How to Prepare the Ground before Learning English

This is the second article in the 'Learning English' series. In the first article we discussed about the seven myths people have regarding English. Here I focus on doing the ground work before diving deep into the ocean of the language.

Let me make it clear that learning a new language is more about 'giving' rather than taking. Be an enthusiastic learner. I believe strongly that 'what you give is what you get' On that positive note let's explore the ground-breaking insights of learning English...

1. Love the Language: Unless you love the language from the heart, it's difficult to venture into learning the craft of English. Embrace the language. Befriend the words. Hug the hurdles. Love is the only emotion in the world that evaporates all the hardships. When you love something deeply, focus and clarity spring naturally. Love transforms you. Everything around you becomes your teacher. You will see the world in a new perspective. So the best way to learn English is to first love it to the core.  

2. Believe Yourself: Nothing in the world is ever achieved unless it has its foundations in strength of the beliefs. Believing brings us closer to achieving. It bridges the barriers and connects you to the contentment. When you believe that you can speak great English, it shows. Forget what ever environment you are in, neglect what ever background you are raised in, just believe strongly that 'I can do it', the rest follows. 

3. Fight Fear: Fear is the opposite of love. Love connects, fear disconnects. Love brings you solutions. Fear generates problems. Fear clouds your thoughts and clogs your clarity. I have a personal technique to overcome the fear. I experimented it many times and I am successful every time with my approach.
The solution is simple 'focus on your fear'. Most of our fears come from our ignorance, when you shed some light of awareness, the fear disappears. The more you understand it, the less it troubles you. Shower the darkness of fear with the enlightenment of awareness. Soon everything will fall in place. Surangama Sutra says "To untie the knot, first understand how it was tied". This applies to fear as well. Go to its source, the solution follows. 

4. Avoid Negative People: You are the average of the five people you spend your time with. Your association effects your destination. Be wise in choosing your roommates and friends. So many people start learning English with a good initiative. But few steps further they face lot of ridicule, negative criticism, sarcasm and even in some cases they encounter bullying from their roommates or friends or associates.
The negative people are those who failed to learn good English or who fear your success. A learned person always encourages you to learn and also shares his knowledge. But these negative people drain your energy and leave you hopeless with their constant remarks.
So if you are associated with such negative people, you have three wise options: Make your intentions clear or reduce your discussion time with them or finally if nothing works out, vacate the place immediately before it's too late. I can say with 100% assurance that in the long run, you will appreciate the decision you make now.             

5. Have Enthusiasm: Enthusiasm is contagious. It spreads easily to others. So when you are curious about your craft, it radiates to your teacher, co-students, colleagues and your family. Now your teacher takes more interest in you, your co-students love to interact with you, your colleagues help you to get more information on the subject and finally your family encourages you to succeed. All this has its roots in your enthusiasm. The more you have it, the faster the results.

6. Fix a Target Date: Having a target to reach within a specific time period speeds up your efforts. Otherwise, life would be mundane and lacks excitement. More importantly, we forget what we are after. Have a target of three months to speak good English. By hook or crook try 100%. Divide that period into three parts focusing on each section of English per month respectively. (you will get more clarity on how to schedule your learning period in further articles)       

So far so good. Hope you got an idea of preparing your ground. In the next article I will shed light on the four fundamentals of learning English. Once you are done with the above steps, fasten your seat belts and get ready to taste the basics on which the rest of your learning stays strong. See you in the next article.

By the way, share your thoughts in the comments - ajaY vegeSna