Five ways to feel happy learning English

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? There’s an easy way to check. Take a look at a glass with water up to the half-­way point. Does it look half­empty or half­full? If it’s half­empty, you are a pessimist. If it’s half­full, you are an optimist.

Whether you are normally an optimist or a pessimist, looking at how you learn English in the below ways will help you feel great

Focus on what you can do rather than what you can’t do

When you are making your study plan, make a point of checking off what you have done after you do it. This will help you see the areas in which you are making progress and is a great motivational tool for learning more. Keep a copy of your old study plans so you can see all the great work you’ve done already.

Think of mistakes as areas to improve rather than problems

Experimenting with new sentence structures and vocabulary is the only way to really remember and learn. If you don’t get it wrong from time to time, you’ll never learn how to use it. Experiment with new parts of the language and see mistakes as chances to learn more rather than problems to be avoided.

Try something new

Just talking to classmates can be great fun, but sometimes people feel scared about speaking English outside the classroom. Try overcoming this by doing something really challenging like speaking in front of a group of people, or going up and starting a conversation with a stranger. It will give you a great sense of achievement, and after that normal conversations will seem easy!

Set yourself achievable goals

If you practise hard enough, you will be fluent in English, but it will take a long time. In the meantime, set yourself smaller, more specific goals, and then cross them off your list as you achieve them.

Use your English

Studying English can be a bit abstract if you only use it in class. Using English in real life is the fun part. You might not be able to do this every day but volunteering to show foreign colleagues around, giving tours of local tourist sites or even chatting to English­speaking friends on the internet can be a great way to see what all your hard work is actually useful for. Just remember if you are talking to strangers on the internet to be sensible and take all the usual precautions.

What makes you happy about learning English? Let us know using the comments section below.

image: ashrafur kadir