This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 190 the 24-hour challenge that will make your English awesome.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection, not perfection, when it comes to learning English.
Now here are your hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and Boston, USA.
In this episode, Lindsay and Aubrey challenge you to immerse yourself in English for a full 24 hours.
What exactly should you do?
Get your full challenge schedule in this episode.
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Hey, Aubrey, what are you doing in the next 24 hours?
Not much.
I don't really have a ton going on.
I should spend some time maybe listen to a podcast in Spanish.
I should get some language practice in the next 24 hours.
All right.
That sounds good.
So we are here in today's episode.
By the way, thanks for coming on the show today.
Glad to have you here, guys.
On these episodes, you're going to hear Aubrey's voice.
You're going to hear my voice, Michelle's voice, Jessica's voice.
We have our whole team on All Ears English, but everyone's different, right, Aubrey?
We're all a little bit different.
We have different interests and hobbies, and you'll get to know us, each of us.
Yeah, I think that's one of the most fun things is just getting to know each of our personalities.
We're always sharing lots of personal details.
And yeah, you're right.
We're all very positive, outgoing people.
So it's a great way to start your day.
I know a lot of our listeners listen in the morning and it's a great start to the day.
I love it.
I love it.
Do you believe in the concept of the 24-hour challenge?
Do you think that can really push us forward towards any goal?
Yeah, for sure.
If you have 24 hours kind of free, I mean, think how you can just while away that time and waste that time if you're not proactive about spending it in a smart way.
So i think if you take that 24 hours whether that's, you know, an exercise challenge or a language learning challenge you can make it so effective if you plan out what you're going to do for that 24 hours.
Yeah, I really like the idea.
Something about the way my mind works, maybe the tunnel vision concept.
I like the idea of kind of going intensively into one thing.
I love that.
It's like you're immersing yourself into one challenge, one idea, one goal fully, and nothing else matters.
And I think you're going to feel at the end of that day it's going to feel like you really accomplished a lot because you were so targeted in one area.
Yeah.
And you can see that the needle has moved forward.
So we're going to put together for you guys today.
We're going to present a 24-hour challenge that we want you to create for yourselves.
This is so cool.
And then you can come back to episode 190 on alltheirsenglishcom and report back how this worked for you.
Right, Aubrey?
Yes, exactly.
This is going to be really fun.
And yeah, come back to the blog and leave us a comment.
Yeah, good stuff.
So how does our day start?
I would recommend choosing a Saturday or a Sunday for this, right?
Not so much a workday because we can't control what we have to do for our workday all the time.
Right.
Choose a day that you have 24 hours more free, right?
Not a day you have lots of Classes if you're studying or are working all day, right?
Whether that's a weekend or if you have a different schedule.
Find 24 hours that you have free to do this challenge.
Exactly.
So what should we do first?
Okay.
First thing in the morning, read the news in English, right?
So you may be in the habit of reading the news in your first language.
You're going to challenge yourself here and read.
You know what's happening in the world in English, whether that's getting a paper in English or just finding the news online.
Yeah, I mean, sometimes it's easier to find it online.
I would recommend the newspaper, the physical paper, because then we can sit down with our breakfast, we can put it on the table, open it up, underline words and just kind of.
I don't know.
There's something kind of cool about reading a physical paper.
We've talked about this before on the show, I think.
Yes, I used newspapers a lot when I was teaching French in the Bronx and teaching ESL, because it's just so good to be able to mark it up.
Like you said, we'd look for specifically for like adverbs or adjectives, and to be able to circle them and mark it up was so powerful.
Yeah, I used to always grab that Metro paper getting on the subway.
Did you do that too?
The Daily News.
Yes, the free papers.
And they were so good because the articles were the right length.
For a class like as a warm up activity.
They're quite short, but you did have native and local language.
You had city events going on in New York City.
That was the perfect teaching tool.
So if you live somewhere where you know that's English speaking and you can grab a paper in English,
Highly recommend that, right?
But if you don't live somewhere where it's easy to access a paper in English, just read the news online.
Not Facebook, right?
Go to maybe CNN.com somewhere and find some real meaty news.
All right.
And then we got to get ourselves out of the house because English doesn't come to us in our home all the time.
Right, Aubrey?
Sometimes when we have a goal, we got to go out there and grab it.
Yes, exactly.
Right.
Get outside.
We want your next step to be going to a coffee shop and on the way, listen to a podcast in English.
So that could be our podcast.
Of course, there are so many podcasts made for native speakers that are very interesting.
Find podcasts that intrigue you.
If you like true crime, be listening to a podcast about that.
Or if you like documentaries, make sure it's something engaging.
I love it.
And if you're in the car I mean nowadays it's easy enough to get your podcast right in your car.
I know more and more cars are coming out with an Alexa Amazon capability right in the car or your smart speakers.
They can actually play podcasts, which is so great.
We do have an Alexa skill at All Ears English, by the way, guys.
If you're in Japan or the US, you can ask Alexa for that.
Or just if you're walking, maybe you're taking the train, just put your headphones in and listen in.
Yes, exactly.
However you commute to the coffee shop, listen to a podcast on the way.
And then guys at the coffee shop.
If you live in an English speaking country, we want you to put yourself out there and start up a conversation.
With someone else who's maybe waiting for their coffee to be made or waiting in line next to you.
You know you could ask them what's good here.
Have you been here before?
Or what do you usually order?
Right.
You have that in common.
Strike up a conversation about the coffee you're going to get.
Yeah.
And I think with this, it's all about choice of location, right?
Don't go to the busiest coffee shop.
Don't go to a Starbucks because I think those can be a little impersonal.
It's like a grab and go situation.
Grab and go.
People might actually be having business meetings, even if it's on the weekend.
Go to a quieter neighborhood where there are regulars there, where maybe the barista knows you and the same people come in and out.
You're much more likely to start up a conversation in that kind of place.
Yeah, when you have other people who are in the same kind of situation, where they've got time, they don't mind chatting for a few minutes.
You might even be able to have a longer extended conversation.
Make a friend.
Yeah, I love it.
And at the very least of you, you know you could chat a bit with the baristas or making your coffee.
Sometimes baristas can be very friendly, but try to chat with someone there.
We know it's a challenge.
May not feel natural, but if you're living in the US, you should be doing this all the time.
To be honest,
Definitely.
And if you don't live in an English speaking country, find a friend to meet at that coffee shop.
Through meetup, your English speaking friend.
There are lots of expats in every country.
Find someone who speaks English and make a date with them to meet for coffee.
Oh, my gosh.
I did this all the time when I was living in Tokyo.
Almost every weekend, I had two language exchange partners.
I had this guy, Naoki.
I would meet him like three mornings a week and we would sit in a McDonald's and practice.
Absolutely.
I would get the train, go to another part of Tokyo and then get back home before work.
And then someone else I would meet on the weekends in the more fun parts of Tokyo and I'd make it an afternoon like Shinjuku Shibuya.
So after our language exchange, I would be able to go explore the city.
So make it part of your day.
Yes, I love it.
And make sure to order in English.
If you happen to go to a coffee shop and you know the barista, maybe you guys both speak the same first language, but you're also learning English.
Order in English, right?
Challenge yourself a little bit.
I love it.
And that person can help you, right?
They can help you out, help you with the menu.
So we've had our little coffee jolt.
We've had our exchange or our chat.
What are we going to do next?
Thank you so much for having me. that is the teacher is English speaking.
And so all of the instruction will be in English.
Yeah, I love it.
And like you said, we recommend Zumba.
We like that.
But you can do a lot of things.
You could even do a yoga class.
You know, yoga classes are so easy to find.
They're everywhere now, aren't they?
Yes, exactly.
And yoga class is really smart because there's a lot more instruction.
You're going to be hearing a lot more spoken English as the teacher instructs you on your breathing and the body movements right.
And so not only are you having, with Zumba, a lot of the English you hear will be the music, a little bit of instruction.
But yeah, that's smart yoga, you'd hear a lot of language.
Yeah, good point.
Good point.
I love it.
And then in the evening guys, we are going to get social, because I mean here at Allers English, our value is connection, not perfection.
So you can't study English without involving people and connections.
Exactly right.
So go to dinner with friends.
We want this to be a group situation where you're hearing group conversations, participating in this group.
So if you live in an English speaking country right, you have English speaking friends, reach out to them, make plans to go to dinner.
And if not, do this with those you have met on meetup wherever, and those events expats that you know, just plan a dinner.
You could go to a restaurant to do this.
You could host at your home.
But wherever you go, make sure you're inviting English speakers.
Yeah.
And then the way to really maximize this is don't just eat and rush away.
Guys, linger.
And I remember when we were in Paris a few years ago, we went to a very, very local restaurant.
Like they were surprised to see us there.
We heard about it through a tour guide and she actually gave us a real local place.
And we stepped in.
We were eating next to a group of friends.
French people who are all really good friends, right?
You could tell it's like eight French people.
Their dinner lasted so long.
They went out for a smoke, then came back, continued, lingered, lingered, lingered for hours.
Try to do that.
Just enjoy the company of the people.
Yes.
I love that.
Right.
I think some cultures are better at that than others.
Yeah.
I love it when we can do that.
Just take our time.
Right.
Enjoy the meal.
Enjoy the company.
Then you get a coffee, maybe another drink and you're just lingering.
Yes.
Another drink, maybe some champagne at the end.
Just enjoy.
Just enjoy yourself.
Don't eat and go.
And then when we get home, it might be late.
Hopefully it is because we've been socializing all night.
If we have a little time left in the evening, what should we do?
Yeah, you can either watch a little bit of TV or a movie in English.
You may have felt like, oh, this is a lot of English for one day.
Push yourself.
This is the 24 hour challenge.
You want to take in a little more with your entertainment before you go to bed.
So good.
And then a final nightcap could be that we could do a gratitude journal, right?
Break out a little journal and then write three things that you're grateful for from this day, these 24 hours, but write it in English.
It can be very simple.
It can be very, very simple.
But this is a really good 24 hour.
I feel like now I want to do this in Spanish.
This is great.
I know.
Same.
I've inspired myself.
I'm totally going to do this in Spanish.
The perfect day.
So guys, go and try this and then come back to our blog.
This is episode 190 on allearsenglish.com and tell us what happened.
Tell us the details of your day and take that next step to practice writing about it.
I love it.
Awesome.
Thanks for joining me today, Lindsay.
This is super inspirational.
Good motivation.
Really good stuff.
Thanks for hanging out, Aubrey.
I'll talk to you soon.
All right.
Bye.
Bye.
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See you next time.
