Sacrifice, Risk, and Success

welcome to the effortless English show with the world's number one English teacher AJ Hogue where AJ's more than 40 million students worldwide finally learn English once and for all without the boring textbooks classrooms and grammar drills here's AJ with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English effortlessly hi I'm AJ hog welcome to the effortless English show the show that teaches you to speak English confidently go to effortless English Club . c and join my free email course many years ago I think almost 10 years ago actually I was sleeping in my car not only was I sleeping in my car I was actually living in my car a small car I was laying on a board a piece of wood that went from the front of the car to the back of the car this I put the passenger seat down and that was my bed so I was laying on a piece of wood I remember one night it was a hot summer night in Georgia this Georgia the state in the United States so hot very humid I was laying on top of this board and my nose was only just a couple inches from the roof of the car because it was such a small car so just a few centimeters a few inches from the top remember laying there in the heat sweating and I was as I was laying there sweating pouring sweat I could hear my dog because my dog was living in my car with me my dog was in the back seat of the car and she was panting she was hot too we were parked in downtown Athens Georgia kind of a small college town in the state of Georgia in the United States and as I was laying there sweating listening to my dog pants I heard a [Music] sound and I looked around [Applause] and I realized it was a mosquito so there was a mosquito in the car with me so I started turning my head of course I had no room really to to move around much because the car was so small the roof was just a couple inches from my nose the door was right against my arm so I'm turning around see if I can find the mosquito to kill it and for the next several hours I just kept hearing that sound then it would stop and I'd start to relax finally starting to drift off to sleep a little bit and then and I would jump back awake again and it was just a miserable night it took me hours to get to sleep because not only could I hear the mosquito buzzing but sometimes I could hear people in the distance some times they were drunk people yelling throwing a bottle cuz remember I was parked in downtown Athens this is a college town so at night people would go out drinking there were bars and restaurants downtown and each time I heard them yelling I I got a little nervous too I got tense so I thought oh my God uh they're going to find me here I'm sleeping in my car what if they bother me what if my dog starts barking at them what if the police come and all these thoughts start going through my head and especially as the voices got closer and closer and closer to my car became impossible to go to sleep my heart started beating faster and then you know they would walk off and get in their own cars and drive away i' start to relax again and then the mosquito my dog panting and this pouring of sweat and it was one of the longest nights of my life that first night camping out in my car nervous or worried about being discovered worrying about being bothered harassed by a mosquito it was one of the most intense one of the most difficult one of the most uh challenging nights of my life the first night living in my car I'll continue with this story in a second let's let's go to our first Twitter question first this is from Raymond a normal Twitter name and uh Raymond asks which is easier American or British English and can I mix them well first of all neither is easier or more difficult they're the same language the same is true for Australian English or New Zealand English or South African English or even Indian English or Singaporean English none of them are easier none of them are more difficult it's just what you're used to so if you're used to listening to American English all the time then you might find listening to British English feels more difficult it's simply could because you're not yet used to the accent and they have some idioms some slang that you might not quite know that's the only reason it might seem a little more difficult and of course the opposite is also true if you're used to listening to lots of British English then sometimes listening to American English might seem a little more difficult but but none of these different forms of English are actually any more difficult to learn than the others so which should you learn which is most important it doesn't really matter it's up to you it's if you're planning to travel to England or live in England or you actually live there now then probably British English would be most useful to you but it doesn't mean you can't listen to American English there's nothing wrong with it it'll still help you a lot living in England it's the same language even though sometimes British and Americans and Aussies we might joke that we speak different languages it's just a joke it's the same language now the question can you mix them certainly you can mix them there's nothing wrong with that it won't cause any problems so you can listen to some British English and to some American English that's perfectly fine and you can listen to some audios from Australia in fact it's probably a good idea because if you do that you'll get used to hearing different accents so it won't make you feel stressed if you suddenly hear someone speaking a little bit differently you actually train yourself to become a better listener by getting used to lots of different accents so I actually encourage you to mix in some different accents if you're focused on effortless English you're going to get a lot of American English but sometimes listen to British English maybe sometimes find an audio from a Scottish speak speaker from an Australian Etc perfectly fine let's go back to my car living story why am I talking about this well the reason is that my good friend Kenny peeve just recently published a book and the book is called young homeless professional and it's about his experience and mine living in our cars one summer in Athens Georgia because you see at the time that same summer that I was living in my car my friend Kenny was living in a truck he had a truck and he had decided to try the same exact experiment live in his vehicle for about 3 or four months so we did this experiment together well Kenny just recently wrote a book about that experience and there's a little I think I'm on in the book on a few pages where he discusses me and and uh how we both would get together and talk about our experiences living in our vehicles I suppose the next question would be why why did I do this crazy thing why was I making myself uh face this difficult challenge well the reason I did it was that I wanted to be free I had become very frustrated being a slave to work because just prior to living in my car the year before that i' been working at a job that I didn't really like and I had to work lots of long hours it was a very stressful job and I started thinking that I was tired of that situation I was tired of feeling like a slave to my job that I had to do this job even though I hated it and why because I had to pay rent because every month I had to keep paying my rent and so I felt trapped and at that time I was a social worker and I I couldn't think of a way to make more money that I would enjoy more I really couldn't figure out a better job at that time but what I did realize was that if I cut my expenses enough especially rent if I didn't have to pay rent I realized that I had enough savings that I could live three or four months without working at all and I could just enjoy a nice long break from working I could just kind of like I W when I was younger and I was a student I could have a full summer off relaxing thinking reading meeting with friends doing whatever I wanted to and I thought more and more about it and I realized well I already have a car if I build a little bed inside the car and if I'm smart about it I could live in my car for a full summer and be totally free fre and have a break from work and that's exactly what I did it turns out it was a fantastic experience that first night was quite stressful of course it was a new experience for me I wasn't used to it you know I'd been living in an apartment like normal people and so suddenly I'm living in my car for the first time that first night was quite stressful but it got easier and easier each night I relaxed a little bit more I actually started getting used to the heat so the heat didn't bother me so much and it became easier to sleep and my dog also adjusted so my dog and I actually had a really nice summer together I had a lot of freedom uh almost every day I would see my friend Kenny downtown and we'd go to a coffee shop and chat and share stories I did a lot of writing and the reason I'm talking about this now I did a lot of thinking about my life I had a whole summer just to think about what I wanted to do with my life from that point and I realized I no longer wanted to be a social worker I realized I wanted to have much more freedom in my life not just for a summer but all the time I realized I wanted a a new job a new career that I felt passionate about that I felt excited about all of these realizations came to me because I had the time to think a full summer with no working just thinking and reading and writing let's go to our next Twitter question and then we'll talk a little more about this this is from is the Twitter name and the question is this which of your courses should I start first so this is a common question I get there's Sometimes some confusion I have uh two full courses and a membership program and sometimes people don't know which should I do can I do more than one uh let's just go through each one first of all there's the original course you should do that one if you have a little bit lower level of English low intermediate how do you know if you're low intermediate well if you're listening to my video now and you understand maybe only 70% or maybe a little less it's a little difficult for you then probably start with my original course why because it starts more easily the level is a little bit low at the beginning if you are a middle intermediate level then I recommend that you start with power English which is on my homepage how do you know that your middle intermediate well it means you understand 80 to 85% of my talking now maybe a little higher if that's the case power English is a good one to start with finally my VIP program which is my best program if you understand 90 95% or even 100% of my speaking now then start with the VIP program that is for my most motivated most serious students the ones that want to speak like a native speaker VIP program is also good to combine you can combine it with either of the other two courses so I hope that gives you some idea if you're totally unsure you still don't know start with power English it's a great one to start with all right let's go back I Liv in I was living in my car I lived for a whole summer and it had several benefits to me it helped me figure out my life and I would say as I look back now I realize it was a turning point in my life it was a point where my life really began to change a lot and a point that led me ultimately to starting effortless English it took several more years after that but it started me on this path of becoming more free more independent uh doing better financially starting my own business becoming my own person lots of benefits to that do you have to live in your car no that's not what I'm saying the point is this I took a risk and I sacrificed in order to achieve something that was important to me sometimes we focus a little too much on the effortless part of effortless English you know last week especially I discussed the whole idea of effortless effort and how to achieve that feeling of effortlessness it's very important it helps your learning a great deal but there's another side of the coin that we also have to realize and that is that important things require effort and risk and sacrifice to have a whole summer of freedom just to think about my life it required a sacrifice I wasn't making enough money to still live in a comfortable house or apartment and take off for three or four months I couldn't do it at that time I had to sacrifice I had to risk and I did something extreme most people think it's kind of extreme to go live in your car so I took a risk I didn't know if it was going to be a good or bad experience I didn't know what was going to happen I didn't know if I was going to be miserable or not it was a risk and it was also a sacrifice I sacrificed Comfort no air conditioning no soft bed no kitchen none of that living in a tiny car with my dog it was a sacrifice I was sacrificing my comfort and everything that I was familiar with because for me achieving freedom and figuring out what I wanted to do with my life and finding my my purpose those things were very important so I had to sacrifice and take a risk to achieve that and indeed it led to me achieving that several years later you need to do the same anything that's important to you is going to require some kind of sacrifice and risk even if it's just speaking English like a native speaker can you speak English like a native speaker by being lazy no you cannot can you do it by just following the traditional old methods just doing what they tell you to do in school just following along the usual normal textbooks being safe being normal no you can't you have to sacrifice something you have to take a risk now in this case the risk is trying a different method trying something very different I'm recommending the effortless English system to you for that purpose but it could be anything different to get a better result a greater result a different result from most people you have to do more than other people you have to take a different path to get a different result that's scary for some people it's a risk it's a risk because you're never 100% sure you have to have some Faith you have to believe I believe this will lead me to success by trying this crazy method not studying grammar rules doing all these things that AJ tells me to do it's a little bit of a risk you don't know for sure there's no 100% guarantees for anything in life there's also a sacrifice you have to sacrifice time every single day you can't just listen to English for 10 minutes a day and then speak English like a native speaker it's not going to happen it does require a sacrifice of time now you can make that time enjoyable as we discussed last week or last in the last show you can make it feel pleasurable and effortless but you still must put in the time and if you really want to speak like a native speaker to speak really well that's going to require two hours or more every single day there is a sacrifice necessary and this is true in anything in your life if if you want to become rich you're going to have to sacrifice and take risks no doubt about it if you want to be a big success in your career you're going to have to sacrifice and take risks to achieve that if you don't you'll just be normal and average like everyone else if you're an artist and you want to be a great artist an interesting artist you're going to have to take risks and sacrifice it's true in relationships it's true in all parts of life so we have to find that courage to do what's different to take a risk for something that's important for us and to sacrifice some comfort in order to achieve something that's bigger more important more meaningful that's the message of this story about living in my car I'm not telling you to go live in your car no I'm just telling you to figure out what's important to you and then take risks and make SA sacrifices in order to achieve it you don't need to do this in every single part of your life but if something is very important to you if you really want to achieve a high level of success in something english- speaking your career your family whatever it is you got to do this so figure out what you want to do what do you want to achieve what do you want to be great at and figure out the sacrifices and the risks that are necessary all right now for the effortless English news what's happening in effortless English well the big news is my book will be published next week yay I'm excited about it because it's taken uh nearly a year to get it published from writing it to designing it and editing and oh all this stuff next week finally the book will be published the title is effortless English learn to speak English like a native this book will be published internationally it will be available on amazon. com as a print book you know Normal book you hold in your hands or as an ebook either one you can also get the print book in your local bookstore you may need to ask them to order the book I'll give you some information in the next show about how to get the book ordered from your local bookstore but the easiest way to get the book is just to buy it on Amazon.

com or another online book seller this is the English version of the book the international version of the book we will be translating the book into several languages the first translation is Vietnamese also being published next week by my Vietnamese publisher MC books so the Vietnamese version of the book will be available through all Vietnam throughout Vietnam uh October 15th you can get that uh through Vietnamese online book sellers or in any bookstore in Vietnam if you're not in Vietnam the international version the English version Amazon. com or many others I'll give you more information about this in the next show with specific details about how to get the book quite excited about it the other effortless English news is that we are working on a college success course my cousin Phil and I this will be a course that will certainly help you with the TOEFL or toeic or ults exam but more importantly just how to succeed in life it's really a course specially designed for young people meaning people who are in their teens or 20s you can certainly get it if you're older but it's mostly focused on younger people and helping you succeed first of all in college with those exams but more importantly after college after you graduate your your early career we want to teach you the skills necessary to have a successful International career uh a successful experience in college or university more information coming about that later on and the final bit of news starting next month will be traveling when I say we I mean myself my wife tamoy my cousin Phil a little bit later in the trip we'll have my best friends Kristen and Joe so we'll be traveling to Southeast Asia visiting Nepal Cambodia and Thailand are scheduled for this trip and we will be doing an effortless English seminar a big live event in Bangkok Thailand on December 13th so if you're in Southeast Asia or you want to fly to Southeast Asia and come spend time with me for a day December 13th Bangkok Thailand I'll give you more details about that in a future show that's all for today's effortless English show hope you're doing well good luck with your English learning go to effortlessenglishclub.