Why You Can UNDERSTAND English But You STRUGGLE TO SPEAK In English
i received a question from one of my
students and he said
teacher how come i can understand you
perfectly i understand everything you’re
saying but when i try to speak in
english i can’t speak at the same level
now i’ve received this question so many
times from students
around the world and maybe you’ve
experienced the same
problem had the same difficulty and the
same challenge
and to be very honest with you i
experienced the exact same thing when i
was studying korean
you know the feeling right when someone
is speaking
in the language that you’re learning you
feel so confident because you
understand what they’re saying again
when my teachers were speaking korean or
my friends would speak in korean
or even when i would watch a television
program in korean
i was so proud of myself because i could
understand
but then when someone would approach me
and ask me a question in korean
it was like everything went blank in my
mind
i couldn’t think of the words that i had
studied i couldn’t think of the words
that i had
understood when i watched those
television programs they
just didn’t seem to come to mind and
again
you may feel the exact same way so how
come you can understand
english but it’s hard to speak in
english
well today i’m going to tell you why and
i’m going to give you the solutions you
need
to finally speak just as good as you can
understand
i’m teacher tiffany let’s jump right in
[Music]
all right so there are five solutions to
this problem
the problem of not being able to speak
as good as you can here
the first one is equal ratio second
learn and use one new word third
summarize your day fourth take notes and
read them
and finally reading out loud and
shadowing
so let’s take a look at the first one
this one right here
here’s the fact your current situation
you are watching
listening to and enjoying hours of
english
programs but you are only using your
eyes
and your ears think about it you have
a cell phone you have a computer you
have a television
and you’re constantly watching programs
in english
so your eyes are getting lots of
practice and your ears are also getting
lots of practice
which is why you can understand so
much in english but again
that’s not helping with your speaking so
here’s
what you need to do use an equal
ratio you need to speak for the exact
amount of time that you listen to or
watch
an english program that’s right
the same amount of time you spend
watching a lesson
just like this lesson or watching a
movie is the exact amount of time
you need to practice speaking let’s
continue
you need to speak for the same amount in
order to
improve your speaking skills this will
help your speaking skills
match your ability to understand english
it kind of makes sense right the reason
why you can understand is because
you’ve constantly been putting new
information in english
into your brain now we just need to do
the same thing with
bringing that information out okay so
here’s what you need to do
first watch a 5 minute video 10 minute
video or
however long you want to watch a video
for i have it in parentheses because
you can choose how long the video is and
what you’re going to do
is you’re going to speak for five
minutes or however long the video is
you’re going to speak for that amount of
time about the video
now half of the time is going to be
summarizing what you saw
and the other half is going to be giving
your opinion
so for example let’s say you watch one
of my youtube video lessons you can pick
any video you’d like and let’s say the
lesson is 15 minutes long
that means you need to also speak for 15
minutes now
in the beginning it may seem a little
bit challenging but remember
half of that 15 minute period is going
to be spent
summarizing what you saw you could talk
about what i taught you you can talk
about my story time
you can summarize the lesson and take
your time it’s okay
now the other half of that time needs to
be giving your opinion
what did you think about my story what
did you think about the tips or
the tools that i gave you from the
lesson or in the lesson
again you have to practice speaking for
as much time as the video was that you
watched it’s going to be challenging
but you’re going to see your ability to
speak in english
improve drastically okay
now what about the second method the
second solution
you see here’s the situation you are
learning lots of new words
and expressions indirectly through
videos and lessons
but you aren’t using them so again you
know a lot of
words and expressions from watching my
videos
i like to tell you all stories because
in the stories
i usually use a lot of new expressions
and idioms
from natural conversations words that i
would use
if i was speaking to one of my friends
here in america now
when you hear the words that i use you
kind of
pick up on the meaning like ah maybe
teacher tiffany means
this and you kind of guess what the
meanings of those words and expressions
are
because you’re following along with the
story or the lesson that i’m teaching
now that’s great that’s why you can
understand
so much but what about speaking so
here’s the solution
here’s what you need to do you need to
learn and
use one new word notice i said
learn and use because what’s happening
is
you’re learning a lot of words currently
from this video and videos from other
amazing english teachers on youtube
but you’re not using them so here’s what
you need to do try to learn and use
one new word expression or
concept every single day
this is the key every single day a lot
of times as
students or as english learners what you
may do is you may spend one day and say
i’m going to learn
35 words today and you go hard you study
really diligently
but then it gets overwhelming and you do
it one day
and maybe the second day but then the
third day the fourth day the fifth day
the sixth day you stop
so what you need to do is have a plan
that you can remain consistent with
learn one new word or expression every
single day
now simple words are okay the key is
that they must excuse me you must learn
and use them every day this will help
you get in the habit of learning new
words
that you can use when you speak in
english again
remember the goal is to improve your
speaking skills
so even if you know a word already if
you’re not using it
it’s kind of like you don’t know it
again you know it here
ah teacher tiffany just said that word i
know that word
but you need to learn how to use the
word in conversation when you are
speaking
so here’s how you need to do this
first write down at least you can do
more
at least one word expression or
concept you learned next
figure out a way to apply it to what’s
going on
in your day and finally use the word in
a conversation
or by talking to yourself so again
let’s say you learned the word
gargantuan
i know it’s a big word but hey stay with
me now
gargantuan just means extremely large
really big now i’ve used this word in a
previous lesson several months ago
so some of you may have remembered that
word when i said it
gargantuan oh i remember a teacher
tiffany taught that word in a previous
lesson
amazing your understanding your
listening skills
are amazing now how can you start using
gargantuan
in your daily life in your conversations
with other english learners or native
english speakers
well what you have to do again step 2 is
figure out a way to apply it to what’s
going on in your day
so for me for example gargantuan
well i watched a video about animals a
nature video
and in the video they had lots of whales
now whales are
very large animals right
so i can say ah today i watched a video
about a whale
the whale in the video was really big
it was a gargantuan whale
makes sense you see i immediately
connected what i did or what i
saw today with this word that i learned
but i had to say it out loud and that’s
again what’s important
when you learn the word when you figure
out how to apply it to your day
and then use the word in real life
in a real conversation and again if
you’re by yourself you can talk to
yourself
that’s okay your tongue just needs the
practice
so use it by saying it out loud and make
sure what you’re saying
is applicable or is related to what
happened
in your day okay make sense good
all right now the second thing that is
important so here’s the deal
you are just thinking about your day in
your own language
this means your brain is mainly
functioning
in one language and i get this question
all the time from students teacher how
can i stop
thinking in my mother tongue this is
really a difficult thing
again when i was studying korean i had
the same trouble
i would always think in english and then
when i was speaking try to translate
really quickly into korean
but korean and english are very opposite
they’re very different
they have different word orders so
actually this morning i was talking to
my friend
hey annie on the phone and
i was helping her with translation of
something and she speaks english as well
korean and english and she wrote it in
korean and then i had to translate it to
english
i had to read it multiple times in
korean because the word order
is so different in english so one word
may be in the middle in korean but in
english it should be at the front
so again that’s why it’s so important
for you to realize that hey
you can’t just only think in your own
language you have to figure out a way to
think
in english in order to improve your
speaking ability
so here we go summarize your
day at the end of the day even if you
are alone
summarize the three to five main things
you did that day
if you worked if you went to school if
you talked to your family if you cooked
think about the three to five main
things you did
during the day now you need to start
reviewing what you did each day
and organize your thoughts in english
remember that you need to speak out loud
so for example i told you that i spoke
to my friend this morning annie right
we spoke on the phone now if i’m
practicing korean
so i just said i spoke to my friend we
talked together
and we spoke about marriage life but
again
i had to process what we did in korean
because that’s the language i’m learning
right so for you think about what you
did you’re gonna think immediately in
your own language but that’s okay
then you have to force your brain to
convert what you’re thinking
into english and process everything in
english
about your day again the three to five
main things you did
so here we go here’s how you do it steps
set aside
15 minutes at the end of your day again
not a long period of time
i want to help you uh reach your goals
without having stress
so just start with 15 minutes whatever
time of the day you want to set aside
this 15 minutes is okay
again in the evening though but set
aside 15 minutes
at the end of your day then think about
the three
to five main things you did finally
start describing or explaining them out
loud in
english remember i said what it is
i said we talked about marriage life
again my friend is getting married so we
talked about
marriage life all right so if my friend
is getting married we’re gonna talk
about marriage
life i had to process that situation
in korean and then say it out loud
you notice that the more i say it the
faster it will come out right
because i’ve already processed it you
need to do the same thing about
your day alright the three to five main
things that happened to you during that
day
it will help you improve your speaking
ability
now let’s look at another one here’s the
situation
you are taking tons of notes in your
notebook you
probably have your notes out right now
just writing
if you are i’m very proud of you as your
teacher right now
that’s a good thing so you’re taking
tons of notes in your notebook
on your phone or on your computer the
problem is
that they stay there now
i am guilty of this as well when i was
studying korean when i was in university
sometimes it was easy to write tons of
notes
i would have tons of notes books full of
notes whether it be korean
new korean words or expressions or notes
from class
from our teacher teaching us certain
aspects of art or different things
but what happened after class the
notebook would be closed and put on my
desk the note will be closed or put in
my book bag
and that’s what may be happening to you
as well you’re taking tons of notes
which is amazing
a great habit to have but if those notes
just stay if they stay in your phone or
your notebook and you never actually use
them
your english speaking ability will never
improve so
here’s what you need to do take notes
and read them read them out loud you’ll
notice that there’s this overarching
theme of
out loud reading out loud making sure
you’re speaking and not just thinking
about things
so here we go you need to start
reviewing your english notes by reading
them out loud
this needs to become a routine because
it will help you remember
important words and also use them in
real life
so again during this video you’ve
probably been taking notes again whether
it be on your phone or in a notebook
now what you’re going to do is go back
over those notes
but read them out loud maybe you wrote a
teacher tiffany
said i need to take notes and read them
you wrote that now go back and read it
teacher
tiffany said i need to take notes and
read them out loud you need to let your
tongue
have practice this is how your speaking
will
improve now how do you do this here we
go i’m going to give you some steps
first write little notes throughout the
week
i have a little notebook that i keep
with me that when ideas pop in my head
or if i have
a little sketch that i want to do i take
that little notebook out it’s very small
and i just draw in it really quickly or
i write some quick notes
that’s what you need to do throughout
the week take notes maybe you watch a
television program
or maybe you see a youtube video like
this lesson and you learn something new
jot or write down a quick note it’s okay
write down the notes and collect these
notes throughout a week okay over a
seven day period
next what you’re going to do is pick a
day to review
those notes you can say hey sundays are
my review notes day
or days or you can say hey i’m going to
do it on monday or wednesday
you can pick the day just once a week
pick a day that you’re going to review
the notes
then what you’re going to do is you’re
going to read them out loud
three times it will get easier each time
now
you may say teacher why three times so
let me explain
the first time you read your notes you
may feel a little bit awkward like
teacher tiffany said write something and
read it out loud
right the first time you’re kind of like
okay but then the second time you read
it
teacher tiffany said write something
down and read it
out loud you’re a little more
comfortable by the third time your
tongue
is also gonna be hey i’m ready let’s do
it your tongue is ready
you already know what it says because
you’ve connected by looking at it and
actually saying it so now
uh teacher tiffany said write something
down and read it out loud
you’re giving your tongue practice and
by reading it three times
out loud your speaking is definitely
going to improve
remember the notes are your thoughts
things that you believed were
important so you wrote them down so when
you go back to read them
they’re not going to be pieces of
information that
are boring or this is not interesting no
you wrote the notes so they’re already
interesting to you
and since you wrote them your brain
already have a little connector
it’s just waiting for you to make the
connection between what’s here
to what’s coming out on your tongue
makes sense
all right now let’s look at another
situation okay here’s the situation
you are just watching videos
or reading english books
or articles while relaxing and not doing
anything else
think about it now again it’s very
important for you to be relaxed
when you’re learning anything especially
english
but if you think about it really hard a
lot of times you just kind of
watch a video when it ends you go to the
next video
huh that was good then you go to the
next video and you keep scrolling
so you’re watching which is good but
you’re never putting into practice
what you’ve learned so instead of
watching a video stopping and practicing
you’re just kind of going with the
motions watching more and more
so how can we fix this to help you
improve your speaking ability
you need to read out loud and shadow
so reading out loud and shadowing is
very important you need to start reading
the words
out loud and or shadowing what you hear
as you watch
various videos this will also help you
improve your pronunciation skills
so think about it you all notice that
for my videos i always include lots of
graphics you know i love design
that was my profession before i became
an english teacher i love to make pretty
things right
so since i have the words on the screen
that i’m saying
you can practice shadowing and reading
what i have on the screen
so in essence you could pause the video
and repeat
what i said so again you can go back and
say oh
teacher tiffany said you need to start
reading the words out loud
and keep going reading what’s on the
screen by simply
hitting pause so instead of just taking
information
in you can pause and start to be more
active
and giving yourself the opportunity to
improve your speaking skills
so what are the steps here we go select
a video or an audio file again you can
select the
youtube video you can select the podcast
episode speak english for tiffany
podcast
i think you’ll like it now the next
thing you’re gonna do is
decide on a specific time interval now
this is very important
i put down 5 seconds 10 seconds and 15
seconds
it all depends on your level so what’s
going to happen is for example
i’m still talking to you right now but
let’s say you chose
five seconds so yo watch for five
seconds
okay so we’re studying this lesson and i
want you to keep practicing
pause i said okay we’re studying this
lesson
and i want you to keep practicing when
you hit that pause button you repeat
what i just said
now for those who are a little bit more
advanced maybe you choose the 10 second
interval
that means you can remember what is said
over a 10
second period and you can repeat it
again you can choose the interval
but whatever you watch whatever you are
listening to
you need to pick an interval and start
and stop start and stop
so again the last part stop the file
based on the intervals and repeat
what you hear this is so important
this is how you practice or shadow and
practice reading
out loud as you’re learning things from
videos or from audio
podcasts now i hope this really helped
you because i know how frustrating it
can be
to be able to understand english but not
actually speak i experienced the same
thing when i was learning korean
and i wish someone had given me a lesson
like this
so put into practice what you learned
today i will talk to you next week have
an amazing week
remember if you want to keep studying
with me join my academy
join our family by going to let’s jump
right in dot com i’ll see you next week
but as
always remember to speak english
you still there you know what time it is
it’s story time
hey i said a story time like i slowed it
down right there yeah
all right guys so today’s story is
actually about a time
i was nervous to give a speech now
i’m sure all of you know something very
um
you know something about me i’m not a
shy person i’ve never really been shy to
speak
up front or in public public speaking
has never been
a fear of mine and i’ve been told many
times that it’s a blessing to not be
scared to speak up front
so one time at my church this is before
i went to korea
uh no no i went to korea for a year and
i came home to visit and my pastor said
tiff
we’d love for you to give us a sermon
would you mind speaking i said okay
i don’t mind like i’ll definitely do
that so i had about maybe a month to a
month and a half to prepare the sermon
so i’m a christian and i love god so
much
and i believe that whenever you get up
front to speak for him you need to make
sure you’re prepared so
i studied the bible a lot and i made
sure that the topic i was going to speak
about
i knew it like the back of my hand i
knew it really well
so i prepared a lot and i was practicing
the morning of so it was the sabbath
morning
saturday for those sabbath morning and i
was at home and i was practicing
before going to church and all of a
sudden
my stomach just started turning in
knots i mean it was hurting really bad
and i i didn’t know what was going on
like i prepared everything and there was
nothing wrong i hadn’t
anything wrong the night before um
i couldn’t think of why my stomach was
hurting but it was getting worse
and worse and worse to the point that i
had to stop practicing and i had to run
to the bathroom and i was in the
bathroom for a long time i was still
home
but i mean i was in the bathroom for a
long time you guys can imagine
my stomach was killing me and i couldn’t
figure out what was causing
me this problem so finally i came out
the bathroom and when i came back to my
room
and i was sitting looking at my script
that i was going to use for my sermon
i heard you know i was like wait a
minute
i think i’m nervous and i i had never
been nervous speaking up front before
but
i was like wait a minute i don’t think
i’m nervous but my body is showing me
that
yes what i’m about to speak about is not
an easy topic
and i’m more nervous than i realize
now again my stomach was still turning a
little bit but i was like i have to
preach like the pastor asked me this
topic is very important i have to preach
so my family i would go to church and
i’m sitting up front you know they have
the people singing up front and they
have like reading the scripture and
they’re going through the regular
program
and it’s my turn to go up front to give
the sermon now praise god the sermon
went well
god is good um i wasn’t nervous as soon
as i got
on the stage i wasn’t nervous at all and
i delivered the sermon
uh people said they enjoyed it and i
also enjoyed giving it
after the sermon i was standing at the
door and normally when church ends
people walk out and they kind of
shake the hand of the person who spoke
and give the person a hug so since i was
the speaker for that day people were
coming out and giving me a hug and
saying oh tiff we appreciate the sermon
etc etc but some people came up to me
and said tiff you don’t know
how much i needed that sermon
i had a friend text me tiff that sermon
today really touched my heart
and i got that response from so many
people and i realized man
if i had let my nervousness or my
stomach hurting so bad
hinder me from giving this message what
would have happened
the people that needed to hear the
message that was given would not have
heard the message
and that situation taught me that
sometimes you’re going to be in a
situation where you feel nervous
you’re not sure of the words you’re
going to say and maybe you may feel a
little bit
uncomfortable the thing is you have to
work through that nervousness
and still speak because you may not
realize that someone else needs to hear
what you have to say now i know we
talked today about speaking in english
and why it’s more difficult than
understanding
but i believe in you i believe the very
fact that you’re able to understand what
i’m saying right now is
proof that you are just as intelligent
as another person
which means you can speak in english so
when you feel your stomach kind of
turning in knots
or if you get a little nervous when you
come up to a native english
speaker and you have to speak in english
hopefully my story will help you out
work through the nerves press forward
and remember that the words you have to
say
are just as important as the words
someone else has to say
guys i hope you enjoyed this story if
you have a story about being nervous
please share it in the comment section
again if you want to keep studying with
me and also join our family
don’t forget to go to let’s jump right
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week