Live: How to speak English with an American Accent without sounding (and feeling) fake? 🤷🏽‍♀️

Hello everyone, it's Hadar and this is a live accent sway lesson. Welcome. And today I want to talk about something really important that I hear all the time. People who are, who have been working on their accents and they've been trying to improve their intonation and pronunciation and they always feel, at least at the beginning, fake and they feel that it's unnatural and it doesn't feel right and then they avoid using it. They feel that everyone thinks that they're fake and they are not themselves and then they just don't even try to improve their accent. And again, just a few notes about why it's important to improve your accent for the sake of clarity and for the sake of your own confidence. It's not just about becoming American, it's about you being in control of your pronunciation and the message that you deliver. So let's talk about why it's important, why what you need to know and what you need to do in order to not feel fake when you're working on your American accent and when you are using your American accent. But before that, I need to tell you that if you are not a part of our 30 day fluency challenge, the Fluency Challenge throughout the month of July, you are missing out. It's a free challenge. There are over 1800 active members in the group. It's on Facebook who are uploading videos, commenting, watching videos, liking, laughing, crying every single day. Because it's a 30 day challenge. And the goal of this challenge is to boost your confidence and boost your fluency by talking about different topics, topics that you don't talk about on a day to day basis, questions that you don't come across all the time. And it requires you to think about these things in English and to use new words that you don't use on a regular basis. And more than anything, it's building this amazing community of non native speakers from around the world. People who are so supportive of each other, watching each other, commenting, giving feedback, helping each other and connecting and at the end of the day also practicing together. Because in this group a lot of practice groups formed up and people are going for online sessions, group online sessions. And then they're recording the entire conversation and they upload it to the group so we can all enjoy it. And really it's amazing to. So for example today, by the way, if you want to join, there is a link right below the video and it's free. And we have 20 more days. Today is day 10 since it's the 10th and today was the people had to talk about a beautiful place near their houses, near their, near where they live. So people have been uploading photos and videos and some people actually shot the video telling about the place in the beautiful place or near their house. Yesterday they had to tell a joke. No, yesterday they had to tell talk about a strange dream that they had and the day before that was about telling a joke which is, you know, talking about taking you out of your comfort zone. People had to not only make other people laugh, but in English. And it's funny because everyone started with, I'm not a funny person. I don't know how to tell jokes. And then they would tell this joke and it would, it is cracking up. I, I, I was, I spent the entire day just laughing, looking at people's videos and, and, you know, laughing and, and commenting and Anyway, so click the link below. Theaccentsway.com Fluency challenge. You can also search the Fluency Challenge on Facebook. If you sign up, then you get an email every day. First of all, email with instruction and then an email every day with the daily question and some inspirational stuff. And again, it's totally free. The idea here is to connect and to help you boost your confidence. Okay, so that's about the Fluency Challenge. I hope you are not wasting your time and you're joining because you'll have to. You know, we have a few more hours until the game, so you need to watch these videos now and actually make a video yourself again. Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity. Don't miss out on those practice opportunities and communication opportunities. If you want to improve your English, seize the moment. Okay, let's talk about why you feel fake when you're using your, when you're using different sounds and when you are speaking with an American accent. So let's say you're watching those videos, my videos. Other amazing teachers online that teach you how to use how to speak with an American accent or a British accent or an Australian accent. Right? Whatever. You choose and you try it and you realize that you're doing something right, but it feels extremely fake. You feel like this is not the way you speak. This is not who you are. It doesn't make sense. And you let go of it or you try it a little bit and you feel uncomfortable and then it gets you to feel self conscious. And you know, anyway, when we speak a second language, we kind of feel self conscious anyway, so we don't want that or we deal with the pronunciation so much until I, you don't even think about the words anymore. So I want you to know three things. So it's going to be short and sweet. The first thing is that it's supposed to feel fake and artificial at first when you're using a different pronunciation. When you use, when you speak with new sounds, it is not going to feel comfortable because it's going against everything that is organic and intuitive for you. It's going to feel counterintuitive, right? If you pronounce your R's without rounding your lips and then, you know, I'm telling you, hey, you have to round your lips for the R and you're doing something like this, but you're not used to using your lips. It's going to feel artificial and hey, that's okay. Actually, it's great because if you feel uncomfortable and you feel artificial, it means that you're doing something right for the most part. It means that you're doing something different. Okay? And if you're doing something different, that's what we're looking for. We're looking for the change, the change of habits. So how do you deal with that? In order to make it your own, you have to practice it. I know you've been hearing me saying that for a long, long time. But you got to make it your own. And you make it your own by developing the muscle memory until the muscles go to these positions automatically or your voice hits those notes automatically and spontaneously without you thinking about it so much. That's when it becomes more comfortable. That's when it starts to feel a little less artificial. Okay? So first of all, acknowledge the fact that it's going to feel artificial and fake and you got to be okay with it. It doesn't mean that everyone thinks that you're fake. If you feel fake, it doesn't mean that other people hear it too. If you're using the right sounds and the right intonation, they're probably thinking, hey, sounds good, sounds better, closer to what I'm used to, right? This is a non native speaker probably saying, right? So they feel that it's actually accurate. You feel so awkward and strange. So it's you that you are the one who has to do the work and practice it enough times until it doesn't feel strange anymore. Okay? If I were to put on, put on, you know, cast all over my legs, it's going to feel extremely terrible. It's gonna feel terrible and awkward and I won't be able to walk but a month into it or two months into it. I would probably get comfortable with it and find my way around it, right? Or find My way, you know, handling the world with casts on both of my legs. Okay, so that's a weird example, but you know, it's like you need to force, you need to add something to your natural behavior. And obviously it's not going to feel right. That's number one. So get comfortable, practice, make it your own. And it's okay that it's artificial at the beginning. Okay? The second thing, why it feels fake is maybe you're investing way too much energy or when you're pronouncing certain sounds. So sometimes we try too hard as non native speakers, you know that you need to do certain things in order to create sounds, but it doesn't mean that you need to engage all your muscles of the face, right? And your voice. And it doesn't mean that you need to invest too much energy. So you have to realize that sometimes you're investing a little too much energy and you're using the wrong muscles. So, for example, if we are talking again about. No, you know what, let's take the th for example. So for the th, you need to stick the tongue out. So a lot of times I see my students pronounce the th quite clearly. Think. But instead of saying something like think, they go think. See what I did here? Instead of think. So technically, to pronounce the th, you don't need anything but your tongue and teeth and air or voice too. But you definitely don't need to engage your lips. You don't need to tense your lips so much. You don't need that. And when you do that, you create more tension, and tension creates more tension. So when you have tension in unnecessary areas, it will, it will affect your voice, it will affect your entire energy. It will affect you, the, the, you know, your, your state of being. Because when you have your full tension in your shoulders, in your hands, in your lips, then again, it creates more and more tension. And that's just one sound, right? What about the R? A lot of times people, they try so hard to get the R sound until they, you know, everything tenses up and then the vowels are eaten up by the R. Ker and where. And you know, we hear one big R sound. Or if the tongue is not in the right place, then you may invest more energy on other things. Right? Really? Okay. Instead of just finding that right position. So of course you need to understand what the proper pronunciation is. And. But when you find it, you gotta let go. You always want to think to yourself or say to yourself, invest 50% of the energy that I'm Investing right now. So if you feel that you're pushing or that you are investing, that you. If you feel fake, then maybe you are investing a little too much energy. And the secret here is to let go. Imagine like you are, you know, it's the middle of the night. You haven't been getting some sleep lately. You're super tired. Maybe you had a glass of wine, all right? You kind of chill. Nothing's troubling you, and you want to be in the state of mind and practice it like that. Take it slower. You may be going too fast. And when you go fast, then of course it creates more tension and you don't have time to think. So why put yourself in this situation? Slow down, take breaks, okay? Don't bring yourself into the state of tension because when you're tense, it's going to affect your speech and then you're going to sound to yourself, fake, okay? So investing too much energy. Again, investing in consonants, in vowels, right? Seat. See, you don't need to tense the lips so much. Seat. It's only about the position of the tongue. So if you. Once you get the right sound, and again, we acknowledge that it's going to feel fake and artificial when you practice it. And when you. In the. When you're in the process of making it your own, make sure that you invest little energy and take it down a notch every time you practice, okay? So investing less energy, less energy in the consonants, all the. As if you're whispering it, especially when you're practicing intonation and reductions, because you can't reduce, really words, okay? Like, what do you want? And I have to. And for me, right? All these function words that you reduce, you can't reduce them and pronounce them strongly. Also have to take it down a notch in the energy that you're investing for those consonants. The. Okay, so always think of investing less energy that you're investing at the moment. If you're a soft speaker and if it's hard to hear you anyway, ignore this, this tip, okay? It's not for you. It's not for those who speak too quietly and too softly. The third thing that I want you to think about is the energy that you're investing in your speech and your intonation. So here's the thing. A lot of languages use volume to stress words. What do you want? What do you want? I just said the word want a little louder. What do you want? Now we teach, you know, American pronunciation teachers teach that in order to stress a word, you need to go higher in pitch. And to prolong it. What do you want? What do you want? So it's not what do you want? It's what do you want? So some English learners learn this aspect, but they keep raising the pitch and raising the volume at the same time. What do you want? What do you want? So now you're both raising your volume. This is something that you are familiar with in your native tongue. And you're also raising your pitch because that's what you learned that you need to do. And the result is that it's going to feel and sound a little forced. And you are feeling it, but you're like, hey, I'm doing everything that I was taught. Right? Why does it still sound so fake? It sounds fake because if you're choosing to raise the pitch to stress a word, you don't want to use volume as well. Okay. If you decided to prolong it and raise the pitch again, the volume is just going to be feeling a little pushed and forced and a little too much. So when you stress words, try to keep your volume down, especially if you speak a language. I just saw a comment. Drunk accent. I love it. Not in my house. Drunk accent. Yes, speak with a drunk accent. Good. Okay. Anyway, that's like the one comment. I was on a roll here, so I have a lot of comments here, guys. Sorry for not reading those comments. I love you guys, you know that. I'll look at them in a sec. Okay, so. Okay, so don't use. Don't. Number two was don't tense muscles that you don't need to tense and invest less energy in the pronunciation, but also in the volume that you're using. Okay. Because you don't need to speak louder in English. In English to stress words. You just need. You can use pitch. I'm not saying that you don't use volume to prove your point or to get your message across. Of course you do. But again, if that's 10, if that's your tendency, you know, thinking of your. Your. Your organic tendency because of your native tongue, then we need to do something. We need to say, okay, I'm good at doing this because that's what I do in my native tongue. Let's not do it for a while. Let's just use pitch and length and see what it does. And you will feel that things are a little softer or more effortless and smoother. And when you invest less energy, first of all, when you acknowledge, number one, acknowledge that it's going to feel fake and you are okay with it. It'll be a Little less stressful, you'll still know that you're on the right track and you're not doing something wrong. And what feels fake to you does not necessarily mean that it's. That it sounds fake to others. And then number two, invest less energy in the pronunciation, okay? That will bring the stress level a little lower and it's going to be smoother. And it'll be easier for you to shift from one sound to another, especially when there are a lot of consonants in a phrase or a word. And then number three, don't use volume so much. Use pitch and length to get your point across to stress words. Okay? So pitch and length are lovely ways to stress or to make a point. Make a point. See what I did make a point. I went up in pitch, I prolonged it, but I did not say make a point. Right. I didn't go louder. Especially, you know, I speak Hebrew, and Hebrew, we do use volume to stress a point. So, you know, my tendency would be to say it a little louder, but I'm preventing myself from going into that comfort zone of saying things the way it, you know, where it feels safe. I'm lowering my volume and I'm using pitch and length. Okay? So that's it. That was a quick lesson today. I gotta go. I have a lesson. So I'm going to look. Hello, everyone. Just saying hi. I. I'm. I'm looking at all your comments. I have a few things to say and I see some familiar places, Places. Familiar places. Come on. Familiar places, familiar faces here. So I'm going to comment to you personally and if you have a specific question, please let me know in the comments below. Let me know. What do you think about this topic? Do you. Do you feel fake when you're trying to use the American accent? Let me know in the comments right after the video is uploaded. You know, I can see the comments as separate comments, not the chat that is going through the. During the live session. Going back to the first part, Join the Fluency challenge. We have 20 more days. You definitely don't want to miss out on this. It's an amazing opportunity to get to know other people, to practice your English and talk about things that you don't usually talk about. And because every time you explore new subjects and new and use new words and put yourself on video, although it feels awkward and strange and funny and fake, you grow from it and you learn from it and you improve and you feel that you are able to do these things. And that feeling is, you know, that's the point. Of it all. That's a priceless feeling. And when you feel, you know that you are able to do these things, then you know English is a piece of cake for you. Okay, my friends, I love you all. Enjoy the game today and all, you know, the French or Belgian fans. Me a comment. I'm waiting to read your comments. Bye.