Understand FAST English Conversations Advanced Listening Practice
Hello, hello.
Welcome to this live English lesson here on
this Speak English with Vanessa YouTube channel.
I’m so glad that you’re taking time today
to improve your English at the end of 2017.
I hope that you’ll make some resolutions to
continue to improve your English in the New
Year, 2018.
Today we’re gonna talk about the great way
to understand fast English.
Today we’re gonna practice it.
I’m gonna talk about how to do it.
Then we’re gonna practice it.
And then you’ll have a chance to continue
to use this style in 2018, and join the 30
Day Listening Challenge.
But first, let’s talk about how can you understand
fast native speakers.
A lot of people say that if you just keep
listening to English, if you just listen like
a child again, and again, and again, you’re
gonna understand, eventually.
But, it takes children a long time, several
years, of listening 24/7, all the time, to
be able to speak clear sentences.
And, you’re an adult.
You don’t have to wait that long to be able
to use clear sentences.
You don’t have to wait that long to understand
native speakers.
The best way to understand native speakers
is to study and analyze native speaker conversations.
Try to understand each word.
And use that same sentence structure yourself.
We’re gonna use this method, analyzing short
conversations.
Maybe there’s idioms you don’t know.
Maybe there’s phrasal verbs you don’t know.
We’re gonna use this method together.
I hope that you have a pencil ready.
I hope you have a piece of paper ready.
You can write on your phone, or on another
device.
But, I recommend using a piece of paper.
There’s something about physically writing
that helps our brains to soak in the material
that we’re learning.
If you are joining me live for this lesson,
welcome.
Thank you so much.
If you are watching the replay, excellent.
You are welcome here.
I want to welcome all my friends who are here
live from China, and Brazil, and Turkey, and
Syria, India, Chili, Thailand.
Thank you for joining from around the world.
It’s a great thought to think that our cultures
are different, our backgrounds are different.
Our families are different.
But, all of us have something in common.
We feel passionate about English.
And that’s a really cool thought, I think,
because we have a lot of differences but,
yet we have a great similarity.
So, if you met a friend from China, or a friend
from Brazil, or a friend from Turkey, you
would have something in common.
You could talk about something passionately.
That’s so cool.
But the first step is to be able to talk.
So, we’re gonna talk about using that skill
of understanding to be able to improve your
speaking skills.
Today, I’m gonna help you with four steps.
There are four steps in this analyzing process.
We’re gonna be listening to a fast English
conversation clip.
That’s the first step.
Then, we’re gonna listen to a slow version.
This slow version is really slow and unnatural.
Unnatural means it’s kind of too slow.
But, the purpose is to help you hear each
word.
I want you to hear each word yourself, and
then, when you hear that fast version again,
you’ll say, “Oh, I understand this.
I can hear every word.”
Your ears and your listening skills will improve.
So that’s the second step, listen to the slow
clip.
The third step is to write everything that
you hear.
So, as you’re listening to the fast clip,
as you’re listening to the slow clip, I want
you to write down what you hear.
I’m gonna show you on this screen a sample
idea of how you can write our your answer.
It’s just gonna be a couple minutes.
And then, the final step, the fourth step
is to check your writing to see if it’s accurate.
We’re gonna look at the transcript of that
fast conversation, so that you can see, “Did
I understand correctly>?
Which words are difficult for me?
How can I improve?”
And, at the end of this lesson, you’re gonna
be able to know a new idiom, a useful idiom.
And also, you’ll be able to know which sounds
and ideas are challenging for you based on
your transcript and your writing.
This is a really active lesson.
I want you to participate and use what you’re
listening to.
It’s quite possible that some friends might
write their answers in the chat box.
If you don’t wanna see other friends' answers
before you write your own answers, you can
close the chat box.
You can cover it.
It’s up to you.
But I just wanna let you know that other friends
might write in the chat box publicly.
So, if you want to use the lesson yourself,
you don’t wanna use their answers, make sure
that you’re working hard.
If you have any questions about this concept,
or how to use it, feel free to ask me in the
live chat.
I’ll try my best to answer.
And, we’re gonna get started with the fast
audio clip.
I’m gonna play the audio clip three times.
I’m gonna play it three times.
It’s quite fast.
So it’s only 30 seconds or so.
The audio will be about one and a half minutes.
I’m gonna play the fast clip three times.
And then, I’m going to come back, say a few
words, and then we’re gonna listen to the
slow version three times.
During those three times, I want you to be
writing what you think you hear.
Actually, before we watch the fast clip, I
wanna show you my screen.
I’m gonna show you the style of writing that
you can be doing write now.
All right.
I’m gonna share my screen with you.
You’re gonna see a PDF file.
This PDF file is, if you decide to join the
30 Day Listening Challenge, which is gonna
be January 1st to January 30th, the first
couple days of the New Year, January as well,
you’re gonna receive this on day nine.
So this is the day nine challenge I am sharing
with you today.
I wanna show you the worksheet.
This is kind of what you’re writing should
look like.
Here you have the day nine worksheet, is similar
to this.
Here we have three people.
Chris is my neighbor.
He is gonna be talking about encouraging yourself.
So, this is a little summary of our conversation.
It says, “This clip is from a conversation
with Chris about encouraging yourself when
you’re doing something new.”
We’re gonna hear an important idiom about
encouraging yourself.
You’re gonna hear an important phrasal verb,
and on your paper, you can write exactly like
this:
Chris:
Vanessa:
Chris:
There’s gonna be three parts to this conversation.
So make sure that you write down each part:
Chris’s part, my part, and then Chris’s part.
What I’m going to do is, I’m going to play
this original audio.
Then I’ll come back to the video for just
a moment.
I’m gonna play the slow audio.
And then we’ll take a look at the transcript
so that you can see how you did.
All right.
I’m gonna stop sharing my screen with you
for a moment.
We will listen to the slow audio.
So you’ll hear my voice, and you’ll hear Chris’s
voice.
But you’ll just see my face.
All right.
You ready?
I’m going to play this for you.
In order to play it for you, I need to turn
off my microphone.
So, be patient for just a moment.
We’re gonna listen to the fast audio three
times.
Prepare your ears.
Are you ready?
Let’s listen.
Day nine, Balance.
Chris: ‘Cause you need to have checks and
balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
Like, you need to have that balance.
Right?
Vanessa: Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.
Chris: Right.
Vanessa: Day nine, balance.
Chris: ‘Cause you need to have checks and
balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
Like, you need to have that balance.
Right?
Vanessa: Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.
Chris: Right.
Vanessa: Day nine, Balance.
Chris: ‘Cause you need to have checks and
balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
Like, you need to have that balance.
Right?
Vanessa: Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.
Chris: Right.
Vanessa: Okay.
That was the fast version, three times.
If you feel right now like, “Oh my goodness.
That was so fast.
How will I ever understand that?”
Don’t worry.
Chris is talking normally.
All native English speakers will be able to
understand him.
But, this is not a slow teacher style conversation.
This is fast, and, similar to what you’re
gonna hear in TV shows and movies.
And, when you are talking in an English business
meeting, when you’re going to Disney World,
or moving to a new country, you’re not gonna
hear people speak slowly like this.
They’re gonna speak fast like Chris and I
did.
So that’s where you need to train your ears
to be able to understand him.
And when you can understand him, you can start
to use English like that as well.
Understanding is the first step.
So, take a deep breath.
And, we’re gonna listen to the slow version
three times.
This is your chance to write everything that
you hear.
If three times isn’t enough for you, if you
decide to join the 30 Day Listening Challenge,
these files you can download.
You can listen to them as many times as you
want.
You can pause the file, go back, listen to
one part again, again, and again.
It’s your choice.
So, if this is too short, don’t worry.
This is just our practice session.
After this live lesson is finished, you can
go back and pause this part again and again
and listen to it as much as you want.
So we’re gonna listen to the slow version.
I’m gonna change my microphone to my speaker.
I hope that this will be easier to understand.
This is quite slow.
I’m gonna be reading this slowly.
Are you ready?
Let’s listen to the slow version.
Day nine, balance.
Chris: ‘Cause you need to have checks and
balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
You need to have that balance.
Right?
Vanessa: Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.
Chris: Right.
Vanessa: Day nine, Balance.
Chris: ‘Cause you need to have checks and
balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
You need to have that balance.
Right?
Vanessa: Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.
Chris: Right.
Vanessa: Day nine, Balance.
Chris: ‘Cause you need to have checks and
balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
You need to have that balance.
Right?
Vanessa: Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.
Chris: Right.
Vanessa: All right.
How did you do?
Let me know in the chat box if you feel like
you did pretty well.
Could you understand and write most of these
words?
Did you hear them accurately?
Take a deep breath if you feel like it’s too
much.
The purpose of this is to give you a general
idea of this method.
And, you can go back and listen to the slow
clip, listen to that fast clip, as much as
you want.
This is just a practice version.
I’m gonna give you a moment to finish writing.
And then we’re gonna look at the transcript.
And, if you did well, you’ll be able to see
each word accurately.
If you missed some words, this is an excellent
time to see which words were hard for you
to understand?
There is a great idiom in here we’re gonna
talk about.
And we’re gonna talk about an important concept
that was talked about in this short clip.
If you understood the whole meaning of the
clip, you’ll have an idea what it is.
Let’s take a look at the transcript for this
clip.
I’m gonna share my screen and show you the
transcript.
Okay.
Here we have the transcript for this section.
At the beginning we have everything that was
said in that short clip.
And then down here, we have some important
vocabulary that we’re gonna talk about.
First of all, Chris said, “‘Cause you need
to have checks and balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
You need to have that balance.
Right?”
“Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.”
“Right.”
Okay, so here we have that audio from the
conversation.
But there’s a lot of important words that
we talked about.
Before we talk about these words down here,
I’m going to stop sharing my screen, and I’m
gonna see how you did.
Let me know in the chat box how you did.
Which words did you get?
Which words did you not get?
And if you didn’t have a chance to see this
completely, we’re gonna come back to this
page so that you can see these new vocabulary
words.
We’re gonna talk about these new vocabulary
words.
Each day in the 30 Day Listening Challenge
here, each day, I have three words from that
short clip that I give a definition to, that
I explain a little bit, give some samples.
That way you’re growing your vocabulary day
by day, and it will help you to hear those
expressions correctly.
Let’s go back to my video and see how you
did.
All right.
Let me know how was your listening skills
for this quick conversation?
This conversation was just, really, a couple
seconds.
But, he used some important words, and spoke
really quickly.
Let me know.
Oh, we’ve got a lot of interesting answers.
Some people said, “Great.
I got it.”
Some people said, “Oh, it’s difficult to catch
everything.”
Some people said, “Oh, it was too much.”
Some people said, “When it was slower, it
was easier.
I prefer the slow version.
I got 90%.
And then I got 100% of the slow version.”
“I can understand 70%.”
All right.
Excellent.
For you going from the fast version to the
slow version was helpful, because you could
hear each word.
So now, what we’re gonna do is, I’m gonna
play the fast version.
And I’m gonna show you the transcript at the
same time.
So what we’re gonna do is, we’re gonna listen
to the fast version three times again.
It’s just a couple seconds.
We’re gonna listen to the fast version three
times again.
I’m gonna show you the transcript, so that
you can follow along.
And if you missed something, you’ll hear how
it sounds.
So let’s go back to my screen.
I’m gonna show you the transcript.
And then we’re gonna listen to the fast version,
not the slow version, because the slow version
isn’t the normal one.
That’s just the practice version to help you
study English.
Let’s look at my screen, and follow along
with the original audio.
Day nine …
All right.
I’m going to … there’s always a little technological
stuff you have to do whenever you have a live
video.
So, patience is key.
All right.
Let’s take a look at this.
All right.
Here we have the transcript.
I’m going to play the audio just over here.
I’m gonna play the audio so that you can … follow
along and listen.
Are you ready?
Well, actually I have to do something technological
first.
I’m sorry.
Okay.
We’re back.
Just a moment.
I’m gonna change over my microphone so that
you can hear the audio.
All right.
Let’s listen.
Nine, Balance.
Chris: ‘Cause you need to have checks and
balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
Like, you need to have that balance.
Right?
Vanessa: Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.
Chris: Right.
Vanessa: Day nine, balance.
Chris: ‘Cause you need to have checks and
balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
Like, you need to have that balance.
Right?
Vanessa: Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.
Chris: Right.
Vanessa: Day nine, Balance.
Chris: ‘Cause you need to have checks and
balances.
You need to tell yourself, like, I’m doing
a good job.
And you also need to tell yourself, like,
you’re not doing good enough.
Like, you need to have that balance.
Right?
Vanessa: Yeah, and not be too hard on yourself.
Chris: Right.
Okay.
So, we listened to the audio fast while you
were looking at the transcript.
That’s an important step to test your listening
skills.
Now, we’re gonna talk about the vocabulary.
Feel free to let me know in the chat box how
you did so far.
Let’s take a look at the transcript again
and see the three important expressions.
There’s especially two that I wanna focus
on quickly at the end of this lesson.
The first one is an idiom.
The second one is another important expression
for building yourself up and not feeling too
bad.
Let’s take a look at the transcript.
I’m gonna share my screen again.
All right.
You can see the transcript here.
We’re gonna take a look at these vocabulary
words at the bottom.
The first one is checks and balances.
This is an idiom, as you can imagine, about
balance.
If you make mistakes in English, and you feel
really bad, you just feel devastated, and
think about it the next day, you think about
it the next night, you can’t sleep, that’s
really negative.
That’s not gonna help your mindset.
That’s one extreme.
The other extreme is that you don’t really
care about improving.
You say, “Oh, I can say my name.
I can talk about the weather.
That’s all.
I don’t need any more.”
But, if you wanna improve, you’re gonna have
to be in the middle somewhere.
You can’t be too extreme on one side or the
other.
You can’t be negative.
You can’t be completely positive.
You have to be in the middle.
So that’s the expression that Chris used,
“checks and balances.”
I wrote here that this is an idiom about the
government.
Usually we talk about this when we talk about
the President, that he needs checks and balances.
He needs a parliament.
He needs a Congress.
He needs advisors, people who will make sure
that he doesn’t become a king, or a dictator,
or someone who is the only person in control.
So he needs checks and balances.
But here, we’re talking about the mental idea
that you don’t wanna be too negative.
You don’t wanna be too positive.
You need to be in the middle.
So he gave a perfect example of this in the
conversation.
He said, “On one side, I’m doing good job.
And on the other side, you’re not doing good
enough.”
And, if you have any questions about doing
good enough, here we see that this is, you’re
doing it well, but it’s just not enough.
It’s not acceptable.
So, you need to balance that in your mind.
And if you feel like that’s difficult for
you, if it’s difficult for you to tell yourself,
“I’m doing a good job,” you can use the third
expression.
The third expression is to be hard on yourself,
to be hard on yourself.
I said, “Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
You can see that here in this quick clip.
We’ve got a lot of expressions in this quick
clip.
“Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
This means, as I wrote here, you’re working
hard, but it’s never enough.
It’s never good enough.
So, of course, it’s good to always be working
and always be trying to improve.
But, at the same time, you have to be satisfied
with your progress.
You have to have some kind of positivity about
your work, because if you never feel positive,
then you’re gonna quit.
It’s not gonna be easy to continue.
So, don’t be too hard on yourself.
You can say, “Oh, I need to improve more.”
But, if you always are thinking, “Oh, my English
is always terrible.
I’m never gonna improve.
This is just impossible,” well, you’re gonna
quit because it’s not fun to study something
where you have such a negative mindset.
All right.
I’m gonna go back to my video here.
I hope that, for you, you are not feeling
like you are too hard on yourself.
I hope that you use this concept, literally,
in your life.
That you will encourage yourself, but you
will have some checks and balances.
You’ll say, “I’m doing good, but I’m not doing
good enough.
I have improved.
I have progressed.
But, I need to improve more.”
This is the perfect balance for really anything
that you’re learning.
I hope that it will help your mindset.
I hope that it will help you to not be too
hard on yourself.
So, as you can see from this short clip, we
can learn a lot.
We can learn some good concepts.
We can also learn vocabulary.
You’re gonna hear that expression, “checks
and balances,” and “hard on yourself.”
You’re gonna hear those in daily conversations
in your office.
You’re gonna hear them in TV shows and movies.
I hope that it will help you to understand
native speakers even better.
Let me know in the chat box.
Are any of these expressions new to you?
Have you heard checks and balances?
Have you used good enough or not good enough?
Have you used to be hard on yourself?
Have you used those before?
Have you heard them before?
Let me know in the chat box.
And let me know if this whole concept of studying
fast conversations, slow conversations, checking
your writing, if that’s useful to you.
Because, if it’s useful to you, I want to
invite you to continue using this.
Right now, from December 19th until December
31st, 2017, the 30 Day Listening Challenge
is open to join.
On December 31st, it’s gonna close, because
on January 1st, it opens.
So you need to join before it closes.
We’re gonna be studying this exact method
every day in January.
Even though this live lesson is 30 minutes
or so, when you’re studying by yourself, it’s
only five to 10 minutes.
You can just listen to the clip, listen again,
and again, and again.
Write down your answers.
Check with the transcript.
Listen again.
And you’ll see, day by day, your listening
skills are improving.
There are 30 clips like the one that we looked
at today.
So, by the end of the month, you’re gonna
know a lot of expressions, a lot of idioms.
You’re gonna test your ears every day.
And you’ll also know which ideas and concepts,
and sounds are difficult for you.
That’s gonna help you improve your listening,
but also, ultimately, improve your speaking,
because you’re gonna be able to imitate those
things and learn them, and put them into your
memory to be used when you speak English.
So, if you would like to join the 30 Day Listening
Challenge, I’m gonna share my screen one final
time with you today.
All right.
Let’s take a look at … my screen.
Here we have … the page.
There is a link in the description below this
video, speakenglishwithvanessa.com/listening.
That is this page you can see here at the
top.
Speakenglishwithvanessa.com/listening.
At the time of this live lesson, there are
five days left to join the course.
You can click here to join the Challenge.
Clear and simple.
But you’ll also be able to learn more information
about the course.
So, if this practice lesson, today, was useful
to you, but you have some questions, feel
free to check out another sample here.
You can check out the bonuses that you’ll
receive.
The challenge is $30.00.
So 30 day challenge for $30.00.
That’s a dollar per day.
And, you’ll be able to download all of this
material and keep it.
So you could do the challenge every day of
this year if you wanted.
You could repeat it 12 times.
That’s your choice.
And there are a bunch of questions at the
bottom, frequently asked questions.
Can I download the lessons?
Yes.
How much will it be?
$30.00.
You can click on each of these questions and
see the answer.
So if you have any questions about the course,
feel free to check this out.
When the course closes, on
December 31st, if you’re watching this after
December 31st, click on the link in the description
to see when the next listening challenge will
be, because a lot of people have joined already,
and will go through the course.
I hope that they will have positive things
to say about this amazing month long challenge
so we can do it again with new clips.
You could join this old challenge in the future.
But, it’s best to join the first time, because
it might happen again.
It might not happen again, and this is gonna
be our fun New Year’s Resolution.
I hope that you will take the challenge and
decide, “I’m gonna improve my English in 2018.
I’m gonna improve my listening skills, challenge
myself a little bit every day.”
Five to 10 minutes is all that it will take.
I hope that this video today was useful for
you, was fun to challenge yourself and try
to understand fast conversation.
Feel free to go back and practice it again.
I hope that you will continue to learn English
with me in the New Year.
In January, join me in the 30 Day Listening
Challenge.
The link, in the description, or go to SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com/listening.
Thanks so much for learning with me today
at this live lesson.
I really appreciate it.
Continue to improve your English.
Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Enjoy it.
Thanks so much!
I’ll see you later.
Bye.