hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's
first and number one English Fluency
Guide and in this video I'd like to
answer a question that I receive a very
very commonly very frequently from
learners and hopefully I don't need a
really long lesson to explain this
because it's actually a very simple
thing but this is why can I understand
you so people are asking me or they're
talking to me about me or talking about
language learning language teachers in
general they say why can I understand
this lesson why can I understand the way
you speak but I can't understand native
speakers in everyday conversations or
music movies TV shows that kind of thing
so let me make this really clear the way
I'm speaking right now is different from
the way I communicate normally with
everyday native speakers and the reason
I'm communicating like this is because
it's easier to understand and I'm also
so I'm trying to speak clearly and might
you can hear my diction this is the wham
enunciate in words and saying them
clearly instead of mumbling - mumble as
I'm like you can't really understand
what I'm saying so I'm expressing all of
my words clearly but I'm also using
fairly kind of everyday language that
you might find in a textbook so you
notice I'm not using a lot of clever
idioms and slang and other expressions
like that because a lot of people don't
understand these and if you have all of
these things coming at the same time
that's what makes it really difficult
for most people to understand things
like movies and native speakers in
everyday situations the metaphor I like
to use is trying to drink from a fire
hose so if you go to a regular drinking
fountain it's a thin stream of water and
you can easily drink from that but if
you try to open up a fire hose in front
of you the same hose that you would use
to put out a fire on a house if you open
up a fire hose and try to drink from
that well it's coming at you and there's
way too much for you to understand it's
too fast the vocabulary is too difficult
and the accents are just really
difficult so you've got all these things
that are a part of conversational speech
and most people like maybe yourself are
learning languages not beginning in the
same way that a native speaker would but
on
completely different track of Education
and this is really beginning with easy
things to understand maybe slow English
simple English and typically it's taught
by people that are not native English
speakers so this happens all the time in
Japan if you go to a Japanese school you
might have a foreigner there that's able
to say things but typically it's a
Japanese teacher that really doesn't
have such great pronunciation anyway and
so they're trying to say things very
slowly and clearly but still they're
giving that bad pronunciation to the
students so this is and here's a great
expression for this this is called the
blind leading the blind I know it's kind
of a harsh thing to say but it just
means people that can't see where
they're going are also trying to direct
other people that also don't really know
where they're going
so people with bad pronunciation trying
to teach other people how to pronounce
things it's kind of a weird thing anyway
so you've got these two tracks if you
think about the way I'm helping my
daughter Aria learn she's getting access
to actual conversational speech but
we're also teaching her very you know
specific things about the language and
she's getting to see slowly but surely
over time we're making our speech faster
and faster for her so maybe a year ago
she's about two years old now but about
a year ago you know she's understanding
things and maybe she can like point at
something or understand what we're
talking about if we say where is the you
know like fish on the book and she can
point to it but now we can say where's
the fish and she understands what we're
saying because we've developed in her
that ability to understand that over
time so basically you have like a baby
like my daughter and you have a
non-native speaker they're both starting
at the same place neither one of them
knowing any English but they're learning
in two different tracks like that so
this track is the traditional way of
learning and this track is the native
way of learning the language and it's
really two different things now the
major problem here besides learning in
different ways is that you actually have
well it's just you're learning maybe the
best way to explain it is the way that
you speak or the way that you learn to
speak especially if you want to
communicate with people is
different than the way you learn to read
and write and it's the same thing
with the way you're listening so again
if you're listening to people and you're
only listening to that slow easy
textbook English that you would find in
a lesson or even the things that you're
seeing in a video like this I can help
you learn lots of vocabulary but really
it's hard for people to to go from this
to a conversation when people are
speaking in a different way so as an
example here's how I would speak maybe
normally when I'm talking with someone I
was just out visiting my younger sister
in San Francisco and they're kind of
different levels or different speeds
that you can speed grap when you're a
native speaker and people can still
understand you because they understand
the pieces of the words and the context
of the situation so as an example I
might say I'm going to go to the store
so my sister has a little store that's
maybe two blocks from her house and I
say hey I'm going to go to the store now
I could say that and she would maybe
look at me funny like why are you
speaking like that why are you sounding
kind of slow and like a robot and in
that case again I'm trying to make it
clear so you understand what I'm saying
but my sister doesn't need that because
she's already developed the ability to
develop the habit of understanding how I
speak normally and it's the same thing
for all native speakers now if I again
if I say I'm going to go to the store I
could say it a little bit faster and you
probably know the expression I'm gonna
go to the store I'm going to go to the
store but listen carefully as I get even
faster with it even shorter and smaller
with my language I'm gonna go to the
store I'm gonna go to the store I'm
gonna go I'm gonna go I'm gonna go I'm
not like you can't even understand what
I'm saying really unless you really know
unless you practice unless you've been
prepared for that kind of listening I'm
gonna go to the store I'm gonna go to
the store like I'm i'ma go to the store
this is like really I mean it's bad
English I mean it's something you
wouldn't write if you're writing a test
or an essay or something but casually
this is how we speak yeah I'm going to
go to the store I'm going to go to the
store I'm going to go to the store I'm
going to go to the store even like I bet
the like the subtitles the captioning
will be really messed up for this so
don't try to read it it won't help you
I'll put it up on the
screen anyway for you but i'ma go to the
store i'ma go to the store I'm gonna go
to the store it's like I'm gonna go I'm
gonna go to the store so even trying to
say it slowly it makes it a little bit
easier to hear but it's very different
from I'm going to go to the store so
when you're listening to things like
this you have to practice listening to
more conversational speech but really
the only thing you can do is transition
slowly and over time from this way of
understanding from the way of listening
to someone like this an English lesson
to listening to something that's an
actual conversation so being able to
understand all of these things and this
is exactly why in master English
conversation we have a series of steps
called the fluency bridge that takes you
from this level from this level of
understanding to okay first we're going
to learn some of the expressions we're
going to learn how you pronounce them
we're going to learn why people use them
and then finally you learn okay like
this is how they happen in real
conversations so in master English
conversation that's where I speak
normally I speak a little bit faster and
I'm using much more you know interesting
expressions and things like that but I
take people from this kind of textbook
level this english lesson level up to
that level but again the tricky thing is
you can't just jump up to that level you
have to go up in easy steps that's
really the only way I can think of it to
retrain your mind so that you can
actually speak fluently and confidently
and understand what people are saying so
for you now whether you join the program
or not whether you're actually learning
with me and something like mastering
this conversation or the fluency course
really what you should be doing is
taking small pieces of language that you
can understand
so going from maybe an English lesson to
a more native environment like even
children shows and watching those kinds
of things and then listening to that
first so you have to go back to what
native speakers are actually listening
to to develop your understanding this
takes a lot longer than doing something
like using the fluency bridge but if
you're just learning by yourself and
it's something you want to do for free
then it's easily something you could do
to improve so think about that again if
you want to improve if you want to go
from this level over here to this level
really to get higher you have to cross
what I
all the fluency gap and really the only
way to do that at a quick fast way or in
a quick fast way is to use something
like the fluency bridge or you're
learning all these different pieces and
then preparing to see them and hear them
when they're used in a real conversation
if you can't do that then again go back
to something like watching children
shows reading books that are going to
give you more something that a younger
child or even a teenager might use and
then work up from that so you have to go
back to where native speakers are and
try to improve the same way native
speakers are improving well that's it
for this lesson
I hope I've made it clear really it's
two different ways of learning the
language and the more you can learn like
native speakers the more you become able
to speak and understand what they're
saying so really it's the the best thing
you can do to improve and hope you
understand that I'm sure we'll get more
questions after this about how people
are understanding like natives but
really this is the most important one so
the reason that you can understand this
but not understand things like a TV show
or a movie or whatever is because of how
you learn you trained yourself to
understand slow basic things like this
and now it's really difficult if you try
to make that jump to movies TV shows and
conversations so you have to go back to
something more basic and work up it
takes a little bit longer but that's a
way to do it or you can use something
like the fluency bridge like we use in
master English conversation and the
fluency course well I hope you have
enjoyed this video and then it gives you
some food for thought so something to
think about and then it explains why and
kind of why you struggle to understand
but also what you can do about it so I
hope you have enjoyed the video do click
that like button if you have and I look
forward to seeing you in the next video
become the subscriber and also really if
you'd like to just learn more about how
to improve your listening in general
click on the button right here or
actually the link in this video and it
will take you to our English fluency
quiz and you can tell us that listening
is the thing you struggle most with and
will tell you exactly how to improve
that all for free so click on the link
in this video and I look forward to
seeing you in the quiz bye bye