hi welcome to Ingrid I'm Adam in today's
video I want to talk to you about how to
improve your listening now there's a few
things I'm going to talk about and again
this is all from my own personal
experience having taught for nearly 20
years and I've taught people from all
over the world and there's one aspect of
listening to English that I think is
very troublesome for a lot of people and
it doesn't really even have to do much
with English it's off not with the
language okay it has to do with culture
now a lot of people who are studying
English are using textbooks they're only
studying from textbooks to improve their
listening and improve their vocabulary
their grammar etc the problem with
textbooks is that they are very limited
in terms of the exposure you're getting
to the language now exposure means what
you're basically coming in contact with
what are you seeing what you're hearing
what you're reading so if you're only
looking at textbooks you're getting very
simple English even if you're doing
high-level like advanced level textbooks
they're still very focused on very
specific contexts that they want you to
study and another thing they're not
doing is they're not putting a lot of
informal language into these books okay
so now that's why we're gonna look at
culture now the thing to remember about
language and again this is not only
English this is this is any language
that you might want to study language is
a living thing it evolves okay language
evolves means it changes over time but
it has a memory okay and this is the
problem because you have to keep up with
the new language plus you have to
understand the references to the old
language or to the old points of
reference okay and that's what we're
talking about here lack of reference so
you might be watching a movie or even a
TV show or you're speaking to some
people and local people in the place
where you're speaking English and they
might say something
may say a joke for example or they may
talk about a situation like politics or
anything like that and they're making a
reference to something now you heard it
correctly you heard the words but you
have no idea what they're talking about
okay and the problem here again it's not
the language it's the fact that the
thing that they refer to you just don't
know what that what they're talking
about okay so for example sports
literature movies these are major points
of reference for a lot of people okay
and think about again where you're going
to be studying where you're going to be
speaking English so if you're planning
to go to the US and you're studying
American English but then you come to
the states and you have no idea what
anybody's talking about half the time
again some of it is just the language
but a lot of it is the cultural
references so let's talk about sports as
an example Americans love sports and
sports is such a big part of everyday
life in the u.s. that a lot of the
language from sports makes its way into
everyday speech okay so if somebody says
okay well the ball is in your court
they're talking about a situation I've
done everything I can like my friend and
my friend and his girlfriend had a fight
and he apologized and he bought her some
flowers and he did everything he could
now the ball is in her court
and you're thinking they're like ball
like what does a ball have to do with
anything what does court have to do with
a girlfriend-boyfriend fight what this
means the ball is in your court so and
think about basketball you have a
basketball court when the ball is in my
court when I have the possession of the
ball it means I'm in control of the ball
so I control the play I decide to go
this way this way
up the middle up the sides slow fast I
control the tempo I control the
direction so to say the balls in your
court means that you have the control
the decision on how to proceed is now
yours so if his girlfriend if the balls
in his girlfriend's court he did
everything he can now she must decide
and continue the process
okay that's from basketball
so there was a business meeting okay and
we sent one of our company's
representatives to the clients office to
try to convince them not to leave not to
go to the competitor and the guy came
back and I say so how did he how did his
meeting go totally drop the ball and
you're listening and you're going ball
again what's with this ball everybody's
holding a ball like it was a juggling
and they're playing basketball here too
no here they're using football analogy
American football so the player catches
the ball and he's running down the field
and he gets tackled if he drops the ball
now they also call it fumble you could
say all he totally fumbled it or he
thought he dropped the ball same meaning
if the ball drops the other team can
pick it up and run the opposite
direction and score and you're gonna
lose the game so if somebody dropped the
ball means he did a very bad job he made
a big mistake and there's gonna be
negative consequences but if you know
nothing about football and you don't
know any of the language of football and
Americans love football and they're
gonna use the football language all the
time in fact I'm gonna make a video
about sports expressions in everyday
conversation to help you guys Act but
for now an example sports if you're
going to the States
learn about football learn about
baseball learn about basketball because
these words are going to be used in
everyday conversation in literature
catch-22 is a famous novel by Joseph
Heller and catch-22 is a everyday
expression means either way you look at
a situation it's a bad outcome for
example in the common the most common
example of a catch-22 when you graduate
high university you want to find a job
most companies want you to have a job
experience but if you if you need job
experience to get a job then you can't
get the job to get the experience right
so it's a catch-22 either way you can't
do anything and this came from the novel
but it doesn't mean that everybody has
read this novel but everybody knows this
expression made famous by this novel
or our rose by any other name now this
is an align from Shakespeare and a lot
of Shakespeare's language is used in
everyday conversation most people don't
realize it's from Shakespeare but they
know the expression a rose by any other
name is still a rose so you can look at
something you can call it something else
you don't change the fact of what the
situation is so if you can look at let's
say politics you look at a particular
situation the president did this but he
called it something else that sounds
good he did something bad he called it
like a philanthropy it's still something
bad you can change the name you can't
change the fact but and another thing to
keep in mind remember i said i rose by
any other name is still a rose people
who are familiar with these expressions
they're gonna use half the expression
they're not going to use the full
expression because saying half is enough
everybody understands the ending they
don't need to say it okay so you need to
read a lot of stuff movies and the both
of these to come from the same movie
actually a very famous movie I don't
think we're in Kansas anymore
I forgot the anymore I don't think we're
in Kansas anymore means we're in a very
strange situation we don't know what to
do because everything is not like the
way it's supposed to be or well he saw
what's behind the curtain and he lost
all hope or faith or whatever both of
these expressions come from the movie
The Wizard of Oz Dorothy says to her dog
Toto when they wake up after the tornado
they're looking around he got like a
yellow brick road you got little
munchkins running around and a witch at
a Good Witch a bad witch and everything
Oh what's going on I'm a little confused
I don't think Toto I don't think we're
in Kansas anymore means we're in a
strange situation we have to adjust to
see what's behind the curtain
so Oz was this great and powerful wizard
but then Toto went and pulled back a
curtain and they could see a little old
man using some machines so when you see
what's behind the curtain you see that
there's no real secret to
there's no great power to something it's
a very simple thing made to look like
something else but again if you've never
heard of the movie The Wizard of Oz and
somebody uses this expression you know
you're gonna understand you heard
I don't think okay I don't think I know
this we are in Kansas we are okay I
think Kansas is a state in the u.s.
we're not in Kansas no we're in New York
what does Kansas have to do with it so
you don't know because that's not what
it actually means it means something
else okay show me the money from the
movie Jerry Maguire Tom Cruise you told
me the money show me the money right
it's a good movie by the way if you
should watch it but what does this mean
now show me the money means prove it
talk cheap I don't care about what you
have to say show me something do
something to convince me now great all
of these things you know all the words
you heard all the words but you don't
understand them so how are you going to
fix this situation you have to engage
the culture of the country you're going
to or the country you want to learn
about if you want to learn about the
states watch sports watch Hollywood
movies you want to go to England watch
whatever sports they play like a soccer
or rugby or lacrosse or cricket or
whatever learn those languages learn
those words and expressions figure out
what is popular in the culture and again
there's a reason it's called pop culture
and if you're not sure what pop culture
means pop means popular find out what is
popular in the culture because these
things will be referred to and
especially learn a little bit about the
history of the nation right Americans
and British they always make references
to historical characters or historical
situations or events in modern contexts
okay
everybody knows Napoleon and Napoleon
has always brought up in whatever
contexts today even now how are you
going to do this read newspapers you all
have an internet connection you're
watching this on the internet start
reading local newspapers start reading
the national newspapers
okay from the country you're going to
and look at the expressions they're
using if you come across something and
you understand the words but you don't
understand the sentence look it up
figure out what you can do what it means
and one place to do this you can google
this look for an urban dictionary an
urban dictionary is the dictionary not
like Merriam Webster's or an oxford
dictionary it will tell you the meanings
of certain words and expressions as they
are used in pop culture right urban
dictionary can be very useful don't
learn grammar far from it don't study it
for your idle IELTS TOEFL CAE whatever
exam you're taking use it to learn how
to speak to everyday people on the
street watch TV shows from the area
you're going to watch movies made from
New York the area you're going to now if
you want to pick up on the slang and a
bit more of the pop culture and this
might sound a little bit weird watch
youtube videos created by young people
in the area you're going to now I'm not
too young I'm not that old but I'm not
that young either there are there's a
lot of slang that people use these days
that I don't even know what they mean I
can guess because of the context and I
can guess because some of the references
but for somebody learning English this
will sound like complete gibberish now
it's still pretty popular but if you
talk about a person who's a train wreck
okay so especially you're talking about
like Hollywood actors or actresses or
she's like I think Lindsay Lohan I know
if everybody knows Lindsay Lohan she was
a total train wreck now if you think
about a train you have one train going
this way another train going this way
it's a big mess and that when you say
someone is a train wreck
means that that person's life is a
complete mess it's a disaster they
destroyed everything that they had and
now they're like basically nothing okay
now on the other hand and we're still
gonna go on the motif of trains I don't
know if this is still popular but it was
popular for a little while off the rails
again when we're talking about off the
rails you have your train tracks those
are called rails so these guys are their
rails if it's off the rails
it means it's like lost control but this
is actually a good thing if you go to a
party and how's the party oh it's off
the rails or whatever it's really good
it's so out of control that it's really
good but at the same time off the rails
can also be very bad right so the
meeting went off the rails means we lost
control and the whole thing fell apart
and the whole meeting was a terrible
failure now if you're gonna hear this
people are gonna use this in everyday
speech this is not so common in writing
because it's too casual but in everyday
speech you're going to hear these words
all the time now if you understand what
a train is and you understand what a
wreck is it doesn't mean that you're
going to understand what the people are
talking about because you don't have the
cultural connection you're not connected
to the pop culture of the place so the
bottom line here get out of the
textbooks at least a little bit and
learn real English but do it as a
compliment
compliment your textbook studies with
real studies books newspapers magazines
online articles TV shows movies youtube
channels now I'm personally shocked by
just how many channels there are on
YouTube now and how many different ways
you can learn to put on makeup or how
many different ways you can learn DIY
everything these days is DIY Do It
Yourself DIY decorating DIY this DIY
that or life hacks this is another
buzzword and I've watched some of these
life hack videos and I'll I mean kind of
some of them have been ridiculous some
of them are kind of funny some of them
are actually pretty useful but for you
these are all very good videos because
you're gonna hear real people without a
script just talking talking like they
would to their friends because they view
their audience as their fence listen to
your friends let your friends talk to
you join the comments section get into
the comments start you know getting
involved in dialogues some of them get a
little bit mean and rude and nasty stay
away from those ones but you know the
good dialogues in the comment section
get in there start talking sort of but
listen listen listen it's not all about
textbooks ok learn the textbooks for the
tests learn real English for real
English and again practice what you're
learning
find someone to speak with use these
expressions in everyday life and your
listening will just improve and improve
and improve ok so these are just some
tips there are other sources sports
literature movies history lots of
different sources figure them out learn
from them improve your listening skills
and your speaking skills as you go so if
you have any questions about this please
go to ink vidcom and join the forum and
you can ask me questions about anything
you learned in this video there's also a
bit of a review quiz you can take there
to review what we talked about here and
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good tips to improve your English