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  • - Sometimes, speaking English is really easy.

  • Other times, yeah, not so much.

  • Why?

  • (whooshing)

  • Hello, I'm Julian Northbrook here today with another

  • Two Minute Tip.

  • Two minutes on the timer.

  • (snapping) Go.

  • Sometimes, comes a question,

  • speaking English is really easy.

  • Other times, it's really difficult.

  • Why?

  • This is a good question.

  • It is one with no simple answer, however,

  • because it really depends on a lot of factors.

  • There are a range of reasons why you may find

  • one conversation pretty straight forward and pretty easy

  • but another one quite difficult.

  • For example, is it a topic you are familiar with

  • versus a topic you are very unfamiliar with?

  • Different topics use slightly different words,

  • phrases, and expressions.

  • Well, if one of them has more

  • that you are very, very familiar with

  • and another has lots that you're not,

  • well, you're gonna struggle to understand

  • and speak about that thing.

  • More, it also depends to a certain extent

  • with whom you are speaking.

  • Some people are gonna be easier for you to talk to, again,

  • and it really comes down to familiarity.

  • Whereas some people may use speaking styles

  • that you are less familiar with

  • and therefore are gonna find it harder to understand

  • and to interact with that person.

  • There's also something that we call cognitive load,

  • which is one of the five elements of fluency.

  • You see, we tend to think of fluency as being a single thing

  • but actually, that's not true.

  • Fluency is a set of multiple processes

  • all working together in the human mind.

  • There are five of them and one of them

  • is the concept of cognitive load.

  • Cognitive load actually isn't really specific to language,

  • rather is more to do with what's actually happening

  • in our brain.

  • Simply put, if a lot of things are happening

  • all at once in your head,

  • your brain's power will be spread out across several things

  • and you're gonna find it much, much harder

  • to process any one of them.

  • Well, if you're in a conversation

  • where you are very comfortable

  • and very familiar with a person,

  • you're gonna be very relaxed

  • and that is gonna free up the brain's RAM, as it were,

  • for you to just engage in the conversation.

  • If, on the other hand, you are panicking

  • or don't feel so confident or you are getting flustered

  • because you're speaking with someone you don't know,

  • it's a high pressure situation,

  • and oh my god, things are getting really hard,

  • you're gonna find it much, much harder

  • to speak in that situation because suddenly,

  • your brain is trying to fight a lot of different fires

  • and it's not able to allocate enough RAM to your speaking.

  • Again, this is a somewhat simplistic answer

  • to quite a complex question

  • and there may be many other reasons

  • why you can find one conversation easy

  • but another more difficult.

  • But those are what I would say

  • are the three of the biggest most common of them.

  • Hope that answers your question.

  • If you have a question of your own,

  • dear video watcher, leave it in the comments

  • and if you're lucky, I may answer it

  • in a future Two Minute Tip.

  • This is me, Julian Northbrook,

  • signing out from another

  • (chuckles) Two Minute Tip.

  • If you found this useful,

  • give it a nice big ol' thumbs up.

  • If you hated it, give it a thumbs up anyway

  • and I'll see you, my friend, in the next one.

  • Thank you and bye bye.

  • (lively rock music)

- Sometimes, speaking English is really easy.

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