Hello, everyone.
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And today's video, I have really a special
guest to Sir John and Sir John has vast experience
of teaching English to non-English speakers.
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And today in this video, he is going to give
you some practical advice and tips on how
to improve your English on a daily basis while
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in your everyday routine you can take a few
minutes and to focus on learning and improving
your English.
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So without further ado, Sir John.
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My name is John. I'm an English person and
I'm hoping to give you active and helpful
ideas, an instruction about speaking English
in an improved way.
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And I'm hoping to help you. I have five subjects
within this.
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No less than now. The first is reading.
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The second is writing. The third is listening.
The fourth is discussed.
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Discussion. Conversation. And the fifth is
what I have called media.
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So, there's five topics. And I will begin
straightaway with the subject of writing a
reading.
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Sorry. Reading is something I enjoy.
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Reading is all. On the other hand, not something
that everyone enjoys.
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You might be an active reader in your own
language. You'll probably be able to read,
but you might not read for enjoyment.
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I would suggest that reading is a very helpful
way if you're wishing to improve your English.
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There's a slight, so humorous note here that
I, in fact, first began.
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Reading, reading comics, which might surprise
people and some people disapprove.
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But I found as a boy of about five through
to seven that reading comics was actually
very
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helpful because you have to understand the
words in order to understand the little pictures.
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The captions of these. But that's up to the
individual.
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But please do not be fearful of finding a
comic or something like that.
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If you so, please. In English now reading,
there are many, many,
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many good English authors choose one which
is appropriate and that you think will help
here, but always read actively.
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That is, if there was a word that you do not
understand. Do not know the meaning of.
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Please do not guess but write it down.
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Make a note somewhere or ask someone and get
the word explained.
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This will greatly enhance your reading and
will subsequently.
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That's an interesting word. Subsequently means
as a result of as a result, your communication
in English will will improve.
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I'm sure it might be interesting to know that
one of my favourite books as a young man was
James Bond.
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I would highly recommend those, but there
are many others because they they're exciting
and interesting to read.
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So, I think at that point, I could probably
move on to my next topic, which would be the
topic of writing again.
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People do not necessarily even in their own
language, choose to write much or maybe do
not like writing.
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But this helps the flow of your English speaking
and your understanding of English.
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And also, it builds up communication with
other people.
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People like to receive letters, but specifically
here today, I'm not talking so much about
letters because sadly,
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this is probably a skill which is lost or
being lost gradually in this computerised
day and age.
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But we have email now. Emails are actually
a very good way of practising and improving
your skill with English.
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There is a word cheque available on it.
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What I like to do very much is to write a
letter which I can then save as a document
and put that in the email.
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That is to some friends that I have abroad.
From several countries.
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Another slightly humorous point here is that
there is something called Google Translate.
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Now, this is not to recommend using girl.
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Google Translate to write your complete email
for you in English, whatever your other language,
your first language may be.
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But it is quite helpful. You can. Cheque.
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You can get assistance, you can. Read and
understand more through this, but please do
not rely on it, because you could probably,
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for instance, if you only speak Spanish, you
compose a complete letter in English via Google
Translate.
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So I'm using it as an example of something
to assist you.
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And it is quite helpful, I find.
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Now, the third topic I wish to speak about
is possibly even my favourite over and beyond
the joys of reading and the joys of writing
to people.
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But this is talking, discussion, speaking,
engaging with others in conversation.
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Again, some people. Better able and more willing
to speak to other people in whatever the language
is.
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That is their first language. But to begin
by communicating with other people in English
as best she can.
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And this is something I would be very clear
about. Do not be fearful of making mistakes.
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It is better to carry on.
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Risk making mistakes, because you will find
that your confidence will grow and you will
be able to learn more about the culture you
are in,
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which is in this case, this is England. By
talking to other people now, you will need
to speak to other people.
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If you. Must have directions somewhere.
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All this kind of thing where it's often necessary
to engage with another person who is English
when you are from whatever country.
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Now. If that person who were you are asking
the way, let us say to the railway station,
if they speak too quickly for you and you
do not understand.
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It's very simple, easy to say, look, English
isn't my first language, or I am from another
country.
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Would you be kind enough to speak a bit more
slowly for me, please?
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And most people will be happy enough to oblige
and to speak a little bit more slowly and
clearly at this point.
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I will mention the subject of accents that
this can be disconcerting.
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There's another long English word based on
Latin, probably. But if something is disconcerting,
it puts you off your guard.
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It makes you uneasy. It makes you feel not
confident.
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If it's something is disconcerting, it can
be disconcerting.
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If someone speaks to you in English in an
accent, which makes it very difficult to understand
at this point.
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There is guidance on YouTube with.
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Many good little documentary instructions
on different languages that there are in the
U.K., but of course, there are accents in
every country.
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So, You do get used to them. If you are in
the air, if you're in the vicinity, if you're
in the area of someone regularly on a day
to day basis,
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he is a different, difficult, different, difficult
accent. You get used to it.
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But. It needs to be thought about.
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And you can get advice and help with that.
So that's my dealing with the talking and
the instruction.
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Now, the. The other one, I think, was listening.
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Now with listening. Again, you have to listen
in order to understand English and you can
get instruction.
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Or help, shall we say, bye? There are many
good programmes on the radio, on BBC Radio
four, for instance, which would be interesting,
too,
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to listen to I find interesting that can be
helping you all the time or just the radio
generally or TV generally.
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It could be the news. It could be a film.
If you watch to marry many American films,
beware of getting an American accent, but
don't worry.
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But there are films from all over the world
and you can also see these with subtitles.
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So you are seeing the words you are hearing
in the film.
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You are seeing those on the screen. And these
are quite helpful to watch and also very enjoyable
and funny, depending on what your taste is
in films.
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So, there is a lot that can be achieved through
listening and understanding.
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Find a mentor. If there is a person who can
advise you, not just tell your English is
good,
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but tell you new words that can tell you,
no, you didn't pronounce that quite correctly.
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That would tell you your grim grammar in that
sentence isn't quite correct to get the word
order,
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which someone might understand, although it's
the wrong word order.
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But they will know what you mean, an English
person. But it's a good idea to get the sentence
construction correct.
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Another little thing to be aware of is in
English as in every language.
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There are two words which sound very similar,
but they are not the same word.
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And misunderstandings can result in something
which could be just comical, which is which
is okay.
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Or it could be embarrassing. But when I speak
of these words, I'm speaking.
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Pay attention to the enunciation of the letters
in the word to pronounce the word correctly
and
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be aware of it and know that in English there
might be one word which sounds very similar,
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but is not the same as another. The last topic,
number five, is to investigate different ways.
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It could be like crosswords, difficult at
an early stage, but there is a Web sites on
the Internet under the title of Merriam Webster,
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which is a lot of word games and a lot of
interesting guidance with the English language.
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It is an American site, therefore. Very slightly
at certain points, being American, English
from English.
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English, but I think it's worthwhile. And
I think any little difficulties don't matter.
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So that is most of what I would be able to
tell you.
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I think I need to finish fairly soon in the
time scale, but I hope that I have helped
in some way that I have not spoken too quickly.
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But if you have understood what I'm being
saying.
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