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  • Alisha: Hi, everybody.

  • My name is Alisha, and today, I'm joined again in the studio by--

  • Michael: Michael. Hello.

  • Alisha: Hi, Michael. Thanks for joining us again today.

  • Today, we're going to be looking at a few tips for learning another language.

  • So, each of us have prepared a few things that we think are really useful when learning

  • another language.

  • Both of us have studied another language to some degree.

  • So, we're going to talk about things that were useful for us and which might be useful

  • for you as you practice your English skills.

  • Let's begin.

  • Do you want to start?

  • Michael: Sure.

  • Alisha: Go for it.

  • Michael: I would say, “absorb media.”

  • This is something that actually, when I meet someone, and they sound like a native English

  • speaker.

  • And I go, you know, “Where are you from?

  • Are you from Australia?

  • America?”

  • No, no, no.

  • I'm from blah blah blah.”

  • What?

  • You mean you're not a native English speaker?”

  • And every single time they tell me, I said, you know, “How did you learn?

  • Please, I'm an English teacher.

  • I want to know.

  • I want to help people, blah blah blah.”

  • Every single time, they tell me, “Oh, I just love blah blah blah culture.”

  • Usually, “I love American culture.

  • I love Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga blah blah blah blah blah.”

  • And so all day, every day, they're reading, they're watching movies, they're sitting

  • on YouTube, and just absorbing it.

  • It doesn't feel like you're studying, but you are.

  • Then, you're more likely to study.

  • So, it's like a fun way to study.

  • It's helped me.

  • I've changed everything on my iPod.

  • So, even when I'm lazy, I have no choice but to listen to the language I'm learning.

  • Alisha: Yeah.

  • I think that's a really good tip.

  • I had the same thing essentially.

  • Mine was just phrased slightly different.

  • I said, “find something that interests you in your target language.”

  • So, if English is your target language, whatever it might be, if it's music, if it's movies,

  • if it's comic books, I don't know.

  • If it's--if you're interested in dating someone who speaks your target language, whatever

  • it is.

  • Find something to motivate you.

  • Something that's going to make you want to study and make you want to learn that language,

  • so that you have that, you know, that drive to do it.

  • I totally agree with you.

  • Yeah.

  • I think it's a great tip.

  • Okay.

  • Cool.

  • So, we had one thing that was the same.

  • I guess I'll share another one of mine, if that's okay.

  • Michael: Go ahead.

  • Alisha: My next one is one that I try to do myself, but I know that I mess up every once

  • in a while.

  • Practice everyday.”

  • Even if it's just a few minutes, whether you can spare an hour or two hours, or just, I

  • myself study while I'm commuting to work on the subway.

  • Just find something that you can do every single day so that you don't lose, you know,

  • lose your place in your studies.

  • Whether it's vocabulary, or picking a new grammar point to be looking at, or just you

  • know finding a new phrase on TV that you thought was interesting, just being an active learner

  • every single day really, really contributes, I think, to your abilities to speak and to

  • understand another language.

  • Let's just practice every single day something.

  • Michael: I think this is a really useful piece of advice for anything.

  • I think a lot of people, you get overwhelmed and, you know, you think, “Man!

  • I want to be here.”

  • Whether it's exercising, or playing the piano, or whatever, and you just want to finish a

  • year's worth of time in one day.

  • And so, you study really hard.

  • You procrastinate.

  • Then one day, you cram as much as you can.

  • You get burnt out and then you don't do it for weeks, months.

  • And that's not the way humans work.

  • We're creatures of habit.

  • Any of the best, the greatest, whether they speak a language like you is wonderfully as

  • you do or whatever, or play piano, or whatever.

  • Every single time, you ask them and it's brick, by brick, by brick.

  • So, I agree 100% and I also don't follow this advice all the time.

  • It's tough.

  • I think the key is to not give up.

  • For me, honestly, my languages are not as confident.

  • But as far as exercise, you know, you'll get lazy and you'll pig out, and you go down.

  • But you can't just give up and just let it go down.

  • Alisha: Right.

  • Michael: Just remember the big picture that you are making progress.

  • Even if there's some decline.

  • So, you're busy with work whatever, get back on it.

  • Keep practicing.

  • Alisha: Yeah.

  • Michael: English.

  • Get back on EnglishClass101.com.

  • Alisha: What is your next tip?

  • Michael: So, my next tip is, ah!

  • Also related to practice everyday is, “practice fearlessly.”

  • This means, you know, it's easy to learn some basic phrases in English.

  • Hello.

  • I'm fine.

  • Thank you, and you?”

  • And you sound like a robot and you feel comfortable in your little like comfort zone, but you

  • don't expand.

  • You've got to be willing to make mistakes.

  • I think it's the same as with dancing.

  • If you're afraid, you look stupid.

  • If you're reserved and you're off onto the side of the club, and you're just kind of

  • moving one shoulder in your little comfort bubble, it looks really stupid.

  • It looks way more stupid than if you were actually going all out and just having on

  • with it.

  • Alisha: Yes.

  • Michael: I think it's the same thing with language.

  • Don't just stick to your little comfort of, “Hello.

  • I'm fine.

  • Thank you, and you?”

  • And sound like a robot.

  • You got to have some fun with it.

  • Try to use those big words that maybe you mess up, that's okay.

  • That's how you learn.

  • Just like a kid.

  • So, let's see your other one.

  • Alisha: My tip.

  • My last tip then is kind of general, I guess.

  • I've just chosen, “immersion.”

  • This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to go to the country where they speak the

  • language that you're studying.

  • But just find a way to--even if it's just for a short period of time every day, or once

  • a week, or whatever it is.

  • If there's some way that you can immerse yourself in the language that you're studying for a

  • period of time.

  • Only study Spanish, or only study English, in your case, for a period of time every day,

  • or every week, every month, whatever it is on a regular basis, so you get used to just

  • hearing that and just experiencing that I think is really, really helpful, I think.

  • Michael: Yeah.

  • I agree.

  • I think that's-- No, no, let's not give them.

  • I thought I wrote it down.

  • Yeah, I agree.

  • One of the things that most people don't realize is that now it's the 21st century, everyone's

  • connected.

  • A lot of people just assume that if you move to the country, you're going to pick up the

  • language because immersion is one of the best, most, time and time again proved ways to learn

  • a language.

  • But that's not always the case.

  • I have a lot of friends in different countries who don't learn it at all.

  • They're married to a local, but they just--it's easy to just sit on Facebook, and talk to

  • your old friends, and never actually practice and put it out there.

  • If you can't make it out to another country, don't worry about it.

  • Because even if you do, sometimes it's that mindset.

  • It's actually doing it.

  • Alisha: Yeah, yeah. I agree. Okay. What's your last tip?

  • Michael: My last tip is, “take grammar with a grain of salt.”

  • Of course, grammar is essential for learning a language.

  • Absolutely.

  • There's no doubt about it.

  • You should definitely focus on that.

  • But, what I found is that when you're learning from a non-native English speaker, they feel

  • safe teaching grammar because there are set rules they can teach.

  • Even if their pronunciation isn't correct, or any of that.

  • You know, you can just get into that rut.

  • But the reality of most languages is we break those rules all the time.

  • So, don't worry too much.

  • If your grammar is a little off or you're having trouble learning it, just kind of go

  • with it and just try to repeat what you hear.

  • Alisha: Yeah.

  • Michael: I don't know about you though.

  • What do you think?

  • Alisha: No, I think that's an interesting point though.

  • Because I think that, like you say, I think grammar is a really safe place for a lot of

  • people because, like you say, there are rules.

  • It's clear that I can see that, if I put a noun and a verb like this, then I'm going

  • to make a sentence that says this, and I understand that.

  • It's really easy to understand.

  • But, I think that's something that a lot of learners and myself, I'm guilty of this, too,

  • is that there's a limit to how much grammar that you can learn.

  • Like once you learn the grammar, you've learned the grammar.

  • Yeah, it's possible, I think to master the grammar of any language, but it's the vocabulary

  • that continues to change.

  • Every year, there are new words in every single language that gets developed.

  • People are making up new words every day, especially in English.

  • So, experiment, you know.

  • Once you find that you've learned the grammar, move on.

  • Keep exploring new vocabulary.

  • Find new and interesting things to do with the tools that you've given yourself.

  • So, don't be afraid to experiment with your vocabulary, too.

  • If you find something that you might like to try to make a verb out of.

  • Like, “Google,” for example.

  • Give it a try.

  • See if it works.

  • If the other people around you are confused, maybe it didn't work.

  • If the other people around you laugh or, you know, continue with the conversation.

  • Hey, maybe you just made a new word.

  • You never know.

  • So, give it a try.

  • Thanks very much for joining us for our English tips on this lesson.

  • We will see you again next time.

  • Bye!

Alisha: Hi, everybody.

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