2 Quick Ways to Improve your English

Normally, oh sorry, hi, James from EngVid, normally I'd be reading my paper or magazine,

today, no, this is the Black Book of Death.

Why?

Well, if you look at my profile, you know I teach at a school in Canada, and every once

in a while, I write down things that make me angry.

Angry because students do not know these useful, helpful things.

Why?

It's because it's repetitive.

If you saw an earlier video, and I suggest you do, we talked about foods, and we said

delightful, tasty, succulent, instead of delicious.

I actually used to have students say, "The water is delicious, teacher."

Water is not delicious, it's water.

Okay?

There are two more things, examples of things that drive me crazy, and if you correct these

things, your teachers will actually treat you a little differently.

You'll find they'll treat you as if you were more intelligent, and it's true, because you're

showing you understand how to use the English, instead of using the same repetitive English

over and over.

Alright?

Today's lesson is on "for example" and "same".

Okay?

So, ready?

Let's go to the board.

My buddy's not here, but he will, because he's going to help me with the examples today.

Okay, and as usual, Ezekiel has brought his beer.

Alright?

Time to go to work.

So, two things we're going to work on today.

Okay, drive me crazy.

Number one, for example, teacher, so let's look at that.

Okay?

Where's my eraser?

For example, I hate, but I forget my eraser.

For example means, literally, I want to show you something that will prove to you what

I'm saying, or give proof or evidence, or I want to show you something.

Right?

So, there's got to be a different way of saying, for example, yes, I'm holding my book.

This will be one of the first times I'm going to read it, because I want to make sure you

get some really good examples, or illustrations for what I want you to learn.

Ah, see, illustration.

Illustration means to draw, but it means a picture.

Let's go to the board.

So, for example, teacher, let's get rid of that.

What do you mean?

There are one or two things.

You either want to prove a point, or show something.

So let's look at, to show.

Another thing for saying, instead of this, you can say, for instance.

In this case, when we're doing this, we're showing something.

In this case, in this instance, in this situation, right?

Similar to, for example, for instance, this morning I had, you know, I usually have breakfast

every morning.

For example, I usually have oranges with some eggs, or for instance, this morning I had

oranges and some eggs.

Oh, see, sounds the same, but it sounds nicer, because it's different, and you won't be like

every other student who says, for example, you've shown you are a unique individual,

and you should be treated like that.

See?

Good.

Right?

Ezekiel, he's got another hand up now.

There we go.

See?

He's giving you the thumbs up, he's like, yeah, man, and drinking his beer.

A drunk worm, tequila worm, that's where I found him, Mexico.

Anyway, so for instance, that's a good one, okay?

These ones will show.

You can use them for showing, showing your point, drawing a picture.

Next one, to illustrate.

When you illustrate something, you draw it, you draw a picture.

Now, in a future lesson, I'm going to explain to you about the three ways of learning, and

that would be auditory, kinesthetic, that's feeling, and visual.

This is a good one for people who are visual, because when you use it, it actually helps

them draw a picture in their mind.

Wow, you didn't think you'd get that for a dollar.

See?

All this information.

If you use that with people who are very visual, they'll get that picture right away, okay?

So anyway, so you might want to, when you show people, you say, for instance, I want

to show you something, and to illustrate, okay?

And you're going to say, to illustrate, and we can even put in brackets, because if you

want to say this, get fancy, university level, oh yeah, pull up.

Okay, don't do this with your friends, they'll think you're a snobby bum, there's another

word for it, but this is PG-13, so just think, to illustrate is good enough, to illustrate

what I mean, blah, blah, blah, right?

For instance, blah, blah, blah, you want to go to your boss or professor to illustrate

my point, blah, blah, blah, or to your judge, if you drink too much and drive, you'll have

to illustrate my point, drinking and driving, not good.

All right, so this is for show, show, show.

What's the next one we're going to do?

Well, I've got two more for you, all right?

So sometimes we want to show, but sometimes we want to prove, what do I mean by prove?

Well, prove is to say something is true, when you want to show something, you just want

to mention it, you want to use it as an example, right, to show people, but when you want to

prove a point, make it stronger, we call it hammering it home, making sure people know,

here are two you like.

We're on our case in point.

Case in point, phrase which literally means, this point makes my case, what I'm saying,

true.

This example makes what I'm saying true, so I want to prove something to you, so I don't

want to just show it to you, I want to make it stronger.

So yes, it does mean to show, of course, an example is a demonstration, but when you say

case in point, there's a greater emphasis or there's a greater push to say, this is

true and I'm going to prove it to you, okay?

So case in point, like you're a lawyer, you're going to need one if you keep taking my lessons.

And one more, and it also has to do with points, because pointing is this, right, which you

should never do.

If you do points, you should do this, it's open-handed, I have to do a lesson on body

language, you're going to love it, you'll meet girls and boys like that, anyway.

You open your hand, right, case in point, to prove what I have to say.

The next one is this one, look, see there's a word, you can say this, to prove my point,

blah, blah, blah, blah, because it means, for example, to prove my point, and then you

just say it, and that's taking this word example, for example, and saying it right off, right?

You're always late.

To prove my point yesterday, I waited five hours.

To prove my point yesterday, I waited five hours, or you're always late, for example,

yesterday, I waited five hours.

Oh my God, four different ways to say it, look, isn't that beautiful?

You like that?

See, you can say all of these.

Don't do the one after the other, because they'll think you're crazy, but you can say,

for example, then maybe the next sentence or two, for instance, and then after that,

to prove my point, and you'll probably find that the teacher will go, yes, yes, yes, do

you have a number?

I'm kidding, that won't happen, but it's good stuff, right?

It's their conversation, show you have mastered the language.

Okay, to prove my point, and then you can actually add, I wouldn't do this, this is

what we call overkill too much, here's, but you could add that word, this ugly word, here's

an example, but you don't need to, you could just say the explanation, right, just say

it right away.

So this is one of the things that drives me crazy, so I hope I've improved your life.

Case in point, I'm going to give you another one that will make you look very, very intelligent

with your teachers.

Same, may I get rid of this, Ezekiel says yes, so it doesn't matter if you care or not,

Ezekiel says yes, but we've got to prove and to show, and we've yet given you four examples,

alright?

See, holding on to the book, so I don't tear my hair out from frustration, okay, so I want

to hear you, especially, some of my students actually watch these videos, I'm talking to

you, my students, please use the examples I've given, and I will personally kiss you

on the cheek every time I hear it, no I won't, some of you need to wash first, so no I won't,

but you understand, and you know who you are, you need this hat, it's cold in this country,

alright.

For example teacher, lesson number one, the other one is pet peeve, you know what pet

peeve is, this is the second lesson, pet peeve is something that makes you angry all the

time, no matter what, it's a pet peeve, like a pet, you love your pet, so you love this

thing because it's consistent in making you angry, peeve means angry, right?

So, you will say to a student, I don't know, run, and they say, is it safe as walk teacher?

Obviously not, if it were, we would have one word for walk and run, we don't, we have two

words, a lot of times, and I understand, so I'm being understanding here, a lot of times

students want to make English easy so that they can learn it, I understand, I feel your

pain, really I do, but don't give me pain and say everything is the same, our dictionary

is this thick, but you want it to be this thick, one page, it doesn't work that way,

okay?

So here's what we're going to do, we're going to learn different ways of saying same so

you can understand because I know that's why you're saying is it the same because you really

want to understand, you're a good student, yeah, pat yourself on the back, go I am a

good, good student, you are, I love you, we all do here, okay?

But here's a different way of saying same, so let's go, alright, so, I love this, I always

smile when students say this one, similar, similar has the idea of saying, I have to

get rid of this marker, excuse me, flush, gone, alright, similar means similar to same,

it means close but not exact and I like this word because it tells me that you are thinking,

it tells me that you understand they are the same in some ways, that's why they've been

used but probably not exactly the same and I'm like, you know what, I like you, you're

a thinker, that's good, so similar, look at this, A1 word for me, so don't say is it the

same, you're saying is it similar to, alright, to is used for direction, preposition used

for direction, so you're saying is it close to or like this one, okay?

Another one we can say is like, is it like this, like is a comparative word, right, we

use it for comparisons, right, similes, metaphors, okay, so is it like this, is it like that,

that way it gives the teacher and you both room to understand what they are similar to

or what is the same and maybe what the differences are.

Now, these are positive ways of looking at it, I like this because these are saying what

is the same between these things but how do we talk about negative differences because

sometimes things aren't different and you know, like, I know this is the same here but

what is it different, that's what I need to know, well, these ones are talking about the

differences, alright, so let's take a look for instance, okay, we can say, oh, one second,

you know what, I've got one more here for you, okay, so this is one, similar to, alright,

we've got similar to, that's number one, number two is like, number three, okay, here we go.

See, when we talk about something that has the same meaning, right, it opens up, you

know, look, when you said the same, I said, do, I'm asking a question, I didn't say are

they the same or they are the same, no, I didn't say they are the same, do they have

the same meaning, so I'm going to do a question for them, so that gives a person who's answering

a question, say, yes, they mean the same in this context, in this situation, but probably

not all the time, yeah, okay, so these are the positive ones, now here's one, or two,

two more, so I'm going to do this one here, it's not negative, it just talks about the

differences more than the sameness, what is different, right, now, here is it, so we go

how or when are they different, okay, if somebody tells you two words are similar, then you

might say, well, he said similar, not the same, so if, or he or she, and if she said

they are similar, that means there must be differences, maybe what's more important

to you is, how do I know when not to use it, okay, so you go, so hey, how are they, oops,

I said the, they different, how do they differ, how can I tell the difference, or when are

they different, in what situation does it become an adverb to an adjective, or in what

situation does the gerund form become a noun, what are they different, how are they different,

tell me so I can use it properly in the future, makes my English expand faster, okay, now,

you heard me say the word differ, differ is in here, see this, okay, so here's what I

want to do here, I'm going to, sorry, erase my number one, I love it, I really do, okay,

so I don't want you to forget it, this is number four, right, and this is another negative

one, but it's not really negative, do you remember how we say they're the same, well,

you can say this, right, how do they differ, how are they different, how do they differ,

very similar question, or when do they differ, so you can just say different instead of different,

okay, so I've given you four ways, and you know the number one way, right, number one,

this one's positive, positive, okay, and number one was what, remember, get rid of this one,

we don't want to talk about same, we want to say similar, similar, right, because if

words are exactly the same, well, then we're only going to have one word, because what's

the point in having snow, and then having snow one, snow one, snow are the same, just

have snow, and we have slush in other words, right, because there's always a little difference,

say number one, numero uno, ichiban, yes, I speak some Japanese, not very much, okay,

number one, say similar, okay, and this shows the positive aspect of sameness, okay, number

two, like, compare, so in this case, you're literally asking the teacher to compare it

to another word, number three, do they have the same meaning, give me the understanding,

alright, now, over here, we could go negative and go, how do they differ, how are they different,

right, or when or how are they different, in case you have a problem with different,

we good, great, those are my two top pet peeves, don't worry, the black book shall make an

appearance again, and when it does, I will bring out more of your horrible, horrible

mistakes, but for now, let's go to the board, Ezekiel and I must take off, we're not going

to the same place, but similar places, the washroom, and he goes in the ground, and I

go to an actual toilet, so, once again, you say, come join in for a drink at www.engvid.com,

you can come to learn more and more English, and have a beer with Ezekiel, if you can find

him to get a free beer, seriously, look at the website, try and find a picture of Ezekiel,

free beer in Canada, any time you come, so you have to come and fly to Canada, and prove

it's on the website, and it's yours, alright, so have a good day, don't forget www.engvid.com,

where you can meet myself, or see me again, and other teachers who are looking forward

to teaching you, have a good one, alright, so, how do they differ, right, like, blah,

blah, blah, blah, don't forget, see you.