Filed Under: Learning New Language, Vocabulary

How can I retain vocabulary when learning a new language?

September 6, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Making vocabulary your primary focus is not something that I recommend. And this goes the same as memorising new words, too.

When I was studying for the Japanese Proficiency Test, I worked with a tutor who made me memorise loads of words. Sure, it worked. But it was painful and I hated it. And I ended up forgetting most of it in 2 months… so it’s basically useless. So I don’t recommend memorising words.

Instead, focus on speaking well in conversation in general — on blocks of English. See, if you concentrate on learning these blocks of English or what I call “chunks”  (which you can learn more about in my free training here), you’re going to sound more natural when you’re speaking.

But there are exceptions to learning vocabulary. If your goal is to get good at a very specific topic, then yes you should focus on new words. If, for example, you work at a car company. You’re at a meeting that’s being held primarily in English. Of course, you’d want to learn the English words like, “seatbelt” or “brakes” or any other English word you might need in your English meeting. The point is vocabulary learning is definitely better done in specific topics. Memorising words isn’t that useful in terms of general conversation, but it will be a huge help in specific topics.

And instead of memorising and retaining vocabulary, the best way is to learn from context. Find high-quality samples of English and learn what you see (or retrodiction).

There’s a section in the free training I mentioned about the best materials you can use (and what you can avoid) when it comes to chunking and retrodiction.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: Accent, Pronunciation

If you speak English as a second language, how much does your accent matter?

September 3, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

No, your English accent doesn’t really matter when you’re speaking in English.

What matters is how you can express yourself in English clearly and naturally.

See, most people misunderstand what an accent actually is. They have this thought that learning a native speaker accent will magically make them sound natural in English… it won’t.

Japanese, for example, has a lot of different accents. English accents are more so, you have British English, American English, Australian English, and more. In fact, in the UK alone, you have around 46 main English accent types. And this just means that you’re always going to encounter different types of accents.

But those accents (no matter how many and confusing) won’t really matter. Instead, focus on how you can express yourself well in English. In fact, if you want to start learning how to sound like a native English speaker, I can help you.

I have a free guide on how you can stop sounding like an English learner and sound like a native English speaker.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: Accent & Pronunciation, English learning

How to know if my English pronunciation is good

September 2, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Pronunciation is really about the knowledge of how words, chunks, and blocks of English should sound. And combined with good motor skills, to be sure.

But really, native English speakers speak fluently because we “chunk” English. We articulate English in blocks, not in individual words.

Let’s take for example the phrase “at the end of the day”. This isn’t pronounced as “At. The. End. Of. The. Day” but “athendvthaday”. It’s articulated as a single unit, as a chunk so it sounds very, very natural. Whereas if you pronounce it using individual words, it’s going to sound super strange and awkward.

But if you’re still struggling with your English pronunciation, ask yourself: Is it because you’re TOO focused on the pronunciation of each individual word? Are you ignoring the chunked nature of English? And aside from that, you also have to learn the rhythm intonation, and flow of English, too.

So, learn how to chunk your English words well. And if you need help with your pronunciation, you can start with The Good Shadowing Guide that I created. It helps people build this rhythm and intonation, together with good chunking skills.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: ESL, Learning English

How can I adhere to learn English every day as a Chinese person at a busy work?

September 1, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

One of the most influential books I’ve read in terms of getting shit done is a book called “How to Write a Lot” by Paul Silvia.

Now, this book is actually about academic writing.

It’s for academics who need to do a shit load of writing to get ahead of the game. He wrote in the book that if you’re an academic, you must publish or perish. But, many academics will still procrastinate… and it’s tempting to just do everything else that’s not writing. But this is actually a huge mistake. Because as an academic, the thing that defines your success is the quality and frequency of what you’re putting out in the world. So, you have to prioritise your writing. Treat your writing time as something super important, sacred.

Silvia says for academics, writing time should be scheduled like a meeting or appointment that’s totally fixed and inflexible.

This principle is true when you’re learning English as well.

If you need English in your life, and it’s a barrier to you getting ahead… then improving your English needs to be given top priority. It needs to go in your calendar, and it needs to be sacred.

No changing the time.

No letting other people say, “surely you can do that later?”

No.

Your English learning time is more important than anything else.

For more on this and ideas for what to do in this time, you might like to sign up for my daily email tips for speaking better English. The place to go is here.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: thinking in English

How do I adapt myself to thinking in English?

August 31, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Let’s assume that you’re a non-native English speaker.

If you’re forcing yourself to adapt to thinking in English… then you have it all wrong.

In fact, I don’t recommend you to practise/adapt yourself to thinking in English at all.

That’s just the wrong way to actually learn English.

What you should do instead is to just speak English. Just do it. Don’t think about it and just speak English.

Because if you keep trying to think in English, you’re just trying to force something to happen… and that’s just not the best way to learn English. What will happen is your brain will just resist, and you’ll likely create more problems for yourself (i.e., get more bad habits). But when you train yourself in the right kind of way, thinking in English just happens as a by-product. (You can read more about this in my book, “Think English, Speak English”.)

But what you can do is nudge your brain towards thinking in English by encouraging it to do the things that it wants to do anyway… just in English.

Here’s a good example of this:

You’re at a grocery store thinking of stuff to buy. So, you pick up some cooking items thinking about what to cook tonight. Instead of thinking of the ingredients, recipe, or cooking methods you’ll do in your native language… do it in English. Because this way, you’re not exactly forcing your brain to think in English, you’re just giving it a little nudge to do what you would do anyway in your first language.

So, again, don’t force yourself to think in English. You’re not going to learn English if you’re forcing your brain to do it. Instead, what you need to do is adapt to a good English-learning method. In fact, you can start with the one-hour free training that I created here.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English fluency, English Grammar

Is it possible to improve my English fluency without learning grammar?

August 27, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Yes, it is possible to improve your English fluency without learning grammar.

In fact, there are circumstances (though there are exceptions to this) where it’s actually quite advisable not to learn grammar.

And this is because English learners tend to focus too much on grammar. You tend to have this over-reliance on grammar rules. Teachers in your school probably taught you English like how you should solve mathematical equations. And if you get the answer wrong, you’re immediately screwed and your grades are going to tank. But this is an absolutely horrible way to teach (and learn) English.

The reality is, native English speakers don’t even speak the way students were taught in school. Instead, we native English speakers store large blocks of English which we call “chunks” in our long-term memory (I talk more about “chunks” in this video). Then, when it’s time to use these blocks of English, we just pull them out of memory and use them.

Now, of course, this isn’t to say that grammar rules aren’t completely useless. They’re not. You just need the proper time and place to learn and study them. But that’s when you’re already fluent in English, and you need to just polish it up a bit more by learning about grammar and whatnot.

So, again, yes, it is possible to improve your English without grammar. And instead of overthinking grammar, what you should do instead is to change the way you learn.  Find out better ways to approach learning English. In fact, you can start learning more about the best methods to learn English with the free one-hour training that I created. You’ll learn the 5 key changes that my best clients made to get fluent in English… which I know will help you too.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook