So I was thinking that I might make some videos
responding to some of the best comments andquestions that I get.
I am not able to make too many videos because each one takes a lot of time to prepare and write
So this will be a way to make some smaller videos in between the main videos.
So lets get started with the first comment.
This comment was on the first version of the interactive chart video that I made.
Bala Subramanian says:
"This interactive chart of English phonetic symbols is undoubtedly innovative
and bound to be very useful for inquisitive learners,
but its execution lacks expertise and imagination,
as there is no logicality in the selection of symbols taken for individual pronunciation.
These symbols ought to have be segregated into three logical segments,
and presented in three different colours.
Pronunciation of the sound value of each symbol
should have assiduously repeated at least thrice for
the learning them with ease and confidence.
Consequently, it suffers and tends to lose its sheen and charm.
Why has it been done in such a haphazardly hotchpotch way?" Prof. V.K. Bala
Thanks very much for this comment Bala and you are right, that video was a bit messy.
What you may not now is that that was actually the first video I made for this channel,
it was kind of an experiment and YouTube has changed a lot since then.
So i thought this would be a good opportunity to explain
the story of how English Language club channel got started.
My background is not in phonetics, it is not even in teaching.
I studied film making and I ended up teaching, kind of accidentally
as most teachers do, when i travelled to Paraguay where I have family.
This was about 2010 I had just started teaching and at about the same time Youtube added the
feature where you can add annotations to videos to link to other videos or your channel page etc.
I thought it would be cool to use the annotations in a more creative way
to make videos interactive.
There were several websites already that had interactive phonemic charts
and I thought, just as an experiment I would try to make one in YouTube.
It only took me about a day to do and after I kind of forgot all about it,
that is why it seems to be done in such a ‘hotchpotch manner’.
I didn't even go to YouTube for a few months
but when I did I was really surprised to see that it was getting a couple of thousand views
a day and that I was gaining subscribers that wanted more.
But I was teaching and doing some other things and I did not really have time to make more videos,
until 2014 when I just decided that seeing as I had built an audience
that was interested in Phonetics I would try and make some more videos giving them more of what they want.
In that time YouTube had also improved a lot.
It was now possible to make videos in HD which it wasn't before so I decided to make a couple
of other versions of the phonetic chart with a bit more space to put the different sounds
in different sections like Prof. Bala suggested. Even though I have made new and improved updated
versions of the phonetic chart video I decided to leave the original live.
Because it has been there for a few years it does well in YouTube searches
so a lot of people find my channel via that video.
If I removed it a lot less people would find me.
Now I have made a video of each of the individual sounds as well as an introduction to phonetics,
a video explaining the phonetic chart overall and a video on each of individual sections of the chart.
It all kind of happened accidentally and I
am not a expert in phonetics, I am just trying to help people. My videos are not perfect
but I'm doing my best and most people give me comments like this one from Fatima Walker:
"Thank you! This is one of the best channels regarding phonology and phonetics.
It helped me a lot.
I really am pleased that these videos that
I made a few years ago continue to help thousand of people every day.
Now moving forward I am moving into grammar videos and I hope that they will be even more useful.
What would you like me to do more of in the future?
Why don't you leave a comment on this video to let me know.
Don’t forget to subscribe so you don't miss future videos. Check out some of my other
videos and if you want to support my work, check me out on Patreon
and I’ll see you next time.