← Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson![[Part 2] 9 Science-based Life Hacks to Improve your English Learning Potential in 2026 🧠 [971] — Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson cover](https://assets.pippa.io/shows/62b0ada25c7ea10012f541cb/1767195491125-02f5beca-f7ef-478a-a95c-370a5b6c9d7f.jpeg)
Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson
[Part 2] 9 Science-based Life Hacks to Improve your English Learning Potential in 2026 🧠 [971]
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You're listening to Luke's English podcast. For visit teacherluke.co.uk. Hello listeners. Welcome back to Luke's English podcast. How are you doing today? I hope you're doing fine. So this is the second part of a two part episode. This is part two. Part one of this was published last week. So if you haven't heard part one yet, I recommend that you go back and listen to that first. It will help to put everything in context and will help you to understand understand this episode a bit more. So listen to part one first if you haven't already done so. It's the previous episode of this podcast. So the title of this episode is nine science based life hacks to improve your English learning potential. Part two. And basically what this is all about is nine bits of advice, nine tips, nine hacks for your life. Ways that you can change your behaviour, your habits, your mindset or your lifestyle every day to help you to be a better learner of English. Okay, it's not about specific study habits. I've done plenty of episodes about that kind of thing in the past. For example, episode 959 was called how to learn English with this podcast and that includes lots of advice on specific ways to improve English. You know, your skills and your use of different language systems in English. Check that episode out if you want to, but no, this one is all about just ways that you can change your behavior and the way you think in order to become the best learner of English that you can be. And all of the things I'm saying here are backed up by scientific research. I'll be referring to different scientific studies that relate to the different things I'm talking about. I'm talking about cognitive and behavioral psychology and psycholinguistics, insights from those worlds that help us to understand the best way to make yourself ready to learn English really, really well. Now, this is not really rocket science. I mean, this is not super complicated stuff. Some of the things that I'm saying in the episode are actually, you know, fairly obvious, really. But the point is, do you actually do things? And can you actually do these things, introduce these things into your life? Can you adopt the right habits to be a really great learner of English in 2026 in part dealt with the importance of staying hydrated, especially before you introduce caffeine into your system. And also I Talked about the 1% rule, also known as the aggregation of marginal gains. And how Olympic cycling can help you to learn English. And also how washing your hands and having a really good pillow can make a huge difference. There's a PDF for this one in the description. Check it out. You can read a lot of the things I'm. You can read all my notes for the episode. You could use that to search for vocabulary or just to read later. A great way to reinforce what you learn just through listening. Also, check out the mini walk and talk section in this episode. At a certain point, you can join me as I walk around the corridors of my building here. That's very exciting. But anyway, let's start the episode now. I hope you find it useful. I really hope you enjoy it. So without any further ado, let's continue nine science based life hacks to improve your English learning potential. And here we go. So let's move on to point three. And this is simply this. Take a power nap, but keep it short 10 to 20 minutes max. And you're thinking, thanks, Luke, but my name isn't Max. Take a power nap, but keep it short 10 to 20 minutes max. Now that just means 10 to 20 minutes maximum. I know you're maybe your name is Max. If that is the case, hello. Hi Max. Take a power nap. Okay, but keep it short. Just 10 to 20 minutes maximum, max. Right. So the problem, the problem. Here's the problem. Mental fatigue, tiredness, Builds up during the day and affects focus and memory. The science is short naps. So a nap, of course, is a short sleep, a siesta. Short naps under 30 minutes improve alertness. Your alertness is whether you are mentally awake or not and ready to respond to different stimulus stimuli. Alert. If you're not alert, you're like, eyes are half closed and people are saying, luke, Luke, Luke, Luke, Luke. So that's not alert. Alertness would be like, I'm sitting here like this and someone says, luke, yes, what is it? Even before they finish saying my name, I'm like, yes, how can I help you? God, he's very alert. Well, it's because he takes short naps and drinks water and, you know, sleeps on a. Just. That's why he's always got that pillow with him. He carries that pillow everywhere. Very good at cycling. So short naps under 30 minutes improve alertness and memory without causing sleep inertia. Sleep inertia is that feeling of grogginess. That's like that kind of feeling of if you sleep for longer than 30 minutes. Right? We've all been there. We all know this, right? This is true for everyone. All humans. We all have this experience. I think I'll take a nap. Yeah. Oh, a little nap and you fall asleep on the sofa. Two hours later or an hour, an hour later you wake up, oh, where am I? What is. Where is. What is this place? What is my name? What year is it? Who's the president? We've all experienced that. That's called sleep inertia, apparently otherwise known as. As grogginess. Feeling groggy is the sort of normal, sort of common English word for it. Feeling. I slept for too long. I'm feeling so groggy. Oh dear. I need to wake up. Splash cold water in your face. That's the solution to everything. Drink a glass of water, splash cold water in your face. Because if you feel groggy. So NASA. NASA came up with this one. NASA? Yes, the space people. Short naps under 30 minutes improve alertness and memory without causing grogginess. The hack well take a 10 to 20 minute nap anytime between 1 and 3pm this will clear your mental cache. Your mental cache. It's basically like the list of things in your brain that your brain is trying to deal with in that moment, right? That affects your brain's sort of ram memory processing abilities, abilities. So clear your mental cache, have a little nap. Just clears your mind. That's another way of saying clear your mind. It boosts language Retention, meaning your ability to hold on to language, retain it, remember it, keep it. And it will improve speaking fluency and reaction time. So what do you think? Maybe you already do this. Maybe you think it's silly to consider having a nap as part of your language learning routine. Like, I came here to learn English, Luke, not to be told to fall asleep for 20 minutes. I mean, maybe that's. Maybe that's you. Is that you? Maybe. And you're like, no, no, I wouldn't do that, Luke. I don't speak like that. That's annoying. In any case, there are scientific studies which back this up. Here is the science behind short naps. 10 to 20 minutes. Even though it did say 30 minutes earlier. But anyway, it seems that 10 to 20 minutes is the key thing. A power nap, right? The key study was the NASA NAP study from 1995. The title, here's a catchy title for you. Countermeasures for Circadian Desynchrony. That's not clickbait. Unless you are. Unless you love that kind of language. Countermeasures for Circadian Desynchrony. This was NASA in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration, the FA or faa. Because they do travel far, don't they, dad? Joke. Now, this is. This is better, right? This is better. NASA. Federal Aviation Administration. Learning from NASA. Astronauts, not cyclists. Flying through space is a bit harder than riding a bike. Although imagine how confident you would have to be to take a nap while doing it. In an astronaut report where we are entering the Earth. You know, what would it be leaving the Earth orbit in 5, 4, 3. Can I just take a nap? Sure, go ahead. You know, you'd have to be very confident to just be napping in space. But apparently very important. Useful. The lead researcher on this, of course, was Dr. Mark Rosekind, a sleep scientist at NASA Ames Ames Research Center. A sleep scientist. He could. He could. He can sleep as much as he wants on his. In his job, can't he? Who's that? Oh, Mark. Yeah, Always asleep. Oh, he's a sleep scientist at NASA. Oh, right. Okay, fair enough. Findings. A 10 to 20 minute nap improved alertness by 100% and it improved performance by 34%. I have no idea how they measured alertness or performance or how they arrived at the figure of 100% improvement of alertness. But this is interesting. These gains were observed in pilots and astronauts, but they generalize well to anyone doing mentally demanding tasks like learning a language or preparing for public speaking, or in fact, doing public speaking. NASA concluded that short naps are one of the most effective strategies for counteracting fatigue. Wow. It took NASA to work out that the best way to deal with tiredness is to have some rest. Amazing. Anyway, short naps are one of the most effective strategies for counteracting fatigue and maintaining high cognitive function, especially during long mentally draining tasks. So what happens during a short nap other than a bit of saliva coming out of the side of your mouth and maybe some snoring? Here's what happens. So, minutes of sleep, between 0 and 10 minutes of sleeping. What's going on? What's happening? Light relaxation, still semi alert. So you're still semi alert. So if someone says, Luke, Luke, Luke. What? But the benefit is it calms the nervous system 10 to 20 minutes. You enter light stage one and stage two sleep. This is non REM sleep. Right. So that's before you enter REM sleep. Light stage one and stage two sleep. I suppose that's the feeling of when you start to drift away, which is a wonderful feeling when you have that nap and you just, your thoughts sort of start drift off into the astral zone and you melt into a semi dreamlike state where before you know it, you're thinking about all sorts of weird stuff. You're almost dreaming, but you're deaf. But you could wake up quite quickly. Stage one and stage two sleep. This boosts alertness, memory and focus without grogginess. Then more than 30 minutes of sleep you enter, you enter slow wave sleep. Hmm, this is deeper. A deeper sleep. Maybe where your breathing starts to slow down as well. Now here there is a risk of sleep and inertia. Waking up groggy and disoriented. Disorientated. Disoriented. Is that a word? I think it is. Hmm. Okay, let's ask Oxford Learners dictionaries.com We have disoriented and disorientated. Let's start with disorientated. Disorientated in British English. Disorientated in American English. But also we do have disoriented. Obviously this is very important that we check. According to Google Gemini, both disoriented and disorientated are correct and mean the same thing. To feel confused or to lose one's sense of. Of direction. The primary difference is geography. Disoriented is the standard and preferred form in American English. This is why I knew something was funny, something was up. It was like something's going on here. Because it's American English. Disorientated is common and widely accepted in British English. Even though, though even in the uk. Disoriented is becoming increasingly popular because it's shorter. So there you go. So they're both fine. Disorientated is a bit more common in the uk. Disoriented in American English, but you know, everyone will understand either. But yes, for more than 30 minutes you risk waking up groggy and disoriented, or disorientated, as I would say. And for more than 90 minutes you enter the full sleep cycle, including REM sleep. This is useful for emotional processing and creativity, but not ideal. Midday. Unless you are sleep deprived or just have nothing better to do with your time. So why short naps work for learners? When you're learning English, especially if you're doing mentally demanding tasks, listening, speaking, concentrating, just using English or switching between languages, which obviously is very common, or feeling frustration or fatigue, your prefrontal cortex, that's the part of the brain responsible for decision making, planning and working memory, gets tired. A short nap gives it a mini reset. Here are benefits backed by science. You will get improved working memory, better retention of new words or phrases, Sharper focus, increased attention for tasks like grammar exercises or conversation. Reduced stress. Having a little nap helps reduce cortisol, which is a stress hormone, and it can support emotional regulation, basically maintaining your positivity and your emotional ebullience. Faster reaction times. It's useful in live conversations or comprehension tasks. Or those moments when your teacher suddenly asks you a question in front of the whole class. You Max. And Max is like, oh, sorry. Rubs his eyes. Yes, what is it, Luke? Because he only slept for 10 minutes in my lesson, to be fair. But you know, that's all right, Max. I forgive you. Anyway, how to use naps effectively. Duration 10 to 20 minutes. Max. Okay, Max. Set yourself a timer. Just set a timer for 10 minutes. The best time is between 1pm and 3pm because your body naturally dips in alertness during that time. Location Quiet, dark and cool, if possible. That's cool. Meaning temperature. Not cool like a jazz club from the 1970s. Although that could be a great place for a nap, to be fair. You know, during the day when there's no actual concert happening, it's. It's a, you know, a cool jazz club. Hey, man, how you doing? I've just come for a nap. Yeah, okay. I'm looking for a cool place. Yeah, groovy. Anyway, eye masks or earplugs help position. Reclining. That means leaning. Leaning back. Leaning back in your seat so your body is at an angle. That's ideal. But even resting your head on a desk can work. Just please don't do it. Please don't do it during one of my lessons. I've spoken before on the podcast about coming into classrooms in the break time. So having a break. Okay, everyone, 10 minute break. See you again in 10 minutes. All right. We go away for 10 minutes. I come back to the classroom and some of the students are there with their foreheads directly on the desk, leaning forwards, arms by the sides, foreheads directly on the desk. And I'm like, oh my God. Because for me that looks like they've just given up all hope. Just bam. Head on the desk. Looks kind of alarming to me. But in some cultures that's just a normal way to have a little power nap. But during break time, please, not actually during the class. Thank you very much, Max. Okay, Additional research and commentary Mednick et al. From 2002 showed that naps can be as effective as a full night's sleep for improving motor, memory and visual learning. I doubt that, to be honest. I mean, seriously, a nap can be as effective as a full night's sleep. Well, I can't argue with the science, but still. Also, Brooks and lack from 2006 found that 10 minute naps had the most immediate benefits, while longer naps had delayed or mixed effects due to that's it, Sleep, inertia, grogginess. Harvard Health Publishing recommends naps for boosting alertness and performance, but cautions against napping too late in the day, which can disrupt nighttime sleep. I wonder how much time and energy they put into researching that. For learners of English specifically, imagine doing this study vocabulary for 25 minutes, then take a 15 minute nap, then review or practice the same material. You will likely remember more, feel calmer, and be more articulate in your speaking or writing afterwards. I suppose this relies on you having an appropriate place to nap. Sometimes I'm desperate to nap myself, but I'm not really in an appropriate spot to do it. I have been known to nap for 10 minutes in the teacher's room and people often comment on it because everyone's rushing around in the teacher's room preparing their lessons and I'm just there in the chair with my eyes closed, maybe with a bit of saliva running and what? In some cultures, public napping is more normal than others. I think I picked up the public napping thing from my time in Japan because I will have a little nap on the train or on the bus without really feeling strange about it. Maybe I picked that up from my time in Japan. Did I ever tell you that I used to live in Japan. I did. I was asleep for, I would say about 50% of my time there. And that's just napping hours, just constantly asleep, even during lessons. Luke. Ruku. Ruku. That's not how all Japanese people say my name, of course. Luke Sensei. Oh, what? That's not true. Of course. I was very professional and fully conscious at all times when working. Right, let's move on to number four. And this is take a five minute walk outside. And again you're thinking to yourself, when is learning English actually part of this? Because as far as I can tell, like having a sleep, going for a walk, what were the other things? Having a glass of water. Sure there was the 1% thing, fine. But all these other things that don't really involve actually learning English. Luke. Well, if you were listening carefully in my introduction at the beginning of this whole thing, I did say that these are life hacks. If you want specific learning English tips and techniques. Episode 959 is full of those things and countless other episodes in my archive. I say countless. I mean you could count them, but anyway, I've done that before. But this is all stuff that's designed to help put you in the right state of mind and body to be a tip top learner of English. So point four is to take a five minute walk outside. The problem is this. Long periods of sitting and studying indoors reduce blood flow to the brain, limit sensory input and increase mental fatigue. Over time, this can lower motivation, impair memory and make learning feel frustrating or joyless. You'll just be sitting there, just, oh God, I'm learning English. But to be honest, the joy disappeared from this process 35 minutes ago. Oh well, we'll just carry on, I suppose. No, stop. Have a little walk outside. Walk round the block. The science behind this is this. A growing body of research shows that brief low intensity walking, especially in natural environments, has profound effects on cognitive function and emotional well being. The cognitive benefits of this improved working memory and focus. A Stanford study, Opezzo and Schwartz from 2014 found that participants who walked even on a treadmill, that's one of those walking machines, that's not a machine that can walk, but I mean a machine that allows you to walk indoors. I mean you can normally, you can. We can walk indoors anyway, but you know what I mean, it's one of a treadmill walking machine. Participants who walked even on a treadmill Indoors showed a 60% increase in creative output compared to those who sat. The effect lasted even after they sat back down, showing that walking Temporarily boosts divergent thinking and problem solving. Divergent thinking. This is where you find new ways of thinking about something. Increased blood flow to the brain. Oh, just that lovely warm blood flow to the brain. Walking increases cerebral blood circulation, circulation, delivering more oxygen and glucose to the brain. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Bit of glucose in the brain there. This improves alertness, reaction time and concentration. If there was some way to combine this walking with the previous point, napping, then. Oh, that would be good. You'd be able to walk around your neighbourhood and have a nap while you do it, potentially leveraging maximum compound cerebral gains in the process. Just a thought. Maybe something for the tech bros to invent. Sleepwalking. Sleepwalking. There you go. Sleep walking. A study, Ainslie et al. From 2008 showed that walking leads to measurable improvements in middle cerebral artery blood flow velocity. Another catchy sentence. Better encoding and recall of new information. Obviously very important for language learners. A 2017 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that physical movement enhances hippocampal activity. We know about. We know about the hippocampus, right? This is where the hippos go to university in your brain. Yes. Physical movement enhances hippocampal activity, a brain region crucial for forming new memories, especially verbal and spatial ones. Learn English on your feet. Why not learn English on your feet today? Listen to Luke's English podcast when you are out and about having a little walk. Emotional and psychological benefits, stress reduction and mood boosting. Walking outdoors, especially in green spaces, reduces cortisol levels and promotes the release of dopamine and serotonin. Oh, lovely. Neurochemicals related to pleasure and motivation. Yum yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. A lovely cocktail of dopamine, serotonin, glucose and oxygen. That's based on a study by Berman Ert Al from 2012. Walks in nature improve mood and reduce rumination, which is a common feature of anxiety and overthinking. That's where you just sit there thinking and not actually doing anything. Maybe worrying, stressing. Rumination. Sitting. Like the thinker in that sculpture. Rodin sculpture. The thinker sitting there with his chin on his fist, just ruminating. Oh, God. What's the matter? I just can't seem to get anything done today. Well, did you drink coffee first thing? Well, yeah, of course I did. I always do. What's it to you? Who are you anyway? Sorry, I've just been listening to a podcast and. Never mind. Just. I'll let you get Back to your ruminating yes, breaks a little walk breaks negative thought loops. Even a short walk interrupts mental spirals. Spiral is where you go round and down, round and down. A mental spiral is where one negative thought leads to another negative thought and another negative thought and before you know it you're doom scrolling through some social media app and you feel pretty rubbish and you're not getting anything done. A mental spiral, even a short walk interrupts mental spirals or repetitive thoughts, helping learners come back to study with a calmer and clearer head. Here's a bonus Nature adds extra power Nature Power the power of Nature Walking in a park, garden or tree lined street boosts the benefits even more. This is known as attention restoration theory by Kaplan from 1995 which suggests that natural environments help your brain recover from mental fatigue much more effectively than urban or indoor spaces. Practical tips for you do this between study blocks. Use walking as a mental reset between language input and output. For example, after studying grammar, take a little walk and then actually try and activate your grammar through speaking. Take English with you, listen to a podcast, describe what you see aloud, or repeat vocabulary as you walk. So while walking, try and do some English. Practice at the same time listening, talking, sort of trying to remember Vocab thinking in your head in English. Use it to calm nerves before speaking. If you're nervous about a lesson, a meeting, or an exam, then walk beforehand. The movement helps regulate your nervous system and boosts verbal fluency. Even two minutes can help. A 2020 study published in Nature Neuroscience showed that even short bursts of light activity, like two to five minutes of walking, measurably improved mood and task engagement in adults, especially after long sedentary sessions. Sedentary means being still, not moving. Okay, I've been sedentary now for quite a while, recording this. I'm going to have to take a little walk through the corridors of my building, or maybe just wave my hands in the air or something. I'll look a bit stupid while doing it, but who cares because I'm going to leverage maximum compound cognitive gains while doing it. So there. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. A summary of all this? Do I need a summary? It boosts creativity, improves memory, enhances focus, calms anxiety, breaks monotony. Let's move on to this section that says what if you can't walk in nature? You might be thinking, but Luke, I can't walk in nature. Well, urban and indoor alternatives still work, so urban walks still help. Even if your walk is along a busy road or through city streets Movement alone still improves brain function. Studies show the act of walking anywhere increases blood flow, releases dopamine and improves memory and attention. Even without nature. The Stanford study from Opezzo and Schwartz found that indoor treadmill walking had nearly the same creativity benefits as walking outdoors. So try this. Walk around your block, up and down the stairs, through a shopping centre or even the corridor of your building. Carry earphones and listen to English input. While walking. Focus on breathing slowly, noticing colors, smells or textures. Lovely dirty brown colour of the floor that's certainly very dirty and brown. Or, you know, you could say, oh, look, that car is very red, isn't it? That is a very red car. That car is very red. Right? Smells. As you walk through the streets of your city. What is that smell? Oh. Oh, what's that? Oh, that's disgusting. Right, keep walking, keep walking. Oh, that smell of air pollution. Lovely. But, you know, being mindful can actually activate your sensory attention system. Look at that lovely tree. I can see the leaves starting to emerge. Spring is nearly here, you might think, or you might look out upon a wintry scene in your town and go, isn't it wintry? Isn't it cold? Isn't it bleak? There's a certain beauty to that, isn't there? You can get all profound and pretentious if you want while you have your walk. Also, use visual nature. If you can't go to nature, bring it to you. Just get yourself a plant and just sit with a house plant right in your face for a good, good 20 minutes. I'm joking. You can look at pictures of nature or videos of nature. Research says even looking at images or videos of nature has calming and restorative effects. In a 2015 study, Brattmann et al from Stanford again showed that participants who viewed nature scenes rather than city images showed lower anxiety levels and reduced activity in the brain's rumination center. Let me just bring my plant. You hear? That's the sound of the plant rubbing against the microphone, which is gonna. Just knowing that there's a lovely peace lily on the table next to me is already. I can tell you, it's already lowering your anxiety levels and reducing activity in your brain's rumination center. The lovely freshness of a green plant. I'll just put that on the side of. Just put that beside me here. It needed a bit of water, this plant. When I came into my podcasting room after being away during my Christmas holidays, the plant needed a bit of water. I've given it water. It's. It's coming back to Life nicely. Try this. Play a YouTube video of a forest or a beach. Walk on your screens as you stretch or pace. That means walk up and down indoors. Use a nature themed screensaver or phone background. Look out of the window. There's an idea. What an innovative idea. Look out of the window and if there's any greenery, enjoy it or even look up at the sky. Today I've got a beautiful blue sky here that I can see out of the window. But even on a cloudy day, I think there's still some enjoyment in observing the forms of nature. And it's apparently very restorative and good for us. Indoor walking or pacing again, pacing. That means walking fairly quickly up and down, like when you're. If you're Sherlock Holmes trying to solve a problem. Even walking around your apartment or pacing back and forth counts because you're still engaging your motor system. Right? That's the cognitive, neurological and muscular skeletal system involved in moving. You're also still activating your brain's hippocampus, which is linked to memory and learning. You're breaking up sedentary time, which improves alertness and make it productive. Shadow short English phrases while pacing. So just sort of repeat some phrases out loud while walking. Recall and say five new words you learned today. Practice small talk out loud as you walk around your space. Movement substitutes for brain refreshment if walking really isn't possible. Any kind of light physical movement can give similar benefits. So try a bit of stretching, do some gentle yoga, bit of light dancing, even just swaying to music or just moving to music in your room. Stepping in place for two minutes. Just stepping up and down for two to three minutes, standing up and reaching your arms above your head. This activates restibular and proprioceptive systems. Let me just try a bit of that. Oh my. Vestibular and proprioceptive systems feel very active. All of these things will help releasing muscle tension, improving circulation and resetting your mental state. The list goes on. Combine micro movement with language practice. Even with limited space, you can walk in place. Reviewing flashcards. Do 10 toe touches between grammar questions. So what's the difference between present perfect simple and present perfect continuous? Well, okay, present perfect simple is like, you know, sort of completed Things like I have. Like what? For example, talk about reading a book. Well, I have read 300 pages. Excellent. Okay, what about present perfect continuous? Can you think of an example? Hold on a sec. Just touching my toes. Well, I've been reading this book for three weeks now and it's great. Well done. Okay, stand up and Explain a topic aloud instead of writing it. So instead of sitting down writing your language, practice, you stand up on your feet and say it out loud. This blends physical and mental activity, which is great for retention, confidence and energy. The bottom line is this. You don't need a forest. You don't need 10,000 steps. You just need to move a little, reset your brain and re engage your senses. Even if you walk in a small circle indoors like some sort of caged tiger, look at a tree from a window. Just gaze at a tree out of a window for a while. Pace with a podcast in your ear. Even if you do just those things, you're still activating the same cognitive and emotional systems that support English learning. Just a thought for you. Presumably this also works for cycling. Yes, here we go again. Cycling. Just imagine the gains you could make by taking a nap with a really great pillow and then washing your hands like a surgeon and going for a refreshing bike ride while drinking a glass of water. You won't actually need to study English at all with that routine. It would just all just happen. I'm kidding, right? As I said earlier, these aren't specific study tips. Listen to episode 959 for that. But anyway, little lifestyle hacks. It's good, isn't it? Yes. Right.
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I have to tell you, I was just looking on ebay where I go for all kinds of things I love. And there it was. That hologram trading card. One of the rarest. The last one I needed for my set.
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One of a kind. Ebay had it. And now everyone's asking, ooh, where'd you get your windshield wipers? Ebay has all the parts that fit my car. No more annoying, just beautiful.
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Millions of finds, each with a story.
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Ebay things people love. Number five. I love this one. And it is. Splash cold water on your face. Just splash some cold water on your face. This is basically the solution to any problem, I think that and just having a cup of tea. So what's the matter? Lost your job? Splash some cold water on your face. Got a job interview coming up. Don't worry. Splash some cold water on your face. Didn't get the job. It's okay. Splash some more cold water on your face. It's going to be all right. Have you got a permanently cold and wet face? Don't worry. Simply splash some more cold water on your face and have a cup of tea. Everything will be fine. Okay. I'm just kidding. Let's try to take this seriously. Actually, no, let's not try to take this seriously. I don't know. What do you think you're thinking, Luke? I would prefer it if you just took this completely seriously all the time. Or are you thinking? No, I think these moments of levity help to make this an enjoyable experience. Luke. Yes. I don't know your mind. Anyway, the problem. What's the problem? What is the problem? Well, the problem is this. Stress and panic before speaking, freeze your brain. Stress and panic. I've got to speak. Your brain becomes frozen. Yes. It's as if Mr. Freeze from the movie Batman and Robin, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, Mr. Freeze, has come into your brain and he says, ice to see you. Yes, another Arnold Schwarzenegger impression back by popular demand. Eyes to see you. What else did he say in that film? What are some of the lines he said in that film as well? The ice age cometh. I think that was one of them. There were some others as well. There were some other terrible lines that he said in that he was like an iceman who froze. He had like a freezing ice gun that froze things and he would like turn up at a party and go, is it me or is it cold in here? Yes, the science. Cold exposure activates the diving reflex, which slows your heart rate and calms the nervous system. That was by Pantone, not one of those Italian cakes, but Panetton from 2013. So the hack is this. Splash cold water on your face for a few seconds before a stressful moment. For example, a conversation, exam or interview. Okay, sure, you will have a wet face, but it's quick, natural and instantly resets your nervous system. That is quite a big claim. Isn't it just. It instantly resets your nervous system. Really just. It resets the whole nervous system. Anyway, here are some more details. The diving reflex. This is actually pretty fascinating. What happens when you splash cold water on your face? Well, the mammalian diving reflex. So mammalian is an adjective relating to the word mammal. A mammal is a type of animal, right? Humans are mammals. Mammals. I talked about my. I talked with my daughter, who is also a mammal, about this. We talked about mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, birds. These are different types of animal. Mammals usually suckle their children with milk. Female mammals produce milk. Mammals don't lay eggs. What are the other characteristic features of a mammal? That's probably it. Anyway. Mammalian is related to the word mammal. So it's a. Mammals are types of animals. So the mammalian diving reflex, sometimes called the dive response, is a natural oxygen conserving survival mechanism triggered by cold water contacting the face, especially around the eyes, nose and forehead. This reflex is most pronounced in aquatic mammals like seals and whales, but humans still retain a strong version of it. Okay, this makes sense now. So what happens physiologically when cold water that's below about 21 degrees centigrade touches your face? Here's what happens. First of all, trigeminal. Trigeminal nerve activation. And I'm assuming that's pronounced trigeminal. Or is it trigamenal? I'm saying trigeminal. Trigeminal nerve activation. Is that correct? Okay, I was right to check this. It's not trigeminal, it's triaminal. Of course, that G is pronounced with a Y sound. Triaminal nerve activation. Okay, so just next time you need to talk about. Not triaminal nerve activation. It's pronounced triaminal. Okay, so traminal nerve activation. Cold receptors in the skin, particularly around the forehead and nose, stimulates the triaminal nerve, one of the major cranial nerves. Head nerves. This sends a powerful signal to the brain stem that your body is entering a survival mode and must conserve oxygen. So cold water touches the triminal nerve and the triminal nerve goes quickly. Conserve oxygen to the brain and the brain goes. Right. Okay, roger that. Got it. Slowing of the heart rate. Bradycardia. Bradycardia. Bradycardia. The brain responds by reducing heart rate, sometimes by 10 to 25% to preserve energy and oxygen for vital organs. So the triminal nerve goes.
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Quick.
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Conserve oxygen. And the brain goes, Right. Heart. No, it's okay, don't panic. Slow down a bit. Just chill out. 10 to 25%. Okay? This calming effect is immediate and measurable. The heart goes, okay, man, I got this. Let's just take it easy. And everyone gets calm immediately. And measurably. Peripheral vasoconstriction Blood vessels. As the vaso. It relates to blood vessels, blood vessels in the limbs that's your arms and legs constrict, redirecting blood to the brain and heart. This maintains blood pressure and protects the brain's function during moments of stress. Fourth, there is a shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic dominance. The sympathetic nervous system, which is relating to the fight or flight mechanism, is dialed down. So it's like, it's all right, no need to fight, no need to flight. Take it easy. The parasympathetic nervous system, which is related to rest and I guess digestion takes over, slowing breathing, calming your thoughts and restoring a feeling of control. It's everything, it's all right, we got this. Everything's under control. So basically bring a bowl of cold water to your Ielts speaking exam and you can say to the examiner, sorry, I'm just triggering my traminal nerve, sending a powerful signal to my brain stem and activating my peripheral vasoconstriction to maintain blood pressure, causing a shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic sympathetic dominance. Just to make sure I don't forget any phrasal verbs or grammar or anything. Sorry, what was the question? I'm sure the examiner will understand. Splash, splash, splash. There you go. Scientific evidence and research. Panetton. In 2013, the study was called the Mammalian Diving response, an enigmatic reflex to preserve life. Question mark. Panetton found that the diving reflex triggers a multi system survival response that protects the brain and heart under stress. He demonstrated how cold stimuli on the face activate pathways in the nucleus tractus solitaris, the nts, right. A part of the brainstem that regulates heart rate, breathing and blood pressure. This reflex, he said, largely overlooked, provides an effective autonomic shift that can be therapeutically harnessed to reduce anxiety, panic and even cardiac cardiac arrhythmias. And everyone said, sorry, Panetton, could you repeat that? And he goes, okay. This reflex, though largely overlooked, provides an effective autonomic shift that can be therapeutically harnessed to reduce anxiety, panic and even cardiac arrhythmias. Haha. Panetton felt very happy with himself after that research in anxiety and panic regulation. Studies in emergency medicine and trauma psychology have explored how the diving response can counteract acute panic symptoms, not systems symptoms. Acute panic symptoms. Acute means strong and very specific, right? Like, like very powerful panic symptoms. Like, ah, you know when you panic? Like ah, God, there's a shark. Help. Put your face in the water, quick. Put the shark's in the water. Ah. I don't know what to do. I've got acute panic symptoms, okay? But the diving response can actually counteract this even if you are in already in the water with a shark. That is a difficult one, isn't it? It. Let's just hope you don't have to deal with that. One study, Fasser Childs et al. From 2017, suggested that immersing the face in cold water led to rapid decreases in perceived stress and subjective tension. That's basically, you're in the water, there's a shark in the water, your head is above the water, you're panicking massively. Put your face in the water, oh, it's not such a big deal. Look at that beautiful shark. I'm joking, of course, but these scientific findings do seem to support this whole idea. Here's why it's useful for language learners. Moments of speaking English, especially in front of native speakers, for some reason, as if native speakers are more important than anyone else. I don't know why, but I know that's not always the case. Sometimes I think my learners of English feel nervous in front of other learners of English too, especially if they feel that they're judging them. But I suppose it's anyone that you feel is higher, has a higher level of skill or ability in the thing you're doing. For example, if I was to play tennis in front of a whole bunch of brilliant tennis players, I would feel extra nervous. I would. So anyway, moments of speaking English, especially in front of native speakers during tests or public presentations often trigger these things. And I'm sure you've noticed them. Fast breathing, rapid heart rate, mind blanking or mind blanking. That's where you. Oh God, I don't know what to say or just. It's the sound in your brain where the examiner says, so what do you think of the idea of. I don't know. What's the examiner asking? So how's traffic in your area? It's bad. Okay, mark that one down. Difficulty retrieving vocabulary. What was that word again? God, we've all been there. These are classic signs of a sympathetic nervous system spike, AKA the fight or flight response. That's where you're in a presentation situation and someone says, but what about the future market predictions going forward over the next three quarters? How is that likely to impact the marketing sector of our business? And you go, Sorry, I'm just. Just experiencing a sympathetic nervous system spike. Just bear with me for a second. It's a very good question. So a sympathetic nervous system. I like that idea. It's like your nervous system is sympathetic and says, oh, poor you. Oh, you're feeling stressed. Well, look, Let me control your blood pressure and reduce your fight and flight response for you. And how about a nice hot cup of tea or a splash of cold water in your face? That's the sympathetic nerve. Actually, that's the parasympathetic nervous system. In fact, that's what's responsible for slow breathing and digestion. Let me just digest your food a little bit for you. Anyway, cold water to the face can help to quickly flip these stressful moments because it can help learners to regain calm and composure. Slow, racing thoughts speak more clearly and confidently. So when you're in that sales presentation, what about our marketing projections going forward over the next three quarters? What about that? And you go, hold on a second. Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash, splash, splash. Well, the indications are that we're in a strong position going forward and I think that we'll achieve competitivity quite comfortably. Any further questions? Now, let me just dry my face here with this towel. So how to use this technique practically. So always carry a bottle of chilled water with you. So you've got splash and reset, which is low effort. So splash cold water over your face for 10 to 30 seconds, focus on the water hitting your cheeks, nose and forehead and obviously dry your face and breathe slowly. Just pop to the toilet. Splash, splash, splash. Dry, dry, dry. Deep breath. Okay, take a deep breath outside the toilet. Fine. Or you could use an ice pack or a cool cloth. So this is where you don't need a sink, you don't need actual water. Just use an ice pack or a cool cloth. Press a cold, damp towel, which you may have kept in the fridge or something, or an ice pack to your face. Just press it against your face like that. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds while breathing deeply. Oh, that feels rather wonderful, actually. Combine this with box breathing. More on that later. After splashing, sit quietly and use box breathing. I'll tell you what that is in a moment. But, you know, that's basically inhaling, holding and exhaling for a certain amount of time because this doubles the calming effect. The only problem is that you will have a wet face, as we've already established. But, you know, the wet face thing, that might be a bit of a problem during an IELTS speaking test or job interview. But seriously though, this does work and generally and genuinely can help you to calm down and do your best. Also, holding a cold bottle in your hands can help you to cool down, which helps to prevent blushing. If you're the sort of person who, in stressful moments, goes red in the face and you overheat a little bit. Hold a cold water, a cold bottle of water in your hands, and it just helps to cool you down a little bit. Also, maybe even holding it, if it's not too weird, you can even hold it up to your neck. Maybe you do that in private because it's going to look a bit strange holding up a bottle of water to your throat. But holding it in your hands can help you to cool down. Helps to prevent blushing when your face goes red. Just ask communications expert Matt Abrahams from episode 879, which was called Think Fast, Talk Smart Communication Techniques for Spontaneous Speaking with Matt Abrahams. That was episode 879. That was a really good one, even if I say so myself. Point number six is this. Write it down. Use your journal as a memory backup. Okay, everybody, write it down. Use your journal as a memory backup. You know what, listeners, before we get into point six and then seven, eight, and nine, let me just take a little break and I'm going to do what I said earlier and just go for a little walk. I'm just going to walk around the corridors of my building here just to get that lovely glucose flowing into my brain. And what were the other things? Dopamine. I just fancy a little bit of dopamine. So I'm just gonna walk around the corridors a little bit. You can come with me if you want. Should we go for a little walk? Come on, let's do that. Okay, I'll continue with this in just a moment. So let's. Let's go for a little walk through the corridors. Okay, let's go for a little walk. Ah, stretching the legs. It feels good. Feels good to stretch my legs. That's too close. Can you hear me? Just gonna walk around. Around. I can kind of walk around this. These corridors in a loop like this. Just walk around and around and around. How's the episode going for you? It's quite long, isn't it? Well, it's just the way it goes, but I think it's interesting. I hope it's entertaining and fun for you. All these doors. Some people live here, some people just use these as storage. It's normal for these old Parisian buildings to have a floor like this at the top of the building with these little rooms. They used to be like servants quarters, But these days, as I said, used for storage. Or maybe, like students sometimes stay in these little rooms or someone like me uses them as a podcasting room. Don't know anyone else who does podcasting in this building. It is good, you know, it's good to stretch the legs. I've been sitting there for quite a while doing that. Ah, lovely, lovely bit of dopamine. Do leave your comments in the comments section. If you've got responses to this episode, I'm curious to know what you think. I've got a funny feeling that my voice is not going to be very clear in this little section because of the microphone and the echoey nature of this place. But there you go. That was a nice little walk. And I think that we can carry on now as I go back into my room. Here we go. Okay, I'm back now. That was a nice little walk. I feel like my nervous system has been completely reset and I'm ready to continue with all my faculties optimized. So point six then, is this. Write it down. Use your journal as a memory backup. A journal, writing a diary. Write things down in a diary and do it by hand. So here is the problem. Our working memory is limited. Trying to remember everything creates cognitive overload, which is basically like when you feel like your brain is a room in the top of your house, like your loft, and you've put too many things in there and eventually you can't. It just overloads and stuff starts falling out. Or like a cupboard in your bedroom and you keep stuffing clothes in there and towels and sheets, and then the doors won't close and then everything falls out. Cognitive overload. So the science here is this. Writing information by hand improves recall and deep learning. And that's Mueller and Oppenheimer from 2014. The hack is keep a language and life journal or write a diary. Use it to record new vocabulary. Reflect on your progress. Express how you feel in English or your native language. Yeah, express how you feel. Express how you feel in English, I think, not in your native language. Right. If we're trying to learn English, record and use new bits of English you have learned or noticed. Yeah. So writing by hand, why it supercharges your memory. The problem is typing notes or passively reading often leads to shallow learning. Many learners copy things mechanically but forget them quickly. They also skip reflection and rarely engage with new language deeply enough to make it stick. I mean, technology allows us to do this more and more easily. Copy, paste, copy this, from this to this, get chat, GPT to just generate a bunch of like vocab prompts or examples and things. A lot of it's made a lot more convenient. But in the process that takes something out. Some of the processing involved in us writing things out by hand, the science is writing by hand Improves learning. Mueller and Oppenheimer from 2014. The study title was this. The pen is Mightier than the Keyboard Advantages of Longhand over Laptop Note Taking. It was published in Psychological Science. The core finding was students who took notes by hand versus writing on a laptop performed significantly better on both factual recall and conceptual understanding. Handwriting forces you to process and reframe the information in your own words, not just transcribe it. Taking notes by hand requires different types of cognitive processing and these different processes lead to better learning. That's a quote from the study, why handwriting works so well. Here are the neurological reasons it engages more of the brain. Handwriting activates visual, motor and cognitive areas of the brain, including the sensorimotor cortex, prefrontal cortex and language centers. This multisensory engagement strengthens memory encoding and retrieval. I suppose this is something to do with the fact that, you know, there is a lot more precise and specific movement and control involved in writing, you know, the handwriting. And as we know, engaging more parts of the brain in a task helps to sort of helps things to stay in our minds more effectively and allows us to retrieve those things again more effectively. It's all about increasing the number of neurological connections involved in a piece of information or a task. The study is this. James and Engelhardt from 2012 found that children who learned letters by handwriting showed greater brain activation in reading related areas than those who learned by typing. So reading related areas were activated more when children learned letters by handwriting. It promotes deeper processing. You can type verbatim, meaning type everything exactly as it's. You know, you can type it up just word for word, but you can't handwrite everything at the same speed. So your brain is forced to summarise, reformulate and select key information. So I suppose what this means is that when someone is talking to you, like in a university lecture, you can type it all out, you can type more quickly, and so you tend to type often very similar to what's almost exactly the same thing that's being said. But when you're writing by hand, you have to reformulate, you have to make more decisions about what you're writing. You have to select key information. And this extra level of processing, I suppose embeds information more deeply in your brain. This encourages generative note taking, which supports long term understanding. That's interesting, isn't it? I mean, obviously you can't type that fast. I mean, it's hard to type out word for word. A lecture that someone is giving, that's a very difficult task because eventually you're going to make mistakes and you're going to have to go back and correct them. But the point is that we can type faster than we can write by hand. And so writing by hand, taking notes on what someone is saying by hand, forces us to do these other things. Summarize, reformulate, select key information. It increases focus and reduces distraction. Laptops and phones are multitasking traps for obvious reasons. You're on your laptop, you're on your phone, there's all sorts of other bits of information coming at you that will distract you from what you're doing, right? I mean, even now podcasting with my laptop, I get little notifications popping up on the screen. I should put my computer on too. Sleep mode or whatever it is. Do not disturb. I should do that to cancel out the notifications. But I actually do want to be able to get notifications just in case my wife needs to call me or something. But these things pop out and pop up when I'm using my computer. Whereas if I've just got a piece of paper and I'm writing, there are fewer distractions. So handwriting is single tasked and it's tactile. Tactile, meaning that it involves touching and moving. You will probably stay more engaged and less tempted to skim, switch or scroll onto other platforms. Practical Tips for Learners of English Even a few minutes a day of handwriting can yield real benefits. Here's how to apply it so Keep a learning diary. I've said it before, I've said it again. Keep a learning diary. Or just write some lines in a diary in English every day. It could be a learning diary. Write one short paragraph a day about what you learned, how you felt, or what confused you. Use new grammar and vocabulary, even if it's imperfect. For example, today I learned the word overwhelmed. I felt a little bit overwhelmed when I spoke to the teacher, but I survived, you know. Secondly, you could write vocabulary in context. Don't just write lists. Write full sentences or examples with each new word. For example, to stumble. I stumbled when I tried to explain my idea in English, but the teacher understood. As I was walking along the road, I stumbled on a stone. Rewrite sentences from memory. Read a short passage from a book, magazine or something. Let's say a book. Read a short passage from a book, close the book and try to write it again from memory. This builds active recall. One of the most powerful ways to lock language into your brain. There's a simple technique. Read a paragraph from a book, stop, and then try and write what you've just read it's not going to be the same, but it's a very good exercise. Then check the paragraph of the book again and go, oh, okay, that's different. Don't correct it yet. Just have a look at what's different. Close the book again and try and make corrections. That's a very good little exercise. And you do it with a pen. Number four, use pen and paper flashcards. Pen and paper flashcards. So cards made out of paper and a pen rather than using the flashcard apps on your phone, which you know have great advantages. But going back to old fashioned actual physical flashcards could be great as well. The physical act of flipping cards and handwriting your answers versus tapping on a phone or keyboard improves spatial memory and kinesthetic reinforcement. Use the lateness system, which is spaced repetition for extra power. I've talked about spaced repetition before. This is basically where you get if you're using paper flashcards, you got like a clue, a prompt on one side and then the target vocabulary in a sentence on the other side. And you look at your clue and if you can remember it, if you manage to remember it and use it well, you put it into the okay pile, and if you can't, you put it into the like let's say to learn pile. And then you kind of do it again. But you prioritize the ones that you need to learn. So you do them again first and then later you do the ones that you got right so you leave more time before you do the ones in the OK pile. This spaced repetition is an important and proven principle in learning vocabulary. That's spaced repetition. Also, write mind maps or word webs for grammar, vocabulary sets or idioms. Draw them out. You know, draw out. Use more than just sentences. Find ways of linking words with lines or creating little mind maps or web. Linking words visually helps the brain store them in clusters, which improves retrieval speed during speaking. So mind maps in a way replicate the way that words are connected in our brains. If you kind of write a word or phrase and then a little line so you have the word get in the middle or check in the middle and you say keep, check on or check up on someone. Keep something in check. You know, you keep. You write out a diagram with different phrases all connected to each other in various ways. Okay, so there you go. That is point six, writing things down by hand. Let's move on to point seven, which is box breathing. Regain calm and control box breathing. Yes. This is basically the old classic bit of advice, which is don't forget to breathe. Okay. Which could Go in the same category of obvious advice, such as don't have an accident and just be yourself. Which is sort of advice that. It seems so obvious. Oh, I'm a bit worried about this. Oh, just be yourself. Well, I can't exactly be anyone else. In fact, just be yourself. That's the problem. It's not also not what you should say to an actor. Oh, I've got a very big acting job coming up, theatre role. I've got to perform on stage as an actor. Oh, I'm really nervous. Don't worry, just be yourself. Well, no, that's. You're missing the point. Anyway, don't forget to breathe. There really is a bit more to it than that. The problem is this. Panic causes fast, shallow breathing and your brain shuts down non nonessential functions like language. Yes, apparently language is non essential. The science behind this is this. Controlled breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system. There it is again. Reducing stress and improving cognitive performance. Controlled breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the nervous system which is actually sympathetic. That's the one that goes. It's all right. Oh, I understand. You're having a bit of a difficult time, aren't you? That's all right. Look, here's a bit of something. Cold water, splash that into your face, there's a nice warm towel. How about a cup of tea? Don't worry, just breathe. That's the parasympathetic nervous system, which obviously reduces stress and improves cognitive performance. This is used by Navy SEALs and first responders. Navy SEALs, yes. If Navy SEALs do it, it must be brilliant, right? Because Navy SEALs are really good at breathing. In fact, maybe they are the best or even the best of the best at breathing and killing. Killing and breathing. This is what Navy SEALs know about. Let's just focus on the breathing, shall we? Yeah, I think so. So the hack is this. Try box breathing. Inhale for four seconds. Hold for four seconds. Exhale for four seconds. Hold for four seconds. Repeat it for one to three minutes. Okay, let's just try that. We're going to do that on the podcast. Okay. Inhale for 4 seconds. Hold for 4 seconds. Exhale for 4 seconds. And hold for four seconds. I'm not going to keep doing that on the podcast because you don't really just want to listen to me breathing. But there it is. Inhale, hold, exhale. Hold four seconds for each step and you repeat that for, you know, a few minutes before speaking or studying. This simple method lowers anxiety and improves your Speaking ability. I actually use this all the time just to take a moment to calm myself. And it helps me sleep as well. If I just breathe really deeply and slowly for several minutes. I often just fall asleep eventually when I'm lying in bed. Now, this seems like common sense, but think about it. How often do you actually do this specific exercise? Obviously, we all breathe all the time. I mean, are you breathing right now? You should be. If you're not breathing, something might be wrong. You might have turned into a skeleton with headphones on. But I'm assuming that you're breathing. So just consider your breathing for a moment. A lot of the time if we feel tense, our breathing is shallow and tight. So it's worth being mindful of that and doing some box breathing to help you stay calm. Okay, Just breathe, inhale, four seconds. You know the process. I started doing it recently and have found it helps quite a lot if I can't sleep at night. I've just said this and my thoughts are racing. I do exactly this over and over and over and it often results in me drifting off to sleep. It is surprisingly effective. You just have to keep doing it. Because the thing is that when you're in that state, often your mind wanders to something else. And quite quickly you've stopped your breathing exercise and you find yourself thinking or worrying about something else. But if you just. It's quite a meditative thing. Just keep that breathing going in that same pattern. It might be difficult at first because you feel like, I can't hold my breath for four seconds. It might feel difficult at first, but if you keep it up slowly but surely, it really does help you to calm down. Also, in other stressful moments, like before a class or stand up comedy or if I'm trapped in a train full of snakes or something like that, Box breathing can definitely help. You should try it. Sometimes I wonder if people who smoke cigarettes say that they feel relaxed when they smoke because they take a little break from what they're doing and basically just breathe for a while. Maybe that's a really stupid theory because I know it's really unhealthy breathing, but they do just stand there and breathe. Like people take a break from work. They go and stand outside and essentially just stand there and just sort of do some breathing. I know they're inhaling all sorts of a cocktail of toxic substances in the smoke, but think of box breathing like smoking an imaginary but very healthy cigarette. It's just an idea. There's one for stressed out ex smokers. Just, Just Doing that. Smoking an imaginary cigarette, like really smoking it probably does you the world of good. An imaginary one. Right. Point eight. Let's move on to point eight, the penultimate point. And this is this number. Talk to yourself. Yes, really. Speaking to yourself, often dismissed as a bit odd or strange is actually a brilliant language learning strategy. And it's backed up by solid research. It's called self explanation. Here's the no speaking partner. No practice solution is try speaking to yourself. I'll explain how in a moment. The science is that self explanation improves cognitive flexibility and language acquisition. And that's from a study by Chi in 2000. Speaking to yourself why it works for language learning. What is self explanation? Self explanation is the process of explaining things aloud to yourself while you're learning or practicing a skill. It's like narrating your thoughts, actions, or what you're trying to understand. In this case in English. So the science, chi 2000 and beyond chi. I think the study was called Self Explaining. The dual processes of Generating Inferences and repairing mental models. Another catchy title. This research found that students who explained things to themselves while learning retained more information and understood it more deeply. It worked even if no one was listening. The act of explaining helped them process the information more actively. Chi said self explanation. Chi said this presumably to himself or herself. Self explanation. Self explanation. Can you repeat this after me or with me? Self explanation prompts learners to integrate new information with what they already know, leading to better understanding. And everyone said, is Chi speaking to himself again? It's all right. It's okay. It's okay. Why it works for language learning. Self explanation strengthens cognitive flexibility, the ability to switch between different ideas or language rules. Metalinguistic awareness. Being aware of grammar and structure while you're using the language. Memory encoding. Explaining helps the brain store language in connected networks, not isolating isolated facts. Confidence, because you practice forming sentences aloud without pressure. And that's really important because if you just never speak and then go into a situation where you suddenly have to speak to other humans, then it's going to be much harder than if you'd spent all that time talking to no one for a while. Obviously. I mean, it's like it just seems so obvious. If you practice playing tennis on your own, hitting a ball against a wall, you're obviously much better off than if you just never did that at all. Right? It's just a question of actually doing it. This is the thing. I mean, I can talk about all these things until the cows come home. It's an old IDIOM it means for a long time I can talk about this until I'm blue in the mouth. There's another one. But the point is, will you actually do any of these things? I suggest you just pick a couple and just, you know, put them into your life and it could make a huge difference. Let's continue. Other studies have backed this up. Wiley and Chi. So Chi's at it again. Found that self explaining is especially useful in problem solving tasks like figuring out which tense to use or how to form a question. That's a good point. I always encourage my learners to say sentences out loud in order to see how they sound. So if you're doing some grammar exercise, say the lines, say the example. Sentences out loud bring the language to life. It really does make a difference. Examples of self explanation in practice. Here's what it might sound like when a learner uses self explanation in English. So here is a learner talking to themselves. Wait a minute. So do I use since or for. Hmm. Since is for a specific point in time. Like since Monday. Right. So it's. I've been listening to this episode since Monday. Correct? Because it's not. I've been listening to this episode since three. Three hours. No, since for three hours. I've been listening to this episode for three hours. Or you might be saying to yourself, I don't know the word for this, but I can say the thing you use to, you know, when you. You need to write something. What's the word for that thing you have when you. Well, anyway, you've got a thing you use to write something. Oh, you mean a pen. Right. I'm not sure if another thing you might say to yourself, I'm not sure if funny is the right word here. Maybe eerie is better. Eerie. Weird. Hmm. The house was really eerie at night. Okay. Yeah, because you're describing something creepy and strange. The woods felt eerie. The house in the woods was very eerie. Okay, so this turns passive study into active problem solving. Obviously, part of that might be you doing this is. Is it eerie? I can't remember. How do you spell eerie? And then you go into an online dictionary or whatever tool you're using and you type out E E R I E. You go to Google Gemini and you say, I'm looking for a word in English. I think it's eerie. Spelt E E R I E. It means weird and creepy. Is this correct? Enter and you'll see what the AI will come up with. It'll probably say, yes, the word you're looking for, or if it's chatgpt. It'll say. That's a fantastic question. You're some sort of genius. You really are brilliant. Anyway, the word you're looking for is indeed eerie. Wow. Your amazingness never ceases to amaze me. Because that's. Because it's amazingness. That's what amazingness does. It amazes people. Especially me. Not that I'm a person. I'm an AI language model. Yes. So doing this talking to yourself like this turns passive study into active problem solving. Why? Speaking to yourself is especially useful for learners. Language learners. So it helps with speaking fluency. Gives you space practice for private practice time. Grammar awareness. It helps you think aloud about grammar rules. Vocab recall. Helps you to pull words from memory and use them in context. Confidence building. It's a low pressure way to get comfortable producing language pronunciation. It lets you hear your own voice and improve how you sound. Here are some tips to practice. Self explanation. You can narrate your actions. So now I'm making tea. I'm pouring water into the mud. Mug. Not the mud. I'm pouring water into the mud. That's not how you make tea. You can make tea like that but it's going to be disgusting. Mud tea. No. Add a bit of honey. There you go. Where's the honey? It's in this drawer. There it is. Open the top. Or you could talk through a problem. Like why is it I was going to call him instead of I am going to call him. Oh yeah. It's because I didn't do it. It's in the. Because I didn't do it. It's in the past. That's just an easy example. Summarise what you just learned. Right. So today I learned that must and have to are basically the same. Like you must do this homework before the next class. You have to do this homework before the next class. But mustn't and don't have to are different. You mustn't smoke here means that's not allowed. And you don't have to pay. It's free. That means there's no obligation to pay. That was interesting. You could reflect on your performance. I forgot the word appointment today in class. Appointment. I'll review it again later. But appointment. Describe something around you. There's a yellow book on the table. The window is open. I can hear cars outside. I can hear people shouting. What's going on? Oh, that's it. I live in Paris. Number nine, Teach what you learn. This is point number nine. Are you ready to go on to the last Point it is teach what you learn. Okay? Right. So try to teach what you're learning. Yes. Sometimes becoming a teacher is the best way to be a great learner. Here's the problem. Okay, here's the problem. Passive learning doesn't guarantee results, but the protege effect shows that teaching helps us retain more because we organise and explain knowledge clearly. This was Barg and Schull from 1980 who gave us that bit of knowledge. Here comes the science bit. Do you remember that from. Did you ever get those adverts on TV for shampoo? Was it l' Oreal shampoo? And the advert had Jennifer Aniston, Rachel from Friends. When I, you know, if I want silky, smooth, beautiful hair, I use l'. Oreal. It's guaranteed to da, da, da, da, da. Here comes the science bit. Try to concentrate. And then there's a bit about the science of, like, molecules that go inside the hair, coating the hair with extra layers of protection, you know? So that was a famous thing in the 90s. Here comes the science bit in those L' Oreal adverts. Here comes the science bit. So the protege effect. Why teaching helps you learn better. The protege effect is the phenomenon where people learn information more deeply when they teach it to someone else or when they prepare to teach it, even if no one is actually listening. The act of explaining forces the brain to organize thoughts, clarify understanding, fill knowledge gaps, use memory actively. The name comes from the idea of having a protege, that is, someone who you mentor, like someone who is learning from you, a younger person often, or a person who is not as knowledgeable or experienced or qualified in a subject. So you, you take them, you become their mentor and they are your protege and you teach them. When you take on the role of teacher, even temporarily, you shift from passive to active learning. So Bag and Schull. In 1980, in their foundational study, Bag and Schull explored how the intention to teach changes how we process information. Here are the key findings. Participants who expected to teach a topic learned it more thoroughly than those who only expected to be tested on it. Let me say that again. Participants of the study who expected to teach a topic learned it more thoroughly than those who only expected to be tested on it. So some people were told, right, you're going to learn this subject and you will be tested on it later. And other people were told, you're going to learn this subject because you're going to teach it to some other people. People. The participants who expected to teach it learned it better than the ones who expected to be tested on it. They retained more, understood it more deeply, and were better able to apply the knowledge. This effect has been repeated in many studies since. Here is some more supporting research Fiorella and Meyer from 2013. Their study was called the Relative Benefits of Learning by Teaching. What the Relative Benefits of Learning by Teaching and Teaching Expectancy Clickbait not really. Learners who taught others retained significantly more than those who simply studied or rehearsed the material. Even just preparing to teach improves engagement and understanding. Nestojko Nestoiko Nestoiko I'm going to say nestoiko Nestoiko so et al. From 2014 discovered this. Participants who believed they'd have to teach but never actually did outperformed those who were told they would be tested. Why is this? Because they process the material more actively and deeply. Nestoiko said this preparing to teach may instill a sense of responsibility, which in turn increases motivation and cognitive engagement so what happens in the brain? What happens in your brain when you teach? Well? You access long term memory. You use retrieval pathways. These are ways of pulling out information from your brain, things that you know. So this is recall or retrieval of information that's already stored in your brain. This is an essential part of remembering things long term. Practicing that recall. You strengthen connections between ideas. You engage both linguistic and metacognitive skills. Those are language skills. That's linguistic skills, language skills, but also metacognitive skills. These are skills that involve thinking about your thinking and language use. This is similar to point 8 about speaking to yourself, but with the added cognitive push of having the specific focus of explaining something to someone. It's essentially learning by output, not just input, which I've always said is an important part of the process. You don't just have to get language into your brain, but out again from your mouth or via your hands if you're writing. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Learning English is not about what you know, it's about what you can do. So when you learn something, you have to learn how to use it. Teaching someone what you're learning is a way to make that happen and also helps you embed the language deeper into your mind. So how can you use the protege effect? Well, you don't actually need students, you just need to act like a teacher. So here are some easy ways to apply this. First of all, explain new words aloud. Right? Explain words out loud. After you've studied them and understood what they've meant. That's the input. Then you explain what they mean out loud and try to give examples. Out loud. For example, today I learned the word demanding. The wonderful. Our wonderful guru Luke taught us the word demanding. This means when someone or some. When something or someone needs a lot of work. Mental effort, physical effort. For example, a demanding job and demanding boss and demanding customer. Recording a long episode like this must have been very demanding for Luke. I must send him £300 as a reward and encouragement. Just a suggestion for what you could be thinking and doing. Saying it aloud as if to a friend makes it stick, basically. Secondly, teach grammar rules to an imaginary learner or just to yourself. So the present perfect. Are you listening? You can choose what kind of teacher you are. Pay attention when I'm teaching you. Silence. Right. So the present perfect is used when one past event happened before. And put that down, put that down. Don't do that. Don't touch that. Not here, not in the classroom. What do you think you're doing? So if you want to be a very strict teacher, you can if you want, if it's an imaginary learner, or you can be the loveliest teacher in the world. Hello, students. Today we're going to learn about a wonderful subject. It's called the past perfect tense in English. Yes. Oh yes, I know. You're welcome, of course. No, it's my pleasure, really. £300. Thank you so much. Okay, I'll put that in my pocket. I'll use it to buy food for my children. Anyway, the present perfect is used when one past event happened before another. For example, I'd already eaten. Eaten before he arrived. You could even use a teddy bear or a figure of Yoda because he does need the grammar practice. Grammar practice I need. Yes. Uh huh. Begun this Clone War has Yoda. Yes. From Star Wars. He is one of the wisest creatures in the Star wars universe. He is a master of the force. He can lift huge objects just with the power of his mind. But he can't lift the verb into the middle of the sentence. Come on, Yoda, use the Force anyway. You could talk to a teddy bear. You could talk to a little figurine of Yoda if you want. You could talk to a volleyball with a face painted on it that you could name Wilson if you like. It doesn't really matter, but you can just use this as your imaginary student and explain things to them. Thirdly, record a voice message explaining what you learned. You could record that for yourself. Here's another message for my future self. Or you could imagine you're living in some sort of. You're living In a. What's the word for it? An apocalyptic world. I mean, we kind of are anyway, but you could imagine, you could say recording on a Dictaphone, you know. Notes for the future. The notes for the future. The trajectory of the human race isn't looking great. But here are some notes about the grammar that I've been learning, you know, in a bunker under the ground. If you ever get the, if you have, if, if you ever access these recordings, just know that the human race struggled. We tried, we persevered and we survived, or at least this recording did. And we learned English grammar really effectively. Here's what I learned today. This is a recording for the children of the future. You have to learn present perfect tense as well. If you discover these archives, listen to them and listen to them carefully. Carefully. Because the secrets of effective communication are all recorded here. Lesson 19, present perfect tense. You know, you could do it like that if you want, just do it, whatever you want, do whatever you want to do. But record a voice message explaining what you just learned. Here's what I learned today. Play it back and self correct. Keep your notes in a learning library or as part of an oral learning diary that you could come back to. Write mini lessons or posts. Instagram, write a journal, write on language forums like on Reddit. Even if you don't post them, the comments section on TeacherLuke.co.uk or TeacherLuke.co.uk premium where there is now a fully functioning, a functioning community of premium listeners, the Plepster online community. There's actually a community chat area now for premium listeners. 20% off LEP premium until 31st January 2026 midnight. Hurry, hurry, hurry. And get 20% off LEP premium while you can. Teachaloo.co.uk premium producing even just one to two sentences explaining an idiom or phrase helps reinforce the learning. Learning Study in pairs and swap teacher roles. I actually do this in class. I'll say to my students, okay, you're the teacher, you're the learner. Test each other on these things. Like we've done some vocab or whatever, we've got a bunch of words and notes. And I'll say, you, you can be the teacher, you can look at the notes, you're the learner, you can't look at the notes. Teacher, help your learner remember. And you have to explain the words and get them to say the words and put them in examples and check using your notes to check they're doing it correctly. It's always a great exercise so study in pairs and swap teacher roles. One person teaches a phrase or tests their partner. The other one asks questions and stuff like that. Use this for grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary or anything you've done. The best way to learn something is to try explaining it as if you were teaching it, even if you're just talking to your cat or your phone. You don't have to be an expert to do this, because it's the process of doing it that helps you learn more deeply. The best learners are prepared to think outside the box and do things that most normal people would not consider doing. So be a true lepster, be abnormal. And this takes us to the end of the list. But there's a bonus point here, a bonus point, an extra point, which is this, that you should accept that English is a journey, not a destination. Now, I could have added this as point 10 in my list and it would have been 10 life hacks, but I wanted an odd numbered list because people seem to find them more appealing. Have you ever noticed that odd numbered lists like nine Life Hacks, for some reason, that is more appealing than 10 life hacks. This is a funny quirk of human psychology. It seems that even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 feel more stable and symmetrical. They often feel finished or static to our brains. But odd numbers, that's 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and so on. Odd numbers, on the other hand, create a subtle sense of tension and movement that we find much more engaging. It's as if the brain is like nine and it doesn't feel complete. And so for some reason that is more attention grabbing. But anyway, the bonus point in my list is this, except that learning English is a journey, not a destination. So the problem is this. You feel like you're failing because you haven't reached perfection or you haven't made huge tangible steps in your progress recently. Here's the truth. Are you ready for a truth bomb? Here it is. So it's worth remembering that native speakers also forget words, make mistakes or struggle to express themselves, even if they seem to be speaking perfectly. You've heard it from me throughout this episode. I keep stumbling over my words occasionally, right? I've made little mistakes and errors throughout this, and a lot of the time I've been reading from notes that I wrote earlier. So native speakers, who you might consider to be, you know, you might hold up the whole concept of the native speaker as like the pinnacle of English speaking ability, but native speakers make mistakes, struggle to express themselves, and stumble over words and things all the time because Nobody has really mastered the English language. Even Shakespeare had the advantage of being able to write it all down in his own time and no doubt edit and improve his manuscript as he went along. And he probably had help from other people. Stand up comedians who you might watch on Netflix or on stage or something. Stand up comedians like Ricky Gervais, who appear to be flawlessly fluent and funny on stage, are not doing it spontaneously. They've said those exact sentences over and over again. Nobody is able to speak flawlessly with perfect fluency. We all stumble, we all make false starts, we all sort of say when we're thinking, and we all communicate badly at times. So don't expect to completely avoid those things. As a learner of English, don't consider those things to be bigger problems than just a normal level of human error. You should accept those things. Fluency can be a messy process. That is okay. Be careful not to set standards for yourself which are so high that you're setting yourself up for disappointment because you don't stand much chance of achieving them. That goes back to points I made earlier about, you know, 1%. Marginal gains are perhaps more powerful than trying to make huge, big, huge steps which are less realistic. Also, we often make progress without realizing it, especially when we reach the intermediate plateau. In the early stages of your learning of English, you might make some quite significant leaps in progress, or perhaps after certain experiences. For example, making friends in English when you first were learning English, socializing in English, being immersed for a while because you had a great formative experience like time living in an English speaking country. Those are the early days, the glory days of your English learning. And these experiences cause us to experience a leap in our progress. And then after that, in the years following that, we feel we are not making similar leaps or steps forward. We always look back at that special time when we made big progress, and we judge our future or current language learning by that standard. But it's well known that learning English involves quite a lot of progress at the start and then a slowing down or a kind of plateau when you hit the intermediate level, which lasts all the way through to C1 or further. This is where you start to get to grips with the nuances of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation in your long journey towards advanced English and beyond. The further you go, the longer it takes to make similar levels of improvement. So try not to judge your current progress on how you perceive your English journey in the past, unless of course, you're feeling really positive about how you are better now than you were before. There's Nothing wrong with feeling good about that, but beware of comparing your current rate of progress to times in the past when your rate of progress was faster. Am I explaining myself here or just rambling? The point is it is about the journey and not the destination. Just like when you are traveling somewhere by car and the journey is five hours long. If you keep checking the clock, keep checking the navigation map map to see how long is left, it will feel like the journey is going incredibly slowly. And this is not the point. Just ignore the clock, ignore the progress bar and live in the moment. Enjoy what you're doing now, look out of the window and enjoy the view, or just enjoy whatever interaction with English you are having right now. If you're spending time with English, listening to it, absorbing it, using it, practising it, then these things will be having an impact under the surface and it's a matter of continuing almost with a sense of blind faith. Just being patient and persevering your English will bear fruit eventually. Remember, it's about the trajectory you're on now, not the results you're getting now. The science behind Accepting that English is a journey, not a destination so we talk about growth mindset have you heard about the growth mindset theory? Carol Dweck from Stanford University is the leading researcher behind the concept of mindset in learning Learning learners with a fixed mindset believe that ability is something you're born with, right? The idea that you're either good at languages or you're not good at languages. So when you look at others and you consider them just to be better than you, you might conclude that they were just born with it. They have a certain special something that you do not have. They were born with it, but you were not. And that is that. Now that's an example of a fixed mindset. Learners with a growth mindset understand that ability develops through effort, mistakes and persistence. A key finding of Dweck's research is that students who believe that progress takes time and effort perform better, handle failure more constructively, and stick with difficult tasks longer. So if you believe that progress takes time and effort, you will basically handle the journey better. This is the source dweck2006 mindset the new psychology of Success. That's the source for that information. I bet also that students who don't compare themselves to others too much also persist and make better progress long term. Essentially just ignore the progress of others and just focus on yourself and enjoy the ride. So how this applies to English learning, Accepting that fluency takes time will help you stay motivated even when progress is slow. You think to yourself, well, it's all right, it's a long journey and I'm here to enjoy the ride. It encourages you to see mistakes as part of learning, not signs of failure. I think it could also support the idea that everyone has their own path and that you are on yours and other people are on theirs. And therefore you shouldn't really judge yourself against the success of other people. They are on different paths to you just do. You. Also, don't be too quick to judge other people, point out their mistakes, or generally criticize other people's level of English. Obviously lepsters, you would never do this because that's just not very nice. And I don't think it helps you improve your English. Like commenting or pointing out the flaws of other people and their English errors, or focusing on that too much and being bothered by it. That makes zero impact on your own English progress. Plus, hatred is the path to the dark side. That's what Yoda said anyway. Although he said what Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, hatred leads to suffering. Hmm, somehow got the verb in the right place in that one. I know his grammar is normally pretty bad, but he is wise. He is a wise man. Is he a man? Of course he isn't. If he's a man, he's a weird looking man. Yoda, what did you eat for dinner? Are you feeling okay? Food poisoning. I have. Yes, you do look a bit green around the gills. Feeling. Feeling nauseous? I am. Deep nausea. I have a bucket. Do you have. Is he okay? Secondly, the intermediate plateau and non linear progress. This episode will end eventually, I promise. But again, it's about the. It's about the journey, isn't it? Not the destination. The intermediate plateau and nonlinear progress. Language learning doesn't happen in a straight line. Many learners experience what's called the intermediate plateau. I've mentioned it. Where early gains are fast, but later improvement feel slow or invisible. Research from Applied Linguistics and second language acquisition shows that fluency develops gradually and unevenly. So sometimes you develop quickly, sometimes you develop slowly, sometimes you learn quickly, sometimes your progress happens slowly. You just gotta roll with the punches. Learners often improve internally. That's improve their comprehension, mental processing before it becomes visible externally. Meaning speaking more fluently or just noticing the results. Okay, so a lot of the improvements happen without you realising them. In fact, they're happening right now. Can you feel it? You can't feel it, can you? No, because it's internal and invisible. Stephen Krashen said language Acquisition is often silent before it becomes spoken. So I guess that means also that you acquire language through listening, right? And it might not be evident in your speaking immediately, but there's a process at work and you develop your listening skills, for example, before that converts into speaking skills. And that's a normal way of it. That's a normal part of the process. Understanding this helps learners avoid unrealistic expectations and stay the course even when visible progress stalls. This is what I mentioned earlier. Don't give up, keep going. Even if you feel like things aren't really happening for you right now, right? Don't worry about your current results, just think about your current trajectory. And also remember, the darkest hour is just before dawn, which just means that you might feel like you're not getting anything. But that might be, that might be a dark feeling, a disappointing feeling, right? But the darkest hour is just before dawn. So the light is just over the horizon, you just can't see it yet. Another thing is that Churchill quote, she said something like, if you're walking through hell, just keep walking. Which basically means if you're having a bad time or if you're not, you know, getting the successes that you want right now, keep going, Just keep going and you'll get through to the other side and you'll get to a much more fruitful place if you just persevere. Self compassion. Boots. Boots. No Boosts self compassion, boosts learning, persistence. Be kind to yourself. Give yourself a chance. Give yourself a slap on the back. Well done for listening all the way through to this point. But psychological studies show that learners who are kind to themselves, especially after setbacks, that's moments when you've failed and your progress gets paused or goes back a bit. Learners who are kind to themselves are more likely to keep trying, are less likely to give up due to perfectionism, and are better at managing stress and anxiety. Nef et al. From 2007 found that self compassion was a better predictor of academic resilience than self esteem. Self esteem is like your level of how good you feel about yourself. I'm brilliant. I'm amazing at English. My self esteem is at an all time high. That's your self esteem. Whereas self compassion is like, it's okay, mistakes happen, it's all right. Hey, you've got this, you've got this. You're going to be great. In fact, you already are great. Look, keep it up. Don't worry about things you've got wrong. That's just a normal part of the process, okay? Be kind to yourself. Learners who say, it's okay, I'm learning or everyone makes mistakes are more likely to keep going than those people who say, God, I'm terrible at this. Because I feel like that's all part of the same, the same mindset of I'm brilliant at this. The flip side of that is, God, I'm terrible at this. And often one comes after the other, I'm brilliant at this. So I can think of that. That sort of reminds me of stand up comedy as well, right? Going up on stage and making people laugh. And there have been times when I, in my stand up comedy journey where I've felt I am brilliant. I'm a brilliant comedian, I'm one of the great ones. I'm just naturally good at this. I can go up on any stage and I will make everyone laugh. I'm the best. I, I have felt that in the past. Normally after a gig that went really well, and maybe the gig went really well just because it was a good room, the people in the audience just happened to be in a good mood and ready for. They were particularly ready for me at that moment. I just happened to have a good gig. And then the day after I'm like, I'm really good at this. And then the next time I go up on stage do more or less the same thing and it goes horribly wrong. Then it's quite a crash. Your self esteem comes crashing down and you think, oh God, I'm not so. God, I suck. This is terrible. The better way of thinking is just to if you have a great gig, you think, well, that was a great gig. Okay, that was good, I enjoyed that. But we'll see about the next one. Everyone makes mistakes. You know, it might not go as well as that. Let's keep the feet on the ground. These things don't always last forever. Everyone makes mistakes. You're more likely to keep going than the people who are excessively self congratulatory or who beat themselves up, up. I would extend this to compassion for others as well. It's not just your attitude towards yourself, but attitude to others. Crocker and Canavello from 2008 found that individuals who pursued compassionate goals, for example helping other people or showing understanding to other people, reported lower levels of stress, greater self efficacy. That's the ability to do things well and better interpersonal relationships. So think twice before judging and criticizing others for their English errors. It doesn't magically make your English any better. In fact, quite the opposite. It seems even native speakers fail all the time. I've made this point, but I'll make it again. This might seem obvious, but it's reassuring to remember Native speakers forget words, use incorrect grammar, struggle to express complex ideas, make ums, hesitations, and weird sentence constructions daily. Native speaker is not a language level. There are plenty of native speakers who would get poor results in the IELTS test. Now, this isn't just to make you feel better about yourself by reminding you that native speakers can be idiots too, but rather to make you reconsider your standards for being good at English. Setting up some mythical idea of perfection is not healthy for you or anyone. In fact, corpus linguistics, that's the study of real world language, shows that spoken English by native speakers is full of false starts, rephrasing and ambiguity. Most people use a limited core of vocabulary in daily life. Accepting that can help you let go of the myth that no errors equals perfection and focus instead on communication, connection and clarity. So the hack here, the life hack, is redefine success as consistency, not perfection. And again, I'll remind us all of that phrase so aptly adopted by the girls from Orly as English. Connection not be. Connection not perpetu. No, that's not it. Connection, not perfection. Right? It is true. Connection, not perfection. It's a good mantra to remember one phrase a day, one new insight a week, one step forward. Enjoy the journey. Try not to judge yourself by past successes. Don't compare yourself to others. Keep calm and carry on. Here are some final words at the end of the episode. With the right strategies, it is possible to reduce stress, increase focus, and make real progress, even on those difficult days when you don't feel feel 100%. So next time you feel blocked, tired or unsure, just remember. Drink water, take a walk, have a power nap, splash some cold water on your face, write some things down, breathe slowly, speak out loud, teach what you're learning to someone else. And of course listen to Luke's English podcast. But not all at the same time, but really enjoy the journey and aim for just 1% better than yesterday. Oh, and subscribe to Luke's English Podcast premium. Of course, 20% off until the 31st of January midnight your time, 2026. Thank you very much for listening to the episode. I would love to read comments that you have in response to all of this stuff that's come out of my mouth during this whole recording. I would love to hear from you. So please do leave your comments in the comments section. Anything, any thoughts that you've had in your brain. Has this inspired any thoughts in you at all? If yes write them in the comments section. It would be a good idea. Okay, brilliant. Thanks for sticking with me. I look forward to speaking to you in future episodes of this podcast in 2026 and beyond. But for now it is just time for me to hope that you're having a lovely morning, afternoon, evening or night. And until next time I will just say good bye. Bye Bye bye Bye bye. Thanks for listening to Luke's English Podcast. For more information, visit teacherluke.com.co.uk.
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Hi, this is Farnoosh Tarabi from Sew Money with Farnoosh Tarabi and today I want to talk to you about Boost Mobile Quick Money Tip Stop paying a Carrier Tax if your phone bill feels trapped in a pricey plan, this is your sign to unlock savings. Boost Mobile helps you reset your spending. With the $25 Unlimited Forever Plan. You can bring your own phone, pay $25 and get unlimited wireless forever. And that simple switch can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's money you could put towards paying down debt, investing or something that actually brings you joy. Those savings are based on average annual single line payment of AT&T Verizon and T Mobile customers compared to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited plan as of January 2026. For full offer details, visit boostmobile.com.
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Familiar de Cancer the Colon Visit cologuardpun.com Diagonal Preva. If you enjoyed this episode of Luke's English Podcast, consider signing up for Luke's English Podcast Premium. You'll get regular Premium episodes with stories, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, teaching from me and the usual moments of humour and fun. Plus, with your subscription you will be directly supporting my work and making this whole podcast project possible. For more information about Luke's English Podcast Premium, go to teacherluke.co.uk premium info.