hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's
first and number one English Fluency
Guide and in this video I want to talk
about a well a problem that a lot of
people have when they're trying to learn
and they think I can't get fluent or I
can't speak fluently I can't communicate
with people because I don't know enough
words so a lot of people struggle with
how do i express myself even if I don't
have a large vocabulary so there are
lots of may be specific problems about
that but I just want to talk about this
problem here first
about not knowing enough words I want to
keep this really a quick short video I
don't have much time to do it but
hopefully I make it a powerful video and
informative video for you
now there's really something important
to think about this first and this is
the difference between speaking fluently
and knowing a lot of words these are
actually two separate things and that's
the most important thing you should
remember from this video so it's not
like you need to know a bunch of words
and then you can speak fluently these
are actually two different things so I
could speak fluently with five words it
just means I can use them without
thinking and that's being able to speak
fluently within that vocabulary even if
it is really small but you could have
somebody like maybe you right now you're
watching this video and you know like
tons of words like a lot of people
actually I meet know way more Japanese
words than I do they've taken you know
tests and they've gotten to much higher
levels they can they know more Japanese
written characters they know more
vocabulary than I do but they're too
nervous about speaking so they don't
actually say anything so me on the other
hand I focus on the opposite which is
how can I actually develop fluency with
a smaller number of things so I focus on
that so you want to you want to really
develop fluency as a skill by itself so
that you can get more vocabulary words
and start to add that into your
vocabulary your active vocabulary and
this just means these are things that
you can use without thinking and that's
really what fluency is it's not about
knowing a lot of words because again
lots of people maybe can understand this
video but they actually can't speak so
you might know the word but being able
to use the words as a different story
so that first thing instead of worrying
about a vocab you
Larry first think about how can I use
the vocabulary I already have even a
limited vocabulary and use that fluently
and really the only way to do that is
just to practice and again it's about
taking things as I'm shown in a couple
of recent videos the way to practice
things and develop fluency is where you
take a word or phrase and begin kind of
playing with that language so as an
example I might say something like today
is hot where I could say today is really
hot where I could say yesterday was hot
or he thinks today is hot she thinks
today is hot all I'm doing I'm taking a
limited vocabulary of just a few words
and I'm changing them around to make
different sentences and it's actually
surprising how little vocabulary you
actually need people might know a huge
number of words but really the act of
vocabulary that people are using is
really quite limited maybe five ten
percent of their actual vocabulary their
use and you know their everyday life
think about how many words maybe if you
know like people in college although all
the words you learn for every subject
you don't use that most of the time when
you're just talking with people you talk
about the weather you talk about
relationships you talk about food you
know basic things like that and so you
don't need all that vocabulary so kind
of the first thing to do is even if you
don't know many words learn to use the
words that you do know fluently and then
just make some different sentences that
you can use and interchange those kinds
of things the last point I'll make about
this is that when I teach things like
like phrasal verbs like I do in our
visual guide to phrasal verbs what I'm
really showing you how to do is how to
play with the language and it's almost
like using Lego bricks or other things
like that where you're taking a few
pieces of something like a few simple
words and putting them together in
different ways in order to produce you
know new things and explain more
situations than you would if you had a
really large vocabulary so as an English
Learner if I were learning a language
really I would focus mostly on phrasal
verbs because this is exactly the same
way children learn like I'm teaching my
daughter I'm saying okay pick up or if I
want to say hey pick something out like
I'm Chum time
leaning to her okay we've got like pick
up and out but we can make you know
three different things from from you
know these three different words so I
could say you can you can choose some
clothing you can pick some some clothing
or you can pick out something like you
can pick out this thing or you can pick
up something pick something top so she's
learning that and thinking I okay like I
can develop a sense for maybe it's a
verb and then like an adverb or
something or an adjective or a noun or
something maybe I can combine these in
different ways in order to explain
different things and this is why
children they really start developing
their own fluency by making not
necessarily errors or whatever they're
not trying to do that but this is why
children often make mistakes within like
irregular verbs because they're saying I
go to the park instead of I went to the
park so they're using that same
knowledge of how it works and they're
trying that but when they discover I
okay it doesn't really work that way
that's when they think I okay they're
getting corrected by a parent so we say
it's not it's not you go to the park you
went to the park that kind of thing so
instead of worrying about having a large
vocabulary think about the words you
know and start practicing using these
mixing and matching these in different
ways and that's what's going to help you
build a huge vocabulary quickly but
first you need fluency so start using
these things and start practicing them
until you can use them automatically and
that's what's going to help you become a
much more confident fluent speaker well
that's it for this video well I'd like
just snuck in this video right before
time is up I'm in the studio right now
and had a whole bunch of things I needed
your record but anyway I hope you have
enjoyed this video if you have click
that like button become a subscriber to
the YouTube channel and most importantly
if you'd like to learn more about
developing a large vocabulary and about
developing fluency click on the link in
this video to learn more by taking our
free fluency quiz you can take that and
tell us exactly what you're struggling
with whether it's maybe you don't know
enough words or you don't know how to
use them fluently or it could be some
other problem related to that but we
have solutions waiting for you and
they're absolutely free at English
anyone com so click on the link in this
video and I look forward to seeing you
in the next video
bye-bye