Become fluent in English using the Immersion method

0:00 3 years ago when I met Chang, her English wasn't that good.

0:09 Hey,

0:08 but now she's fluent.

0:11 Her English is topnotch.

0:15 A

0:14 So, how did she go from not [music] that good to very, very good?

0:23 You might think the answer [music] is

0:24 because she's been dating me, but it's not.

0:28 Today I'll share with you the three tips I shared

0:32 with Chang which helped her reach full fluency in English.

0:37 But first [music] coffee.

0:53 This is a water tank and this is a water dispenser.

0:58 I am filling up the water tank from the water dispenser.

1:08 I am attaching the water tank to the coffee machine.

1:12 I am taking the coffee [music] pod and putting it in the coffee machine.

1:21 I am pressing the button and the coffee is

1:26 coming out of [music] the machine into the mug.

1:35 I have just made a coffee and that is the first tip to reach full fluency.

1:43 What coffee?

1:46 No, your home is your English zone.

1:51 What do I mean by that?

1:53 Well, everything in your home has a name.

1:57 Like this mug.

2:00 This is the mug.

2:02 And this is the handle.

2:05 Can you repeat?

2:06 Mug.

2:09 Handle.

2:12 Good.

2:14 The idea behind this game is that you

2:18 learn the name for everything in your house.

2:22 Treat your house like a dictionary.

2:24 Treat it like an English playground.

2:27 And it's very important to speak out loud to speak out loud

2:34 the name of things like this is a carton of oat milk.

2:40 There might be some new words that surprise you,

2:44 like door handle versus door knob.

2:51 I bet you didn't know the difference between these two.

2:53 And if you did, you're a genius.

2:57 A door knob is circular.

3:00 It's round.

3:02 And you twist it to open the door.

3:08 A door handle is rectangular and you push it down

3:14 to open the door and pull it up to lock the door.

3:21 I'm locking the door with the key.

3:26 Wait, we need to be inside.

3:29 So, let's unlock this door and go back inside.

3:38 But what if you don't know the name for something?

3:43 Either you watch my videos or you can simply use a tool like chat GPT or Gemini.

3:53 You take a picture of that thing and ask what is this called in English?

4:00 What is this called in English?

4:03 H cushion.

4:07 This is a cushion.

4:09 So now you have the name of it.

4:10 You can make simple sentences.

4:13 And these questions might help.

4:15 What color is it?

4:17 What shape is it?

4:18 What material is it?

4:20 What is the function of it?

4:22 And what does it feel like?

4:24 For example,

4:25 okay, let's see.

4:26 The cushion is red.

4:28 It's in the shape of a love heart.

4:31 It has long arms, so it looks like a real creature.

4:35 Is made of cotton, and it's very comfy and soft.

4:41 I like to use this cushion to support my head

4:44 when I take [music] a nap on the sofa.

4:47 It's really comfy.

4:50 You can do this exercise anytime at home.

4:53 When you cook, I am frying an egg in the frying pan.

4:59 when you take a shower.

5:00 I'm standing under the shower head about to take

5:04 a shower or when you do the chores.

5:09 I am vacuuming the floor.

5:11 Or in the UK we say hoovering.

5:13 I'm hoovering.

5:15 And even when you listen to music,

5:17 you can ask yourself, what instruments can I hear?

5:20 How does this music make me feel?

5:31 This is a beautiful piano piece by the composer [music] Austin Farwell.

5:37 When I listen to music like this, it makes me feel relaxed,

5:43 at ease, and peaceful.

5:48 Can you see what I did there?

5:50 I I'm using my home as my English zone.

5:54 I'm learning new vocabulary from the things around me

5:58 and then I'm making simple sentences with those words.

6:02 The key is to speak out loud.

6:06 If you have the problem that you can understand but you can't speak,

6:12 then the likelihood is it's because

6:14 you haven't practiced speaking out loud enough.

6:18 Now, speaking is just muscle memory, like going to the gym.

6:23 The more you do it, the more your muscles remember the actions.

6:28 So the more you move your mouth and tongue to form the words,

6:33 the faster those words come out.

6:36 By the way, this is a soft toy.

6:42 This is an electric piano.

6:44 [music] And this is a plant in a plant pot.

6:54 You can also practice speaking out loud with a fun and simple game.

6:58 It's called the word association game.

7:01 Let's take this bell as our starting word.

7:04 I'm going to make associations.

7:06 So, bell, ring, wedding, celebration, champagne, wine, bubbles, water,

7:15 puddle, rain, mountain, sky, blue, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

7:22 You get the idea.

7:23 I'm making associations in a chain.

7:27 This game is going to really build your spontaneous speaking

7:31 and help you feel less anxious and more confident when you speak.

7:36 Plus, it's fun.

7:37 I'll dive deeper into this game in a future episode, but for now,

7:42 let's go downstairs and I'm going to show you my favorite British shows.

7:49 For anyone wondering, that is a swinging chair.

7:53 This is a remote.

7:56 It has buttons on it.

7:59 When I press the power button, it turns on the TV, which links to my second tip.

8:09 Watch what you love, but slightly above your level and without subtitles.

8:14 When learning any language, input is really important.

8:19 As you all know in my videos, I teach English using visuals and context.

8:26 This is called the comprehensible input method where you understand

8:31 not all of the language but you get the gist,

8:35 you get the idea because of the visuals and the context.

8:40 So, it's less based on forced memorization,

8:44 but more on getting the overall picture through natural context.

8:52 I would recommend you to watch English videos

8:56 without the subtitles while still understanding 70 to 80%.

9:02 Why?

9:03 Well, when you watch a video with the subtitles,

9:06 you tend to fixate on the subtitles.

9:10 you read the subtitles and you don't watch

9:14 the video and listen to the English being used.

9:17 So without the subtitles, you're training your brain to link the sounds

9:24 that you hear with the visual meaning, the context.

9:28 Now this is a much stronger hook

9:31 in your brain because our visual memory is very strong.

9:34 So watching without subtitles, understanding about 70 to 80%.

9:39 Now, I'm going to share with you some of my favorite

9:41 British TV shows so you can practice this at home.

9:45 If you're a beginner, I would recommend three different things.

9:50 First, Peppa Pig.

9:52 [music] Second, Bluey.

9:59 Blue.

9:58 And third, the movie Finding Nemo.

10:02 Nemo.

10:03 Nemo.

10:05 All of these are children's shows and children's movies.

10:09 However, they are fantastic for improving your English from beginner

10:14 to intermediate because the stories are simple and the episodes are short.

10:19 If you're intermediate, try sitcoms like Friends.

10:24 I used Friends in the past to learn French and it worked.

10:28 Blue blah flu flank.

10:30 [laughter] You can also try TED ed TED videos are shorter than the TED

10:38 talks and they have more visuals so it's easier for you to understand.

10:43 If you love documentaries then I would recommend David Atenburgh.

10:49 So David Atenburgh is loved by English people and by British people.

10:54 He is a national treasure and his documentaries

10:58 are all about the earth, animals, humans and they are wonderful for practicing

11:04 English because he speaks very slowly,

11:08 very clearly and you hear the same words repeating again and again.

11:13 The two Atomra documentaries I would recommend for you are Planet Earth

11:18 which I think is on Netflix [music] and the new one Kingdom.

11:23 Other than that, just search David Atenburgh documentaries

11:27 and you'll find a lot of good content there.

11:30 And if you're advanced, the world is your oyster, my friend.

11:34 The TV is your oyster.

11:35 You can watch literally anything.

11:37 My favorite comedy show is a show called Peep Show.

11:42 And this is a British comedy.

11:45 Classic British humor.

11:47 It's British humor at its peak.

11:49 Peep Show is hilarious.

11:50 And if you're advanced,

11:51 it's going to be wonderful to understand more about British culture,

11:55 the way that British people think.

11:57 On top of Peep Show,

11:58 you can also watch other comedies like The Office or The Inbetweeners.

12:04 The Inbetweeners has a lot of slang words that you could learn from.

12:08 Again, if you're advanced, any input is good input.

12:11 So, the more you watch, the more you listen, the more you improve.

12:16 Just repeat, repeat, repeat.

12:18 After watching these films or videos,

12:21 you can ask yourself these three questions which will help your speaking.

12:26 What did I just watch?

12:28 What was it about?

12:29 And did I like it or not?

12:31 If you want to watch English videos which

12:34 show you how English is used in everyday life,

12:38 like feeding animals at the farm, shopping in the supermarket,

12:44 and exercising in the gym, then you can go to sproutlanguage.com.

12:52 On sprout language.com, the videos are categorized by your level,

12:56 so you can always progress in English.

12:59 Let's put this in action.

13:00 I want to show you an example with Chang.

13:04 Hello.

13:05 So Chang is gonna watch a video on Sprout

13:08 and then she's gonna practice speaking about it after with Ji.

13:12 Want to show you guys how it works in action.

13:16 Feeling good.

13:17 Feeling like my legs are going to ache tomorrow.

13:22 It's great to chat with you.

13:23 In the video, I was so excited to go skiing for my birthday.

13:27 Have you ever been skiing before?

13:31 Yes.

13:31 I skied with you.

13:33 That's right.

13:34 I'm so glad you could join me.

13:36 It was your first time seeing snow, too, wasn't it?

13:38 How did you like that?

13:40 Honestly, seeing snow for the first time was so magical.

13:44 It sounds like you had a truly magical time.

13:46 It's wonderful that you learned how to ski so quickly.

13:50 You picked it up really fast.

13:52 A few moments later.

13:54 See you later.

13:55 Thank you.

13:55 It was great chatting with you, Chang.

13:57 Your English is excellent.

13:58 Keep practicing and I'll see you next time.

14:01 Thank you.

14:03 Nice.

14:03 Now, we still have a 50% off Luna New Year deal.

14:07 So, head on over to sproutlanguage.com where

14:09 you get access to group classes with me,

14:11 speaking practice with JI, and all the exclusive content perfect for your level.

14:16 Right now, on to the third and final tip.

14:21 So, we have trained our eyes to watch.

14:25 We've trained our ears to listen.

14:28 And we trained our mouths to speak.

14:32 Now it's time to train our brains to think in English.

14:39 Most of you at home, I imagine,

14:42 think in the language that you use the most, your mother tongue.

14:46 But we want to train our brains to think in English.

14:51 Now, what's a practical and simple way to do this?

14:54 Well, maybe when you're on your way to work

14:57 or in a public space where you can't speak,

15:00 you can think, what if I think my thoughts in English?

15:05 What if I think about the world around me in English?

15:10 What would that sound like?

15:11 Now, in the beginning, this will take some conscious efforts.

15:15 It will be a little bit difficult.

15:17 Just like any habit, it requires you to be conscious about doing it.

15:22 be aware and just do it.

15:25 Very soon it will become subconscious.

15:28 It will become natural.

15:31 I'm going to show you an example.

15:33 H I should probably wash the dishes right now.

15:37 I can't really be bothered, but might as well.

15:40 Right.

15:40 I'm going to take the scourer.

15:43 Yep.

15:43 Pump some washing up liquid on that scourer.

15:46 Turn on the tap.

15:49 Not really sure how I feel about washing dishes.

15:52 I mean, on the one hand,

15:53 it's quite it's quite satisfying seeing those soapy suds.

15:57 M lovely soapy suds.

16:00 But on the other hand, it's a bit like slave labor.

16:05 Yes.

16:06 Rinsing off those soapy suds.

16:09 Yes.

16:11 Chopsticks or drumsticks?

16:15 Do I want to wash the rest of those things up?

16:18 Nah, leave that to Chang.

16:21 So, to recap the entire video, one, your home is your English zone.

16:28 Use your house and objects around you to practice speaking out loud.

16:34 Two, watch what you love without subtitles and make sure

16:38 you understand most of the content, around 70 to 80%.

16:44 And three, train your brain to think in English.

16:48 Now, the key take-home message is that immersion is

16:53 the number one way to become fluent in any language.

16:57 You need to immerse yourself.

16:58 You need to consume as much as possible and speak as much as possible.

17:04 Now, if you want a proven immersion system,

17:06 you can head on over to sproutlanguage.com.

17:09 The link is in the description for 50% off your first month.

17:15 Try the immersion system.

17:16 Practice speaking with JI.

17:18 Join group classes with me and you will get better.

17:23 Thank you so much for watching.

17:24 I hope you learned a lot in this [music] video and I will see you next week.

17:32 Times [music] and places [singing] are all

17:37 in who you share [singing and music] them with.