6 free websites to improve your English you probably didn't know existed...

14,774 views ・ 2024-01-30

JForrest English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Today you're going to learn about some secret websites that will help you become fluent
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for free.
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You're so lucky because there are countless resources available online, a lot of them
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for free, to help you become fluent.
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But if you don't know about these amazing resources, they won't help you.
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So let's fix that.
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Welcome back to JForrest English.
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Of course.
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I'm Jennifer.
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Now let's get started.
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Now, all of these websites that I'm going to share are ones that I've personally use
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myself and I recommend to my students because I know they get amazing results.
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And the first website is called Meetup Meetup com.
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This is the website that you need to find native speakers because so many students want
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to know how they can find native English speakers.
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Well, we're everywhere.
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We're everywhere in the world and is really easy to find us if you have the right resource
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like meet up.
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So here we are on the website meet up now.
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You should know in English the phrasal verb to meet up is when you meet people socially.
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So that's where the name of the website comes from.
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Because the purpose of this website is to find other people who share your common interest
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or activity.
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Now you need to enter your specific neighbourhood and this website might not exist in your country.
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So sorry if it doesn't, but don't worry, the other resources likely will.
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So for the neighbourhood, I'm just going to pick a random example.
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I use a specific area of Chicago because Chicago is a very big city.
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So put in the specific area, most likely your zip code or postal code, and then it will
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show you all the events.
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Now the events will be totally random.
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Here's a single mixer meet up.
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So if you're single and you want to meet other single people, this is the meet up for you
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if you live in Chicago.
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But there'll be things like data monetization, mystery, thriller, virtual book club that
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could be an interesting one.
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Book clubs are great if you want to read books with other native speakers.
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But of course you're here for learning English.
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So what you can do is you can use the search filter and then you can search your specific
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interest.
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So for the interest I put English language and then you can see all of these language
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exchanges.
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Now notice there are two language exchange.
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So people want who want to exchange Spanish for English or French for English.
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Now this is just one option to find a specific language exchange and then you can click into
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this and then find out when they meet where they meet.
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But remember my example of a book club?
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You can just find something you're interested in.
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If you're interested in books, well then join a book club and you'll interact with other
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native English speakers and talk about your specific interest, which is books.
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So you can search for books, you can search for gardening, you can search for rafting
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or karate or biking or whatever your specific interest is, and then you'll find other people
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who want to do that as well.
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And you'll be doing it in English.
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So Meet Up is a great resource.
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Our next website is Reddit.
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You probably know this website, right?
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But did you know that there is a subreddit for language exchanges?
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So Reddit Language Exchanges is our next website and like meet up, this website will also help
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you find native speakers.
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Again, we're everywhere, you just need the resources to connect with us.
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Here I am on Reddit now.
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Reddit is a general website where people discuss things based on serpent certain topics.
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So you have to search Reddit to find the topic that you're interested in.
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So the one that you might be interested in is language exchange.
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So you can see here I'm in the sub Reddit for language exchange.
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And then if you look here you'll notice that people, real people are posting that they
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want a language exchange.
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So this person here is an English speaker and they want to learn Russian.
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So if you speak Russian, well then you can partner with this person and then you can
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just reply back to this post.
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You'll have to create an account, but it's free.
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And then you can just reply back.
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Now this is an ad, just ignore it.
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And then this person is offering Mandarin, seeking English.
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Well you're seeking English, you want English?
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OK, that's what seek means.
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So you can create your own post and say offering and then your native language and then seeking
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English.
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Now notice this person said fluent or native.
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So they're saying, I will do an exchange with a native speaker or a non-native speaker as
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long as they're fluent.
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So you have that option as well.
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So I encourage you to look through here.
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Now, don't just reply to people's posts.
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I want you to create your own post as well.
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And then people are going to reply to you and say, oh, let's exchange, and then you
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can set a date and time and start your language exchange.
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You'll practice your English with native speakers or fluent speakers.
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You'll make new friends.
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You'll have a lot of fun in the process.
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So you can use Reddit absolutely free.
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Our next website is Youglish Youglish, which is a combination of YouTube and English into
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Youglish.
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This is an amazing resource to help you improve your listening skills and pronunciation and
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vocabulary and grammar at the same time.
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Here we are on Youglish.
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I love sharing this source with my students.
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Now you can search for a specific word, let's say a word that is difficult for you to pronounce.
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So let's take the word hypothesis, because this is one I recently taught to my students.
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So you simply enter your word and then you look below and look, There are 2886 clips,
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so portions of a YouTube video where that speaker uses the word hypothesis.
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Now it has the transcript as well.
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So I put this on mute so you won't hear it.
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But let's go to the next clip so we can go see the next clip here.
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So our next one, here's our word hypothesis.
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So you'll hear this person.
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Now you can try another one and you'll hear this person.
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So of course these people have completely different accents styles of speech, so it's
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excellent for improving your listening skills and hearing many different styles of speech.
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And you can choose your accent preferences at the top.
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I just put all but let's say you live in Australia, so you really want to get comfortable with
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the Australian accent.
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Well then you can specify Australia for the accent.
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Now you can also enter an entire phrase so you can hear how all the sounds are combined
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together.
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So there are 346 different people saying the expression hit the nail on the head, which
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is also one I recently taught.
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So you learned it from me.
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But that was my pronunciation.
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So now you can hear 346 other speakers pronounce this, get comfortable with different accents,
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different styles of speech and improve your listening skills.
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You will love using Youglish.
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Our next website is called Busy Teacher.
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This is a website that I personally use when I used to teach in classrooms many many years
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ago and I was very busy.
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But just because the website is for teachers, it doesn't mean that you as a student can't
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use it.
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So let's talk about Busy Teacher here.
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I I am on Busy Teacher, so these are prepared lessons that teachers like me can use with
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our students.
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But you can download and use these lessons to teach yourself these concepts.
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So here's a lesson on prepositional phrases.
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So you can come in here, but you can just look at the top ones.
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Or you can search for something specific.
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Maybe you want to find a Lesson plan on articles.
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So here you'll see the different lesson plans.
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But what I love most about this is that with all the lesson plans, there are different
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exercises for you to do.
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So it doesn't just teach you the rules for articles, it gives you the practice.
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Because practice is so incredibly important now.
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This is an exact lesson that I've used with my students.
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It's a game who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but it's specific on articles.
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So you play this really fun game, but all the questions test you on articles.
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And it's just a PowerPoint presentation.
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You can download it absolutely for free.
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So here's a quick view of what it looks like.
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So there are four options and you have to decide which one should begin with the and
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then as you answer each question, you get to go higher and higher.
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So the purpose is to get to $1 million.
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Every student I've played this game with has absolutely loved it.
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But the point is you're practicing articles and learning at the same time, so you will
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absolutely love using Busy Teacher.
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Our next website is BBC Learning English.
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This one you might know because I find a lot of students use BBC as a news source.
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But did you know there is a section of BBC specific for helping you learn English?
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Well, let's review that.
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Here we are on BBC Learning English now.
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As you can see at the top.
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I know it's probably quite small for you.
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I'll make it bigger.
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As you can see at the top they have complete courses, they have grammar lessons, Easy,
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medium, hard.
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They have pronounced vocabulary.
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You can even learn English with the news, which is something that I do with my students
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as well.
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Obviously BBC is a news website so it makes sense they use their own articles and I use
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a lot of BBC articles to help my students as well.
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And they even have more categories, Business, English for example.
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You can test your level.
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There is so much you can do on BBC Learning English.
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So absolutely explore this website.
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All the the lessons are very high quality and finally Open text library.
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This is great for more academic or professional purposes because this is a resource that shares
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textbooks and and books and manuals all for free, but the authors have given permission
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to share these resources, so it's a completely safe site to use.
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Here we are on Open Textbook Library, so remember this one is more academic, is more professional.
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But if there's a specific area, a field that you're really interested in, let's say marketing,
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you can find textbooks, guides, user manuals on that specific topic.
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So here's one on E Marketing, The essential guide to Online Marketing SO or Introducing
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Marketing Legal aspects, Principles of Marketing So if you want to expand your vocabulary on
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the topic of marketing and you want to make sure that the information you're learning
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is accurate, correct, professional, this is a great resource and everything is completely
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free.
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It's open, which means the authors have given permission for you to download this.
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So you can download it as a PDF or you can even have it as an e-book.
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You can read it online.
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So remember this is a full textbook.
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Most likely you're not going to read the textbook from start to finish.
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But again, if you want to expand your vocabulary, improve your reading skills, and you're focused
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on more of a technical or professional interest, then this is the place for you.
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So you can search any area that you're interested in, or you can just browse the subjects.
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They have different categories to see what they might have.
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Let's say you're studying to be an accountant.
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Well then hear principals.
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A managerial accounting.
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If that is in your field, well then you can have the entire textbook or you can look at
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certain sections as well.
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So it's a great technical or professional resource.
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So I don't want to receive any more messages saying that you can't find native speakers
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or you don't know how to improve your English because I've given you all the resources.
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So please use them.
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I know they'll help.
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Now, do you want me to share more resources with you?
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If you do, then put in the comments, that'd be great.
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Put, that'd be great because that's a very natural way that a native speaker would reply,
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that'd be great.
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Jennifer, put that in the comments and of course, make sure you like this video.
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Share it with your friends and subscribe so you're notified every time I post a new lesson.
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And you can get this free speaking guide where I share 6 tips on how to speak English fluently
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and confidently.
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You can click here to download it or look for the link in the description.
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And you can keep improving your English with this lesson right now.
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