LEARN ENGLISH PODCAST: 17 TIPS TO HELP YOU SPEAK FLUENT ENGLISH FAST

- In this English lesson,

you're going to learn 17 powerful tips

to help you learn English fast.

And this is going to help you

no matter where in the world you live.

Now, before we get into these tips,

I just want to say, hi, my name is Jack, from To Fluency,

and that I have added professional captions

or subtitles to this video.

So you can listen and read the captions at the same time.

Or if you prefer, just to listen to this

while you do other things.

And one last thing, in the description,

I have left a summary of this lesson,

and a link to my website,

where you can learn more about these tips,

but I've also left links to further videos and resources

if you want to explore a specific tip in more depth.

Okay, so let's get straight into tip number one.

The first tip is to set a goal,

because people with goals succeed,

because they know where they are going.

So people with goals succeed,

because they know where they are going.

And goal setting has completely changed my life.

And over the last 10 years, especially,

I've been very excited

about hitting goals and achieving them.

And this is really powerful.

So ask yourself,

do you have a goal for your English learning?

Do you have a specific goal here

when it comes to learning the language?

If not, start thinking about this a little bit more.

Ask yourself, what level do I have now?

Am I a beginner?

Am I an intermediate?

Am I advanced?

And then decide on what level you want to have,

and when you want to have this level.

So you're not only saying this is my goal,

but you're saying this is when I want to achieve it.

Because putting a deadline on your goal

ensures that you take action, and that you take action now.

And it also helps you do the right things.

And again, if you don't have a deadline for this goal,

then it doesn't give you the urgency.

It doesn't make you really focus on doing this now,

but if you have a deadline,

then it makes you take action today.

So have a goal and a deadline,

and then get excited about this goal.

Get motivated about this.

Now, as you're going to learn, motivation isn't everything,

because we need to create the habits

in order to progress over the long term.

But that initial motivation allows you to take action today.

Tip number two is to ensure

that you are using and practicing your English daily,

that you're studying, or learning,

or practicing your English every day.

Now, if that sounds overwhelming,

then know that you can just do a little bit every day.

I talk about something called the 10+ minute method,

where you commit to something for 10 minutes a day.

And if you want to do more, you can,

if you don't, that's fine too.

But doing this makes it easier to start,

because you only have to commit to 10 minutes,

and it creates the habit of doing something daily.

And it's this daily practice,

this habit of doing something every day

that is really going to help you progress quickly.

Because when it comes to learning English,

it's about what you do to improve, and how often you do it.

So it's what you do, for example, practicing your speaking,

learning grammar rules, et cetera.

That's important.

We'll talk more about that soon,

but it's also how often you do this, as well.

And by committing to daily practice,

you're saying that this goal is important to me,

and I'm going to show up every day.

This is a phrasal verb,

which means I'm going to do this every day.

Number three is to listen as much as possible,

to listen to English as much as possible.

Now we can talk about,

and we will in a second, what to listen to,

but this follows on from tip two,

because we talked about before daily practice.

Well, you can listen every day as well.

And I've read lots of blog posts,

and met people who tell me

that the reason why they learn their language

is because they listened to hours,

and hours, and hours of audio.

There's a guy who has a blog,

it's called All Japanese All The Time.

And he talks about how he learned Japanese

by listening to 10,000 hours of Japanese.

And that is a lot of time.

You know, if you want to multitask,

if you want to get your app out,

get your calculator app out,

and just calculate how long it will take

to do 10,000 hours of listening

if you listen five hours a day.

And you'll realize how much this is.

Now, again, you don't have to commit to something crazy,

but instead, get in the mind frame of thinking,

can I listen more?

Or how can I listen to English as much as possible?

Because input in English is so important.

And the more you listen to English,

the more you'll get used to the language,

and also internalize the different structures.

Listening to English allows you

to get used to the way people speak.

And the good news is,

it's easier these days to listen as much as possible,

because you can listen to things while doing other things.

And I'm sure right now,

you're probably doing something else

while you're listening to me speak to you.

Maybe you're cleaning the house, you're on the way to work,

you're on the way to university, you're exercising,

you're taking a walk,

or maybe you're just lying in bed trying to get to sleep.

And you've decided to put on this podcast to help you sleep.

But again, think about your life, how you can incorporate,

which means add, listening, to your daily practice,

and just think about all the different situations

that you can listen to English,

and do this as much as possible.

Tip four is to be grateful

for all the resources that you have available.

Now, I'm not gonna spend too much time on this,

but I just want to say, when I started learning Spanish,

it was very difficult to find the resources that I needed

in order to learn.

The only thing that I could really get was the newspaper,

which was very expensive.

And I didn't have access to this online.

And it was very difficult to get listen resources as well,

because these came in CDs that language schools had,

and it was expensive to find them elsewhere.

But now you have access to unlimited English audio,

unlimited English lessons.

It's incredible.

You can read articles online for free.

You can access all these different newspapers

from all over the world, and read blogs,

and read Twitter, and go on social media.

This is an amazing opportunity.

And being thankful for this will mean

that you'll take advantage of this opportunity.

Tip five is to do what you do now, but do it in English.

And if you don't live in an English speaking country,

you may feel you're at a disadvantage,

that it's not as easy to learn English

as somebody else who lives in the UK,

or lives in the U.S., or Australia.

However, you can change your environment

no matter where you live.

So you can turn your life into an English life.

And what I mean by that is all you have to do,

again, is to think about,

okay, what do I do now in my native language

that I can do in English instead?

You can watch TV in English,

watch movies in English, listen to English music.

You can research the latest iPhone in English,

and read the reviews in English

if it's something you want to buy.

You can learn new things in English.

You can read the news in English,

change your mobile phone into English.

And this makes such a difference over the long term,

because you're getting all of this input.

You're getting all of this input

from every angle all the time.

So throughout your day,

you'll be reading, and listening,

and watching things in English.

And after a while, it will become natural to you.

And this is going to give you so much more input,

which, again, is really important

if you want to reach a high level.

So think about all the things you do now

that you can do in English instead.

Tip number six is to know that native speakers

don't care when you make mistakes.

Now, the biggest reason why most learners I talked to

don't get enough speaking practice

is because they're afraid of making mistakes.

They are scared that others will judge them,

or laugh at them, but know this.

The majority of native speakers

don't care if you make mistakes,

it's all about making a connection,

and being able to express yourself.

Native English speakers are used to hearing

people speak English as a second language,

because it's the international language of most culture,

or big pop culture, of travel, of business,

of the internet, of social media,

and therefore, native speakers constantly hear

people speak from different languages in English.

So they are used to hearing mistakes,

hearing different accents.

And most people love speaking to foreigners,

because they're interested in where they're from.

They're interested in their accent, the way they speak.

So embrace this, embrace your accent,

and know that, again, native speakers

don't care when you make mistakes.

So don't let the fear of making mistakes hold you back,

which means stop you from practicing your English.

Tip number seven is to get out of your comfort zone.

Now your comfort zone is where you feel comfortable,

and it's also a place

where you don't make the progress you want to make.

So getting out of your comfort zone

means doing things like taking that first online lesson,

booking an online lesson with a language teacher,

and taking that first lesson,

because a lot of people are nervous about this,

and it goes back a little bit to tip six.

They're afraid to make mistakes,

and to not speak perfect English.

Another example of getting out of your comfort zone

means doing something in English

that takes a bit more focus,

and is a little bit more intentional.

And we'll talk about some of the techniques soon,

but things like practicing, speaking,

and listening to your own voice.

It's never comfortable to listen to your own voice.

It's always a little bit strange,

people don't like hearing their own voice,

but in order to progress,

you might have to get out of your comfort zone a little bit,

and take it step by step.

So, again, if you're thinking about booking,

or getting more speaking practice,

then book that first English lesson online,

where you take 10 minutes to speak to a teacher.

And the first step is just a book it, to reserve a time.

Then the next step is to show up for those 10 minutes,

and to speak in English.

And then the next step from there

is to take a 30 minute lesson,

and then maybe an hour lesson,

and then maybe get more practice

by meeting people who speak English.

But you have to get out of your comfort zone,

especially if you're not progressing,

and especially if you're not doing the right things,

because fear is holding you back.

Before we talk about the next tip,

so quick question, how's it going?

Are you enjoying this?

If you are, then be sure to share this episode,

or this lesson with a friend,

but let's get to tip eight now.

Tip eight is to keep a journal, to keep a journal.

Now this means to write a diary, and I actually do this.

I'm currently using Apple Notes right now

to give you this lesson.

I've made notes for this lesson.

And I have a little section where I have my thoughts,

and I have 900 entries here,

where most days I'll just write down what I'm thinking,

and things I want to do today, and things I did yesterday,

and any thoughts I have now.

I recommend doing this in English as well,

because it's just a great way to get that daily practice,

and to get writing practice.

Now I think practice in writing

is such a powerful way to improve,

because when you're writing,

you can take your time to create sentences.

There's no rush.

For example, when you're in a conversation,

you have to speak at a certain pace.

You have to listen to what the other person is saying,

and respond.

But when you're writing, it's all about you.

There's no one else interacting with there,

and you can take your time to create correct sentences.

And there are a few tools here that can help you with that.

You can use a general spell checker.

You can put sentences into Google to see if they're correct.

And then you can also use a grammar tool,

a grammar writing tool,

which will correct your grammar and your sentence structure.

And again, I'll leave a link to this

in the description for you, so that you can download that.

There's a free version and a paid version.

And again, I use this,

because it helps me improve my writing,

even though I'm a native speaker,

but tip eight in general is to keep a journal.

Just write down your thoughts,

write down what you want to do today,

what you did yesterday.

It's a great way to practice the different tenses as well.

Tip nine is to avoid learning single words.

Now, no matter your process for learning new vocabulary,

I recommend to not focus on single words

when you're learning.

Instead, learn sentences and phrases,

learn sentences and phrases.

So for example, let's say you want to learn a new word,

which is excited, excited,

and you learn the word in the dictionary,

and you write it down, and you try to memorize it.

That's learning the single word.

However, let's say,

if you take the word excited,

and you write down three sentences.

For example, I'm excited about going to the party.

She was excited about seeing her.

And he's going to be excited about going there.

By learning those three sentences, you learn so much more.

You learn grammar,

you learn sentence structure,

and you learn the word in context.

So in all of those sentences,

you heard excited, about, doing, seeing, seeing.

So, you know after excited we use about,

and then we use the gerund, the ING.

But if you just learned the word on its own,

then you wouldn't know this, you wouldn't internalize this.

So what you're doing

is your learning a new word in the context of other words,

and therefore, you're learning grammar,

and you're learning sentence structure.

So learn sentences when you learn new vocabulary.

Tip 10 is to focus on the English you need to know,

to focus on the English you need to know.

And what I mean by that

is focus on words and phrases that are useful to you.

And then also focus on topics that you like to speak about.

So for example, if you need English for business meetings,

then focus on business English phrases.

And another example is

if you enjoy having conversations in English about football,

because you love football, or soccer in American English,

then learn football related phrases,

because you're going to be learning the English

that you're going to use.

When you have conversations with people,

you normally talk about things you're interested in.

So learn about what you're interested in.

And the good news about this is

when you make English a part of your life,

when you listen to things,

choose things that you're interested in.

So again, if you like football,

then listen to football podcasts,

or watch YouTube videos about football.

This makes learning so much more exciting,

and you're actually just doing what you normally do,

but you're doing it in English,

like we learned about before,

but also for this tip, focus on commonly used phrases,

phrases that you're going to use again and again,

because it just makes it so much more efficient.

If you're learning phrases that you're never going to use,

then you're not completely wasting your time,

but you're not being more efficient with your learning.

And a lot of what we've talked about is being efficient,

because you have limited time.

So learn the vocabulary you're going to use,

learn commonly used phrases,

and also learn the topic of English

that you're going to talk about,

and that you're going to use in the future.

Tip 11, don't worry about grammar rules.

Don't worry about them.

Don't worry about grammar rules,

or don't worry completely about grammar rules,

because what I'm about to say may shock you,

but if I asked 10 of my friends to give me an example

of the second conditional, at least nine,

and probably 10, wouldn't be able to do it.

If I said, okay, give me an example

of a second conditional sentence,

they'd look at me,

and think I've no idea what you're talking about.

However, all 10 of these friends

use the second conditional all the time.

They know how to use it.

They know how to form sentences.

They know how to use a correct grammar.

They know how to use it in the right context,

because they have internalized it.

They have internalized these structures,

but they can't explain them.

And the way they've done that is through number nine,

by learning sentences,

because native speakers learn through sentences too.

And also through tip 12, which we'll talk about in a second.

Now it's okay to learn grammar, to know the rules,

but know in order to use them correctly,

you're going to have to internalize grammar.

You're going to have to reach the stage

where it just feels right, where it comes out of your mouth,

and you're not thinking about the rules,

and this is the stage you want to reach.

This is the stage where you want to be

as an English learner.

Now you're probably excited about tip 12,

because I just mentioned it.

And it's this, repetition is key.

Repetition is key.

Repetition is key.

I always make that joke.

But basically what we're saying here

is instead of learning the rules of grammar,

if you repeat a sentence again, and again, and again,

and if you see similar sentences,

and you repeat them, and hear them,

and see them again, and again, and again,

then this is when you're going to internalize it.

This is when it's just going to feel right.

So let's bring tip nine, 10, and 12 together

by saying, find sentences that are specific to you,

the English you need to know, and repeat them.

So find sentences that are specific to you, and repeat them.

Now you can do this with a notebook,

where you write down the phrases,

and then you write them down again,

and you repeat them, and then you repeat them again.

But there's a smarter way to do this.

And it's to use spaced repetition software,

apps like Anki.

Again, all links are in the description,

and I'll link to a video that goes through this in depth.

But what you do, basically,

is you enter in these phrases with audio,

then you repeat them.

So on day one, you repeat it three times

until you feel comfortable with it,

then you repeat it the next day.

And then two days later, four days later,

eight, 16, 32, et cetera,

because we don't have to repeat something

five times every day each day in order to memorize it,

or to internalize it.

We want to be efficient with our repetition.

We want to ensure that we're using

the smallest amount of repetitions

in order to remember a phrase.

And that's what this software is going to do for you.

So repetition is key.

In order to internalize something,

in order to memorize something, you need to repeat it.

Now, speaking of repetition on repeating,

tip 13 is to repeat phrases out loud.

And this is one of my favorite techniques

for learning English and languages in general.

What you do is this,

you find a phrase in English, a sentence, an audio phrase,

you repeat it, and record yourself.

So you use your mobile phone,

and you say this phrase into your mobile phone,

or your computer, and you record yourself.

Then you listen to your version, which again,

you might need to get out of your comfort zone.

You listen to your version,

and then you compare it to the original.

And then you think, okay,

how can I improve the way I'm saying this?

You give yourself feedback.

You don't ask the teacher for it.

Instead, you give yourself feedback.

So you might think, oh, that sound isn't quite right.

Or I didn't link those words together.

Or I didn't use the retraction,

my intonation isn't quite right.

And the more you practice this,

the better you will get at being able to evaluate yourself,

and give yourself feedback.

And then once you have mastered the phrase,

so that you're happy with the way you say it,

use tip 12, get lots of repetition.

Repeat it today, repeat it in two days,

four, eight, et cetera.

So that you can practice using the muscles in your mouth

to be able to say this phrase fluently and accurately,

and then you'll be able to use it over the long term.

And this method is not just practicing your speaking,

you're memorizing grammar, you're memorizing vocabulary.

You're listening to a phrase.

You're reading a phrase as well.

It's such a powerful method, but by speaking the phrase,

it really helps you improve your speaking,

your fluency, your accuracy.

And it also just helps you connect with the phrase

in a more meaningful way.

We have four tips to go, so let's continue.

Tip 14 is to find someone to practice with,

to find someone to practice with,

because working on English on your own is great.

Think about this as training,

like soccer training, where you train with the team,

you work on your shooting, your skills, everything else,

but it's not quite real.

But having a conversation with someone is real.

This is like playing a match.

And this is where you really just fine tune your English,

where you feel good about speaking with somebody.

And then you also gain confidence,

because you notice that your English is improving,

but it also helps you just get that practice that you need

in order to use your English in the real world.

So find somebody to practice with.

Again, this is part of getting out of your comfort zone,

and it can be difficult to find someone,

but make it a priority to find someone,

so overcome this obstacle.

Use a link in the description,

where I give you some websites

where you can find people online,

and also where you can find language exchange partners.

And this is where you speak in English for half the time,

and you speak in your native language for half the time.

So you're finding someone who wants to learn your language,

but someone who speaks English.

So make it a priority to find somebody to practice with,

and then get practice once a week, or maybe twice a week,

so that you're committing to this conversational practice.

Tip 15 is to commit over the longterm,

to make a commitment over the longterm.

And this goes back a little bit to your goal,

where you said, okay, I'm a intermediate speaker.

I want to be an advanced speaker within eight months.

So what you need to do here

is to have this commitment over the long term,

because you can have the best methods,

you can have all the motivation when you're first starting,

but if you don't have this daily practice,

which is what we talked about, and the long-term commitment,

you're not going to make progress.

It takes hours, and hours, and hours,

and hours of practice to improve.

And sometimes you're going to improve without noticing this.

Not all improvement is easy to notice,

and it might feel like,

ugh, I've not really improved this week.

I haven't made progress.

And if you feel like that, then think,

okay, is what I'm doing efficient?

Can I improve the way I learn English?

And also think, all right,

sometimes I'm going to have weeks like that,

but I'm committed to the long-term,

and I'm gonna keep going.

And in a month, I'm going to see an improvement,

but you're not always going to notice that your improve.

Know that improvement might mean

just learning 20 more sentences this week.

That's improvement,

to know that you have memorized 20 sentences,

and you can use them.

So focus on doing the right things consistently.

Two more tips to go, tip 16 is to have fun, to enjoy it,

to enjoy this whole process.

Now, there are a couple of things to think about here.

Firstly, having fun means doing things that interest you.

So again, learn the English that interests you.

Do things that you think are fun.

So you don't have to read a book if you don't like the book.

There are so many different books out there,

so that you can enjoy.

You can enjoy this process.

You don't have to watch the news in English

if you don't watch the news in your native language.

So do the things that interest you,

but also having fun means smiling while you learn.

When you're doing the sentences out loud,

if you make mistakes, laugh, enjoy it.

Know you're going to make lots of mistakes

when you try to improve quickly.

Enjoy it, have fun, smile while you do it.

Let's say you're writing your journal in the morning.

Have fun with this, put on some nice music,

get your favorite drink, get a pen out.

Enjoy the whole process of doing it.

So be in the moment with your English learning,

and have fun while you do it,

which again, means using the right resources

so that it's enjoyable,

but also just whatever you're doing,

have a smile on your face, and enjoy it.

Number 17 is to be proud of the progress you have made.

I think a lot of people

don't spend enough time thinking about this,

because it's very easy to forget how much we've improved.

And I think the reason is

where we are now just becomes normal.

So for example, I was writing down in my journal today,

talking about how I was disappointed

with the latest videos I've made on YouTube,

because on YouTube,

it tells me where these videos are

in terms of views related to the time

that they have been released.

So my latest video right now is seven out of 10.

The one before that is nine out of 10.

And then the one before that is well, two out of 10.

So that one was good, but the last two,

seven and nine out of 10, I felt a little bit bad.

And then I was writing down

about how well my YouTube channel is going at the moment.

Right now I've had record views over the last few months.

So I just took a moment

to be proud of the progress I've made.

And when I wrote this lesson plan originally,

I wrote here, wow, 80,000 people

have subscribed to my YouTube channel.

So I wrote this quite a long time ago now.

And since then, I now have over 500,000 subscribers.

So again, I should just focus on,

and just take a moment to think about

the progress I've made here.

And this is what you should do for English as well,

to think about how far you have come,

to think about how much progress you've made,

to go back two years, and think what was my level like then?

And what is it like now?

And to be proud of this,

and a good mantra is thank you, more please.

So be grateful of what you have now,

but also be ambitious, and want more.

Be proud of where you are, but want more.

Okay, those are the 17 tips.

Congratulations on making it through all 17.

It is great to have you here at the end of this lesson.

Now I have something else for you,

because you made it all the way through.

It's my free book, The 5-Step Plan for English Fluency.

Now I'll leave a link to this in the description,

so you can download it.

And this really focuses on what we've talked about today,

but in book format,

and there are some extra resources and tips in there,

so that you can learn more with me.

Now I have a quick favor to ask.

If you have enjoyed this,

and if you have found it useful, then can you do two things?

Firstly, click the like button.

It just takes a moment.

Just click that like button.

You can do that while I'm speaking to you.

And then also click the share button,

and send this video to a friend,

or post it on Twitter, or on Facebook,

but just share this with somebody else,

or in a place where you think people

are going to benefit from it.

And while you're here,

why not click a video on your screen now,

and continue learning with me?

Okay, thanks for being here,

and I'll speak to you soon, bye bye.