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  • Fans, this video is for you! Welcome to the first ever Rachel's English question and answer video.

  • I put a posting on Facebook asking for questions from my fans. Thanks guys, I got

  • some really great questions, and good ideas for future videos on pronunciation. So I had

  • to choose just a few questions to answer.

  • First: Someone asked about what to say in response to 'thank you'. Most people will

  • say 'you're welcome!' -- and I do have a video on that! But you will hear other phrases,

  • for example, 'no problem'. Or you might hear 'my pleasure'. That's a little more formal.

  • Question: why is American English different from British English? Great question. Well,

  • language is always evolving, and ours evolved an ocean away from Britain. So it makes sense

  • that they would have evolved differently. But also, I think when the British came to

  • America, there was some desire to be different. Noah Webster, who wrote the Webster dictionary,

  • wanted to reform the spelling of British English, to simplify that and make it match the sounds

  • better. Also, in Britain, there was a whole society structure in place. In America much

  • less so, and there might have been a desire to be less formal, and maybe that is where

  • a lot of our reductions have come from, things like the Flap T, which aren't used in Britain.

  • I don't know, it's just a guess!

  • I got a question about American culture. This guy talked about having a hard time socializing.

  • I made a video about how to say hello to someone you know, check it out if you haven't. And

  • I think a lot of Americans are really open to conversation as a culture, but it depends

  • on the personality if someone is going to start a conversation. So if you're outgoing,

  • you may have to start the conversation. I got another question about how to start a

  • conversation with a stranger, and I think this is a great topic. I'm going to start

  • working on a video for it.

  • Egle, who has been an active fan for many years, asked me if I gave up being a singer.

  • The answer is yes, but I don't usually use the term 'give up'. Some of my fans out

  • there might not know, but I used to be an opera singer, and I stopped. My last show was in

  • 2009. When you say that you're giving something up, that means that you don't really

  • want to stop doing it, but you will. For example, in the Christian tradition, people will give

  • something up for Lent: like, I'm going to give up chocolate for Lent. It's not because

  • you hate chocolate, but because you're going to give up something you like as part of your

  • spiritual practice. So I don't usually say I gave up singing, because I was ready to.

  • I didn't want to keep doing it. My interest in it as a career had completely gone away

  • by then. So, I didn't do it because I had to, I did it because I wanted to. So I usually

  • say I quit singing, or, I stopped singing.

  • This brings me to the next question, why did I decide to do Rachel's English? I didn't

  • really. I decided to start making some videos for fun, but I didn't really think about whether

  • or not people would actually watch them! I had no idea it would become this. I don't

  • think I was even wishing for that. If you want to know more about how I got into this,

  • you can check out an interview I did a while back.

  • Here's a question I got about driving: Can you start driving when you're 16? Yes. Actually,

  • 15, and in some states, 14, though for that first year, you have to have an adult in the

  • car. But yes, I started driving when I was 16. And yes we have speed limits! Every single road.

  • If you speed or get in an accident, you do get points added to your license, and if you

  • get to a certain number, then your license gets suspended and you can't drive for a while.

  • But there are ways to take the points off, like taking a class. I'm actually not

  • like most Americans, in that I don't have a car, I haven't had one for over 10 years,

  • maybe even 15 by now.

  • So I mostly take the bus or a train, or sometimes I get people to drive me around.

  • Yulia asked about stressful situations. I know Yulia because she took a Rachel's English

  • class. Hi Yulia! She's asking about speaking in stressful situations, when the stress level

  • is high, it becomes harder to pay attention to pronunciation. And of course, it's in a

  • stressful situation that you want to make sure you're understood! I don't actually think

  • you can treat the pronunciation without treating the stress. So, the best way in the moment

  • to bring yourself down from that stressful state, is actually to feel your breath and

  • pay attention to it for a few seconds. So, I think you have to just for a moment of focus

  • on your breath to help deal with your stress, that will help you communicate better. Rather

  • than thinking of, how can I communicate better!?!?! That's just more stressful.

  • This video is getting long, so I'm going to wrap it up with one last question. Someone

  • asked about the process of making a video, and I do want to explain that because I think

  • some people will put up a request for a video, and then get sad when I don't post it the

  • next week. But it is a long process! First I have to choose my topics, do my research

  • and experimenting, to make sure I know how I want to explain it. Then I write the script.

  • That whole process can take a couple of hours, even for a video that's just a few minutes

  • long. Generally I try to do around 20 so I can film them all at the same time. Then I

  • reserve a studio. Obviously, this is not my studio. This is my living room. Also, it's

  • obvious that I didn't take any time to make sure my hair looked nice or anything, but

  • I do do that when I'm filming at the studio. I rent space at YouTube in Manhattan, and

  • they have a lot of professional lights and cameras, a good microphone, I bring my own

  • teleprompter. And I shoot them all. It takes all day to shoot those 20 videos, and often

  • I realize when I get home that I've messed something up and I can't make one of the videos

  • I had been planning. But, then I edit the video, and that takes anywhere from 2-8 hours,

  • per video, depending on what kind it is.

  • Once I upload to YouTube there's still a lot work to be done.

  • I have to make the captions, which see here, and also annotations and links. The whole

  • takes about 10 hours per video. That's why I only do 1 video a week. I used to do two, but

  • it was just wearing me out. I'd love to do more at some point, but for now it's just

  • not possible. I get many more than 1 video request each week, and that is why most people

  • who request a video will not get to see that video, unfortunately. But I hope at some point

  • my life changes so I can do 2-3 videos a week. I really like the editing part. Actually this

  • is a cool video I made behind the scenes in Los Angeles at the YouTube studios, so you

  • can see that to get an idea of what it's like.

  • Friends and fans, thank you so much for your questions! I'm sorry I wasn't able to answer

  • them all. Do me a favor, if you haven't signed up for my mailing list, do! It's the easiest

  • way for me to keep in touch with you. You can follow this link, or go to the description

  • below. Also, be my Fan on Facebook and follow me on Twitter here. We passed 50,000 fans

  • the week on Facebook, it was awesome! And finally guys, I would like to ask you to share

  • Rachel's English with your friends, or if you have a blog, or share it on Facebook, that's

  • really how Rachel's English grows. Thank you so much for your support!

  • By guys! See you soon!

Fans, this video is for you! Welcome to the first ever Rachel's English question and answer video.

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