you'll never speak English well Mato it's just not for you my cousin Carlos said with a mean smile his words echoed in my mind we were standing in the living room my face flushed with embarrassment as he mocked my broken English in front of the whole family that day I decided something I was going to learn how to speak English fluently no matter how hard it got hello I'm Matteo Garcia I've been learning learning English since I was a teenager and it's been quite the journey in today's Global World mastering English isn't just a luxury
it's a necessity if you want to communicate and connect comfortably I now use English daily and it feels natural but it wasn't always this way in fact English and I didn't get along very well at the start the beginning was tough full of struggles and frustration but I always had a clear Clear Vision of myself speaking it fluidly one day and that Vision kept me going like a runner pushing through the last mile of a marathon I couldn't always see the finish line but I knew if I kept going I'd get there eventually today I
want to share my personal journey of learning English the obstacles I overcame and the valuable lessons I picked up along the way I hope my experiences will help you in your own journey to improve the language let me take you back to my school days picture this I'm sitting in class and my English teacher Mrs Ramirez is staring at me with wide eyes why because I had just confidently pronounced Island as easeland as if the S had every right to be there yeah I was that student you see I had been learning English for nearly
2 years but it felt like the words were playing a game of hide and seek with my brain they'd come in but somehow they never stayed my English classes weren't much help either to be honest I felt like the whole school system had tricked me I thought school was supposed to teach me things instead I was more confused than ever Mrs Ramirez with her thick Spanish accent made every English word sound like Spanish and instead of practicing real conversations we spent most of the time repeating boring grammar rules and reading texts that even she seemed
to hate I felt like I was stuck in a language maze my pronunciation a disaster tenses forget about it and don't get me started on phrasal verbs why did look up mean to search for something shouldn't it mean to look up it felt like English was trying to trick me on purpose yet despite all of that frustration I was still determined to learn something inside me just wouldn't give up I dreamed of speaking fluently one day of having easy flowing conversations without breaking a sweat I even imagined myself walking through New York City talking like
a native at the time I couldn't see how it would ever happen but deep down I knew it would somehow and guess what it did now let me tell you how it all turned around you're going to love this let me share the first thing I learned consistency is key this brings me to lesson number one make English a daily habit let me tell you the one thing that made all the difference in my English journey I practiced every single day yes every day it might sound simple but it's the biggest secret to learning any
language especially English I like to think of it as the domino effect of language learning the more you practice the quicker everything starts to fall into place when I first started I set aside just 30 minutes each day that's it I wasn't trying to become an expert overnight but those 30 minutes added up fast imagine this if you practice 30 minutes a day by the end of the year you'll have spent over 180 hours learning English that's a a lot of improvement the trick is to stick with it every single day no matter what some
days you'll feel like doing an hour other days maybe just 10 minutes that's okay as long as you don't skip a day consistency is everything need a little extra push write yourself reminders I used to have Post-it notes everywhere practice English today don't forget your 30 minutes it was like having my own own personal cheerleaders in sticky not form now I know there are going to be days when you really don't want to study trust me I've been there but here's a little trick I used just tell yourself to start for 2 minutes that's it
2 minutes once you get started you'll find that it's a lot easier to keep going before you know it you finished your 30 minutes and maybe even more the hardest part is getting started but once you make it a habit you'll notice how much easier it becomes soon you'll feel that progress building and believe me that's when things start to get exciting keep at it and before you know it you'll be speaking English with confidence lesson number two get your pronunciation right from the day one ever had one of those moments when you confidently say
a word in English and then someone gives you that look the one that says what did you just say yeah I've been there too it's like the time I proudly asked for a bowl of soap instead of soup at a restaurant the waiter paused and I realized I had made a mistake a bubbly mistake so how do you avoid these awkward moments simple focus on pronunciation from day one it might sound boring but trust me this is where the magic happens I learned this the hard way when my American teacher Mr Parker kindly pointed out
that my version of comfortable sounded more like comfortable and I was convinced salmon had an L that needed to be pronounced spoiler alert it doesn't Mr Parker's advice was simple but lifechanging start working on pronunciation right from the beginning English pronunciation is like a tricky puzzle especially for a native Spanish speaker like me words like thought though and tough look like they should sound the same but trust me they don't and vowels don't even get me started for the longest time I thought ship and sheep were identical but Mr Parker wasn't going to let me
off the hook he made me read out loud correct myself and practice over and over it was embarrassing at first I mean who likes hearing their own voice making mistakes but the more I did it the better I got I even started talking to myself in English yes I know that sounds weird but it worked the key Mr Parker said was to choose an accent whether American British or Australian and stick with it I picked American since that's what he spoke and I made it my mission to sound as natural as possible I mimicked every
word every sound until it started to feel less like a foreign language and more like native over time things started to click words I used to trip over became smoother my pronunciation improved and soon enough I was sounding more like the fluid speaker I had always wanted to be so here's my advice don't ignore pronunciation start working on it from the beginning pick an accent and stick with it and don't be afraid to make mistakes they're part of the journey before you know it you'll be speaking with confidence just like I did lesson number three
learn in a balanced way just like a plant needs water sunlight and care to grow learning a language requires a balanced approach a language needs four important skills to fully develop reading listening speaking and writing every one of these skills matters when someone says they speak a foreign language we often assume they can also read write and understand what's being said to them but learning a new language doesn't work so perfectly it's different from how we learned our first language as babies we first hear people talking then we start saying words and only later do
we learn to read and write with a new language it's not all always that smooth you might get really good at one skill but struggle with another for example you might be great at reading English but when it comes to speaking it's a whole different story or maybe you speak fluently but still make mistakes when writing it's like following a recipe if you only focus on one ingredient like adding too much salt and ignoring everything else the dish won't taste right that's why it's so important to work on all four skills at the same time
especially in English English has tricky spelling and pronunciation so if you don't practice reading and writing early on it's easy to get confused when you practice all the skills you start seeing how they connect writing helps with speaking listening improves reading and so on you don't have to do everything every day but it's good to mix them all fall into your weekly routine maybe one day you focus on reading another day on listening and so on the great thing is there are fun easy ways to practice like watching shows with subtitles or reading while listening
to Audi books you'll be improving two skills at once and it doesn't even feel like work just remember balance is tea keep working on all four skills and soon you'll notice your English getting stronger across the board lesson number four binge watch your way to better English let me tell you movies were my secret weapon when I was struggling to learn English I still remember the first time I watched The Avengers without subtitles I was so lost Tony Stark was throwing all these jokes and I was just sitting there like what did he say but
I didn't give up I started with movies I loved simple ones like animations or action films where the plot was easy to follow I'd watch them with English subtitles so I could match what I was hearing to the words over time I noticed something amazing I didn't need to pause every 5 Seconds to understand I could actually follow the dialogue and the coolest part I started picking up common phrases and slang that textbooks never taught me phrases like what's what up or you nailed it started making sense in real conversations I even found myself mimicking
the way character spoke because let's face it who doesn't want to sound cool like Iron Man so if you love movies why not use them to learn start with one movie a week something you enjoy and don't stress about understanding every word just let the language sink in naturally you'll be surprised at how much you can pick up oh and pro tip keep track of the movies you watch trust me it's motivating to see your learning list fill up and who doesn't love feeling accomplished while watching a good film lesson number five track it to
hack it now I'm not the most organized person but keeping a log book saved me from feeling like I was making no progress let's be real learning a language can feel like you're walking through mud sometimes you try so hard but you're not sure if you're moving forward that's where the log book comes in every time I learned a new word or phrase I jot it down not just the word itself but how I learned it for example I once wrote learned gorgeous while watching friends Ross used it to describe Rachel that way I had
a story to connect with the word and trust me it helps when you have a funny or personal memory tied to it over time looking back at the words I wrote made me feel like I was really improving I could see my vocabulary growing and it gave me motivation to keep going it's like when you start working out and don't see any changes at first but then you notice your clothes fit better it's proof that all the hard work is paying off the log book is your personal tracker for language gains lesson number six stop
studying start speaking at some point I realized that English wasn't just something to study anymore it had to become something I used every day this didn't happen overnight I remember one day after months of studying grammar I got stuck in a conversation with a tourist at a cafe I was so focused on remembering the right verb tense that I barely responded to what they were actually saying that's when it hit me learning a language isn't just about getting every sentence right it's about communication so I stopped obsessing over being perfect and started practicing more in
real life situations I'd speak to tourists in my hometown join online forums or even chat with English-speaking colleagues the more I used the language the more natural it felt I still remember the first time I gave a presentation at work in English my hands were shaking but I did it after that I realized that the more I put myself out there the easier it got it's like riding a bike at first you're wobbly and nervous but once you get the hang of it you just go so don't wait until you feel ready to use English
start now whether it's talking to a friend or writing an email just use it the more you practice the more it will feel like second nature lesson number seven grow your English with real connections this one is a game changer when I first started learning English I mostly studied on my own but it wasn't until I started making friends who spoke English that I really saw my skills improve I met Mike an american guy living in my city and we clicked right right away hanging out with him was like getting free English lessons but in
a fun way we'd grab coffee talk about football movies or whatever was going on and through those conversations I learned how people really speak he'd laugh at some of my mistakes but he'd also correct me which helped me get better plus having a friend who spoke English meant I was practicing without even thinking about it it wasn't just about the language though it was the culture I learned how Americans joke around what they talk about and even how they express themselves these are things you can't learn from a textbook building friendships with English speakers doesn't
just help with fluency it helps you understand the language on a deeper level if you don't have English speaking friends yet don't worry there are tons of ways to meet people online through language exchange apps social media or even local meetups I promise having friends to practice with makes all the difference and who knows you might even end up with lifelong friendships that make the whole process so much more enjoyable so here's the deal learning English isn't just about hitting the books or memorizing words it's about integrating it into your life watch movies keep a
l book to track your progress use the language every chance you get and most importantly build relationships with people who speak it before you know it English won't feel like just another subject it'll become a natural part of your daily life woven into everything you do and along the way you'll have a lot of fun you will make great friends and maybe even change your life in ways you didn't expect your progress doesn't end here to continue advancing your English skills click on the next video or explore the additional videos we've thoughtfully selected for you
