AMERICAN ACCENT TRAINING: Can I watch YOUR video?

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Video Transcript:

 Have you ever wondered what would Rachel say about my accent? Today is the day where you get to find out. It’s been a long time since we’ve done a challenge video here on my channel. The way this works is, i’ll give a topic, you guys will make a video on this topic like ‘introducing yourself’ and then we’ll put it all together in one long video, so we can see each other, learn about each other, and build this Rachel’s English community. Now, today we’re going to do something a little different. For the challenge, I’m going to give you a mini conversation, and what I want you to do is record it, and what I’m going to do is rather than just putting them all together in one big video, I’m gonna actually take parts and use them to teach. So I might take yours and I might find one thing that you could be doing a little bit better, and I’m gonna coach you and how to do that better. This is similar to what I do with my students in my online school, Rachel’s English Academy, in our live classes. So it won’t be live, but this is the chance to maybe get feedback on your accent. So here’s the conversation to learn and to record for me. 

Hey what do you want to do tonight?
I don’t know. I feel like just watching TV.
Sure.

 It’s not much, but it’s definitely enough for me to understand how `you’re using English and teaks you might want to make to sound a little bit more natural speaking. Now, I can’t promise that everyone who sends in a video is going to get analyzed and taught in a future video, but you might, let’s see. It depends on how many people send videos, so here’s what to do. Record a video of yourself saying this conversation. Don’t put anything more in the video because I don’t think I’ll be able to watch it. Just record this conversation. Then upload it to Facebook or youtube, you can make it unlisted if you want. Just send me the link and make sure you say your name, and what your native language is. You can email me at this address, and make sure you do it by this date. I’m really excited to see your videos, guys. I’m excited to see how many people send them in, how different they are how certain language groups do one thing and other language groups do another thing, I’m going to have a lot of fun analyzing what you send me. 

One thing you might want to think about is smoothness and linking. It’s something that I work with my students on all the time and actually, just last week, I did a live class where I was working with some students in the Academy on this topic. Let’s check that out. If you’re wondering what is this Academy? And how can I get in? It’s simply RachelsEnglishAcademy.com Check it out and join. I would love to teach you. 

– Five years ago it was a little choppy.

Five years ago.

– Yes.

– Five years ago.

What if you linked it more smoothly?

Five years ago.

– Five years ago.

– Yeah, that was better.

Let’s just take the first two words, five years.

– Five years.

– Yeah, so, it’s like, you could think of it as five vears.

Let’s hear just

– Five years.

– Vears, put the v on years.

Vears.

– V?

– Yeah.

– Vears.

– Vears.

– Yeah, exactly.

– Five vears.

– Yes, exactly.

– Oh, I see.

– Linking it like that.

Sometimes when it’s an ending content, if we in our mind practice it on the beginning of the next word, it helps make that link smoother.

Vears, five years.

– Five years ago.

Five years.

Okay, now let’s try z-ago.

– Zago.

– So, I’m putting the Z from years on ago.

Zago.

– Zago.

– Zago.

– Zago.

– Right, we’re exaggerating

the Z a little bit

right at the moment,

just to feel it on there.

But I wanna make sure

I’m hearing it, Zago.

– Zago.

– Zago.

– Zago.

– Yeah, five year zago.

– Fi vear zago.

– Right.

Okay, there was a little catch between years and ago, but five years was great.

Five years ago, let’s slow it down.

Five years ago.

– Five years ago.

– Right, do it again.

– Five years ago.

– Five years ago.

– Yeah, so it’s just this constant movement and it feels wrong.

You’re like, Vears?

– Yeah.

– But yeah, vears.

Vears, fi vears.

– I see it.

– Yeah.

Okay, awesome.

One second I’m seeing Roberto had just put in the text that he passed.

Everyone give Roberto a round of applause. Roberto if you can email me with the details of that.

I would love to hear your story.

Okay.

So, five years ago.

We’re talking about that smoothness.

Now, but you tell me what you think your biggest struggle is with speaking English right now.

– I think that is the one the sharpness in my speaking.

– Yeah, it’s really common.

And I mean depending on your native language, in this case Thai, I’m not that familiar with Thai

but I imagined it there is quite a bit of separateness between words.

– Yeah.

– Yeah, so

– No linking.

– The idea of saying vears is crazy.

– Yeah.

– But it American English it’s like exactly what we wanna do.

Okay, let’s just talk for a little bit and let’s find another little sentence fragment to use

and we’ll talk about how to practice that.

– So, maybe you can tell me where you lived when you were in the U.S. or what your PHD is in or anything.

What you ate for dinner.

– Okay, so I went to

Pennsylvania for my PHD.

I did my PHD in computer science.

– Okay. Let’s do that.

Let’s do that.

In computer science.

In computer science.

Da da da da da.

Da ahahah.

In computer science.

Even in the word computer, I felt some choppiness sort of between syllables.

Right and it make sense if your native language have more choppy, has a more choppy feeling

that’s gonna happen even within a word.

But let’s just take the word computer and make it feel like five year za.

Com-pu-ter.

– Com-pu-ter.

– Right, I like that a lot.

Computer.

– Computer.

– Ah ah, computer science.

– Computer science.

– Ah ah, now, I love computer.

Science felt a little bit

less of the forward motion.

Let’s just try again, let’s

slow it down a little bit more.

Com-pu-ter sci-ence.

– Com-pu-ter sci-ence.

– Ah ah, maybe it computer,

let’s try er-sci, er-sci.

– Er-sci.

– Exactly, er-sci.

– Oh, er-science.

– Er-science.

– Er-science.

– Yes, even, right now it’s little bit er-science.

Io want it to fel like ersience.

Like the er is like spread right.

It’s like I’m spreading peanut butter, Er-science.

– Er science.

– Yes, exactly, er science.

There’s just like

– Er science.

– Ah ah, computer science.

– Computer science.

– Yeah, right.

Really that’s very different than computer, computer science

– Yeah.

– Ah ah ah ah ah, ah ah aha ha.

Right?

[Laughing]

Yes, okay, so, how can you describe to yourself this feeling of vears?

Computer?

What words would you use

if you were trying to teach somebody?

How would you think about it?

– You mean like the linking?

– Yeah.

Like, how does it feel to you to do that?

What makes the most sense

to you when you’re doing it?

– So, I think in order to be able to do that I have to think like I am like, syncing and speaking like in slow motion like, when in one of your lessons that you teach us to like when we speak, we have

to be like the wave.

Oopsy!

Yeah.

– Yeah.

– I think next time I will do that.

Like try to think that I

am singing in slow motion.

– Yeah.

And one of the that things I find really fascinating when I work with somebody is they’ll

do a really nice job doing that and we know will speed it up and it will get better and then

they switch to talking mode and it goes right back to choppiness.

 

And I’m trying to get them to think of there is no more talking, it’s just always this singing mode

at a faster pace.

– You know, like, five years ago.

Like that sort of singing.

It’s very slow and then rather than switching to talking, to switching to doing that faster.

Five years ago.

Ahah.

But that feeling is still there and you don’t let yourself think of it as talking.

So, for you, with Alejandro, we were talking about, he has his Spanish voice and his American voice.

Maybe for you, you have your Thai voice and your American voice is always singing but at a faster pace.

– I see.

– And that’s the smoothness.

I see, exactly.

– Yeah.

[Laughing]

All right, let’s just talk for a second and try to do that and try to see what is it like to talk when I’m not talking, but I’m just singing quickly.

So, you said you were in Pennsylvania.

What university did you study at?

– Pennsylvania State University.

– Okay, Penn State.

Okay, Pennsylvania was a little bit choppy.

Pennsylvania.

Okay, and also part of it is this often goes together with more choppy speech is syllables are more the same length.

Pennsylvania, but it should be pencil, pennsyl-va-nia.

– Pennsyl-vania.

Right and also it’s not vania, it’s van-ia.

– Vania.

– No.

– Vania.

– Not va-nia, you’re adding an extra syllable.

Pennsyl-van-ia.

Is what you’re doing

– It’s Pennsylvania.

– Yes, right.

So the last two syllables are vain-ia.

– Va-nia.

– Yeah.

Exactly.

Now your last syllable there can be even shorter.

It’s not -nia, but it’s -ia.

– Ia

– Right.

– Pennsylvania

Now you’re saying nia.

It’s not -a, it’s -I.

It’s the sewan.

– A

– Right.

How many odd things am I giving you to think about?

That was perfect though.

Yeah.

Pennsylvania.

– Pennsylvania.

– Yeah, that was better, Pennsylvania.

– Pennsylvania.

Also your mouth looks just a little bit more relaxed which is great.

I think bringing in, I didn’t think before that it didn’t look relaxed but now I’m looking at it,

it looks even more relaxed and that’s gonna help with stuff like the shwa instead of nia.

Pennsylvania.

– Yeah, Pennsylvania.

– Ah, ha.

Pennsylvania.

I also think maybe so, I’m thinking about like

your upper lip looks more relaxed and like heavy

in a good way.

And so that can also maybe be part of your American voice is trying to make this lip-slash heavier, lower, more relaxed and you’re singing the whole time too.

[Laughing]

– Just to give you a lot of things to think about.

And I would just wanna say quickly to everybody when you’re working like this and you find a couple things that work you don’t have to think about all of them all the time.

You know, you can say this practice session, I’m gonna really think about singing quickly instead of speaking. And then in other practice session you can say, “I’m really gonna think about relaxing my mouth and thinking about the shwa.”

Maybe you’d go and work specifically on the shwa and then at that point you’re focusing on that rather than the song, because maybe it’s too much to think about both at once.

And that can help.

– I see.

– Okay.

So, Penn State and what did you study?

Computer Science?

– Computer Science.

– Yeah, computer science.

That’s great.

So, do you work in computer science now back in Thailand?

– Yes, I am a professor in a university in Thailand teaching computer science.

– Good.

Now, that was all really smooth and you got to computer and it was less smooth.

But before that it was really smooth.

– It’s the word I put more intention to speak more correctly

– Well, and the word computer you say probably like a thousand times a day or something.

So, it’s an extremely strong habit to say computer.

– Yeah.

– I mean there is a big difference

between that and computer

computer, I mean the flapped T.

– Computer.

– Right, is smoothing it out.

Also, the ending -er

is different then computer, er, right?

You were doing sort of a more lifted, higher, brighter sound but it’s -er.

Computer.

– Computer, computer.

– Even make the ending shorter.

Computer, -er, er, er.

– Computer.

– Ah ah.

– Computer

– Right.

Exactly.

– Computer.

– Yeah, right.

So, we were talking about shortening up your unstressed syllables.

I don’t think you need to worry about your long syllables.

I think they’re long enough.

But I think your unstressed syllables probably in a lot of places could be shorter.

So, I wanna go to distress two course.

– Okay.

– Are you working in the daily plan or are you working through the courses in your own way?

– I do both.

So, in the beginning I practiced the relaxing techniques.

I practiced the jaw relaxation and the tongue.

And then I go through the daily practice, daily plan too.

– Okay.

I’ll be definitely stick with the daily plan.

I obviously like that caus I put it together, but I also think now after just having done this, I would go to distressed two course and I would find the one on three-syllable words.

– Okay .

– And I would work on all the ones with the same pattern as computer and I would say, “Okay I know I need to focus on making my last syllable short.”

And then there would be the pattern da da da da. And work on those three s’mores and think about the first two syllables being really short.

I really like when students are working on shortening to breaking up com-pu-ter, sort of separately

on your own first, so that you’re able to really focus on it’s not come, but it’s com.

– Com, com.

– Right, exactly, exactly.

And I think that when students do that it can help them shorten it up.

And I think by studying all of those three-syllable words with that same stressed pattern all at once, it can really help you focus on what you’re doing there with the rhythm, with the structure.

But I think you sound, you sound good.

Here, even just in this conversation I feel like you’ve smoothed it out some.

– I try.

[Laughing]

– I try, that was so connected right?

I love it.

So really thinking about singing and I know you post quite  b bit in the Facebook group and you know different teachers give you various feedback.

You know they don’t, Tom and Laura and Rachel Stokes don’t watch these classes so, they don’t know what we’ve said but the next time you post you can say in your video one thing I’m really focusing on is this connection.

I’ve worked with Rachel in a live class.

I’m trying to think of singing in a faster way rather then speaking and you could ask for feedback on that specifically within there, if you wanna.

But it sounds great, keep that up.

Keep that up.

– Thank you.

– It’s gonna really make

a nice difference there.

– Thank you. 

So get those cameras rolling, here it is, one more time, the conversation. 

Hey what do you want to do tonight?

I don’t know. I feel like just watching TV.

Sure.

 So upload your video, it can be unlisted, but send me the link, your name and your native language to this email address, by this date. I’m really excited to see it. But before you start recording that, before you start working on it, continue the learning a little bit more. Youtube, the system, thinks you should watch this video of my next, I agree with them, I think it’s a great one, and be sure please to subscribe if you haven’t already and with notifications. I make new videos every Tuesday so make sure you join me back here next Tuesday morning for the next video. I love teaching English. Thank you so much for spending your time with me. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

Video: *coming soon*