You’ve decided to start learning English, but you’re feeling uncertain about where to begin? In fact, one of the questions we frequently receive is how to start learning English. I’ll provide some English learning tips for beginners and teach you how to learn English on your own.
1. Assess Your Level
Before starting to learn English, it’s important to assess your current English proficiency.
- I barely know the ABCs or can read the English alphabet.
- I only know short words and sentences. I can’t handle more advanced grammar or conversations.
- I need subtitles to watch American or British movies, TV shows, etc.
- I can’t have a natural English conversation with a foreigner.
If you’re not familiar with the alphabet and basic words, I recommend children’s English content. You can learn the English alphabet and words through YouTube content or songs. You’ll find that children’s content is not as easy as it may seem.
2. Watch English Content like Movies and TV Shows
If you can understand at least 100 words and short sentences, now it’s time to understand more vocabulary and longer sentences. You can learn English with your favorite movies and TV shows. The key here is to turn off the subtitle translations and only use English subtitles.
When watching movies or tv shows, haven’t you had the experience of unknowingly focusing more on the story than the English itself? That’s where the Cake app comes in handy. The Cake app cuts various genres of content like movies, dramas, YouTube videos, animations, etc., into short clips. With these videos, we can learn expressions effectively and understand the context in which those expressions are used. This allows us to focus on our goal of learning English, making it an effective way to study!
1) Watch with English Subtitles Only
When watching the videos on the Cake app, make use of the subtitle on/off button to turn off the subtitle translations and keep only the English subtitles on. Start by watching the video with English subtitles from beginning to end, checking if the sentences you read match what you hear.
If there are sentences you didn’t hear well, swipe back to that sentence, then press the repeat button and listen to it several times. It’s okay to skip videos that are too easy or too difficult. Focus on making sure you’re clear on the sentences that sound unclear at first.
Tip 1: You can simply tap the subtitle lightly to play or pause the part you want to play.
Tip 2: You can save sentences you want to listen to and review later by tapping the + button.
2) Watch without English Subtitles
Once you become comfortable with reading English subtitles while listening, the next step is to watch the videos without subtitles. First, turn off all subtitles and watch the video without any text support to understand the flow of the content. Then, go back to the beginning and turn on the drill mode. The drill mode feature allows you to listen to each sentence repeatedly, and by pressing on the hidden subtitle, you can check whether the sentence you heard was correct. Practice listening to all the sentences this way.
At first, some sentences may not sound clear, or it may not match what you thought it was. But remember, persistence pays off. If you repeat it consistently, eventually you’ll be able to understand more expressions without subtitles.
3. Have an Actual English Conversation
Once you’re comfortable with listening to English, you can expand your learning experience to achieve different study goals.
If you want to improve your vocabulary, you can study by reading books in your area of interest, and if you want to learn grammar, simply study grammar. However, when it comes to grammar, I recommend studying step by step, to the extent that you can understand. Holding onto difficult grammar for too long can lead to a loss of motivation and even the development of bad habits, so a light and easy book should be enough.
If you want to speak English better, you can practice by having an actual conversation or practice speaking with someone. However, if you don’t have someone to speak English with or it’s difficult to meet in person, you can still practice speaking through the Cake app.
How to Practice English Conversations with the Cake app
Don’t be too overwhelmed to start learning English. Even if you study for just 10 minutes a day with the Cake app, you can experience gradual improvement in your English skills. Give it a try!
