You are FLUENT in English when... English Fluency TEST
Vanessa: Hi.
I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you want to speak English fluently?
How can you know if you’re a fluent English
speaker?
Let’s talk about it.
So your goal is to be a fluent English speaker,
but what does that mean?
Today, I want to give you a little fluency
test.
This isn’t going to be like tests that you
had in high school with grammar and vocabulary.
I know people who have a great degree in English
or they get the highest scores on English
exams but they’re still not fluent English
speakers.
So this is a real test to tell if you’re really
fluent.
I’m here in my sunny backyard to share 10
fluency statements with you.
If you can say yes to each of these statements,
then congratulations!
You’re a fluent English speaker.
But if there are any statements that you can’t
say yes to, this is what I want you to do.
I want you to write down that statement, either
on paper or mentally, and I want you to create
some specific actions that you can take to
increase that statement so that you can say
yes to that statement.
Throughout today’s lesson, I’m going to be
giving you some actionable tips so that you
can follow through and really increase your
overall English fluency.
Are you ready to get started with fluency
statement number one?
Test yourself.
I can smoothly have a conversation about almost
any topic in English.
This is essential.
In your native language, you can probably
talk about your vacation and then instantly
jump to talking about how public transportation
is always late.
You can easily jump from topic to topic without
much hesitation.
So this is what you need to do in English
as well to be fluent.
Of course there will be topics that you won’t
be able to talk about smoothly in English,
but those should also be topics that you can’t
talk about smoothly in your native language.
For example, last week I was talking with
my friend about a Star Wars movie.
I don’t know much about Star Wars movies,
but I was trying to have a conversation with
her about it.
I was trying to explain, “You know that guy
who wears the white suit?
He’s kind of like a soldier.”
I couldn’t remember the word stormtrooper.
So she said, “Oh, do you mean stormtrooper?”
Great!
We continued our conversation even though
I didn’t know exactly what that word is.
So if you don’t know a word in your native
language or you feel uncomfortable talking
about a topic in your native language, it’s
okay if it’s the same in English, but those
two should be a balance.
Fluency statement number two, I can think
in English and not translate in my head.
I like to think of it like a light switch.
You can turn it on for English or off for
English.
When someone says a word in my second language,
in French, when someone says Paris with a
French accent, my brain immediately switches
to French because it was kind triggered by
that French-sounding word.
But if you said Paris with an English accent,
well, it doesn’t make my brain start to think
in French.
So this is kind of like the light switch idea.
It is on or off, and you need to be able to
keep English on so that you’re not translating
in your head.
So when you’re speaking in English but you
can’t remember a word, let’s say that you’re
telling me about a car accident that you had
yesterday, you might say, “I was driving,
and then a bird flew at my car, and I drove
into a … " And you can’t remember the words,
so you explain it in English.
“You know that dip or that hole on the side
of the road usually for water or rain?”
And then your friend says, “A ditch?”
And you say, “Yes, I drove into a ditch.”
You explained the word ditch in English instead
of immediately saying it in your native language
because the light switch was turned on to
English.
You probably couldn’t even remember that word
in your native language because you weren’t
thinking in your native language.
You weren’t translating in your native language.
Instead, your brain was all in English and
you just didn’t know that word ditch.
So instead, you were trying to explain it
in English.
If you’ve ever had this happen to you, it’s
the strangest sensation.
I remember one time I ripped my shirt, and
I was trying to ask my French friend if she
had a thread to sew it but I couldn’t remember
the word thread, [French 00:04:26].
So I just tried to explain it.
But do you know what?
I couldn’t remember the English word for it
either.
It’s as if English was completely turned off
and instead my brain was turned on to the
other language.
So if you have experienced this, congratulations,
you’re fluent.
The third fluency statement is I can use English
all day and not feel tired.
Of course, if you have a busy, busy, busy
day in your native language, you’re going
to feel tired.
But when you use English normally throughout
a normal day, you shouldn’t feel tired at
the end of the day.
This means that you listened to English radio
on the way to work.
You spoke with your coworkers in English.
You used an English recipe to cook for dinner.
And in these situations, you’re not mentally
exhausted because it’s tough to think in English.
Instead, if you feel comfortable and not tired,
congratulations, you’re fluent.
The fourth fluency statement is I can speak
and other people don’t slow down their speaking
for me.
This is a great way to test your English fluency.
When you have a conversation with someone
else, if you can tell that they’re using different
language for you compared with other people
in your conversation, it means that they don’t
see you as a fluent English speaker.
But when someone can speak with you without
slowing down because they realize, “Oh, you
can understand.
It’s going to be fine.
We’re going to be able to have a normal conversation,”
great!
You’re fluent.
This is especially true when you’re with someone
who isn’t an English teacher.
English teachers tend to slow down when they’re
speaking with an English learner because it’s
part of our job.
But when you’re talking with someone who’s
not an English teacher, maybe you’re talking
to customer service on the phone about a problem
that you had with a product or maybe you’re
talking with a cashier at the grocery store,
if they speak with you at a normal speed,
the same speed that they’re talking with everyone
else at, great!
Congratulations.
You’re fluent.
Our fifth fluency statement is I can say something,
but I can’t explain the grammar because it
just feels right.
If you’re speaking but you have no idea why
you correctly used I have eaten instead of
I ate, well, great.
That means that you’ve internalized the grammar.
Maybe you can’t explain why this was correct
and why that one’s not correct.
You’ve just internalized it.
Great, you’re fluent.
A good way to test this is by writing the
same way that you speak.
You could just ask yourself the question,
what’d you do this weekend?
And as you’re writing your answer, try to
write exactly in the same way that you would
speak.
Well, this weekend I went to a friend’s house,
and then I decided to leave early because
I was feeling a little bit under the weather.
And as you’re writing this, are you thinking
about the specific grammar verb tenses about
the sentence structure or are you just writing
naturally and correctly, and this is the same
way that you’re speaking?
If you have internalized English grammar and
you can use it correctly without thinking
about the rules, congratulations, you’re fluent.
The sixth fluency statement is I can be myself.
I hear a lot of my English students say that
they want to accurately express themselves
in English.
And when I hear them say this, what it makes
me think is I want to be myself in English.
You want to show your same personality in
English as you have in your native language.
So if you’re clever and humorous in your native
language, you want to also be clever and humorous
in English.
If you’re kind and thoughtful in your native
language, well, you want to also show those
character traits in English as you speak.
When you feel like your true self is showing
in English, congratulations, you’re fluent.
A good way to practice this is by following
the steps that I mentioned in this video up
here about how to start speaking English without
fear.
Make sure you check out that lesson.
Fluency statement number seven: I can watch
English TV shows and movies without subtitles,
just like a native English speaker.
In my opinion, I feel like TV shows and movies
are a little bit more difficult to understand
than just daily conversation because it’s
scripted.
They use sometimes words and humor that’s
extra clever or extra advanced.
But if this is something that you want to
do and you can actually watch movies and TV
shows without subtitles, congratulations,
you’re fluent.
If you’d like to take it to the next level
and be able to understand movies and TV shows
but also be able to talk about them, make
sure you check out this lesson I made here
about how to talk about movies and TV shows
in English.
You’ll learn a lot of great phrases and expressions
so that you can enjoy those activities and
then talk about them in English with other
people.
Fluency statement number eight: I can understand
different accents in English native and nonnative.
A lot of you need to use English for your
jobs, and that’s great.
That’s a great way to be able to use English
on a daily basis.
Some of you work with Americans, British people,
Australians, but a lot of you work with nonnative
English speakers, people from Germany, Indonesia,
Brazil, all places around the world.
When you can understand all English accents,
congratulations, you’re fluent.
I remember the first time that I heard someone
speaking French from Canada and I realized
the way that they speak is different than
the way I hear people speaking in France.
When I could hear that they had a different
accent, I felt so proud of myself because
I realized I can understand them and I can
understand that they have a different accent
than what I’m used to hearing in France.
This can be a tough skill to master, but with
YouTube there’s a great way to do this.
If you have some co-workers who are from Germany
and you often speak with them in English,
you can try to watch videos of Germans speaking
English on YouTube.
That way you can feel comfortable with the
way they speak, the language choice, the accent,
the intonation.
You can just test yourself with YouTube and
kind of train so that when you speak with
your German co-worker in English, great, you’re
already prepared.
Fluency statement number nine: I can understand
humor and jokes.
Of course, the humor and jokes may not be
funny to you, but at least you understand
why they’re supposed to be funny.
There’s nothing worse than sitting at a dining
room table with a lot of English speakers
and they’re all laughing and having a good
time laughing at jokes, and then you’re just
sitting there thinking, “I have no idea what’s
funny.
Why are they laughing?”
You feel really left out and lonely.
But on the other hand, there’s nothing better
than understanding the humor and laughing
with them.
It’s a great way to bond, to form relationships.
When you can understand humor and jokes in
English, congratulations, you’re fluent.
Fluency statement number 10: I can read an
article, listen to a podcast, watch a movie
in English and forget what language it was
in.
This is such a strange sensation when this
happens.
I remember one time I was listening to a French
podcast while I was cooking dinner.
And then during dinner, I was asking Dan,
my husband, some questions about the podcast.
He doesn’t speak French, and he looked at
me like, “What are you talking about?”
And then I realized, “Oh yeah, I forgot.
That podcast was in French so you couldn’t
understand it.”
So when you can seamlessly jump from one language
to the other, congratulations, you’re fluent.
There’s one movie called Paris, Je T’Aime,
and it’s a movie about different areas in
the city of Paris.
And in this movie, a lot of the characters
speak in English and then jump immediately
to French.
And I remember watching that movie and listening
to all the different languages that they were
speaking and realizing I can understand this.
I’m so happy.
I don’t have to use subtitles for part of
it or feel uncomfortable when they switch
to French because I could easily understand
both languages.
I felt so happy and so proud of myself, and
I want you to have that as well.
So if you can understand a podcast, a movie,
a TV show, read an article and then forget,
oh yeah, it was an English, congratulations,
you’re fluent.
So now I have a question for you.
In the comments, let me know what is your
fluency score according to this test.
Can you relatively use grammatical structures
without thinking, but it’s difficult for you
to understand all accents in English?
I want you to take actionable steps so that
you can say yes to each one of these 10 fluency
statements.
Well, 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 e-book,
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.