Learn English: 3 easy ways to get better at speaking English

"The Prosperity Plan." It's empty. Why? Well, hi. James, from EngVid. I have a book, and

it says "Prosperity Plan". I know you're here to learn English. This is a book full of secrets

on how to make millions of dollars. Empty. That's because when people tell you there's

a secret, there's not really a secret; there's a method behind something, and you may not

know it, so to you it's a secret, but you know, just like that book, there are no secrets.

The only one is hard work. Let's look at the three methods I have for you today in order

to learn English, okay? Call them the "Secrets you need to know" because most people don't

know them because the funny thing is, although they're not secret -- I said it again -- they're

not methods that are usually taught in ESL books.

The Kaizen Method, the Process Method, and the Writing Method are actually books I read

on something completely different. But what I found was they were very, very handy for

learning English. Personally, I'm trying to learn Spanish, and when I apply these different

methods, I found my learning going faster and faster, and I actually enjoyed it. So

I called them "secret" for you because I'm quite sure that your teachers haven't sat

down and gone, "Today, we're going to learn the Kaizen Method of English. Then, we'll

do the Process Method, and then we'll do the Writing Method." No. Because they're actually

three different books, all right? So I'm just going to give you a part of each book, and

if I come across to the end, I'll give you another lesson on it, all right? But these

are three things I liked out of these books. All right. Let's start from the first one,

the Process Method. I know -- and it's in red, and I start here why? Most of the times

people are learning a language, they want to -- and this is what the Process Method

is about. People start with "product", "product". What is a "product"? A "product" is something

you can touch or hold. This marker is a product. But this isn't how the marker started. I'm

sorry. Okay, the marker started a little differently. I mean, that's an alcohol base that I'm sniffing.

When I go [inhales], there's liquid in here. This is plastic -- came from oil. So why I'm

telling you all these things -- you're going, "Why are you telling me?" Well, things start

in a certain way, but they end up like this. In fact, you can think of the Process Method

versus product as being a tree and being a seed. And a seed, you know, little thing,

you put it in the ground, and it grows into a tree. Well, when you have a seed, the seed

has no idea that it's going to be a tree and a big tree -- how long it will take. But humans

are funny. They want to start a language, and they think right away, "I'm going to learn

English." And then, they sit down; they open the book; they open the book; "I'm going to

learn English. I'm learning English. I'm learning English." And then they get upset one hour

later. "I don't know any English. I don't speak English." Well, it's like being a human.

You start as a baby, you grow to an adult. When we talk about the Process Method, what

you want to do is don't think about you want to speak English. Yes, I know. That's why

you're watching this video and why you're studying. Think more about what you're doing

while you're studying English. And this is called the "process". Go into the step. Concentrate

on what you're doing. You'll find a couple of things happen: Sometimes you'll say English

is hard or it's boring. If you do this method, you'll actually stop finding it hard or boring,

and you'll enjoy it because you'll be working on something specific, mastering that, and

then you're going to start noticing that the final product -- English -- is coming to you.

And it will come faster than you think. Why? Well, if you're thinking, "I don't understand

this English", you're focusing, really, on you don't understand English or you don't

know English. You're not focusing on what you're doing. If you take a breath [inhales]

and go [exhales], "Okay. I'm just watching this video of this crazy guy who speaks very

quickly in English, and just now, he told me to take a breath. Oh, okay. I understand."

And you're ahead. That's the Process Method. Take time to actually go back -- when you're

thinking about it's hard; it's difficult or boring -- and say to yourself, "What am I

doing now?" And then look at that. Each time you do that, you get further in the process

and you will end up with a product before you know it. Okay? Sounds simple, but try

it. You can even do this on a date. That's another story.

Okay, so we do this. We got the Process Method. That's the overall one we talk about. Because

once you understand that, we're going to go to the Kaizen method. The Kaizen Method is

one step beyond. Well, not really. The Kaizen Method is -- what they're saying is: here's

you, and take -- you have to take just one more step. Most people, when they're learning

something, they want to learn something -- some vocabulary. Then they go into lexical chunks.

"Lexical chunks" is just a fancy term for words that go together. Now, three, four,

five words that are usually said together in English. But you just need to learn one

word. In the Kaizen Method, they would say you just need to know one letter. They would

say start with 'A', and know that it can be "ah", or 'T' and it could be "tuh". Because

if you cannot pronounce those things properly, how can you say the word properly? This doesn't

occur to most people. They want to learn all the English. That's the problem. Remember

the product? We go back to here, right? Well, it's again this process. An easier way to

do it is the Kaizen Method. Pick one subject; pick one thing; break it down to the smallest

unit you can do, and focus on just that, okay? Then you take the next step and then the next

one. My favorite story from the Kaizen Method is a person who wanted to work out. And they

said, "Working out is so hard; it's so difficult." So what the trainer said was simple. They

said, "You know what? Tomorrow morning, don't work out." The customer was, like, "Why? Are

you crazy?" He said, "No. Don't. Just stand up for 30 seconds. That's it." And the client

was, "Well, anybody would do that." He said, "Yeah. That's your first step." Eventually,

they built up until they were doing a thirty-minute workout, and they were enjoying it. Because

they took steps that were so easy that it didn't stop them. The reason why I explain

this one, this method, is generally, if something is too difficult, we get what's called a "stress

reaction". "Stress" is when you're afraid and your body doesn't work as efficiently

or effectively. So it makes things harder. By doing the Kaizen Method, you relax, and

your brain can do its best work. We call it "optimal work", which means "works in its

best way". "Optimize" or "optimal" means "the best", okay? And that's what you can do with

the Kaizen Method. Slow yourself down so you can work your best. Okay?

Now, you're looking here with the Kaizen Method, with the Process Method, you're going, "You

know what? It doesn't sound so hard." I'm like, "No." Learning is natural for all humans.

It just is. It's how we learn. And that's why these are secret methods because people

don't just tell these to you. You go to school to learn things, not methods, okay?

And here's the third one. This one -- sorry -- it's a little bit more active. But I've

made it so easy for you. Just breathe. Don't worry about the product. You've got to do

some work. Remember, I said the only secret is work, which nobody wants to do. This one's

a bit of fun, okay? Because I often tell students, when you get really, really good with English,

what will happen is there're two steps you'll know you're getting better. The first step

is this: You're going to wake up in the morning and go, "Ah!" And then I'll go "What?" You'll

go, "I had a dream, and it was in English!" Either you'll be speaking English or everybody

around you speaks English, and you'll understand it. This is the beginning of your brain's

process saying, "Okay these words are the same." Spanish, English, German, English,

Hindi, English, Russian, English, same." The, the, the -- all the same. Whatever. Da, yah,

niet, no -- same, same, same. And your brain's just saying they're equivalent or equal. You're

dreaming because it's processing that information. See? "Process" -- back to that word.

The second thing people notice is, they'll be speaking in their native language, and

English will just come out of their mouth, and they won't even think about saying it;

it just comes. And you go, "How did that happen?" Well, your brain is now saying this word is

equivalent to this word, all right? Sí? Oops! Sorry. I did it there. I meant to say "yes",

but I said "sí". I'm studying Spanish, so then my brain sometimes thinks Spanish, English,

same, same. Because I practice it a lot. But I'm going to give you a method now which is

a bit more active. It's going to be fun because you can do it for your dreams. You have dreams

-- you know, dormir, sleeping. Wake up in the morning. "Oh, I had this movie in my head

last night." What I want you to do is get up; immediately go downstairs; take -- get

up twenty minutes early, ten minutes early, five minutes. Kaizen, right? One minute early.

Write out your dream in English. "Huh?" Well, think about it. If it's a dream or thoughts

that you have in your head, and you're writing in English, it will need adjectives; it will

need verbs; it will need adverbs; it will need direct objects, objects, all these things

from grammar points, and you write it out. You still won't be fully awake, but this is

what I call your "baseline" English. This means this is where your English really is.

Not on your good days or your bad days, but your baseline. So what will happen is later

on, you come back to it, and I want you to correct it, okay? Because when you correct

that English, you're going to see the mistakes you're making and the things you have to learn.

Isn't that great? I mean, come on. It costs you nothing. You just get out of bed; come

back five hours later, "Man, this is crazy. Where's the verb here? Where's the noun? What

was I thinking? Change. Got to change this. Got to do this." And you're working on something.

It also works because it has an emotional quality. This is your work about your life

about your dreams, things you care about, things you want to learn and things you're

doing. Cool, huh? Little bit active. All three work. I'm telling you they work. And they're

fun. I mean, jeez. Do this; watch these videos; life's good for you.

Life's not good for somebody, and he's a little bit upset. You know who it is? It's Mr. E,

and he's drinking again. He's been drinking a lot lately. I'm worried about this guy.

I didn't include him in the video. I told him they're methods; he doesn't need to be

here. But he's, like, he's got to be here for everything. Okay, you're here. You're

here. And for the fans -- not my fans. I don't have fans; I have students. He has fans. There're

like a million of you guys who always ask, "Where is Mr. E?" So I've got to put him up

every day. Anyway. Just a quick synopsis, and a "synopsis" is

to bring everything together -- "synthesis", right? Put it together and to give you a quick

overview. The three methods we're looking at is lets a look at "process", not "product".

Don't worry about "I must learn English". Just think about, you know, "What am I doing

in the moment?" Second thing, make that moment simple -- Kaizen Method. Make it the simplest

step you can do to get to the goal you want to. The steps will come quickly. And finally,

put it all together. Wake up in the morning -- one minute, two minutes, you know -- write

it out, and see how it goes. The methods work, okay? I use them for learning

Spanish. Here's where I want you to go when you're done so you can see Mr. E and me again

at www.engvid.com, "eng" as in "English", "vid" as in "video". And if you want to get

to see my latest videos, subscribe. Don't forget. Push the subscribe button, and I'll

pop up every time you come. Well, I and this guy, all right? The three secrets -- not that

you need to know; that you know. Have a good one.