Hey guys what's up Stefanie the English coach here from Englishfulltime.com
and in this video we are going to talk about why idioms aren't nearly as
important as you think they are okay so first I just want to say that one of the
most frequently asked questions that people ask me is Stefanie how can I
learn more idioms how can I improve my vocabulary by learning more idioms or
I'm struggling to remember all the different idioms that there are in
English it's so hard and I'm over here kind of like why are you guys freaking
out about idioms and so I decided you know I just need to make a video for
once and for all to kind of just put this whole thing to rest so you guys no
longer have to stress out about idioms okay but first I just want to say that
several years ago when I was teaching English online I had this one student
who I think was obsessed with learning idioms and every day she would come to
class with literally like 20 new idioms in her vocabulary and so when she would
speak it just sounded so unnatural she would just be like today I feel like a
sack of potatoes because I woke up at the crack of dawn but that's because the
apple doesn't fall far from the tree and I would just be like holy cow what what
are you saying why don't you just use normal words to say what you're trying
to say and I think that the reason why people are so obsessed with this idea of
using idioms is because they know that native speakers use idioms and they want
to sound like a native speaker but I already made a video on how to sound
like a native speaker and that was not one of the tips that I gave okay so
first of all stop focusing so much on idioms because there's about like a
hundred or you know maybe two hundred I don't know that are very common those
are the idioms that you want to know the rest of the idioms are regional okay
regional idioms that they use in specific places specific areas and
unless you're in those areas you honestly don't need to use to use those
idioms there are idioms that they use in Australia and an Ireland
in the UK that I don't even know exist and I don't care about those idioms I
feel like you know the space and my brain is precious and I do not want to
occupy unnecessary or space I do not want to occupy space with unnecessary
information that really really doesn't matter so learn the most common idioms
and then stop worrying about it okay and then if you go travel to a place pick up
some idioms while you're there sure okay but be careful when you use idioms
because if you're using an idiom that's extremely regional and specific to a
certain location you know the people you're speaking to
might not understand what you're saying and the goal of speaking English should
be to have clear communication okay so just a quick example though or another
quick example of why idioms aren't as important as you think they are um one
of my good friends I don't know where she learned her vocabulary because we're
from the same town but or the same you know region but she uses all kinds of
idioms that either I have never heard before or I just don't use and I
sometimes when she talks I'm just kind of like I laugh in my head because I'm
like I can't believe she said that it's not bad that's just how she talks that's
natural to her but I'm not gonna start using all the idioms she uses just
because she uses them okay so just because you hear a native speaker use a
certain idiom doesn't mean that you have to use that idiom okay you want to make
sure that people understand you when you speak so don't go stringing a whole
bunch of idioms together in one sentence nobody will understand you you won't
sound like a native speaker and you'll just sound ridiculous okay and let me
think if there's anything else I can tell you guys about idioms okay one last
thing just don't whatever you do just don't waste your time studying these
things okay there are there's a lot more important stuff you could be studying
and I have seen students write long lists of vocabulary long lists of idioms
and I'm just like who is teaching these antiquated methods of learning like stop
stop with the list stop with all of that okay pick up things as you
pick up words pick up phrases pick up vocabulary pick up idioms as you learn
them so if you see an idiom in a TV show and you don't know what it means go look
it up in the dictionary if you really like it then incorporate it into your
vocabulary or and practice it but what I tend to do when I learn Spanish or when
I learn the new phrase in Spanish is I don't incorporate it right away into my
vocabulary I wait till I've heard something about 20 times in context
sometimes I wait till I've heard something a hundred times in context
before I actually start using it because then you learn how to use it as native
speakers use it okay because if not you just might throw in idioms where they
don't belong and that it's not gonna make you sound more like a native
speaker it's actually gonna make you sound like you don't know what you're
talking about okay so I hope you guys find this video
helpful feel free to let me know in the comments what you think about this idea
I hope you guys don't waste all your time you know studying idioms when
there's a lot of other important things you could be studying in English okay
take care and we'll talk soon bye hey guys thanks so much for watching
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you guys in another video bye