Hello everybody, this is me Meera, your trainer for the day and today I will be talking about
a solution, solution to improve your English language skills. Let me ask you a quick question,
apart from watching this video, what else do you do to get one step better in English?
You might think, why this question? Well that is because I know you want to become more
fluent and with these five exercises every day, you will get that better and better in
English. SO we need to see to it that we are training our four core skills, 'Reading',
'Writing', 'Speaking' and 'Listening'. All we will do is fixed 30 minutes of our day
and practice. Yes! You can do it. Probably in intervals or breaks that's fair.
So let us begin, '1 table spoon of word'. How do we usually start our day? We wake up
and look at our phones, right? All you need to do is download any app which will give
you 'word of the day' everyday, a new day, every day. I will mention few app in the description
box below so that tomorrow when you wake up, you will find a new word in your phone and
it's meanings as well. They will also give you examples of how to use the word in a sentence,
so make sure you understand if the word is a noun, adjective, verb, etc. What is the
plural of it? How to use it in different tenses? For example, today I learnt the word, 'Carefree'.
It is pronounced as 'carefree'. It is an adjective that means I can use it to define someone's
nature or feeling. Its meaning is having no worries. I saw an example of how it is used
in a sentence, "She has a carefree attitude." Similar words which go with these were, 'Easy
going', 'Happy go lucky' and few opposites, such as 'Worried', 'Serious'. Well by now
I have really understood the word well. It actually took me 3 minutes to read all of
this and in 3 minutes I have learnt a new word. But I need to make sure I will use it
today itself and for that I have to write it down somewhere.
That's right, the next one is, 'Notes to self'. All those who are new or good with English,
all of use tend to forget new words. I'm a very forgetful person that way so I make sure
that I make a note of it in my phone and I have been following this practice since many
years now. Today I have a diary which I used to use in say 2009 and I have written so many
words, sentences which I use in my daily conversations now. It is because of those notes and diaries,
I'm able to see my journey from zero in English to being confident in the language. I'm going
to add one important tip here, always learn new sentences and not just words. Just learning
the word, 'carefree' doesn't help me use it. So I would make sure I write one sentence
as well. Watch one episode, video, song, do not make this process boring, explore, Listening
to English radio station, watch series on Netflix, Amazon, YouTube like you are watching
right now. Watch a movie, listen to songs, download audio stories they are very interesting.
All those are available online with English subtitles. You can easily do this while eating
breakfast, while sitting in the car, waiting for someone or preparing for an interview.
Whenever you don't understand anything or any word, make sure you pause, search for
the meaning rewind and play again. This time you will focus on the pronunciation. observe
how they used it in a sentence, by this you will be improving your listening skills and
let me tell you something, out of all the many exercises I did to improve my language
skills, listening carefully was very, very essential. So what I used to do was, I used
to watch 'Friends' with my elder sisters and I couldn't understand anything but body language,
hand gestures, slowly in few years I had started understanding few sentences, just the way
small kids learn languages, by listening to their family members or friends, right? Movies,
series, songs really help in this journey. We humans start relating words with body language
and then we also remember new words with their sound. That is why listening and observing
becomes so very important. So make it fun, keep it alive.
Our next exercise is, 'Talking to yourself'. You heard me right. I encourage this process
a lot, because I have tried and tested it. Has it ever happened to you that you are just
alone and thinking about something in your native language or mother tongue? Suddenly
someone asks you a question in English and your response to that is, 'um, 'huh' o' what?
Or you cannot put your sentences together that is because you are not habitual to think
in English. Let me explain better. When you are very emotional, angry or happy which language
do you think in? If your answer here is anything apart from English language, then that is
the reason we are not so fluent in English. Remember that you can get better in any language
only when you start to think in that language. Best exercise without feeling shy, talk to
yourself. Use the word that you've learnt today. This will help you to train your mind
and nobody will judge you, right? Feel free to exercise this, believe me it will make
you super-duper confident.
This is the final stage of the exercises, you have learnt a new word in the morning,
then you have made a note of it. Listened to some nice English music, watched a movie
or an episode, then you practiced the word and sentence in your mind, in your thoughts,
now you need to be carefree and use it in reality. Talk to someone. Give yourself time
to think before you start speaking. Keep the speed of your speech slow and most importantly,
just be cool, wonderful! Now that you have spoken, you will do three things, 'Be open
to get corrected by someone' and 'Learn from your mistakes', 'pat your back and treat yourself'
and the last one, 'Repeat all the exercises the next day'
Above five exercises will make sure that you enjoy this process and your four core skills
of 'reading writing speaking and listening become strong each day. Well with this I end
my session for today. Do write to me in the comment section below and tell me what you've
learnt today. I will meet you very soon with a fresh topic until then, keep practicing,
keep learning keep smiling, this is me Meera signing off for the day, bye.