Hi there, and welcome back to another quick tip for speaking English more clearly, and more like a native speaker
In this tip today, I'd would like to talk to you a bit about
how we move our jaw and mouth when we speak English
In many other languages like Madarin, Cantonese, Japanese,
Russian and Polish
They use a more closed mouth position than English
In English we move our mouth quite a lot
And we need to open and close our jaw to make many sounds
For example, the sounds "o", "or", and "are"
all have quite an open mouth position
You'll see when I say those, that you can actually see inside my mouth
My teeth open a little bit
Many of my non-native speaking clients
come to me, and they're speaking English like this
They're not opening their mouths, and they're hardly moving their lips
Now, that's very unclear, isn't it?
So what I just said was that many of my non-native speaking clients come to me, and
they're not moving their jaw and they're not moving their lips
And that, in English, is called mumbling
Mumbling, and that's very unclear
A lot of native speakers mumble too
And they are also unclear
So, we need to make sure that you are not mumbling
We need to make sure that you are
moving your jaw and your lips when you speak English
So, over the next few days I'd like you to think about that a little bit more
Shift your awareness to your mouth
Focus on the feeling
The movements of your mouth as you speak
Are you opening your jaw?
Are you moving your lips when you speak English?
Maybe you'll find that you are using the same mouth position
in English as you use when you speak your first language
And that's what we need to change
So, over the next few days
I'd like you to focus on moving and opening your mouth
when you speak English
I have a little exercise for you
Every morning, when you get out of bed
when you are either getting dressed or in the shower
I'd like you to say this phrase five times
moving and opening your mouth, o.k.?
The phrase is:
I saw sixty-six farmers laughing on the phone
Remember to get your jaw moving, and move your lips!
I saw sixty-six farmers laughing on the phone
So, remember:
Open the jaw, move the lips!
Get your tongue moving!
It's a great way to wake up your mouth, and get it into English mode
Every morning
Ready?
I saw sixty-six farmers laughing on the phone
And again:
I saw sixty-six farmers laughing on the phone
Do it in front of the mirror
Check your opening and moving
Check that you are not using a Mandarin mouth position
Or a Japanese mouth position
Or a Russian mouth position
Check that you are using good movements for English
Good luck!