Transcription
I'm walking, I walked. Yes, it sounds very logical. What kind of despair must you be in to turn on such a video, right? "To learn a language, you need to listen a lot." "Passive listening is the key." "You should visualize images and listen to podcasts." Ugh. The main secret of such videos is that they are mostly useless, so today let's approach it from a different angle.
There’s a saying I saw from Stephen King – he lost all his English. Like he lost his ability to speak. Literally, "forgot all his English." And I thought, what if I really woke up and forgot all my perfect English, right? What would I do? I wouldn't remember a word. Not... Okay. Only "cat" and "dog." So what would I do? I would walk around, pull my hair out, panic, probably, right? Or would I sit down and come up with a plan on how to learn it again? At least to B1. Well, I think the second option. I need a super simple and clear step-by-step instruction for myself on what to do.
Okay, I could wait N years. There, artificial intelligence will somehow solve this problem skillfully, right... But for now... For now, I need to speak English, damn it. The whole internet is in English. Am I the baldest one or what? I need to be able to speak and understand somehow. And in general, the ability to speak a foreign language will still be valued in the coming years. It's a good skill, a good brag. Learning a language to a fluent level is a good challenge, a decent achievement, let's say. It's almost as cool as having a six-pack at 50 years old.
So I sat down and really decided to write a step-by-step plan for such an emergency case that would save me a lot of time. Without those annoying abstract tips. If I suddenly wake up and realize that I don't understand a word of English anymore, I’ll just turn on this video and – voila, this is how I'm gonna handle it.
And most importantly, if someone really needs to learn English independently, maybe this plan will help them a bit too. And by the way, this plan will work for any other language as well, rest assured.
Now, a logical question arises. Listen, dear person, who are you? What English do you know? I’ll answer. Briefly – I have some connection to a language school. I have a channel on YouTube about English with half a million subscribers. And I also passed the CPE exam. Unfortunately, I got 218 points. That means I fell short of an A by exactly 2 points. I messed up. What did I do? I messed up. If I had just gotten those two points, it would have been Grade A. Top-notch. Can you imagine how much bragging I would have done 24/7? But it’s okay. It was a misunderstanding. I didn’t get enough sleep. The water in the shower was cold. So you saw nothing. English proficiency. C2, that’s it.
In general, jokes aside. I wrote everything down in a notebook, so once again. Emergency plan. What I would do if I needed to learn English from scratch again. To learn it to an acceptable level, not just waiting for neural links. What’s important in our situation? Language is a skill, so there are exactly two components to success. First – you need to dedicate time to it, that is, put in the hours. Second – you need to dedicate time effectively, meaning you shouldn’t engage in just any nonsense.
In our case, that will not be just any nonsense. The conditions are as follows. I definitely have little time for studying. I urgently need to start speaking the language in practice, meaning I need to have dialogues about fishing in a non-Russian-speaking environment. What does that mean? At first, I will have questions and... requests. Can I please have that? Show me that, please. Can you stop here, please? No, thank you. Where is the Albanian cafeteria? Where is the massage place? How do I find the basement with it?
This is real communication, not stories about my hobbies, about ecology, or topics about the Stogov family. Yes, as you’ve already understood, at first, I will have a kind of primitive, skewed knowledge of the language, but it will give me a good push. A push to start speaking. And I will try to refine my grammar alongside it, somehow, one way or another.
And if I learn it outside of a language environment, well, that’s fate, I guess. Everything I learn will be a dormant skill, and if I suddenly find myself in a real situation where I need to speak, I will just slide in like a knife through butter and impress all the native speakers and L2 speakers with my magnificent knowledge of the language. And that’s because I what? Prepared.
I’ll repeat. This recipe will generally work for many languages of similar complexity to English. Well, for Western European languages, for sure. Yes, this is more relevant for those who are currently at levels A0–A1–A2 and can’t gain momentum. But those who are at a higher level and stuck somewhere in intermediate will also find it useful. You’re just being lazy, but that’s okay. You might reconsider a lot now.
So, okay, I forgot all my English to zero. But I haven’t forgotten linguistics. Oh, fine. Even if I did forget, I’d just go and Google it. And in the end, what do I know about the English language? First of all, it’s a Germanic language, but thankfully it has no purism. That is, "television" will be "television," not some conditional "distant sight." And in general, it has been stuffed with international vocabulary from Latin for a long time. Starting with the word "international," by the way. So it’s actually a Germano-Romance language, which makes it much easier to understand.
What else? Simple grammar. You don’t even need to learn genders. Hallelujah. Thank you, Christ our God. The word order is similar to Russian. Everything goes in the order, excuse the expression, subject - verb - object. That is, "Mom washed the frame." Not "Mom the frame washed," as in Turkic languages, for example. Okay, at least by default, in both Russian and English in the literary standard, it is indeed like that. Inversions, of course, are permissible, but those are variations, and I absolutely don’t need them at first.
Adjectives. In both Russian and English, they come before the noun, not after. So it’s not "I see a red car," like in some Spanish, but like normal people. "I see a red car." In both Russian and English, it’s the same. Pronouns also generally go in the sentence by default, meaning if I’m doing something, I start the sentence with "I... eat pineapple," not just "pineapple I eat."
And particularly, thank God, this language has simple morphology, meaning words change very little. There are almost no cases. Well, okay, the phonetics is quite distant from Russian, but not so much that it hinders mutual understanding. There is a distinction between long and short sounds like "shit-sheet," of course, but there are no tones. That is, you don’t need to learn to pronounce the same word in different ways. Stress, thank God, is easy to move around.
But on the dessert side, English has absolutely terrible spelling based on the principle of "that’s just how it is," and not a single proper spelling reform has been conducted in almost, what, 15 centuries of the language’s existence. So there are rules, but they’re kind of not there. What’s there, let’s get to the point.
Neither in Russian nor in English is there such a thing as vowel harmony. There’s almost no ergative. As if that’s important. We also use prepositions in both languages almost the same way, and they are mostly used before the word. Okay, there are phrasal verbs, but you can consider that just to make life not seem too sweet, and overall it’s not... rocket science.
Damn, there are articles, yes. That’s confusing. But you know what? I don’t need them for now. I’ll watch my own video about articles later and learn how to use them right away.
Well, let’s go. Here I am, generally happy, motivated that everything is simple. And here’s my plan on how and what I will cut in my learning to learn the language faster. I think normal methodologists would leave no stone unturned with my plan, but this is self-learning. This is how I like to learn, and if you want – take it into account.
Point one. Okay, the alphabet and reading. Here, let’s say, I have a problem right off the bat. Ugh, this stinky English language and its spelling. I will immediately accept that English words in writing are just hieroglyphs: the letters mean almost nothing. Where you would be sure that the word is pronounced "lingerie" – it will be "londjerey," and where "busy" – it’s "bizi." Where it’s written according to the rules "waiter," in the best case it will be /ˈwɔːtə/, and in the worst – well...
Nevertheless, I need to grasp the basic logic. What’s there: open, closed syllable, there... In most cases, it will somehow work. So what do I take? Pimsleur exercises. And I try to catch when it’s "kit" and when it’s "kite." When it’s "hop" and when it’s "hope." I’ll learn to read a bit at first and predict how the written word is pronounced. This will take me half an hour. If I forget – I’ll repeat.
Then I’ll accept again that there are a ton of exceptions. Exceptions are the whole language, in short. So when I make flashcards, I will immediately write down the pronunciation. What kind of flashcards? Yes, the good old vocabulary flashcards. But not just any. That will be the focus. Now I’ll go into more detail about them.
Point two. So, words and vocabulary flashcards. Just a reminder. This is a foreign language. So you need to know a ton of words in it. Who would have thought, right? A pleasant fact. Let’s enjoy it once more. In English, the morphology is simpler compared to Slavic languages. That is, words change very little, thank God. Cases are not needed, conjugations are not needed. There are almost no suppletive tricks like "I take – I will take – she took," where you learn several different roots for the same action like a fool.
So I would dedicate almost all my energy and time to learning the most basic necessary words. In English, it’s easy and pleasant to do this. I will enter them into any spaced repetition program. For example, Anki. Or, for example, we have one in our school for our students, and we even integrated it directly into Telegram.
And since I mentioned our beloved school. You all know about the entry barrier to the profession of an English teacher and where it is. Well, for example, there are guys who write "modal verbs" in a test task as... through "model." And then they get offended by a polite, damn, refusal and go to give us one star on Google. Like, what? Me? Not accepted? Scoundrels!
So the truth is that it’s not always easy to find competent teachers who also have their schedules packed to the brim. That’s why we decided to grow them ourselves. If you are an English teacher or want to become one, but not just any teacher, but a good, empathetic, qualified, and confident teacher, please take a look. We’ve gathered all the magic into a fist and launched a course covering all aspects of the profession of an English teacher.
And this course can now be tested in a weekly mode for free, with homework. In general, here’s the course. Here’s the introductory intensive for it. You can already register for the intensive. I’ll put the link in the description.
And if you’re not a teacher but just want to learn or improve your English, you can, for example, sign up for a one-hour demo lesson with us. It’s free, either individually or in pairs. And there you will go through several simple but quite interesting tasks. Our teachers will guide you through all the nooks and crannies of the English language that would be useful at your level. Sometimes I even attend and supervise such lessons as part of my job. And in general – I’m curious to see what will come up each time.
You can sign up for such a lesson on our website too, through the link in the description. So, I was talking about these vocabulary trainers that will turn you into Cicero. What’s the essence? The app asks you, how would you say such-and-such word? And you guess and indicate how difficult it was for you to remember it: very easy, easy, hard, very hard. Based on this, and also on Ebbinghaus’s curve, the app will throw this word at you again after some time.
And when – depends on how easily you remembered it. Either so you finally memorize it, or later to check if you’ve forgotten it. You can recall words from foreign to native, or from native to foreign. Whatever works best for you.
And I’ll even say what words should be there. Okay, you can’t avoid this at first. It’s definitely pronouns in this form. I, you, he-she-it; we, you, they. These pronouns will be convenient for me to understand how to build phrases. And in addition to them, well, there should probably be some linking verb in the language. I am, you are... Good. So I’ll also look at how the corresponding linking verb works with these pronouns.
And this set: I am and you are – is already the first working scheme for speaking in the language. I can already use it to say, for example: "I am a foreigner, I am hungry, I am glad to see you, this is not a gun." Well, good. I have my first words.
Now I need some content words, right? Book, pen, textbook, table, teacher, board. Cool, of course, but no. What the hell is a board? I don’t need a pen, I don’t need a pencil, and I don’t need tests. Later, maybe. I have a feeling that I’ll somehow absorb tables and textbooks later if I really need them.
I’ll probably shift the focus of my boring study to the situations around me in real life. Remember, I said that at first, these will be requests and questions? So I’ll take everything I would theoretically be asking about. I need a kind of mini-lexicon so that I can use it right away in life. Just look at what these words are. I collected these words myself when I found myself in a foreign language environment. They are tested by my blood and sweat.
Okay, let’s go. Content words. Verbs. Did we learn "to be"? Good. Next. To have, to want, to know, to do/make, to take, to be able to/can, to work, to buy, to receive, to use. Yes, I suspect that I’ll have some underwater rocks with past and passive forms, but not about that for now.
Next. To go, to come, to leave, to stop, to exit, to pass, to understand, to speak/to say, to ask, to eat, to drink, to see, to watch, to show, to like – well, basically "like," to remember, to forget, to read, to write, to leave, to stay. Well, these verbs will be enough for me at first.
Of course, I’ll immediately add question words to them. Who, what, where, when, which, why, how. And also: at what time, how long, and until when.
And the most common adverbs, particles, and phrases in the language. Yes, no, thank you, please. May Jesus and the Virgin Mary bless you. Maybe. Right? True? Here, there (here, there), now, right now. Fear God.
Let’s see. Only, for now, later, before, after, right-left, today, tomorrow, yesterday, many, few, in that case/then, unfortunately, everything, nothing, one more, everything else, together, separately.
We’re left with literally, what, adjectives and their equivalents. These are: big, medium, small, another, the same, open, closed, far, near, first, last, next, previous, drunk, sober. Cool words, right?
And will there be downsides? Of course, there will be. This is English, so for each word, you’ll have to clarify the pronunciation from the dictionary. So yes, check in Anki or wherever you have it, in Memrise, to make sure that the pronunciation is also noted somewhere on the card.
But honestly – trust me. If you were learning Russian as a foreign language, you would also have to struggle with the pronunciation of each individual word. At least because in Russian – well, to put it mildly, the stress is unstable.
Did you think I forgot possessive pronouns? No. I definitely need them too. My, your, etc. – all of that is necessary. Naturally, numbers from one to ten by heart, and from one to a hundred – well, I need to check how the tens are formed. I think I’ll learn to count from one to a hundred.
Knowing the days of the week wouldn’t hurt. Sunday, Monday... Although honestly, I’ll probably absorb them along the way. And then gradually the months and so on. Well, it’s really easy with them in English.
Oh, and prepositions too, right? Above, below... Some polite phrases like: "What’s your name?", "Thank you very much." And if there’s still energy left, definitely learn expressions like: "What the hell," "Oh my God," "No, let’s save the environment."
How could I forget? Let’s also save the dying category in the English language. We must definitely learn the case forms of pronouns. In simpler terms, me-you, to me-to you... This... This will also come in handy. So it’s not completely just primitive guessing.
Guess why I haven’t mentioned nouns yet. It seems like, what about "fork," "birch," and "carburetor"? If you have any guesses why, write in the comments.
What I figured out from all this. 300-350 words will cover your needs in language knowledge at first just like that. And let’s be honest. I’ll say this fact. If you, let’s say, learn to handle any language other than English with that same number of words, 300-350, at a moderate pace, your friends will start asking: "When did you learn the language?" Can you imagine that? 350 words, moderate proficiency, and it looks like you’re already chatting about something, you’ve learned something.
Well, this is English. With three hundred words in English, you won’t impress many people, but we need at least some proficiency. So believe me, these words will make your task much easier if you don’t know them yet. You can do it.
Moreover, as soon as you start, a spaced repetition program for words will be your lifelong friend. There’s no such option as learning a language to the end. There’s no end, even if it’s your native language. There will always be some trendy word. Add it to your vocabulary decks. There, what if you still have to take the CPE?
And also, besides everything, you might have a question like... Guys, are you kidding? How do you learn all this? How to simply remember a word? Hmm... It would be great if it could be remembered through some distant, etymological connections. Like conditionally, if we need to learn the word "bear" – медведь, and we remember it through "бер-логу." Well, just so you know, they are not related.
Or a more useful word in modern life, "cold," through such a conditional etymological chain. But something tells me this works only if you’re a linguist or a language nerd, and in general, you already know these words in that case.
The good news is that both Russian and English are just stuffed with these Latin internationalisms. And naturally, you either recognize them or already know them. What could these words mean, right? I have no idea.
But the other part of the words, which is less obvious at levels A1–A2, you’ll have to come up with how to best store them in your brain, through what mental hooks. But let’s say, nothing terrible will happen if at first, you remember a word like "chest" meaning "грудь" through... through the Russian "честь," because from great honor, you puff out your chest to get an order pinned on you, and all that.
Well, and similar nonsense. This will work well at first. Because the brighter and more absurd the association, the better it is overall, and then you can get rid of that cringe.
Now, part two. Well, it’s not just about learning words, right? That is correct, yes, word arrays themselves are useless to anyone. That’s one. Spaced repetition is cool, but if you rely solely on it, you’ll still remember those words poorly. That’s two.
And in general, learning all this takes quite a long time, and then you’ll need to repeat it again to not forget. So it’s not just the first step, yes – to learn all these words. On the contrary, everything should gradually come into motion alongside the next steps. You need to start honing the words you add to the flashcards. Little by little, starting with a small set.
Even parts of such words. Just simple words. I your house... And so on. In phrases. And not just in invented phrases, but in practice, that is, in speaking, preferably in real communication acts.
Here’s the thing with these memorized words for me personally. I don’t know how it is for others, but for me, until I use that word in real life once – I won’t remember it, yes, in a real situation, there’s no chance I’ll remember it.
You need to struggle a bit, remember, and use it in a real conversation or at least in class. Like, I need rubber boots, I need to say. And you’re stalling and remembering the word "boots." You blush. And in the end, you say: "Give me, please, zirinovy pasogi."
But after such an ordeal, you’ll remember that word well. And the hardest part is finding where to chat. And with whom to chat. And to make it not boring. But trust me, it’s this... It’s this that will ensure learning and further mastery of the language.
You need to speak urgently. The real hardest part is practicing speaking. If people knew that: A – this is a necessary element in learning; and B – where to find practice – everyone would have long been chatting in all the languages of the world.
By the way, sorry, we’ll get to that closer to the end of the video. The positive scenario is if you find yourself in a foreign language environment, not necessarily somewhere in London or Manhattan, and there you can speak English.
In fact, the environment matters, especially if it encourages you to use the language, meaning if you definitely won’t be understood in any other language besides the one you’re learning. You’re in the environment. You’re constantly performing some communicative tasks. It’s like you’re living in a textbook. You’re already like the walking Stogov family, only you’re also sparring with native speakers all the time.
Well, this, of course, energizes you, keeps you in shape, and helps you start speaking faster. And in general, probably almost all the video I’m currently running through is about two things. First – language exposure. That is... In Russian – contact with the language, yes. In any form. Whether you see signs on the street, or you have the TV constantly on in that language, and you understand something and recognize something new for yourself.
And second – active speaking. That is, the more hours of both you rack up, the better. Success in this case is inevitable, like dawn. It’s just a matter of time.
Well, that’s how active presence in the environment affects the ability to speak on everyday topics.
- ...talks. Ha, no, he just swears. In Uganda, the moonshine is very... Try it.
- No, thanks.
- Well, come on, try it. I’m Zeloony.
- Green?
- Nice to meet you.
[Bald and Bankrupt]: Who do I see! Oh, is that a new jacket? Damn, strong hand! How are you? Have you been drinking already?
But you understand. Most likely, you’re not in such a situation right now. A bit later, we’ll discuss what to do if, hypothetically, I, a language learner, am not in an environment, and there are no foreigners around, and there’s no one to talk to.
Point three. Almost the last one. In general, while I’m learning all these words, I need to figure out how to use them correctly. Right now, I’m not quite into grammar. If I delve into the intricacies of the perfect tense, I’ll freak out.
So how about looking at grammar a bit casually? Here you might ask me: "Why are you looking at grammar casually?" Honestly, I’ll say what I think. Grammar, go away. Well, personally for me. I don’t respect it at all.
Of course, you need to know the basic mechanisms of linking words, but believe me: English is not the language that will give you problems with this. At first – well, seriously: in any language, not just English, you will need to be able to do the following. A few skills. Just a few skills.
Be able to say that something is something. We already learned that above. That’s the linking verb. Be able to talk about what is happening or being done now. What is being done, yes. Be able to talk about what has happened in the past. And be able to talk about what will happen in the future. That’s all for now. The rest – later, later.
What’s there to talk about? Well, this is English grammar. Well, it’s two stomps, three claps. Over the last 10 centuries, it has simplified so much that... well, there’s no more room for simplification. And unlike Russian grammar, it now represents quite simple logic.
Yes, there are unexpected turns that may seem disconnected, illogical. Well, let’s identify them right away. The biggest annoyance in English – there are two of them. First – the auxiliary verb "do" in questions in the present simple, which pops up out of nowhere. Well, more precisely, it pops up straight from the underworld, where Lucifer torments all those English speakers from the 15th-16th century who are guilty of bringing this vile phenomenon into the world.
The second – the system itself, that in some tenses you need the participle ending in -ing, and somewhere you need the verb itself, and you need to learn to distinguish them. And also distinguish the types of different -ing. But believe me, this is not quantum physics. You can and should definitely get into this. Because these letters mean something completely different.
They mean the following. If you consider yourself at least not the dumbest person, and you do consider yourself that way, then believe me, you can do it. And if this seems too difficult for you, then it’s not a big deal. You’ll be greeted by the language Tokipona.
So what will I do? For those who just tuned in, let me remind you. I’m writing a plan for myself in case I forget the English language. So let’s make this part of the plan as simple as possible, so one link connects to another. And here, like it or not, I’ll at least flip through textbooks for appearances.
Only because there will be exercises for practice. And not just for that reason. What textbooks, in general, I don’t care. But the more pictures, the better. I’ll mention that a bit later.
So, I’ve already learned linking verbs in the previous point. That means I can easily construct the present continuous. It’s the simplest tense. Subject plus linking verb plus verb with -ing, which is also the participle. If I’m not in the loop, I’ll write down that it can be used to describe things that are happening right now. I am talking right now.
And sometimes even for the future. Just like in Russian. "Tomorrow I’m flying to Kazan." Through the present tense. Do I have pronouns? Yes. Do I have linking verbs? Yes. So I also have a whole bunch of meaningful verbs already spinning in my flashcards, learning.
And the essence of the present continuous is, I remind you: "I am doing something." Right through the participle. So I can already construct participles for the continuous from these learned verbs in the previous part. Hoba-hoba. I am reading. I am using. You are giving. I am buying. She is drinking. We are eating. Awesome. Thank you, God. Thank you. It works. Functional speaking has begun.
So, the most important thing. If I’m constructing the continuous, can I learn to ask questions from its example? Yes. I see how questions are made. It’s simple. In the question, the verb closest to the subject goes where? – forward. In this case, not the participle -ing, but the verb itself. It’s the only one here.
And also, negations come as a bonus. Where do we stick "not"? To the verb. Cool. So I’ve learned how to make statements, questions, and negations in one go. All that’s left is to rehearse.
And that means I’ve already closed the second functional goal out of five. Another communicative goal along the way will be to quickly learn to ask: can – cannot, need – don’t need, must – must not. For this, I’ll note that I have a gift from the dark ages, straight from the pre-Germanic language. Modal verbs. There are only nine of them, the purest and finest.
And at first, I’ll only need these five or six. The others – not needed. We’ll deal with them later. And from them, of course, I’m interested in those that express: can I do something, can you do something, could you do something, do I need to, must I...
I’ll take these modal verbs – what am I doing? – and think about how I can use them with my already learned meaningful verbs from the flashcards. All these "to use," "to go," "to smoke," and so on.
And also, I just learned how to ask questions in the continuous – yes, the verb goes forward – and negations, meaning I stick "not" to the verb. Can I use your keys? Must I close the door? I can speak. I must come tomorrow, right? You don’t need to call.
That’s how I’ll gradually learn to use modals. And since I’ve learned, I get a nice bonus. Through the modal verb "will," I automatically learned to make the simplest future tense. If later, in my mind, I replace it with "gonna," then I already have two ways to form the future tense.
And what’s the difference, I... I’ll figure it out later. So I’ve also closed the future goal. I probably said this too late, but here’s something important. I’ll also accept in advance that learning a language is not a linear scale of progress. It’s a map that you navigate like a snake, gradually closing the white spots for yourself when the opportunity arises.
So if some elementary stuff remains unaddressed at first, for example, hypothetically, I haven’t figured out how to stick "to" with verbs – I’ll accept that. I’m perfectly okay with it. There’s no chance I won’t stumble upon this nuance later.
And for dessert, I left myself the most disgusting part. I already mentioned it. These are the two tenses that for some reason are called simple and break all the logic I learned before. Present Simple and Past Simple. This is precisely about the damn "do" or "does," which appears in questions out of nowhere, and also about the suffix -s in the third person.
In general, I’ve already ranted about this in... in this video of mine. I talked about how I’m dissatisfied and in which century everything went wrong. Well, okay, I’ll learn the separate logic of Present Simple. It can be more complicated. I’ll have to endure, but at least I’ll finally be able to ask if you have any, I don’t know, thing for sale. Do you have?
Or ask if you serve old-fashioned on Angostura. Although what else would you serve? It’s clear that I probably learned "do you have" a long time ago among the polite and everyday phrases through flashcards, but here I finally understood it grammatically. What’s this "do" doing there?
Well, after I grasp the plus-minus of where "do" and "does" fit into Present Simple, I can stretch this same logic to Past Simple. All I need to do is figure out one more greeting from the times before our era – irregular verbs.
If you’re not in the know, what’s the essence? It so happens that almost all the most common verbs in English and in related languages: in German, in Norwegian, and in other Germanic languages – well... So these verbs change in the past tense and in the passive form not quite according to the rules. They just preserved ancient frozen forms.
Sometimes it’s simpler: make – made – made, swim – swam – swum, speak – spoke – spoken. And sometimes it’s more complicated. be – was – been, go – went – gone. I’ll need to learn this too. So when I talked about flashcards – yes, damn it, I’ll have to enter the verbs in three forms. Right away.
But here are two sweet pills. First – you’ll only need to know about a hundred of these verbs at first, maximum. And they are great for learning with flashcards. And second – it’s not a complaint for a non-Russian speaker to say that the past tense is formed in some illogical way.
I’m walking. I walked. Yes, it sounds very logical. And easy. I’ll say it again. If you had similar skills in any other language besides English, people would say: "Wow, where did you learn that?"
And there’s also a psychological aspect. Right now, if you’re at the beginner level, yes, and it seems to you that ahead is an impenetrable forest. No. Nothing like that. Well, it’s enough to make a small effort or two, and behind you will be a pretty solid system.
And the progress you’ve made will motivate you much more than the unplowed field ahead. Respectfully, your Tony Robbins.
Okay. In short, the most important thing. I probably won’t learn to do all this right off the bat in a second, right? So now the most important thing. How to learn to do this easily and effortlessly, that is, about practice.
What should I practice on? Well, if you’re in the environment, you’ll really pick it up quickly. But if you’re not in the environment, how do you rehearse all this? And the secret is simple. I don’t have one specific piece of advice for you. Yes, I’ve outlined a set of skills and communicative tasks that you need to be able to solve at first for basic language proficiency.
But the way to practice it, you need to find for yourself. Mastering a foreign language is a medium-complex skill. To learn a skill, you need to show initiative, discipline, and resourcefulness, so it’s clear that not everyone reaches the goal. Only those who are determined, not lazy, inventive, and, most importantly, open to new things will make it.
But! How would I act, briefly, if I were learning English almost from scratch and didn’t live in an English-speaking environment? Although I don’t live in one anyway. Yes.
So I’ve outlined what you need to be able to do to reach levels A2, A2+, B1. With white spots, of course, but here’s what you need. Besides learning words on the go, I would do the following.
First. I would choose a modular textbook that I really like. In terms of tasks, pictures, characters – whatever. The main thing is that it doesn’t make me nauseous. Here’s a rough set of such textbooks. This is definitely not trash. By the way, it’s even better to combine them. I would look at the content, by chapters, where the necessary skills are taught. Where the future tense is, where the continuous is.
And I would go through them thoroughly. The rest I would do later. At first, just logically fill in the blanks, and then, in the process of speaking, that is, oral communication, which is the most valuable thing you can do in a lesson. Questions-answers, questions about the text, free dialogue, and so on.
And here we come to another cornerstone. There’s no one to talk to, no one to practice with. Yes, yes, yes. And rarely, in my experience, will you find such a regular conversation partner with whom you have a real match. If you want, share in the comments if you had such a person while learning languages?
Most likely, it will be either your teacher, or a tutor, or a partner in a study group. The language teacher, in fact, is primarily needed to talk with you and occasionally correct and guide you. Secondly, to lead you through the curriculum competently, like a coach, and to present the theory easily and accessibly.
And thirdly, to answer your tricky and seemingly stupid questions meaningfully and without mumbling. So if you have the opportunity, do try a few lessons: group or individual, paid or free. It’s up to you. If you trust us, you can also check out our demo lessons. We are quite picky about our teaching staff.
And of course, besides lessons, don’t forget to correspond in the old-fashioned way with Indians, Arabs, and chat GPT, and with Indians who pose as chat GPT. In general, correspondence – speaking in Russian, texting – is good because you have comfortable time to construct a phrase.
And while doing this, you’re picking words, formulating, clarifying, and articulating in your mind. It’s all beneficial. "Yes, it’s your mom. Yes. End of communication."
In general, knowing a language is not just about conversations in a store, it’s not just about communicating with, I don’t know, the local police. It’s also about being able to read a newspaper in the language you need, watch videos on YouTube in the language you need, and also understand what people are saying to you when they speak really fast.
Can you believe it? Who would have known. But! You already know a ton of function words from the lists above. So subtitles are your friend. Try to set aside at least two dedicated hours, in the form of an improvised lesson. Watch your favorite movie that you’ve seen 200 times in a Russian translation. Terminator, for example. Or Titanic. Or Avatar.
Turn it on with subtitles and at least try to pick out the grammar you’ve already learned. Simple grammar. What tense was used, what mood, is it a question or a statement? And so on. This skill will save you microseconds of understanding in the future.
And then it’s like a snowball. What you’ve barely mastered now will become automatic later. And in general, to learn a language, you need to listen a lot... Passive listening is the key... You should visualize images and listen to podcasts...
Like all people, sitting down, drinking tea, coffee, smoking a cigarette. Did you count how much smoke you, smokers, have inhaled, empty? Nightshade. Tobacco – a member of the nightshade family. Do you know who the Asuras are? Who created the potato, from which...