- Hi, Bob the Canadian here.
Today I wanted to talk to you about 10 mistakes
that I think language learners make.
10 mistakes that I think English learners make
when they're learning the English language.
You may not make any of these mistakes.
But I think it's worthwhile for me to talk about them
and to give you some suggestions about how to avoid them.
The very first mistake that I think English learners make
is to not keep a journal, or to not take notes.
This isn't an exciting thing to do.
But I think after you have an English conversation,
it's worth sitting down, and in a journal or notebook,
writing down some of the things that you talked about.
I think when you learn some new English vocabulary words,
it's worth sitting down and writing down in a journal
the words that you have learned.
I think after you watch an English television show,
it's worthwhile to sit down and to write down
what you thought about the show.
It's just a good thing to do.
Many people don't do it, but I highly recommend it.
The second mistake that English learners sometimes make
is to not use spaced repetition in their learning.
Spaced repetition refers to when you learn something
on one day and then you plan to practice it again
a day or two later.
And then you plan to practice it again a week later.
So if you learn a vocabulary word on a Monday,
you should plan to review that word
on a Tuesday or Wednesday,
and then try to use it in a conversation
or in some writing a week later.
When you learn something and then you plan to review it
a couple of times afterwards,
and you space out that review,
if you space out that repetition,
it's really good for your brain,
and it really helps you remember what you've learned.
The third mistake that English learners sometimes make
is that they stay in their comfort zone.
When you are in your comfort zone,
it means you only do things that you like doing.
Let's think about movies.
Maybe you really like watching science fiction movies
but you don't like watching romantic movies.
When you watch a lot of science fiction movies
you are in your comfort zone,
but you shouldn't stay in your comfort zone
when you're learning a language.
You should plan to watch movies from all different genres.
You should watch romantic movies.
You should watch police movies.
You should watch science fiction movies.
You should make sure that you're watching
a wide variety of things.
Maybe you only like reading the news from your own country.
Maybe that's your comfort zone,
but you should get out of your comfort zone
and you should read the news from other countries as well.
This will help to broaden the amount of vocabulary
that you are learning and it will just expose you
to a lot more different ways
of expressing yourself in English.
A fourth mistake that English learners often make
is that they only study at night when they're tired
and crabby and in a bad mood.
I know this is when most of you have time to study.
Most of you are in school all day or you're at work all day.
And the evening is really the only time when you can study,
but you should build a little bit of time in
to each morning so that you can study when you're fresh
and just able to learn better,
even if it's only five minutes.
Remember the first point I made is
that you should keep a journal.
Maybe every morning when you get up, you should look
at what you wrote in your journal the day before
as a way of just thinking a little bit
about the English learning that you've done
and thinking a little bit about English for the day.
Another great thing to do is to simply listen
to English music first thing in the morning,
when your mind is fresh
and you're able to learn things really well.
The fifth mistake that English learners sometimes make
is they forget to take a break.
If you have been studying English for five days straight,
maybe take a day off.
If you've just finished a 30-day English learning challenge,
maybe take a day or two off.
The mind isn't made to learn things non-stop.
It can be very difficult to learn every day
if you're studying something like the English language.
It can make you very tired
and it can make you mentally fatigue.
So if you plan to learn English,
I would make sure you plan to learn on certain days,
but also plan to give yourself a little bit of a break
once in a while.
The sixth mistake that English speakers sometimes make
is that they allow fear to stop them from making progress.
It can be a little bit scary
to have an English conversation.
You might be afraid to take an English test
and this might stop you from doing those things.
But it's kind of a mistake.
I know that sounds a little harsh,
but you shouldn't allow fear to stop you from doing things
that will be really good for your English learning.
So try to find ways to be calm and to overcome fear
so that you can do things that will just help you progress
in learning the English language.
The seventh mistake that English learners often make
is that they don't set goals.
Even if your goal is a really simple goal,
maybe your goal
is to learn five English vocabulary words every day,
this goal will help you make progress
while you're learning English.
And if you remember, the very first thing I mentioned
is that you should keep a journal.
Having goals and writing those goals
in your journal is just a really good idea.
You could write in your journal, my goal this week
is to learn five vocabulary words every day.
And then every day when you learn those words,
you could write them in your journal.
So one of the mistakes that English learners make
is to not set goals, small goals, large goals,
long range goals.
Any kind of goals that you set will really help you
when you're learning English.
The eighth mistake that English learners sometimes make
is that they find a method
for learning the English language
and then they only use that method.
Finding a method is an excellent thing to do,
but you shouldn't use just one method
when you're learning a language.
Maybe use the method that you think is awesome
for about six months,
but then you should do some research and you should look
for other methods for learning the English language.
English language learning is changing all the time.
Methods that we thought were a good idea 10 years ago,
maybe aren't anymore.
There might be new ideas
that will really help you make progress
when you're learning the English language.
So find a method, use it for a while,
but then reevaluate after for a few months and maybe look
at other methods for learning the language as well.
The ninth mistake that English learners sometimes make
is that they don't find somebody to talk to
who's also learning the English language.
It can be really helpful to know a fellow student
who's going through the same challenges as you.
When you decide to do something difficult
like learning English, it's always nice
to have someone to talk to about it.
You can complain a little bit.
You can ask questions.
You can give advice.
Certainly having someone to talk to
about the learning process, having someone to talk to
about how difficult it is to learn English
can just really help you and motivate you
and maybe it will motivate them as well.
So another mistake that people make
is not finding someone to talk to
who's also learning this crazy language.
A 10th mistake that people sometimes make
when learning the English language
is that they spend a lot of time doing the things they like
and they avoid doing the things that they don't like.
This is a mistake when you're learning a language.
If you are someone that really likes reading in English
or loves listening to music in English,
don't forget that you should also be doing some writing.
You should be having some English conversations.
You should be learning some vocabulary
and studying a little bit of grammar as well.
So it's a mistake to only do the things you like.
Anyways, Bob the Canadian here.
Thank you so much for watching this video.
I hope you were able to learn a little bit
from my description of 10 common mistakes
that language learners make.
And it was a lot of fun to make this video.
I hope you enjoyed it.
By the way, if you are new here,
don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there.
And if everyone could give me a thumbs up,
that would be awesome.
And if you have a little bit more time,
why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson?