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