in this video we're going to talk about
how to pronounce the word Christmas and
you'll see some scenes from my Christmas
party and from Christmastime in New York
the word Christmas first let's point out
that the T is silent Christmas Christmas
so it's the first syllable
that's accented and the CH here
represents the K consonant sound so the
first sound is the K R consonant cluster
ker ker the vowel in the first syllable
is the as in sit vowel crib crib this
syllable ends with the S sound
Khris Khris the second syllable
unaccented has the M consonant sound
schwa s sound miss miss it will be lower
in pitch than the first level which is
stressed Christmas Christmas as I've
been discussing Christmas and Christmas
plans with my students this week I
noticed that several of them have a
misconception about the schwa s sound a
lot of my current students have a native
language of Mandarin and I've noticed
not just with this word but with others
that the schwa s sometimes sounds like
it has an R in it so Christmas becomes
Christmas or Earth and focus becomes
focus famous becomes famous percé so to
prevent this from happening
make sure the tongue does not pull back
the sound is made when the tongue pulls
back some so in this second syllable
miss miss miss the tongue can stay
forward the whole time for the schwa and
the S sound Christmas Christmas at our
holiday party this year we had a
wonderful meal followed by a gift
exchange and cookie decorating in our
gift exchange we each brought one gift
then we drew numbers to determine the
order in which to open gifts when it was
your turn you could either steal a gift
that had already been open or open a new
gift yourself
okay so I draw my number I want to make
sure I get the best one now no one else
can see
except for my Rachel's English users
okay tim has drawn number one the lucky
daughter
lucky duck is an idiom you can use for
someone who has good fortune in our gift
exchange whoever drew number one got to
go first but then take his choice of all
the open gifts at the end lucky duck
both words have the UH as in butter
sound followed by the K sound
luck luck lucky duck listen again okay
tim has drawn number one the lucky
daughter I hope that you don't need a
scissors just tear the paper that is
some tea that I brought back from Africa
in May oh wow I love how excited you are
about it what are you very this is a
delicious frozen yogurt place that's not
so far from the house sorry janae
janay yes that cookie is so adorable
thank you how long did it take you you
know that we have 5,000 more to do right
yes okay did you notice I reduced the
word okay just simply okay okay listen
again you know that we have 5,000 more
to do right yeah okay
Jevon that's also some excellent
handiwork Hilary about the dots tell her
about the dots did you notice the
dropped H it's not uncommon to drop the
beginning age in unaccented words like
her him and his if you do this always
link it to the word before tell her tell
her tell her about the dots listen again
tell her about the dots you learn about
the dots tell her about the dots dots
this is actually Braille for cookie
mm-hmm please do let me zoom in it looks
good Thanks
it's very colorful Thank You tomato
setup here's a sampling of some of the
cookies we ended up with at the end of
the night I tried to make a Rachel's
English cookie but I ran out of room
I'm going to close with a hymn that some
friends and I sang a few nights ago it's
the first verse of the First Noel I'm
standing in the middle of the back row
then I'll switch to some footage of
Christmas cheer in New York I think New
York does December very well a lot of
restaurants and shops put out really
lovely decorations and it does help to
get me in the Christmas spirit happy
holidays everyone
[Music]
[Applause]
No
[Music]
to all my users no matter what holiday
you celebrate if you celebrate it all I
wish you a very joyous December and all
the best in the new year