Just Watching Slow English Vlogs WON'T Make You Fluent

Do you want to be able to tell stories in English just like a native speaker? In today's lesson, I'm going to teach you important phrases that you can use to make sure that your story is very clear, understandable, and more interesting when you're speaking English. You don't want the person listening to your story to spend half the time trying to understand exactly what you're telling them and you want to sound engaging and you want to sound like a native speaker. So in today's lesson, the phrases that I teach you will be super helpful in doing all these things. want to study the PDF and the quiz that goes along with today's lesson you have to join my membership at englishwithkayla.com. There is where I want to help you learn more English each week with really engaging ad-free lessons and you get all the resources and the whole library of my lessons there. So make sure to check out englishwithkayla.com. Right now I'm going to get started with this lesson and I'm going to teach you the phrases to make your stories more interesting, more clear, and more engaging. When we talk about making our stories more interesting, you want to start with a really good opener to your story. So let's say you have either a surprising story, something that you're excited about, or something that you think the person you're telling the story to is going to be excited about. You want to start with this phrase, you'll never guess what happened. End. You'll never guess what happened. Of course this phrase is not literal. Maybe the person would be able to guess and maybe by saying this the person will know exactly what you're talking about. But this is just an exciting way to introduce your story. You'll never guess what happened. So this phrase it will help you start out your story in an exciting way. It'll kind of get the person interested right away. And in English we call this a hook. Like what's going to hook the person into the story. So all of these Beginning phrases. to a story can be considered hooks. This phrase you'll never guess what happened it can be used as a beginning to a positive good exciting story or it can be used as a hook to a story that something bad or very surprisingly bad happened. So for instance you could say you'll never guess what happened on my way to work this morning. I spilled coffee all over my new pants so this is a surprising thing. It was very negative though. On the other hand you could say you'll never guess what happened on my way to work this morning. Somebody ahead of me in line paid for my coffee so I got it for free. So as you can see here the phrase can be used for a positive or a negative story and there's some variations to this phrase as well. You can say you'll never guess who I ran into today. So this means you happen to meet someone, maybe it was a celebrity or maybe it was just an old friend that is surprising that you saw at this place. In case you didn't know, when you use this phrase, you'll never guess who or you'll never guess what happened. The person probably won't guess. They'll just say, what happened? And tell me about it. Like, it's not a phrase that makes the person guess. But once in a while, I guess if somebody uses this phrase, this next phrase, it's Commonly used when you've either been interrupted and you need to restart a story or it's just kind of used humorously to, you know, tell about an interesting part of a story or a funny part of the story. The phrase is, so there I was. So there I was. So this phrase introduces exactly where you were and what was happening in the story at the exact moment. Let me give you an example and again we kind of use this phrase a little bit humorously when telling stories. So there I was standing outside in the rain with no umbrella and I had just paid a hundred dollars to get my hair done. So this is kind of funny because you're standing there and you're getting your hair wet it's getting ruined even though you just paid a lot to get it done. And this definitely happened to me a lot when I was in college. There would be, you know, some sort of presentation or assignment due and maybe I got the days mixed up. So there I was in class kind of panicking while trying to look calm because I just found out, you know, a big assignment was due and I was trying to figure out exactly what I was going to do in that moment. Or I'd get called on and I didn't do the reading. So there I was trying to make something up in the moment. So that's how you can use this phrase. So there I was. This next phrase it all started when it all started when so this is used in a story when you want to introduce the reason why something really interesting or something crazy happened. So someone might say you know why are you so tired today and you could say well it all started when last night I heard a noise coming from my basement so I went down there to investigate and I found out that there was mice in my basement so then I was up all night thinking I was thinking about these gross mice all around and how I would get rid of them. And you could tell the story like that. So it all started when. So you're kind of introducing the beginning of the story rather than, you know, starting in the middle. Like I found mice in my basement last night. It just makes the story a little bit more interesting when you go back to the start and you kind of introduce the reason why. Okay, this next phrase, here's the thing. Here's the thing. You're going to use this phrase. It's used really commonly to introduce a fact that the person must know in order for the story to make sense. So last year we went on a road trip and we had to cut the trip short and head home early because there was a snowstorm. Here's the thing. Our car does not have four-wheel drive so we were not going to make it home if we did not get home before the snowstorm. So did you see how I naturally used this phrase, here's the thing? It kind of makes sure that the person knows the facts. So you didn't know that fact about my car. If I had a car with four-wheel drive, I wouldn't be as worried about driving in the snow. But my minivan does not have four-wheel drive and we would be sliding all over the road in this big snowstorm. So we were like racing the storm. We had to get back home before the storm started. Otherwise, we would be stuck on this road trip. So this phrase here's the thing it either just introduces a fact that the person needs to know or you're saying like why the situation is complicated and that they wouldn't have known about or you're just kind of saying like here's the problem here's the thing. Here's the thing can be used to introduce a problem as well. Let's talk about some phrases that can help you get your story moving forward. At first. First at first. At first. So at first I was feeling sad. But then, so this story kind of introduces what you were feeling or what was happening at the beginning, and it helps you move on to the next thing. So usually we say at first, but then. Let's go back to my mice story. At first, I thought that there was just the wind blowing outside. But then I realized the noise was coming from the basement. So this kind of talks about what you were thinking or what you were feeling at the beginning at first. And don't confuse just saying first this happened with at first this happened. When we're using the phrase at first, it shows the person in the story that something is going to change. There's some contrast going in the story, two different events going on. Or, you know, at first I thought this, but then this was actually the situation. So this next phrase, before I knew it. Before I knew it. This phrase is used when you want to show in your story that time passed very quickly without you even noticing or, you know, things happen quicker than you thought were going to happen. So you can use this in a dramatic case like You know before I knew it it was raining and thundering outside because at the beginning you know you thought it was going to be a nice day. So you could say I woke up I thought it was such a sunny day but before I knew it there was a huge storm developing and I had to get inside right away. So this is kind of contrasting two things that happened in the story and just saying you know over a quick amount of time like quicker than it normally would seem a storm developed. You could use it in a story like I saw my friend Sheila yesterday and we were having a conversation and before I knew it we sat down we were talking for three hours. So this just means that you saw a friend and it was an old friend you had so much to talk about that you didn't realize time passed so quickly and it had been three hours. Or maybe you were working on cleaning up your house and you could say you know my husband helped me and before I knew it the house was completely clean. We cleaned it really fast. You know, this phrase is used for... time in the story to describe how things went quickly, either quicker than you expected or quicker than you realized in the moment. A lot of times the phrase before you know it is used to warn parents of how quickly their kids will grow up. Like before you know it, you'll be sending them off to college. You might say this to a parent and you know, their kids are just going to school for the first time. They're five years old, but you might want to describe to them how quickly time will pass. Before you know it, they'll be driving your car. Sometimes when you want to tell a story, but you don't want to go into every single small detail, you can use the phrase, one thing led to another. One thing led to another. So you might be saying you know someone might ask you how did you get into gardening like you have such a big beautiful garden. You might say well it started out with just one tomato plant and I wanted to grow a few tomatoes and then one thing led to another and now I'm growing pumpkins, tomatoes, watermelons, you name it. So this is just saying like over the years I got really into And it grew larger. So instead of describing like, and then I did this, and then I did this, you're just saying, you know, over time, this got a lot bigger. You're skipping the small individual events that started with one plant and ended with a big garden. Another phrase that can help us kind of skip every small step or every small detail in a story is from there. And from there. So let's say you're working on something at work and you come up with the plan and from there it's easy to finish. So you're saying like you know once we came up with that plan that was the hard part from there it was easy to do the whole project. So now you don't have to describe doing the whole project you're just saying from a certain point in the story everything went quickly and smoothly. Oftentimes when we use this phrase from there, we're talking about a part in the story where things either got easy or the problem was solved. So maybe you're talking about going to a concert with your friend and you're saying, you know, it was so much traffic to get downtown, the Uber ride was expensive, but once we got there from there, it was so fun and we were glad that we went to the concert. So you're describing the problems, the hard part at the beginning, and then from there it got easy and fun. And from there, it describes, you know, a situation or a process, but it doesn't have to be a physical location. So it can just be like any part of the story. The phrase, meanwhile, it can introduce something in the story. Sometimes you can use this phrase to kind of say like something else was happening at the same time as what was happening in the story. Meanwhile. Let me give you a couple examples. Sometimes this phrase it helps me like describe how chaotic a situation was if there's multiple things happening at one time. So the other day I spilled a huge glass of milk in my kitchen and meanwhile one of my kids was upstairs trying to flush toys down the toilet. So I'm just saying like this thing was happening it was kind of chaotic and this other thing that was happening that is not good either. So it's kind of humorous in the story that both these things are happening at the same time. Or you could say, my friend was looking for her dog. She was searching for her dog everywhere around the neighborhood. Meanwhile, her dog was just asleep under the bed upstairs. So it's kind of, again, a humorous thing. Like this was happening is very chaotic and bad. But meanwhile, this peaceful thing is happening. And, you know, the dog is actually not stressed and not in any trouble. So you could use meanwhile. Meanwhile, the dog is upstairs. Or you can say at the same time, the dog is upstairs sleeping. Or I was spilling the milk and at the same time my kid was flushing toys down the toilet. You may have heard this next phrase, but I'm going to tell you exactly how to use it. The next thing I knew, the next thing I knew, next thing I knew. So you use this phrase when something is changing quickly in a story. So for instance, I stepped outside my door the other day and the next thing I knew I had slipped on the ice and I was flat on my back. So it happened very quickly. Or you could say, you know, I was in a meeting the other day and I just introduced an idea and the next thing I knew I was leading all major project at the business. So it's like something changed very quickly and surprisingly quickly. This phrase, the next thing I knew, it just helps you make the person who you're telling the story to understand that something happened very quickly or a change happened quickly. Out of nowhere. Out of nowhere. This phrase, it shows in a story that something very surprising that was completely unexpected happened. So I was driving down the road the other day and out of nowhere, a deer jumped in the middle of the road. This means you weren't in a very... Popular area for deer, you weren't expecting it, you were just driving, not thinking about it, it just happened very quickly. Or you could say, you know, my friend the other day, her ex-boyfriend from 10 years ago called her out of nowhere, so he didn't text her first, she hadn't been talking to him, she hadn't seen him for a very long time, out of nowhere he just called her and tried to talk to her. Again, something unexpected happens that usually you can see coming, but in the story you want to explain that it was very sudden and surprising. You could say, a storm came out of nowhere yesterday. We were outside and we had to run inside quickly. To my surprise, this phrase, it shows that you were surprised, very shocked by something. To my surprise, yeah. For instance I could say last night I served my kids spaghetti meatballs and green beans and usually they're really picky when it comes to meat and vegetables but to my surprise they ate the whole thing and they asked for seconds. So this just shows that I was surprised at what actually happened in the story and it can be a nice surprise or it can be a negative surprise. Here's a phrase that you can use once in a while to show that there was something really kind of surprising in the story that doesn't really make sense but you're saying believe it or not it's true. Believe it or not believe it or not. Let me tell you a story real quick. So one time I could not find my wallet anywhere and I keep my wallet in this bright pink fanny pack because oftentimes I actually wear the fanny pack because I have my kids with me and I need my hands free. Okay, so I could not find my wallet, which is in there. It has my money, my credit card, my identification. So I was kind of stressed out like, oh no, like if I lost this, I'm in big trouble. But I knew it had to be in my house because that's the last place I had it and I hadn't brought it anywhere. So my kids were looking for it and my husband was looking for it and I had basically just given up. I looked everywhere in this house. Believe it or not, my husband found it in the trash can outside of our house. So I was so busy that I accidentally threw away my wallet. So believe it or not, this is like the crazy part of the story. It was in the trash can. Because why would someone throw away their wallet? Well, because they're too busy and they have too many things going in their brain at once. This is a true story, believe it or not. As it turns out. As it turns out. This phrase, it's very useful for telling information that is a little bit different than what you originally believed. So you could say, I met this person at the store the other day. We had a lot in common, but as it turns out, we're actually neighbors. We live in the same neighborhood. So it's surprising when you find out that somebody lives near you and you've never seen them before or never met them before. One time I was going to a graduation party and I walked up to the party and I looked around and I realized I did not know the person whose party it was and as it turns out I had the wrong address. I was supposed to be going to the graduation party that was you know a street down from this person but I thought this was the party so as it turns out I didn't even know the person. So it's kind of funny information in this story. I had the address wrong and I walked up to And as it turns out, I have the wrong address. So this is just kind of a way to introduce some information that's either surprising or, you know, shocking in the story or just, you know, a mix up like in my story. An interesting American English phrase is come to find out. Come to find out. So this is kind of used in stories to show that you discovered a fact again that you didn't know in the beginning. So let me give you an example because this phrase it's kind of goofy but we use it a lot so it's really important to understand. So my friend she's Chinese and she went back to China and when she came back to the United States I was messaging her and she was messaging me. She would text me and then I would message her back and Then I wouldn't hear from her it was so odd. As it turns out something on her phone had gotten messed up in the travel so she wasn't receiving my messages back so every time she would text me I would think I would text her back and then I thought it was so weird that she wasn't responding and she on the other hand didn't know that her phone wasn't working so come to find out she didn't know I was responding back to her messages. Finally she fixed her phone and she saw all of my messages and we found out you know we've been trying to reach and contact each other but it was all good in the end. We're still friends but we just thought it was funny because we were so confused why the other person wasn't responding. Instead of saying it turns out her phone wasn't working a lot of times in my natural English I use the phrase come to find out her phone wasn't working. All right now let's talk about how you can end your stories in an interesting way or skip the long boring details. The most American phrase is long story short. Long story short. One time I was traveling and long story short my flight got cancelled and I had to stay an extra day in the place so I had to stay at a hotel. So you're kind of skipping over the details of why your flight got cancelled just to tell the person that you had to stay an extra day. Or maybe you want to talk about your car getting fixed, but you don't want to go over all the boring details of what exactly was wrong with it. So you might tell the person in the conversation, you might say, Long story short, I brought my car in for an oil change. It had a lot of problems, so I haven't had a car all weekend. Again, you're just skipping the long, boring details in this case. And a funny phrase that goes along with this one, it's... Pretty informal, it's kind of a joke. It's after you told a long story and you did give all the details, you could say, long story long, that's what happened. So it's just saying like, I just gave you way too many details, I just made the story really long. After telling a long story, you can say, in the end. In the end. And this kind of just shows exactly what happened as a result of everything that you just talked about. So again going back to my car maybe it had a lot of repairs and you could say you know it had this, it had this, I got an oil change. In the end it ended up costing me a lot of money or in the end I had to pay a lot of money for my car's repairs. You're just saying what was the result of all these things that you had done to your car. You can also use this phrase, you could say it was kind of stressful to pay for all of these repairs on my car, but it's safe in the end. So you're saying, you know, you're happy that your car is safe and reliable. And you can say in the end to end the sentence or end the story. If you want to be reflective at the end of your story and kind of say what you learned, you can use a phrase looking back, looking back, looking back, even though it was. Challenging at the time, I'm glad I did the work and graduated from college. Or looking back, it felt stressful not having much money, but I'm glad that I, you know. I struggled and went to college and got my degree because now I can make more money. So it's like you're reflecting back on an experience that was either hard or, you know, at the time you weren't really sure about it, but looking back, you feel confident now. Or looking back, I wish I would have gotten a business degree because maybe I would have made more money now. So you're looking back at a regret or something you wish you would have done differently. You can use this phrase in a lot of different ways. I want to show you exactly how you can use these phrases in a story. So I'm going to read to you a story that I wrote. It's supposed to be... a natural way to use all of these phrases. And just to give you a few more examples. So sit back and listen. And at the end, see if you can use four of the phrases from this lesson in a comment below. I would love to hear your story with some of these natural phrases. Here we go. You'll never guess what happened to me last week. It all started when I decided to stop at a coffee shop before an appointment. At first, everything seemed normal. I ordered my coffee, I sat down, I checked my phone. Then, out of nowhere, a woman at the table next to me asked if my name was Kayla. To my surprise, she knew me from one of my English lessons. We started talking, and before I knew it, it had been like 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I had completely forgotten to check my watch, so the next thing I knew, I was late for a dentist appointment. I rushed out of the coffee shop. And come to find out, my appointment had been delayed too. They were trying to text me and call me. So long story short, I arrived exactly at the right time. I wasn't late. And looking back, I'm glad I stopped for coffee because meeting one of my students in real life made my entire day. Okay, did you notice how I just used these phrases to kind of transition or to introduce interesting parts of the story? Didn't really introduce new information with the phrases. They just added to my story and made it more natural and more interesting. I want you to try to do that. And if you enjoyed this lesson, make sure to visit englishwithkayla.com. I'd love to read your stories and give you feedback there. Or if you want just access to my whole library of lessons, you can start learning with me more there as well. I would love to teach. I'll teach you more English, so check out another video while you're here, and thanks again for watching. Goodbye!