How many of you are considering learning English? What about, starting to learn English as a Second Language (ESL)? For people looking to English study, or get their degree in international business, or travel abroad and experience the world on your own terms, these tips will help you.
Whether you’re an Indian student who needs to learn English or a busy working adult who just wants to brush up on your language skills, this list of top English learning tips will help you achieve your goals.
Why do you need to learn English? To keep up with your peers and friends, or just because it’s fun. In any case, studying English is an important aspect of your life. But learning a new language can be difficult if you don’t know the best ways to study. In this article, we will look at some tips that are guaranteed to help you master English while maintaining a busy schedule.
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English learning is a daunting task, especially if you’re like most people and have to juggle with your full-time job and a family. In this article, we provide you with some easy English learning tips that will help you get through your daily routine and still make time for yourself.
1. Plan your errands in English
There are several places that you must visit on a daily basis, such as your bank, pharmacy or doctor. While most people use their native language for communication at these shops and stores due to convenience of English vocabulary and pricing, learn some words of the other language beforehand so that it is easier for you when travelling abroad.
So what about grocery shopping? Couldn’t we list the groceries according an vernacular system in our mother tongue (in other words, pointing out Hindi’s names for English foods every time)?
One reason I like grocery shopping in different supermarkets is that it forces me to look up unfamiliar and hard-to-pronounce foreign language items whilst still using the regular dictionary. By keeping a list of some low key vegetables, fruits etc., one can do severe damage (remember 70 euros from US?) without actually having to use the word! If you are doing this in a local language, then chances are someone might guess your shopping list and it’ll be fun in the meantime anyway.
Example: When choosing a fruit, look up its translation first (apple) and check out helpfully if you’re not confident about what is gonna say! Cover all bases as well when navigating through grocery search portals (corn…). In supermarket checkout lines everywhere else in Western Europe, most people will ignore any strange-looking stuff, I guarantee it. And why? Because:
Knowledge and vocabulary of other languages with which you’re going to communicate in the foreseeable future is not very useful when trying to find things! However, many urban residents will only ask for prices (and then stick them), usually saying “en francais?”, as this works best on someone who doesn’t speak English.
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2. Practice English while commuting
The answer to this depends a lot on how much time you want to invest (and money too), but don’t expect anything in return – your English skills will only get better.
To practice and learn how native speakers use the language, many public transport systems offer recordings that help deliver real-life situations of which they often take notice while commuting. If you cannot find any pod + MP3 player somewhere like yourself, maybe ask other country men living abroad to do that for you!
Example: Calling for help on the subway, and praying that “security” does know what to say? Just use whatever language seems natural but is translatable. And then, a friend from Hong Kong once advised me not just say “Help!” when I reach out with my bags by rail in downtown Budapest (the only way of using public transport there), explaining it’s actually pretty rare.
3. Listen to one English song everyday
Your language skills will improve, I guarantee it At this level of English, you’re still not good enough to start breaking into the international community in a big way. However, musicians like Eminem and others seem to be taking notice of your progress – since anyways many expats make their living as lyricists or songwriters, with one major result being that many (singer)classmates have got themselves works under/signed by recording artists.
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4. Speak English before going to sleep
Your first love at this time should be to improve your spoken English. Sometimes, that doesn’t mean watching movies or listening to music – it goes far beyond the usual subjects of TV & Movies and Music. Get out into the real world very early in the morning when you have enough battery (to get from home before any alarm clock starts ringing), head for a local gym with free use of computers, create some vocabulary through internet search like clicking on Google Images , follow ESL news & forums and pick up some vocabulary through reading.
5. Make friends with your local shopping workers/shops
Who just happen to be fluent in English-speaking locals can make all the difference for a traveller All of us love to bargain at markets for mostly two reasons –
(1) it’s healthy competition everyone enjoys;
(2) you get tons of handy new words that normally won’t even do their trick with the other locals around in this part of the world. Learn these when you feel like arriving at your bargain ends up being a bit higher (or if you are more naturally talented than me).
All in all, your experience in a new country will be greatly enhanced if you take the time to learn some basic phrases and words that are usually not taught in schools.
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