Anyone Can Speak English Like a Native Heres How

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Go Natural English with Gabby

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Hello, welcome back to go natural English today. We have a very interesting question to consider Can anyone become a? Native English speaker. So I think this question is very important because a lot of English learners and english-as-a-second-language teachers are always emphasizing the importance of Sounding like a native English speaker You have to immerse yourself in native English speaking situations. You have to Practice speaking with native English speakers. The ideal is the native English speakers. So I think it's an interesting question Have you ever thought about? can Anyone, can you be a native English speaker? So I think this is going to be really interesting to chat about now before we talk about it I just want to encourage you to turn on the captions in English if you are learning English this can really help you and If you would be so kind and willing to translate this video into your native language You could help more people from your country to learn with us So you can do that Using the link in the description and when you do translate the video your name will appear In the description as a thank you. Can you be born in one language? speaking one language and then can you become a Native speaker of another language. Well first we have to define What does it mean to be a native speaker of a language? I think there are many different definitions and there is a really wide range between them so on one end of the range of this spectrum of answers we have the answer that honestly, I believe that is a native speaker of a language is someone that is born into a family or in a country or in a setting that Speaks that language. So a native English speaker like me would be born in an english-speaking country But you could also be born into an speaking family living in another country. So it's a little bit complicated. No The next question is okay, if you have to be born into this environment well What about people that learn English as a second language when they're a kid? Like six seven eight years old if you learn a second language before the age of thirteen basically before puberty sets in so as you're still developing Then yes you can be considered a native speaker because your language skills are still developing and you're able to really grasp the language and the culture which is a super important part of communication now on the other end of this range of definitions would be well know a native speaker doesn't have to be born into That language they don't have to start learning that language as a child They can simply be confident in their communication if you feel comfortable and confident Expressing yourself talking speaking listening to an understanding Anyone who speaks that language would say it's English that you are becoming a native speaker in then fine Okay Then let's consider you a native English speaker because you can function successfully And confidently really in any english-speaking situation now I would love to ask you. What do you think is the true definition of a native English speaker? Is it someone who is born into an english-speaking? Family or country or someone who starts speaking English? Before they're a teenager or is it someone who? Is simply able to express themselves in a fluent manner? I want to hear from you in the comments. So Can anyone become a native English speaker as I mentioned the answer really depends on your definition of? What is the native speaker now? Let's say that as I mentioned I really believe that a native English speaker speaker is someone who? can and I believe that a native English speaker is really someone who Started learning the language before they became a teenager So, I'm sorry for everyone who started learning another language after thirteen years old It's just not possible to be a native speaker of that language for many reasons one Developmentally you have already learned another language into adulthood or past your Puberty years past being a teenager and so that's kind of set you into some certain practices Your brain is kind of set in its ways. It doesn't mean that you can't learn another language really fluently It just means that your native language. Your first language has been set it's like when you set the settings or the language settings on your phone or you know a Computer or something. It's like that is a language settings It doesn't mean you can't add another later on But the main setting is that one that's not a great example because you can always change the language But anyway, you know what, I mean? So if you are learning another language as an adult I don't think that you can Become or turn into or transform into a native English speaker a native speaker of that language however And this is very very important. So please hear me out. You can become a natural speaker of that language, which is why I call this go natural English who is accepted by understood by and accepted by native speakers of that language So when you get to a point of fluency of confidence of expression where native? English speakers or native speakers of the language you're learning I'll just say English speakers just to keep it simple But this really applies for any language when they don't slow down when they don't Make amends to the way they speak when they don't change the way that they express themselves because you know They're afraid that you're not going to understand when they accept you when they know that you're in on all the jokes You get all the cultural references That to me is just as good as being a native English speaker when you are Accepted by other native and fluent speakers of that language So it has adults, you know, if you are over 13 years of age don't despair Also because it can actually be easier to learn a language when you are over 13 when you're an adult because you have Knowledge of what is grammar? What is vocabulary? You know you Understand that language has a structure and rules. Whereas kids are just kind of absorbing things as we go Observing life and how people communicate with each other so learning a language as an adult is not something that you should be sad about or feel like you're inferior to Kids that learn English, you know growing up. It's just different and you can use this to your advantage So now let's talk about how you can become Accepted by English speakers native English speakers fluent English speakers. How do you break this? barrier between being seen as an English Learner that people have to slow down for or be patient with and really breaking through to being someone that is accepted socially culturally as a native or you know as a second language native I'm gonna give you four really powerful suggestions for you to improve your nativeness or your naturalness in English to become accepted by native speakers of The language and I want to share a little bit of my own story. So it's not just me lecturing. I want to share What's happened to me? And for me as I've learned other languages, the first place that I went abroad was the Dominican Republic Do you have any Dominicans watching here? And I remember when I was learning Spanish I went there and I wanted to drink the local drinks and there's a drink that's called more deer, so yawn, boom, and I said quiero more to your Sonia and boom and the Waiter just laughed at me You know, he thought it was super cute because basically I didn't say that I wanted this drink I literally said I want to die dreaming Because I missed a small detail the article to Identify a or one, you know cattle more to your swing on do so instead of saying I want a Diet how do I say to die dreaming I guess is the name of the drink I said I want to die dreaming So the details matter what I learned from this experience this kind of funny story Is that the details matter and just because you hear native speakers not really? emphasizing articles like uh, or the They still matter so you need to really understand how to use Articles and how to use these details in the language another experience. I had in the Dominican Republic which was man. Oh really? It was a time in my life when I was like really growing as a person and really growing as a language learner so I realized for the first time that everything I'd learned almost everything I'd learned in my University Spanish class was useless in the real world because in my class We learned quite formal Spanish, hola como esta usted and When I got into the real world, I realized that people only use this kind of language with maybe Much older people like someone I really wanted to show respect for maybe some friends grandmother. For example or grandfather or if I met the governor or something but in everyday situations talking with friends at the University because I did a semester at the University there and the Dominican Republic and People don't talk like that. So I had to learn how people speak Colloquially, and so I started learning ah como esta como toda que lo que like Very different ways of saying how are you and there's a ton of other colloquial expressions and so I mentioned this because it is really important in English or any language to really pay attention to how people actually speak with each other in everyday life pay attention to the words pay attention to the pronunciation and start copying and Using those phrases yourself. It's not just for asking. How are you? It's not just for greetings. It's in every Aspect of life people use different phrases one. I often share with my English learners is that native English speakers will ask are you all set and This is really a catch-all phrase for are you ready to go or if you're at a store? Are you ready to check out? Did you want to buy anything else? Are you all set? Like are you finished? Have you done your work? It can be used in many different ways But you don't usually use that or you don't usually learn that in your textbook or use it in your classroom So pay attention to the colloquial phrases and you'll sound much more like a native. So another thing to pay attention to is the cultural mannerisms this could be gestures this could be The way people express themselves, even the clothing that people wear When I was in Japan I was working as an English teacher and I would ask my boss if I could do certain things that were a little outside of my job description and she would respond by sucking her teeth like and I didn't realize that this meant no so I must have seemed like a very stubborn employee because I was always asking trying to get a Straight answer the straight answer to me is saying directly No, you can't do that But in Japan is very rare for people to so directly say no so instead they have different mannerisms And I know in different countries and different languages people say no or yes in different ways So I think in India people not where in the US this means? Yes So pay attention to the gestures and the ways culturally that people express themselves maybe starting with yes, and no also when I came here to Brazil, I would often go to the store or the supermarket and Going to the checkout counter is a very normal experience. I think almost all of us shop at stores. So we have this experience But what I never? Expected were two questions that they asked almost every single time that nobody told me in any Portuguese lesson They always ask for my CPF, which is kind of like a Social Security number which was totally confusing to me I was like, why would I give you my social security number? It seemed like an invasion of privacy But now I understand there's other reasons for that in Brazil like you gain points or something. I don't know It's used a little bit differently than a Social Security number which is a bit more private of in the u.s. Also They asked almost every single time if I want to pass Salah which is to divide up payments even for something small like a $10 item do you want to you know pay 12 times so funny to me because in the u.s We don't have this and so at first I would get really stuck on these questions. I didn't expect them So I didn't know how to respond. I didn't understand at first because I didn't expect them but now I expect them and I know how to respond which is basically know and know so this matters the details in the language the small grammar points the pronunciation the way people communicate in different ways with different Gestures or different ways of saying yes or no. And also what are the normal? Situations or sequences of events. What could you guess is going to happen if you go to a checkout counter in the u.s Versus in Brazil in the u.s. They would ask you. Are you all set in Brazil? They would ask you? What's your CPF and do you want to divide your payments? So it's really? in order to be accepted as a native to Understand what's important. So these are the important points I'm gonna give you some specific tips on how to build your skills in these areas Now this might seem like a lot to think about it's not only the language that you have to learn you have to pay attention to details pronunciation gestures Colloquial phrases and slang, but don't worry fluency to me. It's like a puzzle When you shake out all the pieces of the puzzle onto a table and most of them are facedown so you can kind of see the shapes, but you don't know what the puzzle really looks like and Little by little with each thing you learn you start to turn over the pieces. And so you have more and more information And then once you've turned over all the pieces you start putting the pieces together and then you start seeing the whole picture and you're able to Influence eaters express yourself more completely and it helps if you already know another language It's much easier to learn a third fourth or fifth language when I started learning Spanish I didn't know any other languages, I'd grown up my whole life until about 20 years old speaking only English So I never had the chance to become a native speaker of another language But I've learned how to become accepted by native speakers social groups of other languages in Spanish Portuguese Pretty much in Japanese a little bit in French. And so I know how amazing it can be Socially, you can benefit so much by understanding that there's more than just The language rules that you can learn and you can use in order to be more accepted by native speakers of English Now finally, let me tell you specifically the four areas to focus on first of all focus on the details especially the details of pronunciation So I mentioned learning how to use articles also focus on pronunciation because it will give you the confidence to continue to express yourself and to be accepted as a native or by native speakers so one thing that changed my life as a language learner and a language teacher was taking a Spanish phonetics class so I encourage you if you can look at some information on phonetics learn the international phonetic alphabet And look at how words in English are spelled or communicated using the IPA the international phonetic alphabet when you focus on Pronunciation this will give you a huge edge a huge advantage over Other people who might know more rules of the language, but they can't express themselves They can't talk. They can't speak in a native like way So who do you think is going to be more accepted socially, someone who sounds more native or someone who knows all the rules? Okay, so this depends on what you want Do you want to pass a grammar test or do you want to communicate and speak with? fluent or native English speakers So again where you focus your time and energy depends on your goals now Here's an exercise that you can do to work on improving your understanding of details like articles and pronunciation Take any book in English That's meant for adults an authentic book meant for native speakers and just take the first sentence It could be a magazine. It could be a news article but choose something with kind of a long sentence. Nothing too easy and Find a native speaker that can help you now read the first sentence out loud there's probably going to be at least one article if not more and of course, you're going to be practicing your pronunciation then Speak and say read the sentence out loud for your native speaker friend and just ask them on a scale of one to three How do you sound do you sound like a native speaker? slightly off maybe a few mistakes or Pretty bad needs a lot of work and then continue to practice you're going to ask your native speaker friend to read the sentence for you, you might want to record them ask them if you can record them first so that you can Repeat and you can practice Copying after them. This is like Shadowing saying exactly as you hear your native speaker friend saying the sentence now You can do this. Even if you don't have any native speaker friends, you can do this with music you can do this with Speeches you can do this from a lot of contents on YouTube it's quite easy actually to find native speaker materials, but this is just one example of Practice that you can do using a book or anything with a sentence and continue to practice until your native speaker friend Gives you a rating of number one that you sound like a native and then move on to the next sentence This is a good exercise because you're going one sentence at a time and it's not Overwhelming it's not like okay. I have to speak all of English perfectly. No, it's just one sentence at a time Second use words and phrases that native speakers use Locally, so as you know, English is a global language and in different regions in different countries people use different vocabulary Different expressions and different slang words. I remember when I was learning Spanish. I first learned it in the Dominican Republic where Torta means a cake and then I went to Mexico where torta means a sandwich Completely different when I was looking for something sweet. I got something salty. So I learned quickly in English class They also teach you a lot of verbs that native speakers. Don't use that often Instead of to return we'd be more likely to say to go back to so phrasal verbs are Super important for anyone who wants to be more accepted by native speakers So there are tons of examples of vocabulary and raises that they teach you in textbooks but people don't really use in real life and there are examples of These for almost any language. It's just crazy. Sometimes when I think about it Why do they teach you things that are not really useful in textbooks? I think it's because in school textbook learning is more geared toward or more for academia or people who want to completely Master the language, but in order to be fluent in a language, you don't need to know all of the academic Language you don't need to go farther than fluency You don't have to master the language in an academic way again. It depends on your goals But for me, the first step is fluency The first step is being able to communicate yourself and then you can decide if you want to learn more academic Speak if you want to learn how to read and write academic articles if you want to read literary works Novels from the 18th century perhaps. I remember when I was learning Spanish in my university and I took a Spanish poetry of the 18th century class and guys I Did not do well in that class because I was so Frustrated that we were supposed to analyze this old Spanish that had nothing to do with actually communicating with people I just wanted to be fluent so that I could have more spanish-speaking friends and be accepted by them and that Poetry class was not getting me any closer to those goals third pay attention to cultural Expression. I don't mean colloquialisms or Phrases here. I mean little things like when you pause how do you fill the silence? I would say um a French speaker might say a Spanish speaker might say plays a Japanese speaker might say so so learn The language that you want to be fluent with how people fill the silence. How do you show that you're actively Listening to someone in your language in Japanese. I learned to say um, um, uh, Just say like yes, I'm listening or yes I agree and in English you wouldn't say that although sometimes I still do that because I kept my habits from Japan and people think I'm a weirdo but in English, we would usually say uh-huh or hmm Okay, knowing what phrases to use often requires interaction directly with native speakers or a closed native speaker friend or to have a closer relationship With a native speaker because these are the little things that come out in everyday life that really help you to Blend in as a native speaker now fourth. This is very important So it is last but not least it is mindset you have to believe that you an adult language learner is capable of Sounding native like you may not be able to Transform magically into a native speaker However, you can be native like you can sound natural like a native in English and be Accepted by native English speakers, but you have to believe this you have to have the mindset You have to believe in yourself You have to know that it's possible that if you work on these four points You will get there now all of these except for maybe the mindset require you to interact with native speakers If you're not living in a native speaking country see if you can find Expats or native speakers of English living in your city If you're really living in the middle of nowhere then use the internet you can listen to podcasts by native English speakers You can watch TV series or movies that have native English speakers There is such a wealth of information and so many amazing fun entertaining materials that you can use To help you reach a native like level music is also Fabulous because learning the lyrics to music not only helps you with pronunciation They often songs often tell a story So they're interesting and they give you insight into the culture Songs often have a lot of interesting slang and phrases as well so use music as a fun way to improve your fluency and to sound more like a native it also helps to listen to What's hot what's new because it gives you something to talk about with other native speakers when you have the chance Well to wrap up this longer rants I just want you to know that it is possible for you to be accepted by native speakers and to sound native like if you focus on these four points Which just to recap is focus on the details, especially small things like articles prepositions also and pronunciation learn gestures and the way that people communicate to say yes/no or other things in English use colloquial phrases slang and Vocabulary the way people really use it in real life learn what phrases to expect in everyday situations Like at the checkout counter and don't forget your mindset is super important you have to believe that you are able to do this believe in yourself that you are able to reach a Native level in English or native liked and accepted by other native speakers So I hope you enjoyed this video if you did make sure to give it a thumbs up let me know in the comments what you thought and it would be amazing if you Subscribe here. It's a go natural English on YouTube I count on you all to subscribe to share the videos to help grow the channel to keep us going Strong let me know if you like this topic and what you would like us to talk more about next time Thanks so much for watching. I'm gonna leave another video for you The next one that I think would be the most beneficial for you on your journey - native-like fluency Right over there. So click right over there, and I'll see you in the next lesson. Bye for now