Speak with Confidence! 13 Minutes of PAST SIMPLE Conversation Practice

0:00 Hey, everyone.

0:01 I'm Alex.

0:02 Thanks for clicking.

0:03 Today, I want to talk to you.

0:06 In this video, I will ask you some past tense questions,

0:11 and I want you to answer those questions.

0:15 I know that it's difficult to practice speaking

0:18 by yourself if you don't have a speaking partner,

0:22 so today, I want to be your speaking partner.

0:26 In this video, all of the questions, the majority of the questions,

0:32 are also included in my new book,

0:34 Perfect English Questions and How to Answer Them.

0:37 So, in this book, I have questions in all of the English tenses.

0:42 I have questions for specific situations.

0:46 I have negative questions.

0:49 I have tag questions.

0:52 Just any question type you can think of, it's probably in here.

0:57 Ways to talk about work, school, etc.

1:00 If you want this book, check out the link that is attached to this video,

1:05 or just go to englishalex.com, and you'll see it on the front page.

1:09 You can get the PDF from my website and the eBook from my website.

1:14 Just one price for both of them, ePub version and a PDF version.

1:19 For the physical version, just follow the links to Amazon.

1:23 You can check it out.

1:26 All right.

1:26 Now, let's begin.

1:28 So, I will ask you a question, and you will answer the question for me,

1:33 and I will participate and give you my answer as well.

1:37 So, first, "Hey, how was your weekend?" before you say anything.

1:44 Maybe you're watching this on a Thursday.

1:47 If you are watching this on a Thursday, maybe you can think about,

1:51 "Hey, what did you do yesterday?" or, you know,

1:55 "How was yesterday?" for example.

1:57 So, let's start that again.

2:01 "Hey, how was your weekend?" Oh, nice.

2:06 Oh, me?

2:07 Yeah, my weekend was good.

2:11 I actually...

2:13 I went to the water park with my cousins and with one of my daughters.

2:18 So, I went to the water park.

2:20 We had a great time.

2:22 How about you?

2:23 Did you go anywhere yesterday or on the weekend?

2:27 Did you go anywhere?

2:29 Okay, nice.

2:30 And how was the weather yesterday or on the weekend?

2:37 How was the weather?

2:46 Oh, was that hot or was it cool, warm?

2:52 Ah, okay.

2:53 When I went to the water park,

2:56 the temperature was around 28 degrees, which is, like, perfect for swimming,

3:03 but in the middle of the day, it went up to 32, which is too much for me.

3:09 My poor skin can't handle 32 degrees Celsius.

3:14 So, and how about today?

3:16 Let me ask you about your morning.

3:19 So, I imagine, you know,

3:21 you're not watching this right in the morning, right after waking up.

3:26 So, how was your morning today?

3:28 Was it busy?

3:29 Was it nothing special?

3:31 Was it normal?

3:32 How was your morning?

3:40 Okay.

3:41 Me, my morning was typical today.

3:44 I woke up, you know, I put on my clothes,

3:48 I got dressed, and I had breakfast with my family,

3:53 and then I came here to record this conversation, to talk to you, actually.

3:59 So, what time did you wake up this morning?

4:02 What time did you wake up?

4:08 Okay.

4:09 Hmm.

4:09 Do you usually wake up around that time?

4:15 Hmm.

4:16 Yeah, today, I woke up around seven, which is later than usual for me.

4:24 Normally, I wake up around six o'clock, but today, I woke up around seven.

4:30 Okay.

4:31 And by the way, did you sleep okay?

4:34 This can mean, like, did you sleep well?

4:37 So, did you sleep okay last night?

4:42 Oh.

4:42 And how many hours did you get?

4:47 How many hours of sleep did you get last night?

4:54 Hmm.

4:55 Me?

4:56 I slept okay.

4:58 It's difficult to say how many hours of sleep I got last night.

5:09 I'm not sure.

5:10 Honestly, maybe I got four, maybe I got six.

5:15 It wasn't a restful night, basically.

5:18 I will say that.

5:19 So, I think I got around, yeah, probably about,

5:23 let's say five, five hours of sleep total last night.

5:26 Not a good night.

5:28 All right.

5:28 And how about breakfast?

5:30 What did you have for breakfast today?

5:35 Oh, okay.

5:37 And do you normally, like,

5:41 do you normally not eat breakfast or do you normally eat that for breakfast?

5:51 Okay.

5:51 Yeah.

5:52 Today, honestly, I know this sounds very stereotypical.

5:58 I don't usually have this, but I'm visiting my parents.

6:02 My mom made breakfast for me.

6:04 This almost never happens.

6:06 I had bacon and eggs.

6:08 So, if you have a stereotype about Canadians

6:11 and Americans and bacon and eggs for breakfast, that is what I had today.

6:15 It's not something I have often.

6:17 But yes, today I had bacon and eggs.

6:21 You notice, you know, we use "have" to talk about meals.

6:25 I had bacon and eggs for breakfast.

6:28 Okay.

6:28 I just have a few more questions for you.

6:32 And remember, you don't have to say exactly the phrases that I

6:36 have on the board here if you have a different answer.

6:41 It's okay.

6:41 The most important part is that you are

6:45 actually speaking and practicing and speaking out loud.

6:49 So, I want to learn more about you when you were younger.

6:54 So, can you tell me, where were you born?

7:02 Hmm.

7:03 Okay.

7:03 I don't know if I've ever been there before.

7:08 So, oh, me?

7:09 I was born in Poland, but I grew up...

7:13 Well, let's go to the next question, and I'll tell you.

7:17 But first, you tell me.

7:19 So, okay, you told me where you were born.

7:22 Did you grow up there, too?

7:24 Like, did you grow up where you were born?

7:28 Mm-hmm.

7:29 So, "grow up", it means that you spent your childhood there,

7:36 and you know, you became an adolescent.

7:38 All right?

7:39 Maybe your early years were spent there.

7:43 Me?

7:44 So, I was born in Poland.

7:46 I grew up half in Poland and half in Canada,

7:51 I would say, because I moved to Canada when I was seven.

7:55 So, the first seven years of my life were spent in Poland,

7:59 and then since then, I have lived in Canada.

8:03 Most of my memories, because you don't remember too much before seven,

8:09 I think, so most of my childhood memories are from Canada.

8:14 So, I would say I grew up in Poland and Canada.

8:19 All right.

8:20 How about sports?

8:22 Did you play any sports as a kid?

8:26 So, "as a kid" means when you were a child or a kid, a young person.

8:32 Did you play any sports?

8:35 Were you good?

8:39 Nice.

8:40 Me?

8:41 I played basketball a lot.

8:48 I played street hockey, and yeah, those were the two.

8:54 I played a lot of basketball and a lot of street hockey.

8:59 All right.

9:00 Next.

9:00 When you were younger, did you have any pets, like any animals in the house?

9:07 Did you have any pets?

9:09 Okay.

9:10 What was the name of your pet?

9:14 If you had a pet, what was the name or what were the names of your pets?

9:24 Okay.

9:24 Yeah.

9:25 So, we had two fish, Mario and Samantha.

9:33 Mario, because Super Mario.

9:37 Samantha, because who's the boss?

9:39 I think Samantha was the name of the girl, and Alyssa Milano.

9:45 Do you remember the actress, Alyssa Milano?

9:47 Okay.

9:48 She played Samantha in Who's the Boss?

9:50 So, we had Mario and Samantha.

9:52 They both passed away very quickly.

9:54 We had a cat.

9:56 His name was Kichi, and it's because in Polish,

10:00 when you call a cat, you say "k-ch-k-ch-k-ch-k-ch".

10:04 So, it sounds like "Kichi, Kichi, Kichi", so we called him Kichi.

10:09 And we had a dog named Frosty.

10:12 He was not white.

10:13 He was a black dog, so it was kind of a joke,

10:17 which is a terrible thing, now that I think about it.

10:20 He was a black dog named Frosty, like Frosty the snowman.

10:25 Okay.

10:25 So, how old were you when you learned how to ride a bike?

10:34 Mm-hmm.

10:35 Yeah, I think most kids are around that age.

10:39 Like me, I learned to ride a bike around 6 years old, 7 maximum, I think.

10:46 And if you never learned to ride a bike, let me know in the comments,

10:52 because I'm curious about why you didn't learn to ride a bike.

10:55 I feel it's like almost a universal human experience today.

11:01 So, final question for you.

11:04 When you were a kid and you were dreaming about your future life as an adult,

11:10 as a human existing in the world,

11:13 what did you want to be when you grew up, when you became an adult?

11:18 What did you want to be when you grew up?

11:27 Mm-hmm.

11:27 Okay.

11:28 So, me, I told you I played a lot of street hockey,

11:32 I played a lot of basketball.

11:36 The first thing that I remember that I wanted to be was a basketball player.

11:42 I wanted to be a basketball player because I was tall,

11:46 I was pretty good, I played center.

11:50 And then, when I started high school at the age of 14,

11:54 I tried out for the high school basketball team,

11:58 and I realized all the other kids were much better than me.

12:02 And the dream...

12:03 The dream died.

12:05 I just stopped there.

12:06 I was also bigger than the other...

12:08 Than the other boys.

12:10 Yeah.

12:10 All right.

12:11 So, we will stop there.

12:13 I hope you enjoyed this conversation.

12:16 I hope you did speak out loud,

12:19 and you feel more confident about practicing your English.

12:24 If, you know, you missed saying something,

12:28 or if you didn't say something correctly,

12:30 and you think, "Ah, when you said your answer, you said it like this.

12:36 I wish I had said it like this." Go back,

12:39 watch the video again, let's talk again,

12:42 and try to improve your pronunciation, improve your intonation,

12:47 and just your fluency, the fluidity of your speech.

12:52 Thanks for talking with me today, and if you enjoyed this exercise,

12:56 definitely check out my book, Perfect English Questions and How to Answer Them.

13:01 It has a lot of these, like, short question, answer,

13:05 question, answer, or question, question,

13:08 question, question, answers, sample answers.

13:11 Okay?

13:12 And at the back, you also have a list

13:15 of the top 100 English questions for greetings,

13:19 to talk about work, locations, directions, etc.

13:23 Again, englishalex.com, or check out the link that is attached to the video.

13:29 Also, make sure you do the quiz for this video on www.engvid.com.

13:35 Check out the link if you are watching outside of EngVid.

13:39 Until next time, I hope you will keep learning and keep practicing.