Can You Learn English with Songs and Lyrics

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question this week comes

from Ali Riza heigen Ali Ali says hi

Alicia what’s the difference between

where have you been and where were you

mmm there’s not a big difference here if

you’ve been waiting for someone for a

long time like you expected someone to

be at a place like at a meeting or maybe

a restaurant or a cafe and you have been

waiting for a long time you might use

where have you been to mean where were

you from this point in the past until

now like I expected to meet you so we

might use where have you been in a case

like that we might use where were you in

a situation where we’re asking about a

finished situation or something that’s

done–it’s it happened in the past like

for example if you miss class one day

you are supposed to go to school but

you’re sick and you go to class the next

day

your classmate could say where were you

yesterday so that sounds like yesterday

something happened and they want to know

about that situation at that point in

time only so this is a little bit

different from where have you been which

means like there was some expectation

that you would be there and you were not

so in some cases you can use both yes

like for example if you are late for a

meeting and your coworker asks where

have you been like you’re an hour late

you could use that or the co-worker

might say like where were you you’re an

hour late those are some cases like

where it’s kind of up to the speaker to

decide a little bit but generally if

someone has been expecting you for a

period of time they’ll probably use the

where have you been pattern if it’s just

a past action a past situation it’s over

it’s done you might use the where were

you pattern instead so I hope that this

helps you thanks for the question

okay let’s move on to our next question

neck

question comes from shoe high shoe shoe

says hi Alicia your lessons are helpful

cool my question which one is correct

most of the movie takes place in LA or

most of the movies take place in LA nice

question actually both sentences are

correct and they have very different

meanings so let’s take a look the first

one most of the movie is set in LA means

the majority of this movie only takes

place or happens in LA with the plural

most of the movies take place in LA it

means most movies in this specific group

happen in LA so to give an example of

this let’s imagine like a movie series

there are three movies in the series and

the first two movies movies 1 and 2 take

place in LA and in San Francisco a

little bit movie number 3 takes place in

New York City so when we want to talk

about movie 1 for example we could say

most of the movie takes place in LA so

that means the majority of movie number

1 happens in LA not all of it because a

little bit happens in San Francisco but

the majority of the movie happens in LA

so we say most of the majority of most

of the movie takes place in LA if

however we want to talk about the series

this three movie series and we want to

talk about where the series happens we

could say most of the movies take place

in LA so that means most of the movies

meaning two of the three movies are set

mostly in LA so that means movies 1 and

movies 2 are mostly in LA movie 3 is in

New York City so it’s in a totally

different place so in that case we’re

talking about a group of movies most of

the movies in this group in this series

in this case take place in LA so both of

your original example sentences are

totally correct

yes but they just have very different

meanings so think about it are you

talking about one specific movie and

what things are happening in that movie

or are you talking about a group of

movies so this example is just about

movies yes but you can apply the same

idea to many other situations too so I

hope that this helps you thanks very

much for the question ok let’s move on

to your next question next question

comes from on health hello again on

health on how says hi Alicia and team

could you please explain the meaning of

the word whatsoever

sure okay whatsoever means at all or of

any kind so you could replace whatsoever

in a sentence with of any kind and it

would still make sense we tend to use

this a lot in negative situations like

when we’re saying you cannot do

something so it’s used a lot for like

rules or policies or whatever for

example students may use no devices

whatsoever he gave no hints whatsoever

about the new product we had no help

whatsoever with our homework so in each

of these example sentences we could

replace whatsoever with of any kind and

it would still make sense so again this

is not so commonly used in everyday

speech because it’s used a lot to talk

about policies and rules and it kind of

sounds a little bit on the formal side a

little bit but if you’re ever not sure

just try replacing whatsoever with of

any kind and see if it makes sense so

that’s what whatsoever means I hope that

it helps you thanks for the question ok

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from side OSA thohir

hello side OSA Saito’s SS hi Alicia can

I learn English with lyrics from songs

umm yes to some degree sure we get this

question every once in a while so here

are a few reminders first of all please

remember that the lyrics to songs may

not always be grammatically correct

while yes we can communicate ideas and

we can

feelings through songs songs do not

always use perfect grammar ii keep in

mind that in many songs there are like

slang vocabulary words or inappropriate

vocabulary words are offensive

vocabulary where it’s used also the

vocabulary words by one artist or by one

singer may not be used in everyday

speech very much or may not be used in

the people like in conversation with the

kinds of people you are used to speaking

with so for example if you really like I

don’t know country music or if you

really like rap music but a lot of the

people that you talk to really like pop

music or rock music or something like

that you might find that like they don’t

use the same words or they’re not

commonly liked using the kinds of

expressions that your favorite singers

are using so that’s something else to

keep in mind another thing to think

about is the rhythm so in song it’s

great it’s very important to have a

certain rhythm so that people can enjoy

music but this is very different in many

cases from the way that we actually

speak in everyday life so if you can

understand a song that’s great but that

doesn’t mean that you can apply the same

rhythm when you’re speaking so like rap

for example most people don’t speak in

the same way as they sing or when they

perform like rap songs so that’s another

thing to keep in mind finally remember

that even if you can fluently sing a

song it doesn’t mean that you can

fluently communicate in English so maybe

you can remember all the words to your

favorite song that’s great that’s fun

it’s a great study tool a great

motivator for sure but that doesn’t mean

that you can automatically use all of

those words or you can communicate well

in English with those things that you’ve

learned they’re kind of like supplements

they’re like extra bonuses for your

study so don’t use only song lyrics like

they can be really helpful and they can

help you to identify with culture and

make friends and stuff but I would

suggest maybe using that a little bit

using lyrics from songs a little bit and

it’s important to keep those reminders

in mind that I talked about do so I hope

that this helps you and good luck with

your studies okay let’s

to your next question next question

comes from Maxine Maxine Maxine says hi

Alicia how do I use regardless and

regardless of thanks a nice question we

use regardless at the beginning or at

the end of a sentence you may also see

it used to like connect to ideas in the

middle of a sentence some examples well

I left my phone at home regardless I’m

going to enjoy my day our team is under

a tight schedule regardless everyone is

happy

I see you’ve prepared a lovely meal I

have to leave regardless on the other

hand we use regardless of before a noun

phrase regardless of the managers

decision I think our team did a great

job we should respect other people

regardless of their race

so regardless of is used before a noun

phrase regardless without of typically

comes at the beginning or at the end of

a sentence I hope that this helps you

thanks very much for the question ok

that is everything that I have for this

week thank you as always for sending

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English Studies thanks very much for

watching this week’s episode of ask

Alisha and I will see you again next

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