1 00:00:05,521 --> 00:00:07,331 Hi, my name is Judy Thompson, 2 00:00:07,331 --> 00:00:09,791 I teach English as a second language, 3 00:00:09,791 --> 00:00:11,441 and I love my job. 4 00:00:11,870 --> 00:00:15,870 Today, I'm going to talk about what everyone needs to know about English. 5 00:00:16,524 --> 00:00:18,964 So, English is a tricky language; 6 00:00:19,430 --> 00:00:22,171 the letters and the sounds don't go together. 7 00:00:22,422 --> 00:00:27,313 So no one can read r-e-d and h-e-a-d and s-a-i-d 8 00:00:28,064 --> 00:00:30,594 and guess from the spelling - 9 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:34,850 and guess from the spelling 10 00:00:35,107 --> 00:00:37,134 that those words sound the same. 11 00:00:37,364 --> 00:00:42,548 So the connection between letters and sounds in English is so loose 12 00:00:42,876 --> 00:00:46,916 native speakers like me, people whose first language is English, 13 00:00:46,959 --> 00:00:49,879 very often have a difficult time learning how to read, 14 00:00:49,935 --> 00:00:52,369 and ESL, people who are learning English, 15 00:00:52,382 --> 00:00:56,142 can often read very well and can't speak. 16 00:00:56,792 --> 00:00:59,482 So, I'm going to share with you three secrets today 17 00:00:59,528 --> 00:01:03,818 that 99% of English speakers don't know about English. 18 00:01:04,131 --> 00:01:08,861 And the first secret is specifically for people learning English, 19 00:01:08,864 --> 00:01:10,544 it's specifically for ESL. 20 00:01:10,587 --> 00:01:14,297 And the second secret is for native speakers of English 21 00:01:14,297 --> 00:01:16,317 to help them communicate better. 22 00:01:16,317 --> 00:01:18,687 And the third secret is for everyone. 23 00:01:18,694 --> 00:01:19,982 And once you get, 24 00:01:19,987 --> 00:01:23,638 once you hear these three secrets about how English works, 25 00:01:23,638 --> 00:01:27,958 it will transform your relationship to English and your ability to communicate 26 00:01:28,063 --> 00:01:29,633 for the rest of your life. 27 00:01:29,757 --> 00:01:31,267 So let's get started. 28 00:01:32,222 --> 00:01:34,257 So English is a stress-based language, 29 00:01:34,259 --> 00:01:39,549 and this is important for non-native English speakers to know. 30 00:01:39,889 --> 00:01:41,767 It doesn't mean very much, 31 00:01:41,771 --> 00:01:46,075 especially if you come from a language that is a sound-based language. 32 00:01:46,075 --> 00:01:47,935 And most languages are sound-based, 33 00:01:47,935 --> 00:01:51,695 where each and every sound is important, 34 00:01:51,695 --> 00:01:54,245 and if you miss a sound or you say something wrong, 35 00:01:54,245 --> 00:01:55,855 then the meaning is lost. 36 00:01:55,855 --> 00:01:58,705 English isn't like this; we don't care about sounds at all. 37 00:01:58,705 --> 00:02:02,770 So if somebody said at work, you know, "We are having a meeting on Vednesday," 38 00:02:03,007 --> 00:02:05,367 everyone would show up the day after Tuesday, 39 00:02:05,699 --> 00:02:07,829 or if they said, "When is your birfday?" 40 00:02:08,007 --> 00:02:10,717 you would just tell them the day that [you] were born. 41 00:02:11,783 --> 00:02:14,473 We have tremendous flexibility with accents; 42 00:02:14,954 --> 00:02:17,314 sounds just aren't that important in English. 43 00:02:17,336 --> 00:02:19,226 What is important in English 44 00:02:19,231 --> 00:02:23,741 is giving specific qualities to specific syllables. 45 00:02:24,041 --> 00:02:25,472 And I will tell you a story. 46 00:02:25,472 --> 00:02:28,362 When my children were three and two, 47 00:02:28,362 --> 00:02:31,272 it was the first time we took them to a restaurant for dinner, 48 00:02:31,272 --> 00:02:33,047 and the server asked the two-year-old 49 00:02:33,047 --> 00:02:35,387 "Honey, what would you like for dinner?" 50 00:02:35,387 --> 00:02:37,537 and she said "basghetti." 51 00:02:37,928 --> 00:02:40,638 And the three-year-old, who wanted the same meal, 52 00:02:40,638 --> 00:02:42,648 was incensed with the pronunciation, 53 00:02:42,648 --> 00:02:47,098 she says, "it's not basghetti," she says, "it's spasghetti." 54 00:02:47,098 --> 00:02:48,288 (Laughter) 55 00:02:48,349 --> 00:02:50,409 And the waiter smiled, 56 00:02:53,611 --> 00:02:55,391 but no meaning was lost. 57 00:02:55,447 --> 00:02:59,817 So bas-GHE-tti, spas-GHE-tti, spa-GHE-tti, 58 00:03:00,074 --> 00:03:02,944 all mean the same thing to a native speaker 59 00:03:03,036 --> 00:03:09,271 because the center syllable was pronounced louder, longer and higher 60 00:03:09,554 --> 00:03:11,287 than the rest of the syllables. 61 00:03:11,287 --> 00:03:14,107 So if you are trying to learn English as a second language, 62 00:03:15,191 --> 00:03:18,281 stop suffering about your accent, "Oh, I am sorry for my accent," 63 00:03:18,281 --> 00:03:20,251 don't worry about your accent anymore, 64 00:03:20,251 --> 00:03:22,051 don't worry about grammar anymore, 65 00:03:22,051 --> 00:03:25,377 you have one and only one responsibility, 66 00:03:25,758 --> 00:03:28,610 and it's to get the stress right in important words, 67 00:03:28,610 --> 00:03:31,590 and that will carry the day and people will understand you. 68 00:03:32,545 --> 00:03:35,005 So the second point - 69 00:03:35,950 --> 00:03:37,120 Oh, wait a second! 70 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:39,260 What town are we in right now? 71 00:03:39,260 --> 00:03:40,550 What town is this? 72 00:03:40,550 --> 00:03:41,780 (Audience) Oakville. 73 00:03:41,780 --> 00:03:43,955 It's OAK-ville, exactly! 74 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:45,461 "Okvill"? 75 00:03:45,461 --> 00:03:46,718 I don't know what that is; 76 00:03:46,718 --> 00:03:49,644 it's Punjabi or it's Korean, but it isn't English. 77 00:03:49,644 --> 00:03:53,023 And "Oak-VILLE," that would be French. 78 00:03:53,025 --> 00:03:55,905 So it is OAK-ville, and this country, what country is this? 79 00:03:55,905 --> 00:03:56,955 (Audience) Canada. 80 00:03:56,955 --> 00:03:59,335 It's CA-nada, exactly! 81 00:03:59,335 --> 00:04:00,595 Fantastic! 82 00:04:00,595 --> 00:04:03,825 And that's the way stress works. 83 00:04:05,148 --> 00:04:10,034 Secret number two is for native speakers of English, and it's "linking," 84 00:04:10,034 --> 00:04:14,054 and native speakers don't start words with vowels. 85 00:04:14,362 --> 00:04:18,132 We're going to back up for a minute because I'm a native speaker of English, 86 00:04:18,132 --> 00:04:22,212 and I'm going to tell you something that I am embarrassed to say. 87 00:04:22,426 --> 00:04:25,532 I really - it's my first language. 88 00:04:26,397 --> 00:04:29,997 The world's business and science, technology, commerce 89 00:04:29,997 --> 00:04:31,878 is all done in English. 90 00:04:31,878 --> 00:04:33,918 Learning English is not my problem; 91 00:04:33,918 --> 00:04:35,305 it's their problem. 92 00:04:35,305 --> 00:04:36,751 This is what I really thought. 93 00:04:36,751 --> 00:04:39,845 I'm embarrassed to say this now, but that's what I really thought. 94 00:04:39,845 --> 00:04:41,985 Let me show you a picture 95 00:04:42,851 --> 00:04:44,507 of English in the world today. 96 00:04:44,507 --> 00:04:48,207 So, this is a circle that represents all speakers of English. 97 00:04:48,877 --> 00:04:51,027 And the little blue part in the corner 98 00:04:51,308 --> 00:04:53,624 that's the total of native English speakers, 99 00:04:53,624 --> 00:04:56,438 so that is Australians and Americans and Canadians, 100 00:04:56,438 --> 00:05:01,156 all together we form 350 million people. 101 00:05:01,433 --> 00:05:02,758 And as you can see, 102 00:05:02,758 --> 00:05:07,735 that's the vast minority of people speaking English in the world today. 103 00:05:07,735 --> 00:05:14,402 1.5 billion people speak English as a second or third or fourth language. 104 00:05:14,644 --> 00:05:16,444 And I am still thinking, 105 00:05:16,444 --> 00:05:19,784 "So what? That's my language that they're after." 106 00:05:21,375 --> 00:05:24,318 This means most conversations happen in the world today 107 00:05:24,318 --> 00:05:26,608 between two non-native speakers, 108 00:05:26,823 --> 00:05:29,448 and they understand each other perfectly. 109 00:05:29,791 --> 00:05:34,626 So yes! China buys her coffee from Colombia in English. 110 00:05:34,631 --> 00:05:36,900 And yes, Italy buys - 111 00:05:38,460 --> 00:05:41,700 Finland buys marble or water from Italy, 112 00:05:41,700 --> 00:05:43,340 and they use English, 113 00:05:43,566 --> 00:05:46,298 but it's not the English that I am speaking. 114 00:05:46,482 --> 00:05:51,652 The pressure of 1.5 billion people learning this language was - 115 00:05:51,864 --> 00:05:54,754 they changed it; they changed it. 116 00:05:54,788 --> 00:05:57,323 They changed it so much 117 00:05:57,327 --> 00:06:01,898 they can understand each other and they can't understand me. 118 00:06:02,503 --> 00:06:05,075 So, now I see how it's my problem 119 00:06:05,075 --> 00:06:10,101 that more than 80% of the people who speak English in the world today 120 00:06:10,603 --> 00:06:12,816 can't understand me. 121 00:06:12,997 --> 00:06:17,033 They can't understand me for two reasons, and the first one is "linking." 122 00:06:17,587 --> 00:06:23,757 So, linking is the phenomenon of speaking the easiest way it is to speak. 123 00:06:23,757 --> 00:06:25,831 So in most languages, 124 00:06:26,605 --> 00:06:29,704 the way human beings create speech the easiest way 125 00:06:29,704 --> 00:06:33,784 is alternating consonants and vowel sounds, consonant-vowel. 126 00:06:34,337 --> 00:06:39,404 So, you know, Germany, Canada, Mexico, China - 127 00:06:39,592 --> 00:06:41,580 "Hm, hm, hm," that's how people talk. 128 00:06:41,858 --> 00:06:45,070 And many, many languages are written exactly that way. 129 00:06:45,071 --> 00:06:48,159 So they start with consonants, alternating consonants and vowels. 130 00:06:48,159 --> 00:06:50,663 Of course, not English! 131 00:06:50,663 --> 00:06:54,713 English, as we already learned, is spelt any which way. 132 00:06:55,852 --> 00:06:58,325 Independently of how it is spelt, 133 00:06:58,522 --> 00:07:01,112 people pronounce it beginning with consonants. 134 00:07:02,740 --> 00:07:05,303 So, I am going to need somebody brave here. 135 00:07:05,822 --> 00:07:08,021 This is a normal thing that somebody would say, 136 00:07:08,021 --> 00:07:10,817 some native English speaker, you're coming down the hall, 137 00:07:10,822 --> 00:07:13,231 it's breakfast time, you can smell it cooking, 138 00:07:13,531 --> 00:07:15,881 you pop in some toast, and you say, "Honey" - 139 00:07:15,881 --> 00:07:18,691 Who's gonna be the brave one? Who's gonna say this out loud? 140 00:07:18,691 --> 00:07:21,091 Just like you would say it. Go ahead, say it! 141 00:07:21,590 --> 00:07:22,830 What does it say? 142 00:07:22,830 --> 00:07:24,510 (Audience) Can I have a bit of egg? 143 00:07:24,510 --> 00:07:25,990 Sure. Say it again! 144 00:07:25,990 --> 00:07:27,700 (Audience) Can I have a bit of egg? 145 00:07:27,700 --> 00:07:29,707 Can I have a bit of egg? Exactly! 146 00:07:29,707 --> 00:07:32,948 It isn't slang, it isn't sloppy, 147 00:07:33,346 --> 00:07:38,315 "Can ni ha va bi da vegg" is what we say. 148 00:07:38,565 --> 00:07:40,456 "Can I have a bit of egg?" 149 00:07:41,119 --> 00:07:46,257 Yeah, and this is why 1.5 billion people can't understand us. 150 00:07:46,257 --> 00:07:48,507 Because they can't reconcile 151 00:07:48,507 --> 00:07:51,607 the words that they've learned and the words they've studied 152 00:07:51,607 --> 00:07:53,507 with the words that they're hearing. 153 00:07:53,507 --> 00:07:56,967 God bless when they look for "vegg" in the dictionary. 154 00:07:56,967 --> 00:07:58,577 (Laughter) 155 00:07:58,577 --> 00:08:01,135 Yeah, It's just not right. 156 00:08:03,017 --> 00:08:05,997 So secret number three, the other reason 157 00:08:06,386 --> 00:08:10,957 that people can't understand what native speakers say is collocations. 158 00:08:10,957 --> 00:08:15,307 So collocations is another name for expressions, really, 159 00:08:15,307 --> 00:08:19,349 small groups of words that come together for no reason, 160 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:21,434 that create an image. 161 00:08:21,732 --> 00:08:25,790 So an expression like "fall in love, fall in love" 162 00:08:25,987 --> 00:08:29,087 creates an image of romance or something. 163 00:08:29,394 --> 00:08:33,394 But this small group of words is fixed, 164 00:08:33,607 --> 00:08:38,208 so there is no "fall to love" or "fall between love" or "fall near love," 165 00:08:38,208 --> 00:08:40,998 that isn't English, and it doesn't mean anything at all. 166 00:08:41,088 --> 00:08:43,618 So these expressions are carved in ... ? 167 00:08:44,828 --> 00:08:47,218 That's right: not soap, they're carved in stone. 168 00:08:47,218 --> 00:08:49,868 They're not carved in soap. They're not carved in sand. 169 00:08:49,868 --> 00:08:52,873 And thousands and thousands of these expressions 170 00:08:52,873 --> 00:08:56,748 is how native speakers really communicate with each other, 171 00:08:57,018 --> 00:08:58,718 not grammar. 172 00:08:58,988 --> 00:09:02,638 So people study grammar for - well, they can study it their whole life, 173 00:09:02,638 --> 00:09:05,778 and they can not sound like native speakers 174 00:09:05,778 --> 00:09:11,653 because native speakers' expressions run English, not grammar. 175 00:09:11,655 --> 00:09:12,919 So here's an example. 176 00:09:12,925 --> 00:09:16,983 Honestly, if a student of mine wrote this paragraph, I would be ecstatic. 177 00:09:17,531 --> 00:09:19,642 [Last night we ate dinner at home. 178 00:09:19,642 --> 00:09:20,767 I cooked chicken. 179 00:09:20,767 --> 00:09:22,857 After dinner, my husband washed the dishes.] 180 00:09:22,857 --> 00:09:24,957 The grammar is perfect, nothing wrong there. 181 00:09:24,957 --> 00:09:27,404 But no native speaker would talk like that. 182 00:09:27,684 --> 00:09:31,332 Because we don't eat meals, we have them, 183 00:09:31,332 --> 00:09:34,482 and we don't cook food, we make it, 184 00:09:34,482 --> 00:09:36,818 and we don't wash dishes, we do them: 185 00:09:36,818 --> 00:09:40,666 "do" collocates with "dishes" for no reason, 186 00:09:40,666 --> 00:09:43,855 and this is how native speakers speak. 187 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:50,019 I'm going to put the final nail in the grammar coffin right here. 188 00:09:50,815 --> 00:09:56,125 So, there are 208, actually, 208 grammar rules, 189 00:09:56,125 --> 00:09:59,415 so the global English that the 1.5 billion people are speaking, 190 00:09:59,415 --> 00:10:02,080 they use 10, 10 grammar rules. 191 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:04,745 We use 208. 192 00:10:05,289 --> 00:10:08,169 And here is one that we use: adjectives describe nouns. 193 00:10:08,169 --> 00:10:09,553 Everybody knows that. 194 00:10:09,553 --> 00:10:11,875 What's an adjective? Adjectives describe nouns. 195 00:10:12,046 --> 00:10:14,243 Actually, that's not really true. 196 00:10:14,525 --> 00:10:17,052 And here is a list of very good adjectives right here. 197 00:10:17,055 --> 00:10:19,060 Another tricky thing about English 198 00:10:19,061 --> 00:10:22,935 is we have so many words that mean the pretty much the same thing. 199 00:10:22,935 --> 00:10:26,386 So there is a bunch of adjectives that mean pretty much the same thing, 200 00:10:26,386 --> 00:10:31,815 but one and only one collocates, goes together with Christmas, 201 00:10:31,815 --> 00:10:34,483 there is no such thing as "Gleeful Christmas," 202 00:10:34,553 --> 00:10:37,213 there is no such thing as "Glad Christmas," 203 00:10:37,213 --> 00:10:38,703 that isn't English. 204 00:10:38,703 --> 00:10:42,193 And there is no "Merry New Year," and there is no "Merry birthday," 205 00:10:42,193 --> 00:10:43,491 that isn't English. 206 00:10:43,491 --> 00:10:47,393 So there is about, I don't know, half a dozen things maybe 207 00:10:47,393 --> 00:10:50,303 that go together naturally with "merry," 208 00:10:50,303 --> 00:10:54,133 so you can have "merry men" and "eat, drink and be merry" 209 00:10:54,133 --> 00:10:57,043 and "merry go round," "the merry widow." 210 00:10:57,393 --> 00:10:58,397 That's it. 211 00:10:58,397 --> 00:11:03,227 So "merry" is an adjective; "wall" is a noun, there's no "merry wall." 212 00:11:03,805 --> 00:11:08,973 Grammatically, it's correct. There is no "merry floor." 213 00:11:11,291 --> 00:11:15,848 So they - they, the pink guys - 1.5 billion people can't understand us 214 00:11:15,848 --> 00:11:18,909 because we use so many expressions, 215 00:11:19,226 --> 00:11:20,986 and they don't use any at all. 216 00:11:20,986 --> 00:11:24,038 So grammar is linear, English is abstract, 217 00:11:24,038 --> 00:11:25,855 it's an idiomatic language. 218 00:11:25,904 --> 00:11:30,044 Collocations is the secret to native speaking, not grammar at all - 219 00:11:30,321 --> 00:11:33,031 we're going to get a few calls about that, I'll tell you. 220 00:11:33,031 --> 00:11:34,179 So here we go, 221 00:11:34,691 --> 00:11:39,813 not only do they not - the vast majority of English speakers - 222 00:11:39,813 --> 00:11:42,219 not use expressions, 223 00:11:42,501 --> 00:11:44,328 here's a picture of what they do use. 224 00:11:44,328 --> 00:11:47,198 So, the diagram on the right, you've already seen that, 225 00:11:47,198 --> 00:11:50,948 that's, you know, the people speaking English in the world. 226 00:11:50,948 --> 00:11:54,681 The one on the left represents all the words in English. 227 00:11:54,948 --> 00:11:58,664 So there's more than a million words commonly used in English. 228 00:11:58,667 --> 00:12:01,177 So anyone here, anybody listening 229 00:12:01,177 --> 00:12:07,400 has instant access to about 500,000 words. 230 00:12:08,608 --> 00:12:10,146 We have too many words. 231 00:12:10,146 --> 00:12:14,866 You see that little pink dot in there, the little pink dot with the arrow? 232 00:12:15,156 --> 00:12:18,216 Yeah, 2000 words, that's how many words 233 00:12:18,616 --> 00:12:21,768 all the 1.5 billion people use. 234 00:12:21,768 --> 00:12:23,730 And this is not a new list. 235 00:12:23,736 --> 00:12:30,384 So, in 1930, David Ogden developed the "Basic English Word List," 850 words, 236 00:12:30,384 --> 00:12:33,139 and he took it to India, China, around the world. 237 00:12:33,452 --> 00:12:38,166 And then by 1958, The Voice of America added 700 words to that 238 00:12:38,451 --> 00:12:42,342 and has been transmitting the news of the world to the Third World 239 00:12:42,342 --> 00:12:46,342 using 1500 words, since 1958. 240 00:12:50,287 --> 00:12:52,197 Native speakers lose. 241 00:12:52,197 --> 00:12:55,407 We use so many expressions we can't even understand each other. 242 00:12:55,929 --> 00:12:58,875 My son's eighteen years old; he eats all the time. 243 00:12:59,319 --> 00:13:03,739 So when we get to the end of my meal, and there is a potato or something there, 244 00:13:03,739 --> 00:13:05,583 he looks over at my plate and he goes, 245 00:13:05,583 --> 00:13:07,363 "You finished with that?" 246 00:13:07,779 --> 00:13:09,249 What is he saying? 247 00:13:09,820 --> 00:13:12,302 "Can I have your potato?" that's what he said. 248 00:13:12,302 --> 00:13:14,490 And I say, "Sure, eat my potato." 249 00:13:14,600 --> 00:13:17,230 So he's eating my potato, and then he looks up and goes, 250 00:13:17,230 --> 00:13:19,470 "Mom, what are you doing tonight?" 251 00:13:19,758 --> 00:13:21,311 What does he want? 252 00:13:21,707 --> 00:13:23,725 He doesn't care what I am doing tonight! 253 00:13:23,725 --> 00:13:24,705 (Laughter) 254 00:13:24,705 --> 00:13:26,249 He wants the car. 255 00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:28,560 It's that abstract, 256 00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:32,105 there's no connection in words between what we're saying 257 00:13:32,105 --> 00:13:33,465 and what we mean. 258 00:13:33,465 --> 00:13:35,965 These guys can't get that, nobody can make that leap, 259 00:13:35,965 --> 00:13:39,005 so we are not invited to international business meetings: 260 00:13:39,005 --> 00:13:40,655 we are excluded 261 00:13:41,541 --> 00:13:45,171 because the person they can't understand at the meeting is us 262 00:13:45,171 --> 00:13:47,701 and the meeting goes much better when we're not there. 263 00:13:47,701 --> 00:13:48,771 (Laughter) 264 00:13:48,771 --> 00:13:52,322 So he is 18 years old, he is on the phone talking to his friends, 265 00:13:52,322 --> 00:13:53,471 you know, it's like, 266 00:13:53,856 --> 00:13:58,979 "Gnarly dude, awesome! You scored a ThinkPad? That's sick!" 267 00:13:59,724 --> 00:14:03,462 "Sick!" I know that this is a good thing. 268 00:14:04,630 --> 00:14:06,390 I don't know what my doctor's saying; 269 00:14:06,390 --> 00:14:08,923 I don't know what my mechanic or what my son's saying; 270 00:14:08,923 --> 00:14:11,874 my husband's an engineer, I don't know what he's saying either. 271 00:14:11,874 --> 00:14:17,104 So English is so exclusive because of our overuse of expressions 272 00:14:17,314 --> 00:14:19,174 we don't know what each other's saying, 273 00:14:19,174 --> 00:14:22,844 and 80+% of the world doesn't know what we're saying either. 274 00:14:23,367 --> 00:14:28,086 So the three secrets that native speakers don't know about speaking English 275 00:14:28,427 --> 00:14:29,644 are stress - 276 00:14:29,647 --> 00:14:33,315 English is a stress-based language - 277 00:14:33,694 --> 00:14:38,454 linking and the process of speaking how it is easiest to speak 278 00:14:38,454 --> 00:14:40,986 independently of how English is written, 279 00:14:41,196 --> 00:14:44,226 and collocations or expressions rule, 280 00:14:44,326 --> 00:14:45,466 not grammar. 281 00:14:45,946 --> 00:14:47,746 So here's an idea worth sharing. 282 00:14:47,986 --> 00:14:50,162 I am a native English speaker, 283 00:14:50,713 --> 00:14:53,645 I teach English, I am an expert 284 00:14:54,237 --> 00:14:59,031 in a language that is almost past its best before date. 285 00:14:59,492 --> 00:15:02,771 And there it is in white and black.