Questions and Answers with Hadar

Hello. Hello. Hello, everyone. Welcome to our live Q A. This is day six of the clear and confident pronunciation challenge. I'm so happy to have you here. Let me see everyone in the chat. Say hi and tell me what you are doing today. Today is Saturday. For. For most of you, I assume it's a day off. So tell me how you're doing and what your plans are for today. I'm. I'm here with you today. We had a mindset talk this morning. I hope you were able to watch it. And that's it. Hello. Dulce here. And Carolina is here. And Jacqueline is here. Maria. Good morning. Good afternoon. You hear an echo? Okay, let me try and fix it. Maybe it's the. Oh, you know what? Hold on. Can you all hear an echo? Let's see if it gets resolved. Okay. This should be fine. I think I just accidentally muted myself while trying to fix my ear. Ear set. Okay, I'm just gonna wait for you to tell me that it's good. And we're gonna get started. Good. Thank you. We're gonna get started with a live Q A. Hold on. And I'm gonna get Amar's notes here. Okay, Later. Okay, so I have a bunch of questions that you guys submitted through the live Q A form, and I may not answer all the questions. I'll try to get through as many as possible. But if you also have questions here, please feel free to ask them in the chat. Okay. And I'll come back to the chat and see it. Okay, good. Let me just grab. Amar, can you again send me the link to the Q and A form? To our form? Oh, okay. No, I think I have it. Yes, I have it. So let me know in the doc if you have any notes for me. It's good now. All right, friends, let's get started. The first question today we have is from Carol Lima, and she says, how can I find my natural voice in English? My mother tongue is Spanish, and whenever I have to speak, I feel like an imposter or feel like an un. I'm imitating someone else. This is a great question, and I think that many people can resonate with this question. Let me know if this is something that you've been feeling as well. So if this is that this has been. If you can resonate with Carol's feeling or thought, please write me, too. Or yes, in the comments, just so I know Larissa says yes. Okay, so first of all, like, what is it? Let's identify what a natural voice is. Right. The natural voice. I'm assuming and according to my definition and the way I see it and the way I have experienced that myself, is when you feel. When you don't think about your voice, right? Because in your first language, for the most part, for. For a lot of people, for most people, you don't think about your voice when you speak. You just speak, speak. And then when you speak a second language, sometimes you become so conscious of your voice and. And that alone, the feeling of, you know, being conscious about your voice makes you feel self conscious and makes you feel like this is not your voice. Okay? So that is the first thing you're aware of, your voice. Second thing, maybe you do manipulate your voice and change it. And then it doesn't feel like you. You don't feel like off your authentic self. You're trying too hard, you're putting a lot of effort. You speak too low, you speak too high, you speak differently, and you don't feel like it's your voice. Another reason is the fact that you're using different sounds. Okay? The sounds of English don't exist for Carol in Spanish. And as a result, she might not feel comfortable. She's trying hard to get the right sounds, but also she hasn't made them her own just yet, so she feels conscious of it. So a natural voice means that you don't have to think about it and you feel that you're not putting a lot of effort. You feel like yourself. You feel authentic. You feel like you can express yourself. Who wants to feel that in their. In English as well? Let me know in the comments, because I know that this has been a big, big thing for me as well. So then there is the aspect of feeling like an imposter. Now, feeling like an imposter feels has to do with not feeling like yourself in own voice, but it also has to do with how you think and believe about yourself in English. So it has to do with your thoughts and it has to do with your physical voice. Your thoughts is the part that tells you because of your voice, you're not good enough. Because of your voice, you're unnatural. Because of your voice, you are. You're artificial or you're. You're phony. Right? And because it's not your first language. So there is this aspect of like managing your thoughts. And this is what we do during the mindset talks. And. And definitely a big aspect of learning a second language. Okay. And in the masterclass, I talk more about that. We didn't have a lot of time to talk about it in the challenge, but the second Thing is really like understanding how your voice works. So it has to do with recognizing how your voice is different. One of the things that I ask my students to do is to speak in their first language and then speak in English and then see what changes. And I want you to do that, Carol. And. And first of all, try to. If you had to listen to someone else and analyze their voice, what would you say? What would you tell them about their voice? Oh, it's slower, it's higher. Try to use these terms. It's softer, it's stronger. Because if the assumption is that you're in your first language, you feel comfortable, then we want to know what is different. So start asking that question. And if it's hard for you to do it while you speak, then you can record yourself, you know, speaking for a minute in your first language and then speaking for a minute in your. In English and see what's different. But also what can really, really help is doing all the work that we've talked about doing, the pronunciation work. So it's a natural part of you, right? So it's spontaneous, effortless. You're not investing a lot of effort. So pronunciation work can definitely help with that. Prosody work can help with that. Because if you feel limited in how you express yourself, then if you get the tools, knowing how to express yourself in English, it makes it a whole lot easier, right? It makes it more natural for you to express yourself. So understanding the things that you've never learned about English, how to use the spoken language. I mean, for. For the most part, people don't learn it when learning a second language, so they just learn grammar and vocabulary and structure and. And, you know, and all of that. And you don't learn how to use it. And. But when you're a baby being born into a language, that's the first thing you are exposed to. The sounds, the intonation, the melody. A baby can tell when their parent is happy or angry based on their voice without even knowing the words. That is the first thing that we register when being exposed to a language, and traditionally the last thing you learn when you learn a second language. And that's where the gap is. And this is why what I'm offering and what I'm introducing you to is that concept of work on English, not just from, you know, like, understanding the language and that's it, but from the outside in, right? Learn how. What happens? Learn the outcome. How to. How to. How to be in control of the outcome and not expecting yourself to use it like you use it in your first language, and you know, not. Not and not knowing what to do. Okay. I hope that helps. So, first of all, voice work. Join the master class, and I'm gonna give you. I don't want to give away all my secrets. So in the master class, I'm also going to teach you an exercise to help you feel like yourself. Okay. To understand what you're doing with your voice that might. Might manipulate you. So if someone can pop the link to the master class in the chat, that's. That would be great. And also do this exercise that I just recommended of comparing yourself, speaking. Speaking in Spanish and speaking in English. But other than that, everything that I taught you in the challenge is going to help you feel like you're in your own voice, including mindset work. What are the long and short vowel sounds? Okay. Javaria is asking, so I wanted to introduce you back to the vowel chart. And long vowels and short vowels are basically the length of vowels. For example, if we talk about the sheepship vowel pair, the sheep is traditionally longer. It's almost like double the length versus ship, which is a short vowel. Sheep. Ship. Sheep, ship. Reach. Rich. Right? So you. Apart from the tongue position, you can also see that the length is different. Okay. Now, usually English is organized in pairs of long and short vowels. Now, let me make it a little bigger so you can see it. So the green vowels represent the five vowel sounds, the neutral vowel sounds, and they don't exist as neutral vowel sounds in. In English, there is no E, A, o, and u. Okay? But all the vowels in red and blue are the vowel sounds. In American English, blue vowel sounds are diphthongs. Okay? Changing vowel sounds. So we can see that generally words are. They come in pairs, for example, and so one of them is usually longer versus I, and the other one is shorter. Same thing with here, tense u. And okay, so the tense U is usually longer. And if we want to get very specific, you'll see, you'll see that they're marked differently when you look at ipa. Another example is diphthongs. For example, diphthongs are going to be longer vowels. The ah is considered a long vowel. And if we're looking at other vowels like the schwa sound or the cup sound, they're considered to be short vowel sounds. So short means that, you know, like you. You don't. You generally don't stretch them. And long means that usually they're a little longer than vowel sounds that you have in your first language. Well, the neutral vowel sounds that are a little shorter okay, let me go back here. Okay. Another question from Carol. When I learned. Carol is like, I need to get some answers here. When I learned most of the words, and I mean many thousands of them, I didn't know the differ between vowel pairs. So I memorized words as if they were just one. And now retrieving a word from my memory, I have no idea which of the two sounds it contains. For example, I know the word fascinating. But without checking, I have no idea whether the first vowel is A or a and the second is E, I or how do I deal with that? Do I have to relate all the words? Thank you. This is another great, great question, Carol. So how do you know, in short, how do you know which vowel goes in which sound? Because obviously you didn't learn it when you learned the words. And actually, you probably didn't even have the tools to do it because your brain was not ready to hear the sounds. You haven't taught yourself hearing the sound. So even if you memorized it, focusing on the pronunciation, I think it would have been really hard without, first of all, perceiving the difference and then knowing what to do with your lips and mouth and then making it automatic, because the mouth and the brain always want to go to the habits. Right? And the sounds that are pronounced in your first language, in your case, Spanish. So first of all, don't feel bad. You haven't done anything wrong. This is how people learn a second language. And generally first being exposed to the language and the words or without categorizing it according to the sounds. Okay. And this is where pronunciation work comes in. And effective pronunciation work can help you with that how? Because you learn, you start categorizing all groups of words according to sounds. So, for example, when I teach my students, I give them, we practice the ah sound, and then we drill a lot of words with the ah sounds sound, and then the same thing with the ah. Now, what happens when you drill those words is a few things. First of all, you, of course, get used to pronouncing those words that you practice with a new pronunciation. But it's not just that you start subconsciously noticing patterns. There are spelling patterns for each sound. I do teach them in my program. So there are some spelling patterns. For example, fascinating. The A is probably going to be the as in cat, because the ah sound is more commonly spelled with the letter o. Right. So it's less likely to be with the spelled with a. Just an indication. We do go over it, like when I. When I teach it more thoroughly. So There are patterns that you can follow, but also subconsciously, you start understanding it and noticing it. So drilling those words and looking at the right list of words. Not just any list of word, but a list of words that takes into consideration all the spelling patterns and. And that the different placements in the word. Then you start making those connections, even if subconsciously, I know that it happened to me subconsciously, I've never learned it, but I was able to start recognizing sounds based on just reading the words afterwards without learning them. Okay, so that is one thing helps. Another thing is that when you start practicing sounds, you start noticing it more, right? So that you start hearing it when other people speak. So you start associating a certain word with a certain sound. And again, the brain starts making those connections subconsciously. And when you say it, it might feel better for you when you try out different sounds or when you. All of a sudden, it would just make sense for you. You'll develop a sense of a strong sense of an intuitive. A strong intuition around what sound goes where. And that happens when you do very precise pronunciation work. Okay? So the actual pronunciation work can help you start organizing the sounds in your head. You don't need to practice all words to, you know, to be able to know how to pronounce them. You start recognizing the spelling patterns and. And you also start recognizing the sounds and then initiating that new understanding onto new words. And when you don't know, you just look it up or you try it out. And again, you'll have a strong sense because you will have developed a strong intuition about it and you'll have a strong sense of which one is which. So let's. Let's give it a try. You are asking here about the word fascinating, right? Fascinating. Now, if you were to learn the a sound and the ah, okay, Then you would try it out. You would say, is it fascinating or fascinating Immediately, you'll have, you know, you just need to say it once to be like. Feels better. Like with a. And like I said, usually the spelling of the a, if you have to choose between the two, it would probably be the as in cat. Okay, so that's the first thing. Sorry, my light here is like messing. Messing up a little bit. Okay, now the next question is the schwa. Now, when we drill the schwa or when we practice the schwa, you'll learn that the schwa likes to be between two strong syllables. So you know that you have the fa, that's the primary stress. And then you have the c, which, let's say you Think it's C or C or s. And then you have ne. And ne is, is a diphthong, right? You cannot reduce it. So if you have the A, then you have the a. Probably in the Middle English doesn't like it when you have too many stressed word sounds one after the other. So it's not going to be fascinating, but probably it's going to be a schwa. Also, one more thing that I teach you is that if you can drop it to a schwa, let's say you can't decide which one is which. If you can reduce it to a schwa and it sounds okay, and even better, it's probably a schwa. So according to that logic. Fascinating. Yeah, Sounds okay. I could drop it. And yes, indeed, it is a schwa. Okay, good. Next question. As a non native speaker, the way you teach and speak is magical. Well, oh, thank you, Mayor. And I want to become like you as I also teach English to my Indian students. Well, first of all, you want to be you, the best version of yourself, right? Language matters. But I get what you're saying and thank you so much. How much time do I need to get a complete queen grip on my pronunciation? Well, first of all, again, like the language, let's. Let's think about it as acquire a new set of skills or acquire a new, new sounds, right? Because that's what it is. And I always say that pronunciation is really like a costume that you put on and take off whenever you need it. Because sometimes to me, and sorry, guys, I'm just gonna connect it once and for all. Sometimes you might want to go back or to use your nade, a sound that is closer to your native pronunciation so that people understand you better. And sometimes you might want to use a different pronunciation, right? And you want to feel comfortable in all of them. That's the beauty of this type of work. How much time do you need to spend? Well, it really depends on. There are many variables, like many aspects that you need to take into consideration. For example, your starting point, how many sounds you need to work on. What are the sounds that you need to work on is just sounds or pronunciation. But for adults, where you're a busy person, probably you're a teacher, you have a lot on your plate. I don't think you or anyone else can expect of you to put in too much work. You have to make it realistic so it's consistent. The secret is to do it consistently. That's what really makes the difference. That's what gets you to change. So as far as I'm concerned, It could be 15 minutes a day, 20 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day. I personally feel that in. Nowadays, more than that, it's going to be possible for a short period of time, maybe three months. But for the long run, it would be really hard to stick with that, you know, like with practicing two hours a day. So the idea is not the quantity, like how much time you practice, but the quality of your practice, which means choosing the right sounds to practice, not everything, or the right elements of speech. It's also practicing it effectively. And this is something that, in my trainings, I really focus on that because it's not just repeating the words, it's how you repeat the words, how you give yourself feedback, and also, you know exactly the system in which you practice, so that matters. And then if you do that effectively for 20 minutes, 30 minutes a day, I believe that within. Within three months, you can make a noticeable breakthrough. But it does take time to make it your own. So there are no magic tricks there. There's no, like, you cannot change your pronunciation completely in three months. For me, I think it has taken around a year or two to really get to a place where I think the full year, the first year when I started working on my pronunciation, that was where I made most of the difference. Throughout the year, I wasn't that diligent about my pronunciation studies. And then I spent the summer really investing more time and energy into my work. So I would say between six months to a year to really get a strong grip of your pronunciation because you're a teacher, because you're talking about this type of work, and time is of the essence. But what I'm saying is that it doesn't need to be a lot. It could only be 20 minutes a day, you know, and 20 minutes a day is something that we can all carve out out of our busy day. But then the change is significant. And like I said, you know, my program, new sound is 14 weeks, and usually we do see significant results within the first 14 weeks, but after that, you want to maintain it so that you feel more comfortable, so you explore it more. So you always kind of like, level it up. But the first initial significant difference can happen within three months. Okay, next. Next question is. Let me go back. I'm a French speaker, and I'm never sure about the sound of the vowel letters ea, because there are different sounds such as pear, bear, and fear. And bear, fear, bear, fear, and break as well. You can hear it in a. So the ea. So I think you Mean the ea. The EA letters, not vowel. These are letters spelling. There is no vowel that is ea. So the ea, the spelling pattern could represent potentially three vowel sounds. The E as in fear, right? A, the E as in head, and the A as in break. Okay, or like the examples that you gave here, but three different vowel sounds. Why is that? English is not a phonetic language. And like I told you, at the beginning, in English, There are about 16 vowel sounds and there are only five vowel letters. And as a result, certain vowel letters are going to represent different vowel sounds. Okay? So when we work on pronunciation, we start listening to the vowel sounds and then see the different representations that they can have. Okay? So we kind of like reverse engineer it. We don't see the spelling and we say, and I think as a French speaker, it might be confusing because French is a phonetic language. When you see a certain spelling pattern, you know how it's supposed to sound. So you'll never be like, oh, I don't know if this needs to be a or e or ah. And you're expecting that. And most people do expect it when it comes to speaking English. But that, I think, is also something that is holding you back because, because you're expecting it. You keep getting, you know, like, you keep ex, you know, wanting to be able to pronounce it correctly, and it's not. So we need to eliminate completely the need to actually assume the pronunciation based on the spelling and start looking at the sounds. And then how could it be? How is it spelled? I think that is a more healthier way to approach pronunciation versus spelling. So to answer your question, yes, this spelling pattern could represent those three sounds. How do you know? Well, first of all, pay attention to how it sounds. You cannot tell by the spelling. You just cannot. And then start noticing it. And second, I think that once you categorize the sounds and learn, let's say you learn the E sound, you'll see all the different spelling patterns, and ea is one of them. And then, same thing, when you practice the S sound, you'll see the ea is one of them and you'll start associating the words that you hear with the sounds. Because obviously when you hear the word fear, let's say you didn't know how to spell it, you wouldn't think, oh, it's, it's ea. You would probably associate it with the letter I or, or something like that, or ee or if you hear the, if you heard the word head, you would think an sound and maybe an E sound. So that's why I'm saying, like, don't trust the spelling and disassociate yourself from the representation of the word. Now you'll see it's really hard. We're so geared towards under hearing English through the filter of the written words. We see it like I see it especially when I teach the schwa, because the schwa is a very neutral sound, and it is represented by all the five vowel letters and a lot of combinations of those five vowel letters. So it could get really confusing. So it's like when you recognize that you understand how much your brain is just focused on the spelling, because that's the first thing that you've learned when you started learning English rather than the sounds. So this is an invitation for you to start really, like, looking at the sounds and not the spelling. Sarah is asking for the pronunciation of words author, authority, and athlete. Okay, so au generally represents the ah as in father or sometimes a more rounded sound that exists in some dialects in. In North America. And it's. You just drop your jaw. Ah. It's like the sound that I taught you yesterday in the word water. Ah. Ah. Okay. And then you can round your lips a bit. And then the th off. This is a voiced, voiceless th off. And you move into the r right away. Author. Author. That's the first one. The second one, very similar. The beginning and then the. The o. Unlike the word author, where it's a schwa, the O is in oz and father. Open it up. Then the I is a schwab, The t is a flap T, and then we have a high E. Ready? Ready. The I, T, Y at the end of words, sounds always the same. And here's another tip. The syllable before it is always the primary stress. Authority. Ability. Grammatically. Okay, so authority. Authority. The next word has the stress at the beginning again. Th. Make sure the tongue is soft. Air passes between the tongue and teeth. Athlete. And then it's a high E. Athlete. Now, I did pop the T to make it clearer. Some people may pronounce a healthy at the end. Athlete. The tongue is going up. I block there. Athlete. Can you hear it? So let's do it together. Author. Authority. Athlete. What is the best way to learn which syllable to stress? So first of all, that tip that I gave you about the one syllable before the suffix in authority. That's the case in a lot of suffixes. For example, energetic. The IC suffix ick. Then the stress is always going to be one syllable prior to it. Energetic. Athletic. Okay, so sometimes you have. When you have words with suffixes, it's pretty consistent. But other than that. Here's the thing. First of all, you need to recognize how a word is stressed, because if you can't hear it, you can't make it, especially if you confuse the stress in words. So in English, the primary stress is a little louder and it's higher in pitch. Apple. Apple. Let's get an apple. Apple. Opportunity. So it's kind of like you hear punch. Opportunity. Opportunity. One of the ways that I like to have my student practice primary stress is to call the word out the window. So, for example, you take the word elevator, and you're trying to figure out where the primary stress is. And let's say you hear someone say it or you play it on. In the. In your dictionary, play the audio. And then you hear elevator. And then if you had to call it out the window, elevator, come home. Let's say elevator was your child's name, the poor child. So elevator, Right. Where would you stretch it out? Usually on the primary stress. Same thing with punching, right? If you. Or let's. Let's. Let's clap. Okay, Clapping. If you have to clap once on the word, when would you do it? Would you. Would you say elevator? Would you say elevator? Or would you say elevator? If you want to be one with a word. Elevator. I want this opportunity, right? When would you punch your fist on the table demanding something from your boss, I deserve an opportunity or I deserve an opportunity? Usually the punch. If you get the primary stress right, which is not always the case, but if you do, it's going to be on the primary stress. That's how you identify the primary stress when you say a word. Let's say if you are pronouncing it correctly. Now, there are some languages, especially languages that are very similar to English in terms of the pronunciation, like French or Spanish, where the primary stress is different. And then you might apply the primary stress that you know from your first language unto English, and then it's a different challenge. So the question is, if you know that this is a challenge for you, I would recommend to practice lists of words with more than two syllables, 2, 3, 4 syllables, and then train your ears to hear the primary stress and then do that and see if this is something that you're doing differently, Right? So you can record yourself and compare it to the original word, or you can just, you know, say it together. Be like, oh, I'm actually pronouncing it differently here. Remember, the primary stress is usually the. Where most of the emphasis is. It's usually longer and louder and this is where you would clap if you were to say it. I have a video about how to find the primary stress with a few more tips, so. Or if you want to come back to it after, then make sure you check it out on my YouTube channel. Omer also asks, how do I know where I'm at at my journey? How do I measure my progress? So this is a really good question that I'm not sure I can answer it in, in such a short time. But I'll tell you this. First of all, how do I know where I'm at in my journey? In the master class, I'm going to give you a tool to help you identify that. Okay? So make sure you watch you sign up for the master class. If you can't join live, then you can watch the replay. We'll send it to you. But I don't, I'm not going to share the tool now because it's going to take me 10 minutes to do it. I'm going to do it in the master class. So know that there is a tool that is designed to help you know where you're at and what you need to work on and to improve. One of the best ways to measure the progress is to keep a log of your work. So with my students, what we do is we record. So for example, before we work on a certain sound, I would ask them to record a certain sentence and then I would ask them to record it after they have been practicing it for a little bit to first of all see that there is progress. Also, we do encourage our students to always record videos and they can compare the first video from the beginning of the program and the one at the end of the program. Or sometimes if people tend to choose to join new sound again, then they, they compare it to the previous recording and this is a really great way to measure the progress and see it. We don't do tests, right? I don't believe in tests. I feel like in the personal experience of the learner, so you know how you feel in a certain language and it always feels like there is something big for you to tackle because when you progress, it's not like, oh yes, great, I achieved my goal. That's it. Because there's always something bigger and better for you to look forward to. So another way for us to know if you are progressing is to set 90 day goals. A 90 day goal is a goal that is very limited, only for 90 days, so you can actually check to see if you're. It's not like a a 12 month goal or a five year goal, we set those as well. But it's important to set shorter short term goals and then to think about what is, what am I struggling with right now? What do I need to improve? Set a goal that is measurable, that could, you could actually, you know, tell yourself, if I want to achieve, let's say fluency, I want to become more fluent or I want to speak up more at work, what would be the goal? So you define or you set a goal that the outcome of it me would be. So the, the. The goal is actually the outcome of what you'd like to achieve. For example, if you want to speak up at work a bit more, then the goal could be I want to speak up at least three times in every meeting without being asked to speak first. Right. That would be that. That would be progress to you. So you set it as a goal and then you reverse engineer it. If this is my goal, then what do I need to do to get to that goal? And then you create for yourself a plan to reach that goal. And when you achieve that goal, that's how you measure progress. That's how we do it in business, that's how we do it in, you know, like in sports. So on one hand, yes, you can make videos and recordings because that is a great way to measure it. But if you constantly achieve your short term goals, then if that's not progress, I don't know what that is, what is. Right. So we need to use that. And again, when I work with my beyond students and new sound students, setting goals and having a checklist and knowing what to what exactly you need to do is an integral part of the work. Otherwise you do not feel progress. Okay, So Omer, if you're here or if you're watching the replay, let us know in the chat. What would be your 90 day goal? Luciana is asking, does intonation change some vowels? This is a good question. For example, words for the and can. Does the schwa become another vowel? This is great, a great question. Why? Because the answer is yes and no. It doesn't technically change the vowel. The word for, if you think about it, has the or sound. However, there is another pattern that occurs in English when a function word is unstressed. A function word is all those small words that connect the big words. It's all the prepositions and the verb be and the articles in those words. When they're unstressed, they're reduced and then indeed the vowel changes it, it reduces to a schwa. And a schwa is a neutral vowel sound. It's an unstressed version of every possible vowel sounds in English. Vowel sound in English. Okay, so the schwa is the unstressed version of every vowel in English. And when a word is unstressed based on the function in the wor in the sentence, then it becomes a schwa. It becomes the unstressed version of it. So, for example, if I want. If I say the phrase it's for me, then the fur, the for, is going to be reduced to a schwa. It's fur, it's fur, it's for, it's for me. But when it's at the end of the word, I cannot reduce it. And then I would say, who is it for? And then I would stress it. Or I might want to say it's in the house and not it's in the house, even though I could reduce it because it's unstressed. But I want to say it's in the house to emphasize the fact that it's inside and not outside. It's in the house, not outside. Right. So that's what happens to vowels in function words. They become the unstressed version of themselves, which is always schwa sound. What is the difference in pronunciation between leader and reader? So the difference is the first consonant. In the word leader, it's an L sound. And in the word reader, it's an R sound. Two different phonemes. Now, if you are a speaker of certain languages, those are in. Those are two different representations. For example, Korean or, I believe, Japanese. These are two different manifestations or pronunciations of the same phoneme that you have. So in your brain, it's the same sound, but sometimes you pronounce it like a R sound, sometimes you pronounce it like a sound. In American English, these are two different phonemes. Sounds that associate are associated with different letters, usually. Okay, so the L sound in the word leader must. The tongue must touch the upper palate for the L leader. And for the word reader, the tongue cannot touch the upper palate, pulls back, you hold it out, lips round a bit. That's the R we talked about both of them in day two. So go back to the day two if you haven't watched it, and go to the part where I talk about the L's and the R, the L's and the R's together. And then the best way for you to overcome this challenge, if you're pronouncing them the same, is to practice minimal pairs, like right, light, red, let. Okay, good. This is why it's confusing. If you confuse the R and the L, that's because in your brain they're perceived as the same sound. So it's hard to pronounce it and it's hard to understand it when you listen to people speak. So if you were to hear a word with a lot of Rs and Ls and it's a new word, you wouldn't know which one is which. It's not the case for most speakers, but for some speakers it is. And it's a. It's a. It's a serious challenge. It's a serious challenge. And remember perception first. First recognize it, start learning how to hear the difference and then practice pronouncing it or do it at the same time. How can I improve my English while living in a non English speaking country? Honestly, a lot of my students live in an English speaking country and they came to my programs to improve it because you need a safe space and a space that allows you to practice in an effective way. And same thing for my free community, the influency community. Because I just want to eliminate the limiting belief that you can only improve your English if you live in an English speaking country. Because sometimes you live in an English speaking country and you're not even exposed to English because in your community most of the people speak your first language. Or maybe you, you know, like also after Covid post Covid, sometimes you know, like everything goes online and maybe you're not even required. Maybe in your job you still speak your first language and they were not even required to speak in English. So this is why you got to create for yourself a space to practice English and speak English. And that can easily be attained in the online sphere, the influency community, if you're not a member of it. My free community has a speaking club where you can practice speaking there. In my programs, speaking is a huge part. We have conversation groups, we have every day in, in beyond, in a new sound. Because you gotta create the space for people to put into practice what they learn. So whether you find it for free or in, you know, in the right program for you or in a community, and there are a lot of other places where you can exchange, exchange languages, you know, when you practice English and you practice your first language as well. And then a lot of speaking groups and clubs, there are a lot of opportunities out there. The question is how to find them right and also to make sure that it's engaging enough and you enjoy being there and you feel safe. And then you'll find a way to do it. But really, the Internet is such an incredible source of information and opportunities for people to connect and communicate. So don't worry if you don't live in an English speaking country. You really have what it takes to become fluent and to master English. I know so many people who have never been to an English speaking country who've never had friends who spoke English. And their level has been incredible. Really. Okay, where could I find this free community? Diana, it's the influency community on Facebook. You can just look it up and someone can probably link to it. If you are not a member, I would be happy to have you as a member. Okay, Gladys is is asking. I'm going to read the question and then I'm going to just try to summarize it. In short, any advice on finding the right sound? When trying out new, different oral postures, it gets confusing sometimes because the sound varies ever so slightly. So when it gets hard to tell if one is correct or not. Right. So basically, when you're pronouncing vowels, sometimes just a small shift in your tongue position can change the vowel. And how do you know? So this goes back to what I said yesterday about learning how to give yourself feedback. Now I'm going to continue the question. This is especially hard when practicing alone without access to a coach. For example, I can generally get the vowel sound, but with just a slight change on the mouth opening, slight change in the position of the tongue or even where the voice is resonated, the quality of the sound changes. It's true. But also it's not that critical. So the change is not that slight to shift from one vowel to another. So I want you to know that when you pronounce a certain vowel, your tongue has a little bit of flexibility in terms of where it can be to be around that sound. So for the ah sound, you can say ah, ah. It might sound all the same to you, but I'm moving my tongue a lot. Right. In terms of the movement, I went from a pretty high position to a very flat position and it still sounded the same. Okay, same thing with E. E, E. Right. All of that would still be perceived as an E for English speakers. So there is more room for play than you think. Okay, let's begin with that. And if you generally get it right, then for you to shift away from it, you would have to do something pretty significant. Now, sometimes it's hard to know how to get it right. So you need the right directions. You need practice and there is a way, again, like I did try to do it a little bit in some of the sounds that we learned. But in, you know, when I go a little more thoroughly and when I teach it, there is something that I call the practice guide that tells you how to practice it effectively and to know if. What to expect or what to do if you hear a different sound and what sounds to look for. So there is a way to train yourself to know if you are getting it right or not or what it is that you might be doing that will prevent it from sounding a certain way. Okay. Because ultimately it is the position. So to answer your question, a, it's not that tiny as you think the changes. B, if you do decide to continue with us into new sound, just so you know that there is a practice guide that tells you exactly what to expect and what to listen to so that you will know, like, you'll just have answers to those things. And three, if you, if, if you continue on your own, one of the ways to do it is to have to record yourself and play. Let's say you go to. You write how to pronounce on Google, and then you play the pronunciation, and then you repeat it, and then you listen to it and you listen to the differences. Because that is another way for you to know that if you know, like, you're not sure if you're getting it right or not. But it seems to me, based on your question, that you are very versed in pronunciation work. And to me, it feels that you are on the right track and you probably have strong intuition around sounds. So my recommendation is just trust yourself, trust that you know. Probably that will save a lot of your heartache and overthinking and concern whether you're getting it right or not. Because if you're around the sound and you feel like it's almost there, it's probably way above good enough. It's probably more than enough. Okay? So also trust the work that you've done and trust your ears and trust your brain, especially if you have been doing this work for a while. Okie dokie jokey. Let's see. What is the best way to practice prosody? Gemma's asking. The best way to practice prosody, in my opinion, is first of all, to understand all the elements of speech, right? To really understand what to do with your voice, to control your pitch, what to do with your. With your voice ultimately and breath, to control rhythm, to control volume, to optimize your voice. So all of that, when you know how to do that, then you have more tools, kind of like you have more words to express what you want to say. Express what you want to say with two words versus 20 words, right? That's the same thing when you know how to control those elements of speech and while you know how to control them, because, like, that's what you do in your first language. Sometimes we minimize that. We narrow it in our first language and in our second language as well. So learning how to reuse it and learn the versatility of your voice will help you become more expressive because you'll discover new notes. Again, think of a. Let's think of a piano and you have one octave, right? Like only seven notes. And imagine like you were to. You thought that this is what you're able to do. Your mouth, your. Your voice can only produce seven notes. But then you practice your voice and you realize that you actually have 21 notes that you can work with. Just that alone will create a lot more versatility because you'll be more playful with your voice. Another thing is to give yourself permission to use your voice in a more versatile way. My friend Samara, who wrote the book Permission to Speak, which I highly, highly recommend, says that pitch is vulnerability. When you use pitch, you are more vulnerable because pitch shows your emotions. And then when you don't want to show your emotions, because we've been taught that you cannot be emotional or like, you need to be chill and cool, then we also narrow our pitch. So prosody is also an aspect of mindset and permission to use to being more expressive and to, in a way, be more vulnerable. And the last thing is, which is very technical shadowing. Sometimes you just want to. You choose someone that you love listening to that you resonate with their voice, and then you play it and you shadow it. And then you kind of like find those sounds and find those patterns, intonation patterns, and find that rhythm using, like, using this guide someone else's voice, and then you find it for yourself. And that's another great way to practice prosody. I've heard of people who completely transformed how they sounded simply by doing shadowing exercises. So I think it's a really good exercise. And taking into consideration those three elements, this is something that can definitely help. Okay, so I see a few technical questions. Oh, okay. Your. Your request was declined. Maybe because you're a new user. Because we do want real people there, and there are a lot of bots out there or people who are using the Facebook group to offer solicit things and. And sometimes to, to approach people personally. So just write to us or write to Amar and Amar is going to get you in. Okay, you are real. I know you're real. Now we know you are real. So just contact Amar and we'll get you inside the influency community. I just don't know your name right now because see, to me you're a Facebook user. Okay. Yes. Send us an email. Okay, good. Send an email here with your profile user and we will just add you to the group. Okie dokie. A few questions. The recordings of these sessions are going to be available until the 22nd. Second, I believe, which is next Wednesday or Thursday. Yes. Permission to speak by Samara Bay. Yes, this is the book. The master class is going to be available by that time as well, by Thursday the 23rd. So if you join the master class, you sign up, you can't watch it. Then after Tuesday you will have the video where you will be able to watch the parts and a lot of, a lot of the questions that you guys asked about how to measure my progress, how to know what I need to work on, how to work on your voice and feel like yourself and your voice, I'm gonna address it there. So be sure to watch the replay and a lot of or join live. When you join live, by the way, you will also immediately get my guide to nailing your next job interview in English. So whether or not you're planning to get a job in English, this guide is definitely going to help you talk about yourself more confidently and practice your English and get you ready for that job interview, even if it's not something that is coming up tomorrow. So join me live and at the end of the masterclass, I'm also going to introduce you to New Sound. New Sound is my program. I'm going to talk about everything that it has, the live experience, all the bonuses that you're going to get. If you join Live, you and you sign up for New Sound while you're live, then there's an additional bonus and in all the payment options and all of that. So because I've been getting a lot of questions about that during the challenge. So everything is going to be addressed at the end of the masterclass, the last, let's say 15, 20 minutes and then we go into Q and A. Okay, I think we are. That's it. What time is it? Yeah, we are exactly at, at the end of the hour. So I'm just going to remind you that tomorrow at this time we're going to do a coaching session. There is daylight savings in some countries, so pay attention. Look at the calendar. It might have shifted for you the time it. It has for me. It's going to be an hour earlier, but. But it's still 9am Eastern time. Okay? So pay attention to the time. Look at the calendar, see when it's at. And I'm going to be coaching you, so you're going to. It's going to be an hour and a half, and you will get to sign up to work with me one on one. Not everyone is going to get a chance to work with me. But know that even if you look at me, work with someone else about on pronunciation, then it's going to be super beneficial for you as well. Take that into consideration because a lot of times something that is challenging for you is challenging for other people as well. Ernest says I chose Tuesday, but I'll have to work at this time. Can I change to Sunday? Yes, just go ahead and sign up again and choose the new time. Okay, so go and sign up for Sunday. It's all good. And I think that you might even get an email if you miss it. You might get an email inviting you to sign up again for Sunday. But you can just. Now go ahead and we'll. We'll know that this is the session that you're gonna. You're gonna be. You're gonna join. All right, let me see. And when will you open doors for New Sound? I open doors when I. At the end of the web of the master class. So at the end of the master class, during the master class, you'll be able to join New Sound. Is New Sound one and one program or group training? Well, it's. It's a digital program, so it's definitely a group program with a lot of live coaching like we did here. But there are several tiers, so you can make it as personal as you want. You can sign up for personal feedback. You can sign up for small group coaching inside the big program. So there are different tiers depending on how much support and feedback personal feedback you'd like. But like I said, you know, I do teach you how to give yourself feedback, which is critical for your progress. So even our students who get feedback or who are in the coaching pods, they first learn how to identify their. Their pronunciation and how to give themselves feedback. What if I can't? The 14th, I signed up for Sunday instead. That's great. So join me on Sunday. Join me on Sunday. Nothing would happen. And if you want to join New Sounds, then join on Sunday or you Will catch the replay. Don't worry about it. What books do you recommend to read? Well, I have a lot of books that I recommend to read. It depends on what you'd like to improve and change mindset pronunciation. But right now I would again go back to recommending Permission to Speak by Samara Bay. It's not about speaking a second language, but it's everything about speaking a second language. And she writes beautifully. And if you listen to the audiobook, it's even better listening to her, how she uses her voice. She's a good friend. And I cannot recommend this book strongly enough, really, for everyone in whatever language you speak. Speak. Is there a road map to study pronunciation on your channel? If you join the master class, I do outline the road map and of course this is like, what is the foundation of my, my core program, New Sound. But I have a lot of free content on YouTube. So if you decide to continue on your own, at least you'll get the roadmap from the master class and then you'll know. You know, I could potentially direct you to certain videos that you can use because absolutely there are a lot of videos out there. It's not as complete as, you know, and cohesive as. As we go deep in. In my programs, but there is definitely a lot there. And I do have a lot of strategies that I teach you on my channel. I think there's actually a playlist called strategy or Fluency. So go there and I think that would be a really good start if you want to use my content on the website. We are working on revising my website and then having like a curated playlist for you depending on where you're at. So check in in a few months if you want something more concrete. In terms of my YouTube video, I saw the video and I didn't understand anything that she said. Ernest. Well, first of all, thank you for telling me. This is good. This is really good intel. I would recommend for you to watch it again, but slow down the speed of the video to 75%. And also, here's another tip for all of you who struggle with understanding, let's say native speakers. Listen to like when you feel like you have a hard time hearing, listening to understanding a native speaker or a certain show or TV show, after you do a little bit of work, maybe you expose yourself to more listening. You do more pronunciation work. Even after this challenge where you started organizing the sounds in your head, go back and listen again sometimes, first of all, the second time that you listen is enough for you to understand Better. And sometimes when you do this type of work, like pronunciation work, and then you listen, it really opens up your brain and you understand better, even without actively using English or without a lot of time passing in between. So go back to that video, slow down the video, and see if you can understand and don't get locked or sometimes shut down. Like when. When you listen to someone and then you don't understand them. We. We shut down and we're like, I don't get it. Right? And then it's a little scary. And then we're like, oh, I can't understand it, or it's not for me. Power through those thoughts and say to yourself, I got this. I know English. If I understand certain people, I can understand other people as well. Don't give up on it. Don't make it easy for yourself either. Right? Listen to it again. Do what it takes. Slow it down. Just take one sentence. Be like, I know I can figure it out. I know I can understand them. And then you show to yourself that it's possible. You tell your brain that it's possible. You teach your brain to listen differently, and you teach yourself to not give up the moment it gets a little hard. Now, I get it that it's hard. Objectively, it's hard. But you can. You. You. You can do it. You can get through this hard part. And then it becomes a little less hard and a little less hard, because if you're here listening to me, you're. You have the ability to understand any English. Okay, I speak fast, too. And you don't understand. Have to understand everything. Sometimes if you only understand 60%, that is enough. Your brain can make the difference, make up the difference. And gradually, the more you do that, the better you understand. Okay, it is one session. That's a good question. It is the same session four times. So you just need to choose your preferred time. Okay, so it's not four different sessions, like the challenge. We should clarify it. It's not for, like, a sequence or a series of four sessions. It's the same masterclass in four different times just to accommodate different people around the world. Okay, I'm just reading some of the questions. Ernest. Yeah, if it was several weeks ago, yes. This week has been intensive. Okay, please go check it again and tell me what you think. And just listen to a small part. It's a long video, so listen to a small part of it. Listen to it twice, and see how you feel. You know, like, sometimes I have podcasts that I listen to where the speakers speak really Fast. And they share a whole lot of information, like really valuable information that is really intense. And sometimes I need to listen to a podcast twice. Like, the specific podcast that I'm talking about are. They're also really short episodes. And I was like, wait a minute, let me make sure that I got everything right. Because sometimes, you know, we're distracted, we're doing other things, and we. I like to listen to how they speak, so I pay attention to the prosody sometimes. And then I was like, wait, what was the content? I was listening to their sounds. I wasn't listening to what they're saying. So, you know, sometimes it's okay to listen twice. There's nothing wrong with you. This is how your brain processes things, especially if it's a second language. I don't want to go, I feel like I'm having so much fun with you. What do you think about exposing different accents? Oh, I think it's excellent. No, I mean, it depends at what your stage is and if you're. You have the capacity for it. I mean, for some people where they're like, just trying to understand the standard accent and that is their. Their stage, then it might be a little too. It might be pushing it, right? It might be too challenging. But if you do have the capacity and it's a little scary, but you have the capacity to understand, it's an excellent exercise. It will help you develop your listening skills. You will have a better understanding, subconscious understanding of the sounds, because the brain starts organizing the sounds and being like, okay, this is how this person is saying it. This is how that person is saying it. But also, you open yourself up to this idea that there isn't just one sound for English. There are many different sounds. And that gives you this internal permission of sounding like yourself and not having to sound like this one person on YouTube that you listen to, right? Or the voice of authority, or how people on the news or in Hollywood sound because they all sound the same. But that's not a representation of reality, because in reality, people do not sound the same. They had to have different rhythms and different grammar sometimes, and different sounds and different ways of saying things. So when you open yourself up in a way, you open your heart up for the opportunity or for the. For this idea that there isn't just one sound. And we become more patient and understanding when we hear others as well. And let's biased ourselves. And then we are. We don't feel like people are going to constantly judge us as well. So it goes even deeper than just exposing Yourself to different accents. Thank you for this great question. And my answer is yes, absolutely. Is it possible to learn English at 72 years old? 100%. My first student, her name was Jola, she was 70 years old. You know, she still, she still does amazing work. And that was like, we started working together, like, 15 years ago. And, well, she didn't practice. So her change, like her shifting from, from, you know, her native sounds to different sounds was a little slower because she just wanted to talk about the Internet. And she was amazing. I love her so much. But to answer your question, absolutely. First of all, it's so amazing to learn English at any age, and definitely at an age where it gets you to, like, really work your brain and, and exercise your brain, because it's an amazing exercise. And second, you have the same capacity as anyone else. So, yes, absolutely. All right. Margette says that exposing yourself to heavy Scottish and Irish accents has really improved her understanding of sounds. 100%. Recommended. Absolutely. Go to the hardest pronunciations and both native English accents and even non native English accents. Right. Like, go to the most difficult, like, accents that you have a hard time understanding, especially if you have people around you. So I work in high tech a lot. Like, I train teams in different companies in high tech. And, you know, I, I train a team of developers that have another team in other places around the world, and they tell me, I'm like, we're communicating with them and it's really hard for us to understand them. So I say work on your listening skills. Expose yourself more to that accent. Go listen to videos or listen to speakers who have that particular accent, because it's not that they have a problem. I mean, of course, everyone can work on being a better version of themselves when it comes to pronunciation, but also we should all work better on our listening skills, native speakers included, but also us when we listen to other speakers from people around the world. If you have an opinion about someone's accent and how they're clear or unclear. Clear. First of all, check your bias and ask yourself, what can I do to be a better listener? Because when you do that, you also, again, feel more confident speaking. Because then you'd be like, it's not just my job to communicate better, it's also the job of the other person. So the responsibility when you communicate in English is not all on you. We all have a responsibility to be better communicators as listeners and as speakers. The thing is that you can't control someone else's journey. You can only control yours. Okay, So I can learn American at British or British pronunciation at the same time without becoming crazy. Well, then I would say if you're pro practicing pronunciation, choose one accent first. You can expose yourself to different accents, but if you're working on pronunciation, then I would recommend choosing one because that would, even though it's not going to be, make a huge impact because most of the sounds are the same in all languages. But when you practice pronunciation, yeah, you could lean into one sound and not like alternate between the two. I think you wouldn't enjoy it either. And anyway, but ultimately you do, you do the thing that gets you excited, that gets you interested, that keeps you on track. And if that means practicing two sounds, then that's the right thing for you. You know, that's what I always say, you know best eventually. Or you try it out and if it feels a little confusing, then bring it back to just one. One dialect. There is never a right and wrong when it comes to learning that is the right and wrong for you. And sometimes it takes trial and error. Would you say 10 minutes of practice every day? Enough? If it's a, an effective practice and you do it for the long haul, then yes. I do believe that to make the first transformation, you do something you do need, something that is a little more thorough. So that, because you know, like to learn the sounds and everything, because there is a lot. And then if you just keep the 10 minute practice. Yes. And also I'm going to say it's better than nothing. Right. So if that's what you can commit to, then by all means, yes, it would help. Yes, you will feel the difference. It's the compound effect, small sustainable actions that don't feel like much when you do them daily. You know, it's like removing a spoon of sugar out of your diet every single day. You're not going to feel it, but if you start adding it, it's like a whole lot of pounds that you're going to be adding over the course of a few years. So even 10 minutes a day can make a significant change to your English for the long run. And it's always better than nothing. Okay, so it's not all or nothing. It's not an hour a day or nothing. 10 minutes a day is amazing. This is why I created the sprints. So it's like a 10 minute practice that you do daily. All right, there are a lot more questions, but we need to wrap up. So thank you so much for being here. Tomorrow in the coaching session, try to come and sign up for a hot seat and you can ask your question there. And I'm gonna get like. You can ask for feedback. So I hope to see you there. There is one more mindset. Talk about the possibility and the potential and how to unlock your potential. That is tomorrow. Thank you so much, my friends. I love you all. Take care and I'll see you soon. Bye.