Effortless English: Learn To Speak English Like a native

The Sixth Rule: Learn Real English 
And Trash Your Textbooks
You’ve been studying English for years. But when you hear someone speak it
doesn’t sound like the English you learned. You find it hard to understand, and when
you speak, people look confused.
Sadly, this experience is fairly common. It’s what happens when you’ve been
taught English the traditional way where your teacher relies heavily on textbooks
and classroom drills.
That’s why we don’t use textbooks in Effortless English™. In fact, you have my
permission to throw your textbooks away. Go ahead. Pitch them in the trash. As I’ve
said before, textbooks aren’t the way to learn a language. With Effortless English™,
you learn real English, and that is Rule Six.
Textbooks have a number of problems. First, they are grammar-focused. We have
already discussed the reasons you should avoid grammar study. Another huge
problem is that textbooks mostly teach the formal form of English. This is the form
of English you commonly find in writing. Textbooks rely heavily on written
dialogues that are completely unnatural.
Perhaps you recognize this one:
“Hello”
“Hello. How are you?”
“I’m fine, and you?”
The textbook may be accompanied by an audio, in which actors read this dialogue
using strange rhythm and completely unnatural pronunciation.
So what happens in real life? You study this textbook dialogue, and you think you
know English. Then you travel to an English speaking country such as the United
States. You meet a person at the bus stop and they say, “Hey, what’s up?” Of course,
they are just greeting you and asking, “How are you?” but they are using the real
casual English that is much more common among native speakers.
In fact, as a teacher in San Francisco, I heard this common complaint most often
from students. They traveled from many countries to study in America. Many new
students thought of themselves as advanced English learners. Many had great test

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scores.
However, when they tried to communicate with real people, they had tremendous
problems. I remember one student named Humberto saying to me, “I can’t
understand what anyone is saying. I don’t understand people at the bus stop. I don’t
understand the waitresses in restaurants. I thought I was advanced, but I can’t
understand anyone.” Like most students, Humberto had studied formal textbook
English but had never learned real conversational English. He did well on tests but
could not function in the real world.
Real pronunciation is also much different than what you’ll find in textbooks and
their audios. This is another source of difficulty for those who learn using
traditional methods. Schools typically teach the formal dictionary pronunciation of
English words. While the textbook will teach you “How are you?” a real American
speaker is likely to say something like, “Howya doin’?” “Howzit goin’?” “Hey,
whassup?” or “Nice-ta meetcha.”
To really communicate in English, you absolutely must understand this real
English. And these are only the simplest examples of greetings. The entire language
is full of such examples. No wonder even “advanced” textbook English learners
struggle to communicate with real people.
Idioms are another common problem for textbook learners. Spoken American
English is full of idioms, yet you’ll learn few of them from textbooks. Recently, I
recorded a conversation with my Dad on the topic of business. Later, as I reviewed
the recording, I was shocked by just how many idioms we used in that short
conversation.
Idioms are phrases that have a meaning different from the individual words in it.
They are often based on metaphors or cultural topics and can be quite hard to
understand logically. For example, in a business meeting, a colleague might say,
“We scored a touchdown on that project.” This idiom comes from the sport of
American football, and it means to have a big success or victory. You’re unlikely to
learn this phrase in a textbook, yet it is very commonly used by Americans.
Clearly, textbooks are ineffective learning tools. What tools will you use then?
You’ll learn the same way native speakers do: by using real authentic materials.