why you understand English but CAN'T speak fluently

As you can probably tell from my accent and from my grammar mistakes, I'm not a native English speaker. I became fluent in English by watching YouTube videos and practicing by myself, and I always get comments like, "I can understand you, but I cannot talk like you." So today, I'm gonna explain why you can understand English but cannot talk fluently or express yourself very well, and I'm gonna also explain how you can fix that. So let's get started.

Hi guys, it's me! Today, for those who are new here, I can speak four languages: Japanese, Turkish, English, and German. Unlike the comments section, I'm not saying this to brag or flex about my language skills or something like that. I'm not a language genius. When I was learning German, I was crying every single day. Like, how can I be your language genius? I'm just telling this to show that I literally went from the same path that you guys are currently following, and I want to share my experiences. Like, literally there are people who can speak more than 20 languages! Like, how? Why? Why am I gonna flex with like four languages? If I would flex, I would like flex around like 10 plus languages.

So anyways, we all learn English in school, but even though we can understand English, most of us cannot really talk fluently. Even in public schools, most of the people from different countries get English education for years and years, but we can't talk fluently. Don't you think there is a huge problem? At the beginning of my English journey, I was able to understand English when the conversation was very simple, but I wasn't really able to express myself and, you know, talk fluently.

The first problem that we have in our English or language education system is that the education itself is input-based. There are so many researches proving that input-based learning is not really effective. We should focus more on output-based learning. But before talking about those and discussing them, let's firstly learn about what input learning is. When we compare input-based learning and output-based learning, we can compare two different types of learning styles. Input-based learning styles can be listening and reading, and output-based learning will be talking and writing. In most language schools, learning is input-based. We always do readings and listenings, but we don't do enough talking and writing.

In my opinion, in one of my all-time favorite books from a Japanese writer/psychiatrist, Kawasabashiong, the book is called "Input Encyclic." He has two different books: "Input Encyclopedia" and "Output Encyclopedia." I would highly recommend them, but they're in Japanese. Anyways, he says that the golden ratio for input and output is three to seven, but most of us do the opposite. We do like seven input and three output, but we should do three input and seven output. Because no matter how much you do the input, the important thing is output. If you don't output the things that you learned, you actually don't learn them. There are so many researchers proving that, and I'll probably put a link in the description below.

If you guys have ever watched my videos, you probably heard me talking about active recall, which is the most effective way to learn something. For example, it's an output-based learning method. In active recall, you basically ask yourself some questions and you answer those. So you're actively trying to find answers, and it's basically an output-based learning style.

So now let's talk about how you can do more output-based learning than input-based learning. The thing that I was doing when I was learning English by myself is that I quickly realized that I was doing too much input-based learning. If you don't know, I learned English by watching multiple hours of YouTube videos in English. Quickly, I realized that I was doing too much input because all the time I was listening to YouTubers talking, but I wasn't really practicing by myself, and I had no one to practice with me.

So the thing that I did is that after watching every single video, I was summarizing them in my own words and I was explaining it to an imaginary friend. I know it sounds creepy, I know that, but it worked for me. There are better options, I promise. The reason this method worked is that you're actively trying to express it in your own words, and also you're checking if you understood that video. Even if you didn't understand the video, you can still use the vocabularies that you learned from that video in order to explain that video. That really helps by memorizing new words and using them in sentences, and also it makes you productive at the same time as well.

But the problem with this method is that because you're talking to your imaginary friend like I did in the past, there is no one to correct your grammar and vocabulary mistakes and, you know, pronunciation mistakes. For example, for me, when it comes to my English, I still make grammar mistakes and I still have pronunciation mistakes. If you watch my previous videos, you probably notice that I always pronounce the word "pronunciation" as "pronunciation," and also the word "foreigner" as "foreigner." You know, these little mistakes, but I was doing them pretty often and I realized them in the comment section.

You actually need feedback to learn something because I think it's kind of impossible to pronounce every single word correctly from self-study. It's hard. I'm not saying that it's impossible, but it's very, very hard. So, always having someone to give feedback is probably the fastest way to learn any language, and the best feedback that you can get is from native speakers. But where can you find native speakers? The answer is Busuu.

Busuu is an online language learning platform, and there you can talk to native speakers and you can get feedback immediately. The important thing is I get a lot of comments like, "I learn English by watching your videos." Don't learn English by watching my videos because I'm still learning English, and I'm making primary mistakes, vocabulary mistakes, and a bunch of mistakes. If you learn English from me, you'll probably make the exact same mistakes that I do. Therefore, you need to talk to native speakers, and in Busuu, you can find real native speakers, and they will correct your grammar, your vocabulary, your pronunciation, and they will provide you feedback to improve your language skills.

Also, another feature that Busuu has is that vocabulary and grammar review. I think it's really important to check your grammar and check your vocabularies because the more you do mistakes, the more you repeat those mistakes, the more you are likely to repeat them in the future as well. When it becomes a habit of yours, when it becomes like some sort of pronunciation habit of yours or accent of yours, it's really, really hard to change. Like, it took me months to change the pronunciation of "I." I'm still pronouncing it in a wrong way. Like, "pronunciation" is actually "pronunciation," but I just learned it in a wrong way, and I cannot change it.

So in order to change it, the important thing is learning it from the beginning in a correct way. Use Busuu to check your grammar and vocabulary. I totally, totally recommend it to you guys. The other great thing about Busuu is that they will create you a personalized study plan. With the personalized study plan, you know exactly when to do what, and I think it really helps because it's hard to be consistent when learning any sort of language or doing any sort of thing. All you need to do is to collect Busuu and do the exercise or any activity that they give you on that day.

You can use Busuu for free, and you can buy the premium version for additional features. I will put some links down in the description below so that you can download Busuu for your PC, for your phone, etc. Thank you, Busuu, for sponsoring this video.

So in Dr. Kabasawa's book, he recommends a very unique way to do an output, and it is opening an Instagram account just for your output. Basically, after you watch, read, or hear anything from your target language, you take a picture of it and you post it on Instagram, and you write something about it. So you are doing output, and if you make them in an aesthetic way, you can probably make money as well! Of course, the main focus is not making money, but it can make money while you're outputting.

This channel, for example, is actually a great tool for me to do some outputs because I'm actively trying to talk in English and I'm actively trying to express myself in English. It really encourages me to learn English more and hear English more, because I read in English, I talk in English, I think in English. If you watch my previous videos, you probably noticed that my English got much better, in my opinion, and it's much easier for me to express myself in English now. I used to spend hours filming a video, and now I'm just like casually sitting here and talking to you guys.

So I highly, highly recommend opening maybe a YouTube channel or maybe an Instagram account. Opening a YouTube channel is pretty hard because it takes ages to edit, but if you open an Instagram account and just randomly post, it doesn't take that much time, and I think it's just a great experience to do. You can see what you consumed over time while scrolling, and I think it's just a great idea, so I recommend it.

The second problem that we have is the lack of courage. If you're not fluent in English or in any sort of language, you may be scared about the possibility that others can make fun of you. Unlike other YouTube videos, I'm not gonna tell you that nobody's gonna make fun of you. It's totally okay; everybody makes mistakes and those things. Because the reality is, yes, people actually will make fun of you. For example, on this channel, people make fun of me as well. I get comments every single day like, "You pronounced this word blah blah wrong," or "You said this blah blah wrong." It's not like that. How can you say that you're a polyglot, blah blah blah?

Also, people will make fun of your accent. They will tell you that it's so bad, they cannot listen to it, it's so annoying and all that stuff. People will tell you, actually. I'm sorry, but that's the reality. Most of the time, people that make fun of your accent can only talk in one language, and they're still making fun of other people. I just don't get it. Why? Why? Any language learner probably knows that non-native speakers can make mistakes while talking their non-native language, because it's not their native language.

But monolingual people, I don't know why they will make fun of you. The important thing is what you think about yourself. If you love your accent, and if you think you can improve it, or if you accept it in that way, it's totally fine. Don't care about what others say. It's easier said than done, I know that. But by the time you put more effort into your language skills, you will be more confident, and you'll start to not care about them. Because at the end of the day, they can only speak one language or so, and why would you even care about them?

Also, it's not your mother tongue. Of course, you're gonna make mistakes, and that's totally okay. There is no need to be a perfectionist at all. The more you become a perfectionist, the more it takes you to actually take the action and do something. You're not perfect. You will never be perfect, so never ever be a perfectionist.

The third factor is that the fun factor. If you're learning a language and if you are a perfectionist, and if you're trying to talk that language perfectly, you'll probably forget to have fun while learning that language. When I was learning English, I was pretty hyped up because I was trying to understand James Charles, and that was the only reason why I was learning English. More and more, I started to understand his very fast English, and I was really happy about it. At that time, I was obsessed with makeup tutorials and the whole beauty community.

By the time you start to understand more, you start to get more comfortable in that language, and it's a really good experience. It just gives you joy. Maybe you're doing it for academic purposes and you think, "Oh, I don't need to have fun." But when we have fun, it's much easier for us to motivate ourselves and do something. So don't forget to have fun and enjoy the process, because once you become better and better, you will remember these days and laugh about them, as I do.

As I said, when I was learning German, I literally was crying in our prep year in high school because it was so hard for me to learn German. But I really loved the German language and German culture, and it was just like a very good memory. Now, when I look back at those days, they are just like very good memories.

So I would totally recommend you to not forget the fun factor and actually have fun. So yeah, that was it for today's video. Thank you, Busuu, for sponsoring this video. I'll put the links down in the description below so that you can check them out. You can try it for free, and if you want, you can get the upgraded premium version of it. But you can just continue with the free version, and don’t forget to do your output. Don’t do too much input. Alright, so yeah, thank you for watching!