How I became fluent in English (my 3 strategies)

Summary

In this informative video, Lewis from The Language Scientist shares his personal journey to fluency in English without living in an English-speaking country. Born and raised in Tahiti, a French-speaking region, Lewis struggled with English despite seven years of schooling. He emphasizes the importance of repetitive listening to podcasts and movies, which significantly improved his listening and speaking skills. Lewis also details his strategy of immersing himself in English by switching his digital environment and social interactions to English. Lastly, he recommends using tools like LingQ to ensure that the language input is comprehensible, a tip he wishes he had known earlier. His story is an inspiration for language learners worldwide, proving that fluency is achievable with dedication and the right strategies.

Takeaways

• 🌍 Lewis is a native French speaker from Tahiti, French Polynesia, and has achieved fluency in English without living in an English-speaking country.
• 🕶 Lewis wears orange glasses in the evening to protect his eyes from blue light, as it's dark outside at 7 p.m. in his location.
• 📚 After seven years of studying English in school, Lewis still struggled with conversation and understanding English media, highlighting the insufficiency of traditional education for fluency.
• 🔄 The first strategy Lewis used for learning English was 'repetitive listening', which he believes significantly contributed to his fluency.
• 🎧 Lewis would listen to English podcasts and watch movies repeatedly, exposing himself to the same words and grammatical structures multiple times.
• 💡 The second strategy was 'making the switch' to living as if in an English-speaking country, which involved using English for all daily activities and interactions.
• 🌐 Lewis switched his computer and smartphone languages to English and sought out English content to immerse himself in the language.
• 📈 Lewis emphasizes that achieving fluency requires thousands of hours of dedicated practice, with no shortcuts or hacks available.
• 📚 The third strategy, which Lewis wishes he had used, involves ensuring that the language input is 'comprehensible', using tools like LingQ to assist with understanding.
• 🔗 Lewis recommends using LingQ, a language learning tool that helps make content more understandable by providing translations and explanations.
• 📘 Lewis suggests using LingQ to prepare for watching English TV shows or movies by reading subtitles first to understand the vocabulary and context.

Q & A

Why is Willis wearing orange glasses in the video?

Willis is wearing orange glasses because it's 7 p.m. and dark outside, and he doesn't want to get the blue light.

What is Willis' native language and where was he raised?

Willis is a native French speaker and was raised in Tahiti, French Polynesia.

Why did Willis feel the need to improve his English skills despite studying it for seven years in school?

Willis realized that his English level was low after struggling to have a proper conversation with native speakers and not understanding English TV shows and movies.

What is one of the strategies Willis used to improve his English listening and speaking skills?

One of the strategies Willis used is repetitive listening, which involves listening to the same content multiple times over a long period.

How did Willis change his lifestyle to immerse himself in the English language?

Willis switched his entire lifestyle to act as if he was living in an English-speaking country by using English for all his online searches, reading, listening, and speaking activities.

What is the third strategy that Willis wishes he had used while learning English?

The third strategy is using a tool like LingQ to ensure that the input he receives is comprehensible, which would have made his learning process more efficient.

Why is comprehensible input important for language learning according to Willis?

Comprehensible input is important because it allows learners to understand and benefit from the language content they are exposed to, making the learning process more effective.

How does Willis suggest using LingQ to improve English learning?

Willis suggests using LingQ's Chrome extension to import subtitles of TV shows or movies, allowing learners to do assisted reading and understand vocabulary and sentences before watching.

What is the main takeaway from Willis' experience in learning English to a fluent level?

The main takeaway is that becoming fluent in a language requires a significant amount of time and effort, with strategies like repetitive listening and immersing oneself in the language being key to success.

What is the website Willis recommends for more information on language learning strategies?

Willis recommends the website languagescientist.com for more information on language learning strategies.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Becoming Fluent in English as a Non-Native Speaker

Lewis, a native French speaker from Tahiti, shares his personal journey of achieving fluency in English without living in an English-speaking country. He mentions wearing orange glasses to protect his eyes from blue light at night and introduces his background, having studied English for seven years in the French education system without being able to hold a proper conversation. Lewis highlights that school was insufficient for fluency and that he had to find his own strategies to improve his English skills.

05:02

🔁 The Power of Repetitive Listening for Language Acquisition

Lewis discusses the first strategy he used to become fluent in English: repetitive listening. He explains that naturally, he tends to re-engage with content he enjoys multiple times, which led to him re-listening to English podcasts and watching movies and TV shows in English. This method exposed him to the same words, grammatical structures, and pronunciation patterns repeatedly, which he believes significantly contributed to his fluency. Lewis emphasizes the importance of repetition in language learning and suggests that this approach can be easily adopted by anyone.

10:03

🌐 Immersing in English by Switching Lifestyle and Tools

The second strategy Lewis employed was to immerse himself in English as if he were living in an English-speaking country. While in Switzerland, he decided to conduct all his online searches, read, listen to, and watch content exclusively in English. He also interacted with English-speaking exchange students and changed the language settings on his devices to English, which helped him think in English more naturally. Lewis explains that this approach, combined with the time and effort required for language learning, can lead to fluency.

15:04

📚 Utilizing Tools for Comprehensible Input in Language Learning

Lewis introduces a third strategy that he wishes he had used earlier: ensuring that the input he received was comprehensible. He acknowledges that much of the content he initially consumed was too difficult for his level, which limited its effectiveness. To address this, he recommends using tools like Link, a website with a Chrome extension that helps learners understand subtitles or transcripts by providing translations and explanations. This strategy aims to make the input more comprehensible, thus enhancing the learning process. Lewis provides a link to the website for viewers to try out the tool and encourages them to visit his website for more language learning strategies.

Keywords

💡fluency

Fluency refers to the ability to speak or write a language smoothly, easily, and accurately. In the video, Lewis discusses his journey to achieving fluency in English, which is a central theme as he shares his strategies for learning the language without living in an English-speaking environment.

💡repetitive listening

Repetitive listening is a language learning technique where a learner listens to the same material multiple times to improve comprehension and retention. Lewis emphasizes this method as crucial to his English learning process, suggesting it contributed significantly to his fluency.

💡comprehensible input

Comprehensible input is a concept in language acquisition where learners understand the language they are exposed to at a level that is slightly above their current ability. Lewis mentions this concept, advising that the input should be challenging but understandable to be effective for learning.

💡strategies

Strategies in the context of the video refer to the methods or approaches Lewis used to learn English. He outlines three main strategies: repetitive listening, living as if in an English-speaking country, and using tools like 'link' for comprehensible input.

💡English-speaking country

An English-speaking country is a nation where English is the primary language spoken by the majority of the population. Lewis clarifies that he has never lived in such a country, which makes his achievement of English fluency through self-study particularly impressive.

💡Tahiti

Tahiti is an island in French Polynesia where Lewis was born and raised. It is significant in the video as it is a place where French and Tahitian are spoken, and English is not commonly used, highlighting the challenge Lewis faced in learning English.

💡language learning

Language learning encompasses the process of acquiring new languages. The video is centered around Lewis's personal experience with language learning, specifically focusing on his methods for becoming fluent in English.

💡French Polynesia

French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of France located in the Pacific Ocean, where Tahiti is situated. It is mentioned in the script to provide context for Lewis's native language and the linguistic environment he grew up in.

💡Switzerland

Switzerland is where Lewis went to college and is significant in the video as it was a place where he was surrounded by English speakers, despite living in the French-speaking part of the country. This setting influenced his decision to immerse himself in English.

💡immersion

Immersion in the context of language learning refers to surrounding oneself with the language to be learned, often by living in a community where it is spoken. Lewis talks about creating an immersion environment for himself by switching his daily life to English, even though he was not in an English-speaking country.

💡Link

Link is a tool mentioned in the video that helps with language learning by providing translations and assisting with reading comprehension. Lewis suggests using it to make the input more comprehensible, which aligns with the concept of 'comprehensible input'.

Highlights

Willis shares his personal journey of becoming fluent in English without living in an English-speaking country.

He emphasizes the importance of avoiding blue light after 7 p.m. by wearing orange glasses.

Willis is a native French speaker from Tahiti, where English is not commonly spoken.

Despite studying English for seven years in school, Willis still struggled with conversation and comprehension.

His experience in Switzerland exposed the limitations of his English skills among native speakers.

Willis discovered the need for more practice after failing to understand a movie without subtitles.

He stumbled upon effective strategies for learning English rather than intentionally seeking them out.

Repetitive listening is Willis's most valuable method, accounting for much of his English fluency.

He naturally re-listens to podcasts and re-watches movies, exposing himself to the same language patterns repeatedly.

Switching his entire lifestyle to English, including digital interfaces and social interactions, was a key strategy.

Willis recommends surrounding oneself with English as much as possible to simulate living in an English-speaking environment.

He suggests that to achieve fluency, one must invest significant time and effort, with no shortcuts.

Willis regrets not using tools like LingQ to ensure the input he received was comprehensible.

He explains the concept of 'i+1' or 'n+1', where input should be slightly above one's current level for optimal learning.

LingQ is recommended for making English input more comprehensible through its Chrome extension and translation features.

Willis offers a free account link to LingQ in the video description and clarifies his affiliation for transparency.

He invites viewers to visit his website, thelanguagescientist.com, for more language learning strategies.

Transcripts

hi guys Willis here from the language

scientist.com and in today's video I

want to talk about how I became fluent

in English on my own so first of all as

you can see I'm wearing those orange

glasses is because now it's 7 p.m and

you know it's dark outside I don't want

to get that blue light so I'm wearing

those orange glasses I hope that you'll

forgive me for that but so in today's

video I'm going to talk about exactly

what I did to get to my current English

level which is you know I hope you'll

agree it's pretty decent and it took me

a long time to get there and I think I

haven't shared the strategies that I

have used to get to that point because

if you're new to this channel you know

my name is Lewis again and I'm a native

French speaker I was born and raised

here in Tahiti in French Polynesia

so a lot of you guys may not know what

Tahiti is it's a small island in the

middle of the Pacific Ocean and so you

know no one speaks English here everyone

speaks French or Tahitian I could only

speak French and uh so I've never lived

in an english-speak entry in you know in

the U.S or in England never been there

I've actually been to the us a few times

for a very short periods of time just

you know holidays and stuff like that

but I've never spent any kind of you

know more than like two weeks certainly

in an English-speaking speaking country

so I had to actually learn uh English on

my own so there are mainly three things

I want to call them three uh strategies

that I use to get to uh to my current

level

and two of them are things that I

actually did to um get to that point and

then the last strategy is something that

I wish I did something that if I had

done it I would have got to where I am a

lot faster and the journey would have

been a lot smoother so first of all I

just want to give you a little bit of

background about me so as I said I'm

from Tahiti in French Polynesia you know

when I got out of school just like you

know everyone basically who goes the who

goes through the uh French uh education

system I studied English for seven years

and at the end of the seven years I

could not have a proper conversation in

English with a with a native speaker I

could not you know watch a TV show and

actually understand uh most of it

so I'm not saying that you know school

doesn't work as as far as like English

classes but all I'm saying is that it's

it's nowhere near enough it's not

sufficient and school doesn't expose you

to sort of the quantity of uh English

that you actually need in order to be

fluent I'll get into that in a moment

so I got out of school and I thought I

was pretty good but I still could not

have conversations in English I still

could not understand uh you know TV

shows and movies in English certainly

and so one example is that of that is

when I went to college I was in

Switzerland and uh you know there were a

lot of exchange students in in my

University and so one of those guys a

British guy he was talking with uh um an

Irish guy and we were in a train and so

you know they were talking pretty fast

and there was a lot of background noise

because it was a train and so whenever

they tried to talk to me I didn't really

understand and I realized that even

after you know seven years of studying

English in school My Level was really

low so I really needed needed to do

something about it uh same story is you

know a similar story is I was watching a

movie I think it was The Hunger Game I

don't know if it was the first one or

the second one I really don't know

because I watched the movie and I I

didn't understand much because there

were no subtitles I didn't understand

what they were saying so

that's when I realized that I need a lot

more practice and so I started using

strategies I can't say it was really

intentional I know that on my channel I

now I put I upload a lot of Channel a

lot of videos showing strategies that

um I have experimented with and that I

think are are extremely effective but

the truth is uh most of the strategies

that I use to learn English where

um not really intentional that there's

stuff that I stumbled upon or stuff that

I just naturally gravitated towards and

they ended up making me fluent so I

can't say it was intentional but my hope

is that by telling you about this then

it's going to inspire you and show you

that you can learn English in any other

language that you may be learning up to

a very fluent level

so these are the three strategies that I

would use if I were you trying to learn

English or any other language

the first one is repetitive listening I

think by far this is the most

um

the method that really made me that

really got me perhaps I would say 80

percent of the weight there so I'm

perhaps exaggerating but I think this is

the most valuable method and the reason

why it's so valuable is because it's

very easy so let me explain

I think naturally I'm the kind of person

who uh you know when I watch a movie

when I watch when I listen to a podcast

episode when I read something and I

really like it I tend to go back and

actually re-listen or re-watch or reread

that thing multiple times over the

course of you know multiple days

multiple weeks multiple months I go back

to what I like even year after year and

so

you know as I was learning English I was

actually listening to a lot of podcasts

uh watching a lot of movies and TV shows

in English reading a lot of stuff in

English and you know I would say

especially with podcasts uh podcasts and

videos that really helped me because I

would listen to podcasts things like you

know Joe Rogan and Tim Ferriss and you

know Joe Rogan it's really not easy for

non-native speakers because you know

they use a lot of slang it goes very

fast and a lot of times they don't

explain sort of the underlying context

it's like you're jumping right into the

conversation sometimes so it's very

complicated but I don't know I was kind

of just fascinated with this uh this uh

podcast and I saw that it was extremely

successful even in even like five ten

years ago

and so I continued just listening to the

same episodes I also listened to uh

London reel you know back in the days

and

I just listened to the same episodes

again and again and again and again and

I don't think it was you know I'm pretty

sure it was not uh sort of uh for me a

really an intentional sort of uh will to

to actually learn English I was just

fascinated with it and so the result of

that was that I was exposed to the same

words the same grammatical constructions

the same pronunciation patterns over and

over and over again and now I realize

that repetition really is the name of

the game when you know when it comes to

language learning when it comes to

learning English or learning any

language repetition is the name of the

game it's extremely important I've

talked about that in many many videos

and I can't emphasize that enough and

repetitive listening that is the act of

listening to the same stuff over and

over again over the course of multiple

days weeks months and potentially years

has had a huge benefit on my English you

know speaking and listening ability

certainly so that's the first thing you

know repetitive listening and the way

that you can do this it's pretty easy

just you know listen to the same stuff

over and over again

now second strategy I want to talk about

uh I I would say it's like just you know

making the switch so what I'm trying to

say here is that I switched my way of

living as if I was living in an

English-speaking country so I'm talking

specifically about the period when I was

in Switzerland I was in Switzerland I

lived in Switzerland in the

french-speaking part of Switzerland

and uh I don't know from one day to the

next I just decided you know what I'm

just going to do everything everything

in English so I just you know every

every time I looked up something on the

Internet I would just you know look for

it using English keywords on Google I

would only go on uh you know English

websites written in English I would only

read stuff in English and I would only

listen to stuff and watch stuff in

English that's basically it and I tended

to uh gravitate around like exchange

students for example you know that gave

me the opportunity to speak English at

all times although that was not exactly

easy there you know there were plenty of

opportunities to to speak French so it's

not like I was

completely you know living 100 in

English but I did everything that I

could to really be surrounded really be

in this English uh environment I

switched my computer's language to

English I switched my smartphones

language to English as well

and that's basically it I just did

everything in English I even started

thinking in English and it just becomes

like it's something that's automatic and

just by doing that like I don't know if

people really realize how beneficial

that can be because if you want to learn

a language you know English or whatever

like some any other language you need to

really put in the hours especially if

you want to get to a fluent level it's

going to take thousands of hours I know

that you know in some of my other videos

I I try to sound a lot more

um optimistic a lot more enthusiastic

saying that you know after a few hundred

hours you can reach a very good level

which is true you can get to a

conversational level

but if you want to really break through

that barrier of you know being like near

native or a native level in a language

it's gonna take thousands of hours and

there's no

there's no hack there's no shortcut you

need to put in the hours and switching

your entire life to that language plus

doing the repetitive repetitive uh

listening

dot just you know you're just putting in

the hours it's extremely effective and I

think this is the only way to go to be

honest

now I want to move on to the third

strategy and this is not something that

that I did and this is something that I

wish I had done because now I you know

I've done a lot more research I have

more experience as far as language

learning I've learned Italian and I've

learned Japanese to a pretty high level

and uh especially you know learning

Japanese

it has improved the way in which I think

about language learning in general

because

Japanese is just orders of magnitude uh

more difficult and more time consuming

than than learning English because it's

so much more different

so I've thought about this a lot and you

know as as I was saying I switched my

life to English I did some repetitive

listening as well in order to get as

much input as possible so this was my my

entire strategy although I can't really

call it a strategy because it was not

really intentional I just did it because

I thought it was cool because I wanted

to do it

and so my entire strategy revolved

around uh doing a lot of input so

listening a lot and reading a lot I

would say listening was uh probably

constituted the the bulk of my strategy

and it still is it is the case right now

for you know English and Japanese

and so

what I understand now is that the input

that you receive so the stuff that

you've listened to and the stuff that

you read and you know the TV shows that

you watch you're going to benefit from

them you're going to become fluent from

them only if that input is actually

comprehensible to you so what this means

is that if you're watching stuff if

you're listening to stuff that is just

you know way above your level which is

the case for you know most people

watching a TV show in English are not

going to understand most of it you know

if you're at a beginner level in English

or even intermediate level it's totally

normal because all of that stuff is

aimed at you know native speakers if you

listen to The Joe Rogan Experience or

Tim Ferriss you're not going to

understand most of it as you know a

standard English learner

and that's a problem because in order to

really benefit from all of this input it

needs to be at what Dr Stephen crashing

I think he said it was n plus one or I

plus one meaning that ideally in every

sentence you want to have a maximum of

like one word that you don't know that

gives you an an idea of sort of the

level that you should be uh looking for

my point here is that

a lot of English Learners are going to

and you know a lot of language Learners

in general are going to get a lot of

input through listening and reading but

it's not going to be at the right level

it's going to be too difficult so then

what do you do what is the solution well

the on the other hand on the other hand

of the spectrum what you can do is get

actually you know like much easier

material material that is made for

language learning like for example you

know textbooks and that kind of stuff

but that kind of stuff is pretty boring

and so there's no way that you're going

to be able to put in hundreds or you

know thousands of hours just consuming

that kind of stuff

so my advice and what I would have done

is use a tool like link for example and

I'm going to put a link in the

description of this video to create a

free account to the website called link

which can help you greatly in learning

so I'm going to explain what it is

I just want to tell you first I'm 100

honest if you create a free account with

the link in the description and you end

up purchasing a subscription I am an

affiliate for link because I believe

it's uh it's a great tool so I will get

a small percentage of uh that sale but

it's really up to you I want you to just

try it out and if it helps you then you

know go ahead so as I was as I was

saying so if you're listening and

reading stuff in English or any language

in order to learn that language it needs

to become comprehensible first

so my suggestion would be for example

let's say that you're watching something

on Netflix and you're learning English

you're watching this TV show in English

so what you can do is go on Netflix and

you can use Link Link actually has a

Chrome extension and so you can just

click on a button in your browser and

what it's going to do is that it's going

to import all of the subtitles of that

TV show or that movie in the link

website and it's going to help you

you're going to do assisted uh reading

and you can click on certain words and

it's going to give you the translation

for them you can select entire phrases

you know sentences and it's going to

give you the translation of those

sentences

so before actually watching the TV show

or movie you can start reading and

really start to understand the the

vocabulary words and prepare yourself

before you actually watch uh the the TV

or the TV show or or the movie and you

can do the same thing with podcasts if

you can find you know transcripts you

can do the same thing with uh with

YouTube videos for example and so what

I'm trying to convey here is that using

link or you can use another tool if you

want but I find that link is actually

very very practical and it's very cheap

you can start preparing this uh this

listening phase and this this whole you

know input you can get a lot more

comprehensible input which means that

the input that you're going to get is

going to benefit you a lot more than it

did for me because most of the stuff I

was listening to especially in the

beginning I did not understand you know

much of it so this is just an extra tip

this is something I wish I knew this is

something I'm currently doing for

Japanese but I didn't do it for English

but so yeah so an extra tip just uh just

to help you here so once again I have

put a link in the description you can

click on it and you will be able to use

Link for free uh you you have you'll

have a free account and if you want to

learn more about some of my language

learning strategies you can go to the

language

scientist.com and that's pretty much it

I hope you like this video and I'll see

you in the next one