I have taught English to foreigners for years. I am not an academic or a professional. Rather I started teaching English out of necessity. It is a long story but basically I fell in love with someone from another country and moved to that country and needed a job. I speak English so I started to teach English as a foreign language or ESL.  I also had to learn Polish one of the most difficult langugaes in the world to study. Therefore if you want to learn this language, I know what works and what does not work. I know it from experience and not from an ivory tower point of view.

Learning a language takes work

It takes blood sweat and tears. If you are new to America or learning the language of the Americans, British or Irish in a foreign country do not expect gain without pain. Many of my students over the years tell me they do not talent for languages. I tell them I have taught maybe 1000s of students from tutoring to the university level and it comes down to work.  I never meet a language genius in all my years of teaching. It is a fairy-tale or an exception you should not worry about. You need to focus on doing the work.

To learn English fast use a time machine

Please skip all the high-tech methods of YouTube and iPhone apps. I have never meet anyone to really learn a language this way. Why? It’s too chaotic and cluttered and for people with ADD.  You need to go back to the 1930s or 1940s.  That is the time of radio, books, flashcards and records (well now digital audio files).

  • Buy a grammar book. I recommend Muphy’s grammar. He has English grammar in three levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced. Sit on this book and do the exercises over and over. Learn, then practice explaining the grammar to yourself in the mirror. That is teach to learn.
  • Make flashcards on 3″ x 5″ index cards and learn about 20 words a day. Once you learn them, activate them by playing games with them with your friends with them
  • Find audio files or get your neighbor to download a program called Audacity and record phrases for you. You need to learn basic words and phrases.  In the old days people use to listen to records in linguistic labs. They would memorizes entire sentences and dialogues without even knowing the meaning. I recommend this. Yes this is shocking but you re going to make to memorizes a lot until the language comes out of your ears.
  • Listen to the radio in English. This is 100 times better than movies. Movies you can get visual clues and never really press your brain to understand the English but rather just watch the movie.  It is too passive. To learn English fast listen to the radio.
  • Go to the Gutenberg project and download English language Audio mp3 free of classic works of literature. These are free and read by native speakers. Start with easy books by authors like L. Frank Baum.

The most important is doing book work. Then maybe listening to the radio.  If I had to learn English fast I would listen to the radio maybe 5 hours a day until my head hurt.

If you can afford a tutor in Gumtree and Craigslist there are many cheap ESL tutors.  Online there are may free tutorials but I prefer the 1930s approach of learning with books and radio. It’s more focused and people studied this way in the past and it worked. Let me know if you have any questions, or additional input on how to learn English fast, I have many ideas that have worked for my students.

Tags: