English at home”, this is the lesson for you, and not just for you but a lot more students

like you. Hi everyone my name is Hridhaan and I welcome you all with a very big heart

on Let’s Talk. In today’s lesson I bring to you some of the most important tips that

I used, when I started communicating in English. These tips will help you get better at your

communication skills. The first one that we have on the list is Focus, focus, “focus

on communication skills”. English vocabulary is vast, grammar has lot of rules and pronunciation

on top has a lot of content… how much can we understand? If you dive into the see, you

would not have one day when you’d be given a certification telling you that you are perfect

in communication. And thus what we need to understand is whatever limited knowledge that

we have today, we need to start learning and making use of those skills to start communicating

with people, because today’s practice is going to give us fruits later and so the most

important thing that we need to start doing from today is forget about the rules, and

start focusing on communication which intern will give us direct fluency and communication

skills. The next tip that I have for you is, “don’t translate everything”. Now when

I was learning how to teach English in the UK, I had a professor named Mr. Declan Cooley,

in one of the classes he once told me, Hridhaan, we do not translate from our mother tongue

to English language. I asked him, why? Declan said, It’s very important for us to understand

that the rules in my mother tongue are very different than the rules in the second language

or foreign language that is English. So the rules of English grammar are different from

the rules of my mother tongue. I cannot combined it together and translate everything word-to-word.

And the teachers who do that, it’s a very didactic procedure my friends and it’s a

failed procedure. How long can we go by doing so? A paragraph or a conversation… but nothing

more than that to be honest. We really, really need to understand the fact that direct translation

is a failed method and we should not translate everything from our mother tongue to English

language directly. There is no direct translation to, ‘aap’, ‘tum’, ‘tu’ in English,

it is all referred to as ‘you’ in English language. On the other hand if you are reading

an English text, and trying to translate it in your native language, it might not be as

bad, it will probably waste your time and confuse you a bit more but at least it won’t

confuse the person you’re speaking to. The next tip that I have for you in the list is

“watch or learn English only from those who you want to speak like” in future. When

I started out, I used to watch a lot of videos on YouTube of those particular people that

I used to admire a lot and I thought, what amazing speakers… So I think you must do

that as well, to kind of, learn from them. Now let us look at the next tip, the next

tip is “technology is your friend, so use it”. As you’ve probably noticed from the

tips and the lessons that we have shared on Let’s Talk, the internet is a great tool

in language learning. There’s no denial of the fact that today’s blogs, videos and

English websites can be used learn English much more faster and better manner. I said

that there was no magic technique for learning English, but if we imaging internet as one

place as the closest thing to a magic pill or programme, I wouldn’t be wrong if I say

so. This platform helps you develop your communication skills in such a manner that, no book can

possibly provide you. So keep on using Wikipedia and other websites such as Let’s Talk and

learnex to get better at your communication skills. The next tip that I have for you is,

“Listen to real English”. Train your ears by listening to English spoken by native speakers,

or English podcasts which are full on Let’s Talk website. Also practice without seeing

written down words, which is also a very big hindrance when it comes to communication.

Because all your attention goes to those words without basically activating your listening

skills. So may be stop doing that, it’s time for you to listen and watch songs and

movies without subtitles. Next tip that I have for you is, “surround yourself with

English People”. You don’t need to be in an English speaking country to surround

yourself with English friends, finds ways to make English part of your everyday life

at home. Like speaking English when you’re going shopping, speaking with the shopping

executive, for example, speaking English on a metro, speaking English when you are looking

for directions with people on road, speaking English with strangers most importantly. What

will happen in the end of the day? They will say, that you are trying to speak in English,

and that is all, and that is all. The next tip is “listen, speak, read, write and repeat”

Listen to a speaker, speak in English, read as much as possible in English, it could be

novels, it could be books that you like, and most importantly write your WhatsApp messages

In English. Everything that you do basically has to be in English for you to get better

at your English at home. The next tip is, “discover what type of learner you are”.

Are you an auditory learner, who learns things better by listening to things? Are you visual

learner, who learns things by looking at things, by watching videos? So if you think that you

are a better learner, you learn things when you listen to them, I suggest you find ways

to listen to English just there by improving your English. Or if you think that you’ll

learn by looking at videos, then you should watch a lot of videos. So decide for yourself.

“Keep a language log or a journal” is the next tip that I have for you. Writing

as much as possible can be very, very interesting. Now one should only follow this tip when that

person is interested in it. Of course nobody can force you to write, and therefore it is

very, very important for you to do it only when you really feel like, that you are interested

in doing that. For example, it’s always a good idea to write down you are feeling

probably when you are very ecstatic, very happy or if you are in sorrow, God forbid…

So it’s always a good idea to jot down your feelings, because it really helps you, think

deeply and write sentences in the correct format. Additionally if you look back in earlier

entries in your English log, you will be able to reflect at how far you have come basically,

and this will also get you better in terms of getting motivated most importantly. For

example if I have to tell you about the latest journal that I was writing, I have this very

amazing book, wherein, my diary, wherein I write the golden moments of the day. So I

write the top three things that happened with me all in English, this helps me get better

at my vocabulary and also my thinking skills as well. The next tip is “know your level

to improve your level”. This is similar to the previous tip that I’ve spoken about,

but in order to recognize your limitations, you need to first understand where you are

in your present situation. Tests are always fun. Go to a language center or go to a website

where you get free English test are conducted, and get to know what is your current level

of English. Once that is done, start speaking in English, give yourself like six months

or one month, 1-6 months, check your level again and see if you have improved or not.

It will again help you in motivating you as a learner and will help you get better at

your communication skills and will also help you in understanding the areas that you have

to work basically on yourself to become better in English communications. Next is “pay

attention to pronunciation from the beginning”. I can’t tell you, how important this tip

is… This is basically combining tip six and seven into one concrete information. And

that is one concrete advice and that is if you start pronouncing things wrongly from

a very nascent stage, from the beginning, it will become your habit. Later you would

not even realize that you might be speaking perfect English but your communication sends

across a wrong message. Use great tools such as, a lot of videos on Let’s Talk and on

lot of other channels and platform to help you get better at communication skills, but

remember, only, only learn pronunciation from those people who you think are experts at

it. Anybody who starts to teach might as well not be an expert. So choose your tutor accordingly.

Next tip is, “tone on music, in English”. Rhythms and rhythms have been found to stimulate

and train your brain to improve learning and therefore it is very important for you to

listen to some good English songs. They not only help you with your pronunciation but

also help you in getting better at vocabulary. And the last tip for the day that I have for

in the list of learning English at home is, “Watch movies and carefully notice with

active listening skills”. The dialogues and the keywords that the characters, basically

say during those films. What will happen because of this is, (a) you do not have words displayed

on the screen, which basically takes your attention away in a much larger manner. I’m

talking about subtitles. So once there are no subtitles, you would basically have your

active ears. Just try to understand and make out what the speaker is trying to communicate,

and therefore it is very important for you to have active listening skills, which will

help you get better at listening anyway in your English communication. That is all that

I have for you in today’s lesson of the daily routing that you can start to follow

when it comes to learning English at home. I hope you enjoyed these tips and will use

one, two or three or all of them to get better at your communication skills. Thank you very

much for being with me and I hope you have a great day ahead, God bless.