Imitation Lesson | Weekend Plans | Speak English clearly and confidently

Hey this is Emma from mmmEnglish!

It's great to see you again!

So tell me, have you got much planned for the weekend?

It doesn't matter

where you are in the world, this is a really common

question that gets asked all the time, right?

At work, after class, when you're just

hanging out with friends.

So do you know how to answer this question

in English, really well?

I know how much you love speaking practice

so in today's lesson, we're going to practise

talking about the weekend.

And after this lesson you're going to be ready with some

really common phrases and expressions

that you can use in conversations all the time

with your workmates, with your classmates

or any other English-speaking mate of yours.

And to make sure that you get the most out of this

lesson, we're going to be practising with the

mmmEnglish Imitation Technique

and it's one of the most effective ways that you can

reduce your accent

and fix your pronunciation problems so that you

speak English more clearly and more confidently.

So stay tuned!

If you already know how the Imitation Technique works

then feel free to skip ahead to step one.

It starts right here.

But if you're new to the Imitation Technique,

well you might be wondering what is it

and how does it work.

This technique is super effective because it teaches you

to listen to the sounds and patterns of English

and it trains you to produce some of those

sounds yourself through repetition

and controlled practice.

But most of all, it's just a lot of fun.

You're going to be training your mouth with your ears

by listening to the sounds and imitating them

or copying them

rather than training your mouth with your eyes

by reading and guessing what the pronunciation

and the rhythm of those words are.

Now if you haven't done a lesson like this before,

stay cool, it's okay. Don't worry.

There's three really simple steps that you need to follow.

And the first one is that you just need to listen

to what I say

and read the words on the screen as I say them.

The second step is you're going to listen to what I say

but then there'll be a pause so that you can repeat.

You can copy what I've said exactly as I said it.

And this is a step that you can repeat over and over

again until you sound exactly like I do.

And it's okay to practise this step several times

before you move on to step number three.

You can even slow down the speed of the video

down here so that you can practise slowly first

and then return to normal speed.

And you might want to do that because

step number three is a bit of a challenge

even for a native English speaker.

So you'll need to listen to what I'm saying but

say it at the same time as I do,

so you'll speak as I speak.

Now it's pretty much like

singing along to your favourite song right?

You're not going to get it perfect the first time you try

and it's okay to make some mistakes.

We're going to have fun

and you'll improve over time with practice.

Today we're going to be talking about our plans

for the weekend.

So this dialogue is going to be in future tenses because

it hasn't happened yet, it's happening in the future.

Now when someone asks you about the weekend,

they might say

"So what's happening this weekend?

Have you got any plans?"

"So, what are you guys doing on the weekend?"

"What are you guys up to on the weekend?

Got much on?"

Now often your answer might be quite short

especially if you don't feel comfortable enough

to have a full conversation yet

but after our practice session today,

I'm hoping that you'll grab the opportunity to share

as much detail as you can in English.

We're going to be practising a range of expressions

that you can easily adapt to your own situation.

So let's try.

Step one: listen and read.

This weekend? I'm really looking forward to it, actually!

I've got my sister visiting from overseas

so I'm going to be playing tour guide for a few days!

And Saturday's looking pretty good weather-wise,

so we might go somewhere for breakfast.

Bib and Tucker is my go-to

whenever I have people staying.

Have you been there?

Everything there is amazing

and the view over the ocean is to die for.

So yeah, I think we might start there

since it's going to be nice.

And then do a bit of exploring.

Maybe we'll stop in for lunch at the Botanic Gardens.

It's so beautiful there at this time of year.

They often have free concerts actually,

so that could be pretty cool.

And then on Sunday

I think I'll take her to the National Gallery

and we'll probably wander around the markets

for a while.

Actually, my friend's playing in a band and she's offered

us free tickets!

So we'll probably check that out too

as long as we're not too tired.

So I've got a lot planned!

How about you? Have you got much on?

Step two.

So now you need to imitate exactly what I say

and that means you're trying to copy my pronunciation,

my word stress and the pauses in my sentence.

You can even try and imitate my facial expressions

and body language if you want,

because that's extra practice

about communicating with more than just words.

There's going to be a pause after each sentence

so that you can practise with me.

There'll be time for you to say it too

so just relax and go with the flow.

It's just you and it's me, there's no one else

here right now so let's just have some fun.

Step two: imitate, listen and copy.

This weekend?

I'm really looking forward to it, actually!

I've got my sister visiting from overseas so...

I'm going to be playing tour guide for a few days!

And Saturday's looking pretty good weather-wise,

so we might go somewhere for breakfast.

Bib and Tucker's my go-to

whenever I have people staying.

Have you been there?

Everything there is amazing

and the view over the ocean is to die for.

So yeah, I think we might start there

since it's going to be nice.

And then do a bit of exploring.

Maybe we'll stop in for lunch at the Botanic Gardens,

it's so beautiful there at this time of year.

They often have free concerts actually,

so that could be pretty cool.

And then on Sunday

I think I'll take her to the National Gallery

and we'll probably wander around the markets

for a while.

Actually, my friends playing in a band

and she's offered us free tickets!

So, we'll probably check that out too

as long as we're not too tired!

So I've got a lot planned!

How about you? Have you got much on?

Before we move to step number three,

a really quick shout out to our friends over at Skillshare

who've made it possible to bring you this Imitation

Lesson for free.

Skillshare is an online community with

thousands of classes covering all kinds of subjects

that you can do in your spare time

or maybe you could even do them on the weekend.

There are two reasons why I recommend Skillshare

to my students. Firstly because not only are you learning

new skills, but you're also learning new vocabulary

and real-world expressions

to talk about the things that you're into.

And secondly, because it's affordable.

For less than ten dollars a month, you can get access

to a huge range of courses

from teachers around the world.

I find myself using the Skillshare library all the time

whenever I need to upskill. In fact, just this month

my mum has been getting our family home ready to sell

so I thought I'd love to help her to get the place

looking amazing before it goes on the market

and people come around to have a look.

I found a brilliant interior styling course,

taught by a professional stylist that had me

filled with ideas in just over an hour.

It was just the kind of expert guidance that I needed

to make everything happen.

So if you want to try it out, jump online using the link

in the description below this video to get yourself

two months of premium level access for free.

And let me know what Skillshare

courses you end up taking.

Alright let's get back to step number three.

Now we're moving on to step three

which is a little more challenging

so don't forget that you can pause right here,

go back and practise section two

as many times as you need before you keep going.

This is just going to take a little bit of practice.

So now you're going to shadow me and that means

listening and speaking at the same time.

So try to copy the rhythm and the tone that I use

even if it means that you get yourself a little

tongue-tied for a while there.

It's okay. Don't worry about it.

Step three: shadow.

This weekend?

I'm really looking forward to it, actually!

I've got my sister visiting from overseas so

I'm going to be playing tour guide for a few days!

And Saturday is looking pretty good weather-wise,

so we might go somewhere for breakfast,

Bib and Tucker's my go-to

whenever I have people staying.

Have you been there?

Everything there is amazing

and the view over the ocean is to die for.

So yeah, I think we might start there

since it's going to be nice.

And then do a bit of exploring.

Maybe we'll stop in for lunch at the Botanic Gardens,

it's so beautiful there at this time of year.

And they often have free concerts actually,

so that could be pretty cool.

And then on Sunday

I think I'll take her to the National Gallery

and we'll probably wander around the markets

for a while.

Actually, my friend's playing in a band

and she's offered us free tickets so

we'll probably check that out too

as long as we're not too tired.

So, I've got a lot planned!

How about you? Have you got much on?

Hey awesome work, that was great practice!

The best thing that you can do is save this lesson

to a playlist and come back to it

to practise it each day or a few times a week.

You'll be amazed at how much progress you make

in such a short amount of time.

And once you get comfortable talking about

my weekend, you can try adapting it to talk about

your weekend.

In fact, what are you doing this weekend?

What have you got planned?

Let me know down there in the comments.

I'm keen to hear your stories.

And if you have a request for different types

of Imitation Lessons, then make sure

you let me know as well.

If you'd like to support what we do here at mmmEnglish,

we've got packs of Imitation Lessons available for sale

via our website.

They're affordable and they're going to give you hours

and hours of speaking practice.

The link is in the description below.

Thanks for watching

and I will see you in the next lesson!