Can you understand your
target language really well,
but when you try and speak it,
nothing comes out in this video.
I'll tell you why that is
what exactly to do about it.
And some language
learning resources that you can use
that I would recommend
to fix this exact problem
if you're new here. Hi, my name is Jamie.
I am a language coach.
I help online language learners
figure out what their obstacles are.
Remove them and help them understand
exactly how to learn a language
in a way that works for them.
So if you're looking
for more content like this,
make sure you subscribe and hit the bell
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Why does this happen?
Well, this is a really,
really common problem
that a lot of people
fall into accidentally.
Basically, the idea is that
you have a lot of passive knowledge,
but you don't have the active knowledge.
What does that mean exactly?
Well, there are many types of skills
in a foreign language.
The two main ones are active and passive.
Passive means that when you see it,
hear it, you can understand it.
You can get a general idea
of what's going on.
I mean, even if you don't understand
every single word that's being said.
Active means when you speak
or you write something,
then you can generally
get the message out of your brain
that you're trying to communicate.
Let's go for a more concrete example.
Let's say that you see
a kind of fancy word.
And when you see or hear that fancy word,
you understand what it means.
Let's say the word possess.
You know, it's it's not too fancy.
When you see it when
you read it in a book,
when you hear it in a show,
you understand what they're saying.
Right. It's it doesn't take much thought.
You realize that it's basically
a fancy way of saying,
have I have this pen
I possess this pen
means the same thing, possess
is just a fancier way to say it.
That's not a problem. Right.
The problem is when you are having
a conversation with a friend
and you want to use a word
kind of like that,
you're not going
to think of that word, right.
You're going to say, I have this pen.
It's not going to be
the easiest to come up
with the word possess.
Just because it's not something
that you actively use
a lot
is something that you
passively use and understand.
But it's not a word
that you are accustomed to saying a lot.
It's the same kind of thing
with learning languages
when you're used to passively
taking it in and understanding
it, figuring it out.
But you're not used
to producing the language on your own
and communicating your messages.
It's going to be more difficult
to actively communicate your messages
just because you
don't have practice with that.
Now, this is a really common problem
in language learning,
just because the more popular language
apps out there, think Duolingo, think
Memrise, those really
simple, easy to access,
easy feel good apps.
Well, there's nothing wrong with them.
That's all passive knowledge.
That's fill in the blank,
that's reading and pressing buttons.
There's not a whole lot of
actual speaking.
There's not not a whole lot of
active responding.
So you get a lot of practice
with the passive knowledge,
seeing a sentence,
getting a general idea
of what's going on in that sentence.
And, you know, it's basically affirming
that you got a decent
understanding of that sentence.
But there's not a whole lot
of being asked questions
and responding verbally
or responding with written words
where you have to understand
the intricacies of language
and the grammar points,
how to spell them,
making sure you have the right accents,
all sorts of stuff.
I do want to be clear that
having more passive knowledge
than active knowledge
isn't necessarily a bad thing.
If it's intentional, that's fine.
I've been studying
French for over a year now,
and because I have not actively
been speaking French
or trying to speak it.
My speaking is terrible.
My passive skills are getting pretty good
because I've been working
on my passive skills.
So if it's intentional, there's
nothing wrong with it.
It's when you accidentally
find yourself in this mix up.
So if you find yourself
in this position
accidentally, where you've been spending
a lot of time getting
passive information,
but you haven't been practicing actively
and now you're stuck.
What do you do about it?
The simple answer is
that you have to switch up your strategy.
You have to switch up
what resources you're using.
So if you've been using Duolingo,
if you've been using Memrise
and you really need to beef up
on your active skills more,
you're going to have to put away
or at least use
those passive resources less in favor
for more active resources, resources
that are really going
to push you to actively
use the language, actively speak it,
actively write it.
Simply put,
you got to be speaking
or writing it in some way,
depending on your goals.
Now, of course, fair warning it's
going to be really, really difficult.
It's going to really,
really suck at first,
because you're at a level of ease
in your passive knowledge.
Like you see a sentence,
you can pretty much figure it out
without a whole lot of effort.
But when you start pushing yourself
to actively use the language,
you're going to feel like
you don't know anything.
So you're going to have to
be prepared for that.
Be prepared to feel overwhelmed.
Be prepared to feel like
you don't know anything,
that you've wasted your time.
That's normal. That's OK.
That's going to happen at first.
What you have to do is you have to.
Keep working at it,
keep being consistent with it,
and eventually your active skills
are going to grow to meet up
with your passive skills,
you just have to put the time in.
Have you been experiencing this problem?
Let me know in the comments
section below.
Now that we know what exactly
to do to solve this problem,
what kind of resources
should we be using?
Generally speaking, what's important.
Like I said, is that
you're using resources
that get you to speak
or write your active skills.
They get you, they motivate you,
they push you.
They like not obligate you, but
really inspire you
to use a language actively.
So there's there's no strict rules here.
Well, what kind of resources
just, you know, keep your mind open.
But I do have some specific resources
for you, of course.
The first resource
recommendation I have for
you is my favorite
for this particular problem,
and that is Yask.
Yask is best for intermediate
language learners.
So basically, if you have an intermediate
understanding of the language,
then Yask might be a really great way
for you to practice.
Actively using the language.
In fact, yask is
the only language learning app
that I know of that
specifically helps with this problem,
which, like I said, is a very,
very common problem.
With Yask
you'll get very short,
very easy to complete prompts
that help you with your writing,
of your pronunciation,
with your speaking.
There's all sorts of things.
Basically, you'll go after one word
and you will practice
using that word or a grammar concept,
things like that,
and you will practice
using that word or using
that grammatical concept in phrases.
This could mean writing out the phrase,
this could mean pronouncing the phrase
and recording the audio.
This could mean free speak.
And then when you complete these prompts,
it will be sent off
into the community of Yask users,
as well as the Yask bot, which I explain
more about it in my review
and link below in the description.
But I really love
the way that Yask has a bot
that comes to you, comes
to your prompt and corrects you,
and it has a general idea
of how to fix it.
And then Yask community
members, real human beings
who speak the language
either natively or at a very high level,
will either agree
with the Yask bot and/or
they will correct you themselves.
And the whole app is really,
really fun and engaging
and really feel good and exciting.
So I would really, really
highly recommend it
if you're suffering
from this exact problem.
And if you use the link below
the description,
you will also get a free month
from yours truly,
if you don't have an intermediate level
of understanding in your language.
However, there are other options
that I can recommend to you.
The second resource
I would recommend for this specific
problem is Busuu.
Busuu you is a really,
really popular language app
that is great for beginners.
So if you're a beginner,
you are totally free to use it.
But basically, Busuu gives you exercises
to use exercises
to learn language passively.
Then Busuu prompts you
to create a written or spoken submission
to send to Busuu's community.
Now, keep in mind
that Busuu's active
features are something
that you can avoid and ignore
and just not do.
And then when you submit the submissions,
submit the submissions.
It's a little bit more out of reach
to access those submissions.
But Busuu's main focus
is the actual lessons.
So it's a give and take.
Another great option to solve
this problem is Speechling.
I love Speechling
because you basically get phrases
or you can even free speak
and you record yourself saying the phrase
or saying whatever it is
that you want to say.
And then you send it off to Speechling's
native speakers,
tutor's pronunciation coaches,
they listen to your speaking
and they correct your pronunciation
or let you know that
your pronunciation is perfect.
While it does start out
as like a repeating thing,
like you're just repeating phrases.
You also have the option
to just turn on the microphone
and free speak responding to a prompt,
asking a question, things like that.
Of course, Speechling
doesn't have any actual lessons.
Like I said, they're just kind of
like written prompts.
But those audio submissions
will be sent to professionals
and not just a community of other
language learners.
So either one of them is better or worse.
They're just different.
And then finally,
probably one of the most popular ways
to fix this problem
is language exchanges.
Most popular apps for that
are Tandem and HelloTalk.
Basically, you jump into the app,
the huge community of people
who are also learning languages and speak
certain language natively.
What you do is you start a conversation
with somebody on this
app, a real human being
who speaks your target language natively.
And you just have
a conversation via text,
via call, via video chat,
whatever works for you.
This can be a really great way
of having conversations,
which is all active knowledge,
except, you know,
the when they speak to you
use passive knowledge to understand it.
But when you respond,
you use active knowledge.
Because remember,
the most important thing is
that you make sure
that you're using the language actively
no matter how you're doing it.
Now, my whole approach to language
learning is being intentional
and educated about
how you learn languages.
What options are available
and making sure that you're
choosing the right resources
for the actual goals that you have.
If you want to learn
more about my approach
and how it can help
you, click the link below
in the description for my free training.
It's where I share
exactly how I go from point
A to point B to point C
in a logical, reasonable, educated way.
If you like this video
and want more content like this,
make sure you hit the like button.
If you want more information
about resources that'll encourage you
to actively use the language.
I have this video here
where I go through
some of the more common
language exchange apps
like Tandem, like HelloTalk.
Otherwise have a wonderful day
and I will see you next time.