Whether you have an upcoming job interview, academic interview or informal interview you’ll feel more confident and prepared after completing this lesson.
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Video Transcript:
If you’re preparing for a job interview or an interview for school or an internship in English or you think you’ll interview in English at some point in the future, you’ve got to watch this video. As a non-native speaker of English, there are simple hacks you can focus on to be more easily understood. I’m going to give you my number one hack today, but also if you’re truly serious about improving your English speaking skills, you should absolutely be joining Rachel’s English Academy.
I developed this school, these courses, based on my background as an opera singer. It’s unlike anything you’ve tried before to change your accent. My students love it because they see results.
I’m Rachel. I have a background in opera singing and I’ve been teaching the American accent to non-native speakers for over 20 years. Scan this QR code or go to rachelenglish.com/free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent. It will blow your mind. It will give you totally new ideas on how to get the sound you’ve always wanted.
To study this number one accent hack for non-native speakers, we’re going to look at a mock interview that I did applying for a job. First, watch the question and answer.
What attracted you to our company?
To be honest, what really caught my eye was your focus on growth. I was really impressed with your ambitious goals and the clear plan you have for achieving those goals. I also like the support you provide your employees. I love your continuing education initiatives where you pay for employees to learn new techniques and skill sets. I think that really helps build employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Let’s dig into what we’re hearing here. The number one hack I want you to focus on today is the linking between the words, the smoothness of each sound moving into the next. The sound is always moving forward. Let’s look again at the first line.
What attracted you to our company?
So, let’s think about the line, the melody, the connection. What attracted you to our. So smooth and connected. What attract. So, on our stressed syllable here, the a vowel, the second syllable of attracted is where we have the peak of the melody. But everything links together. The what, the t of what links right into the schwa of uh, uh, uh, attract. What attracted?
What attracted? 02:57
That turns this T into what I call a flap T. Instead of T, a release of air, you hear R [flap], what attracted.
What attracted—
What attracted you to our company?
So the end of the word R links right into the K sound that begins company. Company and we have a little up down shape of stress on our stressed syllable there. But this is one line. What attracted you to our company? Listen to it in slow motion and you can really hear the connection between words and the up down shape of stress of our melody on our stressed syllables.
What attracted you to our company?
It’s so different from each word being separate. What attracted you to our company? We don’t ever want that choppiness. We really want it to flow together. T’s are one of the sounds that Americans change the most. Listen to it again and see if you can hear that this T is not released.
You to our—
Again it’s a flap T. You to. It links the two words together just like here. What uh. The T linked the two words. What attracted you to our company?
What attracted you to our company?
Along with the linking, I want you to notice that the pitch change is pretty big. What attar-. We don’t want to speak very flatly. What attracted you to our company? It’s way less clear. This big difference in pitch for a stressed syllable is really what makes English clear.
What attracted you to our company?
The sound is constantly flowing. There’s nothing catching or stopping the sound as it comes out. Think of it as a continuous flow. You can even try it on a single vowel sound. Uhuhuh.
What attracted you to our company? Uhuhuh.
This smoothness is a key characteristic of American English. Practice the phrase out loud now and move your arm in a flowing circle to really feel that. What attracted you to our company?
What attracted you to our company?
To be honest.
And then we actually do have a break there. To be honest. And I take a breath. I release the T. This is called a true T. When you hear that.
To be honest,
My pitch goes up. this notes that I’m going to keep going to be honest. But it all links together smoothly. To be honest.
And that’s what I want from you. Listen to it in slow motion and feel how there are not breaks between the words.
To be honest,
what really caught my eye.
What really caught my eye. And then again, a little breath, a little break. These little breaks are natural when speaking English, but we want to make sure that the words between the breaks are all linked together.
What really caught my eye.
Listen for the melody of this phrase. What is the peak of stress for this phrase?
What really caught my eye.
What. Do you notice that we don’t hear tt? What? And we also don’t hear a flap. What? But we hear what. This is called a stop T. It is a little break in sound, but I don’t want you to think of it as choppiness. Just think of it as a little lift in the line. What really caught my eye. And then it’s so smooth. Peak of stress on really.
What really caught my eye.
Notice the t here in caught. Not released. Not a flap. Again, that’s a stop T. I’ll label it over here, too.
What really caught my eye.
Now listen to this phrase three times in slow motion. Then you’ll hear it again three times in slow motion. This second set, repeat out loud also in slow motion. Slowing down can really help you feel the flow. And when you speak with this natural flow between words, you sound so relaxed speaking English.
What really caught my eye.
What really caught my eye was your focus on growth.
Was your focus on growth. Not was your focus on growth. Was your, was your.
Was your focus on growth.
Linking together so smoothly, it sounds like one word. Was your, was your, was your, was your focus on growth. Two changes in pitch there. Two up down shapes to the melody.
This change in pitch is what allows all this linking and smoothness to still be easily understood. You have to have these peaks of pitch to be understood. When you’re linking like this.
Was your focus on growth.
I was really impressed.
All linking together so smooth. I and was, lifting up to that peak of stress on really.
I was really impressed—
with your ambitious goals.
I was really impressed with your and these two are flatter before we go up to another peak of stress less high, ambitious goals.
I was really impressed with your ambitious goals.
I love listening in slow motion. There’s no hiding from the connection between words.
I was really impressed with your ambitious goals
and the clear plan you have.
And the clear plan. I love also when we focus on the connection, how much we hear the melody and the clear.
The difference between clear with that up down shape of stress and the words and, and ‘the’ which are less important. In the, in the, in the. It’s very obvious not all words are created equal in English. It’s stress timed, which means some syllables are going to be longer and clearer and other syllables shorter and less clear. And all of these syllables link together.
And the clear plan you have.
And the clear. Another little up down shape of stress there. All linked together. Clear plan you have for.
And the clear plan you have.
Plan you have. Nice and flat. Then I do a little break here.
And the clear plan you have.
When we put a small break in speaking, that divides up what we’re saying into what we call thought groups. Putting in these small breaks is natural. Just like how you put in punctuation when you write. If you wrote a paragraph with no punctuation, no capital letters, it would be a lot harder to read. Think of these little pauses as the punctuation of speaking. Now, I’m going to try to talk for as long as I can with no breaks at all so you can see why they’re so necessary. Okay, let me take a big breath.
Hi, my name is Rachel. I’m married to someone named David. I have two sons and I live in Philadelphia. I’ve lived here for about 15 years. Before that, I lived in New York City, which I absolutely love. Before that, I lived in Boston because I went to graduate school there. I have a master’s degree in opera performance and I sang with the Boston Lyric Opera when I lived in Boston. It was absolutely fantastic.
Whew! That was a lot. And you can see how hard it is to take in speech with no breaks at all. That’s why even though our words are so smoothly linked together, we do have natural breaks for these thought groups.
And the clear plan you have for achieving those goals.
For achieving those goals. Again, it just all links together smoothly. For a–, linking up to the peak of pitch, for achieving those goals. And then everything falls away after that. A little up down shape of stress on goals, but so smoothly connected.
For achieving those goals.
I also like the support you provide your employees. The two words I and also don’t link together here as smoothly as they could. I also, but it’s I also. That little tiny lift there adds extra stress. I’m listing all the things I like about this company. I really want to work for them and I want them to be impressed with how much I already know about their company. I also. So when you don’t smoothly link things, you can add meaning through stress.
I also—
like the support you provide your employees. I also like the support you provide your employees. And then it really smoothly flows together.
I also like the support you provide your employees.
I also like the support you provide
your employees.
I also like the support you provide your employees
Support you provide. We’ve got another stop T here. Tt, tt. Too many true T’s. Tt, tt. Break up the line. Break up the smoothness.
The support you provide.
The support you provide the support you provide your employees. I love your continuing education initiatives.
I love. I love. Linking together so smoothly. A lot of emphasis on the word love with that big pitch change. I love.
I love –
your continuing education initiatives.
And then we just link everything smoothly together. Your continuing education initiatives.
I love your continuing education initiatives.
The pitch goes up a little bit at the end of initiatives to show that I’m not done. I’m going to keep going. I have more things to say about how much I love this company. I’m taking a breath and putting in a little break, but making the intonation goes up is a signal that I’m going to keep going.
I love your continuing education initiatives –
where you pay for employees to learn new techniques and skill sets.
Now, we’re going to hear this whole thought group and notice how it all flows together. There are no breaks here. No different thought groups. It’s all one single line.
where you pay for employees to learn new techniques and skill sets.
Where you pay for employees to learn new, to learn new techniques and skill sets.
It’s hard for me to write this line perfectly, but it’s all connected, all smooth.
where you pay for employees to learn new techniques and skill sets.
Listen to the word and.
Techniques and skill sets. Techniques and skill sets.
It’s not at all fully pronounced. It’s just like an N sound linking the words together. This is called a reduction. And American English is full of words that reduce. These words help us link together the line. And I hope you know by now this smoothness is so important in American English.
Techniques and skill sets.
I think that really helps build employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Now, there’s a little bit of a lift here while I think about what to say.
Really helps build so smooth. Listen to that three times.
I think that really helps build employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Employee satisfaction.
Again, my pitch goes up to show that I’m not quite done. Now, I do more fully pronounce the word and here. Why? I’m stressing all the different things I love about this company. What they do helps build loyalty. That’s so important. Employee satisfaction and loyalty. If you feel that for the company you work for, you know you’re working at a great place that cares about you.
I think that really helps build employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Loyalty. Three syllables, one word, one peak of stress, and all the sounds flow together smoothly.
loyalty.
This connected speech can be a real challenge for my students. It feels too sloppy, lazy, unclear. But I guarantee when you work with slow motion audio and focus on the linking, then speed everything up, you have to change your voice in a way that makes it sound so natural. I tell my students this, it’s like developing a whole new voice. You have your voice that you use for your native language and you have your voice that you use for speaking English. The qualities are totally different. The muscles you use are different. I love it when this clicks into place for my students. One of the most useful things about the courses in Rachel’s English Academy is that every single one of them gives you the option to work with slow motion audio. So, you can master that new feeling before moving on to regular paced speech. With enough repetition, you can absolutely transform your English-speaking voice.
Don’t forget to check out rachelenglish.com/free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent.
Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on. I love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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