Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of Easy English.
I'm Oliver and today we are going to talk about how to learn English in 2025.
So, it's that time of the year again.
It's January when I'm recording this.
January 2025.
A new year.
And usually around this time of year, people start to think about maybe improving themselves, increasing their self-development and starting to work a little bit harder.
So this is a great time to create or improve your language learning routine, whether you're just starting to learn English or you've been studying it for a long time.
And in this episode, I'm going to share tips to help you make good progress with English this year.
So let's get started.
First off, I want to wish you all a happy new year.
I really hope that this year is amazing for you, with both your English goals and your life in general.
And that brings us to goals.
And our first point and the first section I want to talk about is to set clear goals for this year.
If you want to actually improve your English, you need to know what you're working towards, why you're learning English and what you want to achieve from your learning.
And a good goal is something that we call specific, measurable and realistic.
So specific simply means clear and detailed.
Measurable means that we can measure it, so we can look at how well we've done the results, and realistic is something that is possible to do.
So let's say, to be specific, instead of saying I want to speak better English, you could set the goal that you want to have a 10 minute conversation in English by April, for example.
And that's a specific goal.
And you'll know that once you can do that, you have made progress.
You've reached that goal.
And I think that's a great goal.
Another specific goal you might have is I will learn 10 new words every week and try to use them in sentences.
So it's very specific and measurable.
So you can check each week if you have done those 10 words.
This might sound basic, but honestly, it really helps.
There have been so many times in my life when I've been learning languages and I have a general goal.
For example, you might have, I just want to be better at English.
How do you want to be better?
You need to think about this and think about the specific ways you want to improve.
And the next point, so when we're looking at measurable, that ties into specific.
So if something is defined and clear, it's specific, then you can measure it.
And then the final point of goals is to be realistic.
And this is so, so important.
Being realistic is the difference between you not completing something and you making good progress.
If I said, for example, I want to do one hour of English every single day, seven days a week.
I know that for me, that is not realistic.
If I was learning English, for example, because I have a job, I have a lot of things on during the week and one hour every day is too much.
If I said, for example, I want to do 20 minutes, five days per week with a couple of days break.
That is a much more realistic goal for me.
And that is so important.
Choose realistic goals.
Don't put too much pressure on yourself with unrealistic goals because you will really not enjoy it.
It will feel like...
For lack of a better word, work too much.
And you'll constantly feel like you're fighting against these unrealistic targets.
Now, next after goals, you want to start to build a routine.
And a routine is a set of actions that you do regularly.
So to learn English effectively, for example, it probably is better to have a routine to study a little bit every day rather than a lot once.
In my opinion, it's much better to do 10 minutes per day than one hour every week.
Of course you could have a one hour lesson every week and then do a little bit of self-study every day too.
But don't do it all on the one day.
Make sure that you have some regular small practice every day.
And not to self-promote myself, but this podcast, for example, is a great way for people, in my opinion, to get that little bit of listening practice and vocabulary practice every single day or a couple of times a week.
That's just one example of what you can do to get that little daily practice in every day or a couple of times per week.
And here's an example of perhaps a routine, which I think is quite good for just daily learning.
This doesn't include lessons or course books or anything like that.
But here's an example.
So the first point would be to spend 10 minutes reviewing vocabulary in the morning.
This could be while you're eating your breakfast, maybe on the train or public transport, or even walking to work.
And the second point is to listen to an English podcast while commuting or walking.
So maybe you learn some vocabulary while you eat your breakfast.
And then, when you're walking to work or school, or on the bus or train or even driving, you could listen to an English podcast.
And you've already done, between those two things, 20 minutes of practice in some form and way.
And that adds up.
Over the working week, you're talking, what, 100 minutes of practice?
So one hour, 40 minutes.
That's almost two one-hour lessons just from doing those tiny little bits.
And then finally, you might write a short diary entry in English at night.
This is something I highly recommend as a routine, even on your phone.
So in the notepad on your phone.
Just write a little summary every evening before you go to bed about what you did.
But write it in English.
It's a great way to improve your ability to describe things and even to your ability to tell stories.
And that's something that a lot of people underestimate.
So writing about your routine and your day is a fantastic way to practice your English.
Your writing, your thought process, your sentence building all of that.
So out of all of this, the key is consistency, to be consistent.
And that means to do something regularly without stopping.
And to be consistent.
You need to make a routine that suits you, a routine that is realistic, a routine that helps with the goals that you have set.
You can see where I'm going with this.
It's not going to be the same for every person.
Perhaps you can take some ideas from what I have said here.
But in general, your routine should be unique to you, to your schedule and to your goals.
So do create the routine with care and make it realistic.
So another section I wanted to talk about in this video because I'm calling this video how to learn English in 2025, or something similar to that
I think I've written down, yeah, how to learn English in 2025.
So I can't talk about 2025 without talking about technology.
We have access to so much technology and perhaps some of these discussion points can be useful for your language learning routine.
So I've mentioned using like a notepad or a journal app to record at the end of your day.
But I also recommend for daily learning some simple free language apps.
I'm not going to say any particular names here because I'm not sponsored.
I'm not promoting these particular platforms.
But there are so many great free language apps out there.
And they can help to build that daily short routine of just practicing a little bit of English every day.
And there's lots of AI tools out there too.
I'm not convinced that all of them are great, but even the likes of ChatGPT can be a good way to interact and get a little bit of English practice daily.
But the main thing, which is my favorite, is to utilize technology to access media.
So videos lessons conversations, listening practice and even practice with, maybe guided speaking exercises.
So platforms such as YouTube you've got Spotify as well for podcasts and even movies, TV shows.
You can access all of these online with subtitles.
And it would be a shame to not utilize this fully in 2025.
We are so lucky when you think about it.
In the past, people didn't even have the internet to practice their language skills.
You wouldn't have been able to listen to this podcast for example.
It just wouldn't be possible.
Maybe if I was teaching in a classroom somewhere, you could hear me there.
But in general, if you're listening from as far as Japan Hungary, Brazil I know many of my listeners from all over the world it would not be possible.
So it's amazing that I can communicate to you in English online today and you can use it to help your learning.
And the same with movies, TV shows, music, all of this, it's accessible to us every day.
So do build these into your routine, because I know that we use technology every day and that makes it easier sometimes to add these little routines into our technology that we already use.
But of course, I do believe that traditional methods of language learning are still very important.
And in my opinion, the most important.
And that includes speaking and listening.
Listening, you can use technology for this.
This podcast is another example.
But speaking is so important for language learning.
And you can use technology for that too.
So maybe to get a language exchange partner online to do lessons online.
Speaking clubs, speaking classes online.
But it is so important that once you get to at least that A2 and above level of English, especially into intermediate, that you are speaking English as often as you can, at least every week.
Do try to get some practice.
Whether that means a speaking class, whether it means just talking to a friend or finding a language exchange partner.
I encourage you to speak so much in 2025.
Try to speak more English than you did last year.
And the final point for today is, of course, track your progress.
You won't feel like you've improved until you look back and see how far you've came.
Keep some old audio recordings of you practicing your speaking, for example, and listen to them next year and you will hear the difference.
If you've been working and sticking to a routine, you will hear a difference.
The same with your vocabulary.
Go back and look at the vocabulary that you were learning a year ago and appreciate how far you have came.
And just paying attention to those little achievements, those little victories, and celebrate them.
For example, when you've read a news article for the first time in English, or you have listened to something in English and you understood all of it, or you've had your first five minute conversation in English.
Celebrate all of these little moments and appreciate how you're progressing.
And that will set you up for a great 2025.
And who knows, even 2026 could be an even bigger year for your English learning.
So set these goals, create a routine and stick to it.
Utilize technology and all the resources that you have.
And make sure, at the end of it and during the process, to look back at your progress and appreciate all of the progress, the hard work and the achievements that you have done.
So good luck.
I will be with you every step of the year at least, to help you with your listening and maybe some other areas.
So do have a great year.
And good luck with your English progress.
As always, the Patreon link is in the description below.
If you want to join and support, you will get extra bonus episodes.
You'll get an extra series, News in Easy English.
And you'll get transcripts as well for each new episode that I upload.
I put the transcript in the bottom.
And you can ask me any question there as well, about what words mean or to give examples, to explain something.
That's absolutely fine.
I will be there for you to help.
So have a great year and good luck with your learning.
Goodbye.
