Learn English: 300% Faster – 69 English Tips to Speak English Like a Native English Speaker!

Chapter 3: The Three Biggest Mistakes English Learners Make
“Human intelligence is richer and more dynamic than we have been led to believe by formal academic
education.”
– Ken Robinson
 
As we discussed in the introduction, the English language is often taught in strange ways. Using
methods that were decided 200 years ago, or even more. In a time when people simply did not
understand the science of learning as well as we do today. As a result of these bad ideas, there are lots
of mistakes in the way people learn English and other languages too. You may be making one of these
three mistakes, which slow English-learners down a great deal.
Mistake One: Learning in a big class of other students
Do not learn English in a class. If you are in one, consider leaving it now. The problem with classes is
that you are mixed in with a group of other people, so you are not speaking all the time. It is not a
very focused method of learning.
I have seen problems with classes a thousand times. They always slow down to the speed of the slower
students. It’s inevitable, impossible to avoid. The teacher is paid to pay attention to all students equally.
So they take their time focusing on the slower students and making sure they are happy. The faster
students suffer as a result, and learn much more slowly than they should do.
After this book you will become a very fast learner – much too fast for any shared class.
Another reason to leave English classes is that most of them are simply bad quality. Even in so called
‘good’ English schools. Most English teachers do not understand the concepts in this book and use
bad teaching materials.
On top of this most English schools want long term students who take years to learn, paying for
classes. There is a conflict of interest here. Very few schools want students to be able to speak fluently
in a few months and then leave. Because they will lose money and it’s hard work to find new paying
students. They have no real motivation at all to keep on improving and improving their teaching
techniques.
Another reason to avoid class-based lessons is that education is evolving very quickly. It is becoming

---

increasingly apparent that the teacher-led classroom-based way of learning is obsolete. This system
of learning was developed during the industrial revolution in Great Britain, in order to train young
people to enter the administrative world of the British Empire.
It is a very left-brained learning system. It’s all about discipline and stopping your mind wandering,
and listening to the teacher, and preventing individual creativity and expression, while memorizing
huge lists of facts. It’s about training thousands of well-behaved young people who don’t think much
for themselves.
Today we know something about learning that they did not know 200 years ago. Well, we know many
things. First and foremost, we know that the human mind learns through creative thought, individual
expression and freedom to learn in a way that feels best to you. Learning a language is a very right-
brained activity. It requires fun and a high degree of self-direction, driven by the fun you are having.
So you are kind of pulled forward by your own passion and curiosity.
Classrooms were designed 200 years ago to kill exactly this process. So why are we still teaching and
learning this way today?
One more thing about classrooms (although I could talk about it all day). It’s quite likely that you
have bad associations with classrooms in your mind, from your school years. If you’re like myself or
most people, you probably don’t think of classrooms as places to have incredible fun and exciting
new discoveries. This is one more reason not to step into a classroom every time you are about to
begin a process that enjoys freedom, fun and self-expression – learning English quickly.
If you’re concerned that learning English or speaking English privately with people is too expensive,
don’t worry. In later chapters you will realize how incredibly cheap it can be to communicate all you
like with native speakers. Even cheaper than your English class is probably costing you right now.