SPEAK ENGLISH LIKE AN AMERICAN | Americans Talk About Art

Hey, so let me tell you something I found online.

This is about the IELTS speaking test, yeah,

that English test that you probably had to take before.

There are some questions on that test about art.

For example, do you like art?

Why do you enjoy art?

What form of art do you like the most?

In your childhood, what experience of art did you have?

Now, these are just a few of the questions about art

that are literally on the test.

So if you were asked any of those questions,

would you be able to speak English fluently

and answer those questions?

If you answered no, don't worry.

Today's lesson is for you because I'm gonna teach you

how to speak English fluently about art.

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

(bright music)

Alright, so here's the formula.

P plus G plus C plus I.

Now I want you to pay close attention

because you can use this formula to speak about art

and to speak English fluently about art, alright.

Now, the first part of the formula is the letter P.

This stands for preference.

You want to talk about your personal preference

related to art.

Now, there are many different types of art.

There's, for example, we have photography

or abstract art or minimalism,

and I'll show you my screen.

Now, these are not the only types of art.

You can have many different types,

but you want to first talk about your preference.

What do you specifically like?

What type of art do you like, alright?

So, for example, this could be the question, alright,

the question is what is your personal art style preference?

Alright, so I've always loved art,

but specifically, photo realism,

I mean, I always wanted to be the best

photo realistic artist there ever was.

I would draw all day.

I loved pencil artwork and I loved pen and ink artwork.

So, my sister and I, when we were younger,

we used to draw all the time.

She was an amazing artist, but, after awhile, she stopped.

Now, I liked drawing so much and I like photo realism

so much that I would ask my parents to buy me books

so that I could follow what was going on in the book

and I would draw and copy what was in the books.

Now I remember one time

my mom had my sister and I in piano lessons,

now, I told you I loved drawing,

but my mom put us in piano lessons and that was fine,

all of the kids were doing it,

but I had to practice for a long time

to, you know, learn the songs

that my piano teacher taught me and

I didn't really want to do that.

So I came up with this plan,

I said, you know what, since I like drawing,

and I'm pretty good at it,

I think I should tell my mom

that I want to stop piano lessons.

So, now mind you, I was only about, ooh,

maybe nine or 10 years old, so I went to my mom,

my dad was cool, he was, like, you know,

whatever we wanted to do, he was okay with,

basically, he wanted my mom to make the decision

related to music and art and things like that.

So, anyways, I went to my mom and I said,

you know what mommy, piano's amazing, but so is art,

and so is photo realism and I told her how, you know,

I was developing my talent and my skill

and that I didn't want to do piano anymore,

and she listened and I didn't play piano anymore.

Alright, now let's move onto the next part

of our formula, letter G, which stands for Group.

You're going to talk about how art affects

certain groups of people, small or large.

Now this is where it gets very interesting

because you start to connect the topic,

art, with people around you.

It shows that you're able to think in English, alright,

so, for example, you can connect it to college students

or women or men.

There are many different groups that you can speak about.

So, here's the question that you may get on the exam.

How does art affect elementary school students

or children?

Alright, so the piano lessons stopped

and I continued drawing.

Now, I have moved to a new school,

you know, I was a little kid and I was in elementary school,

so I had just gotten to a new school,

and again, I loved drawing, so I was in the new class

and I was just sitting there drawing,

and then, all of a sudden, all of the kids in the class

came around my desk, and they said,

yo, look at the new girl,

she can draw really well and they started asking me,

hey, can you draw this cartoon character,

can you draw this for me?

And all of a sudden, I got really popular

because I could draw so well,

and I realized, little kids, not just me,

other little kids loved art too.

So, it made me even want to perfect

my artistic skills even more because I realized

how much other kids also really liked art.

Alright, now let's move onto the next part of our formula,

the letter C, Connection.

Talk about your personal connection to art,

basically, how you view yourself.

So you see what's happening.

We're moving back and forth between art and other people

and art and ourselves, right.

So, this is why it's so important

for you to follow the formula,

it will make the person listening to you

during the exam or in a conversation think,

wow, this person really can speak English fluently, alright,

so, for example, let's say you are really good at art

or you're horrible or maybe you're just not interested,

you can say this about your connection, okay.

Now let's say, for example, this is the question you get.

You may be asked

how has your connection to art affected your life?

Now, art remained a really, really

important part of my life.

I remained connected to it throughout my entire life,

so through grade school, through high school,

through college, and even when I graduated,

but something happened, you see,

I got a job connected to my field,

I was a computer science major

and I had commercial art kind of

as my associates degree or my side degree.

So I got a job at NASA and I was working as a web designer.

I had tried to, you know, combine art with computers,

but something happened, you see,

my connection to art was so strong,

it led me to actually quit my job at NASA.

I know that you know that I went to Korea

to be a missionary, but the first step was

when I left my job at NASA,

I wanted to use my art to help other people

see how good God is,

but art really made me leave.

Alright, now the next part of our formula is I,

which stands for individuals.

So what you're gonna do is talk about

the importance of art to people individually

across the board, in general,

how does art affect people individually?

Is it really important?

So again, you can say businesswomen or single men

or working moms, you can pick a specific group,

but, in general, how does it affect people?

So, let's say this is the question you receive.

Is art really important to people as individuals?

Now here's the interesting thing.

On Sunday, my nieces came to visit me,

and like I told you, art is very important to me.

I realized that it's not just me.

Art is important to everyone in an individual way.

You see, my nieces range in age from three

all the way up to 10, so I have two nieces that live here,

and the smallest one is three,

and the oldest one that was here on Sunday is 10,

and the three of us, altogether, were sitting right here

and we were drawing together,

and as I paused and looked at them,

I realized, man, art is powerful.

It affects us all.

They were both so happy

and they were being creative in what they were drawing

and it made me happy to know that art

is not just important to me, it's important to them too.

Alright, now you know how to use the equation

P, preference,

G, groups,

C, connections, and I, individuals

to speak about art fluently in English.

I really hope you enjoyed this lesson.

Remember, if you want to watch part two,

which is available for all Academy students,

all you have to do is click the link in the description.

You don't want to miss part two

because I go into more depth and I give you resources

that will help you speak English even better about art.

There's some really good resources

that I use on a regular basis,

so again, click the link in the description,

join the Academy and watch part two,

but don't forget to subscribe, like and share this video.

Alright, well I will talk you next week,

but as always, remember to speak English.

(bright music)