Have you been following my blog for a while?

Maybe even for a number of years?

Do you think I sound a bit repetitive by discussing pretty much the same things all over and over again?

Guess what?

I do it for a very good reason

Just think about it for a minute.

Imagine you’re someone who’s completely NEW to the whole English fluency issue and you’ve just discovered my blog.

You start reading my latest blog posts and watching my latest videos, and all I keep talking about is advanced English grammar, for example.

Now, tell me honestly – would you BENEFIT from it?

I don’t think so!!!

You see, as a new blog visitor you have to be exposed to the right kind of information that will allow you to go through all the following steps:

• Recognizing the English fluency issue;
• Realizing WHY it exists;
• Finding out HOW it can be dealt with.

So, as you can imagine, if I didn’t touch upon the same topics in almost every article or video (you must have noticed I keep saying that it’s very important to practice your spoken English in almost every YouTube video!), the chances of my new blog visitors of understanding why they have these issues and how they can deal with them would be very, very small.
I would be basically blogging only for those relatively few blog readers who’ve been developing their English fluency WITH ME over the years and I would be largely ignoring those people’s needs who are really desperate to figure out how to START THEIR JOURNEY!

Also, it’s a bit unfair to say that I talk about the same things ALL THE TIME.

Yes, I do emphasize the importance of spoken English practice very often, but at the same time I also provide a hell lot of content that is relevant to ALL blog visitors.

Let’s just take, for example, one of my latest articles where I’m talking about giving a presentation in English.

You just have to admit that ANYONE would benefit from it

Such and similar English phrases will come in handy for you regardless of your “awareness level” (whether you’re someone who just realized how to improve your fluency or a veteran fluency improver) and on top of that, I always try to provide some quality info that is NEW instead of the same old, same old.

Just read this article where I’m discussing the merits of using headphones when listening to English, for example. I don’t think it would be fair to say it’s something I’ve been talking about for years, right?

So, the bottom line is:

Yes, I DO touch upon the same things all the time, but it’s only because my new blog visitors really need it!

Any questions?

Let me know!

Cheers,

Robby

P.S. I’ve also been accused of promoting the English Harmony System by some people. But how on Earth would my audience find out about one of the BEST WAYS of improving their English fluency if I didn’t tell them about it???

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Hi guys! Hello boys and girls. Hello my dear fellow foreign English speakers and welcome back to Robby’s English Harmony video blog. And welcome to the year 2016. And I’m pretty sure that a lot of you guys are making new year’s resolutions just like we all do. And also some of you would be making the resolution to study English really hard next year and become fluent in English, right?

But here’s the thing – if you make the resolution to study English hard, it’s actually a double whammy which means that you’re going to fail on two accounts. First of all, if you decide to study English, studying as such is a method of preparing yourself for exams, tests and the like. That’s the typical academic approach basically where the education is centered around assessment, typically a test or an exam. Studying is the crucial part of it. You study for a test or an exam, then you pass it and then you move on to the next one.

But in reality when it comes to spoken English performance, studying for it is not going to make any difference. It’s all about practicing instead. So basically you have to shift your focus away from studying entirely and focus predominantly on practicing your English. And it’s not just about spoken English, right? As a matter of fact, any English-related activity requires loads of practice for you to become good at it. Whether it’s reading or writing or listening or speaking you can only become good at it by doing it!

And you may want to check out this blog post that I published earlier last year which is all about you being what you do. And spoken English, written English, English comprehension, reading are no exceptions to the rule. You can only become good at practicing those areas.

When you study that rather implies you sitting down and reading a book. That’s the typical picture that conjures itself up in my mind when you mention the word “study” and I’m pretty sure a lot of you guys would be the same when you say “study” – 9 out of 10 people would be thinking about sitting down at the desk and pouring over textbooks and studying really hard.

That’s the second part of it. It sets you up for failure again because if you have the concept of doing something really hard, the very word “hard” implies that it’s not going to be enjoyable. It’s not going to be an enjoyable experience at all. It’s going to be studying which by its very nature is perceived to be something boring and tedious and hard makes it twice as hard, twice as boring, twice as tedious.

So when you have this concept in your head “I have to study English hard.” As a matter of fact, you don’t even want to do it deep down inside and you will find every excuse along the way just to put it off for another day, for a week, for a month. And then the whole next year is going to just fly by in a jiffy and you’ll realize that you haven’t done anything!

So what I suggest is instead of studying, make your goal to practice English. Instead of doing it hard, do it the easy way. It doesn’t have to be hard. What I’m doing now isn’t hard at all. I’m just turning the camcorder on and I’m just speaking away, right?  And by the way you can read an article here about the advantages of recording your speech in a camcorder and how it can improve your spoken English, right?

So it doesn’t have to be hard. It can be easy and it has to be easy. It has to be enjoyable because everything that’s hard is not really enjoyable. Well, there’s a lot to be said about, say, working out, exercising hard which is enjoyable. But then again, it’s somewhat a bit different, you know. I would rather call it challenging, not necessarily hard. If something becomes too hard on the verge of you not being able to do it. It’s like spinning your wheels on a bike and getting nowhere. Stuck in the mud for instance. It’s not an enjoyable experience at all!

So I want you to shift your focus away from these seemingly good new year’s resolutions such as studying hard, I have to study hard. And then I’m going to become a good English speaker or I’ll just develop English fluency in general, right? I have to study hard. For some reason or another you have this concept in your mind and that seems like the only way to go to succeed. But it’s not the case. Get rid of that, get rid of the study, get rid of the hard part and just practice English regularly and do it in an easy way, in an easy manner. Enjoy the process, right?

Whatever it is you’re doing, whether you’re consuming audiovisual content or you’re reading or you’re writing something or you’re speaking with yourself, doing lot of English practice, it has to be done in an easy way. You just have to do it in a way you can manage it. There’s no reason for you to set the bar very, very high and aim for it knowing that you’re going to fail, that it’s going to be too hard. And there’s another article that I want you to read and there’s a video as well called “This English stuff is too easy, give something more difficult! Give me something more difficult, right?”

And what made me to create that video was an e-mail I got off one of my customers who said the English Harmony system’s content is too easy and that he wanted something more difficult. And that’s another wrong concept that some of you guys may have that if you do something easy it’s not going to develop your English. You have to be doing something really hard, push yourself really in order to develop. Well, there’s a certain degree of doing it obviously. If you constantly stay within the comfort zone, you’re not going to be developing your fluency, say a great deal.

But then again, it’s all about practicing. You could be talking about the same things, using the same words all over and over again but you will still develop within your comfort zone. You will become even more fluent. You don’t even necessarily have to acquire a large base of vocabulary, words or whatever. All that matters is that you can use the words that you know fluently, right?

And I hope you get the drift my friends basically. Don’t aim for something that is hard, difficult. Don’t fall for the trap of thinking that only that way you will experience some development. And when it comes to study, studying, just get rid of that concept altogether. Obviously, if you want to pass certain exams and tests and what not, then some study is required. Do it. But I strongly believe that you will experience an even greater development and you will actually prepare for those exams. If you practice loads, you will quite naturally know what is the right way of saying or writing this or that particular thing, probably without actually putting in as much study as someone who only studies to pass the exam, if you know what I mean.

Okay? So if you have this resolution to study hard, get rid of it and practice the easy way. All right? And obviously if you have any questions or comments of any nature, publish them in the comment section below my friends. Thanks for watching this video and chat to you soon. Bye bye!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it!

Transcript Below:

Hi guys, hello boys and girls and hello my dear fellow foreign English speakers!

It’s me, Robby from EnglishHarmony.com bringing you another video message which is going to be uploaded onto my YouTube channel and then it’s going to be embedded into a blog post on my blog EnglishHarmony.com and then I’m going to promote it for my Facebook followers, my Twitter followers, my LinkedIn partners so basically this message is being sent out for everyone who is interested in spoken English improvement basically, right? That’s what the whole thing is about.

And today’s video is about the fact that not everyone, right, listen to this carefully guys, not every English speaker out there uses the very same means of expression, right? And the reason I’m saying this is because I’m cranking out all these idiomatic expressions. If you head over to my blog site map page you may want to click on this link, right? Englishharmony.com/sitemap-page if I’m not mistaken. Anyway, I’m going to look at up later on and then I’m going to embed that link right here. So it might not be not the same exact link that I just said but you’re going to be able to click right here just like I said, right? And you’ll be able to see all those hundreds upon hundreds of videos and blog posts and a good chunk of those is idiomatic expressions, right? Collocations, idioms and so on and so forth, right?

It’s Easy to Get Overwhelmed by Looking at the Sheer Amount of Phrases

So the reason I’m bringing up this subject that everyone uses the same expressions is that some of you might get overwhelmed, right? You might be looking at the whole list of phrases and you might be thinking “Hold on a second, does that mean that I have to be using every single one of those phrases all the time in my conversations?”

And the answer is – not really, right? You may pick and choose your favorite set of phrases that you would be using on a regular basis. And if you observe the way native English speakers speak you will also realize that certain people use certain phraseology more often than not, right?

When I remember in my last job there was this secretary and she was always using the expression – what was the expression? Let me remember. “That kind of a way,” right? So she would basically explain something and then in the end she would stick the phrase “that kind of a way”, right? And that was a peculiar phrase to her. I haven’t actually heard anyone else using that phrase, right? Obviously I’m not saying that just by using that one phrase you’re going to become a fluent English speaker, not at all. I’m just saying it to illustrate the fact that not everyone uses the same pool of expressions, right?

And let me think of another example. My former instructor in the college that I’m currently attending was always using – what was the phrase? He used a couple of very, very interesting phrases. Can’t remember, to be honest with you guys. Totally slipped my mind but you get the drift, right? It’s okay to pick your favorite phrases and use them quite frequently during the speech, right?

Obviously some people would say that if you just use one phrase such as “you know what I mean” and if you overuse that phrase that would be a bad thing, that would be a bad habit and that would send the wrong message to the conversational partner of yours that your English is very poor or whatever.

I don’t really agree with that opinion but I can see where those people would be coming from, right? If you use one particular phrase all the time, yeah, that might be a little bit annoying for the other person.

It’s Better to Sound a Bit Annoying Than Lose Your English Fluency!

But then again, just think about the fact that if you do that you might keep your fluency going whereas if you don’t do that, if you analyze your speech too much, if you try to get rid of all those expressions, your speech might start to struggle a little bit. You might get stuck for words and so on and so forth.

So the trade-offs of using such phrases I don’t think that they outweigh the benefits that you get by using those phrases, right? Basically I think that the benefits of using these expressions by far outweigh the possible negative consequences, if you know what I mean.

What I just said was a little bit confusing maybe but all I was saying was that just go with using a couple of phrases, if that makes you feel comfortable, if that gives your fluency that so much needed flow, if that gets you into the rhythm and just stick with those phrases, okay?

And if you think about it as well a lot of authors if you’re into reading and if you read different authors, you will definitely realize that certain people have certain types of vocabulary that they use. So basically everyone is unique.

You can’t actually compare yourself to everyone else and draw the conclusion that your English is not up to scratch just because you’re not using the same means of expressions as the other person, right? It’s not necessarily the case; it’s quite the opposite actually on a lot of occasions. You have your own unique ways of expression that are probably on certain occasions even better than those of the other person that you’re looking up to, right?

So it’s all the matter of perspective. So by all means guys, just pick and choose a few expressions. Typically they would be sentence starters that would help you to get your speech going, right? And obviously when it comes to the rest of the speech I’m not saying that you only have to use like 3 or 4 idiomatic expressions and that’s it. That’s not at all what I’m saying. I hope that you get that as well, right?

All I’m saying is that obviously you have to be learning a lot of new vocabulary, phraseology and all that kind of thing but all I’m saying is you don’t have to be overly worried and concerned about the fact that you can’t use everything in your active speech. It’s not even possible, right?

There’s Only So Many Phrases You Can Use at Any Given Point in Time!

Just look at me. You might be under the impression that I’m using loads and loads of phrases and all that well, which is obviously true to a certain degree but then there’s a whole lot more phrases that I’m not using that I could have been using and that I could have been beating myself over but I’m not doing that.

Because I know for a fact that I’m sticking to my comfort zone, to my phrases that I know, that I use and obviously a few years down the line I’ll be probably using a whole lot of more expressions. But at this particular moment in time I’m comfortable using my own pool of phrases and I can express myself freely and that’s the way I roll and that’s the way I suggest you roll my friends.

So if you have any questions obviously about this topic or about improving English fluency in general, please don’t hesitate getting in touch with me right here in the comment section below and obviously if you liked this video don’t forget to like it and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already done so.

So thanks for watching and chat to you soon. Bye-bye!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it!

Video Transcript Below:

Hi guys! Hi boys and girls and welcome back to Robby’s English Harmony video blog.

I welcome you to this video on this nice Sunday afternoon.

However, let me draw your attention to the fact that it might not be a Sunday that this video is published on YouTube, simply because I tend to record a bunch of videos and then I publish them as I see fit, basically, right? And, if you notice that I used this phrase that we’re going to be talking about today, “let me draw your attention to the fact”… I used it, previously, a couple of seconds ago there. And that was pretty much the first example scenario, how would you use it, right?

It’s simply to draw somebody’s attention to a specific fact, right? And also, let me draw your attention to the fact that this phrase is somewhat more professional, formal, if you know what I mean. You wouldn’t be, probably, using this phrase when chatting with your friends in a very, very informal setting, you know? You might use it, it won’t hurt, you know? But, it’s just that it’s probably, typically used in a professional environment.

Imagine giving a presentation, or giving a speech, and that’s when you would use this phrase. But if you want to hear more example scenarios when this phrase is used, please bear with me for a few more moments and you will hear more from me, right?

Hi guys and welcome back! But before we continue with looking at this phrase, “let me draw your attention to the fact”, how to use it, what kind of situations you would be using it in, let me just have a quick sip of my Sunday afternoon coffee. Cheers, my friends!

And, let me draw your attention to the fact that this is only the second cup. Well, as a matter of fact, it’s not a cup, you know? Because cups tend to be of smaller sizes. This is a massive jug, you know? For all intents and purposes, this is almost like a pint jug that you drink Guinness, you know?

So, yeah, let me draw your attention to the fact that is only the second one, because, why I’m saying only, the simple fact of the matter is lately I’ve been kind of stressed out, you know? There’s been a lot going on in my life and I started drinking coffee in ever increasing amounts. And lo and behold, I started developing a slight headache, you know?

And it’s been troubling me for the last couple of days. And that’s human nature, you know? That’s human nature. You don’t change your behavior unless something starts troubling you, you know? So I cut down on the amount of coffee that I’m consuming. This is the second day, if I’m not mistaken, and I’m feeling much better, gotta tell you.

So my resolution is, when I go back to work tomorrow, I will only have two cups max, you know? Two cups max. But now I’m enjoying it. And let me draw your attention to the fact that I added some chocolate almond milk to it. And it tastes just, just wonderful, you know? You may want to try it yourself, right?

Anyway, going back to the fact that I mentioned previously there, that you would be using this phrase, “let me draw your attention to the fact”, more in formal settings, I want you to click on this link here, right? And it’s going to take you to my blog, where I’ve published a number of phrases that are very useful when giving a presentation, right? And this phrase, let me draw your attention to the fact, is actually listed there, it’s one of those phrases, and I gotta tell you that they are very, very useful. Basically, the whole principle is you just memorize such and similar sentences and then, when you have to give a presentation, it’s so much easier to do it, you know?

And you can actually use several phrases throughout the presentation, thus making yourself sound smarter, giving more substance to your speech, you know? And at the end, you just end up killing the whole event, you know? And I gotta tell you that I’ve been trying it out in real life myself, and it works like charm.

This whole concept of learning a number of phrases and then using them throughout the conversation, you know? Not the conversation, but the presentation. So just like I said, check out that link and let me draw your attention to the fact that all these presentation phrases have been actually used by real professionals. When I was coaching my own students, there was one student that I remember in particular and I prepped him for professional presentations, conferences to be more specific.

And he improved big time. Largely due to the fact that he was simply memorizing these sentences and then he delighted me with great, positive feedback, saying that it helped him big time, you know? So going from unable to say the right thing to complete speech automation, just like that, just because you memorized these phrases, right?

So let me draw your attention to the fact once more, that success that comes with one’s improvement can be largely attributed to memorization, repetition and practice. So practice your spoken English on your own. You don’t necessarily have to find a speech, like a conversation partner, or whatever, you can do it in comfort in your own house, in your own room, just like I do right now.

Just talk, talk, talk and there’s an important presentation coming up, learn, basically write a script and obviously, you wouldn’t be memorizing the whole script off by heart, but you would be inserting these phrases every so often throughout the whole script, you know?

And they would kind of separate the whole script into chunks, into paragraphs, you know? Main bullet points, so to speak, and then when you start each of those points, you would be able to produce that starting phrase, you know, let me draw your attention to the fact, which is the phrase that we’re focusing on today, right? You’ll be able to produce it just like that, totally automatically, you know? Without any thinking whatsoever, you know?

So, that’s about it for today, my friends. If you have any questions, obviously, please feel free to post them in the comments section below and talk to you soon again. Bye-bye!

Chat soon,

Robby

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it!

Last night I received an e-mail from one of my blog subscribers asking me how to break through the fluency plateau.

Basically the nature of the problem that the person in question has encountered is that they feel that the English fluency improvement has all but stopped and they’re just not progressing.

Time is passing by, but it just feels that you’re spinning your wheels getting nowhere in terms of how well you can speak in English…

Sounds familiar?

Well, to be honest with you guys, this is nothing new to us – being the English fluency improvement blog that English Harmony is, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that I’ve discussed all such and similar issues before:

• How to deal with English fluency fluctuations;
• Why such sudden drops in fluency occur;
• How to manage your fluency and speak fairly fluently at all times;

I have to admit though, that I haven’t touched upon this issue from this particular angle so far – namely, how to break through such a PLATEAU-LIKE STATE.

So, I just recorded a video addressing this question, hope you’re going to enjoy it!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it!

Hello my fellow foreign English speakers!

The other day one of my YouTube followers asked me a question about my pronunciation and accent, here it is:

Hi Robby, once again I’ve watched one of your first videos and compared to this one. The progress is amazing! But I want to ask you something – in your first videos you speak in a kind of casual, relaxed way but yes, your accent was much more significant. Though it didn’t affect the clarity of your speech. Now you have moderated you speech and some people may take you for a native speaker. But I bet this current way of speaking requires more energy and self-control so you don’t slip back into your native accent. Please, let me know if that is the case!

Now, it’s a very good question, so I guessed it definitely deserved a video response from me.

Watch it above and enjoy my friends!

Chat soon,

Robby

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it!

Hi guys, hello boys and girls and welcome back to Robby’s English Harmony video blog. And today I’m going to respond to an email that was sent in to me 19 hours ago at this stage and I think that this particular email merits my video response because it kind of highlights a general issue that happens in the larger foreign English speakers’ community, right?

So I’m not going to be reading the whole email word by word but I’m just going to kind of summarize the email in a few sentences. So basically this particular blog follower of mine says that he was one of the best in the class in terms of English literature when he was in high school and then he says “which evidently means that I should be able to write and speak the language.” But in his case he could write. It’s the typical English fluency issue whereby you can write, you can understand, you can read but you cannot speak. And then he attributes certain percentages.

So basically he says that he would be able to write at 80% in terms of efficiency or whatever and speaking would be only 20%, lagging behind big time, right? And the particular thing that I want to focus on in this video is, “which evidently means” so it kind of even goes without saying that once you are good at writing and reading and the literature lessons or whatever, it means that you should be able to speak full stop. There’s no further discussion. There’s no debates. No further investigation required so to speak, right?

Why We Automatically Assume That Good Reading & Writing Skills = Good Speaking Skills?

So why is it that we just automatically assume? It’s because the traditional English teaching methodology has created this myth because English is perceived as one big subject. So this myth has been perpetuated over decades and even centuries and so we just blindly believed, without even questioning, we just believed that once we are good at reading and writing and understanding that we should be automatically good speakers and if that’s not the case then there’s something wrong with us.

And this particular person finds a problem with himself further down the email, right? He says that he thinks that his biggest issue is the fear of making mistakes and that’s why he can’t speak. Well, obviously that’s also a symptom of the typical English fluency issue but that’s not the reason, it’s just the symptom. You see?

The reason, in a typical English class, in a typical literature class or whatever you do a lot of reading, writing, listening, all that kind of stuff but you don’t practice your speech. You don’t speak a lot and that’s the whole point. There are so many aspects of the English language and they should have been divided into different classes, right?

So when you go and learn English literature you read and write or whatever and then there should be a specifically dedicated class to practicing spoken English. And then if that were the case then you would clearly see that. Okay, I’m lagging behind in my spoken department but it’s all because I haven’t been doing enough practice in the spoken English class or whatever. Then you would clearly see the division between the different aspects of the English language.

But if it’s all bundled up in one big English lesson, we cannot distinguish the different aspects of the English language. And as a matter of fact, I’ve been going on about this thing again and again and again but I had to revisit it because people have been contacting me on a regular basis and this particular email I think was a very good representation because the person said that it evidently means that I should be able to write and speak.

And it’s kind of ironic because there is no evidence but we are just led to believe that yes, it should be happening. But it’s not the case. Just because you can read and write, there is no correlation between your reading and writing skills and your spoken English ability. Maybe some remote, remote correlation. Obviously if you cannot understand and read and write at all obviously you’re not going to be able to speak and vice versa.

If you are very good at reading and writing you would be able to say something, right? It’s not as if you won’t be able to say anything at all. So there is obviously a relationship between those aspects of the English language but the whole point is that – the bottom line basically is that you develop specific aspects of the English language and you are what you do.

Remember – You Are What You Do!

If you are an English reader and that’s all you do you become fluent at reading. If you speak a lot and practice your spoken English, then you become a very good speaker. You become a fluent speaker. If you write a lot and spend a lot of time writing then you become a very, very good English writer. Those are the different distinct aspects of the English language.

So hopefully this video is going to clear that up for you my friend. And yeah, basically on the finishing note let me tell you that the fear of making mistakes is not the reason you are unable to speak fluently. It’s a manifestation if the fluency issue if you will. It’s one of the symptoms but the true reason is you haven’t been practicing your spoken English. If there’s enough practice behind you, no fear will stand in the way of your success.

Yes, it will hamper your performance somewhat but provided that you’ve been doing a lot of practicing and preparing for a specific event for example, no amount of fear is going to render your spoken English facilities totally unusable so to speak.

So thanks for watching my friends and chat to you soon again. Bye-bye!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it!

Video Transcript Below:

Hi guys, hello boys and girls and hello my dear fellow foreign English speakers. That’s me, Robby from EnglishHarmony.com and welcome back to my video blog. And this is going to be one of those question and answer sessions whereby I’m answering to emails that my blog visitors have emailed me obviously.

Reader’s Question: I’m Fluent, but Not Fluent Enough! What to Do?

So the first email is about a particular problem faced by this person and he described the problem the following way. So he can have conversations with anyone and he can understand and reply but he is not as fluent as he would like to be. And in his own words “I’m not able to use a lot of vocabulary because it’s very difficult for me to memorize words, therefore my written skill is also very bad. I commit a lot of mistakes in spelling when I write something.” So he basically requests me to give some advice.

So first things first, it’s of the utmost importance not to perceive all aspects of the English improvement at a same time. So you’re saying that you are not as fluent, meaning you can’t speak as fluently as you would like to and then you kind of make the connection between that and your written skill, right? So you’re saying that therefore my written skill is also very bad, right?

So I’ve got to let you know that there is no direct correlation between your overall fluency and your written fluency. Obviously, obviously, if you can’t speak at all for instance chances are that your written fluency is also going to be very bad and vice versa. But what I’m trying to say is that there’s a lot of people who can speak no problem while at the same time they struggle with writing and quite the opposite which is actually the most typical case scenario.

A lot of foreigners are very good at writing – I was going to say at speaking but that’s wrong, at writing – just because the traditional English teaching methodology revolves around writing, you know? Grammar, writing, all that kind of stuff and speech is neglected. So typically you would be able to write much better than you would speak.

But your situation is – your fluency is somewhat lagging behind and your writing skills are also not the way you’d want them to be so you’re kind of making the connection “therefore my writing skills are also bad and I make a lot of mistakes in spelling.” You have to first of all perceive each area separately, right?

When you’re talking about your overall fluency skills, focus on speaking only. When it comes to writing, that’s when writing practice comes into the equation, you know? In order to be good at writing you’ve got to do a lot of writing practice. To be good at speaking you’ve got to speak a lot, okay? And when it comes to vocabulary, when you write it’s most likely that your passive vocabulary is going to manifest itself in the process, okay? Whereas when you speak, that’s when you would use your active vocabulary, okay?

Because speaking is normally associated with being able to improvise, being able to say something without much thinking. Whereas when you write you can tap into your passive vocabulary, choose better words and stuff like that, you know what I mean? But yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say basically.

First of all, perceive each area of your English improvement separately on its own and work on it separately. Obviously one can follow another, you can do some writing and then you can talk about it. You know, you can exercise your speech even as you write. And that’s actually the best case scenario. You write as if you were speaking and that’s how I learned to write and I realized that that’s the best way to write and I’ve been giving this advice to my followers on my blog for years and people find that technique really, really useful and helpful.

So basically focus on each area. Don’t fall for the trap of thinking that if you somehow magically improve your general vocabulary skills then you’ll be able to speak better and write better. There is no such thing as general skills, it is what you do. If you require certain vocabulary while speaking you’re going to be able to use that vocabulary when speaking and also writing, but predominantly speaking.

If you acquire certain vocabulary while writing – okay, maybe you read something and then you write about it and you use the same vocabulary, chances are that that word is going to be committed to your passive vocabulary meaning that you may not be able to use it when speaking.

But the fact of the matter is that you’ve got to be practicing. There’s no two ways about it. You cannot just expect somehow magically absorb some knowledge and then use it, you’ve got to be practicing. When it comes to fluency you’ve got to speak a lot. When it comes to writing you’ve got to write a lot. And when it comes to vocabulary building you’ve got to do it contextually, you know. Phraseology, word combinations; contextual learning is the key here. And you may want to click on this link to check it out and see how easy it actually is to acquire new vocabulary words as part of context. Contextual learning is the king.

So that pretty much answers this question. I’m moving onto the next one. I’m not going to bore you my friends for too long; I’m not going to make this into a half an hour long video. This is the second email and we’ll call it a day after that.

Reader’s Question: How Come I’m Confident on My Own but Not When Facing Others?

So this person expresses the following problem, right? When he is on his own he feels like he can achieve anything and he is super, super confident and I can totally relate with that.

Oftentimes when I’m considering a specific problem and I imagine how I would go about it in real life I feel on top of the world. I’m feeling super confident but then what he says is that whenever he’s dealing with real people, face-to-face interaction his confidence get shattered. And he says that other people’s presence affects him and basically how to deal with it.

It’s not actually something that unique. I would imagine that everybody, the most confident person in the world gets ever so slightly affected by other people’s presence. It’s only normal that you would behave slightly differently in front of other people compared to the way you’d be behaving just when you’re on your own.

Even now when I’m talking to you I’m kind of on my own but I know for a fact that this video is going to get published on my YouTube channel so therefore there’s this expectation, there’s this kind of feeling as if someone’s watching me a little bit so I do behave slightly differently. When I speak completely on my own, when I don’t even use the camcorder I would imagine I’m even more confident because there’s no restrictions whatsoever.

So it’s completely normal to feel somewhat different. But it becomes a problem when you feel it’s affecting your ability to perform big time. So if you were not able to – and obviously this person has that particular issue, right? They can’t talk in front of others, it’s very difficult.

So the solution is first of all, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice an awful lot whenever you have chance to interact with others, talk in front of others just do it. Try and tell yourself that who cares? Who cares what the outcome is going to be, you know? What is the worst case scenario? Always try and figure out the worst, the absolute worst case scenario, right?

So imagine yourself facing a shop assistant in a shop for instance. A very simple and plain scenario, right? So you might be freaking out speaking with a shop assistant and I can totally relate to that. Years ago I was the same, right? I would be able to speak on my own whereas speaking with people in shops and other institutions was a challenge to say the least, right?

So you’ve just got to do it. Just jump in. Head first, jump into the deep end as they say. So it’s a sink or swim situation, right? And the worst case scenario would be – what would it be? That you wouldn’t be able to say anything and that the shop assistant would be laughing at you? And if you think about it obviously it’s not the case. Who would be laughing at you? That would be very rude.

Obviously, there is a remote possibility that that might happen but in reality that is not going to happen because people have to be, especially in professional environments, they have to be quite friendly and they have to respect their customers and stuff like that so they would not laugh at you.

So the worst, if you think about it logically, the worst case scenario would be that they would just ask you a question. Ask you the question twice, the third time, whatever, but the point being, it’s not as bad as you think.

It’s the fear from the unknown! If you just have that concept in your head that you’re faced with another person and then you’re thinking what is it going to be like, what’s going to happen, they’re going to laugh at me, I’m not going to be able to talk or whatever, you know. There is this abstract fear so that is your biggest enemy, the abstract fear of the unknown and that terrifies people. That terrifies even me!

Be Specific About Your Fears and They’re Going to Go Away!

So what you’ve got to do is be specific. Try and think about it, try and imagine the real life scenario and then try and outline the worst case scenario. What’s the worst that could happen and then tell yourself okay, if this is the worst thing, if the worst thing is whereby I can’t say anything and then the person is kind of going to give me some more pointers as to what I may want to say or whatever, it’s not that bad now, is it? It’s not as if someone is going to punch me in the face or whatever, it’s not that bad. And chances are you’re not going to see that person ever again, anyway.

So by employing this particular strategy you can alleviate a lot stress and anxiety and actually start putting yourself in those situations. You know, I’m not saying that you have to put yourself in front of an audience and start talking without any preparation or whatever. I’m just talking about like simple scenarios, having a very small chat with people and stuff like that and then gradually you would be building your confidence.

And obviously when it comes to events such as interviews and speeches and presentations and so on and so forth, that’s when you’ve got to do some real preparation. But as far as simple face-to-face communication goes you’ve just got to distance yourself from the abstract fear, think of the worst case scenario and then just do it, okay?

There is no two ways about it, you know? If you don’t do it you’re not going to get over it, you know? It’s as simple as it sounds. Well, obviously it’s easier said than done, it is difficult, I know that. Been there, done that. However, if you just come up with the worst case scenario and this descends yourself from the abstract, from the bigger fear of the unknown it’s going to become way easier. It’s going to be much easier my friends.

Okay, so I hope that this video is going to serve some purpose and that you’re going to find it useful and thanks for watching my friends and chat to you soon. Bye-bye!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it!

Video Transcript Below

Hi guys, hello boys and girls! Hello my dear fellow foreign English speakers and welcome back to Robby’s English Harmony video blog! Today let’s talk about THE FLOW. And I read about the concept of flow or should I say THE flow? Because it’s a particular state of mind. And I read about that concept a while ago while I was doing a little bit of research into the subject of procrastination.

We all – I suppose – have that quality to procrastinate sometimes. You know, it’s a vice because it’s a terrible feeling, you know? You know exactly what you’ve got to do but you just can’t do it for whatever reasons. You just find yourself constantly getting distracted.

For instance if I had a task of writing an article for instance I would find myself making cups of coffee every 15 minutes and checking my email and checking my website’s stats and whatever. And then 5 or 6 hours later the article still wouldn’t be even started. I would have only 1 or 2 paragraphs.

And so that’s the typical case of procrastination. And I’ve been guilty of that at certain stages in my life. And I was doing a little bit of research into it and I found out that people who don’t procrastinate they can achieve the state of mind whereby they are fully immersed into the activity at hand so their mind doesn’t even wander. And that’s the so-called state of THE FLOW.

When you’re in the flow you are super creative, you are enjoying that particular activity to the fullest, right? You don’t even think about anything else. Nothing else exists. So drawing parallels with creating written content for example for my website, that would be just me just writing about the subject, right? I would be fully immersed into it. I would know exactly what I have to say, obviously a little bit of planning goes a long way, and that would have to be done beforehand to know what you want to say but for as long as that’s done I would be into it and nothing would stop me. I would be totally unstoppable, right?

So how does this concept of the flow relate to spoken English performance? Well, it’s the same thing. We all have that particular state of mind which is triggered by whatever reasons, right? When we can speak in English almost like native English speakers. And it doesn’t matter, our level of English. Well, obviously if you were a total beginner, you wouldn’t have that ability to even speak fluently. But then again, you wouldn’t be able to listen to this video anyway, right?

So this whole English Harmony project is obviously geared towards those foreign English speakers who’ve already achieved a decent level of speech and understanding and that sort of thing. So it goes without saying that all you guys have that ability to be in that flow, in that state of mind whereby you can speak just like native English speakers but oftentimes external factors prevent you from doing that.

And those factors are multifaceted such as people making you anxious. Obviously you don’t have to blame others, it’s all on you, kind of, but those people play a big role in the whole thing, in your ability to speak and deliver your English speech. So if people make you anxious, if you are trying to compare your speech with the other person’s, especially if they’re a native English speaker, that will have a detrimental effect on your fluency.

And if you want to impress others with your speech, if you’re under pressure to deliver, for example you have to deliver a speech or whatever or you’re attending an interview or you just start a new job and you want to deliver in your position and you’re speaking with your colleagues, your customers, your superiors and you want to achieve that level of fluency and deliver that speech that’s required for your particular position. And obviously all those factors would have sometimes a detrimental effect on your fluency. It can kind of backfire on you and you will find yourself not being able to deliver it.

So if you can eliminate all those factors you will be able to achieve that state of the flow where you can speak totally unhindered, you wouldn’t even have to think about how you say it or what you say. Well, obviously you have to know what are you talking about, right? But the point I’m trying to make is that we all have that ability to achieve that state of mind where we can perform just like native English speakers, just like I do now, right?

I’m not, obviously, bragging. I’m not trying to say that I’m speaking just like a native English speaker but I’m talking about the feeling that I have, you know? I feel like I’m speaking like one, you know? I feel totally unhindered; I’m giving my fluency totally a free rein so to speak. And in order to achieve that in my opinion the best way to go about it is just do a lot of spoken English self-practice when you are on your own.

It kind of goes back to the same again: on your own you are totally unhindered. There’s nobody to prevent you from speaking just the way you want. And you can experiment with different types of speech, different speeds, different ways of pronouncing certain words and so on and so forth. And eventually, you will be able to nail it. Through a lot of experimentation you will be able to nail that state of the flow. And once you’re in it you will be like “Wow, this is it. This is the real deal. I can speak fluently!”

So once you’ve achieved that state of the flow you can carry that feeling with you at all times. And whenever you feel like you’re not performing well, whenever you have that bad fluency day for instance you can always go back in your mind and remember that, yes, I know how to achieve the flow feeling and if I practice on my own again I will be able to go back there and that will reinforce your confidence as a foreign English speaker.

So that’s my message for you today, my friends. I hope that you enjoyed it. And obviously if you have any further comments please don’t hesitate to publish them in the comment section below. Thank you and bye-bye!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it!

Video Transcript Below

Hi guys, that’s me, Robby from EnglishHarmony.com and welcome back to my video blog! Currently I’m having my morning tea. As a matter of fact, it’s green tea with lemon. One smart person suggested a while back that I drink green tea with lemon as a way of boosting my immune system and whatnot and it actually helped, you know what I mean? So that was a very wise suggestion on that person’s part.

Anyhow, today we’re going to look at the following English idiomatic expression. As a matter of fact, I forgot what the expression was. Seriously, what’s wrong with me? It just slipped my mind. I cannot believe that, it’s unbelievable. I remember it now but it just goes to show that my head is full of different thoughts and everything and it’s all too easy to me to forget the stuff that I actually wanted to put in this video, right?

So today’s idiomatic expression is a “good night’s sleep”, right? And it may sound very simple. In fact, it’s super simple, a good night’s sleep, right? When you’ve had a good night’s sleep obviously you slept very well. However, there’s a reason for me to creating a whole video dedicated to this particular idiomatic expression. And if you want to find out what the reason is, please bear with me for a few more minutes and everything is going to become crystal clear to you, my friends.

So welcome back. A good night’s sleep. Last night I had a really, really good night’s sleep. Well, as a matter of fact come to think of it the day before was even better, you know what I mean? This morning I actually forced myself to wake up earlier, 6:30 which is by my earlier standards it’s still quite late, it’s just that I’m on my holidays at the moment and lately I’ve been sleeping in in mornings and I’ve gotten used to getting up at 9 o’clock or even after 9 which is super late, you know.

So on those mornings when I got up past 9 actually, I rolled out of my bed at 8:30 or something I really had a good night’s sleep, you know what I mean? I slept like a baby and I cannot remember when would have been the last time I had such a great sleep. So when I slept till 9 or even past that, I really had a good night’s sleep.

Last night I can’t really complain. It was still better than getting up at 5:30 in the morning which is my typical getting up time in the morning on my working days but I still had a good night’s sleep.

And now, speaking of the reason why I decided to dedicate a whole video to this phrase, the reason is simple enough. A lot of my students as you may know and for those of you who didn’t know, yes, I’ve been coaching people via Skype face to face. It was a program called Fluency Star and the website is still there, FluencyStar.com, it’s just that I’m not taking any more students currently because I just can’t handle it, you know what I mean? There’s only so many hours in my day and I come home very late at night and I just cannot do that.

But anyhow, a lot of those students and when we talked about sleeping and related matters I actually think that none of them could use this phrase “good night’s sleep”. And they tried describing the concept of having had a good sleep in a different way and obviously it came across slightly awkward because as you may know, native English speakers refer to things in a specific manner, you know what I mean?

So a lot of concepts are described in a specific way and if you’re trying to describe them in a different way it just doesn’t sound right. And “a good night’s sleep” is one of those examples, you know? No matter what other way you put it, you know, my sleep was good or whatever, it doesn’t kind of come across as a native-like speech.

So that’s the reason why I decided to record this video. So next time around when you have to tell someone that you really had a good night’s sleep, that you slept really, really well you have to use this expression “I had a good night’s sleep.” And that’s another tiny little step towards your English fluency, towards your goal of speaking just like a native English speaker.

Thanks for watching this video, my friends!

If you have any further questions obviously, please feel free to publish them in the comment section below down there and chat to you soon again.

Bye-bye!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it!

Video Transcript Below:

Hello my dear fellow foreign English speakers! It’s Robby here from EnglishHarmony.com and welcome back to my video blog. Today I’m bringing you another English idiomatic expression video but unlike other English idiomatic expression videos where I’m focusing on typical English idioms and phrasal words and collocations today I’m bringing you what I like to call a grammar construct. And the grammar construct in question is “couldn’t have been”.

At first if you just look at “couldn’t have been,” it might confuse you. You might try and figure out what it means in grammar terms. What the English grammar tense represents and all that sort of thing but you don’t have to do it. And you may actually want to read this article where I’m talking about it that you don’t have to try and figure out what exactly something means in grammar terms, okay? All you’ve got to do is just repeat that particular grammar construct, memorize it and then you’ll be able to use it in relevant situations without knowing what it represents, right?

And the funny thing is that prior to recording this video I was kind of thinking to myself “Hold on, I have to look it up and see what it actually means, what kind of tense it is.” But I’m not going to get bogged down on these grammar terms just like I told you because it serves no purpose whatsoever, okay? So all you’ve got to do is just repeat it, memorize it and then you’ll be able to use it.

And the first example sentence that I’m going to give to you containing “couldn’t have been” is “couldn’t have been done without”, right? And typically you would use it when describing when a particular thing, some sort of an assignment or something couldn’t have been done without the help of someone else or without using some tool or some piece of software or whatever.

So for instance your boss is asking you how you got done with the job, simple as, and you tell them “Listen, yeah, I got it done but it couldn’t have been done without the help of my colleague here. So a lot of credit goes to him. It wasn’t just me who got the job done because it couldn’t have been done without him.” Okay? And this is a typical way of using this particular grammar construct, right?

So you have to do some spoken practice whereby you come up with your own fictional scenario. Obviously you use your own workplace or college you attend or whatever and then you kind of put yourself in that situation when you are communicating with someone and then you use that phrase. And then next time around when such a situation presents itself you’ll be quite automatically able to use that phrase, okay?

Next example. Couldn’t have been more pleased. And it’s a typical way of saying that you were very, very pleased. I couldn’t have been more pleased. Or I couldn’t have been happier. When someone asks you “Did you enjoy when your work colleagues congratulated you on your birthday?” Then you can tell them “Listen, I couldn’t have been happier because I was totally shocked, that was a complete surprise, I didn’t even expect that and I couldn’t have been happier”, right?

And the third example is “couldn’t have been prevented.” Often times people talk about some disasters or catastrophes or incidents and people wonder whether they could have been prevented or not and then unfortunately sometimes the conclusion is that despite the fact that in retrospect we can think of a lot of things that kind of could have prevented that particular catastrophe from happening, sometimes it couldn’t have been prevented because there are certain things that are just bound to happen.

And for instance the tsunami that happened all those years ago – 10 years ago at this stage I would imagine – that wiped out so many people’s lives in Southeast Asia. It couldn’t have been prevented. A lot of the fatalities probably could have been prevented but the actual catastrophe, this tsunami itself couldn’t have been prevented, you know, it’s one of those things that just happens that we have to accept that reality of life.

So I hope that you’re going to be using this particular grammar construct “couldn’t have been” and just like I told you don’t try and figure out what it represents whether it’s passive or active voice or what kind of tense it is. It serves no purpose. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you can use it. Okay?

So I hope that you enjoyed watching this video and just like I told you a million times before do some spoken English practice. If you just watch this video without any practice whatsoever, this video is not going to serve any purpose. Okay?

So if you have any questions obviously publish them in the comment section below. And chat to you soon my friends. Bye-bye!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!