Hey Guys, welcome to the new Rachel's English
miniseries Interview a Broadcaster.
Hey Guys, I'm here with Julia Boorstin.
Julia can you tell my audience a little bit
about what you do.
J: Well, I'm a reporter for CNBC,
I'm based in Los Angeles.
I cover media, internet and
social media companies.
R: Awesome, well, thanks for joining me
here at Rachel's English.
You may or may not know that
another term for the Standard American accent
is Broadcaster English.
So people all over the world are looking to
the people in America who deliver the news as
a Standard for American English pronunciation.
So I'm curious, where did you come from?
And is there anything that you had to change
about the way you speak
when you became interested in this profession?
J: Well, I grew up in Los Angeles
and growing up my Mom was from Seattle,
she was an English teacher before I was born,
and my Dad was from Chicago,
and both of them were determined that I was
not going to sound like an L.A. Valley girl.
R: Okay.
J: So my whole life
they were obsessed with this idea
that I enunciate and I pronounce
things properly and fully
and I not use the word 'like'.
R: That's a habit that a lot of people have.
So how did they get you to break this habit?
J: Well, my Mom decided
that the best way to enforce this would be
to have my little brother
to count all the times I said the word 'like.'
So when I was thirteen years old,
we'd be driving around
and my eight year old brother
would be counting twelve, thirteen, fourteen,
and it was really annoying,
and it really did the job.
R: Yeah. J: It really got me
to stop saying the word 'like.'
The other thing that was a pet peeve of my
parents was the upward intonation and when
people talk like this .... R: Typical in California.
J: Very typical of Southern California.
People talk like this,
and they say this is what I'm going to do.
And it makes everything sound
like you're asking a question.
It makes you sound really uncertain. R: Right, so the voice goes
up in pitch at the end.
And it makes it sound like
you're asking a yes/no question.
J: Even if you're not asking a question,
you always sound unsure of yourself.
R: Right, it's a good point.
J: So my parents really encouraged me to not
adopt that habit and I'm really glad they did.
Because it has helped me.
R: Intonation matters.
Notice how Ms. Boorstin says,
when every sentence goes up in pitch at the
end, it makes you sound unsure of yourself.
Because it makes you sound like
you're asking something,
rather than making a statement.
So for example the phrase,
I'm going to the store.
Going up in pitch
makes it sound like you're asking permission.
I'm going to the store.
But, I'm going to the store.
Going down in pitch sounds like a statement.
Generally the only phrases that should go up
in pitch are yes/no questions.
Check out these videos
on intonation and questions.
So when you're preparing a text to read on
camera do you have any tips or tricks?
What do you do?
How much time do you take with the text?
J: Well, you like to take lot of time if it's
possible, every once in a while
you have to just grab a script and go with it.
R: Yeah.
J: But I like to take a little bit of time to
read through it at least once, usually twice
and read through with a pen and I try to
circle the words that are most important in
each sentence. And just really try to think
about, what's the idea I'm communicating here.
And every once in a while you'll find
yourself emphasising a random word that's not
really what the sentence is about.
R: Right. J: So, to just figure...
out what the key thing is. R: That's a great tip.
Look for the key, circle it and then go to it
when you're speaking. Fantastic! J: And I find it
really helpful. And I also like to read
things out loud. And you can hear something,
you're like, oh that doesn't really make
sense if I say it that way, what if I put the
stress on the name of the person who I'm
talking about, maybe that would work better.
R: Awesome, thank you for that tip. I love it.
Great tips here, guys. If you're preparing a
text for presentation, circle the most
important words and practice stressing them,
practice reading out loud.
R: So what do you do when you're preparing a
text, if you come across a word that you're
not sure how to pronounce.
J: Sometimes especially with foreign names,
it's really hard,
don't know how to say it. R: Right, you have no context.
J: So I really think it's important just to
call someone, I usually call the CNBC News
desk, we have lots of very smart people who
speak many languages and it's just the best
way to get a quick answer. And you could look
something up online and you'll see the
phonetic explanation of how to pronounce a
name. But it's just different, you just have
to hear it in your ear so I always try to go
for that solution. R: Right,
and for my non-native speakers out there as
you know a lot of online dictionaries have a
little icon of a speaker that you can press
to hear a native speaker saying the word,
so if the phonetics don't make sense to you,
that's a great option for actually hearing it,
so that you can then repeat it back.
J: I didn't realise that,
I'll need to check that out. R: Yes,...
So are there any words that are particularly
hard for you to pronounce in American English?
J: I don't think that I have any funny words.
But my husband thinks that I pronounce the
word 'experiment' funny, and he thinks
I always say, 'experiment'
R: Experiment. J: Experiment, R: Okay.
J: instead of experiment.
R: Right, so you're sort of
mixing Spearmint gum
J: Exactly.
R: with experiment.
J: Well, think about it. Experimenting is so
exciting and refreshing it's...
R: It is. J: ........sort of like spearmint .....
R: It is like Spearmint.
J: I'm very, very conscious of that
The word 'experiment,' has the EH as in BED
vowel in the stressed syllable. Experiment,
da-DA-da-da, experiment. Ex-pe-ri-ment.
Ms. Boorstin admits that sometimes she puts
in the EE as in SHE vowel instead. This is
not an official acceptable pronunciation,
but I'm sure she's not the only one I've
heard change the vowel this way.
R: Alright, well thank you Julia so much
for joining me here.
Follow Ms. Boorstin on Twitter and check out
her segments on TV or online, for a great
example of American English pronunciation.
That's it, and thanks so much for using
Rachel's English.