Hello world!
Welcome into our special episode.
The hot topic today is how to maintain your level of English in a non-English speaking environment.
Rory, first of all, what do we mean by maintain your level of English?
Well, there are different levels of English proficiency and it's like any skill.
If you don't practice, then you lose your ability to use it as proficiently as you would normally.
So, for example, imagine that you learn how to, oh, what's a skill that you could learn how to do?
Oh, imagine that you learn martial arts, for example, and you progress in martial arts because you're constantly practicing and constantly repeating the skill, but then you don't practice for 10 years and then you forget how to do it.
It's the same thing with language level.
You still know the basic elements, but you're not quite as... proficient as you used to be.
So this is a problem because obviously people need to maintain their level of English in order to use it effectively in the world when they need it.
Yeah, we need to feed our English, improve our English, invest in our English all the time.
And if you live in a non-English speaking environment.
For example, like me, I live in Russia.
I started learning English, but many people didn't speak English around me, so I had Russian all over me, but I was learning English.
The same happens pretty much to many people around the world.
So what should you do to improve, to maintain your English, to feed it some good food in a non-English speaking environment?
Well, we were thinking about this in greater detail and we decided that the best way to approach it would be to break it down into four different skills.
And for those of you who don't know what the different skills in English are they're speaking reading, writing and listening.
We've also got a subtopic on maintaining grammar, grammatical and lexical accuracy as well.
Lexis is just the words that you use.
But everybody wants to speak English, so we should start with speaking.
In terms of maintaining your level of English.
A good place to start, a very self-promotional way of starting, is by talking about the speaking partners that we have on Telegram.
And a lot of people are joining us from there today, actually.
So, we have a specific channel on Telegram where people can find a speaking partner.
Maria, can you tell us?
Find a partner or find some partners so you can create a group.
And that's quite good because you target the level that you want.
And then you work with someone who's got similar goals to you.
Because this is the problem with a lot of language learning and teaching.
People don't discuss what their goals are.
And then that's why they get disappointed.
So this is actually quite effective.
Different goals, for example.
Actually, aside from getting an English teacher, this is probably the most effective way of doing it, because it's there.
You can see the information.
And you're going to improve your speaking through speaking.
Wow.
Well, it's the only way to improve a skill.
It's by practicing it.
Yeah, it's like any skill, you guys.
Like driving a car, swimming.
So how do you get good at swimming?
By swimming.
So we talked about speaking partners on Telegram.
However, that is a very, very specific channel with a very specific purpose.
We should talk more broadly about what.
If you want to find someone to just improve your general English, maybe not for exam preparation.
And one of the ways that you can do this is by utilizing language exchanges, for example.
Oh, yes, language exchanges.
I think you have some experience with this, don't you?
Yes, I do.
I was teaching this Spanish guy Russian.
Oh, English, English, yes.
I was helping him out with English, and he was teaching me Spanish.
So we would just go to a cafe for about two hours.
So first, like the English hour, I was helping him out and then he was teaching me Spanish.
And this is quite easy to arrange, isn't it?
Even if it's not your first language, you can still arrange it via well just by using a translator initially.
And then you discuss how best to divide up the time.
Yeah, you can just Google language exchanges in your city, in your town, wherever you are, and then have a look at the groups, some speaking clubs where people are looking for partners to exchange their language with.
Under normal circumstances, this would be moderately difficult because, especially in a big city like Moscow, people have limited time to go to a cafe, because it's not just like you can get up and go to a cafe.
Oh, you can if you want.
Come on.
No, but you have to find a nice one, first of all.
There is an app for that.
But you have to get up, find a cafe, travel to the cafe, travel back to the cafe, have the meeting.
So it's quite a logistical nightmare.
You see, that story is so organized.
Wow, he's now planning his non-existence.
Yeah, if only he could plan to turn up to the recording on time that way.
Um no no true true true, but like it's, it's our thing, it's our tradition to be late for everything.
So yeah, you know no, but we want that bad like 10, 10 minutes.
It was only eight minutes.
Anyway, back to language exchanges.
Those are the disadvantages, or they were.
But now there are so many online options, using Zoom and everything, that you don't even need to travel.
You could just do it from the comfort of your own home.
So don't feel like you have to do this in a cafe or it has to be face to face.
Especially now, it doesn't have to be face to face.
Yeah, it could be on WhatsApp, on Telegram, on Zoom, on Skype, everywhere.
And the beauty of the language exchange is it's free.
Well, it's free, kind of free.
You give your time and energy, right?
So you teach a person and then in the exchange you get the other person to teach you.
Exactly.
The downside is, of course that, first of all, it's not for a specific purpose and the person teaching you isn't a language teacher, unless you get very lucky.
It could be a language teacher.
It could be, but it might not be.
Yeah, it might not be.
So you might not get some specialist input that's required.
However, it's still quite good for maintaining the level of English.
If you want to progress, then obviously a teacher is better.
Yeah, just choose a person you like.
That's for specific language events.
But there are also events that are not designed to improve people's language that you can use to maintain your level of English anyway.
And one of these I talked about recently on my Instagram.
I gave a talk about different IELTS resources.
And one of the ones that I drew attention to was this one called My Country Talks.
And actually, it's been going on for quite a while now.
You can just type in My Country Talks on any search engine and you'll find them.
They're the top result.
And the idea was that people would get together to exchange information about their countries and just speak to each other.
You can choose the language that you want to speak in.
Since we're an English language podcast, obviously choosing English is our preferred one.
And then you have a discussion about topics that are relevant to you.
They did a huge event recently.
I think there were over 10,000 people involved called Europe Talks.
And that was all done online.
And I participated in it with a guy called Tony from Germany.
I think he was in Bavaria, wasn't he?
He was in Munich.
We had very different political viewpoints.
And actually, this is quite good.
I mentioned specifically.
This is good for the discussion part in part three of the IELTS speaking exam.
And what level of English should you have to kind of join this event?
At least intermediate.
I think most of the people that were speaking in English and other languages had either upper, intermediate and advanced levels.
But...
Why not try?
And then if you run into problems, then actually this is a great way of thinking.
How do I overcome this problem?
So don't panic if it doesn't go according to plan.
It's only for one or two hours.
So what's the name again?
The whole thing is called My Country Talks, but they run specific events like Europe Talks.
Rory, what do you think of this way of improving your English in a non-native speaking environment?
So you can live with some people who speak English or you can have them as boyfriends and girlfriends or girlfriends.
It suggests, you know, I want to improve my English.
I need an English-speaking partner.
But there are... Obviously, that's not the main purpose of it.
The main purpose is to live together in the same way.
I wouldn't get a boyfriend or a girlfriend in order to...
Improve my level of English.
Oh, you're an angel.
Do people do that?
That seems very... Maybe.
What's the word?
I don't know.
Underhand.
But there's the opposite way.
What if you have nobody?
You have yourself.
Speak English to yourself.
I know it might sound crazy, but it's a very effective way to improve your speaking.
You can look at yourself in the mirror and speak to yourself.
Or just like, start thinking in English, you know, and when you start thinking in English you switch your brain into English and then you kind of like you have some English in your head.
Also, there is a kind of thing which is called shower conversations.
Why do you have that mad look in your eye?
I'm looking at you like, hmm, shower conversation, Rory.
What do you think it means?
Is it when you talk to yourself in the shower?
Exactly, yes.
It's self-talk during your shower.
And you can...
Hold a conversation with yourself and you can talk for both parties.
So usually there are two people during the conversation.
So first you say something and then the other person responds.
But you kind of you are the voice of these two people.
The other alternative is planning out what you're going to say in your head.
You could think about the conversations you're going to have that day and think how will this sound?
The other thing I like to do is...
When I have conversations in English, I'll reflect back on them and think God, could I have done that in Russian?
And the answer is yes, but badly.
So it's the same idea.
This was to improve your performance for speaking part two, where you have to speak for two minutes.
So you record yourself speaking for two minutes and then you listen to what you said and understand where you could have improved.
But actually, you could do the same.
Just generally, just record yourself and see how that goes.
And then either let other people listen to it or you can probably spot where you've made mistakes yourself.
Like I always understand where I've made mistakes with Russian pronunciations.
Yeah, where you can listen to yourself and then talk to yourself about what you've heard.
That is for speaking.
But we should move on to a skill which is just as important as speaking, just as productive but actually often overlooked, and that is writing.
I got a few messages recently from people on Instagram and I just got one there this morning which I haven't replied to.
So if you are listening, then I will get back to you.
But that was just before I got into the studio.
And a lot of people are interested in improving their writing as well.
Yeah, writing is a solitary skill.
It is.
And you know, when we don't learn how to speak, we just start speaking, right?
As babies, we just like listen to everything.
We're exposed to different words and then we start speaking.
But writing has to be taught.
Rory was taught how to write.
I was taught how to write in my own language, right?
So writing is, you know, you do it alone usually.
Yeah.
Although, admittedly, many native speakers in their own language can't actually write very well.
It is a skill that requires a great deal of practice, especially if you want higher scores.
It does.
But even if it is taught, it can be taught badly.
Oh, yeah, true.
So, with this in mind, we should look first at the more interactive versions and then for more individualistic ones towards the end.
So the first option is a tried and tested method, which is pen pals.
You used to have to send letters to pen pals.
My mum had a Japanese pen pal.
And you can imagine how long it took her to send letters to Japan and get them back.
But we're not living in the 1800s anymore.
Yeah, we don't send letters.
So we can send emails.
It is.
But we can also send emails, for example.
Yeah, to improve your writing, you can send emails.
Can you send texts?
You can, yes.
So that's the shorter versions.
And this is how you get practice in this as well.
What about comments?
Can you improve your writing by writing comments on Facebook, on YouTube, comments on different things that you bought?
I was going to talk about social media, actually.
And you can.
And there is kind of a collaborative approach here.
The thing is, about social media, you have to be very careful with the comments that you make.
First of all, how you phrase them.
So make sure you get practice beforehand.
And then... be prepared for the feedback, which can be very directly phrased as well.
You see some people correcting people's English on social media.
Really?
They're quite nice about it.
Some people are absolutely...
Atrociously rude.
No, well, I've done it privately before, but I've never done it publicly, like in a comment section.
But some people are really, really rude about correcting people's English.
If you're sensitive, then it's maybe not the first approach you should take.
Maybe build up your skills first and then post on social media.
But you can get feedback.
It is a solitary skill, but these are things that you can do in collaboration with other people.
However, some people are shy and some people are embarrassed about their writing skills.
So there are things that can be done by yourself to improve your writing skills.
And one of these things is something that I do, which is keeping a journal.
And at the end of every day, in order to decompress from the stress of the day, I write about everything that day that annoyed me or that happened to me or something I liked about that day.
And it all just comes out and I'll write a small paragraph and that's the end.
So you don't, if you keep a journal, you don't have to write like a full A4 page about how your day went.
It's just like a little bit of practice.
Yeah, but if you're lazy and you don't like keeping a journal, a diary, you can take notes in English.
So usually we do take notes on our phone, on our notebooks, something like you have to do.
You know I should go shopping like buy phone, your phone, get some milk so you can take notes in English.
At first, it might be difficult because it's easier to take notes in your own language.
But when you start taking notes in English, it can help you.
So you can research some words, you can jot down things in English.
And also shopping lists.
When you go shopping, if you do create a shopping list, you can write things in English.
And actually I do that pretty much most of everything I write is in English.
Which words are written in Russian?
The shorter ones.
Really?
Yeah, yeah.
So sometimes I use Spanish.
So the shorter words, so I kind of translate it, and there's a pun, for example, bread.
It's only three words, right?
In English, it's longer, bread.
So yeah, I can write shopping lists in three languages.
A good life hack from our Vanya.
The Vanya is, if you don't know some names and some words in english, you can download some apps, for example ikea, or go to the ikea website and check out the names for different furniture items.
Or if you are into shopping and you don't know some names for different clothing items, go to Amazon and then you can see what you call different items in English.
And it's going to be specific.
It's going to be like real English and you'll have some accurate vocabulary.
The same for technology, you know, like, but Amazon, I think, has everything.
So if you need to brush up your vocabulary about technology, then go to Amazon in the technology section and Bob's your uncle.
You're going to know all the words and what you call different things in English.
And actually another life hack is you should turn everything into English on your phone.
All social media should be in English.
All your apps, like you order a taxi and your application is in English.
Yeah, I know.
At first it might be really difficult and you might freak out like, I don't understand.
But then you kind of get used to it.
You do, yeah.
I mean, all of my apps are in Russian.
Really?
No, I'm lying.
Yeah, but you're not trying to learn Russian, right?
I'm learning Russian.
When I order food, I order food in Russian, like on Yandex.
I see.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so you should do the same, you know, and then again it helps your brain to switch into English and then it becomes natural to you.
But again, it might be very challenging from the get-go.
If you want some more professionally managed things, then there are two resources that I have to mention.
And one is another one that I use, which I use every year, which is the Future Me project, where you can, if you don't have a pen pal or if you're embarrassed to write to another person, then you can write to yourself and send an email to yourself in the future.
Future Me.
Oh, wow.
Every year I send an email to myself in the future about my hopes and dreams for what's going to come and what's happened before.
So that can be quite useful.
I wouldn't suggest doing it every year if you want to maintain your level of English, but you can send an email to yourself in the future, like in a couple of days.
Then come back to it and just check that you understood everything that you wrote for it.
So you can send an email to future you in a couple of years?
It could be the next day.
Yeah, the next day.
Oh, wow.
That's cool.
It's super easy to use.
Something, but the downside of all of these things that we've talked about, with the exception of social media, is the problem of feedback.
You can't really get feedback on your language and feedback is how you improve and prevent mistakes.
So...
In order to address this issue, there is a professional resource which was created by Cambridge University, and I've just remembered it there.
It's called Cambridge English Write and Improve and you can just type in Write and Improve on Google.
And then you go to this website and it lets you choose from beginner, intermediate and advanced.
And you choose the task and you complete the task and then you get feedback from it.
It's an automated service that like just is designed to give you feedback on your writing.
And the best thing is if you're preparing for IELTS.
Cambridge University is part of the governing body of IELTS.
And so this is a good way of improving just by yourself with feedback from an algorithm.
It's really cool.
Wow.
Ruby, you are a walking encyclopedia of resources.
Well, it used to be the Cambridge exams they do so if I didn't know this, it would be more like an embarrassment.
Wow, cool.
But what about this Grammarly thing, that you write and it corrects you, the program corrects you?
You pay for Grammarly.
You don't pay for Write and Improve.
Yeah, you see?
Yeah, it's free.
Yeah, freebie.
No, but again, if you are ready to invest in your English and invest in your improving writing, so you can kind of check out Grammarly.
But if you're broke, like we are, then Cambridge Writing Improve?
We should connect that to reading because you've got to read your writing.
So painful to read what you've just written.
I don't know.
I like what I write.
Do you not like what I write?
I do love what you write, especially the script.
You don't read a thing I write.
No, no, no.
I haven't read your books.
I'm sorry.
But I read all your scripts.
Darling, no one's read my books.
I wouldn't worry about it.
Even my own mother.
Have you read Rory's books?
Could you please give us a shout out?
Or who wants to read some of Rory's books or maybe all of them?
On the subject of improving your reading, though.
If you're interested, then you can drop me a line on Instagram and I will send you an extract of one of my books for free.
That's fine.
How many books have you got?
Four.
Four books.
There's a choice.
If you like science fiction, then I can send you one of those.
And if you like to read about English teaching, then I can send you one of those.
That's fine.
They're all prepared.
And it's free.
Take the free stuff.
But that is enough marketing for my own private enterprises.
Yes.
We should talk about books more generally.
Yeah.
So in order to read and improve our reading, you have to read.
And the best place to start with reading especially for longer texts, if you're studying for IELTS is to read books.
So it's not just a case of reading books though, because there has to be some interaction between the reader and the text.
And I noticed this recently.
I picked up a book from one of our schools on Russian politics and someone had been reading through it.
Russian politics, a very neutral subject.
Vanya is not shaking his head at me at all.
Oh, I do that.
Yeah, it's quite a common practice, it seems.
I hadn't realized it until I highlighted this.
Oh, I've been doing it my whole life.
Yeah.
So underlining words.
And either if you don't know them, then you can translate them later or ask your teacher about them.
Yeah, but not only words.
If you are reading a book that you basically enjoy because you have to read what you enjoy.
If you don't enjoy it, it doesn't work, you guys.
So please remember that whatever you listen to, whatever you read, you should enjoy it.
If you don't enjoy it, take the book that you do enjoy, please.
So this is how it works.
If you don't enjoy it, forget about it.
It's just like, you know, it's a waste of time.
You can underline the quote and copy it into your phone or into your notebook.
Just like to remember this phrase, sentence, quote later, right?
And be smart in a conversation, just like squeezing this nice quote or phrase.
Reading books is hard, though.
We live in a very busy and modern world.
So, backup plan, still relevant for IELTS preparation, but also in general.
No.
Articles.
Short articles.
Short stories.
Blogs.
Blogs.
Yeah.
There are blogs on everything.
Even Instagram.
There are some people that fill their captions under their pictures with short texts about things.
I do it about teaching.
No one reads them.
But that's not the point.
They're there.
They exist.
Instagram posts, blogs, articles.
Again, guys, you have to find something you enjoy reading about.
If you enjoy cooking, go to Jamie Oliver's website, for example.
He has recipes.
He has some...
Instagram, YouTube.
Take a look at the comments, at his recipes.
I know, read stuff there.
Again, if you enjoy Rory's life, go to his Instagram.
He writes posts, he writes books, he writes comments.
So just read this.
But you should choose something that you really enjoy.
We talked briefly about audiobooks, and that seems like a good segue into... Listening!
Oh, my God, I'm crazy about listening to books now.
Not listening to me, but listening to books.
No, no, Rory, you're my second favourite.
Nobody listens to me.
It's fine.
LAUGHTER
It's less work.
So we should obviously be self-serving and self-promoting and say the best way to maintain your listening skills is to listen to podcasts.
I'll speak you for success podcast.
Everybody listening to this already knows that.
However, the self-serving advertising out of the way.
Podcasts are useful because you can choose something that's well, first of all, specific to something that you like.
And usually they're relevant because podcasts are produced constantly.
So you're on the leading edge of whatever it is you're interested in, in this sense.
And you guys, there are not only English learning podcasts, right?
But there are podcasts about cooking, about driving, about architecture, right?
So you can pick a podcast, again, that you enjoy listening.
The podcast about psychology, about clothes.
Is there a podcast about private Rory's life?
No, I don't think so.
It's this podcast.
This podcast.
This podcast is broadcasting my private life.
You see, now there are more than one million podcasts.
I think it's like about two million podcasts.
Are you kidding?
No, I'm not.
Really?
Yeah, I read some stats.
I didn't know why I thought it would be more.
More?
More than 2 million podcasts?
I thought it would be more than 2 million.
Again, you guys, just go to some Google podcasts and find the podcast that you enjoy.
For example, I like this podcast about linguistics.
So two American girls are talking about different words.
So I really enjoy it.
Roy, are you listening to any podcast apart from our podcast?
Well...
Half and half.
This is a lead into our next point, because I don't listen to podcasts on Google Podcasts, for example, but I listen to podcasts which are on YouTube, which have video elements as well.
So, if you don't like just sitting listening to things, then you can watch a video.
And that's quite useful as well.
And the great thing about YouTube is that you can turn on the captions and that brings up subtitles.
Well, if you struggle to follow what people are saying, as I frequently do, then you can watch the subtitles.
Yeah, but most reliable, most quality podcasts do have the scripts so you can listen to a podcast and read the script at the same time.
We have a YouTube channel.
We do have a YouTube channel, but no videos though.
We do.
Well, okay.
They're all videos, but they're all audio.
We are working on it.
So we'll have videos soon.
Yeah.
So anyway, go out there into the podcast land and choose a podcast that you enjoy.
Again, you guys, you have to listen to something that you enjoy.
If you don't choose something else, life is too short to do things you don't like.
On the subject of things that are too short, podcasts and videos could be quite short and you might prefer to listen to something longer.
Yeah, so then we already mentioned audiobooks.
Audio books.
Oh, God.
I love listening to audio books.
Now I'm like listening to audio books junkie.
Like, oh, give it to me.
Give it to me.
You know, I go to work.
I listen to audio books on the Metro.
In the shop, at home, while having breakfast before going to bed, I listen to audiobooks.
So I've listened to all Harry Potter books.
I've listened to all Sherlock Holmes books.
Now I've listened to...
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, three books.
I just, yeah, I'm crazy.
I don't live anymore.
I just listen to audiobooks.
A lot of people think, though, that you have to pay for audiobooks.
Oh, I pay.
Yeah, you do.
Yeah, I'm using Audible.
So if you don't have any money, then move to Russia, where the intellectual property laws are non-existent and you can just steal everything.
But again like, for example, Audible gives you one month trial and you can download stuff, you can listen to stuff, so you can find ways around it.
But if one month of free material isn't enough for you, then... I'll speak you for success podcast!
Well, or... LibriVox.
LibriVox.org is a website that...
LibriVox?
How do you spell it?
L-I-B-I-R-V-O-X.
And on there they have something like over 100,000 books? all recorded by people, by volunteers.
But the quality is quite good.
And all of them are books in the public domain, which means not only is it free, but it's legal.
So you don't have to move to Russia in order to break intellectual property laws.
You know, when I started listening to audiobooks, I noticed that I like the voices of certain people.
For example, I really enjoyed Stephen Fry's voice.
Beautiful, beautiful English accent.
And it's just like, wow.
Everybody likes Stephen Fry.
Yeah, he's great.
But his voice, he read all Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter.
Who else is quite good?
Audible, give me money.
Sorry, guys.
If you need to hear a variety of accents and voices, then there's what was it?
World war z?
There's a free version of that on um on youtube and it's like six hours long.
No, it's not, it's 12 hours long actually, and that's.
They've got lots of different famous people reading it mark hamill or luke skywalker does one of the voices.
Yeah so, together with audiobooks, you can just go wild and crazy on Netflix.
Serious!
On the subject of things that are serious, we should also talk about maintaining your accuracy in grammar and lexis, or your vocabulary.
Okay.
Which is the last point on our list.
To be honest, in this sense, all of the things we've talked about could be used in this way because, of course, you're interacting with different individual parts of the language.
But there are also self-study materials, and in particular for IELTS.
And, well, there's some for general English as well.
And indeed I have put together a very handy zip file with a few of them in it for all sorts of different levels.
So if anyone is interested in getting their hands on this for free, then send me a message on Instagram and ask for the self-study materials for Lexis and grammar, and I can send them to you.
How about that?
I'm going to unlearn all the English I know and you're going to teach me from scratch.
Well, why?
I don't have enough work.
Basically, no.
Oh, the other thing is Instagram is filled with different word lists and things like that which you can interact with, and you just see them on a daily basis.
I think ESL Library has a word of the day, for example.
And, of course, there's a video on my Instagram of all of the best IELTS resources, which I can refer you to if you're wondering which specific skill that you would like to focus on.
Yeah, you guys again go on Instagram and find a person, a blog that you really enjoy and you can follow, with all these English words phrases, slang.
But that does bring us to the end of this list of well ways to maintain and improve your English by yourself in a non-English speaking country.
Yeah, guys, so it doesn't matter where you are on this planet.
You have all the tools now and ideas, thanks to this episode, to improve your English, like wherever you are and if you don't have any people to help you with your English, so you can just use yourself.
But you do have people to help you because you can always reach Maria and myself on our Instagrams.
And you can also reach us at our Success With IELTS Instagram as well.
And we have a Telegram channel.
And those of you who are listening on our Telegram channel live now, thank you for joining us.
Yeah, thank you for supporting us.
Vanya is blowing your kisses.
So sending hugs and inspiration for you.
And just remember that if, every day of your life, you invest just from 5 to 15 minutes into your English, you'd be a champion.
It's like Olympic Games, you guys.
Champions train non-stop every day.
The same with English, right?
So just like five minutes.
Give your English five minutes.
If you invest in your English, your English will invest in you.
