hello my dear friends welcome to my
channel if you are new here i'm zoe a
language enthusiast who speaks seven
languages at the same time i'm doing phd
in sociology and i teach at university
in france i've been super busy lately
because of my research work because of
my thesis but i didn't forget about you
guys finally i found the time to make
this video today i'm gonna share with
you all my method to improve speaking
skill i'm not just gonna tell you go
talk to native speakers watch a series
as much as possible
listen to the language all the time
create immersive environments or talk to
yourself in front of the mirror of
course they are all very good tips but
what if we don't have native speakers
around us
or we don't have time to watch three or
four hours a series a day for example in
my case i have work studies i can only
devote like a one hour or even less to
studying a language per day how can i
still train my speaking skill today i'm
gonna show you different exercises i do
for different languages
english french arabic turkish persian
and german my idea is to give you a
package of methods and you can choose
according to your situation but please
remember that if you find exercises or
methods that suit you puts them in your
study plan stick to a structural program
and practice it regularly if you can do
it every day you won't see any
improvement if you just do it randomly
one or two times persistence is
essential for learning any skill if you
like this video don't forget to
hit the like button and support your
girl and subscribe to my channel if you
know better methods please share with
others in a comment
let's get started
[Music]
all the exercises i'm gonna show you
today are based on one method shadow
boxing an exercise in which a person
throw punches in the air as if there was
an opponent is mainly used to prepare
the muscles until we can engage and
react quickly in the combat
if we use the same logic in language
learning it means repeating words
phrases and even conversations as if a
person is in front of you and is talking
to you this trains our brain to speak
spontaneously and naturally i actually
use this method a lot for learning all
languages but i didn't really realize it
until someone pointed it out in a
comment on my study vlogger video but
pay attention it's not just about
following and repeating things there are
a few tricks that can help you do this
exercise in a more structured and
effective way for the very beginner if
you pronounce the words correctly from
the beginning you will make yourself
more understandable when you speak so we
should focus on the pronunciation of
words we learn new words with a book
application or any deck but make sure
they have the pronunciation and repeat
out loud yes out loud if possible record
your voice with audio and you can see
the difference one useful tip from the
beginning notice those pronunciations
which do not exist in your native
language or in the other languages you
know try to find all the syllables that
are difficult for you to pronounce just
make a list of words for those syllables
and practice them often i was trying to
talk to people in arabic at the
beginning but they couldn't understand
me because i was missing the
pronunciation of ha and
so i made this list for myself and
whenever i see words with these two
syllables i put it in i repeat it often
even today i still have this list with
me is still very useful i remember when
i was practicing turkish and french with
my language exchange partner hilar i
noticed that she pronounced
you this letter like u because this
letter is pronounced u in turkish by u
in french like je vu
is not je vous tu
i just tell her to make a list of words
with that letter and we read them
together now she pronounces very well in
french
another tip you can find youtube videos
that explain pronunciation clearly for
example for my english i like the
british accent so i followed this video
the long vowel e
and another sound the short vowel
here are some examples where you can
hear the difference
liter
and i noticed that i had problem
pronouncing e and a like speak and speak
some of you noticed it in my other
videos too so i just wrote the list and
practice again and again i hope i have
improved a bit in this video please be
aware that pronunciation and accent are
different pronunciation is the way we
pronounce each syllable of a word which
is normally standard it's important to
fix our pronunciation so that our talk
is clear and understandable but the
accent is the reason and the melody
sometimes i mean the different way to
pronounce some syllables of the language
which differs from region to region
country to country in my opinion we
should not be obsessed with the
native accent even among native speakers
there are different accents it's really
difficult to speak with the native
accent of the country if we learn a
language as adults or if we don't live
in a country for a long time for example
i have an iranian friend who speaks
chinese with a beijing accent much
better than me because i have a southern
accent here i will put a video to show
you how good his chinese
[Music]
guys i just can't believe he's not
chinese but he majors in chinese
language in university of tehran he has
a lot of special training and he has
really invested a lot of energy on that
it's very admirable but most of people
don't have the same condition to learn a
language and we learn the language for
different purposes
so
i think we should focus on improving our
pronunciation to make our speech clear
and to communicate better but we should
not be
too obsessed by the negative exam or
sometimes even be ashamed of our own
accent which is also part of our
background
next step sentences if i started with an
anki deck i prefer the sentences with
audio and i always repeat out loud i try
to imitate the sounds tones and rhythm
as closely as possible
when you learn a new phrase try to
imagine the situation in which you will
use it
for example this sentence means telling
a story
you told me yesterday you can try to
imagine situation when you're gonna use
this sentence for example you're gonna
tell a friend tell me the story she told
you
uh yesterday so the sentence will be
heckely
or you can change it for example last
month shahada mahdi or you can change
other things in this way you don't just
memorize the sentence you know how to
use the structure and try to practice by
yourself what i did with my language is
change partner at the beginning we send
each other five six sentences every day
she reads them to me and i just repeat
her voice note over and over again this
is another way to do the shaker boxing
if you don't have a language exchange
partner there is another way to check
the sentence pronunciation certain apps
have this function like chinese
application super chinese can check and
score your pronunciation with their ai
system sometimes i use google translate
depot and reversal but it depends on the
language the quality of the
pronunciation is different reversal is
quite good in english german french and
chinese but
so-so in turkish in arabic sometimes
even not very accurate in arabic i often
mention reversal in my videos it's not
my sponsor guys so far i haven't put any
advertisement in my videos all the apps
i recommend are the ones i really use
and find useful if you know any good
apps for pronouncing or correcting our
pronunciation please leave it in the
comments and share it with us
we have deals with words and phrases
next step how can we practice with a
long conversation or text
you can find this kind of a conversation
or text from structure books youtube
videos podcasts or even audio books
first of all choose topics that really
interest you and that you can say you
will talk about this in a certain
situation in your life for example i
like historical political philosophical
psychological sociological topics i love
watching documentaries
but at the same time i like to watch
workout videos further than shoulder
width apart they don't have to be
completely narrow makeup videos and sort
of stippling it and buffing it out in
cooking videos
i think it's a good idea to have a
balance between
serious and everyday topics there are
two types of videos and podcasts i use
them differently the short ones from one
to five minutes which are used for
intensive listening exercise long videos
more than 10 minutes are used for
general listening exercises for the
short video make sure there are cc
subtitles and transcripts i teach you
here how to get the transcript from the
youtube video porn in bulgarian and
yugoslavian
you can put it in your ipad or print it
you can take notes you can write on it
you can highlight i just import the
transcript in my ipad like this because
i like to write in the transcript you
can just print it or you can do it
directly with your computer here is a
template for intensive listening
exercise
if you are learning with a book and you
get tech you get for example text inside
you can do the same as well i normally
read a text more than three times listen
to it without transcript
check the new words in the subtitles or
in your transcription try to understand
the whole text and memorize the new
words
read sentence by sentence with the video
out loud you can focus on the
pronunciation tones and rhythm this
read along with the video outside at
normal speed record your voice with or
without audio
when it's too fast you can just
change the speed okay i'm gonna slow
down
[Music]
next step very important if you still
have time use the new words to talk
about the topic do you agree or disagree
why imagine that you are having a debate
about this topic don't write the whole
sentence and read it try to use the
keywords or phrases to express yourself
in fact it's like the method of talking
to yourself but you have a concrete
topic and you can use the new words you
have just learned if you don't have a
personal point of view just try to
describe the video again ask yourself
what did i just watch
what is this video about what is the
main idea what do i like or dislike
about this video if you have a language
exchange partner even better you can
bring up this topic in your conversation
for the long videos i usually use them
for general listening exercises while
listening repeat phrases expressions and
words that are not obedient to you
and you still want to listen to songs
watch videos series or movies but you
don't understand the content because of
your level this is
actually the best time to concentrate on
pronunciation of the words you just
learn tones and rhythm and try to
imitate and repeat them as much as
possible another type of video i'd like
to share the box with is celebrity
interviews or any other type of
interviews because it's a conversation
there are questions and answers and they
often talk about their childhoods their
family their studies their work their
lifestyle their perception of love of i
mean everything
is
[Laughter]
if you meet a new friend you will
basically talk about these kind of
topics as well so it's very useful you
can even imagine what if you will answer
if you are asked the same question
another good resource to train your
speaking skills especially in english is
ted talk the talks are usually not long
like 10 minutes and are there written
you can just read the transcript with a
speaker but don't forget to make a
summary by yourself and give your own
opinion another resource is the audio
book i still remember when i was
learning french at the beginning i read
a whole book of le petit pas de antoine
or something
i read several paragraphs just several
paragraphs at least three times with the
audio book
one book per month is i mean it's a very
short book i did the same with one of my
favorite podcasts the wreath lecture one
of my favorite lectures is law in a
decline of politics by jonathan sampson
he was until recently a uk supreme court
justice as well as a distinguished
historian
i was interested in this topic and i
love his voice and his way of speaking
listen i'm gonna put a part of his
speech here complex codes of law
enforced by specialized tribunals
regulates the world of employment
an elaborate system of administrative
law
oh my god this is the beauty of english
there are five episodes one hour per
episode the content is very difficult
and the transcripts are very long at
that time it took me almost
three months i think more to finish
reading all the transcripts with him
because i was only doing it for 30
minutes sometimes uh 15 minutes in the
morning when i have time but
i have finished all of it i feel so
satisfied not only because i feel like i
have improved my english but also i've
learned a lot of ideas a lot of a
concept a lot of
i mean things about this topic it's so
so it's very important to choose the
subjects that interest you that can keep
you motivated now that i'm doing videos
in english on youtube but can you
imagine three years before i couldn't
even open my mouth i was pronouncing
everything like in french because i was
learning french i most of the time i was
speaking only in french i have a sexy
french accent
and i was so afraid to speak this
exercise really saved my life no magic
guys persistent you find effective
exercise you stick to it and make it
your routine
well this is the other video and very
talkative today i hope this video is
helpful if you like this video don't
forget to support me give me a like
subscribe to my channel if you have any
questions just write in a comment i'm
super busy yes i'm doing a lot of things
at the same time but i will try my best
to answer your questions when i have
time
so guys see you next time bye