Whats your learning style? The BEST way for YOU to learn a language

How to a learn a language -- stop wasting your time with methods that don't work for you! There is no best way for everyone. The best way for YOU depends on YOUR learning style! People have different learning styles. In other words, they learn in different ways. Some people like to hear information, some like to see an image or diagram, and others learn by doing.

In this video, I'll show you how you can figure out your personal learning style, and how you can use this information to your advantage in the future to learn English more effectively. Knowing your preferred learning style means you can learn more effectively. You will also see that these methods are the ones that you find most interesting.

Knowing how you learn best also means you can try new methods of learning English that you may not yet know about! I'll share with you some ideas about new methods you can try out to help you develop your English. Then you can take a quiz on my lesson here:

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What I'm talking about today is the best way to teach yourself English, and that's the way that fits you, your personality, and the way your mind ticks; the way your mind works. I think that, in general, it's the best time ever to be learning English because you have so much access to English materials. So I'm not talking just about traditional ways, like books, and going to classes because now with the internet, there are just so many ways that you can learn, also with new devices. So, right now, you're learning English for free on the internet. Right? But you can also be learning English for free on Facebook or by using an app. So more than ever, there are just so many opportunities to learn, but also to connect with other people who speak English or who want to speak English. So it's great. Yeah?

Well, what would help, though, is knowing the best way to maximize what's already out there, so how you can use it more effectively. So to get there, what I want to do first is a little quiz, a quiz to find out your learning style. So let's go through the quiz and you have to decide which answer fits you best. Okay?

So when using new equipment, equipment... This could be like... Could be a new computer or a new remote control for your television, something like that. Do you..? Or something a little bit more difficult than that. Do you read the instructions first, do you ask somebody who already knows how to use it for an explanation, or do you work it out by trial and error? That means you just start using it and learn... Learn yourself. Which one fits you? So, for me, I am... I am a trial and error person. This is me, so I'm going to put a star there. Another good example of that is: have you ever bought any flat pack furniture that you need to put together for yourself? Well, you know, do you read the instructions first, do you ask somebody, or do you just start? I'm this kind of person and I can tell you that it often goes wrong because I just think: "Oh, it will be fine."

Next of all, when you're travelling and you need to find somewhere, do you use a map? "Aha, we go this way." Do you ask for directions or try to memorize them before you go? "Oh, I go there, and then I turn right, and then I go left. Aha, I see." Do you do that? Or do you get a sense of where to go by landmarks? I've lived in a couple of different cities, and this is what I always do. I live in Dubai at the moment, so kind of have a... Just a feeling of where the sea is all the time. I'm like: "The sea's over there, I'll go there." Doesn't always work, but that's how I make sense of where I am, so I'm here.

When you're cooking, what do you like to do? Are you someone who follows a recipe? "I do that, I do that, I do that." Often, people who follow a recipe do exactly the thing it says. Is that you? When you're cooking, do you ask a friend to give you their tips for cooking? "Oh, I really loved what you made there. Can you tell me how you did it?" And then you try it yourself? Or do you just make it up as you go along? "I'll put a bit of that in. I'll make it a bit spicier. Who needs a recipe?" Which one are you? I'm... It's getting a little bit repetitive here. Isn't it?

How about this one: I learn best when I'm shown what to do? So you show me what to do with your hands, I see it, and I go: "Right, I can do that now." I learn best when somebody tells me what to do, so they give you instructions, you hear it. You're like: "Aha, I know what to do now." Or do you learn best when you just have a go? You don't... You know, you can listen to them, you can see what you're supposed to do, but you really learn when you can be practical and get your hands involved. Which one are you? That's me.

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The BEST way for YOU to learn English - Extrovert or Introvert?

Are you learning English in a way that suits your personality and makes you an effective

learner? When you learn in a way that fits your personality, you will enjoy your studies more and progress faster.

Find out the different ways introverts and extroverts like to learn. If you don't know if you're an introvert or extrovert, and what that means exactly -- I explain all you need to know.

Once you know more about your personality and whether you are mostly introverted or extroverted, you can find out what your language-learning strengths and weaknesses are. Remember -- it's not good or bad to be an extrovert or introvert. We're just different! ...But for the record, I'm an introvert and proud ;)

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone. I'm Jade. I'm your new teacher! That's my name. I'm from London. So it's really nice to meet you all, and if -- I want you to watch my video, and I really do want you to subscribe at the end of the lesson so you get to see my other new videos on EngVid.

But, first of all, for today's lesson, I've got a confession to make. I am an introvert. What's an "introvert"? This is a kind of person who, actually, just prefers to spend a lot of time alone. But people misunderstand introverts, and they always think that it means "shy". They think that every introvert is shy, and I wouldn't say I'm shy. It's just the way my personality is. For me, when I spend time alone, that's kind of, like, how I get energy. And then after, I feel good again, and I can go out into the world. But most people in the world, they're, actually, opposite to me. They are extroverts, okay? And this means that -- when you are an "extrovert", you just love to be around people all the time, and that's what makes you feel great, basically. So we've got some people who are extroverts in the world, and we've got some people who are introverts in the world.

How does this relate to you learning English? Well, I think it does, because it can really help you know that the way you're learning English is right for you or, you know, you could change it and make it better for you. But also, I would say that, in general, the whole world of English language teaching kind of focuses more on these guys because, actually, they've got a great advantage when it comes to learning languages.

So we're going to talk a little bit about these guys and give advice for, you know, the majority of you watching this video. But we're also going to look at the introvert perspective because this is something that I just found out myself when I was trying to learn languages. I found out that, although I didn't realize it at the time, I was just really slow. Like, I'd be trying to remember a word and really, really slow, and everybody else has already said it or everybody else has already finished. Like, the words came really, really slowly to me. But I always understood a lot, and that confused me because I'd think sometimes, "I'm just rubbish at this language." But I understood a lot. So my speaking wasn't as advanced as my other skills in the language. It's not something I realized until later. I wish I'd seen a video like this to help me explain why.

So let's take a look, first of all, at some expressions that can describe extroverts and introverts. So an extrovert who -- an extrovert is somebody who thinks "the more the merrier". And that means, "The more people there are around me, the happier I am." They love to be around people. Extroverts also are often "the life and soul of the party". That means they're the most fun person in the room, and people like to be around them -- great, fun people to have at a party. Also, very often, extroverts are "chatterboxes", blah, blah, blah, blah, talking all the time, always got something to say. Extroverts are chatterboxes. And I'm just pointing out the differences. I'm not saying that you guys are wrong to be extroverts. That's just the way you are.

Let's have a look at the introvert, the person who likes to spend time alone a lot of the time. For them, you could say their motto is, "It's just me, myself, and I." Happy to be alone. You could also say an introvert at a party is more likely to be a "wallflower". A "wallflower" is someone who's not going to start conversation with anyone, who's not going to be dancing around having great, amazing conversations. The wallflower is going to be a bit shy and is going to wait for other people to come to talk to them. And the introvert, also, likes to have deep and meaningful conversations, okay? Doesn't like small talk. Doesn't like chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter -- likes to talk on a meaningful level.

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How to make suggestions in English

This is a grammar lesson about the best ways to make suggestions in English. I explain different ways to make

a suggestion and give you some useful phrases to use. I'm sure you will be surprised by how many different ways we can make suggestions! We have a lot of different ways to make suggestions in English because it depends on how polite we need to be in the situation and how attached we are to the outcome. If we really want our suggestion to happen, we will be more direct with our language. How about testing your understanding of this lesson with the quiz at ?

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How to sound like a native speaker - Word Stress

The key to sounding like a native speaker is the rhythm of your speech. When trying

to improve their pronunciation, a lot of people put all their effort and energy into learning how to say the individual sounds of English properly. These people don't realise that until you understand the rhythm of English, you will just be speaking English with the same rhythm you have in your first language. Your English will be unclear and sometimes hard for native speakers of English to understand. That's why you must learn as much as you can about the rhythm of English.

Word stress is one of the features that gives English its distinct rhythm. In this lesson, you will learn the grammatical rules of word stress. Importantly, you will see how changing the stress of the word sometimes changes the meaning of the word into something completely different! Test yourself on word stress rules with the quiz:

"Hi. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is word stress in English. What's word stress? Well, it's part of the rhythm of English, and it's what can help your English sound much more natural. So we'll be looking at that. But more specifically, we'll be learning some rules for word stress because you might understand it in principle, "Yeah some parts of the word are stressed, and some bits aren't." But how do you actually apply that? And that's what you're going to learn today.

So we'll start by looking at an interesting sentence, "We must POLISH the POLISH furniture." "Polish" is an action, verb, for cleaning something, making it shiny; and "Polish" is an adjective for furniture from Poland. So although they're the same spelling, they have different sounds, and that's because of word stress. And we'll look at those words. So just make a note of it. That's the verb, and that's the adjective. And we're going to -- we're now going to look at where to put the stress.

So the general rule for two-syllable words is: the noun or adjective, the stress is on the first syllable. The noun or adjective, the stress is on the first syllable. And that's how you show word stress. The stress is the circle, and the unstress is a line. It's above the -- it's probably not something you can see right now. I've just realized. So I'll do it like that. You can see now. What about this one, the verb? The verb is the second syllable. So unstress; stress for the second syllable.

Let's have a look at some sentences with the word stress rules. So in these sentences, I've got examples where we've got a noun in a sentence and a verb with a similar meaning in a different sentence. So you will hear a little bit of a different pronunciation. Perhaps quite a subtle difference in pronunciation, but the stress is in a different place. So I'm going to show you that.

So in this sentence, "decrease" is in the noun form. So looking at our rule, where is the stress here? On the first syllable. We show the stress by the circle and the unstress by the line. And what about this one? "Decreased" is in the verb position, so we swap; we stress the second syllable. Now, I'll read them to you. "There has been a DEcrease in wages. Wages deCREASED last year."

Let's take a look at the second one. "Present" here, is a noun because we've got "a" there, "a lovely present". So, again, we put the stress here. And here is the verb. So we do that pattern again. Now, I'll read them to you. "Tom bought me a lovely PREsent." Second example, "We now preSENT the star of the show."

Let's take a look at this third example here. "Permit" -- "permit" in this sense, "You need a PERmit to park here" is saying -- in England, you need a little piece of paper from the government to say that you can park in some places. So it means you are allowed to park there. And it's similar to the verb, which means "to allow". So "PERmit" here is a noun. Because it's a noun, we're going to stress the first syllable. And here, "perMIT" is in the verb form, so we're going to change it. We're going to do it like that. And I'll read those to you now. "You need a PERmit to park here." Compare that to, "The school doesn't perMIT students to wear trainers." So it's not "per" anymore; it's "pe", "pe-MIT".

When we come back, we're going to look at some other general rules and important things to know about word stress.

Are you ready for more word stress rules? Well, first of all, we've got some exceptions. In the case of exceptions, the pronunciation is the same for the verb, the adjective, and the noun if they have one.

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IELTS, CAE, or FCE? Which English exam should you take?

IELTS, CAE, or FCE? Are you thinking about taking a formal English exam for work, study or your personal development?

Not sure which one to take? Here I talk about two of the most common tests taken by people who wish to work or study in English-speaking countries -- the IELTS and the Cambridge CAE (Certificate of Advanced English). I also talk about Cambridge's FCE test. I compare and contrast the exams in detail to help you decide which test is right for your needs.

I will tell you:

- Who takes these English exams?

- Which test is easier/more difficult?

- For what practical purposes do people take these exams?

- What are the exams themselves like and how do they compare?

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone. I'm Jade. What we're going to talk about today is comparing Cambridge exams with the IELTS exam. These are exams that you might be thinking of taking as part of your journey with learning English for various reasons. And we'll look at the different exams; we'll look at the reasons to take Cambridge exams or IELTS exams. And then, we'll generally compare what's in the two exam systems.

So the Cambridge exams, we'll be talking about these two. This one is the First Certificate of English, and that's around intermediate level. And this is a harder exam. This is an advanced level exam also from Cambridge. So there are four different levels in this Cambridge exam series. And this compares to just one IELTS test that tests the same -- a much broader span, okay? So what does that mean? If you take the IELTS test, and you're someone with an intermediate or a lower intermediate level, the test will be really hard for you because it covers such a wide level of English whereas if you take the right test for your level in the Cambridge exams, what you're doing in the test is closer to what you already know. So that's a key difference between them.

Something else to say about IELTS as well is that there are two kinds of IELTS exams. One is IELTS Academic, and that test is designed for people who want to go to university in an English-speaking country or want to do a course that's going to be in English. And the other IELTS test is IELTS General Training. And that one is different because you don't have to do some of the writing questions which are based on university things. They're not in this test. So it's just a little bit more practical.

So why take these tests in the first place? People take these tests for different reasons. One reason, as I mentioned before, is if you want to go to university in England or maybe in Australia. You will need to have a test result that shows your level of English. So in that case, what test do you take? You either need to have the IELTS Academic test or you need to do the CAE test. You can take either exam. This FCE exam is too low -- the level is too low, so it's not useful for you if you want to go to university. In the UK, IELTS is the most popular. But for American universities, a lot of people do a different test, but I'm not talking about it today, which is the TOEFL test.

Then, what if your purpose for taking one of these tests is for work? Well, it depends, really, on the job that you're doing. FCE would be okay if your purpose is work. I've known people who come to England with the purpose of learning English and to have a job here -- like a service job or work with an English family and look after their children and things like that. And I've known them to usually choose to do the First Certificate because you can go to a language school; you can learn enough English to get by and enough English for your daily life and things like that. It's useful. So you can do that in those kinds of jobs.

You could also do IELTS General. I mean, IELTS General will test you to a higher level. So it really depends on your job whether this will be useful for you. Some people like to have it on their CV and show what score of English they have. So for them, it's useful.

And some people say for professions -- for example, lawyers and doctors, things like that. They say the IELTS Academic is better for these people. From my experience of the two tests, what I would say is that IELTS Academic just has a different writing question in it, and that different writing question is academic language. It's comparing graphs and things like that. So it really depends what suits you and what you feel is necessary or needed for your job. To do IELTS Academic but not intend to go to university or be using academic English would be a bit of a waste of effort for you because you would need to learn how to write these graph questions and this kind of extra work for you, which is probably never going to be useful in your life. So yeah. Again, it depends.

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Sound like a native speaker: the BEST pronunciation advice

Are you following the wrong pronunciation advice? Do you think that to have good English pronunciation

you need to say every word per-fect-ly? Have you been told that you need to say each syllable in exactly the same way that it is written? Well, in this video I explain why what seems like logical advice is actually COMPLETELY WRONG.

The secret to getting excellent English pronunciation is to relax your tongue and to start missing syllables! That's because native speakers do not speak perfectly in natural, everyday speech. In fact, it even sounds strange to say every word perfectly.

I explain to you how we use 'elision' to make our speech more connected, flowing, and relaxed. This means that we don't say every vowel and sometimes even miss words. I also tell you about the most important sound you need to know about in English to improve your pronunciation - the schwa sound: /ə/.

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today, is elision. And that's one of the things that makes the speech of native speakers hard to understand because we don't say every single word perfectly, like, how it is on the page. We squash words together, and we miss sounds out. So I'm showing you how we do that in today's lesson.

So you know we like tea in England, right? We like to drink tea. Well, we call it a "cuppa tea". And if I were to offer you that, I'd say, "Dju wanna cuppa tea?" "Dju wanna cuppa tea?" And we've got an example of elision in that sentence. The written sentence would be, "Do you want a cup of tea?" All the different syllables being pronounced. But colloquial, relaxed spoken English, "Dju wanna cuppa tea?" So the "of" joins the words before. So remember, it's "cup of tea", "cuppa tea." "Dju want a cuppa tea?" We join that. And that's an example of elision.

We can also elide consonants. For example, in this sentence, the reply, "I don wanna tea." Some people will not say the T at the end of a word if the next word is another consonant. So saying it properly is more effort. "I don't want a cup of tea." Or, again, there's more elision here. "I don't want a tea." The A joins "want" and becomes "wanna". "I don wanna tea." Two examples of elision there: not saying the T and A joining "want", the word before.

What about the next example here? Here, I've written it out, "I don't want a tea." What we see here is the contraction, and that is standard English. We can write that. We can write "don't" like that, "do not". "I don't want a tea." But you cannot write it exactly how it sounds. You cannot write it, "I don". You need the T there. And the difference between contractions and elision is that contractions are okay when we write them, and elision isn't -- it's not necessarily the case that we can write down an elision and it be grammatically correct English. I'll show you two examples.

"Wanna" and "gonna" are two common forms in colloquial speech. We say them all the time. "I wanna do that." "I'm gonna go there later." But we can't write them. The reason we can't write them is that they're not contractions. They're not recognized as being standard English. We can say it, but we can't write it that way. In general, we use elision in our speech because it's just easier than saying every single sound in a sentence.

Some people think that posh accents are made up of just saying every single word properly and giving it good enunciation and definition and making sure you say everything correctly. But in fact, as we'll see in a sec, posh people and posh accents also use elision in their speech. But they will have some rules that they consider wrong. So for example, "wanna" and "gonna" in some posh accents are considered sloppy or not right or not a correct way of speaking. But I think a good thing to say about that is a lot of people think and perceive that they don't use these words when in fact they do. So you could ask a posh person, "Do you ever say this?" "Oh, no. I wouldn't say that. It's not right. It's not proper English." When in fact, David Cameron would also use "wanna" and "gonna". He's the prime minister of the UK at the moment. So I'd say he's a pretty posh guy, and he's using "wanna" and "gonna". That shows me that these are quite standard forms now. Some people will judge you for it, "Oh, it's not right. You don't say it that way." And also, some people will not realize that they say it themselves. So --

So -- yeah. What to think about elision? It just shows us how when we try to speak English correctly just by reading everything properly, this is not going to help you sound like a relaxed, natural speaker of English who actually sounds good because our real speech doesn't fit the actual words on the page.y of the vowels.

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How to use apostrophes in English

Apostrophes are confusing! These small punctuation marks - ' - are often used incorrectly. People often

make apostrophe mistakes in emails, and even on the signs of shops! (You would think that someone would notice before the sign was printed and put up!) Even if you are understood, mistakes in this area make your writing look unprofessional.

I'm telling you that using apostrophes is actually easy and straightforward in most of the situations you are ever likely to use them. In this English lesson, I explain the simple and essential uses of the apostrophe to show possession. Later, I tell you the advanced uses of the apostrophe. Watch this writing lesson, and you can be sure that you're using apostrophes in the correct way. Essential viewing for any shopkeepers - BEFORE they get their signs printed!

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is how to use apostrophes. So, I know there's going to be a few native speakers watching this video. It really is time to learn how to use apostrophes correctly. It's not that hard. There are a few simple rules and we're going to talk about them today. We'll start with the easy stuff, and eventually we'll get to the more advanced rules, but you'll probably never need to use the more advanced rules. But anyway, we'll get there in the second part of the lesson.

So what I want to start with is mentioning my school name. "Haberdashers Askes Hatcham College". This is where I learnt how to use apostrophes. But at first, I cheated because I've got a really... Had a really long school name and I always remember needing to write this on exam papers. But I think when I... When I started the school, I probably didn't know how to use apostrophes so I memorized where the apostrophes went. I didn't understand why they went there, but I memorized them.

So the apostrophes were like this: "Haberdashers'" and "Aske's". I'm going to explain why. So what's "Haberdashers'"? A "haberdasher" is an old-fashioned word for somebody who makes garments, makes clothes, and all together, they were... They were together in what's called a trade guild. And this is quite an old-fashioned thing now; maybe doesn't really exist so much, but they had some charitable objectives. And so they were a group of these haberdasher people and one of them was a man called "Robert Aske," so this is somebody's name; person. And "Hatcham" is a place in London, and "College" is quite a poshy name for a school. So you put all those words together and that's my school.

But let's talk about: why these apostrophes? So, the apostrophe is outside the "s" here because we're talking about more than one haberdasher, that's the rule; more than one thing, and possession - the apostrophe goes on the outside. Why the apostrophe here? When the possession belongs... One thing belongs to one person, we put the apostrophe before the "s". So the school belongs to Aske, Mr. Aske so that's why the apostrophe is there. Maybe that's confusing. Let's break it down and look at the rules one-by-one using apostrophes.

So, number one: possession. Another meaning of possession is when... When you lose your mind, you're taken over by something. But the more... The meaning I'm talking about here is when something belongs to you; when you own something.

So here's a man, here's his car.

"The man's car is there."

This sentence means: the car belonging to the man. And to show possession, I put the apostrophe before the "s". I'm talking about just one man, so the apostrophe goes before the "s".

And same really in these other examples:

"That's George's car."

Why..? Why one here? Well, here, we're not talking about apostrophes and possessions, this is something else. That means: "That is". That means something else. This is an apostrophe with possession. His name is George, it's a car belonging to George. "That's George's car." And to show something belongs to someone, when we've got a name, we put the apostrophe after their name and then we put the "s" there.

And we don't... We can also do it with places. So we've got:

"London's best fish and chips."

The best fish and chips belonging to London, and again, we do apostrophe, "s".

So when we're talking about possession, that's quite clear. It's okay, yeah? But now we have an exception, and sometimes there's a lot of confusion about this and sometimes people get quite annoyed. But what I am going to say is that there are two... There are two ways to show possession when the name ends with an "s". So it's preference really; some people prefer this way, some people prefer this way. All you need to do is just pick one and be standard, always... If you pick one, just use that way all the time. Don't... Definitely don't do it one way in an essay and then get a bit scared and do it a different way because you'll be wrong then. You need to pick... You definitely need to pick a way.

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American English British English - 8 Grammar Differences

American English or British English? Accent and pronunciation are not the only differences! I'll show you

8 grammatical differences between these two styles of English. Once you understand the differences, you can choose which style you prefer to use. The choice you make will influence your speaking and writing. So pay close attention to this lesson, and choose the style you find most comfortable with! Do you want to speak like an American, or like a Brit? Take a quiz on this lesson here:

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is some grammatical differences between American English and British English because although we speak the same language and we understand each other, we actually have two varieties of English and we have different rules; we have some different grammar that comes with that.

So I think this video is interesting for you if you're learning English. And I suggest you use this video to just make sure that whichever variety you prefer that you take all the rules associated with that variety. So don't think: "Oh, I like the rule for collective nouns in American English, that's easier, I'll do that but for British English, it's easier to spell like that". Don't do that. Just keep it standard. Pick one, learn the rules, keep it standard that way. I also think this will be interesting to you if you're a native speaker, so if you're an American, you're a British person and you just want to compare just for interest's sake.

So, let's get started. Number one: collective nouns. A collective noun represents a noun standing for a collection of individuals or not necessarily individuals, but within one bigger thing. So, a good example is government. Government, do you see it as one thing making decisions as the government speaking as one voice, or do you see it as a collection of different political parties, or even different individuals within one thing - the government? In British English, we can make our collective nouns singular or plural to reflect the fact that just because one thing is a group, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're speaking with one voice or one vision. So we can say: "Tom's family is", or: "are coming to visit". In British English. It just depends. Do you have a happy family? Are you one family happy unit or are you a collection of different individuals making up that family; mom, dad, your brothers, your sisters? In which case, you can use: "are". In British English, we can say that, whereas in American English, we have to just use the singular verb. Here's an example: "The government have cut spending". Government is seen as one thing, so we use the singular verb.

Moving on now, rule number two. We have different spelling rules also. Here's one to consider: spelling for "ed" words. In American English, it's generally preferred to spell with "ed". Let me tell you a story about something on my other YouTube channel. I have a video there that generates quite a lot of negative comments sometimes because I say something about Americans and they're not very, very happy when they watch it and sometimes people get really angry. And in a comment, somebody was like: "Hey, you can't even spell! You should spell 'learned' with 'ed', not a 't'". And she was like really angry, said all this stuff in there; taking the video way too seriously. And then, it started a bit of a comment thread, and people were like: "Hey, you're embarrassing Americans - you can spell it that way" and things like this. So, that's a good example of how when you... When you're used to your variety... I'm used to British English mainly, I'll sometimes see something in the American variety that confuses me. So obviously that girl hadn't seen "learnt" spelt with a "t" before which is okay in British English.

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Grammar: 8 rules for using THE in English

United States or The United States? U.K. or The U.K.? Unsure of when to use a

definite or an indefinite article? Watch this lesson and stop making these common mistakes in English!

For many non-native speakers of English who don't have articles in their own language, it can be really difficult to use articles correctly. Even for speakers of languages that have articles, it is difficult to get your use of articles right 100% of the time. This is because there are many exceptions and irregular grammar rules.

In this lesson, I'll teach you what these exceptions are, so you can be sure to remove these common mistakes from your English. Even if you are an advanced speaker of English, I'm sure you will discover one or two rules that you didn't know about. Watch the lesson, then take the quiz here.

TRANSCRIPT

United States or The United States? U.K. or The U.K.? Unsure of when to use a definite or an indefinite article? Watch this lesson and stop making these common mistakes in English!

For many non-native speakers of English who don't have articles in their own language, it can be really difficult to use articles correctly. Even for speakers of languages that have articles, it is difficult to get your use of articles right 100% of the time. This is because there are many exceptions and irregular grammar rules.

In this lesson, I'll teach you what these exceptions are, so you can be sure to remove these common mistakes from your English. Even if you are an advanced speaker of English, I'm sure you will discover one or two rules that you didn't know about. Watch the lesson, then take the quiz at 

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. In this lesson today, we're looking at the rules for articles, but more specifically, the rules where we have exceptions in using articles. So when I'm observing people's English, all the time I'm hearing the same mistakes with articles. So what you will learn to do in this lesson is how to avoid those really, really common mistakes I hear all the time.

If you're somebody who just doesn't use articles at all because in your native language, you don't have articles, I understand it can be really, really hard to start using them. But they are an important aspect of grammar, and you should be using them. So if you watch this lesson, you'll get some tips for using articles, where you need them, and where you shouldn't use them. And also, if you're someone who's getting articles right nearly all the time, I'm quite sure that you will pick up one or two rules here that you didn't know before. So let's get started.

There are eight different rules. Rule No. 1: When we're talking about countries, most countries we don't use an article. So here some sentences. "She lives in England. They live in America." We don't use articles. But if the country's considered to be a nation state, a collection of different states, or a collection of different countries in one bigger state, then we use articles. Here are examples. So "the U.S.A., the U.K., the U.A.E." -- where I spend a lot of my time -- and here are -- also, we need to mention islands. When a country is a group of islands, we always use articles. So we would say "the Virgin Islands", and we'd say "the Philippines" as well.

It's interesting that we can say, "She lives in England" because England is one country, but when talking about the same -- okay, it's not exactly the same place, the U.K., because it's -- the U.K. is more than one country. It's more than just England. But sometimes people think of it as being the same place. It's not. When we're talking about the U.K., we need an article, but just for "England", it's okay not to use an article.

Let's take a look at rule No. 2. Rule No. 2 -- this is a really subtle rule, here. And this one I always correct in sentences. When people talk about meals -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, also brunch is a meal you might not know. It's in between breakfast and lunch. -- we don't use articles. So here's a correct sentence. "I don't eat breakfast." I'm talking in general there. "I don't eat breakfast." That's okay to say. However, if I'm being specific, "We didn't like the dinner", it's okay to use an article here. You need to. So what does the sentence actually mean? Imagine that we were out last night, and we had a meal. And now, we're talking about it. "Well, the place was nice, but I didn't like the dinner." Being specific about that experience we had. If I'm talking in general, "I don't like dinner", that would just mean all the time, okay? So it's a very big difference in meaning.

Now, we'll look at rule No. 3 for jobs. Jobs take the indefinite article. That's a grammar word. And "indefinite article" means "a". We don't use "the".

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Business English: Mixing Business with Pleasure!

Business isn't *all* business! In reality, business and pleasure mix. Are you prepared? Learn the best

phrases to make social conversation with your associates. Equally important, find out which topics to avoid! You'll also learn how to eliminate awkward silences, and how to make your clients or colleagues comfortable when speaking with them. Many business decisions and deals are made outside the office or meeting room. Whether you're going for dinner with clients, or you're on a business trip, watch this lesson to learn how to be confident in social situations! Then take the quiz here.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is mixing business with pleasure. So what does this mean? This can mean when you go for a business trip, you also have a little bit of fun while you're there. But it can also mean that when you go out with your clients, it's not all talk about work, work, work, business, business, business. You also get to know each other a bit, maybe have a few glasses of wine or something like that. I don't know what you do on your business trips. But it's not just about work. So I'm going to give you some conversational tips for your next business trip where you may decide to mix business with pleasure.

So I've broken it down into different conversation topics. So we'll just go through those, and you will get some questions that you can ask to make yourself a dazzling conversationalist when you're next with your clients.

So I was thinking: When do these kinds of business meetings happen? Often, they are in restaurants. So it could be the evening. It could be a lunch meeting. So anyway, you're in a dining situation. You get in the restaurant. What do you say? You can say, "Have you been here before?" Or you might say, "What an impressive/charming/fascinating place!" This one's an exclamation. You're making an observation about the place. If it's impressive, I would imagine that it's quite a fine dining, expensive kind of place. If it's charming, it's original, and you've not really been somewhere like that before. If it's fascinating, what could that mean? Just maybe something unusual for you that you haven't experienced before.

If you're the host, and you are taking your client to that place, maybe you want to say something about the place, and the reason why you decided to have your meeting there. You could say, "This is the best seafood restaurant in town." So you're trying to impress your client and show them that you're taking them to all the best places. So you could change seafood. It could be a Chinese restaurant --you know, whatever, wherever you're going.

So imagine you are in the restaurant situation. A really common conversation for you to have is talking about food in general, your likes and dislikes, and also making comparisons between countries and cuisine styles from different countries. So here are some questions you might ask. You can say, "Do you like English food?" Well, the joke there is that people around the world say that they don't like English food and it's really bad. So I wouldn't be that hopeful for a very positive answer if you ask that question.

When you're looking at the menu, especially if the menu is in a language that you don't understand, you could say, "Could you recommend something?" Often it's quite polite -- at least in British culture -- to let the host decide what you're eating. So you might want to make that offer and say, "Can you recommend something?" You can also ask this to the waiter in the restaurant, as well, if you really don't know what to choose.

And here's another general question you could ask about food. So let's imagine your client is from a different country and you don't know much about the food culture of that country, you could say, "What do Italian people like to eat for breakfast?"

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Confusing Words - Me, Myself, I

Confused about when to use 'me', 'myself', or 'I'? Is it "my friend and me" or

"my friend and I"? Let me help you!

English native speakers often make grammatical mistakes with these words, and it can be a challenge to master for non-native speakers. People are very insecure about using the structure 'my friend and me', because it is associated with being uneducated. Put an end to your confusion once and for all! Watch this lesson, and learn exactly how and when to use 'me', 'myself', and 'I' in grammatically correct sentences. Then take the quiz here.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is an aspect of grammar. When is it okay to say somebody's name and then followed by "and me" or "and I" or "and myself"? This is an aspect of grammar that native speakers get confused about. But more than just confused about, they avoid -- completely avoid sentences where they might say your friend's name "and me". They completely avoid it because in British English, at least, it does have this association with being common language, not being posh language. And people avoid it because they don't want to sound common. But actually, there's a lot of misunderstanding about it. Saying "and me" is really, really judged. But if you used it in a grammatically correct way, there's absolutely nothing wrong can saying "and me". In fact, sometimes people are wrong because they try to avoid it. So what you'll learn in this lesson, if you're a native speaker, you'll not be confused anymore, but if you're learning English as well, maybe you had a confusion about it, and you didn't really understand why it's different sometimes. So you'll learn, and you won't be confused anymore.

So let's check what you already know. I've got some example sentences. Let's see if they're right. Let's see if they're wrong. "Me and Tom went skiing." How does that one sound to you? Did you think that one's right? This one is wrong. This one is wrong. We're going to look at why later. But this one is wrong.

Second one. "Amjad and me played football." How is this one? This one is wrong. Slightly better than the first because it's considered more polite to put the other person before yourself. So it's slightly better in that respect, but still wrong.

Next example. "My mum and I went for lunch." What do you think about that one? Is that one okay? This one's okay.

What about this one? "I and Janet study French." How does that one feel? Well, actually, this one just sounds wrong. It should be swapped. If we say "Janet and I', it's okay, but no one would really say it like that.

And this example -- more and more, people are saying "myself" because I think they're a bit -- I have to tell you something else. In British English, if you say "and I" all the time, it makes you sound quite grand and a little bit posh. And not everybody wants to use that language. Not everybody wants to feel like they're using elegant language. And for them, they don't like to say it. So it's being replaced a lot with "myself". Someone might say "my mum and myself". So here's an example. "Myself and Leo are going on holiday." How is this? Well, with "myself", you can put it first or you can put it second. You can change the position. It's okay. My feeling about "myself" is also that it's a little bit too formal just for everyday conversation. So I personally don't use it. I prefer the other two ways of saying it, either the name "and I" or "me", as we'll get to in a minute.

So when we come back, we're going to look at the actual grammar. Why can we say it "and I" sometimes, or why can we say "and me" sometimes?

Let's take a look at the grammatical reason why there's a difference and sometimes we say "and I", and sometimes we say "and me". Well, it all comes down to the position of the pronoun you're talking about. So if the sentence is correct, if "I" is in the subject position -- so I'm talking about grammar now. How do you know it's in the subject position? Well, you find the verb, the main verb. Here's the main verb. And if it's before the main verb, then, it's in the subject position. But if it's after the main verb, it's in the object position. So we have a name, and we have "I" -- "I" the pronoun. These are both in the subject position. So this one's correct. These are all correct here as examples, but we'll go through them all one by one.

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How to make someone feel better

Are you a good friend? Being a good friend means helping your friends when they are feeling down. Speaking English

is actually about communicating effectively -- knowing the right thing to say at the right time. In today's lesson, I teach you the best English expressions you can use to console a friend or reassure a member of your family. I also give you my advice on what not to say, so that you don't make them feel worse! I'm particularly interested in how we use language in social situations. If you are too, check out this lesson and become a better friend!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is saying the right thing when you've got a friend who's feeling down, your friend's got a problem. We're specifically talking about a friend who has lost a job, but you could use the same advice for a friend with a different problem; a friend with a breakup or some other emotional thing that's happened in their life. So the formal word for this is: "consoling", "to console" someone, but the more relaxed way could be: how to make somebody feel better about themselves or their problem.

So what should you do in this situation? Well, a lot of the time, when people have a problem, they just want to talk to someone. Maybe they're not seeking advice. So what can you do? You can ask questions. So remember we're talking about somebody who's recently lost a job or is losing a job, we can ask them questions. We can say: "What are you going to do now?" Maybe your tone of voice wouldn't be really positive like that. It would be more like: "Oh, what are you going to do now?" It would be more soft.

You could say... This is... This is an indirect question. "Have you thought about..?", "Have you thought about training again?" This is a way of... This is a suggestion. Or you could say: "Are you looking for another job?" So this way, your friend can just start talking and maybe that will help them in their difficult situation.

Because, as a friend, you need to "be supportive", helping your friend out when they need help. You could "be a shoulder to cry on", that's an idiom for somebody who just... Who just needs someone to share their feelings with. If you're a shoulder to cry on when your friend needs you, that means that you're a good friend. And here's another expression: "A friend in need is a friend indeed." And it kind of has the opposite meaning to what you'd expect. My feeling is this means that you should be the kind of... Real friends are there for you when you really need them. If you're there for people when they need you, that means that you're a friend indeed. So if you are a friend... If you are a friend indeed, then you would ask your friend some questions to help them in their difficult situation.

When your friend has a difficult situation, watch out that you don't give advice that they're not asking for because a lot of the time, people don't really want to hear your advice - that's the truth maybe. If you ask someone for advice, it's different. I've had a couple of times in my life where someone giving advice is that probably had the opposite effect from what they intended; the advice is not felt right or something I haven't liked about the advice, and then it can be... Then it can be a problem. So if you say to your friend who's just lost their job: "You should get down the job centre." The job centre is where you go if you haven't got... If you haven't got a job in England and you need some money and support from the government. If you said to your friend: "You should get down the job centre", they might not... They might not be... They might not want your advice right now.

Another way you would give your friend advice is if you said: "If I were you", "If I were you, I'd go to my boss and say: 'Look, you're not going to fire me. All right? I dare you to fire me.'" Well, your friend might be like that, but this might not be something you want to do. Giving direct advice.

What should you do if giving direct advice could be a little bit difficult, a little bit tricky? You could try making these indirect suggestions, a bit like this one. "Have you considered... Hmm, I'm sorry to hear that you lost your job. You must be feeling awful. Have you considered calling your colleagues that you used to work with to tell them that you're looking for a job now?" Or: "Have you thought about... Too bad you lost your job. Have you thought about becoming a movie star?" You could indirectly advise your friend to do that.

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How to do a job interview on Skype - Tips for success

Are you preparing for a Skype job interview? This lesson is packed full of tips to make your interview a

successful one! I share my years of experience working on Skype in order to answer all your questions, and eliminate any doubts you may have about your upcoming interview. I cover everything you need to know -- from avoiding technical issues to preparing so that you can give your best performance during the interview.

Find out:

Skype job interview best practices

Who calls whom, and when?

Best camera angle

Advice for sound issues

How to avoid any technical problems

How a Skype interview is different from a face-to-face interview

Best of luck for your Skype job interview! Wishing you success!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is Skype job interviews. So I'm going to give you some tips and advice that I know about... I work on Skype, I'm always on Skype because that's how I teach on Skype so this is everything I know from my experience of working on Skype. And I can compare how it was at the beginning... All the time when there was like a technical problem and something went wrong, so I can share all that experience with you to make your Skype job interview go more smoothly. Not just the technical aspect, but some other things you need to consider for your Skype job interview.

So let's start with the basics of having a job interview on Skype. The reason you're probably having a job interview on Skype in the first place is possibly because you're being interviewed for a job in a different country. So when it comes to that, there's something really, really important you need to consider and that's the time zone. Okay? Because you need to make sure that you're appoint-... At the time of your appointment, you're going to be there at the right time because it's really, really important to get that first impression right by being there when you say that you're going to be there. So you can easily find out online what time zone somebody is in in a different country.

One thing I want to mention: if you're dealing with the UK, a lot of people assume that they know what time it is there. "Oh, they use GMT." Well, we do use GMT which means "Greenwich Mean Time", but the time... The time will change. In the summer, it goes forward and then we go into British Summer Time. So you need to watch out for that. Sometimes people just presume they know what time it is in the UK and actually get it wrong by one hour, so you need to check that out.

Before your call, here's some just general good practice for you. Swap your Skype IDs before because if your appointment is at 2:00pm and then you suddenly realize: "Oh, I don't have the Skype ID. I better email them." This is all time consuming stuff, it's a time consuming waste of time. Swap your Skype ID. But if this is your Skype ID, I recommend you get a different one for your Skype job interviews; it's not going to look very professional.

You will also want to confirm before your appointment whether this is going to be a webcam call. In my experience on Skype, it really depends. I often work with programmers, and software engineers, and animators and these... These generally guys, I've never actually had women doing those jobs, although I'm sure they're out there, I'm just saying I've never had a woman who does those jobs. These guys don't use webcam, they never use webcams. And I've asked them: "When you have job interviews, do you use webcams?" And they're like: "No, we don't." So it probably depends on what area you're hoping to work in. But in some industries, it's not necessarily expected to use the webcam. But a good idea will be to just confirm that before: will it be a webcam call? Because if it is a webcam call, you've got some extra considerations that you need to get right.

So let's just imagine it is a webcam call. You need to think more about not just your presentation of yourself and how your face and your hair looks, you need to consider what's behind you. Okay? Because, generally, people will take a Skype call at home. So you need to consider what's in your background. Is it your bedroom? Do you want them to see your bedroom? Or do you maybe want to go to a different part of the house where the background is more neutral and not so personal? So you definitely don't want any mess in the background or any like strange objects in the background, or whatever because people notice on Skype.

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Words to make yourself more interesting

Do you want your stories to sound more interesting? In this lesson I teach you all about 'informal intensifiers'. That's

the grammatical name for an adverb, such as 'very', that makes adjectives stronger, as you see in the following example:

I'm hungry. [subject] + [verb] + [adjective]

I'm very hungry. [subject] + [verb] + [intensifying adverb] + [adjective]

I'm sure you already know the meaning of 'very'. However, we use different intensifiers depending on the background/social class of the speaker, as well as the formality of the situation. This English lesson explains which intensifiers you should use in different situations.

Some adjectives, mostly swear words, also act as informal intensifiers. This means that people use them in their speech for dramatic effect. In this lesson, you learn a lot of new vocabulary to make your speech more interesting. You also find out about the most commonly used swear words in British English, so that you can be interesting in every situation!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. I'm talking about informal intensifiers today and this is a way to make a story more dramatic and it's what we use as native speakers when we're, yeah, telling a story.

So when we're telling a story, we'll put in these adverbs to add drama you could say. But we... We've got a choice of intens-... They're otherwise known as intensifiers. We've got a choice of what words we can use. Any they depend... And the words we choose depend on the context and they depend on the kind of story you want to tell. So let's...

Firstly, to describe what "posh" is. In the UK, "posh" means belonging to a higher social class. It could be a way of behaving, it could be a way of speaking. So we have that in England because of the queen and all stuff like that, and that's just the way English British society is. So posh people use different words in their speech. So in their speech, these are the preferred words for posh English. So someone might say: "When my contact lens was in my eye, it was fairly uncomfortable." Or "rather" has the same meaning. "It was my eye. I was rather upset." And they mean the same thing. They mean like: "quite".

Not used so much nowadays, but in the past, posh people liked to say: "Terribly" and "Awfully" and they didn't mean them as terrible/awful. They actually mean the opposite, they mean "very" and "good". "I went to the party and it was a terribly lovely party and there were many people there." Or you could say: "Borris is an awfully good chap." That means: "very good chap" for a posh person. Posh language is going to prefer these informal intensifiers.

Neutral English-sometimes posh people will use it too-neutral English, we would use all of these adverbs mostly. So you would be intensifying a story by saying: "I was in so much pain." And you really make the "so" long: "So much pain" when you're telling a story. Again, you can emphasize the "really". "I was really stressed." You could say that. One thing to mention about "quite" is they mean... It means the same thing as "fairly", but "fairly" is more posh and "quite" is more in the middle or whatever. And "too" means negative. So: "When my contact lens got stuck in my eye..." This sentence is not going to work. The sentence I'm thinking of, you'd say something is too expensive as in too much for a negative when you're using this adverb.

But we have even more choice for informal intensifiers. We have slang words. So I'm going to teach you some English slang that people use. "Bare" means "very" and "nough" also means "very". You couldn't... You could write the... You could write this on Facebook or in chat or something, but you couldn't write it anywhere formally. "And when my contact lens got stuck in my eye, I was bare stressed. You know that." Or: "I couldn't get it out. I was nough upset. I didn't know what to do." They mean... "Nough" I used it like "really" there. So you also have this option if you wish.

And I don't know about in your country, but English people swear quite a lot. I don't really swear, I don't really like it. But here is swear words you can use. You probably know this one, I bet you know this one. But do you know this one? "Bloody" it's not a very strong swear word anymore. At the end of my story I said: "The bloody contact lens finally came out." You call something "bloody" if it's irritating or annoying. It used to be strong, it's not so bad now. And here are two other ones. I found that people say these ones when they don't like to say this one. They sound kind of like this one and they're a little bit more polite swear words. And they sound like this: "frigging" or "flipping". "My flipping contact lens got stuck in my eye."

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