Thu, 28 July 2016
Have you ever heard of an abstraction? This is probably a new word to you but the meaning is not new to you at all. An abstraction is an idea but not the actual thing. Learning English can sometimes be an abstraction. When you go to a restaurant, you look at the menu, it's a piece of paper. It's what we call an abstraction. It's not anything you would eat. It's just words on a page. You can read the menu. When you read the menu, you'll get some ideas in your mind about what the dish will be, how it might taste, how it might smell. But that's not real, you're just imagining. It's all in your head, it's all an abstraction. You can't eat the menu. You can try, but you'd only be eating paper. You would get no taste or smell or nutrition from eating the menu. The menu is an abstraction, the meal is the real thing. The meal is the real life. And no matter how good the menu is, even if the description's amazing, it will never really give you the experience of eating the actual food. You need real world English, that's why I do this podcast. In my podcast, I don't talk about grammar rules. I talk about real life topics. Real world English. In this latest podcast, I talk about a book right now that I enjoy, "Dumbing Us Down". I talk about life strategies that I think might be useful or helpful to you. I talk in a very normal, real world, conversational way. I do this because you need real world English - real English learning! You don't need grammar rules, vocabulary lists, et cetera. Please join me as I discuss the importance of emphasizing word endings, new books I am reading and more about abstractions! For a free text transcript of this video, please visit http://effortlessenglishclub.com/blog-and-video-podcast. |
Thu, 21 July 2016
Did you know that you can take six, seven or even eight years of English class and still not know how to speak English? So what are you learning in English class? You are learning how to follow the rules and do what you are supposed to do. But when you get out of class, you no longer have someone telling you how to study English. You no longer have someone telling you to take a test, study, practice your English. I'm not here to tell you exactly what to do. I am not your boss. I don't want to be your boss. I want to be your friend. I want to be your guide. Your coach, your coach who encourages you to be a great performer. Your coach who encourages you, motivates you, to be stronger, to be an independent learner, to have success independently, to get what you want from life, not what I want you, for you. One of our important values in Effortless English is self-reliance. Self-reliance. It's an important value. It means, basically, trust yourself. Trust, believe that you are smart enough. You are good enough. You can make your own decisions. You are your own boss. You are the boss of your learning. You are the boss of your life. Not me. Not some other teacher. In this episode of the Effortless English Show, I share with you easy ways to improve your English reading and English speaking. I share with you the types of books you can read and techniques you can incorporate to improve your English. Most importantly I share with ways to take your power back and have the confidence to know you have what it takes to speak and read English fluently!! You can get a free text transcript of this episode at http://effortlessenglishclub.com/blog-and-video-podcast. |
Thu, 14 July 2016
Do you understand and speak English but have a hard time being understood? Are you fluent in English and have perfect grammar but your pronunciation is bad? Did you know there's a psychological importance for pronunciation? People will respect you more, automatically, unconsciously, when your pronunciation is clear. Is this fair? No, it's not fair, I know. If your pronunciation is bad, peoplemay not respect you as much. They may see you more like a child, and will react to you more like a child with less respect. I know it's not fair, but this is reality, this is the real world. On the other hand, when you have very good pronunciation with your English, when people listen to you, when you talk to other people, especially native speakers, Americans, Canadians, British, Australian, when your pronunciation is very good, they respect you more, and they also accept you more quickly and more easily. Fair or not fair, this is reality and so pronunciation is also very important for these reasons. In this audio, I share with you a very simple but effective technique for improving your English pronunciation. If you follow me on Twitter and YouTube you know that I like to use movies to help you learn English. In this blog, we use imitation but I share with you a secret for quickly improving your pronunciation - and it's fun! In each blog, I also share a Twitter question. If you would like to submit a question to me via Twitter, please follow me @AJHoge. To get a free text transcript of this audio, please visit: http://effortlessenglishclub.com/blog-and-video-podcast |