Making Smaller Commitments | Real American English Conversation | Free English Podcast
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Hi, everyone.

Hi, everybody. This is Amy from realenglishconversations.com. And today we have the first episode of hopefully many where I'm going to be doing a solo podcast. Rather than having a conversation or an interview, I'm going to be the only person speaking in this podcast.

And that's because I really want to share with you some of the language learning advice that I have, a lot of the methods and techniques and concepts that I teach in our courses, and

It's really important for you to realize that although our conversations with Curtis and I and the interesting topics that we speak about, these are great and they're fun to listen to. Really, the core of what we do at Real English Conversations is we help people to become confident communicators in English. And beyond that,

At the same time that we help develop your skills, we're actually teaching you how to learn a language in a more efficient way, a more effective way by teaching you different things that not every course is going to show you.

So, for example, in today's podcast, I'm going to be talking about how we can make smaller commitments to make sure that every single day you make some time or some effort with your English.

Unless you're in an absolute crisis situation, you should be able to find a few minutes a day to work on your English skills. And in this podcast specifically, I'm going to help you to develop the mindset that you need to be more consistent and readjust the tasks in your mind to make it something that you can do rather than something that you can't do.

Before we get started with this particular lesson, I just wanted to let you know that on our website, I have recently developed a seven-day learning challenge. And the concept that we're going to be discussing today actually comes from this seven-day challenge. Okay, so let's get started with this. I'm going to explain, first of all, where this idea came from and where I realized I

Huh, this is actually a major obstacle for people that are struggling with being consistent. And what happened was I recently received an email from one of my students. They had joined our program for I think a month or so, and then they decided that they needed to take a break.

And the reason was that this lady said, I don't have time to use the lessons and take advantage of the program right now. So I'm going to pause my subscription and I'll come back when I have more time.

And as somebody who's a fluency trainer and a language learning coach, I thought, no, no, no, no, no. You're doing something that is actually really, really hurting your English level. And instead of taking a month break, what you're doing actually is not only losing that month of progress moving forward, but you're probably going to lower your skills several months just by taking this break.

And that's because consistency is one of the most powerful tools that you can use in your language learning to continue to move forward no matter what. So the critical thinking error with this student was that they didn't have enough time to practice their English, whatever time amount they determined in their mind that they needed to study every single day.

And this really is the interesting point. Everybody has something that they tell themselves in their head. Maybe, oh, if I don't study for half an hour, at least five or six days a week, then I don't move forward with my English. Therefore, I'm not going to bother. Or maybe it's not that much. Maybe you say half an hour, three times a week or a couple of hours a week. But when you're too busy,

and you're not able to make time every day, sometimes it seems easier to just take a break rather than doing what you can.

So really, take a moment right now and listen to the words in your head. How much time do you feel you need to invest in working on your language skills every single week in order to move forward? Once you have that number in your head, that amount of time, you're going to be able to

Now I'm going to give you some information that's really going to help you to stop that self-talk that says, no, no, no, you don't have time. You can't do this. You're too busy to learn English. Just take a break for a while. It's okay. I'll get back to it later.

And trust me, I know exactly what you're feeling because I'm a language learner as well. I have the same ideas that go through my head. I will find any excuse I can when I'm not motivated to do something to try to avoid it. But I also know that language

Becoming consistent and developing a language learning habit takes a lot of work. And once you have that working for you, it's really important to keep it going. And it takes less effort to maintain a habit than it does to start a new one. This just in, hot off.

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So one of the tricks that I've learned along the way is to try to make your commitment that you have to work on your English every day, no matter what, you have to make this task smaller. I'm not talking about the days where you have enough time to do your regular routine, but I'm talking about those days where you're thinking, okay,

man, today was insane. I don't have any time. There's no way I can do my regular studying with English. Instead of saying, there's no way I can do this, you need to change your mindset to try to figure out what you can do. It might not be an ideal study session where you spend, I don't know, 20, 30, 45 minutes working on something specific, but

But you need to have a way to modify that where just because you don't have the ideal situation where you can study how you want to, to really move forward faster, you still can do something.

And that's going to help you not only to learn something new, even if it's just something small, but it's also going to help you to keep the habit of learning the language, to keep the consistency that you really need to get to that final path of fluency. Every time you take a break, you're taking several steps back. I can't stress this enough.

Once we become intermediate to advanced level learners, consistency becomes something that is really important and learning the language or working on the language, having it around you becomes a way of life. And we need to do that just to maintain our level. So taking a break, not only are we not maintaining it, but we're actually sliding backwards and

And that's where the frustration comes in when you're stuck at a certain level for a really long time. So I'm going to go back to that student that decided to pause their subscription.

They loved the program. They thought that it was great. Everything that we had, we have the WhatsApp speaking practice group, for example, we have the REC member cafe, weekly speaking practice sessions with the teacher. But because she was in this moment where she wasn't able to really participate in those speaking meetings and the different things that we have available, which was really, really important to her.

Instead of having something like the online courses, for example, that she would be able to go back to when she only had 10 minutes or 20 minutes of time to go to something that's already pre-published.

planned and organized and it's in a way where you don't need to think about what you're going to do. The only thing that you're thinking about is logging into the course that you signed up for because you're excited about it and working on something with whatever time is permitted, whatever time you have available.

And even if it's only five minutes, you can do that task, for example, five minutes every day for four days in a row. And it's still going to amount to about 20 minutes. And you should be able to get through one activity.

When you do something like that, you're doing more for yourself than maybe thinking about how much you learned. This consistency factor is going to help you to maintain your level a lot better. You're probably going to learn something new. And these are things that are really, really important, especially during busy and stressful periods that

will come at some point in time during your English fluency mission. The takeaway that I really want you to understand today is that this idea that you tell yourself that you don't have time to study English isn't the right approach to have. I want you to think about

What amount of time you can work on your English and also to have a little bit of a strategy. On those days where you feel pressed for time, you don't have very much time available, you need to have a power activity.

Something that you can do that's really going to push those skills or it's sort of concentrated, whatever it is that you're doing. Maybe you're doing a deep listening activity where you're trying to transcribe something or you're doing a specific speaking practice activity or technique.

These sort of things are the ones that are really going to count. And even though you didn't get to do your ideal session, you're still doing something that is going to push you forward.

Everybody goes through these periods where we don't really know how we're going to fit in something. But when you have a I can attitude rather than I can't, you're going to continue to move forward and have fewer of those slide backs in your level, which is really, really important.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this podcast and I've given you something to think about for today. Remember, it doesn't matter how short the time is. Just have a strategy for what you're going to do on those difficult days.

And this is going to help you to build really strong habits with your English and consistency, which really makes it much, much easier to reach those fluency goals. And I hope that you take this advice and really apply it to help yourself get to the next level with your English.

If you're ready to take your English to the next level, you might be excited to know that Curtis is currently accepting new students. Not only is Curtis a host on this podcast, but he's an expert teacher who specializes in developing speaking fluency, pronunciation, honing your listening skills, and building up rock-solid confidence, often within just a few lessons. If you're ready to take your English to the next level, you might be excited to know that Curtis is currently accepting new students.

To get started, click on the description area below to view Curtis's calendar and book the time for your trial lesson. This just in, hot off the bench press. Planet Fitness has added new strength equipment. Save $28 or more when you join today and you can be one of the first to try it out. We're raising the bar with new benches and our new hack squat will have you actually looking forward to leg day. Plus, we're still repping all of the best in class equipment we've always had with most clubs open 24 hours so you can work out your way on your time. So let's do this.

Join Planet Fitness today and save $28 or more. Just $1 down, $15 a month. Cancel anytime. DLN's January 10th. See Home Club for details.