00:00:00
hi there i'm drew badger the english fluency
guide and it is great to see you here again
00:00:05
especially the longtime friends and followers of
this channel now before i get into why i'm here
00:00:11
i want to explain why i haven't released a youtube
video in over a year the truth is i've always had
00:00:17
a love-hate relationship with youtube it's really
great for things like how-to videos or if i want
00:00:24
to learn some specific information how to make
a birdhouse or a wedding cake or fix a car or
00:00:30
something like that but youtube is less good for
developing skills a big reason for this is youtube
00:00:37
is always trying to give you new information when
what you really need to develop skills and habits
00:00:42
are focus and review remember that fluency is
really measured by how well you speak and not
00:00:49
how much you know now i understand the great power
of focus so rather than continue producing more
00:00:56
content more random videos about various grammar
points or whatever on youtube i decided to focus
00:01:02
on just one lesson and i've been doing this for
over a year now teaching students and friends and
00:01:08
family and really anyone who will listen to me
so what's the one lesson well i've been guiding
00:01:14
people to fluency for nearly 20 years and all this
time it's been actually quite difficult to explain
00:01:20
what i do and why it's so helpful after many years
of experience teaching just became automatic for
00:01:26
me so i took the past year to really figure out
what i was doing not only to explain to students
00:01:32
but also to members of my team the truth is
fluency is a simple process in fact it's so simple
00:01:38
because you were born to speak but there are a few
pieces of the process that need to be explained
00:01:44
in the right way now as i taught this lesson i
also discovered that the people i'm best able
00:01:50
to help are not surprisingly the people most like
me so these people number one they understand the
00:01:56
power of focus and they don't want to jump from
random video to random video or from course to
00:02:02
course number two they are systematic and they can
follow a simple plan if they have one number three
00:02:09
they have a deep need to communicate and fluency
would really benefit their life and number four
00:02:15
they care most about getting results so they value
saving time rather than saving money now if i
00:02:21
described you you're really going to love this
video but if not no hard feelings i understand
00:02:27
i can't be for everyone and there is plenty of
great content for people to enjoy right here on
00:02:31
youtube okay now that we've gotten all that out of
the way it's time to share how to become a fluent
00:02:38
confident english speaker no matter where you
live how old you are and even if you have no one
00:02:44
to practice with we're going to cover three things
in this presentation the first one is the problems
00:02:50
learners experience and why they experience them
then number two we're going to talk about the one
00:02:55
thing that solves all of these problems and then
number three we're going to cover courses and
00:03:00
things that we do to help learners specifically
now some people watching this video may have
00:03:06
never seen or met me before welcome if you are
new my story begins basically when i failed for
00:03:13
over 15 years to learn four different languages
so i struggled to learn latin in elementary school
00:03:19
french in high school in college i failed to
learn spanish and then even when i came to japan
00:03:24
which is where i live now i still struggled to
learn japanese so basically i had years of study
00:03:32
and even private lessons didn't work
for me so really i tried everything
00:03:36
i learned a lot but i could not express myself
and i always felt nervous i couldn't understand
00:03:42
and i would lose my words when i'm speaking and
i used only basic words in conversations if you
00:03:48
experience these problems then you know what
i'm talking about basically i just wanted to
00:03:53
communicate i really didn't care about studying
a bunch of grammar rules and trying to pass tests
00:03:58
really i wanted to speak and express myself and
have good conversations with people but everything
00:04:03
changed when i took a walk through a park i was
really frustrated and i just happened to notice
00:04:09
the children just speaking with their parents and
i was wondering to myself why are these two and
00:04:14
three-year-old kids able to speak so well with
their parents and me even studying very hard for
00:04:20
many months already i still couldn't really say
more than basic sentences now watching these kids
00:04:26
i finally realized why i struggled to speak and
i also saw that it wasn't my fault basically the
00:04:32
discovery is that there are two ways of learning
languages so we have the esl approach so in my
00:04:39
case that was japanese as a second language
but it's the same thing for english learners
00:04:44
it's just basically learning a language through
your first language you're trying to learn formal
00:04:49
english so this is the kind of english you would
learn usually for writing for passing tests and
00:04:54
you're going to use traditional methods and these
are things like translations and grammar study
00:05:00
drills you're studying maybe flash cards
trying to memorize the definitions of words
00:05:05
to prepare yourself for tests and then
you're also going to do rope repetition
00:05:10
which means you're trying to take the
same lesson and repeat it again and again
00:05:14
teachers will just say go home and write this 10
times or you know read it 10 times or whatever
00:05:20
or you're not going to get any review at all and
often people who are really when they're trying to
00:05:26
practice something they can't either find people
to practice with or they're too shy to practice
00:05:31
using their english because they don't want to
make mistakes in front of other people and that's
00:05:35
understandable so basically all the frustrations
that people have when they try to communicate come
00:05:42
from this method so what happens when you start
learning this way is you develop negative beliefs
00:05:48
that stop you from improving so the first one is
that it takes years to achieve fluency and again
00:05:55
if you're learning in a difficult way of course
it's going to take a long time often you just have
00:06:00
the hope that you'll become fluent if you study
long enough but for most learners it never comes
00:06:06
number two you need to be young to get fluent now
this is again a negative belief a false belief
00:06:12
that comes from learning because traditional
lessons are so difficult for people and people
00:06:17
just assume if they're difficult for me but maybe
kids are able to do that then maybe i'm just too
00:06:23
old to get fluent the third thing is that you need
a live teacher to get fluent again because lessons
00:06:29
are so difficult they're so hard for people to
understand that they feel they really need to have
00:06:34
someone right there with them to listen to their
mistakes and try to tell them when they're doing
00:06:39
something correctly or you know critique their
pronunciation something like that because they're
00:06:44
really just learning in an incorrect way number
four is that you need a speaking practice partner
00:06:49
now this idea comes from people thinking that they
start speaking and that's how they develop fluency
00:06:56
and i'll show you why this also is incorrect in a
little bit but the point is that people think they
00:07:00
need to find someone hopefully a native speaker
that they can practice with in order to get fluent
00:07:06
number five they have a false belief that you
need to live in an english-speaking country in
00:07:11
order to get fluent now what most learners forget
is that many learners millions of them in fact
00:07:17
live in english-speaking countries so the united
states canada uh australia wherever uh and a lot
00:07:23
of these people are still even after many many
years of living in the country not becoming fluent
00:07:28
and number six most learners believe that it's
their fault if they struggle to speak again this
00:07:33
is a false belief and i'll show you why in a
minute but it's really important that we cover
00:07:37
this because if we can change the way you think
about learning then we can actually get you fluent
00:07:43
okay so returning to my story at the park
basically you have the second language approach
00:07:48
and then you have the first language approach
so that's what i call learning a language as a
00:07:53
first language so we have e s l for english as
a second language or efl for english as a first
00:07:59
language and so you've got again the esl way so
this is what i was doing but for japanese i'm
00:08:05
trying to study lots of formal vocabulary but the
little kids at the park they were learning spoken
00:08:11
japanese now if you've ever been in a conversation
with a native and you've thought wow this is
00:08:16
just it's almost like a different language than
what i studied in school it's again because of
00:08:21
this you're learning the formal vocabulary in
school trying to prepare for tests rather than
00:08:27
the spoken vocabulary that natives are really
using next we've got the traditional methods
00:08:32
versus the natural methods that natives are using
so traditional methods as i explained before we've
00:08:37
got things like translations you're trying to
memorize vocabulary study grammar rules and again
00:08:43
we're contrasting that with the comprehensible
input that natives are using now this is just
00:08:49
a fancy term that means you understand
everything in the language without needing
00:08:54
some kind of explanation or translation i don't
teach you about heat by giving you a chemistry
00:08:59
lesson what i do is i have you touch something
hot like a hot stove so this is direct experience
00:09:04
and the point is to help you connect the
vocabulary or the idea with the situation and
00:09:10
then for more difficult things so maybe touching
something or tasting something is really easy but
00:09:15
for more difficult things we use stories and this
is a lot easier this is really how we communicate
00:09:21
we usually think in stories and so when we're
learning this way this is the natural way we
00:09:26
should be learning rather than trying to get a
list of something and hoping to remember that
00:09:31
so it's much easier just like you remember songs
very easily or stories from your childhood much
00:09:37
more easily than you would if you had to just
maybe your parents told you a list of things
00:09:42
like that so people don't communicate that way and
we don't learn that way either and then we've got
00:09:47
the final and even probably the most important
part of this is the naturally varied review so
00:09:53
the two different ways we talked about reviewing
uh when people are learning english as a second
00:09:58
language you really have got three options the
first one is just to repeat the same thing again
00:10:02
and again which is very boring your brain doesn't
want to do that your brain is naturally excited
00:10:08
about and naturally interested in things that are
new and the reason your brain does that is because
00:10:13
it's constantly looking for things that are new
in the environment to figure out whether they are
00:10:18
good for you or bad for you so as i talked about
before you're getting little or no review with the
00:10:23
traditional way so again it's hard to find people
to practice speaking with or even if you can find
00:10:29
people you might be too shy you're worried about
the pronunciation errors or vocabulary mistakes
00:10:35
that you might make but with naturally varied
review this is really just how you're getting
00:10:40
fluent naturally by hearing slight differences
maybe you might hear a phrase like your parents
00:10:46
when you were young so your dad said wash your
hands and your mother said wash your hands too
00:10:51
so you're listening to the same phrase but there's
something a little bit different about it and this
00:10:56
keeps your mind engaged and happy to review the
information without being bored isn't that cool
00:11:02
so this is how you got fluent in your native
language and if you look at these the example
00:11:06
really is quite obvious and you can see why
one is successful and the other causes a lot
00:11:11
of frustration so the english as a second language
approach is really going to stop you from getting
00:11:17
fluent although it will help you learn a lot of
vocabulary for reading and writing and passing
00:11:22
tests but if you want to actually communicate
you really need to follow the english as a
00:11:28
first language approach okay now i want to make a
very important point about the three elements of
00:11:33
the english as a first language approach or what i
call the english fluency triangle and that is that
00:11:40
you need all three of these things if you have
one or only two you will still struggle to speak
00:11:47
if you learn real conversational english but
you don't understand it like a native and you
00:11:51
don't review it you won't be able to use that
vocabulary fluently similarly even if you learn
00:11:57
and review formal vocabulary you really won't
understand natives or communicate naturally
00:12:03
and even if you understand conversational english
like a native if you don't get the right review
00:12:09
you'll never become an automatic confident
speaker now looking at these two different
00:12:14
examples you realize that natives get fluent
because of how they learn i can take a person from
00:12:20
china and bring them to brazil to teach them
portuguese and if i do these things that chinese
00:12:26
person would easily learn portuguese so it's not
who you are or where you are but how you learn
00:12:34
that gets you fluent now once i discovered this
i wanted to see if i was the only person who had
00:12:39
figured this out so my own research led me to
linguists like noam chomsky and stephen krashen
00:12:45
and they confirmed exactly what i discovered so
basically what they found is that number one we
00:12:50
all get fluent the same way we all get fluent
the same way so basically you don't need to be
00:12:56
a native to get fluent like one isn't that cool
number two there is really what i call a fluent
00:13:02
communication switch in your brain that
lets you acquire language and speak when you
00:13:07
understand messages so when you don't understand
things if you're learning through translations
00:13:12
or you're studying grammar rules but you don't
really understand well enough to use something
00:13:17
that's what switches off this communication
switch and basically makes it impossible for
00:13:22
you to communicate this switch is also
deactivated if you're feeling nervous
00:13:26
so when people get into a conversation and they
worry about what they're going to say their
00:13:31
brain almost like the information disappears and
they're unable to speak so number three really the
00:13:36
secret to getting fluent you need understandable
messages you need naturally varied review and you
00:13:42
need to have the actual vocabulary that people
are using so the spoken conversational english
00:13:47
that people use in casual and professional
situations and the great thing about this is
00:13:52
it's all you need to get fluent because it's also
giving you all the feedback you need to improve
00:13:57
all by yourself so over time you will stop
making your mistakes automatically you will start
00:14:02
pronouncing things the same way natives do and
again this is how you learned your native language
00:14:07
now i want to make a quick point here that
speaking is not bad it's just not necessary
00:14:12
remember that if you feel nervous or it's
difficult to find people to practice with
00:14:16
you're not really going to get much input anyway
and the input you do get it's again from other
00:14:21
people speaking not from what you say so this
is why you don't really want to stand in front
00:14:26
of a mirror and practice speaking to yourself you
really just want to get as much input as you can
00:14:31
and if you have this in a structured way it's
going to get you fluent automatically even if you
00:14:36
don't say a word isn't that cool so now this is a
really big idea hopefully i've taken some of the
00:14:41
beliefs that maybe you had before about language
learning and showing you that they're incorrect
00:14:46
and how you actually if you learn the right way
you really develop different beliefs that will get
00:14:51
you fluent so number one you don't have to know
the whole language in order to speak fluently
00:14:56
remember that when young children are learning
a language their vocabularies are really small
00:15:01
but they're able to use that vocabulary fluently
because fluency is actually developed word by
00:15:06
word as you understand information rather than you
studying for months and months and years and years
00:15:12
and hoping fluency develops but you don't need
to know the whole language and that's why you're
00:15:17
actually much closer to fluency than you might
think so if you focus on the things that you
00:15:21
need to focus on just for your life you can learn
that and become fluent very quickly and of course
00:15:26
number two you can get fluent at any age number
three again you don't need a live teacher and
00:15:32
you don't need a practice partner either for the
same reason because really you're just getting
00:15:35
the input number four you don't need to live in
an english-speaking country you can get fluent
00:15:41
anywhere as long as you get the right input and
number five this is my personal favorite it's the
00:15:47
teacher's fault it's my fault it's the teacher's
fault if you don't get fluent not yours now to
00:15:53
sum all of this up hopefully i'm not going too
fast i know i'm giving you a lot of information
00:15:59
but hopefully this makes sense the traditional
way people think that you start by speaking and
00:16:05
you keep practicing and speaking and speaking and
speaking and at some point you get fluent that's
00:16:10
that's really the traditional understanding of how
language learning works but what really i saw and
00:16:16
what's been the case for me and my own students
is that you begin with understanding understanding
00:16:21
leads to confidence because you know you're going
to say something correctly when you say something
00:16:26
oh i know how to use that expression you you feel
that when you're learning so when you're learning
00:16:31
these things when you understand something
that gives you the confidence to use something
00:16:36
and that's when you speak if you don't have
confidence about what you're saying of course
00:16:40
you're going to be shy you're not going
to want to express yourself so remember
00:16:44
understanding you get the right input you really
solidly really really understand what you're
00:16:50
saying so you can think ah i'm actually thinking
like a native speaker rather than trying to think
00:16:55
through translations or think about grammar rules
or something before you speak so when you really
00:17:00
understand you've got confidence and that's when
you start speaking okay so now finally getting
00:17:05
back to my story once i had discovered this at the
park and i'm researching all of this and trying to
00:17:11
understand not only how to teach better but how
to learn myself i start applying these things
00:17:16
and some amazing things start to happen so i'm
learning the real conversational language people
00:17:20
are using and i'm learning it as a native would
learn it rather than trying to learn it through
00:17:24
translations or explanations and then i'm also
getting that naturally varied review i'm hearing
00:17:30
different people say things in different ways or
i'm learning different vocabulary at different
00:17:35
times so very quickly i became a good speaker but
again it wasn't in the whole language and even
00:17:41
today after i've been learning japanese for years
i still don't know everything there are lots of
00:17:46
things i still can't have great conversations
about but in the same way i can't have great
00:17:50
conversations about particle physics in english
so my job is not to know everything it's to know
00:17:57
and have great conversations about the things i
care about or the things that happen in my life
00:18:02
so as i started becoming fluent in japanese
i was a classroom english teacher at the time
00:18:07
and then started helping english learners
learn the same way then i start teaching
00:18:11
lessons online and i created this youtube
channel over wow like 10 years ago now and
00:18:16
so i have over 500 videos 1.2 million subscribers
i've been on radio tv other things like that for
00:18:24
basically helping people get fluent the same
way they got fluent in their native language
00:18:28
now understanding all of this people often ask me
why doesn't everyone teach this way why doesn't
00:18:34
everyone do this so here are the three
main reasons why i think people don't
00:18:38
the first one as i covered before is that most
learners and teachers don't believe it's possible
00:18:44
remember it begins with your beliefs if you don't
believe you can do something then why would you
00:18:50
bother trying to do it so what's interesting is
dr crash and call this the best kept secret in
00:18:55
language learning isn't that interesting so most
people just believe it's not possible so they
00:19:00
don't do it number two it's just not necessary
so if you're going to be a teacher at a school
00:19:06
and you have a whole bunch of kids and you don't
really care about them being able to speak but
00:19:10
you do care about them passing tests then okay
you're just going to give them a bunch of rules
00:19:16
or lists to memorize or something so that they
can pass the test and go on to the next grade and
00:19:21
number three frankly it's just really difficult
to do this if you imagine you're tired when you
00:19:26
come home from work and your young child maybe
they come to you and they say daddy what does
00:19:32
this word mean so they learn some new word or
they hear it in a movie you say oh go look it up
00:19:37
go look it up so you're telling them okay
here's the here's the word go connect that
00:19:42
with a definition rather than really understand
what the word means so it takes more time
00:19:47
takes more effort to think of a good story to
think of a way to connect people with with the the
00:19:52
vocabulary directly rather than just trying to say
here's a vocabulary definition here's a vocabulary
00:19:59
translation or something else now of course this
is the problem i experienced when i was trying
00:20:04
to do this myself so once i understood this is
how you should be learning i had to apply this
00:20:10
so people like noam chomsky or other linguists
they're they're coming up with a like a framework
00:20:16
for how to learn it's like a philosophy or a
methodology so how you should be learning but i
00:20:21
had to take that and actually make a system that's
going to get me fluent and i had to really teach
00:20:26
myself because nobody else was going to do it for
me so you can imagine how much faster i would have
00:20:31
been able to get fluent in japanese if i had
someone there to guide me when i was struggling
00:20:36
so nobody else does this nobody else gives you all
three of these things and this is what makes us
00:20:41
different so when people ask me drew why should
i learn with you what makes you different it's
00:20:46
because of this i'm giving you all three of these
things and making it so that you don't you don't
00:20:50
need to live in an english-speaking country you
don't have to have a partner there with you or a
00:20:55
live teacher as long as you get the input and you
get that practice and the natural practice that
00:21:01
happens as you're getting the input it's really
the input itself that gives you the practice
00:21:06
it's not you trying to repeat phrases again and
again to a mirror or you speaking in your car
00:21:10
or something like that it's really just getting
the input so if you get it systematically you're
00:21:16
getting the right input you're going to get fluent
guaranteed whether you like it or not you could
00:21:21
actually i could sit you in a chair and tape your
mouth shut and just hold you there so you can't
00:21:26
move and i would get you fluent even if you tried
to not get fluent i would still get you flying all
00:21:31
right so if all of that makes sense i wanted to
give for the people who are interested just a very
00:21:36
quick introduction to the various courses we offer
i'll give you a quick overview of each one of
00:21:41
these and remember you get instant access and you
keep access forever so fluent for life this really
00:21:46
covers everything we've got the fluency triangle
we're giving you all of the various vocabulary you
00:21:51
need but the amazing thing about this program is
that really you get to choose what you learn with
00:21:56
each student who goes through the program it's
almost like having a personal program with me
00:22:02
you get to learn whenever you want and study the
things as you want to study them so we give you
00:22:06
access to the whole library that i have and
you can go through the individual programs as
00:22:11
you like to go through them so let's say one
day you want to learn about uh you know home
00:22:16
building you know where you want to learn about
going to the doctor or you want to learn about
00:22:21
money and investing whatever the course might be
whatever the interest you have or maybe you want
00:22:27
to learn with particular speakers so you want to
learn with someone from australia or someone from
00:22:31
the united kingdom someone from canada or even
different places in the united states where we
00:22:37
have different accents depending on the person
who's speaking so we cover basically everything
00:22:43
it's like me actually being there right with you
and giving you everything you need but you get to
00:22:47
choose what you learn it follows that same formula
so you're getting again the input that you need
00:22:53
wherever you are it doesn't matter how old
you are but that's what fluent for life is
00:22:57
so you get to choose what you learn and you get
fluent automatically by yourself next we've got
00:23:02
the visual guide to phrasal verbs this is another
very simple program but it's basically taking the
00:23:06
same idea of understanding the real vocabulary
that natives use phrasal verbs i tell people
00:23:11
to learn these because it's one of the most
important things you can learn as a student
00:23:15
because this is really one of the first things
that children are learning they're starting to
00:23:19
build phrases like pick up or put down or
turn over things like that and with just a
00:23:25
few different words combined in different ways you
can really grow a large vocabulary that you will
00:23:31
use very often very quickly so phrasal verbs are
much better to learn than something like idioms
00:23:36
idioms are helpful or proverbs other things
like that but phrasal verbs will be used
00:23:40
much more frequently so rather than getting the
whole fluent for life program if you just want
00:23:46
to start with something small but it's going to
teach you in the same way very focused that's a
00:23:50
visual guide to phrasal verbs and it's going to
give you my three-step formula for mastering this
00:23:55
automatically next we have the native fluency
blueprint this is for people who have struggled to
00:23:59
learn and they're trying to figure out what really
what kind of pieces they're missing this is for
00:24:04
developing your communication habits and what's
really so cool about this program is it helps you
00:24:09
improve without learning any new words or grammar
so i actually take the vocabulary you already know
00:24:15
and i'm going to help you improve just using
that so you don't need to learn anything new
00:24:19
although there is a lot of new information we
give for people who want to learn that but the
00:24:23
the core of the program is really just taking
the vocabulary the grammar the other things you
00:24:28
already know and really tightening these things up
improving your pronunciation improving the way you
00:24:34
speak again without having to learn anything new
so next is how to remember any english word all
00:24:40
of the things i've explained already in this video
are talking about how you can learn something the
00:24:44
native way and that's really going to build your
vocabulary but if you really want to have like
00:24:49
a super memory this is a specific technique that
i've taken from the world's largest companies and
00:24:54
applied it to language learning so i call it the
billion dollar memory secret but it's basically
00:24:59
how to remember things so you don't forget them
in your conversations really cool program very
00:25:04
simple and it's really just a technique and once
you understand how it works you can begin applying
00:25:09
it to any vocabulary you want to remember and
finally we have frederick learn to read this
00:25:14
is a program i've developed over many years
but i really wanted to have a system where we
00:25:19
could start at the absolute beginning whether for
learning vocabulary or grammar or pronunciation
00:25:25
and it would take you through a lot of the basic
grammar all of the pronunciation that we have in
00:25:29
english but the really cool thing that we do with
the app is that we let you discover the rules
00:25:34
for yourself so you get to find words you get
to learn what they mean the same way natives do
00:25:39
again it's applying all the same principles of the
fluency triangle but it's just in an app that lets
00:25:44
you do it yourself if you'd like to learn more
about these programs you can click on the link in
00:25:49
the description or in the link in this video but
the most important point here is whether you learn
00:25:54
with me or not all the information i've given to
you will get you fluent if you follow that thank
00:26:00
you very much for learning with me if you have
any questions put them down in the comments below
00:26:04
really probably the biggest question people ask
is which program should they try first really it
00:26:09
just depends on what you're interested in
if you want to try something smaller like
00:26:12
visual guide to phrasal verbs or the native
fluency blueprint you can try one of those or
00:26:17
if you just want to get started you want to start
speaking fluently in the next 30 days or less
00:26:22
get fluent for life so that's going to help you go
through everything but you get to choose what you
00:26:26
learn with you get so much content but again it's
not supposed to be overwhelming the point is you
00:26:31
have so much to choose from so it's like having me
there with you depending on what you want to learn
00:26:36
and i hope you learn that whether it's for your
career or for everyday life however you want to
00:26:40
get fluent you can do it wherever you like and
really that's it for this video so hopefully
00:26:45
you've enjoyed it if you have do click that like
button and share the video with anybody else who
00:26:49
might be interested in getting fluent especially
other people who are clicking around they've
00:26:53
been trying to learn for years and they're
still trying to figure out how to get fluent
00:26:57
video hopefully explains everything and if you
have any questions i'll see you in the comments
