Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
Julian Northbrook is on a mission to change the way people learn English for the better. Subscribe to this channel for videos about learning English and the psychology of the "Good Language Learner": doeng.co/SUBSCRIBE
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Transcript:
How many words do you need to know to be able to consider yourself fluent in English? Hello, I'm Dr. Julian Northbrook from https:/doingenglish.com and this is a question I've answered before on this channel in different ways and I'm sure it's not the last time I'm going to talk about it. But how many words, do you need to know to be able to consider yourself fluent in English? It is a question without an answer. And when I heard it once again today, it made me think of a quasi experiment that I saw on Japanese TV many, many, many, many years ago. On that show, they sent reporters out onto the street to talk to Japanese people and American people. And to the Japanese people they asked, "Can you speak English?" And to the American people they asked, "Can you speak Japanese?" The Japanese people almost without fail said, "No, I can't speak English," even though they'd all had, on average, around about ten, 11 years of English education at school.
The American people, on the other hand, despite having had no Japanese education whatsoever, pretty much without fail said, "Yes, yes, I can speak Japanese. I can say sushi. I can say kimono. I can say Kon'nichiwa. See, I can speak Japanese." And yeah, the whole thing was really more about the sanctions towards what it means to be able to speak a language or not and it's very, very extreme, but the point is if the only thing you need to be able to do in Japan is get some sushi, knowing the word sushi allows for a fairly fluent conversation. Another good example would be that if you're walking down the street and somebody says to you, "Hello," and you say back, "Hello." Well, you've just had a very fluent conversation whilst knowing one single word.
Of course, if you are say, for example, a sales rep for an international company, and you have to join meetings to talk about your service, your product, the benefits, and how you can help your potential clients, you're going to need a little bit more vocabulary than just being able to say hello. The point is is how much you need is always, always, always going to depend on you and your life and what you need to do with the language and what words you need as well as how many is also going to be very specific to you.
Somebody who is again, say a sales rep, will need very, very different vocabulary to say a neurosurgeon. It's just a totally different thing and it's different language and different words that come with it. So questions like, "How any words do I need to know before I can consider myself fluent?" They just don't make any kind of sense and you'd be far better off just forgetting about that stuff and concentrating on the things that actually matter for increasing your fluency in the language. And what are those things? Ah ha, you knew it was coming. This is where you can and should head over to doingenglish.com/freetraining and sign up for the free one hour training that I put together that's going to teach you the key five things that you need to know about building proficiency in English as a second language, as a higher level learner of the language. Right, this is me, Julian Northbrook, signing out from this video. I've got to be honest, it has been a long day hence the pretty quick and dirty one today. See you tomorrow, guys. Bye Bye.
#DoingEnglish #JulianNorthbrook #learnEnglish
Julian Northbrook is on a mission to change the way people learn English for the better. Subscribe to this channel for videos about learning English and the psychology of the "Good Language Learner": doeng.co/SUBSCRIBE
Go here to get the free training:
doeng.co/FREETRAINING
Sign up for daily email tips:
doeng.co/EMAILS
Read the Good Shadowin Guide:
doeng.co/SHADOWING
Transcript:
How many words do you need to know to be able to consider yourself fluent in English? Hello, I'm Dr. Julian Northbrook from https:/doingenglish.com and this is a question I've answered before on this channel in different ways and I'm sure it's not the last time I'm going to talk about it. But how many words, do you need to know to be able to consider yourself fluent in English? It is a question without an answer. And when I heard it once again today, it made me think of a quasi experiment that I saw on Japanese TV many, many, many, many years ago. On that show, they sent reporters out onto the street to talk to Japanese people and American people. And to the Japanese people they asked, "Can you speak English?" And to the American people they asked, "Can you speak Japanese?" The Japanese people almost without fail said, "No, I can't speak English," even though they'd all had, on average, around about ten, 11 years of English education at school.
The American people, on the other hand, despite having had no Japanese education whatsoever, pretty much without fail said, "Yes, yes, I can speak Japanese. I can say sushi. I can say kimono. I can say Kon'nichiwa. See, I can speak Japanese." And yeah, the whole thing was really more about the sanctions towards what it means to be able to speak a language or not and it's very, very extreme, but the point is if the only thing you need to be able to do in Japan is get some sushi, knowing the word sushi allows for a fairly fluent conversation. Another good example would be that if you're walking down the street and somebody says to you, "Hello," and you say back, "Hello." Well, you've just had a very fluent conversation whilst knowing one single word.
Of course, if you are say, for example, a sales rep for an international company, and you have to join meetings to talk about your service, your product, the benefits, and how you can help your potential clients, you're going to need a little bit more vocabulary than just being able to say hello. The point is is how much you need is always, always, always going to depend on you and your life and what you need to do with the language and what words you need as well as how many is also going to be very specific to you.
Somebody who is again, say a sales rep, will need very, very different vocabulary to say a neurosurgeon. It's just a totally different thing and it's different language and different words that come with it. So questions like, "How any words do I need to know before I can consider myself fluent?" They just don't make any kind of sense and you'd be far better off just forgetting about that stuff and concentrating on the things that actually matter for increasing your fluency in the language. And what are those things? Ah ha, you knew it was coming. This is where you can and should head over to doingenglish.com/freetraining and sign up for the free one hour training that I put together that's going to teach you the key five things that you need to know about building proficiency in English as a second language, as a higher level learner of the language. Right, this is me, Julian Northbrook, signing out from this video. I've got to be honest, it has been a long day hence the pretty quick and dirty one today. See you tomorrow, guys. Bye Bye.
#DoingEnglish #JulianNorthbrook #learnEnglish
