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Female: Welcome to the Effortless English Show with the world’s number one English teacher, AJ Hoge, where AJ’s more than 40 million students worldwide finally learned English once and for all without the boring textbooks, classrooms and grammar drills. Here’s AJ with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English effortlessly.

AJ Hoge: Effortless English Show. Hello, I’m AJ Hoge, the author of Effortless English: Learn to Speak English Like A Native. You, how do you become one of the top 0.1% of English speakers, top 0.1%? That’s right. You. If you are in the top 1%, if you are the top 1%, it means that in 100 people, you are number one. In the top 0.1%, it means in a group of 1,000 people, 1,000 English speakers, you are number one. You’re number one out of 1,000. It’s even better, even higher.

You can do it. You can certainly with Effortless English be one of the top 0.1% of English speakers in the world. In fact, I have a program for the top 0.1%. It’s called the VIP program. Join my VIP program at EffortlessEnglishClub.com, EffortlessEnglishClub.com, VIP program. Be one of the top 0.1% of English speakers.

How do you do it? With English speaking, with life, become of the top 0.1% in your job, your career, money, your health, your fitness, your strength, your intelligence, your learning, your English ability, your happiness, your relationships, everything. How do you get into that top 0.1%? First of all, why? Why would you want to be in the top 0.1%?

What’s the benefit for you?

I don’t care about competition for no reason. It’s just to be better than other people, for your ego. I don’t think that’s a good reason, right? If it’s just ego, that’s actually negative, “I’m better than everybody. Hahaha.” That’s a bad reason. That’s a bad motivation because it makes you unhappy. That’s the reason it’s a bad motivation.

People who are focused on ego, they’re trying to succeed for their ego just to be better than other people, to be superior. That’s what a lot of these leftists are trying to do, but they don’t actually want to be better, so they just use all these lies to try to pretend to be better. It’s ego. It’s just trying to be, “I’m better than you.” Well, that’s ego and it makes you very unhappy. That’s why when we see these people, you can tell they’re not happy people. They’re not happy people. They’re not enjoying their lives. They don’t have happy relationships. That’s a bad reason, ego.

The other problem with ego is with ego, you will never win, you will never be happy, you will be never be satisfied, you will never feel grateful for what you have because there will always be someone better. If you are in the top 0.1%, well, there will be someone who’s in the top 0.01%. There will always be someone richer, always be someone stronger, always be someone smarter, always be someone better at anything.

Even if you are number one in the world right now, well, wait a few years because eventually, you won’t be number one anymore. This is the way of life. Ego will make you unhappy. Again, the question, why? Why should you want to be in the top 0.1%? If ego is not a good reason, what is a good reason? Well, a good reason is that most people, if you look around, most people are not very happy. Most people are not living their full potential, their full ability. Most people are bored. Most people are tired. Most people are unsatisfied with life. Most people are weak and we know it’s because of the schools mostly, schools and the media, but that’s the simple truth.

The reason to be in the top 0.1% is just to get out of, get out of the big group of unhappy, miserable, weak people. That’s the reason, not to feel better than them, no, no, no. Just to feel better in your own life, just to have a happier, more enjoyable, more interesting life, a more positive life, a life where you will be a leader, a life where you will be helping other people, especially your family. That’s the reason.

The reason is because 99.9% of people are really unhealthy, unmotivated, weak, unhappy. You don’t want to be in that group, right? I call this the herd, the herd. Maybe this is a new word for you, herd. H-E-R-D, herd. This is a noun, the herd. A herd, usually, we use it for a group of animals like sheep or cows. You have a large group of cows, we might say a herd of cows, a herd of sheep. We use it for animals that like to be in a big group like that, the herd. It’s negative when we use it with people. With animals, it’s neutral, but with people, it’s a negative word because it means that if you’re part of the herd, it means you don’t think. You’re not independent. You just follow everybody else, right?

A herd of sheep, they all just go in one direction. They all follow each other. They don’t think for themselves. They’re weak, right? The wolves can attack them and eat them.

We have this slang, the herd. It means the mass of people, the big group of people who are still in the blue pill. Remember that lesson in the previous show, the blue pill? It’s the people who are still weak and obedient, who still follow what they learned in school only, who still believe the big media, the herd, the herd.

The herd is unhappy. The herd is unmotivated. The herd is unhealthy. The herd is average, by definition. They’re not living great lives. The herd are not living their dream life, their dream lives. They’re not, right? They’re just going along doing what they were told to do from schools, from the media. That’s not a very interesting or great life.

What’s the solution? How do you get out of the herd and live your dream life, a great life where you feel excited every day, to be alive, where you feel happy, where you’re physically strong and healthy, where you’re mentally strong and healthy, where you are also contributing to life, your family, the world in a positive way? How do you do it?

Well, you have to leave the herd.

That means you have to do unusual things. You have to do unusual things, right? Think about it. What is usual, normal? What is usual, normal? The herd is usual. The herd is normal. If you do things in a normal way, if you do things in a usual way, then you will be usual. You will be normal. You will be part of the herd. It’s just a simple logic, right?

If you want to leave the herd, if you want to be in the top 0.1% in general in life or in any part of life, you have to be unusual. That is unusual. The top 1%, the top 0.1%, they are unusual people. They’re not normal. They’re not in the middle. They’re not a herd.

They’re different. There’s a great Twitter comment I got. Username is Barnabas75B and she says, “When you do something new and unusual, then you become a little unusual.”

What a great line. That is so fantastic and that is correct.

When you do things unusually, when you do things in a not usual, not normal way, then you become an unusual person. You become a not normal person. If you want to be one of the top English speakers in the world, you want to have great success with English, you cannot do the usual things. You cannot study with the usual methods, the usual textbooks, the usual classes. If you use usual methods, usual textbooks, usual classes, if you follow that, you will get usual results.

What are the usual results? Look around you. What are the normal, usual results of English classes and textbooks? Bad speaking, terrible. This is why I started Effortless English. I looked around and I saw the usual results for students were terrible. They couldn’t speak. They couldn’t understand not even little, basic, simple conversations.

I’m here in Japan. Everyone in Japan learns English from middle school. Many start earlier than middle school. I mean, that’s years, years and years of English classes every day. Yet, what’s the usual result? 99.9% of Japanese cannot have a basic, super, super low-level conversation. They know, “Hello,” “Hi,” “How are you,” “Fine,” “Thank you,”

“Goodbye.” That’s about it after years and years of study classes every day in middle school, in high school and in university. That’s terrible. It’s usual, it’s normal, but it’s terrible.

If you want to be better than that, if you want better results, you absolutely must become unusual. You must use unusual, not normal methods to get unusual results and Effortless English is unusual. I’m an unusual teacher, okay? I am. I’m not normal as you know.

What’s the problem? This seems very obvious, right? It seems obvious. It is obvious.

What’s the problem? The problem, fear. Fear. You see, people fear being unusual.

People are afraid to be unusual. Perhaps, you are afraid to be unusual, to be different, to be not normal, to be crazy. Why do you fear that? Well, you learned that in school.

That is the purpose of school, to make you afraid of being unusual. That is one of the key lessons you learn in school, fear being unusual, fear being different, fear being not normal, right?

Part of you wants to succeed. Part of you wants unusual results, great results. Part of you wants to be in the top 0.1% of English speakers, of money, of relationships, of happiness, of health, of everything. Part of you wants that. You realized you’ll be much happier. Then the other part, the dark part inside fears being unusual. You’re afraid to be unusual, to be not normal. You learned this. You’re afraid that others will criticize you, they won’t like you, they will think badly of you, they’ll think you’re not normal, you’re unusual, you’re weird, you’re strange, you’re crazy.

It’s true. It is true. The herd will think those things. They will. You will encounter this. I call this the resistance of the herd, the resistance of the herd. Resistance means pushing back, pushing back. When you take a step, when you do something unusual, not normal, you’re trying to be more successful in life, you’re trying something different, something new, you want to get better results, what happens? People around you, the herd, will criticize you, “Why are you doing that? That’s weird. That’s strange. Oh, I don’t like that,” right?

You’ll start to get resistance from the herd, the blue-pilled people around you, even people very close to you, even people who love you. Now, the people who love you, hopefully, will be nice about it. They might be soft about it, but still, “Are you sure about that?” They’ll question, they doubt what you’re doing, “Are you sure about that. I don’t know about that. Maybe you shouldn’t do that. That seems strange.”

The people who don’t love you, they’ll be quite negative. They can be quite negative, “Oh, that’s stupid,” or “You’re stupid,” or “You’re weird,” right? They can actually attack you more. At this point when you get the resistance and you will, people will criticize.

People will resist. The herd will always resist when you try to do things unusually, when you try to become unusual. When you try to make yourself better in some way, the herd will resist. The resistance of the herd is real.

At this point, you must face your fear. You then have the biggest choice in your life, “What to do about the resistance? What to do?” You know my answer. Fight, keep pushing, fight through the resistance. Resistance makes you powerful and strong. You see, this is my message to you. People fear the resistance of the herd. They fear the criticism. They fear the little comments. They fear being labeled, “You’re weird. You’re strange. You’re unusual.” Fear. They fear the resistance. They complain about it, “Ah!”

The good news is resistance makes you strong. To get stronger, you need resistance. No resistance equals weakness, okay? No resistance equals weakness.

You want the resistance. You must see it as something good, something that will make you stronger as your friend, as your ally. Think about your muscles in your body. How do you make your muscles bigger? With resistance, that’s what weight is. When you’re lifting a weight, you’re pushing against resistance, gravity, okay? You got that heavyweight is resisting your muscles. It’s pushing against your muscles and you must push back. That resistance, that’s what makes your muscles grow.

If you just push in the air, no resistance, your muscles will not get strong. They will not.

They’ll just be weak. If you’re never pushing against anything, if you’re just laying around, it’s all easy, no resistance, no resistance, no resistance, well, guess what? You become weak. The resistance is your friend. This is the thing. People fear the resistance, but it’s your friend.

This is also true emotionally. This is also true mentally. See, we all understand this about our muscles, right? It’s obvious. We all know this. Physically, if you want to be strong like Arnold, then you need to push against heavy resistance. You start with a little and then you make it heavier, heavier, heavier and your muscles get stronger, more powerful.

Then you can push against harder and harder resistance, power, strength.

Well, this is also true mentally and emotionally. You see in life, if everything’s easy, if everyone agrees with you all the time, everyone’s, “Oh, yeah. That’s good,” “Oh, very good,” if you are always doing what everyone else agrees with and supports, you will also become emotionally weak, mentally weak, right?

How do you become mentally stronger, emotionally stronger? Pushing against mental and emotional and social resistance. When it happens, when you try something unusual, when you’re trying for an unusual goal using unusual methods, doing unusual things in life, you want to be part of that top 0.1% in some part of life, maybe in all life, resistance comes from the herd. People around you start to resist you, question you, doubt you.

That’s good. That’s your chance to grow stronger.

You have to face it and say, “Yeah, it is unusual. So what? So what?” Then you keep going anyway. You keep pushing against the resistance. You either ignore it or you stand against it and speak against it and say, “Yeah, so what? I’m crazy. So what? I’m weird.

Yes, this is unusual, but I’m going to succeed at an unusual level.” That makes you stronger, socially stronger, emotionally and mentally stronger.

Let me tell you, when you start getting some success, you’ll get more success, right? You try these unusual things, maybe with Effortless English. You’ll start getting more success.

Then the herd gets jealous. Then many people in the herd will be jealous of you, “Oh, you’re getting better results.” Then they’ll criticize you even more. The resistance increases as you succeed.

Again, another choice. See, the choice is this. Do you keep pushing and fighting against the resistance to become more and more unusual or do you quit because of fear and become normal again? That’s the big choice. Sadly, sadly, sadly, sadly, most people quit because they’re afraid of not being normal. They quit when the resistance happens.

They quit and they join the herd again, “Baa, baa, baa.” That’s what most people do.

That’s why most people never achieve their dream life. Most people bored. Most people unsatisfied with their life or lives.

You’ve got the choice. When you face the resistance, I’m telling you, smile. Smile when it happens, when people criticize you. Let me tell you my own story as a teacher, as a teacher. I started as a teacher teaching English. You guys know the story. You know my basic story. I was teaching English. I saw all the students are getting terrible results. I was using usual methods. I realized, “Well, this is not good.” I was serious about my job, about my role as a teacher, “Well, I’m here to help these students.” I already speak English well. I’m already fluent. I’m a native speaker. It’s not about me. it’s about them.

It’s about you.

My job is to make you succeed. My job is to make my students succeed. I only succeed when you succeed. I was serious about that and I realized, “Well, my students are failing. They’re not getting better. They’re not getting good results. That means I’m failing as a coach, as a teacher, so I’ve got to change.” Guess what I did? I realized, “Well, the usual teaching methods don’t work. The results are terrible.”

I started to research and learn about and try unusual teaching methods, using crazy stories, using actions, pictures, all kinds of things. I tried many, many, very, very unusual.

What happened? Guess? Did my bosses say, “Oh, that’s so great. Good job”? Did other teachers say, “Oh, that’s fantastic, AJ. Thumbs up. You’re incredible”? Did even some of the students say, “Oh, wonderful”? Not in the beginning, nope. I got resistance, right?

The other teacher said, “Oh, that’s weird. That’s strange.” My bosses said, “Don’t use those methods. You’re supposed to use the normal methods. You’re supposed to use the usual textbooks.” Now, the students eventually changed because why? Because they succeeded, because they got better results. The students after a few months, they realized, “Oh, this is good.” I always got my best compliments from students. The best reaction was always from my students because I was helping them succeed. They were happy.

Let me tell you, the resistance from other teachers and from my bosses, the administrators, the schools, it got more and more, higher and higher, bigger and bigger.

The more confident I became, the more I succeeded with my methods, the more happy my students were, the more jealous the other teachers became, the more my bosses criticized me and resisted me. See, why? Why? I was threatening them in their mind.

Not really, I wasn’t, but in their mind. Oh, if I’m getting better results with something unusual, it means their methods are not good and that’s a threat to them. They don’t like that. They don’t want to admit that. They don’t want to say that. They would attack me more and more and more.

Eventually, towards the end of my time in jobs, eventually, I almost got fired. I had to quit a job at a university and I started getting into a lot of trouble, a lot of problems at jobs. The resistance got very, very, very strong. Again, at each point, I had a choice. Do I quit and go back to using textbooks, teaching grammar rules, giving lots of tests? Do I just go back, join the herd again, “Baa, baa, baa,” be a good, little teacher, do what everyone else is doing, so no one will criticize me, no resistance or do I keep pushing and become a great teacher and be going to the top 0.1%? That’s what I chose, obviously.

Eventually, I had to start my own business to do it. I couldn’t do it in the schools anymore. I can’t. I can’t do it in the schools. I can’t teach you well in a school. They won’t let me, not possible. I succeeded. The good news is the resistance made me stronger. It made me stronger. It made me mentally, emotionally, socially stronger when I started fighting back. That’s why my business succeeded because I was already strong. When the business had problems, I was ready. I was much stronger than I was before. The resistance made me stronger and helped me to succeed more and more and more.

This is the great thing. I call it the upward spiral. It means it keeps going up, up, up.

When you keep fighting, when you keep pushing against the resistance, you get stronger. When you get stronger, you succeed even more. When you succeed more, the resistance gets even stronger. People become more jealous. That stronger resistance makes you become even stronger and just keeps going up and up. You keep getting stronger, stronger, stronger. You get attacked and criticized more and more and more, but that makes you even stronger. Then it just keeps going up and up and you keep succeeding at a higher and higher and higher level. You join the top 0.1%, maybe the 0.01% and you become strong like Conan.

You should rent the movie. Rent that movie, Conan, the original Conan, the Barbarian with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s a great action movie, a great old movie. That’s the message of the whole movie. It follows Conan, Arnold Schwarzenegger as a little boy and he has a really life. His parents get killed. He becomes a slave. He has a miserable life as a child, lots of resistance and it makes him super, super strong, okay? That’s the message of that movie, basically. Well, it’s a great message. It’s a great message for all parts of your life.

You can join the top 0.1%. For sure, you can. You just got to accept the resistance. It’s part of life, okay? Don’t be part of the herd. Be unusual. Be unusual. The only way to enjoy life, to do anything great in life is to be unusual. Usual people are pretty much bored and unhappy. To be happy, to do great things in life, you must be unusual. Accept it. Accept the resistance. Enjoy it.

Okay. I’ll go to Twitter this time. I told you I’ll be joining GAB. I’m on GAB already, but I will be moving my activity to gab.ai, gab.ai soon, probably end of this month. GAB will open up for everyone. When that happens, I will be on GAB more and leaving Twitter slowly, gradually leaving Twitter. For now, GAB is not open yet completely, so I’m still on Twitter, twitter.com/ajhoge. Let’s see what’s happening on Twitter today.

Well, from Fan, Philip Fan, is it Fun or Fan? Sorry, Philip. I’m not sure. Longtime Effortless English member, follower, living in LA from Myanmar. We communicate lots and lots for a long time on Twitter. I made a comment about coffee. We’re joking. He says, “Coffee is important for self-education!!!” I agree. I have gone back and forth with coffee. There was a time many years ago where I tried to avoid coffee. I thought it was unhealthy.

There’s some research that says some things about coffee are not healthy, but then there’s a lot of other research that I read later that says, “Oh, no. Coffee is very healthy for you. It’s good for you. It has polyphenols, all these chemicals that are very good for you.” I was like, “Oh, coffee is good for you.” I think basically what it is is look, like anything, you don’t want to do too much, too much of something. Even too much water can be bad for you, dangerous. We all know water is good for you, generally, but too much water, not so good. You can actually die if you drink too much water. You have to drink a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, but it is possible.

My view on coffee is just to keep it limited. I find one or two cups a day, I enjoy it. I feel good. I feel like I’m still healthy. It gives me a little bit of mental and physical energy.

Currently, that is my attitude about coffee. I use coffee before I work out in the morning. I work out in the morning after I wake up, before I eat. I take a little coffee. I’m a slow. I’m slow in the mornings. I’m always slow in the mornings. I’m not a morning person. I’m a night person. That just means that when I wake up, some people wake up with energy, “Yay!” That’s not me. That’s me at night. At night, at midnight, I’m like, “Yay!” I feel good at midnight. I’m wide awake.

In the early morning when I wake up, it’s very slow like, “Oh, slow, slow.” Slow walking and I need a couple of hours every morning to just gradually wake up, relax a bit. I like to be slow in the morning. The coffee helps me to get ready for some hard exercise. I drink a cup of coffee. I start getting a little energetic. I start moving around more and then boom, I start exercising.

Philip is also right. I like to use coffee too when I’m studying, learning something, working on lessons, doing work. It gives a little mental energy. I do recommend coffee, but, but, but, but not too much because too much caffeine is not good for you. One or two cups a day, try to limit it.

Next question from Powerful Amir, Powerful Amir on Twitter, “AJ, I love to read classics, biographies, history books and my reading ability is quite good, but I still find them difficult. Your suggestions?” Well, first of all, Amir, yes, congratulations to you. That’s fantastic. I mean, reading classics, biographies, history books, that’s a classic education.

That is a true education. You are doing great. I assume, I’m thinking probably you’re doing this in English, which is even better.

First of all, congratulations to you because in English, in English, there’s classic books and biographies and history books. They are not easy. Most of them are difficult books. I do recommend in the beginning if your English ability is not high, if your English ability is a little lower, your reading ability or vocab, read those books in your own language.

Start reading classics from different countries. Get the translations if they’re not from your own country, but read those classics, the translations, in your own language first, same with the biographies and the history books. That’s fine. That’s fine.

When you’re reading English, start with easy stuff, Hardy Boys books, kids books. Start your English learning with easy stuff. That’s fine, okay? Read the hard stuff in your own language. Eventually, as your ability gets higher, your reading ability will get higher and higher in English, then you can try more difficult books and more difficult books.

Eventually, you can read the classics and the biographies and the history books and the science books in English, which is great, but just go slowly, go gradually. Don’t feel bad.

If you can read a book in English, even a classic, if you can read it and you’re enjoying it, you’re not getting frustrated because it’s too hard, you’re enjoying it, even if you’re going slowly, you’re enjoying it, you’re using maybe electronic dictionary to go quickly, as long as you enjoy it, then that’s fine. Read it in English. However, if you’re getting very frustrated because it’s so hard, because one page takes you five minutes because you have to use the dictionary for almost every sentence, then my recommendation, find an easier book in English, just something, just fun and easy, maybe for kids and read the more difficult book in your own language and save the difficult English book for later.

You will be able to read it later, okay? Relax. You’ll get there. You have to go step-bystep, step-by-step. I think too many people try to jump and try to read Shakespeare or something. First, I don’t recommend Shakespeare. It’s not modern English, but even something like Hemingway, which is not too difficult, but still, it’s not easy. If you’re learning English, if you’re intermediate level, Hemingway might be too difficult. Read something easier, Hardy Boys books, Goosebumps books, some of those easier books for kids. Read a lot of those books and gradually, you’ll get up the Hemingway. You’ll do it. You will, but take your time, relax.

All right. A little longer show today. See, I had a couple of days off this week. Yesterday, I didn’t do a show and then two days ago, I didn’t do a show. Honestly, I was quite tired. I worked out very hard last week, exercised quite hard last week and maybe a little too hard. This week, I really needed to rest. I just laid around, I didn’t do much, but I’m feeling great today, so a little bit longer show today.

Okay. I’ll do the last, one more Twitter comment. This is from, I’m sorry about my pronunciation. I don’t know all of your languages and the pronunciations, so my apologies, but Sadek Yonis, maybe, on Twitter comments, “I use the Longman Dictionary on my computer and Oxford Dictionary app on my mobile. I think it’s very important for learning English.” Yes, indeed. Here’s my advice for using dictionaries. Use electronic dictionaries. That’s number one. Number two, number two, this is my big tip, connect your dictionary to Kindle. There’s a Kindle app. It’s from Amazon. Maybe you have another eBook reader, maybe you can do this, but I use Kindle.

I use the Kindle app for reading eBooks. That comes from Amazon.com and it’s a free app. What you can do, if you buy an electronic dictionary, Longman, Oxford, whatever, it doesn’t matter, you can connect in the app settings, the Kindle app settings. You can connect your dictionary. You can even connect a translation dictionary, English to your language.

When you do that, then when you’re reading a book, any book, any eBook, you can just tap, tap a word that you don’t know, tap it and immediately, a definition will pop up from your dictionary and it’s so fast. You just tap it, you see it, keep it reading. It’s very fast. That’s the way to do it. Don’t waste a lot of time. Tap it, you see it, keep going.

For me, I don’t even like to take notes. You can notes if you want to, you can, but if you’re just trying to enjoy a book, keep reading. That’s fine because you’ll see the word again and again and again. Eventually, the repetition will help and you’ll learn the word.

That’s my advice because if you just enjoy your reading, then you’ll do it a lot more.

When you do it a lot more, you actually get more vocabulary. That’s the best way to do it.

Now, another question everyone asks me, “Should I use a translation dictionary or English only?” My answer is either one. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. It depends on your level. If your level is lower, I think generally, a translation dictionary is easier, right? It’s just easier to get the translation and keep going. That’s fine. Don’t worry about it. As you become more advanced, then you have a lot of English vocabulary, well, then the English dictionary, the English-only dictionary will be more useful probably to you and will help you learn even faster. Typically, more advanced students will start using an English dictionary only. That’s fine, but don’t force yourself. Use whichever works for you.

Okay then. That’s our show for today. A reminder, yes, you can join the top 0.1% of English speakers of people in general in all parts of life, but to do so, to be in the top 0.1%, to be super happy, to live your dream life, you must be unusual. You must be unusual. You have to use unusual methods. You must do unusual things and that will make you an unusual person. When you become an unusual person, you will face resistance from the herd. That is when you have your biggest choice in life. Do you quit, become normal again or do you keep pushing against the resistance, get stronger and join the top 0.1%? I know the answer. You’re going to keep pushing.

Go to EffortlessEnglishClub.com, EffortlessEnglishClub.com. Join my program for the top 0.1%, the VIP program at EffortlessEnglishClub.com. Be unusual. Be different. Be crazy.

Live a great life. See you next time. Bye for now.