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  • - Hello, I'm Julian Northbrook from DoingEnglish.com.

  • (lively music)

  • How to speak fluent English without hesitation?

  • It's a good question,

  • and it's one that many of you are asking.

  • I've got two things to say on this.

  • The first is a little bit simpler.

  • It might sound a little bit patronising,

  • but it's very important.

  • The second is a little bit more complicated.

  • It's a little bit deeper, but it's also very important.

  • But first things first.

  • When people say to me,

  • I'm struggling to speak English well.

  • I'm not fluent in English.

  • I hesitate when I speak.

  • I can't respond to people quickly, automatically in English.

  • My first question for them is always

  • how much time and energy

  • are you putting in to learning the language?

  • Learning the English that you need,

  • and then practising it to get good at it.

  • It's such an obvious thing,

  • but you'd be amazed at how many people

  • actually really aren't doing much of anything.

  • You see, what happens is people have a conversation

  • in English with an overseas client,

  • somebody from their work, whatever.

  • And they will completely screw that up.

  • They will misunderstand something, say something stupid,

  • the whole thing will go horribly wrong,

  • and they end up horribly embarrassed about the whole thing.

  • They go home, and they search on their computer,

  • how to improve my English,

  • how to speak fluent English without hesitation,

  • or whatever it is that they type in.

  • And they are super motivated to improve their English,

  • for about a day, two days.

  • And then, the embarrassment fades,

  • they feel a bit better about the whole thing.

  • Time, as they say, is a great healer.

  • Then suddenly other things come up,

  • work gets busy, there are good things to watch on TV,

  • beer to be drunk in the pub.

  • English gets pushed to one side,

  • and never gets done.

  • Until of course, the next time they have a conversation

  • with an overseas client, or somebody from their work,

  • or whoever it is that they speak English with.

  • And once again, the whole thing goes horribly wrong

  • and they end up horribly embarrassed all over again,

  • and repeat the same situation again,

  • and again, and again.

  • You don't need me to tell you

  • that this is a shitty way to improve your English.

  • Mastering a language is simple.

  • It's not easy, to be sure,

  • but it's definitely not complicated.

  • Learn the language, get a source

  • of good language to learn from,

  • learn the language that you need,

  • practise it, make it easy to use,

  • automatic, fluent, and then just do it.

  • It really is that simple.

  • But, you need to be doing it every single day.

  • You need to be learning new language every single day.

  • Practising on a regular basis.

  • Getting out there, doing more with your English.

  • You can't do nothing in English,

  • and then expect to get better.

  • It's not gonna happen.

  • Again, kind of obvious,

  • but something that many people overlook.

  • Of course, if you're not too sure what language to learn,

  • how to practise it,

  • or really how to do any of what I've just said.

  • If you're confused about the whole

  • English-improvement process, check out my book,

  • Master English Fast, An Uncommon Guide

  • to Speaking Extraordinary English.

  • It'll show you step by step the whole process.

  • It'll walk you through improving your English

  • as an intermediate to advanced English learner.

  • Now, I said there were two things

  • that are very important, and there are.

  • If you are struggling to speak,

  • if you're hesitating in conversation

  • 'cause you don't know the language,

  • go back to the first point, what I just talked about.

  • But if you are still finding it difficult,

  • what you've gotta ask yourself is why?

  • Why are you hesitating?

  • Is it that you don't know the words?

  • Is it that you don't know the phrases,

  • the chunks that you need to communicate with?

  • Or, is it that you have no idea what to say?

  • Many people say, my mind went blank.

  • I drew blanks, I didn't know what to say.

  • Is it because you don't have anything interesting to say,

  • no content in here?

  • Because this is also an important part of speaking English.

  • You need three things to speak English well.

  • Of course, you need the language, that much is obvious.

  • If you don't have the phrases and the expressions

  • that you need to express the things

  • that you want to express,

  • you're not gonna be able to say anything

  • that you want to say in English.

  • But, you also need an understanding

  • of the things that you're talking about.

  • Background knowledge, content.

  • If you are not speaking well,

  • or hesitating because you've got nothing to say,

  • well, you need to get out more.

  • Do more things in English, or in your native language.

  • Because often when people have this problem,

  • and I'm sorry to say this,

  • but often I'll talk to people and they'll say,

  • well I don't speak English very well.

  • But actually, no, they don't speak their own

  • native language very well either.

  • Because they're boring in both languages,

  • and that's the problem.

  • Get out there more, have more experiences.

  • Do more things, have more stories to tell.

  • Of course, you need the language

  • in order to tell those stories,

  • to talk about those experiences,

  • but you also need the actual experiences.

  • You need both of these things to speak well.

  • And only when you have both of these things,

  • as well as the third thing, culture.

  • Culture is an understanding of the way that people think.

  • Because by definition, when you are speaking in English,

  • you are talking to people with a different culture to you.

  • Meaning the way they think,

  • and the way that they communicate

  • is gonna be different to you.

  • Only when you have all of these three things

  • in balance will you truly be able

  • to speak great English.

  • Just something to think about.

  • And, like I said, check out my book,

  • Master English Fast, An Uncommon Guide

  • to Speaking Extraordinary English.

  • Just head over to MasterEnglishFAST.com,

  • check it out, and I will see you in the next video.

  • And oh, if you're new to this channel,

  • don't forget to subscribe so you can get more videos

  • and stuff just like this one, goodbye.

- Hello, I'm Julian Northbrook from DoingEnglish.com.

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