Well hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!
This lesson is going out to all of you who are
studying English for a purpose.
So if you are studying to improve your English
so that you can apply for a scholarship or a visa
and you need an IELTS seven,
or you need English for better opportunities
in your career, then this lesson
is for you because you are not really interested
in improving your English slowly, are you?
You want to get there as fast as you can.
So let's hop to it!
Whatever your goals are, the three things
that I have to share with you in this video
will help you to reach any of those goals faster.
And later on in this video, I'm going to tell you
more about the Lingoda language marathon.
If your goal is to dramatically improve your English
or your Spanish or your French or your German,
you'll definitely want to hear about it.
The marathon is the kind of thing that's going to
catapult your language skills forward quickly.
So I'll tell you more about it later on at the lesson.
But if you're interested right now,
go there.
Now most of us are impatient, right?
We wish that we could snap our fingers and be
fluent in a language or be an expert in our career.
Can you imagine how easy life would be?
I'd learn Hindi like that and Arabic.
You would learn English like that.
What else would you do if you could just
snap your fingers and be good at something?
Tell me about it in the comments. What would you
snap your fingers and dream of?
The tough reality is it's not that easy.
If you want to get better, you need to do the work, right?
Now let's focus on your goal to speak English fluently.
Today I'm going to give you three reminders
that will help you to get back on track
working towards your goals and get there faster.
Get outside your comfort zone.
You've heard of this expression before, right?
Your comfort zone is this safe, warm, familiar,
comfortable place where you know exactly
what's going on. You know where everything is,
you know what you need to do,
you never have to worry about anything.
That space is comfy but it makes you lazy.
It's not where big change happens.
It's where things happen slowly, right?
Which is fine as long as you're not in a rush.
But becoming a confident English speaker
isn't just something that happens to you while you're
sitting around on your butt, right?
You have to look for opportunities to challenge yourself,
to push yourself further outside
of your comfort zone.
My rule of thumb is if it's hard,
if you feel a little uncomfortable or a little awkward,
do it - a hundred percent, do it.
These situations are what's going to get you
to the next level faster.
When was the last time that you pushed yourself
out of your comfort zone in English?
What did you do?
Tell me about it in the comments.
Now I'm not telling you right now that
everything you do in life has to be
outside of your comfort zone.
That would be horrific!
That would be so stressful!
But deliberately create opportunities to step outside
of your comfort zone, that is where the magic happens
but you need to create those opportunities.
Set clear goals and make a plan.
Have you ever caught yourself making vague
statements like:
Those are really vague statements.
What do they even mean?
To make that happen and to make it happen quickly,
we need much more specific goals,
what specifically are you trying to achieve?
And by when?
A better goal is:
That's a specific goal.
Once you've got that specific goal in mind,
create a plan working backwards with specific events
and activities that are going to help you to get there.
If your goal is to have the confidence
to speak with your boss in six months from now,
what can you do to make it happen?
And there's lots of things that you could do!
You could use imitation lessons
to practise your pronunciation and your expression.
You could go to a language exchange each month
to practise with other English speakers in your city.
You could take a course, sign up to online courses.
Now here I want you to think back to your comfort zone.
Are these goals a little more challenging
than you feel comfortable with?
Or can you make them a little more challenging?
That's better!
These are much more specific plans
and those things probably make you feel
a little nervous, right?
It's a bit more of a commitment.
That's perfect!
So tell me, do you have a specific English goal
for this year?
A specific one. Tell me in the comments.
And what's one thing that you'll do this week
to move towards that goal?
Now remember, don't be vague,
be specific.
Gets me every time!
Interact with other humans.
Now this one might seem a little obvious
but to improve your speaking skills,
you need to use your English in conversation.
To do this, using English in conversation is
a hundred percent and absolutely
the single biggest difference between students who just
drift along and those who accelerate and get better
faster than everyone else.
You need to push yourself
out of your comfort zone a little.
Just a little at first.
If you live in an English-speaking country,
close your computer or put your phone down right now
and register in a sports team or join a meetup
for international students
or volunteer at a local community center.
All of these opportunities are right there
just outside your door.
If you're not in an English-speaking country,
take an online class, find a language exchange
in your local city.
People learn English everywhere.
Anywhere that there's an opportunity to meet other
English speakers and join them in conversations,
take it!
The opportunities to practise are there.
They're all around you. If you're sitting where you are
right now and you're saying
"There's no English speakers around here,
I don't have anyone to talk with."
Well I have to say that you're probably lying to yourself.
Telling yourself that story so that you don't have to
get out there and get out of your comfort zone.
Now I know that that's probably not an easy thing
to hear. We live at a time when you can practise English
every day if you want to.
As long as you have an internet connection
or you're willing to do something about it.
Now let's help each other out a little bit here.
I want you to help me brainstorm some different
places and different opportunities
to practise your English skills, wherever you are.
Share your favourite ways to connect with other English
speakers in the comments below.
They could be native English speakers
or non-native English speakers
online or offline.
But let's try and get all of these ideas
in the comments together.
Speaking of setting goals,
having a plan to reach those goals
and getting out of your comfort zone
and interacting with real people,
I want to talk to you about
the Lingoda language marathon.
At the start of this lesson, I told you that
this video is for the people who need to get results
for a higher purpose in their life,
to take their life forward,
to get a visa, to pass an exam, to get a promotion.
They need to get good fast.
And if you are that person, I want you to pay attention
for a few more minutes
because this is going to be good.
The Lingoda language marathon is a
massive opportunity to boost your fluency in English
in just three months.
It's very real and it's right here in front of you now.
In three months, you could become
a completely different English speaking version
of yourself.
Just think about that.
The full marathon challenges you to take a class
every single day for three months.
What?
It's a marathon not a stroll in the park!
It will require effort and discipline and self-motivation
but ask yourself this question:
Because you could spend the next year
or two or three years floating around on your
English-learning journey
taking your time watching videos, burying your head
in textbooks or playing with language apps
on your phone or whatever.
Or you could leap forward in a short space of time,
accelerate your progress and get the results
that you really want by stepping
outside of your comfort zone
and taking action.
Through the marathon,
you'll immerse yourself in language classes
every single day.
You'll practise your speaking and conversation skills
with other people every single day.
Can you even imagine the transformation?
Can you imagine how confidently you'll speak in just
three months instead of three years at this rate?
And here's the thing. If you complete the full marathon,
if you attend every class for the whole three months,
Lingoda will refund your money
no questions asked.
Can you see why I'm sharing this with you?
In just three months,
you'll boost your English speaking skills
and if you attend every class,
it will quite literally cost you nothing.
Your friends will be amazed, your family will be proud
and everyone else you know who's learning English
will be wondering
"How on earth did you do it?"
I've talked about Lingoda before because
I'm taking Spanish classes with them
and I really think
that they're the perfect solution for me.
I'm busy and I'm kind of disorganised
so the flexibility of their classes is just great!
There are so many classes at
any time of the day or night
and there's lots of different topics too.
I can focus on particular grammar points
that I know I need to improve
or I can work on my listening skills.
And all the classes are small group classes
which makes it really fun
and it takes the pressure off you if there are
other people around to answer questions too.
So when I heard about the language marathon, I was like
wow!
Some of my students would love to know about this.
I'm also thinking about doing it
because I can actually do the marathon in Spanish
or you could do it in German or French,
of course in English,
but also in business English
which is super awesome if you are
using English in a professional context.
All right by now you're thinking:
Well there's probably a few rules here
that I need to know, right?
Do Lingoda make it hard to get the refund?
Well actually, no, not really
but yes you're right, there are a few rules
that you need to know.
The first thing that you need to know is that actually,
there are two types of marathon.
The full marathon and the half marathon.
Both of them run for exactly three months.
This is when the next one's happening.
But to enter, you need to make a commitment.
You enroll and commit to a set number of classes
at the beginning.
If you complete all of those classes
within the three months of the marathon,
you'll get your refund.
For the full marathon, you can enroll and commit
to ninety classes and if you complete one class
each day for the three months,
you'll completely transform your English speaking
and conversation skills
but Lingoda will also offer you a one
hundred percent refund.
They want you to immerse yourself in English
and they're going to reward you
for all of your hard work if you can do it.
For the half marathon, you need to enroll and commit
to forty-five classes
and if you attend fifteen classes each month,
no more than one each day,
you will totally boost
your speaking and conversation skills.
Plus,
Lingoda are going to offer you a fifty percent refund.
So if you're looking at the full marathon
and you're thinking:
I've got a full-time job and a family to look after,
I just don't know if I've got that much time.
But you do really want to set yourself a good
challenge for the next three months,
then definitely have a look at the half marathon.
So how do you enter?
Good question!
Firstly, you need to sign up by this date
using the link in the description below.
And make sure that when you do that, you use the code
that's on screen now because using that code
is going to wipe out the joining fee.
Lingoda have said:
mmmEnglish students don't need to pay the joining fee.
Then you need to decide which marathon
you're going to attempt.
You can do it as a beginner,
as an intermediate student or as an advanced student
which is super cool because you could
challenge a friend or a family member to do it with you
even if they're not at the same level as you.
And there are limited places this year for the marathon
so you do need to secure your place. All of the details
are available on Lingoda's website
and you can read more about it there.
But just don't forget to use the code down here
so that you don't have to pay the joining fee.
If there's one thing that I want you to take away from
today's lesson,
it's to take action.
Now it could be really serious, deliberate action
like signing up to the Lingoda language marathon
but it could also be smaller but equally
deliberate action.
A commitment to find a speaking partner
in an online language group, for example.
Whatever it is, I hope that the experience is wonderful
and a little uncomfortable, all right?
It's good to feel a little uncomfortable.
Now if you want to keep practising with me right here,
right now, then let's head over to this lesson
for some extra speaking practice.
I'll see you in there!