Speaker 1: Hey, can you believe it? This is episode nine hundred
of the Happy English Podcast, nine hundred episodes. I can
hardly believe it myself. Here's what I've learned along the way.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you, Jan and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
This is Happy English Podcast Episode nine hundred. Thank you,
and what I've learned from nine hundred podcasts. Hey, thanks
for tuning in. I just wanted to take a moment
today to say how grateful I am to you. Whether
this is your first time listening, your fiftieth, or if
you've been here since episode one A cup of Joe,
thank you. The fact that you listen, learn and grow
with me is what keeps me showing up here week
after week. So today I want to share a little
bit of my story, what I've learned from doing nine
hundred episodes, and some advice for you on your English journey.
So let's go back to the beginning. I launched the
Happy English podcast back in the early summer of twenty fourteen.
At the time, I just wanted to help my students
outside of class. I thought, Hey, a podcast might be
fun and useful. But if you had told me back
in twenty fourteen that I'd still be doing this nine
hundred episodes, I probably would have said, no way. But
here we are, and again I just wanted to say
thank you, seriously thank you. I recorded the first few
episodes in my home office with the built in mic
of my MacBook twelve and no real plan other than
let me try this out. And honestly, those early episodes
not perfect. The sound quality was ify, my voice was
a little stiff, and I had no idea how podcasting
really worked. But I stuck with it, and you know what,
people started listening, not just in New York, but all
over the world, Japan, Brazil, Germany, South Korea, Italy, Mexico, Vietnam,
listeners everywhere, And suddenly it wasn't just talking into a microphone.
I was building a global classroom. That still blows my mind. So,
after nine hundred episodes, here are a few things I've
learned about English and about learning English. First, consistency matters
more than perfection. You don't have to be perfect, you
just have to keep going. One word, one phrase, one
sentence at a time. That's how fluency is built. Practice
makes progress. Second, grammar is important, but it's not everything.
Real examples, natural speech, phrasal, verbs, idioms, these things bring
English to life. That's why I teach English the way
I do here on the podcast. You can learn the
present perfect tense anywhere, but I want to show you
how we use English in the real world. Third, connection matters,
whether it's a story, a joke, or just sharing a
little bit about life. Connecting through language is what makes
it stick. We remember language that has a feeling behind it.
That's why I teach group classes every week. People just
like you come from all over the world to connect,
learn and laugh. And finally, English learning is a journey.
It's not a race. There's no finish line. There's just progress,
and every little bit of progress you make is worth celebrating.
Every day you get better and better, isn't that awesome?
So let me share a few quick tips from what
I've learned after recording nine hundred episodes. Don't try to
be perfect. Instead, become better and better at communicating. Practice
speaking out loud, even if it's just to yourself. The
more that English comes out of your mouth with your voice.
The more confident and fluent you'll be. Listen to natural
English every day TV programs, podcasts videos. You're lucky to
live in the Internet age, so do what you can
to make the most of the resources you have. Don't
be afraid to take small steps. Progress little by little
adds up over time. And always remember to celebrate your progress.
Your English is constantly improving. You speak and use English
much better now than you did some months ago. Give
yourself a round of applause. Yeah, you deserve it. Also,
one of the coolest things for me is when listeners
send me a message or an email saying they've used
something from the podcast in real life, like in a
meeting or a chat with a friend or during a
trip abroad. That's the best reward. And feel free to
reach out. I reply to every message I get personally,
and again, thank you, thank you for being here, and
thank you for learning with me, and thank you for
being part of this community. Here's to the next one
hundred episodes and beyond. And hey, if you want to
keep practicing the English from this podcast and all of
my podcast lessons, come check out my podcast Learners study group.
We meet once a week, talk about these episodes and
learn together. Just click the link where you're listening to
this podcast right now, or visit Myhappy English dot com
and choose episode nine hundred for the details. Thanks again
for being here, thanks for listening, and remember learning another
language is not easy, but it's not impossible, and I'm
here to help you on your journey.
Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please
visit Myhappy English dot com show your support for Happy
English by leading us a review. Get English, Get Happy,
Happy English.