Today you're going to learn about some secret websites that will help you become fluent
for free.
You're so lucky because there are countless resources available online, a lot of them
for free, to help you become fluent.
But if you don't know about these amazing resources, they won't help you.
So let's fix that.
Welcome back to JForrest English.
Of course.
I'm Jennifer.
Now let's get started.
Now, all of these websites that I'm going to share are ones that I've personally use
myself and I recommend to my students because I know they get amazing results.
And the first website is called Meetup Meetup com.
This is the website that you need to find native speakers because so many students want
to know how they can find native English speakers.
Well, we're everywhere.
We're everywhere in the world and is really easy to find us if you have the right resource
like meet up.
So here we are on the website meet up now.
You should know in English the phrasal verb to meet up is when you meet people socially.
So that's where the name of the website comes from.
Because the purpose of this website is to find other people who share your common interest
or activity.
Now you need to enter your specific neighbourhood and this website might not exist in your country.
So sorry if it doesn't, but don't worry, the other resources likely will.
So for the neighbourhood, I'm just going to pick a random example.
I use a specific area of Chicago because Chicago is a very big city.
So put in the specific area, most likely your zip code or postal code, and then it will
show you all the events.
Now the events will be totally random.
Here's a single mixer meet up.
So if you're single and you want to meet other single people, this is the meet up for you
if you live in Chicago.
But there'll be things like data monetization, mystery, thriller, virtual book club that
could be an interesting one.
Book clubs are great if you want to read books with other native speakers.
But of course you're here for learning English.
So what you can do is you can use the search filter and then you can search your specific
interest.
So for the interest I put English language and then you can see all of these language
exchanges.
Now notice there are two language exchange.
So people want who want to exchange Spanish for English or French for English.
Now this is just one option to find a specific language exchange and then you can click into
this and then find out when they meet where they meet.
But remember my example of a book club?
You can just find something you're interested in.
If you're interested in books, well then join a book club and you'll interact with other
native English speakers and talk about your specific interest, which is books.
So you can search for books, you can search for gardening, you can search for rafting
or karate or biking or whatever your specific interest is, and then you'll find other people
who want to do that as well.
And you'll be doing it in English.
So Meet Up is a great resource.
Our next website is Reddit.
You probably know this website, right?
But did you know that there is a subreddit for language exchanges?
So Reddit Language Exchanges is our next website and like meet up, this website will also help
you find native speakers.
Again, we're everywhere, you just need the resources to connect with us.
Here I am on Reddit now.
Reddit is a general website where people discuss things based on serpent certain topics.
So you have to search Reddit to find the topic that you're interested in.
So the one that you might be interested in is language exchange.
So you can see here I'm in the sub Reddit for language exchange.
And then if you look here you'll notice that people, real people are posting that they
want a language exchange.
So this person here is an English speaker and they want to learn Russian.
So if you speak Russian, well then you can partner with this person and then you can
just reply back to this post.
You'll have to create an account, but it's free.
And then you can just reply back.
Now this is an ad, just ignore it.
And then this person is offering Mandarin, seeking English.
Well you're seeking English, you want English?
OK, that's what seek means.
So you can create your own post and say offering and then your native language and then seeking
English.
Now notice this person said fluent or native.
So they're saying, I will do an exchange with a native speaker or a non-native speaker as
long as they're fluent.
So you have that option as well.
So I encourage you to look through here.
Now, don't just reply to people's posts.
I want you to create your own post as well.
And then people are going to reply to you and say, oh, let's exchange, and then you
can set a date and time and start your language exchange.
You'll practice your English with native speakers or fluent speakers.
You'll make new friends.
You'll have a lot of fun in the process.
So you can use Reddit absolutely free.
Our next website is Youglish Youglish, which is a combination of YouTube and English into
Youglish.
This is an amazing resource to help you improve your listening skills and pronunciation and
vocabulary and grammar at the same time.
Here we are on Youglish.
I love sharing this source with my students.
Now you can search for a specific word, let's say a word that is difficult for you to pronounce.
So let's take the word hypothesis, because this is one I recently taught to my students.
So you simply enter your word and then you look below and look, There are 2886 clips,
so portions of a YouTube video where that speaker uses the word hypothesis.
Now it has the transcript as well.
So I put this on mute so you won't hear it.
But let's go to the next clip so we can go see the next clip here.
So our next one, here's our word hypothesis.
So you'll hear this person.
Now you can try another one and you'll hear this person.
So of course these people have completely different accents styles of speech, so it's
excellent for improving your listening skills and hearing many different styles of speech.
And you can choose your accent preferences at the top.
I just put all but let's say you live in Australia, so you really want to get comfortable with
the Australian accent.
Well then you can specify Australia for the accent.
Now you can also enter an entire phrase so you can hear how all the sounds are combined
together.
So there are 346 different people saying the expression hit the nail on the head, which
is also one I recently taught.
So you learned it from me.
But that was my pronunciation.
So now you can hear 346 other speakers pronounce this, get comfortable with different accents,
different styles of speech and improve your listening skills.
You will love using Youglish.
Our next website is called Busy Teacher.
This is a website that I personally use when I used to teach in classrooms many many years
ago and I was very busy.
But just because the website is for teachers, it doesn't mean that you as a student can't
use it.
So let's talk about Busy Teacher here.
I I am on Busy Teacher, so these are prepared lessons that teachers like me can use with
our students.
But you can download and use these lessons to teach yourself these concepts.
So here's a lesson on prepositional phrases.
So you can come in here, but you can just look at the top ones.
Or you can search for something specific.
Maybe you want to find a Lesson plan on articles.
So here you'll see the different lesson plans.
But what I love most about this is that with all the lesson plans, there are different
exercises for you to do.
So it doesn't just teach you the rules for articles, it gives you the practice.
Because practice is so incredibly important now.
This is an exact lesson that I've used with my students.
It's a game who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but it's specific on articles.
So you play this really fun game, but all the questions test you on articles.
And it's just a PowerPoint presentation.
You can download it absolutely for free.
So here's a quick view of what it looks like.
So there are four options and you have to decide which one should begin with the and
then as you answer each question, you get to go higher and higher.
So the purpose is to get to $1 million.
Every student I've played this game with has absolutely loved it.
But the point is you're practicing articles and learning at the same time, so you will
absolutely love using Busy Teacher.
Our next website is BBC Learning English.
This one you might know because I find a lot of students use BBC as a news source.
But did you know there is a section of BBC specific for helping you learn English?
Well, let's review that.
Here we are on BBC Learning English now.
As you can see at the top.
I know it's probably quite small for you.
I'll make it bigger.
As you can see at the top they have complete courses, they have grammar lessons, Easy,
medium, hard.
They have pronounced vocabulary.
You can even learn English with the news, which is something that I do with my students
as well.
Obviously BBC is a news website so it makes sense they use their own articles and I use
a lot of BBC articles to help my students as well.
And they even have more categories, Business, English for example.
You can test your level.
There is so much you can do on BBC Learning English.
So absolutely explore this website.
All the the lessons are very high quality and finally Open text library.
This is great for more academic or professional purposes because this is a resource that shares
textbooks and and books and manuals all for free, but the authors have given permission
to share these resources, so it's a completely safe site to use.
Here we are on Open Textbook Library, so remember this one is more academic, is more professional.
But if there's a specific area, a field that you're really interested in, let's say marketing,
you can find textbooks, guides, user manuals on that specific topic.
So here's one on E Marketing, The essential guide to Online Marketing SO or Introducing
Marketing Legal aspects, Principles of Marketing So if you want to expand your vocabulary on
the topic of marketing and you want to make sure that the information you're learning
is accurate, correct, professional, this is a great resource and everything is completely
free.
It's open, which means the authors have given permission for you to download this.
So you can download it as a PDF or you can even have it as an e-book.
You can read it online.
So remember this is a full textbook.
Most likely you're not going to read the textbook from start to finish.
But again, if you want to expand your vocabulary, improve your reading skills, and you're focused
on more of a technical or professional interest, then this is the place for you.
So you can search any area that you're interested in, or you can just browse the subjects.
They have different categories to see what they might have.
Let's say you're studying to be an accountant.
Well then hear principals.
A managerial accounting.
If that is in your field, well then you can have the entire textbook or you can look at
certain sections as well.
So it's a great technical or professional resource.
So I don't want to receive any more messages saying that you can't find native speakers
or you don't know how to improve your English because I've given you all the resources.
So please use them.
I know they'll help.
Now, do you want me to share more resources with you?
If you do, then put in the comments, that'd be great.
Put, that'd be great because that's a very natural way that a native speaker would reply,
that'd be great.
Jennifer, put that in the comments and of course, make sure you like this video.
Share it with your friends and subscribe so you're notified every time I post a new lesson.
And you can get this free speaking guide where I share 6 tips on how to speak English fluently
and confidently.
You can click here to download it or look for the link in the description.
And you can keep improving your English with this lesson right now.