Speak English Like Me English Pronunciation Practice
Vanessa:
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you want to practice speaking
English like me? Let’s talk about it.
What is the perfect accent? Is it possible to
speak English exactly like an American without
any accent from your own native language? A lot
of students ask me, “Vanessa, I want to speak
English like you, like an American. How long
will it take? Is it possible?” Possibly, but
probably not. What is more important is that you
can speak clearly and understandably. You can
express yourself in English. You can form
relationships in English or be professional,
or just be yourself in English. Today, I will help
you do this. Over the next 15 minutes, I will help
your speaking to become more clear and you will
become excited about English. Hurray! Let’s do it.
I get a lot of comments below my videos that
say something like this. “I like the way you
pronounce the English language.” “Vanessa, my
sweetheart. I like your pronunciation.” This is
very tender and kind, but why do students, maybe
you like my pronunciation? This is the answer.
Your English is so clear, thanks a lot. And clear
speaking is the key. You to, can speak clearly.
Before we talk about three tips that can
help you to speak more clearly in English.
I want to ask you how clear is your English right
now? Can other people understand you? Let’s take a
quick test with my student Vincenzo.
Vincenzo:
Lot of.
Vanessa:
So what did it say?
Vincenzo:
He says 65 and he signs something
in red, something in orange.
Vanessa:
Let’s click on it and see what it
says. There’s probably some details.
Vincenzo:
Yes. That’s very tricky for Italian people.
Vanessa:
You’re not alone.
Vincenzo:
Okay. Lot of. Okay. Okay.
Vanessa:
So it was asking for the final sound, the of.
Vincenzo:
The, the, the, because I said, “Lot of.”
Vanessa:
Sure, having that vibration. Thank
you to the awesome pronunciation app,
ELSA Speak for sponsoring today’s video
and also giving you a huge discount,
which I’ll tell you about a little bit later. All
right, let’s go to our first tip to help you speak
clearly and understandably in English. Tip number
one, shadow English speakers whose voice you like.
This expression to shadow means that you listen
to a sentence or a phrase from an English speaker
and you repeat directly after that phrase.
You try to imitate their way of speaking.
This idea of shadowing or imitating is one of
the most proven techniques for improving your
pronunciation and speaking clearly. You could
shadow a sentence from the TV show Friends,
you could shadow a sentence from the
famous movie Forrest Gump, or we could
practice shadowing with one of my lessons.
Let’s do it. You’re going to see a short clip from
this lesson that I made a couple months ago
and we’re going to be listening to that clip
two times. There’s just one sentence you’ll listen
to it two times. Then I’ll help you to break down
some challenging pronunciation points. Then we
will listen to the clip two more times and it will
be your chance to speak out loud and to shadow,
to practice this technique. Of course, you can use
this with any video, any TV show or a movie. We’re
just practicing it here with one of my lessons.
All right, let’s watch that short clip and listen
for the sentence. Take it with a grain of salt,
I’m just an amateur gardener. Listen for that
sentence. But take it with a grain of salt,
I’m just an amateur gardener. But take it with
a grain of salt, I’m just an amateur gardener.
Okay, let’s break down the sentence and talk about
some of the challenging or important pronunciation
points. The first thing is in the first half of
this sentence, take it with, with a grain of salt.
Do you notice there’s a lovely TH at the end
of that word? With. This is a common mistake
that a lot of English learners make. They often
focus on TH at the beginning of words, like thank
you or Thursday, but TH’s at the end of words
can be pretty tricky. Sometimes we just forget
it or drop it. So let’s make sure that you’re
saying that correctly. Can you say it with me?
Take it with, take it with. All right, the next
thing we’re going to talk about is some linking
that happens in the second half of this
sentence. I said, I’m just an amateur gardener.
Just an, just an. There is a men’s
name in English named Justin. That’s
not what we’re saying, but it’s a similar sound.
So I want you to link together these two words.
I’m just an, just an. Can you say this with
me? I’m just an, just an. Then let’s look at
the next word. Amateur. Teur. There’s a strong
CH sound in the middle of this word. Amateur.
I also want you to be able to have a strong
R sound at the end. When you have a strong R
sound like is typical in American English, it
will help your pronunciation to be much more
clear and understandable because those sounds
are important for understanding the full meaning
of your sentence, or even just each word. So
let’s try to say that word together. Amateur,
amateur. And that same sound is going to happen in
the last word. Gardener. Make sure that R at the
end is clear. Can you say it with me? Gardener,
gardener. All right. Take a deep breath. You
have been practicing this one sentence.
Now we’re going to listen to the original
clip two times, that quick sentence twice,
and then I’ll pause so that you can say it
all by yourself. Are you ready? Yes, you can do
it. Let’s watch. But take it with a grain of salt,
I’m just an amateur gardener. But take it with
a grain of salt, I’m just an amateur gardener.
Excellent work. Shadowing and speaking clearly,
let’s go on to tip number two to help you speak
clearly in English. Tip number two is to test
yourself by speaking with someone for five minutes
and seeing if they can generally understand what
you’re saying. The best way to do this is to tell
someone a short story. It can be five minutes, it
could be two minutes, a short story of something
that happened to you, maybe over the weekend or
on your last vacation, or when you were a kid,
tell them this story, tell them some
details, tell them whatever you would like
and then when you’re finished, ask them
to repeat back to you what you said.
It doesn’t need to be word for word, but if they
understood the general concepts and some of the
important details, this is a great thing because
they are understanding you clearly and your voice
is understandable. Have you ever spoken in English
and the other person just nodded and smiled and
you thought, “Did they really understand me?
Were they listening? Did they know what I said?”
Well, this method is a great way to test to
see if the other person could understand you.
Of course, please tell the other person this in
advance so that they know that they should be
listening very carefully to everything that you
have to say. Let me show you how this can work.
We’re going to watch a one minute clip where
I tell you about my most embarrassing moment.
So embarrassing. And I want you to listen for the
general concepts and for some details. If I speak
clearly, you should be able to understand the
general concepts and the details and you can do
the same thing with someone else, whether that
is another English learner, an English teacher,
you can use this method. All right, let’s watch
this clip and see if you can understand and see
if I’m speaking clearly. In fact, it was during
theater practice, I was one of the lead roles
in our high school play.
Dan:
Of course you were.
Vanessa:
And the problem was that during rehearsals, during
that time period, those weeks I broke my wrist,
so I had a lot of doctor’s appointments and
I missed a lot of rehearsals. So one day I
went to the rehearsal and I was on the stage,
there was no audience, it was just the other
classmates who were in the play and my teacher was
in the audience. And I didn’t know it, but we were
supposed to memorize all of our lines on that day.
Dan:
Uh-oh.
Vanessa:
But I didn’t know it because I had missed so
many rehearsals. And so, I got on the stage with
my playbook and I was reading my lines because I
didn’t know we were supposed to memorize them and
she yelled at me so much. She was screaming
at me. This is not a good teacher situation
in the first place, but she was yelling at me,
“Vanessa! Why didn’t you remember your lines?”
And I stood there and the only thing I could
do was just cry. And I just cried in front of
everyone on the stage.
Dan:
Oh my God.
Vanessa:
I was so ashamed and embarrassed and I was
embarrassed that I was crying. It was just
a really bad situation all around.
Dan:
I hope that teacher felt bad.
Vanessa:
I don’t know. How did you do? Could you understand
my clear speaking? You can do the same thing. Like
I mentioned, you could do this with an English
learner, an English teacher. Usually I say that
you can even speak English with your pets,
your dog, or your cat, but in this situation,
maybe it’s not the best idea. And
that was my most embarrassing moment.
Did you understand me Pippin? Did you
understand how clear I was speaking?
Tip number three for speaking English
clearly and understandably is to figure out
the specific sounds that are difficult for
you and focus on them. You don’t need to
waste your time practicing sounds and phrases
that are already easy for you. When you focus
on sounds that are difficult for you, you are
using your time wisely and after you practice,
other people are going to say, “Whoa, how did
you learn to speak so clearly? That’s great.”
Maybe you already know that TH is difficult for
you, that’s great. But what about some tough
sounds that are hard for you personally,
or for speakers of your native language?
Can you accurately say desk/disc? Hm. The short
I sound is tough for a lot of Spanish speakers,
or can you say speak/peek? This S sound is tough
for a lot of Vietnamese speakers or what about
eight/hate? This H sound is tough for French
and Italian speakers, or rice/lice? This our RL
problem is a common difficulty for Chinese,
Japanese and Korean speakers and some others.
So what about for you? Which sounds are
the most tricky? How can you find out?
I have some good news. The awesome app ELSA Speak
can help you to figure out which sounds are not
clear. When you speak in English, you will get
a pronunciation score for each sound and you
will get exact advice about how you can speak
more clearly. Let’s take a look at what over 13
million users are excited about. Let’s try
the second one. Did you drop out of college?
Personal topics.
Vincenzo:
What year did you graduate from UCLA. I knew. Can
I hear the correct pronunciation from the app?
Vanessa:
Yes, let’s listen to it first and then
you can try to repeat it, especially for words
like that, that maybe you’re not familiar with.
Speaker 4:
What year did you graduate from UCLA?
Vincenzo:
Oh, okay. UCLA, UCLA.
Vanessa:
Yes. Okay.
Vincenzo:
I read UCLA.
Vanessa:
I was trying to think too,
what is UCLA? Ah, okay, UCLA.
Vincenzo:
What is UCLA? It’s a university or college?
Vanessa:
It’s the University of California Los Angeles.
Vincenzo:
Ah, okay. I’ll never forget it.
Vanessa:
Got it. All right. So if you want to listen to
her part and then listen to your part that you
should say, and then you can just repeat
what the app told you, you should say,
so like that shadowing.
Vincenzo:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 4:
What year did you graduate from UCLA?
Vincenzo:
What year did you graduate from UCLA? Hm, 88.
Speaker 4:
2011, you?
Vincenzo:
I dropped out of college in 2006. 79.
Vanessa:
Which parts did it say …
Speaker 4:
I dropped out of college in 2006.
Vincenzo:
He says that I made a mistake at the end of
out, because probably I said out, instead of
saying out.
Vanessa:
Ah, out. I dropped out of with that D.
Vincenzo:
And of, of.
Vanessa:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Vincenzo:
I dropped out of college in 2006. 82.
Speaker 4:
Why did you drop out?
Vincenzo:
I wanted to help my friend with his startup. I
wanted to help my friend with his startup. 66.
Vanessa:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). What’s it say?
Vincenzo:
He says wanted to help, it’s
so and so. There are a lot of red over there.
Speaker 4:
I wanted to help my friend with his startup.
Vincenzo:
Okay. I wanted to help my
friend with his startup. 83.
Vanessa:
That’s great. It sounded
much better to me too.
Vincenzo:
I’m still there.
Vanessa:
Good TH, that sounded amazing.
Vincenzo:
I said there, there, there
several times and now I got it.
Vanessa:
Yes, that R too, nice and strong. Beautiful. Thank
you so much, Vincenzo, you rock. Just like you saw
with Vincenzo, you can practice with over 1,600
lessons over 40 different topics, all in the
comfort of your own home. For English learners,
ELSA Speak is absolutely the best pronunciation
app. Just look at this. Pretty good, right?
The ELSA Speak team is offering you, my
students, a 30% discount on the yearly membership
and an 80% discount on the lifetime membership.
Click on the link in the description to get this
special discount just for you my lovely students.
Before we go, let’s practice one challenge
sentence together so that you can practice
your pronunciation, improve your clarity, speak
clearly and understandably and like yourself.
All right, let’s say this sentence together. I
will speak clearly and confidently in English.
Again. I will speak clearly and confidently in
English. Ah, thank you so much for saying this
with me. Can you write that in the comments below
this video? I will speak clearly and confidently
in English. 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. Did you enjoy this free lesson? The next
step is to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Don’t forget to click the ELSA Speak link in
the description to practice speaking clearly
and confidently and get a special discount.
Thanks for learning English with me. Bye.