10 Life Hacks for Learning English

It's no secret that the more you surround yourself with English, the faster you'll begin to understand and use it in everyday life. But if you overdo it, you can put off learning anything new for a long time. How can you avoid getting bored and overexerting yourself while learning a language? We asked a methodologist and writer to share useful life hacks English courses in Yandex Praktikum Daria Vasilenko.

Is it possible to learn English by studying only in classes?

Of course, there is no single recipe or instruction for everyone. People perceive and remember information very differently – it depends on both innate abilities and motivation, for example. Some perceive better by ear, some find it easier to read visual images. Some people are better suited to a combination of different approaches.

Learning a language involves immersion in the environment — through podcasts, books, or even moving to a country where the language is spoken. Lessons are not always enough for immersion; additional sources of information are often needed to increase your ability to see and hear. You can hear new words and expressions in a TV series or film, see them in a book, read them on a blog. Then you “steal” them into your vocabulary and gradually begin to use them in speech. Of course, grammar is important, you need to systematize your knowledge, but if we are talking about expanding your language horizons, then it helps to include as many English-language resources in your life as possible.

How to start speaking English?

Just start! You can start with the shortest dialogues or small talk, the main thing is to start experimenting with the language. People are afraid of making mistakes, but without them you won’t be able to master the language – it’s part of the process. However, there are several useful life hacks that can make this path easier – due to the exciting mechanics and integration into the context of your own life.

We have collected 10 such life hacks:

1. Find a study buddy
   A Study Buddy is a person with whom you can practice speaking English. Try to arrange to meet with someone from your course to practice communication and mutual support. Psychologically, this will be easier, especially for anxious people: it is not so scary to make a mistake in front of a person of your level and work on it together. This is one of the ways to overcome the language barrier and learn something new and interesting.

2. Listen to your speech again
   To work on speech errors and pronunciation, you can use applications that can recognize speech. For example, Voice Dictation. It works like this: you dictate a word or phrase into the speaker, and the service prints out what it managed to recognize. This is a good way to assess how clear your pronunciation is. What does the microphone hear: I sink or I think? If there is an error, work on it again and again, listen to native speakers, copy pronunciation and intonation.

3. Get to know different types of speech
   Not all your future interlocutors will speak pure Oxford English. Most people in the world are not native speakers of this language: there is a high probability that you will have to communicate with people with different accents or foreigners who, like you, studied English at school or university. Many of them make mistakes and mix up words. You can also learn to perceive any speech thanks to applications and services – for example, YouGlish. Enter the words you are interested in, choose different accents, remember the pronunciation and try to repeat.

4. Visualize
   This method is suitable for those who have a developed photographic memory: it is more important for them to see a word or attach a specific image to it, rather than just hear it. One of the simplest and most effective methods is to stick stickers with the names of objects on furniture, products and kitchen appliances in the apartment. In addition to visualization, this method also solves the issue of personalization: you see before your eyes not some random microwave, but a specific one – yours.

5. Change interface language
   Another accessible way to immerse yourself in the language environment is to change the language in the settings of social networks and your phone to English. This way you will be able to learn new words and expressions within a familiar interface. At the same time, if you feel that it is difficult to navigate, you should not force yourself.

6. Watch movies and TV series in the original
   Moreover, at the initial stage, it is recommended to watch well-known films and TV series, the plot of which you know, with or without subtitles. This way, you will not be distracted by plot twists and turns and will be able to focus on the language. If you remember every dialogue in Russian by heart, you will easily be able to correlate the lines and add new expressions to your vocabulary.

7. Watch short videos on social networks
   A good way to turn a bad habit into a useful activity is to subscribe to bloggers who run entertaining or educational channels in English. Firstly, the content will be constantly updated – you won't have to specifically search for videos, they will find you themselves while you scroll through the feed. Secondly, you will be aware of English-language trends and memes. Thirdly, short videos often have subtitles – through funny content that brings you pleasure, it will be easier to remember new words and expressions. In addition, you will get the opportunity to track how the language behaves in everyday life: what sounds native speakers “swallow”, what set expressions they use in everyday life, what words they use to talk about emotions. It is very important that the content is really interesting to you – this significantly increases the effectiveness of viewing.

8. Read adapted books
   For those who study the language, there are special book series – the so-called Graded Readers. You choose your level of language proficiency, for example, A2 or B1, and read fairy tales, stories, novels in a version adapted to your level. Additionally, you can agree with the same study buddy or just a friend to discuss each chapter you read in English.

9. Make friends with the native speaker
   Another option to practice live communication in English is to install an application to find interlocutors from different countries. The obvious advantage is that you are both interested in communication, learning a new culture, and immersing yourself in the environment. This way, you can improve your English skills, and your new friend can improve his or her Russian skills, simply by calling each other in a video chat or writing in a messenger on topics that interest you both.

10. Take notes
    This recommendation should be taken with caution: on the one hand, when you listen to podcasts, read a magazine article, or watch a movie in the original, it is useful to write down new expressions; on the other hand, there is a risk of overloading your brain. If the cognitive load is too high, there is little joy in such an activity. You will almost certainly not be able to remember everything you wrote down, and this will provoke frustration and dissatisfaction with yourself. Learning a language in such a depressed state is an unproductive activity. However, writing down 3-4 new phrases from each material you read or listen to in a notebook is a good practice. It is even more useful to immediately begin using them in conversation, “appropriate” and personalize them in the context of your own life.

Which method is right for you? The only way to find out is to try them all. The main thing to remember is that no matter what life hack you choose, it should be fun: if you force yourself to learn a language, there is a risk of giving up quickly.

To immerse yourself in the language environment English courses from Yandex Praktikum meetings with foreign teachers and classes in conversational improvisation are provided. This helps to relax, get rid of the habit of literally translating sentences into Russian during communication and, ultimately, comfortably overcome the language barrier.