So why is it that comedians like Kumail Nanjiani and Ronny Chieng are able to charm American audiences with their perfect comedic timing?
They still have an accent, but they have American audiences in the palm of their hands.
Well, on this video, we're gonna uncover why that is and we're gonna implement it, so you could be as charming as they are.
Hey, I'm Gabriel from GB Voice Academy, your accent reduction instructor, to help you get that much closer to mastering the American accent.
If you haven't yet, subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can get access to all of my practice videos that I make for you.
You could also check out my five-star best-selling accent reduction course that has changed the lives of thousands of people all over the world.
So if you don't know who they are, they're comedians with accents, but they have one thing going for them.
It's timing and pacing.
Although they have accents, they were able to match the American rhythm and timing that aligns with American speakers.
Therefore, their jokes land, they sound more engaging.
What people have to understand is that your mother tongue, whether it's Spanish Indian Russian Chinese, has its own rhythm.
And most of the time it doesn't translate well to the American rhythm.
Yes, you could have a perfect American sounding vowel, but if it's not implemented into the correct American template, you're gonna sound like a foreigner.
So now let's look at some specific examples.
If I were to break down exactly what that American rhythm like, a basic foundation of an American rhythm.
Think of it like a basic tune to a song that could have different varieties depending on emotion and intent.
But the base foundation of this track, this song, is as follows.
Listen carefully.
Repeat after me.
Do that exact rhythm.
Sounds pretty basic, right?
But if you really listen to how Americans speak, They fall into this basic rhythm.
But what veers us off from that rhythm is emotional intent.
Let's look at what I just said.
What veers us off from this rhythm is emotional intent.
Ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta.
Did you hear that?
So let's try to implement that rhythm in our speech.
Let's look at a specific example here, a specific phrase.
I went to the store to get some food for tonight.
Right?
Pretty paced.
Now I tend to call this pacing versus slowing down.
Because a lot of people get confused when they hear slowing down.
So do I need to talk like I'm a slow... No.
It's more paced.
There's more air in between the words.
If you listen to the greatest speakers in the world, whether it's a president or a CEO, they're never .
Never.
They're always paced.
And that comes across as confidence.
Owning the space and saying, what I have to say is important.
You're gonna sit there and you're gonna listen to every word.
Because when we're talking fast, What happens?
We miss those American targets.
Again, if you want to know what that is, check out my course.
And then often we flub up words.
Imagine you're doing a big meeting with the CEO.
It could be a project you've been working on for months and now you're finally presenting it.
But if you're not articulate and paced and landing those American targets, you're not going to be able to get your point across.
So let's go back to that example.
I went to the store to get some food for tonight.
That is the basic foundation of the rhythm, right?
We can all agree on that.
It falls within the that we were talking about.
Now, as I was saying, emotion and intent will veer off on that rhythm, meaning we might want to emphasize a certain word to get a point across.
I'll give you an example again using the same phrase.
If, for example, you're with a partner and your partner says, don't buy the food from the vendors.
They have terrible choices.
And you respond, I went to the store. to get some food for tonight.
By emphasizing store, it gives this whole sentence an intent, saying that I went to the store, not the street vendors that you're worried about.
I was within that rhythm, but I emphasize store to get my intent across.
Let's say, for example, you're with the same partner and your partner is very lazy, doesn't do anything.
On top of cleaning, you have to do all the chores and go to the store to get some food.
How would you say this phrase with that intent?
I went to the store to get some food for tonight.
Not you, you lazy person.
I did.
So by emphasizing I, again, the intent of this sentence had a whole new meaning.
If a partner says, hey, don't get sweets and cakes and all that stuff that's bad for you.
Just get some food, please.
I'm starving.
Okay.
And he would respond.
I went to the store to get some food for tonight.
See what I mean?
Responding to your partner with the right intent.
Say, your partner says hey, we're going to the club later, so if you're going to get something, get it for later on.
Your response would be what?
What are you going to emphasize to tell him that you got it for this evening, not earlier, before you go out to the clubs?
That's right.
I went to the store to get some food for tonight.
See what I mean?
Just by emphasizing a certain word.
However, we're still within that rhythm.
Versus, I went to the store to get some food for tonight.
The one thing that a lot of my clients forget and I have to constantly remind them.
I always say wear like a little band or have a little sticker on your laptop.
So when you're doing the presentation, you see that sticker.
It could be a picture of my face, whatever.
And you go, oh, wait a minute.
I got to find my pacing.
I mean, it makes life easy.
Then you have time to land those targets.
You're doing great.
Now stick around, because at the end I'm going to share with you one thing you could do that only takes five or ten minutes a day to really take your American accent to the next level.
So stick around.
So let's pretend you just had a great Zoom meeting and you're reporting to your superiors about how the Zoom meeting went.
Let's look at how we would respond and different options on how to emphasize it, staying within the rhythm.
The Zoom meeting was very productive.
I think we made great headways in discovering our strengths and what we need to do to improve our weaknesses.
All within that rhythm.
So if you have a boss that's complaining about how these Zoom meetings are a waste of time and shouldn't be implemented and it doesn't go anywhere, your response would be the Zoom meeting was very productive.
Meaning, yes, it was worth having the Zoom meeting.
It was very productive.
If we want to further convince that the Zoom meeting was a success.
I think we made great headway in discovering our strengths.
It's kind of self-explanatory.
If you really pay attention to the text, it's telling you exactly what to emphasize if we want to prove to a boss that the Zoom meeting is worth the time and it's productive.
Now people ask me well, that's great if it's on text, but if we're speaking it, if we're talking and we're coming up with these words in our head, How are we able to know what to emphasize and not to emphasize?
Great question.
I get it a lot.
If you stay within your rhythm, you'll have enough space in your head to be able to come up with the words.
Don't think like your mother tongue.
You can't do that.
Your thinking has to match how you're vocalizing these phrases.
I often say have a celebrity that you like, that has an American accent in your head, narrating what you want to say.
That will usually help you to slow down, because Brad Pitt wouldn't go.
So if I want to improvise a line and say, for example, I'm walking into the workplace and a colleague of mine says hey, I didn't see you at the party yesterday.
Where were you?
Let's respond impromptu, nice and paced.
I heard you guys had a blast yesterday.
Blast.
I'm sorry I missed it.
See?
Sorry, missed it.
Versus I'm sorry I missed it.
We already know we're talking about yourself.
You want to communicate that you were sorry that you missed it.
Again, these are words I'm just coming up with, and there's nothing scripted here.
It's all in my head.
And then the colleague responds, oh, that's too bad.
We were hoping you were there to tell your great jokes.
I'm going to respond, you know what?
I promise I'll be there next time.
You see how I was still in that rhythm?
I promise I'll be there next time.
Start thinking within this structure.
When you're watching my videos on the target sounds and everything else, or whether you're doing my course, do it within the context of this .
And the second you want to veer off.
Take a breath and remember.
Give yourself the space and time you need to land those American sounds within the structure of a paced, articulate rhythm.
Now, let me share with you something that you could do every day for 5-10 minutes.
I mean, it's something we do anyways, but I want you to do with a little more attention.
Now, I mentioned these two comedians earlier.
Don't do this exercise with them because as fantastic as they are, they do have slight accents.
I want you to listen to recent American comedians with neutral American accents, not like a New York accent or a southern accent.
And this is the wonderful thing about comedy because you're going to know when the breaks are.
You know why?
Because you're going to hear laughter.
The laughs tell you where those breaks are where you could press pause.
I want you to listen and I want you to repeat it.
Carbon copy exactly the way they said it.
Both intonation and American targets.
Don't veer off.
If they go...
I want you to go.
I want you to start listening to this differently, like musically, like as if you were listening to your favorite song.
Because if I ask you now to hum your favorite song, you'll know it like that.
Why?
Because you like it.
You pay attention to it.
Here's an example.
This is just a joke I made up.
You know, there's no reason why I'm not making millions of dollars.
Pause.
Let's repeat that.
You know, there's no reason why I'm not making a million dollars.
Same rhythm.
Don't add your own spin or whatever you do with your mother tongue.
Forget about that.
Think like the comedian.
Unpause.
Okay yeah, I watch eight hours of TV a day, drink a case of beer, finish a bag of Oreos in 20 minutes and sleep till noon.
But still, there's no reason.
Now, that was a lot.
You could break that up.
But you get my point.
Because when you start repeating these rhythms, you're going to absorb it like you do a song and do that five, 10 minutes a day, just so you can get that rhythm in you.
As you're talking to your customers or your meetings and your American colleagues, all of a sudden you're gonna start noticing that you're following this rhythm and these patterns, because these patterns do repeat.
And the more you do it, the more you're gonna start recognizing them and implementing it into your everyday American conversation, getting you that much closer to mastering the American accent.
