TEN TOP TIPS for Learning English (Tips 1-4)

1.

Watch movies and TV in English.

Now, this is what people always say, but it can work really well if you do it right.

So, there is a right way for using movies and TV to improve your English. So, here are some specific tips for that.

First of all, you should repeat watch a movie that you love in English.

So, find the movie that you really love. You might have seen it in your first language or you might have, you know, watched it with subtitles in your language and you know it well. So, get that movie that you love and watch it again and again in English, okay? You could watch it with subtitles and then watch it again without the subtitles. You could even do things like this: you could even put your phone in front of the TV or the computer, play the movie and record the audio of the movie on your phone, and then listen to it when you are out and about.

So, essentially just if you love a movie a lot, it is more likely that you're going to remember the lines from the film. And those lines are going to mean something to you personally. And if they mean something to you personally, they are going to stick with you a lot more vividly, okay? So, find the film that you love for whatever reason and get the lines, the English from that film and get them into your head. So, you know, you're going to need to think outside the box when you are learning English. So, this means: don't just sit and watch a movie. Find new ways to get the English in that movie into your head and then out of your mouth, okay?

So, yeah.

Watch the movie with subtitles in English, great. That is going to help you to see the words and phrases and maybe to identify differences in the way that these words and phrases are being spoken and the way that they are spelled. That's great. But then watch the movie again without the subtitles, and that's going to mean you just focus on the words and the pronunciation and all that sorts of stuff. Also, when you watch movies again and again and again, you notice little details and you actually get a finer appreciation of the script and everything like that.

But yeah, think outside the box. Record the audio of the movie on your phone and then listen to the audio when you are on the train or something. And what you could do is recreate parts of the film on your own. Learn bits of the script and repeat the script on your own and try copy the characters. So, remember to go the extra distance and think outside the box. Okay.

2.

Find the book that you know quite well.

So, this is basically the same thing as the movie, but with the book.

So, what's your favorite book? Find a book that you love and you know well and read it in English and also listen to the audiobook. If you get the unabridged audiobook, that means that the text in the audiobook and the text in the real book will be exactly the same, and you can then listen and read at the same time. But read the book in English, listen to the audiobook in English, read and listen at the same time, listen separately, read separately, do these little things. You don't have to read the entire book. Just focus on a few passages that you love. You could learn them. You could repeat them again and again and again. Record yourself reading out those pages from the book and focus on making the dialogue or the prose in the book come to life by using your voice.

Now, if you read the book that you already know, that's going to help again. Because, you know, you will be able to read it again and again and again, and you're not going to get bored. Also you already know the story if you are familiar with the book from your first language. So, reading it in English means that you can then explore it in terms of the language, in the specifics of the language, because you know this, the plot of by heart. So, do that and also listen to the audiobook version. And imagine listening to all those lines of that book that you love so much. Imagine listening to them in English again and again and again. It's a really good way. You have got to create a really close relationship with the language to the point where you feel like you own the English that you have, you know? Alright.

3.

Keep two notebooks.

So, definitely you should keep at least one notebook where you write down words and things.

But I think you should keep two notebooks. So, go down to the stationary shop and buy two nice notebooks. Buy notebooks, you know, spend a little bit of money, buy some nice ones. Notebooks are lovely, lovely things. I love notebooks. I love buying notebooks. I have got loads of empty notebooks in my flat that I haven't written in yet. Just because I love notebooks. So, notebooks are brilliant, they are lovely items. Go out and treat yourself to two nice notebooks and then actually use them.

So, notebook number 1 is used for scribbling things down quickly and keeping quick notes.

So, you keep notebook 1 with you when you're listening to something or watching a movie or reading a book or engaging in conversation with someone: maybe your teacher on italki, or your teacher in a classroom, or your language partner, or whoever it is. You've got notebook number 1. That's where you write down things really, really quickly. And it's usually a bit of a mess. It's a bit of a shambles. There are bits written here and there. Some of the text is written upside down because your friend is writing from the other side of the table. And it's all a bit of a mess and it's a shambles, and you have written stuff down very, very quickly without really thinking about it too much. It's all done in the heat of the moment. That's notebook number 1. Then, notebook number 2 is where you keep an organised record of words and grammar rules and any other little details that you need to help you remember the language, okay?

So, notebook number 2 is going to be like your own home-made bible for English. And you're going to write it yourself. And that is where you write new words and, as I said, grammar rules or little bits of advice or mnemonics which are going to help you remember things. And when you write new words in your notebook, don't just write the translation from your first language. Be careful of doing that. You should look for other things. Again, think outside the box. You might need to create your own version of the phonemic script, so that you know exactly how these words are pronounced, or learn the real phonemic script so that you can write phonemes which is really going to help you learn pronunciation. If you know the phonemes and you're able to transcribe words in phonemes and you can definitely learn how to do that. In fact, that is a sub-point: Learn the phonemic script and practise by writing things out in the phonemic script. And then checking the phonemic versions in a dictionary. Yeah, so in your notebook number 2 you write out little bits of phonemic script. You also write some examples and little things to help you remember. So that's notebook number 1 and notebook number 2, okay? And then, once you have done that you go back to notebook number 2 and you go through it again.

And look at the notes that you wrote. And you don't worry. You don't have to write a lot. Just write something regularly, like a little bit every day or every time you learn something write something down. And eventually over time you'll find that that notebook is full of a record of every single thing that you have learned. And you can go back to it. You can read it again. And that's going to be massively powerful for your learning, alright? So, notebook number 1 – bang, bang, bang!

Lots of ideas – bla, bla, bla. It all… like your brain empties out onto the page. Notebook number 2 is the organised, refined and tidy version. And that's the one you can read again, and again, and again. And if you have produced really good organised notebooks, you can keep them forever. You can give them to your kids and things like that, you know. These could be really, really useful records of your learning history. Okay.

4.

Use mnemonic devices to help you remember things.

It's difficult to remember all the words. So, you're going to need to find clever ways to keep those words in your brain. And essentially, what you need to do is think of vivid images for new words. Think of examples that are vivid and visualise them, think of genuinely visual images for new words, okay? And anything at all, anything as long as it sticks in your memory, but you need to try to think of some very vivid visual image for new things. Even if there isn't an obvious visual connection to a word, you might need to create one. And that can be written down in your notebook, just a little reminder of an image to help you remember the word, also associations with things you already know.

So when you get the new word, you need to kind of combine it with words that you already know.

So, let's say, you've just learned the word (I don't know, what could the word be). Let's say, the word is ‘a bet'. If you have just learned the word ‘I bet': ‘I bet that he arrives late again,' which is a bit like saying: ‘I expect that he is going to arrive late again. I bet that he is going to arrive late again.' And that word is based on gambling, isn't it? ‘To bet something' is like to put money on something, because you think is going to happen. So: ‘I bet that he is going to arrive late again.' Every time you use the word ‘bet', imagine actually placing a bet, imagine you're throwing money onto the table, like you've got a bunch of notes in your hand: ‘I bet he is going to be late again. I bet!' You put the notes down on the table like that. That kind of thing. So, you know, think outside the box. Mnemonic devices can really help you remember words.