How to Find People to Practice Your English (FREE)

Hmm... I need to practice my English. How  should I do it? Maybe I could watch a movie...  

Or how about a TV show? Or  maybe listen to a podcast...

Nah. I think I'll read a book. But  I don't know which book to read.

So nowadays there are more resources to learn  languages than ever. Which is amazing. We never  

have to go to the library and study these huge  books. Really, in fact, we never even need to  

leave the comfort of our homes. However on the  other hand, this can make it really overwhelming  

with so many different resources and tools to  choose from. How can you possibly know what to do,  

on which day, at which time? That's why today  we're giving you a completely free study plan! And  

the great thing is that all of it is concentrated  on just using one app which is completely free.  

The RealLife English App. So before we start,  if you have not already, make sure that you  

download the free app by clicking up here or  down the description below. Or you can simply  

search for RealLife English in your favorite app  store. You can pause the video if you need to  

and come back here after you have  downloaded it and created your free account.

All right, so let's begin. So it's really  important when you're learning English that you  

vary the approach to the way that you're learning.  Just like when I go to the gym, I don't want to  

work out the same muscles every single day. I need  to vary what I'm doing so that I can equally build  

all of my different muscles. Makes sense, right?  However so many different learners when studying  

English tend to just focus on one area, they  don't have that balance that they need to use  

the language effectively in different ways. So  the idea behind this weekly study plan is to help  

you to be confident and natural speaking English,  reading and writing in English and understanding  

anyone. So every single Monday we release a new  podcast episode that is perfect for practicing  

your listening and your reading with different  accents. You can listen to it right on the  

RealLife English app with a full transcript. So  when you open up the listening part of the app you  

will see that you can choose different episodes.  When you choose the newest episode, you'll have  

both the transcript and the notes. And also notice  that under the notes you have a list of the most  

important vocabulary from that episode. Over  on the transcript part, you can actually read  

the transcript of the episode and follow along as  we're speaking. So on this first day we recommend  

that you listen to the episode and read along  with the transcript and challenge yourself by  

trying to identify three uses of connected speech  in the episode. Let's take a look at an example.

In this in this example we can hear  three connected speech patterns. And  

the cool thing about the app is that you  can reduce the speed by tapping right here.  

So, for example, if your  listening isn't so confident,  

then you can go as low as 0.5 speed.  But let's try it out at 0.8 speed.

All right, so you've made it to day two of  the study plan. So what you're going to do  

is go back to the same episode, but this  time we're going to focus on vocabulary  

by going to the notes section. So go through all  of the vocabulary notes there and the definitions  

and be sure to note down any of the words that you  don't know along with the example from the episode  

in your vocabulary notebook. And today I really  want you to just focus on three of these words. So  

spend some time thinking about them. Try to think  of different ways that you could use them. Even  

write down some different examples with them and  say them out loud to yourself to practice. And now  

are you ready for a little bit bigger challenge?  So you're going to open up the speak part of the  

app to connect with someone else in the global  chat. So what you can do here is connect with  

another English speaker from another part of the  world for a four minute conversation. And the way  

that you're going to challenge yourself especially  here is by trying to find an excuse to use these  

different three words in a conversation. Or maybe  you could have three different conversations and  

try to use one word in each conversation.  You could even try teaching these different  

words that you're learning to your speaking  partner. Because teaching is a really great  

way to strengthen your knowledge of these words. So let's give it a try. Let's say that I learned  

the words: enlightening, breakdown and unwind  while listening to the podcast. So now I'm going  

to go connect to another English speaker and try  practicing these words during the conversation.

Hey! How's it going? I'm Ethan and you are?  Hello Ethan, I'm Thiago. Nice to meet you.  

So, tell me, what did you do last weekend? You  know, I always try to unwind on the weekend by  

reading books. Do you like reading books?  Oh yes, I do love reading books in English.  

Do you have a favorite one? Oh yeah there's  a ton, but one of my favorites has got to be  

the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It's  really enlightening. It's all about what different  

successful people have in common. Nice! By the  way, you used some words that I didn't understand.  

What does enlightening mean? Yeah of  course, well enlightening is when...

Are you enjoying the lesson so far? Then be sure  to subscribe so that you can catch new lessons  

like this one every single week. Because here at  RealLife English our goal is to help you go from  

feeling like a lost insecure English learner, to  being a confident and natural English speaker.  

Just like you can by using the app. Okay,  on day three you're going to challenge your  

ears by listening for comprehension. So you could  choose a new podcast episode or go back to the one  

that you've already been listening to and listen  without relying on the transcript. Just really  

trying to tune in to understand as much as you  can without that crutch. Don't worry if you don't  

understand every single word, the idea here is  for you to really catch the gist or the main idea  

of what's being spoken about in the episode.  And then you could take the practice a bit  

further by writing a summary trying to describe  what you learned in the episode or what the  

conversation was about. So here's an example of  a summary that I wrote about podcast episode 283.

Finally you can listen again with a transcript to  test your comprehension. How'd you do? All right,  

now how about doing some mimicry? Mimicry is  about imitation, trying to emulate what you  

hear as closely to the original pronunciation and  accent as possible. Since you have the transcript,  

you can practice reading it out loud pretending  that you're one of the hosts of the episodes.  

Imagine yourself saying those words in that  situation reading out loud is a really great  

way to improve your speaking skills. Welcome to the RealLife English podcast  

where we help dedicated English learners  just like you to cultivate the courage,  

the confidence and the skills... And then as  an extra step, you can listen to the original  

audio and compare your pronunciation. To take  it to even next level you could try recording  

yourself and then comparing those side by side. And now it's Friday and let's take the challenge  

to the next level by practicing your speaking  skills. And I don't just mean getting in a  

conversation with someone, but let's actually  make it deliberate. You want to actually have  

some specific goals with your speaking, not just  to have a casual conversation about the weather,  

which isn't really going to challenge you at all.  Here's some examples of how you can be specific  

with your goals. So you can connect to another  learner and talk about your favorite TV series,  

you could even tell them what happened in an  episode that you watched recently. You could  

create a list of interesting questions or you can  look these up on the internet, there are tons that  

I used to use when I was teaching. And you could  challenge yourself to use different questions in  

every single conversation that you have. This is  really great, because it'll also have you speaking  

about diversity of topics which is going to really  expand your ability to speak on different themes.  

The more deliberate and specific that you are with  your practicing goals, the better this is really  

going to stretch you to improve your speaking  so you don't get too stuck in intermediate. 

So now it's the weekend, I'm sure you're  pretty tired from a long and busy week  

of English studying and maybe working or  other studies that you're having to do.  

So we don't need to be quite so deliberate  with our studying on the weekend.  

If you can have a conversation with  someone in the app that's really great.  

If you can listen to a podcast while you're  doing something else, that's also fantastic.  

One thing I do highly recommend though that you  carve out some time for on the weekend, is doing a  

reflection about your studying over the week. This  is really nice, maybe you can brew yourself a cup  

of tea or make a cup of coffee and sit down with  your favorite playlist of music maybe in English  

and just reflect a little bit upon your week.  Let's take a look at some questions that can  

help you to do this in case you're not sure  where you can start with your reflection.

Now I highly recommend that you keep a record  of these reflections, because it will really  

outline your English learning journey. It will  help you to see where you've made mistakes,  

where you can do better and what's really worked  well for you. So there you have it. A complete  

seven day a week study guide for you to improve  your English just with one app, the RealLife  

English app. Definitely download it if you have  not already. And I want to hear from you: Have  

you tried out the RealLife English app yet? How  has the RealLife English app helped you to improve  

your English? Why don't you share with me and  your fellow learners down in the comments below?  

So just to recap, here is what your weekly study  plan looks like. Feel free to take a screenshot of  

it if that will help you. You put it up on your  fridge or maybe put a screensaver on your phone  

or laptop so that you can see it every single day  and know what's up for you next during the week. 

And do you ever feel like you  can write really well in English,  

but you just can't speak it? Well, we made a video  

just for those of you that have this problem.  You can check that out next. Let's watch a clip: