Taking part in a weekly business English training in your company will help a lot to keep your English skills sharp. But if you don’t use the language very often at work and at home, it will probably take a long time to improve.
Here’s a list of things you can do to improve your English skills:
1. Buy a 365-day business vocabulary calendar (Abreißkalender) at Amazon (€9.99).
2. Find an English-learning app. See https://www.fluentu.com. Search: 8-best-apps-learning-english-esl-students.
3. Watch English language television 10 -15 minutes per day, e.g. weather, news, sports, etc..
4. Bookmark English language websites, e.g. www.thelocal.de and sites about your hobby. Watch videos about your hobby at YouTube.
5. Buy interactive CDs and listen to them while driving your car or taking public transport. There are many to choose from.
6. Tutorial videos. You still don’t understand the difference between present simple and present progressive? The Internet has tens of thousands of videos. Search it at YouTube!
7. Buy the 2 following books: 1) English Conversation … leicht gemacht…Lern- und Übungsbuch; compact verlag and 2) PONS Die 1.000 wichtigsten Wörter Englisch Grundwortschatz.
8. Learn the lyrics of your favorite songs. Print them out and sing along while listening to the song. YouTube is a good place to go. Here’s an example:
9. Watch your favorite series in English. They are often posted at YouTube.
10. Watch your favorite DVD film in English and with the English subtitles.
11. Read your favorite books in English with Kindle, which translates words for you quickly.
12. Open a Twitter account and follow your idols. Tweet your own comments in English. Find English friends at Facebook.
13. Switch the settings of your devices (GPS, mobile phone, car computers, etc.) to the English language.
14. Book your next holiday to an English-speaking country (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, etc). Better not to book with a group of speakers of your native language.
15. Become friends with a local native English speaker.
16. Start an English roundtable in your town at the local inn. Meeting even once a month helps.
17. „English please!“ Make a rule at the office, e.g. everyone has to speak only English from 9:00 to 9:30.
18. Contact your English-speaking customers or business-partners more often at work. Try to become involved in an international project.
19. Keep a running vocabulary list. Write down important expressions and verbs.
Hope this helps out!
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