It’s Not The Quantity, It’s The Quality!

It’s not how many hours you sit in the classroom, it’s rather how much focus, attention and energy you show in the classroom. In Australia it’s typical for an English learner to study 20 hours per week, that’s 5 hours per day. The thing is it’s not like you’re always THERE, I mean, physically you are, but mentally, you’re probably in “Sleep Mode”. You may pay attention for half an hour, maybe an hour, even two but then your mind starts going places, traveling through space, and sometimes you doze off (go to sleep). Yes, well you are probably busy working or nightclubbing the day before, so it gets really hard to keep your eyes open in the morning. Brilliant. So I guess what I’m trying to say, spending less time studying with more concentration helps much more than spending more time with less concentration.

You Want To Learn English Or Make Friends

Many English learners seem to think that the more (classmate) friends you make, the better. Don’t you understand that your classmates are just as bad at speaking English as you? For God’s sake, do not be stupid! The last thing you want is to listen to more “bad English”. What you want is a good model! You need to speak and listen to someone way better than you, or at least a little better than you, so you can learn a thing or two. Japanese for example chase Brazilians because they are talkative and confident. They ARE talkative and confident but their English sucks too. You want to learn from that? Give me a break. So you’ve got to make up your mind! Are you here to learn English or make friends! You are really a sad rat aren’t you!

You Want To Learn Natural English Or Classroom English

Just the other day one of my students told me her teacher had told to NEVER say “wanna”! Are you SERIOUS? What a dope! I don’t know any English native speaker of English who doesn’t say “wanna” at least a hundred times during an everyday conversation. He probably does it too but he never thought about it. The truth is ESL teachers talk to you as if they’re talking a baby. Babies do not know much about the world, they are trying to grasp the concept of things, but we are adults, we already know the meaning of things. We can learn and understand the sound system of the language if the teacher happens to be good enough to explain it. Unfortunately, they are usually not. So what happens is you spend an entire year listening to a teacher speaking with you as if you’re a damn RETARD, and then once you step out of the classroom, and start listening to REAL people, guess what happens! You’re lost! No clue what they are saying! Then the joke gets funnier when you get back in the classroom and ask that same teacher “why do you think I can’t understand English outside the classroom?”!

You Want To Master English Or Pass Some Test

They are not quite the same! Really! You can be an absolute loser in English but still manage to pass a test. Tests are a big fat business. They make money. Many books have been written to help you pass them, just pass them. You do not need to be super competent in English to pass those tests. Like all tests, English tests have a certain structure and a specific format. Learn the structure and get familiar with the format, learn some tactics and strategies, and not only will you pass it, you will also probably nail it. Anyway, once again, you need to make up your mind. Why are you learning English? What do you want to do with it? Do you want to really master the language or pass some test?

Are You A Client Or A Student?

You visit those big schools and you get impressed with the great customer service, the beautiful facility, the cutting-edge technology but you forget to look a bit more carefully at what really matters….the teacher! Big schools are big businesses that treat students as clients. Once the school starts treating you as a client, they cannot treat you as a student. The teachers are always nice and are too afraid to correct you. They do not want to give you honest feedback anymore because they do not want you to lose you. When they school chooses to hire teachers with little experience, and pay low salaries, they usually spend more on things that are not so important to learning, like marketing, customer service, the facility, the computers etc. So are you a client or a student?

Agents Are Not Free

It’s just that they do not take the money from YOU! They take it from the school! And guess what! The school takes it from you! Got it? So wise up! I have never seen people who get paid that much money for doing absolutely NOTHING. It is amazing. Agents are destroying the ESL industry in Australia. I’m not going to say ALL of them are bad, because believe it or not, some of them do actually work and help out. Let’s face it though! The majority is a bunch of scam artists. So next time you go to an agent, remember it’s NOT free, and remember that they do NOT give a RAT’s ass about your education. If you can speak the English just a little bit, go straight to the school and bargain with them, you’ll probably end up saving a couple of $1000! Yes, that’s how much the agents get! Waky Waky!