learning how to learn

Start with action, not theory

Every coaching engagement begins with a real situation the learner already cares about. Instead of spending weeks memorising grammar or formulas, we build accelerated learning loops: try the task, notice the gaps, patch them, then run the task again. Speaking practice, mock IELTS questions, even Python scripts follow the same rhythm. Fast loops keep motivation alive because wins arrive quickly and mistakes become data, not proof of weakness.

Keep the loop running

Momentum comes from small, constant inputs. Tea journals micro-reflections after classes, tracks what resources worked, and rotates topics weekly so nothing goes stale. This habit of constant learning and updating makes skill-building feel like tending a garden: every pass removes a little friction. Learners adopt the same routine—document the tweak you made today, review it next week, and adjust once more. Progress compounds quietly.

Design systems everyone can enjoy

“Everyone can learn enjoyably” sounds optimistic, but it is practical design. We remove unnecessary friction (too many logins, confusing instructions) and build visible wins into every session. Checklists show what has been mastered, shared trackers celebrate streaks, and lessons stay flexible so people can ask the question that is bothering them right now. When the environment feels safe and responsive, curiosity does the heavy lifting.

The learning OS in practice

Put together, these ideas become a repeatable operating system:

1. Define a real outcome you want this month (run meetings in English, launch a landing page, automate a report).
2. Run a quick attempt immediately—even if it is messy—to expose the next constraint.
3. Capture the lesson in a shared tracker so the whole team sees what changed.
4. Schedule the next loop within a week, keeping sessions short and focused.
5. Celebrate the signal: the moment a learner explains the concept back, ships the page, or fixes the bug, we pause to acknowledge it.

Consistency beats intensity. A pair of 30-minute loops each week, documented well, outpaces the heroic weekend cram. That mindset is how Tea learns new stacks, blends teaching with technology, and helps learners stay confident long after the coaching engagement ends.

Case study: the Low–Medium–High tracker system

As exams approach, it’s easy to fall into the trap of not knowing where to start and thinking: “Maybe I’ll just start from the beginning of the book again.” The problem? We usually redo questions we already know, which feels productive but doesn’t improve our score. We avoid what we don’t know. The solution is having a simple system to track what you know and what you don’t.

Why you need a simple tracking system

1. List every chapter or question set.
2. Red-marked questions (Low): you don’t know them—study the solution immediately and understand why.
3. Yellow-marked questions (Medium): you kind of know but need work, or you take too long.
4. Green-marked questions (High): you can solve quickly and explain easily.

Focus on moving Low → Medium → High. That’s how progress happens. Don’t recheck Low/Medium questions within 24 hours, record the date you reviewed them, then check again within two days to avoid forgetting. Don’t fear Low questions—they’re the ones that actually improve your score. Only mark High when you can explain it clearly to someone else. Don’t rush to mark everything green—it’s a false sense of security.

Why this works: spaced repetition + active recall

Your brain forgets 50–80% of what you learn in a day. Reviewing after 24 hours strengthens memory. After a few cycles, knowledge sticks long-term. This system helps you focus effort where it matters: Low questions get frequent review while High questions only need occasional refreshers.

Need a free template to track your questions? Check the comments: I’ve shared mine for free!

Spaced review schedule (how I run the tracker)

• Mark Low or Medium, then leave the question alone for at least 24 hours before checking it again.
• Note the practice date inside the tracker so you can revisit the entry within two days and force the brain to retrieve the process.
• Expect frustration with Low questions—the irritation signals you are stretching into new territory.
• Promote a question to High only when you can explain the logic to a non-expert who challenges your reasoning.
• Remember: the tracker exists so you stop wasting time on problems you already own.

Keep your brain alive with new inputs

Back in senior year I was juggling university entrance exams and teaching English. Mornings were spent sitting tests, afternoons in the classroom, evenings prepping. I felt exhausted without knowing why—until a brilliant maths lesson jolted me awake. The subject had nothing to do with teaching English; it simply fed my brain.

The same principle saves working adults from burnout. A friend at the office was constantly “giving out” knowledge to colleagues. Without fresh input, she started to feel hollow. Knowledge you share may not disappear, but if you never refill the reservoir you eventually dry out.

The fix is disarmingly simple: learn something new purely because it fascinates you, not because it slots neatly into your job description.

• Work in banking? Take guitar lessons.
• Do accounting? Try flower arranging.
• Build software? Learn to cook a regional dish.

None of these hobbies match your KPIs, yet they keep your mind elastic. I follow the same rule. Every morning I learn something—Python, marketing, advertising—often unrelated to immediate deliverables. It keeps me supple. And the surprise bonus? Skills learned “just for fun” have a habit of circling back when you least expect it.

A learning advocate’s mission

Discovering that learning keeps my mind healthy helped me answer the bigger question: What am I here to do? My answer is simple: I am a learning advocate.

I can see the full journey of mastering a skill from A to Z. Watch a singer on stage and I don’t just hear the final note—I glimpse the years of training, the vocal drills, the coaching sessions, the stagecraft. That x-ray vision lets me guide other people toward methods that fit them, even if they never plan to “go pro.”

I’ve self-taught maths, accounting, business, English, code, marketing. Along the way I critique every lesson: could the teacher explain this more clearly, in a different order, with a better example? The habit compels me to learn a subject, then translate it for someone else.

Practically, that means I can pick up accounting when a client feels lost, then design a curriculum, workflow, or tech stack that makes the learning easier. Every two or three years I dive into a new field, document how I learned it, and hand that map to whoever comes next. I am not the world’s top specialist, but I am the person who can point you to the right teacher, the right resource, and the right sequence so you waste less time.

Learning, teaching, and showing others how to learn—that’s the throughline. And if I can nudge you to build your own learning OS, I’m doing the job well.

Read like you scroll your feed

Everyone has a “reading method.” After trying plenty of so-called proven frameworks, the one that sticks for me is simple: treat books like a social feed. When I open a book, PDF, or long-form report I skim first, pause where something hooks me, then jump elsewhere. No guilt about reading out of order.

PDFs are hidden libraries

Type a topic plus the word PDF into Google—“Agriculture PDF,” “Technology PDF”—and you unlock papers with a clear structure, from table of contents to conclusion. I skim headings, preview charts, and dive into whichever section sparks curiosity. If the piece resonates, I stalk the author or institution for more material.

Kindle samples save time and budget

Kindle gives you two options: the limited Unlimited catalogue or à la carte purchases that cost almost as much as print. Instead of guessing, I hammer the Send me a sample button. Each sample covers roughly 20–30 minutes of reading—enough to decide whether a book deserves my time. I’ll queue up 10–20 samples, read through them, and only buy the ones that earn it.

Never force yourself to finish

If a book loses its spark, I drop it. Forcing myself through boredom only kills momentum. Think of reading like scrolling your feed: pick the parts that matter right now, experiment freely, and invest deeper only when the content proves itself.

Use apps deliberately: Duolingo and beyond

Every time Duolingo comes up, half the room cheers and the other half groans. Both reactions make sense if you forget what the app is designed to do.

Understand what Duolingo is for

“Don’t ask a fish to climb a tree.”

Duolingo exists to help you touch English daily, learn basic vocabulary, and keep momentum. If you expect it to produce fluent conversation, disappointment is inevitable.

Why Duolingo alone won’t make you fluent

• No real interaction: you can complete 1,000 fill-in-the-blank questions and still freeze when someone asks for directions.
• Translation dependence: constant back-and-forth translation keeps your brain thinking in Vietnamese instead of English.

When the app genuinely helps

• Starting from scratch and needing gentle exposure.
• Keeping a daily streak so English never feels distant.
• Revisiting simple sentence patterns before a bigger lesson.

When you must add other tools

• Preparing for IELTS/TOEFL/TOEIC or any real-world conversation.
• Training pronunciation, pacing, or listening to spontaneous speech.
• Working through complex dialogues, negotiations, or presentations.

Pair the owl with a wider toolkit: Quizlet or Anki for active recall, shadowing clips for rhythm, a speaking partner for live feedback, and podcasts/videos so natural English seeps into daily life. Duolingo is a solid tile in the mosaic—not the whole mural.

Build a Quizlet blueprint

Tea believes you don’t need a dozen apps; you need one tool you can hug day and night. For vocabulary, that tool is Quizlet.

Quizlet lets you craft custom term–definition decks (images optional). From that raw material, it spins games, tests, and spaced repetition drills that keep words sticky.

Why many learners struggle with Quizlet

The platform doesn’t ship premium word lists by default. Public decks often miss context or contain mistakes. To make Quizlet sing, you either curate your own sets or lean on a teacher who builds them with care. Tea has compiled Cambridge IELTS decks since 2017 and still shares them freely with learners today.

How to study a deck properly

1. Put the English term on the front. Enable the English audio. Hide the Vietnamese translation.
2. First pass—use Flashcards. Hear the word, repeat it aloud. If you are 100% confident about the meaning, swipe through. If not, flip, read the meaning, and pronounce the word again. Resist reading the Vietnamese out loud.
3. Keep the pace brisk. A 20–50 word set should take around 10 minutes. Loop the full set three to five times in the same sitting.

That first session stores roughly 80% of the terms in short-term memory. To cement them, reuse the words within 8–12 hours: slot them into a reading, listen to the matching Cambridge passage, or write a summary containing them.

Learn inside the right context

The decks mirror Cambridge IELTS Books 7–19. Study the vocabulary before tackling the Reading/Listening passage, then recycle it after the task. Because every card is tied to the actual question or transcript, you absorb phrasing that examiners love. Tea used exactly this pattern in Year 11 to jump from a predicted 6.5 to an 8.5 in Reading.

Coaching drill: slow down to speak faster

When learners sprinkle every sentence with “uhm… er…”, the culprit is rarely vocabulary—it’s speed. A quick drill fixes it:

1. Ask the learner to script a 2–3 sentence mini talk (ideally self-written).
2. Time their delivery at “normal” speed and note the seconds.
3. Have them repeat the same script slower, stretching the runtime slightly.
4. Once they control the slower pace, bring them back to the original duration while keeping articulation clear.

The stopwatch makes pacing tangible. Learners hear themselves, cut filler words, and regain control. Only after they can cruise slowly do we nudge the speed up again.

Encourage writing with delayed feedback

Many adults grew up in classrooms where “write a sentence, get corrected instantly.” That conditioning kills confidence. To rebuild it:

1. Let them finish the thought. No interruptions mid-sentence.
2. Use delayed feedback. We review the draft after it is complete so their ideas flow.
3. Tackle one or two focus points per session instead of red-penning everything.
4. Annotate with examples drawn from their own paragraph so revisions feel achievable.

Feedback lands best as a sandwich: praise the win (even “you hit the word count”), offer a single tweak (“try ‘however’ here”), then close with encouragement. When sharing comments with the whole class, keep names general unless someone invites personalised coaching. Writing becomes an experiment again, not a public trial.