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