Course Overview

Hi there my name is Luke and welcome to the course I’m going to be the teacher for this entire course.

And I want to in this first video this introduction just basically introduce a few things about the structure the style of the course as well as share a few tips things I’d like you to keep in mind things I’d like you to remember throughout the course as you go through it.

Let’s first just talk about the style of the course.

Throughout this course for the entire course you’re going to see me.

Going to see my head.

See my face and see the blackboard.

I’ll be writing on the blackboard throughout the course.

There will be no lessons in which you’ll see the board or a screen and not me.

There’ll be no lessons in which you see me and not the board.

We’ll always be together me and my me and my best friend the blackboard.

That’s a heart that’s bad.

Speaking of a bad heart there will be times when my writing will be be

Maybe a little bit just a little bit messy because I’m writing quickly.

I think you will get used to how I write over time so if you find it difficult in the first or second lesson to understand what I’m writing sometimes I think it’ll get better.

After a couple more lessons because you have to get used to someone’s writing style to be able to easily read it and if I write very slowly then it will be extremely boring.

Right.

OK.

Next let’s talk about what we’re going to learn in this course.

Well you can read through all of the lessons in the course and see what the contents are.

But I want to just say something about how I’ve decided to structure it.

That means how I’ve decided to organize it.

I’ve said before I’ve been working on this course for a very very long time years and I’ve organized the lessons in this course so that it’s number one building upon things we learned previously that means we learn something and then later on we’ll use it.

For example will learn about descriptions early in the course and then use those skills later on but also to keep it interesting.

So we might do something social kind of fun like a situation that you’ll encounter in daily life.

Lots of those and then we’ll have something a little more technical such as a particular English skill that you need to do a particular thing and then maybe the next one will be a little bit more fun.

And by doing that and having that variety I hope that the course will continue to be interesting and continue to stay fresh.

There will certainly be a couple of times when maybe a particular thing that we’re learning is a bit a bit dry.

I try my best not to make it boring dry means boring although those skills are very important.

Everything I’ve put into this course is important for people who want to improve their English.

If you’re working on your spoken English even your written English this course will help you and everything in this course is meant to be useful in your real life.

Just one more thing I want to mention before we talk about what to keep in mind throughout the course and that is that I’ve broken lessons down into smaller parts.

If you have a long video that’s 45 minutes long.

It can be quite difficult to go through that whole thing.

Right.

It can be something that you might think about for a whole week.

Oh I have to do this 45 minute video right.

It’s like it’s like needing to run up a big hill but if it’s smaller if it’s 10 minutes it’s easier to digest the Hill is a little smaller.

So even though it’s part of a larger lesson each piece is easier to eat.

Each Hill is smaller.

So that’s why I’ve done that.

The lessons are broken up into smaller pieces.

Now things I’d like you to keep in mind throughout the course keep in mind means things to remember throughout the course.

Number one it’s very important that you take notes.

If you’re sitting down at your computer if you’re using your phone whatever.

Take notes.

If you take notes on your computer that’s fine.

You want to take notes on a piece of paper or in a notebook.

That’s fine.

I don’t care but you want to take notes so that you’re doing some action connected to what you’re learning.

If you’re only listening it may be hard to remember the things that you’re learning.

But if you have some action you’re putting the things that you’re learning into the real world.

And by doing that the things that you’re learning are going to stick more next.

Don’t hurry through this course if you rush through this course and try to finish it in several days.

I think that you’ll probably miss a lot of stuff unless you’re a super genius and great at remembering every little thing you hear.

I recommend that you take your time watch one video a day or one video every two days.

That’s OK.

Don’t rush through the course.

When you take your time you allow yourself time to practice what you’ve learned to review your notes and to just think about what you heard in the previous lesson.

That time to think is as important as actually learning the stuff right.

When you become a painter you paint and then you think oh I don’t like this.

I could be better you go away.

You think about what you did and what you could do better.

You come back and then you paint better the next time.

Well that’s true for a lot of things and it’s true for learning as well.

So I recommend that you have some space between each video so that you have time to review you have time to practice and you have time to reflect to reflect means to think walk around look at the clouds.

Have a cup of coffee whatever you need to do.

OK.

Very important as well.

Next you need to review.

You’ve got a review with each lesson there’s something you can practice.

And I’ve attached basically an assignment to each lesson.

What you can do to practice what you’ve learned.

There’s one really great way to practice English spoken English without actually talking with a friend.

Now it’s great if you can great if you have a teacher that’s great.

You have a friend you can talk with.

That’s wonderful.

But if you want to practice the stuff that you’ve learned in each lesson by itself by yourself.

Turn on your phone open the recording app or whatever you want to use and record the practice that is sign.

So by recording yourself you’re you’re doing what I mentioned earlier when you’re taking notes you are putting something out there you’re making something.

Input output input output input an output go very well together.

When it comes to learning and recording is a great way to do output output.

When it comes to learning languages when it comes to learning new spoken skills.

Then if you feel like you didn’t really get something go back and review watch a lesson twice.

Watch a lesson three times if you need to when you finish this course go back and watch it again.

Whenever I read a book I usually read that book twice that way I make sure I don’t miss anything right.

If I went through it once I might have missed a couple of small things.

I go back I can catch those things that I might have missed the first time through.

I want to just mention one thing that’s very important and something I would like you to keep in mind as you go through this course and that is the importance of awareness as you’re practicing what you learn.

It’s very important to be able to pay attention to what you’re saying.

A lot of people when they’re there speaking they don’t pay attention to what sounds are coming out of their own mouths.

Got to be able to pay attention to what you say.

So that recording exercise is a great way to do that because you’re catching things that you wouldn’t normally catch but then you can start to do that for yourself when you’re speaking and that allows you to build better habits.

So I hope you can as you go through this course pay very careful attention to not only the sounds that I’m making right and the way that I’m saying what I’m saying but also when you’re practicing what you’re saying and the sounds that you’re making and how you’re saying what you’re saying it’s very very important so develop your awareness and that is the key to the next step which is building better habits building better habits is the key to ultimately becoming a more natural English speaker.

Finally before we get started on the first lesson of this course I’d like you to remember to keep an open mind if there’s something that you think is true about English maybe you learned that in school and it’s not quite right.

So be open minded maybe maybe a way that you’ve learned is either incorrect or correct and not natural maybe native English speakers say something a different way even though that different way is not technically correct.

There are many examples of that in native spoken English and I will share some of those in this course.

OK.

So I’d like you to make a commitment to yourself to be open minded if you’re close minded and you’re always saying well that can’t be right.

That can’t be right.

That can’t be right.

Then you’re not going to learn as much.

So I encourage you to be more like a sponge a sponge absorbs things then the more you absorb you can begin to process it and you can start using it in your daily life.

Learning English is all about ultimately really it’s about learning to communicate with other people in writing or in conversation.

And that’s the main point of this course to give you the skills and the knowledge that you need to go out into the world and use your language skills to communicate with people in a wide variety of situations.

This course will help you in many different areas improve your skills improve your knowledge and improve your ability to communicate in English with other people and without any more delay.

Let’s go to the actual first lesson of the course and I want to just say that I hope you enjoy it.