Understand FAST English Conversations Advanced Listening Lesson
Vanessa: Hi, I’m Vanessa from
SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to understand fast English
speaker conversations? Great. Let’s go.
Speaking English naturally and fluently is a
great skill, but if you can’t understand what
other people are saying, you’re going to have a
problem. So today, I would like to share with you
my top tip for understanding fast English
conversations. You’re going to learn how
to understand fast English, we’re going
to practice using this method together,
and then I’m going to show you how
you can continue to use this method.
So how can you understand fast English speakers?
Can you learn like a child and just watch
the Star Wars Trilogy 500 times and then
eventually, you’ll understand it all?
Not really. Instead, we need to use an advanced
method. You need to study and analyze English
conversations. Then, you need to understand
each word. And finally, you can use that
sentence structure and those words yourself.
And that’s what we’re going to do today,
you’re going to analyze a short
real English conversation clip,
so get your pen and paper ready. Number one, we
are going to listen to a fast English conversation
clip. This is the original conversation that I
had with a guy named Jonathan, who is a soccer,
or you might say, football referee, and in this
clip, he’s going to be talking about one of
the worst games that he was ever a referee for.
Second, we’re going to listen to a slow version
of the same clip. So you’re going to hear all
of the words that Jonathan said, but they’re
going to be slow so that you can understand
each and every word. Next, I want you to write
everything that you hear. You’re going to write
from the fast clip, write from the slow clip,
try to write every single word that you hear.
And lastly, you’re going to check your work with
the original transcript. This way you can see,
oh, I missed that word. It was reduced or it was
linked or it was too fast, or maybe it was just
a new word that you’d never heard before, or, oh,
I did get that word. I didn’t even know that, that
was exactly what he said but I wrote it correctly.
That’s amazing. So I want you to be active. Listen
to the clips, the fast version, the slow version,
I want you to write, and finally, we’re going
to be checking with the original transcript.
This lesson is a sample from my course, the 30
Day English Listening Challenge, where I will send
one of these listening clips to you every single
day during one month, the month of January 2021.
So if you enjoyed this lesson, feel free to
join me. This will be open until December
31st. To join, you can click on the link in
the description. Past students of my listening
challenges have said that some days were really
tough and some days were a little bit easier,
but over time, they realized, I can understand
more and more what English speakers are saying.
And I want the same thing for you. I want
you to be able to understand as much as
possible. So let’s practice with that right now.
Here is the conversation outline. First, you will
hear Jonathan’s voice, then my voice, then his
voice again. If you have a piece of paper, I
recommend writing J, V, J so that you can prepare
yourself for what you’re going to hear and you can
write it in the correct place. This lesson is from
day 21, but today, it is a free sample lesson,
open now from December 22nd to December 31st
for only $30. This means that on January 21st,
you’re going to study this lesson, but today,
it’s a free sample. Now let’s listen to this
fast original clip. We’re going to listen to it
three times. It is very fast. This is a natural
quick conversation. So if it seems too fast, don’t
worry, we’re going to listen to the slow version
in just a moment. All right, let’s go and listen
to that original conversation three times.
Let’s listen and try to write at the same time.
Jonathan: So, men’s game went great,
and I’m sure I aced that one. And the women’s
game’s coming up, and it’s going to be easy.
So I went out there, and it wasn’t. It was the
worst game I’ve ever had up until that point.
Vanessa: No way.
Jonathan: I had, I think, five red cards,
three yellow cards, police were called, and so
I had to terminate the game. I’ve probably done,
you know, eight, nine, 10,000 games, and
I’ve only terminated maybe five of them.
So, men’s game went great, and I’m sure I aced
that one. And the women’s game’s coming up, and
it’s going to be easy. So I went out there,
and it wasn’t. It was the worst game
I’ve ever had up until that point.
Vanessa: No way.
Jonathan: I had, I think, five red cards,
three yellow cards, police were called, and so
I had to terminate the game. I’ve probably done,
you know, eight, nine, 10,000 games, and
I’ve only terminated maybe five of them.
So, men’s game went great, and I’m sure I aced
that one. And the women’s game’s coming up, and
it’s going to be easy. So I went out there, and
it wasn’t. It was the worst game I’ve ever had
up until that point.
Vanessa: No way.
Jonathan: I had, I think, five red cards,
three yellow cards, police were called,
and so I had to terminate the game. I’ve probably
done, you know, eight, nine, 10,000 games,
and I’ve only terminated maybe five of them.
Vanessa: Did you feel like that was definitely
too fast? Well, native English speakers and
advanced English learners can understand him.
You’re going to hear this type of English when
you’re traveling to the U.S., when you’re having
business meetings, having conversations
with other people, so I want to help you
take this in and understand it.
Let’s take a deep breath
and we’re going to listen to the slow version.
You’ll hear me and my husband, Dan, saying the
exact same words that you heard me and Jonathan
say, but slowed down a lot. I hope you’ll be able
to understand each word more clearly. And this is
a great opportunity, if you couldn’t write down
all of the words before, now, you can do that. Of
course, feel free to pause this video as you need
to so that you can write everything and really
take advantage of this material. All right,
let’s listen to the slow version three times.
Dan: So, men’s game went great,
and I’m sure I aced that one. And the women’s
game’s coming up, and it’s going to be easy.
So I went out there, and it wasn’t. It was the
worst game I’ve ever had up until that point.
Vanessa: No way.
Dan: I had, I think, five red cards,
three yellow cards, police were called, and so
I had to terminate the game. I’ve probably done,
you know, eight, nine, 10,000 games, and
I’ve only terminated maybe five of them.
So, men’s game went great, and I’m sure I aced
that one. And the women’s game’s coming up,
and it’s going to be easy. So I went out there,
and it wasn’t. It was the worst game I’ve ever
had up until that point.
Vanessa: No way.
Dan: I had, I think, five red cards,
three yellow cards, police were called,
and so I had to terminate the
game. I’ve probably done, you know,
eight, nine, 10,000 games, and I’ve
only terminated maybe five of them.
So, men’s game went great, and I’m sure I aced
that one. And the women’s game’s coming up,
and it’s going to be easy. So I went out there,
and it wasn’t. It was the worst game I’ve ever
had up until that point.
Vanessa: No way.
Dan: I had, I think, five red cards, three
yellow cards, police were called, and so
I had to terminate the game. I’ve probably
done, you know, eight, nine, 10,000 games,
and I’ve only terminated maybe five of them.
Vanessa: Did you write everything you heard? Well,
if you join the 30 Day English Listening
Challenge, you’ll be able to download each of
the lessons each day and go back and review it as
many times as you want. But for this lesson, you
can just pause the video if you need to go back.
So how was this? Was it too fast? Did the slow
version help you? We’re going to go on to the next
step, which is taking a look at the transcript
and trying to learn some new words with
this. There are three new words that you’re
going to learn in each lesson every day, but
we’re also going to be taking a look at some
trouble sections that might have been difficult
for you. Let’s take a look at the transcript.
So here, you have the transcript of our
conversation. I’m going to read it slowly,
and then go through different things
that you can learn from this short clip.
First, Jonathan says, “So, men’s game went
great, and I’m sure I aced that one.” You
can see at the bottom, there are three vocabulary
words that I want you to learn with each lesson,
and this is one of them, to ace something. That
means that you did a great job. You might say I
aced my test, or I aced my first day on the job
because I did really well. So you’re talking
about doing well. So he did a great job being a
referee for the men’s game. But then something
bad is going to happen. Let’s go on to his next
sentence, “And the women’s game’s coming up,
and it’s going to be easy.” He uses another great
expression, to come up. This is talking about
something that’s happening soon. My birthday
is coming up, or Christmas is coming up. The
new year is coming up. It’s going to be happening
soon. It’s coming up, and it’s going to be easy.
Let’s take a moment to look at the grammar
of this sentence. He says the women’s game is
coming up. It is going to be easy. Is he being a
referee right then as I’m having that conversation
with him? You can imagine, probably not. This is
talking about something that happened in the past,
but why does he use the present tense? The game is
coming up. It is going to be easy. Well, this is a
storytelling technique in English that sometimes,
we use the present tense to talk about something
that happened in the past to make the listener
feel like they’re right there in the action as
it’s happening. So we go back and forth between
the present and the past tense when telling
a story, and that’s what he does in his next
sentence. He uses the past tense. Let’s move on.
“So I went out there, and it wasn’t.” He went
out to the soccer or football field and it
wasn’t easy. “It was the worst game I’ve ever had
up until that point.” So he’s contrasting the men
and the women’s game. The men’s game went great,
but the women’s game was the worst game he had
ever had. I put a little star here beside the word
I’ve because this is actually incorrect grammar.
He should have said it was the worst game
I had ever had up until that point. But I
wanted to highlight this because native speakers
sometimes make mistakes when they’re speaking,
but they’re still understandable, especially when
you’re speaking quickly or using a complex verb
tense, like have ever had, or had ever had. That
can be a little complex, and when you’re speaking
quickly, sometimes, you’re not thinking about it.
So I hope this gives you some peace of mind that
sometimes, we make mistakes as well.
All right, let’s go on to the short phrase
that I say. In response to his explanation
about the worst game, I said, “No way.”
Am I disagreeing with him? No. I wasn’t there
for that game. I’m not disagreeing with him.
I’m just expressing shock. So we often use this
expression to just say, I’m shocked. For example,
if you are walking down the street, like down here
in the vocabulary section, and you find $20 on the
sidewalk, you might tell your friend, “I found
$20 on the sidewalk.” And your friend would say,
“No way.” They’re not disagreeing
with you, they’re just saying,
that’s shocking, that’s amazing. So
they’re being shocked at what you said.
All right, let’s go on to the last part of the
conversation. Jonathan says, “I had, I think, five
red cards, three yellow cards, police were called,
and so I had to terminate the game. I’ve probably
done, you know, eight, nine, 10,000 games,
and I’ve only terminated maybe five of them.”
Here, he uses some interesting filler words. He
says I think, five red cards, and then later on,
he says, I’ve probably done, you know, eight,
nine, 10,000 games. This is quite common for
conversation that we add into our speech these
kinds of filler expressions. It’s very casual.
It’s very comfortable, and it’s quite normal.
So if you didn’t understand everything that
Jonathan said during the fast version,
or even during the slow version,
it’s possible that it’s because he used some
new vocabulary for you. So I hope that today,
you’re able to learn that new vocabulary.
What we’re going to do now is we’re going
to go back, listen to that original fast
version, but this time, we’re going to be
looking at the transcript that we just studied.
I want you to listen for his words and also read
them at the same time. I think you’ll be pretty
amazed that you’re actually understanding more
than the first time, because you’ve studied
the fast version, the slow version, you’ve
analyzed that clip with me so you know some of the
different things that are happening, and now, you
can finally listen to it and your ears are opened.
So, let’s listen to that fast clip a couple times,
and I want you to be amazed. Let’s watch.
Jonathan: So, men’s game went great, and I’m sure
I aced that one. And the women’s game’s coming up,
and it’s going to be easy. So I went out there,
and it wasn’t. It was the worst game
I’ve ever had up until that point.
Vanessa: No way.
Jonathan: I had, I think, five red cards,
three yellow cards, police were called, and so
I had to terminate a game. I’ve probably done,
you know, eight, nine, 10,000 games, and
I’ve only terminated maybe five of them.
So, men’s game went great,
and I’m sure I aced that one.
And the women’s game’s coming
up, and it’s going to be easy.
So I went out there, and it wasn’t. It was the
worst game I’ve ever had up until that point.
Vanessa: No way.
Jonathan: I had, I think, five red cards,
three yellow cards, police were called, and so
I had to terminate a game. I’ve probably done,
you know, eight, nine, 10,000 games, and
I’ve only terminated maybe five of them.
So, men’s game went great, and I’m sure I aced
that one. And the women’s game’s coming up,
and it’s going to be easy. So I went out there,
and it wasn’t. It was the worst game I’ve ever
had up until that point.
Vanessa: No way.
Jonathan: I had, I think, five red cards,
three yellow cards, police were called,
and so I had to terminate a game. I’ve probably
done, you know, eight, nine, 10,000 games,
and I’ve only terminated maybe five of them.
Vanessa: How did you do? Did you understand
more? I hope so. Now imagine if you could study
a clip like this every single day for 30 days,
how much would your listening improve over that
month? A lot. Thousands of English learners have
joined me for the 30-Day Listening Challenge, pack
one, pack two, pack three, pack four, and now,
we are on to pack five. Students in this
course have said that some of the speakers,
some of the days, some of the clips were more
challenging, others were a little bit easier,
but by analyzing one of these clips every single
day, they were amazed that their listening skills
and vocabulary were improving each day. If you
decide to join this course, you’re going to hear
11 different English speakers, and this way,
you’ll be exposed different ways of speaking,
different styles of speech and vocabulary,
and grammar and pronunciation as well.
The most important thing is that these
clips are from real conversations,
so you will of course improve your listening
skills, but more importantly than that,
you’ll be able to use this in the real world,
which is the purpose for learning English, right?
Until December 31st, 2020, the 30-Day English
Listening Challenge pack five will be open
for enrollment for only $30. If you haven’t
joined pack one, two, three, or four,
that’s okay. Each pack is its own individual
course. They are the same style of lessons,
but they feature totally different speakers and
different topics. And of course, if you would
like to join all of them together, there will be
a discount for joining all five packs at one time.
Each lesson should only take five to 15 minutes
to study every day. You’re going to receive
four of these lesson materials. The original
fast clip, the slow clip, the worksheet, and
also the transcript each day. Because you’ll be
learning three new expressions with each lesson,
you’re going to learn 90 new expressions by the
end of the month, increasing your vocabulary.
Let’s take a quick sneak peek into the course
website. When you join the 30-Day Listening
Challenge pack five, you’ll get access to
this page. Today is day zero. Any day before
January 1st is day zero. Let’s see what you
can access today. You’ll find a course guide
with my recommended study plan for each day and
a calendar so that you can check off each day
when you finish. On day one, January 1st,
you’ll have access to the day one lesson,
which you can download or stream on the
website. Then on January 2nd, you’ll
have access to the day two lesson, etc, etc.
If you enjoyed today’s lesson and you would like
more information about the course, no problem.
You can click on the link in the description
and check out some more information
about this course. I hope you can join me
and thousands of other English learners around
the world in improving your English skills,
starting the year 2021 on the right
foot by improving your English skills.
And now, I have a question for you, let me know
in the comments, was this lesson helpful for
you? I hope so. And I hope you can join me for
five to 15 minutes each day during the month
of January in the 30 Day Listening Challenge.
Thanks so much for learning English with me,
and I’ll see you again next Friday for a
new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.
The next step is to join the 30 Day English
Listening Challenge. You’ll be on the right
path to increasing your listening skills and
understanding fast English speakers. Don’t
forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons. Thanks so much. Bye.