How to Improve Your English While Commuting
hey everybody welcome back to our weekly
live stream my name is Alisha and today
we’re going to talk about how to learn
English on your commute I will give you
some ideas for your studies that you can
use on your way to work or on your way
to school and of course on the way home
as well
so today will be just some study ideas
some methods that you can consider I’m
going to cover some ideas whether you go
by bus or by train or you drive a car or
even if you work from home maybe just a
couple of ideas to consider to start and
end your day so we’re going to cover
reading and writing and speaking and
listening ideas and of course if you
have some ideas please feel free to send
those in the chat as well so we will
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as I said today’s topic is how to learn
English on your commute
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fantastic let’s begin today’s topic how
to learn English and if you missed the
beginning Facebook might have been a
little slow in the beginning if you
missed it today’s topic is how to learn
English
during your commute if you have not
already please do make sure to like and
share today’s lesson okey-dokey
let’s get started so first I want to
talk about some listening and some
speaking ideas for maybe those of you
who drive a car or you have some kind of
private space where you can practice on
your way to and from work so first idea
first study idea is to listen to and
repeat after I do lessons audio lessons
so for those of you who have an account
on our website at English class 101 you
can download and listen to our audio
lessons there are about a 10 or 15
minutes long some are a little bit
shorter so I’m a bit longer so if you
have this kind of private space where
you can actually repeat like you’re in
the privacy of private space in your own
car or maybe like in your house in the
morning you can actually repeat after
the lessons if you don’t have a private
space maybe you can just listen to the
audio lessons so some thoughts about
this is first choose a lesson that’s
focused on a key expression or a
specific target so when you’re choosing
like which audio lesson to study during
your commute maybe it’s better to choose
a lesson that’s focused on something
like this
likes some ideas might be how to
introduce yourself so how to say like my
name is and so on or how to order at a
restaurant or how to talk about your
hobbies these are just a few ideas the
reason I would suggest these kinds of
lessons are because if you especially if
you’re driving it’s really important to
focus on the road right so you want to
make sure you can easily listen and
repeat the information studying grammar
trying to think about grammar might be a
little bit difficult to do so try to
choose a specific target for the lesson
like you’re trying to you have a
specific expression you’re practicing or
you have like a specific phrase or
question that you’re practicing so
choose a lesson that’s focused on a key
expression another idea is if your
commute is 20 plus minutes or 20 plus
meaning 20 or more minutes then you can
think about this idea do one new lesson
so you have a new lesson on your way
like like your first lesson is a new
lesson so a lesson you have not studied
before and then you do a review so you
review like the previous day’s lesson or
you review an old lesson something like
that so if you if you have this time you
can give yourself the opportunity to
learn something new like a new
expression a new a new phrase a new
question and you have the opportunity to
review something from a previous study
session so this can be good if you have
a longer commute or if you just have a
little bit more time on your way to work
or school or of course on the way home
as well okay and then the last point
here is just remember to review on your
way home so whatever lesson you listened
to in the morning consider listening to
that lesson again on your way home so
like eight hours nine hours later ten
hours later depending on your schedule
so this is something you can do as I
said of course you can listen to it just
listen to the lesson if you’re on like a
train or a bus and there are other
people around but if you’re in a car you
can actually speak like repeat after the
native speaker repeat after the person
who’s talking
in the lesson so some ideas you can
check out we have lessons we have audio
lessons on our website of course so
please have a look at those there if you
don’t know at English class 101 not to
come we do have audio lessons lots and
lots of audio lessons there so please
check those out some other ideas
especially for like intermediate or
advanced learners some listening ideas
our English news English news especially
English news for learners so if you
google just English news for learners or
English for learners I’m sorry English
news sites for learners you can find
some resources online where people will
share the news but they use a specific
English a specific type of English for
learners for people who are studying so
they’ll introduce key vocabulary points
idioms and other expressions finally
another cool idea is podcasts podcast if
you don’t know what a podcast is a
podcast is kind of like a radio show but
a podcast is made like by individual
people so you can choose a topic that’s
interesting to you and find a show about
that so you can do this like with your
phone like just with your smart phone if
you have a smart phone or even if you
don’t have a smart phone
you can search for podcasts on like
Apple podcasts or Spotify or other
podcast libraries directories and you
can find a topic that suits your
interest so if you have maybe if you
have a podcast that you like you can
send it in the chat so other people can
find it so if you have a recommendation
for something you like to listen to you
can check that out and oftentimes
podcasts have notes there are like notes
about each episode of the podcast so you
can check maybe some of the key
information in written form there so
that’s another resource that you can
consider
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for today’s lesson all right let’s
review this point let’s here this week
we’re a little bit different if you
don’t know today well it’s actually this
week this week is Thanksgiving in the US
and the day after is called Black Friday
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I’ll continue on then with part 2 for
today’s lesson so if you’re just joining
today’s topic is how to learn during
your commute how to learn English or
other languages on your commute so I’ve
talked about learning with audio
listening to an audio lesson or like to
news into podcasts and if you can
repeating after the native speakers so
let’s go to part 2 then part 2 part 2
excuse me is
to use an app or a site to study
vocabulary words so app this word app a
PP app means application a smartphone
application so you can use an app or a
website some tool that you prefer to use
to study vocabulary words this is one
that I did for a couple years in the
morning and at night that’s true
I had an app I studied Japanese on my
way to work and on my way home from work
15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes
in the evening because I knew vocabulary
was my weak point and this was so
helpful for me I learned new words every
day and I could use them at work every
day - so this was personally really
really helpful for me every day some
ideas I’ve talked about this app unki a
nki unki is a free flashcard app a flake
free flashcard and like a vocabulary
basically a study tool so you can choose
I’ll talk about in a moment you can
choose like a group of words and you can
study them inside on key this free tool
so when you use unki you can choose like
when you see a word appear in the app
you can say yes I know this word or I
don’t really know this word or I totally
don’t know this word and according to
your answer
the software will remember your like
your level of like ability to identify
that word so it will show you the word
again at a later time according to your
answer so that’s cool also of course if
you don’t know about our website we do
have stuff on our website too an English
class 101 some of the features are free
so you don’t have to have a paid account
to get access to some of these the free
things that we have there our vocabulary
list so if you go to the website and you
click on vocabulary in the men
you you can choose vocabulary lists
vocabulary lists so you can access the
vocabulary lists for free and you can
access the 100 core words lists for free
too so if you do that you’ll see there’s
a picture for the vocabulary word or the
expression and there’s also audio so you
can listen to that as well so these are
a couple of ideas for places to study
places to get vocabulary lists to study
and how to study those so what you can
do is when you when you are deciding
what to study what app or website to use
choose a list of words or a list of
phrases or a deck so deck it comes from
like a deck of cards the word we use in
English is a Dec Dec K so that means one
set a group of playing cards so on key
this software I talked about they use
what’s called decks it’s like a group of
vocabulary words or a group of phrases
but in other software like we have
vocabulary lists so choose a list or
choose a deck of words that you want to
study and you can choose from lists
already available so for example we
already have a lot of vocabulary lists
prepared that you can choose from or you
can make your own list so if you want to
make your own list yes it can take some
time but you also have that ability to
make your own list for something and
create your own kind of deck or your own
group of words in your vocabulary study
app okay uh I don’t see specific
questions to today’s lesson so let’s
continue on to this point I mentioned
already study on your way to and from
work in school so I mentioned earlier
but when I was studying vocabulary like
really focusing on studying vocabulary I
would study
in the morning I had a nap in my case I
was using a Japanese study app I studied
in the morning like as soon as I got on
my subway my subway train and in the
morning I started and then when I
arrived at my work like my station I
stopped and that was about 15 minutes in
the morning I did the same thing on my
way home at night so it seems like a
short time but in one day that’s 30
minutes of study and over the course of
a week and over the course of months
that’s a lot actually so this was this
strategy was super helpful for me to
build my vocabulary so I really really
like this I can recommend this for
improving your vocabulary someone I mean
hun said write down myself
yeah if you if you can like that’s great
to practice your writing to to write the
words as well I think that’s great I
guess it depends a little on what you
want to focus on if you want to just get
new vocabulary in your head you can use
just an app if you want to practice the
vocabulary and practice reading and
writing with the vocabulary sure that
sounds great too
okay Oscar says what does commute mean a
commute commute means your travel to and
from work or school so every day many
people have a commute to work or a
commute to school so commute commute
I’ll write it on the board your commute
mean travel to and from work or school
or other other obligations may be so
travel to and from work in school is
your commute other questions yes someone
says how do i improve my English when
commuting that is today’s lesson topic
so please check out all of these tips
for today all right we’re about 20
minutes in so I guess I’ll take one more
break in case you missed it earlier so
in case you missed it today’s special
exciting thing is not pdfs as usual we
have our Black Friday sale or
Black Friday sale is 51% off the plans
in English class 101.com so if you’ve
been thinking about signing up this is a
really really good chance to do that so
this is one of I think the biggest sales
that we have for the year so please make
sure to check this out you can find the
link for this from below the video if
you’re watching on youtube or above the
video if you are watching on Facebook
okay
also if you’re watching on Instagram
sorry I can’t see your comments live but
please check out everything on YouTube
or Facebook okay let’s continue uh time
is going quickly as always to a couple
more ideas and in this section
especially for number four here I hope
that you can share a few ideas with
everyone to the first or rather the
third the third idea for your commute is
to read news sites in English to
practice your reading skills so I know I
know I do this all the time like I open
Twitter and I check the news but I check
like English news like my native
language news so a thing to consider is
just to shift your thinking and start
trying to read news articles in English
in your case if you’re learning English
so sometimes I do this I’ll try to read
focus and read in Japanese something so
that’s really helpful for me some ideas
if you want to look for something that
you can read you can try like the BBC
you could try the New York Times you
could try CNN these are all like online
they have online news articles
I put the BBC here first because the BBC
has a program specifically for English
learners so you can find like video news
and you can find written news articles
that have English specifically for
people who are learning so they share
keywords they talk about special idioms
they talk about special expressions a
thing to consider though the BBC is
British English so the BBC will sound
very different from me for example they
have a different accent there but you
can read the articles for sure but just
keep in mind pronunciation and some
expressions are a little bit different
from American English New York Times is
an American publication as is CNN these
are both American publications maybe if
you if anybody out there has something
that they like as well they can suggest
it and I will write it here uh which one
do you recommend for beginners for
beginners I would recommend you do a
google search I mentioned it in topic
and point number one today but if you do
at English Google search this English
news for learners English news for
learners there are a few actually quite
a few a lot there are a lot of services
that provide news articles at different
levels so check around to find something
that suits your level there are many
different sites you can check those out
see which is maybe the best for you so I
recommend a google search for this
Google English news for learners you can
find a list of publications of other
services that have this so I would
suggest you try this and find something
that’s good for you
someone says for news Julian says news
in levels ok news in levels sounds like
a good one other specific questions I
don’t see any yet hello from Minnesota a
Facebook okay so let’s get to you on
then if you have another suggestion send
it in the chat I’ll try to write it here
if I catch it I want to conclude my last
idea are really my last tip is to get
creative with your studies so these are
of course like tips one two and three
today are fairly straightforward things
you can do but I would encourage you to
get creative with how you study and how
you practice and again not just
listening to things not just reading
things but working on producing things
so these are tips that you can use if
you’re on a train or a bus or a subway
something you don’t have to drive right
you can read or you can type in an app
or something some other ideas you can
make a social media post so a great
example of this I met a person of many
years ago actually I was so impressed he
he was a yeah he was studying English
he lived in I think the UK for maybe two
or three years and came back to his home
country but he wanted to continue using
English so he had a one-hour commute to
and from work every day this is a true
story and he’s created what he called
and on the way album post so for his
everyday English study practice he
listened to an album he liked like a
60-minute about one hour so music he
listened to it and then he wrote a
social media post like a review about
the album so he talked about each song
on the album he talked about the history
of the album so he was listening to new
music which was his hobby and he was
using English so he made a bilingual
social media post every single day five
days a week on his commute so that to me
that was amazing like he said it was
really hard actually really really hard
to do but I thought that was such a
creative a creative way to combine his
hobbies and his studies yeah so that’s
one idea make a social media post I like
to do this to actually when I post on
social media I try to do it
bilingually I tried to write my social
media posts in English and in Japanese
that’s one way for me to study others
I’m looking for your questions I don’t
see other questions yet so a couple more
ideas
right in an english-only journal right
in an english-only journal this can be
on your phone it can be a physical
journal it can be something that you
type like on WordPress or another
journal software so right in an
english-only journal that’s another way
to create your using vocabulary that
you’re learning maybe you can write
about a recent news story something like
that or you can use something that you
heard in an audio lesson so this is
another idea you can do again on your
commute if you’re not driving a car so
write in an English only journal that’s
something else you can do and another
idea read an english-only Twitter feed
so I’ve seen a lot of people seen some
people have followed me on Twitter
that’s they make an English study
account I’ve seen this on Twitter
actually a couple on Instagram - they
make English only or like accounts
specifically for their studies so you
can open that Twitter feed and check
only things in English so these are a
couple of different ideas for kind of
more creatively using your language
skills and developing your language
skills um all right some other things
viola says can you tell me about audio
please i talked about audio lessons in
point number one so if you missed it you
can check out some ideas for studying
with audio lessons this is being
recorded so when we finish you can go
back and check out point number one yeah
someone else says how do i improve my
listening please check point number one
from today’s lesson I think that’s good
for listening specific tips how to take
notes fast while listening well why why
do you need to take notes fast you can
take notes and pause and take notes and
pause as well I think it’s okay to go at
your own pace it’s okay to do that some
other and if you have other ideas for
your studies yeah will include I’ll
include them here so please feel free to
send something
kay says how about reading and listening
to us president’s speeches it’s
something you can do sure but just keep
in mind speeches are very different from
the way that we speak in everyday life
so you might get some interesting
vocabulary you might learn some specific
vocabulary for politics and for
government but just keep in mind that’s
it’s different from the way that people
talk in everyday English so I mean you
can learn something of course someone
says can I learn using chatroulette
mm-hmm I really don’t know I would
suggest maybe not using chatroulette
like I feel like it’s better to do
something to approach your studies to
study with some kind of material you’ve
prepared or like you can kind of guess a
little bit what what the other person is
going to say so mmm I don’t know if
chatroulette is the best the best way to
study good be I don’t know I have not
used it so I can’t say other ideas other
ideas someone says right go slowly I
can’t right
this video is being recorded you can
watch it back again uh other points some
people say I can’t understand songs well
some ideas if you want to use music if
you want to use music I’ll include that
here listen to music if you want to
include music in your studies I would
suggest and if you can’t understand the
songs google the lyrics look for the
lyrics of the songs that’s what I did
when I first started studying Japanese I
couldn’t understand the music I had no
idea what they were saying so I googled
it and I had to find it in like English
characters and then I had to study the
grammar and then I had to study
vocabulary so many different things so
if you can’t understand the songs google
the lyrics and then study the lyrics
line by line that is exactly what I did
when I first started that’s a true story
that is exactly what I did so that was
my strategy to understand
songs but also keep in mind not all
songs in English used correct to grammar
sometimes we change the lyrics of the
songs or we change the way we say words
to fit the song so please keep that in
mind music in English is not perfect
English or isn’t that what should I say
music in English is not textbook English
please keep that in mind other points I
don’t see any oh ma see ya hey Messiah
on Facebook says watching on YouTube
with subtitles is very useful odd it’s a
great idea I’ll put that in number four
so watch YouTube watch youtube videos
with subtitles nice point great of
course we have many covers we have many
many YouTube videos with subtitles so
you can please watch our videos we would
be very happy if you watched our videos
yes thanks mulling a great tip great tip
why do words in English have ten
meanings not always do they have ten
meetings many words in many languages
have many different meanings so it’s up
to it depends on the word it depends on
the word
okay someone says in discord I talk
everyday with native people uh yeah
discord that’s another one so I have not
used discord myself but to my
understanding you can make communities
have you used this part yes you can make
it easy you can make communities with
maybe people who play the same video
game as you or people who have the same
hobby or interest as you so that’s
another good one all right all right
is this a discord groups discord
communities I don’t know the word they
use in discord discord chats okay
discord chats that’s a nice idea nice
one okay other points yeah great ideas
everybody I like that uh Tiago also says
watch movies with subtitles yes so I
have YouTube yeah but watching movies
with subtitles can be helpful also very
nice ideas alright oh my I am late sorry
thank you for your ideas everyone sorry
I got excited about the chat so I’m
sorry about that I have to finish
unfortunately but these are some ideas
you can use for learning during your
commute so on your way to or on your way
from home from school or work so I hope
that you found some ideas some new
things you can do with just 10 or 15
minutes in your day it adds up you can
do a lot of things over time so we’ll
finish there for today but we will of
course be back next week next week’s
topic is yes how to talk about your work
with present perfect tense everybody
always wants to practice present perfect
tense next week I’m going to focus on
talking about your work or your studies
with present perfect tense
if you don’t know present perfect tense
present perfect is like that I have been
I have done I have worked and so on next
week I probably won’t talk a lot about
present perfect continuous but maybe
we’ll see so join us next week that will
be December Wow December 5th Wednesday
Wednesday December 5th 2019 nothing p.m.
Eastern Standard Time that is New York
City time if you don’t know your local
time please google it or set a
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to talk about your work with a key
grammar point next week I will finish
here for today please don’t forget to
check out this the 51 percent off sale
our Black Friday sale you can find the
link below the video if you’re watching
on YouTube or above the video if you’re
watching on Facebook if you’re watching
on Instagram
please check the YouTube or Facebook to
get your excellent deal we will finish
there so thank you everybody for joining
us as always live this week we really
appreciate it and thank you very much
for liking and for sharing the video too
and I hope that you enjoyed the rest of
your day and the rest of your week we’ll
see you again soon