Can these CELEBRITIES speak English
Vanessa:
Hi, I’m Vanessa
from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Can
these six celebrities speak English?
Some are amazing, but some are
not so great. Let’s talk about it.
Let’s take a look at six celebrities from around
the world and test their English. Obviously these
celebrities are already successful and don’t
need me to give them tips about their English,
but we can pretend for a moment that they are my
students. What would I say to help them along with
their English? I’m going to give them some tips
and a score, zero for not understandable at all,
and five, native English level.
To help you remember everything that you
learned in today’s lesson, I have created a free
PDF worksheet with all of the pronunciation tips,
vocabulary tips, grammar tips that I am going to
give celebrities so that you can speak even better
than them. Amazing. You can click on the link in
the description to download the free PDF and never
forget what you’ve learned today. Let’s start
with famous football or soccer player Cristiano
Ronaldo. We’re going to watch a quick clip and
then we will analyze it together. Let’s watch.
Cristiano Ronaldo:
I miss to play in Spain. We have
that battle the last 15 years, which is good.
He push me, and I push him as well. It’s good
to be part of history of football. I’m
there and, of course, he’s there as well.
Vanessa:
Thank you, Mr. Ronaldo.
He is understandable, but he does make a few
pretty basic grammatical mistakes that we can talk
about. The first one is he says, “I miss to play
in Spain.” And what he should have said is I miss
playing in Spain. With the verb miss, we always
have an ING verb. I miss playing. I miss sleeping.
I miss seeing my family. That’s great. Next he
says, “We have that battle the last 15 years.”
And instead, to take it up to the best level here,
he should have said, we have had that battle for
the last 15 years. This is a common mistake by
English learners around the world. The present
perfect verb tense is pretty tricky to know when
to use it, when not to use it. Adding the word for
compared to since or maybe not adding it at all
can be tricky as well. But in this sentence,
he’s talking about something that was in
the past and it is continuing to today.
We have had that battle for 15 years.
It is still continuing. And finally,
he said, “He push me and I push him as
well.” He meant to use the past tense here,
but he just cut off the ED. Instead, he should
have said, he pushed me and I pushed him.
Now, this is an advanced way to use the verb
to push. He’s not talking about physically
pushing. He’s talking about making someone
better and better. A good teacher should
push you outside your comfort zone to do something
difficult because they know that you’ll improve.
He’s talking here about improving his skills
as a soccer player, but he should have said it
in the past tense. He pushed me and I pushed
him. So aside from some rough, basic grammar,
he is still understandable. We are going to give
Cristiano a two. Next, we’re going to watch famous
Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen. Let’s
listen to her speak English, and then we’ll
analyze it. Let’s watch.
Gisele Bundchen:
Yeah, and you know what I found? I come from a
family of five. I have five sisters and we usually
play… We used to play volleyballs. It was like
a team sport. We all play in the same team, but
Tom’s family’s a little different. He’s the baby.
He’s got three older sisters and they’re pretty
hardcore. I mean, when they play, it’s like…
Jimmy Fallon:
Really? They go for it.
Gisele Bundchen:
You know that game that you… Dodgeball, is it?
Where you go and you like throw really hard in the
person and they die. They’re out of the…
Vanessa:
I have to say, Gisele has great vocabulary
and grammar here. She even uses some really
American English expressions like, they’re
hardcore. Hardcore means they’re really serious.
She’s married to a famous American football
player. And as you can imagine, he’s very
competitive. His family is competitive. She uses
that expression to talk about how they’re very
serious when they play games. They are hardcore.
Also, her pronunciation is quite American.
She says the word pretty with a D sound. She
doesn’t say pretty, even though there’s a T. In
American English, that will change to a D sound.
This happens all the time in American English. We
say water, sweater. Great. This is the same with
the word. Pretty. Pretty. And that’s how she says
it. Excellent. Overall, Gisele speaks quickly and
understandably and her English is awesome, so I’m
going to give her a four. Next, we are going to
watch the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
He’s giving a speech to the people of
the world, the people of India as well.
We’re going to watch a clip from that
speech and then analyze it. Let’s watch.
Narendra Modi:
We are witnessing history in the making.
Mr. President, you had introduced me to your
family in 2017. And today, I have the honor
to introduce you to my family.
Vanessa:
Because this is a political speech and
maybe it was written by someone else,
maybe it was written by him, but it’s
something he can practice in advance.
The grammar and vocabulary are awesome. He also
speaks slowly enough that even though he had some
difficult pronunciation points that
we’ll about in a moment, he’s still
understandable. And that is really the goal here.
The things that I’m mentioning that he can improve
are just to take it to the next level. The most
important thing is that he is understandable.
Let’s talk about some pronunciation points.
At the beginning of this clip, he says,
“We are witnessing,” but he doesn’t say it with
a clear W like that. Instead, he uses a V sound.
He says, “Ve are Vitnessing.” Now, this isn’t
completely un-understandable, but it’s important
that each word is as clear as possible so that
the vast majority of people can understand.
Mixing up the W and the V sound is a
common mistake with people around the
world and what you need to do to have a
clear W is to make a little kissy face.
We. We are witnessing. And with the V sound,
your top teeth are on your bottom lip. V. V.
Vanessa. In this situation, making a little
kissy face will help the w to be very clear.
We are witnessing. Next, I want to talk about
a point that is very typical in Indian English,
and maybe for people in India,
it’s extremely understandable.
But for people outside of India, it might make
it a little bit more tricky to understand,
and that is the R sound. I heard this in
two different words. The first word is
honor, and the next one is introduce. In
American English, the R is very hard, honor,
introduce. But in Indian English, it’s often
rolled. What I heard the prime minister say is
honor, honor, where it’s not very strong.
It’s rolled inside the mouth. Or for
the word introduce, he said in introduce.
It’s inside the mouth, instead of a strong R
sound. In India, this will be very understandable
to other people from the country. But I just want
to give you a little tip if you are from India
or if this is something that is tricky for you
in your native language to try to have a hard
R sound. And that will really help your speech
to just take it up to the next level as far
as being understandable. Honor. Introduce.
So overall, Prime Minister Modi, you speak slowly
enough, clearly enough that you are absolutely
understandable, so I’m going to give you a three.
Next, we are going to take a look at the most
famous South Koreans at the moment, the singing
group BTS. There are seven people in this group,
so it’s a little bit tricky to give them an
overall score, but I want you to listen and
I will help to pull out a couple points to help
them become better English speakers. Let’s watch.
BTS:
Who is BTS leader? Namjoon Kim. RM. Kim Namjoon.
Our leader is very smart.
He is very kind. Oh yeah,
very kind. Very strong. Very healthy. Big body.
Very handsome.
Vanessa:
First of all, I have to give them some credit
because they are native Korean speakers,
but they’re doing presentations and speeches and
interviews in English. This is unbelievably scary,
tricky. I’m sure they feel really nervous, and
they want to say the right thing. They want to be
themselves. They’re already in a tricky situation,
because they are suddenly overnight international
superstars. I want to give them a little credit
before I give them some pronunciation advice.
Let’s start with the first word. I heard them
say the word leader. The question is, who is the
leader of BTS? But a common mistake that I often
hear my East Asian students make is exchanging the
R for the L sound. Now, I lived in South Korea for
three years, and I struggled to make the Korean R
sound. So I absolutely understand that in
reverse for Koreans, the English L and R
sound are also tricky. I was there. I understand.
Instead of saying leader, I heard him say reader.
Instead of leader, reader. If you want to make
a clear L sound, your tongue can go between your
teeth. Leader. Leader. He could have said, “Who
is the leader of BTS?” Who is the leader? Leader.
Next, I heard many of them using the word
very. This is a common thing that I hear kind
of beginner English learners overuse. There’s
no problem in saying the word very. Oftentimes,
American English speakers will say really
instead of very, so it’s more common to hear
really. Oh, he’s really amazing.
He’s really handsome. He’s really great,
instead of very. But I want to talk about a
pronunciation point that I heard. Instead of
saying very, I heard berry. He exchanged the V for
the B sound. This is common for Korean speakers.
It’s common for Spanish speakers. It’s common
for a lot of other languages around the world.
I want to help you, remind you, we talked about
the V moment ago, that if you want to say very,
your top teeth are on your bottom lip. Very.
He’s very handsome. He’s very smart. Very.
You don’t want to say that he’s berry, because
that is talking about a fruit. Instead, very.
There’s one little word… Another word that I
wanted to mention. I hope I’m not being too harsh.
BTS, please forgive me. I’m sure you’ll never
watch this, but it is the word healthy. Healthy.
This combines two tricky points together. We have
the L and the TH together, and a common mistake I
see with the TH is changing it into an S.
In this clip, he said healsy, healsy,
but really it should be healthy. Can you practice
that word with me? Make sure that there’s an L,
healthy. And maybe it’s a little bit helpful
because your tongue is already out of your mouth
for the L sound. Healthy. Make sure there’s
a stream of air. Healthy. He’s very healthy.
He’s very healthy. Now, I do know that
the leader, the guy they’re talking about,
the guy in the middle here, that he is
fluent in English. His English is incredible.
And whenever they do interviews in English, he’s
the one who speaks for the group. Usually he
translates. That’s not an easy skill. Overall,
BTS, I’m going to have to give you a score of
one. Your music is catchy, but you
can work on English a little bit more.
Next, we’re going to take a look at famous actress
Salma Hayek from Mexico. Let’s take a look and
then we’ll analyze it together.
Ellen DeGeneres:
I also learned today that you
and your husband like to scare
each other.
Salma Hayek:
Oh yeah, and all my children.
Ellen DeGeneres:
And your children?
Salma Hayek:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I have some masters in the
family. But I have to admit, and it’s good to
admit one’s flaw, I like to scare them. I love the
anticipation. I don’t like it when they scare me.
Vanessa:
Overall, Salma’s grammar and vocabulary
are great. She is understandable. There’s a couple
pronunciation points that I would like to mention
to her if she ever watches just this video. The
first one is at the very beginning of the clip,
we hear her say family. Family. Now, usually in
American English, we break this word into just
two syllables, fam lee, fam lee. She used
three syllables, and that middle syllable
is very typical of Spanish speakers. She
didn’t say family, with a short I, family.
She says fameely, ee. Oftentimes I hear Spanish
speakers substitute a short I full are a long E.
Now, this is usually not a big deal, like the word
family or family is understandable either way.
But when it comes to some bad words, words like
beach and sheet, very clearly and not the bad word
instead. I also noticed some emphasis that could
be changed slightly. She said the tricky word
anticipation. Now, usually we say anticipation.
But instead, she said “anteeceepation.”
Here, again, she’s using that long E sound,
“anteeceepation.” Now, we can still understand it,
but overall, Salma, if you would like to level up
your English, practicing the short eye would help
a lot. For me as a native English speaker,
I can understand her with no problem. And
that’s excellent. But I’m curious for you all as
English learners, can you understand her clearly?
Sometimes when there is tricky pronunciation or
emphasis that’s a little bit different than we
expect, it can be hard to understand when
you’re learning that language. So let me
know in the comments what you think about her
pronunciation and can you understand her. Well,
I’d like to give her a score of three. Excellent
work. Let’s go to our next celebrity, who is
Maria Sharapova, the famous Russian
tennis player. Let’s watch this clip.
Maria Sharapova:
How does Maria Sharapova spend
her time off court? I have a few businesses
that I’m a part of and that I invest in.
The main one happens to be Sugarpova, a candy
company that I launched in 2012. It’s been that
many years. Everything from gummies to chocolate
to truffles. You name it, we make it. I love
candy. I feel like it’s that little indulgence and
a little kid that comes out in me when I have a
really great day or I win a tough match.
And I come home and there’s a mini bar and
you’re just like, I owe this to myself. So I do
it. I open up that mini bar. I get the chocolate.
And there it is, straight to the hips.
Vanessa:
Okay. Wow. She’s amazing. Not only is she
an amazing tennis player, but her English
is flawless. If I just listened to her, I would
have no clue that she’s not a native English
speaker. For real. It’s amazing. Let’s look at a
couple phrases she uses so that you can use them
as well. She’s talking about a candy company that
she owns. I guess she’s quite a multi-talented
person. She uses the phrase, you name it, we
make it. This is kind of a shorthand way of
saying whatever you can imagine, we can do it.
If you can imagine any kind of candy, well,
they can make it. So that means they can do
a lot of really cool things. You name it,
we make it. Cool. At the end of this clip, she
says, And there it is, straight to the hips."
The way that she uses this also is so
comfortable and so casual that we know
she has an excellent handle on English. When she
says, “And there it is, straight to the hips,”
she’s talking about eating candy, eating
chocolate and gaining weight in her hips.
Now, this is something that makes her as an elite
athlete very relatable to us as normal people.
Because usually when we think about
elite athletes, we don’t think about
candy and chocolate. But she is saying, “I’m
just like you. I eat candy, and I eat chocolate,
and it goes straight to my hips.” It’s a very
funny thing to say, and it really shows that she
is completely comfortable speaking English.
So congratulations, Maria, you get a five.
Our final celebrity is famous supermodel
and businesswoman Heidi Klum from Germany.
Let’s watch a clip where she’s talking about
when she was a host on a famous singing show.
Let’s watch.
Heidi Klum:
I think I am the same. I would probably say
that I’m the most honest. I thought he was
much harsher, to be honest with you, but he’s not
really as harsh. We have a lot of fun together.
Jimmy Fallon:
He’s harsh.
Heidi Klum:
And when he gets naughty, then he gets the drink
spilled all over him, because I’m not taking it.
Vanessa:
First of all, Heidi, excellent work on your
English. You are extremely understandable
and easy to listen to. There is one
little pronunciation point that I
wanted to mention that will help you sound
even more like an American English speaker,
and that is when she says the word naughty.
Naughty. We mentioned before that often a
T will change to a D sound. We heard that
earlier with the word pretty. Pretty. It’s
not pretty, it’s pretty in American English.
And in this conversation, Heidi Klum says naughty,
naughty, with a clear T sound. But in American
English, we would say naughty. Naughty. Ugh,
my dog is so naughty. He’s always taking my socks
and chewing on them. He’s so naughty. This is
an excellent way to level up your pronunciation
to sound more like an American. Overall, Heidi,
you’re doing an excellent job. I would like to
give you a score of four. There you have it,
my ranking of six celebrities speaking English.
I want to know, do you agree with my ratings?
What do you think? Could you understand
their English? Who was the trickiest for
you to understand? And is there a celebrity
from your country that you would like me to
review or maybe give a couple tips to? Let me
know in the comments, who is a famous celebrity
from your country that I should look at next?
Well, don’t forget to download the free PDF for
today’s lesson so that you can review all of the
tips and ideas that I gave these six celebrities.
You can download the free PDF with the link in
the description, so that you never forget what
you’ve learned and you might even be able
to speak better than the celebrities. Well,
thank you so much for learning English with me
and I’ll see you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.
The next step is to download the free
PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this
free PDF, you will master today’s lesson
and never forget what you have learned.
You can be a confident English speaker.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.