Hello, my dear friends!
Welcome to Series English!
My name is Antonia Romaker.
And today we are going to ponder over the question:
'How should I study the English language?'
Actually I have already three classes, devoted to this topic.
Number one is about my personal experience,
number two is devoted to some general tips
and number three is about motivation and different materials
and well structure which you can use while you study the English language.
But today we are going to talk about top ten mistakes
made while studying the language!
Well it can be English, or Russian, or German,
or Spanish, it doesn't matter.
Actually the mistakes are all the same for studying any foreign language.
So top ten English learning mistakes.
Number one is 'I don't wanna!'
So it's connected with motivation, we've already talked about it.
And you should know that having a powerful reason
to study a foreign language, well, actually to do anything
is crucial, it's the most important thing.
Because if you wanna study, if you have this
overpowering feeling that you need it, that you want it,
then it will help you a lot, it will boost the process, it will make it much faster.
So it's very important, try to find your reason.
It's actually not that hard, there are a lot of reasons.
If you find it difficult, then watch my class, devoted to motivation.
It will help you a little bit to find your reason.
Moving on to the second mistake,
which I would call 'Spontaneous diligence'.
What's that?
Well, I'm talking about the structure of your lessons.
I mean the timing, how you organize yourself
in terms of time.
Do if you study the English language very hard,
very intensively for like a week or a month,
and then you think: 'I'm tired, I'm too bored,
I'm going to stop for a little while'.
And then you forget about the language for half a year or so.
That's not a very good thing to do.
Because if you study regularly, every day or every other day,
it will give you so much more!
Well, as for me personally, to tell you the truth,
I'm quite a spontaneous person.
So I can't focus on something for a very long period of time.
So I need to change my routine.
I need to do different things.
So that's why a good idea would be probably
to, well, combine your studies with something else,
like going in for sports.
So when you are too tired, you just go out and, well, jog.
Or anything of the kind.
So I understand that it is hard to concentrate,
to focus for a very long period of time.
But try to be persistent, try to do it every day.
Let it be for half an hour,
let it be for two hours or ten minutes, it doesn't matter.
Try to be persistent, try to study the language every day,
every other day, regularly!
If you find it very difficult to make yourself study the language,
then you probably need a teacher,
well, a tutor, who would help you to organize yourself.
But remember that you can study the language yourself without any help.
Well, using some additional materials,
like textbooks, books, videos, audios and so on.
So they could help, but you can manage without a teacher.
It would be really great if you had someone
who you would be able to contact and find out some useful information,
and the person who would clarify some vague topics and so on.
But anyway you can study the language almost just by yourself.
At least if you have some basic information, basic structures, But anyway you can study the language almost just by yourself.
At least if you have some basic information, basic structures,
grammatical ones and basic ideas about the language,
you can improve, continue on your own.
The third mistake is 'A little here, a little there.'
It's connected with the idea that some students focus on
particular topics and that's it.
So they eliminate some parts of the language from their studies.
And that's not a very good idea,
because you need to have profound knowledge, well,
it depends on what purpose you have.
If you want just to speak and that's it,
then you can focus more on some aspects.
But completely eliminating some parts of the language is not good.
For example some approaches suggest,
that you should not study grammar or you should not listen or read.
It's wrong, because if you do not study grammar at all,
it will take forever until you start speaking.
So grammar helps you constructing, creating sentences correctly.
And eliminating reading, for instance, might
make it difficult for you if you have to write a letter or an e-mail and so on.
So try to cover all the aspects more or less.
Focus on the aspects which you are particularly interested in
But do not delete, do not eliminate some parts of the language
just because you think that they are not useful or boring.
So try to be well-organized, well-structured.
Try to make your studies well-structured.
Here I would also like to include one aspect:
that you should not get satisfied just by the studies at school
or at the university.
Because if you study just during classes and that's it,
you do not do any homework, you do not study yourself,
it won't give you good results, it won't give you quick results.
So if you want to improve quickly you need to dive into it.
Dive into the English language.
The mistake number four is 'The ultimate WHY'.
Let me explain.
Here I am talking about overwhelming thoroughness.
So some people just get obsessed with the idioms or phrasal verbs, or grammar.
You should not get obsessed, it's not a very good thing to do.
So try to be open to new opportunities, new aspects,
to new approaches and methods.
Try to study different things and do not get obsessed,
do not concentrate too much on just one aspect.
For example, if you are at the beginning of your studies,
it's not a very good idea to study a lot of idioms and phrasal verbs.
Because they are for intermediate and higher levels.
So if you can't formulate some basic ideas in English,
you do not need idioms and phrasal verbs.
First study some basics and then continue improving
and rising to the sun!
Some students also ask a lot of 'why' questions, like:
Why should I use the auxiliary verb here?
Why do prepositions change the meaning of phrasal verbs so much?
Why in the word 'monday' is the last syllable reduced to [i]?
Well, some of such questions can be answered actually,
and the answers might help you.
But some of such questions cannot be answered.
So... and you do not need to get so deep into the language.
Some things cannot be explained,
some things are connected with history.
So and historical processes and evolving of the English language.
So sometimes it's not a very good idea to be too thorough,
to be too obsessed with some tiny little details.
You should see the whole picture, this is what counts.
The next mistake is 'A quickie'.
Well a 'quickie' is something done very quickly.
It can also have some sexual context, but anyway!
The mistake I'm talking about here is
that some people try to study some topics very quickly!
like - hop, and it is done! I know it! I am good at it!
Well you need to be thorough a little bit here,
so especially when you talk about some grammatical topics.
You need to study them, well, little by little.
And you need to practice them, then you won't make any mistakes later on.
So if you want to speak perfectly,
try to be thorough, but not too thorough, which I have already pointed out.
p.s. if you think that you can study a foreign language in just one month
or even in one year and speak it perfectly after that,
then I'm sorry, I'll have to disappoint you, it's not possible.
So a quickie in terms of studying foreign languages is out of the question.
OK, that's it, today we studied five mistakes,
five English learning mistakes.
And during our next class devoted to this topic we'll continue,
because there are five more!
So I hope that you found this class useful.
And it helped you a little bit to improve your learning process.
And now studying English will get easier and more exciting, more fascinating for you.
And I hope to see you soon! Do not forget to like this video,
subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to study English with me.
By the way do not forget that I also teach Russian here.
So if you want to study Russian - subscribe to me too!
Anyway, hope to see you soon! Happy English and Russian practice! Bye-bye!