Lesson Transcript

Hey everyone, welcome to the Monthly Review!
The monthly show on language learning.
Where you discover new learning strategies, motivational tips, study tools, and resources.
By the way, all the lessons and bonuses you’re about to see can be downloaded for free on our website.
So, click the link in the description right now to sign up for your free lifetime account.
Okay, today’s topic is:
How to Speak More of Your Target Language: Specificity &Can-Do Checklists
How much of your target language can you speak… right now? If your answer is… not much, well there is a way to speak more… even if you’re learning on your own. And in this episode, you’ll discover…
1) How Specific Goals Get You Speaking More
2) And How You Can Apply This Tactic with Our Learning Program… or Any Other Resource.
But first, listen up! Here are this month’s new lessons and resources.
First — The “Going Sightseeing” Conversation Cheat Sheet
What country or city would you like to visit?
With this PDF cheat sheet, you’ll be able to talk about where you want to go, and you’ll master all the common words words and phrases for sightseeing.
Second — The “Most Common Nouns” PDF eBook
You’ll master over 90 common nouns with this bonus PDF picture ebook. You can download and review it on any device.
Third - Can You Talk About Hairstyles?
Would you be able to get a haircut in your target language?
If not, then this 1-minute lesson is just what you need.
Fourth — Phrases to Use with Your Doctor
“I have an appointment,” “I don’t feel well,” “My throat hurts.” You’ll learn how to say these phrases and much more.
Fifth — Can you talk about books in your target language?
Learn how to say ”novel,” ”author,” ”thriller,” and much more, with this quick vocab bonus.
To get your free resources, click the link in the description below right now. They’re yours to keep forever. Ok, let’s jump into today’s topic:
How to Speak More of Your Target Language: Specificity &Can-Do Checklists
Every learner wants to speak more in their target language… and yet speaking is almost always the weakest skill for most learners.
So, how can you fix this? How can you speak MORE? Keep watching. These tips will apply to solo learners AND those with a conversation partner.
First, let’s put language learning aside. Let’s say you wanted to speak more about a certain topic in your native language. What would that depend on? The length of that conversation depends on how much you know about that topic, right? If you don’t know much, that conversation won’t last long. If you know a lot, you can go on for hours.
It’s the same with language learning. The more words and phrases you know around a certain topic, the more you can speak.
It’s a top-down approach. Pick a topic, for example, weather, and work your way down. Learn the relevant words, phrases, and questions for that topic, for example. “what’s the weather like?” “it’s nice weather,” “it’s sunny,” “it’s windy.” “I like sunny weather.” “I don’t like rain.” The more lines you come up, the more you’ll be able to talk about the weather… in your target language.
The point is... if you want to speak more… you should start with a specific topic. Sounds obvious, right? Why don’t most learners do this? Most learners don’t do this… because they’re just passively following a learning resource without going after what they specifically want. It’s much easier to follow a textbook than to stop, think about what you want to talk about, and go off in that direction.
Of course, you should still keep using your textbook or existing resource. You can do both: follow a resource and also pursue specific topics.
But here are a few reasons why this tactic is so powerful.
First, Specific goals always beat vague goals. For example, between setting goals like “I want to save money” and “I want to save $50 dollars.” You’re more likely to succeed with the $50 goal… but because you have a specific number to look for and measure. You won’t stop until that $0 becomes $10, then $20 and then $50. Same with language learning. Between “I want to learn more words” and “I want to learn 20 words,” you’ll do much better with the specific goal.
Second, You get to speak more.. sooner. Why? You can go try the general approach of learning the 2000 most common words… but that will take a long time and it won’t get you speaking any faster. But if you pick a specific topic and get all the words and phrases for it, you’ll be much better off.
Three, So you know what to focus on. Again, knowing what to focus on helps you learn and progress faster. Otherwise, if you’re just going through a textbook with no specific goal in mind, you’ll spend months on learning a language… and never see any real progress.
So, remember, the more specific you are with what you want, the more likely you’ll get it, because you know exactly what you’re looking for. This is why we tell you to set small, measurable - meaning specific, monthly goals.
Now, what kind of topics should you pick?
That depends on you and your hobbies and interests. You can also start with common topics like: talking about yourself, your family, the weather, or your weekend plans.
But to make it easy for you… here’s what you can do.
One: Download our Free PDF Conversation Task List. Pick a topic to start with, for example, talking about your family. Then take lessons inside our Learning Program based on that topic. You’ll learn practical conversations that you can use in real life. And as a result, you’ll be able to talk more about your family.
Two: Take 5 or 10 minutes and write out other lines that you’d want to use. Either in that conversation or questions that someone may ask you, and get them translated with the help of our Premium PLUS teacher.
Three: Come up with your own topics that are interesting to you. Then, repeat step 2: Come up with all the phrases, questions, and answers that could come up in that conversation. Write them out and then get them translated with your Premium PLUS teacher.
Or, translate them with a translation software. It may not be perfect, but it’s a start and it’ll get you speaking more of your target language.
The goal here is to be able to talk more about a specific topic… and as a result, speak more of your target language.
So, thank you for watching this episode of Monthly Review
Next time, we’ll talk about: What's your real reason for learning a language?
If you enjoyed these tips, hit the “like” button, share the video with anyone who's trying to learn a language, and subscribe to our channel. We release new videos every week!
And, if you’re ready to finally learn language the fast, fun and easy way and start speaking from your very first lesson, get our complete learning program. Sign up for your free lifetime account right now. Click the link in the description."
See you next time! Bye!

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