to teach you vocabulary or grammar I’m going to explain something very interesting. Many

students online send mе messages saying ‘Paul, is it possible to learn English in 3 months?’

I replied … what do you think? ‘No!’ Now why did I reply ‘no’? Because … emm…

well I’m an experienced teacher I’m a linguist, I have my opinions. They said to

me that they saw an advertisement in a local language school or an online school that

promised that they will learn English in 3 months. And I say to them that the words used

in the advertisement are not true because you can’t learn English all of it in 3 months

… it’s impossible. It’s absolutely… you can’t learn anything perfectly in 3

months.. you will get better you will get better but perfectly …. Forget it. But the

problem is so many people fall for these lies, for these scams. Can you see this question

here, #1 : ‘Why do people fall for these scams?’ That’s what I want to answer.

Again, scam is like a lie, a lie, you know, that makes you spend your money on something

which isn’t true. ‘Fall for’ here it ,means believe. So why do people believe these

lies, why do people fall for these scams? I believe the first problem is that in today’s

world we need everything today or we need it we need it yesterday. As a result lot of

language school understand this and they make these false promises because most people are

not linguists they learn English but they’re not linguists and so they believe this false

advertising and therefore they go to these schools, they spend their money and they think

they’ve learnt an entire level where in fact they have not, especially when they come

to me. Some people also really believe in easy way of learning English. Now, I’ve

said this in one of my previous videos I think it was ‘learning vocabulary’ emmm… many

people are not looking for the best way of learning English … they are looking for

the easiest way there is a big difference. The easiest way isn’t always the best. Sometimes

you just need to do a lot of hard work every day. I’ll explain this a bit later. So,

again language schools and online schools they know this and they say ’oh, we have

some special method which can help you learn 600 words in a week’… Good luck! OK, an

again I often get many students who come to me expecting the ‘magic pill’. They come

to my class, not all students but some, they expect to take a special magic pill without

doing homework without working hard they will speak English fantastically in 6 months and

I tell them ‘that will not happen, because I will do my best but you need to do your

best as well’ ‘How long does it take to learn a language?’ Well , let’s think

of an example. Imagine, I can’t cook which is true, I can’t cook, but I want to cook

like Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramzie these world-famous chefs, the best chefs in the world. From now

until the best chef in the world do you think I can do that in 3 months? Do you think I

can learn to be a professional footballer in months? Of course not. So why do you think

you can learn amazing English in 3 months? It’s the same principal it’s not going

to happen. You will make progress; you will get better to learn English to learn how to

cook perfectly… NO! We have a wonderful expression in English – ‘how long is a

piece of string?’ Quite often if somebody asks you a question ‘how to learn English?’

we say ... ‘Well, how long is a piece of string?’ it means ‘there’s no answer

to this’ like there’s no limit… there’s no parameter. How long is a piece of string?

So…how long does it take to learn English? How long is a piece of string? What are your

obligations? Do you have free time? Do you love English enough to practice it 10 hours

a day? Can you practice it 10 hours a day? Do you have a linguistic mind? There are so

many factors involved that determine how quickly you will learn a language but let’s look

at this what about levels? Can you learn a level in 3 months? My answer to this is YES

and NO. Now, again as I just said it depends on you … do you have free time? Do you have

obligations which limit your free time to learn English? I believe that you can do some

intensive courses where if you work really hard really hard every day for like many hours

then yes I believe you can learn a level in 3 months like pre-intermediate or intermediate

or upper-intermediate but again because most of us have school or jobs or family obligations

it’s very difficult to find that time to give your life to English as much as you should.

So therefore most students spend like really maximum an hour every day outside the class

practicing English if you practice more than that … well done! So yes, I do believe you

could learn a level in 3 months like let’s say intermediate but preferably most language

schools have 5-6 months because again you need that time to practice all those elements

all those bits of vocabulary, all those bits of grammar, all those ways of learning you

need that time. Key ingredients to real learning English again this is very basic but of course

you need hard work you need to work extremely hard every day learn vocab, practice your

grammar, speak, read listen, watch films. There aren’t enough hours in a day to do

it but nevertheless you should work extremely hard. Do your homework. You need guidance,

You need a professional and experienced teacher that’s why many students come to me because

I can give that guidance, I can tell you how to learn what not to learn as well and you

need structure. You need structure because again one of the problems that I have and

I’ve mentioned this before there’s so much material online, there’re so many schools

around, so many videos, there’s just so much. Now again, if everything was perfect

and worked well everybody would speak perfect English but they do not. I’ve met only a

few people in my life that speak absolutely amazing English. I’ve met many people who

speak great English but truly perfect English where I thought they were English I’ve only

met 2 or 3 but amazing English I’ve met many and I’ve helped many to speak amazing

English. But again you need a structure and a good teacher will help you through the structure

to learn properly and lastly avoid scams so if you see an advertisement that says ‘learn

English in one month’ or ‘learn English in 3 months’ it’s not going to happen

but it means you can learn some English in 3 months. Maybe just enough to go on holiday,

maybe an intensive for one particular level, you are not going to learn 5000 words, all

grammar in 3 months it will not happen because if it did work then I would not be a teacher

because you would not need me. And again last one which I want to mention: stupid methods.

Very often I read online that some psychologist, teacher somewhere found a special method for

learning English where if you put your trousers on your head and stick this pen up your nose

and then you can learn 5000 words in one day. What a load of rubbish. Or you can sit down

and associate all these words with some experience in your life that way you can learn 600 words

in one day. Yeah? Really? Maybe learn 100 words in a day. Even if you can learn 100

words in a day can you use them correctly in context and correct style? I don’t believe

it because if these methods worked people would speak perfect English very quickly but

they don’t. So, again, just to summarize my friends: can I learn a language in 3 months?

No, simple as that… it’s a scam, it’s a lie. So be careful when you join a language

school be careful when you look for some school online again you will make progress in 3 months,

look for a good teacher go to forums in your country that discuss good teachers /bad teacher,

good schools/bad schools etc . Choose a good teacher, get a correct guidance and you will

make a lot of progress. If you work hard yourself, you give your heart to English you will learn

quite quickly and after years and years of practice your English will be amazing. And

I will do my best to help you get there because we’re going to be together for a very long

time my friends. I’m going to help as many of you as possible.