Episode #1
Transcript
Hey, good morning listeners. This is Ashley J., with Commint Languages giving you something really special today. I hear all of the time for my students. “Ashley, how do I speak more like a native English speaker?” This is always a tricky question, but luckily there are many things you can do to help you sound more like a native.
First of all, really listen to how a native person speaks. When you do this, you’ll notice that we shorten words or ‘eat words’ and quotations, or just flat out make a noise that sounds similar to the word were saying, but don’t actually ever say this word. This may not be true for every region of the USA or English nation, but it is where I am from—the South—and it takes some getting used to. For example, if we say, I don’t know, we would oftentimes not actually say this, but say something more like, ” I o no.” Now is that actually a word I o no? No, no, it’s just a sound, but we all recognize that this sounds like ‘I don’t know,’ And that this is what we are trying to say.
We’re also known to lengthen vowel sounds in the South. For example, just listen to this. Fine. Fine. I, I. Chipmunk. Squirrel squirrel. See how we lengthen those vowel sounds also practice saying the last one. Squirrel, if you can master that, I will be so happy. So see how it pays to start with listening?
If you are ever curious about the slang people using in the USA or other English speaking places, check out the website, www.urbandictionary.com. They have a large selection from not just American speaking people. Now it is important to say that words such as gunna wanna fixin’ to finna, kind, sorta, coulda bouta , ain’t, shoulda are so important to our speech and are musts for learning proper speaking.
Although, never write these in your academic papers. As a teacher, I will be very unhappy if I see it. And so will your teachers.
Now you can always work on ways to hesitate in English. The ums, well, or, oh, really? Oh yeah. Is that so. Yes, but ma types of words are really important to speaking more smoothly and hesitating and conversations.
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And in your target language, it’s also good to note that you shouldn’t neglect idioms, collocations, and expressions. When someone tells you they are running around like a chicken with his head cut off, you would, of course be stunned and confused. If you didn’t know what that expression meant. Or what if I told you, my fair-weather friend, that you catch more bees with honey instead of vinegar; you’re lying through your teeth and you heard that through the grapevine, but Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.
A good US TV show about this iks called “America’s Secret Slang” from the History Channel.
Another really good thing to do if you aren’t already living in an area where you can listen, see, and hear English daily is to immerse yourself. This is easy to do because you can just do things you already like to do.
For example, if you like to watch sports, find your match or game and listen to it with English speaking commentators. In the summer I did this when the World Cup was on and I wanted to try to improve my Spanish listening comprehension. Since I’m not the greatest fan of soccer. I didn’t mind reading the subtitles or trying to understand the commercials when they were on, or just listening to the rapids speaking of the commentators. It was all very fun.
If film is more your thing, than such websites as YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix will be a good place for you to start. Now, I know that some of these aren’t available yet in your countries, but you can find ways around the location block. I did this when I lived in France and Turkey. You can always read a newspaper or a book in English and maybe join or start an English book or conversation group near you. Couch surfing Meetup and Internations are good places to look. Now, just because you’re not an expat doesn’t mean you can’t look on internations website and see what kind of activities are going on in your area. You would be surprised at how many like-minded people there are around.
If you’re like me, then you’ll just die if you don’t listen to music daily. I love all kinds of music and websites like YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify, Pandora, et cetera, offer such great free music options. Also, I really, really liked dancing. So if you do too, Why not learn a new dance with an English speaking teacher? I did this when I lived in Turkey. Though I had a basic understanding of Latin dance terms, I didn’t know them in Turkish and I definitely was not used to counting or understanding what the teacher was saying in Turkish. To expand on what I was saying before about TV and film, if you’re watching an English movie, put the subtitles on. I know it can be annoying to read when all you want to do is listen and watch, but they can really help you grow your vocabulary and listening skills.
In fact, you could often find transcripts to your favorite shows. If you Google the name of the program with transcripts. Also, you can find short films. You don’t have to sit for two hours and listen or watch them. You can watch a short film, maybe 15 minutes. It’s also good. Also find the lyrics to some English songs that you like and sing or rap along to them.
This is good oral training for you and will help with your pronunciation and sounding more like a native speaker. Not to mention helping you speak more smoothly and at greater fluid. If you want to get a bit more ‘down and dirty with all of this’, why not translate the lyrics of your favorite songs from your native language into English or vice versa?
Furthermore, why not subtitle a film or TV show from or into English? Though there are many, many, many, many more tips I’m going to leave you with just one. I don’t think that by listening to just one accent in English, that you’re going to completely understand all English speakers you will become used to the way it sounds and hopefully be able to reproduce that accent. There are many, many people in this world who don’t have that accent. I can’t stress it enough . Listen to other accents. When I was learning French, I got so used to the way that French and France is spoken, that I didn’t even bother to listen to French from the Dom Tom regions, Africa, West Indies, Quebec, or other places like Lebanon.
It was difficult for me at the very start, but I eventually listened hard enough and was able to understand. You won’t just meet native English speakers who speak English. There will be others just like you who have learned it as a second language or third language and will still have the accent from their native languages or language.
Needless to say it is very important to listen to other English accents. All right, guys, this is Ashley J from Commint Langauges leaving you with some tips to help you with your English. And other languages. You can visit me on the web at www dot commint languages.com. Let me know how you like to learn English or other languages.
And as always, I hope to see you in Oklahoma city soon, bye-bye have a good day.