This Simple Habit Will Make You Fluent in Any Language (backed by science)

Today, we are going to talk about the one single method that is going to help lead you to fluency in any language. Now, I am a native English speaker, but I have also learned German, Portuguese, and Polish. And after spending years learning foreign languages, I know that there is so much you need to do to lead to fluency. And there's so much out there telling you what to do. And so, after all these experiences, this is the number one thing that made a huge difference for me. Now, I've heard of a lot of different things that lead to fluency, but this is actually really effective because it's fully based by science. And the best part is that it only takes you about 15 minutes per day. It's really easy to stay consistent with, and that's what actually makes the difference for fluency. Now, when you start these huge routines that take you two, three hours a day, you do it a couple times and then you just completely stop. And that breaking point completely disrupts your system. You cannot learn a language unless you do it every single day or at least most days, but you really have to be consistent with it. So, just picking one simple thing makes a massive difference in your language learning journey, no matter the language. So, let me share with you my number one tip. And at the end of this video, I will share with you my exact system for doing this so that you can actually build your routine around it. So, this method is about keeping a language diary. Essentially, you write three to five sentences about your daily life in some kind of notebook journal every single day. And these sentences are all about your thoughts, your emotions, honestly, just anything you're thinking, anything about your day, what's stressing you out, it doesn't matter. But the idea is that you're conveying real ideas and thoughts that you normally would in a real conversation. But there is one caveat here. The diary has to be physical. It has to be real pen and paper. You need to be writing it out. There is something about actually physically writing out words and sentences when you're learning a language that makes a massive difference. It really helps you make this brain connection when you're physically writing it out that makes it so that you remember it so much better. Now, I take this to the next level when I'm learning a language. I write out all my flashcards by hand. I take all my notes by hand. I practice writing grammar charts, sentences, everything by hand. It truly helps it stick so much better. And I know there are a million language learning apps, websites, whatever it is, and they claim to be shortcuts, which they are. They can be helpful. But if you really want to remember it, doing it with your hand makes a huge difference. So this idea is backed by Merrill Swain's output hypothesis. And basically what he claims, there is a huge difference between recognition and retrieval. So recognition is hearing, recognizing the language, right? So you hear the radio and you can pick out a few words. You're like, I understand that. I understand that. Or you hear a song, you read something, and you're like, yeah, I got that. I understood most of it, right? So you can recognize the language. Now, that is very different from retrieval. Retrieval is all about output. Here is when you are actually producing the language. So that means writing or speaking. You are actually thinking of the sentence and making it, producing it. Now, this is no surprise, but Merrill Swain's hypothesis proves that true fluency requires retrieval. It is essential. You can't be fluent in a language and not actually be able to speak, right? I mean, that's obvious. But that process of physically forcing your body to produce the language itself is extremely difficult and it takes time to get to that level. When you try to write or speak, your brain hits a wall. This is called the noticing function. That exact millisecond in your brain releases some adrenaline that is alerting your brain of the gap in your knowledge that you don't know how to say something. You don't know the grammar construction, right? So you literally get this adrenaline in your brain. And what happens is in that moment, when you actually look up the word, you figure out how to say that sentence, your brain really locks it in. It actually remembers what you've just learned. And that process is extremely different than recognizing the language. Oftentimes you hear something, you're like, yes, I get it. I get it. Oh, what was that word? Sometimes you even forget there was a word you don't recognize or you look it up and a minute later it's gone. You've just forgotten it. But when you're actually trying to say something and you forget a word and you go out of your way to find it, you really, really remember it. Now, the problem here is that oftentimes textbooks teach you completely useless, formal phrases that nobody actually says. Textbooks can be extremely outdated. So then when you go to talk and speak, the thing is that you're actually thinking and feeling and want to express, you've never run into because your textbooks are telling you to say, pardon me, right? And so it creates this huge gap in your knowledge, real life, fluent knowledge. So that is the foundation of the language diary. It builds this foundation for you for real vocabulary, real sentences, real things that you actually think and feel. And you every day are practicing, how do I say this? How do I express this idea? How do I make this feeling sound natural in this language? And you learn to communicate on a completely different level. You're not just using please and thank you. And I would like, and using very every other word. You are skipping that part of the process and you are going straight into truly expressing yourself in a fluent manner. When you are writing this all out by hand, you are literally triggering that noticing function in your brain. So you are triggering that adrenaline, that adrenaline that actually helps you lock in and remember what you've learned. Now, this is the perfect example of why you understand movies or TV shows or even YouTube videos perfectly, but then you totally freeze up when you start speaking. And this is exactly how you can start to break that wall in any language. Now, another big part of this is that a lot of people feel insecure and anxious when they're speaking in real life situations, speaking with friends, writing things because they are nervous. And it takes a really long time to build confidence in a foreign language. So one of the major advantages here is that you're learning to work through the words, the phrasing that you don't know yet all on your own. This is low stress and it makes it so that you can build up this confidence all on your own without feeling embarrassed or nervous. And then when you are in real life situations, it makes it a lot easier to actually speak more confidently. Now, that is a huge roadblock for most language learners. And so speeding up that process makes a huge difference in your language learning journey. Now, my system for this is actually really quite simple. I have a little notebook that I keep in my room by my nightstand that is dedicated just as my language diary. And every night before bed, I write about five sentences talking about my day, talking about different stresses or feelings, emotions, just really anything that's on your mind. And in that moment, if I run into a word or phrase that I don't know how to say, I look it up really quickly on my phone and I use it. I screenshot every word I look up. And then later, when I am actually in a phase of studying, so I do my proper studying in the mornings and I sit down, I have a vocabulary notebook where I keep track of all of my new vocabulary. And there I take the screenshots on my phone from the night before of any new words and I write them in my vocabulary notebook. That way, at night when I'm writing in my language diary, it's not really a study session. It's simply just getting it out and practicing writing full sentences about real ideas. And if I happen to run into words that I don't know, I still keep track of them, right? I want to study them later. But that's a completely different part of my routine. This is not a study session. Then the next day, I have the opportunity to review those words. It's also a second touch point, so I'm a little more familiar with the words. And then they go in my vocabulary book. So at the end of the week, I will review them with all the rest of my new words. Now, maybe in this explanation, it seems like a lot of work, but I promise it's only about 15 minutes every night or whenever you would want to do it in your day. And it really makes a massive gap in not only learning the vocabulary you actually use, phrases you actually use, practice in building sentences, but it really helps remove some of your nervousness and self-consciousness when speaking. It really helps you build confidence faster. And if you've learned a foreign language before, you know that that part of the process takes so long and it's really hard to develop that on your own. Now, my last tip is that if you have a night where you're just feeling super motivated and you're like, I want to go above and beyond. I just want to feel so accomplished when I go to bed. I want to feel like I've really worked with the language. Then I have two tips. Well, the first thing, of course, is that you can just write more. You can write more than five sentences. That's great practice. But if you want to do something a little extra, I recommend reading it out loud and really focusing on your pronunciation, but also your rhythm and cadence and clarity when speaking. So practice reading it out loud and just try to make it sound as natural as possible. Now, I've said this before and it might sound kind of funny, but I've always felt like when you're learning a foreign language, if you feel like you sound silly, like you sound like you are practicing an accent for a movie or something, you feel like you're playing dress up, then probably your accent is sounding good. Because when you are speaking in a foreign language, the accent is going to feel strange and a little uncomfortable. So if you feel like you are sounding overboard, like you are mimicking the language or something, you are actually probably closer to how that language sounds than you think. It should feel just a little bit strange. So this is the perfect opportunity because you are alone and it doesn't matter just to read through what you've written, try to make it sound natural, try to really focus on pronunciation and rhythm. Now, if you find that you need help with your pronunciation, I have a pronunciation guide linked below and this helps you really focus on your English pronunciation. So it's a seven day workout. You can check that out below. But that is my system for really reaching fluency quickly in any language. That is the one tip I would recommend if you want to become fluent faster. So try out the language diary and let me know what you think in the comments below. I'm Kat and my channel is all things language learning. If this video helped you, please like and subscribe. It really helps my channel. Thank you for watching. Bye.