I have begun planning our new “How To Learn English” seminars.  Each seminar will be one day and will describe and demonstrate the Effortless English system.

I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand a couple of days ago and immediately started to plan the seminar.

My idea is to provide a complete overview of our system.  But I don’t want to merely lecture or talk about theory.  I also want to give participants a powerful learning experience–  so that they directly experience the power of Effortless English.

I also want to go beyond what’s possible with our recorded lessons.  A live seminar makes it possible to have highly energetic & interactive lessons.

In each seminar, I’ll start by explaining the key principles of Effortless English.  I’ll briefly review some of the research that supports our method, and I’ll also talk about my personal teaching experiences.

But the fun part will be the demonstration–  I’ll do a live Mini-Story lesson with the participants and then a live Point of View (POV) lesson with them.   Live Mini-Stories are quite fun, because the learner’s can help me create the story details.   Whenever I ask a question that has an unknown answer, participants shout out guesses…  I typically choose the guess that is the strangest or funniest.

Gradually, we create a very fun, crazy story together….  with plenty of deep learning and interaction.

Another feature of seminars is that they are physical.  When I teach- I move!  I pour my energy into the class…  and I demand energetic responses from them.

This is nothing like the English classes you experienced in school.  You’ll be shouting, jumping, laughing, dancing, and moving!

We do this for two reasons:  First, research by Dr. James Asher (and others) shows that we learn much more deeply when we involve our bodies.   It turns out that moving while learning is a great strategy– which causes you to remember what you have learned much longer– and helps you use your knowledge more easily.

The second reason is that it’s fun!  And guess what– fun also creates more powerful learning!  Happy students, it has been shown, learn much faster and remember more of what they have learned (compared to bored, tired, or anxious students).

All seminar participants will be given lifetime membership on our Effortless English Forums– so soon you’ll be able to hear about the seminars directly from learners like yourself!

Of course, I’ll be using their comments to continually improve our seminars.  My long-term goal is to create a series of seminars, including a 4-7 day intensive English learning experience.

But it all starts now, in Thailand, with our first “English Speaking Breakthrough” seminar.  If you live in Thailand, I hope to see you there.  We’ll be announcing dates and locations soon!

It’s time.

A new year is beginning and it’s time to make a serious commitment.   This is the year you will master English.  This is the year you finally speak fluent English.

In the US, we have the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions.  A resolution is a strong decision to do something or accomplish something.

Unfortunately, most people forget their resolutions.  They quickly become distracted and lose their commitment.

So I want you to make your resolution with great emotional power.

I want you to say, strongly, with tremendous emotion and energy, “This year I will speak English fluently”

Say it out loud– with a very strong voice.

Then do it again.  Use all of your body when you say this resolution.  Move your arms powerfully.  Stand firm. Take a deep breath and with a loud powerful voice say again, “This year I will speak English fluently!”

As you say this, imagine yourself speaking fluent English.  See yourself speaking to a native speaker.  Imagine the words coming out of your mouth effortlessly.  See yourself smiling and laughing as you talk.  You are now a fluent speaker of English!

With this image in your mind, yell again, “This year I will speak English fluently!”

Finally, to make this resolution real, take a strong action.  Do something immediately to show your commitment to mastering English.  Buy some lessons, hire a tutor, contact a native speaker, buy an English novel….  do something to show yourself that you are serious.

This is the year.  No more excuses.  No more delays.  No more complaining. No more doubts.

This is the year you speak English fluently!

When learning spoken English, motivation is very important.  You need emotional power for fast learning and quick improvement.

One of the easiest ways to gain more power and motivation is to choose bigger goals.  Most learners have impotent, vague goals.   They say things such as:   “I want to improve my English”,  “I want a good score on the TOEFL”, “I want a better job”.

These are emotionally weak goals and will not give you the energy you need for rapid success.

Goals must excite you.   You should feel giddy and energized just thinking about your goal.

This is a topic I have already written about– and yet, I realized that I too am sometimes guilty of having weak goals.

For example, I’ll be doing demonstrations and presentations in Thailand soon.   My goal was to “Teach people about the Effortless English system”  and to “Connect with more people”.

These are certainly positive goals– but they have no power.  They don’t excite me.  They don’t ignite my passion.

So I thought more deeply.  I asked myself, “Why do I want to teach people about the Effortless English system?  Why do I want to connect with more people?  What do I want to contribute?  What do I want to accomplish?”

Better goals immediately came to my mind…  answers such as:

“I want to inspire people and transform their lives!”

“I want to awaken people’s passion and love of learning.  I want to fire their imaginations!”

“I want to totally transform the way people learn English.. I want to help people achieve their dreams using English as a tool!”

“I want to build an international family of wildly enthusiastic learners!”

“I want to give people incredibly positive & powerful emotional experiences!  I want to give them happiness, laughter, passion, and an unshakeable confidence in themselves.”

“I want to free people from doubt, from insecurity, from boredom, from hesitancy. I want to free them to achieve their dreams!

Now these are exciting goals!  These goals immediately give me energy.  They make me want to jump out of bed and immediately get to work!  They make me want to do a fantastic job as a teacher.  They inspire me to learn and grow better, and better, and better as a teacher.

They make me want to create an amazing demonstration– not just some boring lecture.

Now I’m inspired!

Now I’m energized!

Now I have a mission!

Choose big, audacious, powerful goals– and ignite your passion too!

English proununciation can be difficult for international students.  Yet, it is very important to have clear pronunciation.  Perfection is not required, but clarity is.  After all, it doesn’t matter how great your grammar and vocabulary are if no one can understand you.

So, how can you improve your English pronunciation?

I recommend the following steps:

1. Identify A Very Specific Result That You Want

To improve, you must have a very clear goal.  General goals such as “I want to have better English pronunciation” have no power.  You need a much more specific goal.

For example, pick your favorite American actor or actress and decide to speak like them.  Your goal might be, “I will speak exactly like George Cloony”.    This goal is much more powerful because it is very specific.

2. Choose A Deadline

Goals are powerless without a timeline.  You must choose a specific date when you will accomplish your pronunciation goal.   Your goal, therefore, might be:  “I will speak exactly like George Cloony by June 4, 2009″.

3. Find A Lot of Compelling Reasons For Your Goal

As Anthony Robbins says, “if you can find enough ‘why’s’, you will easily find the how’s”.  In other words, if you are very motivated, you will find a way to succeed.  Motivation (psychology) is more important than method.

It’s not enough to have a goal.  You must make that goal emotionally powerful.  You must have very powerful reasons..  a long list.  So, you need to brainstorm.  Imagine all of the incredibe benefits that will come to you as a result of having excellent pronunciation.   Find powerful emotional reasons.  Also, imagine all of the terrible results of failing.

Your list might include:

I’ll get a fantastic job and make a lot of money because my English speech is so clear!

I’ll meet beautiful American girls, have a lot of dates, and find an amazing girlfriend because my spoken English is so fantastic!

The important thing to do is to find the reasons that are powerful for you.  Exaggerate them.  Imagine the best possible consequences!

4. Take Massive Action

You have a very specific English pronunciation goal.  You have a deadline.  You have a long list of emotionally compelling reasons.

Now it’s time for action.   Create a massive action plan.  Here’s what I recommend:

Buy a few movies that have your favorite actor or actress.

Each day, watch one scene of the movie.  Play the scene a few times with subtitles…  and listen carefully to the actor’s intonation (the rise, fall, and rhythm of his/her speech).

Next, rewind and play just one sentence.  Pause and copy the actor’s speech.  Copy it EXACTLY.  Copy the rhythm.  Copy the volume.  Copy the pauses.  Copy the emotion.

Also, copy the actor’s gestures.  Move your body exactly like they do.  Copy their facial expressions exactly.  Copy their posture.  Remember, your goal is to look, act, and speak exactly like them.

Follow this system for 20-30 minutes every day.

5. Measure & Celebrate

After a few months of using this system, it’s time to measure yourself.   Play a scene from a movie with your actor in it.  Then pause it–   copy the actor’s speech AND record yourself.  Record yourself speaking the same scene.

Next, rewind your recording and play it.  Then rewind the movie scene and play it.  Listen to both and decide– how close are you to the actor?  What is different about your speech and theirs?  What are you doing well?

Use this measurement to adjust your focus….  then continue using the system everyday.

Finally, when your deadline comes and you succeed– be sure to celebrate!  Have a party!  Go crazy!  Fill yourself with happy, excited, grateful emotions.   This will increase your motivation and will help you continue to improve as you move to your next goal.

In my opinion, this is how to learn English pronunciation most effectively, most enjoyably, and most efficiently.

Enjoy!

To learn spoken English, you must use different strategies.  Traditional study methods will not help you speak easily- and fast.  You need a different way of learning.

This is one of the reasons that so many students fail to master spoken English.

In school, you learned English analytically.  In fact, you never learned to speak English at all.  Rather, you learned to analyze English, talk about English, and translate English.

I have observed many English classes, in many different countries, and they are all the same.  For the most part, students in these classes learned with their eyes.

Traditional classes focus almost entirely on a textbook.  There may be short “communication exercises”, but the entire class is defined by and driven by a textbook.  If your goal is to get a degree in English from a University, this is a great way to study.

Spoken English Mastery

However, if your goal is to master spoken English, you will fail with traditional methods.

You must break with tradition.  You must forget everything you learned in school.  You must have the courage and intelligence to follow a different path.

The first and most obvious change you must make is to learn with your ears.  It’s obvious, isn’t it?  If you want to master spoken English, you need audio input… not text.

The dynamics of spoken English are completely different than the written language.   The grammar is different (we rarely speak in complete sentences).  The vocabulary is different (a lot more idioms and slang are used in speech).

And most importantly, the speed is different.  Speech is fast.  Super-fast.  So fast that you have no time to think about translations, or grammar rules, or textbook lessons.

There is no time.  Your conscious brain simply cannot analyze, translate, and organize real speech.  This is the reason your speech is so slow.  This is the reason you can’t understand two native speakers talking to each other.

To perform at real speaking speeds, you must turn off your conscious brain and let your subconscious do it’s job.   To do that, you must use methods which awaken your subconscious.  You must learn holistically, intuitively, and naturally.

Primarily, this means listening to lots of English speech…  and doing it repeatedly.   As you listen, you quiet your conscious mind and just allow your brain to understand the whole meaning of the words.  You don’t try to pick out individual words.  You don’t worry about the few words you don’t understand.

You relax and you let the meaning wash over you.   Your mind is open and quiet.

And then, when you speak, you just let the words come out.  You don’t struggle.  You don’t analyze.  You don’t think about rules.  You don’t think about translations.

You just let the words pour out of your mouth effortlessly.

This is true fluency, and this is the only way to master spoken English.

How can you learn English grammar naturally?  Can you master English grammar without studying grammar rules?  Can you avoid grammar textbooks?  The answer is yes!

In my opinion, our Point of View Stories are the very best way to learn English grammar intuitively.  They are easy.  They are fun.  They are very effective.

Point of View Stories were first developed by Blaine Ray, the creator of the TPRS learning system.  Blaine used the stories to teach Spanish to his High School students.

I immediately recognized the power of these stories, and decided to modify them for my own teaching system.  Point of View Stories are now a very important part of our Effortless English Club Lessons… and they will be included in my new Power English Lessons– coming soon!

As I explain in my 7 Rules email course, Point of View Stories NEVER discuss grammar rules.  You never even learn the names of grammar rules.  Rather, you absorb the grammar naturally by understanding the context of stories.

How does this work?  You start by listening to a main Mini-Story– usually told from the Past point of view.  In other words, the story is mostly about events that happened in the past.

Next, I tell the same story again and again…. each time changing the point of view.  So, for example, you might listen to the same story told from the Present point of view, another told about the future,… and still another that talks about past events that have continued to the present.

Each point of view story is basically the same, but the change in time creates changes in the language used… especially the verbs.

By listening repeatedly to these stories, you easily and naturally absorb the most common and most useful English grammar tenses.   Because you learn them subconsciously and intuitively, you will actually USE them correctly when you speak– and you won’t have to think about it!

At heart, Effortless English is a system for learning spoken English.  We always stress spoken English– and it is always our first goal to improve your English speech.  We want you to speak fluently, effortlessly, and quickly.

I know you will enjoy our Point of View stories.  Listen to them a few times every day.  You don’t need to analyze the grammar changes… just notice them and listen to them.  With time, you will absorb them intuitively.. and you will use them correctly without effort.

Should you learn spoken English first, or written English?  Should you focus on speaking, listening, reading, or writing,… or try to do them all equally?

Many students are overwhelmed by too many English learning goals.   They want to learn spoken English. They want to read faster.  They want to write perfectly.  They want instant understanding.

All of those are great goals.  However, there is an ideal order to learning English.  Its best to take things step by step– mastering each step before moving to the next one.

For a guide, I believe it’s best to follow the natural order of language learning seen with small children.

That means, you should first focus on oral English before you worry too much about written English.

In other words, become a fluent speaker before you attempt to improve your writing skills.   Oral, spoken English will give you the foundation you need to improve quickly as a reader and writer.

Also, by focusing on spoken English first, you build a solid foundation of correct pronunciation.  Since spoken English is so fast, you will tend to learn it more subconsciously– and thus more deeply.  Text is too easy to analyze.    Students who focus on text usually take a very analytical, conscious, grammar-focused approach.  As a result, they never learn to speak well.

But students who master spoken English become great readers and writers.  They learn deeply.  They start with solid grammar and pronunciation.   Thus, reading becomes easy for them….   and writing too.

So master spoken English first.   It’s fine to read too, but most of your time and energy should be focused on listening to authentic English speech.  That is the most powerful and efficient way to learn.

English mp3 sample lessons are available from the Effortless English Club!  Many people email me asking for a sample lesson.  However, we get far too many emails for me to answer personally.   Therefore, we never send sample English mp3 lessons by personal email.

But you can get sample lessons.  How?

By joining our free Advanced Newsletter.  When you join the Advanced Newsletter, you get more free e-books, free learning suggestions, and free sample English mp3 lessons.

The Advanced Newsletter builds upon what you learn in the 7 Rules email course.   It provides you with advanced tips and tools for improving your English speaking even faster.

So, if want a sample mp3 lesson, or just want to learn more about the Effortless English system, join our free Advanced Newsletter now!

Here’s a short video I recently made where I talk about the movie “Milk”:

Learn English like a child- that is my best advice.  Children are the best and most natural language learners.  If they are given the right conditions, they learn languages effortlessly.   They naturally develop excellent pronunciation, excellent grammar, and excellent fluency.

When developing any skill, my philosophy is always the same– study the best.   As a singing student, I don’t study mediocre singers.  I study the best singers in my genre (rock) and try to learn their songs.  As a runner, I don’t study fat people…  I study the very best long distance endurance runners in the world– ultra-marathoners…  and I try to follow their methods.

As an English learner, you should do the same.  Study the very best English learners in the world– the people who succeed at the highest level.  Those people are young children.

How To Learn English Like A Child

Everyone who joins my free email Newsletter gets an e-book titled “Learn Languages Like Children”.   The book discusses several of the secrets that children naturally use– that adults, unfortunately, forget.

However, there is one key secret that is not included in the e-book– and it is, perhaps, the most important secret of children:   Connect & Have Fun!

I don’t know any young children who study English grammar rules– whether they are native speakers or non-native speakers.  In fact, I don’t know any young children who “study” English at all.

Children don’t study.  They are not so damn serious.  Children communicate and children play.  Their number one focus is always to have fun!

As a result, children are totally relaxed when learning a language.  They don’t stress about mistakes.  They don’t stress about their progress.  They don’t constantly measure themselves with tests.

They just have fun… and in the process they absorb English easily and quickly.

Unfortunately, many adults seem to have trouble with this.   Most adults are depressingly serious all the time.  They are constantly worrying.  They are constantly stressed.  They are constantly measuring their own progress.   They almost never seem to laugh or play or enjoy the process of learning.

No wonder adults are such slow learners!

Every day I get emails from stressed, worried adults.  They are stressed because they “aren’t learning fast enough”.  They are stressed because they “make too many mistakes when speaking”.  They are stressed because they failed a test or got a bad grade.   These people are absolutely miserable while learning English.

Here’s a scientific, research-based fact:  miserable stressed people learn much more slowly.  Specifically, they remember less of what they study, they learn grammar more slowly, they learn vocabulary more slowly, and they improve their pronunciation more slowly.   Research shows that miserable stressed serious people also develop fluency much more slowly.   Stress and misery are bad for your brain!

Of course, all adults are guilty of this at times.  With my own language learning, I have often become too serious.  I stressed.  I became worried about my progress.  As a result, I linked negative emotions to language learning and destroyed my own motivation.

So its time for all of us adults to lighten up,  laugh, play, and have some damn fun with English!

This is the reason my Mini-Story lessons are so crazy.  This is the reason I jump and shout and laugh and act like an idiot when I’m teaching.  I’m using all of my energy to break the stress and seriousness of my adult students.  I’m getting you to laugh.

My goal is to help you become children again, for just a little while…. because I know if you do, you will learn much faster.. and just as importantly, you will feel great while you are learning.

Have a great day, and remember to smile and laugh while learning English!