Real English Conversations Episode 44

[Music]

welcome to speak English with Tiffany I

am teacher Tiffany let’s jump right in

I’m always going on nothing today I’m

here I was taking a nap yeah and so I

said well since I’m home alone let me

take advantage of this time and take

advantage of take advantage of now this

is an expression that means to make good

use of the opportunities offered by

something so let’s look at two examples

to get a better understanding so in our

first example it says this I have to

work tomorrow so I need to take

advantage of the time I have today so

the opportunity is referring to the time

that we have today okay that’s the

opportunity to use that so take

advantage of the time now let’s look our

second example it says subscribers to

the magazine can take advantage of this

special offer ok so again the

opportunity being referred to is the

special offer maybe it’s a discount or

something else related to the magazine

ok special offer so take advantage of I

didn’t Milan so it you know three too

long I was calling you because I saw in

the program last year at church that you

were trying to start the sign language

group at our church then you’re gonna

try to teach people sign language yeah

devil today that’s all see me ask the

boss why would they want to learn sign

language sign language now sign language

is an official language and it’s the

language that is used by individuals who

may be deaf or hearing impaired and it’s

a language that mainly

utilizes one’s hands to express a

message or convey a message to another

person so we call it sign language class

like a lot of people nowadays are

starting to learn sign language but even

learning a second language to how hard

it is for some people I wanted to ask

like what was your experience like why

did you decide to learn sign language

and how was it for you

well so far as young I’ve always been

like fascinated with it just to see

people signing like our street and stuff

like if I’m at a restaurant and I saw

some ice always be fascinated and so I

would try to learn that just like when

I’m trying to learn Spanish I just never

really committed to doing it fascinated

fascinated okay

this word means to draw irresistible the

attention and interest of someone

irresistible means you cannot resist so

without you realizing it you are drawn

to something so let’s look at the

examples using this word first one is

I’ve always been fascinated by other

cultures so cultures are what fascinate

this person right now the second example

the kids were fascinated with their new

toys so when a child gets a new toy

they’re usually fascinated or amazed by

it and they want to play with it for a

long time and the last example is we

were fascinated by the new technology

okay maybe it was a new computer a new

cellphone or a new technology that was

applied to something else but it was

fascinating and gripped their attention

so again fascinated so it just so

happened I was working at this drug

treatment center and one of the social

workers came in and she had an

interpreter with her and I think that’s

about all we wanted to do a bother

my language and so I started taking a

class interpreter interpreter now an

interpreter is a person whose job is to

translate what someone is saying into

another language okay so here are some

examples of this word okay speaking

through an interpreter the man told us

his opinion so in this example let’s say

there is a group of people okay

and there’s one group of people standing

on this side right here okay and this

man right here is the focus and he wants

to get a message to these individuals

but they don’t speak the same language

so this man uses an interpreter to speak

for him so the interpreter actually

takes the message from him and transfers

it to these individuals okay an

interpreter all right okay next example

sentence he was a great interpreter very

simple sentence and our final sentence

is they paid for the students to have an

interpreter okay all right let’s keep

going and taking the car it was at a

library for free class so I just felt

like I wasn’t it was like that same

situation where you’re on in Spanish he

was running the base day and you never

go any further and I felt like that’s

how it was gonna be like a plan and one

of the people dishes that if you really

want to learn the real smiling she

should go to Gallaudet University I said

how about University one right and so

she told me it was like a death

University and defeats our contact again

and found out they had my father

they had night classes and so from there

I started taking night classes oh I fell

in love from the very first class like

the teachers were all death

they were native signers she should I

instead of like beautify instead of like

somebody who learned the language

ability to us it was like there’s native

France though that he really really grew

all good teachers and then I realized so

I want to become an interpreter where

our interpret works you know like

conversations that people have for each

other factor that’s what I want to do so

yeah so the it’s like the boss thought

it was me taking classes and I you know

cracked through that feeling where it

wasn’t just a basic class where I’m just

learning and taking that class over and

over again like I did vanish okay now

there are two expressions that we’re

going to look at in a little bit more

detail the first one was start or get

the ball rolling now the meaning of this

expression is to set an activity in

motion or to make a start okay so my

friend is talking about starting a

learning process starting to learn how

to do sign language so let’s look at an

example using this expression here we go

right here it says in order to get the

ball started the government was asked to

contribute a million dollars to the fund

so there was some project that needed to

be done but in order to start the

project or get the ball rolling they

needed a million dollars that was the

starting point okay all right let’s move

on to the second expression crack

through crack through now this means

figuratively to overcome some difficulty

or restriction in order to enter into

some place or situation now here’s the

example for this expression after three

years in the law firm sally finally

cracked through the glass ceiling and

was made a partner okay so it’s

expressing that while sally was working

at her law firm it was very difficult to

move up or to

get a better position but finally after

three years she became a partner so she

cracked through the difficulty okay so

again start or get the ball rolling and

crack through it was actually me

learning something and then I joined a

family which Club and then I joined like

different groups that socialize and

actually used the language I will go to

silent weekends where you couldn’t talk

the whole weekend and if you get caught

talking you’d have to pay money and so

it was like full immersion and it would

give us different than there of

immersion immersion okay now this word

means a method of teaching foreign

language by the exclusive use of that

language usually at a special school now

the key word here is exclusive so you’re

only allowed to use that language okay

all right so here are some examples

using the word immersion okay

last year I enrolled in an immersion

course in conversational English it

means the course only allowed English to

be spoken during the time that the

person was there okay all right the next

example full immersion programs can be

expensive but beneficial so it is true

if you go to a full immersion program

they may be expensive but they’re very

beneficial because your English will

improve very quickly alright and the

last example my daughter wants to enroll

in an immersion program in Spain means

his daughter wants to speak Spanish but

she wants to be fully immersed only

speaking that language

okay so again immersion so that we could

use the language and that used to be

really fun and I think the activities

like the silent silent rooms a silent

silent weekend like you couldn’t talk

the whole weekend yeah I think I

remember when I was studying Korean like

when we first started in level one

that was kind of the easy level like he

was learning the basics like you

mentioned to expand and she learned the

basics but then you start moving to the

next levels and then the teachers start

getting really creative with doing ways

of actually putting into practice what

you’re learning so yeah that made a big

difference for me too so it was really

enjoyable as well did you when did you

feel like you really had a good grasp of

what you had learned you know okay I can

actually speak sign language now huh

that’s interesting so that I don’t

really remember I remember feeling

frustrated like I’m not gonna be able to

have a good grasp one more time have a

good grasp of all right now this means

to have a firm clear understanding or

determination of something okay have a

grasp of have a good grasp of so let’s

look at two examples the first example

says do you have a solid grasp of the

material we learned in class so in this

example the focus is the material that

was learned in class and the person is

asking do you understand clearly what

was discussed in class okay all right

and our second example says the students

had a good grasp of the lesson that the

teacher was teaching so again is talking

about material in class but this time

the lesson that the teacher was teaching

okay

did you understand do you know what she

was saying okay so again understanding

so having a good grasp of it started

with ABCs and the ABCs I may do this

twice it’s better if there’s no way I’m

gonna memorize these places you know I

had to commit the time in the study and

just socialize and be around people I’m

thinking like doing those Fallon

tweaking they will try

you know you put a drop in a Becket and

each drop you know you start at first

and you don’t notice like they want

water accumulating and then all the time

is right

oh there’s actually some water up in

here accumulate accumulate now this

means to gather together or acquire an

increasing number or quantity of okay so

let’s see some examples of how this word

is used the first one is the snow was

accumulating on the ground it means

coming up into a pile on the ground

alright next journals are accumulating

in my office it means there are more

journals each and every day okay and he

accumulated a fortune in the music

business he earned a lot more money now

my friend is talking about accumulating

more knowledge of sign language more

words more expressions and more ways of

how to use it properly so again

accumulate like events about that I

actually know what I’m talking about but

you know what family is because it’s a

visual language and you kind of

incorporate not acting but like not mine

either cuz they hate that

yeah it’s more like what is it like when

you take on the personality it’s right

because of all of that and I’m Tabitha

anyway like when I talk to people if I’m

telling you what somebody said I’m going

to become that person know in family

which that is a part of the language so

that really helped me but there’s still

some areas I struggle with every time I

work you know this is what I do as a

professional I learned something new and

I always ask myself what can I learn new

with this language and that’s another

drop in that bucket of water that’s

accumulating every job and just trying

to learn those I think that’s the

best piece of advice for anybody

learning another language because a lot

of times even when I was teaching my

students when I lived in Korea there was

this feeling of wanting to know

everything possible about English when

they were talking to me I want to know

everything and the reality is you’re

constantly learning even as Americans

like even though we speak English

exactly

we’re always learning something new some

new slang or a new word or some new

expression that comes out so I think the

fact that you actually know that when

you’re even though it’s your profession

like you are an amazing interpreter you

still with us every day you’re learning

something new so advice great advice I

hope you enjoyed this real English

conversation it’s the last in a

four-part series of conversations with

real native English speakers please

continue to study English by clicking on

the video on the left or the right of

your screen to continue studying with me

and remember as always to speak English