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  • I want to speak really English from your first lesson.

  • Sign up for your free lifetime account at English Class 101 dot com.

  • Hi, everybody.

  • Welcome back to ask Alicia the Weekly Siri's where you ask me questions and I answer them.

  • Maybe first question this week comes from Dwan due to a Tom, I hope I said that right long do says Hi, Alicia.

  • How do I practice listening to English?

  • Better, I would say Make sure you're doing active listening, not passive listening.

  • So passive listening is like just turning your phone on or turning your computer onto something English like an English movie or an English video on YouTube or English audio, and you leave it and you go do something else, like cleaning or cooking or doing your homework or whatever.

  • So you're not paying attention to the audio.

  • You're not paying attention to the video at all.

  • So you're just listening to the background noise.

  • They're active.

  • Listening, on the other hand, is really focusing in on the things that you're hearing, so to practice.

  • Good active listening.

  • Of course, you congest listen to audio, but I would recommend trying to read along with the things the speakers are saying, so I think really fun.

  • Ways to do this are to use movies and videos, so movies turn on the subtitles in English to do this on and turn on like YouTube captions as well.

  • You can do that with some of the videos on our channel, and I think that there are some auto generated captions that you can use on our YouTube channel as well, So I would recommend reading along as you listen.

  • So this helps you because it can help you identify the pronunciations of unfamiliar words, the words that you don't know you can learn how to pronounce them.

  • You can also hear the different ways that native speakers connect words in everyday speech.

  • You can learn how words are stressed in everyday speech, and you can just pick up new vocabulary words and work on some grammar patterns, too.

  • So I would recommend you practice active listening, not just passive listening.

  • Passive listening is fun and easy, but try to do active listening as well so that you're really focusing on gaining new things.

  • I hope that this helps you and good luck with your continued listening studies.

  • Okay, let's move on to your next question.

  • Next question comes from Bear Hot Vin.

  • Hello, Bejart.

  • Been they had been says, What is the difference between England, British and United Kingdom?

  • Okay, Um, England is a country one country.

  • It is unknown.

  • For example, I went to England last year.

  • Have you ever been to England?

  • British is an adjective.

  • Something that is British is something or someone that comes from Great Britain.

  • So Great Britain is the largest of the islands in the British Isles.

  • Examples.

  • My roommate is British.

  • Do you speak British or American English?

  • I speak American English, The United Kingdom or the U.

  • K.

  • Is an area that's made up of most of the islands in the British Isles, including Great Britain.

  • And it's made up of a small part of the northeastern part of Ireland as well as a few other small islands in the area.

  • This is referred to as the United Kingdom or the U.

  • K.

  • Examples.

  • Have you ever been to the UK?

  • I hear it's rainy in the United Kingdom.

  • Okay, so I hope that this helps you understand the differences between these words.

  • Thanks very much for the question, All right.

  • Moving along to your next question this week.

  • Next question comes from Alex.

  • Hi, Alex, Alex says.

  • Hi.

  • What's the difference between Bush and Forest?

  • Thanks.

  • Okay.

  • In American English, bush and forests are quite different, however, in Australian English, the word Bush could be used to mean something kind of similar to forest.

  • So first, let's look at how Bush is used in American English.

  • In American English, bushes used to refer to like a shrub.

  • It's one single plant that is low to the ground.

  • People usually have them in front of their houses or in a forest.

  • Among the trees, you might see bushes like below trees, so they're usually not very big.

  • Maybe this size of show.

  • It depends.

  • It depends on the type of plant.

  • Um, but a Bush is a single unit.

  • It's a single plant.

  • Examples.

  • My grandparent's have lots of bushes in their yard.

  • There's a row of bushes leading up to the castle, so some of you may know that this word does have another slang meaning, but it is totally unrelated to plant life.

  • So you can Google that if you like, so Bush can also refer to like an area of wild lands like untamed creatures and just free growing plants.

  • But that's something that we only use in Australian, English, American English speakers.

  • And to my knowledge, British English speakers do not use this word.

  • Forest, on the other hand, refers to a huge, huge, huge area off trees and creatures and all kinds of wildlife.

  • So, for example, the Amazon rain forest is a huge forest.

  • So it's not just one unit, not just one tree or one group of animals.

  • But it's the whole area.

  • All the plants, all the wildlife, everything in that area.

  • That's a forest area.

  • So I hope that this helps you understand the differences between these words.

  • Thanks for an interesting question.

  • Okay, let's move on to your next question.

  • Next question comes from Svetoslav.

  • High spot is love.

  • I hope I said that correctly.

  • Status Law says Hi, Alicia.

  • Could you explain the difference between other and another?

  • Okay, I talked about this in a previous episode of Ask Alicia.

  • So if you want some or example sentences in a little bit of a different explanation, you can check out that video so we use other when we're referring to the known alternative in a situation.

  • So if, for example, our camera person offers me these two markers and he offers me the red one, but I can see the blue one, I can say no, I want the other one.

  • I want this one.

  • I want the other marker.

  • So I use the other because I see that there are two choices in the situation.

  • I am offered one, but I say no, I want to the other one In the situation.

  • We use another when we want to refer to something outside the known situation.

  • So here, if I'm offered a red marker and a blue marker and I don't want either, I can say, Do you have another color?

  • And maybe I'll get the black marker so it's outside of my existing options.

  • It's outside of the known situation, another one.

  • So for another example of how we use another and the other, you can check out the previous episode of Ask Alicia that I talked about.

  • I hope that that gives you another example, Um, and another explanation that can help you understand the differences between these words.

  • So I hope that that helps you.

  • Thanks very much for this question.

  • Okay, let's move on to your next question.

  • Next question comes from Emma.

  • Hi, Emma.

  • Emma says highly Chef, I'm wondering what I should say when people ask me what my job is and I'm just a housewife and raising kids.

  • Is it okay to say I have no job?

  • I'm just a housewife.

  • Well, yes, but I definitely wouldn't say just or I have no job because I think many people now today recognized that being a housewife is a, like, a kind of job.

  • So you could say Yes, I'm just a housewife.

  • But because there's a lot of work related to taking care of a house and taking care of Children, I would say Don't use just just say I'm a housewife and explain.

  • I take care of my home and my Children.

  • So I hope that this helps you.

  • Yes, Using housewife is a great way to describe what you do.

  • Thanks very much for your question.

  • Okay.

  • That is everything that I have for this week.

  • Thank you.

  • As always for sending your great questions.

  • Remember, you can send them to me at English Class 101 dot com slash ask hyphen Alicia.

  • Of course, If you like this video, please don't forget to give it a thumb's up.

  • Subscribe to our channel if you have not already, and check us out in English class 121 dot com for some other things that can help you with your English studies.

  • Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alicia and I Will See you again next week.

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