Hello friends! Welcome back. Have you maybe thought about traveling to an English-speaking country to improve your level of English
or maybe to immerse yourself in the English language? In this video lesson
I've invited Azren. Azren - the language nerd, a polyglot to talk to us a little bit about learning the language abroad.
We'll talk a little bit about shadowing, about immersion and what you can do when traveling and learning a language abroad
to improve your level and your skills in your second language.
Friends, use this video lesson as listening practice. Azren is from Canada
and I am from Australia, so in this lesson you'll hear both the Australian and the Canadian accent.
Azran I talk about different topics. We talk about immersion.
What is immersion process, we talk about shadowing, applying the shadowing technique,
and we talk about how Azern learns a language while he is living abroad.
Friends, before we hear from Azren, I would love to hear from you.
Are you maybe considering or thinking about going to live and learn English in an English-speaking country?
If you are, tell me which country you would like to go and why?
Why would you like to go live abroad to improve your level of English?
Friends, tell me in detail in the comments below this video.
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Okay, back on topic and let's hear from Azren. Let's hear about his experience learning a language abroad.
Friends, while you're listening to conversation I want to quiz you a little bit. Watch the
whole video lesson and at the end
Pay attention to all the details Azren shares as at the end of this lesson there will be a quiz.
Hello Azren! Thank you for joining us today.
Not a problem. Happy to be here. Thank you. Tell me a little bit about you,
maybe you can tell me and us a little bit about why I want to talk to you. I'm sure you're very talented person, so.
Well so my name is Azren and I speak many languages and I like learning them.
So,
I currently speak English, French, Spanish at basically the same level, and then I speak Mandarin and Gujarati at an intermediate level.
Interesting. So you're a polyglot then! Yes.
Tell us a little bit, so I speak in a lot of my lessons and when I'm speaking online, teaching online,
I talk a lot about shadowing and imitation.
Do you know what the shadowing technique is, the imitation technique? Maybe you could share with us a little bit your experience with, with this.
Yeah, so I travel a lot and one of the reasons why I travel is because it gives me many people, like an infinite amount
of people to shadow or imitate.
So for example, I am going to be leaving for India in four days from today.
And I'll be there for just under two months where I'll be studying my own first language
which is Gujarati and I'll also be studying Hindi. One of the reasons I'm going to India is because when I'm there there's
literally who knows how many people I could
watch and and imitate the way that they're speaking and imitate their accent and imitate their
mannerisms, their behaviors. Their... the words they use, the vocabulary etc and
then kind of implement it into my speech in a way that feels
natural. So yeah, I'm a fan to be honest.
Okay, but when you say imitate like...And you're... so you're going to India well when, when we publish this you'll be
in India. Yeah. In a little bit, but what do you look for, what, you pay attention to their mannerisms?
But what exactly? Because you're at the moment in Canada.
What, what do you? I don't know when you say... when I hear this I'm a little bit confused.
What are you looking for? Their body movements, do they look happy, sad? What exactly are you analyzing?
Personally, all of it, but that comes very natural to me.
So if we're to like break it down for someone who's thinking "I don't understand that" I would go things like: word choice,
accent. Sometimes... This is a good example when I was learning Spanish. I was told that the Spanish D
But then when I listened, when I really listened to people, I noticed that oh that actually doesn't sound the same. So
elements, I would also listen for any slang that maybe you hadn't heard before.
You know, grammatical, maybe any grammar point. So sometimes,
sometimes you might have learned a grammar in class
but it didn't really stick, like I didn't fully absorb into your brain.
So maybe specifically listening for the grammar point that you've found difficult.
Yeah, yeah, I think overall, to sum it up
I would just be listening for whatever you've struggled with the most
I would listen for that or watch for that, if that makes sense.
It's interesting you brought up a grammar point. So when I'm teaching English I always say like articles and prepositions is something that many
and many intermediate to advanced English learners really struggle with and I always suggest, I always
tell them: Okay, look out for how at the moment we're using articles or some prepositions because this is like a finesse for the language.
But when you're looking out for grammar,
how do you look out for it? Because I know this is something...
When you're listening to a conversation like ours at the moment,
do you think of the grammar rules or do you think of the context? How are you...
What's going through your mind when you're hearing someone speaking in, in another language?
And what are you looking for when they're using grammar?
When they're using grammar... A question I never thought about what specifically I look for
but I specifically...
There's a couple things, it depends on context. I'm thinking back to my past experience. I would say
one of which is... one of the things is patterns. So I'll give you an example: in Chinese, in Mandarin, there is a
specific grammar point called ba like the letters B A in English that just doesn't exist in English. Long story short,
I'm not gonna go crazy detail, but long story short:
Anything one thing changes to a different state, so calm water changes to boiling water.
Maybe if you move something to a different place, dirty, you wash your clothes, from dirty to clean.
You need to use this ba and it's was very confusing for me.
So what I would do is I would listen for any time I'd hear someone use it
I'd say: Oh, he used it with, you know, dirty clothes to clean clothes.
Interesting, okay, I'd like make a mental note or if I had paper I'd write it down. So maybe that's, it's a specific scenarios.
That's one way you can look at it.
Yeah, I think it's very situational, but it's one practical thing you can do is listen for specific scenarios that grammar point is used and
hopefully you can draw connection after you've heard enough of that.
Over time you can draw connections and go: Oh, I understand, now I understand how to use
you know, past simple or what, what whatever it is, right?
So if I'm not mistaken, so you pick....
You already know before you go somewhere what grammar point you're weak in and then you'll try to search for that grammar point somehow
somebody using that grammar point,and then you would try to link this back to
maybe you're personal experience or the context that that person is using that grammar point in. Grammar or whatever
I'm struggling with, yeah absolutely, and it's and also for me personally, you know.
You know, sometimes it's just something I don't look for but then I notice it, me personally, but sometimes it's intentional, be like man
I'm really struggling with X Y Zed, so
Fantastic, no because, this is something that even... I speak a second language on a daily basis, and I also do this as well and
This is, I don't know about you, but it's the easiest way to
Because it's just easy and it's fun as well.
In... Also, want to ask you now, you're travelling to India, you're in India.
Let's just say you're in India at the moment. But when you're not in India, when you're in Canada,
how do you immerse yourself with a foreign language? Because I know a lot of people listening at the moment,
maybe they're not leaving in an English-speaking country or they're learning a second language or third language or fourth language
How do you, what do you do to immerse yourself in a language if you're not living in the country?
A few, a few things. Music is one. So
basically, it's trying to control my surroundings.
So control my surroundings so that I've lots of
opportunities to be quote unquote immersed in whatever language. So for example, music. Like, what
language music are you listening to, things like what kind of media
do you listen to or watch when you're on YouTube. We're listening to a podcast. Are you watching things in
your language or in English. Or even things like... If you're, if you're in a larger city and smaller cities,
it's a little bit more difficult, but depending on where you live,
there's a website called meetup.com, M E E T U P.com, where you can find, you know, English
groups. So we can actually go and practice with other people and meet other
Oftentimes native speakers. Like italkie.com is a good way to find exchange partners.
I mean, I could sit here all day probably forget half an hour just listing off a variety of things.
But at the end of the day just trying to figure out: OK, here's my lifestyle currently.
It's a hundred percent or ninety five percent in my language.
How can I make that eighty percent my language twenty percent English? How can I make it fifty fifty?
How can I, how can I increase the percentage of exposure in my day and the other language, in English in this case.
But whatever language you're learning for that matter.
Interesting okay, but you're learning several different languages at once and...
Not several, but you can speak many different languages, and I'm sure you have to maintain your knowledge or else you'd lose it.
But how do you, you know, there's 24 hours in a day. Do you have a set timeframe for maybe, okay,
this day I'm gonna focus on this language or... How do you organize your day so that you are
consistent in this learning, so that you can immerse yourself. What does your day look like in learning a language?
Depends on what period of time you ask me.
Right now, zero focus on language learning. Like in this specific moment because I'm going to India so soon, so that the past
like a couple of... I mean, so if you asked me a month ago
I would have said: Oh every Monday and Wednesday
I see my grandpa, and we have a whatever it is, we have two hours of Gujarati lessons both days.
We haven't been doing them recently because for a variety of different reasons.
So at that point I would've said that. If you'd asked me probably, I forget how many months, three four months ago
I would have said: Yeah right now, I'm doing 20
That's probably 20 to 30 hours a week of Mandarin classes online. If you'd asked me...
You know, it depends on when you ask m. So right now, nothing.
But I think the big thing is I just, I use a Google Calendar, and I'm always making sure that
scheduled things accordingly in a way where I think I'm going to be able to achieve what I want to achieve
Which is why right now there's nothing really in this moment that I'm trying to achieve with languages.
So I'm gonna be in India so soon, there's other things I have to get done.
Just workwise and everything. So I'm not doing anything, but I know, once in India, it's going to be every day languages.
Okay, let me re-word this differently. When you get back from India, what... Have you thought that far ahead or... not really?
About your language learning, not about your life, what you're gonna be doing, where you're gonna be living
But have you thought about maybe your language learning plan and development once you get back, and how you'll you remain,
Yeah, for sure. So when I get back, it's gonna depend heavily upon what level my Gujarati and Hindi is is at.
I think it's going to be extremely good. I think. I don't know thought, we'll find out right. I think it's gonna be quite good.
But I also think there's a chance, that's probably also likely
I'll be like: Wow I'm really good, but there is a lot that I still don't know.
So it's going to be looking at different resources in my city to keep helping me improve
So whether it is lessons, whether it is connecting my family and volunteering at events, whether it is...
I probably, actually this I definitely will do. I'm definitely going to start my own group on Meetup,
I already have meetup groups already, already run them.
But I'm gonna start another one for Indian.
For different Indian people and we'll have events that's gonna create an environment for me. An immersion environment for my city where I can
speak Gujarati and Hindi, things like that, and then also when I get back, not immediately, but it'll be in
at least... by the latest September. I'm gonna be, I'm doing a major in Chinese, in Mandarin at Maine University.
There's just a level of accountability when you have, when you've paid money, and you're getting you're working towards a degree. You can't just,
like, you can't just... I mean, you could just quit, you could give up and you could stop.
But there's a level accountability there. You're like: I want that degree. I paid money, like, there's my teachers waiting on me,
the classmates are there, like, people, you know. There's accountability, so that'll be starting too.
Okay, when you... This is an interesting thought. You know, a lot in the using English TP classroom,
We're also pushing these group calls and confidence, and we also have like mini
let's say clubs, so they... a lot of students have speaking tasks, or would have to host a group call.
Now I know a meet-up is something completely different to a group call, but there are many similarities.
So you said... yo... you're looking to, you may possibly host some meetups in the future.
When you go to a meet-up, and you're looking to expand your knowledge in a foreign language
What do you talk about? Do you talk about the grammar rules?
Do you look for some sort of discussion points or? When I host meetups?
Yeah, like what do you do? In my meetups?
So I, you know, I run quite a few and we do a minimum once a month. We do an event called Languages and beers.
Where... It is what it sounds like. We go to a bar, you speak a language, you're interestsed in languages
or you just want beer, just come.
And we just hang out and I'm usually...
I usually leave it up to the people that come, because everybody wants to do something different. Some people want...
I'll see, actually always, I'll see like a group of, group of people who found them, found each other, who wanted to
speak only in Spanish. You get that,
you know, good couple hours of practice. Sometimes people are learning Spanish or French or Mandarin or Japanese or, whatever, Russian and
they,
they don't feel very confident, so just being in that environment of other language learners is
encouraging. Like some people are already native, and they're there just like:
Oh, let's meet other people that are learning. And so I think it's really dependent on what people want and
I usually just leave it pretty open, to be honest. Probably in hindsight, now I'm like just talking it out,
there probably could be a little bit more,
I guess, I don't if structure's the right word, but a little bit more
organization in terms of me structuring the event in a specific way. Right now, just pretty open, to be honest.
Oh, interesting, okay... And I hop around. You hop around...
I wanted to ask you one more question before we finish that, but with this one technique that I'm constantly
repeating, repeating, all the time, consistently, because I've seen results with this. It's the shadowing technique.
Now, I know many English, English teachers, online English teachers are talking about this,
parroting, there are many words for this technique.
But I basically tell, I basically tell people, I do it on Instagram with my husband, for example.
We do tongue twisters, and then he is there repeating after me. And then, you know, he repeat...
He improves his pronunciation and also connected speech. What are your thoughts on the shadowing technique?
Have you ever tried it, do you have any success with it?
Yeah, I think I do it in probably a less formal way than what some might... I've definitely spoken with people who
a TV series because they like how one character speaks and they try and imitate that person and they try and mimic what they say and some
Which from what I've seen, from what I've heard is more specific, what I've heard, it works well.
Personally, I don't do it in that sense, but I do it in the sense of
surrounding myself with other native speakers. Whether that's by traveling, whether it's by language exchanges online
whether it's through music, whether it's through watching TV shows in language I'm learning. Whatever the
method is, I just do it by observing everyone and
trying to... Just observing everyone and picking up on the things that I like and dropping things. I don't like and...
Friends, you've listened to the whole conversation between Azran and me.
If you do struggle with a video lesson, make sure to watch the video lesson one more time.
But this time, watch it and turn on subtitles.
If you struggle to understand anything we were talking about, use the subtitles feature.
It's there to help you. Friends, I have a little quiz for you.
Let's check that you understood the whole
conversation. In the natural conversation Azren said that he was going abroad to learn a language. In the comments below this video
tell us what language is he learning and where is he traveling to?
Make sure to join the discussion and to tell us in the comments below this video.
Special thanks to Azran for taking the time to talk to us about his experience: learning a language abroad
If you'd like to connect with Azren, make sure to check out his YouTube channel right here. Friends,
don't stop learning here. Continue learning with these playlists here to improve your listening skills and your fluency
Remember friends, get more practice, get
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You can do this by joining us in the using English TP classroom.
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Thanks for being here, and I'll see you next time! Bye for now.