This Is Where English Fluency Happens

- Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com

and welcome to this lesson,

where we're going to talk about comfort zones

and the magic of leaving your comfort zone.

And I'm making this lesson because I feel like

this is a big part

of why a lot of people never reach that C1 level of English.

That they never make the progress that they want to make.

So the lesson is going to work like this.

First, we're going to look at some answers

that people left me on my Facebook page

and this is a really, what I think is

a really good question to ask yourself, too.

Then we're going to look at an image that I made

and you might have seen this image in a similar way before,

but I'm going to share this image with you.

And then we're going to talk about

when it's okay to stay in your comfort zone

when it comes to learning English.

Now, stay until the end because I have a question

for you that I want you to answer.

Okay, so let's start with this question

I asked on Facebook.

I asked, "When it comes to learning English,

"what is something you know you should do but you don't?

"For example, 'I know that I should speak more

"'to native speakers, but I don't.'

"And then tell me why you don't do this.

"This will help me create my next video, thanks."

Firstly Matt says, "Awesome question", I think so too.

Abigail says, "This is exactly my case.

"I should speak more to native speakers,

"but I'm embarrassed to say something wrong

"or not understand what they're telling me."

So, Abigail doesn't want to leave her comfort zone.

In this case, her comfort zone is not talking

to native speakers, but as you'll see in a moment,

maybe you need to leave your comfort zone.

Atika, "Because I don't have a native speaker partner.

"I really need one, can anyone do a favor

"and connect me with a native to practice with?"

So in this case, Atika is not leavin' her comfort zone

because she's not going through the process

of trying to find someone to practice with.

And this can be quite uncomfortable.

It takes work to find somebody.

Tatyana says, "I should practice shadowing,

"train my speaking muscles, but I'm too lazy.

"I'd better listen to a podcast."

So here, it should say I prefer listening to a podcast.

This is a great example, again,

the comfort zone here

is listening to a podcast

because there's no active practice,

but Tatyana knows that she should practice shadowing

to train her mouth muscles

so that she can speak with more fluency.

But to do this, you need to leave your comfort zone.

So here is a picture that I created that represents this.

So you can see your comfort zone is this circle area here,

and this is where you are when you find

learning English easy, when you're listening to podcasts,

watching YouTube videos, watching things on TV,

maybe reading a book as well.

When you don't find it very challenging,

it's quite easy to do.

But outside your comfort zone is

a place where the magic happens.

And this means, in terms of learning English,

where you are going to make fast improvements.

The type of things you need to do

in order to really improve your level.

So again, inside your comfort zone is listening to a podcast

in Tatyana's case, but outside of this is shadowing.

And the reason why I said, what is something you know

you should do, but you don't, is because I'm sure you know

that if you train your mouth muscles,

if you do things like find

a native speaker to practice with,

you know you're going to make more progress.

But it's uncomfortable.

You have to do things like actually focus

on how to make the sounds and listen to your own voice.

Nobody likes listening to their own voice.

So this is uncomfortable.

You need to practice with a native speaker,

but you're scared about making mistakes.

Again, this can be uncomfortable.

Or you need to find somebody to practice with

and you don't want rejection, because a lot of people say,

"No, sorry, I can't help you, sorry, I'm busy."

And you think, ahh, this is too difficult.

I can't find anyone.

I'll leave a link in the description

to some articles which talk more about this.

But just know that we often have to leave

our comfort zone in order to progress.

This is true when it comes to exercise,

learning anything new or just doing more in life.

So things like leaving your comfort zone include

working on your pronunciation.

Listening to your own voice.

Gettin' speaking practice.

Using the To Fluency method.

Doing things that a lot of people don't do.

So what I want you to do is to commit to leavin'

your comfort zone, if you think you need to do this.

Now, there are two things that I want to explain next,

which are going to make things much easier for you.

The first one is this.

Once you leave your comfort zone and try something new,

that new thing then becomes normal.

It becomes comfortable.

So if you start practicing my method,

the To Fluency method or the LRRC method,

where you are listening to phrases,

recording your own voice and then comparing

your version to the original.

At first, it's not very easy to do.

You're getting out of your comfort zone to do this,

but then after a while, it becomes easy.

It just becomes the new normal.

You don't feel strange when you listen

to your voice because you get used to it.

And if you make this a habit, then this becomes

part of your comfort zone.

So leavin' your comfort zone to do something new,

isn't going to feel terrible all the time.

What I recommend you do is you make the effort to do this,

to try something new, to do something

that you think you should do.

And then make it a habit.

Make it the new normal, so that you can

consistently do what you have to do, so that you can

make fast progress to English fluency.

And there are many things that you're doing right now,

which are easy to do and they're helping you learn English.

A lot of the time we don't notice

exactly how things are helping us.

So I made a video which talked about the power

of sentences and the input method.

And I talked about how you need to get lots of input

in order to get used to the English language,

in order to internalize grammar and new vocabulary.

And this, for most people, is inside your comfort zone

because you can just sit back, relax,

read books, listen to podcasts and watch TV in English.

So what I'm sayin' is, you don't have to constantly

be outside of your comfort zone.

But make the effort to try methods that are going to work

and then, make them part of your daily routine.

Make them a habit and bring them into your comfort zone

so that it's easy for you to make progress in English.

I hope that makes sense.

I hope that makes sense.

In summary, I'm going to leave the types of things

that you should be doin' to help you improve

the way you speak English especially.

I'll leave those in the description.

And then make the effort to bring these

into your comfort zone and make them

part of your daily routine.

So, if you have enjoyed this video,

then please like and share it.

Share it with anyone who you think

needs to leave that comfort zone.

And then check out some other videos that I have made.

They will be on your screen now.

Thank you so much for watching, speak to you soon, bye bye.

(inspirational music)