hi i'm vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm and i'm dan are you ready
to improve your vocabulary a to z i am
let's do it in today's special
vocabulary lesson i'm here with my
husband dan and we're gonna be talking
about one important vocabulary word for
each letter of the alphabet A to Z 26
new words all of these words have a
theme yes you can use them to describe
your English learning journey yes
but you can also use them in other
situations so for each of these words
I'm gonna give an example that you can
use to talk about your English journey
and Dan's gonna give an example about
something else another topic something
personal yeah we don't know yet personal
but we'll see feel free to check out the
description for a time stamp for each of
these words so that you can go back and
study them later I hope that you'll be
able to really remember them by
reviewing them again and again are you
ready to get started yes let's go a
apprehension a fearful expectation of
something I feel some apprehension when
I speak English with a native English
speaker or in front of other people in a
crowd what about you when do you feel
apprehensive well I used to feel
apprehensive giving speeches but now
I've kind of gotten over that a little
bit but when I was in college I wrote on
the calendar
d-day this day is coming and it's gonna
be terrible and I was so scared I was so
apprehensive but now I've gotten over it
yeah I remember that speech you actually
did a great job so your nervousness
really didn't lead to a bad conclusion
maybe it even helped me yeah you felt
apprehensive alright let's go to the
next one be bittersweet a good feeling
with a bit of sadness when I studied
abroad in Texas it was bittersweet to
leave my host family because I had some
really great memories with them but I
was also looking forward to seeing my
family back home what about you are you
gonna feel bittersweet anytime soon
actually we will feel bittersweet
because we are leaving this house and
moving to a new house so it's bitter
because we
a lot of good memories here and that's
sad but it's sweet because we're going
to a new house it's bittersweet C
complacent comfortable with no desire to
change or improve I don't want to be
complacent about my English level I
always want to be improving hmm what
about you what do you do when you feel
complacent well I usually try something
new and this word it actually sounds
like it could be positive but really
it's a negative thing you're comfortable
and you should change when I feel
complacent I try something new like when
I was not exercising in the past I
decided to play hockey so I joined a
league and I played hockey on a team and
I got lots of exercise yeah you didn't
want to be too complacent d diligent
being committed to a task I know that I
need to be diligent if I want to
remember all of these vocabulary words I
should study them every day
hmm do you know anyone who's diligent
hmm yes I do
vanessa is very diligent every single
day she works on the fearless fluency
Club the YouTube channel
she's always learning new things in
English she is diligent but thank you II
expend to use up money or energy
sometimes I expend all my energy
worrying about making a mistake and then
I don't actually speak what about you
how do you feel at the end of the day
well lately I certainly feel expended at
the end of the day because we have a
toddler so he's running around all day
we're chasing him all day and when he
goes to sleep at night we feel expended
we're done we have to lie down we have
expended all our energy taking care of
him and we just want to relax F feasible
to be possible is it feasible to be a
fluent English speaker yes it is is it
feasible for you to be an NHL player no
it is not it is not feasible for me to
play in the NHL because I haven't
practiced enough to play professional
hockey I'm just an amateur
G
just the main idea I'd like to
understand everything in English TV
shows and movies but right now I'm
struggling to understand the gist of
what they're saying hmm it's really
tough what about for you what happened
before we film to this lesson well
Vanessa described this video to me and
she showed me a script and she started
going over everything and I said it's
okay I get the gist so I know the main
idea I get it and I can do it now yes
you're doing great thank you okay H
hiatus a gap or break in an event I
studied English in high school and after
that I took a long hiatus for 30 years
Wow what about for you what's something
that goes on hiatus um a lot of times TV
shows will go on hiatus so they'll shoot
a season there'll be season one and
you're waiting for season two but
they're on hiatus so you have to wait I
remember the show Rick and Morty there
was season 1 that's it this is not
popular with her but I like Rick and
Morty there was season 1 and then they
went on hiatus and everybody was waiting
for season 2 and it finally came out
maybe a couple months later mm-hmm
I was longer than I think it was like a
year or two oh okay that's a long hiatus
I insatiable can't be satisfied I have
an insatiable desire to learn English my
desire to learn English is insatiable
yes and meanwhile I have an insatiable
desire to eat pizza I love pizza so
bring me a pizza please Jay jaded
cynical or worn out due to past
experience I feel so jaded about English
classes I've joined so many of them and
nothing's worked for me what about you
do you feel jaded about anything yes I
often feel jaded about politics because
every single year you see somebody
running and they do they say the same
thing and you just get tired of it and
nowadays too you have social media so
you're reading people's posts and this
side's angry and that sides angry
nothing gets solved I'm very
about it mmm you're cynical because
you've got this past experience built up
so you feel jaded about politics maybe
you feel the same way too or maybe you
don't okay nak something that's easy for
you I thought I didn't have a knack for
languages but with Vanessa it's easy hmm
what about you do you have a knack for
anything some people might say I have a
knack for playing the piano I can hear a
song usually something easy maybe a
Beatles song and then I can spend a few
hours and learn it on the piano I'll
just teach myself sometimes it even
takes a couple minutes yeah if it's mary
had a little lamb okay so I have a knack
for playing the piano
l-love a short period of calm or a break
I started watching English lessons on
YouTube but then when I went on vacation
there was a lull in my English learning
what about for you is there was ever a
lull in your life oh yeah there have
been lows in my life for example every
Christmas there is a lull in my healthy
eating there is just too much good food
around and my mom she puts out chocolate
so I walked through the door and I just
grabbed a piece of chocolate when I
enter the house so I'm not eating
healthily during Christmas there's a
lull in my healthy eating em modest
humble he says that his English isn't
good but he's just being modest it's
actually pretty great mmm yeah we
actually knew a guy who was the opposite
of modest he would say things like when
I was at the gym the other day
I looked at my muscles and I saw the
sweat on my arm and my arms looked
really great
mmm that's not modest yeah he wasn't
very modest but it was funny and nuanced
a subtle difference in meaning sometimes
phrasal verbs have slight nuances that
are important to know for example find
out or figure out if you want to learn
more about these two phrasal verbs you
can check out my video about it up here
what about for you was there ever a time
when you needed to learn some nuances
yes when you travel to a different
country you'll probably find some
cultural nuances so something in their
culture is just a little bit different
in
you don't notice it right away so when
we lived in South Korea there were a lot
of cultural nuances they wouldn't speak
as directly to you it would be a little
more subtle they would say things
indirectly
and you had to figure out exactly what
it meant yeah so it was important for us
to be sensitive and aware to be of these
cultural nuances so that we could get
along with other people and understand
each other Oh
obsolete no longer used rare
Vanessa teaches me real conversational
English things that are not obsolete
things that are really used in real life
what's the thing that's obsolete in your
life well I used to have an iPod and I
would listen to that thing every single
day but now it's obsolete Apple doesn't
even make an iPod anymore
they make iPhones so just a dedicated
music player is obsolete sure I want to
let you know that I got this idea to go
through the alphabet with English
vocabulary from Jacob from English TV
live.com he has a podcast and on
different episodes he's talking about
five vocabulary words for each letter of
the alphabet so it's much more intensive
than what we're doing today five words
and he interviewed me for the letter O
we talked about obsolete oblivious
ominous omit opportunistic these five
words so if you'd like to check out
jacob's podcast and especially the
episode that we made together about the
letter o' check out the link in the
description so that you can learn more
English P pragmatic practical useful I
try to be pragmatic about what I study
in English is it useful is it important
what about you are you generally a
pragmatic spender when it comes to money
yeah when it comes to money
I think I'm generally pragmatic but I am
less pragmatic than Vanessa she only
buys things she needs but I'll look
around and I'll get the nicer things in
life I'll spend a little bit more money
but not too much sure I think you
appreciate beauty in a way that maybe I
don't always appreciate so sure I am
very pragmatic and you're generally
pretty pragmatic when I'm sitting
pregnant
yeah q-quit to satisfy a thirst or
desire my desire to learn English is
unquenchable I will never be complacent
yes and we typically use this word for
your thirst right on a hot summer day a
cold beer will really quench your thirst
our rash acting without much thought
when my boss told me that I needed to
give a presentation in English I
immediately quit my job okay I admit
that was a little rash just a little
rash yeah some people said that we made
a rash decision when we got married at
22 years old which is a little bit young
in this country maybe a little bit yeah
some people thought it was rash but we
knew we were right for each other and we
had been dating five years so we knew it
wasn't rash yes sure complete only it
was sheer luck that I found Vanessa's
YouTube channel because it has helped my
life so much I hope that's true for you
hey it was also sheer luck for me to
meet Vanessa because I lived 8 hours
away from Vanessa but we went to the
same college and on the first day we
just happened to sit next to each other
it was sheer luck yes and if you'd like
to know about how to use the word happen
to that Dan just use you can click on
this card up here and learn more about
it t tentative without confidence
hesitant I feel tempted to when I need
to speak English but Vanessa's lessons
have helped me so much what about you do
you know anyone who is tentative in life
I don't know about anyone but I know a
cat who is very tentative we have a cat
her name is Luna and she is small and
she is very tentative so if you walk up
to her you know you could have pet her
five times that day
every time she'll be like look who's
touching me that is very tentative yes
you urge to encourage or persuade I urge
you to use English every day it will
help you so much yes when I was young my
parents urged me to go to bed or
early but I didn't really go to bed
early I watched some TV or I was really
into Legos I built more Legos so my
parents urging didn't work that well the
vital urgently necessary it's vital to
learn English with material that you
enjoy if you learn with something that's
boring you're probably going to quit and
then you're not gonna reach your goal so
it's vital to find something that you
enjoy like this lesson yes and I've
learned over the years that it's vital
to get at least seven hours of sleep so
it turns out my parents were right in
urging me to sleep because you need
sleep it's vital
w-wayne to lessen or decrease if your
interest in English starts to wane it's
time to find some new material to
rekindle your interest so that you don't
become complacent yes and sometimes if
you have a boring class your attention
may start to wane I used to have a very
boring history teacher in high school
and I just couldn't pay attention my
attention was waning as the hour went by
ex extrovert someone who's outgoing I'm
not an extrovert so I need a lot of
courage to talk with other people what
about you are you an extrovert yeah I
think some people think I'm an extrovert
and I think that's generally true but I
actually value my alone time a lot
sometimes Vanessa will say hey come to
this party and I'll be like oh no I
don't really want to you need some alone
time if you want to learn more words to
describe people you can check out this
video I made up here it's a personality
test so you can see which answer fits
you and learn some wonderful descriptive
words like extrovert to describe the
people in your life why yep to talk
noisily I saw them yapping away in
English and I wanted to do the same but
I didn't have the courage to speak up
yes and somebody in your family might be
a big yeah / but usually I think of this
with a dog right the dog is yapping
outside stop that yapping hmm this could
be a negative
if you say that to someone stop yapping
no I think it's negative yeah but if you
say that with kind of a joking tone oh
they're just yapping away then it could
just be a little bit more of a joke z
zealous excited fanatic never doubt that
I'm zealous about English do you know
anyone who is Ellis yeah I know a few
people who are a little over zealous
about politics so you're just going over
to their house and you just want to have
a nice chat but then they turn the
conversation to politics and now if they
have to talk about it and they want you
to change your mind and you're just like
dude I want to have a beer with you so
maybe they're a little bit pushy you can
be overly zealous or you can just be
zealous thanks so much for joining me
Dan for this vocabulary video you're
welcome it was fun I'm glad that it was
fun I hope it was fun for you all to and
now I have a question for you I want to
know which one of these words was new
for you and if your friend asked you
what can I do to improve my English
what would you urge them to do yes do
you have an insatiable desire to learn
English yes if you were complacent
before I hope you are zealous about
English now yes thanks so much for
letting English with us and we'll see
you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my youtube channel bye are you
ready to get started
hey it's for apprehension just make sure
you don't get hypertension who's Dan
don't be silly
a fearful expectation of something
and that was a giant truck driving by
I'm apprehensive about this truck
tickets bittersweet a good feeling with
a bit of sadness making faces because
they won't see it anyways I am NOT
diligent what do you think Amanda
where's the pineapple shirt is the nuns
diligent man you've ever seen diligently
wearing pineapple shirts every day I
have expended my resources that's my
example I am crashing I'd like to
understand today the next step is to
download my free ebook five steps to
becoming a confident English speaker
you'll learn what you need to do to
speak confidently and fluently don't
forget to subscribe to my youtube
channel for more free lessons thanks so
much
bye