This is my angry face because I read comments on youtube, on this channel saying that grammar
is a waste of time and that we don't need grammar to learn English and it makes me angry
and it's wrong. You do, you do. Two good reasons, two good reasons to learn grammar; one
it'll make it much easier to improve your English or another language; secondly,
it's interesting in its own right. Can you learn English without studying grammar?
Yes but it's going to take you a whole lot longer. Think of a room filled with
doughnuts but it's locked and you're on the outside. How to gain entry to the room? You could
grab an axe and smash the door down but think of grammar as the key, as the key that unlocks
the door to fluency. This is the easy way to gain entry. There is sometimes a misapprehension when I
say you need to learn grammar perhaps you imagine you imagine a school where students sit around
doing boring grammar exercises from a boring grammar book never speaking, never engaging in
conversation, just blindly scratching answers into a workbook. Those schools are terrible. I should
know I've taught in them and learnt in them - or rather tried to learn in them. Let me tell you
that in our school LetThemTalk in Paris we have no textbooks, no written exercises and the lessons
are 100% spoken. Is there grammar? yes there is but it's always in the context of a conversation.
If you're learning English you want a teacher to correct your mistakes and explain the grammar
so you don't make those mistakes again and again and again. In addition to the grammar
at our school you’ll learn some new ways of expressing yourself that you've never thought of
that will give your level a boost. The problem is not the grammar, it's that it's often taught in a
way that is tedious, dull and monotonous. Grammar is only one element of learning a language.
You need to speak to listen, to read and write but the glue that binds these elements together is
the grammar. It's the bedrock of the language and all communication skills flow from there.
Don't neglect it, a good understanding will speed up your learning considerably.
Become a grammarian. Why would you go to a language school if not to learn the grammar?
(in the context of good conversation of course). If you just want to chat in English
you don't need to go to school for that. There are lots of groups I'm sure in your area
or online where you can do that. if you're on lockdown online probably. You can read at home,
you can watch series on your favourite streaming platforms at home no need to go to school for
that. And English teachers, what the hell do they do? Your lovely charming and friendly English
teacher like me, actually his or her job is most of all just to teach grammar. Let me explain.
There is an English teacher let's call her Sharon and there is an English guy you met
in the pub. Let's call him Steve. He's not an English teacher but if you buy him a beer he
will help you with your English. One day you want to know different ways of saying ‘you’re great’
you ask Steve you're buying beer and he says ‘yes I can help you you can say “you're amazing,”
“you're wonderful,” “you're brilliant, ”you're incredible” and he'd be right. You ask Sharon
she'd say exactly the same thing. 15 all. You ask Steve to correct your pronunciation and he does
he says to you ;no, no it's not I'm ungry, it's I'm hungry’ and he'd be right. Sharon would say
the same thing. 30 all. You ask Steve to talk about air travel because you want to know about
the vocabulary so he does and you learn new words new expressions; journey, voyage, not voyage,
voyage, globetrotter, take off, land, stop over. You don't need an English teacher for
that. Sharon would say exactly the same thing. Deuce. Then you are Steve ‘when do I say I was
working and when you say I had been working? what's the difference?’ and he can't explain
so you asked Sharon and yes Sharon can explain it. Past perfect continuous, we have a video on that.
you ask Steve ‘why do you say he speaks well but it sounds good?’ Steve can't explain but
Sharon can. you ask ‘why do you say “it's time we went home” why are using a past tense when
you're talking about the future why, why Steve?’ Steve can't answer but Sharon can. Game, set and
match to Sharon. Video on that one coming up by the way. Grammar speeds up your learning so yes
be careful about courses that offer to teach you a language without any grammar you might want to go
elsewhere. Learn the grammar, Become a grammarian. If a teacher or an online platform tells you that
they will teach you a language to a proficient level without any grammar don't waste your money,
go elsewhere. Learning a language is a long and arduous journey but ultimately a rewarding one.
Don't listen to those who offer shortcuts with minimal effort. Fun fact it's not possible, they
are selling snake oil. They'll end up wasting your time and it'll cost you a lot more in the long
run. Recently I had a student who had a good level of English but even though she had been speaking
for many years she kept making the same mistakes. One of the mistakes she made was with the verb
SUGGEST. She said for example, ‘I don't like my job and my friend suggested me
to get a new job.’ Logical mistake, many verbs follow this pattern but it's wrong.
For example, ‘my friend asked me to give her an ice cream.’ The verb ASK follows that pattern
but not SUGGEST it's different. Fortunately, I explained the grammar and she got it immediately
which is, in case you're interested, SUGGEST can be followed by a verb with ING
‘he suggested getting a job.’ That's okay but when you put the pronoun after suggest
it must be the subject pronoun followed by the subjunctive which is the infinitive without to.
THAT, by the way, is optional after SUGGEST. ’He suggested that I get a new job.’ I got her
to give some more examples; ‘I suggest that we go to the pub,’ ‘he's putting on a lot of weight so I
suggested he go on a diet,’ not GOES because it's the infinitive without TO this is a subjunctive.
I gave her the other verbs that take the same structure okay and we had a real conversation
in a situation where we could use the newly learnt grammar. Within a couple of hours I was able to
correct many mistakes that she'd been making for years she got it she was smart and she understood
grammar. She was a grammarian. Become a grammarian. If she hadn't come to the lesson.
would she have eventually learned this grammar just from listening and speaking? Well perhaps,
perhaps you would but it would have taken a lot longer. Why smash the door down to get to the
donuts when you have the key? I'll show you it again the key. Grammar is the key and honestly
I've met people who ...you hear that that's what happened when you don't study the grammar.
I've met people who've learnt English just by speaking many have lived in the uk for several
years and they proudly announce that they've never studied any grammar but most of the time
you can hear the mistakes. These are the same people who write in the comments section that
grammar is a waste of time. They speak fine for everyday conversation for chatting amongst friends
but for anything deeper, such as in a professional context or for writing they write poorly
and their spoken English - it could be better. An understanding of grammar is also a transferable
skill. Once you know all the terms in one language you can easily apply it to another language that
you are learning. It may even help you gain insights into your own language. You know I
never really understood English grammar until I became an English teacher because in England we
don't learn grammar at school and it's really amazing to be able to deconstruct a sentence,
a page in your own language. Another thing I often hear is that children don't learn grammar and they
speak like native speakers. That's true but do you want to speak like that? After five years of
learning morning, noon and night a five-year-old child's conversation is mostly limited to
‘mama I want to go to the peepee room.’ You can do better than that much better than the
five-year-old child. Do you want to discuss the burning issues of the day with grace
and levity? Learn the grammar. Do you want to seduce your entourage with your wit and wisdom?
Learn the grammar. Do you want to add a subtlety and nuance to your expression. Learn the grammar.
Knowledge of grammar is like a superpower, it will supercharge your learning why would you not
want to do that? you know I feel so strongly about this that I even printed a t-shirt here it is.
Available at our merch. store on this channel. By the way.
you might think that this video is simply a thinly veiled ploy to get you to purchase one of these
rather chic and yet reasonably priced items of summer apparel well, no,
no that's certainly not the case learning through just talking and listening is good
it works to a degree but if you want to achieve a deeper understanding of how it all works
and get to fluency quicker than you know what to do. Now stop whining and learn the *** grammar.
Are you a grammarian? Leave a comment my deepest disrespect.