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  • "The Prosperity Plan." It's empty. Why? Well, hi. James, from EngVid. I have a book, and

  • it says "Prosperity Plan". I know you're here to learn English. This is a book full of secrets

  • on how to make millions of dollars. Empty. That's because when people tell you there's

  • a secret, there's not really a secret; there's a method behind something, and you may not

  • know it, so to you it's a secret, but you know, just like that book, there are no secrets.

  • The only one is hard work. Let's look at the three methods I have for you today in order to learn English,

  • okay? Call them the "Secrets you need to know" because most people don't

  • know them because the funny thing is, although they're not secret -- I said it again -- they're

  • not methods that are usually taught in ESL books.

  • The Kaizen Method, the Process Method, and the Writing Method are actually books I read on something completely different.

  • But what I found was they were very, very handy for learning English.

  • Personally, I'm trying to learn Spanish, and when I apply these different methods,

  • I found my learning going faster and faster, and I actually enjoyed it. So

  • I called them "secret" for you because I'm quite sure that your teachers haven't sat down and gone,

  • "Today, we're going to learn the Kaizen Method of English. Then, we'll

  • do the Process Method, and then we'll do the Writing Method." No. Because they're actually

  • three different books, all right? So I'm just going to give you a part of each book, and

  • if I come across to the end, I'll give you another lesson on it, all right? But these

  • are three things I liked out of these books. All right. Let's start from the first one,

  • the Process Method. I know -- and it's in red, and I start here why? Most of the times

  • people are learning a language, they want to -- and this is what the Process Method

  • is about. People start with "product", "product". What is a "product"? A "product" is something

  • you can touch or hold. This marker is a product. But this isn't how the marker started. I'm

  • sorry. Okay, the marker started a little differently. I mean, that's an alcohol base that I'm sniffing.

  • When I go [inhales], there's liquid in here. This is plastic -- came from oil. So why I'm

  • telling you all these things -- you're going, "Why are you telling me?" Well, things start

  • in a certain way, but they end up like this. In fact, you can think of the Process Method

  • versus product as being a tree and being a seed. And a seed, you know, little thing,

  • you put it in the ground, and it grows into a tree. Well, when you have a seed, the seed

  • has no idea that it's going to be a tree and a big tree -- how long it will take. But humans

  • are funny. They want to start a language, and they think right away, "I'm going to learn

  • English." And then, they sit down; they open the book; they open the book; "I'm going to

  • learn English. I'm learning English. I'm learning English." And then they get upset one hour

  • later. "I don't know any English. I don't speak English." Well, it's like being a human.

  • You start as a baby, you grow to an adult. When we talk about the Process Method, what

  • you want to do is don't think about you want to speak English. Yes, I know. That's why

  • you're watching this video and why you're studying. Think more about what you're doing

  • while you're studying English. And this is called the "process". Go into the step. Concentrate

  • on what you're doing. You'll find a couple of things happen: Sometimes you'll say English

  • is hard or it's boring. If you do this method, you'll actually stop finding it hard or boring,

  • and you'll enjoy it because you'll be working on something specific, mastering that, and

  • then you're going to start noticing that the final product -- English -- is coming to you.

  • And it will come faster than you think. Why? Well, if you're thinking, "I don't understand

  • this English", you're focusing, really, on you don't understand English or you don't

  • know English. You're not focusing on what you're doing. If you take a breath [inhales]

  • and go [exhales], "Okay. I'm just watching this video of this crazy guy who speaks very

  • quickly in English, and just now, he told me to take a breath. Oh, okay. I understand."

  • And you're ahead. That's the Process Method. Take time to actually go back -- when you're

  • thinking about it's hard; it's difficult or boring -- and say to yourself, "What am I

  • doing now?" And then look at that. Each time you do that, you get further in the process

  • and you will end up with a product before you know it. Okay? Sounds simple, but try

  • it. You can even do this on a date. That's another story.

  • Okay, so we do this. We got the Process Method. That's the overall one we talk about. Because

  • once you understand that, we're going to go to the Kaizen method. The Kaizen Method is

  • one step beyond. Well, not really. The Kaizen Method is -- what they're saying is: here's

  • you, and take -- you have to take just one more step. Most people, when they're learning

  • something, they want to learn something -- some vocabulary. Then they go into lexical chunks.

  • "Lexical chunks" is just a fancy term for words that go together. Now, three, four,

  • five words that are usually said together in English. But you just need to learn one

  • word. In the Kaizen Method, they would say you just need to know one letter. They would

  • say start with 'A', and know that it can be "ah", or 'T' and it could be "tuh". Because

  • if you cannot pronounce those things properly, how can you say the word properly? This doesn't

  • occur to most people. They want to learn all the English. That's the problem. Remember

  • the product? We go back to here, right? Well, it's again this process. An easier way to

  • do it is the Kaizen Method. Pick one subject; pick one thing; break it down to the smallest

  • unit you can do, and focus on just that, okay? Then you take the next step and then the next

  • one. My favorite story from the Kaizen Method is a person who wanted to work out. And they

  • said, "Working out is so hard; it's so difficult." So what the trainer said was simple. They

  • said, "You know what? Tomorrow morning, don't work out." The customer was, like, "Why? Are

  • you crazy?" He said, "No. Don't. Just stand up for 30 seconds. That's it." And the client

  • was, "Well, anybody would do that." He said, "Yeah. That's your first step." Eventually,

  • they built up until they were doing a thirty-minute workout, and they were enjoying it. Because

  • they took steps that were so easy that it didn't stop them. The reason why I explain

  • this one, this method, is generally, if something is too difficult, we get what's called a "stress

  • reaction". "Stress" is when you're afraid and your body doesn't work as efficiently

  • or effectively. So it makes things harder. By doing the Kaizen Method, you relax, and

  • your brain can do its best work. We call it "optimal work", which means "works in its

  • best way". "Optimize" or "optimal" means "the best", okay? And that's what you can do with

  • the Kaizen Method. Slow yourself down so you can work your best. Okay?

  • Now, you're looking here with the Kaizen Method, with the Process Method, you're going, "You

  • know what? It doesn't sound so hard." I'm like, "No." Learning is natural for all humans.

  • It just is. It's how we learn. And that's why these are secret methods because people

  • don't just tell these to you. You go to school to learn things, not methods, okay?

  • And here's the third one. This one -- sorry -- it's a little bit more active. But I've

  • made it so easy for you. Just breathe. Don't worry about the product. You've got to do

  • some work. Remember, I said the only secret is work, which nobody wants to do. This one's

  • a bit of fun, okay? Because I often tell students, when you get really, really good with English,

  • what will happen is there're two steps you'll know you're getting better. The first step

  • is this: You're going to wake up in the morning and go, "Ah!" And then I'll go "What?" You'll

  • go, "I had a dream, and it was in English!" Either you'll be speaking English or everybody

  • around you speaks English, and you'll understand it. This is the beginning of your brain's

  • process saying, "Okay these words are the same." Spanish, English, German, English,

  • Hindi, English, Russian, English, same." The, the, the -- all the same. Whatever. Da, yah,

  • niet, no -- same, same, same. And your brain's just saying they're equivalent or equal. You're

  • dreaming because it's processing that information. See? "Process" -- back to that word.

  • The second thing people notice is, they'll be speaking in their native language, and

  • English will just come out of their mouth, and they won't even think about saying it;

  • it just comes. And you go, "How did that happen?" Well, your brain is now saying this word is

  • equivalent to this word, all right? Sí? Oops! Sorry. I did it there. I meant to say "yes",

  • but I said "sí". I'm studying Spanish, so then my brain sometimes thinks Spanish, English,

  • same, same. Because I practice it a lot. But I'm going to give you a method now which is

  • a bit more active. It's going to be fun because you can do it for your dreams. You have dreams

  • -- you know, dormir, sleeping. Wake up in the morning. "Oh, I had this movie in my head

  • last night." What I want you to do is get up; immediately go downstairs; take -- get

  • up twenty minutes early, ten minutes early, five minutes. Kaizen, right? One minute early.

  • Write out your dream in English. "Huh?" Well, think about it. If it's a dream or thoughts

  • that you have in your head, and you're writing in English, it will need adjectives; it will

  • need verbs; it will need adverbs; it will need direct objects, objects, all these things

  • from grammar points, and you write it out. You still won't be fully awake, but this is

  • what I call your "baseline" English. This means this is where your English really is.

  • Not on your good days or your bad days, but your baseline. So what will happen is later

  • on, you come back to it, and I want you to correct it, okay? Because when you correct

  • that English, you're going to see the mistakes you're making and the things you have to learn.

  • Isn't that great? I mean, come on. It costs you nothing. You just get out of bed; come

  • back five hours later, "Man, this is crazy. Where's the verb here? Where's the noun? What

  • was I thinking? Change. Got to change this. Got to do this." And you're working on something.

  • It also works because it has an emotional quality. This is your work about your life

  • about your dreams, things you care about, things you want to learn and things you're

  • doing. Cool, huh? Little bit active. All three work. I'm telling you they work. And they're

  • fun. I mean, jeez. Do this; watch these videos; life's good for you.

  • Life's not good for somebody, and he's a little bit upset. You know who it is? It's Mr. E,

  • and he's drinking again. He's been drinking a lot lately. I'm worried about this guy.

  • I didn't include him in the video. I told him they're methods; he doesn't need to be

  • here. But he's, like, he's got to be here for everything. Okay, you're here. You're

  • here. And for the fans -- not my fans. I don't have fans; I have students. He has fans. There're

  • like a million of you guys who always ask, "Where is Mr. E?" So I've got to put him up

  • every day. Anyway. Just a quick synopsis, and a "synopsis" is

  • to bring everything together -- "synthesis", right? Put it together and to give you a quick

  • overview. The three methods we're looking at is lets a look at "process", not "product".

  • Don't worry about "I must learn English". Just think about, you know, "What am I doing

  • in the moment?" Second thing, make that moment simple -- Kaizen Method. Make it the simplest

  • step you can do to get to the goal you want to. The steps will come quickly. And finally,

  • put it all together. Wake up in the morning -- one minute, two minutes, you know -- write

  • it out, and see how it goes. The methods work, okay? I use them for learning

  • Spanish. Here's where I want you to go when you're done so you can see Mr. E and me again

  • at www.engvid.com, "eng" as in "English", "vid" as in "video". And if you want to get

  • to see my latest videos, subscribe. Don't forget. Push the subscribe button, and I'll

  • pop up every time you come. Well, I and this guy, all right? The three secrets -- not that

  • you need to know; that you know. Have a good one.

"The Prosperity Plan." It's empty. Why? Well, hi. James, from EngVid. I have a book, and

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