REAL ENGLISH CONVERSATION | Learn Real English From Real English Conversations Episode 3

Hey!

Welcome to today's lesson.

In today's lesson, I'm gonna help you master the English language

by watching and breaking down a real English conversation.

This is going to help you sound more like a native English speaker.

Are you ready?

Well then.

I'm Teacher Tiffani, let's jump right in.

Now what we're gonna do is look at different parts of a conversation.

And when we look at the conversation, we're gonna be listening for new

words, new expressions, and also how the individuals express themselves.

That's how you get fluent in English.

So, here's the first part of the conversation.

"When I was in high school, you know, I was a pretty good football player.

But didn't get a scholarship and I was very disappointed.

But, I got to go to England and play football again.

Pads and you know, (Nice!) the full thing.

They treated me like a celebrity over there.

So, it was, it was on.

(Yeah!) And it was just, I just loved the English people.

(Yeah!) Uh, I love the culture.

I mean, it was just a very nice environment for me and I thoroughly

enjoyed it and didn't want to come back."

So you see!

Again, a very short 32nd portion of the conversation but there were

a lot of words and expressions used during the conversation.

So, let's first look at the new words and expressions, and then we're gonna

break down how you can speak just like he was speaking during the conversation.

Now the first thing I want us to look at number one is when he said this,

"When I was in high school, you know, I was a pretty good football player.

But I didn't get a scholarship and I was very disappointed."

Now, he didn't just say I was a good football player.

He said pretty good and this is something that we as native

English speakers use a lot.

But in order for you to use it naturally, you have to understand the meaning.

So let me explain what this means.

Pretty good actually means average or extremely good.

I know it's a little confusing, don't worry I'll explain.

You see it all depends on the way it is used and the person's

facial expression when they use it.

So for example, let's say again.

In the conversation he said, "You know, I was a pretty good football player."

His facial expression showed some confidence, right?

He didn't say, "I was, I was pretty good."

You see how my facial expression suddenly changed the meaning.

I was pretty good!

Meaning I was average but if I say, "I mean, I was, I was pretty good."

You can tell by my facial expression that I knew I was real good.

I was amazing.

Extremely good.

So that's how this expression can be used in two different ways.

So let's look at an example sentence.

I was a pretty good baseball player when I was in high school.

Now again depending on the facial expression, the meaning can change

either an average baseball player or an extremely good baseball player.

Make sense?

All right, after me.

Pretty good.

Excellent!

Very good!

Now in the other part of the conversation, he also said, "It was on."

You heard him say that part, right?

We'll watch it again, don't worry.

He said, "It was on."

Now, what does it mean when we as native English speaker say, "It was on.", you see

this expression is kind of a slang term.

It means, this is what you say when the battle/showdown/project

is about to begin, or when you want to fight someone after school.

So let me explain.

So for example, think about when you were in high school and let's say there

was a little disagreement between two high school students and they said,

"Okay, I'm gonna see you after school.

I'm gonna talk to you after school."

You could tell by their body language that they were probably going to fight.

When they went outside after school to fight.

If someone says, "Hey, they're about to start."

They could say it was on meaning they were about to start the fight but the other

explanation again is when you're about to start a big battle, start a big project.

So, he was talking about football.

He said, "Oh man!

They gave me the ball and it was on."

He was about to accomplish something.

So let's look at this example sentence right here.

After he threw the first punch, it was on.

The fight began.

It started.

Make sense, right?

Okay.

So again, after me.

It was on.

Excellent!

Very good!

And again, we're gonna watch the clip, the short clip again so you can

see how these words and expressions were used during the conversation.

But the one I want us to look at before we go to that clip again is right here.

Number three, he said, "I love their culture.

I mean it was just a very nice environment for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I didn't want to come back."

Now for pronunciation I want you to repeat after me.

Thoroughly enjoyed.

Good!

T H put your tongue to your teeth.

Thoroughly enjoyed.

Excellent!

Now, this is something we use on a regular basis, thoroughly enjoying something.

It means to enjoy something completely, totally, or very much.

For example, I thoroughly enjoy Indian food.

Y'all know that!

I love Indian food.

I really enjoy it.

So I can say, I thoroughly enjoy Indian food.

Again, to enjoy something completely.

Now look at this example sentence.

They thoroughly enjoyed her oatmeal this morning.

Make sense?

They really liked it.

They really enjoyed it.

Thoroughly enjoyed.

This is what we say in English.

So after me, thoroughly enjoy.

Excellent!

Now, let's check out the clip one more time and I want you to recognize all

of the expressions that were used.

Here we go, one more time.

"When I was in high school, you know, I was a pretty good football player.

But I didn't get a scholarship and I was very disappointed.

But, I got to go to England and play football again.

Pads and you know, (Nice!) the full thing.

They treated me like a celebrity over there.

So, it was, it was on.

(Yeah!) And it was just, I just loved the English people.

(Yeah!) Uh, I love the culture.I mean, it was just a very nice environment

for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it and didn't want to come back."

So you caught all the words and expressions, right?

Thoroughly enjoyed.

It was on.

But now that we understand the expressions and the words, I wanna break down

the conversation a little bit more.

You see what was happening during this part of the conversation was that

O.B., his name is O.B., family friend was reminiscing, was thinking about

something from the past, a good memory.

You see in this part of the conversation, O.B.

is talking about his past experience.

But, you can tell that he is reminiscing because he goes into detail about

his feelings during that time.

This is something that is very important to English fluency.

Talking about your feelings during a past experience.

So let me explain.

Things to remember when you're doing this in a conversation.

Remember these three things when you speak about your experience.

First, remember to talk about the experience.

He talked about playing football.

He talked about his experience in London.

Second, remember to talk about how you felt during the experience.

He talked about how he felt.

Again, you start with talking about your experience then you talk about

how you felt during the experience.

And finally, remember to talk about how you felt after the experience.

In that short 32nd clip, that 32nd portion of the conversation,

he was able to do all of this.

That is why he's a native English speaker.

Speaking English fluently, able to give enough information no

matter what you're discussing.

So again, when you're talking about your experience, remember to talk about it.

Talk about how you felt during the experience and how you

felt after the experience.

Make sense, right?

Okay.

Let's jump to the second part of the conversation.

Here's part two of our conversation.

"And they shipped me to this place called Washington D.C.

that I fought (Where we love you.

We're so glad) you're here.

And I haven't been anywhere since.

Man, now.

Okay now this is not really connected with the question.

But since you mentioned you were a football player and I do like football.

What position did you play?

I played quarterback.

You mean I've never, I haven't showed you the press clippings of this?

After we turn the camera off, (Show me!) I'll school a sister.

(You were a quarterback.) I had it goin' on.

I mean, you know I was pretty good.

(I respect that.) Yeah!

(I respect that.) Yeah!

I know when I first told the dear wife, you know, back in the day, she

looked at me, she looked up and down.

"Yeah right."

Then I broke out the press clippings on a sister.

(Then she believed you right?) You know, the press speaks for itself.

(Yes!)"

All right.

Now I was smiling really big as I watched that clip.

Again, you can tell that something was happening during

this part of the conversation.

A lot of laughter.

But then there were a lot of extra expressions and some slang that

was used that for you as an English learner can be a little bit confusing

if no one explains it to you.

I'm gonna explain it to you and give you the tools you need to start using it

and start sounding like a native English speaker each and every one of them.

So the first one, right here.

Press clippings.

So he said, "I played quarterback."

Then he said, "Wait!

You mean I've never, I haven't shown you the press clippings of this?

After we turn the camera off.

Again, this is how he was talking to me, right?

But what are press clippings.

Press clippings.

Let me explain what press clippings are.

You see, press clippings.

Again, something very important.

They literally are a compilation or it's a paragraph.

A paragraph or a short article that's cut out of a newspaper or magazine.

We call that a press clipping, a story from a magazine or from a newspaper

that has been cut out and taken out.

Again, he said he had press clippings about when he used

to play high school football.

When he played football when he was younger.

So, here's an example sentence.

His wallet was always full of press clippings of funny stories that

he would read to fellow members.

You always had these little pieces of paper, these press clipping.

Stories from articles or articles from newspapers or magazines.

We say, press clippings.

Your turn.

Excellent job!

Very good!

Now in the next part of the conversation, he also said this right here.

He said, "I'll school a sister."

And that's actually how he said it.

Now this is slang.

So I'll say it again in the right way.

"Oh, I'll school a sister."

Now this is something again.

I use it all the time.

I'm a school you.

I use it a lot when I played basketball.

Let me explain what this actually means.

So the expression is school somebody and it means to educate or put a person in his

or her place; to teach someone something.

All right.

It's when you're in a position to teach someone else something that

they don't know and it's kind of, you can use it in a funny way.

"Oh, I'll school you on that.

Don't worry.

I'll school you on that.

I'll teach you that.

I'll inform you of that."

I'm going to teach you something and it's slang.

So here's the example sentence right here.

I'm about to school you.

Now again, I told you when I played basketball, I used to this all the time.

So I enjoyed dribbling like I was a point guard I could shoot really well.

So, depending on who I was playing if I was talking trash or just

playing around with my friends.

I say, "Okay, I'm about to school you and I would take the ball down and shoot.

And again, it just means I'm about to teach you something.

I'm about to teach you how to play basketball, right?

But you can use it in any situation, but it's slang.

All right.

I wish I had a basketball right now.

Okay.

So again, after me school somebody.

Excellent job!

Very good!

All right.

The next thing he used, he used a lot of expressions.

To have it goin' on.

He said, "I had it goin' on.

I mean, you know, I was pretty good."

You remember we learned that right from the first clip.

Pretty good.

And you see the way he's talking, he's speaking in a very confident way.

So it means he was extremely good but what does it mean to have it goin' on.

Here's the meaning of this one as well, it's also slang.

To be attractive or socially successful, or to have an aura of

success like I know I'm really good.

I know I'm amazing.

I have it goin' on.

That's what he was saying, "Hey!

I was good in football.

Everybody knew it.

I had it goin' on.

I was amazing.

I was socially successful.

Make sense, right?

So let me show you an example sentence.

Here we go!

He really had it going on when he was in high school and he did, right?

He played football really well.

He had it going on.

Now again, this is slang.

But Hey!

If you know how to use it properly, you'll sound more like a native English speaker.

Now the other thing he said was break out something.

He said, "Yeah.

You know, when I first told the dear wife, (his wife) you know back in the

day, (long time ago when he was younger).

She looked at me, looked up and down, and said, "Yeah, right!"

Then I broke out the press clippings on a sister.

Again, he's speaking about his ability and then his wife kinda

doubts him so he broke out something.

What does broke out to break out something?

So this expression break out something, it means to present something for use

especially something that had been stored out of sight or concealed.

His wife had never seen the press clippings, right?

They were somewhere concealed or out of sight.

So he said, "Let me take them out.

I'm going to break out the press clippings.

Make sense, right?

Let me break out the proof.

All right.

So here we go.

Here's the example sentence.

I dove (dove) under the counter when the robber broke out a gun.

The gun had been concealed with the robber.

Broke out the gun.

That make sense, right?

So again, I want you to repeat after me.

Break out something.

Excellent job!

Very good!

Now there's one other expression he used that is also very important.

He said, "Yeah, you know the press speaks for itself."

Now this expression speaks for itself.

What does it mean when you say speaks for itself?

Let me break it down.

Here we go!

Speaks for itself.

Now this just means if something speaks for itself, it is clear

and needs no further explanation.

Everything make sense.

"Hey, listen!

My English speaks for itself.

I'm a native English speaker."

And you after this lesson, someone will say, "Wow, your English is really good."

And you say, "Yeah, my English speaks for itself."

It's good.

You don't need any other explanation.

Here's the example sentence.

The schools excellent record speaks for itself.

No other explanation or details are needed.

Make sense, right?

So after me.

Speaks for itself.

Excellent job!

Very good!

So now that we know these new expressions, I want us to listen

to the clip one more time.

Here we go!

Pay attention, here we go!

"And they shipped me to this place called Washington D.C.

that I fought (Where we love you.

We're so glad) you're here.

And I haven't been anywhere since.

Man, now.

Okay now this is not really connected with the question.

But since you mentioned you were a football player and I do like football.

What position did you play?

I played quarterback.

You mean I've never, I haven't showed you the press clippings of this?

After we turn the camera off, (Show me!) I'll school a sister.

(You were a quarterback.) I had it goin' on.

I mean, you know I was pretty good.

(I respect that.) Yeah!

(I respect that.) Yeah!

I know when I first told the dear wife, you know, back in the day, she

looked at me, she looked up and down.

"Yeah right."

Then I broke out the press clippings on a sister.

(Then she believed you right?) You know, the press speaks for itself.

(Yes!)"

Alright, so you caught him this time, right?

All of the new expressions, the slang terms.

Again, used in a real English conversation but I want us to look at this right here

because I want you to understand what happened in this part of the conversation.

You see, he was providing support and proof for what he was telling me.

In this part of the conversation, O.B.

starts to present information that proves he was good at playing football.

He says that he will show me some press clippings.

These clippings were the proof his wife needed to believe his story.

Again, you're seeing English fluency is not just about

the number of words you use.

It's about being able to support your answer, give proof for what you're

saying and when you learn this strategy, you'll be able to speak English fluently.

So things to remember, this rule, when you are giving your opinion or a story.

Here we go!

Always provide supporting information and details that will help people

believe what you are saying.

Again, as an English learner, I know you may be a little nervous

sometimes to speak in English.

Don't worry about making mistakes, instead, focus on providing information

that supports what you're saying.

I've had so many students especially when I was in Korea.

They came to me for an interview and they had to figure out which level they

were going to go into when I worked to the Institute and the students that

made grammar mistakes, however, but they were able to support their answers

and give me details and information.

Those students were placed higher than students that made

no mistakes but were not able to give me supporting information.

It's really about your ability to give supporting information

for what your saying.

Now honestly, I hope this lesson really helped you.

I hope you enjoyed the conversations.

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with my family friend O.B.

and I hope to see you next time.

Keep studying hard.

Now remember, I do have a free PDF for you.

If you wanna keep studying and mastering the English language and you wanna

speak like a native, hit the link right in the description, it's for the speak

English like a native, the action plan.

A totally free PDF that will take you through the steps you need to

follow in order to speak English like a native English speaker.

I hope you enjoy the lesson again and I will talk to you next time.

You still there?

You know what time it is?

Here we go!

It's story time.

Hey!

I said it's story time.

All right.

Today's story is actually about something you all know that I love.

So, Christmas.

Now, Christmas was a few weeks ago and my family and I, we

had a wonderful time together.

So during the day we actually, we had wonderful food together.

We decided to make Mexican food.

It was delicious.

And we had worshiped together.

We talked about all the things that we appreciated that God had given us

and then we went to open up the gifts.

So my parents and I, my sister, my brother-in-law and my nieces, we all went

to the family room where the big tree was and we were all opening up our gifts.

Everyone was opening up gifts.

And my sister and I, we were in shock because usually my nieces, they're the

kids that get a lot more gifts because you know, we're older and it's fine.

The kids can have it.

But this year, my parents decided to get my sister and I, a lot of

gifts so I'm not gonna lie to you.

I was happy.

My sister and I were extremely happy this year.

And of course we got our parents gifts too, but it was really nice.

So everyone was happy.

I gave my family members some paintings I did and they were happy.

I had them framed and everything.

So we came to what we thought was the end of our gift giving time.

And we were just sitting there talking and my dad suddenly stood up and said, "Hey!

So, I have something else that I want to bring out and it's for the entire family.

So I need you guys to go to the other room.

Now let me just give you a little bit of history.

My dad for honestly the last, I think 15 years has always bought himself a gift and

put one of our names on it and said, "Oh!

Thank you.

Tiff, I didn't know you bought this for me."

And I didn't buy it for him.

He bought it for himself.

So we had this ongoing joke that my dad likes to buy himself gifts

and put one of our names on it.

So we just expected it to be another one of those because up until

that point, he had not open the gift that he bought for himself.

So he said, "I have a gift that's for the whole family."

So we're like, "Huh!

What could this be?"

So he said, "Hey!

Everybody go to the living room?"

So we went to the living room, we're just sitting there.

Wait maybe about five minutes and we're like, "What is daddy getting?"

And he comes downstairs with a big black thing.

It was a karaoke machine and he had a microphone.

Now let me explain something.

You guys know, I like singing.

I love music.

My entire family.

Everyone in my family loves music.

So we said, "Oh, yeah!"

I mean it had lights and everything.

Now, here's the thing.

My family we're very loving.

We're cool.

Put a mic in our hand, we go put a show on.

So anyways.

So my dad said, "All right!"

So he had everybody's favorite song.

So my parents went first, my dad and mom sing a song and

they were just dancing around.

And then he said, "All right baby girl."

talking to me.

He said, "Tiff, it's your turn."

And there's this song that I really liked when I was in Korea, I sang it all

the time we went to the karaoke place.

So, I sing a little bit of it for you.

You say I'm crazy but you don't really know what you've done.

I'll stop there.

But I sang the whole song and I mean, I was giving it my all and

then my sister went and she was singing to my brother-in-law went up.

We had an amazing time.

And we laughed so hard because the year we thought my dad was going to

get himself something really big is the year he bought something big that

the entire family could really enjoy.

And it was a great memory singing on Christmas night with my family.

Hopefully you also had some wonderful memories, made some wonderful memories

with your family on Christmas.

Yeah!

I hope you enjoy the story and I'll talk to you guys next time.