It’s easy to remember words for a short time, but then we forget them even faster than we learn them.  It’s a huge problem and it slows down our learning a lot.

To make sure that you never forget a new word, you need to do a few things.

1.  Understand the real meaning of the word and when to use it. If you only have a general idea about a word’s meaning, you will not remember it for long.  It will be pushed to the back of your brain never to be found again.  You won’t have it ready when you need it during a conversation.  You must study some useful sentences for each new word.

2.  Listen, listen, listen. This product that we made on the website is perfectly designed to get you to hear the same words over and over again.  You will hear them used in different ways and this will help train your brain to get a deeper meaning of the word.  There are different levels of understanding a new word or phrase.  It’s not as simple as; “Do you know this word or not?”.  I think that if you can’t use it yourself in writing and speaking, then you really don’t know the word at all.  It’s almost the same.

3.  Get a good software teaching program. I have seen hundreds of them and Ultimate Vocabulary is by far the best.  If you are serious about improving your vocab for speaking, making more money in a better job, passing some test, traveling, or any normal reason really, I highly recommend you get this.  Many of my buddies from different countries are using it and their improvement in both writing and speaking is amazing.  I don’t believe things easily because there are so many tricks on the internet.  I just know this one is really helpful because I have seen the results with my own eyes and heard the results with my own ears.

Take a look at: Learn and Remember Vocabulary Fast

Email me and tell me your experience.  I am sure you won’t regret it.  You only need to use it for about 10 minutes a day and you will see big improvements in your speaking and writing after only 2-3 weeks.

Here are some very common mistakes that many English learners make:

1.  Worry too much about pronunciation and grammar.  Fear is a real killer with language learning.  Native speakers don’t care if you make a mistake.  It’s normal and we hear mistakes all the time.  Don’t expect to be perfect.  It doesn’t matter if your pronunciation isn’t perfect.  The only way to improve it is by listening to native speakers and trying your best to copy them.  That’s why learning sp0ken English through MP3 podcasts is the best way to learn.  You will hear native speakers use perfect grammar and perfect pronunciation.  You don’t need to “learn” these things.  They will come naturally to you after you spend time listening and practicing.  One day you will wake up and realize that your English is much better than you could imagine.  Don’t worry, keep studying, things will get better.  Remember, most people quit and use the wrong study methods.  That’s the only reason they don’t learn well.  It’s not about being stupid and there is no time for excuses.  You can do this if you do it right.

2.  Spending too much time reading vocabulary.  If you spend a lot of study time reading and trying to remember new vocabulary words, I promise that you will forget most of them after a couple of days or even less.  Learn vocabulary through listening to native speakers on MP3.  That’s the way to do it.  You can hear what they say and how they say the words.  If you just read a meaning, you won’t know how to use the word well and you will forget it quickly.  This is not really learning.  It’s a waste of time mostly.

3.  Believing that you need to have some native speaking friends.  This is NOT necessary.  You can listen to native speakers teach you on MP3.  I did this for learning Chinese and I can speak it very well now.  I don’t want to sound cool.  I’m just saying that you can do the same thing with English.  I’m 100% sure.  You can practice writing and listening.  If you write, you will see what your weak areas are.  Reading is so much easier than writing.  If you write, you can’t copy someone else.  You will force your brain to find the vocabulary words that you learned.  Surprisingly, listening to perfect and natural English as well as writing will really help you improve your spoken English.  You can do this all online with this course.

It makes sense.  English is the language of business and if you want to compete for the best jobs, it’s important to improve your speaking abilities.

I work as a marketing freelancer with several successful companies and I often have the opportunity to hear from CEO’s about who they want to hire for the top paying jobs.

It’s interesting.  A lot of people think that test scores and which university you went to is really important.  It can be, but it really often isn’t.  This whole thing is pretty simple really.  Companies want to earn more money and they choose the kinds of people who they think can help with that.  Test scores don’t directly do anything.  Grammar and pronunciation don’t either.  You need to learn the culture and how to be clear with your ideas.  If you can make people understand that you are a smart person with useful and creative ideas, you will be much more likely to move up quickly in the company.

Let’s face it.  Most western companies don’t even really know about many of the top universities around the world.  Sure, everyone knows Harvard and a few other famous ones, but that’s it.  And people don’t really care.  School doesn’t really prepare people to be good at jobs.  Especially in today’s world.

You need to develop “people skills” and learn “sales techniques” and “buyer psychology”.  Just having good English with good pronunciation isn’t enough anymore.  You need to have the special skills that make companies more money.

It’s a shame that most English learners have no idea what these skills are.  My friends all work for huge companies and they tell me how they wish things were.  I try my best to learn from what they say and teach this stuff to you guys.  I designed this whole English speaking course to allow you to speak fluently AND learn the secrets to earning more money in your career.

I’m not the kind of person who really cares about being really rich.  But I’ll be honest, having money is cool and it makes your life better.  It won’t solve all of your problems but it will give you more freedom to live a happy life.  Most people will never learn these skills but I am happy to teach them to you.  It takes time.  The course is about studying these ideas through conversation and the type of thinking that native English speakers have.  It’s not just the language that is different.  The culture and the way of thinking is probably more important than the language.  I want to make sure you understand both so that in less than 60 days from now you can write me an email and tell me that you got a job for more than double your current salary.  Maybe you think it’s impossible but I’m sure that it can happen.  There is information in this course that you could never learn in any school no matter how much money you paid.  I am just trying to give you an idea of what to expect.  There are over 100 lessons in here so it’s impossible for me to explain everything in this little article.  I just want you to know that if you wish to earn some more money than the tips and confidence you will get from this will really help you.

I guess the one point I want you to understand from all this is that it’s the culture AND the language that you need to learn to succeed in business.  I will do my best to show you both.  That’s my life.  That’s what I do.

Students learn spoken English the wrong way.  Actually, most students don’t “learn” at all.  That’s why when you try to have a simple conversation in English with them they fail.  They might have a decent vocabulary.  They might even know how to pass tests like the TOEIC, IELTS, or TOEFL, but they still can’t pass the “conversation test”.  This course is all about changing that.

Here is a real story from a real business man in China.  He’s a western guy.  He hires ONLY Chinese girls that are married to a western guy.  I asked him why and he said, “It’s simple,  they know better English and more about western culture than students from even the top universities or those who have great test scores”.

He is like many businessmen.  He wants REAL English, not some fake score or a piece of paper.  I have friends working for large international companies.  They are a little further behind because big companies have many rules, but they are starting to think similarly.  These test scores are meaningless.

Anyway, I told you I’d talk about common mistakes so here I go.  Students learn high level unimportant vocabulary when they should be focusing on the simple but important things.

Communication is not about grammar rules or trying to impress someone with your big vocabulary.  It’s about understanding slang, which is what native speakers use all the time, and being able to express your main idea.

Your vocabulary will naturally get bigger over time and your grammar will improve a lot too from this method.  Don’t worry, it isn’t necessary that you marry a western guy to learn to speak English well.  Not at all!  But you can get some tips from them.  These people communicate in English all the time.  They don’t “study”.  I made this whole spoken English course to help with this.  I talk the same way that real people talk.  I make you understand the words and phrases that real people use.  No other courses do this.  That’s why you see these university “English Majors” walking around with a paper degree and really bad spoken English.

People love making excuses about having a bad learning environment or a bad education system.  These excuses are true but not helpful.  People spend far too much time thinking of the problem and not enough time thinking about the solution.  The solution is having a native speaker “in your pocket” on MP3 explaining exactly what native speakers say in real life.  I’ll explain everything to you clearly and in a fun way you can understand.  You’ll laugh and learn at the same time.  I promise.

Most students make the mistake of talking about “how many hours they spent studying” or “how many words they learned“.  It is silly; really silly.  The ONLY thing that matters is whether or not you are improving your ability to have the kind of conversations that you will hear naturally in real life.  That’s it.  Who cares how much time it takes you to do something?  It’s all about RESULTS!

Don’t make the same mistakes most people make unless you want the same poor results they get.  It makes no sense to pay a lot of money to go to some English training school because it has a nice brand, pretty girl working behind the desk (maybe not too pretty but whatever), and “foreign teachers”.

These schools are terrible because they get very low quality teachers who aren’t even real teachers.  They are just “white people”.  It’s stupid but it’s the world we live in.  We need to accept the truth.

You already know the truth, students from these schools learn very little.  They learn even less from high school.  The students aren’t stupid.  The problem is that the system is really bad.  It’s just so bad that it makes me feel crazy!  I’m a native English speaker and I see this problem very clearly every day of my life.

Honestly, forget about what other students are doing because obviously their methods are not working very well.  I know you can do much better.  Please use your own brain and be reasonable enough to try something that makes sense to YOU!  Don’t just follow other people.  Following the crowd is exactly how to become a big loser in life.

If you want to speak better English, choose a better course, it’s as simple as that.  Oh ya, you have to actually follow the course too.  You can’t just buy it and then not use it.  That is a waste too!  That’s why I made this English learning program fun anyway.  You won’t feel like you are learning. Instead you’ll laugh and feel like you are talking to a real friend about real life stuff.  Since you won’t feel bored, you won’t have any reason to quit.

Why would anyone quit something that is both fun and useful?  They wouldn’t!

I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m trying to sell you something.  I’m really not.  I’m just trying to get you to think for yourself.  Surprisingly, most people can’t think.  That’s why advertisements work so well.

I don’t expect you to just “blindly” agree with me.  If what I’m saying sounds strange and you don’t like it, then please don’t use this program or read my work.  Find something else; I’m serious.

If, however, you do understand what I’m talking about then at least consider this program.  I’m sure it will work for you.  It’s different than anything you’ve ever seen;  It’s much cooler and much better.  I’m not saying this because I made it.  I’m saying this because I believe from the bottom of my heart that it’s true.  I spent several years making this product so millions of people all over the world could learn to speak with me using “normal” English.

You are not a child and of course the choice is yours.  Anyway, I hope you continue to read my free emails and lessons.  I truly want to help as much as I possibly can.

Here is a question for you:  Are you confident enough to learn English?

It’s actually kind of a strange question.  You might want to know:  Is confidence even important for language learning?  How would you even know if you were confident enough anyway?

We know it takes confidence to talk to a beautiful girl you don’t know or speak in front of 1000 people.  But why do you need to improve your confidence to really improve your English level?  This last question is less clear.

I believe deeply that you need to change your beliefs.  It’s not just you, it’s all of us, including myself.  If you want to be the best, you have to believe it is possible.

Let me give you a real example from my own personal life.  I want to be the best English teacher in the world.  I know I can do it but I just need to work on improving my confidence even more.  It’s honestly not even easy to write this because it feels weird saying that I want to be the best in the world at something.  Will you judge me?  Will you laugh?

These are all fears deep inside us.  These fears stop us from living our dreams.  They stop us from getting the lives we know we can live.  The good news is that we can change if we REALLY want to.

Maybe you don’t really care about being the BEST English speaker in your country.  That’s not important anyway.  But do you believe deep in your heart that you have the talent?  Do you truly believe that you COULD do it if you wanted?

I know you can do it if you want to.  Do you know it too?

It doesn’t matter what your speaking or listening level is today.  The past is the past.  It doesn’t matter what happened before.  Let all the excuses you have in your mind die.  The important thing is what you do starting now.  Who cares if you had really bad English teachers in school?  Who cares if you are over 60 years old and have poor English now?  No one will judge you, and even if they do, it doesn’t matter.  You shouldn’t care.  Most people are jealous of the success of others.  You can’t fail if you honestly try.

Many people think they don’t speak English well because they are lazy or something.  I hear a lot of excuses.  It’s crazy.  People tell me everyday they would like to improve and then come up with some long list of excuses.  I can understand them, but I don’t believe them.

I know the answer is something about confidence.  If they KNEW that they could really improve their speaking, reading, and writing quickly and in a fun way, they would do it.

Maybe they are scared to try learning again because they didn’t learn well before.  Maybe they can’t imagine themselves speaking perfect English with native English speakers.  We get “lazy” and make excuses when we don’t have a strong enough belief in ourselves.  I do it too.   I think it’s why most people fail to try.

In English we have a saying, “Get back on that horse“.  It means, if you are horse riding and you fall off the horse and hurt yourself, you shouldn’t quit.  You need to try again and again.  Most people quit when they fall off the horse and most people fail.  The funny thing is, the person might think and say they don’t like riding horses anymore, but we know it’s not true.  We know it’s because they are scared to try again.

I hope this never happens to you in any area of your life.

We all want to be happy but we usually don’t do what makes us happy.  People are really good “excuse machines” and we often live our lives according to what other people expect of us or “society’s rules”.  We know it’s stupid but we do it anyway.  It’s hard to break away from the “normal path”.  It’s hard to follow your dreams and do what you truly want.

Do you like your job?  Do you do what your parents want you to do?  Do you have the “guts” to do exactly what you want even if people think you are crazy?

Having the “guts” to do something is a slang way of saying having the “courage” to do it.  People who don’t “settle” have the best chance of a really cool life, but it’s not easy.

If someone “settles” for something, it means that they accept second best.  They take the easiest thing that is “good enough”.  It’s not necessarily bad to settle, it’s just not what we truly want.

An example of  ”settling” would be to marry the guy you are dating because the time is right and you think he’s ok.  He might not be your dream guy, but he’s good enough to have an acceptable life.  It’s easy, it’s fine.  Another area people settle in is work.  They take a stable job they don’t really like because they want the relaxing feeling of a salary every month.

I’m not saying I’ve made only good decisions in my life.  In fact, I’ve made some pretty bad ones.  One thing about me is, however, I really don’t want to settle.  Maybe I won’t get everything I want.  I don’t know.  No one can know the future.  But I hate the feeling of quiting.  I never want to give up.

When I started working for myself teaching English online a lot of people thought I was crazy and I’d never succeed.  They asked me, “You have a good degree from a top university.  Why not get a “real job”?

I didn’t know how to answer.  I didn’t even want to answer.  To me, it was a stupid question.  I just knew that getting a real job wouldn’t be right for me.  I needed to do something different.  I couldn’t “settle”.

The funny thing is that I don’t really care about money.  I make more than enough money, but I just don’t care.  I find it boring.  I’d rather help people.  I’d rather travel and learn cool things.  Of course I need money to live or whatever, but I just don’t care about having the huge amounts that other people dream of.  I don’t want a private airplane.  Am I crazy?

The funny thing is that the more I try to help people learn English online, the more money I earn.  When I didn’t have enough money to pay for rent or food, I was stressed out.  I did a lot of marketing and I wanted people to buy, buy, buy.  I knew I had a useful program, I was never a cheater, but I guess I thought about me first.  Then after I had enough money to live, I stopped caring about money and payed more attention to just helping people.  That’s when I started getting even more money.  It’s true what they say, selling a product that actually helps people is a great way to earn money.

So many people I know really want to be super rich, but many people fail at their companies.  I think the problem is greed.  If you care about yourself and you don’t REALLY want to help others, it’s hard to make money.  Some people can do it, but it’s hard.

I don’t even know what I expect this blog post to do.  I guess I just hope that whoever is reading this feels some emotional connection from my little story.  I hope you learned some new word.  I hope it helps you with some decision that makes you happier in your life.  It doesn’t matter where you’re from, happiness is all we really want anyway right?

I wanted to blog about this topic for a couple of reasons.  One is that it’s probably more important than you think and I want to explain why.  I’m learning about this as I get “more mature”.  (I admit I’m not as mature as I’d like to be but I’m working on it)

The other reason I want to talk about this is that I actually went to a cool networking event in Shanghai last weekend for “Entrepreneurs”  (basically these are creative business people who start their own businesses).

A lot of these people are super interesting because they “think outside the box” which means to think creatively and differently than “most people”.  I personally like that and think it’s pretty cool.  This particular networking event had mostly people starting online companies.  I met a lot of interesting people and made some new friends and business partners.

It’s easy to “shy away” from these kind of events and make excuses for not going.  It’s true that a lot of networking events kind of suck but when you get a good one, even if you meet just one important person, your whole life could change and get a lot better.

This was an international event so everyone was speaking English.  So basically, about half of the people were speaking their second language.  If they couldn’t speak English well, there was no way they could possibly benefit from a thing like that.

To be honest, I’m actually kind of shy.  It takes me a while to “warm up” and start meeting new people.  I like one on one conversations more than speaking in front of a group.  I don’t really know why that is.  I think it might be because when I was young I used to give terrible speeches in school because I got super nervous.

By the way, I just realized while I’m writing, using the word “super” is a great adjective for casual writing or spoken English.  My friends and I use it all the time and it sounds really normal.  If you use it, you will look like you’ve lived in the USA or some other English speaking country for over 5 years.

A couple of examples are: “Last night was super fun” or “You should go there on vacation.  It’s a super cool place”.

Anyway, back to offline networking.  If you look online you can find some networking events in your area.  If you don’t just stand quietly in the corner of the room, you will be amazed at how this can change your life.  These events are in every main city in the world.  You just have to pay attention.

Another thing with networking that most people fail at, besides being too shy, is not thinking win-win.

If you want to do business with someone, it’s not just about handing out a business card and “hoping”.  You need to think about how you can actually help them.  I don’t really want to say that people are selfish, but they aren’t stupid either.  They don’t want to do business with someone who can’t help them.  They don’t want to buy a product that they don’t believe will help them.  If you can actually add value or help someone, then DO IT!  Be creative and show how you can help others.  I guarantee it will make you more money if you have this attitude.  It won’t always work but if you keep doing it, you will be amazed.   You don’t have to own a business either to benefit from networking.  If you work for some company or are just a student or whatever, networking will introduce you to a whole “other world” of opportunities.

I learn something new and set up new business deals every time I go.  I just have to remember to not be shy.  Don’t forget, most other people are shy too, so you need to “break the ice”.  That means you need to be the one to talk to other people first.  If you do that and think win-win, get ready for more money and a way cooler life than you already have.

I’ll keep blogging about my random thoughts and opinions and share some English tips during my writing.  I think this style should be fun and useful at the same time.  If it’s not, then it means I suck and need to get better writing skills.

I made a free email course that will help you with native spoken English.  There are some PDF ebooks I’ll email to you that a lot of people have told me are pretty cool.  Don’t worry, I won’t sell your email or waste your time with garbage.  I’m actually a nice guy.

Andrew: Yo, what’s going on Dog?

Darren: I just got off work. It was brutal. My boss was on my case the whole day about a bunch of stupid stuff. Anyway, I’m starving. You wanna grab something to eat?

Andrew: I would but I just finished a huge meal.

Darren: Ok, do you mind if I pop by later? I want to pick up that book I left at your place.

Andrew: Sure.

This was an exact conversation I had. All native speakers talk like that to each other and I want to point out some of the small details to help bring your English to a higher level.

Yo: In phone calls between close friends, we often start with “yo” instead of the more formal “hello”. In 2011, it’s actually weird for a friend to say “hello” to another friend. We only answer the phone with “hello” when we don’t know who is calling. In most cases, we know if a close friend is calling because we are using our cell phones and can see their number.

What’s going on? This is a very common way to ask a close friend something like, “what are you doing now?”

Got off work: Instead of saying “I just finished work” we usually say “I just got off work”. Both sayings are correct but “got off” is much more natural and sounds like a native speaker.

Brutal: “Brutal” is a common way of saying “really bad” or “really terrible”. A couple example sentences are:

I have a brutal headache.

I don’t want to eat at that restaurant. The food there is brutal!

On my case: If your boss is “on your case” it means that he is giving you a lot of pressure and keeps telling you what to do. You feel like you can’t relax at all if your boss is on your case.

A bunch: In spoken English, saying “a bunch” is slang for meaning, “a lot”. Here are a couple of common examples:

There are a bunch of great French restaurants in this city.

I’m really busy today. I’ve got a bunch of stuff I need to do.

I’m starving: This is a very common way of saying “I’m very hungry”.

Grab: In spoken English, we often ask someone if they want to “grab something to eat“.

“Do you want to grab something to eat?” is much more common between native speakers than “Would you like to go and eat something together?”

I would but…: If you would like to do something but you have some reason or excuse for not doing it, you can say, “I would but…” An example is:

A: Would you like to go and see that new movie this weekend?

B: I would but I already saw it last weekend with my girlfriend.

It is a polite way to say “no”.

Pop by: A slang way of saying that you are going to someone else’s house is to say you will “pop by“. Here’s an example sentence you can ask a friend:

Are you still going to pop by tonight after work?

Your place: In casual spoken English, you can refer to someone’s house or apartment as their “place“. It’s very common. Here is an example question:

I really like your new place. How much is the rent?

The problem is that the teaching method is usually over 50 years old.  It’s hard to learn anything if you don’t teach it correctly.  The English taught in schools all over the world is too boring.  Everyone knows this but most people don’t know what to do about it.

If you truly understand that you need to improve your speaking for business or social reasons than you really only have 2 choices.  The first choice is to blame the school system and do nothing about it.  It’s actually surprising to me how many people choose this.  The second, and far better option is to find out for yourself how to learn.

We are in the information age and we have choices.  We can’t blame our teachers anymore.  We have computers, wi-fi, netbooks, HD TV, Smart phones, and a whole lot of other amazing devices to learn any language on.

Most of us are still using an old belief system that says the government and the school system responsible for our learning.  We need to change our thinking if we want to change our results.

I believe that school degrees are becoming less and less important.  Who cares what the paper says if you don’t have the skill?  And why do you need a piece of paper if you do have some skill?

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to over 20 countries and see for myself the situation in a lot of the world.  I’ve noticed the same thing in many places, in both rich and poor countries.  Most people speak English very poorly and a few people speak it very well.  The people who speak English well don’t learn from following the advice of the teachers and studying harder in school.  They do something different.  Some of them get native speaking boyfriends or girlfriends but that’s not necessary, especially in today’s advanced world.

You don’t need to be rich and you don’t need to find a private teacher or even a native speaking friend.  You just need to download really good English lessons onto your Computer, MP3 player, or Ipod.  You need to listen everyday and learn from native English speakers.

We’ve all noticed that the internet, cell phones, and computers have become much better over the past 10 years or more.  What most people don’t realize however, is that teaching methods are also much better than before.  30 years ago the computers were terrible and there was no internet.  However, there was also a very limited understanding of the psychology of learning.  Psychology is a relatively new field of research too.  The problem is that international school systems are very slow to change.  They might buy new computers, but they still teach and think in almost the same ways.

My major was psychology when I was in university and found it to be unbelievably interesting.  I think there has been at least as much improvement in the knowledge of how the human brain works as their has been in technology.  I’ve spent the past 10 years working on the most interesting and effective teaching methods for teaching students how to speak English like  a native speaker.  I don’t focus on grammar or amount of vocabulary, but instead focus on the important vocabulary, the kind that gets used all the time and make sure that people really know how to use it.  I’ve combined these methods with the advances in technology to bring an amazingly useful and cheap learning course.

I want to help the whole world communicate and because we’re all connected to the internet, I can make a high quality program and charge a very low price to each student.  English courses used to be expensive because the teacher could only reach a few students at one time.  Now, because I can teach millions of people, I can focus on a great learning method that is both fun and useful and keep the price incredibly low.  It’s a win win situation for everyone and it’s still an idea that less than 5% of the people accept.  Many people still believe that it makes sense to pay a lot of money for some language school because they believe the advertising and it’s something that was always true in the past.

With things like diamonds and wine, a higher price usually, but not always, means higher quality.  With language courses, this is not necessarily true at all.

Part of the teaching method is also about becoming friends with my students and creating a fun atmosphere.  I like to teach about my real life and the kinds of topics that native speakers really talk about.  I record real conversations I have with my closest friends and talk about those.  These topics are always full of the kind of vocabulary and slang phrases that native speakers use each and every day.  Think about this, I probably use less than 10% of my total vocabulary each day.  Most advanced words are not used very often.  That’s why a 6 year old native speaker can talk quite quickly even though they have a small vocabulary.  They don’t need a large vocabulary to express themselves.  I will give you the confidence to do the same thing and teach you exactly how to do it.  You can listen to these lessons every day for a few months and your English will improve much quicker than it ever did in school.  People will ask you how you improved so fast.  I guarantee it.  If this makes sense to you, try it out.  I look forward to you joining the course and hopefully we can chat on skype or facebook soon.  Also, you might be interested in checking out my free style English learning blog that I call my Spoken English Course

Here are the 5 tips:

1.  Use your smart phone for learning English instead of only wasting your time on that.  I don’t know you but I bet you have an Iphone, Android, or at least an Ipod.  This is the modern world and most people have these things.  You should be using them to improve your English instead of just playing around on Facebook.  English podcasts are a great way to practice your listening skills and learn new vocabulary.  You can download them in MP3 and put them on any of these things and listen in your free time.

2.  Listening is the key to good pronunciation.  When we are babies we learn how to speak from our parents and our environment.  If your parents don’t speak English, don’t worry.  All you have to do is spend A LOT of time listening to native English speakers.  The more your listen, the better your pronunciation will become.  You don’t have to be shy or ask other people how you sound.  This comes naturally with a lot of listening.  Most students focus too much on grammar, vocabulary, and reading.  This might help test scores but it won’t help your spoken English much.

3.  Pay close attention to the dialogs in TV and movies.  The talking in TV and movies is probably the best example of native spoken English you will ever find.  Characters talk to each other and use modern words and express themselves the same way native speakers would in real life.  A lot of people know to do this, but the trick is to do it with English subtitles only.  You won’t understand as much at first but at least you will know exactly what is being said.  Watch the same movie a couple of times and also make sure you are following some MP3’s that actually explain the slang and common vocabulary for non native speakers.

4.  Don’t get lazy when you start to improve a bit.  I’ve seen so many students get super happy after they start speaking with foreigners.  This is great but it’s dangerous.  You don’t want to fall into the trap of being overconfident.  Many people improve quickly and then stop improving.  This is simply because they get comfortable with their “ok” level of talking and never push it to the next level.

5.  Practice writing your thoughts down.  If you write a long email or something like that you are essentially practicing your spoken English.  English speaking is really all about thinking what you want to say and then pronouncing it correctly.  We already talked about what to do with your pronunciation.  The other problem is knowing how to express yourself.  This is often not a vocabulary problem but instead it’s a problem of doing something you’ve never done before.  Many people I know can speak English but they get nervous when writing a Facebook message or a small email to a western person.  They make little mistakes that don’t seem like a big deal when they are speaking.  They notice them only when they write.  If you practice enough writing, you will see where your problems are and you’ll be forced to fix them.  This will help you big time with speaking.