John (仮) 's note

I started this blog without deep strategies.

Just started.

It's IS a good thing.

"Just do it!" What a sweet phrase is that?

However, I believe I need to come up with a plan now.

Otherwise, how can I avoid being lost?

Time is precious, so I started without a plan, and I make my plan now for the same reason.

What my goal should be?

How will I achieve that?

To finish my long run, those questions should be answered.

2 goals

There are two goals I want to achieve.

1. Be able to read a self-improvement book for 1 hour with ease

2. Have enough skills to communicate with native speakers at forums in English 

Why those goals?

Because I want to sustain English skills I will obtain.

The true test that await us starts after we improve our skills.

As long as we keep learning, our skills increase, which means they will decrease when we stop learning, and we don't want to keep spending time on learning for the whole life.

This dilemma is perfectly solved by using those skills.

We don't have to spend extra time, and we can still sustain the skills.

Therefore, I want to have clear ideas of how to use skills I'm learning.

In Japan, the easiest and most helpful way to use English is to read.

There're so many books and websites that I want to read so one of my goals is "be able to read with ease".

The second goal is to maintain my writing skill and to access to more information.

I will be writing in English everyday for this month, but I'm not sure whether or not I will write after this month.

That is why, I will start practicing another usage of my writing skill before it starts lusting.

How to achieve that.

To be able to read a serious book easily, I'm going to do following things.

1. Read at least 1 hour everyday.
I will start with easy books(or even comics) first to keep reading for 1 hour, in the meantime, I write down(or copy and paste) phrases and grammars I don't get.

2. Check phrases and grammars I wrote down.
This is the technique, I've been wanting to try.

3. Write a blog post using things I learn from the books
Here's where this blog comes.

I'm gonna try those 3 steps to achieve the 1st goal.

For the 2nd goal, I think I will start commenting on forums or blog-like websites, like Medium.

I'm not fully sure what I'm gonna do about it yet, but like everyone say "Just do it!"

I keep track of this plan.

Hope I can tell positive news at the end of the month.

Thank you,
John（仮）

Once we understand English a little, it's wiser to learn it in English for 2 reasons.

1. If we use more, we learn more!
2. Any activities have more options in English.

That's why I'd like to share nice websites today.


FLUENT iN 3 MONTHS

Do you remember the video i showed in another post?

The guy from that video runs this website.

It seems pretty sophisticated.

You can find many language hacks, useful resources, and interesting articles.

To bloggers, I think it's a nice text book for blogging too.


Urban dictionary

It's a online dictionary people can edit like Wikipedia.

I don't think the idea itself isn't really fascinating.

But when it comes to slangs, this is the best, I reckon.

I mean, where else can you find a dictionary that shows you an ESSAY for a word "noob"?

Okay, this is what Google says about "noob" when you ask him.

noob

nuːb/

noun

informal

noun: noob; plural noun: noobs

1. a person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially computing or the use of the Internet.

noob meaning:Google

Clear and short, right?

This is what Urban dictionary

noob:Urban dictionary

Please, check it yourself. It's a way too long....


italki

Do you like RareJob or DMM Eikaiwa?

Then let me introduce the pioneer of them, italki!

This company was established in 2005, while Rarejob was started 2 years later.

In terms of the lesson fee, it's little expensive, but the website allows students to practice not only English, but most of languages, which means WE can be a teacher too.

It might be interesting to get connections with native English speakers while earning money.

Before the end

Actually, there're more websites i want to share, but I need to take a bath.

I think if we use English, things get more interesting.

There are sooo many options available in English because of a simpl reason.

Over 800 million people use English while only 127 million people speak Japanese.

It's a huge difference, right?

On top of that, we can FEEL our skills by suing it!


Thank you,
John（仮）

But it's not like I'm sick of English: I need more input to output.

The environment around me makes what I output.

It seems I'm don't have enough input.

Power of the environment 

Most of skills can be obtained by setting the environment.

Many people believe if you study abroad, you can master a language.

It's half true and half false.

The truth is if you study abroad and GO OUTSIDE, you can master a language.

I know many students who stayed in her/his room most of time and learnt nothing.

Which means that the most important factor is the environment you are trying to built.

Therefore, I'm pondering what environment I'm going to built and how.

Things I'm going to consume

Ted is definitely one of input I'm going to have as a part of my environment.

It has many great presentations which means I won't only learn great English, but great knowledge too.



The video I showed before is actually from Ted.

Most of videos even have both English and Japanese subtitles, so you can enjoy them no matter what level you are on.



This is the video I so enjoyed yesterday.

I totally understood that, in an airplane, why I should never greet to my friend like "Hi, Jack!" although his name is actually Jack.

It's all depending on me

Where I live easily influence my environment, but it doesn't decide all.

After all, what I want is the most influential factor.

Because I know that, I think it's not very constructive to blame others.

With this thought, I feee some pressure, but at the same time, I feel the excitement.

I can choose who I will be.

Isn't it great?


Thank you,
John（仮）

To Japanese, and some native English speakers who didn't have to learn, learn a new language can be scary.

It takes long time and huge costs.

Or maybe not.

Perhaps people live in the shadow of fear that learning a language is a scary thing.

Whether or not that's true , be a bilingual is a good thing.

It doesn't only increase our potential income, but it also clearly improves our brain.

On top of that, learning may not be as hard as we fear.

Benefits of learning

If you can speak more than one language, you can travel easily.

But that's not the only benefit you can get.

Your brain will be better.

Memory, Concentration, and task switching are few of them that get better.

Some article points out that bilinguals in the U.S earn 20% higher than monolinguals in average.

How the Brain Benefits from Being Bilingual:Lifehack

It is HARD, but not impossible 

In this video, Chris Lonsdale told us we can learn a language in six months.

Do you think it's impossible?

You think like "hmm, he seems smart. Maybe he can, but..." or something like that?

Then how about this?



He says we can be fluent in 3 months!

3 months!

And he doesn't seem too smart to learn(No offence!).

Of course, they require us to spend a lot of time during those months.

But if we can really learn a new language in several months, the whole world look different.

If we want go to Netherland and enjoy chatting with locals, then have some time beforehand.

What we need is correct and intense learning time.

Focus on it for 6 months, then we are all good.

What is REALY scary?

When we play sports seriously, coaches are supposed to know the basics of muscles.

But English teachers don't know how brain learn a language.

THAT makes learning SCARY and inefficient.

If we learn what we need by ourselves and implement a learning plan accordingly, maybe learning a new language isn't scary.