The MOST IMPORTANT skill for learning English (don’t skip this!)

this video is brought to you by Squarespace when people talk about learning language you always hear the same advice work on your reading skills practice speaking every day and build your vocabulary and yes those things are important but here's the truth they're not the only skills that are going to take you to this advanced level there are other often overlooked skills that can make all the difference between plateauing at an intermediate stage and becoming really Advanced so today I'm going to share five powerful skills that most Learners don't even think about but if you pay

attention to them you'll notice a huge shift in your progress okay so first let's talk about pattern recognition and I honestly think that that is probably one of the biggest things that influenced my language learning because the thing is when people start learning a foreign language they often focus on individual words I have to learn this word this word and that word and then I have to learn how to combine all of these words to create a sentence but my Approach was always a little bit different I wanted to focus on patterns because every single

time I opened a language textbook I could see those patterns because languages are full of them just think about it how many times have you seen phrases like I don't think so or it's up to you instead of trying to translate all of these phrases through your native language or explain to yourself why they're structured this way I think for me personally it's just easier to memorize them like that's the way it is in English that's the way this pattern Works people say I don't think so so instead of saying I think not if I

turn on my Russian brain honestly the phrase I don't think so doesn't make any sense if I translate word by word but I need to turn on my English brain I need to start recognizing English related patterns instead of trying to look at the language from the Russian point of view from all of the Russian patterns because my native language is Russian you know you don't have to understand every single words separately in fact I think that it can actually slow down your progress instead recognizing patterns is a very useful skill when it comes to

language learning and it will help you so much predict what's coming next you're going to start building a mountain where with every new Step it's going to be easier and easier for you to memorize new words because you're already familiar with all of these patterns and building new patterns is going to become much much easier the next skill is honestly very similar to pattern recognition but still it's a little bit different it's called chunking so again chunking is all about focusing on phrases instead of individual words I think people use chunking more when it comes

to memorizing vocabulary whereas pattern recognition is just like a separate thing like it's nice to learn how to recognize patterns in a new language because this way it will help you with everything it will help you with vocabulary it will help you with Grammar with every single aspect of language learning the theory is if you focus on single words you're going to be stuck trying to piece together a sentence especially if you're a beginner it's really really hard creating a sentence with just a few words that you know but if you learn full chunks for

example can you give me a hand or I don't know if I can make it you will definitely sound more fluent one trick that I personally use is to try to memorize useful chunks that can be recycled in many many conversations especially when it's something that's connected to me to my personal vocabulary I'm sure you guys remember that in my older videos I talked a lot about building your own personalized vocab because if you're a lawyer you have to know a lot of those Law related phrases in English even if you're a beginner because you

have to be able to talk about your job whereas me my job has nothing to do with law so I can wait a little bit you know when I'm a beginner I don't really need to memorize all of this new vocabulary right now one example of chunking I can give you that is connected to my life right now is all about yoga because I've been doing yoga for many many years but right now I'm really trying to become more advanced and so the sentence I have here the big chunk I have here is I love

flow style yoga because it challenges me physically yes I know that a lot of people know the words flow and style but can those people create this expression flow style yoga this is a great example of chunking instead of memorizing everything separately I'm memorizing a sentence that is related to my life to my hobbies to something that I'm doing on a daily basis and speaking of building resilience whether you're learning a new language or trying to launch a passion project having the right tools to stay consistent is key that's where today's sponsor Squarespace comes in

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level head to squarespace.com Veronica to start your free trial and when you're ready to launch use the code Veronica for 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain trust me it's one of the best investments you'll make to Showcase your skills and launch your dream project now let's move on to emotional management because let's be real learning language can be so freaking frustrating and so this is where emotional management comes in yes I feel like language Learners really need a manager to manage their emotions obviously I'm kidding here you will have to become

your own manager your own teacher you know learning a language is a roller coaster of emotions here's a story for you guys you all know that I'm learning Spanish right now and so I am still constantly well almost constantly okay mixing up verb tenses and I try so hard not to quit learning Spanish when I keep on making mistakes so I completely understand you're here I mean I've been in the same place with English as well and how I personally manage emotions in those situations is I constantly remind myself that Veronica it's okay to make

mistakes you're still progressing you're still doing something you're making mistakes and that's okay it doesn't make you stupid it doesn't mean that you know you're not smart enough to learn a language just keep on going because the truth is every polyg glob will tell you the exact same thing those frustrating moments are a part of the process and unfortunately you can't really get rid of them the trick is to see frustration not as failure but as a sign that you're learning something new if you feel stuck take a break switch to a fun activity and

then come back with fresh energy I know progress isn't always obvious but it is happening I promise you it is happening if you're learning the language consistently it is definitely happening so please accept the fact that you will have to be okay with partial comprehension for some time that's just the way it works now let's talk about learning to learn because have you ever thought about how you learn best and this is called metacognition the ability to understand your own learning process because this is another secret of language Learners we are honestly not that good

at studying you know we're not perfect when it comes to studying the language we just know what works best for us what works best for me might not work best for you and that's the reality for example I have a friend who's learning I don't know three four languages right now and every time he tries to crb new vocabulary through flash cards it doesn't work it doesn't stick and then he realized that he learns a lot better through conversations and stories and I'm honestly a completely different person yes I'm sure I'm going to learn a

few phrases and words when I talk to a native speaker or when I have my Spanish class but you know I'm not going to really like memorize them I really need to use flash cards to make sure I remember all of these words long term but he is completely different he hates flashcards so instead of forcing flash cards he started reading books and talking to native speakers and the words stayed with him because they were tied to meaningful experiences he discovered what worked best for him and he doubled down on that and so learning to

learn is all about experimenting ING with different methods if one approach doesn't work for you try another the key is to be curious about your own process and keep on adjusting until you find what clicks and that is exactly what I teach in my course language Mastery Program all about language learning all about tailoring your language learning to you so if you want to check out this course my language Mastery Program you can do so by clicking the link in the description and finally let's talk about silence and why in fact it's not scary at

all I think becoming comfortable with pauses and com ation to find the right words is going to help you a lot because a lot of people feel embarrassed and shy when they have to take a moment to think but allowing yourself to think through a sentence instead of rushing to speak is I think so much better A lot of language Learners think that it's so awkward to pause to think of the right word and honestly in that moment your brain just freezes it often feels like forever but the reality is silence is not scary in

fact native speakers pause all the time literally all the time just think about it how often do you hear people say um let me think about it or what was I saying literally all the time native speakers use these Expressions all the time because they want to make sure they think through their sentences and So eventually instead of putting all of this pressure on myself I learned that it's okay to pause it's okay to be silent instead of rushing to speak perfectly and then beating yourself up because you you can't speak perfectly because Perfection doesn't

exist how about you just take a second to think or even use filler words like let me see or give me a moment so I think it's going to be it for today's video if you liked it make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to create your own website make sure to use Squarespace you can check them out by using my link in the description if you want to create your own monthly language learning plan I highly recommend watching this video right here just click right

here and keep on watching