ESL IQ Learn English: Teacher Ronnie

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Pronunciation - N, KN

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 9:33 PM with No comments

The N sound may be a little difficult to say! After this pronunciation lesson, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO IT! Learn how to say words that begin with N and KN!

TRANSCRIPT:

"What's new?" Has anyone ever said that to you before? And you don't understand what they've said to you? "What's new?" New York. New Jersey. No, "what's new?" is another way of saying, "Hello. How are you?"

And my name's Ronnie. Today, I'm going to teach you about the letter "N", written like this in the capital. Hah! Where's my marker gone? It's disappeared. Written in the smaller case, it is like this "n."

So, a lot of people have difficulty pronouncing the letter "N". This lesson is for Rick. Rick, you typed in a beautiful comment and said, "Ronnie, I cannot pronounce the letter "N" properly. Can you help me?" And I said, "Sure, Rick." This lesson's for you.

Today's lesson is "n" as in "knew" Hah! What's this? What is a dirty little "k" doing here in front of the "n"? Did you know that in English, if you have the "kn" like this, the "k" - shhh -- is silent. So this word "knew" is the exact same pronunciation, as this word "new". Shocking, I know.

So if I take my magic red marker, and all of a sudden, this will make sense to you, with the "kn" sound, the delightful little "k," you don't say it, it's silent. Don't say it. Don't ever say it like "canoe"; "canoe" is like the boat that you row. Mm-mm, so when we say this word it's the exact same word, as this word, "knew" - "new"

Now when you want to say the "n" word! Hah! The "n-word" -- I would never say that. What you want to do is you want to put your tongue, huh, at the top of your mouth. And it has to be spread across your mouth and hitting the back of your teeth. So, your whole tongue is going to cover all of the top of your mouth, and you're going to press your tongue up and go "n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n".

The "n-n-n-n-n-n" sound is voiced. That means if you put your hands here, it vibrates. So, if you go "n-n-n-n-n", "n-n-n-n-n", it's easily confused with the "m-m-m-m-m", with the "M" sound. The difference, "n-n-n-n-n", is that your mouth is open and your tongue is all the way up, pressed against the top of your mouth for the "N".

With the "M" sound, your mouth is closed. Your mouth is closed, "m-m-m-m-m", and your tongue is in the middle of your mouth. So, "n-n-n-n-n" and "m-m-m-m-m"; so now you have the "n-n-n-n-n" pronunciation, that's cool.

This word again, because it's a "k" and an "n" together, and a "w." What's happened here? English is strange. This word is actually the exact same word as "no." So the difference in meaning - you guys might know the difference; "know" means to understand. And this "no" means negative. So, "I know" the spelling is like this. But, "no" there're no silent letters.

This word "knew" is the past tense of "know." So you can say, "I knew that, Ronnie." This word "new" means it's not old. Okay, so "new" is the opposite of old.

We're going to go on to some other "n" words to help you study your pronunciation. So with your tongue at the roof of your mouth you say "n-n-never", "n-n-never". Then you have the word "n-n-now", "now". It rhymes with the word "cow" - now, cow "n-never", "now".

The magic twist, sometimes you want to twist your neck and it makes a cracking sound. This part of your body is called your "neck". Sometimes you have a sore "neck" because you're watching too many YouTube videos. It's all right. Just give it a crack, and you'll be fine, and "neck".

And the word "night" there's also another "kn" spelling for this. It is exactly the same pronunciation, but this word "knight" means an old warrior that rode around on horseback. So, you will see medieval knights or Knights of the Round Table, if you're into knighting.

The pronunciation is the same. The meaning is different. So you have to be very confused about this "kn" thing, again, so a "knight" is basically a warrior from the olden times, and "night" is the opposite of day.

There's another exception. If you go to the beautiful land of America or in some places in Canada, and I'm sure the UK, you might see a word like this. And you go "'nite." Oh, hah! Oh, oh, oh, hold on. That makes sense. The spelling makes sense there. Sometimes Americans do it well.

This word is the exact same word as this one. They just don't mess around with all the extra letters. So, this word is the same as this word "night". A difference is American and British spelling. If you go to fast food restaurants or a lot of advertising, even in Canada you will see this word written [informally].

There's one more I'd like to teach you, "knot" and "not." This "knot" again, the "k" is silent. And it has the exact pronunciation as don't do it, "not." This "knot" is when you tie something together, doodle-loodle-loodle-loo, like your shoe, you make a "knot".

Pronunciation - V W

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 9:26 PM with No comments

"Do you know how to say the 'w' sound in English correctly? A lot of students mix up the 'v' and 'w' sounds in English. It's a problem, because it will sound like you are saying completely different words, and people won't understand you! For instance, 'west' is a direction, but a 'vest' is something you wear. Learn how to say V and W correctly in this pronunciation lesson.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. Welcome to www.engvid.com -- not "EngWid". Today, I'm going to teach you the difference in pronunciation between a "V" and a "W". That's "U" times two. In some parts of America -- I don't know which parts, which states -- I know people say "double yah". We don't actually say "double yah" in Canada; it's "double U" versus the "V". Now, this goes out to all of my friends who speak Chinese, Farsi, Arabic, German, Polish, Slovak, Czech, Slovenian, Russian, Ukrainian: As far as I understand, all of these languages have problems with the "V" and the "W". "Double yah"! The "double U". Let me help you out.

The easiest way to get this down straight is when you say the "V" sounds, you've got to stick out your two front teeth and go "vuh", "vuh", "vuh". No. 1 rule: When you want to say the "V" sound, you have to stick your big front teeth out of your mouth over your bottom lip -- "vuh". Your bottom lip is going to make the air come out, and it's going to make the sound of "vuh". If you look at this word, it's "visor", "visor". You always need to put your teeth out like a beaver. The other letter is "W". When we actually make the "W" sound, you're going to make like you're going to kiss someone. "Wuah", "wuah", "wuah". As you can see -- "V", "wuah" -- your mouth does a completely different thing with the two sounds. "V", "wuah", "wuah".

So let's try -- let's practice, first of all, making the "V" sounds with some words. The first one is "visor", "visor". "Visor" is the top part of a baseball cap that keeps the sun out of your eyes. The next one we have is "veil". A "veil" can be worn at a wedding. It covers the bride's face, and in many countries around the world, women wear veils to hide their beautiful eyes. So "veil" is a face covering -- "veil". The next word is a "vest", "vest". "Vest" is usually an article of clothing worn by a man. Women can wear vests as well, and it's part of a three-piece suit: You have a tie, a shirt, a vest, and an over -- a suit jacket. I'm going to draw a vest. It's going to be funny-looking. If you guys have ever seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I think the Oompa-Loompas wear a vest. And then you would have your shirt here. So the vest is, basically, like a jacket with no arms -- "vest". The next one is a kind of car -- a very fast car -- and also a snake. This is a "viper", "viper". And the last "V" sound for you today is "verse", "verse". "Verse" we use in writing songs or poetry, and it's a stanza of music or words that's broken down into different parts of the song. "Verse", "viper", "vest", "veil", "visor".

Now -- hold on -- we're going to go into the "W" -- "double yah" -- the "W" sound. As I told you, once you -- when you say the "W" sound, you're going to make like you're going to kiss someone. So Ronnie's going to pretend she knows how to draw. These are lips and they're going "wuah!" They're blowing you kisses or besos. The first "W" word is "wiser", "wiser". The next one is "whale", "whale". "Ronnie, what's a whale?" A "whale" is an animal -- a really, really big animal -- is it a fish? Is it an animal? I don't know -- that lives in the ocean. And they like to eat peanuts. What? Yeah. "Wiser" means someone is smarter than you. Maybe you are smarter than me because you know that whales don't eat peanuts at all. The next one is "west", "west". "West" is a direction. We have north, south -- oh, I hope I get this right --east, and west. This guy right here is "west". If you are the fan of a band called "The Clash" -- my favorite band ever -- they have a song that's called "Gates of the West". You don't want to make a mistake and say, "Gates of the Vest" because people think, "What? Okay, so you have a vest and then a gate. Gates with the vest. Oh, I don't get it." So the song is "Gates of the West". The next word is "wiper", "wiper". A "wiper", you have -- if you have a car, I hope you need them. They are on your windshield, and they go, "wicky, wicky, wicky, wicky, wiper." They help to clear the rain or the other dead animals that fall onto your car off of your windshield so you can see when you're driving. And the last "wuah" word is "worse". "Worse" means "bad", so "worse".

Now is the fun part, the exciting part, the challenging part: We have to contrast the "V" and the "W" with these words together. Ready? "Visor", "wiser". Now be careful: "Vooh", "Wooh". Give it a try. "Visor", "wiser". "Visor", "wiser". Okay. The next one: "Veil", "veil", "whale", "whale". "Veil", "whale". "Vest", "vest", "west", "west".

Speaking English: How to say P, F, B, V

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 9:20 PM with No comments

Do you want to sound like a native speaker? Practice your pronunciation with me! P, F, B, and V can be difficult to pronounce, especially since some languages do not have these exact sounds in their alphabet. In this lesson I will teach you how to easily start pronouncing these letters correctly. You'll also learn the difference between voiced and unvoiced letters. Improve your pronunciation of English words with me, Ronnie!

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the pronunciation lesson with Ronnie. That took me a bit, but I've gotten it now. Today, I'm going to teach you the differences between one, two, three, four letters in English that are very difficult. But after you hear and see this lesson, it's going to be a lot easier for you. Again, with most letter sounds in English, the reason why it's so difficult is because in your language, maybe you do not have this sound at all. Or the sounds in your languages are very, very similar. So instead of saying a P, it's a mix between a P and an F.

So let's go through one thing that's very, very important when you're learning any word that you're going to say, and it is what I've written in blue here: unvoiced and voiced. Do you know what the difference is between "unvoiced" and "voiced"? I will teach you. What you've to do is you have to put your hand on your throat. Not too hard. Don't kill yourselves. And you're going to make this sound. Just the letter. You're going to "puh, puh, puh." Now, when you make the "puh" sound, you've to be careful of two things. The first one is your mouth. What is your mouth doing? Okay? When you make the P sound, your lips have to go together and blow out like you're smoking. So it's "puh, puh". Okay? I like to call this "kiss mouth". So when you make a kiss mouth, it's like you're going to kiss someone. You go, "puh". Or you can call it a "smoking mouth". It doesn't matter. When you are saying the P sound, you're going to make your kiss mouth, "puh"; you're going to put your hand on your throat; and you're going to realize that your throat or your vocal cords do not vibrate. So try. "Puh, puh". You should not feel any vibration in your throat. This non-vibration is called "unvoiced". So if something is "unvoiced", it means it does not vibrate in your throat. So "unvoiced" means no vibration. Okay? So the P sound is a kiss with no vibration.

Let's look at an example of a "voiced" letter. We're going to make the same mouth style, and we're going to blow a kiss or a smoke. But the difference between the P "puh" and the B, is that when we make the B sound, you have to vibrate your throat or your vocal cords. So you have to go "buh, buh, buh". Your lips are making the same movement, but the vocal cords are going to vibrate. So try this. "Buh, buh, buh." Then, if you do it without voicing it, it's "puh, puh, puh". So your lips are making the same movement, but your vocal cords vibrate and do not vibrate. So if it's voiced, it means that your vocal cords vibrate.

The next letter that a lot of people have problems with is the F. Now, when I make the F sound -- "fff, fff" -- I need to do something very important. I need to take my teeth and stick them out over my bottom lip. I like to call these "beaver teeth". Have you ever seen a beaver? Do beavers have teeth? Sometimes, the animal beaver has teeth. And beavers have very predominant -- very big front teeth because they chew trees. So when I say "beaver teeth", I mean you stick your teeth out like a beaver. Okay? So this sound is very different from the P and the B sound because first of all, your mouth is making a different position. So when you make the F sound, your teeth are out, and it is unvoiced. So again, you're going to put your hand on your throat and go "fff". The air is going to come out at the bottom of your teeth between your bottom lip and your top teeth. So it's "fff". It feels like you're pushing the air down. "Fff." With the P and the B, you're pushing the air out like you're smoking. With the F, the air is going down. So try. "Fff, fff, fff."

When we say the V sound or the "vuh", again, we're going to have beaver teeth. So you're going to stick your teeth out, except this time, it is voiced. So like the F sound, same mouth position, but you must vibrate your vocal cords. So it's "vuh, vuh, vuh." This is rather difficult, so I suggest you practice. "Vuh, vuh, vuh." It might take a little bit of time and a little bit of practice for you to get it. But the important thing for you to understand is that F does not vibrate, and "vuh" vibrates.

So a lot of people maybe have problems with the B and the F, okay? So you've to look at this. The B is a kiss mouth, "buh, buh". And the F is a beaver mouth, and it's "fff, fff".

English Vocabulary - In the bedroom...

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 9:14 PM with No comments

Let's go into the bedroom... and learn some new words there! I'm going to teach you lots of bedroom vocabulary: simple words like 'pillow' and strange words like 'duvet'. Don't hit the snooze button! Wake up and learn these words now.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. Welcome to my bedroom. It's not my bedroom. It's a whiteboard with words on it, but I'm going to teach you about bedroom -- vocabulary that is. Stay tuned. Maybe I'll teach you some other bedroom vocabulary if you know what I mean. We're going to go on the innocent side today, and I'm going to teach you about basic things in bedrooms. I know. I know.

Okay. This is a bed. Do you sleep on a bed, or do you sleep on a futon? Did I speak Japanese? Hi, Japanese people in the house. Konnichiwa. O-genki desu ka? When you sleep, you usually sleep on a "futon". We have stolen your word. We're so nice. And we use it for our own. "Futon" -- if you know or don't know -- is, basically, a mattress that you put on the floor. It sounds kind of uncomfortable, but it's really, really good if you're really drunk, and there's never a fear of falling out of the bed. You just kind of roll over and, boom, you're awake. It has some advantages and some disadvantages. So this is a picture of a bed. I am an artist. Remember this as we go through this.

The first very common thing that you will find in a bedroom is a pillow. "Pillow". A lot of people -- I don't know why -- have never learned this word in English. I know it's not in a lot of textbooks. You don't open your textbook and go, "Wow, this is a pillow." You're more like, "This is a pen." Thanks. I know that. So the first one is a pillow. A "pillow" is a soft or hard, squishy thing that you put your head on -- not that head; this head. And to keep your pillow clean, you're going to put a pillow case on it. A "pillow case" is like a cover for the pillow. You can take the pillow case off, and please wash it. You can have different kinds of pillows. There're feather pillows. So what we do is we take a duck or a goose; we kill it; we take all its feathers off; and we stick them in a pillow. Yeah. I don't think that's really cool. Or you can just have a fluffy cotton pillow or another microfibre pillow. You have a pillow case.

The next thing that is essential for a bed -- please -- are sheets. Now be careful with your pronunciation. You don't want to say "shits". That's the stuff that comes out of your bum. You want to say "sheets". When you say this, the "e's" are very long. So you're going to say "sheets". Usually, we have a top sheet and a fitted sheet. The fitted sheet just means it's the bottom sheet. They like to use fancy words like fitted sheet, top sheet -- just two sheets. And you know what? You can use just two of these. Don't worry about it. The top sheet -- it goes on top. And the fitted sheet goes on the bottom. It covers -- the main part of your bed here is a mattress. The "mattress" is, like, a big fluffy thing that you get to relax on. And the black part of my picture would be a bed frame. Let's write that down. It's important. So a "bed frame" is the support of the mattress. Pillow, pillow case, sheets, top and bottom or fitted sheets.

Next: In Canada, or maybe in your country, in the winter, it's cold. You want something to cover you. Sheets are very thin. They're usually made of cotton. A "cover" or a "blanket", a "duvet" -- du-what? This word is a French word. So the way that we say it looks very different from the spelling. It looks like "duvette". I think that maybe some people -- especially people in America -- would say, "I got a new duvette cover. It's got some 'dubyas' on it." It's actually very important that you say this properly and you say "duvet". So it's like "du-vay". The next one is a comforter. "Comforter", "duvet", "blanket", "cover", and the last one, a "quilt" -- they're all the same. Don't tell people who like to design beds and fabrics that it's just something that keeps you warm. There are slight differences between a quilt, a comforter, and a duvet, but you can discover that for yourself. You've got homework. Go to a store. Ask the people that work there to show you a quilt, a comforter, a duvet, a blanket, and a cover. You're practicing your English.

The next thing that you would have in your bedroom is furniture. "Furniture" is an uncountable noun. "Furniture" includes a bed, a nightstand -- "Ronnie, what's a 'nightstand'?" Oh, "standing up", "nighttime" -- what? No. A nightstand or -- maybe this makes more sense -- a bedside table. Look at my picture. This thing right here is a "bedside table". It's beside your bed, and it's a table. I know. Sometimes English makes sense. "Nightstand" or "bedside table" -- these are the same. Some people say "nightstand"; some people say "bedside table". Some people just say "that thing beside the bed". But it is definitely a bedside table or nightstand.

Learn English vocabulary in the BATHROOM :)

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 8:18 PM with No comments

Is there a difference between a BATHROOM and a WASHROOM? Today's English lesson is all about RESTROOM vocabulary! It has many names, and I bet you visit this place many times every day. Lets make sure you can talk about it properly. Avoid making embarrassing mistakes by learning some very common words. When you're done, wash your hands and take the quiz! EngVid: Don't take a dump without it.

TRANSCRIPT

"Teacher! Teacher! Ronnie! Ronnie! Can I go -- can I go bathroom?" "What? 'Can I go bathroom?' Okay. 'Can I go to the bathroom?' Yes. 'Can I go bathroom?' No. Not in here, please. If you said, "Can I go bathroom", that means that you are going to pee where you are. Please go to the bathroom or the washroom to pee.

Today's lesson is all about going to the toilet. This thing is called a "plunger". Plunge, plunge, plunge! What do you do with this in the bathroom, you wonder? This is a plunger. What we use this for is in the toilet.

So let's imagine that your friend, your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, or you ate a lot of food last night. And then, you went to the toilet. You took a massive dump. What is a "massive dump"? A "massive dump" is slang. "Take a massive dump." "Massive" means very big, and "dump" -- let me draw it for you -- means poo. Unchi! Japanese style. So "take a massive dump" means "to have a bowel movement", if you will. Okay? But it's so large that maybe it clogs or plugged the toilet. So that means I cannot flush the toilet. Now, basic bathroom etiquette. Please, when you have finished whatever you're doing in there, please always flush the toilet. There's a little mechanism on the toilet. It's usually a silver color. It's very easy. You press it. All of the water and all of the extra things in the toilet floating here -- maybe you have some poo -- it goes away so that the next person does not have to see what you ate for dinner. I don't want to see that. "Oh, Uncle John had corn last night." Unnecessary for me to see. So please, I beg of you, if you are going to use the toilet, please flush it, okay?

There was a rhyme that I knew -- I still know it. It's called, "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." I would like to change the poem to say, "Flush the toilet. I don't care what color it is. I don't want to see it." Or you're going to be getting one of these stuck in your face. So rule No. 1: Flush the toilet, okay? With a plunger, you are going to -- as I said -- unclog the plugged toilet.

What happens in a toilet or in a sink is you have a drain, okay? A "drain" is a hole at the bottom where all the water goes into. It goes to Magic Land. Okay? So the sink and the toilet both have a drain, as does your bathtub and your shower. What happens is hair or other debris gets stuck in the drain. So the drain gets clogged or plugged. It basically means that all of this stuff can't go down the pipe, and it backs up. So the water doesn't go down. Dangerous with a toilet. Not as bad with a sink. Acceptable with a bathtub and a shower. All you need to do is plunge it. Make sure it's clean.

Now, what do you do in a sink? Usually, when you go to the sink, you wash your hands. Rule No. 2: After you go to the toilet, you flush the toilet, okay? Then, it's really, really cool. It's the coolest thing ever that you wash your hands. Especially for men. Guys, what are you touching? What are you doing? I don't want to touch a doorknob that you have touched after you've taken -- sorry. After you've gone to the toilet. You've touched your man part. You did not wash your hand, and then you touched the doorknob. I'm touching your knob, too, okay? Literally. I don't want to touch your knob. Please wash your hands after you flush the toilet. Good.

Another thing that you might find in a bathroom or a washroom is a bathtub, and/or you may have a shower. Now, the difference between a bathtub and a shower, it's very easy. When you have or take a bath, you're going to do it in the bathtub. In the bathtub, you get to lie down. You get to relax. Maybe you have some bubbles. Maybe you have a rubber ducky. That's a duck, okay? I'm an artist. That's a duck.

A shower, it's very small, and you don't have enough room to lie down, so you are going to stand up in the shower, okay? It doesn't matter if you say the verb "take" or "have". So you can say, "I'm going to have a bath. I'm going to take a bath. Or I'm going to have a shower. I'm going to take a shower." The other thing that you can say is -- "shower" is also a verb. So you can say, "I'm going to shower. I'm going to shower." You can't say, "I'm going to bath, or I'm going to bathtub." Because "bathtub" and "bath" -- these guys are only nouns, okay? A shower can be a verb and a noun. English is so confusing sometimes. Even when you're just trying to be clean. I'll help you. Don't worry.

What is St. Patricks Day?

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 8:12 PM with No comments

St. Patrick was not Irish! So why do we celebrate Irish culture on St. Patrick's Day? What is Lent? Learn why people drink beer and wear green on March 17th, and how you can celebrate St. Patrick's Day too! What is Ronnie drinking?!

TRANSCRIPT

Happy St. Patrick's Day. This is a beer. It's called Guinness. It's from Ireland. There's another thing that I'd like to teach you about something from Ireland. It's called St. Patrick's Day. It happens every March 17th. This year is 2014. On March 17th, 2014, there's going to be a lot of drinking. There's going to be a lot of parties. There's going to be a lot of parades and festivals. Why? Okay. "Why is Ronnie wearing green again? Why is she wearing a green wig? Why is she wearing a green shirt? Why does her shirt say 'fek'? What does that mean?" Let me tell you. "Fek" is the Irish replacement word for a very naughty word called "f*ck". So instead of saying "f*ck", you could say "fek". It's really cool, and nobody thinks you're saying a bad word except for the people that know.

So a little bit of history for you about St. Patrick. St. Patrick, apparently, was a real person. And he was the saint of Ireland. Now, the funny thing is that we don't know exactly when he was born. There are a lot of historical errors about his life. What I have read -- some rumors. For sure, he is the saint of Ireland.

Now, this is how you spell "Ireland" in Irish Gaelic. I cannot say it properly. I think it sounds like "aija". I do not speak Irish Gaelic. I do apologize. But this is how they spell "Ireland" in Ireland. This is the name of it. So St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland.

March 17th, funnily enough, represents the day of his death. So we are not 100 percent sure when the guy was born. But apparently, they know he died March 17th -- I don't know the year; it's not important. What is really important about St. Patrick and St. Patrick's Day -- especially St. Patrick -- is he marks the begins of Christianity in Ireland. Now, Christianity is a kind of religion. There are two main parts of Christianity, Catholic and Protestant. In Ireland, Catholic and Protestant people are always fighting but they have the same religion. I don't understand it either.

So in Northern Ireland and Ireland -- or the southern part of Ireland -- Newfoundland or Newfoundland, which is in Canada, and Labrador, a province in Canada, and also in the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. And it's a public holiday. That means you don't have to go to work, and you can spend all day partying and drinking and wearing green. Doesn't this sound like a great holiday? I live in Ontario. Unfortunately, St. Patrick's Day is not a public holiday. I have to go to work unless it's a weekend.

What do we do on St. Patrick's Day? We drink. We drink a lot. Now, I was interested as to why on St. Patrick's Day people drank. And the answer is because of this thing called "lent". Now, "lent" is the six weeks leading up to Easter. Easter happens in either March or April depending on where it lies in the calendar. And lent is six weeks where people will give up one thing that is a luxury. For example, if you really, really like chocolate, you will give up chocolate for lent. If you really, really love beer, you will not drink beer -- [laughs] yeah right! You will not drink beer for six weeks -- not going to happen.

St. Patrick's Day happens to fall smack-dab in the middle of lent. So for one day, you can drink, eat, feast, party as much as you want, and we're not going to tell anyone. So the reason why people drink so much -- only on March 17th -- is it's because the one day during lent, the restrictions, or the rules, have been banished, which means you can do whatever you want.

In your city, in your country, do you have a St. Patrick's Day celebration? When I was living in Japan in Tokyo, I went to the St. Patrick's Day parade. I drank a lot of beer on the street. It was great. Some people wear a lot of green. Some people don't wear green. You do not have to wear green. You can wear whatever you want.

One interesting ironic thing that I think about St. Patrick himself if history is correct is that he was not even born in Ireland. He was born in Roman England, I think known today as Wales. He's not even Irish. He was born in Wales.

Learn English Vocabulary: Beauty and Makeup

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 10:33 PM with No comments

How do you make yourself look beautiful? Do you wear makeup? Do you pluck your eyebrows? This English lesson is all about beauty, and the vocabulary we use to talk about makeup. I think you are beautiful just the way you are! However, around the world many people put a lot of effort into looking beautiful. Today, I teach you how to talk about the things we do to look pretty. Men, do you think this lesson isn't for you? I have some beauty advice for you too! Take the quiz here.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. Do you do this every day in the mirror? This is called "mascara". Today, I'm going to teach you about beauty -- beautiful vocabulary. The first one that I said is "mascara". We use this on our eyelashes. Now, it's very funny because when we do this, we always have to open our mouth. Guess what? We can do it without opening our mouth, too. But maybe we are afraid that we'll poke ourselves in the eye. I'm not too sure, ladies. So if you're interested in make-up or cosmetics, this lesson's for you. Let's begin.

Here, I have a list of verbs we use, and here are some nouns. So let's begin with the verbs.

"Put on" or "apply". These two verbs are the same. We use these when we talk about make-up. So you can "put on" mascara. So you're going to take your mascara, and you're going to "put it on" or "apply" it. Now, if you look at my beautiful face here, the mascara will go on your eyelashes. You have to be very, very careful. You have to say "eyelashes", not "eyelash". "Eyelash" is one. You, I guarantee, do not put mascara on one eyelash. It would almost be impossible. You'd have to very carefully -- it's not going to happen. So on our eyelashes, we put on or apply -- they're the same -- mascara. It makes our eyelashes longer and bigger, so you can wink more at people. Wink, wink.

The next thing that maybe you wear if you're a lady -- maybe if you're a man you wear this, too. I don't know. -- is eye shadow. Now, there are many, many, many different colors of eye shadow. This one happens to have blue, green -- some other colors. We also get with the eye shadow a little brush, so you can brush on the eye shadow. You can use your finger. Doesn't matter, really. I'm very sure that professional make-up artists would have very special brushes that would cost a lot of money. I am not a professional make-up artist, so I'm not too sure about the different kinds of brushes that one would apply mascara -- or eye shadow with. But I do know that it adds color to your eyelids. So underneath your eyelashes are -- the skin here, which is your eyelids. You can paint them whatever color you'd like. Okay? It's up to you. Purple. You want purple?

So we put on or apply mascara, eye shadow, and eyeliner. Now, eyeliner looks like a pencil, but it isn't. This is not eyeliner. I just don't have any eyeliner. But it would look like a pencil. And all you're going to do is take it, and you're going to actually line the outside of your eyes. Don't put it in your eye. It's going to hurt again.

So with the mascara for your eyelashes, the eye shadow that will go on your eyelids or the skin above your eyes, and the eyeliner will go around the top and bottom of your eyes. It just makes your eyes look bigger. Do my eyes look bigger? That might work, too.

Moving on from the eyes, we're going to move down under the eyes. Now, ladies, let's say one night you are out partying, talking, or drinking coffee a little bit too late. You wake up the next morning. You look in the mirror, and it looks like you are very, very tired. Your eyes -- maybe at the bottom here -- are puffy. We have an idiom or an expression for that. Very strange, but we call it "bags under your eyes". "Bags?" Now, it's not a shopping bag. You're not shopping at night. You're not doing Internet shopping. "Bags" just means it's really full under your eyes. So maybe when you wake up in the morning, you kind of have something that looks like this. You think, "How am I going to get to work with bags under my eyes?" Well, we have the magic of the make-up industry of something called "concealer". Now, a "concealer" basically will erase the bags under your eyes, and it will make your skin tone an even color. So if you have freckles -- I have freckles. "Freckles" are little dots on your face -- and you don't like them, you can use concealer to cover or hide -- conceal -- your freckles. Or if you have a zit. What's a zit? A "zit" is when you get a red point or a dot on your face. We call this -- the slang word for it is "zit". But in a more medical term -- and you can have many zits, don't worry -- is "acne". So acne is a skin condition. A lot of teenagers -- so people that are aged 12 to maybe 18 -- it's really common to have acne or zits. So the concealer will hide the zits on your face -- hopefully. Okay?

How to talk about prices in English - Basic Vocabulary

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 10:30 PM with No comments

Let's go shopping and talk about money! You don't need to say something costs "five dollars and ninety-eight cents"! We shorten everything. This basic English vocabulary lesson will teach you how to understand prices, and say them like a native speaker! Test your skills with the quiz here.

TRANSCRIPT:

Do you like shopping? I don't. But one thing I do like is saving money and getting a bargain or a deal when I have to go shopping and buy something. What I'm going to teach you is how to talk about prices or how much something costs or how much something was in English.

It is difficult, I think, to say numbers or listen to when people tell you how much something costs in English because we don't say, "Ten dollars and seventy-five cents, please." What we do is we take the number, and we divide it. So if I was going shopping, and I wanted to ask someone, I would say, "Hey, how much is this?" If I held the thing in my hand and said, "Excuse me. How much is this?" People would say -- or the person that was trying to sell it to you would say, "It is ten seventy-five." You do not need to go through "ten dollars and seventy-five cents." We just say the first number, then the second number. So this number is "ten seventy-five". Wherever the dot is -- or the decimal point -- that's where we divide the number.

This one is "two fifty". This one would be "eighteen twenty-five". Something quite expensive would be "a hundred and eighty-seven forty-two".

Now, we do not -- at least I don't -- buy things that are in the thousands. But maybe you're going shopping, and what you're buying is very expensive. If the number is over a hundred -- it's "one thousand eight hundred and seven eighty-seven". It's the same rule. We say the first number, and the cents we just say as a number together.

Maybe in your country you use a very, very high or big currency. Most of our purchases are not more than a thousand dollars, depending, of course, on what you're buying. But a typical grocery store or clothing store probably -- maybe, depends how much you eat or what you buy -- it's not going to be over a thousand. So you're not going to have to use "one thousand seven hundred and forty-two" a lot.

The other really, really easy thing is that if you don't really understand when people speak very quickly, like, "It's ten seventy-five." "What? Excuse me. How much is this?" "Three eighty-five" "What?" "Three eighty-five." "What?" "Three eighty-five." What you can do is when they type it into the cash register, you can look at the price. Or you can ask them "Please write it down." That way, you can actually see the numbers.

Now, I've told you that the person will say, "It is" -- the price. Once you have bought it, you can say to your friends, "Do you like my new shirt?" Your friend's like, "Oh, I love it! Oh, my God! How much was it?" And then you punch your friend for having friends that talk like that. You're going to say, "It was". So after you have bought something, "it was ten seventy-five." "It was two fifty." This is the only grammar, the only two tiny words that you need to use. Yes. No. Don't say this. Don't say this, "The price is" or "the price was"; "the cost is"; "I paid the money". "Did you really pay money?" Of course, you paid money. Do not use these expressions. They're very unnatural. This one is just strange and unnecessary.

So the next time you go shopping, try and listen; try and ask people questions; and listen to the price of things. Watch out for the evilness called "tax". People will always say, "Oh, that's eighty-seven thirty-five plus tax." And in Canada, it's not included in the price, so good luck shopping out there. Until next time, goodbye.

Learn English: FOOTBALL Vocabulary

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 10:24 PM with No comments

GOAL!!!!! In English, is the game called 'football' or 'soccer'? How do you tell someone who's winning and what the score is? Just in time for the FIFA World Cup, a sports vocabulary lesson! Are you supporting Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, or another country? Let me know in the comments! And take a quiz on this video here.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, guys. What's happening? Right now, it's World Cup. Are you watching? I think the world is watching the World Cup.

Today, I'm going to teach you about football. Please, please, please, please, please do not call it "soccer". Let's go through this. In Canada and in America, people are quite stupid, including me. For some reason, people like to say "soccer". Let's imagine that we are playing a game with your foot and a ball. Well, I would call that "football". So one rule that I have if you ever meet me is please don't call it "soccer". It's "football". In kind of a slang kind of way, you can call it "footy". It's more British English, but you can call it that just as long as you do not call it "soccer". Please do not call it "soccer". Just to clarify this for you. The organization is called FIFA. What do you think the F stands for? It's not called "SIFA"; it's called "FIFA". It's called "football". So need I remind you; do not say "soccer". Thank you. Public service announcement is now over. Let's get into the game.

Maybe you are very excited to watch the game. You are not sure what verb to use in English because we have "look", "see", and "watch". This is easy. Because everyone's running and smashing and biting people -- don't bite people when you play football. You're going to actually watch the football game. So you can say to your friends, "Hey! Let's watch the game." And your friend says, "Yes! Let's do that. I'm excited."

So maybe you get to the game late, and the game's already started. So you can say to someone, "What is the score?" Okay? So if it's present tense, we want to use "is" because it's present tense. "What is the score?" Maybe the person will tell you, "It's 2-1 for -- let's say -- Brazil." Hi, everybody from Brazil. This means that Brazil is winning because I tell you the name of the country. I would never tell you the team's losing. Okay? We actually don't have a word for this little hyphen here when we talk about a score. So we say, "It's 2-1 for Japan." Okay? Or, "It's 3-2 for Algeria." If you want to find out the past tense -- maybe you missed the game entirely because you have a job. I have a job. I miss games. So I have to catch up at the end. So you're going to ask your friends or someone, "What was the score?" They will say the same answer except they'll say, "It was -- for example -- 2-1 for Mexico." Okay? Or you could ask the person, "Who won?" They're going to say the country. "Cameroon won 2-0." Okay? Again, we don't have to say this little hyphen thing. Whatever country is the winner -- can someone give me another country name? What's your country name? Is your country in the World Cup? Canada isn't, and I know why. Because in Canada, we don't even know the name of the game. USA was in the World Cup. They got shut out. So, "USA won 2-0." Whatever country's the winner, you have to use the past tense. This is present tense: "win". Past tense is like the number -- exact same way to say it. We say "won". I know the spelling looks strange, but it's actually the same way to say it.

What happens in the World Cup -- in the World Cup only -- is they have different groups: A, B, C, D. And when the teams play each other, groups get disqualified. So what happens is in each group, one country will advance. So for example, I can say, "In group A, USA advances." But they didn't, did they? History has been written.

If you are with a group of people and they're not wearing any team colors, you can say, "Who are you supporting?" Or, "Who are you going for?" This means, "Who are you cheering for? Who, like -- oh, come on! Go! Oh, I didn't get it." Do you get really excited when you watch your team play? I don't. I don't have a team. Canada doesn't even know how to say the sport correctly.

One thing that happens in the World Cup is there are many, many games in one day. Up to three games a day. So you can ask someone, "Who plays today? Who plays tomorrow?" I'm going to come back after I go have half-time and teach you some vocabulary.

Conversation Skills - How to avoid a conversation!

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 10:05 PM with No comments

What if you DON'T want to have a conversation? How can you STOP talking with someone annoying? What can you do to AVOID talking with people? Watch this lesson to learn the WORST social conversation skills! If you want to improve your English conversation skills, don't follow ANY of the tips in this lesson!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. Ronnie. Video. Conversation skills. How to avoid them? So maybe you don't want to talk to someone. This lesson is called "Conversation Skills: How to avoid a conversation." "Avoid" means you want to stop having or not have something.

So all of your life, probably, when you have been learning English, you've learned many lessons about how to have a conversation, how to talk to strangers, how to talk to people on the subway, how to talk to people in a store. Sometimes, I don't want to talk to anyone. Sometimes, people talk to me.

As an example, every morning, when I wake up, I have to walk my dog. It's cold outside. I've not had my coffee yet. I don't want to walk my dog. I do not want to be outside. And I'm generally not wanting to do anything except go back to bed. It seems that people that have dogs love to have conversations with other people who have dogs. I don't want to talk to you. I don't care. They ask me strange questions like, "Is your dog a boy or a girl?" Why? Why do you care if my dog is a boy dog or a girl dog? Do you want to have sex with my dog? Are you concerned if my dog has a penis? No. Stop it. Who cares? "How old is your dog?" Why? Do you want to know his birthday? Are you going to have a party? Is your dog and my dog going to come to my house, and are we going to have a party? No. Shut up. I'm walking my dog. Don't talk to me.

So tips on how to avoid a conversation. Rule No. 1, very easy, don't ever make eye contact with anyone you do not want to talk to. Number one rule when you want to have a conversation is you must look at the people's eyes. Don't look down. Don't look up. Look at their eyes. So to not have a conversation, don't look anyone in the eye. I'm not talking to you.

The second one is: Don't ask the speaker any questions. So as an example, "Oh, hi. What kind of dog do you have?", "It's a Cairn terrier". "How old is it?", "Seven". "Is it a boy or a girl?", "Boy". If you've noticed, I did not ask the person about their dog because I don't care. If you wanted to have a conversation with someone, you could ask the person the same question. As an example, "Hi", "Hi", "Good, yeah". "What kind of dog do you have?", "It's a Cairn terrier. How about you? What kind of dog do you have?", "It's a Jack Russell". "Oh, cool. Don't care. Good". "How old is your dog?" "Seven. How about you? How old is your dog?", "four". "Great", "Is your dog a boy or a girl?" "My dog's a boy. How about you? How about your dog? Does your dog have a penis or a vagina?", "Girl". "Oh, do you know what? Maybe my dog and your dog should have a party. Maybe they could have puppies. That would be cool. Yeah. Okay. Good to see you. Bye".

Next one: Look at something or someone else. Now, maybe you have the magic of a cell phone. This is a great conversation avoider. You may go as far as to pretend -- "Hi, Mom. Yeah, good. No" -- that you're talking to someone on the phone. "Mom. Yeah. Busy. No. No, I got -- Mom, hi. Yeah. Good". This is a great tool. You can pretend that your phone rang, and you're talking to your mother. You can pretend you got a text message. Or you can just look at your phone. This will indicate to the speaker that you do not want to talk to them. In reverse, if you want to talk to a person and have a real conversation, put your phone down. Do not text or talk on the phone when you are trying to have a conversation with a real live human being. If I'm at a bar and I'm talking to you, if you take out your phone and start texting someone, bye-bye. Ronnie's gone. She's getting another beer. So please, if humans want to talk to you, put your phones away. You can text them later.

If you talk really, really, really fast and you don't say your words properly -- no one has any idea what you're talking about -- they will not have a conversation with you. So if you speak or talk really, really quickly, or if you mumble -- "Mumble?" "Mumble" means you do not say words clearly. Some people will talk like this. They have their hand -- they put their hand in front of their mouth, and you can't really hear anything that they're saying because

[inaudible]

So rule No.1, put your hand down, okay? Don't talk down. When I talk like this, you can't even hear -- okay? "Mumbling" means you don't say your words clearly, or they're muffled. It's like this.

[Inaudible]

And talking really, really, really quickly. Maybe you are very excited to meet someone. That's cool. But try and speak a little slowly so that the person can understand you.

English Vocabulary for the ladies - Talking about your period

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 9:57 PM with No comments

Ladies, this is FOR YOU!! Learn these important English expressions about your monthly period. This is stuff you need to know, but that is never taught in regular ESL schools or English lessons! Test your understanding of the lesson by taking the free quiz at here.

English Pronunciation - How to pronounce numbers

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 9:55 PM with No comments

The pronunciation of English numbers can be difficult to understand. Watch this English lesson to learn the trick! You will be able to talk about and understand numbers with confidence! You can find more English pronunciation lessons and accent training at engVid.

Basic English Grammar - TOO MUCH, TOO MANY, A LOT OF

Posted by +84987002345 Posted on 9:52 PM with No comments

I have too much homework. You can never have too much money! I have a lot of lessons! In this grammar lesson, I will teach you when to use "too much", "too many", and "a lot of". You will learn about countable and uncountable nouns, and also about the difference in talking about "good" nouns and "bad" nouns. Watch the lesson, then take the quiz.