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(gentle music)
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- Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy.
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Today, I'm going to be giving you some tips
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that will help you find native speaks you can practise with.
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We all know that practising with native speakers
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is one of the best ways of becoming fluent
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in another language, in this case English.
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They can help you with your pronunciation,
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they can help you improve your listening,
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you might learn lots of new slang phrases
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and casual and informal phrases with them.
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You might pick up some idioms, some new verbs,
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loads of new vocabulary.
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So many of my students ask me
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how they can access native speakers
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because it isn't that easy.
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Many want to make friends with native speakers
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but don't how to find them or how to approach them.
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In this video, we will discuss different ways
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in which you can find native speakers, talk to them,
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and persuade them to help you.
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Let's get started with the video.
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Tip one is access natives on the go.
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This first point covers two great tools.
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Private tutors and language partners.
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But what's the difference?
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Well, in simple terms,
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you pay a private tutor for their time.
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And a language partner forms part
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of a mutually beneficial arrangement
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where no money is exchanged.
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You help them with their desired language,
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the language they're learning, probably your mother tongue,
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and they in exchange help you
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with the language that you'll learning,
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normally their mother tongue.
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For example, if I wanted to learn Spanish,
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I would find a native Spanish person
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who wants to learn English
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and I would exchange with them.
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So, we have private tutors and language partners.
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The best way to learn a language
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is to combine these two tools.
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Schedule in frequent paid classes with the private tutors.
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These are normally easier to find
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and will help you to follow
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a more structured learning programme.
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And complement this with sessions with a language partner.
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You learn new skills with the tutor
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and put them into practise with the language partner.
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The sponsor of this video, italki, is the perfect solution
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as it offers both of these tools
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from the convenience of your mobile phone.
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You will have heard me mention italki before.
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It's a huge online database
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of both native and community teachers
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offering very affordable private classes
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for over 130 languages.
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Why is it relevant for this video?
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Well, italki have just relaunched their mobile phone app
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so you can find and access these teachers
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and language partners on the go from your mobile.
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All you have to do is download the app
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using the link in the description box and create an account.
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Once you've signed in,
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you can explore everything the app has to offer.
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This is specially great as italki also has
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a language partner programme where you can type in
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whichever language you want to practise,
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choose whether or not you want a native speaker,
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and even decide where you would like them to be from.
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You can then see all of the available language partners
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and also see if they're wanting to learn your language.
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Then you can contact them
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and see if they'd like to practise.
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I'm so excited about this app because it means
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that you can access this amazing combination
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of finding a private tutor and a language partner
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from your mobile phone wherever you are.
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You can access natives on the go.
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It's a great way to participate and customise lessons
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that cater to your learning interests and needs.
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Clink on the link in the description box
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to download the app and start the process.
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Number two, another idea for finding
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language exchange partners
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is contact a local language school
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that teaches your language.
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You'll be surprised at the amount of language schools around
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that teach your language.
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Obviously there are English schools everywhere,
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but if you live in Poland
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there are probably quite a few schools
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that teach Polish to foreigners.
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Same for anywhere in the world.
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The teachers and organisers there
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are probably desperate to find people
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that will practise with their students.
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Get in contact with them with a nice introductory email
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and let them know which languages you speak
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and what you are looking to practise.
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You never know, they may be able to put you in contact
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with a native speaker.
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I experienced this first hand
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when I studied Spanish in Spain.
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Lots of native Spanish speakers would come to the school
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and put down their name to be paired up
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with a native English or native French speaker.
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If both parties agreed to meet,
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well, we would go to a bar and practise
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1/2 an hour in one language and 1/2 an hour in another.
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Normally by the end of the evening
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it was just a massive muddle of languages
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but it was really, really good fun.
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So I highly recommend that you try out this method,
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and you might even make some new friends.
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Tip number three could be considered a little controversial
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and I urge you to do this with a lot of care.
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The third tip is to comment down below
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and try and find a like-minded language partner.
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You're not necessarily going to find a native speaker
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in the comment section
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because people are here normally to learn English,
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but you might find a nice group of like-minded people
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that are all striving to speak fluent English.
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I know that a lot of people form
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Facebook groups and WhatsApp groups.
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All I ask is that you are very, very careful,
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specially if you're under the age of 18.
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If you would like to try and find a language partner,
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then you can comment down below with your age,
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where you're from, the languages you speak,
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and the languages that you are looking to practise.
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I don't want to have to say this but I will say this.
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This is not an opportunity
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to find a girlfriend or boyfriend.
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Number four is try playing video games.
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And as a teacher (laughs) I never thought
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I would recommend video games.
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But when I was teaching in a language school
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there was one guy who spoke
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the most incredible American English
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and he'd never been to America.
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And I said, "Where have you gotten this accent
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"and vocabulary from?"
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Expecting him to say movies or TV shows.
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And he said gaming.
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A lot of video games nowadays have a voice chat option.
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And if you join a specific server,
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you can interact with speakers
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of the language that you are trying to learn.
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The best part of this is no one knows who you are
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so you don't have to be afraid of making mistakes
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and you don't have to be afraid of embarrassing yourself.
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If gaming is something that you do anyway,
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why not try incorporating practising English
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into your hobby?
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If you manage to find somebody that is amazingly helpful,
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somebody who corrects you,
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somebody who teaches you new phrases,
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try and play with them more often.
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They're enjoying themselves anyway,
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you might as well get something out of the interaction.
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Tip number five is use the website Meetup.
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So, the website Meetup is what it says on the tin.
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It's a website where people host meet ups,
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social gatherings.
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A hot topic on Meetup is language exchanges.
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All you have to do is search language exchange
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and your city or town
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and see if something is going on in the near future.
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If there isn't anything going on,
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try setting one up yourself.
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It's a little bit daunting but you don't know until you try.
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At the very least it's an amazing opportunity
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to meet loads of people
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from all different parts of the world.
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I used to go to language exchanges in London
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and I absolutely loved them.
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I always used to scout a few students as well
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when I was teaching.
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Funny story, actually, about a meet up. (laughs)
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I went to a language exchange in London
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and there was a face painter there
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painting faces with glitter.
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So all of my friends went away
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and got their face painted whilst I was in the toilet.
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And whilst I was in the toilet I received a message saying,
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"Don't forget to go straight up and get your face painted."
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So I went there and she said, "What would you like?"
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And I said, "I don't know, a watermelon?"
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And the face painter looked at me and said,
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"You want a watermelon?"
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I said, "Yes, a watermelon."
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I thought it would look really cute,
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I like watermelons, it's one of my favourite fruits.
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So she said, "Okay, I will paint you
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"a watermelon on your face."
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And so she painted this beautiful glittery watermelon
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and I went to meet my friends
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and they all had the flag of their country on their face
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because that was the entire point of the language exchange,
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you had your native language's flag on your face.
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But I had a watermelon.
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And everyone was coming up to me and saying,
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"So, where are you from?" (laughs)
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And I was just like, "Honey, do you mind?"
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(Lucy laughs)
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That was meant to be a joke 'cause honeydew's a melon.
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No, it was embarrassing, I just had to explain
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that I didn't understand the whole face-painting process.
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The last tip I have is number six
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and it is join language learning groups on Facebook.
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There are so many groups on Facebook
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and they can be a little bit overwhelming.
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My advice is to look for very small groups
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or start your own.
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The groups with 50,000 members,
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you'll be surprised at how empty they are.
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A lot of people have joined because it's a big group
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but no one really participates.
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Look for small language exchange groups on Facebook
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and join them.
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And if there aren't any that look legit to you,
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start your own and see if like-minded people join.
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I used to post in a lot of language learning groups
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when I started my channel.
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I used to share my videos there.
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And I was amazed at how helpful people were in these groups.
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They may not all be native speakers,
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there are a lot of very accomplished non-native speakers
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in these groups,
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and they are so so helpful
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to anyone who has a question or a doubt.
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Right, that's it for today's lesson.
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I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned something.
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Don't forget to click on the link in the description box
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and download the relaunched italki app.
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Go on there, find yourself a private tutor
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and find yourself a language partner
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and combine those two tools.
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Honestly, it's a great way of learning a language.
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Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.
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I've got my Facebook, my Instagram, and my Twitter.
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And I shall see you soon for another lesson.
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Muah!
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(Lucy blows a raspberry)
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Just gonna lick this apple.
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Yeah, much better.
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(happy upbeat music)