HOW NOT TO HAVE A CONVERSATION IN ENGLISH

Here Ryan Anthony talks about how not to have a conversation in English. It is not only vocabulary and grammar that we must be aware of, but also the culture aspect as well. Please watch this funny video and learn about how to interact with others in English. Please visit our website http://ciacivipenglish.com . Also, do not forget to follow us on instagram at englishbandung.

How Big is Your Passion?

Ryan (Writer of this blog)

We all have various motivations for just about every thing that we do. Some motivations come from within and others from an external source such as peer pressure and so on. If you are on this page reading this post, then you are considering just how important good English fluency is. Am I right or am I right? It's okay because you are totally right. Good English fluency is absolutely vital to your success in tomorrow's world where the English language is the gateway or bridge to the whole world. This post is not really about giving English speaking tips, instead it is about you challenging your true motivation and desire for learning and improving your English speaking skills. Please take this quiz to find out exactly what kind of English learner you are. #englishfluency #ciacivipenglish #quiz

Quiz | What Kind of English Learner Are You?

Speak More and Believe More!

Ryan Abraham - Owner of CIACI VIP ENGLISH

I know, I know that improved English fluency seems to be a nearly impossible task, but please do hang in there and it will all be worth it for sure. Keep in mind that this is a game of endurance and only the strongest survive, so make yourself even stronger. In order to build your English speaking muscles, you certainly need to exercise them. Slow but steady is the key when going from passive English skills to better speaking skills. The more time you spend exercising and practicing, the more muscle memory you are going to have. Your mouth will start to feel more and more comfortable pronouncing English words and your facial expressions and body language will start to be more on cue whenever expressing yourself due to less brain time being used to figure things out. So, let's get those muscles working. 

Warning, it's going to get hot in here. 

Remember to do all the exercises out loud so that you get practice actually saying the words and sentences in a normal voice with normal expression!

Set 1 

Look at your body, what you are wearing, and anything around you and challenge yourself to describe everything you see in complete sentences. For example, " I have two very strong arms" or " I see a rather large clock hanging on the living room wall". Try to make your sentences as descriptive and complex as you can just so you can get out of your comfort zone. In this case, feeling uncomfortable is good because it means you trying something new and challenging.

Set 2

Jump into that time machine you have laying around and practice going back in time. Think about every single activity you did yesterday, person you met, things you saw, feelings you had, and etc. As you recall it, recite it! Practice talking about the past and again try to make your sentences as complex as possible. Now, let's mix things up. Practice going from positive structure to negative structure and then question structure. For example, "I met a very tall and beautiful woman at the big grocery store around the corner yesterday" . "I didn't meet a very tall and beautiful woman at the big grocery store around the corner yesterday". "Did I meet a very tall and beautiful woman at the big grocery store yesterday"? 

Set 3

Think of something that you absolutely know how to do well. Now, picture yourself training someone else on how to do it. Practice using words such as first, second, next, after that, and so on. Talking about things we know how to do and love to do is pretty important especially as we meet new and interesting people. Practicing giving instructions is very useful which goes without saying when giving directions on how to get somewhere. Again be as descriptive as possible when doing this.

Take a 20 minute break

Set 4

Plan your next day out loud including activities, goals, and times. For example, "Tomorrow, I will go to school at six o'clock in the morning". "I will have lunch around noon". "After having lunch, I will have English class with that really super exciting and interesting English teacher, Mr. Ryan at one in the afternoon". :) Try to come up with at least 20 future plans for tomorrow.

Set 5

Take a look outside or simply turn on the television and say whatever it is that you see people doing. For example, "There is a man walking down the street". There is a woman walking up the street". "There is a weird looking guy standing on the corner next to some trash". Now focus on things and not people. For example, "There is a dirty cat eating rotten fish across the street".

Set 6

Pretend you are somewhere else like an airport or on a bus, and have a conversation with another person. Try to make the conversation as natural as possible and really put yourself in character here. Ask the person questions and ask follow up questions too. Remember that this is not an interrogation but in fact a conversation. Make it light and interesting. Throw in some small talk to start it up. 

If you want to practice some new expressions or questions, please download  Speak Like Me list 1

Please like my Facebook page if you found this at all useful. :)

Confidence Goes a Long Way!

Learning how to speak a new language especially English can be quite tough. This gets even tougher when you don't live in an English speaking country. Where to begin? How to start? These are questions that may come to mind. There is such a big gap between being able to read and write and SPEAKING. Remember when you were just learning how to talk? Well, I am sure you may not remember, but the truth still remains the same. You learned how to talk or speak much before you could read and write. So, what does all this mean? Basically if you want to be able to speak a language, if you want to be able to be fluent in English, you need to go back to the basics. Pretend you are just learning how to talk for the first time and just go out there in the brave world with courage and challenge yourself to interact with others in English. That is the only way to really gain a natural way of speaking English. Learn as you go along and enjoy meeting new and interesting individuals. If you happen to live in Bandung, check out my website and come and visit! Just remember that confidence goes a long way!

10 Things to Remember to Improve Your English Speaking Ability

Many people often ask for tips or pointers when facing the challenge of learning how to speak English more fluently. So here are 10 things to remember in order to do just that.

1. Be confident enough to make mistakes.
2. Be wise enough to realize you might need help.
3. Practice makes perfect.
4. Find someone who can correct your English.
5. Find an environment where you can practice English in a natural way.
6. Be sincere whenever you interact with other English speakers.
7. Strive to be polite and considerate.
8. Read magazine articles printed in English about topics you enjoy talking about.
9. Chat on yahoo, facebook, etc. with English speakers.
10. Have fun!

How to Improve your English Vocabulary

A lot of people whenever wanting to study a foreign language instantly buy language dictionaries. This is indeed a great resource, but few actually use it the right way. If one were to open up a dictionary in order to study vocabulary, where would he/she start? I guess one could start with "A" and after about 4 years of studying work towards "B". Of course that would not make sense. The best way to know what words to learn is start off by determining the words you need to know in order to effectively communicate. How does one know which words they need to know? That is quite simple actually. The best way is just to try to communicate in English. When you figure out the words you don't. then go to the dictionary and look them up. You can also read books in English. I know this may be difficult to do especially when your English vocabulary isn't that developed, but try anyway. After you have a list of about 5 to 10 words, go to the language dictionary and look them up. Later go back to the reading material and see if it makes sense now. The trick to really learning vocabulary is learning vocabulary that you intend to use often. That way the newly learned words should eventually move to your long term memory.

The Best Way to Learn Speaking

Workshop at Itenas Bandung led by Mr. Ryan from CIACI VIP ENGLISH

If a basketball player wants to improve his basketball skills, what should he/she do? If you answered learn how to weave baskets, then you would probably be wrong. How did you learn how to speak your own language? I would venture to say that you just might have been in an environment that supported you learning. You grew up listening to a certain language being used all around you and eventually tried to mimic what you heard. In essence you were learning by doing and that is absolutely one of the most effective ways to learn how to speak. So, what if you are living in a non-English speaking country like Indonesia? How would you put yourself in an English speaking environment or at least an environment where there are plenty of people speaking in English? You should find the places that Native English Speakers go.  You might be less than confident at first to practice your English in public places but it really is the best practice that you will ever get. You would be exposed to a variety of accents which would develop your listening skills and you get to try and use new expressions that you hear. You should also consider enrolling in an English course that has Native speakers in order to get error correction. Generally in normal conversations with native speakers, you won't really get corrected as long as the people you are talking to can understand. So, having a teacher to correct your mistakes can be quite handy. Make sure that the English course school that you attend implements solid methodology in the classroom.