- To get off of the intermediate plateau
you need a daily English routine.
But what if you are tired and busy
and you don't know how to best improve your English?
In this episode, I'll show you a specific daily routine
that makes it feel easy to practice English every day.
Hi, I'm your English coach, Christina,
and welcome to Speak English with Christina,
the best place to become confident
speaking business English step by step.
And this is lesson two of our special mini series,
Get Off The Intermediate Plateau with Virtual Immersion.
Now, to get off of the intermediate plateau
and to get you to a more advanced English level,
my secret weapon is a virtual immersion in English.
And it's super powerful because it helps you to
practice lots of English all day every day
with lots of short easy to do activities,
to be much more regular and consistent
so that you switch your brain to English
and remember consistency is key.
And it helps you create your routine for enjoying English,
remember things better and faster,
and also just feel more confident and comfortable
using English for your work and for your personal pleasure.
So, let me give you an example of one daily routine
that makes it feel easier to do English,
even if you're busy and even if you're tired.
I totally understand what that is like.
So, I do a lot of these things in my own routines
for learning German.
And like I said, to be honest like running a business
that takes a lot of time and energy.
But routines like the one we're going to see
that's how I make it easy
to fit language learning into my busy day.
And this has helped a lot of my own clients as well
and so I'm sure it's gonna help you.
All right, let's get into it.
So for this routine,
we're going to use one main resource to keep it simple.
We're going to take the example of a podcast in English.
And this works with any podcast
that you can get the transcript for.
And this routine includes
both those natural learning exercises
and deliberate learning activities.
Now, I'm gonna tell you what to do step by step.
First, choose a podcast in English
that has the transcript available,
and I have some of good podcasts over on my blog.
Link below the video for you.
First step is to just listen to the podcast
as you prepare for your day.
This is natural learning.
You're just listening to hear the sounds,
maybe catch a few words
but don't worry if you don't understand very much.
It's okay.
Then when you sit down for breakfast
and your morning tea or coffee,
read the transcript
and just look for some useful expressions.
This is very natural learning.
You are picking up vocabulary in context,
or at least right now, just identifying some new vocabulary
that we'll work with later.
Step three, before you start your work day
and everything gets crazy,
listen to your podcast again.
This time try to hear those new expressions in the context.
So the expressions that you highlighted
during your breakfast,
try to listen and catch them.
This is very deliberate practice.
Then you have your work day.
It's very busy.
You have a lunch break,
I hope you have a lunch break,
even if it's a short lunch break.
But during your lunch break, take a few minutes
and make some flashcards with some new vocabulary.
Maybe you take, I don't know, three minutes to do this.
Again, you're doing some deliberate vocabulary work
and creating a tool that's going to help you.
Step number five, at the end of your day,
you can relax a little, I hope.
When you're doing that, listen to the podcast
the same podcast again and again.
Just notice the expressions that you learned today
and maybe try to pay attention to the pronunciation also.
Again, this is deliberate learning.
You're listening with a very specific purpose
and training your ear for comprehension and pronunciation.
Then later in the evening, when you're relaxed
and at home doing your thing,
just try to write
a list of the vocabulary that you learned today.
Try to do that from memory.
See if you remember all of your words.
You can check with the transcript or your flashcards
but just quiz yourself and see what you can remember.
Then I definitely suggest this
as part of your virtual immersion program
and it's to have a conversation partner or a teacher
to talk about the topic of the podcast.
Try to use the words that you wrote in your list
so that you are repeating and using
and actually like acquiring these new vocabulary words
so that they stick in your brain.
And then to finish your day of immersion in English,
take a few minutes before you go to bed
and maybe write what you learned today.
You can keep a daily English journal.
Just you can write the list of vocabulary words
but I would recommend maybe trying to write the vocabulary
and use it in context.
You can write a story.
You can just write, this is what I learned
and this is why it's important to me.
And the good thing with this journaling
you don't have to be correct.
No one is going to read it.
No one is going to judge your grammar
but you're just consolidating and let's say
helping your brain to stay in that English mode
before you go to sleep.
And we know that lots of interesting
fun things happen in your brain while you're sleeping.
So if you can end with English, that's great.
Now that might sound like a lot
and maybe you aren't superman or superwoman
and you can start doing all of that right now
and if you can, congratulations.
But if you're like me,
or if you're just a normal busy person
it may be easier to create that routine progressively.
Trying to do one thing first,
get that in place and then add a second activity
or a third activity.
And you don't have to do all of those activities every day
but you do have to do something every day.
But the idea is that it's realistic
and it's feasible and you can do it.
So, on my blog, you'll find lots of links and activities
and ideas and everything you need
to make it easy and enjoyable to really start
doing virtual immersion every day in English.
And you'll see that you don't have the time
or maybe right now even the possibility
to go and live in England or the U.S.
or Australia or any English speaking country
to physically immerse yourself in English,
but you can virtually immerse yourself in English.
Now, the next steps for you,
subscribe to my channel please,
so that you can get lesson number three in this series
Get Off The Intermediate Plateau with Virtual Immersion
and you will learn some ways next time
in the next lesson, you'll learn some ways
to instantly upgrade your business English
to sound more advanced and more confident.
And if you like the concept of virtual immersion
but you're thinking,
I'm just too busy for this.
I can't do it.
Then please go and watch my lesson on
how to find time for English.
I hope that it will inspire you
and I will see you in the next lesson.