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hi everybody my name is alicia welcome

talk about 10 ways to stop translating

in your head let’s get started

identify objects around you in english

the first way to stop translating in

your head is to identify the objects

around you in your target language so if

you’re studying english that means you

look at the objects around the room look

at the things in your life don’t think

of them in your native language first

think of them in your target language

first so if i look around the room i see

a computer i shouldn’t think my native

language word i should think my target

language word so start with the items

and the situations in your everyday life

if i say computer in english maybe i

should say computa in japanese i should

say not i don’t know water in english i

should say omizu in japanese so

start associating the words in your

target language with your everyday life

now so if you’re studying english that

means start getting familiar with the

things in your everyday life in english

repeat phrases you hear native speakers

use

tip number two is to repeat the phrases

that you hear native speakers use so if

you’re watching this channel for example

or you’re watching a tv show or a movie

listen for the way that native speakers

make those phrases if you hear a phrase

you have never heard before or you hear

an interesting combination of words try

to repeat them yourself don’t just

listen try to say them yourself if

you’re in a public space and it’s

difficult for you to do that fine

practice in a place where you feel more

comfortable maybe if you have some

private space to practice just repeat

them get your mouth used to saying the

words the way that the speakers the

native speakers do so if you never

actually say words if you’re only taking

in if you’re only listening and you’re

not actually producing the language it’s

it’s kind of hard to

to practice and to

um to really hone your pronunciation to

improve your pronunciation so when you

listen to native speakers try to repeat

after them so for example if you’re

studying english you can try to repeat

after this video you can repeat after

the things i’m saying because maybe i’m

using an expression or i’m using a

certain

series of vocabulary words together the

way a native speaker would and it’s

maybe a good idea to try to practice the

ways that native speakers put their

words together so try to repeat after

native speakers especially when you’re

looking at media and you can do this

when you’re reading books too you can

try to read out

read out loud interesting lines of books

that you find or something that maybe is

difficult for you very nice practice tip

make a situation where you can’t escape

into your native language

make a situation where you can’t escape

into your native language essentially

means immerse yourself of course going

to that country or going to a place

where you can speak only that language

is very difficult for some of you

totally understand but if in your life

you can create a situation in your

library in your room in your house

somewhere for just an hour or i don’t

know maybe a day i don’t know what your

schedule is like but if you can create a

situation or create an environment where

you have no choice but to use that

language and you cannot escape meaning

you cannot

go back to using your native language as

a crutch you can’t use the native

language at all it forces you to use the

language that you’re studying so of

course if you are lucky enough to live

in the country or to live in a place

where people speak the language you’re

studying great but you have to go out

and interact with people you have to put

yourself in a place where you have no

choice but to speak it’s very hard and

it’s very scary and it’s very

embarrassing at first but if you take

time to find places and to make

environments that are comfortable for

you where you feel comfortable making

mistakes and asking questions it’s very

valuable for your learning process this

is actually something that i did totally

i totally did this my japanese wasn’t

very good for

a long time but then i started making

friends who could not speak english

actually i just did this through finding

hobbies there was a hobby that i had i

joined a group i joined actually a

school to where i could learn how to do

that hobby and everything was taught

only in japanese and the people in my

class only spoke japanese mostly and

then maybe we would go out for drinks

and food

late at night or on the weekends and

everybody spoke only japanese and if i

couldn’t communicate even simply in

japanese i had no hope of keeping that

friendship together so it forced me to

study it forced me to think about the

words they were using

and to try to learn those words those

patterns as well as how to produce them

naturally myself so i was learning the

vocabulary words the people around me

were using and learning how to apply

them on my own that was only possible

because i had no escape in those

situations so try to do that

even if you can do it yourself in your

house it’s super helpful i think

watch tv and movies in your target

language without subtitles

tip number four is to watch tv and

movies in your target language without

subtitles without subtitles so

i think that watching uh

with subtitles can be very beneficial um

so if i’m watching something or if you

want to watch something with subtitles

on great but i sometimes find that i can

in my case i i think too much about

reading the subtitles and i forget to

listen so maybe if you’ve seen a movie

in your target language a few times

with the subtitles on try turning the

subtitles off and think about the like

characters body language the words

they’re using um you can always look

that up later look up the you know the

words you don’t know in a dictionary but

try to do it where you’re focusing

completely on the way that people are

using their words try not to use the

subtitles so um kind of play around with

it a little bit if there’s a word that’s

difficult for you to hear you can

actually turn on the subtitles in like

the in the native uh language of the

movie as well that’s something that i’ve

done like if uh like if i wanted to

study japanese it’s very useful when the

actual words spoken in japanese appear

on the screen sometimes it’s easier for

me to catch a word if i see it visually

and i hear it at the same time so

another way to kind of um explore how

you can use tv and movies is to actually

turn on the closed captions like the the

um the words on the screen in the native

language of the movie so uh so this is

sort of two points in one so one watch

movies without subtitles meaning

subtitles in your native language and

hint two is to watch movies um with

closed captioning on but the closed

captioning is in your target language

not in your native language so you can

try those two things with tv and with

movies don’t bring a dictionary to your

lesson

tip number five is don’t bring a

dictionary to your lesson okay so

give me a second here so i understand

the dictionaries especially electronic

dictionaries we have them on our phones

now are very very convenient

of course it’s important to use them and

it’s a they’re a great resource to have

however one thing that really bothers me

and

that i think is detrimental it’s not

helpful for students is when

students are in a lesson and they’re

practicing conversation and they reach a

point in the conversation where they

don’t know the word they want to use

they know it in their native language

and they don’t know how to say it in

their target language they pull out

their dictionary they say to this the

person listening to them their practice

partner in their lesson where they have

a limited period of time

just a moment and then they look it up

on their phone it takes a few seconds

the flow of the conversation stops and

then they say a word and it’s like whoa

no that’s not you don’t have that

ability you don’t have the ability to do

that in a conversation with a native

speaker most people like if you go to a

bank and try to open a bank account are

you really gonna pull out your

dictionary and sit there and try to

communicate you know just a moment just

a moment as you look up each word you

don’t know no or if you do that’s not a

real conversation so instead try using a

different strategy by that i mean if you

find a word you don’t know in

conversation explain the word to your

conversation partner maybe they know the

word if you’re speaking with a native

speaker this is a chance for them to

teach you a word i find that when people

take the time to teach me a word i

remember the word much better than just

looking it up on my dictionary so try to

resist maybe you can bring a dictionary

to your lesson but don’t use it or try

not to use it in your conversation

practice it’s just it destroys the flow

of a conversation so instead practice

the skill of describing the vocabulary

word you want to use and learn how to

ask the meaning of a word or learn how

to ask for a vocabulary word from your

partner so you can use an expression

like ah what’s the word that means blah

blah blah or um you know it’s this thing

that does this and this and this so this

is an opportunity for you to describe

characteristics of something or find a

different way you can use your body

language you can use whatever you have a

lot of tools but try not to use a

dictionary in a conversation because

it’s not realistic

train responses to common questions

number six is a quick one i think number

six hint number six i have is just to

train responses to common questions

train responses to common questions so

for example a very common question in

english is hey how are you

you should know how to answer this

question just have a default response

hey how are you i’m good

if it takes you

a long time to answer the question hey

how are you

you need to practice i think that’s a

pretty good uh

a pretty good indicator so for example

sometimes i ask students a question like

that they they haven’t quite

gotten the idea of how to respond just

yet they they’re not so quick at

responding i say uh hey how are you and

they say yes

and then they think and they go i’m uh

i’m good and it’s like that’s a very

common question so think about just a

default response that you can spit out

that you can quickly say if it’s how was

your weekend or hey what’s up or what do

you want to do for dinner tonight think

about like just a handful meaning just a

few responses to those questions and

train them quickly just how are you i’m

good how are you i’m okay how are you

not bad there’s three so

it’s just training responses to those

questions there’s no reason to be

surprised by a question like how are you

like that’s a very common question so

for those common questions train

responses to that we’ve got a bunch of

videos especially beginner level videos

for some example responses you can do so

don’t get stuck with these little

questions just train a few responses

practice a few responses till they feel

natural to you it’ll save you time and

it’ll help the person asking the

question too to move forward in the

conversation yay

study with materials that don’t provide

a translation

the next tip is to study with materials

that don’t provide a translation so by

this i mean if you’re using worksheets

and or some kind of textbook or whatever

and it has

your target language the language you’re

studying and it has your native language

next to it while this can be useful i

feel that if you can studying your

materials only in your target language

and then simplified explanations for

more detailed points

also in your target language can be a

little bit better so i don’t want to say

like you should only study things in

your target language and nothing from

your native language because of course

like it can be helpful sometimes to look

up a word or to understand a grammar

point in your native language but where

possible if you can find something that

provides simplified explanations in your

target language it can be really really

helpful because again you’re thinking

you’re learning to think on like a

simpler on a more basic level about the

language you’re studying in the language

that you’re studying so this can be

really really good so finding some

materials to use where there’s no

translation maybe you can practice

of course with with books and with

written materials but also with like

video materials as well so there are a

variety of different ways that you can

find materials in your target language

um like in video and tv so some things

to think about there are the level of

vocabulary words people are using in the

media content you’re watching

who the media content is intended for

children young adults adults

the speed at which the speaker is

talking so like i have the ability to

change the level of difficulty of

videos based on the rate of speech the

vocabulary words that i use and how many

like idioms and things i use so i could

make a video very difficult we could

make a very like a very difficult video

series by leveling up our vocabulary use

or by speaking very quickly or as you

might see in like our english and three

minutes series

we can also use very simple vocabulary

and speak at a low rate of speech so

maybe right now this is a very

intermediate level video so please think

about that so not just for written

materials but also for your audio and

visual materials think about

who your audience is the level of the

material and so on it can be really fun

and it can be helpful to think about

your your target language in your target

language all right we’re almost done

study phrases in addition to single

vocabulary

the next tip is study phrases in

addition to single vocabulary words so

yes of course vocabulary is important

but i find it personally very very

useful to look at how a vocabulary word

is used in a phrase because sometimes

using it in a phrase helps you

understand the nuance of that vocabulary

word really really well so if i like a

word like crazy for example in english

depending on the situation where the

word crazy is used it could mean

something different it could mean like a

person who is mentally confused or mixed

up it could also mean something really

good it could mean something really bad

so if we look only at the word crazy

it’s quite difficult to understand

really the meaning of the word but if

you look at the way the word is used in

a phrase you can get a lot more

information so take a look at the way

people use words in phrases not just as

single vocabulary words you can learn a

lot more that way i think

do your daily activities in english

where possible

the next tip is to do your daily

activities in your target language so if

you’re studying english that means try

to do some daily activities in english

if possible so this can be very very

boring stuff but just think about it

when you’re doing the activity so like

right now i’m filming a video for

englishclass101.com or i’m going to work

i’m cooking breakfast i’m doing the

laundry what do i have to do tomorrow so

try thinking about your everyday life in

english if you’re studying english

try thinking about your everyday

activities the people that you meet what

are you doing so this is a way to help

you practice your verbs so if you don’t

know if you’re i don’t know you’re doing

something at work and you’re like oh my

gosh how do i explain the what’s the

verb for you know

a picture like i want to blah blah a

picture what’s the word you can check a

dictionary at that point and go ah it’s

draw i i need to use the verb draw for

draw a picture so you can find these

little gaps in your everyday life these

little gaps in your knowledge if you

think about your everyday activities in

your target language if you don’t think

about it in your target language you

might not realize you have vocabulary

gaps or phrase gaps here and there so

this is a really good and kind of funny

actually way to study

use a learner’s dictionary for new words

the last tip is to use a learner’s

dictionary for new words so in english

there are learners dictionaries

available in english so my favorite my

personal favorite is merriam-webster

merriam-webster is a fantastic

dictionary resource they’re so

interesting and they have tons of like

historical information i really do just

sit and like read things on the

dictionary page lately it’s true but um

of course there’s a definition there’s a

meaning for words there are example

sentences for words but merriam-webster

also has what’s called a learner’s

dictionary if you find a word that you

don’t recognize you can check it

in a dictionary in a learner’s

dictionary and it gives you a simplified

a simple explanation in simple english

of that word so instead of checking it

in your native language you can check it

in your target language so again this

helps you to understand the word um that

you are that you’re focused on but you

understand it from

the language you’re studying not from

your native language so using a

learner’s dictionary can be really

really useful as well

all right so those are 10 tips those are

10 tips to help you stop translating in

your head i know it’s very difficult but

it’s it takes time and it takes practice

and i hope that these are a few

strategies that can help you as you

study

any language of course this is an

english language channel an english

language learning channel but i think

these tips are pretty good for learning

just about any language really so i hope

those are useful for you if you have

tried these strategies or if you have

any other comments or other tips please

let us know in the comment section below

this video if you liked this video

please make sure to hit the thumbs up

share this video and subscribe to our

channel too check us out at

englishclass101.com for more good stuff

as well thanks very much for watching

this episode of top words and i will see

you again soon bye

hi everyone i’m bridget and welcome to

today’s lesson today’s topic is

10 ways to say hello in english

good morning

good morning is the first thing you say

to someone when you see them in the

morning good morning sir would you like

a cup of coffee good morning could i

please get some orange juice good

morning i’m still tired from the night

before

hello

hello is the most common greeting you’ll

hear that and hi

hello is a polite nice way to greet

someone when you see them hello

everyone says it you cannot go wrong

saying hello hello can be used at any

time of the day no matter whether it’s

morning or at night

or at 4 00 am

when you see someone you can say hello

and it will still be appropriate

long time no c

it’s not necessarily grammatically

correct but it’s a saying that we have

hey long time no see

what it means is that you haven’t seen

that person in a long time so it

literally means long time no see

long time no see is something you say to

someone when you haven’t seen them in a

while

hey john long time no see how are the

wife and kids

how have you been

hey how have you been i haven’t seen you

in a long time

how have you been is asking someone how

they’re doing and how they’ve been for

the past

however long if you haven’t seen them in

a while

you might say

hey long time no see how have you been

how have you been that’s past tense it

implies that you haven’t seen them in a

while and you want to hear about how

they are and how they’ve been for all of

that time that you haven’t seen them hey

long time no see how have you been how

are you

how are you

means how are you doing how are you

feeling how is everything

it’s a standard thing that you might say

to anyone even if you’ve seen them the

day before you might see them today and

say hey how are you

how’s it going

hey how’s it going

how is it going is a more informal way

to say how are you

so how are you and how’s it going they

mean the same thing

it’s asking

how you are doing how you are feeling is

everything okay with you

what’s up

what’s up is another way of saying

hey how’s it going but this one is even

more informal so you might say this to

friends hey what’s up

and they’ll say nothing

just

living my life you know day in and day

out

hey what’s up

good afternoon

how are you would you like some lunch

good afternoon is a polite way to greet

someone in the afternoon

so if you run into your boss

you might say good afternoon it’s very

nice it’s polite not a lot of people say

it to their friends

but it’s it’s a polite way to greet

someone

good evening

good evening is a nice way to greet

someone in the evening time you can only

use this phrase in the evening because

it’s wishing someone a good evening it’s

saying hello at a certain time of day

good evening

would you like some dinner

good evening have you eaten yet

all of my examples involve food it seems

it’s nice to meet you

this is something that’s very common to

say the first time that you meet someone

you might shake their hand and say hi

it’s nice to meet you my name is bridget

my name is

it’s telling that person that you are

happy to be meeting them it’s a pleasure

to meet them hi it’s nice to meet you

that brings us to the end of this lesson

10 ways to say hello if you guys liked

the video please don’t forget to give us

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if you have any questions or comments

leave them below and don’t forget to go

to englishclass101.com

for more english

okay everybody shift information has

been posted for the month it looks like

we’ll visit 25 cities in 30 days

do we normally visit 25 different cities

in one month

yes sometimes we visit even more

where’s our first stop

charlotte

hey i have friends in charlotte it would

be nice to see them

good evening in room dining this is alex

how may i be of service

hello i would like to order some food

of course ma’am just to confirm this is

mrs rossen in room 417

yes it is

excellent may i take your order

yes i would like a turkey sandwich on a

parmesan bagel

and what to drink

a diet coke

will there be anything else

yes i would also like a wake-up call for

seven

my major is education how about you

i’m an english major

cool

i like english

oh and what’s oksana’s major she’s also

an english major

that’s nice

you can help each other study

yep in fact i need to meet her now so we

can study together

okay it was nice talking with you

you too see you later

see ya

good evening ma’am may i have your first

and last names

melissa west

thank you ma’am i have found your

reservation here’s the registration

information does everything look correct

to you

yes it seems to be correct

excellent now i will just need a photo

id for legal purposes

will my passport do that would be just

fine ma’am checkout is between noon and

two o’clock you may request an extension

of up to five hours free of charge

what if i need more time

then a late charge of five percent will

be added to your bill

hey vicky did you forget our study date

at 10 this morning

i’m sorry naomi at 10 i was talking with

my professor and couldn’t get away i’m

sorry i should have called

that’s okay so how did the meeting go

with the professor

it went fine he gave me an extension on

my paper and i can still take the

midterm how was your study group

yesterday

well we were studying together during

lunch when i noticed an old friend of

mine from high school in the same cafe

my concentration quickly switched from

class to catching up with my friend so i

didn’t get much done

you’ve taken that class before right

yeah last semester

i was always asking questions in that

class because it was so difficult

well

i was hoping that you could rent me a

hand with my paper i can’t think of

anything else to write

sure no problem

that is if you can help me study for our

history test

sounds like a deal

want to speak real english from your

first lesson sign up for your free

lifetime account at englishclass101.com

hi everyone i’m christine from

englishclass101.com

in this video we’ll be talking about how

to curse like an english native speaker

piss a slang term for urine for example

don’t piss your pants

you can say this when

you’re really scared or anxious

for example if you’re about to go on

stage to make a speech or perform

someone can say

don’t piss your pants you can do it

pissed off

to be really angry

when i’m angry i can say hey i’m really

pissed off at you right now why did you

do that for

loser used to describe an uncool person

in high school my friends and i would

use this a lot

and we would say

hey loser how’s it going

idiot used to insult people by saying

they’re not intelligent

of all the mean things that you can say

this is on the lighter side but people

still use it

shoot

this is used to show disappointment or

frustration without using a stronger

curse word

shoot i spilled my coffee

shut up

you can use this when you want them to

be quiet or

there’s something surprising that you

just heard you can say

shut up no way

ticked off to be really angry you can

say this

with pissed off

so this is actually an older term not

many people use this

as much anymore because most people

actually just use pissed off

fool this is similar to saying someone

is like a clown you can say

you’re acting like a fool right now

jerk this is a light insult used to

describe someone who is mean

for example

if there’s someone bullying another

person that person is being a jerk

wimp this means someone who isn’t strong

there is a movie out right now

called diary of a wimpy kid have you

seen it have you not i haven’t yet

so how was it if you have any more

questions please leave a comment below

see you next time

hey everyone i’m paris from

englishclass101.com

in this video we’re talking about how to

ask and give directions

let’s start to the left to the left

the first phrase is where is the

where is the for example you can ask

where is the bank this can be used to

ask for a general location or detailed

directions

don’t be surprised if you only receive

basic information for example next to

the grocery store

the next phrase is

i need to go to the

for example you can say i need to go to

the police station

the word need is used but this is used

for non-emergencies as well

how do i get to the

how do i get to the for example you can

say how do i get to the museum

this question can be used to ask for

step-by-step directions instead of a

general location is the

near here

is the

near here for example you can say is the

library near here if you’re unfamiliar

with an area you can ask to get this

information about a specific place where

you want to go

is the bathroom near here

excuse me do you know where the is

excuse me do you know where the

for example you can say excuse me do you

know where the park is only youth excuse

me when you’re starting a conversation

with a stranger another common phrase is

is the far from here

is the

far from here for example you can say is

the post office for from here

this is an indirect way to ask for

directions people will tell you how far

the place is and probably tell you the

best way to get there walking taking a

bus driving uber

now let’s take a look at expressions to

give directions

turn left

turn

left for example you can say turn left

after two blocks this gives you

information about how far you should go

before you make any changes in this case

you should go left to the left to the

left

turn right

turn right for example

you can say turn right at the third

traffic light this also gives you

information about how far you should go

before taking another action

in this case you should go right

go straight

go straight this simply tells you to go

in one direction it also implies that if

you keep going straight that you will

eventually find what you’re looking for

go past

for example you can say go past the

church

a landmark is just an easily noticeable

place for example a movie theater

restaurant

at the corner of at the corner of

for example you can say it’s at the

corner of

this means that a place is located at

the corner where two streets meet

in front of in front of

for example you can say the bus station

is in front of the supermarket

we use front to refer to the main

entrance of a building it can also mean

visible from the front and doesn’t

necessarily mean it’s directly in front

of something

behind

behind for example

you can say the parking lot is behind

the movie theater we use behind to say

that something is at the rear of a

building the front of a building is its

main entrance so which side it’s facing

the street is really not important

next two

next two for example you can say the

restaurant is next to the park this is

an example of using a non-specific

location to give general directions

next two can be anywhere beside in front

of or around a place

mcdonald’s is next to my house

between

for example you can say the store is

between the coffee shop and the pet

store between is used with two other

places when using between the main place

will always be in the middle of the two

other places

okay that’s all for this lesson which

phrase do you like the most leave us a

comment and let us know and i’ll see you

next time guys bye

hey guys i’m paris from

englishclass101.com

in this video we’ll be talking about

making complaints in english so let’s

get started

the first complaint is i’m starving

i’m starving

this is an exaggeration you can use when

you’re hungry i am always starving even

right now

the next complaint is it’s noisy it’s

noisy

this kind of complaint is one that you

would make to a friend telling the staff

of a restaurant won’t help since they

can’t tell people to be quiet i hate

when it’s noisy in restaurants save that

for another time

then we have it’s hot

it’s hot this can be used to talk about

the weather or the temperature of a room

you can add a request like can you turn

on the air conditioner i am never hot so

i like that

the next complaint is it’s cold

it’s

cold this can be used to talk about the

weather or the temperature of a room you

can add a request like can you turn on

the heater

i always make this request because it’s

always too cold everywhere everywhere

it’s too expensive

even if you have enough money to buy

something it may be more money than you

want to spend it would probably be

considered rude to say this to someone

who works at a store but i always think

okay i’m in gucci it’s way too expensive

another common complaint is i’m tired

i’m tired

use this complaint to imply that you

want to sit down relax go home take a

break when i babysit my five-year-old

cousin i leave thinking i’m tired

the next complaint is

i gained weight i gained weight

this is a self-criticism that implies

that you want to lose weight many people

say i got so fat

i’m always broke

i’m always broke use this to complain

about never having enough money i am

always broke because i always want more

money

the next complaint is my job is boring

my job is boring this is a really common

complaint used by people who don’t think

their jobs are very exciting usually it

means that you want to find a different

more fun job it’s all right teachers

your job isn’t boring

that person stinks

that person stinks you can use stings to

talk about a literal physical smell or a

general insult meaning that you don’t

like how someone smells i hate when

people smell on the bus

not good not okay

the next complaint is there’s too much

traffic

there’s too

much traffic

this is a common complaint among people

who commute to work by car

certain roads are especially bad during

rush hour which is the time in the

morning or night most people are going

home or to work if i left at it was 7

p.m i would be here in 10 minutes but

because it’s daytime in la it took me 30

minutes to get here and i drive really

really fast

and it still took me 30 minutes the next

complaint is the wi-fi here is too slow

the wi-fi here is too slow

this is just a general complaint you may

have about the internet speed if you’re

at a cafe or somewhere with wi-fi you

can request that they reset their wi-fi

to improve the speed if you’re having a

party and you’re having friends over and

your wi-fi is too slow you might as well

end that party now

no wi-fi no party

my boss is annoying

annoying can be used to mean that

someone does things that you don’t like

or they ask you to do things that you

don’t like

either way an annoying boss is a bad

experience i am very familiar with this

hey paris grab me coffee hey paris check

my emails my boss is annoying but don’t

tell him i said that

the pay is too low

the pay is too

low

you can use this to complain about how

much you make or to reject a job offer

because it doesn’t pay enough i’m a

surgeon the pay is too low

i don’t like it

this is a very general complaint that

can be used for almost anything what do

i like

[Laughter]

posting a thousand selfies on instagram

i don’t like it

um okay that’s it for this lesson which

complaint do you like more leave us a

comment and let me know and we’ll see

you next time

bye

you just got a text message from your

hotel’s pickup service

what does the first number refer to

foreign

what does the first number refer to

the number in the text message refers to

the customer code

you are at a train station where you’ve

just bought an express ticket

which train car row and seat number are

you in

which train car row and seat number are

you in

the ticket says that you’re in train car

number one in the eighth row in seat c

you are at a train station where you’re

attempting to buy an express ticket from

a ticket machine

which option should you choose to buy an

express ticket

which option should you choose to buy an

express ticket

the option on the bottom left is for an

express ticket

you are on a platform at a train station

where you’re waiting for your train

suddenly a message appears on the

display what does the message on the

display mean

what does the message on the display

mean

the display reads the next train will

not stop

you are at a train station where you’re

reading the train schedule for an

express ticket that you’ve just bought

on which days are there no express

trains running

on which days are there no express

trains running

there are no express trains running on

public holidays and the third sunday of

every month

want to speak real english from your

first lesson sign up for your free

lifetime account at englishclass101.com

you are on a platform at a train station

where you’re waiting for your train

suddenly a message appears on the

display what does the message on the

display mean

what does the message on the display

mean

the display reads the next train will

not stop

you are at a train station where you’re

looking for the best exit to catch a

taxi

which exit should you take to get to the

taxi stop

which exit should you take to get to the

taxi stop

you should take the east exit in order

to get to the taxi stop

hi everybody my name is alicia and today

i am joined again in the studio by

michael hello

and today we’re going to be talking

about things that were cool in the 90s

so things that were interesting or

things that maybe we were interested in

in the 90s i’m guessing that we’re going

to have some very different opinions

based on our experiences of the 90s so

let’s get right into it michael your

first item please um

okay

boy bands

so i remember boy bands were very very

popular when i was a kid in the 90s

i had three older brothers who would

punch me and tell me boy bands are for

girls don’t like boy bands so that was

my experience with them and they became

kind of uncool i feel like after the 90s

and then they never were uncool in like

korea and like a lot of asian countries

they still had like a strong boy band

kind of uh

scene or whatever

bands now is that really what they’re

called no i don’t know i just mean i

think i feel like boy there are boy

bands

that are now becoming boys to men maybe

this

i mean now they came

now it came back like what is the

what’s the british one now it’s kind of

cool again oh one direction one

direction yeah so i think it’s come back

it’s full circle didn’t they just break

i’m gonna go with something that i loved

in the 90s this is probably way too

specific

probably but it’s this show called doug

that was on nickelodeon and there

weren’t a whole lot of episodes of doug

it was i don’t know like 20 or 30 i feel

like not even that many did you ever see

this show yeah that’s very nostalgic for

me i don’t 20 30 episodes i feel i feel

like i had i’d seen them all so i i i

know that i saw them all because it

would come back it would come on one day

after school and i’d be like i’ve seen

this episode but the whole the whole

idea with doug is doug was like this

just this

plain

kid and he had an older sister he went

to school he had a dog get a best friend

and he would just encounter these

everyday life scenarios that would be

kind of troubling or he wouldn’t know

how to deal with them but like he was

kind of a role model i feel like he was

kind of being like a good kid um or

sometimes he would get into trouble but

then you know

eventually he would solve the problem or

he’d find a way out of it so but i

really loved that show i really loved

nickelodeon in general um during the 90s

and yeah did you watch that channel yeah

of course i loved nickelodeon um i think

it was more like fox stuff like that but

i guess i’ll segue into another one of

mine you’re talking about wholesome so

something that’s my childhood i was

raised on tv was sitcoms yeah so i think

this has kind of died down again like

the boy bands where it people think it’s

cheesy now it’s all reality tv shows

that kind of stuff but that’s that is my

childhood right there is you know full

house and these kinds of shows step by

step where there’s a moral at the end of

the story and so everyone there’s always

kind of like the the protagonist is

always like maybe he’s unsure but by the

end they know the right thing to do and

they play like the violin kind of sad

not quite sad but like

heartwarming music and then they’re like

well and then they give a speech and as

a kid you know you don’t really like

think about it but that gets into your

man deep because of full house if you

lie

i’ve learned this it’s deep in my

subconscious if you lie

and then you keep lying it snowballs and

it gets worse and worse and worse so

it’s best to just right away tell the

truth that was a

really common theme in most sitcoms i

think that like they’re just trying to

teach kids don’t lie it’s bad yeah

you’re right you’re right sitcoms are

huge and by the way sitcoms um is um

is a

portmanteau portmanteau meaning two

words put together of situation and

comedy so situation and comedy equals

sitcom in this case okay nice nice um

i’m gonna go to my next one

um let’s see i think probably every

little girl in the 90s in america anyway

knew what this was i don’t know if you

knew um it’s this brand called lisa

frank um lisa frank are you aware of

lisa frank are you aware lisa frank no

okay she knows she knows lisa frank is

so lisa frank

is um just bright it was always like

brightly colored school supplies uh like

pinks and purples and blues and it would

always have unicorns and dolphins and

mystical creatures it was just bright

and

everybody all the girls loved it i loved

it i had lisa frank

just

whatever i could get my hands on it’d be

pencils or erasers or just pinks and

rainbows and hearts and stuff like that

so i think every every girl who grew up

in the 90s knows what lisa frank is ah

okay so talking about style and whatnot

grunge grunge is something that i

that hits close to home for me and i

think that came out of the 90s

i mean everybody knows around the world

i think most people know nirvana yeah

kurt cobain yeah and this is something

that i guess was

brought to the world from seattle and it

was a music genre and it was kind of

it’s like rock but sometimes slower

almost emo kind of like sad usually

undertones but anyways the style that

came with it was the opposite of like

the 80s and early 90s of really bright

colors you know it was the opposite you

just wear holy jeans you don’t really

shower that much you don’t shave and

like plaid and just really like

dreary colors so that was really popular

at least i remember in like the early

90s like mid 90s yeah

and it’s as soon as i saw that card

grunge i was like oh nirvana that’s the

first thing that comes to mind when i

hear about when i hear a grunge

i didn’t get into the grunge scene

though i was i was busy with boy bands

but like

grunge for me was never really i was

aware i was aware of nirvana but i did

not

i was not of the nirvana

pod okay i’m going to go to a style

point then too because you’ve read up a

style point i’ll put up bring up maybe

um a female style point scrunchies uh

still popular perhaps among some people

what is a scrunchie a scrunchie let’s

see i don’t have um so there’s regular

rubber bands that you can use to tie

back long hair

he’s making an o shape with his hands

yes this is very descriptive very

descriptive michael thank you so much no

i’m the prop and then you go like this

there’s like the i bet i bet there’s an

awesome video team somewhere in the

somewhere that can put like a scrunchie

like right here

anyway

yeah a scrunchie is just it’s just a a

piece of elastic with some kind of

colorful cloth wrapped around it and it

but when not in use it would go

and it would scrunch i think i think

this is why we call it a scrunchie

but then when you pull that you could

expand it a bit and wrap your hair up in

it and then when you’re finished doing

that it would kind of close around it

i had a couple

nintendo

anything any game related stuff i

remember game boys anything handheld

except when i was a kid it it wasn’t

like this fancy 3d

high you know

highly like vibrant colors it was like

black and white and like you’d play it

in the car and you had to squint and it

hurts your head you know if you’re

playing too much you’re getting like

carsick and you’re like you can barely

see mario are you talking about game boy

game boy or any like there was handheld

too there was like atari and stuff like

that and like sega sega was pretty good

that would light up i was thinking about

nes when you said nintendo i imagined my

nes the one that like when it wasn’t

working correctly you could just pull

the cassette out and

put it back in so you put the cartridge

in here right

and sometimes if it was really stubborn

and it didn’t work you would blow into

this part

and you try and it really doesn’t make a

difference but you would take turns like

me and my brothers would be like no you

want to be the one to get it to work so

you take turns like no no let me let me

let me

and just by luck it would work and

you’re like cc yeah

no this is super nostalgic i love

nintendo i have a game too

pogs

do you have pogs

okay pogs are either are simultaneously

the most brilliant game and the

stupidest game ever invented they’re

just discs of cardboard about this size

and on one side there’s

a picture

and on the other side there’s just

nothing and then you had a thing called

a slammer which was essentially just a

heavy pog

that you would use and you had to flip

you had to use the slammer to flip

those

plain cardboard ones what i don’t even

know it was that stupid and forgettable

of a game but it was like crazy when i

was about i don’t know like second or

third grade or something everybody had

pogs like we had pog gym days at my

school i remember that excuse me america

we’re really obese let’s go into the gym

and sit there and smash cardboard

pogs and like i was telling i was

telling her before we started this like

one day like my mom wanted me to get a

haircut and i was just being stubborn

and i wasn’t having it i was in the mall

i was like i want to get a haircut she’s

like i’ll buy you pogs

and she did

it was like this giant tube of pogs and

i was just so thrilled and i agreed to

get my hair cut

well

that was a lot of things that was that

were

exciting and or popular and or we were

into in the 90s what were you into in

the 90s what was popular in your country

i really have no idea what was popular

around the world

at that time maybe some of these things

are similar please let us know in the

comments i’m very interested to find out

we read these by the way um any thoughts

any other any closing thoughts about the

90s

you’re not going to sing a song for us

oh that’s copyright we can’t do that

just like blur that all out no that was

that was very accurate so i’m sure we

can use that

very accurate i mean totally wrong

clearly we’re very good at talking about

the 90s okay but uh we hope that you are

too we hope that you learned something

exciting about the 90s um

that’s all for us today thanks very much

for watching and we will see you again

soon bye

hi everybody my name is alicia and i’m

joined again in the studio by michael

hello and today we’re going to be

talking about english conversation

strategies so let’s get right into it

let’s start with michael what is your

first strategy for keeping an english

conversation going this is very

important

don’t say i’m fine thank you and you

you hear this all the time from second

language english learners or non-native

speakers

you learn this it’s one of the first

things you learn in an english class

it’s easy it’s good it’s basic it’s

foundation okay that’s fine but as soon

as you can switch it up because to me

when i meet a foreigner and they come up

and if they say hey how are you say oh

i’m fine you know i’m good whatever how

about you and they say i’m fine thank

you and you and it’s just it’s almost

robotic because i’ve said it so many

times and when i hear that i think ah

their english isn’t that good and inside

i’m just gonna be really polite and say

hello and talk slowly and try to get out

of there as quick as i can so really

impress the foreigner in my opinion i

think the best way to do it is say

something you know

use a big word or just like a slang word

something like that when i hear that i

go wow man i want to know what this

person thinks i want to get their point

of view and i’m really excited and then

i’ve had great conversations because of

that um yeah

that’s a really really good one and

actually i think on this youtube channel

actually from a couple years ago there’s

a video

all about

better answers to the question how are

you then i’m fine thank you and you or

if someone says hey how are you i’m good

you

are

fine you

never i’m fine thank you and you never

but try to actually use you know

a phrase that a native speaker would use

and then that’s a clue to the native

speaker that oh maybe this person is

ready for a conversation beyond you know

basic english so that’s a really good

point i like that i didn’t think of

things not to do i only thought of

things to do

so okay cool

um let’s see let’s go to my first one um

so um this strategy in general is just

ask the other person a question

i think and i’m guilty of this too when

i’m learning another language i tend to

only get input like somebody else is

always asking me the questions and then

i forget myself to ask the other person

a question so one question that i like

to ask or you know a variation any kind

of wh question is good like a who

question what where um something like

this if you’ve been paying attention you

can use any way to transition in your

conversation this was in a previous

video you can ask something like anyway

up to anything fun this weekend this is

a pretty casual conversational question

that you can ask just about anybody

whether you’ve just met them or whether

you’ve known them for a while but just

just get in the habit of asking other

people the question don’t wait for

someone else to ask you the question um

so that that’s one strategy that i try

to use to keep things going yeah me too

i agree and i’m going to say same-sies

because actually two of my questions

were exactly what you said agree 100

this is kind of cheating these should be

one but

so always ask questions

so you know again you forget it’s really

easy i’m really guilty of this

english non-english whatever i’m i’m

guilty of this um and the other thing is

ask deep open-ended questions so if you

ask a yes or no question so again like

alicia was saying

it just dead ends you can’t just say you

know do you like cheese yes or no right

so you want to say what do you think

about cheese what is your favorite kind

and kind of open it up to something else

and let it let it just kind of snowball

right

right yeah i think i think that that’s

that’s really a key like i have another

variation on it which i guess i’ll just

continue on to because it kind of

relates to what you’re talking about

like he’s saying always ask questions

always ask deep open-ended questions so

like you may you just said don’t ask a

yes or no question because yes or no

ends with the yes or the no so one of

the things that i’ll do is use a pattern

similar to this like hey did you see or

hey did you hear about blah blah blah so

you can use this little blah blah blah

as your you can ask about the news

you can ask about something funny you

saw on the internet you can ask about um

you know some something that you heard

from another friend of yours whatever

it’s just a way to check in with the

other person and say oh did you also

experience this thing that i experienced

let’s talk about that so that might be

another question that you can use with

people i like that one i really like

that one because

you got to stay within people’s comfort

zone so maybe you ask and maybe they

don’t want to right so a good thing is

did you hear about it that’s up to them

maybe they don’t want to talk about it

they can say oh yeah i heard about that

and you can kind of feel uh the the

atmosphere and and realize that maybe i

shouldn’t talk about this change the

subject or they get passionate and they

start talking about it and there you go

and just let it go

yeah absolutely one thing again i’m

guilty of is is you do gotta keep keep

returning it right don’t let it don’t

just say oh yeah and what i think about

that

bring it back ask them what about you um

that’s a common thing i forget about

yeah yeah yeah okay

um good i have one more this one um use

when you see fit don’t i guess

just

okay i’ll just introduce it compliment

the other person or compliment the other

person this can be a nice strategy just

to show that you’re enjoying the other

person’s company um it can be as simple

as oh i like your shirt today or oh

that’s a nice dress you’re wearing today

or oh did you get a new haircut that

looks good on you something like that so

this is a nice a nice way to make the

other person maybe want to spend more

time with you i think yeah i agree 100

um two things

one i think it’s a good conversation

starter sometimes um if

you’ve got to be careful with a stranger

it can be creepy it can be a little

uncomfortable what you’re complimenting

right but if it’s something like if they

have a t-shirt and it’s a band that you

both like that’s a great conversation

starter and you feel wow we’re connected

you know um number two

the second thing i was thinking about is

that

keep it honest i love i love a sincere

compliment it really means a lot more

and it really does butter them up kind

of get them open to having more

conversations deeper that kind of thing

um but one of the things people do which

which i don’t like is let’s say they say

hey nice shirt and then the person out

of habit will say oh you too i like your

shirt

too just my opinion i don’t think this

feels really natural doesn’t really feel

sincere so i would i would save it make

a mental note and go hmm

i need to return the favor i need to

give them a compliment but wait until

you notice something you really do like

and say hey actually i love blah blah

yeah i think that’s a great point like

when you you can sense whether someone

is being sincere or not what is your

next strategy for continuing english

conversation

well

don’t be afraid to open up i like this

one i think this is good a lot of people

will be kind of shy they won’t open up

too much again within within your

comfort zone but i like this one

because people will return the favor

because if you’re just having small talk

and you say you know the weather’s nice

today blah blah

you can only go so far so don’t be

afraid to say something personal again

trust your judgment don’t be a creeper

don’t go we don’t want to hear certain

things about your life don’t don’t be a

creep

don’t be a creep don’t be weird don’t be

strange and like what you’re saying

about opening up open up is just a

phrase that means share something about

yourself um so it can be as simple as

what you did last weekend or what you’re

going to do this weekend or a project

that you have coming up it doesn’t mean

that you have to spill all of your life

secrets to the other person but just

showing that you’re willing to share

something more personal about yourself

can help ingratiate yourself or can help

you know

make the other person help the other

person understand you a little bit

better

that’s a good tip i like that tip that’s

hard to do though it’s hard it’s a

little bit scary i think to share parts

of yourself but it’s good it’s a good

way to meet people and make friends all

right i think that’s all is that all

that you have yeah that’s all i got okay

all right well those are some

interesting uh strategies to keep an

english conversation going so give them

a try if you’re ever at a loss for words

and don’t know what to say you can try

one of these strategies and hopefully it

will help you out

please let us know if you have any other

strategies or anything else that you

would like to use or you try to use when

you are having trouble keeping a

conversation going uh leave us a comment

and let us know what it is we will see

you again next time do you have anything

else you’d like to add that’s about it

all right so thanks very much for

joining us and take care bye bye

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