0:00

What are some ways

0:02

to fast-track your English

0:05

fluency? How can you better optimize

0:07

those weekly hours you're gonna dedicate to English?

0:10

How can you spend those hours the best way possible?

0:12

Those precious hours you have on your English

0:15

studies. Exactly, we're

0:17

all busy, right?

0:22

You should include into your routine

0:24

some fun, engaging content,

0:27

right? If we remember the

0:29

real-life way, our methodology

0:32

here at RealLife English, we

0:34

tell every time, and that's

0:36

actually the first component, that you

0:38

should live your English. And

0:41

by living your English, we understand

0:43

that it should be fun, natural and convenient,

0:45

it should be your everyday habit,

0:48

right? So, that's exactly a

0:50

way to fast-forward your

0:54

journey to fluency. Because

0:57

deliberate practice may very

0:59

soon make you feel overwhelmed,

1:03

maybe even bored, right?

1:06

So, my tips would be to

1:08

include into your study routine

1:11

both moments of having fun, by

1:13

watching movies or listening to songs, learning

1:16

lyrics, yeah, something lighter, with

1:18

like really deliberately sitting

1:21

and learning something. A very nice

1:23

tip would be if you take, let's

1:26

say, a movie clip, a short movie clip,

1:28

and you should work for about one

1:31

week only with this movie clip, but

1:33

you will get the most out of it.

1:35

You will work on vocabulary

1:38

from that movie clip, you will work on grammar

1:40

structure used in the sentences

1:42

there, you will work on your pronunciation.

1:45

That would be living your English, right? It would be

1:47

so nice if you could connect it to something you really

1:49

like.

1:50

I love what you're saying because

1:52

that is exactly what I did. And

1:55

that is so true. We have so

1:58

many resources nowadays.

1:59

maybe even too many resources. And

2:03

it's easy to get overwhelmed with all this information.

2:06

I love that tip. So work

2:08

on one thing at a time. If

2:10

it is a movie clip, spend

2:12

a week, two weeks only

2:15

with that movie clip. If it is a podcast

2:17

episode, listen to that episode

2:19

maybe two or three times. Because

2:21

I'm sure that by the third

2:23

time you listen to the same episode, you

2:26

will pick up things that you didn't pick up the

2:28

first time around. So that is a great tip. So

2:31

focusing on one thing at a time. I love

2:33

that. Bringing the real-life way into the conversation.

2:36

It's important to find this balance between living

2:38

your English and activating it. When

2:41

you activate your English, that's the study

2:43

moment. When you actually sit down intentionally,

2:46

maybe with a book, or to write some

2:48

sentences down with a phrasal verb you're trying to

2:50

memorize, or you are

2:52

working more intentionally with a movie clip. These

2:55

are the activation moments. Or even when you

2:57

have classes with your teacher or at a

2:59

school, once or twice a week. Those could be

3:01

considered activation moments because those

3:04

are deliberate times you are using to study.

3:07

Right? But in combination with that,

3:09

you want to make it fun, natural, and convenient by

3:11

living your English. In my case,

3:15

I find that most of my students,

3:17

they already live their English, actually. You

3:20

know, like they listen to podcasts every

3:22

day. Let's say at the gym,

3:24

they listen to our podcast every

3:26

day when they are running on the treadmill,

3:29

but I think they miss sometimes

3:31

more activation moments. I would say it's

3:33

the opposite. So look

3:36

at how much time you have to

3:38

practice your English per week. Let's say five

3:41

hours per week and see

3:43

where this time is going because ideally you want

3:45

to balance both components here.

3:48

For example, if you listen to a podcast episode

3:50

every day for 40 minutes, while

3:52

at the gym, that's great. This is

3:54

you living your English. It's a little bit,

3:57

something a little bit more passive. Yeah,

3:59

it's like...

4:00

you are simulating an immersion experience. Just

4:03

like if you were abroad, if you were in an English

4:05

speaking country at the gym there, you would probably

4:07

be listening to people around you speaking English. So

4:10

listening to a podcast every day, while

4:12

at the gym is a great way for you to simulate that experience,

4:14

that's awesome. But on top of that,

4:17

also have a couple of hours

4:20

to actually study, sit down and study

4:23

the language. And see the ratio.

4:26

Five hours of

4:28

living your English for one hour of studying

4:30

it. I don't think it's enough, it's not a good ratio. So

4:32

maybe, leave your

4:35

English for three hours, ideally every day, and

4:37

then two hours for study time, or

4:39

two and a half, two and a half. Maybe split it into

4:41

half, you know? But whatever it is,

4:44

you wanna balance these

4:46

two things. If you

4:48

consume English more passively, be

4:50

more intentional with your studies, reserve time

4:53

to study. If you study a lot, like Senate

4:55

was describing, right Senate? If you study a lot, but

4:57

you don't consume English daily,

5:00

so consume more English daily. So

5:02

you wanna see where your deficiency is and balance

5:04

these two things out.

5:06

Okay guys, and if you are listening to

5:09

this podcast and some of the streaming platforms,

5:11

we haven't used our real life app yet, this

5:14

is the right time to do that. Please download

5:16

it, you can find it on Google Play

5:18

Store or Apple App Store. It's really

5:21

used. What you get there is just

5:23

awesome. So imagine there

5:25

is a magic button and a click of this

5:28

button, you get connected to another

5:30

English learner from a different part of the world.

5:32

You can connect to them and have a four

5:35

to eight minutes conversation in

5:37

English, express your

5:40

excitement, maybe share something what

5:42

you've learned today from today's podcast.

5:45

And also you can follow along with

5:47

a digital transcript. Remember

5:49

that every week we have a new lesson,

5:52

so you have access to a full

5:54

transcript every week where you

5:56

learn vocabulary with the flashcards,

5:59

where. at Tiago and I, we

6:01

teach you the most important vocabulary from

6:04

the app so and you

6:06

can memorize the words faster.

6:10

And by the way, here's one

6:12

of our app users who left your review

6:15

and I would ask Tiago to read the testimonial

6:17

for us.

6:18

Sure, so this one comes

6:20

from Tiryani and Tiryani

6:23

says, the real-life English

6:25

app is just awesome. Not

6:27

only does it allow you to learn new vocabulary

6:30

but also it gives you the opportunity to

6:32

practice your English with people

6:35

from every corner of the world. I

6:37

just wanted to ask you very quickly,

6:40

I imagine okay so there

6:42

is this festive season she's

6:44

working and using all your tips

6:47

and

6:48

there comes a point when they

6:51

feel like they are burnout.

6:54

Yeah? How do you keep that motivation

6:57

to have this quite intense

7:00

even with funny moments study

7:03

routine?

7:05

That's a great question. I think it's nice to quickly

7:07

define burnout. I know it's a modern

7:09

word but what is burnout?

7:12

Yeah burnout is just like when you imagine a match,

7:14

yeah? Like making fire so when

7:17

it burns to the end it's like burnt out right?

7:20

So it's when you emotionally

7:23

and sometimes even physically just

7:25

like exhausted.

7:27

Yeah there are a couple of tips that I

7:29

can think of in that situation. I

7:31

think the tip we have already discussed about focusing

7:34

on one thing at a time can help because

7:36

I think burnout is very related to overwhelm.

7:39

You just feel like

7:41

it's too much that you are taking on so

7:44

if you just narrow your focus down

7:46

to one podcast episode that

7:48

you will listen over and over again

7:50

for the next two weeks that already

7:52

makes it more palatable

7:55

for you

7:56

and easier. Also I would say reduce

7:58

the time yeah If you are feeling

8:00

exhausted or tired because you have other responsibilities,

8:03

aside from learning English in your

8:05

weekly routine, maybe

8:09

one hour is too much. Drop it down

8:11

to 40 minutes and see how it feels. Half

8:14

an hour. If you still feel that it's too

8:16

much, go 20 minutes. So gradually

8:19

reduce the time, but be

8:21

consistent. Even if it's 10 minutes,

8:24

but do it every day.

8:25

And to be consistent

8:27

with this, I think what

8:31

really works magic

8:33

is that when you make this a part of who

8:35

you are, I mean, when you

8:38

incorporate English into your

8:40

identity, right? When you find

8:43

this, why you're learning English.

8:45

I have actually a story to tell here

8:48

very quick. It's not about me. It's about my

8:51

friend. We were working together and

8:55

she knew I speak English

8:57

well. And once she mentioned

9:00

that I know that

9:03

it's very important for everyone to learn English.

9:05

It's like, they're important for your job, for

9:07

when you travel. But at that point

9:09

in her life, she didn't travel a lot and

9:12

she didn't need English for her job. So

9:14

basically she didn't have that strong

9:16

why. She just knew that, you know, everyone

9:19

tries to learn English. It's good to

9:22

know English. So she

9:24

would once or twice ask me

9:26

for some resources she may learn English with.

9:30

And well, occasionally

9:32

she would read something, watch something, but it was

9:34

very, you know, it wasn't connected

9:37

to who she was. She

9:40

really didn't need English. She just like thought

9:42

it would be nice to learn English. But,

9:45

you know, two years ago, her

9:48

situation drastically changed. She

9:52

is from a small city near Kiev,

9:54

which was really

9:57

damaged, hard.

9:59

when the war started here in Ukraine, so

10:02

she had to flee the country. She

10:04

stayed for two or three weeks in Poland, I guess,

10:06

and then she found a way to go

10:09

to Norway. So right now she

10:11

stays and lives in Norway. She

10:13

is learning Norwegian, but

10:16

Norwegian language is very difficult, so

10:18

it takes a long time to learn and

10:20

how she communicates with the locals there.

10:23

So English became the

10:26

only way to communicate

10:28

with the locals, to find herself

10:30

there in the new country, to help

10:32

her kids. She's a single mom, so she

10:35

went there with her

10:36

son.

10:38

And now, only like even

10:41

less than two years, her English

10:44

just like, you know, rose drastically

10:47

because now this

10:50

is the way she communicates. This is the only

10:52

way she can communicate with people through English.

10:54

And now she has this strong why, this strong

10:56

motivation, and she's like, there is no way out

10:59

for her, you know, only speak English if

11:01

she wants to communicate with people. And

11:05

we chatted recently and I asked her

11:08

about it. And she said

11:10

that she even went on a date

11:12

and spent the whole day like in English. Yeah,

11:14

she was communicating with a guy in English. So

11:18

it was, you know, this is the example that

11:22

I know we were working together

11:24

for three years and during all those

11:26

three years, she never could

11:29

speak English, even simple, basic

11:32

one. And now less than two

11:34

years, she is going on a date using

11:36

her English.

11:37

Amazing. That is an amazing story. And

11:41

it illustrates nicely the

11:43

importance of our connect

11:46

idea from the real life way, our methodology,

11:49

right? So if you connect

11:51

your English learning to a higher purpose or

11:53

to a strong why, like you said, enter

11:55

your identity to things that you already like

11:58

and consume in our native language. the

12:00

journey will be easier. Very likely you won't

12:03

feel as burned out if you do

12:05

that. So guys, that's why we

12:08

have put a lot of thought into

12:10

developing our methodology, the real life

12:13

way, because each one of these components,

12:15

they go together and they need each other.

12:18

You need to be making your English learning fun,

12:20

natural, convenient, do it every

12:22

day, even if it's just for five or ten minutes.

12:25

Also, you need to balance that passive

12:27

consumption of English with more deliberate,

12:30

intentional study time, whether with

12:32

a teacher or by yourself. And all

12:34

of that process needs to be connected to who

12:36

you are, to your interests, and to

12:39

a strong reason, to a strong why. By

12:41

the way, guys, if you want to learn more about

12:43

our methodology, the real life way, Ethan

12:46

and I made a podcast episode

12:48

about that. We're going to leave the link here in the

12:50

show notes or under this video if you are

12:52

on YouTube. But do watch

12:54

that video or that episode, listen to

12:56

it, because then it can learn in more detail

12:59

about our methodology, because one

13:01

component needs the other.

13:03

We are talking all about something

13:05

that is very near and dear to our hearts, the

13:08

real life way. And the real life

13:10

way is our method that we help

13:13

learners from all around the world to improve

13:15

their English. We're kind of defining

13:17

and coming up with a framework so that we can better explain

13:20

to other people, better use it to train new

13:22

teachers and new team members,

13:24

better use it to create content.