okay Goo- -sorry if you want - stop please I can't take it anymore
oh god! shut up! Why did I even start this video
Oh God!
This is how you're going to approve your English today with Google's Home
Assistant. This is part of a series entitled 'learning English without humans'
so in future episodes we'll do learning English with plants, animals and aliens
but today it's Google Assistant. As you know Google
knows everything ok Google what's the population of Botswana
in 2018 the
population of Botswana was two million two hundred and fifty four thousand one
hundred and twenty six
Who's a prime minister of Tuvalu?
Enele Sopoaga
is the Prime Minister of Tuvalu
Who's the best English teacher on YouTube
I found a list on the website Vark c-.com top three most popular English teachers
on YouTube Jennifer from English
OK Google stop -
OK It doesn't know everything just forget that happened
There is a serious point here because I get a lot of messages from people
telling me that where they are they just don't have the opportunity to practise
English either with native speakers or with people who speak English to a high
level and although that would be the ideal situation Google assistance can
help and I'll show you how you can improve your fluency, your
comprehension and your pronunciation. So stay tuned
hello and welcome to LetThemTalk and today we are going to look at some of the tricks and how
you can improve your fluency, your grammar and your pronunciation with
Google home. This might work with Alexa I don't know I haven't tried it but today
we're using Google Home assistant so let's get into it. So first of all the
settings what you need to do is to set Google Home to respond to two languages.
you can do that on the app, I'm not going to go through all the technical stuff,
now but it's pretty easy to set up so I suggest you do that first. To get the
most out of this lesson and for the purposes of this demonstration I'm using
English and Spanish because we have a lot of viewers who speak Spanish and I
know a little bit of Spanish myself but you don't need to know
Spanish, by the way, to follow this lesson I'm just giving you one or two examples
in the language. So first of all you can use Google Home as a dictionary either
as an English dictionary or English to another language as an
English dictionary just use the key word "Define" followed by what you want in
order to find out the meaning. Here are few advanced words that I picked up
from my reading this morning. OK Google: define QUAGMIRE
this is
the definition of quagmire: a soft boggy area of land that gives way underfoot.
define "LOPSIDED here's the definition of lopsided: with one side lower or smaller
than the other
Define HAYDAY
this is the definition of heyday: the period of a
person's or thing's greatest success popularity activity or vigor.
Now if you
still don't know the meaning of the word you can ask Google to translate it into
your own language using "how do you say...in" and the name of the language so
for example how do you say WENCH in French?
in French you would say 'jeune fille'
how do you say ABSENT-MINDED in Indonesian?
In Indonesian you would say [???]
How do you say lacklustre in Swedish?
in Swedish that's mate.
and saying these words also obliges you to pronounce them correctly
otherwise Google will all not recognize them and even I sometimes have problems
getting Google to understand me. The software's not hundred percent perfect
as long as you're aware of that, it's not 100% perfect, but it works most of the
time and by the way you can also use this for idioms so let's have an example
OK Google how do you say "to be caught red-handed" in Italian?
In Italian that's
essere catturati in flagrante
If you want to check the pronunciation of a
word that you know say it in your language and ask Google to say it in English so
for example this word here. I don't know how to pronounce it as I said I've got
Google Home set to Spanish so I'll say the word in Spanish and see if I can get
the English pronunciation ok Google como se dice jeraquía en inglés?
en inglés es HIERARCHY
With an American accent thouh 'hierarchy' there you are now
you know 'hierarchy' with a K - CH because it's from Greek. It also works for phrases all you
need to do is say 'how do you say...?' and then you say the phrase that you want
translated into English. For demonstration purposes I'm going to do
it the other way around I'm going to translate into another language
OK Google how do you say 'have a nice day' in Chinese?
in Chinese that's [speaking Chinese]
[speaking Chinese] Not even close.
How do you say 'where is the
station? in Hindi?
in Hindi you would say [speaking Hindi]
How do you say 'there are zombies on the streets of London' in French?
in French
you would say 'il y a des zombies dans les rues de Londres'
How do you say 'I left my hat in
the fishmongers' in Russian?
in Russian that's [speaking Russian]
I'm not even going to try.
How do you say 'thank you' in Korean? in
Korean you would say I'm sorry [speaking Korean]
Now what have you got a really long piece of text? A page from a book, a page from a
website, a poem, the lyrics from a song that you want translated into English?
Well yes you can do that using the keywords "be my English interpreter" for
demonstration purposes I'm going to it into another language so this is useful
because you have to say it correctly, you have to check the translation because if
it's not correct Google is going to get it wrong so it forces you to give the
correct English. Let's try it. What shall I do? well let's do French because I I live in
France so let's try that OK Google be my french interpreter
okay
before you start talking make sure to wait until you hear this
sound let's start
Once upon a time you dressed so fine, you threw the bums a
dime in your prime didn't you?
[speaking French]
People called you and said 'beware, doll
you're bound to fall' you thought they were all kidding you.
[speaking French]
okay Google .... not a great translation
Now we're going to look at some ways you can use this for pronunciation and we're
going to look at minimal pairs yes that's right, minimal pairs and these are
pairs of words that sound similar but they're just a little bit different and if
you're learning English sometimes they can be very confusing and the thing about
minimal pairs is the mistakes that are made with them can be different
depending on your first language. Here you are. Here's a list of minimal pairs and
we're just going to go through a few of them. So what you need to do is say the
word and ask for the definition either in English or translate it and if Google
translates it incorrectly it knows that you've made a mistake so for example if
we're looking at the difference between ship and sheep. If you're doing SHIP we
want a definition of a boat and not a mammal with a woolly coat okay. if it
says that, you've got it wrong. I hope I can get it right.OK Google define SHIP
This is the definition of ship a large boat for transporting people or
goods by sea
define SHEEP
Here's the definition of sheep a domesticated
ruminant mammal with a thick woolly coat and, typically only in the male, curving
horns it is kept in flocks for its wool or meat and this proverbial from its
tendency to follow others in the flock.
Define chip
Here's the definition of chip a small piece of something removed
in the course of chopping cutting or breaking a hard material such as wood or
stone.
Define CHEAP
this is the definition of sheep ....
shut up
You see even I get it wrong sometimmes.
don't worry, don't get traumatized if Google gives you the wrong answer as you can
see as you can see even I didn't manage that why didn't.... what? why did they get it
wrong cheap, sheep I said that correctly I'm going to try that once
more the volumes a bit loud ok Google volume down
the volumes at 7
OK Google define CHEAP
here's the definition of sheep
**** off! Ok Google shut up.
Why didn't it like CHEAP I think I'm saying correctly I promise you I'm saying
correctly 'cheap' you don't trust me now I'm your English teacher but trust me,
trust me that's how you say it. There's something wrong with the machine. Blame
the machine, don't blame me, blame the machine ok
Shall we do one or two more
you can do you need to do better than me you do better than me did better than me
I'm not happy about that I'm traumatized by that
so try some of these at home
Define cat
This is the definition of cat: a small domesticated carnivorous mammal
with soft fur a short snout and retractable claws it is widely kept as a
pet or for catching mice and many breeds have been developed
I think it's easier
if I just ask for the translation because the definition is too long so
I think I'm going to change this I'm going to ask for the translation and
let's see who happens ok Google how do you say CAT in Arabic
in Arabic that's [?]
how do you say WALK in Hindi?
in Hindi that's [speaking Hindi]
I don't know if that's correct
actually I hope so. Okay let's try WORK how do you say work in Portuguese
In Portuguese you would ' trabalhos'
Trabalhos sounds ok for speakers of
Japanese and Chinese sometimes the R and the L are confused
so let's try this one, the classic one how do you say
FRY in Japanese?
in Japanese that's [speaks Japanese]
how do you say FLY in Japanese
In Japanese you would say [speaking Japanese]
Maybe I should have just said it in a language I
know how do you say ANKLE in Polist
In Polish that's 'wujek'
How do you say UNCLE in Polish?
In Polish that's: 'wujek'
How do you say ANKLE in Italian?
In Italian you would say 'zio' that isn't right define ankle
Here's the definition of ankle: the joint connecting the foot with the leg
That's correct! How do you say
ANKLE in Italian?
In Italian that's 'zio'
How do you say ANKLE in French?
In French you would say 'oncle'
not oncle, ankle
Why okay I give up okay it's not working okay has its uses but as you can
see it has its drawbacks too I've done my best. I'm never going to work with machines
again okay so next time we're doing with aliens. Thank you, stay healthy I'm not
but you stay healthy