Today is November 26th. It snowed all day today. The snow is beautiful. The snow finally stopped. My sister and I are excited. My Mom doesn't like the snow. My Mom has to shovel the drive way. My sister and I get to play. I put on my hat and mittens. My Mom puts on my scarf. My Mom zippers my jacket. My sister puts on her hat and mittens. My Mom puts on my scarf. My Mom zippers her jacket. My sister and I go outside. We begin to make a snow man. My Mom starts to shovel the snow. My sister and I make snow angels. My sister and I throw snowballs. It starts to snow again. We go inside for hot chocolate.

How do you improve your English listening skills? If you ask this question to English teachers they will tell you the same thing. They will tell you to go watch movies. They will say that watching movies is a great way to improve your listening.

But there's a problem. A lot of English learners watch movies with subtitles. Some people use English subtitles. Other people use subtitles in their native languages. Now it doesn't matter what kind of subtitles you use. Watching movies with subtitles is a really really bad way to improve your listening and in this video, I'm going to explain to you why it's such a bad idea.

But first let me share with you my personal experience. So back when I was in college I wanted to improve my English listening skills. So what did I do? Well, I started to watch movies with English subtitles. I thought that was the best way to improve my listening. I was really optimistic I thought in two or three years. I would be able to understand native speakers. Unfortunately it didn't work. After six years of doing that I still could not understand native speakers. I still needed subtitles when watching a movie. I was really disappointed. I watch a lot of movies. But I still could not understand native speakers at that point. I didn't really know why didn't work. But now I do so let's talk about that right now.

First there's one thing about listening that you need to know. Listening and hearing are not the same. If you want to improve your listening make sure that when you practice listening you are really listening and not just hearing. So what's the difference between listening and hearing? Well the difference is whether or not you are paying attention. If you're paying attention then you are listening. If you're not paying attention then that's just hearing. So let me give you an example. If you turn on the radio and pay attention to the sound from the radio then that is listening. But if you turn on the radio and that you do something else like reading a book then that's just hearing. You can hear the radio but you're not paying attention to it. You are not listening. And again, if you want to improve your listening, make sure that you are really listening and not just hearing. You need to make sure that you are paying attention.

Now let's talk about watching movies with subtitles. What's wrong with it? Why doesn't it work? As you might have guessed, it doesn't work because you're not listening. You're just hearing, so let me explain when you watch a movie. Your brain is trying to understand the movie but there isn't just one way to do that there are two ways or two options. The first option is to focus on reading the subtitles. The second option is to focus on listening to the sound.

Now I have a question for you. Which option do you think your brain will choose reading or listening? How the answer is obvious your brain is going to focus on reading the subtitles? Why because it's much easier that takes on the screen is clear? So it's very easy for your brain to process. The sounds of people talking on the other hand are not that clear, so it's much more difficult for your brain to figure out what people are saying. As a result, your brain will pay attention to the subtitles and not the sounds, so when you watch a movie with subtitles, you're not really improving your listening. You are actually improving your reading. And that's why it doesn't work. So the best way to improve your listening is to just listen. Don't read and listen at the same time. If you watch a movie in English remove the subtitles, so that your brain will have to focus on listening. If you do that, your listening will improve much faster. That said, there is still a problem. If you remove the subtitles then you won't understand the movie and if you don't understand the movie that is going to be boring so what should you do?

Well here's my suggestion. Don't try to improve your listening by watching movies just watch movies for fun. There's a better and faster way to improve your listening and that is the subject of the next video. In the next video, I'll share with you the method I personally use to improve my English listening skills. So I'll see you again in the next video, and if you don't want to miss that video, make sure you subscribe to this Engfluent channel. And if you want even more advice on how to improve your English, go to Engfluent dot com and sign up for the newsletter or just click these two boxes.

Let's talk about a problem you might have when listening to English, especially when watching a movie. You don't understand what you hear. And this is not because you don't know the vocabulary. If you read the transcript or the subtitles you will understand the material just fine. So you already know the words being used. You just don't recognize them when listening. So what should you do?

According to many research studies. In one study participants were trained to perform a task related to hearing. And there were three levels of difficulty easy normal and difficult. The participants were divided into two groups. The first group was trained to perform only the difficult version of that task. The second group however started with the easy and normal versions first before performing the difficult version. The researchers wanted to know which group would perform the difficult version better. So what was the result? Well despite having less training with the difficult version. The second group actually performed better. Practically speaking this finding suggests that if you have difficulty doing something, instead of just keep doing that it's more effective to start with something easy, and then slowly increase the difficulty as you improve.

So how can you apply this knowledge to improve your listening? I'll tell you. First you have to make it easy in the beginning. For example, if you listen to podcasts in English on your smartphone, find an app that lets you change playback speed. So that you can slow down or speed up what you're listening to. If you listen on your computer there are programs that can do that as well. Then whenever you have trouble understanding, use the app to slow down the audio like this. So now it gets easier right. You have more time to think. You have more time to make out words that aren't pronounced clearly. You have more time to guess the meanings of new words and phrases. The idea here is to make it easy in the beginning. Listen at slower speeds. Listen to speakers that are easy to understand. Listen to easy stuff like podcasts and interviews as opposed to movies. Start small but you're not done yet. Easy to hard training requires you to go from easy to difficult. So once your listening skills improve you have to gradually increase the difficulty, instead of listening at the normal speed, speed it up like this.

Now after you speed it up you must still be able to understand the content, but you should feel a little uncomfortable. This will help you become more familiar with listening to fast speakers. The idea here is to keep pushing yourself. If you keep listening to something easy your listening skills will stop improving. So you have to keep challenging yourself. So listen at faster speeds. Also don't keep listening to the same person. Listen to different people with different speaking styles. And then start watching movies without subtitles. If it's still difficult you can slow down the movie by five percent or ten percent or you can slow it down even more if you don't mind the slowness. Once you get used to it you can then start watching movies at normal speed.

The United States government is composed of three major sections. It is based on the Constitution of the United States of America that was put into effect in May, 1789. The three parts of the US Government are the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Each branch works independently of the other two and each has its own responsibilities. This system is in place to ensure that no branch can carry more power than the other. This is called the separation of powers, which was written into the Constitution.

The executive branch is the branch that most Americans are familiar with. It includes the president of the United States, the vice-president, and the cabinet. The president is the leader of the country and is the commander in chief of the US military. The vice president is second in command, and will act as president if the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office. The cabinet acts as agents of the US President, and carry out the duties they are entrusted with. The legislative branch of government consists of the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Together they form the congress, which can levy and collect taxes, mint money, and establish federal courts. It can also declare war and raise and support the army, navy, and air force to protect the country.

The House of Representatives has four hundred and thirty five members and the Senate consists of one hundred senators, with two from each of the states. Any legislation, or new law must be approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The judicial branch is entrusted to apply the laws created by the legislative branch of government. It has the power to create lower courts under the Supreme Court of the United States. It works closely with state courts, although they are separate.

Christmas, observed on December 25 is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Christians of different denominations go to church on Christmas. Many Catholics go to midnight mass. In the United States, however, the holiday has a much more secular tone and is celebrated throughout the country.

Many people, regardless of their religion, put up and decorate a Christmas tree. The tree can be a real evergreen or it can be an artificial tree. Lights, strings, tinsel, and even popcorn can be used to decorate a Christmas tree. On the top of the tree is a star or an angel. The decorations are usually red and green. The purpose of a Christmas tree is to have a central location to place gifts. According to legend, a jolly fat man with a beard named Santa Claus, leaves presents under the tree. Children in the US often write lists of things they want Santa to bring them. Many parents bring their children to shopping malls across the country to tell a man dressed as Santa what they want. These children are often also photographed with the mall Santa as a keepsake. On Christmas Eve many children leave milk and cookies for Santa.

Of course it is the parents that buy the gifts from the wish lists, and even eat the cookies and drink the milk. On Christmas Day children usually wake up early and run to the tree so they can see what Santa brought them. Adults can also exchange gifts at this time. People don't just decorate a tree at Christmas. Many also elaborately decorate their homes with lights. Some of the displays are even synchronized to Christmas songs called carols. Originally these songs were religious, but now they are about the spirit of the season.

New Year's Day officially begins as soon as people yell. Happy New Year at midnight. Most people continue partying well after midnight into the wee hours of the first day of the new year. In fact, many New Year's parties include breakfast or brunch. Sometimes at the stroke of midnight there will be fireworks and couples often kiss.

One of the most famous New Year's celebrations takes place in New York City's Time Square where a huge cut crystal ball drops at midnight in front of millions of people standing in the cold. Many more millions watch on television. Some groups, called Polar Bear Clubs jump into the cold ocean water on New Year's Day as a literal way to start the new year fresh. New Year's Day, January 1, is a national holiday in the United States. This means that schools, banks, government offices, and post offices are closed. Given how much people tend to drink alcohol on New Year's Eve. Many people wake up on New Year's Day with a hangover. The national holiday is a good day to recover. Many people go out partying with their friends on New Year's Eve. Many people use New Year's Day to visit family members.

New Year's Day is also when many people start on their New Year's resolutions. A resolution is a promise to change a lifestyle habit. The most common resolution is to lose weight. Many people also join gyms as part of their resolutions. On New Year's Day there are also parades such as the famous Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, where all the floats are made of different colored roses and they compete for awards. Many people also watch college and professional football games, including the Rose Bowl, which is also held in Pasadena, California.

Hi everybody, I have a quick question for you. What do you think about your spoken English? Do you think your English is bad? A lot of people who want to speak English think this way because when they speak they have trouble coming up with words. They make a lot of mistakes and their sentence structures is just wrong, and they believe that they're just bad at speaking English and there's nothing they can do about it.

Now, if you are one of those people if you think that there's no way for you to improve your English, then I have something to tell you. You are wrong. You are just plain wrong and in this video I'm going to tell you why. Now, I want you to think about experts and top performers in any field, think about world-class athletes like Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan now here's my question for you. How good do you think they were in the beginning? Do you think they were excellent right from the start? No, of course not, they were terrible in the beginning. Tiger Woods was bad at golf when he began. Michael Jordan was bad at basketball when he began. The bottom line is this when you start out something new. You are going to suck really suck. You are going to make mistakes. You are going to look stupid, and the only way to get better is to keep doing it, and you will get better over time, and this is the truth and it applies to everybody.

But here's the more important question if everybody sucks in the beginning, then what separates successful people from unsuccessful people. How it is possible that they can be English learners? Who are similar to each others? I mean they have the same level of intelligence they have the same resources. But some of them managed to become good at spoken English while others cannot speak English at all. What's the difference the answer is one word action successful people suck in the beginning? Just like anybody else but they keep taking action they keep learning they keep practicing, because they know that even though they're not good at speaking today. They are going to get better if they keep learning if they keep practicing, so they take massive action unsuccessful people on the other hand don't take action very much. They tried to speak English a little bit they try to practice a little bit, but they quit very quickly. I mean they start speaking and they start having trouble it's not making mistakes, and then they say oh English is just not for me, it's too difficult. I'm just not good at language, and then they quit. They just give up immediately.

So here's my challenge to you. After you watch this video, I want you to talk about anything in English, and you just do it by yourself you don't need to find someone to do it with you. You can talk about anything you want you can talk about yourself. You can talk about what happened yesterday, or maybe you can talk about what you've learned from this video. It doesn't matter what to talk about what matters is that you take action and when you do that. I want you to keep two things in mind number one you are going to suck. Just keep in mind that you are going to make mistakes. You are going to say something confusing, or maybe you won't be able to speak at all but be okay with that that's normal everybody has to go through that. I mean this is my first Youtube video and as you can see my drawing sucks is terrible, but I'm okay with that I accepted and you should be okay with your speaking as well.

Second thing I want you to keep in mind is to keep taking action. Just keep learning just keep practicing because it doesn't matter if you suck today, the present does not equal the future, just because you're bad at speaking now doesn't mean that you're always be bad at speaking. If you keep taking action I guarantee that you will improve you will get better. I mean the same is true for my drawing is Saturday. But if they keep drawing if I keep practicing, I'm going to get better. Okay, so that's my challenge to you, and we've come to the end of this video now one last thing. If you want to receive free training videos on how to improve your spoken English, then click the link in the description below, to go to Engfluent dot com and subscribe to my newsletter. I'll be releasing an exclusive training videos on how to improve your spoken English soon and you don't want to miss that. So go to Engfluent dot com, subscribe and I'll see you soon.

The Fourth of July is the United States' celebration of its independence from England. It is the day when the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the new country's forefathers, and is a national holiday.

It has been celebrated every year since 1776. Americans hold this day as one of the most revered holidays in the country. Independence Day celebrations include firework shows that are held by various organizations throughout the country. The shows are held at stadiums, recreational parks, and private homes. Additionally, many businesses have giveaways, and special discounts for all residents on this day. The firework shows are best at stadiums where they attract a large number of people. This is a recent change in the way Americans celebrate the day.

In the past, most people bought their own fireworks from vendors who sell their goods in supermarket parking lots. Another Fourth of July tradition is the backyard barbecue. The holiday occurs in the middle of summer and Americans love to grill outdoors to avoid the heat inside the house. Hamburgers and hot dogs are the food of choice, but steaks are also prepared often. There is nothing better than a great American meal and a cold drink celebrating the Fourth of July. It is a popular holiday and it is one that has great meaning to most Americans.

America is known as the land of opportunity where one could achieve anything they put their mind to no matter who they are. Thousands of people immigrate to the United States every year from different parts of the world to have access to these kinds of opportunities. This is what is known as the American dream. One of the many reasons America is such a great country is the diversity you see all around. America is one big melting pot of citizens from different backgrounds. America is also home to many of the world's top colleges and universities.

California Institute of Technology is a top world-ranked college that focuses highly on science and engineering. It is located in the city of Pasadena. Harvard University is another top world ranked college that you might be familiar with. The buildings at Harvard date all the way back to the year 1636 making Harvard the oldest university in the United States. It is located in the state of Massachusetts, University of California, Los Angeles is another institute worthy of recognition. Located next to Hollywood, UCLA has distinguished itself as a prestigious and selective university, due to the number of people who apply for admission throughout the United States. The universities mentioned are but a few of the many other excellent schools, that make the United States so outstanding.

America is also known for being at the forefront of freedom and equality. Although our history may be contradictory to these ideals, we have progressed and now live in a land of equal opportunity. Whether you wish to become a doctor, a lawyer, or a librarian. America is the best place to be at to achieve these dreams.

Nancy was new to America. She came to America speaking only her native language. She brought her eight year old son with her. He was all she had in the world. They found an apartment in Arcadia. They were there for only two months when a neighbor's dog jumped over the fence. The dog ran toward Nancy's son. Nancy puts her body in between the dog and her son. The dog stopped when it saw Nancy screaming at it. She was going to punch it in the nose. The dog turned around. Shaking, Nancy took her son upstairs. They stayed in the apartment all weekend. Then Nancy found another apartment close to the school that her son was going to attend. She and her son walked everywhere. One day her son started coughing badly. He had an asthma attack. All the walking was making his asthma worse. Nancy knew that she had to buy a car. So she called up the Honda dealer. She talked to a salesman who spoke her language. She told him that she wanted to buy a new car if he could come over to pick her up. The salesman said he would be right over.

It was time for a haircut. Lenny didn't even have to look in the mirror. Even though he was going bald, he knew that he needed to cut his hair every two weeks. He had a tongue of hair on the top of his head. His hair was thinning at the crown. He still had plenty of hair on the sides and back. It was what they call salt and pepper a mixture of gray hair and dark brown hair. It was only a few years he figured until the salt and pepper became just salt. He never let his hair grow for more than two weeks. The longer it got, the worse it looked, he thought. He spread a newspaper over the bathroom sink so that no hair went down the drain. He plugged in the clippers and started cutting his hair. He started at the back of his head went to the sides, and finished on the top. Every minute or so, he had to clean the hair out of the blades with an old toothbrush. Finished, he picked up a hand mirror to check out the back of his head. Everything looked okay. He carried the newspaper back out to the kitchen and shook the hair clippings into the trash can. Then he took a shower.

The yardman comes every two weeks. He drives a gray pickup truck. The truck is a Ford. It is about 15 years old, but it runs well. It doesn't burn oil, and it gets decent gas mileage. The yardman's name is Byron. In the back of his truck are a lawn mower, a leaf blower, a rake, and a shovel. Byron uses the leaf blower to blow leaves and dirt from the back of the building out to the front of the building. Then he rakes up the leaves into a bag. He blows the dirt out into the street. He cuts the lawn with his lawn mower. He trims the hedge. He uses the leaf blower to blow the dirt off each welcome mat that lies in front of each apartment door. Then he puts all the leaves. The grass trimmings, and the hedge clippings into a wheelbarrow. He pushes the wheelbarrow to the back of the building, where he uses his big shovel to empty the wheelbarrow contents into the big dumpster. It takes Byron about two hours to do this work. When he is done, he goes half a block up the street to the house on the corner. There he does the same work again.