Hey guys.
Welcome back to my channel.
This is me Flor.It's been a long week.
oh my god, it's been so long.
But I'm really glad to be hear and to share with you this week's lesson that I hope will
help many people who have had this question: How do I become a more fluent speaker in English?
So many people are looking for quick fixes and quick solutions, and I'm here to tell
you that it does take time, but these are going to be tips to help you get there faster.
so, I'm also reminding you if you haven't already, please subscribe to my channel with
that notification bell button on.
Like I said, there are no quick fixes to becoming fluent.
It takes a lot of time, dedication, practice, and you have to be doing it for the right
reasons.
Meaning, you have to be motivated to actually want to learn English.
So here's the first tip: whatever language is your first language and wherever you live,
you have to be able to expose yourself more to English.
You can do this several ways.
You have movies and music.
You have stories you can listen to being read on YouTube or other channels.
In social media, you have groups and pages you can join and places like internet forums
where you can chat with others in English.
The greatest thing about the internet is that you have all the tools you need through the
internet.
This is a key steps and probably one of the most important steps is having more exposure
to that language on an every day basis.
So if you're someone that is already doing that.
You're just going head on with the English music and the movies and the tv shows and
the podcasts...everything, you're just listening to a lot of English.
You are already half way there.
Think about it.
In conversation, to become fluent half of it is really your listening skills and listening
to the other person or people in your conversations...so listening skills ... that is like number one.
Focus on more English input.
Now if you're thinking, what specifically do I listen to?
Or what do I focus on?
Then here's the next tip.
You want to to expose yourself to natural English and focus on the things that are different
in spoken English versus written English.
And again, this can happen through any media, movies, tv shows, interviews that you hear.
Listen for phrasal verbs because that will help you become more accustomed, more used
to, the English that is used when we speak.
Here's something else you can focus on.
Contractions.
We have so many different ways of saying things and you know that native speakers we put everything
together.
Listen to the contractions that we use when we're speaking.
As you listen to my lessons on my YouTube channel, that's what I'm always doing.
I'm using contractions.
So make a note of that as you become more used to that.
But those are key things.
You can also focus on listening to specific phrases and expressions that people use in
different situations.
For example, expressions on what to say when you introduce someone.
Expressions people use to end of a conversation or expressions people use to explain a problem.
As you take on to listening to natural conversation, that will be very helpful for you.
So this leads me to to tip number 3.
Now we live in a fast-paced , technology-filled world where taking notes on paper is not something
that everybody's doing.
But this is something I have seen help so many students, including myself when I've
tried to learn new languages.
Write down somewhere.
Write down those expressions, those contractions, those phrasal verbs, that language input that
you have given yourself, write it down.
Keep a notebook where you can review these notes on a daily basis.
Because we all now that we might learn something in the moment and say yes, I got it, but we
might forget it later on.
And it's natural if you only expose yourself to that expression one time.
This is my journal and for those of you who speak Hindi, I am trying to learn how to speak
Hindi myself and this is what I do.
So, I write down expressions that I've learned or that I hear.
I note down some of things that I remember of the grammar like how do I write in simple
present tense.
But the point is that I have this notebook so that I can go back and check and review
what I've learned so that next time I hear these things in a movie or a sitcom I'm like
hey, I know what they said.
That way you will be able to become more confident in the language as you continue hearing that
language.
But now what?
Now we practice.
Maybe you're fortunate enough to have an English-speaking person that you could just practice all day
everyday.
But for a lot of us, especially if we don't live in an English-speaking country, it's
more difficult.
So you're like thinking "How do I practice then?"
Well here's what you can do.
There's a strategy you can do that's called repetition.
By listening to parts of conversations, playing it back, pausing, and practicing repeating
what you hear in that conversation, it's really not about memorizing that conversation.
But, it's more about practicing the intonation.
How do we say a question?
If we say hi!
Hey!
How you doin'?
I'm doing good.
How are you?It's so simple.
But if you took the time to pause and repeat, by repeating what you hear, you're actually
training yourself to use intonation that is used amongst speakers.
And really, you're not just listening to those expressions and you're practicing the intonation.
But you're listening to how native speakers kinda put their words together.
If I ask how are you doing?How-are-you-doing?I..I, In natural spoken English, I just said How
you doin'?
So practice.
As you are practiciing repeating things that you hear from English conversations, another
good to do is to actually record yourself.
Most phones some sort of app or something that you can record yourself and listen to
yourself and this will help build your listening but also practicing speaking in that language.
Just record yourself.
This next tip is one of my favorites.
And that is learning a language and trying to become fluent in it means also learning
more about the culture, because if you think about it, a language is a representation a
group's values, beliefs, traditions, so if you understand the culture a bit more, it
will help you learn more about the language itself and how it's used.
So here's an example.
As I'm learning Hindi, one thing I really love is Indian food.
And so when I try to learn and cook something, I notice that I look at the spices and I'm
using the Hindi words for those spices instead of the English words for those spices.
And this is something that you could do too in wanting to learn English.
So as an example, when I'm cooking, instead of saying, "ok, I need some cumin."
Automatically I'm thinking, "I need some jeera." which is the Hindi word for cumin.
And I'm mentally thinking of the words in the language I want to learn in my every day
activities that I enjoy and I'm learning more about the culture.
So this is something that you could try too.
So here's another tip for you.
Notice the differences between your first language and English.
And you might be thinking "But why?I just want to be fluent in English."
Well, the fact is the more you're aware of the differences between your first language
and English, the more aware you become of the language forms in English.
So here's an example.
As I was learning English, as a kid, I noticed that you can call anyone "you" but in my first
language, in Spanish, you would use "tu" is it's someone I'm comfortable with my age,
or "usted" an honorific pronoun to show respect and I'm speaking to someone older.
So that is a difference that I noticed.
So pay attention to these differences to help you really understand the language forms of
English.
Write them down so that you internalize these rules that will help you to become more fluent
in English.
Ok so here's my last tip for you all for today.
As you're trying to become more fluent in English, if you take anything away from this
lesson, is this.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes.
One of the challenges I see with English learners is that they want to become fluent but they
want to sound perfect and they feel like that's what's expected for them to be considered
fluent.
That's not the case.
There will be times as you start speaking more and practicing where you will make maybe
grammatical mistakes, you might be self conscious about your accent, thinking "oh they can't
understand"or they won't understand.
The truth is, you just have to start speaking and be ready to make mistakes, but be ready
to learn from them as you keep practicing more.
Maybe you notice later on that you're making a certain grammatical mistake with the -s
ending of the third-person singular.
And that's ok.
It's all part of the process.
You know that native speakers themselves don't speak perfectly in the sense that we use slang,
that we shorten sentences and we shorten words.
Be ready to take that risk, make mistakes, learn from them, and just keep practicing
everyday.
So as I wrap up my lesson for today, for those of you who have asked this question, "How
do I become more fluent in English?", I hope that this video has helped you answer this
question.
And this is really just me sharing some of the biggest tips that I've been able to incorporate
myself as a language learner and in the English learner's that I've worked with.
If you haven't already, again I ask you subscribe to my channel with the notificiation bell
on and you press the "like" button.
I always enjoy making these videos for you all and I Iove when people ask questions that
I can respond in these videos.
So what should my next topic be?
Let me know in the comments section what you think about this video or what you would like
to see on future lessons on this channel.
You guys take care, have a great week.
Stay safe.
Keep practicing your English, keep practicing.
Listen to some English music throughout the day.
I hope you have an amazing week.