hi there I'm drew badger the world's
world's number one english fluency
fluency guide it is a pleasure to
to welcome you to another advanced
advanced listening practice lesson
lesson today i wanted to talk about
about let's see what shall we talk
talk about today we're going to talk
talk about reading writing and fluency
fluency and how these things work
work together and I want to give also
also a bit of background about education
education in general and kind of why
why you're watching these videos hopefully
hopefully this should be an interesting
interesting video for you and it will
will explain a lot about fluency and
and what you can do what you should
should do in order to get fluent and
and how you can build those skills
skills with reading and writing as
as well anyway let's get into the
the video so today i get actually
actually quite a few kind of questions
questions in general questions and
and comments emails from people when
when they're asking about how can
can i improve my reading or my writing
writing and also just to obviously
obviously about getting fluent in
in general but I wanted to explain
explain something kind of going on
on dates it's a it's it's almost like
like a tricky topic but something
something that has many different
different pieces and hopefully I can
can explain it in a very simple way
way i'll try to do that i might not
not succeed but we'll find out so
so in general you kind of got two
two paths for learning the language
language you've got the native path
path for learning the language and
and then you've got the non-native
non-native path or the traditional
traditional way that you would learn
learn a language in school so the
the traditional language education
education versus the native way of
of learning a language now the native
native way of learning the language
language is a holistic way of learning
learning so the word holistic just
just means that you've got all of
of the things together as one connected
connected piece of information or
or one connected system and this means
means that you've got grammar and
and phrases and the speed of the language
language intonation pronunciation
pronunciation all of these things
things that you're learning as a complete
complete unit as an example my daughter
daughter now aria she
she is about one year and she's a
a little over a year old at the time
time of this video and so when I'm
I'm speaking with her sometimes I'm
I'm indicating a particular words
words waiver vocabulary word like
like moon or bag or dog or cat but
but when I'm talking with her i may
may give her a specific set of instructions
instructions in these instructions
instructions about please stand up
up or go over there bring a book to
to me or do something those
those things all come from they kind
kind of begin with like oh look it's
it's a book and i'm showing her something
something but then i'll use more like
like could you bring me that book
book over there could you bring me
me that book over there so I'm already
already from the very beginning when
when I'm teaching her she's almost
almost learning the the quick way
way to say something rather than the
the opposite which is what a non-native
non-native speaker would do where
where they would begin with the could
could you bring me a book or could
could you please bring me a book i'm
i'm already beginning and I'm doing
doing that intentionally now most
most people when they're speaking
speaking with their kids they don't
don't really realize they're doing
doing this but this is how we teach
teach children to speak and understand
understand native dialect and native
native speed native pronunciation
pronunciation intonation so what I'm
I'm saying hey could you bring me
me a book could you bring me a book
book that she understands the she
she doesn't even understand grammatically
grammatically what I'm saying but
but she understands this complete
complete phrases one thing where I'm
I'm saying hey could you bring me
me a book and I'm indicating is a
a book over there and she understands
understands this phrase i'm using
using means i would like you to bring
bring me a book so grammatically she
she doesn't really understand what
what each of the words are and she
she obviously can't speak really well
well yet she can indicate or even
even say specific words like moon
moon or dog or sound effects or if
if we look at a clock you know I've
I've taught her to say like which
which is pretty cute so she can look
look at that off together on a video
video and do an update if you'd like
like to see that let me know in the
the comments below i'll put a knot
knot like an update video of re again
again how she's doing but
but anyway so when you're kind of
of teaching a child like that most
most people don't realize they're
they're doing this because they're
they're just native speakers and they
they don't really think about the
the language but when they're teaching
teaching their own children this is
is what they're doing they're kind
kind of doing these two things one
one is explicitly teaching the particular
particular word for something like
like water or toast or milk and then
then they're also using longer phrases
phrases that because they use them
them over and over again just become
become understood as one complete
complete unit so could you bring me
me a book or could you bring me that
that book over there she understands
understands what I'm talking about
about
about so
so there's there's kind of a bridge
bridge between these two things where
where you're using maybe individual
individual words to teach these longer
longer phrases but still year using
using the complete phrases you're
you're using them over and over again
again because the child hears that
that they understand these things
things so this is the kind of foundational
foundational difference between the
the way a non-native speaker would
would learn and the way a native speaker
speaker with learned so what I really
really want to make clear with this
this video in addition to other points
points i will make later is that if
if you want to get fluent you have
have to understand that you have to
to learn the way native speakers learn
learn in order to speak the way native
native speaker speed so it makes complete
complete sense in anything else if
if you want to learn how to make money
money go learn from people that know
know how to make money don't learn
learn from people they don't know
know how to make money that are just
just talking about making money so
so it's the difference between learning
learning from a teacher vs learning
learning the native way like and that's
that's the way I teach as an English
English fluency guide so I don't want
want to just give you a whole bunch
bunch of rules because that's not
not how the that's not how the system
system works you have to learn the
the whole thing as one unit but kind
kind of from a small simple way and
and take steps to get from where you
you are to where you want to be so
so lots of people because they've
they've learned the traditional way
way there now watching videos like
like this on youtube and now hopefully
hopefully trying to retrain the habits
habits they have but kind of one thing
thing I'll mention specifically about
about this and this is something I'm
I'm I kind of struggle with as a teacher
teacher I know there are lots of people
people around the world maybe even
even including yourself if you're
you're a teacher maybe
maybe you're a non-english-speaking
non-english-speaking teacher maybe
maybe you you know the language but
but you are not a native speaker you're
you're not from America or another
another english-speaking country but
but you teach the language in your
your country as well these
these people can be like really great
great sources of information specifically
specifically for maybe let's say I
I am a a native Spanish speaker and
and I'm living animal maybe I'm in
in Argentina or you know Brazil or
or I'm living in Mexico and i'm speaking
speaking Spanish and i'm teaching
teaching English to my students now
now these teachers can do a great
great job of saying like well Spanish
Spanish kind of has this piece of
of information and maybe it's a bit
bit more appropriate to learn it in
in a specific way but you have to
to be really careful about this because
because you want to make sure that
that you're not training your students
students the opposite way where your
your true we're kind of teaching them
them to translate in their head before
before you speak or before they speak
speak so I I think it's a great idea
idea to have lots of teachers and
and even on youtube there are lots
lots of teachers all over the were
were there many teachers in like Germany
Germany or Brazil or other countries
countries that are trying to help
help their students are help people
people from their own country learn
learn the language but really they
they can only do so much before you
you start trying to teach them to
to translate in their head so if you're
you're using Portuguese to learn English
English or using Chinese in order
order to learn English you might be
be doing it online but really you're
you're just making the same mistake
mistake that most people do so you
you can learn a lot of great tips
tips from teachers like that and if
if you are a teacher like that I'm
I'm glad to have you like actually
actually helping people learn by helping
helping them with that kind of information
information especially if it's like
like one language to another one but
but really the English language like
like any other language it can be
be taught without using any other
other language as a support for that
that thing so
so the best really thing you can do
do is to help people learn English
English in English and that's why
why everything I do is in English
English and like leaving the app that
that we're making now scroll phonics
phonics our ultimate guide to pronunciation
pronunciation it takes everything
everything that were teaching all
all the steps to pronunciation all
all the vocabulary words lots of things
things that you need to speak and
and to be able to pronounce things
things like a native speaker and it
it teaches everything in English so
so even from the very first word the
the very first sound you get there
there are no explanations in another
another language of any kind because
because we don't want any of that
that information to get into your
your head and a lot of people think
think that will you kind of have to
to use the like the level one or like
like the the first level the native
native level language to teach a new
new one but it's just really not true
true and all you do when you learn
learn that way is you train yourself
yourself to hesitate and translate
translate and that's why so many people
people have it's like they want to
to say something but then they get
get stuck when they speak they say
say aah and that's what happened to
to me when I was first learning Japanese
Japanese so i would be kind of learning
learning things like okay this phrase
phrase means this and I would be trying
trying to translate that in my head
head and I want to say something and
and then I wouldn't come out but when
when i stopped learning that way and
and started learning japanese in japanese
japanese and then just practicing
practicing what I was learning then
then everything became more clear
clear and I started to train myself
myself to actually speak the same
same way a native Japanese speaking
speaking child would speak anyway
anyway so you've got two different
different systems that are ways of
of learning and I really want to make
make it clear that it's not you as
as a learner that's either a good
good learner or a bad learner it's
it's just the system that you're using
using that makes you a productive
productive speaker or an unproductive
unproductive speaker so a lot of people
people you know they learn the traditional
traditional way and then they get
get really disappointed and depressed
depressed and confused because I why
why can't I speak the language properly
properly well it's because the system
system screwed you up it's because
because the system kind of made it
it difficult and actually trained
trained you to do the opposite of
of what you should be doing so trained
trained you to translating your head
head before you speak instead of actually
actually getting yourself to express
express yourself the way you want
want to in an automatic way anyway
anyway so this is kind of a background
background but to get back to reading
reading and writing specifically just
just when i talked about earlier about
about following native speakers if
if you want to learn how to speak
speak like native speakers you can
can do the same thing with writing
writing now writing is a really simple
simple thing you can do by just reading
reading what other people have actually
actually written it's like native
native English content and depending
depending on the kind of content the
the the way you want to express yourself
yourself maybe if you have a very
very factual way of speaking and you
you want to just pronounce everything
everything and see everything clearly
clearly and you're not talking about
about things like poetry or novels
novels you're just trying to give
give information then you could read
read books that are like how-to books
books about you know self-development
self-development or how to fix a car
car or anything else like that and
and i want you to this is exactly
exactly what you should be doing literally
literally copy that information by
by hand so you would take a pencil
pencil or a pen and write in a notebook
notebook the actual words that you're
you're reading yes
yes this takes time but this is slowing
slowing down the language so that
that it makes it much easier for you
you to read that thing and to speak
speak that thing later on so when
when I talk about slowing down the
the language this is the difference
difference between you have two people
people in the front of a car one is
is the driver and one is the passenger
passenger now the driver and the passenger
passenger are typically looking at
at the same thing but it's not going
going into both of their minds the
the like the information about that
that is not going into their minds
minds in the same way because the
the passenger knows that they don't
don't have to think and they don't
don't have to remember really where
where they're going they can just
just kind of sit back and enjoy the
the view maybe look at a book or something
something else but the driver has
has to actually pay attention and
and nose
and nose we're
we're going so the reader of a book
book in that case like the the analogy
analogy here the person who's reading
reading a book versus the person who's
who's writing the book they get a
a much different experience of that
that thing so
so even if you read something and
and then try to write something different
different later it's going to be much
much more difficult in the same way
way that if you see it as a passenger
passenger in a car and let someone
someone else drive you and then they
they say oh could you drive me there
there tomorrow and you say i don't
don't know how to get there and it's
it's exactly the same process so you
you learn how to get there when you
you actually start writing the same
same thing they're writing so if you
you want to become a good writer or
or a better writer such that it will
will also help you become better as
as a fluent speaker then you should
should actually take a pencil and
and paper just take like 20 minutes
minutes find maybe one page of a book
book and actually write that down
down
down so
so again try to pick whatever it is
is you're interested in it could be
be like i was saying before how to
to or if you like poetry than right
right like poetry or if you want to
to learn how to sell better than right
right sales letters like actually
actually go online and find copies
copies of advertisements and sales
sales letters and physically copy
copy those and that's what kind of
of trains you to think in a particular
particular way the kind of way of
of the language the flow of the language
language for that particular use and
and that will help you become a much
much better speaker so even myself
myself I am a native speaker but I
I was a horrible writer until halfway
halfway through college so up through
through maybe like high school I was
was a really bad reader i hated reading
reading and even up until college
college I was a really bad writer
writer until I just started writing
writing over and over again and I
I think I told this story recently
recently but I talked with a professor
professor of mine and I asked him
him if I could write extra work over
over the summer one year because I
I just wanted to practice more and
and actually improve that I felt stupid
stupid in class that I couldn't I
I couldn't write better so i felt
felt like i needed more time and he
he was happy enough to help me do
do this
do this so
so in that case when you're taking
taking the opportunity to try to do
do something more to try to add more
more information to try to make use
use of something like that it can
can actually help you a lot so in
in that case he was fortunate enough
enough well I was fortunate enough
enough i should say that he was willing
willing to help me out and because
because i was able to write more trained
trained me to become a better writer
writer so it's one of those things
things that like you can't
can't get beyond the practice of it
it and this is one of the most fundamental
fundamental things to understand about
about learning languages it's not
not knowledge that you get any just
just put in your head and you think
think I ok I understand that grammar
grammar . logically it's almost like
like an emotional thing it's a thing
thing that's a connective thing in
in your mind that you have to train
train yourself just like learning
learning an instrument or learning
learning to play a sport because if
if you don't do that then you won't
won't actually be able to use it so
so i might understand if I go watch
watch like that like a baseball training
training camp i might say I might
might hear from someone hey here's
here's how you throw a curveball and
and he just he shows me the motion
motion and I think okay logically
logically I understand what he's talking
talking about that's pretty easy that
that took me five minutes but it might
might take me you know two years to
to master the actual throwing of a
a curveball just because i have to
to watch somebody doing at first but
but then I have to spend all the time
time practicing and getting myself
myself to the point where i can do
do it automatically or fluently so
so fluent just refers to being able
able to do something without thinking
thinking about it and so it's the
the same thing with reading and writing
writing so writing is really the first
first step you can read information
information but I say even begin writing
writing more information first but
but actually copy just a mean you
you take your favorite book whatever
whatever it is you want to do and
and then right you know lines of harry
harry potter or some other how-to
how-to book and that will help you
you get better not only at writing
writing the information but it reading
reading the information much faster
faster as well because one of the
the things that native speakers can
can do and you can do this in your
your own language is you anticipate
anticipate what other people are going
going to say maybe what will happen
happen in a movie or what will happen
happen in a book we pretty much have
have formulas for things and as you
you start writing and reading more
more you get much faster and you become
become much better at anticipating
anticipating what people will say
say so you begin with writing and
and reading the things that you're
you're interested in reading and when
when you're reading something typically
typically you should be reading something
something that you understand at least
least eighty to ninety percent of
of and that way you can understand
understand all the new information
information maybe one or two words
words on a page or maybe a few words
words more than that but you can understand
understand all that from context without
without having to look at a dictionary
dictionary so you want to be able
able to read information that's at
at your level and then level up to
to start improving and then it prove
prove your fluency that way so in
in the same way when you're actually
actually getting to fluency your training
training yourself with these lower
lower levels by writing and reading
reading but then you actually have
have to take the next step of going
going out and practicing and this
this is what I've talked about before
before in this series about stumbling
stumbling forward where you don't
don't necessarily know exactly how
how you're going to say something
something but you begin opening your
your mouth and just start speaking
speaking about something so this is
is something i do in Japanese and
and i recommend you do in english
english as well you might not know
know exactly what you want to say
say or be able to even say it correctly
correctly but you just start speaking
speaking and you develop the flow
flow of speaking in the language and
and then over time you begin developing
developing a like a good understanding
understanding of the way you should
should be speaking but often you can
can get this just by shadowing people
people so in the same way that you
you would be reading a book or writing
writing the actual like transcribing
transcribing another book again just
just take a page take maybe five or
or ten minutes a day and do that I
I promise you see a lot of improvement
improvement if you're willing to take
take the time I bet a lot of people
people watching this will want to
to improve but they will not take
take the time hey
hey I can't help you if you don't
don't work but for the people that
that do you really going to see a
a lot of improvement very quickly
quickly so in the same way that you
you would copy that you would watch
watch movie scenes or watch me even
even speaking right now and just try
try to take maybe a couple lines from
from what I'm saying right here and
and try to speak along with me and
and if you can do that you get the
the tone of my voice and you can get
get the flow of my language and this
this will help you become a much more
more fluent speaker again we have
have patterns in the way that we communicate
communicate Chinese as a different
different general pattern than english
english and other languages as well
well so if you listen more to english
english and you actually start using
using it you have to become the driver
driver of the car not the passenger
passenger of the car in order to get
get fluent anyway i hope this video
video has been informative for you
you if you have enjoyed it to click
click that like button and share this
this video with other people it's
it's got a lot of great information
information and hopefully give too
too much i tend to give too much information
information there's a lot of things
things i want to share because really
really there are a lot of things required
required to get fluent but hopefully
hopefully you have enjoyed it anyway
anyway i look forward to seeing you
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and i look forward to seeing you in
in the next video bye bye to
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