hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's number one English fluency guide and it
number one English Fluency Guide and it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the
studio with me today here I'm going to
teach you or kind of share with you a
really interesting principle something I
discovered as I was learning languages
as well and really it helped me
understand why I was failing to learn
languages for a long time and why I
finally got fluent so in my opinion this
is not something I used to believe but
long ago I thought language learning
should be difficult I thought it should
take a long time
kind of like business where most people
just think like business is hard and
there are lots of things you have to do
to make it difficult but really it's
more a way of thinking that will change
your mind and if you can learn to see
things in a different way not only does
business become easier but language
learning becomes a lot easier as well
most things are like this and I'll
explain why in this video well I know
people of especially people who have
been struggling for a long time people
kind of fight me on my different ways of
teaching but now more people are
starting to believe in the way I teach
and help the way I'm helping people
learn more like native speakers and so I
want to talk about that right now now
this this is an aerial view this means
you're looking at something from the top
down and this is the view of a castle
and I use the idea of a castle when I'm
speaking with learners sometime I
haven't made a video about it so I
thought I would do that today but this
castle idea what a lot of people are
doing when they're trying to learn a
language is it's kind of like trying to
attack a castle the goal is to capture
the castle the goal is to get inside the
castle here so you can control the
castle but the castle is very well
protected so this blue part here this is
called a moat if you don't know what
that is already I'll write it up here
already M o T so the moat is this kind
of little well of water and then usually
there's a bridge or something that goes
across that for people inside the can
to come outside so let's say you're
standing over here and you want to try
to attack this castle again you have to
get over the moat somehow maybe there's
some alligators or something inside
there but you also have people standing
up here on the wall maybe they're
shooting arrows or something like that
coming at you but when you're trying to
get into the castle trying to attack it
from the outside it becomes a lot more
difficult for you now the same idea of a
castle is actually a metaphor for your
mind so when you're trying to learn
something new especially learning a
language trying to attack something from
kind of a direct angle like this is
really going to be very difficult it's
going to take a long time if you can
ever do it so one person trying to
attack a castle like this is going to be
very difficult and probably impossible
for this person to to capture the castle
and become the king himself over here
but this is really again the idea about
your mind thinking the same way so your
mind is like a castle and learning in
the same way is like trying to learn the
same way that most people learn in the
classroom and what I mean by this is
you're trying to penetrate you're trying
to capture enter get access to the mind
and help your mind remember something in
a foreign language in a way it it's
difficult so to try to connect these two
ideas this idea of a castle but also the
idea of your mind think about what would
be the best way to actually capture this
castle now this is something you can see
in history when people are fighting wars
you can sometimes if you have a really
large army take over some kind of castle
but the kind of more stealthy way the
simpler way to do it and with a much
smaller force is to do it from the
inside so this is where you have maybe
somebody if we're just thinking about
the castle metaphor here somebody who is
inside the castle already that's working
for the people out here this person can
maybe kill somebody and and maybe
open the door for other people to get in
this is the idea of the Trojan horse if
you know this story so we have this big
wooden horse that's outside the city
walls and people say well that's really
interesting why don't we bring that
inside it looks like a gift but inside
this is a really bad picture of a horse
down here but it's hiding a bunch of
soldiers who unlock the gates and let
everybody else come in now what I'm
suggesting here is that you should be
doing the same thing with your language
learning
learning
learning I hope this idea is not too complicated
I really want to make it simple but I
thought this would be a fun way to
describe this too so you really
understand the differences in these two
ways of learning so one way is you're
trying to attack something by yourself
from the outside everybody knows you're
coming
coming
coming lots of defenses up here you've got the
moat big walls people are shooting at
you and trying to take you out and the
other way is when you're either inside
or you have somebody kind of inside to
help you so looking at these two
different ways of learning this way of
learning out here is the traditional
textbook way of learning a language and
when you're trying to learn this way
again you're trying to use translations
really that's probably the most obvious
thing that people are doing when they're
trying to learn one language through
another language and this makes it
really difficult to try to get access to
the mind over here because the mind
doesn't want any new information like
that it's already the mind is already
full it's already got ideas and names
for things so if you want to get into
the mind with a new idea or a new name
for something again if we're looking at
this as like a brain or your mind as an
example your mind already knows the word
for table or snow or banana or something
like that in your native language so
when you're trying to put in a new word
for that thing it becomes really
difficult for your mind to remember that
because again you're trying to kind of
cross over here directly say hey you
should remember this work but the mind
doesn't want to do that
and you know how difficult it is for the
mind to try to learn something new or to
remember new information especially if
you often forget your words when you
speak it's really because you're trying
to access the mind this way just think
about if you've ever tried to change
someone else's mind if you have a
political discussion with someone and
you're saying hey the way you believe
something maybe you should try thinking
about it in a different way or talking
about religion or sex or something else
that can be a very sensitive subject for
many people if you try to go
aggressively at that and just say you
are wrong and we need to try to get you
to think in a different way because the
way you think doesn't make sense or
something else like that people will not
listen to you so the mind will actually
shut that off and it's really because
the mind the mind is almost it's like
trying to trying to protect itself and
an understanding of reality I know this
is really weird for an English lesson
but I really want you to understand this
idea about how your mind works because
if you work with your mind it becomes a
lot easier to do that so again this is
the non-native way of trying to learn a
language where you're in a classroom
you're trying to learn grammar rules and
you're studying text books trying to
remember vocabulary but you're really
just it's we call this like a war of
attrition or a siege where you're just
trying to spend a lot a lot of time
trying to attack this and hopefully you
get in hopefully you remember something
but the smart way to do is actually have
like an Inside Man and the way you do
this is to work with the mind especially
for trying to remember new words and
vocabulary and this is to learn like a
native speaker as an example I will
contrast contrast here two different
ways of learning grammar one way we have
I'm going to translate something and
we're just going to read it in a
textbook as an example we might take
some kind of phrasal verb and I'll give
you the definition in your native
language and then you would have to
remember that in English now you can try
to do this but again it's really
difficult for your mind to learn that
way but what your mind does like doing
actually learning something the native
way so as an example the way you would
learn some grammar just a very simple
example with a phrasal verb you have the
translation we're just going to put a
tee up here for translation and here is
really just understanding how it works
so your mind can understand that so as
an example I might teach you the phrasal
verb turn over and I might just give you
an explanation of that let me see if you
can read all that it looks like it's
coming in pretty well so to turn
something over now I can give you a
definition of that in your native
language I can explain it to you I can
write it down we can practice writing it
again and again and you can use
translations to try to understand what
that means or I can just help you
understand it by turning over my hand
turn over turn over so the same thing if
I want to teach you turn around so I'm
standing here right now I can give you
an explanation I can give you
translations you can try to write
something again and again and again and
hopefully that makes sense but this is
again much easier if I just turn around
turn around so if you're listening to me when I'm speaking this you understand
the words and you're connecting the
words with the meaning so the word with
the meaning not the translation with
some words in English so what's really
difficult is trying to take like a word
in Italian or a word in French or
something like that a translation and
then trying to use try to connect it in
some way with the English the mind hates
that the mind does not want to learn
that way and this is why I tell people
if you're trying to remember you should
not be using your native language so
specifically this is a really big
problem for people when they're trying
to speak and then they forget what they
want to say in conversations have you
ever had that problem where you want to
say something but then even though you
studied something like 20 minutes ago it
kind of escapes from your mind
it can be because you're nervous it can
also be because you're really just
trying to learn this way so you're
trying to attack the castle this way but
what you should be doing is learning the
native way where you understand
something and you actually remember it
and understand it the way a native
speaker does and the more you do this
and I've just given you example an
example of grammar but again the same
thing works with pronunciation listening
I don't want to go through all of these
different things because it would really
make a long video but hopefully this
simple understanding of how grammar
works and even just by showing you
something like turn over you're also
getting to listen to my pronunciation so
it's improving your listening as well
you're building your vocabulary
understanding how grammar works even
with just these simple examples but you
can see how this begins to develop
something on the inside it's almost like
a cancer and I know this is another kind
of weird metaphor to think about but you
begin with a cell on the inside of the
body and it begins to multiply like this
and after a while it becomes
uncontrollable but cancer on the outside
of the body can't survive so you can't
have some like cancer cells over here
just sitting around and then have them
try to attack the castle the castle is
too strong but if they're already inside
and this way of learning like you can
think about it like a cancer or somebody
that's inside the castle that's working
for the outside but this is how you do
it so this is how you remember how you
improve your pronunciation how you
improve your listening your like all of
the skills that you need in order to
become a more confident speaker but it
begins by doing things the native way
and you can start this at any level but
again just like this example here of
saying like turn over but I'm gonna
actually show you what that is all of
these different little examples come
together so you've got turnover over
here where you learn some other
vocabulary some pronunciation something
like this but you're doing all of this
the native way and these things begin to
connect with each other and it's already
inside the castle it's already inside
the mind so it becomes impossible for
you to forget so this is why it actually
is possible to learn things that
way again I've shown you this example
already but hopefully this idea makes
sense if it does let me know do comment
down below in the comment section and
let me know if this idea makes sense or
if I'm just talking crazy talk over here
I know it's it's easy to talk about like
like here like some words to remember
and I can teach you some things even
helping you learn those like a native
speaker but I want you to understand
this idea for yourself because if you
understand this idea it's going to stop
you from learning this way where you're
causing a lot of trouble just making
really a lot of trouble for yourself so
it becomes a lot more difficult for you
to understand things and your progress
is much slower but if you kind of sneak
in the castle inside the mind here and
you work with the mind then everything
becomes easier and faster so this is
exactly the way I teach in all of my
premium programs whether it's the visual
guide to phrasal verbs or the art of
conversation or the fluency course
master English conversation all of these
different things I'm using this
principle to help people learn the
native way so you learn you learn things
the native way and you begin developing
the skills the same way a native would
isn't that cool so it's a lot faster to
learn this way and this is why language
learning doesn't have to be difficult so
if you agree with that and you start
seeing this even with these simple
examples that I've given you here with
some very basic phrasal verbs hopefully
you agree with that let me know in the
comment section down below if you do if
not there's probably not much I can do
to help you because this is all I do and
this is the main focus of how I help
people learn this is how I learned
Japanese myself and how I'm now a fluent
speaker of Japanese so if you have any
questions about this let me know in the
comment section down below and also
check out our premium programs you can
click on the link in the description
below this video to see more about our
courses but they all use this idea it's
all about learning things the native way
the smart way to kind of sneakily get
inside this castle of your mind because
if you can do this everything becomes
much easier and this multiplies very
rapidly and you take over the castle
rather than you standing out here and
trying to spend years attacking this and
trying to learn grammar or pronunciation
or all these other things the
traditional way that really don't work
well I hope you have enjoyed this video
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video if you found this idea important I
know it's like it's fun to learn more
vocabulary and things like that but if
you understand these important
foundational ideas that's what's really
going to help you become a fluent
speaker much faster anyway I'll leave it
there do click on the link in this in
this video or in the description below
this video to learn more about our
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tell me what specifically you struggle
with so I can give you specific
information about that particular
problem whether it's listening
pronunciation grammar or any of these
other things so I can show you how to
stop learning like this and how to start
learning like this over here well that's
it for this video and I look forward to
seeing you in the next one bye bye