Powerful Approach to acquire a language without studying – Sharing my true story

 

How did I acquire English with audio lessons while living in Thailand?

Why should you learn Thai through immersion with my 100% Thai audio lessons?

Does this approach really works and make one acquire a foreign language?


Here’s my true story I would like to share as a language learner.


Back in 2009, I was a typical Thai who could read and write English well. I used to work in a big 5-star Hotel where there was an annual English test for staff. My score was in the top 5 among all staff from different positions. But it was just because I could read and my English grammar was good.  

In real life, most of my co-workers could communicate with foreigners MUCH BETTER than me who got almost the highest score. What a shame! Forget about watching movies in English. No chance.

Luckily I came across the program “Effortless English” by Teacher A.J. Hoge. I learned from his mini-stories and listened to his monologue audios repeatedly every day, as much as I can. 

Starting from understanding the mini-story less than 20 % at the first time of listening. After 1 – 2 weeks of listening to the same story every day,  my understanding reached 80 – 100%.  Then I changed to a new mini-story to learn new vocabulary. I also learned sentence structures even though the teacher did not explain the grammar but I learned the grammar naturally in a real context, like a kid.

After 3-4 months of listening to the mini-stories continuously, I could pick up more and more words when listening to music or watching movies. I was amazed by the result!  It was the very first time that I felt like I could understand English without requiring my 150% concentration. 

Not only could I understand the mini-stories, but I also could answer questions. I started to speak. I started to speak without thinking about grammar rules or sentence structures. 

After 6 months, along with these monologue audios and answering these circling questions, I learned English with movies and TV series. Gossip Girls and How I met your mother was my favorite English teacher. 

Words and phrases that I learned from the mini-stories popped up from time to time in the movies and I could understand them easily. I was so happy with my progress of the first year listening to these monologues every day. 

As I experienced by myself with this powerful method. I would like to create powerful learning materials for Thai learners. Something that will really help you acquire the target language without studying grammar books and help you speak and listen better. 

Please follow these steps when learning with this material. 

1. Take a look at an important word list. It helps you understand the mini-story easier. If you can not read Thai script, skip this step. Or use a dictionary to translate to Thai. 

2. Listen to the mini-story 1 time. Do not panic if you hardly understand. You are here to learn.

3. Listen to a statement and answer each question. This step is the most important step. It will make you speak the language. You will listen to this session over and over again for 1 – 2 weeks. You do not change to a new mini-story until you can answer the questions at ease. 

If you can not answer, it is ok. Just imagine and listen. After a couple of rounds, you will start to understand more and start to be able to answer questions.  

4. Listen to the mini-story again. Check your understanding. If you can understand them 80%, then you move on to a new mini-story.  

Why do you need to repeat the same story for 1-2 weeks? 

Because repetition is key in learning a language. Period. New words you learn must be repeated many times until it is moved to long-term memory. If you learn new words, and you do not use, see or hear them repeatedly, after a couple of days or weeks, you tend to forget. Me, at this age, I forget new words learned after 2 days if I do not hear them again.

Such a waste of time if you learn new words but you do not have a way to use them repeatedly. 

I never studied abroad before I could speak English. I never had private lessons with native speakers as I could not afford them. I acquired English while living in Thailand  You too, you can acquire Thai without living in Thailand. You just need enough INPUT that fits your level. And you can find it here. 

Hope you enjoy my lessons.

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