In this lesson, you're going to improve your listening skills of fast English so
you can better understand native English speakers the first time.
Welcome back to JForrest English.
Of course.
I'm Jennifer.
Now let's get started.
Here's how this lesson will work.
I'll say a sentence three times at a natural,
fast pace, and you need to write down exactly what you hear in the comments.
After, I'll explain what I said and you'll learn
advanced pronunciation changes and you'll learn advanced expressions.
Are you ready?
Remember, I'll say it three times.
Don't snap at me.
Did you get this one?
I said don't snap at me.
Let's talk about SNAP AT.
One of the ways that native speakers can speak quickly is because we combine our sounds together.
So I don't say SNAP AT, I say SNAP at PAT.
So what I do is I take that P from SNAP and I also add it to AT.
So it sounds like SNAP, PAT, and then I combine them together.
SNAP at, snap at.
Native speakers will also drop sounds that force us to take a pause in the middle of a sentence.
If I pronounce the T on, don't I have to take a pause to pronounce that T so I just won't say it.
And this is the same thing for at.
I won't say it.
Don't snap at me.
So I make those T's silent.
I drop the T's.
Now, a lot of times students don't understand native speakers because we use a lot of phrasal
verbs, idioms, and expressions, like in this example, to snap at someone.
What does that mean?
This is literally snapping right now.
I'm snapping now.
Notice it happens very quickly, so when you snap at someone, you speak to someone in a
irritable or abrupt way, so your words come out quickly like a snap and they're often negative.
This happens quite frequently if we are feeling a negative emotion like stress, anxiety, worry.
Let's say I'm working on a project that has a very important deadline and I have a lot of work left.
So I feel quite anxious about this.
And then my husband or friend Co worker asked me a question
and then without even thinking, I snap at them and I say I'm busy.
What do you want?
I can't help you and I say something very abruptly and my words have a lot of irritation in them.
Annoyance.
Frustration that is snapping at someone.
We do this all the time and unfortunately people
who work in customer service are on the receiving end of this.
So a person in customer service might say customers snap at me every day.
I don't take it personally.
You just snap at me because I think he just snapped at me.
Be gargling well, don't snap at me.
You're snapping at me again.
Let's try this again with another listening exercise.
I'll say it three times.
It was a knee jerk reaction.
Did you hear what I said?
I said it was a knee jerk reaction.
Let's talk about knee.
Notice the K is silent.
You don't hear it at all.
Knee.
This happens most of the time when words start with KN.
The K is silent.
There are many common words that start with KN, such as knife, knight, not NIT, no.
And now knee.
All of these words.
The K is silent.
So the word starts with AN knee.
What is a knee jerk reaction?
A knee jerk reaction is a reaction that happens automatically, unconsciously.
You don't think about it.
It just happens.
Just like when you're at a doctor's office and they test your reflexes and if this is your knee,
they hit your knee and then your your leg goes like this.
Have you ever had that done?
They test your reflexes, but when your leg does that, you don't control it.
It happens automatically.
So that's where the expression comes from, a knee jerk reaction.
And I'm sharing this expression because generally
when you snap at someone it is a knee jerk reaction.
When you're busy working on a report and your husband and ask you if you want a
cup of tea and you shout I'm busy, leave me alone.
That is a knee jerk reaction because you didn't sit there and think about responding in that way.
It happened automatically.
So yes, you snapped at your husband, but it was a knee jerk reaction so
you could apologize to your husband and say sorry for snapping at you.
It was a knee jerk reaction.
Was this just another knee jerk reaction?
For you, it was a knee jerk reaction.
You got that half right.
You're not saying no is a knee jerk reaction.
Let's try this again.
I'll say it three times.
She rubs me the wrong way.
Did you get this one?
I said she rubs me the wrong way.
I think the pronunciation is clear, but this is another case where if you don't
understand what it means, even if you hear the words, you wouldn't be able to reply.
So let's talk about the expression to rub someone the wrong way.
This is when you annoy someone without intending to, so it isn't your intention.
You don't try to annoy anyone, but for just some reason you are annoying someone else.
This often happens when people's personalities just clash.
They clash, which means their personalities are different in a way that they're not compatible.
So I might do something that annoys you simply because my personality is
different from your personality, but someone else would not be annoyed by the thing I do.
This could happen in a workplace situation where there's an employee and they're really great at
their job, they're very skilled, but for some reason that person just rubs you the wrong way.
And it's very unfortunate for that person because it's nothing they're actually doing wrong.
But if there's a conference or an event and you have to bring one employee,
you might say let's bring Marcos.
Tim rubs me the wrong way.
So Tim is annoying to you, but it's not Tims fault.
Maybe he is a very outgoing person and he's always laughing and telling
jokes and you're more of a shy, reserved person and your personality is just clash.
And for that reason Tim rubs you the wrong way.
Poor Tim just rubs me the wrong way.
Not Jay.
Guy rubs me the wrong way.
Something about always rubbed me the wrong way.
Let's try this one more time.
I'll say it three times.
I always pick up the slack.
How'd you do with this one?
I said I always pick up the slack for pronunciation.
Let's talk about pick up, because this is
another great opportunity to combine these sounds together.
So what a native speaker will do is they'll take the last sound on pick and they'll put that on up.
So it will sound like cup pick up, cup pick up, pick up.
And then you can say those two words as one because you combine them together.
Pick up, pick up the slack.
Now what does this mean to pick up the slack?
This is when you do work.
That is someone else's responsibility,
but you do it because that person maybe isn't doing it and it needs to get done.
So you pick up the slack.
This can happen in the home, and of course it can happen at work.
But at home, everyone has their own responsibilities,
things that they're responsible for.
Maybe you're responsible for cooking dinner and your partner is responsible
for cleaning up after dinner, for example.
But let's say there's a situation where someone at
home is is busy with something else, so you have to pick up the slack.
For example, I've been picking up the slack at
home while my wife's taking care of her sick mother.
Now, in this case, you're probably happy with picking up the slack.
Or you understand why you need to pick up the slack because your wife is dealing with a sick
parent, which is a stressful situation for her, so you're happy to do that.
But there's other situations where maybe your coworker just isn't doing the work
they need to do, and you end up picking up the slack and you're not happy about it.
For example, I'm sick of picking up everyone's slack.
And we're here picking up the slack.
No worries, I'll pick up the slack.
I just want to thank you for picking up the slack.
Now let's do an imitation exercise so you
can practice these pronunciation changes and these new expressions.
So I'm going to say the sentence again,
and then I want you to say the sentence out loud, and I'll say each sentence three times.
Let's do that.
Now don't snap at me.
Don't snap at me.
It was a knee jerk reaction.
She rubs me the wrong way.
I always pick up the sock.
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And why don't you keep improving your English with this lesson right now?