English Learning Tips with Sarah - Self Study English with Sarah for 2 Hours

so today we're going to learn this is  actually based on a really good ted talk  

by the same name uh and in it there are  some really great tips about how to learn  

a language and i'm going to apply it today to  learning english so the secrets to learning  

english how can you learn english effectively if  you guys are interested the woman's name is lydia  

makova so i'll put her name in the comments  after so you guys can check out her talk but  

today i'm going to review the four ways to learn  english effectively so let's go ahead and begin  

teacher how can i learn english this is the  question we get the most on our facebook page  

and on our youtube channel so very often on videos  posted on live streams like this or the one with  

dr dawn we get a lot of questions asking how  can i learn english right how can i be better  

so we have posted many videos and done many live  streams like this about improving your speaking  

improving your listening reading and writing being  more confident and just generally becoming better  

at english so today i'm going to try and take  all that we like to talk about on our channel  

about becoming better at english and put  it together into these four easy steps  

so how to learn a new language how to learn  english there are four steps enjoyment methods  

system and patience so we will go  through and talk about each of these  

one by one how they are important what  does it mean and how can you use it to  

really go to the next level with your english  okay so let's begin with number one enjoyment  

so what does this word mean enjoyment in this oh  let me find my mouse it's somewhere there we go  

we see the word enjoy and in enjoy we see the  word joy right happy so if you get enjoyment  

from something it makes you feel happy you like to  do it right you enjoy it so step one is enjoyment  

this is truly step one it is the most important  so before we talk about any other steps you must  

enjoy what you are doing so if you do not enjoy  learning if you don't like learning english  

or the way that you're learning english you will  not want to do it right you will stop you will not  

be interested or you will feel that oh i have to  study oh i don't want to right we don't want that  

we need to make sure that no matter what you are  finding a way to enjoy learning because again  

if you don't you're not going to want to do it  right so how can you do that what does that mean  

often when we think about studying english or  studying any language we think of things like  

memorizing vocabulary studying grammar rules  things that maybe you enjoy doing i know i  

love learning new vocabulary but not everyone  wants to sit down and memorize 10 words a day or  

20 words a week or what have you or maybe  the way that they're doing it flash cards or  

oh grammar rules right maybe they don't maybe  you don't enjoy that so you have to think  

about this question what do you enjoy maybe you  enjoy breeding fiction books meeting new people  

going to coffee shops playing sports  playing video games watching tv  

watching movies photography which is taking  pictures right painting or listening to music  

or maybe there are so many more things right  so right now as you watch think about this  

question what do you enjoy anything what  are your hobbies what do you like to do  

what do you enjoy okay so think about it for a  minute so for me i for example i love to read  

i read almost every day um i love to go to coffee  shops i love uh playing games watching movies  

so on so on what do you enjoy anything right there  are maybe one million more things we could add to  

this list okay so now that you have thought about  maybe three to five things that you enjoy now  

add english to it okay so what does that mean well  that brings us to step two which is methods okay  

so now that you have thought of some things  you enjoy we need to take those activities  

and add learning to them okay a method is a way  of doing something you must use your interests to  

choose your learning methods and notice here  oh sorry guys i always lose my there it is  

your interests your methods what does this mean  your methods will be unique or special to you so  

you will not have the same methods as me maybe  we'll have one similar method but they will be  

different depending on what your interests  are okay so we're going to make some methods  

another great thing to do if you're having a hard  time is talk to others about how they learn too  

you can also just use a search engine  like google to look up how to learn  

methods study methods or maybe  again i gave the example of movies  

you can just search how to study english  using movies how to study english using blank  

right and you can find some interesting  methods and find one or two that works for you  

so next now that you have thought about what you  enjoy let's talk about some methods so here are  

some meth some things that i might enjoy right  i like reading fiction books i like going to  

coffee shops i like playing online games i  like painting and i like listening to music  

great so these are all things that i enjoy so now  i want to add english to it how can i use what  

i enjoy to learn english right add english to my  hobbies and interests so let's take a look at some  

sample methods for each of these and you can think  about your hobbies and interests and how you might  

add english to them so number one i like reading  fiction books well this one's probably easy  

right you can read the english version of your  favorite book for example maybe you really love  

a classic novel and you've read it so many times  and you know it is available in english well  

try reading it in english this is a great  method because you already know the story  

right so because it's not a new story it's easier  to start to learn the language around the story  

when you already kind of know what's happening  who the characters are what the plot is and so on  

okay number two i like going to coffee shops oh  this one's a little more tricky if i love going  

to coffee shops and love drinking coffee  and making it and so on i can always study  

coffee culture in blank speaking countries so  of course if you're learning english you want to  

maybe study coffee culture in english-speaking  countries so learning language is not just about  

vocabulary right culture is uh language is a  part of culture culture is a part of language so  

learning the language around different parts  of culture like music culture movie culture in  

this case coffee culture can be a great way to  learn to talk about something you really like  

in a second language right great just always  start with things that you enjoy because you want  

to actually learn how to talk about those things  you actually enjoy those things okay number three  

i like playing online games okay so what can i  do to use english if i really just want to play  

games with my free time you can try to play on an  english server like the us server the australia  

server whatever is close to you geographically  and easy to use maybe it doesn't have too much lag  

and play on an english server especially games  that have an open chat section and you can type  

right chat with english speakers  read see what they're talking about  

though this isn't the best way to learn  formal english it's a great way to learn  

slang and kind of the way people talk to  each other in that environment and again  

culture right so you can see inside  gaming culture in different countries  

okay how about painting or really any hobby for  example let's say you really really love painting  

read about your favorite artists art and  lives in english so who do you love what  

what uh which artists inspire you or make you want  to paint well one method you could possibly use  

is to read about your favorite artists  art their pieces right and their lives in  

english and finally listening to music you  can explore english music and study the lyrics  

so again each of these also has culture in it  too which is great right we're learning about  

um coffee culture gaming culture paint uh maybe  art art art culture music culture and so on so  

these are all example methods so think about  what you enjoy and how you can add english to it

okay so methods are the base right so number  one enjoy what you're doing number two  

make some methods based on what you enjoy so let's  say i've chosen those five things right so let's  

say these are my five methods okay great read  the english version of your favorite book that's  

great to say but i need to go farther i need  a system i need to develop a system and so  

do you this means you need a study plan so  before we get to that so we see here a calendar  

right i can't just say i will read my favorite  english book or my favorite book in english  

okay when for how how often how long  will you read for when will you do it  

how will you fit it into your schedule so  if you're like me you love having a plan  

but maybe this doesn't come naturally to you you  don't really ah no i'll just do it when i can  

so for if that's how you feel i need i want  to tell you that this is a very very important  

step if you do not have a system that is  doable enjoyable easy to stick to for you  

then you you won't get any farther okay so  let's talk about how to make a study plan  

your study plan should be smart so  what is this this is called an acronym  

that's when each letter stands for a  different word so the s stands for specific  

m stands for measurable a attainable are relevant  and t time bound so we're going to talk about all  

of these but let's take a look at what these  words mean first so first we have specific  

this means that i shouldn't just say i'm going to  read a book specific would be what kind of book  

which book uh how many pages how often  what what days what times and so on  

measurable to measure something we might think  of like a ruler right oh um it's 10 feet or  

100 kilometers right but here we want to be  able to measure our improvement right so whether  

that's um i will read 25 pages a day until i  finish the book right i can see my progress  

or i will uh study 15 vocabulary words a  week and use them in my writing okay and  

you can measure how many words you use and  how many you're learning right measurable

a is attainable this means you can  do it another word we might use  

is achievable this means it's possible you can  do it so don't say i will study i will read  

a book for three hours a day every  day because you probably won't right  

it probably will be impossible for you  to do that maybe you will at the start  

but it a word we would use is sustainable this  means if it is not sustainable this means you  

can't keep doing it it's too much so make sure it  is doable attainable achievable okay something you  

can do even if you only have five minutes a day to  uh do something do one of your methods that's okay  

even just once a week whatever works for you  the point is you have a system and you can do it  

and for and there's no reason  that you should have to stop okay  

the r stands for relevant so this  means that what you choose to do is  

uh it is important it's useful right it is not  something that you'll never use so let's say you

this goes back to your methods right you want  to choose methods that are uh that interest you  

are based on your interests and that you will  actually use the language for right and finally t  

means time bound so whether that's uh  i will read this book in two months  

or i will give myself 30 minutes every uh 30  minutes three days a week to do it it needs  

to be time-bound so let's take a look a little  bit closer at what these mean okay so specific  

make your goals specific and narrow for good  planning right more effective planning it's uh  

again i could say read a book or i could be  specific and say read uh 15 pages of harry potter  

in english um every week and highlight the words  and write them down and that i don't know and  

write them down on a separate place to study right  measurable so you need to choose what your goal is  

is it that you want to learn more words is it that  you want to read faster what is your goal choose  

what what you're measuring and keep track of it  right so if you choose words learned the number of  

words you learn let's say you start off and then  and you're learning a lot of new words and then  

it stops well now you can change what you're  doing right it means you need to measure  

attainable again make sure you can do your goal  make sure it is possible that your plan is doable  

relevant it should match your goals right don't  do something that isn't important to you and time  

bound realistic and have an end date i want to  do this by this time having smart goals is very  

important having a smart system of learning is  extremely important and you can do it so let's  

look at an example of a smart learning goal for  studying english right i've been talking about  

um uh reading so for example i will read harry  potter for 15 minutes every day right that works  

for me in my schedule i will look up words i don't  know and quiz myself on new vocabulary each week  

i will finish the first book in two months okay  great so we have let's make sure we have each part  

specific yes so i say how often 15 minutes  every day vocabulary quiz each week measurable  

well i'm quizzing myself right i'm checking  my learning and if i'm not doing very well  

on my self-made quizzes well i can change what i'm  doing change how i'm reading give more time to it  

attainable well 15 minutes every day is attainable  for me and two months that works i can do that are  

relevant well i always loved harry potter and i  know that there's a lot of really good language  

in there so definitely relevant and time bound  yes i have my daily goal my weekly goal and how  

long it will take me to complete so use this as  an example for how to create your learning system

okay so of course you have to enjoy the methods  you use to and develop a system using them  

and that's great but the last step here is  patience this means being okay to wait right you  

should not expect to learn the entire english  language in two months you can't do that  

but you can make progress this is again why  that m measurable is so important if you are  

studying and practicing but you are not measuring  your progress it will be more difficult to see how  

you are improving so keep track this might  mean uh something like recording yourself  

keeping a journal let's say you want to work on  your writing keep a journal get a notebook and  

write in it at the end of each week maybe and then  as time goes on you can look back and maybe see  

your earlier mistakes oh i know that that that  i shouldn't have done that now i know what's  

right and maybe you can even fix it right for  speaking maybe try to choose something to describe  

or talk about or a certain topic and record  yourself on your phone or on your computer  

and then come back to it maybe a few three months  later and see oh yes i've gotten better or if not  

that's okay that just means you need to change  your methods right and with reading you can search  

and find uh books the the english level the how  hard different books are to read so maybe start  

very easy right and slowly very slowly work  your way up and that's a great way to keep  

track of your progress as well and to help  yourself feel patient so remember you should  

enjoy what you're doing use your hobbies and  interests to create unique special methods  

take those methods and put them into a  well-planned system and be patient with  

yourself and don't be afraid to change right if  you develop a system and it's not working for you  

change it right you may end up going back and  forth between these two things again and again  

and you may over time find also different methods  that work for you so just keep going through  

this is not a one-time thing you're going  to have to change because you will change  

your interests will change your schedule or  job might change so just be willing to always  

change these steps as you go on as well alright  so those are the main four but there is a  

fifth that i would like to add and that  is high expectations and self-compassion  

so i think that it is very important to set high  goals for yourself but also don't beat yourself up  

if you don't meet those very high goals you set  but you want to um make sure you are trying to do  

something you know you can do but that's going  to be challenging right we want to challenge  

ourselves so you should acknowledge or recognize  no yes this is hard english is hard learning a  

second language is quite difficult especially  if you do not live in a country where you're  

hearing that language all the time so if you  are learning english and you live in england  

well it will be it's a little easier for you  because you have to use it every day you see  

it on signs you hear it on the radio tv movies  everywhere you're surrounded by english but if  

you are learning english and you live in pakistan  for example i saw someone on our comments today  

saying that uh that's where they're watching  from today well you probably don't hear as  

much english right it's it's going to be more  difficult to seek it out learn from it and you  

really are more responsible for your learning so  it really falls on you so it is hard but still  

set high expectations and big goals for yourself  trust that you can do it that you are capable but  

also don't beat yourself up when it takes longer  than you think to reach those goals maybe my goal  

is to pass the um past a certain level of a toefl  test or topic or not that ielts or some english  

test maybe there's five levels of a test and i  want to pass um level three by the end of the year  

and i'm working really really hard really really  hard and i don't pass well maybe i got to like 2.5  

that's still really good right i'm still making  progress so make sure to set high expectations  

for yourself and if you don't meet it in the  time you want to be patient right persistence  

is the key keep going as i showed you on the  last slide you might have to change your methods  

change your system again and again until you find  what works for you but you will find something if  

something isn't working for you try something new  because you may be just one step away from finding  

the methods and systems that help you to meet your  goals so have you ever felt nervous while speaking  

english maybe you feel a little shy or nervous and  when you try to speak you forget the words i know  

this happens to me sometimes when i try to speak  a second language so has that ever happened to you  

have you ever struggled with confidence  when using english so have you ever felt  

not very confident when using english or have  you ever wished you could feel more comfortable  

using english so actually these are  all things that some of our followers  

on facebook and youtube have commented so uh you  guys i hope today i can help you feel a little bit  

better about using english so let's learn how to  be more confident with english okay you guys ready  

so we're gonna talk about three  things today having a plan

something called fake it till you make it  we'll talk about that and something called  

self-compassion so don't worry we will talk  about all of these words and what they mean  

so here is a three-step plan to be more confident  using english step number one have a plan  

so do you have a study plan right now uh what  is a plan you need to choose what and when you  

will study so do you have that do you have uh do  you know exactly what you study and exactly when  

you study it do you have a plan or is it  just random and whenever you feel like it  

so you need to choose what and when you will study  so this means you need methods which are what and  

a schedule which is when so let's talk about  these things so step one of having a plan is  

you need methods or ways to study so a method  is what you do right this is the thing that you  

do to study it is very important this is  something i talk about a lot your methods should  

be enjoyable so this means you should like the  methods you choose so if you like to study english  

maybe you love to study vocabulary well that's a  method you like maybe you like to use flashcards  

when you study well then do that because you  like it you enjoy it if you don't like to do that  

that's okay you don't have to study that  way you can study any way that you enjoy  

but extremely very very very important that your  methods are enjoyable so how how can we do this  

maybe you're thinking oh what does that mean how  can i like studying well an easy thing is to think  

of what you already like and add english to it  so for example maybe you love watching youtube  

well then watch youtube videos about topics  you like in english maybe you love to watch  

videos about food i do i like cooking videos so  how can i make this about language study well i  

can watch youtube videos about cooking in the  language i'm trying to learn so if i want to  

learn english well i can watch cooking videos  in english or maybe you like sports okay watch  

some sports in english you can do this on  youtube you can do this in many places online  

so watch things if you like youtube watch  youtube videos about topics you like in english

maybe you love listening to music well then  a great enjoyable method for you to study  

would be to learn about and explore english music  and use that to study study the music and read  

the lyrics or the words to the song and study the  words music and lyrics which are again the words  

in a song are a great way to study so if you love  music that could be an enjoyable method for you  

or maybe like so many people you  love playing video games well  

play your game if it's an online game  or a game you can play with other people  

then play on an american or british or australian  server and chat with the players in english this  

is a really nice way because you don't have  to show your face right you can just type in  

practice and you can learn a lot of english slang  and see how conversations work with many people  

so make sure to have methods this is very  important but what's also important is having a  

schedule a schedule is when right it is impossible  or not possible you can't do it you can't  

learn a skill like language without committing  regular time to it so this means uh maybe  

every day or once a week or whatever works for you  make sure your schedule is doable which means can  

do it and enjoyable which means can enjoy so make  sure you can do your schedule and you can enjoy  

did you notice here again enjoyable the best way  to learn is to find a way that you enjoy learning  

whether it's learning how to ski ride a bike or  speak english it is best to and and will help you  

if you enjoy it so also make sure your schedule is  specific so this means don't just say i'll study  

once a week okay well we're getting started on  a specific schedule but for example instead of  

saying once a week say and commit or always do it  i will study every tuesday morning for 10 minutes  

or i will study three days a week for 15  minutes on my way to school or on my way to work  

so maybe i choose monday wednesday friday right  on my way to work i will study however i want to  

maybe that means listening to an english podcast

but that you have methods and a schedule this  is the best way to learn okay so step one for  

being more confident have a plan when you are  doing something and sticking to your schedule  

and being regular always studying in a way  you enjoy at the same times it will help you  

feel more confident right unless what should  i do right so have a plan have a schedule  

okay step number two is called fake it till you  make it so this is an english idiom we talk about  

idioms a lot on our channel this is an english  idiom that means to pretend you're good at  

something until you are so to fake it means  to pretend right um and then make it means  

you can do it so fake it till you make it we use  this idiom pretty often in english especially when  

maybe i am starting a new job for example  and i don't feel very confident well i will  

just pretend to be confident until i am and we  can do that with english as well pretend you  

are confident using english and eventually maybe  maybe even in a few minutes if you are pretending  

to be confident or maybe it takes some time you  will really feel more confident and comfortable  

so does this sound crazy maybe it does but i  promise it really works so what does it mean  

to pretend you're confident how do we pretend  to be confident using english well what do con  

confident people look and what do confident people  sound like well confident people have good posture  

good volume and humor right can we can laugh at  ourselves if we feel confident so let's talk about  

each of these first good posture so confident  someone who has uh who is confident has good  

posture part of this means sitting up straight  like i'm doing so if you are using english make  

sure to stand or sit up straight it helps you  really does help you feel more confident make  

sure you don't start shrinking right and  doing this we do this when we feel nervous  

right so make sure to sit up straight and it  really does help you feel a little more confident  

another part of good posture is don't do something  called fidgeting so for example let's say i am  

looking for oh let's say i'm holding a pencil  and i'm using english and maybe i feel a little  

nervous so this is fidgeting right or maybe  i'm doing something like this don't fidget  

make sure to be aware of the things you do  when you feel nervous and to help yourself  

feel more confident make sure to don't do those  things right so sit up straight and don't fidget  

i notice when i'm nervous if i i'm wearing a  ring i play with my ring so i have to not do  

that because it helps me feel more confident  and also other people see me as more confident  

another part of posture or or just our body  language is keeping eye contact if this is  

difficult for you or maybe in your culture  it's not as normal to always keep eye contact  

when someone is talking that's okay just make  sure that you're not looking away because you're  

feeling nervous or shy okay so step one fake it  till you make it good posture next is good volume  

so this means speak at a normal conversational  volume one thing that we do when we feel like we  

don't know exactly how to say something in english  is maybe we start mumbling right we talk a little  

quieter because we don't we're not really sure  is this how i say it oh i i don't know so maybe  

you start speaking quiet quietly so make sure to  speak at a normal conversational volume and again  

maybe you have to force yourself to do it maybe  you feel uncomfortable speaking loudly or you feel  

uncomfortable sitting up straight not fidgeting  and keeping eye contact but it's okay you will  

feel a little uncomfortable at first but soon it  will feel normal and you will feel more confident  

and last and this is very important is humor  so humor is uh we often say if someone has a  

good humor this means that they can they laugh a  lot or make other people laugh right if you have  

good humor so part of fake it till you make it is  humor don't be too serious laugh at your mistakes  

every person alive makes mistakes i make mistakes  you make mistakes that person over there makes  

mistakes they make mistakes everyone makes  mistakes right so it's okay if you are trying  

to sit up straight and speak clearly and loudly  and you make a mistake just laugh and continue  

it's okay to make mistakes don't uh be too  serious or too hard on yourself because  

this is just part of learning right we we always  make mistakes and another thing that you can do  

if you really feel like you're making  big mistakes and you are talking to a  

native speaker just joke about your language  level oh i have so much to learn with english  

you'll be surprised at the feedback that you  get and what do i mean by this most people  

appreciate that you are trying to speak to them  in english or in their native language right  

so it's okay you don't have to be perfect so  just try to have some humor about it it's very  

important to be able to laugh at yourself you guys  see me laugh at myself on the live streams when i  

make mistakes haha whoops and continue right so  like this so remember good posture good volume  

and humor okay our last step today okay for being  more con is something called self-compassion okay  

so what does this term mean well self is  you or for me myself is me yourself is you  

and then let's talk about the word  compassion compassion is the feeling you get  

when you see another person suffering  and you want to stop that suffering  

so what is suffering this is when someone is hurt  or hurting right so maybe you see a child fall and  

cut their knee and you feel oh i want to help  i want to help that person oh poor oh you poor  

thing i want to help you that is compassion so  when we feel we see another person hurt we and  

we want to help them and help them to stop being  hurt right so how do we have compassion for others  

what do we do what is compassion compassion could  be your friend had a bad day and you just try to  

make them feel better oh don't worry about it  you are so smart you're so great you can do it  

tomorrow will be better right don't worry so we  might talk to people to try to make them feel  

better right give compliments this is compassion  uh we might do something to help them maybe i see  

that my my my mom my parents are so busy so  i oh i have compassion right i feel oh it's  

so difficult for you so i might do something  like cook them dinner this is compassion so  

a good way to think about compassion with  language is ask yourself this question  

what would you tell your best friend if they were  feeling bad about their language ability maybe  

my best friend is trying to learn english  too and um she tells me oh i made so many  

mistakes today and i just feel so bad  well what would i say to my best friend  

what would you say to your best friend  well i think most of us would say hey  

don't worry you're doing a good job learning a  language is hard you're doing great maybe try  

to do this next time right so what would you tell  your best friend if they are having that struggle  

now tell that to yourself so if i tell my  friend if i would tell my friend hey you're  

doing a good job learning a language is hard  try this next time well now i'm just going to  

tell that to myself when i feel that way hey i'm  doing a good job it's hard to learn a language  

and i'm going to try this other thing next time  and then maybe not feel so bad about it right  

compassion also means patience and forgiveness  so patience means okay to wait so it takes a  

lot of time to learn how to speak a language  especially something like english which is  

a difficult language it has so many influences  from other languages and it's an old language and  

it has so many crazy rules and things that it's  supposed to be a rule but it doesn't work so  

be patient with yourself it takes time and it's  okay that it takes time and forgiveness means to  

not stay angry or unhappy about another person's  actions so it's important to forgive yourself  

if you make mistakes don't don't feel angry  or upset or bad because you're making language  

mistakes just forgive yourself oh it's okay right  have patience it takes time and forgiveness it's  

okay that i make mistakes right just keep trying  if you can't do that it will be very hard to learn  

because if you're always saying no i should have  been perfect i did this wrong i did that wrong  

no no make sure to have self-compassion  patience forgiveness and be kind to yourself too

so with practicing self-compassion uh remember  often when you're afraid of what others will think  

of you you're putting your worries into their  mind so if you are afraid that you of speaking  

to a native english speaker because you'll make  mistakes and you're worried that they will think  

a bad thing about you usually  that means you feel bad about you  

so you think the other person is will  as well but that's often not the case  

this is most often not the case so most  people are understanding and forgiving  

and appreciate you trying and know that  it's hard to learn another language so

don't put your worry into someone else's mind  okay so remember most people will be understanding  

and will not uh think bad things about  you okay so remember our three steps  

to having confidence with english step one have  a plan have enjoyable methods and an enjoyable  

schedule so you can practice regularly in a way  that you enjoy even just sticking to a study  

schedule can help you feel more confident because  you're doing something and learning a little bit

step two fake it till you make it pretend to  be confident until you are have good posture  

good volume and humor make sure you can laugh at  yourself and step three have self compassion so  

don't be angry at yourself when you make mistakes  be kind be patient and be forgiving and remember  

most other people are kind patient and forgiving  too so today we will talk about self-study and  

self-evaluation so let's go ahead what are those  things so self-study i will answer the question  

how can you effectively study by yourself so  effectively this means in a really good way  

right so using your time well and using good study  methods right so how can you self-study very well  

and then self-evaluation so how can you keep track  of or how can you know and follow your english  

level with no class and no teacher so i will share  with you some different ways that you can do that  

so let's go ahead and begin so for self study  today i will share with you self study about the  

four main english skills writing reading listening  and speaking okay so we'll go through one by one  

and talk about some different ways to self-study  each of these main english skills okay so  

first let's talk about how to self-study writing  this is a question that comes up very often in  

the comments during the live streams and even  the comments on our youtube videos and facebook  

videos so today i want to begin by sharing some  different helpful ways to self-study writing  

okay so let's talk about three ways to self-study  writing first keep a journal and we'll talk about  

each of these in detail so keep a journal use  english writing prompts talk about what that  

is and write a summary so let's go through these  three self-study skills or self-study methods so  

first is to keep a journal so unfortunately oh no  journal around me so a journal is like a notebook  

that we write our thoughts in so in a journal  you can write about the events of your day  

you can write about your thoughts and  feelings this will help you express yourself  

so it might not be something that you have  normally done or that you have done before but if  

you keep a journal in english this is an excellent  way to practice writing about your life right  

and all of our study skills are connected  so if you practice writing about your  

day and writing about your thoughts your feelings  your opinions in english every day or very often  

then it will help your speaking too right  so you become more skilled at talking about  

whatever it is you want to write about so for me  if i try to keep a journal in another language it  

i write about uh what i am comfortable writing  about but try to challenge myself a little so  

let's say i want to write about where's my mouse  there we go the events of my day so let's say i  

am studying english and i know how to talk about  simple things like i woke up i brushed my teeth  

i ate breakfast some simple things there so i  can also challenge myself what does this mean  

well maybe i did something and i don't know how to  say it in english keeping a journal is the perfect  

time to look up new words use them to talk  about your day and expand your vocabulary  

improve your writing and improve  your speaking and confidence okay so  

keeping a journal excellent excellent way  to practice your writing and something  

you can see over time your skill will improve  right so also make sure to try and write  

as long as you can as much detail as you can so  not just two sentences right it is hard to talk  

about our day in just two sentences so maybe  try ten sentences or more okay so keep a journal  

our next self-study writing method is use english  writing prompts so what is a writing prompt  

a writing prompt is a sentence or a question  that we read and then write about that saying  

so for example a writing prompt might say  something like um tell me what music you like and  

there you go okay that's the topic i will  write about so english writing topics  

okay you can use google or any search engine  to look up english writing prompts there are so  

many and just choose one a day this will help  you to learn to write about many different topics  

and again make sure to uh use your phone or your  computer to translate use a dictionary use tools  

to help you learn the words and phrases you need  to write about these many different topics so  

here's an example i just searched english writing  prompts so let's take a look at some that would  

be easy or at least good starting questions to  write about maybe could be difficult could be easy  

so your favorite childhood vacation wow so that  one topic you could write so much about right  

you could write about your favorite teacher  right describe them what they are like  

in writing so many things you could talk  about write about your first job right  

so there are hundreds and hundreds and  hundreds of these kinds of questions out there  

so all you have to do is search for them  and then write about them each day okay

okay so the next way we can self-study  writing is to write a summary so a summary  

let's talk about what that means first  a summary is like let's say i have a  

long long long story or a long movie or something  long and i want to tell you just the most  

important information about that thing let's  say i watched a great movie and my friend asks  

me what was the movie about well i'm not going  to tell them the whole story right maybe just  

the most important information so if someone asked  me what happened in the avengers endgame movie  

i could say something like oh um they all came  together to fight thanos in the end well i don't  

want to ruin it for you if you haven't seen it but  i would just give some simple information right  

this is a great way to learn how to talk about big  ideas in a short way sometimes when we are trying  

to express ourselves in another language maybe  there are so many things we're thinking about  

and so many things we want to say it can be  hard to uh just say what we need to say right  

so practicing writing again helps our speaking  too you can write summaries about anything  

you like okay so this is always important write  about what you like right anytime you self study  

you should enjoy it so you can write summaries  about movies books tv shows things happening in  

the news and so on anything that you like okay so  remember writing a summary keeping a journal and  

using english writing prompts are all  excellent ways to self-study writing

okay let's talk about our next self-study skill  

reading this is another very common  question oh teacher how do i self study  

reading well let's look at a few skills  first choose a story you know already

use an online dictionary for meaning  and pronunciation while you read  

and lastly write synonyms next to new words

so let's go ahead and go through these

first choose a story you know already read a  story in english that you know very well in  

your native language for example i know the story  harry potter so so so well i have read the books  

in my native language many times so when i want  to practice reading in another language well  

a great place to start for me is harry potter  because i know the characters i know the story  

and this helps me to understand or infer which  means guess the meaning of words in sentences  

right because i already know the story so it  could be any story for you just think what's  

a story you know very well and then find  that in english find that book in english  

this helps your comprehension or your  understanding and your language development  

because you learn slowly how to infer  the meaning of words in sentences  

or in a paragraph or in a story right so  because you know it it is a little easier  

to understand and maybe more interesting  because it's a story you know and like

the next self-study skill for reading is use  an online dictionary while you read so maybe  

you're reading a book or maybe you like to read  on a kindle or a tablet you can always have your  

phone nearby to use an online dictionary while  you read of course when you read there will be  

words you don't know phrases you don't  know things that will be confusing right so  

always have a dictionary nearby  when you see new words when reading  

you can look them up in an online dictionary  so one of my favorites is cambridge dictionary  

this is a dictionary.cambridge.org something  like that just search cambridge dictionary  

it will go from language to language there  are many different languages and you can see  

meanings what does the word mean and how do you  use it in a sentence you can see the translation  

what is the word in your language and you can  click to hear how the word sounds and practice  

your speaking as well right so this is very useful  i think when you are reading remember all of our  

language skills help each other when we get better  at writing we get better at speaking in reading  

and even listening and when our reading  gets better it helps our other skills too  

so don't be afraid to write the meaning or  translation above the word and read the sentence  

out loud a few times to help your speaking and  your reading comprehension or your understanding  

of what you're reading it helps to do it maybe  three times to really help your understanding  

right so make sure to use a dictionary while you  read and don't be afraid to write in your book  

if you are maybe you are  reading on a computer or tablet  

just keep a notebook and write the  words on on there as you go along

all right our last self-study method for  reading is write synonyms next two words  

so what is a synonym a synonym is a word  with the same meaning as another word so  

if i see the word big some synonyms or  words with the same meaning aren't large  

and sizeable and we can use these all in almost  the exact same way in most sentences right  

synonyms are a great way to improve  our reading comprehension and again  

also our speaking as we learn different ways to  say the same thing this is even uh as a native  

english speaker something we learn as we grow up  as as we go from kindergarten all the way through  

high school and so on we learn how to expand our  vocabulary and use more words and bigger words and  

more descriptive words so you can do that too  right this is a natural part of learning a  

language and you can make it happen for  yourself by writing out some synonyms  

so maybe you see a big word or an unfamiliar word  which means not familiar don't know it right we  

aren't we don't recognize it so write synonyms  maybe you see a really a word oh what is that so  

yes we can look up the meaning in translation and  it's helpful to write down synonyms for that word  

so let's say you're reading and you see the word  sizable and you think what does that mean sizeable  

so you look it up and maybe above the word you  write the words big and large and this helps you  

make the connection this is another word i can use  for big or large you can also write synonyms for  

small common words to expand your vocabulary so  let's say you see the word large and you look up  

a synonym above it you write sizable you can  go both directions with this but this is a  

great way to expand your language and improve  your vocabulary and your reading and of course  

because all of our skills are connected read  the sentence again with each new synonym  

maybe you write three synonyms for a word  well read the sentence switching out with each  

new synonym most of the time as long as it's the  same part of speech so all adjectives for example  

then uh we can often use them in the same way  but we might need a different ending right  

okay let's move on to study skill number three  listening so how can you self study listening

you can use dual subtitles on netflix and  youtube you can watch ted talks with transcripts  

and subtitles and you can use language  apps like memrise duolingo or rosetta stone

so let's talk about oh did i skip one nope okay  ted talks with transcripts and subtitles you can  

go to ted.com to find thousands of interesting  videos about many many many many many many topics  

and these videos are teachers and  professionals from all around the world  

talking about really interesting many of these  videos have subtitles in many different languages  

and full transcripts that you can read so a  transcript is all of the things said in the  

video when you watch maybe you just see one  line of speaking show one sentence at a time  

right on the transcript you can see the whole  speech and they have transcripts in english and  

korean and chinese and russian and so many other  languages so you can listen along watch practice  

right read and listen this is very  important to developing your listening  

make sure to read along while you listen it  helps us to understand and make the connection  

between the sounds we hear and the words they  represent so make sure to read the transcript  

or read the subtitles in english and  your native language while you listen  

you can also do this on things like netflix  and youtube with something called dual  

subtitles dual means like two so  you can download something called  

netflix dual subtitle for learning languages  or youtube dual subtitle these are the exact  

names and these are things you can download on  google chrome that allow you to see two language  

subtitles at the same time this is very useful and  the netflix one the netflix dual subtitle you can  

even pause highlight words put your mouse over a  word and see the meaning you set the language so  

this is very useful for studying and you can do  it with your favorite shows and movies and you  

can even do it on youtube so this is a great way  to study listening again reading while you listen

and of course you can use apps like memrise  duolingo and rosetta stone these are very  

convenient right we can do them any time of  day on your phone at your convenience right  

of these and of the many i recommend the rosetta  stone app because it takes an acquisition  

approach what this means is from the beginning  you only hear things in that second language  

so it starts very simple you practice your  speaking listening reading and so on uh from  

in in a more natural way that you would learn a  first language in so rosetta stone is a great app

okay guys let's talk about our last self-study uh  methods self-study skill speaking oh this one many  

of you think what how can i self-study speaking we  often want feedback for our speaking or we want to  

be in conversation to practice our speaking but  this is not always necessary to practice you can  

do self-talk which is like writing a journal but  we do it out loud we speak it instead of write it  

you can do something called mirroring so  you can watch our july 13th live stream  

for a whole lesson on how to do mirroring  or you can join an online language exchange  

so let's talk about these three methods  self-talk which is like journaling out loud  

so this is something you can do in the comfort  of your home you can practice describing your day  

maybe pull up pictures on your phone and try to  describe them in english or describe what you see  

around you out loud to yourself so this of course  is something we do when we're alone and we just  

want to practice speaking one of our viewers  last week recommended doing this in a mirror  

so you can practice things like keeping eye  contact and using gestures while you speak  

so that's great but you can always start by just  describing your day and practicing your english  

to yourself if you are thinking well i am not  alone often maybe you live with other people  

or you're very busy you can also practice  thinking in english and practice internally  

when you're in public or around other people  so you can still do these things but just  

think instead of speak right if you uh  like this method and you want to use it but  

you are around other people very often you can  try doing it with your thinking as well right okay  

next is mirroring so i'm only going to talk about  this for a minute but if you watch our july 13th  

live stream you will see a whole lesson about  how to do this mirroring is a study practice that  

involves studying and mimicking or copying a good  english speaker's speech which means their words  

intonation and rhythm and their body language  so gestures facial expressions and so on so make  

sure to check out that live stream this is a great  study method that can help you feel more confident  

in your speaking in your pronunciation and so  on and last is join an online language exchange  

there are many apps and websites  for online language exchanges  

here you can chat with native english speakers  anytime for practice for example try speaky this  

is one that is a typing chatting app but you can  chat with native english speakers for practice  

it's very comfortable because it's just again  on your phone typing so you have time to think  

there's no worries about making mistakes or  anything like that so you can use an online  

language exchange all right so now that we have  talked about some study methods some self-study  

methods for each of the main language  skills let's talk about self-evaluation

there are many online english level  tests you can take again and again to see  

what your english level is for example  cambridge english has a general english exam  

there's also an online english level test  from british council and again you can just  

search these things online and they'll pop  right up there are also grammar quizzes and  

vocabulary quizzes for free online to test  your skills and see where you need to improve  

so you can just search for these things right  there are so many resources all you have to do  

is search so maybe you are trying to self-study  some new grammar maybe you have a textbook that  

you're using or some study book and you  can look up um a simple present quiz or

english vocabulary quiz just test yourself  see what you know and this will help you see  

where you need to improve if you get many  questions wrong about some certain grammar  

point well that's something to study and work on  if the vocabulary quiz gets too hard with certain  

words certain level of words okay well i know this  is my vocabulary level and i can work to improve

so let me recommend to you some reliable or very  good english evaluation websites again cambridge  

english they have an online dictionary they  have level tests really great resource i also  

love british council again many great resources  for students and teachers alike duolingo  

has an excellent english test it is not free  but it's a good one and if you pay for it you  

can take it as many times as you want over time  so it's a very good way to measure your progress  

ielts has a good online test and  so does ef ef standard english test  

the key here is to choose one and take it maybe uh  three or four months apart so take it a few times  

a year to see how your study skills are working  right are my methods working am i improving  

and if not then it shows you you need to adjust  or change and do things a little differently  

but choose one and take it over and over again  that's why i really like the duolingo english test  

it is very comprehensive so many  topics many skills and you can take it  

every day not that you should but you can  take it many times a year and track your  

progress see how you improve so what  else can you do to self-evaluate  

well this goes back to our mirroring so  you can choose a native speaking sample or  

maybe a video or short clip maybe one minute  or two minutes whatever is comfortable for you  

you can find it on ted.com netflix youtube any  any resource study it and i don't mean study for  

five seconds and repeat i mean study and memorize  for a week or so or at least several days  

practice it a lot until you feel like i know these  words i know uh i i really feel like i am saying  

something very similar to the native speaking  sample maybe it's a clip from a movie or a tv show  

and i learn it and feel okay i now i know it very  well maybe it took me two weeks to really study  

then record a video of yourself you can just  use your phone you can use your computer  

and record yourself repeating the same  words saying that native speaking sample  

then compare how is your video different than the  original video notice things like pronunciation  

or certain words or sounds that are hard  for you or that aren't the same or aren't  

similar enough to be understandable and  study them and practice those things  

intentionally this is a really it can be  difficult to self-evaluate but repeating and  

comparing yourself to native speakers can be  a really useful strategy and before we end  

remember that enjoyment and consistency are  extremely important so what does this mean  

you must have enjoyable study methods if you  want to study but you hate studying the usual way  

the normal way well don't do that there  are so many ways to study there are  

as many ways to study as there are people so  find what works for you and what you enjoy  

you also must have a specific realistic schedule  so this means that you should uh maybe every  

monday for five minutes at 10 a.m and it should  be realistic so if you are very busy don't say i  

will study one hour every day that's very  difficult right and maybe not realistic  

maybe if you study one hour a day you will very  very quickly not want to study so find what works  

for you and you must stick to it so this means  continue find what you enjoy doing to study  

have a specific realistic schedule and stick to  it you probably will not figure it out right away  

so be patient allow yourself to change and adjust  maybe your methods change your schedule changes  

that's okay keep doing that and find what works  for you we are going to talk about encouraging  

others to speak so let's first  take a look at this word encourage  

encourage um this word is a verb so usually if  i want to encourage someone this means i want to  

maybe help them feel good or help them feel better  about something maybe my friend is having a bad  

day and i want to encourage her or maybe let's  say she is going to run a race tomorrow and  

she's feeling nervous i want to encourage her that  she's going to do great so i want to make her feel  

good now here when we say encouraging others to  speak it means kind of gently helping someone  

to be okay with speaking so there are many ways  that uh in times when we might want to do this so  

what can we do when we are talking to someone shy  or what if we just want to make someone feel more  

comfortable talking and sharing their opinions or  maybe we are talking to many people and maybe it's  

mostly me and my friend amy talking but my friend  uh my friend grace is here maybe she's very quiet  

i want to get her opinion too so what  can i say we're going to talk about a  

few different situations today so today let's  learn phrases to help people to start talking  

and phrases to help people continue  talking maybe you are talking to one person  

and they're telling a story or they say something  interesting and you want to know more how to  

keep the conversation going right very useful for  speaking english how can we keep the conversation  

going and that will lead us into talking  about the importance of follow-up questions  

if you have been watching this channel for a  while or watching my live streams for a while  

you know i love to talk about follow-up  questions they're so helpful and important  

so today we will review a little bit about that  and talk about uh how to use them in conversation  

so let's get started first let's talk about  phrases to encourage people to start or begin  

speaking so this might happen in a group or  maybe in a classroom at work there are many  

times we might want to encourage someone to start  speaking so let's look at four phrases we can use  

for that first what do you think and then the  person's name uh what do you think so and so  

what do you think lolly lolly what do you  think pedro right so we put in the name

next we see well and their name how about you

we see does anyone else have an idea so  this is kind of a general question that we  

ask to um a group maybe we've heard where's  we're with 10 people we have heard from  

two people we want to hear more people more  people's opinions does anyone else have an idea  

or we could ask someone directly do you have  an idea and their name do you have an idea  

okay so let's see these phrases are really good  for group conversations um one of them we might  

ask to just one person but these are usually more  commonly used in group conversations when we want  

more people in the group to start talking or to  share right so let's take a look at how we use  

these four phrases with an example let's say  i'm with a group of friends and we are talking  

about what should we do tonight so let's see four  examples so let's say i'm talking with my friends  

we're talking about what we should do tonight  i might say i'm not sure what to do tonight  

what do you think amy so here i am encouraging  amy to share what she thinks we should do tonight  

right what do you think amy oh um oh thank  you uh i think we should go see a movie

now we have well such and such how about you  

so here someone could share their opinion i think  we should go for a bike ride well jack how about  

you so here we're asking jack what do you think  what do you think we should do how about you

next we see does anyone else have an idea  so this is usually later in the conversation  

when maybe we've heard from many people but we  want to hear from a few more so or we are sharing  

many ideas and just asking does any anyone not  just one person right in examples one and two  

we are trying to get one person to talk here we're  just seeing does anyone have an idea so let's read  

sentence three we could go out to eat go see a  movie or stay in does anyone else have an idea  

so here maybe again many people right does anyone  else have an idea about what we could do and last  

we have one more example of asking one person oh i  can't think of anything do you have an idea grace  

so here we are again asking one person so these  are all great phrases to encourage people to start  

talking what do you think well how about you does  anyone else have an idea or do you have an idea  

these are all great for getting people  to share their opinions and start being  

a part of the conversation  and really any conversation  

so let's see an example let's say we  have three people talking a b and c so  

let's say person a and b are talking together  mostly i think we should go see a movie after  

dinner tonight yep that sounds great what movie  should we see i want to see the new movie tenet  

me too it looks so cool what do you think amy i'd  love to see it too thank you for asking so here  

if we look at this conversation this is  when two people are having a conversation  

let's say person a and b were doing most of the  talking but they want to make sure that person c  

is okay with what they're talking about she's  not really talking much so they want to make sure  

that she agrees or has a different opinion right  so person a asked what do you think amy and amy  

answered i'd love to see it too thank you for  asking right so this is a great way here we used  

what do you think but we also could have used well  amy how about you or do you have any another idea  

amy right we could have used our other phrases  too so here we see this is a great example of uh  

phrases and a conversation where we want another  person to start talking and share their opinion

now what if we are talking to someone and we  want them to continue talking here we're going  

to talk about some different words and phrases  we use when maybe someone is telling a story or  

they are just having a conversation they say  something interesting we want to know more  

so how do we encourage people to continue talking  or keep going we could say simply tell me more  

we could use our open-ended follow-up questions  with our five w's and h who what when where why  

how right we can ask questions that are  open-ended which we'll talk about what that means  

and we can also use simple small reaction words  like right little things like this show that we're  

listening and can keep the person talking so these  phrases are good for one-on-one conversations  

and group conversations so these are  phrases we can use any time when we want  

someone to continue talking keep talking  about whatever topic they are talking about

so let's see an example here we're  gonna see an example between two people  

i'm so frustrated i have too much homework  so i don't have time to relax these days  

yeah it's been a difficult semester  i just don't know what to do

i found a way to make things easier can you  tell me more sure i've been keeping a schedule  

and doing a little work each day so i don't have  to do too much at once good idea how much work do  

you do each day about two or three hours a day so  let's look at this conversation a little closer so  

here two people are talking about uh about school  right so person a i don't have time to relax  

i don't know what to do person b says well i found  a way to make things easier now the conversation  

could have ended there oh good for you i'm really  stressed though but person a is interested really  

tell me more or can you tell me more and then they  share and again oh okay well i still want to know  

more so here we have an open ended follow-up  question starting with how how much how much  

work do you do each day about two or three hours  a day so we can see that these questions like  

can you tell me more and how much work do you  do each day help keep the conversation going  

now the uh another way that we can um keep a  conversation going is using small reaction words  

so we often use small words like or

or no way right to show that we are actively  listening and want the person to keep talking  

we often use these words when someone is telling  a long story so this is a way maybe someone's  

talking and we are listening closely here we see  actively listening so we're very interested in  

what they're saying and when they say something  we react right we don't just sit silently  

and wait till they're done we might use  some small words like oh no way really  

right like this to show that we're listening  uh we're keeping up with what they're saying  

and we want them to keep going so we use  small words because we often don't want to  

maybe inter interrupt or stop them talking  by sharing our own sentence or our own story  

but we want to show we're listening and we want  them to continue so we use small words like this  

we can also use other reaction words or sounds  too like ah or sigh or a gasp like right  

just to show we're interested we're listening  we are reacting to what they're saying  

so this really can encourage people to continue  talking just showing that we are interested and  

showing some small reactions uh that show where  really into their story we want them to continue

so the last way that we can encourage others to  

continue to speak is to use follow-up  questions so today let's expand upon that  

skill what are follow-up questions how  can we use them and what are some examples  

so a follow-up question is a question that we  ask to get more information in a conversation  

follow-up questions usually start with our  five w's in h right who what when where why how  

for example let's say i'm talking to a  classmate i might ask why do you like your major  

follow-up questions can start with the be  verb is mr was were are you happy you chose it  

and can commonly start with do do does  or did do you want to be a teacher  

so these are all different types of questions we  can ask in a conversation to keep the conversation  

going follow-up questions are important to every  conversation and there's something you really want  

to know how to be able to use in english they keep  the conversation going and again show the person  

you're talking to that you are interested in what  they're saying just like those reaction words

no way really tell me more just like things like  that show that we want to keep the conversation  

going so do follow-up questions they can also  help you understand the other person if you are  

learning another language follow-up questions are  great because they can help you to clarify which  

means to make clear or to uh to understand better  what the other person is talking about and we can  

do this with follow-up questions so let's look at  some examples of the different follow-up questions  

so here we have our five w's and h who what when  where why and how so let's see some examples  

this is to show you that we can really ask  questions about anything there are so many  

so let's see some who questions who are you  going to dinner with who's your friend what  

what kind of movies did you like what did  you do last weekend when when did you do that  

when are you going to go where where are  you from where are you going on vacation  

why why is a great follow-up question  why is that your favorite song why do  

you like playing board games and then how  so here we're gonna look at some different  

questions with how how often how many how long  how well how good how often do you exercise  

how many classes are you taking  how good are you at playing soccer  

how long have you been a student so here alone we  see what 14 questions uh so there and this is just  

just thinking of any question that starts with  these words so when you're in a conversation keep  

those question words in your mind and you can ask  them to follow up and keep the conversation going

it's very important in a conversation to ask  open-ended questions these are questions that  

cannot just be answered with yes or no so these  are the best questions now questions like that  

start with do or did did you have fun yes i did no  i didn't are you happy today yes i am no i'm not  

those questions are okay and they're fine to use  but open-ended questions are the best because  

they really uh help the other person to talk  more they can't just answer with yes or no  

they have to share more information so let's take  a look at some closed questions some yes or no  

questions and see how we can change them  into better questions open-ended questions  

so let's say someone is talking to me about  something they did over the weekend i could ask  

was it fun and they could say yes or no so how can  i change that to an open question what was it like  

so instead of assuming or thinking that  it was fun i could ask what was it like  

this is really tell me more about it what  was it like instead of did you enjoy it  

how did you feel instead of did you have  a good weekend what did you do over the  

weekend so here we see a great example did you  have a good weekend yeah i did or no i didn't  

what did you do over the weekend well this will  be a much longer response i went here i did that  

i saw this person and so on do you like listening  to music we could change to who's your favorite  

singer or what's your favorite band or maybe we  see someone drawing so you like drawing yeah i do  

well a better question could be how did you become  interested in drawing or why do you like drawing  

and these will make for better conversations  that really help keep the conversation going  

because they help us get more information from  the other person so let's take a look at a  

conversation with closed questions okay so here we  go person a and b hey did you have a good weekend  

yeah it was great did you play any computer games  no i just watched movies are you tired today i  

hate mondays yeah i'm pretty tired do you have a  lot of homework to do yes okay so these are okay  

questions but we see each time it's just  yes or no questions that start with did  

or do and be yeah i'm tired yeah yes no so  let's try to make this conversation better with  

open-ended questions so instead of did you have  a good weekend hey what did you do this weekend  

not much i stayed home and watched movies so we  still get that same information i watched movies  

but now we're gonna ask another open-ended  question oh what movies did you watch  

we want more information right i  watched the lord of the rings movies  

i love those movies who's your favorite character  oh i think it'd have to be samwise oh really  

why is he your favorite he's the bravest character  and a loyal friend they wouldn't have been  

successful without him and so the conversation  continues so these open-ended questions who what  

another what why they help us get a lot more  information from the person we're talking to  

other than just yes or no so remember to use open  ended questions to keep the conversation going  

all right guys so today we talked about phrases to  help people start talking like what do you think  

we learned phrases to help people continue  talking like can you tell me more and we  

talked a little bit about follow-up questions and  the importance of open-ended follow-up questions  

so these are all really useful conversation tools  that you can use anytime you're having an english  

conversation so today's speaking skill which i  hope will be interesting to you is how to have  

better and more interesting english conversations  so let's go ahead and talk about what that means  

and how we can do this how can we have better more  interesting and more fun english conversations  

so what will we do today well  i'd like to begin with a question  

have you ever tried to speak to someone  in english but you couldn't keep the  

conversation going maybe you felt very  nervous for example because you feel  

some some shyness or discomfort when you're  speaking english with someone you don't know well  

maybe you didn't know what to say or you just  got that feeling that okay this conversation  

is over and maybe you didn't want it to be so has  that ever happened to you or have you ever felt  

maybe that you have lower confidence  with keeping english conversations going  

today we're going to talk about three  strategies to keep the conversation interesting  

so we're going to talk about using better  adjectives a speaking strategy called qarf  

and a tip about engaging the listener so  we're going to look in detail at these three  

conversation strategies that will help you have  better more interesting english conversations

so let's begin with using better adjectives  first let's take a look at this word adjective  

so can you guys think of any adjectives maybe  think to yourself what are some adjectives  

uh maybe words like good fun exciting nice um  uh hot cold right all of these are adjectives  

adjectives are words we use to describe  things right so let's take a look at  

an example conversation and see what  kind of adjectives we use here so  

let's say i am person a and i say uh hey  what are you going to do this weekend  

and you tell me i'm going to see my favorite band  in concert i'm so excited and i say that's good

um conversation over so why why wha what did we  do here here we used the adjective good so we can  

tell when we look at person b's response right  they they're very they even say they're excited  

and it's their favorite band and they're going to  see them live so if we respond with low enthusiasm  

or a low energy adjective like that's good well  that's a great way to make the conversation  

end right let's try again same question  what are you going to do this weekend  

i'm going to see my favorite band in  concert i'm so excited that's awesome  

yeah i can't wait so here i am instead of just  saying that's good if someone is telling me  

something they're excited about or interested  in right maybe their enthusiasm or excitement  

is high i should meet them at that same level of  excitement right to show them i'm interested if  

i don't show them i'm interested in what they are  saying we can't really keep the conversation going  

right so here i just use the word awesome that's  awesome that's a much stronger adjective than good  

right so let's take a look at some different uh  kinds of adjectives we can use so here we want  

to use strong powerful adjectives uh to show our  interest and to meet the other person's enthusiasm  

and to show that we're really interested  in what that person is saying so we can  

use words like awesome right not good or nice  but awesome amazing interesting or fascinating  

these words are much stronger in a positive way  right that's awesome that's amazing that's so  

interesting that's fascinating those all sound a  lot better than just oh cool nice yeah right so  

this is a very simple way and our first strategy  today to having a better conversation is by  

in a small way changing the words we use  to show better enthusiasm and interest  

we can also do this with negative words maybe  someone is telling you about something bad that  

happened oh that's awful that's horrible that's  terrible so here we have a few adjectives showing  

negative right not just oh yeah that sucks or oh  yeah i'm sorry that that happened but oh that's  

that's horrible you know really empathize and show  greater interest and the easiest way for positive  

or negative is to just add words like really very  and so before the adjective that we're using so  

this is a very simple way and it's just step one  in how to have a better conversation so remember  

using better adjectives is very simple and very  useful and a good way to show the other person  

i am interested in what you're saying  and i want to keep the conversation going

next let's talk about qarf so let's build on this  uh uh excited response using stronger adjectives  

is one way to show enthusiasm and interest in what  the person is saying but how can we take it a step  

further so right using better adjectives  that's good right we can show we are interested  

but that's just step one so how can we take it a  step further to an even better even more fun and  

more interesting conversation we can do this  with a speaking strategy called qarf or carf  

so what is qarf these are four simple letters to  remember and help you when you're in an english  

conversation and maybe you're feeling a little  nervous or stressed just remember q a r f so  

what does that mean q means question a stands for  answer r is response and f is follow-up question  

so if we have a conversation between two  people maybe person one asks a question  

person two answers and person one  responds and asks a follow-up question  

and it keeps going in this way  q-a-r-f-a-r-f-a-r-f-a-r-f-a-r-f

uh so let's see what this looks like so  let's try our conversation again with qarf

and we're going to look at this in detail  so first let's read this conversation  

what are you going to do this weekend i'm  going to see my favorite band in concert  

i'm so excited that's awesome i love going  to concerts which band are you seeing  

oh i'm going to see the red hot  chili peppers do you like them  

yeah they're great i love their song under  the bridge no way that's my favorite song  

okay wow so we can tell that this  is a much better conversation right  

but why well let's look a little bit closer  so here if we look at person a we have  

a question right often we start conversations with  questions how are you what are you doing today how  

are you feeling uh what did you do yesterday  and so on right person b answers the question  

i'm going to see my favorite band i'm so excited  

next instead of just saying that's great or  that's awesome we have a response and a follow-up  

question so here my response is that's awesome  i love going to concerts and then a follow-up  

question about the topic right they're going to  see their favorite band oh which band is that  

so even just this simple strategy of responding  and adding a follow-up question can make it a much  

better conversation uh sometimes if you're feeling  nervous in a conversation you might just have qaqa  

qaqa what are you going to do what about tomorrow  do you like this do you want to do that right not  

really great so how can we prevent ourselves  from doing that with our response so here i  

shared my opinion about what they are doing that's  awesome and a little bit more detail about what  

they said so something about me too i love going  to see concerts and then my follow-up question  

which band are you seeing then they answer  oh i'm going to see the red hot chili peppers  

and lucky me they also asked me a follow-up  question do you like them right very common in  

conversation and here i'm responding yeah they're  great so i have my better adjective right great up  

here we used awesome i love their song under the  bridge so again adding a little bit more detail  

to my response and then they respond no way that's  my favorite song and like this our conversation  

can continue so an easy way to remember is q a r  f question answer response and follow-up question  

now before we talk a little bit more about this  about how what is a good response and what is  

a good follow-up question take note that in both  the answer and the response i'm adding details so  

if you are and this is another tip so if  you're having a conversation with someone  

and you only give short short short answers  well that makes it very difficult to have a  

meaningful longer more  interesting conversation right  

so imagine just like we did before if this person  said i'm going to see a concert short answer  

that's that's awesome short response okay well  our conversation is basically over right we can't  

really go very far from there it's difficult so be  sure if you are answering give a detailed answer  

not just i'm going to see a concert i'm going  to see my favorite band how do i feel so excited  

and when we respond adding information about  ourselves to oh i love going to see concerts  

adding details to our answers and  responses is a great way to make  

the conversation way more interesting and  here in our response down here this person  

asked ah do you like the red hot chili  peppers i could have just said yeah

oh okay conversation over again no yeah they're  great my opinion and adding more detail i love  

their song under the bridge so adding details  is a really great way to make qarf work for you  

so let's go ahead and talk  about what is a good response  

right we have q and a remember to add details  to your answers but what are some good responses  

we can use strong adjectives like that's  awesome that's amazing oh that's so cool

we can add our opinion just like i did in that  last conversation that's awesome i love going to  

concerts that's so cool uh i love their song under  the bridge right adding our opinion so step one  

and two another option for a different step two  so having our strong adjective response that's  

awesome that's amazing that's fascinating  that's uh spectacular and then our opinion  

we can also add a short anecdote an anecdote  is like a small very very short story right so  

let's say that i was in that conversation  and they and i said what are you going  

to do this weekend oh i'm going to see my  favorite band in concert i'm so excited  

so i might say oh that's awesome uh and  then short anecdote i went to go see uh  

my favorite band radiohead in concert recently and  it was amazing then my follow-up question who are  

you going to see and the conversation continues  so this is another way to add detail but remember  

to keep your your story or your anecdote short  right we don't want to uh have someone say oh  

this amazing thing i'm going to see my favorite  band and then kind of ignore their response tell  

a long story right so short anecdote oh i did  that it was amazing who are you going to see so  

these are all examples of good responses strong  adjectives and your opinion or strong adjectives  

and a short anecdote or just a short little  story to relate to what they are saying

and after we have shared our opinion or a short  anecdote what about follow-up questions what are  

good follow-up questions well of course when  we are asking questions we should think of  

our question words like who what when where why  how and which so for example uh let's say we had  

the question or the person said i'm going to  see my favorite band okay so let's just write  

it here favorite band from that conversation  i'm going to see my favorite band in concert  

let's try to make a follow-up question with  each of these i might say who are you going with  

um what are you most excited about  when are you going where is the concert  

uh why is that your favorite band how are you  going to get there or how long have you liked  

this band and maybe which song do you hope they  play i already have what seven questions i could  

ask so if you are feeling a little concerned  oh how do i keep this conversation going  

remember your wh questions and now let's get some  practice we can think of a good response and a  

follow-up question for any topic there are so many  possible follow-up questions so let's try so let's  

say person a says i'm from america okay meeting  someone for the first time so how could i respond  

well remember i want to use a strong  adjective in my opinion or an anecdote  

so let's say i decide to use an anecdote i  could say something like oh that's interesting  

now my there's my strong adjective and my anecdote  i went to america last year it was awesome  

and now a follow-up question where in america  are you from so this is much better than saying  

something like oh cool response follow-up question  oh that's interesting i went to america last year  

and it was great uh where in america are you from  and then they share right much better response so  

my follow-up question was where in america are you  from i could also ask a question like um uh maybe  

how long did did you live in america from seeing  them in another country oh why are you traveling  

here what are you doing here right if i see  them in another country many possible questions

okay let's look at our next one let's say person  a says i love to read so hobby conversation right  

another uh getting to know you oh i love to read  so remember first i want to respond with my strong  

adjective and my opinion or an anecdote so  this time let's try an opinion so my friend  

says i love to read i might say oh that's cool i  really like to read too right agreeing my opinion  

i like to read too and now i need my follow-up  question what kind of books do you like to read

so again we can think of many follow-up questions  here what kind of books do you like to read  

what are you reading now how often do you read  

why do you like to read right so many questions  we could ask oh do you prefer books or movies

and let's take a look at one more let's say i'm  talking to someone and they tell me i want to be  

a business owner so we're talking about our goals  jobs things like that so first i want to respond  

and remember strong adjective and opinion or  anecdote so i might say something like oh that's  

really interesting um my dad is a business  owner why do you want to be a business owner  

and my follow-up question why do you want to be a  business owner or again something like what kind  

of business would you like to own where would you  want to own a business and so on so as you can see  

we can have a good response and follow-up question  to any topic so remember q a r f okay our last tip  

today is to engage the listener so what about  when we have a story to tell in a conversation  

or what about when we have a lot to  say or we have to speak for a long time  

it's best not to dominate the conversation  or this means to speak more much more  

than the other person right so how can we  change this we can engage the listener so  

the listener is the person we are  talking to right so how can we do this  

so let's say i'm telling a bit i have a story to  tell we're having a great conversation already and  

i want to talk about my experience let's say we're  talking about travel and i want to tell the story  

of when i traveled to vietnam to hanoi i loved  it it was amazing and i want to talk about it  

well i could probably talk about that trip for  five minutes straight but that's not the best  

way to have a conversation right maybe the other  person will lose interest or stop listening or  

right not really the best so how can i engage  that listener and have a better conversation  

the first thing i could do is ask for their  opinion about something like what do you think  

about data for example i could share about when  i went on a food tour in vietnam right maybe i'm  

talking about that and instead of telling the  rest of my story right away i could say oh what  

do you think about food tours or what do you think  about vietnamese food have you ever had vietnamese  

food right what do you think about it and now  they're engaged oh yeah i've had it and i think  

oh yeah me too it was so good and  then i can continue my story right

number two depending on the story you're  telling you could ask for their advice  

uh so actually these two topics we have  talked about in previous live streams  

giving and asking for opinions and also uh  giving and asking for advice right so words  

like should could ought to had better and then  with opinions i really like i'm into and so on  

so be sure to check out our previous live streams  for that so the second way is to ask for advice  

if you need to what would you do if you were me so  maybe i'm telling a story of oh something happened  

i i was um i lost my phone it was so crazy  what would you have done in that situation  

right what would you have done if you were me  so ask for their opinion their advice what they  

would have done and then they might share  oh yeah maybe they'll share a story oh that  

i lost my phone once and i i had  to do this da da what did you do  

so we've engaged them we're not just talking  uninterrupted and the last way is to ask if they  

have a similar experience so a question like have  you ever so but maybe even before i tell my story  

oh yeah my favorite travel experience was when  i went to vietnam have you ever been there or  

in my story have you ever had vietnamese food have  you ever done this have you done that where's your  

favorite place you have traveled what's your  experience like so asking about their experience  

so remember to engage the listener ask questions  during your story ask for their opinion  

ask for their advice if it's relevant or if you  need to and ask about their similar experiences  

the key point is to be aware of your talking time  be aware of when you're talking for a little too  

long maybe some of you do that i know i certainly  do sometimes be aware of how long you're talking  

and uh but one thing a tip that i want to give you  guys is it's not always you doing all the talking  

right sometimes maybe you're talking to  someone they are talking a lot so a tip  

if they are not engaging you  and you're just sitting there

listening to a very long story you can do  something called interject so this means  

maybe they get to the end of a sentence  and now you can add something you want to  

say right oh maybe there maybe i am talking  to you and i'm talking a lot blah blah blah  

blah going on about my travel experience and  you're like okay yep okay okay sarah right you're  

talking a lot so you can interject with your  experience maybe i'm talking about my food tour  

and i'm about to keep talking but i pause and you  might say interject oh that reminds me of when i  

went to this place and i tried this and i did that  okay so another tip maybe you're on the other side  

they are talking a lot you can interrupt politely  interject with uh something you want to share  

right and again you can share your opinion  or share your advice or share your similar  

experience when the tables are turned so last  remember a conversation should have back and forth  

and sometimes you have to take charge this might  mean asking a question right asking for opinion  

advice or a similar experience or interjecting  with your opinion advice or similar experience  

okay guys so remember use strong adjectives show  your enthusiasm show you are interested with your  

words and you can do it with your tone of voice  and your gestures and body language as well  

but step one strong adjectives show that you are  really interested in what the person is saying  

step two use qarf remember to if you are  answering a question answer in detail  

right don't just give a short short short  simple answer tell a little bit more if you  

are responding to what someone else said be sure  to add your opinion or maybe a short anecdote  

about what happened to you and ask a good  follow-up question again to show you're  

interested and to give each other more to talk  about more details better conversation easier to  

talk right the more you know the easier  it is to keep a conversation going  

and last remember to engage the listener ask  questions ask for their advice their opinion  

their similar experiences or if you are the  listener remember it's okay to interject and  

ask questions of your own today let's talk  about something called the mirroring method

so first let's answer our of course our first  question what is the mirroring method well  

we can think first of course what is a mirror  well here we see someone looking into a mirror  

right you see what we call your reflection  right looks the same and what you do  

your reflection does in the mirror right so  this is where the name for the mirroring method  

comes from is a mirror right it does the same  thing as you mirroring is the careful study of  

an english speaker so this includes using verbal  and non-verbal behavior which we'll talk about  

so here uh mirroring we use with video because  this is something we study and practice over time  

so we want to use a recorded video of a speaker  of an english speaker that we can use to study and  

practice their verbal and non-verbal behavior so  we'll talk about what that is so you watch a video  

of an original model english speaker and as you  watch you practice mirroring or repeating exactly  

what the speaker is doing this includes verbal  behavior so speaking and the way the person is  

speaking and non-verbal behavior so this is body  language maybe this means their facial expressions  

it can help to look at someone's mouth for  pronunciation what they do with their hands  

what facial expressions they make and so on  so why should you mirror why is this a useful  

strategy you can improve many different areas of  your language learning by doing something like  

mirroring so by watching studying and repeating  native speakers or just good speakers of english  

you can improve things like your rhythm so  rhythm is the uh like the pace and speed at  

which you speak right so each language has some  different rhythm so you can improve your rhythm  

you can improve your intonation and intonation  is the way our voice goes up and down  

when we speak uh any language right so different  languages have different intonation and also the  

way we talk about things we use different rhythm  and different intonation depending on the topic  

so mirroring and watching a really good model  and repeating after a good model speaker and by  

the way model means like a really good example  uh maybe no one is perfect but a great example  

is a model so someone who you want to be like  right oh they do they speak so well i want to  

be like them i they are my model  right they are a good example  

so also you can improve your non-verbal so  non-speaking communication so remember that's  

things like gestures facial expressions and so on  and of course your overall confidence this is an  

easy method to practice and you will see yourself  improve as long as you are consistent of course  

another reason why you should mirror is you can  see how all these different parts of pronunciation  

rhythm and intonation and sentence stress  and word stress and so on make a speaker  

more effective and easier to understand  when they are sharing what they want to say  

and finally it's enjoyable many students who  have used this method say that it gave them more  

confidence and helped them to be interested  in english again so if you feel like maybe  

the way you are studying now is not fun for you  or not interesting this is a really great tool  

all right so we now we know what is mirroring  and why you should do it so next let's talk about  

who so i mentioned the word model right  this is the person you are going to choose  

the model can be a native speaker of  english or a really good non-native speaker  

choose someone you enjoy watching if  you really enjoy watching the news  

and you have someone that you really enjoy  watching you can watch them and model they can be  

your model you can mirror them so you can choose  anyone if you enjoy sports choose your favorite  

athlete and watch them in interviews and you can  mirror them it's up to you who you choose to model  

but make sure it's someone you enjoy if you are  modeling someone who oh so boring then this will  

not be fun right so choose someone you enjoy you  can mirror people on many platforms like youtube  

and netflix there are so many options available  and you can choose the person you want to watch  

and you can also choose the topic that you are  interested in talking about right you're mirroring  

someone's speech and body language so you  can choose the person and topic you enjoy  

so that's very important make sure you  enjoy it okay next let's talk about how  

how do you do it how do you mirror someone what is  the method so i'm going to give two simple steps  

and i encourage you to look back maybe  watch this part of the video again  

if this is a method you want to  try just to make sure you get it  

so step one is to analyze what you are  watching so let's take a look at this word  

analyze analyze means to look closely right  look at the details and really try to understand  

in a deep way really understand what you are  watching so start by focusing on the big picture  

or the big uh themes of what you are watching  like who the speaker is what they are trying to do  

and what speech characteristics they use  to accomplish that goal so let's go back  

first who the speaker is so of course  you want are you listening to an athlete  

are you listening to a scientist are you listening  to just a normal youtuber who is the speaker  

and next what are they trying to  do so maybe you are watching uh  

something that is trying to inspire you or make  you feel motivated like you want to do something  

is that what they're trying to do  maybe they're trying to persuade you  

which means to change your opinion so  is that what they're doing in the video  

maybe you choose to mirror someone who is  teaching is that what they're trying to do and  

so on so there are many things maybe they are just  talking about their daily life maybe they are uh  

just sharing some simple information maybe they  are talking about a product uh and so on there so  

what are they trying to do this is very important  because this changes the way that we speak so for  

example if someone is trying to inspire you  the speed and volume and pausing that they use  

and things again like intonation are going to be  different than if they are teaching you let's say  

so it's very important to know what they are  trying to do in the video is it to inspire you  

is it to teach you is it informal which means  maybe just casual or maybe just talking about  

like a vlog or something talking about their  daily life like they would talk to a friend  

and how are they speaking so this is step  one analyze look closely right who are they  

what are they trying to do and what do you  notice about the way they are speaking to do that  

thing so for example when you listen to me maybe  you notice what where what is the purpose of  

this video well of course it's to teach you about  this method so you might notice my speed is slow  

and clear my volume is normal right not too loud  not too quiet and i pause often to make sure  

that you can understand so this is these are some  different characteristics or qualities or traits  

when someone is trying to teach right so you  know why you are watching me you know who i am  

what i'm trying to do and you can hear my speech  is different than if i was trying to inspire you  

or persuade you or talk about my daily life right  okay so step one analyze what you are watching  

who is it what are they trying  to do and how are they speaking  

to do that if they are teaching how are they  speaking to teach okay the second step is to  

uh continue to analyze but in this we're going  a little bit deeper so let's change that to oh  

where'd my mask go there we go analyze more  deeply what you are listening to okay so  

maybe it is a 10 minute video well you probably  cannot use this method for the entire 10 minutes  

at one time maybe choose a short segment  maybe something like 15 to 30 seconds

of the model's speech and focus on their  stress right that the way that they  

emphasize certain words in their  sentence their rhythm their intonation  

or uh maybe maybe these are areas that you  are very good at so focus on your area of need  

maybe you really want to work on  your uh your into your body language  

for example uh or you want to work on putting  it all together and speaking more fluently  

with good flow and so on so focus on your area  of need for a small section of the model's speech  

then you are going to spend time practicing  it for memorization this is another reason  

why it's good that it's very short right  we don't want to memorize 10 minutes  

of speech and body language that's very hard  maybe you could do the whole thing eventually  

in small sections uh but just choose something  small and if 15 seconds is too long for you  

you can do even shorter than that you can do one  sentence right so start with something easy for  

you so first spend time practicing it just for  memorizing the words the uh intonation the rhythm  

and then slowly add those nonverbal gestures  movements and facial expressions to fully mirror  

the model so this is mirroring right so we're  going to choose the person that we want to model  

analyze or really look and listen  very closely to their speech  

and what they are trying to do with their  speech and then spend a good amount of time  

practicing memorizing and really  working on mirroring what they're doing  

so something important is that mirroring takes  time and practice so some of you this might  

be confusing this with another method called  shadowing shadowing is repeating a speaker with  

a short delay so for example maybe i am watching  a movie in the language let's say i am trying to  

learn spanish so if i'm watching a spanish movie  shadowing is just listening and repeating right  

away right there's very short time between but  that's not mirroring shadowing can be useful too  

if your level is a little higher and you're just  trying to quickly work on your comprehension and  

understanding mirroring takes time and practice  so one to three weeks depending on how long  

or how difficult what you chose is so if you chose  a vlog for example and you chose 30 seconds of  

someone talking about uh what they are going to  do that day maybe just one week if you chose a  

topic like technology with a lot of vocabulary and  that's a little more difficult maybe three weeks  

but it takes time and practice so also unlike  shadowing that you are choosing the model  

and you're focusing on verbal and nonverbal so  speaking and body language to mirror the speaker's  

emotions and purpose so this can be very useful  for learning how to express similar emotions  

and a similar purpose so remember the  purpose is the reason why they are speaking  

so their purpose again might be teaching so maybe  you are an english teacher i know some of you who  

watch this channel are so watching a teacher  and mirroring their the way that they speak  

and what they do might help you to feel more  confident in your ability to teach in english  

if you want to talk about a certain topic and try  to persuade someone remember change their opinion  

about some any topic listening to a good model  that you like that is very good at persuading can  

help you to learn and practice the ways that they  do that to become more effective this is something  

that second language learners do so you learning  english but uh we do this in our native language  

as well right there are people who we think are  very good speakers or very good teachers very good  

uh persuaders and we were very good at inspiring  people and we might try to be like them and this  

includes trying to speak like them or express our  ideas like them right so we do this with our role  

models anyway this is just doing it in a second  language and it can really really help you to  

learn how to do it express whatever that  emotion or purpose is more effectively  

okay so next i'm going to give you two very good  resources you can use to help you with this method  

so i'm going to give you one for netflix and one  for youtube all right so for netflix there is a  

google chrome extension so if you use google  chrome you can download this called language  

learning with netflix you can use this to study  your favorite shows and movies on netflix so uh  

let's talk about how to use it quickly you can  download it from the chrome web store which we  

see here right so it's in your settings extensions  and just search for language learning with netflix  

you can also just go to google.com and  type in language learning with netflix  

and you can download it so it's free  no money free app to use free extension  

and let me show you what exactly this does so  after you download it you'll see uh when you watch  

youtube or net or when you watch netflix a setting  will come up and you can click to turn it on

so after you turn it on this is the screen that  you will see you can see that it gives you english  

and the subtitles in your language so for this  example i used korean so here we have english  

and korean subtitles but it can be english and  any so many languages shown at the same time okay  

so once you get here you can click the settings  button and then you'll see this screen so  

choose the correct settings the audio so what  is the language you hear the netflix show in  

what the subtitle language  is and what the translation  

language is so here again i chose korean  but there are many many options available  

and this is what you'll see and there are some  cool features with this as well you can highlight  

a word and then something will pop up and  you can see the definition of the word

you can click this little play button here to  repeat the sentence and listen again this is very  

good for shadowing or if you want to really  just listen right you can do short 15 to 30  

seconds also very good for studying mirroring  as well so click that button to listen again

then uh if you see the sentence here you can  even hover over or put your mouse over the  

word right so let's say your mouse is here this  screen will pop up and give you definitions and  

some examples of how it's used in the show that  you're watching so you can listen to just one word  

you can listen to a whole sentence you can even  just click the word and hear the pronunciation  

again and again and see the translation in your  language so i think this is a very cool tool

and if you want you can click this button  over here turn this ap on to stop the video  

after each sentence if you want to study  hard and really listen again and again  

so again this is called  language learning with netflix  

this is a really great way to study  with a show or a movie that you like

and also the last thing here is you can  click this star button to save the phrase  

so you'll be able to see it again in the future  and this really helps to organize your learning

so that's for netflix uh there's another  one called dual subtitle for youtube  

so same you can find this on the google  chrome store it's also free and it's called  

youtube dual subtitle so it's the same idea  right you download it you go to youtube  

and then you can choose the subtitles two at  the same time that you want to see on youtube so  

the netflix one is a little better you can  click the words but here at least with so  

many youtube videos you can see two subtitles at  the same time so i encourage you to use this to  

study your favorite youtube channels and if  the person you want to mirror is on youtube  

this can be a really great way of understanding  what they are saying and what their purpose is  

right so as you read in your native language ah  they're trying to persuade me oh they're trying to  

make me buy something oh they're trying to teach  me right so having these subtitles can help you to  

understand and analyze what they are saying and  then go ahead and begin your mirroring study  

so as i said this extension is similar to  language learning with netflix but for youtube so  

i encourage you guys to use these well and  the last thing the last so we have netflix  

and youtube google chrome extensions and here  is something i have mentioned before ted.com  

so ted is an excellent resource i'm sure many  of you have watched ted talks people from all  

over the world on all different topics  give speeches in front of an audience  

where they talk about so many different topics  many are about teaching and sharing information  

but some are art artistic right  there's music and poetry and  

people sharing stories about their lives things  like that so many different topics and many  

many many videos have subtitles in other languages  so if you want to study some very very good model  

english speakers ted.com is excellent for  this you can improve your listening speaking  

your vocabulary and your body language these  people on ted are presenting so they are  

very careful and very purposeful with  their body language how they are speaking  

uh and because there are so so so hundreds  of topics you can choose from you can really  

improve your vocabulary about many different  topics also the videos have full transcripts  

so a transcript is the whole everything that  the person says in the video that you can read  

and you can also see a translation of the whole  transcript so this can help you with mirroring  

right you have it right there before you you can  memorize practice and really learn to mimic some  

really excellent english speakers okay guys  so that is it for today for this lesson about  

mirroring this is a really great way to learn  and practice and i really hope you give it a try