What is the best plan to improve your English this year? Watch the video and see if you don’t agree with Tim on this.
Qual é o melhor plano para melhorar o seu Inglês este ano? Assista ao vídeo e veja se você não concorda com o Tim sobre isso.
[note class=”idea”]DICA: Clique no primeiro botão “Print/PDF” acima para gerar uma formatação mais simples para impressão.
FILL IN THE BLANKS (then see script with explanations below).
Hey! It’s Tim Barrett from www.domineingles.com.br. I’m here ____________ my second, or maybe third, possibly fourth cup of coffee. I love these cafezinhos.
Happy New Year! For our first tip this new year, I wanted to give you a suggestion about the best way you can improve your English this year. Now I’m not talking about ____________ an English class or going to an English school; which you can do, of course. But I’m talking about what you can do personally, by yourself, to ____________ your English this year.
And here’s what I ________ up _______ : No matter what you do, you have to make sure that it is ____________ . You have to make sure that it is with you at any time, at work, at home, when you are in the car, in traffic, or whatever; so you can take ____________ of small pockets of time to study English. Whenever you get a chance. It could be five minutes; it could be ten minutes. Don’t think that you’re going to be able to study one/two hours direct every day. That’s just not going to happen. But maybe you have five minutes before lunch; maybe you have fifteen minutes before you start work again; maybe while you’re waiting for someone; maybe when you’re in line at the bank; you can _________ _____ of these small pockets of time to improve your English. So that’s why whatever you do, it should be portable and ____________ .
I, for example, use an iPad. Now if you can ____________ one of these right now, it’s a great tool. It can be an iPad or some other kind of tablet. I have videos in here; I have e-books; PDFs that I can mark, write in; and I take notes here. So I have it with me all the time. I take it home with me; I have it in my office. I even take it to the __________ with me sometimes; that way, when my wife is in some clothes store that I don’t want to be in, I’ll sit outside, and open my notebook and study or watch a video or something like that.
But if you can’t afford a tablet right now, there are other options. You can have a notebook that you carry with you all the time, that you write sentences in, review. Or you can make yourself a portable office that you can take with you ____________ you go. Inside you can have, maybe, a grammar book. (This is a Portuguese book I’m studying. I’m trying to improve my Portuguese this year.) But you should have something ___________ . Something where you don’t have to stop and think: Now let me see… what am I going to do now to improve my English? You already know. It’s already with you. If you have a small pocket of time, you make use of that time to improve your English. So you ________ ______ your book; you continue where you _______ ______ . And then you put it right back in your portable office; and then the next five/ten minutes you have free, you can study some more. So that’s my suggestion for you this year. See if you can ________ ______ with some system that’s handy, that you can have with you at all times. And that way, you can slowly but surely make progress with your English this year.
I just had an idea; and I’d like to get some ____________ from you on this. What would you think, for example, if we created an e-mail course where we sent you e-mails every day. Short e-mails with audio, maybe video, text, with a short English lesson every day. Would that be something that would be ____________ to you? And what kind of lessons would you be interested in? Beginning English, Intermediate, Advanced, or some other kind of lesson like English for Travel, or something else. So tell me about that in the comments section below (below the video on our site). If we get a lot of positive feedback on that, maybe we’ll develop something like that. It’s something that you can get in your e-mail box every day and _________ you ____________ constantly and steadily. Or tell me what you’re doing to take your English to the next level. I’d like to hear about it. Have a wonderful year. I wish you all success with/in your English studies and with life. Bye bye!
[note class=”cd”]DOMINE PHRASAL VERBS DE UMA VEZ POR TODAS: http://loja.domineingles.com.br/phrasal-verbshttp://tileeba.webstorelw.com.br/t/ingles-avancado/phrasal-verbs/
SCRIPT WITH TRANSLATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS
Hey! It’s Tim Barrett from www.domineingles.com.br. I’m here sipping my second, or maybe third, possibly fourth cup of coffee. I love these cafezinhos.
- sip = beber (em goles pequenos); beber aos poucos
Happy New Year! For our first tip this new year, I wanted to give you a suggestion about the best way you can improve your English this year. Now I’m not talking about joining an English class or going to an English school; which you can do, of course. But I’m talking about what you can do personally, by yourself, to improve your English this year.
- tip = dica
- best way = melhor maneira
- improve = melhorar
- join an English class = participar de uma classe
- personally = pessoalmente
- by yourself = sozinho
- improve = melhorar
And here’s what I came up with: No matter what you do, you have to make sure that it is portable. You have to make sure that it is with you at any time, at work, at home, when you are in the car, in traffic, or whatever; so you can take advantage of small pockets of time to study English. Whenever you get a chance. It could be five minutes; it could be ten minutes. Don’t think that you’re going to be able to study one/two hours direct every day. That’s just not going to happen. But maybe you have five minutes before lunch; maybe you have fifteen minutes before you start work again; maybe while you’re waiting for someone; maybe when you’re in line at the bank; you can make use of these small pockets of time to improve your English. So that’s why whatever you do, it should be portable and handy.
- here’s what I came up with = foi isso que pensei
- no matter what you do = não importa o que você fizer
- make sure that = tenha certeza de que
- portable = portátil
- handy = acessível, prático
- or whatever = ou seja lá o que for
- take advantage of = aproveitar
- pockets of time = “bolsas de tempo” = breves períodos de tempo entre compromissos
- whenever you get a chance = sempre que você tiver uma oportunidade
- that’s just not going to happen = isso simplesmente não vai acontecer
- while you’re waiting for someone = enquanto você estiver esperando por alguém
- in line at the bank = na fila do banco
- make use of the small pockets of time = faça uso (aproveite) destas pequenas “bolsas de tempo”
[blocknote class=”red” title=”O que significa o phrasal verb ‘come up with’”] Como se diz “come up with” em português? Qual é a tradução de ” come up with”? What does ” come up with” mean? What is the meaning of ” come up with”?
- come up with (something), phrasal verb = pensar em um plano, idéia ou solução
[/blocknote]
I, for example, use an iPad. Now if you can afford one of these right now, it’s a great tool. It can be an iPad or some other kind of tablet. I have videos in here; I have e-books; PDFs that I can mark, write in; and I take notes here. So I have it with me all the time. I take it home with me; I have it in my office. I even take it to the mall with me sometimes; that way, when my wife is in some clothes store that I don’t want to be in, I’ll sit outside, and open my notebook and study or watch a video or something like that.
- if you can afford one of these = se você tiver condições para comprar um destes
- tool = ferramenta
- I have it with me all the time = ele está comigo sempre
- I even take it to the mall = até levo para o shopping center
- some clothes store that I don’t want to be in = alguma loja de roupas na qual não quero estar
- I’ll sit outside = eu sento do lado de fora
But if you can’t afford a tablet right now, there are other options. You can have a notebook that you carry with you all the time, that you write sentences in, review. Or you can make yourself a portable office that you can take with you wherever you go. Inside you can have, maybe, a grammar book. (This is a Portuguese book I’m studying. I’m trying to improve my Portuguese this year.) But you should have something handy. Something where you don’t have to stop and think: Now let me see… what am I going to do now to improve my English? You already know. It’s already with you. If you have a small pocket of time, you make use of that time to improve your English. So you pick up your book; you continue where you left off. And then you put it right back in your portable office; and then the next five/ten minutes you have free, you can study some more. So that’s my suggestion for you this year. See if you can come up with some system that’s handy, that you can have with you at all times. And that way, you can slowly but surely make progress with your English this year.
- if you can’t afford a tablet right now = se você não tem condições para comprar um tablet neste momento
- that you carry with you all the time = que você carrega com você a todo o tempo
- wherever you go = onde quer que você vá
- you pick up your book = você pega o seu livro
- you continue where you left off = você continua de onde parou [leave off (something/doing something), phrasal verb = parar, ou parar de fazer algo]
- come up with some system = criar algum sistema
- at all times = sempre
- and that way = e assim
- slowly but surely = devagar, mas seguramente/regularmente/constantemente; devagar e sempre
I just had an idea; and I’d like to get some feedback from you on this. What would you think, for example, if we created an e-mail course where we sent you e-mails every day. Short e-mails with audio, maybe video, text, with a short English lesson every day. Would that be something that would be useful to you? And what kind of lessons would you be interested in? Beginning English, Intermediate, Advanced, or some other kind of lesson like English for Travel, or something else. So tell me about that in the comments section below (below the video on our site). If we get a lot of positive feedback on that, maybe we’ll develop something like that. It’s something that you can get in your e-mail box every day and keep you studying constantly and steadily. Or tell me what you’re doing to take your English to the next level. I’d like to hear about it. Have a wonderful year. I wish you all success with/in your English studies and with life. Bye bye!
- get some feedback = obter algum feedback (retorno, opinião, etc.)
- what would you think…? = o que você pensaria…?
- useful = útil
- what kind of lessons would you be interested in? = que tipo de lições lhe interessariam?
- something else = alguma outra coisa
- develop = desenvolver
- something like that = alguma coisa assim
- something that you can get in your e-mail inbox every day = algo que você pode receber na sua caixa de entrada do seu e-mail todos os dias
- keep you studying = mantê-lo estudando
- constantly = constantemente
- steadily = de uma forma constante
- I wish you all success – desejo-lhe todo o sucesso
—–===(*)===—–
Please leave a comment below. What do you think of Tim’s idea about daily e-mail lessons? What is your plan to improve your English this year?
Hello Tim,
How are you doing?
Well, it’s a nice video, it’s a nice advice how to do to study ebglish everyday… and yes, i do that “all the time” and every day. In my free time at work, when i’m at home and every TV program is bored and when i go to sleep a take my phone and listen to audios carefuly. Also i use E-mails to talk (chat) to foreing people, etc, etc
Tim, good studies, your portuguese is nice… yes, it’s great!
See you, bye bye!
Marivan,
Itaguaí city, Rio de janeiro
That’s the idea, Marivan. English has to become a part of your life – all the time and everywhere. Thank you for your comment – and for the compliment. 🙂
I liked it very much, thanks.
Thank you, Ray. I’m glad you enjoyed the tip. Good luck with your studies this year.
Hey, Tim! How is it going?
Well, this year I intend to get back on track in my English studies. Last year I spent some months getting myself prepared to the CAE exam I took in December, but now I can go back to ‘my’ podcasts, conversation classes and I am finally able to do something that I love: watching TV shows in English, of course!!!
I also have to tell you something about how I improved my English, which is not perfect at all (specially my writing), but it’s getting better… I used to go to work listening to some podcasts every single day; but not just a regular podcasts! I chose the one I thought was really fun with a great content. That atitude motivated me to persuit my goal one year ago and that is how I know it works. So, find something you like and do it in English! That coulb be reading, watchint TV, listening to podcasts etc.That would be my piece of advice to anyone trying to improve their English!
That’s very true, Thaís. It’s important to do something that is enjoyable so that you are motivated to keep it up. Good luck with your studies this year!
Hi Tim! your emails are dropping in my inbox once in a while, I miss your tips.
Talking about tips about learning English, I used to pick my English up watching TV Series, documentaries, daily news like BBC, CNN, EURONEWS and so on, desides I have been studying your tips and learning by myself and I am progressing on it.
By the way, could you clarify a clue? How would I say “Florais de Bach” in English, (iit is a kind of homeopathy medicin) well know in Brazil.
Thanks a lot
See you around!
Thank you for your comment, Vera. Yes, that’s the way to learn! It’s always important to do something that is enjoyable to you. I did a quick search and found out that “Florais de Back” are called Back Flower Remedies. Check out this site: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/bach-flower-remedies/
It’s great. I need to improve my English in this year. I think if I can get your lessons in my e-mail inbox every day or three time on a week I can improve my English. Thank you very much for that. Bjs
Thank you for your comment, Elvira. I appreciate really appreciate your feedback.
I think that daily e-mail lessons are good and I’m interresting in english for travel because I’m going to New York in May. There I can improve my english.
Hugs
Thank you for the feedback, Margarida. I hope we can help you prepare for your trip this year!
I follow all the tips, but this is the first time I comment. You’re all great!!!! That’s a very good idea. Where we were born ( In Brazil, In the USA, In Russia, anywhere…), we started to speak our mother language since we were “babies”, it means that, we spoke our language everywhere we went, so that’s why we speak our language quite good. We have “to live the language” and that’s it” Congratulations! Tim and Tammy ! Bye!
Thank you so much for your comment, Fabricio. Yes, you’re right. That’s why I gave the suggestion in this video to have something portable and handy. It has to be something you can pick up anytime and anywhere.
Hi Tim! I always like your posts. It’s been hepfull for me. Thanks a lot! I do like to receive short e-mails with short lessons to help to improve my english. I suppose that I can read and listen better that I can speak and write. This year I’ve already read two intermediate’s books in english for students from Macmillan, which both were a gift from a friend that’s an English teacher. But I don’t think that is enough for me. I have some relatives living in the U.S. and I must improve my english each day. I’ll do what you are suggesting and I hope it’s worth. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment, Renata. I hope you can accomplish all your goals for improving your English this year.
Hello, Tim! Receive short english lessons by email would be very interesting in my situation, that I have many pocket time spread in a work day. With this ideia you would help me a lot. And I think most of people think like me.
Thanks.
Thank you for the feedback, Antonio. I really appreciate it.
Hi Tim!
Very great your tips for improve english this year.
I’d like very much the idea about daily e-mails. I think that this is a great way for people that, like me, don’t have much time to study english.
I think the lessons wtih a subject is the best way to start, because everybody, in any level of english, can use this kind of lesson. So, I think it’s a great idea.
Thank you for the tips, and sorry if I had any mistake in the text.
Regards,
Thays
Thank you for your suggestion, Thays! I really appreciate it.
Hi, Tim. I’m so proud you like to drink the ‘cafézinhos’ and it seems you never drink it up. I do it too. I wanna tell you that I bought the Phrasal Verbs – letter A and I’m learning too much, listening, listening and talking, of course. I guess it’s a great idea about the e-mail course. Really, it would be useful to me (to other people, too) and I would be interested in Intermediate lessons. You should use in this course film trailers, songs translations, small texts from classical books etc.
Ah, I’m always improving my english with the help of your tips. I guess it will be ushering in the start of a process to stimulate learning.
Thanks and hugs from your student.
Thank you for your comment, Sylvio. I’m so glad you are enjoying Phrasal Verbs with A. Keep up the good work!
Hello Tim . I am one lisa’s ex student. I just loved the ideia about the quick daily estudies by e-mail.. I am in!
Cool, Leandro. Thank you for stopping by and saying hello and giving your opinion.
Hello Tim,
I really think the best would be you to send advanced english, specially with phrasal verbs, according to the courses that you already have, tailor-made. From my point of view, the biggest problems that I face is most times I receive long emails that although it have good content, I already got used to archieve it because I don’t have enough time to read them all. If we receive short emails, then we’ll get used to read them and I’m quite sure little-by-little we can improve our English.
thanks!!
Thank you for your feedback, Evandro. It’s good to know what is useful or not.
I think short intermediate lessons e-mails everyday could be very usefull to improve our English ! We can practice the same hint during the day and that way we can practice slowly but surely, as you say. Thanks for being allawys coming up with new good ideas for us to improve our practice !! Happy new year for you too !
Thank you very much for your comment, Laura. We’ll see what we can do.
Tim,
All your e-mails, classes, comments whatever are really useful. I always brush up my English so I read carefully each detail and I thank you for this help.
Actually, I´m wondering if I could have classes with you by skype, using a book, if not, I´d like to have by e-mail with videos, like this one you´ve just e-mailed.
Very good idea.
Thanks again, Gabriela. We’ll see what we can do.
Tim,
I´d appreciate that, I mean to join a daily English class by e-mail with videos, or by skype. Great idea
Thank you for answering, Gabriela! We’ll stay in touch about that.
Hello,
I think it’s a good idea to send us some tips. I’m studying English and I’d like to receive your e-mails.
Thank you and a Happy New Year!
Thank you, Vera! A Very Happy New Year to you, too!
Hello, Tim!
I think it´s a great idea and I´m sure that each student who takes this opportunity will improve his/her English learning a lot. You´re so commited about helping people.We´re lucky. Thank you very much. I wish you a wonderful year in 2014. Alzira.
Thank you for your comment, Alzira! A wonderful 2014 for you, too!
Thank you for your feedback, Dinah! We’ll see what we can do.
Hello Tim,
It’s John, I don’t know if you remember me as well, we talked once through email. Anyway.. I just loved your idea, in fact I’ve already receiving some dayly email of you about phrasal verbs and some american expression, slangs.
But I really would like to receive more videos and advanced informations.
honestly it’s helping me out a lot 🙂
Best wishes,
John
I would like to receive lessons everyday with short videos, told in english, of course, talking about phrasal verbs and how to use them. I can receive little texts like one presented above to complete the phrases and, thus, learning new vocabularies and expressions. Today, I have trouble in learning compound words. Could you teach me how to learn compound words?
All the best.
Thank you for your feedback, Agnys. “Compound words” is an extensive subject! Maybe we should start a series on that subject. 🙂
Dear Tim and Tamy,
My opinion is that suggestion is a great idea. I think that Intermediate is better. I’d like receiving videos by email like this one but once a week.
Congratulations.
José
Thank you, José Luiz. I really appreciate your feedback on this.
dit :I was recommended this blog by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my trouble. You&qsruo;re wonderful! Thanks!
What a brilliant idea! I’d love to receive emails in English every day I am an intermediate student but it is important to learn from all kinds of subjects. I am very grateful for your nice lessons!
Thank you for your feedback, M. Liber! I’m so glad you are enjoying our tips, too.
Hi Tim! First of all I want to thank you for yours clear, wise and easy to understand tips. My goal is to improve my English and to be as fluent as it gets for a foreigner of course kkk. I am going to travel with my mother on July to USA. I am so excited but I am having a hard time studying alone, it is difficult to organize everything and I am not sure if I am improving enough.
In my opinion daily emails are too much, because I can’t access my inbox every single day, so I think 3 times a week is better because I can guarantee 100% I will read, think about and put into practice your advice. And I am interested in learning advanced classes, I really enjoy when you give the explanation and send a video from something real, like The Obama’s speech, or a TV show, etc, I feel I am really able to understand real English. And I am taking courses on the site: Edx.org , they are for free and everything is in English, I think it is awesome.
Thanks a lot, see you
Thank you for writing, Adriana! I really appreciate your suggestions. And congratulations; your English is great!
Hi teacher,
Good tips,very usefull.
Thank you
Thank you, Carlos. Have a great year – and good luck with your English studies!
Dear Tim,
All help we can get is good. About the level of the emails, you can select some days of the week for each. Example: mondays and wednesdays for intermediate, tuesdays and thursday for advanced and fridays for beginners. You can provide different types of exercises. I like the video ones better though! And I read some comments giving you the idea to use the Skype. Here comes my idea about that: why don’t you plan a weekly chat about a specific subject, like a video, a podcast (you’ve never sent podcasts, have you?), some news, a phrasal verb, a comic situation we’ve been through? this way, your followers (and I, of course! rsrsrsrs) could talk to you, practicing our speaking skill. In case it’s not possible to do that, I tell you that short emails are great. I’m getting tired of reading those long emails I get everyday!
Have a nice week!
Those were great ideas, Patricia! We’ll surely consider them carefully. Thank you so much for participating here once again!
Do you have advanced classes for improving my english?
Hello, Marcelo! Are you familiar with our method to help you master phrasal verbs and everyday English. Check out a sample here:
LINK ==> https://domineingles.com.br/2011/06/the-tale-of-the-little-dragon-preview/
Hi, Tim! I have an question, refer a sentence “What is the best plan to improve your English this year? Watch the video and see if you don’t agree with Tim on this.”
When you use “on this”, this case can be use “about this”?
Hello, Marcelo. Thank you for your question. Prepositions can be tricky because we use them automatically, and sometimes it is difficult to explain why. In this case, “agree on something” means that we agree about a choice on which is the best plan to improve your English. Now if I say that we both “agree about the need to learn English”, that means we both agree that it is necessary (there is a need) to learn English; but there is no choice involved about which method/plan is better.
Hey Tim. How are you doing?For the first time I watched the video and read some articles on your page. That’s pretty good.It really can help us a lot! I’m working as an English teacher, so…I was looking for some easy texts to teach my students. When you said on the video that you could send us emails, I got very happy, because it’s one of the best ways to improve not only my English but also my students’. If you are really going to do this, take my email too, please! Thanks a lot. Congrats!
Hello, Viviane! Welcome aboard! We are so glad to have you – and your students – here with us! About our e-mail tips, all you need to do is sign up for them in the box at the top left of our home page (domineingles.com.br) Thank you for comment!
I know that’s an old post, but I really appreciated your tips. I’ve started to study English a few months ago, and I believe if you practice every day, you’ll learn very fast! Actually, I fell in love with this language, I’m always reading something, watching videos, listening musics and podcasts. I’m sure I’m going to improve my English this way. thank you so much to share your knowledge
Welcome to our site, Wagner! Keep up the good work! You are already writing very well!
Hello Tim! How are you doing??
Well, I would like to know if you are teaching classes via Skype.
It’s possible?
Thanks in advance!