It’s the start of a new year. You can really use 2014 to
improve your English, take it to a new level, and make it a part of your life! Make this YOUR year for English Fluency.
Getting fluency is not as difficult as you may think.
It all depends on making and keeping good habits. These habits are quite
simple, and more importantly, they’re FUN!
1. Download a Podcast
The first lifestyle change that you can make that’s
going to help increase your English learning is to download a podcast, for
example, the RealLife English podcast or one of thousands of other podcast that
exists in English and for English learning. Start listening every day a little
when you’re in your car, on the bus, walking around different places, cooking,
in the shops…. Use convenient moments in your day to
start listening to more
2. Create More Habits in English
The second one is to change habits that you have in
your native language for habits in English. For example, if you read the
newspaper everyday in your native language, you could start reading the
news in English.
Another thing you could do is, if you look at twitter
every morning, instead of reading a bunch of tweets in your native language,
follow more websites that put their tweets in English.
The same with Facebook
You can also start watching English TV shows, English films, anything that
you do in your daily life, in your native language, try to switch it to things
that you’re doing more in English.
This, on the long run, is going to make a HUGE
difference in your ability to speak and understand English.
3. Get Applications that Improve Your English
The next thing is using your mobile, change games and
apps on your phone like Candy Crush or other time-wasters to apps that will
help you with your English.
There are a lot of free apps that are designed to
English learners, and there are also other apps, like Anki, which is for
memorizing new vocabulary that you learn. And if you start doing this it’s
going to be very useful for those of you who have problems memorizing new vocabulary.
So anytime you have five minutes,
instead of doing something that’s perhaps a waste of time, you can be improving
your English.
4. Speak More!
Obviously, this is very, very important. And a lot of
people might think that there are not enough opportunities, but with the
invention of the Internet there are so many opportunities for you to start
speaking more English with native speakers and non-native speakers.
So you can do different things like using Meetup.com
or CouchSurfing to meet native speakers in your
city or you can use things like iTalki.com or
Verbling to meet native speakers and
non-native speakers online. You can also join the RealLife
English Facebook Community so you can start meeting people to chat
with. Maybe via the messenger in Facebook, or Whatsapp, or even by Skype.
Also, you can find more people, groups of people, who
are learning your native language and do exchanges (In Malaga, have a look at www.pachange.net, although
there are a lot more) This is a really great way to meet people who can help
you with your English and you can help in return.
5. Listen to English Whenever Possible
The last tip that I have for you of a lifestyle change
that you can make to start improving your English more this year is to start listening to
English whenever possible.
So, for example, if you have a desk job, if you’re
working on the computer, you can put the radio on in the background using
TuneIn.com, and you can listen to any radio station in the world. This is a
great way to practice listening to native speakers. Even if you’re not paying
attention and you don’t understand everything you’re still training your ears
to the native language.
You can also listen to music. Especially learn the lyrics. Sing when you’re in the
shower and in your car (if you’re driving alone…)
Adapted
from Realife English
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