🔁 Episode 73 - Stop learning and start using English

I'd like you to think of something that you're really good at.

You might be a great basketball player.

You may be good at football.

You could be a good musician, or perhaps you can run a marathon.

Some people can paint or compose music, or you might be able to sew clothes or might design complex computer programs.

And some people ride motorbikes and are kind of experts when it comes to riding motorbikes.

So I'd like you to think of something you're really good at.

And yes, I'm talking to you out there.

Think about what you're good at, really good at.

Now you should pause the podcast for a moment and stop and do this properly.

Make a little list in your head.

What are you really good at? And then I'd like you to think about exactly how you got so good.

Was it because you read books? Did you attend classes? Did you watch some videos about it? And of course, you may have done all of those things and probably did.

But the fact that you got so good is almost certainly because you used those skills a lot.

You practiced them.

You used them.

You spent a lot of time doing the activities.

You gained experience.

You learned from your mistakes and from your accomplishments.

So you became good at doing the activity, not just having ideas or knowledge.

And so when it comes to improving your English, you need to find a way of learning by using.

You could also say practice, don't study.

But I think the word using is the key here.

Use English, don't learn it.

And as you're using it, start to bring in all the other skills and knowledge that you have about yourself and the way you like to learn and also about the subject of learning and bring all of those in at the same time.