5 Tips To Improve Your English NOW | Interview with Speak English with Vanessa

giving and helping everyone feels very good i  think that kind of makes me fulfills a little  

part of my heart that i'm able to do that  and yes youtube can be a career in and of  

itself but it's nice that other people that  anybody can access that pretty much anybody  

can access that so that feels  nice too to be able to give  

welcome to beyond borders real life english's  new talk show today i have a very special  

guest joining us from north carolina in the  usa vanessa from speak english with vanessa  

so vanessa welcome to the show hi thanks  for having me i'm so glad to be here  

so many learners are bored or confused because  they do not know what they should do to take their  

english to the next level does this sound like  something that you have ever been frustrated with  

well in this video vanessa and i go back  to our experience as language learners and  

teachers help you with five tips to improve your  english now first off celebrate your small wins  

find a local meetup be resourceful  speak with everyone and read in english  

so let's get started and if you are new here i  want to invite you to join our global community  

by hitting the subscribe button and the bell down  below that way we can help you to understand fast  

speaking natives to be understood by anyone and  to connect to the world like zara who told us that  

our lessons helped to motivate them to keep going  you know in every class that they want to like  

feel like they've had a few small wins because i  think that that's really what's going to motivate  

you to keep going is if just constantly you can  be giving yourself small wins so i think it's  

always really important to be looking for what  those are and whether that's you know using a new  

word for the first time or kind of being able  to introduce some connected speech into your  

your you're speaking like instead of saying  what you saying what you or something like that  

so that you can just have like these little things  that every day you're you're feeling that progress  

a little bit to keep motivating you forward yeah  yeah that seems really essential i guess humans  

we need that little daily wins small wins yeah  i think that finding finding a specific time  

every week has been something that's helpful  for me so yes i did have that year living with  

a french family but even before that having once  once a week there was a french meetup in my city  

and even though i understood nothing i just wanted  to kind of surround myself with some other people  

who are speaking french hope that they never  asked me anything because i never understood  

them but just having that specific time and  even now every monday around three o'clock  

i have a skype conversation for 30 minutes with a  french teacher we just talk about whatever's going  

on in life and just having that specific time that  even if i completely forget anything about french  

during the week because life is crazy i know  that i have that time and i think after living in  

korea when i was in korea i was more focused on um  living life there learning some korean if i could  

the job there figuring out that that i didn't  really do anything with french for almost  

two or three years and then coming back realizing  oh i have forgotten some i have kind of lost this  

and it's something that makes me excited to do  like i love to speak in french something about  

that maybe for english learners too you feel that  that no matter what you're saying or talking about  

you just get excited oh i can communicate in this  way a different part of my brain gets activated  

and i just feel really excited so i wanted to  get back into that even though it was a little  

more slow going at the beginning kind of dusting  some dust off in my brain from french words but  

having that specific time is really helpful  everyone knows this is the time when mom is  

gonna go and uh speak with her french teacher and  kind of can organize the week a bit in that way so  

that's been really helpful for me i think a lot of  learners out there something i i hear a lot it's  

a lot of people come from places or backgrounds  that they just don't have a lot of money and so  

they say you know i can't i can't afford your  course or i can't you know afford a teacher but  

i think if you're resourceful then it's kind of  like you can always find a way you can create your  

own sort of course experience by watching a lot of  different videos on on youtube or you know you can  

be really resourceful about going out there  and and finding ways to meet other learners and  

practicing together so i think that that's that's  just like a quality that will in general always  

help you to be successful if you're resourceful  and maybe like you said before bullish enough yeah  

yeah i think that's a really good point that for  english learners even if you do purchase a course  

most courses are not the be-all and end-all of  everything it's good to supplement find a way  

to be able to watch netflix in english even  if you have to use a vpn or stream something  

finding a way to be able to access the information  that you need in our internet internet day and age  

that's become a lot easier i know it's not  easier for every part of the world but it's  

becoming easier easier and easier so yeah using  what's available i think that's something that  

um maybe a little tangent but it's something  that's very fulfilling to me in this job  

is knowing that because not everybody can afford  my courses or your courses or paying for english  

i can still give them something very valuable  and very useful for free on youtube and  

i think that fulfills that teacher part of me that  says oh it's so nice to to give and to help and  

yes my courses are giving and helping as well but  that giving and helping everyone feels very good  

i think that kind of makes me fulfills a little  part of my heart that i'm able to do that and  

yes youtube can be a career in and of itself  but it's nice that other people that anybody  

can access that pretty much anybody can access  that so that feels nice too to be able to give  

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so i'm kind of curious like what's your opinion or  what have you observed in general with that of you  

know learners learning with other learners because  i think most learners have in their head like  

i want to speak with a native how do i meet  natives and everything how do i meet an  

american or a brit or whatever's the case yeah  yeah i think there's definitely a benefit to  

meeting with someone who speaks english as their  native language i think a lot of that benefit too  

is for your personal as the learner your like ego  like oh i did it i talked with an american like  

you feel good about yourself but it doesn't  necessarily mean that that is like the best  

option because i found that for my students in my  course the fearless fluency club a lot of students  

are part of our private facebook group and i don't  actually have a very organized system for all  

right here's your level here's your time zone meet  up together i don't have something like that we  

have a system where people join the facebook group  from the course they introduce themselves share  

some information and people below that comment  hey i'm in this time zone let's meet up and  

really it's very student-led and i think in that  way though the people who feel that determination  

i'm going to do this they make it happen so  there's individuals who meet up together but  

there's also a couple students this blows me away  every day there's a couple students who have just  

taken it upon themselves to host weekly sometimes  two or three times a week group meetups completely  

of their own volition is amazing to me and they  say okay every saturday like for example one of my  

wonderful students alex he just had his four year  anniversary of every saturday hosting a meet-up  

with people in the course is shocking and amazing  to me and those those group of people that group  

of people has become you know his friends  from all around the world and every saturday  

they meet up and he um for him he has like a  topic that he just thinks of like oh this week  

someone asked me to uh uh help them with their  lawn let's talk about your yard or gardening or  

nature some kind of topic related to life but then  other people in the course have created meetups  

where they ask questions based on the lesson  material i give a bunch of questions based on like  

the material we're learning and they have a more  focused or like organized learning style meetup  

so there's a lot of different options for students  who want to make it happen and to feel accepted by  

other students too and from talking with the  students who participate in these it seems like  

the fear at the beginning of speaking is very  high oh i can't believe i'm about to just talk  

with somebody i don't even know on the internet  i'm speaking in english there's a lot of multiple  

fears there on the internet someone i don't know  another language what are we gonna talk about  

just all of those types of things i don't like to  see myself in the video everything is piled up but  

then when they speak together you just get each  other you understand each other because both of  

you are coming from that same place both of you  are learning english both of you have overcome  

or trying to overcome that hesitation and fear  of speaking with someone else so i think really  

being on an equal playing field if you can use  that expression with somebody else can help you to  

take great leaps in your english learning i  found this for myself as well in france a lot  

of my friends were other nannies or other au pairs  but they were from non-english speaking countries  

in fact some of them could actually speak english  really well but i never knew it because we always  

spoke in french they were german or austrian or  swedish and when we were speaking together because  

we were all french learners we could understand  like 80 most of what they were saying and there's  

an occasional new word that would come in but  if i were speaking with a french native speaker  

i probably would have only understood 10 it would  have been very overwhelming i probably would  

have stopped doing that so having somebody who  understands me and i can actually understand them  

but we understand each other's situation um of  being a language learner i think that that can be  

extremely motivating and helpful in getting  rid of that fear of speaking that initial fear  

so at least that seems to be the case for a lot  of my students who have spoken with each other  

and i think it's also an economical way to do that  because you might need to pay a lot for a native  

english speaker teacher or just any professional  teacher you're gonna need to pay a lot but to  

speak with someone else who is also learning  and is both both people are benefiting from  

the situation then that can be a really great way  to learn for a cheaper price possibly even free  

but just to be able to speak together is a  great starting point okay i think i talked  

for long enough about that but i feel very excited  about that because it's it's definitely true i've  

experienced that myself speaking with another  language learner can help you a lot as you've  

seen here in our language learning journeys both  vanessa and i found it really important to put  

ourselves outside of our comfort zones and speak  whether with natives or other learners who were  

on the journey with us but so many english  learners tell me their biggest frustration  

is that they have no one to speak with well that  is exactly why we built the real life app at the  

touch of a button you can connect to other english  learners from around the world and practice your  

speaking while discovering other cultures in fun  and dynamic short conversations it is like your  

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real-life native conversations you will understand  100 and never forget the most important vocabulary  

i bet this all sounds like a dream right well now  with the real life app it is a dream come true  

the best part it is absolutely free so download it  now by clicking the link down in the description  

or just search for the real life english app in  the apple app store or google play store i look  

forward to seeing you there when your students  ask you or learners in your community ask you like  

vanessa is there like a really great book that  i should read is there one that you tend to  

recommend if you've never read a book in english  um i recommend reading something that's meant for  

like upper elementary it's not too childish but  it's not too complex with lots of descriptions so  

a good example of that might be um the curious  incident of the dog in the night time have you  

ever read this book i started it i never finished  that one okay well maybe it's not a good option  

it's about like a an autistic kid is the one who's  

telling the story but there's a couple pictures  the way that he describes things is um i think  

easy to grasp there's not too many complex  words um or a book like holes this is meant for  

um like upper elementary age kids but if you  want to look at a whole list of that below  

every youtube video that i have there's an amazon  link to all of those books so you can just see  

like all of the top beginner books because  um yeah that can be a really good way to  

boost your confidence too like i finished a  whole book in english and i liked it that's  

great now that can be a good way to to learn but  also kind of feel good about your english skills  

yeah i totally agree i think that reading too it's  like the best way to pick up vocabulary and to  

like really for me like i found that when i read  i just my grammar naturally gets better when i  

speak because it's like you kind of are seeing how  everything's supposed to be laid out and somehow i  

mean our brains are pretty amazing somehow that  gets absorbed so um we can definitely grab that  

link from you or from one of your videos and stick  that into the show notes so if anyone is wanting  

to go get some book inspiration from you then  they can go do that and uh maybe even start with  

the one you mentioned with the curious incident  of the dog in the night time that's the title  

right yes if i can give a little quick tip about  reading is i would say for english learners don't  

don't stop at every single word you don't know  if there's a word that you don't know that you  

see a lot so for example i was reading  the chronicles of narnia in french  

and they kept saying one word what is fba i don't  know that keeps saying it and then i looked it up  

and it's sword so they were they were talking  about swords so if a word comes up again look  

it up but don't feel too scared if you see 20  30 new words on a page try to get through like  

10 pages and get the general idea of the story  if you need to look up some stuff that's fine  

but i think looking up every new word will  really kind of be a downer it won't help that  

motivation so just try to push through a bit  to get the context and then you'll really get  

immersed in the book and you'll be able to skim  over words that you don't know or you'll be  

able to guess based on the context so yeah don't  feel too stressed if there's a lot of new words  

um yeah just try to get the context first totally  the first book i ever read in german that's i did  

exactly what you said that you're not supposed  to do and i was like i got like two pages in and  

i'm like this is so boring like i i don't even  remember what has happened in these two pages  

and i think once i started just like okay i'm just  gonna go for it and i would like underline words  

and then like you know later i'd finish the  chapter i knew everything that happened from like  

the context and everything then i go like look  it up but uh i think just like looking up every  

word it's like you're gonna kill yourself so yeah  yeah or if it's a book you've already read in your  

native language like harry potter super that's  like a movie you know if you already watched a  

movie in your native language watch it in english  it makes it so much easier and you can just yeah  

immerse yourself in it a little bit better this  has been absolutely lovely where can people  

find out more about you if they if they  don't already follow you on youtube  

where can they find that and if they want to learn  anything else where should they look yeah you can  

search for speak english with vanessa on youtube  or you can look at speak english with vanessa.com  

that's another thing often people say that don't  know my business they say oh what's the business  

name and i say speak english with vanessa every  time without a fail people go oh well that's easy  

so speak english with vanessa pretty clear i hope  you have had a ball with vanessa and me i want to  

remind you that today's lesson is just an excerpt  from our new beyond borders talk show now in each  

episode i guide you outside of the classroom and  into the real world with insights from some of the  

world's best teachers language learners innovators  and global citizens just like vanessa helping you  

to reach your highest potential in your english  and in your life does this sound like something  

that you want to do then download the full  interview with vanessa for free in the description  

down below and now it's time to go beyond the  classroom and leave your english ah yeah i know  

exactly what it's like to know all the grammar and  rules but still be nervous when words that i know  

i've learned just don't come to me and although  this may sound like a far off dream for you  

i want to invite you to imagine yourself speaking  english confidently and naturally automatically  

connecting your thoughts in a fluid rhythm  that anybody can understand what is that like