hi I'm Lisa do you know what it means when a native speaker of english says
i caught the bug or if they say i decided to dive head first or if you're in los angeles and someone
asks you do you work in the industry what are they talking about this is why i make videos
where i have conversations with native speakers and then we analyze the way they talk in this
video you will hear a native speaker using seven different expressions in just two sentences
as i said native speakers use expressions all the time
i want to make sure you're able to use them as well this will make you feel
more confident about your english and it will take it to that final step of fluency
this is part four of my conversation with megan if you haven't watched the first three parts i
recommend that you watch them there are so many things you will learn from those videos non-native
speakers generally speak literally but native speakers might have a shorter way of explaining
that same concept for example a non-native speaker might say i didn't like broccoli before
but now i like it and a native speaker might say i grew to like broccoli in this video megan uses the
expression grew to you have these same characters that you just grow to love a non-native speaker
might say that business is really successful a native speaker might say that business is booming
and megan also uses the expression booming and the industry is booming out here i asked megan
why she moved to los angeles let's listen to her answer and then i will come back and i will teach
you some of the expressions that she used pay attention to how she uses the following seven
expressions in just two sentences these are the expressions that she used caught the bug dive head
first the industry and that has a specific meaning booming out here she didn't say here she said out
here jump right in and the heart of it let's watch i moved here for acting um i caught the acting
bug at a very young age and i just wanted to dive head first and the industry is booming out here so
had to jump right into the heart of it you said you caught the bug at an early age did you start
performing when you were a little girl i did start performing when i was little i did a summer camp
i want to say i was in middle school and yeah i just did a show in middle school and fell in love
with it and did all of the high school productions and local community theater and things like that
and then ended up going to college for it oh you did so you studied theater i did i did theater i
have a big theater background where michigan state university yes yeah we're not as well
known for our as the u of m is known for musical theater but we're known for theater at msu like
straight theater really so you came to la did you get an agent i did i have a commercial agent and
i also have a theatrical agent for television and film work and what would be your dream job
with acting dream job i feel like i would love to be on a long-running dramatic series something
like grey's anatomy or this is us something like that where it's just it's drama and intense that
you have these same characters that you just grow to love so how can people reach you yes
if anyone wants to reach me my instagram is at megs and egz cochran c-o-c-h-r-a-n-e
let's look at the first expression to catch the bug megan used it in the past tense and
she said caught the bug i caught the acting bug at a very young age megan said i caught
the acting bug at a very young age when we use the word bug we often mean a small sickness some
kind of small virus nothing serious we can say i caught a bug i got some kind of little sickness
but when megan said i caught the acting bug that means i became very passionate about acting
i developed a strong interest in it you can say i caught the travel bug and now i love to travel
you can say she took one ballet lesson and she immediately caught the bug she became
very excited and very passionate about ballet let's listen to the next expression to dive head
first and i just wanted to dive head first megan said i wanted to dive head first and that means
to start doing something eagerly to become involved in something very quickly without
thinking too much about it without analyzing it too much you're enthusiastic and you're excited
so you dive head first you do it immediately you can also say to dive in here are some sentences
that i found online with the expression dive headfirst somebody gave advice for starting a
business and she said do your research first learn from my mistakes and don't just dive head first
into anything that sounds good i was terrified about being in a leadership role in my department
but i couldn't pass up the opportunity to dive head first into an area that fascinated me i'm
sure you know the meaning of industry but do you know what megan meant when she said
the industry it has a very specific meaning let's listen then the industry is booming out here so
if you live in los angeles and you say the industry everyone knows what you're talking about
it means the entertainment industry the film industry so if you live in los angeles and i say
to you are you in the industry i'm asking you are you an actor are you a director are you a musician
are you involved in the entertainment industry if you live in los angeles you can say a lot of
my neighbors have jobs in the industry but of course if you don't live in los angeles
then industry can have a wide variety of meanings people would probably ask what kind of industry
but if you're in la everyone knows it means the film industry let's look at the next expression
booming then the industry is booming out here megan said the industry is booming out here
and a boom is a loud explosion so if something is booming it's exploding it's doing really well
you can say the tourism industry is booming again they are forecasting a booming economy
his business is booming it's doing really well megan said out here she didn't say here
i'll teach you the difference let's listen to her first then the industry is booming out here
and if you say out here you generally mean out here in the west in the west part of
the united states so it could be los angeles san francisco oregon washington state so when she said
out here she meant here in california here in los angeles you can say i've been living
out here for two years or i moved out here for my job let's listen to how some other people used out
here so after college i moved out here to la the first day i moved out here to california
when i moved out here i said what do i need i need education and i need experience so when we
talk about the west we often say out here but when we talk about the east coast we often say
back east you can say he's from back east and that means that he might be from new york or
from maine or from connecticut those are places that are back east they're on the east coast
i was born back east our headquarters are located back east let's listen to how some other people
used back east but after that you decided to go back east you went to yale to get your phd
i had some of these guys from back east came and visit me one day at my house never lived
in east l.a never lived in l.a they were from back east they don't know our stories let's listen to
how megan used the expression to jump right in had to jump right into the heart of it she said
i have to jump right into the heart of it and to jump right in is to quickly get involved in
something to start doing something immediately and to not waste time to not delay you can say if you
want to buy that house you need to jump right in otherwise someone else will buy it this expression
is very commonly heard at a meeting if you have a business meeting and one person wants to get
started immediately with their presentation for example they will probably say something like this
we have a lot of topics to cover so let's jump right in let's start talking about the important
things right away let's not waste any time let's jump right in you can also say to someone if
you have any questions feel free to jump right in don't hesitate we have a lot to cover so i'm just
going to jump right in this is a cram session so i'm going to jump right in at 27 i did it without
you know any thought to it i got this opportunity to partner with four great engineers and i was
i just jumped right in let's listen to the way megan used the heart of it had to jump right into
the heart of it megan said i decided to jump right into the heart of it the heart of something means
the center of it the core the most important part of it the essential thing the heart of it you can
say that restaurant is in the heart of the city or you can say let's get to the heart of the matter
the most important part of the discussion the heart of it what did megan mean when she said
i wanna say let's listen i wanna say i was in middle school megan said i wanna say i was in
middle school why did she say i want to say when you're thinking about something and you're not 100
sure of it you can say i want to say for example you can say when is the last time you saw her
i want to say six months ago and sometimes people say the sentence with the pitch going
up because it's a doubt they're not sure i want to say six months ago where do you think he's
from based on his accent i want to say colombia it means i think i'm not 100 certain the next one is
about pronunciation i want you to pay attention to the way megan pronounced the word school
i want to say i was in middle school if you noticed megan didn't say school she didn't say
ul she said school school it's almost as if she added an extra syllable when we have
a long vowel followed by an l we generally add an extra schwa sound we do it like this
school and that's generally if the word is stressed for example i'm going to school that's
a great school that's so cool so we wouldn't say cool we would say cool repeat after me
that's so cool he's such a fool but if the word is not the key word or if it's part of a longer
sentence and it's right in the middle then you wouldn't necessarily prolong the vowel as much
for example if you say i have a new toolbox you wouldn't necessarily say toolbox right you'd say
toolbox toolbox but remember we don't say tul it's not it's that dark l the tongue barely touches the
top it doesn't have to touch you just do it like this all tool cool let's listen to megan again
i want to say i was in middle school i want to say i was in middle school if you would
like to learn all of the important rules of the american accent make sure that you
get my online course that teaches you all of the difficult things about american consonant sounds
vowel sounds and most importantly rhythm melody and linking so that you can sound natural when
you're speaking english let's listen to how megan pronounced theater oh you did so you studied
theater i did i did theater i have a big theater background megan said i did theater and she said
i have a big theater background first i want to remind you that in british english this
word is spelled differently it's spelled with an r e at the end but in american english it's
er listen to my pronunciation theater theater let's go to the theater the word straight has
many different meanings let's listen to the way megan used it and i'll teach you what she meant
we're not as well known for our as the u of m is known for musical theater but we're known for
theater at msu like straight theater megan said we're known for theater at msu straight theater
msu is michigan state university and what did she mean when she said straight theater
nothing else just that very often the word straight is used like this
he's a straight a student that means all of his grades are a's as you probably know in the united
states an a is the very top grade it's the best grade in school so if you're a straight a student
you're an excellent student you don't have any b's you don't have any c's you have straight
a's and sometimes you will hear someone say he drinks vodka straight what does that mean
he doesn't put anything else in the drink just vodka straight only that i taught you how to
pronounce theater but let's learn to pronounce the adjective form of the verb let's listen to
how she said theatrical i have a commercial agent and i also have a theatrical agent
for television and film work megan said i have a theatrical agent let's stress the ah theatrical
repeat after me theatrical now let's say both words theater theatrical theater theatrical
let's listen to the way megan said long running i feel like i would love to be on a long running
dramatic series this expression has nothing to do with the word to run long running means continuing
for a long time being shown for a long time the tv show friends was a long-running show they
tried to resolve the issue themselves instead of being involved in long-running legal battles
the next expression is to grow too megan said grow to love let's listen have these same characters
that you just grow to love if you grow to love something you develop a liking for something or
someone for example you didn't like it before but now you do you grew to like it you grew to love it
you can say when she met him in high school she didn't like him but after she got to know him
better she grew to love him and then she married him i didn't like sushi the first time i tried it
but i grew to like it or it grew on me you don't like living in that new city give it some time
it will probably grow on you the next expression is slash megan said actors slash servers let's
listen there are a lot of actors slash servers especially in la when something has a dual
function both things are happening you can use slash this is the punctuation mark this is a slash
so when we put a slash we can say he's an actor slash model that's how we would write it
we would put the slash symbol so we say it we say actor slash model you can say this is the
home office slash family room it's for both he's a director slash producer he has both of those jobs
as usual i recommend that you try using these expressions by making your own sentences that
way you will remember them and then when it's time to speak they will come to your mind immediately
you will internalize them i've got a lot more interviews coming up with really interesting
people who have interesting jobs in los angeles so make sure you subscribe to my channel so that
you find out when those videos are posted thanks for watching and keep practicing your english
to get the two courses the american accent course
and the 400 advanced words you must know for fluent english go to accurateenglish.com