The economic situation in the world right now is very scary.   People are losing their jobs.  Companies are struggling.  Fear and worry are running rampant.

So what can we do?  How can we protect our careers?  How can we ensure that we continue to protect ourselves and our families financially?

In my opinion, learning is the best protection.  Learning is the best guarantee of continued career success.  Learning is the best guarantee for economic success.

Those that learn- thrive.  Those who don’t, sink.

Learning is not something you do in school.  In my opinion, schools are usually mediocre places to learn.  Most learning happens after school or outside of school.

To succeed and thrive, we must be lifelong learners.  We must develop an intense passion for learning.   We must awaken our natural curiosity.   We must constantly be learning new skills, new information, new ideas.

And when I talk about lifelong learning, I’m not just talking about English.  Of course, English will make you much more competitive in the job market.  English opens the door to many jobs and careers.

But don’t just learn English.  Learn anything and everything that interests you and excites you.  The more knowledge and skills you have, the more career opportunities you will have.  Make yourself indispensable to your company.   Constantly learn and make yourself a remarkable person.

Remarkable people are always in demand.  Remarkable people can always find jobs.   Remarkable people will have security and financial opportunties, even during tough economic times.

Don’t become fearful.  Don’t surrender to worry or pessimism.   Instead, focus all of your passion and energy on learning.  Learn.  Grow. Thrive.

Here’s a funny little video that someone did for us

A lot of people have been telling me to “Twitter”.  They tell me I need to create a Twitter account and that I need to send out Twitter updates everyday… so that members and subscribers can follow what I’m doing.

Well, I resisted doing this for a long time,… but I finally created a Twitter account.  My profile is:

http://twitter.com/ajhoge

But I still have a problem.   I don’t know how to use Twitter in a useful and interesting way.  Most of the twitter updates I have seen from other people are boring and kind of stupid, to be honest.

So please help me.   Give me suggestions.  Give me your ideas.

Answer the question:  How can I use Twitter in a way that is interesting and useful for Effortless English subscribers and member?   What kind of short dialy updates would be interesting or helpful to you?

If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can do it several ways (first create a Twitter account at twitter.com, then.. ) :

1. Follow Online
Get a Twitter Account– then go to my profile page and click “Follow”. My Twitter profile is: http://twitter.com/ajhoge

2. Follow With Your Mobile Device
Get a Twitter Account,… then go to my profile page and click follow: My Mobile profile page is at: m.twitter.com/ajhoge

3. Follow With SMS Text (for US & Canada Only):
Send to 40404 this text message : “follow Ajhoge1″

I hope you can think of an interesting use for this service–  because right now, I have no idea!  Help!!

How do you learn English very fast?

Every week, I get emails about this topic.   Typically, someone writes and wants to know how they can speak fluently in only 2 or 3 months.  Usually they are in a hurry because they have a test or an interview coming soon.

Of course, its best not to wait until 2 months before your interview to think about this! 

But still, its an interesting question.   Is it possible to learn English very very fast?   Is it possible to make massive improvements in only 2-3 months?

The answer is yes.

But of course, to make massive improvements requires massive intensity and effort.

So, how can you do it?  How can you improve super-fast?  What do I recommend for this kind of goal?

1. Obsession

The first and most important thing you need to achieve this goal is incredible passion.  You must have tremendous emotional power to learn super-fast.   Why?  Because you must study English 8-14 hours a day…  and every hour you must be alert, interested, and energetic.

To improve that quickly, you must build emotion.  You must be obsessed with English.  You must be passionate and incredibly enthusiastic.  Remember, Emotion is 80% of success, method is only 20%.

To create passion, you need very compelling reasons to learn English.  Just doing well on a test is not a strong enough reason.  Just getting a new job is not a strong enough reason.  You need HUGE reasons for doing this.  Imagine all the incredible benefits you will have as a fluent English speaker.  Imagine how your life will change 5 years from now.  10 years from now.  20 years from now.

If you are motivated by money, imagine how English will make you amazingly rich.  Visualize your dream house, your dream car, your dream life.

If love motivates you, imagine how English will help you meet incredible people from other countries.  Imagine dating beautiful/handsome foreigners!  Imagine incredible love and passion– possible because you are a fluent English speaker.

You can also exaggerate the terrible things that will happen if you fail to speak English fluently.  Imagine all the jobs you will miss.  Imagine all the people you will never meet.  Imagine how bad your life will be because you can’t speak English.

Make your reasons bigger!  Bigger reasons = Bigger Passion.  Bigger Passion = Bigger Success.

Emotions is the key.  Make your emotion stronger!  Become obsessed with English!

2. Massive Input

The second key to super-fast learning and incredible intensity is to focus on English INPUT.  Do not waste time studying grammar or vocabulary.  Don’t waste time trying to speak.

You should spend all of your time either listening or reading.  This is the fastest and most efficient method for speaking English fluently.

Carry your iPod everywhere.  Always have a book with you.

Specifically, you should listen mostly to the Mini-Story Lessons, the Point of View Lessons, and the Main Audio Articles.  These are the most powerful lessons and will help you learn the fastest.

You should read easy English novels– starting with novels for children.   Absolutely do not waste time reading textbooks!

3. Massive Intensity

To be fluent in only 2-3 months, you must create massive intensity.  In other words, you have to listen and read 8-14 hours a day, every day.   You must listen constantly to English.   You must read constantly.

In fact, I recommend alternating the two activities.  Listen for an hour, then read a novel for an hour.  Then listen again for an hour.  Then another hour of novel reading.

If you are really focused on speaking well, do more listening.  But don’t worry, reading will also help your speaking ability.

So that’s it.  That’s my simple method for very fast English fluency.

Of course, most people do not need to improve so quickly.  For most people, two hours a day of listening and reading is enough.

But if you need or want to improve very quickly, follow this plan.

Good luck!

Languages should be learned subconsciously, not consciously.   The research shows that subconscious learning of English is much better than consciously “studying” the language.

In countless studies, the result is always the same:   students who learn English subconsciously learn faster and better than students who use traditional, conscious, analytical study methods.

So, what exactly are subconscious methods and what are the traditional conscious methods?

Well, you already know the old conscious way of learning English.   You use your conscious brain to analyze English grammar, memorize English vocabulary, and translate English messages.   This is the method you used in school.   You consciously studied the mechanics of English, as if it was a car.  You cut up English with your mind and then studied the parts…. word by word,…  rule by rule.

The result, as you know, is that you know a lot about English grammar rules and translations– but you can’t speak well and you can’t understand native speakers.

Subconscious methods are more effective.   These methods provide understandable English input to your brain… and then your subconscious brain does all of the rest of the work.    Consciously, all you do is enjoy English stories, articles, conversations, movies, and novels.   You never think about grammar rules.  You never attempt to memorize words.

Of course, the Effortless English System is a subconscious learning system.   You learn grammar by listening to our crazy Mini-Stories.  We carefully repeat grammar patterns during the story… but you don’t think about any rules.  You just listen and enjoy the story consciously…  but subconsciously, your brain learns English grammar.

When you learn in this way, you can actually use the grammar too!  Your spoken and written English grammar will improve tremendously.   And it will be stress free.  It will feel automatic– you’ll just say things better and write things better and it will feel effortless.  You won’t be thinking about rules at all!

You must trust yourself.  So many students are afraid to use subconscious methods because they don’t trust their own brains.  They are afraid to relax and enjoy English learning.   They are afraid to let the learning happen naturally and effortlessly.  Unfortunately, these fearful students almost never learn to speak English well.

Don’t be one of those students.   Change your way of learning.  Learn English subconsciously and finally speak excellent English!

Learn English faster by practicing intense immersion.  While its fine to learn slowly sometimes, you can make tremendous progress by studying intensely for one month.

Intensity focuses your brain and immerses it in English.   You’ll learn more, you’ll remember more, you’ll speak better, and you’ll feel more confident if you study English intensely for one full month.  Do this 3-5 times a year.

How should you study intensely?  I recommend 4 or more hours a day of English study. You should divide this time over the entire day.  So, for example, listen one hour in the morning, one hour during lunch, one hour going home from work, and one hour before sleep.

Here’s the plan I recommend:

1.  Listen to the lessons for 2 hours each day during your intensity month.   Focus especially on the main Audio articles and on the Mini-Story & POV lessons.  These are the most powerful lessons and they are the most important.  If you spend 2 hours every day focused on these lessons, your speaking and understanding will improve very quickly.

2.  Listen for 1 hour a day to a movie.  Use my movie technique– study only one scene for 3-7 days.  First use the subtitles to understand the vocabulary and meaning.  Then listen and use subtitles at the same time. Finally turn off the subtitles and listen to the scene many times.

3.  Read an easy novel 1 hour every day.  I recommend childrens’ novels to start with… then you can gradually find more difficult books.  You should not need a dictionary to understand the book.. if you need a dictionary, its too difficult, so find an easier book.

By following the above plan for 30 days or more… you will create a sudden, big, powerful improvement in your English ability.  Your listening and speaking will show a huge improvement.  Your vocabulary will grow quickly.  You’ll feel more confident when you speak.

You don’t always need to follow this plan… but try to use it for just 30 days.  Do these intense study months every 2 or 3 months and you will get amazing results!