3 ways to stay motivated when learning English

Learning English is so boring.

I am not making any progress.

And I’m so tired of studying by myself.

Does that sound familiar?

Trust me when I say you are absolutely not alone.

I was in your shoes once.

And today, I will share with you my story, how I

motivated myself to learn English.

Hello, everyone. My name is Hong.

I got 840 Speaking, and I’m here to share

with you my tips, how to improve your best score.

But today, we’ll talk about motivation.

Yes, it’s a common problem for English learners, right?

I’ve been there, done that, so I understand.

So today, I will share with you three lessons that I’ve

learned during my English journey.

But before that, don’t forget to subscribe

to our YouTube channel and check out the website, weloveielts.org.

Now, let’s hop into a time machine and get back to my past.

I was a high school student in Vietnam.

I had been studying English for around ten years in school, but

I did poorly.

I hated learning by heart new words that I couldn’t use,

that I was terrified of making grammar mistakes.

My confidence in speaking was zero.

I didn’t even think about studying abroad because,

you know, me and my English was a recipe for disaster.

Then I was lucky to be chosen as a volunteer in an international

programme providing free surgery for poor children.

And that was the first time I talked with a foreigner,

a foreign doctor.

To be honest with you, I couldn’t understand why they picked me.

I was nervous, because the moment

I opened my mouth, they would realise that I...

My English wasn’t great.

One day, I was with a young patient when blood suddenly came out of his mouth.

I panicked and went to the doctor.

Look, look, look, the blood, it’s pouring out.

The doctor rushed to see, then calmly said,

I wouldn’t say it’s pouring.

I’d just say it’s oozing. But thank you for telling me.

I made a mistake and she didn’t laugh at me.

You know what?

When I first learned English, I was so afraid of being judged

by everyone around, my friends, my teachers,

and not to mention native speakers.

Because we were taught English like a subject,

when you were given good grades when you performed well,

and bad grades when you were not.

So I thought that I had to be correct all the time.

But that day, I realised that I didn’t have to.

English is not a subject.

It’s a language to communicate with everyone around.

And you don’t have to be right because, after all,

no one there is going to judge you.

In language, we learn by trials and errors, don’t we?

Also, in the brief conversation with the doctor, I learned something new.

I could easily remember the difference between

the word pour and ooze.

Pour means flow quickly in large amounts, but ooze,

flow slowly in small amounts.

Wow, learning new words has never been so easy.

I didn’t have to wrack my brains, trying to memorise a list

of disconnected words that I couldn’t use later.

That day, I learned words in context, which make it

so much easier to remember.

So instead of rote learning vocabulary, you can expose yourself

to natural English and then pick up words and phrases as you go.

There are many simple ways you can do even at home to immerse yourself

in natural English, such as listening to songs,

watching films or videos, reading books, or if you can,

joining speaking clubs in your area.

Well, now, if you already immersed yourself in the English

environment and you got over your fear, there is one last thing to keep in mind.

That is your why.

Why do you learn English? Is your reason strong enough?

Because learning English is a long journey.

It’s not an overnight success, so you really need a big why to

help you be persistent till the end.

As for me, ten years ago, English was an obstacle

in my journey to reach my dream.

I wanted to study abroad desperately.

And the true reason was I was young and I

felt bored of living with my family and longed to move out.

The only way to do that in my culture is to study abroad.

I even wrote down my dream in words and put them on the desk,

like this.

As silly as it sounds, the motivation was strong and clear.

I threw myself into preparing for IELTS,

exposing myself constantly to English and practicing as

much as I could.

Finally, as you can see, I’m sitting here,

making a video for Cambridge, sharing tips about learning

English with everyone around the world.

Looking back, it has been quite a journey,

but it all started with small steps and a big why.

And when the why is clear, then the how will be clear as well.

And so from me, those are my three lessons

that I’ve learned in my English journey.

How about you?

I believe that each of us has their own stories of

learning languages to share.

So don’t forget to leave a comment below to let me know.

I’m so looking forward to hearing from you guys.

But now, bye-bye, and I’ll see you in the next video.

Bye-bye. See ya. Stay motivated.