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new camera
hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia
the weekly series where you ask
me questions and i answer them maybe
first
question first question comes from
winston hi winston
winston says i don't understand english
i want to learn
but i don't know how to start i'm a
newbie right
lots of questions like this um so really
there are a lot of different ways that
you can start studying a language
of course we have lots of videos on our
youtube channel
and we have a whole website uh to try to
help people
who are studying english you can check
us out at englishclass101.com
uh you can find like apps you can find
worksheets
podcasts to listen to so that can be a
nice way to start we have some videos
for
beginners also so if you're just
starting you can check some of the
beginner level videos
we have on the channel for example
english
in three minutes that's a good set
of videos you can watch to learn some
basic
phrases i think so that might be a nice
place for you to start but let's look at
some
other ideas for beginners specifically
one join an english class in your city
two get an english textbook and study at
home
three make a language exchange with an
english speaker four study vocabulary
with apps try out those those are a few
ideas
of course you can always use our videos
on the channel
as well so i hope that helps a little
bit thanks for the question
next question next question comes from
carmel carmel says do you have any ideas
on how to improve speaking skills in
english
yeah well to improve your speaking you
have to practice
speaking here are a couple of ideas that
you can use
to maybe help you improve your speaking
these are ideas for just
ways to practice so chances to practice
number one get a partner you can
practice speaking english with this can
be
in your city or in your community so
find a partner
to practice speaking english with this
can be a language exchange partner for
example
do if you can't find anyone in your town
or
in your city to practice speaking
english with
you can try to find a partner online
three try
recording yourself speaking you can use
your phone to do this if you like just
record your voice saying something
and then listen to it again you might
not realize it but it's actually
really helpful to hear your own voice
like outside
of your body actually we have something
on the website
you can check at englishclass101.com
there's a voice recorder function
so you can record your voice and then
compare
your voice to the sound of a native
speaker's voice
and try to practice until your voice
matches the sound of their voice so that
could be another idea number four
try repeating the things the characters
in english tv and english movies
say so if you're watching tv if you're
watching a video online
if you're listening to music something
in english
try to repeat the thing you hear so
not only listening listening listening
but try to practice
saying the things the characters or the
artists are saying too number five
kind of a strange suggestion maybe but
try talking to yourself in english
actually i do this a lot
i'm studying japanese and i talk to
myself
uh in japanese from time to time so that
helps me a little bit
but helps me get comfortable just saying
words saying phrases too
so maybe that's helpful for you those
are five ideas
for what you can do to improve your
speaking skills
thanks for the question carmel next
question is from
muhammad fikri muhammad fikri muhammad
muhammad says i want a plan to speak
english
fluently um okay well this is sort of a
difficult request
because every person is different and
every person has
different goals as we've talked about in
previous videos in this series as well
one of the things you can do to create a
plan for your studies
is think about your goal first so that
means what do you want to
do in english if you say i want to learn
english
think about why like why do you want to
learn english
if you think like i want to learn
english so i can give a business
presentation in english
or i want to learn english so that i can
travel comfortably and speak english
during my travels
so depending on your goal i think uh
your plan for study will be different so
first think about your goal and then act
accordingly so there's no one perfect
plan for
everybody because each person is
different you could join a class
a class has a syllabus there's a
textbook perhaps or there's some
plan of study for that class so you
could try
joining a class in your city or in your
town
to study english if you don't have
something like that or if it's
expensive to take lessons in your city
you could try an
online course or you could try using an
app
there are a lot of different things you
can try of course we have lots of
resources on our website you can check
that out but there are many different
established courses you can join to
study english
i think really the most important first
step
to making a plan for your studies is to
first make a goal
for yourself this can be a really small
goal actually
and i think making many different small
goals is a good idea
so you can like you understand when
you're improving
so if your goal is just i want to speak
english that's not a very clear goal
so say like i want to learn 100
vocabulary words in one month for
example
and it's easy to measure that goal so
think about your goal think about what
you really want to do
and then make your plan from there next
question
comes from johnny hi johnny johnny says
can i practice
listening to english using youtube
videos for example oh totally i think
i use youtube videos and music and
movies and tv
and just listening to friends
conversations
to practice japanese so i think yeah
using media is a great way
to work on your listening skills just be
careful or maybe
be aware there are two kinds of
listening
there's active listening and passive
listening so passive listening is when
for example you're playing a video or
you're playing music or you're
playing a movie while you are doing
something else
so maybe for example you're cooking or
you're exercising or
you're cleaning your house so the focus
your focus
is on a different activity you're not
listening
fully completely to the english material
that's passive that's quite passive so
it's just in the background kind of
active listening however is you're
focusing
on the thing you're listening to so
maybe right now maybe some of you now
are actively listening to the things i'm
saying
so you're focusing on the vocabulary
words the rhythm of the speech
um the idioms i'm using um the grammar
i'm using
so actively trying to understand
actively picking up what's new and what
what's something that i already know
so given that there are two types of
listening
it's important to remember we should
practice active listening
as well so it can't only be passive
listening
we should also practice active listening
so if you use youtube videos if you
watch our videos thank you for example
make sure to practice your active
listening skills in addition to just
having that kind of
passive listening experience but yeah i
think using media is a fantastic way
because
then you can pick up the things that
people say naturally instead of only
using
like typical textbook patterns for
example so absolutely youtube is a great
resource there are
lots of people speaking in english there
are lots of personalities too so
i think it's a really great way to use
media to improve your listening and your
language skills so sure thanks for the
question
next question next question comes from
ibrahim ibrahim i hope i said that right
ibrahim ibrahim says
do you think it's easier to understand
the british accent
or the american accent because i think
the american accent is really hard to
understand
well this really just depends on your
experience
like i'm american i'm from the us i'm
from the west coast
of the u.s so naturally for me and my
experience
west coast american english is the
easiest for me to understand
in your case if you think american
accents are difficult to understand
that's fine
so maybe you have more experience with
british english speakers so
there are many different kinds of
accents even in america
even in the u.s there are many different
accents there are so many different ways
of speaking and there's american english
british english maybe we could say
canadian english
australian english scottish english
irish english there are many different
accents many different ways of speaking
and there are the accents that
non-native speakers of english use
as well so there are so many different
ways of speaking that we need to think
about
easy just means the one you have the
most experience with
that's all those are all the questions
that i want to answer for this week
thank you so much for sending your great
questions
as always if you want to send a question
please send it at englishclass101.com
ask hyphen alicia also if you liked this
video please make sure to give it a
thumbs up
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haven't already you can also check us
out at englishclass101.com for some
other good study resources thanks very
much for watching this episode of ask
alicia and i will see you again
next week bye it's getting hot in here
so i'm gonna turn off the camera
[Music]
you