Chapter 2 Action Plan

Welcome to the first Action Plan of the roadmap! For most of the lessons in the roadmap, we're talking about the "Why" and the "How" of learning with the English Tea Break method. Why is immersion important? How do you create a Language Goal for yourself?

The Action Plans are the What.

What should you do to study each day to take your English to the next level? The Action Plans will give you the instructions.

You'll find an Action Plan at the end of each chapter going forward. You can think of the Action Plans as summaries of the actions to take based on the previous chapter's lessons. It's a guide for what needs to be done at each point in your English-learning journey.

This particular Action Plan is a little different because some things for Chapter 2 just need to be completed once. They're called "one-off" items. Other Action Plans won't have those action items.

Also in this Action Plan—as well as future Action Plans—are recurring tasks that should be done daily. It'll be a daily recipe to follow for learning English.

Let's start with the one-off action items.

One-Off Checklist

There's no new information here. We talked about these things throughout the lessons of this chapter. So, if you've already done them, you're done! You can check the box beside each item to keep track of the things that you need to do. But if you refresh the page, the checks will disappear.

Familiarize yourself with basic grammar

Ask an AI for the differences between your native language and English. Read its response.

Read through the grammar table on the Learn a Little Grammar lesson page to create empty folders in your head for basic English grammar concepts.

Gather the tools needed for the English Tea Break method.

Choose an English translator or two. Bookmark the websites so you can access them quickly when you need them.

Reminder: Translate whole sentences, not individual words. Force casual or formal translations with "Dude" or "Sir".

Choose an English-to-English dictionary or two. Bookmark those as well.

Download Anki.

Download a podcast app on your phone.

Download the English keyboard to your phone and computer.

Find Starter Content

Regardless of the persona that you chose for yourself, everyone needs a base level of both Reading and Listening.

Make a list for yourself with the following starter content:

Find 3-5 YouTube channels that you enjoy.

Find 2-5 TV Shows that you enjoy (and can access in your country).

Find 3-5 Music Artists that you enjoy.

Find 2-5 Subreddits that you enjoy and join those subs. Create a Reddit account if you don't already have one so that you can join those subs.

Find 1-3 Blogs, Books, Discord channels, or other reading material that you enjoy.

You will NOT get bonus points for finding more than 5 pieces of content. 5 is plenty for now. Any more than that is just a waste of time that could be spent studying. Don't worry! We'll find more content later. Right now, just pick some fun, interesting options so you can get started.

One more thing:

Create playlists on YouTube and your podcast app. We'll talk about building Immersion Playlists later in this article; keep reading.

That's all you'll need for the one-off items of this chapter's Action Plan. Now let's talk about how to study every day.

Daily English Study Guide

For now, I just want you to have fun. Play with the content and the English language. Get yourself hooked on it. If you want to do MORE than what I am recommending, then do it! The more you immerse, the faster you'll reach your goals.

Here are the everyday practice instructions to follow at this point:

For other Action Plans, I'm going to be more specific about the instructions for each type of persona, so make sure you keep yours in mind. At this point, because every persona needs basic Reading and Listening skills, I'm not too concerned about the differences between personas.

However, if you chose the Tester persona, you may want to spend some extra time listening to podcasts, watching YouTube, or watching TV shows because your Listening skills will be important.

If you're a Student, Reader, or, again, a Tester persona, it will be beneficial to spend some extra time reading blogs, Reddit, and other reading materials.

Build an Immersion Playlist

The last one-off item in the "Find Starter Content" talks about creating playlists. Let's discuss that now.

When I was learning French, one of my most useful tools was my YouTube immersion playlist. It allowed me to find the perfect balance between repetition and novelty (something new), which gave me practice with the same material while also keeping things interesting.

To build a YouTube immersion playlist, click on the three vertical dots on any video:

Then, click "Save to Playlist".

On the box that pops up, click on the "New Playlist" button. Name your playlist something like "English Immersion", and click the "Create" button.

Now, whenever you find an English video that looks interesting to you, just add it to your immersion playlist.

When you want to watch YouTube for English practice, don't just click on one video. Go to your immersion playlist, and click on "Play All".

You'll watch the same few videos every day. When you get tired of watching a certain video (usually after seeing it 4 or 5 times), just remove it from the playlist. New videos will be added to the back of the playlist.

For example, imagine your playlist looks like this. These are the names of your videos:

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H

Let's say you watch videos from your immersion playlist for 2 hours every day. During that time, you watch videos A, B, C, and D—the same videos each day. Then, video A starts to get annoying, so you delete it.

The next day, you're still watching for 2 hours a day, but now you'll see videos B, C, D, and E.

By hearing the same thing a few times, you'll get a lot of really good practice with it, but you'll also be able to delete it, so immersion will always be fun. And of course, you don't have to just delete the first video in the playlist. If you're watching A, B, C, and D, and video B is boring, you can keep A for now and delete B. No problem.

Create a playlist for YouTube and on your podcast app. Whenever a piece of content becomes boring, delete it from the playlist, and then add one or two new videos or podcast episodes. That ensures the playlist will always be full of content.

When to Move On

So, when are you ready for the next chapter?

In the next chapter, we're going to be adding "boosters", which are study tasks that will improve your English learning. Right now, with this Action Plan, your workload will be at its smallest point, which is good. Focus on fun for now. Don't do too much.

It's a good idea to let yourself feel a longing for more learning. Let yourself think, "I've already done all my studying today, but I want to do more!". That's a good feeling. Build up that hunger, it will be useful later. We're going to be adding more action items in the next chapters.

You're ready to move on when you've fulfilled the following criteria:

1. All of the one-off action items have been completed (don't forget building your immersion playlists).
2. You've been following the Daily English Study Guide for a few days.
3. You're hungry for more. You're excited to do more and to improve your English faster.

If you can say "yes" to each of those three things, then let's start adding boosters to your English studies! See you in Chapter 3.