Don't Waste Your Time Learning English Like This

how can you really learn to speak

English confidently let me help you

speed up the process by telling you in

10 minutes what I learned in 10

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years hello it's Keith from the Keith

speaking Academy and the YouTube channel

English speaking success here to help

you become a more confident English

speaker now then I've spent over 10

years actually no over 20 years I should

change the title over 20 years learning

languages like French Chinese Spanish

and I feel like I'm a confident speaker

of those

languages however what most people don't

know is that I've also tried to learn

Italian Malay and Japanese and I was

less success

successful why was I successful in some

of them and unsuccessful in others what

is it that worked and that didn't work

and how can I help you become a more

confident speaker of English in this

video I'm going to tell you five things

that work and will help you learn

English more effectively these are five

things they're based on linguistic

research but also on my personal

experience so it's kind of mixing a bit

of Science and a bit of anecdote I'll

tell you five things that work and the

opposite that doesn't work and all of

this will help you become that confident

English speaker ready let's dive

in right number one to effectively learn

English and become confident you must be

focused in English we say to put the

blinkers on or to have your blinkers on

if you've ever watched horse racing you

see the horses have these things on

their eyes right so they cannot see

these are blinkers so to put your

blinkers on is to be very focused and

only see one thing um because otherwise

you're going to get distracted and

you're not going to study okay you got

to be really really focused my

experience in Italy um did you know I

actually lived in Italy and taught the

Italian police I was working for the

Itali police as their English teacher

there are some interesting stories there

maybe for another day the thing is

through that those months I was there I

was there for two months I picked up

some Italian right getting by in the

coffees and and in the shops and

restaurants and for about a week or two

when I got home I carried on practicing

but then I didn't have time I was too

busy and I it just didn't happen I

wasn't focused it wasn't a priority

and this is an important lesson I

learned you have to make things a

priority otherwise something else will

come up and you won't do it oh I've got

my English class no but I've got this to

do and that to do I haven't got

time the biggest lesson I learned then

was never to say I don't have time CU

what that really means is I choose not

to do

this and I learn to change that whenever

I said no I don't have time for this no

no no I choose not to do this that's the

reality because you have time if you

don't do your English class in that hour

you'll do something else right you're

not going to stop breathing for an hour

you'll do something else you choose not

to do the English study always right so

be clear about being focused making it a

priority and saying I choose to do it or

I choose choose not to but it's your

choice

always number two be persistent what a

lovely word

persistent

persistent and it means to continue or

to keep going I often tell my students

that learning English is not a Sprint

it's not 100 meters it's a marathon and

you need to keep going right be

persistent the thing is if you go on

social

media a lot of influencers will tell you

now you can get fluent in three months

um you can learn English in with these

five words in 10 minutes the thing is

right as people on social media um we've

always got one eye on the

views and one eye on the education and

there's always a balance and so a lot of

influence influencers will we'll try and

convince you that it's easy you can do

it in three months you can become fluent

it's not true it takes time if you go to

the Cambridge English website it'll tell

you to move up a band um like a B1 to a

B2 it will typically take what 200 hours

of guided study and learning and the

higher up you go the more time it takes

so very often schools and courses will

run for one year or nine months to move

up a level taking into account you know

space repetition and all of that nine

months for a level that's more realistic

it does take time so you must be

persistent and the trick here is if you

enjoy your

study you're going to be persistent

you're going to carry on so do that

enjoy your study

find materials you enjoy that you like

that are engaging and that's going to

help you a lot let's move

on okay number three is find your

mojo Mojo what I mean really is Mojo

motivation right find your motivation

because you need to be motivated to

learn another language like English one

way to harness your motivation I mean to

get motivated is to have specific and

realistic goals and ones that you can

measure I think smart goals right but

specific and realistic so sometimes and

I I look at the comments in my video

chat and sometimes students say well I'm

a beginner now and I want to be fluent

in

English um okay it's it's a nice

ambition I'm a beginner now I want to be

fluent in English it's not very specific

what do you mean by fluent and when how

long and and it's just it's too big I

think and it's too far away it's like

the stars make it more specific and

realistic a much better goal would be

I'm a beginner now and I want to be able

to speak and communicate my ideas on

some common

topics in the next six

months something like that is much more

specific you could even say which topics

and a teacher will come and say that's

great we'll take you from A2 to B1 in

six months that's basically it and and

and it's something you can measure

especially if you identify the topics

that's something it's more specific it's

realistic and it's measurable as well so

all of that can really really help now

the thing with motivation is you need to

feed your motivation it's like your dog

or your cat P if you have one if you

don't feed your pet they will become

lazy and tired they'll have no energy

and ultimately I'm afraid they'll die

like your motivation it'll disappear so

you must feed your motivation right what

do you give your

motivation the best thing you can do is

remind yourself why you're doing this

why am I learning

English and maybe it's because well

because you want to travel and speak to

other people if you're studying IELTS

actually your goal is not IELTS right

your your goal is the reason why because

I want to study abroad I want to

actually work and live abroad or take my

family abroad and have a better life

that's the why and so in those difficult

moments when your motivation is

down remember the why another thing you

can do and I did this when learning

Spanish um I was living in Spain I was

there for about a year I was there for a

long time but after a year I decided to

join some classes and my roommate said

what why are you doing classes I mean we

live in Madrid just go on the street and

talk to people and I said yeah I know I

do but I just I always say the same

things and you know and I don't really

know many people when I went to the

class oh it was Just My Level went up

because I was learning much wider not

language vocabulary grammar but I was

also connecting with people I was making

friends I was talking to people in the

same boat as me we weren't in a boat

idiomatically we were in the same

situation and it was just it was great

to connect with others and when when my

motivation was

lagging we could cheer each other up and

say you know keep going connect to

others

it was invaluable the best thing I ever

did even though I was living in Spain at

the time joined a Spanish course um and

finally I think a nice thing to do is to

reward yourself when you reach a goal or

part of a goal um just give yourself a

pat on the back I can't reach but reward

yourself say great I've done it I've

done a month study I've studied every

day I've I've learned to speak about

this this and this great

go to the cinema go and buy yourself a

book give yourself a little reward keep

the motivation going feed your

motivation let me feed you with some

more ideas moving on to number

four number four is Big Goal small steps

now this is related to the motivation

but so having a big goal is great

breaking it down into small steps is

really important what you're going to do

step by step if you've ever been walking

in the mountains if you like rambling

right sometimes you say you go out

rambling you say right we're going to go

in a big circle um for 10

kilometers and you go it's going to take

ages that isn't great what's much better

is to say well okay we'll do a circle

but first we go to that Peak then we'll

go to that Lake then we'll go down the

valley to the village and then we'll

come around and there are steps small

steps and you think oh yeah that's

doable little things you'll achieve on

the way that's great so when I arrived

in China many years ago I knew that I

wanted to speak Chinese and I really

wanted to speak to a very high level I

was a bit like I'm a beginner I want to

be fluent in Chinese but I also realized

that's not going to work so I broke it

down I thought right what am I going to

do the first year I'm here I want to be

able to communicate with family and

friends that was key second I wanted to

be able to have daily conversations with

people on the street in the shops

thirdly I actually wanted to be able to

work in Chinese to function in Chinese

so I broke that down into three goals

each one a year and the first one I

remember every day for about eight

months I went for an hour or an hour and

a half to class before work 8:00 in the

morning boom to class an hour and a half

and then go to work and did that for

eight months and that took me up to like

an A2 level and I was able to talk to

family and friends very simple like pass

me the sugar and I like this things like

that the key was Big Goal small steps

you see the small steps help you focus

on the present moment on the now when

you've got big goals you start thinking

oh God it's so much it's too much it's

overwhelming the more you think the less

you are present um you're lost in your

thoughts to avoid that to be present

small steps because the small step helps

you focus in the present moment and it

works much much better so if you've got

your goal of getting let's say a band

seven in IELTS think about small steps

first three months the next three months

the next three months what are you going

to do how are you going to reach it Big

Goal small steps let's move

on number five practice Lots you see the

big state the big mistake a lot of

students make and I did as well um

although I'm going to blame my teacher

at school with French is we studied too

much we just studied and by study I mean

reading and reading learning the rules

learning the grammar reading reading a

bit of listening it was all passive it

was study we weren't actually practicing

we weren't speaking

writing very little right and that's

what happened at French and so you know

I got to the age of 18 having studied

French for 10 years and I couldn't speak

that's

ridiculous so it's so important practice

Lots wherever you are now and as you're

studying whether it's with videos my

videos or with a book as you study

practice at the same time you can

practice speaking out practice making

phrases changing phrases you can use the

speaking success system that you can

learn from my videos um you can practice

in the real world you can practice

online with classmates or students or

teachers um online is the real world as

well right or face to face it doesn't

matter but as you're studying practice

as much as you study and that will help

you become a more effective learner and

a more confident speaker of English

next right Point number six hang on

Keith you said five I did I know all

right you can call this a bonus if you

like or Point number six and that is

review and I couldn't leave you without

telling you how important it is to

review to become an effective learner

and speaker of English review because

well there's a lot of Science and theory

behind this do you remember teachers

will probably know ebbing house Herman

ebing house and his learning curve or

his well his memory curve some call it a

forgetting curve that after a certain

number of hours a lot of people say 24

hours you you will forget 70% of what

you've studied if you don't review and

then several days later you need to

review again or the learn your learning

goes goes

down there's a lot of Mythology around

this and even you know ebing house he

was the researcher and he was the the

person undergoing the research he was

the candidate if you like so I think

there's a lot of flaws but the general

idea that if you don't review within a

day and within a week you are going to

forget a large amount um there's also

spaced repetition Theory right this is

what most of the apps like du lingo work

with that you learn some words and then

the next day they come back again few

days later they come back again that

spaced repetition and it is it does work

it's very very important so I think it's

essential to review what I do with my

classes learning French or Spanish now

is after the class I review after a few

hours the notes I've taken and then a

day or two later I don't review the

notes but I listen or watch something on

the same topic so if I've been watching

something about weather I'll listen to

the weather report or I'll watch a film

about weather or I'll do something on a

similar topic so there's a a recycling

of language reviewing and recycling

basically hugely important very valuable

quite easy to do just find time remember

don't say I don't have time it's I don't

choose to do it or I choose to do it the

choice is in your

hands okay so there you have it five or

six different ways to help you become a

more confident speaker now I realize I

am mixing research and anecdote here

right and you know that's what I did to

build my online course I speaking Gold

Course um it's a mixture I mean it's

based on Research I did in my Master's

Degree on digital education which I did

very very late in life um but also

anecdote my own learning experience in

fact the speaking success system is

based on my own experience of learning

languages um you can watch a video about

that actually straight after this one if

you like um you can find out about the

course more details on how that might be

able to help you in the links Below in

the description and the comments that's

it for today listen thank you so much

for taking the time to be with me um if

you've liked it you know what to do if

you subscribe you know what to do and

listen I can't wait to see you in the

next video keep going be focused

persistent motivated and all the rest of

it take care my friend bye-bye

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