A Little Bit of Encouragement for English Learners

Learning English can be a lot of fun,

but sometimes it can also be a little bit discouraging.

Sometimes you're trying to learn new vocabulary

and you can't remember it

or you're learning a new verb conjugation

and it just doesn't make sense to you.

So I thought today would be a great time

for me to create an English lesson where

I teach you five different English sayings,

and those sayings are actually sayings

that we use to encourage someone.

So in this lesson, I'll teach you those sayings.

And I hope that you stop feeling discouraged.

If that's how you're feeling.

And you start feeling encouraged

as you continue to learn English.

(upbeat music)

The first English saying I wanted to teach you

is the saying,

it's a marathon, not a sprint.

When we say it's a marathon, not a sprint,

we're talking about two different types of races.

As you probably know, a marathon is an extremely long race.

It takes a few hours to run a marathon.

For me, it would take several hours.

I don't even know if I would finish.

A sprint, on the other hand,

is a very short race where you go as fast

as you can for about 15 seconds, or in my case,

probably closer to 17 seconds.

And you just try to expend all your energy at once.

So the reason I like this phrase

when I'm talking about learning English is this.

Sometimes people think they can learn a whole bunch

of things really quickly

and then they'll know the English language.

Learn how to speak English in 30 days

or learn how to speak English in 45 days.

But the reality is learning English

is a marathon, not a sprint.

You need to take your time.

You need to set a pace.

You need to set a routine

and it's a okay to stop and walk every once in a while.

You don't always need to run as fast as you can.

So that's the first English saying that I wanted to

teach you to encourage you while you're learning English.

It's a marathon, not a sprint.

The second English saying I wanted to teach you

is the saying mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow.

Now an acorn is the little nut that falls

off an oak tree and an oak tree is one

of those gigantic trees that we have that are just

beautiful to sit under on a sunny day.

It's nice to sit in the shade underneath a mighty oak tree,

but mighty oak trees don't appear overnight.

You don't put an acorn in the ground

and come back a day later

and there's a gigantic tree that you could sit under

to shade yourself from the sun.

No.

Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow.

This means that anything that's worth doing,

anything with majesty and beauty takes time.

And I think this is very true as well

of learning the English language.

You can't rush it.

Sometimes you have to think about it this way.

If you want something flashy and quick, you can do that

but it doesn't have majesty or beauty or depth to it.

But if you take the tiny seed

of learning English and you plant it and you water it

and you nurture it, and over time, over a few years

you will start to see the fruits of your labor.

You will start to see a mighty oak appear.

So mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow.

It's a great phrase

I think that will help you feel a little more encouraged

when you're learning English.

The third phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase

there are no shortcuts to success.

Now, a shortcut is

like a quick way to get from one place to another.

You can go the scenic route

or you can take the long way around

and you'll probably see a lot more cool things.

But usually there's also a shortcut,

a really quick way to get from one place to another.

When we say there are no shortcuts to success

what we mean is that you have to do the work.

You have to do the whole journey

in order to get the success that you want.

Imagine a tall mountain.

And there's a path that you can use to hike up the mountain

but there's also a road where you can speed

to the top really quickly in your car.

When you get to the top, if you take the shortcut

someone might say, did you see the incredible view

halfway up the mountain,

or did you see that amazing waterfall?

And your response would be no, you missed it.

So again, when you say there are no shortcuts to success

what we mean is that going the proper way

doing the work and working hard is always better

than taking the quick and easy route.

So the third phrase for you

there are no shortcuts to success.

The fourth saying

that I wanted to teach you today is the saying

stop and smell the roses.

Now, this is a little bit similar

to the last example I gave.

When we say to someone, you know

you need to stop and smell the roses, or don't forget

stop and smell the roses.

It means that when you're doing something

if you go too fast or if you don't do it properly

you will miss some beautiful things along the way.

If you're walking through a garden

you should take your time to stop and smell the flowers.

Don't just look at them,

take some time to appreciate their beauty.

Appreciate the smell that they give off,

stop and smell the roses.

So when I talk about learning English, I think about this.

Don't forget to listen to music.

Don't forget to watch funny TV shows.

Don't forget to read comic books.

Don't forget to do all

of the things that make learning a language like English

super fun and enjoyable.

So don't forget to stop and smell the roses.

The fifth saying that I wanted to teach you is

the saying slow and steady wins the race.

I know this sounds a little bit

like the first one where I talked about marathons

and sprints, but the saying slow

and steady wins the race means this.

You should make sure you do everything carefully.

Set a plan for learning English,

create a routine for learning English.

Make sure you're doing a lot of reading, writing,

listening and speaking,

make sure you're learning new vocabulary.

Make sure you're learning a little bit of grammar.

Slow and steady wins the race is a great saying

because it means you need to think

about all aspects of your English learning.

Don't go really fast and miss something.

Don't just do a lot

of listening because it's really easy to do.

Make sure that you go slow,

make sure that your pace is steady.

Make sure you have a routine

and that will certainly help you learn a lot of English.

Well, thanks so much for watching

this little English lesson.

I hope the of five sayings that I taught you

help you to feel encouraged

as you continue to learn this fun and crazy language

we call English.

Again, if this is your first time here

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

Give me a thumbs up

if this video helped you learn a little more English

and I think you've heard me say this a million times.

If you have a little more time,

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