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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and I answer them
the first question this week comes from
Lido on high laDawn
Ladon says hi I'm studying in Finland in
English however I don't really have a
lot of chances to speak in English so my
speaking skill is still my weak point I
see there are a lot of ways to practice
English on the internet for self-study
but they're too much for me to afford
for just a private teacher online what
should I do to improve my advanced level
speaking skills as I'm studying business
Thanks mmm tough question I would
suggest maybe if you're at an advanced
level that you don't focus so much on
studying like English like maybe don't
focus so much on trying to find
specifically an English lesson but try
to spend more time focusing on those
skills so by that I mean look for groups
that practise speaking so there's a
really famous international speaking
practice group called Toastmasters you
might check that out they have community
groups that you can join so the purpose
of these groups and other similar groups
is to improve your speaking skills and
like to improve your presentation skills
and leadership skills so when you go to
one of these groups the other people in
the group will give you feedback like
how can you improve so if you can share
your goal with the other people in that
group they can help you give you advice
on like pronunciation maybe the
vocabulary words you should be using
something you can do to make your
presentation better and so on so
something like that if you're at an
advanced level might be a little bit
better than trying to find just English
classes so you can actually start to use
the words and pick up new words that are
specific for your goal so I would
suggest perhaps if it's difficult to
find like some kind of teacher
specifically for what you're looking for
see if you can find a group that's
focused on business or like unpress
tation related skills so I hope that
this is helpful for you thanks for the
question and good luck building your
speaking skills okay
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from harsh me hi harsh
knee harsh knee says if somebody asks me
a question in English I can speak
English without thinking but while doing
this I make lots of mistakes with
grammar I say he instead of she or she
instead of he while speaking how do I
overcome this problem mmm okay I think
you've already done the difficult part
which is realizing you made a mistake so
you can catch yourself you notice the
mistake I would suggest they like to
practice making the correct choice when
you're speaking is when soon as you
realize you make a mistake you say out
loud the correct sentence so this can be
in the conversation you can correct
yourself in the conversation which is
actually quite normal native speakers do
this all the time or if you realize
after the conversation just say it
quietly to yourself out loud so I would
suggest actually saying it out loud like
getting your mouth and your body used to
making the sounds and like the correct
way to say the thing you said
incorrectly before so if for example
you're like I saw Risa today he are
sorry I mean she was walking into the
office so that's a very common way that
native speakers correct themselves to go
sorry
no she something like that during the
conversation is perfectly normal for
native speakers and for learners so if
you realize your mistake in the
conversation you can do it during the
conversation fix it if you realize after
the conversation you can think to
yourself I should have said she in that
situation oops she was walking into the
office so that's fine to do too so I
think the hardest thing is to be able to
catch your mistake so maybe you already
have that part okay but just keep paying
attention to yourself and think back on
your conversation so remember your
conversations and what you said and
maybe how you could have said it
differently so I hope
this tip helps you to overcome these
little grammatical issues in your speech
thanks very much for this question and
good luck with your continued studies
okay let's move on to your next question
next question comes from on hell
McNamara hi on hell on hell says hi
Alicia and team could you please explain
the meaning and the uses of the word
hull Thanks
okay sure so there's the basic meaning
which is in the dictionary so the verb
to halt means to carry something or like
to pull something or like to bring
something but we use it for like really
heavy things or stuff that's hard to
pull or hard to take or we use it for
things like when we have a lot of
something so if you imagine like moving
from a house to another house and you
have a lot of stuff you can say I hauled
all my stuff to my new house so we use
it for large quantities of things or
like really heavy things things that are
difficult to pull or drag so another
example is like I hauled all my
paperwork to the City office this
morning the car broke down so we hauled
at home with a tow truck so this is one
use of haul you'll also hear haul used
for people when we have to do something
by force like we have to be this like
strong with somebody and we have to
force them to do something you might
hear haul used in this case it's used
oftentimes when someone is in trouble as
like with parents and kids or like with
police and criminals that kind of thing
so for example the suspect was hauled
into the police station or my parents
hauled me out of bed every morning when
I was a kid so again we have that image
of like bringing or carrying something
that's difficult to move or it's really
heavy so we use haul to do that okay so
let's move on though to a noun
use of the word haul when we use haul as
a noun it's often used to talk about
someone's shopping from that day like
they went out to a mall or something and
they bought a lot of stuff and they want
to share it often like
a photo and post it to like Instagram or
Twitter or something Facebook and they
write check out my haul or look at
today's haul or this is today's haul so
my haul is the stuff that I bought that
day all this stuff so it's usually
something someone's excited about like
check out this haul from the make up
store or I want to share my haul from
the video game store whatever that might
be like they've got a collection of
things there are a few exciting things
they want to share if they say check out
my haul or today's haul again this can
have a negative meaning when it's used
to talk about like criminal activity
like when it's talking about like drugs
for example like the police recovered a
haul of drugs or like the FBI found a
haul of stolen data so haul can be used
to mean a lot of something in this case
negatively but in everyday like social
media terms we see it used to talk about
people's shopping for the day something
they're excited about so the last use of
haul is in an expression like it's a
long haul home or we have a long haul
today so we use this as we're like
starting a journey so maybe we have a
long way to travel home or we have to
take a long time to get to a destination
we can describe that as a haul so again
another common theme here with this verb
or with this noun is that something is
difficult like it's hard to carry or it
feels heavy so it's like when we say I
have a long haul home it's like I have a
long journey home a long way to get home
it's going to be difficult so these are
quite a few ways that we use haul as
both a noun and as a verb so I hope that
this helps your understanding of this
word thanks very much for the question
ok let's move on to your next question
next question comes from a funny hi
Akane Akane says hi Alicia if I have a
plan in the future should I use will or
be going to ok if you already have the
plan use going to it's more natural to
use will if you make your decision in
the
like right now here in the conversation
you decide so if for example your plan
is to have dinner with your friends this
weekend and you know this as you begin
the conversation you can say I'm going
to have dinner with my friends this
weekend if you say I will have dinner
with my friends this weekend it sounds
really unnatural again because will is
used more for things we decide in the
moment you've come into the conversation
with this plan I'm going to have dinner
with my friends this weekend so please
use going to in that case so a situation
where it would sound more natural to use
will is like if you arrive at the
restaurant sit down open the menu and
the waitstaff says something like what
can I get you and you reply I'll have
the salad please so in that case aisle I
will sounds very natural if you say I'm
going to have the salad it sounds kind
of like you had that plan when you
walked into the restaurant so that's
probably a situation where will is going
to sound more natural so keep this in
mind like did I just make the decision
did I have the decision in my mind
before the conversation so if you're
just now deciding maybe will is better
so I hope that this helps you understand
the differences between will and going
to for some more points and some example
sentences please have a look at the
video on our channel about will and
going to thanks very much for this
question okay let's move on to your next
question next question comes from Rajesh
Khanna hi Rajesh
Rajesh says how do we use because of
since and since then in sentences these
are frequently used by native speakers
okay let's look at because and because
of first so we use because or because of
at the beginning of a sentence or in the
middle of a sentence to express a reason
for something so when we use because or
because of we follow it with a simple
noun or we can follow it with like a
whole phrase that's fine too so your
reason can be just like one word like
because of rain today's event has been
canceled
or because of you we were late for the
meeting so those are very simple
expressions after because of so because
of rain or because of you let's compare
this though with since since so we use
since also to describe a reason for
something and like because since can be
used at the beginning of a sentence or
it can be used in the middle of a
sentence
however unlike because or because of we
can't follow since with just a simple
noun we can't say like since you or
since rain we have to use a full phrase
so for example since it rained today's
event has been canceled or since you
were late getting here now we're late
for the meeting so we need to have like
a whole phrase with since we can't just
use because plus noun like we can't
follow that same pattern with since also
I would say that for the differences in
formality here since is going to sound a
little bit more formal than because so
in everyday speech we use because a lot
more often than we use since positioning
is really up to you if the reason is
very important to you you can place the
reason at the beginning of the sentence
and start your sentence with because or
since if the result is a little more
important you can put the result at the
beginning of the sentence and then
finish it with your reason so for
example today's event has been cancelled
because of rain or today's event has
been cancelled since it rained lastly
let's talk about since then since then
so since then means from that time
period up to now so let's look at an
example sentence for example I graduated
from college in 2015 since then I've
worked at ABC company so since then
refers to the time period or rather the
point in time mentioned in the previous
sentence so here I graduated from
college in 2015 since then so since then
means since 2015 from the point at 2015
until this conversation I've worked at
ABC
company so since then describes that
period of time from that point in the
previous sentence to now one more
example of this I finished work at 6:00
today since then I've been sitting on
the couch watching Netflix so here the
time referred to by since then is 6:00
p.m. I finished work at 6:00 p.m. today
since then since that time from that
point in time until this conversation
I've been sitting on the couch watching
Netflix so we do not use since then to
introduce a reason as we do with because
or because of or since rather since then
is referring to a point in the past
relative to now so please keep this in
mind when you are choosing between these
words I hope that this explanation was
helpful for you thanks very much for the
question ok 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 / ask - Alicia of course if you
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thanks very much for watching this
week's episode of ask Alicia and I will
see you again next week
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