How to improve our English - Tips and Tricks

Hello everybody.

In my first article in English, and I would like to write some ways I use to improve my English. So, it´s essential to think about the change our mindset about English. In my case, I had a blocked with English and to be honest, sometimes I felt fear because of people still sad to me "You need obligatory to learn English, or you do not should success in your professional life!" and some words like "obligation" do not help to improve nothing.

So, after many courses, I decided to move me and start to use the language day by day, and I talked with my friends of speaking English very well and take some ideas to apply in my life. Follow the insights.

1. Change the language in your all types of equipment (cell phones, computer, tablets, all kind of applications) from Portuguese to English (American or British), and you need to get used to every day in English

   When we use these things in English, our brain start to change the idea of reading all things in Portuguese and begin to think in English, for example, we do not understand "Segunda Feira, 14 de Janeiro" and now, we read "Monday, 14 January." and some other stuff.

2. Use Kindle to read your favourite books in English

   Is it possible to buy some dictionaries in English and configure it, so, it is crucial because we mark some if you do not know and the kindle show you the meaning, how to say, and you need to write "Vocabulary".

   Take these notes at the end the day and find some synonyms to improve your vocabulary and try to say the word and the synonyms and take notes (yes, it is essential to write in a notebook or piece of paper).

   Keep calm when you start to read in English because at first is slower your read because your brain is not prepared to learn in other languages right?

   Take the habit to read in English every day to training your brain. Start with your favourite histories or, in our case, with QA books and this makes it easier to understand some contexts.

3. Watch Kids movies

   Yes, you hear right, kids movies are excellent to improve our English because the language is just for kids, so, the children do not have the brain prepared to understand the Lord of the Rings lol, but, ready to hear other children talk and this case, we are like as children and do not have a rich vocabulary.

   Do not forget to watch with English subtitles right!

4. Use Grammarly

   Do you know Grammarly?

   Well, Grammarly is an application to help write correctly (right now during this article, I used lol). In my case, I have Premium access, and I pay 25 dollars per month, and I have some things like a personal dashboard and know how many sentences I wrong during the text. The statistic about how many penalties I wrong every word numbers (example, I have three errors every 100 words) and show me what kind of mistakes I make (prepositions, lack of synonyms, how many unique words I used, etc.). Follow the Grammarly website:.

5. Start to write in English in meetings

   Yes I know, is too difficult to talk in Portuguese and write in English, but, you need to create the habit to think in English some things.

   Is probably you get lost in a meeting because you need to understand in Portuguese and think in English and write in English, so, keep calm and go.

   For testers, start to write your test cases and gherkins in English and show to other your annotations and take feedback about that (remember, just Americans and British and Australian are fluent in English right).

6. Follow Youtube Channels

   Youtube having some channels to help to improve our English and I like to follow these channels:

   a. Rachels English. In my case, I pay the course every month, and I have full access to new videos and Live Classes and one time per month I have a particular class with her per one hour (master coaching) and I remove my blocks and doubts. This is an opportunity to talk with a native speaker and training your listening.

   This channel help me to improve my English in job interviews.

   b. English 101 (Teacher Alisha) is my favourite (I do not pay yet) channel because Alisha is an excellent teacher and the classes are funny and instructive.

   If possible, always watch the same video to training your listening.

7. If you like something, reading it

   I love soccer, and I read about that in the newspaper or websites around the world (like English tournaments or USA soccer tournaments). To read something you like in English is most comfortable because of some terms about this theme you know.

8. Everybody does not speak English very well

   Think about this, the American or British people speak wrong too, they can have grades like four or five in grammar classes, so, do not be afraid to speak wrong when speaking in English, right? Focus on communicate, passing the message so you can improve as well. When I was doing interviews from Europe, I received many NOT's and sent an email to the interviewer asking "What can I improve on English?" or "Which errors I commit?" and sometimes they answered me; and always keep trying.

9. Just speak

   Just speak, do it and try to improve every day and celebrate each interview, notes in your notebook, the good dashboard in Grammarly, celebrate when you understand one phrase in your favourite TV series, movies, celebrate when you know one leaf about your favourite books.

10. Enjoy

    Speak English should be a fun way, put in your head this idea and go on.

If you someone to talk and pratice, count on me right!!

Help me to improve this document if you saw something wrong.

See you soon!