hi there I'm drew badger the world's
world's number one english fluency
fluency guide and it is a pleasure
pleasure to welcome you to another
another advanced listening practice
practice lesson well
well i am back from my vacation in
in America I had gone out there to
to enjoy a nice trip actually just
just to see family and some friends
friends and it was my mother's 70th
70th birthday so I enjoyed a nice
nice trip up there and in today's
today's lesson I wanted to talk about
about that so
so let's get started with the lesson
lesson so I had a really great time
time I went to San Francisco and then
then I was in bend oregon that's where
where my mother lives so it's a really
really nice place on the eastern side
side of the Cascade Mountains so
so in oregon or even in really California
California but Oregon specifically
specifically you've
you've got the water that comes off
off of the ocean and then you've got
got the mountains that are not that
that far from the coast and so a lot
lot of the rain gets stopped up by
by the mountains so
so my mom lives on the eastern side
side of those and that's called the
the high desert that area over there
there and there are lots of well maybe
maybe I guess not so much rain but
but they get lots of lots of Sun and
and it's mostly dry and hot over
there
there so
so anyway it's called the high desert
desert but I just one of the things
things I want to talk about in this
this video was specifically something
something that my mom reminded me
me of that I'd completely forgotten
forgotten about because you know when
when people get together they and
and they get to reminiscing so they
they start reminiscing to reminisce
reminisce means to think about things
things or to talk about things from
from the past so
so maybe you're feeling nostalgic
nostalgic to be nostalgic this means
means you're thinking about things
things from the past and remembering
remembering hi like
like I remember I had some great time
time at a family vacation or when
when I was in high school or something
something like that but anyway this
this was a story that my mom was telling
telling me about college and I had
had completely forgotten about it
it
it so
so back when I was in maybe like a
a sophomore in high school so typically
typically American high school you
you got four years you've got freshman
freshman sophomore junior and senior
senior and senior is the highest level
level so when I was a sophomore even
even by that point I was still a pretty
pretty bad reader and writer because
because I just hated reading I had
had really found much that i enjoyed
enjoyed and it wasn't until my junior
junior year of high school that I
I actually enjoyed learning more about
about philosophy and things like that
that but i got interested in that
that actually threw some comic books
books or kind of comic books these
these are more picture books like
like comics I suppose you could call
call them they were based on chinese
chinese philosophy so a couple of
of things like Zen actually well that's
that's Japanese but it's coming from
from like traditional chinese let's
let's see what was it maybe I by wisdom
wisdom so there was a book about Taoism
Taoism and a couple of other books
books that were about like kind of
of eastern or maybe like Asian history
history that kind of thing as well
well so I was really excited to learn
learn about those things and that's
that's what got me interested in reading
reading but by the time I got into
into college I still had a really
really bad grades so even though i
i was starting to read more I
I kind of as we say I got to the party
party late so I was getting into college
college and really college kick my
my ass the first couple of years I
I was there so I did really bad and
and I was talking to my mom about
about being on academic probation
probation which means that i was getting
getting really bad grades in college
college so my freshman year so I had
had taken a couple of AP classes this
this is advanced placement in high
high school but didn't really do very
very well in those classes either
either so anyway it was kind of a
a nice experience to get into those
those things and start learning more
more for college but still when I
I got to college I didn't end up doing
doing very well so because i had been
been interested in these philosophy
philosophy things so like Taoism and
and zen buddhism and other things
things like that and various other
other you know traditions coming from
from china i was really interested
interested in studying more about
about philosophy in school but most
most of the stuff that was offered
offered at my school is all Western
Western philosophy so things like
like American pragmatism and I don't
don't even want to go into lots of
of different things but basically
basically I learned a lot about pragmatism
pragmatism which is like being pragmatic
pragmatic and instead of talking about
about the Platonic idea of like what
what is this really so we can look
look at my hand and say it's a hand
hand but like what is it really that
that idea of what is it really instead
instead of just what is it in everyday
everyday sense is a big thing in philosophy
philosophy so instead of talking about
about the the complete and perfect
perfect form of something like if
if I'm talking about Plato I can be
be talking about John Dewey so
so this is a man
man who was just a an American pragmatist
pragmatist and he talked about what
what is this really it doesn't really
really matter what you know what the
the actual form of this thing is like
like it doesn't matter like
like if it's real or not real or whatever
whatever the point is what can we
we do with it and
and so that really got me thinking
thinking and I really enjoyed learning
learning about that in school but
but anyway even though i had an interest
interest i was still a really awful
awful writer and not really thinking
thinking very well about how I could
could improve and so this was the
the part of the story that my mom
mom reminded me about when i was at
at her birthday party and she was
was telling me how I actually asked
asked the professor if I could do
do work over the summer so I was I
I was talking to him and like now
now the the memory started to come
come back to me but I thought it was
was really funny that I was asking
asking him I
I like between my I think my sophomore
sophomore and junior year of college
college I was actually writing papers
papers over the summer and just asking
asking like hey I'll write the paper
paper and send it to you can email
email it or can you up can
can you like check it for me actually
actually don't remember if he emailed
emailed it to me or not i think we
we actually mailed like physical papers
papers back and forth to each other
other so i would write something and
and then he would check it and then
then i would look at the writing and
and then I write it again and send
send it back to him and I don't really
really know what encouraged me or
or what inspired me to do that but
but I think maybe when I got to college
college I felt kind of stupid yes
yes I felt bad that you know even
even in high school I could I could
could kind of coast along to coast
coast on something if you think about
about this is like when you're driving
driving a car and you have your foot
foot down on the accelerator to actually
actually make the make the car go
go
go so
so if you pick your foot up the car
car is still coasting for a little
little bit and it will continue to
to coast until it stops and so when
when you hear people talking about
about coasting when they're in a particular
particular school environment something
something like that it just means
means that they're kind of not really
really making much of an effort they're
they're just doing what's the easy
easy thing to do and there are still
still getting by but they're not doing
doing a really good job so I have
have been coasting in high school
school because i didn't really need
need to work so hard but what I had
had to
had to work
work harder in college that was again
again what really kicked my ass what
what really got me to start thinking
thinking well maybe I'm not so smart
smart and i can i can i guess i have
have to really start working harder
harder and actually do a lot of work
work
work if
if I really want to graduate so I
I just thought that was a really interesting
interesting story that my mom told
told me that I'd completely forgotten
forgotten about and it just reminded
reminded me like the the things that
that you see about people like wow
wow like that guy's become a good
good writer or this guy or this woman
woman or whatever when you look at
at people that have a particular skill
skill it's not because they just developed
developed that overnight it was something
something that really takes a lot
lot of time and so today what I'd
I'd like to leave you with is a phrase
phrase that's a very common one in
in conversational English and this
this is to go the extra mile to go
go the extra mile if
if you think about walking you're
you're on a hike or something like
like that you can walk from here to
to here but if you want to get even
even more exercise and train your
your body a little bit more give yourself
yourself a little bit of extra challenge
challenge you go the extra mile so
so you move a little bit further make
make a little bit extra effort and
and all those little bit of extra
extra efforts all of these together
together combine to make up much more
more powerful thing something much
much more important and that's really
really what defines the people that
that end up succeeding at whatever
whatever they do so you hear stories
stories about basketball players like
like Larry Bird so he would come into
into practice he would be the first
first one there he would be the last
last one to leave he's
he's going the extra mile and you
you can talk a lot about the natural
natural talent that people have maybe
maybe somebody is like a really great
great basketball player and you can
can see that but what's more likely
likely is that because they've taken
taken that extra time to practice
practice
practice they're
they're actually seeing a lot more
more improvement so what I'd like
like to encourage you to do today
today is to go the extra mile with
with how you practice and it doesn't
doesn't matter whether it's how you
you speak or how you learn or the
the way you learn whatever that thing
thing happens to be but actually take
take just a little bit of extra time
time in the same way that maybe you
you do 10 push-ups in one day maybe
maybe you try doing 11 or 12 or something
something like that just
just a little bit extra to try to
to go the extra mile to train yourself
yourself to do a little bit more than
than is necessary because that way
way when you get into the conversation
conversation with people you know
know you're actually more kind of
of well prepared than you would be
be normally if you were just in a
a conversation and maybe you hadn't
hadn't really practiced so much so
so whatever your your focus is in
in life you should be always trying
trying to make the extra mile and
and hopefully you have a lot of passion
passion for what you do so you can
can do that but the important thing
thing here is again think about what
what it's like some little bit of
of extra thing that you can do and
and that's what's going to help you
you get more fluent because the people
people that are fluent there's nothing
nothing special or magical like even
even me being able to speak Japanese
Japanese there's nothing amazing about
about that it's
it's just more did I learn in the
the right way did I take the time
time and did I actually go the extra
extra mile to continue practicing
practicing so i can do more than just
just understand people when they talk
talk to me i can actually you know
know have like a great conversation
conversation so actually today I was
was out i was filming I
I don't know we'll see if it becomes
becomes a vlog episode or not but
but i figured i would tell you about
about it so I went out today and I
I was doing just in my local neighborhood
neighborhood i was out getting a haircut
haircut and I thought hey why not
not show a little bit of my neighborhood
neighborhood and what things are like
like and going in there it's me and
and the owner of this shop and then
then two friends of mine so
so we're actually all friends but
but you know they're all quick and
and especially like man younger men
men in particular speaking Japanese
Japanese are quite difficult because
because they're using a really really
really quick language and speaking
speaking quite quickly and not obviously
obviously expressing themselves in
in the same way you would see in a
a textbook so if i'm not prepared
prepared for that then I can't really
really have fun and going back back
back and forth with these people and
and again a lot of that comes from
from just taking the extra time to
to do the little bit of work that's
that's maybe not so fun but you're
you're going the extra mile and that's
that's what's helping you improve
improve
improve anyway
anyway I will leave you with that
that today I don't want to give you
you too much it's nice to be back
back from my vacation i'm slowly easing
easing my way into working a little
little bit more but we have a lot
lot of interesting things coming up
up a lot of things that were really
really excited about especially our
our ultimate guide to pronunciation
pronunciation which will be releasing
releasing very soon and a few uh I
I guess some other things as well
well that we're really excited about
about but i'll save those for later
later topics anyway
anyway have a fantastic day if you
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you in next
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