How To Learn English By Yourself (At Home)

Learning English is about sharing  ideas, connecting with others,

and improving your life! And this is what  so many schools get so wrong. I remember

studying German in high school and Spanish  at university and in both these cases it

was all about memorizing the rules and  words, so that I could pass some test.

The few speaking opportunities that I did have  were just so unnatural. Have you ever had this

opportunity of feeling more frustrated when you  leave your class than you were when you got there?

Now, time is our most valuable resource,  so you need to spend your time and energy

wisely while learning English. The goal is to  make the biggest impact possible, while also

finding enjoyment in the process. That's why in  today's lesson, I'll walk you through our unique

approach to learning and teaching languages.  It comes from my own experience learning four

languages which are of course the ones I learned after university. And we will also

share ideas from some of the best English  teachers, so that you know that it’s not

just me that believes this! We’re gonna share a lot

of information in this video, but if you stick around with me until the end

I promise you'll have a new way of learning a  foreign language that will make you feel empowered

and in control of your learning experience.  You can finally actually be successful in

gaining natural, confident fluency in English  (or in something else that you want to learn!).

Because this is the place to become a confident  and natural English speaker. If you want to

understand fast speech, be understood by anyone  when you speak English, and use the language to

connect to the world, then we are here to guide  you on what you need to do. All you have to do

is click on that subscribe button and the bell  down below so that you don't miss any lessons.

Now, this is the thing that all successful,  confident English speakers have very clear

in their heads (or really anyone  who is successful at anything!).

They know WHY they are learning the language  and what they are going to do with it once

they're successful . Now, whether or not you  know it, you have a why, a purpose for why

you’re learning. Maybe it’s external (like your  parents or your boss tell you you must learn it).

But trust me that deliberately reflecting  on an internal purpose will be so much

more powerful for you. And the more clear,  specific, and unique to you, the better.

So here is the exercise I used  to do with all of my students:

So first you need to ask yourself  “Why am I learning English?”

Second, once you have your  answer, ask yourself “Why” again.

Now, I know that this seems a little bit silly, but it helps

you get to the real deep reason. And then third, do this at least

3 more times until you’ve gotten to  something that really inspires you.

Now, let me give you an example  from one of my students.

At first, she answered that  she was learning because

she needed to communicate in English. Now, that's not very inspiring is it?

This is what happened when she kept herself why.

A further recommendation I gave to  my students was to take that deep,

personal WHY and put it somewhere where they would  see it often. Now, it could be a sticky note on

the fridge or maybe the screensaver on your phone. And don’t just take my word for it. Let’s see what

the incredible Emma from mmmEnglish says  about the power of knowing your purpose.

Because I think in order to be successful in  anything, anything that takes time, energy,

effort, persistence, commitment, like  learning English, like building a business,

like doing a whole bunch of hard things, there  is always going to be time when you just want

to throw your hands up in the air and walk away  and just think, you know, what I'm not doing,

this is too hard, I'm not cut out for this.  And all of the other excuses as to why not,

you know, popping into your head. But I think that  if you really understand your deep purpose, your

deep reason for why you are doing something, how  it is going to support you and your family or your

dreams or your bigger purpose, it becomes your key  to getting through those difficult times. Because

there, there's always going to be the hard time,  there's always going to be the challenge, you

know, where you've got to overcome  something that is in your way.

And if you can continually be coming back to steering the ship back to your why,

and your reason for being there, and your reason  for making this massive commitment, then it's you

know, possible to, to keep moving forward. Alright before you continue, why not  pause

the video and reflect just a  little bit upon the reasons that

you are learning English. What are you going  to do with it? Share your story with us:

What will you be doing once you are a confident,  natural English speaker? You can share it in the

comments below, you can even take a picture that's relevant and tag us on our Instagram.

And don't forget to add an encouraging message  to the other members of the community. Aww yeah!

Alright, so the next step to  master anything that you want

to learn is to actually practice it over and  over again. You can accomplish a lot more than

you think if you have a smart approach. Now, there are lots of ways that you

can make the practice fun, learning with  your favorite TV series for example. This

is so important to keep up your motivation. But it’s also important to recognize

that there is also hard work to be  done, and it may not always be fun.

We're basically under the assumption that learning

is always going to be fun. It's  not always going to be fun.

When you're exercising, you gave the example of

going to the gym, a person  who wants to get a six-pack,

it's going to be a lot of  pain. I mean, I don't want

to go back to the old cliche,  but it's true - no pain, no gain.

If you don't go through those moments of

boredom, of, of tedious  repetition, the menial work,

if you don't go through that, you're not going to be able to learn the language.

People are visualizing the fluency. They're  not visualizing the process. So the focus

is always on the outcome. The focus is on, I  want to be fluent, I want to have a six-pack,

but nobody is thinking about, okay, what is  it going to take for me to get to that level.

I think you need to have  that stubborn consistency,

right? in pursuing that vision. Because if you are  consistent, you do the 1% every day, you will get

there. if you don't enjoy the process, like a  craftsman - a craftsman enjoys the process - so

if you don't enjoy that, you're not going to  enjoy learning. Learning is forever. You have

to enjoy that, you have to embrace that. Every  day, I have to do the same thing until it clicks.

A lot of times when I meet students, they'll say  that they're going to study four hours a day,

you know, or some crazy, I would recommend being very practical. Um,

if you're introducing something new  in your life, it's going to be hard

to kind of make a habit of. So anyway, just,

just take it slow, um, and expect that  it's, um, not going to go as planned and

that's totally okay. So you want to try to be  practical and try to plan about an hour a day

of studying. So, so that would be  my big advice, just to be practical.

Don't expect to study four hours a day.

Hey, if you are enjoying this video

then make sure to give me a thumbs up and  if you feel like it was useful then share

it with a friend so they can learn too, it  all helps. And to get our newest lessons as

soon as they arrive then make sure that you hit  that subscribe button and the bell down below.

Now it's good to know the concepts, the  terminology, the grammar of the language so that

you can better understand it. But it's extremely  important not to get lost in all of that.

Nobody enjoys memorizing lists of rules, random  words, prepositions, and whatnot. It can feel very

overwhelming to learn an entire language. So, instead of having that as your goal,

you can aim at starting to communicate  with people as quickly as possible.

I'm sure there are some students out there like  that, who think I will study the language to the

point where I've learned it, then I'll start using it.

Don't do that. You know, there's nothing wrong with,  you have to use English, you have to use English

as early as possible in communication, in, in  talking to people. You have to do that, and

learn that way. Even if you feel stupid and stuff,  you've got to, because you're not just learning

a thing, you're learning how to do something.

​​As long as you can communicate your message,

English belongs to you, and you belong in English.  And it doesn't matter if you know, your parents

spoke to you in that language or not. It  doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you

only have a limited number of words, the  moment you're able to communicate and express

your feelings, your thoughts, your  emotions, then this is your language too.

So, I’m sure that now you are scratching your head, or  maybe you're thinking, “That’s very nice advice Ethan, but I

don’t have anyone to communicate with in English.” So many learners feel the exact same way you do.

You have plenty of ways to listen to English,  to read it. But in your day-to-day life,

you have few if any real opportunities  to actually use what your learning by speaking!

So we decided to solve this problem  by creating our RealLife App.

This is the only place where anytime,  anywhere you can just press a button and

start practicing your English instantly with  other English speakers from all around the world.

You can have fascinating conversations about  your life, your passions, different cultures,

or even just about the weather if that's what you want! And that’s not all. You can listen to the full

interviews of all the experts that you are hearing  from today, and more, with a full interactive

transcript, and vocabulary definitions. Now, having a great teacher can be life changing,

but I know that many of you just cannot afford that  and so you have to learn on your own. And we

have made the RealLife App a FREE resource  that you can use to improve your speaking.

So download it now for free by clicking  up here or down in the description down below.

Or you can just look up RealLife  English in your favorite app store.

The final point of our RealLife Way method that we  will cover in today’s lesson is using your English

to connect to something bigger than yourself. I  absolutely love how our recent guest Natasha Broodie put this.

The world is globalizing and, you know,  thanks to social media. I think we have,

I think the windows are pretty much down. They're  pretty open. So we get to see a lot of what, what

someone else's life might look like in X, Y, or  Z country or region of the world, et cetera. And

because of that access that we now have into the  homes of others, into the lifestyles of others,

the globalization is happening at an exponential  rate. It's just, it's just happening very quickly.

And you will either have to choose to enter into  that world without any kind of preparation. Or you

can recognize that the world is changing outside  and therefore slowly adapt to the way that the

world is changing. It doesn't mean that you have  to change who you are as a person, or you have to

throw away your culture or your traditions. It  means adapting. It means understanding that this

person lives one lifestyle while person B lives  another lifestyle and you person C can live a

completely different lifestyle, how you live in  toleration of each other. And what I usually say

is beyond toleration, how do you live amicably  with three completely different lifestyles? So I

think if, if one chooses to accept globalization  in terms of the world is changing and you know,

I am a part of this world, how do I put my  fingerprint on it? Or my footprint in it?

If you choose to do that, then you are also  saying, you know, in a way, like, how do I become,

you know, part of this kind of  globalized citizenship? How do I,

how do I exercise my right as a global citizen?  How do I participate in this wider discussion?

Don't be left behind you have power as a person.  So you might as well participate. Most definitely.

And I think English has just such a big part of  that. I mean, love it or hate it. English is the

global language. If you don't know that, then so  many doors are close to you, but when you know it,

so many doors are open to be that access to a  lot of information that might not be available

in other languages and be that, uh, access to  opportunities that require you to speak English

really well. So, uh, I'm sure that's no news to  people who are listening to this, but I think

that's always a really good motivators that if  you want to participate in this globalizing world,

then English is going to be a really important  part of it among other skills and competencies.