5 Ways to Make English a Fun & Convenient Part of Your Life
Are you bored with your English, and worried that you’re not learning as much as you could? Do you wish English were more applicable to YOUR LIFE and the things you really LOVE TO DO?
What if I told you there was an amazing way to learn English effectively AND have fun while improving your life in the process?
Here at RealLife English, we call this Lifestyle English, and we believe this is the most effective path to true, lifelong fluency.
Leia este texto em Português | Lea este articulo en Español
Whatever your level or method, if you are learning English (all non-native English speakers), you can benefit more and more from new opportunities to use, practice, and improve your English with habits that are fun, natural, and convenient. For this objective, will not find a more complete resource than RealLife English.
If you really take this advice to heart and decide to do this, it will revolutionize your English and open the door to your own personal fresh new vision of English. Your English will never be the same, and neither will you.
Here are my top 5 suggestions for how to implement Lifestyle English into your daily routines.
1. Listen to English Speaking Podcasts
These are free, downloadable audio programs you can put on your ipod, mobile phone or anything that has an MP3 player. You can listen to the daily news, programs for learning English (ESL), or anything else you’re interested in. The “podshere” is vast and there are no limits to the quantity and quality of material. To maximize your time management and make a daily habit out of it, I recommend listening in your car (or on the bus, walking). RealLife Radio is an excellent weekly podcast created by us here at RealLife English to help you learn.
- What is a podcast?
- ESL PODCASTS are podcasts designed for people learning English. To find them, you need to search “ESL podcasts” because searching for “English Podcasts” will give you many podcasts that are in English, not necessarily to learn English. I highly recommend the Real Life English podcast!
- Podcasts Made for Native English Speakers: The world of native English speaking podcasts is vast and fascinating, and you can listen to the news, cool cultural programs, interviews with your favorite musicians, or just about any topic you can imagine for self-help, professional development, or ANYTHING.
- Discover NPR’s American News Portal: NPR has the biggest and best selection of American podcasts I’ve ever seen. This site is a world in itself. Their music section has an “artist” directory with a HUGE supply of interviews and content on just about any world-renowned artist you can think of. Bob Dylan has 68 podcasts here (and a lot of them have written transcripts).
- ITUNES IS A FREE downloadable program and the best podcast directory out there. You can download it for free here. HINT* To get a more complete offering of the podcasts in English, go down to the bottom of the page in the “itunes store” and change the country to the U.S. or another English speaking country. On the front page of the podcast section of the itunes store, you will see a list of the most popular podcasts in the U.S. If you have android, you can download Stitcher.
- A few of my favorite English speaking podcasts: The Tim Ferriss Podcast, The Accidental Creative, This American Life, Radiolab, 50 Great Voices (Music).
Listen to the ReaLife Radio Podcast
2. Listen to Online Radio
Did you know that with an internet connection you can listen to live radio direct from nearly anyplace in the world? Just the other day I was listening live to 107.7, The End, my favorite station from Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., the station that started the whole grunge-rock movement from the early 90’s. And last week I showed a friend of mine the tune-in radio app for his iphone and he was AMAZED by some of the blues stations he found. He hasn’t stopped listening to it, and if you find some cool stations, you will impress people at parties. Here are some tips.
- TUNEIN RADIO is my favorite: Check out Tunein Radio here. You can put it on your iphone/ ipad or any mobile device that has android. It also works with windows.
- WHEN & WHERE TO LISTEN: Listen in your car, at home while you cook, while you get dressed in the morning. Any relaxed space of time. Creating convenient and painless spaces of time for daily habits is key!
3. Watch Your Favorite TV Series Every Day
You’ve probably heard this a million times, but this is an awesome way to learn. If you can change the language and put subtitles in English on your TV, that could work. But in my opinion, it’s a lot better, easier and more motivating to have the DVDs available.
- Get the Whole Season and Watch them in Sequence: The best thing to do is to buy the whole season of DVD’s and watch one episode per night with English audio and subtitles (if you understand more than 70%-80% and are ready for the challenge, try it without subtitles. You will adapt). Here’s a list popular TV shows to learn from. Check out Ethan’s article: 10 TV Shows You’ll Love Learning English With
- Friends = Fluency: The program “Friends” is a great option. Honestly, there seems to be a correlation between people who LOVE friends and high levels of fluency. Why is this the case? Friends represents a whole generation, the characters all likeable, it’s hilarious funny, a great gauge for American Culture, and there are 10 seasons (250+ episodes)! I have a hypothesis that a basic level English student could become fluent in 1 year by watching 1 episode per day for the whole year (complementing a study routine).
- Other Good Programs I recommend are “How I Met Your Mother,” “Lost,” “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” or “Grey’s Anatomy.” Honestly, the most important thing is that YOU ENJOY IT. More Suggestions.
- Movies are Good, But…. Movies are a good option too, but my problem with movies is that they are so long and it’s really difficult to form daily habits watching movies.
Watch this Hilarious Lesson Teaching a Friends Scene
4. Learn English With Music and Lyrics
This is a part of English speaking culture that everybody participates in and few people take advantage of. It’s everywhere in Brazil. In my case, learning Portuguese, I remember learning to sing along to the Legião Urbana song “Pais e Filhos” before I even spoke Portuguese.
Now I see that song as the origin of several expressions that I use every day quite naturally. My argument: If you already like the song, why not print out the lyrics so you understand what they are saying. You like the song already, it will probably be difficult to forget, and you will learn perfect pronunciation and collocation. Here are a few tips:
- It’s Okay Not to Understand:I’m a native English speaker and I don’t understand half the lyrics out there. It’s natural. Just print the lyrics out. One extremely fluent Real Life English community member posted the follow (see photo to the left) describing his difficulty.
- If You Have an iPod or iPhone, add the lyrics to the song. You can read as you listen to the song. It’s easy to do and it’s really quite useful on long trips: Here’s a video tutorial on how to do this.
- NPR Music Programs are an excellent option for music fans. It’s a perfect balance of dialogue, music and culture. Connect your passion to learn English with your passion for music.
- NPR Has a Huge Directory of Artist Interviews
- If You Are a Musician, this is a whole different set of skills that can help you learn the language (a keen ability to listen and distinguish sounds, imitate vocal frequencies and intonations, and I’m pretty sure music does some crazy stuff to the brain. Here’s an article on How Music Can Make You Fluent.
5. Participate in International Communities
There are excellent opportunities to use your English with international communities that already exist here in BH, and online as well.
- RealLife English is an Excellent Start: I know I’m biased, but If you haven’t joined the community, this is the best place to start. It’s free, it’s open to speakers of all levels, and we have an international social network with thousands of members that promotes the use of English, AND RealLife English Twitter almost 100 thousand followers. Feel free to ask questions, post English articles, and participate.
- Couchsurfing is an international social network for travelers focused on stimulating community, relationships, and cultural exchange. Foreigners that come to BH can get in touch with you on your profile and you can open yourself up to either (1) a cup of coffee, (2) to show them the city, or (3) offer them a place to stay. You can see who the other person is based upon their profile and the recommendations on they’ve received. Read More About How to Use Couchsurfing to Practice English.
Now that you’ve read the list of just a few suggestions, I’m going to give you a piece of well-intentioned advice: OPEN YOUR EYES. If you didn’t already know it, English is all around you.
Finish this article and give yourself 5 minutes on Google and you’ll be surprised at what’s out there. Start paying attention to the songs you hear, the TV shows that you like, the options you already have under your nose. Just get curious and see what happens.
The second piece of advice: DEVELOP DAILY HABITS. If you do something every day, not only will you learn much more quickly, but the act of doing it gets easier and easier exactly because it becomes an automatic habit. It’s like brushing your teeth or taking a shower. You’re so used to doing it that you feel bad when you don’t do it.
And keep in mind that to be great at anything, you have to do it EVERY SINGLE DAY (or at least 5 or 6 days per week). Why would English be any different? But to do it every day does not mean you have to study it.
The Gifted Few that already “get it” (they understand that English, in its essence, is not something you study, but something you integrate into who you are) are racing ahead with their English in a way that people merely “studying it” can never grasp. They are using it to dive head first into their dreams and interests.
They absorb it like sponges, connect it with their interests, careers and Facebook status’ to an international world that is here and now and available for anybody who wants to open their eyes to it. It’s a part of their day. They can’t live without it. They won’t ever forget because it’s who they are, and it’s the doorway to who they are becoming.
What We Assume:We all know a few English learners who are REALLY fluent, and we all struggle to understand how they do it. We look at them and are blown away at how natural they make it look. We all attribute their fluency to either natural talent, hard work, or the school they went to.
How They Really Do It: If you ask the super-fluent speakers how they did it, their answer is simple: CONNECT YOUR LEARNING TO YOUR LIFE, TO YOUR PASSION, TO YOUR INTERESTS. To be excellent at something, you need to do it every day and do it with enthusiasm. No school or monthly payment will do this for you.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”-Aristotle
With globalization, the internet, and the surge of Western pop-culture (for the better or worse), including TV shows (sitcoms), Hollywood movies, and music, Brazil is already swimming in a world of English. Dive in!
Beyond the obvious, there is a HUGE amount of “ESL” or “English as a Second Language” blogs, podcasts and other resources to learn English for those who know how to find them. This is how we can help.
Just Do It:With a little bit of guidance, inspiration and proactivity, you can start creating small, daily pieces of “English for Life immersion” that will revolutionize your learning process. And Real Life English is here to help.
If you enjoyed this article please let us know what you think! Take a second to COMMENT below.
Excellent, well written piece my praise to you Mr Murray.
This is a behemoth of a resource for learning English. Now if only it was in Portuguese!
You did an excellent job Justin Murray! To do something with passion is necessary to make it as a habit in your life buiding it up daily. And there's nothing else better to keep yourself motivated than to see the positive results of your own work!
[…] a sua confiança, quando você finalmente começar a falar. Isso é andar para trás. Você deve aprender a falar primeiro a construir a sua confiança, e depois trabalhar para corrigir sua gramática, quando chegar a um […]
Amazing, I downloaded TUNEIN for my iPod and it's brilliant!
Rodolfo, I’m glad you liked the article! Tunein is AWESOME! Now just find a few good stations (what kind of music do you like?) and insert them into convenient spaces of time each day to form painless habits– When you’re taking a shower, cooking, getting ready in the morning. Such habits are painless, stressless, but will bring really help build lasting fluency over the months and years!
For android users have one option tunewiki, for music and lyrics.
Absolutely right
Bingo…..
TANK YOU FIRST FOR THIS EXPLANATION WHICH GIVE US A SUPPORT TO CONTINY OUR USE OF ENGLISH
MANY ARABIAN STUDENT FEEL DOWN BECAUSE THEY CAN NOT USE PREPOSITION OR VERBAL PHRASE AND YOUR EXPLANATION HELP THEM TO DO THE BEST THANK YOU
It’s a pleasure to help. I’m glad you found the article helpful. I think we both know that practice makes perfect.. the best thing you can do is accept that you have to make mistakes all along the way, and have fun! Take care!
right
this is good.
that is right.
English is already part of my life then !
completely helpful! just what I was looking for! thanks a lot.
Amazing article on how much improve our lerning English successfully! I love it! This brought me a super enthusiasm! Awesome tips! Thanks a lot! Receive a big hug!
Your strategies of learning English are so powerful and make me got more confident and encouragement to learn and keep practicing English :).
Thanks for your nice comment Sangdao! I’m glad it’s helpful for you. Many more to come!
Really Useful congrats guy you´re the best! for sure *-*´.
Hey JJ, Thanks for your nice comment. I’m glad it was helpful.
LOVE RLE
oh guys, you just make it looks easier than it is, you have given us the key for a better English learning. thanks a lot. cheers for you.
nice suggestion to be good at English, Thn
aks a lot
I just would like to thank you for the tips… It is the key for English learning…. 🙂
I just would like to thank you for the tips… It is the key for English learning…. 🙂
[…] Read More: 5 Ways to Make English a Fun and Convenient Part of Your Daily Life […]
Amazing Ideas to learn English!!!
Thanks
Hey Regis, I’m glad it was helpful!
[…] Entenc completament aquesta preocupació. Tothom està ocupat. Però al final, ho és només una excusa. De veritat no crec que ningú estigui massa ocupat per no poder millorar les seves habilitats en un idioma estranger. Només t’has de trobar el temps que ja en tens per això: els teus moments convenients. […]
[…] I completely understand this concern. We’re all busy. But in the end, this is just an excuse. I honestly do not believe that anyone is too busy not to improve a foreign language. You just need to find the time that you already have for it: your convenient moments. […]
i want to learn english
I started this summer watching series in english (the walking dead!) and I’m so glad I did it the voices are so muuuch better and after each episode I learn something new it’s a real great thing to watch series and movies in english seriously
That’s awesome, Géro. I’m sure you’re seeing huge progress so quickly. Thanks for reading and keep up the good work!
I started this summer watching series in english (the walking dead!) and I’m so glad I did it the voices are so muuuch better and after each episode I learn something new it’s a real great thing to watch series and movies in english seriously
Hola! I’ve been following your site for a
long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give
you a shout out from Huffman Texas! Just wanted to tell
you keep up the fantastic job!
Hey Kelly, I really appreciate your nice words. I’m glad we’re creating something useful for you. Have a great day.
I have tried for years many courses, and this is for far the best way to learn, I advanced in weeks what I did in years in another courses. Thanks a lot.
I have tried for years many courses, and this is for far the best way to learn, I advanced in weeks what I did in years in another courses. Thanks a lot.
Thanks guys, for the article. Excellent tips. Five months ago I started a new way to learn English with an aproach very similar to that in this article: more natural and pleasant, keeping in touch with material that I really like. And I feel getting results. You will, certainly, help me in this path.
Aww Yeah, Ricardo! Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing with us. Take care.
I understand the whole article
Thanks
I’M obsessed with English but i don’t know how to learn
This information is amazing thank you so much for everything you do for people like me that want to learn English very well these advices are awesome.
Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. Because of the fact that I can constantly hear English speech around me (tv-shows, music, podcasts), I gradually begin to formulate even my own thoughts in my head in English. And I also understand English songs and can sing with performers. I like it very much! Thank you for convincing me that I’m not going crazy surrounding myself with English all the time.
Hello
I really appreciate your advices and videos.
I tried also your podcast, it is interesting and I also suggested it to my friends
Thanks for your advice and help
I’m hoping your this suggestion will be so helpful for me . I am enjoying previous lessons which are really good and helpful.
Aww yeah, great to hear Kiyara!
Parabéns 👏👏 Congratulations🇧🇷
Thanks
Thank you, I’ll try to speak more English to improve myself
It’s pretty much helpful very convenient english used for learners thanks to your team and guide me how can i engage with circle friend mean wahtsapp group help me out.
You will join Fluency Circle if you join one of our courses 🙂
Thanks it was healful creat way to improve.
I found this article, one solution of all problem for those who are facing problem & confused that how to achieve their goal to become a Native English speaker……
Thanks for this article…
Thank you for your support!