Power English

Reading Power Mini-Story Text

Okay, are you ready? I hope so. Big smile. Deep breath. Move that body. Feeling

good. You're a fantastic English learner. Are you ready? Are you ready? Let's do

some English here. Mini-story for "The Power of Reading."

* * ** *

There was a monkey. The monkey's name was Filbert.

What was there?

There was a monkey.

And what was his name?

Filbert, his name was Filbert.

What was Filbert?

Filbert was a monkey, of course.

What did Filbert like to do?

Oh, you don't know? Well, Filbert liked to shoot mosquitoes with a gun.

Hm, interesting, yes.

Filbert liked to shoot mosquitoes (y'know, bzzzz), he liked to shoot mosquitoes

with his gun.

What did Filbert like to do?

He liked to shoot mosquitoes with his gun.

What did he like to shoot?

Mosquitoes, Filbert liked to shoot mosquitoes.

With what?

Reading Power Main Text

Hi, this is AJ. Time for the next lesson. Now this is one of my favorite topics by one of

my favorite people so I want you to be extra happy, extra strong body and physiology for

this one. So stand up straight. Get those shoulders back. Chest up. Breathe deep.

Get that air going in there. Energize your body. Big, big, super big smile, huge smile.

Make everyone think you're super crazy. Now move your body. Come on, get it moving

now. If you're standing you just kind of wiggle around. Move those arms, move those

legs. If you can, start walking. Get the blood going. Get that energy going. Let's go!

Are you ready?

This lesson is called "The Power of Reading" and it comes from an article by

Dr. Stephen Krashen. He's one of my favorite people in the world.

Dr. Stephen Krashen is probably the number one expert on language learning and

language teaching in the world. He is just an incredible professor, an incredible

researcher, an incredible intellectual. He has done an incredible amount of research on

the topic of learning languages. And today we're going to talk about just one part of his

research. Really, Effortless English is based a lot on Dr. Stephen Krashen's research,

all of the methods we use. But we're going to talk about just one particular method, one

particular idea, very strong idea that comes from Dr. Stephen Krashen and his research

and that is the power of reading. Specifically it's the power of pleasure reading. It's the

power of easy reading. We'll talk about that more in a minute.

But first let me read a little bit from this article. Now this article, as you might guess, is

about the power of reading. And Dr. Krashen did a lot of research about reading.

Specifically about how do people, native speakers, and people learning foreign

languages, how do they learn vocabulary? How do they get good grammar? How do

they get excellent writing skills? One of the most important methods is reading.

Reading for pleasure. Now when we talk about reading there are kind of two different

ways to learn reading, even for small children, learning a native language. Now one

method, the old method, is that you learn reading skills. So you have to study and

analyze vocabulary, for example.

Spelling in English is very difficult and tough so we have to study that a lot in school.

Well, we don't have to but often with old methods and old teachers we do. We study,

study, study spelling. We study, study, study vocabulary. And we learn all these skills.

We use all these textbooks to learn reading. And, of course, people learning new

language, a foreign language, well guess what. You do the same things, right? You

learn textbooks. You're reading all these textbooks and you're trying to learn all these

"reading skills."

Kaizen Vocabulary Text

Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "The Kaizen Way." Are you smiling? Big smile,

remember. Body up, shoulders back. Big smile, make it bigger, come on, a huge grin.

Look stupid. Look silly. What about your body? Start moving it. If you're sitting in a

car, if you're sitting in a train, you know you can just move your legs around a little bit.

People look at you and think you're strange, it's okay. Hopefully you have a chance,

you're out walking. Get that iPod in your ears. Move your body. Energy, get some

energy in your body. We're going to learn some English. Are you ready? Let's go.

Vocabulary for "The Kaizen Way."

Our first word from this article from this lesson is zinger, a zinger. Now a zinger is a

surprise or a shock. So in the article, it came from the phrase "You want to come up

with a zinger of a solution to an office problem." So a zinger of a solution means a

surprise or a shock of a solution. It means a solution that is surprising, in a good way

here, of course, it can be negative. Zingers can sometimes be a little bit negative, but it

has this idea of something that is surprising or something that is shocking. Something

that is sudden, a zinger.

Alright, our next word after zinger, our next word is summon. To summon or to summon

up, sometimes we'll say summon up, sometimes we just say summon. And in the

article we had the phrase "Kaizen can help you summon your powers of inspiration."

Summon your power, to summon means to call, call something to you, right? Like

"Come here, come to me now." Or to arouse, to arouse is another similar word to

summon. Or to conjure, all of these have similar meanings. So to summon your power

means to call your power "Power come to me now!" That's the idea. So kaizen, this

method, this way of thinking, this way of improving, little small improvements, asking

little small questions, it can summon your power. It calls your power to you. It gives you

power. So again, to summon means to call someone or something to you. It's kind of

like saying "Come to me. Come now." To summon, to summon.

Next we have the phrase to cough up, to cough up. Now cough up has a very direct

meaning, a very physical meaning. But then it also has more of a mental idea meaning.

And let me read the phrase, in the phrase it says "Although you can't force your brain to

cough up creative ideas, you can program it." Okay, to cough up means to give or to

produce quickly, right? To make something happen quickly, to give quickly, this idea of

calling up actually. And it comes from, physically, it means if we cough we would say

"cough, cough, cough", right, so if you cough something up, imagine you eat something

and then "cough" you cough it up, it comes from your stomach, up and out your mouth

again. So thať's the direct physical meaning. This idea that something is inside and

then you bleah, you cough it out. It comes out of your mouth. So if you have that idea

Kaizen Point-Of-View Text

Hi this is AJ again and now it's time for our new kind of lesson which I call point of view

stories. Now the point of view story, or stories actually, are designed to teach you

grammar intuitively. Now there are a few important things you need to know and you

need to think about when you're doing this lesson. Or actually, there's a few things that

you need to know that you should not think about and the number one thing you should

not think about are grammar rules. Do not think about grammar rules. Very important.

Now I know you've been taught grammar rules for many years so it's hard to get that

out of your brain. But it's very hard to unlearn that information. Because you learned

grammar in an analytical way.

What that means is you intellectually learned grammar. You learned, okay, well the past

progressive is this and we use it in these situations and da, da, da, da, duh...and you

took all these grammar tests. And it totally confused your brain so that when you

actually speak, you don't know how to speak with proper grammar. It comes out wrong.

You take a grammar test, maybe you do very well. But when you speak your grammar

sucks, it's terrible! What's the problem here? Well, it's because you learned grammar

rules and terms. You studied it. You analyzed it. You memorized these rules. But you

didn't learn it intuitively, naturally. It did not get deep into your brain the way a native

speaker knows grammar.

So the point of view stories are designed to teach you the way a native speaker learns

grammar. And we learn grammar by listening, by understanding meaning, by

understanding patterns. So when you listen to these stories, here's the good news.

Just listen. Smile. Shoulders back. Feel great and just listen. Don't think about

anything. Don't think about rules, none of that. Just relax and enjoy the story. Notice

the patterns. You can notice the changes in vocabulary because in each story what I'm

going to do is I'm going to tell this exact same story from the mini-story. So in this story

you're going to hear the same story about Jan being rude. But l'm going to tell it from a

different point of view. It means from a different time.

So, for example, I might tell that story but from the future. I might say that I have an

idea for a movie and the movie will happen in ten years, ten years from now. In ten

years there will be a woman and she'll be very rude. Her name will be Jan. And l'll tell

the whole story from the point of view of the future. Of course, l'll change some of the

vocabulary, especially the verbs, in order to tell it from the future. Now all you have to

do is just listen to it. Just say "Okay, this is the future" and just notice. All you have to

do is just listen, notice some of the words change. I'll be using will, for example, and

you know that that's the future tense. But forget this idea of the future tense. Forget

your grammar books. Just notice the changes in vocabulary. Sometimes I might

Kaizen Mini-Story Text

Hi this is AJ. Time for the mini-story for "The Kaizen Way." Are you smling and happy?

You jumping around? You're up, you're moving. Let's get started.

* * ** *

Jan was a very rude woman. She was always rude to everybody. She was always

very harsh to everybody.

How was Jan?

Jan was rude. Jan was rude and harsh to everyone.

Who was very harsh and rude to everyone?

Jan, Jan was very harsh and was very rude to everyone.

Was Jan gentle and kind?

No. She was not gentle and kind. She was harsh. She was rude.

Was she rude and harsh to some people?

Not to some people, to everyone. She was rude and harsh to everyone.

People didn't like Jan. Nobody liked Jan.

Why not?

Well, because she was rude and harsh to everyone.

Jan always said rude comments to her friends. She always said harsh, rude

zingers.

Zinger? What's a zinger?

A zinger is something that's surprising or shocking. So a zinger of a comment means a

surprise comment. Jan always said rude zingers. She always gave rude zingers to her

friends. It means rude, surprising comments. So a rude zinger would be a rude,

surprising comment.

Kaizen Main Text

Hi, this is AJ with your next lesson. The rest of the lessons are going to be a little bit

different than what you've had up 'til now. In the rest of these lessons, I'm going to talk

about some book or article or idea, l'll probably read a little bit of it just so you can get

the general idea of the topic, and then l'll talk about that topic. And, of course, we'll

have our same mini-stories, we're going to have our vocabulary lessons, and we're

going to add one more kind of lesson, the point of view lesson. The point of view lesson

is really great for learning grammar in an intuitive way. Alright, so let's get started.

This lesson is called "The Kaizen Way." So we're going to talk about a book. The book

is called The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer. Now, kaizen is a Japanese word although

we use it in English now a little bit. Especially in Business you find it a lot, kaizen.

Kaizen, as our Japanese students already know, means small improvements over time.

It really means constant and neverending improvement. But it has this idea of making

little tiny improvements again and again and again and again, for one week, for one

month, for one year, forever. So kaizen is kind of the opposite of innovation.

Innovation means a sudden, big change, a sudden, big improvement. And that's a great

way to learn and improve. For example, you could study English very intensely for one

month or two months and you would make a big, sudden improvement. That's the

innovation idea, but there's another way you can improve and that is the kaizen way.

And the kaizen way means maybe you just listen to English or read English or study

English, maybe you just do it 20 minutes every day. And every day you improve just a

little bit. But the key, the secret is you do it every single day. Every day you make one

little improvement. Well after one week, one month, one year, two years, five years, you

will make a huge change just by making little tiny improvements over time. That's the

idea of kaizen.

So l'm going to read a little bit from The Kaizen Way, just a couple paragraphs, and then

l'll talk about it more. Okay, so here's a section, it's called Kaizen Tip and this is from

Robert Maurer, M-a-u-r-e-r, that's his last name. Okay, Kaizen Tip:

"You want to do something creative. Write a story or a song. Paint

a picture. Dream up your perfect career. Learn something or come

up with a zinger of a solution to an office problem. But you have no

idea where to start. Your mind keeps coming up empty. During

times like these, kaizen can help you summon your powers of

inspiration. Although you can't force your brain to cough up

creative ideas on demand, you can program to launch the

imaginative process simply by asking yourself a small question.

Identity Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ Hoge. Welcome to the mini-story for Lesson Number 8, "Identity." You

feel good? You standing tall? Good posture? Deep breathing, moving your body, big

smile? Are you ready? I thought so. Good, let's go

* * ** *

There was a really cool guy named Ken. But what did Ken have? Ken had a

problem. You know, everybody has problems it seems and it's true. Everybody

has a problem. Ken had a problem. Ken's problem was he didn't like his job.

Ken was a bored accountant.

Was Ken a happy accountant?

No, he was a bored accountant.

How did Ken feel?

Well, he felt bored. Ken was a bored accountant.

What was he?

A bored accountant, Ken was a bored accountant.

Was he a bored salesman?

Not a salesman, he was a bored accountant.

He wanted a new identity.

Did Ken want to be a bored accountant?

No, he didn't. He did not want to be a bored accountant. He wanted a new identity.

Did he want a new job?

Yes, he wanted a new job.

Did he want to feel differently about himself?

Hello, this is AJ Hoge. Welcome to the mini-story for Lesson Number 8, "Identity." You

feel good? You standing tall? Good posture? Deep breathing, moving your body, big

smile? Are you ready? I thought so. Good, let's go

* * ** *

There was a really cool guy named Ken. But what did Ken have? Ken had a

problem. You know, everybody has problems it seems and it's true. Everybody

has a problem. Ken had a problem. Ken's problem was he didn't like his job.

Ken was a bored accountant.

Was Ken a happy accountant?

No, he was a bored accountant.

How did Ken feel?

Well, he felt bored. Ken was a bored accountant.

What was he?

A bored accountant, Ken was a bored accountant.

Was he a bored salesman?

Not a salesman, he was a bored accountant.

He wanted a new identity.

Did Ken want to be a bored accountant?

No, he didn't. He did not want to be a bored accountant. He wanted a new identity.

Did he want a new job?

Yes, he wanted a new job.

Did he want to feel differently about himself?

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to our next lesson. Today's lesson is called "ldentity." Your

identity is what you believe about yourself so this topic is a little bit similar to the topic of

beliefs. We've talked a lot about beliefs before remember? Limiting beliefs and

empowering beliefs. Identity is really an important kind of belief or beliefs really, it's a

collection of beliefs, about yourself. The reason this is important, more important than

just normal beliefs, is because these are global beliefs.

Now by global I mean some that affects everything. It covers everything. Global comes

from globe which means all of the world. But we're not internationally here. Here global

means everything, covering everything, about everything. So global beliefs are beliefs

that affect everything else. Your global beliefs affect all your other beliefs. They

influence all your other beliefs. They influence all of your other emotions. They

influence everything. They're kind of the most fundamental beliefs, the core, deepest

beliefs, the central beliefs. And other beliefs come from them.

So you're already been thinking a lot about your beliefs related to English, for example.

But now I want you to think about the beliefs you have about yourself, who you are.

What kind of person you are, what your abilities are. These are very, very important.

You need to choose them because most of us grow up and we learn them from other

people. We don't even know its happening. For example, we grow up thinking we are

citizens of a certain country. And that's true, of course it's true. But if we identify too

much, if that belief is too strong, we can become negative, possibly even violent

towards people from other country. Say "I'm an American. I'm an American, American

is number one! I'm the best. Everyone else sucks." Well, believe it or not, there are

people in the United States who think that. There are people like that in every country.

Obviously this is not a positive belief, not positive for most people. It has a lot of

negative consequences.

So we've got to be careful about our global beliefs, about what we believe about ourself.

More commonly, we have a lot of beliefs about what we can do and what we cannot do.

We have beliefs about ourselves "I am this and I am not that." P'll give you an example

of my own, my own limiting global belief. For many, many, many years I had a belief

"I'm not a good language learner." This was a very strong belief that I had, a global

belief about myself. Now, every time I tried to learn a new language, this belief was

there. Do you think it helped me learn other languages? No, it did not. It had the

opposite effect. It frustrated me. It caused me to quit again and again and again. And

here's what happens. I have this idea in my head from the past "I'm not a good

language learner. I'm a poor language learner."

Repetition Vocabulary Text

Hello, this is AJ Hoge again. And this is the vocabulary lesson for "Repetition." Again,

pretty easy today. Let's talk about the vocabulary.

First, let's use that word distinction. I talked about it a lot in the main story so let's just

repeat it again, review it again, one more time. And again a distinction is an important

difference. It often has the idea of a small difference, not always but often. But it's a

difference, a distinction, something that makes two things different, so a small

difference, an important difference, a distinction.

Right, next is the word vital. Vital means very, very important. Repetition is vital.

Repetition is vital for mastery. It's very, very important for mastery. So again, vital, vital

means very important, even necessary. Vital is something that is very important and

necessary, so vital.

Next is the word intensity. I used it a lot, intensity. Intensity again means power. It

really has the idea of concentrated power, so doing something with a lot of focus,

concentration, a lot in a small time. So repetition with intensity means a lot of energy,

concentrated energy is what we're talking about in this lesson. When I say you need to

have repetition with intensity, you need to have repetition with concentrated energy,

concentrated power, emotional power. That's what we're talking about with intensity.

It's kind of the opposite of laziness.

The next word is imitate. I told you to imitate me, imitate my speaking. And as I said in

the main story, imitate means copy. It's a verb, to imitate, to copy. But really imitate is a

bit stronger. To imitate means to copy very closely, exactly. And we usually use it when

we're talking about people. So, for example, you can copy a piece of paper, you can

copy a paper. But you can't imitate a paper. We usually imitate people, something

that's alive. Something that's moving, we imitate it. So if you imitate a person, it means

you try to speak like them. You try to look like them. You dress like them, everything.

You try to be exactly like them. That's called imitating and the noun is imitation. That

process, that action is called imitation. And the verb is to imitate.

Next we have one of my favorite words, bullshit. Bullshit is a great word and we say this

word, bullshit, we say it when we totally disagree with something. When we think

something is foolish or crazy or wrong, it really shows that you think something is

wrong, totally wrong. So if somebody tells me, a student tells me “AJ, I already know

the past tense. I don't need to learn it anymore. I want to learn the future perfect

progressive." And I say "Bullshit, you're totally wrong. You don't already know the past

tense. Because you just made a mistake with it. You just said yesterday I go to the