she was an American, teaching English in one of the private schools of Istanbul. When she learned that I was Russian, she didn’t believe me. Her words were, «You are not kidding!» Then I told her that I was teaching English in Russia. She went, «This is a though thing to do. You must be proud of yourself. How did you learn English that well?» I was extremely happy to hear that from a native speaker, from an educated native speaker.
I said, «Let me tell you part of the story. Years ago, when I was in third grade, I couldn’t understand a word in English. But everything changed one day, when a new teacher of English appeared in our school. He inspired us. He motivated us. He believed in us. He became my English hero. I promised myself that I would speak English like he did. I started learning English every day. I started taking some extra classes, learning new things about English. I totally changed my attitude to English. And she said, «It was one of the days that turned your life around.» I smiled and said, «Yes, exactly.»
Now let me introduce myself to you. I am Alexander Chumakov, the author of this English course called «Boost up your English».
It is my sincere desire in this new book to help you do the same. It is my hope to help you start speaking English better than you are doing now. It is the purpose of this book to help you improve your English so that you can start speaking English the way you never did before. Here I am sharing ideas through stories. The stories that can not only help you speak English better, but also can help you become a better human being. And this is my ultimate goal, my final reason, my number one purpose in life.
You are now ready to speak English easily, freely and confidently. You are serious about speaking English better than you are doing now. Since you are looking at this page and since you are listening to my voice you are engaged in a sort of inquiry, in a question I assume. You are on the process of wanting to speak English better or else you are teasing yourself with some kind of flirtation with your desire to improve your English, which you are not serious about. But I assume maybe you are not serious about but sincere that you are ready to start speaking English the way you never did before. And on the way to becoming a better English speaker you meet a character called a guru, a teacher or a mentor. And what is the function of a guru, of a teacher or of a mentor? He is the man who looks at you in the eye and says, «Come off it. Stop it! I know who you are and what you want.»
So you come to the guru, the teacher and you say, «Sir, I have a problem. I am unhappy. I want to become a far better English speaker. I want to speak English the way I never did before. I want to know grammar better and write in English better. How can I do it?»
And the teacher looks at you and says, «Who are you? Who is asking the question? Why do you want to improve in English? Why you ask? Come off it.»
So what the teachers are doing is they are playing with you. They say, «We are going to put you through the mill.» They put you through different kinds of tests like: grammar tests to show you that grammar is difficult, it is very difficult and it is boring. They want to see if you really want to speak true, real and excellent English. And the reason they do that is simply that you won’t begin to work harder at your English until you feel you’ve paid the price for it.
And what they want of you is to pay the price. They want you to invest your time, your money and your energy but they cannot guarantee the final result, simply because no one can. But they say if you are dead serious about becoming a great English speaker, if you are ready to fight that procrastination, if you are willing to work harder at your gifts, at your talents, they will make a place for you. It means they will help you get what you want.
So the conclusion is you have to pay the price in order to get what you what, but it is not necessarily to be hard and difficult, but you have to invest your time, your money and your energy to get what you what. In your case, it is to speak English far better than you are doing now.
And from the Bible we know that «As you sow so shall you reap» It means if you put everything you have into everything you do, success will come to you. It always works. It never fails. And you know that from your own life experience. I am not preaching you and I am not teaching you how to live your life, what I am doing is I am reminding you of that. It is a reminding session; it is not a teaching one. Because when know better you do better. Now you are totally ready to take your arduous but exciting journey in order to boost up your English to start speaking English the way you never did before. With this book in your pocket you can be far better. You can be way better. You can be incomparably better.
I wish you good luck!
See you soon.
HOW TO USE THE COURSE
My dear friend! My congratulations! Welcome to Boost up your English.
Hello! This is Alex your English teacher. You are now ready to speak English easily, freely and confidently.
Here I am going to tell you what you should do to start speaking English easily, freely and confidently, the way you never did before.
How to use the Story
Each story, each set has several different 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. You remember that the motto of the course is “Repetition is the mother of a 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.
Now 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, the POV stories 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, vocabulary or a Mini-Story, the POV stories 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. O course, you remember: 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 all the other parts of the Story or set of the lessons, 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 question 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
