To Speak English Fluently, STOP Studying English?!
How The Secret To Success Often Comes From Doing The UNEXPECTED…
An old man who owned a clothing store wanted to his son to take over (phrasal verb meaning to take control of something) the business.
So he told his son to come to the store to learn how to sell clothes.
The son was eager to run the shop, but wasn’t interested in learning about how to sell.
“Dad, selling is easy,” the son said. “You just give people what they need. And I already know how to do that!”
“Is that right?” the father replied. “Then take this suitcase full of some of our finest suits to the next town and call me when you’ve sold them all.”
So the son left with the suitcase and was incredibly excited when he arrived at the next town because nearly everyone in was dressed in old, worn clothing.
“This is the PERFECT place to sell these great suits!” he thought, smiling to himself. “EVERYONE needs our fine clothing!”
But after a few days of zero sales, the young man began to wonder what was the problem was. “What’s wrong with everyone?” he thought to himself.
“ALL of these people have such old, torn clothing. Surely they need to replace their old clothes with my nice suits.”
But no matter how hard he tried, even with people who had money to buy for his high-quality clothing, the young man could sell nothing.
Disappointed, he called his father, who told his son to return home if he was finally ready to learn how to sell.
When the son returned, the father explained that he had sent his son to the town knowing that he wouldn’t sell any suits.
“Son, you didn’t sell any suits because no one wanted one,” he began. “What did you see when you looked at the people in that small town?”
“Well, I saw a lot of farmers, and everyone was dressed in old, plain clothing. Shouldn’t this be the perfect place to sell suits? Wouldn’t they need what we have?”
“In a town like that,” his father explained, “people don’t want expensive suits, even if we think they might need them. They’re happy with what they have. But what people do buy a lot of over there is ham and bacon, even though everyone keeps their own pigs! Interesting, right? They already have lots of pigs and bacon, so they don’t really need any more of either. But that’s what they want.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense!” complained the son. “You’re saying I should sell our suits to people who already have nice suits?”
“Exactly! Think about how many books you have. You have many more than you could possibly ever read, but you still buy new books all the time.”
The son thought for a moment and then said, “But I NEED all of those books! Each one can teach me something new.”
“I’m sure that’s true,” said the father, “but you don’t honestly need them. You WANTED those books, so you convinced yourself you needed them when you saw them at the store. Likely, you’d be just fine without them, just like the men who purchase more than one of our suits. But our customers WANT to have options. They find value in each suit, just like you do with your books. They want a suit for work and one for church on Sundays. They want a fancy one for dinner with their wives, and something more casual for meetings with friends.”
The son thought some more.
“So, we serve our customers by giving them what THEY want, not what WE think they need?”
“That’s the first rule of selling,” said the father, proud to see his son learning this very valuable lesson. “Now you’re ready to help people find their perfect suit!”
The things that seem obvious usually don’t what get us the results we want.
Like the young man, countless English students try all kinds of language learning methods for years, reviewing grammar tables, memorizing vocabulary words and reading textbooks…
Yet they still can’t speak.
They do this because they think fluency comes by studying the English language.
And they think this because that’s what’s taught in nearly every English language school.
But the truth is the opposite…
You can pass tests by studying and memorizing the language, but you get fluent by learning the same way native speakers do.
It’s the difference between knowing the rules of a sport and playing that sport well.
Even though I’ve been teaching the same, proven method that’s worked for thousands of students – and for over 10 years – learners who can’t yet speak still try to tell me how they think they should be learning.
All I can do is wish them well, but it’s disappointing knowing they’ll only continue to struggle in conversations.
But for those who are willing to try something unexpected, there really is a much easier and faster way to get fluent.
Remember the story of the young man, and be open to doing things in new ways if what you’re doing isn’t getting you where you want to go. 🙂
Drew
Your English Fluency Guide
PS: If you’d like to express yourself in English naturally, correctly and fluently, click here to download our FREE guide that reveals the simple steps needed to train yourself to speak spontaneously and naturally in English, even when you’re unfamiliar with the topic!
If you’re tired of hesitating when you speak, and just want to communicate fluently and confidently, click here, or on the image below, to download Speak English Fluently, FREE! 🙂
