[191] Top 9 Ways To Learn English From Home (Inspired by EMS Listeners)

Learn English From Home

Episodes mentioned

[190] How To Move To Australia
[188 GUEST] How You Can Come to Australia to Study (Chat with Soraya from Tour Studies)
Meetup.com – Attend meetups or create one yourself

Transcript

Hey guys you are listening to the English Made Simple show, this is episode number 1-9-1, number one hundred and ninety one, numero ciento noventa y uno.

Welcome amigos y amigas to the English Made Simple show, my name is Milena from www.englishmadesimple.net, www.englishmadesimple.net and here we are again!
What’s happening? Where was I?
There are some changes happening at home, we are moving again! It’s not a big move, just moving neighbourhoods. Probably next month. So if I release an episode later than normal it’s because I am packing or cleaning. So yes, moving is a nuisance, very inconvenient.

So last month we talked about immigration and more specifically moving to Australia. I also spoke with Soraya from Chile who helps you obtain a student visa to Australia so you can come here to study. The best and easy way to really experience Australia. You can listen to that episode and the previous episode. And to remind you, those 2 episodes were episode 188 and 190 to help you understand how to make the move across the ocean.

And now, we are onto the new topic today.

I get numerous emails from my listeners telling me how much they enjoy listening to the English Made Simple show and how it helps them learn English from home. They don’t necessarily want to move anywhere, but they are happy to listen to the show at home in their own country, just because they love the language.

So how can you learn English from home or by yourself?

Are you using everything at your disposal to assist you with your learning?

I remember when I was learning Italian, I was 15 years old, I think we just moved to New Zealand then and I fell in love with the Italian language because of the singer Eros Ramazzotti – I loved listening to his songs and I really wanted to find out what he was singing about.

We didn’t have the Internet at the time… I know, shocking! It sounds like I’ve grown up in a cave somewhere, in the medieval times. I don’t know how we lived without the internet, but we managed! No Google back then!

So what I did to learn the language… I chose one song by Eros Ramazzotti, and tried to remember every word he sang. I didn’t have the Italian dictionary handy, but I did sign up at a local library. I went to the library and got the books in Italian, I also found the Italian dictionary. Yeey! I translated every word and figured out the meaning of each word. What I was doing then, was building my vocabulary.

I wasn’t able to speak the language but I had built up enough vocabulary to get the gist of a conversation, to understand what people were talking about. I was able to follow a conversation, but I couldn’t speak the language properly. All I needed was someone to practice with like a teacher or a friend.

I applied the same principle with English. I was into heavy metal too, listened to a lot of rock n roll, was into Metallica and Megadeth I did the same thing – had the English dictionary handy and I started to translate every word in their songs.

Again, I grew my dictionary and started to feel more confident understanding what the songs were about.

Although some of those words cannot be used in an everyday conversation. The lyrics are a bit dark.
Nonetheless, still useful!

That was then.

Now let’s fast forward to 2018.

Here is what you can do to learn English from home:

1. Read books, magazines in English
2. Read a blog post in English. If you like reading stuff online. I normally get a headache if I look at the screen for too long… but that’s just me
3. Listen to a podcast such as this one
4. Watch YouTube Videos – again, headaches kick in after a long time looking at the screen.
5. Attend a meetup – I think I mentioned this before in my earlier episodes, I think episode 27 or 26
6. Form a group with your friends who are also learning the language, meet at a café and only speak in English for 1 hour.
7. Listen to the music and English – listen to Justin Bieber
8. Sign up for video courses
9. Download an audio book

Oh my gosh! So many choices!

You see, how many different ways you have now to learn the language. No excuses!

Find something that suits your personality.

If you are a bubbly person, or have a bubbly personality – someone who likes to socialize and meet new people, you might want to attend a meetup. OR better, start a meetup – go to meetup.com and create a group yourself.

I am the type of person who likes to multitask. If I am doing the dishes I would be listening to a podcast. When I go out for a walk I listen to a podcast. I don’t like to stand still and watch a video for 20minutes. I get bored after 5 minutes of watching. This is how I like to absorb information.

So what I am trying to say is …Find your style and figure out what works best for you.

How do you like to absorb information? I keep saying the word ‘absorb’
Take in information or digest information.

Where is Weon Inteligente? He has been missing in action. My husband asked me, how come you don’t mention Weon Inteligente. Well I only call on him when I really need him.

Like now. So, the word ‘absorb’.

According to Weon Inteligente, to absorb means to take in or soak up liquid.

So let’s imagine you are drinking Coca Cola in the kitchen and you spill some of it on the floor. There is now Coca Cola on the kitchen floor. So what you can do in that case is grab a sponge and clean the floor with the sponge. It will absorb all the liquid from the kitchen floor. Ok? Does that make sense?

For those of you who are new to the show, I use Weon Inteligente to describe an Online Dictionary. If you are from Spanish speaking backgrounds you might find this extremely hilarious. But don’t worry if you are not!

Before we finish, I’d like to say hello to Dione from Brazil who has been learning English from home. I have to say for someone who has been learning it by themselves, Dione writes really well. Well done Dione and keep going!

Also a big hello to Pancho who left me a 5 star review in iTunes, he is enjoying the content and is now following English Made Simple on YouTube!

Wow, awesome, thank you so much guys! You can’t see me, but I am doing my happy dance at home!

If you have an iphone and are listening to this episode on your iphone, can you take a minute and leave a 5 star review, it should be pretty easy to do, and it helps me to keep going!

So before I go, think about what is your style of learning? How do you like to learn a language?

Thanks for listening to another episode of the English Made Simple show, you’ve been jamming with Milena from English Made Simple, until next time! Hasta la proxima!