Hi there. Our names are Dan and Aaron, and we’re the co-founders of Deep English. We have been helping thousands of adult English learners around the world speak English more fluently and confidently since 2011. It’s our mission!
Over the years, we’ve learned firsthand what works well and what doesn’t. If you are like most of our students, you have studied English for years, but are not making progress anymore. You have learned some grammar rules and vocabulary, but you still aren’t speaking English fluently. You still feel embarrassed or shy when you speak. You feel like you are stuck in one place, even though you are making a lot of effort.
Don’t worry! The following 5-step guide will show you exactly what you are doing wrong when it comes to developing greater fluency and confidence in English.
At the end of this 5-step guide, we will reveal an exciting solution that you can start doing today! It will completely change the way you learn English and transform you into a more confident and fluent English speaker.
Reason #1: You’re Caught in the Detail Trap
Just like a fly in a spider’s web, you’ve fallen into a trap that has caught more learners than you can imagine. And it’s not your fault! Much of it has to do with the way you started learning English at the very beginning, when you were in school. You learned the grammar rules, you memorized vocabulary, and you did drill after drill, and took test after test. There was a right answer and a wrong one. So you did your best to get the right ones and avoided the wrong ones. Along the way, you grew in your understanding of English, but it wasn’t enough to turn you into a confident speaker.
Believe it or not, you have reached a point now where you KNOW a LOT about English. It might not feel like it but it’s true. But knowing English rules and vocabulary and knowing how to use it are two different things.
The problem is you get caught in detail-focused learning. You mistakenly believe that if you continue learning more about English, you’ll get better at it. You keep focusing on all the details of memorizing more vocabulary, studying more advanced grammar rules, and trying to perfect your accuracy.
And all those details you focused on aren’t bad. The grammar and vocabulary are a necessary part of English. In fact they got you halfway there. Grammar and vocabulary took you from zero to intermediate, but it won’t make you fluent.
Too much focus on details is actually an obstacle to speaking English fluently. Focusing on grammar and vocabulary accuracy is an excellent road for beginners, but it is an obstacle for intermediate and advanced learners.
These details become little sticky threads of the spider’s web that have trapped you. You’re stuck in a web. You may not know why you’re stuck, but you know you’re not making progress.
Sound familiar? Well, there is an immediate way out of that Detail Trap, and it’s the very first thing we teach in our Deep English method. The Detail Trap is at the root of all fluency problems, so the very first step you need to take is to escape from the trap. We’ll show you exactly how to do this.
Reason #2: You’re Facing the Boredom Barrier
Becoming a confident English speaker is like climbing a mountain. It’s a journey to get to the top. If you aren’t enjoying the journey, you’re likely to give up. You’ve probably tried different ways to learn English. Maybe you’ve even done this over and over again. Starting and stopping is a good recipe for failure. But why are you stopping? If you’re like most people, it’s because you’re bored.
One big reason for boredom is the way languages are taught. In many schools, you sit in a class and listen to the teacher. It’s not very exciting or interesting. You might feel like you’re just watching and not really doing anything. This is because a lot of teaching is about the teacher talking and you just listening. You don’t get to do much yourself??. You’re bored, and you quit.
Another problem is that language learning often feels like just another subject, like math or history. You might think language is about memorizing facts or grammar rules, but it’s not. Language learning requires action. William Butler Yeats, a famous poet, once said that learning isn’t filling a bucket; it’s lighting a fire. This is doubly true for language learning. You can’t just fill your head with enough words and grammar and magically become fluent. You need to light a fire! And that fire comes from doing!
Language is a skill, something you need to practice, like playing a sport or an instrument??. In traditional language learning methods, you don’t spend enough time using the language you’re learning. Imagine learning to swim without going into the water. That’s how it can feel. You learn about the language, but you don’t get to speak it. Communication is the interesting part of learning a language. Using English to communicate and learn about the world in a new way is what keeps you motivated. That’s what will keep you moving up that mountain on your fluency journey instead of getting bored and quitting.
The materials you use can be a problem, too. English learning textbooks and websites can be boring. When you don’t like what you’re learning from, it’s hard to stay interested??.
For example, grammar exercises or vocabulary lists can be like eating the same plain sandwich every day. They’re sometimes useful but not very motivating.
Even English textbooks and websites teaching real-life situations can be a bore. Think about reading a textbook with conversations about going shopping or going to the post office. It’s all very normal and doesn’t have any surprises. It’s like watching a movie where you already know what will happen. You understand it, but it’s not fun or interesting.
Find English content that catches your interest and makes you pay attention. This is going to be different for everyone. It could be a mystery. It could be science. It could be stories about interesting people or places that make you think about the world in a fresh way. Whatever engages you fully is what you need. This will keep your brain awake and make learning English so much fun that you don’t even think about quitting as you make your way up that mountain.
Reason #3: You’ve Got a Case of the Overstudy Overload
You study English too much even though you think you don’t study enough. This one sounds counterintuitive. We’ll say it again: You study English too much even though you think you don’t study enough.
But wait, don’t you need to study more English if you want to get better? Well, no! Not really. You’ve already spent YEARS studying. How’s that been working for you?
If you are reading this 5-Step Guide, then you already know the answer.
What you’ve been doing isn’t getting the results you want.
But don’t feel bad. We have two pieces of good news for you:
Good News #1: You can STOP Studying. At least for now. I know that might sound a bit crazy or a little scary or even plain stupid, depending on your worldview or personality type. But, there is a much better way to spend your time and energy if you want to boost your English fluency and start feeling more confident. The secret lies in the WAY you use what you already know.
Good News #2: You already have the Fluency Foundation. Adding more to this foundation is not going to change anything. The foundation is there already and ready to serve its purpose. Through your hard work over the years, you have built a very important foundation of grammar and vocabulary upon which to now become fluent. It is a necessary foundation of grammar and vocabulary, and you have it already! All your efforts have gotten you to where you are today, and now you’re ready to DO something with what you’ve built.
Look at it this way: With all your blood, sweat, and tears, you have built a launch pad.
And it’s a fine launch pad. Don’t keep building launch pads.
What you need is……….
……………….………The Rocketship.
At Deep English, we’ll give you the rocketship and show you how to launch it. All you need to do is climb up into it, strap yourself in, and prepare for blast-off!
Reason #4: You’re Lost in the Mind Maze
Almost everyone we’ve worked with has this problem, and you might very well be one of those people, too.
Imagine being stuck in a maze. You just want to get out of it, but with every corner you turn, you see another dead-end. It just feels like you are going around and around in circles with no hope of ever finding your way out.
When it comes to becoming fluent in English, this is a puzzle that must be solved. We call it the Mind Maze, and it is undoubtedly the most common barrier to achieving fluency in just about every single learner.
The Mind Maze appears when we allow our minds to get too involved in the process of communication.
- You’re lost in the Mind Maze when you stop to use your knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to construct a sentence mentally before speaking.
- You hit dead-ends in the Mind Maze when you listen to English and translate what you hear into your native language.
- You go round and round in circles in the Mind Maze when you judge your mistakes in real time when you’re speaking.
All of these twists and turns of the mind maze slows your English down. They cause you to pause frequently, and trip over your words. This leads to anxiety and fear, and ultimately frustration and disappointment.
If you want to get fluent, you’ve got to exit the Mind Maze and vow never to return. At Deep English, we’ll show you the way out of the maze, and give you a reserved seat on the special express train to improve your English fluency and become a confident speaker of the language.
Reason #5: You’re a Victim of Stinkin’ Thinkin’
When something stinks, it smells bad, like rotten eggs, dog poop, or overflowing garbage cans in the hot sun. Well, it’s not just physical things that can give off stinky smells, but our thoughts can also be equally as smelly.
How many of you say or think things like:
“I’m terrible at speaking English.”
“I’ve never been good at English conversation.”
“I get nervous when I have to speak English with others.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to make too many mistakes when speaking English.”
“I worry that nobody will understand what I say.”
If these sound familiar to you, then you are a victim of what we like to call Stinkin’ Thinkin’. Everytime you say something negative like this, you are setting yourself up for failure. These inner statements form the basis of your beliefs, which influence your attitude, and ultimately get expressed through your actions.
If you believe that you are terrible at speaking, then you will have the attitude of a terrible English speaker, and will most likely speak English…….terribly.
If you believe that you have never been good at English conversation, you’ll have a shy attitude when entering into an English conversation, which will prevent you from taking necessary risks.
If you label your feelings as “nervous” or “anxious” when you have to speak English with others, then that nervousness and anxiety is definitely going to affect your performance in undesirable ways.
If you fear making mistakes when you speak English, then you create a reality in which it is actually safer for you to remain silent in conversations, or only give short responses.
And if you worry that nobody will understand you, then what incentive do you have for speaking at all?
Can you see just how harmful Stinkin’ Thinkin’ is? Yet, you would be amazed at how many learners we come in contact with who want to get fluent in English, but who set themselves up for failure before they even begin.
At Deep English, we’ll show you exactly how NOT to become a victim of Stinkin’ Thinkin’ and how to start creating an attitude that will lead you to success. It’s actually a lot easier than you think. It’s not about magical thinking either. It’s about concrete steps you can start taking today to change your beliefs, your actions and your outcomes.
The Deep English Solution
So there you have it: The 5 reasons why you are NOT already fluent in English. So whether you are caught in the Detail Trap, facing the Boredom Barrier, have a case of Overstudy Overload, are lost in the Mind Maze, or are suffering from Stinkin’ Thinkin’, or all of the above, we’re here to help you.
Again, our mission is to help intermediate-to-advanced English learners become confident and fluent English speakers. If you would like to learn more about our method and the tools and materials we’ve created to help you overcome the five problems outlined above, then take our Free 7-Day Course. If you put into practice what we teach you, you’ll start feeling the results right away. Just click the button below to get started.
