How To Study English When You Don't Have Time

Hey, today I'm gonna give you five methods

to help you study English when you don't have time.

I'm Teacher Tiffani, let's jump right in.

All right, Method number one.

Method number one is the "15 minute morning routine."

Basically you will create a 15 minute morning routine

where you learn one word, one expression, one idiom

and one question for the day.

This method focuses on making English a priority

at the start of your day.

Now I'm gonna explain how you do this exactly

using the steps, but don't worry.

Even if you're not a morning person,

this method can help you.

Now, a lot of you know that I'm a morning person.

If you open the dictionary,

you will see my name and my picture next to morning person.

Why?

Because I get up around 4:00 a.m.

and I love to get work done early in the morning.

But this method is for early birds and night owls.

And let me explain why.

So here are the steps you need to go through.

Step number one, pick a specific time in the morning.

It must be the same time every single day.

Again, it's up to you.

For example, for me, I wake up at 4:00 a.m.

But if you wake up at 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m.

or even 9:00 a.m.,

you can pick a time that matches your schedule.

So first pick a time in the morning

that matches your schedule.

Now, step number two.

For the first five minutes, search for one word,

one expression, one idiom and one question.

Again, one of each, not five words, not five expressions.

Only one word, one idiom, one expression and one question.

Now, step number three, this is what you're gonna do.

For the next five minutes,

memorize the word, expression and the idiom.

I know you're smart, I know that you are super intelligent.

So having three things to memorize in five minutes,

I think it's very possible because you're smart.

So for the second five minutes,

you're gonna memorize the word,

the expression and the idiom.

Now step number four, what you need to do,

you need to for the last five minutes,

read the question and give your answer.

You need to speak out loud.

Let's say for today,

let's say today is Monday or Tuesday.

You find the question,

tell me about your best childhood memory.

All right, so you have five minutes

to think about the question and answer it in English

but you must say your answer out loud.

Again, this is a morning routine.

You'll do every single day for only 15 minutes.

A short period of time, but this method is very effective.

So let me tell you the benefits of this method, here we go.

Benefit number one.

You won't feel stressed about studying

for a long period of time.

Here's something that I wanna explain to you.

Many times you get stressed or feel that you don't have time

because when you do go to study English,

you don't know what to study.

You have books, you have videos,

you have all of these things that are surrounding you

and you're like, I don't have a lot of time

and I don't know what to study.

So eventually you get frustrated and stop.

But using this 15 minute method, you won't feel stressed

because you know exactly what you need to do

every single morning.

Now let me look at the second benefit which is,

you will remain laser focused during the 15 minute period.

Now I really liked this expression laser-focused.

So I want you to imagine we're on a television show, right?

Maybe Star Wars or Star Trek,

and they're talking to each other,

yep, I see what's going on over there.

Star Trek, you know, the space program, right?

And imagine that one of them had lasers in their eyes,

and they say, "Oh, I see something."

And all of a sudden the movie would have them

have lasers pointing out of their eyes

and focused on something.

So when we say laser focused,

it means just like in a TV show,

their eyes are focused on something.

It means that you have your eyes focused on one thing.

It's about focusing and only looking at one thing.

So you'll be able to focus on this one thing,

this one grouping of expression, word idiom, and question

for a 15 minute period.

So you'll be laser focused, all right?

Now the third benefit is, you will feel more confident

because you are studying every single day.

Man, when I say, you know, when it comes to confidence,

I get a lot of questions about confidence

and speaking in English from students

and maybe you've been one of those students

who have asked me that question.

Teacher, how can I be confident in English?

But a lot of times the confidence,

and I talked about it last week in last week's video lesson,

the confidence is because

you don't feel like you're doing enough

or you're comparing yourself to someone else.

But if you start using this 15 minute morning method,

you'll know hey,

I'm doing something every day to improve my English.

And it's something that happens psychologically.

You'll start admiring yourself like, Ooh man,

I'm putting in time every single day.

Even though it's a 15 minute period of time,

every single day in the morning, I'm studying hard

and I know that I am improving

and you will start to feel more confident

and even proud of yourself.

So method number one is a very good method for you

to use when you don't have time to study English, all right?

So method number two.

Method number two is weekly flashcards.

Now basically you will create 50 weekly flashcards

and carry 10 of them with you every single day.

This method focuses on

regularly reviewing small chunks of information.

And I'm sure, you know, you've seen many of my videos

where I talk about the power of studying in chunks.

So with this method, you have flashcards

and you're gonna create 50,

but don't let that number scare you

because remember these flashcards,

50 flashcards will be used throughout the entire week.

So let me explain how you're gonna do this, all right?

So here we go.

Step number one.

At the beginning of the week,

select 50 things that you want to learn.

Maybe words, expressions, idioms, grammar rules,

formulas, et cetera.

And I said things you want to learn.

You don't have to get a book and say,

okay, the book says do this, this and this, no.

If you're interested in music

and you wanna learn more English words related to music,

then make flashcards based on that interest.

Or maybe you are trying to learn more grammar rules,

make flashcards for that week about the grammar rules.

Again, it's up to you.

This is your language journey but you can use this method

to improve your English even when you don't have time.

All right, so step one is done.

Step number two.

On one side of the card,

write the title or focus of the card.

Again, if you're trying to learn vocabulary,

on one side write the word happenstance

or fictitious.

You can look those words up guys, all right?

So put the word, the expression, the idea or concept,

the title on one side of the card.

Then step number three.

On the other side of the card, write the definition,

explanation or example.

Again, on the opposite side,

you wanna make sure you're describing

what this card is all about.

Now, step number four.

Every day, select 10 different cards

and review them periodically throughout the day.

It doesn't mean that you have to sit at your desk at work

and every hour look at the card,

every hour look at the card, no.

As you think about it throughout the day,

Oh, let me kind of review a few things that I have.

Oh, okay I didn't, oh, this word, interesting.

Put it down and keep doing what you're doing.

You wanna be consistently connected to

the cards throughout the day.

Now, step number five.

At the end of the week, review all 50 cards

to see which ones you remember.

Again, step number four says 10 different cards every day.

So by the time you get to the last day,

you've already went through all 50 cards

and now you're gonna review and see

which ones you remember and which ones you don't remember.

You're giving yourself the opportunity

to take the information in and then process it and see

which pieces of information you need to work on some more.

So what are the benefits of this method?

Here we go, benefit number one.

You will have a study plan for each week.

Study plans, whoo.

When you have a plan, you can reach a goal all right?

Benefit number two.

You will be able to carry them with you throughout the day.

Think about it, you're not gonna have a book,

you're just gonna have these cute little flashcards,

put them in your pocket,

put them in your purse for the ladies, and what?

Throughout the day, you can pick them out, take them out

and review them.

So again, you can carry them with you throughout the day.

The other benefit is you will be able to start

your own English database from the collection of flashcards.

Now, this is something that I've emphasized before

in a previous video and to other students.

Why?

You need to have your own English database.

I told you all again that, if you want to use my database,

that myself and Teacher Julie created,

it's called the Weekly English Words Database,

again, weeklyenglishwords.com.

and every week we add 60 new vocabulary words,

expressions, and idioms to the database,

along with English, video conversations and explanations.

It's a huge database and again, you can check it out.

But, by doing the flashcards every week

following this method even when you don't have time,

you'll be able to create your own database

and improve your English speaking ability, all right?

Now what about method number three?

Another great method.

Weekly English video.

Now, basically you will select and watch

one English lesson video every single day for a week.

This method focuses on mastering the ideas and concepts

presented in one video lesson each week.

Notice I said one lesson.

Not one lesson every single day, no.

One lesson for an entire week.

So for example, let's say you're like,

man, I am really enjoying this video from Teacher Tiffani.

It's really gonna help me a lot.

This may be the video that you wanna use for this method.

That means you'll watch this video again tomorrow

and the next day and the next day for a week.

This method is very, very useful and very helpful

because it will show you how to master a concept.

So let's see the steps, here we go.

Step number one.

At the beginning of the week,

find one interesting English lesson.

The type of lesson is up to you.

And for example, multiple vocabulary words,

fluency formulas, et cetera.

It's truly up to you.

You can pick the one that you want.

Step number two.

On day one, watch the video lesson without taking any notes.

I need to stress this, I need to emphasize this.

Do not take any notes on day one.

Teacher?

Yes, I'm telling you to put your notebook down,

put your pen down and simply watch the lesson.

Sometimes you don't realize how amazing your brain is.

Stop focusing on, oh, I got to get this, I got to get that.

Nope, sit down, watch the video, listen, enjoy it.

But don't take any notes on day one.

Now on day two, which is step number three,

watch the video lesson again

and write down the things that you learned.

That's right, you're gonna go on day two,

watch it a second time

and this is when you can take your pen, take your notebook

and start writing things down.

Now on day three, which is step number four,

watch the video lesson again

and write in anything else that you missed

the first two times you watched the lesson.

Compare and combine your notes with the notes from day two.

Notice we've just watched, taken notes

and taken notes again.

We haven't memorized anything yet, all right?

Now the next step, step number five.

Step number five is also important.

On day four, watch the video lesson again

and then write the three main points of the lesson.

Now for videos about words or vocabulary,

you can write the three words that you liked the most.

I wanna explain the step, step number five to you.

Again, you're watching the video another time, right?

But this time you're looking for the three main points.

What's happening is, you're literally becoming laser-focused

and trying to figure out, wait a minute,

how can I summarize this video lesson?

And that's gonna help you think in English,

because you're gonna have to learn how to be concise.

Say what you mean and be clear

and this is gonna help you do that.

Again, when you don't have time,

this method is still very useful, all right?

Step number six.

On day five, watch the video lesson again

and then find three ways to apply what you learned

to your daily life.

Now we're getting to the application phase.

Again, the same video.

This is gonna get, how do I explain?

You're gonna watch the video so much

that you're gonna feel like

you can predict everything that's being said.

Huh, which means your English is also going to improve.

You're gonna start recognizing patterns.

But now you need to see, wait a minute,

how can I apply what I'm learning from this video

to my daily life?

No matter what it is it's a vocabulary word?

Okay, figure out how you can apply that word to your life.

If it's a concept or idea, even like this video,

figure out how you can apply the lesson

to your life in three ways, all right?

Now, step number seven for this method.

On day six, review what you wrote in your notes

on day one, two, three, four, and five.

You have to review because that's how the information

goes into your long-term memory.

But this method is very useful.

Again, one English video for an entire week

and you follow these steps.

But what about method number four?

Another good one.

Method number four, well, it's gonna come in a second.

But benefits (laughs).

I almost forgot to give you guys the benefits.

But I got you, don't worry.

Here we go.

All right, benefits of method number three.

You will naturally start to understand

and apply the information.

Benefit number two, you will master the idea,

concept and or words.

And finally, you will begin to understand

pronunciation patterns and many more things.

Again, that's why I was saying

going over and over and over and over again,

repeating the same video actually is gonna help your brain

process the information in a better way.

So again, method number three is amazing.

Now it's time to move on to method number four.

All right, here we go.

Method number four.

This one is pick one and use it.

So basically you will pick one word, expression or concept

for a day and use it to describe your daily activities.

This method focuses on immediately applying what you learned

to every part of your life.

Now, again, this is something I always emphasize.

When you learn something new, don't just say,

Oh, that was good.

Yes, I like it.

Yes, I like that word, I like that new concept.

Man, Teacher Tiffani or another English teacher,

Wow, they're amazing,

And that's it?

No, you have to apply whatever it is that you are learning

and this method focuses on

helping you to apply what you learn,

even though you don't have a lot of time.

So here we go, let's look at the steps.

Step number one.

Select one word, expression or concept.

Again, one word, not six, not three, not even two.

Select one word, expression or concept.

Step two.

In the morning, find two activities that you can describe

using the word, expression or concept.

So for example, let's say today, I learned the word awesome.

Now this is a word I know that you know, right?

Awesome, it means amazing or really good.

So let's say I just learned awesome though and I'm like,

wait a minute, today's word is awesome.

In the morning, I have to find two activities

that I can describe using this word.

So I can say, oh, my mom is awesome.

She made breakfast for my entire family, all right?

Then another thing.

Ooh, I can say, man,

the weather today when I went out to exercise,

whoo, it was awesome.

So you see what I did.

I found two activities that happened in my life.

Two things, my mom made breakfast

and then I went out to exercise.

So I applied the word awesome to those two activities.

You need to do that.

Now the next step, step number two,

you need to in the afternoon do the exact same thing.

And step four in the evening, do the exact same thing.

Again, you've chosen one word expression or concept

and then the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening,

you're gonna find two activities,

so a total of six activities that you can talk about

using the word expression or concept.

This is gonna help you so much.

Again, even though you don't have time,

you're still studying.

You're still learning how to think in English

and apply what you learn.

So what are the benefits?

Here we go.

Benefit number one of this method.

Number one, you will start to think more in English.

Benefit number two.

You will understand how easy it is

to connect English to your life.

And benefit number three.

You will start to remember words, expressions, and concepts,

a lot faster.

The moment you take that step

to connect what you are learning to your daily life

is the moment when everything clicks in your brain like,

Oh, okay, your brain gets excited too.

And then you'll have an easier time of

accessing the information from your database

later on when you're trying to speak in English.

Got you, you got me right?

Okay, all right.

Method number five.

Here we go.

Method number five.

Method number five is jot down quick notes.

Oh, real quick.

I've explained this expression, but maybe you don't know it,

jot down.

Jot down just means to write very quickly,

like a short note, write very quickly, all right?

We say jot down something, got it?

All right good.

So the fifth method is, jot down quick notes.

Basically you will create a phone or a small notebook

note every day.

Update it whenever you learn something

and review it at the end of the day.

This method focuses on grasping the main ideas or concepts

and reviewing them.

So as you go throughout your day,

there are gonna be things you're gonna learn.

Maybe you overhear someone say something in English

and you're like, oh, I didn't know that, jot it down.

Really quick note.

You're not searching for anything,

just writing a quick note throughout your day.

Now this is gonna help you again,

grasp the main ideas because you're just writing

the main thing you heard, right?

So let's look at the steps for this one, here we go.

Step number one, find a small notebook,

or you can use your phone.

Again, we're living in the digital age.

So if you have your cell phone with you all the time,

you can use your cell phone instead of a notebook.

That's okay, all right?

Now, step number two.

As you go throughout your day,

quickly, write down all the new English words,

expressions or concepts that you learn.

Remember that these should be very short notes,

shouldn't take you five minutes.

Just really quickly write it down

and keep moving on with your day.

Why?

Because this method is gonna help you

when you don't have time, all right?

Step number three.

At the end of the day, when you are relaxed,

take out your notebook or phone list

and quickly review what you learned that day, all right?

So this is very important for you to do.

You're gonna come back at the end of the day,

you're gonna review what you learned,

and then you're gonna be able to take the information in

and keep moving on with your life, why?

Because you didn't take a lot of time,

you just reviewed the quick notes that you made earlier.

Now, what are the benefits of this method?

You see right here, I have four steps,

it says four at the top but that should be three.

It should be three right under method number five.

But I know you got me guys.

All right, this is three, a three-step process.

Here we go, benefits.

Benefit number one.

You will start to learn how to grab the main points

or ideas in English.

Benefit number two.

You will create a database of new things that you learned.

And benefit number three.

You will get in the habit of thinking in English

throughout your day.

You are going to really take your English to the next level

using this method.

Now I hope you enjoyed today's lesson.

I really think these methods are gonna help you study

when you don't have time.

My goal is to help you and 1 billion students

learn how to speak English with confidence.

So you can help me

by liking, sharing and subscribing to this channel.

Thank you again so much for giving me the honor

of being your English teacher.

I will see you next week.

Same place, same time

and teach you another amazing English lesson.

I'll see you then but as always,

remember to speak English.

(upbeat music)

You still there, you know what time it is.

It's story time.

I said it's story time.

All right guys.

So you know that I love story time

and I know you guys love story time too.

For today's story, I wanna talk about

a time when I didn't have time to study,

you all know I speak Korean,

and I also experienced the same thing.

I didn't have a lot of time.

But I wanna tell you what happened

when I found the time to study.

So when I was in Korea studying Korean,

I was working a full-time job.

I worked in the morning, the afternoon and at night.

I worked very long days.

So as you can imagine, I really didn't have time

to study Korean but I knew I needed to learn.

So I figured out ways, I gave you some methods today

to study Korean and I made time to learn Korean,

even though I was busy.

Now, let me tell you what the result was.

So fast forward after I finally could speak Korean fluently,

I was moved to a new school.

Nothing happened, they just needed more help there.

I was actually in Yongin.

For those that are Korean, Yongin Institute.

(speaking foreign language)

And I went to this school and

in the area of the school was in,

there weren't too many foreigners.

It was a small little town area, really nice,

but there weren't a lot of foreigners.

The only foreigners that were there

worked at the institute, basically.

So there may have been,

I think I could have counted on my hand,

maybe eight foreigners, maybe eight to 10,

including the ones that worked at our institute

that I saw walking around our little city.

So it wasn't like Seoul.

I lived in Seoul, which was the main city of Korea

and there were tons of Americans, Europeans, Africans,

there are tons of people.

So anyways, I moved to that area and as you can imagine,

since there weren't a lot of foreigners,

a lot of Americans there

that meant there also weren't a lot of African-Americans.

I was one of...

Well there's another lady there but she was from Africa,

from South Africa, really great person.

But anyway, so I went there.

So I was one of maybe two African-American women.

But the other woman that worked there,

she was light-skinned.

So even though she was a black woman, she didn't have a,

her skin color was not even close to mine, right?

And so anyways, I'm I was okay, I didn't mind.

I mean, I'd lived in Korea for like eight years at that time

and I loved Koreans.

I was okay with, you know, people staring

and I would always answer questions.

For example, I would be on the train

and people would kind of touch my hair

because my hair is natural and they said, Oh

and then I just started talking to them in Korean

and we'd start a conversation and I explained to them,

you know, black hair

and how you really shouldn't touch people's hair.

And we have a good conversation.

So anyways, I got to this school

and I was placed in a class with little kids.

Now, I love children, I love kids.

I've mentioned my munchkins, my nieces many times,

I call little kids munchkins.

So I went to this classroom

and it was a class full of cute munchkins.

They were, I think, American ages,

they were between five and six.

Yeah, between five six and I think a few seven-year-olds

but they were very young.

So remember I told you, not only was it a small city,

there were only two black women in the city that I had seen,

and I was one of them and I was in this class now with

five, six and seven year olds.

So I was the first black woman they had ever seen.

So when I walked into the classroom, they stared at me.

And again, they didn't know I could speak Korean.

So many of them stared at me and pointed and some laughed

and they were only laughing

because they had never seen this skin color in person.

So it was, again, children are so inquisitive.

They're so curious

and when they see something that ever seen before,

they're like, Whoa, what is that?

So again, I wasn't shocked, but they were so cute.

So I walked in and they were kind of making comments

and I said, hello to the other teacher.

And then I, you know, i was gonna start teaching my class.

But then I realized, wait a minute, these kids are small.

I can speak Korean and I can kind of make them

feel a little bit more comfortable.

Because again, I was gonna be their teacher,

they had never seen a woman that looked like me before.

They didn't understand me completely

because they were little,

they were just starting to learn English.

So in introducing myself, I started speaking in Korean.

The whole class,

"She spoke in Korean."

And they said that in Korean, right?

So of course you know, they were like,

"Well okay, are you Korean?"

And I was like "No, I'm not Korean, I'm American."

So, but again, the innocence of children.

So I taught the class but what happened was,

over time, then when I first went in the classroom,

children are very clingy.

They like to be around adults.

They like to hold and hug.

But again, I was a strange person to them.

So they really didn't necessarily come toward me

or like, you know, kind of wanna be next to me

because I was strange to them.

But because I spoke to them in Korean for part of a class,

and again, I taught an English, of course.

But over time they started to get to know me more

and they started to see that I love children.

And they started to realize, wait a minute,

she may look different,

she may not be Korean,

but there's something about her that we like.

So much so that fast forward, about four weeks,

four or five weeks, when I would walk in class,

they would run up to me and they'd start speaking in Korean

because they knew I could understand.

And they say, "Teacher, guess what I did today at school."

And again, it just made me feel so good

and I never forgot when that connection,

when it clicked for them.

That even though I didn't look like them,

even though I wasn't from their country,

the fact that I could speak their language

and could understand them, made them connect with me.

And they would hug me, and then "Teacher don't go."

And I really, really loved Being their teacher.

And it all happened because I decided to find the time

when I was busy to study Korean.

I wouldn't have had that same experience

if I hadn't studied Korean.

Because the kids would have taken a little bit longer

to get close to me because they wouldn't have known

how to express themselves in English.

So why am I telling you this story?

Trust me, I get it.

Studying English is not easy.

And it's harder when you don't have time.

You have a family, you have kids, you have work,

you're in the midst of this pandemic

and a lot of things are going on.

But using the methods I taught you today,

even when you're busy, you still can study,

even for a short time, you can study English.

Because when you do, you will realize amazing experiences

and amazing things will happen for you

just like they happen for me when I was able to connect

to the little munchkins when I was in Korea.

All right guys, that's all I have for you.

I just wanna encourage you again, follow the five methods.

If you wanna keep studying with me,

remember, you can go to speakenglishwithTiffani.com,

speakenglishwithTiffaniacademy.com.

And if you want to join and become a member

of our English database, go to weeklyenglishwords.com.

All right guys, thank you so much.

Again, I'm honored to be your teacher.

I will see you next week, same time, same location.

Bye bye.