Hello my friends and welcome to practice English with Paul. In today’s video I’m not going
to teach you vocabulary or grammar I’m going to explain something very interesting. Many
students online send mе messages saying ‘Paul, is it possible to learn English in 3 months?’
I replied … what do you think? ‘No!’ Now why did I reply ‘no’? Because … emm…
well I’m an experienced teacher I’m a linguist, I have my opinions. They said to
me that they saw an advertisement in a local language school or an online school that
promised that they will learn English in 3 months. And I say to them that the words used
in the advertisement are not true because you can’t learn English all of it in 3 months
… it’s impossible. It’s absolutely… you can’t learn anything perfectly in 3
months.. you will get better you will get better but perfectly …. Forget it. But the
problem is so many people fall for these lies, for these scams. Can you see this question
here, #1 : ‘Why do people fall for these scams?’ That’s what I want to answer.
Again, scam is like a lie, a lie, you know, that makes you spend your money on something
which isn’t true. ‘Fall for’ here it ,means believe. So why do people believe these
lies, why do people fall for these scams? I believe the first problem is that in today’s
world we need everything today or we need it we need it yesterday. As a result lot of
language school understand this and they make these false promises because most people are
not linguists they learn English but they’re not linguists and so they believe this false
advertising and therefore they go to these schools, they spend their money and they think
they’ve learnt an entire level where in fact they have not, especially when they come
to me. Some people also really believe in easy way of learning English. Now, I’ve
said this in one of my previous videos I think it was ‘learning vocabulary’ emmm… many
people are not looking for the best way of learning English … they are looking for
the easiest way there is a big difference. The easiest way isn’t always the best. Sometimes
you just need to do a lot of hard work every day. I’ll explain this a bit later. So,
again language schools and online schools they know this and they say ’oh, we have
some special method which can help you learn 600 words in a week’… Good luck! OK, an
again I often get many students who come to me expecting the ‘magic pill’. They come
to my class, not all students but some, they expect to take a special magic pill without
doing homework without working hard they will speak English fantastically in 6 months and
I tell them ‘that will not happen, because I will do my best but you need to do your
best as well’ ‘How long does it take to learn a language?’ Well , let’s think
of an example. Imagine, I can’t cook which is true, I can’t cook, but I want to cook
like Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramzie these world-famous chefs, the best chefs in the world. From now
until the best chef in the world do you think I can do that in 3 months? Do you think I
can learn to be a professional footballer in months? Of course not. So why do you think
you can learn amazing English in 3 months? It’s the same principal it’s not going
to happen. You will make progress; you will get better to learn English to learn how to
cook perfectly… NO! We have a wonderful expression in English – ‘how long is a
piece of string?’ Quite often if somebody asks you a question ‘how to learn English?’
we say ... ‘Well, how long is a piece of string?’ it means ‘there’s no answer
to this’ like there’s no limit… there’s no parameter. How long is a piece of string?
So…how long does it take to learn English? How long is a piece of string? What are your
obligations? Do you have free time? Do you love English enough to practice it 10 hours
a day? Can you practice it 10 hours a day? Do you have a linguistic mind? There are so
many factors involved that determine how quickly you will learn a language but let’s look
at this what about levels? Can you learn a level in 3 months? My answer to this is YES
and NO. Now, again as I just said it depends on you … do you have free time? Do you have
obligations which limit your free time to learn English? I believe that you can do some
intensive courses where if you work really hard really hard every day for like many hours
then yes I believe you can learn a level in 3 months like pre-intermediate or intermediate
or upper-intermediate but again because most of us have school or jobs or family obligations
it’s very difficult to find that time to give your life to English as much as you should.
So therefore most students spend like really maximum an hour every day outside the class
practicing English if you practice more than that … well done! So yes, I do believe you
could learn a level in 3 months like let’s say intermediate but preferably most language
schools have 5-6 months because again you need that time to practice all those elements
all those bits of vocabulary, all those bits of grammar, all those ways of learning you
need that time. Key ingredients to real learning English again this is very basic but of course
you need hard work you need to work extremely hard every day learn vocab, practice your
grammar, speak, read listen, watch films. There aren’t enough hours in a day to do
it but nevertheless you should work extremely hard. Do your homework. You need guidance,
You need a professional and experienced teacher that’s why many students come to me because
I can give that guidance, I can tell you how to learn what not to learn as well and you
need structure. You need structure because again one of the problems that I have and
I’ve mentioned this before there’s so much material online, there’re so many schools
around, so many videos, there’s just so much. Now again, if everything was perfect
and worked well everybody would speak perfect English but they do not. I’ve met only a
few people in my life that speak absolutely amazing English. I’ve met many people who
speak great English but truly perfect English where I thought they were English I’ve only
met 2 or 3 but amazing English I’ve met many and I’ve helped many to speak amazing
English. But again you need a structure and a good teacher will help you through the structure
to learn properly and lastly avoid scams so if you see an advertisement that says ‘learn
English in one month’ or ‘learn English in 3 months’ it’s not going to happen
but it means you can learn some English in 3 months. Maybe just enough to go on holiday,
maybe an intensive for one particular level, you are not going to learn 5000 words, all
grammar in 3 months it will not happen because if it did work then I would not be a teacher
because you would not need me. And again last one which I want to mention: stupid methods.
Very often I read online that some psychologist, teacher somewhere found a special method for
learning English where if you out your trousers on your head and stick this pen up your nose
and then you can learn 5000 words in one day. What a load of rubbish. Or you can sit down
and associate all these words with some experience in your life that way you can learn 600 words
in one day. Yeah? Really? Maybe learn 100 words in a day. Even if you can learn 100
words in a day can you use them correctly in context and correct style? I don’t believe
it because if these methods worked people would speak perfect English very quickly but
they don’t. So, again, just to summarize my friends: can I learn a language in 3 months?
No, simple as that… it’s a scam, it’s a lie. So be careful when you join a language
school be careful when you look for some school online again you will make progress in 3 months,
look for a good teacher go to forums in your country that discuss good teachers /bad teacher,
good schools/bad schools etc . Choose a good teacher, get a correct guidance and you will
make a lot of progress. If you work hard yourself, you give your heart to English you will learn
quite quickly and after years and years of practice your English will be amazing. And
I will do my best to help you get there because we’re going to be together for a very long
time my friends. I’m going to help as many of you as possible.