English Conversation Practice - Listen to a Real Conversation in English with Subtitles

...Watching the replay on Facebook, welcome. If you’re watching the replay on Periscope,

welcome to you too. And, if you are joining live, it's great to have you.

It’s another beautiful day in Asheville, North Carolina. You can see the sun shining

through the tree there. It feels like fall or autumn as we say in British English. But,

there’s not a cloud in the sky... 20 degrees Celsius and had a great day so far. I’m

going to turn on my camera. Hello. Good to have you all here. So again,

if you’re watching the replay, it's great to have you on the replay. Today, I have something

very special to share with you and I’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while,

luckily, my wife is here. Hello.

So, this is Kate and, Kate, introduce yourself. Tell everyone what you do.

Hello everyone. I’m Kate. I’m Jack’s wife and I am a middle school teacher. I teach

English Literature to middle schoolers. So, my students are about 13 years old, turning

14 and we have a day off from school today so that’s why I’m able to be here, out

on the porch on a nice fall day. Yeah, so it’s Veterans Day today. Hello

everyone. “How are you?” We are doing very well. Nice to meet you. “Good afternoon,

Jack and Kate. It is nice to meet you.” That’s Marcelo.

Thank you. “Hello from Russia and Istanbul.” So yeah,

today is a National Holiday and there is no school. So, Kate has a day off and it’s

been wonderful so far. We went to a tea shop. What kind of tea did you get, Kate?

I got Masala tea which has... it’s a black tea with a lot of different Indian spices

in it. It was really delicious and I had it with honey and with milk.

Yeah and I had Pu-erh which is like a very good black tea. “Good weather.” Yeah,

“Nice to meet you.” Nice to meet you too. Is it Veterans Day? It is. Yeah, today is

Veterans Day in the US. So, there is no school today and it couldn’t be any better, couldn’t

be any better. So, hopefully Kate is going to join us on future scopes but it’s just

great to have her here today and I thought the best thing we could do is to open it up

for questions. So, do you guys have questions about British / American English, any questions

for Kate, for me? Just send them in. A lot of people are here today which is great. This

is Kate’s first time on Periscope so she’s enjoying it.

Yeah, it’s exciting. It’s strange to see myself though.

Yeah, so a question here “Are you English?” No. I’m American.

Yeah, so Kate is American from Connecticut. I’m just going to explain a couple of things

to Kate. So, you can see the comments coming in here.

Oh wow, neat. Marcelo says “It’s cool to be able to

hear both versions of English. It can improve our listening.” Absolutely, And then, you can see the

hearts flying up here. That’s when people tap their screen to say they’re enjoying

it. Oh, that’s so nice. Good to see that.

Yeah, so guys, just tap the screen. Let’s see lots of hearts come in. So, you can see

them coming in. And, Angel, if I remember correctly you’re from France, agrees with

Marcelo. Okay.

Yeah, so it is. It’s great for you guys to be able to hear British and American English

at the same time. We are hoping next year to provide something very interesting I guess

which will be based on American and British English. Quick question, “Have you been

to Turkey?” I have. I have been to Turkey. I went to Istanbul

for about a week when I was in university. I’ve never been to Turkey but Kate's talked

about it a lot. Mustafa is saying he’s from Turkey or she’s from Turkey I guess, yeah

Mustafa. Yeah, how old were you when you went to Turkey?

I was about twenty, 20 years old. Okay. This is one for you, Kate. “I heard

an idiom. Let live freak fly.” Oh, I think that idiom is “Let your freak

flag fly.” Which is, I think it was very popular in the sixties and it just means kind

of not being afraid to be different and put yourself out there.

Very cool. I had no idea what it was. It’s good to have Kate here. Yeah, people from

Brazil are coming. “Are you from Britain?” So, yeah, I’m from the U.K. and…

And, I’m from the United States. I’m an American.

And, we both live in North Carolina. “Have you already been to Brazil, Kate?”

I have never been to Brazil and I would very much like to visit. We have some good family

friends that live there, near Sao Paulo and I would love to go visit some day.

Yeah, I was in Brazil in 2007 but only for about 5 days. So, I’d love to go back. Love,

love to go back. “You are great.” I think that’s for you.

Oh, it could be for you too. “Hi from Moscow. [name] is here.

Are you a couple?” Yes, we are married. We’ve been married for, how many years?

Six? Six years, yeah.

Six years, 2009 or was it 2010? We can’t remember. We always forget our anniversary.

But yeah, we are a married. “Hi from Sochi.” Hello, good to have you. “Hello from Peru.”

Good to have you too. Where in Peru are you from? Let me know. Keep the questions coming

in and it’d be great. Yeah, we forget about this. We forget about the year we got married.

Anastasia’s taking her Master’s Degree in Linguistics.

Wow, that’s impressive. From Lima. Hearts from, how do you pronounce

that? I’m not sure.

Antalya, Turkey. From Sochi: “Oh shame, you don’t know the day.” Okay, languages.

What languages do you know? The same as Jack. Jack and I have both lived

in Spain briefly so I speak some Spanish. I’m a little bit rusty which means I’m

out of practice but I do speak some Spanish. Someone’s saying here go to foz do Iguacu?

No, I’m saying that wrong. But, I’ve been to the Argentinian side. Kansas here as well,

SueSue. Hi.

Long time follower of To Fluency, a To Fluency program member. Someone asked if we have children.

We do. We have one son. He is currently 2 years old and he is busy at daycare today.

Yeah, so he’s at daycare. It is a good surprise to have her here today. Yeah, so he’s at

daycare. Kate’s got the day off work and we’ve just spent the morning together in

a tea house and then at the local restaurant. We have both had a salad. It was very good.

Delicious. Yeah.

With bacon. Yeah, lots of bacon and other things too.

Nageb asks “How are you Jack’s wife?” I’m very well. Thank you for asking.

Yeah. “We’ve got a surprise.” Yeah, it’s a surprise. Oh, here’s a good question.

Yeah. What would you advise: which variant of English

to stick to and how to choose? Oh, that’s a good question. Well, personally,

I’m going to recommend American English and I think he would recommend British English.

But, I think it all depends on what you think will be most useful to you. If you’re going

to be exposed to more American English or if you want to travel in countries that have

an American accent, I would recommend learning American English. And, probably if you’re

based in Europe and have business contacts or friends who are British, it would make

more sense to be exposed to British English. Although, once you get to an advanced level,

I think the distinctions aren’t as important. Yeah, that’s the answer I always give too.

“What time is it there?” Kate, do you have your watch on?

I do. It is 1:35. One thirty five, yeah, in the afternoon. It’s

just getting warmer and warmer. Just to let you all know. Kate used to teach English in

a couple of schools in Spain. “Do you speak Turkish?” “Do you know Spanish?” We

don’t speak Turkish but we “podemosr hablar en Espanol”.

We can. You didn’t tell me you would be making me speak in Spanish.

No. I sometimes do accents here too. Okay. Really?

I’ve missed some questions. “Do you see British English is easy to understand for

American people?” That’s a really good question. I think that

the kind of typical Queen’s English, that standard received pronunciation is pretty

easy for most Americans to understand because a lot of British cinema and TV is in that

accent but I think that at the same time Jack’s accent is different, not hard to understand.

It’s just different and I enjoy hearing it.

Yeah. It can be hard for some people. People who

have really think American accents sometimes struggle to understand Jack.

Yeah, I’ve modified my accent a lot too. One thing is as well, the standard received

English or British accent, only 2% of the population speak with that. Some are asking

about the methods you use in class and this person’s a teacher too.

Oh, interesting. The method’s I use in my class or the methods that Jack uses?

Yeah. Okay, so I teach basically English literature.

So, that’s everything, mostly reading, writing, a little bit of grammar and vocabulary. So,

we try to do a lot of reading as a class and right now we’re doing an exciting project

where my students are putting on a trial but a mock trial, it’s not real, for the narrator

in one of our stories, the person telling the story.

Yeah. So, Kate teaches in the middle school. It’s very intense, long hours, lots of students

as well. “What do you recommend the most to improve English listening and reading?”

The best method I feel is to find an audio book that you can listen to and read the book

at the same time and find something that you enjoy. The more you read, the more you listen

to English, the better you’re going to get. Kate, what’s that book called, if you can

remember, that talks about reading a lot and it’s something that you like to do in class

isn’t it? To give students reading that they enjoy.

Yeah, the book is called The Book Whisperer and it’s really for people teaching native

speakers reading. I think it applies to other teachers and to ESL teachers too. And, basically,

her theory is that you give students the choice of what they want to read and give them time

to read also and just encourage them to keep reading and to enjoy what they’re reading

all the time. So, that’s something I feel very strongly about. That’s why I’m a

teacher is to teach students to love literature and reading.

Yeah. And, Dr. Stephen Krashen has actually... he recommends this and if you don’t know

who Krashen is, he is someone who is very big in language acquisition and he applies

the same methods to learning English which is to read for pleasure and to do extensive

reading - to read a lot and that’s wate I base a lot of my methods on for To Fluency.

“Out of the subject but what are your favorite movies?” What’s your favorite movie?

Oh, that’s a tough question. I’m going to have to think about that one.

Do you know my favorite movie? No, I don’t.

Donnie Darko. Oh yeah?

Yeah, I’ve seen it a lot of times. I’ve not seen it for a few years though. “I have

problems with my exam listening but with you I can understand.” Yeah, so with most exams

and it depends on the level. Marcelo has a great question here. I’ll come back to that

Marcelo. With exams, they are testing your comprehension and usually it’s different

types of listening. So, conversation-based, academic, presentation style and this is more

of a presentation style. So, you will find there are different types of listening exercises

in those exams. “Oh, I have to see. I love Jake.” How do you pronounce this again,

Gyllenhaal? I forgot. I don’t know how to pronounce it actually.

Yeah, I just saw it then and I couldn’t remember. Jake Gyllenhaal, Gyllenhaal I think.

Marcelo had a question. Yes.

Are students in North Carolina naughty or are they respectful to teachers.

That’s a great question. I would say that most of my students are very respectful and

they want to learn. But, occasionally, students make bad choices so I have a couple of students

who are still learning how to be young adults and to be able to succeed in life by being

respectful and learning. And, another question was “How is your working

day? Do you work a lot?” I do. I do work a lot. So, school starts officially

around 7:30 in the morning which is earlier and I stay usually until 4:30 or 5:00 planning

my lessons and grading papers. Yeah, it’s a long day. It’s a very long

day and the alarm goes off at 5:45 at the moment. “Hello everyone. Nice to meet your

wife, Jack. She’s amazing.” Thank you, Skypish.

Oh, thank you, Skypish. Yeah, from Russia, Victoria is her name. I

start 7:00 ‘til 2:00, okay. So, that’s, yeah, a different schedule. It’s kind of

similar to yours but you have, you stay later don’t you and you have those hours after

school. Yeah, it’s my second year teaching so I’m

still figuring out my lesson plans and working every day on that.

Yup. “Both of you are very kind and so helpful.” Glad we can help. “I learned to speak English

first but I still have problems with grammar and writing. Any advice?” “It’s okay.

I work 20 to 30 hours as a teacher.” That’s cool. So, if you still have problems with

grammar and writing you are not alone because you never stop learning. You know, I’m constantly

improving my writing and learning about grammar and making mistakes. It’s the same for everyone.

So, you’re not going to stop learning and that’s, I think that’s a wonderful thing.

There’s no endpoint. There’s no finish to your learning. So, it’s just about enjoying

what you do and to keep improving. And, as somebody who teaches reading and writing,

I would also advise just the more reading that you do, the easier the grammar and spelling

and writing will be also. Definitely. “I’m thinking about staying

in my university after graduation as a teacher but I’m too shy.” Were you shy when you

started? Were you nervous? Absolutely. I think that just the first day

of standing up in front of my students. We have an expression which is that you have

butterflies in your stomach and the first time that I stood up in front, you know, a

class of 30 students I had butterflies in my stomach. I felt that nervousness. But,

I think that it gets easier the more that you do it. And also, just thinking about what

want the students to know everyvday helps me get up there and try to teach them and work

with them. Yeah, that’s really cool. “Do you have

any speaking classes in the VIP course?” What I do is a speaking evaluation where you

record your answers to certain questions and then I give you feedback on this. So, you

send me your audio files and then I create a worksheet where I give you feedback and

correct your English and tell you exactly what you should be working on according to

this. “I’m also afraid of making a mistake on not knowing something students will ask.”

What do you think about that? My answer for that always is that I, if I

don’t know something, I don’t pretend that I know it. I try to prepare myself as

much as possible and anticipate or think ahead what the questions will be. But, if I don’t

know something I just tell my students that I don’t know it either, that I’m still

learning and I need to look it up. So, they usually are pretty receptive to that. They

like it, to know that their teacher isn’t perfect and doesn’t know everything all

the time. Yeah, that’s cool. Someone just said “If

you are nervous, just let your students talk and it gives you time, I guess to…

Oh, yeah. To feel better about it. Victoria – “Being

a teacher means giving a piece of your heart to every student of yours.” That’s beautiful.

It is. Okay. Well, I guess we’ll call it a day

which means we’ll finish this here. Thank you so much for these kind comments. Nageb

– “Best for you, Kate.” And, yes, that’s how you spell the name.

Thank you. Yup. You guys have been amazing. If you’re watching

this on Facebook, please share and I’ll see you guys in the live lesson tomorrow that’s

going to be on YouTube. Perfect. Alex from Brazil said “You should both work together

in To Fluency.” Thank you.

’m trying. I’m trying to get her. I’m trying to hire her. “You’re a great match guys.” Thank you. Great comments. Thank you everyone.