Completely free
Three lines a week slowly you will speak
Three lines a week. One whole dialogue over four to six weeks. You can start here even if you have never spoken a word.
Your day does not really need English.
You still want to be able to speak it.
That is what this is for.
The rules
One topic is one dialogue, run over four to six weeks.
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3 lines
Week one
Three lines to start. Get them comfortable.
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3
Every week after Until the topic is done
Three more a week, still six lines a day
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All of it
Final week
Put them together and walk the whole scene
Each day practises the same lines a different way
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Monday Read it aloud
New lines arrive. Say each one five times.
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Tuesday Swap a word
Change it into the version you would actually use
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Wednesday Chinese only
No English on the page. Say it yourself.
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Thursday Write it down
Type it from memory. The mistakes show you where you are weak.
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Friday Fix it
Three common mistakes go up, each with a line on what kind of mistake it is. If one is yours, type the right version out yourself.
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Saturday Say it without the text
Put this week's lines together
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Sunday Rest
Nothing to do. If you dropped off, just come back.
Why it never stuck before
Most "a little English every day" looks like this: new words today, a new podcast tomorrow, new grammar the day after.
Every day starts something new, so every day starts over.
Which ends in the familiar sentence — "I know I learned this, I just cannot say it."
Recognising it and saying it are two different things. The first only asks your brain to know a face. The second asks you to pull the line out of memory in the second you need it. Pull it too few times and it stays at "I understand that".
Why this works
- Retrieval practice
- Pulling the answer out of your head once beats reading it again
- Wednesday is Chinese only, Thursday you write it down
- Spacing effect
- The same amount spread over days beats it all at once
- Old lines come back every week instead of being dropped
- Varied practice
- A line you have used in more than one setting is one you can call up
- New lines stack each week, old ones get a new wording
- Output and noticing
- Speaking or writing is what makes you hit "I cannot do this bit"
- Thursday you type it and hit what you cannot do. Friday you see it right and type it again.
What we are practising now
A topic runs four to six weeks, then the next one starts.
Common questions
- Do I need anything?
- A phone. No textbook, no app, no sign-up.
- Does it cost anything?
- No.
What if you cannot say it
Every line has a play button. Tap it and the line is read to you. Tap the one beside it for a slower pass. No app to install, no other site to open.
That is a machine voice, not a person.
Record yourself once and compare. You will hear the difference on your own.
Who this is not for
What this practises is the situations your day actually has — ordering, paying, asking the way, the moment you did not catch it. It uses the few thousand words that come up most, in patterns you can swap words into, so slowly you get to where you dare to speak and can.
This will not help you if you are one of these people:
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Anyone with an exam next month, or a hard deadline.
A hundred-odd lines a year. This cannot go faster. What you need is a crash course.
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Anyone already decent who wants to sound closer to a native speaker.
The lines here stay on the most basic words and never get harder. What you need is real conversation with people.
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Anyone who only wants to listen and read, not speak.
This asks you to say the lines out loud every day. Without that, none of it counts.
Your day does not really need English, and you still want to be able to say it one day — this was built for you.
Two things people get wrong
"That's it? Is that not too easy?"
You will think this on day one, right after you read the three lines. Do not doubt it, and do not do more.
Three lines a week is a hundred-odd lines a year. Ordering, paying, asking the way — a hundred-odd lines you can actually say is enough to open your mouth there.
"I missed three days — do I start over?"
No. Just come back.
Streaks are not counted here and there is no such thing as falling behind. Every topic starts fresh in week one, and every post carries everything so far underneath it.
Find the most recent Monday post and you are back in.
How to join
No sign-up, no details to leave. Find the day's post on Threads and comment the way that post asks.
Each day asks for something different. Thursday is the writing day, and looks like this:
Week 2 Day 4 1. 2. 3. Which line are you unsure about:
- 1 Copy the week and day straight from that day's post.
- 2 Type the three lines from memory. Do not look back. The one you get wrong is the one worth practising.
- 3 On the last line, name the one you are unsure about. Write "none" if you are sure of them all.
I am in the comments every day, practising along with everyone.
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