How To Build Your English Vocabulary In 4 Simple Steps

last week one of my students asked me

during our class teacher how can I build

my English vocabulary and as he asked me

the question I could see the frustration

written all over his face and do you

know why I could see the frustration

because I had been there too you see I

speak Korean now but years ago when I

was studying Korean it was difficult and

I remember one specific night when I was

in my room and I was getting ready to go

to bed and I could feel the frustration

beginning to build because I had a

vocabulary test the next day and I

wasn’t confident and I didn’t feel like

I had learned enough vocabulary so I

decided to wake up the next morning

around 4 a.m. to study and to memorize

even more vocabulary words but when my

alarm went off at 4 a.m. I only remember

frustration anxiety and fear because I

had about a hundred vocabulary words to

memorize before the exam and I felt like

it was impossible I thought to myself

what am i doing how come I can’t take

this information in these vocabulary

words and use them so when I saw my

students face when he was asking me the

same question I felt his pain and I

think you may experience the same thing

on a regular basis this frustration that

comes from not being able to build your

English vocabulary and use the

vocabulary like a native English speaker

well I have good news for you

don’t worry today I have four simple

steps that will help you take your

English to the next level and help you

build your English vocabulary but now

before I show you these steps I have a

quick favor

you see my goal as a teacher is to help

1 billion students you hear me write 1

million students gain confidence in

their ability to speak English but I

need your help all you have to do is

like this video share it and subscribe

one more time like this video share it

and subscribe how does this help well

you see the more people that see this

video the more students that learn what

you’re about to learn

the more students will gain confidence

so we’re a family let’s work together so

again like share and subscribe I’m

teacher Tiffany let’s jump right in

[Music]

alright so let’s get started we see

there are two individuals here on the

screen and they’re surrounded by

different things we see the news or

sports pets or animals hiking and

cooking now these things represents

different interests or hobbies a person

may have now let’s see which one they

like she likes the news he likes cooking

she likes sports he likes hiking she

likes pets and he likes to read so these

two individuals have different interests

different things that they think about

or research so when they speak about

these things in their language they’re

able to speak fluently because they

enjoy these things well you see this is

the first thing I want you to understand

before we go into our steps you must

learn vocabulary words related to the

topics you are already interested in a

lot of you are getting frustrated

because you’re learning vocabulary words

related to the news but you don’t care

about the news or you’re learning

vocabulary words to pass an exam and you

can’t make the connection with your

actual life don’t worry I’m gonna help

you with the four simple steps but you

first must recognize what your interests

are write them down

hey what do I think about on a regular

basis what am i interested in and now

let’s go into the first step after

you’ve realized that here’s what you

need to do the first step input find

vocabulary words related to the topics

you are actually interested in now this

step is very key but there are different

ways to input the information so let me

show you for first you can say I’m gonna

pause some of you have trouble with the

F sound even native English speakers

struggle sometimes

so first not for it

first you’re going to search online you

can choose to search online and again

how do you do this search for vocabulary

words on the internet using Google or

another search engine again this is just

one way of finding more Cabul airy words

or you can choose to watch or listen

watch or listen to videos movies and

podcasts about the specific topic now

you’ll notice that it’s not just about

books when you’re trying to learn

vocabulary you can look at real-life

situations all right now the other way

is a vocabulary book alright get a

vocabulary book and look for words

related to the specific topic so again

this is step one we’re inputting

information but we’re not gonna stop

here the story I told you about when I

was studying for that exam I was only

inputting the vocabulary words which is

why I was getting frustrated because I

was never able to use them properly

alright so step one input now we move on

to step number two process so you’re

going to store and analyze the

vocabulary words you learn in step one

how do we do this you can choose to

memorize the words so memorize the words

you found in step one and try to master

them so what am I saying

memorizing is important it is a part of

your English language learning journey

it is a part of it but it’s step two

memorizing the words okay or you can

write and describe now the second way to

process information is to write the

interesting words you learned again from

the videos or the audio clips and also

describe the scene or situation now we

talked about this in last week’s video

when you learn something from a video

like this video right here with me if

you hear me say an idiom or an

expression or a vocabulary word you’ve

never heard before take it in then write

it down and describe hmm I learned this

word for

teacher Tiffani in this video when she

was talking about Dada

you’re giving your brain excuse me a

trigger a connection that will help you

remember the word later on again this is

just step 2 of the four step process all

right

or you can connect a topic now connect

each word to a specific topic and think

about how it relates to it so you’ll see

every time I go to the how-to section

you’ll see three columns because you can

pick the track or the path you want to

take if you follow path one for all four

steps that’s okay or path to or path

three all right

so step one again what is it input very

good step two process very good now

what’s step three let’s go back to my

screen

step three is review you’re going to go

over the vocabulary words and test

yourself until you feel comfortable so

this is very important but it’s not the

last step you have to input the

information then you have to allow your

brain to kind of connect and process and

then you need to recall review what you

learned all right so how do you do that

here we go you can create flashcards

create flashcards for each word and test

yourself until you master each of them

now this video is not sponsored but a

lot of my students in the Academy tell

me that they like using Enki a nki so

it’s not sponsored but it’s a great

process and that process it’s a great

product it’s totally free online Anke

and it’s a great way to make online

flashcards okay all right the next thing

you can do is a situation quiz so find

images of different situations and try

to apply the words to those situations

all right so let’s say for example I

learned the word angry numb again you

may know this word but what is it

connected to when I said angry probably

in your mind it popped up

image of someone looking like this right

so if I’m looking at an image right the

image on my screen and I see a little

boy he looks cute but if I want to

connect angry ah the little boy’s mom is

angry because he’s touching the tree you

see I formulated a sentence or an idea

using the word and the image that’s what

you want to do when you are reviewing

okay

or you can create a list of categories

so break each set down into smaller

groups based on categories that you

decide all right so again this is step

three so step one input step two process

and step three review now this last step

step four is where you really are going

to take your vocabulary to the next

level all right so the next step step

number four is output so you need to

apply what you learned by using the

words in real situations so first thing

you can do text or comment so you can

use the vocabulary words in a text

conversation or a comment under a video

so again every week I teach you a new

thing a new lesson a new English lesson

in the comment section use a word that

you learned to comment on the video if

you want to talk to your friends again I

mentioned that last week as well the

power of teaching somebody else you can

text your friends yo did you hear about

this new word or you can say something

about a situation you’re already talking

about but put it in a text message okay

now the next thing you can do for output

is teach it or talk about it teach the

words to someone or explain how you

learned the words again if you have

children teach your kids if you have

friends who are also learning English

teach them what you learn your brain is

so amazing I know last week someone made

a comment teacher your brain is awesome

mine is not can’t remember the students

name but know all of you each and every

one of you your brain is up

so your brain will start to make these

connections so if you go through all

four steps you get here and start

talking about the words and teaching

them to someone I guarantee your brain

will start making those connections now

the last thing you can do you can choose

to describe a situation talk about a

real-life situation with a friend and

use the words you learned now I

guarantee like I said earlier the

frustration you experience we are trying

to learn vocabulary words and use them I

get it

I’ve been there I totally understand but

these four simple steps man first input

then process then review and then output

if you follow these four simple steps I

guarantee that your vocabulary who your

start to build your vocabulary very

quickly now I don’t want to stop here I

have a part two to this video where I

give words and examples and I actually

give actual websites and videos to watch

but again part two is always for my

academy students and I want to encourage

you to join the family because if you

enjoy part one of this video if you

enjoy part one of any videos I have

you’re gonna definitely enjoy part two

but you have to be a member of my

Academy click the link in the

description you’ll see it right here on

the screen I hope you guys enjoyed this

video I really did enjoy creating it for

you because I know what you’re going

through and I want to help you so four

simple steps again input process review

and output follow these four simple

steps and I guarantee you will start to

build your vocabulary today alright guys

I will talk to you next week but as

always remember to speak English

you know what time it is it’s story time

hey I said story time alright guys so

today’s story is interesting yeah I’ll

tell you a story that happened when I

was in university and I learned a

valuable lesson from this experience so

I’ve told you how many times that I was

very athletic I love sports and I was a

runner I participated in almost any

sport that was available I participated

in that sport when I was in school but I

also liked martial arts so you know

karate or kung-fu and when I was in

university there was a guy there an

older gentleman and he was a kung-fu

master I say that but he taught Muay

Thai and kung fu so I started training

with him myself and another good friend

of mine we started training with him

about once or twice a week and it was

very intense because you have to

memorize all of the positions memorize

the stances understand how to dodge and

how to punch and how to use the

opponent’s energy and there are a lot of

things that we had to understand so I

remember this one time though we were

sparring sparring is when you kind of

you know you you’re fighting each other

you’re not angry it’s just practice and

you’re trying to hit each other but

you’re also trying to avoid being hit so

my friend was a guy he and I were

sparring and our coach was standing with

us and so we’re standing there and we’re

sparring and I don’t like to get hit at

all so my friend here’s a some slang for

you tagging so someone like hits you

like that because it oh he or she tagged

you right so he’s my friend you know he

was he was hitting me but it was a

little bit hard so I was getting angry

now again I’m not a Yeller I don’t yell

if I get angry I get real quiet real

quiet and yeah my blood starts boiling

so anyways we’re sparring and my coach

is standing there

friend he tags me one time until it

hurts a little bit cuz it’s in my face

oh another thing is we don’t like to get

hit in the face at all okay so he tags

me once then he tags me again

and I’m getting angry so as I’m getting

angry I’m starting to move faster but

I’m not able to tag him back and I’m

getting frustrated

so my frustration is building my friend

keeps tagging me I’m getting angry and

I’m losing control

so my coach tells us both to stop and

then he pulls me to the side and again

this is my friend so I’m okay but I’m

getting a little angry my coach says

TIFF you’re getting mad because he’s

tagging you but you’re not controlling

your anger or your frustration because

you can’t think clearly which is why

you’re not able to respond to him or tag

him he said you must take control of

your thoughts you must be in control of

your emotions so I said okay now again

remember I’m upset I’m not trying to

listen to my coach so I go back my

friend and I are practicing again and my

friend tags me and I’m about to get

frustrated and angry and I can see my

coach’s eye kind of saying relax TIFF

so I relax and the moment I relaxed is

when I was able to anticipate my friends

move so when I was relaxed I saw my

friend go like this I dodged and I

tagged him so the things started to

change

I started tagging my friend more again

hitting or tagging and I can’t show you

the full movement because we only have

this much in the frame but sorry but

yeah I noticed I never forgot that

situation because my coach was trying to

help me understand TIFF when you’re

frustrated or when you’re experiencing

anxiety or anger you cannot control your

thoughts you cannot have control of your

actions and you do things that you don’t

realize you’ll do the same can kind of

be applied for you as you’re studying

English when you get frustrated and

you’re feeling like I just can’t do this

anymore

your brains not going to take in any

information your brains not gonna

process the information it should so

when you feel frustrated and angry relax

take a moment step back from your

studies

give yourself a breather and then come

back and study again when you’re angry

and frustrated nothing can come in and

nothing can go out so I never forgot

that experience and I think it will

remain with me for the rest of my life I

hope you guys enjoyed it I look forward

to talking to you guys next week

have an amazing week and I’ll talk to

you later