hey this is emma from
english i'm super excited that you're
here and that you're spending some time
with me today to improve your english
in this lesson we're going to be doing
some more speaking skills practice
and in particular we're going to be
practicing with the um english imitation
technique which is one of the most
effective ways to reduce your accent and
to fix your pronunciation problems so
that you speak more clearly and
confidently in english
and it's effective because it teaches
you to listen to the sounds and the
patterns of english and trains you to
produce those same sounds yourself
through repetition and controlled
practice you're training your mouth with
your ears by listening to the sounds and
imitating them
rather than training your mouth with
your eyes by reading and guessing the
pronunciation and the rhythm of words on
a page
now if you haven't done a lesson like
this before don't worry it's really
simple and i'm going to explain each
step for you so that you know exactly
what you need to do
you just need to get ready to speak out
loud with me
[Music]
if you're new to my channel or new to
the imitation technique i've got some
courses available via the english
website to help you practice this way
and you can find out more about them up
here or i've added the link in the
description below
to practice with the imitation technique
there's just three simple steps that you
need to follow
the first one is well you just need to
listen to what i say and read the words
on the screen as i say them
next you'll be listening to what i say
but then there'll be a pause so that you
can repeat what i said
you need to copy me exactly as you hear
me this step you can do again and again
and again until you sound or you think
you sound
exactly as i do
and it's okay to practice many times
before you move on to the third step you
can even slow down the speed so that you
can practice a little more slowly before
stepping up to regular pace
because step three is a challenge even
for a native english speaker you're
going to be listening to me and saying
what i'm saying at the same time and
that's pretty much like practicing along
to your favorite song right
you can't really do it straight away but
with a little bit of practice it gets
easier and you'll start having fun now
although this step is also the trickiest
one it's the best way to fine tune your
natural speaking skills you'll get to
hear what i'm saying
and what you're saying at the same time
so that you can adjust the sounds and
the rhythms so that you can match me
you are gonna make a lot of mistakes but
who cares we're gonna have fun
today we're gonna practice talking about
a past trip
now i'm going to be sharing a story with
you about my recent trip to portugal
talking about travel is a really great
way to start a conversation because
there's lots of opportunity to ask
questions and to share your own travel
experiences with someone keep in mind
that you can easily exchange my story
with your own story about traveling as
well especially once you've been
practicing with me for a little while
alright
let's get started
[Music]
step one
listen and read
[Music]
i've just come back from a trip to
portugal lisbon actually
was a bit of a last-minute decision
my friend was attending a conference
there and she convinced me to tag along
i don't usually make spontaneous
decisions like that
but it all just happened at the right
time i actually didn't know that much
about lisbon before i went have you been
i had no idea what an incredible city it
is
and oh my god the food i ate so many
pestes denata i thought i was gonna
burst
the city is full of beautiful
cobblestone streets i spent so much time
just wandering around in the sunshine
you know winding my way through historic
neighborhoods
actually one of the coolest things we
did was jump in a tuk-tuk with a guide
we went up this steep hill and had an
amazing view over the city
you know what a tuk-tuk is right it's
like a little motorbike with a cabin on
the back where you can sit it was a
really fun way to get around
and easier than walking because oh my
god it was so hot
and our guide her name was paula she
grew up in lisbon and she was just a
wealth of knowledge she was full of
stories about her childhood and about
the history of the city
she took us to cool little back streets
and you know we explored some amazing
street art there's just no way that we
would have found all of those hidden
gems ourselves
i really wish we could have stayed
longer
definitely want to go back there one day
what about you have you got any travel
plans coming up
now you need to imitate exactly what i
say and that means you're trying to copy
my pronunciation
and my word stress and even the pause in
my sentence
you could even try and copy my facial
expressions to practice communicating
with more than just words there's going
to be a pause after each sentence so
that you can practice out loud with me
okay or after me so just relax
and go with the flow it's just you and
me here right now okay so let's just
have some fun
step two
listen
and imitate
i've just come back from a trip to
portugal
lisbon actually
was a bit of a last-minute decision
my friend was attending a conference
there
and she convinced me to tag along
i don't usually make spontaneous
decisions like that
but it all just happened at the right
time
i actually didn't know that much about
lisbon before i went
have you been
i had no idea what an incredible city it
is
and oh my god the food
i ate so many pestes denata i thought i
was gonna burst
the city is full of beautiful
cobblestone streets
i spent so much time just wandering
around in the sunshine you know
winding my way through historic
neighborhoods
actually one of the coolest things we
did was jump in a tuk-tuk with a guide
we went up this steep hill and had an
amazing view over the city
you know what a tuk tuk is right
it's like a little motorbike with a
cabin on the back where you can sit
it was a really fun way to get around
and easier than walking because
oh my god it was so hot
and our guide her name was paula
she grew up in lisbon and she was just a
wealth of knowledge
she was full of stories about her
childhood and about the history of the
city
she took us to cool little black streets
and you know we explored some amazing
street art
there's just no way that we would have
found all of those hidden gems ourselves
i really wish we could have stayed
longer
definitely want to go back there one day
what about you have you got any travel
plans coming up
now we're moving on to step three which
is a little more challenging don't
forget that you can pause here right now
go back and practice section two as many
times as you need to before we keep
going this is gonna take a little bit of
practice but right now you need to
shadow me
and that means listening and speaking at
the same time
try to copy the rhythm and the tone that
i use even if it means you get a little
tongue-tied at first it doesn't matter
step three
shadow
i've just come back from a trip to
portugal lisbon actually
was a bit of a last-minute decision
my friend was attending a conference
there and she convinced me to tag along
i don't usually make spontaneous
decisions like that
but it all just happened at the right
time i actually didn't know that much
about lisbon before i went have you been
i had no idea what an incredible city it
is
and oh my god the food i ate so many
pestes denata i thought i was gonna
burst
the city is full of beautiful
cobblestone streets i spent so much time
just wandering around in the sunshine
you know winding my way through historic
neighborhoods
actually one of the coolest things we
did was jump in a tuk-tuk with a guide
we went up this steep hill and had an
amazing view over the city
you know what a tuk-tuk is right
it's like a little motorbike with a
cabin on the back where you can sit it
was a really fun way to get around
and easier than walking because oh my
god it was so hot
and our guide her name was paula she
grew up in lisbon and she was just a
wealth of knowledge she was full of
stories about her childhood and about
the history of the city
she took us to cool little back streets
and you know we explored some amazing
street art there's just no way that we
would have found all of those hidden
gems ourselves
i really wish we could have stayed
longer definitely want to go back there
one day
what about you have you got any travel
plans coming up
wow congratulations for making it
through what a mouthful that was
make sure you save this lesson to a
playlist and keep coming back to
practice with me once you get
comfortable telling my story then you
can try adapting your own travel stories
in fact have you been to portugal or had
a trip like mine let me know about it in
the comments i'm super curious portugal
was amazing
many of you have been requesting more
imitation lessons lately so that you can
practice your speaking skills with me so
let me know what lessons you want do you
want conversations about work about
travel about
disagreeing with someone or arguing
let me know what you want in the
comments and i'd be really happy to make
them for you if you'd like to support
what we do here at um english we've got
packs of imitation lessons for sale
through our website they are really
affordable and they give you hours and
hours of speaking practice the link is
in the description below so you can
check it out anytime thanks for watching
and i'll see you next week