Hi my foreign English speaking friends! I’m back with the next video episode and I hope you’re having a good time this summer!

I’ve been away for a while from making new videos – you know, I just wanted to take it easy and relax a bit before jumping back into my home studio.

Ah well – I’m quite well rested now and here we go with the next video topic – phrasal verbs.

This is a very important aspect of English language and especially spoken English. To put it simply – every day English has plenty of phrasal verbs in it and if you want to become a fluent English speaker you just have to learn a number of them!

So in short a phrasal verb is a verb that consists of the main part – main verb – and the second part – particle. Here’s an example – to give up.

Give is the main verb and up is the particle but together these two words create a completely new meaning – to surrender. Most of the times phrasal verbs are less formal and easier to remember than their formal synonyms.

I just made it up means that whatever I told you about wasn’t real, I had just invented it. But it’s a whole lot easier to say I just made it up instead of I just invented it.

And here’s why phrasal verbs are very important

First of all, it’s much easier to learn a good number of phrasal verbs than their formal synonyms. It’s simply because a single verb combined with different particles can form completely new phrasal verbs with unique meanings. So instead of memorizing new words you just memorize new word combination which is undoubtedly much easier.

Let’s take three words –

• to postpone,
• to extinguish,
• to reconcile oneself with

and their phrasal verb versions –

• to put off,
• to put out
• to put up with

Now tell me – what you think would be more difficult to learn – the first ones or the last ones?

I think anyone will agree that learning how to use one of the simplest English verbs to put combined with three different particles off, out and up is much easier that memorizing the longer words to postpone, to extinguish and to reconcile.

The second reason why phrasal verbs are important – especially in the spoken language – is because they’re less formal, easier to understand and everyone uses them! Of course it won’t do you any harm if you know the formal synonyms of those phrasal verbs but why try to sound very smart and use them when chatting with friends and word colleagues? Just listen to some native English speakers chatting with each other and you’ll realize most of action words that they use in their conversations are phrasal verbs!

Now I’m gonna give you two versions of the same conversation so that you can see how different the end result can be depending on what you use more – formal English or phrasal verbs.

First of all – a normal, friendly conversation packed with phrasal verbs.

- Hi, how are you John, what were you up to during the weekend?

- Hello Matt, I’m great, thanks for asking! I made up with Emma and she moved back in on Saturday night!

- Really? That’s cool man! Great to hear things are looking up for you again!

And now the same conversation but I’ll just replace the phrasal verbs with more formal words – ones that are normally taught at school as part of standard English curriculum.

- Hi, how are you John, what were you doing during the weekend?

- Hello Matt, I’m great, thanks for asking! I resolved the argument with Emma and she relocated into my apartment again on Saturday night!

- Really? That’s cool man! Great to hear things have started to improve for you again!

Now do you see the difference? While the second version of the dialogue is still in normal English, it sounds more formal, it takes a bit longer to tell the same thing, and it doesn’t sound as friendly as the first version of the dialogue!

And on top of that using phrasal verbs will actually make your English more fluent. If you’re among those foreign English speakers who’re struggling with speaking English fluently, it’s of a particular importance to you, so I suggest you look into this and learn at least a few phrasal verbs to make your life easier.

And the best way to learn phrasal verbs as part of natural English conversations is by memorizing them using your subconscious mind. English Harmony System 2.0 is packed full of phrasal verbs and it will definitely improve your ability to speak English in an easy and natural way!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Benny speaks 8 languages at the moment… I’m saying – at the moment – because God only knows how many he will speak at the time when you read this article! Basically this is what he does – he takes on 3 month long missions to learn a new language. Yes, you got me right – 3 months!

While for most people it would take 3 months to get around basics of a new language, Benny masters his target language to fluency. Amazing, isn’t it?

Well, if you think he’s a genius capable of acquiring tens of thousands of words in the target language and master it to a complete fluency in 3 months – it’s not really the case. For Benny as well as for me achieving fluency in a language doesn’t mean acquiring all academic grammar knowledge about the language along with huge vocabulary.

It’s all about mainly one thing – being able to communicate and socialize with ease! Just think on it – what’s the point of learning a new language behind closed doors for long years if you’re unable to use it for normal, day-to-day conversations? I’d say – very little. But despite what I just said still lots of foreigners spend most of their time on grammar studies and written exercises when studying a language. I was the same when I tried to improve my English and for long years I couldn’t see the simple truth of importance of communication.

When the truth finally dawned on me, I became so exited about how easy it actually is to improve spoken English that I created my own English fluency improving system – English Harmony.

But there’s something else I want to tell you about – and it’s something to do with Benny the Irish Polyglot.

To cut the long story short – Benny has put together a very, very comprehensive guide on how to dramatically cut time when learning a new language. Any language learner – and of course, also those who learn and improve English – will find gazillion of invaluable advice in the Language Hacking Guide!

I have to confess that after reading it I was stunned on the tips and tricks Benny has discovered while learning 7 foreign languages! His language learning tactics are something completely new and are in complete contrast with the old school approach. In the good old days you’d take a grammar book and start learning a language in an atmosphere of serenity and seriousness. After all a very serious business is this language learning stuff, isn’t it?

Well, Benny turns the old concept upside down and says – hey, why waste time on boring academic studies? The easiest way to learn a language is to start speaking from the day one!

Doesn’t it sound mad? Before I read the Language Hacking Guide I’d think it’s impossible. But now I actually understand that this complete immersion in a new language from the very beginning is the only really efficient way. It will immensely reduce time you’ll spend to acquire conversational fluency in your target language. Had I known of all the tricks and tips Benny gives in his Language Hacking Guide years ago – I wouldn’t have the traumatic experience in improving my spoken English that I was going through…

So here’s the thing – if you are learning a new language – be it English, Spanish, Chinese or Russian, you can actually achieve conversational fluency much faster than you ever thought possible!

By using all sorts of advice from the Language Hacking Guide – setting the right goals and mindset (pages 27 and 46); understanding how to start speaking new language immediately (page 90); using image and music associations in the process (pages 145 and 153); and also how to reduce accent (page 187) it is indeed possible to learn a new foreign language is a super-short time.

So if you’re just starting on a new language using conventional methods – think twice! Get the Language Hacking Guide and you’ll be able to learn the new language in short time and also you’ll be using it to speak and communicate with others! That’s the main purpose any language serves, isn’t it?

There are many reasons why foreigners start learning English. For me it was being fascinated with everything that had to do with America when I was a child. For others it’s necessity when they move to an English speaking country.

And many are forced into learning English at school yet at the same time they acknowledge the fact that English is spoken worldwide and nowadays it’s one of the basic requirements if you’re willing to attain good education and advance in your career.

Yet all English students would agree on one thing – English fluency is what one strives for when learning English. In order to be able to communicate with work colleagues and customers one has to be fluent in English otherwise it just won’t work!

But now tell me – has English fluency been defined for you by your English teacher or someone else? The chances are that you’ve been lead to believe that standard English tests and grades adequately reflect your English fluency. But here’s the drawback – real life English fluency has little to do with your ability to complete English language tests and get high scores in them…

Here’s how I would define English fluency!

You have fluent English IF you can fully understand the other party and communicate easily by conveying your message clearly using your active vocabulary. Please pay attention to the last bit – active vocabulary.

This is the slipping stone for many foreign English speakers. Basically they’re trying to use passive vocabulary when speaking English – English words they recognize BUT aren’t comfortable using in conversations.

I think this is a very important point and it’s not stressed enough.

I bet you’ve been wandering at some stage in your life why your English understanding is better than spoken language. You’ve probably had a conversation with someone regarding this topic but have you ever analyzed in depth why it happens?

Why you understand your native English chat partner completely but when trying to respond you feel restricted in your capability to form a sentence? The answer is simple – it’s all about the active and passive vocabulary.

Majority of foreign English speakers have devoted most of their studies to reading and doing grammar exercises. Most of vocabulary built that way becomes passive – which means you can recognize the word or phrase, but you’re simply not using it to communicate. When you’re doing an English language test you’re showing your ability to understand and produce English in a written form. But when you have to actually speak, it’s a completely different story. You have to get by using your active vocabulary – the one that you’ve been using when practicing English speech.

Many foreigners get very confused when speaking as they try to use both active and passive vocabulary and form English sentences as they would do it on a piece of paper. They kind of feel that they’re required to speak very professionally and smart and they automatically assume that the best way to achieve it is to bring up words from their passive vocabulary and use them.

It is possible at some degree, but the resulting language is far from being fluent.

To speak fluent English you must use your active vocabulary which means you will use much simpler words a lot and you’ll have to explain a few things in bigger detail which doesn’t mean at all you won’t be fluent by doing it!

An example – you’re talking to a customer on the phone and he asks you when he can expect the delivery to arrive.

Here’s how you’d respond using e-mail – “Dear Mr. Jones, due to an unexpected delay our courier was unfortunately unable to complete the delivery last night. I contacted them this morning and please be assured you’ll receive your goods by 1 PM today.”

When you’re on the phone, you can find that you can’t actually form the speech the same way you’d write. And here’s where many foreigners make a crucial mistake – they try to kind of write English in the head and then speak it out which doesn’t make a fluent English speech at all.

It’s easy to speak fluently if you just stick to your active English vocabulary and even if your response to the customer’s request is as simple as:  “Dear Mr. Jones, I’m sorry for the delay, but our courier couldn’t deliver your goods yesterday. You’ll receive them today at 1 PM.”

Simple and natural speech sounds more fluent than broken and hesitating one when you’re trying to use complicated phrases and words from your passive vocabulary. So you have to stop using English words and phrases that you don’t use that often and therefore they wouldn’t be the ones making up the main body of your active vocabulary.

Of course, over time you’ll add more and more words to your active vocabulary and you’ll be able to use them when speaking English.

But my main point today was that what I understand with real English fluency is being able to use the vocabulary that you’re familiar with and use it WELL, rather than try sound smart by making the English sentences complicated!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

For those foreign English speakers who are big into reading, but still haven’t started reading English literature. If you think achieving English reading fluency requires building huge active English vocabulary first – you’re in a nice surprise!

Although I’m generally discussing all things about improving spoken English on my blog, I’m a keen reader too.

I have loads of English literature sitting on my book shelves. It covers different topics starting with yoga and meditation and ending with political and economical writings. The biggest part of my books, however, is taken up by historical and fantasy fiction and these genres are my favourite ones.

Initially I started reading English in order to improve my overall knowledge of the language. I made a mistake in that I didn’t actually define which aspect of English I needed to focus most on. For some reason or another it wasn’t clear to me that different aspects of English language – reading, understanding, writing and speaking aren’t merged into one big thing called English. I achieved complete English reading fluency but I was perplexed about the fact that my spoken English wasn’t coming along.

I haven’t had any regrets for a single second, though, having mastered English reading skill. During the last years I haven’t read a single book in my native language. For the most part it’s because I’ve fallen in love with David Gemmell’s fantasy fiction so much that I’ve read all his books and I re-read them every now and then. And also taking into account I live in an English speaking country it’s not hard to understand why I choose to buy books in the local bookstore.

OK, the point that I want to make in this blog post is the following:

You won’t start speaking fluent English by focusing mostly on reading English literature. In order to achieve natural English fluency and improve your spoken English you need to focus on speech exercising – just like the English Harmony System 2.0 offers.

Reading English however, will help you with understanding the language which is also quite an important aspect of English language. Besides the direct benefit to your English understanding you’ll keep yourself constantly immersed in English. So while focusing on reading and writing alone will leave you frustrated and embarrassed in simple daily English conversations, combined with English speaking sessions it will improve your overall English level big time!

There is one main problem though, to be faced by everyone who’s quite competent in English and eager to start reading. It’s simply the number of unknown words in any English book you’ll pick up and start reading!

If so far in your live most of English that you know comes from media and traditional English studies, the chances are that there’s a whole world of English vocabulary waiting yet to be discovered by you!

My first historical fiction was Tim Severin’s Viking trilogy. Many of the words that I learnt from the Viking books were never heard before. To bellow meaning to shout, to heave meaning to lift something heavy, rope went taut meaning rope was tightly pulled – have you often heard such words and expressions used in everyday English? Well, me neither and I wouldn’t even use those words in daily conversations because they’re not generally used.

Much of that new vocabulary is specific terms related to the topic of the book you’re reading. Nautical terminology like prow and stern of a ship (front and rear parts of a ship) and collocations like sail billowing in the breeze are typical words you’re going to come across when reading books where sea voyages are quite frequent events.

If you read literature about wellbeing involving taking care of your inner self and living in harmony with nature you’re going to learn different vocabulary altogether. Affirmations are positive sentences one can speak to program oneself for success in a particular area of life. Posture is a pose one adopts when positioning body in a certain way when meditating or practicing yoga, for example.  And to manifest means to bring about certain things using your imagination and visualization.

So the biggest question is:

How you can start reading an English book if you’ve never ever done it before and the text you’re reading doesn’t read naturally?

As you know, if you read a book in your native language you don’t have to exert your perception to read and understand the text. All you have to do is just scan a line and it reads itself in your mind. It happens automatically.

Would you like to achieve the same level of reading fluency in English? And here’s something even more exciting – would you like to achieve this English reading fluency without consciously learning all new vocabulary?

It is possible – I did it – and I’m sure I’m not unique!

Anyone with intermediate English understanding skills can start reading simple English fiction fluently in relatively short time

Make no mistake though – I’m not saying there’s magic involved. Most likely you’ll have to translate plenty of new words you’ll come across in your first 2 – 3 books. I remember my first book I bought in Ireland – Irish History. I had difficulties communicating in English so I decided I’d improve my English by reading, memorizing new vocabulary and studying English grammar.

Of course, it didn’t do much to improve my spoken English, but back then I didn’t know what else to do. So I started reading the book and I had to look up the new words in dictionary nearly all the time. It wasn’t the best reading experience but it gave me the basic vocabulary to build upon.

The next book was about meditation. I was in a bookstore and for some reason the book caught my eye and I started liking the idea of acquiring inner peace and taking bigger control over my spiritual life. This book was much easier to read as it was actually written using simpler language than the Irish History book.

The third one was my first English fiction – The Virgin In The Ice by Ellis Peters. Medieval times have always fascinated me so when I came across this book I decided to have a read and see how it goes. It appeared to be even easier than the other two books I’d read – so that’s something I’d suggest you do when jumping into reading English. Go for easy-to-read fiction rather than specialist literature That way you’ll avoid unnecessary disappointments and you’ll discover how easy it actually is to gain English reading fluency!

Before we move on to more technical aspects of fluent English reading you have to understand a few things.

Initially, especially with your first books, reading is not going to be the same as reading in your native language. There will be plenty of new words you’ll have to look up in dictionary and that will slow reading down considerably for the first time. The most important thing here is not to despair and throw the book away. It will come to you eventually.

Don’t aim for 100% understanding! Let’s take a sample sentence: One of the novices, reported for the second time for a nocturnal excursion, received two hundred lashes with a scourge (Viking – Odinn’s Child by Tim Severin).

The key to English reading fluency is to understand that the meaning of the whole sentence can be grasped without knowing all the words!

The key words in this example are novice, nocturnal excursion, lashes and scourge. At the first glimpse they all might seem strange to you. I’d say, though, that only the last two are probably worth looking up in a dictionary. Of course it would depend on your native language background, but the chances are that you’ve seen the words novice and nocturnal in some context previously in your life. Novice stems from Latin word novus meaning new and would be somewhat similar to the same word in a number of languages. Factor in the context from the book and it’s not hard to understand that a novice is a person who’s recently joined a religious order, a new one to put it simply.

Nocturnal has obviously something to do with night. Just look up the word lash in a dictionary and it becomes clear that the whole point is about novices being punished for going out at night time. You don’t necessarily need to know the exact meaning of the word scourge as it’s most likely the object punishment is being delivered with. And what else could it be if not a whip that you use to lash someone? So if you come across the same word scourge for a few times, from context alone it becomes pretty clear that it’s a synonym for a whip.

You simply must be patient and remember that the more you read, the easier it gets. You’ll start understanding the English text instinctively. Eventually you’ll reach a stage when you’ll stop using dictionaries and thesaurus. You’ll become a master at reading English fluently by knowing direct translations of just 70 – 80% of vocabulary used in a particular book.

WARNING

If you hold to a belief that fluent English reading can be ONLY achieved by knowing 100% of English vocabulary, don’t read more of this blog post.

You’re welcome to spend years of your life trying to build huge English vocabulary before embarking on the exciting journey of reading English.

But if you want to jump into unknown, immerse yourself in English and widen horizons of your spiritual world – I warmly suggest you start reading English fiction right now!

Personally I read English fluently without knowing the exact meaning and translation of quite a few words I come across. It doesn’t prevent me from completely understanding the text that I read, though.

Also bear in mind that if you come across a particular English word a number of times, its meaning becomes clear from the context alone. You’ll start recognizing the word and as far as reading goes, it’s completely enough.

IMPORTANT

Recognition and ability to use certain English words are two completely different things! You can be a fluent English speaker with an active English vocabulary consisting of 2000 words. When you read English, you recognize meaning of probably 8000 – 10 000words. And it’s totally fine!

You have to understand that you’ll never use most of the vocabulary used in English fiction to communicate in real life with real people, so what’s the point of adding thousands upon thousands of words to your active vocabulary? You won’t be able to use them anyway as you won’t get to practice and use those words!

Easy Step-by-step Plan To Achieve English Reading Fluency

1. If you haven’t done much reading previously in your life – start with reading some children’s book. I’d suggest you buy a simple book about general knowledge like an encyclopedia about word around us. Read a few pages every day and write down new words in a notepad. Try to avoid direct translations to your native language as much as possible – explain the new words using other, simpler English words. In a few weeks time you’ll have increased your English understanding level so that you can move on to the next level!

Tip: You can also read websites like Simple Wikipedia where everything is explained using most commonly used words. You’ll have little difficulties understanding complicated subjects and this way you’ll build your vocabulary very gradually and effortlessly!

2. The next step – walk into a school shop and buy an English reading book for a sixth grader. Don’t be too concerned about the topic of novels and stories in that book – they tend to be quite interesting and cover a large variety of subjects. Language used in such a book is much simpler than in adults’ books and you’ll get to practice your English reading and train the instinctive understanding of simpler texts. Again write down new words in your notepad but only if necessary and only in a context. If you can guess a meaning of a new word and dictionary or thesaurus confirms you’re right – don’t bother writing it down. Train yourself to become very good at guessing the meaning of new words and try not to rely so much on dictionaries.

3. Now it’s time to buy your first English fiction book. Well, it doesn’t really have to be fiction if you’re into something else. Just pick something that you’re really interested in as this is a crucial factor for maintaining your interest and motivation while reading. If you’re into sports – buy a book about sports nutrition or particular type of exercising. If you’re concerned about global issues – buy a book about rainforest preservation or global warming. And if you’re mad into watching crime films, most likely you’ll find crime fiction is the one that fires your blood with adrenaline and keeps you reading.

A few tips when choosing your first book!

Always have a read of a few random pages in the book. You’ll get a good idea on how difficult reading is going to be. If vocabulary used in the book is too specific, reading will be hard and you can easily lose motivation. Look for something simpler!

Choose a book that is part of series of books. If not, go for an author who has a good number of books on the shelf. Reason behind this is the following – vocabulary used in one author’s books is consistent and you’ll increase your English reading fluency dramatically by reading a few books of the same author one after another.

4. Reading your first book. Frankly speaking – some authors write in a less exciting manner than others. I have started and stopped reading a few books simply because I found them boring OR written in a manner that just doesn’t seem right for some reason. The very fact that the book is on sale in a bookstore doesn’t mean the author is a true professional. He or she may be a professor in archeology, but it doesn’t mean the historical novel written by that person is very exciting and an interesting read! So don’t start feeling as if you’re useless at reading English fiction if you just can’t read a particular book you’ve chosen. Bring it back to the bookstore and choose another one!

Remember – reading English fiction or whatever literature you’re into is supposed to be exciting and interesting for you!

Don’t go into reading just because you feel you have to! If you don’t want to – fair enough! If you’re good at communicating with English speaking people and understating enough English to watch films and read newspapers, you can still enjoy life at full in an English speaking country!

So when you’ve find the right book – the one that captivates you and makes you forget everything else while you read it – you’re on the right track to achieving English reading fluency!

More tips for reading:

As I previously stated in this blog post – it’s all about understanding the text as a whole as opposed to striving for understanding the exact meaning of all words seperately.

Of course, to achieve English reading fluency, you need to build your vocabulary. After steps 1 – 2 you will have acquired decent new English word vocabulary, and also when reading your first ‘real’ English fiction or whatever books you choose you will probably use notebook to put the unknown words down. But when you’re past your first books, that won’t be needed anymore.

You’ll acquire new vocabulary the same way you pick up new English words from context when you hear others speak.

Let me give you a very simple example – oil gushing out from the broken pipe. Do you really need to know the exact translation of the word to gush in your language to perfectly understand the meaning of the sentence above? Of course you don’t! The sentence draws a picture before your eyes where oil is leaking out from the pipe and you don’t need to know the exact translation as the meaning is all that matters!

And this is actually the best way to build English vocabulary – through context and guessing, and it’s how you can achieve complete English reading fluency in a relatively short time. Just a few books will separate you from reading the sixth grader’s texts and adult fiction.

Anyone seeing you on a train reading it will definitely think you’re a native English speaker! OK, that was a joke – but it does help your confidence if you’re able to read English as well as anyone who’s born in an English speaking country. And if you incorporate decent spoken English training in your English studies – your overall English will improve big time indeed!

Another sample sentence from a book I’ve read a few times over – The Legend Of Deathwalker by David Gemmell. He staggered on, rounding a bend in the black cavern. Ahead of them an awesome bridge arced across a chasm. Druss stepped on to it, and glanced over the edge.

To be honest with you – I’ve never looked up the words to stagger, a cavern, and a chasm in a dictionary. I know their meaning because the author uses the same words over and over again in his books, and the meaning becomes quite obvious after a few times.

Of course, if the unknown words are the KEY words in a sentence you can’t do without, you have to look them up in a dictionary. But as I already said – once you’ve finished a couple of books, you’ll have the essential English dictionary.

From that moment and on you can rely on your natural intuition and the sentences will suddenly start depicting the events and situations before your eyes the very same way it happens when you read in your native language!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

My dear website readers, YouTube channel watchers and Twitter followers! You can religiously stick to my advice on how to improve spoken English, but if you miss the most important component – your road to fluent spoken English will be filled with potholes!

You can really gather yourself up every time you feel that your confidence in spoken English drops. You can start speaking slowly and pick the words carefully as I’ve told you should do when you feel your mind racing. You can also use really simple words to explain yourself to prevent from getting stuck if you can’t remember the very exact phrase or word you want to say in English. But once again – if you miss the most important part of the equation, you’ll be always struggling with maintaining constantly fluent English!

So which way you want to go? Do you want to be able to consciously use all the good advice on improving your spoken English and keep making effort OR you want to reach a point in your life where you don’t have to make an effort at all to speak fluently?

If I were you, I’d definitely take the last route and I believe you’d too!

OK, I’ll stop teasing you for any longer and I’ll reveal the biggest secret that anyone who’s eager to improve their spoken English should be aware of.

So here it is – FAITH.

Are you surprised?

Yes, it is simple.

And no, it doesn’t mean you have to stop making effort to improve all aspects of English – speaking, writing and reading. If you’ve been following my videos for a while and been around reading my blog posts here, you already know that I’ve been struggling with English fluency myself. Only thanks to my perseverance and hard work I’ve overcome the English fluency issues.

You should spend most of your time speaking – with others, or even with yourself if you’ve no one to talk to. And I don’t deny you should also read as it widens one’s horizon in terms of English understanding and also general intelligence.

But here’s how FAITH binds all the rational factors together – it is the light in the dark so that you can always follow it and maintain progress and upwards going trend of a constantly IMPROVING English language.

If you have FAITH IN YOURSELF you’ll never get desperate again no matter how embarrassing the situation is when you start making mistakes speaking English.

You’ll be ALWAYS aware of the unshakable fact that your English IS fluent.

Suddenly everything else stops being relevant.

It will take some time to do the programming job and tune your mind on the right wave. But when you finally reach a stage in confidence when you can stop seeing a mistake during your conversation as a SURE SIGN of another drop in English fluency, you’ve done the hardest part of the job.

You start seeing yourself as a winner instead of a loser. You start KNOWING for sure that your English IS fluent instead of just HOPING that you won’t make another mistake and relapse into a stage of bad English.

Most surprisingly – by just dreading it would happen can bring it about! It’s like telling yourself: ‘I’ll speak fluently, I know my English is good!’ but at the same thinking: ‘I already know I can start speaking really bad at any moment!’ Well… What you think will most likely happen!

And when it happens and you really experience another stupid situation when you’re unable to say something in normal English, you silently confirm it with yourself: ‘You see? I knew it would happen!’

From this moment and on there’s no more defeatist attitude. Do away with your old self and start thinking only positive.

So IS your English fluent despite some occasions when you’re unable to explain something and you start stuttering and hesitating? ARE you a confident English speaker despite becoming anxious when speaking to your boss or work colleagues?

Then your English IS fluent and you just have to start BELIEVING in yourself.

Simple as that, my friend!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Please forgive me, native English speakers, if I’m being unfair to you but I just want to discuss this issue at length in this blog post as I feel it might be not just me who sometimes feels the same way.

Here’s a real situation I had last summer when I was visiting one of costal towns on the south cost of Ireland. I had just parked my car near the seaside and was looking for the parking ticket machine. Eventually I found out that parking had to be paid in a nearby souvenir shop so I walked in and asked the lady where and how I could pay for parking. She asked me how long I was going to stay but I didn’t give a straight answer because I started thinking over her question.

The lady from the souvenir shop, however, didn’t wait on my answer. Instead she repeated her question using very simple and slow speech involving hand gestures. It was very much the same way you’d speak to a deep-jungle tribesman who’s seen a white person for the first time in his life! Apparently she thought that I didn’t answer her question because I didn’t get was she was saying – not that I was just thinking over the very question and trying to decide how many hours I was going to pay for!

Frankly speaking, I hate when my level of English is judged is such a generalized manner. It’s kind of – if he didn’t answer instantly in perfect English, most likely his English is so poor he didn’t even get me!

I totally understand that it’s not meant as an offence. Most likely those native speakers get to talk to many foreign English speakers whose English is terrible indeed. Ireland has been very popular as a migrant worker destination during the last eight years or so, and yes, I have to admit that many of us, foreigners, haven’t put enough effort in improving English. I’ve always held the opinion that if you live in an English speaking country, it is common sense for you to speak English, both for social and personal benefits.

If You Allow Yourself Becoming Angry – You’re Done…

One way or another, such embarrassing moments can and DO influence confidence of those foreign English speakers who can speak English at a pretty decent level.

In a natural conversation, if either of the parties involved doesn’t understand something, they just ask to repeat it, or to explain it. The simplest way to make clear that you didn’t get the question is to respond to it with a simple ‘Sorry?’ What is a normal reaction when two native speakers have a chat and one of them pauses a bit before responding to the question? Of course, the other person wouldn’t start explaining the point all over again as it’s quite understandable that the person who’s answering is taking time to think on what to say, simple as that!

But when the other party is a foreign English speaker, sometimes the native speakers can behave in a different way. The native speaker could make an assumption that your English understanding is no so good, so he tends to react in a way that is probably meant to help you, but actually can impede your speech and get you confused. The person may have the best intentions, but actually they’re being a bit biased, in my opinion.

What any native English speaker should assume when speaking to a foreigner is that he or she will follow a natural conversation pattern. So if the foreign English speaker doesn’t get something, he’ll make it clear. I don’t think a few second pause before a reply can be taken as a certain sign of lack of understanding!

Nonetheless, we foreign English speakers can’t change ways of the natives, and I’m not saying anyone should. There’s no point to it as you can only get yourself in an unpleasant situation by trying to prove that your English IS good and that you understood what you were asked.

The aim of this blog post is to make other foreign English speakers aware of such situations and how to handle them.

So here’s what you should do whenever facing a native English speaker who doesn’t read your reactions during the conversation in a normal way (by the way, it can happen even with people you speak with on a regular basis!)

What Steps To Take In The Emergency Situation

First of all, quell any irritation that you may notice emerging inside you If you allow yourself getting annoyed, you’ll instantly reduce the ability to respond to the question in fluent English.

It’s not uncommon for anyone to lose some degree of control even over your native language under stressful situations. So you can definitely experience hesitation and stuttering when responding to a question in a conversation where the native English speaker has made it clear that he feels your English is poor.

So just take a deep breath and focus your mind on the actual point of the conversation by shifting your attention away from the problem of being mistaken for someone who can barely speak and understand English. It won’t avail you of anything if you start explaining that you understand what you’re being told and that there’s no need to speak slowly.

Allow the other party to make their own judgment about you simply because it’s not going to make any difference whether the sales assistant in a supermarket thinks your English is fluent or not. Who cares if a nightclub bouncer repeats to produce your proof of age thinking you didn’t understand him the first time and starts using his hand gestures to help expressing his point?

If you think about it deeper, it rather makes sense to keep cool head and behave as if nothing has happened. Suppress any emotions that might get you irritated, annoyed and angry. Ignore the other person’s behavior if they adopt the slow, childish type of speech. If the conversation is going to last long enough, they’ll figure out your English is actually quite good and they’ll start speaking in a more natural way. If the conversation ends after a few sentences – you really couldn’t care less! Just forget about it!

Thing number two  Never EVER try to speed up your speech and pretend you can speak super fast in order to prove that person that you can speak really, really well. It’s very easy to fall for the temptation because trying to prove that the very opposite is true is quite a natural and human reaction. You think I can’t speak English? You’ll see now how good I am – listen how fast I can actually speak!

On way too many occasions I’ve had my speech completely messed up when trying to sound too good when talking to native English speakers. But it’s simply not worth it because the person you’re talking to heard you’re a foreigner from your first sentence anyway! So there’s no way you’ll sound native no matter how hard you try – and THAT will sound really ridiculous if you do! I’ve made this mistake over and over again until I realized two things.

I’ll never sound native AND there’s no point in sounding native! We all are who we are and by trying to pretend being someone we aren’t can only make things worse and make us into objects of derision.

If your query in a bank on opening a new bank account is countered by something like: “Do – you – want – current – account – or – savings – account?” just because you’re taking a few seconds to think on which type of account you actually need, don’t try to say something smart in order to impress the girl behind the counter. Just say something simple like: “Sorry, let me think for a second.” Or say something that would allow you to take the extra time like “Well, I’m not actually sure.” And then try to focus on the actual issue and explain why you can’t decide on which account type you need: “I’m not sure if I can use savings account for paying direct debits and standing orders. And also could you tell me if my salary can be paid into a savings account?”

So instead of focusing on convincing the girl behind the bank counter on quality of your English pay all your attention to the actual crux of the matter. Dismiss all thoughts like: “Why does she think I don’t get what she’s saying? Do I really sound so bad? Is my English really so poor?” At the end of the day all that matters is whether you get the needed information out of the conversation – NOT what other people think of your English

Thanks,

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Hello everyone who watches my video blog – thanks for tuning in and finding time for watching my next video! I can assure you – your time won’t be wasted because today I’m going to highlight important aspects on using different English grammar tenses in live English conversations.

First of all I want to give you an example. Here’s a simple phrase you’d use when you’d have finished doing something – I’ve done it. This is Present Perfect Simple – a grammar form to describe an action that has been finished at some time in the past but the actual time of its completion isn’t known.

Well, so far it’s all fairly simple and understandable, and you shouldn’t have any difficulties with using a simple phrase like I’ve done it.

But now let’s take it one step further and look at the same phrase only in Passive Voice this time. Just a quick reminder for those not sure what Passive Voice is – it’s a way of describing an event without mentioning who did it.

So for instance, I’ve done it is Active Voice, but It has been done is Passive Voice. You see, it isn’t known who did it, or it’s so obvious that there’s no need to mention it.

Let’s say, your supervisor at work knows that you’ve been onto something, and now you’re reporting to him. You can simply say – It has been done because he already knows that it’s you who’s doing it.

So the phrase we’re looking at now is – It has been done, or its short form – It’s been done. It’s the same Present Perfect Simple, only it Passive Voice. But now tell me honestly two things.

How many times you’ve got tongue-tied when speaking English because you’ve been trying to get the tenses perfectly correctly? And – how often you’ve heard a phrase It has been done replaced by much simpler – It’s done?

Do you start getting my point now?

Let’s have a look at a few more examples.

Let’s say you’re going to your shift manager to brief him on your current progress. You want to tell him that you will have finished compiling the sales analysis data by 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

The formal way of saying it is the following – I will have finished the sales analysis by 4 o’clock. A normal English sentence, nothing wrong with it.

It may present difficulties, though, to some foreign English speakers – especially those, who are struggling while speaking and are experiencing anxiety. It’s not that easy to get the tenses right when speaking and constructing a Future Perfect Simple phrase – I will have finished – can get that person tongue-tied and struggling.

Personally I think it’s easier to say the same thing the colloquial way – I’ll be finished with the sales analysis by 4 o’clock.

So look at the phrase – I’ll be finished. Formally we could probably translate it as – I’ll be killed – because it’s the Passive Voice and when you say that I am finished it should mean exactly that – that YOU are finished. However, spoken English is a different story and you don’t have to go by the letter and stick to formal English.

You can certainly say – I’m finished instead of I have finished, I’m done instead of I’ve done it and I was done instead of I had done it.

Make no mistake though – I’m not saying you should mess up all English grammar that you’ve acquired so far and start using Passive Voice instead of Active Voice.

All I’m saying is that when you’re chatting with people in informal situations you’re much better off resembling colloquial English speech patterns than risking getting stuck when speaking.

Especially if you’re not perfectly familiar with all the tenses and you have to spend some time on putting the things right in your mind before speaking out loud.

And of course – there’s no need to change your way of speaking if saying things like The order has been shipped out now present no difficulties to you.

If you, on the other hand, aren’t really comfortable with things like has been, would have been, would have had – and similar tongue twisters, why make it complicated for yourself?

All native English speakers use simplified, more colloquial versions of those grammar forms, and it’s totally normal to say things like – My shift is over, I’m finished today! instead of I have finished – and – This job is done now, what’s next? instead of – This job has been done, what’s next?

I recall a time when I was struggling with English tenses years ago and I wanted to get them perfectly right. So I memorized the whole English tense table with the corresponding examples showing when a particular tense is used and so on.

But I still struggled to apply that knowledge in daily conversations, and had I know about more colloquial ways of saying things, I would have made my life much easier when getting around warehouse where I used to work.

So the bottom line is the following – DO learn English tenses, learn how and where they’re used. But when speaking everyday English, don’t be afraid of using simplified language even if it may sound grammatically incorrect at first.

OK, thanks for staying with me and talk to you soon again!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

How are you getting on, foreign English speaker? Have you heeded to my advice from the previous videos? I hope you have because if you’re still experiencing difficulties with speaking English fluently, you have to take action.

Just by standing by and hoping the things will improve achieves nothing, so today I’ll be telling you about the third aspect of building your English vocabulary. And it’s about not learning many meanings of the same word at once – believe me, if you do it, the chances of memorizing and using that particular word are slim indeed!

I can tell you from my own experience that if you write down a new English word in your dictionary that has a number of different meanings; it’s a very bad idea to try memorizing them all at once.

And taking into account that most of English words do have a number of meanings, you might be very tempted to learn a few of them at once assuming that this way you’ll increase your learning curve.

But it just doesn’t work that way, and here’s why.

When you learn a new English word, your brain memorizes it and creates an abstract image of that particular word. It’s also crucial that you don’t learn new English words through your own language and always put them into context when memorizing – that way English vocabulary you’re building will be natural and your mind will instinctively know when to use the particular word.

But if you learn a number of different meanings of the same word at once, you are actually interfering with the natural learning process. Let’s take for example a word to reflect.

Accordingly to Dictionary.com it has twelve most commonly used meanings. Quite a lot, isn’t it? But let’s take just two of them – reflect as in to reflect light from mirror, and reflect meaning to think on something very deeply, to contemplate.

Let’s assume the word reflect is new to you, and you write down both meanings in your dictionary in order to memorize the new word by repetition.

However, by doing this you’re ignoring a very important aspect of how any language is stored in your brain.

It’s not just a single word – to reflect – that you have to memorize and start using in your English conversations. If you want to learn both meanings at the same time, you’re actually learning two words! Although the word reflect sounds the same on both occasions, its abstract meaning is completely different!

When you say that your image is reflected on lake’s surface, you mean a totally different thing than if you say that you need some time on your own to reflect on your future plans. The word reflect is the same, but it collocates with different words depending on its meaning, so essentially it’s a different word altogether on either occasion.

So if you learn both meanings at once, you risk having the following issues when speaking English.

First of all, both meanings can get mixed up in your head and that can lead to difficulties when you’re trying to use the newly acquired word. Even though it’s the same word, you’ll start hesitating and stuttering when it comes to using it, and that’s definitely not what you want when speaking English.

Secondly, you’ll have to use your conscious mind to look up the various meanings of the same word as opposed to using it instinctively. This problem will manifest itself very obviously if you’re learning new English words through your own language – what you essentially memorize is an English word and its corresponding meaning in your language, so every time you try using that word in a conversation, you’ll be going through the dictionary entries in your mind in effort to find what you’re looking for.

And thirdly, if you memorize the new English word along with a number of its meanings, you risk having constant situations when random words start slipping off your tongue when you speak – and it happens with no apparent reason. But the reason behind it is the following.

If you learn for instance, a new word plain and it’s many meanings – plain as the synonym for a field, plain as in plain food, and plain as in speaking plain language – you can encounter the following.

You start speaking of walking on the plain but at the same time involuntary thoughts about food or speaking plain language start appearing in your mind. You can suddenly pronounce a completely unrelated word and your thoughts can become all jumbled and messy. The end result – messed up English, hesitation and stuttering when speaking!

So to avoid all these symptoms follow the three simple rules – always learn new English words as part of a word combination, try not to use your language to explain the new word, and lastly – don’t learn many meanings of a single word at once!

English vocabulary built this way is going to be natural and easy to use in conversations – which has to be every foreign English learner’s aim. Don’t you agree?

Thanks for staying with me, and see you soon – the next video is going to be another English Harmony Practical Grammar lesson!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Here we go with the next video episode – and this is the tenth one. Two and a half months in production – not bad, is it? I hope I have enough dedication to see the hundredth one online and there’s no better way to achieve it than by taking just one step at a time…

This time let’s look at the following thing – eliminating your native language from the English vocabulary building process. If you’re like the majority of language learners, most likely you’re using your native language dictionary to explain new English words and phrases.

You probably also have a pocket dictionary where you write down the new words and by repeating them on a daily basis they become a part of your overall English vocabulary.

Haven’t you noticed, though, that you actually can’t use most of your vocabulary when you have to speak English? And have you not also noticed that sometimes when you try to think of an English word, your native language words start getting into your way?

Well, it’s the typical English fluency issue I was facing for long years, and it’s partially down to memorizing new English words through my native language.

Just think on this – when you’re using your native tongue, do you refer to some other language? Of course none of us do! As we speak, all the background processes happening in our brain – working with abstract images and so on – aren’t hindered by some other language. Then why we’re doing it when speaking English? The answer is simple – just because this method is used through generations of language learners! Very few of those successful at school language studies, though, make it in life…

When building up English vocabulary the natural way, new words and phrases are explained using the English language. First of all it’s quite easy to guess meanings of new words from context. Secondly – you can always ask if you’re not sure what a particular word means. And lastly – when you’re putting down new English words in your dictionary – use the thesaurus approach. Instead of using your language, explain the word using other English words that you already know!

So as I told you last time – always put the new English words in context when writing them into your notebook dictionary, and then follow it by explanation using English language.

Throw out your traditional English dictionary, and buy a thesaurus – I’m telling you, it’s going to have a huge impact on your English fluency!

OK, I’m just joking – don’t throw the common dictionary out. Just keep it as a last resort if you really can’t get a meaning of some word. But still – explain it using English, all right?

Here are a few useful websites I always use to look up new English words:

Dictionary.com – a very comprehensive online dictionary and everything is explained in English!

Thesaurus.com – you can find gazillion synonyms here!

OneLook.com – this is a dictionary search engine. If you can’t find some English word here, then it doesn’t exist!

OK, watch the video above and you’ll find out more about doing away with your native language when building up your English vocabulary!

Thanks for staying with me,

Talk to you soon,

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Are you considering building up your English vocabulary? Well, it’s time to get started boys and girls!

Let’s take out our English dictionaries and write down the new English word that you’ve just heard for the first time. It can also happen that you’ve already heard the word a few times and been wondering since what it actually means. In either case, you just put it down in your dictionary followed by a translation in your language. Now you can repeat the word a few times till it settles in your memory. Nice! Another word added to your English vocabulary!

Another surefire way to build your English vocabulary is using flashcards. Just carry them with you and whenever you get a chance – memorize and repeat new English words. Sure your spoken English will improve in no time!

Well, not really…

It took me years and more than 7000 English words memorized using the techniques mentioned above to realize it’s making very little difference to my English speech. I had grown my vocabulary a great deal, no doubt about that. I new all those English words, I could understand them whenever they were used by others, and I could enjoy understanding the English language fully. Watching films, reading fiction, listening radio shows and news – and all that in English. Not bad, is it?

Yes, not bad. If you use English for reading and watching films only, that is. The main problem is that when it comes to speaking, you will find it quite hard to use English vocabulary that’s been built the traditional way. I think you’ll agree that the primary purpose of a language is to be used as medium of verbal communication. Reading and writing comes after that – and always in this sequence. It’s my conviction and if you think otherwise – sorry, you’re the minority. Most of foreign English speakers struggle with spoken English fluency, and learning new English words the old school way is part of the issue.

So here’s what’s happening when you memorize a new English word just on its own.

Let’s take a word to sway as an example.

If you write it into your dictionary just on its own followed by a translation in your native language, all you’ll remember is just the word – to sway. All would be fine but for one factor – words aren’t the basic units of English. Phrases and word combinations are!

So what’s happening with this new English word that you’ve memorized just on its own? It’s just sitting there either to be forgotten if it’s not commonly used or to be recognized if you hear it every now and then. On some occasions you can even try using the word to sway in your speech. However, it will prove quite difficult simply because you don’t know which words it collocates with! For you to be able to use the word to sway you need to know it what context this word is normally used, otherwise you’ll come up with funny things like – today I was minding my little niece and I was swaying her for a good while because she likes it a lot.

The correct word you should have used in this case is to swing, but you’d use to sway because you’re relying on direct translation of a separate word rather than on its actual usage in English language.

But if you learn the following word combinations – to sway aside, swaying hips, corporations hold sway over politicians – you’ll acquiring so much more than just another word in your English vocabulary!

First of all, you’ll develop an intuitive feel of how the word to sway is actually used in English. You can’t translate words directly and use them in English language in a fashion similar to your language!

Secondly – you’ll be able to use the new English word without much thinking when the fitting situation arises. If your English vocabulary is built by learning every new word as part of word combinations and collocations, you won’t have to build sentences by sticking separate words together. You’ll be able to spit a whole sentence out because your brain will be trained to do it while memorizing the new piece of vocabulary.

And thirdly – you’ll build up your English fluency along with building up your English vocabulary!

So watch the video above to see me discuss all the previously said, and wait for the next video episode! I’ll be talking about the importance of eliminating your native language from English vocabulary building process!

Thanks and see you soon!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!