Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hello, this is Elliott from ETJ English.com

  • Helping you become a fluent English speaker.

  • Today, I'm talking to you about mistakes.

  • Now, mistakes are extremely important when you're learning anything.

  • When you're trying to be successful in anything.

  • I'm going to start todays lesson by telling you my biggest mistake

  • and how I learnt from it.

  • I was about fourteen years old. I was one of those kids in school

  • that had to make people laugh. I wanted to make everyone laugh

  • So, I decided to climb a tree.

  • I climbed to the top of a tree.

  • And when I reached the top, I was shouting to everyone:

  • "I'm gonna jump!"

  • I thought this would make people laugh.

  • And in the beginning, people were laughing

  • and they could't wait to see what was going to happen.

  • Sadly, I didn't jump; I fell.

  • Yes, I fell from the top of a tree; probably about the height of my house

  • and I landed flat on my face

  • and flat on my wrists.

  • One wrist was poking out that way and one wrist was poking out that way.

  • Both of my wrists were broken and my nose was as flat as a pancake.

  • I broke both my wrists, and my nose.

  • Now, obviously, this was a mistake. For two reasons...

  • Number one: I did it because I wanted people to laugh; and nobody laughed.

  • Mostly, people were crying and screaming and running for teachers and nurses to get help

  • and a lot of people thought I was dead.

  • Number two: I had to walk around with casts on my arms and I couldn't do anything.

  • I was just led in bed like this for six weeks.

  • And my mum had to wash me, my mum had to take me to the toilet

  • for about six weeks.

  • When you're a thirteen / fouteen year old teenager,

  • You don't really want your mum seeing your down below bits.

  • Not the best decision I've ever made.

  • How did I learn from this?

  • I learnt that I shouldn't have done this

  • because I really badly hurt myself and I didn't make anyone laugh.

  • It was a mistake.

  • And the truth is, I'm kind of happy this happened

  • because it stopped me from being quite so crazy as a child

  • I grew up a lot from jumping out of that tree and breaking my wrists.

  • I kind of became more of an adult

  • because I learnt not to be so immature

  • I learnt that you can find other ways to make people laugh

  • than doing something stupid and risking your body

  • So, the same goes for English.

  • Although you don't have to go to quite the extreme

  • you shouldn't really be breaking any limbs when you're learning English

  • but, you need to make mistakes.

  • because you learn from those mistakes.

  • And if you embarrass yourself, it doesn't matter.

  • What I'm trying to say is...

  • You need to go and talk to people.

  • Don't be afraid to talk to people.

  • You need to go out there and make mistakes.

  • Practice talking to people, and make the mistakes.

  • Say things how you think they're said

  • and if they're wrong. They're wrong.

  • But people will correct you.

  • Or if you think it's wrong, ask the person you're talking to.

  • Ask them: "Did I make a mistake?"

  • "Was that correct?"

  • Accuracy comes with practice.

  • And with practice, comes mistakes.

  • Trial and error. We learn from our mistakes.

  • So...

  • Go out there, speak to anyone in English

  • Make mistakes. Learn from your mistakes

  • and become a better speaker.

  • If you're in lessons with me, you can come back and ask me

  • if what you said was correct.

  • And I will tell you.

  • It's important to make mistakes

  • And it's very easy to make mistakes in the beginning

  • But the people who learn the fastest are the people who go out there

  • and practice.

  • And this is how, with online lessons with me

  • you become fluent fast

  • Because you have someone correcting your mistakes constantly.

  • I'm always correcting mistakes in my lessons

  • Go out there, make mistakes embarrass yourself

  • and become a more confident speaker

  • Thank you for watching, please give me a thumbs up

  • or a thumbs down, if you didn't like this video.

  • And please subsribe to my channel if you would like more lessons.

  • Thank you very much for watching

  • And happy learning!

Hello, this is Elliott from ETJ English.com

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it