One of the students at Let’s Talk once commented, “I want to learn daily routine to learn
English at home”, this is the lesson for you, and not just for you but a lot more students
like you. Hi everyone my name is Hridhaan and I welcome you all with a very big heart
on Let’s Talk. In today’s lesson I bring to you some of the most important tips that
I used, when I started communicating in English. These tips will help you get better at your
communication skills. The first one that we have on the list is Focus, focus, “focus
on communication skills”. English vocabulary is vast, grammar has lot of rules and pronunciation
on top has a lot of content… how much can we understand? If you dive into the see, you
would not have one day when you’d be given a certification telling you that you are perfect
in communication. And thus what we need to understand is whatever limited knowledge that
we have today, we need to start learning and making use of those skills to start communicating
with people, because today’s practice is going to give us fruits later and so the most
important thing that we need to start doing from today is forget about the rules, and
start focusing on communication which intern will give us direct fluency and communication
skills. The next tip that I have for you is, “don’t translate everything”. Now when
I was learning how to teach English in the UK, I had a professor named Mr. Declan Cooley,
in one of the classes he once told me, Hridhaan, we do not translate from our mother tongue
to English language. I asked him, why? Declan said, It’s very important for us to understand
that the rules in my mother tongue are very different than the rules in the second language
or foreign language that is English. So the rules of English grammar are different from
the rules of my mother tongue. I cannot combined it together and translate everything word-to-word.
And the teachers who do that, it’s a very didactic procedure my friends and it’s a
failed procedure. How long can we go by doing so? A paragraph or a conversation… but nothing
more than that to be honest. We really, really need to understand the fact that direct translation
is a failed method and we should not translate everything from our mother tongue to English
language directly. There is no direct translation to, ‘aap’, ‘tum’, ‘tu’ in English,
it is all referred to as ‘you’ in English language. On the other hand if you are reading
an English text, and trying to translate it in your native language, it might not be as
bad, it will probably waste your time and confuse you a bit more but at least it won’t
confuse the person you’re speaking to. The next tip that I have for you in the list is
“watch or learn English only from those who you want to speak like” in future. When
I started out, I used to watch a lot of videos on YouTube of those particular people that
I used to admire a lot and I thought, what amazing speakers… So I think you must do
that as well, to kind of, learn from them. Now let us look at the next tip, the next
tip is “technology is your friend, so use it”. As you’ve probably noticed from the
tips and the lessons that we have shared on Let’s Talk, the internet is a great tool
in language learning. There’s no denial of the fact that today’s blogs, videos and
English websites can be used learn English much more faster and better manner. I said
that there was no magic technique for learning English, but if we imaging internet as one
place as the closest thing to a magic pill or programme, I wouldn’t be wrong if I say
so. This platform helps you develop your communication skills in such a manner that, no book can
possibly provide you. So keep on using Wikipedia and other websites such as Let’s Talk and
learnex to get better at your communication skills. The next tip that I have for you is,
“Listen to real English”. Train your ears by listening to English spoken by native speakers,
or English podcasts which are full on Let’s Talk website. Also practice without seeing
written down words, which is also a very big hindrance when it comes to communication.
Because all your attention goes to those words without basically activating your listening
skills. So may be stop doing that, it’s time for you to listen and watch songs and
movies without subtitles. Next tip that I have for you is, “surround yourself with
English People”. You don’t need to be in an English speaking country to surround
yourself with English friends, finds ways to make English part of your everyday life
at home. Like speaking English when you’re going shopping, speaking with the shopping
executive, for example, speaking English on a metro, speaking English when you are looking
for directions with people on road, speaking English with strangers most importantly. What
will happen in the end of the day? They will say, that you are trying to speak in English,
and that is all, and that is all. The next tip is “listen, speak, read, write and repeat”
Listen to a speaker, speak in English, read as much as possible in English, it could be
novels, it could be books that you like, and most importantly write your WhatsApp messages
In English. Everything that you do basically has to be in English for you to get better
at your English at home. The next tip is, “discover what type of learner you are”.
Are you an auditory learner, who learns things better by listening to things? Are you visual
learner, who learns things by looking at things, by watching videos? So if you think that you
are a better learner, you learn things when you listen to them, I suggest you find ways
to listen to English just there by improving your English. Or if you think that you’ll
learn by looking at videos, then you should watch a lot of videos. So decide for yourself.
“Keep a language log or a journal” is the next tip that I have for you. Writing
as much as possible can be very, very interesting. Now one should only follow this tip when that
person is interested in it. Of course nobody can force you to write, and therefore it is
very, very important for you to do it only when you really feel like, that you are interested
in doing that. For example, it’s always a good idea to write down you are feeling
probably when you are very ecstatic, very happy or if you are in sorrow, God forbid…
So it’s always a good idea to jot down your feelings, because it really helps you, think
deeply and write sentences in the correct format. Additionally if you look back in earlier
entries in your English log, you will be able to reflect at how far you have come basically,
and this will also get you better in terms of getting motivated most importantly. For
example if I have to tell you about the latest journal that I was writing, I have this very
amazing book, wherein, my diary, wherein I write the golden moments of the day. So I
write the top three things that happened with me all in English, this helps me get better
at my vocabulary and also my thinking skills as well. The next tip is “know your level
to improve your level”. This is similar to the previous tip that I’ve spoken about,
but in order to recognize your limitations, you need to first understand where you are
in your present situation. Tests are always fun. Go to a language center or go to a website
where you get free English test are conducted, and get to know what is your current level
of English. Once that is done, start speaking in English, give yourself like six months
or one month, 1-6 months, check your level again and see if you have improved or not.
It will again help you in motivating you as a learner and will help you get better at
your communication skills and will also help you in understanding the areas that you have
to work basically on yourself to become better in English communications. Next is “pay
attention to pronunciation from the beginning”. I can’t tell you, how important this tip
is… This is basically combining tip six and seven into one concrete information. And
that is one concrete advice and that is if you start pronouncing things wrongly from
a very nascent stage, from the beginning, it will become your habit. Later you would
not even realize that you might be speaking perfect English but your communication sends
across a wrong message. Use great tools such as, a lot of videos on Let’s Talk and on
lot of other channels and platform to help you get better at communication skills, but
remember, only, only learn pronunciation from those people who you think are experts at
it. Anybody who starts to teach might as well not be an expert. So choose your tutor accordingly.
Next tip is, “tone on music, in English”. Rhythms and rhythms have been found to stimulate
and train your brain to improve learning and therefore it is very important for you to
listen to some good English songs. They not only help you with your pronunciation but
also help you in getting better at vocabulary. And the last tip for the day that I have for
in the list of learning English at home is, “Watch movies and carefully notice with
active listening skills”. The dialogues and the keywords that the characters, basically
say during those films. What will happen because of this is, (a) you do not have words displayed
on the screen, which basically takes your attention away in a much larger manner. I’m
talking about subtitles. So once there are no subtitles, you would basically have your
active ears. Just try to understand and make out what the speaker is trying to communicate,
and therefore it is very important for you to have active listening skills, which will
help you get better at listening anyway in your English communication. That is all that
I have for you in today’s lesson of the daily routing that you can start to follow
when it comes to learning English at home. I hope you enjoyed these tips and will use
one, two or three or all of them to get better at your communication skills. Thank you very
much for being with me and I hope you have a great day ahead, God bless.