how do you take that final step to fluency?

You must learn to think like a native, not like a student...

Students learn through their native language, and this is why they translate in their head before they speak.

But natives learn to connect words with meanings and situations directly.

Here's a perfect example:

When I read, "The bears were sitting in picnic chairs," my friend asked why they were in the chairs.

"I learned in school that it's always on for chairs," She said.

She was applying a rule, and many rules work most of the time...

But had she thought about the scene directly, like a native, she would have understood why in was used.

In this case, the chairs had armrests, which made the seating area more like a container.

So, the bears were sitting in the chairs.

But it goes deeper than this...

Natives actually have two different ideas in their heads when they think about sitting, and this is why people can use in or on and be "correct" either way.

Sitting in something refers to being inside a 3D space (length, width and height) on an object, even for chairs that have no back or arm rests.

Natives imagine someone sitting in an invisible box that's on a chair.

But they can also see someone sitting on a 2D space (length and width) that is the top of the chair.

In this way, natives understand the meaning of the situations directly, rather than trying to translate from some other language.

From THIS way of thinking about situations and words, a native's "sense of correctness" develops.

Now, test yourself with a quick quiz:

Would you sit on or in a bench, a footrest, a club chair, a couch/sofa and a hammock?

Think about which - and why - then scroll down to "hear" a native's thoughts about sitting sound something like this...

---

That bench has no back or armrests, so someone would likely sit on it.

The same with that footrest. It has no arms or back either. So, my friend is sitting on that footrest.

But that leather club chair has a high back and some big armrests, so I think someone would sit in that.

A sofa or couch can sit a few people, so this seems like a larger space that you'd sit on. But that hammock over there is something you really climb into, so you'd sit in a hammock.

Natives develop an understanding of these kinds of things, and this is why they speak automatically.

They're not thinking about rules, they're expressing meanings.

When my mother-in-law understood this, I could see her mind changing.

"This is why you can sit on a bed if you're on top of the covers," I went on to explain, "but if you're under the covers, you're considered to be in bed."

Make sense?

Understand how you could sit on and in something at the same time?

It's the same person, and the same chair, but the meaning is slightly different.

YOU now think more like a native about sitting!

That was easy and fun, right? :)

To finally reach fluency, all you have to do is repeat this process with other things until you express meanings automatically.

And this can happen much faster than most learners believe is possible!

In fact, you just proved this by getting a bit more fluent with only a few minutes of reading...

Imagine what you could do with even a little bit more practice.

---

The same "lessons" Drew gives to members of his own family are the same ones he gives in programs like The Fluency Courses.