More advanced English with a native speaker in Los Angeles. Grammar and idioms with Megan. (part 2)

hi i'm lisa if you're already an advanced speaker of english but you still sometimes feel insecure about your english then this channel is for you my goal is to make you feel confident about your english not only understanding native speakers but being able to speak like one as well in my opinion the best way to do that is to listen to native speakers and analyze the way they talk and this is why i like to film conversations that i have with native speakers i like to meet interesting people in los angeles people that i think you might enjoy meeting as well [Music] in this video we will listen to a native speaker we will analyze her pronunciation and some advanced grammar that she's using and of course we will pay attention to the expressions that she's using this is part two of my conversation with megan she uses so many different expressions that i really want to teach you they're expressions that native speakers use all the time do you know the expression you can't beat it megan used that expression the weather you can't beat a non-native speaker might say los angeles has the best weather but a native speaker might say you can't beat la weather you can't beat it she also used the expression going on i've been in la going on four years and that expression has three different meanings in english and i will teach you all of those meanings for example a non-native speaker might say i've been working here for almost four years but a native speaker might say i've been working here going on four years maybe you remember my conversation with john who lives on a boat he also used the expression going on right and how long have you lived in the boat going on six years let's continue listening to my conversation with megan in the last video she talked about what it's like working at spago which is one of the most popular and one of the best restaurants in los angeles it's located in beverly hills and there are many movie stars that come to the restaurant and she talked about that in this part of my conversation with megan she talks about where she's originally from which part of the united states she came from and what she thinks of los angeles okay let's watch the first part and then i will come back and i will teach you the expressions and the pronunciation and we will talk about some english grammar so where are you originally from so i'm originally from madawan michigan which is a teeny tiny little town very small very rural it's so rural that we literally had a cow farm right across the street from my house really yes do you know how to take care of cows uh kind of and i grew up with horses so they're essentially the same did you ride horses i did my mom rode horses growing up as a little girl and so she kind of passed that love of horses along to me yeah i grew up around horses i was you know riding practically the same time i could walk so tell me about life in los angeles how is it different from life in a small rural city in michigan it is so different here in la it's just busier i feel like everyone here is much more driven in a sense like creatively is there's just so much creation that's happening in this city a lot of creative energy yeah whether it's music or or film or just you know other side projects technology and things like that there's there's so much going on here which i love um it is nice to kind of slow down i love visiting home i love visiting michigan i get to slow down and that different pace of life is kind of refreshing sometimes but as a place to kind of make my way i live i love living here i do miss the the community feel or like the neighborhood feel um i come from a town where you know everyone knows your name you can hardly get away with anything everyone knows who you are what car you drive you know everyone knows all of that basic information about you so it's hard to get away with it that's funny and how long have you been in los angeles i've been in la going on four years how do you like it i love it there's always interesting people to meet there are just so many things to do i mean the weather you can't beat it's been nice megan said that she's from michigan let's listen to the way she pronounced michigan so i'm originally from madawan michigan michigan has a ch but you notice she didn't say she didn't say mich again make sure you say michigan this is an exception once in a while but not often the ch is pronounced like an sh it's pronounced like in english it doesn't happen very often though most of the time it's with words that have a french origin for example the word chef we don't say chef we say chef some other words are chandelier champagne and the car company chevrolet listen to the way megan said teeny tiny so i'm originally from madawan michigan which is a teeny tiny little town very small very rural megan said that she comes from a teeny tiny town in michigan maybe you know the tiny means very small so if we say teeny tiny we really want to emphasize that it's very very small you can say i adopted my cat when he was a teeny tiny kitten or you can say your writing is excellent but i found a teeny tiny mistake let's listen to the way some other people use teeny tiny just like a teeny tiny seed let me start with this one here which is a tiny one a teeny tiny one and by the way i found out that megan's town matawan michigan is indeed teeny tiny it has a population of 2333 people that is really small isn't it do you live in a town that's even smaller than that if you do let me know in the comments in one sentence megan used two words that are really difficult to pronounce for many of my students let's listen it's so rural that we literally had a cow farm right across the street from my house really yeah this word is so hard to say because it's got two r's and an l the a is reduced and the two r's sometimes sound like only one are some people say it like this rural let's say it the slower way first rural i live in a rural area rural very hard to say isn't it now let's say it more quickly because some native speakers say it like this rural rural and that l is very soft it's a dark l so we don't say rural we say rural rural and this word is also difficult to pronounce literally literally again let's reduce the a and the t becomes a fast d or some people call it a flat t litter literally literally make sure the letter i is a relaxed sound it's not lee literally let's listen to megan again saying both of those words together it's so rural that we literally had a cow farm right across the street from my heart really yeah and now i will say it more slowly so that you can listen carefully and then repeat after me it's so rural that we literally had a cow farm right across the street from my high school listen to me again it's so rural that we literally had a cow farm right across the street from my high school in case you don't know what the word rural means it means in the countryside in a place where there are not many people not in a city it can be a farm or a forest for example this is a rural area let's listen to the way megan used the expression passed along my mom rode horses growing up as a little girl and so she kind of passed that love of horses along to me megan said that her mother passed the love of horses along to her to pass along means to give and often it means to give from one person to another to transmit you can say please pass the information along to them or you can use it like this our company saved money on manufacturing costs so we plan to pass along the savings to our customers i'm sure you know the word practical but megan said practically which has a different meaning from the word practical let's listen yeah i grew up around horses i was you know riding practically the same time i could walk so megan said that she was riding horses practically the same time that she learned how to walk she was really small practically means almost virtually you can say that store near my house sells practically everything i need you can say i've watched practically every video on her youtube channel and if you watch practically every video on my youtube channel your english will improve a lot and you will sound practically like a native speaker my viewers are generally advanced speakers of english so they usually know the expression he is driven or she is driven but i also have intermediate people watching so just in case let me teach you let's listen to the way megan used it i feel like everyone here is much more driven in a sense like creatively megan said that she feels like everyone in los angeles is driven especially creatively and driven means hard-working and ambitious you can say he's very driven or he's not very driven and because you're watching this video i know that you are driven to improve your english the next expression is a side project let's listen to megan whether it's music or or film or just you know other side projects technology and things like that megan said that because people in los angeles are so driven they often have side projects a side project is a second job in addition to your main job something else that you are doing and usually it's something creative but not necessarily you can say i have a side job or i do that on the side i hope that my side project becomes my full-time job one day let's listen to the way megan used going on and remember what i said going on has three different meanings there's there's so much going on here which i love megan said there's so much going on here in los angeles and going on in this case means happening there's a lot of activity you can say i've got so much going on and that means i'm so busy my life is so full i've got so much going on you need to slow down you've got so much going on in your life right now so if you say what's going on it means what's happening but the second meaning of what's going on means how are you people use it just to say how are you remember this one is really casual so don't say this to your boss for example so you can say to your friend what's going on and generally the answer is not much not much it's a casual way to say how are you and i will teach you the third meaning in just a minute because megan uses it in the third way as well and megan said the pace of life do you remember in the previous video i taught you the meaning of pace i get to slow down and that that different pace of life is kind of refreshing sometimes megan says that she enjoys going to michigan sometimes because there's a different pace of life and she gets to slow down and the pace of life is the speed of life and you can say the pace of life is much slower in rural areas the next expression is really common i want to make sure you know how to use it to get away with it or to get away with something let's listen to megan you can hardly get away with anything everyone knows who you are what car you drive you know everyone knows all of that basic information about you so it's hard to get away with that's fun megan said that in her little town madawan michigan it's very difficult to get away with anything because everyone knows who you are and what car you drive everyone knows everything about you so it's hard to get away with anything if you get away with something it means you do something wrong or you do something risky but nobody catches you nobody finds out about it or you don't suffer any punishment or any consequences because of what you did and this expression to get away with it can be used for something innocent that children do or for something very serious that maybe a criminal does you can use it this way the child has been behaving very badly and he's been getting away with it for a long time and that means his parents didn't punish him or maybe his parents didn't catch him doing it you took your father's car without him knowing about it how did you get away with it or for something more serious you can say he got away with murder he killed somebody but he never got punished he didn't go to jail he got away with it let's listen to the third example of going on listen to the way megan used it i've been in la going on four years megan said i've been in la going on four years and that means nearly almost approaching four years you can also use it like this how old is your son he's going on 12. he's almost 12. i'd like to explain to you a grammar point that many of my students asked me about megan used there is and there are both for plural nouns let's listen and then i'll talk about that there's always interesting people to me there are just so many things to do megan said there's always interesting people to meet there are so many things to do so she used there is for people but she used their r for things why is that some of you watching depending on your native language might think that people is singular and that's why she used there is with people be careful about that if your native language is spanish or portuguese for example people is considered a non-countable noun it's considered a group noun in spanish you would say la gente es you would say it in singular lagente s don't say the people is it's the people are but then why did megan say there is with people because very often especially in casual speech people use there is instead of their r with plural nouns it's fairly common and it doesn't necessarily mean that their grammar isn't good it's just a more casual way to say it let's listen to some examples that i found where people use there is for plural nouns and there's animals to play with there's a lot of things going on in the film especially when there's children let's go on to the next expression and this one is also really common can't beat and we usually say you can't beat it i mean the weather you can't beat megan said the weather you can't beat and that means it's the best you can't find anything better you can't beat it let's listen to the way some other people used it sights the smells you can't beat it but i love the color selection and the price point you can't beat it make sure you watch part three of my conversation with megan there were so many wonderful expressions and so many things that i wanted to teach you from my conversation with megan that i needed to make three different videos and the next one is going to be the most interesting one in my opinion i was asking megan about the celebrities that come to the restaurant and i wanted to know do they need to make reservations it's a very popular restaurant and they're booked in advance but i really wanted to know what happens if someone like tom cruise calls and they want to have dinner that night will they be able to get a table the same evening make sure you watch my next video to find out i will teach you a lot of useful expressions in that video meanwhile i'd like you to practice the idioms that i taught you make your own sentences and make sure you say them out loud thanks for watching and keep practicing your english to get the two courses the american accent course and the 400 advanced words you must know for fluent english go to accurateenglish.com

Channel: AccurateEnglish

Views: 179,289

Rating: 4.9527221 out of 5

Keywords: real people in LA, american accent, idioms, idiomatic expressions, advanced english, fluent english, like a native, real people in Los Angeles, native speaker, native speaker of English, native speakers in LA, Lisa Mojsin, ESL, advanced ESL, how to be fluent, advanced grammar, advanced expressions, pronunciation, speak English fluently, TOEFL, TOEIC, EILTS, Spago, working in the US, professional English, learn English, common mistakes

Id: BtVoMYlDy-Q

Length: 17min 50sec (1070 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021