English Script Request

Hi! I'm Vanessa from speakenglishwithvanessa.com.
Huh? What'd you say? Let's talk about it.
Have you ever been watching your favorite movie or TV show and decided to turn it to English and then, oh my goodness, it's so fast! How in the world are they talking so fast. I can't understand this.
Well don't worry, you are not alone. Many English learners have had that same sensation of 'Ugh it's so fast, I'll never understand this.'
Well I have some good news. In today's lesson, you are going to learn 5 secrets to understanding fast English, improving your listening skills, and understanding movies and TV shows.
To help you master today's lessons, I've created a free PDF worksheet, just for you, my beloved students! So that you can download this worksheet, study these 5 secrets, check out all of the tips and ideas that are mentioned in today's lessons, and at the end of the PDF, make sure to answer Vanessa's challenge question so you can use what you have learned in this lesson.
Don't forget to click on the link below this video to download the free PDF worksheet.
Alright, let's get started with the first secret:
Problem number 1 - don't watch a movie or TV show that you are unfamiliar with or you only understand 10 percent. Ugh, that's so frustrating. Instead, apply secret number 1:
Watch a movie or TV show that you already know in your native language. You are already familiar with the story, the characters, possibly even some of the words. If you need to use English subtitles, go ahead, but this is a great way to let go of fear, to let go of the frustration, 'I can't understand. It's just, I only understand every couple words, and it's just too much.' No, watch something you already know in your native language.
Have you seen Disney's Frozen in your native language? Great, watch it in English.
Have you seen Forrest Gump in your native language? Excellent, watch it in English. It is a great way to feel more confident and to improve your listening skills, to understand fast English.
Problem number 2 - don't study how individual words are pronounced. Instead follow secret number 2 which will help you to overcome this problem and that is:
Study some common linking expressions in English.
For example, if you ask me,' Vanessa, where are you going?' and I say, 'I'm gonna go to the mountains.' Hm? Okay, maybe you understood a couple parts of this, but do you really understand the linking that is happening so that when other people say this, who are not your English teacher, you can get it.
Let's break down this sentence:
I'm unna go-da the mountains. 'I'm unna.' Well, I'm really saying 'I am going to.' First I'm using a contraction: I am becomes I'm. And then, I'm pushing together, or linking together, going to, which often becomes 'gonna.'
I'm gonna take a nap.
I'm gonna study English.
But - we can reduce it even further and cut off the 'G' and say 'I'm unna,' which is what I said earlier. 'I'm unna, I'm unna.' If you're listening for 'I am going to,' you will not get this. But, if you understand some common linking principles in English, contractions, going to becomes 'gunna,' or becomes 'unna,' your ears will be more aware of it.
Let's go to the last part of that sentence: 'I'm unna go-da the mountains.'
'Go-da the mountains.' 'Go-da.' The word 'to' becomes 'da.' This is very common after the verb 'go.' 'Go da the mountains.' I'm unna go da school tomorrow.' 'go da school.'
'I gotta go da the office.' 'Go da the office.' Excellent!
What's happening with that last word? Mount'ins. Mount-ins. Well, often if there is a T plus 'in' sound at the end of a word, we drop the 'T' and kind of swallow that sound. Listen to these other words that are very similar:
Button becomes bu'nn.
Threaten becomes threa'in.
And mountain becomes mount'in.
Now, you can say this word clearly and say 'I'm unna go to the mountains. Mountains.
It's okay.

But you’re gonna hear people say (you’re gonna, I just used that reduction) you’re gonna hear people say mountains and you need to be able to understand it. We’re all focusing on improving your listening skills for comprehension so that you can understand how people are speaking in daily conversations. so with this one very simple sentence you learned some key phrases: “i’m una go-da the moun’ins”. Can you say that with me? Let’s have a little pronunciation practice. Also when you improve your pronunciation, you are also improving your listening, so they are linked together. Let’s say it together. I’m gonna go to the mountains. I’m gonna go to the mountains. Lovely.

Problem number three is, ugh, don't get discouraged. A lot of English learners try to watch something in fast English or they have a business meeting where people are speaking so comfortably in English and they're just sitting there, fearful, "Please, don't ask me a question. Please, don't call on me to speak." Heh, because they can't understand the conversation that's happening. And this can be really discouraging. You feel like you'll never be able to actually understand what people are saying. So, we need to just take it slow. I know we're talking about fast English here but don't expect yourself to be able to understand English overnight. This is a journey. This is a process. So, the problem that a lot of English learners have is that they get discouraged too quickly and they're not realistic about it. So, let's see how secret number three can help you with this. Secret number three is to take some notes. Whenever you hear something fast, take a note about it. Write it down in a notebook. Write it down on your phone. And when you learn one new quick phrase every day, this will build and build and build over time. So let me help you do this today. Take a look at this sentence. "I gotta go." Well, if you're in a hurry and you're at a friend's house and you look at the time. "Ah! I gotta go. I'm gonna be late!" This is a great phrase to use but what's happening here? There are a lot of reductions; a lot of things that are cut out. We could say, "I have got to go." This means I need to leave right now. I have got to go. But when we reduce that, we cut out "have" and "got to" becomes "gotta"... "god-da". But we don't pronounce the "t" so we're gonna reduce it one more time and, in American English, the "t"s change to a "d" sound. Listen to when I say it: "I god-da go." "I god-da go." "I gotta go." "Ugh, sorry I gotta go. I'm gonna be late." "I god-da go." Can you say that with me? "Sorry, I gotta go." "Sorry, I gotta go." Great, you just learned one normal and casual and natural, reduced English phrase. You did it! Great! So now I hope you feel a little bit less discouraged because you conquered that mountain. "Mountain" Hehe.

Problem number four that I see a lot of my English students making is: don't just speak with yourself or your pet. This is a good starting point but really, to overcome that -secret number four- is you need to speak with someone else. There is nothing like having a real-time conversation with someone. Do you know what real-time means? It means it's happening at that second. You can't pause and rewind and go back. No, if you don't understand, at that second, there's real-world consequences because you're going to need them to repeat. You're going to have to ask them, "Ah, sorry I didn't catch that. Can you repeat it?" or you're just going to just stand there and smile. So, speaking with someone else in a real-time conversation is going to test your listening skills and also help you to find the holes in what's difficult for you. Maybe you can understand some topics but other topics... it's too much. I know that, when I was living in France, as my French listening skills grew I could understand a lot- a lot of people but, for some reason, there was the father of my host-family; I could not understand him at all! There was ways he was linking or reducing French expressions; the way that he was mumbling. It was so challenging. And finally when I could understand him, I felt so proud of myself, hehehe. So, it is essential to be able to have real-time conversations with someone else. If you feel like that might be a little too scary for you right now or maybe you're not in a situation where you can find someone else to speak with, a good starting point is to check out my series: Speak with Me. You can click on the link up here. In these videos, I will give you some key vocabulary, some key questions, and we will have a little mini-conversation practice together. The good thing about this type of practice is that it's kind of real-time but you can also pause the video and go back and practice it again. So, I hope this will be a good tool to help you with this secret number four: speak with somebody else.

Problem number five that I see a lot of English learners make is they just watch English lessons on YouTube; like this one, hehehe. And, while that's great, you can't only do that. You also need to be able to practice real conversation listening skills because that's what happens in the real world whether you're watching a TV show, whether you're talking with someone at a hotel, whether you're talking with a client on the phone, it's not exactly an English teacher who speaks clearly and understandably and understands that you're an English learner. No, it's important to step that up. So, if you can already understand me, pretty well, maybe you're using subtitles, maybe not that's OK, what if we added one more person to my conversation? What if we added someone who speaks a little bit clearly too like my husband Dan? Check out this clip. See how you feel. Can you understand, generally, what we're talking about?
Dan: "Can I say my second worst job?"
Vanessa: "Oh, sure."
Dan: "Can you guess what it is?"
Vanessa: "Ummm, I know you worked at a lot of coffee shops but those weren't that bad."
Dan: "Working at a coffee shop was good."
Vanessa: "OK, wha- what was it?"
Dan: "It's the sharp shooter."
Vanessa: "Ohhhh, can you explain about that job?"
Dan: "Yeah, so, I don't know if you've ever seen this in your country but... have you ever been to a place where somebody takes your picture and then later they try to sell you that picture? I was that guy. So, we took the same pictures, it was going onto a boat, in a- on one of the rivers in Pittsburgh."
Vanessa: "So, yeah, it's kinda like a cruise boat."
Dan: "Yeah- "
Vanessa: "A river cruise."
Dan: "It was very kitschy though, like, not high-class at all. So, people, before they got on the boat, we forced them to stop and go through the line and we'd take their picture and it was, like, required but people were like 'I don't wanna get my picture taken'."
Vanessa: "And everyone had their own cameras and phones and- "
Dan: "And this is, yeah- "
Vanessa: "and they didn't need that- "
Dan: "And, mind you, this was in like 2010 where people already had, like, phones on their cameras and stuff. I mean, that's at least getting more popular."
Vanessa: "Yeah, they didn't need your picture."
Dan: "No, and so I had to take everybody's picture and then, when they got off the boat, I stood at the side and said, 'Hey! Come over here! Buy this picture!' and they were like 20 dollars... for one picture."
Vanessa: "Crazy!"
Dan: "A terrible rip-off. Even I knew it was a terrible rip-off just... not a worthwhile business at least in 2010 when I was doing that job."
Vanessa: "Yeah, maybe 10 years before that it would've been cool."
Dan: "It was a viable business, like, thirty years ago."
OK, maybe that went alright for you but what if we added a different speaker who speaks a little bit faster and maybe the topic isn't so comfortable for you. Check out this clip and watch what we're saying.
Brandy: "You know, so, there's a lot of different factors that go into play and it takes- that's why I like this marker- market. It's great to work with a realtor- "
Vanessa: Mhm, we would have had no clue what to do. Like I- I pretty much guarantee we would have never gotten this house without you."
Brandy: "I'm so glad it worked out. It's just so cool to see- I fee- I always feel like people land in the right places even if it's a little tricky. You know, they lose out on a few houses. It's always a bummer but people always land in the place that they're meant to be."
Vanessa: "Yeah."
Brandy: "And I always keep that heart, like, when somebody 'loses'- you know, it's just knowing that, like, that wasn't the right thing."
Vanessa: "Yeah, that wasn't the destiny. That was meant to happen. Like, another place will come up."
Brandy: "Yeah."
Was it a little bit more challenging? What about the next step? What if we took out the video completely and you only listened to our voices? Hm, check out this quick clip where you are only going to only listen to the audio of me speaking with my friend who's here in that past video, Brandy. Listen.
Brandy: "Well, if it's possible, pay off a car you know it's a big chunk of change but sometimes lenders will say it's more important to pay off your car then it is to put this towards a down payment. So, sometimes a lender- a good lender, again, is an important thing because they can help guide you, as to like, what makes the most sense to help you get the house that you really want."