0:00:05.521,0:00:07.331
Hi, my name is Judy Thompson,[br]

0:00:07.331,0:00:09.791
I teach English as a second language,

0:00:09.791,0:00:11.441
and I love my job.

0:00:11.870,0:00:15.870
Today, I'm going to talk about [br]what everyone needs to know about English.

0:00:16.524,0:00:18.964
So, English is a tricky language;

0:00:19.430,0:00:22.171
the letters and the sounds[br]don't go together.

0:00:22.422,0:00:27.313
So no one can read[br]r-e-d and h-e-a-d and s-a-i-d

0:00:28.064,0:00:30.594
and guess from the spelling -

0:00:32.800,0:00:34.850
and guess from the spelling

0:00:35.107,0:00:37.134
that those words sound the same.

0:00:37.364,0:00:42.548
So the connection between[br]letters and sounds in English is so loose

0:00:42.876,0:00:46.916
native speakers like me, [br]people whose first language is English,

0:00:46.959,0:00:49.879
very often have a difficult time [br]learning how to read,

0:00:49.935,0:00:52.369
and ESL, people who are learning English,

0:00:52.382,0:00:56.142
can often read very well and can't speak.

0:00:56.792,0:00:59.482
So, I'm going to share [br]with you three secrets today

0:00:59.528,0:01:03.818
that 99% of English speakers[br]don't know about English.

0:01:04.131,0:01:08.861
And the first secret is specifically[br]for people learning English,

0:01:08.864,0:01:10.544
it's specifically for ESL.

0:01:10.587,0:01:14.297
And the second secret[br]is for native speakers of English

0:01:14.297,0:01:16.317
to help them communicate better.

0:01:16.317,0:01:18.687
And the third secret is for everyone.

0:01:18.694,0:01:19.982
And once you get,

0:01:19.987,0:01:23.638
once you hear these three secrets[br]about how English works,

0:01:23.638,0:01:27.958
it will transform your relationship[br]to English and your ability to communicate

0:01:28.063,0:01:29.633
for the rest of your life.

0:01:29.757,0:01:31.267
So let's get started.

0:01:32.222,0:01:34.257
So English is a stress-based language,

0:01:34.259,0:01:39.549
and this is important for[br]non-native English speakers to know.

0:01:39.889,0:01:41.767
It doesn't mean very much,

0:01:41.771,0:01:46.075
especially if you come from a language[br]that is a sound-based language.

0:01:46.075,0:01:47.935
And most languages are sound-based,

0:01:47.935,0:01:51.695
where each and every sound is important,

0:01:51.695,0:01:54.245
and if you miss a sound[br]or you say something wrong,

0:01:54.245,0:01:55.855
then the meaning is lost.

0:01:55.855,0:01:58.705
English isn't like this;[br]we don't care about sounds at all.

0:01:58.705,0:02:02.770
So if somebody said at work, you know,[br]"We are having a meeting on Vednesday,"

0:02:03.007,0:02:05.367
everyone would show up [br]the day after Tuesday,

0:02:05.699,0:02:07.829
or if they said, "When is your birfday?"

0:02:08.007,0:02:10.717
you would just tell them[br]the day that [you] were born.

0:02:11.783,0:02:14.473
We have tremendous[br]flexibility with accents;

0:02:14.954,0:02:17.314
sounds just aren't [br]that important in English.

0:02:17.336,0:02:19.226
What is important in English

0:02:19.231,0:02:23.741
is giving specific qualities[br]to specific syllables.

0:02:24.041,0:02:25.472
And I will tell you a story.

0:02:25.472,0:02:28.362
When my children were three and two,

0:02:28.362,0:02:31.272
it was the first time we took them[br]to a restaurant for dinner,

0:02:31.272,0:02:33.047
and the server asked the two-year-old

0:02:33.047,0:02:35.387
"Honey, what would you like for dinner?"

0:02:35.387,0:02:37.537
and she said "basghetti."

0:02:37.928,0:02:40.638
And the three-year-old,[br]who wanted the same meal,

0:02:40.638,0:02:42.648
was incensed with the pronunciation,

0:02:42.648,0:02:47.098
she says, "it's not basghetti,"[br]she says, "it's spasghetti."

0:02:47.098,0:02:48.288
(Laughter)

0:02:48.349,0:02:50.409
And the waiter smiled,

0:02:53.611,0:02:55.391
but no meaning was lost.

0:02:55.447,0:02:59.817
So bas-GHE-tti, spas-GHE-tti, spa-GHE-tti,

0:03:00.074,0:03:02.944
all mean the same thing[br]to a native speaker

0:03:03.036,0:03:09.271
because the center syllable[br]was pronounced louder, longer and higher

0:03:09.554,0:03:11.287
than the rest of the syllables.

0:03:11.287,0:03:14.107
So if you are trying to learn [br]English as a second language,

0:03:15.191,0:03:18.281
stop suffering about your accent,[br]"Oh, I am sorry for my accent,"

0:03:18.281,0:03:20.251
don't worry about your accent anymore,

0:03:20.251,0:03:22.051
don't worry about grammar anymore,

0:03:22.051,0:03:25.377
you have one and only one responsibility,

0:03:25.758,0:03:28.610
and it's to get the stress right[br]in important words,

0:03:28.610,0:03:31.590
and that will carry the day[br]and people will understand you.

0:03:32.545,0:03:35.005
So the second point -

0:03:35.950,0:03:37.120
Oh, wait a second!

0:03:37.120,0:03:39.260
What town are we in right now?

0:03:39.260,0:03:40.550
What town is this?

0:03:40.550,0:03:41.780
(Audience) Oakville.

0:03:41.780,0:03:43.955
It's OAK-ville, exactly!

0:03:43.960,0:03:45.461
"Okvill"?

0:03:45.461,0:03:46.718
I don't know what that is;

0:03:46.718,0:03:49.644
it's Punjabi or it's Korean,[br]but it isn't English.

0:03:49.644,0:03:53.023
And "Oak-VILLE," that would be French.

0:03:53.025,0:03:55.905
So it is OAK-ville, and this country,[br]what country is this?

0:03:55.905,0:03:56.955
(Audience) Canada.

0:03:56.955,0:03:59.335
It's CA-nada, exactly!

0:03:59.335,0:04:00.595
Fantastic!

0:04:00.595,0:04:03.825
And that's the way stress works.

0:04:05.148,0:04:10.034
Secret number two is for native speakers[br]of English, and it's "linking,"

0:04:10.034,0:04:14.054
and native speakers[br]don't start words with vowels.

0:04:14.362,0:04:18.132
We're going to back up for a minute[br]because I'm a native speaker of English,

0:04:18.132,0:04:22.212
and I'm going to tell you something[br]that I am embarrassed to say.

0:04:22.426,0:04:25.532
I really - it's my first language.

0:04:26.397,0:04:29.997
The world's business and science, [br]technology, commerce

0:04:29.997,0:04:31.878
is all done in English.

0:04:31.878,0:04:33.918
Learning English is not my problem;

0:04:33.918,0:04:35.305
it's their problem.

0:04:35.305,0:04:36.751
This is what I really thought.

0:04:36.751,0:04:39.845
I'm embarrassed to say this now,[br]but that's what I really thought.

0:04:39.845,0:04:41.985
Let me show you a picture

0:04:42.851,0:04:44.507
of English in the world today.

0:04:44.507,0:04:48.207
So, this is a circle that represents[br]all speakers of English.

0:04:48.877,0:04:51.027
And the little blue part in the corner

0:04:51.308,0:04:53.624
that's the total[br]of native English speakers,

0:04:53.624,0:04:56.438
so that is Australians[br]and Americans and Canadians,

0:04:56.438,0:05:01.156
all together we form 350 million people.

0:05:01.433,0:05:02.758
And as you can see,

0:05:02.758,0:05:07.735
that's the vast minority of people[br]speaking English in the world today.

0:05:07.735,0:05:14.402
1.5 billion people speak English[br]as a second or third or fourth language.

0:05:14.644,0:05:16.444
And I am still thinking,

0:05:16.444,0:05:19.784
"So what? That's my language[br]that they're after."

0:05:21.375,0:05:24.318
This means most conversations[br]happen in the world today

0:05:24.318,0:05:26.608
between two non-native speakers,

0:05:26.823,0:05:29.448
and they understand each other perfectly.

0:05:29.791,0:05:34.626
So yes! China buys her coffee [br]from Colombia in English.

0:05:34.631,0:05:36.900
And yes, Italy buys -

0:05:38.460,0:05:41.700
Finland buys marble or water from Italy,

0:05:41.700,0:05:43.340
and they use English,

0:05:43.566,0:05:46.298
but it's not the English[br]that I am speaking.

0:05:46.482,0:05:51.652
The pressure of 1.5 billion people [br]learning this language was -

0:05:51.864,0:05:54.754
they changed it; they changed it.

0:05:54.788,0:05:57.323
They changed it so much

0:05:57.327,0:06:01.898
they can understand each other[br]and they can't understand me.

0:06:02.503,0:06:05.075
So, now I see how it's my problem

0:06:05.075,0:06:10.101
that more than 80% of the people[br]who speak English in the world today

0:06:10.603,0:06:12.816
can't understand me.

0:06:12.997,0:06:17.033
They can't understand me for two reasons,[br]and the first one is "linking."

0:06:17.587,0:06:23.757
So, linking is the phenomenon of[br]speaking the easiest way it is to speak.

0:06:23.757,0:06:25.831
So in most languages,

0:06:26.605,0:06:29.704
the way human beings[br]create speech the easiest way

0:06:29.704,0:06:33.784
is alternating consonants[br]and vowel sounds, consonant-vowel.

0:06:34.337,0:06:39.404
So, you know, Germany,[br]Canada, Mexico, China -

0:06:39.592,0:06:41.580
"Hm, hm, hm," that's how people talk.

0:06:41.858,0:06:45.070
And many, many languages[br]are written exactly that way.

0:06:45.071,0:06:48.159
So they start with consonants,[br]alternating consonants and vowels.

0:06:48.159,0:06:50.663
Of course, not English!

0:06:50.663,0:06:54.713
English, as we already learned,[br]is spelt any which way.

0:06:55.852,0:06:58.325
Independently of how it is spelt,

0:06:58.522,0:07:01.112
people pronounce it [br]beginning with consonants.

0:07:02.740,0:07:05.303
So, I am going to need[br]somebody brave here.

0:07:05.822,0:07:08.021
This is a normal thing[br]that somebody would say,

0:07:08.021,0:07:10.817
some native English speaker,[br]you're coming down the hall,

0:07:10.822,0:07:13.231
it's breakfast time,[br]you can smell it cooking,

0:07:13.531,0:07:15.881
you pop in some toast,[br]and you say, "Honey" -

0:07:15.881,0:07:18.691
Who's gonna be the brave one?[br]Who's gonna say this out loud?

0:07:18.691,0:07:21.091
Just like you would say it.[br]Go ahead, say it!

0:07:21.590,0:07:22.830
What does it say?

0:07:22.830,0:07:24.510
(Audience) Can I have a bit of egg?

0:07:24.510,0:07:25.990
Sure. Say it again!

0:07:25.990,0:07:27.700
(Audience) Can I have a bit of egg?

0:07:27.700,0:07:29.707
Can I have a bit of egg? Exactly!

0:07:29.707,0:07:32.948
It isn't slang, it isn't sloppy,

0:07:33.346,0:07:38.315
"Can ni ha va bi da vegg" is what we say.

0:07:38.565,0:07:40.456
"Can I have a bit of egg?"

0:07:41.119,0:07:46.257
Yeah, and this is why[br]1.5 billion people can't understand us.

0:07:46.257,0:07:48.507
Because they can't reconcile

0:07:48.507,0:07:51.607
the words that they've learned[br]and the words they've studied

0:07:51.607,0:07:53.507
with the words that they're hearing.

0:07:53.507,0:07:56.967
God bless when they[br]look for "vegg" in the dictionary.

0:07:56.967,0:07:58.577
(Laughter)

0:07:58.577,0:08:01.135
Yeah, It's just not right.

0:08:03.017,0:08:05.997
So secret number three, the other reason

0:08:06.386,0:08:10.957
that people can't understand[br]what native speakers say is collocations.

0:08:10.957,0:08:15.307
So collocations is another name [br]for expressions, really,

0:08:15.307,0:08:19.349
small groups of words[br]that come together for no reason,

0:08:19.600,0:08:21.434
that create an image.

0:08:21.732,0:08:25.790
So an expression[br]like "fall in love, fall in love"

0:08:25.987,0:08:29.087
creates an image of romance or something.

0:08:29.394,0:08:33.394
But this small group of words is fixed,

0:08:33.607,0:08:38.208
so there is no "fall to love" or [br]"fall between love" or "fall near love,"

0:08:38.208,0:08:40.998
that isn't English,[br]and it doesn't mean anything at all.

0:08:41.088,0:08:43.618
So these expressions are carved in ... ?

0:08:44.828,0:08:47.218
That's right: not soap,[br]they're carved in stone.

0:08:47.218,0:08:49.868
They're not carved in soap.[br]They're not carved in sand.

0:08:49.868,0:08:52.873
And thousands and thousands[br]of these expressions

0:08:52.873,0:08:56.748
is how native speakers [br]really communicate with each other,

0:08:57.018,0:08:58.718
not grammar.

0:08:58.988,0:09:02.638
So people study grammar for -[br]well, they can study it their whole life,

0:09:02.638,0:09:05.778
and they can not sound like[br]native speakers

0:09:05.778,0:09:11.653
because native speakers' expressions[br]run English, not grammar.

0:09:11.655,0:09:12.919
So here's an example.

0:09:12.925,0:09:16.983
Honestly, if a student of mine[br]wrote this paragraph, I would be ecstatic.

0:09:17.531,0:09:19.642
[Last night we ate dinner at home.

0:09:19.642,0:09:20.767
I cooked chicken.

0:09:20.767,0:09:22.857
After dinner, my husband[br]washed the dishes.]

0:09:22.857,0:09:24.957
The grammar is perfect,[br]nothing wrong there.

0:09:24.957,0:09:27.404
But no native speaker[br]would talk like that.

0:09:27.684,0:09:31.332
Because we don't eat meals, we have them,

0:09:31.332,0:09:34.482
and we don't cook food, we make it,

0:09:34.482,0:09:36.818
and we don't wash dishes, we do them:

0:09:36.818,0:09:40.666
"do" collocates with "dishes"[br]for no reason,

0:09:40.666,0:09:43.855
and this is how native speakers speak.

0:09:46.040,0:09:50.019
I'm going to put the final nail[br]in the grammar coffin right here.

0:09:50.815,0:09:56.125
So, there are 208, actually,[br]208 grammar rules,

0:09:56.125,0:09:59.415
so the global English[br]that the 1.5 billion people are speaking,

0:09:59.415,0:10:02.080
they use 10, 10 grammar rules.

0:10:02.080,0:10:04.745
We use 208.

0:10:05.289,0:10:08.169
And here is one that we use:[br]adjectives describe nouns.

0:10:08.169,0:10:09.553
Everybody knows that.

0:10:09.553,0:10:11.875
What's an adjective?[br]Adjectives describe nouns.

0:10:12.046,0:10:14.243
Actually, that's not really true.

0:10:14.525,0:10:17.052
And here is a list[br]of very good adjectives right here.

0:10:17.055,0:10:19.060
Another tricky thing about English

0:10:19.061,0:10:22.935
is we have so many words[br]that mean the pretty much the same thing.

0:10:22.935,0:10:26.386
So there is a bunch of adjectives[br]that mean pretty much the same thing,

0:10:26.386,0:10:31.815
but one and only one collocates,[br]goes together with Christmas,

0:10:31.815,0:10:34.483
there is no such thing[br]as "Gleeful Christmas,"

0:10:34.553,0:10:37.213
there is no such thing [br]as "Glad Christmas,"

0:10:37.213,0:10:38.703
that isn't English.

0:10:38.703,0:10:42.193
And there is no "Merry New Year,"[br]and there is no "Merry birthday,"

0:10:42.193,0:10:43.491
that isn't English.

0:10:43.491,0:10:47.393
So there is about, I don't know,[br]half a dozen things maybe

0:10:47.393,0:10:50.303
that go together naturally with "merry,"

0:10:50.303,0:10:54.133
so you can have "merry men" [br]and "eat, drink and be merry"

0:10:54.133,0:10:57.043
and "merry go round," "the merry widow."

0:10:57.393,0:10:58.397
That's it.

0:10:58.397,0:11:03.227
So "merry" is an adjective;[br]"wall" is a noun, there's no "merry wall."

0:11:03.805,0:11:08.973
Grammatically, it's correct.[br]There is no "merry floor."

0:11:11.291,0:11:15.848
So they - they, the pink guys -[br]1.5 billion people can't understand us

0:11:15.848,0:11:18.909
because we use so many expressions,

0:11:19.226,0:11:20.986
and they don't use any at all.

0:11:20.986,0:11:24.038
So grammar is linear, English is abstract,

0:11:24.038,0:11:25.855
it's an idiomatic language.

0:11:25.904,0:11:30.044
Collocations is the secret [br]to native speaking, not grammar at all -

0:11:30.321,0:11:33.031
we're going to get[br]a few calls about that, I'll tell you.

0:11:33.031,0:11:34.179
So here we go,

0:11:34.691,0:11:39.813
not only do they not -[br]the vast majority of English speakers -

0:11:39.813,0:11:42.219
not use expressions,

0:11:42.501,0:11:44.328
here's a picture of what they do use.

0:11:44.328,0:11:47.198
So, the diagram on the right,[br]you've already seen that,

0:11:47.198,0:11:50.948
that's, you know, the people[br]speaking English in the world.

0:11:50.948,0:11:54.681
The one on the left represents[br]all the words in English.

0:11:54.948,0:11:58.664
So there's more than a million words[br]commonly used in English.

0:11:58.667,0:12:01.177
So anyone here, anybody listening

0:12:01.177,0:12:07.400
has instant access to about 500,000 words.

0:12:08.608,0:12:10.146
We have too many words.

0:12:10.146,0:12:14.866
You see that little pink dot in there,[br]the little pink dot with the arrow?

0:12:15.156,0:12:18.216
Yeah, 2000 words, that's how many words

0:12:18.616,0:12:21.768
all the 1.5 billion people use.

0:12:21.768,0:12:23.730
And this is not a new list.

0:12:23.736,0:12:30.384
So, in 1930, David Ogden developed[br]the "Basic English Word List," 850 words,

0:12:30.384,0:12:33.139
and he took it to India,[br]China, around the world.

0:12:33.452,0:12:38.166
And then by 1958, The Voice of America[br]added 700 words to that

0:12:38.451,0:12:42.342
and has been transmitting[br]the news of the world to the Third World

0:12:42.342,0:12:46.342
using 1500 words, since 1958.

0:12:50.287,0:12:52.197
Native speakers lose.

0:12:52.197,0:12:55.407
We use so many expressions[br]we can't even understand each other.

0:12:55.929,0:12:58.875
My son's eighteen years old;[br]he eats all the time.

0:12:59.319,0:13:03.739
So when we get to the end of my meal,[br]and there is a potato or something there,

0:13:03.739,0:13:05.583
he looks over at my plate and he goes,

0:13:05.583,0:13:07.363
"You finished with that?"

0:13:07.779,0:13:09.249
What is he saying?

0:13:09.820,0:13:12.302
"Can I have your potato?"[br]that's what he said.

0:13:12.302,0:13:14.490
And I say, "Sure, eat my potato."

0:13:14.600,0:13:17.230
So he's eating my potato,[br]and then he looks up and goes,

0:13:17.230,0:13:19.470
"Mom, what are you doing tonight?"

0:13:19.758,0:13:21.311
What does he want?

0:13:21.707,0:13:23.725
He doesn't care what I am doing tonight!

0:13:23.725,0:13:24.705
(Laughter)

0:13:24.705,0:13:26.249
He wants the car.

0:13:26.680,0:13:28.560
It's that abstract,

0:13:28.560,0:13:32.105
there's no connection in words[br]between what we're saying

0:13:32.105,0:13:33.465
and what we mean.

0:13:33.465,0:13:35.965
These guys can't get that,[br]nobody can make that leap,

0:13:35.965,0:13:39.005
so we are not invited[br]to international business meetings:

0:13:39.005,0:13:40.655
we are excluded

0:13:41.541,0:13:45.171
because the person they can't understand[br]at the meeting is us

0:13:45.171,0:13:47.701
and the meeting goes much better[br]when we're not there.

0:13:47.701,0:13:48.771
(Laughter)

0:13:48.771,0:13:52.322
So he is 18 years old, [br]he is on the phone talking to his friends,

0:13:52.322,0:13:53.471
you know, it's like,

0:13:53.856,0:13:58.979
"Gnarly dude, awesome![br]You scored a ThinkPad? That's sick!"

0:13:59.724,0:14:03.462
"Sick!" I know that this is a good thing.

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I don't know what my doctor's saying;

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I don't know what my mechanic[br]or what my son's saying;

0:14:08.923,0:14:11.874
my husband's an engineer,[br]I don't know what he's saying either.

0:14:11.874,0:14:17.104
So English is so exclusive[br]because of our overuse of expressions

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we don't know what each other's saying,

0:14:19.174,0:14:22.844
and 80+% of the world[br]doesn't know what we're saying either.

0:14:23.367,0:14:28.086
So the three secrets that native speakers[br]don't know about speaking English

0:14:28.427,0:14:29.644
are stress -

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English is a stress-based language -

0:14:33.694,0:14:38.454
linking and the process[br]of speaking how it is easiest to speak

0:14:38.454,0:14:40.986
independently of how English is written,

0:14:41.196,0:14:44.226
and collocations or expressions rule,

0:14:44.326,0:14:45.466
not grammar.

0:14:45.946,0:14:47.746
So here's an idea worth sharing.

0:14:47.986,0:14:50.162
I am a native English speaker,

0:14:50.713,0:14:53.645
I teach English, I am an expert

0:14:54.237,0:14:59.031
in a language that is[br]almost past its best before date.

0:14:59.492,0:15:02.771
And there it is in white and black.