American English Imitation Exercise Thanksgiving
In this American English pronunciation video,
I’m going to talk about Thanksgiving with
my friend Sara. And then make an awesome imitation
exercise from it.
What’s so great about an imitation exercise?
When I make an imitation exercise, I’ll take
a little bit of speech and loop it three times.
When this happens, it starts to sound less
like speech and maybe a little bit more like
music. This is a good thing, because as a
learner of English, you already have some
ideas about speech. And some of them probably
aren’t right. So, if we can get you to hear
American English in a new way, it’s a good
thing. Don’t be so worried about what you’re
saying, but think more about the pitches that
you’re hearing, the rhythm that you’re hearing,
and try to imitate that exactly.
You’ll hear each phrase three times, then
there will be a small pause for you to repeat.
Everybody, you know my friend Sara. She’s
been in some videos before.
[Sara, what is your favorite Thanksgiving memory?]
Um, my favorite Thanksgiving memory is
when [my whole family, all my sisters] and
their husbands—
[She has three sisters and one brother.]
It’s a lot of people.
That’s a lot.
[A couple years ago we got together]
[for my parents' fortieth wedding anniversary],
and so we [had Thanksgiving and had a
good time together.]
Um, and every year I’m near my
dad for Thanksgiving,
I have to watch out because he likes to [get
involved in whatever I’m trying to cook.]
Oh. [He tries to take over?]
Yes.
So, that brings me to my next question:
which is,
[what is your favorite thing to eat
on Thanksgiving?]
Um, [my favorite thing
is cranberry sauce, I love it.]
Love it too.
[It goes with lots of things.]
So Rachel, [what are you doing for Thanksgiving
this year?]
Well, [for Thanksgiving on Thursday], [I’m
actually not planning on doing anything].
[I’m probably going to do a lot of video editing]
[for Rachel’s English. Gonna work.]
[The reason why I’m doing that is because]
[on Friday I’m going up to Massachusetts],
[and we’re going to have
Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday.]
[Some friends that I used to live
with when I lived in Boston.]
[So I’m still getting Thanksgiving,]
[just not on Thanksgiving Day.]
[Will you make anything?]
[I am going to make a corn casserole.]
[It’s been requested.] [Apparently,
I make a very memorable corn casserole.]
Thanks so much Sara for being in my video.
And happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there.
That’s, it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.
My question for you is: what’s your favorite
thing to eat for Thanksgiving, or your favorite
Thanksgiving memory? Leave a comment below
the YouTube video. Or, better yet, record
your answer and post it as a video response.
Next week, I’ll put a link to my favorite
video response at the end of my new video.
Don’t stop there. Keep learning with my fun
American English in Real Life playlist, my
Reduction and Linking playlist, or any of
the playlists on my channel. And don’t forget
to check out Rachel’s English.com, where there’s
lots more to work with.