How I learned English by watching YouTube (and how you can too)

learning English doesn't have to be boring in  today's video I'm going to share how YouTube  

helped me become fluent in English and all  the strategies you can use to do the same  

let's begin by talking about why YouTube is  a great tool I think one of the best things  

about YouTube is that it's free and available  almost everywhere you don't need to buy expensive  

courses and materials you have YouTube you open  it you turn in a video and you learn and you can  

literally find anything you want on YouTube  there's just so much content a lot of content  

creators posting new content every single day  there are a lot of travel channels educational  

channels news channels literally whatever you  want you'll be able to find on YouTube and this  

is extremely beneficial because it will expose you  to different accents vocabulary cultural nuances  

that maybe you even won't be able to learn  during a class with a teacher just because  

on YouTube You're immediately exposed to a lot of  different people and their different perspectives  

and let's be honest YouTube is fun unlike a  lot of other traditional learning methods you  

can choose content that really interests you and  this way you will enjoy the process of studying  

and you will progress a lot faster I remember  that this fun aspect was exactly something that  

Drew me to YouTube When I was a teenager and I  discovered American content creators because I  

went to school I learned English at school  but it was just so boring like all of those  

materials boring text boring audio exercises I  was so so bored but once I discovered the type  

of content that I enjoyed like Vlogs travel videos  I fell in love with English because the material  

YouTube videos were really interesting to me  yes YouTube is a great tool to learn English  

but another powerful tool that can be extremely  helpful in your language learning journey is  

Camp and they're kindly sponsoring a portion of  this video Camp is an online English teaching  

platform that offers an efficient method to help  you learn and improve your English with native  

speaking teachers and right now they're offering  a fantastic feature called the speaking quiz which  

is a free tool that helps you learn your English  level I actually tried it myself and it gave me  

personalized feedback on my speaking skills which  was extremely helpful right after taking a quiz  

campy suggested a tailored learning plan that  matched my current level and fit my goals it's  

perfect whether you're a beginner intermediate  or even an advanced learner let me show you  

a quick snippet of my experience taking the  speaking quiz so I have my account open on Camp  

and right now I'm going to take their speaking  quiz so I click right here start okay so the  

first question is describe your favorite place to  visit what is it like there okay and I will have  

to respond by clicking the mic to start recording  okay so my favorite place to visit is the beach  

I really like going to the beach because I love  the climate there I love listening to the ocean  

the sound of the Waves crashing um um I really  like the food and um yeah I feel like for me the  

beach is definitely my favorite place to visit I  also really like swimming swimming in the ocean  

swimming in the pool so here we have my response  and then I'm going to click confirm and here is my  

feedback grammar accuracy coherence and vocabulary  range okay nice so you can open every single Tab  

and um learn your feedback this way if you want  to learn more about what go here is you can just  

click right here and read what it is and why it  matters coherence is how language is put together  

and it matters because it helps you connect your  ideas together so let's do the final question  

right now I do like using public transportation  because I think it is very convenient and also  

because I live in a big city with a lot of traffic  and here we can see all of my results on grammar  

vocabulary and coherence uh here Camp shows  you your level mine is high proficiency and  

it recommends some courses for you as you can see  in every single plan they include private lessons  

small group lessons and also AI learning tools  as well as 100% native speaking tutors and four  

bonus lessons you can always go back to this page  and review your speaking level from your dashboard  

what I really like about the speaking quiz on  Camp is that it provides you immediate feedback  

you can see exactly where you need to improve  and get tips that I tailored are just for you  

plus Cam's native speakers are there to guide you  every step of the way making sure you're improving  

your speaking skills effectively if you're serious  about learning English and want to know what your  

level is you should absolutely check out Cam's  speaking quiz it's free and it's the first step to  

improving your English speaking skills just click  the link in my description take the quiz and get  

your feedback now I really want to talk about how  to choose the right content on YouTube to improve  

and progress faster the first important step is f  following your interests think about what you love  

doing in your everyday life maybe it's traveling  maybe it's cooking or maybe it's going to the  

gym and so watch the videos that are connected to  these topics because this way it's going to feel  

less like studying and more like doing something  that you genuinely like you're a lot more likely  

to stick with learning if it's something that  you're passionate about the next important step is  

watching according to your level because I see a  lot of the ERS watch super difficult documentaries  

on YouTube and obviously they cannot understand  anything and then they give up it is absolutely  

natural to feel demotivated if you're using  resources that are way too difficult fortunately  

on YouTube we have a lot of educational channels  that are targeted at Learners of different levels  

once you become intermediate Advanced you can  move on to watching something more difficult  

content that is originally intended for native  speakers but what I can say though is that I've  

noticed that watching vlogs vogs lifestyle content  is even easy for beginners because when I was a  

beginner in Spanish I started following a lot of  YouTubers from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking  

countries who filmed Vlogs their everyday lives  and it was pretty easy to watch I would say pretty  

easy just because they were sharing their everyday  experiences like oh I just woke up I'm going to go  

brush my teeth I'm going to go have breakfast and  this is all the vocab that you learn when you're  

a beginner and finally I do think that using  subtitles is an amazing thing I don't know why so  

many people are afraid of using subtitles as long  as you're using subtitles in your target language  

like if you're watching a video in English use  subtitles in English not in your native language  

because obviously if you're using subtitles in  your native language you're just going to read  

your native language and not pay attention to  English at all subtitles are great because they  

can help you catch every single word you can take  notes you can look up all of this new vocabulary  

and you can save it to Ani this way you will be  growing your vocabulary you will be memorizing  

more and more words especially when you're at  this intermediate stage and you're starting to  

learn more complex words right now I would like  to share some strategies for Effective learning  

on YouTube the first super important strategy is  active learning when I say Active Learning I don't  

mean you know playing a YouTube video and going to  a different room and doing something else you're  

not actually watching that YouTube video it's just  playing in the background and it's not helping you  

improve your English skills at all don't just  passively watch pause the video repeat after  

the speaker and write down all the new words this  will help you reinforce what you're learning and  

when you're paying more attention your brain will  start memorizing all of those phrases and words  

you see on the screen if you're using subtitles  and later when you're having a conversation with  

a native speaker it's going to be easier for you  to remember all of those words the next powerful  

technique that a lot of language learning creators  talk about when it comes to watching something in  

a foreign language is shadowing and you can use  this technique when you watch YouTube videos as  

well you choose the video you put the subtitles on  you play A short segment of it and then you repeat  

everything after the speaker trying to mimic their  intonation their pronunciation their body language  

everything this this technique Works especially  great if you're seeing a new word a new expression  

on the screen and if you're not sure how to  pronounce it you can play the video listen to  

how the native speaker pronounces this word and  then repeat after them I also highly recommend  

engaging with the content you're watching leaving  comments in English engaging with other viewers  

maybe responding to their comments liking their  comments because this will help your confidence  

in English a lot output like speaking and writing  is always always more difficult than input it is  

a lot easier to watch a YouTube video than leave  a comment under a YouTube video and it completely  

understand that but if you want to communicate  with other people if you want to text your friends  

in English if you want to talk to your friends  in English engaging with content creators through  

comments is going to be a great first start the  next strategy is all about organization it's about  

creating playlists of everything you want to watch  maybe you have a playlist for all the education  

videos like videos that are teaching you  English teaching you a foreign language you  

have a playlist for all the Vlogs travel videos  lifestyle content and another little step to  

organize and minimize distractions even further  is creating a completely separate account for this  

language if you're learning English create a new  YouTube account so that the algorithm only shows  

you videos in English if you're learning Spanish  do the same thing for every new language you're  

learning pretty much create a new YouTube account  so that once you're there you're not distracted by  

videos in other languages because when I go to my  main Channel and I open my YouTube homepage it's  

honestly a mess YouTube is recommending me videos  in Russian in Spanish and English and all of these  

different languages and sometimes when I want to  practice Spanish it can be very distracting seeing  

your favorite Creator post a new video in English  and right now you really want to practice Spanish  

and now let's move on to recommended content  types I basically decided to separate videos into  

educational channels entertainment channels and  Niche content educational channels normally post  

structured channels like English with Lucy Lucy  always posts amazing lessons like literally video  

lessons and this type of content is especially  amazing for beginners and intermediate students  

the next category I decided to call entertainment  channels and they're usually intended for native  

speakers very casual you watch the video  of someone traveling or maybe sharing their  

everyday life this category is probably going to  be my favorite because it helps you understand  

everyday language all the words that native  speakers use every single day and those videos  

usually teach you a lot of very useful slang slang  that is popular right now because we all know with  

slang it's kind of like hit or miss because you're  learning a lot of new slang and then you realize  

that no one uses these words anymore and you're  like okay why did I learn all of this sling and  

the last category is Niche content this type of  content usually includes channels that are about  

a very specific topic like computers or food or  space or I don't know like very specific topics  

and these channels usually teach you very  specific vocabulary for examp for example  

if you're a doctor and if you want to prove your  medical English you should follow all of those  

creators all of those YouTubers who are doctors  who post about their I don't know night shifts  

their experiences their education maybe some fun  videos about medicine because in these videos  

they speak English they use English to describe  everything and it is a very natural way for you  

to acquire all of this vocabulary you need so I  think it's going to be it for today's video if you  

liked it please don't forget to give it a thumbs  up and subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want  

to take Cam's speaking quiz you can do that by  clicking the link in my description for those  

of you guys who need specific YouTube channel  recommendations I created this video with all the  

channels that will help you improve your English  skills so click right here and keep on watching