The Magical Power of Your Intonation, Rhythm, and Voice in English | Core Training with Hadar

Hello. Hello, everyone. Hello. Welcome to day four. I can't believe time flies. I hope you're doing well. Buckle up. As Amar says in the comments. Welcome to everyone. Happy to see you here. I hope you are here today with me live because we have surprises for those who show up live for today. Apart from learning about prosody, it's intonation, rhythm and stress and all this beautiful aspect of the language. We are going to be offering a surprise for people who join us live. So let's wait for everyone to join before we announce it. So let me know in the comments before we start. What is your biggest takeaway so far? So on day one, I introduced you to the priority chart. Day two was all about consonants. We practice consonants together and we talked about the key consonant related challenges most speakers face. And then we talked about vowels, confusing vowel pairs, how to overcome the confusion, and I give you some tips and tricks on how to pronounce some of the key vowel sounds in English. So for now, up until now we talked about sounds and today we're moving into the other aspect of pronunciation, which is prosody. So what is your key takeaway from days one, two and three so far? Okay. Charles says day two. That's my biggest takeaway. Okay. What in day two? Let me know. I'm glad you like consonants. I like consonants too. The 16 vowel sounds. Oh, good. Interesting, right? Because we're so used to thinking about the letters that sometimes we don't realize that there are more than five vowels in in English. Hello. Hello. Hello. Cap cup cop was an insight for someone. George says, I'm fired up. My biggest takeaway has been the priority chart. It's awesome and important to improve. Great. I falling in love with my voice. I love that. Wait, where is that? The comment has slipped. Okay. Giovanni says that I'm falling in love with my voice. Love that. Next week, by the way, we're going to start talking about it tomorrow. But next week I'm going to host the masterclass where I talk about the five most critical mistakes English learners make. And one of them, just so you know, has to do with the voice. Because I slightly talked about the voice, but I'm going to go deeper into giving you some tools on how to improve your voice. So tomorrow we're going to share the link. It's already on my Instagram account. Just so you know, you can already sign up for the free master class. It's going to happen next Tuesday. Okay. Sh versus Ch for Claudia. Yoga is impressed with my energy. Thank you. I always get lit up. When I see all of you, I confuse the V and W sound. Okay, so we talked about that on day two. The groups are very good. Should be smaller so that everyone could participate. Well, yes. This is why if you want a more curated and personal experience, then maybe this is something that you might find inside my signature program. Because here we do. We have like over 20,000 people who signed up for this challenge. So of course we can't create smaller groups. However, the idea of the practice groups is, is for you to practice live with a coach and not necessarily to get, get feedback. So the idea of like you being in the group for one hour with someone, then it's, it's very beneficial even if you don't get feedback. Just so you know. So that even if, let's say someone else works and gets feedback, it's still valuable even if you don't get the time on your own. But I get it, like, to work personally with a coach is always, always really valuable and fun. Okay, I want to know more. Okay. A bit sad because I couldn't open the replay. It should be there. So if there is a problem, send us an email and we'll help you with the replay. Okay, so let's get started with today because we have a lot to accomplish. But I just wanted to let you know that for those of you who are live, I'm going to. Not yet, but towards the middle, we're going to share a link and you can fill in your name and your email address. And at the end of this training, we're going to do a raffle and the person who wins the raffle will get access to the Sprint Master, which is my program that has 30 daily sprints. A sprint is a 10 minute pronunciation exercise designed to boost your pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary using my pronunciation confidence method. It usually costs $97. You get it for free if you participate and you win the raffle. So Amar is going to share the link in a little bit. We're going to get started because usually people show up a little late sometimes and I don't want them to miss out on this opportunity. All right, so the magical power of your intonation, rhythm and voice and also stress and everything else related to prosody. So we're going to talk about that today. What are we going to learn today? First of all, we're going to learn what is prosody? Right? Like it's, it's. It's a big word. There's a lot that goes into it. And then we're Going to talk about what are the most critical prosody related challenges. As always, I want to bring it back to what we already know, the priority chart and the things that you need to focus on most. What are the elements of speech? We're going to talk about that today. What is pitch? What is intonation? What is rhythm, stress, tone of voice, grouping, thoughts, connected speech, and all of that good stuff with a lot of examples. And we're going to start with what is prosody? So the definition. Prosody is the elements of speech that are not individual speech sounds. Okay. It's not the picture, but it's everything else. Prosody refers to the patterns of rhythm, intonation, and stress in speech that convey meaning and emotion beyond the literal interpretation of the words being spoken. A lot of big words, right? So let's use some imagery. If language were a work of art, then sounds. Let me get there. Then sounds, speech sounds. What we've learned on day two and three would be the colors, and prosody would be the forms, the lines, the shapes, spaces in between the colors and textures. And if language were music, then speech sounds would be the notes, C, F major or minor, and prosody would be the rhythm, the pitch, the harmony, the volume, the duration, the beat. And if language were a soccer game, then speech sounds would be the players. But players not moving anywhere or not doing anything would not provide you with a soccer game. So prosody would be the tactics, the strategies, the teamwork, the timing, the momentum and the flow of the game. So as you can see in all of these examples, then the individual components actually need to work together to create cohesive and effective results. And this is exactly the case when it comes to prosody, because mastering your pronunciation is one thing, but speaking effectively with persuasion, getting people to feel things and do what you want, all of that is really prosody. Now, when we talk about the priority chart, then when it comes to prosody, here are the things that I want you to pay attention. And just to remind you, we're dividing it into high priority, medium priority, and low priority. So high priority challenges when it comes to prosody are, are misplacing the primary stress, even though it's really about the individual word, it's not about how it all works together. But still, stress is a part of prosody, so misplacing the primary stress is a high priority challenge. And then when it comes to medium priority, we have quite a few here. So first of all, using the wrong intonation for the message that Means that you're using a certain intonation that is not aligned with what you're trying to say. Another challenge is emphasizing every word the same. And today we're going to talk about why that is a problem. Because in English, not every word is stressed the same or pronounced or emphasized the same where it doesn't have the same melody. And if you do that, that might affect your clarity and then not using connected speech, separating the words. And sometimes we even do that just to be clear. And as a result, what happens is that you become actually less clear. And we're going to talk about that. And low priority challenges is when it comes to prosody is lack of pitch variation. That means that you're. You can also call it monotone being monotone speaking on the same note. We're going to look at a few examples later. So let's talk about the elements of prosody. Okay. Does that sound like how much? How much? On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being not at all and 10 being super duper immersed, how aware are you or how much experience do you have? That would be a better question. In this type of work, in prosody work, how much experience do you have learning, practicing, being aware of these elements? One being not at all. Ten being I got a lot of experience, lady. Okay. Bethlehem says 1. Elisa says no. Bethlehem says 6. Elisa says 1. We have 10 by someone that I don't know who, who it is, I'm assuming, I'm hoping one of my students. We have three, six, four. Five. Mary says nine. Amazing. Three. Good. So we have some people who are well experienced in the, in prosody work and some of you are completely new to this type of work. So I'm going to try and make it interesting for all of you whether you have experience or not. Okay, what is pitch for those of you who are above 5, how would you define pitch? Let me know in the comments. And after this, we're going to share the form. After I explain pitch, we're going to share the form. So everyone who joined live could participate in the raffle. There is a zero there. Okay, what is pitch? Okay, I'm going to give you some time. Stress in a word. In the word no pitch. Well, pitch is not the accent and it's not stressed level of voice. Good. We're getting closer. The music of, of speech. So right. How high or low a sound is Good. It's actually the frequency of a sound and it's the note. The. I don't want to say the melody because it's one note. Pitch is the level of the sound. And if we want to be a bit more. Let me make it a little bigger so you can see it. Pitch refers to the highness or lowness of a sound. It is determined by the frequency frequency of the sound waves. So it really depends on how fast your vocal cords are vibrating. Now, higher frequency waves produce higher pitch sounds and lower frequency waves produce lower pitch sound. So this is a chart that shows the frequency of waves. So as you can see down at the bottom, we're looking at low pitches. A low pitch that has a very low frequency. Okay. The vibrations are very low. It's still very fast, don't worry. But it's lower, slower than high pitch. So if I speak like this, I try to reach my lower pitch. Right? I don't think I can go any lower than this. So let's all hum here as low as possible. Get as low as possible. Try to go even lower. Right? So now your vocal cords are vibrating really, really slowly. And as you raise your pitch, As you get higher, your vibrations are becoming faster and faster and faster. So a very high pitch. And now let's try to hum at our highest pitch. Good. Now the vibrations are really, really high and fast. That is pitch. Okay? So a pitch is the note of the sound. Now that we all know what that is, now we can use that to explain what intonation is. Because we first need to understand pitch. Pitch. Because we keep changing it. But before that. Welcome to everyone who just joined us in the last few minutes. For those of you who joined live, you have the opportunity of winning the Sprint Master. The sprint master is 30 sprints. A sprint is a 10 minute daily exercise to boost your pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary based on my pronunciation confidence method. It's super effective, very fun, very intense, and you can do it daily to boost your everything about English. So Amar is now going to share it. Now we're both on the website and in Facebook, so he's going to share the link in the chat. I'm inviting everyone to sign up. Right. Just write your name and email because then you're going to enter the raffle. And at the end of the session, before the Q and A, I'm going to. I'm not going to do anything. Amar is going to send me the raffle and, and, and we're going to do a raffle at the end. Okay. Is it possible to increase the level of our pitch? So pitch is not volume. Okay. And you already know how to raise or lower your pitch. Pitch is about high and low. It's not about strong and soft. That is volume, okay? And yes, you can increase volume. You can increase volume by just using more energy. You can increase volume by changing the placement of your voice. Because if the voice resonates in a place where you have more space, the sound, your voice is going to be louder without having to force it. Okay? So volume is a result of many things. A lot of it has to do with placement. But pitch is the sound. If you think of a piano, for example, there is always one sound, right? Like C, C sharp. And then I said major before, and now I was like, it's not major, it's sharp. And then. And then that is the sound, and that is the pitch. And that's it. Okay, how to get the sprint. Amar is going to. Amar just shared a link to sign up for a form where you can enter the raffle. So make sure you fill out your name. And we're going to do the raffle at the end. So you have until the end of the session to enter the raffle. Okay, good. I hope that was clearer. So now let's talk about intonation. What is intonation? Bring it back here. Intonation is the variation in pitch within a phrase or a sentence. Okay? So we know what pitch is, but now it's how you move from one sound to another within a phrase or a sentence. Okay? For example, if we take this word and I want to use it with, let's say, very little pitch, what I'm going to say, I'm hungry. I'm hungry. Right? It's very neutral, very flat. Not a lot of emotion. You don't even know what I'm feeling right now. I'm hungry, I'm hungry. I'm hungry, I'm hungry. I'm hungry, I'm hungry. Now, I really hope that you're doing this with me right now to see for you, it's obvious, okay? One is a question, one is a statement, right? One is that I'm certain, and the other one, I'm not sure I'm asking. So the code, what I'm signaling to you by using my pitch, that is clear to you. But what is it really that I'm doing with my voice that gets you to say, oh, it's a question. Oh, it's a statement. And sometimes, let me tell you this, we're not even aware what our voice is doing. And sometimes we might say one thing and what is heard is another because we're not aware so much of our pitch. For example, if we Take this sentence. What is the difference between I deserve a raise to I deserve a raise. I deserve a raise. I deserve a raise. Now, I might even read this sentence like this. I deserve a raise even if there is no question mark, even if I want to say it as a statement. Sometimes I might raise the pitch out of habit, out of feeling uncertain. Maybe I'm insecure. And as a result, I might pronounce it with a rising intonation that may indicate that I'm not certain at all. So how we met, how we play with our pitch is not only something that makes the language more interesting and colorful, it also signals to people if I'm feeling this or that, if I'm certain, if I'm asking a question, so on and so forth. So monotone being monotone, which is. I talked about it when I talked about low priority challenges. Being monotone is when every single word has the same pitch. I don't know where we're going. I don't know where we're going. Okay, so it's kind of flat. I could also keep it flat. I don't know where we're going. And just drop at the end. But still the beginning was flat. So versus and this is more of what English is. English is very varied in terms of pitch. I don't know where we're going. I don't know where we're going. I don't know where we're going. Where almost every word has a different note, has a different pitch. Now, to tell you that all native speakers speak with pitch variation. No, a lot of them may be monotone, but to you, I'm teaching it first of all because I want you to be effective speakers regardless of your first language. Even if you were native speakers of English, this is something that I would recommend. But because you are coming from a language that has different rules and different intonation patterns and different conventions about how you ask a question or. Or how you make a statement or how varied your voice should be. I'm telling you that this is going to help you become more effective communicators. Okay, good. So now, moving on, let's talk about stress. Okay, but I'm going to take a minute and take a look at the questions and see. Yeah, okay, good. Okay. I saw that the link was not working, but now I think it's working good. So go ahead and try. The link was not working for a little bit, but now it's working. So check it out. Let's talk about stress. Stress, stress, stress. What is stress? Stress is the words that you choose to emphasize in a sentence to deliver your message and how we stress. And again, that is something that is unique to English. And in other languages it might be different. In English, you stress by changing the pitch, by raising the volume a little bit, and by lengthening the word. So to stress a word, you would likely to raise your pitch or lower your pitch, but something that is a little different than what was before, say it a little louder and lengthen. Okay. So the beat, the rhythm is basically impacted by stress. So for example, I'm going to read it in a very neutral way. I didn't say it was your turn. But what happens if I say it like I didn't say it was your turn. Changes a little bit, right? How does it change? I didn't say it was your turn. I didn't say it was your turn. Right. I'm playing around with it a little bit. But if I choose to stress, I didn't say it was your turn. Ooh, that makes it very specific. It puts it in context. And the context is someone says that I said that it was their turn, but I'm saying, no, I didn't say it was your turn versus I didn't say it was your turn where you can understand something completely different from it. But what if I choose to stress, I didn't say it was your turn. How does it change the meaning? I'm sure you're all feeling it right now, like you would all get the context. But I really want you to think about it. What has changed? I didn't say it was your turn. I said it was someone else's turn. Same sentence, two different meanings, two different contexts. I didn't say it was your turn. She did. No, it wasn't me. I didn't say it was your turn. She did. So we got to pay attention to the words that we choose to stress. And sometimes again, because we might bring our intonation patterns from our first language, let's say that in your language you always stress the first word no matter what the context is. Because a lot of languages have external stress patterns and intonation patterns. And let's say that that is what you end up stressing just because it's a habit from your first language. And then it changes the meaning completely because you didn't mean to say, I didn't say it was your turn. You just meant to say, I didn't say it was your turn. Let's look at another example. Fluency is not about not making mistakes. It's about freedom and self expression. Read it out loud, please. Good. I sounded. Sheena says I sounded upset when I try to stress a word. Good. I'll tell you why that happened. It happened because you used volume instead of pitch. I didn't say it was your turn. Right, because maybe in your language you stress using volume and then it makes you sound angry. But I could just raise my pitch. I didn't say it was your turn. I didn't say it was your turn or I didn't say it was your turn? I'm just using my pitch and stretching the word. So if it sounds like you're angry, lower your volume and use pitch and length a bit more. Am I right, Sheena? Was that the reason? Okay, so what do I want to stress here? What we stress here, by the way, is called operative words. The words that we choose to stress to move the thought further or to move it forward or to get our message across. Okay, I'm going to wait a second because I see that people are trying to sign up and the link is not working. So I'm going to wait a second so you can pay attention to what I'm teaching you and not focus on the link. And then Amar is going to close the link so that you have like. I'm going to answer some questions now. You have three more minutes. Sorry if the link is not working. So, Amar, tell me if the link is. If there is a problem with a link that I need to know. So I'll let everyone know. Okay, so in the next three minutes, I'm going to answer some questions. You're going to practice the sentence, and you get to sign up to enter the raffle for today. And then we're going to close the form and that's it. If you're in, you're in. Okay, so thank you. Katya is sharing the link. And in the meantime, I'm going to give you some time and write in caps like someone here did. And I don't know your name because it's from Facebook. So write the sentence and write in caps the words that you think should be stressed. Okay. How would you stress it? Good. Okay, the links work, but you can't click on it. You have to type it in your browser. Jeez. Okay, if there is a problem. Okay, it is working. It's working. It's working. If it's not working, maybe from Facebook, just copy. Paste it to your browser. Okay, I'm going to give it another second. Any other questions to help them? Okay, so let's see what you said. Not making mistakes. Fluency is not about not making mistakes. Okay, good. Okay. So we have here, Margaret says fluency is not about not making mistakes. It's about freedom and self expression. Okay, good. Right. So you know, when you look at a certain sentence, it activates something in you. In some words, activate you more than others. And in this case we're talking about fluency is not about not making mistakes. It's about freedom and self expression. Right. You want to say it's not about not making mistakes. It makes such a difference when you hit the right words. So for example, if I were to just say the sentence like this. Fluency is not about making mistakes. It's about freedom and self expression. I said it. I said all the words. The pronunciation was fine, the rhythm was fine, and even the intonation was varied. But when I choose to punch or to lift, if we want to use a more positive vocabulary, the words that we get you to feel, it would sound totally different. Fluency is not about not making mistakes. It's about freedom and self expression. And compare it to this. Fluency is not about not making mistakes, it's about freedom and self expression. How did that sound? I still pronounce everything clearly. But did that hit you the same way? Did that meet you emotionally, intellectually, the same way? Fluency is not about not making mistakes, it's about freedom and self expression. Fluency is not about making mistakes. It's about freedom and self expression. So one feels. Tell me, tell me if you agree with me. Okay, maybe it's just me. So one feels like on point. It feels like, okay, I'm going to use a metaphor. Like you're in the sea, I live by the sea. So the sea is a metaphor that it's easy for me to use. And you know, you're trying to catch the waves and you're trying to swim and you catch one of the waves and you kind of like go along and you feel like you're just like one with the water. And then another situation, you jump in too quickly, the wave crashes all over you. You're like getting all tangled up. That's what it feels like. And you are moving in the water, but not in the same elegance and flow and harmony as you did when you actually catch the wave. That's how I see stress in a sentence. Because sometimes it's on point with a message. The stress needs to be aligned with the message. The stress, but not just the stress. Right? I'm saying stress, but what is stress? It's the pitch that I raise. It's the words that I lengthen. It's the tone of voice that we're going to talk about in a second. Right? So all of these three things, they come together and they make the message a lot more compelling and clear versus me just throwing the words at you. And you're like, I know she said something interesting. I just don't. Don't get it. Let me hear it again. How come there are some speakers whom in your native language as well, and definitely in English as well, where you're like, I just. It's hard for me to follow. And others are just like, I get everything that they're saying. A lot of it has to do with how you use your intonation, rhythm, and stress and how you choose your words. Okay. Yoko says it doesn't sound. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. Fluency is not about making mistakes. Now, I don't think that any of you would want to stress the is. But when you speak a second language and the intonation patterns, let's say melody, let's say you come with a. Your. Your first language has tones in it, and you use tone, and you do it subconsciously without thinking in English. And tone is perceived as stress in English. So without trying to stress. It sounds like you're stressing because you're using pitch and tone. And as a result, you might be stressing words that you didn't mean to. So what needs to happen is for you to first of all, wait, don't look, don't look at the next sentence. So what needs to happen is, first of all for you to know how to use your voice to stress words. And second, to know what words to stress or what words are expected to be stressed. We're not going to have time to go into it. If you want to go deeper at the end, I'll tell you how you can continue with this. Because there is a lot that goes into understanding what words to stress. I do have a lot of videos about it, and I'm sure that a lot of you who have already done some work, you know the difference between content words and function words. And we'll talk more about it later when we talk about rhythm. Okay, I want to look at some questions. The Amar just let me know that the link is already closed. That's it. And he's preparing the raffle, which we're going to do in about 15 minutes. Okay. I still don't know what is the stress in a word. So, Rose, the stress in a word really depends on what you're trying to say, but there are some layers, right? So usually a stressed word would be a content word, a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. Right. So if, like, we're not. Because you can stress any word, any word in a sentence. It's all about how it serves you. But generally speaking, generally content words are stressed. And like, if I'm trying to be even more general than the last content word of a phrase or a sentence are usually more stressed than the others. Okay, that is kind of like the general rule. But unfortunately, in a. In such a short talk, I cannot go a little deeper, like, even deeper, because it might be a bit confusing. And I do not want to confuse you, but I want you to know that there are patterns. And sometimes just doing shadowing exercises, you get it just by doing those exercises where you shadow or repeat someone else. You get it without getting it intellectually. Sometimes you just have to feel it and develop intuition around what words to stress without the logic behind it. Okay, let's look at the next sentence. Now, by the way, some of you are saying, of course, I could potentially. This is just how I chose to stress it. This is how I would say the sentence. But I could potentially say fluency is not about not making mistakes. I'm talking about fluency now. And I'm not talking about grammar. Okay. And I'm not talking about car Washington. Fluency is not about not making mistakes. I could. It really depends on what I'm trying to say and what my focus is. Okay, it's like I said. I didn't tell you it was your turn. Next sentence. Just read it out loud for yourself. Now, again, there are several ways to. To choose how to say this word, this sentence. So I don't want to say there is right and wrong. However you say it means a certain thing. So think about what you want to emphasize and then try to say it out loud. Sheena says, would stressing a word with a hand gesture be more beneficial? I intuitively. And this is something that I do. I use my hands, and I usually use them when I stress something. Right. So I do this because this is the energy of my voice and my body, and I always lean towards the stressed word. Okay. I could do this, definitely. Hand gestures are something that can help you draw attention and focus to the word that you're saying. I don't think about it when I do it. I speak with my hands, for sure. But I think that generally speaking, yes, I can help you if it. If it's natural, if you're not Doing it artificially. Okay, Good. So there are actually two ways that I would go about this sentence. I'm going to say it the way I chose to do it and show you how you use pitch, use stress to juxtapose two things. Right? To compare two things, to put two things one next to the other. Even though he says he's competent to do the job, his actions show he has no idea what he's doing. Okay, so in this example, and again, it's not the only way to say it, I chose to compare says versus actions. So I raised the pitch significantly on those two words. Even though he says he's competent to do the job, his actions so he has no idea what he's doing. So here, like I said, says and actions, those words are going to stick out. Why? Because I want to compare what he's saying versus what he's doing. The say versus do. Right. Because I, I, this is, I want to make it even more clear that I'm surprised about the situation because there is like this, this, you have these expectations. He says that. But you know, in reality, this is what I'm seeing. So I'm using my voice to express that. So let's practice it again. Now that you think about it, even though he says he's competent to do the job, his actions show he has no idea what he's doing. I'm going to give you another example. I didn't mark it. I could potentially say, even though he says he's competent to do the job, his actions so he has no idea what he's doing. Right. Which is another juxtaposition. Competent versus no idea what he's doing. Right. Two oppositions as well. And I'm lifting both up competition. Competent, meaning knows how to do his job versus has no idea what he's doing. So the first option was says versus does. The other was competent versus no idea what he's doing. It really depends on what you're trying to say. Let's try to practice that again. Even though he says he's competent to do the job, his actions show he has no idea what he's doing. Okay, let's try one more for today. So every time you see something with on the one hand, you know that there is a comparison. Like there, there are two oppositions or two you juxtapositions of like one thing and another one. Read it to yourself. I don't want to ruin the intonation and this rhythm and the stress in your. On the one hand, I find it frustrating that you're not paying attention to what I'm saying. On the other hand, I could probably do a better job capturing your attention. So I'm, I'm using, I'm, I'm stressing four elements here and comparing two and two. The first one is on the one hand versus on the other hand. And the second one is not paying attention versus capturing your attention. So when we have oppositions, this is a good, it's a flag that we can use our pitch to make it more interesting and more clear. Right. To get our point across. On the one hand, do it with me. I find it frustrating that you're not paying attention to what I'm saying. So what I did, I slowed down a little bit and I raised the pitch. On the other hand, I could probably do a better job capturing your attention. Okay, so change in pitch, change in rhythm, draws attention. Shows that I'm stressing something. Okay, let's move to something fun now. Again, you're not supposed to get all of this from one lesson. I just wanted to introduce you to this, to all of these ideas, because why, if you can't hear it, you can't make it. So the point of this session is for you to start noticing it, to start hearing it, and then gradually you'll be able to make it. Don't expect yourself to hear it today and to be able to use it tomorrow. This is a mistake, okay? It's impossible. You have to build habits. You have to feel it in your body. You have to make it your own. You have to, you gotta practice, gotta repeat it, right? So if you're gonna do that, then you're gonna be able to, to change. When I learned in school pronunciation, no one has taught me anything about what I'm teaching you here. I had to figure all of this out on my own, right? I had to learn it. I had to. You know, I studied linguistics. I really, I, I, I, I dove deep this world to understand and to break it down for myself so I could understand it. And I did a lot of listening. Okay? So just so you know, it's not something that is. Okay, let's learn it and use it. But I am teaching you here what I've learned so you can start hearing it and know the vocabulary to use when you think about those things. Okay? Yes, I will try to speak slower. Slower. I always get excited. Tone of voice. What is tone of voice? Tone of voice indicates the mood, attitude, and intention of the speaker and can have a significant impact on how their message is received by others. For example, Moving here. Let's take the word, the sentence. Say it. Say it to yourself. Now, what does that mean? I have a surprise for you. I could say it in a way that will be perceived as something happy. Good. I have a surprise for you. What did I do with my voice to say it like that? My pitch was high. My Right. The voice was tight. I have a surprise for you. Lots of pitch, variation. What about, I have a surprise for you, little sarcastic boy. Do I have a surprise for you. Right. Sounds a little sarcastic. I went low in pitch. Maybe a little bit of the vocal fry. I have surprise for you. It doesn't hold the same meaning, right? I have a surprise for you. I have a surprise for you. My pitch went down. That is tone of voice, same sentence. But I'm playing with my intonation and the quality of my voice to deliver a different meaning. I have a surprise for you, young lady. Angry, right? So the voice is tighter, the volume is higher, the intonation is different. How choppy my speech is. That's different. I have a surprise for you. I have surprise for you. Right. Enticing, inviting, secretive. I just added a lot of air to my voice. I have a surprise for you. Your voice is such an incredible instrument, and you can deliver. And this has nothing to do with English necessarily. It has everything to do with communication. Communication. And these are things that people don't learn. And you know how to do this. You just need to give yourself freedom and to allow yourself to do that. And it's all about using all the natural tools that you already have. Okay. And it can completely change the meaning of what you're saying. Okay. How do you do that? Change your pitch. You know how to change your pitch. You know how to. If you know, if you speak a language, there is no language that has one monotone speech, and that's pitch, and that's it. Speech. It's like speech and pitch together. They're all languages have pitch. Some use more pitch, very distinct pitch, and some use more monotone pitch. But there's always variation. And if you know how to sing We Are the Champions, my friends, then you know. Or if you know how to sing Happy Birthday to you, then you know how to use your pitch. Because you raise the pitch for the higher notes and you lower it for the lower notes, even if it's not on the right key, still know how to do it. So when, like in my programs, we go a little deeper into how to produce the pitch and how to know that you're raising your pitch and it does take a little bit of practice. You're learning how to use an instrument that you were never taught how to use. I have an entire module inside of New Sound just about the voice and exercises that will help you understand how to use the voice the way I just did. Right. Like with using it for different tone of voice. But for some people it might be very natural. Okay. It's just you have to think of the emotion and it will come out through your voice. Just give yourself the permission to do that and be playful and have fun with it. Take a text and just read it as if you're angry. And another text and just read it as if you're happy or the same text or as if you're sad. Okay. Rhythm. Rhythm is created by lengthening sounds by pace and by taking breaks. Okay. So rhythm is the result of stress. Pace, whether I'm going faster or slower, and breaks. This is interesting. So if you're doing other things, come back here because I'm teaching you something fundamental about rhythm. And then I see that we're already like, I have. I still have a little bit to teach you. So we're going to get to the end of the hour with not a lot of time for Q and A. In English, not every word is. Has the same length. Okay. There are languages where every word has the same length. I'm going to tell you what I think. I am going to tell you what I think. It's called a syllable timed language where every syllable has the same amount of stress and has the same length. In English, it's not the case. Because if we can make it more complicated, why not? I'm kidding. That's the beauty of English. This is what I love about English so much. In English, there are the stressed words, what we talked about before. The words that you choose to stress are usually the ones that lead the rhythm. And everything is getting squeezed in together to allow the stressed words to have the same, almost the same space between them. I'm going to tell you what I think. So some words become. They expand, they become longer and some words become shorter based on the message, based on the place in the sentence and the word. I'm going to tell you what I think. So I'm going a little faster and I'm slowing down on the stress. Do it with me. I'm going to tell you what I think. I'm going to tell you what I think. Right. And you can do it even faster. I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna Tell you what I. I'm gonna tell you what I. These are called reductions where pure vowels become a reduced vowel. You becomes Y. What I would. I going to. I'm gonna. And some people might even reduce it to this. I'm gonna tell you what I think. I'm gonna tell you what I think. And if you don't really think about it, you won't even notice that I totally dropped the G sound. I'm gonna tell you what I think because you get the reduction and you really hear the important words. Which are, which are tell and think. And I could also say, I'm gonna tell you what I think. I'm going to tell you what I think, right? I'm completely reducing it. Now, I personally don't use this reduction. I say I'm gonna or I'm gonna. But you will hear that I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you what I think. Because what's more important is the word tell and the word think and everything else is reduced to allow the important words to stick out. Let's take another sentence, for example. What do you want? Right? The punches show that, like, this is a language. If I were, I'm a speaker of a language that is syllable timed and not stress timed like English. So here I would say, what do you want? What do you want? Every word would have the same beat, okay? And then there are no reductions here. Every vowel is fully pronounced. What do you want? However, in English, words that are function words, all the prepositions and the verb be and the auxiliary verbs, and all of the words that are not the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are reduced and connected. So instead of what do you? You'll hear what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you want? And on the other hand, want is going to be longer stretched out. What do you want? Right? Put one, if your language is syllable timed, meaning that every word has the same beat, what do you want? And put two if your language is stress timed. So really it's changing. Like you have a lot of reductions in your language. What do you want? What do you want? What do you want? I'm going to show it to you in another way. So this is a syllable timed language where every word has the same beat. In English, where some words become shorter, I squeeze them, I use the schwa, I reduce the vowel. What do you? And then I stretch what I want to stress want. What do you want? What do you want? And what ends up happening. This is the rhythm of words, right? What ends up happening. Look at this. I'm going to make it bigger because I made this fancy automation and I want you to see it. I'm going to go back a little bit. So the length of one word want is actually the same length as three words in a stress timed language versus a syllable timed language where every word has the same length. Okay. So it totally messes up your rhythm if you are used to having every word said in the same beat. So all of a sudden you're speaking English and the rhythm is completely different and it's going to feel different. It's going to feel strange. What do you want? What do you want? It's going to sound like you're mumbling. It's going to sound like you're not fully saying the words, but actually in English. And it serves you because it allows you to deliver the message more clearly because people expect to hear those punches, right? The want and the tell and think. Okay, so we show you. We put in the front the important stuff and we reduce the less important stuff. Okay. I'm going to move on to the. Probably the most, let's just call it like our final practice of everything that we've learned so far. Okay. Grouping thoughts together. I'm not going to explain what that is. I'm just going to read this and show you what that means. When people ask me what I think about something, I always feel like they're expecting me to say something smart and I get all confused and forget to say what I really think. Okay. It felt like I'm just throwing at you all of those words. I did have pitch variations. I did stress certain words. I pronounced everything clearly, but it felt like a lot. It was hard for you to perceive it. I mean, you have it written in front of you. But if I were to just say it, you'd be like, wait a minute, what? Phrasing and grouping thoughts together is how the brain works. It's how we think. We think in groups of words. We don't think in individual words, but we also don't think in chunks of words. We think in small chunks or I mean, long paragraphs. We think in small chunks of words and this is how we speak. I didn't just say, and this is how we speak. I connected everything together and this is how we speak. Right. But that was a group that was isolated from what came before and what would come after. Grouping words together is something that you do naturally in your first language and probably in English too. But there are two possible challenges here. One, you might want to sound clearer, and therefore you separate the words. And then that goes against this idea of grouping thoughts. And again, this is how the brain works. So it might be confusing for the listener just because you're trying to be clear. And the second thing, you might not take pauses at all, because you just want to make sure that your thought is not lost on you, right? So that you're trying to catch up with your brain that is going really, really fast, and your mouth is not catching up with it, so you're not taking breaks. And then that's also challenging to listen to. And what I'm telling you here has nothing to do with English or other languages. This is relevant for all languages. But in English, because of either our habits from our first language or because of certain fear or, like, you know, maybe we're trying too hard. As a result, we're not doing something that is fundamental in how people communicate, because there is something that is not super organic in speaking a second language when you also have to retrieve the words and to deal with all the thoughts that come your way and the feelings and the emotions, and trying to be clear and making sure that you're not taking up too much time so all of that doesn't happen naturally in your first language. And you're trying to compensate. And as a result, you might not be pausing or you might be pausing too much. Here's an example of where I would put the break here. When people ask me what I think about something, I always feel like they're expecting me to say something smart, and I get all confused and forget to say what I really think. So when I break it down, it's more organized. I always say that it's like getting an email with, you know, one paragraph, no commas, no full stops, nothing, no breaks. It would be a little overwhelming to hear. And to read it would be to hear it if you were to say it without the commas and the full stops. And that's the punctuation is the pauses that you take in between. How are we doing? Are we good? Is it too much? Okay, no links. We're done. The raffle is closed already, you guys, I'm so sorry. Okay, wow. We're gonna announce the winner because we're already preparing the. The raffle wheel, so we can't collect new names anymore. Okay, good. You're good. You're good, you're good. Great so far. Perfect. Okay. That's what I like to hear. Tell me if it's Confusing, too. Okay, don't be shy. So here is, you know, what we did. I just organized it a little bit, a little differently. Let's say it all together. When people ask me what I think about something, something, I always feel like they're expecting me to say something smart. And I get all confused and forget to say what I really think. So I'm not even taking a full break. I'm just like. It's like a breath. It's like a short breath. When people ask me what I think about something, I always feel like they're expecting me to say something smart and get all confused. I didn't even take a break or a breath. I just paused and continued. Now, if we're adding intonation to it, what would that sound like? So remember, intonation is the pitch variation within a sentence or phrase. So here. Here's how I said it. When people ask me what I think about something, rising, rising. It's called a rising, rising. So the pitch goes up. It's like a question. But also it suggests that there is something coming up right after. I always feel like they're expecting me to say something smart. This was rising, falling, rising, smart. And even if it doesn't make sense, just. Just repeat after me. It's like music. Give yourself the freedom to try out new things. I always feel like they're expecting me to say something smart. So I did this variation here. But still I lifted at the end, meaning there is something else coming up. And I get all confused and forget to say what I really think. Drop. That's my indication that it's a full stop at the end. Okay, and now let's add stress. I already did it, but now it's in front of you in bold. When people ask me, right, I drop me what I think about something, something. Notice how I raise my pitch. I always feel like they're expecting me to say something slightly smart. And I get all confused and forget to say what I really think. Did you hear now the pitch and the stressed words and now rhythm. So that means that I'm going to keep those stressed words and I'm going to reduce whatever is around it. When people ask me what I think about something, let's all do it together slowly. I always feel like they're expecting me to say something smart. And I get all confused and I get an I. I'm not saying. And I get. And I get. And I get. And I get all confused and forget. So even the word and is reduced. And I get all confused and forget to say What I really think or what I really think. Actually wanted to stress the really here. What else do we have to add here? Tone of voice. I already played into it a little bit, but what is this? What does sad tone of voice sound like? Or frustrated or upset? Let's try it. When people ask me what I think about something, I always feel like they're expecting me to say something smart. And I get all confused and forget to say what I really. What I really think. I'll do the last part again. And I get all confused and forget to say what I really think. Okay, so this is what we did just to remind you. Wait, no, no, no, no, no. Let's go back. So at first we had, like, a big chunk of text. These are the words that we want to say, but then they're grouped like the thoughts are grouped inside our head. And each thought is its own unit. And there is usually a small breath in between. And then the intonation indicates the relationship between those groups if one is connected to the other or if one is the end of something. And then we use stress to help people understand what is important to you. We use operative words. We stress the operative words to tell you what to focus on and the context of what you're saying. And then we kind of like eliminate, reduce the parts that are a little less important, like the me and the what I and the ends. It's not that they're not important. I signal them by saying the consonant, but the vowel around them is reduced. And that creates the rhythm of English. And then I play with my voice. I add, I make it very soft or maybe low in pitch to indicate that I'm not super excited about this situation. And that actually brings me down. So that is how I'm using my voice to express all of those things. So if on day one and two, we talked about the sounds, now we see that when it comes to the language, things that are so intuitive and organic to us when we use our first language, it's interesting to see how that plays out in another language. And just like sounds that are different than the sounds in your first language, how we stress things, what we stress and the rhythm are different as well, for the most part. So we want to understand the difference between how you would say something in your first language when it comes to prosody and how you would say something in English and then know how to say it. So you get what you want and you say what you want to say. Okay. Effective communication is for you as the speaker. It's not to make other people happy. It's not to make it easy on them. It's not for them to stop criticizing you. It's for you to say what you want to say, to engage people, to feel like you're making an impact and to get what you want. Here's what we talked about today. What prosody is, right? We talked about. We use all those different images. We talked about the most critical prosody related challenges, right? We said about, like, not using the right intonation, not connecting words together. So in the group, we didn't go very deep into it, but when we're grouping words, everything is connected. This is how we signal to people that that's a thought group. And then we talked about what are the elements of speech. We talked about pitch, the highness or lowest of an, of a tone, intonation, rhythm, stress, tone of voice, grouping thoughts. And within that, connected speech and your daily task. You have a daily task and you have a fun task. Identify one to two prosody challenges you face when speaking English. Schedule time for your practice. Watch the daily mindset talk and answer the questions in the workbook. And there is a fun task related to prosody that I challenge you to do. All right, before we do the raffle, Amar, send me the raffle. Okay, the form is closed and the wheel is here. Tomorrow, we're going to talk about how to take it to the next level. Breaking barriers, how to overcome challenges. When it comes to. Hold on, hold on. I always get this all messed up when it comes to pronunciation. So we're going to talk about common challenges that you might face and how to overcome them and how to go beyond pronunciations. Because ultimately, it's not just about how you sound. It's about how you use the language. And you want to use the language confidently and freely and clearly, right? To minimize the gap between how you use your first language and how you use English. And that is what we're here to do. We're going to talk more about that tomorrow. And now, ladies and gentlemen, and by the way, on Friday, we're going to have. Friday is tomorrow. On Saturday, we're going to have a live Q and A. So all the questions that you haven't gotten an answer for, and I know you might have a lot. We have a lot of participants today. Let me share the wheel. The raffle wheel. Let's present. Ooh, I hope I'll be able to. Okay. Share screen. Hold it, hold it. Can you see it? Look at how many of you signed up. Okay, so one of you is going to win the Sprint Master. It usually costs $97. If you have the Sprint Master already, you're gonna get this sprint master 2.0. We have two sprint masters and yes, it's a 30 day sprint course where every day you. You get one sprint, a 10 minute exercise to boost your pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. If you don't know my sprints, I have a few of them on YouTube. It's a lot of fun and very effective based on my pronunciation confidence method. All right, so who's gonna win? Let's see, let's see, let's see. Let's make it bigger. Don't worry, I'm gonna make it bigger. I'm gonna make it bigger and I hope I'll be able to read it. All right. Three, two, one. Click the spin. Okay. All right. Who is the winner of the Sprint Master? Let's see. Christelle, congratulations. We have your email, I think. Christelle, are you here? Let us know. Congratulations. You just got the Sprint Master. I am very excited for you. Are you here? Amar is going to contact you and give you access to the Sprint Master. We're going to have a fun thing for you tomorrow as well. So make sure you show up live. Congratulations. That was fun. Feel like I won something. All right. Congratulations, Christel. Anyway, you guys, thank you so much for your participation. I feel like I have to go through the comments because there was a lot of teaching today, a lot of practice, and I want to see some of your questions. So if you didn't get an answer to your question, then we're going to share in the group. And also you have it in the workbook, a link to the Q and A form. So I'm inviting you to submit your question there and we're going to answer those questions on day six, which is going to be Saturday. Thank you so much for joining me. Okay. I want to know, like, how do you feel about prosody? One is, I hate it. Two is, I love it. I want to know more. One is like, why did people invent prosody? Ten is like, this is beautiful. I want to. I want to dive deeper into this prosody work. Let me know. I have to say okay too bushra. Okay. Just sending you a heart and a hug. I know. Okay, so we got a lot of Karen who's like, two my friends. I don't like prosody. Sheena is like, all about. All about prosody. This is so extreme. Either we have tens or twos. What is going on here? Okay, thank You. There was an eight here. Okay. Thank God. Seven. Oh, this is. It's like part cilantro. There are either people who love cilantro or hate cilantro. Prosody is cilantro. I just got it. Okay. Whether you like it or not, it's good to know it, and it's good to understand that it's only a tool for you to use. I always say that pronunciation and prosody work is really like a costume. You can put it on and take it off whenever you want. You don't have to change. You don't have to do anything that you don't feel like. But just know that it's a tool for you to use when you need to use it, depending on the room that you're in or the people that you're around or what you're trying to get. Because of course it's going to serve you. If you're in a job interview trying to tell talk about your experience and you want to convince someone in something or you want to pitch someone an idea, prosody is going to serve you. Ultimately, even if you have the best idea ever, it's not just about what you say, it's also how you say it. And a lot of my students have told me that after working on prosody in English, they have developed significantly their communication skills in their first language as well, because it really isn't disconnected Cilantro. All right, my friends, I really, truly adore all of you. You guys are awesome. I do not take for granted the fact that you're here. So thank you. Keep up the good work and know that my team and I are here to support you no matter what. Take care, my friends, and talk to you soon.