Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com and welcome to
episode 3 of the To Fluency podcast.
It is fantastic to have you here, and I'm excited about
today's podcast because I think this is going to help you when
it comes to actually doing what you need to do so that you can
make progress with your English. Because if you have a plan of
action or if you have ideas about what you need to do to
improve, but you don't actually do them, then you're not going
to make progress. You're not going to reach the
level you want to reach. So I'm going to teach you a
simple trick today, a strategy to help you get the work done.
Now, this isn't just for learning English.
You can apply this to other areas of your life too.
Now, before I go into depth with this method, there are a couple
of things I want to talk about first.
Number one, in episode 2, I talked about why it's important
to do the hard things. Why it's important to get
excited about doing the methods that are a little bit difficult,
that things that are going to really push you, things that get
you out of your comfort zone because that's where you're
going to see the improvements. And secondly, this episode isn't
going to go into much depth in terms of the ways that you can
learn English, but I will be talking about that because it's
important. So let's actually start there
because in order to improve your English as quickly as possible,
this is what I recommend you do. Now you can use your own methods
but these are the methods that I have used in my life and also I
have been using these methods with my students over the last
1213 years. So firstly get lots of input.
Secondly, improve your accuracy, use the sentence method and also
get natural practice. So 4 things, get lots of input,
improve your accuracy, which is like pronunciation practice, use
the sentence method and then get some natural practice.
Those are the four main things. Now getting input is the easy
part, which I also talked about in episode 2, because this
allows you to absorb English, to listen to English, read English,
and watch movies or TV in English too.
And input is important. But again, it's usually quite
easy for most people because listening to this podcast
episode, I'm sure you're doing other things.
Maybe you're on your way to work, on your way to school,
clean the house, at the gym, or maybe you're just listening to
me, which is great. But let's look at another method
here, which is how to improve your accuracy, which is the
pronunciation practice. Now this is what I recommend you
do for this to listen to audio clips in English, record
yourself saying them, listen to yourself saying them, and then
compare to the original. Now this is much more difficult
to do than just watching a YouTube video because you have
to really focus this output. You're listening to the mistakes
you make and trying to correct them.
It takes effort and it takes energy, and that's why in
episode 2 I talked about why it's important to do the harder
things. Now, this episode is going to
talk about how to do this consistently in a little trick
that you can use because I find that a lot of people, they'll go
through this kind of practice, they'll go through tutorials on
how to improve the way they speak, and they'll use this
method, the LRRC method. Listen, repeat, record and
compare. And this might last for a couple
of weeks or a month, maybe two months.
But if it's not sustainable, if people feel overwhelmed by this,
if they feel it's too difficult, most people quit.
So they feel that they can do an hour a day.
In the beginning, they have a lot of energy for this, but then
after a while it's more difficult to do.
And this is where our trick comes in.
This is where this strategy is going to help you.
And I call this the 10 plus method.
Now, you can also call this the five plus method or the one plus
method. But for the remainder of this
podcast, we'll call it the 10 plus method.
And the 10 relates to minutes, OK?
So we're talking about 10 minutes.
Again, you can use 5 minutes or one minute.
And it works like this. You commit to 10 minutes per
day. Doing something difficult.
OK, 10 minutes per day. Maybe you do this five times a
week. Maybe you do this seven times a
week. But let's just again for the
remainder of the podcast say it's five times per week.
So what you do is you spend 10 minutes per day on this method,
on something that is difficult every day that you have
committed to. So you stay consistent.
You say, OK, I'm going to do 10 minutes of this method on
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
The key here is staying consistent.
You don't make any excuses. You don't say I'm feeling
feeling a little bit tired today or I'm too busy because 99% of
people listening to this can dedicate 10 minutes per day. 99%
of people listening to this can find the time to dedicate 10
minutes per day. Just 10 minutes.
That is your commitment. Now you might be thinking at
this stage, what if I want to do more?
What if I need to do more? Well, the good news is you can
and that's why it's called the 10 plus method. 10 plus method.
So let's say it's day one, day one of this new plan.
You commit to the 10 minutes of working on the way you speak,
working on your accuracy, and you feel good about it.
You want to do more. So you say this is 10 plus the
10 plus method. So you spend 30 minutes on that
method on day one. On day 2, you spend 60 minutes
on the method because you feel great, you have the time and you
have that momentum with the method.
On day three, you do 30 minutes again because again, you're
feeling good and 30 minutes is great for you.
But on day four, you're super busy.
You have a lot of stuff going on, you have a lot of
commitments. So you do your 10 minutes and
then you stop, which is great. You have completed the task for
the day, you've done your 10 minutes and then that's it.
You don't feel bad about it. You don't feel guilty about
stopping. You feel happy because you have
done what you committed to doing.
You've done what you committed to doing.
So the key to all this is staying consistent.
If you can do more, fantastic. If not, just do the 10 minutes
or the 5 minutes or the two minutes.
Consistency is so important. Now, like I said before, you can
apply this to other areas of your life too, Things like
fitness, because there is a saying here that fitness is
maintained, not stored. Fitness is maintained, not
stored, meaning that you have to be consistent with your movement
and exercise in order to have fitness in your life.
In order to be fit, you have to do something consistently.
And it's the same for learning English.
In order to improve, you have to do it consistently, but not just
anything, something that gets you out of your comfort zone
using methods that work. So some methods to use here are
the ones that I've talked about already.
Things like the LRRC method, repeating after English
speakers, using the sentence method, getting repetition
through Anki, speaking with English speakers in a natural
way, things that actually make you do things.
Another one is the writing method where you do some
writing. So let's say that you've learned
something in class. You can write about this using
your computer or simply a pen and paper.
These are the types of things that are really going to push
you on. Again, input is important as
well, but it's much easier to just have that input in your
life where you're watching videos on YouTube, you're
listening to things, you're listening to this podcast.
So what I recommend you do is write down the methods that you
think are going to help you. And if you want to learn more
about the methods, then go to tofluency.com and download my
book, The Five Step Plan for English Fluency.
And then think about, OK, when can I commit this 5 or 10
minutes to using these methods? 5 * a week or 7 * a week?
When in my day can I make this commitment of 10 minutes?
And obviously leave yourself a little bit more room so that you
can do more. Often times, starting is the
hardest part. Think about going for a run.
The hardest part is getting on your running clothes, putting on
your shoes and starting. Once you get going, it feels
great. And I think you'll find the same
when it comes to learning English and using these methods.
Once you start really listening to the way you speak, recording
your voice, really noticing the mistakes you make, once you get
that momentum going, you'll probably want to do more, which
is great. Do more if you want to do it.
But again, if you don't, just say, OK, I'll just do my 10
minutes today. I'll just do my 5 minutes today
and maybe I'll do more tomorrow. OK.
So thank you for listening to this episode.
If you have enjoyed it then please share it with your
friends and if possible leave a positive review.
That's how this podcast is going to reach more people.
And again, go to tofluency.com, tofluency.com to get my book,
The Five Step Plan for English fluency and to listen to and
watch and read more of our English lessons.
OK, I will speak to you soon. Bye bye.