Question and Answer with Rachels English American English
In this video I’m going to answer some questions
from you, my audience. We’ll talk about
N’T contractions, what languages I speak,
and lots more.
Hey guys, thanks to everyone who posted a
question on my Facebook page for this video.
If you never saw that post on Facebook, I’m
not that surprised because only about 10%
of Rachel’s English fans see any given post.
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We’re going to start with an email from
my friend Staci, who’s actually been in
a couple of my videos, one on knitting terms
and one on how to greet Americans. If you’re
interested in those videos, you can watch
them by clicking in the description below.
She asks: What’s your opinion on pronouncing
place names (cities, mainly), when the accent
of the people living in that area is different
from how the word looks? New Orleans comes
to mind, or the city Bath in England. This
is a great questions, and there isn’t a
right answer. That’s why she’s asking
for my opinion. There will be lots of other
people out there with a different opinion,
and I’m sure they’ll let me know in the
comments. My opinion is, it’s ok to pronounce
a place name the way that people where you
live pronounce it. Not necessarily the way
that the people who live there pronounce it.
For example, if I was to say ‘Bath’, and
I was to pronounce it ‘Bath’, that sounds
pretty weird in American English because we
have that word, ‘bath’. And we pronounce
it ‘bath’. And actually, someone commented
on the Facebook page that even within England
there’s variation on how that place name
is pronounced. So I think it’s ok to pronounce
it the way that you’re comfortable with,
the way that you hear people saying it. New
Orleans. That’s how I say that word, but
I’ve heard it pronounced lots of different
ways, New Orleans, New Orleans. And my guess
is, if you went there, and asked people who
live there how they say it, there would be
some variation too. Um, this is sort of related
to a video that I did before on the word ‘burrito’.
I got a lot of people commenting, saying,
‘You can’t pronounce it that way, it’s
wrong. There’s no American pronunciation
of that Spanish word. So, difference of opinions.
But, Staci, thanks for asking, and that’s
mine. Let’s keep going.
Next question: It’s said a language changes
and modifies itself during time. In your opinion,
is the way of speaking American English changing?
Interesting question. Yes, I think in small
and subtle ways. I think the core isn’t
changing much, or it’s changing very slowly.
So what you’re learning on my channel is
probably going to be true for a very long
time, if not your full lifetime. But there
are ways in which we use language that are
changing. For example, over the past few years,
there has been a fad of taking two words and
combining them to make one word. For example,
‘frenemy’: the words ‘friend’ and
‘enemy’ put together. What is a frenemy?
That would be someone in your social circle
that you might be outwardly nice to, that
you don’t like very much, and that doesn’t
really like you. The media is really doing
this with celebrity couples, like Brangelina,
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Maybe you’ve
heard that or something like this before.
The next question is about American culture:
“can you please explain about engagement
rings”. Some of you may know, recently I
got engaged, and I posted a video about that
on Facebook and YouTube. An engagement ring
is generally a diamond, but it can be anything,
and it’s usually set in gold, white gold,
or platinum. But, a good friend of mine was
recently given a very beautiful wood engagement
ring. Generally men will propose with this
ring, and the women wear it for the whole
engagement period, and then often beyond that
as well. Men do not wear engagement rings.
Then on the wedding day the couple exchanges
wedding rings or wedding bands. And generally,
the woman will wear this with her engagement
ring. The wedding ring goes on first, then
the engagement ring second. So, again, these
can be made of a variety of metals. And for
both men and women, it’s worn on the ring
finger of the left hand. There are all generalizations,
but that’s usually how it works.
Next question: If we are visiting New York,
can we visit you , or see you somewhere, MY
DREAM IS TO MEET YOU !!!! I do go to New York
a lot, but I actually don’t live there anymore.
I moved in January, down here to Philadelphia
because David has a great job down here. And,
to answer your questions, sometimes I meet
up with fans in person. I think it would be
great to travel a little more so that I could
meet fans in other countries, have meet-ups,
maybe. Um, but I just need to find out a way
to make that financially possible, but that
would be incredibly fun for me because I do
love to meet you guys.
Here’s a pronunciation question: do I hurt
her and I heard her sound the same? I hurt
her, I hurt her feelings. I heard her, I heard
her say that. They do sound the same, don’t
they. Because when we drop the H in ‘her’,
which we often do, look at what we have. All
the sounds are the same except T and D. But
T after an R before a vowel, like ‘party’,
is flapped. Which sounds just like a D sound
in the same situation. So now these two phrases
sound the same. I made a video on homophone
phrases a while ago that goes over this concept
of phrases like this sounding the same. Check
it out here or in the description below.
What languages do you speak other than English?
I used to speak Spanish, it’s been really
a long time. I studied it in college and went
abroad for a semester, I lived in the Dominican
Republic. I spoke ok Spanish, I could get
by. I don’t remember much of it anymore,
and that was 15 years ago. I haven’t used
Spanish much since then. More recently, I
lived in Germany, and that was for six months,
so I’m a little bit better at speaking German,
but it’s been, now, 6 years since I lived
there. So unfortunately that’s slipping
too. In grad school and just after, when I
was studying opera, I also studied Italian
and French. But it was more for the pronunciation
than to be conversational in that language.
I think I can order food and drink in French
but that’s about it.
I got a few questions about N’T contractions:
ain’t, aren’t, weren’t. Nn, nn. Do you
hear how those are all ending a weird nasal
sound, ain’t, nn, nn, nn. I’m not saying
TT at the end, I’m making an abrupt, pinched
sound in my nose. I made a video about this
sound and these N’T contractions, and I
have another video, an interview with newscaster
Rehema Ellis, which has a lot of real life
examples of N’T contractions in it. So be
sure to check out those two videos.
Question: What is your feeling when you realize
new interesting pronunciation in your own
language? This happens all the time. Sometimes
it’s a pronunciation thing, sometimes it’s
just how we use the language. But generally,
I get a rush from it, it’s very exciting.
Most of us don’t notice anything about how
we speak or use our own native language, I
know I didn’t before I started making this
channel, so it’s really fun to have this
project, which sort of orients my mind towards
that. I notice a lot more. So I get excited
and I think, I want to tell my audience that!
For example, when I was walking around New
York last weekend, I passed someone who said
“I’m dating myself”. Usually when we
say I’m dating … we’re talking about
a boyfriend or girlfriend. I’m dating David.
What does it mean: I’m dating myself? She
meant she was putting a date to herself, she
was making her age known. She recognized a
costume from the 1970s, this was Halloween,
and by doing that she was dating herself because
she was recognizing herself as someone who
knew what that was. Someone who grew up in
the 70s or before the 70s. So she was dating
herself, she was putting an age or an age
range on herself. I smiled to myself because
even as a native speaker, when you hear someone
say I’m dating myself’ out of context,
it’s pretty funny.
Last question: I find it hard to pause my
sentences reasonably because I need to think
while speaking . Are there any tricks? This
is what’s really hard about going from a
studying situation to a real life situation.
I tell people you can practice even this.
When you’re alone, just practice talking
out loud. Try it even just 10 or 15 minutes
a day. It’s surprising how even that can
help build confidence and fluency. How to
do this? Write down a few topics, like “What’s
up?” or “What are you doing?” Prompts
that you see happening in conversations on
TV or in movies. So write them down, and then
take that paper and answer them. Speak as
long as you can on one topic, and when you
run out of things to say, move on to the next
one. You could also just current events, something
you read in the paper that day. The point
is just to practice speaking, and you don’t
have to worry about the pauses you’re making.
The more you worry about them, the more tense
you’ll become, and the more they will happen.
And, just remember that native speakers also
pause sometimes when we need to think of something,
so it’s ok. So write down prompts, and practice
on your own. That way you don’t need to
worry about, Am I doing this right? You can
just focus on hearing something, responding
to it, thinking what to say and speaking at
the same time. And just the practice of that,
daily, will help.
Guys, I’m so sorry I can’t answer everyone’s
questions, that would probably make a video
that would be two hours long, which seems
a bit much But thanks again, for everyone
who suggested a question. If you missed my
last Q and A video, you can see it here, and
don’t forget to sign up for that mailing
list! That’s it, and thanks so much for
using Rachel’s English.