Improve Your Speaking and Conversation Skills With Me | How to Study English Effectively at Home

- Hello, guys, and welcome back to my YouTube channel.

Today I've prepared a very interesting video for you

that I've never done on my YouTube channel before.

Right now, you'll be practicing your speaking

and conversation skills

by communicating with me virtually through the screen.

I've prepared a very interesting dialogue

between the two friends

on the topics of reading and watching movies and TV shows.

But before we begin our virtual conversation,

I wanted to say a huge thank you to our sponsor, Skillshare.

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And now let's start practicing our English

with the fun dialogue I've created.

You know, a couple of days ago,

I finished reading a book called

"The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave.

It's the first fiction book I've read in ages.

I usually prefer to stick to nonfiction,

and also when I saw the cover of the book,

I assumed it would be just another cheesy love story.

But let me tell you,

I've never been so wrong.

Yeah, that's the book.

In short, it's about a woman

who thinks she found the love of her life,

but then one day he just disappears.

You'll have to read the book to find out.

Well, not exactly.

Don't you think it's too predictable?

Because this book is actually good,

like so many plot twists and family drama

all the way through.

Yeah, I just finished reading this book

about this crazy famous woman.

What's her face?

Yep, that's her.

Elizabeth Holmes.

She's the founder of Theranos, a blood testing startup.

But I think she was convicted of fraud

like a couple of weeks ago.

She wasn't until recently.

Now she's facing up to 80 years in jail.

But she won't be there for too long

because she obviously has good lawyers.

Oh yeah, I've been watching "Clickbait" on Netflix.

It's a thriller and again it has a really good plot twist.

I guess I like the fact

that when you're watching a thriller,

you're always waiting for something crazy to happen

and something crazy always does happen.

So it kind of activates this reward mechanism

in your brain and then you get all this dopamine release.

Aren't we all?

Okay, guys, I hope you liked this little dialogue

we had together.

I hope you found it fun, exciting, interesting

because I don't know,

for me, it was really fun to create this dialogue

and to practice it with you.

I hope you were practicing it as well.

So as you can see, I tried to fill up the dialogue

with as many good, interesting,

useful expressions as possible.

And right now, let me just explain some of them to you

and give more examples.

The first expression I want you to memorize

is to stick to something.

It means to continue doing or using a particular thing.

In the dialogue,

I said I usually prefer to stick to nonfiction,

meaning I usually prefer to read nonfiction, right?

To stick to nonfiction, to read nonfiction.

Another example would be very few people can stick

to a restrictive diet for long.

Again, very few people can stick

to a restrictive diet, right?

Or we can say can follow a restrictive diet for long.

- If you stick with me and learn from the guys

who've been in country a while, you'll be all right.

- Another expression is to ring a bell.

And this is actually the expression you had to say

in the dialogue.

Yeah, that name rings a bell.

It means that this name sounds familiar.

And actually, like this example

is a very good example.

I don't even have more examples here

because we usually use this expression with names, right?

Names, titles, just something rings a bell.

Something sounds familiar.

Usually this something is a name.

- It doesn't ring a bell.

- We use I bet when we agree with something

or when we expect something to be true.

In the dialogue, we had this sentence:

I bet he just found a mistress for himself somewhere.

But, of course, here we can also use I think, right?

I bet is just you know?

More alive, just a more fun expression.

I think he just found a mistress for himself somewhere.

Obviously, guys, I was joking.

If you read the book,

you'd know the whole plot

and I highly recommend you read this book.

- I bet you could walk all day

in shoes like that not feel a thing.

- If you live for something,

it means that you consider this thing

to be the most enjoyable,

the most important part of your life.

So again, in the dialogue,

we had yeah, Veronika, you live for family drama, right?

So you really like it.

Again, usually people use it when they're joking.

Obviously, I don't live for family drama.

It's just a joke, it's just an exaggeration.

And it's a very cool thing about Americans

how they like to exaggerate things.

In a lot of their expressions they use,

they're exaggerating things, right?

And this is one of the expressions.

And for example, you can say my brother lives for work.

He's constantly working.

He regards work as the most important part of his life.

He lives for work.

- She lives for the drama.

- The next expression I used was what's her face?

Some people might find it rude

and this expression is definitely very informal.

Usually people use the expression

when they don't remember the name of this person.

So overall, I wouldn't really recommend you

to use this expression

but I still want you to know this expression.

That's why I included it in the dialogue.

- You know what?

I think I'm gonna go next door

and try to make out with what's her face.

- Next is a great expression: to be on a streak.

To be on a streak means

to spend a lot of time doing one activity.

For example, she's been on a dieting streak lately.

So she's been on a diet lately.

She's been doing this one thing.

- A lot of excitement.

What a winning streak.

- And the last expression here is you lost me.

It means that I can't understand or I cannot follow

what you're saying.

So in the dialogue,

you're supposed to stop listening

to me the moment I said the word reward

because everything else, everything after that

was too complicated.

And the other person again, they were joking.

They might say you lost me.

I don't understand anything.

For example, this one person is explaining something

about math and another person just doesn't know anything

about math, this other person might say,

"Oh my God, you just lost me.

I can't understand anything.

I'm not following you, you lost me."

- You want to do what to me?

- You've lost me completely.

- So guys, I hope you enjoyed this practical video

and now you can talk about movies

and books and your favorite TV shows all day long.

Let me know in the comments

if you're watching or reading something interesting

because I love reading,

and I'm always here to give you some great reading advice.

And guys, don't forget to check out Skillshare

because it's a great platform

that can help you learn a new skill

and become more creative.

Thank you so much for watching.

Check out Skillshare and I'll see you next time.

Bye, guys.

(tranquil music)