Real English Conversations Episode 14

[Music]

welcome to speak English with Tiffany I

am teacher Tiffany let’s jump right in

hey Mel how you doing I’m doing good -

how about you how you doing all right

this expression is used when you are

greeting someone or asking them about

their condition now what you’ll notice

is it’s actually the same thing as how

are you doing how are you today and how

are you but the main difference is

instead of the G that normally goes at

the end of this word we’ve erased it and

replaced it with this short apostrophe

so instead of how are you doing again

right here it would have been a our e

we’ve also taken that out and instead of

how are you doing it’s how you doing

it’s kind of a slang way or a more

comfortable way of saying how are you

when you are speaking to friends or

someone you are familiar with I’m doing

good just kind of relaxing a little bit

taking it easy huh how about you taking

it easy now this means to be relaxed and

not doing very much at all okay so again

relaxed and not doing very much at all

to refrain or to stop from hard work and

simply rest we say taking it easy

so for this one examples are you say

this after taking a major exam normally

when you have an exam in school you have

to study for a long time for many hours

so when you’re finished taking the test

and you really want to relax you can say

I’m taking it easy okay

or you can use it when you are finished

working so you’ve worked all day and you

actually are tired you can say I want to

take it easy and another example is

after finishing a project it can be

project at work or project at school or

even a personal project you really want

to take a rest so you say taking it easy

work is good

I am currently doing a temporary work as

a caregiver seeking care of our grandpa

Ted and Delaware oh yeah not too far

from Maryland that’s pretty good yeah

yeah that’s good he’s very easy to get

along with very nice guy okay

now you heard me say that’s nice

Delaware’s not too far from Maryland

that’s pretty good what I did was I gave

my opinion of what my friend said when I

said that’s nice then I gave my reason

for thinking that what he said was nice

because Delaware is not too far from

Maryland and then I went back and I

restated my opinion again when I said

that’s pretty good so this is another

thing that we use in conversation in

English conversation opinion plus reason

plus opinion again so you can use this

formula sometimes when you speak in

English and the next thing was easy to

get along with now this expression just

means someone who is approachable

friendly or pleasant in manner it means

that person really talks to people well

and people feel comfortable around them

so you can say I am easy to get along

with or he or she is easy to get along

with

that’s good so you said you’re doing

working as a caretaker I thought you

were coming back from Korea you were

gonna continue with your business like

you’re I think you were doing a video

business what are you doing that

oh yeah media production is whether

that’s the business I had before I went

to Korea all right what you’ll notice

throughout our conversation is a lot of

these type of words these are called

English filler words English filler

words now you’ve probably heard lots of

filler words being used in conversations

or in movies and TV shows now while it

is important not to use them during a

speech and in other important situations

they are actually a pretty important or

useful part of English conversation if

you use them correctly okay so as you’re

listening to our conversation listen to

the points in time where we say like or

um or you know yeah my original plan was

actually I was doing that before I went

to Korea I was doing it full-time after

I just graduated from University and my

original plan was go to Korea one year

and then come back and do my business

but uh one year became eleven and a half

years and so now I’m back in the mentor

and trying to get my business back up

and running back up and running this is

something that you heard him say when he

was explaining his business and its

plans to me now the meaning of this

expression it means functioning properly

either after a malfunction where

something breaks or for the first time

and it can also mean newly launched as

of a business or a product so here are

some examples I need to get the machine

back up and running okay functioning

properly second example the printer is

up and running now it means the printer

is worth

and the third example after years of

preparation our design company is

officially up and running okay that’s

talking about business okay this is how

you use the expression back up and

running I understand I was there for

almost 10 years it just creates a great

country to live in it is so what made

you like you know we say entrepreneur

life

what made you even before going to

create what made you decide to live the

entrepreneurial life and you know start

your own media business absolutely

wasn’t my original plan entrepreneurial

life now the meaning is the life of an

individual who organizes and operates a

personal business or businesses we say

entrepreneurial life here are some

examples of people who have lived or are

living the entrepreneurial life so we

have right here Oprah Winfrey she’s an

American media executive talk show host

and more then we have Walt Disney now

Walt Disney is dead but his company his

business is still flourishing and doing

well he was a pioneer of the American

animation industry and finally we have

Steve Jobs he was the co-founder of

Apple incorporated so these three

individuals led an entrepreneurial life

they started their own business okay

before I graduated from university my

plan was to get a job working in media

production at some company and as I’ve

been there getting experience saving

money and then starting my own business

eventually what kind of the opposite

happened I ended up starting my business

before I graduated

so then after I graduated I was kind of

working for myself doing weddings and

special event videos here and there here

and there this means in various places

or in one place and another so

also you can say from time to time or

occasionally so here are some examples

using this expression you can say she

spoke so softly that I only caught a

word here and there meaning I only

caught a word occasionally okay

next our second example there were small

bushes scattered here and there okay so

that means in various places okay and

our third example there were houses

scattered here and there across the

hillside so just like point number two

various places okay here and there it’s

kind of in doing that did that full-time

for a year before what once a career so

like were you getting clients because a

word-of-mouth or were you actually

soliciting and doing marketing to get

clients I was mostly word-of-mouth

because I had a lot of um

classmates um we’re getting married and

so a word-of-mouth

the oldest guy does videos word-of-mouth

okay this is an expression we use very

often in English okay it means given or

done by people talking about something

or telling people about something an

example of how you can use this is

students discovered the class by word of

mouth it means there were some students

who knew about the class and they told

other students which means word of mouth

okay and the other word was soliciting

this means to ask for or try to obtain

something from someone or in other words

to ask someone for something and an

example of this is he called a meeting

to solicit their views on the situation

he wanted to obtain or get their views

so we say soliciting okay

okay and then that’s all I have some

work and it’s led one thing to another

and yeah that was keeping me busy for a

year full-time that’s really nice that’s

really nice

were there any pros and cons like what

were the pros and cons of doing that

work before I would have to say one of

the pros is what you get to be your own

boss and so you can say your own hours

and things like that which can be nice

but then also I you do want to keep

working and try to you know set yourself

have a goal and so yeah if you don’t

reach that goal it can be kind of

stressful because um and if you’re

working at a company then you know you

have to study Perry so when you’re

working for yourself you have to keep it

you know keep it going all right cause

or coz now this is just a shortened form

of the word because so many native

speakers say cuz when they are speaking

to each other during a conversation

basically it is a quick way to say the

word because so you can also use cuz

instead of because when you’re having a

natural conversation okay and the second

one was steady pay now this refers to

income from a job that lasts or

continues for a period of time so a

regular amount of money that comes in on

a regular basis okay so an example of

this is when I was in university I

earned my first steady paycheck as a

waitress it means I was getting income

from being a waitress and it continued

for a period of time a steady paycheck

okay yeah I got you I understand I also

was doing my own thing before I went to

Korea I started doing art full-time and

the pros well do your own thing okay

this means to live act or behave in the

way you want to you don’t pay attention

to convention or the norms or depend on

other people’s opinions it’s what you

want to do okay so here are some

examples of how to use this expression

I’m doing my own thing and that’s

alright okay I’m okay with being

different from other people okay then

Samantha decided to do her own thing

instead of just following the crowd so

the crowd is doing one thing but

Samantha decided to do her own thing and

then finally the third example is he is

doing his own thing overseas okay he’s

doing what he wants to do overseas yeah

it was good I was paintings and artwork

and again the pros were one for myself

but the cons were you weren’t sure when

the paycheck was coming in so but yeah

it was a good experience it was an

experience and now work for myself now -

so is that why when you got back from

Korea decided even though you’re doing

the caretaker right now you decided that

you wanted to go back to it as opposed

to going to nine-to-five uh yeah I just

I miss doing it full-time and whenever I

had a chance I would try to do it even

though I was in Korea I was able to do

some video projects here and there okay

as opposed to this means rather than

instead of or distinguished from or in

contrast with okay so an example of how

to use this is they use fresh fish as

opposed to fish that has been frozen so

I’m comparing two types of fish so we

have the frozen fish that comes maybe in

a box from the store versus fresh fish

that I get from the ocean okay fresh

fish that I’ve got from the ocean

directly and I’m using it in my meals

okay so fresh fish versus frozen fish we

would use as opposed to and the second

one was nine to five see this is used in

reference to typical hours of work in an

office so in America we say 9:00 a.m. to

5:00 p.m. are normal

work hours often to express an idea of

routine or predictability so an example

of this is he decided to quit his

nine-to-five job and become an

entrepreneur this is how you can use

nine-to-five but you know it wasn’t

enough and I enjoyed teaching I still do

I enjoy teaching who miss it a little

bit I do also enjoy doing the video as I

was in Korea over the years I have

always had media in the back of my mind

so whenever I had some extra money I was

always you know investing in equipment

equipment back of my mind okay this

means to be in one’s thoughts but with

little or no conscious or active

consideration or reflection so you’re

still thinking about it but not

consciously okay so here’s an example

even though I am successful there’s

always this worry in the back of my mind

that I’m doing something wrong so this

person is very successful but they still

have a small thought in the back of

their mind that maybe they’re doing

something wrong we say back of my mind

and so you know that I think that’s one

one good thing that I did is able to

invest so that I knew when I came back

eventually I was be starting you know

from Ground Zero you know I didn’t have

equipment before going to Korea and I

even brought some of it with me but you

know everything in media production

technology is always changing so you

have to kind of keep up know what’s

going on well honestly I think your

business is gonna flourish because I

know your work ethic is really good so I

do hope everything works out really well

for you too

being back home oh thank you pretty odd

about that and praying about that yeah

I’m praying about it for you do if you

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