HOW TO STUDY ENGLISH ALONE AND STILL IMPROVE RAPIDLY

One of the biggest challenges for English learners is knowing how to improve when they're studying alone. Maybe you are studying alone and you get frustrated. You want to improve quickly, but you just don't know how. Well, in today's English lesson, I am going to teach you how to study alone and still improve your English rapidly. Are you ready? Well, then I'm teacher Tiffany. Let's jump right in tip number one, read aloud. I want you to pay close attention, read aloud, practice reading English texts out loud. You might have a ton of books at home. Like I do, if you're watching this video, right. And you might pick those books up and read them, but you need to start reading aloud, opening up your mouth. And maybe you're asking Tiffany, why is this so important? Let me explain. There are three reasons why it's so important for you. If your goal is to improve your English rapidly, even though you're studying alone, the first reason why reading aloud is so important is it will improve your pronunciation and your intonation reading aloud helps you become more aware of the sounds and rhythms of English, allowing you, my friend, to practice the correct pronunciation and intonation patterns. For example, you know, my voice. Well, I'm happy to be your teacher. I'm honored to be your English teacher. So, you know, my patterns, you know, my intonation, you know, my pronunciation. So when you start practicing and reading aloud, even if you are alone, you'll naturally start comparing your voice, your pronunciation, your intonation to what you have heard during my English lessons. We're talking about boosting your English, improving your English rapidly, even when you study alone. The second reason why this tip is so important is it enhances memory retention through auditory reinforcement, hearing your own voice. That's right. Your voice actually reinforces memory, making it easier for you to remember words and phrases. My friend, your brain is amazing. And in your goal to speak English fluently and with confidence in your, uh, your efforts to achieve this goal, you have to remember the power of hearing your own voice on a regular basis. You'll start to correct yourself and you'll start to remember things even faster. So again, memory retention. And the third reason why reading aloud is so important is builds confidence in speaking, regular practice, regular practice can reduce anxiety about speaking in public and make you more comfortable using English in conversations. I know that you feel a little bit discouraged at times because you're studying alone. I know you feel like maybe someone else has a better situation or more opportunities because they might be surrounded by English learners, but you have to remember, it's not impossible for you. Even though you're studying alone, it's not impossible for you to boost and improve your English rapidly. Remember when you read aloud, it will actually increase your confidence. It's amazing how even studying alone can help you improve your English. So number one, tip number one, read aloud tip number two, listen to English media. Listen to English media, listen, engage with English podcasts, music, and videos. Now, if you have a cell phone, if you have a cell phone, you need to start using it on a regular basis to listen to podcasts, to listen to music, to watch videos. Maybe even my videos again, you need to start inundating yourself with English media, filling your mind with English media, constantly adding more and more. Remember we're talking about, even though you're studying alone, being able to boost your English rapidly. Three reasons why this tip is so important. Reason number one, enhances your listening skills and your comprehension. You see exposure to different accents and speech speeds improves your ability to understand spoken English in various contexts. You understand my pronunciation. You understand my intonation. You can follow my pace and my speed. You're used to my voice, but the more you listen to podcasts and watch other videos, the more your ear will be able to pick up on different accents, different pronunciation and different intonations. This is going to affect your ability to speak English fluently. The second reason is it will expose you to various accents and colloquial expressions, understanding regional accents and slang terms is crucial. Is imperative is super important for effective communication and it helps you sound more natural. Here's the deal. I live on the East coast, not too far from Washington, DC. So where I'm from, we sound a certain way, but if you go to the deep South, maybe if you go to Alabama, or even if you go to the West coast to California, you will hear different accents and your ear needs to get used to these accents. Remember, we're talking about boosting your English rapidly. If you want your listening skills to improve rapidly, you need to listen to many different accents. Each of the individuals you're listening to can be American. They can be British. If you're looking for British English, but listening to these different accents will enhance your listening skills, which will automatically affect your speaking skills. Reason number three provides a context for real world language use. You see media often depicts real life scenarios, helping you learn practical language use, man. And this happened to me when I was studying Korean. You know that I speak Korean. I lived in Korea for about 10 years. And I remember as I was on my journey, learning the language, I would constantly watch different programs, everyone speaking Korean, I would listen to different music, different podcasts. Why I wanted to get used to the accents. I wanted to get used to the words, the terms, the expressions, the slang that were being used in real life. And this helped me when I went to speak with my friends. This is why it's so important for you to follow tip number two, listen to English media. You got it. Excellent. All right. Tip number three. Right. Daily. I'm going to say this again. Right. Daily. It's important for you to keep a daily journal or even blog in English. Now, again, if you're watching this video on YouTube, you can see behind me, there are tons and tons of notebooks. Why I am in the habit of jotting down notes on a regular basis, right? When ideas come to mind, even right in front of me, I'll show you. This is where I take my notes right for the day. And this is something that I have done for years since I was a child. This is an effective way of improving, enhancing your language skills. Let me give you three specific reasons why this tip is so important. Reason number one, it improves your writing skills and your vocabulary. You see writing regularly helps you practice sentence structure and new vocabulary. If you watched my lesson last week, I spoke about seven English phrases. You need to truly boost your English, enhance your English conversation skills, right? So when you watch my lessons, I'm sure you enjoy them, right? Go ahead and nod your head. Yes. Okay. You enjoy the lessons, but after you finish the lessons, you might watch several other videos, right? Several other lessons. And that's perfect. But then you also need to start writing down in your journal. What did you like the most? What was your favorite phrase? What was your favorite word? What was your favorite tip? This is important for you to write on a regular basis. Secondly, it helps organize your thoughts in English. You see thinking in English while writing aids helps in fluency and makes it easier to express ideas clearly. Listen, when you have your notebook, when you take it out and you start writing things down in order to write something down, you must first think. So you're starting to train yourself to think in English and then write down your thoughts. What's going to happen. Now, when you go to conversations, you've been practicing thinking in English so much, it's going to be so easy for you to speak English. You got it. Excellent. All right. Here's the third reason provides a record of progress and shows you areas needing improvement. Reviewing past entries allows you to track your improvement and identify persistent mistakes. Again, I'm going to take out this notebook. Now this is one of my newer notebooks, right? But in this notebook, I've started to take notes and what's going to happen when I come back years from now and I look at this notebook, I'll say, ah, I remember writing that down. Ah, I remember what I was thinking when I wrote that. Ah, I remember dot, dot, dot. The same is true for you. When you go back and review your notes, review your daily journals, you'll see, man, I've improved so much. And this reminder will give you confidence as you move forward to the next level. A record of progress and shows you where you need to improve. Tip number three, write daily. Tip number four, use flashcards. You heard me, right? Use flashcards. You see, create flashcards for new vocabulary and phrases. Why is this so important when you're studying alone, but you want to boost your English and improve rapidly? You see, when you use flashcards, it will aid in memorization through repetition. Regular review of flashcards reinforces your memory and aids long-term retention. You might be sitting at work. You might be working with your kids. You might be out and about and you have your flashcards with you. You whip a few of them out when you're waiting in line at the grocery store. Okay. Retention. It means to keep information in next word. You have the opportunity to remind yourself of what you have learned and be able to retain it even more. Reason number two can be used for quick review sessions. I actually just showed you an example, right? If you're watching the video, but I explained when you're at the grocery store, flashcards are portable and convenient allowing for study during spare moments and finally helps in categorizing and recalling vocabulary. Organizing flashcards by theme or difficulty level can make learning more systematic. We're talking about you improving your English, even though you're studying alone, being able to improve your English rapidly, you got it. Excellent. Tip number four, use flashcards. Tip number five, practice speaking. Again, practice speaking. You need to talk to yourself or use language apps to practice speaking. Something happens when you practice actually speaking, even when you are alone. It's important for you to practice speaking. Now I'm going to give you the three reasons why this is so important, but I do want to remind you. Remember you can use my app English with Tiffany. You can download the app. The link is in the description and you can get it by going to the Google play store or the Apple store. Now, each week, when you download the app each week, the lessons that I'm teaching you, you can find a corresponding lesson in the app that will help you review what you've been learning. This is why it's so important for you. Once again, with this tip, practice speaking, using an app, or if you're with someone else. Now let's check out the reasons why this is so important. Reason number one, this builds speaking fluency and confidence. You see regular practice helps you speak more smoothly and naturally. Smoothly and naturally. Number two, it reinforces language structures and vocabulary. You see, speaking uses different parts of the brain compared to reading or writing, deepening your understanding of the language. You have to remember how amazing your brain is. Our previous tip was all about writing on a daily basis. Now we're talking about speaking on a regular, preferably daily basis. Here's the third reason. It mimics real life conversations. You see practicing common phrases and responses prepares you for real interactions, don't let studying alone, stop you or hinder you from improving your English, you can do it. It will prepare you for the real life interactions that will come. You got it. Excellent. Tip number five, practice speaking. Now tip number six, record yourself, record yourself, listen, record, and listen to your speaking practice. Now you can do this by recording a video of yourself, or you can record an audio clip. This has done so much to help my students. So I have students in my programs in the speak English like a native program, and also my daily English lessons membership program. You can find all of them at the speak English with Tiffany Academy link in the description. But I encourage each of my students to record themselves on a regular basis and the students that do it on a regular basis, even if they are alone in their country. No one else around them is able to speak English when they record themselves or when they record an audio clip. I have watched them improve so quickly. Why is this the case? Here are the reasons why this tip is so important. Reason number one, it helps you identify pronunciation and grammatical errors. You see, listening to recordings of yourself allows you to catch mistakes. You might not notice while speaking next, it allows for self assessment and correction. Self assessment is a powerful, is a powerful tool for improving language skills. This is something that I need you to understand many times as an English learner, many times you think that your teacher listen closely, you think that your teacher is the most important. That's not true. You, my friend are actually the most important. Listen carefully. You see, ask your English teacher. I'm honored. I am happy. And yes, my role is important, right? As you're going on this English journey. However, I am simply giving you the tools you need. You, my friend have to pick up those tools and actually use them. If I only give you the tool and you never use it, there's no point. But once you receive the tool from me and decide to put this tool into practice, into use, you'll start seeing amazing results again, going back to the power of self assessment. You are the most important individual on your English journey. Listen to yourself. After you've recorded yourself, watch yourself. If you recorded a video of yourself and start assessing yourself, you'll be amazed at how quickly you'll improve. The third reason is doing this builds confidence in speaking. You see becoming accustomed to the sound of your own voice in English actually helps to reduce speaking anxiety. You know what I'm talking about, right? When you get to a conversation and all of a sudden, maybe your palms start sweating, maybe you start shaking a bit because you get nervous, right? Maybe you feel like your brain goes white. You can't remember anything. This is what anxiety feels like when you're going to speak English in a group situation. But the more you practice recording yourself, then listening to yourself or watching yourself, the more comfortable you become with your own voice so that when you get to the situations where you would normally feel nervous, all of a sudden you'll feel confident. All right. Tip number seven, practice listening and speaking simultaneously. Listen to English audio while repeating it aloud. For example, you're watching me right now. I'm teaching you this English lesson. If you're listening to me via the podcast, you're listening to me right now. What I want you to do is as you're watching, as you're listening, try to repeat what I'm saying. I'm speaking to you. I'm teaching you. I want you to say, I'm speaking to you. I'm teaching you practice speaking simultaneously as you're listening. Let me explain why this is so important. This enhances both listening and speaking skills. Simultaneous practice reinforces both skills, listening and speaking. Here's the second reason. It reinforces correct pronunciation and rhythm. You're trying to follow along, keep up the rhythm, follow the pace. Mimicking native speakers improves your own pronunciation and fluency. I did this exact same thing when I was studying Korean, I would watch videos. I would listen to podcasts and I would try to repeat what I was watching or what I was hearing as I listened to the podcast. And finally, this improves retention through multiple senses, your ears and you're speaking through your mouth. Using multiple senses strengthens memory and understanding. We're talking about studying alone and still being able to improve your English rapidly. Tip number eight, use English in daily tasks, incorporate English into everyday activities, whatever you do, whether you're working, whether you're playing with your children, whether you're commute commuting, like you're going back and forth to work included in your daily tasks. Why is this so important? Reason number one makes learning practical and relevant using English in real life situations, reinforces learning. It reinforces what you've learned. Remember earlier, we talked about taking notes, writing in a daily journal, right? Now you're starting to use what you've written down or use what you've learned. Reason number two provides constant practice and immersion. Regular use of English helps maintain and improve skills. We're talking about improving your English, even when you're studying alone. And number three reinforces everyday vocabulary, practical use ensures you remember and can apply everyday words and phrases tip number eight, use English in daily tasks. Tip number nine, tip number nine, set specific goals. Once again, set specific goals. Define clear and achievable. Here we go. Language goals. What are your goals? Be specific, not vague, not broad. Be detailed. Why is this so important? Let me explain. Here's the reason. Reason number one provides motivation and direction. Clear goals keep you focused and driven. Remember we're talking about being able to enhance your English, even when you're studying alone. Number two, it helps measure progress effectively. Specific goals make it easier to see improvements. When you have a set goal, you know what you're working towards. And number three, it keeps learners. It keeps you as an English learner, focused and organized structured learning plans, prevent you from being overwhelmed. I tell this to my students all the time. The students in my daily English lessons, membership 365 days of English lessons. Each and every day of the year, I have set up a plan. I have set up a lesson for the students to follow all of a sudden, they're not as overwhelmed. Why? Because they have a plan to follow. This is what you have to keep in mind. If your goal, even when you're studying alone is to boost your English skills, you must set specific goals. This tip must be remembered. I hope you enjoyed this English lesson. I hope these tips truly help you. Don't be frustrated. Don't be overwhelmed. Instead, even when you're studying alone, follow these nine tips and improve your English. You still there, you know what time it is. It's story time. Hey, I said it's story time. All right. For today's story, I actually wanted to tell you something very short. You know, there's this phrase that has been said for decades. It takes a village. I'll say it again. It takes a village. Now this phrase just means it takes people around a child to truly help them grow. Well, mother and father, they do amazing, but grandparents are important. Aunts and uncles are important. Family members, extended family members, friends, church members, depending on where you live, whoever's around you, that is close to you, it takes a village to truly raise a child. And this happened to me when I was in South Korea. Again, I taught thousands upon thousands of students and I remember working with kids, kids bring so much joy to adults. They have this carefree attitude so many times because they don't have bills, they don't have worries. Right. But I remember I was working, um, at an Institute in Yongin, Yongin in, in Korea, in South Korea, and there were two young ladies, they were best friends. They might've been nine years old. And every day they'd come to class holding hands. They'd come to class laughing, talking about their day. They always seemed so happy. But on this day, I noticed something different. They came in separately and they had kind of a frown. Each of them had a frown on their face. So before I taught the class, I decided to step out with the two young ladies. So I had the other students do something while I was stepping out of the room. And at this time I was speaking to them in Korean because when there are things going on, you want to make sure the kid can express him or herself in a way that is comfortable. So I asked the young ladies, Hey, what's wrong? You both kind of look sad or upset. And they proceeded to tell me that they had had an argument at school and they were mad at each other and they were expressing themselves and I could tell that there was still a lot of tension. And in this moment, these two young ladies who were not my daughters, I saw them for 30 minutes, four times a week. I wasn't even around them for a large portion of their day, but I remembered that it takes a village. I've thought to myself, if I actually were the mother of these two young ladies, what would I say to them? And I proceeded to explain to them the value of friendship, the value of communication, the value of conflict resolution, and I told them, Hey, you guys can work this out. You guys are really good friends. Don't let one argument destroy your friendship. And so I remember literally like it was yesterday, given them this advice, and this happened well over eight years ago, I think maybe seven, seven or eight years ago, I remember giving them this advice and this story popped into my head because the same is true of you. It takes a village, even adults. When we have a goal, when there's something we're trying to achieve, it takes a village many times. Think about it. I'm your English teacher. I'm passionate about it. I love it. I can't wait to see you achieve your English goals. Even though we've never met in person, you have a goal, but it takes a village. I might not be your only English teacher. There might be another English teacher online that you follow. He or she has helped you as well. You might have a friend who is where you're trying to go and he or she has been helping There might be another teacher in your actual city. That's helping you. It takes a village. What I'm trying to tell you is on your English journey, you really are not alone. It might feel like you're physically alone, but you're not alone. I tell students in my academy all the time that I love community. I love fostering and building community because people grow when there are people around them. So my students in my academy, they, we have a private group and they talk all day. They have meetings throughout the week and I love watching them grow because it takes a village. So as you go throughout the rest of this week, throughout the rest of this day, never forget that it takes a village and that you're never really alone. I love you. I'll talk to you in the next lesson.