Why You Can't Speak English (5 Lessons From 13 Years of Teaching)

You are watching this video and that means you want to improve your English. You've been studying English for a while and I can guess that it's easy for you to understand what I am saying in this video or in other videos that you watch. But let me ask you one thing. Is your speaking as good as your listening? Is it as good as your writing? Is it as good as your reading? Let me guess. The answer is no. Because I've seen a lot of comments. Many of you have told me that we can understand English. We can understand you when we are listening to you. But when we want to speak, we can't. We freeze. We forget words. I've made so many videos about this topic. But yesterday, I thought about something. You know, I've been an English teacher for about 13 years now and I have taught more than hundreds or thousands of students. So yesterday, I decided to sit down and think about all of my students. Think about the successful ones. Think about the ones who could speak easily and then compare them to the ones who could not speak easily. And then I started to see some patterns. The students of mine who were really successful in speaking English in about 67 months did things differently than those who were struggling with their speaking skill. But what did they do differently? Five things. And in this video, I'm going to talk about that. My name is Matti and welcome to my Slow English Podcast. Let's start with an activity. I want you guys to think about how you are learning English. What method are you using? Go to the comments section right now and tell me and everyone else about the way in which you are improving your English. Are you taking any classes? Are you reading any books? Using any apps? Watching any videos? Let us know in the comments. The reason why I asked you to do this is very simple. If you go to the comments section and read other people's stories, you will see different methods. If you talk to 100 different people, you will hear 100 different methods. And here's a question. Which method is the best? Some people read books and learn English. Others watch videos. Some people learn English by watching movies and TV series. Some people play games, video games in English. Some people listen to music. Other people listen to podcasts as they are walking to work or as they're on the public transport. There are different methods. So which one's the best? And that's the important thing. There is no best method. Stop looking for it. When I was thinking about my students, I remembered that the ones who were playing video games learned the fastest in terms of their speaking. But if you think about it, why is it that those who play video games learn faster than those who read books or those who listen to podcasts or those who use applications or go to classes? It's strange, right? Somebody plays a video game for the fun of it, not because they want to learn English, but because they want to have fun. They play video games and they can speak English faster than everyone else. And then I realized the truth behind it. When you talk to people who love video games, do they do it because they want to learn English? No. Why do they do it? Because they want to have fun. Think about it. They play, they enjoy, they can't wait to get home from school, from work and to sit down behind their PC or their Xbox or console and play video games. And they do it because they really want to enjoy. And then I thought about myself and the way I learned English. If you missed that video, go and watch it. In this video, I talked about the way I learned English as a non-native English speaker. And then I thought about myself and the way I learned English. I went to classes, I read books and I did a lot of different things. But the main reason why I really learned how to speak English was because I did two things. I was a big fan of rap and Eminem as a rapper. So I used to listen to his songs, sing along, write down what he was singing, the lyrics, and even try to find out the meaning behind those lyrics. And the other one was I was a fan of Nicolas Cage. So I used to watch his movies and even transcribe the movies. And why did I do these two things? Because I used to enjoy doing them. I didn't transcribe Nicolas Cage movies because I wanted to learn English or I didn't listen to Eminem's rap because I wanted to improve my English. No, I was doing those activities because I was having fun. Another student of mine, with whom we're still good friends, was a crazy football fan. He was supporting Chelsea. He still is supporting Chelsea. He's a big fan of Chelsea. And when I was in London, he made me buy all sorts of stuff for him. And next time I see him, I'm going to have to bring him all this stuff. Chelsea caps, another Chelsea cap, a Chelsea t-shirt, and things like this. He's crazy, in my opinion. He loves this team. He loves soccer. Watching Chelsea play, or following Chelsea news, or following the transfer market, or following the page, or even following the players on social media. That's what he does all the time. And he has to do it in English because Chelsea is an English football club. So he has to do it in English. He had to do it in English a lot. And I remember he used to watch the football games. He used to read the news on the internet in English because he was getting the news from the source. He used to follow the players on social media, read the captions, leave comments, engage with the comments of those posts. Why was he doing it? Because he wanted to learn English? No, because he was having fun. Think about all three of the examples I gave you. The video gamer was having fun playing video games, not because they wanted to learn English. The Chelsea fan was having fun, right? Not because they wanted to learn English. The movie lover and the music lover was having fun, not because I wanted to learn English. And that's the number one thing I found. The people who start speaking the fastest compared to others are those who have found a way to enjoy their learning process. If learning English is a chore for you, if it's something very difficult for you, if every time you want to go and study English, you're like, ah, no, not again, that video, this book, that app. If that is you, believe me, you will stay in this loop forever. You will stay in the loop of never wanting to do something to improve your English because you hate it, because you don't enjoy it. And if you don't enjoy it, you won't do it in the long term. You won't be consistent. You will not see results. Let me be honest with you. So I want you to do one thing. I want you to think about yourself, to think about how you are learning English right now. Take a piece of paper and take a pen. Write down all the things that you do in order to learn English. And then with another color, check the ones that you really enjoy and put across next to the ones that you hate, that you don't like. With this activity, you will see which of the things you are doing to improve your English will actually bring you joy. Do them more often. And the ones that do not bring you joy, leave them. This was my advice in my other video. I told you to try and pursue your hobbies in English. That is the way you will enjoy learning and you will learn faster. Okay, that was lesson one. Let me get to my notes. The second lesson, a very big one, was that these people were not afraid of making mistakes. They didn't mind saying something wrong. Think about the gamer. The gamer student of mine was always on their headphones speaking in English with the teammates when they were playing online. Why? Because he wanted to play. That was for fun. And did he mind saying something with mistakes in it? No. Did he mind embarrassing himself in front of others? No. He was having fun. He was just playing. He spoke broken English just because he wanted to pass that particular mission in that game. He was not afraid of making mistakes. Or when I think about myself, even when I was learning Italian, even when I was learning English when I was growing up, I was never afraid of making mistakes. I always used to speak even though I knew what I'm saying is full of mistakes. I knew completely. I knew 100% that I am making probably 20 mistakes in like 10 sentences. But I could communicate. You know, when I came to Italy, I had to talk over the phone with Italian electricity suppliers, gas suppliers, energy suppliers, phone, internet, and everything. I had to speak Italian over the phone. And I didn't know Italian. So what I used to do was open Google Translate. Back then, we did not have AI. Open Google Translate and write a couple of sentences that I would expect them to say to me over the phone. And then I used to try to work my way around those sentences over the phone. And I did it. I got the electricity going. I got gas going. I got internet connection. I did all those things in Italian when I was learning. I didn't know any Italian. I could not speak a word of it. But over the phone, I did it. Did I not make any mistakes? Oh, I did. I made 100 mistakes, I think. But well, I managed to do what I wanted to do. I managed to get my message across. I was fearless when it came to making mistakes. Or think about the Chelsea fan student of mine. Was he afraid of making mistakes? He used to write direct messages on Instagram to the Chelsea coach. I mean, of course, he never responded. But he used to write messages to the Chelsea players, private messages. Was he ever worried about making mistakes? No, he wasn't. He did not care at all. And that's another reason why these kinds of people, these types of students, improve the fastest. Because they are not afraid of using the things that they have recently learned, even if they make mistakes. And that's what I want you to do. I want you to try to not be afraid of making mistakes. Think about it. What is the worst case scenario? You're talking to what? A native speaker? And you make a mistake? What happens then? They will start laughing and pointing out. Look at him. That's not gonna happen. That's in your head, right? You know that if you are making a mistake in that language, it's because it is not your mother tongue. It's the second or third or fourth language that you speak. You should be proud of it. And nobody's gonna laugh at you. Nobody's gonna point at you because your English was like, not perfect. If anybody does that, it's because they are a horrible person. It's not because you should not have done it. So do it. What's the worst that can happen? Nothing. And here's another thing. If you avoid making mistakes all the time, you will never try. And if you never try, you will never understand your mistakes. And if you don't understand your mistakes, you will never learn. You will never improve. That's the reality. And that's another reason why those three people, the movie lover, the gamer, and the Chelsea football fan, they were successful. Oh, a very important one. Something very important that I realized was you need to have a system in place when you are learning. What do I mean by a system? Do you have a fixed time in your schedule when you only have to study English no matter what? Look at your schedule. Is there a fixed block of time during the week? Do you have your method figured out? And do you stick to that method? Or do you keep jumping from one topic to another topic? Or do you keep watching random YouTube videos just with the hope of improving your English somehow? If there is no system in place, you will learn random stuff. And they will never be put together systematically in a way that your brain can use it. So you need to have a system. You need to have three things. Context, content, plan. That's what a system is made of. Context is, for a video gamer, context is the game itself. What's happening in the game. For a football fan, context is what happens in the football world. For a movie lover, context is what's happening in that movie. For someone in the real world, what can context be? Context has to be given to you. You need to get the context from somewhere. When you are reading English books, they provide the context for you. Context is where, it's a location, it's where language is being used. That's context. Now, when you are given the context, you should be given the content within that context. I'm getting a bit technical. So you need the place to use the language, you need the language, and you need a plan of study, a plan of action. Those three things would make a system. And that is what we have made in POC English Academy. I have created the full system that has proven effective on thousands of students. Our students are actively using this to improve their English speaking skill alongside other skills, such as grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, listening. And in this system, you are given the context, you're given the content, you're given the exercise tools, AI speaking coach, AI writing coach, and you're given a student community where you can meet other classmates, where you can talk to teachers. You're given live lessons where teachers would take you through a session in which you can talk to the teacher, speak, and you can speak with your classmates around a topic, around a context. That's what we have built. If you want to join us, or if you want to learn more about our academy, simply scan the QR code, or click on the link above this video, or you can find the link in the description of this video. So you need a system if you want to learn English effectively. Otherwise, you will be just learning randomly. Let's watch this video and learn 20 words. Let's watch that video and learn 10 collocations. Let's watch this video and learn two grammar structures. That's not going to help you. You need everything in one place, context, content, and plan. I have realized that I'm speaking quite fast, and it's no longer a slow English podcast. So I am going to slow down. Oh, another thing I found, the fourth reason why these students of mine have been able to speak English fluently in a short period of time, shorter period of time, let's say, was because they were in no rush. They did not hurry. They didn't want to see results fast. The guy who was playing video games was just playing video games. I don't care if I want to learn English in two months or three months or five months. I just want to learn enough so I can hang out with those people in the game when I'm playing online in multiplayer games, and I can talk to them, and then we can just play games and have fun. Or myself, I was in no rush. I was young. When I was learning English, I was quite young, and I was in no rush. I did not have a deadline. And this is the number one lesson I have learned over the years. I'm talking about myself as a student and as a teacher. You need to have patience when you are learning, and there are no shortcuts. If you are doing the right things, if you have the system, if you are enjoying that system, you're having fun, and if you're not afraid of making mistakes, it is only a matter of time for you to start speaking fluently. No rush. If you do not have patience, do you know what happens? It's one of the most common things I have seen in adults trying to learn English. Those of you who have been learning English for more than two years now, there is only one reason for that. If you still cannot speak English, there's only one reason for that. It's because you are not patient, and when you are not patient, you tend to jump. What do I mean? You jump from one book to another book. You bought a book today, and you think, oh, this is great. It's a new grammar book. Great reviews, a friend of mine suggested. I'm going to read this book. And then the next day, you read in an online forum or another friend of yours, we recommend another book, and you're like, hmm, I've been studying this for three days, and I don't think I have improved enough. Three days, and I haven't What should I do? Let's try that book. You try another book for a week, and then you're like, huh, I don't remember any of the words that I have learned from this book. Oh, let's try another book. Or let's try another method. Oh, there's this new app, I have seen the ads, this new AI coach, the AI tutor that corrects you on the spot as you are speaking English. Let's do it. You do it for two days, and then I don't think AI is the right way. Let's go to a class. Let's go register in a school, a language school. You go to the school, and after two months, you're like, I don't think I've improved. Let's try it. You jump from one subject to another subject, from one system to another system, from one topic to another topic. That's the problem. When you are not patient, you jump. Do you know how long it took me to get my IELTS band score nine, C2 level of English from zero? Six months, one year, two years, three years, four years, how long? 14 years. 14, one, four, 14 years. There are no shortcuts, you need to enjoy the journey. Now, when I say 14 years to reach the C2 level, you may be able to do it in 13 years, you may be able to do it in 12 years. But you're not going to be able to do it in two weeks, three weeks, one month, two years, even not in two years. You're gonna have to be patient, you're gonna have to enjoy the process. You will see improvements little by little. And you need to enjoy those small upgrades. Okay, we talked about patience. Oh, the last one, probably the most important one, in my opinion, is consistency. I'm sure you've heard this a lot. I'm sure everybody talks about being consistent. I want to tell you a story. I'm looking at myself right now. Look at me. How fit am I? How big? How huge am I? Look at the biceps, look at the triceps, look at the shoulders, look at everything. Am I huge? Would you say that I do bodybuilding or I lift weights regularly? What if I told you that I've been going to the gym as long as I remember? I think it's been 20 years now that I've been going to the gym. But do I look super fit like a person who's been going to the gym for 20 years? No. Do you know why? Because I used to go to the gym for about a week. Then I would say, today I'm not in the mood, so I'm not gonna go. And then that one day would become a month. After a month, I would feel guilty and I would go and register again. I'm gonna start this time. I would do two days and then again. Today I'm busy. Tomorrow I'm sick. The day after tomorrow, let's watch a film. After two months, I would feel guilty again and I would start. I would go for a month and then I would leave it for another six months. And then I would start again and stop again. I was on the on and off, on and off mode. And that's why, as you can see, after 20 years of going to the gym, I do not look like someone who's been going to the gym for 20 years. Because I was not consistent in doing it. I was never consistent. I wasn't doing like, I wasn't following a plan of two days a week forever. No. Yes, I used to do two days a week for like two weeks. And then for six months, I would do nothing. I would just sit on the couch, watch a movie, have popcorn, and then say, yeah, from tomorrow I will go to the gym. And that tomorrow never came. I was not consistent in going to the gym. And this is your English. If you've been studying English for more than five, four, three years, and you're still not fluent, probably the reason is you have not been consistent enough. Consistency doesn't mean you have to study every day. No. If it is difficult, and if you are not enjoying it, you're not going to do it in the long term. Consistency is finding a way to do something in the long term. If you can plan something that you can consistently do in the next 10 years, not only English, you will learn five, six other languages as well. You'll be able to speak many different languages. You'll be able to learn anything that you have wanted to learn. For me, it was tennis. It was playing the guitar. I never did. I never even tried. But if I do it consistently, if I find a way to enjoy them, I would be able to do them consistently. And I want you to think about how consistent you have been over the years in terms of improving your English. Have you been following a fixed plan? Have you been forcing yourself to sit down and do something even if you were not in the mood? You need to be consistent if you want to see results. Okay, let's sum everything up. We talked about five factors that would make a student successful in becoming fluent. Number one was fluent English students have found a way to enjoy the studying process, the learning process. Two, they were not afraid of making mistakes. Three, they had a system in place. Four, they were patient. They were not in any hurry. And five, they were doing things consistently because they were enjoying them. I am sure if you follow these five rules and try to see which ones you are doing now, which ones you can add to your learning process, you will also see results soon. I hope you've enjoyed this lesson. See you soon. Bye.