POWER LEARNING PODCAST 1 – LANGUAGE LEARNING FORUMS – FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW…

Well, hello, and welcome to the very first englishanyone.com podcast. I have a brand new microphone,
and I recommend you use headphones in order to listen to this, so you can get the full benefit of these
great, uh, microphones that I have here. These are 3D stereo high quality microphones I’m using, and if
you have headphones on right now you’ll be able to listen. You can check this out, it’s very cool. So now,
I’m talking to you over here, and I’m moving around, and I’m talking to you over here now. But I got these
special microphones for Christmas, and I’m really excited to start using them now on this podcast.

Just a little bit about myself, if you don’t already know who I am, I’m Drew Badger, the Co-Founder of
englishanyone.com. I’m an author, and a English speaking confidence expert, and I love to help students
get out and achieve their dreams by being able to speak English fluently and confidently.

In these podcasts, this will be sort of a stream of consciousness. A stream of consciousness is not having
something written down, you just speak about things as they come to you. So this is a stream of
consciousness. I will have these on iTunes as usual, just like a regular podcast. Um, you can also find the
transcript, as soon as I finish the transcript for this and the other episodes of the podcast that I’ll be
releasing. You can find those on englishanyone.com, and I’ll also put these on YouTube.

You can notice today I have maybe a little bit of a cold. It’s winter here. Uh, today is, I think it’s a Tuesday
or a Wednesday, I don’t remember. Maybe it’s, uh, I think it’s Wednesday, January 9th, and it’s the first
day, uh, for releasing a brand new podcast, and I’m really excited to start talking today. Usually, when I
go to sleep at night, I’ll listen to something, and there are a lot of, uh, it could be news, or maybe a movie,
or something like that, but there are certain voices that I really like listening to when I go to sleep. So
even if I’m not necessarily learning for the, um, just for the information, I like listening to the sound of
people’s voices. It’s very interesting to me, and it’s very soothing to me, very calming.

Uh, I get lots of mails from people that like the sound of my voice, so even though I think my voice sounds
a little bit weird, uh, I figured a podcast would be an excellent way for other people to listen to my voice.
Maybe you can listen before you go to sleep, or as you’re falling asleep, or in the car, or at work, or
wherever you are. And you can mimic my pronunciation, so try to make the same sounds I do, and really
begin improving your English and just listen to more kind of native English from me, and even learn a few
things about how to study as well.

So this podcast, each episode will have a particular topic, but, as I said before, it will be a stream of
consciousness where I’m just kind of talking about an idea, I don’t have anything written down, and you’ll
hear me say um and uh and thinking about things. And I’m doing that because I want you to hear how it
sounds as a person that’s actually talking. So my English will not always be grammatically correct, I’ll be
making pauses, and thinking, and my sentences will not always be perfect, and I want you to do the same
thing when you speak. Think about expressing yourself, and not so much about trying to be perfect or
correct all the time. The point is really to communicate with other people and express how you feel, and
the meaning of your sentences and your ideas, but they don’t have to be correct in order to do that.

In today’s podcast, what I want to talk about is something that’s really near and dear to my heart. And to
be near and dear to your heart means it’s something that’s very important to you. And this is the idea of
when you lead people, just like we do at englishanyone.com, we are kind of teaching people how to
speak and we become leaders in that way. And when we lead, it’s difficult, especially when you have a
business. You have to kind of make a choice between doing what you think is right, and also doing what
other people think you should be doing. Now, this is a little bit tricky, so I’ll go a little bit deeper into it.

One of the things that happens in business, uh, especially if you have a big company, is that you will ask
people what they want. And oftentimes it’s a great idea to ask people what they want, but a lot of people,
either they don’t know what they want, or because they’re not, uh, they’re not experts in what they’re
learning about or what they’re talking about, they can’t really answer that question. In the case of learning
English, the typical thing that a lot of people do if they’re selling online courses is they will offer a forum
where the learners can come and you can all kind of come together. And this is something that a lot of
people ask for, and they expect, when they have a course or something like that, that they will be in a
community of other people that are also learning the language. And this is interesting to me, because I
think it’s not the best way for people to learn. And this is a reason why we don’t actually offer any kind of
community like that.

Now, that may not be the ideal situation for everyone, but certainly for myself, when I was learning
Japanese, I was basically just talking with Japanese speakers. And I didn’t spend any time in a classroom
at all. I basically taught myself Japanese, I would learn a few things watching a movie, or reading a few
books, or something like that, uh, but I would spend most of my time talking to people. And this gets back
to whether or not you should be comfortable when you learn or whether you should be challenging
yourself. And it’s very important for you, when you become a learner of English, or if you want to become
great at anything else, that you challenge yourself.

And as a business, other people, like other students and other teachers, and even other businesspeople,
might encourage us to have a forum, or some kind of community, or something like that, where people
can come and students can talk to each other about learning. And they would recommend we do this
because that’s what people are asking for. And this is what pretty much every English course you find
online has, and whatever the English program is, usually there’s some kind of forum. But we are probably
maybe the only course that does not have a forum, um, because it’s not the best way to learn. And smart
students know that if you really want to get fluent in language, or you want to get good at something, you
have to spend your time doing that thing.

When students ask me why we don’t have a forum, or I talk with other people about why we don’t have a
forum, basically what I explain is that, let’s say you want to get really good at tennis, or some other sport.
You can either try to play against people that are at the same level as you, or you can start playing with
people that are much better than you. And playing with people that are at the same level that you are is
comfortable, and it’s easy to do, but it doesn’t really help you improve. The only way to get better at
something is to compete, or to practice, or to train with other people that are better than you at whatever
that thing is. So, when I want to learn something, I don’t really spend a lot of time talking to other people
that are at the same level as me. I always want to find other people that are at a higher level than me for
what it is I want to learn.

In the case of learning English, what we always recommend to students is that you don’t focus on
studying the language, and that you do not spend very much time at all in English learning forums. So we
don’t create a forum, because there’s already tons of them. There are lots of places to practice learning
online, but the problem is that most people, they want to do what’s comfortable. They want to get fluent,
but they also want to do what’s comfortable. Our subscribers to Master English Conversation and the
other programs that we have at englishanyone.com, these really are special learners, and we always
encourage these students to go out and try new things, and to not do what’s safe. To not do what’s
comfortable. And when they do that, they really find that they start getting success much faster.

And that’s why, in Master English Conversation, we teach students how to go out and meet people and to
get away from the forums. So when you’re looking for a program, if you are looking for something that
has a forum, or a community, and you think that’s important to you, really think about what would be best
for you, even though it’s not comfortable, uh, to get fluent in the language faster. For englishanyone.com
we only want students that are really excited about getting fluent, and they want to work hard. We want to
sell lessons to students, but only to students that are going to use the lessons and actually get fluent
faster by following the advice that we give. If you are the kind of student that wants to be comfortable, it’s
okay. There’s not, there’s not a problem with that. But, it’s going to slow your progress to becoming a
great speaker of English.

I had a nice, a really great student from Vietnam I was having, uh, private lessons with a few months ago.
And he worked, actually, uh, in America, and he’s a really great guy, and I really loved talking with him.
And it was interesting that he was living in America, or he still is living in America, and he works at a
factory, and he loves, uh, kind of mechanical things like working on cars. And I was talking with him more
about that, and I asked him why he wasn’t doing more of that in English. And he didn’t really think so
much about it, but he was thinking, well, it’s kind of hard to meet other people, and, you know, to start
speaking, because he wasn’t so confident about his English. And I explained that if you try to focus on the
English, uh, of course it’s going to be a very difficult thing, uh, for you to kind of learn and then want to
practice with other people, because it can be embarrassing if you don’t speak well and you make lots of
mistakes.
But, instead of focusing on the English, if you focus, in his case, on the cars, then if you find other people
that are also interested in cars, and you already know things from your own country, or your own
language about that, then that’s how you really get into the language, and how you really start making
lots of friends that are interested in the same things you are. But it really has nothing to do with the
English language. I hear a lot from students about how they want to go out and practice their English, but
what they should really be doing is practicing whatever their interest is in English. This is a very subtle, or
a very slight, a very small difference in the way you think, but when you change that way of thinking it
becomes very powerful.

So, again, when you’re going out and thinking about practicing, think about challenging yourself in order
to get fluent faster. You really want to get out and think about how you can improve by pushing yourself.
You want to challenge yourself and not do what’s easy. There are so many people learning English all
over the world, but very few can actually speak. And the reason is, just like being able to succeed at
anything else in life, there are those people that actually work hard and push themselves, and there are
pretty much everybody else that doesn’t really bother doing that. They have kind of hopes or dreams
about being able to speak, or achieve whatever else they want to, but they never really push themselves
in order to achieve.

So, I want everybody listening to this, even if you never become a subscriber to Master English
Conversation, uh, or any other program for helping you learn English, that you really think about pushing
yourself to take every opportunity you can, and to not make excuses about, well, I can’t speak because,
uh, I have this problem, or I’m in this country, or something like that. Because no matter where you live in
the world, I guarantee you there’s somebody else that also lives in that same country that can speak
English fluently. And the reason is only because they change the way they think. The way you think is
very, very powerful for how you can learn English, or how to achieve at any other sport or thing, like
business, in life. And if you can really think about how to push yourself in situations, that’s where you’re
really going to see lots of improvement.

So going back to what I was talking about earlier about the forum, when you think about spending time in
English forums, it’s great to meet other people that are also learning English. But you have to balance
your time between the time that you spend in a forum and the time you spend actually with native
speakers using your English. It can be a trap. A trap is, um, kind of like a dangerous situation, or
something that you don’t want to get into, because it will stop you from making progress. So be careful,
and really think about balancing your time between speaking with other people in forums, and actually
asking questions about the English language, versus getting out and using the English language by
studying or doing things that you’re already interested in, in your own language.

So, again, just to wrap up this section of, uh, this part of the podcast, uh, when you think about wanting to
join a forum, if, uh, especially if you’re thinking about joining our program, Master English Conversation,
in order to actually become a great English speaker and get out and really speak, then think about
whether or not you’re actually ready to challenge yourself. Because we don’t want anyone on our
program that’s not ready to do that. It just won’t be very much fun. You’ll learn a lot, but if you’re not ready
to do that, then, uh, it’s better to find a program that you’re more comfortable with. But, if you are the kind
of student that is really excited about getting out and practicing your English, and you’re really ready to
find how you can actually become a great speaker, then I recommend you try the program. Because we’ll
teach you how to get out and explore the real forum, which is the actual real world. And this is where you
should be studying.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this very brief introduction to this podcast. Uh, I will have some of them,
again, they will be longer than others, or shorter than others, and it really just depends on what I feel like
talking about, or any questions, or anything else that I get from students. But I know, when I’m listening to
something, I actually like listening to long things because I can put it on, and listen, and I can do
something else and think about that while I’m listening as well. So if you have any questions, I really want
this to be a, a dialogue, so you can comment below this on YouTube, or on englishanyone.com, and
when we put this up on iTunes and set up our podcast account over there, then you’ll also be able to
download these and listen to them wherever you like.
So for this first podcast, I really want to know what you think about that. What do you think about forums?
I actually asked one of our students who is in Master English Conversation about that. Uh, she’s a great
student from Germany, and she actually agreed with me. Uh, and it’s a difficult thing to do, because it’s
comfortable to say, well, you should have a forum, uh, because people do ask us why they do that. And
maybe for, uh, selling more lessons it’s a good idea if we have a forum, but for really helping students get
fluent, I honestly think it’s a better idea if we don’t have one. If you’re ready to start speaking real English,
then I highly recommend you try a free set of Master English Conversation lessons with, uh, our Power
Learning English Newsletter at englishanyone.com.

So feel free to comment down below this video if it’s on YouTube or on englishanyone.com, and let us
know what you think about that. Do you agree? Do you think we’re wrong for not having a forum? Do you
think it’s better to have one? I’d love to know what you think. Also, if you think there’s any music we
should have at the beginning of the podcast, usually a podcast will have some kind of little cool music at
the beginning, I don’t really care about having that or not, but I’d like to feature some of your music if you
have some. So anything short, if you want to send it to me, I will feature your name and your music at the
beginning of our podcast, so we can get your voice and your music out there as well.

So have a great day, send us any questions if you want to know more things, and we can put them into
these podcasts as well, and then we can get a lot more deep into a lot of issues about learning English
and, and how to actually use English in the real world. Have an excellent day, and I’ll see you at
englishanyone.com. Bye bye.
POWER LEARNING PODCAST 2 – LANGUAGE LEARNING GOALS – FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW…
Well, hello again, and welcome to episode two of the englishanyone.com Power Learning Podcast. I’m
Drew Badger, the Co-Founder of englishanyone.com. I’m an author and an English speaking confidence
expert, and I’m here to help you get fluent faster. Let’s begin.

First of all, I wanted to say thank you to everyone that commented and gave some great feedback on
YouTube and englishanyone.com, and we got some great feedback about this cool microphone. I really
love playing with this thing. I love this microphone. It’s really so cool. But, anyway, let’s get started with
today’s lesson.

Today, I wanted to talk about something that’s…like the previous episode, it’s a kind of basic thing about
learning, but it’s also useful for anything you want to do in your life. And this is magnetic goals, and the
secret, really, to achieving almost anything. Most of the things that we want to do, they’re kind of wishes
or hopes or dreams, but a goal is a specific thing, and it has a specific time period. It’s got a specific way
you’ve got to do it, there’s all kinds of things about a goal that make a goal special. And today, we’re
going to help you set some really, really specific goals, what I call magnetic goals, to help you really
achieve your English speaking confidence and fluency, and as well as anything else you set your mind to.

Now, the reason I decided to talk about magnetic goals in this episode, is because we just had a three-
day weekend this past Saturday, Sunday and Monday; it was, uh, a holiday. And my wife’s sister, who
lives in Tokyo, decided to take a trip to Okinawa, which is the big southern island, if you’ve never heard of
it, in Japan. It’s kind of a…a tropical place like Hawaii. And my wife’s sister went down there with her
friend, and while they were there, there was a huge snow storm that stopped a lot of planes and a lot of
air traffic in Tokyo. So they had maybe like, uh, I think a few inches of snow, and it was really, really bad
snow. It was on the news, even here in Nagasaki. And the planes couldn’t fly back, so my wife’s sister
was stuck in Okinawa.

Now, it’s not so interesting that my wife’s sister was stuck in Okinawa, but what is interesting is how she
thought about that. Now, being stuck in Okinawa, with maybe 2,500 other people, or 2,500 other people,
you can say both of those, but about that number of people were stuck in Okinawa and couldn’t get back
because of the flight…the flight problems. But the interesting thing is that my wife’s sister was thinking
that the only way she could get back was by going from Okinawa to Tokyo directly by airplane. Maybe
she didn’t think that was the only way, but her mind, in her mind, that was the only solution. That was the
only thing she could do. In reality, there are many, many different ways to get from Okinawa to Tokyo.
You could take a boat, or you could take a train, or a bus, or a car. There’s lots of different options and
ways that you can get from Okinawa to Tokyo.

But the real reason why I’m bringing this up now, and the reason it’s important for you to understand this,
is because most students, and maybe yourself, from time to time, for thinking about different things, you
think about a goal with all of the steps that you have to do, and you think that’s one specific thing. Most
people have a specific goal in their mind, but the problem is that they also put the steps that you need to
take in order to get that goal with the goal. So in my wife’s sister’s case, she put the traveling by airplane
to Tokyo as part of a way of getting to Tokyo, with the goal of getting to Tokyo. The real goal is just to get
to Tokyo, it’s not to get to Tokyo by plane. You don’t need to get to Tokyo by plane, you just need to get
to Tokyo. And I’m talking about this because I want you to think about that in the same way when you
think about how you get fluent in English.

I get lots of questions from students about how do I study and complaints that they can’t study because
they need to talk with a native speaker who lives around them in order to get fluent in English faster. They
say, ah, I, I know I need to practice, I know I need to get out and meet native speakers, but there are no
native speakers living around me. Listen carefully to what that’s saying. They’re already thinking that the
goal of getting fluent means that you have to have native speakers who live around you in order to get
fluent. And that’s connecting the goal with the step that you need to take in order to get there, and it’s just
one possible step, it’s not something you have to do. When I was practicing Japanese in America, I would
just watch movies and I didn’t always have an opportunity to talk with Japanese speakers that lived where
I did. It just happened to be if I could find some then that was great, but I found people online to practice
with, and I would send people emails and talk with them and try to improve my Japanese that way.
But the interesting thing is that if you don’t focus on the steps to getting something, and you just focus on
the goal, and you make that goal really, really strong and specific, then the steps to getting you there
become much more open. Now, before we talk about what a magnetic goal is and how you actually make
a magnetic goal, I want to talk about two specific reasons why it’s a really bad idea to talk about the steps
that are required in order to do something. If you think about the steps to do something before you have a
goal, or you try to think about them at the same time, two really bad things are going to happen. The first
bad thing that will happen is you will look at all of these steps that are required to do something, and then
you will not want to do it, because it will be intimidating. You will be overwhelmed. It will be too much to
do.

I remember when I was publishing my first book, and thinking about all of the steps I had to do in order to
do that, it would’ve been crazy. I just had the idea of publishing a book, so I could do this, and I could
teach that, and that’s what I really wanted to do. But if I thought about, okay, I have to start a company, I
have to find a person that can do this, and a person that can print that, and a place to sell it and all these
other things, I would’ve probably not done it, because it would’ve been too much to think about. So what I
did was spend all of my time really picturing the book in my mind, figuring out how it would work. It’s
actually a book, uh, for Japanese learners of English, for young students, that teaches the alphabet. It’s a
picture book, so I actually had to draw pictures in order to do it, and I didn’t know how to draw these kinds
of pictures. I had to go to a store and buy a book that would teach me how to draw pictures so I could
actually draw pictures for this book.

I’m, uh, an all right artist, but definitely not good enough to draw my own pictures for a book. So I had to
learn how to do that. And if I would have thought about all of those things at the beginning for each step
at the beginning, then I would have not wanted to make that book. It would’ve just been too much effort.
And I know a lot of students think the same way. They think, okay, I have to buy this book, and I have to
study for years, and I have to find people and spend a lot of money in order to get fluent. But if you think
about all those things, then you are beginning and you are setting yourself up for failure, because it’s
going to be too intimidating, and it’s…it’s just going to be too much of a hassle for you to want to do those
things. So that’s the first bad reason why you don’t want to think about the steps to doing something
before thinking about the goal, and really making the goal strong, which we’ll talk about in a minute.

The second reason it’s a bad idea to think about the steps for doing something before you really focus on
the goal, is because you blend, or you mix the goal with all of the steps, and you think that you have to do
certain steps to make a goal. I see this all the time in Japan, that people want to do something, and that
they have to do it in a certain way, because that’s just how it’s been done, or what they hear from other
people about how to do something. And this is the same thing that happened to my wife’s sister. She
thought that the only way she could get back to Tokyo would be to fly directly from Okinawa to Tokyo,
and that’s why she had to wait, instead of flying to a different location, or doing something else in order to
get to Tokyo in a different way.

So, again, these two things, and this is the reason why it’s important to not think about the steps that you
need to do before you think about your goal. The first one is that you’ll be intimidated. There will be too
much to think about, and you will talk yourself out of doing something. This means to stop yourself, and to
give yourself reasons why you don’t want to do something. And the second bad reason is that it will stop
your mind from being creative about how you can accomplish something. Again, the more specific you
make your goal, the easier it is for your mind to naturally come up with really interesting ways to achieve
that goal quickly.

Now that we’ve talked about why you absolutely don’t want to talk about the steps to doing something
before you focus on the goal, let’s talk about how you make a magnetic goal. One maxim, or rule, for how
to live your life is: it’s better to measure nine times and cut once, than it is to cut nine times because you
measured once. I’ll say that again. It’s kind of tricky. It’s better to measure nine times and cut once, than it
is to cut nine times because you measured once. Now, this maxim, it means that it’s a much better idea
to really think about something and think it through, because thinking is easy to change. But if you
actually do something, like cutting a piece of wood, it becomes much more difficult to uncut it. You can’t
uncut something, you have to cut it again, or get some new wood, or something like that. So, since you
can’t uncut anything, you really want to plan well and measure many times before you cut a piece of
wood.
In Master English Conversation, our total English fluency program, one of our monthly lesson sets talks
about maxims and expressions, and things like that, that people use in English. And one of the tricks to
remembering these is to shorten them to something that people already know. In this case, we say it’s
better to measure nine times and cut once. That’s all you need to say. It’s better to measure nine times
and cut once. And all this means is that you really want to be specific and think about something and be
thoughtful when you’re thinking about a plan or a goal, and that way it will be much easier for you to
achieve when you’re finally thinking about how to accomplish it.

So thinking about that maxim, let’s get into magnetic goals. I want you to do this with a bit of a homework
assignment, and I…Honestly, if you do this homework assignment, if you try this with me right now, you
will start thinking in a different way, and you will be amazed by how your mind begins opening up to lots
of new possibilities, and lots of new interesting ways of doing things because you’re really focusing on the
goal and not thinking at all about how to do something. A magnetic goal is a goal that’s so strong, it pulls
you to it automatically. And we’re going to talk about how that works using this homework assignment.

The first thing I want you to do, is get three pieces of paper, and you can use a pencil or a pen. You can
even do this on the computer, if you like. The first thing I want you to do with the first piece of paper is to
write one sentence that’s just a goal, but a very general, vague goal, like a wish. You can write something
like I want to go to Africa, or I want to speak English fluently, or I want to eat Chinese food for dinner.
Whatever the goal is, it should be just one sentence. So write one sentence on the piece of paper. Now, I
want you to take the second piece of paper and write maybe four or five sentences about that same goal.
Take the same goal, and just be more specific about it. I want to go to Africa in 2016. I want to go with my
friend, and take my family, and I want to see all kinds of animals on a safari. Whatever the goal is, just
write a few sentences, and make it a bit more specific in your mind.

With the third piece of paper, I want you to cover the whole sheet of paper with writing. Again, do this on
the computer, or you can do this with an actual sheet of paper, and a pencil, and a pen. But really think
about how you feel while you’re doing the goal, what you’re going to be doing, who you’re going to be
with, how’s the weather going to be, what you’re going to be wearing, all kinds of things like that. And
you’ll notice, as you read back over all three of these sheets of paper, that the third sheet with all the
writing on it, is the most magnetic. So, let’s say in my case, I won’t talk about everything because that
would take too long, but I’m in Africa, and right now I’m walking along a safari trail and I’m looking at
some elephants. There’s a whole family of elephants there, and I can see it clearly in my mind. I can
smell what the grass is smelling like, and I can see some other animals walking around. I’ve got my safari
kind of brown pants on, and a safari hat like Indiana Jones, and I’m with my friends and family, and we’ve
got our really nice cameras out, and we’re taking pictures of all kinds of animals. And it’s in the
summertime, and it’s kind of hot out there, and…

Again, I’m being really, really specific, and I’m…I’m…I’m doing this to give myself a good idea of what I
want, but also that my mind starts really seeing this and seeing that it’s possible to have this in my mind.
You’ll notice that everything you see in the world was created two times. Everything you see in the world
was created two times. The first time is the creation in the mind of the creator. So for me, even with this
episode right now, I had to think about, okay, what am I going to talk about today? And, uh, an idea came
into my head, and I thought about it, and it sounded like a good idea, and something that would benefit all
of our listeners like you, and then I created the actual episode.

So what you are listening to right now is really the second creation. The first creation is in my mind, and
the second creation is what you actually see, or listen to, or anything like that. If you look out your window
right now, everything that you see that was made by people, that began with an idea in somebody’s head.
So it was created twice. So what you’re doing when you create something on a piece of paper, is you’re
really making it very strong and magnetic in your mind. And once you’ve made the magnetic goal, and
you’ve made it so specific, and so clear, then it will be incredibly easy for you to actually think about how
you want to do that, because you’ll have known when you want to do it, why you want to do it, how you’ll
feel, what you’ll be wearing, who you’ll be with, all of these things.
And for learning English, or whatever your goal is, you can even do this homework assignment for that,
but don’t just talk about I want to learn English. And maybe this is something you would search on
Google, or you’re looking for English lessons or something. I want to learn English. And you write that
down on the first piece of paper, but you’ll notice that the goal is not very magnetic, because it doesn’t
give you any kind of specific information about when you want to speak, and who you want to speak with,
and why you’re wanting to learn English. So if you really want to become a fantastic speaker, be specific.
Think about what you want, and make that goal incredibly magnetic. Make it so strong that you have to
achieve it. You can taste it. You’re so hungry to get that. If you want to be fluent, why do you want to be
fluent? You can take your time, really write down your goal, and be incredibly specific about it. Think
about walking around downtown. Imagine yourself actually being a native English speaker.

Right now your English is pretty good, but maybe you worry about your pronunciation or your accent, and
you want to be able to sit down at a bar, or a restaurant, or at a…maybe a sporting event, and you want
to be able to talk with other people just like you’re native English speaker. You’re not scared, you’re not
thinking about what other people will think, because you know your accent is fantastic. And these are the
things that, if you write them down, it will become so clear as to how you can actually do those things. So,
again, remember those two things. You don’t want to think about the steps to doing something, because
the…the two problems with that. The first one is that it will stop you from making any progress, because
you’ll be too worried and intimidated by what you have to do. And the second thing is that you’ll be
thinking about how to do something, and then that will change the actual goal. So really have a fantastic,
magnetic goal in your mind, and believe you can do it, and you will go on to achieve amazing things. You
will become a fantastic speaker, and you can become fantastic at anything else you set your mind to.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Power Learning Podcast. If you have any questions, please
comment down below in the YouTube video comments section, or on englishanyone.com. You can also
write a review on iTunes if you have an iTunes account; we’d really appreciate that, so we can start
reaching more people. And if you’re ready to speak English and live the life of a native English speaker
without fear, and you’re excited to get out and to speak confidently, and to receive all of the fantastic
opportunities that come with being a native speaker, just the same way it is for me being a speaker of
Japanese here in Japan, I’m…I can walk into places and people treat me differently. It’s really interesting.
Now that I…I know the language, as opposed to when I was just moving to Japan and I couldn’t
communicate with people, it’s like I become human, in a way. And the same way when I’m teaching
young children. Now that I speak Japanese, they respect me much more, and they listen to what I’m
saying, and they follow my advice, and they actually learn English a lot faster.

But if you want to experience the same thing in English and be able to use English and travel anywhere,
begin your free trial of Master English Conversation. There’s lots to learn, and lots of great strategies that
will help you get out and peak fluently to practice, no matter where you live in the world. Begin your free
trial of Master English Conversation, and start speaking and thinking like a native English speaker. You
can practice anywhere, and at any time, and meet people all over the world to practice with, and you can
begin learning for free today at englishanyone.com.

Have an excellent day, and we’ll see you next time at englishanyone.com, and right here on the Power
Learning Podcast. Bye bye.
 POWER LEARNING PODCAST 3 – REDUCE YOUR ACCENT – FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW…
Hello, and welcome to the third episode of the englishanyone.com Power Learning Podcast. I’m really
happy to be making this episode today because I know, uh, we still are working on things with the new
website, and there’s always new things to learn and new challenges. And I hate not being able to put new
videos up on the website, so I’m happy to make this podcast, uh, and at least we can have this up on
YouTube while we’re still working on things on the website. But everything is going really well. All of our
members are back in the premium section of englishanyone.com with their Master English Conversation
lessons.

And with this first podcast after we just, uh, chose the winners for the Master English Conversation
Scholarship Competition, a fantastic contest where we had a whole bunch of students from all over the
world, I’ve selected four students that are going to be studying with me personally. And they will get tips
from me every month, and they’ll be able to send me mails and talk with me about things, about the
successes they’re having, and the challenges they’re having. And every month I will produce a new
Power Learning Podcast episode that I can give tips to them, but that I can also share with everyone else
that’s learning out there.

Initially, I created or I kind of designed the scholarship for just one student, but I really wanted to give a
good idea for everyone learning out there about what it’s like, the different challenges that people have,
depending on if you’re a man or a woman, if you’re very young or not so young, or whatever the different
kind of challenges you have, depending on where you live in the world. So I ended up choosing four great
students, uh, that are all from different parts of the world, different ages, uh, and it should be a really
interesting experience for everyone over this next year.

So you can see what people, no matter where they’re coming from, there are certain principles about
language learning, and we’ll be going over those. But if you follow those principles, if you follow these
certain things about how to learn a language, you’ll really be able to find success quickly. Because there
are so many bad things you can do about learning, and so many things that waste your time, so I really
want to give a lot of great tips, and you’ll be able to, uh, feel motivated and inspired by the people that are
on this competition.

So really it’s a…it’s a chance for everyone to improve, but especially, uh, all of these free Master English
Conversation lessons that these four great, lucky winners have received. They’re going to get into Master
English Conversation, we’ve got over a year of lessons for them to practice with, so even though they will
only have to complete one special mission homework assignment for each month, they’ll be able to use
all of the previous ones and go back. And we’ve got hundreds, probably thousands, now, uh, words,
phrases, grammar points, lots of different things that they can practice, so hopefully it’s not too much
information. But I’m excited to have them get into the program, and then be able to tell everyone else
what it’s like to learn with Master English Conversation.

So in this episode of the Power Learning Podcast, it won’t be too long, but first, I’m going to have each of
our four winners from the Master English Conversation Scholarship Contest introduce them self, tell you
their name, tell you their age, tell you a little bit about them self, uh, and then also a message a little bit
for you, so you can feel inspired to get out and keep practicing yourself. Remember, all four of these
people are not living in an English speaking country. So we’ve got one from Vietnam, one from the Czech
Republic, we’ve got India, and then we’ve got El Salvador. I love to say that, I love that…that Spanish
pronunciation. El Salvador. I love that. Anyway. So we’ve got students…nobody is living in the United
States, or Canada, or England, or, uh, any other country that would have, uh, English as a kind of
regularly spoken language. Even if a lot of them may be studying it in school.

So I want you to see that you don’t need to live in an English speaking country in order to practice. They
will be learning all of the secrets that we teach in Master English Conversation, and then you will also be
able to get to learn, uh, a lot of fantastic things about how to improve and ways to go out and meet more
people so you can really be practicing with native speakers. So I’ll let them introduce themselves first,
and then I will come back after that and I will tell you and the four winners what they’re going to be
practicing this month. So, enjoy.
Yen: Hello, my name is Yen. I’m 17 years old. I have been [study ?] English for six years, but it seems
that my master that learn me English didn’t bring good results. So this time, with englishanyone.com, I
hope I can become a fluent English speaker.

Bhaskar: Hi there. I’m Bhaskar. I’m from India. I’m an employee, and working in an outsourcing company.
I’m 31 now. English is one of my subjects in high school and in college, and I studied this as a subject,
and speaking never included in my English study. Actually, my [sincere ?] English practice has been
going on for one year. When I completed my studies, my conversational skills are almost zero.

Once I started my career, I realized the importance of fluency in English to improve my career
opportunities. But for some reason, even though I understood the importance of English, I didn’t take any
step to improve my English. And a couple of years slipped away without doing anything to improve my
English skills. Oh, but…I think in March, 2012, one fine morning, I took a decision to improve my English.
And since that time, with the help of internet, I started my English practice, and now I came to this level.

While my practice is going on, one day Drew and also the scholarship contest, I participated in it, and
after completion of two rounds, Drew selected me as one of four winners. When I received a mail from
Drew about this news, I felt very happy, and, uh, I can’t say how much I was happy at that time. And I
envisioned how my English would be in 2014, and in that vision what I see is I am talking, I am speaking
English as my native language. And my writing skills are also like my mother tongue.

Yes, this is what I’m going to achieve by the end of this course. There is no doubt about it. With the
guidance of Drew, and with the help of his awesome lessons, my dream will come true. You guys are all
going to see this fact. And more importantly, I never forget Drew’s help in my life, and his wonderful
support. Thank you.

Jaroslava: Hello. My name is Jaroslava [Inaudible 00:07:57]. I am from Czech Republic. I am woman. I
am 42 years old. I was studying English for six years when I had been going to school before 27 years. I
studied, um, only from books. English was very boring lesson in school. I didn’t good student at English. I
didn’t do English 20 years. I again was studying English before one year. When I will be English fluently, I
give hope other people, older 40. I give hope other women that is possible study English and working,
and caring about children, and husband, and household. You could be English fluently too, and change
yours life.

Carlos: Hi, everyone. My name is Carlos. I’m 25 year old. I been learning English for two years and a half.
I want to say to you something about learning English. I know that it’s very difficult. It’s very tough. And I
know that you know that as well. And for that reason, I want to invite you to follow us in this great journey.
Because we will be fluent, and you will see that. You will see that. I invite you to keep on learning,
because it’s very important. Is for your life. Is one of the most important things that you’re going to learn in
your life.

So don’t…don’t be panic. This is going to be amazing. Even if you don’t speak, uh, very well. Uh, I don’t
speak very well as well, and I know that that is not the reason how can I get fluent. The reason is I don’t
have confidence, and that’s why I’m not fluent yet. But I want to be. I want to be fluent. And I encourage
you to go on learning. This is going to be great. And I invite you to join us and follow us, and you will see
that this is possible. Okay. See you around. Bye-bye.

All right, I’m back again, I hope you enjoyed listening to our lovely four winners. They’re really great
people. I really enjoyed, uh, listening to their entries. So each of them, all of the people that, uh, that
applied for the scholarship competition had to send in audio recordings of themselves, and every month
they will continue to send audio recordings so you can really look at the progress they’re making. So we
can kind of call this a benchmark. A benchmark is a kind of base level where you begin to check the
progress of something.

So each month this is also for themselves, but for you listening out there, where you get to check and see
how they’re pronunciation is improving, or how their vocabulary is…is building, or their confidence is
building as well. And they can even check back, uh, in a year from now, they can go back and listen to
this and see, wow, just…just how different their English is, just by doing a little bit of practice each day,
and being smart about how they practice.
So this month, what I really want the four winners, but also you out there, everyone else that’s listening to
this, I’m going to…We kind of go into fluency, even though you already understand most of what I’m
saying right now. But when we talk about how to get fluent in a language, I really want to focus on one
specific thing each month. A different part of fluency. And that way you don’t have to go out and worry
about so many different things at the same time, because it can be confusing. There’s so many tips
online, so many videos, so many different teachers and other students that will tell you lots of different
information, what you should be studying, how you should be studying, many different things like that.

But in the same way, when I was a young baseball player, I used to play in Little League. This is just a,
uh, kind of a level for young children that are playing baseball. But I would watch a lot of the parents, and
they would always have something to say to their kid. Don’t do that, or do this, or watch the ball, or do
these other things. And the kids, they would do the best they can, but the mind, the human brain, it can’t
hold all of that information at one time. So I don’t want to give a thousand different tips about what you
could do. Uh, they will have access to all of that information by using the lessons in Master English
Conversation. But for the four winners, and as well for you and everyone else that’s listening out there,
teachers and students, I really want you to focus on this one specific thing this month.

We’re going to go into fluency starting with the biggest possible thing, and then getting more specific as
we go through the year. So this first tip is all about the kind of sound and speed and flow of the language.
And really this is just…even listening to my voice right now, it has a certain melody to it. It has a certain
beat. A certain flow to it. And each language has that. And you can usually tell a different language. Even
if you don’t know exactly what the language is, you have a general idea of what the language is just by
the melody of the language.

So let’s say, uh, an example from Vietnamese. I don’t speak any Vietnamese at all, but the sound of
Vietnamese is so different from English, and the flow and the beat, and it’s more of a blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah. And I’m…I’m doing that really badly because I don’t speak Vietnamese, but what I want
you to think about is how the sound of Vietnamese, or Indian, or Thai, or whatever your language is, is
different from English. And the way you can practice that is the same way I’m speaking right now, in the
same speed, I just take one sound, like blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And I can introduce myself. Blah,
blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Again, I’m not saying any specific words, because all I want to do
is just get the flow of the sentence.

So whatever sound you can make, make that sound perfectly. Don’t…don’t try to pick a sound that’s
difficult for you to make, but pick a sound that’s easy for you to make, and then listen to any kind of
English you hear in your day, or, uh, a video, or something you see on the news, or a radio show,
anything like that. Whatever you can find, I want you to repeat that same thing back. Even if you don’t
know all of the words, or what all of them mean, I just want you to repeat back using blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah. Just one sound. It could be dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, or muh, muh, muh, muh, muh,
muh. Whatever the sound is, whatever you can make, a sound from your own language. So that way it
will be much easier to practice.

Find some natural, native English, even if it’s fast, and just listen to the flow, and then try to copy that. So
you could find a YouTube video, or watch a DVD, and pick maybe even just 10 seconds, or 20 seconds, if
you want to challenge yourself, you can go longer. But what you’re really trying to do is get the flow of the
language. The sound of how the words blend together. The sound and the way that a person makes a
sentence. So when they’re angry in English, they make a different kind of sound.

I remember when I was younger I used to watch, uh, an old TV show in America called “I Love Lucy”. And
the husband of Lucille Ball in the TV show, his name is Desi Arnaz, uh, and he was from Cuba, and he
had a very specific way of speaking. And he would say “Lucy, you’ve got some ‘splaining to do”, and it
was much different than English. I…I can’t really do it perfectly right now, but you can hear that it’s
different from English. Or even Japanese. If I say…Let’s say I want to say something in Japanese, like,
uh, I want to see a movie. [Inaudible 00:17:17].

And it’s a different way of speaking. [Inaudible 00:17:22]. And even though it’s not perfectly…it’s not
perfect Japanese, it’s definitely different than what I’m saying in English. I want to see a movie. I want to
see a movie. I want to see a movie. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. It’s different, it depends on the actual language you’re doing, but really find something where
you can get the…the tone of the language, the speed of the language, and don’t worry about the actual
words or the vocabulary so much.

I really want this month for the four winners, and also for everyone studying out there, I really want you to
sit back and just practice those sounds. If you can do that, then you will become much better at hearing
when people are making particular kind of sounds, uh, or if they mean a certain thing, by listening to the
flow of the language. So this month, we’re starting with probably the biggest thing you can start with in…
in overall fluency, at the kind of intermediate to beginning of advanced level, which is understanding the
overall flow.

When you listen, if you go back and listen again to the four winners when they’re introducing themselves,
then you’ll…you’ll really get a good sense of how, even my name is…Even just saying that, they have a
specific way of doing that that’s particular to their language. So just like, uh, if I’m living in America, and I
meet someone from India, I usually expect them to have a certain kind of accent. And the reason people
have an accent is because they don’t really try to practice the real way that people pronounce things.
They get the…the words correctly, but they’re not speaking in the same way with the same flow.

So if it’s your goal to actually speak like a native speaker, and you want people to think, wow, I’m actually
talking with a native speaker, not just someone who understands the language or knows the vocabulary,
but they really understand what it’s like to speak. If you want to be that, if you want to have that, and
people will be really impressed by how you’re able to speak, then practice your flow.

Have an excellent day, and I will see you next time. Bye bye.
 POWER LEARNING PODCAST 4 – YOUR ENGLISH FLUENCY WEDGE – FULL TRANSCRIPT
BELOW…
Hello, and welcome to the fourth episode of the englishanyone.com Power Learning Podcast. I’m Drew
Badger, English speaking confidence expert, and Co-Founder of englishanyone.com, and today we have
kind of a special double edition of the power learning podcast. I’ll be answering some questions from
students, uh, that I received on Facebook, and also I’ll be talking about our fantastic scholarship winners.
They’re moving into month number two on the englishanyone.com Master English Conversation
Scholarship Contest. So they’ve already been studying with Master English Conversation for about a
month, and they’re making fantastic progress. So we’re going to be talking about both of those things,
and also provide this month’s tip for them and for everyone else listening, so that everyone can continue
improving their English. Let’s get started.

All right, we’ll jump right into questions, and if I mispronounce your name, I apologize, because I just don’t
know every language on the planet and there are so many different kinds of names, and so if I
mispronounce your name, then I apologize for that.

So the first question comes from [Swatharedi ?]. How do we increase our vocabulary? How do we
increase our vocabulary? Well, this one is…it’s not such a tricky thing, but it really depends on how you
learn your vocabulary, and what kinds of things you like to study. So, for instance, if you get a book, uh,
you know, maybe some people, they like to actually sit down and just open the dictionary and get words
out of it and start studying that way. But I find it’s a lot better if you find something you’re interested in,
obviously, and then begin studying the vocabulary that way. The first thing you want to remember is that
it’s better to learn phrases than it is to study individual words, because the way the mind works, the way
your brain works, it’s a lot easier for your brain to remember a series of words as a story than it is for you
to try to remember a list of vocabulary words.

So, first, you have to think about what it is you want to practice, what kinds of words you’re interested in
use…in using, or if you have, uh, like a certain kind of job, like one of my students works at a bakery, so
she has to learn a lot more vocabulary for people coming in and asking questions about cakes and pies
and that kind of thing. So if there’s a specific focus that you need to work on, then your attention should
be on that. But, again, whatever you’re interested in, begin with phrases as a group. If you have to learn
individual words, make a story so you can make them more memorable, or learn actual phrases so you
can build your vocabulary.

If you really want to remember individual words, it’s much better if you break them down into prefixes and
suffixes. Now, let’s say you learn the first piece of a word, like bi for bicycle. I use this example a lot with
students. So you’ve got basically two pieces in bicycle. You’ve got bi, meaning two, and cycle, meaning a
wheel, or turning, or a circle. So you’ve got two circles. So now that you know bicycle, you can learn other
words that also have cycle in them, or bi in them. So instead of learning one word, you should be
focusing on learning lots of prefixes and suffixes, because these will give you the pieces of the words that
you can combine to make many, many more words, and you’ll understand a lot more words that way.

So, just to sum up, if you want to master vocabulary, start very small with prefixes and suffixes, but also
be very big, and this is remembering, uh, new words and phrases through stories, because it’s much
better to remember a whole group of things than it is to just try to remember one word, or a list of words
that it really just won’t go into your brain that effectively. All right, I hope that answers your question. If
not, just ask me. You can make a comment down below this video, or on Facebook, or wherever else you
happen to see me.

All right, let’s move on to [Aya ?]. So we’ve got three question from Aya, and I will do my best to answer
all three of them right here. All right, so the first one is: Do we have to study all idioms? Do we have to
study all idioms? Well, I suppose if you know every idiom that would be fantastic, but it’s not really that…I
guess it’s not really that easy to do. But it’s much better to focus, again, just like mastering vocabulary, it’s
much better to focus your time on the things that you experience every day. And, usually, there’s a, uh,
kind of an 80/20 rule, so you don’t need to learn 500 words, you only need to learn maybe 100 words,
and then you can use those and you use those more frequently. So, listen to movies and you will tend to
hear people using a lot of the same idioms over and over again.
There are certain idioms for business, there are certain idioms for sports, certain idioms for romantic
relationships, and a lot of these you hear them over and over again, and those are the things that you
should be listening for. So don’t worry about trying to memorize a whole list of idioms, just listen to
conversations, and anything you don’t understand, it’s probably an idiom that’s coming in, especially if it’s
a group, uh, of a few words and you don’t really understand what the meaning is because the actual
translation of it would be really funny. So think about idioms that way, uh, and you don’t have to worry
about studying all of them, but you can give it a try if you think you can do it.

All right, the next question, this is an interesting one as well. Uh, what do I think about watching movies
with subtitles? What do I think about watching movies with subtitles? It’s a good question, Aya. I think the
most important thing to remember about subtitles for movies and TV shows is that if you can, watch the
movie in the same language that the subtitles are in. You can always learn a little bit from…like let’s say I
speak Arabic and I’m watching an American movie. Uh, if the subtitles are in Arabic but I’m watching in
English, uh, then my brain is kind of getting two different ideas and I have to focus, uh, on one or the
other. Usually the spoken English or the written Arabic, in that case. But if you can, watch, uh, a movie,
like an English movie with English subtitles and it’s actually the same exact words that are being said in
the movie or TV show. I think that’s a great idea.

Subtitles aren’t a bad thing, but obviously you’re not going to get a 100 percent perfect translation of
something. So you’ll get a pretty good translation, but it also can be a little bit distracting. So if you can,
listen to a movie or TV show with the English sound on, but also watch the subtitles at the bottom in
English. So it’s not a bad thing if you use your own language for subtitles, but if you can use English, then
that will give you, uh, a much better means of connecting to the language, because they’ll say one thing
and you’ll really get to see it on the bottom of the screen. I think one of the reasons that, uh, many
Japanese people are good at reading, they have a very high literacy rate here…A literacy rate means the
number of people that can read in a population or a group of people.

But the, uh, Japanese TV, there’s so much writing on the screen. If you go to YouTube and just watch a
Japanese game show, they always have things written on the screen, and so even if you’re just listening,
uh, you can still learn a little bit, or learn some kanji, this is the Japanese characters, uh, the Japanese
written language, one of them. Uh, so I learn, actually, a lot of new Japanese words by also reading them,
and understanding what people are saying. So, again, I’m, listening to Japanese, but I’m also reading the
Japanese characters that are on the screen. So as best you can, listen in English, watch in English, and
read in English.

All right, and the final question from Aya is: What makes me must happy? What makes me most happy?
That’s a very good question. Actually, what makes me most happy is seeing people learn. I think, uh,
even from a young age, I always felt frustrated when I couldn’t learn something, or I couldn’t understand
something. I was never a very good reader when I was younger, and I was always like kind of, um, not
very good at school. I got much better as I got older, but it was the same thing I experienced as a
language learner, and I got really frustrated because I just couldn’t under…understand Japanese, no
matter how hard I tried.

And I think when I really got to see, like, wow, like when I really understand something, that’s really what
makes me most excited. It’s really what I can get excited about. And I’m always happy to see other
people when they actually learn something. You can really see it in a student’s face when they finally
understand something, and they really make progress, and that’s really what makes me happy. So being
able to learn something, and also seeing other people when they’re able to learn, that really makes me
happy. And, in addition to that, I really like having interesting conversations with people about all kinds of
things.

So thank you very much, Aya, for all those questions.

All right, next one is from [Steffi ?], and this is: What books do I recommend for learning English? Again,
this isn’t a specific thing I would recommend, it just depends on your level, what you’re interested in. I’ll
give you an example from my own life about reading. So, as I just explained, I was not a good reader, I
hated reading when I was younger, and I knew my mom and my dad wanted me to become a better a
reader, they wanted me to read more, but I just hated it. And I didn’t have, uh, a real bridge or a
connection, something that really made me interested in reading. Uh, so it wasn’t that there was a, uh, a
specific book that I had to read in order to like reading, but what I needed to find was something that was
interesting to me.

And it was actually Eastern philosophy, it was a comic book I found, uh, that got me really interested in
wanting to read more. And the only way I could learn more about that subject was by reading. I couldn’t
watch movies about Eastern philosophy, really. Um, maybe there are some, but I couldn’t find an, so…So
the…the thing that I want you to think about is find something that you’re really interested in. If you like
flowers, then read a book about gardening or flowers. Or it’s the same thing with movies. If you like action
movies, then watch an action movie in English. You shouldn’t be looking for a specific, ah, this is a good
book for learning English, because for each person it’s a different kind of thing.

And in you becoming a better English learner, I want you to really open your mind and not look for a
specific thing that works for everybody. The real secret to success is finding the thing that works for you,
because each one of us is a little bit different in how we learn, and we all have slightly different interests,
or even very different interests. So really think about what it is you’re interested in, and then connect that
with what you’re learning. So it’s the same thing I always recommend for people wanting to go out and
meet native speakers to practice with. Don’t worry about trying to tell them that you’re an English learner,
or you’re asking them questions about English. Ask them questions about things in the interest that you
have.

So if you like gardening, or you like animals, or you like any…whatever the thing is you like, talk to
English speakers about that sort of thing. Watch movies about that thing Do things in that using English.
Go to a bookstore and read a few pages of something and see if it’s too easy or too difficult. You want to
find something that gives you at least 80 or 90 percent of things that you already understand, so that
when you read something new, then that new information will go into your mind much more easily. So
don’t find a…a really difficult book that you need to have a dictionary all the time for, find something that’s
fun and interesting, and then you will really start enjoying your practicing much, much more.

So, thank you very much, Steffi. That was a great question.

And last one is from [Clare ?] about actually English learning. So this one is: Where can we find good
resources, good free resources, for downloading things for test preparation? Now, uh, in my case, I don’t
focus on teaching for tests. I like to help students build their vocabulary, and that is effective for taking
tests, but I honestly wouldn’t know. I’m not the best person to ask about, um, where people should go to
get free information about that. But I’m sure there are plenty of videos online, especially at YouTube, and
there are a lot of other free resources that you can use in order to, uh, experience, uh, much higher
scores on your tests.

So if you search for the specific tests you’re going for, uh…and for searching, keep in mind that many
English…English speaker are…are typing these pages, so, you know, try to think like an English speaker.
And so I am looking for TOEIC test prep, or something like that, and you’ll get, uh, lots of information
about that from other people. So I apologize, Clare, that I don’t have more examples of specific things for
tests, but there are plenty of resources out there, I’m sure.

One thing connected to this that I will say is that really think about what your goal is. If there is a specific
test you have to take, and you have to get a good score on that, then do study a specific test prep book, if
that’s really what you want to do. But if you really want to become a confident, fluent speaker, uh, there
are much better ways to do that. And so you shouldn’t worry about a test so much, uh, unless that’s
exactly something required by a school, or a job, or something like that.

All right, the last question is from [Trip ?], another friend of mine on the, uh, the teachers’ circuit here,
another fellow teacher. Uh, and he asks me how long have I been in Japan. How long have I been in
Japan? Well, I came to Japan in 2003, so it’s been almost ten years now, but on and off. I really love this
expression. It’s a very simple way of saying that you start something, and then stop, and then start nit
again for a little while, and then stop. This is to do something on and off. On and off. Just like a light
switch. Click, click, click, click. On and off. So I’ve been in Japan maybe…I’d say about eight years, uh,
but if you want to say on and off, I’ve been in Japan about ten years. So I lived in Japan from 2003 until
2006, and then I moved to Alaska, and I lived in Alaska for a few months, and then I lived in Seattle for
about two years, and then I came back to Japan, and I’ve been here for, I guess, five or six years now.
So, it’s been on and off about ten years.

Well, I hope, uh, those answered people as…as best they could. Uh, I’m always happy to ask…uh, or
answer questions, I should say. I’ve…I’ve got lots of questions of my own, but if you have any more
questions about how to learn, just comment below this video. I’d love to answer some more questions
from people. It’s more interesting than me just talking about random things all the time. So if you do have
questions, and I’m sure you do, uh, just go ahead and ask me. There’s no such thing as a bad question,
and I’m always happy to reply with, uh, an answer as best I can.

All right, well, now we’ll move into part two of this podcast episode, and I’m really, really excited for you to
listen to the difference between even just one month of practicing with Master English Conversation. I’m
so proud of the four learners that we’ve got on our program, uh, and I’m…I’m really so excited. I’ll let
them introduce themselves again, tell you what they think about the program, and what they’ve learned
so far this month. So, if you remember last month, I gave a kind of special tip for everyone, uh, and this
was how to kind of improve your accent and how to really get…get into the flow of English, just the way
I’m speaking right now, by focusing on just one sound. Listen to the episode three of the Power Learning
Podcast to hear more about that.

But so in addition to going over Master English Conversation, and doing those lessons for this month, for
February, uh, they also got to practice working on their sounds, and making sounds, and improving their
flow. And it’s amazing to see even just a…a few weeks of practicing…I’m so excited to see what they do
after two month, and four months, and six months, and even a year in this, uh, in this kind of fluency
course that they’re on right now. It’s really amazing what they’re doing. And I’ll turn it over to them right
now, so you can listen. They will introduce themselves, and they will talk about what they did for their
special mission homework assignment for February, and then I will come back and give a tip for
everybody right after this.

Yen: Hi, my name is Yen. Well, I think Master English Conversation is very great. Listening to the English
conversation help me know how English conversation flow. I spend about two hours a day listening to the
lesson so that it can go deep into my brain. I can also learn a lot of words, [inaudible 00:18:39] and
questions, and how to use it naturally. For the special mission homework assignment for February, I
decided to get a cat. My grandmother got five cats, so I chose one and took it to the house. I call her
Fuzzy because her tail always [frizzle ?] up just like a squirrel.

Caring for her make me happier. This is the first time I taken care of something, so I feel very happy to do
this. Uh, I really like to feed her. You know, in Vietnam, people do not buy cat food for cats. I just feed her
some rice and fish, and she seems to really like it. She provides me a lot of fun. I can play with her when I
feel lonely, and hug her when I sleep. Uh, when I brought her home, she had been pregnant, so it wasn’t
a surprise when, um, she gave birth to kittens three days ago.

I really like newborn kittens. They are very small, adorable, and so cute. I found that Fuzzy really loves
hug, kiss. Uh, she grooms her kittens regularly, and doesn’t go far away from her kittens. I thought it was
interesting, you know. Not only human have deep emotion like love. I think cats also love hug, kiss very
much, and I think she loves me as well. Thank to your homework, I got amazing, pet, so thank you very
much. Bye-bye.

Bhaskar: Hi, there. I’m glad to tell you about my experience with February’s Master English Conversation
lessons. In this talk, I’m going to tell you about how my practice was going on with the last month’s lesson
set, and what I got from it, and how the [pets ?] [inaudible 00:20:54] took place in my life. But first, let me
introduce myself about my name, and where I am coming from. Well, my name is Bhaskar, and I am from
India. This lesson set includes five lessons. Except the first one and second lessons, I studied each
lesson a week. That’s the method Drew suggested, and I decided to go in that way. More repetition is a
way of subconscious learning to achieve complete fluency.

Actually, when I got the scholarship from English Anyone, I was confident that by the end of this course
I’d be fluent. But after completing the first lesson set, I am super confident about my fluency by the end of
this course. I learn several things from this lesson set, like how to use filler words, the intonation, and how
to speak with confidence, and how to learn English through our interests. This lesson set is all about pets
and animals, and I never [inaudible 00:22:00] while studying these lessons, but interested more. Actually,
I was not a pet person, but, uh, I like them. [Inaudible 00:22:10], likewise. But while I was studying this
lesson set, I had a thought. What if I had a pet? And I was almost ready to take a dog, but something pull
me back, considering the fact that, uh, I’m not able to take care of a dog nowadays. Because, uh, I’m a
little bit busy. So I procrastinated my decision till next year.

But I had two incidents in my life that related me to pets. One was when I was a kid studying eight
standard. My cousin gave me a small aquarium, and I kept it for almost one year. But after that, uh, I
returned it back to him for some reason. And the second one was, uh, I did pet sitting a couple times for
my friend’s dog. My friend’s family lived next door to us, and they had a dog. And when they were ready
to go out of town, they left their dog at my home for a couple days, and I had to pet sit for it, like providing
food, taking the dog to walk, etcetera. And last year they moved to another town, so no more pet sitting.

I like gardening very much when compares with pets. At my home, we have some flowering plants, a tiny
garden. I don’t know you guys call it, uh, this is a garden or not, but if you don’t have much space for a
bigger garden. I like to water these plants, and take care of them. The plants we have here are
chamomile, firecracker, yellow marigold, and hibiscus. In my home place, uh, we move here a few years
back, but before that in our home place we had enough space for gardening. And we had a lot of plants
and trees. Like, uh, we had four coconut trees, guava tree, pomegranate, and many other plants.

Before completing this ta…talk, I have to mention one thing, that, uh, Drew always says develop a bridge
that connects our interests and our English fluency. Actually, before this lesson, I didn’t know how to call
many plants, flowers, fruits, [inaudible 00:24:50] and animals in English. But, uh, after completing this
lesson set through this assignment, I found all these English names, and I know now, uh, how to call it in
English. And, uh, in future, whenever I have a discussion about the plants and animals with anyone, I’ll
never have a problem describing the plants and animals. Thank you, guys, for listening this a little talk,
and have a wonderful day. I will meet you in the next month’s assignment. Bye-bye.

Jaroslava: Master English Conversation is program for study real English. It’s total different way to study
English than in school, or other computers programs. It teaches how to understand real English
conversation, how to use grammar naturally and automatically. Before I knew [inaudible 00:25:55]
grammar, and a lot of vocabulary, but how to speak I never how to use grammar in the conversation. I
was scared of English speaking. I had locked my mouth. Master English conversation unlocked my
mouth. I don’t worries about speaking. I am more relax. I can speak short sentences now. In past,
present, future tense. It’s great for me. I can retell the short conversation.

For the special homework for February, I got two goldfish. My sons gave them names. First one is James
Bond. Second one is Indiana Jones. First we had to prepare a goldfish tank. Clean out tank with water.
Clean decorations with water. Do not use soap at decorations. Fill tank with water. The optimum water
temperature in a goldfish tank is between 20, 22 degrees Celsius. Add fish to tank. We must change one
quarter of water monthly. Goldfish love to eat, and eat, and eat. We may feed several times daily.

Goldfish are social fish, so we have two fish. Live five, ten years. Do goldfish sleep? It’s a great question,
because the answer is both no and yes. No, they do not ever close their eyes. They actually physically
can’t close their eyes. But, yes, they do sleep. They sink to a low position in the water, and not to move.
They, uh, do…They do this several times a day. Every information, uh, about fish, I found on internet.

Every day I said my goldfish, hello. How are you? What we do today? Then I continue to wait. We can
watch TV, or listen music. Then my goldfish, James Bond and Indiana Jones, replied, we can listen to
listen English Anyone. Then I went, we listen this lesson yesterday, [and James was like ?], we like it, we
want to listen it [repeatly ?]. And surprised, I said, oh, really? I have to study English every day now.

Carlos: Hi, everyone. It’s me, Carlos. I’m very happy today, and really excited about my first audio and
homework assignment. And I’m…I’m going to say that, first of all, um, what I think about Master English
Conversation is that there are…there are great teachers. And, uh, especially Drew, because he’s a
good…a good man. And, uh, he’s really commit, committed, in this…uh, in this job. Uh, his job is very…is
very good. I don’t know how to explain it, but, um, I would say that, uh, Master English Conversation is a
cute place to learn English. Not because it’s, um, I’m was winner of a scholarship, but I thought when I
starting to learn English, um, in, uh, in English Anyone, that it…it is a good program.
It’s a good…it’s a good place to learn to the…Many things that we don’t know, like words like slangs, like
idioms, like phrases that American or English speakers normally say. And for me, Master English
Conversations is very good for that, because you are, um, very…very close to…to really, um, uh, English
speakers. And for years I was a kind of stuck in my grammar, in my fluency. Well, I’m not that good, but
definitely in this brief, um, period that I has been in englishanyone.com, uh, it was…it has been really
helpful for me. There’s really…there are really good [inaudible 00:31:43].

And I learn many things. For example, um, that blending is a good, um, is an important things of…of
English, and because of American…Well, English speakers, uh, talk to people like that, and they are
speak…speaking very fast. And blending sounds is very important. Um…Besides grammar, actually.
Because you can be able to understand the grammar, but the real speaking, the real talk, is very tough. Is
very…Sometimes I don’t get at all when I listen to native speakers, but for that reason I…I’m going to say
that, um, one of the things I’ve learned is that blending sounds and, uh, imitate some sounds, um,
because it’s very…it’s very important.

Well, I been, um, with, uh, my…my plant, I bought a plant. Um, it’s a…it’s a good plant. It’s a [inaudible
00:33:08] plant. And I…I bought it, um, some days ago. Uh, it is a good plant, actually. Um, it’s a…
Gazania. Gazania. Yeah It’s from Africa, and what I’m learn from it is that, um, I…I never…I had never
had a…had had a plant before. And, uh, for me it’s…it’s a kind of…Well, I’m starting, um, of gardening. I
could say that. And, uh, my plant is very tough. It’s one of the toughest plant that can flourish in whatever
place.

And for that reason, I…I learn from it that, uh, it’s always…blossom. It’s always flourishing, uh, through
the year. And for that reason, I…I’m so proud of it. It’s a…it’s a good plant. Um…I watered it, uh, every
day, and I say that it’s…it’s, uh, my favorite plant, uh…I don’t know enough anything about plants before,
[inaudible 00:34:35]. It was really…it was really interesting to investigate about its history, its benefits,
or…or its [futures ?]. And it was…it was really interesting investigate about my plant.

Um, I’m going to be [carrying off…off of ?] it, and, um, this is the…my, my…my speaking for…for this
month. I…I think it’s, uh….it’s a little bit, um, not fluently yet, but I think and I’m pretty sure that this is
going to be, um…a good study. Yeah. Okay. Bye-bye.

All right, I’m back. Didn’t they sound great? I’m so proud of all four of you guys. Carlos, that was fantastic.
And Jaroslava, especially, you’re…you’re starting to use more, you’re really using the native vocabulary
there. Instead of saying he said, the fish was like. Yen, also your pronunciation is fantastic. It’s really
sounding more confident. Uh, and Bhaskar as well, uh, t’s…it’s amazing, like just what you’ve…what
you’ve already been learning this month and how you’re going out. And even if you didn’t get a pet this
month you went out and you learned about your plants and other things that are in your garden. And I’m,
…I’m really just so proud of all you guys. Keep going. You’re an inspiration to everybody that’s studying
out there. Uh, and I’m really excited to see what you do for next month.

Well, to help you move along to next month, so again, last month we practiced on improving your accent
by focusing on just one sound. But now I want to move a little bit deeper into fluency, uh, and this is
finding your wedge, or finding your…your kind of cut into something. Uh, remember that you should only
be focusing, at least, uh, most of the time, on something you’re interested in doing in English. This is the
real key to getting in, and I want you to take kind of two things. The first one is something you’re really
interested in, and the second thing is using one of your talents in order to get fluent faster. So it doesn’t
matter what that thing is. If maybe you’re a good singer, you can use your beautiful singing voice and try
singing more in English. And you’ll get some of that from this month’s lesson, I’m sure.

In my case, I like to mimic sounds. It could be the sound of a door opening, it could be the sound of a car
going by, or anything like that, but I really like to mimic sounds. And so, for learning languages, that’s kind
of my talent that I use for trying to practice my Japanese. There was actually one instance, the, uh…We
don’t really have this in America, or maybe in some places we do, but in many, uh, crosswalks here in
Japan there are sounds that come out. It’s kind of like a…it’s like a chirp, like, [whistles].

Uh, I don’t really want to whistle now, because it will make the microphone crack, but basically there are
two different sounds for, uh, whether or not you’re crossing the street one way, or crossing the street the
other way, so that, uh, blind people can hear which…which kind of color the traffic light is. So it’s a really
nice thing, uh, but I like to mimic that sound. And one time I was at a park with some of my students, and
I was making that sound, and some ladies actually tried crossing the street when I made that sound. So I
was really happy that I was able to do that. It’s kind of dangerous but…but anyway.

So me thinking about my interests, so one of my interests was gardening. That’s the reason I came to
Japan, and I was able to find a Japanese teacher. And he didn’t speak any English, and I barely spoke
any Japanese when I first met him, but we connected with gardening. And it’s kind of like you find a…uh,
like you’re a, a, a guy travelling and you meet a nice lady, and maybe you don’t speak the same
language, but you fall in love anyway. It’s the connection that’s deeper than just the language itself, and
then you…you build the connection through the language after that, but you don’t need the language at
first.

So remember these two things as you work to get deeper into English and to build your fluency. English
is not the focus. You want to do something in English, and then English becomes a natural result. It
comes out of your studying and your interests. So your…your interest, maybe you really like the English
language itself, but I promise you, you will learn much more if you go out and really get into something in
English.

So, for you four winners, I’m…I’m so proud of you. Again, use this tip to go deeper into your fluency. Find
something that you’re interested in, and do it in English. And the other thing is, use a talent that you have.
If you’re really good with remembering things, then go out and try to master a lot of words. If you’re really
good at singing, then work on your pronunciation. It could be anything, but it should be something you do
very easily, uh, and very naturally. So at the start, you always want to make it nice and easy and fun, so
you get a lot of power, a lot of confidence from that, and that will push you to do more.

Again, I really look forward to listening to all four of you guys again next month. I’m so excited to see your
progress, and I’m really happy at how much you’re already been speaking. Go back and listen to how you
were speaking last month, even just…Again, it’s…it’s amazing. Even just a few weeks. Uh, I’m so proud
of you, and it’s…it’s, uh, something you should really be proud of yourself.

So I’ll see everyone again very soon with more Power Learning podcasts, and I’ll come back again with
another Power Learning Podcast with the tip for next month, after they finish this new special mission
homework assignment. Well, we’ll tell you more about that later. Have an excellent day, get out, and
enjoy getting fluent in English faster. Bye bye.
 OWER LEARNING PODCAST 5 – ENGLISH FLUENCY SKILLS – FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW…
Hello, and welcome to episode five of the englishanyone.com Power Learning Podcast. I’m Drew Badger,
the Co-Founder of englishanyone.com, I’m an English speaking confidence expert, an author, and an
educational entrepreneur. And I’m really excited to get into this edition of the Power Learning Podcast, as
we’ll be continuing with the progress of all four students, all four learners from around the world, that are
improving their English each month with Master English Conversation. I’m really excited because they’re
really proving that the power of the program is so fantastic. Honestly, they’re making such great progress,
they really are the heroes of Master English Conversation, and I’m so excited to see them improving and
learning more with the program each and every month.

They’ve only been in the program for two months now. They’ve got access to over a year of lessons, but
they only have to study with one lesson set each month. So each month they get a new lesson set to
practice with, and they can improve using the new words and phrases they’re learning, but also the
fluency tips that they’re getting, so they can go out and start practicing in the real world in different ways.
The subject for the March set of lessons was music and movement, so the students had to listen to
different kinds of English sounds for…from different kinds of speakers, and they also had an assignment
where they had to go out and listen to different versions of the same songs.

So there’s lots more to the lesson set, but for each lesson set they have a special mission homework
assignment. And for this month, I asked them to go out and find music they…they could listen to, but it
should be something popular that they could find that has different versions of the same music. Now, I
recommended they do this, because it’s a lot easier if you can find one song that’s popular that has many
different versions, so you can really get deep with the English. You can really go very specific with
different sounds, and listen to how different speakers say the same sounds, and it’s really much more
entertaining and interesting to learn that way.

So when you only listen to one person, like let’s say you only listen to me, or you only watch my videos, I
don’t recommend you do that. You’re only listening to my pronunciation or the way I sound. So it’s really
important that not only listening to different kinds of music, but also listening to different speakers, and
listening to different people say the same thing. I recommend everybody get out and do that, and that
way it will help you really develop your own unique speaking voice.

Well, I will let the four winners of our Master English Conversation Scholarship talk about their success,
and their improvement over the past month, and then I’ll go back and introduce what we’re going to be
doing for this month and the kind of extra speaking practice tip for learning English for everyone, uh, in
addition to our four winners of the Master English Conversation Scholarship. Take it away.

Yen: Hi, my name is Yen, and I’m a student of Master English Conversation. I have learn a lot of things in
this month lesson. I learn the names of some musical instruments, such as flute, tambourines,
synthesizer, and also useful words and phrases, and had a chance to listen to different accents. And the
song I chose for the special mission homework assignment is “All Out of Love”. This is a very famous
song, so that I could hear many versions of the same song.

This song is sung by a lot of singers, such as Air Supply, who is a British [inaudible 00:04:05] and soft
rock duo, and [Julian Taylor], who comes from Scotland, and other singers. But I still like listening to
Westlife singing this song most because they are my favorites boy band. I also watched the video and
listened to the song over and over again, and really master it. Because I don’t have time, I just found one
song, but I try to find more song later. Thank you for listening. Goodbye.

Bhaskar: Hi there. I’m Bhaskar from India. I’m done with my March month’s lesson set successfully, and
it’s amazing. We finished almost two months since starting English Anyone fluency program. Time is
really moving fast and fast. And I dare say I’m improving my English fluency in that way day by day. I
personally noticed improvement in my English. It really motivates me to do more practice with these
lessons. Yes, really, it’s a natural thing. Whatever we do, if we see some result from it, we want to get into
that more. It applies here also. I noticed improvement in English, and I want to do more practice with
these lesson sets. While doing this month’s lesson set, I was also using one of the previous lesson sets,
and other material from the site.
This month’s lesson set is all about music and movement. If you think is there any person in the world
that doesn’t love music, the answer will definitely be no. Even though people can’t understand the lyrics,
they will enjoy humming the rhythm. From this month’s lesson set, I had the opportunity to expose to
different kinds of accents, to know a bunch of idioms related to music, phrases and [inaudible 00:06:06]
that are useful for daily life. And as well as fluency tips. When we talk about the music from our country,
before 1950 and 1960 our music was all about, uh, related to classical folk [inaudible 00:06:26] songs,
etcetera. But after then, 80 to 90 percent of all our music is from movies. Other than film songs, there is
no music from a common man point of view.

My first exposure to English songs may be in the year 2009 or 2010, and the songs I happened to hear,
not more than a few, but, uh, there are a couple of songs that attracted me more, that are Michael Buble’s
“Feeling Good”, and “What Makes You Beautiful” from One Direction band, and “Te Amo” from Rihanna.
Etcetera. For this month’s assignment, I needed to master one of the recent top songs. Then I went
through a few chart toppers, and I listened to every song. And they’re not bad for English learning
students. I like all the songs, and I finally stopped at “Daylight” by Maroon 5. “Here I am waiting, I had to
listen, why am I holding on. We knew this day would come, we knew it come along, how did it come so
fast?”

I know I can’t carry a tune. Sorry if I butchered this song with this attempt. In a week’s time I listened to
the song whenever I have a time to get a deep understanding, and also watched the videos related to this
song, such as BFC, Daylight [Project ?], karaoke, acoustic versions of this song, and cover versions by
many bands. It’s really fun to listen to the same song by different singers. From this month’s less…uh,
from this month’s assignment, what I learned from this month’s assignment is practicing a song helps
improve our pronunciation, and it’s a good way to know how to blend the words together. Okay, that’s
pretty much it. Thank you, guys. Bye-bye. Until the next time.

Jaroslava: This month, I am better in listen English conversation. I don’t translate it to my language. I
understand it just in English without translation. I was finding popular English song on YouTube for about
three days or so. I had asked my friends, “What is your favorite English love song?” I want a song about
love, you know. I listened my song and read lyrics. When I listened song, “My Life Would Suck without
You” from Kelly Clarkson, I heard, that one, it’s my song. I had to listen carefully the song many times,
because I didn’t understand all words. It was very quickly for me, and words blended together.

I really listened it over and over again. I heard different version of this song. I really like version from
[Carlton Radlof ?]. My favorite acoustic version is just playing a piano. My son, Mike, installed karaoke
program and check me how I sing. He is 8 years old. I sing the song every day. I never sang an English
song before. When my sons watched the video for my song, “My Life Would Suck without You”, where
Kelly Clarkson threw aquarium out window, [Marti ?] exclaim, “Mum, when you throw tank out window, I
will rescue one of goldfish.” And Mike cried. “I will rescue second one.” That’s my boys. By the way, our
goldfish still have aquarium.

At this point, I started to know the songs from Kelly Clarkson, “A Moment like This”, and “Stronger”. It’s
much easy understand for me now. I was very surprised on Saturday when my sons run to me and
shouted, “Mum, dad is singing English song.” I am married 15 years, and my husband never sang. It’s fun
to study English with Drew.

Carlos: Hi there. Carlos again. I’m here in my house recording this audio for englishanyone.com., in order
to say what I did in this month for the special homework assignment, and, of course, for the Master
English Conversation vocabulary and grammar for March. Well, I been practicing a lot, even, uh, if my
speech is not…is not that great, I know. Uh, I been listening to the audios over and over again, and I
just…I just can say that English Anyone is very great. I just…I cannot stop saying that.

Yeah, Drew is very…he is very, uh, good teacher, and his sister speaks very, very fast. I can…I can say
that. Well, I been, uh, watching, um, some others definitions, uh, phrases in this month, and there are
many, many phrases, uh, in this month for the Master English Conversation. And also with the, uh,
conversation that Drew had, uh, with [Shannon ?]. Shannon is…is…the accent of…of…of this…of this
teacher is very…is very…I…I like that accent. I like Australian accent, I…I dare say. Yeah. I had…I had
many, uh, I had fun listening to him and Drew, and I really liked that conversation, even more than…than
Drew had with his sister.
But it was good as well, because Marie is a good, uh…she speaks very fast. Yeah. She’s really a really
native speaker, and she speak very, very well. Um…She says, uh…she said many words that I didn’t
know. Uh, and Drew was…was very patient in explaining those…those words. Like, for example, latch
onto. That…that was really a phrase that I really liked. Yeah. Latch. Latch onto something. Um…Is
something that you really want to, and you never…uh…go…or separate from…from that idea until you…
you really get it. That’s very…a good phrase for me. Yeah, there are many, many phrases that I…I could
listen to. Um…But I…I really like the…the idioms about music. I…I thought it was a [ago ?]…uh, about
music, but, uh, they…they weren’t about music.

Um, for example, I, I could say that, um, sometimes I, I did some things in a wrong way. Like, for
example, break, broke a dish of my mom and…or I did something that I…that I didn’t mean to…to do, but
I had to face the music, you know. Um, for example, I was be…I had to be…tell, told…told off by mom.
Yeah, it was really…that’s really interesting, those phrases. Likes, uh, for, uh, in the other…on the flip
side is, for example, uh…uh, when I had good grades my mom, uh, and, and people say that I was a
good…a good boy, because I was a very good student. Um…And my mom always says, uh, that’s music
to my ears. And there are many good phrases. There are many, many that I cannot, uh, say right now.

Um, the conversation with Shannon, that was good. That was very, very good, and I…I was listen to…to
it many, uh, had fun with it, and…But the part, the tough part, the toughest part was, um, the grammar
part. Yeah, I…I didn’t…I didn’t, you know…I had a lot of fun, I had been…I have been listening to…to it
many times, and…For example, the…the third [conditional ?] is…is very difficult, actually. Um, but it’s…
you can get it with practice, I…I can say. I am…I’m practicing right now. I been, uh, listening to…to the
audio many times, reading the transcript, and I could say that this is very…this is very important, and is
difficult in the same way.

Um…Well, uh, my…uh, for my, uh, mission, for the mission of the month, I been…I been listening to
“Creep”. “Creep” is a…is a great song by Radiohead. Radiohead is a British band. Um, actually is the…is
the only song that I know from Radiohead, um…And the…the song is, is very, uh, is very interesting. Uh,
you can hear to it, you can listening to it, but it’s, um…it’s about a girl, but it’s also about, uh…it’s a
complain of, of these guys about how…how perfection can fit you in this world. Which is not true. I think
that is the meaning of that song. Uh, uh, sometimes you want to be that guy, you want to be, uh, perfect,
you want to be, uh, very…very good looking to…to be, uh…uh, the blueprints of some, somebody else.
That is not true, and I think, uh, it’s, it’s about how people see you, in, in…in your…in the deep. Yeah.

Uh, well, I…I been listening to the covers that the song has, like, uh, the acoustic version as well. There
are many good version of it, um, even the song was the…the… the soundtrack of the movie, the, of the
movie, “Facebook”. Yeah. And it’s a…it’s…it’s a…it’s a version of a choir that I can’t remember the name.
But it’s a choir, uh…There are many kids, because there are kids who are singing the song, and they take
that song, they took that song, but for…for the movie very good. You can…you can type Creep on
YouTube and you will see many different version of the song, and I really…I really liked…I really like, uh,
okay. Um…Well, this is at the end. This is my…my audio for this month. I hope you enjoyed it. Um, and
see you next time. Bye-bye.

All right, I’m back. I hope you enjoyed listening to all them. It’s really amazing how they can go through
only just two months in the program and they’re already using more English, they’re learning the actual
words that native speakers use, and they were using this month’s vocabulary naturally inside their audio
recordings for this month. So I’m so proud of all four of you guys. You’re really an inspiration to me, and
I’m so excited to see that you can really get out and practice. And it’s not so difficult to learn how to speak
real fluent English if you can get out and actually find the right tools and the right teacher, and then
actually practice.

So the practice is key. I’ll be honest, the most important think you have to do is practice. It doesn’t matter
what you’re using. The program could be amazing, but if you don’t actually get out and practice, just a
little bit every day, then you’re not going to be able to see improvement in your English very quickly.

It’s really been amazing to watch their progress so far. I’m so proud of you. Jaroslava, Carlos, Bhaskar,
and Yen, it’s really been amazing to listen to your progress, and I’m so excited to see what happens after
six months, and then after a year. I’m so proud that you’ve been using the phrases that you’re learning,
you’re really getting out and practicing, and it just shows, it, it’s been really amazing to watch your
progress, even after only two months.

All right, well, let’s get into this month’s…for April, yes. We’re already in April, it’s turning into spring over
here now in Japan. So let’s go over first a quick review of the first two months of the program and the tips
that I gave both for the four learners of the Master English Conversation Scholarship Competition, but
also for everyone else listening out there.

So in month one, I talked about the flow of your language, and how you can improve your English using
only one sound. Remember that if you listen to the different ways people speak English, they’re getting
those sounds and that pronunciation from their own language. So you really have to pay attention to
these ways that we pronounce things in English if you want to become a great speaker that also sounds
like a native English speaker. So you really have to listen carefully and work on the flow of your language.

Right now, I’m not speaking natively and naturally, because I really want to have people really understand
what I’m saying. But right now, very quickly I’ll give you a very natural explanation, a very natural flow of
my language, and this is how I speak. So you see it’s a little bit faster, a little bit more difficult to
understand, because the words and sounds are blending together. But, if you listen carefully, and you
really focus on the flow, and listen to lots of different speakers, then you’ll be much better at listening and
being able to develop your own unique sound. So remember to find your own voice, and the flow of the
language is the best place to start for that.

In month two, we talked about using your interests. You should always be thinking about how to study
something you’re interested in, or do something you’re interested in, in English. It’s not helpful to study
lists of vocabulary words, because your brain is not a computer. It doesn’t learn that way. And that’s why
it can be so frustrating for learners, because people are wondering why. Is…is the problem me? Am I the
one that can’t learn the language? And I remember feeling the exact same way when I began learning
Japanese. I thought, wow, maybe I’m the problem. I guess some people are good at learning languages
and I’m not one of those people. And I was really sad, and, and, and angry and depressed about that.

And the important thing to remember is that it’s not the kind of person you are, because you can always
change that, it’s the systems that you use in order to get fluent. So those systems become the most
important thing you need to focus on if you want to become a fantastic speaker. So remember to use your
interests, and think of the world as your classroom. Find things you’re interested in that you already like
doing in your own language, and then you’ll be much better at finding those things to do in English. So
think about that.

Well, for this month we’re getting a bit more specific, you’ll notice each month, as we learn to build
English fluency the native way, over the course of this year with the four winners of the Master English
Conversation Scholarship Contest. So for April, what I really want you to understand is how fluency works
by improving each of the individual skills that you’re using to…in order to speak, and in order to listen,
and talk, and write. All of these things are individual skills that you need to improve in order to get better.
And just like starting, uh, a business, or, you know, trying to do anything that has a lot of complicated
steps and lots of different things that need to work together, kind of like a…a complicated machine, like a
submarine, something like that.

Basically you have something that can have many different working pieces together, and if one of those
doesn’t work properly, then the whole thing doesn’t work properly. And what happens with native English
speakers, and what happens with people learning English, is that they may have one or two skills working
very well, but if they’re missing one or more than that, then the whole thing doesn’t work very well. And
that’s why people struggle to build confidence.

So this month, what I want to talk about is how to remove the ropes. And this is the…the idea of being a
boat that’s right next a dock. So a…usually a large boat, like a ship, it will have many different ropes that
are attached to the dock. This is the kind of piece of wood that people walk up to, the dock, so that they
can get on the boat. And if it’s a really big ship, a very complicated, big thing, then you’ve got lots of ropes
that are attaching the boat to the dock, so that the boat doesn’t go away.
A very small boat maybe has just one rope to keep it attached to a dock, so it’s easy to take the rope off
of that dock and start sailing the boat, or start moving the boat around. But a bigger boat has a lot more
ropes. And it’s the exact same thing with being able to become a good person in business, or become a
good person as a speaker of a different language. Because each of these ropes is a different skill that
you need to improve and you need to get better, so you can take it off of the dock and actually begin
moving the boat.

So, what I want you to do this month for April is to really think about all of the individual skills and…and
kind of give yourself a…a personal speaking evaluation. You can take a moment, or, you know, take a
week, or however much time you need, and really think about where all of your skills are. Some skills
may be very good. You may be a very good listener. And other things, maybe writing, is not so good, uh,
or speaking is maybe the worst for you. It depends on what your individual, uh, skills are and what your
individual level is for each of those skills. But if you can think about all of those things, and really focus on
them individually, then you can begin to untie all of those ropes, so that you can begin sailing, or begin
moving your ship towards confidence.

So think about it like that. And if you can’t see everything yourself, it’s always a good idea to find other
people that can help you. So just like me, when I help students out I can be a person outside of the
student. I can give them tips and help them improve, just like you can find a local teacher, or somebody
that can listen to your English and help you see that, ah, your pronunciation is…is okay, but you really
need to work on your vocabulary, anything like that, where you can focus on each of the individual skills.

And then, for a time, just focus on one of them. Don’t worry about trying to be perfect or make everything
fantastic from the beginning. What you want to do is focus on one particular skill, like pronunciation, and
just kind of focus on that. And you don’t have to make it perfect, but just pay attention to your
pronunciation, and really work on phonics and sounds, and any particular skill you’re working on you can
always get to smaller parts of that, and work on that. So this month, focus on your skills, get learning lots
of different things so you can…you can get your ship sailing on to confidence.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of the Power Learning Podcast. I’m really excited to make more
of these, and I’m also super excited to hear all of the progress that our fantastic subscribers are making.
Not just the winners of the scholarship contest, but I get emails from students, and cards, and letters, and
I’m really excited to hear all of the successes that people are making with the program. Have a fantastic
day, and I will see you next time with another edition of the Power Learning Podcast. Bye bye.