Still? Or, is it over now?

I am proud of you. You came here to learn. You are improving. Now relax you jaw, relax your shoulders and take a deep breath. This will be easy, I promise!

Welcome back everyone, and welcome to those of you who are here for the first time. This is English Airs, the podcast that will give you effortless accuracy. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am enjoying making it, and I hope you come back. Oh and I have some special news for you. I’ll tell you at the end of the episode, but now on to helping you fix another pesky problem. Pesky means annoying. And unfortunately present perfect is pesky for a lot of people, but not for you! Not after this podcast!

Oh, I totally forgot to introduce myself to the new listeners! My name is Parya, I teach English, and at the time of this recording, I have lived in Tokyo for over 5 years, since I came here in 2016. I have my tiny apartment now, but at first I lived in a share house for over 2 years. Did you see how I used “for” just now?

I have lived in Tokyo for over 5 years. Do I still live in Tokyo? You are right: I do. I think some of you are asking “Didn’t we say in the last episode that we use “I have done that .” for actions and event that finished in the past?” Good job remembering that! Yes, we did, but let me ask you a question: is ‘living’ something that happens? Is it something that I wake up every day and do? Right again, it’s not. It is not an action or a happening, is it?

Now as always, I want to know more about you. I am going to ask you a few questions, and then I’ll pause to give you time to answer each, using for (if you have a duration) and since (if you want to mention the starting the starting point). If you can, speak up!

How long have you lived in your current place?
Who is your best friend? How long have you known each other?
What phone do you have? How long have you had it?
What do you want for your next birthday? How long have you wanted it?
What kind of music do you like? How long have you been interested in it?

Thank you for telling me all that, and great job! For those of you who couldn’t answer, it’s ok. Just listen one more time, and try again!

Let’s move a bit further on. By now, you know that we are talking about situations, right? And we all know that they do not last. For example, I don’t live in the share house anymore. Fortunately! So how about we check a few situations that have ended? Again I will ask a few questions, and wait while you think and answer, this time only with “for” and the duration.

How long did you have your last watch?
What was your previous phone? How long did you have it?
Do you work? If this is your first job, how long did you look for it?
It isn’t your first job? How long were you in your previous position?

Well done! That was not difficult, was it? If you couldn’t answer very smoothly, remember that you can always listen again, and try again.

Now to recap, If I tell you “I have been with this company for 5 years”, am I still in the same company? What if I tell you “I was with this company for 5 years.”? Am I still in the same company?

If your answers were yes, and no, great job! You’ve got it! So, if you are deciding between present perfect and past simple with a duration, the question you need to ask yourself is…yes! “Still? Or is it over now?”

On to studying on your own. Here are the questions to put on your reminder:

How long has it been since you ate something?

How long have you know that person? (and choose a different person every time)

and,

How long did you sleep last night?

Set the reminder to repeat every day, but not in the morning! We don’t want the answer to the first question to be the same every time, right?

And now for the special news I promised you: I was planning on launching the podcast channel with extra, explanatory videos, but so many of you wanted just the same podcast but with subtitles, that I had to launch the channel ahead of the schedule! Now you can listen while you are watching the script on the screen in real time, you can pause, and you can comment or ask questions directly under the videos! I hope it helps! If it does, make sure to subscribe to the channel so that you don’t miss the future uploads; there will be extra videos there, you know!

Remember that you can always ask me any questions that you have, and that I would love to hear your thoughts. If you want me to make an episode and explain something special, let me know. I’ll try to add it to the program. Also, please keep recommending this podcast to anyone who might need it or like it. I would like to help as many people as I can. Are you with me?

Parya out!