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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia
the weekly series where you ask me
questions and i answer them maybe first
question this week comes from ledoan hi
ledoan lidon says hi i'm studying in
finland in english however i don't
really have a lot of chances to speak in
english so my speaking skill is still my
weak point i see there are a lot of ways
to practice english on the internet for
self-study but they're too much for me
to afford for just a private teacher
online what should i do to improve my
advanced level speaking skills as i'm
studying business thanks mmm tough
question
i would suggest maybe if you're at an
advanced level that you don't focus so
much on studying like english like maybe
don't focus so much on trying to find
specifically an english lesson but try
to spend more time focusing on those
skills so by that i mean look for groups
that practice speaking so there's a
really famous international speaking
practice group called toastmasters you
might check that out they have community
groups that you can join so the purpose
of these groups and other similar groups
is to improve your speaking skills and
like to improve your presentation skills
and leadership skills so when you go to
one of these groups the other people in
the group will give you feedback like
how can you improve so if you can share
your goal with the other people in that
group they can help you give you advice
on like pronunciation maybe the
vocabulary words you should be using
something you can do to make your
presentation better and so on
so something like that if you're at an
advanced level might be a little bit
better than trying to find just english
classes so you can actually start to use
the words and pick up new words that are
specific for your goal so i would
suggest perhaps if it's difficult to
find like some kind of teacher
specifically for what you're looking for
see if you can find a group that's
focused on business or like on
presentation related skills so i hope
that this is helpful for you thanks for
the question and good luck building your
speaking skills okay let's move on to
your next question next question comes
from
harshni hi harshni harshny says if
somebody asks me a question in english i
can speak english without thinking but
while doing this i make lots of mistakes
with grammar i say he instead of she or
she instead of he while speaking how do
i overcome this problem
okay i think you've already done the
difficult part which is realizing you
made a mistake so you can catch yourself
you notice the mistake i would suggest
though like to practice making the
correct uh choice when you're speaking
is as soon as you realize you make a
mistake
you say out loud the correct sentence so
this can be in the conversation you can
correct yourself in the conversation
which is actually quite normal native
speakers do this all the time or if you
realize after the conversation just say
it quietly to yourself out loud so i
would suggest actually saying it out
loud like getting your mouth and your
body used to making the sounds and like
the correct way to say the thing you
said incorrectly before so if for
example you're like i saw risa today
uh he or sorry i mean she was walking
into the office so that's a very common
way the native speakers correct
themselves they go sorry no she
something like that during the
conversation is perfectly normal for
native speakers and for learners so if
you realize your mistake in the
conversation you can do it during the
conversation fix it if you realize after
the conversation you can think to
yourself ah i should have said she in
that situation oops she was walking into
the office so that's fine to do too so i
think the hardest thing is to be able to
catch your mistake so maybe you already
have that part okay
but just keep paying attention to
yourself and think back on your
conversation so remember your
conversations and what you said and
maybe how you could have said it
differently so i hope that this tip
helps you to overcome these little
grammatical issues in your speech thanks
very much for this question and good
luck with your continued studies okay
let's move on to your next question next
question comes from
angel mcnamara hi angel angel says hi
alicia and team could you please explain
the meaning and the uses of the word
hall thanks okay sure so there's the
basic meaning which is in the dictionary
so the verb to hall means to carry
something or like to pull something or
like to bring something but we use it
for like really heavy things or stuff
that's hard to pull or hard to take or
we use it for things like when we have a
lot of something so if you imagine like
moving from a house to another house and
you have a lot of stuff you can say i
hauled all my stuff to my new house so
we use it for large quantities of things
or like really heavy things things that
are difficult to pull or drag so another
example is like i hauled all my
paperwork to the city office this
morning
the car broke down so we hauled it home
with a tow truck
so this is one use of hall
you'll also hear haul used for people
when we have to do something by force
like we have to be this like strong with
somebody and we have to force them to do
something you might hear hall used in
this case it's used often times when
someone is in trouble
as like with parents and kids or like
with police
and criminals that kind of thing so for
example the suspect was hauled into the
police station or my parents hauled me
out of bed every morning when i was a
kid so again we have that image of like
bringing or carrying something that's
difficult to move or it's really heavy
so we use a hall to do that
okay so let's move on though to a noun
use of the word hall when we use hall as
a noun it's often used to talk about
someone's shopping from that day like
they went out to a mall or something and
they bought a lot of stuff and they want
to share it often like they'll take a
photo and post it to like instagram or
twitter or something facebook and they
write check out my hall or look at
today's haul or this is today's haul so
my haul is the stuff that i bought that
day all this stuff so it's usually
something someone's excited about like
check out this haul from the makeup
store or i want to share my haul from
the video game store whatever that might
be like they've got a collection of
things or a few exciting things they
want to share they say check out my hall
or today's haul
again this can have a negative meaning
when it's used to talk about like
criminal activity like when it's talking
about like drugs for example like the
police recovered a hall of drugs or like
the fbi found a hall of stolen data so
hall can be used to mean a lot of
something in this case negatively but in
everyday like social media terms we see
it used to talk about people's shopping
for the day something they are excited
about so the last use of haul is in an
expression like it's a long haul home or
we have a long haul today so we use this
as we're like starting a journey so
maybe we have a long way to travel home
or we have to take a long time to get to
a destination we can describe that as a
hall so again another common theme here
with this verb or with this noun is that
something is difficult like it's hard to
carry or it feels heavy so it's like
when we say i have a long haul home it's
like i have a long journey home a long
way to get home it's going to be
difficult so these are quite a few ways
that we use hall
as both a noun and as a verb so i hope
that this helped your understanding of
this word thanks very much for the
question okay let's move on to your next
question next question comes from akane
akane says hi alicia uh if i have a plan
in the future should i use will or be
going to okay if you already have the
plan use going to it's more natural to
use will if you make your decision in
the conversation like right now here in
the conversation you decide so if for
example your plan is to have dinner with
your friends this weekend and you know
this as you begin the conversation you
can say i'm going to have dinner with my
friends this weekend if you say i will
have dinner with my friends this weekend
it sounds really unnatural again because
will is used more for things we decide
in the moment you've come into the
conversation with this plan i'm going to
have dinner with my friends this weekend
so please use going to in that case so a
situation where it would sound more
natural to use will is like if you
arrive at the restaurant sit down open
the menu and the wait staff says
something like what can i get you and
you reply i'll have the salad please so
in that case i'll i will sounds very
natural if you say i'm going to have the
salad it sounds kind of like you had
that plan when you walked into the
restaurant so that's probably a
situation where will is going to sound
more natural so keep this in mind like
did i just make the decision did i have
the decision in my mind before the
conversation so if you're just now
deciding maybe will is better so i hope
that this helps you understand the
differences between will and going to
for some more points and some example
sentences please have a look at the
video on our channel about will and
going to thanks very much for this
question okay let's move on to your next
question next question comes from
rajesh khannan hi rajesh rajesh says how
do we use because of
since and since then in sentences these
are frequently used by native speakers
okay
let's look at because and because of
first so we use because or because of at
the beginning of a sentence or in the
middle of a sentence to express a reason
for something so when we use because or
because of we follow it with a simple
noun or we can follow it with like a
whole phrase that's fine too so your
reason can be just like one word like
because of rain today's event has been
canceled or because of you we were late
for the meeting so those are very simple
expressions after uh because of so
because of rain or because of you
let's compare this though with since
since so we use since also to describe a
reason for something and like because
since can be used at the beginning of a
sentence or it can be used in the middle
of a sentence however unlike because or
because of we can't follow since with
just a simple noun we can't say like
since you or since rain we have to use a
full phrase so for example since it
rained today's event has been canceled
or since you were late getting here now
we're late for the meeting so we need to
have like a whole phrase with sins we
can't just use because
plus noun like we can't follow that same
pattern with since also i would say that
for
the differences in formality here since
is going to sound a little bit more
formal than because so in everyday
speech we use because a lot more often
than we use since
positioning is really up to you if the
reason is very important to you you can
place the reason at the beginning of the
sentence and start your sentence with
because or since if the result is a
little more important you can put the
result at the beginning of the sentence
and then finish it with your reason so
for example today's event has been
canceled because of rain or today's
event has been canceled since it rained
lastly let's talk about since then since
then so since then means from that time
period up to now so let's look at an
example sentence for example i graduated
from college in 2015.
since then i've worked at abc company
so since then refers to the time period
or rather the point in time mentioned in
the previous sentence so here i
graduated from college in 2015.
since then so since then means since
2015 uh from the point
2015 until this conversation i've worked
at abc company so since then describes
that period of time from that point in
the previous sentence to now one more
example of this i finished work at six
today since then i've been sitting on
the couch watching netflix so here the
time referred to by since then is 6 pm i
finished work at 6 00 pm today since
then since that time from that point in
time until this conversation i've been
sitting on the couch watching netflix so
we do not use since then to introduce a
reason as we do with because or because
of or since rather since then is
referring to a point in the past
relative to now so please keep this in
mind when you are choosing between these
words i hope that this explanation was
helpful for you thanks very much for the
question okay that is everything that i
have for this week thank you as always
for sending your questions remember you
can send them to me at
englishclass101.com
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for some other things that can help you
with your english studies thanks very
much for watching this week's episode of
ask alicia and i will see you again next
week bye bye
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