3 rules for improving your English immediately

"And he will come down with great and furious anger."

Hi, James from EngVid. I was doing my Samuel L. Jackson impression, except there's no bad

words because Sammy would be swearing right now. Samuel L. Jackson, love you. Great actor.

Waiting for Avengers.

Okay, if you didn't understand anything I said, there's probably a good reason for it.

I usually speak very rapidly, but today's lesson is using English effectively. If I

want to use English effectively, I'm going to need to do three things. I'm going to have

to make you be able to understand me. I'm going to have to make what I say to you very

useful, and then I'm going to show you how you can use it.

The third one, when I teach this lesson, you will do on your own and you won't need me.

Cool? Let's go to the board. Hey, it's going to be difficult to understand if we don't

have our favorite guy here, Mr. E. He's very serious today. He wants to understand.

Okay, understand. Well, what do we mean? When I talk about the three U's, think of university.

When you go to university, you don't just know things. You're supposed to understand

how they work. I want you to do this here. When we look at anything like new vocabulary,

idioms, or grammar, a lot of times people go in, take notes, write them down, close

the book, and that's as far as they go. I want you to challenge you, or I want you to

challenge yourself, which means push yourself, try hard, to really understand the material

you've been given. One of the best ways for understanding is question. In fact, I would

say the best way to learn is this word right here. This is the greatest teaching word in

the universe. Why? When you're given a new word, you want to say, "Why does it mean this?"

or "Why is this important?" That's for vocabulary. In grammar, why does it work this way, and

why doesn't it affect this or that? Idioms, why do you say this? This is a magic word

which will open doors for you, because in answering why, someone will explain, and that

explanation is your understanding. Now, here's the second key. Write it down. By writing,

it'll help imprint it or put it in your memory. What we really want to do is understand something.

In vocabulary, I usually ask students to use a word and then write it in many different

ways they can when they've been taught the different meanings of words. Some words for

instance, "seem." "Seem." "It seems hot in here." "You seem like a nice person." It means

look like. If it's used in a homonym, "seem," which joins things together. I have a lesson

on that. You should check it out. It's on modal use. "Seem." They're homonyms. They

sound the same, but they're different. You might want to understand that. That's something

you can understand and go into your understanding. Make sure you understand ideas, your vocabulary,

your idioms or grammar thoroughly. Once you understand it, you can use it. This is what

we're talking about being effective. The usage is you use it well.

Next, "useful." This is more like a context question. "Where and when." Understanding

something, because some students have great understanding. I've met them from all over

the world. They understand a lot of things, but then we have a small problem. They understand

this stuff, but they don't know when or where to use it. "Understand" meaning great, but

make it useful. Where would you use it? Do you use it at work? Do you use it in the bar?

Do you use it at home? Are you never supposed to use it? There's some words in English,

"Don't ever use them." You should understand what they mean in case somebody says them

to you, but don't ever use them. When something's useful to you, you know where. What I usually

say to students is once you understand it, put yourself in a situation where you might

say, "Where would you say something like the word'seem'?" It's, "He seems like a nice

person." Probably in a party or a work environment. You seem to know what you're doing. It's a

very useful word. If you understand it, you can make it useful. So it's in any situation

where you can't say for 100 percent, "Oh, see, it seems like there's an emergency going

on because I can hear the fire department." Now, listen to what I said that it seems like

because I don't know. I'm in here teaching you, but it seems important because I can

hear the sirens. See, there you go. So I know where it's useful, so I know where to use

it. Think of where and when. That's a good thing to do, okay? So you ask yourself, "Now

I understand this word. Where would I use it?" Where and especially when? At a wedding,

at a funeral, right? At the office, at a party.

"Use." It seems obvious. Well, it's not. Some students understand it. They can even tell

you where you should use it, why it's important, and they don't know where to use it. They

don't know why it's important, and then they never use it. And I usually say, "If you don't

use it, you don't know it," because there's a reason why it's there, right? If I don't

know or I have zero knowledge of something, that's why I don't use it. But once I have

knowledge of it, it's only useful when I truly understand it and I use it. So use it. I usually

say, "Once you've learned it, try and use it at least two to three times that day or

that week. Use it."

The brain is an amazing tool. I know most of you think your iPod, your... My gosh, in

five years, people will laugh and go, "What is iPod? It's that thing my grandfather used

to use." But a lot of you use your machines and go, "These are the incredible things."

No. The most incredible thing you have is between your ear, your ears. You have two

of them. It's your brain. And your brain is funny. It will always remember what you use

if it is useful and it understands it.

So it actually works backwards as well. If you keep using it, your brain will find it's

useful and it will try to understand it to make sure it's not making a mistake. But generally

put, because if you're watching this video now, it's because you're trying to be or you're

trying to use English or you're trying to be effective in your use of English. So what

I want you to do is try and do this first. Understand. Think like a hunter. Understand

your prey. Prey is the animal you're hunting. You're trying to kill or catch. Find useful

ways of catching it without getting hurt. Okay? Effective ways. And then use these weapons

and catch your prey.

Or I think dating. Understand that men are women. Find useful techniques and actually

go out and use them. Get a date tonight. Maybe that will be a video I do. Hmm. How to date

effectively in English. If you like, I can see. Okay. Anyway, here's a quick lesson.

I want you to try and do that. Try it in your next vocabulary class. Get a word. Ask your

teacher what the different definitions are. Try and use sentences. Write them out. Physically

write out these sentences with the different meanings. Useful. Then think where would you

say these sentences, right? And then go out and use it. After you do it, get up. Get off

the couch. Close engVid for now. Save your electricity. But come back because you're

going to have to check the lesson, right? Go use it outside in public. Then come back.

Check to see if you did all three. And then notice you remember the words. Anyway, long

lesson. I hope this is very effective. Okay? I'm sure it is. Use it. I'm sure you understood

it. It's very useful. And make sure you get more effective use out of these things. Go

to www.engvid.com. You'll find more useful information. Hope you use it. I'm sure we'll

make it understandable for you. Ciao.