hi there I'm drew badger the world's
world's number one english fluency
fluency guide and it is a pleasure
pleasure to welcome you to another
another advanced listening practice
practice lesson I
I believe this is episode 38 can't
can't believe we got to 30 in this
this and hopefully we'll go to 5,000
5,000 more we'll see how people enjoy
enjoy the series but I really have
have been enjoying making it now for
for people have been asking about
about subtitles subtitles are coming
coming and transcripts that kind of
of thing
of thing we
we will be having those available
available but we're just waiting until
until we update everything on the
the English anyone . com website so
so we will have all of that available
available and you will be able to
to go back and watch all of the videos
videos in this series with subtitles
subtitles so I'm very excited about
about that but please be patient I
I do enjoy this series and you know
know just try to listen to things
things if your level is not that good
good again like i always say go back
back and watch some of the previous
previous videos in this series or
or not again i always say that I make
make a mistake and say that but not
not in this series but in other videos
videos that we have that focus on
on particular things like grammar
grammar or idioms or something like
like that so some of the other older
older videos we have we're
we're either we do have subtitles
subtitles or we have transcripts available
available or it's just easier topic
topic where I'm speaking much more
more slowly so
so in this series I speak much more
more quickly and native or faster
faster than native speed and that
that way i can have you just listen
listen to my words and hopefully you're
you're learning new things by context
context or within the context of this
this video so i will be teaching a
a couple of new words and phrases
phrases as they come up in the conversation
conversation or as I'm speaking about
about them but anyway if you're ready
ready for this video let's
let's begin well I just had a little
little bit of time today so I thought
thought I would make another video
video because I really do enjoy making
making this series i can just sit
sit down in front of the camera and
and have some fun and talk about whatever
whatever i'm thinking about so usually
usually things that are I
I try to find connections between
between different things that maybe
maybe other people don't really see
see and so if i can use those to help
help you learn better i'm very excited
excited about that anyway today I
I just got home from a it was kind
kind of like a business kind
kind of
kind of lunch
lunch things so living in Nagasaki
Nagasaki I have gotten lucky to know
know you know a couple of people in
in government and local businesses
businesses that kind of thing and
and so it was really great to be invited
invited out to this group a get together
together a get-together is the noun
noun form of just a meeting of people
people
people so
so you can see that people got together
together that's the verb form or you
you can call it a get-together in
in anyway so it was a local kind of
of business thing and a kind of high-level
high-level guy in Japanese government
government was there as well so he
he used to work here in Nagasaki but
but now he's living and working in
in Tokyo so he has an even higher
higher position so it was really great
great to have a chance to talk with
with him but so all this was in Japanese
Japanese and his english is actually
actually quite good but we spent most
most of the time talking in Japanese
Japanese because nobody else at the
the table could speak English or at
at least not very well but we did
did end up talking about was the education
education system in Japan and we're
we're talking about kind of marketing
marketing and business things as well
well because i'd like to make Nagasaki
Nagasaki kind of a cooler place it's
it's really not like you know it's
it's kind of known for its history
history
history we've
we've got a lot of old churches because
because Nagasaki was kind of the Gateway
Gateway to the West many
many years ago I think really the
the gateway to kind of the outside
outside world in general so
so back when Japan was closed off
off it was only open just this one
one little port here in Nagasaki so
so that's where all the foreigners
foreigners cane and lots of people
people from other places in japan
japan so Japanese people came to Nagasaki
Nagasaki to learn various things so
so we were talking about that lots
lots of interesting discussions in
in all in japanese and it was actually
actually great for me just to sit
sit there and you know have a like
like a confident conversation in Japanese
Japanese about all this interesting
interesting stuff and I was really
really passionate about you know how
how can we make Nagasaki better and
and how could maybe we have like some
some international schools or something
something like that and I didn't want
want to you know push too much on
on this guy because obviously he has
has lots of people from the local
local community saying hey can you
you build this bridge or fixes road
road or whatever that kind of thing
thing but anyway a kind
a kind of like the thing i want to
to talk about it i'm just kind of
of like warming up to what I want
want to talk about in this video but
but in the conversation itself it
it was interesting i was kind of paying
paying attention to my words and noticing
noticing like i was i was using quite
quite a few advanced words in Japanese
Japanese but I wasn't like you know
know when I talk about fluency i'm
i'm i'm talking about how i'm speaking
speaking like this and i was able
able to just continue speaking and
and i was able to explain some things
things that maybe I couldn't explain
explain exactly using different language
language and that's one of the ways
ways that i talked about actually
actually being able to communicate
communicate fluently so fluency doesn't
doesn't mean knowing all the words
words or knowing even like a huge
huge amount of vocabulary even though
though that's really nice if you can
can express yourself in a very specific
specific language that's perfect for
for the situation if you can do that
that that's great but even if you
you know a lot of words it doesn't
doesn't mean you can speak fluently
fluently fluently means that you can
can communicate as i'm doing right
right now so maybe I'm trying to take
take a moment to think about what
what i want to say but I can express
express myself without having to take
take long awkward pauses and say on
on arm and really think about what
what i want to say so i was able to
to do this in Japanese and I had a
a really great time so I'm just kind
kind of like letting you know when
when you're in a conversation like
like that you don't have to worry
worry about using a whole bunch of
of difficult words just take the vocabulary
vocabulary you do know and combine
combine it in different ways to express
express what you want to express but
but getting to what i really want
want to talk about in this video on
on the way to the hotel where we were
were having lunch I
I walked by a cram school and it was
was actually called like cramming
cramming school and so I wanted to
to talk about that in this video because
because it's such a big thing in Japan
Japan and this guy's government official
official he was kind of talking to
to me like why is it do you think
think that maybe Japanese people can't
can't speak fluently or they really
really even can't speak English very
very well at all and i was saying
saying well there's a couple of things
things the most basic one is how they
they learn and so they're preparing
preparing for tests rather
rather than preparing for actual conversations
conversations and he was like yeah
yeah that's probably true and you
you know we're talking about that
that because again he can you know
know he spent actually some time living
living in America so his english is
is quite good but another one of the
the reasons that Japanese people have
have a hard time is because of culturally
culturally they
they don't want to make mistakes in
in front of other people so you get
get people drinking in japan as soon
soon as like alcohol comes into the
the equation this is another great
great fantastic phrase i highly recommend
recommend you remember when something
something comes into the equation
equation
equation what
what do you think about an equation
equation like a math problem like
like two plus two equals four that's
that's an equation or a problem so
so when something comes into the equation
equation like the situation being
being the equation and alcohol being
being the thing that comes into that
that then Japanese people tend to
to loosen up to loosen up another
another great casual way of expressing
expressing being able to relax so
so if you think about like a nut or
or like a like a bolt or a screw that's
that's really really tight into something
something it can't move very well
well so it's very tight but if you
you loosen it it
it kind of loosens up and he can move
move a little bit so like to loosen
loosen up your tie that kind of thing
thing after a hard day of work anyway
anyway so there are a couple of factors
factors a couple of reasons why Japanese
Japanese people have a hard time struggling
struggling and so we got talking about
about cram schools and I actually
actually I took a picture on my phone
phone I showed him i was called cramming
cramming school and I was saying well
well like let's actually talk about
about cramming because it's a big
big popular thing out here in Japan
Japan there cram
cram schools all over the these are
are called Jews but this is just a
a cram school and literally to cram
cram something means to take something
something like i have a bag like this
this and I'm going to put as much
much stuff as I can I'm trying to
to pack as much information in that
that is possible and I don't really
really care about the organization
organization of it I'm just kind of
of like okay we have all this stuff
stuff and I need to cram it into this
this bag over here are really pushing
pushing it that
that kind of thing so when people
people go to a cram school they're
they're learning to like cram information
information into their head so that
that they can pass a test now
now if you think about learning this
this way like yeah it is helpful for
for a test but the only reason it's
it's helpful number one is because
because you can study for specific
specific things for a specific test
test it's usually like one or two
two days you know after you'll be
be studying for that thing so
so all of these factors make cramming
cramming a very good idea for a specific
specific tests at a specific time
time but if you actually want to
learn
learn to
to speak confidently cramming is a
a horrible idea now
now just think about going on a vacation
vacation if you want to like cram
cram all of your packages are all
all of your clothes or things like
like that in a suitcase they're
they're going to get wrinkled up you're
you're not going to find what you
you want and it's not going to be
be nice and neatly packed so you don't
don't want to cram things in maybe
maybe if you're like rushing outside
outside of your house to go somewhere
somewhere quickly you would cram a
a bunch of things inside of a bag
bag but you actually don't want to
to do that when you're trying to learn
learn it's much better to take a few
few things and pack them nicely you
you know in your suitcase or whatever
whatever or into your head if
if you're trying to learn something
something that is to try to cram your
your head with as much information
information as possible now
now this goes back to what I'm talking
talking about from the actual conversation
conversation i had with these Japanese
Japanese business guys today at lunch
lunch and you know I was again not
not using a whole bunch of things
things that i had crammed into my
my head I taken a few ideas and i
i was able to kind of mix and match
match them to make an interesting
interesting conversation and actually
actually express myself fluently in
in Japanese and so what I'd like you
you to think about is when you're
you're learning things like don't
don't spend your time trying to cram
cram a whole bunch of information
information into your head and
and when you do that again you're
you're not going to remember it as
as well and the information kind of
of gets messed up so it doesn't stay
stay in your long-term memory and
and it's just not something that's
that's really going to help you now
now i remember actually I don't know
know where I got this idea from but
but i think i heard it maybe
maybe it was in a book or I saw it
it in a in a video or something but
but i was watching we're
we're learning however i got the information
information but this is an analogy
analogy of talking about prioritizing
prioritizing things in your life now
now this teacher it was a teacher
teacher you know explaining something
something to a freshman class and
and maybe if you know this story already
already hopefully you might know what
what I'm talking about let me know
know in the comments below but if
if not it's a really great story anyway
anyway so this teacher took a just
just a regular jar like a large you
you know kind of jar like this and
and he had some balls of different
different sizes next
next to that so they're like some
some large balls that were this big
big and this was like really important
important stuff in your life and then
then like slightly smaller balls that
that were like maybe a little little
little bit less import and
and then like some gravel and then
then some sand and then some water
water
water so
so so basically things of different
different sizes that he was going
going to put into this jar now
now when you think about what order
order to put those things in there
there let's that pour the water in
in first and then i take like the
the sand and pour the sand in next
next and then I try to take some unimportant
unimportant things and I put those
those in when i try to put in like
like the really important stuff the
the really important stuff won't fit
fit
fit so
so if you take you know you actually
actually want to fit all of these
these things or at least most of them
them you start with the important
important things first so
so you have your jar and you put the
the really big balls in first and
and then when you put the smaller
smaller things in there they kind
kind of go in and find the space around
around these other things so I thought
thought that was a really good analogy
analogy for why you focus on the important
important things and it works the
the same way with language learning
learning
learning so
so again like what the thing that
that I'd like to leave you with today
today is when you're when you're trying
trying to think about like learning
learning languages especially if you're
you're a student and you're saying
saying I drew like my teacher is making
making the study for this test and
and i have to cram and do that kind
kind of thing like yeah I get it it's
it's okay you have to cram for the
the test go ahead and do that you
you have my permission to cram for
for some tests but when you try to
to think about like beyond school
school or beyond like whatever that
that toy or TOEFL or any other tests
tests from some famous test you have
have to take I
I want you to be having that kind
kind of second mind the real mind
mind when you're thinking about how
how can i prepare myself to actually
actually speak fluently and the way
way to do that is again to kind of
of organize things where you're packing
packing information instead of cramming
cramming information into your head
head
head so
so instead of lots of things that
that you push in and you don't really
really end up having a great way of
of thinking about them after the fact
fact
fact the
the best thing to do is to pack things
things nice and neatly into your mind
mind and these are things that you
you take time with your carefully
carefully packing them and carefully
carefully putting them in your mind
mind and only a few things so
so again you don't need a lot of information
information in order to express yourself
yourself confidently you just need
need enough information that you can
can say what you want and then kind
kind of take information or words
words or expressions and use that
that to talk about other things because
because everything is connected you
you just need a kind of like a base
base way of being able to express
express yourself anyway
anyway I don't want to give you
two
two much
much information but if you have enjoyed
enjoyed this video do like this video
video and share it with a bunch of
of people subscribe to the English
English anyone . com youtube channel
channel and you know let me know about
about kind of packing or cramming
cramming what you think about these
these ideas in the comments below
below
below I've
I've enjoyed making this video and
and now because I'm not having a nice
nice day i think i'm going to take
take a nap I'm
I'm actually a little bit tired i've
i've got the house to myself right
right now so to have something to
to myself means I'm the only one here
here so no daughter no anybody to
to relax and I'm just gonna just going
going to take a nap just enjoy a fairly
fairly nice day it's
it's been a nice day so far and I'm
I'm happy to make this video for you
you and I look forward to seeing you
you in the next one anyway
anyway I have fantastic date and i'll
i'll see you next time bye bye to
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