Let's talk about them.

The things I'm gonna be talking about in this video are simple and free and you can start implementing them today.

These things are what they call active learning.

That's why they are very effective despite being simple.

My number one habit that I'm convinced everyone who wants to become fluent in English should develop is practicing speaking.

My rule of thumb was to practice speaking at least ten minutes a day.

So believe it or not, but I just like so many of you also didn't have anyone to practice my English with for a very long time.

But I knew that in order to improve my speaking, I needed to speak.

So I made a rule for myself that no matter what I would practice my speaking at least ten minutes a day.

At least ten, but the more the better.

The things that I did the most and my favorite ways to work on my speaking skills by myself involved shadowing, of course,

tongue twisters and searching for videos specifically to practice speaking on YouTube and actually doing what was suggested in those videos.

This could be a video about how to pronounce words or I'm sure that you know that Rachel from Rachel's English posts videos where she breaks down scenes from movies and TV series.

It's basically that same shadowing and I actually make video dialogues on this channel to help others improve their speaking by basically engaging in a dialogue with me.

You can check them out by clicking somewhere over here or you can find them in the description box and you know, it's free.

You just need to fit this into your busy life.

You can also use apps to practice your speaking or honestly, anything that will make you speak English regularly.

If for some reason, you find it difficult to shadow, you don't like apps and you hate tongue twisters, then I suggest that you try to read out loud.

The point here is to get used to speaking in English because it might be quite tiring if your face muscles, mouth tongue and your brain aren't used to this.

Finding ten minutes a day is not difficult to practice your speaking using, let's say my suggested videos.

But the difference it's going to make is going to be significant.

Habit number two is working on your listening skills.

Ok now, you do not want to skip this one if you're ever planning to communicate with native speakers in real life.

Unfortunately, in this past year, I've met so many people who came to the US and told me that they couldn't speak English well,

which is totally understandable, but they could understand English perfectly fine.

But then when they actually needed to talk to real people in real life and deal with everyday things, they couldn't, because they couldn't understand a half of what they were hearing.

So you do not want to waste your time and you do not want to underestimate working on your listening skills.

When you come to an English-speaking country, unfortunately, there's no magic that suddenly happens.

You still need to sit down and work on your English.

And I promise you, it is not that difficult to develop your listening skills and get them to a very good level where you won't have that much trouble understanding real-life English.

So start today; start with watching a TV show or series you really enjoy and you have already watched in your native language.

This is a lot easier than you think.

You might not get everything on the first try, but the thing with TV series is that you can watch them over and over again and this is usually exactly what people do.

And the more you watch and by watch, I mean, work on your listening in English, the more you'll start to understand.

Listen to podcasts in English while you commute to work or on the go, you still have nothing better to do during this time,

so instead of wasting it, take advantage of it.

Writing in English.

It is so simple, yet so powerful.

I write by hand in my notebooks, but mostly, I just type on my laptop.

I have already talked about this.

There's no rush.

Nobody has to see what you're writing about.

But it gives you time to develop your thoughts and put them down in a better way and find the right words.

And this, let's call it exercise allows you to remember everything easier and the better.

And you can use free resources to check your grammar like Grammarly.

In terms of improving your vocabulary, I also have a very good way that I used and I let you to decide whether it's simple or not.

When I was writing, I obviously noticed that I lacked vocabulary to express myself and I use the same words over and over again.

So I would write whatever I was writing about with mistakes and repetitive words just to lay out my thoughts on paper and off the top of my head.

Those who write know that sometimes you get so tuned in that you just need to continue writing with no interruptions otherwise you just lose your train of thought.

Then would go through it, making corrections and finding better synonyms for the words I used.

It takes some time, but it's actually not boring.

On the contrary, it's captivating because you can see how your simply expressed thoughts take up a new, more sophisticated form.

And over time, it became very apparent that my vocabulary had improved.

I know that a lot of people like to write down new words and of course, you can do whatever works for you.

I also did this for some time, but I ultimately understood that it is so much more effective to use these words in speaking and writing.

So instead of writing a new word on its own, I would use it in a sentence.

But I admit this might not be that simple.

This one has to be the most worthwhile habit that I have developed.

Repetition, whatever you do, whatever you learn, you need to go back to that and review it, and sometimes more than once to memorize the information and consolidate your knowledge.

Especially when you like to write things down.

If you're a visual learner, review your notes.

I, for example, would repeat lines, words and sentences when shadowing a lot of times and I mean a lot.

I would repeat the same thing over and over and over again until I memorized it.

And when my goal was to hone my pronunciation and improve my speaking, I would repeat it and work in it until I could say it effortlessly.

Very often I see how people just want to complete some courses or programs as quickly as possible just to get that certificate or diploma.

But ultimately, that piece of paper means nothing if you can't go out in the world and communicate with people.

Or very often when I work with people and correct their pronunciation or grammar, they wouldn't even repeat that after me, not to mention taking time and honing that.

So they just nod their heads and I actually need to tell them,

"No, no, no, no, no. You actually need to say it, repeat it."

And you know what happens next time when they need to say the same thing?

That's right. Nothing.

They forget.

Because once isn't enough. You need to make time to work on specific things.

Take that one sound, that one word or sentence and practice the hell out of it.

Master it, quality over quantity.

Eventually, everything will add up and you'll notice a huge leap in your progress.

I know this might be boring, but for the love, be patient, give it time. How much?

Well, it depends on each person.

Someone might be learning fast and someone slowly.

Honestly, without being able to speak a language, you can't say that you're fluent in a language..

So I would simply choose to work on my speaking and listening above everything else if I had limited time for studying and I would be tedious and diligent about it.

Another thing is to set realistic goals and to have commitment.

You need to make yourself commit to your routine and remember, quality is more important than quantity.

And please understand that for the majority of people becoming fluent in a language in one year is impossible.

So don't focus on the time frame, but rather on the process and the things you do.

Well, and also when I was thinking about the things that helped me a lot but weren't too difficult to do, but nonetheless, were very effective.

I remember that posting posts on social media in English also helped me a lot.

There's something about being exposed to the public.

You feel responsible and you also don't want to embarrass yourself.

So you sit and you think your post through and you check your grammar.

Using apps is also a good idea and it's usually easy.

You just need to find the one that works for you.

And it's a good thing that most of the apps have a trial period.

By posts, I mean, I would start by posting some photos and telling the story behind the photos or just sharing my thoughts in English.

OK. Friends, thank you for watching this video.

If you enjoyed it and found it useful, please give it a like and subscribe if you haven't yet and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.