How to start learn English | Graded Reader | English Story | My life in London | Listening Practice

hello my name is Ariel I am a student of English this is my story I want to tell you about my life in London I want to tell you about my fantastic teacher you can read my story you can learn English with me lesson one I go to London it is a beautiful summer day I am traveling on a train two women are on the train with me the women sit opposite me the women speak English I don't understand much I study English but I am a beginner I don't know many words I start to

speak to the women I say some words in my basic English the women understand what I want to say I am happy I say that I want to learn English they women tell me that they are from England they go home from a conference our conversation is 10 minutes long the next station is my station I say goodbye the women give me their address and phone number they tell me that I can visit them in England then we say goodbye after this meeting I work on my English every day I translate texts and I watch

films in English in 6 months my English is much better it is good but I want to know more I go to London I want to study English in London when I am in London I go to a school my first lesson is on Monday I meet my teacher and other students in the class my teacher is a young lady she is very nice we say our names we say where we are from then the the lesson starts our teacher has a question for us she wants to know how we study English our teacher says

that she can teach us a very effective method to learn English this method is very simple our teacher tells us that we don't have to study we don't have to read textbooks but we have to use English a lot it is very good for me I don't like studying and I don't like textbooks then we speak about what is is important when we learn a new language our teacher tells us we need languages for communication languages help us say ideas and understand ideas so when you learn a new language the best method is to use

the language for communication and this is what we will do in our course we will speak a lot many students try to remember new words they also study grammar rules and these students don't use English for speaking they study about the language but they don't use the language of course you need to learn new words and new grammar but you don't have to study them in this course I want to show you a very simple and effective method how to learn words and grammar I like what our teacher says our lesson continues we speak about

our Hobbies and what we do in our free time we speak in pairs or with our teacher we speak all the lesson I like it I am really happy this system of learning is very good for me when you want to learn English use English for communication lesson two how to learn words I go to school on Tuesday again one student asks a question which is very interesting she asks what is the best method to learn new words our teacher says there are many things which you can do if you want to learn new words

for me reading is the best if you read you learn faster than people who don't read it is good to read for 30 minutes every day I want to show you what you can do if you want want to get the maximum from reading it is very important that the book or text which you read is interesting for you the book can be a nice story the text can have some interesting information for your job or your hobby don't read a text which isn't interesting for you it is good to read a text in which

you know a lot of words of course sometimes you can see Words which you don't know when you see a word which you don't know take a dictionary and look at the word in the dictionary then continue reading you don't have to write the word on a piece of paper you don't have to try to remember the word when you translate the word continue reading concentrate only on understanding the text it is important when you see another new word translate the word the method is very simple you only read and you translate new words it

is all reading is also good because when you read you learn how every word is connected to other words in the sentence you see how to connect the words correctly this method of learning new words is very effective try it and you can see how fast you can learn new words then we continue with the lesson we speak about the situation in England we speak about the best jobs for students this is good because I want to have a job I want to do something after my school I ask other students if they know where

I can find a job they tell me that I can go to a job center the job center has a lot of jobs for students this is good for me I am happy that I know where I can find a job when my day at school is finished I go to the job center I don't know what jobs I can do so I ask the lady at the job center what the best job for a student is the lady tells me that they have some good jobs for students she tells me that I can be

a cleaner or a waiter in a cafe I tell the lady that I have no experience with these jobs she tells me that my English is good fought work at a cafe the training is not difficult and I can use English when I speak to customers the lady tells me that I can start my job on Thursday it is all good for me I'm happy that I have a job where I can use English when you want to learn new words effectively read for 30 minutes every day lesson three how to learn pronunciation on Wednesday

I go to school again there is one student in the class who is more quiet than other students he is from South Korea when our teacher asks if we have any questions for her this student from Korea says that he has a question he says that he has a big problem with pronunciation he knows that his pronunciation is not very good but he doesn't know how to make it better he doesn't speak much because he doesn't like his pronunciation he says that he reads and watches films in English a lot he understands very well but

he also wants to speak well he asks if there is something what he can do with his pronunciation when my teacher hears this she says okay I can tell you something about pronunciation and how to practice it I also want to teach you a technique which can help you with pronunciation first we have to look at Why students have problems with pronunciation when we speak we have to move our mouth we have to use muscles in our mouth the problem is that when you speak English sometimes you use your muscles like in your native language

then your English pronunciation is like pronunciation in your native language this happens to many students who learn English almost every student has a little different pronunciation than native speakers have it is not a big problem because usually people understand what you want to say you are a student and it is logical that your pronunciation is not perfect when you study English but you can work on your pronunciation and make it better there is a great technique that can help you a lot the name of this technique is shadowing the technique is very simple when you

do shadowing you simply copy the sound which you hear when children learn their first language they also copy what they hear they copy after their parents again and again and after some time their pronunciation is perfect you can learn English pronunciation the same way you can take some video which is not very fast and which you understand very well you listen and you copy what you hear when you hear it it is all then our teacher goes to www.youtube.com and she finds a good video where the shadowing technique is well demonstrated we watch the video

then we all try to do shadowing for about 3 minutes then our teacher tells us shadowing is also good when you are preparing for a presentation and you want to have good pronunciation before the presentation you can go to some place where you are alone and you can do shadowing for about 10 minutes you will see how much it will help you to have better pronunciation during the presentation this is very interesting for me I haven't heard about this technique before when the lesson finishes I go to the school reception I ask the lady if

there are any sport activities at school I would like to do some sport in England the lady at the reception says yes we have a table tennis team and a football team the football team has training today at 5:00 I'm very happy because sport is very important in my life I go to the training of the football team I meet a lot of players from different countries the players are from Brazil Japan Russia Spain Argentina and Italy I like the training I am very happy that my time in England starts well I have a great

teacher I also have some new friends from my football team also tomorrow I am starting my job when you want to have good pronunciation repeat after native speakers Lesson Four how to practice speaking on Thursday I go to school again we have a new student in our class her name is Monica and she is from Italy at the beginning of the lesson my teacher asks Monica some questions my teacher knows Monica because Monica visited her class one year ago it was a class for beginners and it was only for 2 weeks during summer holiday when

Monica speaks her her English is beautiful her pronunciation is very good and she is very fluent my teacher is very happy and she tells Monica your school in Italy must be very good Monica says I don't go to any school I learn English at home I use techniques from you I do a lot of reading shadowing and thinking aloud I try to think more in English than in Italian this is how I work on my English the two weeks which I spent last summer at your class helped me a lot you showed me the way

I know how to work on my English every day this is why I wanted to go to your class again because one year ago I was a beginner and now I can speak English I want to learn from you again my teacher is very happy when she hears these words she thanks Monica for her hard work it is all very interesting for me I already know about reading I also know the shadowing technique but Monica also speaks about thinking aloud I don't know what it is so I ask our teacher what is thinking aloud our

teacher says it is a very effective Ive technique you have to have a strong motivation to learn English if you want to have benefit from this technique it is also good to know that for some people this technique is a little crazy but when you start to think aloud your English can be better very fast I say I have a strong motivation I don't care if the technique is crazy if it helps I want to learn it can you teach us this technique okay it is actually very simple you think in your native language all

day every day it is normal now you can start to think in English and when you start to think in English then you can think aloud you simply say aloud what you think it is all I say it is very simple why is it very effective our teacher says maybe you can ask Monica she uses this technique maybe she can tell you more about this technique then our teacher asks Monica if it is okay for her to speak about her experience with thinking aloud it is no problem for Monica she says when I started with

this technique it wasn't easy I started with very simple sentences for example I can speak English it is good that I can speak English I want to be better I need to practice every day I don't know many words but I can use these words well I can say my ideas with these words I can do this this is great the sentences were really simple but at the beginning there was one problem my thinking in Italian was long and complicated I wasn't able to say in English exactly what I was saying in Italian I needed

to find a simpler form for English to think in simple English was the hardest part but after some time it was normal for me to think in English then something interesting happened I met a man from Australia he was on holiday in Italy I was still a beginner but we started to speak English I could see that I was able to speak with him without big problems my sentences were simple and short but I was able to speak I didn't translate in my head from Italian to English after the meeting with the man from Australia

I started to use thinking aloud more this technique helped me a lot with my speaking I still use it every day it is really a very effective technique our teacher thanks Monica for her experience with thinking aloud I want to use this technique because I also want to be better at speaking when you want to speak English fluently think aloud lesson five how to learn grammar after school I go to the cafe where where my job training starts I don't know what to expect I have no experience I am not sure if I can do

this job when I come to the cafe I am very surprised it is a modern Cafe which sells coffee tea and also chocolate cakes and sandwiches and my boss is only 25 years old she started to work at the cafe more 2 years ago she has a lot of experience and she knows everything perfectly she shows me how to prepare coffee how to wash the dishes and how to deal with customers it is all new for me I remember only about 20% of what she tells me but then she lets me do the work and

she corrects me when I make a mistake she is very friendly and I learn fast after the first day at work work I am very tired but I am happy that I have a job the next day is Friday and I go to school again one student asks an interesting question sometimes when I speak I am not sure if I speak correctly I am not sure if I use correct grammar can you help me what to do if I want to learn grammar our teacher says thank you for your question there are two groups of

students some students study English because they want to be able to speak some students study English because they want to pass an exam for each group the situation is different first I will speak about the students who need English for speaking if this is you you don't have to study grammar a lot when you learned your native language you also learned it without studying grammar you can learn English grammar Naturally by using the language the best way to learn grammar naturally is by reading a lot books are written in good grammar when you read you

will learn grammar in the context of the whole sentence I also recommend shadowing when you do shadowing you practice the correct grammar you do it naturally you don't have to try to remember anything you only copy sentences with correct grammar if you need English for speaking but also want to study grammar you can visit www.g grammar in ls.com this website shows what grammar is important for the different levels of English you can find the most important grammar rules for speaking there the second group of students are those who study English for passing an exam if

you are one of these students I recommend studying specifically for this exam it can take the versions of this exam from the past years if it is possible and train with them of course your exam will be a little different but the structure is usually the same or very similar from my point of view the versions of the exam from the past years are good training materials then I recommend going to the exam only when your results in the training materials are such that you can pass the exam successfully did I answer your question yes

thank you says the student this is good news I don't like studying grammar I learn English because I want to be able to speak I don't need to pass any exam I am happy that I don't have to study grammar much I like reading and I am happy that I can learn grammar by reading books after the lesson I go to the website ww. grammar in ls.com it is really a nice website there are grammar rules with examples for each level they have three levels these levels are 1,000 2,000 and 3,000 words in the afternoon

I go to my work it is my second day and I can already do a lot of things by myself but my boss helps me when I need it I see that my work is not very difficult also I can practice English when I speak to our customers when you want to have good grammar read a lot lesson six how to test your English it is Monday again again and I go to my school our teacher asks us what we did at the weekend I say that I was at work on Saturday I say that

I can already do my work well I say that I am happy when I can speak to our customers when I speak one of the girls in the class asks me what happened to your voice you sound very different from what we heard last week your pronunciation is very good I smile and I say thank you I used shadowing on Saturday evening after my work and the whole Sunday I tried to speak like a native speaker I know that it is not perfect but I also see a big change in my pronunciation our teacher asks

if other students tried to practice shadowing three students say yes one of them is the student student from South Korea he also likes this technique one student says that she tried the technique but her mouth was in pain after 5 minutes of shadowing and she stopped She also says that she wasn't always able to repeat everything because the recording was very fast for her our teacher says thank you for trying out this technique if you do shadowing for the first time and your mouth is in pain after 5 minutes you do it correctly you need

to train your muscles to this new way of speaking it is like going to the gym for the first time your muscles can hurt if they are not trained if the muscles in our mouth hurt you can take a break after 5 minutes of shadowing and you can continue a bit later with every 5 minutes of practice ice your pronunciation is better shadowing has also other advantages you practice the correct pronunciation in English and you also practice other things for example intonation Rhythm and connecting words in whole sentences I know that at the beginning the

recording can sometimes be very fast for you if this happens you can repeat only only the first or the last word in the sentence with practice you will be able to repeat more I say that it is true on Saturday when I started with shadowing it was difficult for me but on Sunday evening it was easy to repeat what I heard then I have a question for our teacher I tell her that I looked at www.g grammar ls.com the website is interesting but I don't know what level is for me because I don't know how

many words I know our teacher asks other students if they know how many words they know in English it is interesting to see that nobody knows we know that we are intermediate students but we don't know how many words we know our teacher says there is a website for people who study foreign languages you can do a test there you can know how many words you know the test has only two steps and it is really simple the name of the website is www. test languages.com you can do the test every month and you can

see how much you improved during that month if you want you can now take your smartphones and go to that website and do the test I am really interested in knowing how many words I know I do the test immediately I find out that I know 2,100 words in English most of the students know between 2,000 and 2,200 words only Monica and the boy from South Korea know 2,500 words our teacher says so you can see that when you go to www.g grammar in ls.com you should already know grammar from level two you can start

using grammar from level three because level three is for students who know between 2,000 and 3,000 words test your progress every month lesson seven how to handle mistakes akes on Tuesday I go to school again one student asks our teacher an interesting question she says I want to practice speaking with people around me but I don't want to make mistakes I don't want to look stupid can you help me our teacher says making mistakes is a very interesting topic there are a lot of opinions on this topic I want to show show you what I

believe is the best to do I have a lot of experience with this because I also learn new languages for example now I am learned Spanish when I speak Spanish I don't care if I make mistakes or not the reason why I don't care about mistakes is simple when I learned my native language I didn't care about making mistakes mistakes weren't important for me my main goal when I use any language is to say my ideas it is all I know that when I read a lot speak and do shadowing my Spanish will be better

and better I know that this can look very simple but it is my opinion this is what I leared after many years of teaching and learning languages it works very well for me and many of my students when I speak I only concentrate on speaking at the moment I know 1,500 words in Spanish it is the level of a 2-year-old child 2-year-old children make a lot of mistakes when they speak but they don't care about their mistakes they continue using their native language and when they are 3 years old they make very few mistakes and

when they are 4 years old they usually speak speak very well you can do the same now most of you know about 2,000 words so it is absolutely okay to make mistakes time to time when you continue using English there will be fewer and fewer mistakes in your speaking it is not possible to go to a higher level if you don't make mistakes when you practice English it is okay not to be perfect perfection comes with practice all people who started to learn English started from the beginning from the same level from Level zero learning

languages is like learning to play a musical instrument it needs to be trained when you start your training it is not perfect at the beginning and you make mistakes it is normal take it as a necessary part of your learning process if you don't go through this period of making mistakes you can't get to higher levels when you continue to use English the mistakes can step by step go away if you want to make fewer and fewer mistakes do a lot of reading and shadowing when you read you can read aloud it can also help

you make fewer mistakes in real conversations care only about exchanging ideas don't care about making mistakes when you speak you practice changing your ideas to words you don't learn grammar or words you have other activities for it don't worry everybody who learns a foreign language makes mistakes sometimes famous people bosses of big companies or politicians make mistakes too when you listen to these people on TV you see that they don't care about mistakes they care about what is important and it is saying their ideas you can do the same does it make sense the girl

says yes thank you if you don't want to make mistakes do a lot of reading and shadowing lesson eight how to remember words words on Wednesday I go to school again at the beginning of the lesson one student says I started to read more I feel that it is good for me I can see how my grammar is better but I have a problem when I read and I don't know a word I look at the word in a dictionary then I continue reading sometimes when I see the same word again and 10 minutes later

I don't remember the word and I have to look at it again can you help me to remember the words better our teacher says that it is an interesting question and she gives this explanation it is normal that you don't remember the new word immediately usually you will have to look at the word five times before you remember it there will be also Words which you will have to see 10 or 15 times these words are usually verbs when we learn a new word the word goes through phases only when you achieve the last phase

you remember the word very well there are five of these phases we can look at them now the first phase is the moment when you see the word for the first time and you don't know the word you look at the word in the dictionary the second phase is the moment when you see the word for the second time you know that you saw this word before but you still don't remember its meaning you look at the word in the dictionary again the third phase is the moment when you see the word again and you

feel what it could mean but you are not sure for example you know that the word is some kind of object or some animal or a verb the fourth phase is the moment when you already know what the word means when you see it but you are not able to remember the word when you want to say it when this phase happens the word is in your passive vocabulary the fifth phase is the moment when you are able to use the word when you speak now you can see there are five phases Al together do

you understand now why it is not possible to remember a new word when you see it for the first time it is usually not possible to jump across all the phases with the first meeting with the word you have to see or hear every word many times and let the word go through all the phases you can be happy not only when you learn a new word perfectly but also when you get from one phase to the other when it happens you are closer to the final goal and it is to use the word without

problems in everyday communication it is interesting to me I didn't know about these phases but it is all logical I also have this experience when I look at a new word in the dictionary but 2 minutes later I don't know what the word means and I have to look at the word again I feel stupid when I don't remember the word now I know that it is okay not to remember the word forever when I see it for the first time I need more meetings with the word before I can use the word well after

school I go to my football training our coach tells us that there is a match on Saturday the school team will play against another school team from Cambridge our coach tells me to come and play for the school team I am very happy and I am looking forward to the Saturday match when you want to remember a new word you need to see or hear the word about 10 times lesson nine how to improve listening the next day I go to school again one of the students has an important question he wants to know how

to improve his listening skills he wants to know what the best method is our teacher says thank you for your question good listening skills are very important for communication if you don't understand what people are saying it will be difficult for you to speak with them there are a lot of materials on the internet for students of English some students can have a problem to choose the right listening materials for them now I want to tell you what materials you can use for listening there are two types of materials which you can use for listening

you can listen to some audio or you can watch a film these are two different types of materials when you listen to some audio it is good to know 95% of the words or more if the audio has a lot of new words read the text first if possible and look at all new words in the dictionary when you practice listening you practice getting information from a spoken language you don't try to learn new words of course sometimes you can learn new words but it is not the main goal when you listen concentrate on getting

information from spoken English it is important to use materials at your level of English for example you can use books in simplified English which have an audio recording I really recommend these books to you they are fantastic because you can choose a book at your level of English when you have such a book read the book first and then listen to the recording at home or when you travel you can read two great books at www. Robinson cruso in levels. or www.the prinson ls.com your can also visit www. newsin ls.com if you like listening to

the news all these materials are in three levels of English the second type of materials for listening practice are films and videos on www.youtube.com these are all also very good you can start to use them when you know 2,000 words in English or more this is what you should do with a film watch it for the first time with subtitles so that you know the story of the film then watch the film without subtitles if you like the film very much you can watch it more than once when you watch one film many times with

every View you can understand more it is also good to watch videos on the internet about interesting subjects for example if you like nature you can watch documentaries about nature you can also watch reality shows reality shows are much easier to understand than films or documentaries because the structure of the show is usually the same it is NE necessary to have at least 30 minutes of listening every day when you listen to English materials always look at what you already understand it can be only 10% at the beginning it is better than 0% continue to

listen and soon it can be 20 or 30% always look at what you already know be happy for every new sentence which you understand does this information help you yes says the student thank you the listening topic is very interesting for me now I know what to do to when I want to be better at listening when you want to be good at listening listen for 30 minutes every day lesson 10 what you need before you start on Friday we have an interesting con ation in our class our teacher has a question for us she

asks do you remember your first impulse to learn English do you remember the moment when you started to learn English I say that I remember the moment when I started to be interested in English my teacher says can you tell us about this moment I say yes for first I have to say that English wasn't always my favorite subject I started to learn English at high school at the beginning it was very difficult for me I didn't understand the structure of the language it was illogical to me I tried to remember words I tried to

learn grammar but it was very hard to me when I finished high school I was still only a beginner I couldn't speak English and I believed that I couldn't learn this language I believed that English wasn't for me then something happened I always liked music and when I was 20 I started to listen to The Beatles I wanted to understand their songs so I started to translate the texts of their songs slowly I understood more and more then I met two ladies from England on a train we had a simple conversation but it helped me

very much I started to believe that I could learn English from that moment I was working on my English almost every day and I was better and better then I started to go to this school my teacher thanks me for telling my story she also tells me here here is something very interesting about your story first you didn't have motivation to learn English then you had a motivation you wanted to understand songs you can see that motivation is very important when you have it you can learn English when you don't have it it is very

hard to be successful then our teacher asks everybody in the class about their motivation to learn English the stories are very interesting one girl's motivation is to be able to read historical books in original English one student wants to be a professional tennis coach in England he wants to speak perfect English before he starts his career as a coach one woman wants to work for a big international company and she needs English for her job I can see that everybody has some motivation to use English in real life or to get information from books at

the end of the lesson our teacher asks us if we like English I say I didn't like English at my high school but now I like it a lot I can see how useful it is to know this language our teacher says this is another important factor when you learn a new language it is good when you like something which is connected to English it can be people music culture or history if you like English it is easier for you to learn it if you want to communicate in English it is good to know 3,000

words or more if you don't like English it is more difficult to find time to practice then it is difficult to get to the level of 3,000 words I can agree with my teacher now I like the Beatles but also my teacher and my boss who is also English I also like English humor now it is much easier for me to find time to practice English every day on Saturday I go to play football for my school team we have some very good players on our team and we win 3 to2 we are all very

happy we go to the pub after the match and we celebrate our Victory when you want to learn English you need to have motivation to use English every day lesson 11 how to learn 3,000 words the next lesson one of the students asks our teacher this question you say that it is good to know 3,000 words where can I find these 3,000 words my teacher says you can find a list list of 3,000 most frequent words in English on the internet but it is difficult to learn new words from this list these words are not

connected with any story you don't learn what other words are connected with these words in sentences this system works only for some words these are basic Words which describe things and people around us for example mother father apple blue orange dog cat Book car house city boy girl water Cinema or paper these are words which represent something which you can imagine easily for example when you learn the word dog you can imagine easily what it is you have a clear idea in your head what the word means but when you want to learn words such

as decide or opinion this system doesn't work well this is a problem which many students have they start their studying with lists of words it works at the beginning and they believe that they can learn English this way they don't know that when they get to the level of 1,000 words they have to start using a different system if you want to learn words from a higher level you have to learn them from Whole sentences if you understand the meaning of a word in the context of a sentence sentence you can learn the word much

better you can learn words from lists but there is usually a limit where you can go with this way of learning and it is 1,000 words also this way of learning is very slow there are much better ways which you already know for example reading for beginners the best book to read is Robinson cruso in simple English you can find this book at ww. Robinson cruso in ls.com it is a very good book for learning new words for beginners there is also one interesting rule which is good to know every word which is important for

you will come back to your life again and again this is very similar to the way which we learn your own language when we are our children we don't study from lists of words we only use the language and important words come into our lives again and again we learn new words this way all our lives for example the verb Google is a new word in many languages we learned this word by using the language we didn't learn this word from any list of words when you heard the word Google for the first time you

probably didn't know what the word meant then you heard it again and again because the word was important for you and after some time you understood the word you can forget about lists of words learn new words by reading stories and other interesting texts when you use English a lot every day soon you can learn 3,000 words does it make sense yes says the student thank you after school I go to my work I already know my work very well things start to be automatic I am happy that I understand my customers it is not

very difficult because the conversations are usually very similar our customers want some coffee or sandwiches so the words are usually the same or very similar my confidence goes higher and sometimes I start to have longer conversations with our customers it is all good but then something happens it is a little shocking for me when you learn a new word learn it as part of the whole sentence Lesson 12 how to improve your accent on Tuesday when I am at my work something interesting happens two customers come to our Cafe they are a husband and a

wife the man starts to speak to me I know that he speaks English but I don't understand him I don't understand what he wants I think that he wants something which we don't have so I call my boss she speaks with the man and she sells him two coffees and two sandwiches I am surprised when they leave I go to my boss and I tell her that I am sorry that I didn't understand the man she says that it is okay she says that this can happen when people speak with an accent which is new

to us she tells me that the pair was from Scotland the next day I go to school and I tell this story to my teacher I tell her that I felt really stupid when I didn't understand our customer I wasn't sure if my English was good for my job my boss was okay with it but I still needed some help from my teacher I wanted to know what I could do in these situations my teacher says I understand you understand English which people speak in London but the Scottish accent is new for you your ears

aren't trained for the Scottish accent you need to listen more to Scottish English you you need to train your ears to this accent too what happened to you can happen to everybody when you already speak English at some level and you go to a country where people speak with a different accent it is normal that you don't understand it is okay and it usually takes two weeks before you understand this new accent don't think that there is something wrong with you when you don't understand a new accent with practice you can train your ears to

this accent then I ask so what can I do to understand the Scottish accent I don't live in Scotland our teacher says you can watch films with Scottish English or you can watch situation comedies from Scotland and soon you can understand I tell her thank you after school I go to my work again at about 4:00 two interesting customers come to our Cafe this time they are not from Scotland they are foreigners they want to buy some coffee they are two ladies and it is clear that their English is very basic my boss is serving

them when she hears that they don't speak English very well she does something very interesting she changes her English she uses very simple sentences with only three or four words I can see that the ladies understand her they buy two coffees two sandwiches and two cakes they are happy and my boss is happy too when the ladies leave I tell my boss that it was very nice how she changed her English so that the two ladies understood her my boss says that sometimes she has to speak in a very simple English it doesn't matter if

the customers speak English well or not they are our customers and we have to do everything possible for them if they see that they can speak English here they can come to our Cafe every day I think that our boss is a good businesswoman she does everything possible to make our customers happy it is true that we have a lot of customers Our Cafe is busy every day when you want to understand people with a special accent listen to audio with their accent for some time lesson 13 what you can do at your level the

next day at school I tell my teacher about my experience with my boss and the two ladies who didn't speak English very well our teacher says great your boss must be a very clever young lady it is true that you can communicate with everybody people who speak English very well can have a conversation with those who are at the beginning of their Journey today we can speak about different levels of English and what you can do at these levels let's start with the lowest level of 1,000 words at this level students can speak about some

basic things from everyday life the speaking is very limited but it is already possible to communicate slowly for a short time with people who want to speak with you your sentences are short they have usually four words if the others also speak in short sentences you can have a basic conversation when students move to a higher level which is 2,000 words the conversations are easier and the sentences are longer this is the level at which you are right now you can speak about many things from your life you can speak about your family Hobbies job

and traveling sometimes you can have a problem when you want to go into a deeper conversation on some topics but this level is usually good enough for everyday use of English if you want to be able to have a deeper conversation on many topics it is good to know 3,000 words it is a good goal for students of English of course you can learn more than 3,000 words with more words it is easier for you to communicate in English but 3,000 words is the level that is usually enough for communicating in English about almost everything

I think that the two ladies at your Cafe knew about 1,000 words your boss went to their level and she had a basic conversation with them after my school I go to my work the two ladies come to our Cafe again they also bring two of their friends it is my turn to serve them I speak to them in simple short sentences they understand me this is great they tell me that they are tourists from Japan they tell me that they like our Cafe because people understand them here when you want to be able to

communicate in English learn 3,000 words lesson 14 what to do when you are shy on Thursday I go to school again one student has a very interesting question she says I am very shy when I have to speak English can you help me I don't want to be so shy our teacher says it is true that when we use foreign languages it is natural that we are shy we do something what we don't know perfectly the possibility of making a mistake is very high I was also very shy when I learned foreign languages I remember

well how I was afraid to make a mistake when I made a mistake I felt stupid and sometimes my face was red now it is different I use languages for communication I care only about communication you know that I am learning Spanish these days sometimes I make a mistake but it can't stop me from using Spanish it is true that sometimes I still feel shy when I have to speak Spanish sometimes my face is red but I don't care much about it it is a natural human feeling and it is always a short moment I

continue using Spanish because I know that only by using it I can be better I also try to see things as they are I am a student and I am on the way to good Spanish it is not possible to jump many levels in one day the beginner can't be a perfect speaker in one hour I also see what I mean to people around me when I already speak some Spanish I have a value to people who speak Spanish you can see the same when you already speak some English you can have a conversation with

other people in English that's great look at what you already know you know 2,000 words you have already gone from Zer to 2,000 words be happy for it some students have a feeling that to know English means to be able to speak like a native speaker to have perfect pronunciation perfect grammar and speak perfectly without any mistakes they think that if they are not doing that they don't know English they are shy because they are not perfect these students are very hard on themselves and it is not necessary you are great because you already speak

some English continue working on your English and your shyness can step by step go away I like what our teacher tell us I am also sometimes shy I know that I have to practice speaking a lot but in some situations I don't want to look stupid and I don't speak as much as I can I decide to be more Brave in these situations and use them to practice more then one student says sometimes I want to say something but I don't know the word which I want to say then I stop and I don't know

what to do in these situation I feel very stupid then the next time when I can speak English I don't want to speak because I don't want to be in this stupid situation again can you help me with this our teacher says when you start to speak English you have to prepare for one thing it is a situation when you don't know a word which you want to say in such a situation you have to learn how to describe the word this ability is very important when you learn a new language you need to learn

this ability you need to train how to express ideas with the vocabulary which you have for example you don't know how to say the word key you can describe it as a small thing for opening a door you also describe words in your native language but usually you don't know it if you don't know the word for something you simply describe it to the other person so that the other person understands what it is you can do the same thing in English but you really need to train this ability thinking aloud is a very good

technique to use when you want to be able to describe well use thinking aloud every day and and your ability to describe things can be better you can learn English only when you use English it is okay to be shy but it can't stop you from using English lesson 15 who is talented the next day is Friday and I go to school again I am happy that I go to this class not only because we have a great teacher I like this class because there are students from many different countries in our class some students

are from Europe some students are from South America there is also one student from Japan and one from South Korea in my class this is good for me because the students don't speak my native language when I speak to them I have to use only English it is very good for my practice today we have another new student in our class her name is Sophia she is from Argentina at the beginning of the lesson Sophia says that she thinks that she doesn't have a talent for studying languages but she wants to work hard to be

better my teacher asks her why do you think that you don't have a talent she answers I think that I don't have a talent because my sister learns English very fast but for me it is difficult then our teacher asks everybody in the class do you think that you have a talent for learning languages please put your hand up if you believe that you have a talent I look around the class and nobody puts their hands up my teacher Smiles then she says now I want to tell you something many people think that you need

to have a talent if you really want to learn a new language I agree yes you need to have a talent if you want to learn a new language but I also believe that you already have a talent for leaning languages why do you have a talent you have a talent because you already learned one language which is your native language you were successful at learning your native language and you speak that language fluently all people who can learn their native language have a talent for learning languages why do many students believe that they are

not talented the reason is this there are people who are super talented yes it is true these superal talented people remember new words very fast and for a longer time maybe you know these people maybe it is somebody at your work or in your family there are not many of these people but they exist I believe that this can be Sophia's sister as well learning a new language is fun for these people and they can do it easily Sophia says that it is true that her sister is really better than everybody else our teacher continues

it is true that these super talented people exist it is a fact and we can't do anything about it and it is not a problem the problem is that we compare ourselves to these people and if we don't learn as fast as they do we think that we are not talented I want to ask you for one thing please do not not compare yourself to these super talented people yes they are lucky and they have an advantage but you can be lucky too and you are super talented to do other things maybe you are more

talented than others when you learn to sing swim play tennis count numbers cook or repair cars people are not all the same it is a beauty of this world now you can believe that you are also talented maybe not super talented but talented when you believe that you are talented learning English will be easier for you these words from our teacher are very helpful for us I know that I am talented at playing football and Tennis now I know that I am also talented at learning English it is great and what is also great is

that there is a school party in the evening I really look forward to this party I know that some girls from our class are going there I hope that our new student Sophia is also going to the party I know Sophia for only one day but I like her very much if you can speak your native language then you have a talent for learning English lesson 16 how to speak fluently on on Monday I go to school again our teacher asks us about Friday's school party one student says that the party was great we had

a lot of drinks and a lot of fun the girls from our class liked the party as well I liked the party a lot too because Sophia was there I could talk to her and we danced together it was all very nice there were also two boys from my football team at the party these boys are from Brazil their English was basic they could speak only in short sentences but they were very funny at the party they made a lot of jokes about life in England about other players from our team and about girls from

their class their sentences were very short with only three or four words but they were able to speak fluently when we speak about the party I tell my teacher it was really interesting to see that somebody who doesn't know many words can already speak fluently I know some students who are at a much higher level and they can't speak fluently my teacher says the two boys from your football team showed you the right way the boys used what they knew they cared only about what was really important it was communication then one girl asks so

what can we do if we want to speak English fluently to go to parties and make jokes my teacher says first let me explain what fluent speaking is many students think that fluent speaking is fast speaking with a lot of words and perfect grammar but there is a better more correct definition of fluent speaking fluent speaking is speaking without long pauses some people can do it at 1,000 words some people can do it at 2,000 words but there are also people who know 3,000 words and aren't able to speak fluently if you want to speak

fluently you have to practice speaking there is no other way to improve your fluency speaking is a physical activity it is like playing a music musical instrument if you want to play a violin you need to train the connection between your brain and the muses on your fingers when you want to speak well you need to train the connection between your brain and the muscles in your mouth some students have one interesting experience maybe you have this experience too you meet a foreigner who wants to speak with you in English you want to say I

ideas that are in your head but you aren't able to do it you can't find the right words then when you end the conversation and play it back in your head you can see that you actually know the right words but the conversation is already finished why do you have this experience because you have little training your speaking isn't automatic and it is not automatic because you don't practice it often enough when you want to speak fluently I recommend speaking for at least 30 minutes a day you can speak to a real person if you

don't have a real person for a conversation you can do thinking aloud it it is necessary to really think aloud and not only think in your head you need to practice the connection between your brain and your muscles you can do this by thinking aloud does it make sense yes says the girl if you want to speak fluently speak for 30 minutes every day lesson 17 what is the best school the next lesson one of the students asks an interesting question she says next week I am going home I would like to continue studying in

my country I don't know how to choose a good school there could you help me how do I know if the school is good or not my teacher says this is a very good question I believe that when you read listen and speak a lot you don't have to go to a school you will learn English Naturally by using it but if you want to pay for your education a good teacher can help you learn faster if you want to know if your school is good before the first lesson of the course go to www.

testl languages.com there you can find how many words you know after five lessons at the new school do the test again and you can see how many new words you know if you are happy with your progress you can continue paying for your lessons it is also important that you enjoy every lesson and you look forward to the next one it is important to enjoy every activity which you do with English I also give private lessons via Skype if you are interested I can teach you via Skype if you don't find a good school in

your town you can contact me and I can help you this is great says the student I want to have private lessons with you via Skype this is great news for me I didn't know that it was possible to have a private lesson with my teacher soon I am also going back to my country and I want to have private lessons with my teacher when you go to school you have to see your progress and enjoy every lesson lesson 18 what to do when you need help it is Wednesday and I go to school again

at the beginning of the next lesson Monica has a question for my teacher she asks her how do you know all this where did you learn information about studying languages our teacher says there are many ways how I get information about learning languages the first way is through experience I started to teach 7 years ago I have many years of experience when I teach you I observe what works and what doesn't work and then I use only things which help I also study materials about learning languages on the internet when I find something interesting I

test it in one of my classes if it works I use it in all other class classes I have a good friend she is also a teacher and we often speak about the best way to learn languages sometimes she gives me good tips for my classes there is also another way how I get information it is usually during moments when I have a question but I can't find an answer to this question during these moments I go and visit my magic Park and I get the answer there Monica tells my teacher this is interesting how

do you get the answers in the magic Park where is the magic Park can we go there too my teacher says what I want to tell you now is not real to everybody if it sounds crazy I am sorry but you asked for it so I am giving you the answer I believe that if you have a question and you ask the universe for an answer the answer comes when I have a question I go to the magic Park I sit on a bench I relax my body I breathe slowly and I try to stop

my thinking then I ask the question this is all sometimes the answer comes as a new idea in my head sometimes somebody somebody who I meet later tells me something which helps me get the answer sometimes I watch an interesting video on the internet and I find the answer there sometimes the answers come the next day in the morning when I wake up what is interesting is the fact that the answers usually come I am very happy when they come as I said you don't have to believe what I am telling you but this is

what what I do and how it works for me the park is not very far from here it is a 10minute walk a lot of people go to the park to relax it is beautiful it has a very nice atmosphere I call it a magic park because it is magical for me my teachers words are very interesting for me I didn't know that people can ask the universe for answers maybe in the future when I have some interesting question I can go to the park and also ask for an answer when you have a problem

with something ask for help lesson 19 summary the next day one girl asks our teacher an interesting question she says thank you for the information which you give us on how to learn English can you can you give us a summary can you give us some rules about what we can do every day to learn English well our teacher says okay I can give you a simple summary if you want to speak English well you need to do three things you have to read listen and speak you already have this information what is important is

that you do all these three activities the same amount of time if you don't do one thing your progress isn't usually very good from my experience I can say that it is important to use English every day for 90 minutes you don't have to study but it is good to use English actively now I will explain every activity in more detail let's start with reading it is good to read for 30 minutes every day it is the minimum don't read to study English read to get some new information read to enjoy an interesting story I

know that I repeat this information again and again but it is really important then it is good listen to English for 30 minutes every day it is good to start to listen to simple audio books or news first then you can go to a higher and higher level of books and news when you know 2,000 words you can start watching films and videos on the internet then there is speaking you already know how important it is to speak when you study English it is important to speak for 30 minutes every day of course the best

is to speak to real people it can be your teacher your colleagues or friends try to find somebody who is at your level of English or a little better and speak with this person but if you have nobody to speak to with shadowing and thinking aloud you can also get a lot of speaking practice every day I use these techniques very often when I learn Spanish I don't have any native Spanish speakers in my life I use these two techniques to improve my Spanish as you can see studying English is simple all you have to

do is read listen and speak this is all now you know how to do it thank you says the girl this is great information you are the best I am also very happy that the girl asked this question it is my last day at school and I needed some summary about what I can do during the four weeks which I spent with my teacher I learned a lot I also improved my English very much my teacher knows that this is my last day at school she asks me if I want to say something to the

other students in the class I say that I was very happy to study in this class I met a lot of nice people I give everybody my email email address and I tell them that they can contact me if they want to then I say goodbye to everybody I'm a little sad but I know that I have to continue with my life now it is one year after my last day at school I used English every day I used the techniques from my teacher now I know 4,000 words in English it is great I also

have a new job I start to teach English I teach beginners they know only 500 Words it is good for me because I know that I need a lot of practice as a teacher before I can teach at higher levels I have one great advantage in my new job I had a great teacher in London I learned a lot from her now now I am trying to give all what I learned from my teacher to my students I want them to be successful too when you want to learn English read listen and speak do each

activity for 30 minutes every day [Music] n [Music]