used and what they mean.

But when it comes to conversation,

when it comes to watching movies,

you can't understand what people are saying.

And the main reason for this is that textbook English

is not used by native speakers.

And when I say "textbook English,"

I mean the type of English that you learn

in a language school.

So, for example, let's saying you're learning again

about the third conditional.

And when you're doing your listening exercises in the class

and when you're reading it, it can be quite easy,

because the audio is something like this:

if I had more time, I would have done it.

If I had more time, I would have done it.

Whereas in everyday English, people say it like this:

if I had more time, I would've done it.

If I had more time, I would've done it.

Let's do another example.

Let's say you're talking about the future.

In textbook English you'll hear:

I'm going to do it tomorrow.

I'm going to do it tomorrow.

Whereas in everyday English you'll hear:

I'm gonna do it tomorrow.

I'm gonna do it tomorrow.

So what is happening is that native speakers,

they use relaxed pronunciation, going to equals gonna,

and they also link words together.

And when people say, "Oh, English speakers speak so quickly.

"I can't understand them,"

this is what English speakers are doing.

They're using this relaxed pronunciation, okay,

and they're also linking words together.

Now, some people will tell you this is informal English.

Don't do it.

But you know that if you want to understand

how people speak, you need to know how people speak.

And it's okay saying,

"Oh, I'm going to learn the proper way.

"I'm going to learn the right way to do it."

But if you really want to understand how people speak,

then these are the types of things that you need to work on,

that you need to improve.

So the question is, how do you improve?

How do you better understand people

when they use this type of pronunciation?

Step one is to know when we do it,

when we use relaxed pronunciation,

when we link words together.

A good example here is when we're talking about the past.

And instead of saying, "I wanted it,"

we say, "I wanted it."

I wanted it.

I wanted it.

So wanted it, it all links together like it's one word.

Step two is to practice.

Because if you are able to produce this type of English,

then you'll better understand it when you hear it.

So, practice these linking words.

Practice relaxed pronunciation.

It doesn't mean that you have to use it all the time.

It doesn't mean that you have to force it.

But being able to do it helps you better understand it.

And to help you with this, if you don't know,

I go through all of these different types of things

in the To Fluency program,

which is my program for English learners like you.

So I have a full tutorial on all the different aspects

of pronunciation, including linking words, intonation,

stress, rhythm, all these different types of things.

And I give you the audio and the materials

so that you can practice this.

So be sure to check that out.

There is a link in the description.

Step three is to listen as much as possible,

to listen to everyday English

so that you can get used to this,

so that you can get used to the way that people speak.

And if you've spent all your life

listening to textbook English,

then this is going to be difficult at first,

but the more you listen, the more you'll understand.

And after awhile it will become normal to you.

You will get used to this.

You'll get used to the way that people speak.

In summary, the reason why it's difficult

to understand native speakers

is due to a lack of vocabulary, a lack of grammar,

and also because native speakers don't speak

like they speak in textbooks.

And to get better at this,

what you need to do is to understand that this happens,

learn what native speakers do, practice it yourself,

and then listen as much as possible.

So, if you want to get my program, click over here.

If you want to get my book,

there is a link in the description.

Thank you so much for watching.

I hope you enjoyed this.

And be sure to subscribe if you want to.

Bye for now.

(laid-back music)