So, this is passive skills where you receive input, and these are active skills where you produce output.

So, when you are able to understand natives, that means your input skills are already very strong, it's very well-trained.

You have spent a lot of time getting input; you are now used to the sounds of the language when natives speak.

That's why you can understand them.

But what about your active skills?

At this point, you probably have not practiced your output skills enough.

So, just because you understand, doesn't always mean that you can speak it.

And why is that?

So, these are completely different skills⏤well, these skills are not necessarily transferable.

Just because you've trained a lot of your passive skills, it doesn't always mean that you will automatically improve your active skills as well.

Of course, your input skills will help your output skills.

But it's not enough.

Input is the first step and then output.

So, if you've taken care of this part, it's time for you to get into the output skills.

So, the short answer (to) why you can understand native speakers, but you cannot speak is simply because your input and your output skills are not balanced.

So, how do we go about this?

So, if you're already at a level where you can understand natives, and then you cannot speak, it's time to move on to focus on your output skills.

And here, I want to give you some action plan.

One, keep getting input.

So, just because you are moving onto your output phase, doesn't mean that you should stop getting input.

So, keep watching⏤or reading⏤any TV shows, videos, or movies that you've been watching.

So, stuff that you actually love and enjoy⏤don't stop doing that.

But also be aware that you cannot only rely on doing this to improve your speaking skills.

Just know that this is just one piece of the puzzle.

Step two, find a community where you can speak this language.

If you're learning English, find an English-speaking community on Google.

You can simply just say, "English language exchange forum", "English-speaking chatrooms", "English-speaking clubs discord".

So, some good applications that you can use to find community could be: Discord, Telegram, Clubhouse.

Can't think of anything else, I think.

If you... if you just find one app, and then you find one community, that's all you need.

You can even find discussion groups in English⏤or any other language that you're learning⏤about stuff that you actually enjoy.

If you're into real estate, then look for discussion groups about real estate.

Or if you're into reading books, then you can look into book clubs where people usually meet monthly or weekly to discuss different books.

Or maybe if you are just someone who just broke up,

then you can also find a lot of community, a lot of discussion groups on Instagram or any social media, and then you can actually interact with the community in there.

So, you can get as creative as you want to find a community.

But⏤this is a very, very important step.

Before you find a community that you can commit to, do not move on to step 3.

So, make sure in this step you find a community, commit to a time frequency, and actually show up.

If the community wants to meet once a week or twice week or three times a week, really commit to that.

This gives you an outlet where you can actually use your speaking skills to practice it.

Step three, so this step you can actually implement in your input phase.

So, whenever you're watching a movie or TV shows or videos in your target language,

make sure to have your phone app on or have a notebook with you to actually write down the phrases that you know you're going to use.

So, be mindful and be selective about which phrases that you're going to write down and to speak out, because⏤always remember to make it relevant.

Once you have made a list and you've written down all the relevant phrases that you want to say out loud,

then you go back to this community that you're going to meet⏤I don't know, once a week or once every two weeks or twice a week⏤ and then use these phrases out loud.

This is going to improve your skills, this is going to level up your skills, and make you sound a lot cooler by using phrases that you have found in native content.

So, that exactly what I'm doing right now.

So, in about a week or two, I'm gonna go to France for about six weeks, and I know for sure I'm gonna be speaking French a lot.

So, what I've been doing is that I've been watching a lot of French movies and TV shows, and I write down phrases that I think is relevant and that I can see myself saying out loud when I speak to people.

So, I have made a video before⏤it's this one that... where I talk in detail about how I write down phrases and which kind of phrases that I choose.

So, if you want to know a little bit more about that, definitely check out this one or I'll put it...the link in the description or in the end screen.

So, we'll move on to step four, which is: review those phrases in your notebook and practice them out loud.

So, it's basically the stuff that I said before.

So, you've written down all of these in your notebook or in your phone's app⏤don't just write it and forget it.

Make sure you actually review and say them out loud.

If you actually do not have people to practice it with, then, turn your camera on or turn your phone on and just practice them out loud.

Imagine that you are having a dialogue with someone, and then just talk about anything, like, try to find a way in which you can make scenarios in your head.

So, once the camera is on, you can go crazy, you can talk about anything that you think is interesting.

You can even pretend that you're speaking to someone else because the thing is, recording yourself speaking is actually a good fluency building exercise.

Because this is what I've been doing the past five years, and I have actually improved my confidence a lot by speaking to the camera.

Because it kind of forces me to think about something spontaneously.

So, give that a try, if, let's say, you want to practice speaking, but let's say you're not going to meet your community in like 3 or 4 days, and you just want to speak.

Just talk to yourself.

Turn the camera on and pretend that you are speaking to someone because it works a lot.

And when you are doing this exercise, make sure that you are using all of these phrases, new phrases that you collected,

and, you know, hear yourself sound a lot cooler, and that's going to improve your confidence.

So, that is it for this week.

I hope you guys liked this video and learned a lot, and if you do, please give it a thumbs-up and I will see you next week in another video.

Until then, take care and goodbye.