Overcome Shyness and Improve Your English

This is a guest post from RLE Community member, Gustavo Rocha. Gustavo studies Information Technology in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He has been seriously learning English for about 2 years. You can join his group, Language Learners, by clicking here.

Hey guys! First of all, I want to thank all the Real Life English guys for inviting me to write this article about how I’ve been learning English in my daily life. English has been changing my life, positively speaking.

My name is Gustavo, I’m from Belo Horizonte, and I’ve been learning English, seriously, for about 2 years by myself (also Spanish, and I recently started to learn Dutch).

Here are some points that I personally believe are quite important and what I usually do:

1. My favorite one: Listening to songs /audio books, while I’m heading to work and/or university. I started to learn English through music. Pretty cool, right? ;
2. You NEED to study (at least) the basics of the grammar (in this case, English grammar);
3. There’re many sorts of language learning websites, where you can register and practice/learn English, like Duolingo, Livemocha, italki, RealLife Global, and many more you’ll find in this article.
4. Scratch the word shyness out of your vocabulary. The more you overcome your fears and comfort zone to practice English, the more you’ll improve day-by-day and you will be surprised by how much you can do and improve. Instant messaging software like Skype is very helpful to work your language skills (and even to make new friends around the world);
5. Podcasts like the Real Life English Podcast and ESLPod are good, too.

But… If you are in Belo Horizonte and have the opportunity to join the RLE events, it’s a SUPER AWESOME way to practice and learn more English, and, also, to give incentive to beginners and intermediates to keep working on their learning skills.

I’ve faced weakness and frustration several times with English learning (and with other languages that I’ve been learning, too).

So, I want to tell you: You’re a NORMAL human being if you face challenges in your language learning life. So, don’t give up.

• Think to yourself: Why do I want to learn English? – and – How could I do it efficiently and without boredom?
• Be creative and make your learning fun and efficient. You DESERVE it!
• Anything you need, don’t hesitate to count on me, too.
• Thanks for reading this simple article and I hope I have helped you through the language learning experience.
• Don’t forget to check out some of the great language learning resources on the RealLife Global site.