all right so in the last video the first
video we just introduced the idea of
brain what is it and talked about the
things that we're going to be doing in
this course remember an English brain
simply what I call an English brain is
just your ability to think in English
and I want to in this lesson just talk
about a few things that you should
remember and a few basic tips for this
course and after this course for all of
your English Studies okay a few things -
we could say keep in mind a few things
to keep in mind so let's go over a few
things the first thing to remember is
that you're going to have to work hard
if you want to be fluent if you want to
be a great English speaker you've got to
work hard you may be asking for or
wanting a very fast little trick to
become an awesome English speaker well
this depends on the students some
students can improve really quickly but
generally I can tell you if you want to
be good at something you have to
practice it this is obvious so I hope
you don't think that at the end of this
course you're going to magically be a
fluent English speaker of course not
probably okay now I hope you can take
the things from this course and then
practice the ideas from it again and
again until you do become a fluent
English speaker that's the idea so I
just hope that you keep in your mind
that practice is the thing that gets you
to fluency not just learning right
learning is the first step ah I see
that's how I should do it now I'm going
to take that idea and do it many many
many times so learning something is
often not enough you have to learn it
and apply it do it practice it many
times
practice will get you to where you're
going but you have to practice in the
right way now some students
say well yeah I know I should maybe
learn to think in English when I'm
speaking but that's not the only way I
can also do it another way I can learn
by or through my own language right I'll
think in my language and then speak in
English and then I will become fluent
both ways are okay no you will not meet
and you cannot meet a person who thinks
in their language and at the same time
speaks in another it doesn't happen if
there's a perfect speaker of this
language or maybe they learned that
language when they're speaking that
language perfectly they're thinking in
that language and if they change and
speak in another language maybe their
own language then they're thinking in
that language the only way the only way
there's only one Road there aren't two
roads both are not okay
the only way is to learn to think in
English if you do not do it you will not
be a fluent English speaker it's that
simple if you do not do it if you do not
learn to think in English you will not
be a fluent English speaker I can
promise you I've asked a lot of
successful students I've talked to a lot
of successful language learners I've had
a lot of experience teaching students
and the ones who succeed the ones who do
it well are the ones who change their
way of thinking and start thinking in
English it's the only way so both ways
are not okay
another really important thing to
remember is that time does not equal
success you can spend a lot of time
doing the wrong thing doing things the
wrong way and one of the perfect
examples of this is the way to study
words now we'll be talking about that
very soon in another lesson we'll be
talking about that the time that you put
in plus the methods that you use
together these things
can make you successful this is a way to
improve English effectively you can
spend a lot of time learning words an
incorrect way and not see much progress
I've met students in the past who
studied for years two years studying
every day almost nothing almost no
progress it happens so time is not the
only thing it's also about the way you
do it time is important you need time
but it's not the only thing now you see
three words here play jump swim why did
I put these three words here all right
well it's simple don't think of English
as this very very hard thing like
science where this is this right if you
do this you will get this and this is
the only way this can be don't think of
it like this because if you do that you
won't really challenge yourself to think
creatively in English so you have to be
able to think creatively in English to
be able to to do well to be able to
improve so play with the language play
with it have fun with it see if this and
this works together right if you learn
two things or you learn something new
try to see if you can make it work in
this way and then maybe ask is this
right ask someone who knows is this the
right way don't only follow what someone
teaches you right someone teaches you
this is right well that might be right
but something else might also be right
so when you learn something play with it
and by playing with it you explore more
about that thing you learn this is a
really great way to understand more
about the language how it works and what
you can do with it also I have the words
jump here jump means not to have any
reservations
that means don't be shy don't be shy if
you have the opportunity to speak in
English speak try you might think oh no
I'm not good enough right I don't know
exactly how to say it I don't know the
right words to use just try the ones who
improve more quickly are the ones who
just try okay maybe you don't know the
right word is there another way to say
it can you describe it instead of saying
the word so jump into it be more
enthusiastic be energetic use every
opportunity or chance that you have to
use and practice English and by doing
this you will be around English more and
you will find out where your problems
are ah I tried this it didn't work they
didn't understand that so next time
maybe I'll try this way well that worked
okay I got it but if you never tried if
you just sat back and say well I'm not
good enough I don't know the right words
you'll never know this wasn't right
you'll never know this was weird right
being wrong sometimes sounding strange
sometimes sounding incorrect or being
incorrect sometimes that's okay
that is okay by making mistakes by
jumping in and making mistakes you will
actually improve so don't be afraid
don't be shy just try don't be afraid
don't be shy just try huh it runs good
swim swimming basically what I mean is
immerse yourself immerse yourself means
to surround yourself with the language
if you want to learn a language how can
you learn it just by looking at little
pieces of the language say English from
your own language if you learn English
through your language only
and you learn the meaning of that word
with your language rather than that
language
yeah maybe okay you might learn
something but it won't be very deep and
you won't be able to really really get a
feeling for it right and it also might
be a little bit slow and it certainly
won't help you to think in English which
is what this course is about
so immerse yourself be around English as
much as you can the best way to do this
is to go to an english-speaking country
and live there but not everybody can do
that right so there are many ways to
surround yourself with English and I'm
sure you know some of those movies TV
radio reading my articles literature
poetry listening to to a lot of
different things all of these are ways
to immerse yourself to swim in English
okay don't be afraid to surround
yourself with the language you're trying
to learn
that's called immersion and if you do it
you're more likely to improve more
quickly and you're more likely to be
able to think in English and you're more
likely to be able to get a feeling for
English okay so play jump swim I have a
30 minute rule for anything you want to
learn you can't just do it sometimes and
not others you need to do it regularly
right just like if you want to be strong
you want to build muscle you won't be
able to build muscle if you go to the
gym once every two weeks you'll maybe
build a little muscle and then lose the
muscle and then you go back to the gym
two weeks later you build a little
muscle you won't see much improvement
what's the same for English so you need
to make clear rules for yourself I
mentioned that you need to spend time
but I want to be a little more specific
now every day you have to practice
English you have to keep English in your
mind every day and I have a limit about
how much that should be at least 30
minutes okay so you have to spend at
least 30 minutes 7 days a week for as
long as it takes to become really good
at English okay it's not asking a lot 24
hours in a day 30 minutes is not that
much I think spending more than 30
minutes is better of course but no less
than 30 minutes okay at least challenge
yourself 30 minutes a day make time if
you're serious about it you will
okay so 30 minutes a day and get into
the habit of practicing or doing
something with English 30 minutes a day
and you will see results if you want to
be good at something it's often
difficult to see what your own problems
are so you need some kind of feedback
now this is really the reason that
teachers exist right teachers exist
mainly to give you feedback about what
you do to help you improve whether
you're at the gym with your personal
trainer or whether you're in a class
with a teacher so the teacher is there
to guide you this is one way to do it
you need some kind of feedback so taking
a class is good okay as long as you can
get feedback so you can know what you're
doing right what you're doing wrong
which direction you should be going if
you can't get a teacher there are other
ways to get some feedback you might find
a forum or a place where you can ask
questions and get answers to your
questions okay
now there are many different places
where you can do this but this is
another idea there are other ways maybe
your friends are also learning English
and you can use them as a way to get
some feedback about what you might be
doing right what you might be doing
wrong you could form a group
and practice together and give each
other feedback this is a good way as
well it's not bad so in any case it's
important to have some kind of feedback
some way to find out how you're doing
right because you might be doing
something really really wrong and then
you make that wrong thing a bad habit
and then it will be really difficult to
change that bad habit so some kind of
feedback is pretty important some way to
ask questions at least at least now the
first of these is okay most people can
handle that idea the second is a little
more difficult for some the first is to
make English part of your lifestyle I
had mentioned that you should spend 30
minutes a day at least doing something
with English doing some of the things
that we'll be talking about in the rest
of this course so make it a habit that's
making it part of your lifestyle right
but another aspect of that lifestyle
thing is that you don't really think
about right now it's time for me to
study English now it's time for me to
spend 30 minutes which I hate practicing
English so this isn't the best way of
doing it this I wouldn't consider really
lifestyle lifestyle English means you
just do it and it's part of your routine
and you don't hate it it's just
something that's there and actually it's
better if you can enjoy it so the next
part is to try to enjoy the process of
learning English and trying to become
more fluent the students who are most
successful usually are the ones who
really really enjoy learning English
actually like learning English if you
like doing something you're much more
likely to be successful at it if you
hate doing something it is less likely
that you will be good at doing that so
try to find something about the language
that you enjoy
you can still improve you can still get
better if you don't really like it but
it's certainly ideal if you can find
something about it that you really like
that is the best situation okay so try
to enjoy it make it part of your
lifestyle okay and that's that's really
important so in the next lesson we're
going to be talking about how we can
learn and practice by reading the
importance of reading and how we can
read in the right way to develop our
English brain so I will see you in the
next lesson