How to improve vocabulary in 30 days?
Back in 2012 when I was an English learner (which I still am because learning should never stop), I was scouring the web for some tips to improve my spoken English and vocabulary. I have heard since day one that idiomatic expressions and phrases are the core of spoken English and if learned properly, can make you a fluent English speaker like a native. All pumped up, I typed in “List of common Idiomatic Expressions and Phrases” and trust me my excitement met some positive responses from the search engine when I saw hundreds of result pages floating everywhere on my laptop screen. I clicked the one, then the next, and next, and next, next and so on. I was already with my pen and my notebook to note down some important notes and phrases so I can learn them later, but as my eyes scrolled down the screen the list of expressions went on and on. Had I started writing them down, I can say for sure I would still be learning till today. With the advancement of technology and internet, the scope has really diversified for many people out there; as a result, there is a number of bloggers on the internet today and everybody has their own list of most important phrases and idioms that would be useful for you. And tell you what? I think nobody is at fault in this. If you give me, Robby or any other English blogger to write down the most important list of idioms, phrases or vocabulary, we may list down some for you but it won’t match at all. English vocabulary is not a code or some mathematical formula which remains the same for a problem; it is rather a diverse topic which needs to be paid more concern to, avoiding the common mistakes non-natives usually make. Now if I wanted I could have just started something like this: "So here is the most important idioms and phrases you should learn: 1: Go an extra mile 2: Go through a rough patch. 3: know inside out . . . 100001: pass out: means to faint.” Well if I did so, the last phrase would have made into reality when one reads these many phrases in a single article, but don’t you worry, we never throw you these many long lists which get washed off the next day you learn. Now if you think learning these many phrases is impossible cause you are gonna forget it anyways, you are mistaken, my dear friends. I wrote a long article about this before where I explained how learning anything with context helps to learn better and faster, and remember longer. Robby knew it far before then I came to know so he built ‘The English Harmony System’ with the same concept of teaching English vocabulary with a context that follows spaced repetition technique to make your mind subconsciously acquire every phrase or vocabulary. Considering these problems faced by English learners, I created a "Free 30-day Vocabulary Acquisition Course” where I will cover a single subject in an article and teach you vocabulary related to it. So basically, the articles are gonna be short and to the point, covering a few idioms or phrasal verbs with context, meaning and example. I will try to cover various areas of daily life so you can rest assured that the phrases you gonna learn down the line will come in handy. You just have to read all my articles thoroughly and practice the phrases with your own examples and trust me everything else will come naturally to you. I am sure you are gonna love it. So get ready for tomorrow because it’s gonna be fun. Sign up here to get it straight into your inbox (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//forms.aweber.com/form/28/1528169428.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "aweber-wjs-gh9mm2tmz")); Till then, take care and? Bye-bye.
11 Love and Relationship Phrases for this Valentine’s Day
Are you making these collocation mistakes?
Hey there everyone, How is your fluency going? What? Good. It's awesome then, but it breaks my heart when I see my dear readers, making mistakes while speaking or writing. And please don’t get me wrong, making a mistake is a part of the learning process, but correcting them is way more important than expanding your vocabulary or scaling up your fluency. Thus, without further fuss, let get down to the job: Pay close attention to the paragraph given below and find the mistakes from the context. Let’s see how many of them you are able to observe. (more…)
Do I make myself clear now?
Improve Your English Vocabulary With Context
Hey there, How is your fluency going? Ever since I thought that I want to be a fluent English speaker, I tried every single possible technique to improve my vocabulary and fluency. Admit it or not, most of the non-natives start off on the wrong foot by trying traditional study methods such as learning few words from dictionary daily or be it when you tried a new language book to improve their vocabulary and fluency. The matter of the fact is, vocabulary and fluency go hand in hand while learning. Now you many wanna ask, if they go hand in hand, why do you say learning vocabulary from a dictionary is bad? It’s not bad; I would say it’s even worse. The fact is, dictionary was never made for learning purpose, it is just for ‘referential purpose’, so in case if you get stucked while reading a book, blog or anything, you can refer to it for clear understanding of the topic. (more…)
You Can Choose Your Own Selection of English Phrases!
English Idiomatic Expression: “Let Me Draw Your Attention to The Fact That…”
Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it! Video Transcript Below: Hi guys! Hi boys and girls and welcome back to Robby's English Harmony video blog. I welcome you to this video on this nice Sunday afternoon. However, let me draw your attention to the fact that it might not be a Sunday that this video is published on YouTube, simply because I tend to record a bunch of videos and then I publish them as I see fit, basically, right? And, if you notice that I used this phrase that we're going to be talking about today, “let me draw your attention to the fact”... I used it, previously, a couple of seconds ago there. And that was pretty much the first example scenario, how would you use it, right? It's simply to draw somebody's attention to a specific fact, right? And also, let me draw your attention to the fact that this phrase is somewhat more professional, formal, if you know what I mean. You wouldn't be, probably, using this phrase when chatting with your friends in a very, very informal setting, you know? You might use it, it won't hurt, you know? But, it's just that it's probably, typically used in a professional environment. Imagine giving a presentation, or giving a speech, and that's when you would use this phrase. But if you want to hear more example scenarios when this phrase is used, please bear with me for a few more moments and you will hear more from me, right? (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “Take Something For Granted”
Fluent English can ONLY be acquired by learning IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS - and that's why I'm going to highlight them for you in RED! Video Transcript Below: Hi guys, hello boys and girls and hello my dear foreign English speakers. That's me, obviously Robby from EnglishHarmony.com and you are very welcome back to my video blog! Now, today I decided to record a video dedicated to a particular English idiomatic expression, namely “to take something for granted”. And the reason why I decided to record this particular video is because I got a comment on my blog recently. To be more specific it's only 6 minutes old, right? And here is what it says. As a matter of fact, it was published on another English idiomatic expression page, The Big Picture and the commentator says this is an incredible video, really got the meaning very quickly and here's the request: Robby, can you make a video for this idiomatic expression “to take something for granted”? Thank you. And guess what? You're lucky, my friend, tonight I'm in a good mood so I decided hey, why not? You know what I mean. And as a matter of fact, I wanted to record a video anyway so I was like okay, I'll do a video about this particular idiomatic expression. So if you are interested in finding out how to use this particular one and what kind of situations it can be used in, please bear with me for a few more moments. Did you hear how I kind of started stumbling upon words? Bear with me for a few mo - mo - mo more moments or something like that? It's all part of the English Harmony philosophy, my friends. Even if you make a little mistake, even if you stumble upon words a little bit it doesn't matter. Just keep pushing on, you know what I mean? Keep pushing the envelope and keep speaking with yourself because that is the surefire way to English fluency. (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “The Big Picture…”
Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it! Hi guys, hi boys and girls and welcome back to the English Harmony video blog! In today's video we're going to look at the following English idiom: The BIG Picture. Or alternatively, you can say: The Bigger Picture. It doesn't really matter which one you go for, whether you say "The big picture" or "The bigger picture", these two word combinations are pretty much interchangeable, they mean the same thing. Now. In reality when you'll be using the phrase "The big picture" you would be putting it in different contexts, such as: "When looking at the bigger picture" or "If you look at the big picture" or your ability to see the bigger picture, right? You'd be using it in different contexts but the very two-word combination "The big picture" always remains the same and it's very idiomatic by its nature and if you are curious as to what it means, when to use it, how to use it, place bear with me for a few more minutes and everything's gonna become crystal clear to you, I promise! (more…)
English Idiomatic Expression: “Along the Lines of…”
English Idiomatic Expression: “To The Best of My Knowledge”
Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it! Hi guys, hello boys and girls and welcome back to Robby's English Harmony video blog! Today I decided to bring another English idiomatic expression video to you and this time around the video in question is – no, not the video in question, the phrase, the expression in question! Sorry guys for making this mistake but I'm just going to leave it here on record so that you can see that Robby is not really afraid of making mistakes, he practices what he preaches and that's the path that you should be going down as well if you're anything serious about your English fluency improvement that is, right? So basically don't be afraid, don't be embarrassed of making mistakes, saying something wrong, going back, correcting yourself, it's all part of the game. Anyway, going back to the original subject, the expression in question for today is “to the best of my knowledge”, right? So if you're interested in learning how to use this particular English idiomatic expression, just bear with me for a few more moments and everything is going to become crystal clear to you my friends! (more…)
Past Events in English: “There Was This Time When… Next Thing I Know…”
English Sentence Starter: “I Heard Somewhere That…”
Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it! Hi guys, today I’m bringing you yet another English idiomatic expression, and this time around it’s a super handy sentence starter: I HEARD SOMEWHERE THAT… Why am I saying it’s a super handy sentence starter? Well, the reason behind that is simple enough – it’s a perfect way of starting a conversation with someone about something that you’ve heard somewhere, which is what a lot of conversations are all about! Let’s say, for argument’s sake, you want to tell your work colleague that there’s way more bacteria on the average mobile phone than on a toilet seat. In theory, nothing could be easier than that, right? Just open your mouth and tell him about it! In reality, what a lot of foreign English speakers will struggle with is – HOW TO START THE DAMN SENTENCE! (more…)
English Sentence Starter: “Speaking Of…”
English Idiomatic Expression: “The Fact of The Matter Is That…”
English Idiomatic Expression: “As A Matter Of Fact”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9NSbNZdViQ
English Idiomatic Expressions: “I’ve Been Meaning to… Never Get Around to…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a67Ud1QGNk
English Idiomatic Expression: “Out of the Question”
English Sentence Starter: “I Can See Where You’re Coming From”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iudqYFDXIjo
English Idiomatic Expression: “Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt”
English Idiomatic Expression: “In Full Swing”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDsfoOFkFSo
English Idiomatic Expression: “Doesn’t Cut It”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr1rETFdsyM
English Idiomatic Expression: “Come As a Surprise”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aAp_P0pjAE
English Phrase: Just Because… It Doesn’t Necessarily… It’s Quite the Opposite, Actually!
English Idiomatic Expression: MUST HAVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUt4OmQbVWk This time around we’re going to look at the following English idiomatic expression: MUST HAVE Well, to tell you the truth, it’s not really your typical idiomatic expression because it only consists of two words. I’d be more precise if I told you that MUST HAVE forms idiomatic expressions in combination with other words, and here’s a few examples: I’m not feeling very well, I MUST HAVE eaten something bad! So, you’re back from your trip – what was it like? It MUST HAVE been some experience! Was Julie off for a couple of days? She MUST HAVE been sick! Now, I hope you’ve started getting the bigger picture in terms of how MUST HAVE can be used. But you’re always welcome to watch the video above where I’m giving you extra info on how to use this expression in real life! Cheers, Robby ;-)