Oscar Pellus of Unlimited Spanish

Welcome to the Effortless English Show with the world's number one English teacher, A.J. Hoag, where A.J. 's more than 40 million students worldwide finally learn English once and for all, without the boring textbooks, classrooms, and grammar drills. Here's A.J.

with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English effortlessly. I'm A.J. Hoag, whoops. I'm A.J. Hoag, the author of Effortless English, Learn to Speak English Like a Native.

I train you. I teach you. You speak English fluently. You speak English powerfully. You speak English confidently. You speak English effortlessly. And you enjoy it.

When you join my VIP program, you commit to my VIP program at EffortlessEnglishClub.com EffortlessEnglishClub.com Go there today. Today we have an interview.

I know you all enjoy interviews. So do I. And our interview today is with Oscar Peyus of Unlimited Spanish. Oscar, of course, first, he is Spanish, Catalan.

And he first learned English with Effortless English. He was one of my students, which is great. And he did an excellent job. He... really learned English well.

He speaks well, you'll see that. And then he decided to become a Spanish teacher, to use the same methods of mini-stories and point-of-view stories, you know, the effortless method, TPRS, these kind of things.

He decided to use all of these methods to teach the Spanish language. I myself... I am one of his students. So he was one of my students and I was and am one of his students.

He's got four courses, I believe. I'll let him talk about it more, but he has like a beginner course, a 30-day beginner course, then kind of his first course.

I'm not sure what he calls it. Then he's got one. I think it's called Curso Magico, the magic course, which is his third course. And then he's got a fairly new one, a fourth one, which helps you with a little bit more of the more advanced grammar of Spanish.

But again, using stories, not grammar rules, none of that. And it's called Curso Inesperado, which is I'm doing that course right now. So he's a wonderful teacher and a wonderful guy. I've known him for many years.

I have met Oscar several times visiting in Barcelona and had a great time. So let's just go on over. I just wanted to give that quick introduction. Oh, I want to put on the screen his, let me put his website.

Here we go. Sorry, one second. Let me just type this for those of you watching. So you can have his unlimited. Spanish.com And we'll add that to the screen.

So let's see. I think I'm going to be on the left side of the screen. And I think he'll be over here. So we'll have him there. So if you're interested in Spanish, use his course.

Especially if you're a beginner. Or even low. I was kind of a high beginner when I started his course. And I'm kind of a... lower intermediate now kind of getting into the middle intermediate and using his other his more advanced courses now it's really great okay let's do it let's call him and as usual those of you watching live i'll come to your questions and comments first i'm going to chat with him i have some questions for him we'll talk a little bit and then after that i'll come and you can ask questions all right let's call oscar

I guess I need headphones. Hey, Oscar. Long time. Long time, Rossi. I know. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you. How about you? I'm doing very well.

Thank you. How is the sound and the picture, the video? You look good. Sound is good. I think everything's fine. Let's cross our fingers. Okay. Yes, indeed.

All right. We'll tell you what. At some point, I would love to... I'll email you, but I'd just like to catch up with you personally since it's been a while.

But we'll keep it official and talk about... languages today very well all right okay good enough so I just I just gave the introduction you know talking about how you learned English kind of using these natural methods and and effortless English and then became a Spanish teacher and have unlimited Spanish now where you are using these same methods so why don't you just give an overview of you know I guess kind of your journey like first as a learner and then as a beginning as a teacher

Yeah, well, a few years ago, believe it or not, I couldn't have a basic conversation in English, and I wanted to be able to speak in this language, so I decided to learn English grammar, so a bad choice, right? Yeah. And after some time of intense study, I hired a private teacher in order to practice conversation, and I thought that with all those grammar rules in my head, it would be easy. But the surprise was that I got continuously stuck in the middle of easy sentences.

I got nervous. And in short, it was a complete disaster. It was a waste of money. But one thing I noticed that I was learning only when the teacher was speaking.

So I was paying attention. And then I thought, OK, there is something here. I need to do some research. I found the input approach method, and finally I found you and your course, and I started using it.

And then what was the experience like, you know, as coming from the traditional textbooks and grammar and classes, and then suddenly you're doing all these crazy stories and things?

well the first thing is that my first approach was okay I'm not gonna quit grammar because I think it's really important but then I saw that When I started using your courses with many repetitions, I saw that instead of thinking how to say it, I started thinking in what to say. So it was like the English was coming up to my mind very easily, specifically for basic vocabulary and expressions. So that was in the first month, two months.

I see. And then let's... trying to i'm just playing with the video sorry all right so then uh obviously so you you that was successful and then at some point you decided uh well now i want to become a teacher like do the uh so how did how did you start that and get started with unlimited spanish well

I saw that the method was so powerful and so useful, and it adapts very well to our lifestyle. We are so busy nowadays. So we need a method that... Let's say that we can use while we're doing other things.

For example, I really like walking and I used to run a lot, but also doing the dishes, waiting in a line and driving. All that time is wasted unless you don't do something useful with that. So I saw that, well, this is perfect.

The method works very well with English, so I can create lessons. I spent like six months to eight months to create a good set of lessons, very balanced with a sense of humor. And I saw immediately that my first students started to speak in Spanish, and it was amazing. The method works not only with English, but with Spanish too.

And, well, you know, absolutely. I've told this story before, but I started doing your lessons. It was probably two, maybe three months. So this was almost five years ago.

And I was planning to walk the Camino de Santiago. So about, let's say, three months before. I really, I got your lessons. I really dove in every day.

Boom, boom, boom. Hammering away at the mini stories. And just what you said, just listening. Like, I didn't really, I didn't study at all. I just walk around because I was kind of training for the Camino.

So I was just walking around listening to your lessons again and again and again. And I had a great experience. And, you know, of course, I wasn't – in three months, I didn't achieve, like, high fluency. But I –

I managed to manage everything in Spanish during that trip. You know, I had calling hotels and getting reservations, and I chatted with people, and it made the whole experience so much better. And then just recently, and the reason I thought of you, actually, just recently, was that our mutual friend Steve Kaufman did a video about learning multiple languages, and...

He talked about, and you know, when you use these methods, you don't actually ever lose anything, really. You don't really lose it. It's true. It's true.

So I thought, okay, it's been almost five years. In five years, I've done no Spanish, like really nothing. Okay. So I thought, all right, I'm going to test it right now.

So I put in like the last mini story of your original course. And I understood 90% of it. Without effort. I was like, boom, boom, boom. I'm like, wow.

So then there was an audio book. It's actually Steve's book in Spanish that I used to listen to also. So I just chose a chapter randomly in the middle, played it. Again, 80% to 90% comprehension.

Five years, and that's with no, I mean, none. And so it just it really hit like, wow, this you don't lose. I mean, my speaking is very rusty. Probably I would need a couple of months to, you know, kind of reactivate that.

But the fact that my understanding is still so good after all of that time, you know, maybe you can talk more about what, you know, why does this work so well, in your opinion?

Well, it works so well because, first of all, we acquire the language. We don't study it, and then we produce the language, thinking, and rules. Like, for example, if you are doing some calculations, doing some math, you need to think in terms of the rules and theorems and everything. It's a very intellectual process, but when it comes to speaking, what happens is that we need to create...

patterns of the language that go deeply inside our mind subconsciously. That's why it's so important to be able to speak without translating in our mind. Yeah.

Right? Right. So, for example, in a typical language school, what we see is students are very good with grammar, but at the same time, they can't speak very well. The fluency is very, very low.

They try to translate. Yeah. And that happened to me. I was like back and forth from English to Spanish and Spanish to English. I was not aware of that.

And with your lessons, what happened is, because I had to answer so quickly, easy questions. That's very important. Easy questions, answering so quickly.

And with lots of repetitions, at the end, I was able to kind of answer without thinking. So every time I heard something in English, I immediately got the meaning without...

back and forth. That's very demanding for our brain. We're forcing our brain to do that. Right. And can you talk more about how, you know, some people, because I'm so strongly against what you're talking about, that memorizing of grammar rules, people sometimes will misunderstand me and they think I'm saying grammar is not important.

You don't need to learn grammar. But that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's You have to learn what you're saying. You have to acquire it, as Stephen Krashen says.

So can you talk about how... So right now, I just started doing your fourth course, really great, the curso Inesperado. Yep, just started, and it's very grammar-focused, but you're not explaining, well, this is the subjunctive in Spanish, and da-da-da-da-da. It's this kind of little funny story.

But there's a ton of grammar in there. I'm definitely learning grammar. So can you talk about how you're teaching grammar with this method without studying it? You know what I mean?

Like, how are you teaching it in such a way that works? Yes. For example, yes, in that last course, I created the course with the intention of just giving some hints just to think about how you use the language. So let's say, for example...

Let's talk about hypothetically, okay? So something that hasn't happened yet, but it could happen. So let's use these structures or these patterns. That is a way of giving a hint, giving like something to think about.

Another way is let's study the second conditional with the past simple and the clause and whatever. That is just nonsense. Right. But I think that the bottom line here is just practice and just listen to Allah.

And even if you don't have any clue at the end, you figure it out. It's something that comes to your mind. This is what I believe. Yes? Sorry? No, I was going to say exactly that.

I found that, and this might just be me, because I'm a little lazy about anything that's kind of like study, but I often find that, so like with your original, what's the name of your second course, the one that I did? The second course is the original course. Okay, the original course, perfect. This is the first one I created.

The second one is for total beginners. You don't need any knowledge of Spanish. So it's called 30-day crash course. Only 30 days you start, you begin to speak.

I see. So the 30-day course is from your low beginner, you're nothing. From scratch. From scratch. And it gets you up and then from there you go into the original course.

Would be what a total beginner would do. Yes. 30-day crash course. It's a very short course. And then you have the original course with eight to nine hours of audio.

And then I have what I call the third level, which is kind of more advanced because I see that people want to learn more and more and want to be more elegant, want to speak more elegantly with complex structures.

And I tell them, it's not necessary, but okay, we can create another course for you guys. Is that the Curso Magico? Yes, Curso Magico. And then finally, then the Curso Inesperado is the...

Yes, Curso Inesperado. It's a short course, Curso Inesperado, just to, let's say, to practice the most common problems with advanced students. I see. Yeah, it's great.

It's fantastic. Really enjoying it. Let's start. I'm on lesson one. Lesson one. Okay. Okay, great. So can you talk about then the actual technique? How are you doing this?

These point of view stories or the mini stories. Can you just talk a little more about how can you learn grammar from a story? Some people don't get it. They don't quite understand.

Well, how is that possible? Yeah. Okay, so first of all, we have to understand that grammar is a set of rules that tells us how to use the language. And it's so complex and with so many rules and exceptions that it doesn't help at all.

So it's a bad idea. On the other hand, you can use grammar, for example, to improve a little bit your writing, especially if you want to be very precise.

And the problem, well, I said that before, but What we need is to develop the feeling of what's correct and incorrect when we hear or read. It's a feeling. It's subconscious.

And, for example, let's say you have a conversation and someone asks you, where does John go to study, whatever. And then you say, John, and then you stop. And then you say, okay, I have to, it's the third person, present tense, negative form, hence the auxiliary word should be does instead of do.

So you don't say, John doesn't go to school. Sorry, you say that, but you don't say, John don't go to school. Right. So, for example, if someone says, John, don't go to school, you immediately know that it's incorrect.

But you're not thinking in those terms. Third person, present tense, negative form. It just sounds wrong. Yes, it feels so wrong. Please don't say that to me anymore.

Yes, yes, yes. So this is exactly what we do with our own language. We don't have to continuously review the grammar we studied in high school. Yeah. The more we read, the more we listen to correct content, the more we develop that skill, that feeling that it feels correct, it sounds correct.

Does that make sense? Absolutely it does, yes. And it leads right into my next question, which is about, like, what is your advice about repetition? So, like, I think...

So for example, let's say I've listened to the story about the penguins and the zoo from your original course. And so some of those phrases just stick in my head, right? And it's because I've listened to it so many times that that's kind of where I get that feeling from of what sounds right.

What's your advice on how much repetition? Yeah. Okay, how much repetition? So, for me, the main problem I detect is that language schools try to cover as much material as possible in a very short period of time.

Therefore, learning becomes superficial and there is no consolidation whatsoever. Typical situation, a student learns something for the exam and after some time, he or she completely forgets it. So that's why we need repetition. So here's the rule, the general rule, the advice that they usually give to students.

If your level is low, you need to repeat many times. If your level is low. If your level is advanced... You can repeat less. Yeah. But still, you can stick with a single topic or listen to the same people, for example.

Right. If we want, we can talk a little bit about mini stories and point of views. Yes, indeed. Well, that's kind of – and that's where I'm kind of getting to.

We try to get into that. Yeah, because with your – like, say, when I was doing your – original course with the mini stories uh yeah i did a lot of repetition i mean i just i for each one i just i don't know a huge amount 30 40 50 more per audio yeah yeah

Well, like I said, repetition is paramount. It is crucial if you want to develop very solid patterns of the language, especially to activate the language. The more you repeat, the more you activate the language. So, I found some students who say, well, I repeated this a couple of times.

I understand everything, so I can move on. Right? No, you can't. Because it's not about understanding superficially. It's about... Creating a very solid foundation of the most common patterns of Spanish.

That's the idea. When we speak, we don't use 20,000 words. Maybe we use 500 to 1,000 in a basic conversation, but maybe up to 2,000. Not anymore. And basically, we use the present tense, past tense, and a little bit of future tense, maybe.

It's not complicated. It's not something that we need to learn very complex structures, grammar structures. We are using the same phrases, the same verbs, the same tenses over and over. So, the key to understand is we have to repeat that.

Hmm. Obviously, what's good about the mini-story is that not only you just repeat, just listening, like, oh my God, okay, another time. So you have to answer questions. Yes.

And that becomes very fun. Because in my case... I don't care if I repeat 20 times because there's always something new I can learn. For example, I try to answer as quickly as I can.

I try to develop a very good answer in only five seconds. I try to focus on pronunciation or intonation. I try to anticipate the next question. Hmm. And that's amazing.

And you can learn a lot. You don't realize how much you can learn with this technique. I'm extremely happy with myself and with my students. Yes, indeed.

Yes, indeed. And even within the mini story, the way that the method, the technique of it also has built-in repetition because you're saying a sentence, then you're asking a question using basically the same structure and And same vocab. So now that you're getting you're you're getting like a double or true and then you're giving and then you're waiting and then you're giving the answer again.

So you're getting like at least like a triple repetition. Plus, then you just tell the story straight. So you get like four or five repetitions of those key phrases even within one listening. Right.

Yes, that's amazing. Yes, it's not that you just repeat the same question. There are some changes, minor changes, so you are repeating the same with minor changes. You are in maybe negative and the positive form and I don't know, and the when, the who, the what, the where, and you see that the verb to be in the past changes.

Was, were, it's in plural. And it's just you don't think in how it changes. It's just, okay, it feels natural now to use those patterns in my language and my speaking.

And what is a point of view story then? What does that add then on top of everything you just said when you do point of view? Yeah, a point of view is, in short, is a story that is told more than one time. And each time we change a grammatical point.

So, for example, let's say we are comfortable with the present tense, but have some uses with the past. If I tell you the same story in the present tense and then...

Again, in the past, you'll naturally see how the grammar changes because it changes the tense. So then you remember, okay, now we are using did instead of does. So we are using, I don't know, how certain verbs changes in the past. So it's so natural that at the end...

you see how easy it is to use another chance. Of course, you need time. And one of the things that I always say about this method is it's not a miracle you can't speak in seven days.

But I think that at least you go three times faster when you use this method because it's so natural. It's so amazing. Yes, indeed. And you know that Steve over at Link, Steve Kaufman has become a big fan of many stories now.

I just met him. I'm in Osaka now, and he and his son were just here. We had dinner, and we talked a lot about you. Actually, we may be contacting you about an idea.

But anyway, we talked about many stories, and he feels exact. He has finally started listening. He's using them now in his language learning as he's learning some new languages, and he feels exactly what you're saying, that he feels like he can rev up, get up to speaking much faster now than he used to.

Yes. Another advantage of the mini stories is that you speak from day one, So you listen to a lot. There is the traditional approach of this. It's not traditional, but it's an input approach where you spend like six months just listening and then you try to speak.

It's okay. But with the mini stories from day one, you speak. So you hear yourself saying something in the foreign language, the target language. Yes.

And you get used to hear yourself. speaking in a different language. So when it comes to having a conversation, then it's not so, let's say, challenging.

And after two minutes of having a conversation, all that language, all those patterns that you have practiced come up, and it's amazing. So you don't need a beer or two in order to have a good conversation. Right, right, right. Amazing.

Why don't we go to our live... Live? We're live. So we got our live comments. So I know people like to ask questions. Our live audience to ask you questions because...

I know they're typing questions furiously over here. In English, I hope. In English. They occasionally throw Spanish in there to test me. Since I mentioned it, I'm like, all right, go ahead.

It's good practice. All right, let's see. Okay. Okay, so here's the question about total beginners so that you can address this because you've got that course.

What can a mini story do when you don't know anything about the language? You're starting at zero. Oh, he's saying even if you don't know the alphabet, A, B, C, you can't understand anything. So how do you start from nothing?

How do you do it in Spanish? Okay. In Spanish. I just wanted to mention that all my courses come with two columns. The first column is in Spanish and the second column is in English.

So you don't need any dictionary. So you can start from scratch and then you read in Spanish. I don't know the meaning of this. And then you can see the meaning.

So with that said, it's true that, for example, if you are from China, you don't even know the alphabet. So what you should do is just to grab a very easy grammar Spanish book, just to check a little bit about the alphabet and about the most common things. Of course, with that grammar book, the purpose is not to start speaking, but just to...

Just to understand a little bit because it's completely a new language. The phonetics, the phonics or whatever. Yes. And maybe you can hire a private tutor in order to introduce the language.

Maybe you need like three classes or so. And then you start from scratch once you get used to the alphabet, for example. And then, for example, in my first course, I think the first phrase is, I am Felipe. It's very easy.

I am Felipe. Yeah. So it's your story Felipe. So it's very easy. So it's just that. Yes, indeed. And you're right. And you just jump in, like you said.

I think that's exactly right. You jump in. And you can check the grammar book. You can check the grammar book. It's not that you have to burn all the grammar books.

Well, you can do that, but it's not that you need to do that. Maybe you have a specific doubt about something and it's just you need to check it. Okay, just do it. Don't worry.

But spend 95, 99% of the time listening and and answering questions in the mini-stories. And I don't know about your opinion about this, but I think also it's good to be comfortable with not knowing everything. Like, again, when I was doing your original course, I would listen to stories many times without even checking the text, and there would be words I didn't know.

And many times by just repeating, eventually I would sort of... It became like a puzzle. It kind of kept me engaged in it. So I'm like, what's that word?

What does that word mean? And I would try to piece it together from what I did know. And it was surprising how much I actually did figure out eventually. And then when I couldn't do it, I would go check the text and go, ah, that's what it means.

Here's something that always happens with your lessons and my lessons. Let's say you are in the set of lessons 3. 10 or 20% of the words, you are not very sure. And then when you move on, and then you are in the set of lessons 10, let's say.

When you go back, you almost understand everything. And it feels so easy. And then you think, wow, I had some issues with this, and now it feels super easy. It feels like...

Too easy. Maybe it's another lesson. Yeah. And that's a wonderful feeling to remember back. This was so hard. And now it's... Sometimes our brains, we can't dictate, we can't decide the order of what we learn.

So we can't decide. Sometimes it's just a word, a combination of words that doesn't stick. But after some time, the brain says, okay, now I want to learn it.

But that's why we need so much time, spending so much time listening and answering the questions and just have fun. If you think how children learn, you'll see.

Lots of mistakes. Yes, yes, yes. And you tell them, no, it's not in the passive goal, gone. It's not gone, it's went. And they do that or they make that mistake.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And one day they don't. And they're just there and it just clicks itself. Yeah. Okay. Let's. Billy's saying this is a Spanish question.

I mean, I can answer this one myself, but let's get your opinion about it. Is it better to learn Latin Spanish or Spain Spanish because Latin Spanish is spoken more in the world?

What's your opinion? You obviously teach Spain Spanish. Yeah, yeah. My accent is from Spain, but my accent is very neutral and in my courses I use very common vocabulary.

So first, my accent is very neutral, but also we have to understand that if you go to Latin America, you go to Mexico, they speak a dialect or a portion of the language is very local.

And if you go to Venezuela, it's different. If you go to Argentina, Right, because it's really not accurate to say Latin Spanish because Argentina and Mexico are not the same. No, it's completely different.

If you go to Cuba, for example, again, it's different. Well, like I said, I try to speak as neutral as possible, enunciating, pronouncing the different sounds. And then if you have to go to a certain country in Latin America in a few weeks, it would be very easy for you to get used to the local accents slash dialects if they have one.

That's the exact same answer I give about, people ask me, it's always British versus American English. And I say, honestly, it doesn't matter. Learn the standard accent from someone who speaks clearly. And then if you have to go to Australia, if you have to go to New Zealand, if you have to go to wherever, then kind of immerse yourself in that for a while and you'll be fine.

Yeah. Yeah. Because it is still the same language. It is. Okay. Oh, we've got a Spanish question. I'll translate it. Hi, now I am motivated to learn English and Japanese at the same time.

Okay, let's talk about that. What about learning two languages at the same time? We've been discussing this lately because this is another topic I talked with Steve about where he has changed his mind, where he now believes this is a good thing to do and he's enjoying it.

And I know some of my listeners right now are probably thinking, well, maybe I'll try to start doing some Spanish. So what's your opinion on learning a couple languages at the same time?

If you want to learn two languages at the same time, first of all, you have to be very disciplined. You have to schedule it because we have the tendency to go with one language instead of the other because we like it more for some reason.

And I wouldn't... I wouldn't learn two languages from the same family. For example, Spanish and Italian. I wouldn't do that. It would be very awkward to mix it up in conversations.

But if it's Japanese and Spanish, why not? Or English, why not? It's a totally different language. They are totally different. And I know Stephen Kaufman, I remember he said that you can have two languages.

One is 80% of the time, you spend 80% of the time with the language, and the second language, 20% of the time. And after two months, then you switch that.

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay? Right. And I remember that he said... If you incorporate a new language, when you start studying the previous language, it becomes very easy.

It's just that it's a reset in your brain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah, interesting. Good, good, good. Okay, let's see. All right, we're getting the Spanish pronunciation.

I think this probably varies by region, maybe. It's the pronunciation of the V in Spanish. So, vivir, right? Is it vivir or vivir? Is it more of a B sound or V?

Or does it matter? 99.9% of people in Spain, they pronounce both sounds correctly. The same. Be. Be. Vivir. Yes, vivir. I say vivir, and everybody says vivir.

In the past, it's true that maybe one century ago, there was that distinction, but not anymore. I see. And is that, as far as you know, is that similar in most places in Latin America, too?

As far as I know, yes. Okay. Okay. Alright, let's see. Oh, this is kind of a nice comment, but Hien Ha says, I find mini-stories very helpful. It must be a teacher.

They help my students practice well and can remember the tenses and forms of the verbs easily. The way of mini-stories is really useful. We can apply these to any lesson. Thank you.

Thank you. Confirming what you said. Okay, let's see. Okay, this is great, because you get to answer some questions that I get all the time. So, get your opinion.

What's your opinion if you don't understand some vocab when reading? Should you use an English-to-English dictionary or a translation dictionary? Okay. Or no dictionary.

What's your opinion on that when you're reading things? Okay. I can give you my secret. I just use a Kindle. Yes. And then I use my finger. I put the finger on the damned words I don't know.

And then magically it appears that the meaning. Yeah. What happens to me is in the first page, I see that word. Oh, this is the meaning. The second page, again, what was the meaning?

Again, after 17 times, I kind of learned the word. But it's very good because you see the word many times in different contexts and different sentences. That's the only way to learn it.

Please don't do that thing that is a list of words or even sentences. It's too artificial. Yeah, I agree. That's exactly what I... Do you use English to English dictionary or translation, English to Spanish?

It's a translation. That's what I do too. It's a translation. But it's okay. You can use both. I usually use a translation because it's easier for me because it's only one word usually.

But the definition of the word in English, you have to read it and then you forget the flow of the story. And maybe the definition has new words too. Yes, yes. All right, great.

Sorry, just one thing. What happens to me is I decided to read all in English a few years ago. That is amazing, just English. And then when I am speaking Spanish and a word comes up in my mind, okay, but it's an English word, so I don't know now, right now, in Spanish.

It's a couple of seconds. It's what's happening. For example, I got used, sorry, I got very interested with nutrition. And there are so many specific terms and vocabulary.

And then I wanted to say, okay, fasting, fasting, how it's called in Spanish. Ayuno. Oh, yeah, it's a yuno. I was using this English word. Because you're reading it so much, fasting, fasting, fasting.

Yes, and I think in English terms, and I don't like it because in theory I am a Spanish teacher. That's a very bad side effect I don't like. You learn too much.

All righty, let's see. Okay, so these are all common questions I get, so I'm glad to get your take on them. How can you approve speaking when there's no one to talk to, just by listening? Let's say your level's pre-advanced or upper-intermediate even.

So what do you do if no one in your town speaks Spanish or English or whatever? Yes, you don't have anyone to practice. First, we mentioned this, you have the mini stories. But also, what you can do is just to talk to yourself.

Not that you're crazy or something, but for example, you can, at the end of the day, you can just think, talk to yourself how the day was. For example, yeah, I went to visit my family and then I ate a wonderful cake and whatever. So just practice with yourself. Just explain, describe something, describe an experience that you had.

And another thing you could do is just a journal in the target language. But you don't have to be very... like you don't have to write too much if you don't want to but at least five sentences per day just things random random things things that have happened to you nice okay Gustavo okay I'm going to translate this to English do you know some method to learn French with many stories

know that I'm aware of maybe but there is a website called fun sale 20 and the guys from from France and he has some some stories and but I'm not sure if he uses the ministry method method methodology but it's now I don't know okay no worries

Julia Tequita, one of our great members, says, Hi, Jane Oscar. I listened to your Spanish podcast and mini stories since last week. So here's someone who has started Spanish. I enjoyed it so much.

After Efforts English, Spanish is my goal. So, great. That's great, yeah. Amazing. I'm very happy with the podcast, the Unlimited Spanish podcast. Yes.

Yes. Started it just to provide some free examples and then it ended up with, I don't know, 170 episodes with the transcript. That's fantastic. Go ahead.

How do people find it too? Well, they can go to unlimitedspanish.com, my website, unlimitedspanish.com. And there, there is a section for the podcast.

Fantastic. Good. And it's on the screen right now, too, UnlimitedSpanish.com. And I know that some Spanish teachers are using that podcast with their students.

Oh, fantastic. That's good to hear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay, let's see. Okay, so you've answered that one already. Oh, that's an interesting question.

Okay, Buffender says, my question is, if someone is zero level in English and zero level in Spanish, which language will they learn faster? I guess going to ask you, which is easier to learn?

I guess English. Hmm. Interesting. I don't know why. It's not that Spanish is more difficult than English, but I think that achieving like an intermediate level in English is quite easy for most of the people.

And in Spanish, it's not that it's more difficult, but maybe you need like a little bit more of time, maybe one month or two months more with the lessons.

But it also depends on your mother tongue. Of course. But it is a very tricky question. Yeah, because, yeah, I mean, it was Bufendra, where are you from?

Bufendra, Thai, Indian, I'm not sure. But Asian, I believe so. Also, we haven't talked about this, but motivation plays a big role when it comes to learning a language. If you really like flamenco or tacos or whatever, and you are obsessed by the Spanish culture, you won't learn English so fast.

Right. It's about getting obsessed. And I know that many of your students are very... Obsession, I say obsession in a good way. You are... So I know that many of your students really like the American culture.

Exactly, yes. You need that connection. And that's what powered my Spanish, you know, was the Camino. Really? You know, I was kind of like, no motivation, and suddenly, boom, right?

Because I'm like, ah, I'm going to the Camino de Santiago. Right, yeah. When you have something in your life that provides that, not just a test or something.

No, not good. Yeah. does he have any lessons of Spanish yes right on the web his website's right on the screen here unlimitedspanish.com he has many four courses right yeah four courses okay oh Gustavo says in Venezuela there are not differences between B and V also pronounced the same okay okay so how long DeLong is asking how long did it take you to become you know fluent in English comfortable in English where it felt you know you could communicate easily

Well, it took like six months, five to six months to have normal conversations. The only thing about fluency is one thing. You can speak without hesitating.

The thing is that when you want to use a specific word, for example, you are talking about a general subject that you know, and then the conversation goes...

to, let's say, economy. And then you don't know too much about economy, for example. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, okay, you don't feel very, very sure about your language, your skills anymore.

So what you need is to add more vocabulary over time, but it's okay. So getting back to the question, it's five to six months. And then I started listening to, I think I took the second course.

I started with the original course and then the power lessons course. And then I listened to several podcasts. Because podcasts, it's amazing. Yes. And sometimes I got back to the lessons just to be sure.

But it was amazing because I could answer very quickly. And then the podcast is very useful because... it's uh it's not english to to learn it's it's natural english like people speak in in general in a general conversation in a normal conversation but at the same time they try to enunciate they try to pronounce very well because they are professionals radio professionals okay and they speak very in a very clear voice usually

And with podcasts, you can learn anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, like you said, if you have any specific topic or maybe an area where you need vocab, it could be business, it could be movies, whatever it is, you can find podcasts on those topics. Yes, exactly.

Yeah. And your own podcast. So can you talk more about your podcast? What kind of things do you talk about in your podcast? Yes, the podcast has two parts.

The first part, I usually introduce a topic, something about the news or a cultural topic, or for example, how people say hello. They think about the kisses in podcasts.

Because people kiss each other in Spain. Right. So one of the episodes, in one of the episodes, I talk about it. And then I usually provide a very short mini story or point of view.

It's very short. It's like two, three minutes. And then you can practice the topic. Usually you can practice the topic. Excellent. Excellent. All right, just a couple more, if you don't mind.

Are you okay, time-wise? Yeah, perfect. Okay, great. Getting requests. How do you say, I love you, in Spanish? Te quiero. Te quiero. Te quiero. All right, uh...

Okay, now here's a, you kind of, we're getting to that question, we're talking about related, you know, coming from a language that's closer, so this is a Brazilian who speaks Portuguese, which is obviously close to Spanish. I'm Brazilian, I understand your podcast well, Oscar.

So my question is, how do, how can I get fluency as soon as possible? I mean, so is, you know, so what should, might go, do, I'm not sure if that's a fan or woman, but anyway, um,

Is anything different if their language is closer to yours or it's just faster? It's usually faster. But what happens is that when you listen, it seems like you know the language because it's so closed. But you need to activate all the vocabulary.

So I would suggest to take one of the courses and start with all the lessons and the mini stories. One second, guys. We've got a Skype problem. Our Skype connection just dropped.

One second. I'll see if I can get Oscar back. We'll get him back in a minute. All right. Let's just see. Okay. I'm just going to hang up the call and call back.

Okay, I'm calling him now, so let's see. Not sure what happened. Okay, it's just ringing. Not sure. Well, that's weird. Oscar is unavailable. Okay, so Oscar may have lost his internet connection for a minute.

Let's just give him a few minutes, so I'll chat, and I'll read some of your comments and questions, and I'm sure he'll message me on Skype as soon as his connection is back. Oh, here he is. That was quick.

Hey, hey, you're back. Yeah, technical issues. I don't know. No worries. All right, we'll just keep jumping into these questions. Let's see. Okay. Okay, pronunciation.

I'm pleased to hear you. I teach English, but I'm starting to learn Spanish. I find a very huge difference between English and Spanish in terms of pronunciation. How to deal with this?

How do I develop pronunciation? Good pronunciation. Okay. That's a good question. One of the advantages of learning Spanish is that the way you read it, it's the way you say it, it's pronounced exactly the way.

So there are no different, there are no changes in pronunciation. If there is a word, let's say, hola, hola, the vowels, there are five vowels and it's the same. So

I would suggest to listen to some easy and slow content with the transcript, and then you try to say the same at the same time, trying to mimic, to impersonate the person if possible.

And then over time it becomes easier. But it's not so difficult because, like I said, pronunciation in Spanish is only five vowels. And then there are some sounds that are a little bit difficult, but English is a totally different story. English is much more difficult, I think.

Yeah. They learn English, yeah. Yeah, so many exceptions. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I think once you learn it, maybe in the beginning I understand, but I think once you learn it, like you said, I don't find that.

I think Spanish, it's wonderful because you can pick up anything and just start reading and you know how to say the words just by looking at them. Yeah, exactly. In English, even native speakers sometimes, if it's a new word, you're like, oh. Like, why it's horizon and not horizon?

Right. Something like that. Okay, I don't know. i don't know either often often or often we just had this uh discussion on my show because i say often i don't pronounce the t and so then people were noticing it and they're saying oh listen to this other person and they pronounce the t why so then i had to i did this whole i got online i'm searching like why and it goes back like a hundred years or something to i don't know it's interesting

Okay, well, like, what are your secrets to learn? Okay, so you've kind of already discussed them, but how did you reach your level of fluency in English? Can you tell us any other secrets or tips, Astalal?

Secrets or tips? Well, I, like I said, I decided to read only in English. except when it is strictly necessary, like reading a ticket from the police. No, I'm kidding.

No, but reading in English all the time. Then I am a big fan of Netflix, and I watch everything. I've watched Friends twice, Breaking Bad, And many other shows, okay, I usually turn on the subtitles, although I don't really need them, but I like it because I can learn the spelling at the same time.

Yeah, right. English subtitles. Yeah, English subtitles. No, no, Spanish, no, because that interferes with the learning. And... It feels, at the beginning, it feels very challenging, but after like, I don't know, 1,000 hours?

Yeah. A couple of years, or three years, it's more natural. For example, the Big Bang Theory, it was kind of difficult. Sheldon speaks very fast. But then, after some time, it felt more natural, and then you can have fun.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not about learning. It's about having fun, and it's amazing. And meanwhile, right, you're enjoying the show as you're watching it and getting better.

Yeah, and you are very engaged because you want to know what's going to happen. It's not about, I need to pay attention to this because there is some very important and useful vocabulary for me.

And then after five seconds, you start thinking about all this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll relate it to the last question. I guess let's just say going back to the beginning.

So back to when you first started with Effortless English, you were struggling with English. Can you describe your daily routine? Okay. Yes. What I usually did is to have a set of lessons for one week.

And then I liked to listen to it at least two hours a day. One hour is okay, but I'm kind of... obsessed and two hours a day and it doesn't matter how many repetitions what i want is just to to nail it down you know like to understand it completely yes yes and then second week another set of lessons and the third week

Then maybe I listened a couple of times, three times, the previous lesson or the old lessons. I'm kind of going back and reviewing then, listening to old lessons. Yes, just because I felt like doing that. It's not something scheduled.

And then it was awesome because I could even answer more quickly for some reason. I could even feel very... It felt very easy, I don't know. Right. For some reason, like, yeah, you get away from it, then you come back, and then, like, something has changed in your brain where you...

It's become a little easier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One thing I'd like to point out is it's very important when you schedule your repetitions, don't do it in one day or two. You have to do it over the course of one week.

If you want to repeat that 20 times, do it two or three times per day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Your brain needs to sleep, and then the day after, it feels different.

The language feels different. Right, right. Excellent. Thank you, Abraham. Good question. Okay, okay, like, so... I don't know how I'd answer this for right now, but...

Okay, so this is talking about learning languages where there really aren't many materials. So he's saying, can you suggest something about learning the Georgian language, for example? I'd like to learn that language, but I have... They have different letters, and I can't find any mini-stories in the language.

Yeah, that's tough. Yeah, any suggestions? Okay. Well, there are certain languages that, for some reason, polyglots really like learning them. Navajo, Swahili, and, I don't know, Ukrainian.

they really like it so I would suggest to this person to try to look up forums or Facebook groups where polyglots are there just discussing the next thing or whatever it's just yeah a very very interesting world

the world of the polyglots that's a great idea they know how to find obscure obscure materials recorded in the 70s just yeah because you can go to that secret server and then you download it some language that only 10 people speak and you know yeah yeah yeah become the 11th yeah right that's right good idea and polyglot guys so it's poly p-o-l-y g-l-o-t many tongues or many languages and And these are people who, I mean, they're people like Steve Kaufman who are really just like, they just love learning languages. They don't, it's sort of like their hobby, right? I mean, and they just keep learning lots of them, most of them.

Okay, let's see a few more, Oscar, and then I, I don't know if you know, I know, but I have two babies now. Wow. Twins. I would say good luck with that.

It's very demanding. It's a change in one's life. It's fun. We're having a good time. It's a challenge. Like I said, I'd like to catch up with you personally.

We'll do it. This is a question that Right? That's kind of common, too. Okay, Dritzen says, Why do I understand English 100%? Even difficult documentaries, movies, shows.

But when I start to speak, everything goes wrong. Well, because in any language that we learn, including our mother tongue, we have more passive vocabulary than active vocabulary. So we can, in your own language, you start reading literature, hard literature, you understand everything.

But you are not able, in your own language, to speak like Shakespeare, let's say. This is passive knowledge, passive vocabulary. In order to activate the vocabulary, we need a lot of repetition of the same material.

And that's why I... Usually, I usually suggest not only to repeat, but if you are a fan of a certain topic, just go for it. Just find all kinds of podcasts and websites and start reading and listening.

And you'll see that you'll activate that vocabulary very easily. And I think this, too, is also another area where the mini stories can help because they are that kind of most common vocab and structures. And so a lot of people may, like you said, may have this sort of wide, large, passive understanding, but they haven't gotten that just massive repetition of.

You know, like focusing in on something that would seem probably pretty easy to this person, but the repetition would help, I think, activate that as well. Debates on YouTube, they are amazing to learn. You can learn many, many things. Because it's a way to present ideas in a very compelling way, you know.

And I really like debates about... philosophical stuff and anything because people use a very natural language yeah and it's a very descriptive language and they have a certain amount amount of time to make you point so you can learn a lot interesting debates cool debates all right let's uh we'll go just let's see two more

Oh, what's your opinion on... Okay. What's your opinion on shadowing? So this person says, I like doing shadowing. I think it's... I found myself improving rapidly.

What's your opinion? Well, shadowing, for those who don't know, it's a technique. Kind of invented by Professor Aguilas. Do you know the guy? Alexander.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alexander. I've never met him, but I've seen his videos. He's very talented. He's very talented. But the idea is you are listening, and at the same time, you try to copy, not to copy, to say exactly what you are listening to.

So almost exactly. You can repeat the audio because the first time it's usually challenging. In a way, you are just trying to copy. You are trying to copy the audio.

the listener, the speaker. And I think it's a good technique, especially for intermediate students. Maybe beginners. If you like doing that, I think it's a good thing to do.

Some variety in our techniques also helps us just to change a little bit. It's a challenge. I tried it. Personally, I tried it, but I find it a little bit boring.

Yeah. I prefer to just to listen, but it's okay. Yeah, like you said too, I would do it sometimes for variety, and then sometimes I'm like, I don't want to do it.

Okay, let's see. Okay, so we'll give Carol the last. Carol is a French teacher. I told her she's unlimited French, effortless French. I keep telling her she should do it because people keep asking me that question.

I'm like, I don't know French. So, Carol, do it. But anyway, Carol says, it's nice to see you both. She just started doing Spanish with you. She just started Spanish with Oscar.

I felt Spanish will give some fresh air to my brain after several months of intensive efforts in English. So, let's kind of finish on this again, especially because obviously all my people are English learners, but

what advice do you have for them? So they're learning English and maybe some of them are interested in adding in Spanish. So what do you think about that? How would they get started?

With Spanish? Yeah, with Spanish. And again, if they're doing English and they want to add Spanish... What would you suggest? Let's say you're learning English and your level is intermediate or above.

And then, okay, let's add in Spanish. Well, that could be very fun because it's two languages and then you can think, okay, how to say this in English and then in Spanish. So I think it's a good combination.

I wouldn't suggest for someone who starts right now with English, start another language, okay? But if you have a certain level, adding a new language, it kind of fosters your... It refreshes your ability to learn new vocabulary and patterns because it's kind of changing.

For me, it's exactly like working out. You're working out the same... set of exercises over and over. Just do a change, introduce a change in that routine, and you'll see that your body reacts differently.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Does that make sense to you? It does, yeah. Steve described it as language cross-training, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what's really interesting, too, with your courses, as you said, your courses...

the text is in English. So they actually will get, they'll be learning Spanish through English with you. So they will actually get a little bit of that English exposure. In other words, like if so, I'm reading what your, your translations are in English.

So they will be learning Spanish, but also if they're kind of from English, if you know what I mean, like rather than from French or something, which, so they'll be getting a little bit of that.

Yes, yes, that's true. And it feels like the English part, you are an English learner starting in Spanish. The English part feels like your mother tongue. Yeah, right, exactly.

Like, oh, yeah, in English is this. Yeah, okay, okay. It seems difficult. No, no, in English is this. It feels like it is your mother tongue. It's a very peculiar but also a very useful combination.

Very great. Great, great, great. Oscar, it's so wonderful to see you again. Okay. I'm sorry it's been so long. And let's stay in touch more. And like I said, I'll email you and catch up with you.

I maybe actually want to restart doing some, I don't know if you still do it, but chatting in Spanish. Yes, anytime. Fantastic. UnlimitedSpanish.com. So you've got a podcast, which of course is free, and you've got four different courses.

So anyone who's interested in Spanish, it goes from zero level, his crash course, up to, you know, like higher intermediate levels. Right? Yeah. Yep. So you've got kind of the full range wherever your Spanish is.

Okay. Very well. Oscar, thank you so much. All right. Thank you. I'll talk to you soon. I'll email you soon. Bye-bye. Okay. Yep. Thanks, Oscar. Bye-bye.

All right. Wonderful. So great. It's really nice to see Oscar again. Okay, guys. So I got to go take care of babies. But I hope you all enjoyed that. Oscar's a wonderful guy.

If you want to join me with learning a little Spanish. Now, Japanese, of course, right now is my main language I'm focused on. Like he was talking about that 80-20. For me, it's probably like 95% Japanese.

And then I'm When I have a little time, I'm doing a little Spanish. But his lessons are fantastic. I didn't use his first course because I didn't need it.

But the other courses, they're all great. And I'm sure the first course is also great. So if you have any interest in learning Spanish, he's wonderful. Fantastic teacher.

You all can continue typing Spanish comments. Maybe some of us will have a... We can make a little club on Gab or something where those of us who are learning Spanish, we could sort of chat together or something, encourage each other. We can do what Japanese do if you want.

All right, guys. Well, I'm going to go now, and I'll be back again. What is today? Yeah, tomorrow is Friday, so... I'll be back again tomorrow. But lots of love to you.

And go check out Oscar's website, UnlimitedSpanish.com. All right. Talk to you later. Bye.