5 things to practice every day to improve your English communication skills
everyone and welcome back to english
with Lucy today I’m going to talk to you
about five things that you can practice
every single day to improve your English
learning a language is like learning to
play a musical instrument you can’t just
pick up a violin and know how to play it
or at least I didn’t when I learnt the
violin you have to practice a little bit
every single day and over time you will
improve and become fluent
you can’t just practice loads the day
before an exam and expect to be perfect
at playing that violin it’s exactly the
same for languages the best way to learn
a language is to practice a little bit
every single day and in this lesson I’m
going to give you five different ways
that you can incorporate English or any
other language into your daily life I
think that quite a few of these you
won’t have heard before so let’s get
straight into it number one and I am so
excited to be able to mention one of my
favorite things to listen to ever on my
channel my first piece of advice is to
follow an audio soap opera what is a
soap opera I hear you ask well I shall
tell you a soap opera is a daily serial
or series dealing with the daily lives
and events of the same group of
characters normally in the same location
most commonly they are on television we
have lots in the UK like EastEnders
Coronation Street Emmerdale but I’m
recommending you listen to an audio one
and there’s one in particular I would
like to recommend I really really
recommend a radio soap opera by the BBC
Radio 4 called The Archers the arches
the arches it’s special for so many
reasons not least because it is the
longest-running drama in history it was
started in 1950 first aired in 1951 and
also because I think it is absolutely
perfect for English learners it follows
the daily lives and dramas
a group of fictional characters in the
fictional countryside village of
Ambridge each episode is around 12 to 14
minutes long I’m not quite sure exactly
how long but it’s definitely under 15
minutes it’s spoken in relatively clear
English in a variety of British accents
and sometimes not British accents as
well other accents but it’s fantastic
because the plot summary is are posted
on the BBC website I will link to all of
this below in the description box and
the great thing about this is that I
deal with daily happenings which is
great for your life to current events
routine things and you can repeat all of
the parts that you missed it’s on every
single day apart from Saturday they have
a rest and once a week they condense all
of the week’s episode into one and
that’s called an omnibus and that’s
around 75 minutes long I love listening
to the archers when I go running I
listen to it every single day and if I
miss one then I always catch up there is
no beginning and there is no finish to
the series there aren’t any seasons so
it might take you a couple of episodes
to get used to the storylines and to
work out who is who and to recognise the
different voices give it five or six
episodes and you’ll feel really included
it’s wonderful because it’s free to
listen to it’s beautifully produced and
there is a huge community of archers
fans a lot of them are older but a lot
of them are younger too and if you
search hashtag the archers on Twitter
big tip here you’ll see lots of people
talking and discussing the topics of the
episode and maybe you could interact
with them so I’m going to leave the
links for the archers episodes and also
the plot summaries in the description
box and I really hope some of you take
up this opportunity to listen to a daily
English audio soap opera 10 to 15
minutes every day is definitely gonna
help your listening it’s going to help
your pronunciation and it’s just gonna
help your general enjoyment as well
because it’s a great program right
before I get to your passionate let’s
move on to a piece of advice number two
so number two is talk daily with natives
now I bet so many of you are thinking I
wish I would love to talk
natives every day but I don’t know how
and no one seems to want to talk to me
well I have a couple of suggestions one
is paid for and one is free and the best
thing in my opinion would be a
combination of the two I talk you have
very kindly sponsored this part of the
video and mentioning them is absolutely
relevant for this point especially as
they offer a language exchange partner
service which I will mention in a second
but firstly if you haven’t heard of a
talkie before they are an online
language teacher platform and database
both native and non-native teachers from
across the globe can create a profile
upload their schedules and then you can
contact them for lessons brilliantly
priced lessons may I add you can learn
over 100 different languages not just
English 24 hours a day 7 days a week
from anywhere in the world as long as
you have a stable internet connection
it’s so much more affordable than a
traditional language school or an
in-person language tutor I tried out AI
talky to learn a little bit of
Indonesian before my holiday to Bali and
I was blown away by my teacher she was
amazing she had created these beautiful
classes from scratch and I learned so
much with her and it really really
improved my holiday especially as she
taught me to say saya mau nasi goreng
it’s so important I talk you have given
me a special offer to pass on to you you
can get $10 worth of AI talkie credits
for free when you sign up and make your
first lesson purchase all you have to do
is click on the link in the description
box
now obviously having a paid-for lesson
with a teacher every single day would be
the most amazing way to learn a language
but that’s not a possibility for
everyone so I did just want to mention I
talked ease language exchange partner
program the link to this is also in the
description box basically you can search
for speakers of the language you are
learning see if they want to learn your
language and if so you can contact them
and potentially arrange a language
exchange so a combination of both paid
for classes and language exchanges would
be amazing because you can take what
you’ve learned and heard in the language
exchange and verify it with your teacher
for an extra layer of secure
to make sure that you’re not making any
mistakes now on to tip number three set
yourself a daily word goal learn X
amount of words every single day this
tip is really important because it also
links to tip number four I have
mentioned this strategy in a previous
video but I actually have a really
important extra layer to this strategy
that I would like to discuss with you in
order to build your vocabulary quickly
you need to learn at least one new word
per day but hopefully more than that
I’ve spoken to you before about keeping
a word diary or just a notebook or a
list on your phone
keep it with you all the time and always
be aware wherever you are do I know that
word in English do I know how to say
that in English
you might see a tree do I know how to
say that specific variety of tree in
English if you don’t write it down in
your own language in this book in this
list and then at the end of the day
before you go to sleep research all of
these words and translate them into
English it will help you train your
brain to always be hungry for English
after a few weeks you will always be
looking for new words that you can learn
words that you didn’t even realize you
didn’t know now there is something else
that you can do with these words and
this brings me on to point number four
write a daily journal with a difference
depending on your level I would buy a
paper journal or diary I get so tired in
the evenings I can’t spend loads and
loads of time writing so I personally
would buy a work week planner or a
homework planner or a study planner
where you’ve got all seven days across
two pages in each of those days I would
write three or four sentences about my
day trying to incorporate those words
that I learned in my daily word list the
words I mentioned in point three that
way not only are you learning the
new words and learning what they mean
but you’re making sure they’re fully
integrated into your brain and also
doing this before you go to sleep will
mean they stick in there even more then
you can wake up in the morning read what
you wrote the night before and you’ve
got those words fresh in your head ready
for the day ahead it’s honestly such a
fabulous technique because it builds
your vocabulary it improves your writing
skills it improves your reading skills
if you search the pronunciation of the
word it will improve your pronunciation
and your listening skills and if you
book in sessions with language teachers
you can have them correct your writing
so every week you can bring them to
fresh pages of writing for them to
correct
honestly if you do this every day it
will help you so much right time for the
last point point number five the tip is
to perform daily translations of
subjects you are interested in now I
know a lot if you want to stop
translating and think in English however
I think translation forms a very very
important part of language learning
especially when it’s around something
that you are interested in it’s really
really good to compare how things are
said in different languages and
translation helps you with that in my
opinion the best way to practice your
translation is absolutely free which is
fantastic and it’s right here on YouTube
pick the youtubers that you really
really like the youtubers that talk
about subjects that you’re interested in
maybe it’s photography
maybe it’s technology maybe it’s pets
maybe it’s makeup you can actually
contribute subtitle translations you may
have seen that underneath all of my
videos I have a link where I give the
opportunity to contribute subtitle
translations so I write the subtitles in
English and then you can write them in
your own language it’s amazing because
it helps my videos reach and help a
wider audience they also get their name
displayed under the video which is
really really cool and it helps their
translation skills you could translate
videos from your native language into
English that would be a really good way
to practice but even translating English
subtitles into your own native language
is a really good reading and translation
exercise I will post a link with more
information on community subtitle
translations in the
books right I have discussed all five
points I really hope you’ve learnt
something I really hope you try out one
of my five recommendations don’t forget
to check out I talked II the link is in
the description box you can get $10
worth of item credits for free when you
make your first lesson purchase there’s
also links to listen to the archers and
also the information on subtitles don’t
forget to check out all of my social
media I’ve got my facebook I’ve got my
Instagram and I’ve got my Twitter and I
shall see you soon for another lesson na
learning a language
it’s like learning a musical soap opera
is a drama serial right before I get too
passionate let’s move on to episode
they’re an online database of platform
of Layton blah blah blah blah online
language teachers platform Allah all you
have to do is click on the description
in the link box no that was wrong damn
it I don’t think so
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