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Steve's Language Learning Tips, Tips to Improve Your Pronunciation From Expert @hadar.shemesh (1)

Tips to Improve Your Pronunciation From Expert @hadar.shemesh (1)

Hello, Steve Kaufmann here and today I have another special guest,

but a special, special guest, Hadar Shemesh of Accent's Way.

And she is a specialist in the area of pronunciation and she's a model

herself of how you can achieve native-like pronunciation in a

language, in this case English.

But remember, if you enjoy my videos, please subscribe.

Click on the bell for notifications.

If you follow me on a podcast service, please leave a comment.

Okay.

Hadar, welcome.

Nice to see you again.

Nice to see you.

Pleasure being here.

Thank you so much for inviting me.

Okay, now I became aware of your videos of your YouTube channel, and we'll leave

a link in the, uh, description box.

And you have a lot of videos where you explain how to learn languages,

but in particular, you focus on this issue of pronunciation.

So, uh, it's fine to say that pronunciation doesn't matter as long

as you can understand, as long as you can get your meaning across.

That's really all that matters.

Which may or...

which may be true in fact is true, but most people are very concerned

about their own pronunciation.

Can you give us some background on your own journey in so far as your

own very North American pronunciation and the kind of advice and help

you, you give people around this whole subject of pronunciation?

Of course.

So I was born and raised in Israel.

I was never exposed to English growing up.

And when I was 21, I wanted, I decided to move to New York to become an actress.

And uh, I showed up with my intermediate English.

I, you know, I definitely had a very noticeable Israeli accent where, you know,

people would ask me, where are you from?

You know, Hadar, such an exotic name, and like, there was always a

conversation about me and my accent and, um, which was okay, like I,

I, you know, it is what it is.

And then I studied acting.

I started an acting school and there we learned speech and pronunciation.

And I fell in love with this idea of modifying my sounds just by

learning what to do with my mouth.

And everyone learned speech and pronunciation, native speakers

and non-native speakers, 'cause we learned classical American.

Uh, that was the first year.

The second year we studied different dialects and what it did is it totally

opened up my mind in terms of not only my, uh, how I sounded, but also it

changed my confidence, how I showed up.

I understood so much more how to use the language better.

I felt more effortless.

Um, I had more confidence because every time, you know, before I

would second guess myself or avoid saying certain words that had th

or r and that stopped happening.

When I made the new sounds my new habit, my new speaking habit.

Um...

A couple of questions.

Sorry, go ahead.

No, I'll let you finish.

No, no, go ahead.

All the things you say sort of, uh, makes me think of questions, but I

can save my questions so you go ahead.

But that's it.

But then, After the two years of acting school, I already had a pretty solid

American accent and I was able to shift between accents and I learned it, and

I knew how to, you know, I, I learned the different sounds and gradually

moving back to Israel, I realized that no one here talked about pronunciation

and I realized how important it is for building confidence and fluency.

Not just to sound an Amer...

like an American, right?

But mostly to build that confidence speaking a second language.

So I started teaching it.

Okay, so the first question that comes to mind is, an actor by definition

is someone who is not inhibited.

You know, you, you're acting, you're pretending to be someone else,

uh, which is a particular mindset.

Uh, and so you're used to the idea that you're gonna imitate this

person, you're gonna imitate their role in the story, you're gonna

imitate the language they use.

So I think an actor has a big advantage, uh, in learning languages and also has,

um, you know, they're more confident.

So to what extent can you take that experience of an actor, you, the

boudding actor, actress, whatever the word is today, and that

confidence that you obviously had.

And how do you then transport that over to your average person?

Ah, this is such a good question 'cause I talk about it a lot.

Like me learning, acting, and making someone else's words my own is a big

part of the experience of a language learner because all of a sudden you take

someone else's words or someone else's language and you wanna make it your own.

So you want to let go of what you hold so closely, like your own pronunciation and

how you perceive the language and your own rhythm, and you need to surrender to

the new sounds and the new intonation.

So there is this aspect of letting go that is oftentimes so hard for people.

So I think that the mindset work around what it means to speak a second

language, letting go, trying out different things, exploring your voice.

When I teach, I use a lot of, um, techniques from my acting studies, you

know, using voice, understanding how to, how to play with your voice, and

also letting go of the, of the, of the tension that you have when speaking.

So I absolutely think it's the same.

I think that even as an actress, I had a lot of challenges with

confidence being one of the only non-native speakers in class.

So I always had issues with, with my pronunciation and things

that would be so easy for others, I had to work harder for them.

But I think that has taught me all the things that I know now and you

know, got me to where I am today.

You know, it's very interesting.

Uh, an actor imitates, uh, uh, you know, projects into the role of the person.

Uh, when we learn languages, we are imitating an aspect of another culture.

We're actually trying to project into that culture.

Um, Uh, the best language learners, they see themselves as members of that group.

I learn French.

I want to be French.

I learn Chinese.

I want to be Chinese.

Uh, I don't hold back in my own culture.

And I've often said that to learn a language you need to experience

a certain cultural weightlessness.

In other words, you're not an Israeli person speaking English,

you're an American, I'm a Chinese.

Uh, easier said than done.

How are you able to get people to let go of their identity uh,

and, and just without fear, just kind of throw themselves in?

Because it's the unknown.

You're throwing yourself into something that you're, it's not familiar to you.

And for any number of reasons people, oh, as they get older, they

don't like to change, they don't like to abandon their identity.

The, you know, actors do that, that's their profession.

But how do you get ordinary people to do that?

I think it's all about accepting the fact that it's going to be different.

They're not gonna feel completely like themselves at the beginning.

And the ideal is to bring it to a place where you feel authentic and you feel

like yourself, but the path, the road there will require you to discover new

things about yourself, to discover, uh, you know, you, you want to say something,

you have all these thoughts running around your head in your native language.

And what you're able to portray is a fraction of it and you need to be okay

with it, and to find a way to express yourself and to connect and to communicate

with others with whatever tools you have and I think that if you understand that

and you're willing to, to be okay with the experience that it's not gonna be the same

and you can't, you cannot compare yourself to your native language all the time.

Not in how you sound.

Not in your pronunciation.

Not in, not in how you are able to express yourself, 'cause it's just not fair.

The circumstances are different.

And people constantly do that and then they're like, I'm not good enough.

I feel like a fraud.

And having those thoughts is definitely limiting them and preventing them

from taking action, speaking more, 'cause they're constantly focused

on what other people are gonna say, but if you just operate from...

yeah.

I was just gonna say, what you are saying now is that it's not just pronunciation,

it's, it's the whole range of, of, you know, operating in another language

and, and that obviously as we progress.

We're never perfect, but we're getting better all the time.

So at an earlier stage in our journey, we're not very good at

all, and yet we have to keep going.

Uh, but so it's just, it's not just pronunciation, it's,

it's the whole experience of learning in another language.

We have to accept what we are at each stage and try to enjoy it.

Yeah, it's never just pronunciation or just grammar or just vocabulary.

It's everything together and the experience together.

And you also need to balance between those things as you're learning and as you're

focusing, you know, there are stages in your language learning experience,

where the focus is, is going to be more on pronunciation because you've already

done a lot of work around comprehension.

Usually you start learning by perceiving the language by consuming

the language so that happens naturally as you develop, as you learn, but

there is a point where you are ready to do more work around pronunciation.

Maybe not very early on, but maybe there is a stage where you're

ready for it and then that should be your focus and that is okay.

And then you can't focus on too many things at the same time.

But I agree, it, it's also, um, it's also complex yet, yet clear.

Uh, if you know what it is that you need at a certain stage.

So do you have a range of techniques that you teach, uh, your subscribers, learners?

In other words, enabling them to get to a level of better language

usage, better pronunciation.

Are there techniques there or is it all the sort of the attitude?

So when it comes to teaching pronunciation, there's

absolutely a technique.

The first one is perception.

To be able to make a sound, you have to hear a sound.

If you can't hear the difference between sheep and ship, you're not

gonna be able to make those sounds.

So perception is first.

Then you need to learn how to pronounce it.

'Cause sometimes you might hear that there is a difference between "ee"

and "i", but every time you try to say it, it's gonna sound the same.

And that's where the technical aspect comes into play, where you

learn the difference between what your intuitive pronunciation is.

For example, as an, as a Hebrew speaker, I would just want to say "ee" in both

cases instead of "ee" versus "i".

So I need to understand my, what my, um, default sound is and how to

shift to be able to, to pronounce the sounds that I'm aiming to pronounce.

And then it's all about repetition, building habits.

Right?

So, so, so you build the muscle memory so you don't always have to

think about it when you're speaking.

And then there is a stage that I believe is also very important,

which is intentional speaking.

And then you use the specific sounds while speaking, because usually what happens,


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Hello, Steve Kaufmann here and today I have another special guest,

but a special, special guest, Hadar Shemesh of Accent's Way.

And she is a specialist in the area of pronunciation and she's a model 彼女は発音のスペシャリストであり、モデルでもあります。

herself of how you can achieve native-like pronunciation in a selbst, wie Sie eine muttersprachliche Aussprache in einem ネイティブのような発音をどのように達成できるかについて

language, in this case English.

But remember, if you enjoy my videos, please subscribe.

Click on the bell for notifications.

If you follow me on a podcast service, please leave a comment.

Okay.

Hadar, welcome.

Nice to see you again.

Nice to see you. Schön, Sie zu sehen.

Pleasure being here.

Thank you so much for inviting me.

Okay, now I became aware of your videos of your YouTube channel, and we'll leave さて、あなたの YouTube チャンネルの動画に気づきました。

a link in the, uh, description box.

And you have a lot of videos where you explain how to learn languages, And you have a lot of videos where you explain how to learn languages,

but in particular, you focus on this issue of pronunciation. Sie konzentrieren sich jedoch insbesondere auf dieses Problem der Aussprache.

So, uh, it's fine to say that pronunciation doesn't matter as long

as you can understand, as long as you can get your meaning across. wie Sie es verstehen können, solange Sie sich verständlich ausdrücken können.

That's really all that matters. Das ist wirklich alles, was zählt.

Which may or... Das kann oder...

which may be true in fact is true, but most people are very concerned was in der Tat wahr sein mag, aber die meisten Menschen sind sehr besorgt

about their own pronunciation.

Can you give us some background on your own journey in so far as your Können Sie uns einige Hintergrundinformationen zu Ihrer eigenen Reise geben, was Ihre

own very North American pronunciation and the kind of advice and help eigene, sehr nordamerikanische Aussprache und die Art von Rat und Hilfe, die

you, you give people around this whole subject of pronunciation? Sie, Sie geben den Menschen rund um dieses ganze Thema der Aussprache?

Of course.

So I was born and raised in Israel.

I was never exposed to English growing up.

And when I was 21, I wanted, I decided to move to New York to become an actress.

And uh, I showed up with my intermediate English.

I, you know, I definitely had a very noticeable Israeli accent where, you know,

people would ask me, where are you from?

You know, Hadar, such an exotic name, and like, there was always a

conversation about me and my accent and, um, which was okay, like I,

I, you know, it is what it is.

And then I studied acting.

I started an acting school and there we learned speech and pronunciation.

And I fell in love with this idea of modifying my sounds just by

learning what to do with my mouth.

And everyone learned speech and pronunciation, native speakers

and non-native speakers, 'cause we learned classical American.

Uh, that was the first year.

The second year we studied different dialects and what it did is it totally 2年目はさまざまな方言を勉強しましたが、それは完全に

opened up my mind in terms of not only my, uh, how I sounded, but also it 自分がどのように聞こえるかだけでなく、

changed my confidence, how I showed up. 自信が変わりました。

I understood so much more how to use the language better. 言語の使い方をよりよく理解できました。

I felt more effortless.

Um, I had more confidence because every time, you know, before I

would second guess myself or avoid saying certain words that had th Ich würde mich selbst in Frage stellen oder vermeiden, bestimmte Wörter zu sagen, die die je devinerais moi-même ou éviterais de dire certains mots qui avaient e 自分自身を推測するか、特定の言葉を言わないようにします。 me questionava ou evitava dizer certas palavras que tinham a

or r and that stopped happening.

When I made the new sounds my new habit, my new speaking habit. Als ich die neuen Klänge zu meiner neuen Gewohnheit machte, zu meiner neuen Sprechgewohnheit.

Um...

A couple of questions.

Sorry, go ahead.

No, I'll let you finish.

No, no, go ahead.

All the things you say sort of, uh, makes me think of questions, but I All das, was Sie sagen, lässt mich an Fragen denken, aber ich

can save my questions so you go ahead.

But that's it.

But then, After the two years of acting school, I already had a pretty solid

American accent and I was able to shift between accents and I learned it, and アメリカン・アクセントを習得した。

I knew how to, you know, I, I learned the different sounds and gradually

moving back to Israel, I realized that no one here talked about pronunciation

and I realized how important it is for building confidence and fluency.

Not just to sound an Amer...

like an American, right?

But mostly to build that confidence speaking a second language. しかし、ほとんどの場合、第二言語を話す自信をつけるためです。

So I started teaching it.

Okay, so the first question that comes to mind is, an actor by definition

is someone who is not inhibited. とは、抑制されていない人のことだ。

You know, you, you're acting, you're pretending to be someone else,

uh, which is a particular mindset. Das ist eine besondere Denkweise.

Uh, and so you're used to the idea that you're gonna imitate this

person, you're gonna imitate their role in the story, you're gonna

imitate the language they use.

So I think an actor has a big advantage, uh, in learning languages and also has,

um, you know, they're more confident.

So to what extent can you take that experience of an actor, you, the Inwieweit kann man also die Erfahrung eines Schauspielers, also von Ihnen, dem では、その俳優の経験をどこまで活かすことができるでしょうか。

boudding actor, actress, whatever the word is today, and that ator, atriz, seja qual for o termo atual, e que

confidence that you obviously had.

And how do you then transport that over to your average person? A jak to potom přenesete na svého průměrného člověka? そして、それをどのようにして平均的な人に伝えますか? E como é que depois se transporta isso para o cidadão comum?

Ah, this is such a good question 'cause I talk about it a lot.

Like me learning, acting, and making someone else's words my own is a big Jako já se učit, hrát a dělat slova někoho jiného svými vlastními je velká věc

part of the experience of a language learner because all of a sudden you take Teil der Erfahrung eines Sprachschülers, denn plötzlich nimmt man

someone else's words or someone else's language and you wanna make it your own.

So you want to let go of what you hold so closely, like your own pronunciation and Sie wollen also loslassen, was Ihnen so wichtig ist, wie Ihre eigene Aussprache und だからあなたは、自分自身の発音や、

how you perceive the language and your own rhythm, and you need to surrender to wie Sie die Sprache und Ihren eigenen Rhythmus wahrnehmen, und Sie müssen sich dem

the new sounds and the new intonation.

So there is this aspect of letting go that is oftentimes so hard for people.

So I think that the mindset work around what it means to speak a second Ich denke also, dass die Denkarbeit darüber, was es bedeutet, eine zweite Stimme zu sprechen

language, letting go, trying out different things, exploring your voice. Sprache, Loslassen, verschiedene Dinge ausprobieren, die eigene Stimme erkunden.

When I teach, I use a lot of, um, techniques from my acting studies, you

know, using voice, understanding how to, how to play with your voice, and

also letting go of the, of the, of the tension that you have when speaking. auch das Loslassen der Spannung, die Sie beim Sprechen haben.

So I absolutely think it's the same.

I think that even as an actress, I had a lot of challenges with

confidence being one of the only non-native speakers in class.

So I always had issues with, with my pronunciation and things Ich hatte also immer Probleme mit meiner Aussprache und so.

that would be so easy for others, I had to work harder for them.

But I think that has taught me all the things that I know now and you

know, got me to where I am today.

You know, it's very interesting.

Uh, an actor imitates, uh, uh, you know, projects into the role of the person.

Uh, when we learn languages, we are imitating an aspect of another culture. 言語を学ぶということは、他の文化の一面を真似るということなんだ。

We're actually trying to project into that culture.

Um, Uh, the best language learners, they see themselves as members of that group.

I learn French.

I want to be French.

I learn Chinese.

I want to be Chinese.

Uh, I don't hold back in my own culture. ええと、私は自分の文化に抵抗しません。

And I've often said that to learn a language you need to experience

a certain cultural weightlessness.

In other words, you're not an Israeli person speaking English,

you're an American, I'm a Chinese.

Uh, easier said than done.

How are you able to get people to let go of their identity uh, Jak můžete přimět lidi, aby opustili svou identitu, uh,

and, and just without fear, just kind of throw themselves in? a beze strachu se prostě tak nějak vrhnout?

Because it's the unknown.

You're throwing yourself into something that you're, it's not familiar to you.

And for any number of reasons people, oh, as they get older, they

don't like to change, they don't like to abandon their identity.

The, you know, actors do that, that's their profession.

But how do you get ordinary people to do that? Ale jak k tomu přimět obyčejné lidi?

I think it's all about accepting the fact that it's going to be different. 違うという事実を受け入れることがすべてだと思います。

They're not gonna feel completely like themselves at the beginning. Na začátku se nebudou cítit úplně jako oni sami.

And the ideal is to bring it to a place where you feel authentic and you feel A ideální je přinést to na místo, kde se cítíte autenticky a cítíte se

like yourself, but the path, the road there will require you to discover new jako vy sami, ale cesta, cesta tam bude vyžadovat, abyste objevili nové

things about yourself, to discover, uh, you know, you, you want to say something, věci o sobě, objevit, uh, víš, ty, chceš něco říct,

you have all these thoughts running around your head in your native language. všechny tyto myšlenky vám běží hlavou ve vašem rodném jazyce.

And what you're able to portray is a fraction of it and you need to be okay

with it, and to find a way to express yourself and to connect and to communicate s ním a najít způsob, jak se vyjádřit, spojit se a komunikovat

with others with whatever tools you have and I think that if you understand that s ostatními s jakýmikoli nástroji, které máte, a myslím, že pokud tomu rozumíte

and you're willing to, to be okay with the experience that it's not gonna be the same a jste ochotni smířit se se zkušeností, že to nebude stejné

and you can't, you cannot compare yourself to your native language all the time.

Not in how you sound.

Not in your pronunciation.

Not in, not in how you are able to express yourself, 'cause it's just not fair.

The circumstances are different.

And people constantly do that and then they're like, I'm not good enough.

I feel like a fraud. Cítím se jako podvodník.

And having those thoughts is definitely limiting them and preventing them

from taking action, speaking more, 'cause they're constantly focused

on what other people are gonna say, but if you just operate from... na to, co řeknou ostatní, ale pokud budete operovat z...

yeah.

I was just gonna say, what you are saying now is that it's not just pronunciation,

it's, it's the whole range of, of, you know, operating in another language

and, and that obviously as we progress. a to samozřejmě jak postupujeme.

We're never perfect, but we're getting better all the time.

So at an earlier stage in our journey, we're not very good at Takže v dřívější fázi naší cesty na tom nejsme moc dobře

all, and yet we have to keep going. všichni, a přesto musíme pokračovat.

Uh, but so it's just, it's not just pronunciation, it's,

it's the whole experience of learning in another language.

We have to accept what we are at each stage and try to enjoy it.

Yeah, it's never just pronunciation or just grammar or just vocabulary.

It's everything together and the experience together.

And you also need to balance between those things as you're learning and as you're

focusing, you know, there are stages in your language learning experience,

where the focus is, is going to be more on pronunciation because you've already

done a lot of work around comprehension.

Usually you start learning by perceiving the language by consuming Obvykle se začnete učit tím, že jazyk budete vnímat konzumací

the language so that happens naturally as you develop, as you learn, but

there is a point where you are ready to do more work around pronunciation.

Maybe not very early on, but maybe there is a stage where you're

ready for it and then that should be your focus and that is okay.

And then you can't focus on too many things at the same time.

But I agree, it, it's also, um, it's also complex yet, yet clear.

Uh, if you know what it is that you need at a certain stage.

So do you have a range of techniques that you teach, uh, your subscribers, learners?

In other words, enabling them to get to a level of better language

usage, better pronunciation.

Are there techniques there or is it all the sort of the attitude? هل هناك تقنيات أم أنها نوع من المواقف؟

So when it comes to teaching pronunciation, there's

absolutely a technique.

The first one is perception.

To be able to make a sound, you have to hear a sound.

If you can't hear the difference between sheep and ship, you're not Pokud neslyšíte rozdíl mezi ovcí a lodí, neslyšíte

gonna be able to make those sounds.

So perception is first. Takže vnímání je na prvním místě.

Then you need to learn how to pronounce it.

'Cause sometimes you might hear that there is a difference between "ee"

and "i", but every time you try to say it, it's gonna sound the same. و "أنا"، لكن في كل مرة تحاول قولها، سيبدو نفس الصوت.

And that's where the technical aspect comes into play, where you

learn the difference between what your intuitive pronunciation is.

For example, as an, as a Hebrew speaker, I would just want to say "ee" in both

cases instead of "ee" versus "i".

So I need to understand my, what my, um, default sound is and how to So I need to understand my, what my, um, default sound is and how to

shift to be able to, to pronounce the sounds that I'm aiming to pronounce. posunout, abych mohl, vyslovit zvuky, které se snažím vyslovit.

And then it's all about repetition, building habits.

Right? يمين؟

So, so, so you build the muscle memory so you don't always have to Takže, tak, takže budujete svalovou paměť, takže nemusíte vždy そう、そうやって筋肉を記憶させることで、常にそうする必要がなくなるんだ

think about it when you're speaking.

And then there is a stage that I believe is also very important,

which is intentional speaking.

And then you use the specific sounds while speaking, because usually what happens, ومن ثم تستخدم الأصوات المحددة أثناء التحدث، لأنه عادة ما يحدث،