Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com and welcome to episode 3 of the To Fluency podcast. It is fantastic to have you here, and I'm excited about today's podcast because I think this is going to help you when it comes to actually doing what you need to do so that you can make progress with your English. Because if you have a plan of action or if you have ideas about what you need to do to improve, but you don't actually do them, then you're not going
to make progress. You're not going to reach the level you want to reach. So I'm going to teach you a simple trick today, a strategy to help you get the work done. Now, this isn't just for learning English. You can apply this to other areas of your life too. Now, before I go into depth with this method, there are a couple of things I want to talk about first. Number one, in episode 2, I talked about why it's important
to do the hard things. Why it's important to get excited about doing the methods that are a little bit difficult, that things that are going to really push you, things that get you out of your comfort zone because that's where you're going to see the improvements. And secondly, this episode isn't going to go into much depth in terms of the ways that you can learn English, but I will be talking about that because it's
important. So let's actually start there because in order to improve your English as quickly as possible, this is what I recommend you do. Now you can use your own methods but these are the methods that I have used in my life and also I have been using these methods with my students over the last 1213 years. So firstly get lots of input. Secondly, improve your accuracy, use the sentence method and also
get natural practice. So 4 things, get lots of input, improve your accuracy, which is like pronunciation practice, use the sentence method and then get some natural practice. Those are the four main things. Now getting input is the easy part, which I also talked about in episode 2, because this allows you to absorb English, to listen to English, read English, and watch movies or TV in English too.
And input is important. But again, it's usually quite easy for most people because listening to this podcast episode, I'm sure you're doing other things. Maybe you're on your way to work, on your way to school, clean the house, at the gym, or maybe you're just listening to me, which is great. But let's look at another method here, which is how to improve your accuracy, which is the
pronunciation practice. Now this is what I recommend you do for this to listen to audio clips in English, record yourself saying them, listen to yourself saying them, and then compare to the original. Now this is much more difficult to do than just watching a YouTube video because you have to really focus this output. You're listening to the mistakes you make and trying to correct them.
It takes effort and it takes energy, and that's why in episode 2 I talked about why it's important to do the harder things. Now, this episode is going to talk about how to do this consistently in a little trick that you can use because I find that a lot of people, they'll go through this kind of practice, they'll go through tutorials on how to improve the way they speak, and they'll use this method, the LRRC method. Listen, repeat, record and
compare. And this might last for a couple of weeks or a month, maybe two months. But if it's not sustainable, if people feel overwhelmed by this, if they feel it's too difficult, most people quit. So they feel that they can do an hour a day. In the beginning, they have a lot of energy for this, but then after a while it's more difficult to do. And this is where our trick comes in. This is where this strategy is going to help you. And I call this the 10 plus method.
Now, you can also call this the five plus method or the one plus method. But for the remainder of this podcast, we'll call it the 10 plus method. And the 10 relates to minutes, OK? So we're talking about 10 minutes. Again, you can use 5 minutes or one minute. And it works like this. You commit to 10 minutes per day. Doing something difficult. OK, 10 minutes per day. Maybe you do this five times a week. Maybe you do this seven times a
week. But let's just again for the remainder of the podcast say it's five times per week. So what you do is you spend 10 minutes per day on this method, on something that is difficult every day that you have committed to. So you stay consistent. You say, OK, I'm going to do 10 minutes of this method on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The key here is staying consistent.
You don't make any excuses. You don't say I'm feeling feeling a little bit tired today or I'm too busy because 99% of people listening to this can dedicate 10 minutes per day. 99% of people listening to this can find the time to dedicate 10 minutes per day. Just 10 minutes. That is your commitment. Now you might be thinking at this stage, what if I want to do more? What if I need to do more? Well, the good news is you can and that's why it's called the 10 plus method. 10 plus method.
So let's say it's day one, day one of this new plan. You commit to the 10 minutes of working on the way you speak, working on your accuracy, and you feel good about it. You want to do more. So you say this is 10 plus the 10 plus method. So you spend 30 minutes on that method on day one. On day 2, you spend 60 minutes on the method because you feel great, you have the time and you have that momentum with the method.
On day three, you do 30 minutes again because again, you're feeling good and 30 minutes is great for you. But on day four, you're super busy. You have a lot of stuff going on, you have a lot of commitments. So you do your 10 minutes and then you stop, which is great. You have completed the task for the day, you've done your 10 minutes and then that's it. You don't feel bad about it. You don't feel guilty about stopping. You feel happy because you have done what you committed to doing.
You've done what you committed to doing. So the key to all this is staying consistent. If you can do more, fantastic. If not, just do the 10 minutes or the 5 minutes or the two minutes. Consistency is so important. Now, like I said before, you can apply this to other areas of your life too, Things like fitness, because there is a saying here that fitness is
maintained, not stored. Fitness is maintained, not stored, meaning that you have to be consistent with your movement and exercise in order to have fitness in your life. In order to be fit, you have to do something consistently. And it's the same for learning English. In order to improve, you have to do it consistently, but not just anything, something that gets you out of your comfort zone using methods that work. So some methods to use here are the ones that I've talked about already.
Things like the LRRC method, repeating after English speakers, using the sentence method, getting repetition through Anki, speaking with English speakers in a natural way, things that actually make you do things. Another one is the writing method where you do some writing. So let's say that you've learned something in class. You can write about this using your computer or simply a pen and paper.
These are the types of things that are really going to push you on. Again, input is important as well, but it's much easier to just have that input in your life where you're watching videos on YouTube, you're listening to things, you're listening to this podcast. So what I recommend you do is write down the methods that you think are going to help you. And if you want to learn more about the methods, then go to tofluency.com and download my book, The Five Step Plan for English Fluency.
And then think about, OK, when can I commit this 5 or 10 minutes to using these methods? 5 * a week or 7 * a week? When in my day can I make this commitment of 10 minutes? And obviously leave yourself a little bit more room so that you can do more. Often times, starting is the hardest part. Think about going for a run. The hardest part is getting on your running clothes, putting on your shoes and starting. Once you get going, it feels
great. And I think you'll find the same when it comes to learning English and using these methods. Once you start really listening to the way you speak, recording your voice, really noticing the mistakes you make, once you get that momentum going, you'll probably want to do more, which is great. Do more if you want to do it. But again, if you don't, just say, OK, I'll just do my 10 minutes today. I'll just do my 5 minutes today and maybe I'll do more tomorrow. OK.
So thank you for listening to this episode. If you have enjoyed it then please share it with your friends and if possible leave a positive review. That's how this podcast is going to reach more people. And again, go to tofluency.com, tofluency.com to get my book, The Five Step Plan for English fluency and to listen to and watch and read more of our English lessons. OK, I will speak to you soon. Bye bye.