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Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.Com.
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What should you do to become a fluent English speaker?
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Let's talk about it.
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I'd love for you to be able to speak English confidently, fearlessly, and fluently.
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Wouldn't that be great?
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I'd also love to be able to do a pull up, just one, that's all I ask.
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Or be able to run a 10K.
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But all of these things take slow and steady work day, by day, by day, by day.
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Do you think that I could do a pull up tomorrow?
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No.
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Do you think that I could run a 10K tomorrow?
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Probably not.
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I need to practice little by little every day.
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It's the same with speaking English confidently, fearlessly, and fluently.
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There's no get rich quick scheme to help you learn English fast.
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Of course it doesn't need to be boring and monotonous, but you need to have daily practice.
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So today we're going to talk about the top five habits of fluent English speakers.
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So if you want to speak English confidently and fearlessly, fluently, just follow these
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five steps.
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Number one, assess how much English you use now and what you're doing to improve.
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Maybe you could take a notebook and write down, can I understand Vanessa?
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90%.
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Can I understand TV shows and movies?
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90%.
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Can I talk comfortably about my family and my job?
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Can I talk comfortably about cultural, societal problems in my country, or generational differences?
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Those are just some general questions to help you assess how much you currently know.
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Where do you currently stand?
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The important part of this is looking to see what you are currently doing to improve from
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where you are right now.
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I want you to write down everything that you currently do daily or at least weekly to improve
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your English.
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Do you watch a YouTube video every day in English?
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Great.
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How much time do you spend doing that?
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Do you occasionally speak with your German coworker in English?
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Great, write that down, and write down what you usually talk about, because those topics
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are repeated again and again.
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When we assess our current level and also what we're currently doing to improve, one
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of two things happens.
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Either you feel like you're not doing a lot to improve, but in reality, when you assess
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it you realize, "Oh, I am doing a lot to try to improve.
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I'm doing pretty well."
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Or, on the other hand, you think that you're doing a lot to try to improve, but when you
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assess that you realize, "Oh, maybe I'm not doing that much, and maybe that's why I'm
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not improving."
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So this assessment stage is the first step and it's vital.
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The second habit of a fluent English speaker is to be positive about your progress.
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Your mindset is really important.
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My most successful English students are the ones who say, "Oh, I just made a mistake.
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Oh well."
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Or, "Wow, a year ago it was really hard to understand my American boss, but now I can
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understand her a little bit better."
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Even small wins you can be positive about.
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"I had a really busy day at work today, but I listened to an English podcast on the way
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home from work.
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I did it.
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I spent some time to improve my English."
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Even those small things you can feel positive about.
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Having that positive mindset is the key to helping you become a fluent English speaker.
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You need to make it a habit.
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The third habit of a fluent English speaker is to fit English into your daily life.
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Everyone is busy.
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If you're busy, you're not unusual.
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I'm not saying it's good to be busy, but it's at least normal.
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So it's important for you to fit English easily into your daily life because you probably
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don't have two hours free every day.
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Here are a few suggestions, there are many others on my channel.
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You can change your device to English, change your phone to English, change your computer
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to English.
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That way you're just constantly surrounded by English as you're looking at your phone
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or as you're using the computer.
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If you are a list-maker like me, make the list about what you're going to do that day
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or what you're going to do that week in English.
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That way you're having to think about the best verbs, the best way to explain things.
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It's another way to fit English easily into your daily life because it's something that
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you were already going to do, but you're just going to do it in English now.
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You could sing to English music.
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You could even make a playlist of four or five songs that you really like, print out
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the lyrics, read the lyrics as you're listening to the song a couple times so that you feel
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comfortable with them, and then listen to the songs a lot, eventually you'll be able
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to sing out loud with them.
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And we can listen to music in the little bits of time we have during the day while you're
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driving, while you're making breakfast.
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This is a great way to have natural English sentences in your mind.
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If you don't know where to start with English music, I made a video about 11 songs to learn
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English that I recommend, you can check out this video up here, and it's just a good way
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to get started.
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This is a beautiful way to become a natural fluent speaker.
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You could listen to English podcasts.
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When you're busy, this is something that's really easy to do.
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It's easier to listen than to sit on the couch and watch a video.
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You can listen to something and do something else at the same time like household chores.
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For example, when my husband Dan, every time he does the laundry, every time he folds the
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laundry, he's always listening to a podcast.
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In fact, I think it's impossible for him to fold the laundry without a podcast, he just
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wouldn't be able to do it.
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Or whenever I do the dishes, I like to listen to a podcast.
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I'm multitasking, but it's not too hard because doing the dishes, folding the laundry, it's
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a mindless task so you can also listen to something, have a good time listening to something
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at the same time.
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If you want any recommendations for podcasts to help you learn English, I made video about
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my top nine recommendations.
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Also, some other people in the comments left some other great podcasts for learning English,
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but you can check out this video I made up here about my podcast recommendations.
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These are just a few ideas to help you easily and seamlessly fit English into your daily
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life.
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The next habit of a fluent English speaker is to speak English at least once a week.
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If you don't speak English regularly, you'll lose what you know.
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It's just a fact.
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If you don't run regularly, you'll lose your endurance.
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If you don't do pull ups regularly, you'll lose your muscles, your muscles will weaken.
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Fluent English speakers speak English regularly.
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If you don't feel like you have any native English speakers who live near you, or you
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don't have time to find them, I challenge you to check out this video I made up here
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about how you can successfully learn English from home, learn English without traveling
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to an English speaking country.
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There are a lot of tips to help you get started speaking now because there is no time to waste.
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If you're not practicing, you're losing it, so make sure that you speak English regularly.
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The final habit of a fluent English speaker is that fluent speakers will take opportunities
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when they come.
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Do you have the opportunity to go to lunch with a British representative from your company?
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Go!
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Go to that lunch, speak English with them, listen to English.
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Take that opportunity.
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Do you have the opportunity to watch English cartoons with your child?
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Do that, listen to the English cartoons.
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Turn on the subtitles if you need to, but that's a great way to take opportunities.
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Sometimes we feel like we don't have a chance to do something, but it's often because an
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opportunity came, we might even say an opportunity came knocking, and we weren't listening.
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So make sure that your ears are open for opportunities, because fluent English speakers take opportunities
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when they're available.
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Let's do a quick review.
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The five habits of fluent English speakers, which will hopefully be you very soon, is
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to number one, assess what you know and what you're doing to improve.
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Number two is to be positive about your progress.
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Number three is to fit English into your daily life.
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Number four is to speak English at least once a week.
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And the final fifth tip is to take opportunities when they come.
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And now I have a question for you.
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I want to know, what do you think are some other habits of fluent English speakers?
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Read the comments and get some ideas from each other, because it is a great idea to
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speak English confidently, fearlessly, and fluently.
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You can do it.
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Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new
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lesson here on my YouTube channel.
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Bye.
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I'd also love ... I'd also love ... The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps
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to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.
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You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.
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Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.
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Thanks so much.
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Bye.