50. 15 Minute Morning Pronunciation Practice for English Learners

Hey, welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, your host, and this is episode number 50. And today I'm going to share with you the ideal morning pronunciation practice. Hey, welcome back to the show. I'm going to keep this intro really brief because I want you to come back to this episode again and again and again. Because today I'm sharing with you an ideal pronunciation practice that you can do every single morning. Now here's the thing. Pronunciation is basically knowing how to use your muscles, your articulation organs. And as muscles, they need to be trained and you need to build up your muscle. And in order for you to master the sounds of English and to be in command and control of your tongue, which you should be, you need to exercise it. And this is why I created these exercises for you that you can do every single day. So it's a 15 minute workout that you can just hit play and do it with me. There's also a video version of it, so maybe you should watch it once just to get an idea of what I'm doing there. Because sometimes visuals are helpful, as you know, but after that you can just do it on the go with me while listening to this episode. So make sure you save episode number 50 and you do this exercise every single day. Or if you don't want to do it every single day, at least do it before speaking engagements or meetings or days that you know that you will be speaking for the entire day because it will set you up for success. Let's go. Foreign. Let's begin with massaging your jaw. It's always good to become aware and kind of like relax all unnecessary tension. We're going to start with that and end with that. There is a muscle here at the jaw hinge that connects between the upper jaw and the lower jaw. And usually we hold a lot of tension there. So I want you to massage it and kind of like try to release all the tension and maybe hum. We're also warming up the voice so you don't have the morning voice. And here the cheeks. And again the jaw. Maybe move it around a little bit with your hands. Okay. Little more. Okay, good. Now we're going to warm up the tongue. Let's begin by sticking the tongue out. And we're going to move it to the right and then to the left, to the right. We're going to do this 10 times. Okay. So right M. Right. Okay. Now we're going to stick the tongue out and bring it up and down. So stick it out. Keep doing it. I'm going to keep speaking again. Push it out as if the tongue wants to come out of your mouth. Two more M. Very good. Now let's stick it out and bring it back in really fast 10 times. As far as you can. Okay, good. Let's release tension and blow your lips out. Okay, good. In the next exercise, we are going to clean the teeth with your tongue. So you want to move your tongue around. Keep doing it. Now, this is a really good exercise, especially before a meeting. So you make sure that you don't have green stuff or poppy seeds stuck between your teeth. I got you covered. Keep your lips closed. Good. Relax your lips. Good. Now we're going to use the tongue to massage the inside of the cheek as you're resisting the tongue with your cheek muscles. So take your tongue, the tip of the tongue, and push it against the inside of your left cheek while the cheek is actually resisting it. So you want to push against. You want your tongue to feel like it's fighting something as you're massaging it. And get to all the different places inside your mouth. And to the right. Good. And now let's do a trill to relax the tongue. For some of you, this is going to be really easy if you have the trilled R in your language. If you don't, you can just do another lip trill. And now we're going to do it while going up and down in pitch, Massage the jaw a bit more. Very, very good. You're starting to feel your mouth to feel the tongue, which is good because we need the tongue to articulate the sounds. And to be able to do it clearly, we need to be in control of the tongue. Now we're going to warm up the lips. So push the lips forward as if you're pushing it for a kiss, an exaggerated one, and pull it to the sides. Forward. Now try to keep the cheeks out of the way. Right. You don't want to go like this. Okay. You don't want to get used to engaging your cheeks when pulling the lips. Sometimes we need that to articulate some of the sounds, like the e and the ah. And we want to be able to control these muscles. So just the lips, the corners of the mouth, and forward. One more time. Okay, very good. Make sure you're not holding tension in your shoulders. If you do, just tell your shoulders to relax. Tell your face to relax. Okay, good. Now we're going to go into a few sounds. Let's start with the tip of the tongue. Consonants. Let's begin with a T sound T, T, T, T, T, T, T. Make sure it's just the tip of the tongue touching the upper palate. T. Let's do it together. Make sure it's light. And now we're going to move the tongue back a bit and switch between S and Z. Now we're going to move on to consonants created with the lips. We're going to start with a P sound where you bring the lips together and release air. P, P. And then the voiced version of it. Ba, ba, ba ba, ba, ba ba. And then we're going to go to the nasal version of it. Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma P, P, P, P bu ma ma, ma, ma, ma, ma ma. Again. P, P, P, P, P ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ma, ma, ma, ma ma ma. Let's add vowels to it. And we're gonna use the consonant M. Mama Mama mai. Mama mai. So we're going into an I diphthong. You want to Dr. I sound. Ma ma mai. Mai mai. And then we're going to go into mama may. Okay, now we're going into the E as in day diphthong, starting with an eh, shifting into an E. Mama may, Mama me. Mama may. Then we're going to do a long O as in go. Mama mo, Mama mo, Mama mo. Good. The next diphthong is going to be mama moy. Mama moy, Mama moy. Oy, as in toy. Mama moy, Mama moy, Mama moi. And finally, we're going to use the ow diphthong. Mama Mao. Mama mao. Mama MAU. Just like in mouse. Mama Mao. So we're going to do all five of them, one after the other. Mama mai, Mama may, Mama mo, Mama moy. Mama MAU. Let's do it again. Mama Mai, Mama may. Mama mo, Mama moy, Mama MAU. One last time. Mama mai, Mama may, Mama moe. Mama moi. Mama mao. Very good. Now we're going to move to the back of the mouth, pronouncing the k and g. From there, I want you to shift to the high E sound. G, G, G, G, G. So the tongue pulls back for the g and then forward for the high e. G, G, G, G, G, G. And then. Good. So let's do it a few times. G G Gee. K, K G G G G ke and then from there, we're going to move on to the tense so oo sound. A back open vowel sound. G ggo G Ga goo C Cuckoo. G ga goo. C Cuckoo. G ga goo cuckoo. Make sure you push the lips forward for the oo sound. Let's do it two more times. G ga goo C cuckoo G ga goo kakoo K Very good. And now I want you to yawn. Kind of like raise the soft palate by yawning. Good. And let's find the voice and bring the voice to the chest. Hello, hello, good morning. Hello, hello, good morning. So you want to bring your voice to the chest. Hello, hello, good morning to you. Hello, hello, good morning to you. And then let's bring the voice to the head. Hello, hello, good morning to you. Hello, hello, good morning to you. You want to feel the vibrations here and maybe a little bit to your nose. Hello, hello, good morning to you. Hello, hello, good morning to you. Okay, let's move on to some tongue twisters. Let's start with my favorite, Unique New York. Unique New York. Unique New York. Let's. Let's do it again. Unique Hi OO Hi. E. Unique New York. Unique New York. Unique New York. Let's say it again a little faster. Unique New York. Unique New York. Unique New York. Unique New York. Now, as you're moving through the days, if you do it every single day, you'll see that it's a lot easier for you to say it faster. The next one is Good blood, Bad blood. Good blood, Bad blood. The good has that back open as in book, cook and look. And the blood has a cup sound. Good blood, Good blood. I hope you can hear the difference. Bad blood. Here we have the as in cat, forward front vowel. Bad blood, Good blood, Bad blood. Good blood, Bad blood. Good blood, Bad blood, Good blood, Bad blood. Good blood, Bad blood. Good blood, Bad blood. Good blood, Bad blood, Good blood, Bad blood. The next one is Tragedy strategy. Tragedy strategy. Ra J D Strategy. Tragedy strategy. Tragedy strategy. Tragedy strategy. Tragedy strategy. Tragedy strategy. Tragedy strategy. Tragedy strategy, Tragedy strategy. Good. I used to confuse this one all of the time. Let's do some th warm ups. So let's start with just sticking the tongue out and pronouncing a voiced th versus a voiceless th. Now we're going to work on transitions N to th. L to th. You can also use the voiceless th. Very good. And now sth. Make sure you stick the tongue out that the tongue is not too tight against the teeth so the air comes out. Let's do it a few more times. Very good. Relax your lips, release air. And massage your jaw again. Good. Very good. Finally, let's do some chunks. What do ya. What do you. What you do? What do you. What do you. What do you. What do you. What do you. What do you. What do you, what do you what do you what do you what do you want? What do you want? What do you want? What do you want? What do you like? What do you like? What do you like? What do you like? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you say? What do you say? What do you say? What do you say? Next one is going to go. Gonna go, gonna go, gonna go, Gonna go, gonna go, gonna go, gonna go, gonna go, gonna go, Gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. She's gonna go. She's gonna go. She's gonna go. She's gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm going to go home. I'm going to go home. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. I'm going to go to the office. Next one is. Could have, could have. Coulda, coulda, coulda, coulda, coulda, coulda, coulda, coulda. Notice that the D is really, really light. It sounds like a flap. T. Like a ra. Like an r in Spanish. Ra Pero Coulda, coulda, coulda I coulda I coulda, I coulda, I coulda I coulda I coulda I coulda done that I coulda done that I coulda seen it I coulda seen it I coulda been there I coulda there I could have done it I coulda done it I coulda seen it I coulda seen it I coulda been there I coulda been there Coulda, coulda, coulda, coulda, coulda shoulda, shoulda, shoulda, shoulda, shoulda, should have Shoulda, shoulda, shoulda, shoulda, shoulda, woulda, woulda, woulda, woulda, woulda, would have, would have Woulda, woulda, woulda, coulda, shoulda, woulda, coulda, shoulda, woulda, coulda, shoulda, woulda. Okay, that's it. To wrap it up, I want you to put your palm on your belly, one on your belly, one on your chest. And try to breathe into the hand that is on the belly and breathe out. Close your eyes. Breathe in to your belly, not to your chest. And breathe out. And last time. And as you exhale, you can also release a sound. Breathe into your belly. Okay, that's it. As I said in the beginning, I recommend doing it every single day. And when you do, you will feel the improvement and how easier it is for you to articulate sounds in English and in your native language as well. Now, to make it fun and to hold each other accountable. Every time you complete this exercise, write in the comments. Done. So we know that you did it again today. Have a beautiful, beautiful day and I will see you tomorrow. Bye.