SUPERCHARGE Your English Vocabulary with This Reading and Listening Method

Today you're going to improve your English reading and listening.

At the same time.

We're going to read a news article together.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course.

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

First I'll read the headline Ukrainian born model winning Miss Japan reignites identity

debate.

So in this photo here we have the contestants for the Miss Japan competition and in the

middle the winner who happens to be a Ukrainian born model.

Now let's take a look at the grammar of the sentence here because notice Ukrainian born

model.

This is the subject of the sentence.

Ukrainian born describes the model, so it functions as an adjective Ukrainian born model

winning right here.

This is a present participle.

It's your verb in ING.

It's not the present continuous, because there's no verb to be.

Ukrainian born model is winning.

That would be an action taking place now in the present continuous, but winning.

This is simply the present participle and it's used to show a continuous action or an

ongoing action, something with an action involved.

Let's review this example.

The diligent students watching this video increase their fluency.

Now notice I put watching this video watching as the present participle.

I put it in brackets because I could delete this entire part.

The diligent students increase their fluency.

That's a grammatically correct student.

But by including the present participle, it includes how the action that made that possible.

And by putting it in the present participle, it shows that action.

The diligent students watching this video increased their fluency.

And you're a diligent student, right?

I put the definition of diligence here.

It's an adjective.

It means careful, attentive someone who applies a lot of effort that describes you right and

you're increasing your fluency.

So put I'm diligent.

I'm diligent.

Put that in the comments below.

Now don't worry about taking all of these notes because I summarize everything in a

free lesson PDF so you can look in the description for the link.

Now let's continue on and learn how this Ukrainian born model winning Miss Japan reignites the

identity debate.

Now I highlighted reignites just to remind you that if you had re in front of the verb,

it means to do it again.

So this suggests there was already an identity debate and now it's happening again.

It's been reignited.

So let's learn why there have been racial barriers and it has been challenging to be

accepted as Japanese.

So notice this is in quotation marks, which means that someone is saying this and we learn

who just in the next paragraph.

So it is the model, the Ukrainian born model that was crowned Miss Japan.

There have been racial barriers, and it has been challenging to be accepted as Japanese.

That's what a tearful Carolina Shino said in impeccable Japanese after she was crowned

Miss Japan on Monday.

Impeccable.

This is a great adjective, Impeccable.

And it's fun to say I speak impeccable English.

That's what you can say in a few months, a few years, maybe even next week.

I speak impeccable English.

Impeccable means perfect with no flaws or mistakes, but I don't want you to think that

that is actually how it's used, because nobody speaks impeccable English or impeccable Japanese.

Of course we all make mistakes and flaws and we're not perfect 100% of the time, but it's

saying you're close to it.

So you could really compliment someone.

Let's say a friend, family member, a Co worker invited you to their house for dinner.

You can say that dinner was impeccable.

Thank you so much.

And they will be very happy.

Wow, they really liked my dinner.

You can use that for any piece of work that someone does for you.

That presentation was impeccable.

Jennifer, your lesson was impeccable.

So you can put that in the comments to say thank you.

And in reality, that is actually not true.

There are absolutely mistakes and flaws in this video.

But remember, it doesn't actually mean 100% perfect.

It's just a nice compliment.

So you can say Jennifer, your video was impeccable, so you can put that in the comments.

Jennifer, your video was impeccable.

And remember, this is an adjective, so you need your verb to be here.

I conjugated it in the past simple, but you could also put it in the present simple.

Jennifer, your video is impeccable.

It really conveys the same meaning.

Are you enjoying this lesson?

If you are, then I want to tell you about the Finely Fluent Academy.

This is my premium training program where we study native English speakers from TV,

the movies, YouTube, and the news so you can improve your listening skills of fast English,

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Now let's continue with our lesson the 26 year old model.

So notice here 26 year old is being used as an adjective, which is why there is no's on

years 26 years the 26 year old model who was born in Ukraine.

Now technically I could take this entire sentence and just use one adjective to replace all

of it.

Do you know how I could do that?

I could say the 26 year old Ukrainian model, Ukrainian model and by using that I can delete

everything I have highlighted including the commas because the commas are only there to

show that this is additional information which I no longer need.

That's not a requirement.

I'm just showing you how you can get creative with the English language and communicate

the same idea in different ways.

The 26 year old model who was born in Ukraine, moved to Japan at the age of 5 and was raised

in Nakoya.

She is the first naturalized Japanese citizen to win the pageant, the pageant being Miss

Japan and coming back to here naturalized A naturalized citizen Japanese describing

what type of citizen a naturalized citizen is when you receive citizenship after birth.

So it's not in the country that you were born in.

And perhaps this is the case for you.

I know many of my students now live in countries where they were not born.

So if you applied for citizenship and you got that, you would be a naturalized citizen

of that country.

She is the first naturalized Japanese citizen to win the pageant.

But her victory has reignited a debate.

So remember, reignited.

It means the debate already happened in the past and now it's happening again.

So you can think of it as restart, restart, a debate on what it means to be Japanese.

While some recognized her victory as a sign of the times, a sign of the times, this means

that you embrace the culture, the opinions, the beliefs of right now.

Not of your grandparents or great grandparents or great great grandparents.

Because obviously, society is very different now compared to what it was for your parents,

your grandparents, your great grandparents.

So that would be a sign of the times that your opinions, your beliefs, are staying modern

with the current time.

I wrote that definition for you.

Now notice here, while some I know that this sentence is going to contain a contrast, some

have recognized, others have not.

So notice here, while some others have said notice here that that they use the past simple

here and the present perfect here.

Generally you want to use the same verb tense unless there is a specific reason why you

wouldn't.

In this case, you could use the present perfect here and the present perfect here, and that

would be a more impeccable way to communicate your ideas to use the same verb tense.

While some have recognized and you might be wondering, well why would I use the present

perfect?

Because the present perfect is also used for a completed past action if there is a result

in the present and the result in the present being that now some people accept her as Miss

Japan even though she was born in Ukraine, others do not.

So that is the result in the present.

So you can just add that auxiliary verb have.

Because some is plural, they have recognized others they have said.

Now it's more impeccable because the verb tenses match.

Others have said she does not look like a Miss Japan should.

Her win comes nearly ten years after Ariana Miyamoto became the first biracial woman to

be crowned Miss Japan in 2015.

They use this, I believe above as well.

To be crowned is simply when the crown is placed on your head, which signals that you

are the winner.

So it's another way of saying the first biracial woman to win Miss Japan in 2015 to be crowned.

Because when you're crowned, it means you won the competition.

So is this language is just specific to the beauty competition.

Now biracial here by by means to.

So it's saying that this woman is of two different races.

Biracial, that's what that means.

And just remember by implies to I made that note for you.

Now, before we move on, let's look at nearly ten years after.

Nearly is a replacement to almost.

So if you say almost 10 years, it's very common to round up to whole numbers, whether that's

a ends in A5 or a 0510152025 S nearly ten years after.

It could be 8 years, 8.5 or 9 years, but it's closer to 10 than it is to 5 S nearly ten

years after, almost 10 years after Let's Continue a WADA, the organizer of the Miss Japan Grand

Prix pageant, told the BBC that judges had chosen Miss Shino, so this was the winner

as the winner with full confidence.

She speaks and writes in beautiful and polite Japanese.

So here they chose to use different adjectives.

Beautiful Japanese, polite Japanese because these are other ways to show that why she

won the competition.

Remember that other adjective which I've used many times on purpose to get that repetition

so you remember it?

And that other adjective is impeccable Japanese.

Impeccable Japanese.

She speaks and writes in beautiful, polite, and impeccable Japanese.

If I wanted to add a third adjective, Miss WADA said she is more Japanese than we are.

Again, this is probably added to reinforce the fact that she won with full confidence.

Miss Shino, the winner, had announced on Instagram.

Oh, what verb tense is this?

The past perfect, which means this action happened before another past action.

So now, at this point, winning the competition is in the past.

She already has that crown on her head.

She's giving interviews about it.

So winning the competition is in the past.

So this could be the past before that past action.

Miss Shino had announced on Instagram earlier last year when she received Japanese nationality,

saying that she may not look Japanese, but her mind had become Japanese because she had

grown up in Japan.

So grown up is when a child becomes an adult.

Now do you remember when she moved to Japan when she was five years old?

Think of a 5 year old that you know and imagine them growing up in a culture other than their

own.

I think it's pretty realistic that they would completely embrace that new culture if they're

only five years old.

So to grow up in, you could say I grew up in a small city, in a big city, in a condo

and a house.

You could say whatever you wanted after I grew up in.

Or you could also say I was raised, I was raised in a small city.

So notice here the verb is to grow up.

It's a phrasal verb, so you need that preposition up, and your verb is grow.

You need to conjugate that here.

Your verb that you're conjugating is the verb to be.

This is conjugated in the past simple, and then raised is always in the Ed form.

Now this is when you develop from a child to an adult and they communicate the exact

same idea.

They're just using different vocabulary.

Let's continue.

And as she accepted her trophy as Miss Japan 2024, she said winning the title was a dream.

Being recognized as a Japanese in this competition fills me with gratitude.

Let's review this sentence.

Notice that this is a gerund statement which is used for general statements, and the verb

is in ING to begin the sentence.

Being recognized as a Japanese in this competition fills me with gratitude.

So when something fills you with an emotion, just means that emotion is strong within you.

So it's a very poetic, a very strong statement.

You might say Hearing my boss say my presentation was impeccable, your presentation was impeccable.

That fills me with joy.

Now, important you should know that all of this is the subject of the sentence and a

gerund expression is conjugated as it ** *** it third person singular.

It this this fills me with joy.

That fills me with joy.

So that's why you need this S here.

No something that's true for me reading my students comments.

Now notice the punctuation here.

The possessive is after because I have multiple students, so students is plural.

But then I want to show that the comments belong to my students, so I put the punctuation

after reading my students comments Makes my day.

So all of this is conjugated as this.

It that this makes my day, it makes my day that makes my day.

So that's how you conjugate jarrant expressions.

Now the expression to make ones day, in this case my day to make one's day.

This is when the event or situation, in this case the event is reading my students comments,

the event or situation made a positive impact on my day and I'm going to make this stronger,

made a very positive impact on my day.

When I'm reviewing all the things that happened to me today, this one thing really stands

out as being positive.

So if you want to thank someone you could say oh thanks so much for for having coffee

with me and listening to me talk about my vacation.

It really made my day, it really made my day.

Now this is true so make sure you leave a comment because reading my students comments

makes my day.

It is the best part of my day.

I really love it.

So please leave a comment so you can make my day and I hope my lessons make your day,

or at least make a part of your day.

And that's the end of our article.

So what I'll do now is I'll read the article from start to finish and this time I want

you to focus on my pronunciation.

So let's do that now.

Ukrainian born model winning Miss Japan reignites identity debate.

There have been racial barriers and it has been challenging to be accepted as Japanese.

That's what a tearful Carolina Shino said in impeccable Japanese after she was crowned

Miss Japan on Monday.

The 26 year old model, who was born in Ukraine, moved to Japan at the age of 5 and was raised

in Nakoya.

She is the first naturalized Japanese citizen to win the pageant, but her victory has reignited

a debate on what it means to be Japanese.

While some recognized her victory as a sign of the times, others have said she does not

look like a Miss Japan should.

Her win comes nearly ten years after Ariana Miyamoto became the first biracial woman to

be crowned Miss Japan.

In 2015.

Nai WADA, the organizer of the Miss Japan Grand Prix pageant, told the BBC that judges

had chosen Miss Shino as the winner with full confidence.

She speaks and writes in beautiful and polite Japanese, Miss WADA said.

She is more Japanese than we are, Miss Shino had announced on Instagram earlier last year

when she received Japanese nationality, saying that she may not look Japanese, but her mind

had become Japanese because she had grown up in Japan.

And as she accepted her trophy as Miss Japan 2024, she said winning the title was a dream.

Being recognized as a Japanese in this competition fills me with gratitude.

Did you enjoy this lesson?

Do you want me to make more lessons where we review news articles together?

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And you can keep improving your English with this lesson.

It's another news article.

I know you'll love it, so watch it right now.