CHRIS JANSING Interview a Broadcaster American English

Hey guys. Welcome to the new Rachel’s English
mini-series, Interview a Broadcaster!

Hi guys. I’m here with Chris Jansing.
Chris, thank you so much for being here.

I’m happy to be here. » If you could tell
my audience a little bit about what you do.

I am an anchor at MSNBC of a show called
‘Jansing and Company’,

you’re my company right now.

I’m your company.

Yes. And I’m also a correspondent for
NBC news: Nightly News, the TODAY show.

Ok, great. Well, I don’t know if you
know this, but another term for the

standard American accent is ‘broadcaster
English’. So people all over the world look

to those who deliver the news in America
as a standard for how to speak.

I did not know that. » So, I’m wondering,
where did you come from, and did you have to

change anything about your accent as you
started to become interested in this field?

Very interesting question. I’m from Ohio.
Okay.

Outside of Cleveland-area. Cleveland, for
a while, I think, had the largest Hungarian

population outside of Budapest.
And I come from a Hungarian family.

Okay.
My grandparents spoke Hungarian.

Most of the people in the town where I
grew up were either Hungarian or Finnish.

Uh-huh. » And, I don’t know that I had to
change my accent, but there are quirks

whenever you’re going to another language.
So, he’ll kill me for telling this story,

but my brother, who eventually got a Ph.D.
and became a principal of a school was also a

football star in high school. And when,
he was on this television program,

and they asked him, ‘What would you like to
do?’, and he said, ‘I want go college’. And,

Really? » …missed a few words in there.
Yeah.

Which is really sort of the direct
translation from… » Okay. » So,

I want go college. We’re missing the word
‘to’ here, twice. Something that has happened

to all of us as we study a foreign language:
we speak too much in a direct translation

of our own language and make grammar mistakes.
This can even happen to kids growing up

in America in a multilingual household.

So did you grow up speaking…
Bad English?

Well, Hungarian in the home?
Uh, when I was very very young,

Okay. » …my mother, my grandmother did
not speak English.

Okay. » But now, it’s like most people
who speak not very often used languages,

which is, I know food, and
maybe one or two swear words.

Okay. You’ve always got to keep
the good stuff. » That’s right.

So, what do you do then when you’re
preparing something to read on camera?

How long do you spend with the text, do you
have any like tricks that you do as you’re

going through the words? » I do. I,
obviously, want to make it conversational.

Notice how Ms. Jansing says ‘wanna’. I wanna
make it conversational. Wanna, gonna, gotta:

absolutely acceptable reductions, even in
an interview on camera as a professional.

In fact, reductions play a large part in
the overall character of American English.

For example, President Obama used the ‘wanna’
reduction in his reelection speech last year.

I, obviously, want to
make it conversational [3x].

I want to have a conversation
with my audience.

I want to have. Now that she’s stressing
‘want’, she’s not reducing it to ‘wanna’.

But notice she is still reducing the word
‘to’, to, to, so that it has the schwa sound.

I want to have [3x]
a conversation with my audience.

I think when I started in this business,
which was 35 years ago or so, there was,

a sort, of a cadence, and a formality to it.
It’s become less formal, more

interactive. I think we want the audience
to feel engaged. And so, I try to put…

Try to put. There was another ‘to’ reduction.
This time with a Flap T. Try to, try to.

I try to put [3x]
things in the kind of language I speak in.

So that if you ask me a question, what’s
going on today, I try to tell the story…

Try to tell the story.
Another ‘to’ reduction. Try to.

Basically, every time we say the
word ‘to’ in conversational speech,

it’s going to be reduced. I’ll stop
pointing them out, but there are more.

Will you catch them? If you do,
post the sentence with

the ‘to’ reduction you’ve
found in the comments below.

I try to tell [3x] the story in the way
that I would tell it to you, standing here…

Right. » Just a few feet apart.
Yeah.

So very conversational.

We hope. » Yeah.

What do you do when you come across a word

that you’re not sure how to pronounce?

Fake it.

Fake it. There. You heard it here.
We try, obviously, to look ahead of time.

But even—I think especially,
because what we do is world news,

so there’s a lot of names of people from
foreign countries… » Right.

And you think you know the preferred
pronunciation, or, we have a preferred

pronunciation: Ayman al-Zawahiri. And then
you get an expert on the Middle East,

and he’ll say,
‘Do you mean Ayman al-Zawahiri?’ So,

Right. » I think you do the
best you can to do the research.

And I think because I grew up in an ethnic
neighborhood, I have a bit of an ear for it.

Mm-hmm, yeah. That could be.
Maybe.

Are there any words in American English

that you stumble over sometimes,
that are a challenge for you?

Do you know? I think it’s like anybody
else, sometimes when you read something it

just doesn’t look right. And it might be a
simple word. So, usually it’s something like

that, that will trip you up.
I do have some pet peeves.

Like nuclear, which we know is nuclear.
Kind of bug me a little bit.

Listening to the pronunciation,
I hope, guys! » Yes.

Nuclear. This is a three-syllable word with
stress on the first syllable. DA-da-da.

Sometimes even native speakers will mix up
the location of the L and say nuk-juh-ler.

But it’s nu-cle-ar, nu-cle-ar, nuclear.

But, we all do the best we can.
Yeah.

You never get it right 100% of the time.
Especially with names.

Right. Sure, names and places. Um, and do
you have a favorite word in American English?

Joy.
Joy. Hey, that’s a great word.

It’s easy, it’s simple, and boy,
it’s to the point. » It is, it is.

‘Joy’ is a one-syllable word. It’s a noun,
which makes it a content word.

This means it will be stressed in a sentence.
So, a little bit longer, louder,

and with more shape than
the unstressed syllables.

It’s made up of the JJ consonant sound
and the OY diphthong. J-oy, joy.

Make sure to drop your jaw enough for
the first sound of the diphthong. Joy.

Well, Chris, thank you so much for your
expertise » Oh, it’s been so much fun.

And for coming here, I really
appreciate your time.

You’re welcome.
Guys, check out her show.

You’re welcome. Or, Köszönom.

I love it. My audience
is going to love that.

All the Hungarians out there
will know what that means.

Thank you so much.

Follow Ms. Jansing on Twitter,
and check out her segments on TV

or online for a great example of
American English pronunciation.

Alright guys, that’s it, and thanks
so much for using Rachel’s English.

Check out all the videos in the
Interview a Broadcaster series

by clicking here, or on the link
in the video description below.

大家好。 欢迎收看新的瑞秋英文
迷你系列,采访广播员!

大家好。 我和克里斯詹辛在这里。
克里斯,非常感谢你来到这里。

我很高兴来到这里。 » 如果你能告诉
我的听众一些关于你所做的事情。

我是 MSNBC 节目的主播,名为
“Jansing and Company”,

你现在是我的公司。

我是你的公司。

是的。 我也是
NBC 新闻的记者:《今日新闻》,《晚间新闻》。

好的,太好了。 好吧,我不知道你是否
知道,但

标准美国口音的另一个术语是“广播
英语”。 因此,全世界的人们都

将那些在美国传播新闻的人
视为如何说话的标准。

我不知道。 » 所以,我想知道,
你是从哪里来的,

当你
开始对这个领域感兴趣时,你是否需要改变你的口音?

非常有趣的问题。 我来自俄亥俄州。
好的。

在克利夫兰地区之外。
我认为克利夫兰有一段时间

是布达佩斯以外匈牙利人口最多的。
我来自一个匈牙利家庭。

好的。
我的祖父母会说匈牙利语。

在我长大的小镇上,大多数
人不是匈牙利人就是芬兰人。

嗯。 » 而且,我不知道我必须
改变我的口音,但

每当你要使用另一种语言时都会有怪癖。
所以,他会因为我讲这个故事而杀了我,

但我的兄弟,他最终获得了博士学位。
并成为一所学校的校长,也是高中时的

足球明星。 当
他上这个电视节目时

,他们问他,“你
想做什么?”他说,“我想上大学”。 而且,

真的吗? » …漏掉了几个字。
是的。

这实际上是
从…的直接翻译。 » 好的。 » 所以,

我想上大学。 我们在
这里两次遗漏了“到”这个词。

当我们学习一门外语时,我们所有人都发生过这样的事情:
我们在直接

翻译自己的语言时说得太多了,并且犯了语法错误。
这甚至可能发生

在美国多语种家庭中长大的孩子身上。

那么你长大后会说…
英语不好?

那么,匈牙利在家里?
呃,在我很小的时候,

好的。 » …我的母亲,我的祖母
不会说英语。

好的。 » 但是现在,就像大多数
人说的不是很常用的语言

一样,我知道食物,
也许会说一两个脏话。

好的。 你总是要
保留好东西。 » 没错。

那么,当您
准备要在相机上阅读的内容时,您会怎么做?

你花了多长时间阅读文字,你在阅读文字时
有什么类似的技巧

吗? » 我愿意。
显然,我想让它成为对话式的。

注意 Jansing 女士是如何说“想要”的。 我
想让它对话。 想要,想要,必须:

绝对可以接受的减少,即使在
作为专业人士的镜头采访中也是如此。

事实上,缩减在
美式英语的整体特征中起着很大的作用。

例如,奥巴马总统
在去年的连任演讲中使用了“想要”的减少。

显然,我
想让它成为对话式 [3x]。

我想
和我的听众交谈。

我希望有。 现在她强调
“想要”,她并没有将其简化为“想要”。

但请注意,她仍在将
“to”、to、to 一词简化为 schwa 音。

我想与我的听众进行 [3x
] 对话。

我认为,当我在 35 年前左右开始从事这项业务时

,有一种节奏和形式。
它变得不那么正式,更具

互动性。 我认为我们希望
观众有参与感。 所以,我试着放……

试着放。 还有另一个’to’减少。
这次是 Flap T。尝试,尝试。

我试着用我说的那种语言来表达 [3x] 的
东西。

所以如果你问我一个问题,
今天发生了什么,我试着讲故事……

试着讲故事。
另一个“到”减少。 尝试。

基本上,每次我们
在对话中说“to”这个词时,

它都会减少。 我将不再
指出它们,但还有更多。

你会抓住他们吗? 如果你这样做了,

请在下面的评论中发布带有“to”缩减的句子。

我试着用我会告诉你的方式来讲述[3x]这个故事
,站在这里……

对。 » 相距仅几英尺。
是的。

所以非常健谈。

我们希望。 » 是的。

当你遇到一个

你不知道如何发音的单词时你会怎么做?

假的。

假的。 那里。 你在这里听到了。
显然,我们试图提前展望。

但即使——我特别想,
因为我们做的是世界新闻,

所以有很多来自外国的人的名字
……» 对。

而你认为你知道首选的
发音,或者,我们有一个首选的

发音:Ayman al-Zawahiri。 然后
你找到一位中东问题专家

,他会说,
“你是说艾曼·扎瓦希里吗?” 所以,

对。 » 我认为你
尽你所能去做研究。

而且我认为因为我在一个少数民族
社区长大,所以我对此有点耳熟能详。

嗯嗯,是的。 那可能是。
也许。

美式英语

中是否有一些您有时会绊倒的单词,
这对您来说是个挑战?

你知道吗? 我认为它就像
其他任何人一样,有时当您阅读某些内容时,它

看起来并不正确。 这可能是一个
简单的词。 所以,通常是这样

的,那会让你绊倒。
我确实有一些烦恼。

就像核,我们知道是核。
有点烦我。

听发音,
我希望,伙计们! » 是的。

核。 这是一个三音节词,
重音在第一个音节上。 哒哒哒。

有时甚至母语人士也会混淆
L 的位置并说 nuk-juh-ler。

但它是核清晰的,核清晰的,核的。

但是,我们都尽力而为。
是的。

你永远不会 100% 正确。
尤其是名字。

对。 当然,名字和地点。 嗯,
你有最喜欢的美式英语单词吗?

喜悦。
喜悦。 嘿,这是一个很棒的词。

这很容易,很简单,男孩,
这很重要。 » 是的,是的。

“快乐”是一个单音节词。 这是一个名词,
这使它成为一个内容词。

这意味着它会在一个句子中被强调。
所以,比非重读音节长一点、响亮一点

、形状更多

它由 JJ 辅音
和 OY 双元音组成。 J-oy,快乐。

确保
双元音的第一个声音足够低下你的下巴。 喜悦。

嗯,克里斯,非常感谢你的
专业知识 » 哦,这太有趣了。

对于来到这里,我真的很
感谢你的时间。

不客气。
伙计们,看看她的节目。

不客气。 或者,Köszönom。

我喜欢它。 我的
观众会喜欢的。

所有匈牙利人
都会知道这意味着什么。

非常感谢。

在 Twitter 上关注 Jansing 女士,
并在电视或网上查看她的片段,

了解
美式英语发音的一个很好的例子。

好的,伙计们,就是这样,
非常感谢您使用 Rachel 的英语。

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