There are one big reason why you may be struggling to become fluent in a new language. It has to do with the powerful idea of PERSONAL FLUENCY and, that you should concentrate on learning what you say in your native language first, rather than learning canned sentences and phrases.

Some time ago, I flew to Cancun, Mexico and was checking into one of their beautiful, all-inclusive resorts. After checking in and getting directions to the room, I made my way through the marble floor lobby towards the elevator. The elevator door had just opened and out came a young fellow, chatting to each of the others.

He took one look at me, outstretched two fingers in my direction, and said, "Kentucky, right?? We wet in Kentucky, right??"

I was taken back a bit and, said, "No, I'm from California...I haven't been in Kentucky for years." He didn't miss a beat and said, "Well, I could have sworn we met in Kentucky... I'm from Boston... Mike's the name." I introduced myself, we shook hands, and I didn't anything of it. After all, we were in a vacation resort.

The next day, I saw Mike making his way through the lobby, greeting everyone there by name... until he saw a new face. Immediately--as if on automatic--- out came the two fingers, and he said, "Kentucky, right? We met in Kentucky, right?" When the woman said no, it dawned on me that Mike was using that same line on everyone...and, just about everyone in the resort knew Mike now.

The introduction that was uniquely Mike's is not taught in any language course I have ever seen-- it is a perfect example of how you need to learn a language that is uniquely YOU... and, for doing what you need to do in the language. every language course we have seen breaks their course and chapters into Contexts that the authors imagine you will be using language...and, they make you memorize THEIR words and phrases. And, most of the time, they are things that you have never said.. or would never say in your native language.

So, what's really holding you back from having a meaningful conversation in your new language? Most likely, you learned the course's words and phrases.. but, they aren't YOUR words and ideas. We call this PERSONAL FLUENCY. (Most online courses and language books have around 1200 sentences in them... one way to cut your workload is to mark only the ones that you have actually SAID in your native language during the past two weeks. If you haven't said it in your native language during the past two weeks, you can learn it later.)

There are several ways to build a list of what you have actually said in your native language... check out the blogs below. We discovered that (when we recorded people's actual conversations) they rarely used more that 3000 words in their vocabulary...and, that those words were what interested them. And, rarely did that vocabulary overlap with what the popular course teach you.

Background article: BLOG: Personal Fluency

Background article: BLOG: How to Retain what you study