🗣Simple and effective pronunciation practice | Core Training with Hadar

Foreign. Hello. Hello, everyone. Welcome to English Pronunciation Made simple, the five day training. And yes, we are on day five. How exciting is this? How are you doing today? Say hi in the comments, let me know how you're feeling. How does pronunciation feel to you these days? Is it better? Is it more exciting? Is it more overwhelming? Let me know in the comments. I am. As I was preparing for today, I was thinking about you guys and I was thinking about all the work that you've put in. I feel like I run these events twice a year and a lot. Usually there's a lot of engagement, but I'm really, really impressed with you guys, with how much you actually challenge yourself to post videos and to participate and to ask questions. Because when you participate, even in the form of sending an email saying thank you or asking a question or, or just being live and present in the live training, it makes a huge difference for yourself and for your journey. And I can tell you that it makes a huge difference for me. So I am very grateful for that. Seeing you being so active, being so interested and putting things into practice. So today, okay? I'm great. Good. Everyone's good. Beautiful. Okay. Today is day five, our last day where we're going to talk about simple and effective pronunciation practice. But it's not all, because today we're also going to talk about the, the right strategy and the plan that you need to have for you to reach a real breakthrough in English. We're going to talk about that. And you know, a lot of you are asking, what's next? So. So I really want to invite you to our masterclass that is going to take place on Monday and on. No, on Tuesday and Wednesday. I keep getting those confused. Let me just put the link here. And the masterclass really completes everything you learn in the training and gives you clear strategy on what to do next and how to improve other aspects of your English. In the Masterclass, here are a few things that you're going to learn. Why just speak more is not enough to improve your English. Some of you may already know that and feel that that even though you might be trying to speak a lot, sometimes it just doesn't work. It just doesn't help. And you need to understand why. So I'm going to be teaching you why that is and why it's not as simple as it sounds. Also, we're going to talk about how free English content online can destroy your confidence and fluency in English with all the goodness that it brings. There's a lot of bad stuff that we don't want to have. So I want to make sure that you are using free online content the right way. And then we're going to talk about why it's hard to make a significant or significant breakthroughs when learning on your own. And I'm going to teach you my three powerful strategies for going from avoiding English or not being happy, not being content with your English to to speaking English with impact, with confidence, feeling like yourself, sounding clear, sounding expressive, and simply feeling good. So we're going to talk about all of that, and I highly recommend that you join us live because when you join live, you can ask questions, you're more focused, you can take notes, which is something that I notice that when my students show up live to these trainings, it's a lot more effective. So the link is going to be in the chat. You can just go to hadar shemish.com forward/masterclass. Okay, so let's move on to what we're going to do today. Here we go. Let's go. All right, Today we're going to talk about effective pronunciation practice techniques. I'm going to teach you my favorite practice techniques. So we can take all of that good stuff that we learned during this training and put it into practice and start using it. So it's not just here or it's not just in your memory, but it's actually in your mouth. You can start using it when speaking. How pronunciation can help you get fluent. We talked about clarity. We talked about delivering your message, but I want you to know that pronunciation can absolutely help you improve other elements of your English, other elements of your fluency. So we're going to talk about that and my proven system for reaching fluency. So let's have a quick recap of the things you learned this week, and I will. Okay. See if you can see it clearly. Okay. On day one, if you remember, we talked about sounds. We talked about consonants and vowels and syllables and primary stress. And we I taught you how to reverse engineer your accent, which basically means how to know what to focus on based on your needs and based on your first language. If you haven't watched it, if you joined us a little late, the replay is still there. You can go ahead and watch it. It's really Valu will help you understand the sounds of English, but also the sounds of your own language. We're going to talk about on day two, we talked about connected speech. We talked about why it is so important, how to use it effectively and how to practice it. On day three, we talked about Pitch and intonation, how to deliver a clear message by using your pitch, how to change your pitch by using your voice. And we talked about the difference between pitch, intonation, and tone of voice. On day four, we played a little bit with rhythm. We talked about the difference between stressed syllables and less stressed syllables, between more important words and less important words, and how pitch, intonation, and the idea of delivering a clear message is reflected in the rhythm. And we practice it in songs and in short exercises that were a lot of fun. And today we're going to take all of that and you know, you know, it's not just about theory. It's about practice. You gotta practice. You gotta make it a habit. So we're gonna talk about simple and effective pronunciation techniques, because remember that pronunciation is a speaking habit. And when we talk about elements in pronunciation, we're talking about sounds, we're talking about the intonation, we're talking about rhythm, we're talking about stress, and even how we use our voice. Habits form when new behaviors become automatic and you're not thinking about it consciously. So let's think about some of the habits that you have. Waking up in the morning, brushing your teeth, making coffee, tying your shoelaces, right? These are habits that we have as soon as we put on our shoes. So these are habits that we have. We don't think about it. We do it automatically. Even the sounds and words and grammatical structures that you use in your first language, you can think of it as. Of them as habits, right? Because you're using them automatically. You're not thinking about what word to use or what tense to use. Unfortunately, when you learn a new language, the habits are still not there. So what happens is that you still need to think about the words. And sometimes you still need to think about what to do with your tongue or, or your lips when pronouncing sound or to be aware of your intonation. It's not intuitive. It's not a part of your system. So you need to build a new habit. So the question is, how can we create new speaking habits? On day one, I talked to you about, about my five steps to mastering any sounds, and I taught you my pronunciation confidence method that I want to quickly review for those of you who were there, or maybe you've forgotten to because it's been a while, five days ago. There's a lot that has been taught here since then. So remember that if you want to make something a habit, first you need to prioritize it, right? That's not going to help you make It a habit. But that's how you're not going to start trying to build habits for all the sounds of English because then it's just not going to be possible because you're going to overwhelm yourself. You need an upper 20 threshold to be able to build habits. That means that if you do too much, your body is just going to resist it. So you want to prioritize. What does that mean? The act of reverse engineering your accent, what we did at the beginning, and understanding where you need to focus. When you get started with pronunciation work, what's your highest priority? What. What are the critical elements of speech or sounds that you need to work on? What is less important? What bothers you? So we talked about that in on day one. Then once you decide what you need to work on, there is perception. If you can't hear it, you can't make it. And this is really important because you need to listen really closely to the sounds that you're trying to improve or the elements of prosody, for example, pitch or, or tone of voice. If for some of you it was really hard to understand the intonation patterns that I was teaching or the rhythm rhythmic patterns that I was teaching, then before trying to practice it, it's really important to train your ears to hear it. Be very intentional about it. I call it close listening. When you really, really listen to not just the words, not just the content, but how it's made, then it's about production. You need to learn how to produce it. This is very physical, what you do with your lips, with your tongue, with your jaw, with your vocal cords, Right? Learning how to produce a certain sound. Sometimes it's very, very scientific, like do this with your tongue and you're going to get the R sound. But then once you know how to produce the sound, just like with any habit, you need to repeat it. Repetition is really, really important. Okay. So creating strong habits by repeating the challenging sounds again and again and again. And even when it comes to repetition, I really like to escalate the difficulty level. What does that mean? To start with very basic pronunciations, like just the sound, then the sound in a vowel or short words with that sound, and then short phrases and then longer sentences and then challenging sentences. So you build up the difficulty level the more you get comfortable with the sound. And finally, there is intentional practice, intentionally using the sound in free speech. We're going to talk more about that right now. How are you doing so far? Okay. And yes, I did recommend I see someone commenting on my video about Pronunciation mistakes for Spanish speakers. I did recommend for you to check out if I have a guide for your language so that I would. That would simplify the process of prioritizing the sounds that you need to work on. Because I collected the biggest challenges for specific speakers. I have it for Russian speakers, Chinese speakers, Japanese speakers, Arabic speakers, Spanish, Brazilian, Portuguese, and more. Okay, good. So there is a question. Why is it easy to understand but not to speak? This is the biggest challenge. The gap between the English that you know and the English that you speak. I'm going to talk about it in my masterclass, so make sure you sign up. Hadarshamish.com Masterclass. This is exactly what I'm going to be tackling. The gap between the English that you are able to understand and the English that you're able to produce. There is a gap. It's okay. But the idea is to minimize that gap. So I'm going to tell you why that happens and how to avoid it, how to minimize it. Okay? Intentional practice is what allows you to go from pronouncing a single word to using it consistently when speaking. If you've done some. If you've done some pronunciation work in the past, you already know that sometimes you understand a sound, you're able to pronounce it, but then it's just not there when you speak. It's hard for you to use it when speaking. So there is a system that helps you integrate it into your speech. It doesn't happen immediately. Right. You first need to turn it into a habit. But then intentional practice is designed to help you with that. So how to practice intentionally? Let me make it a little bigger so you can see it. First of all, I want you to read out loud and focus on two elements of speech. So take any text that you like, maybe a book, maybe you're reading, you're listening to an audiobook. Try to get the script as well. Maybe you're reading an article. Anything, Anything you'd like, something that interests you. Any resource or source that you use has to be fun. Okay? This is. This is the ground rule. It has to be interesting. It has to be fun. You have to like it. You have to like the voice of the person you're working with. Now, it doesn't have to be with the audio. You can just read it out loud and focus on two elements of speech. For example, just sounds and, you know, like the R sound and the th sound. Or it could be intonation at the end of sentences and the open A sound, or maybe connected speech and Reductions, but not more than two. Because when you focus on too many things, your brain is just like all over the place and you won't be able to notice everything. Right? It's really hard to focus when you're trying to focus on everything. Then speak freely or not then. But another exercise, and an even more effective exercise is to speak freely while focusing on up to two elements of speech. So here again, you don't want to overdo it, but you want to, let's say, ask yourself a question. What is my favorite thing to do when I'm on vacation? Okay, so you can start answering this question. I like going to cafes and looking at how people behave in their day to day life. I like to go sightseeing. So you want to start answering the question. You can just do it once to understand what you want to say and then the second time you do it, you want to start paying attention to the words that you're saying, to the sounds that you're using, and pay closer attention or even very close attention to the two elements of speech or two sounds that you decided to focus on. Now, an effective technique that is going to help you that if you feel any resistance to it, then it means that you should probably do it, is to give yourself feedback and repeat. Most of you are self learners. You're studying on your own. And I know that it's really hard to progress and advance without getting feedback, without having someone to tell you what to do. Now I do appreciate the importance that I think feedback is important and guidance is important, but sometimes it's not possible. And even when you do have feedback and guidance, it's not enough. You need to. It's not like you're going to have a teacher next to you all day long telling you if you pronounce something correctly or not. So you need to become your own coach anyway and start noticing things. Start recognizing when you're pronouncing something correctly or when you're off or when it doesn't sound like you expect it to sound. Now one of the ways to do that. Sorry. One of the ways to do that is to record yourself with your phone, reading something or speaking and then listening to it when you listen back. You'll notice a lot of things that you don't notice when you speak, especially if you're trying to focus on those two sounds when you're listening to it. You are capable of actually paying attention if you did it. Because when you speak again, sometimes you think that you're doing things or that you're Saying things, and then you recognize, you realize that, hey, I wasn't even using the R, the American R, once, okay? So I think that recording yourself, or even more so, using video to watch it and give yourself feedback is such a great tool. And as a side note, video is something that we use a lot in my programs. I have two programs beyond and New Sound. In both, we use a lot of video. Why? Because, first of all, when you make a video, you actually document your work. And then you can check your progress. You can give yourself feedback you have. You are more composed and intentional when speaking. So when you just speak to yourself, and it's like when no one's watching, you might feel really free. But when you record yourself, even if you're alone, there's something about us that becomes a bit more tense, a bit more pull together, right? As if someone's watching, as if someone's evaluating us, which is actually something that we want to experience. Because this is a feeling that you will experience when speaking to other people. So practicing using video is actually the closest thing to practicing with other people or speaking to other people without actually being around other people. So this is why, remember like when I said that if you want to get better at something, you got to do more of that something or get close closer to that something. And making videos and speaking to yourself and using the sounds that you want to incorporate is bringing you closer to actually doing it spontaneously. Another technique that I absolutely love is shadowing. Okay? Shadowing is repeating someone else's words and echoing the words the way that they said it. There are two ways to practice shadowing, but before that, I'm going to talk about why it's so good and what it will help you with. It will help you develop intuition in English and understand it on a deeper level. Sometimes a lot of the work that we do is subconscious. You can't understand or perceive every single aspect of speaking English. But when you practice shadowing, sometimes you get it on a deeper level and a subconscious level, which creates a more holistic experience of learning English. It will help you understand what words to emphasize and what words to reduce. You'll listen to natural speech, and if you struggle with understanding what you know, what content words to stress, this is a really, really good practice because you can hear it and pay attention to it. You can explore your intonation and tone of voice. Usually when we imitate someone else's words, it's like acting, right? Unlike when you're speaking and creating your own language, you give yourself more freedom and permission it's easier to imitate someone else than to create this versatility in your voice on your own. So you. It allows you to explore ways to use your voice that you don't usually use when you speak on your own. Because, you know, we are creatures of habit. We would just want to do it the same way as we're always as we're used to, which is the way it is in our first language. So that's an opportunity to change. And it helps you connect words together using the same rhythm the speaker used. Okay. So again, it allows you to explore not just your voice, but also a new rhythm. Now, how to shadow. We're going to practice it together. There are two ways to do it. You can echo the person without pausing the audio or pause after every line. So basically, you play the audio and you repeat after it. Now, this is really good if you're in your car and you can't, you know, pause the audio every single second. So you can play, let's say, a podcast or a YouTube video and play it in the background and you just echo it. You're like the echo. You're repeating what is said. Now here's the thing. You're gonna not understand all the words. You're going to miss out some things, but that's the thing, like just to keep going and keep imitating what you are hearing. And also, you can slow down the speed of the podcast or the video, and that would make it even easier. Now, another way to do it is to pause and repeat while working with a script. So if you have more time, if you're in front of your computer, hopefully not driving, then you can put the script in front of you. This is a more thorough process. And then you play one line and you pause it and you repeat. Play one line, pause and repeat. Okay. Now when you do that, you want to be intentional. Focus on the one or two elements of speech. When you practice, don't try to focus on everything at once. Remember, this is the idea of intentional practice and intentional shadowing. I've seen a lot of students just echo and shadow videos, and it's okay. It's not that it's not going to help. It's going to help, but it's so much more effective if you're actually paying attention. Attention to the sounds you're trying to improve. Okay, let's practice. I have a fun scene here for you that I'm going to play, and we are going to shadow it together. So it's going to also be somewhat of a listening Exercise. Because I don't have the script for you here. So I want you to listen to it. Write what you hear in the chat. And then we're all going to practice it together. Ready? Who are you?

My name is Andy Sachs.

Gonna play it again. Who are you?

My name is Andy Sachs.

One more time. Who are you?

My name is Andy Sachs.

What is the first phrase? Good. Who are you? Now notice how she reduces it together. And now we're going to focus on intonation. This is going to be our focus. Who are you? Listen to how she says that. Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?

My name is Andy Sachs.

Up. Down. Who are you? My name is Andy Sachs. My name is Andy Sachs. That's her name. Let's do it together. So this is shadowing. I'm just thinking of intonation right now. Playing one line. Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? She's not even saying the R. My.

Name is Andy Sachs.

My name is Andy Sachs. Have you noticed how every syllable receives a note? And she goes down like this? So really try it out. See how that feels. Next one.

Recently graduated from Northwestern University.

What did she say? Here?

I recently graduated from Northwestern University.

I recently graduated from Northwestern University. So now we're going to focus on rhythm. Pitch is kind of flat. I recently graduated from Northwestern University. So remember that lift at the end? That means that something else is coming up. It also indicates as if you're uncertain. So when you are interviewed or evaluated, or when you are in a situation where you might feel uncomfortable, you'll notice that people tend to use that pitch that goes up at the end. I'm here. I just came for this interview. I don't even know what I'm doing here. Okay, let's listen to it again. Wait. I skipped one.

Recently graduated from Northwestern University.

What are you doing here? And then. What are you doing here? How she drops down. Certainty University. And yes, it shows. She's nervous, right? Dunya. What are you doing here? What are you doing? What are you doing here? Now play with your pitch. I'm going to play it again. I want you to imitate each sentence.

I recently graduated from Northwestern University.

I recently graduated from Northwestern University. Wait. I messed up. Hold on.

I recently graduated from Northwestern University.

What are you doing here? What are you doing here? What are you doing here? Let's continue. Well, I think I notice how she said it's well, right? But you didn't say well. Wool. Wool. She kind of Swallowed it. And the intonation was up in the air. Wool, Wait.

I think I could do a good job as your assistant.

What did she say? I'm going to play it again.

I think I could do a good job as your assistant.

I think I could do a good job as your assistant. So notice the intonation that is kind of flat here. She is nervous. When you're nervous, you kind of, like, push down your pitch. So you are likely to sound a bit more flat when you're nervous, which is something to pay attention to. But you can still hear the stressed words because she stretches them.

Yeah, I came to New York to be a journalist.

What's going on with Eclipse?

Well, I think I could do a good job as your assistant.

So let's practice it again. I think I could do a good job. Is your. Is your. Is your reduced assistant?

And.

And okay, again, kind of like up in the air. Let's see what happens next.

Yeah, I came to New York to be a journalist.

All of a sudden, some certainty. She's saying the truth, right? She's like, I don't know. I'm here to be your assistant. Yeah, I came to New York to be a journalist. All of a sudden, certainty. And again. Yeah, I came to New York to be a journalist. Journalist.

And I sent letters out everywhere.

And. And sent letters out everywhere. And sent letters out everywhere. So this is how I would do it. I would play one line, pause and repeat.

And finally got a call from Elias Clark and met with Sherry up at Human Resources and.

Okay, so I have to say that when I was listening to this for the first time, it. I had to play it twice to understand what she's saying here. Let's see if you can recognize what she says. Write it in the chat.

I'm Elias Clark and met with Cherry up at Human Resources and finally got a call from Elias Clark and met with Sherry up at Human Resources and finally got a call from Elias Clark and met with Cheri up at Human Resources. And then finally got a call from Elias Clark and met with Cherry up at Human Resources.

Right. Everything's kind of like small and tiny. Let's see if you can see. Recognize what she says.

Got a call from Elias Clark and.

Finally got a call from Elias Clerk. And finally got a call. Good. You almost got it from Elias. That's a name. Clerk. Last name.

Met with Sherry. Human Resources.

And met with Sherry. Up, up, up. Up. At Reduced. Listen to how it's reduced.

Human Resources.

Hold on.

I recently graduated from Northwestern University.

Obviously, I did not Organize those videos in an easy way. Sorry about that. Yeah.

I came to New York to be a journalist. And sent letters out everywhere. And then finally got a call from Elias Clark. And met with Sherry up at Human Resources.

And met with Sherry up at Human Resources.

Basically, it's this or auto universe.

What is she saying? Basically, it's this or auto universe. So listen to the intonation here.

Basically, it's this or auto universe.

Basically, it's this or auto universe. Basically. Basically, it's this or auto universe. Right. It's like really going down the stairs. Basically, it's this or auto universe.

So you don't read Runway?

So you don't read Runway?

So you don't read Runway?

So you don't read Runway? So you don't read Runway? Let's do it together. So you don't read Runway? Pay attention to the rhythm here.

No, and before today, you had never heard of me.

Now listen to the intonation here. Let's play it again.

No, and before today, you had never heard of me.

So listen to the intonation. She's like, no, no. Just play with your intonation. Give yourself permission to be playful. Like this. No, and before today, you've never heard of me. Right. By the way, Meryl Streep in this. In this part, playing Anna Wintour. She does such a good job. Not Anna Wintour. She plays. I forgot the name. Well, the character is based on Anna Wintour. Please remind me her name. But she is the editor of Runway. Which is, like, a very, very famous editorial. It's like the story of Vogue. And here, when you listen to her speak. Her intonation is not very typical. Miranda. Her intonation is not very typical. Yes, Miranda, thank you. Just remembered, and I see that you wrote it. And it's really nice to imitate her. If you find scenes online. Like, it's really nice to imitate her. Because she is very, like. It's very interesting how she uses her voice. Me. Me. Now, like I said, it doesn't mean that you need to start using it right away. But when you give yourself the freedom to use your voice like that in a different way. It does create more opportunity for yourself. When you're actually speaking to friends, to colleagues. And even to your boss. Even in a job interview. Okay? So, as you notice, like, this is what we do. We listen to a scene, we pause and we repeat. Repeat it. Right? This is my favorite way. If you have the script. Even better. If you don't, you can transcribe it and then check it and turn it into A listening exercise. And then you want to pay attention to two things. Today we noticed rhythm and intonation. Okay, good. Any questions about shadowing? And by the way, at in like 30 minutes, I'm sending out an email with my weekly video, which is a shadowing video from a scene inside the movie Barbie. I think I mentioned it yesterday. So there. We will do exactly what we did here. You will. You can find a link to the script so you can practice shadowing with me. Okay, good. Yes. And the movie is the Devil Wears Prada. Good. Okay, so moving on. How to find the right system to level up your English. But before that, how are you doing? Let me know in the chat. How are you doing? Do you like shadowing? Is this a. Is this a practice that you enjoy? Let me know so I know. Have you done shadowing in the past? Yes. Good. The title of this movie is the Devil Wears Prada. Good. English is so difficult. Listen, any language is difficult, even the language that is your first language. But you were able to learn it. You can do hard things. It's not about the language. It's about your focus and it's about your commitment. And it's about making sure that you do the work and you practice enough. It's really hard to master any language, even an easy language, if you don't put in the work or you know what you need to improve. Okay, good. You're enjoying shadowing. Very nice. I apologize for the issues with the video. Okay. Okay. And by. Yeah, if you. If you use the practice shadowing without pausing, that's great, too. I used to do that all the time. Right. So you just play and you follow them. If you can do that, by all means do it. I think it's good to combine the two, because when you pause, you can hear yourself better or you can hear the text better. Good. I know the movie is contemporary American. And sometimes remember that in movies it's hard to understand people, not because of you, but because of the audio and because of other things that are happening. So sometimes it's not your fault even. I just made a video about this recently that I researched it and it shows that even native speakers, most of them use subtitles or closed captions when watching movies because it's so hard these days to understand people in movies. So it's not. It's not you. It's not just you, and it's not your English. Okay, you guys, let's pull it together. Are you ready to take your English to the next level? Are you ready to reach a Breakthrough. Is it time for you to reach a breakthrough? Do you feel stuck? Do you feel like you're not like yourself? Do you feel like there is a better way for you to improve and to level up? Do you feel frustrated because you know there is a different possibility of you existing in English where you feel comfortable and you feel at ease? You know, you don't. You don't feel like you need to think about the language all the time. I want you to know that it is possible for you. I know this because I've been there. I was at a point where English was hard for me. I would avoid speaking. Speaking. I would feel tired, I would feel artificial, I would feel icky. I would feel frustrated when using English. And I lived in an English speaking country and I was still like, ah, you know, I just want to go home to my language. And home was my language. But then something did happen and I learned how I can transition or transform from being in that place of feeling limited, feeling like a pale version of myself, right, like half of myself, to being fully myself in a second language. I saw that it was possible. And over the past 15 years, I've been teaching students from around the world and I've been giving them the tools that I've used and I've created and I've figured out like, you know, I did a lot of things and a lot of things were not working. Just so you know, right. Throughout the years, there was a lot of crap out there as well that I tried and I did and it didn't work and I wasted my time. So I'm not teaching you all of that. I'm only teaching you the things that work. And I've been teaching that to my students. And I've seen transformation after transformation of my students showing up. I remember vividly, like one student of mine who, who was inside New Sound. And I think I even told you that, or I recently told this story, so forgive me if you've heard it already, but after one month inside the program, she started making live videos, talking, interviewing others, like, feeling so free, going live outside. And she said, I've been Learning English for 12 years and up until one month ago, I thought, I'm not able to have a conversation with anyone. And here I am making live videos. Because throughout the 12 years that I've been learning, I've been doing work, but I wasn't working on other elements that allowed me to show up and, and actually use the language, make it available, use it confidently, and build my confidence to be able to Use it. So this one month was transformative for her, not because she learned a lot of grammar and vocabulary. You already know a lot. The question is, how do we take all the things that you already know and put it into practice? A lot of times people just learn more and more and more and more grammar rules and more videos and more, you know, sounds and practice new things and every day, lists of words. And they don't even use the knowledge that they already have because they don't have the confidence, they don't have the practice, they don't have clarity. They haven't built habits, not just in pronunciation, but in other aspects of English. So the question is, how do you take all the things that you already have and you put it into practice. And for that, you just need a really good sequence system that I'm going to share with you because this system has worked for me and has worked for so many of my students. So how to find the right system to level up your English? I believe that pronunciation is essential for leveling up your fluency and freedom in English. It's not just about being understood better by native speakers. It's not just about sounding like a native. It's not even just about sounding clear. Here's why. Pronunciation can help you get fluent because it will help you, of course, be clear and get what you want. And when you do that, you start changing your circumstances. You start doing things that you would normally do. You start saying yes to opportunity, opportunities. How many of you here put me in the comments? How many of you here have said no to opportunities that came your way because you felt your English was not good enough, because you felt like you weren't ready, put me in the comments. If even once you said no to a conversation, to an invitation, to a course, to a job interview, to a meeting at work, to presenting something, you said no because you felt you are not ready. You felt like your English is not good enough. You felt that someone is going to judge you. You didn't want to feel ashamed. You didn't want to feel humiliated. Look at all these people saying yes. The chat lit up for a second. All of the people who let their English get in the way of their dreams. Because saying no to opportunities is something that no one wants. We want to say yes. We want to choose. We want to be able to have the option to choose, not to let other things choose it for us. And right now, you're letting your feelings about your English choose your circumstances. But you have the power. You are the one who needs to Be in control. And to be able to do that, you need to feel like you can get what you want, say what you want to say, say how you feel, say what you think without feeling ashamed and without feeling embarrassed. And a part of it is being able to communicate a clear message. And this is why pronunciation is going to help you. It will help you understand others better. In any communication exchange, you want to feel confident to sit in front of the people in front of you and know what they're talking about, to look at them, to be present and not to get caught up in your thoughts thinking, oh my God, I cannot understand them. And by thinking that, you're actually not understanding them because you're thinking about your thoughts of not understanding them. And then you're not present in the conversation. You're not even listening anymore because you are so stressed out about what you're going to do when they stop talking. Or are they going to ask me a question, Are they going to want me to respond? What am I going to do instead of actually listening. When you work on your pronunciation, your understanding and comprehension changes completely. If you are avoiding English because you don't want to exhaust yourself, you don't want to feel tired, pronunciation is going to help you with that because you will optimize the way you use your voice, the way you use your speech, the way you use your articulation organs, and you will invest in 10%, 20% of the energy that you're currently investing. You will save that energy to use for your voice, for your, you know, for communicating, or just save it and feel at ease, not feel stressed out. Tension brings tension. And if you have tension in your body, if you have tension in your mouth, it will create tension in, in your belly and in your voice. It will be. It will help you be more confident and in control because you'll. If you're not understood, you'll know what you need to change. If you are. If you can't communicate, you'll know what to do. You're more in control, and therefore you determine how things are going to go. You'll have a deeper understanding of the language. So you're not afraid anymore. You're not afraid of not getting something, and you'll know how to deal with it. And it also gives you a sense of ownership, which is what we want in a language that we learn. Also, surprisingly, it will help you build stronger vocabulary and grammar because the pronunciation confidence method that I'm teaching you that I'm using throughout my entire program when I teach pronunciation, it Teaches you a method that you can apply when learning sounds and when learning sounds, but also when learning words and when learning grammatical structures. When I studied acting, I used to memorize a lot of texts. I've never learned grammar. I've learned grammar in high school. I was a terrible student. I got C minus at the end of my 12th year in school. In high school, never learned grammar yet. My grammar is good because I was memorizing a lot of texts, repeating a lot of structures. And I learned it through that, through repetition of correct structures. So what I started doing is I started recognizing structures that I don't normally do. And then when I would spend speak, those structures would come out automatically. I would create grammatical habits, and now I wouldn't even think about it. And this is how you learn a language when you're a child, right? You don't learn grammar. You don't learn verb +b +ing when you're one year old, right? You just hear it and hear it and then you say it, and then you say it and then you repeat it. Why make learning a second language any different? The repetition is crucial. So as you can see, this is very small. Learning and practicing all aspects of pronunciation can help you not only improve how you sound, but also significantly improve your fluency and your confidence. I want to tell you the story of Eder, one of my students, because Eder wasn't sure if pronunciation is going to help him with his fluency and confidence. He came to my program because he wanted to improve his fluency, and he wasn't particularly interested just in pronunciation, but he said, okay, let's try it. But then he discovered that learning English through sounds and building muscle memory has helped him use his voice more and grow his confidence. He improved his circumstances as a result by changing his job. He got a better job, and now he's doing, you know, he's not saying no to opportunities anymore. So when I talk about my system, my system that works, then simple pronunciation, which was basically the topic of what we did here, is key. And I think it's an important component when it comes to leveling up your English. But it's not all. The next thing I want you to ask yourself what gets you to stay committed, motivated, and engaged in your English practice and study? Because obviously you need to stay committed and you need to do the work. It's building a habit. It's doing something. It's like being fit, right? You don't work out once a month and you expect yourself to be fit and in good shape after Working out once a month or even once a week. It's something that you need to do daily if you want to be someone who eats healthy. It's not enough to eat one healthy meal a week. It's not bad. But it's a lifestyle. So is English. English is a lifestyle. And here's what I found after teaching English for 15 years. Seeing what works and what doesn't work for my students. Your environment matters a lot when trying to build those habits, when trying to stay committed to your English learning experience. You want to create the right environment for yourself to thrive. And, and that means not being around toxic people who don't understand your obsession to English and comment on your English or comment on your attempt of studying or telling you that you're wasting your time not spending time with people who are not interested in English and, or they, maybe they don't want to practice with you. Maybe you have speaking partners, but you have no chemistry and you're not interested in the conversations. How would you get in stock when that is the case? If there's no one around you doing the things that you want to do, how will you stay accountable? How will you stay committed? You've been here for five days. You already know the importance of having people around you who want the same things as you do, who are as passionate about the things that you are, and that they are committed to personal development, just like you. Because if you're here, I know that you are committed to your own personal development. You. It's way beyond English. We all know that English is something that we need to not only communicate, but also to, to self actualize ourselves, to say to ourselves, check. I did it. I live this life and I, you know, I dealt with an obstacle that I had, and now it's no longer an obstacle. All of us here, we want to do that, okay? So surrounding yourself with people who want the same things as you, who understand you, and who are already doing the things that you want to do gives you a sense of permission, support, and motivation. Okay? When you create for yourself the right environment, you are more motivated, you are inspired, you are accountable, which means that you do the things that you say you're going to do and you see that it's possible. If you don't see it in front of you, it's going to be really hard for you to believe that it's possible for you. English is not meant to be learned alone. So a circle of support of people around you who want the same things, who are there to practice with you. And of course, you got to put it into practice and you got to use the things that you learn. So you need people to practice with, you need people to speak. This is another important element in a system that will help you reach a breakthrough. But last but not least, and this is probably one of the more important things that I'm going to teach you here, I talked about it a little bit throughout the training, but if you're doing other things, come back to me because this is important. You cannot just work on your English from the outside in learning pronunciation, learning grammar, speaking. You have to work on your English from the inside out. And by that, I mean your mindset. Your mindset is a set of beliefs about our abilities, intelligence and talents that shape how we interpret ourselves and the world. This influences how we think, feel and behave in any given situation. And mindset matters a lot when it comes to learning English. For example, when we talk about mindset, what does that include? The thoughts we think, the feelings we feel, the decision we make or decisions, how we handle failure, how our fluency is influenced by external circumstances. For example, where we live, right? We believe that if we don't live in an English speaking country, then, you know, we're not going to be able to be fluent. The expectations we have about our performance and achievements, this feeling of not being good enough because it's not perfect, that is your mindset. You can change that. How? How present we are in a conversation, right? If we're always thinking about all the bad things that are happening, how is that serving you? How we think about others? Are we judgmental of others when we hear other people speak? When we hear other people with their accents, are we judgmental? Do we think that they're not good enough? Is that reflected back on us? How we compare ourselves to others? When you see other people in the Facebook group or social media, do you compare yourself? Do you feel always like you're not good enough? What is the price you pay for keeping these thoughts and behaviors? A lot of you, when I asked you if your English is getting in the way of your dreams, you said yes. You have once said no to an opportunity because you thought your English was not good enough. Now, you could have said yes and failed. That's a possibility. But that means that you are a lot closer to getting that accomplished or, you know, or moving forward than staying where you are, saying constantly no and no and no. So this is the price you pay. What would be possible if you didn't let that stop you? And do you want to have to keep those thoughts and feelings that will prevent you from more opportunities and changing your circumstances. The law of cause and effect says that it's a universal law that says that for every effect there is a definite cause. Likewise, for every cause, there is a definite effect. So everything that you do has a certain impact. And with that, I want to talk about the thoughts you think. Because men, according to Ralph Waldo Emerson, man or women or a woman becomes what he or she thinks about all day. You become what you think about all day. So cause and effect. Let's see how that plays out when it comes to English. Let's say the thought that you have is, I have a bad accent. What would that get you to do? So start speaking with the whole world. No, you will avoid speaking. If you avoid speaking, you will not improve your fluency. Not improve your fluency. You're not going to take clear action towards your goals, and then you're going to stay feeling stuck and unfulfilled in life. Saying no to opportunities. Let's say you think that mistakes are embarrassing. Okay? Who here thinks that mistakes are embarrassing? Avoiding speaking because mistakes are embarrassing. I don't want to make mistakes. So I'm going to avoid speaking or avoid speaking at important situations. If you avoid speaking, you're not improving your fluency. If you're not improving your fluency, you're not taking clear actions towards your goals. Feeling stuck and unfulfilled in life. Different thoughts. I don't know what to say. I have nothing to say. I don't have important things to say. I don't know how to say it in English. Same path. Avoiding speaking. Not improving. Not taking clear action. Feeling stuck and unfulfilled. Fulfilled in life. What about, I'll get criticized? Is that going to get you to start speaking with the whole world? No. Again, if you're afraid of being criticized, you're going to be very, very particular and careful with how much you speak and whom you speak with. You might avoid speaking. Take it. Going to a job interview. You might avoid spe, you know, asking for promotion because you're going to be afraid of being criticized and as a result, not improve your fluency. Not take action. Feel stuck and unfulfilled. Right. And you already know how this goes. I'm not ready. Right. I'm gonna wait until I'm ready, but you're gonna still stay stuck. Every thought you have has a huge impact on your life. So the work that we need to do is also thought work. It's not just, oh, let's practice let's do some intonation practice. All of that is great, but it's not all okay. It's not the only thing that is going to help you reach a breakthrough. This is why a complete system, according to my opinion, my own experience and the experience of my students, is an. Is a system that includes mindset and confidence work, or at least awareness and work towards this process. Because only then you can reach a transformation, external transformation, physical transformation in how you sound, but also internal transformation in the permission you give yourself to speak. It doesn't matter how well you pronounce the R, if you feel that your voice is not worthy, that you don't deserve to be heard. No one's going to hear your R or your beautiful intonation. Now, I want to tell you that next week we are opening doors for New Sound, which is my signature program that I based on this system. Okay? This is something that based again, like I told you, I've been teaching for 15 years. And this is something that I've learned from, from doing this work with other students and myself. And I want to give you an example, the example of Gemma, my beautiful student who said it was a breakthrough. I use English in my work, but I needed to feel more confident. I had so much more fun in this amazing community. So she was a big part of the community, and she felt like the community is helping her reach her goals. You set me free to express myself and be who I am. I'm proud of myself. I'm not afraid anymore. I'm telling you this because I want you to know that this is possible, that once you have a system, once you have a system, it is possible for you to reach a breakthrough. If you haven't been where you want to be, if you're not where you want to be, and then probably you just didn't have the right system. So right now, doors are closed. But I do want to tell you because we are opening doors next week. New Sound is a one of a kind training program for speakers of English as a second language who want to make meaningful change to their lives through English. New Sound is about the sounds of English. So of course it has element, like we teach pronunciation there, but it's also about discovering and owning your unique voice in a language you weren't born to, because you deserve it. For example, I want to tell you, you can't see it. I want to tell you about Nadia, who talked about this idea of community and how important it was for her for reaching this breakthrough that you had. The community is so Unique unlike any other. You will find other students, mentors and Hadar's lessons which have had a massive impact on my mindset. So it's community and mindset work and then you feel very supported throughout the program because when you feel supported, you dare to do things differently. When you're on your own and you don't feel supported, you're less likely to take action or Ibrahim and I have a story about Ibrahim because so he said after completing the course, it's clear what exactly you need to do to continue improving your for yourself. And I'm going to tell you what he did. Other courses simply don't offer this New Sound is not a classic course. It's unlike any other. So Ibrahim discovered his his passion for connecting and speaking to other people. After Newsstand, he joined beyond and we had a one on one challenge where he would meet, we would do a challenge and invite people to join to have as many one on ones with other students. And he never stopped this challenge. And right now, if you guys already know him from the influency community, you might have already talked to him. He has done in under a year. I think he has had over 2000 interactions with other people from around the world. He was meeting with people one on one. His mission was to improve his English and to get to know people. So think about what that does to you when you have that experience in your life of having met so many people. Now I'm not saying that you need to speak to 2,000 people. That's incredible and ambitious. Like a. It's like a Guinness record, but it's a world record of conversations. One on one conversations. But this was possible for him because he discovered something about his abilities and about challenging himself to do things that are hard. Before New Sound, he wouldn't dare to do that. So I wanted to show you what is possible when you have the right system. Now you have learned a part of the system during this training and I want you to take everything that you learned and put it into practice whether you continue with us or not. You already have a lot to work with. But if you feel like you need the support and you need the community and you need the mindset work and you need to go deeper with your pronunciation, then I want you to know that doors to New Sound will open on Wednesday, September 13th. In the meantime, 14th. I think I messed up the dates but in the meantime I do want to invite you, if you haven't yet, to join the masterclass that is happening on Tuesday and on Wednesday Next week. Right. Because it's another free class, live training, where I'm going to share with you three powerful strategies. So I'm going to take a little bit of what I said today and organize it and give you practical tools to put it into practice. So I really want you to join me. There you go. To had shemesh.commasterclass. i'm going to put this here so you can. You can join, you can sign up. There are three options for you to choose from. It's the same class, so you just need to choose the right class and that's it. I will be at the end of the master class. I'll also be answering questions about new sound and. Yeah, that's it. So let me see. We have some questions, I think. Good. And I'm gonna. I already talked to you about this, but if you joined late, here are some of the things that you're gonna learn. If you're not sure if this master class is for you, why it's not that easy to just speak more. Right? When people tell you, oh, just speak more and you're gonna improve your English, it's not that easy. And this is why you're gonna learn about the dangers of online content and getting sucked into YouTube and also why it's hard to make a significant breakthrough when learning on your own. We talked a little bit about that today. So you're going to get some practical tips, and I'm going to share with you the three powerful strategies that will transform your English. All right? Okay. What we did today, we talked about effective pronunciation technique, intentional practice, and shadowing. We also talked about how pronunciation is going to help you get fluent. And we talked about my proven system, simple pronunciation community and coaching, which is basically a full circle of support and mindset and confidence work. My proven system for reaching fluency and reaching a breakthrough. You guys, day five. This is the end. You did it. You guys are amazing. You did it. You did it. You did it. You are here. You are still doing the work. You are learning. I admire you. I appreciate you. You're absolutely amazing. You still have day five to, you know, answer questions. There is still an email coming from me to you summarizing our journey together. And I really, really hope that I get to see you in the masterclass next week. But now I'm going to take a few minutes to not hide myself and to answer some questions. Let's see. Okay. All right. Yes. You did it. You did it. Did I just disconnect myself? Okay. I'm a beginner would this conversation help me? Absolutely. This is a good opportunity to create the right foundations for yourself. Okay. So. Yes. Okay, I'm here. I'm here. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. I just. All of a sudden, so. Oh, you just, you know, I left the studio. Wait. How to overcome hesitation. When you start talking to other people, I feel nervous. Help me come to the masterclass. I talk about it, but it has to do with mindset, and it has to do with effective practice. So you got to practice speaking more intentionally. But you also have to understand what's holding you back. What is this fear? But I would, you know, if I were you, even before the master class, just take a piece of paper and write all the thoughts that come up when you think about speaking to other people. What is scaring you? What gets you to feel, oh, you know, I'm not sure if I can do this or I don't want to do this. What creates resistance? I want you to journal about this before. The masterclass will help me improve my listening and pronunciation. I actually don't talk so much about pronunciation, not as much as I did in those five days. So if listening and pronunciation is your focus, I will teach you strategies for practicing listening and pronunciation, but actual pronunciation lessons. You should go back and watch the five days of this training. A lot of you are asking me about the price. I don't want to confuse you because we have a few plans, and I love it when it's organized so you can see the different plans. Because we have a plan, like different support levels. So I will talk about it in the masterclass. If you want to learn all the information, including the price, I will talk about it at the end of the master class. After, I'll be teaching you all the content, and then I'll be talking about new sound. And those who want to learn more about it can stay. Okay. Oh, Giselle. If the environment that you mentioned about people who do not support your English is in your house, what can I do? So, first of all, I want to say that I feel, you know, I feel you. I know it's a struggle to feel like you're not supported in something that you're passionate about. I think this requires a few things. First of all, try to not include them in your English practice. So limit the friction that you have, even if it's your, you know, friends, family, spouse, children. I have students who who are uncomfortable speaking English next to their children because they make fun of them now. They're full of love it's not about, you know, not, you know, it's. It's made. It's it. The kids are not trying to hurt them. But it does trigger negative emotions in my students, and it's something that needs to be addressed. So first of all, try to reduce, to minimize the friction between you and your English experience with others. Second, surround yourself with people who do support you so it balances it out so you are able to deflect negative comments and negative energy because you have love and support and, you know, you feel fulfilled in this other area in your life. And third, sometimes it requires you to be honest and open and to say, hey, listen, you know, you've been making fun of me practicing English or you've been saying all this thing. It really, really makes me lose motivation, feel hurt. I feel. It doesn't feel fair. It makes me feel like it's, you know, it's not going to be possible for me. It's really important for me because. And say why it's important. And I really ask you to respect what I'm passionate about and to give me space to do it. Sometimes that's what you need to do. Don't play along with people making fun of you or joking about you. Right? If someone says, oh, you're English, and sometimes we just want to kind of like play along because we feel embarrassed and we just say, huh, yeah, yeah. So don't play along with it. Say, I don't find it funny, or this hurts. I know it requires you to be open and vulnerable, and people may not even respect that and make more fun of you, but still, you need to be honest with yourself and you need to try and see what it's like to be a human that stands their ground and says what's important to them. Because that's the biggest lesson you can teach yourself in this life with anyone. People who are close to you and people who are not as close to you, but you want to be you and do what you are passionate about without, you know, thinking about what other people think or without diminishing yourself or making yourself small or not doing the things that you want to do because people have opinions about it. And lastly, if all of this doesn't work, change the disc in your head, reframe it. When they make fun of you, you can, you can either say, I'm going to prove to them I'm going to do this. I'm going to show them what that, you know, and, and, and I'm going to be, you know, I'm going To be so proud of myself and visualize yourself getting the things that you want, achieving the things. And how would that feel? This is going to be how you celebrate it. When you say that to yourself, you say, you know, they just don't know. You can reframe that. And instead of them trying to hurt you or to make fun of you, you can say it's just because they are frustrated that they're not doing it for themselves. Right. So I'm going to show them by continuing and standing my ground, I'm going to show them that it's possible. And maybe that would inspire them to do that as well. I had a student once. She was. They were both immigrants, and she used to work with me and practice her English. And her husband used to make fun of her all the time and would kind of like criticize her and make fun of her English. And then at some point, he was like. He saw her progress, and he was like, oh, my God, this is actually working. Okay, maybe I should try that, too. And then he joined my course, and then they were both in the program together. So sometimes people make fun of other people because they feel like it's, you know, they project their own fears and insecurities onto other people. And you don't like it when other people who are close to you, they develop and change, because if you're staying in the same place, it means that you're going to grow apart. And people don't like it. So instead of changing themselves and developing, what they do is change. They try to control the change and improvement of other people. But that's not going to work. So this is how we reframe it. And we use our. We insist on continuing on our journey so that not only that it proves them wrong, but also inspires them to improve as well. That was a long answer, but it's an important topic. Okay. Plus, you got this. And I'm happy that you're here, my dear. Yeah. Vanessa says when my mom heard me practicing my English, she says I'm crazy because I speak alone and repeat over and over again the same thing. Hey, who said that crazy is bad? So reframe it. Be, like, amazing. I'm crazy. I'm a crazy English learner, and I'm going to achieve my goals. And English is not going to be an obstacle. And whoever has opinions about it, they can take it and talk about it with their friends, talk about with their therapist, but they don't bother me. Other people's opinions, plus you can just, you know, joke about It. Okay. No. So the replays are going to be available until September 18th. You have almost a week to catch up on the replays. We still have a conversation group and a practice group. And I think we have a practice group. Sorry, you guys. Sometimes I'm not on top of the schedule, as you can see. Dates, hours, it's just like I need my team to tell me. So just go check the calendar to see all the other events. But you have access to this group and to the website and all the content until September 18th. If you're watching this on my YouTube channel and you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, then there is a link below that you can click and get access to the portal and the conversation groups and all the other resources. And I'm going to send you an email tomorrow summarizing our journey. And that's it. Okie dokie. So, yeah, I see more questions about the program and the pricing. Join the masterclass at the end. I'm going to share with you all the information and the different plans, and if not, you're going to get an email with a link to a page that explains everything really, really clearly. Yes, we have a practice group with Jelena. I thought so, but I didn't want to. I did. Oh, yeah, the rhythm practice group. I know this. We planned it. Sometimes after an hour of speaking, the brain is not that focused. Like, what day is today? Saturday. Sunday. Okay, good. All right, my friends, we have a lot of other great questions, but I'm going to let you go for now. If you have any additional questions, post them in the Facebook group. You can join Jelena for the rhythm practice group. If you have questions about that, join the practice group. It's going to be a lot of fun. Practicing rhythm. And that's it. Thank you. I know it's Friday. Have a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day. You can watch the replays of the practice groups in the on the website so you can practice along still until September 18th. Thank you so much for being here for the five days. You guys are incredible. You're amazing. I love you all dearly, very, very much. Be strong, stand your ground, do the work, and I hope I'll see you in the master class. Thank you very much, everyone. Take care. Bye.