7 Brilliant Ways To Improve Your English

hey what's up Stefanie the English coach here  from englishfulltime.com in today's video I'm  

going to share seven brilliant ways to improve  your English now before I get started I just  

want to say it feels really good to be back  here on YouTube you may have noticed that I  

took a break for a while I barely posted in the  last two years and the reason for those of you  

who have been wondering is that I had two kids  in the last two years so I was really busy just  

being a mom but beyond that I had to prioritize  our courses we have been building several English  

courses to help students take their English from  intermediate to Advanced and beyond and I created  

multiple courses over the last two years it was  a lot of work and as much as I wanted to continue  

here on YouTube and social media in general I just  couldn't I had to prioritize sometimes we have to  

do that in life right we can't do it all so I  did it I got through the courses the students  

love them and now it's just awesome because we're  able to continue in enrolling students in those  

courses throughout the year every year and I  can just come back to YouTube and only focus  

on this how wonderful right okay so that is why  I took a break and thank you for your patience if  

you've been waiting for me to come back I am so  so happy to be back with you so without further  

ado let's get started and let me share these  seven brilliant ways you can improve your English  

okay so the first thing you can do is talk with  everyone now whoa I know you're like Stefanie  

that is so obvious why would you share that  as your first tip let me explain first I have  

a question for you are you doing this right  the English speakers you know in your life  

are you talking with them at every opportunity  that you get or are you avoiding conversations  

are you not speaking up are you not telling your  stories are you not telling jokes because you're  

just nervous or you're not confident or you're  afraid right sometimes you have to just make  

a choice and say I'm gonna speak I'm gonna start  talking more I'm gonna stop avoiding all of these  

opportunities that I have to speak now if you  live in an English-speaking country you have so  

many opportunities to speak every single day right  and let me just list a few of these you can speak  

with your co-workers you don't have to wait for  people to initiate conversation with you you can  

decide that you are going to be the initiator of  conversations and you can go up to your co-workers  

every day and just start chatting ask questions  give compliments share a story when other people  

are sharing stories and they're laughing about  things just jump right in right talk with your  

co-workers form a relationship with them don't  wait for people to come to you and start pursuing  

you and forming relationships with you again you  can be the initiator when you purchase something  

talk to the cashier they're a real person don't  just go through the transaction literally and  

figuratively of purchasing something but actually  ask them in a genuine way like hey how's your day  

how are you doing today what's going on what  are you going to do later what are you looking  

forward to this weekend something like that people  don't often expect it and it makes their job a  

little bit nicer as well next you can talk to your  neighbors right what I love doing and this always  

works like a charm is I like going for daily walks  and if you do this around your neighborhood you'll  

really start getting to know your neighbors  because they'll be out you know trimming their  

trees or gardening or whatever maybe they are  walking as well and a simple hello goes a long way  

and you don't have to strike a conversation the  first time you see somebody but after you've seen  

them a few times you can be like hey you know I've  seen you in the neighborhood a few times I live  

back over there that way do you live over here or  how long have you lived here whatever it is think  

before you go for the walk like if I see somebody  today what can I say to them right I mean even  

something as simple as wow it's a beautiful day  today even that can start a conversation right I  

met one of my neighbors I always see my neighbors  when I'm going for walks and one of them you know  

we just like comment on the weather all the  time like oh great weather today or oh horrible  

weather you know but whatever it's very trivial  it's very superficial but it can lead to deeper  

things so for example in the summer it was real  really hot and we got to talking and she's like  

wow I have so many tomatoes in my garden would  you like some and I was like oh my gosh are you  

kidding I love homegrown tomatoes so yeah I she  invited me into her home she showed me her garden  

she gave me bags of tomatoes cucumbers stuff like  that it was really awesome so if you live again in  

an English-speaking country go for walks say hello  to your neighbor as something again as simple as  

that can lead to relationships conversations  etc and then a couple more things you can work  

as a volunteer somewhere there's so many volunteer  opportunities I won't get into that in this video  

but you can seek out these opportunities work  as a volunteer and boom you will have unlimited  

opportunities to speak with people if you have  kids and they go to public school private school  

or anywhere where they have a teacher you can talk  to their teacher like hey how is my student doing  

in your class is there anything I need to know or  be aware of how can I support them more at home  

when it's time for a parent teacher conference  don't sit back and be shy and let the teacher  

do all the talking really get in there and ask  about your child so you can advocate for them so  

you can really get to know their teacher and form  that bond with them and support their education  

when your kid has to go to the doctor really talk  to the doctor don't have don't do the thing where  

it's like you tell your kid to tell this thing  to the doctor and then the doctor speaks to the  

kid and then they speak to you where you're using  your kid as a translator right really advocate for  

yourself for your family for your children speak  directly to other professionals other people you  

encounter because you'll get practice with your  English you'll push yourself out of your comfort  

zone and it will give you an immense sense of  pride when you do this right or even striking  

up a conversation with a stranger at the bus  stop just like you know hey so where are you  

going today or whatever right sometimes we aren't  naturally these social butterfly kinds of people  

but we can choose to be especially if it  means that at the other end of it you will  

get language practice you will build confidence  and you will make friends build your network  

etc I cannot speak enough about the importance  of doing this now I feel like I left out so  

many people in the last few minutes of this video  because really this advice was for people who are  

living in English-speaking countries and there  are people right now like tapping their foot  

going okay Stefanie but like I don't live in an  English-speaking country who am I going to talk  

to okay I have some tips for you too don't worry  okay so if you again going back to the talk with  

everybody we have this incredible thing called the  internet and I say that a little bit sarcastically  

I guess but it's true we have this incredible  thing called the internet we can connect with  

people at the touch of a button it is so amazing  so you are gonna have to use the internet if you  

don't you know have neighbors who speak English  so really quickly there are language exchange apps  

now I know language exchange apps can be really  frustrating when you know you just get hit on all  

the time or people don't seem like they're really  serious language partners you do have to do quite  

a bit of digging around sometimes to find someone  to speak with but eventually you will find that  

person that you're like you know what this is a  great language partner and I'm really happy I put  

in the effort to finding somebody and that's  the thing you often don't find what you want  

the second you look for it okay it takes time  dedication and I think if you mentally prepare  

yourself for that like okay I'm gonna download a  language exchange app and I'm going to dedicate  

20 minutes a day to finding partners and testing  people out and I'm gonna assume that it'll take me  

an entire month to find one good language partner  or something like that when you're mentally  

prepared for it the frustration that comes with  not finding somebody is easier because you're  

like well I already knew this was going to happen  it's not like you go on there thinking on day one  

you're going to have an amazing experience  and an amazing partner and then you're there  

frustrated because it just doesn't happen it  doesn't happen it doesn't happen right okay the  

next thing you can do if you have the money to  invest you can book classes with a teacher and  

schedule conversation classes and something that  I would recommend is you know show up with things  

to talk about have your teachers show up with  things to talk about and then ask them to take  

notes on your mistakes as the class is happening  and then at the end of the class they can review  

some of the mistakes with you but I find that to  be much more effective for having a free-flowing  

engaging fun conversation than having a teacher  stop you like every two sentences like wait you  

said that wrong wait you said that wrong wait you  said that wrong right so enjoy the experience of  

the conversation and leave the last five or ten  minutes for reviewing mistakes and learning okay  

and my final tip for talking with everybody  and doing this online is you can start some  

kind of club you can be the lead leader you can be  again the initiator so much of achieving in life  

or succeeding in life comes back to you taking  control and initiating and making things happen  

right not waiting for them to happen so starting  a club like a book club or a weekly practice  

group for you and some of your peers where every  week at the same time we meet we're gonna discuss  

another chapter of a book we all agree to read  we're going to have questions etc but you can  

do these things you don't have to find a club  that's already out there I mean you can but you  

don't have to wait around like and wish something  like this would happen you can create it yourself

okay I had to take a quick break because one of my  kids woke up from his nap the other kid was hungry  

so took care of all of that and now I am back  okay so the second way to improve your English is  

by learning the lyrics of all your favorite songs  hopefully you have really discovered some music in  

English that you love because there's no sense in  learning lyrics to songs you don't like but yeah  

hopefully you have music that you really love  so basically if you dedicate yourself to really  

learning the lyrics memorizing them learning the  vocabulary that they use studying it etc this  

is going to help you with so much because you're  gonna love the music you're going to want to sing  

the songs you'll be able to sing along you'll know  the vocabulary and I know so many English Learners  

who have gotten to a really high level of English  with their pronunciation with their vocabulary  

with their cultural awareness just through music  if you think about it it's an amazing way to learn  

a language and really work on and train your  voice when you sing you are training your voice  

right you're trying to match the pace the melody  the intonation the rhythm the sounds all of these  

things and of then the vocabulary on top of that  it's just like wow this if this isn't the perfect  

way to learn a language I don't know what is so  when you are learning the lyrics of your favorite  

songs I also want to encourage you to go deeper  to really connect to the music by doing some  

research right why was this song created what was  the artist trying to communicate learn about your  

favorite bands how did they find each other how  did they start why did they decide to create the  

type of music that they created etc you can really  go deep when it comes to music like not just learn  

your favorite songs and the lyrics but learn  about them and all of this will add really great  

vocabulary to your word bank and knowledge right  about something specific that later you can share  

with other people in conversation like the next  time you hear someone talking about the Beatles  

for example you can say oh did you know ......  right and then you say a fun fact about this  

group because you know about them you've listened  to their music you've learned their songs you know  

the lyrics and you know the history right and you  can do that with obviously any band it doesn't  

have to be from way back when okay and the last  thing here is I want to encourage you to create  

your own playlists of music and challenge yourself  to find new types of music as well that maybe you  

have not heard before for example you can look up  songs from the 80s in English right songs from the  

60s the 70s the 90s specific genres of music and  if you don't know what the genres are you can do  

a quick Google search like what are the different  genres of music and then you can read about the  

different genres there's also going to be sub  genres right and you can just start exploring  

so much right and you will find really great  music really great songs it's a very fun way  

to improve your English and to be able to work on  it a little bit every day okay so the next thing  

you can do to improve your English is repeat  new words so you hear a word you're like oh  

that's new and repeat it immediately so you can  practice saying it but beyond repeating it you  

can look it up online Look up the definition look  up example sentences look at how it translates to  

your native language you can write it down try  to use it and in general just spend time with  

the word the more time you spend with it the  more you will get to know it right and how to  

use it now a really great way to keep track of  new words that you learn is by creating a bullet  

journal for vocabulary if you don't know what a  bullet journal is basically it's a journal kind  

of like a diary but the pages are blank and you  can write on them and draw on them and organize  

information on them in very creative ways and it's  just a really awesome way to interact with what  

you are learning if you just hear a new word and  you're like oh that's a great word and you quickly  

look it up in the dictionary you might remember  it you might not but the more you interact with  

each new word that you learn especially if you're  at a more advanced level where you're not finding  

new words every single day necessarily or you  know a lot of what you consume already this is  

a great way to just really add those words that  you've never seen before never heard before and  

start compiling them in a visual journal that you  can then flip through the pages to refresh your  

mind and be like oh yeah I remember that word  this is where I learned it and it's also just  

a fun thing that you can do especially if you're  a creative type person you like drawing you like  

using highlighters different colored pens bullet  journals are really awesome for creative people so  

if you don't know what these are or how to do them  there is a ton of information online about it and  

I encourage you to dive into the world of bullet  journals because again if you're a creative person  

I don't think you will regret it it'll be a lot  of fun the next thing you can do to improve your  

English is participate in online forums now you  can participate in Reddit forums Facebook groups  

on Twitter basically I mean even Instagram even  the comments on YouTube right just interact with  

people online and read what other people are  writing and then create your own response but  

the cool thing about forums is people generally  write the way that they speak it's not really like  

reading some type of formal document or something  like that it's like people are thinking their  

thoughts in their head and then they are putting  them out with their keyboards onto the internet  

and so that the way comments are written is the  way that people speak so you can analyze this you  

can analyze the sentence structure the vocabulary  and if you don't really feel like analyzing you  

can just participate because the more you read  and the more you respond read respond read respond  

right you're going to start internalizing the  language in a way you've never done before if you  

don't do this and I have found that the students  who participate in online forums regularly often  

have the most natural English the way that they  express themselves it's almost like if you were  

to read a comment from a native speaker and  a non-native speaker you wouldn't be able to  

tell the difference right because the non-native  speakers spend so much time in the online forums  

they know exactly how to express their ideas the  same way a native speaker would do it and they  

just sound so natural so I cannot recommend online  forums enough for learning sentence structure  

natural sentence structure normal everyday  vocabulary that you need to communicate your  

ideas and also it's great for learning how to  defend your ideas right because someone might  

come at you like no that's wrong or no it's  not like that and it gives you the opportunity  

to sharpen your ideas to communicate to practice  communicating more clearly it's great okay I could  

go on and on but just trust me here it's it's  a really great way to improve your English oh  

but the key and I'll say this and it's like with  everything you have to find forums that genuinely  

interest you to the point where you cannot resist  the communication right if there's I don't know  

let's say something about gardening and you're  like I really don't care about gardening right and  

then you want to participate in that online forum  it's going to be like there's no way you're going  

to participate because you don't feel compelled  to speak up because you don't care about the topic  

right so again take time to go within yourself  and ask yourself what do I love what do I want to  

learn about what do I love talking about what am  I really interested in and then go find material  

forums related to those things because then  when people start talking about it you will feel  

compelled to join the conversation okay the next  thing you can do to really improve your English  

is read a lot how much are you reading every day  are you just reading things when you have to read  

them or are you spending 30 minutes to maybe even  an hour a day reading books reading newspapers  

reading comments online reading just anything  right read read read the more you read the more  

vocabulary you are going to expose yourself to and  the more ideas you're going to come across right  

people expressing ideas sharing them and again the  more you read the more your mind will internalize  

the language and find the patterns and pretty  soon you'll start learning how to express your own  

ideas and you might not even know how you know but  you'll just know like oh I should express it like  

this I should say it like this because you've  read it so many times it's like you just know  

and research does show that people who read more  tend to have a bigger vocabulary than people who  

don't so again take the time to find what you're  interested in and then start small you can commit  

to one book right read one book then read another  one and also if you start reading and you're like  

never mind this is actually not that interesting  don't force yourself to read something you don't  

actually love because then it kind of defeats  the purpose and it's not going to be productive  

for you so instead find something you like right I  keep saying this but take the time to really find  

things you like so that you will take that book  to the bathroom with you instead of your phone  

so that you will read that book before you go to  bed you will want to read that book first thing in  

the morning or when you have a five minute break  from your work you will want to pick up that book  

and read it okay this is the kind of material you  should be working with the stuff that really pulls  

you to it with such a strong magnetic attraction  that you just can't help yourself you're overcome  

with the desire to read it and maybe you're  the kind of person I used to say this like oh  

I don't really like reading well I never really  found what I like reading and now it's like  

yes I really like reading now but it's not so  much the reading the action of reading in and of  

itself that I love but the experience right the  learning I love learning things through books I  

tend to read a lot of non-fiction these days I say  like when I get old and I retire maybe then I'll  

have time for fiction but right now I'm all about  learning and self-improvement and all those things  

okay the next thing you can do to really improve  your English is study with your peers okay other  

English learners now before I give you examples  of how to do this I just want to say I know there  

are so many people that are like I don't want to  study with other English learners I don't want  

to hear other people make mistakes because  then I'm going to catch those mistakes like  

it's a cold or something right no it doesn't work  like that and I find this to be quite interesting  

because in every other profession right when you  go to college and you study something who do you  

study with do you study with the teachers do you  study with the people that designed the curriculum  

no you study with your peers and in every other  walk of life in every other situation where you  

go to college and you study you're studying with  your peers if you're going to be a doctor who are  

you studying with you're not studying with other  doctors you're studying with other students who  

also are trying to become doctors so this is so  normal and so acceptable and so productive and  

good right we recognize this in every other form  of studying but for some reason when it comes to  

language learning people are like I don't want  to study with my peers I can only study with a  

native speaker I can only study with a teacher I  should only do classes with you know these types  

of people and it's like no you're forgetting that  again that's not how people do it when they study  

usually people study with their peers and just  because another English learner maybe is not as  

good in pronunciation maybe they're really good  in vocabulary maybe you're great in pronunciation  

but you're not really good in vocabulary right  so you can use your strengths to help others  

and they can use their strengths to help you and  everybody works together and everybody learns so  

studying with your peers is so good productive  effective fun and it's a shame that not enough  

people do it and this is why in the courses I  create there's always a community element and I  

have the students work together there's projects  there's homework there's tasks and they're not  

doing it with me they're doing it with each other  and it's an amazing experience and it really works  

so I know this works I know it's good I know it's  productive and if you're not doing it you should  

start thinking about how you can incorporate  this into your life and to give you a few ideas  

about how you can do that you can set up regular  speaking practice sessions right where it's just  

like we're gonna shoot the breeze we're gonna chat  we're gonna catch up on life it's going to be very  

informal very fun everybody comes on a Saturday  morning you have a group of three or four people  

come with your coffee whatever basically everybody  get together we're gonna take turns speaking take  

turns leading the conversation we're going to  ask questions and if you do this regularly and  

have a set date and time then it will become a  habit that you form and you will get a weekly  

like conversation practice session in every week  without fail and again you get to be the manager  

of that you get to determine whether this happens  in your life or not anyways in these practice  

sessions if you want to make them a little bit  more formal a little bit more structured you can  

do that you don't need a teacher to do this for  you you can discuss current events like today  

we're going to talk about this current event and  our opinions our ideas what you might know about  

it what I might know about it you can just discuss  current events you can start a book club you can  

analyze blog posts you can do all kinds of things  right the sky's the limit you just have to start  

thinking creatively thinking as a teacher would  think right because if a teacher were to create  

a practice group and speaking sessions they would  have to think you know come up with the content  

what should we discuss what questions should we  ask how can we make this fun and interesting but  

again instead of waiting for somebody else to do  it or paying to be a part of something like that  

you could just set it up yourself actually a lot  of the students who join our courses they become  

friends and then when the course is over they keep  studying together and a lot of our students have  

started book clubs they have started practice  groups they have started all kinds of things  

to stay connected and to keep studying with  each other and I think that that is phenomenal  

it's perfect and that's why they get such great  results also because they don't stop they make it  

a lifestyle now if you're thinking this sounds fun  I want to do it I say go for it and we're coming  

upon the end of 2022 right so a really great  conversation topic or a theme you could make for  

your practice session is reviewing the year 2022  like how was it for you on a personal level a work  

business level your goals what did you achieve and  do what did you not achieve and do and what do you  

want to do differently next year what are you  looking forward to in the next year etc that's a  

really great topic for this time of year okay the  next thing you can do to improve your English is  

really take advantage of all our free resources  that we offer on our website at this point I've  

created several free resources there are guides  masterclasses there's even a free pronunciation  

course this course is phenomenal it's seven  days long it's called our fluent pronunciation  

challenge you should start today if you have time  for the next seven days to really commit to this  

but hundreds I think thousands of students at this  point have done this challenge and they really  

love it they get great results it's a lot of  training in a very short amount of time it's over  

an hour a day of training plus there's a couple  tasks for you to do as well throughout the week to  

implement what you learn so if you want to improve  your pronunciation your speaking stuff like that  

then this is perfect for you I'll leave a link  below where you can find it and get started but  

that's not the only free thing free resource that  we offer we have other things as well so take time  

to dig through the website I'll leave the link  below where you can check out our free stuff read  

the guides watch the master classes there's so  much to learn there and if you're really serious  

about improving your English and you want to learn  in a structured way with good material tons of  

support and an awesome community of leaders then  I cannot recommend our courses enough to find out  

when we are launching each one when each one is  open for enrollment etc you need to be on our  

email list that is where we will let everybody  know which course is opening when what are the  

details of the course and we'll help you decide  if this is an investment of time and finances that  

you should make that's right for you where you're  at right now with your English and your goals so  

that's it I hope this video was helpful I hope  it inspired you to take action with your English  

right there's so much that you can do there's so  much that you can do for free you don't have to  

pay but then if you want to invest in your English  there's options for you there as well so take it  

all in think about it and just start with one  thing you don't have to make a bunch of changes  

overnight but what's one thing you're gonna do  based on everything that I just mentioned in this  

video what's one change you're gonna make right  that you're gonna start doing so you can improve  

your English consistently over time it's not about  making a dramatic change in one day but it's about  

little actions step by step every single day and  over time that will create the results that you  

want so let us know in the comments if this video  was helpful what you thought about it what you  

learned and what you're gonna do to take action  as I said earlier I am so glad that I finished  

making these courses it was a lot of work it was  very rewarding and fun but it's like yay now I can  

come back to YouTube and I'm really happy to be  back you guys so that's it and let me know also  

if you want what other things you want me to teach  if you have any video suggestions or ideas I love  

reading those in the comments and I will be sure  to show up very soon with more for you that's it  

and I will see you in the next video bye the next  people some the next people oh my gosh you can  

um oh you can like my mind is skipping around here  um ah let's just start over and read what other  

people are re are and read what other people are  writing and then formulate is that the right word  

okay um so yes you get to determine whether this  happens in your life or not whether you pursue it  

or not right that determines whether it's going  to happen or not man I think I said that like the  

same way five different ways or the same thing  I said the same thing five different ways okay