Feeling bad about your English? 18 solutions!

Man, that's it, I've had it, thrown in the towel, I quit English, I'm done, nope, I'm

not doing it anymore, I can't, I just can't, I hit a wall, okay?

Have you ever felt this frustration learning English?

I have, not learning English, teaching

English, for sure, learning another language.

I've tried to learn Portuguese, I've tried

to learn Spanish, I learned Japanese because

I went there to Japan, hung out, sat on the

floor, ate some food, but it's going to happen

to all of us, and this lesson is called, oh

my god, Ronnie, help me, what to do when you

hit a wall, learning English.

Now, as I said before, when you hit a wall,

you're not actually, like, physically, like,

bam, bam, banging your head against a wall, it

is a turn of phrase, not literal, it basically

means that, hey, do you know what, you want to

quit, you're like, I'm done, no more English

for me, I'm here to help you, I'm here to

save you, I will be your saviour, hallelujah,

Ronnie's in the house.

So, here are some phrases that we can use that can describe when we want to quit or

when we hit a wall.

Burn out.

You're going to hear this phrase a lot, people

have been working at their jobs, a lot of

teachers, you'll say, oh, what happened to Mrs. McDonald, oh, you know what, she had

a mental breakdown, she burned out, like, is she on fire?

No, nobody's on fire here, you're just...

You just can't go on anymore, you're just like, do you know what, I'm done with this

teaching thing, I'm done with sitting in front

of a computer, 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, a

lot of people get burnout, it just means that

they can't do it anymore and they have to

change their job or whatever they're doing.

I don't know what you're doing, what are you doing?

So, as I said in the beginning of the lesson,

if you throw in the towel, I think that's

more of a sports reference because you're like, oh, doing your sports, you're done,

take a shower, take a shower, throw in the towel, means you're finished.

So, you throw in the towel, you want to quit.

You're going to lose motivation, okay?

Learning a language, especially English,

because that's what we're speaking in, it's not

something that you can do for, oh, you know,

I'm going to study English for like a year

and then I'm going to be fluent, no.

Learning a language is a lifetime journey.

It's like you're on that choo-choo train, choo-choo, for life.

And each step, you're going to get better and it's going to get worse and it's going

to get better, but keep at it, don't give up.

So, when you lose motivation, what are you going to do?

Hold on and I'll tell you in a second.

This word, I love this word, brain farts.

So, let's say you're having a conversation in English or you're in your English class

and all of a sudden you're like, yeah, so

yesterday it was really great, I went to the...

And your brain's like...

You're not going to remember the word, where did you go?

You got it in your language, you're like, yeah...

And your brain just gives up.

This is called a brain fart, just means you

completely forget maybe what you were talking

about or the word you want to use.

And we all get these, it doesn't matter what

language you're speaking, our brains are just

like...

No.

Okay, next one.

Maybe what you're learning is really fucking boring, okay?

Do you have a textbook?

And the teacher's just like, all right, class,

today we're going to learn about the simple

present tense.

Open your books to page number seven.

Of course you're going to lose motivation.

If you're studying someone, hmm, studying

something or with someone that doesn't motivate

you, it's boring.

You're like, oh, okay, well, how about I just stare at the floor?

That's more exciting than this English class.

Next one.

You forget vocab.

Kind of like a brain fart.

Brain farts are more like you forget everything,

but a vocabulary word is like, oh yeah, so

yesterday, you know, something in my house broke, and I'm trying to describe it, so...

You just can't pull out the thing and go, oh yeah, it's a wrench, because you don't

have tools with you, it's a wrench, by the way, so you're going to forget vocabulary.

What do you do?

You talk...

We call it "circumvent".

You talk about the object, even though you don't know what it is, so, oh yeah, it's a

tool, it's made of metal, I use it to pull

out teeth, no, you don't use it to pull things

out, be like, oh, oh, oh, oh yeah, a wrench, yeah, pliers, good.

So if you talk about the word, that's how to serve your...

Solve your forgetting vocab problem.

You talk about the word so the person gets it.

This happens a lot, too.

You feel completely overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed basically just means, hey, do you know what, it's too much.

Too much information, too much pressure, too

much homework, too many vocabulary words,

too much to remember.

I remember I was in university and like, every

day they're like, read these 300 pages, okay,

next class, read these 200 pages, okay, so in one day you want me to read 500 pages,

not going to happen, nuh-uh, so you're overwhelmed, you're overloaded, you just...

You can't do it.

Don't give up, okay?

I'm going to teach you how to get over this

wall, how to smash down the wall, how to pick

that towel back up again, mm-hmm, get back on track.

So to get back on track means you are finished

with your temper tantrum, no, I can't do it,

go outside, go for a walk, have some food,

drink a cup of coffee, tea, have some drugs.

I don't know what you're doing, relax, okay,

throw it down, throw it away, and come back

to it, get back on track, means take a break and go back to it.

You're going to have good days and bad days,

okay, this is where the brain farts come in,

okay?

Yeah.

Some days you are going to be an English-talking

maniac, you can talk about politics, you can

talk about, like, elephants, tusks, and another

day somebody will say, "Hey, where do you

live?" and you're like, "Oh, yeah, it's a building, a house."

So don't be so hard on yourself.

We all have good days and bad days, not only

learning English, but some days you wake up

and you're having a terrible day, that's normal, it's part of being human.

Are you human?

Yeah, it's going to happen, okay?

Another thing that we say in English, this is fun, I like this, it's like your phone,

right? "Oh, my phone's dead!"

I need to recharge your phone.

You also need to recharge yourself, recharge your batteries.

Now, most of us don't have batteries, because

again, we are human, not robots, but recharging

your batteries means going out, walking in nature, doing all the things I mentioned,

taking a break, having something to eat, just relax and get back to it.

Yeah, okay, so learning English can be super, super, super boring.

Hey, I know, I'm an English teacher, and I

know it can be really boring, oh my god, but

that's your fart...

Fart?

No, that's your problem.

I tried to say "fault" and "problem" at the same time.

That's your fart, people, that's your problem, that's your fault.

So, you need to look at how you are studying English.

Are you using a textbook?

Oh, man, okay, that's a nice basis when you're...

When you first begin learning English, but

textbooks are not real life, and they're not

cool, they're not exciting or fun.

Oh, yeah, and then we've got the apps, mm-hmm.

Do you use different apps to learn English?

I've tried.

I've tried to learn different apps when it

starts with a "d", and I'm like, "Wow, cool,

man, I'm going to learn Portuguese, and this app's going to be great, da-da-da."

Three days in, I'm like, "Pfft, this is boring."

The girl has a yellow hat, it just doesn't work, it's not motivating, it doesn't work,

it's not real life.

So, look at what you're doing.

Hey, watch movies, look at TV series, read books, social media, hello, follow people's

Instagram accounts or I don't know, whatever

you're doing, TikTok, blah-blah-blah, but

do it in English.

You're learning, but you're having fun.

Okay?

Do activities, get out of the classroom.

I can't say this enough to people who learn a

language, learning a language is not sitting

in the classroom and absorbing something.

It's not a restaurant, you're not eating dinner.

You need to go out.

If you live in a country that is fortunate enough to actually speak English, you can

go out and around, but if you're studying English in a country where they don't speak

English outside of your classroom walls, that's okay.

You can do things like sports, you can play

video games, you can join dating or chat sites.

Those are fun.

Go to bars, you can play board games, have coffee hour, online classes in English.

They don't have to be English classes.

Look at this.

You can take a cooking class, but you take the

cooking class in English, so you're fooling

your brain.

You're like, "Haha, brain, we're going to

learn to cook because we love food, but we're

going to do it in English."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so that

you're actually learning English, but you're

doing something in a fun way, so playing sports,

joining a sports team, going to the gym in

English.

Go to the gym in English, it's great.

The other thing you have to watch out for is

take a look at your teacher or your teachers

or who you're learning English from.

Make sure that they motivate you.

You don't want a teacher that's like, "That's

wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong, you're

terrible, you're never going to learn."

This is an old school teaching style that unfortunately is still around today.

You need to make sure that your teacher motivates you, corrects you.

When you make a mistake, your teacher has to be like, "Oh, do you know what?

That was wrong.

This is the correct answer."

If you don't know the correct answer, that's okay.

You are learning the language.

I don't expect my students to get everything

perfect all the time, because then they wouldn't

need lessons.

And always kind of make sure that you're entering the right level.

A lot of schools and language departments like to put people into levels, like, "Oh,

beginner, intermediate, advanced", they'll give you a test.

Remember, the grammar test is different from

the speaking ability, so watch out for that

one.

If you're in a level that's too high, oh my

god, you're going to lose motivation so quickly

because you're not going to understand.

Same thing if you're in a super low level,

you're just like, "Oh, somebody please shoot

me because it's so boring."

So, I don't know if you know, but I'm here to teach you online.

I have private English classes online, got a website, www.englishwithronnie.com.

If you're looking for a wonderful, fantastic

private English teacher, choose me, and I'll

help you with all this.

Until then, don't give up, keep it going, get

on that train, get back on track, choo-choo,

and I'll see you again.

Bye.