Speak With Me: 2 Hour English Speaking Practice

0:00 Vanessa: Hi.

0:00 I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

0:02 Are you ready to practice speaking in English with me?

0:07 Let's do it.

0:14 What do you do?

0:14 Where do you want to go?

0:15 What are you up to this weekend?

0:18 Could you answer these questions in English?

0:20 In today's English lesson, you will practice speaking with me about seven

0:25 of the most common conversation topics in English.

0:28 We will practice vocabulary, questions, sample conversation, plus,

0:32 you will have the chance to have

0:34 a sample conversation practice conversation with me too.

0:38 Over the past year, I have made seven Speak With Me lessons,

0:42 and today I have combined them all in a very useful

0:46 lesson where you can practice them for the next two hours.

0:49 To help you never forget what you've learned,

0:52 I've created a gigantic free PDF worksheet using all of the vocabulary,

0:58 phrases, questions, sample sentences,

1:00 and some challenge questions so that you can never forget what you've learned.

1:06 You can download this free PDF worksheet with the link in the description.

1:09 All right.

1:10 Are you ready to get started?

1:11 We are going to be talking about these topics today.

1:15 Drum roll.

1:17 Let's get started with the first one, weekend plans.

1:23 Are you ready to learn the most important conversation question of all time?

1:28 At least according to me.

1:31 Is that question, what's your name?

1:33 No.

1:34 Is that question, will you give me money?

1:38 No.

1:38 Is that question, do you love me?

1:41 No, no, no.

1:43 The most important conversation question is, there's actually two parts.

1:47 What about you?

1:49 How about you?

1:51 When someone asks you about your weekend plans and you say a little reply,

1:55 "I'm going hiking." "I'm not doing much."

1:59 There might be an incredibly awful awkward pause.

2:03 What happens next?

2:06 Well, this is where the most important question comes in.

2:10 You can ask them, "What about you?" "How about

2:14 you?" You can imagine tossing a ball back and forth.

2:19 The other person has asked you a question.

2:22 "What are you doing this weekend?" They throw you the ball.

2:25 Now you reply and you say, "Okay,

2:27 I'm going hiking." Or, "I'm not doing much." You need

2:31 to throw or toss the ball back to that person, and this question does that.

2:37 How about you?

2:38 It means you are asking the same question back to them.

2:41 "What are you doing this weekend?

2:43 How about you?" I want you to remember this wonderful question,

2:48 either of them, actually, they have the exact same meaning.

2:50 How about you?

2:51 What about you?

2:52 Remember these questions because later when we

2:55 practice this at the end of this lesson,

2:58 during our conversation, speaking time, remember these questions and use them.

3:02 All right, let's go to some common vocabulary

3:05 that you can use to talk about weekend plans.

3:08 Brunch.

3:08 Many Americans love brunch.

3:11 The word brunch is a combination of breakfast and lunch

3:17 and that's because we usually eat this on the weekends,

3:21 maybe a Saturday morning or a Sunday morning, between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM.

3:27 It's a time when you could eat either breakfast or lunch,

3:31 and it's usually a long social event.

3:34 You might go out to brunch with your friends,

3:38 or have your friends to your house to eat brunch.

3:42 "My friends and I are meeting at our favorite brunch spot on Sunday." Great.

3:47 It's a restaurant where you can eat breakfast type foods usually

3:53 with some alcoholic drink like a mimosa or something with fruit in it.

4:01 Or maybe some champagne in the morning and you

4:04 can eat this in the company of your friends.

4:07 Another common weekend word is social butterfly.

4:10 A social butterfly refers to someone who makes a lot of plans.

4:15 They are flying around to event to another, to another activity.

4:21 They're always doing things, usually involving lots of other people.

4:25 They are a social butterfly.

4:27 If you are a social butterfly, probably the year 2020 with lockdowns and all

4:33 of these things were probably really difficult

4:36 for you because you love to get together with other people and always be active.

4:42 We can use this in a sentence like this.

4:45 "My friend is a social butterfly,

4:48 she has invitations to three brunches and four afternoon teas." Amazing.

4:55 What if you are not a social butterfly?

4:59 What if you are the opposite?

5:02 Are you a unsocial caterpillar?

5:05 No.

5:05 It means you are a homebody.

5:07 Your body likes to stay at home.

5:10 I'm a homebody.

5:12 She's a homebody.

5:13 Someone who enjoys just doing things slowly and staying at home.

5:18 They feel most comfortable in a comfortable place at home.

5:22 You could say, "My friend is a social butterfly, but I'm more of a homebody.

5:28 When I get together with friends,

5:30 I would rather have dinner at my house and then

5:33 play games here." I think this is true for me personally,

5:37 as I get a little bit older,

5:39 I prefer these kind of intimate group settings instead of lots of people,

5:45 I prefer just a couple friends at home.

5:49 Maybe having a bonfire outside,

5:51 roasting some food or some marshmallows and this intimate setting.

5:55 I enjoy doing activities at home more often

5:59 than when I was a little bit younger.

6:02 To stay in.

6:03 Unfortunately, that has been probably a lot

6:05 of our weekend plans for the past year,

6:08 and it means that you're just going to stay at home.

6:11 It doesn't mean you're going to do nothing.

6:13 It just means you're not going to go anywhere.

6:15 I'm going to stay in.

6:17 You might say, "It's supposed to be cold and rainy this weekend,

6:21 so I'm just going to stay in and read a book." Or, "I'm just

6:25 going to stay in and do some things around the house." To binge watch.

6:31 This means that you watch a lot of movies

6:34 or TV shows usually back to back without stopping.

6:39 Several hours, maybe you watch four seasons of a TV show in one day.

6:45 This is binge watching.

6:47 You are watching a lot.

6:50 This expression comes from a term we usually use with alcohol, to binge drink.

6:57 This means that you drink a lot of alcohol at one time.

7:02 Not a very healthy thing to do, but when we say to binge drink,

7:07 that has that same idea, is you're doing a lot back to back,

7:11 or you could binge watch TV.

7:14 You might say, "Last weekend,

7:15 my husband and I binge watched all of the Star Wars movies." This isn't true.

7:22 When you have young children, you do not have time to binge watch TV,

7:27 but you might say this about your life.

7:30 "I binge watched that new TV show

7:32 that just came out." Our final expression that you

7:35 can use to talk about your weekend plans is to catch up on some chores.

7:40 This phrasal verb, to catch up on, is

7:43 a beautiful phrasal verb that you can use to talk

7:47 about some necessary activity that you haven't done

7:51 for a while and now there's more and more and more,

7:56 and you need to finish all of this.

7:59 We can imagine laundry, dishes, sweeping, cleaning,

8:03 maybe some home repairs, tidying up, maybe even yard work.

8:09 If you don't do those things for one week or two weeks,

8:14 there's so many you have to do.

8:16 That means you need to catch up, you to do what you haven't done for a while.

8:22 You need to catch up on some chores

8:25 and chores are just those activities that I mentioned.

8:28 Laundry, dishes, these necessary activities that involve cleaning up,

8:32 helping to make your home a wonderful place to live.

8:36 Maybe this weekend you just need to catch up on some chores.

8:40 You might say, "I was so busy all week, and finally,

8:43 I'm going to catch up on some chores this weekend." Maybe not very fun,

8:47 but when your house is clean, it feels good.

8:51 All right, now that we have some common vocabulary

8:53 you can use to talk about your weekend plans.

8:55 Let's talk about some introduction questions that you might

8:58 hear and that you can also ask other people.

9:01 These have varying levels of reductions and fast ways that you will hear them,

9:07 so I want to help you understand and recognize what other people are saying,

9:12 and also be able to use it.

9:14 Let's talk about our first question.

9:16 What are you up to this weekend?

9:18 What are you up to this weekend?

9:20 You might know the expression, what's up?

9:23 This just means how are you.

9:25 We're using that same word up to talk about what are you doing this weekend?

9:30 What are you up to this weekend?

9:33 But do you think that we usually say it like this?

9:36 What are you up to this weekend?

9:38 So clear.

9:39 So lovely.

9:39 No.

9:40 Instead we're going to reduce this a little bit

9:43 and then we can reduce it a lot more.

9:47 Let's talk about the first one.

9:48 What are you up to?

9:49 What are you up to?

9:51 What're.

9:51 Here, the word, what and are, are creating a spoken contraction.

9:57 Usually when we write, we don't write this type of contraction.

10:02 It's only in spoken English, but oftentimes B verbs like are,

10:07 is, will be contracted with a question word.

10:11 What're you up to this weekend?

10:14 What're, what're you up to?

10:16 We can reduce this a little bit further.

10:20 Whatcha'p to?

10:21 Whatcha'p to?

10:23 Whatcha'p to this weekend?

10:24 There are a lot of reductions happening at the beginning.

10:28 Whatch, whatcha'p to?

10:30 Here we have, what are you being reduced to just whatch,

10:38 the ch is you and what are has just

10:44 been smooshed together and we can say whatcha'p to?

10:51 Whatcha'p to?

10:52 Whatcha'p to?

10:52 Whatcha'p to?

10:53 This is really fast.

10:55 If you say this slowly, whatcha'p to?

10:58 It sounds really weird.

11:00 We only use this in really fast English, so if you are going to say this, it

11:06 needs to be quickly and reduced and linked together.

11:08 Most likely you're going to hear this, so I want

11:11 to make sure that you can understand when someone says,

11:13 "Hey, whatcha'p to this weekend?" Whatcha'p to this weekend?

11:17 You can say, "Vanessa taught me that.

11:19 I know what that means.

11:20 What are you up to this weekend?

11:22 Yes." Let's go into our next expression where we're going

11:27 to also reduce this a bit and help you to understand it.

11:30 What have you got going on this weekend?

11:33 What have you got going on this weekend?

11:36 These all mean the same thing.

11:38 What are you doing this weekend?

11:40 But you might hear this expression with the word got.

11:44 What have you got going on this weekend?

11:48 When you actually hear this, we don't say it that clearly.

11:52 What have you got going on this weekend?

11:54 Wouldn't that be nice though?

11:56 Instead, you're going to hear a reduction

11:58 or a contraction of the first two words,

12:00 just like we saw with the previous example, what've,

12:04 so what and have, are going to be pushed together.

12:10 What've you got goin' on?

12:13 That final G in the word going is going to be cut off and we'll just say, goin'.

12:19 Let's try to say that altogether.

12:21 You want to try to say it with me?

12:23 What've you got goin' on?

12:24 What've you got goin' on this weekend?

12:27 What've you got goin' on this weekend?

12:31 Do you think we can reduce this further?

12:35 Yes.

12:35 Whadayagot goin' on this weekend?

12:38 Whadayagot.

12:40 Here, the beginning of, what have you got is

12:44 just really like you threw it in a mixing bowl,

12:48 stirred it up and threw it out on a cookie tray.

12:51 Well, let's try to break it down so it's not quite so messy and complicated.

12:56 At the beginning we have, what have you got?

13:00 But it sounds like whada.

13:04 Whada, this is what have, whadaya, ya is you.

13:11 Whadayagot goin', again,

13:13 we're going to drop that G at the end of the word going.

13:17 Goin' on.

13:17 Whadayagot goin' on?

13:18 Whada.

13:19 Notice what's happening at the end of the word what, do you hear a clear T?

13:27 Whadaya, whadaya.

13:28 No.

13:28 That T at the end of the word, what, is going to change to a D sound.

13:33 This is really typical of American English,

13:35 where a T that's surrounded by vowel sounds is going to change to a D,

13:41 it's called a flapped T, and it just rolls off your tongue in a smooth way.

13:50 Whadayagot goin' on?

13:51 Can you say it with me?

13:53 Whadayagot goin' on this weekend?

13:54 Whadayagot goin' on this weekend?

13:56 All right, let's go to our last question.

13:58 You doing anything fun this weekend?

14:00 You doing anything fun this weekend?

14:02 What's happening at the beginning of this question?

14:06 Should there be another word?

14:08 Yes.

14:08 Are you doing anything fun this weekend?

14:11 Are you?

14:12 But the word are, it's on vacation.

14:15 It's just gone somewhere,

14:16 so we're going to start this question with the word you.

14:19 You doing anything fun this weekend?

14:21 It makes the question seem a little more casual and less like an interrogation,

14:26 or like you're asking someone out on a date.

14:29 It's just a casual question.

14:31 You doing anything fun this weekend?

14:33 But we can reduce this question.

14:35 We're not going to reduce it an awful lot,

14:38 but we will hear this reduced a little bit.

14:40 When we say, "You doing anything fun?" Instead,

14:43 you're going to hear, ya doin', ya.

14:47 The word you is reduced to ya.

14:51 Ya doin', listen to that G at the end.

14:55 Ya doin', it's gone.

14:57 It's also on vacation.

14:59 Maybe it's on vacation with the word are.

15:01 Let's say, "Ya doin' anything fun this weekend?" Ya doin',

15:06 that's the main reduction that's going to happen in this question?

15:10 Ya doin' anything fun this weekend?

15:11 Ya doin'...

15:13 Try to say that with me.

15:14 Ya doin' anything fun this weekend?

15:16 Ya doin' anything fun this weekend?

15:18 All right, let's go on to some other common things

15:21 that you will hear in these types of small talk, easy casual conversations.

15:25 If someone tells you about their weekend plans,

15:29 and it sounds interesting or fun, how can you reply?

15:33 You might say, "That sounds like fun." Or, "How interesting." Or just simply,

15:39 "Nice." If that person is doing nothing, they're just sitting at home,

15:44 maybe they're going to binge watch some TV and stay in.

15:48 Well, sometimes it's nice to still say some being positive in response,

15:53 so you might say, "Sometimes it's nice to do nothing." And that's true,

15:57 especially if you've been doing a lot,

15:59 sometimes it's nice just to stay in and relax for the weekend.

16:03 So you might say, "Sometimes it's nice to do nothing." Right,

16:06 before we practice our sample conversation together,

16:09 what can you say at the end?

16:11 Well, if you're talking about weekend plans,

16:13 it is before the weekend, so you could just say,

16:16 "Have a good weekend." Or, "Enjoy your weekend." Simple,

16:20 great way to end the conversation.

16:23 All right, let's take a deep breath.

16:25 Are you ready to put all of this together?

16:28 What I would like you to do is first,

16:31 I would like you to listen to sample conversation.

16:34 Think about the different parts that are happening.

16:36 You're going to hear our key beautiful question.

16:39 What about you?

16:40 How about you?

16:41 You're going to also hear some of the key vocabulary that we talked about,

16:46 and also just some of the questions, the introductory questions,

16:50 what are you got going on this weekend?

16:52 Great.

16:53 Things like that, that we'll put together.

16:54 And then I'm going to put some pauses and it's

16:57 going to be your turn to have the conversation with me.

17:00 First, let's watch the conversation sample.

17:02 "Hey, what you up to this weekend?" "Nothing much.

17:06 I'm just going to stay in and catch up on some chores on Saturday.

17:11 But on Sunday, I'm going to meet up

17:13 with some of my friends for brunch." "That sounds fun.

17:16 Where's your favorite brunch spot?" "I usually go to Sunny Morning Cafe.

17:20 What about you?

17:21 What have you got going on this weekend?" "I'm a homebody,

17:25 so I'll probably just read a book in my hammock." "That sounds nice.

17:29 Well, have a good weekend.

17:31 Enjoy your book." "Thanks.

17:33 You too.

17:33 Have good weekend." All right.

17:35 Are you ready to take this to the next level?

17:38 I'm going to be asking you a question and then

17:41 pausing and I would like you to reply in that pause.

17:45 Take a moment.

17:46 Tell me about your weekend plans.

17:49 You can do it.

17:50 Let's go.

17:51 Hey, what are you up to this weekend?

17:59 How interesting?

17:59 How often do you do that?

18:07 Me?

18:07 I'll probably go hiking since the weather's going to be so warm.

18:12 Well, nice talking to you.

18:13 Have a good weekend.

18:14 Well, how did you do?

18:16 If you would like you can go back and practice that little sample conversation.

18:21 You can take a deep breath, enjoy yourself.

18:24 That's part of learning English, is I want you to enjoy the process.

18:28 Enjoy the journey.

18:32 Let's start with some common questions

18:34 for talking about eating out and restaurants.

18:37 Since the pandemic began, a lot of restaurants have changed their service model,

18:42 so these questions will cover eating in a restaurant,

18:46 but also ordering food to go.

18:48 I hope that these will help you in any situation that you're in.

18:52 Let's start with our first question.

18:54 Do you want to eat out?

18:56 This phrasal verb to eat out means at a restaurant?

18:59 We don't often say, do you want to go to a restaurant?

19:03 Do you want to eat at a restaurant?

19:05 We just say, eat out.

19:07 Do you want to eat out?

19:09 But we often reduce this question to sound

19:12 a little more comfortable and casual, Ya wanna eat out?

19:16 Ya is you, you want to eat out?

19:20 Ya wanna eat out?

19:22 We've dropped the question word completely, do.

19:25 Just ya, ya and then we have reduced want to, to become wanna.

19:31 This is a common reduction in English.

19:34 Can you say question with me?

19:36 Ya wanna eat out?

19:37 Ya wanna eat out?

19:39 Or we could cut off that first word, ya, completely and just say, wanna eat out?

19:44 Ask it with me.

19:46 Wanna eat out?

19:47 Great.

19:48 Then you might ask, where do you want to go?

19:51 Where do you want to go?

19:52 But do you think we say it clearly like this?

19:56 Unfortunately, not.

19:57 Instead, you could say, "Where ya wanna go?" Where ya wanna go?

20:05 This is a similar reduction to our first question.

20:09 You becomes ya and want to becomes wanna.

20:13 Where ya wanna go?

20:15 Where ya wanna go?

20:17 Where ya wanna go?

20:18 Should we order pick up?

20:21 Should we order pick up?

20:23 I want to let you know that in the US there are a lot

20:27 of terms that are used for this idea that you're not eating in the restaurant.

20:32 You're ordering food, but then you get the food and you take it somewhere else.

20:36 Maybe you take it back home, or you take it to a park.

20:39 We could use a couple different phrases and it's just your personal preference.

20:42 For me, I say, pick up.

20:44 Do you want to order pick up?

20:46 Do you want to get pick up?

20:47 But you could also say, should we order take out?

20:52 Should we order carry out?

20:54 Should we order take away?

20:57 A lot of different phrases and you are going to hear these all around the US,

21:00 so it's just your choice what you'd like to use.

21:03 Another fun question to ask what someone would like to eat is,

21:07 what are you in the mood for?

21:10 What are you in the mood for?

21:12 Don't deny it, sometimes in your heart you're just in the mood for comfort food,

21:18 something that's heavy and rich and reminds you of a cozy,

21:22 warm time in your childhood.

21:24 Maybe it's not very healthy, but you're in the mood for comfort food,

21:28 or maybe you're in the mood for something light.

21:31 You want a salad or sushi, something light.

21:35 This idea of what are you feeling like you want to eat?

21:39 But we often reduce this question and instead of saying,

21:42 what are you in the mood for?

21:45 We might say, whatcha in the mood for?

21:47 Whatcha, whatcha is what are you...

21:52 Whatcha in the mood for?

21:54 Here, the word you has been reduced to cha.

21:58 Cha, this is extremely common in spoken English that the word

22:02 you gets changed up in a lot of ways.

22:05 We already talked about one of those, ya, and this is another, cha.

22:09 Whatcha in the mood for?

22:11 Whatcha in the mood for?

22:12 Or we could reduce this even further.

22:15 Wha'ya in the mood for?

22:16 Wha’ya in the mood for?

22:17 This is extremely reduced, but notice what's happening.

22:20 What are you in the mood for?

22:23 The word R is gone and the word you has been reduced to ya,

22:28 so when we link together, what and you, super fast.

22:33 Wha’ya in the mood for?

22:35 Wha'ya in the mood for?

22:38 You don't want to say this reduction slowly.

22:40 Wha'ya in the mood for?

22:41 Now, we can say it like that to practice for this lesson,

22:45 but when this is in daily conversation, it's really fast.

22:48 That's the purpose of a reduction.

22:50 Do you think you could say this with me really fast?

22:52 Wha'ya in the mood for?

22:53 Wha'ya in the mood for?

22:53 Wha'ya in the mood for?

22:58 Great.

22:58 All right.

22:59 Let's talk about some common answers to these questions

23:01 so that you can be prepared and ready.

23:03 When someone asks you, "Wha'ya in the mood for?" You might say, "Let's order in.

23:09 How about..." Some option.

23:11 How about pizza?

23:13 Let's order in.

23:14 This is another phrase for talking about bringing the food back to your house.

23:19 You don't want to get all ready and then go to the restaurant,

23:23 or maybe you don't feel comfortable doing that.

23:26 You might just say, "Let's order in.

23:29 How about pizza?" This expression, how about,

23:32 is a great way to give a suggestion.

23:35 This is excellent in professional situations.

23:38 "Hey, how about if we try this marketing plan?" Or, it's great

23:43 for informal situations to give a suggestion about something you want to eat.

23:47 "How about pizza?

23:48 What do you think about that?" Sometimes

23:50 this question is reduced and it sounds like this.

23:54 How 'bout pizza?

23:55 How 'bout pizza?

23:57 The first A in the word about is gone.

24:01 It's just missing.

24:03 We say, "How 'bout pizza?" Can you say that reduction quickly with me?

24:09 How 'bout pizza?

24:10 How 'bout pizza?

24:11 Great.

24:12 Or you could say, "I'm feeling tacos.

24:15 Does that sound good?" You're giving your opinion.

24:19 You'd like to eat tacos, but you also want to know what the other person wants,

24:23 so you use a great question.

24:25 Does that sound good?

24:26 But we often reduce this a lot.

24:29 Let's take a look at the first reduction.

24:32 You might say, "I'm feelin'..." cutting off that G, "I'm feelin' tacos.

24:37 How'zat sound?" How'zat sound?

24:40 Instead of how does that sound?

24:44 You can say, how'zat sound?

24:47 How'zat sound?

24:48 Can you say that quickly with me?

24:52 I'm feelin' tacos.

24:54 How'zat sound?

24:55 I'm feelin' tacos.

24:56 How'zat sound?

24:57 Great.

24:58 We can also reduce it and switch it up a little bit.

25:02 I'm feelin' tacos.

25:03 Zat sound okay?

25:04 I'm feeling tacos, that's what I want, but I want to know your opinion.

25:10 Does that sound okay?

25:11 Reduces to, zat sound okay?

25:14 Does that becomes zat.

25:16 Zat sound okay?

25:17 Zat sound okay?

25:18 Can you say it with me?

25:21 I'm feelin' tacos.

25:22 Zat sound okay?

25:23 Great question.

25:24 Because a lot of restaurants have changed over the last year,

25:28 and you never know when a restaurant might be closed,

25:31 it's a good question to ask, "Is Ted's Cafe open?

25:35 I would love to go there." Is, some restaurant, open?

25:38 I would love to go there.

25:41 There is a little way that we can reduce this question.

25:44 Take a look at this.

25:45 Is Ted's Cafe open?

25:47 I would love to go there.

25:50 The word would becomes I'd.

25:52 I would, I'd.

25:54 You can say, "Is Ted's Cafe open?

25:57 I'd love to go there." Can you say it with me?

26:01 Is Ted's Cafe open?

26:02 I'd love to go there.

26:04 Great.

26:04 In the US, a lot of restaurants are having outdoor seating.

26:08 You could say, "Let's go to Louis'..." a restaurant named Louis,

26:12 "Let's go to Louis' and eat lunch on their patio." Eat lunch on their patio.

26:18 This is an outdoor dining area.

26:21 It's really nice when restaurants have this, because

26:23 sometimes you don't feel like eating at home, but especially with kids,

26:26 if you don't feel like confining them inside a restaurant,

26:30 or maybe you don't feel comfortable doing that.

26:32 If a restaurant has a patio, it's much more informal feeling.

26:35 And it's a nice spur of the moment thing to do.

26:39 A great expression that you can use is, let's grab a bite at Louis'.

26:44 Let's grab a bite at Ted's Cafe.

26:47 To grab a bite is usually a quick meal.

26:51 It might be lunch.

26:52 Usually it's not dinner because it's pretty quick,

26:55 but it might just be a short experience.

26:57 It's not a long dinner.

26:59 It's not a big to do.

26:59 Let's grab a bite at Ted's Cafe, because I have to go to s Vanessa: To do.

27:00 Let's grab a bite at Ted's Cafe because I have to go somewhere later.

27:05 Let's grab a bite at somewhere else.

27:07 Can you say that with me?

27:09 Let's grab a bite at Ted's Cafe.

27:11 Let's grab a bite.

27:12 Our final answer to the question what you want to eat is

27:16 I know a place or I know a spot that has great pasta.

27:21 I know a place that has great pizza.

27:23 I know a place.

27:24 You could leave this simple and just say, I know a place.

27:27 Come with me.

27:28 But if you want to be a little less mysterious,

27:31 you could just say, oh, I know a place that has great pasta.

27:34 Come with me and you've got to try it.

27:36 Okay.

27:37 This is kind of maybe an unknown

27:39 restaurant location that not many people know about,

27:41 and it's a great phrase to use.

27:44 Oh, I know a place that you're going to love.

27:47 Excellent.

27:47 Are you ready to practice these?

27:49 First, I would like you to watch this sample conversation between

27:52 my husband and I as we talk about where we want to eat, what we want to eat.

27:57 Think about those phrases.

27:58 Notice the phrases that we use.

28:00 And then after that, you're going to have

28:03 a chance to speak out loud and practice it yourself.

28:06 Let's watch the sample conversation.

28:07 Hey, you want to grab lunch?

28:09 Dan: Sure.

28:10 But I only have time for a quick bite before my soccer game.

28:14 What sounds good?

28:15 Vanessa: Hmm.

28:16 How about pasta?

28:17 Dan: That sounds great.

28:19 How about I call it in, you pick it up,

28:22 and we'll picnic in the park before my game starts.

28:25 Vanessa: That sounds great.

28:26 I know a place that's close by and has great tomato sauce.

28:31 All right.

28:32 Now it's your turn.

28:34 I want you to use these phrases that you've learned.

28:37 I'm going to ask you a question.

28:39 We're going to have a little conversation together.

28:41 It's your chance to speak out loud.

28:43 So I'm going to ask a question and pause, wait for your answer.

28:47 No matter where you are around the world, I will be listening to you.

28:52 So please take this opportunity to speak and use what you've learned.

28:55 If you need to repeat this section again and again, do that.

28:59 It's a great way to gain confidence as you speak.

29:02 Are you ready?

29:03 Hey, I'm hungry.

29:04 Let's grab lunch.

29:05 What's you in the mood for?

29:11 Oh, that sounds good.

29:12 Do you know a good place?

29:19 Oh, that sounds good.

29:21 You want to eat there or get takeout?

29:26 Great.

29:26 Let's go.

29:27 Well, how did you do?

29:30 Do you feel a little more confident

29:34 discussing dining options and talking about eating out?

29:38 I hope so.

29:41 In this lesson, we're going to talk

29:43 about some common questions to ask about vacations,

29:46 some common responses, and then you'll have a chance to practice this with me.

29:50 Are you ready?

29:52 I know that vacation this year looks a little

29:55 bit different than most years because of well,

29:58 this virus that we have going around.

30:00 So it's going to be a little bit different than usual talking about vacation.

30:05 Let's first talk about some common questions

30:08 and how to pronounce those naturally in English.

30:11 Do you have plans to go anywhere this summer?

30:15 Okay.

30:15 This question is fine.

30:17 You could use this full question.

30:19 Do you have plans to go anywhere this summer?

30:23 Okay.

30:23 But there are a couple different ways to either reduce

30:27 or slightly change this question that are a little bit more natural.

30:32 Where you going this summer?

30:34 Where ya, which is you, going', dropping the G.

30:38 Where you going this summer?

30:40 Where ya goin' this summer?

30:43 Or we could say what you got going on this summer?

30:48 Whatcha is what plus you.

30:51 You becomes cha.

30:52 Whatcha got going on?

30:54 Again, we're dropping the G, but we're using a great phrasal verb.

30:58 Going, going on.

31:00 What's going on?

31:01 If you go into a room and it's an absolute mess,

31:04 you might use this phrasal verb and say, what is goin' on here?

31:08 But you can use this also for vacation and say,

31:12 what do you have going on this summer?

31:15 Or reduced, whatcha got goin' on this summer?

31:19 And it simply means what are your plans this summer?

31:22 What you got going on this summer?

31:24 So if someone asks you this, you

31:26 know that they're asking about your vacation plans.

31:28 Whatcha got goin' on this summer?

31:30 Another common question is, are you doing anything fun for vacation?

31:34 But we don't often say it as clearly as this, unfortunately, right?

31:40 Are you doing anything fun for vacation

31:43 becomes you doing anything fun for vacation?

31:46 Look at what's happening at the beginning of this question.

31:50 Y'.

31:51 What happened to the verb are?

31:53 Are you doing?

31:55 It's completely gone.

31:56 Maybe it's also on vacation.

31:58 So we're going to start this question with just you which is reduced to Y'.

32:02 Do you see how we reduce the word you in a lot of ways?

32:09 Whatcha got going on?

32:11 Or Y'doing.

32:12 Y'doin'.

32:12 We're dropping that G again.

32:15 Y'doin'nything fun?

32:16 Something interesting happens at the beginning of the word anything.

32:22 Y'doin'nything fun?

32:24 We link together doing, because we're going to drop the G.

32:31 It ends with the sound, nn, the n sound.

32:34 And then the next word, anything,

32:37 we sometimes drop the a and we're going to push

32:41 those two together because there's two n sounds side by side.

32:46 Y'doin'nything, doing'nything fun?

32:49 Y'doin'nything?

32:50 This is one of the reasons why English sounds quite fast to English learners.

32:57 If you watch a TV show and you say, what in the world did they just say?

33:02 I have no idea.

33:04 Well, it's because of these dropping linkings.

33:06 This is quite common in spoken English.

33:08 So you can say this question with me.

33:11 Are you ready?

33:12 Y'doin'nything fun for vacation?

33:13 Y'doin'nything fun for vacation?

33:15 Let's go to our next question.

33:17 Where are you headed for vacation?

33:19 Where are you headed for vacation?

33:22 This question is very clear the way I just said it,

33:26 but it uses a wonderful verb headed.

33:28 This is, yes, your head, but it's talking about the direction that you're going.

33:33 Some place that you're going to visit.

33:35 So if you get a call from your mom and she says, where are you going?

33:40 You could say, I'm headed to the store.

33:43 This means that's the direction that you're going.

33:45 You are on your way to the store.

33:47 But we can reduce this a little bit and say, where ya, does that sound familiar?

33:54 Where ya headed for vacation?

33:56 Where ya headed for vacation?

33:58 We could substitute the end of this for vacation and just say,

34:02 where are you headed this summer?

34:04 Where ya headed this summer?

34:05 Where ya headed this summer?

34:07 Do you notice that a great way to sound a little

34:11 bit more fluent in English is to reduce the word you?

34:15 We've talked about a couple different reductions, but a very common one is ya.

34:19 Where ya headed this summer?

34:20 Where ya headed for vacation?

34:22 Great.

34:22 Before we go on to some common answers

34:25 that you can use to answer these questions,

34:28 let's talk about something very important.

34:30 The most important conversation question you will ever know is, what about you?

34:36 How about you?

34:37 We talked about this in the part one video I made,

34:42 speak with me about your weekend plans.

34:44 Well, these two questions are essential.

34:46 If you don't remember anything else from this video,

34:49 please remember, what about you?

34:52 How about you?

34:53 We use these, if you can imagine a ball.

34:57 I'm holding the conversation ball.

34:58 And when I ask you, how about you, boom, I pass the ball to you.

35:04 It is your turn to answer the same question.

35:07 So if you ask me, where are you headed for vacation?

35:11 And I say, eh, not really anywhere.

35:14 I'm staying home.

35:15 What about you?

35:16 I pass the question back to you.

35:19 This is a great way to continue a conversation.

35:21 So make sure that you keep that locked inside your memory,

35:24 because we're going to be using that a little bit

35:26 later in this lesson where you're going to use these conversation,

35:29 questions and answers to practice speaking with me.

35:32 All right, let's go to some common answers to talk about our vacations,

35:36 especially in this world that we're living in this year.

35:39 Because a lot of us would love to go on vacation and see the world,

35:43 but we probably needed to change our plans a bit this summer,

35:48 let's talk about some realistic answers

35:50 to these questions about where you headed this summer,

35:53 what you got going on for vacation.

35:56 Let's talk about some realistic answers.

35:58 I'd like to go to Europe,

36:00 but I think I'll take a road trip around the US instead.

36:04 This is using a great sentence construction, I'd like to, but.

36:08 So first we're talking about your dream, the ideal dream,

36:13 and then we're talking what you're really doing.

36:15 I'd like to go to Europe,

36:17 but I think I'll go on a road trip around the US instead.

36:21 Or you could say, I'd like to go to a family reunion, but we had to postpone it.

36:28 Okay.

36:29 The ideal is going to the family reunion,

36:31 getting together with all of your family members,

36:34 but the reality is that you had to postpone it or delay it for another time.

36:40 This is the reality.

36:42 I wish that I could go on a cruise, but that's not happening right now,

36:47 so I guess I'll order a pizza and go to the pool.

36:51 Here again, we're talking about the dream and then

36:56 you can make that reality special for you.

36:58 It doesn't need to be too disappointing,

37:00 but it's not your dream, your ideal dream.

37:03 I wish that I could go on a cruise, but cruises aren't happening right now.

37:09 I wish that I could.

37:11 That's a great introductory phrase.

37:13 I wish that I could go to a music festival, but it was canceled.

37:19 So I guess I'll make a playlist and listen to music and dance in my backyard.

37:25 I wish that I could, but this is what I'll do instead.

37:30 All right, let's go to our third phrase.

37:32 I was going to take my family to New York, but I think we'll go camping instead.

37:39 Using this phrase, I was going to, talks about a plan that you had,

37:45 usually a real plan that you had.

37:47 It's not just a dream.

37:48 It's a plan that you had and then you needed to change it.

37:51 I was going to take my family to New York, but I think we'll go camping instead.

37:56 So we have the dream, or maybe a plan, but unfortunately that's not the reality.

38:01 I was going to backpack across Italy,

38:05 but I guess I'll stay home and learn how to cook some Italian dishes instead.

38:11 This year is all about, and last year,

38:13 is all about trying to make some kind of compromise,

38:16 a change in plans that's not too disappointing.

38:20 I was going to backpack across Italy,

38:23 but I'll learn to cook some Italian dishes instead.

38:26 Okay.

38:27 Now that we have some common questions, don't forget our key question.

38:32 How about you?

38:33 What about you?

38:34 And some common answers.

38:36 Let's take a look at a sample conversation so that you

38:38 can try to imitate this when it comes to be your turn.

38:41 Let's take a look at this sample.

38:44 Dan: Hey, you doing anything fun this summer?

38:46 Vanessa: Well, I was going to go backpacking around Europe,

38:50 but instead I think I'll just go camping in some local state parks.

38:55 What about you?

38:56 Dan: Well, I was going to meet my family in Florida for a family reunion,

39:01 but that got canceled.

39:03 So now I think I'm going to have

39:05 a socially distanced outdoor movie night in my backyard.

39:09 Do you want to come?

39:10 Vanessa: Sure.

39:11 That sounds great.

39:11 Text me the details and I'll be there.

39:14 Dan: Great.

39:15 I'll see you around.

39:16 Enjoy your camping trip.

39:17 Vanessa: Thanks.

39:18 I will.

39:19 See you at the movie night.

39:21 Okay.

39:21 Now it's your turn.

39:22 Put together all of these pieces.

39:24 I'm going to be asking you a question, than I'm going to be pausing.

39:28 I don't care where you are living around the world.

39:31 My ears are going to be listening to you.

39:34 Then I'll be replying and I would like

39:36 you to take this opportunity to speak out loud.

39:38 If you need to go back, review this section, do it again and again,

39:43 and just gain some more courage, feel free to do it.

39:47 This is a wonderful chance to speak out loud.

39:50 Are you ready?

39:51 Let's do it.

39:52 Hey, you doing anything fun this summer?

40:00 That sounds like fun.

40:02 Have you done that before?

40:09 I wish I could take my family on a trip to Switzerland,

40:13 but with the travel restrictions,

40:15 I think we're just going to go on a road trip here in the US instead.

40:19 Yeah.

40:20 Well, it was nice talking with you.

40:22 See you later.

40:22 So how did you do?

40:24 Do you feel a little bit more

40:26 comfortable talking about your vacation or summer plans?

40:29 Feel free to go back and review our practice section together.

40:33 It's a great way to speak out loud.

40:37 Okay.

40:37 Let's get started with some common vocabulary to talk about where you live.

40:42 If you live in a city, you might say, it's really busy where I live.

40:48 New York City is a busy place.

40:51 Or you could use the word crowded.

40:54 Tokyo is a crowded city.

40:56 There are lots of people everywhere,

40:58 and there are not many places where you can be alone and have a quiet moment.

41:04 Maybe you might say that your city is busy and crowded.

41:08 What's the opposite of this?

41:11 You can say Stockholm, Sweden is a relaxed city.

41:15 It's a quiet place.

41:16 I don't know.

41:18 I've been to Stockholm.

41:19 If you're from Stockholm, Sweden, let me know.

41:23 But you might say, where I live is just a relaxed place.

41:27 Or we can say, it's relaxing.

41:29 If you come visit where I live, it's very relaxing and quiet.

41:34 Maybe that's because it's in the country.

41:38 Let's go on to these two common words to talk about the type of place you live.

41:43 You might say, yeah, I live in Delhi, India,

41:47 and it's one of the largest urban areas in the world.

41:51 There are so many people here.

41:53 It's busy, it's crowded.

41:54 It's an urban area.

41:56 And this means it's the city.

41:58 It's quite busy.

41:59 It's crowded.

41:59 It's an urban area.

42:01 There's not many trees, not much nature.

42:04 But on the other hand, you might say, I live in the country.

42:09 The word country means United States, France, Japan, these places.

42:14 But in the US, we use this to mean countryside.

42:18 We do say countryside sometimes,

42:20 but we're more likely in the US to say I live in the country.

42:26 That means in nature.

42:29 Maybe there's some farms around you, maybe there's forests around you,

42:33 and you don't live in a busy urban city center.

42:36 You live in the country.

42:38 So I wonder for you,

42:39 do you live in the country or do you live in an urban city center?

42:43 Do you live somewhere that's difficult to get to?

42:46 You might say, yeah, my city is off the beaten path, but it's worth visiting.

42:52 So for me, my city, Asheville, in North Carolina,

42:55 it is definitely off the beaten path.

42:58 It's not a huge city.

43:00 It doesn't have a big airport that comes here.

43:03 It's off the beaten path.

43:04 But if you want to check out some other local sites in the US,

43:08 it could be nice to visit.

43:11 It's off the beaten path.

43:13 This also can be used to talk about locations within a city.

43:18 So, if you visit Paris and you go

43:20 to the Eiffel Tower and then you get hungry, well,

43:23 the places that are close to the Eiffel Tower to eat,

43:27 those are what we call tourist traps.

43:31 Those places are only for tourists.

43:33 They're extremely expensive.

43:34 They're not high quality.

43:36 It's just to trap tourists.

43:38 But if you want to eat at a great location,

43:42 you might go somewhere off the beaten path.

43:45 This is somewhere that not many other people go to.

43:49 And it's an expression that's great to use about little secret, local locations.

43:54 So when I visit your city, I might ask,

43:56 are there any places off the beaten path that I can visit?

43:59 Are there any restaurants off the beaten path that only locals know about?

44:04 What is something off the beaten path that I can do?

44:07 Let's say that where you live is not extremely popular,

44:11 but it's becoming more popular.

44:13 Maybe because of the pandemic last year,

44:17 people are traveling to different types of destinations.

44:20 Maybe they're deciding to travel to more nature places,

44:25 places that are in the mountains or places that are not in big city centers.

44:32 Well, that might mean that where you live is becoming an up and coming place.

44:38 We use this term up and coming

44:41 to talk about somewhere that's not extremely popular,

44:44 but it's becoming more popular.

44:46 So you might say, yeah, my city isn't really popular right now,

44:49 but it's an up and coming place.

44:51 You've got to check it out.

44:52 We can use this on a smaller scale,

44:54 just like off the beaten path, to talk about a restaurant or a neighborhood.

44:58 Yeah, that neighborhood used to not be a good neighborhood,

45:02 but now it's an up and coming neighborhood.

45:05 You've got to walk through it.

45:07 Just look at the houses, look at the architecture, enjoy the sights.

45:11 So you might say it's an up and coming place.

45:14 Excellent expression.

45:15 Our final expression to talk about where you

45:19 live is must see or some must see locations.

45:24 Can you imagine what this means?

45:26 Does it mean it's not important to see it?

45:30 Nah, you can skip that.

45:32 No, you must see this.

45:34 So, for example, when you visit Egypt, the pyramids are a must see.

45:39 So we can use it as a noun, a must see.

45:43 Of course, when you go to Egypt, the pyramids are a must see.

45:47 When you go to London, Big Ben is a must see.

45:51 When you go to New York City, the Empire State Building is a must see.

45:56 These are kind of like the top things that you need to see.

45:59 But even if you don't live in one of those really popular cities,

46:02 if you live somewhere a little bit off the beaten path,

46:05 you can still use this expression.

46:07 You might say, in my city, yeah, this view on the top of the mountains.

46:12 Yeah, that is a must see.

46:14 You drive up this hill and you can have a great 360 view.

46:19 That is a must see.

46:21 So it's something that you cannot miss when you visit that location.

46:24 So when I visit your city, tell me, what are some places that are a must see?

46:29 I don't want to miss them.

46:30 Next, let's talk about some common questions that you

46:33 can ask other people about where they live,

46:35 and also other people will ask you about where you live.

46:39 So make sure you're comfortable answering them about where you live.

46:43 The first question is, where are you from?

46:45 This is an extremely common question.

46:47 And you can just say, yep, I'm from the US,

46:50 but it's nice to give a little more details.

46:52 So you might say, I'm from Asheville in North Carolina.

46:56 It's a pretty quiet place, but it's kind of up and coming.

47:00 Great.

47:01 You're giving some details.

47:02 It's quiet, but it's also up and coming.

47:04 I live in Asheville.

47:05 You're inviting a conversation.

47:07 If you just say, I'm from the US, or, I'm from Asheville,

47:11 that's where I'm from, someone might ask you, what's it like there?

47:15 Or if someone doesn't give you more details about where they live,

47:19 they just say France.

47:21 I live in London.

47:22 I live in LA.

47:24 Okay.

47:24 Well you might want some more details.

47:26 You want to continue the conversation.

47:28 This is a great question to ask.

47:30 What's it like there?

47:32 What's it like there?

47:33 What is it like there?

47:35 They might say, it's so hot in the summer, but in the fall,

47:39 it's awesome because we get some great leaves

47:41 and you got to check it out in the fall.

47:44 Excellent.

47:44 If someone has not mentioned the weather yet,

47:46 you can say, what's the weather like there?

47:48 They can go into some details.

47:50 You could say about your city, uh, the winter is so cold.

47:54 We get tons of snow.

47:55 But when it melts in the spring and all

47:58 of the leaves become green and the flowers bloom, it's awesome.

48:01 You've got to visit in the spring.

48:04 If you have not told someone what time to visit yet,

48:07 they might ask, what's the best time to visit?

48:09 So when Dan and I were planning a trip to go to Costa Rica a couple years ago,

48:14 we did a lot of research about what is the best time to visit Costa Rica.

48:18 Their seasons are very different than our seasons,

48:21 and we were going to be spending a lot of time outside,

48:24 so we wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be raining the whole time,

48:28 wasn't going to be pouring down rain or too hot the whole time.

48:32 So we asked this question, when's the best time to visit?

48:36 So someone might ask you, when's the best time to visit your city?

48:39 For my city, I think the best time to visit is the fall.

48:42 The leaves are beautiful in the mountains.

48:44 There's so many different colors and the air is so crisp and fresh.

48:49 You got to visit in the fall.

48:51 If someone asked you, what's your city known for, what would you say?

48:55 This means, what is your city famous for?

48:59 Why do people visit your city?

49:01 It might just be something simple, like the air is so fresh.

49:06 Or it might be, they just love this pastry,

49:10 this type of dessert that's made in my city

49:12 and a lot of people like to come and eat that pastry.

49:16 Cool.

49:16 It could be something simple.

49:17 Or if you live in a bigger place, you can obviously talk about some famous

49:21 destinations that your city is known for.

49:23 But if people have not heard about your city,

49:26 they might ask this question, oh, what's it known for?

49:30 What's your city known for?

49:32 And then you can think about some great

49:34 places to visit that people might be interested in.

49:36 Whenever I ask someone about their city, especially if I'm going to visit,

49:40 like your city, I like to ask about their personal favorite thing to do.

49:44 So someone might ask you, what's your favorite thing to do in your city?

49:49 Or what's your favorite thing to eat there?

49:51 What's your favorite thing to see?

49:52 Because I think that local people's perspectives

49:55 are often different than a tourist perspective.

49:58 So finding out what the locals like to do, specifically, what you like to do,

50:03 can be really valuable and can add to a rich visiting experience.

50:07 So if I asked you, what's your favorite thing to do in your city,

50:10 you might tell me, oh man, there is this little bar off the beaten path

50:14 down this alley and you got to check it out.

50:17 It's so cool.

50:18 They brew their own beer and the atmosphere is awesome.

50:21 It is a must see.

50:23 Great.

50:23 I bet that my trip to your city would

50:26 be a lot more amazing because of that information.

50:28 So make sure that you have some ideas

50:30 that you can tell other people about your city.

50:33 Our final question is a little more broad.

50:35 Someone might simply ask you, what do you recommend?

50:38 Or maybe if you are talking to someone who lives

50:40 in New York and you are about to visit New York,

50:43 great, you can ask them some questions and say, what do you recommend?

50:47 What do you recommend about New York?

50:49 What do you recommend that I do?

50:51 Oh, you got to see this museum.

50:53 It's really cool.

50:54 They have local artists that they have on display

50:57 and all these different things you can see.

50:59 Great.

50:59 You are asking, what do you recommend in general?

51:02 It might not be that person's absolute favorite thing personally,

51:06 but to visit the city, what do you recommend?

51:09 Great.

51:09 A wonderful question to ask.

51:11 What do you recommend?

51:12 All right, now that we've talked about

51:14 some common vocabulary to describe your city,

51:16 some common questions that you can ask or other

51:19 people might ask you about where you live,

51:21 let's see a quick sample conversation between me and my husband,

51:26 Dan, where we talk about visiting Rome.

51:29 Now, neither of us are from Rome, but I want you to use your imagination.

51:34 Let's imagine that Dan is from Rome.

51:36 He's actually from the US,

51:37 but let's imagine that he's from Rome and he is giving me some

51:41 insider tips about what I should do on my upcoming trip to Rome.

51:46 Let's watch the sample conversation and listen

51:49 for some of the key vocabulary that we just

51:51 talked about because you are about to have

51:54 a chance to use it yourself speaking with me.

51:56 Let's watch.

51:57 Hey Dan.

51:58 Dan: Hey Vanessa, are you excited for your trip to Rome?

52:01 Vanessa: Yeah, I can't wait.

52:03 It's such a historic place.

52:04 But are there any tourist traps I should avoid?

52:08 Dan: Yeah.

52:09 Avoid all the gelato shops except this one.

52:12 It's off the beaten path, but trust me, it's worth it.

52:16 Vanessa: Oh, thanks for the tip.

52:18 Any other must sees?

52:19 Dan: Well, the Coliseum is great,

52:22 but my favorite thing to do is wander around and see all the little chapels.

52:26 It's usually more relaxed and less crowded that way.

52:29 Vanessa: Ah, that's good to know.

52:30 Thanks for the tip.

52:31 Dan: No problem.

52:32 Enjoy your trip.

52:33 Vanessa: I will.

52:34 All right, now it is your turn.

52:36 I'm going to ask you some questions about

52:39 where you live because I'm coming to visit.

52:41 I need to know what it's like.

52:44 I'm going to ask you some questions and then I will pause.

52:47 I will be listening to you wherever you live around the world.

52:51 I will be listening, so please speak out loud.

52:54 Use the expressions that you've learned.

52:56 And I can't wait to learn more about your city.

52:58 Are you ready to get started?

53:00 Hi, I'm taking a vacation to your city and I can't wait.

53:05 Tell me, what's the weather like in the summer?

53:09 I need to know what I should pack.

53:17 That's good to know.

53:20 Thank you.

53:21 Well, what's your favorite thing to do or see in your city?

53:32 Wow, that sounds really interesting.

53:34 So I got to know.

53:36 Are there any tourist traps that I should avoid when I go?

53:51 Thanks so much for the tip.

53:52 I look forward to visiting.

53:54 I can't wait to see you soon.

53:56 Bye.

53:56 All right.

53:57 How did you do having this conversation with me?

53:59 You're welcome to review that and say it again and again.

53:59 Vanessa:...

54:00 with me.

54:00 You're welcome to review that and say it again

54:03 and again and again to practice and grow your confidence.

54:09 Let's get started with some common expressions to talk about birthdays.

54:13 Let's talk about some types of birthday parties, a birthday bash.

54:17 This is a big party.

54:19 Lots of people, lots of presents, lots of games, it's a big one.

54:24 So you might say, "We are throwing a birthday bash

54:27 for my niece because she's turning 10." Double digits, quite exciting.

54:32 To throw a party.

54:34 Are you holding the party and throwing it?

54:38 No.

54:38 I mean, maybe you're throwing some confetti,

54:40 but this is just another way to say,

54:43 "We're having a party or we're going to plan

54:46 a party." We often use the verb to throw.

54:49 You might say, "We're throwing a party for my grandma's 90th birthday.

54:54 It's going to be a big birthday bash."

54:57 What if you're not a fan of birthday bashes?

55:00 You want to keep things more low key.

55:02 You might say a gathering or a get together.

55:06 This is something small and intimate, just family, a few friends maybe.

55:10 You could say, "I'm not a fan of big birthday bashes.

55:14 So we're just going to have a little gathering at my house,

55:17 or we're just going to have a little get

55:20 together at my house." This is true for me.

55:22 Usually for my birth birthday,

55:23 we just have a little get together at my house with a couple friends,

55:28 maybe some family, nothing too big.

55:31 Surprise.

55:32 Oh, what did I just do?

55:34 I surprised you, because it's a surprise party.

55:38 Usually with a surprise party,

55:40 the person who is having the birthday doesn't know about the party,

55:44 this is the ideal situation.

55:46 So someone is planning, inviting guests, setting up everything,

55:50 and they try to get the birthday person

55:53 to come into that area without knowing anything.

55:56 And they walk in and then everybody jumps up and says,

56:00 "Surprise." So I'm curious, have you ever had a birthday for you?

56:05 Have you ever helped to participate in a surprise birthday?

56:09 I don't think that I ever have, but one time when I was in college,

56:14 my friends threw a surprise birthday party for me

56:17 and another friend who has the same birthday.

56:20 And I didn't want to go.

56:21 I said, "I'm studying.

56:23 I have a test.

56:24 I can't go down there.

56:25 I'm not going to go have dinner with you guys.

56:27 No, I need to study." And then one

56:29 of my friends finally realized that I wasn't coming.

56:32 And she said, "Hey Vanessa, it's a surprise birthday for you.

56:35 Come on." So I had no choice at that point because I realized, "Oh,

56:40 they're doing something nice for me." So you might say,

56:43 "We're throwing a party for Vanessa.

56:45 It's a surprise party.

56:46 Don't tell her." Well, unless you can't get her to come.

56:51 Next, let's talk about some common

56:53 phrases that are just associated with birthdays.

56:55 The first one is RSVP.

56:57 Now, this is occasionally something that we use in spoken conversation,

57:02 but it is more common on a written invitation.

57:06 It could be a physical invitation, or it might be an internet invitation

57:11 using Facebook events or something like this.

57:15 But RSVP stands for the French Répondez

57:17 s'il vous plaît and it means, "Please respond.

57:22 Please tell me if you're coming." So usually

57:27 you will see this sentence RSVP by June 30th, RSVP by Saturday, whatever date.

57:35 So there's a deadline.

57:36 Please tell me if you're coming so that I can order the right

57:41 amount of cake so that I can make the right amount of food.

57:44 This is just a polite thing to do to RSVP.

57:48 Wonderful.

57:49 Another common phrase for birthdays or for parties is BYOB.

57:53 What if I said, "Dinner and cake are

57:58 provided BYOB." What would that mean to you?

58:02 Bring your old bag.

58:05 Bring your old balloon.

58:08 No.

58:09 This means, "Bring your own beer or bring

58:15 your own booze." Booze is a slang term for alcohol.

58:19 So this means I am not providing alcohol.

58:22 If you want to drink alcohol, bring what you want to drink.

58:26 Bring it for yourself.

58:27 This is very common and it's not really rude.

58:30 In fact, it's good to tell guests if they are allowed

58:33 to drink alcohol at your house and you're not going to provide any,

58:37 it's good to tell them, "I don't have any.

58:40 Bring your own.

58:41 BYOB." This is quite a common expression, especially in an invitation.

58:46 You might see that written, "Dinner and cake provided BYOB." Excellent.

58:50 Make a wish.

58:52 Usually after we sing happy birthday,

58:54 you blow out the candles and you close your eyes and you make a wish.

59:01 There's a superstition that if you tell people your wish,

59:05 it will never come true.

59:07 So usually it's a surprise.

59:09 I will never tell you what my birthday wishes are,

59:12 because it probably won't come true then.

59:15 So this is a superstition.

59:17 But you might say, "After I blow out the candles,

59:20 I'm going to make a wish." But often you will hear people say this.

59:23 So after they sing happy birthday and you blow out the candles,

59:26 someone will say, "All right, make a wish." And they're telling you,

59:30 "This is the time to make a wish." This sometimes

59:33 happens at children's parties more often that someone will say it.

59:37 So they're reminding their child, "This is the time to make a wish,

59:41 close your eyes and make a wish.

59:43 Don't tell anyone." So this is a fun little tradition, I would say.

59:47 A goody bag.

59:49 This is a little plastic bag of, in my opinion,

59:52 usually junk that is given to all of the kids at a children's birthday party.

59:59 I'm not a big fan of goody bags because they're usually made up of junk,

1:00:02 it's stuff that comes from the dollar store and parents feel some

1:00:07 social pressure to give out a goody bag at their child's birthday party.

1:00:11 But usually those things just end up in the trash.

1:00:15 So for me, I would rather do a craft

1:00:17 at the birthday and the children can take home the craft,

1:00:20 or maybe there's an extra cupcake and the children can take home a cupcake.

1:00:25 This seems a little bit better to me.

1:00:27 I think that the idea of a goody bag is falling out of tradition a bit,

1:00:31 but there's still a little pressure to give something to your guests.

1:00:36 This is only for children's birthdays, to give something to your guests.

1:00:40 A sweet 16.

1:00:41 If I said, "I can't believe your daughter is already old enough

1:00:45 to have her sweet 16." How old do you think that she is?

1:00:50 16 years old.

1:00:51 For some reason, 16 is a big number.

1:00:54 I think this is because this is when

1:00:56 you can get your driver's license in the US.

1:00:59 So it's usually just for girls.

1:01:02 I hate to say it, but usually teenage boys

1:01:06 who are 16 years old aren't usually labeled as sweet.

1:01:10 Maybe that was just my experience when I was a teenager,

1:01:14 but usually a 16 year old girl might have sweet 16 party.

1:01:19 And this is a big birthday bash to celebrate turning 16.

1:01:23 The next big birthday is turning 21.

1:01:26 And this is for anyone, boys or girls.

1:01:28 And this is a big birthday because you can finally legally drink alcohol.

1:01:33 So a lot of people will have a 21st birthday party

1:01:37 with their friends where they get to go to a bar, or they go to a pub,

1:01:41 or they go to a brewery or a restaurant and they get to drink alcohol in public.

1:01:45 That's not to say that nobody drinks alcohol before 21,

1:01:49 but usually your 21st birthday is a symbol of, "Now,

1:01:53 I am an adult." There you go.

1:01:55 After 21, you have to wait a long time for your next birthday.

1:01:59 If I said, "I don't feel that old,

1:02:03 but somehow I'm already over the hill." What do you think over the hill means?

1:02:10 Well, the average lifespan is about 80 years.

1:02:12 I think now it's a little bit more than 80 years old, but what is halfway?

1:02:18 40.

1:02:19 So this birthday is a little bit dark, a little bit depressing,

1:02:23 but we say that when you turn 40 years old, you are over the hill.

1:02:28 And anytime after 40,

1:02:30 if you don't want to tell someone your age, you can just say,

1:02:34 "I'm over the hill or I'm way over

1:02:38 the hill," because you are past the peak of life.

1:02:42 And now you're just going down the other side.

1:02:46 Very sad.

1:02:46 So usually if you go to the grocery store and you buy any

1:02:51 kind of balloons or birthday bags or birthday decorations for a 40th birthday,

1:02:56 they all are black or gray or have to do with like gravestones or skeletons.

1:03:03 It's a little bit silly because obviously when you're 40,

1:03:06 you're still young, but it's just this silly idea that now, "Oh,

1:03:11 you're over the hill." Our last birthday expression before we get

1:03:14 to some common birthday questions is a trip around the sun.

1:03:18 This is just another fun way to say that you are one year older.

1:03:22 So if somebody is having a birthday,

1:03:25 you could tell them congrats on another successful trip around the sun.

1:03:29 They have successfully gone around the sun one more time,

1:03:32 which is one more year.

1:03:34 Congrats on a successful trip around the sun.

1:03:36 You did it.

1:03:38 All right, let's go on to some common questions that you might get

1:03:42 asked on your birthday or you could ask someone else on their birthday.

1:03:45 And we'll talk about some common answers as well.

1:03:48 Any plans for your birthday?

1:03:50 This is an extremely common question.

1:03:52 If someone asks you any plans for your birthday,

1:03:55 you could say, "Yup, we're planning a big bash this weekend.

1:03:59 It's going to be exciting," or, "No.

1:04:01 We're just going to have a small gathering with a couple friends." Excellent.

1:04:06 Any plans for your birthday?

1:04:07 What do you want to do for your birthday?

1:04:10 This is a great question to ask if you know

1:04:13 that you will also be included in the birthday plans.

1:04:16 If you are a family member or a close

1:04:20 friend who will help to organize the birthday activities,

1:04:23 you can use this question,

1:04:25 "What do you want to do for your birthday?" That is asking,

1:04:29 "Hey, what should I plan for your birthday?" And you could say,

1:04:32 "Yeah, I'd like to have just a small get together at the house.

1:04:36 Maybe we can have a cookout, maybe some cake,

1:04:39 just some small get together." A little bird told me it was your birthday.

1:04:45 What would you like?

1:04:46 This expression, "A little bird told me" is almost a universal idea.

1:04:51 I think a lot of languages have

1:04:54 this concept of hearing something from a little bird.

1:04:59 You're not saying who told you, but you're just saying,

1:05:02 "A little bird told me that it was your birthday or that your birthday

1:05:07 is coming soon." Do you have this type of expression in your native language?

1:05:11 It's a great one to use for birthdays.

1:05:13 You could just say, "A little bird told me it's your birthday.

1:05:16 What would you like?" You're asking for a present idea.

1:05:18 What kind of present should I give you?

1:05:21 And an answer to that could be, "Yup,

1:05:23 my birthday is coming up on Saturday, but instead of a present,

1:05:28 I'm asking that everyone bring some food or drink to the party." Okay,

1:05:33 you don't need presents.

1:05:34 You don't need more stuff.

1:05:36 You're just asking that people bring food and drinks to your party.

1:05:40 Simple and it's a good way to give at a party and participate.

1:05:44 How old will you be?

1:05:46 Or maybe if it's on someone's birthday.

1:05:49 Oh, how old are you now?

1:05:51 Don't ask an adult this.

1:05:53 I would say after the age of 21, usually it's not a good idea to ask someone

1:06:01 how old are you or how old will you be?

1:06:05 In American culture,

1:06:06 it is quite rude to ask someone their age when they're an adult.

1:06:10 For a child, it's no problem.

1:06:12 Children love telling people their age.

1:06:15 Usually they're very specific like, "I'm seven and a half.

1:06:18 I'm eight and three quarters." They're very specific about their age,

1:06:21 because they're so proud of it.

1:06:23 But once we become adults,

1:06:24 we become a little bit more hesitant to share our age, especially with anybody.

1:06:31 And it's not required in social circumstances to say your age.

1:06:36 So I recommend asking, "How old are you now?

1:06:39 Or how old will you be?" Only to children.

1:06:41 When someone invites you to a party you can ask,

1:06:44 "Is it a surprise party?" That way you

1:06:47 can not be the one who spoils the surprise.

1:06:50 So maybe they forgot to tell you, "Oh,

1:06:52 it's a surprise party." So it's a good thing to ask,

1:06:55 "Is this a surprise party?" And they might say, "Oh no,

1:06:57 he knows about it." Or he might say, "Oh yes it is.

1:07:00 Don't tell him." It's a great question to ask, "Is it a surprise party?

1:07:05 Do you need me to bring anything?

1:07:07 Can I bring anything?" This is a great question to ask

1:07:10 anytime that you go to someone's house for dinner, for a meal,

1:07:14 for even just tea or coffee and especially

1:07:17 for a birthday party or a holiday gathering,

1:07:19 it's great to ask, "Do you need me to bring anything?

1:07:23 Or what can I bring?" I ask this all

1:07:26 the time and I really appreciate it when my guests ask

1:07:29 this because maybe it would be nice if someone else made

1:07:33 the salad or someone else made a dish for the meal,

1:07:37 or maybe even someone just brought a game or something to do.

1:07:41 This can help to ease the burden of the person

1:07:45 who is throwing the party or just having a holiday gathering.

1:07:48 So this is a great question to ask.

1:07:50 I highly recommend it.

1:07:51 And if someone asks you, "Can I bring anything?" You can think, "Okay, well,

1:07:58 yeah maybe bring your own booze or yeah do you have a favorite board game?

1:08:03 Maybe after dinner we could play a game, bring a game or could you make a salad?

1:08:08 Could you make a dessert?" Not even make, "Could you just bring one?

1:08:11 You can buy it that's okay." But this kind of question

1:08:14 can help to have everyone feel like they're participating in the evening.

1:08:18 All right, now that we've practiced some common expressions for birthdays,

1:08:22 some common questions for birthdays, let's go on to our conversation.

1:08:26 I'd like you to see this sample conversation that I had with my husband,

1:08:30 Dan, about birthdays.

1:08:31 You're going to recognize a lot of these questions.

1:08:34 A lot of the expressions about birthdays.

1:08:36 Listen to this conversation carefully because in just a minute,

1:08:40 Dan will leave and I will be asking you those questions

1:08:43 and it will be your turn to speak out loud.

1:08:46 Let's watch the sample conversation.

1:08:48 Hey, Dan.

1:08:49 Dan: Hey Vanessa, you have a birthday coming up.

1:08:53 Don't you?

1:08:53 Vanessa: Yup.

1:08:54 Pretty soon.

1:08:55 Another trip around the sun.

1:08:56 Dan: Cool.

1:08:57 Do you have any plans for your birthday?

1:08:59 Vanessa: Yeah, I'm going to have a big birthday bash.

1:09:02 I would love for you to come.

1:09:04 I can send you an invitation.

1:09:05 Dan: That sounds fun.

1:09:06 Do you need me to bring anything?

1:09:09 Vanessa: You can bring your favorite party game and a big appetite for cake.

1:09:13 All the other details will be in the invitation.

1:09:16 Dan: Sounds great.

1:09:17 I'll be there.

1:09:18 Vanessa: Great.

1:09:19 See you then.

1:09:21 Okay.

1:09:21 You watched the sample conversation.

1:09:23 Now it's time to take a deep breath and practice this yourself.

1:09:27 I'm going to ask you a couple questions and I will pause.

1:09:31 I will be listening to you no matter where you live around the world,

1:09:36 I will be listening and we will be having this conversation.

1:09:39 If it seems too fast for you, if you want to try it again,

1:09:44 the good news is that you can click pause

1:09:46 on the video and go back and practice it again.

1:09:49 No problem.

1:09:50 Are you ready?

1:09:51 Let's get started.

1:09:52 Hey, a little bird told me that your birthday is coming up.

1:09:59 Do you have any plans?

1:10:05 That sounds like fun.

1:10:08 Is it a birthday tradition or is that something new?

1:10:16 Cool.

1:10:17 I would love to come.

1:10:18 Can I bring anything?

1:10:25 Great.

1:10:26 I'll be there.

1:10:27 I can't wait to celebrate another trip around the sun.

1:10:31 So how did you do with this little sample conversation?

1:10:34 I hope that it was a good challenge for you

1:10:37 and it helped to boost your confidence speaking in English.

1:10:39 That is the goal.

1:10:41 You can always go back and review this.

1:10:46 Let's learn some common vocabulary about animals and pets.

1:10:50 Let's start by describing you.

1:10:52 Can you describe yourself?

1:10:54 I'm an animal lover.

1:10:56 This means that you love all kinds of animals.

1:11:00 You might say, "Ever since I first visited a zoo as a child,

1:11:04 I have been an animal lover.

1:11:06 I just love all animals." Or if you would like to be a little more specific,

1:11:11 you could say, "I'm a cat person.

1:11:14 I'm a dog person." Usually we keep it to cats and dogs but you might say,

1:11:18 "I'm a horse person." Does that mean that you have a cat head?

1:11:22 I am a cat person.

1:11:24 No.

1:11:24 This just means that that is your preferred pet.

1:11:27 You like cats.

1:11:28 So for me, if you've been watching my English lessons for a while,

1:11:33 you know I am a cat person.

1:11:35 I've never had a dog, but I feel like I relate more to cats.

1:11:40 I get along better with cats and I feel more comfortable with cats.

1:11:43 But maybe for you, you might say, "I'm a dog person.

1:11:47 I would rather have a dog." Or maybe you have this unfortunate situation,

1:11:51 you are allergic to dogs.

1:11:54 Or maybe you might say, "I'm allergic to cat fur, I love them.

1:11:59 They're so cute and cuddly.

1:12:01 And I wish I could have a cat,

1:12:03 but I'm allergic." If your eyes start to get red and your nose starts to run,

1:12:08 maybe your throat hurts, that's a bad sign.

1:12:11 It means that you are allergic to some kind of animal.

1:12:15 Maybe you can take some simple medicine and you'll be fine.

1:12:19 But sometimes it's a bigger problem than that and you just can't have a cat.

1:12:23 You can't have a dog.

1:12:25 I hope you're not allergic.

1:12:27 Now let's describe your pet.

1:12:28 But a little note, first of all,

1:12:31 something that I've noticed that's different between

1:12:33 English and some other languages is that when

1:12:36 we're talking about our pets or someone else's pet, we use he or she.

1:12:41 We don't use it very often because it feels like

1:12:46 you are creating some distance or it's a wild animal,

1:12:50 or you don't really care about that animal.

1:12:54 It's just an object.

1:12:55 It.

1:12:55 So for example, if I'm going to tell you about my cat,

1:12:59 little spoiler, I have a cat, I might say,

1:13:03 "She is a Siamese cat." If I say I have a cat, it's Siamese,

1:13:09 it's okay and you will hear this occasionally,

1:13:12 but it's more common to hear he or she.

1:13:15 She's a Siamese.

1:13:17 She likes to play with cat toys.

1:13:19 He or she.

1:13:20 And if you're not certain, if an animal is a he or a she like if you see

1:13:26 a neighbor's dog and you want to talk to that neighbor about their dog,

1:13:29 you can just say he and it's okay.

1:13:32 The neighbor will maybe correct you and say, "Oh yes,

1:13:35 she's a poodle." And then you can say, "Oh yes,

1:13:39 what's her name?" And you can use her when you find out,

1:13:42 but in general we use he or she for pets.

1:13:46 A common word we use to describe pets is breed.

1:13:49 What breed is your pet?

1:13:51 But we often just say kind, what kind is it?

1:13:55 So when we're talking about a dog or a cat, there are different types.

1:14:00 So I already mentioned, my cat is a Siamese cat.

1:14:05 This is a specific type or breed of cat.

1:14:09 What breed is your a cat?

1:14:11 He's a Siamese.

1:14:13 She's a Siamese.

1:14:14 What breed is it?

1:14:15 But we often use the question,

1:14:17 "What kind is it?" Which we'll talk about in our question section in a minutes.

1:14:22 Another common term used with pets is a rescue.

1:14:26 This is describing your pet.

1:14:28 Both of my cats are rescues.

1:14:30 I got them from an animal shelter.

1:14:33 This means that I didn't buy them from a breeder who is making pure bred cats.

1:14:40 No, I went to the animal shelter.

1:14:43 These are abandoned cats who need a home.

1:14:46 I went to the animal shelter and I adopted.

1:14:50 We often use the word adopted.

1:14:52 I adopted two cats.

1:14:54 They are rescue cats or they are rescues.

1:14:57 And this is the idea that I rescued them.

1:15:02 Sometimes in the US, you see a bumper sticker, something like this that says,

1:15:07 "My dog rescued me." Have you ever felt like this?

1:15:11 Maybe you saved your dog from the animal shelter,

1:15:15 but really your dog changed your life.

1:15:18 Your dog rescued you.

1:15:19 You might also hear the word mut.

1:15:22 Mut can be a little negative if you say it with a negative voice,

1:15:27 but it just means that you're not certain what kind of dog you have.

1:15:32 We only use this for dogs.

1:15:34 And it means, well, it's a mix of so

1:15:36 many different types of dogs that I have no idea.

1:15:39 He's a mut.

1:15:40 We got him from the animal shelter, but you know what?

1:15:42 He's the best dog I've ever had.

1:15:44 He's a mut, but I don't care.

1:15:46 So it's that idea that he's not pure.

1:15:48 He's not a pure bred dog.

1:15:50 He's a mix of so many kinds of dogs, but you know what?

1:15:55 It's still a great animal.

1:15:57 Next is fur and coat.

1:15:59 My cat's fur is so soft.

1:16:02 After I give my dog a bath, he has a silky coat.

1:16:06 He's not wearing a coat, it's just talking about his fur.

1:16:10 And these words are interchangeable.

1:16:12 He has soft fur.

1:16:14 He has a silky coat.

1:16:16 It's great words to talk about animal hair.

1:16:19 Let's talk about some words we can use to talk about how friendly an animal is.

1:16:25 The first one is just friendly.

1:16:27 He is friendly.

1:16:29 You'll often hear this as someone is walking their dog.

1:16:32 And if their dogs wants to come closer to you,

1:16:35 the owner might say, "Oh, don't worry.

1:16:38 He's friendly.

1:16:39 He loves little kids." And your child can pet the dog or you might ask,

1:16:44 "Is he friendly?" And that means, "Can I pet him?" So it's a great word to use

1:16:50 to talk about if your dog is comfortable with people, he's friendly.

1:16:53 "He's not very friendly with little kids.

1:16:56 So we'll just try to stay away." There

1:16:59 are three words that are variations of this.

1:17:04 One is wild.

1:17:05 Lions are wild.

1:17:07 They are not friendly towards people.

1:17:10 I do not recommend trying to pet a lion.

1:17:14 They are wild.

1:17:16 The next level is stray.

1:17:18 We might say, "That cat is a stray cat,

1:17:23 or he's a stray." And that means that he lives on the streets

1:17:28 and maybe he'll come close to people to get some food.

1:17:32 He might not really hurt you, but he doesn't want to live in your house.

1:17:37 Maybe if you adopt him, he'll want to live in your house,

1:17:40 but he doesn't have an owner.

1:17:41 He's a stray.

1:17:42 He's a stray cat.

1:17:44 Some cities around the world have a lot of stray cats or stray dogs.

1:17:48 They don't belong to anyone, but everyone helps to take care of them.

1:17:52 Everyone helps to feed them.

1:17:53 In the US, this isn't very common.

1:17:55 We don't have a lot of stray cats or a lot

1:17:59 of stray dogs because animal shelters are a big part of American culture.

1:18:03 A lot of people when they want a pet,

1:18:05 they will go to an animal shelter instead of buying

1:18:08 a pure bred dog or a pure bred cat.

1:18:12 So a lot of stray dogs or stray cats who live

1:18:16 on the street will be taken to an animal shelter for someone to adopt.

1:18:21 So you might say, "My cat was a stray before we got him.

1:18:25 He was a stray cat before we got him.

1:18:27 And now he's just so friendly." The next level is domesticated.

1:18:32 So this means a cat or dog or animal

1:18:36 that was previously wild and now he's very comfortable with humans.

1:18:42 So we could use this for a lot of different animals like cows.

1:18:46 Cows are domesticated.

1:18:48 A long time ago, they were completely wild or horses.

1:18:52 Horses were completely wild, but they have become domesticated.

1:18:56 Over time, people have trained them to become comfortable with humans.

1:19:01 They are domesticated.

1:19:03 We often use this term for farm and animals,

1:19:06 horses, cows, chickens, sheep, goats they are domesticated animals.

1:19:11 Some animals just can't be domesticated like a zebra.

1:19:15 You can't ride a zebra.

1:19:16 You can't domesticate zebras.

1:19:18 It would be pretty cool, but they're just an animal that cannot be domesticated.

1:19:23 Before we go on to some common questions that you

1:19:26 will hear and that you can ask about pets,

1:19:29 let's talk about pet care and some words that you can use to describe pet care.

1:19:34 A cage, a crate, and a kennel are all the same thing.

1:19:38 And it's somewhere that you can keep your animal contained.

1:19:41 So you might say, "I put my ferret." Some people have a ferret for a pet.

1:19:47 I put my ferret in the crate to take it to the vet,

1:19:51 which we'll talk about in just a second,

1:19:53 but it's a type of box where you will keep your animals maybe

1:19:57 to transport them somewhere or maybe just

1:19:59 to help them feel safe and comfortable.

1:20:02 We have a big kennel for my dog

1:20:04 to help him feel comfortable when guests come over.

1:20:07 He goes in there and he feels comfortable.

1:20:09 And then when the guests leave, he comes out and feels very safe.

1:20:13 A collar and tag, this goes around your animal's

1:20:17 neck and has some important information like the pet's name,

1:20:21 your phone number, maybe your address.

1:20:23 And if your pet gets lost, well,

1:20:25 someone can help you to find your pet again by calling

1:20:29 you with the number that's on the tag on their collar.

1:20:34 A collar is also useful because you can attach a leash to the collar.

1:20:39 Sometimes this is called a lead.

1:20:42 I think that lead is maybe more a term that professional people will use.

1:20:47 A veterinarian will use this.

1:20:49 Maybe a dog trainer will use this, a lead,

1:20:53 but for daily conversation, we often just say, "Leash.

1:20:56 Where's the leash?

1:20:57 I need to find the dog's leash so that I can take him on a walk." One time,

1:20:59 I saw somebody having- Vanessa:...

1:21:00 that I can take him on a walk.

1:21:02 One time I saw somebody having an iguana on a leash.

1:21:06 Sometimes people put their cats on a leash too,

1:21:09 but usually cats don't tolerate that.

1:21:11 Have you ever seen a strange animal on a leash before?

1:21:16 A vet or veterinarian.

1:21:17 Usually we shorten this to vet.

1:21:19 You've already heard me say this a couple

1:21:22 times and that's the doctor for an animal.

1:21:25 So you might say, "I need to take my sick dog to the vet."

1:21:30 Or, "What is the best vet to take my dog to?" We're talking about veterinarian,

1:21:37 but it's a situation where we don't use the longest word.

1:21:40 We just to use a short, simple version.

1:21:43 Yes, finally, in English, there is a simple way to say a long word.

1:21:47 So you can just say vet.

1:21:50 "My cat's vet is just up the streets."

1:21:52 Or, "We have a vet appointment next week." Excellent.

1:21:56 Now I just want to let you know if this is your job,

1:21:59 if you are a vet in someone asks you the common question,

1:22:02 "What do you do?" Which means what's your job?

1:22:05 And you say, "I'm a vet." Well,

1:22:08 this might be slightly confusing if someone has no idea that you

1:22:12 work with animals because a vet can be two different things.

1:22:16 It can be a veterinarian, or it can be a veteran, a veteran.

1:22:21 That means who used to be a soldier.

1:22:24 They used to be in the military and now they're retired.

1:22:28 So that means that you could either be

1:22:31 an animal doctor or a retired person from the military.

1:22:35 So if someone knows that you work with animals or that you're a doctor,

1:22:38 if you say, "Oh, I'm a doctor." And they ask,

1:22:41 "What kind of doctor?" You could say,

1:22:42 "I'm a vet." They will know that you work with animals,

1:22:45 but if someone has no clue,

1:22:47 you might say "I'm a veterinarian." You might elongate

1:22:51 that a little bit just to be more specific.

1:22:54 Or if you are a vet from the military,

1:22:57 you might say, "I'm a retired veteran." Or, "I'm a retired vet.

1:23:01 I was in the Navy." You might want to be a little more specific.

1:23:06 That's a situation that might possibly come up.

1:23:08 What can you do to bond with your animal?

1:23:12 You might play fetch.

1:23:14 So you could say, "My cat likes to play fetch." Who would've guessed?

1:23:18 Usually dogs do, but sometimes cats do too.

1:23:22 Or you could just say this word to your dog.

1:23:25 So you have a stick.

1:23:26 You throw the stick and your dog runs after the stick.

1:23:29 You could say, "Fetch, boy!

1:23:31 Fetch the stick." So you're telling him,

1:23:34 you're giving him a command about what he should do.

1:23:36 Get the stick and bring it back to you.

1:23:39 This kind of fun game.

1:23:41 Or we might just pet your pet.

1:23:46 This word can be used as a noun, as we've been talking about it.

1:23:50 I have nine pets, but what is this gently touching your pet?

1:23:57 This is the verb to pet.

1:24:00 When you are stroking or just gently touching your animal.

1:24:04 This is a very kind, nice thing to do.

1:24:08 Well, you are petting your pet.

1:24:11 So if you're walking down the street and someone is walking a dog,

1:24:14 and that dog seems friendly, the dog wants to talk with you.

1:24:17 And the owner says is, "Oh, don't worry.

1:24:19 He's friendly." You can say, "Can I pet him?" Great,

1:24:22 that means that you can stroke his head or his back or under his chin.

1:24:27 And it's a nice way to enjoy a dog and to kind of connect with each other.

1:24:32 Okay, are you ready to go onto some common

1:24:35 questions that people will ask you about your pets, and also you can ask?

1:24:39 Let's do it.

1:24:40 "Do you have any pets?" Very simple and straightforward question.

1:24:43 You might say, "When I was a kid,

1:24:46 I had a dog, but now I don't have any pets." Well,

1:24:50 this is just answering in a nicer way than just,

1:24:53 "No, I don't have any pets." You're giving some information.

1:24:57 "When I was a kid, I had a dog, and now I don't have any pets." Good answer.

1:25:03 When you see a dog, a common question is what kind is he?

1:25:08 We're talking about the breed of dog.

1:25:11 What kind is he?

1:25:13 It's sometimes unusual to see a pure bred

1:25:16 dog that's only one kind, only one breed.

1:25:18 So you'll often hear this type of answer, "He's a Lab mix.

1:25:23 We got him at the animal shelter." He's a mix.

1:25:26 So this means he has two different or maybe

1:25:29 three or four different types of dogs in his blood.

1:25:32 So we could say he's a mix or he's a Lab mix.

1:25:36 And this means he comes from different types of breeds.

1:25:39 Another question is, "What's his name?" Of course,

1:25:42 you can just say your pet's name,

1:25:44 but I wanted to give you some of the most common female pet names,

1:25:49 and also some of the most common male pet names in English.

1:25:54 The most common female pet names are: Bella, Luna, Lucy, Daisy, and Coco.

1:26:02 There are many other pet names for female dogs or cats or horses,

1:26:06 or who knows what, but these are some of the most common.

1:26:10 In fact, one of my cat's names is Luna.

1:26:13 Some of the most common male pet names are: Max, Buddy, Teddy, Rocky, and Duke.

1:26:20 These are really common male pet names in the US.

1:26:26 A question we already talked about is, "Is he friendly?" Great.

1:26:29 Someone might ask you this if you have a dog,

1:26:32 and you're welcome to ask someone else this if you want to pet a dog,

1:26:36 "Is he friendly?" "Yes, you can pet him." Another common question is,

1:26:40 "How long have you had him?" And maybe this is not how old is he,

1:26:44 but how long has he been a part of your life?

1:26:48 So you might say, "I got max from the animal

1:26:51 shelter three years ago." "How long have you had him?" "I've

1:26:54 had him for three years." If you mentioned that your dog

1:26:58 or someone else mentions that their dog is a specific breed,

1:27:02 you could ask this question, "What made you decide to get that breed?"

1:27:06 Maybe you're just curious about that breed.

1:27:08 You're trying to have a conversation,

1:27:09 or maybe you are thinking about getting a dog too,

1:27:12 and you want some more information.

1:27:14 So you could say, "What made you decide to get that out breed?

1:27:17 And if somebody has, for example, a Lab, which is a Labrador Retriever,

1:27:22 if somebody has a Lab, they might say,

1:27:25 "Well, I heard that Labs are family-friendly dogs.

1:27:28 So we decided to get one.

1:27:30 They have a reputation for being good with kids, for being friendly.

1:27:34 They're family friendly.

1:27:35 So we decided to get one." All right,

1:27:37 now that we've practiced some common vocabulary about pets,

1:27:40 some common questions about pets,

1:27:42 now I'd like to show you a sample conversation between my husband,

1:27:46 Dan and I, talking about some pets.

1:27:49 After the sample conversation, it will be your turn to speak with me and tell me

1:27:55 about your pets or maybe the pets that you wish you had.

1:27:58 And after that will be the big reveal of my nine pets.

1:28:02 All right, let's watch the sample conversation.

1:28:05 Hi, Dan, is that your dog?

1:28:07 I thought you were a cat person.

1:28:09 Dan: Hey Vanessa.

1:28:10 I'm an animal lover, but Fluffy's not mine.

1:28:13 I'm just walking him for a friend.

1:28:15 Vanessa: Oh, gotcha.

1:28:16 Is he friendly?

1:28:17 Can I pet him?

1:28:18 Dan: Yes, he's friendly.

1:28:20 You can pet him, but watch out, he drools.

1:28:23 Vanessa: Oh, good to know.

1:28:25 Well, I'll stick to my non-drooling cats.

1:28:28 Oh, but good boy, Fluffy.

1:28:32 Dan: I'm going to walk him at the park to play fetch.

1:28:35 Want to come?

1:28:35 Vanessa: Sure.

1:28:37 Okay, now it's your turn.

1:28:39 I'm going to be asking you a couple

1:28:41 questions and then I'm going to pause and you

1:28:44 can speak out loud and try to answer

1:28:46 these questions and pretend like we're having a conversation together.

1:28:49 If you feel like it's too short of a pause, feel free to pause this video.

1:28:55 That's kind of the bonus thing.

1:28:57 Exciting thing about having a video conversation.

1:29:00 You can pause me and spend some extra

1:29:02 time explaining what you would like to say.

1:29:05 All right, are you ready?

1:29:07 Take a deep breath.

1:29:08 Let's do it.

1:29:09 Hi.

1:29:09 I didn't know you had a pet.

1:29:12 What kind is he?

1:29:20 Interesting?

1:29:20 How have you had him?

1:29:30 That's so nice.

1:29:31 I've been thinking about getting one too.

1:29:34 What do you like to do with him?

1:29:45 Thanks for your help and nice to meet you.

1:29:48 So how did you do?

1:29:50 Are you ready to talk about your pets now?

1:29:52 I hope so.

1:29:53 I hope I have empowered you to be able

1:29:56 to speak more comfortably about this common conversation topic.

1:29:59 And now drum roll, it's time to meet my nine pets.

1:30:04 Are you ready?

1:30:05 This is Pippin.

1:30:07 He's a tuxedo cat.

1:30:08 This isn't a breed, but it just describes his coloration.

1:30:12 And this is Luna.

1:30:14 She a Siamese, but we got them both from a shelter.

1:30:18 So she's probably not a pure bred Siamese.

1:30:21 And my other seven pets are chickens.

1:30:24 They're only two months old, but aren't they so big?

1:30:29 Unfortunately, we have to wait until October until they start producing eggs.

1:30:35 I can't wait.

1:30:36 My husband Dan built their coop.

1:30:38 That's the little house where they live, and this area is called the run.

1:30:43 It's a safe area for them to be

1:30:46 outside without getting eaten by wild animals we hope.

1:30:49 We got them when they were one-day old.

1:30:52 Look how cute they were.

1:30:54 This is a new adventure for us to have farm animals,

1:30:58 but I can't wait to get some fresh eggs and it's a great thing to do with kids.

1:31:03 Go down to the chicken coop in the morning and gather the eggs.

1:31:07 I can't wait.

1:31:08 That'll be so much fun.

1:31:12 All right, let's get started with some common vocabulary about jobs.

1:31:16 The first category have to do with employment.

1:31:19 We'll talk about unemployment later.

1:31:21 You might say, "My day job is in an office,

1:31:25 but I'm taking some night classes to become a nurse." This expression,

1:31:29 "My day job," usually means your primary job.

1:31:32 The way that you make the most money.

1:31:35 It could imply that it's during the day,

1:31:38 but if you happen to work a night shift, you can still say my day job.

1:31:43 "This is my main job and how I make money.

1:31:46 It's my day job." Another way to talk about your main job is to say,

1:31:51 "My 9:00 to 5:00 is in a marketing firm." My 9:00 to 5:00,

1:31:56 this talks about the hours that you work, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

1:32:01 You might work different hours.

1:32:02 You might work 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

1:32:05 You might work in the afternoon or the evening,

1:32:07 but we still use my 9:00 to 5:00 to talk about your primary job.

1:32:12 My 9:00 to 5:00.

1:32:13 There is a new movement talking about this expression,

1:32:17 and it's often about how people don't like their 9:00 to 5:00.

1:32:21 That this is something that they're not satisfied with, and people who are

1:32:26 not enjoying their 9:00 to 5:00 might find some articles online that say,

1:32:31 "Want to ditch your 9:00 to 5:00?

1:32:33 Here's how to find your dream job." An expression we'll talk about in a moment.

1:32:37 But sometimes in this modern age, 9:00 to 5:00 implies that it's just a job.

1:32:44 "I don't really care about it.

1:32:46 It's my 9:00 to 5:00." It's somehow that it's the way that you make money,

1:32:50 but it's not really your passion.

1:32:52 "It's my 9:00 to 5:00." What about

1:32:55 jobs that are not your primary money-making job?

1:32:57 You can use a lot of different expressions.

1:33:00 We could call those jobs a gig, a side-gig,

1:33:05 a hustle, a side-hustle, or you might just say,

1:33:09 "I do it on the side." Let's imagine that you make earrings,

1:33:13 but it's not your 9:00 to 5:00.

1:33:16 It's not your primary job.

1:33:18 Well, you might say, "I do it on the side.

1:33:21 I make earrings on the side." Or you could say,

1:33:24 "I have a side-gig making earrings." This is not your primary job,

1:33:28 but it's something that you do.

1:33:30 And you still make some money, but not your primary job.

1:33:34 If you don't work 40 hours a week at a job, then you have a part-time job.

1:33:41 In the US, 40 hours per week is considered a full-time job.

1:33:46 But a lot of jobs are part-time jobs.

1:33:48 So you might say, "Yep, I work a part-time job on the weekends at a restaurant.

1:33:53 I work a part-time job." Maybe it's your main way of making money.

1:33:58 Okay, you just work less hours, or maybe it's just a side thing,

1:34:03 or maybe you're also a student and you have a part-time job at the same time.

1:34:07 That's a great way to describe something that you

1:34:10 work less than 40 hours a week on.

1:34:13 Now let's talk unemployment.

1:34:15 Unfortunately, over the last few years, a lot of people became unemployed.

1:34:19 This is really scary.

1:34:20 You don't know how you're going to survive,

1:34:23 feed your family, take care of your future.

1:34:27 You might be laid off.

1:34:30 Laid off means you didn't personally do something wrong,

1:34:34 but the company either cut your position, they couldn't pay for you anymore.

1:34:39 And it's not something personal.

1:34:41 It's usually a problem within the company.

1:34:44 So when a company is suffering,

1:34:46 usually financially, or they change their whole system,

1:34:49 their whole model and they don't need some people anymore,

1:34:52 they might lay you off.

1:34:54 This is a great phrasal verb...

1:34:55 Of course, you don't want it to happen to you,

1:34:58 but it's a great phrasal verb to know,

1:35:01 to explain the situation, because it's not that you were fired.

1:35:05 To be fired means you did something wrong and they said,

1:35:11 "Sorry, you can't work here anymore." And there was a problem.

1:35:14 May you were late to work too many times, you got fired.

1:35:18 This is different than being laid off.

1:35:20 When you're laid off, it's not your fault.

1:35:23 And it's not embarrassing to say, "Man,

1:35:25 I was laid off during the pandemic." That's not embarrassing.

1:35:28 That's fine.

1:35:29 It's not your fault.

1:35:30 But if you say, "I was fired," usually there's a little bit

1:35:34 of embarrassment to talk about that, because it means there was a problem.

1:35:38 We can also say, "I lost my job."

1:35:41 This is a little more indirect than being fired.

1:35:45 It might be because you did something wrong.

1:35:47 "I was late to work so many times

1:35:50 that I lost my job." This means you were fired,

1:35:53 but you didn't directly say that.

1:35:55 But it could also mean that you were just laid off.

1:35:59 "During the pandemic, I lost my job." That's not your fault.

1:36:03 You didn't do anything wrong.

1:36:04 There were just problems with the economy, problems with the world in general.

1:36:09 So you lost your job.

1:36:10 So this expression, to lose my job, can be used either way.

1:36:14 It can be used if you get fired or if you get laid off.

1:36:18 Now, let's talk about how you feel about your job.

1:36:21 Let's imagine that you are a waiter at a restaurant.

1:36:24 Well, you might say, "I'm a waiter, but it's just a job.

1:36:28 I'm looking for something else." It's just a job.

1:36:31 This is a common expression to talk about a job that you don't really love.

1:36:36 It's not your dream job.

1:36:38 This is the opposite.

1:36:39 If you love your work...

1:36:40 For me, I love being your teacher.

1:36:42 I love being able to be your teacher online too.

1:36:45 It's a really a great combination.

1:36:47 Great for you, I can touch a lot of people,

1:36:49 and also my life can have a lot of flexibility.

1:36:52 Working online as your English teacher is my dream job,

1:36:56 but there can also be some problems with work.

1:36:59 You might say, "It's hard to find a good work/life balance." This expression,

1:37:06 a work life/balance,

1:37:08 is often used when you're working so much or maybe like me, you work from home.

1:37:13 So it's hard to have a good line between your personal life and your work life.

1:37:19 So maybe if you've been working a lot, you might say,

1:37:23 "I just need to take a break

1:37:25 and find a better work/life balance." That's really important.

1:37:27 If you've been working a lot, maybe you've even been studying a lot.

1:37:32 You might face burnout, burnout.

1:37:35 This doesn't have to do with fire,

1:37:37 but it kind of has the sense that your figurative

1:37:41 flame and love of your job has gone out.

1:37:46 So if you experience burnout, it means the thing that was your dream job,

1:37:51 the thing that you felt passion about, you no longer feel passionate about.

1:37:55 This might be temporary.

1:37:57 This happens to a lot of people like me, who create content on YouTube.

1:38:01 You have to be creative and come up with a lot of ideas.

1:38:05 And sometimes there aren't many good ideas.

1:38:07 Maybe I just have some kind of temporary writer's block

1:38:11 and don't come up with a good idea and I feel overwhelmed.

1:38:15 Well, that might mean I am burnt out.

1:38:19 I am experiencing burnout, or we might say I'm burnt out.

1:38:23 I'm burnt out on my job.

1:38:25 I've been working for 12 hours a day for the last three weeks.

1:38:28 I'm burnt out.

1:38:29 I need a break.

1:38:30 I hope that you can avoid this before it gets to too serious,

1:38:34 but it's something that's really common if you are

1:38:37 working too much or if you're studying too much.

1:38:40 Now let's talk about four common phrases for describing your job.

1:38:43 And just a little notes.

1:38:44 A while ago, I made this video, 100 jobs in English.

1:38:48 So if you would like to learn how to pronounce your personal job,

1:38:52 or if you would like some more information about specific jobs in English,

1:38:57 you can check out that video and get some more details about that.

1:39:00 But let's talk about four common phrases to talk about what you do.

1:39:04 You might say: I am a teacher.

1:39:07 I am a doctor.

1:39:09 I'm a healthcare worker.

1:39:11 I'm a construction worker.

1:39:12 I'm a designer.

1:39:14 Whatever you might be, "I am." But we could also say,

1:39:19 "I work in..." plus a field.

1:39:22 I work in education.

1:39:24 I work in healthcare.

1:39:26 I work in business.

1:39:27 I work in marketing.

1:39:28 So here we have a general term.

1:39:30 It doesn't talk about your specific position,

1:39:33 but it's a common expression used when you're describing your job.

1:39:36 "I work in education." Maybe you're not specifically a teacher,

1:39:40 maybe you help to create a curriculum or maybe there's

1:39:43 something that's a little complex that you don't want to explain.

1:39:46 You might just say, "I work in education." Cool.

1:39:49 You can also talk about the company you work for.

1:39:52 "I work for Amazon." "I work for Google."

1:39:55 Especially if this is a well known company,

1:39:59 even if it's just well-known locally, this is a common expression you might use.

1:40:02 "Yeah, I work for Samsung." "I work for Duke

1:40:05 Power," which is the power plant in my city.

1:40:07 If I said this to somebody who lived in France,

1:40:10 they would have no idea what I was

1:40:13 talking about because this is a local business.

1:40:15 But if I said that to someone locally, they would understand exactly.

1:40:18 So it's kind of all about the context here.

1:40:21 What if you have your own business?

1:40:23 What if you run your own business?

1:40:26 You can use that expression to run.

1:40:28 For me, I run my I own business.

1:40:31 We could say I run an online education business.

1:40:35 Well, that means that I teach online, but it means I'm the CEO, the boss.

1:40:42 I wear all the hats.

1:40:44 I run a business.

1:40:46 So we could use this for a lot

1:40:49 of different situations as long as you are the entrepreneur,

1:40:52 you're the one who's in charge of the business.

1:40:55 I run a business.

1:40:57 Before we get to our sample conversation, of course,

1:41:00 we need to talk about some common job questions.

1:41:03 This is essential for daily conversation,

1:41:05 because usually these are the questions we use in small talk.

1:41:09 So that's why this topic is really important to know about.

1:41:13 One of the most common,

1:41:15 small talk questions after you say, "Hey, my name's Vanessa.

1:41:18 Oh, nice to meet you." What do people say next?

1:41:22 "What do you do?

1:41:24 What do you do?" The full expression

1:41:26 for this is possibly what do you do for work?

1:41:30 But we often just say, "What do you do?" And this doesn't mean

1:41:34 I'm sitting here right now, talking to you.

1:41:36 What are you doing right now?

1:41:37 This means what's your job.

1:41:39 What do you do?

1:41:39 So you might use one of those expressions we talked about earlier and say,

1:41:43 "Oh, I work for Google.

1:41:45 I work in marketing." Awesome.

1:41:47 What do you do?

1:41:48 Or what do you do for work?

1:41:50 When you tell someone what you do,

1:41:51 if they are a good conversationalist, they might ask more questions.

1:41:55 You could ask this question too, "What's that like?

1:41:59 What's that like?" So you're asking about their experience.

1:42:02 "What's it like to be a nurse in the hospital these days?" Well,

1:42:06 you might say, "Well, I like the doctor I work for, but it's just

1:42:10 been really intense lately and it's not my dream job.

1:42:13 I really want to be a photographer for foster

1:42:15 animals and help them to find a new home.

1:42:18 That's what I would love to do.

1:42:20 I'd love to get into photography." Well, here,

1:42:23 you just answered the question what's that like with a lot

1:42:27 of juicy details that can further the conversation more.

1:42:30 So when you ask someone,

1:42:32 "What's that like?" If they give you some details, don't miss that opportunity.

1:42:37 You can pull any of those details and say, "Oh, you like foster animals.

1:42:41 Have you ever had any foster animals?

1:42:43 Oh, I have a dog too." And you can kind of snowball the conversation.

1:42:47 This is a great way to get more information and learn about someone else.

1:42:52 If you're talking with someone who you already know,

1:42:55 maybe you think you know what work they do, but you're not sure,

1:42:59 or you haven't talked with them for a while,

1:43:01 you might ask this question, "Where are you working these days?

1:43:04 Where are you working these days?" These days means now,

1:43:09 but if you haven't seen someone for five years,

1:43:12 maybe you knew what their previous job was and you're trying to make

1:43:15 small talk conversation again and get

1:43:17 to know maybe something's changed in their life.

1:43:20 So you could ask, "Where are you working these days?" And you might say,

1:43:23 "Oh yeah, actually I'm still working at Google.

1:43:25 I've had the same job for the last five years.

1:43:27 I feel really lucky that I didn't get laid off.

1:43:30 So, that's where I'm at." And let's say,

1:43:32 you're talking with someone and you know what job they have.

1:43:35 Well, you could ask this question,

1:43:37 "How's work going?" This is similar to asking,

1:43:40 "How's your family?" Or, "How is your vacation?" This is

1:43:43 just a common small talk question about someone's job.

1:43:46 "How's work going?' And maybe they'll just say,

1:43:49 "Oh, it's going fine." Okay, that's fine.

1:43:51 But if they give you more information,

1:43:53 they might say something like, "Oh, it's going okay.

1:43:56 It was my side-gig for a while and then I got hired full time,

1:44:00 but I'm having a hard time finding a work/life balance.

1:44:02 So I think I'm going to look for something in a different field soon." Oh, well,

1:44:07 you just had a great conversation there and you've got lots

1:44:09 more information to be able to have more conversation with someone,

1:44:13 just from the simple question, "How's work going?" All right,

1:44:17 now it's time to see a sample conversation using all

1:44:21 of these expressions or many of these expressions that we just talked about.

1:44:25 You'll see my husband Dan and I having a little chit chat about our jobs.

1:44:29 I hope that you recognize some of these expressions

1:44:32 and questions that we talked about because in a moment,

1:44:36 after the sample conversation,

1:44:37 it will be your turn to use them and to have a conversation with me.

1:44:41 Are you ready?

1:44:42 Let's watch.

1:44:43 Dan: Hey Vanessa, where are you working these days?

1:44:46 Vanessa: Oh, hey, Dan.

1:44:47 I run an online business, so I can work from anywhere.

1:44:51 It's pretty great.

1:44:52 Dan: Wow.

1:44:52 What's that like?

1:44:54 Vanessa: Well, I help students learn English and speak with confidence.

1:44:59 It's my dream job, but I have to be careful to avoid burning out.

1:45:03 Dan: Oh, that's awesome, but I understand.

1:45:06 Vanessa: What about you?

1:45:07 Dan: Well, unfortunately I just got laid

1:45:10 off at the coffee shop when they closed,

1:45:13 but I got a job working part time at a hotel.

1:45:16 Vanessa: Oh man, that's a bummer.

1:45:18 Have you ever worked in marketing?

1:45:20 I'm looking for someone to help if you want a side-gig, behind the scenes.

1:45:25 Dan: That'd be great.

1:45:26 Tell me more about it.

1:45:28 Vanessa: Hmm.

1:45:29 I wonder if Dan will get the job in marketing, working for Vanessa.

1:45:34 All right, now it is your turn.

1:45:36 What I want to tell you is I will

1:45:38 be asking you some questions and having a little conversation,

1:45:41 but I recommend going back and reviewing this.

1:45:44 You're welcome to pause the video and answer longer if you would like.

1:45:48 This is a great chance to have kind of a structured,

1:45:52 no-pressure conversation in English.

1:45:53 All right, are you ready to get started?

1:45:57 Let's imagine we were at a gathering and the host said,

1:46:01 "Oh, Vanessa, this is..." your name.

1:46:03 And we get introduced to each other and then the host leaves.

1:46:07 Here we need to have some small talk.

1:46:09 So I ask you, "Tell me, what do you do?" And now it's your turn to talk.

1:46:14 Go ahead.

1:46:20 And what's that like?

1:46:22 Do you enjoy your work?

1:46:29 Oh, me?

1:46:30 Oh, I run an online English business where

1:46:33 I teach English online to students around the world.

1:46:36 It's really my dream job.

1:46:38 I feel pretty lucky.

1:46:39 Well, good luck with your work.

1:46:40 I'm so glad to meet you and I'll talk to you later.

1:46:43 Bye.

1:46:45 How did you do?

1:46:46 Did you have a chance to speak out loud and practice with me?

1:46:50 Feel free to go back and review that last segment or this whole

1:46:53 video as many times as you would like to boost your confidence.

1:46:57 Because when you have small talk in English,

1:46:59 you will absolutely encounter this conversation topic.

1:47:01 So how did you do?

1:47:03 Do you feel more empowered to talk about

1:47:06 your city or your weekend plans and much more?

1:47:09 I hope so.

1:47:10 Don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet for today's lesson.

1:47:14 There is a link in the description.

1:47:16 Never forget what you've learned, make sure you download that free PDF.

1:47:20 And thank you so much for learning English with me.

1:47:22 I will see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

1:47:27 Bye.

1:47:28 The step is to download the free PDF worksheet for this lesson.

1:47:33 With this free PDF, you will master today's

1:47:37 lesson and never forget what you have learned.

1:47:40 You can be a confident English speaker.

1:47:43 Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube

1:47:46 channel for a free English lesson every Friday.

1:47:49 Bye.