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Kaizen Point-Of-View Text

Hi this is AJ again and now it’s time for our new kind of lesson which I call point of view stories. Now the point of view story, or stories actually, are designed to teach you grammar intuitively. Now there are a few important things you need to know and you need to think about when you’re doing this lesson. Or actually, there’s a few things that you need to know that you should not think about and the number one thing you should not think about are grammar rules. Do not think about grammar rules. Very important. Now I know you’ve been taught grammar rules for many years so it’s hard to get that out of your brain. But it’s very important to unlearn that information. Because you learned grammar in an analytical way.

What that means is you intellectually learned grammar. You learned, okay, well the past progressive is this and we use it in these situations and da, da, da, da, duh…and you took all these grammar tests. And it totally confused your brain so that when you actually speak, you don’t know how to speak with proper grammar. It comes out wrong. You take a grammar test, maybe you do very well. But when you speak your grammar sucks, it’s terrible! What’s the problem here? Well, it’s because you learned grammar rules and terms. You studied it. You analyzed it. You memorized these rules. But you didn’t learn it intuitively, naturally. It did not get deep into your brain the way a native speaker knows grammar.

So the point of view stories are designed to teach you the way a native speaker learns grammar. And we learn grammar by listening, by understanding meaning, by understanding patterns. So when you listen to these stories, here’s the good news. Just listen. Smile. Shoulders back. Feel great and just listen. Don’t think about anything. Don’t think about rules, none of that. Just relax and enjoy the story. Notice the patterns. You can notice the changes in vocabulary because in each story what I’m going to do is I’m going to tell this exact same story from the mini‑story. So in this story you’re going to hear the same story about Jan being rude. But I’m going to tell it from a different point of view. It means from a different time.

So, for example, I might tell that story but from the future. I might say that I have an idea for a movie and the movie will happen in ten years, ten years from now. In ten years there will be a woman and she’ll be very rude. Her name will be Jan. And I’ll tell the whole story from the point of view of the future. Of course, I’ll change some of the vocabulary, especially the verbs, in order to tell it from the future. Now all you have to do is just listen to it. Just say “Okay, this is the future” and just notice. All you have to do is just listen, notice some of the words change. I’ll be using will, for example, and you know that that’s the future tense. But forget this idea of the future tense. Forget your grammar books. Just notice the changes in vocabulary. Sometimes I might

change the word order. Sometimes the structure might change a little bit. Just notice it. That’s all you have to do. Listen carefully. Don’t think about it. Don’t analyze it. Don’t write down rules, none of that. Listen and notice, listen, listen, listen, that’s all you need to do.

Now in the point of view stories I’m going to use two basic points of view. One is the future, which I just mentioned, and the other I call the perfect tenses and there is actually a few of them. But don’t think about that, oh my god, grammar, grammar, grammar term. All you need to know is I’ll start most of those stories with something like “Since she was young… Since 2001…” Right, it means something started in the past and is continuing up until now.

So that’s one of the points of view I’ll use and the other one will be the future. The main mini‑story, you may have noticed, most of the regular mini‑stories are from the past. Right, I said Jan was very rude. She wanted to change. So I did that by design. I did it on purpose. Because most people need a lot of help, a lot of practice, a lot of listening for the past, the past, the past. So that’s why the main mini‑stories are almost always told from the past point of view. Alright, enough talking, let’s get to it. Are you ready? Let’s start with the first one.

Since she was a child Jan has always been very rude. Since she was a child Jan has been rude.

How long has Jan been rude?

She’s been rude since she was a child.

Was she rude when she was a baby?

No, no, no, not when she was a baby. Not in the very beginning, no. Just since she was a child, maybe since she was five years old. So since she was a child she has been very rude, very harsh.

And who, who has been very rude and harsh since she was a child?

Well, of course, Jan. Jan has been very rude since she was a child. From being a child, maybe five or six years old, until now, all that time she has been rude.

Has she always been rude?

Not always, just since she was a child. Not when she was a baby. But since she was a child, since she was six or five or seven, she has been very, very rude.

She has always said rude comments to people.

Has she always done this? Has she always said rude zingers to people?

Well, always meaning since she was a child, sure. Since she was a child she has always said rude zingers.

Since she was a child she has always said rude zingers to friends, to family, to everyone.

Since she was a child has she always said rude zingers or just sometimes?

Well, since she was a child she has always said rude zingers to everybody.

But one day, she summoned all her friends. And she said “I will never be harsh to you again.” She was very friendly. She coughed up compliments to each one. She said “Oh, ugh, you’re very nice and you’re very intelligent.” She coughed them up. It was difficult in the beginning. But then over the course of two years she was very, very kind. She was always kind during that time. Over the course of two years she was very kind, kind, kind, very friendly. And, of course, after two years everybody loved Jan. They gave her kisses. They gave her money. They gave her love. And how did she feel? She felt very fulfilled.

Okay, so this is the end of the first POV story. Now something happened in that story and you should notice it. Don’t think about the grammar terms but just notice that something changed, I don’t know, around the middle of the story. Now the beginning of the story I was saying “Since she was a child she has been rude. She has always said rude comments to people since she was a child.” And then I said “She summoned all her friends one day.” One day she summoned all her friends, right? Different vocabulary, different point of view, the point of view suddenly changed. So in the beginning I’m talking about since, since she was a child. Something started in the past and then it continued. It kept happening again and again and again up until now or up until a certain time. There is a range of time there. Started in the past and then kept going over some time. But then it changed, it became a sudden one time event. She summoned her friends.

Now she didn’t keep summoning her friends every day for four years or for two years or for one year or anything like that. It just happened. She summoned her friends, boom, it was a one time event. She did it, it happened, it finished. So then I changed. And, you know, all you grammar people already know, I started using the past tense, right? So don’t think about that, don’t worry about it. The point is that it changed. And you’ll notice that happening in most of the POV stories when I’m starting with “Since 2003…” or “Since she was a child” you’ll notice that often, probably most of the stories I’ll start that way and then something will happen.

Suddenly I’ll talk about one single event and it will change. The point of view will change. Just notice that. In each of those point of view stories in the future, this one and all the other ones. Just notice when it changes. That’s all you need to do. You don’t need to think about the grammar. You don’t need to think “Oh, he went from the present perfect to the past tense.” Don’t need to worry about that. Just notice the change. And notice when it happens and that’s all you need to know.

Alright, our next POV story, we’re going to the future. Here we go, let’s start.

I have this idea for a movie. Let’s just imagine this is a movie idea. And it’s going to happen in ten years, ten years from now. In ten years there will be a woman. She’ll be very, very rude. This woman will always say rude comments to her friends. She’ll give zingers to her friends every day, rude, harsh zingers. She’ll always be terrible, always harsh, always rude.

How will she be?

She’ll be very rude. She’ll be very harsh.

What will her name be, this woman in the future?

Her name will be Jan.

Her name will be Jan. And Jan will be very, very rude. She’ll give rude comments to her friends all the time. She’ll give rude zingers to her friends all the time. Her friends will cry and cry and cry. They’ll be very unhappy. But one day she’s going to change. One day she’s going to summon all her friends to her house. She’ll cough up compliments to each one. She’ll say “Oh, you’re very nice and you’re very intelligent.” Of course, this will be very tough for her in the beginning. She’ll have to cough up the comments. But she’ll continue to be nice and kind over the course of two more years. She’ll always be kind. She’ll be super friendly during that time. And, of course, at the end of those two years everyone will love Jan. They’re going to give her kisses. They’re going to give her money. They’re going to give her love. She’ll feel very, very fulfilled.

Alright, that’s it. So easy. Now just a couple of things to notice in these future point of view stories. One thing to notice is a little difficult to hear sometimes is this “ll” sound, its that L sound, right? Sometimes I’ll say, for example “Jan’ll be very rude.” Of course that means Jan will be very rude. But in real conversation, normal conversation, we often will just say “ll”, we add “ll” to something for the future. Jan’ll be very happy. Jan’ll be very fulfilled. That “ll”, “ll”, “ll”. You don’t need to say that, it’s maybe difficult to pronounce so it’s okay if you can’t say it.

Just say will or gonna or going to, but you do need to be able to hear it so that you understand what’s happening. You understand someone is talking about the future, something that hasn’t happened yet. So listen for that “ll”, that “ll” is a little bit difficult to hear sometimes so you have to listen carefully. So in these future stories listen for the “ll”, Jan’ll, they’ll. Okay? Another one is gonna. Now gonna, of course, means going to. I am going to eat this food tomorrow. Now that’s what you learned in your textbook, I’m going to. But what we actually say very often in real conversation we say gonna. I’m gonna eat this food tomorrow. I’m gonna go to the store tomorrow. So gonna means going to or will, it means future, future, future.

Alright that is the end of the POV stories. Just listen, listen, listen. Relax. Burn your grammar textbooks. Throw them away. Get rid of them. Stop thinking about that crap. Of course, crap means what? Crap means shit. Crap means bad stuff. You don’t want to think about that stuff. Just listen to these POV stories. Relax. Notice what’s happening in the stories but don’t think about it too much.

Alright, I will see you next time.