July 4th special 💫How to pronounce 4th of July & Fireworks [and learn about SILENT FIREWORKS🤫🎆 ]

Hello.

Hello, my friends. It's Hadar and this is the Accents way. Welcome to today's fourth of July special. We're going to talk about how to pronounce fourth of July and fireworks. And then I have a special guest on the show, my student, Shirley Kantor, who's going to talk about her passion project, Silent Fireworks. Curious. So stay with us. Fourth of July is comprised of three words. The first word is the truth trickiest because it has an R in it and a th. Everyone's favorites. So you start with an F sound and then it's the or as in four, of course, because it's fourth. So make sure that you pronounce the O sound clearly before you bring the tongue up for the R.4.4. So it doesn't sound like firth. Firth. Because then some people may think it's first. Right, So F. Keep the tongue down after the F sound. Fa until you hear a clean, clear O sound. And then you lift the tongue up for the R. For once you hear the R sound, bring the tongue out for the th. Fourth. Fourth. The next word is first of all, the F is a V, just so you know. And the O is reduced to a schwa. Fourth of, fourth of. However, the word of is often reduced to a simple schwa sound, as in cup of coffee or bottle of water. So same thing here, you don't have to say 4th of July, you can just say 4th of, 4th of. If you say it quickly enough, it will sound perfect. 4th of July, 4th of July. Then we have a J sound and then lie. 4th of July, 4th of July, 4th Of July. Stress on the 4th. And the main stress is on July, 4th of July, Fireworks. Two R's. This time we begin with an F sound and then it's the I as in my fire. Fi. Fi. Pretty easy. The next part is your. Your. So think of it as a Y sound and then an R. Your like your jacket. Your jacket is nice. Yer. Yur. And then connect the two fi. Yer. So the E of the fi connects with the Y. Fire. Fire. Then you move immediately to works. So you round your lips for a W. Fire. Right. Now make sure that when you get to that W. Now I'm telling you this as a friend, you should bring the tip of the tongue down. Fire. Right. So the W should be pretty clear. If you lift the tongue up, if you keep keep it up because of the R, it's going to sound hollow and weird. Fire were right. If that's what you're hearing, then your tongue is up as you you're pronouncing the W. Fire. But then you need to bring the tongue up again for the R. Fire. Tongue is down. Were. And then you pull it in again for the R. Works. Now look, there is no O here. So you shift from the W to the R immediately. Were. Were. Were. Okay. Phi. Your. Were. That's easy. We're home. Ks Ks. A K sound and an S. Fireworks. Stress on fire. Fireworks. Fireworks. It's fourth of July. Let's go check out the fireworks. Did you know that we have silent fireworks this year? Do you know what silent fireworks are? If not, then stay with us for the interview I had with Shirley. Shirley is one of my students who participated in my group courses at my school in Tel Aviv. And as part of the course, each student had to present a topic that they're passionate about. And she introduced all of us to something that she's super passionate about, and that is silent fireworks. Now, up until that moment, I had no idea what this thing was. And when I heard about it, I felt that more people should know about it and be aware of. And that's it. This is why I invited her to come talk about it here. So let's bring her in. Hi, Shirley.

Hi, Adar.

I'm super thrilled to have you here. Thank you so much for coming and spending this time with us. How are you doing?

I'm great. Very excited to be here with you. Thank you for asking me.

I'm super excited. I've been missing you, I have to say. So Shirley is my student, as I told you, and I think we ended the course when? Like a few weeks ago.

A few weeks ago? A few weeks ago.

Too long.

Too long. Shirley, already miss you in the class.

I know. It was the best group ever. We met every Wednesday night, right? For 10 weeks. It was so much fun.

It was fun and it was very effective as well. Thank you for that.

No, thank you. And actually, in one of the sessions, Shirley gave us a presentation about something she's super passionate about. And this is why I invited her to talk today, because it's related to fireworks. So before we begin, Shirley, why don't you quickly introduce yourself?

Okay. Well, I work as a corporate responsibility and social impact consultant. I work with large corporate Israel and large brands. But in my free time, I'm a social activist. And one of the activities I'm engaged in is this campaign. We're going to talk about the silent fireworks.

So what is silent fireworks?

Yeah, this is a cool, quite new technology. Silent fireworks are fireworks which are less noisy than the usual fireworks, there are still, you know, noise of explosions because they must explode, but it's much less noisy than the regular fireworks.

What is the problem with real fireworks? Like, up until today, I never even thought about that, that it could be. I mean, my little girl would cry every time she would hear the fireworks exploding. But I would be like, okay, that's because she's small. But other than that, like, I was like in my own world. So maybe talk about those populations and the people who actually suffer from it.

Well, I think that we all know that dogs suffer from this noise. And animals as well, farm animals, they also really suffer. But also people suffer. For example, people with post traumatic stress disorder, people that have experienced situation traumatic situation in which there was a very strong noise, explosions like in the war or terror attack, every time they explosion, they go back to the traumatic event and it triggers the bad experience. It's terrible. And also people and kids with sensory processing disorders, like people, ADHD or some people with autism, they. They find it very difficult to. To handle strong noises and bright lights. And they cannot, they know when, when they try to avoid the noise, it's not enough. So they don't go to people, they don't go to the Independence Day parties because they do not want to suffer. And their families have to stay at home with them. So the whole family misses the celebrations because of that.

And like something that we take for granted and it's super fun and easy and beautiful.

Right?

May actually create suffering for other people.

Yes. Actually a good friend of mine, he was the one that initiated this campaign. His name is Rami and he was a soldier in one of the wars and he got wounded. You know, it's a mental wound, it's not a physical wound. And every year he suffers really bad from the fireworks. And when he found out that there is such a thing like silent fireworks, he asked me to join him and start this campaign. And actually this last Independence Day, after the campaign, he disappeared because once again he withdraw back into his suffering. So our goal is that next year all the municipalities in Israel will use only silent fireworks. So everyone can celebrate. No one is excluded and no one will suffer.

Do people resent it? Like, do you feel that there is a reason for people to say no to such thing?

I think I ran into only one person who said, why do we all have to change our habits? Because of some people. But he was really the minority of the minority. All other people and thousands of people signed the petition. We uploaded the petition to the Internet and thousands of people Signed the petition willingly. They said okay option and people suffer.

We are.

Well, we'll be very glad to change to quiet, to silent fireworks.

It's not. It's like you don't have to give up on something big. It's not like they're asking you to give up on fireworks. Although I'd be more than willing to do that if that makes other people feel better and safer. But this is just a small, you know, price to pay and it's so, so incredibly valuable. Anything else you want to share, Shirley?

No, just. I just want to thank you for the opportunity to share this campaign and to thank you for helping me building the confidence to speak in this video.

Oh, that's beautiful. It's my honor to have you here as a student and also as an activist that I admire and, you know, I look up to you, all the work that you do and all the help that you provide other people. So thank you in the name of the world and society and also as a friend. So thank you so much for coming here. It was a pleasure listening to you. And that's it. Good luck. Good luck with that. And I hope more people are going to be aware of this and deliver the message.

I would like to encourage people to start your own campaign for silent fireworks in your own city and or state and try to raise awareness and ask people to sign petition and support the idea of switching to silent fireworks. I'm sure that in every place, not just in the United States, actually all over the world, in every place, there are people that would be very happy to be able to join the party with everybody else.

Yeah, absolutely. And what are we here for if not to just make this a better society, be better people and help others? Right. So what are we here for if not for that? Now, Shirley and I would love to hear what you think. What do you think about silent fireworks? Do you think it's a good idea? Should we promote this or do you think it's a terrible idea and we should just stick with the regular fireworks? Whatever your opinion is, write it down in the comments below and we'll start a discussion. And that's it. If you celebrate fourth of July, have a beautiful, beautiful Independence Day and tell us what you're doing, what your plans are, and if you're not watching it on 4th of July, have a beautiful day. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next week in the next video. Bye.