Imitation Lesson Weekend Plans Speak English clearly and confidently
Hey this is Emma from mmmEnglish!
It’s great to see you again!
So tell me, have you got much planned for the weekend?
It doesn’t matter
where you are in the world, this is a really common
question that gets asked all the time, right?
At work, after class, when you’re just
hanging out with friends.
So do you know how to answer this question
in English, really well?
I know how much you love speaking practice
so in today’s lesson, we’re going to practise
talking about the weekend.
And after this lesson you’re going to be ready with some
really common phrases and expressions
that you can use in conversations all the time
with your workmates, with your classmates
or any other English-speaking mate of yours.
And to make sure that you get the most out of this
lesson, we’re going to be practising with the
mmmEnglish Imitation Technique
and it’s one of the most effective ways that you can
reduce your accent
and fix your pronunciation problems so that you
speak English more clearly and more confidently.
So stay tuned!
If you already know how the Imitation Technique works
then feel free to skip ahead to step one.
It starts right here.
But if you’re new to the Imitation Technique,
well you might be wondering what is it
and how does it work.
This technique is super effective because it teaches you
to listen to the sounds and patterns of English
and it trains you to produce some of those
sounds yourself through repetition
and controlled practice.
But most of all, it’s just a lot of fun.
You’re going to be training your mouth with your ears
by listening to the sounds and imitating them
or copying them
rather than training your mouth with your eyes
by reading and guessing what the pronunciation
and the rhythm of those words are.
Now if you haven’t done a lesson like this before,
stay cool, it’s okay. Don’t worry.
There’s three really simple steps that you need to follow.
And the first one is that you just need to listen
to what I say
and read the words on the screen as I say them.
The second step is you’re going to listen to what I say
but then there’ll be a pause so that you can repeat.
You can copy what I’ve said exactly as I said it.
And this is a step that you can repeat over and over
again until you sound exactly like I do.
And it’s okay to practise this step several times
before you move on to step number three.
You can even slow down the speed of the video
down here so that you can practise slowly first
and then return to normal speed.
And you might want to do that because
step number three is a bit of a challenge
even for a native English speaker.
So you’ll need to listen to what I’m saying but
say it at the same time as I do,
so you’ll speak as I speak.
Now it’s pretty much like
singing along to your favourite song right?
You’re not going to get it perfect the first time you try
and it’s okay to make some mistakes.
We’re going to have fun
and you’ll improve over time with practice.
Today we’re going to be talking about our plans
for the weekend.
So this dialogue is going to be in future tenses because
it hasn’t happened yet, it’s happening in the future.
Now when someone asks you about the weekend,
they might say
“So what’s happening this weekend?
Have you got any plans?”
“So, what are you guys doing on the weekend?”
“What are you guys up to on the weekend?
Got much on?”
Now often your answer might be quite short
especially if you don’t feel comfortable enough
to have a full conversation yet
but after our practice session today,
I’m hoping that you’ll grab the opportunity to share
as much detail as you can in English.
We’re going to be practising a range of expressions
that you can easily adapt to your own situation.
So let’s try.
Step one: listen and read.
This weekend? I’m really looking forward to it, actually!
I’ve got my sister visiting from overseas
so I’m going to be playing tour guide for a few days!
And Saturday’s looking pretty good weather-wise,
so we might go somewhere for breakfast.
Bib and Tucker is my go-to
whenever I have people staying.
Have you been there?
Everything there is amazing
and the view over the ocean is to die for.
So yeah, I think we might start there
since it’s going to be nice.
And then do a bit of exploring.
Maybe we’ll stop in for lunch at the Botanic Gardens.
It’s so beautiful there at this time of year.
They often have free concerts actually,
so that could be pretty cool.
And then on Sunday
I think I’ll take her to the National Gallery
and we’ll probably wander around the markets
for a while.
Actually, my friend’s playing in a band and she’s offered
us free tickets!
So we’ll probably check that out too
as long as we’re not too tired.
So I’ve got a lot planned!
How about you? Have you got much on?
Step two.
So now you need to imitate exactly what I say
and that means you’re trying to copy my pronunciation,
my word stress and the pauses in my sentence.
You can even try and imitate my facial expressions
and body language if you want,
because that’s extra practice
about communicating with more than just words.
There’s going to be a pause after each sentence
so that you can practise with me.
There’ll be time for you to say it too
so just relax and go with the flow.
It’s just you and it’s me, there’s no one else
here right now so let’s just have some fun.
Step two: imitate, listen and copy.
This weekend?
I’m really looking forward to it, actually!
I’ve got my sister visiting from overseas so…
I’m going to be playing tour guide for a few days!
And Saturday’s looking pretty good weather-wise,
so we might go somewhere for breakfast.
Bib and Tucker’s my go-to
whenever I have people staying.
Have you been there?
Everything there is amazing
and the view over the ocean is to die for.
So yeah, I think we might start there
since it’s going to be nice.
And then do a bit of exploring.
Maybe we’ll stop in for lunch at the Botanic Gardens,
it’s so beautiful there at this time of year.
They often have free concerts actually,
so that could be pretty cool.
And then on Sunday
I think I’ll take her to the National Gallery
and we’ll probably wander around the markets
for a while.
Actually, my friends playing in a band
and she’s offered us free tickets!
So, we’ll probably check that out too
as long as we’re not too tired!
So I’ve got a lot planned!
How about you? Have you got much on?
Before we move to step number three,
a really quick shout out to our friends over at Skillshare
who’ve made it possible to bring you this Imitation
Lesson for free.
Skillshare is an online community with
thousands of classes covering all kinds of subjects
that you can do in your spare time
or maybe you could even do them on the weekend.
There are two reasons why I recommend Skillshare
to my students. Firstly because not only are you learning
new skills, but you’re also learning new vocabulary
and real-world expressions
to talk about the things that you’re into.
And secondly, because it’s affordable.
For less than ten dollars a month, you can get access
to a huge range of courses
from teachers around the world.
I find myself using the Skillshare library all the time
whenever I need to upskill. In fact, just this month
my mum has been getting our family home ready to sell
so I thought I’d love to help her to get the place
looking amazing before it goes on the market
and people come around to have a look.
I found a brilliant interior styling course,
taught by a professional stylist that had me
filled with ideas in just over an hour.
It was just the kind of expert guidance that I needed
to make everything happen.
So if you want to try it out, jump online using the link
in the description below this video to get yourself
two months of premium level access for free.
And let me know what Skillshare
courses you end up taking.
Alright let’s get back to step number three.
Now we’re moving on to step three
which is a little more challenging
so don’t forget that you can pause right here,
go back and practise section two
as many times as you need before you keep going.
This is just going to take a little bit of practice.
So now you’re going to shadow me and that means
listening and speaking at the same time.
So try to copy the rhythm and the tone that I use
even if it means that you get yourself a little
tongue-tied for a while there.
It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.
Step three: shadow.
This weekend?
I’m really looking forward to it, actually!
I’ve got my sister visiting from overseas so
I’m going to be playing tour guide for a few days!
And Saturday is looking pretty good weather-wise,
so we might go somewhere for breakfast,
Bib and Tucker’s my go-to
whenever I have people staying.
Have you been there?
Everything there is amazing
and the view over the ocean is to die for.
So yeah, I think we might start there
since it’s going to be nice.
And then do a bit of exploring.
Maybe we’ll stop in for lunch at the Botanic Gardens,
it’s so beautiful there at this time of year.
And they often have free concerts actually,
so that could be pretty cool.
And then on Sunday
I think I’ll take her to the National Gallery
and we’ll probably wander around the markets
for a while.
Actually, my friend’s playing in a band
and she’s offered us free tickets so
we’ll probably check that out too
as long as we’re not too tired.
So, I’ve got a lot planned!
How about you? Have you got much on?
Hey awesome work, that was great practice!
The best thing that you can do is save this lesson
to a playlist and come back to it
to practise it each day or a few times a week.
You’ll be amazed at how much progress you make
in such a short amount of time.
And once you get comfortable talking about
my weekend, you can try adapting it to talk about
your weekend.
In fact, what are you doing this weekend?
What have you got planned?
Let me know down there in the comments.
I’m keen to hear your stories.
And if you have a request for different types
of Imitation Lessons, then make sure
you let me know as well.
If you’d like to support what we do here at mmmEnglish,
we’ve got packs of Imitation Lessons available for sale
via our website.
They’re affordable and they’re going to give you hours
and hours of speaking practice.
The link is in the description below.
Thanks for watching
and I will see you in the next lesson!