How to Speak FLUENT English (by Learning at Home)

Hi, my name is Natee, and I'm from Thailand. Many  years ago, my spoken English was pretty bad. I had a lot of trouble expressing myself in English.

But  then, I found a way to improve my spoken English. And I managed to become fluent while living in  Thailand. The methods I used can be done at home, from anywhere in the world.

And in this video,  I'm gonna tell you how you can do the same. First, let me tell you the most important secret. To  speak English well, you need to build unconscious knowledge in English.

Let me repeat that. If you  want to speak English fluently, you need a high level of unconscious knowledge in English. So,  what is it?

Well, unconscious knowledge is the ability to do something without conscious thought.  It's the ability to perform a task automatically. For example, riding a bicycle, playing a musical  instrument, and speaking your native language.

Unconscious knowledge is automatic. To use the  knowledge, you don't have to think about it. You don't have to focus your attention on it.

That's  why you can ride a bicycle and talk to someone at the same time. You don't have to focus on the  movement of your legs. They move automatically on their own.

It's also why musicians can sing and  play the instrument at the same time. With enough practice, the skill becomes automatic, and so the  hands and fingers can now move automatically. Now, think about how you speak your first language. 

When you talk in your native language, do you think about grammar rules? Do you  think about syntax or sentence structure? No, you don't think about any of that, right?

But  for some reason, every sentence that comes out of your mouth is grammatically correct. Even though  you're not thinking about grammar, everything you say makes sense grammatically. Why is that?

Well,  it's because you have a high level of unconscious knowledge in your native language. So, if you want  to speak English well, you need to increase your unconscious knowledge in English. If you do that,  speaking English will feel natural and automatic, much like speaking your first language.

So how do  you acquire unconscious knowledge? Unfortunately, this is very difficult to do. The problem is  that this type of knowledge cannot be taught.

It cannot be acquired through study. You can't  improve it by reading grammar books or watching grammar lessons on YouTube. If you do that, you  will acquire a different type of knowledge called conscious knowledge.

This type of knowledge is not  automatic. To use the knowledge, you have to think about it. You have to focus your attention on it. 

This means that when you speak English, you have to think about grammar. You have to decide what  tense to use and all that stuff. And that doesn't work because when you're talking to someone, you  don't have time to think about grammar.

If the other person says something to you or asks you a  question, you have to respond immediately. Sadly, many people love studying grammar. They love  watching lessons about tenses, prepositions, adjectives, and so on.

They believe that it  will make them speak better. What they don't realize is that the knowledge they gain through  study is conscious, non-automatic knowledge, which is not very useful in spoken English.  The thing is, speaking a language involves two parts of the brain: the conscious part and  the unconscious, automatic part.

When you speak your first language, the conscious part focuses  on the information that you want to communicate, while the unconscious part focuses on the  grammar. This coordination allows you to speak fluently. If you want to say something, you  can just say it.

And the unconscious part will make sure that your speech follows the grammar  rules. The process is automatic. It's amazing, actually.

But what happens when a grammar nerd,  you know, someone who studies a lot of grammar. What happens when they try to speak English?  Well, here's what happens.

The conscious part now has to focus on the information and the  grammar at the same time. It has to focus on two things simultaneously, which is impossible  to do. This is why many students speak poorly despite knowing all the grammar rules.

So don't  learn English through study. Instead, you have to learn English the same way you learned your first  language. We call this way of learning unconscious learning.

What is unconscious learning? Does  it mean learning while you sleep? Actually, no.

In this context, the word unconscious means  unaware. So, unconscious learning means you're unaware that you're learning something.  The learning takes place outside of your awareness.

One example of this way of learning  is listening to a conversation in English. When you listen to a conversation, your goal is not to  learn English but to understand the conversation, right? But as you listen.

. . as you focus on the  information, the unconscious part of your brain is learning English behind the scenes.

You may not  be aware of it, but your brain is learning things like grammar, vocabulary, and many other things.  This is how you learned your first language. You didn't learn through study.

You learned by  listening to people talking over and over. And you didn't try to memorize or understand any  rules. You just focused on the information and let your brain learn the language in the background. 

So remember, when you learn English unconsciously, you get unconscious, automatic knowledge. when  you learn English consciously by studying grammar, you get conscious, non-automatic knowledge.  Now, there are two methods you can use to build unconscious knowledge.

These are the only  two methods I used to become fluent in English. The first one is listening, of course. The second  one is input-driven speaking practice.

Let's talk about listening. Listening is a very popular  method for learning English. Everybody tells you to listen to English.

But is it really  necessary? I mean, what if you're not looking to improve your listening? If your goal is to  improve your speaking, why do you need to spend time listening?

Why not just focus on speaking  practice? Well, here's the deal. Even if improving your listening is not your goal, you still need  to listen to English on a regular basis.

In fact, it's impossible to become fluent without a lot of  listening. The reason is simple. Regular listening makes it easy to improve your speaking.

You see,  the English language is very complex. If you don't listen to English very much, you'll never become  familiar with the complexity of the language. So, when you try to practice speaking, you will get  confused very easily.

Forming a sentence will be confusing. Practicing new words will be confusing.  Everything will be confusing because your brain cannot handle the complexity of the language.

On  the flip side, if you listen to English regularly, you will become comfortable with the language. So  the complexity will not confuse you as much. As a result, improving your speaking will be a lot  easier.

That's why you need to listen to English regularly. You need to feed your brain with as  much input as possible. But what about reading?

Should you also read in English? Well, if you  can do both listening and reading, that's great. That's even better.

But if you don't have a lot  of time, I suggest you focus on listening because it helps you become familiar with the sounds of  English, you know, pronunciation, intonation, pitch, things like that. Besides, when you watch  a movie or a YouTube video with English subtitles, you are essentially reading in English,  right? So, even if you focus on listening, you will sometimes get to practice your reading  skills as well.

So, make sure to consume a lot of content like YouTube videos, podcasts, audiobooks,  movies, and TV shows. If you don't understand the content and need to read subtitles, make  sure they are in English, not in your native language. At this point, you might have questions  like.

. . What podcasts should I listen to?

What movies should I watch? What content is best for  learning English? The answer to these questions is simple.

The best content for learning  English is content you enjoy. For example, if you like travel, you might watch YouTube videos  about travel. If you are interested in business, you might listen to business podcasts.

If you like  action movies, then watch action movies. Watch or listen to things you like. It's that simple.

Don't  consume content you don't like just for the sake of learning English. If you do that, listening  will feel like a chore for you. It will be something that you have to force yourself to do. 

When you listen to something you don't care about, you will get distracted and get bored. At some  point, you're gonna lose motivation and stop doing it. I don't have this problem because I only  listen to stuff that interests me.

For example, I like Japan, so I'm subscribed to YouTube  channels about Japanese culture, Japanese food, and other things related to Japan. I love  scary stories, so I listen to a number of scary podcasts. I'm also a big fan of fantasy  series like Harry Potter, and I've listened to the Harry Potter audiobooks multiple times  now.

So basically, I listen to things I enjoy. This way, I get to have fun and learn English at  the same time. By the way, there's one type of content I avoid, and that is grammar lessons.

When  I'm on YouTube, I never watch videos about tenses, prepositions, adjectives, you know, all the  boring stuff. Because I know that if I consume this type of content, I will develop the habit of  thinking about grammar when speaking, which is not what I want. I want to speak English naturally  like I speak my native language.

So, make sure you listen to things you find enjoyable and avoid  content related to grammar. How much time should you spend listening each day? The answer is as  much as possible.

Like I said earlier, English is very complex, and so your brain needs a lot  of input before it can master the language. So, the more time you spend listening, the  better. If you have 30 minutes a day, listen for 30 minutes a day.

If you have 10 hours  a day, listen for 10 hours. The more input you get, the faster your English will improve. But if  you're busy and don't have time, that's okay.

Let me share a tip that has worked well for me. So, if  your listening is good enough, and you don't need to look at the screen to read subtitles, you can  practice listening while doing other activities. Personally, I like to listen while working out,  doing chores, or commuting.

With this simple strategy, I've been able to listen to English  for at least 30 minutes every day without much effort. I don't need self-discipline to do this.  It's very easy to do.

So, feel free to listen while doing your daily activities. But don't do it  while working or studying, alright? The activities have to be something simple.

Something you can do  easily without concentration. With this approach, you really don't have to spend your free time  listening to English, which means you can dedicate some of that time to your speaking practice.  Practice is essential to improving any skill.

If you want to speak English well, then you're gonna  have to practice. You have to open your mouth and speak some English. But what if you have no one  to speak with?

What do you do then? Some people solve this problem in a simple way. They simply  talk to themselves in English.

And I used to do that. When I was just starting out, I would talk  to myself about random topics. So one day I might talk about my job, the next day I might talk  about my hobbies, and so on.

But after a while, I stopped doing it because there are two problems  with this approach. The first problem is that when you're talking to yourself, you're not learning  any new words or phrases, right? You're just practicing words and phrases you already know. 

You're not learning anything new. The second problem is that if you make a lot of grammar  and pronunciation mistakes when speaking, this practice will not correct those mistakes.  If you practice by talking to yourself alone, you will keep making the same mistakes.

So, after  practicing this way for a while, you might be able to speak more quickly, but your English will be  difficult to understand because you don't speak or sound like a native. You have your own way of  talking in English. So, if talking to yourself doesn't work, how about talking with someone  online?

Unfortunately, the same problems still apply. If your speaking partner is an English  learner just like you, they probably make a lot of mistakes when speaking. So when you're talking to  them, you're exposing yourself to broken English, you know, bad grammar and incomplete sentences. 

Also, your partner probably has a small vocabulary just like you, so talking to them isn't  gonna help expand your vocabulary. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that you should  never chat with other English learners.

It's okay to do that from time to time. But if your speaking  needs a lot of improvement, then you should focus on something called input-driven practice. What  is it?

Well, input-driven practice is when you practice with some type of English material. It  could be a YouTube video, a podcast, a movie, or anything that contains native speech. The idea is  that, by practicing with input, you're exposed to new vocabulary and proper grammar, which will help  you to speak and sound more native.

Input-driven Practice usually involves imitating or copying a  native speaker. If you've ever heard of language learning methods like Shadowing or Imitation,  those are all input-driven exercises. Personally, I like the Imitation technique the most, so let  me explain how you can practice this technique.

To get started, find an audio or video of a  native speaker talking. Try to find material where the speaker doesn't speak too fast. Once  you have the material, you're gonna listen to it to familiarize yourself with the speech. 

You don't have to speak yet. Just listen and make sure you understand everything. Be sure  to look up words and phrases you don't know.

Now, if the speech is long, you don't have to listen to  the whole thing. Just listen to the first 3 to 5 minutes. After you finish listening, you're ready  to begin your practice.

Play the speech from the beginning. This time, you're going to repeat after  the speaker word for word. So, after a few words, pause the audio and repeat what you hear out  loud.

You don't have to wait until the end of each sentence because that might be too difficult.  You can pause mid-sentence and repeat 4, 5, or 6 words at a time. When you imitate, try to copy not  only the words but also the rhythm, pronunciation, and the emotion in the voice.

Copy everything  so that you sound exactly like that person. So that was one way to practice Imitation. But this  technique is flexible; as your speaking improves, you can make the practice more challenging to  match your proficiency level.

For example, instead of repeating a few words at a time, you can try  to memorize and repeat one sentence at a time. If you come across a very long sentence,  and you can't remember the exact words, that's okay. The human brain is not very good at  remembering individual words or small details, but it's good at remembering meaning or key  information.

So, if you forget the original sentence, try to express the meaning in your own  words. For example, if the original sentence was "Walking alone in a dense forest at night  is absolutely terrifying", you might say something like "Walking alone in a forest at night  is very scary. " Or, if that's still too difficult, you can just say "Walking in a forest is scary.

"  The process of expressing something in your own words is really helpful. It improves your ability  to improvise and find the right words to express yourself. As you can see, there's more than one  way to practice Imitation, so feel free to do it however you like.

The important thing is to  always practice with input to ensure constant exposure to proper English. So there you have  it. That's how you can increase your unconscious knowledge and become more fluent in English.

A  lot of listening and a lot of speaking practice.