If you have already worked on expressing your current situation/feelings” with “Eigo-jiru vol.11”, this blog post will be the next stage for you. 

This time, we are going to try expressing our desires/demands” in English.

It may be a very basic skill, however, expressing one’s desires/demands is essential for survival.

To be able to get your demands or needs across to the other person in important situations, let’s practice regularly with the method of “self-talk”!

Conveying your desire to others using a word “want”!

Japan is the country where people take care of others to a considerable extent, therefore, whichever shop you go, you will be treated with a certain level of customer service, and it is a commonplace for people to take other people’s feelings into account.



However, this common sense doesn’t apply once you step outside of Japan.



In order to ensure that you get what you want, it is important to convey your desire to others clearly.

I want + noun

First, let’s begin with a basic structure to express our desire which is…

I want + noun

Some of you might think like… “this is so basic!” but do not underestimate it!


Even if you can say it in your head, if you can’t say it out loud, it won’t convey anything to the other person.

Anyway, let’s get started with some example sentences and be sure to read them out loud.

I want a glass of water.

The sentence is very much related to the previous article on “expressing your current situation”, isn’t it?

I am thirsty.

⬇︎

I want a glass of water!

Let’s try with some other type of drinks…




I want a cup of tea/coffee.


I want a tin of Coke/Fanta.


I want an ice-cold beer!

I want something ~

Now, this time you don’t know exactly what you want, so, for the time being, you can put “something” after “I want”, and it will be…

I want something.

And then, to make it sound more specific, you can simply add “to + verb” to it…

so, if what you want is a drink, you add “to + drink” and it will be…

I want something to drink.

Now, you might want to tell what kind of drink you want as well…

This time, you can add “adjective” after “something” just like…

I want something hot to drink.


I want something fizzy to drink.

If you fancy having some food, then…

I’m hungry.

⬇︎

I want something to eat.

⬇︎

I want something spicy to eat.

or

I want something light to eat.

or

I want something rich to eat.

If you are bored, then…

I’m bored.

⬇︎

I want something funny to watch.

Using demonstrative pronoun

Right. We’re moving on.

Although you may not have much opportunity to use the following sentences with self-talk, they are the simplest way to convey what you want, which is using demonstrative pronouns with your finger pointing at it, just like…

I want this!

(The situation could be when you are ordering something in a restaurant…)

or


I want that!

(The situation could be when you are pointing at something you can’t really reach in the shop…)

If you want the same thing as what other people have…

Here is another useful structure you can use, and this is for when you are interested in someone else’s property.

the same + (object) + as + (the object owned by someone else)

For example…

I want the same dress as what she is wearing.

(dress = what she is wearing)

I want the same shoes as what he has got.

(shoes = what he has got)

While in a restaurant, you see the lady next to you having tasty-looking food and you feel like having the same one.


You might say…

I want the same dish as what she is having.

(dish = what she is having)

I want the same dessert as what she has just ordered.

(dessert = what she has just ordered)

Or you can simply use the word “thing” like…

I want the same thing as what she has.

I want + “to have”

Right. We’ve been working on the structure of “I want + noun” up to this point, and…

Although there is nothing wrong with this structure at all, the expression can sound slightly “direct” if you are always saying like…”I want this!” “I want that!”…

Therefore, to make it sound “less barbaric” without changing its meaning, you can simply attach “to have” after “want”, and this will bring the phrase closer to “want to possess what you want” in terms of connotation.

Let’s see the difference.

I want a glass of water.


I want to have a glass of water.

It may look like the one differentiates from the other with a subtle nuance, however the first one sounds more desperate while the second one conveys a more composed tone. 

Basically, it is a matter of the level of emotion, so if you are in a calm state, it is better to speak with “to have” attached!

I want to have a cup of coffee.


I want to have something to drink.


I want to have the same hat as what he is wearing.

Furthermore, by using “have” in a sentence, it becomes easier to create a form of inquiry. (You can use the original sentence as is.)




I want to have a glass of water.


⬇︎ (natural flow)


Can I have a glass of water?

Therefore, let’s use “have” together in our daily conversations!

“I want to 〜”/ “I want to be 〜“

Right.

In addition to wanting to possess something, there are other types of desires such as wanting to do something or wanting to become something.


We are going to check them out as well.

I want to + verb

First, we are going to work on the structure of…


“I want to + verb“.

The phrase “I want to have 〜” that we’ve just worked on towards the end of the previous section, is also one of the forms of this structure.

Example sentences could be…

I want to eat some biscuits.

I want to go to bed.


I want to go to the toilet.

I want to see my friends.


I want to travel around the world.

Think about what you want to do and create as many sentences of your own as possible simply by adding some verb to “I want to”…

Hey! Have you been reading the example sentences aloud?

There is just no point in reading them in your head, if your goal is to be able to speak…

Without voicing, the “pipe” (connection) between your brain and your mouth will not be established!”

I want to listen to the music.


I want to go to the shop to buy some milk.

I want to know his secret.






By the way, we used the expression of adding “something” after “I want” earlier, however, if you have a more specific desire “to do something” rather than a vague feeling of “something”, you can begin with verbs just like…



I want to drink something hot.

I want to eat something spicy.

I want to watch something funny.

Anyway, try applying the verbs you know to the form “I want to 〜” and voicing out what you want to do more and more.

💠 note

Regarding the pronunciation of “w” with the word “want”, it is often spelt as 「ウォント」in Katakana. When you pronounce the word starting from the letter “w”, such as “wood”, “what” and so on, it is recommended that you pucker up your mouth relatively firmer than when you pronounce ”ウ” (=Japanese alphabet in Katakana ; equivalent of “u” with English alphabet.) 

The first phonetic symbol of the words starting from the letter “w” is actually [w], therefore, strictly speaking, it should be spelt as “ヲント” [wont] rather than “ウォント” [uont] in Katakana.

It’s also worth referring to the “mouth shape” when you see native speakers pronouncing words starting with ‘w’ in the film or other sources. 

Overcoming the pronunciation of “w” might help you see how to pronounce words that start with the letter “R”, which could also contribute to sorting out Japanese speakers’ well-known issue of mixing up “L” & “R” in the future. Therefore, let us remember to start by puckering our lips and applying some pressure when we pronounce the words that start with “w”.

I don’t want to 〜

Let us try some more with negative form, too…

All we have to do is to put “don’t” between “I” and “want”.

I don’t want to wake up early tomorrow.


I don’t want to pick up the phone.


I don’t want to stay here.

I don’t want to go to work.


I don’t want to lose.

Following this example, try fitting in the verbs you know and then speak out the “things you don’t want to do”.

 “I want to be + noun/adjective” 

So far, we have been practicing expressing our desires in the form of “I want to do something”, but now let’s move on to the expression ‘I want to be in a certain state’ using the form of “I want to be 〜”.

Have a look at some examples…




I want to be happy.


I want to be a millionaire.


I want to be a doctor.


I want to be a volleyball player.

I wanna be your boyfriend. 〜♪

This is one of the popular songs by the New York punk rock band “Ramones” from the 1970s, isn’t it?”

Mmm?


Hang on a minute… Here you can see that “want to” has been spelt as “wanna“, hasn’t it?

Actually, this form is a frequently used colloquial expression where “want to” is shortened to “wanna”. It’s tempting to use it, thinking “it sounds cool, I’ll use it too!” but for beginners, it’s recommended to first learn how to speak “want to” correctly before moving on to using “wanna”. Especially in British English, the “t” sound is crucial.

By the way, the band called “The stooges” which has been led by the iconic frontman “Iggy Pop” recorded the song called



I wanna be your dog

in 1969. w

And also, the British rock band called “The Stone Roses” recorded a song called



I wanna be adored



which appears on the 1^st track of their debut album.

“Adore” is a verb, but it can also be used in the passive voice (in the form “be + past participle”) to create a situation that functions like an adjective, such as “beautiful,” “red,” or “happy.”

I want to be loved.


I want to be satisfied.


I want to be chosen as a member of the group.


I don’t want to be left alone.


I don’t want to be sent to prison.

…


Hello there!

Have you been reading them aloud???

And… finally, I would like to note here that you can also use an ordinary verb “become” in stead of “be-verb”, since both have the same functionality.

I want to become a football player.


I don’t want to become poor.


I want to become a good mum.

“I want + someone + to + verb”, etc.

Right.

Up to this point, we have been focusing on the structure ‘I want to + verb.’ However, in some cases, your desire or demand may involve a situation where someone else is doing something for you.”

In this case, we can use the structure of “I want + someone + to + verb”

Personal pronouns such as you, him, her, them and other terms such as a name or “those people” can be used to replace the word “someone” in the structure above.

For example…




I want you to come with me.


I want him to cook today’s dinner.


I want her to stay longer.


I want them to go home.


I want Jim to give her a shout.

Let’s try some negative ones, too…




I don’t want you to hate me.


I don’t want him to forget what happened today.


I don’t want her to break my bicycle.

I don’t want them to come to my party.


I don’t want Lucy to regard me as a dishonest person.

Again, try to create your own version with the structure above and say them aloud!

By the way, you can actually apply “objects” or “pronouns” as well instead of using “personal pronouns”.

I want my artwork to be seen by lots of people.

I want it to be kept untouched.


I want the wall to be painted yellow.

With negative forms…

I don’t want the show to fail.


I don’t want those apples to fall from the tree.


I don’t want the same thing to happen again.

There are another similar situations where other people are involved in doing you a favour by fixing your property or some parts of your body.

However, I will refrain from introducing this here, as it could become too much, and instead, I will feature it in a separate blog post at another time.

I would like to 〜

And finally…

You can use “I would like to 〜” instead of “I want to 〜” for a slightly more formal tone (although many people use it in their everyday conversations).

When you go to the restaurant, you will be asked like…



What would you like to drink, madam?

Would you like to have some dessert?

then, you can reply like…

I would like to have an Asahi beer, please!


I would like to have a scoop of vanilla ice cream, please!

Get used to this expression by creating your own examples and saying them aloud, because you will be definitely using this at some point in the future. ✨

Well, this is it for “expressing our desires/demands”.

When a desire comes to mind in your daily life, mutter it out with “want” to yourself!

Thank you for reading this till the end.

konkaz



You can read this blog post in Japanese from the link below.

👉 まずは、英語で自分の欲求を伝える事ができるようになろう！《英語汁 第12号》

Let’s just start with some easy phrases such as “I’m hungry”, “I’m sleepy” and so on which are frequently used in our everyday life.

“Self-talk” in English is slightly different from “Online English courses” or “real English conversation” by its nature.


It is more like self-training for integrating “English” into our everyday life.


Carrying out “self-talk” in English is, so to speak, going through a dry run for actual conversations.

No matter how much knowledge we shove in our head, if we don’t release them from our brain and let them go through our mouth using our very voice, we will never be able to move forward from the phase of “translating Japanese into English in our head”.

Having a conversation in English means you understand what you hear in English, think in English and respond in English. And to be able to do this, it is essential to carry out the training of uttering what comes into your mind.

So, why don’t we try “self-talking” method whose environment is free from the pressure of confronting other people so that you are relaxed enough to speak out some of your simple English phrases you might know.



Even if you have got a good knowledge of English grammar and vocabularies, if you do not have a habit of speaking out whatever enters your mind, then I recommend you to try the method of “self-talk”.

Well, let’s move on.

Overcoming “self-talk” reluctance

Before we start practicing, I would like to ask you something…

“Have you got a habit of talking to yourself in your everyday life?”
(Of course, in Japanese in this case…)

Those who have reached a certain age might utter something short like…


“Yokkorasho”

(a typical Japanese [onomatopoeic?] expression which is often used by mature aged people when they try to move their tired body)

or


“Ahh, mata yattemouta!“ 

(Oops, I’ve done it again!)



but I don’t think most of us really talk to ourselves, generally.

We would rather want to stay away from those who mutter something to themselves, wouldn’t we?

Normal people?? don’t usually utter their thoughts unless they intend to do so.


It can be just complaints or something you don’t want other people to hear or something embarrassing to reveal, therefore we don’t usually step out of the phase of thinking process.

Learning from chatterboxes!

Now, when it comes to talking to someone, I believe people can be classified into these three categories…

1. Chatter boxes

2. Moderately chatty people

3. Taciturn ones

3. Taciturn ones are often called “thinkers”, and many of them are said to be clumsy with communication.

As for myself, although I’m not a taciturn person, I don’t really look for an opportunity to talk unless it is necessary… so, I guess I’m somewhere between 2. and 3.

I hate to admit the fact, but with regard to the ability to put thoughts into words, the chatter boxes are superior to the other two.

Being good at uttering thoughts is like ”having great reflexes”.

This is a “skill” of being able to convert whatever comes into your mind into your own words instantly.

We sometimes see chatty people winning an argument by bombarding with lots of words even though they seem to be the wrong ones. 💦



They have got “speed” when it comes to talking!

And this will surely affect the development of our speaking skills.

The fact that you are constantly chatting with someone means that you are automatically training your speaking skills at the same time.

The number of times you put your thought into words is crucial!!!

Even though you study abroad, if you are hanging out with other Japanese all the time, the opportunity to speak in English will be lessened, and your English-speaking skills will not get better at all.

On the contrary, those who find non-Japanese boyfriend or girlfriend to go out with will soon develop their speaking skills.

The way to learn to speak English is the same as how you have learnt to speak Japanese!

The same thing can be said for speaking Japanese. 


We can find those well-known comedians, who now can talk and react to the others with formidable speed, used to talk with typical “manzai” style (one takes the role of idiotic character, and the other person slag him or her off) which requires the practice of swift reaction repeatedly so that they will be able to proceed their things with fast-flying tempo, in their early stage.



Quantity over quality!



Because they have gone through such an experience, they are able to talk like that!

The number of times you utter words directly affects your speaking skills.

Now, I bring the subject back to the “self-talk”.

If you talk to yourself without realising it, you will be “treated as a fruit cake”, however, if you are to use “self-talk” as a means to develop your speaking skills, nothing could work better than this.

As I have mentioned so many times…


No matter how much knowledge you keep in your head, if you don’t learn the “skills” of turning them into words, your ability to speak will never develop.

So, let’s make use of the method of “self-talk” and start uttering some short phrases for the time being…

Expressing your current situation in English with self-talk

Right.

Let’s just start with describing our current situation with a simple structure.

It will be with the form of…

I am + adjective

And for the negative ones…

I am not + adjective

We just add some adverbs such as “still”, “very”, etc. to the sentence depending on the situation.


Example sentences are about some common situations we experience in our everyday life, so please imagine how it’s like when you read them aloud.

🔹 The alarm has gone off in the morning. You have raised your body, but you are not quite awake, yet…

I’m sleepy.


I’m still sleepy.


I’m not awake.


I’m not really awake.


I’m not really awake yet.


I’m not awake at all!

Make sure you utter one of them if you feel sleepy when you wake up in the morning from tomorrow onwards.

The shortened version “I’m” is generally used instead of “I am“, so we will stick to this form here.

By the way, don’t worry if you think your speaking has got a Katakana accent at this stage.

Some people say we should not speak English with Katakana accent, but I totally disagree. Not starting to speak till we have acquired perfect English pronunciation means we are delaying the development of our communication skills. We can improve our pronunciation little by little as we experience and overcome some difficult situations.

We are moving on to the next one…

🔹 You go into the kitchen and the fridge comes into sight. You feel like eating something… so, you go…




I’m hungry!


I’m so hungry!


I’m starving!!!

On the contrary, if you are not hungry yet…



I’m not hungry.


I’m not very hungry.


I’m not hungry at all.



We can add “yet”, which is like “still” but is used for negative sentences.



I’m not hungry yet.

Mind you, don’t just say them in your mind just because you already know how to construct the sentences!!!

🔹 The item you had placed an order on Amazon has just been delivered…

So, you open the box and check what is inside… and then, it turns out that the item is exactly what you were expecting.


Here, you can say…

I’m happy!

If you would like to emphasize your “happy” feeling, you can just add the word “so” before “happy”. 



I’m so happy! (“so” with louder voice)



or you could say…



I’m absolutely happy with this!

You can also say…



I’m so glad!


I’m chuffed. [tʃʌft] (British slang expression)

*A piece of advice*

When we write down the word such as “happy” or “glad” as in Katakana (Japanese alphabet used for loanwords), it’s common to include a small “ッ” (tsu) within these words.
Now what this “ッ” (tsu) does in Japanese is… it plays a kind of role of “staccato”, I believe. However, this small “ッ” (tsu) is not really included in English pronunciation.

Therefore, I recommend you to exclude a small “ッ” whenever you are to pronounce the words that include “ッ” in Katakana..

For more information 

👉 Eigo-jiru【vol.2】Katakana’s small “tsu” does not exist in English pronunciation at all?, etc

If the item you have received is not quite what you had expected, then you could say…




I’m not happy with this…

or you can alternatively say like…



I’m not satisfied with this…

🔹 You’ve come home from work and sink your tired body into a sofa… and you can say…

I’m so tired!

I’m really tired!

I’m absolutely exhausted! [ɪɡˈzɔːstɪd]


I’m knackered! [nækə(r)d] (British slang expression)




Say these when you come home tired…

🔹 You ate too much and are now feeling heavy…

I’m so full!

If you want to emphasize the feeling of fullness, you can stretch the word “so” just like…

I’m soooooooo… full!




or you could say like…


I’m absolutely stuffed!

🔹 You are starting early tomorrow, however, you feel no sign of sleepiness at all.

This is completely a contrary situation to the one with alarm going off in the morning that I featured earlier…

I’m not sleepy at all!


I’m not sleepy yet!


I’m totally awake.



You can also place the word “wide” before “awake” just like…

I’m still wide awake!

Well, if you practice saying the phrase aloud 100 times, I guess, you will have fallen asleep before the number reaches 100…

… and you wake up in the morning following day and say “I’m still sleepy”. w

Expressing your present feeling by using a verb “feel”

Right.

What we are going to do here is more or less the same as what we have just gone through.

You are going to use one of the ordinary verbs “feel” to express your present feeling instead of using a Be-verb “am“.

While the sentence will sound assertive if you use Be-verb, it might sound less assertive if you use the ordinary verb “feel”, as it will add some emotional element to it.


When you use the verb “feel” in a sentence, I personally consider that an extra sentence “Do you know what I mean?” is hidden within it.

If we say, “That’s just the difference between “telling the fact” and “conveying your feelings“, that’s certainly so, but that’s what it is.

Anyway, let’s have a look at some examples…

🔹 You have become full after having your dinner and now drowsiness has started striking you… You will say…

I feel sleepy.

You can also add “a bit” or “a little bit” before “sleepy” to make it more specific…

I feel a bit sleepy.

🔹If you are not feeling well, then you can say…

I feel a bit sick.

🔹 If you’ve got a sensation of dizziness…

I feel dizzy.



I feel a bit dizzy.

It’s the “dizzy” from Dizzy Miss Lizzy, isn’t it?! ✨

(written by Larry Williams and The Beatles recorded the song in their “Help” album.) 

🔹 And if you are feeling good, it will be literally…

I feel good.

(You can practice this with James Brown!)

Now, how about “I feel bad.” ?
Does it simply have an opposite meaning?

Well, this does not mean that you are in a bad mood.

The phrase is often used when you are put in an awkward or uncomfortable situation.

For example, 

You once promised to do something that others were counting on you, but you had to cancel it because you have fallen ill, unexpectedly.

or

You were going to treat your guest, but at the end of the day you ended up getting treated by him/her.

Then, you would probably say…

I feel bad.

We keep going on…

🔹 When you have got a sensation of tiredness, you can express it using the word “feel”…

I feel tired.

rather than saying…

I’m tired.



There is a subtle difference between “I’m tired.” and “I feel tired.” in nuance.

🔹 When you feel annoyed or are feeling impatient about something, you can say…

I feel a bit irritated for some reason.

(“for some reason” means like… “somehow”)



And if you say…



“I’m irritated.“



it will sound a bit more confrontational. w

Umm! Have you been uttering a voice!?

🔹 If you somehow remembered that one of your friends or somebody you know is in a difficult situation, you can say…

I feel sorry for him/her.

Well, I think this is it for this time’s blog post.

From now on, whenever some sort of feelings come to your mind when you are alone, try saying it aloud in English.

konkaz

*You can read this blog post in Japanese from the link below.

👉 勇気を出して、英語で自分の今の状態や気持ちを声にしてみよう!《英語汁 第11号》

How are you getting on with your daily “self-talk”?

As I mentioned in my last blog post, these forms…

“Future tense”

“Present continuous”

&

“Present perfect”

are the main ones to be applied for “broadcasting your action/thought” with self-talk practice.　

We have already gone through the “future tense”, so this time, we will work on the rest that are… “present continuous” and “present perfect”.

Well, let’s check them out.

Present continuous

Come to think of the time when we just started learning English at school, we learn “present tense” before learning “present continuous”, since the “present tense” is a primary verb tense.

The role of “present tense” is fundamentally “to pass along the fact” to someone, therefore its usage is limited to some occasions such as describing your “state of being” (ex. “I’m hungry” or “I feel sick”) or telling your current “activities, fact, habit, etc.” (ex. “I wake up at 6am everyday” or “I like listening to jazz music).


However, when it comes to having an conversation, the situation at the time or people’s “will” is often involved, therefore the “present continuous” with “be + verb with -ing form” and the “future tense” with “will” and “be going to 〜” are used more often than the “present tense”.

For example, when we talk about an act of “eating an apple”, it is often expressed with the “future tense” like…


I’ll eat an apple.


or


I’m going to eat an apple.

On the other hand, you don’t really use the “present tense” like…


I eat apples.


in your daily life, unless somebody asks you like… “Do you eat apples?”.

By the way, let’s continue with the act of “eating an apple” as an example.

When we take some actions, I believe we basically go through the following phases…

① Thinking about doing something.

② We are actually doing it.

③ We have finished doing it.




And apply these for the act of “eating an apple”, it will be…

① I’ll eat an apple. or I’ll have an apple.
　    
⬇︎

② I’m eating an apple. or I’m having an apple.

⬇︎

③ I’ve eaten an apple. or I’ve had an apple. or I’ve finished eating an apple.

        

Therefore, it naturally proceeds like…

“Future tense” ➡︎ “Present continuous” ➡︎ “Present perfect”  

Well, the topic of this chapter has slightly gone off the track, but I just wanted to explain for those who could be wondering why the “present tense” has not been included in the three tenses which are often used for broadcasting our action/thought in real life…

Anyway, we are going through “Present continuous”, and I believe it will be the most “straightforward” one among the three.

All you have to do is just say what you are doing by using the form of “be + present participle (verb + ing)“

Anyway, read the following sentences “aloud” so that you will get used to the form of “present continuous”.



I’m thinking.


I’m thinking about what happened today.


I’m wondering how I can explain about what happened today in English.


I’m not thinking about anything at all.


I’m wondering if they have arrived home safely.


I’m walking.


I’m walking to the bus stop.


I’m listening.


I’m not listening to you.


I’m listening to music.


I’m listening to their conversation.


I’m talking.


I’m talking to myself.


I’m talking to myself in English.


I’m standing.


I’m standing alone.


I’m standing alone in this horrible weather.


I’m brushing my teeth.


I’m preparing for my dinner.


I’m trying to learn to play the guitar.


I’m trying to understand what he really meant.


I’m trying to lose my weight.

I’m giving up!


I’m not giving up!

…And for the sentences whose subject is other than yourself…




The water is boiling. or It’s boiling.


It’s leaking from the ceiling.


My head (shoulder, stomach) is aching.


The alarm is going off.


The fan is making funny noise.


The typhoon is approaching.

The colour is turning to red.


The dog is barking.

Try speaking out (not in your mind) whatever you are doing, or whatever is happening round you at the time.

If you want to develop your speaking skills, no progress will be made without using your voice!

And finally, if you can use the “Present continuous” along with what is explained in the last article 【English future tense】 Understanding when to apply 3 different forms!《Eigo-jiru vol.9》 , it will be pretty good for the time being!

Present perfect

Right.

Here, we are going to work on the “Present perfect” whose form is applied to express the completion of your act or an event that has been going on till present.

We all learnt about this at some point during our compulsory education period, however, I guess some of us might not remember how it works, so let’s take this opportunity to revise a bit. 

Back in the day when we were at school, we learnt four types of “present perfect” that are to express…



① Action/event that are just completed

② Life experiences (up to the present)

③ Unfinished actions (for something that started in the past and continues in the present)

④ Finished actions (present result caused by the past event)

however, here, we are going to give focus to only “① Action/event that are just completed”, therefore, please forget about ②, ③, and ④ for the time being. (I will explain them some other time.)

If you are slightly confused about when to use the “present perfect”, I think it makes easier for you to understand if you take the past event and the present event as a “dot” or a “point” in the continuous time.

The “Present perfect” is applied when you express…

the action/event that began at some point in the past and completed at the present point.

and it has got the structure of…


have (has) + past participle.

For example, 

(Perhaps this is not the best example, but easy to understand… so…)

The granddad who was born at some point in the past has just passed away in front of his son like… “M… my son…, I’ll…I’ll leave the things… to ..you… ” (with the noise of sinking down.)

Then, the son could say…



He has just passed away.



with the form of “present perfect”.


(pass away = polite expression for “die”)

The adverb just and already are often used together with the present perfect.

On the other hand, the “Past perfect” (I’m not going into details about the past perfect here, but I picked this because I thought it would be a good reference to comprehend the “present perfect”) is applied when you express…

the action/event that began at some point in the past and completed later at some point in the past.

and it has got the structure of…


had + past participle.

For example,

(I’m sorry but… here, I am featuring “granddad” once again for the sake of simpler comprehension…)

Despite the fact that the son kept calling his granddad, there was no sign of him picking up his phone, therefore, the son decided to go and see him directly. When the son arrived and went into his place, he found that his granddad had already passed away.

Now, if you look at the grandad’s death from the point of his son’s arrival, whether it happened ten hours ago or just three minutes ago does not really matter. It happened at some point in the past.



Thus, his son could say…


When I visited his house, he had already passed away.


with the form of “past perfect”.

Example sentences with the Present perfect form

While you are carrying out “self-talk”, I presume you will eventually come across the situation where you wonder if you should use the “present perfect” or simply applying the “past tense”.


The point to choose the “present perfect form” is that… 

You started what you are doing at some point in the past and continued it until now.

For example, you have been writing an email for somebody, and you have just finished it and pressed the “send” button. You could say…


Phew. I’ve sent an email at last!

or if you want to express it with the passive form, it will be…


The email has just been sent!

“Just” is applied very often to the present perfect form, therefore making a habit of putting “just” after “have (has)” whenever you feel the vibe of it could be a nice move…

Next one!

The parcel is meant to be delivered to your address this morning, and you have been waiting for it for some time… and then, you hear the doorbell ringing and see the delivery guy walking in…


Here, you can say…

The delivery has just arrived.

Or if you want to emphasise the fact that you were waiting for it long enough, you can use “finally” instead of “just”.


The delivery has finally arrived!

You hear the beeping sound that tells you the end of its program from the washing machine, here, you can say…

The washing has just been done!

You have been charging your mobile phone… and now, you see the digits turning to “100” % on its screen. You could say…


My mobile phone has been fully charged.

You are checking your driver’s license card and it is telling you that it was valid until…  oh, no… yesterday!!!


My driver license has just expired!

Let’s try some negative sentences, too!



You are checking the chicken in a pan and have found that its colour is still a bit reddish.

You can say…


The chicken has not been cooked yet.

You are about to go to bed and just realised that you had forgotten to do your homework.


Oops! I haven’t finished my homework yet!

While “just” and “already” are frequently used in the affirmative sentence of the present perfect form, “yet” is often used in the negative sentence of the same form, just like…

I haven’t taken a shower yet.


I haven’t told her the truth yet.


I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.


I haven’t bought my ticket yet.


I haven’t made a payment yet.

And one more thing to note…

As the case can be spotted in the sentence of “homework” earlier, the verbs such as “finish” and “complete” are often used together with the present perfect from. 

I have finished my lunch.


I have finished all my exams.


I haven’t finished my beer!


I have just completed this book.


I haven’t completed my task yet.

If you would like to tell what kind of action has been done, you can turn the verb form into the present participle, and put it after the structure of have + past participle form of “finish” or “complete”.

Hence, if we use the examples above, they will be…

I have finished eating my lunch.


I have finished doing all my exams.


I haven’t finished drinking my beer!


I have just completed reading this book.


I haven’t completed doing my task yet.

Right. So, this is it for this time’s blog post.

Let’s proactively use the last article’s “Future tense”, and this time’s “Present continuous” & “Present perfect” for our daily “self-talk” practice in order to brush up our speaking skills!

We can seriously boost up our speaking skills by doing the above, so let’s keep it up!

konkaz



*You can read this blog post in Japanese from the link below.

👉 英語の現在進行形と現在完了形で独り言をつぶやく!!!《英語汁 第10号》

I explained in the last blog post《Eigo-jiru vol.8》that the “self-talk” practice was basically a “live coverage of your thought/acton”.

And I believe that the “tense” could be a sort of obstacle that makes you stumble while you try to construct a sentence in your head during the “self-talk”.

If you look at each title of tense-related subjects in Japanese, such as…



「Kansetsu waho / jisei no iicchi」(=indirect speech / backshift of tenses),

「Mirai kanryo kei」(=the future perfect form),

「Kako kanryo kei] (=the past perfect),

「Kateiho kako kanryo kei」(=Subjunctive past perfect), 

etc.

There is a certain inorganic/rigid vibe among these titles (Although they are written in Japanese, each sentence is consisted of mostly Chinese characters that are more complex compared to “hiragana” characters) and that makes you hesitant to learn them.

To be honest with you, adding such a knowledge to your brain without going through the process of “outputting” will be nothing but a dreadful experience unless you are a pure pervert…

Anyway, the top priority of this “self-talk” practice is to build a “pipe” between your brain and your mouth, therefore, for the time being, we are going to leave those tough ones aside, and are going to focus on the following popularly-used three tenses…



“Future tense”,

“Present continuous”

&

“Present perfect”.

And as I mentioned earlier, we are going to have a look at the “Future tense” this time!

Three types of future expressions

Right.

When it comes to “expressing the future” in English, I believe that you will come up with following three types…



① will

② be going to

③ be + doing

However, are you confident about when to use each of them?

I presume some people are not quite sure, so let’s have a look and grasp the point together! 

When we talk about an event that is going to be happening in the future, I believe we especially tend to confuse ① will and ② be going to.

The key to judge which one to apply depending on when the “decision” for the action is made.

“Will” is used when you make a decision right now in a spontaneous way and you carry out what you have just decided at the same time.

For example, when someone offers you some sweets, like…



“Hey, I’ve got this chocolate and a piece of cake here, do you want one of these?”


And you almost instantly decide which one to choose and say…

“Oh, great. Thanks! I”ll (I will) have the chocolate, then!”

with your arm stretching out to grab the chocolate…




On the contrary, “be going to” is applied to indicate the future action which decision was made before the moment of speaking. (Not at the moment of speaking!)

To put it simply, “be going to” is used…

“when you talk about the future events which were already planned beforehand“.

For instance, if you are to tell somebody about your plan to see your first cousin, you could say…

“I’m going to see my first cousin next week”

Well, when somebody asks you about your plan for the following week, I don’t think you compulsively decide to see your first cousin and tell the person that you are doing so without checking your cousins’ availability… that’s insane!

Anyway, these (above) are the typical examples of how “will” and “going to” are applied, however, as we sometimes spot some linguistically ambiguous areas in Japanese (the usage of language differs generation by generation, doesn’t it?), we can find similar things with English, too.  

You could sometimes hear even natives talking with these “will” and “going to” mixing up…

The phrase, which meaning is not going to be changed by using either “will” or “going to”, can be heard in both ways, for example… 

“I think it will be snowing tomorrow!”

and

“I think it’s going to snow tomorrow!”

Or sometimes… a person gets asked by the other person, like…

“Are you going to 〜?”

and you hear the person responding like…

“Urrr… yes, I’m going to 〜“

even though the person is making a decision at the moment of speaking (however not acting straight away…)

Therefore, you might get confused like…



Gurrr…!!! So, which one of these should I use, then!!!



So, for now, let’s stick to this idea, which I mentioned earlier.

We use “will” to inform the future action/event which is decided at the point of speaking and is often instantly carried out.

① Example sentences for using “will” 

Now, read the example sentences aloud, and see how “will” is to be applied.

For example, you are sitting on the sofa and you feel like drinking something.

“I want something to drink…”

And after a bit of thinking, you have decided to drink a cup of tea and say…

“Right. I’ll have a cup of tea, then.”

You are saying it almost at the same time as your decision is made!

By the way, “I’ll” (the shortened version of “I will”) is used very often, therefore, let us adopt this form actively and get used to it.

OK, we are moving on to the next example.

You have left the window open for the purpose of air circulation.

But the weather became dismal before you knew it, and the heavy rain has just started pouring down!

The water will come into the room, so you must make a decision and take action immediately to prevent the room from getting wet…

“Oh, no! I’ll go and shut the window!”

Here, you are speaking out at the same time as the decision is made.

Let’s move on to the next one…

You have just finished cooking sausages with a frying pan and have put them on the plate… and now, you are thinking about what sauce you are going to use for them.

If you are going for using ketchup, then you can say…

“I’ll take the ketchup!”

or

“I’ll eat with ketchup!”

If you are grabbing the mustard, then you can say…

“I’ll use the mustard!”

or

“I’ll eat them with mustard!”

Using both?

“I’ll use both!”

Now, you have decided to call your mum (or your friend) and you are holding your phone…

“I’ll call my mum.”

or

“I’ll call (the name of your friend).”

You were just going to wash your clothes and found that you have run short of washing powder…

You have made a decision to go and get one…

“I’ll go and buy a washing powder at the corner shop.”

You had been reading a book in a quiet environment, and suddenly a noisy fly sneaked in from nowhere…


You are reaching out to a swat and say…

“I’ll kill you!”

Speak out and start acting at the same time as you have made a decision!

Let’s keep this in mind and try with your “self-talk”! ✨

② Example sentences for using “be going to”

Right.

As I mentioned earlier, when you are going to mention a “future event”, which was decided to carry out sometime before the moment of speaking, that is when “be going to” is used.



This means…

The event you are going to mention is not decided at the moment of speaking.

Specifically, when you talk about your “plans” or “schedules”, “be going to” is applied.

If you currently have any specific plans you are going to carry out in the near future, speaking them out by using “I’m going to” can be a good practice…

Here are some examples…

“I’m going to meet up with my friends for some drinks after work this Wednesday.”

“I’m going to see my dentist to have my teeth checked this afternoon.”

“I’m going to take my kids to the zoo in Nagoya city this weekend.”

By the way, just because it’s “self-talk”, it does not mean the subject always start with “I’m 〜”, does it?

“be going to“ is also applied…

to express a prediction based on what you are seeing at the point.

For instance, when you are looking outside the window, you realise that it’s getting dark with grey clouds approaching…

It looks pretty obvious that rain is about to fall… so, you can say…

“It’s going to rain.”

or…


you are watching a football match and you see the team A is leading the game by a score of 5-0 with not so much time remaining…

Here, you can say…

“The team A is going to win the match!”

On the other hand, if you are a fan of the Team A, and you are going to mention about the victory of the Team A as a personal opinion, you are to say…

“The team A will win the match!”

by using “will”.

So, let’s pay attention whether you should use “will” or “be going to” when you try to mention the future event with “self-talk” in English.

Keep making mistakes and keep learning, and eventually you will get to the point where they will come out naturally from your mouth!

③ Example sentences for using “be + doing”

Finally, we are going to work on “be + doing“, which we have not touched at all until this point.

When the form of “be + doing” is applied, it’s not at the level of “planning”, but it’s at the level of confirmation that the occurrence of the event in the future has been arranged.

Examples could be…

“I’m playing tennis tomorrow morning.”

“I’m picking up my parents at the airport at 18:00pm.”

“I’m turning 28 next month.”

“be + doing” is applied when the future event is completely decided!

Summary

To summarize this article…

1. “will”
   …is used to mention the future event which is decided at the point of speaking and is instantly carried out.
2. “be going to”
   …is used to mention the future event which was decided before the moment of speaking (especially when you talk about your schedule or plan)
   …is also used to express a prediction based on what you are seeing at the point.
3. “be + doing”
   …is used when the event is happening with no doubt in the near future.

Well…, this is it for three types of future tense.

Let’s keep these in mind and talk to yourself, when you can!

Bye now.

konkaz



*You can read this blog post in Japanese from the link below.

👉 【英語の未来表現】３つのカタチを頭に入れて使いこなす!!! 《英語汁 第9号》

With this article, three essential rules for implementing “self-talking” practice and a brief but concrete example of how you proceed it are featured.

Some people might find the procedure of self-talk uncomfortable in the beginning.


However, I can assure you that you will be able to reach the level that you can have a general conversation in English without living in English-speaking country, if you incorporate the habit of the “self-talk” for half an hour a day in your daily life.

Especially, if you are living on your own, I can say that you have got the best environment to carry out the practice, since there is nobody to interrupt you.

Anyway, if you take this “self-talk” method as a game to play within a day just like having fun, I believe you will last long. ✨

Transforming yourself into an Earthling 

Right.

I’m going to show you how to implement “self-talk” which is the core subject of this blog post.

To begin with, “self-talk” is basically…

a live coverage of your own action and what’s going on in your mind.

Therefore, there is no special desk work for you to deal with or no need of opening your laptop to go through any online tasks. 

You can just continue living your normal life.

If there is anything you need, it could be just your mobile phone but nothing else…

However, you are to transform yourself from a “Japanese” into an “Earthling” and live as an earthling for a certain period of time during the day.

Having said that, the length of time people can spare per day really depends on individual’s situation.

If you commit yourself too much from the beginning, you might end up with stressing yourself and it won’t be a fun to continue with at all.

I mentioned earlier that ”half an hour” of self-talk per day would help you develop speaking skills, however, if you are only starting, 10mins… or even 5mins a day might be a good length to keep up with. ✨

It’s important that you are implementing this with a living-with-it sort of vibe rather than doing this with I-must-do kind of attitude, so… take this activity just like you are doing some kind of game.

Well anyway, it’s time for action. But before you actually start transforming yourself into an earthling, I’ve got a couple of things I would like you to carry out…

Firstly, since there are no visual changes involved in this transformation, it will give you no special feeling at all.


So, in order for you to be able to regard yourself as a different being, I would like you to create an original “yell” or a “pose” you can display…

…and I want you to perform this each time the transformation takes place.

Secondly, before you actually start carrying out “self-talk”, I want you to set an alarm that will tell you the end of the practice. (Possibly with your mobile phone?) 

You might think it’s dull or unnecessary, but let’s keep it just like holding a ceremony until the habit of talking to yourself in English has completely become a part of your daily life.

Giving a special procedure to implementing something new will often help you stop letting it slip away.

…And of course you can stop doing these actions, once you have successfully integrated the habit of self-talk into your daily life and feel uneasy when you miss it.

The rules of self-talk in English 

Right.

Have you succeeded in transforming yourself into an earthling?

Let’s brush up our Earth language speaking skills, so that we can interact with other earthlings in the world!

Rule ① No languages other than “Earthling’s one” are allowed to use!

Until you hear the alarm going off, it’s taboo to speak in Japanese!

Other than that, you can live as usual… this means it doesn’t matter if you listen to Japanese music or watch Japanese YouTube channels. (I wouldn’t really recommend though…)

But…

the language that comes out of your mouth is restricted to the Earthling’s one.

Playing a game is fun because there are some rules to follow, so make sure you respect this.

Rule ② Speak out whatever comes up in your mind and whatever action you will take!

Rule ② is the key point of “self-talk”.

You are going to output whatever comes up in your head by talking to yourself, but you also have to follow the rule ①.

In the beginning, I presume you will be experiencing following process… 

1). Ideas/thoughts come up in Japanese in your head.  

2). You translate them into English.  

3). You let the words go out of your mouth.

Some of you might struggle with the procedure and find it extremely frustrating, but at the end of the day…   

It’s only self-talk!

There is no need to worry about making mistakes, bad grammar, or pronunciations that might be strongly influenced by Katakana at all, because there is nobody around you listening to what you are saying and laugh at you after all!


Therefore…

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes and let whatever comes up go out of your mouth!

I tell you one more time.

There is no need to be ashamed.


It will be such a waste using your time for being ashamed even when you are all by yourself while life is very short. ✨

So, it would be better to get over it and let everything go out of your mouth!

Ideas/thoughts come up (brain)

⬇︎
⬇︎
⬇︎
⬇︎　(pipes/motor)
⬇︎
⬇︎
⬇︎

Speak out (mouth)

What comes up or the knowledge you accumulate in your head is only “letters”.

And “letters” in your head cannot be comprehended unless you read them out.

You will never be able to speak until you acquire the technique to turn the “letters” into “sound/voice”, in other words, until you learn how to build pipes and run a motor between your brain and your mouth.

In a nutshell, spending your time for building pipes and running a motor is the quickest route to be able to speak English.

Rule ③ No taking notes!

Although you are meant to speak out whatever comes up in your mind, you will eventually (and possibly very often if you just have started studying English) get stumbled at English vocabularies/expressions. 

In this case, you are, of course, allowed to google them or check them out with some Apps such as weblio and so on to find out how you could express what you want to say in English.

However…


if you get carried away with inputting and neglect the most important part of the practice, which is to spend your time for building pipes and running motor between your brain and your mouth (outputting)), you will be drifting away from the main exercise to be able to speak!

And this is the “trap” where diligent people often fall into…

To be able to speak English, you must give the time of outputting top priority.



Therefore…

Once you have checked the meaning and pronunciation of the vocabulary, just let it go.

If you can’t express exactly the same thing that you had come across before in English, then you simply check it once again.


And eventually those vocabularies/expressions will become familiar with you as you check them over and over again.


Therefore,

you must not use pen or notebook for the purpose of inputting, while you have become an earthling.

Keep this in mind and not to worry about the words you have once learnt slipping away, because you will bump into them more than enough times as you go on.

Implementing “self-talk”

Right.

I’ll show you how the “self-talk” can be proceeded with some concrete examples.

Let’s say you have come back home from work and have just finished your dinner and are going to spend next half an hour as an “earthling”. 

Don’t forget about the procedure of transformation and setting an alarm, by the way!

🔹 Slumping down on the sofa…

I’m going to have some rest on the sofa.

[You are so full.]

Huhh, I’m…　　…???

[You can’t continue because you don’t know how to express “full” in English…]

Oops. I’m stuck here!

🔹 If the phrase “I’m stuck” doesn’t come up in your head, try to find alternative ways such as…

“I can’t go on from this point”

or

“I can’t continue.”

or 

“Nothing comes up in my mind!.”

, etc.

Or if you really don’t know how to express the situation, then you can simply say…

I don’t know !!!!! ✨

Anyway, try your best to explain the situation with whatever knowledge you have with your current level. 

It doesn’t really matter if what you’re saying is grammatically making sense or not at this stage.

[You are thinking how to say “Onaka-ippai (means full in Japanese) in English.]

How do I say ”Onaka-ippai” in English?

[You have decided to google it…]

OK, let me google it with my phone!

🔹 After checking how to express it in English…



[You’ve found out that you can say “I’m full”.]

Ah, I see. I can say “I’m full”!

So, you keep trying to speak out whatever you act or think in English during this practice. 

The important thing here is that even if you are going to have to repeat the same actions or thoughts with similar manners, do not skip the procedure like…


“Hey, I’ve just said this before, so it’s fine”,


but instead, keep repeating over and over again! 

As you go on repeating the same thing, they will start sticking to your head as patterns, and eventually your brain will be able to judge which type of expressions can be applied for each situation, automatically… 

Come to think of it, we don’t think like “Err… I think I used the expression “I’m hungry.” yesterday, so I’m not gonna use it this time…”, do we?

🔹 Anyway, let’s continue…

[You’ve just remembered that your phone’s battery was running out]

Oh, my phone’s battery was running out, wasn’t it?

or

My phone was about to be dead, wasn’t it?

Well, above-mentioned phrases might come up for example, however, if you are a beginner in learning English and are not familiar with the form of “question tags” or with the proper use of “tense”, then…

you can just cling to the “present tense” for the time being.

just like…

“My phone die soon!” ✨

(“My phone will die soon! “ …to be exact.)

The important thing is to speak out whatever comes up in English.

Ultimately, just “Phone die!” can do!
When I just started applying “self-talk”, I was expressing things in English exactly with this manner.

Even if you are only able to express the situation by placing simple verb, noun, and adjective one after another at the moment just like … I walk slow, I hungry, I look there, or I go bed sleep and so on… I can tell this for sure!

When you have spoken out whatever you have in your mind in English, you are already one step ahead of those who don’t speak out what is in their head, despite their knowledge of English grammar or vocabularies is several or several tens of times better than you!

As I have kept saying, those who don’t have a habit of speaking won’t be able speak.


The pipes between their brain and mouth is not going to be connected.

If you manage to establish the habit of “self-talk” and carry out “outputting” steadily day by day, you will have overtaken them before you know it!

How come is it possible?

It’s because you will be naturally acquiring practical vocabularies and expressions which are directly connected to your everyday life by outputting what is going on around you or checking some words that are closely linked with your life.

On the contrary, if you keep inputting what you have learnt without outputting, the knowledge of new vocabularies and advanced English expressions that you get from some learning materials will be piled up one after another in your head. 

Then, when it comes to the time for you to speak, you try to chose the best one from the pile of more-than-enough-of-knowledge you have accumulated, and as a result, you become too cautious about choosing the right one, and… the first word will never come out of your mouth.

For this reason, why don’t we set to work on “self-talk”?

No matter what level you are…



Now is the time to start! 

You will be amazed by the outcome of implementing the “self-talk” later on…

Bye now,


konkaz

*You can read this blog post in Japanese from the link below.

👉 英会話上達への最短の方法は、1日のうちに日本人をやめて地球人になる時間を作ることにアリ！《英語汁 第8号》

What will happen in our head by making a daily habit of “self-talk”?

…and secondary,

What should we do for making a habit of speaking in English so that we won’t fall by the wayside?

Therefore, if you are interested in the great method of learning to speak “self-talk”, please continue reading. 

By the way, the concept of “self-talking practice” is written in the previous article, so if you haven’t checked it out, you can go there from the link below.

👉 The reason why you should start “self-talk” right now! 《Eigo-jiru vol.6》

The system that starts functioning once “self-talk” has become a habit of yours.

First of all…

Once you have made a habit of “self-talk”, I can say that bringing your English-speaking level up to the stage where you can comfortably deal with daily affairs is not a mission impossible at all.

The reason for this is because… you will probably start with simple daily phrases you already know (as well as adding some new vocabularies as the situations you will come across require), but as you go on repeating the same phrases, they begin to stick in your mind, and your brain will start recognising their patterns. 

And eventually you will get to the point where English phrases automatically come out of your mouth and the system of

“Thinking in English”

will be established and start functioning.

You say “it’s not a mission impossible at all” …

Well, it does seem like it, though…

If you think that way before actually setting your hand to it, then it will be impossible.

I’m saying this on the premise that you have made a habit of “self-talk” in English, so if you can’t, then you better let it go and try some other ways.

But let’s halt here and think a bit further…

It is said that the main reason why people cannot speak English is simply because they are not spending enough time speaking in English.

I totally agree with this comment.

For instance, if you are taking online English speaking course, how much do you think you are actually speaking within a limited time frame?

If you think there is not much chance of speaking in English, then you need to create it by yourself.

When you try to speak in English while you do not have a habit of it, what you want to say will come up in Japanese at first, then you translate them into English in your head, and finally you let them go out of your mouth…


This is the process you are go through at the moment.

On the other hand, if you are speaking in English regularly, what you would like to say will naturally come up in English and then construct the sentences in your head.

If you start speaking in English regularly with a certain amount of time a day, the process of “translating Japanese into English” will disappear gradually.  

Once you get to this stage, you can measure your progress by the feeling of how the system of “thinking in English” is working smoothly.

And finally, if the state of “think in English” becomes “thinking in English” or “responding automatically in English to someone’s remark”, I can say that you are entering the stage of enjoying communication in English.

Some people will be able to reach this stage within half a year, but unfortunately, once you neglect to maintain the habit of “outputting”, i.e. using your voice, the system you have created will get rusty.

Just dropping the habit of outputting will put you in such a situation, therefore it is natural to think that those who don’t have a habit of outputting at all will not be able to speak no matter how much vocabularies they input, because it is the same thing as not running a motor.

The things you can do to maintain new habit  ①

So, what should you do to keep your new habit unfading? 

In my case, whenever I aim to form a new habit, I often try doing following two things so that it won’t disappear easily.

1. To make yourself understand the fact logically like… if you don’t start doing it right away, it will put yourself in an unfavourable position, and you will horribly regret later on.
2. Use something visually appealing. 

As for number 1, it won’t last if you are vaguely thinking like “ I want to be able to speak English!”  

With this sort of attitude, you will probably be like… stop making progress at the point of having conquered the shape of F chord, when it comes to playing the guitar…

We never take things seriously until we are in great necessity.

So, it’s important to find out the reason why you still need to learn to speak English while you live in Japan.

I check Twitter regularly and often get impressed to find lots of young people posting useful information for sharing, and the information is exchanged between different generations as well.

This is simply amazing, because the scene like this has only been developed over the last 15 years or so…

Comparing what is currently going on with how things were in my teens or twenties, I feel that time is really flying.

Considering how fast things are changing within such a short period (10 years, 20 years will be gone with lightning speed, seriously!), and the fact that due to the globalization of communication industry, there is practically no online borders between the countries as long as you are able to deal with things in English,

it looks quite obvious that…

the time we should individually regard ourselves as an “Earth person” (or simply mankind) before we regard ourselves as “Japanese” has come!

And since “English” has been recognised and used as a “global language”, if you don’t speak “Earth language” as an “Earth person” you will end up missing out lots of opportunities with your life.

At the end of the day, whether you speak English or not will have a great effect on individual’s life, therefore, considering the future economic situation in Japan, we better learn to speak in English with urgency.

Learning to speak in English with online courses could be one of the effective ways, but I personally think that it’s important to have a sense of “living with English language” rather than “spending some time for learning to speak”.

What I meant here is…

to spare some percentage of your day to live as an “Earth person” and speak “Earth language”, instead of living whole day as a Japanese and speaking in Japanese.

So, essentially this is the core part of what I recommend people to carry out with the method of “self-talk”, however incorporating this attitude as a habit into your daily life can be tricky for some people, I believe…

As for this issue, a tactic of “appealing to the visual sense”, which I mentioned earlier, will work effectively, so I will explain it with some examples in the next chapter.

The things you can do to maintain new habit  ②

With regards to incorporating a new habit into your everyday life, no matter how carefully you plan your time and set about working on it determinedly, there are always “other priorities” coming up to interrupt your schedule.

If it’s happening just for one day, you can easily go back to your routine. However, this “other priorities” occasionally come in with a few days in a row or sometimes as a bunch within a mouth with no mercy.

You eventually get less motivated, the passion you initially had fades away, and it’s quite common to find that the habit which was just about to be established have been buried under the successive events of “other priorities” before you know it.

In order to prevent such a thing from happening, the method of appealing to the visual sense, such as writing things down on the paper or even on hands are often applied, and when I used this method with some arrangements for my “self-talking” practice, it worked pretty effectively, therefore I would like to share this with readers.

To put it simply, what I did was sticking some notes on the spots where you would never fail to take daily action, such as…

“opening the door of the fridge”,

“taking tableware or a bottle of seasoning from the cupboard”,

“setting the alarm clock”

and so on.

It’s impossible to miss these spots unless you deliberately try to look away!

And the content of the notes is basically a couple of questions written in English.

For example, the ones I put on the door of the fridge were…

① What are you taking out from the fridge?   (fridge = refrigerator)

② And what do you use it for?

Each time you reach the point to open the door you need to answer these questions “aloud”.



And if the answer was… let’s say… orange juice, I had to say…

① I’m taking orange juice out.

② I’m just going to drink some because I’m thirsty.

Or if it was eggs…

① I’m taking some eggs out.

② I use them for cooking my dinner. I’m going to cook a Spanish omelette tonight. 

…something like these. 

So, you basically write down some questions in English on a piece of paper and put it on some unmissable spots and answer them aloud each time you take action.


And it will be even more effective if you read questions aloud, too.,

With alarm clock, the questions can be…

① What time do you need to wake up tomorrow?

② And why?

And the answers for these could be…

① I need to wake up at 5:30am.

② It’s because the Tube is not working tomorrow, so I need to take buses.  (Tube = Underground)

By asking the same questions and answering them aloud repeatedly, they will become like templates.

Take A from B.

What do you (use, need, etc.) it for?

Starting with “It’s because…” for answering the questions that begin with “Why…“, etc.

And the answer to the questions cannot be the same all the time, so this exercise involves a bit of “thinking in English” (though you will probably have to go through the process of thinking in Japanese and then translate it into English in the beginning), and keeping this method going will train you pretty well.

And once the pattern has settled in, you can change the questions to something different.

By visualising the task of English-speaking exercise, which is directly related to your daily actions, it is unlikely that you will fail to maintain your new habit.

The act of outputting you make on each spot might be small, but when it accumulates…


…the effect of it will be eruptive!!!

Anyway, this is it.

Many thanks for reading this blog post till the end, and keep the good work going!!!

konkaz



*You can read this blog post in Japanese from the link below.

👉 「独り言英語」その絶大な効果と習慣化させるためのアイデア《英語汁 第7号》

How many people are going a long way round to achieve their goals by choosing the learning method that doesn’t involve using their own voice while they want to be able to speak,

and also…

How “self-talking practice” can help you improve your English speaking skill immensely.

So, if you think the development of your speaking skill is stagnating, or you are looking for more enjoyable way to learn, please keep reading! ✨

Get your voice out!

First of all, having a conversation in English is not like communicating each other by using the power of telepathy with the knowledge you have accumulated in your head…

It looks like there are lots of people blindly spending their time to store up English grammars and vocabularies and they are hoping that such an ability will bloom one day to communicate…?

But we don’t use such a skill when it comes to speaking Japanese, do we?

“No, no, no, I just want to be able to write some sentences in English.”

“I just want to equip myself with perfect grammar!”

“My goal is just to score a great mark to get the certificate for my job hunting…”

If these are the cases it’s fine, but fundamentally, English is …

“A tool to communicate with other people”

It will be too good to waste if you don’t turn what you are learning to the direction where you can use it to communicate with other English speakers from other countries.

Anyway, when it comes to English learning, I presume you have repetitively heard about the action of “inputting” and “outputting”,

but, if your ultimate goal is to be able to communicate with other people in English, you better realise the fact that inputting (accumulating the knowledge) and outputting (using the knowledge you have acquired) must be carried out at the same time!

However, just because…

• you know how to carry out inputting type of learning much better than outputting type of it
• the progress you make with inputting is easier for you to measure than that of outputting

, don’t you have a tendency of procrastinating speaking practice without knowing and spend most of your time on inputting instead?

Well, it’s fairly understandable, but if you are working less on outputting side of the practice, it’s not only creating a bad balance between your achieving areas, but also…

it will cost you extra longer time to acquire speaking skill.

But then, some of you might say…

“To be able to output something, we need a good amount of input beforehand, don’t we?”

however, you don’t have to wait to output until you have acquired advanced grammar or have accumulated a large number of vocabularies!

What you are doing is just like…

You start using electric appliances only after you have read all the pages of manual and have studied in details with memorising the name of every machinery parts.

Instead, we start using them as soon as we have learnt the minimum necessary information and learn optional small things as opportunities arise, don’t we? 

The same thing can be said of learning to speak in English.

Just like driving vehicles, playing some sports or instruments, and so forth, speaking skill cannot be achieved by just acquiring its knowledge (inputting).

Even if you feel totally uncomfortable and are not good at doing it in the beginning, without outputting your knowledge by using your own mouth, you will end up becoming just like an operations manual.

The quickest way to improve your speaking skill is you learn it through experiencing some disappointments or embarrassing situations… at the end of the day.

Probably this fact is not known to many people, but even native-borns speak with lots of grammatical mistakes when they are little. 

Therefore, start outputting whichever English vocabulary or expression you know little by little in your daily life, even if you have Katakana English accent.

We can just fix things as we go!

Seriously, you can start with something really basic and easy such as “I’m hungry!” or “I’m happy!”


After all, the improvement of your speaking skill can be achieved only by the number of times you have turned your thought into your voice, therefore the sooner you start the better!

What sort of outcome will be expected for knowledge collectors?

Right.

So, what will happen if you just keep inputting, I mean, keep stuffing knowledge into your brain?

This is actually very dangerous and is said to be one of the reasons why we Japanese cannot develop our speaking skill despite we spend hours and hours for studying.

I guess the people who have gone abroad to study might have met those who courageously plunge into native speaker’s conversation and totally fit themselves in despite their apparently poor English vocabularies.

And meanwhile, we Japanese who have equipped with basic knowledge of English grammar and some good vocabularies from compulsory education, are unable to join in and instead we are just listening and smiling…(and possibly correcting courageous person’s grammatical mistakes in our head.)



But the fact is that…

“We are already far behind them at this very point!”

(This is actually a massage for my old self, in a way!) w



As I mentioned earlier,

“having English knowledge” and “to be able to use the English knowledge you have acquired” are “two different skills“.

The reason why I stated earlier that it was very “dangerous” to just keep storing knowledge in your brain is because…

if you keep inputting what you have learnt without outputting them, your ideal, which has been created by the repetition of an act of inputting will be well-established in your head, while no progress has been made with the skills of outputting your knowledge in reality, and the gap between the “ideal” and the “reality” will become bigger and bigger…

And as a result, the selection of your vocabularies in your head (none of them you have ever used) will prevent you from making timely reaction to other people’s remarks or simply you’ll become more hesitant to throw yourself into the conversation because you get too worried about making a small mistake!

And you will fall into a vicious circle of not making any move for “outputting” but going back to “inputting”…


And moreover, those untouched stored knowledge will eventually become hard and get stuck in your brain, so you won’t be able to get them out through your mouth.

Therefore, it is reasonable to apply your knowledge (outputting), while it’s still fresh.

Creating an environment for outputting ➡︎ “Self-talk”

“OK, but wait for a minute.

I understood that ”inputting” and “outputting” should be carried out with a good balance but how can I implement “outputting” while there is nobody I can speak to?

I am not studying abroad, and have no English-speaking friends over here!”

Well, you are absolutely right. But let’s think a little bit here…

When it comes to “conversation” we’ve got this picture of more than one person exchanging their opinions or their impression of some topic, haven’t we?

But haven’t you ever heard a phrase such as “contributing to the conversation” or “to establish a conversation” ?

Conversation is basically an “interactive” affair… that means before it reaches interactive stage, it must start from non-interactive stage where one person is simply giving opinion or saying some kind of greeting words.

So, this means, we can say that…

conversation is only formed at the point where somebody reacts to the other person’s remark,

can’t we?

In a nutshell, “outputting” is always carried out before conversation is getting established.

Besides, we sometimes catch the scenes where the conversation is seemingly being established but the fact is that there is no interaction going on, and people are just saying whatever they feel like to…

We might find similar situations in an interview of politicians or excited mature ladies’ lunch time conversation.

My wife is certainly making her way to get to this level! w

In conclusion, “outputting” is fundamentally no different from “self-talk” regardless of people’s reaction to whatever you say.

It is also said that “writing things down” is another form of “outputting”.

This is something I am pointing out in the kindle book I have published, which is the fact that…

“writing” is non-interactive action until somebody actually reads it.

The skill of writing can be developed in proportion to the amount you write… just like people who are involved in online business practice writing repeatedly to master their copywriting skill.

So, why don’t people apply “self-talk” for their speaking practice which method is practically the same as “writing down your idea” while both are the same “outputting” action?

Well, the reason for this could be pretty obvious…

“Speaking” involves noise/voice, therefore unlike the act of writing, people might overhear what you say.

There is a fear that people might label you as a “crackpot” at some point…

But anyway, we now know that…

“Speaking”, which is an act of “outputting”, can be made possible without having anybody to speak to!

So, all you have to do is to create an environment where you can talk to yourself with nobody around you to suspect that you are a mad person.

Regarding the matter of creating an environment for yourself, if you are single and live alone, I have to say that you already have a great advantage.

Due to the advent of the internet, the world has become more globalized, and now that anybody can send their information to the world.

Taking the fact of the “arrival of individual’s age” and the “current position of Japan as a country in the world” into account, we better regard ourselves as “earth-men/women” before regarding only as “Japanese”, and spend some proportion of time a day for speaking English as “earth language” to develop our communication skill, because it will be crucially important in the very near future.

Let us have a sense of…

“earth-men/women speak earth language”

in ourselves, and adapt the “custom of self-talk” to blend in our everyday life, so that speaking in English will become just a normal thing for us.

Finally, we occasionally hear criticism about “self-talk” such as…

• You can only output what you already know.
• Without having actual person’s reaction to what you say, things will be unrealistic.

however, with the method of self-talk, you can realize what vocabulary/expression to input at the point you have failed to express what you wanted to say, and also you can pronounce English sentences that come up to your head without any pressure that you generally get from the presence of somebody…

So, why don’t we set about this wonderful practicing method?

konkaz



*You can read this blog post in Japanese from the link below.

👉 【今や常識】英語スピーキング上達に欠かせない”独り言英語”《英語汁 第6号》