Hello and welcome to the first unit.
In this video, I'm going to explain in more detail the Effortless English pronunciation
method.
This is the method you will use every day, every week in every unit.
This is a training method.
Okay, so, one of the key things about the Effortless English Pronunciation Course is
that it's a training course.
I'm not just going to teach you the sounds.
That's not enough.
You have to think of this like an athlete.
You know, like a football player, a soccer player as we say in America.
They don't just study books, right.
Ah, a great soccer player does not just read books about soccer to become great.
Now, what do they do?
They go out on to the field and they practice the skills.
They're actually using their body, practicing the skills to become good soccer players or
great soccer players.
Well, in fact, pronunciation in many ways is a physical skill.
It's, it's, it's almost like a sport, right.
You have to teach your tongue to move in a certain way, and teach your mouth muscles
to move in different ways.
And the muscles in your throat have to learn to move in a different way.
And you can't get that skill just by reading a book, and you cannot get that skill only
by listening to me on the video.
You have to practice.
And that's why the training audios are so important.
And that's why it is ... I say this is a training course because it's daily practice.
It's a method of practice.
So let's talk about how you're going to do that with each unit and then, you're going
to start with this unit, Unit Number 1's training audio.
Okay, as I mentioned in the introduction video, this is a five day process.
So it's the five day process you will follow.
What does that mean?
It means every unit is five days.
So, this unit, Unit 1, you will do Unit 1 for five days.
And each day, you'll do something a little different with the same audio.
This is a deep learning method.
It means you're practicing for mastery.
You're practicing to get those skills so that your skills get better, not just to know.
It doesn't help if you just know.
Okay, my tongue has to go up when I make this sound.
That's not enough because when you're really speaking quickly, you're just gonna forget,
and then you'll make the same pronunciation mistakes.
No, you have to train, practice, making your tongue go to the right position again, and
again, and again, and again, and again.
Eventually, it will become a habit, it'd become automatic, but it requires practice.
And so that's why every unit, five days.
So, you repeat the same training audio for five days.
Let's just see how that looks.
For example, this one, Unit 1, on day 1, what do you do?
I already mentioned it in the introduction video.
You listen carefully.
So listening is the key.
In the beginning, you must hear the sounds first before you can say the sounds correctly.
So day 1 is intensive listening.
It means you're going to listen to the training audio maybe 4 or 5, 10, or more times on day
1.
And you're not just gonna listen while you're distracted doing something else.
No, you're gonna listen very carefully, listening to the sounds.
Imagine you're listening to music and you want to hear all of the little, small sounds
in English.
So it's very careful listening on day 1, repeating that training audio again, and then again,
and again.
And if you need to, repeat the video lesson as well many, many times so that you can really
hear those sounds.
That's day 1.
So day 1, you're finished, you've listened, listened, listened.
Day 2, you're gonna use the same exact audio, the training audio.
And on day 2, you're going to pause and imitate, pause and imitate.
So, you've got your little, your phone or your iPod or whatever, and you're gonna listen
to the audio.
You'll play 1 sentence.
You'll hear me speak.
I'll say the 1 sentence, "Hi, this is AJ," then you pause.
After you pause, you will imitate my speaking.
You will say what I just said and you'll copy it.
You'll try to sound exactly like me.
So again, I might say, "Hi, this is AJ," pause, then you say, "Hi, this is AJ," trying to
sound exactly like me.
Then you play again.
You play the second sentence, pause, you keep doing this for the whole audio.
One sentence, listen, pause, then you say it.
Next sentence, listen, pause, you say it, going through the whole thing.
Repeat this as many times as possible on day 2.
Day 3, you will use the text.
On day 3, you will read aloud right, you have the text for the training audio for that unit.
You'll read it out loud with a nice, loud, strong voice.
You can go slowly if you need to, it's okay, but read it aloud and record it, record it.
You can get a free recording app for your phone, or your computer, or buy some little
cheap recorder, whatever you need.
But record yourself, reading it out loud in a loud, strong voice.
And again, when you read aloud, remember how I sounded, right.
Try to remember and try to say it the way I would say it.
After you record yourself reading, the fun part, compare your recording to my recording.
Do they sound the same?
Probably not exactly so you want to compare.
Where does your accent sound different than mine?
And just hearing it, just noticing the differences will help your brain adjust so that your pronunciation
will gradually become more like mine.
But it's really days 4 and 5 for each unit that you will do the best practice because
you will do something called tracking.
You will use a technique called tracking.
Tracking means you will listen to me, and so you'll be playing the training audio listening
to my voice.
You will not pause.
No pausing.
You just let it play, play, play the whole thing.
And here, it's a little difficult.
As you hear me speaking, you will also speak at the same time.
Your goal, what you're trying to do is to listen and speak along with me at exactly
the same time.
When I pause, you pause.
If I get louder, you get louder.
If I get quiet, you get quiet.
You're trying to copy me exactly, but with no pausing so you're having to speak at the
same speed as me.
Now let me tell you what's going to happen.
The first time you try this, it will be difficult.
Probably, you'll be listening to me ahhhh, and trying to speak with me at the same time,
you, you probably will get confused and frustrated ahhhh, you might have to stop, rewind, and
start again.
Don't get upset, don't get angry, that is normal.
Just rewind, be calm, relax, smile, and then do it again, play the audio.
As you hear me, try to speak along with me at the same time.
Now of course, actually, you'll be just a little behind me, right?
It's impossible for you to hear it and say it at exactly the same time, but try.
What really happens is you’ll be hearing me speak and you'll be speaking the same thing,
speaking along with me just a little bit after me.
And try to copy my accent, my emotion, everything exactly.
You'll do this on day 4.
You'll probably need to repeat it again, and again, and again on day 4.
If you need to, it's fine to use the text as well when you're ... start doing this tracking
technique.
You can read along.
That'll help you follow me more closely.
But eventually, maybe on day 5, you do it without the text.
So day 4, you'll do this tracking technique, listening and speaking at the same time, huh.
It's gonna be tough probably on day 4.
Day 4's over.
Day 5, same thing, you'll be tracking me again.
So you'll be hearing the audio, speaking along with me at exactly the same time or as close
as you can.
As you do this tracking, you'll try to match my speed of course.
That's the first thing you'll need to do and probably the most difficult.
Once you can speak along at the same speed, then try to copy my accent, copy my rhythm,
copy everything so that you sound exactly like me.
Let me give you another quick tip about this tracking technique.
It actually is easier and works better if you move your body while you do it.
That means instead of sitting down in a chair trying to do the tracking technique, stand
up and you can walk around the room while you're doing it.
You could just walk in a circle as you're doing it.
But just moving your body and kinda wake you up, it'll give you more energy, it'll help
you focus more, and this will actually be more effective than sitting down.
'Cause you know what happens when you sit down, after a few minutes, you start to get
kinda tired and sleepy.
You can do this outdoors.
I've done this outdoors, the same tracking technique with Spanish.
I've done it outdoors like hiking out in the woods, hiking in the forest, nobody around
(giggles), and I'll, will be listening to some Spanish and I'll try to speak along with
it at the same time.
Another quick tip about tracking, use a strong, loud voice.
Train yourself to speaking with a strong loud voice.
Because otherwise, you'll, you, you get a little nervous and then, you'll teach yourself
to speak with a shy, weak voice.
And you don't want that habit.
I, I understand this.
Again, I've had that same problem with Spanish, this terrible habit of, of, my voice getting
very weak and shy whenever I wanna speak Spanish.
So, don't do that.
Use a nice, loud, strong voice every time you do this tracking technique.
Very, very important.
So let's get started.
It's time for you to start.
Now, this is just the beginning unit, unit 1.
So what I want you to do, I have a, a nice, long training audio for you in unit 1.
And I just want you to practice each of these techniques.
Just follow the five day process with unit 1.
Do your best to copy my pronunciation.
Do your best to follow each of these steps.
You'll probably make a lot of mistakes.
Don't worry.
You're just getting started.
You're just getting comfortable.
In Unit 2, we'll focus on some specific areas of English pronunciation.
But, in training for Unit 1, just practice this process these five days.
All right, it's time.
Get that training audio.
And of course, day 1, you're just gonna listen very carefully and then, follow day 2, day
3, day 4, and 5.
Do exactly what I say every single day for every unit.
See you in the training audio!