Speak With Me: 1 Hour LIVE English Speaking Practice
A2
Vanessa Prothe: Hello, hello.
Welcome to this live English lesson here on the Speak English With Vanessa
YouTube channel. I'm so excited to celebrate with you 4 million English learner subscribers from
around the world. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today, you're going to have the chance
to speak American English, practice your speaking skills, and the goal is to gain some confidence
so that you can go out and speak in the real world confidently and be yourself, express yourself the
way that you want to. So thank you so much for taking your precious time today to join me live.
Today, we are going to be talking about your English learning journey. That's something
that everyone here has in common. All of you are learning English, so we all know what it's like to
know very little in English, and then learn more, and then learn more, and then feel disappointed or
frustrated because we're not doing as well as we thought, and then get motivated again and
learn more and more. So I thought today, we could talk about this and also encourage each other.
As you can see, there are 4 million subscribers on this channel, and right now
almost a thousand people who are joining us live. So you are with your people,
the people who are on the same journey as you, I hope you will feel connected and supported by me
and also by each other. Today I will be asking some questions, I encourage you to write them
down, the question and the answer in the chat box. This will help you to stay active. I'm going to be
writing as well, kind of old school classroom style. And I also want to let you know that I
have a free PDF for today's lesson. This is a free worksheet with all of today's sample sentences,
all of the ideas. And you can answer my challenge question at the bottom of that PDF worksheet.
There's a link in the description where you can download that free PDF worksheet. I hope
it will be useful to you, but please take notes during this lesson. Of course, like always.
And I would love to say hello to those of you who are here live with me. Awesome [inaudible
00:02:30] Spain. Welcome. Welcome. Thanks for joining me. Well, we've got India, Brazil, Italy,
wonderful. Danielle from Italy, thanks for joining me. Wonderful. Turkey, Brazil, Japan, Egypt,
France, Iraq, Peru, Columbia, Argentina, Pakistan. So many wonderful places around the world.
So, no matter what your background is, you are on an English learning journey. And
we are going to talk about it today. If you enjoy today's lesson and want more speaking practice,
I'd like to invite you to join me in my course, The Fearless Fluency Club, where you can be
motivated with thousands of other English learners who speak together weekly. I'd like to offer you
a $60 special discount for this course, but we can talk about that at the end of this lesson.
I just want to thank you for joining me today. So, let's get started with a common question
that when someone finds out that you are interested in English they might ask you.
Take a look at this question. I have my clipboard here today. I told you old school style.
I would like to know. I'm not sure. Maybe this is backwards. We'll see. How long
have you been learning English? Let me know if this is flipped and we'll just go with the flow.
How long have you been learning English? This question has a couple different answers, and I
would like to know for you, what is true for you? All right. I see Clara says, One year,
four years, five, six years." Ryan says, "Five months." Okay. So, I would like to know,
can you put this in a full sentence? There's a little trick here. The trick is, this verb
is pretty complex, it is the present perfect progressive. I try to say that
10 times. But the little trick here is, you know what? We can just use the exact same
verb tense. So let's do that. Let me use one of your answers here. I can see that Ava says she's
been learning English for three years, so let's write this out here. I, can we use that same verb,
and I challenge you to try to write your sentence this exact same way, have been learning
English, and here we have a special word, for three years. Awesome.
So, we added a lovely word four, and that is the duration of time. So we often use four
to talk about the duration. How long have you been learning English? Let's use the same verb tense.
I have been learning English for three years. Beautiful. Let me take a look at some of your
sentences and see how you're doing. Hasha says, "I have been learning English for three years
too." Wonderful. Maria says, "I've been learning English for one year." Awesome.
Daz says, "I've been learning English for over four years." Cool. Cool. Thank
you so much for being here with me. This is a beautiful way to use this advanced verb tense.
Now I see that Cheyenne has used this in a leveled up way. Cheyenne said, "I've ..." With a
contraction. "I've been learning English for three years." Very cool. This is an excellent way to
understand fast English because native speakers use contractions all the time, but also to make
your English faster and more natural. We can combine this and say, I've been learning English
for three years. So we're going to use this with, I'll write it out here, a duration of time,
four, three years. So during that whole three year process, you have been learning English.
Is there another way that we can answer this question? I wonder how could we put a year here?
So, let's see, we have a great sentence here. I've been learning
with 2019. Okay. So when we want to put a date, this is exactly what we would like to learn next.
And that is, I'll write this out here for you. When you want to talk about the starting point,
maybe something dramatic happened. Maybe you visited New York City and you thought,
"I'll be fine. I can probably just find someone who speaks my native language. It'll be okay.
I can say hi and thanks." And then you get to New York City and you think, "My goodness, this is not
working well. I need to change something." Let's say you could say, I have been
Learning English, and then we need a different word. Can
anyone guess what that next word needs to be? English. Does anyone know? Since,
Let's say 2019, when I visited New York City and I realized, "Oh no, I need to learn more English."
Yes. You got it. Paul said since. Mark said since. Georgie said since. You've got it. Yes. So here,
when we use since, we're talking about a starting point. So before 2019, I did not learn English,
but because of that dramatic trip to New York City, I decided, boom, my life is going to change,
I'm going to learn English. So, if you could say, I've
been learning English since 2019. Let's take a look at some of your sentences. So you already
told me how long you've been learning English for, but can you tell me the starting point.
You could use a date or you could use something else. Like I've been learning English since
elementary. Did I spell that right? I did not. Elementary school. All right. Sometimes it's hard
to speak and write at the same time. So we could say this starting point, before elementary school,
you didn't learn English, but starting in elementary school
until today, you have been learning English. So, I've been learning English since elementary
school. What was that starting point for you? I'd like to take a look at some of
your sentences here so that I can say them out loud and we can also practice together.
Alpert says, "I've been learning English since high school." Beautiful. That's often
a starting point where we're introduced to a new language or just new things in school.
Anish says, "I've been learning English four, six years since elementary school."
Oh, beautiful way to combine both of these. So you are using the duration, four, you said
six years, and then since elementary school. Beautiful, great way to integrate both of those.
Rashme says, "I've been learning English since I started learning Japanese." Okay. So you're
learning both English and Japanese now. And this is a great way to use this advanced
verb tense. Beautiful, beautiful. Well, let's take a look at a couple more sentences,
and I'd like to give you some more feedback before we try to say this all together. Jastus says,
"I've been learning English since last year." Beautiful way to talk about this starting point.
I've been learning English since last year. Yamna says, "I've been learning English since the end of
2020." Great. And just to let you know, with these dates, especially starting in 2000, you can say
2020, no problem. Or you can say 2020. This is great. So we've got a couple of different options.
Rajan says ... Oh, I'm sorry, your comment passed by so quickly that I missed it. Rosari says,
"I've been studying English for a couple years." Oh, so here we have another preposition that we
can add. And that's talking about the duration of time, for a couple years. Beautiful.
Gian Lucas says, "I've been learning English since I was 10 years old." Wow. So you've had a lifetime
unless you're 11 years old, you've had a lifetime of learning English. Very cool. Very cool.
Bonnie says, "I've been learning English since I moved to New York." That's lovely. And you are
using the past tense here. So you said I've been learning English since, I'll write it out here, I
moved to New York. So this is something that happened in the past, and that's a great way
to use the correct verb tense at the end of this sentence, I moved to New York. Beautiful.
All right. Let me read a couple more of these, and then we're going to say one of these sentences
altogether, everyone around the world, all 2000 of us today. Evelyn says, "I've been learning English
since the pandemic started." So here you're saying started with a past tense, beautiful way
to use this. And I imagine you're not alone. A lot of people have been learning English
since the pandemic started, trying to find a positive way to spend all of that crazy time.
All right, before we go on to my second common question that people often ask when we're talking
about our English learning journey, I'd like to say a sentence altogether with everyone around
the world. I'd like you to warm up your English speaking muscles a little bit here. I've been
reading your sentences, you've been writing your sentences, you've been preparing your mind, but
let's go to the next level and say them out loud. So, I would like everyone here ... I'm going
to write this in the chat box. I'd like everyone here to say
with the contraction, let's practice the contraction. I've been learning English since, how
about this, I found Vanessa's channel. I hope this has been an inspiration to you.
Let's say this sentence altogether. Are you ready? I've been learning English since I found Vanessa's
channel. So this was the starting point. Maybe it was seven years ago when I first started, maybe it
was last month, but this was the starting point. I've been learning English since I found Vanessa's
channel. I hope that's been helpful to you. All right, let's go on to our second conversation
question that you will most likely be asked, especially if someone else is interested in
learning English. I thought because there's 2000 people here watching right now, and
more people will also watch the replay after this, maybe 4 million people from
this channel, let's help each other with this question. I would like to know how do you
Learn English? So this is not a general question. This is for you specifically,
what has helped you to learn English? In this way we can imagine giving someone advice.
Let's imagine here that David and Veronica are talking, even though you're from all
around the world, they're talking and saying, "Oh, you're learning English too?
How do you learn English? What has worked for you?" And you're trying to give each other
some tips or advice. I'd like to know some of your ideas and then we'll put it together in a
beautiful sentence using some advanced grammar and yes, lovely verb tenses. All right. Let's see what
people have to say here. Amin says podcast. Jenky, says songs. Cheyne says,
by hitting the books. Great expression. That means to read a lot. Lovely. By
watching YouTube videos. Excellent. Excellent. Koch Chang says by watching movies. Lovely.
Lovely. Okay, so let's take Amin's sentence here about podcasts. We could say, I listen
to podcasts, and then we're going to add the word to. What is your reason for listening to
podcasts? Hmm. Maybe to learn new vocabulary, maybe to improve your listening skills. Maybe
just to have a fun time, and it happens to be in English. So we could say, I listen to podcasts to
improve my listening skills, for example.
If you are an intermediate English learner and you can understand mostly me,
and you'd like to challenge yourself a bit, I recommend the podcast Stuff You Should Know. It's
an excellent podcast about tons of different topics. They have short podcasts that are 15
minutes. They have longer episodes that are an hour and the two guys chat back and forth a bit,
but they also stick to the subject. So it's a great way to expand your vocabulary about a
specific subject that you might be interested in. All right, let's take a look at this sentence.
I listen to podcasts to improve my listening skills. First of all, while I'm talking about
this, I'd like you to reform your answers using the sentence structure. First, we have a
present simple verb tense, I listen, it's not I'm listening. It's not I have listened.
This is simply I listen. It's a habit, it's something that you do regularly. I listen to
podcasts, you could say, because I want to improve my listening skills. That's okay. No problem.
But if you want to keep it short and simple, oftentimes advanced English speakers will
just say, to improve my listening skills. I listen to podcasts. Why? Well, this is
the reason, to improve my listening skills. Excellent advice. Let's take a look at a
couple other of your sentences, and we'll try to form them into this type of structure with
present simple, and then a reason to. Let's see what you have to say.
Dennis says, "I joined The Fearless Fluency Club to become a fluent speaker."
Lovely. Well, I'll tell you more about The Fearless Fluency Club at the end of this.
Santosh says, "I learn English by watching movies, YouTube and practicing it every day." Okay. So
here we're using this simple verb tense, I learn, or we could say I watch movies. I watch movies
to improve my daily English vocabulary. Great. People use normal words, it's not academic,
generally depending on the TV show or the movie, but we could say, I watch movies to
learn real English. I watch movies to improve my listening skills maybe,
or just to have a good time. Let's take a look at some of your other sentences.
All right. I watch YouTube videos to expand my vocabulary. Alberto, beautiful sentence.
I watch YouTube videos. Why? What's the reason? To expand my vocabulary. So here, this is just
the ... we call that the infinitive. If you want to deep dive into grammar, I know I've
been throwing around a lot of grammar words and you guys are doing excellently. This is the real
practical way to use it, to improve my English skills or to understand more vocabulary. Lovely.
Veronica ask, "Could you repeat the podcast that you mentioned?" Yes. The podcast that I mentioned
is called Stuff You Should Know. I'll write that out here. Stuff You Should Know. Lovely podcast.
There's plenty of others as well, but that's one that I enjoy listening to.
Let's take a look at Natsennit says, "I listen to YouTube videos." Okay maybe you listen to
them or you watch them. I enjoy YouTube videos to get used to real American English. Beautiful
sentence. I watch YouTube videos to get used to, you're using to get used to as well. This
means to feel more comfortable with something. I need to get used to listening to fast English,
not just stuff from a textbook, I need to get used to real English. That's why you're here to learn
how people really speak so that when you visit New York City, like my example earlier,
you're not shocked to be able to do this. Lovely. Prasad says, "I follow US vloggers to learn
American slang." Beautiful grammar. I love it. I love it. I follow US vloggers to learn American
slang. Lovely. All right. Before we go to our practice conversation together, I would like to
say one sentence altogether. No matter where you are around the world, I hope that you can
use those pronunciation speaking muscles, and I'm going to write it out here. I watch YouTube videos
to learn real English. Okay. I imagine this is true for all of you, because you are here
right now on YouTube. I imagine you are probably here so that you can learn real American English.
So, let's say the sentence altogether. Are you ready?
I watch YouTube videos to learn real English. I watch YouTube videos to learn real English. So if
Nalitta was talking with Amad, two of our friends who are here today,
and Nalitta says, "Hey, how do you learn English? Your English is great. What has worked for you?"
He might say, "Oh, I watch YouTube videos." And Nalitta might ask Amad, "Why do you do that?
That seems like it takes a lot of time." And he said, "Oh, I watch YouTube videos
to learn real English. I decided not to study textbooks, and YouTube has been the way to go. I
watched YouTube to learn real English. Lovely. Let's read a couple more of these sentences.
I try to read some English textbooks to understand paragraphs. Okay. So if your goal is to understand
more academic English, or maybe you need to, or you just want to improve your reading skills.
Well, you might say, I try to read, try here is our simple verb. Or we could just say, I read,
I read some English textbooks, maybe medical journals, maybe some academic journals or
books. I read some English books to ... Why? What's the reason? To understand paragraphs,
to understand how Senate structure is formed. And thank you for bringing this up because reading is
an excellent way to boost your vocabulary. I think it's a good way to have a fun time. Personally I
love to read, I have many videos on my channel about reading, book recommendations, all of this.
So if you would like any of those in the description of
almost all of my videos, there is a link to my book recommendations. So,
children's book recommendations, beginner, adult book recommendations, nonfiction, American
books about life in the US, or American books, if you're interested in the cultural side,
I hope that will be just helping you to expand your vocabulary and your interest in English.
When you immerse yourself, that's when you have the best time and you improve the most.
All right, let's go on to our practice conversation. What I would like you to do
for this part is, I'd like you to take a deep breath wherever you are around the world,
are you ready? Let's take a deep breath, will help to calm your body and your mind. And I would like
you to speak out loud during this part. Imagine that we're having a conversation, whether that is
something that makes you feel excited or something that makes you feel nervous,
let's do it together. Are you ready? Let's take a deep breath. Maybe one more time.
Okay. Let's imagine this scene. You are visiting New York, you're walking along the streets. You
decide to turn into Central Park. It's so green and it's a beautiful day. The sky is blue and
you see someone throwing a frisbee. I love to throw a frisbee. That's why I wrote this.
You see someone throwing a frisbee, and you slowly walk up to that person because they
look a little familiar, and then you say, "Vanessa, is that you?"
And I turn to you and I say ... So this is the beginning of our conversation,
I'm going to be asking you a question and then I'll pause, and I would like you to try to
speak out loud and answer. After we go through this, I'll go back and give you a sample answer
so that you can just have an idea about what you could say. But let's practice together.
So I'm throwing the frisbee and you say, "Vanessa, is that you?" And I turn to you and say, "Hi,
yeah, I'm Vanessa. What's your name?" All right? I want you to say out loud,
you can say, "Hi, I'm Mark or hi, I'm Adith. Hi, I'm Marie." So you can say this out loud and you
can write it in the chat box as well. Are you ready? "Hi. Yes, I'm Vanessa. What's your name?
It's nice to meet you. Where are you from?" So you can speak out loud. Tell me that
and write it in the chat box. "It's so nice to meet you. Where are you from?
Oh, thank you so much for learning English with me. How long have you been learning English?"
This is your chance. So you can use, I've been learning English since a time or you can use,
I've been learning English for a duration of time. This is your chance
to use this sentence structure. Let me ask you one more time.
"Thanks so much for learning English with me. How long have you been learning English?"
I see here some great sentences. So here Bonnie says, "I've been learning
English since I moved to New York, about seven years ago." Oh, this is your home.
Venus says, "I've been learning English since two years ago or four, two years." Elum says,
"I've been learning English since 2016." "Lovely. Wow. That's great. I hope you're having a great
time in New York. And I'm curious, how do you learn English? Your English is awesome."
This is your chance to answer the question. How do you learn English?
"Let me know. What's your secret. Your English is awesome. What are you doing that's working,
I would love to know. For me, even though I'm not an English learner,
this is something that I'm always curious about. First of all, I am a language lover,
I'm also a lifelong French learner. So maybe your tips will help me for French,
but also as an English teacher, I always want to know what works for my students so that I can
recommend that to other people, and just so I can help my students more effectively.
So, I want to know, how do you learn English? What do you do? Your English is awesome. Let me know."
It's your chance to say that out loud and then I'll read it in the comments. Go ahead.
"I learn English by practicing it every day to become a better speaker." Lovely. Eleanor says,
"I think and talk in English to improve my confidence." So you think and you talk in English
maybe to yourself to improve your English. This is a lovely sentence. You know what? I'm going to
write this out in the chat box here so that others can see this as well. I think and talk to myself
in English to improve, let's say to grow, that's a lovely verb, to grow my confidence.
I know a lot of you do this when you maybe are driving to work and you think,
"What do I need to do at work today?" Well, first of all, I need to sign in and then I need to look
through my papers. And after that, I probably have to go to a meeting, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. You talk about your day to yourself in English. This is a beautiful way to start
growing your confidence, especially if right now you feel really nervous about speaking English to
someone else. If you ran into me in Central Park and you were so nervous that you just turned away
and didn't speak with me. Well, this is a great way to get started to speak just to yourself where
no one else is listening and there's no pressure. All right, let's continue with this conversation.
So I said, "I'm curious, how do you learn English? Your English is awesome."
And you said, Zora says, "I watch YouTube channels to improve my English skills." Great.
And I say, "Wow, you are really dedicated to improving your English. Thanks for saying hi
to me and keep up the great work with English. I'll see you on YouTube. Bye."
Congratulations. First of all, you had the confidence to speak and you did it.
Now take a deep breath. We're going to do this again a little bit faster. I'm going
to go through it. I'm not going to give any explanations or tips, I'm just going to speak
and ask you the questions in our conversation and you'll have a chance to say it again. So,
that was a practice. This is the real deal. You really see me throwing a frisbee and say, "Oh,
Vanessa, is that you?" And I say, "Hi. Yes, I'm Vanessa. What's your name?
Oh, it's so nice to meet you. Where are you from?
Thanks so much for learning English with me. How long have you been learning English?
Wow, that's great. I hope you have a good trip to New York.
Now, I'm curious. How do you learn English? Your English is awesome.
Wow. You are really dedicated to improving your English. Thanks so much for learning with me.
Keep up the great work with English, and I'll see you on YouTube. Bye." You did it. And you walk
away from that conversation and go, "I did it." I hope that helped you to use what you learned
today, grow your skills a little bit and to gain some confidence because really that's the trick,
is when you have more confidence, it doesn't matter if you know the perfect verb tense,
the perfect words to use. When you have the confidence to be able to speak even just
a little bit more than you had at the beginning of this lesson, you'll be able
to take those opportunities to speak, which will eventually help you to grow your skills as well.
So, I hope that this has helped you. And if speaking with someone makes
you feel very nervous, this is very normal. I recommend practice speaking with someone who
makes you feel comfortable. Maybe that's a teacher at your school, maybe that's a friend, maybe it's
a coworker, maybe you have an American coworker who is living in your country and you say, "Hey,
do you want to get some coffee after work today?" Or maybe not coffee if it's late at night.
"Do you want to go get a drink after work tonight?" And you spend some time
chatting together. This is kind of low pressure, you're not giving a presentation,
you're not trying to book an important event for your trip. You're just chatting with someone.
Speak with someone who you feel comfortable with first. Maybe that's just yourself speaking alone
in your car, like I mentioned before, but when you speak with someone who makes you feel comfortable,
it can help you to grow your confidence. If you don't have someone who you feel comfortable
speaking with right now, that's the question. That's the big question. How can I find someone
who I can feel comfortable speaking with? Well, let me say no one understands exactly how you feel
except for another English learner. So when English learners come together and speak together,
they understand exactly how each other are feeling. "Oh, you feel nervous too?" "Yeah,
my heart is racing. Okay. Let's just take a moment. Oh, I'm sorry. I said the wrong word."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I said the wrong word too." "Oh, we both said the wrong word. Oh, it's okay. Yes."
When you speak with someone else who's learning English, you can encourage each other and really
help each other. And that is something that my thousands of students in The Fearless Fluency
Club English course do, motivated English learners speak together from around the world each week,
they practice English, but most importantly, they encourage each other and help each other to speak
together. So, if you don't have anyone who you feel like you could speak with comfortably,
I recommend joining the course and learning real American English, will help you to speak
confidently, express yourself, and I think in the end, help you to feel good about your progress.
Sometimes when you're an intermediate English learner, you think, "I haven't been progressing.
I've just been learning the same things. And I just can't remember anything." So,
something needs to change. If you feel like, I just reached, we call it a plateau. Well, that's
kind of a sign that something needs to change. If you have been, like everyone mentioned here,
listening to podcasts, watching movies, watching my YouTube videos. Great. This has helped you to
get to that point. But now if it's plateaued or leveled out, something needs to change to help
you get to the next level. And usually that means taking some big action, maybe something that makes
you feel a little bit nervous, some risk. And usually that is speaking when it comes to English.
So, I recommend if you don't have someone to speak with, join us in The Fearless Fluency Club, we do
not learn classroom English, you will learn real American English spoken by real American English
speakers, and you'll learn real vocabulary so that you don't waste your time with unimportant words.
I know there are often lists that say, "Learn 5,000 English words right now in 10 minutes."
Do you think this is practical? Absolutely not. Our brains were not meant for that
type of information, but in The Fearless Fluency Club, you will learn real vocabulary,
only the most important words that will help you to express yourself in a lot of different topics.
You'll also learn real phrasal verbs so that you can fluently use them in daily conversation.
If you have been learning English on my YouTube channel for a while,
you know that phrasal verbs are not just useful in English, they are essential.
They are everywhere. So, this will be an important puzzle piece in your English learning journey.
And you will also learn real American English pronunciation so that you can speak naturally
and clearly, this doesn't mean that you will completely lose your native accent. That is
part of who you are. It shows people, "Hey, that guy knows more than one language, that's awesome."
But we will help you to be able to speak clearly, which will also boost your confidence. Because
I know when you're speaking and you try to say something and the other person continues to say,
"Sorry, I didn't understand. What was that? Can you say that again?"
That can be really frustrating because at least for me, when that has happened to me in French,
I feel like I know what I was trying to say. Why can't they understand?
Am I not saying it right? And you just lose a lot of confidence.
So when your pronunciation is clear and understandable,
great, you can grow that confidence because other people will be able to speak with you
and they won't be constantly asking, "What'd you say? What was that?" They'll just have
a good time talking with you. That makes them feel good, makes you feel good. It's beautiful.
I was just saying that in The Fearless Fluency Club, there is a chance to be able to speak
together and really feel connected to other people in our community Facebook group. So we have a
Facebook group, and each Sunday I give a live Facebook lesson, just like this one.
So you are able to connect with me, connect with other English learners.
And it's a good chance to get feedback from me because you're able to ask me questions
each week, you can also contact me through email. But it feels like you are part of the community,
and I think that this special piece of the internet is a beautiful place. So I hope that
when you join The Fearless Fluency Club, you enjoy being welcomed by thousands of motivated English
learners, and you can start to speak together. So, if you are ready to take your English to the
next level, feel free to join me in The Fearless Fluency Club. There is a link in the description
to get a $60 discount. This is going to help you join with less risk. I also offer a $30 or 30 day
refund. No questions asked. So if you join the course, get $60 off and you think, "Maybe this
actually isn't for me." Just send me an email, "Vanessa, sorry. I don't think this course is
for me." I'll say, "Okay, no problem. You have a refund immediately. No hassle, no problems."
And I hope that it will provide a low risk way for you to join the course, because
I have no doubt, I am fully confident that it will help you to improve your confidence,
express yourself and finally feel like you are part of an English family where you can, yes,
use your English that you love and that you can take that into the real world. That's the goal.
So there's a link in the description where you can join The Fearless Fluency Club for $60 off.
Yes. Thank you so much for writing this out in the comment, Sivan. Wonderful, wonderful. Yes.
Before we go today, I would like to thank you for learning English with me and for celebrating
4 million subscribers. How wonderful with this live English lesson, I would like to know, before
we go, if you have any questions for me, we have about 10 minutes. So if you have any questions,
this is your chance. Yafi asked, "Would you offer a scholarship for your English course?" So
this discount is like a scholarship. This is something from my pocket where I say,
"I'm going to give up this $60 and say, you can join the course. No problem." And
I hope it will be a low risk, wonderful way to be able to join the course.
Mauricio has a question. Thank you, Mauricio for
using ... there is a super chat feature where you can send money. Thank you. $5, very generous.
And ask me a question and it shows up nice and green. Mauricio ask, "I choose some YouTube
videos and then I try to write subtitles for them to improve my listening. Is this a good idea?"
This is a fabulous idea if you are writing the subtitles in English. This type of practice is
called dictation. You're listening to something and then you're writing it down exactly.
And the best way to do a dictation is when you are listening to
real English, not something that is just from a textbook, some real English conversations.
So maybe that's YouTube videos, maybe it's your favorite podcast, real English,
and you're writing down what they say, and there is a good transcript. So you can go back and check
your work. So for all of my YouTube videos, for example, and a lot of videos on YouTube,
there is subtitles that the creator, so for me, I put those subtitles in there. It's not automatic.
It's not just AI. This is something that I have checked to make sure it's accurate, 98% accurate.
So, after you write down the subtitles, you can go back and check and say, "Oh,
I thought they said this, but really they said this." That's like you becoming your own teacher.
You were using those resources in a great way. So, that is excellent idea. All right. I saw
one other question here. Leander says, "Thank you so much, you're amazing. I love you,
you're the only person I can understand 90%." Oh, Leander. Thank you so much for your super chat.
Awesome. And your kind comments. You know what? When I first started teaching
English on YouTube, I was very surprised because I heard this. A lot of people said, "Vanessa,
you're the only American I can understand. Or you're the first native speaker that I
can understand." I was just so surprised, and it made me feel good because it's helping you.
When you can understand you're growing your confidence and you get excited, like you just
said, but I was surprised because I thought, "Oh, I'm speaking pretty quickly, but people
can also understand, this is great." So, I'm very glad to hear that. I want to make sure that
you can understand mostly what I'm saying. That's excellent. So thank you so much for sharing that.
Nana says, "I'm getting tired of studying English these days,
could you give me some motivation please?" Yes, Nana. My motivation is this.
I encourage you to find a new way, it seems like you need a change, find a new way to use English.
Maybe you're a big reader. Find a new book that interests you. Maybe that means joining The
Fearless Fluency Club, and being hugged warmly by all of the people in the course that say, "Nana,
you can do it. Yeah. Meet with me on Saturday, we're having a Zoom call. Let's chat together."
Find a new way to use English. This is going to spark your interest, but also it does something
biologically to our brains. It produces some more dopamine, some excitement for newness. So,
absolutely decide you need to turn a page and try something new. That is my motivation to you.
Anna Paula, thank you so much for your kind super chat. Anna Paula says, "Thank you so much,
very much for helping me learn English. I'm from Brazil." Thank you so much, Anna Paula,
I would love to visit Brazil someday. I've heard it is a beautiful place, gigantic country. Maybe I
would need to spend like three months visiting everywhere, but that would be fantastic.
Vishvi says, "Could you explain a little bit more about the club you just introduced
and how it works?" Yes. So, the link in the description is for The Fearless Fluency Club,
and there are three levels, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. There's a
little question to help you find the right level. You can always change levels if you need to. This
is no hassle, you try the course and you think, "I think I'm not beginner, I'm intermediate."
Cool. Send me an email. I can help you change for free. No problem.
And you will have five months worth of English lessons. There are five modules,
I recommend studying one per month, and each module you will meet a new native English speaker.
So I have a conversation with a native English speaker for 30 minutes about a new topic,
and from that conversation, there is a vocabulary video, a grammar lesson with
phrasal verbs pronunciation lesson, and you will be able to, and there's quizzes for all of this,
there's the Facebook group for all of this, but each of those vocabulary words, each of those
phrasal verbs, and all of those pronunciation points come from that conversation. So this is
all coming from real English. And that's my goal, is to really introduce you to real English,
how real people will speak so that when you visit New York City, you're not too shocked.
So, this is something that you can take into the real world. And then you can go to the next
module where you'll meet another native English speaker, having a conversation with me for 30
minutes about another topic. And you'll learn all that vocabulary, all those phrasal verbs, all that
pronunciation, there's worksheets and exercises, and plenty of ways that you're able to use that
information in the real world and practice it so that you don't forget it. I hope that helps.
Sylvia, thank you so much for your kind generosity.
Alberto, thank you so much for joining me. Alberto says, "Good morning,
it's nice to see you live." Thank you so much for joining me. I know that your time is so precious.
Amin says, "Can we contact you via email in the course?" Yes. I am always available via email.
When you join my English course, you can email me questions about the course material. You can
answer the homework questions and send them to me. This could be written sentences. It could be audio
sentences. You can record your voice and I'll give you some pronunciation feedback. And this is all
related to the course material. So when you study the course material, you say, "Hey, I was studying
module three about weddings, and I was trying to figure out how I can use this phrase myself.
Here's a sentence. Did I say it correctly?" And I can give you personal feedback about that.
That is, I think, one of the biggest benefits of joining a course compared to YouTube,
you can learn so much on YouTube, but this can help you to have feedback,
personal feedback, and be guided through the material instead of learning this thing and
then you learn that thing and then you learn this thing, you're guided through
the material in a way that will help you to really make progress and make steps forwards.
Novaya says, "I have a simple question. How are you Vanessa? I love you." I'm doing very well.
I felt quite nervous at the beginning of this live lesson because it has been
three years since, to use a lovely word, since I last made a live lesson here on YouTube.
So I'm a little bit out of practice, but I hope that this was interesting and useful to you.
Hoziah says, "Are there Zoom classes? How can I participate?" Yes. So, each week students organize
Zoom calls, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp calls, Skype calls individually. This is student
organized. And part of the mindset behind this is actually from an organization called AA. AA is
Alcoholics Anonymous for people who are addicted to alcohol. They go to this organization,
and the organization can help them to, we call it become sober, to release themselves from their
addiction and start to live a healthy life again. But the philosophy in AA is only an addict can
help an addict. Well, you are not addicts. Maybe you're addicted to English, but this is the idea
that an English learner can help another English learner. And this organization, AA has had,
I think, over a 100 years, but hundreds and thousands and millions of people have
gone through this organization, and they have been released from their addiction
because other people who were addicted have bonded together and helped each other to rise out of
their difficulties and supported each other. They felt completely understood by the other
people in the organization. And that's the idea without the addiction part,
that helps a lot of people who join the course feel that almost that same feeling like lost.
"What am I going to do now? I don't feel motivated anymore. I've tried everything."
And so, when they join this course and feel supported by other members,
other English learners around the world, all of a sudden you feel like
you're in a community and you're not alone. So I hope that this will help you to rise up
out of those feelings of maybe being lost or alone or not certain about what to do with English,
because you are connected with other people. That was a long explanation, but I feel very
inspired by that model, and I hope it will help you too. Yasin says, "How can I find those people
who do Zoom calls? Yes. In our Facebook group, it is right there. So, when you join the course,
you get access to the Facebook group and there are Zoom calls. You can join. A lot of people
also meet one on one. So this is a great way to find a good friend around the world, but also be
able to have more speaking time and connect. Some of these people have also met around
the world, traveled from Brazil to Italy and met each other. Very cool. But this is a good way to
connect with someone else and keep each other accountable. That's a good word to use.
Fatim says, "Are we going to get a vocabulary video on YouTube for next week?" Well, do you know
what? Next week I have a very special video for you? It is one that's a little difficult for me to
film because it's not right here in my studio, it is around my house. That's a little hint.
Yeah, maybe it's especially tricky in some ways to present to you, but I hope it will be useful
to you. I'll just leave it as a mystery. But yes, you will learn vocabulary,
some phrasal verbs and some practical daily life English in next week's YouTube video.
Well, before we go today, I would like everyone around the world, no matter where you are living
to say this sentence with me out loud. We are going to use what we've learned today,
and I hope it will be helpful to you. Are you ready?
I watch Vanessa's YouTube lessons to grow my confidence each week. Okay.
So a little brainwashing here. We're going to say this sentence,
but it's also using this, the information and grammar and vocabulary from today's lesson.
I would like you to say this sentence out loud with me to conclude today's lesson. At the end,
my lessons, I like to end of my live lessons. So we do this in our Facebook group as well in the
course at the end of the lesson, I like to have one conclusion sentence that we all say together,
can help us to feel connected, but also to remember what we've learned.
Are you ready? Let's say this together. I watch Vanessa's YouTube lessons to grow my confidence
each week. I watch Vanessa's YouTube lessons to grow my confidence each week.
I hope this is true for you, you'll join me again next Friday, because each Friday I have a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel. Don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet for today's
lesson. There is a link in the description and you can download this PDF, you can print it out, put
it down to your pillow while you sleep. You can study it, and I hope that it will be helpful to
you so that you don't feel alone in your English journey, and you enjoy yourself. You have a good
time and stay motivated. So you can download this free PDF worksheet. You can also join us in The
Fearless Fluency Club and get $60 off. So the link in the description is a special link that will get
you $60 off. This is like just in this one place. So, make sure that you use that link if you would
like to get $60 off. If you want to pay the full price, you can use another link, but I don't know
why. You can click on that link and get $60 off and we will be waiting for you in The Fearless
Fluency Club. I would love to continue to help you become a confident English speaker. Well, thank
you so much for learning English with me, and I will see you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel. Bye everyone. Bye Sandaya. Bye Sophia. Bye Maral. Bye Kelly.
Thanks so much for joining me. Bye Ruth. Thanks so much. I'll see you again next week. Bye.
