3 Common Problems in Learning English (+ how to solve them)

Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.

Hey, what's up?

Hi.

James from engVid.

Do you know there are three mistakes you're making with your English right now?

I have a special guest, and that's Mr. E's cousin, Dr. E, and he has the prescription

for what ails you.

Let's go to the board.

So, generally put, there are three mistakes

we make, and if we do not make these mistakes,

we can get to success.

And that's what E's putting this cup here for, saying, "You can win.

You can do it!"

All right.

So, the first thing we talk about is fear of what?

Making a mistake.

People make mistakes, and they're afraid of making them because they think if they make

a mistake, there's something wrong with them or they won't get better.

Well, making mistakes is part of the learning process.

In fact, it's by making a mistake we try to find out how to fix it.

Yeah?

Making mistakes holds you back, or your fear of making a mistake holds you back.

It stops you from engaging to get the practice that's necessary to get better.

We might ask, "This fear of making a mistake, where does it come from?"

Well, part of it is this complex thing we call grammar.

Many people overthink grammar.

What is the present perfect?

What is the simple past?

What is the present continuous?

What is the future perfect?

Oh, am I saying this story...

This thing right?

Is it I was going home?

I had...

I...

I...

I had gone home?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Well, this leads to a confusion coming from the fear of making a mistake.

They get so into trying to get the grammar

right that they close down, and that's something

we want to avoid.

So, the first mistake is fear of making a mistake.

Right?

Cool.

The second mistake people make is it's with grammar.

They overthink the grammar, thinking that if they try to get that grammar correct at

every time and all time, without making a mistake, that things will be good, but then

they get overwhelmed, which means they have a lot of...

They feel a lot of difficulty or stress because

they're not too sure if they've got the grammar

right, and grammar is a difficult thing to do.

So, now, because of this, they don't talk a lot, and that leads to lack of...

A lack of consistent practice.

Because they're afraid of making a mistake, they try not to say anything; when they do,

they overthink the grammar and they just avoid it altogether.

And then they say, "Well, tomorrow I will make up for it.

I will study so, so, so hard.

I will study very, very hard."

And they don't.

But then maybe they study next week for one

hour, and then they don't for a while because

they make that mistake, and they go, "Okay, I'm afraid I'll go off."

And this circle, you notice it goes like this, it's just a spiral continues.

The lack of practice leads to a fear of making

mistakes, leads to an overthinking of grammar,

which leads to a lack of consistent practice.

You can see this, and that's why you were here.

Right?

These three mistakes are holding you back.

So, what happens if we talk to Mr. E's cousin, Dr. E?

He's got that special thing there, right?

Stethoscope, to listen to your heart, because

he knows in your heart, like the shadow, he

knows what...

Comic book hero, go look him up.

The shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

Well, Dr. E knows the fears that you have and how we can work on them.

So, let's take a look at it.

Okay, you've got a fear of making a mistake.

The first thing I told you about was just this.

Mistakes.

That's where learning happens.

You make a mistake, you try and figure out

what that is, that curiosity, that work helps

you to understand in a deeper way.

Your mistakes give you deeper understanding of whatever it is you're studying; English,

mathematics, computers, and going deeper in

that learning helps you to grow and get better,

and leads you on the path of success.

Right?

So, once you overcome the fear of making a mistake, going, "Listen, I'm going to make

mistakes.

I don't speak this language.

It's not my first language."

And I'll give you a little hint.

Many Canadians, and Americans, and British people make mistakes.

Watch our news.

Some of the things they say, you're like,

"That's not actually correct grammar, and these

are professionals being paid to speak."

Right?

So, if you're thinking about that, and these

are professionals getting paid to speak and

they're making mistakes, why are you so upset that you're making any?

Hmm?

Okay.

So, now we overcome making mistakes, you're like, "Okay, you know what?

I got it, James.

You were Mr. E...

Or, sorry, Dr. E.R.

Wright.

I'm going to make mistakes.

I'm going to make mistakes."

And you go, "Yeah, you're going to."

Let's think about overthinking grammar, because

you think that's what's going to happen.

Right?

But as I said, as you get over your fear of

making mistakes, you go deeper into learning.

Because of that, you understand more and you'll make more...

Sorry.

Less mistakes, naturally.

See?

I just learned I made a mistake, here.

Mistakes happens to the best of us.

Not that I'm the best.

All right.

Let's look at overthinking grammar.

I said that was a problem.

Overthinking.

Instead of worrying about grammar, what you want

to do is worry about-all right?-communication.

Subject-verb agreement.

"I", sorry, "I have", "she has".

Making sure these things agree so there's clarity in when you're speaking.

So, instead of worrying so much about, "Is my grammar actually perfect?"

It's like, hey, just get some basics right.

Get your vocabulary working.

Right?

Basic communication.

If I want a drink, I might go at a bar, and

the bartender will go, "I didn't speak English,

but I communicated."

If you start working on the basics and worry

about communicating to make sure people understand

what pronoun you're using, what object you're

talking about, what action, like, "I eat food.

Yeah?"

Is it great?

Is it perfect grammar?

No.

I'm like, yeah.

"I eating food now."

No.

It's not perfect.

Who cares?

I understand what you mean.

So, focus on communication rather than overthinking

the grammar, and slowly as we go through not

worrying about mistakes and understanding more, our communication will be more fluid.

It will flow better, and people will understand us.

Cool?

All right.

Next one we're going to do is this one, lack of consistent practice.

We have lack of consistent practice for two reasons.

I mentioned before by making mistakes and

worrying about our communication, that's why

sometimes we don't practice, we feel badly.

Another is we have these really unrealistic expectations.

I'm going to come home tonight and study

for one hour, and I shall study for one hour

every day for the next 30 days.

You know you're not going to do that.

I know you're not going to do that, but what happens if we do this?

You set realistic goals.

What do I mean?

Hey, study for 15 minutes.

Study for five minutes every day.

Study for five minutes every day, and on the

weekends you have some time, join a study

group where you'll study for 20 minutes.

Right?

If you make these realistic goals and they're

consistent, five minutes every day is better

than one hour a week, believe it or not, because it's consistent.

It will help us not only get the confidence

to get over mistakes because we can see what

we're doing on a regular basis instead of

practicing once in a month and then expecting

magic.

Right?

We can set realistic goals by saying I will study this much, I will study with a group

of other people who are at my level once a

week, and by doing this we will make progressive

steps or we'll progress forward in our language learning.

And as we feel more confident, our fear of making mistakes will go down.

We will be learning our grammar because we will be consistent in our practice, but our

overthinking will stop because we're going to concentrate more on communicating with

another person, so it becomes more of a natural thing and the grammar will come.

And because of that consistent practice with

other people, people can help correct us so

we don't have to overthink grammar, they will help us learn it.

So we can reverse this circle and say why

don't we get consistent practice so we don't

have to overthink, and in doing so we will

lose the fear of making mistakes and we will

make a very rapid progress in our language learning.

Dr. E, mistakes are part of the learning process, don't worry about it.

In fact, embrace it, be happy.

If you're making mistakes, it means you're moving forward.

The only people who don't make mistakes are dead people.

If you focus on communication, this is what

you're learning the language for, to communicate.

We don't communicate perfectly in our own languages, but we can work on communication

and enhance what we have.

Enhance means make better, yeah?

And finally, set realistic goals.

You're not going to learn English in two weeks.

I should have made this video, "Learn English

in Two Hours, All the English", and there

will be a lot of people clicking, like, "Yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure you can work

in two hours if I put a tube or a wire in your head like Elon Musk once, and there,

you can now know all English", but it doesn't work that way, it's not realistic.

Maybe in the year 2050, but right now, no.

But if we're realistic in our goals, we try

working with communication, we embrace mistakes,

we'll learn a lot faster than we think, and you too can be a success, righty?

Anyway, thank you for watching this video.

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Or am I?

Your consistent practice, right?

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Anyway, you have a wonderful night, day, lunch, whatever.

Get to practicing, and I'll see you soon.

Ciao.