Hi there, I'm Drew Badger, the founder of englishanyone.com and it is a pleasure to
welcome you to another video. This is another one specifically for new people to my channel.
I have over 500 free videos here and I've been helping people online for wow, 10 years
I think, something like that. So I've been teaching for longer than that but actually
on YouTube for that long. And so it's amazing to think almost a million subscribers at that
point, whenever this video is released. But because we have new people joining us all
the time, I wanted to answer just a really big question that people have and that's how
to get started, especially if you're learning right here on YouTube.
Now, a lot of people, I'm sure you already know lots of English and that's why you can
understand what I'm saying right now, but you struggle to express yourself and the reason
for that is because of how you learned. And it wasn't your fault, it was just that this
is how everybody teaches the language. Everybody in regular schools, they are basically trying
to tell you that you need to learn English as a second language. When you think about
something as a second language, that means you have to learn it differently. When you
learn your native language, you just listen to people speaking and you copy what they
do. You see what people say in certain situations and you copy that. Oh, my dad hurt his thumb
and he said, "Ouch." So whenever I hurt my thumb or I get hurt, I say ouch also.
This is a funny thing you notice when you're learning a different language, so if I'm as
a Japanese learner, I see someone get hurt and they say, " [foreign language 00:01:36],"
Like [foreign language 00:01:38] meaning something got hurt, like ouch that was painful. [foreign
language 00:01:41], I mean, they don't say [foreign language 00:01:43], they say [foreign
language 00:01:43], depending on how painful it was. So I could say ouch. Or I could say,
shit, something that was really painful for me. But when you watch people, what you're
really doing as a native speaker learning a native language is you're copying that and
you're taking the situation and you're connecting it to vocabulary. But what you're doing as
a learner of a second language is you're trying to take your language and then connect it
with some kind of translation in the language rather than with just the situation.
So for me, I am I think the only person in the world maybe who does not believe in the
idea of a second language. I think that's stupid. I think even if it is true that there's
such a thing as a second language, you should not be thinking that way about learning because
all that's going to do is tell you, okay, I have to translate and then I have to study
grammar rules and I have to do all these other things that don't actually help you learn.
So you can study and that will help prepare you for a test, but it's not actually going
to help you become a confident speaker. Does that make sense? So all this is just saying
it's not your fault. So it's just because of how you learned, but now you have the opportunity
to learn and do something different. So if you were here just watching videos,
there's lots of great content to learn with and this is not only people like me that actually
help people understand the language, to teach them culture and specific phrases that native
people are the native speakers use, but also just all the great content on YouTube made
for native speakers that I encourage you to watch. So if you like learning about cars
or gardening or baking or whatever, even something very specific, some super tiny niche like
candle making or how to raise baby rabbits or something like that, there are all kinds
of things like that, that you could just learn in English and actually learn just a really
lot of great information about that. So I learned about things like that in the same
way I watch children's programming for just Japanese kids. That's how I learn a lot of
like songs and grammar and other things like that just by learning the same way natives
do. But I know a lot of people, they come to my
channel or other channels here and right now in 2020 when this video is released, there's
so much content available, people might be feeling lost. So if you're struggling to find
what should you be focusing on, maybe you're watching more videos on YouTube and you think
like, okay, I've just watched 10 videos, but I don't really feel more fluent. I don't actually
feel like I'm improving and it's really important to me and for my channel and for what I do
that you should be feeling your improvement with every video. So you should be learning
something either that's teaching you some useful vocabulary or you're changing the way
you think, so you think more like a speaker, like a native speaker, and that you're also
feeling more confident. So I want you to be listening to these things
that I'm saying, but also just like really soaking this in a and feeling more confident
about learning because I'm going to give you some direction right now. So right now, again,
the YouTube, it's like an ocean and you're kind of dropping into the middle of that or
even if you've already been watching some useful videos on YouTube, you still might
be feeling a little bit maybe confused, what should I be focusing on, because there's so
much information. So the thing that I can use or try to tell you, this is what I used
for myself, but also for my personal students, and this is the idea of the 7 English Fluency
Habits. Now I mentioned a little bit earlier about
the negative habits that you develop because you learn the traditional way in school. So
first we have this idea of a second language. Because of that, you have to learn in a certain
way. That means studying grammar rules, translating things in your head, and you're not actually
developing fluency. You're really just learning the more formal written English that you would
use in a test or in a more professional situation for writing rather than actual conversations
with people. So because you learn this way, it creates
all these negative habits that actually stop you from speaking. So this is why you think
and translate in your head. So we want to correct that. We want to stop those things
and replace them with positive habits, with good habits that actually have you just communicating
naturally without thinking and getting stuck and losing your words and conversations. So
again, there's a really obvious train of how this happened, so a series of events you had
to learn the traditional way that created these negative habits. That's why you struggle
in conversations. So what you have to do now is change the way you learn to actually just
recreate or create new habits that help you communicate successfully. So this idea of
the 7 English Fluency Habits, I'm not going to talk about all of them. You can learn more
about that on my website and even just other videos. If you type in seven English fluency
habits into my YouTube channel, you can learn more about that.
But this is basically the idea that fluency is really a collection of habits. So it just
means the kind of things that you do automatically without thinking. That's what a habit is.
Habit, like you get up and brush your teeth the same way every day without thinking about
it. That's a habit. Where you walk in the same way you talk in the same way that's a
habit. It's difficult for you to try to change that and develop a different habit. So this
is what we help people do in programs like the Fluency Course. We get you really excited
early by teaching you a lot of useful vocabulary, but also take time to develop your habits
by changing the way you learn. So what I'd like you to do is focus on your
weakest fluency habit. So this could be something like your use of grammar or it could be your
vocabulary or it could be you're listening. It could be any of these different things.
So the seven different things, and again, I talk more about those at my website, englishanyone.com
but if you want to just think about the easiest way to understand that is to think about what
you're struggling with the most. So if you know a lot of words already, you probably
don't need to learn more vocabulary to become a better speaker. You should probably be thinking
about your confidence or your listening or your grammar or your pronunciation. There
are a couple of different things you can focus on, but you probably know already when you're
in a conversation, what do you feel the least confident about?
So if it's your pronunciation, then that's probably the thing you should be focusing
on first. So don't spend your time watching just videos about more vocabulary because
you don't need more vocabulary. You need videos specifically about pronunciation. So whether
it's me or someone else, or you even just like watching movies or clips of your favorite
actors or actresses talking in a certain way so you can copy their pronunciation, That's
the thing that you should be focused on right now. So I know it can be every day because
there's so much content for people to learn with. It can be really just daunting. This
is another great word, daunting, D-A-U-N-T-I-N-G, daunting. So it can be daunting to think about,
wow, there's so much content here. How do I learn with this? Especially without getting
lost or feeling like you're wasting your time. So think about the thing that you struggle
with the most and then look for content specifically about that. I cover all these different things
on my channel right here on YouTube and especially the other programs that we offer at englishanyone.com
but you can learn more about any of these things and just find someone that you enjoy
learning with or find some kind of content, whether it's learning actually with a teacher
or someone who can just enjoy talking about whatever that content is. So if they like
making kites and you want to learn more about that, then do that. But the thing you should
be focusing on, really the next step you should be taking right now is thinking about what
you struggle with the most because that's what's going to get you faster, more, I guess
fastest to fluency. Really the weakest thing that you struggle
with, it's like a chain with multiple links in it and the chain, it's a great English
expression, you probably have something similar in your native language, but the chain is
only as strong as its weakest link. So if the other links in the chain are very strong,
if that one little weak chain link is really weak and it breaks easily, then the whole
chain breaks. So again, you have to think about what are the things that you really
struggle with the most, whether it's your pronunciation, your grammar, listening, that
kind of thing. Think about that and then look for information about that specific thing,
but that's going to make you feel a lot more confident because you've got some direction.
It's what you should be doing next, right here on YouTube or however else you'd like
to learn. Well, that's it for me. Hopefully I didn't give you too much information.
Again, you can learn more about me and what I do at englishanyone.com. You can also click
on the link in the upper right of this video to learn more about the Fluency Course. This
is our number one bestselling and really longest running program where we teach people to speak
conversational English confidently so you can learn lots of great expressions and vocabulary.
Learn how to improve your pronunciation, your listening, so you understand native speakers,
and also build a confidence and fluency to have great conversations. So if you'd like
to learn more about that, click on the link in the upper right of this video or on the
link in the description below this video. Well, that's it for me. The last thing I'd
like to say is if you want to continue learning right here on YouTube, do these three simple
things right now. 1. Click on this link to subscribe to my YouTube
channel for over 500 free videos. 2. Click on this link to download my #1 eBook
guide to fast fluency, FREE! And… 3. Click here to watch the most popular video
on English fluency here on YouTube!