Finding Inspiration

A tough part of studying is finding the motivation to really get stuck into something.

unfortunately for most of us, well myself at least, finding the energy and drive to lock myself away and study is a real struggle, it is also something that i find myself doing more often than not. That is why i have decided to talk about how i deal with it and maybe how you can find your own motivations.

The first step is to look for a small moment in everyday life that you can take and work on, For example, your sat in a lesson and another student uses an expression that you have never heard before you can just find out the literal meaning of the expression and be happy that you have learnt something. But what i recommend you do is ask yourself a few questions:

• Ask yourself ” How can I use that expression?”
• “Have i heard it before?”
• “Where have i heard it?”
• “How was it used?”
• “who can i ask who can explain it a bit more?”
• “where can i find out more about it?”

What you’re doing here is really finding out a lot more about one thing. And im not saying do this for every expression or word that you do not understand because that would be impossible but you can at least do it for 1 or 2 a week. By doing this you will open doors to new vocabulary and expression, and new grammar also.

From here you can use what ever resources that you have to further your research, why not try googling the word and seeing what comes up? or asking a friend who can speak English? Or stick to basics and look it up in a dictionary?.

In general the best way to find motivation is to interact with it at all opportunities, if your reading an English blog, or watching an English Tv show, these are all great places to find inspiration, and when you’re studying it doesn’t always have to be about correct grammar its more about how to learn the language, and speak it with comfort.

Managing Your Finances

This is more of a common sense post regarding how best to manage yourself when your abroad.

It may be pretty obvious thinking about it but when you travel abroad you really need to be very careful with how you manage your money.

The Key is making sure that you manage your money well and that you always account for costs that are going to come in. Its all well saving the money to travel in the first place but you really need to think into how best to control that money and make the money go in the right direction.

A few important things that you will need to take into account and be prepared to put money aside for are:

• Travel and Transportation
• Emergencies
• Tuition
• Food
• Clothes

I will briefly go through these in a bit more detail just to really show in a bit more depth things you need to be considering.

Travel and transportation – this is a very important thing to be considering, because when you move you may not be living very close to the city centre and therefore should really be looking at purchasing a bus pass for the City.

These are fairly expensive in the short term but after a while you will have made your money back and saved lots more on top. these best thing to do is make sure that you cover yourself for a few weeks at least till you can really find your feet in the city.

Also to have a small amount of money saved for a flight to your home country is vital when it comes to having a bit of savings, because you never know when or what might come up over your stay in the UK, it is always important to have a little backed up Just in case.

Emergencies – this again seems very obvious, there are many different things that can happen when moving abroad, and luckily in the UK anything medical is covered by the NHS, But you should always be prepared for the unexpected, For example the savings for flights mentioned just a second ago is a must in case you have to fly home to consult your doctor.

Also in the UK although most medical expenses are covered by the NHS, the Dentist isn’t, and you should always have some money saved up for just that emergency. The fees for a standard filling for example will cost you around £60, for it is advised that you keep at least £100 just in case.

Tuition – there are many areas of tuition that you should look to have budgeted for, these are of course your lessons and exams, but other things that you will need. For example Books and materials, you will really be needing to giving yourself the access to a lot of different materials in order to help you develop effectively.

Food – this is again and essential expense, you need to eat and drink. Make sure you are spending a reasonable amount of your budget on eating, because reports show that eating healthy can improve learning.

Clothing – Now this may seem a bit odd but you really should prepare for the times that you do need those new clothes. For example you get a new job and have to buy some clothes for the uniform, or you lost your favourite umbrella (it is England) you are going to bee some money for those things.

These are of course just a guideline on what things you really should be considering when it comes to spending your money wisely. Also another piece of advice would be if your working try and put a little bit away each month just in case, and also you can save towards something like Christmas, that way you will always have the money and wont have to panic about finding it from somewhere.

Social Media as a study tool

Recently i have been looking into different areas of social media and trying to figure out how it can be a tool when learning and how it can also help you find your way around the internet.

My recent progress in this area has lead me into looking at the range of content searches and content recomendation software that you can use to help you find what your looking for on the internet.

I have found, out of many that i have looked into, only 2 really made any impact on me personally, and one in particular was very useful and showed me many pages that i have found both intersting and useful.

The first one i am going to talk about is Called, Digg, Now this is a site which is very interesting and is less about finding what you want but showing you what people are currently interested in looking at, it provides you with a massive selection of material which can be used to help develop both an understanding of language structure and also as a resource in projects that you may be working on.

How ever great this is it really is dominated by the amount of american press, and american content, as it is of course a very popular search engine in America.

The second piece of software is called Stumbleupon. Now this is a very useful tool as it learns from what you like and what your interested in and searches for and provides you with a truely massive database of websites and pages.

Now if you use this in the correct way you can really learn alot about language. Of course you Have to use it in English, and of course you have to be patient and prepared to allow time to in your schedule, but that is the beauty of the software it really does allow you to fit it in around your day. If you have ten minutes free and have checked your emails a hundred times already you can simply click on the Stumble button (thats if you installed the toolbar) and instantly you have a new page with content to read on it.

the more you use it and the more you say what pages you like and dont the more it will work for you.

There are other pages around that are just as good, but for me Stumbleupon really worked the best for what i was looking into.

Links to the best pages i found:

StumbleUpon

DIGG

Reddit

Back to basics

Developing vocabulary is vital to learning but also making sure that you use it often is just as important, this is why I have put together a list of ways in which you can get in practice and maybe learn some new words in the process.

The best piece of advice i can give is to play word games, these are available in all levels and a really good way to get that vital practice that you need, Plus you can find lots of them just by searching on Google:

Cross Words: These are very useful if you have a good level of English already and enjoy simple challenges. These can be a bit much for lower levels but you can always find Crosswords that are aimed at children and young adults.

Word search: These are very good for all levels as you have the words provided for you and just simply find them in the puzzle. Another tip you can use to take full advantage is any words that you do not know or cannot remember what they are, look them up and not them down in a book, this way you again are building up a vocabulary database and also putting to practice a good skill, recording words.

Also if you look on the internet for a list of word games you may be able to find some that are not as well known but just as beneficial, a good website for these are http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/ Here you can play a variety of games of different levels and difficulties.

Any other suggestions please feel free to comment.

Little Black Book

So a Little black Book, this is an English expression that refers to a book of phone numbers of people you don’t want to forget, a  bit outdated now days due to mobile phone but still the idea is great and works perfectly when studying.

One thing i have noticed about learning a second language is that you are always going to forget, even when you practice.

A great study tip is that you should carry a little book around with you and make notes on anything you see or hear, this way you have a record and are more likely to remember what it is you have learned.

The little book is ideal if you are always going about and forever forgetting to look things up that you have come across. You should aim to keep as many notes as possibly as it is highly beneficial to be constantly aware and taking notes on everyday words and expressions.

The best way to make this work for you is constantly add things in and maybe even keep a bigger book at home that you can write the definitions in and different things that you have come across, (again you could use the diary i have described on different occasions in my posts). Once you have got home you can go through your book and find the words in your dictionary or online and keep a record of different things you have learned.

Another great resource is to talk to people, i have said this before, the best source of knowledge are those around you, if your living in England then you should really be using every opportunity to talk to people, and i know it can be hard to start conversation with people in this situations as you feel you are being naive or stupid? but if you are working with other students or at school with people who are learning the language then they wont mind because there will always be expressions, Phrases and words that you can help them with.

Goal Setting

Here is a short post on how best to manage your time and get the most out of being in a  foreign country.

When you study anything time management is one of the most important things to remember, If you manage your time well and get enough practice in everything is more likely to fall into place.

First of all you need to set realistic focused goals, for example if you say Pass advanced English exam, ok this is a goal of some sorts but a very unfocused and pointless as a goal as it is obvious.

You need to define it a bit more. First of all set a date, “pass the advanced English exam by the end of 201x” now you have a  target to work towards. This is when you really need to start spending more time in working out your target and how you are going to get there.

You now need to break this down piece by piece and into smaller work loads:

Jan - get more Confident on Reading exercises..

Feb – Practise Pronunciation

ETC…

This works well to start with but you really need to think about adding a few more things in, break this down a little further and try to include a few more activities to help with this.

Jan - get more Confident on Reading exercises..

-  Read 2 news articles in english a week

Feb – Practise Pronunciation

- Spend 2 days a week only speaking english,

ETC…

Now you will be developing a far more productive and achievable plan, with actual targets to work towards,  You have to be careful when it comes to planning and make sure that you do not put too much in, it only makes things worse when you have a plan and it is too much to follow.

What you can do is add a couple of smaller targets into each month aswell these can be small things that you can do every day:

Jan - get more Confident on Reading exercises..

-  Read 2 news articles in English a week

- Learn 1 new word every day,

Feb – Practice Pronunciation

- Spend 2 days a week only speaking English,

-  Learn 2 new expressions a week and try to use them at least 3 times.

ETC…

Once you have finished your plan make sure you read through it and see that it is achievable, and that you believe you can complete it.

Another good thing to do is maybe print it off and keep it on you all the time or put it on your bedroom door,  this way you will never forget your goals. Also make sure you review your plan at least once a month and see how your progress is going, tick what you have completed.

You can also link your plan into your diary, if you read my previous post, which can help you to keep track as well.

Hope this was useful,

Dont be worried about acting like a child!

 Being impatient can be a bad thing when it comes to language, as many of you are aware there are many stages and steps in learning a new language, and before you can run you need to learn to walk.

 This is why not being scared to take small steps at first by developing your basic levels through what ever means, the best for this by far is using children’s books. In England children go through a process that is called “key stage” these are books that are aimed at all the different children of different levels.

 Obviously if you have been studying for a while you may feel a bit silly reading the books aimed at such a low level but none the less the value they hold inside is far greater, and you can only try.

 I am not saying this is the best way to pass your exams but if you are really interested in using the language and understanding the language then developing your reading ability is one of the most important skills to work on.

Another recommendation related to this is, if you are looking for work, look at working with young children, as they are most likely going to be a similar level to yourselves and working with pre school children you will develop a big vocabulary very quickly and also get something back about teaching the children.

Then from here you can work your way up and move into different working environments.