Accent Training Podcast

#137 The Easiest American Sound to Learn for Quick Progress

September 30, 2022 Season 6 Episode 137
Accent Training Podcast
#137 The Easiest American Sound to Learn for Quick Progress
Show Notes Transcript

When we focus on too many things, we see little progress. However, when we focus on building upon our strengths, we can see a lot of progress in a short amount of time!
Today's session will focus on one of the easiest and vowel sounds of the American accent to develop. Once you get the hang of this in one area, you'll see quick progress in other as well!

Follow along by listening for the words below:
Crosswalk
Jaywalking
Causing Problems
Not Lawful

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Check out the links below to develop a deeper understanding of these sounds:
Short O & AU & AW Digraphs

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https://qlh5kgslus7.typeform.com/accentrainapp

Speaker 1:

Welcomed the Accent Training podcast, a podcast where I teach you to use the sounds of the American accent in your own speech. My name is Pat, I'm a professional accent coach, and today I wanna break down one sound that has three different spellings, which if you adapt to your regular spoken English, can help you take a significant step in terms of making clear sounds and controlling your syllable stress. The sound that we're talking about is the sound. Ah, ah. You see some sounds of English don't exist in your native language. Other sounds do. This is a sound that most likely, I can't say a hundred percent because I don't know every single person listening, but this is a sound that most likely exists in your native language and this same sound, ah, exists in English, in the British accent and the American accent. And so we've identified a sound that's widely used and that your muscles may already be used to. This is a big step. We've identified the path of least resistance. We're gonna take that sound and consider a handful of different uses for it to give you more control over your spoken English. But just before we do that, I'd like to remind you that I appreciate it when you subscribe to this podcast. It shows me that you're interested, that you like learning new things, and it certainly does not hurt if you're trying to show off your English skills. So hit subscribe to keep up with all the latest episodes. Moving on the A sound, Ah, like I said, this can be found in the short O, such as Stop Got competition, sorry. Ah, sort of sound. It's also used with an A spelling in words like father, water, car wash. And then another topic that I've discussed in the past, A u and a W, what we call die graphs. When two letters come together to make one individual sound, many people will take au into a W and they'll want to move their lips because they see a U or a W. And so your brain reminds you of what you learned when you were 12 years old and you move your lips for words like what I would say is la. You may say LA or the word pause, P a u s E. Pause. I say pause. However, you may naturally say Ps. That subtle movement of the lips is going to be a tough one. I would say one of the toughest things here to control, but it's something that you're totally capable of doing with a little muscle memory practice. Now, for today, I've got a handful of phrases for you to repeat after me, which are going to apply these A sounds. The A sounds will be spelled in different ways, sometimes with an O, sometimes with an A, and sometimes with an a w or an aau. But they will all make the same. Ah, sound repeat after me. Caught off guard. Caught off guard. What does that mean? That means taken by surprise. You were caught off guard. You didn't expect this to happen. And I'd like you to note that the same vowel sound is used in all three of those words, caught off guard. Different spelling, but the same sound. Here's another one for you. Crosswalk. Crosswalk. What is a crosswalk? Well, a crosswalk is something you'll find in a city to indicate where pedestrians should cross the street while walking a crosswalk that's spelled with an O in cross, an A in walk. But they both make the same sound. One of them is rising in the pitch cross. The other is kind of dropping in the pitch walk, cross walk. So it's the same sound, but with different levels of pitch. Now, what happens if you cross the street without a crosswalk? Well, if you're not careful, you may get caught off guard and you may get a fine. For jaywalk. Jaywalk another great term. This is a legal term. Jaywalk is a minor offense. It, it isn't something that's typically enforced anymore, but jaywalking is receiving a ticket for crossing a street at a point that isn't indicated. Now, I mean, at the end of the day, cross the street at your own discretion. If you feel safe crossing the street, and you look both ways, there's no cars coming. Hey, I won't tell on you, but if you're someone who wants to cross at the crosswalk, then I say lead the way. You're probably not the type of person who wants to be causing problems. And I respect that cuz if you walk a lot, it's safer to cross at the crosswalk. So you don't get cotton written a jaywalking ticket. It's not lawful that, uh, sound is used so widely in the American accent. There are three steps to make this happen for yourself. Step number one, identify the times when it's used. I've just told you the times when it's used, Short O's, short as and au or aw diagrams. And as a matter of fact, I'll add the links in the description. That way you can give them a listen and apply what you've learned without missing a beat. But for now, we're gonna wrap things up with this final thought. Starting something new is absolutely terrifying. Moving to a new place, starting a new job, learning a new skill, no matter how old we are or how experienced we are, it's a little bit frightening. And so I'd like you to recognize the fact that we're not starting a new thing. Oh no, we are learning some new things, but when you're learning the American accent, you're really creating a better version of what you already have. We're not making something brand new, we're just improving something that you're already good at. Sure, maybe you learn some new vocabulary or idiomatic expressions, but at the end of the day, what you're really doing is polishing up your English, giving yourself a very specific and controlled sound in your speech. And so, because we're not learning something new, we're just building upon what we already know. You're gonna come to find that there are more things in common between your native language and English. There are more sounds which are used between both languages. They're just used a little bit differently. And so your brain isn't making the full connections. But if you keep an ear open and if you keep building upon what you already know, you'll be following the path of least resistance and you'll see a lot of progress in a small amount of time. Now that's all that I've got to say for today. I hope that today's lesson has given you some crystal clear guidance on how you can move forward in learning the American accent. And as I mentioned before, make sure that you hit subscribe to this podcast and take a look at the description to see a handful of episodes to give you a better grasp on this ah sound when it's spelled with an O or when it's spelled with an a u or an a w. Check those episodes out and I will look forward to taking your American accent training to another level in the days to come. Have a good one, folks.