This can be applied to making any improvement in your life but here I’m going to use improving English as the example.

A lot of people tell me they want to improve their English. I ask them how they are going to do it. They tell me something like, “spend more time studying”. Their intentions are good but they are likely to fail. Their plan is not specific enough. They don’t have a plan for how they will study and when they will study. You need to know exactly what you will do and when you will do if you want to be successful.

Let’s look at this plan: “I’m going to read for 1 hour every night”. Is that a good plan? It’s better than the first one but still not good enough. You need to know what you are going to read and when exactly you will read it. If you say you will read at 8:00-9:00 every night then if it is 8:05, you know that you should be reading. If you just say you will read for an hour every night, what is likely to happen is you will keep delaying the reading until you are too tired, and then go to bed thinking that you will just start tomorrow.

Here is an an example of a good plan: “I will listen to one English podcast everyday starting at 8:00 pm. I will then go on the China232.com forum and ask any questions I have about the podcast, and if I have no questions, I’ll practice writing by answering one of the other questions, or writing my opinion on one of the topics”.

Now you have a good plan that you can put into action. Use this plan or make another one equally specific for your English study. Make sure you write down exactly what you will do and when you will do it. Try it for 30 days. See if you can do it everyday for 30 days. Once it becomes a habit it will be easier to maintain.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Andy

This saying is a great one to use when you have the right opportunity. It basically means that the secret is out in the open and is no longer a secret.

Imagine this situation:

You plan to quit your job but you don’t want to tell too many people until after you actually quit. You decided to tell only one friend but don’t want to tell any other people. Now you are together with many friends, including the one you told. By accident, the friend you told you are going to quit your job asked you in front of everyone, “so when exactly are you going to quit”? Everyone hears this question and says, “What? I didn’t know you were planning on quitting”.

Then you could say, “Well, I guess the cat is out of the bag”. It means that the secret is out in the open now and I’m not going to hide from the truth anymore.

Andy

Many English learners often complain about not being able to remember the new words that they learn. They feel frustrated, and unmotivated to continue studying. These students often feel that they have a memory problem, as if there is something physically wrong with this part of their brain. Since they feel they can’t remember what they learn, they find studying to be a waste of time.

If you want to have a better memory, it’s essential to understand how memory works. Many people think that simply looking at something many times should allow them to remember it. This seems sensible, but it is very untrue. Think about something that you see everyday. (Maybe a one dollar bill of your country’s money) You’ve probably seen this piece of paper thousands of times, but how well do you remember it? Could you draw a picture of it without looking at it? Do you even know which side of the president’s face (left or right) you can see? I’m sure there are many things that you see everyday that you can’t draw a picture of.

Here is an interesting thing to think about. Imagine that I have never seen your country’s money before. Now let’s suppose that you give me a one dollar bill (or something similar) to study for 2 minutes. After only 2 minutes, I’ll probably know more about what is on that picture than you do, even though you’ve seen it thousands of times before. Why is that? Remembering something takes energy, so our brains will only remember what we think will be important in the future. Knowing what exactly is on the money is not important. It’s only important to know if it’s a 5, 10, or 100 dollar bill.

Seeing or hearing something does not make us remember it.  We don’t remember most of what we see or hear each day. If we want to remember something well, we need to pay attention to it. We need to notice many things about it. We need to use it. We need to feel that it’s important to remember.

Here is an exercise for you to try.

1. Choose one NEW English word that you want to learn. Get mentally prepared to remember it. Tell yourself that this is a very important word and you must remember it. (If you are tired or not motivated to remember, you will be much less likely to remember it.) Get excited about it!

2. Read it out loud 3 times (make sure you know how to pronounce it, use a dictionary if you aren’t sure).

3. Write it down and make sure you know how to spell it.

3. Look up the meaning in the dictionary and make sure you understand it.

4. Write 3 different sentences on a piece of paper with that word in it.

5. Read those sentences out loud.

6. Think of 2 situations that you might actually be in, where you plan to use that word in the future.

For example, let’s suppose you wanted to learn the word, “pediatrician“.

A pediatrician is a special kind of doctor who works with babies.

Now you should think of some sentences using this word that you might actually use.

Depending on your situation, your sentences might be,

“My mom told me that I never saw pediatrician when I was a baby”.

“A friend of mine is thinking of studying to become a pediatrician because she likes babies”.

“Do you have many pediatricians in your country?”

This might sound like a lot of effort, but at least it will help you to not only remember the word, but also be able to actually use it in the future.

I’ve actually seen students with a long list of words that they are supposed to remember. They simply write each word down 20 times on a piece of paper, and then hope they remember the words in the future. This is a terrible method of studying! Even if you do remember some of the words, you have wasted a lot of time and effort. You will also be less likely to be able to think of those words quickly during a conversation. If you want to use words, you need to know how to use them in sentences.

Try this method, or something similar, and share with us your experience.

I’d love to hear from you as always.

Andrew

It’s incredibly easier to read something in a foreign language than it is to write in a foreign language. In order to read, all you really need is a decent vocabulary and a basic sense of grammar. Writing is a totally different story. You need to choose the words and phrases yourself, and then somehow put them all in a good order. Since writing is much more difficult, most learners don’t practice as much as they should. When students actually do write something, they realize that their writing is somewhat childlike. This awkward feeling of realizing that their English writing is at a much lower level than they’d like, prevents them from continuing to practice. Instead, they just try to forget about this weakness and just hope it will go away sometime. Unfortunately, it never does and the student is frustrated for years about being such a poor writer.

Some people tell me that they would practice writing more, but they need a native speaker to correct their writing, or it is a waste of time. I agree that in a perfect world it would be nice to have this luxury. Unfortunately, this is unrealistic thinking. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to find someone willing to correct your writing for free all the time. I’d like to do it on this website, but with so many students it’s impossible. I’d instead prefer to read what you guys write, and make general comments on areas where most people are having problems. I think it is more beneficial to everyone that way.

The truth is that even if you don’t have anyone to correct your writing, it is still extremely important to practice it. Just the act of trying to write something, tests your own mind to search for the most suitable words and phrases. It helps you understand where your own weaknesses are and where you need improvement. If you find that you can’t express a certain idea, the next time you read a native speaker writing about this idea, it will “jump out” at you and you will be more likely to remember it for the next time you write. If you never write, you will be unaware at the topics, expressions, and types of sentences that are giving you the most difficulty. Remember that understanding something is much easier than producing it yourself. It’s the same with anything. I could watch someone else build a house and I’d feel that I understood the process. But if you asked me to go out to an open field and build a house by myself, I’d be utterly useless. I’d probably just lie down on the grass and take a nap. If I did start to do work on the house, I’d see where I needed help and I’d most certainly pay more attention to that part the next time I was watching someone else build one.

There’s no better time to start practicing than now, so let’s see what you can do.

Here’s today’s topic:

WHICH ONE IMPROVEMENT COULD YOU MAKE ABOUT YOURSELF THAT WOULD HAVE THE GREATEST IMPACT ON YOUR LIFE?

Please share this website with your friends, colleagues, and classmates

Andrew

“Complacency” is the feeling you have when you are satisfied with your current level or ability in some area of your life. This feeling can cause you to stop putting in 100% effort to improve. It makes you feel relaxed and unmotivated. Complacency is a big reason why so many people achieve an ok level at something, and then stop improving.

This can happen in any area of your life, but let’s take a look at your English level. As I’ve said many times before, if you can use this website, it means your English level is already fairly good. You can “get by” in life using English. You know that you should improve, you say that you want to improve, but in a lot of ways there is no real pressure for you to improve. Let’s face it; you can already communicate with people in English at a reasonable level. You also are starting to realize that the more you study, the less noticeable your improvement is. You could probably spend an entire day studying English, and neither you, nor anyone else would notice that you improved. That’s a sad thought and that feeling certainly makes it difficult to find the motivation to study.

I believe that complacency is one of the biggest differences between highly successful people and regular people.  The most successful people are always trying to improve. They want to be the best they can be. Regular people get satisfied easily. Think about Roger Federer. He still practices tennis everyday, even though it is almost impossible for him to improve because he is already so good.

Here is the truth: There are literally millions of other people like you around the world who speak English as a second language and have reached an ok level. Most people in this group reach an ok level and then stop improving. They get lazy. Very few people reach the next level because of complacency. Just because your English level is ok, don’t let that stop you from studying really hard. Reaching that next level will give you better job opportunities and the ability to interact with more people. You will feel comfortable reading anything, and speaking to anyone about any topic easily and with no stress. The hard work will eventually pay off, and deep down you know that too. Keep focused and don’t let the disease of complacency get to you.

I’m interested in hearing about anytime in your life where you’ve let complacency take over and prevent you from giving a 100% effort. I really hope that if this is happening with your current English study habits, you will STOP IT!

Andrew