Too tired or busy to improve your English? Here’s the solution, to get off the intermediate plateau

- To get off of the intermediate plateau

you need a daily English routine.

But what if you are tired and busy

and you don't know how to best improve your English?

In this episode, I'll show you a specific daily routine

that makes it feel easy to practice English every day.

Hi, I'm your English coach, Christina,

and welcome to Speak English with Christina,

the best place to become confident

speaking business English step by step.

And this is lesson two of our special mini series,

Get Off The Intermediate Plateau with Virtual Immersion.

Now, to get off of the intermediate plateau

and to get you to a more advanced English level,

my secret weapon is a virtual immersion in English.

And it's super powerful because it helps you to

practice lots of English all day every day

with lots of short easy to do activities,

to be much more regular and consistent

so that you switch your brain to English

and remember consistency is key.

And it helps you create your routine for enjoying English,

remember things better and faster,

and also just feel more confident and comfortable

using English for your work and for your personal pleasure.

So, let me give you an example of one daily routine

that makes it feel easier to do English,

even if you're busy and even if you're tired.

I totally understand what that is like.

So, I do a lot of these things in my own routines

for learning German.

And like I said, to be honest like running a business

that takes a lot of time and energy.

But routines like the one we're going to see

that's how I make it easy

to fit language learning into my busy day.

And this has helped a lot of my own clients as well

and so I'm sure it's gonna help you.

All right, let's get into it.

So for this routine,

we're going to use one main resource to keep it simple.

We're going to take the example of a podcast in English.

And this works with any podcast

that you can get the transcript for.

And this routine includes

both those natural learning exercises

and deliberate learning activities.

Now, I'm gonna tell you what to do step by step.

First, choose a podcast in English

that has the transcript available,

and I have some of good podcasts over on my blog.

Link below the video for you.

First step is to just listen to the podcast

as you prepare for your day.

This is natural learning.

You're just listening to hear the sounds,

maybe catch a few words

but don't worry if you don't understand very much.

It's okay.

Then when you sit down for breakfast

and your morning tea or coffee,

read the transcript

and just look for some useful expressions.

This is very natural learning.

You are picking up vocabulary in context,

or at least right now, just identifying some new vocabulary

that we'll work with later.

Step three, before you start your work day

and everything gets crazy,

listen to your podcast again.

This time try to hear those new expressions in the context.

So the expressions that you highlighted

during your breakfast,

try to listen and catch them.

This is very deliberate practice.

Then you have your work day.

It's very busy.

You have a lunch break,

I hope you have a lunch break,

even if it's a short lunch break.

But during your lunch break, take a few minutes

and make some flashcards with some new vocabulary.

Maybe you take, I don't know, three minutes to do this.

Again, you're doing some deliberate vocabulary work

and creating a tool that's going to help you.

Step number five, at the end of your day,

you can relax a little, I hope.

When you're doing that, listen to the podcast

the same podcast again and again.

Just notice the expressions that you learned today

and maybe try to pay attention to the pronunciation also.

Again, this is deliberate learning.

You're listening with a very specific purpose

and training your ear for comprehension and pronunciation.

Then later in the evening, when you're relaxed

and at home doing your thing,

just try to write

a list of the vocabulary that you learned today.

Try to do that from memory.

See if you remember all of your words.

You can check with the transcript or your flashcards

but just quiz yourself and see what you can remember.

Then I definitely suggest this

as part of your virtual immersion program

and it's to have a conversation partner or a teacher

to talk about the topic of the podcast.

Try to use the words that you wrote in your list

so that you are repeating and using

and actually like acquiring these new vocabulary words

so that they stick in your brain.

And then to finish your day of immersion in English,

take a few minutes before you go to bed

and maybe write what you learned today.

You can keep a daily English journal.

Just you can write the list of vocabulary words

but I would recommend maybe trying to write the vocabulary

and use it in context.

You can write a story.

You can just write, this is what I learned

and this is why it's important to me.

And the good thing with this journaling

you don't have to be correct.

No one is going to read it.

No one is going to judge your grammar

but you're just consolidating and let's say

helping your brain to stay in that English mode

before you go to sleep.

And we know that lots of interesting

fun things happen in your brain while you're sleeping.

So if you can end with English, that's great.

Now that might sound like a lot

and maybe you aren't superman or superwoman

and you can start doing all of that right now

and if you can, congratulations.

But if you're like me,

or if you're just a normal busy person

it may be easier to create that routine progressively.

Trying to do one thing first,

get that in place and then add a second activity

or a third activity.

And you don't have to do all of those activities every day

but you do have to do something every day.

But the idea is that it's realistic

and it's feasible and you can do it.

So, on my blog, you'll find lots of links and activities

and ideas and everything you need

to make it easy and enjoyable to really start

doing virtual immersion every day in English.

And you'll see that you don't have the time

or maybe right now even the possibility

to go and live in England or the U.S.

or Australia or any English speaking country

to physically immerse yourself in English,

but you can virtually immerse yourself in English.

Now, the next steps for you,

subscribe to my channel please,

so that you can get lesson number three in this series

Get Off The Intermediate Plateau with Virtual Immersion

and you will learn some ways next time

in the next lesson, you'll learn some ways

to instantly upgrade your business English

to sound more advanced and more confident.

And if you like the concept of virtual immersion

but you're thinking,

I'm just too busy for this.

I can't do it.

Then please go and watch my lesson on

how to find time for English.

I hope that it will inspire you

and I will see you in the next lesson.