Steps to Learning English: Where should you start?

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• published: 14 Jan 2017
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So you want to learn or improve your English. But where should you start? When you learn a new language, there is so much material to cover: vocabulary, grammar, syntax, slang, pronunciation... With so many topics to study, you may not know where to focus your attention. In this video, I will give you some tips to organize your schedule and decide what you should work on. Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced speaker, you can always find something to improve on, and I will give you the tools you need to devise a good plan. Hint: it's more simple than you think! http://www.engvid.com/steps-to-learning-english-where-to-begin/ TRANSCRIPT [Singing] Hi. James. Greer. James Greer. From engVid. [Laughs]. Not Bond, and I know you think I was going to say Bond. I know. But listen, Bond always has an important mission he's got to do, right? 007. And so do I. Today we have a mission. We're going to learn how to study English. I know in many places, many websites, they tell you, and to teach you grammar and idioms and phrasal verbs. But then, there's the big question of you, and: How do you study, and how do you choose what is important for you at this moment? Maybe you're advanced. Maybe you're a beginner. Maybe you know this, and maybe you don't. After today's lesson and we do our mission, you'll know exactly what you have to do. Okay? So, we're going to go to the board in a second, and take a look. What steps should we take in order to learn? By the time you're done this video, you'll know exactly... Or you should know where you are, where you need to go, and when you're going to be done. Ready? Let's go. E. E is standing here saying: "Where do I start? Grammar, vocabulary, or speaking?" Common, and seems to make sense, I mean, you go to learn a language-right?-you go on a website, they start throwing things at you. You go to a school, they say you need this, this, and this. But you don't really know. So, I'm going to give you the tools to decide that. First thing we're going to do is: What's the first thing you need? Grammar? No. What? Conversation? No. Vocabulary. What? Well, look. If you can't say: "bathroom" when you go to a country, you're going to pee yourself. Okay? "Hungry", you won't get food. You don't need to know everything to get basic information done. And that's what we should look at first. Basic information for a beginner really is vocabulary. And instead of all the fancy stuff you need, you don't need much. You need you, and a little bit of time, and to have some fun. Why? I'm going to suggest: For basic communication, get vocabulary. I'm telling you right now if I see you or any English-speaking person sees you, and you see... You say: "Drink. Thirsty." There's no grammar, but they'll go: "Oh, the bar is over there." If you say: "Washroom. Please", they'll go: "Oh, toilet is over there." They use sentence, you use words. Sometimes you just touch your belly and go: "Ahh!" They'll go: "Oh, you want food." You don't need all that stuff. People will tell you you need to learn grammar, and this and that. You don't. And here's how you get your first vocabulary. Do what you love to do. Play video games. I've had... I don't know how many students play video games, say they learned how to fire, duck, words that we wouldn't teach them for a while, because they were playing games. Other people come in: "Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah, [sings]", singing. I go: -"What the hell?" -"I love to sing", and they sing a song, they sound like they're just, you know, from this country. Then they speak very terrible accent. You know what I'm saying, right? [Laughs] But when they sing, it's like the gods have come down. I mean, literally, you go: "Are you...? You were born here, right?" Cool slang. You know? YOLO, you only live once. Right? ASAP, as soon as possible. When you do these things, you're learning because you want to learn. You're not even realising you're learning, and it's going to make you want to learn more because... You know, we'll get to the second one and you'll understand. But you want to communicate in a much better way. Okay? So, get the meaning of basic words. "Hungry", "food", "toilet", "money". You know that one, right? You need those things. If you have those things, you can start your adventure in learning English. Okay? And you're going to do it by doing things you love. Video games, music, cool slang. Right? Come on. Now we're making language fun and easy for you, and that's what we should do, because you'll learn it faster. All right? And then here's the bad news: Hard work is on its way, so let's move over to the intermediate.