Filed Under: Learning English, Sitcom

Does a sitcom help people learn English better?

August 12, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

This is a great question.

First off, the question itself implies if you can improve your English by ONLY watching sitcoms… in which case the answer is no, you can’t.

At least not effectively and definitely not very quickly.

Here’s an extract:




You see, any type of passive exposure (i.e., watching sitcoms, reading books, listening to podcasts, etc.) while helpful as a form of extra exposure is not going to do much by itself. But if you love sitcoms, then yes, absolutely, they’re a fantastic source of exposure to English. But again, if you’re going to just use passive exposure, it’s just not going to be enough.

Actually, studies have shown that sitcoms are a good source of learning English in terms of words, phrases, expressions, etc. However, sitcoms (though useful in conversational English) tend to be hyperreal.

One example of this hyperreality is the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” (which I absolutely loved). They purposely use a lot of scientific jargon because that’s what the show is all about. I mean, even as a native speaker, I had a hard time understanding some of the words because they use a lot of scientific terms. And if you’re watching it thinking, “Oh I don’t understand any of these words, I must be shit at English”, you’re kind of missing the point of the show because it’s designed like that for comedy effect. And another good example would be “How I Met Your Mother”. I mean yes, they do use very conversational English. However, you also have to understand they designed these shows for comedy effect – a comic book or theme park representation of real life.

Another example of a sitcom being a theme park representation of real-life is the show “Emily in Paris”. In fact, it was so heavily criticised because it was SO exaggerated – portraying stereotypical Parisians and their culture to create humour. Parisians in and out of Paris argued that the show is totally exaggerated that it no longer represents what Parisian culture actually is.

And, you know, the point here is yes, absolutely, sitcoms are a great source of exposure to supplement your study time. But sitcoms are also a genre of English unto themselves. And because they’re hyperreal, they’re not actual real-life representations of how people actually speak and behave in the real world.

So, yes, sitcoms are a great source of exposure, but no, you shouldn’t take them too literally.

But ultimately, if you want to improve your spoken English fast, you’re going to need a balanced, structured routine that is to have focused intensive learning and exposure or usage of English in relaxed settings.

This is one of the things that I teach my coaching clients (go here if you’re interested in this).

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English Improvement, Improving in English

Why don’t I improve in English as fast now as I did as a beginner?

August 11, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

When you’re a beginner you’ll see real progress fast.

And this is simply because you know nothing at the beginning.




Let’s say you only know two English words and then you managed to learn two more English words. That’s already double your original English knowledge! And that’s huge.

But learning English (as in any other language) is exponential.

And by this, I mean we can compare it with earthquakes. You see, the difference between a magnitude 1 and a magnitude 2 is a little bit big… but the difference between magnitudes 5 and 6 is much, much bigger. And the difference between a 7 and 8 is insanely big. And similar to this analogy, the difference in the amount of work you have to do to improve gets bigger and bigger the further you progress, so while the difference between absolute-beginner and low-beginner isn’t very big… the difference between intermediate and advanced is enormous.

Naturally, you’re going to actively stop noticing progress as you go along the way. But it doesn’t mean you’re not progressing at all. Kind of like when you were younger, you never noticed how tall you’ve gotten… but it doesn’t mean you didn’t grow any taller.

So don’t worry too much about this.

A much better approach is to track actions taken, not proficiency gained.

This is one of the things I teach my clients (go here if you’re interested in this).

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English fluency, Vocabulary

Will learning more vocabulary make me fluent in English?

August 10, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Learning more vocabulary doesn’t necessarily make you fluent in English.




In fact, memorising more words in an attempt to be better at English is actually a big mistake that a lot of people make.

And the problem actually isn’t that you don’t have enough vocabulary… it’s that you’ve got no idea how to combine these words into native-like units of English to use in conversations.

So that’s the main thing you should focus on if you want to be fluent in English (here’s a free guide I created that shows you how to do this).

This said, however, that doesn’t mean knowing more is bad. Learning more vocabulary is always going to be better than knowing less vocabulary. Kind of like money: if you have a lot, it’s always going to be a good thing. But if you think that money can make you happy… obviously it won’t. But it’s still nice to have it. Same with vocabulary. You won’t be able to be fluent in English automatically if you know a lot of words… but it’s good to know more vocabulary all the same.

So, yes, learning more vocabulary is a good thing.

But again, don’t make learning vocabulary your ONLY primary focus. It does depend on each and every person to a certain extent but in my experience, most people don’t actually need more vocabulary… they need better chunking skills.

Here’s a free guide I wrote that shows you how to do this.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English learning, Fear of Making Mistakes, Making Mistakes in English, Speaking English

Why do I have an irrational fear of making mistakes in English?

August 9, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Making mistakes in English is indeed an irrational fear.

Here’s an extract:




Ironically, however, it is completely rational because… well, it’s human psychology.

We’re all the same.

We have this fear of just making mistakes in general.

Let’s put it this way:

There is an idea in psychology where we all think of ourselves as giants. We see everyone else as these small people around us. We think “Oh, I’m so big, and because I’m a giant surrounded by tiny people I stand out too much!” But in reality, everybody believes themselves to be the giant.

And it’s the same as when you’re speaking (or doing) things in English.

For example, you’re doing a presentation in English. You’re thinking, “Well, I made a lot of mistakes during my presentation” when in reality… you didn’t make many at all, and probably the ones you did make went totally unnoticed.

So my advice is, don’t worry so about making mistakes. It happens to everybody.

Now, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t try to learn from your mistakes or eliminate them completely. But fear of making mistakes shouldn’t hop you back.

There are several ways you can do this, but if you’re interested in the methods I use the best place to start is the one-hour free training that I created. You’ll learn the 5 key changes my best clients make to improve their English as higher-level English learners.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English fluency

How to define fluency in English?

August 6, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

A lot of people have this preconceived notion that fluency is a single thing – either you have it or you don’t.




But that’s not actually true.

And, you know, when you say fluency (the technical, scientific sense of the word), what you actually mean to say is ‘proficiency’ instead.

See, fluency (spoken fluency) has 5 elements.

These are:

  1. Encoding (how you learned those chunks and store them in long-term memory).
  2. Organisation (how well you organise that information into networks of English in your brain).
  3. Motor skills (the physical aspect of fluency).
  4. Activation (how awake your English is).
  5. Cognitive load (everything else that’s happening in your brain, i.e., if you’re nervous, this will reduce your English ability).

So, if you want to speak English fluently, you’ll need all five of these elements to work nicely together.

I can help with this if you like, and a good place to start is with the free guide I created that shows you how to be fluent in English.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English learning, Improve in English

What is the easy way to improve one’s English?

August 5, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

The easy way to improve your English is to stop looking for “easy” ricks to improve, and start putting some time and effort into the things which work.

You need:

  1. A method that works (because if the method you’re using isn’t getting the right results, you need to change it).
  2. Materials that help you learn natural, native-like English (chunks, not words or grammar).
  3. The right mindset (because if you believe you can’t do it, you won’t).

If you get these things right, you’ll improve.

If you don’t, you won’t.

Improving in English really is that simple.

If you’re not sure what method, materials, or mindset you need: I have a free training here that will show you what you need to know.

Best,
Julian Northbrook