Improve your English with this study PLAN: Elementary to Intermediate (Marina Mogilko)

hey guys welcome to linga Marina in this video I would love to go through a stepbystep plan on how you can go from a to level of English to B2 level of English and there is actually a huge gap between these two levels and in this video we are going to try to assess your current level of English of course in order to uh make a formal assessment you should take a language test but for the purpose of this video I want you to be able to see where you are right now and I will

give you a step-by-step plan on how to improve and become B2 quick background on me I was born and raised in Russia spent 25 years in Russia then moved to the US English is my second language German is my third language Italian is my fourth language I speak German I think right now it's a B1 B2 level it used to be C1 cuz I used to study in D I was there for a semester studying mathematics and I also learned Italian for 2 years I think I stopped at A2 level it was something like a

hobby but the thing is I've gone through the process of learning a language three times in my life when it comes to a foreign language and four times in my life when it comes to learning a language in general so let's start watch this video up to the very end because I will give you the whole schedule that you can Implement starting today so first of all let's look at the six levels of English language proficiency they are called A1 A2 B1 B2 2 C1 C2 A1 meaning starter beginner C2 meaning proficient master and basically

A1 and A2 are your basic levels C1 C2 are your proficient levels this is according to CFR common European framework of reference so in the US system we're actually talking about going from level two to level four and they have names here so level two is a high beginner and level four is high intermediate and of course when we're talking about your level of English we're talking about four aspects of the language we're talking about Reading Writing listening and speaking now let's dive deeper into these two levels I'm going to divide my screen here so

here your A2 here B2 so at this level you know from 1,500 words to 2,000 words if you want to go to B2 you need to know 3,000 to 4,000 words now when it comes to listening at A2 level you're able to understand people talking about family work I have a family of four I have two kids Emily is four Lily is two my main job as a YouTube influencer I also run a company that helps people learn languages it's called lingua trip we have amazing teachers there B2 personal and professional conversations I've recently attended

an AI conference where I met a prominent investor his name is vat KLA he is a co-founder of s Micro Systems and his prediction is that AI is going to replace most teachers and doctors by 2028 and when he said that I was kind of freaking out so this is your example of a personal SL professional conversation and you're also able to understand movies here how are you doing with movies guys let me know down in the comments below by the way movies no subs no subtitles if they are about everyday things right I'm not

talking about a documentary about nuclear weapons I'm talking about a day-to-day movie so you should be good here by nuclear weapons if it's on Netflix maybe you're able to understand that as well depending on how hard it is how are we doing comment down below where you feel you are right now and we're going to continue this is not it so we talked about vocabulary we talked about your listening skills if you're A2 you're able to understand texts and simple letters and a great example would be a bus schedule or train schedule here at B2

you're able to read newspapers and you're able to understand and read technical words now here when it comes to writing you can write quick messages postcards happy birthday and you're also able to take notes in English here you're able to handle all kinds of writing even business messages hello de investor here's an update on how startup is doing we've been growing 20% month over month and looking at an annual revenue of $10 million we are about to raise our serious B and we have some prominent VC firms interested in the round but we decided that

we will let you know that we have some availability before we close the round this is something I would say B2 C1 one type of a business email if you are interested in silon Valley type of business VCS Etc now when it comes to speaking here we have SIMPLE conversations talk about friends and most importantly give compliments this my favorite way to practice English you just walk in the street in an English-speaking country you say nice jacket oh my God where'd you get your shoes oh I love your sweater where'd you get it very American

now B2 conversations with native speakers and very important debates you can argue in English you can negotiate in English you can support your point of view in English when I um was back in Russia and I took part in uh different it was called Olympiad Back Then basically competing with others in how good our English was they would always ask us to participate in debates now when it comes to grammar here you know adjectives and they're comparative degrees good better the best bad worse the worst you know tenses like past continuous or past Progressive you

know phrasal verbs you know how to use modal verbs like must can could should have to when I mention this doesn't mean that if you take a test you make no mistakes the thing is at A2 level you don't have to know all the phrasal Wars but you have to have some Foundation because you definitely start learning them when you're at this level present perfect adverbs of frequency frequently rely Etc and some other things and even zero and first conditional are parts of A2 level zero inverse conditional now of course at B2 you know lots

of grammar future perfect continuous piece of cake future perfect you got it mix conditionals you know them mixed conditionals all tenses you're using phrases like if only I knew this wish you were here like all of these grammatical structures are part of this level B2 now you probably asking Marina so where is my study plan how do I get from A1 to B2 while watching this video you probably noticed that some areas of language seem harder for you for example when I was mentioning all of those mixed conditionals you're like H yeah maybe you had

a feeling that you don't even know everything that you supposed to know when you're A2 and this is where you should pay some extra attention and this is where if I were you I would start The Learning Journey because when you're just starting out you have a lot of motivation and you have all the energy to tackle the hardest things I'll tell you a story when I was learning German My Level was A2 I went to Germany stayed with a local family spoke German every single day and of course my speaking skills became much better

but that also meant that I had to pay special attention to my grammar cuz yes I was speaking German but my grammar just wasn't there so when you start your Learning Journey start with the hardest thing and don't let your ego pull you away from that trajectory because sometimes your ego tells you oh but my language is sounds so good uh let me just forget about grammar like who needs grammar if I can speak the language because I made the same mistake and then it was really hard for me to catch up so learn from

my mistakes step number two find the time when you're the most productive like for me that would be morning time when I wake up if I had a good night's sleep that is not always the case because my daughter Lily is 2 years old and sometimes she wakes up at night so for example last night I didn't have enough sleep but that's fine uh but I know that morning is the best time for me because then I have lunch and then my energy Goes Down And if I need to accomplish a more complicated task the

ideal time for me is in the morning what really works for me is blocking off a slot in my calendar like 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Marina is you know learning German learning Italian whatever then after you blocked the slot in your calendar you know that every day you have like 20 minutes to learn English maybe an hour you pick your English learning style of course I feel like the most convenient thing to do is to find a tutor who you like and uh learn with them two problems here are sometimes they're expensive and number

two that doesn't allow you to be flexible and if you have a baby like you just can't plan anything things happen all the time so the second option is to take an English language course for example my company specializes in creating courses for English language Learners we have uh amazing teachers who are native speakers working for a company and we create these courses all together and we have a course called from elementary to intermediate where every lesson is not a 60-minute class it's a pre-recorded video and it lasts from 10 to maybe 20 to 25

minutes which means that for example if on Tuesdays you only have 20 minutes to learn English you can find a suitable lesson for that day if there are some days when you have more time we have additional tests that you can take to practice what you've just learned we have some tips on how you can work on your accent we have some practice tasks and of course we cover all aspects of the language that you need to improve in order to become B2 and I have recorded several motivational classes for that course that will help

you boost your energy and motivation to learn English so if that's your case if you want to take an online course to help you become intermediate in English please feel free to click the link down below and join our course I would love to see you there now the next way to learn English is to go to a language school either in a country where the language is spoken or in your own country and the fourth method is solo learning when you have your textbooks when you have your apps ET Etc so it really depends

on what makes you the most productive and what helps you the most now the final step here is your study plan and this is what we're going to work on right now so what needs to be included in your study plan vocabulary aim for five to seven new words a day not more cuz otherwise it wouldn't work study topics like family and relationships appearance work music education transport houses environment travels sport holidays and with every extra step that you take in your language try to pay this extra attention to how native speakers pronounce certain words

and of course construct sentences within new vocabulary try to learn idioms try to watch more movies and read more books now number two your listening skills listen to English every day it could be a podcast it could be an Audi book then summarize what you've just heard try to tell a story to your imaginary friend about what you just heard try to take notes practice your note taking skills you will need them in case you decide to take a test or study at an American or a British University break down song lyrics from your favorite

music artists and of course watch English videos YouTube Netflix start with subtitles and then try without them and see what happens here are some ideas on what to watch for intermediate level dead to me Emily and is stranger things The Hunger Games the little things This Is Us Soul now three reading read regularly I'm going to recommend some books in a moment focus on comprehension try to understand the main idea and gradually increase difficulty of what you're reading and also friendly advice just don't push yourself if a book that you've selected is complicated and you're

not enjoying it you need to look up every sing single word like every third word stop right there try something else try another book that is easier everything has to be enjoyable you can't learn just by constantly pushing yourself yes that works from time to time but not all the time so I say 10 to 20% in general in our life 10 to 20% of the time we're pushing ourselves 80% we should enjoy ourselves so if if that is not the formula for your life maybe ask yourself some questions am I doing the right thing

why am I not enjoying my dayto day okay sometimes you at this stage of your life where you kind of have to push through like your University or school and then you push through and then you decide whatever you want to do um but yeah you have to be enjoying whatever you're doing books for the intermediate level The Perks of Being a Wallflower The Book Thief the girl with all the gifts About a Boy and there are a lot more just go to a bookstore and see whatever catches your attention try the subtle art of

not giving a f you word by Mark menson one of my favorite books in the world Tim Ferris the 4-Hour Work week I love that one they are kind of basic so try I feel like you're going to understand them now of course work on your writing I know uh Chad GPT can write anything for you these days but still work on your writing cuz you have to write your prompts for Chad GPT right ideally get feedback so if you're writing something ask chbt if the text is correct if there are any grammar mistakes and

practice different styles of writing like essays journaling uh taking notes writing a story Etc five of course speaking these days you can speak to apps I used to talk to myself you can speak with apps and they can give you feedback and of course focus on grammar key topics that you need to study different ways to talk about the future conditionals our favorite topic of course the I I wish if only used two constructions passive voice and focus on one Grammer Topic at a time and of course the more resources you can get access to

the better we are working on an app for you so hopefully I will be able to present something in uh one of my upcoming videos we're still testing it better testing on smaller groups of our students but this is something super exciting and of course it's going to have ai components in it now in your final step five is practice practice practice I'm going to write it three times cuz it's very important anything you can do switch your computer and phone settings to English select a few days during the week when you consume content only

in English try to talk to your kids in English so that's it thank you so much for watching this video up to the very end here's the stepbystep plan on how you can improve of course I just covered the basics there are more aspects to becoming intermediate but if you take take a comprehensive course if you learn with a tutor then of course you're going to cover everything that you need and uh I'm wishing you the best of luck with your language and uh hopefully my channel is helpful and motivates you on this journey thank

you so much and I'll see you very soon in my next videos bye