TEN TOP TIPS for Learning English (Tips 8-10)
8. The pizza analogy.
In fact, that is point number 8. And I am calling this point number 8, I am calling the pizza analogy, the pizza analogy. And the pizza analogy is that learning English is exactly like eating a pizza, okay? It's the same. It's exactly the same. Now, I know what you're thinking, You're thinking: ‘Well, it's not really exactly the same, is it, Luke?' And you'll be right, okay. It's not exactly the same. Obviously, pizza is food, English is a language, pizza has got cheese on it.
To be honest, there is cheese in English as well, you know. We have the word ‘cheese', we have many different words for ‘cheese' in English So there is cheese on a pizza, there is cheese in English as well, you know. So, you know, it's quite similar. But what I really mean is: eating a pizza and learning English are quite similar. How? Well, for example, when you eat a pizza, you don't try to eat the whole pizza in one go, do you? You're not. You don't try to eat the whole thing in one go. It's not like: ‘I'm going to get this. I have to eat this pizza, because my parents want me to eat it.' Or: ‘I have to eat this pizza because my boss wants me to eat it.' You should be eating the pizza because you want to eat it, right? So, you need to be personally motivated towards eating that pizza. And the other thing is, you can't just eat that pizza in one go. People don't do that with pizzas. You don't get the whole pizza and try to stuff all it into your mouth in one go. No, that's impossible, and it would make you sick, and you wouldn't be able to do it. Similarly, you can't learn all of English, all in one go, you know. You can't expect to understand the whole thing in just one sitting. You have to break it down into little bits. You need to cut that pizza up into slices and eat these slices bite by bite, bit by bit, you know? Also you should enjoy it, you should enjoy eating the pizza, you should enjoy learning English. And you should share it as well, share it with other people. Share the experience. Don't just sit there on your own eating a pizza. Share the pizza with your friends. Okay, that's the pizza analogy. You could stretch that analogy out even further. I'm sure you could find other ways in which eating a pizza and learning English are the same. I'll let you do that. 9. You should enjoy the small victories.
Okay? Enjoy the small victories. So, learning English is a huge task, really. Especially when you want to get to a very fluent level. It can seem a bit like climbing a mountain. But how do you climb a mountain? You don't do it in one big step. You do it bit by bit, step by step. It's tough, it's difficult, but you don't stop. You just keep going and you don't look down. You don't think about the distance too much. You just focus on it, step by step, bit by bit. And every little bit of progress that you've made you should enjoy, you know? So, every bit of English that you learn, a new word that you learn -- feel good about it, you know. If you understand something fully, well done you! Give yourself a little slap on the back. If you say something in exactly the way that you wanted to say it, then well done you! Give yourself a pat on the back. If you stopped making a fossilised error. If you, you know, manage to get out of the habit of making fossilised error that you used to make, then well done you! You know, you should really feel good about every little bit of progress that you make. And enjoy the small victories. And don't be overwhelmed by the fact that learning English can seem like a massive task that you'll never achieve. If you think about it like that, you'll never get anywhere. Just focus on the small victories, little bits of progress. Bit by bit. And make it a habit, do it regularly over a long period of time and you will make progress. It will happen as a natural consequence of enjoying it and doing it step by step, bit by bit, okay?
10. Just enjoy it.
Please, enjoy this. You only get one life. So, please, enjoy it, you know. Learning English should not be a pain, it should not be a struggle. You need to find your own special way of doing it. And ultimately all of the roads, all of the ways that you choose to learn this language will all take you to the same destination which is, you know, a decent fluent operational use of English, okay? So, enjoy the journey, because you only get one life.
Oh, I've got an itchy throat because I've been teaching all day and I'm a bit tired. So, and I'm exhausted. I said that I would talk to you about news. I was going to talk to you about Pokémon and football and things. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to stop right here. Because I think that I've said all I need to say in this episode. Thank you very much for listening! I wonder if there is any music still going, because I turned it down. Let's go back to some music.
