10 Fun & Easy Ways to Learn English

Faster
Weve all heard a thousand times that the only way to really
learn English is to be totally immersed in the language,
completely surrounded by it everywhere you go. But we wanted
to go deeper than that and find quick and easy ways to start
getting immersed. So our research team put together 10 steps
that you can follow, in this order, to make learning English
faster and a whole lot more fun.
#1: Find some English radio stations and podcasts in
iTunes
There are tons of podcasts about all topics imaginable these
days: entertainment, politics, and news. A good way to find one
is to look for a podcast from a TV channel you usually watch in
your cable TV. Look for one that interests you and listen to it in
your car while driving. Youll train your ear that way!
#2: Check out the Top Videos on YouTube and watch for
at least a few minutes
Most of them are hilarious! It will be so worth it. Try looking at
the comments to pick up some words and sentences you arent
familiar with, but be careful there is all kinds of bizarre stuff in
YouTube comments.
#3: Talk and sing to yourself in English
When you are alone at home, or of course in the shower, start

talking! Sing a song in English the way it sounds to you, talk

about the weather or any other topic. Do this frequently and
your pronunciation will drastically improve guaranteed!
4#: Do you have an English-speaking idol? Go to
YouTube and watch all of his/her interviews in English
You can spend hours doing that listening to interviews and it
sure wont feel like studying. But it is! It helps you a great deal.
5#: Sit near people who are speaking English on the bus
or in the park. Listen in
Okay now dont be a creepy eavesdropper! But, see what words
you can pick up and listen to the flow of the conversation. How
much did you understand? What general topic were they
talking about? Did you hear an interesting word you might want
to look up after?
#6: Pay attention to billboards, signs, advertisements,
magazine stands and establishment names
Look and think about what these ads mean. How many words
do you recognize? Did you see that same word elsewhere?
Make up sentences about what youre seeing.
#7: Love music? Try figuring out the words/lyrics of your
favorite songs
Watch video clips with lyrics on YouTube and sing along. Read
the translation and build up your vocabulary. Listen to clean
versions of songs and try to figure out what dirty words were
taken out. Its fun!

#8: Watch TV clips, episodes or soap operas in English

It doesnt matter if you dont understand what theyre saying,
watch anyway! Try to understand why something is funny or
sad. If the joke is related to the word itself, then maybe that is
why the joke does not make sense in your native language.
What would be the best translation into your language then?
#9: Engage in a conversation on Facebook with friends
who post in English
When you have English speakers in your timeline, you see their
posts daily and get inside information about news and viral
videos in English. Your friends can be your teachers! Their
timeline basically sort out the best material for you to study.
#10: Produce, produce, produce. No matter how shy you
are or how much you dont get English, force yourself
to speak
Help out a tourist who looks lost. They wont mind you
struggling with the language while youre doing them a favor!
After class, talk to your teacher about how things are going and
what you need help with in English. When traveling, ask around
for directions in English, even if you dont need them! Try
purchasing things online and by phone, or using customer
support in English.
It does not matter if you talk slowly, you are learning, thats
only natural!

Top 10 Most Common Idioms in English

1. Piece of cake No, when someone says that the assignment they just
finished was a piece of cake, it does not mean that their professor gave them
a red velvet cupcake for their midterm paper, what piece of cake actually
means is that something is very easy to complete.
2. Costs an arm and a leg It would be a strange world we lived in if buying
that fancy shiny purse literally required us to chop off our body parts to give as
tribute to the Louis Vuitton gods. When something costs an arm and a leg it
actually means that something is very expensive.
3. Break a leg Oh, look, another idiom about legs. Youre about to take your
dreaded calculus final and before you head into your classroom your
roommate texts you, Break a Leg! Why, you think in your head, would he
ever wish that upon me? I thought we were cool with each other. Well, your
roommate surely doesnt want your bones to break while walking to your seat
in the exam room thats for sure. Break a leg actually means good luck!
4. Hit the books If youre a student in an English speaking environment youre
probably going to be hearing this phrase a lot. Before you imagine students

running into their campus library and punching, kicking and wrestling apart the
complete works of Shakespeare, we would just like to say that hit the books
actually means to study. There there, you can still punch books in your spare
time if you want, we wont judge you.
5. Let the cat out of the bag Why would someone put their cat in a bag?
What did the cat ever do to them? Our last idiom actually means to disclose a
secret that was supposed to be kept, well, as a secret. The next time
someone lets the cat out of the bag do not immediately pick up your phone
and call animal cruelty control.

6. Hit the nail on the head This idiom has to do with doing or saying
something that is precisely right. If you dont understand this, just think about
that sweet feeling you get when you swing a hammer at a nail and hit it
perfectly.
7. When pigs fly So, have you ever seen a pig fly before? Never? Me neither.
This idiom basically means that something will never happen, like fat little pink
mammals soaring toward the sun!
8. You cant judge a book by its cover How many awesome books do you
think youve never read in your life just because the cover did not catch your
eye? This idiom does not only apply to books however, but can be used for
everything in general. Essentially it means that you should not decide upon
something based just on outward appearances.
9. Bite off more than you can chew Imagine your waiter brings you the
biggest juiciest hamburger from your favorite American restaurant. In your
hunger, you grab it quickly and take a giant bite out of it. Unfortunately, the
bite youve taken is too big, and you end up looking like an idiot trying to
shove this bite down your throat while drinking water and trying not to choke.

That is the most literal sense of the meaning, but in general it just means to
attempt to take on a task that is too much for you to handle.
10. Scratch someones back We all know how difficult it is to scratch that itch
on your back that your hand just arent flexible enough to reach, so why would
you want to scratch some random persons smelly back? Because if you do,
they may eventually be willing to scratch your own smelly back when you
need it! What this idiom means is to help someone out with the assumption
that they will return the favor in the future!

10 Inspirational Quotes for Language

Learners
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If
you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.
Nelson Mandela
One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door
along the way.
Frank Smith
The limits of my language are the limits of my world.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can; there will
always come a time when you will be grateful you did.
Sarah Caldwell
Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
Chinese Proverb
You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.
Geoffrey Willans

To have another language is to possess a second soul.

Charlemagne
Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from
and where they are going.
Rita Mae Brown
Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which
they grow.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Top 10 Most Common Errors by English

Learners
1. Articles
Indefinite and definite articles, or a, an and the as they are more commonly
known, are difficult for even native English learners to keep straight. The is only
used when youre talking about something that is known to both the writer and the
reader, while a or an can be referring to anything. Confusing indeed. Additionally,
an is only used before a vowel. Yet, why do you say an hour but a horse?
(An is used before a vowel sound, even if its not actually a vowel)
2. Mass nouns
These are nouns that act singular but refer to more than one thing. A family or
group is made up of more than one person, but functions like a single unit in
sentences. Other often confused mass nouns advice, news, garbage and water.
3. Adverbs vs. Adjectives
Confused by many native English speakers as well, English learners often mix up
adverbs and adjectives. Well is an adverb, good is an adjective. So technically you
ran well but your run was good and the test was good but went well.
4. Prepositions

These are difficult in every language because every language uses them a bit
differently. In English, IN is used both for closed spaces and periods of time, AT is
used for a specific time or place and ON is used to describe the surface something
is on or a day.
5. SVO Word Order
That is, Subject-Verb-Object word order. In English, unlike many other languages,
the subject is ALWAYS necessary.
6. Pronouns
Mixing up he and she is another common mistake made by English learners.
Some languages, like Japanese dont distinguish in every occurrence of these
articles.
7. 3rd Person S
When using 3rd person singular (he, she, it), always add an s to the end of the verb.
The s is often omitted by English learners!
8. Dont
The use of dont in negative sentences gives English learners, especially Spanish
speakers a bit of trouble. In English you must add do and not to convey a
negative meaning.
9. Apostrophes
Apostrophes are used in contractions or to show possession. However, they are not
used with possessive pronouns like his, her or their.
10. Capitalization
What to capitalize is different in every language and often hard to keep straight. In
English, we capitalize

I as a subject
First letter of a sentence
Proper names, national nouns and adjectives
Days of the week, months