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  • What's going on guys? Happy New Year! (It's the) first video of the New Year. I have a

  • question here from Hazes Mosnur Rahman. I hope I said that right. (I) probably didn't.

  • In fact, I'm certain I didn't. Anyway, Haze, you had this question. Okay, so he asks, "I'm

  • weak in English vocab and pronunciation. What can I do.

  • So, I'm going to try and make it a New Year's resolution of my own to try and answer more

  • of your questions and create videos like this for you guys. But Hazes okay, poor vocab and

  • pronunciation. We'll tackle vocab first.

  • So, vocab wise, my advice is always, once you're at the intermediate to advanced language-learning

  • stage, whether it's English or any other language, you need to find resources that you enjoy.

  • You also need to make sure that these resources are at your level or above. Preferably above,

  • but not too far that they're unenjoyable. Okay? So, you need to find resources that

  • you enjoy.

  • They can be TV shows, they can be movies, documentaries, they can be podcasts, they

  • can be TV shows, TV shows I said, magazines, books, anything that is... that has English,

  • that is made of English, that is written in English, spoken in English, whatever it is,

  • you need to find something you enjoy. You need to find something you enjoy so that it's

  • easy to watch and it's easy to watch, or consume, read, whatever it is, listen to, multiple

  • times. Okay? So, the key there is find something you enjoy so that you can, two, consume it

  • multiple times, and then three make sure, especially if it's a podcast, something you're

  • listening to, if it's a a movie or a TV show or something you're watching, that there are

  • either subtitles below or that there's a transcript that you can read.

  • So, this is important because you want to be able to see all the words that may have

  • gone over your head whilst you were just listening. This happens to all of us. It even happens

  • to me sometimes with natives if that they speak too quickly. Maybe my concentration

  • lapses for a moment. But you want it down below or you want it on a transcript also

  • so that you can then take note of any of the words that you have never seen before; that

  • you have seen before, but just can't remember what they mean; that you have seen before,

  • you have a vague idea of what they mean, but you want to clarify what they mean. And you

  • want to take these down on a notepad. Okay? So, I normally suggest small notepad that

  • you can fit in your pocket so that you can do this anywhere, any time. But I'd be doing

  • that.

  • I would then go and look these words up, find the definitions. But most importantly find

  • examples sentences. After that, I would write these examples sentences out and I would speak

  • the example sentences out loud as well. Beyond that, I would find examples where I can use

  • them. Maybe I'll write something, just you know a bit of abstract writing about whatever

  • you want, your day, and try and work the new vocab in them. Try and have a conversation

  • with someone, even if you've got the notepad here, and try to use the words that you've

  • practicing. The point there is that you need to be actively using the new vocab for it

  • to be maintained in your active vocabulary. Otherwise, it's going to be passive, and you're

  • just going to recognise it when you see it or hear it. Okay? So, that's what I would

  • suggest with learning vocab.

  • There are really good apps out there like Anki. I've mentioned that a few times. And

  • I think Fluent Forever now has a new app that might be able to help you, but it might be

  • a little for beginners, it might be a little not advanced enough for you guys.

  • Anyway. That's what I would suggest vocab wise.

  • Find something you enjoy. Take note of the vocab that you don't understand; recognise

  • but don't really remember; or have never seen before. Look it up, write down examples sentences,

  • and then practice speaking that aloud, or in conversation, or with writing. But you

  • need to practice it, especially, if you want to be using this effortlessly like a native

  • speaker. Okay? So, that's vocab, and it transitions into pronunciation.

  • Pronunciation wise, you need to either recognise yourself the parts of the pronunciation you're

  • having trouble with, or you need to get a private lesson with someone, it could be me

  • could be anyone or just talk to a friend, someone who speaks English as a native, and

  • ask them to pick up on the words that you're mispronouncing. You need to take note of these

  • words, or at least the aspects of these words that you're having trouble pronouncing, and

  • then you need to look these words up or words with this aspect up. You need to be able to

  • hear these words if possible. So, you could have a teacher like me, or you could have

  • a friend, record themselves pronouncing these words, or you can use websites like Forvo.com

  • to find native speakers who said these words in English. And you can click on them and

  • listen so that you get it right.

  • The key thing there though is that you want to try to identify the parts of the language

  • you're finding difficult to pronounce, and then practice pronouncing them, again and

  • again. You might have to do this five minutes a day for a month, maybe a year. It's an ongoing

  • process. But you need to do this again and again and again if you really want to nail

  • the pronunciation of these tricky words. So, I guess that's it for today.

  • I hope it helps, mate. Keep at it. I'm sure you're going to level up your vocab, and just

  • keep pronouncing words, keep looking for these words that you want to pronounce. Keep speaking

  • out loud. Talk in your room by yourself. Talk with friends. But just keep using English,

  • and she'll be apples, mate. She'll keep improving.

  • So, I hope that helps Haze, and I hope you guys have a great day. See ya.

  • G'day guys, (it's) Pete here again. In order to help you learn this sort of stuff, I've

  • created the Aussie English Classroom. Each week you get access to the course that goes

  • with the expression episode from the podcast. You can open up the course in the old courses

  • section. You get six or more lessons with each course that you can carry out as you

  • choose. You can select any of these lessons and complete them. Here in the listener and

  • read one, you can open up the transcript, you can listen to the podcast whilst you read.

  • You can scroll all the way down. You'll get to see the vocab list with all that tricky

  • vocab in today's transcript. You can then go to the quiz at the bottom and complete

  • the quiz to test your listening comprehension. In this case, we have quizzes for other exercises

  • or lessons as well. It's a weekly program that tries to cover all these bases, and it

  • will definitely help you with pronunciation and vocab.

  • So, get in there, give it a go, and let's start levelling up your Aussie English, guys.

  • It's a dollar for your first month. I'll see you in class.

What's going on guys? Happy New Year! (It's the) first video of the New Year. I have a

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