CHAPTER 5
English Is A Physical Sport
One of the greatest errors of the hidden curriculum is that schools teach
English as an academic subject. In school you study English. You learn about
English. You analyze the parts of the language (grammar, vocabulary, etc.).
You take tests about this knowledge.
The problem is, English is not a subject to be studied. English is a skill to
be performed or “played.” Speaking is something you do, not something you
analyze and think about. Perhaps you can see the problem.
Real English conversations are very fast and they are unpredictable. The
other person speaks quickly and you never know exactly what they will say.
You must be able to listen, understand, and respond almost instantly. There
simply is no time to think about grammar, translations, or anything else you
learned in English class.
English conversation is more like playing soccer (football). A soccer
player must act and react almost instantly. The player must play the game
intuitively. Soccer players do not study physics formulas in order to play
well. They learn by doing. They “play” soccer, they don’t “study” it.
Studying grammar rules to speak English is much like a soccer player
studying physics to play soccer. It might be interesting (or not!), but it
certainly won’t help performance. Your job, therefore, is to stop “studying”
English and start “playing” it!
Remember that your fuel is an important part, perhaps the most important
part, of your Effortless English™ engine. Learning to play English, rather
than study it, is a powerful way to develop strong psychology and go much
faster on the road to fluency.
When we first discussed fuel, we learned how to use our bodies to change
our emotions. It turns out the body is, in fact, a very important (and
