What's going on, guys? So, I'm just heading into Geelong to pick up Kel. She has had to do a
Glucose blood test thing for the pregnancy this morning where she had to fast
last night
Well, effectively she just had to go to bed and not have any breakfast when she got up
but
She's having a blood
insulin glucose response whatever it is tested to see if she has
What is it?
Prenatal diabetes, I've forgotten the name, gestational diabetes. I think it is where
The baby grows too fast because it's getting too much glucose. I assume that's what it is
Anyway, so I have to go pick her up
She's had to have her blood taken and I think they made her drink some some potion full of sugar
Well, I don't know like three times and then they test her the glucose levels an insulin response in her blood
Anyway, today I wanted to get on here until you or talk to you
Maybe do an exercise with you guys,
But I wanted to sort of make you guys
Think about why your English isn't improving, right?
So, like obviously if you're listening to this you English is really good and you're at a very good level, but it's
It's very common that we all plateau when learning languages, right? And I noticed this happen with Portuguese it
At home. It's it's a frustrating thing and it's almost like
It feels like you're walking through
You know, molasses sometimes something very viscous, something very sticky
And so it gets harder and harder
To make those games that you want and you have to push harder and harder and harder
So, today I wanted to sort of be accountable to you guys and talk about why my Portuguese
Hasn't improved and, you know, not make excuses,
But do the inverse, right?
Do the opposite where I show you why or a talk about why it's not improving and then hopefully have you guys think about
why your English isn't improving and
This will obviously help you
Think about what you could be doing better, right? You could think about what you need to be focusing on
So, let me start. Ok, my Portuguese is not improving because I
Don't spend enough time in
Portuguese
listening to Portuguese watching Portuguese TV
Reading in Portuguese. Even though I'm learning Portuguese, I
Still found myself quite often falling back on to English
Even when I am just reading something on Wikipedia or when I'm
Watching, you know, YouTube videos about a certain topic that I probably could find in Portuguese
So, that's one excuse that I don't want to use
It's that I don't spend enough time in the language and I need to do more of that and I know this
My Portuguese is also not improving because I talk about the same things with my wife constantly
And I don't bring up challenging topics. I don't talk about
new subjects as often as I probably could, you know, I shy away from
conversations that would be difficult and maybe I switch into English sometimes with her because I know her English is better than my
Portuguese and
We can have that discussion a little easier if I just use the easiest language
So, I know that that's holding my Portuguese back at times.
My Portuguese isn't improving as well because I listen to too many podcasts
in English
that's another one when I'm exercising, when I'm
Walking when I am out of the house, when I'm in the car driving and I'm listening to podcasts
I still keep finding English podcasts, and I'm not pushing myself
To listen to more in Portuguese so, that probably overlaps with my first excuse
My Portuguese isn't improving because I'm not
I'm not forcing myself to learn more grammar. I'm not forcing myself to learn more vocabulary
So that when I do read things or watch things in in Portuguese, I'm not
analyzing, I'm not actively pulling it apart to try and focus on the
New words or the the words that I may recognize, but don't necessarily
Know how to use so, I know that I could improve my portuguese
better
faster if I
Spent more time
analyzing
The new words, new vocabulary, new slang, new expressions that I do
come across what I do see, right? And
it's one thing that
Quite often you get to a level where you can express yourself well enough,
But you don't iron out, you don't polish off all those sort of rough edges, right?
You don't try and nail the grammar because you know, you can get away with saying things incorrectly
So, I find that in Portuguese, I do that too where
Even though I know I'm making a mistake, I'll still keep making the same mistake because I know I'll be understood
So, that's one thing another reason my Portuguese isn't improving is because I keep making the same mistakes
Despite knowing they're mistakes because I know I'll be understood.
What else? What else? I'm just doing this on the fly
I'm just trying to think of this as I drive in to get Kel
Hmm
My Portuguese isn't improving fast enough because I'm not writing very much in Portuguese. So, I talk every now and then on
Facebook with friends, but that's probably the only writing I really do. It's in instant messages
I don't sit down,
I don't put put time aside to write
About certain topics, to write a diary, to write say short essays about certain topics that I'm interested in
So, that's another thing that I could do. I could probably work on my writing a little more often.
I also don't really focus on
Yeah, that the grammar that I don't use very often, right? And I guess this overlaps again with with not working
on my mistakes
I don't investigate areas that I don't use very often, but every now and then I do use that I know that I'm doing
incorrectly or that I could improve upon, right? Using those hard hard tenses like would have done or
Had been, those sorts of things or the equivalent of those in Portuguese. I know that I could be doing that better
Anyway, guys, that's probably enough of me talking
So, I want you to sit there now and the exercise can be that you repeat after me the phrase
"My English isn't improving because..." and then I want you to finish that with
whatever it is, a sentence, obviously finished that sentence in English and
I want you to list out loud now
The reasons why you think your English isn't improving. Ok? So, repeat after me. My English isn't improving because
What's the reason? I want to hear some reasons, right?
Use this as an exercise to practice your speaking. My English isn't improving because I...
So, have a think what is it that you you're not doing, but you know you should be doing, what should you be doing?
What should I be doing?
My english isn't improving at the moment because I
I don't read enough. I don't listen enough. I don't speak enough
What is it that you need to work on, right? We all know those areas that we suck at most
so, my English isn't improving at the moment because I
Alright, good work that's probably enough, but hopefully this has helped you think about
Which areas of your English need work, which areas of English
Which areas of your English, you know, you need to work on, right? Often we need to force ourselves to sit down and actually
Do the hard work and hopefully it's giving you a bit of motivation to do that now
So, let me know in a comment below guys
What's your weakest point in English and what is somewhere, what is an aspect of your English that you know
I should be working on this, but I'm not at the moment that you know that you're going to now
Ok? Let me know in a comment below and I'll catch you guys later. Peace!