Learn Prepositions with Feel Good English Advanced English Conversation
hi i’m vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm today i have a special
guest for you he’s kevin from the feel
good english website today we’re gonna
be talking about prepositions would you
like to improve your prepositions let’s
see what he has to say about it hi kevin
thanks for joining me today yeah hello
Vanessa how are you oh I’m doing great
I’m glad to introduce you to my audience
and share some of your awesome English
knowledge with English learners around
the world well thanks for having me I
have to say it’s very nice looking at
somebody who has such a big smile on her
face
well gotta learn English with joy with
happiness yes yes the some of my
audience might already listen to your
podcast be familiar with your material
but if they are new to you can you
introduce yourself tell us a little bit
about what you do yes so my name is
Kevin um
I am from Colorado I live in Denver
right now and I spent the last eight
years in Brazil some of you may be know
me from my last site it’s called English
ninja it was kind of teaching English to
Brazilians stopped out about a year ago
and then a couple months ago I started
my news my new website and podcasts
called the feel-good English podcasts
and what I do
I’ve been somebody who always tries to
learn lessons to improve myself to
become better to simplify to become
better at life through reading books on
other people that have had a longer
journey than me and who have found
success through various means and they
put all of their their lessons and their
insights into books and so I read the
books and try to apply some of those
lessons and integrate them into my life
what I’ve been doing now is feel good
English is taking these lessons that are
not only good for my life but also can
help English learners around the world
and kind of simplify them put them into
shorter English lessons and put them on
my podcast so
ways to improve your English to listen
and to learn new English but also learn
lessons that can help you become better
and become a better version of yourself
in life in your career and in English
yeah that sounds like a beautiful way to
learn English it’s not just grammar and
vocabulary but improving your personal
life through English sure we have the
famous expression in English killing two
birds with one stone so means you can do
two to two things you can accomplish two
things with one action so you can
improve your English and learn valuable
life lessons at the same time yeah and
you’ve got some interesting interviewees
also on your podcast so English learners
can get a chance to hear your voice hear
about the books that you read but also
hear about what other English speakers
English teachers might be interested in
as well that’s great to hear to people
sure yeah there’s a lot of interesting
people out there and it’s cool to see
what what people are interested in and
what they’ve connected with and just
kind of make these people seem more real
and connecting with these people through
my podcast has been a real joy and I’m
sure English learners if they haven’t
checked out your podcast will love it
I’ll make sure I put all the links in
the description below this video but
thanks so much for making such a cool
resource for people to learn English
through self-improvement sure yeah I
hope they find the value that that it
provides if they’re into into themselves
yeah oh definitely definitely and today
I wanted to ask you some questions about
a specific topic that English learners
ask me about a lot it seems to be a
challenging thing because there are
small words prepositions sure yeah oh
yeah the evil prepositions yeah they
seem to always get you should I say in
the office at the office on the office
yeah sure so you you have written we’ll
talk about this later as well you’ve
written a course that’s gonna help
English learners with
several different challenging topics in
English so we’ll talk about that at the
end of our conversation but part of that
course is prepositions so do you have
any tips or ideas about how can English
learners master prepositions what do you
think so yeah in in prepositions are
probably if not the most challenging
aspect of learning English definitely
one of the top two or three over the
years of teaching and I spent eight
years as a private teacher and taught
more than 7,000 hours of private classes
after that time you definitely see which
problem students have and the most
common problems and mistakes that they
make prepositions definitely being one
of them
my approach to learning a language ie
in over the years I’ve tried different
methods and different ways of improving
and just watching my students and kind
of getting an overall average of how
that how the typical student learns my
approach is making it as easy and
natural as possible so students can
continue to enjoy learning so they don’t
get too frustrated and stop and also
realizing that most English learners
don’t love learning English a lot of
times it’s it’s it’s something they need
because this these days everybody needs
to connect to the world you need to be
to learn English and something that I
can bring to them being an American is
help them learn English so making it
more enjoyable less stressful and in
teaching them ways that they can improve
things like prepositions without having
to sit down at a desk and study for
hours which if specially prepositions if
you’re doing that with prepositions
you’re gonna you know shoot yourself
after a couple days because it’s very
frustrating
so I would say there’s there’s basically
two ways you can attack
or you can improve prepositions and the
first one would be doing it naturally
what I mean by naturally is is a lot of
input input is when you’re reading and
listening to English and there’s
obviously millions of different things
you can listen to there’s different
ideas of what you should listen to how
you should listen to online there’s so
many options of lessons but the basic
idea is listening and reading as much as
possible and you can go deeper with this
and finding content that sisters
interesting to you and that inspires you
and that helps you in your life and your
career so finding content that can help
you with that or just doing a lot is
much reading and listening as possible
it’s it’s the it’s the easiest way
because you’re not focusing on any one
thing you’re not really focusing on
prepositions but over time what happens
is you begin to recognize how English
sounds so you don’t need to think about
which preposition goes where but you
will know that if you use this
preposition I’m at the store it sounds
right I’m in the store okay I’m inside
the store I’m at the store okay I’m here
and so you use these different
prepositions you say that doesn’t sound
right
why do you notice this because they’re
listening to native speakers you have
learned to recognize the sounds of
English and and this takes time so on
one hand it’s the easiest and because
you’re just listening and reading on the
other hand it does take more time
because you need to get to the point
where you can recognize this and it’s
not something quick one big factor here
is repetition if you go to an
english-speaking country and you’re
there first of all talking about English
if you go to an english-speaking country
you have to want to learn English you
can’t just go there and then you know go
to the beach and you know hang out and
then not in an you know just
automatically learn so going to an
english-speaking country wanting to
learn English will
is the first step but then what happens
when you’re in an english-speaking
country is you hear the same things over
and over and over naturally without even
trying in the streets from your friends
from who you were around you’re just
gonna hear the same things over and over
that’s why people become fluent or
become the English speakers when they
have time in another country because
when you spend that extra time you can
take in a lot of material sure yeah
you’re taking it in just by just by
being there you have to notice it but
you do take it in by by being there so
you don’t have to go to an
english-speaking country to become an
excellent excellent speaker but you do
need to do is get that repetition so
wherever you are in the world if you
find cool audio lessons or cool podcasts
or whatever that may be listening to it
and repeating it over and over and over
let’s say you find a podcast episode and
you listen to it five times over the
week or ten times or however the more
you listen the better letting your brain
naturally hear these these things these
same things over and over and over will
make it connect with the sounds and know
which preposition to use without having
to think about why it’s correct so
that’s a natural approach yeah yeah
whenever you have to ask why why this
preposition why this preposition it
caught it it frustrates a lot of
students now the the students I love
English they always ask why why this why
this word why not here why this and then
the teacher has to explain for ten
minutes why this exists and that’s great
but a lot of students aren’t like that
and when you start asking why it just
gets confusing I never learned well both
like I speak Portuguese fluently I
rarely asked why I had to sometimes but
obviously with English as growing up his
baby I never in my whole entire life
asked why this preposition at once
Vanessa did you ever ask growing up why
this preposition definitely not right
and of course we’re native English
speakers but on the other hand as
children
we don’t take English classes it’s just
so much repetition and you’re hearing
the same things over and over and over
then I’m sure when you’re a baby you
make mistake not a baby but when you’re
you know two three four years old you
make mistakes with prepositions but you
know by the time you’re you know five
six seven we’re speaking naturally and
we’ve just heard the same things over
and over and over so summarizing that
first method naturally you can do it
easily it takes more time but you do
have to find content repeat it as much
as you can and use these lessons as
almost your English immersion so you’re
hearing the same things over and over
and over and then over time you will
speak without thinking about it and say
oh wow that sounds good
yeah I loved it whenever my students
have said something and it was beautiful
English and I told them hey you just
made this sentence that was complex you
use the right prepositions you said this
exactly like a native speaker and I know
you didn’t think about it you just said
it naturally that’s such a wonderful
moment
so if English learners follow the method
you’re talking about listening emerged
and were seeing yourself as much as
possible with English it’s just gonna
come out and it might take more time as
kids it takes us several years to be
able to speak instantly but it’s gonna
be interesting if you’re using that
interesting material either fully you
can find something that’s great your
podcasts YouTube and really immerse
yourself no matter where you live right
yeah it feels great when you get to the
point of being able to speak without
thinking too much about it and one thing
that happens in schools do this to
students and the traditional ways of
learning is they want to make you think
so much about the correct forms and you
spend more time thinking about how to
say something than actually practicing
and using the language so that’s not
what I want to happen that’s that that’s
an approach for people that love English
or that love going to school that’s
there but there’s other ways to learn
and I’ve proven I threw myself so many
students that I’ve had that have proven
that you can become a great English
speaker
learning naturally and living your life
through English and so that’s the first
approach the second approach the other
way you can attack prepositions let’s
say you are going to take a ILS test or
the TOEFL test or something like that
and hopefully you have to have at least
a couple months to prepare for this
usually you need more time than this
because these are tough because they’ll
test you on prepositions the biggest
thing about prepositions and I guess the
easiest way that you can look at this as
prepositions are attached to words so
these are prepositional combinations so
prepositional phrases certain words
certain verbs a lot of times come with
certain prepositions so you’ll find
lists you’ll find books and you’ll
realize that you have to learn these
combinations and in the beginning it’s
hard and this is the harder approach
however it’s kind of the only way to
learn them quickly and if you had a list
of prepositions and then figured out
what words go over those prepositions or
where to use those are asking why at why
on that doesn’t work because there’s so
many exceptions to the rules and so many
times purposes just don’t make sense
like there’s literally no sense but
learning combinations of these words
with this preposition in like I said a
lot of times these are verbs and come
from go to things like this like
learning these prepositional phrases
apply to a job or apply for a job things
like this learning these combinations
together is a way that you can really
study them deeply and how are you going
to do that find resources study these
lists make sentences with them a way to
really speed up this process is to learn
prepositional combinations and then
produce language with them speaking with
your teacher or writing things with them
there’s a great website called laying 8e
calm laying lang-8
it’s a free website you go there you can
write sentences and then other people
around the world correct your sentences
in time where you made mistakes and the
only thing that you have to do is
correct other people sentences so you
speak Portuguese people will be
practicing their Portuguese go on there
and fix their sentences and you put your
sentences up there practicing with your
prepositions and they can make
corrections on that so it’s a great way
to to produce the language and to test
out into practice with prepositions yeah
that’s a huge thing is using it
producing and creating language is if
you just intake and take in information
all day listen to things but you hardly
ever write or speak you’ll have that
passive knowledge but when it comes time
to meet a native speaker or talk to your
clients in English that’s gonna be
really challenging scary nervous yeah
you have to get the practice for sure
yeah yeah and there’s a lot of ways
people can do that I know there’s a lot
of resources out there for using English
but the key is you gotta do it sure yeah
you have to do it in and I think one of
the biggest things that I do in my
teaching in overtime is helping people
build confidence just confidence is what
blocks a lot of them they ain’t English
learners it blocks them from becoming
good English speakers the information
could be here and a lot of these times
these people they study well so an
example somebody that’s done a lot of
English reading and really understands
just about anything you’ll say anything
they read but speaking is a problem the
information is here but there’s that
block that confidence block and if I can
help them become more confident through
different challenges and realizing you
know it’s really not about perfection
it’s about connecting with people and
about being able to express yourself and
have them being comfortable with that
then you’ll see big big changes there
you know a lot of that comes down to the
stood that they’ve used to study English
in the past like you’re saying about
prepositions a lot of people feel real
stressed out about the rules and all the
exceptions but that’s probably because
in school we were told red X this is
wrong you can’t say this you have a bad
grade and stress is just related to
learning language when in reality when
you actually talk with someone in
English if you say something wrong or
they don’t understand you and they have
to say oh what did you say you don’t get
a big X in life it’s just connecting
with someone else so that method of
learning needs to be changed like you’re
talking about learn phrases don’t stress
about the rules the different things
that you have to learn specifically you
just think about the whole picture the
phrases right yeah right and how you you
know communication is connecting with
somebody and getting your point across
and that’s what we want right yes so I
guess summarizing that that this whole
prepositional thing like in my course
how I teach prepositions is through
helping it students recognize these
combinations and knowing that they
exists and then giving them materials
and audios that show that these in
inside these audios there are these
prepositional phrases combinations but
you don’t have to focus on them what you
just do is you listen to them a lot and
you repeat and repeat and you start
paying attention and you start looking
for them while you’re doing your
enjoyable fun English practice oh yeah
so let’s say you take a month of okay
prepositions is something I want to work
on so then for that month you’re not
gonna get a book with 4,000 prepositions
prepositions who has time for that and
also if you learned them and this is an
important point even if you learn them
in a book like the lists when it comes
time to speaking it will be very hard to
use them correctly I think there’s two
there’s a separation between learning
something in a book and then speaking
with it correctly maybe - as you’ve
noticed Vanessa you can teach something
for an hour and they get it
but then when they relax and okay let’s
just have a conversation they’ll make
the same mistake and it’s it’s not the
same I don’t think it’s it’s it’s a
different type when you’re just relaxing
and speaking and and just trying to
connect with somebody it’s very
different than when you’re trying to get
something right on a piece of paper
sure so just paying attention to
prepositions for a month and listening
and learning how these ones go with
these words and these verbs go with
these prepositions and just in just
bringing your awareness bringing your
attention to that can really help in the
preposition course that I have that’s
that’s how I present this prepositional
learning first great great let’s let’s
talk about that course because I think
that’s gonna be a great resource for
English learners who are watching this
if you’re watching this share it with
your friends who might also want to
improve their prepositions and overall
fluency can you tell us a little bit
about your your course it’s not just
prepositions but that’s a wonderful
piece of it can you tell us about it
yes sir sir so like I said after many
years of teaching and 7,000 plus hours
of teaching which is crazy but the four
areas that I found or give the most
challenges to to them to the majority of
English learners are one prepositions
two phrasal verbs go pick up drop off
and bring up these types of things
pronunciation sounding more natural when
you’re speaking so people can understand
you and also you can actually understand
them better and the last one is the
present perfect tense I have been I have
seen I have been reading a lot so those
four areas I call the four p’s in this
course attacks those four problems and
of course I can’t teach you how to use
those perfectly in a month but I can
teach you how to learn them and how to
to spend time on each area so you can
improve on each area over time so with
example prepositions you’re going to
look for this
you’re gonna do this when you’re
listening and reading to your fun
content and then phrasal verbs would be
the same these are how phrasal verbs
work these are what you’re gonna do this
is what you’re gonna do when you find
them and you’re gonna start putting
bringing your awareness to them when
you’re listening to your content and
you’re reading things and so tacking the
four pieces the name of the course
teaching you how to think about and how
to learn and also how to relieve some of
your stress and frustration about these
areas to to make them not so scary to
make them not such a big deal so I think
that’s our goal to as English teachers
is to be more of a guide we’re giving
the tools to people to learn English in
a natural way because we can’t be their
brains you can’t cut out my brain and
put it in there is you have to just give
the tools to learn prepositions phrasal
verbs these things you mentioned so
you’re giving them what they need to
improve and that’s gonna be really
valuable yeah I kind of base it may be
on my style I get I like there’s so much
content online I I get word or or not
even board but distracted by something
else all the time so for a day I’m
reading this and then oh this is great
I’m gonna do this every day and then the
next day oh no way but there’s this oh
but then there’s this and there’s all
this different contents online videos
and websites and books and courses and
PDFs and it’s very hard for me to stick
with one thing so if I can teach
students well you don’t have to stick
with one thing you can choose whatever
you want however think about these
certain English aspects while you’re
doing that and look for these certain
things and take this information and
break it down and put it into this
worksheet which will improve your
English but don’t focus too much on that
English depart first on what you want to
use to entertain yourself or to learn or
to do whatever whatever you’re doing at
that particular moment I love that
spirit of collaboration like what we’re
doing now you’re an English teacher I’m
an English
teacher were showing people exactly what
you said that it’s good it’s valuable to
use more than one source if you just
learned with one person like if you just
talked with your mom when you were a
child and you never talked to anyone
else
your Lakewood would probably be a little
strange you might sound kind of like a
robot just this one person so you gotta
introduce yourself to multiple English
speakers and teachers though you’re
telling people hey it’s okay if you want
to learn from this person and this
person and this person great but make
sure that you’re gonna use these tools
and these techniques to get the most out
of what your need which is great I’m
glad that you’ve compiled that organized
resource sometimes we just need
organization in our game at work
excellent and thanks so much for
describing just the process of learning
prepositions in a natural way hopefully
without stress and this resource in your
course is gonna be excellent for
learning those in a more organized way
yes you’re kind of a stress relieving
source resources excellent excellent
well I will leave all of the links to
your website your podcast your course in
the description below I’ll put them on
the screen that way everyone can check
them out and thanks so much for doing
this interview this mini lesson for the
world that’s great and I have to say
Vanessa you are such a nice girl such a
wonderful smile I think if I was
learning English I would have to have
classes because um thank you
I hope so I try to bring some joy and
happiness my middle name is joy there
you go perfect I think it’s important
because a lot of people have had like we
talked about that stress when learning
English so gotta overcome that and have
fun so thanks so much Kevin I really
appreciate it thanks Vanessa wonderful
talking to you yes yeah see you again
the next time Kevin bye thanks so much
for watching this interview with Kevin
from feel-good English to learn more
what
Kevin you can click on the links here on
the screen or in the description below
this video I’m so glad that you joined
me today to hear two native speakers
talking together to help you improve
thanks so much
and see you later bye if you enjoyed
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me bye