Improve your LISTENING and SPEAKING SKILLS with one simple method ⧸ACTIVE LISTENING

Hey guys! In this video we're gonna work a little bit on our listening skills and at the same time hopefully we'll learn some new vocabulary and also we'll work on our speaking skills. Ready? So with no further ado, let's start! It's Anna and this is the English Fluency Journey. It's not a secret that developing and improving listening skills is a hard task. It takes time and effort especially if you're not exposed to English. So the only thing we can do is to listen as much as possible and it's not that easy because lacking of vocabulary and grammar of course gets in the way and apart from that it's sometimes so hard to understand native speakers because of the connected speech and reductions that they use all the time when they speak to speak faster and more naturally. But because of those reductions the language flows, sounds smoothly and not choppy That's why in this video we're going to analyze a couple of fragments from one speech and TV shows that we all love to watch so much. To be honest, I can just binge watch TV series the whole weekend. So this video is also going to help us to learn how to sound more naturally ourselves. First, let's watch a fragment from Mark Zuckerberg's, the founder of Facebook, Harvard speech. This is an incredible and passionate speech. You'll find the link in the description. So go ahead and watch it because it's great. I was running late for class so I threw on a t-shirt and I didn't realize until afterwards that I put it on inside out and backwards my tag was sticking out the front. I couldn't figure out why no one in class would talk to me. Now let me tell you what is he saying. I was running late for class so I threw on a t-shirt and I didn't realize it until afterwards that I put it on inside out and backwards and my tag was sticking out of the front and I couldn't figure out why no one in class would talk to me. So as you can hear, he connects everything together and he pauses and makes an emphasis on the important words for delivering the message and he reduces and connects all the rest of the words. Let's listen to it again. I was running late for class so I threw on a t-shirt and I didn't realize until afterwards that I put it on inside out and backwards my tag was sticking out the front. I couldn't figure out why no one in class would talk to me. I was running late for class so I threw on a t-shirt and I didn't realize it until afterwards that I put it on inside out and backwards and my tag was sticking out of the front and I couldn't figure out why no one in class would talk to me. So the words and I didn't realize it until afterwards he pronounces so fast and so incoherent it's like he swallows the sounds and blends them together and it sounds like and I didn't realize a lot afterwards but people of course understand him but for non-native speakers it's a good way to train your ear but you gotta know what you're hearing in the first place and also the words and I put it on inside out and backwards he pronounces very fast as well because it's not that important for the message so that's why he connects everything together. Now what I want you to do I want you to practice to pronounce these words these connected words together at least separately so let's try and I didn't realize until afterwards and I didn't realize until afterwards you don't have to say these words not clear like he says them but it's important to practice at least to try to pronounce them fast and I didn't realize until afterwards and now that I put it on inside out and backwards that I put it on inside out and backwards a lot of left t's that I put it on inside out and backwards that I put it on inside out and backwards it sounds like a tongue twister a great tongue twister and this is what every native speaker usually does this is just a natural way of speaking and also it's important to know grammar because when people ask questions like what are you doing or what do you do the only difference is the words doing and doing all the rest sounds the same but in the first example we're asking what are you doing like right now and the other person knows that we're asking about right now because we use the ing form of the verb present participle in other words with the auxiliary verb to be and the second question is what do you do like what do you do for a living what is your occupation now let's listen to the native speakers asking this question what do you do what do you do what are you doing what are you doing so you can hear that the only difference is the words doing and do but of course just to be clear people can ask this question clearly like what are you doing what are you doing or what you doing what you're doing and also you can hear something like what you do last night what did you do last night what you do last night would you would you or what's that mean what's that mean what does that mean what's that mean you can hear all those reductions it's crazy i know to train your ear i recommend you to do let's call it an exercise so watch movies tv shows in english with subtitles but turn them on only when you don't understand something so pause the video read the subtitles listen to it again try to hear all the reductions repeat it and if you don't know some words look them up so let's listen to and analyze some more examples sorry i didn't mean that you wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it you wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it you wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it so you would not have said it if you didn't mean it you would not have becomes you wouldn't have you wouldn't have or you also can hear you wouldn't have you wouldn't have so you wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it repeat it with me you wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it you wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it you wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it do you want to get your face painted like a pretty butterfly no i'm just not in the mood So he says, do you want to get your face painted like a pretty butterfly? Let's listen to it again. Do you want to get your face painted like a pretty butterfly? So do you want to get your face painted like a pretty butterfly? So do you want to becomes do you wanna, do you wanna, do you wanna? And the word painted, he pronounces like painted, painted, dropping the T. Do you want to get your face painted like a pretty butterfly? Let's try it with me. Do you want to get your face painted like a pretty butterfly? And one last example. Wow, did you hear that? It's crazy how fast she pronounces those words. And those are Are you guys really thinking of getting another housekeeper? Because I mean, how would you feel about paying me to do it? So, there is not a lot of reductions. But she speaks so fast and relaxed and connects everything together. So, it sounds like one huge word. Are you guys really thinking about getting another housekeeper? Because I mean, how would you feel about paying me to do it? You guys don't have to try to speak like that. This is just so you are aware of how people might speak. I'm telling you, that exercise works like a charm. Pause the video, read the subtitles, and over some time you'll understand more and more. Mark my word. And of course, we haven't talked about all the spoken contractions. Which, by the way, we don't use in formal writing. Such as The bottom line is that we have to train our ears. And we have to know what to look for and what to pay attention to when we're listening. And I hope this video helps you to start noticing these things. And to become one step closer to understanding native speaker speaking patterns. Thank you for watching everybody. And of course, don't forget to stay positive and motivated in your studies. If you like this channel, please subscribe. Like this video. Hit this bell icon to stay updated. And I'll see you in my next video. Bye.