5 Things You Can Do Today To Improve Your English

There are so many things that you can do

to improve your English learning.

But there is one thing that I think is the most important.

The thing I think is the most important,

the thing you should do to improve your English learning,

is to stay motivated.

So in this English lesson, I'm going to give you five tips.

I'm going to tell you about five things

that you can do, starting right now,

starting today, to improve your English learning.

(upbeat music)

One of the first things you can do

to improve your English learning

is to create a daily reminder.

Do something so that you will be reminded every day

that you should be learning a little bit of English.

Here's a really cool way to do that.

Think of an English speaking country

and find a picture of their flag,

or think of an English speaking city in that country

and find a picture of that city.

Print it out or cut it out of a magazine

and tape it to the wall,

somewhere in your house or your apartment.

Tape it to the wall somewhere,

where you know you're going to walk past it,

multiple times per day.

Each time you walk past, you'll see that picture,

or you'll see that flag and you'll be reminded

that you are learning English,

and you'll probably be reminded

that you're excited about it.

And maybe you even want to visit

that city or country someday.

So job number one, to improve your English,

find a picture, find a flag, tape it to the wall,

somewhere in your apartment or house.

And as you walk by it multiple times each day,

be reminded that you're learning English.

Hey, I just wanted to jump into the middle of this lesson

and remind you that if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,

and give me a thumbs up,

if this video is helping you learn

just a little bit more English.

Now, back to the lesson.

The second thing you can do

to improve your English learning,

especially on those days when you don't feel like doing it,

is to just say to yourself,

"I'll just study for five minutes."

I walk for exercise.

And some days I don't feel like walking.

And this funny thing happens.

If I just say,

"I'll just go for a five minute walk."

When I get outside and I start my walk

and I walk for five minutes,

I end up walking for 30 or 40 minutes.

Sometimes it's just a matter of getting started.

So on those days when you don't feel like studying English,

on those days where you have no motivation,

just say to yourself, "You know what?"

"I'll just study for five minutes."

And you might be surprised,

you might end up studying for a lot longer.

So the second thing you can do to improve

your English learning on days

when you don't feel like doing it,

just say to yourself,

"I'll just do it for five minutes,"

and see how long you actually do it for.

Are you a competitive person?

Do you like competing with other people?

Do you like playing games?

And do you like to win?

Well, if you build competition with another person

into your English learning,

it will really improve your English learning.

Find a friend or a relative and challenge each other.

Maybe to learn a certain number

of vocabulary words each week,

or maybe to watch a certain number of videos on YouTube

to help you learn English each week.

When you compete with someone,

it builds in another level of motivation.

If you use the app called, Duolingo,

this is actually built in,

you can track each other's progress.

And when you see your friend or relative

performing really well on Duolingo,

it motivates you to do more Duolingo

and to learn more English.

So the third thing you can do to improve

your English learning,

find someone else who's competitive

and set up little challenges for each other each week

and see who ends up winning.

The fourth thing you can do to improve your English learning

is to keep track of your progress.

Now, I've mentioned this many times before,

so of the five things I'm telling you today,

this one isn't really new, but it's still a really good one.

Get a calendar,

put the calendar on the wall somewhere.

On days where you do study English,

even if it's only for five minutes,

put a nice green check mark.

On those days where you didn't have time to study English

and you didn't study it at all,

put a big red X.

As you go through the days and weeks and months,

you will be motivated to put green check marks

on the calendar.

It just looks a lot better

when there's lots of green check marks,

instead of lots of red ones.

So another way to motivate yourself,

is to simply keep track of those days

where you've done English learning

and put it on the calendar somewhere.

Maybe write it in a journal.

Do whatever you need to do,

so that you can look back and see the success

that you've had.

And hopefully, there's not too many red Xs.

'Cause it's not nice to look back and see a lot of failures.

The fifth thing you can do to improve your English learning

is to stay positive and make sure you don't aim

for perfection.

Learning a language is by its very nature,

going to be filled with mistakes.

You are going to make mistakes.

You are going to aim to study for five hours a week

and only study for three.

You're going to have an English conversation

and you're going to make mistakes.

Do not aim for perfection.

When you aim for perfection,

you end up becoming disappointed.

So be realistic, be positive, set goals each week.

If you don't hit those goals, at least get part of the way.

If your plan was to study for five hours a week

and you study for four, celebrate that.

Be realistic that maybe there just wasn't enough time

to do five hours.

And always keep looking forward.

If you fail one week, do better the next week.

If you fail one day, do better the next three days.

Always think about moving forward,

instead of dwelling on past failures.

Well, hey, thank you so much

for watching this English lesson.

I hope the five tips that I gave you

will help you stay motivated.

And if you stay motivated,

I know that will improve your English learning.

So try all five or maybe just try one or two

and see if they help.

Anyways, thank you again for watching.

If you're new here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there

and give me a thumbs up,

if this video helped you learn a little bit more English.

And if you have the time,

why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson?

(upbeat music ending)