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.”