- Hello! I'm Julian Northbrook.
The esteemed leader of the Extraordinary English Speakers.
(upbeat music)
Morning, today I am running the Koto Marathon,
or the Tokyo Seaside Marathon.
I ran it last year, last year I got
one hour, 47 minutes, 22 seconds.
Half marathon, so it's 20 kilometres,
and I am gonna miss the bus so I've gotta go.
This year I wanted to run it in 90 minutes
but I didn't do much running for the last couple of months.
So I don't think I'm gonna do it in 90 minutes.
I wanna beat my time from last year.
But even if I do it by one minute, that's enough.
Couple of days ago, I ran the Koto Seaside Marathon
which is a 20-kilometer race
around Koto-Ku, an area of Tokyo.
They call it the Seaside Marathon because
part of the route goes along the edge of the
sea around Tokyo bay.
So fantastic race, great views for most of the group,
not the whole group, but most of it.
It was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it immensely
and I got a slightly better time than last year
which was also a bonus.
It is no exaggeration to say that
running has changed my life.
Right now, I am fitter, healthier than I have ever been
at any other point in my entire life,
which in and of itself is, you know,
a great reason to keep running.
But actually that is not the only reason I run,
or indeed even the primary reason that I run.
You see, as well as the health benefits
that come from running, it also helps me to learn
the skills that I need, faster, and more effectively
than I could ever do if I didn't run.
Which is why in this video, I'm gonna share with you
my top five ways to use running to improve your English
faster than you could ever believe possible.
(funky music)
First and foremost, increased concentration,
focus, and creativity.
It's well documented that people who do sports,
running included, tend to have much higher levels
of concentration, focus,
and yes, creativity.
Suffice to say that all of my good ideas that I have
in my business, tend to come when I'm out running.
If I'm just sitting slumped over my desk
I, you know, nothing is happening up here,
but when I'm running, as a result of the,
you know, the energy that I get from running
and the endorphins that are, you know,
being pumped into my brain, as well as the
stimuli from all around me, the visual input,
the sounds, you know, all of the rich input
that you get from the environment.
I'm having ideas every five seconds,
all of the good ideas that I've had in my business
have come out of running, including the idea
for my second book Small Talk Superhero
which I will tell you all about
in another video, another time.
And I'm sure I don't need to explain to you why
increased concentration, focus, and creativity
can only help you to learn and get good at English faster.
You know, well, focus, concentration, it's something
that all of us lack in this modern world of
distractions all around us.
But creativity too.
Language learning is about pattern recognition,
recognising chunks of language, patterns within language.
Increased creativity, you increase your
ability to recognise those patterns.
You notice more happening in the language.
Second, running is what we call a keystone habit.
A keystone habit is a positive habit that
automatically creates multiple other positive
habits in our lives.
Great example of this would be
something like quitting smoking.
You quit smoking and you feel healthier,
because you feel healthier you want to do more,
you have more energy.
Plus, you know, we're not smoking all day long now
so we have more time, and we're not buying cigarettes,
we have more cash.
We're now able to use that energy, extra time,
cash, all that you know, all the stuff that we now
have that we didn't have before, to be more productive,
to do other things in our life, you know,
to learn new skills, English for example.
Running is exactly the same,
because we start running, we have more energy,
we have more concentration, we have more focus.
We are now able to use those
to improve things like our English, much more effectively.
Number three.
Running keeps your body occupied
but leaves your ears and your brain, free.
Audio lessons are a fantastic way
to improve your English.
If, they ever get listened to.
Almost everything I learn, every skill that
I learn these days, is done via
audio training whilst running.
Whether it's Japanese, or some other language,
recently I'm dabbling in different languages,
nothing serious, just playing around with it.
But also things like marketing, business skills,
everything that I do these days, every skill
that I learn, is mostly learned via audio training.
But you know what?
If I were to try to do that at home, it ain't gonna happen
because as soon as I put that audio training on,
not even five minutes and I'm like oh,
I wonder what's happening on Facebook?
I wonder if anybody has uploaded an interesting video
to Youtube, and before I know it I'm just faffing around
surfing the internet, and the audio training,
it's completely forgotten and it just never gets done.
So now, I do all of my learning using this,
my iPhone, and a pair of these, whilst I'm out running.
Seriously, try it, get some good audio lessons,
load them into your iPhone, and listen to them
whilst you're out running.
With all the other benefits that you get from running,
the increased concentration, focus, creativity,
as well as the fact that your body is occupied,
it's very hard to get distracted
when you're around running.
You'll be able to listen to the lessons
and just get it done.
Of course, you're gonna need high quality audio lessons,
and hey, wouldn't it be nice if those audio lessons
were automatically synced to your phone.
Ah-ha, well that's where Julian Northbrook's
League of Extraordinary English Speakers comes in.
Every week, you get a new
EES episode to study.
Each episode is a lesson designed to teach you
all the language that you need for the world of
international business, or whatever situation it is
that you use English, if we study conversation-based
stories, I take the story, I dissect it,
and I explain the meaning of all the common phrases, chunks,
and expressions of language that you're gonna need.
Well each lesson, also comes with an audio version,
that can be automatically synced to your iPhone
or Android, or whatever device it is that you use,
via special members podcast feed.
So you don't even have to do anything,
you can just plug in your headphones,
when you go out running, and start it going.
To check that out, head over to doingenglish.com/membership
or the link is in the description.
Number four.
Simply put, you will remember more of the language
you are learning if you're out running, than you will
if you're at home slumped over a desk.
If you're always in the same environment
slumped over a desk and nothing is ever changing around you
then your brain will basically just switch off
and go to sleep, but when you're out running
and everything around you is changing, you know,
there are always different sights to see, sounds to hear.
Everything keeps your brain alert,
and obviously when your brain is alert and awake
it's gonna learn the language that you're hearing
in your audio lessons, much, much, more effectively
than it will if you're half asleep,
and daydreaming about something else.
Not only this, but your brain will actually
connect the information, the words, and the phrases,
and the chunks that you're hearing in your audio lessons
to the environment around you.
The sights, and the sounds will all meld together
to help embed that language deep into your memory
so that you don't forget it.
Not only that, but your brain will actually start to
connect the words, and the phrases, and the chunks,
and all the language that you're hearing in your
audio lesson to the environment around you.
Even if those connections are totally random,
it doesn't matter, it's rich information that
helps to embed the language deep into memory
and aids retention so that you don't forget
the language five minutes later.
Finally, and in my opinion, most importantly,
point number five.
It quickly becomes a habit.
You'll very quickly find that once you get into running
it does become a habit, and you know, if you go out
two or three days a week,
on those days when you always go out,
if you don't go out you start to get fidgety,
you start to get irritated.
I go out running every single day, at the same time,
and that habit is so deeply ingrained
now for me, that at four o'clock in the afternoon
when it's time to go out running,
if I'm busy with something else and can't go,
I start to get really irritable, really fidgety,
because it's my running time, it's my daily habit,
I wanna go out running.
Well, if you make learning English a part of that,
you are learning English whilst you are running.
Again, with audio lessons or whatever, then
that is also going to become a very deeply ingrained habit.
You know what it's like when you've got study to do,
you've got lessons that you've gotta listen to,
but you know, you're busy with other things.
There's something interesting on TV!
And they just don't get done.
Well, if you're in the habit of going out running anyway,
and you're listening on your headphones from your iPhone,
Android, whatever device it is that you have.
It's pretty difficult not to do it.
So, you end up studying, listening to the lessons
every single day, or however often it is you go out running.
Which means over time, you are getting
way more english input, english practise, if you're doing,
you know, shadowing whilst you're out running,
I do it, hey, why not?
Then, you are getting a lot more than you would, otherwise.
Again, if you need some great audio lessons to listen to
whilst you're out running, then join us
in Julian Northbrook's League
of Extraordinary English Speakers.
Doingenglish.com/membership
or the link is in the description.
There's a new EES episode out every Friday,
and each episode includes a 30-minute video lesson
to study, and again, a complete audio version
of the video lesson synced straight to your device,
iPhone, Android, whatever it is that you are using.
(funky music)
This year I did it in one hour, 42 minutes, 11 seconds,
which is a few minutes quicker than last year.
And I was numnber 311, which again is a bit better
than last year, think I was about 400-something last year.
Can't remember, but good job.
That is it for this video, but before I go,
are you a runner?
If you are, tell us all about it in the comments.
And if you are a runner, do you listen
to English lessons whilst you're running?
If you don't, I strongly recommend that you do.
Thank you, and goodbye.