5 Tips To Become a Confident English Speaker! Ask Alisha

108,297 views ・ 2018-04-14

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00:00
Wanna speak real English from your first lesson?
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Sign up for your free lifetime account at EnglishClass101.com.
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Oh, new camera.
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Hi, everybody.
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Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them,
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maybe.
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First question.
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First question comes from Winston.
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Hi, Winston.
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Winston says, “I don't understand English.
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I want to learn but I don't know how to start.
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I'm a newbie.”
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Right.
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Lots of questions like this.
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So, really there are a lot of different ways that you can start studying a language.
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Of course, we have lots of videos on our YouTube channel and we have a whole website to try
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to help people who are studying English.
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You can check us out at EnglishClass101.com.
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You can find like apps, you can find worksheets, podcasts to listen to.
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So, that can be a nice way to start.
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We have some videos for beginners also.
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So, if you're just starting, you can check some of the beginner level videos we have
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on the channel.
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For example, “English in 3 Minutes,” that's a good set of videos you can watch to learn
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some basic phrases, I think.
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So, that might be a nice place for you to start.
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But, let's look at some other ideas for beginners, specifically.
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One, join an English class in your city.
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Two, get an English textbook and study at home.
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Three, make a language exchange with an English speaker.
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Four, study vocabulary with apps.
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Try out those.
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Those are a few ideas.
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Of course, you can always use our videos on the channel, as well.
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So, I hope that helps a little bit.
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Thanks for the question.
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Next question.
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Next question comes from Carmel.
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Carmel says, “Do you have any ideas on how to improve speaking skills in English?”
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Yeah, well, to improve your speaking, you have to practice speaking.
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Here are a couple of ideas that you can use to help you improve your speaking.
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These are ideas for just ways to practice, chances to practice.
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Number one, get a partner you can practice speaking English with.
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This can be in your city or in your community.
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So, find a partner to practice speaking English with.
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This can be a language exchange partner, for example.
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Two, if you can't find anyone in your town or in your city to practice speaking English
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with, you can try to find a partner online.
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Three, try recording yourself speaking.
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You can use your phone to do this if you like.
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Just record your voice saying something, and then, listen to it again.
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You might not realize it but it's actually really helpful to hear your own voice like
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outside of your body.
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Actually, we have something on the website.
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You can check at EnglishClass101.com, there's a voice recorder function so you can record
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your voice and then compare your voice to the sound of a native speaker’s voice and
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try to practice until your voice matches the sound of their voice.
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So, that could be another idea.
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Number four, try repeating the things the characters in English TV and English movies
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say.
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So, if you're watching TV, if you're watching a video online, if you're listening to music,
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something in English, try to repeat the thing you hear.
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So, not only listening, listening, listening but try to practice saying the things the
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characters or the artists are saying too.
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Number five, kind of a strange suggestion maybe, but try talking to yourself in English.
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Actually, I do this a lot.
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I'm studying Japanese and I talked to myself in Japanese from time to time.
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So, that helps me a little bit but helps me get comfortable just saying words, some phrases,
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too.
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So, maybe that's helpful for you.
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Those are five ideas or what you can do to improve your speaking skills.
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Thanks for the question, Carmel.
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Next question is from Mohammed Fikri.
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Mohammed says, “I want a plan to speak English fluently.”
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Um, okay, well, it this is sort of a difficult request because every person is different
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and every person has different goals.
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As we've talked about in previous videos, in this series as well, one of the things
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you can do to create a plan for your studies is think about your goal first.
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So, that means, what do you want to do in English.
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If you say, “I want to learn English,” think about why, why do you want to learn
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English?
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If you think like, “I want to learn English so I can give a business presentation in English,”
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or, “I want to learn English so that I can travel comfortably and speak English during
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my travels.”
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So, depending on your goal, your plan for study will be different.
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So, first think about your goal and then act accordingly.
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So, there's no one perfect plan for everybody because each person is different.
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You could join a class.
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A class has a syllabus, there's a textbook, perhaps, or there's some plan of study for
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that class.
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So, you could try joining a class in your city or in your town to study English.
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If you don't have something like that or if it's expensive to take lessons in your city,
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you could try an online course or you could try using an app.
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There are a lot of different things you can try.
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Of course, we have lots of resources on our website, you can check that out.
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But, there are many different established courses you can join to study English.
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I think really the most important first step to making a plan for your studies is to first
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make a goal for yourself.
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This can be a really small goal, actually, and I think making many different small goals
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is a good idea so you can understand when you're improving.
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So, if your goal is just, “I want to speak English,” that's not a very clear goal.
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So, say like, “I want to learn 100 vocabulary words in one month,” for example.
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It's easy to measure that goal.
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So, think about your goal, think about what you really want to do and then make your plan
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from there.
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Next question comes from Johnny.
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Hi, Johnny.
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Johnny says, “Can I practice listening to English using YouTube videos for example.”
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Oh, totally, I think.
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I use YouTube videos and music and movies and TV and just listening to friends’ conversations
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to practice Japanese.
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So, I think, yeah, using media is a great way to work on your listening skills.
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Just be careful or maybe be aware, there are two kinds of listening.
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There's active listening and passive listening.
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So, passive listening is when, for example, you're playing a video or you're playing music
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or you're playing a movie while you are doing something else.
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So, for example, you're cooking or you're exercising or you're cleaning your house.
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So, the focus, your focus is on a different activity.
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You're not listening fully, completely to the English material.
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That's passive, that's quite passive.
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So, it's just in the background, kind of.
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Active listening, however, if you're focusing on the thing you're listening to.
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So, maybe right now, maybe some of you now are actively listening to the things I'm saying.
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You're focusing on the vocabulary words, the rhythm of the speech, the idioms I'm using,
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the grammar I'm using.
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Actively trying to understand, actively picking up what's new and what's something that I
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already know.
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Given that there are two types of listening, it's important to remember, we should practice
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active listening, as well.
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It can't only be passive listening, we should also practice active listening.
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If you use YouTube videos, if you watch our videos, like you, for example, make sure to
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practice your active listening skills in addition to just having that kind of passive listening
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experience.
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But, yeah, using media is a fantastic way because then, you can pick up the things that
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people say naturally instead of only using my typical textbook patterns, for example.
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So, absolutely, YouTube is a great resource, there are lots of people speaking in English.
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There are lots of personalities, too, so it's a really great way to use media to improve
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your listening and your language skills.
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So, sure.
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Thanks for the question.
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Next question.
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Next question comes from Ibrahim.
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I hope I said that right.
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Ibrahim says, “Do you think it's easier to understand the British accent or the American
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accent?
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Because I think the American accent is really hard to understand.”
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Hmm, well this really just depends on your experience.
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I'm American, I'm from the US, I'm from the west coast of the US so naturally, for me,
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in my experience, west coast American English is the easiest for me to understand.
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In your case, if you think American accents are difficult to understand, that's fine.
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So, maybe, you have more experience with British English speakers.
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There are many different kinds of accents even in America, even in the US, there are
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many different accents.
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There are so many different ways of speaking.
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There's American English, British English, maybe we could say, Canadian English, Australian
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English, Scottish English, Irish English, there are many different accents, many different
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ways of speaking.
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And, there are the accents that non-native speakers of English use, as well.
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So, there are so many different ways of speaking that we need to think about.
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Easy just means the one you have the most experience with.
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That's all.
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Those are all the questions that I want to answer for this week.
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Thank you so much for sending your great questions, as always.
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If you want to send a question, please send it at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha.
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Also, if you liked this video, please make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe
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to the channel if you haven't already.
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You can also check us out at EnglishClass101.com for some other good study resources.
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Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week.
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Bye.
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It's getting hot in here so I'm going to turn off the camera.
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