You will certainly agree that in order to learn English you have to change your daily habits. You need to create an English language environment that surrounds you every day. Any conventional English class (by conventional I mean any English course provided by language schools like Berlitz, Wallstreet Institute, Inlingua, etc.) is rather ineffective because you are able to spend only a few hours there and most of that time you will hear how other ‘students’ are trying to build correct English sentences. What you can’t get in most English classes is something that is absolutely essential to learning a second language: Dialogs and conversations by native speakers. You need authentic ‘input’, you have to be exposed to the way native speakers interact in daily situations.
If you want to improve your English you don’t need any English teacher. All you need is a system that helps you change your daily habits. We can create that system together one step a time. First, you should analyze how you spend your time. Take a look at the following questions and write down the answers. Maybe, you have some questions you would like to add?
- How much time per week do you spend watching TV?
- How much time per week do you spend in your car?
- How much time do you spend reading a newspaper or magazine?
- How many emails do you write per day/week?
- How much time per week do you spend on the Internet?
- How much time do you spend eating breakfast?
- How often do you go to the cinema?
I’m convinced that even in the best English course you can only pick up a few tips and ideas as to how you might improve your English. Learning English in an English class is almost impossible, though. We have been running classes one of which is called Improving your English every day? and I’d be quite interested to hear what the participants are doing now. How much have they learned in the three week course? Have they learned to learn or just refreshed their grammar? What about you? What type of learner are you? Do you need English classes or can you learn on your own?
TOEIC short conversations: Discussing EKG and MRI test results