Today we are going to give you some of
the best advice when it comes to learning English.
Before we begin, we'd like to remind you to please
subscribe to our channel for more lessons
on how to practice and improve your English.
So today's advice is very, very, very important.
And this will help you immensely in learning English.
And it's something that is much easier said than done,
but it is an inescapable fact.
So the best advice that we can give you is
don't worry about making mistakes.
We make mistakes all the time.
It's true
When it comes to making mistakes,
you just need to accept it as a fact of life.
It's going to happen and that is okay.
One of our favorite quotes is one by Albert Einstein.
And he said, "A person who never makes mistakes never tried anything new."
Very true.
So the point is if you don't try something new,
if you don't make the mistake, then you're never going to learn from them.
And you can never improve.
So when we started filming these videos
we just kept making mistake, after mistake, after mistake.
And we're still making mistakes today.
If you're making a lot of mistakes, then that really just means
that you are trying really hard.
Which means that in the future you can correct those mistakes and make fewer.
Another great quote is, "The expert at anything was once a beginner."
And this is true because in order to become an expert
you have to start somewhere, which is at the beginning.
And at the beginning you're going to be making a lot of mistakes
and you learn, and you get better and better.
And then you become an expert, and then you'll be
able to help others correct their mistakes and improve.
Another piece of advice is don't feel bad
and learn to laugh at your mistakes.
We try to.
One funny story about making a mistake is
when I was teaching at a university in Korea.
We were having a class discussion and
one of the students was talking about a famous
musical group called the Wonder Girls.
And they had just had this hit song,
and the chorus of the song is, "Nobody, nobody but you."
I want nobody, nobody but you.
I want nobody, nobody but you.
But the student thought that they were saying,
"Nobody, nobody wants you."
Which is kind of completely the opposite message.
And everybody kind of had a good laugh about it.
He did as well. You know he didn't mind.
He was interested to learn the correct words
that were being said in the song.
And afterwards I told him, "You know, it's okay. It's an innocent mistake."
And music is a great way to learn English
and especially for listening and trying to identify
the exact words that people are saying in the song.
One experience that I have with music
is I've been learning Spanish for quite a while
and there is a famous bachata singer, Romeo Santos.
And he has a song where he says, "Llévame contigo," which is take me with you.
Llévame contigo, que no aguanto la aflicción.
Llévame contigo, no seas malita y no no.
And, for some reason, I thought he was saying like,
"No hable conmigo," which is don't talk to me.
I remember when I told people that...like, yeah
everybody thought it was pretty funny.
And now that I think about it, yeah it is pretty funny.
Take me with you. Don't talk to me.
Now I know and when I sing along to the song
I can say it correctly.
Can you sing the song for us?
I thought he was saying, "No hable conmigo."
Llévame contigo, que no aguanto la aflicción.
"No hable conmigo."
Llévame contigo, no seas malita y no no.
My listening is not the best.
I think your singing is not the best.
Yeah, my singing is even worse.
I also had a very public mistake.
And this was again after years of learning English.
In fact, it was in university in a big public classroom.
I think there were about maybe 40 people.
It was a literature class and at the very end
we were reading a story where this character
at the very end of the story kicked the bucket.
We kept talking about different kinds of symbolism
throughout the story, and then I ended up
raising my hand in front of everyone and
said, "I don't understand. Why did he kick the bucket at the end. Like why...?"
It just didn't make sense. Why was there a bucket?
Why was he kicking it? What does this mean?
And the teacher just told me, "Oh, well in English to kick the bucket means to die."
Guess who just kicked the bucket.
And then it makes sense.
So again, this is very public, but let me tell you something.
I will never forget what kick the bucket means.
Finally, you should use mistakes as a learning opportunity.
And don't shy away from them when you make a mistake.
Really try to ask questions and understand
what the mistake is so that you can correct it.
And if you don't have anyone to correct your mistakes,
that's okay as long as you keep exposing yourself
to correct English, which would be through music,
and reading, watching TV, and movies.
You will start to internalize that information
and correct those mistakes automatically
when you start producing the language in speaking and writing.
Yeah, at some point things will just sound wrong to you.
And you say, "Okay, this just doesn't sound right. I'm not going to say it anymore."
And then you realize, "Oh, I've corrected myself."
So remember it is okay to make mistakes.
Recommended even.
You can see that...hey, things are no different for us.
People make mistakes all the time
and it's just part of the learning process.
So in the comments below what we'd like you to do is
tell us a mistake that you've made when learning English
and how you've corrected it.
I think it would be useful to look at what other people
have written so that you can learn from each other.
Learn how people have corrected their mistakes
and thus maybe fix your own mistakes.
So everyone's just learning from each other.
Sharing is caring.
Thanks for watching and we will see you next time.
Bye.
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