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So what’s the ideal English environment?

Well, I’d have to say, a job or school where most of the people use English, most of the time. Then add in English-speaking friends. An English-only girlfriend or boyfriend is a huge help. Hmm, what else? Maybe living in an English speaking country.

All of these things would be great, but we can’t have them all. We have to do the best we can with the opportunities we have. There are many foreign exchange students in my country (Canada) who stay together in groups, speak their native language, and spend years in Canada and do not become fluent (or even close in many cases)… sounds like the subject for another blog.

What I’m saying is that some of these people are not taking advantage of the opportunities they have to learn English. So let’s take a short look at the average person in Hanoi, Vietnam or Munich, Germany. How can they improve their English?

First, they can take language courses at a local school (community programs tend to be cheaper but not as high in quality, whereas private schools have higher tuitions but better instruction). However, we all have problems with time and money - both are limited.

Second, they can try to get a job where they can use the English skills they have and learn more. So, multinational companies can be helpful, but not always. There are many offices of large American and British companies in non-English speaking countries where almost no English is used, everyone is local. I have many students who have jobs where they only use English in company emails… well, this is a start, but of course it is better to need English for face-to-face communication or over the telephone.

Third, make friends. Now, a big warning here. Many foreigners in non-English speaking countries absolutely HATE getting asked for free English lessons or to be someone’s friend only for the purpose of practicing English. Make friends just for friends, the English learning is in the background, and is something that happens naturally. Don’t force it.

Fourth, use your time wisely. How much time do you waste in a day sitting on a bus or in a subway, waiting for people, etc. That’s where EnglishPod comes in. You can spend 20-40 minutes sitting at your computer listening to the audio, doing the exercises, listening (and speaking back) to the sample sentences for new vocabulary. However, an even better option is to download the mp3 podcasts on to your mp3 player and listen to the lessons as you go to work, work out in the gym, wherever and whenever you want.

Fifth, as mentioned in yesterday’s blog, think in English. After you use English, reflect on the conversation and think about how you could have said something different, what could you have said better. A frequent observation of mine when teaching English and working with ESL colleagues is that they use the easy words that they’re very comfortable with, but don’t often try to use more complex vocabulary that might really force them to upgrade and improve their speech (though they may do this when they write).

Not one of these steps will teach you English on its own. You need to try all of them and find out what combination works for you.

Good luck,

So, where do you study and how effectively do you study?

I’ve learned from my many years of school (including 7 years of university) and many tries at learning languages (we’ll talk about that later), that there are certain times and places where I learn best.

My personal preference is to study in the morning or the early evening, with a coffee and quiet music in the background (i.e. Starbucks or a library where I can listen to headphones). I like big tables where I can spread out my stuff. I like snack breaks about every hour or so. When I study in this way, I learn quickly and I learn a lot, whatever the subject. But everyone has their preferences - find what works best for you. Here’s a short test that may help (though it does assume we all learn in the same way).

However, learning English is not exactly the same as learning Math or History. It’s not all about memorizing dates and formulas - English’s equivalent would be memorizing vocabulary and verb conjugation. English is a tool to communicate, so it needs to be used and practiced in that way. The focus should be on listening and speaking, but in practice, most people learn reading and writing first. This leads to students studying alone, which leads to neither fluency nor communicative skills. We should learn English together.

I have more thoughts on this topic, but perhaps I’ll save them for tomorrow. For now, check out this blog about learning English: I find Mary’s comment particularly thoughtful.

Want to know where all of our podcasts go when they fall off the bottom of the home page screen?

Click on the “Podcast Archive” to find all the podcasts, or “lesson pods” as well call them (which include a podcast, PDF transcript, review materials, exercises and teacher lesson plan).

The lesson pods are searchable in different ways:

by title/introduction - type part of the name or a word from the introduction of the lesson pod you’re trying to find in the search box.

by level - click on Lower Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, or Advanced to call up all of the lessons for that level.

You can then sort the results you get from these two searches by: date, popularity or rating (in the Learning Center, premium users can rank podcasts on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest).

You can also search:

by topic - click on the topic and up pops all the lessons related to that topic.

by function - same as for topic, but what are functions? Well perhaps that’s the subject of another blog post, but for now let’s call it the use of the language - what situations can you use this sort of lanauge. Or we could call it the goal of the communication: i.e. agreeing/disagreeing, describing people, offering, inviting, etc.

All of these search functions allow you to find what you want and study the things YOU find useful and/or interesting.

See you in the archive,

Hey everyone,

Many of you have noticed we’ve got a new feature on the website: My Course.

My Course is designed for both students and teachers to be able to organize the lessons they want to study/teach. My Course is one of the Premium services located in the Learning Center.

How do you use My Course?

To get access, you have to subscribe as a premium user or the 1 week free subscription. Next, select the lessons you want by clicking on the “Add to My Course” buton just below the lesson titles. Then go to the Learning Center. You will see all of the lessons you have selected listed (in blue).

What new features does My Course offer?

1. Inside My Course you can organize the lessons you choose into different lists. This way, you can create your own lesson courses and organize your study schedule. Maybe you want a Lower Intermediate set and an Upper Intermediate set. Or maybe you want a set about sales and money, and a different set dealing with lessons on management. Create or delete lists and move lessons around.

2. Click the “My Course RSS” button and copy the url - then go to itunes or your podcatcher of choice and subscribe by pasting the url. itunes will add your list (i.e. “Kris Fedorak’s Englishpod Course” appeared in itunes and it started to download the lessons in my list).

3. Click the “My Course PDF Zip File” button to download all the PDFs from the lessons in your list.

4. Download individual PDF transcripts and Lesson Plans by clicking on the red play buttons.

5. Rate the lessons by clicking on the “Rate this product” link and selecting the number between 1-10 (10 is the best) that you feel that lesson deserves.

Use as much as you want, when you want. My advice is to play around with it a bit and after a few minutes you’ll discover all the new cool features there are. As far as I know, we’re the first to do this, so let us know if it’s easy/difficult to use and what other features you want : )

Best Wishes,

Kris/Team ODE

Tip #3: Create sample sentences!
Your goal, as a language learner, is to develop the ability to communicate in a wide variety of situations. A great way to practice this is to write sample sentences for each of the new words you learn. You should try to use the new word in as many different situations and locations in the sentence as possible. Once you run out of sentences, try Googling the word to find other samples in English language websites. Here are some examples of sample sentences.

New Word: wireless

1) The wireless network is broken.
2) Our office is wireless.
3) I need a product that provides very fast wireless connectivity.

And a Google search reveals lots more sample sentences.

Tip #2: Learn relevant things!
When you are learning English, it is much easier to remember language that is related to your job, life, interests, etc. And, because these things are related to you, they will be far more useful. So, don’t waste time trying to learn words that you will never use, or discussing things that don’t interest you. Instead, focus on what you need or like. You will have far better results.

Here are some suggestions for learning activities that will be highly relevant:

1) See if you can translate your resume into English.
2) Keep a diary in English, and use it to describe your life. You will find you will need to use a dictionary to learn new words, and because these words are related to your life you will remember them better.
3) Regularly read an English language website or blog about one of your hobbies. Because it interests you, you will have greater motivation and better retention of new vocabulary.

If you have any other strategies for relevant learning, I’d love to hear them in the comments section!

We get many e-mails at EnglishPod asking for advice on how to learn English. Over the next few weeks we will publish a series of tips and suggestions to help you learn English effectively.

Tip #1: Use what you learn to communicate!
Communication is not only the purpose of language training, but also a powerful learning technique. Every time you use what you learn for real communication you will improve your fluency and ability to remember words. Real communication happens when you share any kind of information with another person. It doesn’t matter if you are speaking with a native speaker or another learner. Therefore, for example, instead of reciting words to remember them try to use them in real English conversations. Also, if you have questions about the language, try discussing them in English rather than your native language. Make a habit of using every available opportunity to practice. Finally (and very importantly), don’t worry about the accuracy of what you are saying. Making mistakes is a necessary part of language learning. As long as you have plenty of sources of correct input (such as English websites, EnglishPod, books, magazines, native speaker friends and colleagues etc) you will be aware at some level in your brain when you make mistakes, and over time they will become less frequent. However, if you don’t practice in the first place, this process won’t occur.