Mistakes.
We all hate making mistakes, but being perfect isn't everything.
Hi, I'm Oliver and welcome back to the Easy English Podcast.
And, as always, we will be reading and listening to English in clear and simple English speech, learning new vocabulary phrases and really practicing practicing your English overall.
And today we are going to talk about a super important topic that I've covered before, but I want to approach from a different angle today.
And that is making mistakes.
So when you do or you say something incorrectly, you make a mistake.
Like have you ever felt nervous in general about maybe speaking or producing some kind of English, because you don't want to make a mistake?
You don't want to say or write something wrong.
You're absolutely not alone.
Most language learners experience this.
I really like to drive home to give them the point that mistakes are important.
So we're going to look today about mistakes, why they're not bad and how you can use mistakes specifically to improve your English and have success.
Not just with English language, but with all things in life.
Mistakes are so important for both our psychology, So mentally, and for even physical improvements too.
So they're very valuable and if you use them correctly, you can use it to improve your English so much faster.
And that's what we're going to learn today.
As always, we like to look at some key vocabulary for today's lesson.
I will read you five new words, or focus words, let's say, for today's episode, with their definitions.
And I want you to actively listen for these words during the main episode.
You can come back to this point or you can listen to them again at the end, but I want you to listen out for the words during the episode.
Can you do that for me?
Perfect.
So the first word is probably the most important one today, and that is mistake.
Mistake is how I say it.
There's slight accent differences.
If you want to say it like me, you can say mistake.
And that's because I am from the north of the UK and my accent sounds a little bit different from those in London or the south, for example.
But if you want to use the standard British pronunciation, you can say mistake, mistake.
It's a softer sound.
So a mistake or a mistake is an action or an opinion that is incorrect. so don't worry if you make a mistake everyone does our next word for today is improve improve so to improve something is to make it better to get better and if you practice of course your english improves right then we have the third word which is fear fear and it's a noun here so fear And that fear is an unpleasant emotion, which is caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat.
But usually if we see something as dangerous or bad for us, we experience, we feel fear.
Fear.
Many people have a fear of speaking English.
Our next word is confidence.
Confidence.
And this is a feeling or belief in yourself and your abilities.
When you think I can do that, yes, I can do it.
The more you practice and use your English, the more confidence you will have.
And our final key vocabulary word for today is progress.
Progress.
And that is development.
So we're using this as a noun in this case.
So progress is development towards an improved or more advanced condition.
It basically means to get better in something, to move along in something.
So you are making great progress in your English studies.
So those are our key vocabulary words for today.
But if you're listening and before we continue, and you're not subscribed or following this podcast, what are you doing?
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Perfect.
And I also want to remind you guys that the link for the Patreon is in the description below.
So we had a really interesting bonus episode last week about music.
So how music affects our mood and emotions.
And this week, we have another very interesting bonus episode planned.
And also I post every single episode of the main podcast on Patreon with a full transcript as well as key vocabulary, phrasal verbs and it's ad free as well.
And that is on the Patreon too.
So go and check it out and you can support if you want.
It helps to keep this show going and it supports growing the Easy English Project.
I couldn't do it without you guys.
So thank you to all my Patreon supporters.
Now back to our main episode today.
So let's start by acknowledging the elephant in the room.
The very obvious point the fear of making mistakes.
When we talk about mistakes, it's important and also impossible to not mention it, right?
Why do we often feel this fear?
The first reason is embarrassment.
Nobody likes to feel foolish or bad or to say something wrong in front of other people.
And this fear of embarrassment, of looking bad, looking stupid.
Maybe It can stop us from speaking or trying new things with our English, pushing ourselves to that next level.
And there's also, I guess, one reason people fear speaking in English or making a mistake in English is perfectionism.
This can be with writing, with speaking, with absolutely anything to be honest.
And some people want to be perfect.
They want to produce perfect English.
So they're scared to comment on videos, even on podcast episodes.
And they might even think that making mistakes means that your English is not good enough.
And this can lead to not using English at all, not commenting on questions, not engaging, not speaking, not producing English.
And this is a disaster.
This is the worst outcome because it's not true.
You do not need to have perfect English.
In fact, no one does.
Even native speakers do not have perfect English and they make mistakes all the time, including me.
Another reason for fear can be past experiences.
Perhaps in school, mistakes were seen as bad.
Because we do tests and exams and we get marked badly for having mistakes, we associate them as a negative.
And it can make us believe that making mistakes makes us not good enough, but it's not true.
Making mistakes is so important.
So if you've had bad past experiences, you need to let them go.
So fear is very common with regard to mistakes, but it can really slow down and affect your progress in English.
Because if you don't try And if you don't push yourself, you don't learn and you don't make more progress.
So I want to change your opinion about mistakes today.
And I'm going to show you and I'm going to tell you some points about why mistakes are amazing.
See, I just made a mistake.
Why mistakes are amazing, why they're wonderful for your English learning and for anything that you do.
But I'm gonna specifically relate this to English, okay?
So I want you to think about mistakes as your best teacher, your built-in free teacher that you can have with you at any.
So for a start, when you make mistakes, they show you what you don't know.
Whenever you're making a mistake or you've just made one, your brain gets a signal.
It's like a small light that flashes and it says hmm, there's something here that you don't fully understand yet, or there's something here that's not quite right.
And this helps you to identify exactly what you need to improve.
If you can see that you're making a mistake in a certain area, you know that you can focus on that area and make improvements.
That is so important.
If you think that you're amazing at English and you never make a mistake and you're perfect, you will not see those areas that you need to improve.
So making mistakes and recognizing that is so much better than thinking that you have perfect fantastic, wonderful English.
So mistakes can lead to feedback.
If you speak or you write or you make a mistake, a teacher or a friend or anyone else can correct you.
And this feedback is golden.
Think of it like gold, like perfect, amazing, extra bonus improvement.
And without making mistakes, you won't get these important corrections and feedback that you need to improve.
Making mistakes also helps learning to stick.
It helps it to stay in our memory.
Our brain often learns best from experience.
When you make a mistake, you remember.
Quite often you remember the correction or the correct version much better because you experienced the mistake.
It creates a stronger memory correction, rather than just reading or learning a rule.
I am sure that you can all think of a time when this was the case when you made a mistake, you realized that it was incorrect, or someone told you and you remembered the correct version of a word, of a tense, of something right, and you kept that in your head for a long time.
It stayed so much better in your memory.
And finally, if you are making mistakes, it shows that you are trying.
You're speaking, writing, and pushing your limits.
You're trying new words, new grammar, and this is how you make progress.
So in my eyes, if you're making mistakes, you're doing something right.
So, instead of seeing these mistakes as a failure, you should see them as proof and evidence that you're actively learning and growing, trying new things.
So there's a few things that you can do and how you can use mistakes to improve.
But first I just want to mention that if you haven't checked it out yet, I have a link in the description which will take you to my new book.
Phrasal Verbs Are Easy.
So if you struggle with English phrasal verbs which we find in so much of English speech there's so many of these verbs that you don't even realize then this book is designed to help teach you phrasal 50 of the most useful phrasal verbs in English.
And I do this through short stories and small exercises to help these phrasal verbs stay in your memory and to help you learn them.
Okay, back to mistakes.
So the link is in the description for that book.
You can check it out.
So here's how you can turn errors into powerful learning tools.
The first is, of course, don't be afraid to make those mistakes like we mentioned before.
You want to accept and think about mistakes the way I described.
They're good.
The second is to listen and ask for corrections.
If you say something that you know is not correct or you don't feel right about it, check and If you're speaking to an English speaker or a teacher, ask them like did I make a mistake or how can I say that better?
It's good to actively look for that feedback.
And likewise, if someone is giving you that feedback, be willing to accept it.
Next, you want to write down your mistakes, make a note of them.
So when you maybe get that feedback or you can recognize what has went wrong you can even look up on google.
You can ask a teacher or a native speaker.
You can even ask me if you're on patreon.
You can leave me a comment um, and i always get back and answer any question there as well.
Then you want to practice the correction, take the time to review and look over your mistakes.
Don't just let it sit there and see it away into the background.
You want to use the mistake and the correct version that you've learned, and my key tip is to try to focus on one mistake at a time.
You might make multiple in one session, in one time of speaking or thing that you've written, but each time try to focus on one of your mistakes.
It will help you connect the memory of that mistake to it, if that makes sense.
Rather than having multiple to remember, it can help it be a stronger single memory.
And this makes the learning progress a little bit less overwhelming.
So my question for you today, for our listeners, spotlight.
We don't have a question today to read out, but I want to give you a question for the next episode.
I want you to tell me and be brave, don't be scared tell me about one mistake that you make or have made in the past with English and how you corrected it.
So what you realized, maybe the correct version or someone told you that you said something wrong.
I think it's very useful to share.
And I will read out two of these in one of the future episodes of the podcast.
So please leave me a comment and I will read some of these out.
Okay, so then building our confidence.
As you make these mistakes, your confidence in English will grow.
Because you have a structure in place for recognizing those mistakes and learning from them.
And improving it will actually help your confidence over time.
Because you no longer see mistakes as weaknesses or a bad thing.
You see them as areas that you will improve, and it's a sign that you're still improving rather than stagnating.
If you're making no mistakes at all, then you're definitely not pushing yourself hard enough with your English or your a very high C2 level.
So definitely push yourself and make more mistakes.
It will help you so much in the long term.
So embrace the process.
Speak often, listen for feedback, produce as much English as you can.
Even commenting on these videos or podcasts help.
You can write me messages.
You can comment and ask questions on Patreon.
There's so many ways that you can practice.
Try speaking with a friend, a teacher, a class.
Just produce English.
You don't even need someone to practice with.
You can write yourself and you can use ai to check your writing and messages.
There's so many ways that you can practice creating english and embrace, accept these mistakes and learn from them.
That is my number one advice that i can ever give you.
So today we have learned the importance of making mistakes in english.
Remember that these mistakes are not failures.
They are key learning points to help you improve.
So don't be scared.
Don't have fear.
Have confidence and build your confidence through making more mistakes.
All the links are in the description below if you want to support the Patreon and get access to the full transcript with vocabulary and bonus stuff, with ad-free episodes, bonus episodes and additional content.
And you can also check out the link below which takes you to my social medias, and also the new book on phrasal verbs, if you'd like to buy a copy of that e-book.
Thank you very much for listening and I will hope that I see you in the next episode of the Easy English Podcast.
Keep up your English learning.
You are doing so well.
Thank you for listening and have a lovely rest of your day.
Goodbye.
