024 Part 2: The most common mistakes people make when learning English (and how to avoid them)
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the English Learning for Curious Minds podcast by Leonardo English.
I'm Alastair Budge and today it is the second part of the most common mistakes people make when learning English and how to avoid them.
In part one, we learned about why you should choose normal content over traditional language learning textbooks, why you shouldn't judge yourself against others, why you shouldn't pay attention to hacks or shortcuts, how you should rid yourself of your fear of making mistakes, and why trying to speak too fast is a terrible idea.
So if you haven't listened to part one yet and that sounds right up your street, then go and give that a listen.
And just in case you haven't got it right in front of you, you can grab a copy of the transcript and key vocabulary and become a member of Leonardo English over on the website, which is Leonardoenglish.com.
Alright then, let's get back into it and talk about the final five most common mistakes that people make when learning English and how to fix them.
Okay, mistake number six is a very common mistake that millions, tens, even hundreds of millions of English learners make, and that is to focus on grammar as a standalone discipline.
Grammar in English has its easy parts, but like anything, it has its tricky bits too, and once you've covered the basics, the foundation of English grammar, the more complicated the grammar gets, the harder and more never-ending it can seem.
Yes, it's obviously a bonus that nouns don't have genders in English, and most of our verb conjugations are relatively easy compared to some other languages, but phrasal verbs are obviously a nightmare, and English has a load of weird, and I'd still say wonderful grammar rules that take time to master.
As I'm sure you've probably realised by now, even native speakers still make grammar mistakes, so you shouldn't feel too bad about making grammar mistakes yourself.
But if you decide that the way to master English grammar is just by sitting down with a grammar book and working your way through, then you're really not going to progress very fast at all.
You'll probably also get pretty discouraged and it's easy to lose motivation if you are just heads down in a grammar book.
You'll remember from part one that our first mistake was to not focus on interesting content, and you would have to be a bit of a masochist, slightly strange person if you were to classify grammar books as interesting content.
Yes, of course, it's useful to have a base understanding of English grammar, how various words are conjugated, and so on, but once you have reached the kind of level that I imagine you are now if you can understand this podcast, then time spent on standalone grammar exercises is normally time, well, not quite wasted, but certainly not particularly well spent.
So what is the fix for this? What should you be doing?
Well, instead of focusing on grammar-specific exercises, you should try to acquire grammar through contact with real materials - books, articles, podcasts like this one, so that you understand and acquire grammar rules through real world practice rather than just focusing on the rules themselves.
When you come across a strange piece of grammar in English, by all means, you should try to figure out the rule behind it, and make sure you put it in your little black book so you remember it, but don't focus on grammar alone.
Remember too from part one of the podcast that you should try to lose your fear of making mistakes.
How is this relevant to grammar? Well, you shouldn't worry about making grammar mistakes in English, and as I said, even native speakers make mistakes as well.
If you can embrace the quirkiness, the weirdness, the strangeness of English grammar, and stop worrying about learning it as a standalone discipline, then you'll be amazed at how quickly you actually learn grammar.
You pick up the grammar rules without spending any time actively working on it.
Our next mistake is a real pet peeve of mine, something that's really close to my heart, especially given that I started this podcast partly as a way to combat the problem.
And this mistake is of not really listening to native speakers of not really paying full attention to the sentence structures, the choice of words that they use or the way that they pronounce a particular word.
When listening to native speakers, whether it's this podcast, any other podcast, or speaking to a native speaker in real life, so many people just put their entire focus on trying to understand the gist of what is being said, the meaning of what is being said, without focusing on the content, the actual words that are being used.
Now I should say that there are those that have a completely different view to this saying that you should just focus on comprehension, saying that you should train your ears to listen out for a few core words to get the meaning of a sentence.
But this only really works if you're just starting out, if you're just at the beginning of your journey and you're not trying to get to advanced level, the sort of level that I imagine you would like to achieve in English.
For anyone who is, let's say, intermediate level or above and thinking about listening as an opportunity to improve their own English abilities, not just as a survival thing, then you really need to stop listening passively, purely from a survival point of view and to start focusing on every single word. If you didn't understand a particular word or turn of phrase or idiom, ask someone what it means or look it up.
Find out why they chose to use that particular word when you might've thought there might've been another.
If it's something like a podcast, radio, or film, then make a note of it in your own little black book.
Go back to it and treat every time you listen to a native speaker as a time to learn from them, not just to go into survival mode, to just understand the gist, the overall meaning, of what they're saying.
The sooner you switch to doing this, the sooner you will start actually learning from every single interaction as opposed to just understanding, and you should view every single time you hear native speakers as an opportunity to learn.
Our next mistake is another one that's quite close to my heart for two reasons.
Firstly, as this podcast now has listeners from all over the world, I think when I last checked it was 115 countries, and secondly, because I'm recording this podcast from the little island of Malta, which is famous for people coming here specifically to learn English.
So if you've guessed the mistake I'm referring to, hats off to you. Perhaps the clues were not particularly clear.
What I'm talking about is the mistake of assuming that you need to be, physically be, in an English speaking country to really get better at English, and that these opportunities to listen to and speak English only exist within a physically immersive environment, meaning that you have to actually go there.
A load of English language schools will continue to push this message to people as it's obviously in their interest that people get on a plane and enroll in a school halfway across the world in order to improve their own English.
I'm not here to hate on language schools, some of them are really, really good, and for some people it is a great choice.
But it is a big mistake to think that you can only really make progress in an English speaking country and that you have to go to an English school to do so.
It's completely possible to become fluent, in the traditional sense of the word, while never setting foot in an English speaking country.
How?
Well, through all sorts of fantastic materials that exist all over the internet that will allow you to create your own immersive English experience.
From listening to podcasts like this, to finding an English conversation partner through things like italki or Cambly, or just Facebook groups to switching your phone to English, watching English films and TV series, you can create your own immersive English experience while not only saving yourself a huge amount of money, but also allowing you to fit in your learning around your schedule.
If you're currently at university or if you're working, it's not very easy to decide to take three or six months off to go to another country to learn English.
Perhaps you are already doing this, and if so, kudos to you, hats off to you.
If you're not and you're thinking that you should absolutely need to get on a plane and spend time in an English speaking country, just remember, you really don't.
Okay, mistake number nine is to not make time for it and to assume that you can just fit in the learning around the rest of your schedule.
Unless you actually make time every day, or every couple of days or whatever it is, you are so much less likely to actually do it.
If you're the kind of person that puts everything in your calendar, just put in that little 15 minute English practice session every morning at 7:30 AM or whatever time suits your schedule.
Or if you're not a calendar type of person, just make sure that you mentally set aside time, you reserve time, every day or every few days to dedicate to your learning.
You might be a super organised person and just be able to fit in things at odd times of the day, but for most people, setting aside the time every day or every couple of days is the best solution as it means it's a lot harder to postpone it, to move it to another time or just forget or skip it.
There is a terribly overused quote in English, which is "failing to prepare is preparing to fail", but in this case, it really is true.
What will happen if you don't schedule that time in every single day is you'll end up skipping it, you'll end up just not doing it because you know, life happens and there's always something shinier and more attractive than sitting down and doing English practice.
And once you start skipping it, you lose your rhythm and it'll become a chore, it'll become something you don't enjoy doing, and you'll lose your motivation, and it really is a vicious circle.
So if you make
the time, you make sure that it's part of your daily or weekly routine, then you'll find it so much easier to make progress and you'll get more enjoyment from it too.
Finally, mistake number ten is to not do enough of it. And by that, I mean to not do enough English practice.
Now I know that this sounds like a bit of a paradox, but the more you practice, the more likely it is that you will continue to practice, and the less you practice, the less likely it is that you will practice.
Just think of it as a snowball effect. The more you get into the habit of practicing regularly, the more natural it becomes, the easier it is to make it a part of your routine, and the more progress you will make.
On the other hand, if you are constantly pushing it off, skipping practice, just trying to fit in a little here and there, then it will never really become part of your routine.
You need to be consistent. If you make practice a regular part of your routine, then it will be so much easier to keep on practicing and getting better and better, and it will eventually become something you just do naturally, just like brushing your teeth or making your morning coffee.
So that's it for this episode. The ten most common mistakes people make when learning English and how to avoid them.
I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it useful. If you did, then please do let me know.
If you want to get in touch, have any questions, or have any suggestions for future episodes, you can drop me an email at alastair@leonardoenglish.com, and I'll do my best to get back to you.
You can also find us on social media, on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
And of course, don't forget to check out the website, which is Leonardoenglish.com.
Have a great day, and I'll see you in the next episode!
---
I'm Alastair Budge and today it is the second part of the most common mistakes people make when learning English and how to avoid them.
In part one, we learned about why you should choose normal content over traditional language learning textbooks, why you shouldn't judge yourself against others, why you shouldn't pay attention to hacks or shortcuts, how you should rid yourself of your fear of making mistakes, and why trying to speak too fast is a terrible idea.
So if you haven't listened to part one yet and that sounds right up your street, then go and give that a listen.
And just in case you haven't got it right in front of you, you can grab a copy of the transcript and key vocabulary and become a member of Leonardo English over on the website, which is Leonardoenglish.com.
Alright then, let's get back into it and talk about the final five most common mistakes that people make when learning English and how to fix them.
Okay, mistake number six is a very common mistake that millions, tens, even hundreds of millions of English learners make, and that is to focus on grammar as a standalone discipline.
Grammar in English has its easy parts, but like anything, it has its tricky bits too, and once you've covered the basics, the foundation of English grammar, the more complicated the grammar gets, the harder and more never-ending it can seem.
Yes, it's obviously a bonus that nouns don't have genders in English, and most of our verb conjugations are relatively easy compared to some other languages, but phrasal verbs are obviously a nightmare, and English has a load of weird, and I'd still say wonderful grammar rules that take time to master.
As I'm sure you've probably realised by now, even native speakers still make grammar mistakes, so you shouldn't feel too bad about making grammar mistakes yourself.
But if you decide that the way to master English grammar is just by sitting down with a grammar book and working your way through, then you're really not going to progress very fast at all.
You'll probably also get pretty discouraged and it's easy to lose motivation if you are just heads down in a grammar book.
You'll remember from part one that our first mistake was to not focus on interesting content, and you would have to be a bit of a masochist, slightly strange person if you were to classify grammar books as interesting content.
Yes, of course, it's useful to have a base understanding of English grammar, how various words are conjugated, and so on, but once you have reached the kind of level that I imagine you are now if you can understand this podcast, then time spent on standalone grammar exercises is normally time, well, not quite wasted, but certainly not particularly well spent.
So what is the fix for this? What should you be doing?
Well, instead of focusing on grammar-specific exercises, you should try to acquire grammar through contact with real materials - books, articles, podcasts like this one, so that you understand and acquire grammar rules through real world practice rather than just focusing on the rules themselves.
When you come across a strange piece of grammar in English, by all means, you should try to figure out the rule behind it, and make sure you put it in your little black book so you remember it, but don't focus on grammar alone.
Remember too from part one of the podcast that you should try to lose your fear of making mistakes.
How is this relevant to grammar? Well, you shouldn't worry about making grammar mistakes in English, and as I said, even native speakers make mistakes as well.
If you can embrace the quirkiness, the weirdness, the strangeness of English grammar, and stop worrying about learning it as a standalone discipline, then you'll be amazed at how quickly you actually learn grammar.
You pick up the grammar rules without spending any time actively working on it.
Our next mistake is a real pet peeve of mine, something that's really close to my heart, especially given that I started this podcast partly as a way to combat the problem.
And this mistake is of not really listening to native speakers of not really paying full attention to the sentence structures, the choice of words that they use or the way that they pronounce a particular word.
When listening to native speakers, whether it's this podcast, any other podcast, or speaking to a native speaker in real life, so many people just put their entire focus on trying to understand the gist of what is being said, the meaning of what is being said, without focusing on the content, the actual words that are being used.
Now I should say that there are those that have a completely different view to this saying that you should just focus on comprehension, saying that you should train your ears to listen out for a few core words to get the meaning of a sentence.
But this only really works if you're just starting out, if you're just at the beginning of your journey and you're not trying to get to advanced level, the sort of level that I imagine you would like to achieve in English.
For anyone who is, let's say, intermediate level or above and thinking about listening as an opportunity to improve their own English abilities, not just as a survival thing, then you really need to stop listening passively, purely from a survival point of view and to start focusing on every single word. If you didn't understand a particular word or turn of phrase or idiom, ask someone what it means or look it up.
Find out why they chose to use that particular word when you might've thought there might've been another.
If it's something like a podcast, radio, or film, then make a note of it in your own little black book.
Go back to it and treat every time you listen to a native speaker as a time to learn from them, not just to go into survival mode, to just understand the gist, the overall meaning, of what they're saying.
The sooner you switch to doing this, the sooner you will start actually learning from every single interaction as opposed to just understanding, and you should view every single time you hear native speakers as an opportunity to learn.
Our next mistake is another one that's quite close to my heart for two reasons.
Firstly, as this podcast now has listeners from all over the world, I think when I last checked it was 115 countries, and secondly, because I'm recording this podcast from the little island of Malta, which is famous for people coming here specifically to learn English.
So if you've guessed the mistake I'm referring to, hats off to you. Perhaps the clues were not particularly clear.
What I'm talking about is the mistake of assuming that you need to be, physically be, in an English speaking country to really get better at English, and that these opportunities to listen to and speak English only exist within a physically immersive environment, meaning that you have to actually go there.
A load of English language schools will continue to push this message to people as it's obviously in their interest that people get on a plane and enroll in a school halfway across the world in order to improve their own English.
I'm not here to hate on language schools, some of them are really, really good, and for some people it is a great choice.
But it is a big mistake to think that you can only really make progress in an English speaking country and that you have to go to an English school to do so.
It's completely possible to become fluent, in the traditional sense of the word, while never setting foot in an English speaking country.
How?
Well, through all sorts of fantastic materials that exist all over the internet that will allow you to create your own immersive English experience.
From listening to podcasts like this, to finding an English conversation partner through things like italki or Cambly, or just Facebook groups to switching your phone to English, watching English films and TV series, you can create your own immersive English experience while not only saving yourself a huge amount of money, but also allowing you to fit in your learning around your schedule.
If you're currently at university or if you're working, it's not very easy to decide to take three or six months off to go to another country to learn English.
Perhaps you are already doing this, and if so, kudos to you, hats off to you.
If you're not and you're thinking that you should absolutely need to get on a plane and spend time in an English speaking country, just remember, you really don't.
Okay, mistake number nine is to not make time for it and to assume that you can just fit in the learning around the rest of your schedule.
Unless you actually make time every day, or every couple of days or whatever it is, you are so much less likely to actually do it.
If you're the kind of person that puts everything in your calendar, just put in that little 15 minute English practice session every morning at 7:30 AM or whatever time suits your schedule.
Or if you're not a calendar type of person, just make sure that you mentally set aside time, you reserve time, every day or every few days to dedicate to your learning.
You might be a super organised person and just be able to fit in things at odd times of the day, but for most people, setting aside the time every day or every couple of days is the best solution as it means it's a lot harder to postpone it, to move it to another time or just forget or skip it.
There is a terribly overused quote in English, which is "failing to prepare is preparing to fail", but in this case, it really is true.
What will happen if you don't schedule that time in every single day is you'll end up skipping it, you'll end up just not doing it because you know, life happens and there's always something shinier and more attractive than sitting down and doing English practice.
And once you start skipping it, you lose your rhythm and it'll become a chore, it'll become something you don't enjoy doing, and you'll lose your motivation, and it really is a vicious circle.
So if you make
the time, you make sure that it's part of your daily or weekly routine, then you'll find it so much easier to make progress and you'll get more enjoyment from it too.
Finally, mistake number ten is to not do enough of it. And by that, I mean to not do enough English practice.
Now I know that this sounds like a bit of a paradox, but the more you practice, the more likely it is that you will continue to practice, and the less you practice, the less likely it is that you will practice.
Just think of it as a snowball effect. The more you get into the habit of practicing regularly, the more natural it becomes, the easier it is to make it a part of your routine, and the more progress you will make.
On the other hand, if you are constantly pushing it off, skipping practice, just trying to fit in a little here and there, then it will never really become part of your routine.
You need to be consistent. If you make practice a regular part of your routine, then it will be so much easier to keep on practicing and getting better and better, and it will eventually become something you just do naturally, just like brushing your teeth or making your morning coffee.
So that's it for this episode. The ten most common mistakes people make when learning English and how to avoid them.
I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it useful. If you did, then please do let me know.
If you want to get in touch, have any questions, or have any suggestions for future episodes, you can drop me an email at alastair@leonardoenglish.com, and I'll do my best to get back to you.
You can also find us on social media, on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
And of course, don't forget to check out the website, which is Leonardoenglish.com.
Have a great day, and I'll see you in the next episode!
---
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