English Skills for the RealWorld Spoken English Practice in 1 Hour

want to speak real english from your

first lesson

at englishclass101.com

hi everybody my name is alicia welcome

today we’re going to 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

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

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

uh 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 off for drinks and food

uh 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

explore how you can use tv and movies

is to actually turn on the closed

captions like the

the 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 that’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

um 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

um 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

uh 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

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

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 am

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 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

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 liked the video please

don’t forget to give us a thumbs up and

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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 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 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

the 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 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

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

uh based on our experiences at 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

so i mean now they came now it came back

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 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

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 lisa frank

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 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 gonna 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 no

you’re into that i’m the prop and then

you go like this

there’s like 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 you would go and it

would

scrunch i think i think this is why we

call it a scrunchie

but then when you pull down you can

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 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 cece

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 we played

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

my first one um oh

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