- [Jack] Today, you're going to learn two strange ways
or two different ways to learn English effectively.
Now I don't see a lot of students
doing what I'm going to explain here,
but I think that these two ways are super effective.
They are really effective when it comes to acquiring English
and being able to talk about subjects that you like.
So what we're going to do is talk
about the power of inputs first.
How most people get their input
and why you should be doing this too.
And then we'll talk about the two different methods
that I think you should also try.
But before all that, my name is Jack from To Fluency,
welcome to you, if you are new here,
then please subscribe to the YouTube channel
and also check out the description.
Because I have some really good resources for you,
as well as the chapters for this lesson.
Let's start with input because input is so important
when it comes to learning English.
And you can think of this as things that you read
and things that you listen to or watch.
So reading a book is input.
Listening to this podcast is input.
Watching a movie in English is input.
Listening to somebody when they speak is input.
And I like auntiemoon.com and the way they explain things.
So I'm just going to summarize what they say here,
when it comes to input and output
and why this is so important.
And I'll leave a link to this article in the description,
but basically you get input and you read and listen
to sentences in a language.
And then you understand these sentences
and then they are stored in your brain.
And then when you want to say, or write something
in English, your brain takes those sentences
that you have learned and allows you to express yourself.
And you can be flexible in this too,
Because if you learn a certain sentence,
you can adapt this to whatever you want to say.
For example, if you've learned, I'm excited
about going to the party.
You can adapt this to, I'm excited about seeing you later.
So we're always adapting the sentences that we've learned
and the more sentences we get, the more vocabulary we have.
And also the more that we understand grammar.
So, when it comes to input, this is really important
to read a lot, to listen a lot, and also to watch things.
And another important thing here about inputs
is there's also a model that talks
about comprehensible input.
And this means being able to understand what you are reading
and understand what you are listening to.
And a lot of this comes down to what you know,
the language that you know.
But it's also important to learn things
and to watch things, listen to things,
get inputs on the things that you're interested in.
For two reasons, firstly, you're going to be engaged.
You're going to be open to this language.
And secondly, we often talk about things
that we're interested in and we hung out with people
who have similar interests.
So if you like fishing and you go fishing all the time,
then you're going to talk about fishing.
When someone asks, what did you do yesterday?
Oh, I went fishing.
I caught some fish, et cetera.
So in summary input is super important
because you're going to see language being used naturally.
And you're going to internalize the sentences,
these chunks of language, these phrases,
and then you'll be able to imitate this and use
your own sentences when it comes to writing and speaking.
Therefore you should always be looking
to get more input the more, the better.
But make it comprehensible so it's not too difficult
for you and also read and listen to things
that you are interested in.
Okay, so let's talk about what most students do here
before we talk about the two other ways
that I want to share today.
So most students do things like change their phone
into English, that's the first one.
This is actually such a great thing to do
because you're going to get
the repetitive language on your phone.
And you can take this a little bit further
by using apps in English as well.
So if you're on social media, let's say Twitter,
then follow English accounts or accounts
that are in the English language.
You can also listen to podcasts like this one,
right now you're getting comprehensible input
because if you're listening to this,
you probably understand most of what I say.
And I'm sure you're thinking, well,
this is not true when it comes to movies in English
or having conversations.
And I've talked about that before, but just in summary,
that's going to take time and it's important
to build up your listening abilities
by getting comprehensible input.
So don't feel bad about the fact you can't understand
movies if you can't or you can't understand people
when they speak in real life.
Just do what you can do now and know
that you're always going to improve
if you keep getting input.
And then two other ways that are really popular
is to watch TV in English, I love this way as well.
It becomes more comprehensible the more you watch.
So the more you watch TV, the more comprehensible
it becomes because you're going to understand
the characters, understand the way people speak.
And it's going to be a lot more comprehensible
if you stick with a TV series.
And one TV series that I recommend at the moment,
something I really enjoy is called "Ted Lasso."
Now it can be quite difficult to understand certain
characters, sometimes I struggle because they speak
quite quickly and there are a lot of cultural references.
But it really shows a good difference
between British English and American English
and also the two cultures.
And then finally, I really like graded readers for reading.
And this is where companies take books
and they adapt them for different levels.
So this is perfect for comprehensible input.
Find books that are at your level
or just above your level and enjoy reading them.
The more you read the better.
Okay, so, so far you've learned that input is important.
The more you get the better, but you want to get
comprehensible inputs and also listen
and watch things that are interesting to you.
So just to go back to following accounts on Twitter,
follow accounts that are interesting to you,
choose the topics that you like to talk about.
Again, if you like fishing, then follow accounts
in English that talk about fishing.
After awhile, you're going to get
used to and learn the different vocabulary
that people use to talk about fishing.
And now it's time to talk about the two other ways
that you can learn English and get lots of input.
Now, the first way I think is great
because most people who are learning languages
are also interested in learning in general.
And this is something that I found with a lot of my students
that they have this desire to learn new things.
So people generally who like to learn languages
like to learn music as well,
or learn how to play a musical instrument.
And what I'm gonna say now is this.
When it comes to learning new things,
do this in English and get excited
about learning new things in English.
I'm going to use a different example other than fishing now,
let's use the photography example.
So let's say you are suddenly interested in photography.
You've just got a new camera and you're thinking, okay,
I need to learn how to use this camera.
Here is what I recommend.
Firstly, learn the key terms when it comes to photography,
because when you embrace yourself or engage
in a new subject, there are going to be all these new words
and phrases that you need to learn in order
to understand this subject.
So for photography, it might be composition, aperture,
shutter speed, lenses, batteries, lighting, et cetera.
There are so many other terms.
Those are just some of the terms
that I thought of initially.
So take a little bit of time,
do a search for key words and phrases in English
photography and learn those key words and phrases.
The next thing to do is to get on YouTube
and start watching photography channels.
There are so many out there
if you're interested in photography.
It's the same for hunting and fishing or politics.
There's so much out there when it comes
to learning something new.
For example, I love history and I'm constantly watching
or listening to history videos, and podcasts.
There are so many different channels out there.
And the first step is to try different channels,
to see which ones work for you.
I know with some history channels
that people speak really quickly.
And I personally don't like it when I watch a video,
which is really quick, but as somebody learning English
that might be too difficult for you.
So the first step is to find the channels that you like,
find the channels that you think, okay, these are good ones.
I like these channels, they're interesting.
The person speaks in a way that I can understand
and you just get a good feel for the channel
and then subscribe and watch those videos.
And what you're going to find is that you'll get used
to the way people speak on that channel.
So people use the same words and phrases all the time,
and you're going to get that repetition.
You'll get used to the way that person speaks.
Their accents, their intonation, the rhythm,
the cadence in general,
you'll get used to the way that they speak.
And also you're going to get lots of repetition
because when you study or learn something new,
you're constantly listening and seeing these sentences
said again and again, and they're going
to use them flexibly too.
So you're going to get really good input here.
Input that you should understand after a while,
because you've learned the new words and phrases
and you'll get in repetition and also input
that you're interested in.
So then you can learn these sentences and be able
to use them when you talk about what you're learning,
what you're interested in.
So the first challenge for today is to think
about what you're interested in and what you want to learn,
and then go on YouTube and find channels
that help you with that.
And then if you wanna take it a step further,
you can find courses too.
So you can take courses in English about any topic
that you want to learn.
So maybe you want to learn how to dance.
You want to become a better dancer.
Well, use this method because you're going
to be learning something new and you're going
to be doing it in English.
And because you're engaged in improving,
you want to improve your dancing, your photography,
whatever it is, then you're going to be highly motivated
to watch videos, to take courses, to keep going
at what you're doing.
The next thing to do.
The second way to get inputs in an engaging way
is to read reviews in English.
Now, I'm sure you spend a certain amount of time
most days, reading reviews about things.
Because we're always thinking about going on vacation,
buying something new, getting some new food item.
And you can go online and read reviews in English
whenever your going to do this in your native language.
To help you understand this, what I've done is I found
a coffee machine or a pour over coffee maker on Amazon.
And I'm just gonna read part of the top review.
Okay, are you ready?
I know that this is probably one of the trendiest ways
to make coffee nowadays, but truth be told
when I was a little girl, my father had a very similar
coffee maker that he would have set up first thing
in the morning and after dinner.
I loved the ritual of watching him
make coffee the pour over way.
Now something about this is that what we're doing here
is we're using vocabulary or learning vocabulary
that is specific to coffee.
Now you might not have understood everything there.
For example, a trendy way.
Now, if something's trendy, it means it's popular right now.
And you can think about fashion in that way,
but you're also getting lots of natural English,
where people are writing in a way
that is engaging and fun to read.
People like to tell stories in reviews,
especially the top reviews.
And most people here are talking in the first person.
And I remember reading some advice from a polyglot.
Somebody who can speak a lot of languages saying,
learn as much as you can in the first person,
because that's how you're going to speak the most.
That's the type of English you're going to use the most.
So when you read these reviews,
you're going to get a lot of first person language.
Now, another reason to read reviews in English
is because you're going to get the repetition as well.
Where people are going to talk about the same things,
use the same language, but maybe in slightly different ways.
So that's gonna help you with the context
of what things mean.
Now you can always look things up
if you don't understand a word or a phrase.
A great example here is the idiom truth be told.
But truth be told when I was a little girl,
my father had a very similar coffee maker.
And this just means, or this is used to say
that you're stating the truth, truth be told,
you're stating the truth.
Now you can do this for anything that you'll want to buy
or restaurants you want to visit or places you want to go
countries you want to visit too.
And whatever you can do in those places.
And I think you'll find that we often read
a lot of reviews these days.
It's something that we like to do
in order to know what we're getting
is the best thing for us.
So start doing this in English too.
The next time you want to read a review about something,
go on amazon.com or any website that's in English
and start reading those reviews.
Okay, so those are two different ways
to get the input that you need in English.
And the key to this lesson is just finding things
that you do now in your native language,
and think about doing them in English instead,
especially things that you are really engaged in.
So again, if you're really passionate about photography,
then start watching photography channels and listen
to photography podcasts, all in English.
That repetition is really going to help you.
The repetition is so important,
but you're also learning things
that you are passionate about.
Meaning you want to know, you're going to persevere
and do this, you're going to continue learning.
But also you're going to learn the type of language
that you're going to use when you speak in English.
Okay, so if you've enjoyed this English lesson,
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I think this could be really inspiring
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And thank you for listening, it's great to have you here.
Be sure to watch another one of my videos.
I'll leave some on your screen now.
All right, I'll speak to you soon, bye bye.