Julia , I'm an American and I can tell you that your English is more easily understandable than that of many natives. I don't even need to read your subtitles at all. Keep doing what you're doing. You're doing great.

Thanks for this video. English is my native language, but I’ve reached C1 level in Spanish and I still struggle with saying I’m fluent. I think I’ll always nitpick my mistakes.

Excellent Video Julia. I'm British and can speak Spanish "fluently" and I have to agree 100% with everything you have said. Motivation, self belief and self confidence are the keys. In my experience the traditional learning methods are overrated and do not work, in fact many are designed to undermine confidence. Its better to have a good reason to learn and do it how it works for you. I studied French at school for 6 years and could hardly speak a word. All theory and no practice.

I've been learning Korean for the last two years and I've spoken to some Koreans. Just like English people with someone who doesn't know English they simply changed how they spoke to keep the conversation going. In fact I'm from Belfast and I often change how I speak and the speed I speak with non-native speakers. Because you don't want the full Belfast bark. What I noticed was that learning a new language is like having brain fog and very very slowly you start to make out shapes and things get clearer.

I love your perspective. After 10 years of studying Spanish I have reached a level of fluency, but I'm not done learning.

This is so true, because as an American who has been watching a lot of UK series lately, I have found myself not understanding entire sentences of certain English accents, even though I've heard them before AND am a native English speaker. I've had to put subtitles on at some points because I just could not catch it even after rewinding lol! So now I feel encouraged about the fact that I will not always understand all of the accents of the languages I'm learning.

Great ideas Julia! I’m native English, Spanish C1, Japan B1, Korean A2 and I feel encouraged by you to keep going with a more healthy mindset. Keep making videos!

Thanks for the advice Julia. One piece of advice from my old Spanish teacher is if you get stuck on a word or phrase (conjugation) just do a "work around", i.e. say something you can say as near to the subject as possible or give yourself time to think with your own set and learned sentences and if you can book an hour a week with a native speaker for conversation practice that's great. I'm lucky to have such a person, particularly useful if you don't live in the country of that language. My native speaker is now a friend so you often can get even more benefit and reason to continue on. Cheers Steve

I really enjoyed your presentation Julia. And I totally agree, today there is so much content available for listening and learning that virtually anybody can learn a second language. I started studying spanish about 25 years ago and (although I learned a ton of vocabulary and grammar rules) never reached even a conversational level, primarily because I had nobody with enough patience to practice with. Now I am on the cusp of becoming conversational with native speakers which to me is very exciting. I found the key (for me) is listening to a LOT of spanish on KZfaq that is at my level, even if I have to slow it down. Also, Dreaming Spanish (a language learning tool) has been very helpful! Cheers! ~ Ron

In my opinion, the real fluent or proficient person is that don't need to use specific and advanced language all the time, just maintaining between the intermediate vocabulary is enough, you don't even needed to use hard words to do this motivating video for us

Your points are really valid and relatable. I used to live in the UK (London), where many people from different origins are speaking English with their own accent. I clearly recall my everyday panics over confusions usually in my daily conversations at work with non-native speakers. But, in just a few months I got used to them all to the point that every accent started to sound normal and understandable. Thank you Julia!

Very good observations in this video! Astute! Thank you!

Thanks! It’s really helpful to hear because I think or thought that needed to have perfect grammar or perfect pronunciation in order to be fluent. I really appreciate your video 🤍

Julia, thank you for your testimonium ! Clear, fast and in very encouraging way yo've made this tutorial BRAVO. Go on, waiting for more useful advices !

I love your video, it is really helpful. I'm a non-native English teacher and I've shared it with my students. I always try to teach them not just English but also those concepts that make all the difference when we are learning a language. Thank you very much for your content 🎉❤

Very logical and clear presentation, making great points! Thanks Julia!

Thanks for this video

You sound like a native to me! Coming from a native speaker. I am learning Spanish this brings good perspective for growth in language learning

Excellent points! A great reminder for what really matters. These myths are common and just lead to self-doubt and limitation, and when you really think about them, they don't make sense. Thanks for this!

Поглощаю тонну контента на английском языке, пока на слух воспринимаю с трудом..Иногда устаёшь от этого.. постоянно напрягаться , обращаться к переводчику, тормозить видео.. Но вы -это то что мне нужно! Гораздо легче воспринимать английский с русским акцентом. Спасибо большое. Жду с нетерпением больше видео ❤️

Thanks for this amazing video❤

Such a sensible presentation. Thank you.

A clear and thoughtful presentation, and your mastery of the English language is impressive. I agree with all the points you make, but as a lifelong language teacher (esl) I must point out that the term 'fluent' is not used by educators or linguists. Though common in popular usage, fluency merely describes the speech flow, and as such has little use in assessing language ability. The problem with this term is that it suggests that there is a single standard for all learners, but says nothing about what that standard is or how to reach it. In fact, some people may be highly fluent in their target language, but quite limited in their ability to communicate, whereas others may be less fluent, but highly effective communicators. What you are actually talking about in your video presentation is communicative competence. Framing the learning process in this way enables us to set goals and performance objects for learners, to devise a program for achieving them and a way to measure progress. These goals can cover a wide range of skills, incuding oral production, listening comprehension, literacy, social and cultural awareness. They can be broad (I want to be able to have a conversation with my Chinese mother-in-law) or specific (I want to be able to answer questions about my medical history at a doctor's appointment). Once you approach the learning process in this way, you will have the means to come up with an approach to learning and a way to measure your progress, and those language learning myths will naturally fall away.

You’re wonderful 😃 Thank you for your time making this video. I’ve been studying English for more than 2 years now and we can have some ups and downs especially because some fake videos have a misconception of either getting fluent or learning a language in general. Some of them are also pure commercial marketing and they want to attract their audiences. You really summed up the main point and I strongly thanks KZfaqrs like you. -I will check your other videos. This is the first time I have seen you and I don’t know if you have already made a video about “Go over what we learned” to ensure they stick in mind in long-term memory. I know that we obligatory forget 70% of what we’ve just learned but I still forget my new-brand words even after using a panoply of method which those work more on my side. I’m just to figure it out due to I’m much more comfortable to write instead of speaking as everyone on this earth 🌏 that just makes me frustrated at some point and it’s so normal, nevertheless I’m still being owing to my high desire to change my job as well as work as an English homework assistant or English coach for helping those in needs,those who were in the same case at school,where (bad) teachers weren’t trying to cheer them up. I have got some background from school related to those kinda experiences and I strongly hope I can rub them off with my passion and my mania and in addition my relentlessness in learning languages. This is a world which is opening up some golden doors plus getting wiser,open-minded too. That’s just awesome 👏🏻 Obviously my mother tongue is French and above all I’m really terrible at French conjugation in general but fluency I’m especially for daily life. Well,sorry I’ve wrote a lot. I wanted to practice my writing skill tonight hehe 😉 Anyway thanks a lot again and never forget to be playful with our target language that makes things a bed of roses. 🌙

In my experience, a big part of mastering a language is "making it your own". If one owns the language, they can express themselves in their own way while using language as a tool. I'm myself an English speaker trying to learn Russian for education and work purposes. I also learned English through interest and KZfaq. For Russian, though, it has been a rougher road for language learning process really clicking.

Hurray you solved my all confusions ❤speak by heart not mind🎉

This is the first video that I'm watching in 2024, so happy new year! - great video!

Thanks so much Julia, my native language is Spanish; therefore, I appreciate a lot all your guidance in fluency. You have touched all basic points in the fluency process that affect foreigners. Please continue doing what you really knows, it will help us to speak better.

Hey Julia! Congrats to achieve such a great level of English. I totally agree with you. I had the opportunity to have private English classes and after some time I realized that having private classes was great but it was not essencial for my learning. In my perspective the most important point is to expose to the language as much as you can. Better than spend money buying courses is spending time having contact with your target language.

I agree with you on the fact that there's not a single method of learning.I mean that you can find a good method or a good teacher,but the thing that takes you ahead is your own interest and motivation. On the other hand I found your video valuable and clarifying. Thanks.

#6. (You must understand all accents) - In my experience, most native English people can't understand a broad Scots accent spoken at natural speed. I have particular trouble with Liverpool accents myself. I'm sure most people struggle with some accent or other. #8 (You must follow a specific language learning method or technique). OK but some techniques will be more inefficient than others and take you longer to get there (depending on your level). I guess that's OK if you are cool with that. BTW I think your English accent is excellent - much better than my mine (native speaker) 😃

Thanks for some encouraging words! I often compare myself to other Swedes, and as you mentioned the proficiency here is pretty high. I would say most of my friends are fluent in English but I don't feel like I'm at the same level. I do lose words sometimes and can't always find the best way to express myself, but in the end of the day I think what hinders me the most is the lack of confidence. Once again, thank you! And btw, about understanding different accents - I've got it! Living in a dorm with almost exclusively exchange students from all around the world made it for me 😂

Great Dear and Good luck

Basically, let go of perfectionism. Your vocabulary, accent, and grammar will never be flawless and they don't need to be. Stay focused on using language for its intended purpose: communication. Great message, thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Good luck with the channel

Motivation to learn from different sources, curiosity and regularity in listening and speaking is the best way.

I agree with everything you said. Thanks!

A very useful view on fluency. As a native English speaker born and brought up in Liverpool I totally agree about accents. I think learning a second language, even in a modest way, as a child, is something which makes it easier to learn other languages as an adult. That first new language creates a framework for the process and permits you to categorize and classify the parts of another language. It is like an internal map of “grammar” and without it I think learning the formal grammar of your mother tongue and connecting it with the grammar of your new language is still a useful way forward.

Your English is so mind-blowing, Julia 👍thank you for sharing your valuable tips with us 🙏 hopefully, I manage to reach the fluency that I'm longing for someday 😊

Keep posting your videos, plz. People like to see your videos. 😊 Especially for language learning stuff. 😊

What a refreshing viewpoint! Yes, I do share your main conclusions. Today, thanks to the internet, learning and practicing a second or a third language is clearly within reach to any motivated person. The trouble however is that many people don't believe this and don't dare wet their feet lest they will waste their time. I fully agree with you to say that what someone wanting to reach fluency is not more vocabulary and not more grammar ; it is motivation and self-confidence.

There are lots of great insights in this video. Also, I have to say your English is excellent. I'm a native English speaker studying French, presently verified at C1 and hoping to one day reach C2. However, it's hard for me to imagine ever reaching your English level in French. I feel like when you mentioned an intermediate level you might have been referring to my level of French. I can only think that you would completely ace an English oral exam at C2 level.

Very well presented! Certainly agree with you.

Thanks for the video, was helpful

Hi Julia, I agree with every one of your observations. I’m a native English speaker from Australia reconnecting with French which I studied at university some 50 years ago. In those days, would you believe, all of the lectures were in English; there was a heavy emphasis on written French. I can read French moderately well but had never achieved oral proficiency. Now I am concentrating on French movies and videos without subtitles and have found an enormous acceleration in my ability to comprehend and consequently have improved my conversational discourse. Your English is outstanding and, but for your soft accent, one would assume you to be a native speaker.

Thank you

What a great video! Is it your first one? I can already imagine the high quality content you'll be producing in the near future

I like # 2 - I am a native speaker of English, and I make plenty of mistakes both in speaking and writing (and listening and reading)!

This video is really helpful thanks!

What a great video! Your English is excellent. I did a similar thing with Icelandic. At a certain point, I just started reading and listening massively and that was actually the best thing for my grammar. I've also never lived in Iceland, and when I visit, people are very surprised at that (because of myth #1).

You are absolutely right concerning grammar. You have said that communication and understanding was ...

Good points, thx!

This is good. Mistakes are how languages grow and evolve. I grew up around all the immigrants in my mother's side of the family. My first big revelation was my Uncle Sam, from Russia, didn't sound anything at all like a Hollywood movie Russians. The important lesson was, Did you get your idea across? Then it's correct English. As a native English speaker whose read thousands of books, written millions of words, my understanding of the rules of grammar are incomplete at best. I would read a passage in a text book to my students and get grumpy at how badly written it was. I remember two students, both from Mexico, they learned English as a second language. They actually knew the rules. They could parse the sentences in the textbook explaining to me how they were in fact grammatically correct. But it as still badly written. This isn't new to anybody. Grammar rules are what a librarian your grandmother's age thinks are correct. Learning a language. Here's the trick that proves Ms Tsilman's case. When I had to write a eulogy for my father in law I had writer's block. So I read about a dozen brilliant speeches in Lend Me Your Ears, a collection of speeches. The next morning I popped out of bed before the alarm went off and just started writing. It might be the best thing I've ever written. The best way to learn grammar is to immerse yourself in examples of good communication. What are you going to do next in the target language? Immerse yourself in many examples. Memorize a few questions, but make sure you can understand the answers you'll get. Yes and No questions are best or specifics: What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? You can get easily lost it you ask questions that are too open ended. As we all have experienced, when you speak a little bit of a language, you'll always get a lot more of it in return. The end of #4 here is interesting Ms Tsilman is speaking in sentence particles moving through her very clear and connected series of thoughts, but without completely a sentence. Towards the end she 'hangs a participle' "soaks all those ... in". No problem, it demonstrates how well she thinks in English. She's using her ear, not a bunch of rules. Absolutely fluent English. When I was a teacher I'd occasionally run into other teachers and administrators who would boast and put on banners, "At our school we both speak and write in complete sentences." What you will always notice with these people is that when they proudly talk about this, they don't speak in complete sentences. I pointed that out a couple of times. Got some very nasty looks. My favorite reaction was, "So what's your point?" The problem is they're admonishing students for failing to do what they and every other English speaker has never done. Writing? Sure. Linguist Stephen Krashen makes the point that we learn best by effective practice in the target language. For me in Chinese this was learning the numbers, the hand gestures for numbers, asking How much money? That's too much. Ah, forget it. and Okay, I'll buy it. With just these, in 45 minutes I was wheeling and dealing in a street market. I later demonstrated one of these conversations for my Spanish first language students while my Chinese first language students watched. The Chinese kids first pointed out my pronunciation was terrible. But when along with pantomime a Spanish first language student correctly translated every single word, (he didn't know the numbers above 5) they were gobsmacked. For a minute they were wondering, 'Oh no! Do these other guys know what we're saying? Because a lot of it trash talk about them." When I traveled I used to think I was popular with women. Nope, they just wanted to practice their English and here was a guy who talked a lot. Zoom and video chat are great tools, but include some gestures and visuals. Hold up an object.

Thanks Julia, i will share this video with my students. I'm a teacher and agree 100% with your ideas, v.

Your English has reached a level that any native speaker could easily understand you.

Great video. I have learned a couple of languages in my life. I am bilingual in German and American English because my mother is German, and my father is an American. I also had to learn French for two years at school. I learned Ancient Greek and Latin at university. The only languages I can speak are German and English because I acquired them. Learning a language in school or university did not work for me. I cannot use the languages I learned there even though I passed all the exams. Now, I am trying to acquire modern Greek using some of the sources you mentioned in your video.

Thanks for telling me to stop worrying about my accent. I feel embarrassed and self conscious when I speak another language. It really hinders my communication with others. I think they will laugh at me especially when my grammar is terrible on top of it lol 🤭

"Husband, give me that thingy", you truly have assimilated!😂

I love this video. I am learning French and I enjoy it. I have no time frame as far as becoming fluent. I just spend 2 hours a day and have fun with it. 🙌😄

in brief: The video addresses common misconceptions about language fluency. Julia, a Russian-speaking Estonian living in London, shares her insights based on her experience of achieving proficiency in English and tutoring the language. 1. **Living in a Country Where the Language is Spoken**: Julia argues that living in a country where the target language is spoken is beneficial but not necessary for fluency. She points out that many people achieve fluency without living in such countries. 2. **Speaking Without Mistakes**: She emphasizes that fluency does not equate to speaking without errors. Native speakers make mistakes too, and perfectionism can hinder language learning. 3. **Sounding Like a Native Speaker**: Julia believes that having an accent is natural and does not impede fluency. She notes that even native speakers find it odd when non-natives try to eliminate their accents. 4. **Memorizing Complex Grammar Rules**: According to Julia, memorizing grammar rules is not essential for fluency. She suggests that exposure to the language can naturally improve grammar skills. 5. **Knowing All Slang and Vocabulary**: She argues that a vast vocabulary or knowledge of all slang is not necessary for fluency. Effective communication can be achieved through paraphrasing and understanding context. 6. **Understanding All Accents**: Julia points out that even fluent speakers and natives may struggle with certain accents. Understanding different accents comes with exposure and is not a prerequisite for fluency. 7. **Spending a Lot of Money on Courses**: She asserts that spending money on courses does not guarantee fluency. Motivation, enthusiasm, and exposure to the language are more important. 8. **Following a Specific Language Learning Method**: Julia believes that there is no single method or technique essential for achieving fluency. She emphasizes the importance of surrounding oneself with the language and finding engaging and motivating content. Julia concludes by encouraging viewers to share their thoughts and experiences regarding language learning myths. This video is her first KZfaq video, and she expresses gratitude to viewers for watching it.gpt4

Native English speaker here studying Russian for the past 3.5 years. Your English is absolutely wonderful, Julia! I would be hard-pressed to guess your country of origin, as you sound 50% British, 50% foreign. Remarkable achievement. And yes I agree with you about the Dutch; they speak better English and with a more pleasant accent than do many Americans. Truly.

Well, not much to say but that every single thing you said is true. Grammar is one of the most misunderstood parts of learning a language - natives learn about their grammar after they've already achieved fluency. that's how it should be when learning a language ideally. Of course, this isn't feasible for adults learning a language, but it should give one a good hint about what to concentrate on: mostly everything that is NOT grammar. Grammar will help you understand certain things faster, to iron out mistakes, to become better in certain fields you struggle with, to really deepen your knowledge and skills and i think it's always worth pursuing, but yes you can do perfectly fine without it. It's also painful to see a lot of people with around A2-B1 level trying to really deep-dive into certain very tricky grammar related topics and getting very frustrated along the way. You don't have to understand everything right away, very often (from my experience) it's better to just accept that certain things work in a certain way and to review them later, and i mean months or maybe even years later. Too many people spend waaaay too much time and effort on grammar and way too little on things that will actually make them keep studying - because that's another thing a lot of people do not like to talk about: learning a language properly takes years and there's barely something, if anything, that one can consider a real "hack" The only two real hacks i can think of are: falling seriously in love (be it country or a person or music or ... ) or being forced to use the language without alternative. Nobody wants the latter, and only few will have the former.

She's a very good English speaker and makes a number of salient points about the learning process. She's easier for me (American English) to understand than a lot of Brits! Yes, the accent counts! Try a heavy Scottish accent if you want to feel really lost.

As a french teenager who's never went outside of France, I can relate to all the things you said. As you're reading my comment (even though I'm tired as shit because it's 5 am), you understand everything I say and could guess that I'm fluent. If I were to speak to you orally, I don't think that my accent would disturbe you since you're not english native by yourself, but I can definately say that some americans I've been talking to online aren't cooperative when it comes to accent understanding and would just not bother trying to understand another's accent. I also agree to the 7th point because of my own experience learning english. I learned english mostly through youtube as input in the like, first 2 years then started doing AJATT but for english (All-Japanese-All-The-Time) since I understood everything anyway. Then, through minecraft's servers and discord, I started to write a lot and became proefficient slowly but surely (in a non negative meaning) Thus, expect the internet and the devices I used to log into youtube, minecraft and discord, I was still able to reach fluency in english in just about 3 years (it was also easier for me since I'm french and a lot of english nouns are french or derived from french, so it was not a big deal understand the context after 2 years only into learning) Also about the resources and stuff, I understand now with my own experience with talking to other people about how they learned or how they are planning to learn in relation with their feelings ; I can greatly assure that everyone should go their way. What I mean by that, is that, "if you think that textbooks will help you, you can sure go for it. But you should at all cost listen to what other people experienced before and how they did it themselves. You should also understand that at some points, let's call it the intermediate stage, you'll need to consume content in order to progress, no matter how you work, this is how language acquisition works". It should be noted of that I was thinking like you before I actually understood that not everyone wants to do the same stuff to progress. But if some wants to pay classes, they sure can, it has a great chance of helping them growing faster, but it is not needed in order to reach fluency which I agree. I just think that you should have precised that a little bit more :) Also yeah, learning a language without motivation or lack of valuable reasons to is painful and oughtn't be forced upon children. That's more of a personal thought on that I'm not going to lie. But, I agree, if someone has the motivation / valuable reason(s) to learn the language, they'd most likely succeed Anyway, expect for the grammar and vocabulary parts that affected me because I'm learning japanese, this video was already a understood concept to me but it was definately useful listening to you about the myths on reaching fluency. First, because people don't talk about it at all. Second, well it's always useful listening to another's history with learning languages and way more interesting when you, yourself are learning language(s) In regards to japanese, or more generally, languages that are very different from the ones you speak a.k.a "hard" languages. If the grammar is very different like (french-english) : (japanese), it's extremely useful to have a teacher explaining things to you in a way you'd understand. Even though free resources are very useful, if the language's basics are very different and if you don't acquire their meaning properly, it'll stroke a problem later on. That's why having a teacher (either a native who's job is to teach the language or a foreigner but who has experience with the language in question and teaching / explaining in general) is very useful for begins of a new language learning process. Some people, like my teacher, who are just very kind by nature, won't even ask to be paid or what, just helping in their free time people who need. What a true GOAT. Nice video and nice concept !

In a different setting I would assume that you are a native with an interesting accent, great video!

You're perfectly right! O nly, learning grammar well will make you more certain about what you want to say, I mean that grammar is not a monster to avoid, it's simply an easier, codified way to help you speak correctly. I stopped revising grammar when I was already a B1 and started to completely devote myself to listening and speaking. And last thing: English pronunciation! That is the real hurdle to deal with since the very beginning, but many Italian school teachers do not consider it important... Such a mistake!

Love this. I think it depends on so many factors. I was born and raised in London. As a teenager in the 90s, we generally learnt French or German. In my 30s, I spent many years in Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia and so on and I really feel that I wouldn't have been able to advance in Español if I wasn't there, simply because there was no choice but to use Spanish daily. I now live in Poland (I'm also half Polish but only ever knew basic Polish) and I'm now learning. Although I'm still focusing on Spanish when I can out of personal interest, I feel like Polish is replacing Spanish in my mind and that I won't be able to maintain my level of Spanish without being in a Spanish-speaking country. However, and a big however, language learning is different for everyone and in recent years I have learnt SO much about how the mind works and how fluency comes differently for different people. Also, as an English teacher myself, the idea of being 'native' is just stupid and outdated. Non natives 'over-trying' sounds weird in any language. Accents are OK!

True about the exposure to accents. I had a boss from Trinidad, where they speak a real busted English dialect. Most Trinidadian people code switch to a more neutral English when talking to non-Trinidadians. I grew close with him and he began speaking to me the way he would his family/friends. At first it was rough to comprehend, but after a few weeks I could understand 95% of the stuff he was saying, with the slang and strange contractions being the biggest issue. I even went to his mother's house for a barbecue and everyone was speaking that way and we had no issues communicating (although the younger people seem to be losing their accent). Sorta like Singaporean English, if you listen to it for a bit it starts to click but many native speakers might feel its a completely different language upon initial listening.

Ohhhh i genuinely love ur accent that why i subscribe ur channel ❤ just lovee uhh ❤

pleaseeee next make a video on what actually would be fluencyyy in your pov thank you

Facts! Great Video Julia, there's so much BS around language learning, and it's often based on someone trying to sell you something!

I’m very happy you made this video and I wish every single language learner would watch it. Most people waste a lot of time or money using ineffective language learning apps and courses. I agree with everything you said but I have an unimportant difference of opinion on mistakes. The mistakes that native speakers make are almost always different than the kind of mistakes non native speakers make. Non native speakers generally make mistakes when they borrow grammar or expressions from their native language. What I find fascinating and frustrating about mistakes is that there are certain mistakes that one can make even after one has mastered the language. For example, I sometimes use “avoir” as the auxiliary verb for “tomber” in French. I’m fluent and I use it correctly 90% of the time but I still use it wrong sometimes. And every time I use it wrong I wonder why.

Overall, I would like to address what 'fluency' is. As you pointed out, it is not being able to use the language without error and without accent. But it is also not even having a vocabulary of a certain size - it is (to me) being able to use to language to communicate what you want to communicate. I never had a lot of German (and still do not), but when I visited Germany and stayed with a German friend, I had enough to get by in the basic situations in which I found myself. I couldn't have gotten a job or lived in Germany (not easily), but I could spend a weekend with friends (who would not let me speak English) and manage. And that was with a level that was, generously, A2 (probably A1+). For #7; I agree... with reservations. Yes there are a lot of free resources, but it really does speed things up to have some feedback from someone who knows the target language and who can guide you through things that might be unclear (or not even discussed) in those free resources. And that kind of help is never free. Free resources may also be limited in how far they can bring you. I don't know of any that even claim to get you past B2 - which is functionally fluent in my book - but if you want/need more fluency for your goal, then you will probably end up buying both materials and instruction. A course series is a very good resource, although there are some alternatives. I will point out that the amount of time it takes to learn a language (according to research from the FSI) for an English speaker learning their first foreign language depends _mostly_ on the distance of that language from English. Of course the distance between two other languages will affect the time, but how much is not obvious. Experience in learning languages will give you a slight advantage - but not an incredible difference in the time to get to what level you are interested in. There are a number of theories (coherent input; corrected output; no-grammar; drill; etc.) of how to teach a language, but none of those seem to have a large effect on how quickly you learn your target language. For me - I would suggest that you decide _why_ you want to learn whatever language you are interested in, and then look at available resources. Focus on your goal. Use free (or inexpensive ones) if they are available first - if you start to run into trouble with the material, think about a tutor - especially if you live in a larger city, you may be able to find someone to help you for less money than a certified teacher or professional tutor may charge you. Consider a class at some point if you can find one. While classes are easy to find for major languages like Mandarin or Arabic; it may be more difficult to find a class for Chinook Wawa (a native American language) or Beeke (a severely endangered African language).

From the perspective of a native English speaker, I think a "perfect" accent is boring. It's so much more interesting when someone has some features of their own native accent shining through, it adds a bit of colour. A good enough accent that people don't have to struggle to understand you, but not "perfect" enough that you fully blend in and are just "any old person" - this is the sweetspot Julia has found :) And anyway, say you're 90% close to an RP English accent, that puts you in a similar position to Australians. Though the two groups are native speakers, their accents aren't 100% identical and it doesn't really matter. Some British people find Ozzie accents really cool, it's just something a bit different to their daily life.

Subtitled tv. That has been one of the greatest advantages for me and a lot of other danes, and anyone else with that benefit on their tv, in stead of over dubbing, in learning just about any language. English of course as the most prevalent, as it's by far the most content available, but also German, French, Italian etc. Granted - you'd want variation, not to sound like a tv presenter or other, but that easily comes with different content. I know people not used to subtitles think they're annoying, and indeed it can be difficult for people who don't read very well, but practice goes a long way. Like anything else, it helps when you HAVE to.

Being able to trade jokes and chat with a local is a great experience. I play video games in PT and look forward to visiting Portugal soon. If I don´t understand anything, I speak it to Google Translate and it tells me what I just said. My goal is to understand PT youtube comedy shows. That is actually fiercely difficult. Obrigado pelo video!

100% agree with you, this is one of the most well formulated and true videos about language aquisition that I've seen in a long time. Fluency has always been a pretty ambigious term and I think it is a combination of many skills, from being able to understand descriptions and explanations to conveying our feelings and thoughts. Like you say, not knowing all the words and stuff is completely fine, I often think it's more about having the capability of navigating in that language, interpretting and inferring meaning and intention from context and stuff like that.

I think some techniques help you learn faster. I know many of them are just rebranding for the purpose of charging a fee. But things like studying grammar, getting comprehensible input, using flash cards, repetition, and more, are tools that save you a lot of time if you learn to combine them to suit what works best for you at the moment in your learning path that the tool works for you.

It really depends on the circumstance. The countries you mentioned are all Nordic or Germanic. They have a starting point of a high lexical overlap with English, they are exposed to dubbed, not subtitled English media, they have excellent education systems and as their languages are not at all, or barely spoken beyond their own borders, English is simply a necessity to be able to interact with the rest of the world. So they definitely have a huge headstart on all fronts. Learning a language to total mastery is really like approaching infinity. You can never quite get there, because there is no there. Languages change, there are subcultures with their own slang, different registers, different fields of expertise etc. All you can do is to be continually learning. The difference is that when a native speaker doesn't know a word or can't understand a highly specialised piece of writing, they don't start questioning themselves whether they are really fluent. I would just say about, even native speakers make mistakes, it's true, but they are not necessarily the same mistakes a non-native makes. As a non-native it's up to you how much you want to perfect your skills, but if you want to approach the level of a native, notice which mistakes they make and which mistakes you make. For example, a native would never say childs instead of children. Also, native speaker mistakes can also be grating on the ear, like more big, etc, which sounds atrocious. Anyways, nice video, that puts language learning into perspective.

That comment about grammar is so true ! Best way to learn grammar : don't learn grammar With enough KZfaq the grammar just comes to you 😆

Courage to speak as well as one can leads faster to fluency than travel or training.

Excellent video. And you're 100% right. Fluency does not mean your accent is perfect or you don't mess up while speaking. In America people use the word "irregardless" for "regardless". "Irregardless" isn't a word. People also use double negatives when they mean to use a single negative. It's very funny. Great video!

As an American, I like the accents of Russians, Germans and others who pronounce English words more the way they are spelled. To some extent I speak that way myself, which is helpful to foreigners. I had a Russian friend who did not migrate to the US but made many visits. (Он пережил блокаду.) He was struggling to use the articles, "a" and "the" correctly. I said "Forget it." As Julia knows, Russian lacks articles. Sometimes articles in English are used or omitted in an idiomatic way that I cannot explain. In any case, his meaning was always clear, the articles are not important, and his Russian accent was charming. 60 years ago I visited Germany for a summer and I was super-motivated to learn the language. I had not studied German in school, but had studied Latin so I was not confused by the idea of "cases" for pronouns, adjectives and nouns. I have a perhaps unrealistic memory that I struggled on the first day, then learned fast. I was not fluent, but could, you know, buy Fahrkarten and get around. Now from KZfaq I learn that they don't say Fahrkarten, they say "tickets." They shrank my vocabulary! If I say "Ich hätte gerne eine Fahrkarte nach Köln, bitte," the vending machine would wait for me to push a button. In any case, my memory of language learning remains positive. Now, in old age, I study Spanish.

I always say to non English speakers who are learning to listen to as much speech radio as possible(LBC) and make a point of speaking to as many English speakers as possible. And that goes for any language.

The terms proficiency and fluency seem to be used interchangeably in the video. In my context as a foreign language instructor in the USA, these terms are defined differently. I think in the video where Julia talks about visiting Germany, for instance, that the English-language speakers there who never left Germany are more likely to be proficient in English than fluent in English, but that idea depends on distinguishing between proficiency and fluency.

Estoy aprendiendo español y todas cosas tú decir es cierto

Thank you for your thoughts. I would say I quite disagree with the point about learning grammar. Judging by my experience, good knowledge of grammar is a good basis for improving your fluency, the more familiar you are with the particular grammar pattern, the more likely you are to intergrate it into your regular speech, and even on the Upper-Intermediate level, grammar still covers a lot of important topics (mixed conditionals, I wish-structure, used to/would, causative, and so on) which are integral to real-life communication. When it comes to pronunciation, I also believe that it's nearly impossible to completely imitate a native speaker, I still think working on your pronunciation is worth it as it makes your listening skills way better. Despite that, I mostly agree on all other points :)

Tore, et sa räägid nii hästi inglise keeles! Отлично, что ты так хорошо говоришь по-английски! (^_^)

You made me laugh about the UK having so many regional accents that non-native accents aren't really that weird. I met a new colleague at work a few years back and I got chatting to her at the photocopying machine. I was struggling to pinpoint her accent but decided in the end she was from somewhere like Derby or Nottingham although there were definite bits of Yorkshire too. Eventually, I asked her whereabouts she came from. She said Dunkerque!! She was French but had lived in England since she was 20 and her husband was a Yorkshireman. Her English was so good I just presumed she just had an accent I wasn't familiar with.

How do you go about learning vocabulary

I'm only early intermediate Korean, (and I teach English), but I get the impression that 'fluency' isn't an on/off thing - "I wasn't fluent last week, but I finally hit fluency this week", lol! Fluency to me see seems to be a gradual process like aging. You don't suddenly end up an adult (unless the law tells you that you're 18 so now you're suddenly an adult) - adulthood, regardless of the law, comes upon people slowly and incrementally with time and experience, and the path (and result) is different for everyone. Fluency strikes me as similar. I'm nowhere near 'fluency' in Korean at any definition, but in a shop standard conversation, I do it without thinking. General greetings I do without thinking. Surely right there, in those situations alone in isolation, because I do them every day, I'm pretty fluent, right? Put me in an casual conversation and I often only get the general drift...sometimes, depending on the conversation and the topic, the situation (if it's a situation I know about or not, if there are gestures to help me etc), and whether they're speaking slower to try to include me or not. Isn't fluency really just a gradual process that improves over time, like a good wine? Something that starts developing as some minuscule level to begin with and develops over time. Not a "level" that you suddenly step out onto? Why does everyone talk about fluency as if it's a particular "level" to be reached? As if people have absolutely no fluency before the finish line, but all fluency after the finishline. I don't think it is. Isn't that a rather stupid way of thinking about fluency?

The British accent used to literally make my head hurt, until I built familiarity the headaches stopped

Agree

Number 3 angers me sooo much. I don´t know who started this rumour. It doesn´t even make sense. Pronunciation has nothing to do with fluency. People claiming that only a C2- level counts as fluency annoy me as well. If you´re perfectly able to hold conversations, understand them, read etc., then you´re fluent in my opinion. Looking up some words doesn´t make you less fluent either. I sometimes have to do this in my native language. Does this make me "not fluent"? I don´t think so. It makes me a simple human who can´t possibly know every word of a language. Sometimes I feel like people are harder on non-native speakers than on native speakers. Number 6: I have less trouble understanding American dialects than dialects of my own native language ^^

In terms of there not being a technique--I think there is at least one thing that is important. Specifically what people call "comprehensible input." Which is to say, you have to hear the language, actual full sentences in the language not just "this word means X", and these sentences you hear in that language need to be comprehensible to you. You can start with something like a children's story with a small number of words you know, but full sentences help a lot to hear and understand and start picking up the flow of the language. I've made attempts at learning a language in other ways where I focused on learning the alphabet and vocabulary words, for instance I tried that in Korean for a while. Found a youtube channel teaching Korean that started out teaching the alphabet, then later on when introducing a vocabulary word would speak in English 90% of the time explaining the nuances of the word. Added some vocabulary words to my flash cards I looked up that I thought would be useful. To this day I outright can't construct a sentence or understand a Korean sentence--I will understand individual words. Last time I watched a TV show in Korean, I picked up a couple words at best. But at least I know some of the nuances surrounding "Oppa". Studying an alphabet doesn't teach you the language. Memorizing a list of words also doesn't teach you a language (there's a funny story about an Australian scrabble player who couldn't speak French but who memorized the French dictionary and won the French Scrabble competition. He still could not speak French after doing this). By contrast when I focused on "comprehensible input", when I used a free online resource for learning Hebrew where they ignore the alphabet just start immediately speaking to you orally in Hebrew with no subtitles (with very short simple sentences at first that match pictures, gradually introducing vocabulary), yeah, I've progressed much further much faster. And simultaneously there's other people around me trying to learn Hebrew, but they're approaching it the way I previously approached Korean, focusing on the alphabet and a couple of individual words, making or buying flashcards, and some of them have been trying to learn Hebrew for longer than I have, and...for the most part I've progressed a lot further in Hebrew than they have. So yeah, hear full sentences in the language that are on a level which you can understand--that seems to be the piece I was missing before, and the part which a lot of people around me keep getting wrong. If you study an alphabet, you will know an alphabet. This doesn't make you able to communicate in the language. If you study a list of words you will know a list of words. This doesn't make you able to communicate in the language. If you study grammar rules you will know grammar rules. This doesn't make you able to communicate in the language. If you want to communicate ideas in a language, you've got to listen to people communicating ideas in that language.

But how do we grade, because I sound like a native speaker form the Texas triangle( with the y'all and I talk fast and that is the only difference)

How do you get past the low levels? I am a native English speaker with A2(reading/writing) A1(verbal) skill in Spanish which isn't enough for me to understand content made for adults. I can watch a TV in Spanish with Spanish subs but I still have to look words up sometimes because It's confusing if I don't, and even when I know all the words it still takes time for me to process the translation, so I pause a lot. A 30 min show might take me 90-120 mins to watch, which makes it difficult to keep doing it.

I use subtitles for english, my native language, all the time.

❤👌👏

So even with c2 I can guess russian accent) ( i mostly picking interesting movie,with many seasons,and writing down interesting phrases and words which i dont know,but grammar..)