 How are you today? This is Marc. I'm an English teacher and coach from Toronto, Canada and I live in Rome. Since I began teaching English in 1996, students have often asked me the same question, how can I learn English faster and more efficiently? The answer to that question has been rolling around in my head for some time now. I'll give you advice on what not to do when learning English. First off, don't translate word by word from your own language. Try to figure out the meaning by reading through the sentence and then try to understand it from the context. If you don't know how to say a certain word in English, try to explain it by using the vocabulary you already know. Secondly, don't give up on your studies. Be constant. Never stop learning. Research shows that if you give up on your studies, you'll really get your English to the back of your mind. It's like going to the gym for a year and then taking a year off. When you return, all your muscles will hurt. That's because you didn't work out for a year. So never give up. Thirdly, don't be shy when you speak English. By gaining confidence in the language, you'll become better at it. If you are confident, you won't think about your grammar mistakes. When you speak to people in English, they understand you are learning the language, so don't worry, nobody expects impeccable English from you. So how about those points? Are you actually using them? I hope so. Now, let's talk about what you should do when learning English. First, try to immerse yourself in the language. What do I mean by immerse? Well, let me tell you about my own experience with Italian. I moved to Italy in 1997. For the first two months, I had 360 degree contact with the language and I spoke Italian, but not that much. My friends were Italians, the environment was Italian, the air that I breathed was Italian and the whole contest was Italian. Well, I learned Italian in two months. I was able to have a real conversation with someone, even making some mistakes. Obviously, I don't expect you to move to the US or to Canada or to the UK or even to Australia. However, you can recreate your English learning environment. But how? Well, for your listening comprehension, I suggest watching TV in English by renting or by movies or by using the internet. You can find movies with English subtitles, complete series or TV programs even on YouTube. You just need to Google English movies, series like The Mist or Friends or Sex and the City or TV programs like 2020 or Deadline. There is a myriad of links to shows, programs or movies in English. I would also recommend English podcasts. They are easy to get. You just need to subscribe to the ones you are most interested in. And again, there are tons of English podcasts, English grammar podcasts, English pronunciation podcasts, English vocabulary learning podcasts, etc. When listening, you don't need to pay particular attention to what you're hearing. Your mind will subconsciously retain the English you hear. So don't worry about that much. Getting used to the sound of English will definitely help you improve your comprehension skills. This is particularly true if you live in a context where every American or British movie is dubbed, just like here in Italy. So in order to learn new vocabulary, I suggest reading a book you've always wanted to read in your own language. For example, a book that you'll enjoy. When you learn a language, it is extremely important you enjoy what you're doing. When reading, it is an important to look up all the words you don't know. It is, however, important to try and understand new words by context. When an author writes a sophisticated word, they usually explain it in the successive sentences. Likewise, when an author uses this kind of word once, you'll often find it repeated several times throughout the rest of the book. In this way, by the time you've got to the end of the book, you will have found it several times in context, and you will have definitely learned what it means. I've seen students translating every single word they didn't understand. For long-term retention, this has been proved to be ineffective. After a few weeks of not actively using or re-encounting the words they so meticulously looked up in the dictionary, they simply forget them. In order to use what you've already learned, I suggest going to venues where foreigners usually hang out, try and meet new people. They don't have to be native English speakers. They could be from anywhere but your own country. Tell them you're learning English and you like to practice what you've learned. Talk about the weather, the city, their or your life in general, the news, anything you think will be appropriate for that context. Meet new friends online. There are hundreds of chat rooms for English students, even on Facebook. There are millions of English-speaking groups. Just search for them. It's that easy. By now, you know you can either test or speak live with anyone on the Internet. I suggest you always mention you're learning English and you want to practice. There are many people who are learning English and wish to practice with someone. Traveling. Visit a place outside your country. Anywhere you go, you'll find people who speak English. By traveling, you can practice the English you've learned firsthand. Try to put yourself in situations where you have to speak English in order to communicate. In this way, you're forced to use what you've learned. I strongly suggest traveling alone, so that you don't speak your own language and thus speak only English. If you live in a country where English isn't the first language, I strongly suggest attending English lessons. Make it a habit. Don't stop attending. This will definitely increase your level of English and will maintain what you've learned so far. Well, I hope you found my advice useful. If you'd like to make a comment or to post a question, just do so under this video. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel if you haven't and please share the video with your friends. They might even thank you for thinking about them. Have a nice day and see you next week with a new video lesson. Thank you for watching. Bye-bye.