9 TECHNIQUES TO HELP YOU MASTER ENGLISH IDIOMS

today I'm going to teach you nine techniques that will help you master English idioms are you ready well then I'm teacher Tiffany let's Jump Right In technique number one contextual learning now this technique involves studying idioms within real life situations using authentic materials like books movies and podcast fast learning idioms can be very tricky at times but when you learn them in real situations it will help you not only understand them but start to use them faster for example let's say you learned this idiom on cloud n now just saying that idiom it sounds like

okay there are nine clouds in the sky and you're sitting on a cloud but if I told you this real life situation yesterday oh my gosh my mom she can cook true story she made this amazing banana nut bread and as it came out of the oven oh my gosh everything inside of me woo was excited I was on Cloud9 because I knew I was about to eat the best piece of banana nut bread ever you see how that changed right I told you my story a real life situation and I said I was on

cloud n as I watched the banana nut bread come out of the oven on cloud n just to means just means to be extremely happy when you learn the idiom based on a real life situation you'll remember it so here are three reasons why this technique is so powerful reason number one it helps you understand how idioms are actually used in everyday language just like with my story I said ah as I watched the banana nut bread coming out of the oven I was on cloud n and you saw my facial expression if you're watching

this lesson change a big smile came on my face you're able to see how the idioms are used in everyday language reason number two you'll pick up on the nuances and cultural context surrounding each idiom ah teacher Tiffany really likes banana nut bread true story and she really likes her mother's cooking true story and she was very excited about this banana nut bread and I watched her body language change these things help you because you're learning in context and reason number three it makes learning more engaging and memorable when you encounter idioms in relatable situations

just like I said I love banana nut bread I'm sure there's something you love something your mother made as you were growing up or maybe even makes for you right now and when she makes it oo you just get excited you get elated you are on cloud n you got that right yes all right so again technique number one is contextual learning learning the idioms in context based on real life situations technique number two chunking yeah you heard me right chunking now I said I loved technique number one but I also love this technique now

let me explain what chunking actually is so chunking is the practice of grouping related terms or concepts together for easier memorization again grouping things together so that you can remember them later did you notice earlier when I was giving you my experience about my mom making banana nut bread and I said I was on Cloud9 I also said I felt elated I was elated elated is a word that I teach students in my Academy that speak English with Tiffany Academy and it means extremely happy well on Cloud9 also means extremely happy so now we have

an idiom and a vocabulary word what's going to happen now next time when you are excited or very happy both of these terms will pop in your head the idiom and the vocabulary word this is called chunking relating terms together and learning them together so here are three reasons why this technique is so powerful first it reduces cognitive load making it easier for you to remember multiple idioms at once when you are thinking about hey happiness how can I describe happiness if you have multiple idioms that you learn at the same time chunking it will

be easier for you to remember and it won't take too much mental strain here's the second reason why this is so powerful you'll start recognizing patterns in idioms which will Aid in understanding and and recall your brain is amazing yes you my friend your brain is absolutely amazing and it can do more than you realize so when you learn by chunking the idioms together which have similar meanings your brain starts trying to make connections to help you remember them in the future and reason number three it's a time efficient way to expand your idiomatic vocabulary

quickly when you learn by chunking you're cutting down your study time but increasing your efficiency and also improving your memory this is a powerful technique so again technique number two is chunking now I mentioned a few moments ago that I teach this to my students in my Academy so if you want to join me you can get 365 daily English lessons that's right for the entire year I've organized everything for you by going to 365 or 365 English or day English plan.com one more time 365 dayenglish plan.com and you can enroll in my course and

have an entire plan for the year all right okay let's keep going here is the next technique technique number three spaced repetition again spaced repetition now this involves reviewing new terms at increasing intervals to reinforce memory for example let's say today you are going to learn six new idioms right you have six new idioms now tomorrow you can review idioms one and two then the next day you can review idioms 3 and four then the next day you can review idms 56 you can determine which ones you're going to review but there needs to be

repetition and space in between so you don't have to practice each one every day but find a system that works why is this so powerful here are three reasons why space repetition will help you learn idioms first it helps move idioms from your shortterm to your longterm memory your shortterm says okay we're learning this today and maybe we only need it for 24 hours but the moment you go back to that idiom go back to that place in your notebook your brain says oh this is more important than we realized we need to store this

information in our longterm memory reason number two you'll retain idioms for longer periods reducing the need for constant revision and reason number three it's an efficient way to learn as you focus more on idioms you find challenging you're going to improve because you're going to learn idioms that will become easy to you and then you'll learn newer idioms that are hard but you'll connect them to the other ones you've already learned so again technique number three spaced repetition technique number four again to master and learn English idioms using visual ual AIDS I love visual aids

we're human beings we're constantly looking at things unless you might be uh blind and I have some students that are blind so if you are blind this won't work for you but you might enjoy the audio aspect right finding different sounds to connect to the idioms you're learning but for those that are able to see visual aids can help you immensely now visual aids using them means representing idioms through images or mind maps think about it like this at the very beginning of this lesson I described a situation where my mom made banana nut bread

so I could find a picture of either my mom cooking or of banana nut bread and whenever I see that I say ah on Cloud9 why because banana nut bread makes me happy it makes me feel like I'm on Cloud9 that's a visual aid it's now a trigger to my brain ah that makes you happy you're on Cloud9 makes sense right excellent here are three reasons why this is such a powerful technique reason number one it caters to visual learning styles making idioms more memorable for you you'll remember them like ah yes I I remember

that I'm connecting it to a situation or an event read reason number two you'll create strong mental associations between the idiom and its meaning again you'll create these triggers basically connecting your mind uh this image this idiom now whenever I see this image I think of the idiom whenever I hear the idiom I immediately think of the image reason number three it's a fun and creative way to engage with language learning I used to use this technique when I was in South Korea and I realized that the students were getting either a little bit tired

or overwhelmed I would close the books I would say hey guys close your books and I take out some pictures I'd show some pictures on my computer and we would use those to either create sentences or I would use them to describe different words or idioms it's very powerful so again technique number four visual aids now technique number five technique number five is role playing role playing now for this one it involves practicing new expressions or idioms in simulated conversations so you can either use chat GPT now that it's being very uh widely spread now

it's widely spread right people are using it all over the world create a conversation based on the idiom and practice it with your partner or you can actually simply come up with your own conversation using the idiom which actually might work better because it'll stick in your mind longer and then actually act it out hey girl hey what's up I heard that your mom made some banana nut bread girl you heard right yes I was on Cloud9 again role play right this is what you can do to improve your ability to understand English idioms and

master them here's the first reason why this is so powerful it gives you practical experience using idioms in realistic scenarios reason number two you'll gain confidence in using idioms in actual conversations and reason number three it helps you understand the appropriate context and tone for using specific idioms role playing is extremely powerful so again technique number five role playing technique number six journaling now this is another one that I also think is powerful you see journaling means keeping a language journal to record and reflect on new vocabulary I kept tons of journals when I was

in South Korea studying Korean and I have so many of those journals in my closet I'm actually going to get some of the journals I keep now now these journals are connected that you see if you're watching the video connected to the lessons I'm teaching you right now actually but I have a journal based on the platform so I have one for Instagram one for YouTube one for Tik Tock one for my Academy why because journaling is a powerful way to not only document and remember but also track your progress journaling is very very powerful

so here are three reasons why you should journal in order to master English idioms first it provides a personal record of your Learning Journey showing your progress over time actually I want to show you a journal that I started when I first created this YouTube channel all right so this is one of my journals literally from what year is this if you're watching it you'll see but I want to show you some of the images in my journal right let's see if you can see this this is literally a journal I had when I was

starting this YouTube channel I would draw out every frame to create the lessons so what has happened we've come on this journey I'm here today but I have this why to look back at how far I've come right so it's important for you on your journey to keep a journal and you'll track your progress over time the second reason is you can revisit and review idioms easily reinforcing your learning reminding yourself Ah that's what it means this is powerful and reason number three it encourages active and engagement with the language improving retention you will retain

the information more again the power of a journal I cannot emphasize it enough that is why I have so many journals behind me for those watching and so many in my office closet so again technique number six journaling what about technique number seven technique number seven teach others again teach others so powerful Now teach others this involves explaining New Concepts to peers to solidify understanding so let's say for example you have your Journal you wrote everything down you wrote down this new idiom that you learned and then you see oh my friend wait a minute

ah should I teach him should I tell him yes hey John guess what I learned this new idiom can I teach it to you it's it's called it h where is it at again uh on cloud nine it just means really happy all of a sudden the very fact that you taught John that idiom is going to reinforce it in your mind and you will remember it later three reasons why this is so powerful the first reason it forced you to fully understand the idiom in order to explain it clearly to others because what's going

to happen as you're explaining the idiom to John hey John yeah the idiom uh on Cloud9 John is going to say oh well wait a minute can I use it whenever I'm happy the only way you're going to be able to answer his questions is if you understand it completely this is going to help you master English idioms here's the second reason why this is so powerful you'll gain confidence in your knowledge as you share it with others this is something I love I love to help you build confidence in yourself and when you teach

somebody else you'll be more confident in your ability to actually use the idiom your shoulders will go back your head will go up you'll be more confident the third reason it provid provides an opportunity for you to use the idiom in a practical conversational setting hey John I just want to talk to you real quick man let me help you understand this new idiom that I learned this is a powerful technique again teach others technique number eight technique number eight is to paraphrase it's the paraphrasing technique this means restating IDI in your own words to

check your understanding we've been talking about being on cloud N I mentioned I love my mom's banana nut bread how can you rephrase on Cloud9 I feel absolutely amazing I'm super happy at this moment rephrasing the idiom to make sure you understand it here's the first reason why this is so powerful reason number one it helps you in internalize the meaning of the idiom Beyond just memorizing it again this helps you understand the meaning of the idiom Beyond just memorizing it reason number two you'll improve your overall language skills as you practice expressing ideas in

different ways your English idioms and the English idioms you know and your ability to to use them that's not the only skill that's going to improve you're going to improve your English fluency as well and reason number three it's a great way for you to check if you truly understand the idioms meaning and usage listen when you paraphrase you actually are letting yourself know hey I really got this I really understand so again technique number eight paraphrasing technique number nine word association word association is another technique that you must understand it involves linking new terms

to familiar Concepts or personal experiences it's a little similar to chunking however this one is attached to real experiences right so word association I can say for example ah on cloud n ah okay I'm happy when I eat banana nut bread I feel really good when I eat Indian food attaching it to an experience why is this so important here's the first reason it makes abstract idioms more concrete and relatable for you number two you'll create stronger neural connections making recall easier your brain is connecting that idiom to other things already in your brain and

reason number three it personalizes your learning experience making idioms more meaningful to you this is a powerful technique again word association now I hope you enjoyed this lesson and I hope these techniques help you moving forward I will talk to you in the next lesson you still there you know what time it is it's Story Time hey I said it's story time all right so this is another story that I enjoy telling because it proves that when you are around someone who happens to be your teacher that individual can switch things up really quickly and

you might not know what in the world they're talking about so this happened when I was in South Korea I had a class they were Upper Intermediate they were about level four uh great students their English was good and I had them for my 11 a.m. class so I was teaching them we had a great time in class they had done well and class was basically ending and I decided to walk out with them because it was my lunchtime so we're walking in the hallway I'm talking with the students and I spoke regularly with them

at a normal Pace um and then as we got to the main entryway I looked up and saw another teacher my homeboy he didn't work at the same school that I worked at he worked quite far away so when I saw him I was shocked and I ran up to him and I was like yo what's good and so you know we hugged and we started talking now remember my entire class had been walking with me so they were behind me right so I'm talking to him we're just you know reminiscing and talking and catching

up and I noticed that it got really quiet in the entryway now remember my entire class was behind me so I looked back and I was like why are you guys so quiet like what's going on and I saw this look of confusion on their faces and they said TI what are you saying and I I realized oh my goodness I had just code switched so what is code switching code switching is normally when African-Americans or black people right we are able to go between different speaking Styles I'll say that right when I'm teaching you

I'm speaking very clear I'm articulating making sure you understand everything that I'm saying I'm not using too much slang some sometimes during story time I do or I'll use certain terms just to help you I guess understand native English speakers but when we get together our speech changes and our body language changes we're still speaking English but we'll use terms that we understand and that's what happened with my friend he's also a black guy but we didn't realize that it had happened he's also an he was also an English teacher but because we were kind

of in this Zone we saw each other and immediately we just started speaking in the way that we understood and in that moment I realized I have to teach my students not just the book I have to also teach them real life English I don't want you to ever be confused when you come to America or speak with another native English speaker there are certain terms we use that are not found in books so my friend and I got a good laugh out of that and I realized okay students I'll start teaching you some extra

Expressions starting tomorrow and they all laughed so I hope you enjoyed that story and I hope you have a wonderful day