Why Studying More Isn't Making You Fluent

معنی واژه با لمس

1. 0:00I want you to tell me if this sounds a little like you.
2. 0:05Every time that something negative happens while you are speaking in English, maybe you freeze or you forget a word, the conversation doesn't really go the way that you wanted it to.
3. 0:18In that difficult moment, your default reaction is, " I don't know enough English yet.
4. 0:26I need to learn more.
5. 0:28If I learn more, I'll be better." And so you start looking for YouTube lessons to watch or spending more time using language apps, and you start to feel better because it feels like you're doing something to fix the problem, right?
6. 0:46And even though you have notepads full of sentences that you've never actually said to anyone, even though you have a login to 10 different courses online that you've never actually finished, you still tell yourself, " I'll be able to speak fluently soon.
7. 1:05I just need to learn more." Hey, ladies.
8. 1:18Welcome back to our regular listeners, and a big welcome if you are joining us for the first time.
9. 1:25This is the Confident English Podcast.
10. 1:29My name is Emma.
11. 1:30I'm the founder of Hey Lady!, an online community that brings together women from all around the world to meet new friends and practise speaking English.
12. 1:43To find out more about what we do and how we can help, head over to our website where you can sign up for our free seven-day guest pass.
13. 1:55The link to get it is down in the description or in the show notes.
14. 2:00But in the meantime, let's dive straight into this episode.
15. 2:12Around eight years ago, I spent six months learning Spanish and about three months living in Spain to immerse myself in it.
16. 2:23And by the end of that time, I could have conversations in Spanish.
17. 2:29My Spanish was not beautiful in any way, but it was enough to meet and connect with people, and that was great.
18. 2:37But then I took a break.
19. 2:40I didn't have anyone to talk to in Spanish, so I didn't talk much at all.
20. 2:47In truth, I didn't speak to anyone until recently when I decided that I needed to pick it back up again because I'm gonna need it when I travel to Mexico.
21. 2:59And I found myself trying to cram, trying to learn as much or remember as much Spanish as I could every single day.
22. 3:10And instead of using my Spanish to talk to people, I've been avoiding that because it feels harder, it feels more complicated, it feels more embarrassing.
23. 3:26And I really just felt like I needed to learn more first before I spoke so that I never got stuck.
24. 3:34I'm laughing because this is the opposite advice that I give to you every week, and it's because I caught myself doing it.
25. 3:44And the fact that I'm a language teacher that I wanted to make this episode for you because I realised just how easy it is to fall into this trap, this loop of endless study, even when I know that it's not the best use of my time.
26. 4:09I want you to imagine a bucket.
27. 4:12The size of your bucket is how much English you actually need for the life that you actually live.
28. 4:21Some people need an enormous bucket.
29. 4:24Like if you are writing research papers in the academic department of an English-speaking university, you need a big bucket, a huge bucket.
30. 4:36Most native speakers don't have a bucket anywhere near that big.
31. 4:41Most English learners spend years and years trying to fill a bucket the size of a swimming pool, learning English that they don't actually need for the life they live.
32. 4:56Now, if you are a B2 learner, your problem is not that you need a bigger bucket to fit more English in it.
33. 5:07The problem that you have is that your bucket has holes in it.
34. 5:13The English that you don't use consistently and regularly is leaking out those holes.
35. 5:21That's why it feels like you keep forgetting your words.
36. 5:25That's why you feel like you need to know more, to learn more.
37. 5:31But what you actually need to do is stop the leaks, and the only way to do that is to practise using the English that you already have.
38. 5:43When you can use the English you already have, then you'll be ready to pour more in.
39. 5:50And when there's no more room to pour more in, that's when you know you're ready for a bigger bucket.
40. 6:02You don't need to know all of English before you start using the English that you already know.
41. 6:10And this is the part I really want you to hear from me today, because practice takes less time than studying does, much less.
42. 6:21Certainly less time than you're spending right now.
43. 6:25And the reason is you only have to practise the English that you're actually going to use.
44. 6:32Think about the last few things you sat down to study.
45. 6:36A video about slang, 30 phrasal verbs, or 50 words that you need to know.
46. 6:44Was any of that for a conversation that you actually had?
47. 6:49A moment where you used those 30 phrasal verbs?
48. 6:53Or was it just in case one day I'll need these?
49. 6:58Maybe you were just curious, or you were interested in learning all these phrasal verbs, but they weren't really practical.
50. 7:08They weren't something that were gonna help you in a moment where you really needed it Because just in case is where the years go, into things that you might need one day for conversations that you're not having right now.
51. 7:25Tell me this, is this something that you've been doing?
52. 7:28Do you notice these patterns in your study behavior?
53. 7:32Do you have pages of notes and sentences that you've never actually said to anyone?
54. 7:39Let me know down in the comments, because this is something that I see with my students all the time.
55. 7:45Now, I do not want you to hear the wrong thing here.
56. 7:50Learning more can be valuable, and it's necessary too, right?
57. 7:56More vocabulary and more grammar will make you more accurate, and it will give you more range.
58. 8:04It will help you to express yourself better.
59. 8:07It will help you to understand more.
60. 8:10But there is an order to it.
61. 8:13The right time to learn phrasal verbs is when you keep hearing them in conversations and they're confusing you.
62. 8:22They're stopping you from understanding what's happening.
63. 8:26Or maybe there's a topic that you want to be able to talk about, and knowing these phrasal verbs or some expressions related to this would help you to express your ideas.
64. 8:38Let your conversations tell you what you should learn.
65. 8:43They will guide you so much more effectively than YouTube ever will.
66. 8:48And with your own conversations guiding you, you're pouring just a little more English into your bucket, just the right amount.
67. 8:58And then as you practise using these phrasal verbs, you make sure that they don't leak straight out of the bucket again because you keep focusing on bringing those phrasal verbs back into your conversations.
68. 9:19So how much speaking practice are we actually talking about here?
69. 9:24Not so much, actually.
70. 9:2615 minutes, three or four times a week.
71. 9:30That is all it takes.
72. 9:33And consistent practice is so much more important than the length of any one conversation that you have.
73. 9:4115 minutes of speaking practice every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday will do more for you than a big extended three-hour batch of practising once a month.
74. 9:57And those 15 minutes, they will guide you as to what inputs you need to improve your speaking skills, and you'll be able to improve it the next time that you speak.
75. 10:08Now, anyone can find 15 minutes.
76. 10:11That's not the hard part.
77. 10:13The hard part here is in order to have just one 15-minute conversation, well, four different things need to happen.
78. 10:25You need someone to speak with.
79. 10:28You need a place to practise.
80. 10:30You need to agree on the time that you're going to practise, and you need something to talk about, right?
81. 10:39So these four things are really important.
82. 10:44Every single conversation that you plan to have three to four times a week, you need to do these four things.
83. 10:52And because that takes so much work and effort just to make that practise happen, no wonder you're not actually getting around to it.
84. 11:03It's no wonder that you're just jumping onto YouTube because it feels so much easier right now, right?
85. 11:10You can do it whenever you want.
86. 11:12You don't rely on anyone else.
87. 11:15But that is exactly why I built Hey Lady! It's a place to practise where those four things are already organised for you, so all you need to do is to show up.
88. 11:29We've already found you the people to practise with, women from all over the world who are just as motivated as you are.
89. 11:39We've already organised the times, with sessions happening every single day in your time zone.
90. 11:47We give you the topics to talk about and expressions that you can learn and practise so that you never actually have to sit down and wonder, "What am I gonna say?
91. 11:59What am I gonna talk about?" And all of this happens inside the Hey Lady! platform, and you can have your very first conversation today, like right now, right after this episode, because we also have a seven-day guest pass so that people like you can come in and try Hey Lady! for yourself.
92. 12:23You don't need a credit card.
93. 12:25You just need to show up and see what it's actually like inside Hey Lady! before you decide if you want to become a member.
94. 12:34Ladies, the link is down in the show notes, and if you're watching this on your computer or on your TV screen, then you can scan this link right here with your phone.
95. 12:46It's gonna take you straight to the website.
96. 12:50If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you hit that Like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already so that you don't miss our next episode.
97. 13:01It also helps us to reach more women who need to hear this so that we can help them too.
98. 13:08Thank you so much for spending time with me today, and I do want you to remember as you get on with your day, the reason that you don't feel fluent, it's not because you don't know enough English.
99. 13:23It's because you're not using the English that you already know.
100. 13:28So take that with you today, and I will see you in the very next episode.