Hi everyone.
I'm English Jade and I teach English over here at EngVid.
But did you also know that I'm an accent and clear speech teacher?
And I have a really important question for you: I want to know if your accent is your
weakness.
If it is, be sure to watch until the end of todays lesson because that's when I'm going
to tell you all about my accent training course, Clear Accent, which teaches you how to speak
in a really clear and natural way.
But first of all, we've got to do today's lesson, so let's get started.
Hi, everyone.
In this lesson I'm going to teach you how you can speed up your English times five,
and I'm also going to teach Ratty, here, Ratty the kangaroo how he can speak much faster
because since...
Since he's moved over from Australia he's realized that he speaks too slowly, so that's
why we're doing this lesson today.
You'll get some tips to speed up your English.
All right, so we've got some question phrases in this column, and here we've got what those
question phrases sound like when native speakers are talking in a relaxed way, and here in
this column we've got the IPA transcription.
Don't be afraid of this.
Ratty... Ratty doesn't know how to read this, so I'm going to explain it as I go, but this column
here is important because this tells us exactly the way to say it, whereas using just the
English letters I can't write down the exact thing that I'm saying because we don't have
letters for all the sounds.
So we'll use the two columns, and together we'll speed up your English times five.
Does that sound good?
Ratty says it sounds good.
Okay, let's start with: "How's it going?
How's it going?"
If I want to say it really slowly, which I don't, I would say: "How is it going?"
Take me all day to say that.
But when a native speaker says it, it's: -"How-zit goin?
How-zit goin?
How-zit goin?"
-"It's going good."
-"How-zit goin?"
If we look at the transcription here: "How-zit", "How is it" becomes two sounds: "How's it going?"
If we look here, where's the "g"?
It's not: "How's it going?" because it takes me more time and care to say the "g".
When I'm just speaking in a relaxed way, I say: "How's it goin?"
And also to notice here is that the "s": "How's" becomes a "z".
"How-zit goin?
How-zit goin?"
And where the "s" would be here at the end of: "How's", it joins the next syllable, it
joins "it", "zit": "How-zit goin?
How-zit goin?"
Does that sound good?
He says it's good.
He's a little bit faster.
Let's look at the next example: -"How's your mum?
How's your mum?
How is your mum?
How's your mum?"
-"She's good, she's in Australia.
She's having a good time there."
-"How's your mum?
Howz yuh-mum?
Howz yuh-mum?"
So what changes in this sentence?
"How is your mum?"
First thing that stands out is "your" becomes "yuh": "yuh mum".
"How is yuh mum?
Howz yuh-mum?"
We've got a similar thing happening here with the "s" becomes a "z": "Howz", "Howz".
"Howz yuh-mum?"
Next example: "How's Tom?
How's Tom?"
"z" instead of "s": "Howz Tom?"
And this symbol here is the "?" symbol.
It looks like a backwards "a", and I should point out this symbol as well.
We've seen it in the previous examples.
This is: "?", "owl", "owl", "owl".
"Howz Tom?" ? is a diphthong.
A diphthong means when two vowel sounds blend one into the other, so this symbol here isn't
two separate sounds.
It's one sound changing into another quickly: "Howz Tom?"
Okay, I need to move you to my other arm.
Is that all right?
Said: "It's good."
Next: "How do you get there?
How do you get there?"
If I'm speaking really slowly...
Really, really slowly like Ratty speaks: "How do you get there?"
Ain't got time to listen to that.
-"How-jew get there?
How-jew get there?
How-jew get there?"
-"By plane?"
-"How-jew get there?"
What happens in this sentence is: "How do you get there?"
five sounds, five syllables: "How do you get there?" but a native speaker says: "How-jew
get there?"
Four syllables.
"How-jew get there?
How-jew get there?"
When we look at the transcription: "How-jew get there?
How-jew get there?"
We like this word here in the IPA transcription because it looks the same.
That's really, really helpful when you're learning IPA to look at the parts you do know
and the parts you can already read.
It helps you guess the rest.
Because sometimes when you look at IPA when you're beginning, and not just when you're
beginning because it's hard, you'll think: "What's all this crazy writing?
I don't understand."
So instead of looking at what you don't understand, concentrate on what you do understand, and
try to guess the other parts.
"How-jew get there?", "Ja", right, this is confusing.
Okay?
This is the sound "ja" as in "Jade", "ja", and this we write...
My name is written with this letter in normal English writing, but in IPA this is: "ya",
"ya".
It's confusing.
"How-jew get there?
How-jew get there?"
This is you: "How-jew get there?"
Okay, next example: "How did it go?
How did it go?"
But we say it five times faster: "How-dit go?
How-dit go?
Did it go well?
How-dit go?"
And what happens in that example is: "How did it go?" four syllables becomes three:
"How-dit go?"
And what also happens is that the "did", "du" in "did" joins "it": "How-dit go?
How-dit go?
How-dit go?"
And because when we're saying it fast, this sounds like one word now: "How did it" sounds
like one word, so I've put them together.
"How-dit go?
How-dit go?"
These ones sound like one word, tiny, tiny space: "How-dit go?"
Last example: "How do you do it?
How do you do it?
How do you do it, Ratty?"
Ratty knows now: "How-jah-do-it?
How-jah-do-it?
How-jah-do-it, Ratty?
How-jah-do-it?", "How do you do it?" five syllables, but when we say it five times faster:
"How-jah-do-it?"
Now we've got four syllables: "How-jah-do-it?
How-jah-do-it?"
He's got his...
Needs to go to the toilet.
"How-jah-do-it?"
Remember this?
Letter in my name: "Jade": "How-jah-do-it?
How-jah-do-it?"
But that example we can say two ways.
"How-jah-do-it?"
We can also say: "Howd-yah-do it?
Howd-yah-do it?
Howd-yah-do it?"
You have to really, really listen to hear the difference.
"How-jah-do-it?
Howd-yah-do it?
How-jah-do-it?
Howd-yah-do it?
How-jah-do-it?
Howd-yah-do it?"
Okay?
"Howd, howd-yah-do it?"
Remember I mentioned before like in my name: "Jade", "ja", "ya", "ja", "ya", so I can take
the same question: "How do you do it?" and depending on the speaker, that can change,
we can pronounce it in different ways, with a very, very tiny difference.
"How-jah-do-it?
Howd-yah-do it?
How-jah-do-it?
Howd-yah-do it?" Okay?
What I've also got is more videos like this where you can learn to speak fast like a native speaker.
What I'd like you to do now is go and watch those, too, so that you can speak fast like
Ratty the kangaroo.
Thank you and I'll see you again soon. Bye.
Hello again! I hope you enjoyed today's lesson.
Now I want to tell you a little bit about my accent training course.
My course is called Clear Accent and it teaches you how to speak in a clear and natural way
and I made it for people who already know that their accent is their weakness.
And if your accent is your weakness, that means you don't feel good about the way you
speak or sound, and it also means that you have all kinds of communication difficulties
in your daily life.
So, for example, people ask you to repeat yourself again and again, or, speaking on
the phone is a big struggle for you and you'd rather avoid it.
So if you know already that your accent is your weakness, I'm going to train you as if
you were a professional actor.
And I'm going to give you really practical training that's going to be challenging for
you (and by the way it's challenging for native speakers at the beginning) because I really
want you to practice and develop your speech so that you feel good about the way you speak and sound.
So, if that sounds like you, and you would like to turn your accent weakness into a strength,
be sure to check out my Clear Accent course.
The link is in the video description and you can also click here.
And until next time, I'll see you later. Bye!