Day 2: Building Pronunciation Confidence

Foreign. Hey. Hey, everyone. Welcome. Welcome to day two. I am so happy to have you here. Hello. Say hi in the comments. You've already been saying hi in the comments. Super excited about today, and I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have seen all the comments interactions in the Facebook group on the website. You guys are doing the work and putting things into practice. We had 400 people in the conversation group yesterday, which was amazing. Introducing and greeting each other. We have another conversation group today and our first implementation workshop. Day two. Some takeaways from yesterday for me. Better Internet connection and bigger slides. Yes. Okay. I hope today's stream is better. We took care of things, but, you know, you learn and improve. What can I tell you? I'm a constant learner as well. Okay. So how are you doing today? How are you doing today? Let's see. Hello. Where are you from? Where are you speaking to us from? Good. So I'm going to. Let me quickly share the slides and. All right, so before we begin, I'm going to start with smaller slides and then I'm going to make them bigger the moment we begin. I just want to see that everyone's here and you're connecting. Well, great. Okay. Russia, Spain, Colombia, Philippines, Michigan, Brazil, Belgium. Cool. So have you watched or participated live in yesterday? Have you watched day one training? Put yes in the comments if you have. And yeah, Lithuania, Algeria, Indonesia, Italy. It's like, again, I'm sure if you've seen me live before, you know that I always get excited about the fact that I'm like, there are people from all around the world at the same time. Such a blessing. Okay, so what my first question to you is, and some of you have already shared it in the Facebook group, what was your biggest insight from day one? Okay. What is the one thing that you have taken with you after watching day one training? So I want to hear. So a lot of you have talked about working smarter, not harder. We're definitely going to talk about it today. Today we're going to go even deeper. And by the way, we sent you 15 minutes ago the workbook for today. So if you haven't downloaded it, you can download it now, you can download it later. So you can work with it, write your notes, you can fill it in directly, and it will guide you and, you know, allow you to remember everything that I talk about today. Because it's going. We're gonna. We're gonna talk about a lot of details. I'm gonna give you my pronunciation confidence method that will. And I want you to use the system with everything related to English, and I'm going to teach you how to do that. But it's a lot to take in. So if you can download the workbook now and take notes, I think that would be the best way to process, engage, and learn. Also ask questions in the chat, repeat ideas that are significant. Why? Because part of the learning process is to, you know, process it and produce it. And when you do that, when you take notes or when you organize a thought and you produce it again, it helps you integrate that thought into your thinking and also to remember it better. So I highly recommend that you do that as well. So stay active in the chat. Keep, you know, repeating ideas that resonate with you and write notes in your workbook. Okay, so let me see. What is your biggest insight? Like I said, okay. No, no, no. I'm just reading. Okay. That you need to break the ice. Wait, there's a comment here. I'm trying to catch all the comments that you need to break the ice and just start speaking. And it goes smoother in the process. Yes, absolutely. This is such a good point, right? Like, I know it sounds obvious, right? And you're like, of course. I mean, that's. That's pretty obvious. That's pretty obvious that this is what we need to do. But here's the thing. We don't do it, right? Like, we don't do it. We wait for something or we're, you know, we're trying to find the perfect situation to practice or to speak, and it's not going to work that way. So I think that this is such a valid point. What? Like I said, a lot of you have talked about working smarter, not harder, pronunciation, confidence, method, which is what we're going to talk about today. You talked about communication over perfection, right. Not to be such perfectionists when it comes to communicating in English. Confidence first skill will come later. Right? And confidence is a skill. So we need to develop the skill of confidence. Right? Not perfection, but progress. Grammar and syntax. So Rico says that for that. That grammar and syntax is there probably I is prioritized higher in the fluent when looking at all the fluency elements. Okay, good, good. So make it a habit. Right? And we're definitely going to talk about habits today. But before we go into talking about, let's let me just make the slides a little bigger. Okay? The winner. As you remember, a lot of you shared beautiful insights and moments from yesterday's live and from your progress watching the videos. So I was deeply moved getting to see all of you Some of you have learned with your kids. Some of you watched the Live during lunch. So it's absolutely amazing for me to see that. So please keep on sharing. Today we have another challenge. The winner of yesterday's Instagram challenge is Tatiana Korilova. I asked Mika to tell me how to pronounce it, and. And I hope I did an okay job. Okay. So, Tatiana, thank you so much for sharing. And you are the winner of the Sprint Master. This was yesterday's challenge. We did a random raffle with all the people who tagged me and used the hashtag Fluency Fest. Today we are offering a free month in Beyond. Beyond is our English practice community with challenges and daily sprints. And we have daily conversation groups, practice groups and workshops with me and a whole lot of other things. And if you want to win a free month and beyond, join the challenge today. To win the prize, here's what you need to do. Follow me on Instagram Hadar Accentsway. That way I get the notification that you are that you have shared. Share a story or a post from. From the event with a hashtag Fluency Fest. Okay. So you can just take a photo of the live, the schedule of yourself doing work, and tag me so I can see it. It's really important that you tag me. If you don't tag me, I won't be able to collect it and to put it inside the raffle. Every day we'll announce the winner. So tomorrow we'll announce the winner of today. Now, let's talk about today, what we have for you today. Today we are going to learn how to improve English through building pronunciation confidence. And I'm going to explain what that is. So, Tatiana, we're going to be in touch with you on Instagram to share with you the Sprint Master. Okay, let's see who's going to be the winner today, what we're going to learn today. Listen up. What is the pronunciation consonants method and why we need it? How to improve pronunciation and prosody using the pronunciation confidence method. Then we're going to talk about identifying your pronunciation priority. This is really important. I want you to stick to that part because no one teaches that. And the reason why I teach it is because I truly believe in the 20%. Right. Like what we talked about yesterday. And I will teach you how to identify your 20%. I will do that as well, like in. With grammar and vocabulary as well. But you know, I have a special place for pronunciation, so we're going to go a little deeper when it comes to pronunciation. I'm going to share with you the elements of prosody. Okay. That I want you to become aware of in case you're not yet. We're not going to go very deep. I go deep into prosody inside my programs. We don't have time for it. Today we have two full modules about prosody. So it's something that you really need to dive deep. And we don't have time throughout this one week event. But I am going to share with you the elements and what to pay attention to so you have more, you have a better idea as to what you specifically need to focus on. Then I'm going to tell you how you can improve your vocabulary using the pronunciation confidence method. So yesterday when we looked at the fluency wheel and I asked you what are the top three, three pillars that you think you need to work on? Almost everyone wrote vocabulary. Vocabulary is key because it's all about using, actively using words. We want to feel like we can express ourselves. So this is an important part as well. And how to improve your grammar using the pronunciation confidence method. Again, if grammar was prioritized high when we talked about the fluency wheel and if you don't know what I'm talking about, go watch the day one training. The end part, there is a time code on the website so you can definitely just go directly there and download the workbook of day one and you will be able to, you know, to, to. To identify your fluency needs. How to improve your grammar using pronunciation confidence method. I told you. Why do we need it? We need to bridge the gap. What does that mean? To bridge the gap means that we want our English, the English that we know, right? There is the English that we know and the English that we speak. And I bet that all of you feel that there is a gap between those two languages. The English that we know, that we understand, that we process in our brain, right? And the English that actually comes out of our mouth. The production of English. Put yes in the comments or just Y in the comments if that's the case for you two different Englishes, right? And by the way, I always say that reading and writing, right? English that you read and write is also a different language than the English that you speak. English that you speak is like a unique creature that we need to take care of and treat differently, right? That's the approach of the new speaker of English, right? Because we really need to understand that it requires a totally different approach than what we have been doing up until today. Okay? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. A Lot of yeses, right? The gap. The pronunciation confidence method is designed to help you bridge the gap. Okay, so the pronunciation confidence method is a technique designed to help create new speaking habits in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Again, it's designed to help you create new speaking habits, which is what a language is all about. Speaking habits. If we think about it, it makes it a lot easier for us to approach language because it's not this huge big thing that you need to kind of like sink yourself into. No, it's just you need to create new speaking habits. Using different words is new speaking habits, right? Using different sounds is new speaking habits. Habits that you don't have because you were born into a different language and you have different habits. There is nothing wrong with your pronunciation. It's just different. And to be able to use the English pronunciation, for example, Standard American, if we're trying to be more specific, then it's just a set of habits. And just like with, you know, we talked about it a little bit when we talked about learning habits, right? Like, you need to. To do it consistently for a while until you do it automatically and spontaneously without thinking about it, without working hard, doing it. So we want to do it in our English learning process, and we want to do it in our speaking process. So this is why it's there. Now I want to talk about the thing that keeps us stuck, and that is the illusion of learning. It's like the opposite of the pronunciation confidence method. If the pronunciation confidence method is about actively speaking and using the language and bridging the gap, the illusion of learning is just making this gap bigger and bigger and bigger. What is the illusion of learning? It's learn, practicing and doing the work and. And working hard to improve, right? We said, don't work harder, work smarter. So the illusion of working, of learning is working really hard without seeing results, putting in a lot of hours and a lot of work and speaking all day and doing this and doing that in practicing, learning a lot of pronunciation lessons but not being able to use it in real life, right? Has that ever happened to you? Just write me in the comments if you feel that that's where you're at, right? Stuck because you're learning, you're practicing. And then of course, at some point when you are practicing, you know so much and you're not seeing results, then at some point you'd say, okay, this is just not for me. I can't do it, right? It's. It's like I'm not able to do it. It's not. I'M not talented. I'm not, you know, I don't really have the time. Probably I need to practice more. So, yes, we have some mes and yeses. Okay, the illusion of learning. We're stuck. Now. I actually released a video about that or about to release in just an hour. So if you want to go deeper into that idea, you can go watch it on my channel. But, you know, if you've ever asked yourself, why is it not working for me? This is why, right? Like the. The fact that you are working ineffectively, you're learning things that are not serving you. You're working and focusing on the 80%. On the 80% and not. Or the hundred percent and not the 20%. You're working harder, not smarter. This is why it's not working for you. And this is why, you know, we need to go deeper into understanding how to practice it effectively using the. While building pronunciation confidence. Okay? Because practicing English without building pronunciation confidence is like expecting to run a marathon after reading a book about running, not practicing. Right? Just reading a book about philosophical book about running. It's also like buying ingredients for a cake and wondering why it's not ready. Or it's like trying to play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata after listening to it once on Spotify. Not possible, right? And you're all looking at this saying, of course it's not possible, Hadar. It's so strange and weird. But at the same time, you know, if you're watching a video about the R and you're trying it a little bit during with the video and then you're wondering why it's not working for you and why you're unable to use it, right? You are stuck in the illusion of learning. You're trying to do all of those things. You're doing everything that I just mentioned, you know, buying ingredients without really baking the cake or reading about swimming without actually getting into the water. And this is why we need to build pronunciation confidence. Because instead of working from the inside out, just consuming content processing in the brain and expecting yourself to produce it. With the pronunciation confidence method, we're working from the outside in. Now I'll tell you how I came up with this pronunciation confidence method. I don't have a slide for it. Another short story. So when I was in acting school, I told you that yesterday I had to memorize a lot of texts. A lot of texts. Every day I had like a different script that I had to memorize. Now I was also working almost every night at a bar, and I didn't Have a lot of time. So I had to develop a really fast method to memorize texts. And one of the ways to do it was repetition and a certain type of repetition, intentional repetition, that I teach in my programs. And I'll teach you a little bit here, right? So I would do it walking in the. Walking down the street in New York and, like, speaking to myself and repeating things, of course, out loud. Now, what it did was that that repetition helped me understand a lot of things, not just about the text that I have to memorize, but about pronunciation. So when I had to practice my pronunciation, I actually used that technique as well. And when I had. Every time I came across a word that I wasn't using much or I wasn't familiar with, I would say it so many times. And then all of a sudden, I realized I recognized that I started using it spontaneously. I was like, hey, I just memorized that word in last week's text, and now I'm using it. And not only that, I did it with grammatical structures. Now, I told you I get a C minus. In my final grade, I was not good in grammar. I'm still not. Like, I can explain basic things, but when it gets to complex grammar, I call Marcella. Okay? So Marcella is our. Is one of the coaches in beyond, and she's the grammar queen or Judith. So anyway, that's not my thing, grammar. And all of a sudden, I realized that I was starting to use these complex sentences, right? Like, with a few tenses or with a tense that I wasn't using up until then. Again, that's 20 years ago. And I would just, like, use the same structure and replace the words inside and would use it in the right context. I used to work at a bar, like I said, so. So I would have the speaking time, I would have the practice time, and I had this way of exploring things. So this has worked for me effectively, and that's when I started teaching it to my students. I wasn't using it at first, but gradually, when we were looking for better methods to teach our students, this is what we started incorporating, and the results are fantastic. So working from the inside out is important, and we're going to go even deeper with that tomorrow because we're going to work on the mindset and attitude. But it's also important to work from the outside in developing speaking habits, because you can't develop speaking habits just by thinking about it, right? You cannot. It's not possible to build speaking habits. You have to work from the outside in instead of from the Inside out, okay? Like, you can't. You can't get fit by watching a video about, you know, watching someone doing abs, right? Working. Working out. Okay. Goals. We want to improve pronunciation to get what you want. Actually, it's supposed to be improve your pronunciation so you can get heard. Okay? Improve prosody to get what you want. You want to improve vocabulary to express yourself, right? To find the words, sometimes the delicate words that explain exactly how you feel. And this is why you want to work on your active vocabulary. And you want to improve your grammar to deliver your message, okay, In a clear way so it's organized and you don't have to think about it. So this is why we want to bridge the gap, to build pronunciation confidence. With the pronunciation confidence method, you'll learn how to internalize a sound, a word, or grammatical structure through using it in a systematic way and building muscle memory, AKA building speaking habits. Okay, so let's talk about what the pronunciation confidence method is. First thing, remember this. 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. And we want to focus on the effort. And this is why we need to prioritize, right? When we prioritize the things that we need to learn, we learn effectively. It's no longer the illusion of learning. Then we need to improve our perception. So let's say you have decided on an element that you want to learn, whether it's a sound or a grammatical structure or a word or an intonation pattern, right? You want to make sure that you can recognize it and hear it, right? Hear the difference between. And here's why. The reason why you want to be able to hear it is because when it comes to pronunciation or language, there is what you hear and there is what you perceive. I want you to imagine as if there is, like, you know, you hear something, and then there is a feeling filter here, right? A fake filter that. That filters out a lot of elements of what you hear and then what you perceive. It's not what you hear, what you. What you perceive. So the filter is actually inside the brain. But I can't really demonstrate that because it's going to be weird. So imagine like this is my brain goes through your ear, right? Goes through the filter, and then the brain perceives something. What the brain perceives is not objective. Why? Because the brain has this bias towards things that the brain already knows, right? Like certain thoughts or certain sounds or certain grammatical structures or certain words. Has this ever happened to you where you came across this new word, you learned it, right? You. You check the dictionary Right. Practice it maybe. And then all of a sudden you started hearing it all over. Everyone's using this word now. Is it a coincidence, is it a coincidence that all of a sudden after you know this word, everyone's using this word? Probably not. Probably everyone was using this word, but. And you heard it. But because you didn't think about it or you didn't know the word, the brain filtered it out because we filter out so much information when we hear it. Right. And then you got the sentence. Because we don't have to understand every single word to understand people. Right. But all of a sudden you're like, you are able to analyze it and to perceive it. Yeah, it happens all the time. Happens. True. Right. It's this idea of perception. Same thing with sounds. You know how many students I've had where I would demonstrate a certain vowel pair like sheep and ship, and because they don't have those two vowels, I and I in their language, they would, they wouldn't even hear the difference. Now, sheep and ship is pretty obvious and we always talk about it, but what about pay and pay? Can you hear the difference between pay and pay? Put yes in the comments. And if you've been to one of my courses, then, then don't tell anyone. Don't answer because I know you know the answer. Okay? Pay, Pay. Can you hear the difference? Yes or no? Okay, so if you haven't learned it before and you don't have it in your language, then you may not recognize that I'm using the aspirated P. Pay. If you have it in your language, you'll hear it because it's already there. You already have the phonetic category and you're able to perceive it. So a lot of no's, some yeses. Right. If you say yes, then probably you've experienced you heard it before or you have it in your first language because it's very subtle. What about well and well? Can you hear the difference well? Well, yes. And actually, no, that it's not the diphthong pe and pe. I'm going to do it again in slow motion. Pay. I'm going to exaggerate it even more. From the p. I'm going directly to the a sound versus pay. It's called an aspirated P because it feels like there is a little pop of air, burst of air after the P. Hey, now you'll notice it all the time. If you haven't noticed it before now you'll notice that every time people say. People say words that start with a P and there is a vowel right after. It feels like there is a little H after sometimes in the middle of the word, like apartment now, this is something very subtle, but it's just to show you that you're probably not hearing a lot of things when it comes to, you know, to English. And this is why we want to work on perception. And we are going to guide you in the workbook. We're going to guide you as to how to pay attention, like what to look for. Even when I said well, well and well, someone mentioned some of you said, no, I can't hear the difference. Some of you said, yes. If you have the distinction between l and l in your language, then it's easy for you to hear it. It's ready to perceive it. But if you don't have that and you have one L in English, then both would sound the same. Well, well, well. Right. I can exaggerate it a bit more. Okay, so perception is key, because if you can't hear it, you can't make it. Everyone if you can't hear it. Okay, good. I wish I could do a live broadcast once. Right? It could be so broadcast. Not going to be a broadcast, like a live event with all of you in person. And I could hear you. Okay, let's continue. Silly me. Okay, perception number three. Production. You need to know how to produce it, right? So if we're talking about sounds, you need to know what to do exactly with your mouth. We're talking about a grammatical structure. You need to know what exactly is going into it. We're going to talk about each one. So the production part is important, yet it's not the most important thing. It's a small element within this entire process. And by the way, a lot of times, especially when it comes to pronunciation, people spend most of their time hearing here on production, right? Just like trying to figure out what it is. Learning more, watching more videos instead of moving really quickly to stage number four, which is repetition, creating new speaking habits. Repetition, repetition, repetition. That is what's going to make a difference. That's what is going to bridge the gap. That is what's going to build pronunciation confidence. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Okay? There is no way around it. Time spent effectively. Repetition is time spent effectively. See how much I'm repeating this idea so it gets to you? Repetition. Don't learn all these different things. Instead, learn one thing and repeat it again and again and again until it's internalized, until it's yours, until you own it, until you build new speaking habits. Otherwise, you can't expect Yourself to use it. Number five. Then we want intentional practice. I'm going to talk about each one of those elements quickly. Pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. But intentional practice means that you are speaking and using it deliberately while speaking freely. So it's not just the drills, right? Not just the practice, but using it intentionally when speaking, because that's the closest thing to speaking in real life. Okay, now I want to organize things in your head. Up until now, I shared with you the pronunciation confidence method that I developed based on teaching pronunciation. And then we kind of like took it and we opened it up to using it for improving grammar and vocabulary. But the core was changing speaking habits, right? Using this method. And this is why I'm going to spend some time on pronunciation. Because pronunciation is so incredibly important. It's not just how you sound. Okay, let's talk about why pronunciation. Why. Why do you think? Why is pronunciation important to you, Vince? Repetition, right? Why is pronunciation important when it comes to your overall fluency? It's funny, like, I'm asking and answering because they can't hear you and I'm waiting for you. There is a delay, so I'm going to continue and I'm going to read your comments in a second. It's funny because unlike grammar and pronunciation and vocabulary, even though they're very emotional, there's like this immediate detachment to pronunciation. It goes so deep, right? It's so deep. It's about you and how you sound, how you show up in the world. It's about your voice, right? It's about first impression. People can't hear your grammar, but they can hear your pronunciation and your voice, right? So it's not just about definitely not sounding like an atom, right? Taking that out of the equation, definitely about being heard and being clear. But also, I want to tell you this. A lot of people are clear and heard, and they don't have communication issues yet. Pronunciation is deep. Like learning pronunciation is a deep passion for them, right? It's really important for them to work on pronunciation. They're obsessed with it even. Why is that? Well, like I said, it's like the first thing that people hear, it's the expression of your voice. It's because when you speak and you have tension in your body and in your mouth, you don't feel like yourself. You can make a grammar mistake, but if you feel that, like, whatever is happening here is like. Like you have mud inside your mouth or rocks inside your mouth, it feels exhausting to communicate. So, yes, like, you can get stuck or think of words or use lesser words. But if you are constantly struggling to communicate. And again, like, of course, if you're saying something and people don't understand you, it really hits deep. Like, it's not something that we want to experience. Right? So when we. When. When we speak and when we use it, this is something that is, you know, that. That is so immediate. And we definitely want to understand how to do it without effort. We definitely want to do it in a way that feels light, like it does in our native language. Okay. And this is why pronunciation is so incredibly important. And even more so. And this is what I. What I teach in my programs. Like, a huge part of it is about pronunciation. Not because I think that you need to necessarily change how you sound, but when you apply the confidence method on when you're learning pronunciation, then it's so much easier for you to do it when you are trying to improve other things, when you're trying to memorize text, when you're trying to do all of those things that we're going to talk about. Okay, now, so Matilda says. Oops, Wait, Matilda. To really communicate what we want, Right. Definitely. And pronunciation is not just the sounds. It's also prosody. We'll talk about that. But prosody is really all about getting what you want. Saying something in, you know, getting to people's hearts. Right. Saying something that would make them feel something and do things for us. Right. If we want to convince someone our tone of voice is really important for saying it, you know, in a monotone way that is not very compelling or in a flat way, they may not be as excited to do what we ask them to do. Right? Bad pronunciation, lack of confidence. Yes, absolutely. Like if, and I want to avoid the word bad pronunciation, but if you have some pronunciation challenges that prevent you from being heard, then yes, it's definitely going to affect your confidence. And it's this vicious cycle, right? It's this vicious cycle when you, you know, you're not able to express yourself. You feel that people are having a hard time understanding you, and then you just don't want to speak eventually. Okay, good. You stutter. Right. Being able to under. To be. Wanting to be understood. Good. So pronunciation is important. We establish that. Let's talk about. And this is why we're going to talk about pronunciation priorities right now. Okay. If you want to work on your pronunciation and learn how to build pronunciation confidence, you definitely need to know what is. What are the sounds that are going to make a real difference. Okay. And this is why we want to talk about pronunciation. Priorities. Okay, so the pronunciation goal of the new speaker. Okay. Yesterday we talked about the new speaker of English. That's the identity that we want to step into that is different from the non native speaker of English. Right? That's the new way to fluency. So the pronunciation goal is to focus on the things that get you stuck, make you sound unclear, make you self conscious, or create tension in your mouth. So these are the things that we want to focus on when working on pronunciation. I truly believe that these should be your goals. Okay. If you set that as a goal, you know how to focus on what's important and how to let go of what's not important. Okay? Now there are three types of challenges. High priority, which is critical, and that's pronunciation. That makes you sound completely unclear. Okay? So if you speak and there are some elements in your speech that make it hard for other people to understand you, I would say that that is critical. Okay? And this is something that you should work on because it's all about communication. Then we have medium priority, which is mild, okay. And that's pronunciation that bothers you, right? You're aware of it. Cheap ship. Yes, I'm aware of it. And interferes with your clarity. Okay? So it doesn't make you sound unclear. Completely unclear, but sometimes it interferes with your clarity. A lot of prosody elements go into that, right? Like not stressing the right words, not using the right melody sometimes. Or sometimes. You know, I've had so many students that were really struggling with a flap T, especially when it's after an R. And even though they sounded super clear when saying those words, like order, right, people would understand them, they would feel so self conscious about this, which makes it a mild or medium priority. Because it's enough that it bothers you and you're aware of it and this is why you need to work on it. And then we have low priority. And low priority is insignificant challenges and not easily detected. So when people hear, they're like, I don't, I don't know what's. You know, I hear that it's not the same, but I can tell you what that is, right? So you'd work on it to polish your pronunciation and feel even more effortless. And let me tell you this, low priority is low priority, which means that it's not something that is part of your 20%. Your 20% is high priority and some medium priority because you can't practice everything low priority. When you have figured out, you know, the previous ones, then you can go into low priority. Okay, so let's. Now that you know. And again, like, we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about pronunciation and how to prioritize everything. But first, terms you should know. 1. Consonants. Consonants are sounds that are stopped, partially stopped, or interrupted. Can you give an example in the chat of consonant sounds? What are consonant sounds in English? Let's see. Okay, I'm waiting. Okay. Sound C, probably a K sound K, W, V. Very good, Barry. The B in Barry, T is a consonant. Very good. Right, right. Absolutely. Hareem, you put A in the chat. A usually represents a vowel letter. Okay, so a, ah, that would be a vowel. So let's talk about vowels. Vowels are sounds that are not interrupted. Right. We can continue them forever. Right. The mouth is somewhat open. They're always voiced. Can you give me examples of vowel sounds? I would start by A as in cat, O as in go, sheep and ship. Right. So we have the letters A, E, I, Y. Sometimes represents a vowel. That's right. And we have several vowel letters, but those vowel letters represent more vowels than you know. We have five vowel letters. A, O, U, I, E. We have about 16 vowel sounds in Standard American. And those different vowel letters represent those 16 vowels. So ultimately each letter may represent different vowels. This is why, you know, pronunciation is so confusing, because it doesn't correspond with something spelling. I'm sure you all know that already. And that's the biggest struggle of non native speakers, of new speakers now, because for new speakers it's no longer a struggle because you are in, in, in charge of the sounds. You're aware of it. Okay, very good. Then we have syllables or a syllable. A syllable is a part, a unit within the word. Give me. If you had to take the word continue and break it into syllables, how would you do it? Write it in the comments. Put a dash between each syllable. So every syllable is a unit in the word. Okay. And yes, Irene says C has two sounds. Definitely C can represent a K sound. S sound, sometimes a sh sound, sometimes a ch. We're adding an H to it. Okay, continue. Very good. Okay, three syllables. Continue. A small unit within the word. And then we have stress. The primary stress in a word is probably one of the most important things you need to know about the pronunciation of words. The primary stress is the one syllable that sticks out the most. It is longer, louder, and higher in pitch. Continue. Good. Now that you know these terms, we can start talking about high priority challenges. What are high priority challenges? First, replacing. Replacing a consonant with another English consonant. That's the first Prior high priority. If this is something that you're doing, I would encourage you to work on improving that because it may cause you to sound unclear. Consonants are important, unlike vowels. Vowels are important too. You know what I'm saying? But. But consonants are important because if you switch them, it would change the word completely, unlike vowels, that even though it might change the word, context helps. And people are used to mispronunciation of vowels, whereas in consonants, it takes them to a different word completely. So saying right instead of light. Right. Or berry instead of very. These are challenges that are prioritized. High sound deletion, dropping consonants at the end. A lot of speakers do it because it happens. Because in English, there are words with a lot of consonants at the end. It's called consonant cluster, and many languages don't have that. They don't even permit that. Okay. And what happens is that because it doesn't exist in their own native language, right? It's not that they can't pronounce it physically, it's just it doesn't exist. They're not used to it. There aren't good speaking habits in place. Right. And therefore the brain that controls the language kind of decides to drop some consonants so it's easier and it fits the structure of the native language. Right? So if in your language there is no such thing as two consonants at the end, like mind, you might say mine instead of mind, or tech instead of texts, because it doesn't exist. So again, perception is key. Recognizing that it's something that you're doing is what's going to help you significantly. Okay? Sound deletion. We talked about it. Misplacing the primary stress. For example, execute instead of execute. This is key. If you are misplacing the primary stress, I would encourage you to spend some time practicing, practicing that, developing awareness and building new speaking habits. Because people, when they hear a word, the first thing that they look for is word based on where the stress is. It's a linguistic theory, but it sounds really, really reasonable to me. Okay. Thinking of how people process language and also hearing students that sometimes are clearer than others, those who are not clear tend to misplace the stress. Right? So we're looking for other words where the stress is at the end, whereas it's just a mispronunciation. And instead we want to say execute. Primary stress is longer, louder, higher in pitch. Execute. That's a mispronunciation. Putting the stress at the end. Execute. Let's do a little game here. I'm going to say a few Words, and you tell me what the primary stress is. And if you want to get fancy, you. You can even write it down and break it down into syllables. Okay, let's say the word uniqueness. Uniqueness. Now, you don't have to know how to spell it. Just say it how you hear it. You can write it phonetically. Uniqueness. What's the primary stress? I kind of indicated it right now with my fingers, so please ignore it. Uniqueness, second syllable, right? Present. Present. That's an example of stress that changes the meaning of the word completely. Good. Diego says uniqueness. Three syllables. The second syllable is the primary stress. Creativity. Creativity. That's the primary stress. How many syllabus. I'm seeing comments, but some of you are commenting on uniqueness instead of creativity. I'm like, already? Yes, we have comments about creativity now. Creativity, good. Creativity. The T is the primary stress. Longer, louder, higher in pitch. If I were to say creativity or creativity, that would feel a little strange and maybe unclear. Maybe it will be. But if it's a tendency, then you may apply it unto other words, and then that might be hard. Okay, let's move on to medium priority. Medium priority is like most of the pronunciation challenges, to be honest. Okay? Things that don't make you sound completely unclear, but it makes it uncomfortable for you to pronounce or it makes it a little more stressful. One is replacing a vowel with another English vowel, like sheep, ship, pull, pull, bed, bad, cap, cup, cup, right? All of these triplets and minimal pairs that sound the same, that look the same, but they sound differently. They don't even look the same. They're usually spelled differently, but still, like we need to. You know, sometimes we don't have those two vowels in our native language, and therefore we won't perceive it, and then we won't be able to produce it, or we won't know what to do with the mouth, and it goes to this automatic middle sound that is somewhere in between. Pull, pull, sheep, sheep, cup, cup, cup. Instead of cap, cup, cop. Now, context really helps. So a lot of people may understand you anyway, even if you misplace the vowel or replace the vowel with another vowel. But what I'm trying to say is that it's important to work on it, but it's not critical. Okay? Medium priority is also significant. Mispronunciations. Mispronunciation of sounds. So, for example, let's say you struggle with the R, but you're not replacing it with the l because that's critical, right? Saying light instead of right. Instead, you're saying right or write right. Maybe here it sounded a little bit like a W or right with a sound. So that's mispronunciation, and it may affect your overall clarity, effort, and overall quality of sound. Right? Medium priority. You definitely want to work on it, but it's not critical because people will understand this replacement and you will be. You'll generally be heard. Now, of course, there is like the speed spectrum here, because if it's really critical, sometimes I would. You can prioritize it a little higher if it really affects your clarity. Okay? Mispronunciation of l, right? Of other sounds. Diphthongs, simplifications. Sale turning into sell. Right? Only turns into only. And this is somewhere between medium and high priority. It depends on the diphthong. It depends on how simplified the diphthong is. A diphthong is a changing vowel. You shift from one sound to another. Okay. And that's the idea. Like, you want to make sure that you go through those two sounds and sometimes you don't. Open vowel mispronunciation. There is the A as in cat, ah as in father. These two are sometimes very hard for speakers of English as a second language who don't have open vowel sounds in their language. So they might say apple instead of apple. Right? Or popular instead of popular. So it's not really a different vowel sounds. It's just like a reduction of the open vowel sound. Generally, what it does, it affects your voice and the quality of the presence of those vowels and the presence of your voice. So I would say, yes, it's something that you might want to work on, but it's not critical because people would still understand you. Okay? Low priority things that you can put on the shelf on the back burner if you want. Low priority. As are aspirated. And as you remember, some of you barely even noticed it. If you barely noticed it, it wasn't. It probably wasn't critical for you to pay attention to throughout your journey, right? Unlike the th or the R that people probably made it clear to you that this is something that needs to be worked on. So low priority, it's like getting fancy with your pronunciation once everything else is in place. Ng pronunciation, right? @ the end of words, there is. And when we have at the end of words that consonants ng, like single sing song, right? I don't pop the G at the end song. But if you do, nothing happens, right? It's still clear. It's still a song, even with a G sound. So this is why it's low Priority, which means don't obsess over this sound before you figure out your high priorities, the 20%. And it's so much more exciting to work on the low priority because it's easier, it's fun nuances, it's more interesting. Sometimes the high priorities are hard to change. This is why it's critical. Hard to change. These are more subtle. It's usually easier to change. I'm generalizing here. I'm sure there is someone here that would say no. You know, it's so hard for me to pronounce the aspirated P. I get it. Subtle mispronunciations, right? Sometimes we have students who have worked on their pronunciation amazingly, right? So shifting from to er. But sometimes the R is not as strong as it could be. And I would call it subtle mispronunciation. And in that case, I would say it's good enough. It's like the 80% out of the 100%. You can stop here. I mean, continue practicing just to maintain it, but you can stop here. We're good enough, right? And if we figure out other things, we can work on the rest. Pronunciation of the differentees. Another thing that people love working on, right? And watching videos like, it's one of my most popular videos. And that in time and kitten and the drop Tea in Internet and the healthy in network. Right? So if I were to say a T sound Internet network, Kitten, I would still be 100% clear, right? So this is why it's not that critical. But sometimes it's like if we want to polish it, this is what we would work on. Okay, let's go back here for a second. And when we talk about high priority. Okay, look at the list. And this is something that I'm going to ask you to do in your workbook. Look at the list and tell me if there is something here on the list that you find yourself doing. Misplacing the primary stress. Deleting sounds, especially at the end of words or sometimes at the beginning of words. Replacing one consonant with another existing consonant. Peronimo says sh and ch. Right? Chip instead of ship. Right. I can say I can never do the flap. T. Sue says suan. How do I get the workbook? It's in your email and it's on the website. Sound deletion. A lot of Spanish speakers, Mandarin Chinese speakers, Cantonese speakers might have that. Misplacing the primary stress is a big problem, right? French speakers tend to do that because of the language. The language is so similar. There are a lot of similar words where the stress is on a different word in French, but in English, you know, they need to shift it. And it's like shift. Creating new habits is one thing. Changing existing habits, like, you know, let's say it's the same word, and in Spanish, it's the same. Same word, but the stress is in different places. That's a little harder because you're so used to it. I remember that when I was going through this journey and this process, what I noticed is the hardest words for me to pronounce were loan words in Hebrew, words that we had in Hebrew, but they originated in English or Latin. Right. So I would have the pronunciation that we have in Hebrew in my head, and it would be very hard for me to use it like the word choreographer. I could never say it because in Hebrew, it's choreograph stresses on the last syllable. Anyway, you get the point. Okay, good. So moving on, let's talk about prosody. Prosody. I love prosody. Prosody is. So here's my favorite imagery. If pronunciation, speech sounds is the. The notes, right? Think of a musical piece, Moonlight Sonata, right? So pronunciation is the notes. Prosody is everything else. It's the rhythm, it's the volume, it's the pitch, it's the intensity, right? And it's the. The. The beat. So that would be prosody, how we take the speech elements and we pro. Put it all together, and we. And. And that is what creates impact when we speak. A lot of times, again, the illusion of learning. A lot of times we spend so much time just practicing pronunciation, not understanding that Prosody is a significant part of our communication in English, right? I'm not saying I'm notice that I'm not using the word accent, right? I don't care about accents. Everyone has accents, right? It's not about an accent. It's about how you communicate. And we want to communicate effectively. That is the most important thing. We want to get what we want right, to say something and make other people feel and make a difference and impact others. We'll talk more about that next tomorrow when we talk about why we're here and why we're doing this. Okay, so prosody. Let me go back to the slides. Prosody, Prosody, Prosody, prosody. So prosody is intonation, rhythm, stress, all of that good stuff. And I want to talk about just a few elements. One is sentence stress. Before, we talked about word stress, right? Like the syllable that you stress in a word. And then let Me take a sip of water before we continue and gonna get my other bottle. See, today I did not forget my. My cup. I did not forget my water. Almost spilled everything right now. Okay, back to business. So misplacing the primary source. Oh, okay, wait. I want to see what you wrote. Misplacing the primary. Primary stress. Confusing vowels. Stress is big. I see. Okay, so sentence stress. Also important is what words you choose to stress in a sentence. I talk a lot about it, and I hope you already know the difference between content words and function words. There are a lot of hierarchies within the sentence. So content word, like, first of all, there are different words that have different impact or importance. And the first distinction. Right. If we think about it, the first filter is content words versus function words. Content versus function. Content words are all the words that bring us the content. They mean something, they signify something. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. We see the word or hear the word and we know or feel it. We know what it means. Function words are all the words that connect content words. They're important, too. On an ad could what should m is? Are the A? It's between us. Don't tell anyone, but between us, it's the words that we always mess up when we're trying to structure a sentence. Which preposition should I use? Should I use have or had or has or haven't? So these are function words. So content words, generally speaking, are more stressed. But even within content words, there is hierarchy. Right, that we need to pay attention to. Some words are more important than others. How do you know which one to distinguish? Well, it really depends on your message. And very common patterns in English, I really go deeper into that, like I told you in my programs. But for now, I have a bunch of videos on my YouTube channel that discuss this. So if you want to go a little deeper, we're going to put it below the video on the website. Okay. So sentence stress is, you know, the word first of all, content versus function. And then within the content words, all the key. All the words that mean something there, there. Like there's hierarchy. Now moving to the next thing. To the next thing. Pitch. Pitch. Pitch is how you use your voice. Right? Pitch is the melody of your speech. Okay, I can speak with high pitch or I can speak with low pitch. It affects the placement of my voice too. So pitch is something that helps us with sentence stress because words that are more stressed are usually different in pitch, generally higher, but sometimes lower different in pitch. So pitch helps us indicate what's more important and what's less important? Not just pitch, as you'll see, but pitch is key. It also creates this musicality, creates interest in how you speak. Now, in a few days, I'm going to share with you a sneak peek. That's like, the first time I'm telling you about it, just so you know. Stay tuned. I'm going to share with you a sneak peek into my program. And there's. There is, like, a very elaborate lesson about pitch and how to use pitch and how to use certain tools to help you use a more expressive pitch. So if this is something that you struggle with, know that I have something for you later on this week. So that's pitch, Rhythm. Rhythm is the difference in length between words. Now, again, remember, sentence stress. Words that are more important are higher in pitch. They're also longer. Right. And words that are less important, like function words, are shorter. They're even reduced to a schwa for those of you who know what the schwa is. Right. So that distinction that is derived from the content, that distinction changes the rhythm of English. So rhythm is also key in communicating your message. And then we have tone of voice. What it. How you feel about what you say. Tone of voice is something that is not addressed quite often, but tone of voice is, you know, if you sound friendly or angry or sarcastic or sad. Right. And it has to do with intonation, the intensity of the voice, the placement of the voice. Pitch, for sure. Right. So there are a lot of elements that are related to communicating in English that determine the tone of voice. And I have a video about it on my YouTube channel. We go deep into that when we talk about prosody in my program. But I want you to know that tone of voice is something that you always control. It doesn't happen to you. You can control it. It's usually a result of your internal state. But sometimes we're so used to speaking in a certain way that our feelings are not expressed. And if you want to connect with people and you want others to connect with you, you want to bring more emotion and feelings into your voice. Okay. And that's why tone of voice is important. Okay, good. Facial expressions. Absolutely. Absolutely. Facial expressions are a huge part in body language. Right. Body language, facial expressions, all of that help us help. It helps us convey our message. Okay. Does the great question Vidu is asking, does the tone of voice different from native language? From the native language we use? Excellent question. A lot of times, no. A lot of times, yes. Okay. Sometimes there are certain languages where the pitch is going up and down, right? Ah, right. Like there is like this high pitch because that's the pattern, the intonation pattern in the language. It's not even tone of voice, just the intonation pattern. Now high pitch and this rising falling pitch usually shows excited excitement. Now sometimes if you apply that, you might sound excited about something that you're not excited. So one, two. Yes. Sometimes there are cultures where going higher in pitch, you know, speaking a little louder, using high pitches, using varied musicality is perceived as rude or over the top or show offy. In Hebrew, for example, my language, you know, Hebrew is very monotone. There isn't all this, you know, like the way I speak right now in English. If I were to say that in Hebrew, I would sound overly excited. Okay, so, so yes, like even when we're excited in Hebrew, like the. The intonation tends to be a little flatter or the tone is different. If I were to use that tone in English, I would actually sound indifferent and vice versa. So the answer is yes, but no. Like because someone who's excited, the pitch always goes up. Right. Someone who's happy is not going to use this pitch in any language. So there are universal sounds, but at the same time there are some things that we need to be aware of. Okay, Good, let's continue. Using low pitch sounds rude, but for Russians is such just affirmative and confident. Yes, Natalia, absolutely right. A lot of times, you know, there is the stereotype that Russians can sound maybe disinterested or like you said, aggressive or straight to the point, whereas they bring it from a culture that this tone of voice is affirmative and. And confident. Right. And it's just misinterpreted within that cultural mixture. Okay, so when it comes to using tone of voice, intonation and all of that, you do you right. So I really don't want you to change if it doesn't serve you. But understanding the circumstances and the room you're in is really important. So if you know that using your a tone of voice that is common in your native language or intonation pattern that is common in your native language in English would get people to feel feelings that you don't want them to feel, it doesn't serve you. So while we want to speak like ourselves and be authentic, it's okay to do small tweaks. Learn how to make it your own so you can get what you want, so you can make people feel the way you want them to make feel the way that resonates and lands, you know, in a way that makes them feel aligned with your Message. That's the thing. Pronunciation and prosody and an accent. All this accent work is like a costume. You can put it on and take it off based on what you need and who you're speaking with. I've told that story many times before, but there are a lot of new people here, so I'm going to say it again. When I speak in English, I use this is my natural, you know, speech and accent. Right. I can increase it and make it even more American if you. If I want to. Right. I can bring my voice a little closer to the back and, you know, my Rs are a little stronger. It's not. It's not as comfortable for me. So, like, this is a comfortable place for me to be in. At the same time, when I speak to people who have, you know, who find it harder to understand this pronunciation, I might go to something a little more flat. And I use all the sounds really clearly, right? Like this. And because they associate, you know, these are sounds that are familiar, right? Activity instead of activity. And then it's easier for me to express what I need to express because I know how it will land with them. Okay, so how can I improve prosody? Well, as I said, like in my programs, we go deep into understanding all those elements. And then you go deep in practice. Like you build pronunciation confidence practices, each and every one of them. When you're doing it on your own, the first thing I want you to do is to understand those elements. Perception. Become more aware of it, okay. And then try to imitate it. Create repetition. Just like the pronunciation confidence method. I'll explain how to do that with prosody as well. But imitation exercises in shadowing or are excellent for that. Okay, let us continue. So in short, so we talked about priorities in pronunciation, right? And again, the workbook will have everything that you need and help you do this process of prioritizing your speech need, high, medium, and low. And now we talked about prosody as well. Now when it comes to pronunciation, confidence, method in pronunciation. So prioritizing what you're going to do in the workbook, then perception, making sure that you recognize it like we talked about it. Production, learning how to produce it. I have a lot of videos that teach all the sounds. So if you need to, we will direct you to those relevant videos. Repetition. Create lists. Say you want to practice a certain sound. Create lists of words, right? Words, phrases, sentences. And repeat those every single day. Even if it's just 10 minutes a day, right? Intentional practice. After you've been creating this new habit, you need to know how to practice how to use it spontaneously. This is where most people get stuck when they know how to use it. They practice it a lot, but then it doesn't come out naturally when they speak. And for that, I would recommend using intentional practice, where you speak deliberately, right? Which means that you're not just like having conversation to think about what you're going to say. It needs to be an insignificant conversation, either with yourself or someone you can trust. Not at work, for example, and focus on the one thing that you're practicing, whether it's the th or melody or stressing the keywords in a sentence by going higher pitch, but you're speaking a little slower. And there is like a part of you that is looking from the outside and paying attention to, to those things that you're trying to improve. So that's intentional practice. Moving on to pronunciation, confidence in vocabulary. But before that, let's take a sweet moment to see where you're at. If you have any questions. For those of you who don't have the workbook, check your email, check your promotions tab or spam folder. If you signed up for this, this event, then we have your email and we sent it out. Also, the team here is sending it in the chat on Facebook and I think on YouTube too, so. Or the website. So just look at the chat, the YouTube or the Facebook chat. Okay. The tone of voice of my native language that I don't like, and I try to change it. So let's use different language because that tone of voice has served you, served you well in your native language. So not liking you would be like resenting your own language. And we don't want that because your language has brought you a lot of good things. But instead of changing it, you want to acquire, you know, the ability of using your voice in. Or the freedom to use it differently. Right? You don't need to change it because you, you want to keep it for. For other situations, but you want to have the freedom, the vocal freedom to play with it so you can, you know, sound a certain way in a certain situation automatically. You're asking really great questions. So Yelena is collecting now your questions. She's going to put it in the doc for me. We also have questions from the Q and A form that some of you have submitted your questions there. So it's. It's good. Why is it so hard to. Okay, Maria is asking why is it so hard to do the D in order? Let's keep it for the. To the end. Okay, I'll answer pronunciation questions at the end. Don't forget that we have an implementation workshops workshop about pronunciation confidence method, in particular pronunciation with Christina. I think tomorrow, correct me if I'm wrong, Jelena. The second implementation workshop is going to be next after today. Not today, tomorrow. And it's going to be about this. If you have any questions about pronunciation, go to the implementation workshop or come to the coaching session with me on Sunday so I can be more specific with you. Okay, good. Would you like to hear how to use the pronunciation confidence method in improving your vocabulary? Let me know. Or are you too tired and you want to talk about pronunciation, right? Pronunciation or vocabulary? Internal voice is very, very low. I have to yell in order. I just have to answer this question. By the way, if you click the link above the video, I think it's there. But if you click the link, I would be able to see your name. Otherwise, it's Facebook user. I still love you. I just don't know your name. My tone of voice is very low. I have to yell in order for people to hear it. How to work on it. It's not your tone of voice. It's your voice. Tone of voice is the emotion or your attitude towards what you're saying. Like, I can say really, really, right? And I can say it also really low. Really, really, right? So it was still tone of voice, but I also placed my actual voice first in the middle. I can then down below. I can also speak here. Really, really, right? And then that intonation indicates a certain attitude or feeling about what it is that I'm saying. Your voice and how you use it. And this is such a good point that you're saying like, my voice is too low. People can't hear me. And then I feel like I have to scream. It's just that your voice is not in the most optimal way. Voice conversation is huge, right? It's huge. I have a few videos about it. We're going to share it in the group and on the website. So we need to share videos about intonation and voice on the website. But ideally, you want to learn how to use your optimal voice. And if your voice is too low, it's not your optimal voice. Your optimal voice is where your voice is most comfortable at and resonates the best. And usually it's a place where people hear you easily in a room. Right? So right now I am in my studio. There is like a few feet away from me, there is the wall. If people were to sit there, then they would still hear me. Because I'm projecting my voice. I'm using my voice in a way that is effortless. I don't feel like I'm, you know, ruining my voice by speaking, and I'm still going to get heard, but if I were to speak here, right, A little lower in pitch, people would not hear me. You. You automatically hear my voice, that my voice is a little different now. Speaking louder here would make me strain my voice and hurt my voice, and I would lose my voice eventually because I'm not using it in an optimal way. I recently released a video about using your voice in an optimal way. And there's a lot that goes into the voice. There are a lot of books that I recommend. In fact, in New Sound, we have an entire module just around the voice and using it optimally and expressly. So I want you to understand that it's not your fault. People usually feel uncomfortable with their voice, but it's not. Not something like, you don't need to change your voice. A lot of people change their voice to sound more American or to not sound like they are in their native language. And I want to shift it away. Right? Like, I want you to know that you don't need to sound American and change your voice for that. You just need to use your voice in an optimal way. And for that, you want to use your middle voice. So you project it, and it's effortless. Okay. Cute cup. Both. Why is it that I could not join the Facebook group? Try joining again and write in the comments that you tried before and you couldn't get in. Just in case. We want to make sure that we're not. That we're accepting. Sometimes if people try to join the Facebook group and they don't accept the. The rules or they don't respond at all, and if you don't have a profile picture or something like that, we might decline it. But if you try again and tell and answer the questions, we would definitely accept you to the group. Okay, so what did you say? Both. Vocabulary. Pronunciation. Vocabulary. We have a lot of pronunciation geeks here. You're just like me. Okay. It's like singing. Both, both, both. Okay. A lot of vocabulary, too. Okay. And also it's in the slide, so, you know, I'm going to teach it anyway. Right? A question to get you to answer. And yet I will still do what I plan to do. Okay. No, we will talk more about pronunciation in the implementation workshop and on Sunday. So don't worry. I told you, pronunciation is my thing. I cannot stop talking about pronunciation. Vocabulary Remember the five step method. We start with prioritizing. What does that mean, to prioritize your vocabulary? A. It means that you need to understand that there are four types of vocabulary lists. One, words we know and use. That's your active vocabulary. That's our pride and joy, right? The inner circle words you know and you use, they're easily retrieved. And usually these are very basic. Like the core, core, core of this circle is, you know, house, chair, man, boy. The words that we learn first, you know, and we need to, we use them all the time when we communicate. And then we have fancier words that we start growing, right? More essential words that we start growing. The idea is to expand our active vocabulary. That's the inner circle. That's group number one. Group number two is words you know but barely use. Okay? You know it. If you were to read it, you would understand it. If you were to hear it, you would understand it. But you barely use it because it's not available. You forget it when needed, and that creates frustration. Words you don't know but need, that's the next circle. So you don't even know how to say them in English, but you use them in your native language, for example. And then you have the fancy circle, which is words you don't know and you probably don't need. And the illusion of learning. I see it all the time, people making, learning all these fancy words, and they would, they never find time to use it. They're, like, still struggling sometimes with, you know, retrieving more basic words. So their conversation is limited, yet they know all these fancy words. That does not serve you. That is not the 20%, my friend. The 20%, right, is the word list that you create words from your passive vocabulary. That means circle number two, words you know but barely use. We call it the passive vocabulary. And circle three words you don't know but need. Okay, that's your 20%. And you want to start curating a word list. Every time you come across a word, you put it on the list. You know, like your notes on your phone, you put it on your list. You hear me using a word, you hear. You know, you watch tv, you hear someone using a word, and you're like, I, I, I always hear this word. I know what it means. I just never use it. It goes on your list, right? You're like, you're trying to communicate, and then you get stuck because you can't think of a word. And then you have to Google it and you discover a new word. Mistakes are a golden Opportunity to learn and improve. Because when you get stuck, it means that there is a word that is missing and you need to look it up and put it on your list. Don't just give up and say, oh, I got stuck, I sucked that, yada, yada, yada, all of that. Instead, take action. Be proactive. Go Google the word. Find what is the word that you missed and if it's a new word, put it on your list. Your 20%. Try to keep the list short. We're not. We're not a fan, right? We're not fans of long lists. If Your list hits 50 words, stop collecting words until you start integrating some of those words right? And don't try to memorize the entire list. Focus on one or two words a day. The illusion of learning is memorizing the entire list. It's ineffective. You're not building pronunciation confidence. Focusing on one word or two words a day or four words a week will probably get you there faster then perception. I want you to ask yourself, you know, how is it used in. I'm missing something here. As you can see, see how the word is used in English. So you can go to the dictionary and check it. Go to youglish. See how people use this word, right? You can check how the word is used in your native language if it makes it easier for you. So we're gonna, we're gonna go back to this slide because it's less awkward, right? Perception. See how it's used in your native language, right? Maybe there are nuances that you need to be aware of. Develop your perception. And usually I would recommend just listening to a lot of examples with this word and then pronunciation and production. Repetition. That's the step, right? Like repetition. Know how to pronounce it. Look for the phonetic transcription of the word. Right? Pay attention to the number of syllables and the primary stress. Because sometimes we. A lot of times when we talk about passive vocabulary, it's when we don't know how to retrieve the word. It's not that we don't know we know how to retrieve the word, but we're so afraid of mispronouncing it that we don't use it. The brain is like, no, no, I'm going to ignore this word because I might say it wrongly, right? So knowing how to pronounce it is key. Write it in a way that makes sense to. You don't have to use that. IPA repetition. Take that word and say it 20, 30 times. I kid you not. I have a video that I do it with. You Would post a link to it 20, 30 times. Say it out loud. Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. Then find two, three examples like I said, say it out loud. And then create your own sentence. Say it out loud. Don't write it down. Just try to invent a sentence using that word and say it out loud. Production and repetition. That's building pronunciation confidence. Then intentional speaking. Plan a conversation where you can use this word intentionally. If you don't have friends that you can just impose conversation topics on, then talk to yourself. Think of a topic that you can discuss where you might use this word. And remember it's a word that you probably need in your day to day life. So it's a useful word. And speak and use it deliberately and try to use it several times. Right. Use the word intentionally. Do not skip that step. It's probably one of the most important steps because it bridges the gap between the practice and the real life experience. Okay, moving on to pronunciation confidence method in grammar. Everything is in the workbook. This and it's outlined there. And there is a drill that we invite you to do. Okay, so we invite you to take action in the workbook and do it with things that you need to work on. I'm just going to read the comments. Use Google to hear how to properly, properly pronounce the word. Yes. Use Google. Use youglish. Do you guys know you Glish? PCM is the pronunciation confidence method. It's the method that I, that I explained at the beginning or all throughout this session. It's how you turn something from. I know, I know. We lose focus often. Just going to take a step back and then it's going to be easier. Okay. Okay. So pronunciation confidence method in grammar. But and I see some questions here that are coming up. I'm going to, I'm going to answer all the questions. We're almost done. And then we have a Q and A. Pronunciation confidence. If you want to improve your grammar, if you received a low score, you gave yourself a low score in grammar, then you need to use this method to improve your grammar. And how do we do that? Of course, we start with prioritizing. Identify the challenges, identify the grammar forms or tenses that you avoid or that get you stuck. Okay, so let's say you want to start speaking and then you find yourself getting stuck because you don't know how to structure something. You want to put it on your list. That's your 20%. Don't open a grammar book and look at all the tenses and say, hey, I don't Know this because sometimes you don't know this tense and it doesn't affect your life because you don't think about it. You have alternative for it. Alternatives for it. And you're still clear, right? So there are a lot of fancy tenses that you're not aware of. Maybe you've learned it in school, but you're like, it's not in your day to day use, but it doesn't stop you or prevent you from speaking from being clear or using, you know, fairly decent and correct grammar. Okay? So put on your list only the things that either you avoid or you're confused about or that get you stuck. Then this is an important part. Understand the gap. Understand why a certain grammar form or tense poses a challenge to you and what the difference is between it and how it is used in your first language. Let me explain. In Russian, there is no such thing as articles. A. Okay? In English, we have it before every single noun, almost so singular noun, and not only plural noun as well. So we use articles in English, but in Russian. And maybe I'm not 100% accurate, maybe there are articles, but they're not in the same. I don't speak Russian, not in the same use as in English. And I know this because I recognize the mistakes that Russian speakers make. Because what happens is that a lot of Russians, especially in beginning stages, may drop articles when speaking. They may drop and un. Because in their brain, the way the brain works, there is no need for article. So something in the brain filters out all those articles when they hear English, because there is no need for that. The brain is tricky. I told you, you need to develop awareness. And as a result, there is no, like, you're not producing it. So this is, this is the gap. Once you understand that, you're like, oh, I understand where my pitfall is. I know what to look for and I know how to practice it, and I know how to become more aware of it, okay? And that's how you improve your perception. You need to be an investigator, a detective when it comes. When you're a learner, right? When you are like, a new sound speaker is a detective. And a new sound speaker, not new sound, a new speaker of English confusing all the news. But a new speaker of English is someone who is responsible for their actions and their choices, remember? And they know how to control their journey and how to create freedom in their journey. So understanding how to identify those things, this is not something difficult. You don't need to be a linguistic to do that. You just need to ask Yourself the right questions. Does it exist in my language? What is so confusing here? What, what is different? How is my brain processing information differently? You know, and this is why I think, you know, talking about learning from, with native speakers and non native speakers, the main difference between the two methods, right, like what, what I, you know, what I advance all the time, is that you have to work from the mistake, the place of the mistake, not the rule. And a lot of times, the way English was taught, you know, conventional teaching is all about this is the rule, and you need to do it, right? You need to follow the rule, just do it. Easier said than done, right? The person who said that was obviously not a non native speaker of English, definitely not a new speaker of English. Because you, to be able to understand something, you have to operate from the place of the mistake, understanding the gap, and then you can take a detour. You do it with pronunciation, you do it with vocabulary, you do it with grammar, right? Like, this is what I want to think. This is what I want to hear. This is what I need to hear. This is what I want to produce. This is what I need to produce. Okay? Now, I know you create new connections in your brain, but to get somewhere, you have to understand your starting point. You have to understand where you're operating from. And if you don't get that, it's going to be very hard to internalize all those new rules and all those things you're trying to learn. So part of the working smarter, not harder, is understanding, is working from the gap, is working from the mistake. Okay? Pronunciation. Say it out loud. Even with grammar. Say it out loud. Get used to, like, understanding what you need to do to put the, or the, the right. Or the entire structure. Could've, would've. Right again, if it doesn't, even if it's grammar, if it doesn't feel right in your mouth, you might avoid it, you might feel uncomfortable using it. And sometimes it has nothing to do with the grammar form. It has to do with how it comes out of your mouth. It. And this is why it's all integrated together. Say it out loud. Say it out loud. Understand the pronunciation. Be the investigator, right? Pay close attention to the sounds and how words connect to each other, especially with grammar, especially with structures. Think of structures as words, right? I could have like, could have, right? Usually pronounced as coulda. You know, when do we use it? What are the situations? And. And if I think of it as one word, it's easier for me to process it. And I might use, you know, the same Method repetition. Creating new speaking habits. So like I said, don't just understand it. Don't just solve tasks. Right. Or answer quizzes and expect yourself to use that grammar. You got to build pronunciation confidence. Right? If I haven't. Repetition. If I haven't said that, you need to do it. So find 5, 6 examples. Repeat it out loud. Create your own examples. Repeat the sentences out loud. Like we do with the sprints. If you haven't done the sprints, they're on my website, the event website. Repetition. Repeat phrases one after another, after another, after another. And then the structure with, within the context starts making sense subconsciously, right? That repetition is everything. And then intentional speaking. So let's say you practice the future. Perfect, right? I will have finished, you know, by the time we're done, I will have finished talking about everything that I want to talk about. Right? Intentional speaking. So if you want to practice it, you need to create situations where you would actually use that tense. You could do it with friends or, you know, in conversation groups or on your own. It's very valid to practice it on your own. So. So intentional speaking is key. Okay. And again, like everything is in the workbook. Use the grammar form or tense several times during the day in a conversation or even just for practice. Okay, good. Now what we're going to do is. We are. How are you feeling? Was that helpful? Before we continue, was that helpful? Royka wants me to repeat the challenge. I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk about that in a sec. Let me see in the comments what was helpful? What did you understand today? Anna says repetition. There's one thing you need to take from this is repetition. By the way, we're going to talk about repetition when we're trying to create new thought patterns and new connections in the brain when it comes to mindset and attitude. Because all that negative self talk, the reason why it has become negative self talk is because of repetition of the negative talks. And that has become a reality, you know, feeling like we're not good enough or you know, our pronunciation sucks. But it can be solved by repetition, creating new connections. So we do the same thing with thoughts, building pronunciation confidence with thoughts. But we can call it that because that would be too weird. There's no pronunciation there. Okay, yes, yes, yes. Teaching is repeating. Can you help us make an English speaking group? I already have. We have the Influency community and the English Fluency Festival group. These are two incredible groups with speaking clubs and speaking opportunities. So take advantage of it. They're both absolutely free Keep the list short. Yes to that. What if we have Diana, can you repeat the questions I don't like? What if we have reluctance to repeat? If you don't, I mean, ask yourself, what do you want to gain, right? And how can you make it fun? So if you feel like repeating it in front of the computer, every single day is tedious and boring. How can you make it fun? Maybe you can do a workout with it. Maybe you can dance, you know, and could have, would've, could've, you know, a workout. And then start turning like, or you know, adding words into your vocabulary. Using your body, for example, or using songs. Find a way that gets you, you excited. But understand that if you're reluctant to use repetition, then you might be stuck in a plateau and with that gap that you're unable to bridge. Because I have yet to see someone who is able to use English freely without building pronunciation confidence, without having the speaking practice, without building speaking habits. I have yet to see. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I have yet to see them. And I've came across many different speakers throughout the years. Okay, Royka wants me to talk about the prize, what you can do to win a free month and beyond. By the way, speaking of speaking groups and English practice groups, this is our English practice community. It's amazing. Amazing. And we find creative, innovative ways to practice. For example, there is an acting course going on there next week. Four week acting course. It just happens to be in English. It's not about English, it's about acting. So doors are closed. I'm not trying to promote it. We are. But right now, this is what you're gonna get if you win tomorrow's Today's challenge. Today's challenge is sharing a story or a post on Instagram. You need to follow me first. Hadar Accentsway. Share a story with the hashtag fluencyfest and with. And you need to tag me so I see it. Okay, all of these things need to happen so you can get into the raffle. Then tomorrow, right before the session, we do a raffle and we, you know, one, one of the participants gets selected and they will win one month and beyond. We'll announce it tomorrow. Okay, I'm reading the questions. Hold on. So if you have questions, you can ask them in the comments. And Elena is going to help me find questions that we can answer. I have heard, Mohab says, I have heard that if anyone practiced speaking for about 700 hours, he would be fluent. So is it like an equation or is it a result of a Lot of experience or is it a rumor? May we have your viewpoint? I think you're referring to the fact maybe this. I haven't heard about this. And it's referring to maybe the fact that also there is like the 10,000 hour rule that if you want to get an expert in something, you just need to do it for 10,000 hours. Um, so of course, the more you do something, the better you get, right? However, remember the fluency wheel, right? And there are six pillars to fluency, and speaking time is one of them. So let's say that we are only working on speaking time, and of course it's going to affect your confidence, but let's say. And your grammar may improve, but you also need to work on grammar in a different way, like the one I described today, to be able to improve your grammar. And if you're not doing that, you might stay. You might be fluent and free and words will be accessible because of this practice time, but you might still struggle with basic things like grammar or pronunciation. And sometimes it's not a big deal, and sometimes it is. If it affects your clarity, it is. So I would say that. I would say it sounds interesting, but with a caveat that it really depends on the speaker. It really depends on how they're using their English and if they're using intentional speaking. Right? I mean, you know, I know so. So many of my students, and probably people here, I've seen it in the group, have lived in the US for so long they've been speaking and still they're here because they feel like there is a part in English that they haven't figured out just yet, right? What is it? That's intentional practice, not just repetition of something that you already know how to do, which is, you know, use just the active speech. Speaking. Speaking more could also be the illusion of learning. No, I'm speaking all day, right? But still you're not going deep. I'm going to give you this example because I love it. Some of you might have already heard it, you know, when we type on the computer, right? Like, we. We probably have forgotten how to write, right? But so we all type on the computer or our phone. And think of the experience. We have typing hours, hundreds of hours, sometimes hundreds of hours every month of typing practice. And yet we still have typos and we need the spell checker to make sure, like that to fix it. I can personally attest this is something that I struggle with. I have a lot of typos because I type really, really fast and I don't pay attention to it and I've never learned it. Now I have a ton of experience typing, yet I still make the same freaking mistakes. Why is that? Because I haven't taken a moment and said, no, no, no. I need to figure out why I make those mistakes. I need to learn touch typing. I need to teach my fingers to go to the right letters when I need them to and not my fingers to do whatever the heck they want out of habit. I need to create new typing habits. It takes time and repetition and practice. And probably it wasn't that important to me. Of course, if I were to do it, I'd be super thrilled and it would save me a lot of time. But I haven't figured out my why and I'm not that passionate about it. And I get by okay with Grammarly and word tune. That fixes my typos. That fix my typos. So this is the example of why just speaking more may not really help you go deeper and become an expert. Because you need to go deeper, right? You need to understand what are your tendencies. Does that resonate with you? The typing analogy. Okay. Chan says, I replied to an email from your team with two questions related to English pronunciation. Okay. So we would collect those questions and the team is probably going to help you with that as well. Touch typing, something I had really to sit down on. I learned how to type using an old, timely keyboard. Yeah. Marlon is asking, are we going to discuss how to address the mental block or losing train of thoughts when speaking? Oh, yes. I save it to day number three because I want you to get comfortable with me. But to me, it's probably the most important day. Tomorrow is about mindset and it's the most important day. Okay, so if you're watching the replay, know that day three is a day that you don't want to miss. Okay, Another question. How new do you have to be to English to call yourself a new speaker? Amazing question. So, Vince, I think a new speaker is an identity and an attitude and a way of learning. It's not about your level of English because the new speakers of English don't determine their worth or their English worth based on their level. It's based on their ability to communicate in giving themselves the opportunity to communicate and to speak. Right. And this is why even a person who's just starting out on their English journey can. Can use the new way of, you know, reaching fluency and owning the identity and working on mindset and working on effective practice that what makes a person a new speaker rather Than, you know, the old way of learning English and the identity of the non native speaker. What is voice placement? Voice placement is literally where your voice is placed. So the voice is produced here in your vocal box, and it's a little box, and it's created here by the vocal folds. Now, when it's created, it has this buzzing sound. It's not the voice that we're used to hearing. So the voice to be produced, it needs a few things. It needs energy, and that is the breath. It needs the vibrator, which is the vocal cords that vibrate against each other. The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch, and vice versa. And then we need resonators for the word, for the voice to bounce around and amplify. Amplify. So the sound waves, they kind of like travel around, and if they don't have where to bounce, you won't. The voice is not going to be powerful. But, you know, you have a lot of resonators. Everything you everywhere. You have air inside your body. Your nose, sinuses, your mouth, your vocal box, larynx, and the pharynx, which is the throat. All of these places are resonators. Now, also, we have bones in our body that vibrate as well. Once the sound wave hit the bones, they start vibrating as well. So the bones down here, they vibrate better with lower notes. So when we go low, we feel the vibrations here. When we go high, we feel it here in these bones. So that is how the voice travels. So right now I can place my voice inside the main resonator, which is my mouth. I can place my voice in my nose. Right. So it has that Fran Drescher, that nasal quality. Because my voice now is placed in my nose, I'm shifting it there. I can also move it to the chest, and it resonates here or my throat. So it changes the quality of the voice and it changes the placement. And I can also speak here. Now, I believe that there is no placement for English. Right. The placement changes according to where you're at, what you're doing, and also what your body is, the structure of your. Your body. However, I have come to learn that the best placement for the voice is around here because that's where your big resonators are. So if you're only in your chest or you're only in your head, your voice tends to be a little weaker. Higher and lower as well, but weaker too, because it doesn't resonate in like those big places. Okay, so that's voice placement. Okay, great. Nasir is saying, I'M I'm in. I'm from India. And when I try to speak closer to American or British accent, people say that I'm exaggerating. Okay, so good point. Hold on, let me fix. Just touched. Okay. Two things. One, people don't like it when people close to them start changing something about how they sound because it meets them in their most insecure place. So when friends and family hear you changing your pronunciation, or even fellow Nate speakers, you know, of your language who share the same pronunciation or way of speaking as you, and all of a sudden they hear you shift away because of course, it has this, you know, Persona of, oh, you're shifting your accent. Sometimes you're. You're trying to be someone that you're not. Right. They don't understand the whole deeper discussion around that you're trying to be someone that you're not. You're patronizing when you're, oh, we're not good enough for you anymore. Our sounds are not good enough for you. You're trying to be someone different. They associate it with being fake, right? They're basically projecting their own perception and fears onto you because you're doing something that they maybe want inside of themselves because. But they don't have the courage to do it. Or they have limiting beliefs around what it means to speak in a different way, and those limiting beliefs block them from being able to do it. And then they project it onto you. So that's one reason, another reason, and that really depends on who you are as a speaker. Sometimes, you know, when we're trying to learn new sounds, there is a state of mind stage where it is a little more artificial because these are not your natural sounds. It's the stage where you learn something, but you haven't made it your own. You haven't built pronunciation confidence. And that stage is raw, and there's tension there. And there is sometimes a lot of effort, and sometimes we are uncomfortable because it's not our own. So it shows in other ways. Like we get agitated, we are agitated or nervous. We don't feel comfortable. And energetically, people feel it. Right? So maybe it's also something about your process of acquiring those sounds that you haven't completed yet that has made it difficult for you to feel effortless and sometimes to sound effortless. And maybe that's what people recognize, and they don't know how to put their finger. It just sounds fake to them. Right. And it doesn't mean that you need to stop. It means that it's part of the process and you need to embrace it and understand that what they think has nothing to do with you. It's none of their business what you do. And their opinion is not going to help you communicate better, get better opportunities, make a difference, make an impact. Their opinions or pleasing them is not going to serve you in any way. It's not just about English, and you all know that. Freaking scary to do things that other people don't approve. But you need to keep doing those things if these are the things that would serve you. Okay, so I hope I answered your question so I would do my best to own those sounds, and I would also do my best if I were you, to understand that whatever they're saying has to do with them. It has nothing to do with you. And you keep doing you, you do you boo. Okay, Hadar, do you have any tips on how we could handle or prevent people from our own culture from branding us pretentious or conceited when we try to speak? Yeah. So two questions about the same thing, same answer. Well, not really, because here you're really talking about the attitude. More specifically about the attitude. So I responded to both. Are you going to discuss how to address the mental block when speaking? Oh, Marlon, I saw this question. Yes. Preeti is asking difference between accent, pronunciation and enunciation. Oh, good question. So an accent is based on where you're from. So it depends. Like, even in the US Alone, you have different accents. You have a New York accent, a Boston accent, a Southern accent. Right? So it's a set of sounds, intonation patterns, sometimes language, sometimes certain idioms, expressions, grammar that is slightly different, Right. Black American, for example. So it has. Sometimes it has different grammatical structures. It's not bad. English. It's just a different dialect. Right. And I would right now use a dialect interchangeably. The difference is really like, in dialect, the grammar is different, sometimes the words are different, vocabulary is different. So that would be an accent. Everyone has an accent. This idea of speak without an accent is bullshit. Forgive my language, because it doesn't exist. It's just like speak with an accent that is different than your own accent. Right? Speak with a standard accent or, you know, like a British accent, standard American, or received pronunciation, even British. There is no British. There is. Even in England. There are hundreds and hundreds of different accents. Pronunciation is the production of the sounds. Right. What exactly you do with all your articulation organs, like the lips, the tongue, the jaw. Right. All of that and how you produce the sounds. And enunciation is usually the quality of your speech. It's how you articulate it. Articulate it. So even, let's say a T sound. Right. Is produced in a certain way, and there are several ways to produce it. T. T. Right. And enunciation is really the quality of how you pronounce it. And usually when you work on your enunciation, it's. It's a lot of it has to do with working on specifically consonants and how you project your voice and you project the sounds. So technically, enunciation and pronunciation is quite similar, but pronunciation is more general about the phonemes and, like, the sounds and how it's organized. And enunciation is really what you're doing with. It's how you're pronouncing those sounds. Right. And clear enunciation is usually more crisp, the muscles are stronger, and. And. And a lot of times it sounds like either. Well, it depends on the language, and it depends on what you're trying to say. So I'm not. I'm not going to say that like, I don't want to go a little too deep, but to wrap it up, that's the main difference. Are all the words you use in the Sprint common words that we should learn? Yes. We usually don't bring to the Sprint words that are not in common use. However, if I practice with you a word that you're like, I don't get this word. I don't use this word. I don't need it. Cross it off and move on. Right. Don't do something that doesn't serve you. If you feel that it's not right for you, just don't do it. But generally speaking, we're very particular about the idioms, expressions, words, and sounds that we choose. We try to focus on the 20%. The 20% we outline is what we see people struggle with the most from all backgrounds. Okay, Hector, what if I want to learn new words, but in my home and work environment, I don't have the opportunity to use these words intentionally. So create situations for yourself where you might need to use it. And if you don't have anyone to speak with, then first of all, maybe start a practice group, maybe join an existing practice group, maybe host one that you would create situations where the conversation is a lot more broad than just talking about the project at work. And how was your day at work when you're at home or at work so you want to create, you got to be proactive about it, right? The new speaker is proactive. So you either create situations, or every day you wake up in the morning and you record yourself answering a certain question and deliberately using one of the words on your list. After doing the entire process right, create situations. You're all, you, you're all very creative, you guys. The moment you understand the foundations and the ground rules of what would happen, help you move forward. It would be really easy for you to come up with situations. If you know that you gotta, you gotta use intentional practice. You need to do what it takes to do it. Speak to yourself, speak to your dog, speak in the bathroom, speak to people, friends, colleagues, whatever. But you know that you need to use it intentionally so you'll do it right. And have integrity. If you say to yourself that you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it. Do what you say you're going to do. Integrity is a huge part of our learning process. Okay, Katya is asking, is it okay to ask native speakers to give us pronunciation feedback? If they're your teachers, then yes. If they're not your teachers, probably not. Why? First of all, it's going to make them feel uncomfortable, especially Americans. It's, it's going to be considered impolite to comment on unless they're very close to you, but it's going to be considered impolite to comment on your pronunciation. Tell me what you're telling you, what you're doing wrong. A B, you want them to be engaged in the conversation and not in your pronunciation as a person, you know, I think that it would give you a lot more freedom when you know that you're not constantly being monitored. I know that you think it's going to help you, but when you get scattered feedback, inconsistent, sometimes inaccurate, because number three is that native speakers can hear that a word is mispronounced, but they can't tell you what it is that is, you know, off. They would say, I don't know, this word sounded kind of funny, but I don't, you know, you need to say it differently so it doesn't serve you, it doesn't help you, and sometimes it just makes you feel self conscious about this word. So instead I would say be proactive if you want feedback and teach yourself to recognize the challenges. Like I said, part of my training process, usually when we go deeper, but you'll see that this is how I teach it in my videos. Learn to spot the mistake, right? If you're working on a specific sound, know what you, you want to expect and know where you're stuck, right? Know your current pronunciation habit, know how your brain thinks and know what to expect. And then if you record yourself and listen back and say, okay, usually I use I want to use er, but then I often use ra. Right. And you pay attention to it, you know what to expect, then it makes it a lot easier for you to give yourself feedback. And that is so much more powerful than a random stranger telling you that your opportunity did not sound right. But they don't know how. And again, like, there are exceptions. There are people who are on point and friendly and they know how to do it. But usually these people end up being speech coaches because it's a talent to be able to listen and to detect. Or they're linguists or something that around language. Yes. Is Sprint help? Zara is asking, is Sprint helping with pronunciation? Well, try it out and do tell me, but the way I believe and the way I've seen with my students, the answer is yes. But you need to see if it's effective for you, because for some people it's not, for a lot of others it is, but it's very, very individual. The reason why I find it effective is because of this idea of repetition and that it's fun. Okay. And the link is on it. Thank you, cece, for helping other members. I don't know if cece is your name, but you just help Erica know where to find the link. And I find it really moving that you're helping other people to figure out what to do. Okay. Do you have specific classes for people from different countries? It will be easier to understand the mistakes that they are making. So here's the thing. We have like a method where it's not just about. There is a set of challenges that speakers, that all speakers face. Right. And usually what we do is we share certain lessons and we say this might be relevant for you. If that's what happens in your language, and it may not be relevant for you, you don't need to watch it if you speak these languages or this is not a challenge for you. We guide people to understand better their languages. It's all linguistics, it's all phonology. Right. Like how your language is compared with English, the phonology of English. So we don't need to have groups. And I think diversity is key in our communities and the way we teach. I think when you have diversity, you'll learn how to listen to English better, to recognize or to understand different people with different sounds. Right. Each. Each. You know, listening to people with non standard accent is an excellent way to broaden your horizons, improve your perception. So we don't believe in grouping, but I do. You know, I make videos about 10 pronunciation mistakes that Spanish Speakers make right challenges for them. Yes, of course, there is a set of challenges that are more, you know, that are more helpful for certain speakers. But usually the path that we take our students in is a path that is designed to help most people and then, you know, branches that people can go on their own based on their language. So there are a lot of sounds. For example, if I'm thinking of my program, there are key sounds that are relevant probably for 90% or 95% of the speakers. And there is like 5% or 10% of sounds that are really different depending on the language. And this is something that is not in the core training, but they have access to it because, you know, it's not the 20% for everyone. So I wouldn't want you to learn about the S if you don't have any issues with the S, because that would be the illusion of learning. Yeah, I'm practicing. Yes, but you never, you know, mispronounce it. Why bother? Why practice it? Okay. Hadar, Hadar, Hadar. Thank you. I could cry just like I felt so much love from this small comment. I get it. Okay. Katya. No, Wabi. How do we make transition from dark L to light L? Save it. To the implementation workshop about pronunciation. Okay. Because we are about. I think we're about. Yeah, we're done. So I think we're gonna wrap up. Let's see. Can you please give me some insight of acting, how to nail audition Fidu. I'm gonna try to keep it, but I'll try to answer it later on. It's very, very specific, so I don't think it's going to be specifically relevant. Plus, we're done with the Q and A, so thank you so much for being here, everyone. It was amazing to have you. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's try. Let's try something here. Let's try. Stay here. Don't go anywhere. Share screen. Okay, now. Chrome tab. YouTube. Hold on, hold on. Don't watch. We need some music at the end. I haven't heard this in a while. And I used to open my. The. My English show, the live English show. I forgot how it was called. I used to open it. I used to open the show with this music, and all of a sudden I feel like I want to hear it. So let me. Is it here? Okay, so let's play music, and I'll speak on the music. I love this group. Okay. Liking the show. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being here today. I love seeing you. Now you can see, like the captions going up, the titles, this cruel title. Okay, thank you so much. I loved spending today with you at. As you know, pronunciation is my thing, and pronunciation comes in this method. I live by it. I can't stop talking about it because I know it's super helpful, and it has helped so many of my students. Download the workbook, give it a chance, see the impact, and then decide if it's for you or not. At least give it a try. Right? You are the new speaker of English. You're open. You trust that there is a better way. This is a better way. All right, guys, gonna dance it out until. Until we wrap up this broadcast. Don't forget to participate in the Instagram challenge. Tag me hashtag communityfest. Share it. Maybe join one month and beyond. You're gonna love it. See you tomorrow at the same time. Tomorrow, we're gonna talk about mindset. All right, have a good time. Done. Bye.