Speak With Me: English Speaking Practice

Do you need a hand? If I ask this to you, would  your heart start beating? Would your palms start  

sweating? Would you know what to say? Well, never  fear. Today, I'm going to help you reply to this  

question and many others. Today, you are going  to practice speaking with me about your house.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com,  and like always, I have created a free PDF  

worksheet with all of today's important  questions, answers, vocabulary, sample  

conversations, and ideas, to help you level up  your English-speaking skills. You can click on the  

link in the description to download this free PDF  worksheet today. It is my gift to you. All right,  

are you ready to get started talking about your  house? The first category is questions and answers  

about chores. Look at this pronunciation.  Chores. Chores. Make sure you pronounce this  

correctly. And it means things that you need to  do to take care of your house and your home. So  

let's start with some of these questions and  answers, and level up your speaking skills.

Do you need a hand? Remember this question I  asked you not too long ago? Well, what can you  

reply to this question with? You can say, "Oh,  no, thanks, I'll be finished soon." Do you need a  

hand? That means, can I help you? If you're doing  some difficult chore, someone kind might ask you,  

"Do you need a hand?" Or you can ask, "Can you  give me a hand with this?" Let's say you're  

picking up something that's really heavy because  you're trying to move it across the room, you need  

to ask for some help or ask for a hand. "Could  you give me a hand with this?" And hopefully,  

the other person will say, "Sure, I'll help you."A  common chore question is, "Do you mind taking out  

the trash? Do you mind doing the dishes? Do you  mind folding this laundry?" It's asking, "Please,  

I need some help. There are so many chores to do.  Do you mind doing one of these chores for me?"

And hopefully, the other person will say,  "Yes, it's no problem." A similar question is,  

"Can you help me tidy up? Can you help me  fold this laundry? Can you help me take out  

the trash?" And hopefully the other person will  say, "Sure, I would love to." If not though,  

they might say, "Oh no, I'm really busy.  I'm sorry." Hopefully they don't say that,  

but it's possible. If you live with other  people, especially if you live with kids,  

it's important that everyone participates in  the chores and taking care of the house. So  

someone might ask you this question, "Are  your kids old enough to help with chores?"  

And if you're like me, you might say,  "They are and they love helping. In fact,  

my kid's favorite weekend day is deep cleaning  day. They take a wet rag and just wipe everything,  

every corner, every chair, and they love it."  Of course, we don't always love doing chores,  

so you might need to reply to this question,  "What's your least favorite chore?" Well,  

you might say," I hate doing the dishes. I get so  wet. There's dirty food. I hate doing the dishes."

All right, our next category are questions and  answers related to your neighborhood, because  

your house is not just the things you do to take  care of it, the chores, it's also the location,  

and we often ask questions about the location  or condition of your house. So let's talk about  

some of these common small talk and conversation  questions about where you live. If you see someone  

in your neighborhood who you've never met before,  you might ask this question, "Have you lived here  

long? Have you lived here long?" And they might  say, "Oh, I'm new to the neighborhood. I just  

moved here from New York City." This could be  an answer that you give if you move to the US  

and someone doesn't recognize you and they say,  "Oh, have you lived here long?" You can use this  

answer, "I just moved here. I moved here from  Italy. I moved here from Japan." Great answer.

Now the next question is an essential question  that you know the answer to if you move to an  

English speaking country because if someone asks,  "Have you been here long?" They will follow it up,  

most likely, with the second question,  "What made you choose to move here?" Or,  

"What made you decide to move here?" They're  basically asking you, why are you here? Why here  

and not anywhere else in the world? So you need  to have an answer for why did you decide to move  

to this neighborhood? And you might say, "I got a  remote job that let me live anywhere in the world  

and I've always dreamed of living in the US and  this seems like a nice place." Now if you've just  

moved to a new neighborhood, you might want to ask  that other person some questions about the place  

that you just moved. So you can ask them, "What's  the best thing about this neighborhood?" This is a  

great question. You might learn about a hidden  coffee shop or a great little park to go to.

They might say this, "I love that every Saturday  there's free concerts in the park. You should  

come." Wouldn't that be great? You'd have an  instant friend. And another question you could ask  

when you move to a neighborhood is, "Are there any  other neighborhoods that I should check out? Maybe  

other cute walking areas or places to kind of get  to know the local culture?" And they might say,  

"Oh yeah, there's a neighborhood north of town  that's great to walk through," And you're getting  

some recommendations about things that you  should do in your new town. Now when you move  

to a new place, especially if you own it, you're  probably going to have to do some renovations,  

even if it's just decorating the house in your own  style. And when someone comes over to your house,  

hopefully they will comment on what a wonderful  job you've done. So you might hear something  

like this, "I love what you've done with  the place. Did you do it by yourself?"

When they say what you've done with the place,  that's talking about either renovations or  

decorations. "Wow, this old apartment used to  look so dark and dreary, but your decorations,  

what you've done with the place just looks so  nice. Did you do this by yourself?" And you might  

say, "Yeah, I love fixing up places." Cool. And  to follow up that, your friend might say, "Wow,  

that's impressive. Was it a lot of work?"  And if you have really fixed your home,  

especially if you've had to do some major  renovations, you can use this great expression,  

"Yes, this house was a fixer upper, but I  loved redecorating it and renovating it." A  

fixer upper means it's a house that has a good  foundation, it's a nice house, but there is a  

lot of work that needs to be done to make it  livable. Maybe the doorways are so small and  

the walls are all old and just need a new coat of  paint, and you need to maybe open up some spaces.

This house is a fixer upper, but you know what?  It's probably less expensive and it means that  

you get to design it in the way that you like.  All right, now that we've been through some great  

questions and answers related to chores inside the  house and the neighborhood that your house is in,  

it's time to start speaking. But first, you're  going to listen to a sample conversation between  

my husband, Dan, and I. We're going to be using  the same questions and answers that you just  

learned in a little sample conversation. I want  you to listen for all of those key questions  

and answers and be preparing yourself  because after this sample conversation,  

it will be your turn to speak with me. All  right, let's watch the sample conversation.

Hey Dan, what are you working on?

Hey, I'm just finishing up  some renovations on the house.

I love what you've done with the place.  Have you done everything by yourself?

Yes, I did. I replaced the flooring and  

I renovated the kitchen. It's been a  lot of work, but it's been worth it.

Yeah, it looks great. So what made you  decide to move to this neighborhood?

Well, I really like the old homes in this  neighborhood and the neighbors seem really nice.

Oh, that's true. So do you need a hand?

Yeah, I do. Can you help me tidy up?

No problem. Welcome to the neighborhood.

Thanks, neighbor.

All right. How did you enjoy that sample  conversation? Now it is your turn to speak.  

I'm going to be asking you some questions and  then pausing. During that pause I want you to  

speak out loud and answer the question.  And because I have magical teacher ears,  

I will be able to hear you around  the world no matter where you are,  

so make sure that you're speaking out loud.  And you're welcome to go back and repeat this  

segment of the video as many times as you want.  You can even pause it if you need more time to  

be able to speak or think about your answer. So  are you ready to speak with me? Let's do it. Hey,  

I haven't seen you before. Have you lived here  long? What made you decide to move here? So what  

do you think is the best part about living in this  neighborhood so far? Well, it was really great to  

meet you. I wanted to let you know that there  are free concerts in the park every Saturday.  

I'm going this weekend. Would you like to join  me? All right, let's do it. I'll see you then.

Well, congratulations on practicing speaking with  me about your house. You did it. The next step is  

to download the free PDF worksheet, which includes  all of today's sample answers, questions, sample  

conversations, and at the bottom of the worksheet,  you can answer Vanessa's challenge question so  

that you never forget what you've learned and  you can level up your English speaking skills.  

Click on the link in the description to download  that free PDF worksheet today. Well, thank you  

so much for learning English with me and I'll see  you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my  

YouTube channel. Bye. But wait, do you want more?  I recommend watching this video next where you  

will learn to speak with me about the most common  small talk conversation topic ever, it is the  

weather. You need to be able to talk about this in  daily conversation, especially when you meet new  

people around your neighborhood. Check out that  video to find out more, and I'll see you there.