How I learned English by myself for free without studying

Hi guys, what's up? It's me, Judy. I'm a first-year medical student in Turkey, and today we're gonna be talking about how I learned English by myself without even studying it. So let's get started!

Okay, so I'll mention about my English background, a disclaimer about the method, and pros and cons of the method. Everything that I mentioned will be timestamped down in the description below, so that you can skip to the part that you're interested in. So let's get started!

So let's start with my English background. I went to regular private school in Turkey until I got to high school. I've never attended an English international school before high school. I took English lessons as my main foreign language, and when I got into high school, I got German as my main foreign language. In elementary and middle school, I learned basic English. I was like around A2 level according to CEFR. I got a A2 certificate in English when I was in elementary school, I guess. I don't know, I don't remember that. But I didn't try to get B1 diploma because I kind of didn't need it. I was able to understand daily conversations and explain like basic things about myself and kind of like have a basic conversation with people, but I was having like kind of struggle when people speak very fast. So what can you do with an A2 level in English? Here, if you want to read that, stop the video and read it!

English was one of my favorite subjects back in the day until I got to high school. I went to serve at German Turkish International High School in Istanbul, and we had pretty intense German lessons. In prep class, we had like 40 lessons per week German and we only had like two to four lessons of English in a week. At that time, the only thing that I cared was German, so I wasn't really focusing in English lessons. I was sleeping throughout the lessons all the time. Sorry, teacher!

But yeah, of course there are a lot of differences between German and English, but I find them pretty similar to each other. I realized that whenever I study English or German after that, I kind of mix up the words in these languages and like in German lessons, English words pop up to my mind. In English lessons, I say like, and so I decided to focus on only German for a while and then maybe work on English later on. By studying only German, my German got better and better, but the sad thing is my English got weaker and weaker. I knew that I had to do something, but I didn't know what to do and where to start.

It's been a long time since I've studied English and all that stuff, and our school was like a German kind of school and all students were focused on German, so nobody was caring much about English. Actually, back in the day, I was watching so much YouTube, and one day YouTube recommended me a video from James Charles, and if you know him, you know that he speaks very, very, very fast. It was the first time I saw a guy doing makeup. I was really interested in him, so I really wanted to understand what he was saying, but I couldn't. But I was watching him anyways. I decided to improve my English skills to understand James Charles, which is kind of funny to me.

And I'll show you guys throughout the video how I did that!

Okay, so quick disclaimer. Since this video is about my experience, it does not contain any evidence-based tips from me. So if you want some evidence-based tips, then stay tuned because I will be uploading science-based language learning tips. So, you know, wait for that video next week. Videos are coming!

So, the second disclaimer is if you are below A2 level, I would recommend you to come at that level first because I think it helped me quite a lot.

Okay, so let's talk about the method. The method itself is very basic. Okay, so step one: choose what to watch. It can be a Netflix show, or YouTuber, or TV show—whatever—but it has to be in English. You don't need to watch every single day exactly the same video or something; you can alternate between Netflix, YouTube, TV shows, and all that stuff, but don't forget to consume it in English.

Okay, so after deciding it, we're moving to step two. Step two is watch them at normal speed and put the subtitles on. Try to understand what they're talking about, and focus on that video. Don't forget, you're doing it for educational purpose, not for your fun.

Alright, watch every single day at least one hour of YouTube, Netflix, whatever you have chosen. I was watching about like three to four hours every single day in English, so yeah, do that. And also consume media only in English. Turn your phone settings into English, read news in English, listen to English songs, sing them along, try to understand what they're talking about. Make English a part of your daily life.

Use English. When you start to understand the videos without subtitles, move on to the next step. So step three: congratulations! You have to be understanding the videos without subtitles now. Watch videos in English without subtitles at least one hour every single day. Choose something that you enjoy. It's a perfect opportunity to watch educational things without any guilt. I don't know if you guys feel guilt, but whenever I watch something uneducational for fun purposes, I kind of feel guilty.

So yeah, after watching one episode or one video, try to explain it to yourself in English by your own words what you have just watched, and also try to explain it without translating any words. You suck at beginning, and it feels kind of weird to talk to yourself, but trust me, it will help you so much in the long run, and you will be able to speak fluently. I was talking to myself in English whenever I'm showering, doing my makeup, doing my skincare—like all the time. I was basically trying to explain things in English. Whenever I think about something, I was like trying to explain it in English to myself.

It's kind of weird because you're talking all the time to yourself and you kind of feel like an insane person, but it's alright! You know, it's gonna help a lot, so trust me!

Okay, so when you kind of got better at understanding videos without subs and talking to yourself, move on to the next step.

So step four is start to read in English. If you don't love reading, shame on you! You are losing so freaking much. So, you know, if you try to love reading and if you failed at it, I can make a video about it if you guys want. But for now, if you hate reading books, then read maybe newspapers or, you know, news online, on apps—whatever.

After reading one chapter or one news, try to summarize it in your own words. Try to explain it in English to yourself. It can be very basic; you don't need to speak like a native speaker, but try to explain it to yourself every single time. It will help you, and don't forget to continue watching English videos as well at least one hour a day—don't forget it!

After doing those, move on to the next step. You should be able to understand YouTube videos without subtitles and able to understand what you read. At this point, speed up the videos to 1.25 to 1.5. Read more. Make it a habit to use English in your daily life. I usually watch YouTube videos at double speed—in English, in German, in Japanese, in Turkish—whatever, it doesn't matter. But I watch all of them in double speed, and I easily understand what they're talking about and all that stuff.

Okay, so the next step is continue it for a year. All of them—like reading every single day. It can be one chapter or so on. I mean, you can read one news article, right?

So read in English, listen to English songs, watch YouTube at least for an hour, and every single time after watching something, after reading something, after hearing something, try to explain it to yourself in your own words in English. And don't use ever translator—it's very important. We're kind of trying to make an English brain in our brain, so you have to create that English brain. You have to think in English, and you have to express yourself in English.

In this process, you're not gonna use any other language than English—that's very, very important. It took me about a year to become fluent in English. At that time, I was like talking very basic stuff, but I got better and better with time. I'm able to speak right now about more complicated things, and I'm not like a native speaker whatsoever, but I'm kind of confident in my English, I guess. You can, of course, visit some language courses and cut that time out, but I was wanting to do it at home, and I didn't want to spend some money on it. So if you're broke, that's for you!

Okay, so let's talk about the pros and cons of this method. So let's start with the pros. Firstly, it's fun! I mean, if you choose something that you enjoy to watch, then it's really fun. I was like watching James Charles, Jeffree Star, Mini Amy Way, and Patrick Star and all that stuff, and they're talking fast, and I was like kind of enjoying the process because with time, I kind of started to understand them, so it was very fun to me.

The second pro is it doesn't cost you anything extra. If you have an internet connection and YouTube on your phone, and if you're watching this video, it does mean that you have both of them. So, you know, if you're broke like me, it's perfect for you.

Pro three is basically you will be able to speak fluently. So I mean, I'm just a proof that you don't need to visit classes to learn English. So I think it's very cool. I think it's a huge flex when you say to people like, "I learned English by myself without studying it," you know? I don't know, maybe that's just me being narcissistic, but yeah.

So let's move on to the cons. So if you don't do any extra studying on grammar, you will suck at English grammar like me. My grammar is pretty bad in English because I just didn't study it. But you know, if you want to improve your grammar as well, study it. I don't regret it. I mean, I can always study English grammar, but I'm not studying it. I don't know why, though; I think I'm satisfied with it. But yeah, if you don't want to like me, then study English grammar!

Cons two: as I said earlier in this video, if you are a totally beginner, then it's not for you because you need to have a bit of information about basic knowledge in order to do my techniques, so at least reach to the A2 level.

Also, the third one: it's not for you if you're learning English for academic purpose. If you study grammar for extra for academic purpose, maybe it will work for you; I don't know. But yeah, if you're using this technique for academic purpose, I don't recommend because you're not gonna be good at grammar.

And fourth one is this is not an evidence-based technique. So this worked for me, but it might not work for you. If you want some evidence-based tips, then stay tuned, as I said, the videos are coming!

So stay tuned! I'm gonna make a series—a complete series of evidence-based language learning tips from a polyglot. Alright, so stay tuned!

Before ending the video, let me talk about my uploading schedule. Every Tuesday, I upload a study with me video, and every Friday, I upload a video that I'm talking about whatever I want at that time. So for coming next month, it's gonna be about language learning tips. So if you love these topics, subscribe to my channel! You know, smash the like button, help the YouTube algorithm to pop up my video more. So yeah, I will be happy if you do that!

Okay, I guess that was it. Give me feedback! I love you guys! Bye for now!