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  • Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • Can you understand English but you can't speak well?

  • Let's talk about it.

  • Have you ever wondered this why in the world can I understand English, but I can't speak

  • as well as I understand?

  • Today I'd like to have a little heart to heart conversation with you to talk about how this

  • happened and what you can do about it.

  • Let's start by thinking about your English classes from elementary school, middle school,

  • high school, or even in college.

  • What was the main thing that you did in those classes?

  • Did you listen to the teacher?

  • Maybe listen to some audios.

  • Did you write the correct verb tense in your grammar book?

  • Hopefully you could occasionally use your speaking muscles, but if there's 5, 10, 15,

  • even 20 people in your class, those opportunities to speak are going to be pretty formulated

  • and rigid.

  • Maybe the teacher asked you how many times per week do you go to the gym and you answered,

  • I go to the gym twice a week.

  • Okay.

  • It's something, it's a good start.

  • But if there's so many students, the teacher doesn't have the chance to have a natural

  • conversation for five minutes with each student.

  • And when the teacher asks you a question, even if it's a simple question, like how many

  • times per week did you go to the gym?

  • You're speaking in front of 14 other people in your class, that's like a presentation

  • that's really scary.

  • And it's not what happens when you're just having a one on one conversation with someone

  • at dinner or at a coffee shop.

  • Giving a presentation, speaking in front of other people is often our biggest fear.

  • So starting like this in an English class can be really difficult and it's not a good

  • way to improve your speaking skills.

  • So the first reason why you can understand English, but you can't speak well, is well,

  • because it's not your fault.

  • You weren't trained with a one-on-one kind English teacher who asked you questions and

  • patiently listened and made you feel comfortable.

  • Most of us didn't learn like that.

  • So you weren't prepared in this way.

  • It's not your fault that you didn't have this conversational training practice from the

  • beginning of your English studies.

  • How can you fix this issue?

  • Well, I'd like you to reflect on the ways that you learn English now.

  • What are all of the things you do?

  • How many of those activities include listening to English?

  • How many of those activities include speaking English?

  • If you need any ideas about how to have speaking activities, whether you live in an English

  • speaking country or whether you are just at home in your native country.

  • Check out this video I made up here about how to start speaking anywhere right now.

  • Even though those English classes weren't your fault, you do have some responsibility,

  • so let's talk about that.

  • Have you ever talked with a two year old child?

  • I have a two year old son and it's beautiful to see the way his language skills are exploding.

  • He can say things like, I want to put my shoes on or let's go eat some tomatoes.

  • Those sentences are relatively simple, but do you know what?

  • He can understand more complex and incredibly fast sentences, but he doesn't necessarily

  • use them himself, but he can understand them.

  • So if I said to him, "All right, it's time to hop in the car and head over to the store

  • to pick up some veggies for dinner."

  • He would understand everything that I said.

  • He might not willingly go to the car, but he would understand everything I said and

  • he couldn't imitate exactly what I said, though.

  • He doesn't use those same expressions.

  • This means that his listening comes first and then his speaking is following after that.

  • For the past two years, he's been listening and listening and listening just like you've

  • been doing, just like you're doing right now in this lesson.

  • He started off by making baby noises and then babbling nonsense words and then he started

  • saying some important words like mama, dada, kitty, milk.

  • We all know this, right?

  • That babies start off slow and then they incrementally increase their language skills.

  • Kids practice speaking for a long time before they actually can speak fluently.

  • For example, the other day he said, "I touch the cat with my apple."

  • Can you spot the mistake?

  • He should've said, "I am touching the cat with my apple."

  • Poor cat.

  • He was rubbing his apple on the cat's fur, but in this situation he didn't know how to

  • use the correct verb tense, but he was just trying.

  • He was putting those words together.

  • Later, he said, "I see a bear chasing a dog" What he should have said was, "I saw a bear

  • chasing a dog."

  • Using this irregular past tense verb saw, but he used it in the present tense.

  • This is actually true, we saw a giant bear chasing our neighbor's dog across the front

  • yard.

  • This is the glories of living in the mountains.

  • True story.

  • I tell you those two stories because it's our biological way to learn language, to listen

  • first and speak later.

  • So you just need to get beyond listening and go to speaking.

  • We can learn a lot from kids, especially their carefree attitude about making mistakes.

  • My son doesn't use the past tense often and he doesn't care.

  • He just tries to put sentences together and I hope that you can learn a lot from that.

  • So what can you do about this issue?

  • Well, I want you to take the attitude of, I don't care if I make a mistake.

  • It's okay.

  • When you were in your classroom English classes and you made a mistake in front of the other

  • students, if you answered your teacher's question incorrectly, it is terrifying to be told,

  • "Oh, that's not right.

  • You should say this instead."

  • You're being corrected in front of your peers, in front of your friends.

  • No one likes that.

  • That's a really stressful situation.

  • So even though you've been trained in school to fear making mistakes, you're here on YouTube

  • now because you know that you want to learn English in a different way.

  • That previous method didn't work for you.

  • So congratulations.

  • You are opening your mind to new ways to learn English.

  • If you'd like some tips about how to speak without fear, just like children, I recommend

  • checking out this video I made up here called How to Speak Fluently Without Fear.

  • It gives my number one tip to help you relax, have no stress, and feel confident when you

  • speak.

  • I hope that this heart to heart talk has helped you to realize why you can understand more

  • English than you can actually speak.

  • It's not your fault.

  • That's how you were trained in your English classes, in the classroom, but now it's your

  • turn to take responsibility, to take action and forget about making mistakes.

  • Just try to speak.

  • Helping your brain to forget about mistakes will help you to reach your goal, which is

  • speaking English confidently.

  • Before we go, I have a question for you.

  • What speaking activities do you like to do?

  • I have a lot of videos that give speaking activity ideas, but it's always great to learn

  • from other English learners because you're doing the same thing.

  • You're all learning English, so make sure you read other comments to get some ideas.

  • Thank you so much for learning English with me and I'll see you again next Friday for

  • a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

  • Bye.

  • The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English

  • Speaker.

  • You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

  • Thanks so much.

  • Bye.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

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