Filed Under: Speaking English

Why aren’t people impressed when you speak English?

September 13, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

The reason why most native English speakers aren’t particularly impressed when you speak English is because… they just don’t care.

It’s exactly the same reason why they’re not that impressed when you manage to get dressed in the morning or tie your shoelaces.

Speaking English to most native English speakers is just something that you should do.

Even in other countries where English is widely spoken, it’s just generally accepted that you speak English. They won’t look at you, thinking, “Oh wow this person speaks English very well. They achieved something incredible!”. No, they won’t. They’re just looking at you, thinking, “I’m going to talk to this person.”.

Most native speakers just don’t think of speaking English as an impressive thing. It’s because, in native English-speaking cultures, language learning is not something we do.

Again, speaking English is just the normal thing to do. And you can be critical of this and think what you want, but this is neither negative nor positive. That’s just how native English culture is.

But of course, it’s different when you’re in a non-native English country. People in countries where they put a great time and effort to learn English tend to see proficiency in English with a sense of achievement. Again, that’s because it’s a part of your culture doesn’t mean it’s a part of native English culture.

If you need some help in speaking English the way native speakers do, you can start with the one-hour free training that I created. You’ll learn the 5 key changes my best clients make to improve their English as higher-level English learners. You can go to this link if this interests you.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: Learning English, Speaking English

“Why I got a good score in school but I can’t speak English well in the real world?”

September 9, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

It’s not that you can’t speak English well (despite having good grades in school)… it’s because you’re probably overthinking it.




You see, what you learn in school is quite different from what you actually use in real life. In school, they taught you a sort of method that forces this kind of
very slow, conscious, careful processing of English learning.

But learning English is really just a case of balancing focused intensive learning and relaxed English usage. And again, the keyword here is BALANCE.

See, if you’re just intent on thinking that “examination is king”, then you’re always just going to have that habit. You’re always going to think about your grades… and that’s very counterproductive.

And, you know, this type of habit is especially true in Asian contexts as well. In fact, one of the biggest criticisms I have about the way schools in Japan approach “speaking” (which I honestly think isn’t speaking at all) is their scripted “speaking exercises”. I mean, sure, it’s useful in some way, but if you’re going to consistently rely on these exercises, your brain is always going to look for that crutch. Your brain’s always going to need that help to speak English… whilst worrying about your grades in English at the same time.

But anyway, the point here is… you need to understand why you feel like your English isn’t getting any better. Are you just focusing on your intensive learning and your grades? Or are you just using English in your relaxed time and doing nothing else?

What you should do is learn which part of your learning method you’re lacking… then fix it.

Now, if you want to learn the proper way to balance your learning routine and how to fix it, you can start with the one-hour free training I made.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English Grammar, Speaking English

How can I improve my English grammar?

September 7, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Improving your English grammar is probably not something that you should ONLY focus on.

But you also have to ask yourself these questions:

What do you struggle with?

Why are you having problems with grammar?

If you’re like most of my coaching clients (high-level English as a second language speakers)… the reason you’re struggling with grammar is probably – ironically enough – is that you’re TOO focused on grammar.

See, there’s this misconception that when you learn English grammar, you’re automatically going to be fluent in English.

But that’s not the case at all.

The reality is, most native speakers don’t bother too much with grammar rules at all. Instead, we store blocks of English called “chunks” in our long-term memory. We then pull these chunks out when we need to use them (this video talks more about this in detail), which is how we sound natural when speaking English.




But again, I’m not saying grammar rules are totally useless. They’re not. But there is a correct time and place to use and study them (and that’s usually when you’re already fluent and natural-sounding in English) as a way to deepen your knowledge of what you can already do.

If you want to take this further and learn English without focusing too much on grammar, have a look at the free training I created. It’ll teach you the top 5 things you need to know about improving your English (that’s more than just grammar).

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English fluency, English learning, Speaking English

Why conversation apps might not help you be fluent in English?

August 26, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

A lot of people make the huge mistake of thinking that conversation apps will magically make them fluent in English.

But that’s not normally true at all.




See, relying on conversation apps ALONE is probably not enough to make you fluent in English.

And it’s the same with just relying on conversations with your teacher or with somebody on italki. And the reason why you won’t get automatically fluent by using apps or speaking with your English teacher/peer is that you’re in a comfortable setting. You feel relaxed when you’re talking to them. And that comfortable setting gives you a false sense of just how good your English is, when in reality… it’s probably not as good as you think it is.

Instead, what you need to do is start with the hardest things, the difficult conversations. Because if you find yourself in high-pressure situations, everything else becomes easier.

Let’s take this analogy for example:

I used to run marathons. I had years of practice with running. I trained in the nice, flat, paved streets of Tokyo. It was so beautiful and everything was easy! I didn’t have to stumble and fall while training, so that was great. But then I ran a marathon for the first time in West Cork, Ireland.. and it was an absolute shit show. I ran through hills, mountains, flooded sections everywhere, and it was even raining! It was absolutely horrible. But after all of those, did I perform well? Hell no. However, when I trained in that environment (no matter how absolutely horrific it was) every other marathon I ran was easy in comparison. And that was because I already got through the worst one.

And the same can be said with learning English. You’ve got to go through difficult, high-pressure situations so everything else becomes easy. But apart from going through hard situations in English, you’ve also got to find the balance between focus intensive learning and using English in relaxed settings.

In fact, you can learn more about this approach (or what I call the Two Track Method) and other useful ways to learn English efficiently. You can start with the free one-hour training I created, which will tell you more about learning English the best way.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English learning, Speaking English

How can I avoid sounding monotonous in English?

August 25, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

There are quite a few things you can do, and several exercises that I use with my ESL clients for doing just this.

For example, three of the top ones:

  1. First, learn to chunk your English properly (this is the number one big thing; native speakers don’t speak in words and rules – they speak in chunks and pronounce language in chunks. Until you learn to articulate your English in the same way, you’ll always sound flat and monotonous — if you’re not sure what “chunking” is or how to do it, have a look at the free training I created here).
  2. Learn to vary the speed of your voice for effect (it’s not true native speakers speaker “fast” – we speed up and slow down all the time.
  3. Practise extremes: one of my favourite is reading aloud in an exaggerated, extreme way. You wouldn’t speak like this in an actual conversation, but by exaggerating in your practise, displaying emotion, anger, excitement, drama etc. in your speech will feel more comfortable.

There are more, but that’ll get you started.

Best,
Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: Speaking English

What is the quickest and most efficient strategy to speak English for non-native English speakers?

August 20, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

I’m going to say something controversial: there isn’t actually a “quick” way to learn English.

There are English-learning methods you can use to learn English efficiently… but it’s certainly not quick.

Because the quick way is actually the slow, consistent way.

But for most people, the main thing you will want to do is change the way you learn and speak English. Non-native English speakers have learned English as a system of grammar rules and individual words. So, if this is how you learned English, you’ll end up speaking using these rules. And instead of sounding natural, your English becomes quite robotic.

If you’ve learned that way in school, what you need to do (first and foremost) is to unlearn it. Rather than focusing on grammar rules… focus on “chunks” (a sequence of words that are stored in a native speaker’s brain (you can learn more about “chunks” in this video.)




And, we have all of these chunks of English encoded in our long-term memory. So whenever we speak, we just pull all of those chunks out of our memory and use them. And these could be short or long… and that’s why we speak very fluently and efficiently. We don’t actually need any of these “rules” to be able to speak native-like.

So, again, if you want to speak English quickly and efficiently, don’t focus on words. Use chunks and speak confidently. But if you really want to sound like a native English speaker, I have a free guide here you can use to start speaking like a native English speaker.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook