How to Find Motivation to Study English? | 7 Tips to Make English Learning Fun

39,522 views ・ 2022-01-04

English with Veronika Mark


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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- Hello guys and welcome back to my YouTube channel.
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Today, we'll be talking about finding motivation
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to study English.
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My first tip is never compare your English
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to other people's English.
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One reason that so many English learners
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have such a low opinion of their skills
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is because they're always comparing
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themselves to other people.
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They always compare themselves to native speakers
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and to just like advanced speakers, right,
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advanced English speakers,
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and they just don't feel great about themselves.
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And guys, I totally understand you.
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We all try to compare ourselves to other people,
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but please at least try to make sure
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that you don't feel bad
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about yourself when you do that right?
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Because for example,
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the problem that I have right now is that
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I always compare myself to native speakers.
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I'm like, I'm not a native speaker yet.
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So I have to keep on improving.
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I mean, that's true.
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I do have a lot of things I can improve.
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But one thing that I don't like about it is that
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I always feel like I'm not good enough.
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This feeling of not being good enough,
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that your English is not good enough.
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You have to understand that you've made some progress
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and just feel good about yourself because guys,
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native speaking adults have like 20 plus years experience
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of living in a country, right?
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By the time they're adults,
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they're immersed into this language 24/7.
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And here guys, a very useful thing you can do instead
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of comparing yourself to other people,
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you can compare your present self to your past self.
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For example, how you can do that?
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You can film a video speaking in English.
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For example, I don't know just talk about your day,
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just like, with your phone.
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You don't need to upload this video to any platform,
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just for yourself.
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And then come back to this video,
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like two months later, maybe like a year later.
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And I'm sure guys, you'll see such an improvement.
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You'll be like, "Oh my God,
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I cannot believe my English was ever this bad."
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Tip number two, keep a record of your progress.
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So this next step is really connected with a previous tip
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and is all about keeping records of your progress.
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How can you do that?
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For example, it can be writing in a journal
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in English every single day or every other day,
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you know, when you feel like it,
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just, you know about anything.
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You can write about your study session.
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For example, like today I learned this and that in English,
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like I learned some new words
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or I watched like a new cool video in English.
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So this is one of the ways you can keep track
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of your progress and the other way is again,
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by filming videos of yourself.
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Just, you know, again,
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you can film a video of yourself and say something like,
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"Hey, like today is January 2022.
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And I just learned like this new word.
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I just watched a video about this,
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or I just finished reading a book."
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And guys, you cannot believe how motivating it is
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to keep a record of your accomplishments.
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And especially if you decide to film a video of yourself,
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at the end of the year,
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you'll see how your pronunciation has improved.
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You'll see how much more confident you are right now,
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speaking English and how much more words you know.
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So you should definitely try this.
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Tip number three, don't take mistakes personally.
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A lot of people really struggle
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with feeling good about themselves
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when they make a lot of mistakes in English.
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They feel like they always have to be perfect.
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And guys, I can really relate to you here
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because sometimes I also feel like I always have
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to be perfect.
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You have to be perfect in English.
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You have to be perfect at your job.
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You need to be perfect at home.
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I dunno, just everywhere you have to be perfect,
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but it's not true.
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It's actually really fun and interesting to make mistakes
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because this is how we learn
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because the ultimate goal
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of language learning is communication.
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And guys believe me,
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even if you do make mistakes,
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people will still understand you.
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People by nature are very understanding.
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And especially when they want to communicate with you,
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you will be able to get your point across, believe me.
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Let me give you an example
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with a very popular grammar mistake
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that a lot of English learners make.
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So for example, you might say,
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I live here for three years in the city, in this country.
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But actually the correct way will be to say,
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I've been living here for three years
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or I've lived here for three years.
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Okay it's a mistake yes, it's a grammar mistake,
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but people will still understand what you mean.
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Don't worry about it. Don't stress about it too much.
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When you're communicating with other people, your main goal,
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your top priority should be communication, right?
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If you do make mistakes, it's fine.
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You will learn and you will stop making these mistakes.
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But right now in this very moment,
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what you should be focusing on
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is communication, not mistakes.
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My next step is try to make your language
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learning process more enjoyable.
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And there's so many great ways you can do that.
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One thing that really helped me improve my English
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and find motivation to keep on studying English
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was making my English learning routine more fun.
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I was always trying to try something new,
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to change things up.
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I was always interested and curious and just exploring
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some of the new apps or websites
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or maybe books to improve my English.
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And I would really love to recommend an app called Lingvist.
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For those of you who are interested in learning real life
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vocabulary in as little as 30 minutes per day,
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Lingvist helps people learn English faster through the use
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of science and the most advanced technology,
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because they use smart algorithms
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tailored specifically to you.
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Lingvist uses space repetition,
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a technique I talk about a lot on my channel,
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which means that the words you already know
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will be repeated fewer times,
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but the words you still need to learn will be repeated
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more often to help you remember.
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So once you open the app and register,
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Lingvist will have 50 cards for you to complete.
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Do it every day, four days a week
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and you will immediately see how much more words
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you know in English.
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On their website or by using their app,
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you can learn English from several languages like Russian,
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French, Spanish, Portuguese, German,
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Japanese, or even Hindi.
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With only one subscription,
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you will have access to all the content and features.
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And you will be able to learn two or more languages
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at the same time just with one subscription.
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And what's more, you can also create your own custom decks
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to memorize the words you need.
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For example, when you're reading a new article in English,
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you can upload it to the custom decks tool
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to create a new course with all the words
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you don't know yet.
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So the next time you read this article,
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you'll understand every single word.
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So guys, if you're interested in making
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your English learning process more fun,
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you can give Lingvist a try by signing up
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for their 30 day free trial
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by clicking the link in the description
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and using my code Veronika.
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Guys, I really hope this app will help you stay motivated
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in your English learning journey.
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And now let's move on to my tip number five.
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When you feel lazy, take a baby step.
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A baby step is a very small action
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and learning English is a pretty big project.
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And sometimes it might feel really overwhelming.
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And you know, instead of just like one day
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you feel discouraged, you feel lazy and you just say,
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"Oh man, I don't have time.
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I don't want to learn English today.
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You know, it's fine. I'll do it tomorrow."
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Just take a baby step,
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do something for like five minutes.
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For example, you can read in English for just five minutes.
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You can watch a YouTube video in English.
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You can listen to just one song in English
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and look up any words you don't know.
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Or you can also listen to one episode
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of "6 Minute English" from BBC.
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And when you take this baby step,
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there are two things that might happen.
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After a few minutes when you finish this task,
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you will feel like you've accomplished something
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and you will just feel great.
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You will feel like, "Yeah, today,
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I studied English for at least five minutes or 10 minutes,
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but you know, for me it was enough
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and I'm proud of myself."
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The second thing that might happen is that you will realize
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that you actually are motivated right now
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and you want to continue and study more,
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study for longer for maybe an hour.
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So these two things are both great
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and that's why taking a baby step is very important.
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Now let's move on to my tip number six,
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make a habit out of it.
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Consistency is key in anything, including language learning.
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Working out every single day is so much better than working
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out once a month because our bodies love consistency
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and so do our brains.
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When you learn a new phrase, a new expression in English,
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try to use it as much as possible
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because you know, a lot of studies have shown
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that our brain needs to encounter a new word,
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a new expression at least seven times to memorize it.
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So for example, maybe the first time
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is while you're reading a book,
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the second time you're watching a TV show,
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the third time you were talking to a friend,
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so this is how our brain learns.
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And that's why it's really important
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to have a habit and go back to the word you just
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learned maybe once a month or maybe every two months.
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Just anything.
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It doesn't necessarily have to be a word.
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Maybe just something interesting about English
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or a very cool fact about Americans for example.
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Think of it as exercise.
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If you don't use it, you lose it.
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And my last tip, my tip number seven,
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is try to reward yourself for your hard work.
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We as humans will love rewards
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and our brains also love rewards.
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We just feel really excited and we feel relaxed
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when we reward ourselves.
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So for you, rewarding yourself might be eating something
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really good, or maybe meeting up with your friends
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and just, you know, chatting with them.
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It can be anything.
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For example, if you realize that, "Yeah today I worked hard.
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I learned English.
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And so maybe later tonight I can go out with my friends
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and just, you know, spend some time with my friends."
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And I feel like this is actually how I sometimes
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try to find my motivation because a lot of people say
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that motivation is a myth.
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And I kind of agree with them because you just work hard.
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And then motivation comes to you.
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Once you sit down, you feel lazy, you feel demotivated,
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it's fine, because we all feel lazy and demotivated.
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And along the way,
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maybe you will find your motivation or maybe not.
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But at the end of the day, you will accomplish your task.
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And this is the most important thing.
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Okay guys I think this is gonna be it for our today's video.
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Don't forget to give Lingvist a try by clicking the link
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in the description and using my code, Veronika.
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If you liked this video,
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make sure to give it a thumbs up
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and subscribe to my channel.
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You can also follow me on Instagram,
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because there I share my everyday life with you.
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If you want to get a script to this video,
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make sure to join me here on YouTube
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by clicking this join button,
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or you can also go on my Patreon page
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and pick a membership there.
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Thank you so much for watching this video.
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See you next time. Bye.
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(upbeat music)
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