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  • [singing]

  • "The eye of the tiger." Hi. James from www.engvid.com, singing one of my favourite

  • workout songs: Rocky Balboa, "Eye of the Tiger". You'll notice that Mr. E has on a cape, a

  • spit curl -- you know, curl -- from Superman. That's coming out June 14 -- advertisement.

  • But anyway, he's working out. Look at those chest muscles -- pectorals, chest muscles.

  • And those arms -- biceps. He's a super worm because today we're going to "Work out your

  • English with Mr. E." Okay. Anyway, why are we doing a workout for something that's mental,

  • right? It's not physical -- "physical" is body; "mental" is mind. Well, really they

  • have something in common: they're both good for you. A workout changes your body and makes

  • it something you want it to be. Learning a language is the same. You're actually changing

  • the structure of your mind. You're changing things in your brain so you can get a certain

  • result: a new language or a new way of thinking. The principles, or the way we go about it,

  • are almost the same. I'm going to break it down because sometimes people get confused

  • with ideas for learning and think it's difficult, but they understand, you know... you run:

  • your heart is good. You lift heavy weight: your arms get big. Same thing. Let's go to

  • the board. Okay, "R", "W", "N": three basic blocks of

  • any workout. Anybody who's very big and strong will tell you you need these three things

  • in order to get in good shape and to be strong. Well, what are they?

  • Let's start off with the one that everybody knows best: A workout -- a "workout" versus

  • a "program". Now, I have this on the board for a reason. "Working out" in English means

  • to exercise or do actions to change your body -- make it stronger. In this case, a "workout"

  • is like a lesson. This is a lesson. This would be a "workout". It's one time -- you go in.

  • You do it, right? But it's not the same as a "program". A "program" is a few workouts

  • put together with an idea. You want to get to somewhere, all right? In this case, to

  • get there, we want to learn English. That's what we want to do. That would be the "program".

  • The "workout" would be the lessons that we take in order to learn the program. Simple

  • enough? You're saying, "Okay, I know this. Why are you teaching me?" Well, what most

  • people don't know, to get the most out of a workout, there are three variables -- three

  • variables or three things -- that you must do. There is "intensity", "duration", and

  • "workload", okay? So "intensity": How much you do. Sorry, "intensity" is how hard you

  • work. "Workload" is how much you do. And "duration" is for how long. Well, in learning a language,

  • there are three answers to this. So if we start off with, let's say, intensity. Do you

  • passively -- and passive means just sit there and watch. You're not speaking. You're not

  • active. You're not doing anything. You just listen, or you just read: that's passive.

  • We can really make it more intense by taking the information that you hear and you read

  • and using it right away by writing something like writing a response on www.engvid.com

  • -- you know, send us a comment -- or talking to somebody. You learn a lesson -- automatically

  • going out and talking about it. That's really intense, okay? So that's the "intensity".

  • You can change it from being passive to active or both.

  • The second one we can look at, as I said, is "workload". What is the "workload"? How

  • much are you doing, right? Are you doing a page or are you doing grammar? Are you doing

  • verbs -- sorry, are you doing, you know, vocabulary? What are you doing? Each subpart of it is

  • harder. Writing is harder. It's a big workload -- right? -- versus learning ten vocabulary

  • words. What's your workload like? And the other one is "duration". Personally,

  • when I study, or if I'm studying a language, I like to put in at least 30 minutes. I don't

  • have to do ten hours. In fact, sometimes doing too much is not good. But how long are you

  • doing? Five minutes, and you say you're studying? You're not studying. 30 minutes is like the

  • bare minimum, you know, just the smallest amount. Maybe an hour is good, maybe two hours.

  • So let's look at those three variables in a workout, and as you change them you'll notice

  • your ability to learn English gets better and better or goes down, right? So remember

  • what we said: There's "intensity", which is how hard you're studying; "workload", how

  • much you're studying; and "duration", how much -- how often -- not how often, but how

  • long do you study. Five minutes? Ten minutes? An hour? Okay? An hour a day is great. You

  • don't need more. Watch a few of our videos. Okay, next: "Program". I told you the "program"

  • is a large thing. A "workout" is one thing; the "program" is all the things. What do you

  • want? You want to learn English, so you need a program. You need to put it in such a way

  • that it works. Well, there are also three variables for this. "What?" Yeah, there're

  • three variables. Number one, you have to -- when you're looking at a program for learning something,

  • for -- let's talk about language. You have to be consistent. You study today, but not

  • for six months? That's not consistent. Your workouts are no good. They're not going to

  • help you if you do them every five months. It's got to be consistent. Daily is best.

  • What about review? Well, once you learn something, you've got to review it, right? You've got

  • to review what you're learning, go over it. That's why teachers have tests. I did a video

  • where I talked about the testing method and why they tested in a certain way. You have

  • to go over. What did I learn? Review it. Review it. Go over it. It'll help your memory.

  • And finally, you've got to clean up the garbage, like, correct your mistakes. When you make

  • a mistake, correct it, okay? Over the long term, if you're correcting the mistakes, you'll

  • find that the consistency -- the reviewing and the correcting of the mistakes -- your

  • English will just improve and flower. Before you know it, you're speaking the language,

  • not learning the language. I know you like that. I do, too.

  • All right, so we talked about a workout. Now, everybody thinks that's it. You work out.

  • You just lift these huge heavy weights, and you run, and everything's good. Sorry to tell

  • you: The human body doesn't work like that and nor does your mind. You work out, but

  • you need something called "fuel", or something to make it work. When I was talking to you

  • about your workload, in learning lessons or learning methodology -- method -- what we're

  • talking about here is nutrition. Nutrition is the food you put in. If you work out and

  • you eat bad food, you will get a bad result -- lots of work; no return. But with nutrition,

  • what we want to talk about is -- well, what's "nutrition"? What you put in. What are you

  • studying? Okay. I often tell people study what you like. It makes more sense. Now, that's

  • at the beginning, okay? But I also have to look at, when I'm talking about nutrition

  • -- it's what type of information you're taking. There are two types of English, really. There's

  • what I call "bar English" and "business English". And I would teach this to my students because

  • they would come in and say "I'm studying for IELTS and TOEFL, and I need to know all this

  • academic stuff." And I went, "Great, so are you not going to ever go out in a foreign

  • country and talk to English people? You're just going to sit in a room and sign documents?"

  • -"Why, yes, I'm going to have beer with them." -"No, you're not because you don't know 'bar

  • English'." "Bar English" isn't just you go to the bar and you drink and you say, "Hey

  • man, give me another beer, or, "Dos cervezas, por favor." You know, it's not that. It's

  • what we call "social English". It's the contractions: "I wanna go" or "I'm gonna" that you shouldn't

  • use when you're using formal English, especially when writing. No. No, no, no, no, no. But

  • you do when you speak, and it makes people more comfortable -- the idiomatic speech,

  • which isn't necessarily good for an office environment, but it's quite acceptable and

  • expected when you're at a bar, at a beach, and with your family. Okay? This is what I

  • put "nutrition" in. Stuff you should take in. You should balance off the academic with

  • a little bit of the social. It'll make your life more whole, and you'll find that you

  • can actually go out, talk to people, and that will enhance your learning, okay? Cool? You

  • like that? Why do I have "out"? I've always said when

  • people work out -- because sometimes I dabble. "Dabble" means to play in something. It's

  • not also what you put in, it's what doesn't come out. So in layman's terms, which means

  • common people terms: No poo poo; no good. Okay? So you're taking all this stuff in,

  • the bar room and the business and that, right? But what are -- what are you taking out? I

  • touched on it on the workout. You've got to correct your mistakes. A lot of people take

  • in bad English because they study something badly or they don't correct anything, and

  • continue with it. Well, those mistakes build up, just like bad food builds up and creates

  • a bad body. After a while, you've studied a year. You have so many mistakes. It's almost

  • impossible to fix. So you give up, saying, "I will never be good." In computer words

  • or language, parlance -- "parlance" means wording -- "garbage in, garbage out". I'm

  • telling you take in -- know what you're taking in. You need the academic. You need some social.

  • Work on those aspects. You also need to watch what you don't throw out -- things that are

  • useless to you -- you may never even use. Why are you learning medical terminology?

  • You're not a doctor; you're a garbage man, right? Know how the garbage machine works.

  • Cool? Anyway, and the final one is "Rest". Everybody

  • knows -- not everyone; silly to say. But a lot of people who work out realize quite quickly

  • that you can work out, and you can eat the right food, but if you don't get adequate

  • -- and "adequate" means "enough". If you don't get enough rest, the problem is your muscles

  • won't grow because your body is always repairing or fixing itself, okay? So that's what we're

  • looking at here when we talk about rest. You need to grow. You need to get bigger. And

  • you need the time to grow. People grow over time. Things grow over time -- so do muscles.

  • Language is the same. You need a break. You're like, "What? You told me I have to work out

  • hard and all this intensity and all this. I've got to watch the garbage I put in and

  • all" -- yeah. But you need to rest. You need two forms of rest. You notice I have "breaks"

  • and "time out". Breaks: when you're learning, if you learn in chunks, take 20 or 30 minutes.

  • Work on something. Take a break. Five minutes, ten minutes, take some air. Walk around. Let

  • it sit, okay? What do I mean, "let it sit"? Let the information go into your brain, and

  • then come back. Don't always cram. "Cram" means taking something and pushing it in again

  • and again into something, okay? Don't cram. That's bad. It's not enjoyable either. Don't

  • cram information. What you want to do is put the information. Give it time to settle. Come

  • in a little bit, then come back to it. You'll find that you understand it a little bit better.

  • So take breaks in your learning. After 15 minutes of learning, 30 minutes, 45 -- take

  • breaks. They've found that in learning language, 20 to 30 minutes is very good for the brain

  • to get the information and learn from it. Now, that's a break while you're learning

  • a lesson or in a workout. But in a program -- see I'm coming back to this again. In a

  • program, take a time out. Now, what I mean by "time out" is going to sound funny. Take

  • a time out from actually learning, sitting in front, reading books, being in class. Take

  • a break. Don't do any language. But when you go outside, try and use your language. Try

  • and use it in a natural environment. I know for some of you, I know don't live in countries

  • where English is a primary language, that will be a little difficult. So people like,

  • a Spanish person in America -- United States -- they would find it easier, or a German

  • person because there're so many English tourists. But take a break from actually active learning.

  • The "learning curve", we call it -- what I found with students was that they'd come in

  • here, and they would go up, up, up, up, up, and then there would be called a "plateau"

  • -- a place where they would stay -- and then they would say "my English is going down".

  • And I would say, "Actually, it's not going down. Your brain is analyzing and learning.

  • It seems to you down. So one day when you go, 'Now my English better', it was always

  • here, and it was always going up. You just didn't see it until it came here. Your brain

  • needs time and so do you. So what I want you to do is -- I want you to take a break right

  • now. That's right, take a break because I'm finished this lesson. But before I do, let's

  • do the review. People always say the most important part

  • of the workout is actually the rest so you can get the information. But to go over it

  • again, work out. There's a difference between a "workout" and a "program". A "workout" is

  • the lesson you're studying, okay? Work on the process in that lesson. There's a video

  • on that process. Go check it out. You'll see it -- another learning lesson. The "program"

  • is the end goal, what do you want, and what workouts or what lessons are you going to

  • study to get to that end goal. A student is different than a businessman, which is different

  • than a person vacationing. They'll all have different programs, and have to have different

  • workouts to get there, okay? Remember that. Next, "nutrition": just like your workout,

  • what are you going to put in your body? What are you filling yourself with? Is it more

  • social -- bar talk -- or is it more formal -- education or business? Don't forget you've

  • got to clean out those mistakes. When someone's correcting you, or you find a mistake, correct

  • it. If you leave the garbage in -- don't take it out -- it's going to make you bad, okay?

  • Garbage in; garbage out; good nutrition; good learning in: mistakes come out. And finally,

  • rest. Take breaks while you're learning as well as a longer break, maybe a day or two.

  • Give your time -- yourself time. Give your brain time to think and absorb. Cool? You

  • like that? Well, it's our break time, okay? Because this

  • is a workout -- a www.engvid.com workout. www.engvid.com, I just said it. So please

  • go to -- Mr. E -- www.engvid.com, where "eng" stand for "English", and "vid" stands for

  • "video". Hey, and don't forget to subscribe because you'll get my latest video every week,

  • every month, every year, whenever. All the new ones come up, and you'll be the first

  • one to know. It'll be right on your page. Anyway, have a good one. I'm out. Super E

  • -- he's gone from "Mister" to "Super". This is a break. Remember: you have to come back

  • and study another video later. Ciao.

[singing]

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