we are here in Piccadilly Circus Buckingham Palace Big Ben Carnegie street
Carnaby street, carnaby street actually I'm back in Bedford and I've
just been looking through some footage that me and Charlie took about a year
and a half ago in London and I found some interviews that we did with some
foreign learners of English of a range of different levels what do you think of
the English people I think they're very nice very polite and I thought it would
be really interesting to show you these interviews and analyse their use of the
language so that we can maybe identify their strengths their weaknesses and how
they can improve on these weaknesses let's go back to London baby you're
watching real teachers before we get going with the video we just want to
tell you really quickly about an online language learning platform that me and
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lesson you can even book a lesson with me on Charlie if you want because we're
on there hope you enjoy that guy's and make sure you leave a comment and tell
us how your first lesson was Simeon what do you think of online dating apps like
tinder
I don't use it but I like it Think it's not too bad and it's good for the
relationship I think for the sex friends what is a sex friend
a sex friend Oh sex friend or friends we take good moments good times for sex to
someone you have sex with fantastic these questions were rather embarrassing
so I feel for simian having to respond to these questions
he was probably quite embarrassed so the first thing that simian said that I
thought was quite interesting was related to his use of definite articles
in English now when simian said it's good for the
sex friend I think what he meant to say was in general using dating apps like
tinder it's good to find sex friends now in English when we use countable nouns
in a generalizing context the way that we indicate that general sense is by
omitting the definite article and pluralizing the now whereas in French
you would always have to use the definite article in this generalizing
context so while swimming says it's good for the sex friend or it's good for the
relationship we would say something like it's good
for finding sex friends the next thing I thought was quite interesting about
simian speaking was when I asked him what a sex friend was a very
uncomfortable question to answer he did not see that one coming but he gave it a
good try so Simmons definition of a sex friend
and he had a bloody good attempt to this he said friends with that you take good
times for sex now grammatically speaking the correct
way to say this sentence is friends with whom you have sex friends with whom you
have sex but to be honest with you this structure of sentence is quite
old-fashioned and especially in spoken day today
who English you're not going to hear native speakers saying this you're much
more likely to see us put the preposition at the end of the sentence
and we just use food so I would say friends who you have sex with friends
you have sex with what's your plans for today Jasper our plans for today is to
go to the London Eye I think and probably Madame Tussauds as well and hopefully we'll do a lot
of shopping as well and do you have any plans for this evening not particularly
but we're gonna eat out I know vbut more than that I don't know .. when he was listing the things that he might do
later that day and he said more than that I don't know so I would say other
than that I'm not sure other than that I'm not sure or you also say besides
that I'm not so sure what is your job right now I'm doing anything anything
but I'm starting to work tomorrow at Brown's hotel oh wow
and have you worked in a hotel before it's my first time first job in England
so it's gonna be a great experience I think and what type of work will you be
doing in the hotel.. waitress serving the clients serving teas and I think if you
weren't a waitress what would be your ideal job Oh actress and why I took the
course that's why I came to England to go to the Uni to take arts and
performance and maybe I get luck so you're going to
be studying at the same time as working in the hotel for now just going to work
but next year I think I'll go to uni yeah fantastic now we're on to Deborah
the lovely lovely Deborah it was one thing the thing that Deborah said that
could cause some confusion I said what do you do for work and she said I'm
doing anything now I'm doing anything that means there are no limits to the
things that Deborah would do so it basically means any work that she is
offered she is doing it so maybe she's doing cleaning waitressing you know
other jobs but what I think she wanted to say because I know that she didn't
have work at the time is that I'm not doing anything so normally we use
anything in a negative sentence or in a question like are you doing anything
tonight it means do you have any plans tonight obviously I'm not doing anything
that is the same as saying I'm doing nothing but if you say I am doing
anything that means that there is no limits to the things that you would do
for example if my future wife says to me Harry I am leaving you I don't want to
be with you and I just want her to stay and I will do anything I will say baby I
will do anything for you what can I do to make you stay the next moment where I
was slightly perplexed speaking with Deborah was when she said I took the
course we started talking about acting and she said I took the course in this
situation by using the definite article it is assuming that I know which course
Deborah was talking about for example when talking about my university degree
with Charlie I could say god the course wish wasn't it but because Deborah is
introducing new information to me we're going to need the indefinite article so
while she said I took the course I would say something like I took an acting call
or I studied acting at university and then after that because this new
information has been introduced to me Deborah could say I took an acting
course the course lasted for three years the course lasted for three years would
you ever use dating sites in the in the future maybe yes maybe but right now no
because I've got a girlfriend but maybe in the future yes but I for me it's
better to meet people in the when you are going to drink a beer or
something like that how did you meet your girlfriend what was your first date
I met her in the school and the first date it was studying the lessons in my house
now as I inquired into simians love life he told me that he makes girlfriend in
her school but in English we would probably say I met her in or at school
omitting the definite article now in French you almost always need to use a
determiner I can a school or possesses before nouns but in English
establishments like schools universities prisons colleges hospitals you can omit
the definite article if we are talking about these places and their general
purpose so in this case if it's education so I would say I met her in
school or I met her at school but on the other hand if I was talking about the
physical properties of the school I could say there were lots of tables in
the school there were lots of tables in the school or I could say when I was at
school there were always workers doing repairs in the school they were always
workers doing repairs in the school so it's not related to the primary purpose
the educational purpose of the school we're just talking about the school as a
physical entity the next one is a really really common mistake in English for
French speakers and Italians as well and Simeon said my first date with my
girlfriend was in my house so he was not aspirating and therefore not creating
the H sound in my house in my house now if I had spoken to Simeon for a bit
longer I bet he also would have created an H at the start of words beginning
with a vowel so for example Simeon might say I threw the ball in the air I threw
the ball in the hair and they might create this H sound now what you need to
remember if you are a French speaker if a word begins with a vowel sound in
English we are never going to aspirate we're never going to go head when we
make a vowel sound we want to create a voice sound which is simply vibrating
your vocal cord so you're not going to be breathing out so in English you're
much more likely to see an intrusion of a voiced consonant like a yeah yeah so
you can say the yeah I threw the ball in the air and are you looking forward to
the English food um I see a lot of healthy options here and I actually
thought that you eat some garbage food but but no offense none taken but yeah I see a
lot of healthy options everywhere a bit surprised have you tried fish and chips
no not originally not here at the moment should I try it you should try it okay
well we give it a go when I asked Jasper if he had tried fish
and chips he said to me not here at the moment not at the moment now the moment
refers to the present moment right now at the moment I'm talking to you at the
moment you're learning English but what you should have said is no I haven't not
on this trip have you tried fish and chips before no no I haven't not on this
trip should i yes you should it's bloody lovely but just but my friend you have
lovely English and I don't want to simply give you Corrections I also want
to applaud you for the good language that you are using and he said we'll
give it a go and I really like that this is a nice expression and that means that
you will try something I said you should try fish and chips and he said all right
we'll give it a go well we give it a go thank you very much for joining us today
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