Can You Learn English with Songs and Lyrics
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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them
maybe first question this week comes
from Ali Riza heigen Ali Ali says hi
Alicia what’s the difference between
where have you been and where were you
mmm there’s not a big difference here if
you’ve been waiting for someone for a
long time like you expected someone to
be at a place like at a meeting or maybe
a restaurant or a cafe and you have been
waiting for a long time you might use
where have you been to mean where were
you from this point in the past until
now like I expected to meet you so we
might use where have you been in a case
like that we might use where were you in
a situation where we’re asking about a
finished situation or something that’s
done–it’s it happened in the past like
for example if you miss class one day
you are supposed to go to school but
you’re sick and you go to class the next
day
your classmate could say where were you
yesterday so that sounds like yesterday
something happened and they want to know
about that situation at that point in
time only so this is a little bit
different from where have you been which
means like there was some expectation
that you would be there and you were not
so in some cases you can use both yes
like for example if you are late for a
meeting and your coworker asks where
have you been like you’re an hour late
you could use that or the co-worker
might say like where were you you’re an
hour late those are some cases like
where it’s kind of up to the speaker to
decide a little bit but generally if
someone has been expecting you for a
period of time they’ll probably use the
where have you been pattern if it’s just
a past action a past situation it’s over
it’s done you might use the where were
you pattern instead so I hope that this
helps you thanks for the question
okay let’s move on to our next question
neck
question comes from shoe high shoe shoe
says hi Alicia your lessons are helpful
cool my question which one is correct
most of the movie takes place in LA or
most of the movies take place in LA nice
question actually both sentences are
correct and they have very different
meanings so let’s take a look the first
one most of the movie is set in LA means
the majority of this movie only takes
place or happens in LA with the plural
most of the movies take place in LA it
means most movies in this specific group
happen in LA so to give an example of
this let’s imagine like a movie series
there are three movies in the series and
the first two movies movies 1 and 2 take
place in LA and in San Francisco a
little bit movie number 3 takes place in
New York City so when we want to talk
about movie 1 for example we could say
most of the movie takes place in LA so
that means the majority of movie number
1 happens in LA not all of it because a
little bit happens in San Francisco but
the majority of the movie happens in LA
so we say most of the majority of most
of the movie takes place in LA if
however we want to talk about the series
this three movie series and we want to
talk about where the series happens we
could say most of the movies take place
in LA so that means most of the movies
meaning two of the three movies are set
mostly in LA so that means movies 1 and
movies 2 are mostly in LA movie 3 is in
New York City so it’s in a totally
different place so in that case we’re
talking about a group of movies most of
the movies in this group in this series
in this case take place in LA so both of
your original example sentences are
totally correct
yes but they just have very different
meanings so think about it are you
talking about one specific movie and
what things are happening in that movie
or are you talking about a group of
movies so this example is just about
movies yes but you can apply the same
idea to many other situations too so I
hope that this helps you thanks very
much for the question ok let’s move on
to your next question next question
comes from on health hello again on
health on how says hi Alicia and team
could you please explain the meaning of
the word whatsoever
sure okay whatsoever means at all or of
any kind so you could replace whatsoever
in a sentence with of any kind and it
would still make sense we tend to use
this a lot in negative situations like
when we’re saying you cannot do
something so it’s used a lot for like
rules or policies or whatever for
example students may use no devices
whatsoever he gave no hints whatsoever
about the new product we had no help
whatsoever with our homework so in each
of these example sentences we could
replace whatsoever with of any kind and
it would still make sense so again this
is not so commonly used in everyday
speech because it’s used a lot to talk
about policies and rules and it kind of
sounds a little bit on the formal side a
little bit but if you’re ever not sure
just try replacing whatsoever with of
any kind and see if it makes sense so
that’s what whatsoever means I hope that
it helps you thanks for the question ok
let’s move on to your next question next
question comes from side OSA thohir
hello side OSA Saito’s SS hi Alicia can
I learn English with lyrics from songs
umm yes to some degree sure we get this
question every once in a while so here
are a few reminders first of all please
remember that the lyrics to songs may
not always be grammatically correct
while yes we can communicate ideas and
we can
feelings through songs songs do not
always use perfect grammar ii keep in
mind that in many songs there are like
slang vocabulary words or inappropriate
vocabulary words are offensive
vocabulary where it’s used also the
vocabulary words by one artist or by one
singer may not be used in everyday
speech very much or may not be used in
the people like in conversation with the
kinds of people you are used to speaking
with so for example if you really like I
don’t know country music or if you
really like rap music but a lot of the
people that you talk to really like pop
music or rock music or something like
that you might find that like they don’t
use the same words or they’re not
commonly liked using the kinds of
expressions that your favorite singers
are using so that’s something else to
keep in mind another thing to think
about is the rhythm so in song it’s
great it’s very important to have a
certain rhythm so that people can enjoy
music but this is very different in many
cases from the way that we actually
speak in everyday life so if you can
understand a song that’s great but that
doesn’t mean that you can apply the same
rhythm when you’re speaking so like rap
for example most people don’t speak in
the same way as they sing or when they
perform like rap songs so that’s another
thing to keep in mind finally remember
that even if you can fluently sing a
song it doesn’t mean that you can
fluently communicate in English so maybe
you can remember all the words to your
favorite song that’s great that’s fun
it’s a great study tool a great
motivator for sure but that doesn’t mean
that you can automatically use all of
those words or you can communicate well
in English with those things that you’ve
learned they’re kind of like supplements
they’re like extra bonuses for your
study so don’t use only song lyrics like
they can be really helpful and they can
help you to identify with culture and
make friends and stuff but I would
suggest maybe using that a little bit
using lyrics from songs a little bit and
it’s important to keep those reminders
in mind that I talked about do so I hope
that this helps you and good luck with
your studies okay let’s
to your next question next question
comes from Maxine Maxine Maxine says hi
Alicia how do I use regardless and
regardless of thanks a nice question we
use regardless at the beginning or at
the end of a sentence you may also see
it used to like connect to ideas in the
middle of a sentence some examples well
I left my phone at home regardless I’m
going to enjoy my day our team is under
a tight schedule regardless everyone is
happy
I see you’ve prepared a lovely meal I
have to leave regardless on the other
hand we use regardless of before a noun
phrase regardless of the managers
decision I think our team did a great
job we should respect other people
regardless of their race
so regardless of is used before a noun
phrase regardless without of typically
comes at the beginning or at the end of
a sentence I hope that this helps you
thanks very much for the question ok
that is everything that I have for this
week thank you as always for sending
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English Studies thanks very much for
watching this week’s episode of ask
Alisha and I will see you again next
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