By Robby
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Video Transcript Below:
Hello, my dear fellow foreign English speakers and also any native English speakers who happen to be watching my video right now! And welcome back to Robby’s English Harmony video blog!
Obviously, I’m Robby from EnglishHarmony.com and in today’s video I’m going to draw parallels between English grammar and HTML code. And in case you’re wondering now what’s English grammar got to do with HTML code, surely, these two things don’t have anything in common whatsoever – well, my friend, you’re actually wrong because these two things have more in common than you can think of!
And the reason being – actually I have to start with a story to introduce the whole matter so that everything is clear to you. Recently I’ve been attending a computer course. If you’ve been following my blog lately for the last 6 weeks or so, you will definitely remember a few references here and there I’ve been making to the fact that I’m doing the computer course during the day now because my aim is to start a career in the IT industry, right?
So as it happens I’m meeting a lot of different people in the college. Well, it’s actually called adult education center or something along those lines but I just refer to it as a college for the sake of simplicity, right? So I’m mixing with a lot different people, we get talking about other courses that are available out there and the courses that my classmates have been doing previously.
And oftentimes we talk about web building because it’s a very hot subject. A lot of people are into web design, web building, whatever you want to call it, right? And they always refer to the fact that creating websites is actually a science because of all this HTML code and you’ve got to be learning to code. There’s thick books, thousands of pages covering the HTML code and all that. To me it’s nonsensical. And here is why.
Here’s Why Learning the HTML Code Doesn’t Make Any Sense to Me
I’ve been building websites for a good while now, right? EnglishHarmony.com is my main website but I have a number of other blogs which aren’t really as successful as English Harmony and lately I’ve been focusing on English Harmony only, right? But I have the AccentAdventure.com, EasyIdioms.com, BestEnglishFiction.com and other websites which are not actually related to the English language improvement and all that, right?
So I know a thing or two about web building and I know for a fact that you just have to learn the very basics of HTML to be successful at building websites. These days the software takes care of the HTML code in the background. And this is where I have to introduce the English grammar concept and it steps in in the sense that English grammar is just like the HTML code.
Studying English Grammar is Just Like Learning the HTML Code!
Your brain is the software, right? When you’re speaking, it’s the same way as the software creates a website. It spits out the code without you being consciously aware of the actual specifics of the code. So the very same way your brain and your mouth produces English speech without being actually consciously aware of all those grammar rules that happen in the background, right?
Yes, I will admit that you need to know certain HTML-related things and the same way you should treat the English grammar thing. You have to know certain rules but just like I’ve said a number of times in my previous videos and I’ve been repeating this ad nauseum, you don’t have to actually learn the rules and then apply them onto your speech, but you just have to learn all those grammar rules naturally by way of learning collocations, naturally occurring speech patterns and all that.
You Only Need to Know a Few Grammar Rules and the Basic HTML
But yes, sometimes you need to know some rules and then you may actually want to read this article where I’m putting down the main English grammar rules you need to know to start speaking fluently, right? There is very few actually, a handful of them, for that matter. And basically what I’m saying is the same way, you only need to know a few rules to speak fluently!
You only need to know a few things about the HTML code to build a website. Because your brain is just like the software that helps you to create the website and your brain and mouth helps you to speak. That’s what it does. You don’t have to actually be involved in the whole English grammar thing at all!
But this whole thing just goes to show that traditionally people are taught all these intricacies, all these little details whether it’s the English grammar rules or it’s the HTML code, right? So people are made to focus on all that and it’s very overwhelming. Because yes, as a matter of fact there’s huge books containing both English grammar rules and HTML codes, so people are under the impression that no matter what you learn whether it’s the English language or web building or whatnot, there’s so much information to acquire that you have to spend long, long years before you can actually become a decent person in that field, basically a specialist, right? But it’s all BS, right?
In reality you can start building websites within a matter of weeks. You don’t even have to spend months or years and you don’t have to learn all that HTML code. And same goes with the English language.
Traditionally People Are Made to Focus On the Wrong Things
But it’s just the way it is, the traditional way of teaching makes people focus on the wrong things and people get overwhelmed and they actually end up spending most of their time on things that they don’t actually need to know in order to be successful at whatever it is they’re learning. It’s a sad state of affairs but that’s just the way it is. And that’s why I’m running this video blog and this website to make you aware my dear fellow foreign English speakers that you don’t have to be focusing on all these little details that are happening in the background. Your brain – just like the software – is going to take care of them by itself without you being aware of that.
So basically what you have to do is just learn the basics and then let your brain and mouth take care of the rest the natural way, right? And speaking of building a website it’s a walk in the park. You basically create a WordPress blog because believe it or not but 90% of websites these days, well, probably not 90% but I’m just exaggerating to make my point, right, they are created using the WordPress platform which is very user friendly, it’s very self-intuitive and you don’t have to know anything about the HTML code whatsoever.
But obviously if you want to make your website look a bit more fancy and adjust certain things you need to know the basics of the HTML code but they’re very, very basic. Same way, you need to know the basic grammar rules, just the essentials in order to start speaking in English fluently, right?
So that was the message I wanted to send out to you my friends and in case you have any comments or questions obviously you’re free to publish them in the comments section below.
Thanks for watching and bye bye!
Robby
P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!
P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!