This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1745.
Speak English fast with these pronunciation tips plus a surprise guest.
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Should you try to speak fast in English?
You want to be yourself in English and not sound slow.
But when do you know if you're ready to start speeding up?
Today, get tips and inspiration from a successful learner.
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Maybe you can have conversations, but you still hesitate when expressing complex ideas.
Maybe you know what you want to say. but you can't always say it naturally.
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You'll learn how to speak more naturally, express yourself with confidence and finally stop feeling stuck at the intermediate level.
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Go to allearsenglish.com slash B2.
That's allearsenglish.com slash letter B number two.
Hey, Aubrey, how's it going today?
Hi, I'm great.
How are you?
Awesome.
What are we getting into today?
Are we talking about pronunciation and speaking fast?
Yes, we got a really good question from a listener about this.
And I feel like so many of our listeners out there have this same question, because I have had this question at Learning French and in Spanish.
How fast do you speak?
How can you make sure your pronunciation is clear?
This is tricky stuff.
Yeah, because we do want to speak fast.
Of course we want to speak.
We don't want to, you know, because I think sometimes people incorrectly equate speaking slow.
It's not true.
But I think sometimes when we speak slow, people may get bored.
If we're speaking monotone, if we're speaking too slow.
So naturally, as human beings, we want to speed up.
We want to be ourselves, right?
That's the key.
Exactly.
And when we're first learning a language everyone understands, we're going to be a little slower.
But When you guys start getting at the level that you're at where you can understand this podcast and you're communicating with others, you do want to get a little closer to the speed that natives speak at.
It's so true.
You guys deserve to feel that sense of mastery, right?
With the language and that you are there, you're a human being in English, right?
Not just in your native language.
I feel like you can be yourself.
Yes yes, I love it.
So Aubrey, can I read the question from the listener?
Okay, Omar says good evening.
How are you guys?
I hope you're in the best condition.
I have a question.
When a word ends with S and the following word starts with TH, which sound should I pronounce when I speak fast?
Oh, that's a great question.
Like in the sentence, everyone has that.
Thanks in advance and thanks for your amazing effort.
Best regards, Omar Mahmoud.
Great question.
This is a good question.
I know, right?
And when you see it written, you don't know unless you're looking at it written phonetically, right?
So the tongue movement for this does become more natural with practice, right?
Air is being pushed between the tongue and the roof of your mouth for that S sound, which actually sounds like a Z here, right?
Has that.
Has that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then immediately, your tongue just barely touches the top teeth while air is being pushed through to make that the the T-H sound.
Right.
But do we sit on the TH?
Not so much, right?
No, exactly.
It goes fast.
Okay.
Okay.
So like the majority of the emphasis is more on the Z or the sound, right?
Exactly.
We really hear that Z has this, has that.
We are a little harder, a little longer on the S, which sounds like a Z.
Okay.
Really good to know.
I've actually thought about this before as a native speaker, this particular combination, because it's tricky.
I mean, how do you know, right?
And if you're only listening to audio books from textbooks where they're probably going to pronounce each equally, which is wrong, right?
You're going to learn the wrong way.
Exactly.
Right.
So the best way is to hear it, to hear it often.
But also I love that this listener sent this in, because to get an explanation, a breakdown of exactly what we're doing and how to emphasize which sounds, I think, is so helpful.
Absolutely.
So where do we go from here?
Well, for each language learner.
There are different sounds that are more difficult to make in English.
For some of you listeners out there, you may not struggle with this S to TH transition, but maybe it's R or L or CH.
And English speakers also have these difficulties learning a second language, right?
For me it's the rolling the R in Spanish and the R in the back of your throat in French and the U in French.
Are so problematic.
Oh, my gosh.
The rolling the R is always hard.
And it's kind of like these are things you really do need to immerse yourself in the real sounds of the real language.
It doesn't mean you have to travel, but you have to listen to natural English, like this podcast or something similar, to really start to fully get your ear into it.
It's almost like we need to train our ear for it and then we train our mouth for it.
Exactly.
Right.
I know that with the U, I still am corrected sometimes.
I've taught college French and I'll be speaking with a native speaker.
And if I just say tu, tu, then they'll correct me and say tu. eesh.
It's such a nuanced sound, this you, and it bothers them.
It's something that they will correct me because it's like nails on a chalkboard for a lot of them.
Oh, interesting.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, that's why I love language learning.
It's so humbling.
Right.
It's so humbling.
We think we've reached a level and then we do something and we're put right back in our place.
But it's good for us.
Right.
It's good for us to be constantly learning.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
So I think we have a few tips here.
Three tips.
When we think about pronunciation, right?
First of all, just that mimicking or shadowing, I think, is the most effective way to learn to pronounce these sounds accurately.
But it's not enough.
I mean, you don't want to do this once a month, right?
You need to figure out how to do this daily.
You can listen to a podcast or a TV show and then just stop for 10 seconds, mimic the way they spoke and make sure it's engaging right.
Whatever show or podcast you're choosing, make sure that it's interesting, and then you'll actually do it.
Yeah.
I mean, that's the key.
That's why we publish All Ears English four days a week.
I know a lot of our listeners do that with this show.
And you guys could do it also with the transcripts, of course, right?
If you have the app, you can see the transcripts or you can get them by email.
But do something that you're excited about.
Don't do the whole thing, right?
The whole episode.
I would say just take a chunk of it, right, Aubrey?
A short chunk.
Exactly. like 10 seconds, right?
Listen to just that 10 seconds again.
Mimic shadow, try to sound exactly like that native speaker for a very short chunk.
Hey guys, if you love All Ears English, then make sure you go ahead and hit follow now wherever you listen to this podcast, so that you don't miss a single episode of the show.
We publish four days a week and we believe in connection not perfection.
Thanks guys.
I love it.
I love it.
And then we get some feedback at that point too, right?
Try to get a little feedback, would you say?
Yes, exactly right.
From a friend or a teacher.
We've talked in the past Lindsay, on this podcast.
About every time you speak English with someone, you don't want to be constantly correcting each other, giving feedback.
You want this to be a very specific, intentional time where you say like okay, you know, let's both do this and then give each other feedback.
Do I sound like the native speaker here?
Do you hear any sounds that sound off to you?
Make it very intentional.
Make sure it's not like every time you chat, sometimes you want to just communicate.
Yeah, you're right.
Aubrey, we've talked about that when it comes to a language exchange, right?
You know, it doesn't have to be a teacher.
We recommend working with a teacher, but if you do have a language exchange, be intentional.
Okay, when we meet on Wednesday night from 7 to 730, you're going to be listening for my pronunciation, or whatever.
What's the time frame?
And then you stop and you chat about your weekend.
Right.
But don't let the whole thing be chatting about your weekend, because then you're not really improving anything.
You're staying in your comfort zone.
Yeah.
You want to just be intentional about it, because you also don't want it to be correcting each other every time, or you can't build that friendship, that connection to where you're actually going to want to spend time with them.
It's also kind of it feels safe.
When you create a container activity and you're containing this time, these 15 minutes, you have permission to correct every, every sound I say incorrectly.
Right.
And so then we're not taking it personally.
We're not feeling like, oh, my gosh, I can't speak.
I always make mistakes.
It's this time when that's the person's job.
Right.
Exactly.
Like an assignment.
Yes.
Okay.
Our tip number two this is vital, I think is to try to think in English instead of translating from your first language, because that's where we really get into pronunciation troubles.
If we're, our brain is thinking in our first language and then we're translating, it's often really easy to carry over the pronunciation from our first language.
So the more we can try to think in English in the first place, the more your pronunciation will be where you want it to be.
Definitely.
I mean, get to the point where, you know, make your brain kind of ruminate over the language, right?
Make your brain start to dream in English.
Immerse yourself to the point where it's in your head all the time.
That's the goal.
That's where we really need to be to start to see real fluency.
Exactly.
And then of course tip number three.
You guys have heard this before, but connection, not perfection.
Don't try to be perfect.
Don't worry about those mistakes.
Don't stress so much about your pronunciation.
Do take these specific times to improve it intentionally, but don't be worried about that all the time, or you're going to end up avoiding speaking English, because it'll be miserable.
Exactly.
I mean always come back to.
There's a human being in front of you and it's your job to connect right.
If you mess up every single S sound, every single CH sound, you're.
Can you laugh about it with that person?
Maybe they've asked you 10 times, can you say that again?
Can you laugh and say, oh, that's funny.
I'm sorry.
I always screw this up.
Then that's a connection moment and you've done it.
You've connected.
That's what we're all about.
Exactly.
So we have something special and exciting here.
It's a little different from what we usually do.
Fun.
What are we doing here?
Yes.
So I had a chance to interview Sandra Royo.
She's from Puerto Rico.
And I asked her about you know what are the sounds?
When you were learning English that were especially problematic.
And what did you do to target those and work on them?
So we're going to play that interview for you.
We actually also interviewed her for our business English course.
She is very talented.
She works for Nationwide Insurance.
Her English is nearly flawless, as you're going to see.
So let's go ahead and listen to that interview.
Awesome.
Okay.
So, first of all, when you were learning English, what sounds were the most difficult for you to pronounce?
I think the CH and SH was one of the most difficult and sometimes I still have problems.
In my head, it just sounds...
The similar, but my husband corrects me.
So that sounds the same to you.
You don't notice, but then someone else would correct you.
And that's how you could tell you were making a mistake.
Right.
So then what did you do to work on this to improve the pronunciation of those sounds?
I think, for example, like the CH, like people would tell me, okay, it's more like short.
Okay.
Short pronunciation of like instead of so so that I would practice the words with it.
Like, for example, the TV show Charles in Charge.
I remember that to me was amazing.
It was really hard.
I was going to college and we were watching it, me and my roommates in the dorm.
And I would say, now I can't even, I'm thinking about it.
I can't even say, yeah, Charles in charge.
And they're like, Charles in charge.
So I had to continue practicing until I would get it.
So you were isolating those sounds and thinking about what is my mouth doing to make that sound sort of quick and sharp versus the sh which we hold longer.
And then it sounds like you were taking specific words that had that sound and saying them over and over and asking for feedback from friends.
Your roommates clearly were comfortable letting you know if you weren't saying the sound right.
Did you tell them, please correct me?
Or were they just doing it without you telling them to?
No, I think they just did.
And then I'm like, Oh, so how is it again?
Because I, in my, in my head, I wouldn't like.
I'm saying the same like, so they would actually correct me.
And I'm like, Oh, I get it.
Okay.
Because yeah, I didn't notice until they told me about it.
Yeah, I know I do the same in French and Spanish.
I know there are words that I mistake.
And just like you said, I don't always notice.
Maybe they sound the same to me or I don't realize I'm doing it wrong.
And I have always told anyone who speaks, you know, I say this to you.
I'm like, please correct my Spanish.
I need the feedback.
I want to know.
Has there ever been a time where you felt nervous about making mistakes or you didn't want someone correcting you?
I would feel nervous and I still do when I have to like, for example interviews, or when I have to like speak with a lot of people around me that I am like conscious that I'm going to make a mistake or pronounce it um, in a wrong way.
And I'm, I would be embarrassed, uh, for them to notice.
Um, but I'm really open to like for anybody.
Just tell me.
No, that's not how it.
You say it, but I guess, like if I don't know the people so well or if I'm in a in um interview type of interviewing for a job or something like that, I would be a little bit more Definitely right.
We feel more comfortable with our friends, people we know well, and we're happy to get that feedback.
But in certain situations and in a job interview, I can't imagine someone correcting.
You know, that's not the focus.
They're just looking for you to succeed.
They want to know specific things.
Yeah.
It's interesting.
We talk a lot about connection, not perfection, right?
And this is one thing where we don't want to be stressed about whether we're making these sounds correct or not.
We just want to be making that connection, communicating.
But there are things that we can do to improve that connection, to improve that communication.
And this is one of them to isolate these specific sounds that we know we struggle with and figure out how we can practice.
So my question for you is even now you're so fluent and you've spoken English for so long.
Do you still work on those sounds even now?
Oh, yes.
Yes.
This happens all the time that I'm just like going fast or not even thinking.
And I just like and I catch myself.
Like, for example, I tell you something that my family makes fun of me one time.
I'm like, OK, so can you give me some hummus deep?
So they started laughing.
And I'm like, oh, I meant hummus dip.
So it's just like, it just came out like that.
And yeah, it happens all the time, but I still have to like work at it.
Like sometimes you're just saying it and it just comes out and you have to correct yourself right away.
You have Spanish and English living in your brain.
And then how do I pronounce that?
Is it the short I or E like in Spanish?
I could see, yeah, that happens to me.
That happens to all of us who are learning a language, right?
And then it's just like you were saying, to take those specific sounds like the C-H and S-H, work at it, repeat those words that have the sounds until you start hearing it more, knowing you're doing it right and feeling more confident for sure.
Well, thank you so much for joining us.
I think this was so helpful to be able to talk with someone who has learned English, is continually working on these specific phonemes that are problematic.
Okay.
So Aubrey, we are back.
That was great.
What a cool thing to hear another voice on the show.
I love it.
That must've been a great conversation you had with Sandra.
So interesting.
And I love that she was able to target specific sounds, the ch and sh, and then the vowel I, which more often in Spanish is E, and then having to know when it's I or I or E in English, because it can be all of those sounds.
So yeah, really fascinating to get some great tips from her on how to target and practice specific pronunciations, specific phonemes.
That I think will really help.
But how inspiring, right guys?
We want you to be inspired by this example with Sandra because she has gone through her own journey.
Right, Aubrey?
Yes.
Of improving the pronunciation.
And now she's very clear.
I mean, she was in our business course, right?
We interviewed her.
Exactly.
She's a very successful business person.
She speaks English so well.
It's true.
It's very motivational.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's really, really inspiring that you could get to this point, right?
If you really do the right things, you can get to that level too.
I love it.
Exactly.
So what's our takeaway here, Lindsay?
All right, guys.
We think that mimicking or shadowing is such a key piece of learning English and learning to pronounce correctly.
You don't have to speak slow.
You can get to the point where you can start to speak faster, but you need to do the right things by isolating the sounds and then go out and you're ready to speak faster.
That's the key.
Yes, exactly.
Right.
Avoid feeling like others are critical.
You don't want to let that hold you back.
Right.
Be ready.
Be willing to have those conversations with others at a little bit faster speed, knowing that you've prepared, you've put in the work to be able to really succeed there and then work on making those connections.
I love it.
So good.
So inspiring and so cool to hear another voice on the show today.
I love it.
Thanks, Aubrey.
This has been fun.
Yes, for sure.
Thanks, Lindsay.
See you next time.
All right.
See you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
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