How to Improve Your Self Confidence to Speak English with Someone
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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them maybe first
question comes from Carlos hi Carlos
Carlos says when should we use hear or
listen ok here is used to mean just that
sound can reach our ears some sound
comes from outside to our ears so some
example sentences I can’t hear you can
you hear me now what can you hear I can
hear you from across the house can you
hear screaming
so then listen is used to mean focusing
your attention on a sound like you’re
really really trying to focus on
something I like listening to music or
you should listen to your teacher or are
you listening to me why don’t you listen
to something peaceful instead of your
hard rock music that’s what my parents
used to say to me that is a true story
so we use listen to mean focusing our
attention on a sound here just means
something can reach our ears I hope that
that helps you thanks for the question
alright let’s move to your next question
next question comes from Giuliano Salas
hi Giuliano Julianna says hi Alicia how
do I get confidence to speak English
with someone um well practice really so
you have to practice and that means you
have to start slowly of course so that
means you can find a language partner to
practice with maybe in your class or in
your town or maybe online if you can’t
find someone to practice with you can
try using media to practice your
speaking if you need to practice
speaking with someone and you can’t find
anyone in your community I would
recommend looking for someone online
that you can practice with and then
slowly keep leveling up your practice
partner and by that I mean try to always
work to the next stage of someone who
can understand you so peep
who are studying other languages or who
have studied other languages maybe
understand that you don’t speak
perfectly the way that they don’t speak
perfectly and so they’re gonna be more
understanding if you’re trying to speak
with someone who’s not used to speaking
to people who are studying it’s gonna be
more difficult for you and it’s gonna be
more difficult for them they’re not
going to be as patient because they
don’t understand what it’s like to try
to learn a new language so very slowly
you need to kind of find the right
people to try to practice with and also
don’t consider everyone just there to
practice with to like just try to make
friends like when you’re able to have a
bit of a conversation just work on
making friends with people and then you
can naturally have conversations and you
can pick up new words and when you don’t
know something you just ask your friend
oh how do I say this
in this language so I would say start
slowly language partner online or in
person and then very slowly just keep
leveling up you’re the kind of people
that you talk to that’s what I do
actually that’s really what I do and
what I did so I hope that that helps you
thanks very much for the question okay
let’s move on to your next question okay
next question comes from Sophie hi
Sophie
Sophie says hi what are the best books
for English learning the best books for
English learning are the books that
interest you and that are at your level
there’s no one best book for studying
English so if you can find a book about
something that you’re interested in and
it’s not too difficult for you you can
use that for your studies so the rule
that I follow I don’t know if this is a
perfect rule but the rule that I follow
when I’m choosing a book is that I feel
I should be able to understand about
seventy percent to maybe eighty percent
of the book without using a dictionary
so I should be able to look at it and
see I don’t know this word or maybe I
don’t know this grammar point here and
there on the pages if it’s too difficult
to read if I can understand like five
percent or twenty percent I don’t choose
that book because it’s going to be too
difficult and it will like demotivate me
so I don’t choose that I also choose
books that are related to a topic
I want to learn more about so I don’t
choose books that are only about
language study I choose a book in my
target language so this is true like I
choose a book about like design for
example that’s in Japanese I want to
know about that topic and I want to
practice studying Japanese so I find the
right book for my level and I studied
like two topics at the same time in that
way so that’s my favorite strategy to
use I think it’s really important for
you to find something that you’re
interested in and that’s it the best
level for you so try to find something
that matches your level so if you’re a
beginner that’s okay too
you can start with children’s books
actually and then when you become
comfortable with children’s books you
can move up to young adults books and
from there finding other things also
don’t limit yourself to just books maybe
you find a blog or a website or magazine
that’s perfect for you just as long as
you’re interested in that topic and
you’re reading it regularly that’s I
think the most important part of
choosing a book or something else
reading related to help you with your
studies so I hope that that helps you
thanks for the question let’s move on to
your next question next question comes
from Sephora at heiser so who says
hi Alicia Times I fail to understand the
English spoken in movies how do I fix
this issue um well if you really want to
understand a specific movie and there’s
something you missed in the movie try
looking for the script online like if
you really enjoy like the matrix for
example and you didn’t understand parts
of the matrix just do a google search
for the script and you can find the
script check what they said and practice
reading that or look up the words that
you didn’t understand so I think a key
here is just if you want to understand
something you should look for the
resources you need to understand that so
for a movie that means a script or maybe
there are subtitles on the movie you can
check as well so if there’s a movie you
want to understand you can’t understand
it try looking at the script and see if
that helps you so that’s what I would do
though maybe you can try that too I hope
that helps you thanks for the question
let’s move on to your next question next
question comes from Shamim asan hi
she meme says hi Alicia I have a
question what’s the difference between
do you know where she is
and do you know where is she yeah the
first sentence is correct the second
sentence is incorrect so when you’re
making these do you know type patterns
and you’re using the verb be you need to
kind of like reverse the question so do
you know where she is that be verb comes
at the end of the sentence do you know
where my keys are do you know what my
password is do you know who the new guy
is so these are examples of that do you
know that use a be verb in there if
you’re not using a be verb then you
don’t have to worry about this like do
you know who’s stole my lunch oh that’s
a good one
do you know who stole my lunch in that
one you don’t have to change the
question there’s no be verb there who
stole my lunch is a question on its own
like do you know what time it is is a be
verb question so we have that is at the
end of the sentence so think about that
when you’re making those sorts of
questions hope that that helps you
alright let’s move on to your next
question next question comes from Osama
Rajput Osama this AMA says hi Alicia why
do we use ' at the end of some sentences
like in thankin lovin thinkin etc yeah
this is just a kind of casual light
rough spelling of a word that ends in G
ing
so like thinking or thanking or loving
or liking whatever something that ends
in that ing form when we want to express
it casually in speech we often don’t say
the G sound clearly like thinking
instead of thinking so when we’re
talking quickly especially we might not
say that G sound clearly like thinking
of you so it’s kind of like an end sound
so in spelling in like texts for example
or in stories we might just use the
apostrophe to show that sort of friendly
light rough way of speaking so it’s not
used in formal letter
and it’s not used in like polite writing
it’s not used in like proper writing but
if you want to have kind of that light
casual feel to your writing you can use
the apostrophe at the end of an ING verb
but just keep in mind if you use it too
much it sounds really unnatural you
might see it used if someone’s joking
and they say like I just play in for
example so it might be in like one set
phrase so we don’t use it at the end of
everything it sounds a little weird and
it looks weird but that’s what it’s
there for I hope that that helps answer
your question thanks very much for
sending this all right so that’s
everything that I have for this week
thank you as always for sending your
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for other things to help you with your
English Studies thanks for watching this
week’s episode of ask Alicia and I’ll
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