English learning Key areas English learning is very difficult. I have met hundreds of English learners who lost motivation shortly after coming to Australia. Big disappointment. There is a myth that most English learners (and their family and friends) believe in prior to coming to Australia. The myth is “if I live in Australia, an […]
Is that fair? Who cares? Life’s not fair in many ways, is it? You might have the most remarkable vocabulary and the most accurate grammar and still be wondering why you can’t get people to like hanging out with you or just have a conversation with you. No one likes robots. No one likes a […]
Not a single day goes by without hearing this question “What is the best way to learn English…fast?”. Since you’re in such a hurry, I’ll indulge you!
Ever since I finished my TESOL degree and started teaching, my top obsession has been “how could I somehow enable the memory of an adult English learner to achieve what a child’s does. How could I somehow speed up the human processor, that is the brain, so that it could respond to the sounds and messages being transmitted to it quicker? Read on!
It’s certainly not by learning the rules of grammar as you would learn the rules of physics, but rather by….well…reading. Yes, it’s that simple, reading everything and anything you can get your hands on. It would help a great deal if you could find something you are really crazy or obsessed about. 20 years ago, […]
The title of this article says it all. So why is review such an important part of the learning process and improving English? Well, just look at the first two letters of the word “review”, what have you got? That’s right. “Re”. “Re” also happens to be the first two letters of the word “repetition”. […]
Out of a hundred thousand people reading this article, there could only be one who, 1/has the mind power to master the spoken English, and 2/has the talent and skills to master it without the help of a good teacher or coach. I am aware that the notion of mastering the spoken English is debatable […]
Japanese are stubborn, so are their pronunciation problems Japanese students of English struggle with their pronunciation problems. No matter how advanced the speakers are, no matter how long the learners have been learning or speaking English for, some (phonetic) mistakes are real stubborn aren’t they? They keep happening over and over and Japanese students can’t […]
None! It does not exist. You never learn a language by studying grammar. Grammar books should only be used as a reference, just like a dictionary. You use a dictionary to look up the meaning of a word, that is to improve your vocabulary, and you should use a grammar book to help you to […]
In a previous post, I recommended Bill Murray’s “Groundhog day” as a good movie to watch to improve the learners’ English. There’s another movie that’s just as good for learning English especially for improving grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Did I make you curious? I certainly hope so. Do you wanna (want to) take a guess? […]