Step 3: Discover Native English

Do You want to speak English like a

native?

Aww yeah, RealLifers, citizens of the world. Welcome to the RealLife Global Movement, where our
mission is to inspire, empower, and connect the world through English. We believe English should
be a fun and enriching part of your life that you can practice and enjoy, whenever and wherever
you want? Are you tired of boring that suck the life out of your learning? Are you ready to step up
your game and become a kickass English speaker? Well, we’re to guide and inspire you on your
journey to true lifelong fluency. It’s time to stop just learning English, and start living it.

REAL LIFE STUDENTS (All Together): Aww yeah

ETHAN: Aww yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls from all around the world, this is Ethan
from RealLife English, where we believe that listening to podcasts is a fun, natural, effective and
stupendous way to learn English. So, download this podcast and listen to us while you're stuck in
traffic, riding the bus, juggling some watermelons, or even while you're in a water balloon fight.
Aww yeah. I'm joined here in the virtual studio with the man who wears sunglasses so that his eyes
won't hurt the sun, Justin Murray.

JUSTIN: What is up? Yeah, that's actually true. I'm wearing them right now.

ETHAN: Your future's so bright that you've got to wear shades, right?

JUSTIN: You got it, man.

ETHAN: What does that mean?

JUSTIN: Your future is so bright, is when we say that, you know, you're going to be successful,
you have a very optimistic future. And shades, what does that mean?

ETHAN: Shades are sunglasses, so it's kind of using that expression and saying that you're going
to have such a successful future, it's so bright that you need sunglasses to avoid hurting your eyes
from it.

JUSTIN: Or you're so white, pasty white.

ETHAN: You're so pale that the skin creates a sort of reflection effect.

JUSTIN: Okay, so we said pale, pasty.

ETHAN: So, I think, like, they have a slightly different connotation, although I would say that
they're synonyms. So pale just means that you have fair skin, it's the opposite of tan, which would
be the kind of like darker skin. And you said pasty, which I think of as kind of like pale, but like in an
unattractive way. Like, very, very white, unhealthy, it you said that about someone's skin at least.

JUSTIN: I'm just kidding Ethan, you're tanned, very dark.

ETHAN: Got the Spanish olive skin going. Not really, 'cause I spend all my day on my computer,

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2:53
so the only tanning I get is from my computer screen. Anyway, we are back into another
stupendous, as Justin said, step of the RealLife Way. This week we are in step three, which is
another very exciting part. I'd say every part is pretty thrilling, but this week we're talking about
native-like English. And why is it important to speak like a native? Or maybe why it's not important
to speak like a native?

JUSTIN: Yeah, so I definitely think like Ethan, in this way a lot of people come and they say, “What
do you want to do with your English?” “Oh I want to speak like a native.” A lot of people think this
is, they want to be the Michael Jordan of English learners. And that the only way to be successful
is to speak like a native. But then you ask them, and really start to have a conversation with them
about it, you realize it's not what they really want.

It's kind of the idea that was planted in their head. So, we're going to break this down, it's not that
speaking like a native is bad, or that speaking native-like, or striving in that direction isn't going to
help you, because it will. But I think a lot of people just have kind of misconceptions about it and so
there's the truth, then there's the myth about this.

ETHAN: For sure, but before we get too ahead of ourselves, maybe we should just a do quick
review about what is the RealLife Way? The three promises we have for these guys and a quick
overview of what we have covered so far.

JUSTIN: So, we're on step three, and this is the fourth podcast on this. But reviewing what we've
covered so far, the first one is the promise that we make with RealLife Way is to inspire you to
awaken the determination that you need to realize your true potential, not only as an English
learner, but as a human being. And this is so important because who you are, your discipline, your
determination this is really the foundation of your entire process.

The second promise that we made, which this lesson definitely falls within, is that we will empower
you to build the strategies, skills and courage that you need to step outside the classroom, into the
real world, and not just to learn English, but live it. So, last week we talked about making English
part of your life. Stepping outside of the classroom, enjoying it, making it fun, natural, convenient,
effective.

But today we're going to get more into the mechanics of it. What does it mean to be native-like in
your English? To understand native English? Which is so important for you to really, fully realize
your potential as an English learner. You need to understand natives, you need to. You can, if you
like, imitate them, become more native-like, but that's not completely necessary.

And the final step, which we'll cover in the lessons to come, is that we will connect you to a world
beyond borders. A global consciousness, community and a realization of the fact that no matter
what divides us, that which unites us is far greater. First before we roll into today's core lesson,
we're going to do a shout out to one of our listeners, and a member of the Fluency Circle.

ETHAN: So, what is the Fluency Circle, for those that don't know?

JUSTIN: The Fluency Circle is our community of learners and students who use RealLife English
courses, who we try to help them in a more personal way with their learning. But we also put them
together to help them glimpse that global perspective that we talk about all the time.

ETHAN: Exactly. And it's a pretty cool group to be a part of, because we constantly are, I would
just say from my own perspective, that it's pretty great just seeing, “Good morning” everyday from
people- every time zone around the world. And just getting so much sharing and culture and
insights from people from Russia, from Poland, from Brazil, from the US, from Argentina.

It's like we've got people coming from virtually every corner of the world, so, it's definitely a lot of

6:25 2
fun, and if you're interested in it then we would highly recommend that you check out some of the
resources we are going to be sharing during this podcast. So that you learn a bit more about that,
and how you might become a part of it.

JUSTIN: Yeah, so, not only are you supporting us, and this project, and the things that we're
building but, you get lifetime membership, to this awesome community. And Diego's been part of
this. Diego David has been part of this for a couple of years. And he’s - I think he started listening
to the podcasts right from the beginning, when we were really small.

So, he's always been giving us feedback, always letting us know when a link is broken. Some
things are going on. I don't know. Anyway, I have a relatively constant dialogue with him and he
got in contact with me a few weeks ago. And I just asked him about how he thinks the podcast is
going, if he has any feedback for us. And this is his response,here.

So he says, “So, in my mind, it's kick ass as usual. I really enjoyed when you guys started doing it
in a free, uncut way. What speaks to me is the fact that you guys approach all the points, which are
fundamental for anyone who's learning a language like pronunciation, culture, vocabulary. In a
nutshell I definitely feel inspired, connected to the world and empowered. I really owe you guys big,
and I carry the RealLife methodology around with me, wherever I go to spread it, to empower my
students the same way as I was inspired.”

Wow, that's a pretty awesome message from Diego. I was really happy to hear that. And Diego, all
I have to say is aww yeah! Really appreciate that.

ETHAN: Aww yeah. I always love seeing that teachers are just kind of like spreading the love,
paying it forward. What does paying it forward mean?

JUSTIN: Paying it forward is like when you're given something, usually out of the generosity of
somebody else, and without obligation you give to somebody else. And so this, it kind of keeps
things moving forward in a natural, organic way.

ETHAN: Yeah, I like the way you said it, generosity. It's almost like a cycle of generosity.

JUSTIN: Yeah, and a lot of you listeners have been very generous with us with sharing, with giving
us like iTunes reviews, with just saying hi. And just supporting us, encouraging us to keep
transforming, reinventing ourselves to make this better and better. And Diego has been one of
these people- he’s an awesome English speaker, an awesome teacher, always striving to get
better and better, and he’s helping us get better. So, before we jump into the main topic, one final
thing we're going to share our quote of the day. Ethan chose this one, so why don't you share it,
Ethan?

ETHAN: It's a very simple one. “Strive for progress, not perfection.” So, the reason I chose this
one, “strive for progress, not perfection” is because it goes very well with today's topic. I hear a lot
from English learners, people that write us. My students even, that say like, “Oh, I want to speak
perfect, like a native.”

And it's kind of a misconception that natives speak perfectly. No one speaks perfectly. You know,
it's unattainable. And it's not a good goal to have anyway. Because if your goal is to speak
perfectly, then every time you make a mistake, every time you fall down, every time that you have
less than perfect English, you're going to maybe want to give up. It's not going to be very
motivating.

So, if you strive for progress, and strive means that you're continuing towards an objective, so if
you strive for progress, rather than perfection, then your goal is just everyday I'm just going to try to
get a little bit better. Just a little bit better. And everyday, if you're doing that over time you're going

9:35 3
to see eventually, you're going to have that really fluent, really confident and fulfilling English that
you're after.

So, I would say it's a great, short quote to roll into today's topic. Keep that in mind, that you need to
strive for progress and not perfection with your English.

JUSTIN: Just one thing I wanted to add to that is- I see a lot of people say, “I don't really speak
that much, 'cause I'm a perfectionist.” It's like, I always laugh, because it's an oxymoron. What's an
oxymoron, Ethan?

ETHAN: It's something that's – it’s like contradictory, so it means kind of if you have two things that
oppose each other.

JUSTIN: So a couple of examples of oxymorons. So for example “an open secret” right? It's a
secret, it's not open, and if it's open it's not a secret, right? Or like “the living dead” so if you're
dead, you can't be living, but if you're living you can't be dead, right?

ETHAN: Yeah, that's a perfect example of an oxymoron. So, that said, you guys are all ready to
strive for progress and not perfection. Let's roll into today's topic and discover some native-like
English.

JUSTIN: Okay, so one of the main problems to start off with is that people tend to perceive English
through the lens or the filter of your native language. So, you kind of translate in your head. So,
you're looking at English and you're seeing the words. You're hearing the sounds that you learned
in the grammar books, or kind of that robotic mechanical English. And your perception's not really
open to the way that natives really speak.

To start with, we always teach people, we try to help people kind of throw out that lens, those
glasses for English, that translating in your head. And start to see the way that natives really
speak, how we cut, connect and reduce our words. You know, you can speak like a native, you can
learn to imitate these sounds, but above all, it's important to be able to understand natives,
because if you can understand natives, if you learn to understand natives this is going to open your
perception to an entirely new world of media.

And this is important because it's much easier to really start to live English, like we keep talking
about. Instead of studying it, because if you can understand natives you can watch TV shows,
movies, listen to podcasts like this one, and be learning and enjoying at the same time. This is
really important to be able to understand natives and the core to this, the most important thing is
connected speech. What is connected speech, Ethan?

ETHAN: Connected speech is a tendency in English to sometimes to cut a certain word, and to
reduce another word. And what happens when we do this is that they kind of like mash together,
they attach to each other. So, that you'll get things like “what do you want to do today?” We don't
actually say it like that, most of the time we'd say, “What d'ya wanna do today?”

The RealLife Native Immersion Course

Aww yeah RealLifers, Justin here again for a quick announcement, brought to you by the RealLife
Native Immersion Course, a powerful, practical 41 week immersion experience where Ethan,
Chad, and I, your fluency guides, help you not only decipher and understand fast speaking natives
like us, but also to use and infuse native English into your everyday life, together with the principles
of the RealLife Way, making English fluency a fun, natural, convenient, and deliberate part of your
daily life.

4
If you like these episodes, you are gonna love the RealLife Native Immersion course, which takes
the listening and learning experience to a completely new level. We’ll share some more
information at the end of this podcast, and you can learn more at
www.RealLifeGlobal.com/Immersion.

But, before we get back today’s podcast, I want to quickly share some comments from a few
RealLife Native Immersion Students.

I've been enjoying all of the lessons… I always wondered how the hell
you could do such great work every week!!!

You can tell it’s a really well-crafted material and I really appreciate it,
every item, every section, so useful... it’s not easy to find this quality out
there!
— Marta Sala (Spain)

I was very sad when I finished the RealLife Native Immersion Course.
Each week I was looking forward to hearing and reading the new
lesson.

My English improved so fast. It took a new step, and I acquired the

confidence that I needed to speak.

—Pierre Paquete (France)

Aww yeah, thank you for your nice words, Marta and Pierre. Now let’s get back to this episode of
the RealLife Way!

And I think that this can be very startling, very shocking for many English learners, because they've
always been taught in school, “What do you want to do today?” So, then a native comes along and
says, “Wha-da-ya wanna do duh-day?” And they like, it sounds like Chinese to them.

JUSTIN: It's interesting you said, “Wha-da-ya.” In two seasons of analyzing like every line of
Friends TV show we realized the most common sound was “Wha-da-ya”. Because “Wha-da-ya”
interesting side note, is that we use this for different conjugations. Like, what do you mean? What
are you doing? What have you been doing?

They're all three different verb tenses. But it's “wha-da-ya mean?” “what da-ya doing?” “What d'ya
been doing?” So, what have you, what do you and what are you all become “wha-da-ya.”

The Crazy Logic of “Wha-da-ya”

Conjugation Native Pronunciation
What DO you mean? “Wha-da-ya mean?”
What ARE you doing? “Wha-da-ya doin’?
What HAVE you been doing? “Wha-da-ya been doin’?

So that's pretty- it’s pretty crazy stuff, when you start to think about it. That English- we’re reducing
our words in all these ways. So, I know that probably sounds like really maybe advanced and
complicated for you right now.

But the more that you start to slow things down, and look at it, you realize that this can be really
helpful. And there are a series of patterns that we teach at RealLife English with different courses

14:56 5
and these lessons, and we'll share a couple of different resources with you about this. First, right
now, we want to go into, we're going to do a little bit of a lesson, actually.

So, we're going to mimic or imitate our format for Learn English with TV series- we have a channel
on YouTube and we make these videos. And we basically break down, we analyze like short,
engaging scenes, funny scenes, usually. And we show you how natives really speak. So, right
now, we're going to show you or let you listen to a one minute clip from a Friends scene. And we
just want you to get you to try your best to understand.

And maybe you're going to have problems. There might be gaps. But then, we're going to explain
it, teach you all of these important things, the vocabulary, connected speech, pronunciation and a
little bit of grammar. And then we're going to let you listen to it again. Just to sort of show you what
we're talking about. So, let's roll this scene.

1 Minute Friends Clip- Omnipotent or Impotent?

Blue = Vocabulary & Grammar

Red = Pronunciation Numbers Explained in Order After the Clip

MONICA: All right, Phoebe.

PHOEBE: Okay, okay. If I were omnipotent1 for a day, I would want world peace. No more
hunger. Good things for the rainforest. And bigger boobs2.

ROSS: Oh, so you took mine. Chandler, what about you3?

CHANDLER: If I were4 omnipotent for a day, I'd make myself omnipotent forever.

RACHEL: See? There's always one guy. If I had a wish1, I'd wish for three more wishes.

ALL: Hey, Joey. Hey buddy.

MONICA: Hey Joey, what would you do2 if you were omnipotent?

JOEY: Probably3 kill myself.

MONICA: Excuse me?

JOEY: Hey, if little Joey's5 dead, then I got no reason to live.

ROSS: Joey, omnipotent.

JOEY: You are? Ross, I'm sorry.

JUSTIN: Okay, so definitely a lot going on there. As we said, we're going to explain the vocab,
pronunciation and a little bit of grammar. So, Mr. V, Mr. Vocabulary, why don't you go through the
vocabulary and help us understand that?

ETHAN: Sure. Let's do this. All right. So, let me just shoot these off. We've got maybe about eight
different terms here. So, the first one:

1. omnipotent, which the pronunciation of this is also a little bit important. So, listen to how I
said that, omnipotent. Meaning all powerful.

17:12 6
 2. Boobs is slang for women's breasts.
3. What about you? Is a way to ask someone to give their opinion, or their idea about
something that has already been said. So, for example, I would say, “I'm from the United
States, what about you?”
4. The next one is a wish, which is a deep desire, something that you want to be a reality, but
it is not.
5. And the last one is little Joey. So, with this term, it could either be talking about a child, or
in this case it's actually Joey's way of referring to his genitals. So, you need to be, I guess a
little bit careful of the context of that term.

JUSTIN: Okay, and there's sort of like a little bit of a pronunciation, vocabulary thing. So, when
Ross says at the end, “Joey, omnipotent”. And what does Joey say?

ETHAN: So, Joey understood “I'm impotent” which means that I'm basically unable get an erection,
that you can't have sex, because you're unable to perform.

JUSTIN: Okay, so moving into some of the pronunciation here. So, first of all, a very common
pattern in connected speech is like, “would you”. He says, “What would you do?” “What wou-ja?”
So most people expect native speakers to say “what would you?”. But anytime that you have a D
at the end of a word, like “would, could, did” and followed by a “you” or a Y sound, that is often in
these pronouns. And it becomes a J sound.

So “what would you do” (“wha-wou-jew do”) This is also common

in like:
 Did you? -- “dih-jew”? Note: We covered this native
 How did you know -- “How dih-jew know?” speech pattern (d + y = j) a
 Where did you go?-- “Where dih-jew go?” lot more in-depth in the
Native Connected Speech
Which can also be reduced to: Tip from the introduction to
 Where did you go? -- “where jew go?” the RealLife Way.
 How did you know? -- “How jew know?”

That's one tendency here. Another thing that happens is Rachel says instead of “if I had a wish”
she says, “Vy-ad a wish”. And she actually reduces the F to a V. And then the H is removed, which
is very common- “Vy-ad a wish”.

And the final thing that I want to cover about pronunciation here. We often say, we don't say,
“probably”. That's three syllables, right? Pro-bab-ly. We often say pro-bly, two syllables, right?
That's even reduced to “prolly,” we often say “proby”. We cover this more in depth in the video from
English with TV.

And the final thing that I wanted to share is the conditional, for because they're talking about “if you
were omnipotent for a day, what would you do?” So, we're using the second conditional here, to
express an imaginary situation and its result.

So, the “if” part of the situation “if you were”, is conjugated in the past. And the result, which “I
would”, “if I were you, I would...” that's the result part. So, if I spoke Japanese, I would go to Japan.
If I lived by the sea, I would surf.

IF Clause (conjugated in the past) RESULT Clause (using “would”)

If I were you I would….
If I spoke Japanese I would go to Japan
If I lived by the sea I would surf

19:57
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But we cover this more in depth in the video, in the Learn English TV Video. It's a rocking video.
We're going to link this on the show notes. What's the show notes, Ethan? What page?

Watch The Video Lesson | Free PDF Power Lesson for this Scene

ETHAN: You're going to go to reallifeglobal.com/native. N-A-T-I-V-E.

JUSTIN: We're going to give you one more chance to listen to this after the lesson. And we
encourage you to go watch the video, but it will make sense with just the audio here, as well. So,
give it a listen.

MONICA: All right, Phoebe.

PHOEBE: Okay, okay. If I were omnipotent1 for a day, I would want world peace. No more
hunger. Good things for the rainforest. And bigger boobs2.

ROSS: Oh, so you took mine. Chandler, what about you3?

CHANDLER: If I were4 omnipotent for a day, I'd make myself omnipotent forever.

RACHEL: See? There's always one guy. If I had a wish1, I'd wish for three more wishes.

ALL: Hey, Joey. Hey buddy.

MONICA: Hey Joey, what would you do2 if you were omnipotent?

JOEY: Probably3 kill myself.

MONICA: Excuse me?

JOEY: Hey, if little Joey's5 dead, then I got no reason to live.

ROSS: Joey, omnipotent.

JOEY: You are? Ross, I'm sorry.

JUSTIN: Aww yeah. That is a great scene, makes me laugh every time I watch it, actually. We
have a ton of really awesome content: teaching connected speech, teaching native pronunciation,

21:29 8
native vocabulary, cultural notes, grammar notes. Just like this lesson on our Learn English for TV
channel. And also, for our listeners of this podcast we have an episode that we included a power
lesson for.

Basically the transcript and a breakdown of the entire lesson, in

which we explain all of these rules of connected speech much More Free Presents for You
(links to the items we mentioned here)
more in depth. So, on the show notes, on
reallifeglobal.com/native you can find, download that link, and a  How to Revolutionize Your English
10 power lesson package for learn English for TV. We're going to with Podcasts: MP3 | PDF
give you all of this, so you can dive into this and binge on native  Learn English with TV (10 Free
connected speech and all of these things that we teach. So, you Power Lessons)
can really get a full perspective.

ETHAN: Aww yeah. All right, well, now that you guys have gotten a little sneak peek into how
important understanding natives can be, we are going to jump into a little bit more about
discovering native-like English.

JUSTIN: Yeah, so this goes back to the idea of like listening versus speaking. A lot of people, on
the comments, on these videos we always say like, “Yes, it's important to understand natives,
because it opens your ears up to the entire world of media” You don't need to speak like natives,
but it's important to understand them and this is really important for understanding natives.

You don't need to speak with connected speech. And you'll say “proby” or “proly” or all these other
things. We're not actually saying that you should speak this way. And to some degree, I mean, it's
absolutely necessary to understand, but to another degree it can be helpful to use it in your
speaking, as well. So, talking about speaking, when should you sound like a native speaker,
Ethan? Or should we?

ETHAN: I think that it's definitely a kind of controversial issue. I think if you're just starting out, it is
much more important that you understand it. And that you're able to speak clearly and confidently,
of course, which we're going to talk about more in step four. But I think at the very beginning your
biggest goal should not be to sound like a native. It should be to be understood.

If you can be understood, you can clearly make all your ideas known in English, and you can get
out of the habit of translating from your native language, then you're going to be in a really terrific
place with your English. You know, if you're using a lot of native resources, like you're watching TV
series, you're listening to podcasts, you're listening to music, so you're picking up on a lot of how
we naturally speak with the resources we had talked about in last week's- in the previous step. In
step two.

You will start just kind of unconsciously putting a lot of these tools to use. And then, when you get
to a little bit more advanced level, where you can confidently understand how natives speak and
how natives do this and you really have the desire to speak like a native. Then, you can come and
really focus in on how to implement it in your own speaking more.

JUSTIN: Yeah, I would say I’d agree with everything you said there. I think it's sort of like a
spectrum. It's useful to think about it like, okay, on the one hand, I'm speaking enough that people
understand me, right? But on the other end you sound like a native, so at what point do you want
to be towards native-like speech? Because I think if you could speak more like a native, you're able
to, I think, connect with people in a deeper way.

I think you're able to really increase your fluency, people maybe need to pay less attention to
understand you. People need to concentrate less, a lot of times maybe people will ask you to
repeat less. Maybe you'll seem like you're more part of the culture, as well. So, I mean, there
definitely are benefits to sounding more like a native. But, start with being understood, move more

25:05 9
and more towards native-like speech, if you like.

ETHAN: Yeah. And I would say in parallel to what you just said you should also think about with
this, what do you need your English for? Who do you need to communicate with? Because say that
you really need English for your job, and in your job you experience talking to people from a lot of
parts of the world.

So, not just native speakers, then you might not want to implement too many of these, because
maybe someone, let's say you're from Brazil and you end up having like really native speech, or
using a lot of these tools. But then, you're maybe speaking to people from like France and
Germany and China, and they might not understand what you're saying. You need to think about
that, like who are you using it with?

And kind of manipulate your speech depending on that. So, and maybe you don't even want to
really implement a lot of these native speech tools, if you're not going to be using it with native
speakers, as much.

JUSTIN: Yeah, I would probably a lot of people, “proby”, a lot of people, that are listening here
maybe have a difficult time understanding me. I think maybe the way I speak, and cutting my
words. The other point I wanted to make, is that when you are learning, I think it's important to
imitate even from day one.

So, when you hear Joey say, or whatever, “what would you do?” If you can actually imitate and
say, “Would woul-jew do?” Imitate at home, “what wou-jew do?” It's important because this opens
up your hearing as well. Because if you can say it, you can hear it a lot better.

Just recognizing that it exists, it’s good to at least understand it, to be able to say it and in some
sense it's sort of like a workout, I think. If you can actually imitate a native speaker saying this, in
songs, in TV shows, it's a good workout for your English.

And it will make your English more flexible, more native-like in some sense and you can maybe
more naturally speak like this, when the situation arises that's appropriate.

ETHAN: Yeah. I definitely agree with you. I think that a lot of people kind of avoid doing this, for
several reasons. I think first off, that people have when they learned English in school they are very
used to learning by like reading. And by hearing basically, you know, recorded tapes, which say,
“what do you want to do today?”

And so it's like you've always heard, “what do you want to do today?” Not, “wha-da-ya wanna do
today?” And it can be kind of like shocking to people if they've just been reading all the time that
that's not how English is actually spoken. So, you know, it's not really your fault that the traditional
teaching methods do not teach this.

So, you're not really prepared for it. But I think a lot of people, too, they kind of start to get a
mentality that it feels uncomfortable to imitate native speakers, the way that native speakers will
say things. And so, they completely avoid it altogether, just to avoid that awkward feeling of not
sounding natural. Of even maybe wanting to hold onto the way that they would say it in their
language because it can feel kind of like awkward and uncomfortable to open up your mouth and
try to manipulate it to pronounce things more like a native would, or to imitate the flow of how a
native would. The rhythm and flow of how a native would say things.

JUSTIN: So yeah, that awkwardness, that resistance, so what do we recommend? Take the bull
by the horns, hit it head on. What does this mean, Ethan? Mr V.?

ETHAN: Basically it means be proactive. Basically face it head on, face your fear.

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JUSTIN: And so, we're going to give you just a couple of really quick techniques before we wrap
up and end this show of how you can do this. You know, s you go along and listen to our
resources, like Learn English for TV series and especially that lesson, “How to Revolutionize your
English with Podcasts” (MP3 | PDF). We explain more in depth.

But just to give you a couple of tips here, so the first thing is imitating TV shows. If you're watching
when natives are speaking, just imitate, stop and imitate. It’s like like Ethan just said, you know,
what d'ja wanna do? Repeat. Anyways, so this is one thing I think recording yourself is really good
as well. But just getting used to speaking, speak as much as you can.

Even with yourself, with your dog, with your friends, whoever. Natives, non natives, open your
mouth and speak. Practice pronunciation. I think another way to do this is music. Music is really
awesome, I think rap music is particularly powerful for this.

ETHAN: Singing along.

JUSTIN: Yeah, there's one episode that we taught an Eminem song, right?

ETHAN: And I use that exercise all the time with my students. And some of them feel very
awkward with it, but most of them find it extremely valuable.

JUSTIN: Yeah, definitely. And some of the best speakers in the world, like that I've met, really
sound native-like, truly native-like, they learn through rap music. So, pretty powerful stuff.

ETHAN: Yeah, definitely some of the best speakers that I've met, they're also somehow they really
love listening to music, or even they are musicians. And I think that singing, singing helps you to
exaggerate and pick up on that rhythm. I definitely know like rap really is a good way of presenting
the rhythm of English, which is kind of like that da-dum-da-dum-da-dum. But if you hate rap, if you
can't listen to rap that doesn't mean like ignore music altogether. Listen to something.

JUSTIN: That is really important, the rhythm and flow that really form the base of how native
speakers speak. The patterns, and you can study that and learn.

And we talk a lot about this in content and function words, for example. And some of those ninja
strategies for pronunciation. Go back and listen to, there's an episode we did with Rachel, from
Rachel's English. And she's somebody we've learned a lot from, definitely a master of
pronunciation. She teaches really well, so this is something we've tried to integrate into what we're
doing.

ETHAN: And I would also, I'll put this in the show notes, since we're mentioning Rachel, there's an
exercise that I make all my students do that is from her. Called the “Ben Franklin exercise”, where
you take a section of speech from a native speaker, and you really break down the intonation, the
rhythm, the stressed syllables.

And this helps you to really start analyzing the speech, to pay more attention to how natives are
speaking. So, if that is a goal of yours, this exercise you will find extremely valuable and it'll give
you more of that analytic mindset for the subtleties of speech.

JUSTIN: And that's essentially what we're doing on the Learn English with TV Series channel as
well. And also How to Revolutionize Your English with Podcasts lesson. Anyways, we've covered a
lot today. So, just going back, just doing a quick review of what we covered today. You don't need
to sound like a native.

Native-like English it's a question, it's like do you really want to speak like a native? You don't need

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to be perfect. Start where you're at, strive for progress, not perfection. Don't be a perfectionist. And
just start speaking, strive to be understood, first. And as you go along, don't be afraid of imitating
natives. Really try to get to that point where you can understand natives.

Recognize that the way that you learned English, that filter through which you are viewing English,
which is usually your native language, that that- you can't trust that. You need to transcend that
and start seeing English as it is. If you can do that, this is really, really going to help you get to the
point where you can understand a whole world of media that you didn't understand before. And
that is going to be huge for your entire process.

ETHAN: And just based on one thing that you said there in the review. Don't use the excuse that
you need to talk to a native speaker. Because for many reasons it can be difficult to find a native to
practice with. So, if you don't have a native speaker who is available to talk to you, that shouldn't
be your excuse.

Speak by yourself, as Justin was saying, speak to your dog. Speak and just, like, try to start
thinking in English. And find other people who are learning and propose to them to practice
together. So, avoid those excuses, and next week we will be talking about this a little bit more.
We're going to be jumping into courage. Why courage and confidence are really important for your
communication.

And we're going to give you some tips on how to do this. So, we'll talk a little bit about why most
people are very shy, very scared to speak in another language, in a language that they're not yet
comfortable with. And we're just going to show you why communicating courageously is so crucial
if you want to be fluent.

So, we're really excited for that episode- that is one of my favorite topics. It's something that I am
always drilling with my own students. So, I look forward to sharing some of my insights with you
guys next week. And I would love to hear what some of you think. So, as we said before, feel free
to reach out. Leave us a review on iTunes, and we look forward to connecting with you guys again,
next week.

More About the RealLife Native Immersion Course

Aww yeah!! This is Justin, back with another quick message from the RealLife Native Immersion
Course. If you enjoyed step 3 of the RealLife Way, about Discovering Native English, you’re going
to love the RealLife Native Immersion course, which takes the ideas presented in today’s lesson to
an entirely new and practical level, giving you the chance to understand, use, and infuse native
English into your Everyday life.

The RealLife Native Immersion Course is a 41 week fluency journey where we send to your e-mail
a new lesson, on a new topic, every single week.

Each lesson contains 3 pillar components. The first is a 30-40 minute MP3 Audio Lesson Podcast,
which you can listen to whenever and wherever you want- for example, stuck in traffic, while
exercising, in line at the bank, or walking the dog.

Second, we provide a PDF Power Lessons for each and every episode, containing what can only
be described as a superpowered transcript- which why it’s called a Power lesson, because in every
lesson there is a beautifully designed column next to the transcript, analyzing and deciphering
hundreds of crucial native vocabulary, pronunciation, and cultural notes- including phrasal verbs,
idioms, and slang, with pictures to help you memorize it all.

Plus we identify and break down all the most important native connected speech patterns, as you
have been learning all about today, so you can study the way that natives really speak and start to

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decipher exactly when we cut, connect and blend our words, empowering you to understand and
even imitate us.

And third, every week you get an Anki Vocabulary Flashcard lesson with the 20 most important
expressions, an audio recorded by Ethan, utilizing cutting edge Spaced Repetition Memory
Technology, helping you systematically learn new vocabulary in a way that is scientifically proven
to maximize the short term and long retention of new information.

In this 9 and a half month course, you will receive total 1558 pages of PDF Power Lessons
meticulously analyzing over 24 hours of spoken native English, referencing over 9,000 items of
connected speech pronunciation, vocabulary, and cultural explanations, plus 820 Anki Vocabulary
Flashcards.

And we haven’t even talked about the Fluency Circle Community, yet, our global community of
English learning all-stars from the 4 corners of the planet, which you get lifetime access to it.

You can learn more about the RealLife Native Immersion course at
https://reallifeglobal.com/immersion, or click on the link you received at the bottom of the e-mail, or
on the transcript page. Talk to you soon! Aww yeah!!

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