TRAIN YOUR BRAIN to Think and Speak in English - 4 Methods

hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy have you ever heard someone say that a child's mind is like a sponge meaning that they can learn new skills and pick up languages without even trying too hard well it's actually true now I'm going to assume that most of you aren't 5 years old anymore which means that learning new skills takes a bit more effort but don't worry you can actually trick your brain into learning more easily I'm going to share some hacks that could make your English learning Journey so much smoother and hopefully

a lot more enjoyable I've also created a special free gift for you today I have created a PDF cheat sheet with all of my recommendations that you can download and use to help you on your English learning journey I have been learning languages and teaching languages for years longer than I'd like to admit and all of my expertise is in this one document if you would like to download my language learning cheat sheet all you have to do is click on the link in the description box or scan the QR code just there you enter

your name and your email address choose your English level and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox and after that you've joined my free pdf Club you will automatically receive my free weekly PDFs alongside all of my news course updates dates and offers it's a free service you can unsubscribe at any time with just one click okay let's get into some of these brain hacks first one here cultivate a growth mindset I've never been good at learning English I'll never be able to understand this advanced level grammar so what's the point in trying if

you've ever had thoughts like these before you might have more of a fixed mindset this is the idea that only people with natural talents and skills can succeed in learning something well your ability is fixed it can't develop you're basically saying I am who I am and that's that on the other hand people with growth mindsets believe that abilities can be developed through hard work perseverance good study habits effective strategies for Learning and so on so how can this help you with your language learning Learning Journey well you can try to hack your brain and

reframe some of the negative limiting beliefs that are holding you back here are a few examples maybe you tell yourself my vocabulary isn't good enough if you catch yourself stuck on this negative thought flip it to something more positive like I'm learning around 10 new words a week and my vocabulary is growing steadily let's reframe another one I can't figure out when to use different verb tenses in English I give up I know it can be frustrating but again we can reframe this we can say something like okay this way of learning isn't working for

me what other strategies can I try to learn this more effectively slowly but surely you can trick your brain into adopting a more positive approach to learning English okay let's move on to the next one smart goals so now that your head is in the right place let's talk about setting the right kind of goals Smart in smart goals stands for specific measurable achievable relevant and time bound let's break this down with some specific examples number one specific instead of saying I want to improve my English try I want to be able to start conversations

and understand people I meet when traveling number two measurable make it something you can track I will learn five new phrases per week that I can use in common situations when I go traveling keep a record of your progress to give your motivation a boost and tick the phrases off when you've used them three achievable be realistic if you're a beginner don't aim to listen to an entire podcast within a week break challenging goals down into manageable bite-sized chunks four relevant make make sure your goal matters to you if you love traveling focus on that

if you're hoping to build your business internationally focus on professional English and five time bound set a deadline I want to achieve this in 3 months for example putting it all together a smart goal might look like this for the next 3 months I will learn five new phrases per week that I can use while traveling with the AIM of being able to chat comfortably with people I meet great goal the benefit of a smart goal is that it's something you can write down and track and it's so important that you can track it I've

included an exercise for building smart goals in my cheat sheet so make sure you download that there is something so satisfying about Crossing off another day of studying and that feeling is backed by science when you accomplish a task your brain releases dopamine which makes you feel happy seeing that you're sticking to your plan and making progress will trick your brain into wanting more and more now you might be thinking that's still a pretty big goal and you're right this is when we bring in our next trick the twom minute rule James Clea the author

of atomic habits a brilliant book by the way suggests using the twomin rule instead of committing to learning five new phrases no matter how long it takes in instead commit to learning new vocabulary for Just 2 minutes and see how you feel the logic here is similar to exercise if you want to lift a 20 kgam dumbbell you're probably going to need to start with the 5 kilogram dumbbells and work your way up your brain responds the same way you need to work up to bigger more intense tasks trying to achieve huge goals sets you

up for failure break tasks down start small and build yourself up now imagine you want to start listening to podcasts in English let's try the 2-minute rule pick an English podcast or video you've been meaning to watch set a timer for 2 minutes and start listening when the timer goes off ask yourself how much of that did I understand how interesting is the content do I want to keep listening why or why not and the most important part of the practice is to celebrate your small successes say something like wow I just understood a full

2 minutes of this podcast affirmations like this boost the happy chemicals in your brain motivating you to keep learning and practicing and the best thing is you can do this with everything I'll just read one page of this book I'm going to answer five of these grammar questions I'm going to spend two minutes reviewing the vocabulary I learned last week as you start to feel more comfortable add more time three minutes four minutes and so on but make sure you celebrate your wins every step of the way okay before we talk about my next hack

I want to remind you of something I mentioned in the last section our brains work in a similar way to our muscles the more you exercise the stronger you get your brain isn't a muscle but the more you do certain tasks the more synapses or connections your brain creates and one of the best ways to create these synapses and grow your brain is regular exercise now you probably weren't expecting to hear this in a video about learning English but trust me it's a GameChanger a part of the brain called the hippocampus is associated with learning

and memory and research shows that exercise can grow this part of your brain so that you can think more clearly and retain what you learn it's amazing exercise also increases your attention and in our world of Tik toks and reals our ability to pay attention has gone way down I've noticed it in myself but to learn a new skill and to make English come naturally you need to give it your full attention even just 2 minutes of exercise can boost your attention significantly and if that's not a study hack I don't know what is but

if you want sustained attention and to get your brain in Tip-Top shape for learning simple things like going for a walk walk a bike ride or dancing around your room like a fool can help improve your overall concentration so put another way anytime you take the dog for a walk or take the stairs instead of the lift you're increasing your capacity to learn after exercise take a few minutes to focus on English you could write in your Journal about your day or practice speaking about what you saw during your walk the key is to do

this without any distractions put your phone away turn off the TV and give your full attention to English for just a few minutes by doing this you're taking advantage of your increased Focus from exercise and reinforcing your English skills at the same time it doesn't have to be a long study session even 5 to 10 minutes of concentrated effort can make a big difference okay I think that's enough brain hacking for today but remember the key to all these tips is consistency keep at it and you'll find English becoming more and more natural to you

every day and don't forget to download that free cheat sheet for even more tips and tricks I put my heart and soul into it just click on the link below to download that I hope you enjoyed today's lesson and I will see you in another video [Music] [Music] m