Improve English Listening Skills With Conversation (10x FASTER!)

In this lesson, you're going to improve  your listening skills of fast English so  

you can better understand native  English speakers the first time.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course.

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

Here's how this lesson will work.

I'll say a sentence three times at a natural,  

fast pace, and you need to write down  exactly what you hear in the comments.

After, I'll explain what I said and you'll learn  

advanced pronunciation changes and  you'll learn advanced expressions.

Are you ready?

Remember, I'll say it three times.

Don't snap at me.

Don't snap at me.

Don't snap at me.

Did you get this one?

I said don't snap at me.

Let's talk about SNAP AT.

One of the ways that native speakers can speak  quickly is because we combine our sounds together.

So I don't say SNAP AT, I say SNAP at PAT.

So what I do is I take that P  from SNAP and I also add it to AT.

So it sounds like SNAP, PAT, and  then I combine them together.

SNAP at, snap at.

Native speakers will also drop sounds that force  us to take a pause in the middle of a sentence.

If I pronounce the T on, don't I have to take a  pause to pronounce that T so I just won't say it.

And this is the same thing for at.

I won't say it.

Don't snap at me.

So I make those T's silent.

I drop the T's.

Now, a lot of times students don't understand  native speakers because we use a lot of phrasal  

verbs, idioms, and expressions, like  in this example, to snap at someone.

What does that mean?

This is literally snapping right now.

I'm snapping now.

Notice it happens very quickly, so when you  snap at someone, you speak to someone in a  

irritable or abrupt way, so your words come out  quickly like a snap and they're often negative.

This happens quite frequently if we are feeling  a negative emotion like stress, anxiety, worry.

Let's say I'm working on a project that has a very  important deadline and I have a lot of work left.

So I feel quite anxious about this.

And then my husband or friend  Co worker asked me a question  

and then without even thinking, I  snap at them and I say I'm busy.

What do you want?

I can't help you and I say something very abruptly  and my words have a lot of irritation in them.

Annoyance.

Frustration that is snapping at someone.

We do this all the time and unfortunately people  

who work in customer service are  on the receiving end of this.

So a person in customer service might  say customers snap at me every day.

I don't take it personally.

You just snap at me because I  think he just snapped at me.

Be gargling well, don't snap at me.

You're snapping at me again.

Let's try this again with  another listening exercise.

I'll say it three times.

It was a knee jerk reaction.

It was a knee jerk reaction.

It was a knee jerk reaction.

Did you hear what I said?

I said it was a knee jerk reaction.

Let's talk about knee.

Notice the K is silent.

You don't hear it at all.

Knee.

Knee.

This happens most of the time  when words start with KN.

The K is silent.

There are many common words that start with  KN, such as knife, knight, not NIT, no.

And now knee.

All of these words.

The K is silent.

So the word starts with AN knee.

What is a knee jerk reaction?

A knee jerk reaction is a reaction that  happens automatically, unconsciously.

You don't think about it.

It just happens.

Just like when you're at a doctor's office and  they test your reflexes and if this is your knee,  

they hit your knee and then  your your leg goes like this.

Have you ever had that done?

They test your reflexes, but when your  leg does that, you don't control it.

It happens automatically.

So that's where the expression  comes from, a knee jerk reaction.

And I'm sharing this expression because generally  

when you snap at someone  it is a knee jerk reaction.

When you're busy working on a report and  your husband and ask you if you want a  

cup of tea and you shout I'm busy, leave me alone.

That is a knee jerk reaction because you didn't  sit there and think about responding in that way.

It happened automatically.

So yes, you snapped at your husband,  but it was a knee jerk reaction so  

you could apologize to your husband  and say sorry for snapping at you.

It was a knee jerk reaction.

Was this just another knee jerk reaction?

For you, it was a knee jerk reaction.

You got that half right.

You're not saying no is a knee jerk reaction.

Let's try this again.

I'll say it three times.

She rubs me the wrong way.

She rubs me the wrong way.

She rubs me the wrong way.

Did you get this one?

I said she rubs me the wrong way.

I think the pronunciation is clear, but  this is another case where if you don't  

understand what it means, even if you hear  the words, you wouldn't be able to reply.

So let's talk about the expression  to rub someone the wrong way.

This is when you annoy someone without  intending to, so it isn't your intention.

You don't try to annoy anyone, but for just  some reason you are annoying someone else.

This often happens when people's  personalities just clash.

They clash, which means their personalities are  different in a way that they're not compatible.

So I might do something that annoys  you simply because my personality is  

different from your personality, but someone  else would not be annoyed by the thing I do.

This could happen in a workplace situation where  there's an employee and they're really great at  

their job, they're very skilled, but for some  reason that person just rubs you the wrong way.

And it's very unfortunate for that person because  it's nothing they're actually doing wrong.

But if there's a conference or an event  and you have to bring one employee,  

you might say let's bring Marcos.

Tim rubs me the wrong way.

So Tim is annoying to you,  but it's not Tims fault.

Maybe he is a very outgoing person  and he's always laughing and telling  

jokes and you're more of a shy, reserved  person and your personality is just clash.

And for that reason Tim rubs you the wrong way.

Poor Tim just rubs me the wrong way.

Not Jay.

Guy rubs me the wrong way.

Something about always rubbed me the wrong way.

Let's try this one more time.

I'll say it three times.

I always pick up the slack.

I always pick up the slack.

I always pick up the slack.

How'd you do with this one?

I said I always pick up the  slack for pronunciation.

Let's talk about pick up, because this is  

another great opportunity to  combine these sounds together.

So what a native speaker will do is they'll take  the last sound on pick and they'll put that on up.

So it will sound like cup  pick up, cup pick up, pick up.

And then you can say those two words as  one because you combine them together.

Pick up, pick up the slack.

Now what does this mean to pick up the slack?

This is when you do work.

That is someone else's responsibility,  

but you do it because that person maybe  isn't doing it and it needs to get done.

So you pick up the slack.

This can happen in the home, and  of course it can happen at work.

But at home, everyone has  their own responsibilities,  

things that they're responsible for.

Maybe you're responsible for cooking  dinner and your partner is responsible  

for cleaning up after dinner, for example.

But let's say there's a situation where someone at  

home is is busy with something else,  so you have to pick up the slack.

For example, I've been picking up the slack at  

home while my wife's taking  care of her sick mother.

Now, in this case, you're probably  happy with picking up the slack.

Or you understand why you need to pick up the  slack because your wife is dealing with a sick  

parent, which is a stressful situation  for her, so you're happy to do that.

But there's other situations where maybe  your coworker just isn't doing the work  

they need to do, and you end up picking up  the slack and you're not happy about it.

For example, I'm sick of  picking up everyone's slack.

And we're here picking up the slack.

No worries, I'll pick up the slack.

I just want to thank you for picking up the slack.

Now let's do an imitation exercise so you  

can practice these pronunciation  changes and these new expressions.

So I'm going to say the sentence again,  

and then I want you to say the sentence out  loud, and I'll say each sentence three times.

Let's do that.

Now don't snap at me.

Don't snap at me.

Don't snap at me.

It was a knee jerk reaction.

It was a knee jerk reaction.

It was a knee jerk reaction.

She rubs me the wrong way.

She rubs me the wrong way.

She rubs me the wrong way.

I always pick up the sock.

I always pick up the sock.

I always pick up the sock.

Did you enjoy this lesson?

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So I know you loved this lesson, loved it and  I'll keep making more lessons just like this.

And you can get this free speaking  guide where I share 6 tips on how  

to speak English fluently and confidently.

You can click here to download it or  look for the link in the description.

And why don't you keep improving your  English with this lesson right now?