How to Improve Your Self Confidence to Speak English with Someone

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them maybe first

question comes from Carlos hi Carlos

Carlos says when should we use hear or

listen ok here is used to mean just that

sound can reach our ears some sound

comes from outside to our ears so some

example sentences I can’t hear you can

you hear me now what can you hear I can

hear you from across the house can you

hear screaming

so then listen is used to mean focusing

your attention on a sound like you’re

really really trying to focus on

something I like listening to music or

you should listen to your teacher or are

you listening to me why don’t you listen

to something peaceful instead of your

hard rock music that’s what my parents

used to say to me that is a true story

so we use listen to mean focusing our

attention on a sound here just means

something can reach our ears I hope that

that helps you thanks for the question

alright let’s move to your next question

next question comes from Giuliano Salas

hi Giuliano Julianna says hi Alicia how

do I get confidence to speak English

with someone um well practice really so

you have to practice and that means you

have to start slowly of course so that

means you can find a language partner to

practice with maybe in your class or in

your town or maybe online if you can’t

find someone to practice with you can

try using media to practice your

speaking if you need to practice

speaking with someone and you can’t find

anyone in your community I would

recommend looking for someone online

that you can practice with and then

slowly keep leveling up your practice

partner and by that I mean try to always

work to the next stage of someone who

can understand you so peep

who are studying other languages or who

have studied other languages maybe

understand that you don’t speak

perfectly the way that they don’t speak

perfectly and so they’re gonna be more

understanding if you’re trying to speak

with someone who’s not used to speaking

to people who are studying it’s gonna be

more difficult for you and it’s gonna be

more difficult for them they’re not

going to be as patient because they

don’t understand what it’s like to try

to learn a new language so very slowly

you need to kind of find the right

people to try to practice with and also

don’t consider everyone just there to

practice with to like just try to make

friends like when you’re able to have a

bit of a conversation just work on

making friends with people and then you

can naturally have conversations and you

can pick up new words and when you don’t

know something you just ask your friend

oh how do I say this

in this language so I would say start

slowly language partner online or in

person and then very slowly just keep

leveling up you’re the kind of people

that you talk to that’s what I do

actually that’s really what I do and

what I did so I hope that that helps you

thanks very much for the question okay

let’s move on to your next question okay

next question comes from Sophie hi

Sophie

Sophie says hi what are the best books

for English learning the best books for

English learning are the books that

interest you and that are at your level

there’s no one best book for studying

English so if you can find a book about

something that you’re interested in and

it’s not too difficult for you you can

use that for your studies so the rule

that I follow I don’t know if this is a

perfect rule but the rule that I follow

when I’m choosing a book is that I feel

I should be able to understand about

seventy percent to maybe eighty percent

of the book without using a dictionary

so I should be able to look at it and

see I don’t know this word or maybe I

don’t know this grammar point here and

there on the pages if it’s too difficult

to read if I can understand like five

percent or twenty percent I don’t choose

that book because it’s going to be too

difficult and it will like demotivate me

so I don’t choose that I also choose

books that are related to a topic

I want to learn more about so I don’t

choose books that are only about

language study I choose a book in my

target language so this is true like I

choose a book about like design for

example that’s in Japanese I want to

know about that topic and I want to

practice studying Japanese so I find the

right book for my level and I studied

like two topics at the same time in that

way so that’s my favorite strategy to

use I think it’s really important for

you to find something that you’re

interested in and that’s it the best

level for you so try to find something

that matches your level so if you’re a

beginner that’s okay too

you can start with children’s books

actually and then when you become

comfortable with children’s books you

can move up to young adults books and

from there finding other things also

don’t limit yourself to just books maybe

you find a blog or a website or magazine

that’s perfect for you just as long as

you’re interested in that topic and

you’re reading it regularly that’s I

think the most important part of

choosing a book or something else

reading related to help you with your

studies so I hope that that helps you

thanks for the question let’s move on to

your next question next question comes

from Sephora at heiser so who says

hi Alicia Times I fail to understand the

English spoken in movies how do I fix

this issue um well if you really want to

understand a specific movie and there’s

something you missed in the movie try

looking for the script online like if

you really enjoy like the matrix for

example and you didn’t understand parts

of the matrix just do a google search

for the script and you can find the

script check what they said and practice

reading that or look up the words that

you didn’t understand so I think a key

here is just if you want to understand

something you should look for the

resources you need to understand that so

for a movie that means a script or maybe

there are subtitles on the movie you can

check as well so if there’s a movie you

want to understand you can’t understand

it try looking at the script and see if

that helps you so that’s what I would do

though maybe you can try that too I hope

that helps you thanks for the question

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from Shamim asan hi

she meme says hi Alicia I have a

question what’s the difference between

do you know where she is

and do you know where is she yeah the

first sentence is correct the second

sentence is incorrect so when you’re

making these do you know type patterns

and you’re using the verb be you need to

kind of like reverse the question so do

you know where she is that be verb comes

at the end of the sentence do you know

where my keys are do you know what my

password is do you know who the new guy

is so these are examples of that do you

know that use a be verb in there if

you’re not using a be verb then you

don’t have to worry about this like do

you know who’s stole my lunch oh that’s

a good one

do you know who stole my lunch in that

one you don’t have to change the

question there’s no be verb there who

stole my lunch is a question on its own

like do you know what time it is is a be

verb question so we have that is at the

end of the sentence so think about that

when you’re making those sorts of

questions hope that that helps you

alright let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Osama

Rajput Osama this AMA says hi Alicia why

do we use ' at the end of some sentences

like in thankin lovin thinkin etc yeah

this is just a kind of casual light

rough spelling of a word that ends in G

ing

so like thinking or thanking or loving

or liking whatever something that ends

in that ing form when we want to express

it casually in speech we often don’t say

the G sound clearly like thinking

instead of thinking so when we’re

talking quickly especially we might not

say that G sound clearly like thinking

of you so it’s kind of like an end sound

so in spelling in like texts for example

or in stories we might just use the

apostrophe to show that sort of friendly

light rough way of speaking so it’s not

used in formal letter

and it’s not used in like polite writing

it’s not used in like proper writing but

if you want to have kind of that light

casual feel to your writing you can use

the apostrophe at the end of an ING verb

but just keep in mind if you use it too

much it sounds really unnatural you

might see it used if someone’s joking

and they say like I just play in for

example so it might be in like one set

phrase so we don’t use it at the end of

everything it sounds a little weird and

it looks weird but that’s what it’s

there for I hope that that helps answer

your question thanks very much for

sending this all right so that’s

everything that I have for this week

thank you as always for sending your

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for other things to help you with your

English Studies thanks for watching this

week’s episode of ask Alicia and I’ll

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