Hi.
Yes.
Is this the chair?
Yes.
Yes, that's the chair.
Should I just -- just sit here?
Is this okay?
Sure, that's fine.
And then I just look straight, right?
Correct.
Okay.
Alright, what -- what questions do you have?
So, what is the best way to look up a new word if you come across a new word and you
don't know its meaning?
Let me ask you this question.
What would you do, if you came across a word that you didn't know?
I would use..
Google Translate?
No, no, no, no, no.
No Google Translate.
Don't get me wrong.
Google Translate can be really helpful in certain cases.
But... no..
Google Translate has two major problems.
Number one, it doesn't provide you with any context and context is crucial because a lot
of times words have multiple meanings and through Google Translate you have no way of
knowing if the meaning that they're giving you is actually the meaning you're looking
for.
And number two, Google Translate is a bilingual dictionary.
Right?
Right.
So a bilingual dictionary is still going to give you the word in your first language and
right now since you're trying to learn English, you should only be speaking and thinking in
English.
That's the only language that should be in your brain right now.
All the other languages, including your first language, should be banned.
Okay... but then how you do you look up a new word?
Yeah, so, uhm...
So what do you do?
Good question.
Well, I always tell my students 'If the word that you came across represents something
that you can touch or something that you can see, then just to Google Images, type in the
word, click Enter and you will find tons and tons of pictures that represent that word.'
And at that point, you don't have to make any connections, you don't need any other
words in English to define it.
You don't need to know what the translation is in your language, that's just what it is.
That thing that you're looking at right now is that word that you were reading before.
And what if it's not a concrete word?
What if it's a more abstract word?
Yeah, so.
A lot of times, you know, the word that you've come across is not something that you can
touch or something that you can see.
So what do you do in that case?
Well, Google Images does not do a good job in this case, cause obviously if we uh...
I don't know, let's just pick a word.
Uh...
Like, if we want to look up, I don't know...
Like..
S- Soothing!
Okay?
You see, it doesn't really give you any information as to what the meaning of the word is.
You get a little bit of everything.
You get feet, you get flowers, you get fish.
So...
That's not a great way.
What I suggest in this case is the online dictionary Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English.
And this is great.
Because it's perfect for English learners because it provides you with very simple,
very clear definitions.
Even the words that they use are very simple.
You will understand most likely all of them.
And... again, not only does it give you the definition, but it provides you with, like,
how often you can find that word, it gives you the British pronunciation, the American
pronunciation and again, most importantly, it gives you context.
What do I do if I cannot find the pronunciation I'm looking for?
So, in this case, this is when you should use the...
Sorry, I need to - Hello?
I c- I can't right now.
I'm i-.
No, I'm in the middle of an interview.
No, it's in the fridge.
No, next to the oranges.
Okay.
Alright.
Bye.
Sorry.
Can we- Can we cut this, right?
So yeah, if you need to look up the pronunciation of a word, then, www.forvo.com is a great
website.
You just type in the word that you want to know the pronunciation of and you make sure
that the language is correct.
So it's, in this case, it's English.
And, you just click 'play' and listen to how it is pronounced.
And a lot of times you'll have multiple pronunciations so you can choose whether you want to hear
how a Canadian person says it or how a British person says it and so forth.
So yeah, these are definitely my top, like, three websites/tools that you need to use
when you're learning new words in English.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, no problem.
Is that- Is that it?
Yes!
We done?
Good.
Okay.
Yeah.
Alright.
That's a wrap.