THINK and SPEAK in English: technology

Oh, I didn't hear what you said. Sorry. What was  that? Has that ever happened to you? Have you been  

lost in your phone and you didn't hear what was  going on in the world around you? Unfortunately,  

this has happened to me too. But never fear,  today I'm going to help you learn how to  

think and speak in English while talking about  our tech habits. Are you ready? Let's do it.

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

worksheet with all of today's important  vocabulary expressions, sample sentences,  

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

that you never forget what you've learned  in this lesson. You can click the link in  

the description to download that free PDF  worksheet today. It is my gift to you.

In this lesson, I'm going to tell you a little  story about my journey with using technology,  

and I will explain some key vocabulary  along the way. I hope that you two will  

feel confident thinking in speaking in  English about the topic of technology  

by the end of this lesson.  Let's start with this story.

So I need to watch YouTube for work, but I would  oftentimes log on to YouTube for work and end up  

watching tons of other videos unrelated to work.  It was a timesuck. Can you guess what this word  

timesuck means? Take a look at this sentence. I  removed all unnecessary apps from my phone because  

they were just a timesuck. We can kind of imagine  a vacuum sucking away your time, and that's what  

it is. It's just something that wastes your time.  I was wasting time on YouTube, it was a timesuck.

For me I was developing a reliance on technology  because I felt like it was important for my job.  

But, was it really? This word reliance is  talking about being dependent on something.  

It's good to be dependent on some things. I am  dependent on my family or I rely on my family.  

But the way that I just used it, a reliance  on technology, you kind of get the sense that  

I don't want to be reliant on technology.  Have you ever said something like this? I  

realized that I have a reliance on technology  when I use Google Maps to get anywhere. Google  

Maps has saved me so many times. I have  a reliance on Google Maps technology.

All right. Let's go to the next part of  the story. But the thing was I couldn't  

stay focused using the apps that  I thought I needed for work. There  

were too many distractions. Let's take a  look at this fun expression, the thing is,  

or the thing was. I love expressions like  this because advanced English speakers and  

native English speakers use these all the time,  but I feel like English learners don't really  

integrate these into daily conversation. So  here's your chance to be able to use this.

We use the thing is, or the thing was to give  an introduction to a topic or maybe like a  

summary of a topic. So let me give you another  example. I know that I need to get healthier,  

but the thing is I don't like to work out.  So we're kind of narrowing the topic here.  

I know I need to get healthy, but the thing  is, here's my introduction to the problem,  

the summary of the problem, I don't like to work  out. And that's how I used it when I was talking  

about technology. The thing is, my summary or my  introduction of the problem, the thing is I just  

couldn't stay focused. And why? Because, the  next word, there were too many distractions.

This is the problem with the internet, right?  There are too many distractions. If you've ever  

worked online, I'm sure that distractions have  been a problem for you. What are distractions?  

Well, there are things that are trying to take  your attention away from what you need to be  

focusing on. Right now you need to be focusing on  this English lesson on YouTube. But do you know  

what? There are recommended videos. There  are other things online. Everything might  

be popping up and moving. There are so many  distractions that it's hard to stay focused  

and learn English. I know. It's hard to stay  focused. But, we need to push aside distractions  

and I'm going to give you a solution for this  in just a minute telling you about what I did.

Let's move on to the story. Even worse,  my bad tech habits were making me miss  

out on real life interactions with  my friends and family. This word,  

real life interactions. Notice the pronunciation  here, interactions. The T has been completely cut  

out. Real life interactions. This is talking  about connecting with people in real life. The  

people who are at the table with you. The people  who are in your classroom. These are the people,  

tangible people around you, not the things  that are going on online. It's a problem.

Whenever I heard a notification on my phone,  ring, I felt like I needed to check it, but the  

problem was I wasn't being present and I needed  to do something about it. This word notification  

is highly linked to technology nowadays. We get  lots of notifications on our phone all the time.  

Such a pain. What about this? Being present.  Well, you probably know what a present is,  

like a gift I gave a present to my friend on their  birthday, but that's not what we're talking about.  

We are talking about your body and your mind  being physically there in the moment. You are  

being present. You're not thinking about  something else, you're not worrying about  

something else. You are being present.  And that's the problem with our phones,  

it's hard to be present when we are  looking at our phones and technology.

So what's the solution? Well, I decided to  read a book called Digital Minimalism and  

it inspired me to add a block on my phone so  that I could only use YouTube for a specific  

amount of time at a specific amount of  time per day. I like this expression,  

inspired me. It gave you some inspiration to  make some change in your life. This book inspired  

me. It really made me want to make a change. His  descriptions were great, his analogies were great,  

his story was great. And reading this  book inspired me, to what? Add a block.

You might also hear this called blocker, add  a blocker on my phone. There are certain apps  

I use AppBlock, but there are plenty of others  that will have you set a type of plan. I want  

to only use YouTube from 9:00 AM to 10:00  AM each day. Maybe this is something that  

you need for work like me. So this is my  working time and I only can watch YouTube  

during that time. So it makes me focus because  the block is restricting my access. And also  

9:00 AM is when my new YouTube videos  come out, so you're able to focus and  

study English at this time each Friday, I hope  so, and not give in to all the distractions.

The most useful thing is that the block turns  off all apps at night so that I don't start  

doom scrolling or get sucked into news articles  late at night. Has this ever happened to you?  

You're looking at something and then all of a  sudden the internet shows you terrible things  

happening around the world. Oh no. Bad, bad,  bad. And you have to click on it. You have  

to know what it is. So you start reading more  and more bad things. This is doom scrolling,  

and unfortunately it's something that  social media does really well because  

as humans we want to click on bad things. We  want to find out all of the terrible things  

that are happening. So it brings a lot of  attention and eyeballs to social media,  

but it's not good for us as humans to be  doom scrolling and feel really anxious.

The other expression that I used is to  get sucked into something. Here again,  

we're talking about imagine a vacuum. Our  attention and our brain is being sucked into  

these news articles or whatever else you  might be looking at and all of a sudden,  

three hours passes just like that. And we  haven't really noticed the world around us.  

We're not being present. This app block was a  game changer. I felt free, finally, from the  

pull of unlimited media. I'm more productive  during my workday and I'm more present when  

it comes to time with my family and friends. And  you know what? I can even sleep better at night.

I love this word game changer. It's  such a big expression that means  

everything changed because of someone or  something. So this simple app on my phone,  

this app block was a game changer. It changed  everything for my experience using media. It  

was a game changer. You might even say that  about my English lessons. Vanessa's English  

lessons were game changer for my English learning  journey. All of a sudden I felt like English was  

possible. It was fun. It was enjoyable. I  had a plan. Great. It was a game changer.

I also use the word productive. When you are  productive, you can achieve more. So it's great  

to be productive at work. When you're trying to  clean your house, you want to be productive and  

not distracted. Of course, you don't need to be  productive all the time, sometimes it's nice to  

just go have a picnic outside and spend time with  friends. You're not creating something and working  

and being productive. No, you're just enjoying  life. But it's important to be productive when  

you want to be productive. And did you notice  that I used the word present again? I could be  

present with the people who mattered, that my  friends and family, I was present with them.

And most importantly, I was able to set a  good example for my kids who are growing up  

with more technology than I could ever have  imagined having as a kid. When I was a kid,  

there was a TV and a phone on the wall  and that was it. But kids nowadays are  

growing up with the possibility of so  much technology and I think this role  

setting is really important. I use the  word most importantly because to me,  

I think this is one of the most important things  as a parent that I can do. My habits affect me,  

but most importantly, they also affect the young  people who I'm trying to raise into good adults.

When you're a parent, you try to set a good  example, or even just as a human you try to  

set a good example. You don't throw your trash  on the ground, you put it in the trash can. Why?  

Of course, to help the earth, but also to set a  good example. You're trying to be a good citizen,  

a good parent, a good human. And I  also use this wonderful verb phrase,  

could have ever imagined or we can switch it  could ever have imagined. This is obviously  

another big full expression. Here I said more  technology than I could ever have imagined.

Maybe you can even use this for your English  learning journey as well. You might say,  

when I was taking English classes as a child,  occasionally we watched a VHS in English,  

but it was so limited. Now there are  more English videos than I could ever  

have imagined when I was a kid. Right  now there are really unlimited videos  

that you can watch in English, and I  hope that this one is useful to you.

And finally, I want to show my kids and anyone  else that technology is a great tool that you can  

use when you establish boundaries. This phrase,  establish boundaries, is the key for pretty much  

everything in life. You need to establish  boundaries with technology, with your work,  

with your relationships with yourself. It is  important to establish boundaries. This means  

that you're setting limits or guidelines. You are  not just saying everything's okay. No, instead,  

you are establishing boundaries in a relationship.  Maybe your relationship with technology. And  

for me, it was really useful to have this  AppBlock that was able to help me establish  

boundaries with technology. So now I feel a lot  healthier and I'm able to use it in a better way.

So now I want to know for you, do you have healthy  boundaries around technology and your technology  

use? Or do you need to establish more boundaries  with technology like I did? Let me know in the  

comments. And don't forget to download the free  PDF worksheet for today's lesson with all of  

today's great tech vocabulary, definitions, sample  sentences and these concepts to help you really  

be able to level up your English vocabulary  so that you can think and speak in English.  

You can click on the link in the description  to download that free PDF worksheet today.

Well, thanks 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 where you will learn  

to think and speak in English about your morning  routine, including learning about something that  

I never do in my morning routine. Watch that  video to find out and I'll see you there.