Want to get really good at English, fast?

Here’s an weird tip that I’ll share with you for free.

Actually, no, I won’t.

I’ll let my good Richard tell you —

https://youtu.be/sISlgaEX0ZM

This is exactly my experience too.

Work out. Get fit. Get healthy. And everything else follows.

For me, everything changed the day I decided to start running. At the time I was doing a masters, and I hadn’t even dreamed of starting a business… but when I started running I went from struggling to find the time to study to sailing through the programme in half the time I had available (it was a 4 year part-time programme and I finished in 2, with a distinction).

Not sure what to do?

I recommend running.

Why?

Watch this video:

https://youtu.be/sISlgaEX0ZM

Best,
Julian

P.S. Need some amazing materials for learning English? — Join EES.

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Does our language define our thinking?

Or rather, to put it another way, is our thinking limited by our language?

Probably the best film I watched last year:

“Arrival”.

If you haven’t seen Arrival, and don’t want me to ruin it for you…

DON’T watch this video:

The film arrival is based on an idea in Psycholinguistics called “linguistic determinism”.

In the 1940s, Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf suggested that language controls what we can think about. The idea is that if we can’t say it, we can’t think it.

This was called the “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis”.

There is some evidence for this.

Different languages have different words for different colours. Some languages have only two colours: “hot” and “cold”. Russian, apparently, has two words for different shades of blue (though I don’t know from personal experience). Research with the Amazonian “Piraha” found they couldn’t learn count or do sums — their language only has two numbers: “one” and “many” (though there is counter-evidence to this too – the Australian Warlpiri tribe also only have, “one”, “two” and “many”… and they did sums just fine).

Personally?

I find an extreme version of the idea difficult to accept.

It doesn’t make sense to me that we CAN’T think things we can’t say. But it also doesn’t make sense to me that language and thought are completely separate.

Anyone who has learned a second language knows it changes your thinking.

Broaden’s the horizons.

And indeed…

If you ask me this is one of the best reasons to learn a second language.

Best,
Julian

P.S. On a side note, there’s a chapter in my book about how culture affects your English — read it here.

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https://youtu.be/TouqtAqmVAE

Three years ago Ireland voted “Yes” for same-sex marriage. And yesterday they voted “Yes” to allow safe and legal abortions.

This is a big deal. Though frankly, it’s backwards and medieval that this vote was even necessary. Nobody—nobody—has the right to tell anyone what they can and can’t do with their own bodies. Especially not a misogynistic organisation famous for trying to cover up its kiddy-fiddling (that’s paedophilia in plain English… yanno, abusing the children they don’t want you to abort). But equally importantly, it’s yet more evidence that the church is losing its power to dictate and control people’s lives.

Jon Shelby Spong, a retired American bishop argues that:

“The Church doesn’t like people to grow up; because you can’t control grown-ups”

… well, well done to Ireland for growing up I say.

Best,
Julian

P.S. If you’re interested in British and Irish Culture, have a look at British Stories (which right now comes with my “The Full Irish” mini-course as a bonus) ー Here.

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Got an interesting question today:

When to use difficult words in English?

The answer to this is pretty simple.

Use them when it’s appropriate and beneficial to use them.

Simple right?

Well, kinda…

You see, here’s the big mistake you might be making:

See how that works?

All this is kinda obvious… but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t get it.

If you want to learn big difficult words that just confuse people and make you look stupid, I can’t help you. But if you want to speak clear, intelligent sounding English that people understand?

You’ll want to pick up a copy of my book, Master English FAST.

[Julian]

P.S. In Master English FAST we go far deeper than the typical, shallow English learning and aim to speak at an extraordinarily high level (Click Here).

Do you ever wonder about the origins of words?

That is, their etymology.

Recently I was in Manila. The major language of the Philippines is Tagalog, which apparently comes form the word “tagá-ilog” — or “people of the river”.

Which got me interested…

Where does “English” come from?

Logically you’d think it comes from the word “England” — the name of the country.

But actually, that isn’t necessarily the case.

It’s just as likely, for example, that “England” was called so because that’s where the “Speakers of English” were. Which actually seems to be the case.

Supposedly, the word “English” is a corruption of the word “Anglish” — or, the “Language of the Angles”, one of the Germanic tribes that, along with the Saxons and the Jutes (collectively the “Anglo-Saxons”), invaded and colonised Britain from the 5th century after the Romans left. The Anglo-Saxons came from what is now northwest Germany, west Denmark and the Netherlands… and supposedly the Angles were called that because the place they came from—the Jutland peninsula—was shaped like a fish hook. The noun “angle” was derived from the Indo-European word “ank” meaning “to bend”, and the word “angle” entered the language in the Old English period and was used to mean “hook for fishing” (which of course is why we also call finishing “Angling”).

So there we have it.

[Julian]

P.S. If you want to speak British English, check out the first lesson of my best selling British English course, British Stories — do it here free.

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