#417 How to Stop Speaking English Slow, Like a Robot — Learn to Speak FAST, NATURAL English
45:28 Share

So if you feel like your English sounds slow and robotic, this lesson is going to help you to become a fast, natural English speaker. And this lesson is super practical. You're going to practice a lot with clips from great series, movies, songs, common proverbs, and tongue twisters. So I highly recommend that you watch somewhere where you can speak out loud with us. And

And I also highly recommend that you add this one to your favorites and come back and mimic a few of the exercises every day. If you do this, over a few weeks you're going to find that you really are speaking more naturally and you can even understand fast native speech much better. By the way, every episode of this podcast comes with an interactive transcript and exclusive vocabulary flashcards featuring all of the most important expressions that we covered.

So expressions like blob and jack of all trades that you're going to hear in a little bit are already waiting for you. So as soon as you finish watching this episode, click the link in the description, which is going to take you over to the RealLife English app, where you can start your vocabulary practice right away. And now let's get into episode 417 of the RealLife English podcast.

So Ksenia, I'm excited about today's lesson and in preparing for it, I had a throwback to my childhood. I was reminded of something, a very special word that every kid I think gets to know.

That's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Do you have this word in Ukrainian? I've heard it, but I'm not sure we translate it into Ukrainian. I think it comes from some movie, Mary Poppins or something, right? Mary Poppins. That's it. I would never be able to repeat that. And I never tried to learn it, actually. Do you remember how much time it took you to learn to remember the word? I'm sure as a kid, it was really quick because there was the song and everything and you learned to sing it.

It's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. I thought about this because we're talking all about connected speech, about fast spoken English.

And I imagine for a lot of English learners that when they listen to native English, a lot of times it sounds something like that, like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. You hear an entire sentence and just comes out like one blob of a word. I can relate. When I listen to Spanish speakers, it sounds exactly like that. Just like a mixture of sounds. Exactly. But, Ksenia, you speak English.

very confidently and naturally in a way that is quite native-like. So how did you learn to have this sort of quick, natural speech? I think there were a couple things, but the pivotal role I would...

put on mimicking. Yeah, I use a lot of shadowing exercise. So I would just like listen to some clips and repeating. I was repeating those. And I think a big part of it, it's not just the speed. I think a lot of it is actually how it flows together. So even though someone might sound like they're speaking fast, it might be more that the words are

which is what happens in English, right? We call it connected speech that some syllables reduce. Some of them are more emphasized and they flow together. They connect. And so this flow of the language is a natural flow that you can get, like you said, by shadowing, by mimicking, uh, it can make it sound like we're speaking really fast. So, although maybe you think that you need to speak faster, it

It might actually be that you're just needing to employ more of this connected speech. And I think that by learning some of the different elements of connected speech is also going to help you to then be able to perceive it and understand it better when natives use this. Exactly. I think we were introduced to the basics of the connected speech in university. But as I said, most of it, it was just like from real clips from movies and interviews. Yeah, I think a lot of schools never even teach this.

And there are some mechanics, some rules that you can learn that will really help you to be able to, if you want to, to be able to use connected speech and to ultimately understand it better. And we're not going to go so much into the mechanics of connected speech in this lesson. We went to it in another lesson in depth that we'll link down in the description. But by the end of this episode, you are going to learn

Five very common connected speech patterns that once you learn them, you're going to see them everywhere. You'll actually get the chance to practice them, to do some mimicry with real life examples, just like Ksenia learned how she learned to flow more naturally. And finally, you'll learn why it can be a good thing to be a fool.

But before we get into today's lesson, I want to let you know that if you are new here every single week, we make lessons like this that help you to become a confident natural English speaker. So if that is part of your goal, then be sure to hit that subscribe button and the bell down below. If you're on YouTube or if you are on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or listening to us on any other platform like that, be sure to follow us so you don't miss a single new episode. All right, Ksenia. So what is the first pattern? I'm sure people are itching to know.

Yeah, I'm so excited because today there's lots and lots of practice for listeners, viewers. The first sound is the schwa sound, how we would call it. It's that...

/ə/ sound. It's very unassuming, like it happens in unstressed syllables, right? So you may not even notice it, but I will illustrate it very quickly with just one word and it will be like really, really clear for you what this sound is about. So the word banana, it has three A's.

But you don't say ba-na-na, or ba-na-na, right? You say ba-na-na. So the really true A is only in the middle of the word, ba-na-na. The rest A's in this word are schwa sounds. So you don't pronounce them fully. They're just like uh, uh, this uh sound. Ba-na-na, ba-na-na.

Made me think of this Gwen Stefani song, you know, like the, it's bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Do you remember that one? I know that song. I should listen to it now. Being my adolescence, maybe. You said a really nice word there. You said it's unassuming. What does that mean if something is unassuming?

Yeah. So imagine like if you're a person and you don't seek attention, maybe you are shy, reserved. So you may be described as unassuming. It's something that you are not attracting attention. Right. Like humble, right? A very nice alternative to that word, humble. All right. So we have actually, like we mentioned, some different clips. So for each of the patterns we go through today, we will...

explain it like Ksenia just has, then we'll go through some different clips. And with each clip, we will explain what the Connecticut speech is, and then you'll have the opportunity to also repeat it. And if you're listening to us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you might want to head over to the RelayFinglish app because there you'll get the video and that will really help you to know the cues for when you can repeat.

So, the first clip you'll watch now is from Doctor Strange and try to catch that schwa sound there. By the way, before we watch it, just a small comment here. Why this sound comes first? Why we started with that? Because it's like a really, really key ingredient in the rhythm of the English language. Yeah, it helps the language flow, this combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. So, it's really, really important for you. Try to catch it in this clip.

again and again and again and again forever i like that he repeats it several times right like again and again and again so first of all this word has two pronunciations you can say again or you can say again both are correct but what what happens here ethan yeah so it's the same as the article a usually we don't pronounce a full a we say it as a schwa sound uh and

We have an A at the beginning, so it just becomes again or again, as you said. And we also have the word and that oftentimes we cut off the D. So we're having that and that becomes an linking to the again. So you have again and again and again and again. It's very rhythmical, right? I think this would even be a great one for learners to repeat over and over again, but try to say it faster and faster and faster until you're saying again and again and again and again and again.

Yeah, that's a wonderful example to repeat. So we could play the clip one more time and you guys please repeat and practice this sound. Again, again, again, and again forever. All right, the next one is a really nice proverb that goes birds of a feather flock together.

So here we have a couple of schwa sounds. When we have of, it often becomes a simple uh, and we have the article A, as we mentioned before, that often becomes a schwa sound. So it's also uh, but we have the V from of that is linking to that. So we have birds of a feather, birds of a feather flock together.

And what does this mean, this proverb, Ksenia? It's a very interesting proverb and it basically means that people who are alike, who have similar interests or hobbies, they stick together. And it reminds me of a new song, one of the newer songs from Billie Eilish, and it has the same name, Birds of a Feather. She says, she sings, Birds of a Feather.

We should stick together. Something like that. Nice. That's a nice play with that proverb. We also have another schwa in the word together. So instead of saying a full together, it's a together. And this is also interesting because the preposition to often becomes a. So like I would like to see you, for example. So that can be a good one for people to practice saying after me. So birds of a feather flock together.

So the next proverb we want to share with you guys is Rome wasn't built in a day. You know, Ethan, what's interesting is that we have the same proverb in Ukrainian. So basically, we also took it to our language. But here in English, it would sound like that. Rome wasn't built in a day. So let's explain the connection speech here. We have schwa sound in the article A here, built in a day, built in a day.

And also what happens with wasn't, it loses its T, which we'll talk a little bit deeper more later, right? But that's why you don't hear it here. Wasn't, wasn't, we lose the T sound. Rome wasn't built in a day. Guys, you may repeat it now after me. Rome wasn't built in a day. All right. And another proverb here that you can use is

Jack of all trades, master of none. But we reduce it a lot. Jack of all trades, master of none. Would you define it for us what it means? Yeah, so oftentimes we'll even just short it to Jack of all trades. It means someone who's good at many things, but they're not exceptional really at any of them. So it might be, you know, someone like that, or you're like that yourself that you have many different talents, but maybe you haven't had mastery over any of them.

And what we're seeing happening here is that we have a linking like the of all like it's really reduced. We have a schwa sound in the of so jack of all trades master and none. So in that second of even we remove the sound altogether master and none. So jack of all trades master and none.

So guys, as you've seen, "of" very often gets reduced to just "v" or "schwa" sound. So we got a clip for you where you can hear it and repeat after the character. -Kinda like Barney? -Kinda. -Hey! So this is interesting because we have this "kinda", we hear that all the time, right? "Kind of" becoming "kinda". But I think I even heard him reduce it even more to just "kinda", which sometimes native do this, they remove the "d" so it's "kinda". So you can have "kinda" or "kinda". Yeah, so there are possible reductions, yeah.

Extreme way of reducing this would be "kinda". So listen and repeat again. Alright, Cassandra, we have one final clip here from The Wild. Let's check it out.

Couple of lefts, couple of rights. So there is no V at all. So off gets reduced just to schwa sound. Couple of lefts, couple of rights. Couple of lefts, couple of rights. What does it mean? Couple of lefts, couple of rights. Nice. It's when you're giving directions, you can tell someone, you need to take a couple of lefts and then a couple of rights and then you'll get there. I'm not sure if that's what it's referring to in the clip, but... Yeah, basically you should take...

couple of turns to the left, a couple of turns to the right, right? All right, let's watch it again and repeat after the character. And we mentioned briefly Ksenia that also to the preposition to can be reduced to to.

very often. So we have a very nice song that I used to use all the time with my students, which is from Eminem. It's the one from the movie 8 Mile called Lose Yourself. And we may look at some different lines during this podcast, but the first one is when he says back to reality. He actually says it back to reality, back to reality. So that back to, back to. All right, now try to repeat with Eminem.

And then finally, because any of there's a show that I watched several years back that I thought would be really nice to bring here. It's called how to get away with murder. That's a really great show that has like a mix of kind of like legal and mystery.

But if we'd said it really fast, we'd have quite a bit of reductions there. So it's how to get away with murder, how to get away with murder so that we hear some morphing there, which we'll talk about later of the tap tea or American tea, but how to get away with murder. So repeat after me, how to get away with murder.

All right, Ksenia, so before we move on to the next pattern, I thought it'd be really nice to test our learners on some of the vocabulary that we've learned so far. So first off, do you remember what unassuming means? That really nice word that Ksenia used? All right, how did you do? Did you completely remember it? Did you sort of remember it? Did you completely forget it? That's okay. Let's try another one if you didn't get it. So the next one is birds of a feather flock together. Remember that proverb? What does it mean?

How about that one? Did you remember it completely? Did you sort of get it? Did you not get it? Well, see how valuable it is to study vocabulary like this after you learn it so that you can test yourself and you can actually remember it. So it becomes part of your active speech. So I did this for almost all the languages that I've learned, and it was super important for me to actually build my fluency. So I had the right words right when I needed them. I would use program an app like Anki here.

And it's a really great program, a really great app because it's, you can do all sorts of things. You can add photos to it. You can add different texts, examples, and so on. But it's also a lot of work. It took me maybe five minutes anytime I wanted to create just one flashcard.

So on the Relife English app, we take all the hard work out of it for you for these lessons. So you can enjoy listening to us there and you can test your vocabulary. We give you images, examples, and writing exercises for every single term. And all you have to do is enjoy the lesson and then study the vocabulary. So it becomes part of your active vocabulary. And the next time that you're in a conversation, you have exactly the words you need.

You'll never forget them again. So you can try it for free right now with this very lesson by clicking the link down in the description below, or you can look for RealLife English in your favorite app store and just look for episode 417 of the podcast. We hope that you enjoyed a lot and let's get back to today's episode.

Okay, so the second pattern that we brought today for you is the flap T. And if we were talking about an unassuming schwa sound, something very different happens to a flap T because it becomes the sound D, which is a voiced counterpart of the T. What happens? So, whenever the T sound is followed by a vowel,

It would turn into a /d/ sound. For example, you can remember such words as better. It would sound better with a /f/-apt-y.

or beautiful, which would sound like beautiful. And there is a real litmus test. When somebody is asked to read water bottle, the way you read it will, you know, define whether you are speaking with an American English or with a British English. So British would say water bottle. How would you say that in American English, Ethan? Water bottle.

water bottle. Yeah. That's the meme. That's like a very common joke that I would, you know, use the celebrities even in interviews when they speak about their accents, right? All right. So for our first example, we brought a clip from a Billie Eilish song. I don't know how to feel.

- All right, Ksenia, do you wanna explain what is happening here? - Yeah, so we have two examples of the flap T, which is happening here. So in the first line, I don't know how to feel. So this how to feel turns into how to feel, how to, how to feel.

And but I, because but is followed by I, which is vowel sound, right? It also turns into a D sound. But I, but I want to try. Nice. I think a helpful tip here as well is that many languages have this tap R sound, right? I believe in Ukrainian it exists, in Spanish and Portuguese it's like sound.

It's pretty much the same thing. So just practice saying some of these words instead of trying to think of it as a T, try to think of it as being like that R sound if you do have that in your language. Yeah, it's called like either a soft D or this da-da-da, what you just said, yeah? All right, let's check out this next clip, which is a clip from How I Met Your Mother.

- What are you talking about? - What are you talking about? - Oh, that's such a great one to repeat like over and over again, right? What are you talking about? - First of all, it's a very common question. And by the way, guys, you'll meet lots and lots of flap T in the questions that start with what, because usually it is followed by either is, what is, or are, what are, yeah? So it's very nice example to repeat. - All right, well, let's watch again and repeat. - What are you talking about? - What are you talking about? - What are you talking about?

Right. So we have another proverb, better late than never, which I think is self-explanatory. It means that, for example, if I said happy birthday the day after your birthday, I might say, you know, sorry, I'm late, but better late than never. Even though I'm a daylight, it's at least I remember. And it's a really nice one for the connection speech. So it's better late than never, better late than never. There's also something else. We're not going to talk about this pattern, but the

Late ends with a T and the next word begins with th so we actually drop that first T This happens pretty much any time you have a word that's ending in a T sound and the following word begins with either a T sound a D sound or a th sound It's just kind of a hard mechanic in our mouth. So that's probably why we usually drop it there So better late than never better late than never repeat after me

And I really like the next one. We have this proverb, out of sight, out of mind. Because again, out of is such a common combination that you just like learn it one time and use it all the time. Out of. Out of sight, out of mind. And what does that mean? Because I know. You can use this phrase when, for example, you don't see a person. Like you just had a breakup. So you just want...

to avoid that person because out of sight when you don't see it it's out of mind you don't think about this person yeah you might also have something at your home that's kind of triggering for you maybe it's something that broke your new phone and you put it in the cupboard because you don't want to keep see it and remembering that it's broken so it's out of sight out of mind so guys please repeat after me out of sight out of mind

All right, Cassandra, we have one of my favorite tongue twisters, I think because it's also really fun to do in different accents. And it's Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter is bitter. If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter, but a bit of better butter will make my batter better. Betty Botter bitter booty, but the booty bitter.

That's so nice. I remember it from school time. We, of course, would read it as Betty Butter, butter, some butter, something like that, because we had to work on this aspiration in the letter T. Yeah, it's how it's different from Ukrainian, for example. We don't have that aspiration. So we really had to make sure we...

pronounce it with aspiration Betty Botter. So it's so much easier in American. Just Betty Botter bought some butter. So it's good for every accent, right? I'll repeat it again and you guys try to shadow repeat after me. Betty Botter bought some butter but she said the butter is bitter. If I put it in my batter it will make my batter bitter but a bit of better butter will make my batter better. All right. I promised to bring back Eminem. Lose yourself. So I'm

Great line, great song. If you want to memorize this, I used to do this with all of my students as a lesson. We would learn to rap the song. So even if you don't like rap, I'm not a huge fan of rap. It's just so great for improving your pronunciation. So let's have a listen and see if you can catch all the American T's here.

So we had a few lines here. Palms are sweaty, vomit on his sweater already, and mom's spaghetti. So try again to listen and repeat. Mimic just like Eminem says it. Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, there's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti, he's nervous.

Ksenia, what is the next pattern? Okay, so this one was, I think, the...

last one that I learned myself and was struggling to follow this pattern, but that really is helpful. So it happens in the combination of the letters NT. So T will be dropped, right? So only N will be left. And you know, and probably you use it yourself when you say, I don't know, because most of the times you will say, I don't know.

I don't know. So no tea here. I don't know. Let's watch the clip. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And what's interesting, it happens both in American and English, in British English, right? Because that clip was from Bridgerton. It's, I think it's Canadian actually, right? Series. But I think the accents are British. Yeah. The accent is British. The only thing that was different is I would say, I don't know. And I noticed that he was saying, I don't know.

I don't know. So you're saying like a true O there instead of a schwa sound. I don't know. There are a couple of words that are common that you can come across that follow this pattern. So I might read a couple of them and we'll show you some clips so you could repeat after the characters. So these words are internet, international, plenty, 20, identity, center, interview, advantage, and Christmas is coming, Santa Claus.

So in this first clip, pay attention to how they say the number 20. 22, 22 years, 22, 22 years. So Ksenia, this reminded me of another proverb that we say a lot. Hindsight is 20, 20. Now we'll say this a lot of times when you're saying like, oh, you know, I wish I did this other thing or I wish things had turned out differently. I will say, you know, hindsight's 20, 20. Like, yeah.

Yeah. And when you're looking back in the past hindsight, that's what it means. It's like, you're looking to the past.

everything is 2020 meaning like you have perfect vision if you have 2020 vision so when we look back we're like oh if i'd done it this way it would have been better but when you were in that moment you didn't know so it's hindsight is 2020 and it has that really nice connected speech 22 22 years okay so we we have the next clip here and that's the word advantage listen to how they pronounce it i'm afraid he's taking advantage i'm afraid he's taking advantage

Now, listen again and repeat. I'm afraid he's taking advantage. And as I said, we're recording this podcast just weeks away from Christmas. So Christmas is coming. Let's learn how to pronounce Santa Claus. This is funny too because Brits don't even say Santa Claus with a true T because they call him Father Christmas.

Yeah, Father Christmas. So no Santa Claus exists. It's always Santa.

- For the Christmas, or Santa Claus. - Santa Claus. - All right, Ksenia, let's move on to the next pattern. - So we have only two left. So the next one is age dropping. It happens in pronouns like her, him, and them as well, right? And in the word have, this H sound at the beginning will get dropped. So let's watch the clip from "Welcome to Flash" and try to pay attention how they say, "See him and tell him."

So what happens here is H in him is dropped. So what you hear is see him, if you see him. And the same happens to tell him.

can you tell him can you tell him now listen again and repeat if you see him can you tell him i'm sorry all right let's watch a clip from captain fantastic and pay attention to the nt that we saw before in shouldn't but also what happens to shouldn't and the word have here i shouldn't have told you i shouldn't have told you and

We can also do this when it's a positive one, right? Like we have "coulda", "shoulda", "woulda". This "coulda", "shoulda", "woulda", I believe Taylor Swift has this song with the same title like "coulda", "shoulda", "woulda", right? And that's another proverb. So a lot of times if someone's really complaining about like, "Oh, I wish I had done this. I should have done this." You can say "coulda", "shoulda", "woulda", you know, it's already done. It's in the past. So just move on. So it's kind of tell someone, you know, that

They made their mistakes and to move on. So let's watch that clip again and repeat after the character. I shouldn't have told you. I shouldn't have told you. All right, Ksenia, a party classic, I Got a Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas. Let's check out a line here and pay attention to how they say her. Look at her dancing. Look at her dancing.

So we had the her drop there and we have an American T so it becomes look at her, look at her, look at her dancing. All right. So listen again and try to sing along. So, cause I know, I believe we didn't mention that this happens with him and her, and it also happens with the pronoun them, even though it begins with a th oftentimes we drop that th and we just say, um, so you have um, im, er.

So a really nice proverb here is this one, for example, love him or hate him. And you can use this with any of the pronouns, love them or hate them, love her or hate her, love it or hate it. And this is to say it's something that's polarizing. So you might say, you know, Crocs, those rubber shoes, people either love them or hate them.

Or Elon Musk. I think especially with the politics happening and everything, people are very polarized on what they think about Elon Musk. People either love him or they hate him. Very nice expression, like example. With Elon, right? That's true. And we can use it with it as well. When you're talking about one of those things that people are very divided on, like pineapple pizza, maybe. So pineapple and pizza, people love it or they hate it. Which camp do you fall into, Ksenia?

I know the whole country that hates it, right? Don't talk to Italian about pineapple pizza. I'm guilty. Like I'm not with Italians in this one. I really love pineapple on pizza. That's amazing. For me, I'm not so into the sweet things. And in Brazil, they commit all sorts of sins with a pizza. They'll put goiabada, which is like a very sweet sort of marmalade.

That's a beautiful thing. I think pizza is such a symbol of a world beyond borders, you know, pizza beyond borders that every country has its variants, puts the toppings on that they want. You can repeat after me, love them or hate them, love it or hate it, love her or hate her. So Ksenia, what is our final pattern?

Okay, so I think the last one is the most interesting one. And I have a story to share about that. So once I was teaching IT students, I would come to their office and there was a boy whose level of English was pretty high, like upper intermediate. His vocabulary was so diverse, very rich vocabulary. And I was surprised...

Because once I asked some question that started with "Did you?" "Did you notice this?" or "I don't remember the question." But seems to me that he didn't understand the question because of the connective speech here. So what happens here is when you have the combination of letters D+Y or T+Y,

a totally new sound emerges, right? Like here, did you, it becomes did you. Or when it's t plus y, it gives us the sound ch, like

Can't you? Right? And we have this first clip for you where you would be asked to listen to this d sound that emerges in the combination of the letters d and y. So please watch it. Pay attention to the sounds. Could you help me out? I'm a student here. Could you help me out? I'm a student here.

Okay, so we have it. Could you help me? Could you help me? Nice. So that's like what we saw before that we can have could have should have would have become coulda shoulda woulda. And the same way you can practice could you should you would you become could you should you would you? Smart. So let's have another watch and repeat after her. Could you help me out? I'm a student here.

Alright, our next clip comes from Ingrid Goes West and pay attention to how he says the did and you combination. Where'd you find him? Where'd you find him? That was really hard to even hear where it was supposed to be did you. Yeah, because they just reduce it. The supercalifragilisticexpialidocious example. Right, they just reduce it all together. So where did you could sound like where did you

but it sounded like where'd you find him? And there is this drop of the H that we've already covered. Yeah, where'd you find him? Why don't you listen to it again and try to now catch that reduction here. Where'd you find him? Where'd you find him?

So Kazenya, we've covered that this can happen with auxiliary verbs like did, would, should and so on right? But this can also happen with a lot of other words that might end in a D. So for example, let's check out a clip from a song by Justin Bieber and pay attention to how he says around you. So he said around you. So listen again and try to sing along with him. The next singer that we have

People often call her Jua Lipa in the UK. And this is from her last album, which was just phenomenal. Like I have very good memories that we took a trip to the south of Spain and we were listening to that album on repeat. And one of my favorite songs from it, Illusion, which by the way, Jua Lipa is a very big fan of Barcelona and she did the music video for the song here in Barcelona. So I didn't know that. She uses some really nice connected speech in a couple of lines. So let's check out one of them. What you doing?

Yeah, we're going to make the lesson with Julepa on our Learn English with TV series. Oh, yeah. So as you probably heard, she says, what you doing? And then she also says, don't know who you think that you're confusing. That's sure. So what you're doing, that you're confusing. So try to listen again and sing along with her. And if we remember some of the classic songs, right? And it was used in many movies. You might...

Remember, You Are So Beautiful, sung by Joe Coker. And he sings, You are so beautiful to me, can't you see? Listen to how he sings here. To me, can't you see? So again, the same happens here. There is a combination of T plus Y, so it gives us can't you, can't you see? To me, can't you see? Can't you see?

We used to have a very famous old clip here on the podcast as one of our transitions came from a series called Different Strokes. Let's listen to what that line is. What you talking about, Willis? What you talking about? What you talking about, Willis? What you talking about? So listen to that again and repeat. What you talking about, Willis?

And I remember from 2000s or 2010s, something like that. That was a popular again song. Those parties, they were singing, don't you wanna girlfriend? Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Yeah. And the title of the song is Don't Ya, Don't Ya. Yeah. So let's listen to it. Don't you wish your girlfriend was like me? Nice. So listen again and try to sing along with them. Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?

All right, and Ksenia, I have two more songs that also are ones that I used a lot with my students back in the days. So one, I think everyone knows this song, Bad Boys, even though they might not know the band's name, Inner Circle. So let's take a listen. I'm sure you'll remember this. Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do?

so what you're gonna do what you're gonna do you can repeat that sing this one over and over again you're gonna really get that pattern down listen again try to sing along

So the next one is Red Hot Chili Peppers and their music isn't exactly rap, but it has sort of similar elements. So they can also be really good to practice with this song. Give it away now is just packed full of all sorts of different kinds of speech. So it's another one I'd really recommend you guys try studying with. So let's listen to a line of that. What I got, you got to get it, put it in you. Yeah, it's very catchy.

Very good and fast to practice. I used to listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers and I remember I didn't understand anything, almost anything. Again, like the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. All right, guys, great job today mimicking, but we're not done yet. We're going to be doing some even more learning. But before we get into that, we have a very special shout out to our learner of the week.

So this week we got five stars from Rana Xeno and they wrote, I was stuck at the intermediate level due to boring English classes until I found your app. I'm incredibly excited to be obsessing over your videos and listening to your podcasts. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, Rana. And Xeno, it's really nice. I don't know if our learners noticed that you use some of the kinds of speech that we learned today. So you said found your as found your.

Found your app. The power of mimicking and repeating, right? Yeah.

I've repeated it several times today. So yeah, that's contagious. And we built our app exactly for this to help those of you that feel like, you know, you've been studying for years, you're still stuck at intermediate, you're not sure what else to try to help you to get past intermediate into advanced, confident, natural English. So you definitely should check it out. You can download it using the link down in the description below or searching for RealLife English in your favorite app store.

And finally, let's wrap up today's podcast, Ksenia, with the quote of the day. So this quote from James Clear popped up in my inbox last week, Ksenia, and when we were preparing for today's lesson, I was like, oh man, this just is so perfect for today's topic because many people...

feel apprehensive about actually trying to speak like a native about trying to actually employ connected speech because it makes them feel really uncomfortable it's so foreign it puts them back into feeling like a child that's like having to work their muscles of articulation so let me give it a read in many cases you'll find that the only thing preventing you from learning is your ego knowing

No one enjoys feeling foolish, but attempting something new requires that you climb down from your perch and struggle as a beginner. You must ask questions that reveal your ignorance or attempt skills that make you look uncoordinated.

Learning demands the willingness to live in a brief state of discomfort. You must believe that looking like a fool for an hour will not ruin your reputation for life. Such a nice quote and so many great words to define. Probably we should define some of them, but before we do, let me just share that this quote actually also very...

very relatable to me. Like last weekend, I took Mira to the skating rink, to roller skating rink. And I thought, why don't I try to skate as well? Although I'm like,

I don't know how to skate. But I tried it. I was curious too. And like, yeah, it was a total out of my comfort zone. I almost like fell several times and it was so, so clumsy, so uncoordinated. Of course, I felt like a fool, but I felt so much better closer to the end.

end of the evening like and I believe that's so cool when you know how to roller skate do you skate Ethan do you know how to skate I also was trying to learn because Jordi is quite good at roller skating so it's an activity we can go out and do together but I also feel like a fish out of water that's another way you could say that with some really nice connect speech out of fish out of water meaning that

You don't feel like you're doing something that you're skilled at. You're out of your comfort zone, right? It's something we can get better at, right? It's part of the adventure. So that's what exactly this quote is saying is that it's okay to feel like a fool, to feel... What does that mean if you're a fool, by the way? It means like a stupid person, right? Or a silly person, maybe just someone who doesn't look so...

poised so elegant so sure of themselves yeah actually it was like here like feeling foolish yeah so fool is like a stupid person foolish to feel like a stupid person yeah uh and it doesn't just have to do with intelligence necessarily it's just anything where we don't feel like we're good at it right but everything that we want is on the other side of our comfort zone on the other side of

being able to embrace that foolishness. So here he's really just trying to encourage us to get past our ego of needing to seem perfect and to seem like we know what we're doing to try things like roller skating or like mimicking, like trying to sound a little bit more like a native.

These things that feel really weird and uncomfortable for us, but that can help us to grow skills or to maybe just have fun, right? With our family. There is this nice expression he used, climb down from your perch. So guys, if you have a pet, a parrot is a pet, usually in their cages, you have this perch where the parrot would sit. To come climb down from your perch means like to...

Be simpler, just like come down to earth and be humble. Be unassuming that we saw earlier.

And you mentioned uncoordinated, clumsy, these mean the same things that you're not so poised, not so... Out of balance. Yeah, exactly. So guys, I hope you're enjoying and having fun and also learning a lot with our lessons. And if you want to support us, an easy way to do so if you are here on YouTube is to subscribe to our channel, hit the bell down below and by giving this video a like.

This helps YouTube understand that you found this lesson valuable and so other learners like you could discover it.

Also, if you're listening to this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any other streaming platform, please follow us there as well and leave us a five-star review. Again, it goes a long way to help other learners take their English to the next level with us. Finally, if you're not watching this lesson on the RealLife English app,

So guys,

Thanks again for joining us today. Hope you had a great time. Hope that you've put your muscle of articulation to practice, or maybe if you were listening to this outside of the home, then this is a really great lesson for you to watch different parts over and over again and practice that so that you can get better and better. And even if you don't care about sounding like a native, even if you don't want to use connected speech and you're speaking, practicing it can still help you to understand it better. So thanks again.

Be sure to really digest this lesson. And remember that no matter what divides us, maybe even weird toppings on your pizza, that which unites us is far greater. One, two, three. Aww yeah!