10 Years of Learning English with JenniferESL on YouTube!

Hello. I'm Jennifer.

I'm standing in the woods behind my home here in Massachusetts

because I'd like to share a few expressions that have to do with the outdoors.

What better place, right?

Back in July of 2007, I decided to post a few videos for English language learners.

Very quickly I started to get positive comments from students and other teachers.

I was so excited to reach people in different countries around the world.

Within the first couple of months, I knew that YouTube was something very special

and I wanted to continue.

Let's start with the first expression: to be out of the woods.

If you're out of the woods, you've just come out of a difficult situation.

You're problems have ended.

And if someone says to you, "You're not out of the woods yet."

It means that difficulties will continue.

Or you have more challenges that lie ahead.

Over here I have a frying pan and fire.

The expression "out of the frying pan and into the fire"

means you just went from one bad situation to another, perhaps even worse.

I knew so little about producing and editing videos.

My early lessons had bad lighting,

and the audio quality wasn't that great either.

but viewers continued to support my efforts.

I promised that as long as there were people to teach

I would continue to improve my skills as an online teacher.

Those of you who have been with me for several years

know that I've been working hard to produce better quality videos.

I thank you for your patience as I learn how to use all the technology.

Jennifer, 10 years ago YouTube was a crazy place.

But you had vision and saw how much it could help English learners.

You're an inspiration to us all, and I love you!

Happy anniversary!

"Remember" + a gerund means you have the memory of an event or action.

At one point, my friend Natasha asked for English lessons.

I was too busy to take on another private student,

so I suggested that we study together and film our lessons

so that I could share videos with other beginners.

Luckily my friend had enough courage to agree.

All right. Let's try again.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

We had to end our lessons when Natasha's family moved away,

but the 65 lessons that we filmed have been watched by thousands around the world.

I'm so proud of Natasha for modeling a good attitude for other students.

I was lucky have have other friends, neighbors, and family who agreed to go on camera.

What kinds of jobs involve getting paid under the table?

Well, getting paid under the table would be jobs like

um...mowing the lawn, babysitting.

Um, sometimes it could be construction work.

You know, something in your house.

Don't you think there are some dangers when you get paid under the table?

Absolutely. If you're injured when you're paid under the table,

there's no recourse. There's no insurance to pay for your injury.

Um, there's no build-up of social security, so you miss that income.

You heard the expression "pay someone under the table."

What does this expression mean?

The answer is A.

To pay someone under the table is to pay the person secretly or unofficially.

Sometimes people get paid under the table because the work is illegal.

Claudia, I know you've been here for 11 years.

Yes. That's a long time.

Surely there's a few things that you miss about your home country.

Yes, I do.

I'm fortunate to have very supportive colleagues.

Some are a wonderful source of support off-camera.

And several have appeared on camera with me to help create new lessons for you.

My name is Holly, and I work part-time from home

teaching English online via video. And I'm also an independent video producer.

My name is Alfredo, and for my full-time job I teach English at a university.

I also teach English language learners through our website and through our YouTube channel.

Both Holly and Alfredo teach through video,

but Alfredo says that his full-time job is teaching at a university.

It's likely Holly. She explains that she works part-time,

whereas Alfredo teaches full-time.

In this lesson, I have a special surprise for you.

I'm teaming up with another YouTuber,

a very popular and talented English teacher.

Rachel of Rachel's English

Together Rachel and I will be teaching some work-related idioms.

We'll use some old and new footage.

I'll also be offering some useful study tips.

Rachel is going to teach the first idiom. Are you ready?

Have you ever heard anyone say, "Keep me in the loop" or "I want to stay in the loop."

This idiom means to be informed or connected.

For example, if you're working on a project at work and you've just been talking about it.

To let your co-workers know that you're interested in staying involved or informed,

you could say, "Great. Keep me in the loop."

So keeping you in the loop means keeping you informed.

Making sure you get information as it becomes known or shared.

Keeping you in that circle.

Rachel explained that this idiom can be used at work.

This is important. Here's our first tip.

Not all idioms belong in the workplace or within a professional exchange.

But "keep me in the loop" is a great work-related idiom.

My second tip is learn how to use an idiom.

The basic idiom here is "in the loop."

Rachel gave us two ways to use it.

It's a good thing to be familiar with variations of an idiom.

When you're creating your outgoing voicemail message,

begin by saying "Hello." Then either state your name or your phone number.

For example: Hello. You've reached Gabby. OR Hello. You've reached 555-1234.

Then you can leave instructions for the caller, say thank you and goodbye.

So for example: Hello. You've reached Gabby. Please leave me a message,

and I'll call you back as soon as possible. Thank you. Bye.

Hello. This is Jennifer.

I'm sorry I'm not able to take your call.

Please leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Thank you.

Hi Jennifer. It's Vicki returning your call.

I guess we're playing phone tag.

But I got your email, and I love your idea.

And I'll be happy to contact the others.

I'll see who I can reach today.

Talk later. Bye.

Check this out.

I used to work at a fish market. True or false?

True! Actually, I worked at a fish market for six summers when I was a teenager.

Did you notice the rhythm while I was speaking? Did you?

When we speak, we stress the words that are most important for people to understand.

Those words are on the beat in English.

The others words, usually little grammar words,

they shrink, they get smaller or link together.

That's the shrinking and linking.

Hey Jennifer! It's Gabby from Go Natural English.

And Scrappy.

And we want to wish you an awesome 10-year anniversary of your YouTube channel.

I'm such a big fan of yours, and you've been a big mentor

and inspiration for me as an English teacher online, too.

So congratulations to one of the most awesome world famous online English teachers.

We love you!

One of the toughest challenges for me over the past ten years

has been balancing work and family.

I have two great loves: my family and teaching.

I looked so tired in many of those early videos

because I was working on so little sleep.

I published my first video on July 25, 2007.

My son was two, and my daughter was two months old.

Often I filmed when they were taking naps.

Little by little, you started to see my children in my videos.

I'm out. Okay.

You're out. This is the winner. Yay!

These are your toys, not mine, right? - Yes.

What do we have?

A spider and an insect. Or a cockroach.

You think it's a cockroach? It's a big one. Okay.

Are you afraid of spiders?

A little bit. If it was this big?

Yes, I'd be afraid. I'd be afraid of it, too.

What about cockroaches? Are you afraid of cockroaches?

If it landed on me, I'd be scared.

I would be scared, too.

Natasha, I have a question for you.

When we sing "Jingle Bells," what word do we say at the end?

When we say: "Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! Jingle all the way."

"Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh..."

Yeah.

And how is that spelled? H-a-y or h-e-y?

H-e-y.

Of course. Because if we say h-a-y,

what are we talking about?

They hay that um horses eat.

Yeah. Hay for horses.

I help, too.

Well, I try.

Here's how you make a snow angel.

First of all, you need to wait for it to snow.

Then when it does, be sure to dress warmly.

Find a good spot.

Then lie down with your arms out.

Next, move your arms and legs up and down.

The tricky part is getting up and not messing up your angel.

See?

By the way, if you have a dog, they may want to help a little bit.

Thank you for supporting my children's efforts in front of the camera.

I think it's been good for Alex and Natasha to be a part of my work.

And I think you know that for me teaching is very personal.

I put myself and a bit of my life in my lessons.

This is my little angel. I've had her since I was a child.

My name is written on it along with my birthday.

March 9.

So the angel is little. The angel is sweet.

She's my sweet little angel.

opinion - size - head noun

(Speaking Russian: Hello. In this video, I'll be speaking Russian.

But first let me say a few words in English.)

In this video, I'll be speaking Russian,

and if you want to hear more English, you can jump ahead to the end.

But even if you don't speak Russian,

maybe you can listen just a little.

And you'll come to see that I'm a language learner, too.

And I understand that it takes determination to learn another language.

And it takes courage to speak it.

(Speaking Russian: For a long time now, many of you have asked me to make a video in Russian.)

So when I was 16, I joined a Filipino dance group.

I had to catch up to other kids who had been dancing for several years.

One day a parent walked in with a box of glasses.

And I was like, "What are those for?"

They said we were going to learn to dance with candles on our heads.

I said, "Really? No tape or anything?"

Remember what may seem impossible at first really isn't.

With patience and practice, along with some helpful tips,

you can accomplish almost anything.

You all likely know that the highlight of Thanksgiving is the holiday meal.

But what happens the day before Thanksgiving?

In this video, I'll give you a look into the preparations for the big feast.

Natasha, do you want to help me crimp the pies...the pie crusts? - Okay.

Okay. So we have the pie crusts in the pie tins.

And, well, we can't bake a pie like that because it won't look very pretty,

so we have to crimp the pie crust.

Do you remember...? Here you do this one.

Do you remember...like that one? Okay. You do that one, and I'll do this one.

In short, I'm very thankful for the opportunity to teach online.

Thank you, each an every one of you, for allowing me to share my knowledge

and for giving me the chance to guide your studies even just a little bit.

I've learned so much from teaching you,

and I've grown a lot as a person because of my experience online.

Thank you, everyone, for the past ten years.

I hope to continue my work for many more years to come.

That's all for now.

As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!