INTRODUCTION
Lesson one will be focusing on boosting your motivation. So, read it completely. More than learning new words or structures in English, I’ll give you a taste of the type of analysis we will be getting into in my course. We need to start with how to face this process, or else you will likely abandon your efforts to learn English.
Lesson one, what do we need?
- You want o learn English that you can use to achieve good conversation and get you through life as you expect.
- Control over seeming nice when you want to seem nice is a must. Not too nice and not aloof, and not rude, and not uninterested; PRECISELY NICE.
- Imagine walking out of conversations without overthinking if you were difficult to talk to, or slow to respond.
Zero misunderstandings, altercations during the exchanges with that person at the store, at the office, and at home.- You look for access to feelings that language produces when you understand correctly in movies, in songs, in Twitter posts…
- You want to mirror the strengths you show when you move through common situations using your mother tongue.
Because there is a lot to Iearn, this is a very comprehensive learning process. As of right now, your most important task is learning the following:
Studying with a sustained pace, you will learn English. However,
you are interested in the lesson you need to learn today.
Therefore, the lesson you will learn today is all that matters, because it is the only part of your life you have control over.
Focus.
Lesson ONE’s CONTENT:
WHO ARE YOU?
Really
Who? And what do you want to say about it?
Beyond the classic full name, address, nationality, email, what do you really want to say about yourself? THINK ABOUT IT.
Whenever this round, “think” figure appears, stop and draw all your attention to the topic being discussed.
Did you think about it?
Did you think about why that is important information and why that is usually what you learn as part of lesson one in most language courses?
The point isn’t to know sentences and sentences and sentences on top of sentences. The focus needs to be on: What’s the goal of learning ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I am learning NOW?
For example, knowing defining details of your personality, your physical appearance, your thoughts and behaviors -in English- people can form an idea of who you are, and communication starts flowing from there. That’s your goal, so make sure you are aware of why that is your goal, and feel the importance of knowing it, as well as the consequences of not knowing it.
Should we be afraid of not knowing?
You shouldn’t be afraid of not knowing. Instead, work on internalizing what is it that you don’t know concretely.
How will that help?: That’s your engine to get to work on what you need to get good at. If you are waiting tables and don’t know how to give this or that piece of info to costumers, don’t cry for too long. Get to work.
Now, you have a mental file of everybody you know, and they have a file on you as well. You know what stories you can tell everybody, and what stories to tell only to some people. In other words, you have formed an idea of what information is worth discussing with someone and what isn’t. And guess what the starting point of doing that is: introductions.
Let’s get to the HOW! What do you need to introduce yourself?
You need to know two important elements: People and what they do.
People: I, you, he, she, it, we, they (the pronoun “I” is capitalized in English)
What they do: Actions. Some actions you do; some actions you experience. Actions will expose what you are and what you do, and this is an important distinction which will change what your sentences look and sound like.
IS THIS ALL? This is the only thing that’s important today, and remember that you only need to focus on today.
How do I form ideas with only people and actions?
We are going to run some images through your mind. Look at the girl in the picture above. Close your eyes and imagine some people doing things. I closed mine and this is close to what I saw:
People: she / a girl / a lady / a woman…
Action: read
Full idea: She reads.
Let’s go back into this process from the beginning. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
When you are about to speak, your brain quickly turns what you know into how you learned to name it. Read the previous sentence again and fully immerse into it.
If what you see is “Ella lee” (She reads) because Spanish is your mother tongue, we need to change that. It’s not a short process, but it is a process that ends at some point, if we are following the right steps for enough time.
Some steps
- Look at the girl.
- Internalize that what you see is not an “ella” from Spanish, but a “she” from English.
- Look within yourself for memories of similar realities (girls in this case), and make an effort to see each one of them as a “she”.
- Ask yourself: Can I recognize a “she” if I am in presence of one?
These are some of the actions that you can make YOURS to learn. They are very actionable and easy to follow. Remember that it’s very relevant for your learning that you repeat actions like this whenever you are learning a new language item.
Help your brain understand what you want it to do well. Little by little, you will be building new neuronal connections in English.
Can we personalize the process? Absolutely.
Here’s another version of the process for “she”:
1- Think about the females in your life; the ones you usually interact with.
2- Think also about the females you don’t know personally, even though they come to your mind oftentimes – your favorite celebrities, the ones working at the supermarket where you purchase goods, and so on.
3- Focus on understanding that you can name them individually with the word “she”.
Do it again for 10 seconds.
10 more seconds.
and 10 more seconds.
Do it again until you say “she” and images of an individual female start appearing in your mind. You need to make your brain transform the consecutive sounds in “she” (sh-e) into the SHEs in your life. Once this is well done, there is no more forgetting.
If you pay close attention to your teacher’s suggestions above, you will notice that the words think, focus, and do it again are underlined. It’s not in vane that they are. That’s the biggest support and the best technique I can teach you, so don’t read any more without having practiced it and internalized it.
Round TWO
Now, let’s repeat the process with “read”, because we still need to get to “She reads” and we have only covered the first part: activate your brain (think), draw your attention only to the image you want to put into words (focus); and repeat.
1- Think about someone reading; (this time, focus on people doing the action of reading, and not only on the image of a book or letter or magazine. This time, we’re trying to become aware of and acquire an action, so it will probably be a less static thought)
2- Think also about the times you read and concentrate on those moments. Wander slowly through them making emphasis on associating what you consider “reading” is.
3- Focus on understanding that “read” is what you call what you are doing in your mental images. You are reading.
Do it again for 10 seconds.
10 more seconds.
and 10 more seconds.
Do it again until you say “read” and images of people reading start appearing. For lesson one, you need to make your brain transform the consecutive sounds in “read” (r-ea-d) into how that action is performed in your life, which is similar to how everyone does it. One more time: Once this is well done, there is no more forgetting.
If you learned that one female is a “she”, and that checking the text on a page is “read”, your brain will produce “she read”. That is still not grammatically correct (it should be “she reads”), but we are already translating mental images into thoughts and into words, and showcasing meaning. Read this paragraph one more time.
Conclusions for Lesson ONE
Learning English involves changing patterns that your own language has created. In order to do that, you require repetition and visualization. Additionally, it requires effort from all your senses to take a referent from your reality (people, things, feelings, actions, qualities, etc.) and change the names you call them to names in English.
This is your lesson one, and below is your additional homework.
Homework for Lesson ONE: Think about how you will learn English. Explain to yourself or others the process described in the lesson. This time, use the following images:
He eats
They cook
Notes: In these early stages, make sure you go back and check the process we described as many times as you deem necessary.
Make sure that you are fully focused every time.
PS: If this lesson one was not motivational enough, I suggest you read my article about the right mindset to learn English.