Stop being a student and start being a speaker

I’ve noticed that there are 2 very different ways of learning: 1 for school and 1 for real life. They keep you from speaking English, because you aren’t required to apply it in real life in order to be rewarded. Our whole education system, for the most part, is broken because we have been taught to memorize and not apply concepts in real life. “Studying” English, in the traditional sense of the word, is the antithesis of speaking English. Let’s talk about the difference between studying and learning and speaking English “To study” means to read about it. To memorize lists of vocabulary words. It means you relegate the subject to study sessions, blocks of time when you might sit quietly at home in your room or maybe a desk at the library. Where does this get you? Maybe it gets you a better grade in your class if you have a quiz on vocabulary or grammar. Maybe it makes you feel better in the short-term because you don’t have to take any risks, like being embarrassed of the way you speak. It’s so nice to stay in your comfort zone of studying the way you’ve always studied, but to really speak English, you need to get out of your comfort zone. When we are babies, we do not “study” English or our native language, yet we manage to learn to speak it! Now, studying English can accelerate your language learning, but to really speak you have to use it in the real world. Learning English is not simply memorizing information or learning about the language, it is using it. Learning English comes from making mistakes, correcting, and moving forward. If you want to speak English, you’d better stop focusing your time solely on memorizing and reading about it, and start doing it.