Hello and welcome back to English Like A Native
with me Anna English. Now today's video
is sponsored by Lingoda who I will talk a little
bit more about later on but firstly
did you know that we have something in common
We are both learning a language
Now you are learning English and perhaps
some other languages as well and
I am trying to learn Spanish
But I imagine that both of us are finding difficulties
along the way particularly with speaking fluently
Excuse me, do you know what time the bus is due
*speaking Spanish*
Oh, uhmm
Spanish, I speak Spanish a little bit
*Speaking Spanish*
It's really frustrating isn't it
You have the opportunity to speak the language
and your mind goes blank
Speaking is the most difficult part of language learning
So I have taken five steps
in order to efficiently learn a language
some of them are more effective than others
but let me show you just what I'm doing
Step one, I went online I bought a book
I bought another book
and I bought lots of other books
i bought so many books that I didn't know where to start
and I also found they weren't easy to carry around
so the books now live by my bed and I spend
fifteen minutes every night reading before I go to sleep
Step number two
I needed to learn vocabulary so
I started employing
one of the vocabulary learning tricks
which is to label all the things around you
that you see on a regular basis with the name
in Spanish. This was kind of helpful
but sometimes a little bit annoying and just got in the way
Step three, I started listening to audio books
Audio books are very easy to
integrate into my day to day life
I listen while I'm traveling
I listen while I'm exercising
and though I don't understand every single word
I find that my general understanding is improving
Step four, I started watching Youtube videos
Youtube tutorials are really handy
You can watch them on your phone
You can watch them at home on your computer
and you can fit them into your life whenever you need them
Step five, I started trying
to think in Spanish I started of
with the basics just doing things like counting
and naming nouns but in Spanish rather than
thinking of them in English and then translating
However, I find that if I lose
the vocabulary then it actually
gets in the way of my daily routines
because I can't find the words
I needed help, I needed a person that
I could speak to, I needed a teacher who could
guide me but unfortunately I'm a
very busy person and I didn't
have time to sign up for a course
So I thought it was about time to take an extra step
Step six and check out
Lingoda after all I
have recommended them to my students
on plenty of occasions so it was about time
that I became a student. Now what I have always loved about
Lingoda is how beautiful their website is and
how easy it is to use
and if you find that you still have a few issues
or things that you are not sure about
then it's very easy ask for help and there's always someone there
to help you out in those situations
So I got myself signed up
Of course I told them I was interested in learning Spanish
They do also offer lessons in English, French
and German. So I filled in my profile
I set my timezone and I set my
skill level which ranges from
A1 to C2
I of course am A1 point one
a beginner very much a beginner
and then I set my schedule. Now this is something I really
like about Lingoda, I am a very busy person
My schedule changes from week to week
They offer lessons seven days a week
twenty four hours a day
so it doesn't matter what my schedule is
I'm always able to find something that suits my
time frame and I even managed to have a private lesson
while I was traveling recently and stuck in the airport
for a few hours. I had Wi-Fi, I have my
mobile phone and so I organised a lesson
and it made a really good use of that time
that would otherwise have been wasted
Lingoda definitely scores high
on flexibility so the private lessons are
held by Skype and the beauty
the beauty of Skype
something I realized is that if you're having a bad hair
day or perhaps you're still wearing your pajamas
when you come to your lesson time
You don't have to put the camera on
so nobody has to know and then you have
group lessons which are held via Adobe Connect
and that's all very easy to setup and
if you have any problem with that whatsoever
Lingoda are there to walk you through it
For all your lessons, there's a topic set
and along with that topic you can download
the supporting materials which we'll work through
in the class but you can keep the supporting materials
on your computer or you can print them off and use them as you like
Now I have to say
I was really really impressed
with the supporting materials they are just really colourful,
well thought out, challenging but
but easy to follow yeah
very impressed I was very excited about my first
group lesson so much so that I even made
a whole batch of cupcakes for all my classmates
However, on my first lesson there was only two of us
in the group and so, so it was bad in
one respect because it meant I have to eat a lot
of cupcakes, a lot
but it was good in the respect that I got
so much attention from the teacher it was almost like having a
private lesson because it was only the two of us
so it was great value for money and
after that i realized that most of
the group lessons are very very small groups
The teachers that I've met so far my journey have been faultless
They are all natives
which is really really important
and no matter what time of the day
I've had my lessons and the have always been so
so cheerful, it's like they just love their job
It makes me feel happy and encouraged
even when i find it hard and
they're happy because I'm happy and it's just one big
happy circle, happy happy happy happy
So once you've completed enough courses around
thirty to forty hours the you will qualify for a
CEFR certificate
and this will attest your level of
comprehension ranging A1
to C2
and these certificate are great
they are internationally recognized certificates
and they can be used on visa applications
They can be used for university applications
It just gives people a good understanding of your
comprehension level
so definitely a great way
to keep you motivated
I've got about ten more hours of study to go
so to sum up my experience with Lingoda
Great website, really helpful
supportive team, amazingly
professional happy native teachers,
fantastic
supporting materials which you can keep for as
long as you like,
certificates which are very motivational,
flexible and therefore super convenient
and really good value for money
and if you are interested in checking out Lingoda for yourself
which I highly recommend as part of your
language learning strategy then you are in luck
because if you use this code
along with the link in the description box below
then you will get a discount of
fifty euros
I'm certainly going to continue to be a student of
Lingoda and I think you should try it
for yourself too and if you
have any language learning strategies that I haven't mentioned
then please do put it in the comment box below because I love
to know and hey, one day
I will be fluent in Spanish
with the help of Lingoda and you will be
fluent in English
Thank you very much guys, take care and
Muahh! Goodbye