1 Hour of English Conversation Practice Improve Speaking Skills

want to speak real english from your

first lesson

at englishclass101.com

want to finally start speaking in your

target language in this guide you’ll

discover the top 7 ways to practice

speaking

on your own with our lessons let’s begin

number one shadowing shadowing is a

proven learning technique

where all you do is repeat what you hear

in order to practice speaking

so access any audio or video lesson on

the site and press the play button to

start

then as you listen or watch just repeat

the conversations

or even easier read along out loud with

the dialog

section the script is right there in

front of you

with our lessons you can master entire

conversations

just like that number two read out loud

i just mentioned it but reading out loud

is another powerful tactic and deserves

its own mention

with every lesson you get written

transcripts

and translations so as you play the

lesson

read the dialogue out loud as you hear

it why

by reading out loud you’re also

practicing your speaking skills

you can do this with the lesson notes

the lesson transcript

or the dialog tool with the dialog

tool you can listen to each line again

and again

and repeat out loud until you master

them all number three

speed up your reading to speed up your

speaking being able to speak without

thinking

is a sign of language mastery if you’re

talking to a native and can respond

quickly

they’ll assume that you’re fairly fluent

how can you do this

when you read out loud try increasing

your speed a little bit every time

so start by reading with a dialogue tool

if you’re like most learners you’ll read

the first line slowly

that’s because you’re still getting used

to the words which is okay

re-read it on your second try you know

most of the words

and you’ll read a little faster re-read

it again

on your third try you’ll be even faster

at a native speaker’s speed

and being able to read these phrases out

loud and fast

will help you speak fast number four

record and compare yourself with native

speakers

in order to sound like a native speaker

you must imitate native speakers

so here’s how access the voice recorder

which is in the dialog study tool in

every lesson

click on the microphone icon

listen to the native speaker’s audio

and then record yourself you can then

compare the two recordings side by side

and practice and try again and again

until you perfect your pronunciation

number five get feedback from our

premium plus teacher

if you’re learning by yourself and don’t

have access to real teachers

then you can always get feedback from

our premium plus teachers

with the my teacher tool you can record

yourself speaking

and send the audio file to the teacher

they’ll review it

and tell you what to improve and how

that’s it

number six level up your speaking with

premium plus assignments

with premium plus you can also get

assignments that cover reading

writing listening and even speaking from

your teacher

these assignments can be tailored to

your goals and needs

you get a new one every week or any time

you’re ready for a new one

number seven get even more lessons in

the lesson library

if you want even more lessons on

speaking and conversations

visit our lesson library and under

category

choose conversation you’ll get all of

the pathways and lessons that are

focused on speaking

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see you next time

bye welcome to our first ever evening

edition of this series

because the sound in the original video

is destroyed

hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them

maybe first question this week first

question this week comes from

patrick hi patrick patrick says i know

the basic english words and i understand

if someone speaks in english

for example i understand your videos

perfectly but i have problems building

correct english sentences like when i

speak with another person

do you have any tips for how to build

correct sentences

um i think that this just comes with

practice honestly it’s difficult to do

but i know that there’s not always a

person that you can ask

for help i will tell you a secret when i

don’t have confidence with something

when i don’t know how to answer

something this is what i do

i google it seriously just google it i

put quotation marks around like the

phrase that i’m trying to make

and then i search google for it and if

it’s there great then that means i can

use it maybe like thousands of people

have used that phrase i know it’s

probably a common phrase

if there are no results then that

probably means i’ve made a mistake

somehow

so that’s maybe one good way to help you

as you try to build phrases

by yourself so try that out next

question

next question comes from huang se na

huang sena hi

i love your name alicia is alicia a

common name in the u.s

i happen to have a friend named alyssa

also what’s your personal favorite name

a common name in the u.s alicia i don’t

i don’t think alicia is so common in the

and when i was growing up i didn’t have

any other friends

named alicia also the spelling of my

name is a little strange usually

it’s spelled a-l-i-c-i-a maybe you know

the artist

alicia keys that’s how she spells her

name so my name

was commonly confused as alicia a lot so

i’ve heard like alison

and alyssa and ali and so on those are

fairly common i think but alicia

especially my spelling is not so common

actually

so uh what’s my favorite name uh my

favorite name is

obi-wan kenobi next question uh next

question comes from

long is the h sound not always

pronounced when followed by another

consonant for

example wall hanger or come back home

yes the h sound is often pronounced very

softly it’s quite difficult to pronounce

all of these syllables clearly like in

the example come

back home it’s quite difficult to say

the h sound clearly so in those cases

it’s quite common to make the h sound

quite soft like come back home

next question romeo from vietnam hi

again romeo

romeo says hello alicia do native

speakers say you aren’t gonna

blah blah blah or you’re not gonna blah

blah blah which contracted form is used

more i think they’re used equally like

you can choose which you prefer

me i think i usually say you’re not

gonna i probably use you are i can track

the you are you’re not gonna

you’re not gonna or you’re not gonna do

something i probably use you’re not

more often than you aren’t gonna next

question

is from wagner wagner wagner wagner have

you written any operas

why do american people pronounce english

class 101 instead of

101 or 101 oh this relates to

uh like university and college level

courses actually

so um there are four levels to uh

universities or to colleges in the u.s

uh first year second year third year and

fourth year so the classes for each of

those are numbered so first your classes

begin with one

second year classes with two third year

classes with three fourth year classes

with four

so first year classes like it tends to

be like the basic classes

uh begin with a one and like the most

basic uh

of those classes is usually 101 so like

english class 101

that’s kind of making like a friendly

introduction to

english in other words so we say 101. we

always use that sort of

um pattern when speaking we don’t say

101

we always use 101 or like 1 2 4 or like

three six seven

i don’t know what those classes are but

we always say each

individual number nice question though

interesting next question

is from danny would you tell us about

here you are here you go there you are

there you go and here there we you

if they go oh gosh okay i’ll talk about

the

the ones that you introduce what do they

mean and how do you use them naturally

so let’s talk first about here you are

and here you

go so we use these when we present

someone with something so you give

someone something here you are

here you go like you are at a restaurant

maybe your order arrives here you are

uh here you go something like in a

service situation

you might hear this kind of from like a

friendly staffish

like staff related person i suppose here

you are here you go

or maybe from a teacher to a school

child maybe here you go

we use it to like present something to

present an

object that maybe they’re expecting to

receive let’s talk then about

there you go and there you are so we use

there you go when someone is

able to do a thing uh they’ve been

practicing for a while so for example

if a child is learning how to ride a

bicycle and they’ve been struggling with

for some time but then gradually they

get better at it and they can do it

a parent might say oh there you go you

got it you got it

it’s like a it’s like a support word an

encouragement word there you go

um the last one on your list though uh

there you are

in american english we use there you are

in a situation where we’re looking for

someone we’ve been looking for someone

we’re expecting to meet

and it’s been difficult to find them

maybe you visit a few different spots

but then at last you find this person

maybe like in a break room or

someplace you might not expect them but

when you do find them and you say oh

there you are we say it with that sort

of intonation oh

there you are it sounds immediately to

the listener like oh

this person has been looking for me next

question next

question is from l o j l o j

loj says my question is about phrasal

verbs what is the meaning of

knocked out like here example sentence

one uh

knocked me out of my possession or two

knocked the wind out of me i had a

problem with the word

possession knocked me out of my

possession i’m not quite sure

this could refer though to in a very

rare situation

we have this word possession which

refers to like this thing called demonic

possession where there’s this idea that

a bad spirit gets into the body

and controls a person’s behavior we call

that possession

so we could say like a priest knocked me

out of my possession

to go back to your original question

though the word knock out

as a phrasal verb to knock out means

like it means

forcefully or forcibly remove something

because of some impact an object is

removed

from its original location so for

example a jogger could be coming at me

and they run into me and they knock my

phone

out of my hands so in that case my phone

is being removed because of the impact

of the jogger

so to knock something out means like to

remove from its

original location from force in your

second example then

uh knocked the wind out of me this is an

expression we use which means like to

lose our breath

because of an impact so um if you

get like punched or kicked maybe in

maybe this area

uh you might feel the air in your lungs

come out of your body so we call that

the wind in this situation so

um like he knocked the wind out of me

means he caused me to lose the air in my

lungs the impact was so strong in my

body

that the air came out of my out of my

lungs so

i like he knocked the wind so the wind

in this case the

air in my lungs in its original location

was removed from me because of this

impact you might also hear this

expression in boxing to knock

out uh or to um to ko someone

means to cause them to lose

consciousness

in this case so consciousness is the

thing that’s uh that’s going away in

this case

so to knock someone out in like a boxing

match

means they they lose consciousness in

other words a ko

we sometimes say the first example

sentence is not actually so clear to me

it could it’s also possible there’s an

error in the original text

i don’t know all right so those are all

the questions that i want to answer this

week thank you very much for sending

your questions to me remember you can

send them to me at englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia thank you very much

for watching this episode of ask alicia

and i will see you again

next week bye

now i’m totally paranoid about my sound

sound

sound it’s still working 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

uh 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 uh 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

so i mean now they it 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 up i’m gonna go

with something that i loved in the 90s

this is probably way too specific uh

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

like 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 of lisa frank

no okay she knows she knows that 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

is 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 i 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 was

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 mod

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 it’s a very descriptive very

descriptive michael thank you so no

you’re into that

i’m the prop and then you go like this

there’s like the

but i bet i bet there’s an awesome video

team somewhere in the

somewhere that can put like a scrunchie

like right here

anyway um 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 um except when i was a

kid 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 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

uh 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

and i’m 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

welcome back to the internet

hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i

answer them maybe first question first

question comes from ferris

ghazali faris gazali how do i stop

translating the meaning of

english words in my head i can tell you

about the things that have helped me

and maybe they’ll help you i put myself

in situations where i could not escape

into my native language in my case i

could not escape into english

i would go out like for food and drinks

with friends who

could not speak english i had no choice

but to use a different language with

them

two something that i’ve noticed some of

my students do that actually kind of

bothers me

they bring a dictionary to their lesson

and they’ll stop conversations

in lessons to check words in their

dictionary and say a single word at a

time

instead of just trying to find a

different way to explain that

one it totally stops the flow of

conversation two

you don’t have really the option to do

that in a conversation most of the time

you’re not going to be carrying around

your dictionary with you i hope unless

it’s in your phone i suppose

third i think that this is a chance to

develop a better skill instead of trying

to translate into english or to

translate into a different language

you should think about finding a

different way to explain the word you

want to use

let’s say for example that you want to

use the word beautiful but you can’t

remember the word

how would you explain that so think

about other ways to communicate

an idea even if you don’t have the

vocabulary word so going to your

dictionary

shouldn’t necessarily be the first

course of action it shouldn’t

necessarily be your first step

think about a different way to

communicate the idea you’re trying to

communicate

think of examples to explain the word

you’re looking for and then the other

person can teach you like if

you’re working with somebody or you’re

talking with somebody

who understands you’re not a native

speaker chances are if you can explain

the word you’re looking for

they will tell you they will be your

teacher i just explain like with body

language sometimes too if i don’t know a

word

so another thing that really helped me

was not just studying vocabulary words

but

actually approaching things as phrases

so not saying okay this word equals this

word in my language but rather here’s a

phrase that communicates a meaning

that is interesting to me or that i hear

my friends use a lot

i’m going to use that phrase so don’t

just input input input

start outputting too so i hope that’s

helpful for you

next question next question is from

huangjiang ik hi hwangjang says i’m

curious what do you do in your days off

you want to know how to do my days off

my days i’m pretty normal my days off i

cook

i go jogging i sleep i i go listen to my

favorite djs

i see my friends i eat and drink

and watch tv that’s about it i’m a

pretty normal person

next question next question is from

muhammad sohail what is the difference

between

famous and popular great question famous

is something that is well known many

people know about that thing or that

person

beyonce is famous the statue of liberty

is famous the eiffel tower

is famous popular however means

many people know about it and

it is liked it has a positive image so

like beyonce

is popular or like a famous candy is

popular like chocolate cake is popular

it’s a famous food

and many people like it so popular is

famous

plus like a positive image sometimes

we can use those two words for the same

thing so beyonce is famous

beyonce is popular but famous doesn’t

always mean they are popular so someone

can be famous for a bad thing

in that case though it’s typically

better to use the word infamous

infamous infamous means famous for a bad

reason so famous for something negative

next question next question comes from

oh you wrote the pronunciation

of your name very nice itan iton

i think okay hey alicia i hope you’re

well uh my level is intermediate they

feel that they’re stuck

at the intermediate level and want to

reach the advanced level

they’re watching lots of videos on

youtube reading academic articles on the

web but still feel that progress has

somehow

stopped could you give me some advice

okay you say in your message that you

feel your progress somehow has

stopped i have been here too the

intermediate plateau like you begin

learning a language and it’s like yeah

i’m learning all these things and then

you kind of like plateau you get to a

level where things don’t continue and

you feel like progress goes

much more slowly i would say in this

case

first identify how you feel your

progress has stopped by that i mean like

do you feel like uh your vocabulary is

lacking or

do you find that it’s hard to listen to

people and to understand what they’re

saying

do you find it’s hard to write um is it

hard to

to like to read things so first identify

what is

that thing that you feel like you’re not

good at and then start to approach your

further studies with that as the focus

i think that if you can think about your

different skill sets your different

levels

in reading writing speaking and

listening you can identify which of

those four

things is weakest for you and start

there so when you feel your progress has

stopped think like okay what am i not

good at doing and then focus your time

there so

maybe that’s a helpful first step for

you hope that helps next question

next question comes from kiara chiara

kiara kiara tiara asks

uh i’ll help you studying and i’ll help

you to study

what is the correct one thanks i’ll help

you something

i’ll help you do this so just the

regular plain form of the verb i would

suggest is probably the most natural

choice thanks for the question though

next question next question comes from

sheriff sheriff ahmed sheriff

should i use the singular or plural

verb after colloquial names for example

my team have won the match or has won

the match ah okay in this case

my team has won the match my team has

won the match so use the singular form

of the verb like same as like he has or

she has

my team has is the correct answer here

next question

next question comes from jeffrey hi

jeffrey jeffrey asks sometimes i watch

movies and some characters say you wish

with a very angry attitude or i wish

in other situations what do these two

sentences

mean and how do i use it aha

interesting question okay when someone

responds with

you wish to a negative suggestion

it’s like they’re mutually together

they’re

recognizing that they don’t like each

other so usually the first character

will say something like make a negative

suggestion

like you should uh you should leave town

and get a different job like leave us

alone

something like that and then the other

character will say yeah you

wish like yes this this character

recognizes you want me to do that yes

but i’m not going to do that

in other words so it’s sort of like a

challenge so this person says like this

negative suggestion

the other person recognizes this

suggestion says no

i’m not going to do that but i know you

want me to do that

so you wish in this way means it’s like

a negative challenge

they’re kind of fighting recognizing

they dislike each other so that’s one

the other one what was the other one so

i wish we talked about i wish

in the previous the previous episode of

ask alicia so please check that out but

essentially

i wish refers to something that we

cannot do now or something that is

different from the present situation but

we want

uh we want to happen or we want to be

able to do so please check the last

episode of ask alicia for more about i

wish like the positive meaning

next question next question is from

romeo lew from vietnam hello romeo

could you please explain what the

expression try as i may

means this is usually used in an

expression that’s sort of negative like

even though i’m trying my best

it’s difficult for me to do this thing

so try as i may i just can’t get a new

job or try as i may i just can’t earn

that

much money or try as i may i just can’t

seem to cook this dish

for example so even though i’m giving my

best

effort even though i’m really working

hard this other thing

just isn’t happening for me so it’s sort

of like

it’s sort of like a sad or like a

disappointed or

um unhappy expression actually thanks

for the question romeo

okay so those are all the questions for

this week’s episode of ask alicia i hope

that they were useful for you if you

would like to submit a question remember

you can send them to me at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia thanks very much for

watching this episode of ask alicia and

i will see you again

next week bye bye i talk too much i’m

late for work

want to speak real english from your

first lesson sign up for your free

lifetime account at englishclass101.com

i have purchased a microphone what can

you do with a new mic

hi everybody my name is alicia welcome

back to ask alicia

the weekly series on our youtube channel

where you ask me questions and i answer

them

maybe so please remember you can submit

your questions to me at

englishclass101.com ask alicia

first question a lot of you have asked

about what to do to get

a voice that sounds like mine when i’m

making these videos i’m specifically

trying to speak clearly so i’m clearly

separating my words

the way that i talk with my friends and

the way that i talk regularly

is a bit different in the way that i

talk on this channel but if you want to

try to get this kind of pronunciation

the best advice i have is just to repeat

this kind of pronunciation it depends on

your goal if you want to

learn to speak like me or to speak like

somebody else that you really admire you

should

try to mimic them that’s what i do and

that’s uh

actually a strategy that i use when i

study other languages as well

so if i hear something interesting that

a a vocabulary word that a friend

has used like in japanese for example or

they have a really good intonation or

just the way they deliver

the way they say something is really uh

interesting to me or i want to

i want to be able to use that too i put

that in my head i think about that

and then i try to replicate that i try

to copy that essentially

to make this explanation shorter mimic

mimic if you want to learn to speak like

me mimic me

if you want to learn to speak like

somebody else try to mimic someone else

but

just keep in mind that the way that i

talk in these videos is different

from the way that i talk in real life

next question what does the word lit

mean what does the word lit mean lit is

actually a slang word

it’s common slang among young people

especially in the u.s right now

maybe many of you know that the verb to

light has the past tense

uh lit lit is used to talk about for

example a party

or um some kind of social gathering

usually

that’s really exciting or that’s really

really fun

or that’s kind of crazy so lit using the

past

tense there you can kind of imagine that

like a fire when you light a fire

it maybe it gets bigger and it gets kind

of wild a little bit crazy like there’s

a spark and then it starts so if you see

the word lit like this party was lit

it means it was really crazy it was

really good it was really fun

you can use it if you want but just keep

in mind that really young people use

that word i don’t use that word for

reference but again i’m not cool

next question what is correct i thought

you were gone or i thought you

are gone i thought you are gone we need

to use i thought you

were gone here i thought you were gone

so i

thought past tense and you were is also

past tense it’s a past tense thought

past tense situation um so

please use passions yeah next question

also maybe about were and was

why do we use if i were and not if

i was uh this is a great question and

actually a lot of native speakers make

mistakes with this it’s a small point to

be fair

but if you want to be correct you should

always use if

i were this is a grammar point it refers

the subjunctive mood the subjunctive

mood

an explanation of subjunctive is a bit

beyond the scope

it’s a bit much for this video but we

will always use

if i were when the subject there is i

in the conditional if i were we always

use work you will hear native speakers

say if i was if i was

if you want to be extremely strict and

extremely nitpicky

were is actually the correct one but if

you use was if you make a mistake and

you use was you will still be

understood so um but yes this is related

to the subjunctive

mood in english next question okay next

one isn’t really a question but

something i have noticed that many of

you do

you like to put the article uh or an

before your adjective before an

adjective

but you forget to use a noun do you know

how like mario introduces himself and he

says it’s a me

when you forget to use some kind of

noun after after your adjective or

whatever but you sound a bit like

mario’s it’s a nice

it’s a nice it’s a nice what it’s funny

to me like it’s an eye so

it’s a me you need to include the noun

that you’re referring to

it’s a nice video or it’s a nice

explanation

it’s nice or it’s bad or it’s good or

this

was a nice explanation but don’t forget

to use your

noun after you use the adjective it’s a

nice

something it’s a good something it’s a

bad something so please

no article without a noun make sure to

use your noun and it should be in the

singular form if you’re using

a or an you need to use the singular

form of the noun don’t sound like mario

next question what does it mean they

can’t take that away from me

who are they and what does takeaway mean

we use the word they to mean generally

just

other people outside of us this is used

a lot to talk about

like news or to talk about general

opinions they say

that this pizza is the best pizza in the

city right now they say

that your english will only improve if

you study every day

they say that the most difficult thing

you can do in your life

is move to another country they is just

anyone second point what does take away

mean take away

means to some object that belongs

in one location is removed from that

location like take away

food in american english we use takeout

actually

but take away food is a similar idea

especially like in british english

takeaway

so you take away your food from the

restaurant so you’re taking

something else you’re removing your food

from the restaurant so

in the expression they can’t take that

away from me

they meaning other people outside you

can’t take

something away from you next one what

does the phrase

don’t be a creep don’t be a creep me i

think michael talked about this on an

old english topics video

so i talked in a live stream about the

word creepy adjective creepy

so something that causes like nervous

suspense is

something that’s creepy the word creep

is used as a noun don’t be

a creep a person who is creepy

a guy can be a creep a girl can be a

creep so a creep

is someone who causes creepy feelings

like uh something bad might happen i

feel nervous like that person’s a little

strange a little weird

that person is a creep he’s a creep

she’s a creep so don’t

be a creep means you should not

behave like a creep don’t create

nervous feelings in the other person

don’t be a creepy person don’t be a

creep

everybody that’s good advice don’t be a

creep don’t be agree try to be a nice

and understanding um and respectful

person

always next question oh that was my last

one for this week all right

so those are my favorite questions or

the questions that i wanted to talk to

you about this week i hope that those

are some useful points for you

and if you have any questions please

feel free to let me know

at englishclass101.com ask alicia that’s

where you can submit your questions to

it makes it very easy for me to check

and see all the questions in one place

so definitely check that out i think you

can sign in with your

regular english class 101.com account

and submit as many questions as you want

and then i’ll choose what i like and

what i want to talk about uh and of

course if a lot of you ask the same

question i’ll

i’ll definitely try to answer that too

so please check that out

englishclass101.com

ask alicia thanks very much for watching

this episode of ask alicia and i’ll see

you again next week

bye what are the things i can do with my

microphone i wonder

i feel like i had some ideas for this

when i was laying in bed last night now

i’ve forgotten them all oh now i can

take my videos on the road making like a

golf reporter uh yes the ball the ball

is rolling

why am i russian i’m a russian golf

reporter now oh maybe i’ll be a

beatboxer how do you do that

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 4am

when you see someone you can say hello

and it will still be appropriate long

time no c

long time no c it’s not necessarily

grammatically correct but it’s a saying

that we have

hey long time no c 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’re 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

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

hey what’s up good afternoon

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 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 like the video please

don’t forget to give us a thumbs up and

subscribe to our channel

if you have any questions or comments

leave them below

and don’t forget to go to

englishclass101.com

for more english 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 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

is 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 from 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 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

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

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

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 pm

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

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 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

don’t like it 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 oh no

all right welcome back to weekly words

my name is alicia and this week we are

going to talk about

commonly used onomatopoeia this is going

to be a fun one we talked

briefly about an onomatopoeia zoom in a

previous episode of weekly words we’re

going to talk some more about some more

talk some more about some more we’re

going to talk about more today the first

word is

beep oh beep beep is any kind of

electronic sound or a car

sound and was also in a popular american

cartoon

wiley coyote and the roadrunner the

roadrunner would commonly say meat meat

car sound will usually make a beep or a

honk sound

for electronics however the beep becomes

a little bit more robotic we’ll often

say like beep

beep beep beep so in a sentence let’s

say you have a computer problem

you tell your friend the computer won’t

stop beeping at me what do i

do next is the sound jingle jingle is

any kind of light ringing sound this

word gets used a lot

uh in holiday seasons particularly

christmas thanksgiving

new year’s any jingling sound is very

commonly assigned to

bells like the song jingle bells for

example is a perfect example of this

jingle is just the sound that a bell

makes

in a sentence let’s see you might say

she has

a small bell attached to her phone so

she

jingles everywhere she walks it’s really

irritating

okay the next word is thump a thump is

for something to hit heavily

to give an example the people who live

in the apartment above me often

thump on the floor it sounds like maybe

they’re dropping something heavy

or they’re stepping very heavily all

right

next is splash anything that falls into

liquid

lands in liquid makes a splash it’s that

sort of sound that comes from water or

any other liquid really

we refer to that as a splash sound there

is also a popular tom hanks mermaid

movie called splash

this has nothing to do with that about

him falling in love with a mermaid

i made a big splash when i jumped into

the swimming pool this summer

that has kind of a double meaning oh

mysterious

next is blurt it means to say something

quickly

i blurted out the news as soon as i

heard it like i blurted out the secret i

couldn’t hold it any longer

it means you just say something without

thinking to blurt the first part of the

word what

that blur sound it sounds like something

it just kind of

sort of slips out on accident and then

the harsh

blurt that t at the end is like a kind

of a final

like oh my gosh i’ve just said something

i’ve slipped and then i’ve said

something oh no

i didn’t think about that all right

that’s the end of that one

so i hope you learned a few new

onomatopeas that you can try out

next time thanks for joining us for

weekly words and i will see you again

next time bye 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

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

so 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