Mantras for Relaxation and Meditation

Some people like to use mantras to relax and meditate. Even if you don't wish to learn to meditate, you will probably find that watching and listening to one of these short videos before you start a study session will help you to relax, re-energise and focus.

Top 10 Little Mantras. With videos + lyrics.

Go to: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/07/top-10-little-mantras-with-videos--lyrics/ for the short videos.

Use Meditation to Relax and Focus

We learn best when we can relax and focus. One way to achieve an optimal mental state for learning is through meditation. Practices like yoga and meditation are becoming more and more popular. Here's a short article about the benefits of meditation:

Short-Term Meditation And Your Brain

Written by The Daily Heal on July 10, 2011 · 

Although many people think that it can take years in order to truly see the benefits from practicing meditation, the truth is that most experience significant changes to their mental health and physical well being within weeks, if not just a few sittings. Results, of course, depend upon who you are and your level of stress. The point is that meditation is an easily accessible and effective tool that a person can use to help manage and deal with the rigorous demands of life.
Rick Nauert takes a look at the positive effects of short-term meditation in this recent Psych Central post. According to Nauert, who references an upcoming study to be published in Psychological Science, researchers using an EEG to measure the brain’s electrical activity found that participants who practiced meditation an average of 7 hours over the course of 5 weeks showed greater activity in the left frontal region of the brain. The lesson? Practicing meditation for even short amounts of time can have profound effect on a person’s brain.

People who had done the meditation training showed greater activity in the left frontal region of the brain in response to subsequent attempts to meditate. Other research has found that this pattern of brain activity is associated with positive moods.
The shift in brain activity “was clearly evident even with a small number of subjects,” said Christopher Moyer, Ph.D., one of Anderson’s coauthors at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
“If someone is thinking about trying meditation and they were thinking, ‘It’s too big of a commitment, it’s going to take too much rigorous training before it has an effect on my mind,’ this research suggests that’s not the case.” For those people, meditation might be worth a try, he said. “It can’t hurt and it might do you a lot of good.”

http://dailyheal.com/meditation-news/short-term-meditation-and-your-brain/

10 Communication Tips for Asian Language Speakers

from http://www.callearning.com/blog/2010/04/10-communication-tips-for-asian-language-speakers/

These tips are based on my many years experience working with Asian language speakers on their conversation, pronunciation, and presentation skills.
Speaking Strategies

1. Aim for fluency before accuracy
   Don’t pause looking for the perfect word or grammar structure.  Slow speech seems choppy. Americans would rather hear fluid speech with some errors spoken at a normal pace than slow, monotone, carefully worded speech.
2. Be specific and explicit
   Americans don’t read between the lines like many high context cultures do. Be sure to be clear and direct in all your communications, both spoken and written.
3. Speak with conviction
   Use a full tone and proper intonation. A rising tone at the end of the sentence sounds unsure or questioning.
4. Have assertive posture, volume and projection
   Stand erect, open your chest, lift your chin and square your hips. Take up space.
5. Maintain eye contact
   Maintaining eye contact is seen as a sign of honesty and character.
   
6. Give a firm handshake
   Like eye contact, how you give a handshake is seen as a sign of your character.
7. Learn to say no directly
   Americans would rather hear no directly than have to guess what “maybe” or “perhaps” really means. They do not take direct speech as an insult.
   
8. Get comfortable with small talk
   Talk about the weather, sports, family, etc in short, simple, not too personal bits.
9. Stop apologizing
   In many Asian cultures, apologies are seen as ways to create harmony and show humility. In the US it is seen as accepting personal blame.
   
10. Clarify and paraphrase to check comprehension
    Say, “so in other words….” or “if I understand correctly, …..” to confirm you have all the key points and details.   

Setting Goals

Setting goals is not only important to your success in learning but is a subject you should be able to speak about, too.

Here's a link to a great article on this topic: 

http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/02/reaching-life-goals-which-strategies-work.php

After you read the article, be sure to put the suggestions into practice!

Also, I recommend you bookmark the http://www.spring.org.uk/ website and return there from time to time. It's an excellent source of fascinating articles which will help you learn English and better understand the human mind.

Animals

Both my husband and I love animals so we often read and talk about them. We also have a much loved pet cat. Those are her eyes you see in the "About Me" section of this blog. Animals and pets are also one of the common topics you might meet in the IELTS test. Nearly all the common IELTS topics are quite predictable; they are the kind of topics anyone who takes an interest in the news and the world around them would have something to say about. All the same, we are all different and naturally take less interest in certain topics than others -- my husband follows football, for instance, but I take little interest in sport. So, while it makes sense to keep yourself motivated to practice English by following your interests, it's also a good idea to try to widen your interests. Everything can be interesting in some way!

Vietnamese Spring Rolls -- chả giò

Why am I posting a picture of Vietnamese spring rolls? It's an example of learning language by following your interests. I am living in Hanoi, Vietnam. I love trying the local food. (We're all interested in food, I think! ). This evening, we had these delicious homemade spring rolls. I wanted to learn more about how they are made so I looked at some websites about Vietnamese food. At the same time, I learnt that in Vietnamese, spring rolls are called chả giò.

Enjoy your learning! Bon appetit! ("good appetite") as the French say. In English, we might say, "Enjoy your meal!" or, simply, "Enjoy"!

More about keeping going

Research has found that people find it easier to stick to their plans (such as to exercise more, lose weight or learn a language) by focusing on the long term benefits.

For example, if you want to exercise more but feel lazy about getting out of bed in the morning, you should picture the wonderful, fit person you will become in a few more months if you spend just a short time each day walking. Think about how great you will feel!

You can use the same technique for language learning. If you lose motivation or are tempted to skip your English Time one day, remind yourself of all the benefits that will come from communicating easily and skillfully in English. Picture yourself feeling happy and proud at an important interview or date!

Interest and motivation

In the last post, I gave a link to some advice about learning a language.

I believe that #5 is key. Interest keeps you motivated. It makes sense, doesn't it?

Spend some time thinking about activities that hold your interest and ways you can follow these activities in English. Perhaps you enjoy a sport or other hobby, the news, fashion, music ... the topic doesn't matter. Follow your interests in English by reading or watching films on the topic, joining an online forum to communicate in English on the topic, perhaps joining a  club -- whatever you can.

If you enjoy learning English, you'll do it more and more often and build your knowledge and friendships at the same time!

Here's a link to some very good advice about learning another language. Take a look at:

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/learn-foreign-language/

The main points are:

1) Spend the time!

2) Listen and read every day!

3) Focus on words and phrases!

4) Take responsibility for your own learning!

5) Relax and enjoy yourself!

Keeping going

Once you have decided you really want to improve your English, you need to figure out how to keep yourself motivated.

Many people find it's useful to schedule daily "English time". In other words, decide to spend some time learning and practising English at the same time every day. Some people prefer mornings while others choose the evening. It doesn't matter if you do this for just 20 minutes per day at first. The point is that, if you make "English time" a regular daily activity, it will quickly become a good habit that you don't even think about.