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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them
maybe first question comes from Isaac
Alexandria hi again Isaac Isaac says hi
Alicia what's the difference between by
chance by accident and accidentally by
chance tends to be used in more positive
situations you can think of it as like a
happy accident
when you have a happy accident you can
use by chance I was out shopping and I
ran into a co-worker by chance by
accident is probably the least used of
these three that you've introduced so by
accident you might also hear on accident
we use this for negative coincidences
things that are not so good I sent my
boss the wrong files on accident the
last one that you introduced
accidentally is the most common one that
we use for negative situation negative
coincidences I accidentally deleted my
portfolio and with this pronunciation
I'm saying it really clearly
accidentally accidentally but in fast
speech we say accidentally accidentally
I accidentally deleted my portfolio so I
hope that that helps you thanks very
much for the question let's move on to
your next question the next question
comes from Jehan v hi honey
Jehan B says what is the difference
between in spite and despite the two
have the same meaning in spite and
despite just have to be kind of slightly
changed to fit into a sentence let's
look at two examples in spite of her
sensitive stomach my friend ate ice
cream every day despite her sensitive
stomach my friend ate ice cream every
day so when we make a sentence with in
spite we say in spite of a noun phrase
when we use despite we say despite
followed by a noun phrase I want to
connect this question to a similar
question that we got for this week this
is from Moe add heat on high mu'adh
morad said I want to ask about the
differences between despite although
though and in spite of so we talked
about despite and in spite of we tend to
use all
a little more often at the beginning of
a sentence like although it's kind of
like a formal but and though might be
more like at the middle part of a
sentence so like a though be so that's
kind of how we might use these two I
hope that that answers both of your
questions I hope that that helps you
I'll try to make a whiteboard video
about this topic as well thanks very
much for sending these questions okay
let's move along to your next question
next question comes from Satish hi sati
Satish says hi Alicia how are you I'm
good when I lived in English I am
translating it to my country's language
in my mind how can I stop that and was
using present continuous tense in the
above sentence correct so 1 your present
continuous tense no it is not correct in
that I'll come back to that a little bit
later for now though your question about
translating to your language in your
head I've talked about this a couple
times here and there and other videos so
I'll just review again by sharing the
things that helped me to stop
translating in my head one thing that
really helped me was making an
environment making a place where I could
not escape into my native language so in
my case that meant I found like a hobby
group something that I wanted to learn
how to do I found that in my target
language I found that in Japanese I
would go to that once a week there was
no option for me to do that in English
the teacher didn't speak English the
other students didn't really speak
English like I had no choice but to
learn and it was hard at first so over
time I learned the vocabulary words I
met people and I got to chat a little
bit with people and then I also just
kind of like built my listening skills
as well so that was really helpful for
me
following that then I would often like
go out with people from that group so I
would make friends there and then maybe
we'd go out for drinks so we'd go to get
something to eat together and that was
another situation where I could not
escape into English so I had to use
Japanese I had no choice if I didn't do
that I couldn't talk to anybody
so that was really helpful for me and
this leads to my second tip for stopping
this sort of translation problem which
is try not to rely on your diction
like I know that we all now have a phone
and like there's a dictionary in here we
can check when we don't know word but my
problem with this with using this too
much is that it stops the flow of
conversation like when you're talking
with someone and you don't know exactly
the word you want to use instead of just
reaching for your dictionary try to
think of a different way to explain the
thing that you're trying to say you want
to say turn on the light like you can't
think of turn on so what are some other
ways that you could explain that motion
like how do I say like the light is not
bright and then the light becomes bright
what's this what's this action like
think of the tools that you have in your
head to explain the idea and then your
friend can teach you the word so use
that as an opportunity to one use the
words that you already know and then so
to get a new word using those tools
three it's just a really great
communication tool because even
sometimes like in our native language we
forget a word or we don't know the right
word to use so just think about using
the tools that you already have the
other thing that I would recommend and
that I recommended a lot on this channel
is consuming media so that means TV and
movies books comics whatever trying to
use the language as much as possible in
your day to day life like listening to
it and reading it because you're kind of
absorbing the natural ways that people
use that language like textbook language
and real world language are different so
you need to make sure you have a chance
to experience that real world language
so media is great of course you can
check out the stuff we have on our
channel and our website but you can just
watch movies watch TV shows find
podcasts as well so there are lots of
different ways to check out media but
basically just try to get your brain
used to listening to and experiencing
the language so that you don't have to
like really work at translating every
single sentence in your head and then
over time and with practice you'll
eventually stop translating and one day
you'll just be able to do it and you
probably won't realize it that's what
happened to me actually like I just one
day as I call I don't have to translate
anymore it just was it just was done so
I hope that that helps you those are
few tips for translating in your head
your other question was about your use
of present continuous tense in your
first sentence you said when I listen to
English I am translating it to my
country's language we would not use the
present continuous tense here because
you're talking about a regular action
that you do this is a regular thing that
you do we use the present continuous
tense for temporary actions so in this
case you should say I translate it in my
head use the present tense there okay so
thanks very much for those questions I
hope that it helps you let's move on to
our next question next question comes
from Eric hi Eric Eric says hi what does
get wild mean in this phrase for example
he's getting wild with the letters to
get wild means to be crazy like to go
crazy to do something like surprising or
shocking I'm not sure exactly about your
example sentence situation to get wild
with the letters I'm not sure what that
is but it's like it means to become
crazy to do something crazy ly graffiti
ah to get wild with the letters like
drawing the letters could be maybe he
has like a stack of letters in his room
and he's just throwing them all over the
place I don't know like if I could get
wild with the lesson and just start
running around the studio he would be
like she's getting wild listen
tear down the green screen get wild with
the lesson and read end so I hope that
that helps you understand the expression
get wild thanks very much for the
question let's move along to your next
question next question comes from Joey
Joey hi Joey
Joey says what's the difference between
envy and jealous envy is a noun and a
verb so for example I envy you or envy
is dangerous
jealous is an adjective like you got the
best seats in the theater I'm so jealous
you got a long vacation I'm super
jealous all right so I hope that that
helps you things for the question all
right
that's 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
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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 week bye bye
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