Yes, here it comes! The biggest secret that will make you master the English language in the shortest time that you could imagine. Is the secret a special method that only English teachers know about? Is it something that only a few people can do? Is it something that is incredibly expensive? The answer to all these questions is an emphatic, “NO”! The secret to learning English is motivation, motivation, motivation (The 3 Ms!!!). J When you are motivated to learn, you can achieve anything. When you are motivated you can live and breathe English and none of the work that you do will actually seem like real work. In addition to my previous posts on learning English in 5 minutes and Learning English while you are travelling, I want to encourage you all not to miss a single opportunity to push yourself into constantly learning. For example, when I first moved abroad to Hungary, I was learning Spanish. (I know that sounds a bit strange, but I was studying Spanish at university in England at the time.) Anyway, I bought lots of boxsets of my favourite comedies and TV shows. (I made sure that they had Spanish subtitles and audio). I didn’t have a TV, so these DVDs were my only form of TV-like entertainment.
At first, I started out by watching the shows in English with Spanish subtitles and I gained so much vocabulary like that, it was incredible. In fact, it was vocab-tastic!!! Then I gradually moved into watching the shows with Spanish sound and English subtitles and then finally, full-on Spanish. Even though I wasn’t living in a Spanish speaking country, I was constantly trying to make my brain function in Spanish. Lots of students say to me that it is difficult to learn English because they have nobody to practise with. Well, reading online newspapers, describing daily scenes and watching programmes that you love in English adds up to a lot of time each day practising English. There is no excuse. You can spend a big part of your day making your brain use a foreign language, if you have the willpower! Lots of people find it hard to get motivated though. Well, I have a question for you: Why were you taking English classes at SGI in the first place? You must have been pretty motivated to go to London and spend your summer learning English. Just remember those reasons and you will find plenty of motivation that can get you started with the biggest secret to learning! It’s very important to keep rolling with the momentum that you created for yourself by studying at SGI over the summer. If you stop now, all that time and effort will go to waste. As I mentioned in a previous post, the first rule with a foreign language is ‘use it, or lose it’!!! Good luck. Let me know how you are getting on with your daily, personal English challenges.
