Emma's Lesson 15

This lesson is about Describing people in English. Let's look what Emma said about this lesson in her own words.

"Do you know the difference between "he is nice" and "he is being nice"? This small change makes a huge difference! In this video, you'll learn how "be" and "being" can either express an overall personality, or a current behavior. The English language is full of small changes which can alter the meaning of a sentence completely. But don't worry! I'll explain how 'be' and 'being' differ from each other, and will teach you to use them correctly. You'll have a chance to see many example sentences, and we'll do some practice exercises together".

In the description of the video she has given the transcript of the video. It will be very helpful you to understand the lesson very easily. You can find it in the below.

Transcript:

Hi there. My name is Emma, and in today's video I am going to teach you the difference between "be" and "being" when we are talking about people. Okay?

So, I'm going to show you some sentences. The first one: "The boy is naughty." So "naughty" is like a bad boy. And the second one: "The boy is being naughty." What is the difference in this...? These two sentences? What is...? Like, just looking at the grammar, what is something that you notice? Well, you probably notice this is the only thing that's different. "The boy is naughty.", "The boy is being naughty." Okay? Now, one of these has to do with behaviour. The other one has to do with personality. Okay? So, if we look at: "The boy is naughty." what we really are saying is the boy is usually bad. It's a part of his personality. It's his feelings. He's... He's a bad boy, it's who he is. He's a naughty boy. That's a little bit different than: "The boy is being naughty." In this case, we're just looking at a behaviour or an action. The boy is usually a good boy, maybe. Maybe he... You know, he usually does what his parents tell him to, he listens to his teachers, he's a good boy, but that one day he is acting a certain way, his actions are naughty, his behaviour is naughty. The boy is being naughty. So, again, the difference is this is more about the boy... It's his personality type, and this is usually a temporary behaviour. Okay? It's not forever; it's just right now he's acting that way, but it's not who he is. So let's look at some other examples.

"You are rude." Okay? Not you personally, but just an example. "You are rude." "Rude", for those of you who don't know, means not polite. So a person who's not polite is a rude person. Okay? If I say: "You are rude." I'm saying it's your personality. You're usually rude. You're a very rude person. It means this is who you are. Now, compare that to: "You are being rude." In this case, you're not usually a rude person; you're quite a polite person, maybe. But in this situation, your behaviour in this moment is rude. Okay? So, again, this is who you are; and this is your behaviour in a specific situation. So I'll give you an example. Okay? You know, I know someone who is always... Well, no, I don't actually know somebody. But imagine if there's somebody who's always picking their nose. We could say: "Ugh, that guy's rude. He's so rude." But if he, I guess does it once... Okay? If it's just a behaviour that happens only one time, you could say: "He's being rude." He's not always rude; it's just this one time.

Here's another example: "He is a smartass." Versus: "He is being a smartass." A smartass is a person who tries to be funny, but they do it in kind of a not nice way. So it's almost like not-nice funny. So if you think about when you were a kid, maybe there were some smartasses in your class, those were the kids who always said things that made the teacher very angry. Okay? So those people are smartassess, they purposely try to make people angry. So if you say: "He is a smartass." it just means that's his character. He's usually this way, this is how he is. If you say: "He is being a smartass." it means maybe just this one time. It's his behaviour in this moment, but it's not usual for him. It's just right now. So let's do some work on this together, let's do some examples together.

Okay, so now let's do some examples together. The first sentence I have: "I was careful when I drove." So when I drive a car, I'm careful. "I was careful when I drove." And again, "was" is the past tense for "be". Okay, so this is something I usually do, I'm a careful person, I drive very carefully. I want you to imagine this: Imagine if I'm not usually careful, but I see a police officer close to me. Okay? Maybe that might change the way I drive. So now I have a behaviour. How can I make this into a behaviour or an action that's not always true? If you said we can add something, you are right. What are we going to add? We're going to add "being", that "I was being careful when I drove."

Let's look at the next one: "Jack is stupid." Jack is a stupid person. I'm sorry if any of you are named Jack, I don't mean you; this is just an example.

You can buy the great IELTS speaking books using following links. These are the best selling Amazon books these days. The students who used these books have enhanced their speaking ability amazingly and have achieved more than band 8 in IELTS for speaking component. If you wish to take your IELTS exam recently, don't waste your time. It's guaranteed that you can achieve a very high score like band 8 or more if you refer these books.

Link to Book 1 

Link to Book 2 

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Emma's Lesson 14

This lesson is about the Many Meanings of "LOAD" in English. Let's look what Emma said about this lesson in her own words.

"How many meanings does the word "load" have? What about "loaded"? In this video, you'll learn some of the common ways we use these words. We'll cover formal, informal, and slang uses of these words. In English, expressions based on one word can have so many different meanings! For example, did you know that "I'm loaded" can mean "I'm drunk" or "I'm rich"? You'll also see expressions such as "a load off my chest", "a shitload", "free loader", "a load of rubbish", and many more. I will also show you some great strategies to help your learning and understanding of new vocabulary".

In the description of the video she has given the transcript of the video. It will be very helpful you to understand the lesson very easily. You can find it in the below.

Transcript:

Hi there. My name is Emma, and in today's lesson I'm going to teach you 10 different expressions with the word "load". Some of these expressions are going to be slang expressions, some of them are going to be verbs, nouns, adjectives; and they all have very, very different meanings. So with the word "load", you might see it a lot. It has a lot of different possible meanings, so you're going to learn 10 today.

I'm also going to teach you two different strategies you should use when you see a word you don't know. Okay? So, in this case, we have the word "load" in many different ways. I'm going to teach you two strategies you should use whenever you see a word you don't know or recognize. Okay? So let's talk about the strategies first, and then I'm going to teach you about the different ways we use the word "load".

Okay, so when you come across a word you don't know, the first thing you should do is you should try to figure out how much information you can get from it. You can try to figure out if it's a noun, which is a person, a place, or a thing. Is it a verb? Is it an action? Is it an adjective? Which means: Does it describe something? Or is it an adverb? Does it describe a verb? Okay? So it's good to know these words, and to try to figure out if a word is a noun, a verb, an adverb, or an adjective. Okay?

Another thing you should do when you come across a new word is you should try to guess what it means based on the words around it. Okay? We call this "context". So, you should look at the sentence, look at the words in the sentence, and look at some of the words in the other sentence, and try to guess what the word means before you look in the dictionary or before you ask your teacher. Remember: The more effort and the more work you do for a word, the more likely you will remember it. Okay? So you want to work hard to remember these words. You want to guess what they mean before you actually find out what they mean.

So let's get started with the word "load". Okay, so I have here the first example we're going to do, and that is the word "loaded" with "ed". I have an example sentence. "Bill Gates is loaded. He has so much money." All right? So I want you to take a moment and think: Is this a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb? So here it is in the sentence. This is... What is this? Well, it ends in "ed", okay? So that means it's probably going to either be a verb or an adjective, because both of these often end in "ed". But because it's followed by "is": "Bill Gates is loaded", it sounds like "loaded" is describing Bill Gates. So it's an adjective. Okay? So in this case, "loaded" is an adjective. It's describing Bill Gates. "Bill Gates is loaded." That's a description of Bill Gates. Okay, so we've done the first one. What about the second one? What do you think "loaded" means? Okay? So look at all the words in the sentence. What do you know about Bill Gates? "Bill Gates is loaded. He has so much money." If you focus on "much money" and "Bill Gates", you know Bill Gates is rich; he has a lot of money. "Loaded" means rich. So we can guess that it means rich, based on the words around it. So, I'm going to write that here. The first meaning of the word "loaded" is rich. I have a friend, she's loaded. She lives in a mansion. Okay? Prince William is loaded. You know, he's a prince, he's going to have a lot of money. I wish I was loaded. Unfortunately, I'm not, but it would be so great to be loaded. So, in this case, "loaded" means rich.

Okay, so we have the word again, "loaded". This is another different meaning of the word. Okay, so I want you to look at the example. "She's loaded. She had 10 beers." Okay. "She's loaded. She had 10 beers." So first, let's ask ourselves: Is it a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb? Okay? So we look here: "She is loaded." Well, again, it ends in "ed", so this is a clue.

You can buy the great IELTS speaking books using following links. These are the best selling Amazon books these days. The students who used these books have enhanced their speaking ability amazingly and have achieved more than band 8 in IELTS for speaking component. If you wish to take your IELTS exam recently, don't waste your time. It's guaranteed that you can achieve a very high score like band 8 or more if you refer these books.

Link to Book 1 

Link to Book 2 

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They're doing well

First of all let me congratulate those who did in IELTS recently and achieved more than band 8. Many students have sent me emails to thank me for the information I shared which were more helpful them to achieve a high band score.

I did what I can do for you. I tried to help you to find many references for IELTS. Many posts I shared with you for IELTS speaking component. And most students were able to achieve more than band 8 for IELTS speaking component. If they scored somewhat less in other some components, they were able to get a overall band score of 7 or more than 7.

As many students said me, the book I shared the link with you helped them more to achieve a high band score in speaking component. For your convenience I'll give you the link below to that book.

IELTS book

The guidance by the above book gave was helped them to achieve a really high band score and the sample topics were also really helped them. Many of the students said that they recommend the above book for their friends and they have already given the book as well.

Not only that book, they said that the videos I shared were more helpful and the Emma's lessons as well. And they specially mentioned that today's thoughts were really helpful them to be inspired within that time period. 

I will share with you some successful stories in the future blog posts so as to inspired you as well.

Share this post so as to reach your friends who really need to enhance their English knowledge.

Keep in touch with us and like our FB page as well.

I wish you all the best!

Emma's Lesson 13

This lesson is about the Meaning of Hand Gestures. Let's look what Emma said about this lesson in her own words.

"Have you noticed that you make hand gestures while speaking your native language? Body movement during conversation can give off social clues that are particular to a certain culture. But when people learn a language, they often forget to learn the words and expressions that we make with our hands. You may find that a hand gesture in your culture has a different meaning in English-speaking countries. In this lesson, I will teach you common hand gestures used when speaking English".

In the description of the video she has given the transcript of the video. It will be very helpful you to understand the lesson very easily. You can find it in the below.

Transcript:

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you all about how we use our hands in English. So there are many ways we use our hands in English. I'm going to teach you a lot of different ways we use them. A lot of students get very confused with this, because the way we use our hands varies from culture to culture, so what we do in Canada and England and the U.S. might be very different than with what you do in your country. Okay? So pay close attention to these differences.

So to start with, let's look at: "knock on wood". If you're living in an English-speaking country, you may have noticed sometimes people have a wooden object or a desk, a table, something made of wood, and they knock on it. Okay? You might wonder: "What does this mean, knock on wood?" In English tradition, if you say something good, for example: "I did very, very well on my test. I killed my test. I did amazing on my test", you might knock on wood to make sure that you don't jinx it. Okay? I'll give you another example. Imagine if I want to go on a picnic, and I'm a little afraid about rain, I might say: "Oh, you know, today's supposed to be a very sunny day. Knock on wood." I'm knocking on wood to prevent rain. Okay? So it's a superstition we do in order to kind of protect ourselves from the opposite happening. Okay? One last example: -"How did your interview go? How did your job interview go?" -"Oh, it went well." [Knocks] Okay, so that's why we knock on wood, it's a superstition.

All right, let's look at some of these other ones. "Quotes". A lot of students have asked me: "What does this mean?" Okay? So, for example, somebody might say: "Yeah, she's beautiful." Or: "He's really smart." This kind of has a sarcastic tone to it. It means somebody has said somebody is beautiful, but you don't believe it. Or somebody has said somebody is smart, but you don't believe it. So if you hear someone saying something, and you're, you know, pretty much using their words but you don't believe it, you can do quotes. Okay? Another example: "Yeah that movie was awesome." Okay? So it means you don't believe it. English is fun. Your teachers might tell you English is fun. When you're talking to your friends, you might say: "English is fun", if you don't believe it.

All right, the next one: "crazy". All right? In English, if we think someone is crazy, we go... Okay? So, for example: "That guy, he's very..." [Clicks tongue] It means he's very crazy. Okay?

"Fingers crossed". A lot of the times in English, we take our fingers and we cross them, and we go like this. This means we're hoping something happens. Okay? So, for example: I hope you like this video, fingers crossed. Or: I hope I did well on the test, fingers crossed. Okay? So this means you hope something is happening. Now, this is a little different from if you take your finger and you put it behind your back. If you take your finger... Your fingers crossed and you put it behind your back, it means you're telling a lie. So, for example: "Oh, I loved the movie you made. The movie you made was incredible." If my fingers are behind my back, it means I'm lying to you. "I never talk to that guy." Okay? Fingers behind my back, it means I'm lying. Okay?

Now, this one you might know, I think it's a very common one: "OK". It can also mean: "nice work" or "A-OK". So that means something has gone well.

We have this one which is a very rude one. This, which means... And sorry, I'm not doing this to you; I'm just teaching it. This means "up yours", which pretty much in English means "fuck you". Okay? So if you ever see somebody going like that, it's not polite. It means up yours or fuck you.

Oh, we have one... Two more. "Peace sign". Okay, when we're talking about peace in English, we often go: "Peace." So this is against war. In the 1960s, there were people called Hippies, they were always going: "Peace." This is very different than the V sign, this. Peace is like this, the V sign is like this. The V sign is something that is almost the same as this. In England, in Australia, in New Zealand, if you do this to somebody, you're pretty much telling them: "Fuck you." Okay? So be careful. "Peace", versus "Fuck you."

You can buy the great IELTS speaking books using following links. These are the best selling Amazon books these days. The students who used these books have enhanced their speaking ability amazingly and have achieved more than band 8 in IELTS for speaking component. If you wish to take your IELTS exam recently, don't waste your time. It's guaranteed that you can achieve a very high score like band 8 or more if you refer these books.

Link to Book 1 

Link to Book 2 

Don't forget to like our FB page. You can follow us via our blog and you can register for the Email subscriptions as well.

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I wish you all the best!

Emma's Lesson 12

This lesson is about IELTS & TOEFL Vocabulary. Let's look what Emma said about this lesson in her own words.

"A common speaking topic on both the IELTS and TOEFL is food. In this class, I will teach you some vocabulary and grammar that you can use when talking about food. These expressions can help you score higher on both tests. I will also give you some common examples of speaking questions you may hear. If you are not taking these tests, this lesson will still help you improve your vocabulary and conversational English".

In the description of the video she has given the transcript of the video. It will be very helpful you to understand the lesson very easily. You can find it in the below.

Transcript:

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you some great expressions and some great things you can say about food. Now, this video will be very, very helpful if you are taking the IELTS, because they often ask you about food in the speaking section, and same with if you're doing the TOEFL, because oftentimes there is a question on food; not always, but often. Also, just this video can benefit everybody, because food is something a lot of people talk about, and so these expressions are very good to use in everyday situations. All right, so let's get started.

I have, here, a question. This question comes up a lot on IELTS, sometimes on TOEFL, and in everyday life. The question is: "What kind of food do you like? And what kind of food do you dislike or not like?" So I've written here some key expressions you can use to... Which mean "like" and "dislike". Now, for IELTS and TOEFL people, you really want to show off your vocabulary, so these are some great ways to do that. All right, so let's look at some of these.

The first one: "I really like..." This is better than just saying: "I like", because you're actually, you know, giving an amount. "I really like something." So, for me: What kind of food do you like? I like Korean food, so I can say: "I really like bibimbap.", "I enjoy bibimbap.", "My favourite dish is bibimbap." "Dish" is similar to food, but it's not... We wouldn't use it for talking about apples or oranges. We use it for talking about a cooked meal. Okay? So a "dish" means something that is a meal. So: "My favourite dish is spaghetti.", "I'm keen on pizza." And here, be careful with this part: "on". "I'm keen on pizza."

Okay, for these two, if you're comparing two foods, you can use these two expressions. So, for example: "I prefer bibimbap to sushi. I prefer lasagna to pizza." So it means I'm saying: "I like pizza better than sushi." Okay? So, key here, preposition "to". "I prefer __________ to __________." Similar-I'll jump on this side-"I'd rather", "I'd rather eat". This means the same thing as "I prefer". The "d" here stands for "would". "I'd rather eat bibimbap than sushi. I'd rather eat Chinese dumplings than McDonalds." Okay? So you can use these expressions, too. Very helpful for TOEFL and IELTS.

Okay, what about for dislike, things we don't like? Here are some examples. "I really don't like..." For me: "I really don't like McDonalds. I really don't like hamburgers. I really don't like hotdogs." This has the exact same meaning: "I can't stand hamburgers. I can't stand anchovies.", "I'm not keen on tuna. I'm not keen on oysters." Okay? And finally: "I really dislike... I really dislike sardines." Okay? So these all mean "don't like", and these all mean "like". These are great expressions to use when you're talking about food on the TOEFL or the IELTS, or everyday life. So now let's look at some new vocabulary we can use when describing food.

Okay, so another question they might ask you on the IELTS or the TOEFL, or maybe one of your friends might ask you this, is to: "Describe your favourite dish." Okay, I'm just going to say this very quickly: The pronunciation of this word: "favourite", "favourite". Okay? Not "fav-our-ite". And "dish", what's a dish again? A dish is like a meal. Okay? So: "Describe your favourite meal." This is a very common IELTS question and TOEFL. So, when you describe your favourite dish, you might want to talk about how good it is. Okay? "It's incredible, it's amazing." So here are some words we can use that can help you maybe get a higher score on your vocabulary. The first one... And these all mean pretty much "delicious".

You can buy the great IELTS speaking books using following links. These are the best selling Amazon books these days. The students who used these books have enhanced their speaking ability amazingly and have achieved more than band 8 in IELTS for speaking component. If you wish to take your IELTS exam recently, don't waste your time. It's guaranteed that you can achieve a very high score like band 8 or more if you refer these books.

Link to Book 1

Link to Book 2

Don't forget to like our FB page. You can follow us via our blog and you can register for the Email subscriptions as well.

Share this post and invite friends to like our page.

I wish you all the best!

Emma's Lesson 11

This lesson is about English Grammar. Let's look what Emma said about this lesson in her own words.

"In this lesson, I explain how and when we use "to" before a verb with the "-ing" ending. The use of "to" before an "-ing" verb is not always correct. But it is correct in a particular case to express an emotion or action happening in the present referring to a past or future event. If this sounds complicated, have no fear! It is a simple structure once you understand how it works".

In the description of the video she has given the transcript of the video. It will be very helpful you to understand the lesson very easily. You can find it in the below.

Transcript:

Hi there. My name is Emma, and in today's video, we are going to talk about something many students wonder about, and that is when we use "to" and "ing" together. Sorry. Okay, so for example... Yeah: "What???" Many students, when they see this, it "poof" their minds; they have no idea: What is this? It goes against all the rules they've learned. So I'm going to explain to you when this happens, and how we can use it. So, let's look at some examples.

This is the most common example of this you will see: "I look forward to meeting you." Notice we have our verb: "look forward", and then we have this little guy, here, "to", and then we also have "ing". Okay? So, in this case, it's very strange. We're going to learn about why this is in a moment, but before we do that, I want to tell you some of the basic rules so you can understand, first off: What am I talking about with "ing", and what am I talking about with "to"?

So let's look at the basic rules. This is all about when you have two verbs in a sentence. For example: "thank" is the first verb, and "help" is the second verb. Okay? What you will notice in English, the first rule is: Any time you have a preposition between the first verb and the second, you're going to use "ing". A preposition is a word like "for", "to", "about", "toward", "up", "down", "in", "out", all of these words that kind of tell us where something is located, these are called "prepositions". So, whenever you see a preposition after a verb, this next verb is going to end in "ing". So our example here: "I thank you for helping me."

Similarly, we have our verb: "interested", "I'm interested", so this is the verb. And we have a second verb: "learn". So, if we have a preposition after the first verb: "I'm interested in", you're going to see that the second verb is going to end in "ing". "I'm interested in learning English." So we don't say: "I'm interested in to learn English." Similarly, we don't say: "I thank you to help me." If you have a preposition like "for", "in", "out", you are going to have the second verb with "ing".

Okay, some verbs... These are verbs without prepositions. If we have two verbs and there's no preposition between them, they will be either verb with a second verb ending in "ing", or a verb plus the second verb beginning in "to". So let's look at some examples so you understand what I'm talking about.

Okay, I have here the verb "enjoy". Here's my first verb. Think of a second verb we can use. Let's say "eat". With the verb "enjoy", the verb that follows is always going to end in "ing". "I enjoy eating.", "I enjoy reading.", "I enjoy listening to music.", "I enjoy shopping." Okay? So, in this case, all... The second verb will always end in "ing". We have another example, here: "I started". "I started", let's think of a verb, any verb. "Fish". "I started fishing." So, again, this is the first verb, here's the second verb, second verb ends in "ing". I en-... Or: "I started drinking.", "I started eating my dinner." Okay?

Then we also have some verbs that you will see... Here's the first verb: "decided". The second verb does not end in "ing". "I decided to", what's a verb we can use here? "Watch". "I decided to watch TV." Okay? "I want to eat ice cream." So, in this case, we have two verbs-so verb one, verb two; verb one, verb two-the second verb begins with the word "to".

Now, other teachers on engVid have already covered this information. What you will notice is that some verbs are always like this, some verbs are always like this, and some verbs do both. It's pretty much you have to memorize: When is it "ing"...? Sorry. "ing", and when is it "to"? What we're really interested in today is this, this really confusing thing: Why is it "ing" and "to"? All right? So let's look at some more examples of this, and I will tell you the rule on when we use "ing" and "to" together.

Okay, so I've explained to you the three rules we use when we have two verbs together. Okay? Sometimes you have a verb followed by "ing", sometimes you have a verb followed by "to", and in the case of prepositions, you have a verb followed by "ing". So I've taught you these three rules. Now we're going to look at when we have both "ing" and "to" together. Okay? So, "ing" and "to" together.

So in this case, we have two verbs. The first verb is: "I look forward to". The second verb is: "meeting". Okay?

You can buy the great IELTS speaking books using following links. These are the best selling Amazon books these days. The students who used these books have enhanced their speaking ability amazingly and have achieved more than band 8 in IELTS for speaking component. If you wish to take your IELTS exam recently, don't waste your time. It's guaranteed that you can achieve a very high score like band 8 or more if you refer these books.

Link to Book 1 

Link to Book 2 

Don't forget to like our FB page. You can follow us via our blog and you can register for the Email subscriptions as well.

Share this post and invite friends to like our page.

I wish you all the best!

Today's thought 15

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Today's thought 14

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Today's thought 13

I wish you all the best!

Emma's Lesson 10

This lesson is about English Vocabulary & Expressions. Let's look what Emma said about this lesson in her own words.

"What's the difference between "housework" and "homework"? What does it mean if a person is "homeless"? Do "house" and "home" mean the same thing? In this lesson, I will answer all these questions and more. I will also teach you common expressions that use the words "house" and "home". You will learn the meaning of "hometown", "homesick", "home sweet home", "on the house", "make yourself at home", and many more".

In the description of the video she has given the transcript of the video. It will be very helpful you to understand the lesson very easily. You can find it in the below.

Transcript:

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you many, many new expressions. Okay? These words and expressions all have to do with "house" and "home", so they're all expressions that have the word "house" or "home" in them. Okay?

So, to get started, I wanted to explain the difference between "house" and "home" before we even look at the other expressions. So, let's get started with that. So, there is a little bit of a difference. A "home" means a house, an apartment, it can mean a condo, it can be any place a person lives. Okay? So, if you ever watched the TV show Sesame Street, there was a character, Oscar the Grouch, his home was in a garbage can. Okay? It's not a house, but it's his home because he lives there. Where a mouse, for example, his home might be in a wall. Okay? Or some people, again, maybe their home is in a tent. So, a home is a place where you live. This is different from a "house". A house is one type of building. Okay? So, a house is not an apartment, it's not a condo. This is a house. This is a house. Okay? So, a house is a very specific type of building. So that's the difference. "Home" is... Refers to anywhere a person lives, but a "house" is a type of building. There might be nobody who lives in the house. Okay? I might have four houses, but I... The one I live in is my home. So that's what the difference is.

Okay, so let's look at some of these very common expressions. The first one is the word "hometown". I'm going to give you an example of this sentence: "My hometown is Toronto." Okay? What do you think "hometown" means? I'll give you a hint. I'm from Toronto and I was born in Toronto. So, "hometown" is the place you're from. Okay? So, I have a friend who was born in Paris. My friend's hometown is Paris. Some people come from big hometowns, other people come from small hometowns. Okay? So the hometown is where you were born or where you spent your childhood. Where you were living when you were a child, that's your hometown.

The next word: "homesick". And I want you to notice my pronunciation of these words. You'll notice that for "hometown" and "homesick", "home" is the loud part. Okay? I say "home" louder than "town", and "home" louder than "sick", so: "homesick". Here's my example sentence of this word: "I'm homesick. I miss my family." Okay? "I'm homesick. I miss my family." Do you think "homesick" means you're happy or you're sad? If you're homesick, it means you're sad. Why are you sad? Because you're not at home; you're not in your country or your city. You're travelling, you're far from where you live. So, many students from all over the world come to Canada to study English. A lot of students miss their families, they miss their friends, they're a little bit sad because they miss everybody, so we say they are homesick. They miss their country, they are homesick.

Okay, again, we have two more words with home: "homeless" and "homelessness". Okay? These words have the same meaning, it's just this is an adjective, and this is a noun. So, I'll give some examples of this. For "homeless": "I sleep on the streets. I'm homeless." Okay? This means I don't have a home. I don't have a place to live. I live on the streets. Okay? So, you know, sometimes when you go to different cities, there are a lot of people on the street, they're asking for money, and they don't have a place to live, we say those people are homeless. When we talk about this problem, we say: "The problem is homelessness." Okay? So that's the noun form. So, there is a lot of homelessness in Toronto. There is a lot of homelessness in many parts of the world. There are many homeless people in Toronto. Okay? So both of these mean you don't have a home, or someone who doesn't have a home.

You can buy the great IELTS speaking books using following links. These are the best selling Amazon books these days. The students who used these books have enhanced their speaking ability amazingly and have achieved more than band 8 in IELTS for speaking component. If you wish to take your IELTS exam recently, don't waste your time. It's guaranteed that you can achieve a very high score like band 8 or more if you refer these books.

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Link to Book 2 

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Emma's Lesson 9

This lesson is about Listening and Understanding. Let's look what Emma said about this lesson in her own words.

""Help! I don't understand." Many English language students have problems listening and feel embarrassed. Do you find yourself struggling to understand native English speakers? Do they sometimes speak too fast or use words you do not know? Do phone conversations make you nervous? You are not alone! You can say goodbye to embarassement because in this lesson, I will teach you THREE STEPS you can follow to help you become a better listener and develop confidence when listening to others. I will also teach you some helpful expressions to use in these situations. Watch the video, and you will start having better English conversations immediately!"

In the description of the video she has given the transcript of the video. It will be very helpful you to understand the lesson very easily. You can find it in the below.

Transcript:

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you how to be a better listener. I'm going to teach you three steps, which will really, really help you with your listening.

So before I teach you how to be a better listener, I want you to think about: What kind of listener are you? Okay? So, I have, here, a question. I want you to imagine this. You're talking to somebody, an English speaker, and you don't understand what they're saying. Okay? You have no idea. I don't understand what they're saying. What do you do? Okay? Here are your choices. Do you: A) look scared? A lot of students do this. Do you: B) Nod and pretend you understand? Nod and say: "I understand", but you really don't understand; you have no idea? C) Are you honest? Do you say: "I'm sorry. I don't understand"? Or, D) Do you say: "I don't understand", and you ask the person to write down what they're saying? Okay?

So, which one do you do? Do you look scared, do you nod and pretend you understand when you don't? Do you say: "I don't understand" or do you say: "I don't understand" and ask them to write it down? Maybe you do multiple things. Okay? Which one do you think is the best thing to do? If you said: D or C, you are correct. Okay? Now, there is a little bit of a difference between C and D. It's mainly that D, we use some sort of listening strategy. I'm going to teach you some very, very good strategies you can use, which will help you be a better listener.

Okay, so if you don't understand something, very first thing you should do is show you don't understand. Okay? You should really let the person know you don't understand. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. We all have times where we don't understand what somebody is saying, but we really do want to know, so it's very important you let the person know that you don't understand.

So, here are a couple of different ways we can say that. The first one: "I didn't catch that.", "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." This means the exact same thing as: "I don't understand." So you can say: "I don't understand." or "I didn't catch that." You can also say: "I'm sorry I don't understand." One thing a lot of students say, but it's not a good thing to say: "I no understand." Okay? This: "I no understand", I hear many students say it. This, wrong. Okay? So you can either say: "I didn't catch that.", "I'm sorry I don't understand.", but you cannot say: "I no understand." That one is bad English. Okay, so that's the first step.

The second step is using a strategy. Okay? So what do I mean by this? When you use a strategy, you're pretty much asking somebody to help you out in a different way. You're asking somebody to do something to help you understand. So, this is an excellent expression, very polite. All of these start with: "Could you please". You can ask the person: "Could you please write it down?" Okay? So: "I'm sorry I didn't catch that. Could you please write it down?" Some... For some people, when they read it, it's easier than listening to it.

You can also ask somebody to repeat what they're saying. "Could you please repeat that?" Okay? That means: "Could you please say it again?" A lot of English speakers and also me, myself included, sometimes we speak too fast. So, it's perfectly okay if you say politely: "Could you please speak more slowly?" Maybe the problem is the person who's speaking is talking way too fast. So just a nice, friendly reminder: "Could you please speak more slowly?"

And finally, the fourth strategy: "Could you please say it in a different way?" This one is very useful because sometimes when you say to an English speaker: "I don't understand", they keep saying the same thing the exact same way, and that's not helpful. Sometimes you really need to hear it in different words, so it's also a great idea to ask the person: "Could you please say it in a different way?" Okay? So these are the first two steps. First, show you don't understand; second, use a strategy. Now let's look at the third step.

You can buy the great IELTS speaking books using following links. These are the best selling Amazon books these days. The students who used these books have enhanced their speaking ability amazingly and have achieved more than band 8 in IELTS for speaking component. If you wish to take your IELTS exam recently, don't waste your time. It's guaranteed that you can achieve a very high score like band 8 or more if you refer these books.

Link to Book 1 

Link to Book 2 

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Emma's Lesson 8

This lesson is about Asking Questions. Let's look what Emma said about this lesson in her own words.

"What is the difference between "how much time" and "how many times"? Do we say "how long" or "how long time"? In this essential English lesson, I will teach you how we use "how much time", "how long", and "how many times". I will also look at some of the most common mistakes students make with these question words and teach you how to correct them. At the end of this video, you will know exactly how to form questions using "how"".

In the description of the video she has given the transcript of the video. It will be very helpful you to understand the lesson very easily. You can find it in the below.

Transcript:

Hi there. My name is Emma, and in today's video I am going to teach you a very, very important grammar point. I'm going to teach you about a mistake many, many students make. So I don't want you to make this mistake, so let's get started. In this video I am going to teach you the difference between "How long", "How long time", "How much time" and "How many times". Students often confuse these four expressions. So let's look at some of the differences.

So I have here a question. I actually have three different sentences, here. One of them is right, two of them are wrong. Okay? So let's look at these together. The first one: "How long time have you been here?" The second one: "How long have you been here?" And the third one: "How many time have you been here?" So one of these is correct. Which one do you think is right? If you said: "How long time have you been here?" that's incorrect. This one, it's wrong. Number two: "How long have you been here?" If you said this one, you are correct. This is right. What about the last one? "How many time have you been here?" This one is also wrong, but we can make it right if we add an "s". So let's go over each of these so you can find out why some of these are wrong, and why some of them are right.

To get started, let's look at "How long". So when we ask somebody: "How long...?" we are asking them about time. Okay? We want to know the amount of time for something. So, for example: "How long have you been here?" I want to know, maybe, how many minutes. Or maybe I want to know how many hours you've been here. Okay? If I ask you: "How long have you lived in England?" an answer would be a number that has to do with time. You might say: "Five years.", "Four weeks.", "Two months." Okay? So when we ask: "How long...?" the answer and what we want to know is about time; minutes, hours, days, months, weeks, years. Okay?

So let's look at another example. "How long have you lived in Spain?" The answer is going to be something about time. "Three years." Okay? You'll notice not always, but many times we use: "How long" with the present perfect. It's possible to use it with the past tense, the simple past, and also the future, but you will often see it with the present perfect. "How long have you been married?", "How long have you worked here?", "How long have you studied English?" Okay? So a lot of the questions you probably want to ask somebody, you're probably going to use: "How long have you...?" Okay? Very common way we ask questions.

So, what about: "How long time"? Can I say that also? Can I say: "How long time have you lived in Spain?" or: "How long time did you sleep on the plane?" No. If you're asking how long, you don't need the word "time". Okay? We never say in English: "How long time". Many students say: "How long time", but this is not correct. The correct expression: "How long". Not: "How long time". All right, so now let's look at "How much time" and "How many times".

Okay, so we've talked about "How long", which is good, "How long time", which is bad. Now let's look at: "How much time...?" I think this is why many students get confused. I think they confuse: "How long" and "How much time", and they... As a result, they create: "How long time", which is incorrect.

So: "How much time" actually is pretty much the same as "How long". When you ask: "How much time...?" you want to know about the amount of time. You want to know about maybe it's minutes, days, weeks, months, years. It's the same as "How long". Okay? So, for example: "How much time does it take to get to work?" I could also say: "How long does it take to get to work?" They have the same meaning. Or: "How much time have you waited?", "How much time have you been in line for?" Okay? So, the answers to these questions are going to be about time. -"How much time does it take to get to work?" -"For me, it takes one hour." -"How much time have you waited in line?" -"I've waited in line five minutes." Okay? So, for both "How long" and "How much time", they're pretty much the same. In conversation, we usually use "How long". Okay? You can use both, but native speakers are more likely to use "How long". So if you're trying to decide: Do I use "How much time" or "How long"? "How long" is more natural and it's more common. Okay? But they mean the same thing.

You can buy the great IELTS speaking books using following links. These are the best selling Amazon books these days. The students who used these books have enhanced their speaking ability amazingly and have achieved more than band 8 in IELTS for speaking component. If you wish to take your IELTS exam recently, don't waste your time. It's guaranteed that you can achieve a very high score like band 8 or more if you refer these books.

Link to Book 1 

Link to Book 2 

Don't forget to like our FB page. You can follow us via our blog and you can register for the Email subscriptions as well.

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Emma's Lesson 7

This lesson is about Fix Your English Grammar Mistakes. Let's look what Emma said about this lesson in her own words.

"Should you say "most of people" or "most people"? "Brazilian people" or "Brazilians"? "Every people" or "everybody"? If you're not 100% sure, this lesson is for you. In this lesson you'll learn how to talk about people correctly in English. This is an important subject because, in conversation, we often talk about things people do. I'll teach you the grammar behind common sentences and statements. You'll learn to use these sentence structures correctly and to avoid mistakes that many English learners make".

In the description of the video she has given the transcript of the video. It will be very helpful you to understand the lesson very easily. You can find it in the below.

Transcript:

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you about some mistakes a lot of students make. So, I've been teaching English for about five years now, and the mistakes I'm going to teach you today, I've seen students make many times in both their speaking, as well as their writing. Okay? So these mistakes are mistakes students make when they're talking about people. So, I'm going to give you some examples of some of these mistakes.

The first one I want to show you: "Some Canadian people hate winter." It's true, I'm one of those people; I hate winter. So, "Some Canadian people hate winter." There's a mistake, here. I want you to take a moment to look, and think: What could the mistake be? "Some Canadian people hate winter." I'll give you a hint: The mistake is somewhere here. If you thought "people" is the mistake, you're correct. "Canadian people", it's redundant. We don't need the word "people", because "Canadian"... If we add an "s" here, this means "Canadian people". Okay? So, instead of saying "Canadian people", we would say "Canadians". "Some Canadians hate winter." It's the same if we wanted to talk about Americans. We would not say: "Some American people hate winter." We would prefer to say: "Some Americans"-with an "s"-"hate winter".

So, let's look at another example. "Many Brazilian people are learning English." So, there's a mistake, here. What's the mistake? "Many Brazilian people are learning English." If you said the mistake was "people", you're correct. When we're talking about nationalities, we do not use the word "people". So, what can we do to fix this? We can get rid of the word "people", and what can we do to the word "Brazilian", because there's more than one? We can add an "s". So, now it's: "Many Brazilians are learning English." Okay?

So, I'm going to give you another example, this time not on the board, but I'm just going to say it. "Many Asian people like spicy food.", "Many Asian people like spicy food." Now, how would you fix this sentence? If you said: "Many Asians like spicy food." you'd be correct. So, when we talk about nationalities, we do not need this word; this word is a waste of space. We just need the nationality with an "s".

So, I have another common mistake students make over here: "Muslim people". So, Muslim is a religion. Okay? "Muslim people fast"-"fast" means they don't eat-"during Ramadan". "Muslim people fast during Ramadan." It means Muslim people do not eat during their holy month, their religious month of Ramadan. So, there's a mistake, here. What do you think the mistake is? If you said, just like this, "people" is the mistake - you're correct. When we talk about religion and we're talking about Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus - you don't need the word "people". We could just change this to: "Muslims". So, "Muslim" here means a whole... All Muslims, it's like Muslim people, but we don't need the word "people".

Here's another example: "Christian people celebrate Easter.", "Christian people celebrate Easter." How can we fix this sentence? We can get rid of the word "people", and just add an "s". We can do the same thing for Hindus. "Hindus are often vegetarian", we could say. "Many Jews live in Israel.", "Many Buddhists live in Asia." Okay? So, instead of saying: "Jewish people", "Hindu people", it's easier just to say "Hindu" with an "s" or "Jews" with an "s". All right, so let's look at some other common mistakes students make.

Okay, so another mistake I often see students make in their writing especially, and also sometimes in their speaking is with "most", "some", and "a lot" when they're using these words with "people". Okay? So, the first example: "Most of people have cell phones these days." I see students use: "Most of people" a lot in their essays. So, what's the mistake, here? I'll give you a minute to think about it. "Most of people". The problem here is "of". Okay? We don't need "of"; "of" is incorrect here. We would just say: "Most people". "Most people have cell phones these days." Okay? "Most people love Chinese food.", "Most people like to play sports." You don't need "of". If you had: "Most of the people", that would be okay, but you need "the" here, although that's not as common.

You can buy the great IELTS speaking books using following links. These are the best selling Amazon books these days. The students who used these books have enhanced their speaking ability amazingly and have achieved more than band 8 in IELTS for speaking component. If you wish to take your IELTS exam recently, don't waste your time. It's guaranteed that you can achieve a very high score like band 8 or more if you refer these books.

Link to Book 1 

Link to Book 2 

Don't forget to like our FB page. You can follow us via our blog and you can register for the Email subscriptions as well.

Share this post and invite friends to like our page.

I wish you all the best!