Real English Problems from Real Students (Q&A with James)

English learners around the world asked me real questions, and today I’m answering them. We cover basic grammar, sentence structure, speaking confidence, listening difficulties, and preparing for a job interview in English. I also explain why asking the right question matters when learning a language, and why many students search for advanced English help before building strong basics first. Here are the links to the other lessons I recommend in this video: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJF-sXujcVg - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgjUjpAyB2M&list=PL1MxVBsQo85qLby7rrLVVLNlWMLYoLjJZ&index=2 - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1MxVBsQo85qLby7rrLVVLNlWMLYoLjJZ&si=DHUS5-M-dCPNbw_5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aO6cGTcnUg Do you have a question you would like me to answer? Ask in the comments! #AskEngVidJames In this lesson: 0:00 James answers your questions 1:42 Question 1 4:48 Question 2 7:18 Question 3 9:01 Question 4 11:41 Question 5 19:19 Question 6 21:06 Thank you! Transcript: Hi, James from EngVid. I'm not at my usual place. I'm doing James Q&A. Q&A as in question and answer. You guys send in some brilliant questions, and I've decided to answer as well nine questions in a particular order. I'm going to get to that in a second, but first of all, thank you for sending the questions. We're not in our usual space, but you know, not our usual space or place, but E is here with me. All right, cool. So first I'm going to do this. I'm going to answer quick questions that, questions that were unique in that when you ask the question, you asked in a kind of a strange way. So I could understand why you probably weren't able to find a direct answer on Google or, or chat GPT or what have you. And that's actually an issue for people, right? How to phrase a question in order to get the answer you want. And that's probably why you came to me, right? Number two, the second section is recommendations. Yes, I'm going to answer your question. I'm not going to do it directly here. What I'm going to do is refer you to videos I've done, because I think a one minute answer isn't going to really serve you well. So I think it's better if I give you videos that are, you know, 20 minutes, but will really help you out. And the third part is I want to do a couple of shout outs to some people who said, thank you. And I appreciate that. So I want to take the time to say thank you back. But before I go, I'm going to start with our trusty book and see what notes we have in here from who we have. So let's start off first. First question was from Rizamizi. Okay, so you're in a US exchange students, and you had a question on grammar for essays. Okay, yours was an interesting question. You wanted grammar for essays. Okay, my friend, I have to say this to you, before we even think about essays, because that's formal and academic writing. I got a couple notes here. And if you don't mind, I'm going to look at them and give them to you. And I think we should start here. And if we start here, you're going to get a lot further. And then I can address your essay questions, because I do have videos and essays. But I don't think I want to start there with you. Okay, so this is to help you out. Okay, so you suggested you wanted some grammar for essays. Essays are basically mostly grammar. But what I noticed just looking at your notes were, number one, I wanted you to get some basic grammar like SVO. And if you're asking what SVO is, we have to start there. That's subject plus verb plus object. You weren't really good at structuring your sentences to start with. So I think we have to pull it back a bit. Yeah, that will help you with the academics, believe it or not, you may not need more information. But a proper organization of your sentences will make it easier for people to understand. You also had a run on sentence. You started a brilliant, I mean, I loved your question, but it went from I almost died from the breath. And that's what a run on sentences is no punctuation. So we have to look at punctuation. And that brought me to my third point, which is you didn't end your sentence with a period. So with these three things, what I noticed, as I said, you had a run on sentence. Oh, I forgot the other one. You capitalized grammar. So your capitalization wasn't great, right? USA you can capitalize, your name you can capitalize, but the word grammar? No. Now, if you spoke and you were German, I would understand that. Because in Germany, they capitalize nouns, but we don't in English. Okay. So anyway, brilliant question. Thank you very much. My answer to you is, before I give you specifics, even before I recommend a video, because I could have done that and put you in the other section, I would love for you to go over some basic, basic grammar points. […]