hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's number one English Fluency Guide and I
was just here in the studio and making
some lessons for some of my premium
students and I thought well I should
share actually a few things from the
actual lesson set I'm working on right
now because I thought people would
really enjoy this there are a few things
that are really important and one of the
things that I help people do is
understanding native English speakers
and this is a pretty difficult thing for
many people to do one of the most
difficult parts of learning a language
and the reason is because people have
been learning the traditional way
so typically like as an example out here
in Japan when people are learning
English it's typically a Japanese person
teaching that and even if they know a
lot their pronunciation is never perfect
and also people are learning the more
formal English that you need for tests a
lot of the things that you need for
conversations aren't covered and it's
also very slow so these are really just
the very simple reasons why learning
English the traditional way is very
difficult if you actually want to speak
so if you're using traditional lessons
and again this means like the rote
learning methods that you're using when
you're in the classroom you're just
trying to memorize rules and you're not
really learning the conversational
speech that natives actually use and
you're not learning it in the right way
and this is so important really trying
to understand how natives actually
communicate if you just watch movies or
TV shows there's really a lot of
information coming all at the same time
so it can be like the phrasal verbs or
the idioms or the slang all of these
things that are coming it's really quite
fast the accents can be very difficult
as well and people also speak incredibly
fast so I thought in just one really
quick video here for everyone on YouTube
I would share just a couple of things to
give you a little bit of listening
training some more some advanced
listening training while I'm sharing
some great phrases for you as well that
will help you sound more native and
actually help you understand natives as
well so if you're ready let's begin now
I'm going to say a phrase right now and
I want you to see if you can understand
what I'm saying so just listen carefully
right now I'm using my my what I call my
teaching
teaching
teaching so I'm really making things very easy to
understand and this is why people will
always write in the comments why you're
so easy to understand
I wish all native speakers sounded like
you now that's great if you can hope for
native speakers to sound like me but we
will not I don't even speak like this
when I'm speaking normally so I'll give
you an example of something right now
and I want you to see if you can
understand what I'm saying and I'll tell
you what it is and help you understand
it now you mention it now you mention it
now you mention it now you mention it
now you mention it now you mention it so
I'm just saying that a few times could
you understand what I'm saying if you
know English quite well you might have
understood the phrase the same way
natives - natives they are understanding
the context so they're understanding the
larger phrase or the conversation or
what we're talking about and so they
understand the patterns of language
usage and that's why they can hear me
say something like now that you mention
it now that you mention it now that you
mention it now that you mention it they
can hear me say this and then when they
hear that they automatically know what
I'm talking about
but for non-native speakers this is
really difficult and again this is why
instead of trying to just teach someone
a phrase like this or have you watch a
movie where you'll hear lots of phrases
like this I created the fluency bridge
learning system and so this is taking
the phrases that you're learning slowing
them down teaching you the different
parts of conversational speech in the
right order
right order so that when you're seeing things
finally in a movie or a TV show or a
real conversation everything makes sense
so it's easy to understand you've
learned it the same way natives do and
then you can communicate the same way
natives do I'll give you one more chance
here see if you can understand what I'm
saying now you mention it now you
mention it now that you mention it okay
so what I'm saying is now that you
mention it now that you mention it isn't
that so different it's almost like two
different languages so there's the very
clear in my teaching voice now that you
mention
mention
mention it now that you mention it or the much
faster now that you mention it now that
you mention it now that you mention it
now this phrase means if I'm talking
with someone and maybe they remind me of
something like if I'm saying Oh like
what are you doing this weekend and my
friend says oh well I'm meeting a friend
of mine we're having a birthday party
and I say ah like now that you mention
it now that you mention it so because
you reminded me of something now that
you mentioned it I have to buy a present
for my mom or something like that so
it's when we're reminded of something in
some way and now that you mention it
this is a really great way of kind of
transitioning that conversation to
talking about something you need to do
so you don't need to use this expression
but people use this a lot now that you
mention it now that you mention it but
listen carefully as it all gets blended
together because people speak in phrases
so when you learn things in school
you're learning them as individual words
and then you're trying to put those
together in a conversation but what
really happens as natives are speaking
in chunks now that you mention it now
that you mention it now that you mention
it so they can say it even really
quickly now you mention it now you
mention it now you mention it listen to
that now that you mention it now that
you mention it so a friend of mine says
yeah I'm buying a party gift for a
friend and I say oh now you mention it I
have to get a friend a friend like a
present - now that you mention it now
that you mention it now that you mention
it so even if you say it slowly the
blending of the speech is what makes you
sound more like a native speaker so it
doesn't matter this is kind of one of
the great tricks to sounding like a
native even if you're not able to speak
very quickly because you're blending the
speech and it's the blended speech that
sounds better so that's why I blend my
speech even when I'm using my teaching
voice but I blend it in a way that
sounds like a native speaker
well because I am a native speaker but I
can blend it in a way that still makes
it very clear and easy to understand so
now that you mention it I'm saying it
faster now that you mention it now that
you mention it now there you mention it
now that you mention it so now that you
mention it now that you mention it I
need to get a present for my friend -
now that you mention it now that you
mention it okay let's do one more listen
carefully I know what you mean I know
you mean I know what you mean I know
what you mean
I know what you mean now if you've heard
this before this is another thing that
natives will commonly use when they're
talking about having rapport with
someone or they want to explain
something but they're not explaining it
very clearly or perfectly and so they
say mmm like I know what you mean or do
you know what I mean so I know what you
mean is like you're listening to someone
else and they say well you know
something something bad happened I don't
I don't feel very happy about some
situation and they do they're not very
clear about it but so they're trying to
connect with me and trying to explain
what something is but maybe they don't
know the right words because even
natives like you know sometimes things
are just hard to explain and we can't
explain exactly how we feel about
something so excuse me I can listen to
that and I can say yeah I know what you
mean I know what you mean now I can take
this phrase I know what you mean but I'm
again saying it faster and blending it
together because people understand what
I'm saying now this is typically faster
when you're the one using it when you're
asking someone else if they understand
you so if I say yeah I don't really like
the the atmosphere there something just
doesn't feel right you know what I mean
you know what I mean know what I mean
you know what I mean
so even you know just becomes no you
know what I mean
know what I mean know what I mean so I
can slow that down and say yeah I really
know what you mean if I really want to
listen and I'm trying to show maybe it's
a sad situation or really frustrating or
something like that yeah really I really
know what you mean
I really know what you mean or if I'm
just talking about myself and trying to
explain something I'm really angry and
if I'm frustrated I'm explaining it even
faster yeah I had this problem and this
guy was yelling at me
just didn't have a great day at work you
know what I mean you know what I mean
you know what I mean do you know what I
mean so as you listen to things like
this this is just part of the fluency
bridge where you're taking something and
you're you're learning the
conversational English but you're
learning it in the right way and you're
learning how to use it in the right way
and in the right steps so that you're
prepared for it when you see it in
conversations and also that you can use
it yourself now doesn't that feel good I
hope you have understood these things so
you know what I mean you know what I
mean you know what I mean
you know what I mean so all the phrases
that I teach I try to take things from
real conversations and break them down
and teach you them in steps so it's a
lot easier to understand the real
conversational speech but remember if
you try to just go directly at that
thing try to watch movies and TV shows
it can often be too overwhelming so if
you take time and go through the steps
like we do in master English
conversation the fluency course all of
the programs that we do they really go
deep into helping you understand the way
conversations really work step-by-step
well if you enjoyed this lesson do like
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next video bye-bye if you'd like to
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