STUCK to FLUENT in English: 5 exercises teachers never tell you

This is everything I learned coaching 77 people from awkward to fluent English speakers during one-on-one live sessions. These are the things that really help you get unstuck and become fluent. So, first of all, let me begin by telling you the real difference between a teacher and a coach, because I think this is essential when it comes to wanting fluency in English. And the difference between a teacher and a coach is basically the same difference between a regular map and Google Maps. A paper map, just like a teacher, shows you the road, it tells you all the roads available, it shows you the rules of the street, it tells you where the place you want to actually is. Google Maps works a little bit differently. Like a coach, you just give it your destination and it guides you step by step to actually reach that place. And so, as you can see, the approach is very different. Now, you might have probably worked with teachers your whole life and so probably now you're wondering why do you still feel stuck? Is it your fault or theirs? Let me tell you that it's not your fault and it's not even theirs. It's just different jobs for different purposes. When you started learning this language, when you were at A1, A2 level, having a teacher with you was perfect, was the perfect solution, because at that point you needed to actually understand the rules of the game, just like any other game you have ever played in your life. If you don't know the rules, how can you play it? But now you're not at A2 anymore. You're at least at a B1 level, which puts you into a very different category. At this level, my friend, a teacher will not help you, not because there's something wrong with them, but it's just because the purpose is different. When you get to B1, when you want to become fluent, this fluency is already a goal. And because of that, it needs a coach which takes you there and not a teacher which shows you all the roads. For example, the whole idea of advanced fluency is handled completely differently. From a teacher perspective, complete mastery means knowing every conditional, the whole array of past, present and future tenses, which basically corresponds to knowing every road available around the place in which you live. By contrast, when you talk about advanced fluency with a coach, they will ask you what do you want to do with that fluency? What exact job are you preparing for? And that makes a very different conversation altogether. So coach is not just a fancy word that people throw around. If you have a goal, if you have a real reason to become fluent in English, then this video is for you. If on the other hand, you just want to become fluent to put it on your resume, a video that teaches you English, then that's more suited for you. There are a lot of great English teachers and let it be clear, I'm not against any teacher or any particular teaching method. I chose to become a coach because this is what I saw that I can do best. Now, assuming that you have a goal, let me go with the first exercise that raises the bar of all of my clients and actually get them fluent faster. I call this the no-freeze challenge. You want to ask your partner or the AI to provide a word to you and you have to explain that word without using a list of words you're using too much and then you let the other person guess that word. Let's say that you're talking with someone and there's a word you really can't remember. Let's say, for example, you don't remember the word for this tool here. This is a remote. It's called remote. Let's say you don't remember this word. What do you do? Rather than just freezing and saying nothing, you could say the tool that is used when you want to switch channels on the TV. For example, that's already enough for the other person to come up with a term and say, hi, remote, you say. Exactly. And now that word, not only does it come back to your vocabulary, but it comes to your surface level vocabulary, which is going to be way more accessible the next time you need it because you now have a history of having it explained. When you don't know a particular word, this game trains the ability of coming up with alternatives so you don't freeze and paralyze in front of other people. Now, as I said before, this video is going to be full of secrets. So really take note because these are the things that really help you get unstuck and become fluent. Now, this is the first thing that I do. And the second is called speaking on autopilot. This is something that all of my clients go through in a way or another because it's the most effective activity, the one that produces the best results at any level. You can take another person once again or AI and simply tell them to give you a word pattern and you're going to simply create short phrases, swapping the elements. Let me give you an example. The pattern is on a daily basis. And my phrase is I improve my English on a daily basis. Now it's you. I drink coffee on a daily basis and then it's back to me. And I say I read the newspaper on a daily basis and then it's back to you and say something else. The point is this. When you're speaking English, the hardest trap to avoid is translating from your native language. It just comes natural to us, right? You avoid that by using ready-made templates called word patterns. Imagine a piece of puzzle. This piece of puzzle is a word and on its own means basically nothing. But once you put it together with another complementary word, then you have a pattern and your whole communication improves, speeds up, becomes faster, more automatic. And this is why it's called speaking on autopilot. Now the next activity is called charismatic flow. It's the reason why a person becomes charismatic with their words and another person doesn't. Just like the rest of the games, you will need another person or the AI. And you will ask the other person to simply tell you a story, something. It doesn't matter what. Your job is to interrupt the speaker by repeating something they said and asking a meaningful question. The first thing that always have to deal with is interrupting people. Isn't this rude? It's not. Let me give you an example. We really need to focus on the delivery of this product by next Tuesday. All right. So we gotta be ready to deliver the product by next Tuesday. What should I focus on most? Was this interrupting the person? No, it wasn't. It was asking a meaningful question and showing that you were actively engaged in the conversation. And it's especially useful when you don't understand the other person. One of the things that really prevents you from becoming fluent is letting the person speak even when you don't understand. If you don't say that you don't understand, that person will never know it. Let's say, for example, I say, this is all about circular occlusion. We should actually work on this because if you work on circular occlusion, if you don't interrupt the person, that person will continue speaking and you will never know what circular occlusion even is. So you said we have to work on circular occlusion? Since you don't understand, of course, you will repeat something wrong. And it's totally fine because that's the point. That provides engagement in the conversation, which the other person will read as charisma. If a person takes you as a charismatic individual, they will want to listen to what you have to say. And so the next activity is called the clarity formula. Once again, to do this activity, you will need another person or the AI and just a bunch of very simple instructions. But let me actually show you how it is with an example. I have to explain this circunlocution word to you. There are two people and these people are talking about something. The speaker doesn't remember a particular word and they need to go in circle to find an alternative way, an alternative method to transfer the same concept to the other person. For example, let's say you have to explain and then you give an example. This is the formula in action and it brings you out of trouble every time somebody is asking you something at work. Now translate it in your head, especially when you are under stress or when you're thinking so many things at once is a real trap and sometimes it also happens to me. I found another drill, which I called the translation drill, taking a phrase in your native language and trying to translate it in English without being literal, without using the exact word to word translation. And now you might say, wait, every teacher has always told the opposite, never translate. It's true, I say the same too, never translate. Here is the thing, you want to be prepared for the moment you're going to be tempted to translate. The best way possible is to make it a game. Let's say you're Italian like me and this is what you're thinking in your head and want to say it all out. In case you're not, this is the English translation and as you can see it's made of a lot of words. The first thing many learners do is usually wonder how do I say mamma mia or che ansia. As you're thinking all this, the person in front of you is waiting for you to say something. I could simply say, I don't like to speak in public. I said exactly the same thing, but this time my translation wasn't literal word for word. I've just transferred the concept, not the single words. By doing this on a daily basis, you get used to this. Next time that you're in a pressure situation at work maybe, you have to come up with something on the spot and you only have words in your native language, your brain is already used to this kind of alternative translation and it'll go with that rather than the literal one. Now let me be completely honest, I originally joined YouTube because I wanted to make all of this information available to everyone, but I found out that just the information alone isn't enough to make a person fluent. Becoming fluent on your own isn't easy, not because the thing itself is difficult, it's just that there are so many different roads, just like on a map. So becoming fluent is not something hard, but becoming fluent fast it is, because there are so many different alternatives. But don't worry my friend, I might not be able to coach everybody personally, but I built an app to solve exactly this problem. Within this app you will find all of the activities I've just mentioned plus more for a fraction of the cost of a private coach. Let's say for example that you want to try something different, you want to become a high ticket closer, which is a person who sells very expensive products in one-on-one conversations for a commission. If you give your coach this goal exactly, your coach will use every activity I mentioned so far to prepare you with the vocabulary and abilities necessary to actually become a high ticket closer. And the most exciting thing about it is that every time I'm inside a coaching session and something works, something makes a person become fluent faster, guess what I do? I update the app and the same activity is now also available to you too. And because I've trained this app with everything I told you so far plus more, it's like having an English coach in your pocket 24x7. Now you may ask what if I don't have a goal right now? Based on every information you give it, it can also help you find a goal so that you don't just study fluency for the sake of it, but you actually reach something meaningful for your life. You will also be able to ask your coach what's the real-life next step to actually reach that goal. Because hey, one thing is knowing you want to become a high ticket closer. A totally different thing is knowing what steps are required, what skills are required, what channels should you use to actually become that. And so, if you're ready to actually turn your fluency in something meaningful for your life, the link is down here. Take the quiz, get your personalized English speaking plan according to your goals and get started today!