As a second most spoken language in the world and arguably the most powerful language in the world, English is a must to learn for many people. Here is a short list of tips on how to improve learning English fast.
- Sometimes Why is more important than How
If you don’t know Why you are learning English, or if the reason you are trying to learn English is not really a compelling one for your self, naturally you just aren’t going to put as much effort in to it. It’s the most important factor in learning English or any language (or perhaps doing anything in life for that matter).
- Specific goals
If you just say I want to speak English well. That is a very generic goal. If you say, I’m going to date someone that speaks English, again, that’s a very generic goal. It’s better to have specific goals like, within three months, I want to comfortably speak to my English teacher about a particular sports. Within 6 months, I want to score ___ on a @@@ test.
You want to add a time limit, and you want to have a clear measurement of if you succeeded on that goal or not. If your measurement stick is “fluent” how are you going to know if you achieved that goal? Are you going to compare it to the person you are speaking to? To your neighbor? Or an English teacher? Set specific timeline and goals.
You don’t want to be feeling confident in your reading all the time. You don’t want to be in a conversation you are comfortable all the time. That means it’s just too easy for you. Get used to a little challenging environment. That’s a sign that you are continuously learning.
- You have a set goal now. Look for the tools that will help you achieve it and make it a daily habit.
English tutor might be a good option. Maybe a English language class. I know some people went to a vacation in Hawaii and decided they are going to also spend some time learning English by attending a ESL class in Hawaii because they didn’t want to break the daily habit of studying English. Probably going to the US and to a place like Hawaii would have given them enough English for those days, but they wanted to stay in a structured environment to accelerate their learning. That’s one way to turn your fun moments in to a learning experience.
- Make mistakes. Lots of them.
I remember when I told my roommate, “I have cold”, my roommate was very confused. He didn’t know what I meant. I thought it was a simple enough sentence in a simple enough setting, and I couldn’t understand why he couldn’t understand. What I should have said was, “I have a cold”. He couldn’t figure out if I meant, “I feel cold because the air is cool” or “I have a cold and feel sick”. Without that mistake and his confused face, I think I’ll still be saying “I have (nothing here) cold”. Mistakes are going to happen, and the quicker you go through them, the quicker you will improve.
Keep going. Keep learning. It’s not going to be easy, but if you make it in to a daily habit, all of a sudden you are going to feel a break through. You will start picking up words and phrases live, instead of having to look them up later. All of a sudden sentences are going to make sense. All of a sudden you are going to realize you are actually processing what others are saying in English without a translation in to your own language. Keep it going.
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