How often do you watch a TED Talk either
to practice your English skills or to learn more on a topic you're
curious about. And while watching, at some point you start to
feel frustrated, annoyed, stuck, or even discouraged because the speaker
used a word you had never heard before. In English, there are certainly multiple ways
to boost your English vocabulary and in this Confident
English lesson today, I want to share with
you one of my favorites. When I help students build
their English vocabulary, I love asking them to choose a
TED Talk or a podcast on a topic they're interested in. Then
we start to explore in-depth. We take note of any new
vocabulary including idioms, Fraser, verbs, collocations, and more. We listen carefully to how the
speaker uses those words using context clues to better understand
the meaning. From there, we might confirm understanding
using a dictionary to help us, and then I encourage my students to
create their own example sentences using that new vocabulary in a
sentence of their own that they might use in their real life. Doing this helps my students understand
how they might use this vocabulary and their everyday English conversations. It also helps them remember
this vocabulary more easily. This process is precisely what
I want to do with you today. Together we'll explore 21 English words
and phrases from Laura Vanderkam's, TED Talk on time management.
If you don't already know, Laura Vanderkam is a time management
expert with a podcast called Before Breakfast. In that podcast, she shares bite-sized productivity advice. With each word and phrase in this lesson, I'll share with you its meaning
and how we might use it in an example sentence. If you visit this lesson at my
Speak Confident English website, and I recommend that you do, you'll also find the specific
sentence from the TED Talk so that you see how the speaker used
the word originally, in context. You'll find a link to this lesson
in the notes below the video. By following this process today, not only will you learn new vocabulary
and remember it more easily, you'll also gain strategies that
will help you with effective time management so you can
accomplish what you want. Now, before we get started,
if you don't already know, I'm Annemarie with
Speak Confident English. Everything I do is designed to help you
get the confidence you want for your life and work in English. One way I do that is by sharing my
weekly Confident English lessons that include my top fluency and
confidence-building strategies, targeted grammar topics, and lessons on advanced vocabulary
just like in this one today. So while you're here, make sure you subscribe to
my Speak Confident English
Channel so you never miss one of these lessons. To get started, let me give you some background
on this particular TED Talk, and to help me do that, I
have a question for you. How often do you feel that there
are not enough hours in the day, week, or month for you to
accomplish everything you want? Like me, you might wonder how some people seem
to have enough time to get it all done despite juggling a busy career,
a family, and active social life. In this particular TED Talk that
we're going to explore together, Laura Vanderkam shares how busy
people manage their time and how you can do it too. In this process to
demystify time management, she shares her own experience
and perception of time. She dispels the illusion
that there isn't enough time, and most importantly, she offers practical steps to
help us build the lives we want with the time we've got to make
this lesson easier to navigate. I've separated it into
three parts. Part one, savor the Irony. At the
start of this TED Talk, Laura gives us a look into
her daily normal life, and in doing so, she describes her relatable and
rocky relationship with time management. Here I want to share with you 12 words
and phrases you'll hear in the first four minutes of this TED Talk. Now, before I share that first new
vocabulary word I want to mention, one important thing. After
you watch this lesson, I want you to do two things. One, visit this lesson at the Speak Confident
English website where you will see the specific sentences Laura uses and
how she uses these words in context. After you visit this lesson, I
want you to watch this TED Talk. This will give you the opportunity
to immediately hear all the words that you've learned today
and understand them easily. You'll get to enjoy listening to this
TED Talk in English without worrying about feeling stuck,
frustrated, or annoyed. Also, at the end of this lesson today, I'm going to share with you how you can
apply what you learned today in your own English practice so that you can
choose other TED Talks and podcasts in the future, understand, learn and remember new vocabulary
and enjoy those particular episodes that you choose to listen to. The first phrase on our
list today is to be on time. This means to arrive or do
something at an appropriate time. In other words, it means to be punctual and here's
an example sentence of how you might use it. The plane wasn't on time, so our layover was five hours long. This particular phrase
is extremely common, so I'd like to stop just for a moment
and encourage you to immediately create your own example sentence
using this phrase. Can you think of a time when
you were or weren't on time? Take a moment to write down your sentence
and then let's go on to the next word. Word number two, tardiness. Tardiness is a noun that means
the quality of being late or slow. For example, if you arrive
at a meeting late, you might say, I apologize for my tardiness. There
was so much traffic this morning. Word number three is irony. Irony is a noun that means to use words to express something opposite
of the literal meaning. It can also be a situation that
produces the opposite result than what was originally intended. Before
I give you an example sentence, I want to talk a little bit about
the context in which the speaker uses this word irony. As I mentioned, Laura Vanderkam is a time management
expert and in this TED Talk she shares a story of being
late to her own speech on time management. It's a perfect illustration of irony
and here's an example sentence. The irony of this chaotic situation
is it will actually improve and calm the situation. The fourth word on our list
is a frail verb To shave off, to shave off means to
cut a very thin piece from an object or a surface. It can also be used to mean to
reduce and as simple example sentences. Katie looked for ways to shave
off expenses from the event. And now another phrasal
verb to come up with. To come up with something means
to think of an idea or a plan. For example, if you're problem-solving
at work, you might say, I need a little bit of time
to come up with a solution. Number six on our list today
is an idiom to have something backward. This means to understand
something in the opposite way. For example, she had this situation
backward and thought everyone
had forgotten her birthday. If we were to continue that sentence,
we might discover that in the end, her coworkers or friends
through her a surprise party, but during the day no one said anything, so she made the assumption she had
the opposite understanding that everyone had forgotten. Another
idiom is to keep track of something. This means to monitor something
including all the changes that are taking place. For example, I always keep track of my expenses
to make sure I'm staying within my budget. Number eight is aftermath. An aftermath is a situation
that is a direct result of an accident, a crime, or some other unfortunate
situation. For example, there are calls for a new election
in the aftermath of the recent scandal. The next one on our list
is the frail verb to wind up. Now this one can be tricky because
of course the word wind looks exactly like the noun wind
if we're talking about the weather, but when we're
using a verb or Fraser verb, this word is wind. To wind up to wind up means to end up doing something or to finally
be somewhere. For example, if she doesn't get here soon, she'll
wind up missing the appointment. An alternative way to say this
is if she doesn't get here soon, she'll miss the appointment
in the end. Alright, we have three more words and phrases
to review before we get to part two of this TED Talk. Number 10
is the verb to accommodate. To accommodate means to have enough
space for something or someone. For example, we cannot accommodate more than
a hundred people in this theater. In other words, we don't have enough
space for more than a hundred people. Number 11, the adjective elastic For this one, I want you to think about a rubber band
and the way that it stretches when you pull on it. When something is elastic, it means it's adaptable to the
demands of a particular situation or need, and here's an example sentence. Several months ago in the
Confident Women community, we discussed the idea that
friendships are elastic. In other words, friendships
adapt over time, and now number 12, for the first part of
this particular TED Talk is the idiom. To have it all this
means to have or to get everything someone wants. For example, if you use social media quite a bit, it's easy to assume that
someone else has it all, money, success, love, and so on. When you watch this TED Talk and
you reach the four minute mark, you'll arrive at part
two. It's not a priority. In the second part of her talk, Laura redefines what we really
mean when we say that we don't have time for something or someone
to reframe our thoughts on this. Laura uses the following
words and phrases. Number one, the idiom to catch up with someone. This means to learn or discuss
the most recent news with someone. For example, I can't wait to catch up with my friends
and family when I go home for vacation. Number two is the noun priority. This is a noun that means something
is highly important and it takes precedence over others. For example, at the moment, my priority is to
spend more time with my family. What that means is the most
important thing in my life right now is to spend more time with my family. Number three for this section
is the frail verb to figure out this means to solve or to
completely understand someone or something. For example, if a
coworker brings some cookies to work, you might say, these
cookies are delicious. I need to figure out
how you made them. Now, when I shared the definition, I highlighted that this can mean
to understand something or someone. If you meet someone new and
you have a strange interaction, you might tell someone else about
it and say, I can't figure her out. In other words, I don't
really understand her. And now number four, for part two of this talk is
the idiom to look back over. This means to think about a past event, to review or reflect on
something, and here's an example. I love to document my learning
When I'm working to improve a new skill, that might mean that I document
learning a new language by regularly recording myself or keeping a
journal where I write down all the new vocabulary I've been learning. If
I'm working on my painting skills, it means keeping some of my old
paintings that I don't really like, but that allow me to look
back over time to see the progress I've made. So an
example sentence might be, when you're learning a new skill, it's important to document and
look back over what you've learned to determine your progress,
and now part three, when you watch this TED Talk and
you reach the seven minute mark, you'll arrive at part
three. Break it down. This is where Laura shares practical
tips to help us effectively manage our time and actively
build our ideal lives. In sharing these tips, Laura uses
the following words and phrases. Number one, the Fraser verb
to break down something. This means to deconstruct
or to divide something into smaller parts. For example, if someone gives you a task
at work that is unclear, you might ask for clarification by saying, would you mind breaking down how
you want me to write this report? The second one in this section is
also a phrasal verb to think through something. This means to consider all the
outcomes or aspects of something. For example, while aiming to solve
a problem at work, you might say, let's take a few days to think
through our options. Number three, low opportunity cost. This is a noun that means the
minimal number of resources or the minimal amount of
energy required to take advantage of an opportunity. Let me give you an example sentence and
then we'll talk about it a bit more. Recreational reading has
a low opportunity cost for improved wellbeing. Sometimes we assume that
to improve our wellbeing, we need to invest an enormous
amount of time, effort, and energy, or we need to change
our schedule completely. But the truth is something
as simple as recreational reading for five or 10
minutes a day can lead to tremendous outcomes. Something that does not
require a lot of time or a lot of your resources has great impact. We have just two more words to go and
then I have some practice questions for you, plus how you can continue using
the process you've learned today to build your English vocabulary.
In the final part of this TED Talk, you'll hear the verb To
minimize this means to lessen or reduce. For example, perhaps we should minimize the
time we spend on social media, and lastly, the idiom to putter around. This means to spend time doing
small jobs or things that aren't really important
in a slow relaxed way. For example, if someone asks you
about your weekend, you might respond, I didn't really do much this weekend.
I just putter around in the garden. Now that you have these 21 English
words and phrases from Laura Vanderkam's TED Talk on time management, I want you
to do a few things. Number one, again, visit this lesson at the Speak
Confident English website. There you'll find the specific
sentences Lori uses with the words you've learned today so
that you can see them in context. Then I want you to watch this TED Talk. Listen for the words that
you've learned today. It will reinforce your learning and
you'll be able to enjoy the TED Talk, understanding every part. This process that you've learned
today can be used time and time again just like I mentioned at the start. You can select a TED Talk or a podcast
on something you're interested in. Then review it with a focus on
finding new words and phrases. Write all of them down and include
the specific sentence that was used. Use that sentence to determine
the meaning based on context if you can. Once you've done that, confirm your understanding with a
dictionary and don't forget to create your own example sentence. Now, this is something that you
can do over a period of time. You don't have to do it all
in one practice session. You might spend 10 or 15
minutes listening to a segment of a podcast taking note of new words, and then continue that process
a couple of days later. Once you finish that step, then you can go on to the next steps
and you can split this up or break down this process over time. Doing all of this will help you
boost your English vocabulary and help you understand TED
Talks podcasts and more. To finish, I want you
to do one final thing. I want you to choose two or three new
words or phrases from this particular lesson and create an example sentence. You can share your examples
with me in the comments below. If you found this lesson helpful to you, I would love to know and you can
tell me in one very simple way. Give this lesson a thumbs
up here on YouTube. Share your example sentences with me
and subscribe to the Speak Confident English Channel so you never miss
one of my Confident English lessons. Thank you so much for joining me, and
I look forward to seeing you next time.
