How To Know When You're Fluent In English

all right I think we're working  should have some people watching over here let me know in chat if this  is coming through think we should be okay all right I think we're in okay I am  Drew Badger the founder of EnglishAnyone.com and welcome to another live video here on  YouTube uh I got an interesting question from a learner and I wanted to talk  about that in this video let me know in the chat if that's working I think  it should be let me see if we're on YouTube and I think we are all right

uh so we're  going to talk about how to know when you're fluent in English George look at that George how are you  always first how do you do that you must be like sitting by your computer or phone you just have  the phone open and ready uh Salan nice to see you there all right let's see who else am I missing  over here oh nice to see everybody there Wendy uh Diana Muhammad and do I know you hello from  England Wellington from look at that everybody coming in nice to see everybody here um  so I

want to make this uh like kind of a video with you all to answer any questions you  might have uh because the truth is you really know if you're fluent in English in general by  knowing how fluent you are in the individual words and phrases that you learn and so you  might be fluent or feeling confident about uh one phrase or one expression uh one grammar  point something but you might not feel fluent uh in something else and fluently or fluency  it really just means that you feel confident ther

e are no doubts about that particular word  or phrase or pronunciation whatever that is um and you can use that thing confidently and so  when you remove the doubt whatever doubts you might have then the confidence comes out and  you do this uh in individual words and phrases now I thought about making a video about this  because I got uh an interesting question from a fluent for life member uh and this was just  talking about um I'll just give you I'll put the example up here I'm going to chang

e the  example a little bit just to make it a little bit shorter uh but I'll give you kind of a quick  quiz at the start of this video and then we'll take it from there synonyms of English please  send us just Google that you don't need me to tell you what synonyms are or I guess examples of  them all right uh so this question uh this was it was actually a really good question because  it actually demonstrated uh how fluent this learner is in these particular grammar points  so even though he ha

d some uncertainty and this was actually uh kind of wrong uncertainty from  the teachers and I'll show you this in a moment uh so this was let me see if I remember the  exact example but again I will I will change this uh slightly just to make it a little  bit simpler uh so the nurses let's see here the so this is a quiz make sure  we can fit this in here the nurses returned uh let's just call the  guy we'll just call him [Music] Tom so the first sentence is here uh the nurses  returned in the m

orning and found Tom d dead the nurses returned in the morning and found Tom dead  so that's sentence one and we'll put sentence two over here uh they so they being the nurses  uh I'll just make this very simple they told John uh that he would have a new roommate soon okay uh so these are actually even  a little bit too too complicated I should really make them shorter and easier than this uh but it  should be an interesting example for you now uh these sentences are correct what was interesting

  uh is that the uh the learner this fluent for life member was saying that in some like English  writing class he got this as a question and the question was to connect these two sentences  to connect these two sentences do we use and or but or so and or but or so so if we want to  connect these into one sentence which of these would be correct I'll give you a moment just to  try and answer that which of those do you think is correct and why if you want to add that so  which of these is correct

so the nurses returned in the morning and found Tom dead they told John  uh he would have a new roommate soon so just to make this a little bit easier for you we imagine  a hospital room here with two beds uh so one guy this is uh one person you can imagine they're kind  of lying down like this that's the head uh and the other guy over here so this is we'll just say this  is Tom over here and this is John so the nurses come in in the morning uh and they see uh Tom so  we'll put Tom over here To

m uh so Tom is dead oh no he's got the little X eyes on him uh and John  is still alive so they're both in the hospital room and the nurses come in and they find that Tom  is dead uh and John is still alive John is okay uh and they tell John you will have a new roommate  soon so Tom I guess they take him out of the hospital room and so which of these is correct so  the the the I guess the the people or the teacher who gave this kind of writing example said one of  those was correct which one do

you think it is so again the nurses returned in the morning so maybe  at night time uh the previous day they were both awake both alive but when the nurses came back uh  Tom was dead and John was still alive all right Monica says and anybody just go ahead put your  answers up there right now let's see here all right I'll answer any more questions over here  all right so nice to see you guys all right so Mr learner that's a great name sir you are amazing  well you guys are too kind mahes nice to

see you there uh Muhammad says okay Deana we got a Diana  and a Deana that's amazing hello the best English teacher in the world you guys are too kind I'm so  happy to be here well welcome ell says howdy Drew how have you been I'm just in time yes welcome to  the party I'm doing well hope you hopefully you are doing well too uh B2 our can't do you know  a second language maybe more I speak Japanese uh and I know a little bit of maybe Spanish and  French but I couldn't speak those very well uh He

y night uh let's see new voice is uh great to be  part of the English interchange welcome late but useful no we just got started don't worry about  it uh the lovely heart eyes from Roberta nice to see you there how can I learn pronunciation if  you'd like to learn about pronunciation just get Frederick you'll see the link to this in the  description below this video but this will train you the same way natives learn pronunciation so  if you'd like to do that so I'm Tom no dead what time is it th

ere Mohammad ask what time is it here  it is 9:57 a.m. I got started a little bit earlier today uh also the next video should be on the 29th  here in Japan time so put that on your calendar all right uh let's see all right so is said and  since John is still alive the first one is true well the both of these are correct like these are  both correct English there there's nothing wrong with these the question is how can we connect them  as one sand would we say the nurses returned in the morning a

nd found Tom dead and they told John  that he would have a new roommate soon or do we say the nurses returned in the morning and found  Tom dead or they found they told John probably we wouldn't use or let's just cancel that that  one that sounds a little bit weird it sounds a little bit weird or but so the nurses returned  in the morning and found Tom dead but they told John that he would have a new roommate soon or  so so they found a new roommate uh for John so we can connect this with so so

which one of these  would we put and but or so in here all right let me answer a few more questions and then I'll  give you my answer all right uh looks like we have a couple of things here so joh still okay  we answered that one already Let's see we got so so hi from nicaragu hello from Haiti hi from  Brazil how are you doing today I'm doing well what is the word all right I think answer that  but and so so is the correct one all right why now here's the interesting thing all right here's  the

interesting thing so in the example uh so in this kind of test example or maybe it was from a  textbook or something the answer the teacher gave was but the answer the teacher gave was but so the  nurses returned in the morning and found Tom dead they told John that he would have a new roommate  soon now if we're only looking at just these two sentences by themselves all three of these are  possible all three of them could be correct it actually depends on the mood you're going for  so do we wan

t to say it's like a positive thing uh or we want to say maybe it's like a not so  positive thing it depends so we could actually use all three of these and the interesting thing  was that this learner was a little bit confused because the teacher said the answer was but but  it's actually it could be really any of those all right so often when we get examples like this and  we will see this on tests and this is why it can be frustrating for me as a teacher uh sometimes I  will look at English t

ests and I will be wondering why the test is written the way it is because you  could actually have multiple correct answers but they will be looking for one correct thing which  is usually how a test Works uh but often you could have more than one uh correct answer so let's look  at all three of these uh and the reason I want to highlight this is because this learner this uh  fluent for life member uh is correct he is correct that you could use all three of these all right so  we could have all

of these we're just connecting these and really the point here is do we have a  solid understanding a feeling of what's correct okay A a sense of what's correct when we could say  something and then we have a good way to explain why that is so often like a native speaker they  might not be able to explain particular grammar rules but they usually just know they have a  sense for what's correct and and my job is to kind of be both like to know what's correct and  also be able to explain what's c

orrect so in this sentence here we've got the nurses returned in  the morning and found Tom dead and so we could put and here to connect these two see these are  just two things together and so or and they told John that he would have a new roommate okay so  that you could it's still grammatically correct it's logical uh there's nothing really confusing  about this it's just two pieces of information and we're connecting that with and okay so very  simple we could also say but if we're talking a

bout like in the in the morning the nurses came  back uh and maybe they're they're talking about how John feels about that so maybe he feels sad  so the like this situation up here or I guess this situation specifically of Tom being dead uh  it would be like a difficult thing for John who's still lying down in the room next to him and so  the the feeling is like the so the nurses came back oh no he's dead they don't want to panic but  they're just saying like it's okay don't worry uh you will ha

ve someone here uh you will have like a  new person here very soon okay so in that sense uh we might prefer but so the nurses returned in the  morning and found Tom dead but they told John uh that he would have a new roommate soon okay so in  in this the usage of butt is really just to make Tom or I guess John feel better okay so you could  make a butt to connect these two things but again this learner this fluent for left member was a  little bit concerned because well but typically means like

the opposite it was raining but I went  for a walk anyway okay but again we're talking about something where the the the mood it could  really be any of these things so we might have but here so the one person is dead but we want  to feel or make this other person feel better okay and then same thing with so so if we use so  here as well so this is something that happened and then this becomes the conclusion of that thing  or the response to that thing okay so the nurses returned in the morning

and found Tom dead so they  told John that he would have a new roommate soon now even here so it sounds it could sound a little  bit awkward where they're just saying like well I guess he's dead and now you get a new roommate so  it's not like a direct response to that but again it's logical you could say something like that  all right so the again again the the the feeling what we're going for here is to become fluent  in individual words and phrases like this is when you develop a sense where

you feel confident  so you don't have any doubt where oh I could use this or I could use that or I could use something  else okay so if you feel confident and you have a good reason to to support that you could use any  one of these in these examples okay so I thought this was a really good uh exercise of something  where especially in a typical English lesson uh you get something where you could have multiple  correct answers but often uh people really they were just kind of forced to choose on

e but I like  to do this when I'm taking tests or whatever I try to find holes or things like that where I can say  no no you actually could use this other one over here especially if the uh the teacher says I'm  wrong all all right let me go back and answer some of these all right uh let's see hello from  Turkey it's 4:00 a.m. here so I'm dead have a nice day oh no all right I think so fill in correctly I  believe the nurse killed Tom no I don't think so I don't know maybe this is this is not l

ike a murder  mystery example it could be though all right says I believe but uh fits better because they are  told uh they told that to John before knowing Tom was dead well we don't know that for sure all we  know is these pieces of information so the nurses returned in the morning and found Tom dead maybe  John was maybe John knew he was dead already we don't know uh and but they told John so they found  him dead and then they told John you will have a new roommate soon all right uh let's see

and uh  Davidson uh from Brazil nice say Muhammad I am a beginner so I can't understand fluency speakers  you mean fluent speakers uh if you are a beginner this might not be the right uh video for you this  is really for people who know a lot of English already but they still lack the confidence to  speak they still have some kind of uncertainty about that so I also invite anyone here now uh if  you do have questions about anything it could be questions about this example or anything else  that

you have uncertainty about so it could be a word or grammar point or something if it's  not something that's easily found on Google I can probably help you solve it faster here  uh let's see jet from Gambia nice to see you there uh I request you to read slowly the nurse  returned in the morning and found Tom dead they told John that he would have a new roommate soon  okay so that's our simple example over here all right uh Quang says hello from Vietnam uh let's  see if I'm pronouncing that Ruku

uh I felt the three could go but thought you were looking for a  unique answer yeah so again this is a tricky thing that happens when uh when a teacher is giving  you a test you're thinking like what is the answer the teacher is looking for and when you're  fluent like a native speaker taking the same test would say wait a minute it could be all three of  these things the meaning would be maybe slightly different and we could maybe say that like maybe  but is more appropriate but it really depe

nds on uh we we just need more information begas says uh  uh Andrew may I also say they found Tom was dead yes they found Tom was dead so typically we just  say they found Tom dead they found him dead cuz I mean he's not it's not I mean you could say  they found Tom was dead like it's in the past but Tom he's he's still dead right now so Tom is  is dead as well uh I heard they will marry soon versus I hear they will marry soon ah both of  those are correct uh so that's a good question so in that

case we're we're talking about maybe  I heard something from somebody uh maybe it was like a while ago that you heard it but even if  it was a while ago often we we will I think I gave a like a talk about this a while ago but  but talking about telling stories where you're EXP explaining something as if it's happening in  the present because it makes it more interesting for the people listening to it as an example  uh if I'm telling a story about something that happened maybe even years ago so

I was I was at a  restaurant and Batman came into the restaurant so I could describe the story that way I was at the  restaurant and Batman came so those are those are both just the simple past I was in the restaurant  Batman came into the restaurant uh or I could tell it as if it's it's happening now even though it's  it's not happening now it's just a way of telling the story where I say so here I am I'm at this  restaurant and Batman comes into the restaurant so it feels a lot different it's

like wow I'm  telling the story as if it's happening right now and it feels more interesting to listen to  because we we connect more with things that are happening now rather than something uh in the  past so you could tell the story story both ways and in the same example where we're talking  about I heard some friend is doing this so yes like you you at some point in the in the past  you heard something a friend of yours told you some information uh and then now you could also  describe it as

oh I hear you're doing something again we if we try to bring something more to the  present we usually connect with people a little bit better because it's something that's happening  right now as if it's like news or new information okay so I hear uh you're doing well in school  I hear you're doing well in school even though I didn't hear it immediately uh I may I heard  it actually from your parents or something I I heard it but I can describe that if I'm talking  to somebody's son hey I I he

ar you're doing well in school so like I it it's again connecting with  the present and both of those things are fine but it's kind of in the theme of this video where  we're we're talking about the the sense that that you have about grammar so when you or not  just grammar but really any vocabulary and when you feel I have like a good sense of this so I'm  able to say both of those I could use the past or I could talk about something happening right  now uh because I feel confident and I unders

tand what I'm saying for both of those things okay so  there's a level where you're learning a language and you say oh that's interesting like you you  have a question about did you hear something or so like you heard or I hear and so you you  know that both of those could be used in a conversation but you might not know why that's  where the doubt comes in but as you understand more oh so one is just talking about a a moment  in the past where I heard something and now I'm just describing it li

ke it's happening right now  just because it's more interesting to listen to that way all right so hopefully that clears up  some of that doubt let me know if that makes sense all right uh let's see eigor says hello  from Brazil when will the next live uh teaching B uh that will be I think the 29th of this month  look at that you got I guess it's a leap year this year a leap year so we have 29 days in February  rather than 28 uh Marin ala says good afternoon and M says we use an for expressing s

ubsequent  events right well again we could talk about a subsequent event or we could just be connecting  two things I am uh 10 years old and I like fishing there's nothing subsequent about that it's just  here's two pieces of information so this one we're kind of telling a story or we're trying to make  some kind of connection but these words actually become quite important to the mood of that story  so we don't know actually a lot of information we don't know if Tom knew or I guess if if John 

knew that Tom is dead maybe he did maybe he did not uh so maybe they found him dead John did  not know and so they told John it's okay all right so you might probably think like so or but  would be better answers here especially if we're telling a story typically when you're telling a  story we have like so and something happens but something happens therefore something else happens  so you're telling a story where there's something going on but there's a problem and then therefore  we create s

ome kind of new challenge or a solution or something like that all right so we typically  wouldn't just list and and and and and it would boring we want to have a story where we're  explaining something this is called the set up the setup the set the setup the setup of the story so  what happens and then this is like the conclusion of the story so this thing therefore uh this thing  uh happens over here so Tom died therefore we're going to let him know uh or let this uh let John  know that he wi

ll have a new roommate soon this is kind of a it's kind of a sad example uh we  could probably find something simpler and easier but what's interesting the point really here uh is  that I want you to think more about these various things and as you come to understand them very  well that's how you really become fluent so you become fluent in the word and you become fluent in  the word but you become fluent in the word so and your fluency continues to develop as you get more  examples all right a

nd so this usually happens as we get different examples various examples  using a word like and or but or so that make us feel confident that answer our questions  that remove our doubts about these particular words so whatever they are and then as you become  fluent in more words and phrases you can really say you're becoming fluent in the language as a  whole hopefully that makes sense that's the basic idea of this video all right uh let's see M says  say if I learn English can I understand al

l books of English well I suppose I mean the you could  there's a difference between being able to read something and knowing what it means so I could  put a word up here maybe you could read it you could sound out the word but you might not know  what that means so just because you know how to pronounce everything or read it doesn't mean you  would know like you couldn't really understand all the language so in like in theory I guess yes  you could you could potentially learn things but there's

probably a lot you would not still know  uh Rita says do you have give private classes please uh no I do not uh the reason I don't give  private classes because they're typically not a good way for you to feel confident for uh regular  communication and so the biggest reason for this is you need to have exposure to lots of different  native speakers so you can't only listen to me and really any person you would be having private  lessons with it would give you slower easier English and maybe yo

u would understand a little  bit more but the English in a lesson would be very different from How The Language really is in  movies or TV shows or real conversations so again like we we prepare everybody for this influent for  life and it's much faster and easier to learn that way because I'm basically giving you lots of uh  what I call fluency triggers it's really just a way of helping you understand The Language by  removing the doubt you have about it and so as you get lots of examples you f

eel more confident  about pronunciation listening grammar vocabulary all of that because you're getting so many  different examples from different native speakers U so that's uh and again like if you  want to have a private teacher that's great to help you understand things like I'm doing in  this video but that's it's only one level it's like the first level of understanding things so  the kinds of things that I teach like I do here you will find that influent for Life Plus lots  of examples wi

th Native other native speakers that are not teachers just regular people talking  that will help you understand the language the same way natives do so if your goal uh is to be  a confident speaker you really need to be uh kind of putting that in or putting yourself in that  position the same way natives would be uh let's see uh bird says who will be the next president  of USA uh I don't know I don't know I'm not I'm not really happy about anybody running so I I  don't know maybe maybe none of

the above none of the no nobody that's uh I don't know we'll  see but I I can't imagine uh Biden surviving like physically surviving like Biden would be this  example like the nurses returned in the morning and found Biden I mean he would be he would be  like 90 years old or something like that and he's already having trouble so I don't know uh thanks  for having explain okay got it make sure again my my goal here is to make sure everybody has that  understanding and that's when you feel confide

nt about using something that's when you become a  confident speaker all right uh let's see M says I in Kenya I can't understand African people there  I can't understand that's a question or you you're telling me that uh and big says is it correct to  say they found him had been dead for two hours or you would just say they found he had been dead  for 2 hours I guess but like that that's making it kind of unnecessarily complicated uh you're so  if they found they found Tom Dead uh you could say

like they found he had been dead but that's  more like that's more like the discovery of how long uh he he had been dead for all right so just  just to make this very clear the nurses walk into the room let's say they walk into the room at uh  at like 3:00 oh no it's in the morning a better example let's just say it's it's 7 700 a.m. so the  nurses come into the room at 7:00 a.m. and they say oh no Tom is dead so at that point they found  him so this is the first uh example of finding him dead s

o they found him dead like they found him  and just like it just means that that's the the condition or uh like whatever whatever he was  the situation he was in so I might walk into my uh like my daughter's room where they're playing  and I find them playing a game so it's just what are they doing when I when I see them all right  so this is It's not like just an example for dying or anything this is just what is the state  or condition or situation what are they doing when you see them okay so

I found him dead this is why  we just like we have it just very simple like this so I found somebody dead or I found someone  sitting on a chair or I found him watching TV typically we we say kind of found here it's  it's like a discovery so we notice something oh no here's a problem like I walk into uh my kitchen  and I find my wife standing on the kitchen table so that's a surprising thing whoa like it's like  I could I could say yes I I saw my wife standing on the kitchen table but I also fo

und her on the  kitchen table it's a little bit surprising so this is the first instance of finding something but  maybe after they do some research or they they test okay his heart stopped at 3:00 so they they  found he had been dead for 4 hours in that case so these are just two different times like the  first one is they're finding they're discovering something uh like the situation the person is  in and then the second second example is they maybe did some research or did some checking they 

looked at his medical maybe there's some little computers or information that know oh okay he  stopped breathing and his heart stopped at 7 or at 3:00 so that that's where like that's why you  would probably not want to put both of those ideas in the same sentence if that makes sense so the  nurses return in the morning to found uh to find him dead or they say and found him dead uh but we  could also say later uh we found he had died at uh 3:00 so we found or we discovered or we learned  the co

mputer gave us that information he had died or you can just use use the simple past we found  he died at 7:00 or 3:00 whenever okay so slightly different we want to try to communicate as simply  and clearly as possible uh but we may have uh like again we want to be clear what the situation is  are we talking about just seeing him dead or we want to actually talk about when we discovered  uh by uh maybe some some additional information or something like that all right that's a good  question thou

gh Gabriella says hello from Uruguay let's see how is my sentence not correct when  will be next live teaching please what would be the correct form of this sentence or you can just  say when is your next lesson very simple when is your next lesson or you could say when will the  next lesson be or when will the next live video be both of those are fine remember that there's  not just one correct way to express something typically we can uh Express things in many  different ways just like you do

in your native language all right looks like we've got some uh  tie there that I can't read uh Fran says but it's possible because they didn't want to say John that  time or they didn't want to tell John in this case you would say don't want to tell John uh that Tom  had been dead decided to make him believe he was changed to another room so is more simple since  it coordinates the first idea yeah it's still it's still a little bit too too complicated and it's  not this is not enough information

to tell us like anything we can we can imagine that for sure uh  but it's not enough information Wellington says I begun watch your classes with velocity in YouTube  75 now I'm understanding you well uh you mean the speed like the speed the the video speed uh so  you mean you're list to my videos a little bit more slowly at 75% speed is that what you mean uh  yeah I'm glad you're improving uh danis says the word or is a conjunction that connects two or more  possibilities or alternatives for ex

ample which do you prefer English or Spanish yes um that's why  like or or is probably not a good example here that's an obvious no so we wouldn't say this or  that uh but we can look at these other examples and see how those are correct so yes typically  we're and I it's it's good that you know that or maybe you got that from Google or whatever but  it's it's more important to develop the sense for what's correct so like when do we say or when  do we say and it's like I want you to think about

it like a native speaker because that's when  you know you're fluent all right so you know you're fluent in these particular things when you  know ah okay I should use and for this or or or whatever the the example is all right uh what is  the best way to become fluent in English you need to eliminate the doubt that you have about words  phrases grammar points Etc uh so that's what we do in these videos and influent for Life M says is  the second sentence uh as a consequence for the first one is

n't well yes so it's basically like  a consequence it could be it could be seen as a consequence where we say so uh but we could  also say it as like as a kind of a contrast fting thing or and again like we still we could  still use but even with a consequence it's just more that in that case but would be talking  about the feeling that the uh the nurses are trying to give John so John maybe feels bad so  they came in oh no like we're sorry uh we see he died but don't worry we will give you a ne

w like  a new person all right so it sounds a little bit nicer if you if you change that example if I  say oh the nurses came in they found John or they found Tom dead I should have given them  better he like typical English name from from a like a textbook or whatever so Tom they found  him dead if we use so then it sounds like they don't care as much all right I'm I'm kind of  we call this reading into something to read into when you read into it means you're you're  kind of putting your own i

deas into a situation you're trying to guess or think about what they  might be thinking you're imagining something so maybe I see something that's not really there I'm  reading too much into it uh but for this example we can have a little bit of fun with this so  you can imagine the two nurses come into the room they find Tom dead so they told this other  guy okay well we'll give you somebody new so it sounds it sounds a little uh you might you  might use the word like I don't know callous or d

epressing or like the nurses don't really care  okay we will take this dead guy out and bring a new person in for you you know so uh instead of  putting so here but makes it sound a little bit friendlier and nicer so oh no like a child drops  their ice cream on the floor so will get you a new one okay so the where we we're talking about the  the conclusion of something a child drops the ice cream on the floor and will give you a new one or  a so or so will give you a new one both of those would

be fine and or so but but takes a little  bit of time to to offer some care or empathy for the child or the or for John in this case so the  child drops the ice cream uh on the floor oh but but don't worry but don't worry we'll get you a  new one okay so if a child drops the ice cream on the floor and the parent just says so we'll get  you a new one there there's less feeling there there's less care uh and so the the parent would  feel like you would you would feel like they care less all right

so it feels like someone would care  more in this sentence so I could see why the why the teacher would give them but as like the most  appropriate answer but you really can make the case that all three of these are okay all right  hopefully that makes sense but you can you can see how by spend spending more time on these  words you start to feel more confident about them so the goal is not to uh like be thinking  like we got to study as many words as possible we really have to understand a few

words really  well and then we start building on that okay I think people are getting it though all right the  whole goal of this video is to demonstrate uh that we really become fluent in individual words  and phrases as we remove doubt as we uh develop understanding we feel confident about those things  that's when we start speaking all right uh okay here be nice with Biden please well I'm not I  don't I don't care about Biden or Trump but I mean I'm just saying looking at Biden uh I would  be

worried about Biden if I was sleeping in a in a hotel or not a hotel room if I was sleeping in  a hospital room uh with Biden I would worry that the nurses would come in and tell me oh no we'll  get you a new roommate soon you know just cuz cuz he's uh he's he just he just doesn't look well  you know and they're not doing a very good job of uh hiding that but we'll see I feel a little a  little embarrassed as an American uh let's see uh if I answer that one already all right bird says  I hope T

rump and America will be great again we'll see we'll see I don't know I don't know if Trump  will make America great again he he does talk a big game uh coming from like business in marketing  though all right uh can I say my pain subside or mitigate uh well mitigate typically means like  you might still have a problem but you put Like You cover up the the pain somehow but if the pain  itself is subsiding the actual pain is going away all right and this is why it's important to  really dig deep

into words and understand what that is so if I want to mitigate a problem the  problem might still be there let's say I'm uh I'm driving uh so I need to like drive to work over  here here's a road I could go this way this way so there is maybe like a traffic accident right  here I can kind of mitigate that by going around it the traffic accident is still there uh but  if the traffic I mean we wouldn't really say the accident subsides but in the similar way  that if it disappears then the actual

problem is gone okay so be careful number one to get good  definitions of things if you're unsure about them but the more important thing is to get lots of  examples of those all right actually think I talked about mitigate in a previous or recent  video all right uh let's see that's a good question though all right uh my main fear is the  toeu IBT all right well go study for it then all right uh you got to think remember try try not to  think about like the test like what are specific things th

at you're unsure about fol focus on those  that's the point of this video you don't really get fluent in English you actually get fluent in  individual words and phrases as you understand them better and you can think about that in the  same way for a test so typically you would be feeling confident about some things for the test  but maybe not others all right hello I'm Sue from Korea nice to see you there hi says a cute bana  hello look at that all is it alive I don't know what that's referrin

g to let's see n says uh I can  understand a book only if I read two times or more why how to improve that sir well it could be the  kinds of books you're reading are too complicated you should start with something simpler that  you can understand more easily but sometimes books even for native speakers if you're reading  something more challenging then that would that would be a reason why you would have trouble with  that all right I have a question uh says uh Sue over here let's see uh when I

read a sentence I  know all of those words in a sentence but I can't understand the sentence what's the problem you  think uh the most likely reason is because you learned English as a second language so it's not  your fault I'm guessing this with with just this one example uh but typically what will happen is  like a person who's learning English as a second language so they're learning English through  like you would be learning it through Korean probably maybe in school you studied English I

  think I think actually now uh English is it's like widely taught much more even like more  than Japan in Korea so I think more there might be better speakers over there I don't know  for sure I don't know much about Korea but I do know that most people are still studying English  the traditional way so they're not learning it as a first language they're learning it through a  second language so what happens is when people are learning English as a second language they  will get something like

this and they will think okay the nurses return and they're they're kind of  translating each of these things in their head and it becomes more difficult to understand the whole  situation okay so that's a that's a a big reason why that happens to a lot of people I would need  more information to to diagnose that further but that's typically why that happens how do I get  fluent with phrasal verbs uh typically we we get fluent in phrasal verbs the same way we get fluent  in anything else and thi

s is by getting lots of examples that we can understand so as an example  uh if we're talking about like here's a simple example of a phrasal verb this is false down so  you see the marker is moving straight down like that like snow or leaves or rain it's falling down  but here we have fall over so when the markers it goes to the side like that like a tree falling  over or a person falling over like that so here without me trying to use your native language I'm  able to explain just by showing y

ou how it works so these are called fluency triggers uh and this  is where we're helping you understand something where you really feel confident about using it  so that's how you would get fluent in phrasal verbs once you understand the like the physical uh  usage of that which is where uh typically phrasal verbs are coming from and this is why often little  kids are learning phrasal verbs as a way to build their vocabulary uh but the the thing you would  do next is you would take something lik

e that like oh no like the economy is falling down  okay or like the the economy is you could say it's like falling over or like they're like their  success or something something is becoming worse so we can take a physical idea like fall down  and then take that like I don't know like our relationship like fell apart all right so we had  something and then like it just it just crumbled into many pieces so a building or something old  could fall apart so we have a building with you know it's one

structure but then it falls into  many pieces like that so it fell apart but we can also talk about a relationship falling apart  as well so this is how Native learn the language and if you do the same thing you will learn to  understand these things the same way natives do uh let's see uh Bea again says in my area the  nurses would definitely use so in such casesa have you ever been or have you ever gone back to  Chicago along with your kids no I have not I have actually not taking my kids bac

k to Chicago uh  Margo says hi Drew this is Eduardo from Mexico I've been following your videos for so long very  good thank you welcome uh you would say for such a long time for such a long time uh very good  uh I guess yeah I guess you kind of could say like for so long but usually it's like for such a  long time uh is it live or if you're talking about the video right now it is unless you're watching  this later in which it's in which case it's not all right uh hello from Brazil says Fabio M

says  H nothing has happened the nurse care much about John comfortably rather than the tragedy of the de  yes you are you are reading into uh you're reading too much into it so we don't know what's happening  I'm sure nurses have to deal with this situation sometimes uh they come into a room and there are  multiple patients so two or more patients in the same room and they have to uh say oh no somebody  died or maybe they don't even tell the patient I don't I don't know what nurses do I'm not a

nurse  uh we need to get a nurse on here and answer that question I guess all right uh Fabio with the nice  uh Emoji there hello says David uh THS says what is the difference between for instance and for  example uh I get in this situation like if you're if you're if you're just and this is why it's  always tricky when people just say What's the difference between these two words or something  because words typically have multiple uses but for instance or for example I could use them really  to

mean the same thing I'm just giving uh one example of something for instance or for example  typically if I'm saying uh like if I want to give a grammar example uh yesterday I went to the store  uh and I bought something or I like to buy uh like snacks or something like for example I like to  get uh I don't know actually I guess so here if if I if I was going I'm I'm trying to think about  the like the native way to explain this to people but the best way to understand things like this  as I ex

plained before is like uh we have this is called a ven diagram where we have like four  instance let's see instance uh an example over here uh in general the best way to understand  the difference between these two or if they are the same or when they can be uh used the same way  or not uh is just by getting lots of examples of these and I'm not going to do that now but just  we're we're looking for like one counter example when they would not be used just so we know that  they could be used the

same time but maybe uh they can't in other situations so let's say going back  to the store example so I go to a store uh I like to buy snacks uh for example uh I like to buy uh  I don't know candy bars so candy bars all right so I like to buy candy bars so for example so I  wouldn't I wouldn't when I'm talking about like a list of things like uh these are some of my  supplies I use for teaching for example I use a whiteboard or a marker or something like that  um so that's for example all righ

t uh so if I'm giving a list of something like I wouldn't really  say for instance like uh oh I I need to I need to buy some uh some clothes after work today and a  person says like oh for example like what do you need to buy so that if I'm talking about a list of  physical things or something I need to do people wouldn't typically say for instance for that uh  but they wouldn't use for instance or for example if we're talking about uh like things I need to do  uh or um like things I've done for

my job so it's typically like some kind of action or something  that I'm doing so what kind of things do you do at work uh well sometimes like for instance I uh  I shovel snow uh or for example I shovel snow so in in this case I'm talking about things that I  do I would be able to use for instance because an instance of something is like it's talking about  an action when something happens uh and an example could be talking about an action or it could  be talking about a list of something all r

ight I don't want to spend too much time explaining  this but when you're looking at at words like this your your goal to to develop this sense to  to feel fluent to feel confident about when you should use one or the other you should spend time  on things like this trying to get many examples so if you Google a bunch of examples you're looking  at what is the pattern here what are the uh what what is the connection between these things okay  so if I go like anytime I hear for example it's usual

ly like a list of things or it could be a  list of activities but when here for instance I typically only hear like a list of activities  okay so something is happening rather than like okay I have uh some different colors with me like  what colors do you have oh I have a for example I have a blue red black yellow all right but for  instance I wouldn't say oh like for instance I have uh blue like that would sound weird because  this is just a physical thing it's an object I'm not it's not like a

n action okay so remember an  instance of something is when something happens like an instantaneous thing it's happening right  now okay now that was a kind of long explanation uh and you should even go deeper I recommend all  right so this is what I'm doing when i'm trying to understand things in Japanese you get more  examples all right so the you can kind of you could get a definition of something but you  don't really develop the sense for when to use something correctly from a definition ok

ay  I bet like you might even if you look up both of these words you would get like maybe a similar  definition for both of them but it's the examples you get that really tell you oh this is for I'm  I develop a sense for these kind of examples uh this is when I could use something and this  is when I would probably not use it all right does that make sense the chat got kind of quiet  hopefully people are following this uh but again um if you watch a lot of YouTube videos that are  teaching you

things it will typically be like a list of words hey guys today we're going to learn  uh 20 phrases and I'm going to just tell you the word here's an example or two maybe we repeat  the phrase and then we go on to the next thing but that doesn't really help you learn anything  I'm like the teacher is not really uh providing you um what you really need which is certainty  about that thing so until you get certainty you will not feel confident using that thing you will  find something else to say

all right and natives are the same way so if they don't feel confident  uh about something then uh they will not feel they will not feel happy or comfortable about saying  something so if you're watching videos the the reason teachers make videos like this is because  everybody wants to learn more vocabulary so everybody's always like I need more give me more  vocabulary uh usually because they think if they learn more uh or if they know more words they will  speak fluently but hopefully this vi

deo shows you that the opposite is true all right so I don't  I don't want to look I mean we're just talking about a few words in this video really I'm using  many words but we're talking about and but so or here's another example for instance versus for  example okay but the point uh is not to teach you a lot obviously we want to learn many words but  while we the the important thing is to make you feel confident to be certain about that vocabulary  all right uh let's see here uh let's see bgm

says it's my first time to attend your live lesson  love it if possible provide us with a schedule for live sessions dates uh it's just a wish in  possible time again thanks a lot again uh the next video should be on the 29th the 29th actually  uh this will probably be I like I usually don't I never do this I never do this ever but uh this  is my you can see some Japanese on here this is my actual schedule uh for the videos next month so  you can take a screenshot of this there's actually Japane

se on here but these are all the dates for  uh for March so we've got looks like it's like the 4th 7th 11th 14th 18th 21st 25th and 28th of  March okay there you go for people asking for uh for a schedule over there all right uh aanti says  uh where can I find content like example of words and context there is an app or something help  just search in the internet yes so you can do uh just Google will give you obviously it will it  will give you lots of examples chat GPT as well or other I mean i

t's not just chat GPT that has uh  AI service like that uh or you could use uish I'll write that up here for you if that fits let's see  where can they fit here y u g l i h do so yish is helpful if you already know the vocabulary uh and  you want to get more examples from that okay all right uh all right David with a nice hand  over there Ellison says why Interstellar main character dialogues are so hard to pick  up even using Subs I watched How I Met Your Mother and understood without Subs thou

gh uh I've  never seen Interstellar but I I think it's a more that's a Christopher Nolan movie I believe uh and  typically he has especially a movie about space they're probably like it's like the content itself  is just more difficult to understand so it's not the language really maybe they're using some  more difficult words but it would be different than a like a TV uh drama Su say I appreciate  your answer glad to hear it uh let's see hello from Georgia first time in live so first time to  b

e live welcome here Danny says hey Drew when when was the last time you went to the USA you've  been in living in Japan for many years right uh yes I was in I think 2019 it was before covid  I was back in the US uh and I have not been back since but I have had family come out to visit me  here uh and I've been in Japan on and off since 2003 so over 20 years now Fab says do you think  I can read a book uh read the book Thornbirds I don't know you you try to read it and tell me  remember if you're

reading something uh unless you you just want to give yourself a challenge  it's much better if you understand most of the content already so if you know the vocabulary  if you're reading a book and uh you understand at least 80 to 90% this is what I re recommend  so that any new information you can understand it easily from Context without having to get a  dictionary out every five minutes or more Leo says uh is flare up meaning getting bad uh again like  flare up this is a phrasal verb where

we think about like a fire or something getting larger  so to flare up so you might have a small fire but then uh it goes onto another building and like  wow flared up so something becomes uh like bigger or more intense uh and so you can take that as I  mentioned before in the phrasal verb example where we take something you know just like fall down or  I can talk about fall over or fall apart uh and then I can use that physical thing to talk about  something else like relationship or a company

or something like the company or the relationship  fell apart so it used to be connected it was strong now it's broken into many pieces it fell  apart okay so the same thing with flare up uh you have to think about when you would use it in a  physical way so like a fire physically flares up but we could also talk about an argument flared  up so maybe like a meeting at a meeting you have a few people they're talking and the president  is is talking with somebody else and they have a disagreement

so the President says no I don't  think we should do that uh but then I don't know the accountant says well we have to do that thing  uh or the business will fail so now who like it just flared up into a bigger argument they start  yelling at each other like that so again uh we really want to get many examples this is the kind  of thing we do in like especially in the uh visual guide to phrasal verbs that I have uh which is  also influent for life but everything there it's really designed to hel

p help you understand  things like a native uh let's see here all right make says hi studying English or you love  studying English okay from Brazil Jose says hey Drew you are a good teacher thanks for the videos  my pleasure Juliet I am late hi there looks like some Korean there's great explanation about  instance and example very very good all right glad to hear and again get more examples go get  more of them uh I'm I'm trying to be very quick about how I do this to make sure I can answer a 

lot of questions uh but that's that's the basic idea where you you want to look for situations  and patterns in those things so when can we use the vocabulary when we cannot all right when can  we not use that vocabulary my says while speaking continuously suddenly doesn't get an idea what  to talk next so how to manage the situation for example speaking in a large group discussion uh  I talk about this in uh in other videos uh just look look for that problem I think like how to  it's like how t

o speak continuously or something I talk about that though uh in other videos news  is not available in Indian currency sir I don't know what you're talking about Tu says Hey Ohio  Drew s Ohio goas nice to see you there Muhammad says the first sentence use past time but the  second sentence Ed conditional but is a kind of chronology between them please explain that  the nurse returned in the morning and found Tom dead wait what are you referring to [Music]  uh first sentence is a p but the secon

d use condition uh no I don't know you referring  to that like the the stuff on the board I mean it's it's it's just talking about the past  there's nothing nothing conditional about that it's not like if he wanted to do something then  something else or whatever it's just like this so the nurses returned in the morning and found  him dead and they told John he would have a new roommate soon there nothing conditional about  that uh hi from Ukraine I can't read the cilic uh brid says hello to Dre

w uh the doubt Destroyer  yes the doubt Destroyer that's the problem that's the problem we need to solve right there MBO says  do you have phrasal verbs course says yes I have a a course called visual guide to phrasal  verbs it's included in fluent for life uh how about dual lingo is it help for English uh  I can't really speak about dual lingo because I've never used it to try to learn a language but  I would imagine if you want to become a confident speaker using an app like that is probably n

ot  going to help you very much it might teach you some vocabulary but remember the the English or  whatever language you're learning in an app is going to be different from how natives really  speak so the vocabulary will be faster it will be more difficult to understand because they might  actually be using slang or idioms or phrasal verbs or other things that you're not used to uh so  again I don't I don't I can't really speak about that but I've I I don't think I've ever met  anyone who is l

ike oh I only used dual lingo and became a fluent speaker or even that that  was like the main way they became fluent um so I don't know I can't really speak much about it  uh your class not available in Indian currency oh well if you're talking about buying forces from  us uh it's converted automatically during checkout so we we recommend like if you want to know how  much it would be whatever the program is like xe.com is the shortest way for checking currency  exchanges it's just the shortest

website I can give to people um so xe.com if you want to look  up how much the price of your like a program would be in your local currency uh but everything is  converted automatically a checkout so it doesn't matter if you're in India Thailand Vietnam  La whatever like you're you would have a uh the currency would be converted automatically all  right let's see how we doing for time look at that 10:52 all right all right look at that I think  we got we got through an hour uh and hopefully peo

ple have a better understanding I will give a  quick recap as usual um remember that the goal is to understand individual words and phrases really  well and you do this by getting many examples of them them you only need is is not like a specific  number it's just how many examples do you need to feel confident about something and then I would  still maybe get a few more but uh the goal when you feel confident when you get that what I call  the aha moment like ah now I got it when you feel that

that's when you become fluent in a particular  thing so as you get fluent in more words phrases grammar points pronunciation whatever cultural  things that's where you start feeling fluent in the language itself okay that's the basic  idea second says hi Drew how long it takes to child was born in eua to speak flu eua you mean  like like the USA like a CH like a native child born I mean I it probably takes the same anywhere  usually children are learning to speak you know they start speaking cou

ld be one 2 3 years old  four years old they they they can usually speak their language quite well uh and again they it's  because they hear lots of simple examples again and again and again but from different people  maybe they watch a TV show or they're getting it's is the naturally varied review as I call it  uh that Learners are getting and so the more of that you get the naturally varied review will  build your fluency much faster because varied examples help you understand things from diff

erent  angles rather than you just trying to repeat some vocabulary over and over again so if you have one  flash card in your trying to review something it's less effective than like seeing different  examples in context um or you know whatever whatever helps you understand that thing well uh  how much or you say like you could say how long did it take for me to become have a good level of  Japanese uh remember just like I'm explaining in this video I become fluent in individual words  and phra

ses as I understand them uh and once I started learning this way I'm basically trying to  learn English or learn Japanese in my case like a native Japanese speaker so learning Japanese as a  first language and trying to give my brain as many fluency triggers as I can uh and so this is like  the process of doing that for individual words and phrases it could be very quick it could be like  a minute or less to become fluent in a particular thing or it could take more time there's some  maybe gramm

ar points that I still don't feel comfortable with I just need to spend some time  and get more examples of them uh but in general just to have good conversations with people uh I  don't know like uh I think once I started learning Japanese as a first language it was pretty quick  it was like a few weeks really uh and that was just starting to understand things I would I would  be speaking simply at first and then having more uh like detailed conversations so you'll see maybe  I'll be able to pu

t it on uh on the channel I was on a Japanese TV show a few weeks ago so we  recorded it I don't know when the episode will be coming out uh but you can see I'm just like  speaking normally you know the way I would speak um but I I I if I'm learning something new it  might take me a little bit of time to understand that and then to integrate that into my vocabulary  but it's a much faster process than learning the traditional way so actually becoming fluent  doesn't take as much time as people t

hink it's just let's get right to the point of eliminating  the doubt uh destroying the doubt you have about vocabulary or grammar or pronunciation and then  you unlock the fluency automatically so you're you're already trying to explain things it's  just you're really blocked because of doubt about whatever that whatever that thing is so  if you remove the doubt you can start speaking uh pretty soon actually like within within days  really I mean uh depending on how how much you know or how con

fident you feel uh Abra says man  thanks so much for helping me a lot of respect from Saudi Arabia uh y it's my pleasure says  what are the ways to know the level of fluency in English I made a video about this as well where  I talking about the three levels of understanding so you begin with exposure to the language where  you might not understand it and then you go to awareness where you can recognize information  and then you go to ownership and people typically watch my videos um they're bet

ween or maybe at the  awareness level but not at the ownership level and it just means they still have some kind of doubt  about the vocabulary so you can go through these phrases very quickly I could teach you something  new and you could understand it very quickly um and then like become a more uh confident speaker  or at least use that particular phrase fluently and confidently all right so the point is really  to understand that thing very well and if you get lots of examples you can do that

much faster  than trying to learn the traditional way uh this man the best teacher out there well it's my  pleasure if you know other people uh who I could help please send them on my way sometimes I have  a difficulty understanding phrasal verb should I look it up and Google well the best thing really  to do is get lots of examples of that uh just search my channel you will find some phrasal  verb videos there that help you understand the way I teach and it's again the way natives would  learn

the language and if you want more you can join us in fluent for life where the visual guide  to phrasal verbs is is uh would you tell us about your site you create on the web oh if you're  like well the like for the the stuff that we do on YouTube here you you'll see a lot of my videos  are trying to help people understand how fluency really develops and I do teach you know words and  phrases but the the number one goal is to help you understand really the the truth about learning  rather than

trying to just study more where you're trying to study more words and phrases until you  think well if I know a thousand words now I can speak fluently that doesn't really work uh and we  know that because people know a lot of vocabulary and still can't speak but the opposite where we  look at a young child who gets lots of examples of the vocabulary and they eliminate the doubt  that they have about that vocabulary that's when they speak and so I just recommend you do the same  thing that's how

I got fluent in Japanese that's how I helped people get fluent in English and  I've been doing this for 20 years over 20 years I did not think I would be like here teaching people  but I really enjoy teaching and seeing people like that uh that I I can't see your face out there  but I can tell when people get something like just by your comments or you know if I'm teaching  in a classroom I can see also but uh when people like ah now I got it you know uh so what we do at  the website is we take

these ideas that we have on YouTube so there's a lot of content on YouTube  but most of it is really just teaching principles about the language if you actually want me to get  you fluent automatically that's what we do in our program so like visual guide to phrasal verbs or  fluent for life so all the hard work is done for you you don't actually have to go through and  try to find lots of information to learn if you just want to become fluent quickly and really  uh without having to take time

or have a like a person to practice speaking with anything like  that you just want to eliminate the doubt that stops you from speaking that's what we do so I am  like uh who was that said that the doubt Destroyer so we want to remove the doubt that stops you  from speaking so typically on like if people are wondering like why they should join a program  when I have so much content on YouTube you'll notice a lot of this is about the same kinds of  themes U like teaching people tips and helping t

hem understand so maybe some people don't want to  join a program or they like learning by themselves or whatever it that's fine um but uh for people  who want help help who want to get fluent as fast as possible especially if they need English for  their career a lot of people who are professionals join us like people who are in government or  companies uh those are the people who join my programs because they want to get fluent as fast  as possible they're busy doing other things and they just

want someone to tell them how to get  fluent and like actually so so it's really my job uh to get you fluent by triggering your brain the  the fluid communication switch in your brain uh to help you understand something and feel confident  about using it all right uh let's see Elizabeth says hello my name is Elizabeth I started to watch  your videos recently I love your lessons glad to hear it welcome to the welcome to the party  make says it's great you were able you were on a Japanese TV show

is it possible to watch it  on YouTube uh it's not it hasn't been released yet so it's not even on television we just recorded  it um but it was fun I actually did a video like part of the part of the episode is here in this  room so I was teaching about how to learn so like explaining to them if you want to become fluent  you have to learn English in English rather than through Japanese and then we went to a local  ramen restaurant so we're eating eating I was introducing uh like a tomato Rame

n that I like uh  to this guy and we were talking about that so it was an entertaining entertaining show we'll see if  they if they release it I haven't heard anything back um but the they were excited to do the show  and we'll see what happens maybe it will be a aable on YouTube jio says uh I'm sorry to bother  I am from Grand Rapids Michigan and very impressed about you sincerely well there no bother at all  welcome uh and again more hongu teacher I have a question take has several meanings bu

t when do you  use it the most all right I think we're going to end here because that would be that would go into  like many different uses of things but that's the kind of question we answer in the visual guide to  phrasal verbs because I can take more time I can take more time take more time and take you through  a nice long explanation and show you many examples of how things work so again if you're if you're  nervous about a word check our channel for that just to get more examples you can p

robably find  more but you will find a lot more uh influent for life all right let's see Meg says thanks please  let us know when that happens yes uh if I find out uh when I find out I will let you know and thank  you for your help teacher all right well it looks like that is the end of the video remember take  more time time go into the vocabulary if you're uncertain clear up there's another phrasal verb  for you clear up the uncertainty and you will feel a lot more confident about it uh let's

see uh Ben  says a few days ago I happen to watch a few videos with your elder daughter involve more videos like  these yes I have to get Arya and Noel back in the videos uh we'll see how that goes all right have a  fantastic day and we'll see you in the next video should be on the 29th uh and again I held up my  schedule earlier I'll put that up here again for you there you go you get some Japanese in there  as well so that's the character for uh Monday this like first one over here little litt

le character  here and then Thursday it's like it's a moon and a tree isn't that interesting it's like moon right  yeah Moon and a tree for Monday like moonday isn't that interesting Monday and moonday all right have  a fantastic day and we'll see you next time byebye