Mastering a language takes time and effort.

There’s no getting around this.

But what if you were just going to forget it all anyway? Would it all be a total waste of time?

This is a common concern.

And the short answer is: no, not at all.

It’s been more than 3 months since I came to Ireland. And yes, my Japanese proficiency has dulled somewhat. Instead of being lightning-fast and as smooth as a baby’s bum, I feel like I’ve got a slight hangover every time I speak it.

But honestly?

I’m not concerned at all, because I understand WHY it happens.

Perhaps you lived in an English-speaking country and you’ve just gone back to your home country, either temporarily or permanently. Perhaps you were working in an international company and used English on a day-to-day basis there and you’ve now left that job and gone to something different, in your native language.

Whatever the reason, you might find yourself in a situation, where suddenly you’re not exposed to English on a day-to-day basis.

You’re not using English as much as you used to and you feel like you’re going to forget everything.

As I said, this is something a lot of people worry about.

First, don’t worry too much. You never actually forget something that you’ve learned. This dulling of your proficiency is a result of the way the brain manages multiple languages. Languages are always switched on in your head. And this drains a lot of the brain’s energy. So what it does is, if you’re not currently using one, it puts it to sleep. You haven’t forgotten it (even if it feels like that).

Rather, you’ve just got to wake it up again.

How?

By using it, simple as that.

And of course, you can make things MUCH easier for yourself by not letting yourself completely lose touch with the language.

Watch films in English, read books, and of course…

… KEEP LEARNING.

And if you’re not sure what the best things to do to keep your English sharp are, grab a copy of my best-selling book, Master English FAST.

It’ll show you step by step everything you need to know to take your English from “OK” to “amazing”, and, of course, what to do if you’re not using the language day in day out (the place to go is here).

Best,
Julian

P.S. If you like, you can read the first chapter of Master English FAST for free (here)

Let’s talk a little about learning English every day.

It’s simple, really.

If you wanna get good at English fast…

… you need to be putting time and effort into your English. Every. Single. Day.

This isn’t just about spending more time learning (though that helps). But because of the way the brain works (something in psycholinguistics we call activation), we are constantly going in and out of fluency in a language.

Have a watch of this video:

Now, what this means is this: If you spend, say just one or two hours once a week studying and practising English, you’ll give yourself a big boost in ‘activation’ (which is an important part of proficiency). But then that activation will gradually disappear over time. And if you’re only learning and practising once a week… it’ll be gone LONG before you’re next learning session. So although you think you’re learning, actually you’re just going back to zero each time.

So what we need to be doing is constantly bringing it back up.

And this is why it’s better to learn just, say, 10 minutes a day, than it is to spend a whole day once a week.

You need to be doing it daily.

Yes, spending more time is better than spending less time… but the important thing is OFTEN. This is what keeps your level of activation not only up, but increasing.

Now, if you want more on this?

Check out my book Think English, Speak English.

It goes into detail about how language works in the brain, why you translate or get stuck thinking in your head, and how to stop it. And yes, activation is an important part of this — and in speaking fluently (Here’s the link again).

Enjoy.
Julian

P.S. Here’s what Camila Bortoli said about Think English, Speak English:

“I loved this book! I was feeling lost in my English, after reading this book I found myself. I found how to improve my difficulties. I appreciate every single word in this book.”

Here’s the link to get it.

There’s this idea…

A silly one, really, when you think about it, but a pervasive one all the same.

“I learned English at school, so all I’ve got to do now is practise.”

And in a way this makes sense.

You are correct in thinking that after learning—putting the stuff in your head—you’ve got to make it run on autopilot (make it a habit) by actually doing it.

But where you’re wrong, is in thinking that you learned English.

Watch this video:

The Harsh Reality

Newsflash — you almost definitely didn’t learn English at school.

Instead, you learned something that vaguely approximated it, in an odd sort of way, but was actually something quite, quite different. In one of my own research projects, I found that Japanese secondary school English textbooks were so different from real English that they were basically teaching a new language using English words and grammar. The language — dialogues, phrases, expressions… the whole lot — were practically useless in the real world.

But wait! There’s more!

When, in another study, I measured secondary school students fluency on the textbook language…

… I found they were highly fluent in it.

Too bad it wasn’t language they could use in the real world.

Materials Matter

The materials you use Matter. They are, after all, the samples of English you fill your head with. Build a house with poor materials, and you get a shitty house. Build your English with poor learning materials, and you get shitty English.

If you’re not sure what kind of materials to use, click here and watch my free 45-minute training. In it you’ll discover the 5 changes you need to make to improve in English, fast, including exactly what kind of materials you need to use.

Best,
Julian

P.S. The lessons I make in Extraordinary English Speakers–my English learning group–are based on my own research.

The published articles I linked above, and a whole series of projects that are due to be published soon. Years of testing and design have gone into the way we write and create lessons… all so you can speak amazing English with less stress, less hassle and fewer headaches.

For more info on how we do things, watch my training.

Here’s a question for you ー

How important is attitude when it comes to mastering the English language?

When it comes to mastering the English language, you need to get three things right.

They’re what I like to call the three pillars of English improvement.

1. You need a method which works.
2. You need materials that are going to teach you real, natural samples of English so you can speak English and be confident you’re saying the right thing.
3. And then the most important pillar: mindset.

You see, even if you’re using the best method?

The most AMAZING materials (just like those that I give you in Extraordinary English Speakers) …

If your mindset is wrong?

You’re fucked.

The Overpowering Power of Mindset

If your attitude is not conducive to getting the hard, often uncomfortable work done and to learning the English you need, to getting out into the real world and actually using your English…then honestly? It’s all a total waste of time.

Here’s a good example…

The Brits VS The Dutch

Think of the differences better the UK and the Netherlands when it comes to speaking a second language.

On the one hand we’ve got the United Kingdom. A country famously monolingual, where most people think they can’t speak languages, and don’t even want to try.

And here’s why:

So there you go.

But then, on the other hand, we have the Netherlands…

You see?

It’s all about attitude.

There’s none of this fucking around, thinking, “Oh my God, I’m a bit embarrassed if I make a mistake! Oh no! I’m just not talented…” No — it’s pretty simple. Learn it. Get on with it. That’s the attitude to have. And if you’ve got that attitude when it comes to English, you will go far. Remember what I said earlier?

There are three things that you’ve got to get right if you want to improve in English. Your method, your materials, and your mindset. Mindset trumps all, because if your attitude is not conducive to doing the method and the materials part…

… it’s not gonna work anyway.

So if you’re struggling?

Sort out what’s going on in your head first.

To help you do this, I put together this free training. In it I talk about the 5 changes you need to make to master English, FAST. The first change shows you what kind mindset you need (click here).

Best,
Julian

P.S. Click here to watch my Free Training where I teach you my “Rocket Launch” Method.

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Magnetic Chit Chat

Is this you?

You don’t speak as smoothly and as automatically in English as you’d like to.

So what do you do?

Piss around, trying to learn more vocabulary, studying more grammar rules in order to fix your problem.

Hoping—praying—this will help to increase your fluency.

But I can tell you that 99 times out of 100…

… What you are doing is actually making the problem worse.

This video explains:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tBrCM7nzQA

You see, if you wanna speak fluently and naturally in conversation, just like a native speaker does, then you need to learn to speak in the way that native speakers speak. But native speakers? They aren’t speaking using vocabulary, individual words, and grammar rules.

We used to think they did.

But really, this never actually made much sense.

Because if we really were using individual words and grammar rules and computing sentences as we go, we’d never be able to speak so fluently, so automatically, so quickly. And we’d never be able to speak in such a natural error-free way.

If you want to learn to speak in the way that native speakers speak, if you want to learn to speak fluently, increase your fluency, and speak in a more automatic manner, you need to start learning in chunks of English, big blocks of language that we store in long-term memory and we just pull out and we spit it out as we go. This is how native speakers speak so automatically, so fluently, so naturally.

We speak in prefabricated chunks of language, not with rules and words.

Simple.

Best,
Julian

P.S. If you want to know what the other HUGE mistakes English learners make are, click here and read the first chapter of my best selling book for free. In it, I go over the seven biggest, most common learning mistakes.