Challenge Yourself! (An English Lesson)

In this English lesson,

I'm going to tell you five things you can do

to spice up your English learning just a little bit.

I think it's good to have an English learning routine,

but I think it's good to challenge yourself

every once in a while.

So in this English lesson, I'll give you five challenges,

five things you can do to make your English learning

a little more exciting and a little better.

(upbeat music)

Challenge number one, turn the subtitles off.

I know this challenge isn't for all of you.

Some of you watch these lessons

with the subtitles off anyways,

but this is for those of you that still watch YouTube videos

with the English subtitles on,

or you watch television shows with the English subtitles on.

Turn them off.

Try to go a whole week

without having the subtitles turned on.

Subtitles are awesome.

They help you understand what's being said,

but if you use them too much

and you never turn them off, you're really just reading.

You're not actually improving your English listening skills.

So challenge number one,

if you're someone who still has English subtitles turned on,

turn them off for a few days or for a week,

and see how much you can understand.

I think you'll be surprised.

Challenge number two,

try to learn 300 new English words next month.

Start on the first of the month,

and try to learn 10 new English words every day.

By the way, reading is a great way to find new English words

so maybe do some reading as well.

And once you find those words,

look them up, memorize their meaning,

try to use them in a conversation or in an email

so that you will remember them.

And by the end of the month,

hopefully, you will have learned 300 words.

This can be a bit challenging.

It will probably start out very, very easy for you,

but by the time you get to day 10 or day 20,

you might be struggling a bit.

You might have to go back and review some of the words

you learned earlier in the month,

but really, try challenge number two.

Try to learn 300 or 310 if the month has 31 days.

Try to learn 300 new English words in one month.

Challenge number three, do more of the thing

that you don't do enough of.

Let me explain.

When you're learning a language, you do some reading,

and writing, and listening and speaking,

but you probably do one thing more than the others.

Maybe you find reading easy and you really enjoy it,

and you do a lot of that, but maybe you find writing

really difficult and challenging.

You should try to do more writing than reading

over the next few days or weeks.

It is a challenge.

It's supposed to be kind of difficult, right?

So if you find writing difficult, focus on that.

Maybe you do a lot of listening,

but you don't do a lot of speaking.

Try to find someone who you can have

English conversations with,

and try to do more speaking than listening.

So challenge number three, think of the thing

you don't do enough of,

and try to do a whole bunch more of that thing.

Challenge number four, try to read an entire English novel.

Now, I've made videos like this before,

and this is always one of the things I recommend

if someone is trying to challenge themselves,

and to do better with their English learning.

Reading a novel can be very rewarding.

As I mentioned earlier,

it's a great way to learn new vocabulary,

but if you've never finished reading an English novel,

you should do this as well because the feeling you'll get

when you're done reading it is amazing.

You will feel what we call a sense of accomplishment.

You'll be very, very proud of yourself,

because you did something very challenging and very hard,

and you succeeded.

You did an awesome job.

You read an entire English novel.

So if you haven't done this yet

and even if you have done this,

try over the next few weeks or the next month or two,

to read an entire English novel.

Challenge number five, find an English speaking partner.

Hire one if you need to.

Go online to a website like Preply, or Cambly, or italki,

and find someone who you can pay

to have an English conversation with.

I know some of you do this already, and this is again,

something I recommend quite often.

In fact, there is a link below in the description to Preply

if you want to explore that website in particular.

An English speaking partner is just a great thing to have.

It's so awesome to be able to speak

with someone once a week.

And once again, I know it costs money,

but it has incredible value.

It will motivate you to study harder during the week,

because you know you're going to be talking

to your English speaking partner.

So challenge number five, if you can find a way,

find an English speaking partner and start to have 30-minute

or one hour conversations once a week.

You will reap huge benefits with your English learning.

Well, hey, thank you for watching this short English lesson.

I hope you can do one or two,

if not all of those five challenges,

and I hope they improve your English learning.

If this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button.

Gimme a thumbs up, leave a comment,

and if you do have some extra time,

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

(upbeat music)