Do You Have 1 Hour? You Can Speak Like a Native English Speaker

want to speak real english from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at englishclass101.com hi everybody my name is alicia welcome back to top words today we're going to talk about 10 ways to stop translating in your head let's get started identify objects around you in english the first way to stop translating in your head is to identify the objects around you in your target language so if you're studying english that means you look at the objects around the room look at the things in your life don't think of them in your

native language first think of them in your target language first so if i look around the room i see a computer i shouldn't think my native language word i should think my target language word so start with the items and the situations in your everyday life if i say computer in english maybe i should say computa in japanese i should say not i don't know water in english i should say omizu in japanese so start associating the words in your target language with your everyday life now so if you're studying english that means start getting

familiar with the things in your everyday life in english repeat phrases you hear native speakers use tip number two is to repeat the phrases that you hear native speakers use so if you're watching this channel for example or you're watching a tv show or a movie listen for the way that native speakers make those phrases if you hear a phrase you have never heard before or you hear an interesting combination of words try to repeat them yourself don't just listen try to say them yourself if you're in a public space and it's difficult for you

to do that fine practice in a place where you feel more comfortable maybe if you have some private space to practice just repeat them get your mouth used to saying the words the way that the speakers the native speakers do so if you never actually say words if you're only taking in if you're only listening and you're not actually producing the language it's it's kind of hard to to practice and to to really hone your pronunciation to improve your pronunciation so when you listen to native speakers try to repeat after them so for example if

you're studying english you can try to repeat after this video you can repeat after the things i'm saying because maybe i'm using an expression or i'm using a certain series of vocabulary words together the way a native speaker would and it's maybe a good idea to try to practice the ways that native speakers put their words together so try to repeat after native speakers especially when you're looking at media and you can do this when you're reading books too you can try to read out read out loud interesting lines of books that you find or

something that maybe is difficult for you very nice practice tip make a situation where you can't escape into your native language make a situation where you can't escape into your native language essentially means immerse yourself of course going to that country or going to a place where you can speak only that language is very difficult for some of you totally understand but if in your life you can create a situation in your library in your room in your house somewhere for just an hour or i don't know maybe a day i don't know what your

schedule is like but if you can create a situation or create an environment where you have no choice but to use that language and you cannot escape meaning you cannot go back to using your native language as a crutch you can't use the native language at all it forces you to use the language that you're studying so of course if you are lucky enough to live in the country or to live in a place where people speak the language you're studying great but you have to go out and interact with people you have to put

yourself in a place where you have no choice but to speak it's very hard and it's very scary and it's very embarrassing at first but if you take time to find places and to make environments that are comfortable for you where you feel comfortable making mistakes and asking questions it's very valuable for your learning process this is actually something that i did totally i totally did this my japanese wasn't very good for a long time but then i started making friends who could not speak english actually i just did this through finding hobbies there was

a hobby that i had i joined a group i joined actually a school to where i could learn how to do that hobby and everything was taught only in japanese and the people in my class only spoke japanese mostly and then maybe we would go off for drinks and food late at night or on the weekends and everybody spoke only japanese and if i couldn't communicate even simply in japanese i had no hope of keeping that friendship together so it forced me to study it forced me to think about the words they were using and

to try to learn those words those patterns as well as how to produce them naturally myself so i was learning the vocabulary words the people around me were using and learning how to apply them on my own that was only possible because i had no escape in those situations so try to do that even if you can do it yourself in your house it's super helpful i think watch tv and movies in your target language without subtitles tip number four is to watch tv and movies in your target language without subtitles without subtitles so i

think that watching uh with subtitles can be very beneficial um so if i'm watching something or if you want to watch something with subtitles on great but i sometimes find that i can in my case i i think too much about reading the subtitles and i forget to listen so maybe if you've seen a movie in your target language a few times with the subtitles on try turning the subtitles off and think about the like characters body language the words they're using um you can always look that up later look up the you know the

words you don't know in a dictionary but try to do it where you're focusing completely on the way that people are using their words try not to use the subtitles so um kind of play around with it a little bit if there's a word that's difficult for you to hear you can actually turn on the subtitles in like the in the native uh language of the movie as well that's something that i've done like if uh like if i wanted to study japanese it's very useful when the actual words spoken in japanese appear on the

screen sometimes it's easier for me to catch a word if i see it visually and i hear it at the same time so another way to kind of explore how you can use tv and movies is to actually turn on the closed captions like the the um the words on the screen in the native language of the movie so uh so this is sort of two points in one so one watch movies without subtitles meaning subtitles in your native language and hint two is to watch movies um with closed captioning on but the closed captioning

is in your target language not in your native language so you can try those two things with tv and with movies don't bring a dictionary to your lesson tip number five is don't bring a dictionary to your lesson okay so give me a second here so i understand the dictionaries especially electronic dictionaries we have them on our phones now are very very convenient of course it's important to use them and it's a they're a great resource to have however one thing that really bothers me and that i think is detrimental it's not helpful for students

is when uh students are in a lesson and they're practicing conversation and they reach a point in the conversation where they don't know the word they want to use they know it in their native language and they don't know how to say it in their target language they pull out their dictionary they say to this the person listening to them their practice partner in their lesson where they have a limited period of time just a moment and then they look it up on their phone it takes a few seconds the flow of the conversation stops

and then they say a word and it's like whoa no that's not you don't have that ability you don't have the ability to do that in a conversation with a native speaker most people like if you go to a bank and try to open a bank account are you really going to pull out your dictionary and sit there and try to communicate you know just a moment just a moment as you look up each word you don't know no or if you do that's not a real conversation so instead try using a different strategy by

that i mean if you find a word you don't know in conversation explain the word to your conversation partner maybe they know the word if you're speaking with a native speaker this is a chance for them to teach you a word i find that when people take the time to teach me a word i remember the word much better than just looking it up on my dictionary so try to resist maybe you can bring a dictionary to your lesson but don't use it or try not to use it in your conversation practice it's just it

destroys the flow of a conversation so instead practice the skill of describing the vocabulary word you want to use and learn how to ask the meaning of a word or learn how to ask for a vocabulary word from your partner so you can use an expression like ah what's the word that means blah blah blah or um you know it's this thing that does this and this and this so this is an opportunity for you to describe characteristics of something or find a different way you can use your body language you can use whatever you

have a lot of tools but try not to use a dictionary in a conversation because it's not realistic train responses to common questions number six is a quick one i think number six hint number six i have is just to train responses to common questions train responses to common questions so for example a very common question in english is hey how are you you should know how to answer this question just have a default response hey how are you i'm good if it takes you a long time to answer the question hey how are you

you need to practice i think that's a pretty good uh a pretty good indicator so for example sometimes i ask students a question like that they they haven't quite gotten the idea of how to respond just yet they they're not so quick at responding i say hey how are you and they say yes and then they think and they go i'm i'm good that's a very common question so think about just a default response that you can spit out that you can quickly say if it's how was your weekend or hey what's up or what

do you want to do for dinner tonight think about like just a handful meaning just a few responses to those questions and train them quickly just how are you i'm good how are you i'm okay how are you not bad there's three so it's just training responses to those questions there's no reason to be surprised by a question like how are you like that's a very common question so for those common questions train responses to that we've got a bunch of videos especially beginner level videos for some example responses you can do so don't get

stuck with these little questions just train a few responses practice a few responses till they feel natural to you it'll save you time and it'll help the person asking the question too to move forward in the conversation yay study with materials that don't provide a translation the next tip is to study with materials that don't provide a translation so by this i mean if you're using worksheets and or some kind of textbook or whatever and it has your target language the language you're studying and it has your native language next to it while this can

be useful i feel that if you can studying your materials only in your target language and then simplified explanations for more detailed points also in your target language can be a little bit better so i don't want to say like you should only study things in your target language and nothing from your native language because of course like it can be helpful sometimes to look up a word or to understand a grammar point in your native language but where possible if you can find something that provides simplified explanations in your target language it can be

really really helpful because again you're thinking you're learning to think on like a simpler on a more basic level about the language you're studying in the language that you're studying so this can be really really good so finding some materials to use where there's no translation maybe you can practice of course with with books and with written materials but also with like video materials as well so there are a variety of different ways that you can um find materials in your target language um like in video and tv so some things to think about there

are the level of vocabulary words people are using in the media content you're watching who the media content is intended for children young adults adults the speed at which the speaker is talking so like i have the ability to change the level of difficulty of videos based on the rate of speech the vocabulary words that i use and how many like idioms and things i use so i could make a video very difficult we could make a very like a very difficult video series by leveling up our vocabulary use or by speaking very quickly or

as you might see in like our english and three minutes series we can also use very simple vocabulary and speak at a low rate of speech so maybe right now this is a very intermediate level video so please think about that so not just for written materials but also for your audio and visual materials think about who your audience is the level of the material and so on it can be really fun and it can be helpful to think about your your target language in your target language all right we're almost done study phrases in

addition to single vocabulary the next tip is study phrases in addition to single vocabulary words so yes of course vocabulary is important but i find it personally very very useful to look at how a vocabulary word is used in a phrase because sometimes using it in a phrase helps you understand the nuance of that vocabulary word really really well so if i like a word like crazy for example in english depending on the situation where the word crazy is used it could mean something different it could mean like a person who is mentally confused or

mixed up it could also mean something really good it could mean something really bad so if we look only at the word crazy it's quite difficult to understand really the meaning of the word but if you look at the way the word is used in a phrase you can get a lot more information so take a look at the way people use words in phrases not just as single vocabulary words you can learn a lot more that way i think do your daily activities in english where possible the next tip is to do your daily

activities in your target language so if you're studying english that means try to do some daily activities in english if possible so this can be very very boring stuff but just think about it when you're doing the activity so like right now i'm filming a video for englishclass101.com or i'm going to work i'm cooking breakfast i'm doing the laundry what do i have to do tomorrow so try thinking about your everyday life in english if you're studying english try thinking about your everyday activities the people that you meet what are you doing so this is

a way to help you practice your verbs so if you don't know if you're i don't know you're doing something at work and you're like oh my gosh how do i explain the what's the verb for you know a picture like i want to blah blah a picture what's the word you can check a dictionary at that point and go ah it's draw i i need to use the verb draw for draw a picture so you can find these little gaps in your everyday life these little gaps in your knowledge if you think about your

everyday activities in your target language if you don't think about it in your target language you might not realize you have vocabulary gaps or phrase gaps here and there so this is a really good and kind of funny actually way to study use a learner's dictionary for new words the last tip is to use a learner's dictionary for new words so in english there are learners dictionaries available in english so my favorite my personal favorite is merriam-webster merriam-webster is a fantastic dictionary resource they're so interesting and they have tons of like historical information i really

do just sit and like read things on the dictionary page lately it's true but um of course there's a definition there's a meaning for words there are example sentences for words but merriam-webster also has what's called a learner's dictionary if you find a word that you don't recognize you can check it in a dictionary in a learner's dictionary and it gives you a simplified a simple explanation in simple english of that word so instead of checking it in your native language you can check it in your target language so again this helps you to understand

the word um that you are that you're focused on but you understand it from the language you're studying not from your native language so using a learner's dictionary can be really really useful as well all right so those are 10 tips those are 10 tips to help you stop translating in your head i know it's very difficult but it's it takes time and it takes practice and i hope that these are a few strategies that can help you as you study any language of course this is an english language channel an english language learning channel

but i think these tips are pretty good for learning just about any language really so i hope those are useful for you if you have tried these strategies or if you have any other comments or other tips please let us know in the comment section below this video if you liked this video please make sure to hit the thumbs up share this video and subscribe to our channel too check us out at englishclass101.com for more good stuff as well thanks very much for watching this episode of top words and i will see you again soon

bye hi everyone i'm bridget and welcome to today's lesson today's topic is 10 ways to say hello in english good morning good morning is the first thing you say to someone when you see them in the morning good morning sir would you like a cup of coffee good morning could i please get some orange juice good morning i'm still tired from the night before hello hello is the most common greeting you'll hear that and hi hello is a polite nice way to greet someone when you see them hello everyone says it you cannot go wrong

saying hello hello can be used at any time of the day no matter whether it's morning or at night or at 4am when you see someone you can say hello and it will still be appropriate long time no c long time no c it's not necessarily grammatically correct but it's a saying that we have hey long time no c what it means is that you haven't seen that person in a long time so it literally means long time no see long time no see is something you say to someone when you haven't seen them in

a while hey john long time no see how are the wife and kids how have you been hey how have you been i haven't seen you in a long time how have you been is asking someone how they're doing and how they've been for the past however long if you haven't seen them in a while you might say hey long time no see how have you been how have you been that's past tense it implies that you haven't seen them in a while and you want to hear about how they are and how they've been

for all of that time that you haven't seen them hey long time no see how have you been how are you how are you means how are you doing how are you feeling how is everything it's a standard thing that you might say to anyone even if you've seen them the day before you might see them today and say hey how are you how's it going hey how's it going how is it going is a more informal way to say how are you so how are you and how's it going they mean the same thing

it's asking how you are doing how you are feeling is everything okay with you what's up what's up is another way of saying hey how's it going but this one is even more informal so you might say this to friends hey what's up and they'll say nothing just living my life you know day in and day out hey what's up hey what's up good afternoon good afternoon how are you would you like some lunch good afternoon is a polite way to greet someone in the afternoon so if you run into your boss you might say

good afternoon it's very nice it's polite not a lot of people say it to their friends but it's it's a polite way to greet someone good evening good evening is a nice way to greet someone in the evening time you can only use this phrase in the evening because it's wishing someone a good evening it's saying hello at a certain time of day good evening would you like some dinner good evening have you eaten yet all of my examples involve food it seems it's nice to meet you it's nice to meet you this is something

that's very common to say the first time that you meet someone you might shake their hand and say hi it's nice to meet you my name is bridget my name is it's telling that person that you are happy to be meeting them it's a pleasure to meet them hi it's nice to meet you that brings us to the end of this lesson 10 ways to say hello if you guys liked the video please don't forget to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you have any questions or comments leave them below

and don't forget to go to englishclass101.com for more english okay everybody shift information has been posted for the month it looks like we'll visit 25 cities in 30 days do we normally visit 25 different cities in one month yes sometimes we visit even more where's our first stop charlotte hey i have friends in charlotte it would be nice to see them good evening in room dining this is alex how may i be of service hello i would like to order some food of course ma'am just to confirm this is mrs rossen in room 417 yes

it is excellent may i take your order yes i would like a turkey sandwich on a parmesan bagel and what to drink a diet coke will there be anything else yes i would also like a wake-up call for seven my major is education how about you i'm an english major cool i like english oh and what's oksana's major she's also an english major that's nice you can help each other study yep in fact i need to meet her now so we can study together okay it was nice talking with you you too see you later

see ya good evening ma'am may i have your first and last names melissa west thank you ma'am i have found your reservation here's the registration information does everything look correct to you yes it seems to be correct excellent now i will just need a photo id for legal purposes will my passport do that would be just fine ma'am checkout is between noon and two o'clock you may request an extension of up to five hours free of charge what if i need more time then a late charge of five percent will be added to your bill

hey vicky did you forget our study date at 10 this morning i'm sorry naomi at 10 i was talking with my professor and couldn't get away i'm sorry i should have called that's okay so how did the meeting go with the professor it went fine he gave me an extension on my paper and i can still take the midterm how was your study group yesterday well we were studying together during lunch when i noticed an old friend of mine from high school in the same cafe my concentration quickly switched from class to catching up with

my friend so i didn't get much done you've taken that class before right yeah last semester i was always asking questions in that class because it was so difficult well i was hoping that you could rent me a hand with my paper i can't think of anything else to write sure no problem that is if you can help me study for our history test sounds like a deal want to speak real english from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at englishclass101.com hi everyone i'm christine from englishclass101.com in this video we'll be

talking about how to curse like an english native speaker piss a slang term for urine for example don't piss your pants you can say this when you're really scared or anxious for example if you're about to go on stage to make a speech or perform someone can say don't piss your pants you can do it pissed off to be really angry when i'm angry i can say hey i'm really pissed off at you right now why did you do that for loser used to describe an uncool person in high school my friends and i would

use this a lot and we would say hey loser how's it going idiot used to insult people by saying they're not intelligent of all the mean things that you can say this is on the lighter side but people still use it shoot this is used to show disappointment or frustration without using a stronger curse word shoot i spilled my coffee shut up you can use this when you want them to be quiet or there's something surprising that you just heard you can say shut up no way ticked off to be really angry you can say

this with pissed off so this is actually an older term not many people use this as much anymore because most people actually just use pissed off fool this is similar to saying someone is like a clown you can say you're acting like a fool right now jerk this is a light insult used to describe someone who is mean for example if there's someone bullying another person that person is being a jerk wimp this means someone who isn't strong there is a movie out right now called diary of a wimpy kid have you seen it have

you not i haven't yet so how was it if you have any more questions please leave a comment below see you next time hey everyone i'm paris from englishclass101.com in this video we're talking about how to ask and give directions let's start to the left to the left the first phrase is where is the where is the for example you can ask where is the bank this can be used to ask for a general location or detailed directions don't be surprised if you only receive basic information for example next to the grocery store the next

phrase is i need to go to the i need to go to the for example you can say i need to go to the police station the word need is used but this is used for non-emergencies as well how do i get to the how do i get to the for example you can say how do i get to the museum this question can be used to ask for step-by-step directions instead of a general location is the near here is the near here for example you can say is the library near here if you're unfamiliar

with an area you can ask to get this information about a specific place where you want to go is the bathroom near here excuse me do you know where the is excuse me do you know where the is for example you can say excuse me do you know where the park is only youth excuse me when you're starting a conversation with a stranger another common phrase is is the far from here is the far from here for example you can say is the post office from here this is an indirect way to ask for directions

people will tell you how far the place is and probably tell you the best way to get there walking taking a bus driving uber now let's take a look at expressions to give directions turn left turn left for example you can say turn left after two blocks this gives you information about how far you should go before you make any changes in this case you should go left to the left to the left turn right turn right for example you can say turn right at the third traffic light this also gives you information about how

far you should go before taking another action in this case you should go right go straight go straight this simply tells you to go in one direction it also implies that if you keep going straight that you will eventually find what you're looking for go past go past for example you can say go past the church a landmark is just an easily noticeable place for example a movie theater restaurant at the corner of at the corner of for example you can say it's at the corner of this means that a place is located at the

corner where two streets meet in front of in front of for example you can say the bus station is in front of the supermarket we use front to refer to the main entrance of a building it can also mean visible from the front and doesn't necessarily mean it's directly in front of something behind behind for example you can say the parking lot is behind the movie theater we use behind to say that something is at the rear of a building the front of a building is its main entrance so which side it's facing the street

is really not important next two next two for example you can say the restaurant is next to the park this is an example of using a non-specific location to give general directions next two can be anywhere beside in front of or around a place mcdonald's is next to my house between between for example you can say the store is between the coffee shop and the pet store between is used with two other places when using between the main place will always be in the middle of the two other places okay that's all for this lesson

which phrase do you like the most leave us a comment and let us know and i'll see you next time guys bye hey guys i'm paris from englishclass101.com in this video we'll be talking about making complaints in english so let's get started the first complaint is i'm starving i'm starving this is an exaggeration you can use when you're hungry i am always starving even right now the next complaint is it's noisy it's noisy this kind of complaint is one that you would make to a friend telling the staff of a restaurant won't help since they

can't tell people to be quiet i hate when it's noisy in restaurants save that for another time then we have it's hot it's hot this can be used to talk about the weather or the temperature of a room you can add a request like can you turn on the air conditioner i am never hot so i like that the next complaint is it's cold it's cold this can be used to talk about the weather or the temperature of a room you can add a request like can you turn on the heater i always make this

request because it's always too cold everywhere everywhere it's too expensive it's too expensive even if you have enough money to buy something it may be more money than you want to spend it would probably be considered rude to say this to someone who works at a store but i always think okay i'm in gucci it's way too expensive another common complaint is i'm tired i'm tired use this complaint to imply that you want to sit down relax go home take a break when i babysit my five-year-old cousin i leave thinking i'm tired the next complaint

is i gained weight i gained weight this is a self-criticism that implies that you want to lose weight many people say i got so fat i'm always broke i'm always broke use this to complain about never having enough money i am always broke because i always want more money the next complaint is my job is boring my job is boring this is a really common complaint used by people who don't think their jobs are very exciting usually it means that you want to find a different more fun job it's all right teachers your job isn't

boring that person stinks that person stinks you can use stings to talk about a literal physical smell or a general insult meaning that you don't like how someone smells i hate when people smell on the bus not good not okay the next complaint is there's too much traffic there's too much traffic this is a common complaint among people who commute to work by car certain roads are especially bad during rush hour which is the time in the morning or night most people are going home or to work if i left at it was 7 pm

i would be here in 10 minutes but because it's daytime in la it took me 30 minutes to get here and i drive really really fast and it still took me 30 minutes the next complaint is the wi-fi here is too slow the wi-fi here is too slow this is just a general complaint you may have about the internet speed if you're at a cafe or somewhere with wi-fi you can request that they reset their wi-fi to improve the speed if you're having a party and you're having friends over and your wi-fi is too slow

you might as well end that party now no wi-fi no party my boss is annoying my boss is annoying annoying can be used to mean that someone does things that you don't like or they ask you to do things that you don't like either way an annoying boss is a bad experience i am very familiar with this hey paris grab me coffee hey paris check my emails my boss is annoying but don't tell him i said that the pay is too low the pay is too low you can use this to complain about how much

you make or to reject a job offer because it doesn't pay enough i'm a surgeon the pay is too low i don't like it i don't like it this is a very general complaint that can be used for almost anything what do i like [Laughter] posting a thousand selfies on instagram i don't like it um okay that's it for this lesson which complaint do you like more leave us a comment and let me know and we'll see you next time bye you just got a text message from your hotel's pickup service what does the first

number refer to um what does the first number refer to the number in the text message refers to the customer code you are at a train station where you've just bought an express ticket which train car row and seat number are you in which train car row and seat number are you in the ticket says that you're in train car number one in the eighth row in seat c you are at a train station where you're attempting to buy an express ticket from a ticket machine which option should you choose to buy an express ticket

which option should you choose to buy an express ticket the option on the bottom left is for an express ticket you are on a platform at a train station where you're waiting for your train suddenly a message appears on the display what does the message on the display mean what does the message on the display mean the display reads the next train will not stop you are at a train station where you're reading the train schedule for an express ticket that you've just bought on which days are there no express trains running on which days

are there no express trains running there are no express trains running on public holidays and the third sunday of every month want to speak real english from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at englishclass101.com you are on a platform at a train station where you're waiting for your train suddenly a message appears on the display what does the message on the display mean what does the message on the display mean the display reads the next train will not stop you are at a train station where you're looking for the best exit

to catch a taxi which exit should you take to get to the taxi stop which exit should you take to get to the taxi stop you should take the east exit in order to get to the taxi stop hi everybody my name is alicia and today i am joined again in the studio by michael hello and today we're going to be talking about things that were cool in the 90s so things that were interesting or things that maybe we were interested in in the 90s i'm guessing that we're going to have some very different opinions

based on our experiences of the 90s so let's get right into it michael your first item please um okay boy bands so i remember boy bands were very very popular when i was a kid in the 90s i had three older brothers who would punch me and tell me boy bands are for girls don't like boy bands so that was my experience with them and they became kind of uncool i feel like after the 90s and then they never were uncool in like korea and like a lot of asian countries they still had like a

strong boy band kind of uh scene or whatever bands now is that really what they're called no i don't know i just mean i think i feel like boy there are boy bands that are now becoming boys to men maybe this so i mean now they came now it came back like what is the what's the british one now it's kind of cool again oh one direction one direction yeah so i think it's come back it's full circle didn't they just break up i'm gonna go with something that i loved in the 90s this is

probably way too specific uh probably but it's this show called doug that was on nickelodeon and there weren't a whole lot of episodes of doug it was i don't know like 20 or 30 i feel like not even that many did you ever see this show yeah that's very nostalgic for me i don't 20 30 episodes i feel i feel like i had i'd seen them all so i i i know that i saw them all because it would come back it would come on one day after school and i'd be like i've seen this

episode but the whole the whole idea with doug is doug was like this just this plain kid and he had an older sister he went to school he had a dog get a best friend and he would just encounter these everyday life scenarios that would be kind of troubling or he wouldn't know how to deal with them but like he was kind of a role model i feel like he was kind of being like a good kid um or sometimes he would get into trouble but then you know eventually he would solve the problem or

he'd find a way out of it so but i really loved that show i really loved nickelodeon in general um during the 90s and yeah did you watch that channel yeah of course i loved nickelodeon um i think it was more like fox stuff like that but i guess i'll segue into another one of mine you're talking about wholesome so something that's my childhood i was raised on tv was sitcoms yeah so i think this has kind of died down again like the boy bands where it people think it's cheesy now it's all reality tv

shows that kind of stuff but that's that is my childhood right there is you know full house and these kinds of shows step by step where there's a moral at the end of the story and so everyone there's always kind of like the the protagonist is always like maybe he's unsure but by the end they know the right thing to do and they play like the violin kind of sad not quite sad but like heartwarming music and then they're like well and then they give a speech and as a kid you know you don't really

like think about it but that gets into your like man deep because of full house if you lie i've learned this it's deep in my subconscious if you lie and then you keep lying it snowballs and it gets worse and worse and worse so it's best to just right away tell the truth that was a really common theme in most sitcoms i think that like they're just trying to teach kids don't lie it's bad you're right you're right sitcoms are huge and by the way sitcoms um is um is a portmanteau portmanteau meaning two words

put together of situation and comedy so situation and comedy equals sitcom in this case okay nice nice um i'm gonna go to my next one um let's see i think probably every little girl in the 90s in america anyway knew what this was i don't know if you knew um it's this brand called lisa frank um lisa frank are you aware of lisa frank are you aware of lisa frank no okay she knows she knows that lisa frank is so lisa frank is um just bright it was always like brightly colored school supplies uh like

pinks and purples and blues and it would always have unicorns and dolphins and mystical creatures it was just bright and everybody all the girls loved it i loved it i had lisa frank just whatever i could get my hands on it'd be pencils or erasers or just pinks and rainbows and hearts and stuff like that so i think every every girl who grew up in the 90s knows what lisa frank is ah okay so talking about style and whatnot grunge grunge is something that i that hits close to home for me and i think that

came out of the 90s is i mean everybody knows around the world i think most people know nirvana yeah kurt cobain yeah and this is something that i guess was brought to the world from seattle and it was a music genre and it was kind of it's like rock but sometimes slower almost emo kind of like sad usually undertones but anyways the style that came with it was the opposite of like the 80s and early 90s of really bright colors you know it was the opposite you just wear holy jeans you don't really shower that

much you don't shave and like plaid and just really like dreary colors so that was really popular i at least i remember in like the early 90s like mid-90s yeah and it's as soon as i saw that card grunge i was like oh nirvana that was that's the first thing that comes to mind when i hear about when i hear a grunge i didn't get into the grunge scene though i was i was busy with boy bands but like grunge for me was never really i was aware i was aware of nirvana but i did

not i was not of the nirvana mod okay i'm gonna go to a style point then too because you've read up a style point i'll put up bring up maybe um a female style point scrunchies uh still popular perhaps among some people what is a scrunchie a scrunchie let's see i don't have um so there's regular rubber bands that you can use to tie back long hair he's making an o shape with his hands yes this is very descriptive very descriptive michael thank you so no you're into that i'm the prop and then you go

like this there's like the but i bet i bet there's an awesome video team somewhere in the somewhere that can put like a scrunchie like right here anyway um yeah a scrunchie is just it's just a a piece of elastic with some kind of colorful cloth wrapped around it and it but when not in use it would go and it would scrunch i think i think this is why we call it a scrunchie but then when you pull that you can expand it a bit and wrap your hair up in it and then when you're

finished doing that it would kind of close around it i had a couple nintendo anything any game related stuff i remember game boys anything handheld um except when i was a kid it it wasn't like this fancy 3d high you know highly like vibrant colors it was like black and white and like you'd play it in the car and you had to squint and it hurts your head you know if you're playing too much you're getting like carsick and you're like you can barely see mario are you talking about game boy game boy or any

like there was handheld too there was like atari and stuff like that and like sega sega was pretty good that would light up i was thinking about nes when you said nintendo i imagined my nes the one that like when it wasn't working correctly you could just pull the cassette on put it back in so you put the cartridge in here right and sometimes if it was really stubborn and it didn't work you would blow into this part and you try and it really doesn't make a difference but you would take turns like me and

my brothers would be like no you want to be the one to get it to work so you take turns no no let me let me let me and just by luck it would work and you're like cece yeah no this is super nostalgic i love nintendo i have a game too pogs do you have pogs okay pogs are either are simultaneously the most brilliant game and the stupidest game ever invented they're just discs of cardboard about this size uh and on one side there's a picture and on the other side there's just nothing and

then you had a thing called a slammer which was essentially just a heavy pog that you would use and you had to flip you had to use the slammer to flip those plain cardboard ones what i don't even know it was that stupid and forgettable of a game but it was like crazy when i was about i don't know like second or third grade or something everybody had pogs like we had pog gym days at my school i remember that excuse me america we're really obese let's go into the gym and sit there and smash

cardboard pogs and like i was telling i was telling her before we started this like one day like my mom wanted me to get a haircut and i was just being stubborn and i wasn't having it i was in the mall i was like i want to get a haircut she's like i'll buy you pogs and she did it was like this giant tube of pogs and i was just so thrilled and i agreed to get my hair cut well that was a lot of things that was that were exciting and or popular and or

we were into in the 90s what were you into in the 90s what was popular in your country i really have no idea what was popular around the world at that time maybe some of these things are similar please let us know in the comments i'm very interested to find out we read these by the way um any thoughts any other any closing thoughts about the 90s you're not going to sing a song for us oh that's copyright we can't do that just like blur that all out no that was that was very accurate so

i'm sure we can use that and i'm very accurate i mean totally wrong clearly we're very good at talking about the 90s okay but uh we hope that you are too we hope that you learned something exciting about the 90s um that's all for us today thanks very much for watching and we will see you again soon bye hi everybody my name is alicia and i'm joined again in the studio by michael hello and today we're going to be talking about english conversation strategies so let's get right into it let's start with michael what is

your first strategy for keeping an english conversation going this is very important don't say i'm fine thank you and you you hear this all the time from second language english learners or non-native speakers you learn this it's one of the first things you learn in an english class it's easy it's good it's basic it's foundation okay that's fine but as soon as you can switch it up because to me when i meet a foreigner and they come up and if they say hey how are you say oh i'm fine you know i'm good whatever how

about you and they say i'm fine thank you and you and it's just it's almost robotic because i've said it so many times and when i hear that i think ah their english isn't that good and inside i'm just gonna be really polite and say hello and talk slowly and try to get out of there as quick as i can so really impress the foreigner in my opinion i think the best way to do it is say something you know use a big word or just like a slang word something like that when i hear

that i go wow man i want to know what this person thinks i want to get their point of view and i'm really excited and then i've had great conversations because of that um yeah that's a really really good one and actually i think on this youtube channel actually from a couple years ago there's a video all about better answers to the question how are you then i'm fine thank you and you or if someone says hey how are you i'm good you are fine you never i'm fine thank you and you never but try

to actually use you know a phrase that a native speaker would use and then that's a clue to the native speaker that oh maybe this person is ready for a conversation beyond you know basic english so that's a really good point i like that i didn't think of things not to do i only thought of things to do so okay cool um let's see let's go to my first one um oh so um this strategy in general is just ask the other person a question i think and i'm guilty of this too when i'm learning

another language i tend to only get input like somebody else is always asking me the questions and then i forget myself to ask the other person a question so one question that i like to ask or you know a variation any kind of wh question is good like a who question what where something like this if you've been paying attention you can use any way to transition in your conversation this was in a previous video you can ask something like anyway up to anything fun this weekend this is a pretty casual conversational question that you

can ask just about anybody whether you've just met them or whether you've known them for a while but just just get in the habit of asking other people the question don't wait for someone else to ask you the question um so that that's one strategy that i try to use to keep things going yeah me too i agree and i'm gonna say same zs because actually two of my questions were exactly what you said agree 100 this is kind of cheating these should be one but so always ask questions so you know again you forget

it's really easy i'm really guilty of this english non-english whatever i'm i'm guilty of this um and the other thing is ask deep open-ended questions so if you ask a yes or no question so again like alicia was saying it just dead ends you can't just say you know do you like cheese yes or no right so you want to say what do you think about cheese what is your favorite kind and kind of open it up to something else and let it let it just kind of snowball right right yeah i think i think

that that's that's really a key like i have another variation on it which i guess i'll just continue on to because it kind of relates to what you're talking about like he's saying always ask questions always ask deep open-ended questions so like you may you just said don't ask a yes or no question because yes or no ends with the yes or the no so one of the things that i'll do is use a pattern similar to this like hey did you see or hey did you hear about blah blah blah so you can use

this little blah blah blah as your uh you can ask about the news you can ask about something funny you saw on the internet you can ask about um you know some something that you heard from another friend of yours whatever uh it's just a way to check in with the other person and say oh did you also experience this thing that i experienced let's talk about that so that might be another question that you can use with people i like that one i really like that one because you got to stay within people's comfort

zone so maybe you ask and maybe they don't want to right so a good thing is did you hear about it that's up to them maybe they don't want to talk about it they can say oh yeah i heard about that and you can kind of feel uh the the atmosphere and and realize maybe i shouldn't talk about this change the subject or they get passionate and they start talking about it and there you go and just let it go um yeah absolutely one thing again i'm guilty of is is you do gotta keep keep

returning it right don't let it don't just say oh yeah and what i think about that bring it back ask them what about you um that's a common thing i forget about yeah yeah yeah okay um good i have one more this one um use when you see fit don't i guess just okay i'll just introduce it complement the other person or compliment the other person this can be a nice strategy just to show that you're enjoying the other person's company it can be as simple as oh i like your shirt today or oh that's

a nice dress you're wearing today or oh did you get a new haircut that looks good on you something like that so this is a nice a nice way to make the other person maybe want to spend more time with you i think yeah i agree 100 um two things one i think it's a good conversation starter sometimes um if you've got to be careful with the stranger it can be creepy it can be a little uncomfortable what you're complimenting right but if it's something like if they have a t-shirt and it's a band that

you both like that's a great conversation starter and you feel wow we're connected you know um number two the second thing i was thinking about is that keep it honest i love i love a sincere compliment it really means a lot more and it really does butter them up kind of get them open to having more conversations deeper that kind of thing um but one of the things people do which which i don't like is let's say they say hey nice shirt and then the person out of habit will say oh you too i like

your shirt too just my opinion i don't think this feels really natural doesn't really feel sincere so i would i would save it make a mental note and go hmm i need to return the favor i need to give them a compliment but wait until you notice something you really do like and say hey actually i love blah blah yeah i think that's a great point like when you you can sense whether someone is being sincere or not what is your next strategy for continuing english conversation well don't be afraid to open up i like

this one i think this is good a lot of people will be kind of shy they won't open up too much again within within your comfort zone but i like this one because people will return the favor because if you're just having small talk and you say you know the weather's nice today blah blah you can only go so far so don't be afraid to say something personal again trust your judgment don't be a creeper don't go we don't want to hear certain things about your life so don't don't be a creep don't be a

creep don't be weird don't be strange and like what you're saying about opening up open up is just a phrase that means share something about yourself um so it can be as simple as what you did last weekend or what you're going to do this weekend or a project that you have coming up it doesn't mean that you have to spill all of your life secrets to the other person but just showing that you're willing to share something more personal about yourself can help ingratiate yourself or can help you know make the other person help

the other person understand you a little bit better that's a good tip i like that tip that's hard to do though it's hard it's a little bit scary i think to share parts of yourself but it's good it's a good way to meet people and make friends all right i think that's all is that all that you have yeah that's all i got okay all right well those are some interesting uh strategies to keep an english conversation going so give them a try if you're ever at a loss for words and don't know what to

say you can try one of these strategies and hopefully it will help you out please let us know if you have any other strategies or anything else that you would like to use or you tried to use when you are having trouble keeping a conversation going uh leave us a comment and let us know what it is we will see you again next time do you have anything else you'd like to add that's about it all right so thanks very much for joining us and take care bye bye want to speed up your language learning

take your very first lesson with us you'll start speaking in minutes and master real conversations sign up for your free lifetime account just click the link in the description