You will NOT become fluent in English (until you do this...)

In today's video, I'm going to give you the one mindset shift that will totally transform the way you learn a second language and will help you become fluent so much faster. Unfortunately, this is not something I've heard talked about a lot, which is a shame because it's a really, really useful strategy and it's one that I've used learning German, learning French, learning Italian, and I'm very confident that you, if you're learning English or you're learning another language, can use this strategy to help you become fluent. Now, before we begin, I have to give you a full disclaimer. This only works if you're already at an intermediate level. This strategy is not for beginners. It's not for you. If you're at the A1 or A2 level, you already need a solid foundation. Normally this works best if you're at the B1 or B2 level, but sometimes I also have seen students at the A2 level who have seen results. However, that being said, you do need a foundation. You can't be learning completely from scratch to use this strategy. It just won't work. Now I've got your attention. What is this strategy? Well, the strategy is very simple. You need to pretend you already speak the language you want to learn. So if you're learning English, stop thinking of yourself as a learner or a student, somebody who's working on becoming fluent. You should already think of yourself as somebody who speaks that language, not as a native speaker, not as somebody who speaks that language fluently, just as somebody who speaks the language, somebody who uses English every day, somebody for whom English is a part of their daily life. There are a lot of names for this. Fake it till you make it. Some people call it manifestation. Some people call it identity shift or mental rehearsal. You might come across different names for this, but whatever you call it, the result is the same. You need to start thinking of yourself as a speaker of your target language. Stop thinking of yourself as a learner. Think of yourself as somebody who already speaks the language. Act like the person you want to become. Now, I know what you might be thinking. How can I possibly act like I speak a language when I don't? Well, here's the thing. If you're at the intermediate level, and this is why I said you need to already be at that basic level, you already speak the language. You already have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of the foundation of the language. You know generally how the language works. You can understand some vocabulary. You can understand some grammatical concepts. You already speak the language. You're not fluent or you're not at the level in that language that you are in your native language, but you still speak the language. Don't believe me? Think about a child. If a child at school learning their native language, they already speak their native language. They've already learned it at home. But obviously a child at the fifth grade level is going to be totally different in terms of how well they speak, how advanced their vocabulary is from a child at the twelfth grade level. Both of them already speak the language. The child at the fifth grade level already speaks their native language. Nobody would deny that fact, but obviously they speak it at a different level than the twelfth grader or the university student would. So right now you already speak your target language. You might be more at a fifth grade level, sixth grade, seventh grade. Now you already speak the language and your goal is to get higher. But the key here is to make this shift mentally because the moment you realize this, the moment you acknowledge it, you feel more confident. You feel like you actually deserve to speak that language like a professional, like a natural, like somebody educated. And most importantly, this allows you to avoid the trap that so many people fall into when they study a second language. You see, a lot of people make excuses. A lot of people think that they're not able to speak a second language because they're not talented, because they're too old, because they have no time, stuff like that. But the moment you change your mindset and the moment you actually realize you do speak that language already, especially if you're at least at the intermediate level, all these excuses go out the window. You already speak the language. Now it's just a matter of expanding your abilities and reaching that higher level versus actually getting to the point where you speak because you already speak. So you might be asking yourself, well, I still feel nervous when I speak. I still struggle to find the right words. I still don't feel as confident when I speak English. And guess what? Native speakers encounter the exact same problems every single day. They feel nervous to speak. Even native speakers feel nervous to speak English in new situations or in front of audiences, in front of large crowds. Even native speakers feel embarrassed when they make a mistake. Maybe they're presenting. Maybe they're in a job interview. They're nervous. Their tongue is tied. They make a mistake. They don't know what to say. They can't find the right word. They say something embarrassing. All these problems are problems that native speakers encounter, too. So once you realize this, you think, hey, wait a moment. These problems are not unique to people who are learning a second language. These problems are encountered by everybody. And the fact that you encounter these problems does not exclude you from considering yourself as somebody who speaks a second language. That's what I'm getting at here. I want you to consider yourself a speaker of English, not a learner necessarily, but a speaker. And just because you feel nervous, just because your vocabulary isn't at the level you want it to be, doesn't mean you don't speak the language. I'll give you another example. If you look at the news, most news articles, it depends on the publication. It depends on the website or the newspaper. But most news articles are written at an eighth or ninth grade level. That means the vocabulary they use, and again, these are news publications for native speakers, the vocabulary they use is designed to be understood by native English speakers at the eighth or ninth grade level. Once you realize that, you realize, wow, you don't need to speak like you have a PhD to speak English. Nobody would deny that an eighth grader is fluent in English. So if you can understand these articles, if you can speak at a similar level, you too are also fluent. So let's talk about the practical application of this. Once you consider yourself a speaker of English, because if you're watching this video, if you can understand me, you don't even need to understand everything. If you can understand 80 percent, 70 percent of what I'm saying, I consider you to be an English speaker. Now you have to think about how you can apply this principle to your life. Whenever you go about your daily life, think about what an English speaker would do when they wake up in the morning. They check their phone. Their phone is in English. They listen to the radio in English. They watch Netflix in English. And by the way, about subtitles, sometimes even native speakers need to watch Netflix with subtitles. I know sometimes I need to turn on the subtitles if it's an accent that I don't understand too well. For example, some Scottish accents are difficult for me to understand. I'm Canadian. I'm from Vancouver, Canada. But I find certain accents a bit more difficult to understand, especially rural accents from the UK. Even some Southern American accents are difficult for me to understand. And I'm a native speaker. I speak English fluently. It's my mother tongue. So just because you need subtitles doesn't mean you're not fluent. Doesn't mean you don't speak English. Let's make that very clear. If you watch Netflix, if you watch YouTube and you need subtitles, that's nothing to be ashamed of. It doesn't mean your English is bad. It simply means you're listening to an accent that you were previously not exposed to or not familiar with. OK, so native speakers watch movies, they read books, they read the news, they live their life in English as much as possible. Of course, they speak English. You need to be speaking English. Now, you can obviously do this on your own. You can talk to yourself in the mirror. You can talk to ChatGBT. It's not great, but you can do it. If you have friends who speak English, talk to them in English. If you're looking for a program where you will improve your English and you will learn how to be more confident and more fluent in English, then click the link in the description below because we do have several programs available to help you. The last piece of advice I'm going to give you is if you're able to. I recognize this is something that not everybody is, but if you are able to and learning English, rather improving your English fluency is a priority for you, spend some time in an English speaking country. If you're in North America, come to Canada, come to the US. If you're in Europe, if you're in Africa, you could go to South Africa. You could go to the UK. You could go to Ireland. If you're in Asia, you can go to Australia. Find an English speaking country close to you, relatively close to you, because there are many around the world and visit. I promise you, you will learn more in one week in an English speaking country, just interacting with that environment. As long as you make an effort to because you have to make an effort to do that. You need to get out of your comfort zone, speak, interact with people in English. You will learn more in that one week than you would on YouTube by watching Netflix or even in an online course for a few months. So if you can visit an English speaking country, learn more about the culture in that country, practice speaking in that country, put yourself in situations where you have to use English and your English will improve. It's not necessary. If you can't, for whatever reason, don't worry. It's still 100% possible to improve your English and to get it up to the next level. I do have a video on this topic on my channel. I'll link it down in the description below. How to improve your English, even if you're not in an English speaking country. But obviously, if you can, you should absolutely take the opportunity to visit and to practice and to speak English in an English speaking country. So we've come to the end of today's video. I just wanted to give you this piece of advice. The most important thing I want you to take away from this is that you need to change the way you think about learning English. You need to stop thinking of yourself as just a student or somebody who is still learning English. And you need to start thinking of yourself as somebody who speaks English. You are an English speaker if you speak English at the intermediate level or higher. If you can understand most of what I'm saying, you don't need to speak perfectly. You don't need to speak 100% fluently. You don't need to speak without mistakes. If you can speak, you are an English speaker. And now anything you do is about increasing your vocabulary, increasing your level of English, just as an English speaker, a native English speaker rather, would themselves. Hope you found this video useful. Let me know in the comments if you've ever been to an English speaking country or you'd like to visit one. If so, where? Make sure to subscribe to English at the Ready here on YouTube. Leave a like. And if you want to study with me and my team, click the link in the description below because we have several programs available to help you speak more fluently, to help you expand your vocabulary, and of course, to help you feel more confident and less nervous when you speak English, whether that's for work, for school, for personal reasons or for travel. So click the link in the description below to apply today. I'll see you in the next video.