10 Secrets for Staying Motivated While Learning English

Hi, Bob the Canadian here.

I have a carrot, and I have a stick here with me today

because I want to talk about motivation.

Apparently, a long time ago, if you had a donkey

and you wanted the donkey to move forward,

you could use the carrot as a reward.

You would hold the carrot up in front of the donkey,

and the donkey would step forward

to get the carrot as a reward.

And if that didn't work, you could use a stick,

which is a lot meaner and I think if I had a donkey

I wouldn't use the stick, I would use the carrot more.

But we're not here to talk about donkeys,

we're here to talk about how you can stay motivated

when you are learning English.

So in this video, I am gonna give you 10 tips.

I'm going to tell you about 10 things that you can do

to stay motivated when you are learning English.

(bright music)

Number 10, keep track of your learning.

At the end of every day, if you have a calendar,

put a check mark on the calendar to indicate

that you learned some English that day.

If you would like to write a few sentences in a notebook,

put down the date and write down a few sentences

about what you learned that day.

The reason you would want to do this is so that

in the future, you can look back and see a record,

see a visual reminder of all the work that you have done.

It's really exciting to look at a calendar

and to see three months work of check marks

on every single day, indicating that you learned

a little bit of English on that day.

It can be highly motivating.

So, number 10, keep track of your learning.

Number nine, reward yourself.

This works in exactly the same way

as the carrot I talked about earlier.

Decide that if you study English that day,

you can have a small piece of chocolate

at the end of the day, or decide that if you study English

for five days straight, you are allowed to go out

and have a yummy, tasty, expensive cup of coffee.

Knowing that there is a reward for doing good work

will motivate you to do the good work.

And, you can kind of flip this

the other way as well, where you can deny yourself

the reward if you don't do the work.

So you can always think, if I don't study English today,

I don't get that yummy piece of chocolate.

If I don't study English this week,

I don't get to go have that yummy, expensive cup of coffee.

So, either reward yourself, or deny yourself

the reward to motivate yourself.

Number eight, measure your progress.

I am a big believer in measuring what you have learned.

I am a big believer in testing yourself

to make sure that you know it.

So, if you can, design little tests

that you can give to yourself and that

you can grade yourself to measure your progress.

Maybe use Quizlet or another online testing

platform and look at your results.

If you get seven out of 10 one day,

try to get eight out of 10 the next day.

If you can find ways to measure your progress,

it helps you to really know what you know.

Sometimes in our minds, we can think

we know something, but until you measure it,

until you test yourself, you will not know.

So, design little vocabulary tests, maybe design

little fill in the blanks listening tests,

and do them, and do them until you can get 10 out of 10,

and then create a new test to measure your progress.

Number seven, turn it into a competition.

If you are learning English, and you know someone else

who is learning English, try to become competitive

with that person if they would like to do that.

Try to see who can learn the most

vocabulary words in one day.

See who can learn the most new English phrases in a week.

So, turn it into a competition.

If you use an app like Duolingo, this is built in.

You can actually compete with other people

to see who can get the most experience points each day.

So, excellent way to motivate yourself

by having a competition with one or two other people.

You can also use other people in a couple more ways.

You can learn English to impress someone.

So maybe there's someone who you would really like

to impress, you could learn English and then show them

that you have learned more English to impress them.

Or maybe you could just say to someone,

like your mom or a relative, just say I am learning English.

And then just the fact that you've told someone

that you're learning English might actually

motivate you to learn it more everyday.

Number six, create a routine.

This doesn't work for everybody, but this

is highly motivating for most people.

If you decide that you are going to have a daily routine,

and a weekly routine for learning English,

you are more likely to be motivated

to learn English on those days.

When you say to yourself, on Mondays I'm going

to do some English reading, every single Monday,

it will, in your mind, create this desire,

and you will be motivated to read on that Monday.

Again, this doesn't work for everyone,

but some people really like routines,

and this can be a really good motivator.

I did a video on this a while ago.

I'll put a link up here where you can establish

what type of English learning you're going to do

on each day of the week, but I certainly

highly recommend that you create a routine.

It is a great way to stay motivated

when you are learning English.

Number five, make your future self happy.

This is one of my favorite ways to motivate myself

to do almost anything, and I think it will work

really well for learning a language like English.

Think about how you could make yourself happy in the future.

How will your future self feel if you don't

work hard everyday learning English?

Think about yourself a year from now.

A year from now, your future self would be super happy

if you spent some time today studying English.

So, one way that I like to motivate myself, and I think

this is a great way for you to motivate yourself,

is to think about how can I make my future self happy?

And the way to make your future

self happy is to study today.

Number four, plan a trip to an English speaking country.

I know this one isn't possible for everyone

because it does cost money, but knowing that

you will be going to a country, either for a trip,

or maybe even for school or some

other activity, can be highly motivating.

I know for myself, if Jen and I planned a trip

to the province of Quebec where they speak French,

I would be highly motivated to practice my French a lot

before I went to that province.

So, if you can in some way get to an English speaking

country for a vacation, or for a short visit

to people you know there, I highly recommend it.

Knowing that you will be going to an English speaking

country will motivate you to practice and learn

as much English as you can before you go.

Number three, take an English class.

If you can register for and take an English class

in your city, or even take an online English class,

this will motivate you to learn English,

not just in class, but outside of class as well.

Knowing that you are going to be with other people

who are also learning English will motivate you

to impress them, it will motivate you to study

outside of class because you will want the teacher

to see that you are making progress,

and you will want your classmates to see

that you are making progress as well.

So, if you can find an English class to take, register

for that class, go every week if it's a weekly class.

Just knowing you have a class every Thursday night,

or every Saturday morning, will motivate you

to read more in English, to listen to more music

in English, and to just improve your English skills.

So, if you can, take a class.

Number two, hire an English tutor.

If you know that you are going to be meeting

with an English tutor once a week in your city,

or maybe you are meeting with an English tutor

once a week online via Skype or Facetime or Zoom,

you will be more likely to study English before you meet.

Because, when you meet with someone,

you need things to talk about, and if you're going

to meet with someone and you're going to need

to speak English, you're going to need to be able

to talk about things in English.

So, you will be more likely to read

the news in English so that when you meet

with your tutor, you can talk about the news.

You will be more likely to read another chapter in your book

in English because you'll want to be able to talk

to your tutor about the things that happened in your book.

Again, you'll be more likely to watch more English

television because you'll want to be able

to talk to your tutor about the televisions shows

that you watched the week before.

So, if you can, and if you are able to, find an English

tutor, meet with them once a week,

even if it's just for 30 minutes, and this

will highly motivate you to learn English.

Number one, book an English test.

To me, if you want to be motivated to learn

the English language, you should book a test,

maybe six months in the future.

Decide to yourself, I really want to take

an official English language test.

I'm going to do it in six months.

Go online, pay your money, and register for that test.

I think you will be motivated.

I think most people would be highly

motivated when they do that.

You would get up everyday and think, okay,

in six months I have an English test.

As you get closer to the date, you will start to study more

because you will want to do really, really well.

Booking a test will actually

help you do other things as well.

If you book a test, you are more

likely to hire an English tutor.

If you book a test, you are more likely

to read that book that you were planning to read in English.

If you book a test, you are more likely

to learn a lot of vocabulary in the time between

when you book the test and when

you actually need to take the test.

So, number one, my number one thing

that you can do to motivate yourself

is book an English test and then study like crazy.

And here's one more tip before I go.

Make sure you get a good night's sleep every night.

Sleep is really important for learning,

and a good night's sleep goes a long way

to helping you remember new things that you have learned.

Anyways, Bob the Canadian here.

I hope you enjoyed this English lesson

on how to stay motivated when learning English.

If you are 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 just a little bit more English.

And if you have the time, why don't you

stick around and watch another video?

(bright music)