Rich English Podcast – Season 1 Episode 4

with Jiří Benedikt

Today’s guest is a former employee turned start-up CEO turned freelance innovator whose training workshops are delivered either in Czech or English. You will hear how enthusiastic Jiří is during our conversation, something which he also produces in his training sessions. Welcome back to Rich English episode 4.

In this episode, we talk about:

Effective v efficient
Being a start-up CEO
Presenting and training in English
Innovation
Lean Six Sigma
Artificial Intelligence and more…

Next week: I will be back with another solo show to help you create good English and business habits. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.

Richard.

Link to full transcription

Suggested websites/apps/extensions mentioned:

https://www.jiribenedikt.com

https://www.profikem.cz

https://www.skillshare.com/

https://www.vimvic.cz/

Rich English – Opening the door to a whole world of English content

Certainly Rich English won’t be for everyone, but if you’re interested in hearing real conversations with people who are entrepreneurs, business owners, self-employed or career-minded then it might be for you. My hope is that by interviewing (mainly but not exclusively) non-native English speakers about how they got started in business and their English learning journey, you, the listener will gain insight, knowledge and confidence to carry out your own plans and ideas. You will also hear me explain some of the industry-specific words and phrases allowing you to better understand the conversation and open the door for you to listen to other similar podcasts and read blogs, websites, books etc. in English.

September 28, 2021September 28, 2021

Rich English Podcast – Season 1 Episode 3

Full show transcription here.

How to Remember English Vocabulary

Do you struggle to remember new words is it hard for you to recall a new phrase you think you learned just yesterday? In today’s show I’m going to explain to you how you can drastically improve your recall system and implant new vocabulary in your memory, long term. Welcome back to Rich English episode 3.

So what do you do when you’re trying to learn new vocabulary? Well, there are many good ways to help you remember your new words and phrases and traditionally people have written them down folded over the paper, written their other language on the other side. If you’re like my dad, you might cut up those pieces of paper and use them like mini flashcards. People these days are practising with an application, something like Duolingo.

In this episode I’ll talk to you about:

Hooks
Sketchnotes
Mind-mapping
Visualization
Spaced repetition

So, if you want to find out any more information about any of these things you’ll find it on my blog https://www.richardhill.cz/blog

Next week: I will be back with another interview to help you better understand business English terms. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.

Richard.

Link to full transcription

Suggested app/extension mentioned www.duolingo.com

Next week I will be back with another interview. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.

Richard.

Rich English – Opening the door to a whole world of English content

September 21, 2021September 22, 2021

Rich English Podcast – Season 1 Episode 2

Full show transcription here.

When I first moved to the Czech Republic, I had decided to reduce my reliance on technology, especially where phones were concerned. Needing a new phone I opted for the most basic Nokia without even a camera let alone anything as smart as a touch screen. I wanted to be able to call and text, only! Then I met Peter and his team…

On my first visit to Flow Studio, Peter’s original mobile game company, we discovered a shared interest in orienteering. But we’re not here today to talk about running around a forest in all weathers with a map and compass. No, it was Peter and his team’s enthusiasm for tech that reinvigorated me and put me back in touch with my younger self. That sounds awfully serious but really, at the time I met them I had a strong suspicion of all things tech and marketing. Through helping his team with English by researching useful articles on tech industry websites, I remembered that not so long ago I had had more than a passing interest in computer technology, marketing and business entrepreneurship. I can’t state this boldly enough but without my meeting Peter and his colleague Richard, I probably wouldn’t have built my own website, which led to blogging, video courses and now this podcast. Thank you guys.

A Podcast for entrepreneurs, wantrepreneurs, solopreneurs and all those other …preneurs whose native language is NOT English

Peter Fodor is the Founder and CEO of a company called App Agent who help companies producing mobile applications and games to grow their user base and revenues.

In this show we discuss how Peter began learning English and how he continues to improve as well as talk about his business life, starting out with Flow Studio, producing their own mobile games to making the transition into a mobile marketing agency.

Please Donate to Help make Rich English sustainable

You can help to make Rich English even better by making a small monthly donation of 99kč to cover production costs.

Season 1, Episode 2 with Peter Fodor

In the course of the conversation, you’ll hear a few phrases and words I thought you may need explaining. Here they are:

User acquisition and acquiring clients – these are from the verb to acquire meaning – to get. Basically, user acquisition is how you go about finding new users for your application.

Getting into the flow is about becoming used to a particular situation and maybe getting your head in a particular space where you’re feeling comfortable and concentrating.

Workflow is the sequence of events or stages that a project might pass through to go from its initial start to completion.

To have many hats really means that you have different roles you might have a role as the owner of a business but at the same time you also might take on a more menial task such as sending out invoices for example. So you could say I have an administrative role or an administrative hat as well as my owner hat.

A worker bee is a person who is doing the detailed work, so it might be somebody in administration or might be somebody in design but worker bees are the people who are carrying out the larger ideas conceived by the boss.

A pool of talent is the number of people who are available in any given sector of business who might be your target to take on as an employee.

Collaborative tools are platforms such as Slack, Trello, Asana or even your Google calendar which is open to other people to view. Basically, any kind of platform where you can work closely with other people in order to further your project.

CV curriculum vitae is a document outlining your education and work/training history and personal interests.

A red flag is a warning.

Check out Peter’s company App Agent – www.appagent.com

Link to full transcription

www.richardhill.cz

Suggested app/extension mentioned by Peter – www.grammarly.com

Next week I will be back with a solo show to help you with remembering your new vocabulary. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.

Richard.

Opening the door to a whole world of English content

September 16, 2021September 22, 2021

Rich English Podcast Episode 1

Rich English Podcast with Marketa Horakova

Full show transcription here.

You know as a child the first job I can remember wanting to do (after footballer and rock star) was to be a DJ (disc jockey). I mean the radio presenter type rather than the club version…

My father had a small portable cassette player/recorder which I used to borrow (he owned it and lent it to me) and I would record little radio shows where I played a record then back announced the song in my best radio DJ voice. When I was a little older, around 13, I would take a posh Walkman (personal stereo, remember them?) that had a record mode to football matches with my cousin. During the game, we commentated on the match and recorded it.

So jumping forward about 20 years I can remember the first time I heard the word ‘podcast’. It was in 2003 and a friend of mine had just bought a first generation iPod. He told me he was listening to podcasts on it and I had to ask what they were. “They’re basically radio shows but you can download them to your iPod and listen to them whenever you want”, said he. I thought that sounded like a brilliant idea but then forgot about them for about 10 years or more. Podcasts didn’t really come into my life until around 2015 when I started to listen to a couple of them to learn more about online business (thank you to the Fizzle Show in particular).

A year or two ago I was asked (by next week’s guest Peter Fodor from App Agent) if I could with producing a podcast. I duly obliged (I said yes) and they were more than happy with the results. They praised my work and suggested that I find other companies for whom I could also produce a podcast. I did nothing…

A Podcast for entrepreneurs, wantrepreneurs, solopreneurs and all those other …preneurs whose native language is NOT English

Now here we are in 2021, I’m 45 years old and only now am I starting my own podcast. Why did it take me so long? I don’t know but it certainly feels like I’ve come full circle and so far, so good. I have found the experience a great one as I enjoy every aspect of the process from idea, recording, interviewing, editing and promoting. (You can help me with that last bit, the promotion, by sharing a link to my podcast and recommending it on your Linked in and Facebook feeds etc.)

Opening the door to a whole world of English content

Please Donate to Help make Rich English sustainable

You can help to make Rich English even better by making a small monthly donation of 99kč to cover production costs.

Season 1, Episode 1 with Markéta Horáková

Markéta is from Terapie v Lese (Therepy in the Forest) who provide therapeutic journeys in the countryside, forests and Prague’s parks. Welcome to the first episode of Rich English and a chat with Marketa about her business experience and English learning journey. Before you get into the interview with Marketa I thought I should explain one or two phrases that myself or Marketa to use in the interview just help you better understand

Further afield means places away from the specific location you’re in.

Donkey work and heavy lifting meaning the nuts and bolts (there’s another phrase for you – it’s the details) – carrying out the actual work. You might have a great idea but then who’s going to do it, who’s going to do the data input, who’s going to build physically the website, who’s going to put their fingers to the keyboard and do the actual work? That’s the donkey work or the heavy lifting.

Down the road – in the future, at a more advanced stage than now.

To cover plenty of bases which means to involve everyone or everything in a situation.

My conversation with Marketa is an interesting one and I’m sure there’s a lot to learn so without further ado press play and get on with the show. I hope you enjoy it, I’d love you to leave me a little review and leave me any comments. Of course, you can get in touch with me here on the website and I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn the usual places.

Next week I will be back with an interview with a really interesting guy Peter Fodor who is from a company called App Agent and they help companies who are developing applications for mobile phones. His company helps them to market those applications. That’s a really interesting chat and I hope you can join me. OK, take care for now, bye-bye.

Richard.

January 3, 2019April 12, 2019

Make English One of Your New Year’s Resolutions

Clock Learn good habiits for speaking better English

So it’s that time again when we all decide to start over, make a fresh start and turn over a new leaf. On your list of New Year’s Resolutions amongst the gym membership, giving up drinking and spending more quality time with your kids, is learning or improving your English. We all know that you will probably succeed in some of these ventures for a short time but after three months (if you’re lucky) you’ll be back on the evening wine, working late and will have forgotten of which gym you are a member.

Jak se naučit anglicky v roce 2019?

Well, with my help, at least you have the opportunity to keep your eye on the ball when it comes to improving your English. This is the time of year I get the most emails from people asking me for help, so let’s jump on that enthusiasm for self improvement and get down to it.

Click here for this week’s free cheatsheet – Your English Habit Blueprint

This Year Will Be Different

What usually happens, and I’m sure you are no exception, is that January 1st rolls around and you think “Right!, this is the year I finally crack English.” You start out with some loose plan to study for half an hour a day but by the end of the first week you are exhausted, unmotivated, have already fallen off the wagon and missed the last three days. So, what’s the answer Richard? What is the solution? Read on …

Priorities, Time and Accountability

Your effort seems noble enough and it’s only half an hour so why couldn’t you stick to it? You have to be honest with yourself and decide where English sits in your priority list? Is it the most important thing on your list or does it rank below regular exercise, nights out with friends or some other thing? Then you have to decide realistically how much time you can devote to your learning. Don’t think it all has to be sitting down, seriously studying books though. You are far more likely to maintain enthusiasm and commitment to English if you mix up your learning. For a list of ways to learn English get this free PDF sheet here. While half an hour a day might not seem much to some people, to others it’s a huge amount of time. So, how should you split up your time and how much can you guarantee for English?

Click here for this week’s free cheat sheet – Your English Habit Blueprint

Frequency

Remember that frequency is the key. Better 5 minutes per day than 35 minutes once a week. There is science behind how your English mobile phone applications work. New words and phrases are repeated at specific intervals to decrease how quickly you forget new information. eg. Day 1 – learn 10 new words, Day 2 – learn 10 more, Day 3 – Try to recall from memory your day 1 words. This is a simplified example but the process of trying to remember will help your brain to commit these words to your long term memory. Yes, it’s more difficult than simply re-reading your notes and repeating them aloud but it’s the way to make that new vocabulary stick. Then, as long as you continue to refresh those words by recalling them at increasingly longer intervals (and best of all using them in your writing and speech) they should become part of your embedded ‘go to’ vernacular. This method is called spaced repetition and it’s the idea on which I based my Better Your English Now video course. More about spaced repetion here.

Right, off you go, and remember, be honest about how much time you can spend and the frequency. I have made you a free cheat sheet to help you determine your strategy. Click here to get this week’s freebie Your English Habit Blueprint.

Today’s idioms and their meanings:

start over – to start something again.

make a fresh start – to start something again

turn over a new leaf – start to act or behave in a better or more responsible way.

keep on the ball – To keep oneself very focused on something.

fall off the wagon – to return to any discontinued behavior, usually one that is detrimental in some way.

get round to it – to do something that you have intended to do for a long time

roll around – Occur / happen

November 30, 2018December 3, 2018

Nejlepší způsob jak se naučit anglicky

Have you set goals to improve your English?

If you want to know nejlepší způsob jak se naučit anglicky then two of the most important things you need are motivation and goals. I have discussed motivation in another article so today we will talk about how to set specific goals to learn English. Click here for a link to my vocabulary list for the highlighted words. Let’s begin…

In all my years of helping people with their English and trying to learn Czech myself, the one thing that I have learned, is that no magic potion can make you the master of a language overnight, it takes time, dedication and a systematic approach. Luckily for you, I’m here to help you set those goals and also follow them religiously, so that you can converse with confidence in English. Keep reading to find out how to get this week’s free Goal Setting Creation Sheet.

Aren’t Motivation and Goals the same thing?

The difference between motivation and goals is that motivation is subjective and varies from person to person, but goals are objective. They are set according to your learning skills and retention capability. Today I’ll help you learn how to set great goals that you can follow to learn English more effectively.

You may have heard the saying ‘work hard, play hard, but the modern era needs something more than hard work, it needs smart work. Working smartly has become such a vital attribute today that it has been revered as a benchmark for doing everything in your life. Our phones have become smarter and our essential amenities are run by technology-driven systems, so let’s incorporate this smartness into our learning. By the way, if you would like to know more about working smartly in the office, have a look at my friend Jiří Benedikt’s site.

nejlepší způsob jak se naučit anglicky, English learning goals

S.M.A.R.T Goals je nejlepší způsob jak se naučit anglicky

Of course, there are many different systems and techniques for setting goals but my prefered method is one that uses the acronym SMART. Setting SMART goals will help you achieve them and by writing them down and ticking them off you will be able to measure your progress. (Guess what the M stands for!) So, without further ado, here’s what the letters of the acronym SMART stand for:

S- Specific

Be specific when you set your goals. Who is going to do it, when and where is it going to happen, how will you do it. What do you need to happen in order that the task is finished. Some of these questions may not be relevant to every task you set yourself but ask them anyway just to make sure.

M- Measurable

You need to set goals which are measurable. Devising long term plans is a good start but if you can ‘chunk it’ and break it down into smaller and more easily measureable tasks it will encourage you to continue learning the language. What you want is both a long term measurabe goal AND a series of shorter term goals that are equally measurable. An example might be to set the job of reading and finishing a book by a certain date; and then by chunking the longer term task into weekly (3 chapters) and daily goals (15 pages) you can more easily measure your progress.

A-Attainable

What’s the point of setting tasks if you cannot complete them? Instead, your tasks should be attainable on a hourly, daily or weekly basis. Consider this, you start with a task to write 5 essays this week on various topics. By the end of the week you were only able to complete 2 essays; this would surely demotivate you to work on it further. In its place, you can ensure that at least one 500 word essay is completed by a particular day of the week, and in it, you will try to use some of the new words that you learned earlier. Not too easy, not too hard!

R-Relevant

Making your goal relevant will help you learn better and faster if the daily tasks are more orientated towards your field of interest or your daily activities. For Example, if there is going to be a festival in your town next month, you can read material related to it or learn words that are associated with festivals. This will assist you in learning new words and allow you to converse more easily with people at the festival.

T-Time based

Time is your greatest acolyte while learning anything in life, so set limitations for your goals, like “I will … by the end of this month.” It will help you organize your tasks and daily routine. The important thing is to push yourself, but not beyond the limit. There is no rush, remember “Slow and steady wins the race.” I have been thinking about playing a gig (concert) for friends and family for a long time now. Just a few songs on the guitar, most of which I already know, but I’m still procrastinating about it because I have’t booked a venue and made it a concrete, time bound plan. When I have the date, I’ll put the time in to practise.

Today’s Freebie – SMART Goals Creation Sheet

Develop an action plan: I have developed a chart to help you create your SMART goals. On the top of the sheet write your biggest English goal, on the line underneath write a shorter term goal. Use the questions on the sheet to help you develop a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound goal. Finally use your answers to write a short statement of comittment to achieve your goal. I have included an example sheet where I outlined how you might achieve the goal of reading a book in English.

Finally

Remember that goals are not ‘the be all and end all’ (all that matters). The journey is what is important. Enjoy the learning process. Celebrate when you achieve your goals but remember the joy will soon fade and you will be looking for another goal. If you are still struggling with a reason why you need to learn English, take a look at my motivation article.

October 25, 2018December 21, 2023

How to Improve Your English Speaking – Part 3 – What’s Your Motivation

If you have just arrived here read this first – Almost Everything You Need to Learn English. It will give you the best overview to answer the question: ‘How to speak better English’. To find out more about how you can find your motivation, read on…

How to Speak Better English? – Motivation

From my point of view, motivation is so closely linked with number two on our list, goals. (If you haven’t seen my list of Almost Everything You Need to Learn English, click here.) However, to me, goals are concrete, specific, measurable things whereas motivation is a more general concept. For example, your motivation might be; to be able to speak English well enough to use it on holiday, but, a goal would be; to hold a conversation with an English speaker for 10 minutes, talking about particular topics of interest, by a certain date. So to answer our question ‘How to speak better English’ we need to know…

What is motivation? What motivates you to do anything?

In scientific terms, it is said that motivation has two parts; directional and activated. Directional motivation is that which moves you either towards a positive outcome or away from a negative one. If you want to be a fluent English speaker or at least speak better English, that is positive, going to English classes at work only because your boss will fire you if you don’t is negative motivation.

Activated motivation is the seeking (looking for) and consequent liking of the process and is dependent on the amount of dopamine in your system. Anyway, I’m not a chemical scientist so I’ll stick to what I know best and concentrate on how motivation relates to learning how to speak better English.

What motivates you to learn English?

I don’t know! However, I can tell you what motivates me to learn Czech. Firstly, I live in the Czech Republic so being able to understand what is happening around me is immensely important. To be able to really understand your culture, I have to better understand your language. I love playing football and talking to people who are interested in football and this is a huge motivation for me to get better at Czech. I want to have deeper conversations about the culture of football as well as discussing the game itself. (The photo is of me with my friends from Berlin watching 1.F.C. Union Berlin.)

I also love films and would really like to be able to watch more Czech films without English subtitles. I am a big fan of Svěrak and Smoljak and, as well as watching their films, I would like to understand the Cimrman plays. I have been to the Žižkov theatre but to the English performances, which are excellent, however, to fully understand a Czech performance and be part of a Czech audience would be magic! I’d like to help you find your motivation to speak better English but…

How can you find your motivation?

Think about reasons why bettering your English is a good idea, think about your interests in life, the things that really turn you on, and then try to connect the two together. If you really, really can’t think of something, maybe you have no reason or motivation, maybe you just don’t need to learn English after all. Make sure to read the action point at the end of this article so you can begin to learn how to speak better English. But before that, I thought this might be interesting for some of you…

Etymology of the word motivation.

Click here to go to the Etymonline site to read the etymology of the word ‘motivation’.

A dictionary definition of motivation

“that which inwardly moves a person to behave a certain way”

Czech translation

motivace;

Synonyms

Reason

Stimulus, motivator = stimul/podnět (stimulus in English)

What motivation does.

Motivation drives us forward, makes us get up in the morning, keeps us going when the going gets tough, prods us to take action, inspires us to be creative, and gives us a positive, happy feeling (when it’s that positive motivation – striving towards something better). Learning a language is really a lifelong lesson, even in your native language, so having positive motivation is the base on which to build all the other aspects of striving to speak better English.

Action to take to speak better English.

Right now, take out a pen and paper and start to ‘brain dump’ your ideas. Anything you can think of that might be a reason to learn English, write down all your interests and look for connections between the interests and the reasons. Think about and write down how your life could be improved by improving your English and how you could positively affect the world, or at least your small part of it, by being a better English communicator. I’d love to know how you get on, so let me know in the comments below.

OK, so that’s today’s article all wrapped up. I hope you have found some inspiration in it and will ‘get yourself motivated’. As we say in English, ‘there’s no time like the present’. Unless of course, you are Homer Simpson then you’d say ‘Why do today what can be put off ’til tomorrow?’

Look out for next week’s installment on goal setting to speak better English.