Top 10 Tips for Learning English

want to speak real english from your

first lesson

at englishclass101.com

how to get a return on your language

learning investment

i’m learning a language but i’m not sure

if it’s working or if i’m getting better

have you ever felt this way this is a

very normal thought to have

but before you go and blame your

textbook or your app

let’s make sure you’re not the one

making mistakes so

let’s get into part one you already know

the first

big reason if you’ve watched our

previous monthly reviews

people often fail because they set vague

goals like i want to be fluent

which they don’t know how to achieve but

the second big reason is lack of time

they don’t put in the hours learning a

language is a lot like going to a gym

you get what you put in for example if

you get a dumbbell and do nothing

nothing happens it can do great things

for you but it won’t work

until you pick it up and curl it a few

times the same thing goes for whatever

language learning resource you’re using

or not using if you put in one hour a

day you get results

if you put in 10 minutes a day you get

results but if you put in

zero you get zero you can have the best

language learning method in the world

and get zero results if you do nothing

and similarly you can have the worst

textbook ever and make progress if you

put in the time

so you have to make sure you’re

consistently putting in time

first part two getting a return on

language learning

now if you’re putting in time and have a

consistent routine

the next step is to track your effort

and results

there’s a good quote for this what gets

measured gets managed

meaning if you track your progress you

can know what works and what doesn’t

and you know how to improve so let’s say

your dream is to speak the language

and right now you’re using a quiz app to

learn the language

how do you know if it’s working you can

waste months doing this

until one day you realize you can’t

speak or

you can figure this out sooner if you

track your effort

if you step back and track your effort

and results you’ll see that the quizzes

have helped you remember words but

you’ve done zero speaking practice and

can’t speak once you realize this you

can adjust your routine to do something

else that helps you speak

the point is you get to know what works

and what doesn’t work

again what gets measured gets managed

tracking helps you see a clear path to

your language goals

here’s an example from our learning

program with our audio lessons the

absolute beginner level ones

we know that three or four audio lessons

can help you master about

one minute of conversation that’s

because the dialogue tracks are about 20

seconds

so 20 seconds apiece that’s 60 seconds

one minute

now you know the return on your time

three or four lessons

means one minute of conversation and

because you know how to reach one minute

you know how to reach two minutes

three minutes and then 10 minutes you

can actually see a clear

path to your goals so the big lesson is

if you track your results you’ll know

what to expect in the future

and you can hit your language learning

goals again what gets measured gets

managed

now how do you track exactly part 3

how to track your results and hit your

goals remember

at the basic level language learning is

putting in time

you don’t need a special language gene

or a talent you just need time

the more time you put in the more

results you get so let’s look at two

ways

an easy way and an advanced way of

tracking your time and results

let’s start with the easy way first one

simply track the time you put in so if

you do a 10 minute audio lesson today

and then spend 5 minutes with flash

cards note this as 15 minutes for the

day

just write it down in a notebook or a

planner then do the same thing tomorrow

the goal here is to track the time and

your effort so you can review later

if one day you realize you don’t speak

as much as you’d like

here’s what you do you look at your

timesheet if you see that you’ve been

just watching youtube videos you can

spot the problem

which is you’ve done no actual vocab

study or speaking practice

and then you can start doing it another

way you can track your time and effort

is with the dashboard on our site

if you visit the dashboard you can see

the lessons you’ve completed

the number of flashcards reviewed and

hours studied

now here’s the second tactic and it’s an

advanced one

track time and results tracking time is

easy

but tracking results is trickier if

you’re learning a language on your own

so how do you do that for example if

you’re studying words with flashcards

study for 5 minutes and can remember 7

out of 10 words

then that’s your return you know that 5

minutes gives you 7 words

if you know this you’ll know what to

expect when you learn new words

another thing you can do is work to

boost that number to 10 out of 10.

next if you’re practicing your listening

skills try to gauge how much you

understand

if you understood about 20 of a 3-minute

lesson

then that’s your return for now but by

knowing this

you can start asking questions like what

can i do to understand 50

of this lesson will doubling my time

double my results as well

will reviewing this lesson for a few

minutes a day every day

work better than trying to memorize it

all today

then you put these questions to the test

and try them out

and because you know your return you can

see if it really works

the three powerful language learning

lessons you’ll pick up at the gym

the first lesson is how to approach your

goals and language learning

so why are we talking about the gym the

gym is a great example

because it’s filled with people working

on their goals and it gives you a

snapshot of where most people are with

their goals

and everyone there has one goal to be

fit

but not everyone is there yet you have a

few people that look like fitness models

then you have around 20 or 30 people

that have good respectable physiques

the middle group and then the rest of

the people are still working their way

it’s motivating because everyone has a

chance of succeeding

if you’ve been to the gym you understand

the importance of repetition

doing reps a rep is the number of times

you do a certain exercise

like 15 push-ups is 15 reps of push-ups

so even people still working toward

their goals have a chance of succeeding

if they put in the reps if they do a

little bit a day

over a long period of time they’ll get

there

the process is simple the more you do

the longer you stick with it

the more progress you make and the same

goes for learning language or any other

goal in life

it’s about putting in the reps a little

bit a day consistently for a long period

of time

if you want to get bigger muscles you

pick up a dumbbell and you do

reps if you want to learn more words you

do the reps

five new words a day so what can you do

right now

for example if you’re using our program

just do one lesson a day

if you have a textbook do one page a day

if you’re using an app put in five

minutes a day

again everyone has a chance to succeed

they just need to put in the reps and

they need to make the time

this is where the second lesson comes in

you’ll learn how to find

and make time to learn a language

there’s a reason the people you see at

the gym daily

and especially the people you see at 10

pm on a friday

are the ones with above average results

they’re the most consistent

but how do they get that level of

consistency there tend to be three types

of people

first the people that have plenty of

free time so it’s a non-issue for them

second the busier people they make time

regardless of what their schedule is

meaning they show up at 1am just to fit

in a session

or they cancel other plans to make time

and third

the people who have made it a habit

they’re so used to going that they don’t

have to think about it

ideally you want to be in the third

group with language learning

but most people fall into the second

group the truth is that to make time

they have to cancel other plans some

wake up earlier to squeeze in a session

in the am

some go late at night it’s the same

exact thing with language learning

you make time the good news with

language learning is

you don’t need to open up a lesson at 1

am and put in an hour

with our learning program you’ll get our

quick but powerful

3 to 15 minute audio and video lessons

and because the lessons are

short you can easily make time you can

do a lesson on your commute or while

walking somewhere

imagine learning a quick conversation

while on your way to the store

finally the third language learning

lesson you’ll learn at the gym is

why you don’t need the best possible

routine to get results

have you ever heard a friend say i have

to start the right way

it has to be perfect well this is a

disastrous way to start anything

whether fitness or language learning and

most learners spend a lot of time

worrying about starting right

instead of just starting and keeping at

it but the point is

if you start learning from a textbook

and stick with it you’ll get results

you’ll improve your reading vocabulary

and grammar

of course it won’t get you speaking

you’ll only get good at what you focus

but the fact is you’ll still make

progress same with the gym

if you start off with bicep curls you’ll

see progress in time

but at some point you’ll need to add in

legs as well you can’t skip

leg day so here’s what you can learn

here’s what smart beginners do

they don’t look for the best way to

start they just start

and keep going and once they have a

consistent routine

they start optimizing they improve their

routine

if you start taking one lesson a day and

can easily maintain that routine

then you might eventually realize that

you want to practice speaking

you need to shadow that lesson’s

conversation so you add shadowing to

your routine

and that’s how you grow same thing with

the gym

the smart beginners make sure they do

their reps and come in as much as

possible

and doing the basics is enough for them

to build muscle

later on they’ll start adjusting their

exercises and adding new ones

but you’ll never get to that point if

you overthink yourself into

inaction and don’t build that habit so

as long as you start

and continue most starting routines and

learning methods are good enough

you don’t need the best possible one

right now you could have the best

possible language learning program but

if you don’t use it consistently

it’s useless alright so today you

learned

one how to approach your goals two how

to find time to learn a language

and three why you don’t need the best

possible routine or learning program

if you’re like most language learners

then your number one goal is to speak

more right

you want to have fluid conversations

with natives it’s a great goal to have

but for most language learners speaking

also happens to be their weakest skill

you may not know enough of the language

to express yourself

you tend to run out of words and things

to say and you’re just not sure how to

start conversation

if you have at least one of these issues

then talking points are just what you

need

part one what’s a talking point a

talking point is a topic that invites

discussion or

argument in other words just something

to talk about

it could be about yourself your work

your hobbies the weather

food or what you did this past weekend

all of these are talking points

here’s an example to help you better

understand talking points

think of a conversation you’d have with

a friend you can ask

what did you do this weekend they’ll

reply and then ask you

back the talking point here is the

weekend

let’s say your friend says they went to

a restaurant that’s a natural talking

point to explore next

you can ask what kind of restaurants do

you like now you’ve covered two talking

points

the more talking points you have the

more you can speak

and the same goes for your target

language the only challenge is

you need to know the relevant words and

phrases for that topic

for example if you want to talk about

the weekend you need to know phrases and

questions like what did you do this

weekend

i did this what about you in the next

part you’ll discover 5

easy talking points that you can master

with our learning program

let’s get into part two part two five

talking points you can use

the first one is learn how to introduce

yourself in your target language

why is this a powerful talking point

introducing yourself is something you’ll

do again

and again every time you meet someone

new so learning the relevant phrases

is a must if you’ve done the first few

lessons on our site

you can already do this if not then

check out our absolute beginner lessons

and the top 25 questions you must know

lessons

you’ll learn basic conversations with

our quick 3 to 15 minute lessons

we’ll give you the exact lines to use

along with the translations so that you

can use them in conversations

you can also use this talking point to

continue a conversation

for example if you’ve started with a

different point like the weather

then it makes sense to say by the way my

name is

talking point number two the weather

this is a universal talking point

people like to talk or complain about

the weather all over the world

in fact just saying it’s really nice

today is enough to start a conversation

with a native speaker

if you want to talk about the weather

check out our can-do lesson

pathway called can talk about weather

you’ll find this pathway in the absolute

beginner level of our lesson library

talking point number three compliments

compliments are another great way to

start a conversation or continue one

if you’re running out of things to say

you can quickly transition

and say something about their city their

country or just hey i like your shirt

if you want to learn how to complement

check out our compliments phrase list

this list is free to access for all

users if you don’t know where to find it

on our site