Don't Waste Your Time Learning English Like This
A1
how can you really learn to speak
English confidently let me help you
speed up the process by telling you in
10 minutes what I learned in 10
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years hello it's Keith from the Keith
speaking Academy and the YouTube channel
English speaking success here to help
you become a more confident English
speaker now then I've spent over 10
years actually no over 20 years I should
change the title over 20 years learning
languages like French Chinese Spanish
and I feel like I'm a confident speaker
of those
languages however what most people don't
know is that I've also tried to learn
Italian Malay and Japanese and I was
less success
successful why was I successful in some
of them and unsuccessful in others what
is it that worked and that didn't work
and how can I help you become a more
confident speaker of English in this
video I'm going to tell you five things
that work and will help you learn
English more effectively these are five
things they're based on linguistic
research but also on my personal
experience so it's kind of mixing a bit
of Science and a bit of anecdote I'll
tell you five things that work and the
opposite that doesn't work and all of
this will help you become that confident
English speaker ready let's dive
in right number one to effectively learn
English and become confident you must be
focused in English we say to put the
blinkers on or to have your blinkers on
if you've ever watched horse racing you
see the horses have these things on
their eyes right so they cannot see
these are blinkers so to put your
blinkers on is to be very focused and
only see one thing um because otherwise
you're going to get distracted and
you're not going to study okay you got
to be really really focused my
experience in Italy um did you know I
actually lived in Italy and taught the
Italian police I was working for the
Itali police as their English teacher
there are some interesting stories there
maybe for another day the thing is
through that those months I was there I
was there for two months I picked up
some Italian right getting by in the
coffees and and in the shops and
restaurants and for about a week or two
when I got home I carried on practicing
but then I didn't have time I was too
busy and I it just didn't happen I
wasn't focused it wasn't a priority
and this is an important lesson I
learned you have to make things a
priority otherwise something else will
come up and you won't do it oh I've got
my English class no but I've got this to
do and that to do I haven't got
time the biggest lesson I learned then
was never to say I don't have time CU
what that really means is I choose not
to do
this and I learn to change that whenever
I said no I don't have time for this no
no no I choose not to do this that's the
reality because you have time if you
don't do your English class in that hour
you'll do something else right you're
not going to stop breathing for an hour
you'll do something else you choose not
to do the English study always right so
be clear about being focused making it a
priority and saying I choose to do it or
I choose choose not to but it's your
choice
always number two be persistent what a
lovely word
persistent
persistent and it means to continue or
to keep going I often tell my students
that learning English is not a Sprint
it's not 100 meters it's a marathon and
you need to keep going right be
persistent the thing is if you go on
social
media a lot of influencers will tell you
now you can get fluent in three months
um you can learn English in with these
five words in 10 minutes the thing is
right as people on social media um we've
always got one eye on the
views and one eye on the education and
there's always a balance and so a lot of
influence influencers will we'll try and
convince you that it's easy you can do
it in three months you can become fluent
it's not true it takes time if you go to
the Cambridge English website it'll tell
you to move up a band um like a B1 to a
B2 it will typically take what 200 hours
of guided study and learning and the
higher up you go the more time it takes
so very often schools and courses will
run for one year or nine months to move
up a level taking into account you know
space repetition and all of that nine
months for a level that's more realistic
it does take time so you must be
persistent and the trick here is if you
enjoy your
study you're going to be persistent
you're going to carry on so do that
enjoy your study
find materials you enjoy that you like
that are engaging and that's going to
help you a lot let's move
on okay number three is find your
mojo Mojo what I mean really is Mojo
motivation right find your motivation
because you need to be motivated to
learn another language like English one
way to harness your motivation I mean to
get motivated is to have specific and
realistic goals and ones that you can
measure I think smart goals right but
specific and realistic so sometimes and
I I look at the comments in my video
chat and sometimes students say well I'm
a beginner now and I want to be fluent
in
English um okay it's it's a nice
ambition I'm a beginner now I want to be
fluent in English it's not very specific
what do you mean by fluent and when how
long and and it's just it's too big I
think and it's too far away it's like
the stars make it more specific and
realistic a much better goal would be
I'm a beginner now and I want to be able
to speak and communicate my ideas on
some common
topics in the next six
months something like that is much more
specific you could even say which topics
and a teacher will come and say that's
great we'll take you from A2 to B1 in
six months that's basically it and and
and it's something you can measure
especially if you identify the topics
that's something it's more specific it's
realistic and it's measurable as well so
all of that can really really help now
the thing with motivation is you need to
feed your motivation it's like your dog
or your cat P if you have one if you
don't feed your pet they will become
lazy and tired they'll have no energy
and ultimately I'm afraid they'll die
like your motivation it'll disappear so
you must feed your motivation right what
do you give your
motivation the best thing you can do is
remind yourself why you're doing this
why am I learning
English and maybe it's because well
because you want to travel and speak to
other people if you're studying IELTS
actually your goal is not IELTS right
your your goal is the reason why because
I want to study abroad I want to
actually work and live abroad or take my
family abroad and have a better life
that's the why and so in those difficult
moments when your motivation is
down remember the why another thing you
can do and I did this when learning
Spanish um I was living in Spain I was
there for about a year I was there for a
long time but after a year I decided to
join some classes and my roommate said
what why are you doing classes I mean we
live in Madrid just go on the street and
talk to people and I said yeah I know I
do but I just I always say the same
things and you know and I don't really
know many people when I went to the
class oh it was Just My Level went up
because I was learning much wider not
language vocabulary grammar but I was
also connecting with people I was making
friends I was talking to people in the
same boat as me we weren't in a boat
idiomatically we were in the same
situation and it was just it was great
to connect with others and when when my
motivation was
lagging we could cheer each other up and
say you know keep going connect to
others
it was invaluable the best thing I ever
did even though I was living in Spain at
the time joined a Spanish course um and
finally I think a nice thing to do is to
reward yourself when you reach a goal or
part of a goal um just give yourself a
pat on the back I can't reach but reward
yourself say great I've done it I've
done a month study I've studied every
day I've I've learned to speak about
this this and this great
go to the cinema go and buy yourself a
book give yourself a little reward keep
the motivation going feed your
motivation let me feed you with some
more ideas moving on to number
four number four is Big Goal small steps
now this is related to the motivation
but so having a big goal is great
breaking it down into small steps is
really important what you're going to do
step by step if you've ever been walking
in the mountains if you like rambling
right sometimes you say you go out
rambling you say right we're going to go
in a big circle um for 10
kilometers and you go it's going to take
ages that isn't great what's much better
is to say well okay we'll do a circle
but first we go to that Peak then we'll
go to that Lake then we'll go down the
valley to the village and then we'll
come around and there are steps small
steps and you think oh yeah that's
doable little things you'll achieve on
the way that's great so when I arrived
in China many years ago I knew that I
wanted to speak Chinese and I really
wanted to speak to a very high level I
was a bit like I'm a beginner I want to
be fluent in Chinese but I also realized
that's not going to work so I broke it
down I thought right what am I going to
do the first year I'm here I want to be
able to communicate with family and
friends that was key second I wanted to
be able to have daily conversations with
people on the street in the shops
thirdly I actually wanted to be able to
work in Chinese to function in Chinese
so I broke that down into three goals
each one a year and the first one I
remember every day for about eight
months I went for an hour or an hour and
a half to class before work 8:00 in the
morning boom to class an hour and a half
and then go to work and did that for
eight months and that took me up to like
an A2 level and I was able to talk to
family and friends very simple like pass
me the sugar and I like this things like
that the key was Big Goal small steps
you see the small steps help you focus
on the present moment on the now when
you've got big goals you start thinking
oh God it's so much it's too much it's
overwhelming the more you think the less
you are present um you're lost in your
thoughts to avoid that to be present
small steps because the small step helps
you focus in the present moment and it
works much much better so if you've got
your goal of getting let's say a band
seven in IELTS think about small steps
first three months the next three months
the next three months what are you going
to do how are you going to reach it Big
Goal small steps let's move
on number five practice Lots you see the
big state the big mistake a lot of
students make and I did as well um
although I'm going to blame my teacher
at school with French is we studied too
much we just studied and by study I mean
reading and reading learning the rules
learning the grammar reading reading a
bit of listening it was all passive it
was study we weren't actually practicing
we weren't speaking
writing very little right and that's
what happened at French and so you know
I got to the age of 18 having studied
French for 10 years and I couldn't speak
that's
ridiculous so it's so important practice
Lots wherever you are now and as you're
studying whether it's with videos my
videos or with a book as you study
practice at the same time you can
practice speaking out practice making
phrases changing phrases you can use the
speaking success system that you can
learn from my videos um you can practice
in the real world you can practice
online with classmates or students or
teachers um online is the real world as
well right or face to face it doesn't
matter but as you're studying practice
as much as you study and that will help
you become a more effective learner and
a more confident speaker of English
next right Point number six hang on
Keith you said five I did I know all
right you can call this a bonus if you
like or Point number six and that is
review and I couldn't leave you without
telling you how important it is to
review to become an effective learner
and speaker of English review because
well there's a lot of Science and theory
behind this do you remember teachers
will probably know ebbing house Herman
ebing house and his learning curve or
his well his memory curve some call it a
forgetting curve that after a certain
number of hours a lot of people say 24
hours you you will forget 70% of what
you've studied if you don't review and
then several days later you need to
review again or the learn your learning
goes goes
down there's a lot of Mythology around
this and even you know ebing house he
was the researcher and he was the the
person undergoing the research he was
the candidate if you like so I think
there's a lot of flaws but the general
idea that if you don't review within a
day and within a week you are going to
forget a large amount um there's also
spaced repetition Theory right this is
what most of the apps like du lingo work
with that you learn some words and then
the next day they come back again few
days later they come back again that
spaced repetition and it is it does work
it's very very important so I think it's
essential to review what I do with my
classes learning French or Spanish now
is after the class I review after a few
hours the notes I've taken and then a
day or two later I don't review the
notes but I listen or watch something on
the same topic so if I've been watching
something about weather I'll listen to
the weather report or I'll watch a film
about weather or I'll do something on a
similar topic so there's a a recycling
of language reviewing and recycling
basically hugely important very valuable
quite easy to do just find time remember
don't say I don't have time it's I don't
choose to do it or I choose to do it the
choice is in your
hands okay so there you have it five or
six different ways to help you become a
more confident speaker now I realize I
am mixing research and anecdote here
right and you know that's what I did to
build my online course I speaking Gold
Course um it's a mixture I mean it's
based on Research I did in my Master's
Degree on digital education which I did
very very late in life um but also
anecdote my own learning experience in
fact the speaking success system is
based on my own experience of learning
languages um you can watch a video about
that actually straight after this one if
you like um you can find out about the
course more details on how that might be
able to help you in the links Below in
the description and the comments that's
it for today listen thank you so much
for taking the time to be with me um if
you've liked it you know what to do if
you subscribe you know what to do and
listen I can't wait to see you in the
next video keep going be focused
persistent motivated and all the rest of
it take care my friend bye-bye
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