Can you learn English in 30 minutes?
Lindsay and Michelle believe you can if you do the right things with your time.
In today’s episode, Lindsay and Michelle talk about how it can be even more effective to learn English in 30 minutes than 3 hours or more.
Learn how to make most of your time to brush up on your English skills by listening to the All Ears English team’s advice on what to do.
Time is Relative
Lindsay and Michelle ask each other about the weather.
Lindsay is in Boston and it’s sunny and she is staying in a place overlooking the beach.
Michelle is in New York and shares that it is chilly, but yesterday the weather was better and a little bit windy.
She went on a walk with her son and it took her 25 minutes to go from point to point.
But when she walked without her son it only took her 10 minutes.
Lindsay finds this hilarious because Michelle had to walk longer when she was with her son.
Michelle says that her son would enjoy the sights as they took a stroll which is why it takes her an extra few minutes.
Her son doesn’t have the pressure of sticking to a schedule which is why he doesn’t mind just taking his time when outside.
Making the Most of Your Time
Lindsay says 30 minutes is a good amount of time to accomplish something substantial but not over commit.
Michelle agrees and mentions looking at the duration of a TV shows as an example.
Taking in information in 30 minutes makes the show digestible. Lindsay is reminded of the time management technique known as the Pomodoro method.
This method uses a timer to break work into intervals, traditionally 30 to 45 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.
Michelle is glad that Lindsay mentions this because she wants to know if it’s possible to use this technique to learn the English language.
Can you learn English in 30 minutes?
Lindsay believes that if you fully commit yourself and have enough motivation to lock in 30 minutes a day to learn English, you will definitely achieve your goal to be confident and fluent in the language.
Lindsay and Michelle talk about how you can get closer and closer to your goal to learn English in 30 minutes.
Here are some of the tips they’ve mentioned:
- Listen To A TV Show or Podcast. There is an endless number of English TV shows and podcasts out there that you can watch and listen to learn new vocabulary. Sitcoms are usually 30 minutes long. The All Ears English podcasts are 15 to 17 minutes long and are designed for you to get to listen to two episodes at a time. As you watch or listen, you can take notes. Some people think it’s a big help to take note of things for faster retention of information. Lindsay recommends the TV show, The Good Doctor and New Amsterdam. Michelle is currently watching Ted Lasso and re-watching Seinfeld. She will start watching new shows as soon as she finishes Ted Lasso. A hack that you can do to save time, mentioned by Lindsay, is to record the shows and fast-forward to commercials so you can use your 30 minutes to minimize interruptions.
- 30-minute Conversation Clock. You can hold a conversation with someone for 30 minutes. Michelle says you can actually talk in any amount of time about anything with a friend, loved one, colleague, or family member. It can be 5 minutes or less but talking for 30 minutes is better because you can get a deeper conversation. You can talk about life, a problem, an interest, or an issue. It is also another challenge to keep the conversation going after you’ve been talking for a few minutes. Lindsay shares that this is also good practice for you because it is similar to the IELTS Speaking test where you are required to speak in a given amount of time about a certain topic.
- Read Something and Explain It To A Friend. This is another stopwatch method where you have to do something within 30 minutes. In this idea, you can read and explain within 30 minutes or you can also break it up, where you read 15 minutes and explain and discuss in the next 15 minutes.
- Use It As A Distraction During Exercise. This is a good way to distract yourself when you are exercising. When you are working out, your muscles hurt and burn. You can move your mind away from thinking about that burn if you listen to a language lesson podcast in the background or recite 5 English words you know and use them in a sentence. Michelle shares that her husband listens to a German language class while he is lifting. Another good idea is to have your thoughts be in the English language during your workout. Forming a habit Lindsay learned Spanish easily because she used an inner dialogue in Spanish. She was narrating things in Spanish repetitively. This was good practice for her to apply what she learned.
Aside from the four mentioned tips, here are other ideas shared by Lindsay and Michelle:
- You can learn 5 words in English
- Apply a grammar concept you just learned in 30 minutes
- Check current events in your own language and explain in English
- Translate a piece of cultural information to English
Takeaway
Focus and discipline are the main keys to successfully applying these methods.
You should be intentional with whatever you want to achieve. To learn faster deliberately take 30 minutes out of your day to learn the English language.
Take life by the horns and go where you want to go and do not let life just carry you along.
Get a 30-minute chunk of time and just focus on your goal during that period.
Just go for it so that you can complete your task and move on to other things.
You can do it!
We’d love to hear your progress when you apply all these tips to learn the English language.
Leave your comments down below and inspire other listeners out there to take control of their learning today.
