Hi, I'm A.J. Hogue, the author of Effortless English, Learn to Speak English Like a Native.

Welcome to the Effortless English Show.

As you may know, if you've been watching the show, I am currently learning Spanish.

And my Spanish learning has recently become more urgent, meaning I'm

feeling more pressure to do it. And the reason is that in about 10 weeks, I'm going to Spain,

and I'm going to travel in Spain for six weeks. And so suddenly I'm going to Spain and I'm going to travel in Spain for six weeks.

And so suddenly I'm feeling like, oh my God, I need to improve my Spanish because my Spanish

is not very good. My Spanish is maybe a high beginner level. So I'm feeling all this pressure.

And it suddenly hits me last week.

Oh my God, I got I got to really get serious about Spanish.

So I grab my iPod, I grab my briefcase, and I go down to the local coffee shop, which is where I always study or do work.

And I sit down and I pull out my iPod and put in my earphones and I get ready to listen to Spanish.

Because, you know, as the author of Effortless English and the creator of the Effortless English system,

I know that the key to the system is listening, right?

It's one of our seven rules, so I know I must listen to Spanish.

So I open up my iPod and I turn on some Spanish audio and I start listening to Spanish.

And it starts, the Spanish starts.

And almost immediately, my mind starts to wander away.

Ooh, do, do, do, do.

Right? I start thinking about other things.

I think about the business, effortless English.

I think about my physical training, because I need to physically train for this hike I'm doing in Spain.

...