Go with the Flow

Welcome to this space! You’ve come here because you want to take your English fluency to the next level. But what exactly is this elusive ‘fluency?’

From the Latin word fluentia meaning flow, the Oxford Dictionary defines it as the ability to speak or write a foreign language easily, accurately and articulately. These are great adverbs, but I suspect they make you think of a massive vocabulary, grammar rules or a conversation with a pundit.

In reality, a native speaker uses the same 1000 words 80% of the time, throws grammar out the window and our conversations are with family, friends and coworkers. I prefer this profile:

You are creative in your speech, you have the ability to think of many diverse ideas quickly, there is flexibility and originality in your speech and you are readily capable of elaborating on any topic.

Let’s get back to flow. The English language is like a river. It takes the easiest, surest path to the sea, the listener. That’s why we contract (eg. that is = that’s), ignore grammar (“coffee?”) and link (“wanna coffee?”).

What we do care about quite a bit are the sounds, especially the tonic. The tonic (aka stressed, but I don’t like that word) is the most important syllable in the word. ‘Avilable’ (/a-vi-la-bul/) means nothing, but ‘vailable’ (/vAy-la-bul/), even though we’re missing a syllable here, tells the listener that you are indeed available for that meeting next week.

English is riddled with unexpected pronunciations, odd rules and a myriad of exceptions. The rules are crap. Ignore them. They will only serve to confuse you and undermine your confidence. What I aim to illustrate are the patterns. These are infallible and we can use them to draw direct lines from your first language, connecting the dots that will give you the big picture.

I started this post talking about your fluency level. I would like to invite you to test your level with this simple Fluency Questionnaire. The results are generated and sent to you within seconds of completion, tell you your current level and, using my modal for language acquisition, how long it will take you to reach the fluency level you so desire. It’s absolutely free, so go ahead and click here:

May your fluency take flight,

Jennifer