Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the
Understandable English Podcast. My name is Oliver and today we
are going to be talking about something very important and
that is the most common mistakes people make when learning
English. And I'm not talking about
specific mistakes like for example words or grammar.
I'm talking generally the most common mistakes.
So our choices, mistakes we make with our choices when learning
English. Because of course each person
with their native language will find certain parts of English
harder than others. For some, the grammar, for
others pronunciation if their language is for example, not a
Latin based language. But let's look at some of these
mistakes. So one of the first is choosing
or not choosing things that are interesting to you.
So often I will see, and particularly in the past when I
used to teach, I would see students doing textbooks or
materials for school or university and not really
choosing interesting topics or things that they actually care
about. And this can be fine for
starting. So when you're a beginner, it's
important to get a good foundation, a good start or
beginning. And often to do that we have to
learn some basic words, some basic grammar, and maybe use
some boring examples that are not so interesting.
For example, like Jack went to the park, he played with his
dog, you know, simple examples. But once you get to really at
least intermediate level or lower intermediate level, it's
OK to still do these things. So to use textbooks or courses,
but it's really important to start focusing your language
learning with areas that you're interested in because so many of
these textbooks and courses are designed for language schools or
simply to be used in the classroom and they can be quite
hard to use to motivate yourself, particularly if you're
self studying. To overcome.
This is very simple. Pick, read, listen or watch
things which are interesting to you.
If you'd like, for example science fiction, then watch
something like Star Wars or a series which is interesting to
you. If you like reading literature,
then read some English literature.
It's all about enjoying the process and that is what is
going to keep you motivated to continue to learn.
OK, so that in my eyes is one of the most important mistakes that
people make. And the reason why I say it is
the most important is if you lose your passion or your
motivation or your routine with English learning, then you'll
probably stop learning or your progress will become quite slow.
OK, so another key mistake, which is one that I have
suffered from when I've learned other languages, and that is
being afraid of making mistakes or being afraid to make a
mistake. And this is most common with
speaking. I would say most of my students
or a lot of them in the past have been afraid or scared of
making mistakes when they speak. But it can apply to anything,
whether that's writing as well or maybe doing grammar
exercises. And it's completely natural or
normal to feel scared to speak. We always feel like we aren't
ready or maybe our English is not good enough to speak.
But in reality, learning is a continuous process and if you
keep learning and learning, you will never feel ready to speak
without practicing. We have to speak to improve and
to become confident speaking. But the most important thing
that I can say to you is that people really don't care when
you make mistakes or if you don't sound like a native
speaker, if you have a strong accent, local people or native
English speakers really don't care.
And that sounds maybe quite strange or quite obvious, but
it's important to know there are so many different cultures,
different countries that use and speak English or learn it as a
second language. Out of any language you could
choose, English is probably the one where people don't care if
you don't speak it it perfectly or entirely correct.
Just think of how widespread English is, of how many people
use it and practice it and try. For me, as a native speaker,
even before I got into English teaching or English education, I
never cared and I know all of my family and friends don't care
when people make mistakes. To be honest, we don't really
even notice most of the time. You're more focused on the
conversation. So when you speak English, don't
think of it like an exam or a test.
Just try to speak. And I know that's easier to say
than to do, but the more you practice, the better you will
get. So don't worry and don't be
scared. OK, so another mistake that I
see quite often related to speaking is trying to speak too
quickly or too fast. So often people might confuse or
try to speak very fast because they think that it will make
them sound more native or more fluent.
But the reality is when you start speaking faster, you will
end up making more mistakes that you wouldn't make if you just
pause and speak a little bit more slowly.
So particularly some countries are a little bit more guilty of
this in countries where people speak a little bit faster.
But when you speak English, do try to just take your time.
Speak as slow as you need and just focus on communicating in a
way that's comfortable for you. Don't feel pressure to speak as
fast as other people around you. The most important thing is that
you speak OK. And another point, another
mistake I think that people make, which I also did, is
focusing too much on grammar. Of course, this depends on your
goals. So what you need English for,
grammar is very important for a base or a foundation in English
to allow you to make sentences properly and to communicate
effectively. But for some people, of course,
grammar is very important if you're needing it for an
academic or professional level. But in general, for
communication, don't focus too much on grammar.
And of course, I'm not saying to not learn grammar.
I'm just saying that when you speak and you communicate, try
not to think too much about grammar.
When I started to learn Russian, I wasn't so much scared of
speaking, but every time I spoke I was trying so hard to think
about what the correct grammar was.
It felt so difficult and it stressed me out and I started to
make mistakes and be very slow and I realized I need to not
think about grammar whenever I speak.
Of course you can practice making sentences with correct
grammar, but in conversation, the more you think about
grammar, if it's not the easiest thing for you, it's better to
start speaking and then correct yourself.
So make the mistakes and that's how you will learn.
Don't try to speak like you're writing an academic essay.
And I think that will help a lot of people if you you change this
point. OK.
And finally, the biggest mistake or one of the biggest mistakes I
think the people make with learning English is not setting
goals. And I don't mean any kind of
goal. I mean achievable goals.
So points or progress points that you want to reach, and this
can be simple but very important for continuing to learn.
It might be to be able to read a book in English, maybe to watch
ATV show or a movie without subtitles.
These can be simple or as complicated as you want.
It's up to you, but it's important to set goals so that
we can see and like visibly feel or see our progress.
OK, so that is my top mistakes that English learners make, in
my opinion. So thank you very much for
listening. And as always, if you're
listening on the podcast, be sure to check out the YouTube
channel in the description below.
At the moment I post these podcasts there with subtitles,
but in the future I'm planning to start doing some easy English
vlogs, so some videos from my day-to-day life travelling in
English but simple English for you to understand with
subtitles. So thank you very much for
listening and I hope you have an amazing day.