Some people cannot force themselves to learn English, even if they need it for work, travel, etc. They resist as best they can, complaining to others that there is no time, place, money to study. Or maybe there is no desire, not enough motivation? What to do if you need to master the language, but there is no desire for this? We advise you to read our article "", you may want your life to become a little better. And to make these changes easy, let's try to turn the study of English into an unobtrusive daily ritual that does not take much time and money.
By dropping the phrase "I don't have time," you realize that you have time for virtually everything you want to do in life. We invite you to take advantage of our training tips. The proposed useful activities will harmoniously fit into your day, take a minimum of time and help improve your knowledge of the language. You can choose the most convenient and interesting tips for yourself or use all together.
1. Clear plan
We put this important point in the first place. No matter how great advice you get, it won't do you any good if you don't set a goal and a plan for your practice. Note in your diary how many hours per week will you spend in English. Distribute study time evenly, it is enough to study 30-60 minutes a day to feel progress. But before that, write down a clear, actionable goal. At least once a day, re-read what and why you want to achieve, in what terms you must meet. Don't forget, dreams do come true!
Time spent: You will spend about 20-30 minutes on setting a goal and drawing up a plan.
2. Passive listening
Does the commute to work take a long time? Why not put it to good use? If you don't get excited about talking on public transport, discussing politics and market prices with strangers, turn your eyes to your cell phone. Rather, do not bury yourself, but listen to him. Download English songs, podcasts or audio lessons to your gadget, turn them on when you want to isolate yourself from the outside world.
Time spent A: You won't spend a minute learning, just 10-15 minutes a day uploading files. The method is suitable for the busiest people. And so that you do not waste time searching for the necessary files, we have made good selections of "" and "" for you.
3. Daily entries
Do you have a diary? Great, then you are probably used to making notes in it. You can continue, but in English. When making a plan for the next day, try to write a lot and in detail. If you are just starting to learn a language, let this be a list of nouns you know. "Continuing" can make sentences. Besides, make shopping lists, write down recipes and all kinds of tips in English.
Time spent: In fact, you do not waste time, you just do the usual things in English. However, if you want to not only strengthen your knowledge, but also increase your vocabulary, you can try using 1-2 new words daily. You will spend only a few minutes working with the dictionary.
4. System language
Change the system language of your computer, mobile phone, tablet. This will help to learn even a small, but very valuable group of words. For example, we get up every morning on the alarm clock on our mobile, so now you will firmly remember that the alarm clock is an alarm clock.
Time spent: It will take 2-3 minutes to change the settings of the gadget. You will learn new words automatically. A great way for those who do not like to cram new vocabulary. However, it allows you to master only a narrow group of words.
5. Fun apps or tutorials
Some entertainment is useful for learning English, play more often! On the Internet you can find hundreds of free apps and programs for language learners. They train memory, expand vocabulary, teach pronunciation and writing. And all this in an easy game form! You yourself will not notice how you will get involved in the game and will spend more and more time doing interesting and useful activities.
Time spent: from 10 minutes. You can quickly find useful programs for the gadget in our selection "".
6. Events in the world
Each of us watches the news at least once a day. If your level of knowledge allows you, watch them in English. Believe me, it will be interesting to know the point of view of foreign media on this or that issue. Do you think that they are too politicized, Americanized, or completely lying? That's not a reason to give up BBC viewing during breakfast. You need to know what they are up to abroad!
Time spent: In order not to waste time watching TV, watch a program in English during breakfast or dinner. Spend a couple of minutes choosing the site that is convenient for you from our article "".
7. Social networks guard your knowledge
Do you often “disappear” on Facebook or Vkontakte? Subscribe to at least 2-3 English speaking groups. In them you will see the same thing as in your native Russian speakers: motivating quotes, funny or instructive stories, but in English. Reading them will be no less interesting. Make a repost of the English phrase on your wall, you will immediately grow in the eyes of your friends!
Time spent: You won't waste a minute. Do your usual thing: sit on the social network and view the news in groups.
8. Self-expression
Do you blog, write articles, or just like to mark your thoughts in a personal diary? Try to express your thoughts in English. Insert your favorite idioms, slang expressions, common words in the target language into the texts. Using the vocabulary you just learned, you practice it.
Time spent: 10-30 minutes. If you already have a blog or diary, all you need to do is find the appropriate expressions in a dictionary or on the Internet and paste them into the text.
9. Articles in English
The method is suitable for those who have an average level of language proficiency. In fact, every day we search the Internet for some information for work or for personal needs. Try search and read publications in a foreign language. The found article will be useful not only for learning English, but also for general development. Foreign authors write no less interesting, and sometimes they can look at the problem from an unexpected angle.
Time spent: 10-30 minutes extra to translate unfamiliar words and expressions in the article.
10. Series and shows
Everyone has a favorite series or TV show. Try watch them in English with subtitles. Combine business with pleasure, this is an easy and affordable way to learn.
Time spent: This method will take more time: at least 30-60 minutes, but it is one of the most interesting. We advise you to watch each episode or episode of the program twice: the first time we watch with subtitles, we translate with a dictionary. It is advisable to write out unfamiliar words while watching and learn them. The next day, we watch a video without subtitles, trying not to use a dictionary.
11. Conversations
Feel free to speak English. Don't wait until your accent fades while you learn to speak "like an American/British". It can take years to perfect your pronunciation, and you won't be executed for an incorrectly pronounced word. Who to talk to? With a teacher, with friends who study English, with foreign guests of your city. If you have no one to talk to, read aloud, retell what you read. Your tongue must always be in good shape.
Time spent: 25-30 minutes of conversation or reading aloud a day is sufficient.
12. Dictionary
It's hard to get by without records. Keep your personal dictionary and write down new vocabulary there. For these purposes, get a small notebook, then you can get it and repeat the words in transport, in line at the bank.
Time spent: 1-5 minutes to write words. You can repeat them by doing ordinary things.
13. Correspondence
If you want to write well, chat on a professional forum. You will be aware of all the news in the area of interest, find valuable advice and learn the secrets of the profession. Feel free to ask members of the forum to advise you on any issue. Usually on the forums they treat foreigners with warmth and respect, so your request will not go unanswered. Similarly, you can use any Internet communities, for example, culinary forums, a Doberman club, etc.
Time spent: from 20 minutes a day. Gradually, you will become so involved in communication that you will spend more and more time there.
14. Learning from good authors
Do you like Maugham, Wilde, Thackeray? Why not try to learn from them? It's very easy and fun. We take our favorite book in English and copy it into our notebook. No need to arrange nightly vigils, let it be only 1-2 pages per evening. You will begin to speak in the phrases of characters, build a sentence, just like your favorite author. It is not necessary to limit yourself to the classics, modern Anne Rice, Markus Zuzak, Chuck Palahniuk are also quite suitable (although you can pick up not quite decent words from the latter, but the choice is always yours).
Time spent: from 20 minutes per day, depending on the speed of writing and the desired volume.
15. Personal teacher or English courses
Lessons with a teacher will help save time and money. If all of the above methods seem too complicated for you, we offer a method that has been proven for centuries: sign up for classes. Choose what suits you best: courses or personal tutor. In group lessons, you will improve the language in a team with interesting people, and will quickly achieve the desired effect.
Time spent: At least twice a week for 1 hour with a personal teacher or 1.5 hours 2 times a week in a group.
We hope our tips will help you achieve your goal. Try to put into practice at least a few of them, you will see positive results will not keep you waiting. We wish you successful learning of English!
Am I to conclude that- should I conclude that
Are you nuts?- You are crazy?
As far as I know As far as I know
Bats in one's attic— the roof went
Begin with- Let's start off with
Bless you!- Be healthy! (wishes to those who sneeze)
But there is a catch But there is one "but"...
(it's) a piece of cake- easy peasy
Cross-your-finger mentality / chance it / trusting to luck / hopinig for thebest— Maybe
Curious to relate- strange as it may seem
Do you happen to know…?“Do you happen to know?”
For all I care- What do I need
How's it going?— How are you doing?
have a good day- I wish you a pleasant day
Hold your horses- wait, don't drive. | Coachman don't drive horses 🙂
I am down to the count- I'm out = I'm out
I couldn't help it.“I couldn't help it.
I have never dreamed I didn't even dream...
I know nothing and care less. I don't know and don't want to know
I see. - Clear. [the phrase creates the appearance of a conversation when the interlocutor talks a lot] I've got a mess indeed- yes, I sat in a puddle
I would merely observe that…- I just wanted to point out that
I'll sort it out - I'll figure it out (find out what's the matter, who's to blame, return everything to its original state, make sure everything is OK, etc.
I'll take you up on that- I catch the word!
I'm as cool as cucamber- Yes, I'm calm as an elephant
I'm coldcocked- I'm out = I'm out
It graces upon my ear- hurts the ear
It depends.- It depends. [Depends on the situation, depending on the circumstances] it leaves much to be desired- leaves much to be desired
it would be expedient- would be appropriate
it's a stone throw away from here- at hand (from where you are)
It's over there.- It's there. [as an answer to the question where is what. Accompanied by hand pointing in the right direction] I've got nothing to do with it.— I have nothing to do with it.
Let's call it a day- that's enough for today
Let's keep in touch.- We'll keep in touch
Make(cut)a long story short- Shortly speaking.
Not that I remember I don't remember something...
on the one hand,- One side
On the other hand, On the other hand
put it mildly To put it mildly
right.- Yes, sir.
tell the truth- in truth
Say wha'?— Whatoooo?
Should I worry?- something to me
since time immemorial from time immemorial
Take it easy- don't worry, relax
that serves me right! — so I need it!
The point is …- The point is that...
That's tight-Cool!
The question is left open- The question remains open,
The thing is that... - The fact is that …
until recently- Until recently
What are you getting at?- What do you mean?
Whatcha doin'?- What are you doing?
What's cooking?- Healthy. | What's going on here? | How are you?
Without knowing why- Unknown why
Wrap it up!- Let's tie it up!
You can't imagine- You have no idea…
you couldn't fail to notice ... - you could not help but notice
You don't say- and do not say…
you wanna play rough?- Oh, you are!?
You won't believe it, but- You will not believe..
How to learn English without abandoning this idea after a month of intensive studies? And how realistic is it to learn English on your own?
Just one or two hours of daily self-study per day will show excellent results in six months. You will understand from your own experience that learning English is not such a problem. The main task is to create a plan of action and stick to it rigorously, not missing a single day of class.
Action plan:
Get ready to allocate 1-2 hours to study English daily (this is the bare minimum, it would be ideal to allocate 3-4 hours).
It is necessary to draw up a short plan that will include four daily 15-minute sessions.
No matter how busy you are with work, everyday life and other chores, even the busiest person can afford 1-2 hours a day for English classes
1 Complex training
Practicing listening, reading. We are working on pronunciation.
We use the site www.deepenglish.com
On the site, we choose one of 140 independent lessons (free lessons).
All lessons are not only interesting, but also informative!
Having chosen a lesson, try, without reading the text, to understand by ear what the author is talking about. If English is still poorly perceived by ear, you can choose a slow speed of perception, and the second time you will listen to the same file at a fast speed.
After listening, read the article, translate all incomprehensible words and expressions. Listen to the same lesson again - now the understanding should already be 100%.
It is advisable to take the same lesson for 2-3 days.
If you want to practice pronunciation, listen to a slow-motion file, read at the same time as the speaker, imitating his intonation as much as possible.
To practice writing, you can rewrite the sentence from this lesson from memory, rereading it a couple of times. Thus, the skill is formed to correctly “collect” the sentence by bricks. Without memorizing the rules of grammar, you will develop the skill of correctly expressing your thoughts in English.
2 Practicing reading
For the practice of reading, ordinary textbooks are not always suitable /too boring/, and books in English are still difficult to understand.
In this case, books in English adapted for ESOL students are ideal / there is a special stand for this literature in bookstores and libraries /.
Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, even Chekhov in an adapted form in English will captivate you with the plot, and because of the simplicity of the phrases, you will forget what language you are reading. Books will be swallowed one by one.
3 Learn grammar
To improve your grammar, and not spend a lot of time picking boring textbooks, use 15-30 minutes a day a very useful resource
www.engvid.com
The site is easy to navigate, you can choose lessons by difficulty level, topic, teacher.
4 Listen again
Be sure to watch a short excerpt of your favorite series once a day
(Friends, Alf - whoever likes what) in English.
If English is still at an elementary level, first watch the series in Russian, then immediately switch to English (while everything is fresh in your memory) and review the same series again (preferably without subtitles).
Thus, day by day, the skill of understanding everyday everyday speech will be formed.
It is not difficult for each of us to allocate four short breaks to study English!
In addition to watching movies, listen to various podcasts in English.
From personal recommendation - AJ Hoge and http://www.china232.com/
How to keep motivated?
So that the motivation to learn English does not leave you, you must follow three rules:
Choose to study only simple and easy-to-understand material. At the initial stage, do not force yourself to watch television news.
Do not form an inferiority complex in yourself.
- Choose only interesting and informative material.
If you are fond of sports, read, listen, watch materials about your favorite sport. Do you like to travel? Explore this topic in English.
- Look up to the kids.
When learning English, do not try to speak as quickly as possible, do not force this process.
For the first six months while learning a foreign language, try to remain silent. Focus initially on listening and reading
Spend about 80% of your time practicing listening and reading, and only 20% of your time practicing speaking and writing.
Only after reaching the Advanced level, we change the proportion in the opposite direction.
And don't miss a day!
Learning English is more than real! Remember, every missed day sets you back 2 days.
Even if you can’t devote 1 hour a day to English, set aside at least 15 minutes to read a book or watch a series.
It is a basic condition for mastering a foreign language. It is necessary not only to talk with its native speakers, but also to be able to effectively study it, improve the level and quality of your knowledge, for example, by working with original, unadapted literature.
How many words a day you can learn: myths and reality
The advertising content of all kinds of sites created for the independent study of foreign languages, as well as the informational banners of language schools, are full of information about the emergence of super technologies that allow you to learn a language in a few days.
To everyone's chagrin, the presented "technologies" are nothing more than long-known ways of learning a foreign language.
And the main one is regular repetition:
- Make a list of words to memorize;
- Read it carefully;
- Leave the list for 20 minutes and do other things;
- Repeat the cycle 7 times.
The most effective time of day for memorization is the evening, the time before going to bed. In a dream, the brain, not distracted by third-party thought processes, translates words from fast to long memory.
Is it realistic to learn 50-200 words a day?
From a theoretical point of view, it is real. It takes about 25 minutes to read 100 words. To repeat them 7 times, after reading - about 175 more minutes (3 hours).
But since it is necessary to pause between repetitions, also equal to about 20 minutes, the total time required to memorize 100 foreign words per day will be 7 hours.
If you have so much free time that you can devote to thoughtful repetition of English words - then it is likely that it is realistic for you to learn from 50 to 200 words a day.
However, you should also pay attention to the following fact: the average person is able to remember from 5 to 10 words a day.
Thus, you should not just be not burdened with work and any extraneous concerns, but a person, you should always be a free child prodigy with a phenomenal memory.
Moreover, after such experiments, you may develop a negative attitude towards English: it is unlikely that you will experience positive emotions from trying to master such a volume of knowledge.
- Get a personal dictionary in which you will write down the words you learn. Divide the vocabulary into two levels: simple and complex words. In the process of memorization, subjectively assign a particular level to a word and write it down in the appropriate section. This will help to more effectively approach the process of learning foreign words.
- Use cards. You can lay them out on your desktop, hang them around the apartment at eye level, or purposefully teach them at a set time.
- Read a lot. This will fix the learned words in long-term memory.
- Use specialized, which are written specifically for the purpose of expanding the student's vocabulary.
- Make mind maps. This technique is nothing more than a thematic grouping of words. However, the inherent clarity of the method significantly increases its effectiveness over the same type of classical methods.
- Get yourself a pen-friend and expand your vocabulary with him. Basically, when communicating, people use words from common use. And the desire to tell a friend about your hobbies will move you.
- Download to your mobile device to be able to regularly repeat words in a free minute.
- Use game services which will help you learn words online.
- Learn your favorite or. Songs for learning English contribute to the formation of phonetic skills in students, the development of phonemic hearing, as well as simplifying the process of learning the rules for pronouncing foreign sounds. Also, the study and understanding of the intonation of the song contributes to the formation of auditory skills in the perception of foreign speech.
For example, games:
- Bank Robber- designed to expand vocabulary and train memory. The main task is to guess the word before the bank robbery happens.
- memory game- develops vocabulary and visual memory. The main task is to remember the location of the object and guess it when the cards cover all the cells.
What words to learn in English?
Preferences, in the formation of your vocabulary, should be based on the goal of learning the language:
- If you wish freely with its bearers- study, as well as dialectisms inherent in the representatives of the region or country you like.
- If you want to learn a language for working abroad, communicating with business partners, studying at a foreign university, you need to memorize professional vocabulary in addition to everyday words.
In this way:
- If your goal is to learn a language to communicate with foreign friends, Feel free to use the information available on the World Wide Web.
- If you need professional vocabulary, then it is desirable to draw up a methodological one. In any case, your work will not go to waste, regular repetition of words, in the process of sampling them, will allow them to be learned much faster.
It is also worth noting that many companies personally create dictionaries with a set of words, phrases or phrases necessary for work. Contact the company where you want to work. It is possible that they will gladly provide you with this information.
The most important words in English
The most important words in any language are common words. Their list includes both , and , and , and .
Linguists and psychologists have compiled more than one list of the most common words in the English language, divided into parts of speech.
However, you shouldn't mindlessly memorize lists of "top" words from the everyday life of English-speaking people. It is much more important to learn how to use them in speech.
Therefore, select a speech construction for each word that will reflect the features of its use with one or another part of speech.
Basic words:
- Pronouns- I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, them
- Articles-the, a/an
- Prepositions- to, for, of, out, from, with, over, at, up, but
- about, now, just, not
- - and
- Verbs- get, was, is, have, don`t, do, are, went, can, would, go, think, say, be, see, know, tell
How to turn learning English into a habit?
Scientists have proven that it takes 21 days to form a habit. In this regard, in order for daily vocabulary replenishment to become a habit for you, akin to brushing your teeth in the morning, you need to learn at least one English word during the 21st day.
Of course, the generalized amount recommended for the study of foreign words is from 5 to 10 words per day. In this case, your vocabulary will grow rapidly and in a few months you will be able to master the necessary minimum vocabulary - this is about 100-150 words of each part of speech.
However, there are times when there is absolutely no time. But do not leave the idea for later, it is enough to learn at least 1 word every day so that the habit is formed.
If you find it difficult to force yourself to learn 5-10 words a day at once, start small - learn 1, 2 words a day, and then gradually increase the load. Then it will be easier for the body to get used to the new regime, and for you to cope with the psychological barrier.
How not to lose the acquired knowledge?
For the English language, as for any other, the most important rule for success is regular practice.
- . When your vocabulary is large enough, prefer modern foreign literature to domestic;
- Live communication with native speakers. Travel as often as possible to English-speaking countries, either, or correspondence;
Thus, the secret of replenishing the vocabulary of any foreign language is very simple - regularity and consistency.
No technique will help you in a few days. Just like you learned your native language by learning word by word and then linking them into sentences.
