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Right. Well, that was a productive
and relaxing evening, taking photos
of birds down here at Queenscliff and
I thought that... ah, we'll just go
this way. Thought that I would talk
to you guys about your biggest friend
when learning English, your biggest
friend.

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I wonder if you guys know what I
think your biggest friend is when
learning English? So, for me, at
least, my biggest friend when
learning a language is curiosity,
it's a thirst for wanting to learn,
it's that thirst for wanting to learn
more, right? So, I think that's your
biggest weapon, that's your biggest
friend when learning anything, right?
It's a thirst to keep learning, and
if you can foster that curiosity,
learning becomes incredibly
effortless, becomes very easy,
becomes enjoyable and it's it becomes
almost like a magician act, right?

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00:01:12,470 --> 00:01:36,382
Well, you don't see that you're
actually learning, it's hidden, it's
sleight of hand and it just happens
by itself, because you're having such
a good time finding out more. So, I
guess I wanted to talk about this
today because I sort of have a
problem when it comes to learning
things. I get very obsessive about
learning new things and I have to
kind of work out how to leverage this
in my favour quite often, or else I
get carried away and it's not a
productive way of spending my time.

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So, recently, for example, I've
really gotten into dog training. You
probably didn't know that, I started
looking into videos of dog training
because I want to get a dog in the
future, but I want it to be trained
correctly, I want it to behave, I
want to do the best I can for that
dog. So, I tend to go pretty matter,
I tend to go pretty deep and try and
actually learn from experts and the
good thing is these days that the
Internet is an inexhaustible library
of information, free information, you
know, as free as, aside from the
connection to the Internet itself,
most of the time, right?

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00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:40,389
You go Wikipedia, you got Google,
you've got YouTube, so you can pretty
much find out how to do just about
anything via those resources, through
those resources. And, so I'd start
learning a lot about dog training via
YouTube, especially by finding a few
online content creators like me in
English, I guess, who dog trainers in
real life.

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00:02:41,830 --> 00:02:56,919
And they create videos and show you
how to properly train a dog and I
sort of went down that rabbit hole
and I learned a heap, but for the
time being right now I realize I'm
not going to get a dog anytime soon,
so this probably isn't a good good
use of my time at the moment.

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00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:24,582
I can probably get back to this
later, although it was interesting to
kind of just, you know, how would you
say? Sort of feed my curiosity for a
while. The thing that I guess I envy
with you guys, is the fact that I
can't do this as easily in foreign
languages. So, when I'm trying to
improve my French or improve my
Portuguese, it's very difficult for
me to be able to look up videos about
certain topics.

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00:03:24,670 --> 00:03:48,778
Obviously, there are definitely lots
of resources out there for things
like probably dog training, in fact
one of my friends, Alida, is a
Brazilian who lives in Australia,
shout out to Alida, she's one of my
students, and she wrote a book in
Brazil, in Portuguese and I still
have to read it. She gave it to me
the other day and this was on dog
training. So, it's not impossible,
but it is interesting. I think you,
guys, have an easier than any one
else when it comes to learning a
language.

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00:03:50,243 --> 00:04:23,147
English is definitely hard, but all
languages are hard depending on where
you're starting from, what your
native tongue is, right? Or easy or
hard depending on what your native
languages is. However, the thing that
I envy with you, guys, is the fact
that if you're learning English,
pretty much no matter what language,
in fact I would bet money on no
matter what language your native
language is, there's going to be more
resources in English on any topic,
right? Effectively any topic.

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00:04:24,550 --> 00:04:47,649
So, I'm really jealous because you
guys can learn, you guys can sort
of...you come out of a funnel, right?
Instead of going into a funnel when
you start looking for any kind of
content in English, so you could
learn about dog training, you could
learn about cooking, you can learn
about so many other things at the
same time as trying to improve your
English, because you learn those
things in English.

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So, that's why I think learning in
the case of English and you guys and
feeding your curiosity and following
your curiosity is such a powerful
weapon when it comes to improving
your English, because you can improve
your English as a by-product. It
happens on the side while still
learning other things. So, it's that
two birds one stone, it's a really
good way of being efficient. So, I
would really encourage you guys if
you are learning other things at the
moment, say you're learning
filmmaking or photography or Jiu
Jitsu, or how to work out at the gym,
how to run a marathon, if you're
learning any of these things at the
moment learn them in English.

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00:05:23,758 --> 00:05:46,701
Because it might be a little bit more
difficult, but you'll be killing two
birds with one stone, right? You'll
be doubling up your results with a
single sort of unit of effort that
you put into whatever thing it is
that you're trying to learn, because
English will come along for the ride
ride, right? You will improve your
English on the side.

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00:05:47,250 --> 00:06:05,160
But I think that is a really powerful
thing and I have to keep telling
myself that with Portuguese and with
French. Although I've sort of
neglected French more recently.
Anytime I want to learn something, I
have to be careful not to, or at
least where I can, try to avoid to do
it in English because it's very easy
for me to do it in English.

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00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:26,110
But I realized that if I keep doing
the things in English, hours pile up
and that they become days, which
become weeks of me learning about
that thing in English, which is good
in terms of improving my knowledge of
that thing, but it doesn't help my
language skills and, so I have to
keep trying to find ways of doing
what I'm already doing in Portuguese.

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00:06:26,130 --> 00:06:58,140
So, for instance reading books in
Portuguese, reading about topics on
Wikipedia in Portuguese when and
where it's possible, having
conversations with my wife,
obviously, in Portuguese as much as
possible, but yeah, anyway. So, that
was sort of my my thought. Learning,
having a thirst for learning and
maybe for instance you're really
curious about a whole number of
things that you can't really justify
doing at the moment, but at the
moment you really have to focus on
improving your English.

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00:06:59,470 --> 00:07:30,438
So, maybe there is a way that you can
kind of justify doing these, things
learning about these topics that
maybe aren't relevant to your life
right now and aren't going to help
you get a job or make a lot of money,
earn a living, whatever, but
because... If you can harness your
curiosity and your interest in this
topic and it's going to keep you
motivated to keep learning about that
topic, if you can combine that with
doing it in English, so that you're
improving your English at the same
time, that is a really potent,
powerful combination, in my opinion,
because it's hard to just learn
English for the sake of English,
right?

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00:07:39,457 --> 00:08:05,448
It's hard to just, you know, I don't
know, just pick a book and read the
book because you're trying to improve
your English, but if you can instead
of change the way that you're
thinking about these things and be
more like 'ok, what do I want to do
already in my native language, my
native tongue and how can I do that
in English, so that my motivation is
maximized and simultaneously the
improvement of my English is
maximized?'

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00:08:05,810 --> 00:08:28,154
Right? So, that's that's why I think
learning is such a powerful tool,
having a thirst for learning,
fostering learning amongst yourself,
amongst other people it's very
powerful because I think it keeps
motivation high and we
are...evolutionarily we are creatures
that are built to learn, right? The
human being is the first organism on
the planet that lets the planet or
its environment imprint upon the
human brain by learning, learning,
learning, right?

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00:08:36,877 --> 00:09:09,315
I'm watching Noah at the moment, my
son, and every single day he's just
looking around, he's touching things,
he's interacting with his environment
and he's learning so much, he's
making noises, he's interacting with
me, you know, saying making loud
noises when I make loud noises and
it's just, it's really interesting to
say how much the first three months,
maybe, probably a lot longer, six
months in fact, are just him lying
there learning, imprinting, whereas
other organisms like deer and, you
know, whatever it is, when they get
born, a lot of the time they learn to
get up and walk within the first few
minutes, sometimes, you know? Maybe
the first hour.

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So, yeah, I think everyone likes
learning. It's just that not everyone
likes learning the same thing and, so
it's really important to work out
what you're passionate about and to
follow your passions, but at the same
time to be constantly thinking about
how can I combine this with English
learning, because there is no better
language to be learning about
something in than English, because of
the amount of resources and because
of the amount of experts that use
English, even if English isn't their
first language, the majority of
scientists that I interacted with
them were foreigners always publish
their articles in English they always
went to conferences in English, they
had conversations with other
academics in English.

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00:10:01,811 --> 00:10:24,093
So, yeah I guess that's kind of rant
over, that was what I was wanting to
sort of get across there, though,
today in this video, we talked about
in a previous video how your worst
enemy in English is your ego and how
important it is to get your ego in
check, so that you can really unleash
your full potential at learning and
at improving as best you can, right?

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00:10:24,440 --> 00:11:02,357
And to stop comparing yourself to
other people based on your ego,
because it's only going to hold you
back, but in this video I wanted to
talk about learning and how keep
following your interest, especially
you have no better excuse, right? To
be following random interests at the
moment, at this point in your life,
if you can do it in another language,
especially a language that's going to
help you get a job, find a career,
you know, adapt to life in a foreign
country, there's never been a better
chance or a better ability to do that
than today and with the Internet and
everything that you have at the click
of a mouse.

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00:11:02,387 --> 00:11:23,084
Anyway that's probably it, it's
getting a bit dark. I'm heading home.
And yeah, let me know what you think
below. Maybe disagree with me, maybe
you think there is a much more
important aspect to learning English
and self-improvement than a thirst
for learning and a healthy dose of
curiosity, but let me know below and
our chat with you in the comments.

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00:11:23,429 --> 00:11:25,222
Anyway, guys, it's been a pleasure
and I'll see soon. Peace!