TEN TOP TIPS for Learning English (Tips 5-7)

5. Just listen to my podcast.

I'm sure, I've stated that already, probably in this episode. But I'm going to say it again: Listen to episodes of this podcast more than once. You will find that specific things I say will stick in your mind if you listen to this podcast over and over again, you know. Some of these episodes are full of not only good advice but just really vibrant examples of the language in use. So, listen to episodes more than once. You will find that little specific things I say will stick in your mind. You will also find things funnier and funnier, I promise. Some of my episodes are designed mainly to make you laugh. Some of the episodes are here to give you motivation, some of them are here to teach you specific bits of language, some episodes are here just to give you something engaging and interesting to listen to, and some episodes frankly are there just to make you laugh: like ones about misheard song lyrics or some of the episodes with Amber and Paul, they're just there just to be fun. So, and many of the episodes I do I spend a lot of time in preparation on. So there is some depth in these episodes, actually. So, listen to them again and again, and you will notice more and more details and you will find them funnier and funnier. Some of them you might find less and less funny, you know. You might just find some of the episodes more and more annoying. I don't know, you know? I can't say really. It's up to you. But if you've enjoyed episodes, listen to them again and you'll find that the language sticks, and you'll notice more and more things, okay? So, yeah, about the episodes that should be funny: I think it's important to have a laugh when you're listening to the podcast. Because I think that you need rewards for understanding and learning a language. You need to be rewarded for those things that you've understood. So, in a way, you can let the funny moments, the things that you find funny, you can let them be a reward for understanding what you've heard, you know. It's like little motivational boosts, things that you laugh at, things you find funny, it is a great little powerful positive motivational boost. So, enjoy the process of understanding what I'm saying and getting the subtleties and the nuances and laughing at the jokes when you hear them. So, also when you listen to this podcast, you should check out the page for each episode of the podcast. Every episode of this podcast has its own page on my website.

Check out those pages, because that can really push your English further and further. Because you'll often find words that I'm using in the episode written there. Often the introduction or even the whole episode of the podcast is transcribed on the page. And you can use that to help you learn, okay? Right, so that's point 5: just listen to my podcast. 6.

Grammar.

And point number 6 is: get a grammar book and do the exercises, okay? So get a grammar book and work through the exercises systematically. And then do them again, a few months later. So, you do the whole book. And you don't have to spend an hour doing grammar work. You can just do 15 minutes a day. For example, if you feel like your English is not accurate enough or you don't have a proper understanding of the grammar, then get a grammar book, for example, get ‘English Grammar in Use' by Raymond Murphy, the blue one, okay? Most of you, many of you will have that book. And it's a very good book. Now, have you got that book? Have you done every single page in that book? Or is the book just sitting on your bookshelf?

So this is again that thing about taking responsibility for your learning. If you buy the book, that's not enough, okay? Your wallet is not going to learn English for you. You need to actually do all the exercises in the book, okay? So get that book or any other decent grammar book published by Oxford or Cambridge or McMillan or something like that. And systematically go through the pages in the book. Do 15 minutes of exercises a day and think about what you're learning. And then when you've done them, do them all again. And you'll find that it sticks even better. ‘English Grammar in Use' by Raymond Murphy is still the best grammar book probably. Even if you're pretty good at English already, going through those pages systematically will iron out a lot of the fossilised errors that you have. Then when you listen to English, read English, or speak English to people, just try to notice some of the grammar that you've been studying. And also, if you don't understand some of the grammar, there is bound to be some grammar that you just don't understand, then don't worry about it. Don't get too frustrated. Just carry on! When I am, you know, studying French grammar, I get really frustrated because there are some things that I just don't understand: like the way the pronouns work or transitive verbs in French. The way that there are different pronouns and things like that. It really does my head in. And sometimes I get stuck because I just can't sort of really get my head around the way the grammar is working. But I shouldn't get stuck, you know? You mustn't stop. You have to just keep going. Even when there is something you don't understand, you keep going. So yeah. If you don't understand some of the grammar, don't worry about it, just carry on. The worst thing that you can do, in fact, is stop when you feel confused or frustrated. So don't stop. Even if you're confused, keep going, push through the confusion and keep going. You don't have to understand a 100 % of the grammar, okay? You don't have to. Often, just understanding 70 % is okay. Just do your best to understand it all, but it does get pretty complex and abstract. The main thing is when you experience difficulty or resistance when you are studying, the worst thing you can do is stop. So don't stop. Just keep going anyway. Even if you're not entirely sure what is going on. Keep going and just work with what you've got, and use the stuff that you've understood to try and understand more. And slowly but surely, you will broaden your knowledge and your confidence and your comfort with grammar bit by bit, step by step. And you will make progress in little steps, okay? That is point 6.

7. Just keep yourself switched on at all times, be mindful.

So be mindful, this means that you should just be aware of the language, notice the language. This means, pay attention to the language. You don't have to be analysing it at a metacognitive level or something. Just be aware of the language. Just notice little things passively, you know. Like when you're reading or listening or something, you just think: ‘Oh, that's interesting. He is using Present Perfect Continuous there. Why is that?' And just have a... you know, just think about it a little bit. You don't have to open the book, and …, open a big grammar book and, you know, do exercises and understand every little detail of the rules. Just, you know, daydream about grammar when you're listening to it. Or if you've been studying a particular bit of language, just try to notice that bit of language, when you're interacting with the language. So, be mindful, notice language and take opportunities to learn. Some learners of English are just not diligent enough. And, for example, when you are, I don't know, let's say checking an exercise in a classroom, if you got something wrong, you really need to make your mission to understand why you've got it wrong, and to make sure you get it right next time. And one point about ‘English Grammar in Use' by the way, that grammar book, one point about that: it's got a test in it. There's actually a test in the book. So one thing you could do is this: the first you should do with that book is take the test. You take the test and then check all the things you got wrong. The things you have got right -- no problem, don't worry about them, they're done. But the things that you have got wrong -- you need to understand why you get them wrong. So find the pages that relate to the things you've got wrong and focus on that. And that's like a really sort of specific way of identifying your weak points and then focussing on them specifically. And then do the test again and see if you get the answers right or wrong, you know? Okay. And be mindful. Remember that every error that you mistake is not a reason to feel bad. It's actually an opportunity to learn. And remember, you can't learn the whole thing in one go. You have to learn it bit by bit, step by step, okay?