Effortless
English

Effortless English LLC

Address: 1702 A St, #C

City, Zip: Sparks , 89431

State: NV

Country: USA

Controller: AJ Hoge

Website: Effortlessenglishclub.com

Beginnings

Blog

AJ started publishing his Effortless Acquisition Blog in 2003. He wrote about problems with the traditional education system, his experiences as a teacher, and the results of new methods he was applying in his class. He intended to reach other English teachers.

Working as an English teacher AJ realized that traditional school methods sucked. The students were bored out of their minds and did not improve at all. As someone who deeply cares about his students, he decided this state was not sustainable and it was time to make some changes.

He researched constantly new teaching methods and new ideas. Everything he learnt he would apply immediately. He saw what worked and what did not. He made changes, improvised, and created his unique teaching method. All of this he would publish in his blog which became very popular, especially among students.

AJ continued writing the blog until 2009. You can still access it on this webpage effortlessacquisition.blogspot.com. You'll embark on a journey of AJ's struggles and frustrations but also hope and enthusiasm, all through well-written blog posts. It's a very good read. Enjoy!

Get the feeling of the blog:

Your school uses a "good textbook". So what, everybody does. You do clever pairwork, groupwork, and games. So what, everybody does. You throw in the occasional role play. So what, everyone does. Your school has a whiteboard, neutral colored carpet, white walls, and flourescent lights... just like everyone else.

In the effort to offend no one, we sink into mediocrity. Bureaucrats and teachers often seem terrified of making anyone unhappy. They seem to prefer tepid acceptence to passionate engagement. As a student, I hated this approach.

As a teacher, I hate it even more. I am, in fact, bored out of my goddam mind by most schools. Im bored with timidity. Im bored with Oxford/Longman textbooks. Im bored with "meeting standards". Im bored with corporate decor. Im bored with the same old thing.

Id much rather try something remarkable. By nature, these kinds of attempts stir strong reactions...

Method

Philosophy

The philosophy behind the EE method is TAOISM. Taoism is an ancient Chinese philosophy that emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao (the Way). At the core of Taoism is a concept called Wu Wei - a state of unconflicting personal harmony, free-flowing spontaneity, inaction, or effortless action.

AJ applied these principles to teaching English trying to create a method that will go in harmony with nature not against it. That means learning naturally as babies learn their native language with lots of listening and without forcing to speak. It is about going with the current instead of against it. Therefore the name EFFORTLESS English. Originally AJ planned to call his method Effortless-effort English, which would be a more accurate name because Effortless English is not lazy English, a learner needs to put a lot of hours into it. However, he decided to choose a more simple and effective name.

AJ's favorite Taoist philosophers are Lao Tzu and Alan Watts.

AJ on WU WEI:

The effortless acquisition curriculum attempts to follow the Taoist concept of “wu wei”, which can roughly be translated as “not forcing”, “not strivng”, or “effortless effort”. Wu wei hints at an approach that is akin to going with the grain rather than against it. It is action in accord with nature.

Alan Watts uses the metaphor of piloting a boat to illustrate the difference between wu wei and the standard approach of striving. When piloting a boat, one might choose to row. This is a tried and true means of getting from point A to point B in a boat. It requires a huge expenditure of energy and effort, but eventually it does work. However, the wise pilot will raise a sail instead of rowing. By using the wind, by adjusting his sail to it and tacking when necessary, the sailor goes much farther much faster with much less effort. Without doubt, sailing is a much lazier way of piloting a boat. It is also incredibly more effective and efficient.

The metaphor is equally applicable to language teaching. Yes, it is possible to achieve proficiency in a foreign language through grammar-translation, drills, memorizing vocabulary, and analysis. But this is akin to rowing. It requires a tremendous amount of mental effort...

Influences

Dr. Stephen D Krashen
Dr. Stephen Krashen is the leading expert on natural language acquisition research and theory. He's best known for his input hypothesis that emphasizes the primary importance of comprehensible input in learning a language. Krashen puts high importance on the use of free voluntary reading.

Dr. James Asher
Dr. James Asher is the pioneer of a technique called "Total Physical Response"(TPR). TPR is a method of teaching language or vocabulary concepts by using physical movement to react to verbal input. The teacher performs an action, both demonstrating and saying it.

Blaine Ray
Blaine Ray is the creator of Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS). TPRS is a fun, stress-free technique. The teacher tells stories and has students act them out physically, playing various roles and characters. Sometimes the story is re-told from a different point of view or using a different time frame.

Other researchers / educators
Dennis Littky, Dr. Ashley Hastings, John Taylor Gatto, Ramiro Garcia, Valerian Postovsky, Keith Challenger, Dr. J. Marvin Brown, David Long

Creation

As AJ always says, taking action is the most important. He was reading and researching these great concepts but he also took massive action. He kept experimenting in his classroom creating his own teaching method which was to become the ultimate best English learning system. AJ often refers to it as  

Effortless English Engine

EE Engine = The Motor + The Gasoline

Motor

The EE motor is the best motor that can take you to your destination - English fluency. It is built of seven dynamic pistons providing power to the motor so it can run flawlessly:

  • Always learn phrases
  • Never study grammar rules
  • Learn with your ears
  • Learn deeply
  • Use POV stories
  • Learn Real English
  • Learn with mini-stories

Inspect the motor! Go to the 7 rules page here!
Try out the motor! Get courses here!

Gasoline

No motor can run without gasoline. This is the part that differentiates Effortless English from any other method. AJ provides you with the most high-powered, potent fuel possible:

  • Peak positive emotions
  • Physical energy and action
  • Mental focus
  • Motivation
  • Inspiring goals
  • Strong confident beliefs

Fill your tank! Get courses here!

How to use the gasoline:

Think about something great in your life. Think about the biggest success you have ever had. Think about your future success speaking English powerfully. Smile bigger. First you are just pretending, but eventually you will feel stronger and happier. That's because your emotions change when your body changes. It's a simple technique.

Of course, you can feel even better by using your body even more. Instead of just standing and smiling, raise your arms over your head. Then jump in the air like you are celebrating a big victory. And use your voice. Shout and cheer loudly as you jump and smile and think of wonderful things. Go crazy! This is called a “peak emotional state,” an intensely powerful positive emotion.

The final step, of course, is to connect this great feeling to English. So, still feeling great, immediately start listening to an easy English audio. As you are listening, continue to smile and move your body in a strong, positive way.

Brief history of EE

Timeline

2006

Effortless English Company founded

AJ started Effortless English company as a monthly membership site. You could get access to podcast transcripts and audio lessons for only $9.99/month.

Effortless English Podcast started

To learn more about podcast, visit Podcast page here!
2007

Original Course released

To learn more about the Original course, visit Courses page here!
2008

Flow English Course released

AJ made this course with Chris Moses. It was for beginners. It had 16 lesson sets with Main lessons and Mini-Stories. This course is not active anymore.

Business English Lessons released

AJ made this course to offer students the strategies he used to create a successful business. It had main audios, vocab lessons, MS lessons, POV lessons, and commentary lessons. This course is not active anymore.

Learn Real English Course released

AJ made this course with his best friends, Kristin Dodds and Joe Weiss. To learn more about LRE course, visit Courses page here!
2009

First EE Breakthrough Seminar

The first EE Breakthrough Seminar was held in Bangkok Thailand. The entrance was free. It was a huge success that led to many more seminars throughout southeast Asia but also in San Francisco. AJ used to do a limited number of keynotes and seminars each year before his children were born. You can still try to hire AJ at ajhoge.com

Power English Course released

To learn more about Power English course, visit Courses page here!

VIP Program launched

To learn more about VIP Program, visit Courses page here!
2013

Business English Conversations Course released

To learn more about BEC course, visit Courses page here!
2015

Effortless English Book published

To learn more about EE Book, go
2016

Pronunciation Course released

To learn more about Pronunciation course, visit Courses page here!
2019

YouTube Membership started

To learn more about YouTube Membership, visit Podcast page here!
2020

Red Pill Course released

To learn more about Red Pill course, visit Courses page here!
Find out who's most important in the EE system:

"In my opinion, learners are the most important people in education. Not teachers. Not schools. Not administrators and bureaucrats. Not textbook publishing companies. Learners!

I've also come to realize that language learners are the people I really want to reach- not teachers. Unfortunately, the education industry is broken, and I don't think it can be fixed by teachers. Learners are the ones who will fix education. They will fix it by abandoning traditional language education in favor of independent learning methods that work. They will fix it by creating their own learning communities."

- AJ Hoge, 2006

Platforms

Social Media

Effortless English has always relied on social media as a way of promoting courses but also as a place to build a community of learners. But from the very beginning, AJ was concerned about the censorship of big tech companies. In fact, one of the lessons in the Original course was called Microsoft's Cyber Censorship

Other than Microsoft, Effortless English has been partially censored by Google (including shadow banning by YouTube), Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. In pursuit of a place where he can freely express his ideas AJ'd been experimenting with lots of different platforms:

Why Gab?

"If you want to follow me on social media if you want to connect with me on social media, ask me questions, make a comment or learn about my new posts and my new shows, you need to follow me on Gab because I'm already shadow banned on Facebook I'm already shadow banned on Youtube that is probably coming to Twitter also or I just might be totally banned.

You know that I'm on other services as well, other backups. But those are kinds of backups I'm not active on those but I am active on Gab. Gab may be my number one social media now.

Get on Gab! It's our main alternative for free speech now. We have other backups, remember we're decentralizing we're spreading out we don't rely on just one, that's too easy for them to censor, but we have many backups. But for now, Gab is the easiest, the simplest, and the best one to use as our free speech social media."

- AJ Hoge

Forums

Effortless English Club Forum was the original place for the students to connect. It was hosted on effortlessenglishclub.com. The forum is not active anymore.

Twitter For many years Twitter had been the place to connect with AJ and other Effortless English students. Since 2019 AJ is not active on Twitter because of censorship and his account was suspended at times.

Effortless English Gab Group is the current official group for Effortless English members and fans. As of this writing, the group has almost 15k members from all over the world. It's a great place to get in touch with AJ and other EE members.
Join the group here!

Challenges

Challenges are a way to push yourself in order to improve. It's about putting maximum effort over a period of time. Over the years EE family has done many challenges together with AJ.

Challenges done, chronologically

Walking / Running Challenge
Participants could do either the walking or running challenge or both. They counted kilometers or hours of walking/running.

EE Strong
Participants recorded the number of pushups and pullups they could do at the beginning of the challenge. Then over three months, they put maximum effort to increase that number and get stronger.

Listening / Reading Challenge
Participants could do either the listening or reading challenge or both. They counted hours of listening or reading in English. AJ did his challenge in Japanese.

Speaking Challenge
Participants could do either the conversation or shadowing challenge or both. They counted hours of speaking or shadowing in English. AJ did his challenge in Japanese.

Weight Loss Challenge
Participants recorded their weight in kilograms at the beginning of the challenge. Then over three months, they put maximum effort to decrease their weight. AJ used fasting as his method for this challenge.

365 Challenge
365 challenge was a consistency challenge. Participants needed to do something in English (listening, reading, speaking) for one hour, trying not to skip a day over 365 days. AJ did his challenge with Jiu-Jitsu.

Conversation Challenge In Progress
Participants recorded their day-0 video speaking English. Then over three months, they are trying to speak as much as possible in English. At the end of the challenge, they'll record another video in which their improvement will be visible (hopefully). AJ's doing his challenge in Japanese.

Why challenges?

"We have the challenge to encourage you, all of us, to make a big strong effort. The idea is that for three months we do a maximum effort, maximum intensity. This really helps you to make a breakthrough, where maybe you feel stuck maybe you feel you're not improving fast enough. Sometimes we need to make that super big effort. It's hard to do it constantly for months and months and years and years but we can do it for a good three-month period. That's a nice amount of time to make a very large improvement with your English in a short period of time."

- AJ Hoge

EFFORTLESS ENGLISH
BOOK

To learn more about the book and download the audiobook, read by AJ, for free visit the EE Book website: ee book

leaf through