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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them maybe first
question this week comes from sun-joo
Huygens on you Sanju says hey Alisha how
can I think
fully in my target language whenever I
see you speaking fluently I feel like I
want to become like you so how can I
make my communication like yours
this is a very common question and it
requires practice it requires regular
practice so this means you need to
practice a little bit every day where
you can immerse yourself in the language
you're studying if you're studying
English try to use English as much as
possible in your day so if you can try
to make a time in your week or in your
day when you only speak English or you
only read English so try to read English
books watch English TV or movies listen
to music in English talk to people in
English where you can you need to get
used to using it in your everyday life
so that your brain gets used to using it
when you're just thinking about things
so this takes time absolutely you need
to practice and you need to give
yourself time every day and every week
to get used to doing this so practice
every day practice regularly of course
if you really want to practice speaking
like me you can mimic me you can shadow
me if you want but please keep in mind
as I've said on this channel before I'm
speaking in a way that's helpful for
learners so I'm trying to use very clear
pronunciation I'm trying to use kind of
simple grammar or grammar that's not
super complex and I'm also not speaking
in exactly the same way that native
speakers do in everyday conversation so
please remember that the way I speak on
this channel is not necessarily the way
that native speakers talk in everyday
life that being said if you want to use
me for your shadowing practice please
feel free you won't have any community
occasion problems if you practice
speaking like me so I hope that this
helps you if you're interested there are
some other videos on the channel that
have lots of tips about how to think in
your target language and how to get used
to applying English in your everyday
life so definitely check those out too
okay I hope that this helps you thanks
very much for the question
alright let's move on to your next
question next question comes from Eric
Pashkov hi Eric Eric says what's the
difference between present perfect and
past perfect okay present perfect is
used one for general life experience in
the past at a non specific point in time
this can be an experience you had or an
experience you did not have so when the
point in time is not important we can
use present perfect to talk about that
for example I have been to France I have
never written a book we also use present
perfect tense to talk about actions that
started in the past and continued to the
present or the effects of that action
continue to the present
you'll see verbs used with progressive
tense in this case too so for example
have been plus the ing form of a verb we
also commonly use for and since to talk
about the entire length of time an
action has happened or has been
happening rather so for example I have
been speaking for about 4 minutes or he
has been listening to me since I started
this video so this is a common way that
we use present perfect tense past
perfect on the other hand refers to
things that happened in the past so
we're not talking about the relationship
between the past and the present we're
talking about the relationship between a
past action and some other past point so
for example I had been studying for 3
hours when I fell asleep so in that
example sentence we see that there was
one past continuing action and a second
action that happened closer to the
present that interrupted the action when
I fell asleep so we can you
past perfect tense to show like
sequences if you're telling a story and
there are two points in your story that
we're in the past you can use past
perfect tense to explain the thing that
came first then use simple past to
explain the thing that happened nearer
to the present as I did in this story as
I also mentioned in this example
sentence if you want to describe a past
action that was continuing and that was
then interrupted you can use this
pattern this past perfect - simple past
tense pattern so we use it for that we
also use it to talk about life
experience again so general life
experience or no life experience but at
a past point in time so for example by
my tenth birthday I had saved $100 for
example so by my tenth birthday is a
point in the past I'm obviously not ten
years old now so by my tenth birthday I
had saved that means up until that point
in time I had saved $100 so when we want
to talk about past experiences in
relation to other past points you can
use the past perfect tense so you can
find some other videos about present
perfect tense and soon about past
perfect tense on the channel soon so I
hope that you check those out for some
more information I hope that this helps
you - thanks very much for the question
all right let's move on to your next
question next question comes from Hannes
Bayou
hi Hannes Hannes says what's the
difference between follow and subscribe
because they have the same meaning okay
for online media hubs like Twitter and
Facebook and YouTube they have the same
feeling they have the same meaning like
you click the button and you receive
updates from that person or from that
company or whatever in terms of kind of
a more historical meaning though the
word subscribe was and is used for
regular publications so for example we
subscribe to a magazine or we subscribe
to a newspaper when you subscribe to
something there's an expert
that you will receive that thing on a
regular basis on a regular schedule so
for example if you subscribe to a
monthly magazine you expect to receive
the magazine once a month that's a
subscription so the same word carries
over into YouTube when we subscribe to
someone's channel we expect to see their
content we expect that when that person
creates something we are going to
receive it so in YouTube's case this
means we have like you know a channels
you follow list or we see like something
in our email that says oh this channel
has posted a new video so subscribe in
this way means like you have some kind
of expectation of receiving something
somewhat regularly of course not
everyone on YouTube posts regularly but
this is the idea to follow however like
with Twitter or with Facebook or
Instagram is like you're just waiting
for updates from that person maybe
you're not expecting to receive
something on a regular basis but if that
person or that company or brand or
whatever chooses to share something
you're saying you want to have the
ability to quickly and easily check that
thing so this is why we don't really use
like subscribe for Twitter or subscribe
on Facebook or on Instagram it sounds
more like a service for a youtube though
it makes sense because it's like we're
getting something regularly many people
on YouTube create content regularly so
subscribe is a better fit in this case
okay so I hope that this helps answer
your question thanks very much for
sending it along alright let's move on
to your next question next question
comes from a bra hiya bra a browser says
are like and sees the same word if not
what's the difference and how do we use
them Thanks okay it depends on how the
words are used we can use both of these
words to share our opinion of someone or
something like in these example
sentences she seems nice she seems like
a nice person notice how in the first
example sentence here we follow seams
with an adjective she seems nice in the
second example sentence she seems like
a nice person we're using like and we
need to follow this with a noun phrase
so a nice person is a noun phrase when
you're using like in this way you need
to follow like with a noun phrase you
can't use an adjective there as we did
with seems so we followed the same rule
when we're using like to make
comparisons for example he eats like a
pig you look like my brother so when
we're making comparisons like this we
need to use a noun phrase after the word
like also we can use seems with verbs
for example this seems to be the right
answer
he seems to like hiking so another quick
point about the word seems is that we
use seem or seems when we want to make a
guess or share an opinion about
something but maybe we can't quickly
confirm so like she seems nice it's like
our opinion our quick opinion of that
person but maybe we don't know yet she
might not be a nice person we don't know
but when you want to make a quick guess
about something that you can't actually
check you can't really confirm you can
use seems to do that in the second
original example sentence I introduced
she seems like a nice person we're
combining seem with like their so she
seems like that means it's like you're
comparing this person she to a nice
person that's kind of the idea here so
she has the appearance or I guess she
seems as though she is a nice person so
this is an over complicated explanation
but think about using like when you want
to compare things think about using seem
when you want to maybe just share a
simple adjective or maybe when you want
to make a quick guess about someone so I
hope that this helps you thanks very
much for the question all right let's
move on to your next question next
question comes from junior high junior
junior says hi Alicia someone once said
to me
you're neat and I was kind of confused
what does it mean okay neat is kind of
like a cute word or a nice word that
means cool or interesting it sounds
casual very friendly maybe a little bit
childish we would use meat in the same
way as we use cool but cool is a little
bit rough neat sounds kind of precious
and nice and childish a little bit so
you can say that someone's drawing is
neat or that someone is neat however
there's a second meaning of neat
which means tidy or organized so if
someone like came to your house and said
wow you're neat like to talk about the
way that your house is organized or like
to comment about how clean your space is
it could have this meaning so it depends
how did the person use the word when
they were speaking to you what was the
situation so it can mean cool great
awesome nice or it can mean tiny and
organized some other examples I saw that
movie it was neat my new computer is
neat your parents are really neat aren't
they
okay so I hope that this helps answer
your question thanks very much
oh right that is everything that I have
for this week thank you as always for
sending your questions remember you can
send them to me at English class 101.com
slash ask - alicia of course if you
liked this video please don't forget to
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for some other things that can help you
with your English Studies thanks very
much for watching this week's episode of
ask Alisha and I will see you again next
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