“Use your English to connect to the world, and connect the things that you love to your English”
Welcome to episode #012 of The Broughton English Show!
Today I chat with Ethan Wanger from RealLife English.
Ethan is one of the founders of RealLife English, a website packed with resources that shows you how to improve your English outside of the classroom. There are a ton of lessons covering all aspects of English. What RealLife English specialise in, though, is using TV, series and films to improve your English.
The RealLife English team have created a mini-course which you can get for free here, you lucky things!
They also have a youtube channel which teaches you how to practise and improve your English using TV, films and series.
Check it out!
Get Your Free Speaking and Listening Courses Here
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Show Notes
- Ethan talks about his love of teaching, where he’s taught and how he started RealLife English.
- He explains what it is that RealLife English speacialise in and what learners get from their website and services.
- We talk about how knowing another language like English opens up your world to so many possibilites.
- He talks about his own language learning journey. He’s currently learning Spanish and Catalan, and he also speaks Portuguese at a high level.
- He explains why many English learners have problems understanding native speakers. He gives some great tips on how to get around this and understand native speakers more easily.
- The first thing that English learners have problems understanding is connected speech, which is when native speakers compress words and phrases like “I’m gonna go” instead of “I’m going to go”.
- The second problem Ethan covers is vocabulary. Examples of problematic vocabulary are phrasal verbs and expressions.
- We discuss the importance of practising vocabulary using memory apps. His recommended apps can be found below.
- The third problem Ethan talks about is cultural references on TV that often only native speakers understand. His advice is “Don’t sweat it!”: Don’t worry about it!
- Ethan gives some awesome advice on how to practise and improve these common problem areas.
- It’s easy to get lazy when practising English. Ethan explains how you can really take advantage of your time practising English to get the most out of it.
- Creating and keeping habits is one of the most important things that English learners need to do.
- Ethan faces The Lightning Round and gives some great tips!