When I decided to write my book…

Master English FAST

… it seemed like such a huge, difficult task.

MEF is about 40000 words long, or just over 220 pages. Staring at the blank word document, that seemed like such an impossible task.

I mean…

40000 words!

But it should have been really easy.

Here’s why:

I’ve written an email just like the one you’re reading right now every day for almost exactly 5 years. That’s 1825 emails. More, actually. Because I just counted the emails I’ve got stored in Evernote and there are 2274 of them. Some of those are probably duplicates. So let’s say I’ve written about 2000 emails over the last 5 years.

Each one is about 300 words long.

So that comes to around 600,000 words. At 40000 words for a book like Master English FAST, that means in 5 years I’ve written the equivalent of 15 books.

Suddenly writing ONE book doesn’t seem so hard, right?

There’s a great saying: How do you eat a whale?

One bite at a time.

Well, this is the same for English.

Learning the language seems like a massive task. But in reality, it’s not. Forget about how many words you’ve learned, and how many more you’ve got to go. Concentrating on learning a little bit…

… one bite at a time.

Not sure what to do every day to improve? Click here and get yourself a copy of my book, Master English FAST.

Best,
Julian

P.S. You can read the first chapter of my best selling book, Master English FAST, for free if you like ー just click here.

The spring in Tokyo is beautiful.

Truly it is.

But it’s also total hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8qwL1jLWFU

Why? Hayfever.

After the second world, someone somewhere through it’d be a good idea to plant loads of cedar and cypress trees. Like, LOADS of them. Massive great forests of the things.At the time it was fine…

But then Tokyo got built up… and up… and up… and concrete covered more and more of the ground. Suddenly there was nowhere for the pollen to go.

Result?

Unexpected Tokyo Spring Hell.

Widespread hayfever.

Death by pollen.

Up until two years ago, I wasn’t affected by it… but last year it started. Itchy eyes. Slight headache. Constant sneezing.

There is a lesson to learn from all this, though. You can’t predict what’s going to happen. The societies we live in are massive, complex adaptive systems. And something done now can result in massive, unexpected change later.

Seems like planting all those trees is a good idea… until years later you realise what a dumb thing to do it was.

This is true of much of life, really.

Including English.

Many people complain that they can’t stop translating in their head when they speak English. But the main reason this happens… is because of (1) the way they study and (2) WHAT they study. I go into detail in my book, Think English, Speak English.

Best,
Julian

P.S. If you have a problem with translating in your head… check out my book, Think English, Speak English. You can read the first chapter free on Kindle — here.

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A while back I posted a video on YouTube about the language you think in.

And I got this comment:

This is more common than you might think.

What TealFalls is talking about here, is something language-scientists call ‘activation’. I mentioned this briefly in this video, but let’s talk about in detail, here.

Have a watch of this video:

In a nutshell…

This is something I talk about in my book Think English, Speak English, but most people find their first language gets in the way of their English. BUT as your proficiency gets better, it does happen the other way, too.

The reason this happens is because…

You CAN’T switch off a language.

… ever.

If you know two languages, they’ll always be switched on in your brain. And they’ll always be fighting with each other. If I see a pencil, in my mind the word “pencil” is activated… but so is the word “enpitsu” (Japanese).

This obviously uses up a lot of energy.

If you’re always switching between languages you’ll get tired, fast. So what your brain does is weak or strengthen one language, depending what you are currently using.

If I am speaking English all day, my English will be much stronger than my Japanese. But if I’m speaking Japanese all day, my Japanese will become stronger (even though English is my first language).

Think of it like a see-saw with English on one end, and Japanese on the other.

The Important Thing for Your to Know Is This

Like a see-saw, what is ‘up’ and what is ‘down’ is constantly changing.

The more you use English and are exposed to English, the stronger your English will become. But as soon as you stop, it starts getting weaker again. This means not only is HOW MUCH time you spend in English important but also HOW OFTEN.

A little, Often

A little English often is better than a lot, only occasionally. Because you need to keep that see-saw balanced. The longer you leave it, the weaker it gets.

If You Want to Speak Fluently

It means sense then, that if you want to speak fluently in English, you need to keep your English’s ‘activation’ level up as high as you can.

And there are ways to make this easier – learning in a way that doesn’t require translation, learning from the right materials (to get the right kind of language – again, to avoid translation). There are also several exercises you can do to keep activation up all the time.

That, however, is beyond this short article.

If you want to learn all about this (and more) go take a look at my book Think English, Speak English. If you’ve got Kindle Select, it’s free to read. But even if not, it costs less than a cup of coffee.

Cheers,

Julian Northbrook
The Language Punk

P.S. In my book, Think English, Speak English, I discuss this topic in detail, and share with you several exercises and ways to keep your English strong.
Get it Here.

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Are you stuck translating in your head?

If you are, don’t worry.

The problem can be fixed, and you can learn to speak English while thinking directly in English (without your first language getting in the way).

But first, you need to understand WHY it happens.

Watch this video:

Three Reasons You DON’T Think in English

In a nutshell…

1. The kind of language you learned was wrong.
2. The way you learned left you with bad translation habits.
3. And your level of ‘activation’ is weak.

How to Stop Translating and Think in English

First, as with anything the key is to know why you’re translating in your head. If you’ve watched (and understood) the video above, you’re now aware of the problem and why it happens. The next step is to change the kind of language you learn, the way you learn and strengthen your level of ‘activation’ in English.

To learn how to do this…

Check out my book Think English, Speak English.

Julian Northbrook
The Language Punk

P.S. If you’ve got Kindle Unlimited… you can even read Think English, Speak English for free – just go here.

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How important are the learning materials you use?

Very important.

Waaaaaaay back, more than 10 years ago, I taught some primary school English classes. I was given this textbook to use and a list of things they kids needed to learn to say. One of them was: “Do you know Ken Dama?” And the answer: “Yes I do.”

If you’re thinking, who the hell is Ken Dama?!, then you’ve made the same mistake I did.

Who is Ken Dama?!

Someone famous in Japan??

Well, no.

Watch this video, and I’ll explain:

The thing is, no native speaker will ever hear the question, “Do you know Ken Dama?” and NOT think of a person called Ken.

And not because the word “Ken” can also be a boys name.

No.

The chunk, “Do you know” without a determiner (the, a) is pretty much only used ask if you know a person in English.

So right away we’ve got a problem — What you’ve learned is confusing native English speakers. But the problem goes much, much deeper than this.

You see, if you translate the chunk “do you know” into Japanese, you get, “… o shiteimasu ka” which doesn’t have the same nuance as English. But the textbook designer has just assumed it does and translated the sentence… “kendama o shitemasu ka” into English — “Do you know kendama?”. So now only have we learnt something confusing, but we’ve also created a bad translation habit — A = B (but actually doesn’t).

I’ll talk a bit more about what makes for good learning materials in a future blog post. But the point I want to make here is…

They matter.

In fact, they mater a lot.

And this is something I talk about in my new book: Think English, Speak English – How to Stop Performing Mental Gymnastics When You Speak English.

Best,
Julian

P.S. If you’ve got Kindle Unlimited, you can read Think English, Speak English for free – here.

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What even is small talk?

The dictionary defines it thus: light conversation; chitchat.

First, small talk and chitchat aren’t necessarily the same thing. We tend to chitchat with people that we know and are already friendly with. Small talk, however, is often with people we don’t know (which can be far more difficult).

And while it is “light” conversation…

… it’s still very important.

I’ve no idea who first said this, but:

People do business with people they know, like and trust

Human beings are group animals.

But we don’t tend to make groups with people who are different to us – rather, we tend to make groups with people who are similar.

People who have similar lives.

Similar worldviews.

Similar interests.

How do you think we work out who are a good match for us?

A big part of it is small talk.

Especially with people you’re meeting for the first time. But also people you have established relationships with.

Small talk doesn’t just fill awkward silence, you see. It is how we find out if we have similar interests as other people, think in the same way, have similar values and ultimately build rapport.

That’s why on the 27th of this month I’ll be holding a seminar called Small Talk Superhero. You’ll learn how small talk works in English, the things you definitely should say when chatting with people for the first time, things you definitely shouldn’t say…

… and more.

The place to join us is here.

This is an in person only event, so you have to be either near Tokyo or willing to travel (and many people do).

Join us in Small Talk Superhero.

Best,
Julian

Smalltalk Super Hero