The 4S Rule: Double Your Speaking Ability Instantly

By following the 4S rule, you can double your speaking ability right now. You don't need any new vocabulary. You don't need to fix pronunciation. You don't need better grammar. All you need to do is follow the 4S rule, which we'll now describe. First, try to understand this sentence.

SpeakingEnglishumtoofastmakesumithardumforpeopletoumunderstandyou.

Confusing, isn't it? Well, your English might sound like that. Let's take a closer look at the sentence. We'll see how to double our speaking ability without learning any new English:

1. Slow

Let's slow down a bit:

Speaking English um too fast makes um it hard um for people to um understand you.

See how we made it cleaner just by separating the words clearly? The same thing happens when you speak. Already you have improved. Why does this work?

It has to do with how we hear language. When you hear a foreign language, you don't know when one word ends and the next word starts. It just sounds like noise. The same thing may happen when you speak English. People will have a hard time hearing the boundaries between your words. You can make this much easier by just slowing down!

2. Short

The next way to improve your speaking is to keep it short. How do you do that? By splitting a sentence into phrases that you can handle:

Speaking English too fast um

makes it hard um

for people to understand you.

Now we have three small phrases. Each phrase by itself is easy for you. Notice that there is still one problem. Between the phrases we still have "um." "Um" is very distracting. It takes all the attention from the real words. Replace it with silence. This might feel strange to you, but a 2-second pause is absolutely fine. It sounds intelligent, unlike "um." In fact, broadcasters use pauses frequently. (The also talk much more slowly!) Try saying the sentence this way:

Speaking English too fast

[silence]

makes it hard

[silence]

for people to understand you.

This sentence will sound much better to the listener.

3. Stress

Look at the sentence again:

Speaking English too fast makes it hard for people to understand you.

The bold words are the important words in the sentence. If you only say, "Speak English fast hard understand," people will probably know what you mean. So what should you do? Stress those words. Make them strong, slow, and clear. Make them stand out from the other words.

4. Simple

In most cases, you can probably find a short cut to make the sentence simpler. One way is to cut it into two sentences. This reduces the grammatical complexity of the sentence. For example, we can simplify

Speaking English too fast makes it hard for people to understand you.

by doing this:

Don't speak English fast. People can't understand you.

We eliminated 33% of the words. We also eliminated "makes it," "for," and "to," which means we don't have to think as hard. The second version is much simpler. You will speak more comfortably as a result. People will be able to understand you better.

So that is the 4S rule. If you follow it, your clarity will improve by 100% instantly. Give it a try!

4 Ways to Focus Your English Study

One fantastic way to improve your English learning is to focus your efforts. Don't to be fluent; try to be effective. You can be effective by carefully selecting what you will study. Doing so will increase the benefit of every study hour. At an academy, people with different goals learn the same material. That is not effective. A student, a lawyer, a vocalist, and a CEO have different reasons to study. Their approaches should be different, too.

Here are some focusing tips to make your study time more valuable:

1. Identify your goal. Why are you trying to learn English? Are you going to move to California? Do you need to give presentations to foreign executives? Are you an actor or singer with a few lines of English to record? Decide what your specific need is. Tailor your program accordingly.

2. Practice only what you need. If you are going to act in a scene with a few English lines, spend your time perfecting pronunciation for those lines. If you are going to do a Power Point presentation, focus on the most important words and phrases. Don't waste time learning how to order food or to buy train tickets.

3. Find materials that match your goal. If you're a defense attorney, watch American TV shows that focus on trials and negotiations. If you're a business man, watch YouTube videos about public speaking. If you're a actor with an English-speaking scene, find similar scenes from American TV shows or movies.

4. Keep it short. Focus on getting your point across in the fewest words possible. Get rid of any unnecessary words and sentences so that you don't have to waste time practicing them. This is considered a valuable skill even for native speakers.

By focusing your efforts, you will improve your communication and your image. Even if your goal is fluency, you still have to start somewhere. Start with the most useful things, and do them well. Be effective.

How Can I Learn English? (5 Dos and 5 Don'ts)

"어떻게 해야지 영어 잘 할 수 있을까?" he asked.

He went to an academy every morning before work. He was tired. His English wasn't improving. I told him to quit the academy. He didn't like my answer. He preferred sitting in the academy every morning, drinking coffee and eating stress.

I've answered that same question hundreds of times. I'll probably answer it hundreds more, but my answers are always the same.  Here are the do's and dont's of learning to speak English.

Don't

1. Don't learn English at all. Ask yourself some questions:

• Will I need to speak English well in two years?  Five years?  Ten years?
• Will I make 50% more income if I speak English well?
• Will speaking English well help me accomplish a critical goal?
• Do I need to speak English publicly?
• Will I practice speaking or listening for at least an hour per day?
• Am I willing to study on my own with no books and no teacher?

If you answered, "no," then STOP! Use your time for something else. Start a business. Get a certification. Raise your kids. Learn Chinese. Get more sleep. Don't waste any more time on English. Be free!

However, if you answered, "yes," then keep reading.

2. Don't use books. If you want to speak English, stop reading. Use books as resources, not as a program. Reading will not make you speak better.

3. Don't practice long sentences. Keep them short. Very short. People will understand. Long sentences confuse people. (They confuse you, too.) They hurt your pronunciation. Don't use them. Use a subject, a verb, and an object. Keep it short.

4. Don't practice sentences like these. They are not part of everyday conversation.

• Hello, my name is _____.
• Where are you from?
• Do you like Korean food?
• How long have you been in Korea?
• (anything else that sounds like a greeting)

5. Don't practice stuff that you won't use. If you are a lawyer, focus on things that lawyers say everyday. Don't practice discussing the Olympics, seafood, or the US elections.

Do

1. Speak. Talk to foreign co-workers. Talk to yourself. Talk to anyone who will have a normal conversation with you. Try to talk to the same people regularly, and become familiar with their speech patterns.

2. Listen. Listen to Western music. Watch American movies. Play the same movies and songs many times. Rewind often. Before I came back to Korea, I listed to 유희열's "Thank You" album about 100 times. I watched "그저바라 보다가" three times. I filled my brain with Korean. I'm watching "최고의 사랑" for the fourth time now. (Yes I'm a 차승원 fan.)

3. Think. When you hear something useful, figure it out. When you aren't sure how to say something useful, figure it out. Write it down. Review it.

4. Use what you learn. If you learn something useful from a conversation or a movie, use it right away. If you use it five times within a few days, it will be yours.

5. Focus on pronunciation. If your grammar is perfect but your pronunciation is bad, nobody will understand you. I'll be posting about pronunciation in the future. Don't try to improve your speaking without improving your pronunciation. It won't work.

I hope that's a helpful start. If you still want to go to the academy, English might not be a good idea for you. Perhaps you should review the questions in #1 under "Don't." I know that sounds hard, but you'll thank me later.