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Oh, I'm so over this. I just don't wanna study anymore.
I don't think I'm improving at all. What am I doing wrong?
I feel like I'm stuck. If these thoughts are popping up in your head then I have a couple of solutions for you.
Hey guys, welcome back to our channel. And if you're new here, then we're very happy that you decided to join us.
I'm Anna. First of all, there can be many reasons why you feel like you're stuck.
But oftentimes what I've experienced and what I hear from people is that it happens when people are too stressed. strict with themselves and are too demanding of themselves. they know the level they want to achieve, they try really hard to reach it and they take every fail too seriously and judge themselves and punish themselves afterwards, causing demotivation, like How could I forget this word?
This is so stupid. Or what is wrong with me?
When will I be able to speak like a normal person?
And the list goes on. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
And they don't even realize that they harm themselves.
But even more importantly is that they don't give themselves enough time.
They want to know and they want to be perfect now.
Which is impossible. There is no such thing as perfection.
Perfection is just another word for procrastination.
Let yourself lose and allow yourself to enjoy this process with all the bumps along the way.
And believe me, as long as you do at least something, you move forward.
Maybe not as fast as you would like to, but you're not stuck.
You just feel like you're stuck. It just seems to you that you're stuck.
My students oftentimes say that they don't see any progress, but I see it.
I'm going to break down my explanation into sections.
What can we do when we feel stuck? When you feel stuck, this means that things are no longer working. did at the beginning, it means that you have to change something.
This is a very common thing. You're working so hard, you have a routine, and it becomes either very hard or boring.
You don't see any progress, you may not feel that passionate about learning English anymore and you feel sort of disappointment.
The first thing that I would like to offer you is to take a break.
Yes, That's the number one thing. You need to give your brain time to just relax, recover, and sort all that information out that it has been receiving.
A person needs to go on vacation when they work for a long time. otherwise it gets very hard, they lose interest for work and then it gets depressing.
Well, your brain gets tired as well and needs a vacation as well.
Now, it's different for every person. Some people may need a week, some may need two or three weeks.
And don't worry, you're not going to forget everything or lose your skills in such a short period of time.
If anything, this little break will only help because you'll be able to catch your breath and see and understand what was the toughest for you and what you didn't like doing whatsoever. or maybe you'll realize in just a couple of days that you miss your studying in English.
If taking a break sounds unacceptable to you because you are really afraid that it's just going to reverse your already gained progress and success.
And sure, it may be the case for some people, I suggest you to switch to passive learning for some time.
Cause that's obvious that you still need to change something if you feel stuck.
And I have a video on the methods to learn English.
You can click over here where I talk about this passive learning method.
But to cut a long story short, use English, learn English, read in English when you feel like doing it. don't force yourself because at the end of the day we only only truly remember and keep going back to and keep using the things that we enjoyed.
And if you felt like you got stuck and it became more like a burden than a pleasure, your brain is gonna keep fighting it.
And we definitely wanna change that. But additionally, I'd like you to listen to something in English as well in the background.
Listen to some podcasts, or you can turn on some videos on YouTube in English and let them play. don't sit there trying to grasp everything and search for the meanings of words you don't know remember it's a rehab period, but this will allow you to keep your already gained knowledge. if you're struggling with speaking and of course i don't know what you have done or what you're doing right now Have you gone to some speaking clubs?
Do you have a conversation buddy? Maybe you occasionally speak with someone or you speak English whenever you get a chance. if you haven't tried any of these try them if you have tried at all but it's still hard for you to put your thoughts into words and then into sentences. and you end up forgetting everything and you feel like that's it, I'm stuck, what else I can do?
Then I have a couple of more suggestions for you.
You know that I'm a strong advocate for shadowing.
I don't want to be repetitive, but I just worship this method.
It doesn't matter where you live. If you are a non-native speaker and you need to improve your speaking, pronunciation, and accent, this is your tried and true tool.
If you don't know what it is, you can watch my videos on it.
You'll find links in the description box.
In essence, repeat what native speakers say after they say it.
This is as simple as it can be. But don't do this for pronunciation training.
Don't concentrate on this. but simply repeating after someone those full sentences, and not once but let's say 10 times the more the better. will allow you to memorize and understand those constructions that native speakers use. and understand the meaning of words and phrases in context.
Moreover, when it gets to actually speaking, those words and sentences will pop up in your mind just like that.
If your main problem is that you're panicking when it comes to speaking, getting lost when in a conversation, or going blank, meaning that you forget words, that may mean that you are too strict on yourself and judging yourself too harshly.
Probably before having a conversation, You're overthinking it too much.
Or when you're already in a conversation, you're not concentrating on having a pleasant conversation and you're not concentrating on your partner's words, but rather you're thinking about how to answer while not making a mistake or that you might forget a word.
And that's overthinking. And not only does it make you very nervous, but also you don't listen to your partner.
And I'll tell you a little secret, being a good conversationalist is being a good listener in the first place.
People like talking about themselves, so let them talk, let them do the work.
In the meanwhile, concentrate on them and on what they say.
It'll help you to calm down. And I want to say that being shy or nervous is normal and it's even cute sometimes.
We can get nervous even when we speak our native language with someone.
It's just our brain's response to some situation.
But if this feeling is getting out of control you may get shaky and even your voice might change and you may forget get everything and there are two things that you want to do to try to overcome this First, there are specific videos on YouTube for free where psychologists and behavioral specialists give advice and and suggest the exact things to do to help you manage your emotions.
And the second thing is that you need a lot more conversations and situations of this nature. because if you have let's say two conversations a month, it's not enough for developing a skill.
And of course, you can't get comfortable with this, cause there's not enough time.
And the more you do something, the better you get at it.
And don't be afraid to say that you didn't get or you didn't hear what your conversation partner just said. if you're struggling with learning and memorizing new vocabulary.
You use a certain method for learning new vocabulary and I'm talking in general because I can't know what exactly you do and try.
Maybe you're taking a course and they give you new words each lesson.
Maybe you're learning on your own and write down new words and search their meanings.
Maybe you're using some apps. but you feel like these methods don't work for you as well as you would like. and these words just don't stick with you for long.
Once again, you need to change something.
And I have a video on the best ways known by me about how to memorize new vocabulary and the link will be over here in the description box.
But also if these sort of traditional methods sound boring to you, you can freshen up your routine. and I also talked about this in one of my videos and I stand by it.
Writing and journaling. Writing is a very effective way to make your brain use and think of new words and synonyms. and you'll have time to think of grammar.
I strongly believe in this method. And especially if you have tried at all, why not to try this?
One more reason for not being able to remember new vocabulary is that you don't use it.
Everything that we learn, especially something new, needs to be used by us in order to let our brain know that we need this.
Find a way for practical usage of your recently gained knowledge.
If you don't repeat it and you don't use it, you're not going to be able to remember it.
It's just nature. It's how our brain works.
Let's say you're trying to memorize the word mesmerizing.
Use it when you're talking to someone or to yourself if you have no one to speak with.
Listening. Working on your listening skills can be very overwhelming.
With listening, it's pretty much the same.
Don't see any improvements. Change things.
Switch to something else. TV shows, movies, audio books, podcasts differ in their complicity.
Maybe you're not ready for something difficult just yet.
Switch to passive listening or simply take a break.
Try to stick to one accent until you feel that you understand it, because there are many different accents. and this can cause a problem and disorientation. subtitles are good, sure, but don't forget to switch them off every once in a while for a change.
And also, if you don't look up words you don't know, you won't magically learn them.
If you feel like you're always making mistakes all the time and nothing's changing, It can be so freaking frustrating.
First of all, Let it go. Everybody makes mistakes, even native speakers. constantly thinking about this gets in the way of your communication and prevents you from speaking because you're constantly thinking about your mistakes.
If you turn on a vlog video on YouTube of any native speaker, such as A Day in the Life, you will hear that they make mistakes and mispronounce words.
And it's totally normal and natural. it doesn't mean that they don't know grammar or that there's something wrong with their pronunciation.
I know the grammar advocates are going to come for me in the comments and say that grammar is the most important thing.
But if you read through the comments to my videos, you'll see that So many people say that they know grammar and even won some grammar contests, but they struggle with speaking.
And when they do speak, they still overthink grammar.
And being afraid of making a mistake makes them not want to speak at all.
But, what can help you to break through this is correcting yourself.
If you made a mistake, noticed it, correct yourself right away in a conversation.
Don't be shy. It doesn't matter what someone else might think of you.
You're doing this for yourself and not to please anyone else.
Believe me, if some people want to think or say something bad about you, They will anyway.
It doesn't matter what you do, how you do it, what you say or what you don't say.
But every time you're correcting yourself, your brain kind of makes a note of that and it helps you memorize it better.
And over time you'll notice that you're making a lot fewer mistakes.
And here I want to touch on pronunciation just a little bit.
If you feel like your pronunciation is not improving, the first thing that you have to understand is that sometimes it takes a hell of a lot of time to see some results.
And you may not see them at all. But believe me, if you're working on it, it's definitely improving.
Be patient and consistent. I know that I'm being repetitive and it sounds so boring, but it's the truth.
If someone tells you that you can speak perfect English in three months, that's just nonsense.
Work and consistency are keys. With pronunciation and Speaking in general, there's no such thing as overdoing it, but make sure that you're doing it correctly. because it's very hard to relearn those wrong pronunciations that we've learned.
And sometimes, even though we technically know how to pronounce a certain word or sound, we keep going back to those wrong patterns.
That's why my tip is that you always correct yourself once again.
Your words won't always come out right. If you're hurt that the word you said didn't sound right, correct yourself straight off.
So to conclude, you wanna try something different, something new, mix things up.
So let's say today you have done something that is difficult for you.
You've tried to learn and comprehend the past perfect tense.
So the next day do something that you like, that is easy for you.
Let's say You'll watch some TV shows and work on your listening skills or just passively listen.
Combine things. but it's all about changing your routine and trying new things.
And most importantly, enjoying this. I want to say this one more time, don't be afraid to miss studying grammar, for example, for some time, you won't forget everything.
I promise, because it's not like you're ditching it.
But if you don't progress, that is a sign to shift your attention to something else.
Getting some rest is also very good. Okay guys that's it for now thank you for choosing our podcast until the next one
