My Learning Secret | How To Learn English | My Process To Learn English | Graded Reader Level | Read

hello my name is Mark 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 it is a beautiful summer day and I am traveling on a train there are two ladies sitting opposite me I don't know them but from their conversation I know they are foreigners I don't understand much of what they are saying but I know they speak English I also want to speak

English but I am a beginner I don't know many words however this is an opportunity for me to speak English I decide to try to speak to the ladies I say some sentences in my basic English and they understand what I say I don't know many words and I speak slowly but the ladies are kind and patient I am able to have a simple conversation with them I tell them that I want to learn English they are happy when they hear that and they tell me that they are from England they are traveling home from

a conference we speak for about 10 minutes then it's time for me to get off the train while I am thanking them for speaking with me they give me their address and phone number they tell me I can visit them in England if I want to and then we say goodbye this is how my journey in learning English begins after this meeting I decide to work on my English skills more I translate texts and I watch films in English I work on my English for 2 hours almost every day in 5 months I am able

to speak quite well it is great but I want to know more I decide to go to London to study English there in London I choose a school which I expect to be good I really look forward to my first lesson the lesson is on Monday on my first day at school I meet my teacher and the other students in the class my teacher is a young lady she is very nice she asks everybody to introduce themselves and say where they are from then the lesson starts our teacher asks us how we studied English before

and what we suppose is the best method to learn English I tell my teacher that I like translating songs and other texts but I don't know what the best method to learn English is our teacher says that she will teach us a very effective method which is based on using the language our teacher tells us that we will not have to study and we will not use textbooks we will immerse ourselves in the language it is great for me since I don't like studying and I don't like textbooks then we speak about what we should

focus on 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 way to learn is to use it for exchanging ideas this is what we will do in our course most of the time we will speak you spoke a lot when you learned your native language as a child and you should speak a lot when you learn English as an adult unfortunately many students spend a lot of time memorizing new words or learning grammar

rules they don't use English for speaking they study about the language but they don't use it very much of course you need to learn new words and new grammar but you don't actually have to study them during this course I will show you a very simple and effective way on how to learn new 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 it is great and we speak for the entire lesson I

enjoy it so much I have never spoken so much English during one lesson in my life I have never learned this way before I am happy and I look forward to the next lesson when you want to learn English use English for communication lesson two how to learn words I go to school on Tuesday again one of the students asks a question that is interesting to me she asks what is the best way to learn new words our teacher says there are many things you can do to learn new words I will tell you what

is statistically the most effective way for learning new words reading when people read when they learn a new language they learn twice as fast as people who don't read it is good to read for at least 30 minutes every day I want to show you what you should do if you want to get the maximum gains from Reading first it is very important that the book or text you read is interesting to you it is important that you enjoy reading the book can be a nice story or it can have some useful information for your

job or your hobby don't read a text that isn't interesting to you it is also good to read a text in which you know most of the words when you don't know many words you can get frustrated you always want to enjoy everything you do while using English it is good to choose a text that is interesting and also suitable for your level when you read the text and you see a word that you don't understand you get a dictionary and look up the word then you continue reading you don't have to write the word

anywhere you don't have to make a list of new words you don't have to try to remember the word you only focus on understanding the text when it is clear to you what the word means you continue reading anytime there is a new word for you you do the same reading also has another great Advantage when you read you learn new words and you also learn how every word is connected to other words in the sentence then you can see how to link the words correctly this way of learning new words is very effective give

it a try and you will see how fast you can learn new words then we continue with the lesson we speak about the situation in England and about the best jobs for students this is good for me because I want to have a job I want to do something after my class I ask other students if they know where I can find a job they tell me that I should go to a job center the job center offers a lot of jobs for students this is good for me and I am happy that I know

where I can find a job when my day at school is finished I 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 I have no experience doing these jobs she tells me that my English is good enough to work at the Cafe the training is

not difficult and I can have more chances to speak English than being a cleaner she 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 practice 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 quieter than the 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 improve it he doesn't speak much because he doesn't want others to listen to his bad pronunciation he says that he reads and watches films in English a lot he understands very well but he also wants to improve his speaking he asks if there is something he could do to improve his pronunciation when my teach teer hears this she says okay I

will tell you something about pronunciation and how to practice it I will also teach you a great technique that can help all of you to be better at 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 we all do that the problem is that when you speak English sometimes you use your muscles the same way you would use them in your native language then your pronunciation is different from the pronunciation of native speakers this happens

to many students who learn English almost everybody has a bit different pronunciation than they should have in fact it is not a big problem because because usually people understand what you want to say even though your pronunciation is not perfect however 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 that you hear immediately after hearing it when children learn their first language they learn

it by copying they copy after their parents again and again until their pronunciation is perfect you can learn English pronunciation in the same way this is what you can do take some video or audio recordings that are not very fast and that you understand very well you listen and you copy what you hear when you hear it that is all then our teacher goes to www.youtube.com and searches for the shadowing technique she finds a good video where the shadowing technique is well demonstrated we watch the video then we all try to do shadowing for for

about 3 minutes then our teacher tells us shadowing is also good when you are preparing for a presentation you have to give in English and you want to have your pronunciation as close as possible to the pronunciation of native speakers 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 sports activities at school I would like to play 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 6:00 I am very happy because sports are very important in my life I go to the training of the football team and meet a lot of players from different countries the players are from Brazil Japan Vietnam Spain Argentina and Italy I like the training I am very happy that my

time time in England starts well I have a great teacher and 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 nah and she is from Italy at the beginning of the lesson my teacher asks her how her life is my teacher knows nah from one year ago when she attended her class that class was

for beginners and lasted only for 2 weeks during the summer holiday when nah speaks her English is beautiful her pronunciation is very good and she is very fluent my teacher is very happy and asks nah where did you learn English so well you speak very fluently what school did you go to nah replies I didn't go to school I learned English at home I use the advice and techniques that you taught us last summer I did a lot of reading shadowing and thinking aloud I tried to think more in English than in Italian this is

how I improve my English the two weeks I spent last summer in your class helped me a lot you showed me the way I knew exactly how to work on my English every day that's 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 nah for sharing her experience it is all very interesting for me I already know about the importance of reading I also

know the shadowing technique but nah also mentions thinking aloud I don't know what it is so I ask our teacher what is thinking alow our teacher says it is a very simple and Powerful technique but you have to have a strong motivation to learn English if you want to benefit from this technique it is also good to know that for for some people this technique is a little bit crazy however when you start to think aloud your English can improve 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 our teacher says it is actually very simple you usually think in your native language all day every day it is normal now you can start to think in English instead of your native language and when you start thinking in English then you can think aloud it means that you actually say aloud what you think it's all I ask it looks very simple you said that it is a powerful technique why is it powerful our teach says maybe you can ask

nah she has used this technique for a year maybe she can tell us what she has found out about this technique then our teacher asks Nah if she is willing to speak about her experience with thinking aloud it is no problem for nah 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 express my ideas with these words I can do this this is great the sentences were really simple I realiz ized that sentences that I thought in Italian were long and complicated I wasn't able to say in English exactly what I was saying in Italian I had to find a simpler form thinking in simple English was the hardest part but after some time I got used to it then 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 still simple and short but because I said them many times before when I was thinking aloud I was able to speak I didn't have to translate in my head from Italian to English as I did before using this technique after the meeting with the man from Australia I started to use thinking aloud even more this technique helped me a lot it improved my ability to express my ideas very much I still

use it every day it is really a powerful technique our teacher thanks Nina for sharing her experience with thinking aloud I decide 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 my job training starts I don't know what to expect I have never worked at a Cafe I'm not sure if I can do this job when I come to the cafe I am very surprised it is a modern Cafe

that sells coffee tea chocolate cakes and sandwiches my boss is only 20 years old but she has been working at the cafe for more than 3 years she has a lot of experience and she knows everything perfectly she shows me how to prep 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 is telling me but then she lets me do the work and corrects me when I make a mistake she is very friendly and I learn fast after

the first day at work I am very tired I had to learn many new things 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 should I 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 there is a different approach first I will speak about those who need English for speaking if this is your case 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.mars.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 might be helpful to get the versions of this exam from the past years if they are available 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 could pass the exam successfully did I answer 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 ls.com it is really a nice website there are grammar rules with examples for each level they have three levels 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 whenever 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 and I go to my school our teacher asks us what we did during the weekend I say that I was at work on Saturday I say that I can already do my work quite 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 say thank you I tried to do shadowing on Saturday evening after my work and for all of Sunday I tried to speak like a native speaker I know that it is still not perfect but I also noticed a big change in my pronunciation our teacher asks if anybody else tried to practice shadowing three students

raise their hands one of them is the the student from South Korea he also likes this technique one student says that she tried the technique but her mouth hurt a lot after 5 minutes of shadowing and she had to stop she also says that she wasn't always able to repeat everything sometimes it was hard for her to keep up with the speed of the recording our teacher says thank you for trying out this technique if you do shadowing for the first time and your mouth hurts after 5 minutes it means that you are doing it

correctly your muscles need to be trained 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 your mouth's muscles hurt you can take a break after 5 minutes and continue a bit later with every five minutes of practice your pronunciation should be a little bit better shadowing has other advantages you practice the correct pronunciation in English and you also practice other things such as intonation Rhythm and connecting words in whole sentences I know that at the beginning the recording

can sometimes be too fast if this this happens you can repeat only the first or the last word in the sentence with practice you will be able to repeat more I agree that this is true on Saturday when I started with shadowing it was quite difficult for me yet by Sunday evening it was quite easy to repeat what I heard then I have a question for our teacher I tell her that I looked at www.g grammar and 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 in English 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 to find out how many words you know the test has only two steps and it is really simple the name of the website is wb- test- languages.com you can do the test every month and

you can see how much you improve during that month if you want you can now take out your smartphones and go to that website to do the test I want to know how many words I know I do the test immediately and see that I know 2,100 words in English most of the students know between 2,000 and 2,200 words only Nina and the boy from South Korea know two ,500 words our teacher says so you can see that when you go to wb- test- languages.com you should already know grammar from level one and level two

you can start using grammar from level three because level three is for students who know between 2000 and 3,000 words test your progress every month lesson seven how to handle mistakes on Tuesday I go to school again one student asks our teacher an interesting question she says I would like to practice speaking with people around me but I am afraid of making 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 it I want to show you what

I believe is the best approach I have a lot of experience with this because I also learn new languages I still continue doing it for example now I am learning 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 either so why should I care now my main goal when I use any language is to express my ideas that 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 sound incredibly simple but it is my opinion this is what I have found after many years of both 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 already speak very well with hardly making any mistakes you should have the same attitude now most of you know about 2,000 words so it is absolutely okay to make mistakes from time to time when you continue using English there will be fewer and fewer mistakes in your speaking it is not possible to get better without making mistakes when you practice English it is okay not to be perfect Perfection comes with practice anybody who started to learn English started from the

beginning from the same level which is 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 first and you make mistakes it is normal take it as a necessary part of your learning process if you didn't go through this period of making mistakes you you could not get to higher levels by continuing to do what you want to learn the mistakes are gradually being eliminated 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 thoughts into words you don't learn grammar or words you have other activities for that don't worry everybody who learns a foreign language makes mistakes from time to time even famous people bosses of big companies or politicians when you listen to these people on TV you see that they don't care about mistakes they care about what is important and that is expressing

their ideas you should 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 on Wednesday I go to school 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 I look up a new word in a dictionary then I continue reading sometimes when I see

the same word again only 10 minutes later I don't remember the word and have to look it up again can you help me to remember the words better our teacher says that it is an interesting question and gives this explanation it is absolutely normal that you don't remember the new word immediately usually you will have to look up the word five times before you remember it there will also be words that you will have to look up 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 do you remember the word very well there are five of these phases let's have a look at them the first phase is the moment when you see the word for the first time and you don't know the word you look it up in the dictionary the second phase is the moment when you see the word that you have already looked up in the dictionary or heard or saw in the past you know that you saw this word before but you still don't remember its meaning you look up

the word 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 phrase is the moment when you already know what the word means when you see it but you are not able to recall 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 all together do you understand now why it is not possible to remember a new word when you see it for the first time you would have to jump across all the phases with the first encounter with the word you have to see or hear every word several times and let it go through all the phases until you get to phase number five 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 that is to use the word without problems in everyday communication all of this is interesting to me I didn't know about these phases but it is all logical it also happened to me that I looked up a new word in the dictionary but 2 minutes later I didn't know what the word was and I had to look it up again I felt stupid that I didn't remember the word now I know that it is absolutely okay not to remember the word forever

when I see it for the first time I need several encounters with the word before I can use it well after school I go to my football training our coach tells us that there will be 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 approaches are 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 with finding ing the right listening materials for them let's

have a look at what you should listen to there are two types of materials which you can listen to you can listen to some audio or you can watch a film these are quite different materials and different rules apply to them when you listen to some audio you should know 95% of the words or more if the audio has a lot of new words read the text first if possible and make sure you know all the words when you practice listening you practice getting information from 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 contain 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 doin nls.com or www.l prince.in ls.com you can also visit www.news.com if you like listening to the news all these material are in three levels of English the second type of materials for listening practice are films and videos on www.youtube.com these are also great you can start using 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 what the the film is about 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 will 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 necessary to have at least 30 minutes a day of listening the more you listen the faster you will understand more words when listening

you should always look at what you already understand even if it is just 10% at the beginning it is very easy to demotivate yourself by realizing all of the parts that you don't understand yet look at what you already know and be happy for every new sentence you have understood listening is the easiest way to learn you don't have to do anything you just listen did 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 improve my 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 conversation in our class our teacher has a question for us she asks what was your first reason to learn English do you remember the moment when you started to learn English when did you start to be really interested in the language I say that I remember the moment when I started to be interested in English my teacher says can you tell us what happened I say yes 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 when I finished high school I was still only a beginner I couldn't speak English and I believed that I would never learn this language properly I simply 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 what they were singing so I started to translate 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 on I was working on my English almost every day and I was getting better and better then I decided to go to England and improve my English here my teacher thanks me for sharing my story she also tells me

here is something very interesting about your story you are still you the first you didn't have motivation to learn English the second you had motivation you wanted to understand songs you can see that motivation is very important when you have it you can succeed 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 kind of motivation to use English in real life or to get 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 be able 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 enough to get to the level of 3,000 words I can agree with my teacher now I like not only 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 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 during the next

lesson one of the students asks our teacher this question you told us that it is good to know three 3,000 words where can I find these 3,000 words that are the most important for me to learn my teacher replies you can Google a list of the 3,000 most frequent words in English but such a list will not help you much when you start to learn words from this list you will learn words outside the context you will learn the words that are not connected with any story you will not learn what other words are connected

with these words in sentences you will learn them in your shortterm memory 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 that you can imagine easily for example when you learn the word dog you know immediately what it is you have a clear idea in your head of what the word means yet when you want to learn words such as appreci or suppose

this system doesn't work well this is a problem many students experience they start their studying by using 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 achieve the level of 1,000 words they have to start using a different system if 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 you will learn the word much better you can learn words

from lists but there is usually a limit to how far 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 we have already spoken about such as reading for beginners the best book to read is Robinson cruso in simple English you can find this book at ww. Robinson cruso ls.com it is the best book I know of for learning new words for beginners there is also one interesting rule that applies here every word that is important for you will

come back into your life again and again until you learn the word this is very similar to the way we learn our own language when we are children we don't study from lists of words we just use the language and important words keep coming into our lives again and again until one day we know what the words mean we keep learning 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 as 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 you will learn new words more effectively than from lists of words does it make sense yes says the student thank you after school I go to my work I already understand how to

do 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 everything is good but then something happens it is a little bit 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 we don't have so I call my boss she speaks with the man and sells him two coffees and two of our regular sandwiches I am surprised when they leave I go to my boss and I tell her that I am sorry I didn't understand the man

she says that it is okay she says that this can happen when people speak with an accent that is new to us she tells 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 that I didn't understand our customer I wasn't sure if my English was good enough for my job I started to doubt myself my boss was okay with it but I still needed some help from my teacher I wanted to to know what

I could do in these situations my teacher says I understand you are used to English that people speak in London but you aren't used to the Scottish accent your ears aren't used to listening to the Scottish accent all you have to do is listen more to Scottish English you need to train your ears to this accent as well what 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 you shouldn't be surprised if you don't understand it

is okay and it usually takes two weeks to get used to this new accent you shouldn'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 any 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 schoool 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 would understand her my boss says that sometimes she has to speak in 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 to make them feel comfortable if they see that they can 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 even people who speak English very well can have a

conversation with those who are just at the beginning of their Journey today we will speak about different levels of English and what you should be able to 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 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 usually have 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 conversation are easier and the sentences are longer this is the level most of you in this class are at right now you should be able to speak about many things from your life you can speak about your family Hobbies job and traveling sometimes you may have a problem when you want to go into a deeper conversation on certain topics however this level is usually sufficient 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 your goal as a student of English who wants to be able to speak English well should be to learn 3,000 words of course you can learn more than 3,000 words the more words you know the the easier it will be 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

she speaks with the man and she sells him two coffees and two of our regular sandwiches I am surprised when they leave I go to my boss and I tell her that I am sorry I didn't understand the man she says that it is okay 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 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 to overcome my shyness our teacher says it is true that when we use foreign languages it is natural that we feel uncertain or shy we are doing something that we are

not perfect at the possibility of making a mistake is great I was also very shy when I learned foreign languages I remember well how I was afraid to make a mistake when I did make a mistake I felt stupid and sometimes I blushed now it is different I use languages for communication I care only about communication you know that I am learning Spanish these days embarrassing situations can happen but they can't stop me from using Spanish it is true that sometimes I still feel shy when I have to speak Spanish I also sometimes blush but

I don't care much about it it is a natural human feeling and it never lasts forever I continue using Spanish because I know that only by by using it can I improve 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 skip several levels in one day the beginner can't become 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 Spanish you should 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 zero to 2,000 words appreciate 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 just speak perfectly without any mistakes they think that if they are not doing that then they don't know English they are embarrassed because they are not perfect

these students are very hard on themselves it is not necessary all of you are great because you already speak some English continue working on your English and your shyness can gradually go away I like what our teacher tells us I am also sometimes shy I know that I should practice speaking a lot but in some situations I don't want to look stupid and I don't speak as much as I should I decide to be a bit more Brave in these situations and use them to practice this 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 situations 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 there will be moments when you don't know a word which you want to say in such a situation you will need to

learn how to describe the word this ability is very important when learning a new language since you are not a native English speaker you will probably never know the same amount of words as you know in your native language I can tell you that you can describe almost every word you only need to train this skill you will have to train how to express ideas within the vocabulary 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 without realizing it if you don't know the word for something you just describe it to the other person so that they understand what it is you can do the same thing in English but you 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 your ability to describe things will improve 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 happy that I go to this class not only because of our 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 improve 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 and then 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 learning languages why do you have a talent you have a talent

because you have 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 are able to 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 super 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 might 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 cannot do anything about about it yet 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 compare yourself to these super talented people yes they are lucky and they have an ADV Vantage but you might be lucky too and you are super talented in 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 the 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 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 have known Sophia for only one day but I like

her a lot if you can speak your native language then you have a talent for learning English lesson 16 how to speak fluently on Monday I go to school again our teacher asks us how Friday school party was one student says that the party was great we had a lot of drinks and a lot of fun the girls from our class enjoyed the party as well I enjoyed the party a lot 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 were from Brazil their English skills were basic they could speak only in short sentences but they were extremely 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 everybody laughed 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 have a hard time speaking my teacher says this is really interesting I can tell you that the two boys from your football team showed you what all students should do the boys used what they knew they cared only about what was really important which was communication then one girl asks so what should we do if we want to speak English fluently should should we 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 however 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 and some people can do it at 2,000 words yet 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 musical instrument if you want to play a

violin you need to train the connection between your brain and the muscles on your fingers when you want to speak well you need to train the connection between your brain and the muscles in your mouth if the connection between your brain and your mouth is not regularly trained you can't speak fluently no matter how many words you know you can't complain that you can't speak fluently if you don't practice speaking often maybe you have this experience you meet a foreigner who wants to speak with you in English you want to say 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 see that you actually know the right words but by then the conversation is already finished why do you experience such situations because you have little training your speaking isn't automatic 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 to speak to you can do thinking aloud 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 yes says the girl if you want to speak fluently speak for 30 minutes every day lesson 17 what is the best school at 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 however if you want to pay for your education a good teacher can help you speed up the process C of learning if you want to know if your school is good before the first lesson of the course go

to www. test 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 learned 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 nah has a question for my teacher she asks her how do you know all of this where did you learn information about studying languages our teacher says there are many ways to gain knowledge on on how to learn and teach languages the first one is experience I have been teaching for more than 7 years I have many years of experience when I teach you I observe what works and what doesn't and then I use only things that 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 classes there is also another way I get information it is usually during moments when I have a question but I can't find an answer during these moments I go and visit my magic Park and I get the answer there nah 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 am going to tell

you is not real to everybody if it sounds crazy I am sorry however 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 slow down my breathing and I try to free my mind then I ask the question this is all sometimes the answer comes as a new idea in my head sometimes somebody who I speak

to later tells me something something that 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 keep coming I am so grateful for them as I said you don't have to believe what I am telling you but this is 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 teacher words are very interesting for me I didn't know that people can ask the universe for answers maybe in in the future when I have some interesting questions 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

you are giving us on how to learn English could you give us a summary with rules on what we can do every day to learn English well our teacher says okay I will try to 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 know that what is important is that you do all these three activities about the same amount of time if you leave one out then your progress will not be as fast as it could be from

my experience I can say that it is important to use English every day for at least 90 minutes you don't have to study but you should use English actively now I will explain every activity in more more detail let's start with reading you should read for at least 30 minutes every day it is the minimum don't read to study English read to get some new information or read to enjoy an interesting story I know that I repeat this information again and again but it is really important then you should listen to English for at least

30 minutes every day again it should be something that you are interested in you should enjoy getting the information you should start to listen to simple audio books or news first then you should go to a higher and higher level of books and news when you know 2,000 words you should start watching films and videos on the internet then you should speak you already know how important it is to speak when you study English again it is important to speak for at least 30 minutes every day of course the best way is to speak to

real people it can be your teacher your classmates colleagues or friends try to find somebody who is at your level of English or a little bit better and speak with this person however if you have nobody to speak to do 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 who I would meet every day so 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 what I needed to hear you are the best I am also very glad that the girl asked this question it is my last day at school and I needed some kind of summary on what I can do on my own during the four weeks I have spent with my teacher I have learned a lot I have 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 be a part of this class and I met a lot of nice people I give everybody my 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 I can't be at school forever now it is up to me to improve my English I

have all the tools I need now it is one year after my last day at school I have 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 I am trying to give all I learned from my teacher to my students I want them to be successful as well when you want to learn English read listen and speak do each activity for 30 minutes every day