How to Optimize Your English Study Time
hey everyone welcome to the monthly
review the monthly show on language
learning where you discover new learning
strategies motivational tips new study
tools and discover new resources by the
way you can download all the lessons and
bonuses you’re about to see right now on
the website so click the link in the
description to sign up for your free
lifetime account and start speaking in
minutes okay today’s topic is how to get
a return on your language learning
investment if you’re watching this
you’re already learning a foreign
language but if you’re like most people
you’re probably wondering if it’s
working or if you’re getting better
right so that’s why today you’re going
to learn one two big reasons people fail
to the importance of tracking your
return on language learning and 3 how to
track your results and reach your goals
but first listen up here are this
month’s new lessons and resources first
do you want to be able to complain in
the language you’re learning then get
our new making complaints PDF cheat
sheet right now it’s filled with must
know phrases in vocab so you can
complain like a native second the 400
everyday phrases for beginners ebook
you’ll love this new book you’ll be able
to talk about your daily life from
morning tonight and you’ll master 400
practical phrases download it for free
right now
third the 50 most common adjectives if
you’re a beginner and you don’t know
these adjectives then this is a perfect
chance to boost your vocabulary this
one-minute lesson will get them stuck in
your head guaranteed fourth 20 phrases
you’ll need at the movies learn how to
say excuse me you’re in my seat I’d like
to buy a ticket and much more with this
one-minute lesson to get your free
resources click the link in the
description below right now they’re
yours to keep forever okay let’s jump
into today’s topic
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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 said 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 to 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
what doesn’t work again what gets
measured gets managed next tracking
helps you see a clearer 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 clearer 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 three 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 five minutes with
flashcards note this is 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 time sheet 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 five minutes and can remember
seven out of ten words then that’s your
return you know that five minutes gives
you seven 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 ten out of ten
next if you’re practicing your listening
skills try to gauge how much you
understand if you understood about 20
percent of a three-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 percent 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 all right everyone in the last
monthly review we asked you to submit a
video or audio file of yourself speaking
the language so thank you to all of you
that sentence submissions you’ve all
received a Premium Plus subscription as
a reward now let’s take a look at some
of the submissions
okay so I’m gonna check out the audio
and video submissions that were sent by
you for this month I am very excited
begin hi my name is fabula Fabiola item
from Brazil okay also I’m 21 here in
Brazil I speak Portuguese but I’ve
always loved English and I’ve always
wanted to learn it so right now I’m
trying to focus on this language because
next year I have a job opportunity
oh the USA going for it so nice I’m
really excited to know your people your
country and most of all practice my
English for sure so I’m already
practicing a lot my listening my
speaking my writing and my reading right
every day I try to practice I feel all
these things go so that’s it my English
is not perfect at all but I keep trying
and I’m not giving up awesome so you
said your English is not perfect at all
at the end of your message but that
message was perfect like your
pronunciation was very clear it was
really everything you wanted to say was
very clear like you’re 21 and you have a
job opportunity in the States that’s
super exciting you’re studying every day
that sounds awesome it sounds like
you’re doing everything in like a really
positive and like forward moving way so
that’s super cool thank you so much for
sending this message and good luck in
the US next year that is awesome thank
you for sending this that’s made me so
happy super cool okay I’m going to
listen to the next message
thank you so much for the opportunity so
I would like to give thanks for English
class 101 because it really helps me a
lot especially improving my listening
skills and I do understand the culture
okay oh you know America or whatever
well thank you so much guys for this
opportunity cool and love from the
Philippines awesome from the Philippines
thank you so much for this message yeah
I’m happy to hear about the ways that
you like to use our videos and the
content that we have so that’s cool too
that you like learning about culture
with the stuff that we make I think
we’re trying to make more things so that
people can learn more about culture so
I’m really happy to hear that you enjoy
that that’s super cool thank you very
much for this message okay I will go to
the next one
it’s been great to use your learning
site I have been learning English for a
long time but after being with English
101 comm I have improved and motivated
so I have the wheel two cameras on day
to study that’s why I’m studying and I
want to travel the world
- cool Wow so he said going to Cambridge
to study some days his goal that is
awesome that is a huge goal so I wish
you the best of luck in doing that and
thank you for studying with us I really
hope that we can help you reach that
goal someday awesome good luck to you
okay one more
hi Alicia I’m Rosie from more discipline
I want minds because for the money I can
jump I need English to read write and
also speaking easily since I’m working
the area of training aid I enjoyed males
the innate is notice in English and also
sometimes I have to communicate in
English and also sometimes I have to
present in English so I have to improve
my English therefore I can do my job
better thank you right cool yeah so it
sounds like you have to use all aspects
of English all parts of English in order
to do your job which is a big challenge
but your message is really clear and
really easy to understand so I think as
long as you continue studying you’re
going to continue improving your English
and getting better at your job therefore
then - so that’s awesome good luck thank
you so much for watching our videos and
studying with us and I hope that you
continue and continue improving - into
the future so thank you all right I
think that’s all the messages that we
have for this month so thank you so much
to everybody who sent a message this
time and I look forward to hearing from
more of you again next month - so which
entry did you like the best leave a
comment below or do you think you can do
better
here’s a challenge for you yes everyone
watching this record a 30 second to 1
minute video or audio clip tell us what
are your hobbies and you’ll win one
month Premium Plus subscription to
submit click on the link in the
description sign up for your free
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attach the audio or video file and press
submit we may feature you in next
month’s episode so a lot of learners
will see you and your progress and will
hopefully get inspired to improve and
master the language to submit a
recording click the link in the
description and follow the instructions
on the page so thank you for watching
this episode of monthly review next time
we’ll talk about how to find time to
learn a language if you enjoyed these
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