Vanessa: I'm going to tell you an embarrassing story,
but we are going to use this embarrassing story to help improve your English skills. One of the
best ways to improve your English skills is to shadow, which means repeat after someone else when
they're speaking. So today you are going to repeat after me as I tell you this embarrassing story
that happened to me and your English skills are going to level up. Let's do it together. Hi, I'm
Vanessa from Speak English With vanessa.com, and like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet
for today's fun repeat with me English lesson. You will learn all of the important vocabulary,
pronunciation points, and it includes the entire story that you're going to hear today so that you
can go back and review it. At the bottom of the free worksheet is Vanessa's challenge question,
so that you never forget what you've learned and you don't embarrass yourself too. You can
click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today.
All right, let's get started with how this lesson is going to work.
You're about to hear the story of my smelly embarrassment, something that happened on the
first week that I was living in Paris with a French family. As I tell you this story,
I'm going to be explaining the expressions and the pronunciation that I use so that you
can repeat after me. We'll practice repeating and shadowing throughout this story. I want to
challenge you to be an active participant in this lesson. If you just listen to me speak,
watch me speak, it's okay, but I want you to be active. I want you to really repeat after
me out loud. There's something powerful that happens when you hear your own voice using
English. When you hear someone else's voice, it's kind of separate from you.
It's distant, but when you use the language yourself, you start to grow that confidence,
overcome the fear of speaking, and really feel like you can use English in your life. So that's
what the goal is for today's lesson. Let's get started with my smelly embarrassment story. I'll
explain some vocabulary and pronunciation and you will speak out loud repeating with me. Let's
do it. I know exactly what it's like to feel embarrassed when you forget the words you want
to say or you don't understand important instructions. When you feel embarrassed,
you feel shy or ashamed. Let's practice this word embarrassed. Embarrassed. Embarrassed.
I felt embarrassed. Okay. What we're going to do is you're going to watch me say that
sentence one more time. You'll listen to my voice and then we will pause and I want
you to say it out loud. I want you to repeat the exact same words that I said. Say it out
loud using your voice. Let's do it. I know exactly what it's like to feel embarrassed
when you forget the words you want to say or you don't understand important instructions.
Great work. Let's go on to the next sentence of the story. As a French learner, I felt frustrated
that I couldn't understand my French host family. Let's talk about that word frustrated. It means
you feel annoyed, sometimes angry, because you can't do something or something's out of your
control. Let's talk about the pronunciation. The word is frustrated. The emphasis is on
the beginning of this word. It should be, I felt frustrated, not I felt frustrated. It should be,
I felt frustrated. Can you say that sentence with me? I felt frustrated. Okay,
we're going to go back. You'll watch the original sentence one more time and then
we'll pause so that you can repeat after me and say it out loud. Let's go. As a French learner,
I felt frustrated that I couldn't understand my French host family.
I almost ruined my host family's clothes because I couldn't understand them. Let's
talk about the word ruined. Ruined means to destroy something completely,
and the pronunciation of this word is ruined. I ruined it. Can you say it with me? I ruined
it. All right. Let's go back to that sentence. You'll listen to it and then
repeat it. I almost ruined my host family's clothes because I couldn't understand them.
When my host mom asked me to hang up the wet laundry, I misunderstood. I thought she
wanted me to turn off the washing machine. Let's talk about those two phrasal verbs. In English,
they're very different, but in French, these are the words and they sound almost exactly the same
to a non-French speaker. In English, we use the verb to hang up to talk about hanging up clothes.
I hang up the clothes. Can you say this? I hang up the clothes. The other phrasal verb to turn
off is used when we're closing down something, I turn off the machine. Can you say it with me? I
turn off the machine. All right, let's go back and listen to that full section again and then
you'll repeat it with me. Let's watch. When my host mom asked me to hang up the wet laundry,
I misunderstood. I thought she wanted me to turn off the washing machine.
Great work. Let's go on to the next section. I made that mistake for three days in a row. I
turned off the machine instead of hanging up the laundry. After three days, my host mom asked me,
Vanessa, our clothes are still wet and starting to smell bad. Why didn't you hang up the laundry?
Let's take a look at that simple verb to ask. In the past tense, it can be tricky to pronounce. I
said, my host mom asked me, what is happening here? The K really gets just forgotten. In
this word in fast American English, you're going to hear American English speakers say,
my host mom asked me. Asked me. You might hear when they're speaking slowly people say,
asked me. Asked me. Asked me with a K, but it's really a lot trickier to say it like that,
so I invite you to say it in the simple way. Say this with me. My host mom asked
me. My host mom asked me, why didn't you hang up the laundry? I just turned it off.
All right, let's go back and repeat that sentence and then you will say it out
loud as well and we'll move on to find out what happened to that wet laundry. After three days,
my host mom asked me, Vanessa, our clothes are still wet and starting to smell bad. Why didn't
you hang up the laundry? I told her that I had followed her instructions exactly. Then
she told me the difference between to hang up and to turn off in French. We laughed about it
for a long time. Let's take a look at this nice word. Instructions. There's a lot going on here,
so let's break down the pronunciation. Instructions. Instructions. Instructions.
Instructions. Say the sentence with me. I followed the instructions. I followed the instructions.
All right, let's go back and watch that original sentence and then you're going to
repeat it with me out loud. Use your voice. I am listening. No matter where you are in the world,
my magical teacher ears can hear you, so you better be speaking out loud. Let's
do it. I told her that I had followed her instructions exactly. Then she told me the
difference between to hang up and to turn off in French. We laughed about it for a long time.
I wish that someone had helped me to figure out how people really speak in their daily lives so
that I could speak naturally too. Let's take a look at this lovely word, naturally. Interesting,
there is a C, but listen to how it sounds. Naturally. It sounds like a CH. Let's break
down this word. Naturally. Naturally. Naturally. Let's say this sentence together. I want to
speak naturally. I want to speak naturally. This means you don't want to speak just like
a textbook or kind of robotic. You want to speak like yourself. You want to feel like
yourself when you're speaking in English, even though it's not your native language,
you want it to feel natural and for your speech to just be naturally coming from your mouth. I
want to speak naturally. All right, let's go back and listen to that sentence and
I want you to repeat out loud with me. I wish that someone had helped me to figure
out how people really speak in their daily lives so that I could speak naturally too.
Great work repeating after me. In conclusion, it took many hours of practicing on a daily
basis and some smelly, moldy laundry to be able to finally speak in my second language,
French, smoothly, confidently, naturally, and that is what I want for you. I want
you to be able to go out into the world and create relationships and connections
with people in English. So I want to hear from you. Let me know in the comments your
embarrassing stories. Let's read each other's comments and support each other
because the best thing you can do when you feel embarrassed is just to laugh about it.
And don't forget to download today's free PDF worksheet with all of these expressions,
pronunciation tips, and the full story so that you can practice reading this out loud and repeating
it out loud so that your voice gets used to using English and you can level up your speaking skills.
That's the goal. You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet
today. Well, thank you so much for learning English with me and I'll see you again next
Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. But wait, do you want more? I
recommend watching this video next where you will learn to think and speak in English about your
vacation and your vacation plans, even if your vacation didn't go too well. I'll see you there.