Speaking English at Work: The American English Accent in the Workplace

 Let’s work together on your spoken American English so that you can feel more confident on the job. If speaking English more like a native speaker is your goal, this video is perfect for you!

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Video Transcript:

Is your accent holding you back at work? If so, I’m sorry I’ve lived in a country where I didn’t speak the language natively and I know it’s frustrating to have English-speaking barriers get in your way.

I want to help everyone who feels ineffective speaking English. Who feels like their accent is keeping promotions and advancement out of their reach when they have to speak English at work. When people think we’re hard hard to understand, they pay less attention to us. The perceptions of how we present when speaking are important.

 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 Rachelsenglish.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.

Today we’re going to look at a couple of sounds that can get confused and can make it much harder to understand somebody speaking English. I’m thinking especially of my Japanese students but this also applies to my students from China, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and other countries. Today we’re going to solve this problem for you.

One of my students from Rachel’s English Academy, which is my online school for mastering the American accent sent me her biggest need with her accent. This is Emi, native language Japanese. You can learn more about the academy at Rachelsenglishacademy.com or following the link in the video description.

I’m always struggle with the pronunciation L and R like uh, literary, literary. I can’t pronounce it very well.  

For Emi and everyone like Emi, I have good news. You got this. Your R and L sounds alone aren’t that big of a problem, it’s mixing them up, that’s the issue. So we’ll clarify them a bit and then we’ll talk about how to train and check the words that are the most difficult for you and anyone else with this problem. First, it always helps to clarify a sound by holding it out. Let’s compare two words. Race and lace. So we’ll hold out the R. Race.

And the L. Lace.  

The mouth position for these, pretty different right? Here, we compare R at the beginning of a word and L at the beginning of a word.

The corners of the lips come in which flare the lips for the R. For the L, the lips stay relaxed. For R, the tip of the tongue pulls back so it’s not touching anything. For L, it lifts to the roof of the mouth or comes between the teeth like in this image.

Close your eyes and go back and forth between the two. This will help you focus in on the mouth position.

Here’s a clip from a live class from Rachel’s English Academy where I’m working with the students on clarifying these two sounds. His native language is also Japanese. He’s working on the phrase, “I’m an early riser.”

An early riser is someone who likes to wake up early and get their day started. I’m the opposite I like to sleep in. But this man is an early riser. Early. We’ve got an R and an L and I need to help him clarify the two sounds.

This is tricky with the R’s and L’s. So let me hear you say, “I’m an”

I’m an

Exactly. And now I just want to hear the next sound which is I’m an Er-.

I’m an er-

Okay, no. I see your tongue tip coming up, uhI. I don’t want that.

I’m an ear—

My tongue tip is pulling back a little bit.

So, the tongue position. He wanted to say, l, lifting the tongue tip up. We need the R where the tongue tip pulls just slightly back, it’s not touching anything.

The lips flare a bit.

Uhuh. I’m in early riser.

Yeah, yeah.

I’m an early riser.

Yes. So forget the rest of it. I just want, I’m an ear—

When you’re working with a tricky word or phrase, try to bring it down to just one syllable or sound. Did you notice the word riser? He was saying that with an L, liser. But I don’t even want to talk about that, I just want to focus on one little thing at a time. It’s called a microskill. I don’t want to work on two different problems at once. I want to focus in on one thing and fix it before moving on to the next. This is how we improve in Rachel’s English Academy.

I’m an ear-

Yes.

I’m an ear—

Okay, now let me think.

That’s better. Let’s just imitate the sound.

Err–

Yes. So, sometimes it sounds sort of in the throat and this last time it didn’t, it sounded more here and I liked that better.

Okay, now let’s put it back with I’m an, I’m an ear—

I’m an ear–

Yes, that’s better.

I’m an ear—

That sounds very good now as he starts getting this R sound to become more clear, we link it back into the sentence.

I’m an early.

But we never say it like that. we always connect. So instead of, I’m an ear-, we’re working on

I’m an ear-

I’m an early.

Linked together with the right rhythm of American English. As the R gets better, we bring it back into the natural English rhythm. Because I’m working with him on clarifying his R sound, I want him to now describe how he’s making it.

Are you doing anything with your throat or is it just with your tongue?

Just with my tongue.

Mhmm.

To keep the shape. I try to keep this shape.

Uhhuh. It’s good because it looks really relaxed too and it sounds relaxed. Because sometimes people do that and it kind of goes and it gets stuck and that’s not happening for you.

So that’s very good.

Okay now, let me hear you say just this ending, ly.  

We clarified the r now we need to work on the L. The ending of the word early

Ly-

Uhuh. Now, watch this. I want you to do this.

Ly-

So that sounds like this to me. Dididi and I went le. Let’s open your jaw more. Well, okay, forget the vowel. I want to, we’re going to do lalala instead.

Lalalalala.

Yes. So that sounds like an L.

Alright.

That’s what I want and the first time, now let’s try this: dadadada

And now let’s go back,

lalalalala

Yes, yes. So that’s the L.

Oh, I see. You mean you mean the tongue tip, I use tongue tip touched on my front of mouth?

I mean there, yes, there are a couple different ways that people do make it but yes that’s what sounds right.

Lalalala

Yes. So some people do make it like this. Let’s go.

Some people put it through the teeth and some people just put it at the top.

Let’s go.

They both get the same sound from my perspective. I have no problem with my students doing either of those.

Okay, so now I want to do la with you again.

Lalalalalala

And now, I want to I want to do it with the other vowel.

Lilililili

So there, I’m hearing a D again.D,

lililili-

That’s getting better. Let’s do a couple other ones. We’re going to do:

lelelelele

Now try this:

Ur

Yeah, right. They’re so different but sometimes you’re kind of mixing them or blending them. So we just really want to solidify

lilililalalala

We really want to solidify that L.

Lilililalalala

And then ear—

And then we really want it right, er. So something like early, it has an R and an L. That’s going to be a tricky word. Yeah, let’s do it slowly with a break.

Ear-ly

Now, let’s see if we can make it a little bit faster but keep that shape.

Early

Yeah. Oh, that time it was a bit eary. Lalala, earlalala.

Early

Yes.

Early

Yes.

There was another phrase he said earlier in the lesson and that was very flat. One R and one L. Can you guess how it sounded? The R and the L were mixed up. When he first said it, very sounded like ‘vely’. And flat sounded like ‘frat’. So we need to go back and clarify these words.

Early

What does that feel like?

It’s like you know, I’m using or for the back end of the tongue, Li, very front end of the tongue.

Yeah.

Early

So those are both sounding much clearer. Um, I want to come back to two other words that you said earlier. I want to come to, I want to come to this word. No L, just R, let me hear you say it. Very.

Yes.

Very.

That is a very clear R. Now, the other word that I wanted to come back to is this.

Flat.

Right. Flat. So when you first said it very flat, it sort of sounded like very frat. Kind of they were both kind of R and L together. So now we’re making it very flat.  

Yes.

Very flat.

Exactly.

Very flat.

Right.

Very flat.

Right. So now, your R is very clear and your L is very clear and they’re very different.

That sounds so good. But you know what? It’s going to take lots of repetition to form this habit and replace the old one that was kind of hard to understand. In fact, I’ve just spent quite a while working with him and in a minute he says the word right. But guess what it sounds like. Light. More of an L than an R but because he’s been working on this, thinking about it. He hears it himself.

Right.

Yeah. Wait, you just said this but it sounded like this.

Right.

I recognized that too.

You did? Good. That’s good when you hear yourself then you know that you’re, you’re on a good track. So let me hear you say this one.

Right.

Exactly.

Right

Yeah. Right. Let me hear you say this one.

Light.

Yeah.

Light.

So these are both perfect. You know sometimes people doing it, when they’re separating them out they both become too heavy, too effortful. We don’t want that either and yours are not doing that. Your sounds are staying very clear and very light and very easy and that they sound very good. So I think it’s just probably continuing to train the words and the phrases like very flat and really just having helping your mind sort out this is an R, this is an L.

You can do this too you can sort out these two sounds but it does take time and a lot of practice and repetition. Because you’re not just learning information but you have to make a habit stick. And there are a lot of common words where you may have a strong habit to have an unclear or switched R or L. But this kind of fixing and drilling does correct that and I don’t know any other way to correct it than this work. So how do you check yourself? Hold out the sound and look at the position. They look different. Record yourself saying the words and holding out the sound the R. Or the L. That will help you build your awareness.

Now, to help you with your training I’m going to put in a bunch of words with an R or an L and at the end words with an R and an L. These are some of the trickiest words like ‘literally’.

You’ll see and hear them in slow motion and at regular pace. After you watch it once, watch this section again and repeat out loud. The slow motion and the regular pace. Add words to this list that you know are tricky for you and practice them the same way. Tomorrow and every day this week or for a couple of weeks, come back to just this section and make sure you’re repeating out loud. This is how to change the habit.

Thank you Emi for your question. For every student that asks a question, there are thousands out there with the same question.

race

lace

rack

lack

rad

lad

raft

laughed

rag

lag

raid

laid

rain

lain

raise

lays

rake

lake

ramp

lamp

rap

lap

rare

lair

rash

lash

rate

late

raw

law

razor

laser

reach

leach

read

lead

reap

leap

reef

leaf

reek

leak

regal

legal

rent

lent

rhyme

lime

rice

lice

rick

lick

riddle

little

rife

life

rink

link

rise

lies

road

load

rob

lob

rock

rocked

locked

room

loom

root

loot

rose

lows

Ross

loss

rot

lot

row

low

royal

loyal

rug

lug

rump

lump

ruse

lose

rust

lust

wrist

list

write

light

wrong

long

wrung

lung

wry

lie

blade

braid

blanch

branch

bland

brand

bleach

breach

bleed

breed

blessed

breast

blight

bright

blind

blined

blink

brink

bloom

broom

blow

bro

blue

brew

blush

brush

clack

crack

clam

cram

clamp

cramp

clank

crank

clap

crap

class

crass

climb

crime

cloak

croak

clock

crock

close

crows

cloud

crowd

clown

crown

clue

crew

flail

frail

flame

frame

flat

frat

flee

free

flesh

fresh

flock

frock

flossed

frost

flows

froze

flute

fruit

fly

fry

glad

grad

glade

grade

glamour

grammar

gland

grand

glass

grass

gloom

groom

glow

grow

glue

grew

plank

prank

plants

prance

plays

praise

plow

prow

ply

pry

aloof

a roof  

ankle

anchor

beetle

beater

bobble

bobber

bottle

bought her

candle

candor

eagle

eager

fiddle

fit her

ladle

later

male

mayor

metal

met her

paddle

patter

pale

payer

pole

pour

ripple

ripper

role

roar

tile

tire

tiled

tired

title

tighter

alligator

calculator

comfortable

culture

curl

difficult

durable

girl

hirable

learn

letter

liberator

literal

operable

predictable

probable

rattle

really

rehearsal

riddle

rule

taller

trial

trickle

world

Don’t forget to head over to Rachelsenglish.com/free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent. It gives you more training on this technique so you can change habits and 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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