Using physical movement is the fastest and most powerful way to learn English vocabulary.   Dr. James Asher is the pioneer of a method called “Total Physical Response” which uses physical movement to teach vocabulary quickly and long term.

In his research, Dr. Asher found that students learn vocabulary 4-5 times faster when they learn it with physical movement.

But he also found something much more important– they remember it long term!  Students who study vocabulary using normal memorization techniques usually forget most of what they studied.  After one year, normal students using normal methods will forget 80% or more of what they “memorized” the previous year.  Students who learn the vocabulary with actions will REMEMBER 80% of what they learned– one year earlier!

That’s a HUGE difference.   Simply put- learning with physical movements is much faster and it creates much deeper learning that lasts long term.

Dr. Asher found other benefits to learning in this way.  The main additional benefit is that learning with movements is more fun.  Why is that important?  Because when students enjoy their learning, they continue to do it.  They don’t quit as often.   Since language mastery is a long term process, avoiding quitting is, in fact, a VERY important goal.

Dr. Asher found that “Action Classes” have retention rates 30-80% higher than traditional English classes.  In other words, students in the “Action Classes” are more likely to continue studying English year after year after year.   This creates MUCH HIGHER long term success rates.

This research has been confirmed by other researchers.   There simply is no arguement- learning with actions is far superior to learning in a traditional English class, or learning independently with traditional methods.

It is therefore vital that you use PHYSICAL ACTION whenever you learn English!

To learn spoken English grammar, we must use different methods than were used in our English classes in the past.

For just as it’s impossible to remember and use memorized vocabulary in a real conversation, it’s also impossible to quickly remember and use grammar rules that were consciously memorized.

Recently, on our Member Forums, we got a good example of this.  A member complained that there were so many rules and exceptions regarding the use of articles (“a”, “an”, “the”).  He couldn’t remember all of them and couldn’t understand when to use which article, and when not to use an article.

The problem is, in spoken English, native speakers use articles in almost every sentence.  If you look at an English grammar book, you’ll often find 3-5 pages or more on articles–  full of rules and exceptions.

So, is it possible in a real, fast conversation to think about 5 pages of grammar rules before speaking EVERY sentence?  Absolutely not.  Of course not.  There simply is not time.  The conscious mind cannot think about and use so much information in such a fast time.

But our unconscious minds can.  They can process multiple streams of information instantly.

However, the unconscious mind works much differently than the conscious mind, and it learns much differently.  It doesn’t learn by memorizing lists and “rules”.  It learns by understanding patterns intuitively.

Which means that listening to easy, understandable, repetitive English is the best way to teach the unconscious mind.  If you just do this and relax, your unconscious mind will figure out even the most difficult grammar.  The problem is, when you start trying to analyze and consciously understand, you block the unconscious mind and return again to slow and ineffective memorization.

So, learning spoken grammar requires some confidence and some relaxation.  You must trust the process enough to just relax and let it happen automatically, without analyzing or worrying.

Learn spoken English grammar by listening to very easy English– repeating it as much as possible, with as much emotion and movement as possible.

Over time, you’ll understand more and more and it will feel effortless.

Eventually, you’ll totally master spoken English grammar- without any attempt to memorize “rules”.

This is the path to truly mastering spoken English grammar.

Announcing our next English Speaking Breakthrough Seminar!

Location: Bangkok Thailand.  Royal Hotel (Paytyde & Sida1 Rooms), 2 Ratchadamnern.

Map To Hotel (at bottom of page):

http://www.sawadee.com/hotel/bangkok/royalbkk/

Registration:  Registration  9:30am – 10:30 am

Cost:  300 Baht  (Cash only please. Payable at Registration)

Date:  Sunday, March 29th

Time:  Seminar Starts at 10:45am.  Ends 18:30pm.

Topics:

How To Learn English Speaking Faster and More Easily
The 3 Levels of Mastery
Increasing Motivation For Learning English
The Effortless English Method
Sample Live Lesson(s)
How To Learn Independently
How To Set Powerful Goals
How To Destroy Weak Beliefs and Build Confidence With English

This Seminar will review material from the first Bangkok Seminar, and will also include new material.  We are charging 300 Baht this time, to cover the cost of a larger room for a full day.   Be sure to eat breakfast before you come, and be happy to know that we will have a real lunch break this time.

This is your chance to breakthrough with English!  Learn how to learn English easily and fast.  Learn how to increase your motivation and energy for speaking English.

If you came to the January seminar, come again and bring your friends.  We will be jumping, yelling, and dancing again as we learn English effortlessly!

See you there!

If you are not already on our Thailand mailing list, add your email and name below to receive updates about our events in Thailand:

Notes:

1. Bring a lot of energy! This will not be like any normal English class you have attended! Be ready to move! Be ready to have fun!
2. Bring water and a snack. There will be a lunch break, but you may still get thirsty and hungry
3. Bring friends! This will be a great introduction to the Effortless English System! If you live in Bangkok, tell everyone about the seminar! Our goal this time is 100 people!
4. Intermediate Level English learners and higher (I’ll be speaking in English the entire time

So many students waste time trying to memorize English vocabulary.  They study long lists of vocabulary.  They repeat the lists many times, trying to memorize the English words and their translated meanings.

Research shows that 80% of vocabulary learned in this way is forgotten in less than a year.  That’s a lot of wasted time and effort.

There’s another problem with this vocabulary learning method– it’s boring and therefore it kills long term motivation.  Students must be very careful– killing your motivation is the worst thing you can do.  Learning English is a marathon, it’s a long run.   It requires high levels of motivation that are sustained for many years.

Using boring vocabulary learning methods, therefore, is doubly bad:  it is inefficient and it weakens motivation.

There is a better way– as participants in my recent Breakthrough Seminar in Bangkok learned.  It is possible to learn new vocabulary in a way that is far more powerful AND is a lot of fun.  When you learn in this way, you will remember 80% one year later!  That’s powerful.

The key to deep, powerful, long term vocabulary learning is movement.  When we combine strong physical movements with understandable new vocabulary, we create deep connections in our brains and bodies.  These connections are long term.  They last!

In the seminar, I taught a number of new words using strong actions.  The students shouted the new words with me, while simultaneously using the strong actions I showed them.  By the end of the lesson, they knew those words well.

But that’s not all.  Since Effortless English is a deep learning system, I repeated those new words again– this time in a Mini-Story.  Each time I used one of the new words in the story, I used the same physical movement we had been practicing.   Through the Mini-Story, the students got even more repetition of the vocabulary, with emotion and strong movements.

Finally, I gave the students homework:  download the audio of the same Mini-Story lesson, and listen to that audio every day for one week.

If the students do this, they will learn these new vocabulary words very deeply, and will remember them forever.   That is the power of the Effortless English system, and that is the power of using physical movement while learning!

Tell A Friend About This Article

Wow!  Bangkok rocks!

Yesterday’s seminar in Bangkok was fantastic.  The learners who came to the seminar were energetic, fun, happy, and enthusiastic!   They jumped!  They danced!  They yelled!  They learned!

It was my privilege to teach such fantastic people.  Thank you so much!

Because this class was so great- I was inspired to give 100% of my energy.  I also jumped, sweated, danced, learned, and taught!

And I killed my voice in the process!   Next time, I might actually use a microphone

While we all had a great time, more importantly, we learned.  We learned how to learn English faster and more easily.  We learned about the “three levels of learning”, and how to learn at the deepest level.   We learned how to get English “in our blood”.

We learned how to study so that we will speak English easily and automatically– without thinking, without translating.

We also learned about “Happy Grammar”– how to learn grammar intuitively and actually enjoy it!!   What an amazing idea!

Finally, we learned that our emotions are extremely important– the stronger our positive emotions while studying, the faster and deeper we learn, the longer we remember, and the better we will speak.

Today, I’m resting…  and trying not to talk in order to heal my voice     But I’m also thinking.  I’m thinking about the successes of the Jan 25th seminar (always focus on the successes first!).

And I’m thinking about how to improve and expand the seminar.  My goals are:

To Extend the Seminar to 8 full hours!
Maybe we’ll even have a real lunch break! 

To Increase the Energy, Movement, and Power of the Emotions during the Seminar!

To Add More Topics, such as:
How to increase motivation
How to set English learning goals
How to create a daily English study plan
How to use movies (and maybe a “Movie Technique” demo by me)
Expand Promotion to Attract More People
I’m ready to teach more people, so we must find ways to attract more learners to the seminars.

We are now working to schedule one more seminar in Bangkok this year.  Right now, I’m looking at Sunday, March 8th.  This week we’ll go by the Royal Hotel and try to book a room.  We’ll be booking a bigger room this time– and expect a larger class at the next seminar!   Please come again, and bring a lot of friends!

But it doesn’t end then.  Tomoe and I are already talking about other countries we’d like to visit.   We’ll definitely be doing one or more seminars in Osaka/Kansai Japan this year.

We’d like to visit other countries as well, but to do that we need members in those countries who will help organize a Conference Room, Promotion, and Registration.  If you would like us to come to your city, please volunteer on the Member Forums to help organize a seminar.  If you help organize it, we will come!

OK–  I look forward to seeing more of you live, in-person, this year!

Meanwhile, Enjoy Your English Learning!

What is the very best investment?  Which investment guarantees the highest ROI (Return On Investment)?   Given the worsening economic conditions in the world, this is an extremely important question.

The experts, of course, constantly change their advice.   Many proclaimed that the stock market was the best investment–  providing the best returns over time.  They recommended diversified mutual funds as a sure-bet long-term investment.  Now the stock market has crashed, and all those people with mutual funds are in serious trouble.

Other experts recommended real estate.  “Buy, buy, buy”, they said!  These geniuses gave advice such as “Your home is your best asset” (it’s not an asset at all usually).   Now the housing market has crashed, and millions of people are in trouble– as are the banks that lent them the money.

At the moment, metals and commodities are looking like good investments– especially with the recent big drop in prices.   Probably, these are good long-term investments at the moment.  However, this is not the best investment.

There is one investment which is always superior.  There is one investment that always pays very high returns.  There is one investment that always beats all others.

What is it?  Where are Tomoe and I putting most of our own extra dollars?

The answer:  Learning.  Education.

The best investment is always learning.   Learning new skills, acquiring new knowledge, gaining new mental, physical, and emotional resources–  these investments cannot be beat!

When most people have extra money, what do they usually do?  Well, most people buy “toys” and luxuries first.  For example, if they get a raise at work, they promptly buy a bigger house, and/or a more expensive car.  They also tend to buy new stereos, new TVs, and lots of other new “toys”.

Those who are more investment-oriented, which is a small minority, will first buy investments– usually stocks of some kind.  A few might buy rental real estate or another kind of standard investment.

But how many people spend first on education?   There are many people, for example, who will buy a $30,000 car happily–  and then complain about the price of a $3000 seminar.  Yet the seminar is far more likely to enhance their business, career, and overall life than an expensive car (which is, after all, just a status symbol).

Last year, Tomoe and I spent more money on education than on anything else.  We attended three Tony Robbins seminars and enrolled in two more.  We attended two Language teaching workshops.  We enrolled in a financial coaching program.   We joined an internet marketing coaching program.  We joined a life coaching program. We bought a large number of CD courses, DVD programs, and books.   We also attended an Entrepreneur Meetup Group…  and a Web-Entrepreneur group.

We went to Guatemala and studied Spanish intensively for a week.  We took a cooking class in Mexico.  We took a jewelry class in Mexico as well (and made a couple of silver rings).

We did this because we know that resourcefulness, knowledge, and skills are investments that always come back to us.

I know, as a businessman, that what I learned last year will transform my business and increase our profits faster than any stock, real estate property, or other standard investment.   In fact, I know absolutely that specific ideas and skills I learned led to specific changes to our business- which produced measurable increases in sales and profit.

I know, for example, that I paid about $3500 for the internet marketing coaching program–  then used what I learned in the first month to increase our monthly income by $5000.  In other words, the program paid for itself in less than a month… and now we will continue getting that extra $5000 for years and years and years.  I know of no other investment that pays that kind of return.

Other learning investments pay less obvious, but still powerful, returns.  For example, as a teacher, I’m always observing the methods and techniques of the teacher-leader in any class, workshop, or seminar I take.  I always learn something from them that improves my own teaching & leading (even if it’s what to avoid doing).   My improved leadership skills translate into improved business for our company.

This is true for you too.  It’s true for everyone.  Invest in education first.  Spend $10,000 on seminars before you spend it on a car or bigger house.   Spend $500 on an audio course before you spend it on a new TV.

Whether you are focused on your career as an employee, or you are a business owner, there is no greater investment than your own learning.  Improve your knowledge and skills.  Improve your resourcefulness and emotional mastery.  Improve your motivation and attitude.

What you learn can never be taken away.  Markets crash and everything can be lost– but skills and knowledge stay with you all of your life.

Always make learning your first and most important investment.  If you still have extra money after that– then invest in savings, a business, stocks, real estate, or commodities.  And if you still have extra money after that– then and only then buy “toys”.

As a final note– there is nothing wrong with “toys” and bigger houses.  Just be sure to invest intelligently in your own learning first– before you spend on anything else!

There are two ways to use our English lessons.  One way produces good results. Your English speaking will improve steadily.  The second way produces outstanding results.  Your English speaking will improve very quickly.

What are these two ways of study?

The first method is basically passive.  Each day, you listen to all of the lessons in one lesson set.  You repeat this every day for one week or more.  For example, if you are studying the lesson set titled “A Kiss”,…  each day you would listen to the Vocabulary Lesson, The Main Article, The MS (more than once).   You would also read the Main Text, and since this lesson set has a MS Transcript, you’d read that too.

Your method would be very relaxed and passive.  Basically, you’d just listen in a calm and easy way.  During the Mini-Story, you wouldn’t answer the questions out loud– though you might think the answers.  You might pause after each question, or you might just listen and not worry about answering.   You’d probably be sitting down while listening.

This is a perfectly acceptable way to use our lessons.

However, there is another way to use them– a way that produces amazing results.

This method is extremely active.  Of course, each day you still listen to all of the lessons in one lesson set, you still repeat this every day for one week, etc…

But the way you listen is totally different.  Instead of sitting, you stand.  And you don’t stand normally.  Rather, you stand tall and strong, with your shoulders back, your eyes and chin up…  feeling strong.

As you listen to the lessons, you move your body.  You make gestures that are connected to the meaning of the English you are hearing.  During the Mini-Story you pause after every question and you shout your answer with powerful emotion.  As you shout your answer, you use all of your body and energy.  You move your arms, chest, face, and whole body powerfully.  You consciously have a huge smile on your face during every lesson.

This way of learning feels like a workout!  You pour out your emotion and your energy! You put your entire body into the listening and learning process!   You look like a boxer or a dancer as you listen to the lessons!  When you finish, you feel happy and energized.

Both ways of using our lessons work.  Both will be successful.  But the second method is exponentially more powerful.  Try both methods, on different weeks, and compare the results for yourself!

In our member Forums, we are quite careful about religious, racial, or nationalist messages.  We are totally dedicated to creating a very positive, accepting international family for our members.

However, given the horrible slaughter happening in Gaza, I feel I must express my deep sympathy for the people there and my sincere hopes for peace.  I especially feel I must do this because the weapons being used to do the killing come mostly from my government (The USA).

During events like these, it is very easy to become angry and to blame all the people of a country.  But this is a mistake.  Not all Americans support the wars in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  Likewise, many Israelis, and Palestinians, sincerely hope for mutual dignity, human rights, and respect.

It’s the same everywhere we find terrible governments.  There are dissidents in China who support democracy and human rights for all people, including Tibetans and minorities.  There are millions of Americans who strongly support peace, human rights, and freedom for all people.

We should never confuse a Government with the People.  Unfortunately, in this world, governments rarely represent the best of their people.  Sadly, they often represent the very worst.

But as Mahatma Gandhi said,  it is our individual responsibility to become the change we hope to see in the world.  If we hope for peace, we as individuals must become peaceful.  If we hope for equality, freedom, and justice, we as individuals must respect every man (and woman’s!!) equality,.. and we must ourselves be free and just.   If we hope for forgiveness, healing, and respect….  we must first forgive, heal, and respect the dignity of all human beings.

And so one of my most important New Year’s Resolutions this year is to become more peaceful, more just, and more respectful–  and to contribute more of my energy, passion, love, and happiness to other people around the world.

The first “Effortless English Breakthrough” Seminar in Bangkok is Sunday, January 25th!!
Experience the Effortless English System Live!

You Will Learn

How To Learn English Speaking Faster and More Easily
The 3 Levels of Mastery
The Secret To Strong Motivation
The Effortless English Method
Sample Live Lesson(s)
How To Learn Independently

Information

Date: Sunday, January 25th
Time: 10:45am – 4pm
Price: Free!

Location:
Royal Hotel (Paytyde Room)
2 Rajdamnern Avenue (across from Sanam Luang. At intersection with Tanau Road)
Bangkok 10200

Map To Hotel (at bottom of page):

http://www.sawadee.com/hotel/bangkok/royalbkk/

Notes:

1. Bring a lot of energy! This will not be like any normal English class you have attended! Be ready to move! Be ready to have fun!
2. Bring water and a snack. There will NOT be a meal break (coffee will be provided).
3. Bring some friends! This will be a great introduction to the Effortless English System! If you live in Bangkok, tell everyone about the seminar!
4. Intermediate Level English learners and higher (I’ll be speaking in English the entire time
5. Doors open promptly at 10:45am (Prompt! not Thai time

Register Now!

To Register, Enter Your Email and Name Below and click “Submit“.  The seminar is free– we will see you at the Royal Hotel on Sunday, January 25th, Paytyde Room, at 10:45 am!!

Learn English with me live!  Effortless English is on the road, and planning for our first “English Speaking Breakthrough” Seminar is complete.   We’ve got the plan.  We’ve got the music.  Tomoe and I are ready to rock!

As the title suggests, this seminar is focused on creating an English speaking breakthrough.  You’ll learn the complete Effortless English system, experience a full lesson live, and learn how to continue using the system at home.   Our goal is to help you breakthrough to English fluency in just 6 months!

We’re targeting next Saturday, January 8th, for our first “Beta Test”– it’ll be a free one day demonstration seminar in Bangkok, Thailand.   We’ll be doing a few of these “Test” seminars in order to practice and improve the process.  After each one, we’ll meet and discuss ways to improve the lessons, the material, and the presentation.

Our aim is to create the most incredible English learning experience you have ever had!   (I believe in BIG goals!!!)

I’m happy to report that our good friends Noi & Nid will be helping us find a conference room for the seminars, and will also be helping us promote them.  I expect the first free “Beta Test” demonstrations to be small.  This is fine, as it will give us a chance to perfect the process and create something truly outstanding!  I’ll be running the first few seminars myself… then Tomoe will be joining me at the end of January to give me some much needed help!!

We’ll soon be announcing dates and locations for these first seminars in Bangkok.

As a bonus, all seminar participants will gain Forum membership (for life).. so attending a seminar is a great way to join The Effortless English Club family.

We’ll be continuing the seminars in San Francisco, when we go back home in May.  Once the “English Speaking Breakthrough” process is perfected, we’ll be charging for admission– but I’m not sure how much yet.

I hope to bring the fully developed seminar to Japan this summer (Osaka)– and possibly elsewhere later in the year.

Eventually, possibly next year, we’ll do a “World Tour”!   We also may videotape some seminars and sell the DVDs.

But all that is “down the road” (in the future).   Right now, we’re focused on developing the best English speaking seminar ever– right here in Bangkok, Thailand!