Hey everyone, welcome to the English Fluency Journey podcast.
These episodes were created based on our videos on YouTube for those who'd rather listen than watch.
So happy listening. Hope you enjoy our content.
So a lot of you guys have been asking me about how can you practice your pronunciation by yourself. or what can you do to improve your pronunciation and accent.
So of course, I'm going to share with you my best tips in this video.
But first a little disclaimer. I don't think that having an accent is bad.
In fact, A lot of native speakers say that it's even cool and sexy. and we're all different so clearly we can't all speak the same.
I personally love working on my pronunciation and that's why I do it because I want it and because I enjoy it.
And I also think that it's important to work on your pronunciation because you're learning a foreign language And your goal probably is to speak that language with native speakers.
And for me it's as simple as showing respect to that language and to those people that you use that language with.
But that's just me. But I do believe that if you communicate with native speakers, either at your work or you just live in an English speaking country or whatever your situation is that involves speaking English. and your accent causes misunderstanding, you have to work on your pronunciation at least a little bit.
Or if you're just like me, a self-development enthusiast and you just want to get better at it.
If not, and you feel completely comfortable with your pronunciation, that's fine too, whatever makes you happy. you can watch this video just for fun.
And I do practice what I preach, so all the things that I'm going to be mentioning in this video I did and still do.
Okey-dokey. If you're a beginner in this whole pronunciation thing, And you know, even if you're not, it's still worth brushing up on your knowledge.
We need to start with the basics, with sounds. what the sounds are in that particular language and accent that you're learning and how to make them. it's important to get the mechanics of those sounds right because the positions of your tongue, lips and jaw that you use to speak your native language may greatly differ from those that we use to speak American English, for example.
Then you proceed to practice separate words.
You can do it as you go, as you learn those sounds.
So let's say you've learned how to make a short double O sound, like in the word book.
So you can proceed to the words with the sound. book, look, hood, cook, etc.
Here, things are getting a little more exciting.
If starting with sounds seems very boring to you, start off with words.
But sounds are the basics. And when you're breaking down the pronunciation of words, you're still going to have to look at the individual sounds in order to pronounce them correctly.
Now, none of the following suggestions are sponsored.
I just wanna give you some options from the bottom of my heart.
If you can't, or you won't spend some money on on taking a pronunciation course or hiring a pronunciation coach because we're in different positions and situations.
YouTube and Youglish are your go-to places.
Rachel's English is an awesome channel. She provides all the information in American pronunciation.
Accent's Way with Hadar Shemesh, The Saint, an amazing channel, Clear English Corner, one more wonderful channel on pronunciation and a lot more.
You're gonna have to choose the one that you like the best.
And, of course, practice. If you're doing this totally on your own and you're not sure if you sound right, record yourself. and compare your pronunciation in your video or audio with that which you're imitating. you will hear if something doesn't sound right.
And here I want to touch on an essential part of this whole working on your speaking and pronunciation process. listening.
You absolutely have to listen a lot. and pay close attention to the way native speakers speak.
Use Youglish to listen to how native speakers pronounce certain words that you want to know how to pronounce.
You can even slow down a video there to hear it clearly.
The same goes for practicing different sound blends and transitions between sounds and phrases and sentences.
Your job, if you're serious about this, is to be very attentive, curious and consistent and really practice.
And I want to pay attention to what I'm going to say right now.
Working on your pronunciation takes time.
It's like working out. First, you learn how to do exercises.
Then you work out for some time, honing them and getting used to that routine.
Then you start getting some results. and then you maintain those results by working out regularly.
What this means is practice, practice, practice. using what you learn and speaking regularly.
This should be your new normal. Well, in a perfect world, right?
Everyone's in a different situation and doing something is always better than doing nothing. to keep this in mind.
One more tip. Don't ditch practicing too fast and always review.
There are words, phrases, transitions and contractions that you don't have problems with. but there are those that are not that easy for you and that need some extra attention.
Polish them. Pronounce them at least a thousand times.
Not at once, of course. Work on them, drill them until you feel that it's completely comfortable for you to pronounce them and they sound the way they're supposed to sound.
And then of course you want to get the hang of contractions because That's what makes native speakers' speech sound natural. and that's what some people consider as fast speech.
Then, if you need some help, or you want some extra assistance or expert opinion and advice, because it can be quite difficult to gather all this information, put it all together, establish a good routine that works, you can sign up for a pronunciation course or hire an accent coach.
I can recommend you my pronunciation coach and give you his contact details.
You can take Hadar Shemesh's course, you can sign up for Rachel's English Academy from Rachel's English.
There's all the information you need. You can work on your own and at your own pace there.
And it's very affordable as far as I know.
And then Lisa Moisson also has a course and I believe gives private lessons.
And that's just to name a few. There's a whole bunch of options.
So let's review the steps. First sounds, then words, then phrases, then sentences.
Then you learn contractions and how to make them.
And don't forget about tongue twisters, an amazing tool.
They are designed to help you work on those tricky sounds and tricky transitions.
Let's take consonant blends like THS. You have to learn to make the transition between these sounds smoothly.
And let's take a phrase, not a tongue twister.
First things first. and will slow it down.
Usually that T in the word first gets dropped and that it connects to the next consonant better, more easily.
It flows and sounds more smoothly. First things first, first things first.
I'm not getting into too much detail with this.
I hope you got the idea. Or you can practice a question like, what's the rush?
What's the rush? A blant-like WV, which happens to be not that easy.
For some reason these two sounds get confused a lot.
And let's just take one word. November. NO-vember.
Not NO-vember. NO-vember. our L-blends are hard as well.
Practice saying just this phrase, just so we are crystal clear. just so we are crystal clear, crystal clear, crystal clear.
Or this tongue twister. Upper roller lower roller, upper roller lower roller, upper roller lower roller.
This one's super hard. Shadowing. Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely.
I have a bunch of videos on shadowing and the things regarding this topic that might be useful for you.
I'll link them in the description. so make sure to check them out.
A funny thing, get ready for your face muscles to hurt for some time until they get used to those new positions. and about those words that you drill in tongue twisters. hit that moment during your practicing when your tongue doesn't listen to your brain anymore.
Stop and give it a break. It can be just a couple of hours or it can take a day or a couple of days.
But after that break, you'll notice that it's become easier to pronounce that word or a phrase. is because of muscle memory.
Another thing, start slowly. If there's a word or a particular phrase that gives you trouble, that you just can't pronounce right, whether it's because of the speed or because of some sound blends. that just don't come out right, break it down and slow it down.
Let's take the word regularly, for instance. break it down into syllables and slow it down regularly. regularly, regularly, regularly.
It helps your mouth and brain understand what you should do and how you should pronounce it.
And then when you speed it up, you're working on the muscles.
They have to get used to going to those positions fast and transitioning between and you're working on your muscle memory.
Now, another thing and a very important one, crucial even, If your intention is to learn to speak with a certain accent and to succeed at this, there are a few things that you simply have to do.
First, when you're practicing, exaggerate. you're working on a foreign language, a totally different You will feel weird and like an imposter for some time while you're getting used to this new you.
It's completely normal. over-do sounds and exaggerate stresses and intonation. since when we're speaking we tend to tone down those things but you just have to get the feel of the intonation and you have to learn to hit those sounds properly.
Especially vowel sounds, like for example a long E sound, like in the word WEEK or LEAVE or SHEEP.
Stretch it out and prolong it. Get used to holding this E in those words.
Weak. leave so that in conversations they don't sound like we or wake, or live, or leave, or ship, or sheep. sheep, week, leave, or the air sound.
When you're practicing, exaggerate it. air, air, air So it doesn't sound like er.
Er is a different sound. sounds weird to you, sounds normal and understandable for a native speaker, remember that.
The same goes for intonation. Shadowing is the best way to work on your intonation and pronunciation in general, but please don't restrict yourself, even if it feels super weird to you.
Imagine that you're an actor and you want to get a part in a movie.
And in order to get it, you have to copy someone down to the littlest One more point is consistency.
If you started, you have to keep moving in this direction no matter what.
Forget about awkwardness and shyness, meaning that in conversations with other people, especially non-native speakers.
Try to speak using everything that you've learned. even if you think that it's still not perfect.
That's the most difficult thing, I'd say. because you won't believe how many stories I've heard from people saying that they are being shamed and ridiculed for their pronunciations and accents and by non-native speakers for the most part, and then even further shamed and ridiculed for trying to speak with a certain accent or working on their pronunciation.
They are told that this is stupid and that they will never speak like natives and that they simply sound fake.
I work on my pronunciation, I work with people who want to improve their pronunciations and I analyzed so many different native speakers' speeches.
Some speak slowly, some speak really quickly, some have a lisp, Some pronounce the American R strongly.
Some pronounce it more lightly. There are many different accents just within the United States alone.
But of course, there are some basics that we have to acquire.
The only thing that you have to remember is that as long as you work and try and stay consistent You move forward, you improve and you progress.
And do whatever you feel like doing. And try not to stress over this.
This is your business and your life. And let's just say to those people that we appreciate their opinion and they have the right to do whatever they want, but at the same time, So do we.
We're human and we have different tastes and beliefs.
As they say, different strokes for different folks.
What sounds like a good idea for one doesn't sound that good for someone else.
And I just want to get one more thing out there.
If someone's being truly mean to you and nitpicky to you, like you can sense and feel and totally tell that their words or actions are completely out of place.
No one thing. Those are deeply insecure people and they project their inner problems and insecurities on others. because that's their way to feel better.
Yes, they put down others and that's not good but you should have some empathy for them.
If some of you are into psychology, you know what I'm talking about.
Don't get offended because it's, not about you.
Kind, happy with their lives, confident and successful, people usually don't have any interest in bringing down others. they are on the contrary encouraging and supportive.
Now, I know that it sounds so boring when I say Be patient, it takes time, stay consistent and repeat, repeat, repeat.
But it's actually my biggest piece advice.
Okay guys, that's it for now. Thank you for choosing our podcast.
Until the next one.
