Your English Course: Your Journey to the Next Level

Александр Чумаков

Your English Course:

Your Journey to the Next Level

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Your English Course: Your Journey to the Next Level

Let me introduce myself. My name is Alexander Chumakov. Nice to meet you! I am the author of this course. I'd like to start with a question.

What does a traveler expect on the morning when a new journey begins? Some hope for a sunny day. Others need to catch an early flight. For many, a good breakfast is essential. But what about you?

If you ask me what I expect, my answer is simple. I want to be surprised. I want the day to be full of pleasant surprises and to learn things that are interesting, useful, and meaningful.

In my view, this is why every traveler begins their journey: the desire to learn. To see, hear, and feel something new. You go to experience life itself.

Yes, it's risky. It's always a little scary. The destination is unknown. But if you prepare well, and if you trust that this journey will bring you growth, I promise you: you will enjoy every step.

And you know what? When you return home, you may feel tired, disappointed, excited, or thrilled. But you will always bring back a story to tell — a story that lets others see, hear, and feel what you have lived.

Your story becomes an invitation for their own adventure.

This is your journey. Your English Journey to the Next Level. Let's begin.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS ENGLISH COURSE

Let me tell you what you are going to do in Your English Course: Your Journey to the Next Level to succeed faster and better. This Course has 7 units and 2 months of audio lessons.

Each unit includes:

1st A short story. Each story is a pleasant, enjoyable, instructive and mysterious journey which you are going to undertake and, most importantly, you are going to learn a good deal of good, new and useful ideas that can bring out the best in you.

2nd The vocabulary lesson – this is where I explain the meaning of the words you might not know. Here I am going to walk you through some words and some idioms in English, you can hear people use, when they talk about things in everyday life situations and not only. In this lesson I am going to broaden your horizons in terms of using the words and I am going to make some comments of my own as well. I hope you will find them useful.

And, of course, 3rd you will have your favorite Mini-Story lessons where I am asking the story and answering the questions. The mini-story lessons will help you to understand English grammar better and remember the ideas given faster and longer. I am sure you will have a lot of fun while taking this fantastic, sometimes difficult, but absolutely amazing journey. At the end of the journey, you will certainly become a better English speaker and a better human being.

4th – Alex Says Show. In these audiopodcasts, I am going to introduce great, fantastic, and gorgeous ideas on the very topic you hear from the stories in this English course called “Your Journey to the Next Level. I am going to talk about the best minds of this planet and share with you what they had to say. I am sure that their ideas will certainly help you change the way you think about English — and will help you start speaking better than you are doing now.

All this, I am sure, will help you get the message of the story and, of course, you will listen to English more, you will learn more and you will enjoy it more.

Good luck to you!

With love and respect,

your English teacher,

Alex.

WHY DO WE LEARN STORIES HERE?

Why do we learn stories here?

That is a great question. You know, how much I love “The Why-questions”. Let me tell you why all my books, why all my language courses have stories and why the method I use when I teach English is called a story-telling method.

The reason to tell the story is more important usually than the story itself.

Story-telling is one of the best methods for learning foreign languages. We, human beings, are storytelling creatures. Our brains love stories and we all learn from stories. Stories are vital. We convey our feelings, our mood, our energy and the truth with stories. We convey the mystery of the language. And most importantly, we learn English grammar intuitively like children do. That’s why stories. I don’t mean, don’t learn grammar. No. Grammar is important. I am saying that grammar is difficult. Grammar is very difficult. Grammar is boring. It is hard to say anything interesting and comprehensible to people when teaching them languages and you have to focus on grammar rules a lot.

When you learn a foreign language, for example, you learn English. You learn grammar rules, right? You learn all about the sentences and how words work together. And when you want to say something in English, you make the sentence in your own language first, and then you drag out of your memory the words you need and put them into the sentence. That is painful. That is difficult. That is boring and it takes time. When you acquire the language, you understand what you hear. You understand the message. The message has to be compelling and comprehensible. Simply to say, the message has to be interesting and understandable. Only when you are totally involved in the story, the world disappears around you. You forget that it is in another language. You acquire the language. It means you get the language. You understand the language. Language acquisition happens.

I don’t mean, don’t learn grammar. I don’t mean, if you study grammar, go to jail. No, grammar is important. I am saying again that grammar is difficult. Grammar is very difficult. Grammar is boring. What I have to do as a teacher is say things that are interesting, understandable and then grammar will take care of itself. And this is hard enough. All I need, as a teacher, is to make sure that you are paying attention and you are interested in what I am saying. It’s a good story. That is why I sit down and create these compelling and funny, comprehensible and interesting stories for you.

When you tell a story, something remarkable happens: imagination flies and magic begins. What’s why stories.

WHY ARE MINI-STORIES SO POWERFUL?

Mini-stories are powerful because I deliberately use the most common verbs like: go, come, take, give, wish, run and there is so much repetition in these stories. And the questions come and again they should be very, very easy and very much comprehensible. So you answer the questions without thinking.

And you no longer deal with the story; you focus on the most common verbs we use in daily conversations.

What do you get from this? The same words, the same questions and you get the basic structures of the sentences with so much repetition.

Even if you start as a beginner, it is first noisy and then with time it gets clearer and clearer to you and you feel more and more confident in what you are learning.

Some of the stories are easy, some of them are difficult. Why? It is because of our brain again.

The brain requires two things: repetition and novelty. Novelty is not necessarily to be something new. It means when you learn something using a lot of repletion, you eventually get tired and bored and you need to give your brain a kind of break. It can help you develop the flexibility of your brain.

If you stay with simple stories and never push yourself to harder stories, it is easier for you to get that boredom. But if you push yourself and make yourself learn something a little bit more difficult than you did before, your brain becomes more alert and more alive and you remember much better and faster, so you learn better and speak better. That’s why mini-stories are so powerful.

HOW TO USE THIS COURSE

My dear friend! My congratulations! Welcome to Your English Course: Your Journey to the Next Level.

Hello! This is Alex, your English teacher. You are now ready to speak true, real and excellent English. Here I am going to tell you what you should do to start speaking English the way you never did before.

How to use the story

Each story, each set has several lesson files. All lessons, in a story, in a set, have the same name. These lessons go together. Every day, you will listen to all the lessons in ONE story, in ONE lesson set (all the lessons go with the same name). You will listen to only one set for 7 days or more, but not less than 7 days or not less than one week.

This is very important. As you remember, the motto of the course is “Repetition is the mother of skill”.

You will only improve your English quickly if you follow this method – one story, one lesson set everyday – the same lessons set every day for 7 days (or more). Slower is better.

How to use texts

1. First, try to only listen

Don’t use these text transcripts first. Try to listen to a story, a vocabulary lesson and a Mini-story, and my comments without the text. If you understand them, you don’t need the text - just continue to listen.

2. Use these text transcripts only when you do not understand something

If you don’t understand part of a story, a vocabulary or a Mini-Story, or my comments read the text. You absolutely must go back and read what you do not understand. This is vitally important. This will help you identify vocabulary you might not understand from just listening. Use a dictionary, if necessary, to find unknown words. You will certainly begin to understand better and remember much better of what you listen to. Of course, you understand that you can only remember things when you understand them!

3. Read and Listen at the same time, a few times

Once you know all of the words and phrases in a story, a vocabulary lesson and a Mini-Story, and the Alex Says Show now you can listen and read at the same time. Do this a few times only. Every day focus more on answering the questions. Use your voice. I mean, answer the questions in a loud voice. You absolutely must hear your voice!

4. Just listen again

Now you just listen to the Mini-story. Don’t read. You know the questions and the answers very well. Do not focus on reading – focus on listening!

Put the text aside and only listen to the Mini-Stories. Only answer the questions. These text transcripts can help you, but don’t use them too much.

And, of course, you have to listen to my little English show – Alex Says Shows and enjoy them.

Do it as many days as you can, but not less than 7 days, not less than one week.

If you follow the system, you will certainly succeed faster.

Remember: listening is the key to speaking.

I wish you good luck and every success!

With love and respect,

your English teacher,

Alex.

Hello, my superstar English student. This is Alex, your English teacher. Hope you are having a nice day today. Welcome to our English journey where I tell you interesting, strange, and funny stories, ask questions, and answer them. I want you to listen and enjoy real, true, and excellent English and practice speaking English a lot. Our first story is called “The English Brew” Let’s get started.

David is a young man. He wants to speak English. In fact, he has to speak true, real, and excellent English. David needs English to get a better life. But David has a problem. His problem is that he doesn’t want to learn English like children do in schools. He doesn’t want to have boring lessons. He doesn’t want to do homework. He wants to do it differently.

That’s why David really wants to know if there is a technology, an app (application), or a pill for learning English faster, better, and cheaper.

So he asks this question to everyone he knows: his relatives, his friends and his co-workers. He even goes online and does a lot of research there.

But unfortunately, he cannot find the answer. He feels angry, frustrated and upset.

What does David do next?

Next, he says, “Okay, I will go to the library. If people don’t know the answer, and the Internet doesn’t know it, maybe books can give what I need.” So he goes to the library. Every day he reads many books hoping to find the answer to his question. One day he meets an old man at the library. The old man tells David that in the Amazon jungles there are shamans who make the English brew. And if he drinks the English brew, he will certainly start speaking true, real, and excellent English.”

David goes to the Amazon jungles, and he finds the Shamans. The Shamans give him the English brew. David drinks the English brew and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he immediately starts speaking true, real, and excellent English. David is extremely happy. He returns home. Now David can understand, speak, and even write in English perfectly well.

But after three weeks something goes wrong. David starts to forget words. He confuses English words. His English is getting worse and worse. And after two months, to his great disappointment, he stops speaking English at all.

David realizes that the English brew doesn’t work very well. He realizes that there is no hack for learning English faster, better, and cheaper. David decides to go back to a simple, time-tested, and natural way to learn English.

What does David do finally?

Finally, he calls Alex and he says, “Alex, I want to speak true, real and excellent English. Please, teach me.”

Alex says, “Okay.”

This is the end of the story “The English Brew”. Listen and enjoy the story. But if you're dead serious about English and want to succeed faster, then repeat each sentence after me. Do this every day, and I promise: you will start speaking true, real, and excellent English. See you in the vocabulary lesson.

Hello, this is Alex, and this is your vocabulary lesson for “The English Brew.”

Before we begin, let me just say a few words about what I am going to do in this lesson. In the vocabulary lesson, I am going to give the definitions for the words you might not know from the story, and then I am going to paraphrase them based on the story, using simple words. Let’s start immediately.

Our first expression for today is "to get a better life"

It comes from the following sentence: “David needs English to get a better life.” "To get a better life" simply means to improve your living conditions, to have new opportunities. David thinks that speaking English will help him improve his life by getting a better job or having more opportunities. Currently, David lives in modest living conditions: his house is small, his job is not prestigious, and as a result, he gets little money. But he thinks if he improves his English, everything will change for the better.

Next, we see a very good word which is "an application," or "an app" for short.

It's difficult to imagine modern life without this word. The sentence says, “David really wants to know if there is a technology, an app (application) or a pill for learning English faster, better, and cheaper.” This is a rather long sentence, but don’t worry, I am going to help you understand it better and faster. An "app" means a software program you can use on a computer or phone, designed for a specific purpose. In our case, David wants to know if there is a special program that can help him to learn English differently and quickly. He doesn’t want to learn English like everybody does. He wants to learn it faster and better, and he doesn’t want to spend much money on learning English. He also thinks that maybe there is a pill for learning English. A special medicine that if you take it, you will learn English faster and better than other people.

We move on, and we see another fantastic expression which is "do some research"

I love this expression a lot. "To do some research" actually means to study a subject or problem carefully and systematically in order to discover facts or test your ideas. From the story, we know that David asks everyone he knows if there is a method of learning English faster and better, but not having the answer from people, he goes online and tries finding the answer on the Internet. David reads many articles online. He watches a lot of related videos trying to find the answer. In other words, he spends a lot of time looking online to find the answer to his questions about the best way of learning English. David does a lot of research online. I think you get the idea.

Okay, our next two words are "Amazon jungles"

The sentence says, “The old man tells David that in Amazon jungles there are shamans who make the English brew.” As to the expression “to make the English brew,” I will talk about that in a minute, but now let me explain to you what “Amazon jungles” mean simply because you may have not heard it in English yet. Amazon jungles are the dense, tropical rainforest located in the Amazon basin of South America. Did you know that 60 percent of Amazon jungles are located in Brazil? So the old man, whom he meets in the library, tells David to go to the thick forest in South America to find a special drink. The drink that is called the English Brew.

And as I promised a few minutes ago, now let’s focus on the expression "to make the English Brew"

"To make the English Brew" means to prepare or create a special drink that supposedly helps someone learn English very quickly. The old man tells David that the shamans in the Amazon jungles are said to create a special drink, a magic drink that may make David speak English. And if he drinks that so-called English brew, he will certainly start speaking true, real, and excellent English.

Now let’s have a look at the following sentence like “Now David can understand, speak and even write in English perfectly well.” This is a nice, long, and elegant sentence, isn’t it? But I want you to focus on the word combination – "perfectly well." We use this word combination when we want to say that what you do, you do it very well. When you do something, you do it without mistakes or without any problem. So in our case, after drinking the English Brew, David begins to understand, speak and even write in English very well, without mistakes, and he has no problem with it. David understands English perfectly well. David speaks English perfectly well. David even writes in English perfectly well.

Next, we see the expression "to go wrong"

I say “But after three weeks something goes wrong, David starts to forget words.” What it means is that a problem or difficulty occurs, happens. So after a few weeks, David starts having problems with his English. He forgets words.

Okay, next is "to confuse"

We see it the following sentence, "David confuses English words." It means to mix up or use the wrong English words. So David mixes up English words. David uses the wrong English words. David confuses English words. I think you get the point.

Our next phrase for today is "to his disappointment"

You can see in the following sentence “And after two months, to his disappointment, he stops speaking English at all.” "To his huge, great disappointment" simply means David begins to feel sad or unhappy because something didn’t happen the way he wanted to. David is sad when he stops being able to speak English.

"To realize that" is our next expression in this useful vocabulary lesson.

It comes from the following sentence “David realizes that the English brew doesn’t work very well.” And again here we have another fantastic phrase "to work very well," which I am going to talk about a little bit later, but now let me focus on the expression "to realize that." "To realize that" means to understand that or to begin to see something that you haven’t seen or understood before. So David understands that the English Brew is not a good solution. He begins to see that the English Brew cannot solve his problem. David realizes that the English Brew doesn’t work very well. The English Brew doesn’t work very well actually means that the special drink is not effective or successful. It works, but it is not effective. It is not successful. It is not helpful. David finds out that the drink didn't help him learn English permanently.

Next, we see the word "a hack" A hack is a trick or solution to achieve something more easily.

In the story, I say, “David realizes that there is no hack for learning English faster, better, and cheaper.” As you understand, David begins to see that there isn’t any trick for learning English quickly. He understands that there is no hack for learning English quickly.

And our final phrase for today is "to go back to"

You can find it in the sentence like “David decides to go back to a good time-tested and natural way to learn English.” Well, "to go back to" simply means to return, right? What I am trying to say here is that David chooses to return to a proven, traditional method for learning English. In other words, David decided to learn English in a normal and proven way instead of looking for quick fixes. He stops trying to solve the problem with English quickly using apps; he goes back to proven, which means time-tested, methods for learning English. When I say that, I am supposed to say that he goes to the true, real method of learning which is a teacher-student method, eye contact, emotions, and so on. He stops trying to quickly fix his problem with English. David understands that if he wants to achieve good results, he absolutely must invest time, money, and energy, and it is not easy.

Okay, this is the end of the vocabulary lesson. See you for the mini-story lesson. Bye-bye.

Hello, this is Alex. I am super excited that you continue learning English with me. Welcome to our mini- story for “The English Brew” In this lesson, I am going to ask a lot of questions, and I am going to answer them. Your job is to listen to the questions and answer them. You should be in the process. If you don’t understand the question immediately, the answer will help you to get the idea. You should practice your English by answering simple questions. This is one of the best ways to improve your grammar, to better your pronunciation, and to perfect your speaking skills. Let’s get started!

Ten years ago, David was a young man. He wanted to speak English. In fact, he had to speak true, real, and excellent English. David needed English to get a better life.

What did David want to do ten years ago?

David wanted to speak English.

Did he want to or did he have to speak English ten years ago?

He had to. David had to speak English ten years ago.

What kind of English did David have to speak?

He had to speak true, real, and excellent English.

David needed English to change his living conditions?

Yes, exactly. He needed English to change his living conditions. He needed English to get a better life.

Why did David have to speak English?

To get a better job. To have a better house. David needed English to get a better life.

But David had a problem. His problem was that he didn’t want to learn English like children did in schools. He didn’t want to have boring English lessons. He didn’t want to do homework. He wanted to learn English differently.

Ten years ago, what was David’s problem?

David’s problem was that he didn’t want to learn English like children did in school.