Is There A Correct Way To Learn English?

is there a correct way to learn English this is a great question it might be a question that you've asked yourself at some point in time because I assume everyone watching this video is an English learner and the reason why I want to talk about this today is because I recently had a conversation with a student of mine who's also a follower um and he told me that uh one thing that he didn't like about classes that he took with other English teachers was that uh these other teachers often tried to sell him not literally

sell but they tried to uh tell him that there was a best way to learn English that he should do this because this method is better than whatever method he was using he didn't like that and one of the reasons why he wanted to take classes with me was because he knew that I've talked a lot about the fact that uh my way of language learning my way of learning languages is not what I think to be the best way for everyone I've mentioned that on multiple occasions and so you probably already know my answer

to this question just based on this intro uh in my opinion there is not necessarily a best way to learn any language however I'm not just going to stop there and tell you do whatever you want uh there's no point in discussing this go home I want to talk about this topic I think it's really important I think it will help us all as language learners to really understand our own process what might work for us what might not work for us and why in my opinion there isn't just one correct way one top best

way to learn English okay I'm sure you'll enjoy this video before we start remember to subscribe and hit the little bell so that you get notified uh when I post new videos and uh stay till the end and I'll talk to you about my training and the advanced episodes I have my other podcast all of that as always I'll save that till the end uh I think most of you watch Until the End right I thank you for that all right let's talk about this um why why even discuss this topic if uh the answer

for me is no um there's not a best way why do I want to talk about it well one of the the main reasons is because many people many teachers language Learners polyglots professors just your average Joe as we say the average guy on the street he might tell you all these people might tell you that there is one best way right I've heard this they might not say it like that but basically uh the way that they talk about language learning implies that there is a correct way and that the other ways are inferior

maybe even uh vastly inferior to that uh best way right and so because of this there can be a lot of stress when learning a language in your case you might deal with a lot of stress with your English learning because you ask yourself the question am I doing the right thing am I using my time wisely am I using the correct method I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about I get this question all the time and people are really stressed about it they don't want to waste their time and they think

they might be doing the wrong thing they need to know what the best method is what is the best way to learn English and those are all those are legit questions of course but the stress involved in that is not good it's detrimental to our language learning because if you constantly have that stress and ask yourself that question am I really doing the right thing am I using the right method you're probably not going to stick to any method you're going to try this and try that and try this and I like trying different methods

that's not bad but your reason for doing that is maybe not the best you're you're trying to find um the method that you should be using because you're using the wrong method now it makes you feel negative about your learning and when you have this stress it's probably not going to allow you to progress as quickly as if you maybe never asked yourself this question and you just followed one route and you had fun and didn't stress that might be better right so uh it's important to talk about this because many of you uh might

be stressed about this you might start to doubt whether you're making progress you might think no I'm probably doing everything wrong I don't think I'm making progress you might just think you're studying is all in vain it's just for nothing I don't want you to have these feelings so it's important to talk about this uh and this is similar to like nutrition and exercise for me I've talked about this a number of times in different episodes how I'm a firm believer in the idea that there is no one best way to eat uh or maybe

exercise as well but I'll use eating as an example uh there's probably not just one best way way to eat that's good for everyone okay people have different allergies people's bodies react differently to different foods they get bloated from certain foods they uh feel whatever negative thing they feel when they eat certain foods and then another person might eat those same foods and they feel great okay nutrition is something people get really passionate about and it's hard to talk to people about this sometimes and that's a little strange because it's food right that probably shouldn't

be the number one heated topic that we get passionate about but people can really like just be adamant about the fact that this way of eating is the correct way and every other way is wrong right I'm sure you know what I'm talking about and I just don't believe that's the case I just don't buy that okay for me it's the same thing with language learning all right um so it's kind of similar to that uh I'm not an expert in nutrition or exercise or even languages I don't have a PhD or whatever but my

humble opinion is that when it comes to things like this not everything but things like this there's no one best way okay so let's talk a little more about this if you've interacted uh with different people learner language Learners uh polyglots teacher language teachers if you've listened to them talk on YouTube or whatever you'll notice that they all have different methods and they do different activities in their own learning obviously there's a lot of overlap of course two people might do very similar things but they're probably not doing the same exact thing for the same

amount of time in their language learning schedule okay there's there are differences all right so it's not just that but for example I've known people who have had complete opposite approaches to language learning I've known people that had the approach where they speak from day one you know some people like to do that they like to speak from the very beginning right when they're starting speak from day one just speak speak speak and they've uh been able to become fluent in that language that they're learning after a while obviously I've known other people however that

excuse me uh these people did not even say anything talk to anyone for one to two years when they started they didn't have a single conversation for a year and a half for example and then they became fluent as well so they had exact opposite approaches and yet they both arrived at the same destination how is that possible if there's only one right way if there's only one right way then these people must be lying because uh they have both you know said that they have these different approaches and I can see that they're fluent

I can hear that they're fluent so I think that's just proof that there's no one right way okay um people that are professionals at this I'll call them these polyglots who are uh really impressive with how much effort and work they put into this how they've refined their language learning routine and um what they do uh these are people we should consult for advice in my opinion but these people will disagree among themselves okay you'll find uh these really incredible polyglots that have completely different language learning routines they might even disagree on certain fundamentals of

language learning some of them might be more input focused where they Place more emphasis on what you're consuming what you're listening to and reading and other polyglots are more output focused where they say speak from day one this is the best thing for you produce write they'll say the exact I don't want to say the opposite but they'll focus on these kind of opposite ends of the spectrum okay but they're all polyglots they've all succeeded in what they've done so how is that possible well because there's no one correct way to learn a language right

I myself I'm not a polyglot I'm not one of these experts uh I'm just an amateur language learner it's fun for me it's kind of part of my job now because I like to give advice on what works for me what doesn't um but I've learned learned a few languages three to be exact um to an intermediate level let's say and I'm not saying they're all at an intermediate level but at least to an intermediate level either low medium or high or whatever uh I've learned a few languages to an intermediate level uh with different

methods for each of those languages so that shows that even for me I can say that I've done come I don't want to say like that my Approach was 100% different but I've done very different things uh with these different languages and I've been able to reach at least an intermediate level in all three of them so that should show you that there's not just one way to learn so in summary there are different ways to approach language learning I don't think that can be denied okay but now let's get on let's move on to

the more interesting part of this video you might say yeah Connor I understand that's obvious but uh even though all of these different ways work there must be one best way like you might say I'm not saying that this way doesn't work or this way doesn't work but we should be able to rank them and say this they all work but this is the best way right that's a good question I agree but I disagree with this idea I'll explain I think that there's one best way for you but I don't think there's one best

way for everyone okay so two language Learners can do the same thing and have very different results I've seen this you might know people uh like this why is that how can two language Learners who both have the goal of learning whatever language uh how can they do the same thing they're in the same class they're doing the same activities whatever and you see that one is going way faster than the other in terms of their progress right why is that well um simply put the method that the two people are using is is better

for this person and not as good for this person it's pretty obvious right and um I think that the main factor this is if it's not the main factor it's a huge Factor but I think it's the main factor uh that people Overlook is uh this emotional Factor I'll call it uh everything that has to do with motivation fun enjoyment interest desire I know that we like to downplay that and we like to be more um I don't want to say scientific but we want to talk more about methods methodology what works what doesn't work

and yeah I get that we want to you we want someone to give us a plan of action right and that's a big thing as well however this emotional factor for me is a bigger element of language learning it has more consequences it is more influential uh over your your language learning career like this is what is going to make the difference okay so let's talk about this I've talked before about discipline versus motivation nowadays in um I think what you'll hear a lot when you hear people in different domains talk about um you know

achieving success or whatever they'll talk about discipline okay and they'll downplay motivation they'll say oh you know motivation is fleeting it can be here one day and it's gone the next day it goes up and down and I agree with that obviously uh and I agree with the fact that discipline is vital right just you know having the plan sticking to it doing it every day that's great that's a part of a big part of success but in my opinion there's often too much focus on discipline and not enough focus on this other emotional Factor

uh I'll talk specifically about language learning um I don't know about every discipline but talking about language learning okay uh I've given this example before I did an Italian challenge I learned Italian for a 100 days if I remember correctly um and I didn't want to learn Italian I did it because I was trying to help some friends of mine who are English speakers that wanted to learn a language they wanted to learn Spanish and I wanted to replic at this U as closely as possible but I already speak Spanish so I chose Italian because

that's the one romance language that I didn't have any knowledge of and I tried to build like uh a plan for them to follow for a 100 days and I wanted to do it first because I don't want to just give you advice if I don't know whether or not it works I'm gonna do it test it and give my feedback right so I learned Italian for a hundred days for like two hours a day it was a pretty big commitment uh and like I said I didn't really want to learn Italian but I was

excited about doing this challenge because I thought it would really help me uh develop my own ideas my own philosophy about language learning uh I like to experiment and see what works what doesn't work so I was excited for that reason and for the first 50 days I was motivated I was excited and I made a lot of progress actually I was pretty impressed the second 50 days not so much and why is that I did the same thing for the 100 days I literally uh I I skipped a few days but then I added

some days afterwards but I was very very dis iined I did exactly what I said I would do I showed up every day to my Italian practice and I did it h and I continued this for the whole period I didn't quit I was extremely disciplined however my results just went way down during the second half why because my motivation dropped my enjoyment dropped the fun I was having in the first 50 days dropped my desire dropped everything dropped but I stayed disciplined I I tried my best to focus I couldn't focus as much because

of you know my lack of interest um but I stayed disciplined I just did it every day but that wasn't enough okay what was a bigger factor for me was the emotional factor that I had in the first 50 days it was exciting ing I was happy to do this I was just motivated I was having fun that was a much bigger factor for me uh I can I like I'm happy I did that uh challenge now because I can use that as a perfect study it's like an experiment right I didn't mean for it

to have this uh result uh but you know it's cool now to be able to use this as an example to back up my my theory about uh there not being one right way to learn a language for you know that is valid for everyone right this emotional factor is going to determine what works best for us and what doesn't work okay so this emotional factor is the most important one for me for a few reasons number one you won't stick to a structured method if you don't like it I did this for Italian but

uh most people would not continue on with it I did it cuz I I promised this to my friends and so I had other reasons but uh normally uh you won't stick to that method if you don't like it right um it's not like going to work where you earn a paycheck every day and you go even though you don't like your job uh because you have to go you need that pay check you need that money that's not the same as this right um for most of you uh if you don't learn English uh

like that doesn't mean that you're not going to eat tomorrow because you have no money right yes there are probably negative effects maybe it'll negatively affect your career your life your whatever um but it's not just this immediate thing like oh if I don't go to work I don't get paid I don't eat right that's different discipline without motivation can still kind of work in that case when it comes to language learning if you're not uh if you don't have the desire interest enjoyment motivation the fun when you're doing it you won't stick to that

method okay you're just going to stop most of you will probably just stop okay that's one one thing number two you'll end up doing more language study if you're having fun so you'll actually increase the amount of time you spend with the language if it's enjoyable for you I'm sure for a lot of you uh watching Netflix or uh prime or whatever the streaming service you use is watching that is probably pretty enjoyable right and so it's not hard for you to do uh two hours of that instead of one probably that's probably not a

lot of effort because you're enjoying it right you lose track of the time the same thing goes for language learning maybe not to that extent uh you know it's very hard to find an activity that's um you know as enjoyable as just watching TV and doing nothing but I think language learning can be really enjoyable and it you can end up just doing more of it than you even planned and that's a good thing in my opinion so um if you're having fun with it if your desire is just really high you're motivated you'll do

more language learning you'll spend more time with English and number three if you uh have the desire the interest the motivation Etc you'll remember more things that you actually study and that you hear you'll make more emotional connections to words and phrases like uh uh you'll uh establish these connections that will help you remember things okay that's kind of what happens when you have uh the the motivation the desire the interest really in something when you're listening to something really interesting you're super engaged you're probably going to remember more from that video you're going to

connect to that video or audio or whatever more than if you're just listening to something that's uh just the news from today so establishing that emotional connection helps you remember things you remember words better possibly and you just learn better overall okay you learn better if your interest level is high so if you have two methods this one is scientifically better right but this one is more enjoyable and you have more fun with it right so this one you don't have fun this one you do but this is the scientifically better method okay I would

bet that this method is actually gonna work better for you than this method okay so this is just my theory but I think I've seen evidence of this in my own life and for other people that even if we could establish that okay this is the best method that still wouldn't solve everyone's problem because you might not like that method and so the emotional thing the emotional Factor um will just help you learn better regardless of the method even if you have an inferior method if you really like it it's probably going to work better

for you so just to sum up everything um there's no in my opinion there's no best way to learn a language that's for everyone but there is a best way for you in particular and you can discover that slowly and that changes over time depending on what you're interested in what you like doing what motivates you there were certain things I did in the past in my language learning that aren't as interesting to me now but I really liked doing them in the past and there are things I do now that are more interesting for

me now than they were in the past so this doesn't just stay the same your whole life probably right this can change and you can follow your uh your interests when it comes to this I think that's pretty cool uh yes there are some things that will probably produce better results than other things like objectively speaking there are certain activities that might produce results more quickly right if you go and live in a country and live with a family that only speaks the language in that country that will probably get you progressing faster than if

you do just 30 minutes U lying in bed at night of that language obviously objectively speaking that first situation will probably produce results faster but you might not like it you might not want to do that you might not have the money uh to do that so why even talk about that so just not talking about extremes like that but just other methods um you know if we compare them yeah maybe on average one method produces better results than the other one but really you should follow your interest because your interest your desire will make

up a a bad method better than let's say a good method that you don't like that's my opinion okay um so even though I don't think there's one best way for everyone I will still continue talking about my experience my preferences when it comes to language learning my opinions why because many people have benefited from this type of approach that I like they tell me that every day and I want people to um you know benefit from this if this is the type of approach that is interesting for them that's fun for them right not

everyone is going to like my Approach and those people might watch one video and then they go do something they find some other uh teacher who has a different method and that's great okay my method my Approach is not the best one for everyone um there are many people that will have a different approach that works better for them but I think that the way I like learning languages is it helps a lot of people a lot of people like it and so I'm not an expert in it I'm just I just do it you

know and I create content uh for this but um I think that you know my experience uh my opinions can be valuable for people so I'll still talk uh about my language learning what I think my theories but I'll usually uh add you know something to the effect of other people might say something else and that can be valid too this is just what works for me what I like so um I think you get the point I hope that you enjoyed uh this video and let me know in the comments what you think about

this maybe you disagree with me and that's fine let me know um remember that you can get my training for example if you want to pronounce words and phrases more like I do or other native speakers do then you'll be really interested in my pronunciation seminars so you can check those out you can check out my Advanced episodes uh and other training by clicking on the link down below and you can also check out my us conversations podcast in which I talk to people from um all around the us about different topics it's a lot

of fun it's great practice for your listening so you'll definitely want to check that out that link is also down below and thank you all for watching this video as always and remember to click on the little bell uh share this video If you think someone else might find it useful share it and I'll talk to you in the next one