ENGLISH PODCAST: FIND YOUR FLOW STATE WHEN LEARNING ENGLISH (4 WAYS)

- [Jack] Today, you're going to learn

about learning English in a state of flow.

Now this is sometimes called being in the zone.

You might have heard this before to be in the zone.

So we're gonna talk about what this means

and why it's important

when it comes to improving your English level

and enjoying the journey to fluency,

to make it enjoyable for you.

I'll also have some great resources for you as well,

so that you can start becoming a little less stressed

about learning English and make it more enjoyable.

But before we get into that, welcome to you,

my name is Jack from tofluency.com.

It is 2022, it's January, so happy new year to you

if you're listening to this in the new year

or just happy whatever day it is,

whenever you are listening to this.

We release a new English lesson every Thursday on YouTube

and on podcast app.

So if you haven't done so already,

just click that subscribe button

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And if there's a notification bell,

like there is on YouTube, click that as well.

And also know that I have a free gift for you,

is called the "Five Step Plan For English Fluency".

It's a book that goes through five steps

so that you can improve your English

and reach the level you want to reach.

So check that out in the description,

and all the resources from this lesson

will be in the description too.

To lead up to the topic today,

I want to talk about a quick story

and tell you a quick story

from somebody called Derek Sivers.

And he wrote an article, which you can listen to as well,

I'll leave a link to that,

and it's called "Relax for the Same Result".

And it talks about how he used to do this bike path

and ride his bike on this bike path,

and it was for about, I think about seven miles.

And what he did was he went on a weekend when it was empty

and he do this every weekend or sometimes a few times a week

and he will go as fast as he could.

So you know that state you're in where you're really going,

okay, you're going, using all that energy,

and you're thinking, how fast can I go?

And your body is tense,

and you're trying your hardest to go as fast as you can.

And he says in the article, I'd finish exhausted

and look at the time, 43 minutes every time.

Maybe a minute more on a really windy day,

but basically always 43 minutes.

So he would always have the same time

when he was doing this bike race when he was on his path.

And he says, after a few months,

he wasn't feeling as an enthusiastic

or excited about the bike ride

because every time you're trying your hardest

and you're getting the same time,

you're not seeing any progress.

So he said, one day he decided to do it,

but just chill, to take it easy, not super slow,

but not really forcing yourself

to go as fast as he wanted to go.

And he says that he was relaxed and smiling

and looking around and barely given it any effort,

which means he wasn't really trying his hardest

to get the fast time again.

And he says that he enjoyed this

because he saw some dolphins in the water,

he saw a pelican

and it was just a much more enjoyable experience for him.

And then he looked at the time at the end of the race

and it was 45 minutes.

So normally when he goes really fast

and is intensely riding his bike, it takes 43,

but on this occasion,

when he just felt like he was really relaxed

and wasn't putting in as much effort, it was 45 minutes.

And that's why he say's,

you can relax for basically the same result.

Now, there were certain things in life where this works,

where it doesn't work,

but the idea here is that instead of being really intense

and not enjoying it, he just took his time and relaxed

and more or less got the same result from this.

And I'm sure that in the future, if he relaxes again,

but maybe puts in a little bit more effort,

but just has that state of flow, that feeling of,

okay, I'm doing my best here, but I'm not stressed about it,

then he will get roughly the same time.

And I think this is important

because I also think there are certain things in life

that you do, where if you just relaxed and enjoyed it,

you'd actually get better results.

And I think learning English is one of those things

where if you enjoy the experience

where you feel like you're in a state of flow

or in the zone, then you going to internalize more English.

Now in the past, I've talked about flow

when it comes to using the correct grammar.

So when you are speaking and everything just flows

where you're using the right phrases,

you're using the correct grammar,

you're not thinking about the rules of English

and vocabulary items,

instead it's just happened in your talking and it's working

and it just feels natural.

Well today, I wanna focus on how you can implement

and introduce more of that into your daily English learning.

And to give this a go for the start of the new year,

or whenever you are listening to this to try and think about

how can I introduce some of this more into what I do.

And when I was researching this topic

and just getting some more information on it,

I came across an article on the BBC

and it talks about the state of flow

and getting into the zone.

And I'll just read a couple of paragraphs for you,

again, the link will be in the description.

Now, before we talk about how to get into the zone,

it says here that the benefits of being in the zone

stretched beyond the experience itself,

which means there are additional benefits

than just having that experience of being in the zone.

And it says flow is associated with subjective well-being,

satisfaction with life and general happiness.

So when you have this feeling of flow in your life,

then you feel better, you feel more satisfied

and your generally more happy.

It also says, at work, it's linked to productivity

and motivation and company loyalty.

And this is what we're talking about here with languages,

because when you're learning a language,

it will be linked to productivity and motivation.

And these two things are really important

because to be productive with your learning

means that you're learning more at a faster rate,

but if you're motivated, it also means you're going to

continue learning for a longer time.

And this is a big part of learning a language,

you need to be motivated throughout your time

learning the language in order to continue doing it

in order to stay consistent.

Now, this next point is really important,

but first it does say,

avoid noisy environments and opportunity for interruptions.

So that's just the first thing we need to know

that to create these conditions to get into this zone,

this flow state,

where things are just happening naturally for you,

you need to avoid noisy environments

and any opportunity for interruptions,

because if you're in the zone

and then there's lots of noise or people interrupt you,

then it's difficult to stay in that zone.

Now I think this next point is so important

and it actually links to the input hypothesis,

which we've talked about in the past.

It says here, the activity makes a difference too.

We need to engage in activities that are meaningful to us,

that we find challenging,

and for which we feel that we have the skills

required to come out as winners.

Okay.

Meaningful, challenging, but we can win,

which is exactly what the input hypothesis

by Dr. Stephen Krashen talks about

where we need to focus on getting resources,

for example, read books that are interesting to us,

that are meaningful.

So we need to do things that are meaningful,

that have meaning,

but we also need to find them challenging.

At the same time, we need to be able to win.

We need to be able to do these activities

and come out and complete them.

So when you find resources like a book,

it's important to find one that's meaningful,

that you enjoy, that's interesting to you,

one that you can understand,

but also one that is a little bit challenging

so that you can learn new things.

Because if you just got a book that was far too easy,

then you're not going to be in this state of flow

because you're not engaged with the challenge,

but if you find something that you can understand,

but also where you're learning new words and phrases,

this is where you come to be in the zone

when it comes to learning.

And I'm sure you can think back

to times when you have been in the zone

when learning English and other times when you haven't.

So let's say you put on a movie and you thought,

okay, this movie in English is going to be great.

People have talked about it,

it's got all these Oscar awards and I'm going to enjoy it.

But then you start watching the movie

and you can't understand what they're saying.

You don't understand the story,

you don't understand what's happening,

you're not following the movie.

In those situations, it doesn't feel good.

You're not in that state of flow

where you're enjoying the experience,

and following along with the movie,

instead, you feel frustrated, annoyed.

You're thinking about, ah, I wish I had a higher level.

My English is not good enough, et cetera.

All these negative emotions and thoughts that you have,

on the other hand,

I'm sure you've had an experience where

you had a conversation with somebody in English

and it just works.

You understand what they said,

you could speak,

they weren't using the type of English that

was too challenging for you.

Instead, you had this natural conversation,

or another time when you

started a movie in English and people talked about it

and you could understand it.

Maybe you had an idea of what the storyline was,

maybe the English they used in this movie

was more understandable and it felt great.

And at the same time you were challenged

because there were new words and phrases that people used,

you didn't understand everything they said,

but you understood enough of it to come out of that movie

and think, okay, that was good, that felt good.

Or maybe this was a podcast,

one of my podcasts or a TV show or something like that,

where you'd come out of this experience,

thinking I was in the zone, I was flowing with that.

I could understand what was happening.

And just like Derek Sivers did with his bike

where he made the experience more enjoyable,

and he got the same result,

when it comes to learning English,

I think if you have more experiences like this,

then you're going to learn more.

You are more open to the language,

you're in a better state of mind,

you're more productive like we talked about before,

you're more motivated.

You're going to get more context for your learning too.

So let's now talk about some

practical ways that you can find this state of flow.

And we'll talk about this

in terms of the different skills of learning English.

We'll start with listening.

Okay.

Now I get a lot of comments on my YouTube channel,

two types of comments, the first one is,

wow, I really liked your podcast

because I could understand you.

I could understand what I was listening to.

It was great, I had a good feeling.

And I think it's because I use

a type of language that people can understand

and talk about topics

that a lot of learners can understand as well.

And people also talk about the way I pronounce words to say,

it's very clear, which is great.

But at the same time, I also get comments saying,

oh, I can understand your podcast,

but when it comes to a movie,

I can't understand it, it's too difficult for me.

Or are you really speaking like normal people speak

because I can understand you, but I can't,

I want to know if this is how people speak.

And I think this is important because,

both of these comments,

because when it comes to learning English, again,

it's important to feel that state of flow

and to constantly improve your listening skills.

And you can only do this

if you understand the general topic of what is being said.

And this goes back again to the input hypothesis,

and I'll leave a link to this in the description

where you find resources that are suitable for your level.

So when it comes to listening, find things that you enjoy,

that are suitable for your level,

and also challenge you a little bit,

because if you just started listening to a podcast now

that was not understandable at all,

it brings about those negative emotions, that stress,

you're not in the flow, you're not learning,

but if you find something that you can understand

and that challenges you a little bit here and there,

so there are new words and phrases,

and just gives you that listening practice

so you can get more time

and more experience listening to things,

then that is what we need to aim for.

So find podcasts like mine,

find other podcasts that you enjoy

and listen as much as possible.

Now when it comes to reading,

I think graded readers are a fantastic way to learn English

because you can read books, classic books, modern classics,

any types of stories that have been written

with the English learner in mind,

so that you can build up your reading skills

in a way where you're in the flow of learning English.

And I'll leave a link to a friend of mind

called Olly Richards,

who has short stories in English for beginners.

And I'll look at some other links as well

for intermediate learners as well,

because he has short stories in English

for intermediate learners,

so that you can expand your vocabulary

in a way that makes sense to you.

And I think these books as well come with the audio format,

which means that you can listen and read at the same time.

And then while you're looking at that,

be sure to look at other things online too,

so that you can find different books, graded readers,

anything that works for you, your interests and your level,

because it's not just about your level,

it's all about what you find interesting.

Now you can also get in a state of flow with writing too.

And one of the activities that I think

that you should definitely try for this year,

or for whenever you're listening to this is writing,

and specifically write in a journal where you document,

you write down your thoughts, what you did yesterday,

how you're feeling today,

what you're going to do today and tomorrow.

So in this way, you're using the past,

the present and the future,

and you're writing down

just things about what you're thinking about,

what you have learned, what you did yesterday that was good,

what you did yesterday that you didn't enjoy,

what you are feeling today,

what you're excited about, what you need to get done.

And just doing this on a daily basis,

on a consistent basis and using a grammar app,

again, I'll leave a link too in the description,

which is going to correct your writing,

not just your spelling, but your grammar.

It's such a great tool,

again, I'll leave a link to that in the description.

By doing that,

you're going to get in this flow state every day,

where you're writing more or less the same thing

a lot of the times.

'Cause we have this life where we are on schedules

and routines, so we go to work, let's say Monday to Friday,

we do our activities in the evening.

So you're writing similar things,

but then you're also adding in different things as well.

So you're in that state of flow when you're writing.

Now with something like writing and also speaking,

which we'll talk about in a second,

it might take you some time to get there.

It might take some work to get there where at first,

you're not quite in that state of flow,

you're working hard, you're practicing,

but you will get there in the end.

Now for speaking, I think there are two things you can do,

and it's quite interesting

because we're talking about flow today,

but you're not always going to be in that state,

and sometimes you need to work hard

in order to get to that state.

And I talked about this in one of my most popular podcasts

where I said, sometimes we need to do the hard things,

the things where we're really focused

and it takes energy to do.

And one of those things is working on the way we speak,

the sounds of English, intonation

and your pronunciation in general.

And this is where we can mimic native speakers

or English speakers, mimic the way they produce sounds.

And I won't talk about this too much

and I'll just leave a link again

to the episode where I talked about this,

but then the other way we can do this

to get more in a state of flow with speaking

is to speak with somebody on a one-to-one basis,

someone who is patient

like a teacher or a language exchange partner,

so that you can really just take your time

and speak in a way where you're not feeling stressed about

using the right words all the time,

what other people think, et cetera,

one where you are confident,

that you're able to express yourself in a way

where somebody is going to help you

and somebody is going to be patient with you.

And one final thing on this

that I think is really important before I summarize

is that sometimes you just need to get started

in order to find a flow state, or some type of flow state.

And some days it's gonna be easier,

some days it's gonna just naturally flow,

other days, you might have to work harder to get there.

But the idea with this

is where you just get started with that,

and then you soon find yourself in this learning state.

You can think about this in different ways, like,

if you're going for a run,

the hardest part is getting changed,

putting your things on and doing the first five minutes.

And then you know, yes, after five minutes that,

oh, I'm in a flow state now where you just running

in this way where you don't feel tired,

your muscles aren't hurting,

you're not in your head thinking,

oh God, I've got to do this run,

instead, it's just naturally happening.

And we can do this with English learning too

where you start doing the mimic method

or your imitating English speakers,

and at first you're having to listen

and really think about the way you speak.

And then after a while, you're just mimicking and imitating

the audio you're listening to in this flow state.

So with certain tasks and just most things in life,

at the start, it's difficult to get into this flow state,

or it just doesn't occur naturally in the beginning.

Instead, you've got to get started

in order to find this flow state.

And there's one more thing, I forgot about this

is that a lot of this is just making sure

that you find it enjoyable,

that you're not just in your head

worried about what you're learning

and trying to memorize things

and force yourself to memorize things.

Instead, you're just doing it,

you're flown with it, you're finding it enjoyable.

And you can take that mind frame into learning English

by thinking about I'm gonna listen to podcasts I like,

I'm gonna listen to podcasts I understand

I'm gonna read books I like,

I'm gonna read books I understand.

I'm gonna talk to somebody who's just going to let me speak

and correct me in the right way.

I'm gonna write down things that I enjoy writing.

And then also know that

when you introduce a challenge into it,

but one that you can win,

this is when you start really improving.

So I would love to know your thoughts on this.

So if there is a comment section

on the platform you're listening on then,

then leave a comment below and tell me

what you're going to do in order to find this flow state,

and if you found this podcast interesting, let me know too.

And then if you haven't done so already,

please subscribe to the YouTube channel

or the podcast or both,

because I release a new episode every Thursday.

In 2022, we're gonna have different types of episodes

and bring different people onto the podcast.

And if you really enjoyed it then,

what you can do to help me is firstly,

like it, if there's a like button there,

but then on every platform, there is a share button

where you can copy the link and send it to a friend,

or copy the link and put it on a social media site,

and tell people to join me on this podcast.

Because I would love to reach more people

and help more people with their English learning.

And before you go, why not listen

or watch another one of my episodes

or videos on the YouTube platform

and continue learning English with me for some time.

Okay, so I hope you found this useful.

Again, if you did, please share it with a friend

and I will speak to you soon.

Okay, bye-bye for now.