Why Are You Stuck At The Same English Level

so I had a conversation with one of my

students and he was telling me that he

was frustrated because his English

didn’t seem to be improving

he’d been studying English for so long

you know studying books attending

classes even having private tutors but

it seemed like every time he went to

speak to someone in English he would get

stuck and he didn’t know what to do and

as I was listening to this student I

realized that I experienced the same

thing when I was studying Korean you

feel like you kind of reached this the

ceiling right there there’s no way to go

above the ceiling and and you don’t know

what to do you just feel stuck now I’m

sure you’ve felt that way before

you know you’ve studied English for

years probably and you still feel like

you’re not an advanced English speaker

well that’s why I created today’s lesson

because I’m gonna tell you how to get

unstuck and to actually take your

English to the next level I’m teacher

Tiffany let’s jump right in

[Music]

all right so the first reason you feel

stuck is you don’t know what to study

now this is a common issue that many

students come across or face when

they’re studying English so there are

times when you don’t know what

vocabulary word or what expression or

what idiom to study or even what methods

you should be using to study that’s an

issue and it can make you feel stuck so

one of the main issues connected to this

is you have too many options I mean

there are tons of amazing English

teachers on YouTube not just me but many

other English teachers then there are

thousands of books that you can choose

from and there are so many options and

you kind of get a little bit confused

well there are some solutions here are

two solutions first study in groups what

you want to do is think of topics that

you are actually interested in and speak

about regularly then find words

expressions idioms and discussion

questions about those topics now here’s

the reason why I love this solution so

much you see a lot of times when you’re

studying English you’re trying to study

everything I mean everything you want to

know every single word every single

expression but the truth of the matter

is that’s not how it works even in your

own language there are words that you

don’t know however you can speak

confidently about the topics you are

interested in so all you have to do is

think about those topics and then change

them over into English and then study in

groups what you’re gonna do is for

example if you’re a favorite thing to

talk about is let’s say food because you

know I love food well then okay think

about when you’re cooking the food think

about when you are actually eating the

food what are the emotions what are the

thoughts going through your head now try

to translate those thoughts emotions and

ideas into English so the next time you

go to speak about cooking or food you

will have a group of English words and

expression

and ideas that you can properly express

in English and you have much more

confidence

so again focus on what you’re interested

in and study in groups

now another solution to this issue is

what you can do is create goals specific

study plans think about what you want to

accomplish

then find study goals or study plans or

guides that will help you reach those

goals this solution will help you know

exactly what to study and for how long

so let me explain exactly how to do this

now you will notice my voice is a little

bit different today I think I’m getting

a little bit congested all of a sudden

so I’m okay but I think you notice my

voice sounds just a tad bit different

alright so create goals specific study

plans for example let’s say for this

month you want to improve your

pronunciation

okay well then write that down what are

you going to do in order to accomplish

this goal this is gonna help you know

what to study for what period of time I

tell you the truth I am not lying when

you put a goal and you work towards that

goal your brain goes into overdrive to

help you accomplish that goal so again

you don’t have to worry about what to

study because you have one goal in mind

and you’re working towards that goal all

right now the second reason why you feel

stuck in English is right here you don’t

have time to study or in other words

it’s hard to balance work family and

life listen I get it when I was studying

Korean I was working full time and

studying and training my trying to

manage my you know my friendships and my

family life it was difficult so I

understand it’s a little bit hard to

know how to balance all of these things

and actually find time to study in

English but I have some solutions for

you so here’s the first solution first

you want to pick one set time to

each day that’s right one specific time

it could be in the morning it can be in

the evening now you can decide the exact

amount of time but try to select a

specific time that you will study every

single day all right

this may be five minutes in the morning

or 10 minutes at night that’s right I

did say five minutes or ten minutes you

see you need to create a habit and you

don’t have to stress yourself about oh I

need to study for an hour or two hours

every single day you’re busy you don’t

have time to study but think about it

five minutes you can kind of find five

minutes in your day right or maybe even

ten minutes so start off with a small

amount of time but make sure you set

aside that time every day and you stick

to your plan now the other solution to

help you you know when you feel like you

don’t have enough time change up the

style if you change things up you won’t

be as bored instead you will look

forward to studying English in other

words you will make time for something

you enjoy here’s the fact if you study

vocabulary every single day good not bad

at all

but you’re going to start feeling a

little bit bored if you do the same

thing every single day so you have to

change it up maybe you can say hey

Monday’s our vocabulary days Tuesday’s

our YouTube video days where you go and

you watch an entertaining video and just

enjoy it

maybe Wednesday’s our new expression

days so change it up and I guarantee you

won’t feel as bored and suddenly you

will look forward to the time when you

have to study English okay now the next

reason why you feel so stuck in your

English and you feel like you’re not

improving is because you don’t have a

way to practice or in other words you

don’t have anyone to practice with I

hear this all the time

this is why I wanted to show you these

solutions alright so here’s the deal you

need to join an online group the

Internet

is amazing it’s connected all of us even

though we live on different sides of the

world so there are tons of online groups

where you can practice your English but

remember to look for groups related to

your interests remember earlier we

talked about if you like cooking or if

you like food find a group related to

that interest all right join them and

start participating I know you may feel

nervous but being online maybe you’ll

get a little bit more confidence because

they can’t see you so slowly you’ll

start to practice even more and then

you’ll see wait a minute this is not as

hard as I thought it was as you learn a

new expression start using it in the

group that you joined in the comment

section even in this video underneath

this video in the comment section try as

much as possible to comment every single

video to practice alright now the other

solution is what you can do you can

roleplay

scenes now role-playing will help you

get more comfortable and also understand

the importance of body language when you

speak in English you can also shadow

videos you see online now you guys know

that when I speak to you when I teach

you I always use my hands I use a lot of

body language when I speak so when

you’re role-playing it’s very important

to think about your body language but

let’s say for example you want to

roleplay or act out a scene or a

situation where someone is meeting their

boyfriend or girlfriend for the first

time well not the first time let’s say

it’s the first date first date right

they already know each other but it’s

the first official date well roleplay

that scene

how do you think you’d feel in that

situation try to say it in English ah

wow you really look great today ah thank

you so much would you like to sit right

here

start acting it out and again this will

create triggers in your mind connecting

the emotions with the words that you’re

using and I guarantee it will make your

English language journey a lot more

interesting alright so again roleplay

this will help you practice even when

you’re on your own ok all right now

here’s the neck

reason reason number four you are tired

and burnt out in other words you feel

overwhelmed and tired now I had a

conversation with one of my students

this past week and he was telling me

that he’s just busy he’s a lot of things

going on at work and he’s kind of tired

and not really feeling like studying

English and I understood what he was

saying because you know after a while

you get a little bit bored which we

talked about earlier but if you’re so

busy at work you really are too tired to

study English but don’t worry like I

said I have a solution for this problem

here’s the solution and it may shock you

take a scheduled break every two weeks

that’s right

I want you to not study English once

every two weeks and let me explain why

your body needs physical rest but your

mind also needs mental rest so schedule

a mental break every two weeks study

hard for two weeks and then select a

full day or two to simply do nothing at

all

related to English you see what’s gonna

happen is you’re gonna start to miss

English but your brain is also going to

start to relax a little bit and start

reviewing what you learned over the

previous two weeks I guarantee that

taking this break is gonna make you more

excited when you start back again now

don’t take too long of a break some

students say well I’ll take about two

weeks

don’t take a two-week break take one day

or two days and then jump right back in

but again it is important to take a

break and give your mind a mental rest

but remember to come back immediately

after that rest all right now here’s the

fifth reason why you feel stuck you keep

comparing yourself to others basically

you feel like other people are better

than you now I’ll be very honest with

you I did this as well when I was

studying Korean because in my class

there were some amazing students I mean

they could speak Korean it was another

and I was always impressed by the way

they spoke in Korean and I also would

start comparing myself like I’m studying

so hard but why can I speak like them

why don’t I sound like them and slowly I

started to be very discouraged and I

started thinking about them instead of

my own journey this is why I want to

tell you to stop doing that don’t do

that because it actually can break you

down and really discourage you so here

are the solutions that worked alright

so instead of comparing yourself you

need to stop looking at other people you

have to stop worrying about other people

and their English skills focusing on

other people only brings stress and

discouragement instead analyze yourself

you should take time to analyze your

personal progress and see where you need

to improve then periodically go back and

see how you have improved so basically

instead of focusing on Tom Dick Harry

and Sally you now will focus on yourself

you will see hey what are you good at

what do you need to improve what you

need to work on and then work on those

things and you will feel more confident

because again you have a goal and you

know what you’re improving and also how

to continue improving so listen I really

hope this encouraged you I hope it

helped you see that even though you feel

stuck there is a way out there is a way

for you to take your English to the next

level alright now remember if you want

to watch part 2 of this lesson all you

have to do is click the link in the

description all my Academy students can

watch part 2 I really enjoy preparing

this lesson just for you and I will talk

to you next week but as always remember

to speak English

[Music]

you know what time it is it is story

time story time story time a a story

time alright okay guys so today’s story

is it’s kind of serious

um but it was a really big lesson that I

learned in my life and it’s kind of

connected to feeling stuck so when I

graduated from university I had a maid I

majored in computer science and also

commercial art so I was a web developer

at NASA like I told you about before um

but during that time I also started my

own business and I was developing

websites for companies you know after

work when I go home so I had a side job

now one time a gentleman contacted me

and he wanted me to actually create a

website for him for his business so we

had an official meeting I gave him the

proposal I told him how much it would be

and everything seemed fine I told him

okay it’s gonna be three thousand

dollars and you need to pay half up

front and then half upon completion

everything was perfect he was a really

nice gentleman shook hands gave me the

money immediately the first payment and

I started working now I was running my

own business and I had a contractor so

who was actually my coworker at my

actual job and then we would work

together on the side and he and I are

still very close actually his wife is

Korean and they are really close to me

I’m so close to them now and they were

one of the reasons I also wanted to go

to Korea so anyways he and I were

working together and he had the job of

working for on the database so the

database aspect of the website and

everything was going smoothly and we got

to the end of the project the website

was running perfectly and it was time

for me to go back to the client and say

hey everything is done can I have your

final payment after you’ve checked

everything and I was gonna also pay my

contractor so I called the gentleman and

there was no answer

but that was okay because all right you

know one time it’s not a problem

I call them every day almost for a full

two weeks then I send them an email and

I never got a response now remember I

said I had a contractor working for me

and I owed him a thousand dollars

because of the work that he did and I

hadn’t paid him yet so I was getting a

little bit worried because the client

wasn’t responding to my messages or my

calls and I stood to pay this contractor

now I remember I was very young I think

I was about 23 or 24 and I was stuck I

didn’t know what to do I was concerned

because I was thinking about my

contractor that was my responsibility to

pay my contractor but my client wasn’t

paying me so I called my parents and I

said this is the situation what do I do

do I take the person to collections

collections refers to if someone doesn’t

pay you you can actually go the official

route and get collections to get the

money for you from the person and if the

person doesn’t pay there are legal

ramifications they could possibly you

know have to pay a huge fine to the

state so I didn’t really want to do that

I didn’t want to sue him I just wanted

him to pay me for the work that was done

but again I said I felt stuck but when I

felt stuck I went to my parents for

advice and they said you know what TIFF

my nickname you guys can comment if

you’d like

your responsibility is for your

contractor even though your client

hasn’t paid you he’s your responsibility

and after that conversation I realized

that I had to take out a loan in order

to pay my contractor and when I told him

I was gonna pay him he was worried about

me he said TIFF no $1,000 is a lot of

money for you to take out as a loan just

because your clients not paying that

I’ll wait I said no you are my

responsibility I’m gonna pay you and

then whatever happens with this client

I’ll just have to face the consequences

so I paid my contractor and when I

called the client back and I said hey

you’re not responding to me but I had to

send this issue to the collections

agency he suddenly responded

he said why are you doing this to me and

he was very rude so I was a little bit

shocked remember I was young and he was

a lot older than me

and I was a little shocked because I

thought that he was more professional

long story short he never paid me ever

and I just lost that money and I had to

pay that $1,000 loan off because of my

client didn’t pay me but I learned a

valuable lesson always pay your people

first so moving forward whenever I had a

job or I had a client I always paid my

contractor’s first and I also learned

that when I get stuck in a situation I

need words of wisdom and my parents gave

me those words of wisdom in that moment

so today we talked about being stuck in

your English journey and I was hoping

that my words were words of wisdom for

you don’t worry I know sometimes it gets

difficult and you feel like you can’t

get above a certain level watch this

video again follow the ideas and the

plans that I gave you and the solutions

and use them as words of wisdom I hope

you enjoyed today’s storytime and I’ll

see you next week