English teacher AJ Hogue where AJ's more than 40 million students worldwide finally
learn English once and for all without the boring textbooks classrooms and grammar drills
here's AJ with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English effortlessly
I'm AJ Hoge author of effortless English learn to speak English like a native speak English like
a native how to energize energize your English learning this is a major problem right because
even when we use great methods even when we have um lessons or courses that we like
if we can get tired we can get a little bored
while we're you know studying while we're listening so it happens it's natural it's normal
so it's nothing to worry about so you need to have some methods to keep yourself energized because
if you're tired if you're sleepy if you're bored while listening while studying you just don't you
don't learn as much right you're not really focused so you know you've done this probably
and you're listening to English maybe a lesson or something but really you're not listening right
you're thinking your your mind is moving somewhere else you're thinking about other things you're
looking at you know you're not really focused on it your energy is low or he gets kind of sleepy
right where you're kind of you're kind of half awake you're listening to the audio but you know
you're you're not energized you're not focused right this is normal happens you know it just
happens it's normal Sometimes some people have a lot of trouble with this and for some people this
is more of a smaller problem but it's still it's I think everybody struggles with this at some point
so let's talk about it energize your English learning get my courses at
effortlessenglishclub.com effortlessenglishclub.com
on the home page you can get my power English course that's a great one to start with
and if you're more advanced you could get my VIP program or if you have a specific need if you uh
I don't know if you want to work on pronunciation I've got a pronunciation course if you need
to focus on business English I have that so all my courses all my courses are on my only
official website effortlessenglishclub.com effortless English Club c-l-u-b club.com
alrighty then let's talk about it energize your English learning how can you do it so you
got this problem all right you're tired huh maybe you're just busy and you're tired how do you wake
yourself up and stay awake stay energized while let's say listening to audios you're listening to
one of my courses my courses are audio so there's a couple things number one you will notice in my
courses VIP and power English especially in those two courses I'm always telling you in the courses
always telling you wake up move your body right those of you who have done power English you know
it's kind of almost a joke you gotta you guys laugh about it because I always say
you know shoulders back chin up right big smile right so I using your body this is
very very important this will wake you up okay because we have kind of a low energy posture
right a way of standing or a way of sitting and we have high energy ways of standing and low energy
is when your shoulders are kind of forward if you're watching me on video right and of course
your head is down and this is right this is the the position of being tired this is the position
of looking tired even if you're in a big room you look across the room you see somebody you know
right you can tell if they're really tired right maybe they're they probably have their head down
maybe their eyes are kind of half half open half closed their shoulders are down and maybe a little
forward they're maybe they're bending forward a little bit right and that looks tired uh right
and then the opposite of that is you know of course shoulders back chin up head up straight
so you're looking straight or even even up a little bit right your shoulders are back your
chest is out and this this is a uh uh a posture a position of energy or Focus right that's why in
the military right the military when they line up they don't just stand around with their shoulders
down right they have that look that military look where their their chest is out their shoulders are
back their heads you know they're looking straight ahead chin is up right it's an energized strong
posture so at the very least this this is the first thing you can do is to force yourself to
use a strong posture a strong position while you're listening or even while you're reading
so this is number one if you have to sit for some reason maybe you're on a bus right and
maybe you're on a train so maybe standing up and moving around a lot is not not really possible
at the moment at least put yourself into a strong strong posture right focus on that realize it when
and when you when you find that your shoulders are dropping and your head's dropping you'll feel
your energy dropping you'll start to get a little sleepy you'll start to get a little tired correct
it pull your shoulders back exaggerate it with these things we need to exaggerate means we do it
too much we do it too strongly right it's not it's not natural you're doing it much more than natural
but we need to do that to get a good effect right so you want to really pull
your shoulders back you want to really get your head up don't look down look up
keep that chin nice and high right of course you know you don't need to look at the ceiling
I guess you can if you want to but mostly just looking straight ahead with your chin up
your shoulders back and get that chest out too get your chest out right and if you really want
to add a little more energy smile put on a little natural smile a small smile doesn't have to be
huge but a nice little small smile will also help you feel better and give you a little more energy
you may be surprised that just doing this again and again whenever you feel tired can
energize you while you're and while you're studying while you're listening give you it
might give you another five or ten minutes where you feel good and you can focus instead of just
getting sleepy right and you just keep doing it keep doing it so that's kind of Step One
right if you must sit then do it that way but in general I don't recommend sitting while learning I
don't recommend it it's not the best way because it's just natural when we sit that our energy
usually will drop a bit it's natural to start getting a little tired a little sleepy if you
sit you know sitting is really not healthy this is why people who have you know office
jobs and they're sitting all day you know six seven eight hours a day it's not good
for them right they get back pain they get all these pains and problems they get kind of tired
you know I've had I've had office jobs in the past and have had other jobs where uh more
physical jobs you know where I had to uh you know work physically like loading a truck or something
and honestly I find that the office jobs were the most exhausting they made me the most tired not
so much physically but mentally like at the end of the day of an office job I felt my brain was just
and my body just like no energy at all because I just been sitting on my butt for the whole day and
then do it again and again and again I I hate those kind of jobs always hated them and when
I had those jobs you know it was miserable right it just sucks all the energy out of you so what
I'm saying is this the school way of sitting in a chair while you learn is terrible it's terrible
it's the very worst way to learn anything so what I'm saying is stand up and move stand up and move
your body while you're learning and I mentioned this again in my courses especially power English
and VIP I'm always telling you stand up I want you to jump I want you to shout sometimes not
always but when you feel tired when you're just starting the lessons stand up and actually jump
in the air like you're excited about something yeah you're celebrating something right your hands
above your head looking at the sky jumping feet off the ground smiling yeah yeah yeah
you know you can just do that you know five ten times and you're gonna feel your body will
energize it will wake up even if you're very tired even if you've had a long day doing that little
bit jumping up and down then listen to the lesson right maybe you might have headphones or you might
be playing it on speakers but listen to the lesson do the mini story for example if you're doing one
of my lessons and in the lessons I tell you to you know to answer and to shout your answers with
good high energy but while you're doing this walk around even if you're in a very small room even
if you're like I have a tiny office here but you I can still like walk you could take like
one or two steps right and then turn around and then do it or you could walk in a little circle
right just that little bit of body movement walking around a little bit while you're listening
is very very energizing this is going to help you with concentration with energy with motivation
tremendously this little change instead not sitting standing while you are learning and not
just standing moving actually walking like I said you can do this even in a tiny room you can do it
the best however and this is step three level three is to go outside and this is the best
of all this is what I most recommend whenever you can if you put on your headphones with your phone
or your iPod or whatever you use put on your headphones and go outdoors and go for a walk
while you are listening to effortless English okay and while you're walking have that strong posture
again don't walk looking at the ground staring at the at your feet right look straight ahead
have your shoulders back try a little smile would be nice too and but and walk and don't just don't
walk super slowly you don't need to race it's not a race but you know like a uh an energetic walk
okay not like it's not super slow like again like you're tired a little bit of an energetic walk
and this is going to energize you the most because you're Outdoors so you're getting
some visual stimulation right you're seeing things you're looking around you're seeing
things you're getting light even if it's a night you're getting street lights and things or the
moon or the clouds and it just wakes your mind up it wakes you up your mind much better and
of course the physical movement gets your blood going your heart going this wakes up your brain
and you will find that you can listen much much longer when you're walking Outdoors
than sitting in a room in a chair huge difference huge difference some of the
best listening I ever did for uh uh language learning was listening to Spanish while I was
in Spain walking on the Camino de Santiago so I'd be walking every day and I didn't listen
the entire time every all day long but I in the mornings I we actually my friend and I Joe
we would start our morning with one or two hours of Spanish so we would put on our
backpacks you know leave our guest house and go walking on the Camino the path and
while walking we would both have our headphones in and we'd listen to Spanish for you know one to two
hours and that was the beginning of our day and I found I was you know easy to focus no problem
didn't get bored didn't get distracted not tired it was super easy because I'm we're um you know
energetically walking and I was in the morning it was perfect perfect but at other times I've tried
listening you know to it doesn't matter what it is anything's you know Spanish language or even not
language just trying to learn anything sitting maybe a little bit in the evening time and you
know maybe 10 minutes start getting just can just feel your whole body getting tired and you can
feel your mind starting to right to get distracted right it becomes harder and harder to focus and
you just want to quit sometimes you know after five minutes you know I don't want to do this
uh right there's no the motivation immediately is gone no energy right it's a big difference
actually one more point would kind of connected to that is that
the time of day can also be important if you you know you gotta find the time of day when
you have a higher energy usually all of us have certain times of the day where we feel like more
awake and we have other times of day where we feel more tired so you know in the evenings
you might feel kind of tired you've had a long day working maybe that's not the best time to
do most of your listening maybe when you first wake up in the morning is better that's when you
have the best energy or some people are you know hate mornings and they're they're they're really
slow in the morning and they might find that you know maybe afternoon is better maybe mornings are
not good either so you find that time that also helps is choosing your time to do the most you
can do it a little bit all day long but you know during your best time of the day try to do extra
but the main thing is to get outdoors and be moving your body Outdoors moving while you listen
right that's why I don't there's another reason not to use textbooks if you're using a textbook to
learn something anything you almost have to right you're forced to sit and this drops your energy
and focus very quickly and motivation but if you can do it with audio listening to your headphones
then you can get out and you can you can really go for a nice walk if you've got a nice park near
you if you live in the countryside that's awesome you can be out walking in a beautiful environment
but even in the city you can still walk and look around look at the buildings look at the people
while you're doing it it's energetic it's much much better move and get Outdoors while learning
and you know I really kind of just woke up to this also with my own children
who are just they're four years old and I'm doing homeschooling with them
and I this is also true for teaching because I realized that the last year
uh well not really I guess especially the last several months the winter time I realize I've
been sitting indoors with them a lot teaching them teaching them reading and reading books
to them and all these different things we do for homeschooling learning numbers
but um and they're okay but I realized that I as the teacher for my kids I was getting bored
right I was really I've been kind of almost not quite depressed but really bored and frustrated
just because I just feel I've been feel like I've been stuck indoors for the last four months all
the time and it's just making me crazy and uh I realized well I'm homeschooling we don't need
to do it like a school like I I I need to follow my own advice with my kids so I realize Let's Do
It Outdoors so now my plan my idea with my kids is I'm going to homeschool them teach them but
we're going to have an outdoor class we're having Outdoor Learning I'm gonna do all of it Outdoors
the the focus part we still do things in the house of course but uh I'm just gonna get a
backpack I'm gonna fill it with their books uh I just bought a tarp a tarp is you know like a kind
of like a tent but no floor and what I'm gonna do I'm gonna take them to this really nice park
that is big and we're gonna put up our tent our tarp so we have a little roof from this
blocking the Sun and I'm gonna we're gonna do reading and writing and numbers and do all our
learning outdoors in the park of course when if it's raining hard we won't be able to do it but
on all the days that have decent weather we're I'm going to teach them Outdoors because I'm
so much happier outdoors and I'm more energetic which means I'm a better teacher so this is also
true for teaching get your get Outdoors it'll make you a better teacher more energetic and uh I think
it's good for your students too my kids love being outdoors so we're I'm not gonna do all that stuff
anymore at home I'm gonna do it out of the house we're gonna go out and every day we'll just take
lunch like a pic have a picnic and we're gonna do reading and writing and Counting and all this
homeschool stuff I want to do with them and we're going to do it outdoors and then when we finish
that we're already at the park then we can go out and we can you know look at plants and bugs right
now we're learning about ants so you know we can read books about ants in our little tent and then
let's say oh let's go look for ants now and then put the books away and then we go into the park
and we start you know we can start searching and digging in the dirt and looking for ants
so get Outdoors get Outdoors there's no reason that you know as an independent learner you
don't need to be stuck in a room sitting in a chair it's the worst place to learn it's the
worst position to learn so with English and really anything get Outdoors whenever you can
all right let's get into our comments and questions live and just first of
all good to see all of you and everyone's saying hello hello
so good posture and bad posture hey Sarah good to see you it's just I need
this topic because I have been too lazy yeah I have my moments too I understand
sing it up says how can I be energized doing something I don't like doing don't like studying
this is a serious problem I I'll give you my real answer like meaning the the most honest answer and
the most honest answer is you you need to find a way to enjoy it somehow you need to find somehow
something about it that you will enjoy because the truth is it's very very hard to be energized long
term about something you really dislike right you can do it in the short term there's lots of tricks
you can do the jumping up and down and energizing yourself you can do all these things and this will
help short term you know for maybe a few weeks or maybe a few days but but long term something like
a language like English you need years of doing this right months and months at least you know
a couple a few years if you really hate it it's hard to do and I and I'm just you know this this
is my answer because I have found in my own life that if I really dislike something or actually
if I get if I'm bored this is my weakest my weak point is I get bored so if I'm bored I can't can't
keep going I quit when I get bored I quit you know I can get I can keep going for a little while but
then to keep going you know months and months and months when I'm really hating it and really bored
I I don't have a good answer for you because the truth is that's very very very difficult to do
but if you can find a way to like it then you don't need the motivation then it's easier
actually it's pretty easy so say with English there's a lot of ways to learn English so
you know some of you need English you don't really want it but you just need it for a job or
school or something so my recommendation is find something about English that you enjoy maybe it's
movies maybe it's some kind of Pop Culture maybe it's reading some kind of certain kinds of books
maybe something on the Internet maybe some kinds of YouTube channels maybe it's a specific podcast
or specific people you really like and focus on that and not on the other stuff that you hate
can we apply the same with studying walking and reading books as it is more challenging reading
obviously because I think you can do it what you can do with reading you could do you can
stand up and read you can stand and you can kind of move your body a little while you're doing it
in the house right so you could have a they have these things called standing desks but you could
just use a tall table or something right or if you have a normal desk put put a box and then put the
book on top of the box and then you can stand up and read while you're standing up and this would
help you stay energized and you kind of move you know don't just stand still you can move
from your you know move your body around a little bit actually walking I think may be more difficult
again maybe in a room if you're just walking in a circle a little bit you could do that Outdoors
you got to watch where you're going and you're probably gonna fall down right and you're gonna
walk into somebody or walk into a car probably not a good idea so but standing up like doing it
standing up in your house try that or even if you don't have to do it all the time just stand up for
when you find yourself getting sleepy stand up and read while you're standing I think it would help
action movies says is it better to watch a movie in your own language or with English subtitles
I would say with English subtitles this is probably the best especially you all at your level
you should use English subtitles most of the time unless you're just trying to enjoy the movie
yeah vladisol gave a similar answer to the the guy is saying it's tough I remember my
school years it was difficult to force myself to study something I didn't like and especially
if I didn't understand it yes indeed Olga says hello AJ from Ukraine slash Hawaii
I assume you're from Ukraine in Hawaii which is the best place in the world to be Hawaii is great
how often do you release a new podcast on Spotify I'm sorry this is my fault I have what five six or
seven shows now that I did on YouTube they're not on the audio podcast yet Spotify iTunes Etc that's
just me because I have to upload them separately and I've been uh just a busy and and frankly a
little lazy so sorry about that I will catch up I'll I'll start I gotta edit them a little bit it
takes a little time with YouTube I can live stream so it's really simple with the Audio I have to
take out the audio and from the video and edit it a little bit and then uh and then upload it
again to the podcast the audio podcast so this just takes time each one of those and that's
why I haven't done it yet so I'll catch up and you'll get a bunch of these shows in the audio
Fernando Diaz good to see you says I agree the best way to not fall asleep
is doing some exercising walking or moving I have to write before I take a nap says good
afternoon AJ speaking of Audi so autism in the past has mentioned you know he'll be at the gym
listening to this show Listening to English while he's you know I don't
know what he's doing right on a bike or treadmill or possibly lifting weights so
uh yeah that's also a great idea you need to go to a gym I mean you're really going
to stay awake you can't it's hard to fall asleep while you're working out
and then again jishnu is asking the same thing are your most recent podcasts deleted they're
not deleted I've just been lazy and I haven't gotten them uploaded yet I will
if vladoslav says I used to listen I listened to your lessons that way I walked to my work
7.5 kilometers from my home and I listened the same way from the job when going back home again
yeah right so we had uh 15 kilometers total of walking each day and while walking
was listening to English so of course it's a good workout it's nice it's really good for
your body and but that's a lot of time Listening to English and you know he
he's not falling asleep while he's walking so it's it's perfect it worked very well he said
Lily white says could you please tell me your opinion about the book Benjamin Franklin's the
autobiography of Benjamin Franklin recommended by John tigato do you think it's worth reading
does it have life lessons yeah it's interesting I haven't read it in a while but it isn't Benjamin
Franklin was a very very interesting man uh you know very famous all Americans know who
know him he was he's one of the kind of the famous Heroes of the of America the
beginning of America the Revolution and uh he taught himself to read he did a lot
of amazing things started a newspaper uh and then he became like um he was a diplomat for
when after America won the their independence he was a diplomat he but he did all kinds of things
very interesting guy so he's definitely yeah it's like it's worth reading try it
Ali ilma says do you think when do you think you'll come to Turkey Istanbul
well I have been to Istanbul one time uh when will I go again I don't know I don't know but I will
say this I'm I probably not for a couple years but what I have in my mind is a idea when my kids get
a little older so probably when they're more like a seven years old when they can understand more
when we're studying history uh we're gonna focus a lot on on ancient Greece and Rome
and I really want to take them on a trip sometime like a long trip maybe a couple months and go to
go to go to Italy and go all around Italy and see I mean of course Italy the ancient Roman you know
museums and and locations and all that stuff it's fantastic it's really interesting to
me and also of course uh you know the Renaissance and all the rest of Italian
History too and then go to Greece and do the same uh especially the the ancient Greek
um ruins and and sites and historical sites and then you know going to con uh what used
to be Constantinople Istanbul right because it became after the Western Empire fell
that became the capital and the Eastern Roman Empire was around for another thousand years
so uh you know modern day Turkey has a great amount of history and then of course after
the Romans and the Turks came in also interesting history so there's so much cool I find that
that area of the world that uh the northern Mediterranean really really really really
fascinating and I want to take my kids there so they can not just read from books I I don't want
them only to learn from books I want them to go and see things in the real world you know
Fernando Diaz says uh nowadays I'm using a stationary bike only pedals at home
I can read for oh yeah this is a great idea I can read two hours in the morning one at night
using this machine yeah good point Fernando so yes someone asked about you're asking about reading
this is this is a great way to do it a a stationary bike if you can get one uh if
you can afford one or you have space for one in your house this will be a great way to read and
really keep yourself energized because you got you're doing the bicycle right in your house and
then you can have like a little tape a little stand a little table where you can put a book
or something and you can be reading and then you know doing the bike you don't have to do it super
hard just do it a little bit so you can get a lot of reading and getting some nice exercise too
Anna grigoreva says I like to do to be outdoors with my children
it's absolutely fine me too I love it I love being outdoors with my kids I
um it's what I prefer to do is to be outdoors with them
someone says how do I improve my English understanding I have some courses to study
programming but I can't understand the teachers I mean they're saying I understand you very well
oh yeah so in this case you seem like you probably understand General conversational
English well that's what I use but then you have this kind of uh very specific kind of
English which is about programming I assume you mean computer programming
coding and here's the problem those those teachers and are going to be using a lot of
different vocab that's not common a lot of words that are not conversational they're not common
words I don't use maybe words I don't even know because it's a special vocabulary special words
just for programming right so that's challenging you need to find some podcasts about programming
that are in English and and hopefully find some that are clear that you know maybe have
someone speaking slowly but a native speaker in English they're talking about programming and
then listen to those again and again repeat them a lot and this will start to help you good luck
mitsuro Takahashi says um good to see you AJ how is your friend Joe and the woman Kristen
that recorded some old lessons with you they're doing well I text them you know almost every day
so they're doing just fine they're in San Francisco and uh yeah they're doing fine
you're all you have says how many hours should people sleep if they want to be successful
I think it's very individual some people seem to need more I just had this conversation recently
uh like I needed sleep I do not do well with a short amount of sleep there's some I think
it's Tony Robbins uh he talks about how he only sleeps I can't remember it's four or six hours a
day a night but it's not much uh and I remember when I heard that I'm like oh my God I couldn't
do it there's no way I can do it I need much more sleep than that so I think it's just individual
I think the idea is when you wake up you feel good and you feel you're not tired all day
your brain is clear all day long and of course other things affect that like what you eat and
exercise but you know you just gotta find whatever it is for you if you need 10 hours of sleep and
you get 10 hours of sleep and you feel fantastic all the rest of the day then sleep 10 hours
if you find that 10 sometimes sleeping too much makes you feel kind of tired actually
so if you find that you do great with five hours of sleep then do that gotta know your own body
Anna with the interesting question again says uh I've always wanted to ask you one question
do you know any Russian songs could you sing or pronounce some words I'm happy to hear I know
no zero Russian I'm trying to think of if there's a I think
I've probably heard something in movies Maybe
is that it I basically no I don't and I just know the uh I guess it's the Russian national anthem
I don't that's all I know this is just from movies right um
so basically I know zero the Russian and or and I don't know any Russian songs so
send me something on gab send me a link to uh a YouTube song if you like it
and also from Russia and the uh is it cyprin I I can't pronounce the acrylic either hi I'm
from Russia you are the best I often go to the sea ah great and leave there for some time in a
hotel to get more energy and motivation yes yes yes I agree with you so this is the other thing
um that's the other reason I've been kind of tired and um I don't want to say the word depressed but
just kind of down low energy because uh I've been stuck in the city for a long time and
I've found I'm not a city person naturally for various reasons I live in a city but
um I absolutely this is especially important if you live in a city is get out sometimes
maybe like for me I need to do it about every month or two and if I do that then I feel much
better overall all the time but if I go three four five months just in the city city city and
I don't get out then it starts to make me kind of crazy and tired and low energy and
exactly right so there's two places to go that I recommend two places I love it's the sea the ocean
or a forest mountains right usually mountains but or just forests lots and lots of trees so these
these two kinds of locations you also will find you know nature can energize you and if it's warm
in the summer you know you can get in the ocean and swim ah it's just it's it energizes you and
relaxes you at the same time if you're stressed and you go spend you know spend a few days at the
beach and swimming in the ocean you know you just find ah yeah you sleep great that in the night
and like you're just refreshing and it also kind of energizes you in a way it's it's wonderful so
absolutely I agree get out to the ocean if you can to the Sea uh or if you're not if you're far
away from the ocean or the sea then maybe get out to the forest or the mountains also can be great
nature in other words get out of the city get out of the town
this will help so much so much I got a vacation planned I'm gonna take my son on a vacation in
a couple weeks we're gonna go to no actually just it's actually a small town but it's kind of up in
near the hills a little bit and it just it's just getting out of this giant City I can't wait uh
yeah Juan Manuel Garcia Ortiz says I have tried studying English
while walking and believe me is the most effective way to learn me too me too yeah Max Kurt cobat
says hi AJ I felt that movement is very important when I started the power English course your power
English course that's right so everyone agreeing here and me too I just it's such a difference
sitting and trying to learn or moving while you learn gigantic difference much much better moving
that's why you know this this system of schools with kids and making them sit in their chairs for
you know four five six seven hours a day it is cruel it is terrible it's ineffective it doesn't
work just make some bored make some crazy you know people say oh ADHD and attention deficit
you know I'm sure you know there are some kids who have real issues but a whole lot of kids are
just bored out of their minds is not natural this for a kid a child to sit in a chair for
hours and hours a day it's not natural it's it's not only is it unnatural it's harmful
it's terrible and it's not good for us adults either it's also not good for adults to be sitting
on your butt a long time it's just a terrible idea don't get up and move while you're learning get up
and move when as much as you can in general even when you're not learning Move Your Body
Lily white says do you plan to teach your kids personal skills
for example public speaking a strong will definitely
if you ask how could you please share your thoughts how to do it yes it's excellent question
so obviously it depends on age there are only four so there's it's limited the kind of things I can
do right now with them right now it's more about character so I've got a book called oh there's one
so you can do it with books I've got the the children's Book of Virtues
Liam Bennett who I'm not don't particularly like but anyway he made a good book so um and this has
just got it's just a collection of stories but each story teaches a virtue for example courage
perseverance right not quitting keep going responsibility self-discipline compassion faith
loyalty friendship right so each and these are kind of most some of them might be a little more
modern stories but a lot of them are very old Stories the little hero of Holland you know
it's a very old famous story and uh The Tortoise and the hair Aesop right so Aesop's another one
so young kids can understand those Aesop fables pretty easily right and they use
animal characters and they're really short so this is another way so you this is you know
another way to teach a lot of things like you know the tortoise and the hair is a
classic story that all kids learn or but you know it just shows it the the tortoise the
turtle keeps just going steadily doesn't quit but the the rabbit who's much faster
he could off easily win but he kind of gets lazy and gets distracted and then he actually loses
the race right and this is so you can read these to your children and then discuss just talk about
what's the point right what do you want them to learn from that so this is I think the foundation
also part of this would be religious education depending on your religion so if you were
like for me Sonata Dharma they're already I'm already reading them stories uh Krishna
Leela stories and uh I'm going to start even at the age of four reading uh little
tiny sections from the bhagavad-gita and then trying to explain them the best I can
to a four-year-old will they understand a lot of it it's it can be very philosophical
um of course not but I just want them exposed to it I just want them to start hearing it be exposed
to it and I actually got this idea just recently from a woman a homeschooling book I just read
from a Christian woman and she talked about how with homeschooling her kids
they start reading them they read they do two things for their Christian education
which is number one is uh you know Bible stories we'll call it so this is
um kind of easy versions of Christian stories it might be a story from the Bible but it uses
easy language and it's made more simple for a kid or it might be you know uh stories about
Christian Saints uh or you know whatever okay so that's one and then number two though is actually
reading from the Bible directly from the actual Bible to their kids and she said they started
doing this even with their very young kids and of course can the young kids understand all of that
uh completely no right especially if you're using like a like a King James Bible it's
got this kind of old style of language for a four-year-old three-year-old a five-year-old
most of it's gonna go right over their head right so you don't read them pages and Pages
it's don't that's crazy so what you do is read one little verse one little section and they
would probably be confused I don't know what that means so then what would you do then you
say it to them again using simple language it's try to explain the idea if it's a story
then explain the story if it's just a more of a lesson you try to explain it to them in a in a way
they can understand at their age and then you can talk about it and let them discuss and so you're
starting it at a really young age and I like this idea so I'm going to start doing it myself
because I had the idea oh I gotta wait the bhagavad-gita
so Advanced there's no way they can handle it but I thought you know you know I'm gonna try it
they just get used to hearing the language and uh and then it's my job to try to explain it to them
and if they don't quite get it it doesn't matter because it's just a short little
I'm just doing it's very short like three sentences four sentences or less so it can
be done in 10 minutes a day in the beginning at this age so that's something I'll be doing too
so that's I think that first is character morals and characters got to start with that then and
social skills like this is where you're teaching them uh you know at this again at a young age you
start by just don't hit your brother you know don't Smack each other in the face we have a
actually I use Jiu Jitsu rules for this so we what we do for physical fighting with my kids they're
twins and they're toddlers so you know sometimes we had a problem a little while one of them biting
the other one and uh and you know they want to smack each other and they're it happens right
so what we what we do is we have a rule is is Jiu Jitsu rules which means so no hitting
or kicking or biting if you want to be physical you can wrestle each other
but if the other person says stop or taps now right now they just say stop
you must stop right so that way they can be physical and wrestle around and have fun and
they love doing it as most kids do so they can be physical and be a little bit aggressive but
they have to control themselves they have to stop when one of them it's too much when one of them
doesn't want to do it they have to stop and then of course it's my job or my wife's job to actually
make them stop sometimes they don't want to and then when they um if they hit each other if they
get frustrated with each other then we're just there to say okay no we're not gonna when you're
mad you're not gonna hit each other you need to talk about it at a higher level what I plan to do
we'll see how it goes when they get old enough to understand teach them more like real techniques of
conflict resolution right their actual little you know ways of if you have a argument with
someone how do you solve that argument teach them that kind of social skill and then finally
those kind of success skills Lily white mentioned public speaking I will teach them public speaking
absolutely I will teach them how will I do it probably with books book club we'll just do a
book club so we'll read a chapter of a book let's say we read one section of the Odyssey right Homer
I'll say Okay read it okay next you're gonna have to stand up and talk about it
tell me what was it about what did you think about it what were the main points what do
you think you know was there something in it that you think was useful or interesting to you
and I'm gonna just I'm gonna focus a lot more on them giving presentations than on writing papers
when they get old enough they will need to write essays that's a good skill to have
being able to write of course but I think it equally important is to be able to verbally
discuss so I'm going to have discussions with them get them used to discussing things talking about
with having conversations with me asking them lots of questions getting getting them giving
giving their opinions and then I'll start doing presentations where they have to stand up in front
of me and you know maybe my wife and their their brother or sister and talk for as time limit one
minute five minutes 20 minutes about some topic so I'll do that and then of course I'll teach them uh
you know gradually we'll work towards being more persuasive perhaps and I'll start teaching them
some of the actual techniques of public speaking uh probably we'll start with Dale Carnegie's
approach because it's excellent for especially for beginners it's superb and then we'll move into
other things and uh we'll see we'll I'll teach them about body language and all that stuff so yes
I will that'll be you know that'll take it takes years especially for kids so you don't try to
turn them into professional speakers in one one day but uh I will teach that absolutely
and I'll teach sales skills as well they're gonna how will they how start making them persuade me
you know like they already do it kids naturally do this they're pretty good at it already you know
most kids are pretty good at being persuasive somehow they lose it later but uh you know if
you if you've had a kid who wants something a toy or a candy or something and you say no
you know they can actually be what about this and they'll start arguing and negotiating and
right even at three years old they're already like Master negotiators it's it's pretty impressive so
you can just start adding to that and teaching them more specific skills from sales books and
negotiation books and uh and you can just play It's kind of just a game so you can say yeah
I'll let you have you know you could just say I'll let you have I'll get you that toy but
you have to convince me persuade me why should I do it and then make them use some of their
techniques and say I'm not convinced try again right you could make it a game and make it fun
it doesn't have to be a toy every time it could be just anything you know
okay if you're hey Nassar good to see you
Mary Poppins is that profile name says I like cooking and learning English at the same time
great idea I use my earphones for listening to podcasts in English yeah great see that's
something you already you have to cook right you got to make some food and officially if
you enjoy it and if you've got you you could either use headphones or just play it with the
speaker if everyone else doesn't mind and then you could just be doing it and you're getting
some good listening you might be a little distracted sometimes while you're cooking
but it's still great great idea and you're gonna you're up and moving and doing it's really good
says my name is Zara from Iran I want to say thank you you've changed my life because of
your method I became Upper Intermediate from zero level just in two years with your way thank you
that is awesome Zara fantastic keep going keep going and you're gonna be upper upper level so
that's great that's man that's fast really good for you some of you guys are really amazing
oh this is cool not kind says how are you sir effortless English Club has
been a springboard for my life because of English because of the English you gave me
I've got a lot of opportunities in my career I'm a seaman right so walk us on a boat
cool hinthian says during the last two years we started homeschooling our two daughters eight
and ten years old we live in an island beach oh lucky you next door we have friends around
they play outside every day my husband is a science teacher that sounds awesome
sounds it sounds a lot like my friend Kenny that's
really great wow oh living on an island beach that's the way I bet they love it
Anna says have you ever thought about learning the Russian language
who knows you know when my kids get a bit older and I have more time
uh you know who knows I don't know um right now uh not learning any languages it's all
oh you you absolutely pronounced well in Russia you have also sang Our hymn
correctly ah okay I love that hymn that him is awesome better than the American one I think
is there's something uh it feels Russian the the national anthem of Russia fits them
it's Majestic uh American one's all right I guess except that it's about something
that it's about those darn Yankees again so Southerners as a southerner
something about it I don't totally like
yeah cool yeah Audi following up says I like to
exercise by weightlifting and running on the treadmill yep
yeah because our city has problems I can enjoy while you're teaching yeah
great exactly you're inside and that's awesome
ah Wilson says I can't invite you to Syria my country right
now because of the current conflict hopefully it will
end um but really hopefully things will get soon in the near future I certainly hope so
as a rare pipe smoker ice very rarely will smoke a smoke a pipe but I have I do very occasionally
Syria is has a very famous region called Latakia I I don't that's how we pronounce it in English
I don't know how to pronounce it correctly but uh they're very famous uh for growing uh there
oh Sergey says I can teach you some Russian words you're welcome
yes I'd love to learn some Russian like to visit Russia sometime too
yeah so M IMR says when I woke up today I didn't want to do anything my energy
was Zero but I just forced my body to move as a result I went out for cycling and my
energy began to raise now I feel excellent yeah you'll find this I find this too sometimes that
um actually even today this kind of happened that you know sometimes you wake up or you just you
don't feel that great and then right you focus you force yourself to do this right you force yourself
to go for a run or a walk or go do like for me I'll go to jiu jitsu and there's some days I go to
jiu jitsu in the mornings and I really don't want to go right I'm just like uh I'm tired uh even
the starting of the class I'm just kind of low energy I don't feel good today but then somehow
by the end of the class I I walk out of the door and I feel oh I feel alive again right like I'm
energized so we have this idea that that you know somehow like just resting a lot energizes us but
that's not always true it is true somewhat but if we get too much rest if we're sitting
too much that actually makes us more tired sometimes what we need is actually movement
says are we going to have any challenges this year
we need to do a fasting challenge I need to lose some few pounds me too
fasting alone is more difficult with everyone here on the channel good idea good idea
uh Javier says uh do you think that power English is a good course for teenage students yes
I'm a teacher I'm using your mini stories to teach English to my students of grade three
till eight I would think power English would be great for teenagers I think they would be
what about starting a new fiction book club yeah I have to think about that I
don't read as much fiction nowadays as I used to when I was young but
Kenji Fujita says my name is kinji Fujita from America hello Kenji
all right a couple more and then I'm gonna go yeah we're almost to an hour almost time for me to go
uh Mr Simone Abdullah says have you ever watched Thai boxing yes I have
a few times I've been in Bangkok I've been to both the state what lumpini stadium I've been to and I
forgot the name of the other one Racha Domino is it but uh I've been to both those stadiums I've
seen Thai boxing and I've seen it in um I think uh Chiang Mai I've seen like more of like a little
small local match but but the the real you know the high level guys are in Bangkok at those two
professional stadiums it's really Thai boxing is amazing it is tough tough tough but it is
super cool which is why so many MMA fighters do it yeah I love Thai boxing I think it's fantastic
but I am not tough enough to do it myself to be honest I'm not
oh she's uh a lot of stuff says I suppose you should make a live a live show about your kids
their homeschooling issues how to fix them your expectations and reality some people think you
can do one way but you have kids you'll do another way yeah there's a good point about homeschooling
probably about everything but in general but teaching your kids
at home that you have to be flexible and and changing that's exactly right because
especially if you know you've never done it before you don't know what to expect and so
you start off with some ideas like I did this by the way you know with my kids you know they're and
they're they're just babies and so I have this idea okay I'm gonna this is I'm gonna do this
I'll do this I'll do this and then I start trying a certain approach a certain way of teaching them
and then I I would find like okay this I like this you know one thing I'm doing oh I like it
this is great like just reading books to them is so far number one they love it reading books to
them just reading to them a lot a lot a lot they love it they love it they'll read the
same books hundreds of times that bring me the books constantly that is the best and it's super
now I've tried some other things and uh you know experimented and some of them have worked a little
bit sometimes they'll work for a while meaning the kids like them and then they start getting
bored and I'll stop so I've done flash cards for example phonics flashcards where we do flash cards
with I'll show the letter you know H and they say the sound right and I'll show them mmm so
we've done that we'll do that for but they'll get kind of bored with it after a while so typically
What I've Done instead of doing it constantly is uh we'll do it for a couple weeks and then
when they start getting kind of bored with it I just put it away and we stop it for a while
one of the best things I found actually that worked really well for learning the letter
sounds phonics is uh just there's a there's some songs on YouTube we found this one guy
his name is Jack Hartman really good I love his videos Jack Hartman and he makes a simple
song educational songs right so for example he has a lot of songs so many different kinds of
the letter sounds right right A is for apple uh uh apple b is for bumblebee you know whatever
there he's got a bunch of them with different different music and some little maybe not a
lot of cartoons and stuff which I like I don't like it's mostly him just singing it but my kids
love it they love it love it so we've done like you know there's one called Animal Rock animal
alphabet Rock do the animal alphabet Rock learn the letters and sounds and then he just goes
through every letter and does the sound and so my kids if that's probably the number one thing
that worked that my kids love and they still listen to it now uh they just these little
songs and they learn the whole alphabet that way both of them learned all the letter sounds
I'd say it was probably 80 of it came from the songs and only 20 from the flash cards
so I had in my mind before oh look at all these flash cards is gonna work great and uh so so
it's okay so you just adapt you just change when you when you try it it's the same as a teacher
by the way when I was teaching in classes I would just try stuff and uh some of it works some works
for a short time some of it doesn't work at all the students don't like it it doesn't help them so
you just throw it away and you move to something else and you keep trying things and you find what
works for you sometimes it it's also you as the teacher what do you like what are you good at
what fits you and what doesn't and it's also your kids right and then of course the other thing is
it changes with age so something might work for a while like they they had a period where the flash
cards were great they loved them and then maybe a year later their brains are growing and changing
now it's boring they don't like it anymore right and this is true for all different things same
with books they'll like a book for a long time and then then they just kind of lose interest and
then but then there's a new one that they start liking a lot right another thing I've noticed is
that like when they were three so like in the last year they mostly liked what I would say is called
fiction books just funny little story books but recently I noticed they they still like those but
they also getting more interested in non-fiction so like a book about ants a book about trees a
book about animals real animals right they're getting interested in that more now so you have
to just uh but this is great because when you're at home you have your own kids you can just adopt
you can change things something doesn't work just stop doing it try something else no big deal right
just like I said in this show today I found that teaching indoors too much I don't like it
I'm getting bored right so that's also important you have to take care of yourself so you're a
good teacher so like I'm just gonna Do It Outdoors why not you do anything you want
Mr summonses have a happy afternoon from the kingdom of Thailand thank you very much
Yeah Anna grigo Rivera says I've already read some Aesop fables to my children they're so curious I
translated the fables from your life lessons to my language I'd like to find this book and read
to my kids yeah you can find I'm sure there must be in Russian some uh collection of Aesop it's so
old it's so famous that I I would imagine there are translations in so many languages so just uh
says AJ is winter over there your beard has gone away spring is here spring is here yes it's
spring here it's uh it's warmer the the cherry blossoms the Sakura are coming out now in Osaka
oh yeah audisa is confirming I'm right lumpini and Racha dominant Muay Thai
stadiums these are the two stadiums in Bangkok where uh at least that I know of
that are kind of the really big famous ones where they have the big matches
if you get a chance if you visit Bangkok sometime uh you definitely do it go go see
a Muay Thai match at those stadiums because they did they it's it's the real thing it's really cool
hung design says I have a three-year-old kid a three year old child but I want to
homeschool her but my wife doesn't agree keep keep working at it you can of course at three
years old you should be able to do it because there's no school so um maybe you could make
a compromise like uh hey let's just try it until they're five or six until first grade
and do the homeschooling you know with your young child three four five you can skip kindergarten
what do they do in kindergarten nothing so instead just teach them at home teach
her at home and uh and then if if your wife sees your child making great progress at home
doing better than the normal kindergarten kids maybe she might change her mind right
James said if you could play a musical instrument you could energize your English by playing an
American song I know but I failed many times was trying to learn a musical instrument
accept that I am not a for whatever reason is not for me hey AKO from Tokyo so Aqua I wonder is
Tokyo also getting warmer because actually today is I think our last chili day uh it's been warm up
this whole week flowers are coming out today it's rainy a little cold not not really cold
just a little but I think it's getting warm again tomorrow and I think we're done Winter's done yes
this is a very good question Lily white how do you plan to teach your kids to be resilient not
to quit resiliency is extremely important personal skill do you know any books or tips how to do it
something that has to be taught I I don't know
honestly I don't know I do think it's something that must be taught through experience though I
don't think you can learn it or practice it or build it just through books right so that that
toughness to keep going keep going I mean my first thought is something like martial arts like uh
Jiu Jitsu I believe being would be number one for kids because uh they're gonna lose a lot
they're gonna be an uncomfortable situations a lot so to keep going to keep going I know I've become
more resilient just by training Jiu Jitsu right I've learned to relax more in tough situations and
I've learned just to keep going and keep going and keep going even though I have bad weeks I have bad
months and uh just keep going keep going you know so I think some I think uh just the way you build
resiliency is doing difficult things and not quitting so I think you've got to get them into
doing difficult things it might be a martial art but it could be anything really learning a musical
instrument is tough it takes a long time and you got to keep going keep going so you know you find
things your kids will generally enjoy but then but they're not always easy don't don't make they need
to do things that are tough not just stuff that's easy to so that's my quick answer is I'll try to
figure out and encourage my kids to do things and keep going in some things that are tough
you know whether that's Jiu Jitsu Jiu Jitsu would be one of those things because we'll do it at home
but um maybe something else too I don't know learning a language for example
good to see you as always I says I always listen to English as as I'm walking I find it genuinely
energizing I've been doing it for years now it's my good habit thanks to you AJ yes awesome
awesome okay oh it's almost time to go speaking of my kids I gotta go play with them
siracha good to see you how are you doing long time no see good afternoon good to
see you yes I missed your show good seeing you it's been a while
says how can I teach sales skills to my kids by playing games
you know first you would have to you know have them read some books depends on their age but
if they're over if they're over eight years old maybe um you can start teaching them techniques
get a book get some books on sales teach them some basic techniques and then have them practice them
just you know no pressure and then start playing games like you know the classic ones sell me this
pen and then okay and they'll they'll be what sell me the pen convince me if you sell me the pen I'll
give you a dollar if you do a good job give them a little motivation and then uh or I'll buy you your
favorite you know buy you some ice cream or I'll do whatever do something that they'll like but
you've got to convince me you've got to use these techniques so come on and then you start playing
games like that role-playing in other words where they're trying to sell things I'm gonna try
playing around with that I'll let you know how it goes but my kids are too young for that right now
Olga says can you drive AJ yes I've been driving since I was 17 years old
most Americans learn to drive at a young age because it's
such a car culture and such a big country and we don't have a good train system
in most places so you kind of have to drive in America in a lot of places most places
you must drive so most people learn to drive at quite a young age teenagers
okay I'm gonna take this as the last question from Amina
in your opinion AJ and which age should we teach kids how to make money
I'm not sure yet because again you know since my kids are four I don't have experience doing
it so I can give you my my thoughts what I'm thinking but you have to adapt right so you
could maybe you say I'm five years old and then you try at five and it's nothing's happening
and maybe you just have to say well it's too early I'll wait a couple more years so I'll
um what I'm going to do is there I'm going to try by starting probably let's say age six or
seven maybe there's a game there Robert Kiyosaki has a game Rich Dad I think what's it called Rat
Race For Kids Rich Dad Rat Race for kids something like that but basically it's a book about I mean
it's not a book it's a game it's like a board game it's a board game designed to teach kids how to uh
you know understand money and start thinking about money and financial literacy he calls it
you know basic Financial understanding and they learn it through a game you know kind of like
Monopoly right but this is a little more directly educational so I think that's the first step is
to start with the games and find some games that are specifically specific to kids where they start
learning the ideas of saving and investing in debt and things like that this is the basics right so
I think you start as young as you can as young as you can you could try it at an earlier age
you could I think my kids are not ready for that yet um but they're for will they be ready next
year at age five maybe one of them it might be um we'll see maybe you could I could always try
it with some of these games and there might be other good games I haven't researched it yet
right because my uh uh my kids aren't quite old enough yet but when I feel like it might
be a good time five six seven eight somewhere in that range I would say somewhere in there
I'll probably try to find games I think games is the way to go in the beginning and then as they
get older then you start reading books about money financial literacy because again I think
Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad Poor Dad is a good way to start it's pretty simple book but it explains
some gets them understanding the basics and you could read your money or your life definitely
that's another one that I'll read with them that would probably be a little older eight nine ten
eleven twelve somewhere you know in that range maybe even Middle School
and then at age around then is when you want I I I want to encourage them to start their own
businesses Middle School will they be starting a massive tech company no like like by that I mean
selling gum or or some little small thing that they can do I don't even know what it would be
yet because they have to they'll have to think of it too but start finding creative ways to
make money and not a job I don't this is very important for me you might be different but for
me it's very important that I do not teach my kids to get jobs I don't want them getting jobs
I don't want them to think that the way to make money is only from a job you have to go and just
let makes someone give you a paycheck I want them to think like business people like entrepreneurs
so what I want my kids to learn is is that I want them to ask questions how do I make money
how can I get people to give me money what can I sell or what can I you know what can I sell
a service or a product what you know what I want them to think about what problems do people have
that I could solve that would so they would give me money right service or a product that's how I
want my kids thinking I want them thinking like business people uh or I want them thinking like
you know Investments how can I invest how can I invest if I if I have little money
what could I buy that would make even more money right not not just spend money on toys and stuff
so this is my plan when they reach somewhere in that Middle School
to early High School age but High School I definitely want them making money and not by
alert working at a job I want them making money as an entrepreneur in some way it might be a dollar
a week I don't care I just want them doing it another thing you could do uh you know well I
could get too long with it I think that's the way to go that's my plan and then I'll have to adjust
just after just after I see how it's going again that's the wonderful thing about
homeschooling and also for you as a learner Independent Learning in general is you can
adjust you can change any time if you go to a school you're stuck with the class
you must follow the curriculum you must follow their plan you must do their lessons you must
uh you know do every chapter in the book that you're using you must use the books they tell
you right there's no flexibility and if you hate it oh you're stuck for the whole semester
but when you're learning at home yourself or if you're teaching your own kids
you can boom as soon as you realize oh this is not working
just jump get rid of it stop or just stop it and let's try something else let's do something else
sometimes you come back a lot of times it's timing a lot of times with kids it's just timing you try
a book you try a lesson it it doesn't work they don't understand it they don't like it
it might not be bad it might be okay it's just maybe it's too early
so you just put it to the side come back in a year and try it again
and then in a year they might it might just be magic and oh my God this is great and they love it
so you never know right this can happen with books you try a book [Music] put it to the side A year
later you read it to them again or they read it and they love it so this is great it's so flexible
with homeschooling with Independent Learning you can just change instantly anytime you need or want
to it's so powerful the same with your English learning right you can just change it immediately
you know if you're not stuck in a school and doing exactly what they tell you to do you can just I'm
gonna try this course online and you try it if you hate it you just stop doing it and try another one
immediately right it's great speaking of courses effortless englishclub.com all my courses are
there effortless English Club club.com get them there lots of love to you all spring is here in
Japan and I'm so happy so uh I'll talk to you all soon lots of love bye [Music] thank you