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  • As you continue to learn English, you realize the importance of having real English conversations

  • with someone.

  • But English conversations, especially with native speakers can be a little bit stressful.

  • They can make you nervous, they can even make you a little bit afraid or scared, and so

  • sometimes we avoid having real conversations.

  • Well, in this English lesson, I'm going to give you five pieces of advice.

  • I'm going to give you five tips, things that you can do to get ready to have excellent

  • English conversations with native English speakers.

  • The first thing that you need to do to be ready to have good English conversations is

  • to develop your English listening skills.

  • You should be doing a lot of English listening practice.

  • When I've talked to people who are learning English, they often mention that they are

  • nervous or afraid to have a conversation with a native English speaker because they are

  • worried they will not understand what the native speaker is saying.

  • So it's vitally important that you spend time watching YouTube videos, watching English

  • reality television, listening to English podcasts.

  • You need to have your English listening skills at their best so that when you do have a conversation

  • with a native English speaker, you don't have to be nervous, you don't have to be afraid

  • that you won't understand what they are saying.

  • So practice those listening skills.

  • That is the first and probably one of the most important steps that you can take in

  • being just a little more calm when you have an English conversation.

  • The second thing that can make English learners a little bit afraid or stressed about having

  • a real English conversation is the fear that they might mispronounce some words, the fear

  • that they might say some words and someone might think it sounds funny or they might

  • say something wrong and someone might laugh at them.

  • So the best way to avoid this is of course, to practice your pronunciation.

  • You need to take time each day to say words out loud in English.

  • You don't have to have a conversation in order to practice pronunciation.

  • You can read out loud, you can repeat what you hear in a video or on television.

  • There are many things you can do to start to exercise the muscles of the mouth, to exercise

  • the tongue and to form the words properly, so you need to do this.

  • This is the second thing that will really help you because if you know your pronunciation

  • is getting better and better, you are more likely to be calmer when you do have a conversation

  • with a real English native speaker.

  • A third thing that you can do in order to put yourself at ease when you know you're

  • going to have an English conversation is to think about really good questions to ask during

  • the conversation.

  • You should always go into an English conversation with questions so that you can keep the native

  • speaker talking as much as possible, especially if you are a beginner.

  • When you are a beginner, your goal in any conversation is to ask questions so that the

  • native speaker keeps talking.

  • Eventually when you are more advanced, you will be talking more, but at the beginning

  • you should do things like this, if the native speaker says that they just saw a movie, you

  • should right away ask what movie did you see?

  • You should also ask, when did you see the movie?

  • Did you like the movie?

  • What was your favorite part of the movie?

  • So whenever you can ask a question, it gives you time to then pause and listen again while

  • the native speaker is talking.

  • So you should always think about what question can I ask this native speaker.

  • That's your third tip.

  • A fourth thing that you can do to just help you be ready for an English conversation is

  • to make sure that you are expanding your vocabulary in a lot of different directions.

  • Just because you like reading or just because you like movies, doesn't mean that all of

  • your vocabulary should relate to those two things.

  • You should make sure that you are aware of vocabulary in other areas as well.

  • Even if you don't like sports, you should learn vocabulary for different sports.

  • Even if you don't like travel, you should learn vocabulary for travel.

  • Even if you don't like food, you should learn a lot of vocabulary for food.

  • So what this does is it gets you prepared ahead of time.

  • It allows you to have a solid foundation of vocabulary in a lot of different areas because

  • one of the things that I know English learners have told me that makes them nervous about

  • having a conversation is if the conversation topic goes in a direction where they don't

  • know any of the words.

  • I know someone once said to me, "I was having an English conversation with someone and they

  • started talking about sports, and I didn't know any of the words that they were using

  • and I didn't know how to participate in the conversation."

  • So expand your vocabulary, not just in the directions that you like, but in every direction.

  • Broaden your vocabulary as much as possible.

  • That's number four.

  • The fifth piece of advice that I'm going to give you is this, be honest.

  • Be honest with the native speaker that you are having a conversation with.

  • Just tell them that you are a beginner, that you are just starting to learn English.

  • Tell them that you are at the intermediate level, but that you still sometimes have trouble

  • understanding.

  • You might be surprised, first of all, how nice people are.

  • And secondly, you might be surprised how much easier it will be to have a conversation with

  • them.

  • I know for myself, when I was speaking French with someone, if I told them I was a beginner

  • or intermediate, they would certainly be gracious and helpful and explain things to me really,

  • really well.

  • So be honest.

  • Just tell them.

  • And secondly, be ready to ask them to repeat themselves in really polite ways.

  • So make sure you know phrases like, I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that or excuse me, I

  • didn't quite understand that last sentence, or could you repeat that please?

  • So learn those really nice ways to ask someone to repeat themselves and I think that you

  • will have amazing English conversations going forward.

  • So I know I said five, but here is a sixth tip for you, you need to be brave.

  • You need to have courage in order to get ready for and have great English conversations.

  • As you learn English, this is vitally important to your progress.

  • So I really hope that you can be brave, i hope that you can have courage and I hope

  • your next English conversation goes really, really well.

  • Thank you so much for watching.

  • If you have time, why don't you stick around and watch another video?

  • Bob, the Canadian here.

  • Have a great day.

As you continue to learn English, you realize the importance of having real English conversations

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