REAL ENGLISH

CONVERSATION

Vanessa:Hi. I'm Vanessa from

SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to hear a real English
conversation?Let's get started.
Vanessa:Today, I have something
super special to share
with you. I met an interesting woman
whosefamily runs a salt business.
Yes, salt. You're
going to meet Carla and hear how her
familystarted the salt business three
generations
ago. You'll also learn some
differences and different types of salt
and just some interesting
insight into something that every
human needs,but we don't often think
about. I'm sure that
you also have things that you're
passionateabout, so it's a good chance
to listen to
 our conversation and try to imitate
the waythat we speak.
Vanessa:Throughout this
conversation, you're going
to see subtitles down here. That's
going toshow some vocabulary,
phrasal verbs, and important
pronunciation that we're going to talk
aboutafter the conversation lesson,
because after
the conversation lesson with Carla,
you'regoing to hear a vocabulary
lesson between
my husband Dan and I, where we're
going toexplain some important
vocabulary expressions
that you heard in the conversation
with Carla.I hope that you're going to
be able to remember
these expressions a little bit better,
becausewe're having a natural
conversation about
those expressions.Vanessa:
Then, you'll have a grammar lesson,
 wherewe focus on some important
phrasal verbs that
you heard in the conversation with
Carla.And finally, at the end, we'll
have a pronunciation
lesson where we'll focus on some
importantsentences that you heard in
the conversation
and how you can accurately
pronounce thoseyourself to try to
speak as naturally as possible.
Vanessa:This is a pretty big lesson.
There's a lot
going on. We've got the conversation,
vocabulary,grammar, and
pronunciation. So, you can always
click on CC, which is the subtitles, so
thatyou can catch every word that we
talk about.
If you enjoy this lesson, I hope that
youcan join me in the Fearless
Fluency Club,
where you'll get a lesson set like this
everymonth. Today, you're only
 going to see a little
bit less than half of one lesson set,
buteach month, I send you a new
lesson set, a
full one, where you can learn about
new topics,vocabulary, grammar,
pronunciation, and practice
using those conversation skills
yourself.Vanessa:
All right, let's go meet Carla. Hi,
everyone!I'm here with Carla, and
Carla has a quite
interesting family business to share
withus. I've got some visual aids as
well, but
I'll let you explain. What do you say
youdo, or what would you say your
family does?
How would you describe it?Carla:
Sure. I am third generation in a sea
saltfamily business.
Vanessa:Okay.
Carla:My grandfather, back in the
'70s, was the
 first to start importing sea salt from
outof the country. He brought it over
in suitcases,
and he didn't know how much to
charge. Hewas like, "I don't know, I'll
bag it up, and
give me $5." And that's kind of set
the pricefor the next 30 years. We
just kept it there.
Vanessa:Really?
Carla:Yeah.
Vanessa:So, he just thought, "Oh,
people will buy
this." That's cool.Carla:
Yeah.Vanessa:
Was he doing that back home,
or...Carla:
No. He is from Belgium, originally,
or hewas. He passed away. But yeah,
he was best
friends with Michio Kushi, who was
the personthat brought macrobiotics
into the United
States.Vanessa:
 Oh, okay.Carla:
And Michio told him, "You need to
bring seasalt into this country because
there's going
to be a shortage of minerals at some
point,and they're going to need this."
So my grandfather
traveled all over Europe trying to find
themost clean, most high mineral sea
salt he
could find, which he settled into the
coastof Brittany, France, and this
little town
called Guérande.Vanessa:
Okay.Carla:
And they do this ancient harvesting
techniquethat was originated by
Celts.
Vanessa:Okay. So that's where this
originated, the
name.Carla:
Yeah, they think that it was from the
Celtsthat originally did it, but then
studies have
 shown that it dates back even further
withthis harvesting technique in Asia.
Vanessa:Wow.
Carla:Which they're always doing
something before
the rest of us.Vanessa:
Sure.Carla:
So instead of boiling the water,
boiling toevaporate it and using up all
the valuable
wood that they needed for other
things backthen, they realize that they
needed to create
these ponds using these clay beds and
letthe sun and the wind do the
evaporation for
them. So this started a very
sustainable practicethat has lasted
hundreds of years, and it's
still there today.Vanessa:
Wow. It's, it's incredible that they had
thethought process to say, "We need
to save wood.
Let's use what we've got." Nature, the
 sun.Carla:
Right.Vanessa:
To be able to do that, So at this point
arethe origins of the salt still in that
area?
Carla:So we import from all over the
world, and
we have found some really
fascinating high-techways that they're
still sustainably harvesting
and producing all different kinds of
saltswith different mineral
composition.
Vanessa:So I would love to hear
more about that in
detail.Carla:
Yeah.Vanessa:
I want to show them the salt that you
brought.Carla:
Sure.Vanessa:
Is this available internationally?Carla:
It is.Vanessa:
Okay. So maybe they've seen this. Is
it mainlyin Europe or could be
 anywhere?
Carla:Parts of Europe. We're also in
Malaysia, Australia.
We were working on China a few
years ago,but they have a lot of laws
around it with
it having to be iodized. They've lifted
thatsince, but it's a huge investment
to, as you
can imagine, to tackle that kind of
distribution.And we're still a family-
owned company. We've
never had investors. Everything has
been grassrootsgrown.
Vanessa:Wow, that's really amazing.
So if you see
this brand, the Celtic Sea Salt, I'll
putlinks to all the websites.
Carla:Okay.
Vanessa:So you can check it out. But
if you see that,
that's the company we're talking
about, andthis one's the fine ground,
regular kind of
white, what you kind of recognize as
salt.Carla:
Right.Vanessa:
But there's also other ones that you
brought.Carla:
Right, so the light gray are these in
thesegrinders, which this is the same
salt, but
they just don't grind that for you for
convenience.They didn't really have
that available before
we kind of started demanding it from
our providers,saying that the
Americans really want their
shakers. They don't do the European
way ofgrinding or pinching their salt.
Vanessa:Oh, got you.
Carla:So we're the ones that brought
the fine ground
here. Yeah.Vanessa:
So that is a cultural thing. I guess it
dependson what your family is used
to using.
Carla:Exactly.
 Vanessa:But just shaking it,
especially at a restaurant,
that's really common that this is more
a European-typestyle. Got you.
Carla:It is.
Vanessa:It probably has some steam
in Asheville, though,
I imagine.Carla:
Oh, yeah. Some people, they're like,
"Oh,I like to pinch it, and I like to
grind it
and I like to shake it. So it's a kind
ofa funny little question we have at
shows and
stuff.Vanessa:
How would you like to serve
yourself?Carla:
Right.Vanessa:
So can you tell me a little bit about
thedifferent types of salt? And I am
quite ignorant
about that except for just hearsay that
I'veheard. And of course, what you
see, different
 colors and whatnot.Carla:
Yeah, I mean, salt, I mean it can be
an endlesstopic. There's so many
different kinds, everything
from mass industrial salt that we use
thatyou see like in the Morton shaker
that has
been highly processed and things
added andremoved and anti-caking
agents. For our table
salt, they originally started putting
iodineinto the salt to help with a
goiter issue
a long time ago, which it did help, but
theiodine actually caused a
discoloration to
the salt so they had to bleach
it.Vanessa:
Oh, interesting.Carla:
The bleaching caused it to be bitter,
so theyhad to sweeten it. So they
added dextrose,
which caused it to be sticky so it
wouldn'tshake out of the jar. So they
 added anti-caking
agent chemicals.Vanessa:
One thing on top of another.Carla:
So what we have kind of come to
terms withis we've realized the salt is
actually perfect
in its own way, and yes there is an
iodinedeficiency which we created a
seaweed seasoning
to help with that.Vanessa:
Oh, interesting.Carla:
Because there was a demand people
asking forus to put iodine in our salt.
But because
of all those complications, we were
like,let's leave our salt alone. Keep it
in its
whole form that the body knows what
to dowith. And then we offered a a
seaweed seasoning.
But you'll see all different colors and
allthose different colors come from
different
mineral compositions coming from
the differentregions. We even have a
super white, white
salt from Hawaii that is super white
causeit comes from 2,000 feet under
the surface
of the water at the base of a
volcano.Vanessa:
Whoa. How did someone find
that?Carla:
People know us in the industry as we
kindof have figured out ways to
launch these amazing
commodities into the U.S. market,
and theU.S. market's one of the
hardest ones to tap
into.Vanessa:
Really?Carla:
Yeah, when you're importing from
other countries.Vanessa:
Okay.Carla:
So a lot of people write us letters and
sendus samples. We get dozens a
month.
Vanessa:Wow, saying, "Can you
 please get us the part
of this?"Carla:
Yes. And that was just one that
somebody cameto us at a trade show
and said, "You've got
to check this salt out." And it's an
amazingsalt. It's beautiful, and it's
clean, and
it has a great source of potassium and
calcium.Vanessa:
Okay. So I'm curious, when you say
that it'sgreat and it's clean, does that
affect the
taste of it?Carla:
Yes.Vanessa:
Because this term of, "Oh, it's salty.
Ittastes like salt."
Carla:Right.
Vanessa:Is there a difference?
Carla:There is, and you'll start to
notice, once
you start to taste different salts side
byside, you'll start to go, "Oh, wow, I
can
 taste that this one's a little more
bitter.This one's a little more like has
a saline
taste." When you taste oysters, some
peoplego, it's just slimy. But when
you become create
a palate for it, you go, "Oh, this is
morebriny, or this one tastes more
fresh." Or
you start to kind of compare. Same
with wineor beer or cheeses, you just
start to understand
different notes. A higher sodium
content,you're going to have more of
a bitter taste.
With higher minerals such as
magnesium, potassium,and calcium,
you're having a little more mild
or tastes almost like an ocean
flavor.Vanessa:
Okay.Carla:
And it naturally enhances the flavor
of yourfood as opposed to just
making it salty.
 Vanessa:Oh, got you. So it's really
going to work
with the things that you're putting it
onin a different way. I'm really
curious now
after this, to taste this side by side
withwhat I've got at home and if I
have any different
types at home to see.Carla:
And the key with salt tasting is you
wantto start off with the highest
mineral content
salt going to the highest sodium salt
becauseonce your taste buds have
been triggered in
their bitter and sodium levels, you
can'ttaste the difference of the other
things.
So you got to kind of work your way
up. Iused to host salt parties in
California. Yeah.
Vanessa:Wow! I would love to go to
that.
Carla:Yeah, it was so much fun. We
 made cocktails
and...Vanessa:
Yeah, what do you do at a salt
party?Carla:
Yeah, it's a lot of drinks.Vanessa:
Okay. You put them on the
rim?Carla:
On the rim.Vanessa:
Okay.Carla:
And I did a lot of like things like
edamamewith salt on it or fun things
where you would
need the salt on it. And then we did a
salttasting where I would show
people how to kind
of taste the different notes of salt and
thetextures.
Vanessa:The education part of it.
Carla:Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Vanessa:Because it's not just like you
said, it tastes
salty, but it could actually bring out
otherflavor notes in the food.
Carla:Even the shape of the crystals
 will cause
a different kind of, where is it going
toburst in your mouth? How is it
going to break
down in your mouth? Like these
crystals arevery coarse, so some
people are a little bit,
you know, they need it to be ground
up becauseit's strong. Whereas a flake
salt, which we
offer as well, kind of dissipates in
yourmouth and it's not as like potent.
Vanessa:Okay. And that's actually
flat flakes of salts.
Carla:Yeah.
Vanessa:Okay. I feel like I've seen
that in a picture
before, but I've never bought flake
salt before.Do people add that when
they're cooking, or
is that more for...Carla:
Garnishing.Vanessa:
A garnish to look at the nice
shape?Carla:
 You can, yeah. I mean, cooking is
fine withit, but I mean some people
spend a lot of
money on salt , so some salts you
only usefor garnishment or finishing
the salt.
Vanessa:Okay.
Carla:This is a great cooking salt
cause it's got
the coarse crystals and it dissolves
nicelyinto liquids and heat.
Vanessa:Okay.
Carla:And it's cheaper. So you don't
want to put
a handful in your pasta water of the
flakesthat are so expensive, right.
Vanessa:Yeah. So would the flavor
of, for example,
this is fine ground, if I had this in a
coarserversion, would it taste
different or what
would the experience be like to
compare that?Carla:
It's actually really interesting because
 eventhough these are the same salts,
it's just
this one ground up. This one tastes a
littledifferent. What we have found is
part of what
makes the minerals higher and in the
saltsthat we have offered is the
moisture. So when
you grind it and you lose its little
crystalbox encapsulation that holds
the brine, the
liquid, you lose a little bit of the
minerals.So you have a higher
sodium. So this does
have a slightly higher sodium than
the crystals.So you have a little more
of a bitter taste.
Vanessa:There's something that's
moisture inside.
Inside the little crystal itself, it
seemsquite scientific.
Carla:It is. Yeah. We've worked with
lots of scientists
and doctors over the years, over 600,
 actually,that endorse our salt that
have seen the difference
firsthand with their patients.Vanessa:
Yeah. Tell me about that health
benefits orthe difference in health
because there's a
lot of problems with too much salt
nowadays.Carla:
Definitely. Yeah. Sodium is
something thatis 100% needed in the
body, no matter what.
We lose it constantly through sweat,
tears,and going to the bathroom. So
we have to replenish
it in a way that the body knows how
to getit back in our body in a way that
can be assimilated.
The body has... it's kind of like a key
wherethere's a potassium pump in
between the cell
walls, and without that potassium
key, thesodium can't go in between
the cell walls
to replenish itself. So when you have
 a superhigh sodium table salt that
you're using,
you're going to have swelling. You're
goingto have all these issues because
the sodium
can't get into the cell walls where it
needsto go.
Vanessa:Oh, interesting.
Carla:But if you have a salt that, even
if it has
similar sodium content but also has
potassium,that potassium pump can
actually work, and
the sodium can go and hydrate the
areas thatneed to go.
Vanessa:So having the other minerals
with it can help
the sodium to actually be more
beneficialfor your body.
Carla:Right. Now there are some
people with sodium
sensitivities that obviously we do
have saltsfor those people as well.
Vanessa:Really?
 Carla:Yeah, because that is a thing,
too. Everybody's
different just like your body reacts
differentlyto caffeine or to dairy, you
need to listen
to your own body.Vanessa:
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm curious, what salt
do youuse at home?
Carla:Oh, gosh.
Vanessa:I'm sure you have a plethora.
Carla:I do. My table's covered in salt
with all
these different jars, and right now
becauseI am pregnant I am more on
the higher potassium
because my potassium level was so
low.Vanessa:
Oh, interesting, okay. So you're using
thatto help supplement your baby.
Carla:Right, right. Yeah.
Vanessa:When you use it, are you
just using a little
bit, and that's enough to give you
potassium?Because I know when you
 take a pill, there's
a big amount of something in there
like asupplement.
Carla:Yeah. Right. I was still taking a
pill because
I was so low, but I realized, okay, I'm
goingto not go with my magnesium,
my high sodium
salts. I'm going to go with my
potassium ones,and I'll just pinch it.
And your tongue is
a great tester. If something tastes
good toyou, and it feels like it's
satisfying, that's
usually your body's saying, "I needed
this."There are some cases where it's
extreme. If
you're going to eat a whole chocolate
cakeover there, your body probably
doesn't need
all that chocolate cake.Vanessa:
You can overindulge, but when you
eat somethingthat's got just enough of
the seasoning on
 it, then that could be really
helpful.Carla:
Yeah, and a lot of the doctors, what
theysaw was people have this
unquenchable salty
tooth where they can't seem to get
enough,but when they switch them to
a high mineral
sodium sea salt ratio, their salty tooth
becomesa little more quenched
because their body's
finally getting the sodium where it
needsto go in their body. It's really
fascinating.
I wish there were more
studies.Vanessa:
So maybe they were lessening the
amount ofsalt that they were intaking,
but they're
intaking the right type?Carla:
Right. Yeah. They finally felt that
satisfaction.Yeah, and this is just in
people's practices
where they contacted us and shared
 these stories,even in children, they
were saying.
Vanessa:Oh, wow. I'm really curious
to test that on
myself, too, and try and with different
things,and I think people around the
world, My students
can do that as well, especially if
there'ssomething that, like with the
U.S., Morton
salt. It's just the typical salt that
you'reprobably going to find in a lot
of typical
places.Carla:
The American salt, right?Vanessa:
Yeah, I'm sure a lot of other countries
havethat kind of typical thing, too,
but to try
something that's actually been maybe
morestudied and has a lot of thought
gone into
it. It'd be interesting to feel that
differenceyourself.
Carla:Yeah, definitely.
 Vanessa:So I'm curious when,
because this is your
family's business, is everyone in your
familyinvolved in Celtic salt? Sea
salt?
Carla:We have a huge family, so no.
Vanessa:Okay.
Carla:There's only a handful of us
that are still
involved.Vanessa:
So you chose, "I'm going to do
this."Carla:
Yeah.Vanessa:
Okay.Carla:
I went to culinary school, and then it
justkind of seemed to be a nice fit,
and yeah,
it's just been a passion that we've all
kindof shared for years.
Vanessa:Nice.
Carla:My sister is a Pilates instructor
in New York,
so she kind of went on her own thing,
whichis cool.
 Vanessa:Yeah.
Carla:I stayed here and just continued
the legacy.
Vanessa:And that's awesome. So
when you were growing
up, I'm sure that was something that
was bigin your family.
Carla:Yeah.
Vanessa:Did they also have a table of
salt?
Carla:Yeah, oh, our whole family is...
They're all
about the salt.Vanessa:
Sure.Carla:
They send us pictures. "I'm at this
grocerystore. Here it is," or "I'm in
this country
here. Here it is." So that's
fun.Vanessa:
Oh, that's so cool.Vanessa:
How did you enjoy that conversation
with Carla?Was it a little fast, a little
tricky? Did
you understand everything? I hope
 that itmade you think about
something, salt, that
we don't often think about. Next is a
vocabularylesson. You're going to see
my husband Dan
and I explaining some key
expressions thatyou heard in that
conversation with Carla.
After our explanations, you're going
to seea clip from the original
conversation with
Carla so that you can just remember
the originalcontext and use them
yourself. All right,
let's get started with the vocabulary
lesson.Vanessa:
The first expression that we're going
to talkabout today is the word
"sustainable."
Dan:Ooh, "sustainable."
Vanessa:The typical way that we
usually use this is
to talk about the environment, and
that'show Carly used it. She was
 talking about how
different salt practices are sustainable
forthe environment or unsustainable
for the environment,
but there are some other ways we can
use thisas well. How would you use
the word "sustainable"?
Dan:Sustainable. Yeah. So I think
today, primarily
I do think environmentally, and some
peopleeven just say "sustainability."
Like, "We
have great sustainability in this
country,"or "We're very
unsustainable." I think most
environmentalists say that we're
unsustainableright now. But yeah,
there's other ways you
can use this. You can use it in certain
situationsthat you don't think can
continue. So maybe,
for example, you're in a relationship
withsomebody, and you argue all the
time. Somebody
might be talking with you and saying,
"Yeah,I don't think your relationship
is sustainable.
I don't think it can keep on
going."Vanessa:
Yeah, you can't continue at that in
that sameway for a long time, at least
while still
being happy. It's not possible. And
you couldeven use this to talk about
your English practice.
If you say, "Okay, I'm going to make
an Englishplan for myself. I'm going
to study for five
hours every day." Do you think that
that'ssustainable?
Dan:No.
Vanessa:No, because you have to
have a life, too.
You have to eat and sleep and go to
work andhopefully see some family
and friends. It's
not possible to continue doing that.
So youmight say to yourself, "Okay, I
 need to create
a sustainable English practice."Dan:
Ooh.Vanessa:
"What is something that I can
continue ondoing into the future?"
Maybe it's something
simple like, "Okay, I'm going to listen
toa couple minutes of this vocabulary
lesson
every day while I drive to work."
Cool. Okay.I think that's pretty
sustainable. You can
continue doing that without too much
stressto your personal environment.
So what we're
going to do for each of these
vocabulary words,is we're going to
also show you a clip from
the conversation with Carla so that
you cansee how it was originally
used, which is what
we're going to do now. Let's watch
the clip.Carla:
This started a very sustainable
 practice thathas lasted hundreds of
years, and it's still
there today. This started a very
sustainablepractice that has lasted
hundreds of years.
This started a very sustainable
practice thathas lasted hundreds of
years.
Dan:The next expression is "thought
process,"
and this just means a way of thinking
or thinkingdeeply about something.
And I think we usually
say this when you want to maybe
question somebody,either if they did
something wrong or if they're
just doing something well and you
want moredetails. For example,
maybe somebody is like
a science student, and they solved a
problemthat was really difficult. You
could ask them,
"What was your thought process
when you wentinto this problem?
 How did you think about
it?" And so "process" means that
you're goingstep by step how you did
something. So it's
something in detail.Vanessa:
Yeah, maybe you want to imitate
what theydid. What was your thought
process so that
I can imitate that in future
experiments?Dan:
Right. But on the other hand, if
somebodydid something wrong, most
people would probably
say, "What were you thinking?" But
you couldalso say, "What was your
thought process here?
Why did you do that?"Vanessa:
Yeah. It's just another way to say,
"Huh?Why in the world did you
make this terrible
decision?" But it's a little more
indirectthan "What were you
thinking" or "What was
your thought process? Why did you
 think thatdriving the car down the
street when it was
icy was a good idea? What was your
thoughtprocess?" And maybe you
didn't have a thought
process. Maybe you just did it. You
didn'tthink about it, but it's maybe
someone questioning
your judgment.Vanessa:
You can also use this to explain or
defendyourself. So a common way to
use this is to
say, "My thought process was..." So
let'ssee, if I decide to save money,
and I want
to save a lot of money. And in the
end, maybeI don't really save that
much. But someone
might ask you, "Why are you trying
to savemoney?" If I say, "Oh, I can't
go out to eat,
I'm doing other stuff," and I might
say, "Mythought process was if I save
enough money,
then I can replace my car because our
caris getting old or it's breaking down
a lot."
So I'm just kind of explaining why
I'm doingsomething. Why am I
saving money? My thought
process was I'm doing this because I
wantto hopefully buy a different car
in the future.
So you can use it to defend yourself.
"Whyare you doing this?" "Oh, my
thought process
was this. Please understand." So you
can useit in both ways as a question
or as a defense.
All right, let's watch this so you can
seehow it was used.
Vanessa:It's incredible that they had
the thought
process to say, "We need to save
wood. Let'suse what we've got."
Nature, the sun. It's
incredible that they had the thought
processto say, "We need to save
 wood. Let's use what
we've got." It's incredible that they
hadthe thought process to say, "We
need to save
wood. Let's use what we've
got."Vanessa:
The next expression is "to
tackle."Dan:
Ahh!Vanessa:
Yeah. Have you ever watched rugby
or Americanfootball? The players
will just slam into
each other and kind of like wrestling,
pusheach other down.
Dan:It literally means to grab and
throw somebody
down, but you go down with
them.Vanessa:
Yeah. So you are tackling someone.
This isthe literal definition of "to
tackle," but
is that how Carla used it?Dan:
No. So yeah, there's a figurative way
thatwe use this that is probably more
 common and
it's just-Vanessa:
Yeah, we use this all the time.Dan:
Yeah. It just means to do something
that'sreally difficult and big, maybe
too big, even.
For example, if you say, "I'm going to
learn1,000 words tonight"...
Vanessa:Whoa.
Dan:...you're probably tackling too
much.
Vanessa:Yeah. If you say, "I'm going
to tackle these
verbs" or I'm going to tackle some
big problem,"just like the American
football example with
you're physically taking down a big
person,that's a big task. It's not
impossible, but
it's just a big task. So maybe this
year,at the beginning of the year, you
decided
you had a couple goals for yourself.
"I'mgoing to tackle my fear of public
 speaking."
Ooh. So maybe you're going to join a
publicspeaking organization and just
practice public
speaking each month, or you're going
to dosomething actively to try to
overcome some
difficulty. "Oh, that's a lot to tackle,
butyou can do it."
Dan:Yeah. It's kind of used as like a
confidence
boost. And some people just say, "It's
a lotto tackle, but I think I can do it."
Right?
So you just put it in this one
catchphrase."It's a lot to tackle."
Vanessa:Yeah. "So learning all of
these verbs is a
lot to tackle, but I think I can do it."
SoI hope for you that all of the
vocabulary
from this lesson, even though it's a lot
totackle over the whole month, you
can do it.
 Study little by little. Keep practicing.
Youcan tackle it. You can do it. All
right, let's
watch the clip.Carla:
They've lifted that sense, but it's a
hugeinvestment, as you can imagine,
to tackle
that kind of distribution, and we're
stilla family owned company. We've
never had investors.
Everything has been grassroots
grown. Butit's a huge investment, as
you can imagine,
to tackle that kind of distribution. But
it'sa huge investment, as you can
imagine to tackle
that kind of distribution.Dan:
The next expression is "on top of,"
and thiscan mean as it literally
sounds, you're on
the top of something or at the greatest
point.For example, "I'm on top of the
world!" People
say that figurative, actually. It means
thatyou're the best person ever if you
say, "I'm
on top of the world" or-Vanessa:
You might be on top of Mount
Everest, though.In this case you are
literally on top of the
world.Dan:
Ooh, that's true. But you may also say
toyour child, "Don't stand on top of
the table.
Right. Don't stand on the top of it. So
thisis literal, but we also use this to
mean "in
addition to." So "I have a lot of
homeworkand on top of that, I also..."
Vanessa:Have a part-time job.
Dan:Yeah. "I also have to work
tonight." Right?
So this plus this. And we would say
that ifit's we're already kind of
overwhelmed or
we already have something big, then
you'regoing to say, "I have this on top
of this
 other thing."Vanessa:
Yeah. It's usually adding
responsibility.So it can be used in a
positive way, like,
"Oh, he's such a great guy. And on
top ofthat, he's really handsome."
You can use it
in that positive way, but I feel like
it'sused negatively more often. What
do you think?
Dan:Yeah, I mean that sounded all
right, what
you said.Vanessa:
Yeah. It's natural. But I feel like we
tendto use this in a more negative
way.
Dan:Certainly, if you have a lot going
on, that's
usually the situation. You have a lot
goingon, and on top of that you have
other things.
Vanessa:Yes. A lot of stuff going on.
What if I said,
"I was really on top of my game last
 night"?Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. You're really on top of
your game.That means that you're
playing the best or
doing the best that you possibly can.
You'reon top of your game. You can
also just say,
"I'm on top of it."Vanessa:
Yes.Dan:
Meaning that you're on it. You're
doing it.You're doing the best you
can.
Vanessa:You're staying current. So
maybe if your boss
says, "How's the project going? Is it
goingto be done by 4:00 PM today?"
You could say,
"Yep, I'm on top of it."Dan:
Yeah, and you can kind of picture
like literallystanding or sitting on this
thing, right.
Vanessa:You are conquering it.
Dan:You are conquering it. You're on
top of it.
 Vanessa:Yeah. I think that's a
common expression to
say, "Don't worry, I got it. I'm not
fallingbehind. I'm not procrastinating.
I'm on top
of it." And that could even be a
personalitytrait, too, like "she is
always on top of
it. She always knows what's going on
and shedoesn't forget little things."
This is kind
of an A-type personality. She's
always ontop of it, and "it" means
life.
Dan:Yeah, or on top of things.
Vanessa:On top of things. Yes, that
could be different
things that are going on in her life.
Becausewe talked about a couple of
different ways
to use this like standing on top
of...Dan:
The world.Vanessa:
...a mountain, to be on top of
 something orone thing on top of
another, kind of building
this responsibility, I recommend
checkingout the lesson guide so that
you can just
visually see each of those sentences.
It'sgoing to help you to remember
them, but also
hopefully be able to use them
yourself. That'sthe goal. I hope so.
All right. Let's watch
the clips that you can see how I use
thiswonderful expression to talk
about salt. Let's
watch.Carla:
The bleaching caused it to be bitter,
so theyhad to sweeten it. So they
added dextrous,
which causes it to be sticky so it
wouldn'tshake out of the jar. So they
added anti-caking
agent chemicals.Vanessa:
One thing top of another. One thing
on topof another. One thing on top of
 another.
Vanessa:The next expression is "to
come to terms with
something." There's lot of words in
this expression,but "to come to terms
with something" means
you're accepting something that is
maybe emotionallydifficult. And I
feel like we have to do this
a lot in life. In order to live somewhat
satisfied,you have to come to terms
with difficult things
in your life and then move on. So
what issomething for you that you've
come to terms
with and you've lived?Dan:
Yes, I have a personal
example.Vanessa:
Okay.Dan:
So some of you might have struggles
with bodyimage. I will say that it
wasn't a huge struggle
for me, but in puberty I realized that
I'ma really skinny guy. Right? So that
 used to
bother me. I kind of wanted to be
bigger andstronger, but I had to come
to terms with
the fact that I will never be a buff
guy.I will never be very big or strong.
I'm just
a skinny guy, and I've come to terms
withthat. I came to terms with it a
long time
ago. It doesn't bother me anymore.
I've embracedit, one may say. I wear
skinny jeans or a
skinny shirt, and I just say, "Look at
me.I'm a skinny guy and I like it."
Vanessa:So you have really come to
terms with it,
but this is something that may be for
youand puberty as you're kind of
learning about
yourself and your body's changing,
you feel-Dan:
I used to hate it.Vanessa:
Yeah, it's a difficult thing. And then
yourealized, "Okay, this is just who I
am," especially
I think this might have been a
difficult thingfor you because your
brother is twice-
Dan:He's huge.
Vanessa:He's like twice as big as you
are. He's like
a big football player kind of guy. So
it'skind of the opposite of your body
type. So
maybe growing up you had to really
come toterms with the fact that you're
different
from your brother and just different
kindof guy.
Dan:Yeah, it was mostly, probably
just thinking
about with the ladies, honestly, like,
willthey think I'm just too scrawny?
"Scrawny"
is like the really bad word for
"skinny."Vanessa:
It's not a bad word as in a curse word,
 butit just feels really negative.
Dan:Yeah.
Vanessa:Did it work out for you with
the ladies?
Dan:It worked out in the end.
Vanessa:Good. I'm curious, what is
something that
for you, you have needed to come to
termswith? You might have noticed
that in Dan's
sentence, in his example, he said,
"Come toterms with the fact that." So
here he is stating
that "It's a fact. I'm a skinny
guy."Dan:
I can't change it.Vanessa:
"This is something I can't change." Or
youmight say, "I just need to come to
terms with
the fact that my native language of
Japaneseis completely different than
English. I can't
change that, but I'm still going to try
mybest to learn English." So it is a
 fact that
Japanese and English are way
different. Wedon't really share any
grammar or any vocabulary,
but your native language is Japanese.
Youcan't change that. So you could
say, "I need
to come to terms with the fact that
Englishis a little bit more challenging
for me because
of my native language. But I'm not
going tolet it stop me. I'm not going
to let it hold
me back. I'm going to push on." This
is somethingthat's maybe a little
difficult, but you are
going to embrace it and continue on
in life.Dan:
Yes.Vanessa:
All right, let's watch the clips. You
cansee how this wonderful expression
was used.
Carla:What we have kind of come to
terms with is
 we've realized the salt is actually
perfectin its own way. What have
kind of come to
terms with is we've realized the salt is
actuallyperfect in its own way. What
we have kind
of come to terms with as we've
realized thesalt is actually perfect in
its own way.
Dan:The next expression is "side by
side." Hey,
we're sitting side by side right
now.Vanessa:
We are.Dan:
Yeah. So this just means "next to
each other."And so you could use this
in a kind of comparative
way, like Carla said in the
conversation."So when you try the
salts side by side,"
meaning right next to each other, one
afteranother, then you'll be able to tell
a difference.
So this is a little more complex way
 to use"side by side."
Vanessa:I feel like whenever
someone asked me specifically
about a small difference in
something, I oftenuse this expression.
"I need to hear them
side by side" or "I need to taste them
sideby side." So for example, we
watch some Miyazaki
movies. This is a Japanese animator
who makessome great movies for
kids, but also for adults.
And there are some different English
translationsof those movies.
Dan:Yeah, it's a couple of versions.
There's some
debate about what's better.Vanessa:
There's some debate about which one
is best.So we thought, "Oh, maybe we
should buy the
DVD of those movies so that we can
continueto watch them instead of
trying to find them
online every single time we want to
 watchthem." And then we thought,
"Which version
should we get? There's different
versionsin English. Which one should
we get?" And
then I said, "I don't really hear a
differenceunless I listen to them side
by side. I think
both are great. Both versions and
Englishare great, but I can't hear the
difference
unless I hear them side by side." So
thismeans directly one after another,
the same
sentence, then the same sentence.
Otherwiseit sounds the same.
Dan:Yeah, and you may even say, "I
need a side
by side comparison," so use it as an
adjectivelike that. But we also use the
"side by side"
maybe as a camaraderie expression.
So if you'retogether in something,
right? "We walked side
 by side into the difficult situation." I
don'tfeel like it's super common
anymore.
Vanessa:You might hear that, though.
It kind of means
that you are together. "We are
strugglingwith this together."
Dan:Right. "We're doing this side by
side. We're
together in this."Vanessa:
Yeah. Yeah. You could use it like
that, andit could also just mean as
simple as what
Dan said at the very beginning, "We
are sittingside by side on the couch."
Okay. Yeah. It's
something very literal and...Dan:
That's a fact.Vanessa:
...very simple. All right, let's watch
theclips that you can see how we used
"side by
side" to talk about tasting different
salts.Carla:
Once you start to taste different salts
 sideby side, you'll start to go, "Oh,
wow, I can
taste that. This one's a little more
bitter."Once you start to taste
different salts side
by side, you'll start to go, "Oh, wow, I
cantaste that. This one's a little more
bitter."
Once you start to taste different salts
sideby side, you'll start to go, "Oh,
wow, I can
taste that this one's a little more
bitter."Vanessa:
The next expression is "to be all
about something."Dan:
"All about."Vanessa:
Yeah, so in the conversation, Carla
was sayingthat her family is all about
salt.
Dan:Makes sense.
Vanessa:Yeah. That means that they
like, very intensely,
salt.Dan:
Yes.Vanessa:
Her family's been involved in the salt
businessfor a long time, so she can
say, "We're all
about salt."Dan:
And they know all about salt. They
know almosteverything about it.
Vanessa:Yeah. Yeah. So they are
deeply involved in
that. They like it a lot. "We're all
aboutsalt." If you like something a
lot, maybe
if you like English a lot, you can say,
"Yeah,I'm all about English. Every
moment of every
day, that's what I think about. I'm all
aboutEnglish." But it could also be to
talk about
a main reason for something. So how
wouldyou use this if you were going
to use it to
talk about a main reason?Dan:
The main reason?Vanessa:
Yeah.Dan:
What comes to mind for me,
 obviously, is hockey.Vanessa:
Okay.Dan:
Because I love hockey. So "hockey is
all aboutskating" or "being good at
hockey is all about
skating. Can you skate well?" So this
is theprimary factor. The thing you
need to know
more than anything else or the thing
you needto be able to do more than
anything else.
So you could say, "Yeah, being good
at hockeyis all about skating."
Vanessa:I would say the same thing
about starting
a business. Starting a business-Dan:
It's all about skating?Vanessa:
It's not all about skating. That would
bepretty fun, though. Maybe a hockey
business.
But starting a business is all about
dedication.If you are willing to
dedicate your time and
your energy, then you're probably
 going tosucceed.
Dan:It's all about diligence.
Vanessa:Yeah, it's a really important
factor, is diligence
and dedication. So starting a business
isall about dedication. Yes, you need
good ideas.
You need to be probably good at
what you'redoing, but if you're not
dedicated, it's not
going to work.Dan:
Yeah, and this is an exaggeration, so
it'snot literally all about this. You
need to
know other things, too. But if you
reallywant to emphasize the most
important thing,
then you'll say "all about."Vanessa:
Yes, "it is all about dedication. It is
allabout skating." Or you could just
say, "I'm
all about English," and it means that
youlike English a lot.
Dan:Yeah. You always... You love it.
 You want
to study all the time. Yeah, that's
probablyyou, right?
Vanessa:Yeah. I hope so. All right.
Let's watch the
clip so that you could see how this
was used.Carla:
Our whole family is... They're all
about thesalt.
Vanessa:Sure.
Carla:They send us pictures. "I'm at
this grocery
store. Here it is," or "I'm in this
country.Here it is," so it's fun.
Vanessa:Oh, that's so cool.
Carla:Our whole family is... They're
all about the
salt. Our whole family is... They're all
aboutthe salt.
Vanessa:How did you enjoy that
vocabulary lesson?
I hope it was useful and enjoyable for
you.Next, it's time for a grammar
lesson, where
 we're going to focus on some
important phrasalverbs that you heard
in the original conversation
with Carla. Phrasal verbs are an
essentialkey to English sentences to
help you sound
natural. So I hope that the phrasal
verbswe talk about in this lesson will
help you
to expand what you can say and also
to understandnative speakers better.
All right, let's get
started.Vanessa:
The first phrasal verb that we're going
totalk about is "to use up." And when
we use
something, you're just making use of
it. Butwhat is "use up"? Is it putting it
up high?
Dan:No. That means you have
finished something.
Vanessa:Completely.
Dan:Or used something completely,
and we often
use this for things in the kitchen. For
example,we eat a lot of oatmeal.
Therefore we have
used up the oatmeal. Or if somebody
is lookingfor something in the
kitchen, they might say,
"Where's the oatmeal? Where's the
flour? Where'sthe milk?" And you
can say, "Oh, I'm sorry
I used up all the milk."Vanessa:
Or we could split this phrasal verb
and say,"I used it up" because we
already know that
we're talking about milk, so we can
just replacethe word "milk" with "it."
"Oh, sorry. I used
it up when I was making some hot
chocolatelast night, or when I was
doing something
else." "I used it up" or "I used up the
milk."It's completely gone, but we
can also use
this a little bit more figuratively.Dan:
Yeah. People do use it figuratively
 sometimes.Maybe they say, "I've
used up my energy."
If you're awake, you probably still
have energy,but if you're just really
tired, you could
say, "I've used up my
energy."Vanessa:
Yep. I'm completely ready to
rest.Dan:
Yeah. And perhaps somebody will
say, "I'veused up my patience."
Vanessa:Oh! Okay.
Dan:That means that you're not going
to wait for
somebody anymore. Or sometimes if
you havea child, they may be... Oh,
our kid does this
all the time, just trying to distract
youand do one more thing and just
keep on doing
what he's doing and not listening.
You couldsay, "All right, I've used up
all my patience"
or "I've used up my
 patience."Vanessa:
Let's do this. Let's go.Dan:
"It's time to go to bed now."Vanessa:
Yeah, you might use this. If you're a
teacher,you might say, "Ugh, today
was such a hard
day. I used up all my patience, and
I'm readyto go home." So you can use
up something that's
a little bit more figurative, like
patience,energy, or you can also use
up money, like
if you are saving to buy maybe a new
car.And then you buy the car, you can
say, "I
used up all my savings to buy the
car." Soyour savings is completely
gone. Your savings
account is at zero, or figuratively,
maybeclose to zero, and you've used
up that money.
Carla:Instead of boiling the water,
boiling to evaporate
it, using up all the valuable wood that
 theyneeded for other things back
then, they realized
that they needed to create these ponds
usingthese clay beds. And using up
all the valuable
wood that they needed for other
things backthen and using up all the
valuable wood that
they needed for other things back
then.Vanessa:
The next phrasal verb is "to come
from," andhere we're talking about
originating at some
destination, but I want to let you
know thatwe do not use this to talk
about your country.
If someone says, "Oh, where are you
from?"If you said, "I come from
Brazil," it feels
really weird. It's kind of like you're a
packagethat's being mailed from
Brazil.
Dan:Yeah, it sounds too impersonal
or like a real
 origin, like "I was born in Brazil,"
right?"Brazil made me."
Vanessa:Yeah.
Dan:It's kind of got a weird feel to it.
Vanessa:You might hear this in
really, really formal
situations, but I just want to let you
knowupfront that we don't talk about
this specifically
for your home country, but there's a
lot ofother ways that we can talk
about "come from"
for people or for items. So what do
you thinkis a main way that we use
"to come from"?
Dan:So I think somebody might use
this in a question
a lot if they don't know where
something camefrom. So if there's
something in your house
that you don't know where it's from,
you mightask, "Where did this come
from?"
Vanessa:Yeah.
 Dan:And then Vanessa might say,
"Oh, it came from
Target," for example.Vanessa:
It came from Amazon.Dan:
Yeah, it came from Amazon.Vanessa:
The most likely situation.Dan:
Yes.Vanessa:
So if you are a walking in someone's
housethat you haven't been in before,
and they
have a really cool statue, a really cool
painting,you could say, "Oh, that's
really cool. Where
did that come from?" And you can
use it inthat questioning situation,
"Where did it
come from?" But we can also use this
for maybefor defending yourself as
well. Like, "I don't
know where it came from." This is
kind ofthe classic teenage situation
that if your
mom goes into your bedroom and she
smellsweed, for example, which is
 marijuana. So
if she smells that and she's like,
"What isthat smell?" You're like,
"Oh, mom, I don't
know where that smell came from."
You're kindof defending yourself. "It
wasn't me!"
Dan:Sure!
Vanessa:So you might say, "I don't
know where it came
from," and this is a vague sense.
We're nottalking specifically about
the destination.
Dan:Or you might say, "Where'd that
come from?"
Vanessa:"Oh, where'd that come
from? My friend must
have put that in my bag. I didn't even
know.Where did that come from?" So
we often use
it in those kind of vague situations.
"Wheredid that come from? I don't
know where it
came from."Dan:
 And actually, people use that
question ifthey're really surprised
about something somebody
said, if you say something really rude
ormean, you might ask, "Where'd that
come from?"
Vanessa:Oh, so this is kind of the
figurative sense
of using it.Dan:
Yeah, a little more
figurative.Vanessa:
If someone is pretty positive, and
you'rehaving a good conversation,
then all of a
sudden they say, "Oh, it's so terrible,
blah,blah, blah." And they feel really
frustrated,
right, instantly, you might say,
"Whoa, wheredid that frustration
come from?" So it's like,
where did your frustration originate
from?Because all of a sudden, you
just kind of
felt frustrated. It seemed kind of
 weird thatthat just happened.
Dan:But you would always ask,
"Where did that
come from?"Vanessa:
Yeah. "Whoa. Where'd that come
from?" Thatmeans that statement or
that feeling that
you're expressing. But there is
another figurativeway that we can use
this that is often used,
quite interesting.Dan:
Yes, "You need to see where I'm
coming from."Vanessa:
Oh, yes.Dan:
Or "Can't you see where I'm coming
from?"Vanessa:
What does this mean? "Can't you see
whereI'm coming from?" Does it
mean my home? I'm
coming from my home?Dan:
No. It means your point of view, from
yourperspective or your opinion. So
if you say
this to somebody, you're basically
 tellingthem that they're only thinking
about themselves,
only thinking about their feelings. So
ifyou say, "You need to see where I'm
coming
from," that kind of reminds them that
youhave an opinion or a feeling in
this situation.
Vanessa:I know I've used that in
discussions or arguments
with Dan before.Dan:
Oh, yes.Vanessa:
Where I've said, "Oh, can't you see
whereI'm coming from?" Just to put
in perspective
that-Dan:
It's probably a common female
refrain.Vanessa:
Maybe just "Please see it from my
perspective."And it's not necessarily
rude. It's just saying,
"Okay, please look at it from my
perspective.Can't you see where I'm
coming from?" Or "Don't
 you see where I'm coming from?"
You're askingthem to say, "Okay, I
understand why you have
that point of view. Maybe I don't
agree withit, but I understand." So
this could be if,
for example, maybe if you don't agree
withsomething that your parents say
and you feel
like, "Oh, their generation is so
different,"you might think to
yourself, "I understand
where they're coming from. I
understand theirpoint of view because
of the way they grew
up, because of their parents, because
theworld was very different back
then. So I understand
where they're coming from. I
understand theirpoint of view. That's
kind of the origin of
their thoughts." This is a lovely
phrasalverb with many different
meanings.
 Carla:But you'll see all different
colors, and all
those different colors come from
differentmineral compositions
coming from the different
regions. And all those different colors
comefrom different mineral
compositions coming
from the different regions. And all
thosedifferent colors come from
different mineral
compositions coming from the
different regions.Vanessa:
The next phrasal verb is "to start off"
or"to start off with something," and
you can
imagine the verb "to start" is the
beginning.But when we use "to start
off with," we usually
are talking about the beginning of
some kindof series of events. So
multiple things are
happening afterwards. For example,
if I said,"Oh, man, I really, I want to
 make bread,
but I don't know how to make bread."
If Danis a bread expert, he might say,
"To start
off with, you need to have a good
recipe."Dan:
Toss the flour into the air.Vanessa:
Oh, wow. You're really an
expert.Dan:
That's from the magic of
practice.Vanessa:
Throw flour in the air, and it just
comesdown like a loaf of bread.
Amazing. So we're
saying, "to start off with, you need to
dothis." We're using that phrasal verb
kind
of as an introduction to the series.
"To startoff with, you need to do this
and here's kind
of the things that you need to
do."Dan:
Yeah, I think you use this usually
when you'reintroducing something or
 if you're giving
instructions. So if you're giving
instructions,you might tell the other
person, "We need
to start off with this" or if you're-
Vanessa:
You need to start off with a good
recipe,then get the ingredients, then
have a lot
of time.Dan:
Right. Or if you are maybe making a
presentation,you might say, "We're
going to start off today
with a little bit of a story," for
example.Vanessa:
Yeah, so you could use it to begin
somethingthat's going to have several
other events
or activities that happen afterwards.
So inDan's sentence, he said, "I'm
starting the
meeting by saying, 'Oh, we're going
to startoff today with something.'" I
want to let
 you know that you're also going to
hear theword "by." "We're going to
start off today
by telling a joke. We're going to start
offtoday with telling a joke." You
could use
either. You're going to hear both of
those,but the main part, "start off
with" or "start
off," it's going to be the same for all
ofthese.
Carla:And the key with salt tasting is
you want
to start off with the highest mineral
contentsalt going to the highest
sodium salt. You
want to start off with the highest
mineralcontent salt. You want to start
off with the
highest mineral content salt.Vanessa:
Were any of those phrasal verbs new
to you?I hope that our explanations
help you to remember
them and learn how to use them in
real conversations.Next, it's time for a
pronunciation lesson.
We're going to take an in depth look
at acouple sentences that you heard in
the original
conversation. I'm going to break
those downstep by step so that you
can imitate our pronunciation.
So what I want you to do is I want
you totry to repeat with me, speak out
loud, use
your pronunciation muscles. It's great
tohear me, but it's even better if you
speak
out loud yourself. So I challenge you
to beactive, and let's get started.
Vanessa:Hi. Welcome to this month's
pronunciation
lesson. Today we're going to be
focusing onfive sentences that you
heard in the conversation
with Carla. And each of those
sentences featuresa vocabulary
expression or a phrasal verb
 that we talked about in the previous
lessons,so I hope that this will help
you to remember
those words and pronounce them
correctly.What we're going to do is
we're going to take
a look at the clip, and then I'm going
tohelp you break down the sentence
so that you
can say it exactly the way that we did,
andthen we're going to watch it again.
I hope
that your understanding will improve,
butalso your pronunciation skills. All
right,
let's start with the first
sentence.Carla:
So this started a very sustainable
practicethat has lasted hundreds of
years, and it's
still there today. This started a very
sustainablepractice that has lasted
hundreds of years.
This started a very sustainable
 practice thathas lasted hundreds of
years.
Vanessa:In this sentence, you heard
Carla say, "This
started a very sustainable practice that
haslasted hundreds of years." She's
talking about
the method of creating salt. Instead of
burningwood, they're using the sun to
evaporate the
water, and this is a sustainable
process.The sun is always going to be
hot, so it's
easy to evaporate with the sun, and
it's sustainablefor the earth as well.
So let's break down
this sentence starting at the
beginning.Vanessa:
In the beginning of the sentence, she
says,"This started." "Started." This e-
d word "started"
ends in an "id" sound. "Started."
What's anothersound that you hear?
The word "start" ends
 in a T, but this T is changing to a D.
Thisis super typical in American
English that
T's changed to D sounds. So I want
you tosay this with me. "This
started." It kind
of sounds like "star" plus "did."
"Started.""This started." "This
started." I want you
to be as active as possible during this
lesson.So whenever I'm saying
something, and I'm
repeating something a couple of
times, I hopethat you can say it out
loud, too. It's great
to listen to my voice, but it's even
betterif you can say it out loud
yourself.
Vanessa:All right, let's go to the next
part of the
sentence. "A very sustainable
practice. Avery sustainable practice."
Let's break down
that big word here. Sustain-able. That
 finalpart sounds like "uh."
"Sustainable." There's
two "uh" sounds here at the
beginning. Sus-tain-a-ble.So I want
you to say that part with me. "A
very sustainable practice. A very
sustainablepractice."
Vanessa:In the next two words, she
says, "That has.
That has." First, let's listen for the
vowelsound. "Th-a-a." It's a short E.
Even though
the word "that" has an A, "that" often
infast English, it becomes "theh,"
"eh," "eh."
"That has. That has. That has." But
what'shappening to the final T in that
word? "That."
Do you hear it all? "That has." This is
calleda stopped T. So instead of
making that T sound
with a puff of air, your tongue is
going tostop at the top of your mouth.
"That has."
 That has." You're making a T sound.
You'rejust not letting that puff of air
escape.
"That has." "That has." And then she
says,"lasted hundreds of years."
"Lasted."
Vanessa:Ooh, does that sound
familiar? It's similar
to "started." "We have lasted." So just
thinkl-a-s, "las," plus "did", d-i-d.
"Lasted."
"Lasted hundreds of years. Lasted
hundredsof years." So both past tense
verbs, "started,"
"lasted," have the same type of
pronunciation.The T is changing to a
D, and that final e-d
ending is going to sound like "id."
"Started.""Lasted." Do you think we
can put this all
together? Let's go back and take a
look atthis full sentence? Try to
remember all those
things we talked about and we're
 going tosee which words are
emphasized so that you
can have the right cadence and
rhythm in thissentence.
Vanessa:"This started a very
sustainable practice
that has lasted hundreds of years."
She'semphasizing "started." "This
started a very
sustainable practice," emphasizing
both ofthose words, "that has lasted
hundreds of
years." She also emphasizes the word
"hundreds"because that's the
unimportant part of the
sentence. How many years?
Hundreds of years.Let's go back and
try to say this sentence
by emphasizing those important
words. "Thisstarted a very sustainable
practice that has
lasted hundreds of years." You want
to sayit with me? "This started a very
sustainable
 practice that has lasted hundreds of
years."All right. It's your turn. I'm
going to pause.
No matter where you live around the
world,I'll be listening, so make sure
that you say
this out loud with all of the correct
pronunciationthat we talked about. If
you need a reminder,
you could always check out the
lesson guide.Each month I send a
monthly lesson guide.
This is like a mini textbook, and you
cansee all of the words that we've
talked about
and see how they're pronounced, and
that willkind of give you a a good
reminder as you're
practicing this lesson. All right, it's
yourturn. Say the sentence all by
yourself.
Vanessa:(silence)
Vanessa:Great work. Let's listen to
how Carla said
 it in the original conversation.Carla:
This started a very sustainable
practice thathas lasted hundreds of
years. This started
a very sustainable practice that has
lastedhundreds of years. This started
a very sustainable
practice that has lasted hundreds of
years.Vanessa:
Did you hear those e-d words,
"started," "lasted"?I hope so. Let's go
on to the second sentence
where you're going to hear the
phrasal verb"to come from." Let's
listen.
Carla:But you'll see all different
colors, and all
those different colors come from
differentmineral compositions
coming from the different
regions. We even have a super white,
whitesalt from Hawaii. All those
different colors
come from different mineral
 compositions comingfrom the
different regions and all those
different
colors come from different mineral
compositionscoming from the
different regions.
Vanessa:In this sentence, Carla said,
"All those different
colors come from different mineral
compositionscoming from different
regions." Do you hear
a word that she repeats three times?
She says"come from" twice, but she
also says "different"
three times. So today this is your
chanceto master pronouncing this
word. Let's go
back to the beginning and try to say
thisa little bit by a little bit together.
"All
those different colors." This is the
firsttime that we've encountered the
word "different"
in the sentence. So let's say it slowly
 andtogether. Dif-rent. "Diff" with a
clear F
sound. Your top teeth are on your
bottom lip."Diff." And then we have
"rent, rent." It
kind of sounds like r-i-n, but we need
tohave a stopped T at the end. Diff-
rent. That
means that your tongue is stopped at
the topof your mouth. You're going to
say "different,"
but you don't let that little final puff
ofair come out.
Vanessa:So we need to say "diff-
rent." Your tongue
is stopped at the top of your mouth.
"Different,different." "All those
different colors."
Can you say that with me? "All those
differentcolors. All those different
colors. All of
those different colors come from diff-
rentmineral compositions." Let's say
that word
again. "Come from diff-rent mineral
compositions.Come from diff-rent
mineral compositions.
Coming from diff-rent regions." This
wordhasn't changed at all. All three
times that
we say it, it's going to be the same
pronunciation.Helpful. Great. So let's
say that final part
again. "Coming from diff-rent
regions. Comingfrom diff-rent
regions." Great work. Let's
go back and say this full sentence
togetherand try to emphasize the
important words.
Vanessa:A good thing to remember is
that the word
directly after "different" is going to
beemphasized in this whole sentence.
So we can
say, "All those different colors come
fromdifferent mineral compositions
coming from
different regions." So we have
 "colors," "mineralcompositions" and
"regions." Let's try to
say it together. "All those different
colorscome from different mineral
compositions coming
from different regions." Let's speed it
up."All those different colors come
from different
compositions coming from different
regions."This is a great way to
practice the word "different"
a lot and also the word "come from."
I thinkthis phrasal verb is repeated
enough that
hopefully you'll remember it after this
lesson.All right, I'm going to pause
and I want you
to say this all together. Make sure
that yousay "diff-rent" and also that
you emphasize
those correct words. Go
ahead.Vanessa:
(silence)Vanessa:
Great work. Let's listen to her repeat
 theword "different" a lot.
Carla:All those different colors come
from different
mineral compositions coming from
the differentregions. And all those
different colors come
from different mineral compositions
comingfrom the different regions.
And all those
different colors come from different
mineralcompositions coming from
the different regions.
Vanessa:Did you hear "different,
different, different"?
I hope so. Let's go on to the third
sentencewhere you're going to hear
the expression
to be all about." Let's listen.Carla:
Our whole family is... They're all
about thesalt. Vanessa:Sure.
Carla:They send us pictures. "I'm at
this grocery
store. Here it is," or "I'm in this
countryhere," so it's fun.
 Vanessa:Oh, that's so cool.
Carla:Our whole family is... They're
all about the
salt. Our whole family is... They're all
aboutthe salt.
Vanessa:This is actually two
sentences, and I just
decided to add them together. She
said, "Ourwhole family is... they're all
about the salt."
Let's break this down. It's seems like
a shortsentence, but there's a lot going
on. At the
beginning of this sentence. She says,
"Ourwhole family is... Our whole
family is...
Our." How is she pronouncing o-u-r?
"Our.Our." Does that sound like the
letter R? Yep.
It is the same pronunciation. When
we say"our, our" with this slower,
clearer pronunciation,
"Our whole family is... Our," it's
going tobe for more... slower
 conversations, a little
bit more intentional, but in fast
conversationswe just say "our." "Our
whole family is..."
"Our. Our." So I want you to say that
withme. "Our whole family is... Our
whole family
is..." And that final word, i-s, "is"
goingto have a Z sound at the end. So
try to say
that with me. "Our whole family is...
Ourwhole family is... Our whole
family is...
Our whole family is... Our whole
family is..."Vanessa:
Let's go on to the next part. "They're
allabout the salt. They're all about the
salt." Let's start with the first word,
"They're.They're." This is a
contraction of "they"
plus "are," but she doesn't say
"they're.They're." This is the clear
pronunciation
for this contraction. In fast
conversations,native speakers are just
going to say "they're.
They're." It kind of sounds like,
"Look overthere. He's over there." T-
h-e-r-e. So you
can kind of imagine that the Y is just
gone.You can say, "They're. They're.
They're all about the salt. They're
They're."Vanessa:
And the next part she uses the key
expressionhere, "all about the salt."
Listen for the
final T on those two words that end in
T."They're all about the salt. They're
all about
the salt." Do you hear the T? "They're
allabout the salt. No. Instead, this is
going
to be that stopped T sound, so I want
yourtongue on the roof of your
mouth, stopping
at the end of that word. "They're all
aboutthe salt. Salt, salt." If you just
say "Sal,"
 it's a different sound than "salt" with
astopped T. If you just say s-o-l
compared
to s-o-l, "Sol, Sol" with a stopped T,
orit's pronounced or it's spelled s-a-l-
t, but
the pronunciation is kind of like an O.
That'swhy I said that, but you can say
"Sol" with
a stopped T, and it's going to sound
muchmore natural.
Vanessa:Do you think we can put that
final sentence
together? "They're all about the salt."
Sayit with me. "They're all about the
salt. They're
all about the salt." Okay, let's go back
andtry to say all of this together,
including
the first part. Let's say it and
emphasizethe right words. "Our
whole family is... They're
all about the salt. Our whole family
is...They're all about the salt." Can
 you guess
what we're emphasizing here? "Our
whole familyis... They're all about the
salt." So we have
"whole family." "all" and "salt." Let's
saythis all together. Remember all of
the reductions
that we talked about and also these
emphasizedwords. Say it with me.
"Our whole family is...
They're all about the salt. Our whole
familyis... They're all about the salt.
Our whole
family is... They're all about the salt.
Nowit's your turn. Say it all by
yourself. Go
ahead.

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