hello

my name is Ariel
I am a student of English and this is my story
I want to tell you about my life in London and my fantastic teacher
you can read my story and learn English with me

lesson one
it is a beautiful summer day and I am traveling on a train
there are two ladies sitting opposite me
I don't know them but from their conversation
I know they are foreigners
I don't understand much of what they are saying
but I know they speak English
I also want to speak English
but I am a beginner and don't know many words
however this is an opportunity for me to speak English
I decide to try to speak to the ladies
I say some sentences in my basic English and they understand what I say
I don't know many words and I speak slowly
but the ladies are kind and patient
I am able to have a simple conversation with them
I tell them that I want to learn English
they are happy
when they hear that and tell me they are from England
they are traveling home from a conference
we speak for about 10 minutes
then it's time for me to get off the train
while I am thanking them for speaking with me
they give me their address and phone number telling me
I can visit them in England if I want to then
we say goodbye
this is how my journey in learning English begins
after this meeting
I decide to work on my English skills more
I translate texts and watch films in English
I work on my English for 2 hours almost every day
in 5 months I am able to speak quite well
it is great but I want to know more
I decide to go to London to study English
there in London I choose a school that I expect to be good
I really look forward to my first lesson
the lesson is on Monday on my first day at school
I meet my teacher and the other students in the class
my teacher is a young lady
she is very nice
she asks everybody to introduce themselves and say where they are from
then the lesson starts our teacher asks us
how we studied English before and what we suppose is the best method to learn English
I tell my teacher that I like translating songs and other texts
but I don't know what the best method to learn English is
our teacher says that she will teach us a very effective method based on using the language
she tells us that we will not have to study and we will not use textbooks
we will immerse ourselves in the language
it is great for me
since I don't like studying and I don't like textbooks
then we speak about what we should focus on
when we learn a new language
our teacher tells us we need languages for communication
languages help us express and understand ideas
so when you learn a new language
the best way to learn is to use it for exchanging ideas
this is what we will do in our course
most of the time
we will speak
you spoke a lot
when you learned your native language as a child and you should speak a lot
when you learn English as an adult
unfortunately many students spend a lot of time
memorizing new words or learning grammar rules
they don't use English for speaking
they study about the language
but don't use it very much
of course you need to learn new words and new grammar
but you don't actually have to study them
during this course I will show you a very simple and effective way
to learn new words and grammar
I like what our teacher says our lesson continues
we speak about our hobbies and what we do in our free time
we speak in pairs or with our teacher
it is great and we speak for the entire lesson I enjoy it so much
I have never spoken so much English during one lesson in my life
I have never learned this way before
I am happy and I look forward to the next lesson
when you want to learn English use English for communication
lesson two
how to learn words
I go to school on Tuesday again
one of the students asks a question
that is interesting to me
she asks what is the best way to learn new words
our teacher says there are many things
you can do to learn new words
I will tell you what is statistically the most effective way for learning new words
reading when people read while learning a new language
they learn twice as fast as those who don't read
it is good to read for at least 30 minutes every day
I want to show you what you should do
if you want to get the maximum gains from Reading
first it is very important that the book or text you read is interesting to you
it is essential that you enjoy reading the book can be a nice story
or it can have some useful information for your job or hobby
don't read a text that isn't interesting to you
it is also good to read a text in which you know most of the words
when you don't know many words
you can get frustrated
you always want to enjoy everything you do while using English
it is good to choose a text that is interesting and suitable for your level
when you read the text and see a word that you don't understand
get a dictionary and look up the word
then continue reading
you don't have to write the word anywhere
you don't have to make a list of new words
and you don't have to try to remember the word
you only focus on understanding the text
when it is clear to you what the word means
you can continue reading
anytime there is a new word for you
do the same
reading also has another great Advantage
when you read
you look learn new words
and how every word is connected to other words in the sentence
then you can see how to link the words correctly
this way of learning new words is very effective
give it a try and you will see how fast you can learn new words
then we continue with the lesson
we speak about the situation in England
and about the best jobs for students this is good for me
because I want to have a job and do something
after my class I ask other students if they know where I can find a job and they tell me
that I should go to a job center the job center offers a lot of jobs for students
this is good for me and I am happy that I know where I can find a job
when my day at school is finished
I go to the job center
I don't know what jobs I can do
so I ask the lady at the job center
what the best job for a student is
the lady tells me that they have some good jobs for students mentioning
that I can be a cleaner or a waiter in a cafe
I tell the lady I have no experience doing these jobs
she assures me that my English is good enough to work at the cafe
that the training is not difficult
and that I will have more chances to speak English
than if I were a cleaner she tells me
I can start my job on Thursday
it's all good for me
I'm happy that I have a job where I can practice English
when you want to learn new words
effectively read for 30 minutes every day

lesson three
how to Learn pronunciation
on Wednesday I go to school again there is one student in the class
who is quieter than the other students
he is from South Korea
when our teacher asks if we have any questions for her
this student from Korea says
he has a question he expresses that he has a big problem with pronunciation
and knows that his pronunciation is not very good
but he doesn't know how to improve it
he doesn't speak much
because he doesn't want others to listen to his bad pronunciation
he says that he reads and watches films in English a lot
he understands very well but he also wants to improve his speaking
he asks if there is something he could do to improve his pronunciation
when my teacher hears this
she says okay
I will tell you something about pronunciation and how to practice it
I will also teach you a great technique
that can help all of you to be better at pronunciation
first we have to look at
Why students have problems with pronunciation
when we speak we have to move our mouths
we have to use the muscles in our mouths
we all do that
the problem is that
when you speak English
sometimes you use your muscles the same way you would in your native language
and then your pronunciation is different from that of native speakers
this happens to many
many students who learn English
almost everybody has a slightly different pronunciation
than they should have in fact
it is not a big problem
because usually people understand what you want to say
even though your pronunciation is not perfect
however you can work on your pronunciation and make it better
there is a great technique that can help you a lot ;
the name of this technique is shadowing
the technique is very simple ,
when you do shadowing
you simply copy the sound that you hear immediately after hearing it
when children learn their first language they learn it by copying
they copy after their parents again and again until their pronunciation is perfect
you can learn English pronunciation in the same way here's
what you can do take some video or audio recordings
that are not very fast and that you understand very well
you listen and copy what you hear
when you hear it that is all
then our teacher goes to www.youtube.com and searches for the shadowing technique
she finds a good video
where the shadowing technique is well demonstrated we watch the video
then we all try to do shadowing for about 3 minutes
then our teacher tells us
that shadowing is also good when you are preparing for a presentation
you have to give in English and you want to have your pronunciation as close as possible to that
of native speakers
before the presentation you can go to a place
where you are alone and do shadowing for about 10 minutes
you will see how much it will help you to have better pronunciation
during the presentation this is very interesting for me
I haven't heard about this technique before
when the lesson finishes
I go to the school reception and ask the lady if there are any sports activities at school
I would like to play some sport in England
the lady at the reception says yes
we have a table tennis team and a football team
the football team has training today at 8:00 a.m.
I am very happy because sports are very important in my life
I go to the training of the football team and meet a lot of players from different countries
the players are from Brazil Japan Vietnam Spain Argentina and Italy
I like the training and I am very happy that my time in England starts well
I have a great teacher and I also have some new friends from my football team
also tomorrow I am starting my job
when you want to have good pronunciation repeat after native speakers

Lesson Four
how to practice speaking
on Thursday I go to school again
we have a new student in our class
her name is Na and she is from Italy
at the beginning of the lesson my teacher asks her how her life is
my teacher knows nah from a year ago
when she attended her class which was for beginners and lasted only for 2 weeks
during the summer holiday when nah speaks her English is beautiful
her pronunciation is very good and she is very fluent
my teacher is very happy and asks nah
where did you learn English so well
you speak very fluently what school did you go to
nah replied I didn't go to school
I learned English at home
I used the advice and techniques that you taught us last summer
I did a lot of reading shadowing and thinking aloud
I tried to think more in English than in Italian
this is how I improve my English the two weeks
I spent last summer in your class helped me a lot
you showed me the way I knew exactly how to work on my English every day
that's why I wanted to go to your class again
because one year ago I was a beginner and now I can speak English
I want to learn from you again
my teacher is very happy when she hears these words
she thanks nah for sharing her experience
it is all very interesting for me
I already know about the importance of reading
I also know the shadowing technique
but nah also mentioned thinking aloud
I don't know what it is so
I ask our teacher what is thinking aloud
our teacher says it is a very simple and Powerful technique
but you have to have a strong motivation to learn English
if you want to benefit from this technique
it is also good to know that for some people this technique is a little bit crazy
however when you start to think aloud your English can improve very fast
I say I have a strong motivation
I don't care if the technique is crazy
if it helps I want to learn it
can you teach us this technique
okay our teacher says
it is actually very simple
you usually think in your native language all day every day
it is normal
now you can start to think in English instead of your native language
when you start thinking in English then you can think aloud
it means that you actually say aloud
what you think is that all I ask it looks very simple
you said that it is a powerful technique why is it powerful
our teacher says maybe you can ask nah
she is used this technique for a year
maybe she can tell us what she has found out about this technique
then our teacher asks nah if she is willing to speak about her experience with thinking aloud
it is no problem for nah
she says when I started with this technique
it wasn't easy I started with very simple sentences
for example I can speak English
it is good that I can speak
speak English I want to be better
I need to practice every day
I don't know many words but I can use these words well
I can express my ideas with these words
I can do this
this is great the sentences were really simple and I realized that sentences that I thought
in Italian were long and complicated I wasn't able to say in English exactly
what I was saying in Italian
I had to find a simpler form thinking
in simple English was the hardest part
but after some time
I got used to it
then it was normal for me to think in English then something interesting happened
I met a man from Spain who was on holiday in France
I was still a beginner but we started to speak English
I could see that I was able to speak with him without big problems
my sentences were still simple and short
but because I said them many times before
when I was thinking aloud
I was able to speak
I didn't have to translate
in my head from Italian to English
as I did before using this technique after the meeting with the man from Spain
I started to use thinking aloud even more this technique helped me a lot
it improved my ability to express my ideas very much
I still use it every day
it is really a powerful technique
after school I go to the cafe where my job training starts
I don't know what to expect
I have never worked at a cafe and I'm not sure if I can do this job
when I come to the cafe I am very surprised
it is a modern Cafe that sells coffee tea chocolate cakes and sandwiches
my boss is only 20 years old
but she has been working at the cafe for more than 3 years
she has a lot of experience and knows everything perfectly
she shows me how to prepare coffee
how to wash the dishes and how to deal with customers
it is all new for me
I remember only about 20% of what she is telling me
but then she lets me do the work and corrects me
when I make a mistake she is very friendly and I learn fast
after the first day at work I'm very tired
I had to learn many new things
but I am happy that I have a job
the next day is Friday and I go to school again
one student asks an interesting question
sometimes when I speak
I am not sure if I speak correctly
I am not sure if I use correct grammar
can you help me
what should I do if I want to learn grammar
our teacher says thank you for your question
there are two groups of students some students study English
because they want to be able to speak
and some students study English because they want to pass an exam
for each group there is a different approach first
first I will speak about those who need English for speaking
if this is your case you don't have to study grammar a lot
when you learned your native language you also learned it without studying grammar
you can learn English grammar Naturally by using the language
the best way to learn grammar naturally is by reading a lot
books are written in good grammar
when you read
you will learn grammar
in the context of the whole sentence
I also recommend shadowing
when you do shadowing
you practice the correct grammar naturally
you don't have to try to remember anything
you only copy sentences with correct grammar
if you need English for speaking
but also want to study grammar you can visit www.mars.com
this website shows what grammar is important for the different levels of English
you can find the most important grammar rules for speaking
there the second group of students are those who study English for passing an exam
if you are one of these students I recommend studying specifically for this exam
it might be helpful to get the versions of this exam from the past years
if they are available and train with them
them of course your exam will be a little different
but the structure is usually the same or very similar
from my point of view
the versions of the exam from the past years are good training materials
then I recommend going to the exam only
When your results in the training materials are such that you could pass the exam successfully
did I answer your question
Yes thank you says the student this is good news
I don't like studying grammar
I learn English because I want to be able to speak
I don't need to pass any exam
I am happy that I don't have to study grammar much
I like reading and I am happy that I can learn grammar by reading books
after the lesson
it is really a nice website
there are grammar rules with
examples for each level they have three levels 500 1,000 and 2,500 words
in the afternoon I go to my work
it is my second day and I can already do a lot of things by myself
but my boss helps me whenever
I need it I see that my work is not very difficult and I can practice English
when I speak to our customers
when you want to have good grammar read a lot
lesson six
how to test your English

it is Monday again and I go to my school

our teacher asks us what we did during the weekend.
I say that I was at work on Saturday and that I can already do my work quite well
I say that I am happy when I can speak to our customers
when I speak one of the girls in the class asks Me
what happened to your voice
you sound very different from what we heard last Week
your pronunciation is very good
I smile and say thank you
I'm happy to help you with that
here's your text organized into a single paragraph with punctuation for Clarity
I tried to do shadowing on Saturday evening
after my work and for all of Sunday
I tried to speak like a native speaker
I know that it is still not perfect
but I also noticed a big change in my pronunciation
our teacher asks if anybody else tried to practice shadowing
three students raised their hands
one of them is the student from South Korea who also likes this technique
one student says that she tried the technique
but her mouth hurt a lot
after 5 minutes of shadowing and she had to stop
she also says that she wasn't always able to repeat Everything
sometimes it was hard for her to keep up with the speed of the recording
our teacher says thank you for trying out this technique
if you do shadowing for the first time and your mouth hurts after 5 Minutes
it means that you are doing it correctly
your muscles need to be trained to this new way of speaking
it is like going to the gym for the first time your muscles can hurt
if they are not trained
if your mouth's muscles hurt
you can take a break after 5 minutes and continue a bit later with every 5 minutes of practice
your pronunciation should be a little bit better
shadowing has other advantages you practice
The correct pronunciation in English and you also practice other things
such as intonation Rhythm and connecting words in whole Sentences
I know that at the beginning the recording can sometimes be too fast
if this happens you can repeat only the first or the last word in the sentence with practice you will
be able to repeat more ,I agree that this is true. on Saturday when I started with shadowing it
was quite difficult for me yet by Sunday evening it was quite easy to repeat ,what I heard then I
have a question for our teacher I tell her that I looked at www.g grammar and ls.com the
website is interesting but I don't know what level is for me because I don't know how many
words I know in English our teacher asks other students if they know how many words they
know in English it is interesting to see that nobody knows we know ,that we are intermediate
students but we don't know how many words we know, our teacher says there is a website for
people who study foreign languages you can do a test there to find out how many words you
know the test has only two steps and it is really simple the name of the website is wb- test-
languages.com you can do the test every month and you can see how much you improve during
that month if you want you can now take out your smartphones and go to that website to do
the test I want to know how many words I know I do the test immediately and see that I know
2,300 words in English most of the students know between 1,500 and 2,500 words only, Nina
and the boy from Australia Australia know 2,500 words our teacher says so you can see that
when you go to wb- test- languages.com you should already know grammar from level one and
level two you can start using grammar from level three because level three is for students who
know between 2,200 and 3,200 words test your progress every month lesson seven how to
handle mistakes on Tuesday I go to school again one student asks our teacher an interesting
question she says I would like to practice speaking with people around me but I'm afraid of
making mistakes I don't want to look stupid can you help me our teacher says making mistakes
is a very interesting topic there are a lot of opinions on it I want to show you what I believe is
the best approach I have a lot of experience with this because I also learn new languages I still
continue doing it for example now I am learning Scottish when I speak Scottish I don't care if I
make mistakes or not the reason why I don't care about mistakes is simple when I learned my
native language I didn't care about making mistakes either so why should I care now my main
goal when I use any language is to express my ideas that is all I know that when I read a lot
speak and do shadowing my Scottish will be better and better I know that this can sound
incredibly simple but it is my opinion this is what I have found after many years of both teaching
and learning languages it works very well for me and many of my students when I speak I only
concentrate on speaking at the moment I know 2,500 words in Scottish it is the level of a three-
year-old child three-year-old children make a lot of mistakes when they speak but they don't
care about their mistakes they continue using their native language and when they are 4 years
old they make very few mistakes when they are 5 years old they already speak very well with
hardly any mistakes you should have the same attitude now most of you know about 2,200
words so it is absolutely okay to make mistakes from time to time, when you continue using
English there will be fewer and fewer mistakes in your speaking .it is not possible to to get
better without making mistakes ;when you practice English it is okay not to be perfect
;Perfection comes with practice; anybody who started to learn English started from the
beginning from the same level which is level zero learning languages is like learning to play a
musical instrument; it needs to be trained ;when you start your training it is not perfect at first
and you make Mistakes; it is normal take it as a necessary part of your learning process if you
didn't go through this period of making mistakes you could not get to higher levels by continuing
to do what you want to learn ;the mistakes are gradually being eliminated ;
if you want to make fewer and fewer mistakes do a lot of reading and shadowing ;
when you read you can read aloud it can also help you make fewer Mistakes;
in real conversations care only about exchanging ideas
don't care about making mistakes
when you speak you practice changing your thoughts into words
you don't learn grammar or words you have other activities for that don't worry

everybody who learns a foreign language makes mistakes from time to time
even famous people bosses of big companies or politicians

when you listen to these people on TV

you see that they don't care about mistakes
they care about what is important and that is expressing their ideas
you should do the same does it make sense
the girl says yes thank you
if you don't want to make mistakes
do a lot of reading and shadowing

lesson 8 how to remember words

on Wednesday I go to school again at the beginning of the lesson
one student says I started to read more
I feel that it is good for me
I can see how my grammar is better
but I have a problem when I read I look up a new word in a dictionary
then I continue reading sometimes
when I see the same word again only 10 minutes later I don't remember the word and have to
look it up again
can you help me to remember the words better
our teacher says that it is an interesting question and gives this explanation
it is absolutely normal that you don't remember the new word immediately
usually you will have to look up the word five times
before you remember it there will also also be words that you will have to look up 12 or 15
times these words are usually verbs
when we learn a new word
the word goes through phases
only when you achieve the last phase do you remember the word very well
there are five of these phases
let's have a look at them the first phase is the moment
when you see the word for the first time and you don't know the word you look it up in the
dictionary
the second phase is the moment
when you see the word that you have already looked up in the dictionary or heard or saw in the
past you know that you saw this word before
but you still don't remember its meaning so you look up the word again
the third phase is the moment
when you see the word again and you feel what it could mean
but you are not sure for example you know that the word is some kind of object or some animal
or a verb
the fourth phase is the moment when you already know what the word means when you see it
but you are not able to recall the word when you want to say it
when this phase happens the word is in your passive vocabulary
the fifth phase is the moment when you are able to use the the word
when you speak now
you can see there are five phases all together
do you understand now
why it is not possible to remember a new word when you see it for the first time
you would have to jump across all the phases
with the first encounter with the word
you have to see or hear every word several times and let it go through all the phases until you
get to phase number five
five you can be happy not only when you learn a new word perfectly
but also when you get from one phase to the other
when it happens you are closer to the final goal and that is to use the word without problems

in everyday communication all of this is interesting to me

I didn't know about these phases but it is all logical it also happened to me
that I looked up a new word in the dictionary but 3 minutes later I didn't know
what the word was and had to look it up again
I felt stupid that I didn't remember the word now
I know that it is absolutely okay not to remember the word
forever when I see it for the first time I need several encounters with the word
before I can use it well
after school I go to my football training
our coach tells us that there will be a match on Saturday the school team will play against
another school team from Cambridge
our coach tells me to come and play for the school team I am very happy and I am looking
forward to the Saturday match
when you want to remember a new word you need to see or hear the word about 12 times

lesson nine
how to improve listening
the next day I go to school again one of the students has an important question he wants to
know how to improve his listening skills
he wants to know what the best approaches are our teacher says thank you for your question
good listening skills are very important for communication
if you don't understand what people are saying
it will be difficult for you to speak with them
there are a lot of materials on the internet for students of English
some students can have a problem finding
the right listening materials for them
let's have a look at what you should listen to there are two types of materials
which you can listen to you can listen to some audio or you can watch a film
these are quite different materials and different rules apply to them
when you listen to some audio you should know 93% of the words or more
if the audio has a lot of new words
read the text first if possible and make sure you know all the words
when you practice listening you practice getting information from spoken language
you don't try to learn new words
of course sometimes you can learn new words
but it is not the main goal when you listen concentrate on getting information from spoken
English
it is important to use materials at your level of English
for example you can use books in simplified English
which contain an audio recording
I really recommend these books to you they are fantastic
because you can choose a book at your level of English
when you have such a book read the book first and then listen to the recording at home or
when you travel you can read great books
at www. Robinson cruso docomomo visit www.news.com
if you like listening to the news all these materials are in three levels of English
the second type of materials for listening practice are films and videos on www.youtube.com
these are also great you can start using them when you know 2,500 words in English or more
this is what you should do with a film watch it for the first time with subtitles
so that you know what the film is about
then watch the film without subtitles
if you like the film very much
you can watch it more than once
when you watch one film many times with every view
you will understand more
it is also good to watch videos on the internet
about interesting subjects
for example if you like nature you can watch documentaries
about nature you can also watch reality shows
reality shows are much easier to understand than films or documentaries
because the structure of the show is usually the same it is necessary to have at least 35 minutes
a day of listening
the more you listen the faster you will understand more words
when listening you should always look at what you already understand even
if it is just 12% at the beginning
it is very easy to demotivate yourself by realizing all of the parts that you don't understand yet
look at what you already know and be happy for every new sentence
you have understood listening is the easiest way to learn you don't have to do anything
you just listen did this information help you yes says the student thank you the listening topic is
very interesting for me
now I know what to do to improve my listening
when you want to be good at listening listen for 35 minutes every day

Lesson 12
what you need before you start

on Friday we have an interesting conversation in our class our teacher has a question for us she
asks what was your first reason to learn English do you remember the moment when you
started to learn English when did you start to be really interested in the language
I say that I remember the moment
when I started to be interested in English
my teacher says can you tell us what happened
I say yes first I have to say that English wasn't always my favorite subject
I started to learn English at high school at the beginning it was was very difficult for me
I didn't understand the structure of the language
it was illogical to me
I tried to remember words
I tried to learn grammar
but it was very hard
when I finished high school
I was still only a beginner
I couldn't speak English and I believed that I would never learn this language properly
I simply believed that English wasn't for me
then something happened
I always liked music and when I was 22 I started to listen to The Beatles
I wanted to understand what they were singing
so I started to translate their songs slowly
I understood more and more
then I met two ladies from England on a train
we had a simple conversation but it helped me very much
I started to believe that I could learn English
from that moment on I was working
on my English almost every day and I was getting better and better
then I decided to go to England and improve my English
here my teacher thanks me for sharing my story
she also tells me here is something very interesting about your story
you are still you the first you didn't have motivation to learn English the second you had
motivation you wanted to understand songs
you can see that motivation is very important
when you have it you can succeed
when you don't have it it is very hard to be successful
then our teacher asks everybody in the class about their motivation to learn English the stories
are very interesting

one girl's motivation is to be able to read historical books in original English

one student wants to be a professional tennis coach in England
he wants to speak perfect English
before he starts his career as a coach
one woman wants to work for a big international company and she needs English for her job

uh I can see that everybody has some kind of motivation to use English in real life or to get
information from books
at the end of the lesson our teacher asks us
if we like English
I say I didn't like English in high school
but now I like it a lot
I can see how useful
it is to know this language
our teacher says this is another important factor when you learn a new language it is good when
you like something connected to English
such as people music culture or history
if you like English
it is easier to learn
if you want to be able to communicate in English
it is good to know 3,200 words or more
if you don't like English
it is more difficult to find time to practice enough to reach the level of 3,200 words
I agree with my teacher
now I like not only the Beatles
but also my teacher and my boss who is also English
I also appreciate English humor
now it is much easier for me to find time to practice English every day
on Saturday I go to play football for my school team
we have some very good players on our team and we win 4 to3
we are all very happy so we go to the pub after the match to celebrate our Victory
when you want to learn English you need motivation to use English every day

Lesson 12 how to learn three ,300 words

during the next lesson
one of the students asks our teacher this question
you told us that it is good to know 3,300 words
where can I find these 3,300 words that are the most important for me to learn
my teacher replies you can Google a list of the 3,300 most frequent words in English
but such a list will not help you much
when you start to learn words from this list
you will learn words outside of context
you will learn the words that are not connected with any story
and you won't learn what other words are connected with these words in sentences
you'll learn them in your short-term memory this system works only for some words like basic
Words
which describe cribe things and people around us

for example mother father apple blue orange dog cat book car house city boy girl water
Cinema or paper
these are words which represent something that you can easily imagine
for example when you learn the word dog you know immediately what it is
is you have a clear idea in your head
of what the word means yet
when you want to learn words such as appreciate or suppose this system doesn't work well this
is a problem many students experience
they start their Studies by using lists of words
it works at the beginning and they believe they can learn English
this way they don't know that when they achieve the level of 1,200 words they have to start
using a different system
if you want to learn words from a higher level you have to learn them from Whole sentences
if you understand the meaning of a word in the context of a sentence you will learn the word
much better
you can learn words from lists
but there is usually a limit to how far
you can go with this way of learning and it is 1,000 words also this way of learning is very slow
there are much better methods which we have already spoken about such as reading for
beginners the best book to read is Robinson cruso in simple English you can find this book at
wwww.com it is the best book
I know for learning new words for beginning there is also one interesting rule that applies here
every word
that is important for you will come back into your life again and again until you learn it

this is very similar to the way we learn our own language

when we are children we don't study from lists of words
we just use the language and important words keep coming into our lives again and again until
one day we know what the words mean
we keep learning new words this way all our lives
for example the verb Google is a new word
in many languages we learned this word by using the language
we didn't learn it from any list of words
when you heard the word Google for the first time you probably didn't know what it meant
then you heard it again and again as the word was important
important for you and after some time you understood it you can forget about lists of words
learn new words by reading stories and other interesting texts when you use English a lot every
day you will learn new words more effectively than from lists does it make sense
yes says the student thank you
after school I go to work I already understand how to do my job very well
things start to be automatic
I am happy that I understand my customers it is not very difficult because the conversations are
usually very similar our customers want some coffee or sandwiches so the words are usually the
same or very similar my confidence grows and sometimes I start to have long longer
conversations with our customers
everything is good but then something happens that is a little shocking for me
when you learn a new word learn it as part of a whole sentence

Lesson 12 how to improve your accent

on Tuesday when I am at work something interesting happens two customers come to our Cafe
they are a husband and a wife
the man's starts to speak to me
I know that he speaks English but I don't understand him
I think that he wants something
we don't have
so I call my boss
she speaks with the man and sells him two coffees and two of our regular sandwiches
I am surprised when they leave
I go to my boss and tell her that I am sorry
I didn't understand the man
she says that it is okay this can happen
when people speak with an accent that that is new to us
she tells me that the pair was from Scotland
the next day I go to school and tell this story to my teacher
I tell her that I felt really stupid that I didn't understand our customer I wasn't sure if my English
was good
enough for my job I started to doubt myself
my boss was okay with it
but I still needed some help from my teacher
I wanted to know what I could do in these situations
my teacher says I understand
you are used to English that people speak in London
but you aren't used to the Scottish accent
your ears aren't used to listening to the Scottish accent all you have to do is listen more to
Scottish English
you need to train your ears to this accent as well
what happened to you can happen to everybody when you already speak English at some level
and go to a country where people speak with a different accent
you shouldn't be surprised
if you don't understand it's okay
and it usually takes about 2 weeks to get used to a new accent
you shouldn't think there's something wrong with you
if you don't understand with practice
you can train your ears to any accent
then I ask so what can I do to understand the Scottish accent
I don't live in Scotland our teacher says you can watch films with Scottish English or situation
comedies from Scotland and soon you'll understand \
I tell her thank you after school I go to work again at about 4:00 two interesting customers come
to our Cafe this time they are not from Scotland they are foreigners who want to buy coffee
they are two ladies and it's clear their English is very basic
my boss is serving them and when she hears that they don't speak English very well
she does something very interesting she changes her English using very simple sentences with
only three or four words
I can see that the ladies understand her
they buy two coffees two sand sandwiches and two cakes they are happy and my boss is happy
too
when the ladies leave I tell my boss that it was very nice
how she adjusted her English so they would understand she replies that sometimes
she has to speak in very simple English it doesn't matter if the customers speak English well or
not they are our customers and we have to do everything possible to make them feel
comfortable
if they see they can speak English here they can come to our Cafe every day
I think our boss is a good business woman she does everything possible to make our customers
happy
it's true that we have a lot of customers Our Cafe is busy every day
when you want to understand people with a special accent listen to audio with that accent for
some time

lesson 15 what you can can do at your level

he next day at school I tell my teacher about my experience with my boss and the two ladies
who didn't speak English very well our teacher responds great your boss must be a very clever
young lady
it's true that you can communicate with everybody even people who speak English very well can
have a conversation with those who are just at the beginning of their Journey today we will
discuss different levels of English and what you should be able to do
at each level let's start with the lowest level of 1,200 words at this level students can speak
about some basic things from everyday life speaking is very limited
but it's possible to communicate slowly for a short time with people who want to speak with
you your sentences are short usually containing four words if the others also speak in short
sentences you can have a basic conversation
when students move to a higher level which is 2,200 words conversations become easier and
sentences are longer
this is the level most of you in this class are at right now you should be able to speak about
many things from your life including family Hobbies jobs and traveling sometimes you may have
a problem when trying to engage in deeper conversations on certain topics however this level is
usually sufficient for everyday use of English
if you want to have deeper conversations on many topics
it's good to know 3,300 words
your goal as a student of English who wants to speak well should be to learn 3,3 300 words
of course you can learn more than that the more words you know the easier
it will be for you to communicate in English but 3,300 words is usually enough for
communicating about almost everything
I think the two ladies at your Cafe knew about 1,200 words and your boss met them at their
level to have a basic conversation
after school I go to work and the two ladies come to our Cafe again bringing two of their friends
it's my turn to serve them and I speak to them in simple short sentences they understand me
this is great they tell me they are tourists from Japan and that they like our Cafe because people
understand them here

lesson 15 what to do when you are shy

on Thursday I go to school again
one student has a very interesting question I am very shy when I have to speak English
can you help me overcome my shyness
our teacher responds it's true that when we use foreign languages it's natural to feel uncertain
or shy we are doing something
we're not perfect at and the possibility of making a mistake is great
I was also very shy when I learned foreign languages
I remember well how I was afraid to make a mistake and when I did I felt stupid and sometimes
blushed
now it's different
I use languages for communication and I care only about that you know that
I'm learning Scottish these days embarrassing situations can happen
but they can't stop me from using it
it's true that sometimes I still feel shy
when I speak Scottish and I might blush
but I don't care much
about it it's a natural feeling that never lasts
forever I continue using Scottish
because I know that only by using it
can I improve
I try to see things as they are
I'm a student on the way to good Scottish
it's not possible to skip several levels in one day
a beginner can't become a perfect speaker in one hour
I also see what I mean to people around me
when I can already speak some Scottish
I have value to those who speak it
you should see the same when you can speak some English you can have a conversation with
others in English that's great
look at what you already know you know two 2,200 words
you've gone from0 to 2,200 words
here's a revised version of your text for clarity and flow some students feel that knowing English
means speaking like a native speaker having perfect pronunciation perfect grammar and never
making mistakes they think that if they don't achieve this
they don't really know English this can lead to embarrassment and harsh self-criticism

it's important to remember that you are all doing great

because you already speak some English continue working on your skills and your shyness will
gradually fade
I appreciate what our teacher tells us I sometimes feel shy too I know I should practice speaking
more
but in certain situations I hesitate
because I don't want to feel stupid
I decide to be braver and use those moments to practice then
one student shares sometimes I want to say something but I don't know the word
I freeze and feel stupid
the next time I can speak I don't want to because
I dread that situation
our teacher responds
when you start speaking English you need to prep and speak do each activity for 35 minutes
every day
thanks for joining me today
on English with Joseph if you found this lesson helpful don't forget to like subscribe and