Perhaps what you have
in mind is this: If you live in an environment where
people speak English, you'll be able to keep on listening
to spoken English and you'll find yourself forced
to speak in English. And this listening experience and
speaking experience would give you a sort of training,
and this training would help you speak fluent English.
Is this what you mean by the question?
This
route will take years
Of course, it'll
certainly be very helpful if you can live for a long
period of time in an environment where people speak
genuine English. Yes, for a long period of time. There's
no doubt about it.
But don't let this fact mislead you
or give you a wrong idea. Mind you, just because you
spend your time with people who speak English for
a short period like 3 or 6 months, that alone
is not going to help you become fluent. No.
Of course, that'll help you speak a few isolated sentences
here and there. But don't think that it'll give you
the skill of speaking English fluently.
Suppose you want to gain the
skill of speaking English fluently, and suppose you
want to do it by living and working in an English
environment and by actually trying to speak in English.
Mind you, that'll take a long time. That'll
take at least 5 years, if the English environment
is ideal. Otherwise, it'll take a longer time. Now,
can educated adult speakers afford to spend that much
time - in order to become fluent?
The Fluentzy
system: The only quick and easy route
That's why you need the
Fluentzy books. They’re intended to train you
to become fluent in a short period of time.
The very reason why the Fluentzy
books have been so popular is this: Without the Fluentzy
books, your only alternative would have been to spend
years and years listening to others speaking in English
and attempting to speak to them in English. And even
then, the end result may not be as satisfactory as
that the Fluentzy books can produce. So you
can see that the Fluentzy books meet a pressing
need.
English
environment in second-language countries
First let's consider
the kind of English environment you get in a country
like India where English is a second language.
Suppose that you live or work for
several years in such a country among people who often
speak in English. Of course, you'll then have
the opportunity of listening to English spoken by
others. And you'll also find yourself forced to speak
in English in various communicative situations. But
are you under the impression that such an experience
is going to make you able to speak English at length
spontaneously - in a short period of 3 months or 6
months or one year?
Mind you, even if you live and work
in such an environment for several years (say 5 years
or more), the chances are that you'll only become
able to communicate certain essential things in English
through one-line or two-line utterances. That too,
in similar communicative situations - and not in new
or unfamiliar situations. The chances are that this
sort of experience in listening and speaking may not
take you to a stage when you can call yourself fluent
- even in 5 or 10 years. If you want to call yourself
fluent, you must have the skill of speaking English
easily and continuously, at least for a few seconds
at a time, in almost all the real-life situations
you face every day.
For example, in India, there are
a large number of English-educated people from 'non-Hindi'
states (like Kerala or Tamil Nadu) working in Hindi-speaking
cities like Bombay and Delhi. Most of them can't speak
Hindi very well. And so English is their chief medium
of interaction with people from outside their own
states. So they have plenty of opportunity of interacting
in English - inside their own offices and in other
places. But do you think they all become fluent in
English at the end of five years or more? All that
they're normally able to do is to communicate certain
essential things in English through one-line or two-line
utterances. And even to reach that level of competence,
they normally take several years - and not a short
period of just 3 months or 6 months or even one year.
Actually, this is true not only of
people from non-Hindi states working in Hindi-speaking
states, but also of Hindi-speaking people working
in non-Hindi states. And this is true of large groups
of English-educated non-native speakers of English
who are similarly-placed everywhere in the world.
English
environment in English-speaking countries
Of course, the situation
would be quite different if you can live for
a few years in a country like England or America -
where people speak English as their native or first
language.
If you live in one of these English-speaking
countries for about five years or more and
are able to have conversations with the English-speaking
people there regularly, then you're likely
to become fluent in everyday conversational English.
Yes, in everyday conversational speech. Of course,
not in a short period of 3 or 6 months, but
in about 3 to 5 years. But mind you, even then, you
may not become fluent enough to speak English in detail
spontaneously - to describe or explain things or to
argue or to have a serious conversation. If you want
to reach that stage, you may need to learn fluency
techniques.
Of course, all this also depends
on the type of environment you live and work in. If
you live and work in an environment where you have
to make heavy use of oral English, you're likely to
become quite fluent (in that kind of English).
Otherwise, you'll only become fluent in communicating
your essential needs and in performing everyday functions
in English. And you'll only be able to communicate
in good English if you live and work in an educated
environment. But if you live and work in places where
living and working conditions are bad, and where people
speak non-standard English, the English you'll
learn to communicate in will also be non-standard
English. This then becomes a liability, rather
than an advantage.
A practical
difficulty (in using English environment as a training
ground)
Now just think about
this: Even if you go to England or America, how
are you going to start communicating in English if
you're not already fluent at least to some extent?
If you're already somewhat fluent, then of course,
living and working with educated native speakers of
English will certainly help you become more fluent
- over the years. But if you're not already
somewhat fluent, won't your progress be difficult?
So remember this: You'll be able
to become fluent in one-line or two-line functional
English if you live and work in an English-speaking
environment - for a long period of time. But
simply by living in an English speaking environment
alone, you may not become fluent in speaking spontaneously
and at length. To reach that stage, you may have to
learn fluency techniques.
