Walking, Listening and Talking

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Short show today. I have to go in a short and a soon. Soon I have to go. Ow. So, I have to go watch babies. So today's show may be only about 35 minutes long today.

But I'm back. I'm doing our normal time, right? So finally you guys get one at the normal time, the regular time in the evening in Japan. So hopefully we'll get some of our regulars, like Lisa, for example, who's joining now.

Cher, good to see you again. Oh, she's in Laos. Oh, I see. She's from Laos, but now in Vietnam. Gotcha. Oh, Laos. I need to visit Laos because it's...

I've heard it's a wonderful place. I love Thailand and I've heard Laos is also wonderful. Alright, so just a quick topic is just about walk and talk because I want to share something with you because Fernanda, one of our great members, Fernanda...

If you can see, this is Gab. This is my Gab. And this is our Gab group. And if you're looking on the screen, I'm showing our Gab group. Gab.com. Effortless English group.

And Fernanda Argao. Did a nice walk and talk. You know, I've done these before. I was doing these with my podcast. And I, you know, used to do them quite a bit.

Not recently, but I will do them again. Where I would just carry a recorder, an audio recorder, and walk. Usually I walk about an hour in the city here in Osaka. And just talk about any topic, anything.

Anything in my mind just popped in my mind. Well, she did a walk and talk in English showing us a park where she goes walking. So really fantastic. And she shared the video with our group here on Gab.

So I just want to give a shout out to her, to Fernanda. Good job. Fantastic. Thanks for sharing that. I know that a lot of people appreciated that and were impressed.

Very good. Excellent. As always, join our Gab group. Now, I just like this idea of walking and talking or walking and listening, that combining physical activity with your English learning.

I have found just my own experience. I don't know if there's research about this. Maybe somewhere there's research about it. But I'm basing it on my own experience that I learn better when I'm active.

when I'm sitting in a classroom, or even just sitting in my apartment, learning independently. But when I'm sitting down for a while, and I mean just like 20 minutes, I can't concentrate as well. My concentration goes down. I have to use a lot more mental energy to listen, to pay attention, to focus, because otherwise I'm kind of fighting against my body is getting...

Less energized, less energized, less energized, right? So easier to get sleepy, easier to get bored. And I just always find that my best listening, like if I'm listening to Japanese mini stories or I'm listening any audio, really, or Spanish, whatever, that my concentration, my focus, therefore my learning is much better if I'm moving my body.

And mostly that means walking, walking. The best is to walk outdoors, I find. You can walk in the most natural way. You just go out to a park or the street.

I'll walk just along the street. It doesn't matter, right? But I like being outdoors. It's my favorite. But you can do it inside, too. I have a very tiny apartment.

I live in a tiny, small, little apartment here in Osaka, and And I can't go out a lot now because of our babies. So when I'm listening to Japanese many times, I will just walk in a circle in my kitchen. Okay?

This little tiny kitchen. And I will just have on my headphones at night. And everybody else, the babies are sleeping, my wife is sleeping, and I will just walk around in a circle. You know, I take three steps, turn, three steps, turn, just back and forth, back and forth, walking in a circle as I listen.

And even this is much better than just sitting. Keeps my body more energized. Therefore, my brain more energized. My concentration is better. Everything works better.

So, I've talked about this topic. It's a topic I repeat a lot. But I just want to remind you, because Fernanda reminded me with her video, that... Some of you ask about how to improve your concentration, and I did a show about it, but I forgot to mention that one.

You can train yourself, you can do meditation, there are other things you can do, but I think the easiest one is to get up and move your body, keep your physical energy up. This will help your concentration.

Now, the kind of activity you want to do is something that energizes you, but that's not too difficult. Like, probably not lifting weights, right? Because if the physical activity is very difficult, then you cannot focus on the listening. You have to focus on the exercise too much, right?

You're lifting a heavy weight. All your attention is focused on your muscles and the weight. And you'll kind of ignore the English you're listening to.

I find even running is a little too much for me. If I'm running, that I kind of lose my concentration with the audio. Some people can run and it's no problem. And they still listen to English or listen to whatever.

And it's no problem. But for me, even running is a little too much. The perfect one for me is walking. So you want to have an activity that is a little bit energizing, but that's not too tough.

That's the perfect kind of activity. Walking is a great one. Riding a bike probably would be good. Not training hard on a bike, but just riding a bike would also work.

Something like that. All right, so let's do a quick, like I said, I have to do a short show tonight, guys. My wife has to go to bed. I have to go watch babies, so we only have a short time.

I'll just jump right into your questions and comments. I'm happy I can do a show at this time today. Cher, I hope you're doing better in your Vietnamese class. Cher's learning.

Obviously, she's learning English on her own, and she's also learning Vietnamese in Vietnam as a foreign language. Great. Mohamed says, AJ, you've changed my life. It's been four years I've been listening to your podcast.

Now my accent and my English has become like a native speaker. Fantastic. Congratulations to you, Mohamed. Thank you very much. Congrats to you. You obviously did all the work, so good job.

Good to see Nasser again. Hey, good to see you also at this time. From Thailand, sir. Sweaty crap. Imran Karachi says... Well... It's certainly possible to make a big improvement, I think, because obviously you're not starting from zero, right?

You're not starting from zero. You already know English. You can understand me. You're writing in English. So I think you just have to be very, very intense, you know, probably seven hours a day, eight hours a day, something like that.

If you're focused on speaking, then you need to do shadowing and talking a lot as much as you can. That's what I would recommend. So, especially shadowing, because shadowing, you're getting listening and speaking at the same time. Do a lot of it each day.

Hey, Anya from Poland. Good to see you again. Okay, so this is a subtitle question again. Do you prefer listening with English subtitles? So, I guess you're talking about my Japanese.

Um... No, I prefer not to use English subtitles, but sometimes I have to. In Japanese, I have to the first time because I can't read Japanese fast enough. So I can't read Japanese subtitles.

So what I'll do, for example, there's the anime I watch, Conan. I will watch the episode. I'll watch it one time with the English subtitles. So I'm trying to listen to the Japanese, but of course I'm still reading the English.

I get the story. I find out everything. What happens? What is everybody saying? What happens? Then I go and I watch the same one again immediately. I watch it again, but no subtitles.

Just listening, just the Japanese only. Now, Spanish is different. Now, Spanish, I can read Spanish, okay? So, Spanish is easy to read. And my Spanish ability is higher.

I understand Spanish more. So, for Spanish, I don't want English subtitles. None. Zero. I never use the English subtitles for Spanish. Only I use Spanish subtitles.

So that's, it depends. So for you all, I think you all probably can read English well enough, good enough. So you can use the English subtitles. It's best not to use your own language subtitles.

Use the English subtitles. And then if you find new words, you can write them down and you can, you know, look them up later if you like. Yeah, Evgeny says, sorry, Evgeny, I'm just, Evgeny, sorry.

I switched the time today. I had to watch two babies today by myself. My wife went to go to lunch with her mom. So my wife got a little vacation away from the babies for a few hours today.

So now I'm doing today, we're doing it at night, obviously. Okay, now, see, Cher's asking, as I mentioned, she is learning Vietnamese. Which method should I use to learn Vietnamese vocabulary, TPR, learn from real situations, real conversations, real people, or from books, which is the best? They're all good.

But you're asking specifically about vocab. Books will give you the most vocab. Books and audiobooks. You'll get the most vocabulary by reading a lot and listening to the audiobooks.

Just in terms of the amount of vocab in a short time, reading's best. Reading plus audiobooks. All the other things you mentioned are all fine. They're also good.

Real-life situations, yes. If you're talking to someone in Vietnamese and you learn a word from them, write it down. Yeah, of course. All that's good, but that's not very efficient.

You're not going to learn a lot of words that way in a short time. But reading is just... words right it's just pages and pages and pages of words so you're that's why it's so great for learning vocab so get books in Vietnamese if you can especially if they have audio book plus audio book and just read read read that'll help

Yeah, so like Neox says here, I like jogging and listening to the podcast. It works for me. Yep. And it also, you know, your level, that might be part of it too, right?

Like I could probably jog and listen to English, no problem. So it's just maybe that, you know, maybe if my level was a little higher in Japanese, maybe I would find jogging would be fine. I don't know.

Oh, Elvira, good luck with your speech. Elvira Saking says, I was doing English course tomorrow. I'm graduating. I don't know if I'm going to do my speech.

I'm so shy. If you want to wish me good luck, get on my YouTube. I have a playlist on my YouTube channel, which you're probably on right now, public speaking and job interviews, and watch a few of those. Maybe they'll help.

Day before is a little late, but good luck to you. How to deal with distractions outdoors when you're walking around. Um... I don't find it very distracting.

I find it's kind of the opposite, that if I'm outdoors, it's stimulating. The visual stimulation, the visual, what I'm seeing with my eyes, also, because it's changing, helps to keep my brain awake. It gives my eyes something to do, so it actually keeps my brain more awake. If I'm in a room, it's just the same thing all the time.

My brain gets more sleepy. I don't know. I don't get distracted outdoors, really. Yeah, Lena says, three months I've walked to work listening to your podcast.

I'm talking less. Good. Yep. Share with another Vietnamese question. These are just general language questions. That's why I'm answering them. Vietnamese is difficult.

Now we learn Vietnamese pronunciation like a phonetic alphabet. Like S plus IT equals S plus IT equals SIT. What's the best way to learn it? The best way to learn it is to listen, like, listen, listen, listen, listen to the same audios many, many, many, many times and hear it naturally.

And, you know, the Laos language is a tone language and so is Vietnamese, I believe. So you already understand the whole idea of tones. That should be fairly easy and natural for you.

So I think you just need a huge amount of listening. You could use audio books, uh, but you, you know, for pronunciation especially you want things that are fairly easy so find some easy audios and listen listen listen and then try shadowing them you know where you're listening and then you're speaking and trying to copy the pronunciation of the speaker so it's the same thing you would do in English Romka says he gets sometimes he gets distracted if a beautiful girl goes by yeah maybe that happens

Philip Leal is going to enter our VIP program. Thank you, Philip. Great. Welcome. I'm just going to jump to the bottom and go backwards. The babies are crying again.

They're okay. They're okay. Yeah, see, I think you have a lot of, Cher, you got a lot of Vietnamese that like effortless English, so you can probably find a lot of conversation partners on this chat.

Oh, Dalal says, my intense efforts on reading, I found my vocab increased, but we need to practice speaking with the public because whenever I speak English to non-native speakers, they laugh. That's because they're idiots.

See, because they're not secure, right? They feel their own English is not very good, so they try to make you feel bad. They think it makes them better.

Dalal, try to talk to native speakers. Not non-natives. Or, Dalal, if you're going to talk to non-natives, talk to other Effortless English members. We're not like that.

We don't do that. We have a code with Effortless English. So I recommend find conversation partners in Effortless English. They're just going to enjoy communicating with you.

Do you need to practice speaking? Yeah, you do. So do shadowing and talk, talk, talk with people. But talk with nice people that don't make you feel nervous.

Oh, a little pussy, baby. Oh, yeah. Now, hi, Dar. What do you recommend listening to each episode of your podcast twice to get the most benefit, especially book club episode?

Then read the book. Yeah, at least twice. You can do more than twice. You can do three times. You can do five times. Steve Kaufman and I, you saw that I did the chat with him and went to dinner.

We were talking about this. You know, he and I repeat. We're the same. We have the same idea about this, that we will repeat the same audio 30 times, 50 times, 70 times.

Like I like to learn deeply. I like lots and lots and lots of repetition. That's how I get those phrases into my brain. And so I like that. So two times for sure, but you can do a lot more than two times if you want to.

abu bakirov asks is there uzbekistan in your travel plans no specific plans but maybe who knows Okay. Yeah, Elena likes... Hi, Elena. I know you like this time.

I'll do my best, right? I'll try to do some shows at this time. Sawadee ka, teacher, says wah-wah. Thank you. That means hi and hello in Thai. Lisa watched a video about... Lisa says, I watched a video about Japanese gardens.

It was talking about Expo 70 Commemorative Park in Osaka. Nice place. I'll have to look that up. I'm not sure if I know that park. Huh. Might be in a different part of the city.

Yeah, well, Philip has got a good point about this, but we just have... The bad part about listening in another language and reading the subtitles is that in Portuguese they do not match. I bet in Spanish they don't match either. In English it's fine.

Even in Japanese I notice sometimes the translation is not direct. The translators will put a phrase and it's not really what the character said. And even at my beginner level I can already pick that sometimes. So it's not perfect.

But... you know, just, but you know, it's okay. Cause you can still get a lot of good phrases and a lot of good words. And even like you said, sometimes in English, um, even in English, it's not always perfect, but it's better than nothing.

Usually what's the topic? Vladislav ass is just about being, being active while we listen. It's a short one today, guys. I only have about 10 more minutes and I have to go.

Yeah, like Zinnem says, and it's another good strategy, I think with English subtitles, it's effective the first time to improve your listening. If you want to improve more, just listen without it. That's natural learning. Yeah, and that's a good thing, too.

You could listen in with English subtitles the first time, or even a couple times, and then without. Vicente saying, do you plan to come to the Philippines? Actually, that is fairly possible for a vacation. That's not so far for us.

It's nice and there's some like Cebu, for example, some nice, beautiful islands. That could be a nice family vacation. Yes, Philippines is a possibility.

Okay, so someone who doesn't like, not everybody likes shadowing, and that's fine. Mosa says, what if I don't like shadowing? Can I speak after reading and listening? I mean, without watching.

Yes, you can. You can also do that. You can just talk to yourself. Have a conversation, imaginary conversation with yourself. Or, of course, you can find conversation partners like italki or something like that.

So all of these are possible. A lot of people, like Steve Kaufman, doesn't like shadowing. I like it, but I don't know. Some people really love shadowing and some people don't.

I like it. Hasana, we're going to talk to Steve Kaufman about this topic. I already chatted with him a little about it. Is it okay to learn more than one language at the same time?

I used to say no. Steve used to say no. And we changed our minds. And now we say yes. So yes, it's okay. Okay, got to say hi to someone in my home state.

Hello from Atlanta, Georgia. Is it Mupna? Anyway, that's where I am from. I went to high school in the Atlanta area. Not Atlanta, but the suburbs. And I lived in Athens, Georgia for many, many, many years.

So hello there in Georgia. My father still lives in Georgia. All right, this is a good question. Sometimes I feel I'm not understanding conversations.

For example, jokes don't touch me. What should I do? Jokes are very difficult. I would just say don't worry about it. The problem with jokes is they're not just language.

There is culture. There's so much you have to understand to understand a joke that... Yeah, it can be very, very tough. You know, even within a country, like with the same language, if you're not, like some, you know, humor is different, right?

So let's say, you know, like I grew up in the suburbs. And if there's a comedian and he's from this, you know, the city, and he's telling jokes about city life. Well, if I never lived in the city, I don't really know about city life. I might not think it's funny.

I might not understand the joke. Why is this funny? I don't understand. Right? Because I don't have the connection to that culture, that experience. Well, when you're from a completely different country, right, and grew up with a different language, then it's even more separated.

So humor and jokes, that can be very tough. And I would just say don't worry about it. Just ignore it. It doesn't matter. It's not important. Yeah, see, like Elena's on my side here with shadowing.

I find shadowing the most effective method for speaking like a native. I do too. I like it a lot. Some people say, like that Matt guy, he says he likes shadowing, but he says don't do it as a beginner.

But I like doing it as a beginner even. And Alexander Arguelles, the guy who developed it first, he also does it as a beginner. And I like it. I find it improves my concentration a lot.

Okay, kind of a follow-up question on the two languages. My English is upper-intermediate level. I like learning French. Do you think it's a good time to do that, or should I keep learning English until I get advanced?

It depends on your goals, really, what you want, but it's a pretty good level. Like, I'm a low-intermediate in Spanish, and I'm doing Japanese, and I'm still doing a little Spanish, too.

So, and my Japanese is a beginner. It's totally fine. It's just which ones, you know, you have to decide how much time for each one each day. It's just up to you.

But it's just totally fine. Yeah, now this is the problem, Khalifi. I know I feel your pain on this one. Also learning French. I started to learn French.

My problem is I did not find yet a motivated guy like you. What can I do? Ask Carol. Right? She's a French teacher. She's French. Our great VIP member, Carol, is a French teacher.

But overall, I know what you're saying. It can be tough to find material... that you know when you start learning in this way using these methods right using effortless english uh you're like oh this is so great it's so much better and then you go to try to do another language and you can't find anything like that it's just the same old boring stuff and it is hard i know i had you know i i believe me i understand that's i was very happy with spanish when uh oscar made his lessons oh yes good thank you oscar

Oh, say hi to English Village in Indonesia. I've heard of it, Nur. I mean, I've been invited there. Someday I'll go. I have heard of it. I know about it.

I would like to go. All right, guys, just two more and then I got to go. Have you read Steve Kaufman's book? Is it worth to read? Yes, read it. I read it in English and then I read it in Spanish.

And I hope to read it in Japanese eventually. So, yes. And listen to the audiobook, too. Okay, a couple more. Okay, so Wynn's asking, Hi, Jay, what should I do when I can't understand, when I'm listening and I can't understand English?

Well, it's hard, right? So two things will help you understand more. Number one, if you have the text, if you can read it. So then, of course, then you can go read and you can figure out what you're listening to.

And sometimes you have to do this many, many times. But the reading, the text helps a lot. The other thing you can do is just find something easier. Maybe it's too difficult for you right now and you need something easier.

Like if you don't have text, you probably need something that's easier since you're going to have to guess all the new words. If you have text, then you can do things that are more difficult because you can always go read it and find the new words and this helps you. So these are kind of the two things that can help.

Okay, so Mingma says, Mingma Sherpa, you speak English very well. I understand what everybody says, but which English is the best for me? American English, British English, non-native speakers or native speakers. Okay, Mingma, first of all, native speakers, right?

What is a native speaker? A native speaker is someone who learns English as a baby, basically, right? Their parents are parents. Both speak English in the house, or at least one speaks English in the house, and they grow up learning it as their first or their natural language.

That's a native speaker. So, Americans, British, Australian, New Zealand are the big ones. Now, then the question you're asking, so which one should you speak, American or British...

are the two big ones, the most popular ones. It doesn't matter, honestly. It doesn't matter. Which do you like? Or, you know, it depends. Like if you have a job and you know you have to mostly deal with Brits, then British English probably better.

If you're dealing more with Americans and Canadians, then American is better. If it doesn't matter, whatever. Just choose one. Or don't even worry about it.

You can do it almost like a mix. You can have an American-British accent. That's fine. As long as it's understandable, it's clear, it really doesn't matter if you mix it some.

Okay, guys, one more. Last one, and then I've got to go. Ah, right. Merrick is asking. So, connected to that last question. So, this is a good follow-up and a good one to finish.

Is it possible to master two accents, British and American, at the same time? Or will they mix? I don't know. Is it possible? I'm sure it's possible. Hmm.

Hmm. You would just have to be very careful about, like, you know, maybe you would have your time and you're focused on British, British, British, British, and you'd practice it. And you have your British audios. And then you would maybe another different time of day.

You'd have your American audios and you'd focus on American, American, American. You could, you know, try it. I honestly don't know. I never heard anyone ask that question before.

Actors do it. I mean, you can learn both accents for sure. At the same time, I don't know how difficult it would be. I honestly have no idea. But you certainly could learn both if you wanted to.

But honestly, for speaking, unless you really have a strong reason, it doesn't really matter. really doesn't matter. Because a standard... British accent, you know, when I mean standard, it's like the kind that like the BBC, the typical educated middle class, fairly polite person.

That's how they speak. That's the standard accent. So British or American, they're both very understandable. They're both, and everybody will understand both.

It doesn't really matter. So if you like British better, go for it. alright guys I gotta go watch a baby time for my wife to go to bed so lots of love to you all it's been great and we'll be back remember we got book club coming up tomorrow back on our book your money or your life and then we get back on our movie Jerry Maguire looking forward to that especially so

Lots of love to you. Have a great night or day and I'll see you next time. Bye for now. EffortlessEnglishClub.com Commit. Don't quit.