English Conversation Training (Workout #2)

Video Transcript
Section 1
Well hey there this is Emma from mmmEnglish! What do you feel like doing today? Do you want to practise your conversation skills with me? Good, that’s the answer I wanted to hear because today we’re going to jump right into another English Conversation Workout and the focus of today’s workout is on making plans.

Now this is something that we do every day isn’t it? We make plans for what we’re going to do together in the future, what we’re going to do in the next moment from now. Making plans is also really awesome conversation practice because we do this little dance together back and forth, left and right. We propose ideas, we share opinions and then we find a solution that everyone’s happy with.

Today we’re going to practise some really common English phrases that are used when making plans and we’re going to practise saying them together to help you sound cool and casual, much more like a native English speaker when you use them so stick around guys, this is going to be a lot of fun!

Today’s workout was made possible by our friends at Lingoda. If you haven’t checked them out yet then you definitely should. They’re an online language school offering all of the benefits of a regular language school except everything happens online which means that you can take your classes in English, French, German or Spanish from wherever you are twenty-four hours a day. It’s really awesome! If you’re a long time student of mine, you will already know that I’ve been taking Spanish classes with Lingoda and I can’t recommend them highly enough.

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Now I’ve put the link and the voucher code in the description down there just for you. It’s definitely worth a look.

Alright guys we’re back, welcome to your next English Conversation Workout. In case you missed the last one, you can go back and check it out later up here or look for this thumbnail in the playlist.

Once again, this workout is an intensive ‘repeat after me’ style lesson designed to help you work those conversation muscles. We’re going to strengthen your speaking skills and your listening skills at the same time and by the time you’re finished, you’re going to look, you’re going to sound, you’re going to feel more natural, more casual just like a native English speaker which I know is what so many of you really want.

The most important part of these workouts is not getting everything technically and grammatically correct. It’s about feeling relaxed, finding your rhythm and letting the words roll off your tongue.

Don’t worry about being perfect let’s just have some fun! I’m your English coach and you’re about to start your daily workout.
This workout is going to follow a very similar pattern as the last one. You’ll do four sets of five similar phrases and we’re going to practise each phrase three times. You’ll listen to me first and then try it yourself. You’ve got to join in, okay? Make sure you’re somewhere quiet and be ready to speak out loud at normal volume. No whispering okay? Best not to use headphones, use the speaker on your phone or on your computerso that you can hear me and you can hear yourself clearly as well. This is not a passive lesson, this is a workout! Get ready!

Now the process of making plans with someone almost always begins with asking a question and in English, the most common, casual and natural way of starting this conversation, especially with friends is simply to ask: What do you want to do?

But I’m going to say it at natural pace now.

What you want to do?

So remember we’re not going to get too technical here. We’re going for natural and relaxed pronunciation so all you need to do is try to make the sounds that I’m making. Here we go.

What do you want to do?

Now can you hear the intonation at the end of that question? It goes down.

Now in some English questions, the intonation goes up at the end. Others, it goes down. This lesson up here is going to explain why but right now I really want you to focus on taking the intonation down at the end of this question.

What do you want to do?

Alright so the next one. Let’s add a time marker to that question, that same question.

What do you want to do this afternoon?
What do you want to do this morning?

Awesome stuff!

So what do you want to do tomorrow?

Great! Now let’s shift the focus in our sentence, in our question a little. We want toshift it to the subject, the person that we’re talking to. What do you want to do later? Notice how the pronunciation changes when we stress ‘you’.

What do you want to do later?

Let’s add ‘so’ to the start of this question because it signals that you’re about to talk in a conversation and helps to bring the focus to you.

So what do you want to do when we get there?

Great work! So again, let’s shift the focus onto the person that we’re talking to.

So what do you want to do when we get there?

Fantastic! Last one now. Let’s add a suggestion to the end of our question.

So what do you want to do? Should we grab something to eat?
So what do you want to do? Should we watch a movie or something?

Awesome! Wow you sound so natural now!

So what do you want to do? Do you want to head into the city?

Great stuff! That last one was super casual. Let’s keep going!

Now in everyday English, asking what would you like to do is a very slightly, more polite form of asking the same question. So you might use it when you’re speaking with work colleagues or customers to show that you really want to know or do what makes them happy and we’ll play around a little with a few variations on this question so I really want you to listen out for some subtle changes in the intonation and the stress as we go through the different examples. Let’s go!

What would you like to do?

Now can you hear how the word ‘would’ and ‘you’ reduce down?

What would you like to do?

Great stuff! Now let’s add a time marker.

What would you like to do now?

Cool! So let’s stress that time marker.

What would you like to do now?
So what would you like to do next?

Excellent!

What do you feel like doing?

So this is another gentle way of politely asking someone for their input.

What do you feel like doing?
What do you feel like doing now?

Great! Let’s keep going, we want to shift our focus to the subject now using stress, okay?

What do you feel like doing?
What do you feel like doing later?

Okay and now let’s take the stress back to the time marker.

What do you feel like doing tomorrow?

Great work guys! This last one is a little tough okay? Are you ready?

So what do you guys feel like doing after work?

Okay let’s push the focus on to the people that we’re asking now, okay?

So what do you guys feel like doing after work?

Now let’s practise the way that you might answer this question and to do this, we’re going to start with an expression like “I feel like…”

So when someone asks a question, you know, “What do you want to do?” They’re usually asking your opinion, they want to make a decision together. So even though they’re asking what do you want to do, you wouldn’t normally use the phrase “I want to..” because it sounds a little selfish, okay?

I want to go shopping.
I want to eat pasta.

So sometimes it might be a little better to say “I feel like…” It’s softer.

Or we could use some language that helps us to make a suggestion like “Let’s…” to make a suggestion like “Let’s…” do something, okay?

All of these also make it a little softer so should we practise a few of these examples?

I feel like eating pasta.

Did you notice there that the L at the end of ‘feel’ and at the start of ‘like’ pull together? ‘feel like’
Those words come together.

I feel like eating pasta.

Now you can also add a pause while you think of what you like.

I feel like eating pasta.

Or you can also drag out the vowel sound in ‘like’ while you’re thinking.

I feel like eating pasta.

Okay now let’s add some emphasis.

I definitely feel like eating pizza!
I really feel like eating pizza too!

Yes! You got it!

How about if we want to make a softer suggestion?

Maybe I’m not really sure what you want to do or eat.

I kind of feel like going to the beach.

Can you hear how I’m reducing ‘kind of’ to ‘kinda’? Using ‘kinda’, I’m saying well I’m not a hundred percent sure. I’m open to other options.

I kinda feel like going to the beach.

So now you try it!

I kinda feel like going to the beach but I don’t really mind what we do!

Now let’s add on our earlier question just to invite the opinion of the people that you’re making plans with.

I just feel like watching a movie but what would you like to do?
I kind of feel like eating pizza.
What do you feel like eating?
I really want to go hiking tomorrow.
What do you want to do?

Fantastic! Awesome work! Last one now. We’ll start with your opinion first and then we’ll ask the other person a question.

Now these ones are super, super casual okay? Listen to how I use intonation to show that I’m asking a question.

I definitely feel like swimming. Keen?
I feel like eating pizza. You in?
I just feel like going outside somewhere sunny and just hanging out. You?

Awesome stuff! Keep practising your intonation, especially on these single word questions. They sound really informal and really natural.

So are you ready for our last set?

So now we’ve practised asking and offering ideas about our plans. The last part of the conversation is of course about finalising those plans. Now there are going to be some super simple and super common phrases with the question words ‘where’ and ‘when’.

So are you ready to keep going? This is our last set so we’ve got to just stick at it a bit longer. Right.

Where do you want to meet?

Good one!

Just a little bit more emphasis on ‘where’ okay? Notice how I drag it out a little?

Where do you want to meet?

And now the same for ‘when’.

When do you want to go?

Focus on all of those unstressed words in the middle there okay? All of them are reducing down.

When do you want to go?
When do you want to leave?

This is actually the perfect example of how stress patterns can highlight the really important parts of our sentence ‘when’ and ‘leave’

When do you want to leave?
When do you want to arrive?
When do you want to get there?

Great! Now let’s add some time markers in for context.

What time do you want to meet tomorrow?
What time do you want to head off in the morning?
What time do you want to eat tonight?

Good! Now if you want to keep your options open, we can also use ‘feel like’ here instead of ‘want’

When do you feel like leaving?
Where do you feel like eating tonight?
So what time do you feel like we should arrive?

So good! Nice work! We’re up to the last one now so what we’re going to do is add a prompting question to our main question and this is something that we do all the time to help reach a decision faster. We combine questions and suggestions together.

When do you want to leave? Should we head off early? Remember that we really want to be casual so we might even lose the question structure here a little, okay? And just use intonation to show that it’s a question.

When do you want to leave? Early?

Cool!

When do you want me to call? Before or after work?
What time do you want to go? And where should we meet? Out the front?

Yes! You’re amazing! Well done! Nice work for sticking with me all the way through that training. Are you exhausted now? This is a completely different type of conversation training. It’s training your mouth and your muscles and your memory through repetition. We repeated many, many common phrases in a really natural way through that lesson by reducing and linking sounds together to help you sound more relaxed and like a native speaker.

Now of course you already know that the whole point of a workout is not just to do it once and then leave. I want you to save this video to a playlist, a playlist with my other imitation lessons and the other workouts. Make sure you come back daily for your English conversation training.

And subscribe as well. I’m making more English workouts for you just like this one. So let me know in the comments down below this video what types of conversations you want to practise and I’ll try and make those lessons for you.

Here’s another lesson or another workout right here and a completely different one down there if you’ve had enough training for today. I’ll see you in there!