Shadowing Practice: How I Got My American Accent - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Please make a video about how you have come to this level of sounding very native.
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I'm sure many of your fans, including me, want to hear your story.
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Thanks in advance.
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Well, thank you so much for your question.
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I did work quite a bit on my American accent, so I'm going to tell you exactly what I did.
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Before I get into that, though, I want to mention a couple of things.
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First and foremost, changing your accent or adjusting your speech to a different language, to a different way of pronouncing things,
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has some sort of psychological effect on us.
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and then you're like, oh, this hurts, this hurts, this hurts.
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It's because you have been doing some movements that you're not used to, that you haven't done before.
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And because this feels like an effort, we are working with some muscles in our jaws here and our tongues and everything.
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It does feel like it is harder to work on an accent or pronunciation.
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So a lot of people choose not to do those things
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and not to work with the muscles because that's what changing an accent is.
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movements with your muscles around your mouth on your face.
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So a lot of people choose to maintain their native language mouth
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and pronounce the English words with the same native language mouth.
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For example, the word cat.
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cat.
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If I said it in my Romanian native mouth, it would sound like cat.
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kat because that's how i read c a and t for some other languages it could be cut
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cut because the mouth doesn't open right so it doesn't go as cat right but it goes cut
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cut because that's what that mouth is used to
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so there's this misconception that
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if someone's trying really hard to sound american they're trying to become american
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and they don't want to lose their identity
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or they don't want to lose their culture or their language
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which brings me to my second point the fear of looking like you're pretending to be someone else
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or that you want to become someone else many people think like
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if i'm not american why should i try to sound like one a problem in itself if that's a choice, like if that's a conscious choice,
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like you make it a point that you don't want to change the way you sound.
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You don't want to have a perfect American or British or Australian accent.
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That's fine.
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But if you want to improve and you want to actually integrate and sound American,
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then you have to let go of this irrational fear that you are pretending to be someone else.
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Honestly, that's a little bit true.
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Like you are about to change your facial way you open your mouth, the melody of your voice,
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the tone, your reactions to certain things, what you say in certain situations.
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However, I can guarantee you, you're a smart person.
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So you're not going to lose your identity or your culture.
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You're just going to improve it.
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You're going to take whatever you love the most from your culture, and you're going to add whatever you love the most from a different culture.
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Therefore, you're just going to become a more open -minded, rounded person that's all.
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You just have to trust yourself a little more on that.
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Okay, so let's start with what I did exactly to get my American accent to where it is today.
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It's going to be a long one, so please grab a coffee or any other non -alcoholic beverage of your choice and sit back and relax.
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Okay, so this is going to be a little bit of a timeline situation.
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So let's start with seven years old, 1997.
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So one day when I was seven, I turned the TV on.
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There was a telenovela, soap opera, TV show situation on TV.
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It was called Sunset Beach.
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And it was about these like, you know, beautiful people running around on the beach, saving people.
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There's lifeguards.
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There's, I don't know, I think it was in somewhere, Santa Monica, somewhere in California.
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I don't know where the action was happening.
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But me being from Republic of Moldova,
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from a tiny village, whoa.
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Anyway, so obviously it was an American show, so I started watching it and started getting infatuated by the way they spoke,
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and I started imitating them.
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I started pretending I'm one of them.
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For some reason, I started to also imitate exactly how they were talking.
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Like, I was rolling my R's.
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I was watching their mouths to see what were they doing so the sound comes out the way it did.
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I would notice the this.
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I would notice the nasal sounds and kind of like the deeper sounds,
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the way they open their mouth really widely compared to how I was talking in Romanian.
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So I was kind of absorbing little words, little bits and pieces.
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The show was translated in Romanian, so I would, or there were Romanian subtitles.
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So I would listen to English and kind of see what
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that meant without knowing what the words actually looked like written in English.
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I only knew them by So then in second grade in 1998, when I was eight years old,
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we had to choose a foreign language to start learning in school.
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So our school offered French and English and we had to choose between.
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these two.
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My parents chose English because they kind of noticed already that I was into English, so might as well.
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Maybe many of you don't know this, but in Republic of Moldova and in many European countries, learning a foreign language is a mandatory subject.
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It's not something that my parents chose to put me in, or it was an extracurricular activity.
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No, it was just part of the curriculum.
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So it was 30 people in our class or 28 or something like that, 30 or 31.
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And somewhere around that number.
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And English was just like math or Romanian or physics or any other subject.
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Well, not physics in second grade, but just like whatever basic subjects we had.
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It was maybe once or twice a week.
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We had it with a teacher who was, I think, Ukrainian that had moved to Moldova.
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She had a good accent, but it wasn't perfect.
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Let's just say that.
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So when we practicing at home.
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So for some reason, I just imagined that I knew things.
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And then we would learn first the basics, you know, the numbers and the fruits and veggies and body parts and all of that.
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But then we would start obviously moving into some word groups or some sentences and just kind of doing our basic,
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you know, textbook English.
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But then I would take that and I would go home
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and I would keep doing my imitation play with my shows
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and then I would connect the knowledge that I had gotten from school with what I was saying.
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So then I started recognizing these patterns
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like "oh okay plurals" "oh okay he /she gets s" at the end of the verb.
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So little things like that that started to make sense in my head.
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However there was nobody for me to practice with.
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Nobody spoke English.
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I had no friends who spoke English.
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The only person that would speak English decently was our teacher and we barely spoke in class.
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You know how it is.
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But I was slowly starting to get obsessed with English, with American English.
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So when I would come to school and we had to read, I don't know, a sentence or something, I would roll my R's and I would open my mouth.
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And kids started making fun of me because they were like, oh, look at her, the American.
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But jokes on them because a year later,
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and whatever else they needed to copy my answers at tests.
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So they wanted the American to help them.
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And here's an interesting fact here.
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Whenever someone came to me asking for help with their homework, for example, what tense should I use here?
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Present, perfect or past simple i could have just given them the answer like use this
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but no i was like okay well let's look at it
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what do you think you should use here they were like bro just give me the answer
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and i was like no no like let's see why are we using present perfect here
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and then i would ask them questions and then they would actually start thinking
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and then i would make them get to the right answer and then i was like
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hold on do i like teaching so going back to my attitude towards learning english
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and my accent so a few years down the road i was learning english in school i wasn't speaking much because
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it's just a normal old school traditional teaching method so then i discovered these little
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tricks and little tools to make my pronunciation better and my accent a lot smoother.
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Things like tongue twisters.
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And I thought they were pretty funny because the more you said those things, the more melody you learned.
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So then I realized like, oh, English accent and pronunciation is not only about the words
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and how to pronounce each word like in an isolated way right it's about how you connect them
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so then I learned about okay connected speech because
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when I was listening to the actors talking in these shows
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they wouldn't stop after each word right like we would read a text in English class
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and kids would actually break after robotic.
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So then I was like, no, no, no, that's not how they talk though.
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Then tongue twisters, repetition, and connected speech kind of started to slowly become a part of my learning,
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even though they weren't necessarily part of the curriculum.
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Like nobody was talking about these things at school.
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So I took these things and I continued my mirror talk, right?
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Like I was imagining that thing that I would say to anybody in my life would be in English.
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Like if I was mad at my mom, I would answer to her in my head.
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Like I would talk back to her in my head, but in English.
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If I had like some beef with someone at school, I would imagine that I would like tell them off in English.
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If I, I don't know, I wanted to share my opinions about something,
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I was doing that in was around or talking in front of the mirror or like mouthing,
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like pretending I was talking.
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And then I would go back to school, get a little bit more knowledge, but it got to a point where I was kind of going a little bit ahead of the curriculum
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and of the textbook.
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And I thought, you know, whatever we were studying wasn't enough.
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So then I was really, really happy when we had a couple of English teachers coming.
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Well, they weren't real English teachers, just Peace Corps the U .S to our village,
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they were Americans to teach us English and they were like 23,
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24 year old people, very young people who would just have a couple classes with us throughout the week
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and then they would do some little activities like hip -hop dancing
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or basketball and then obviously you would have to talk to them in English.
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So we had like a little bit of exposure to a real I was like,
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oh my God, this person talks just like the people in the movies.
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So it's not just, it's not fake.
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It's real.
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This is how they talk.
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And then I would listen to my teacher and I was like, I don't think that's the best thing source for me to learn.
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So I was kind of a terrible student
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because I would correct my teacher or I would kind of like make little jokes.
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I feel bad about it.
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I shouldn't have done it, but I was a kid and I just, you know, I thought that I'm the shit.
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But up until that point, I think the biggest realization, the biggest thing that I learned was that In school, we only focused on grammar,
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on some vocabulary words that we didn't really need and a lot of written information, a lot of written work.
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There was no talk about melody.
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There's no talk about tone.
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There's no talk about connected speech.
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There is no speaking activities.
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There was no practice activities.
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It was just reading and writing.
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Anyway, so I was a good student.
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I was getting good grades.
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I was going to all these like national contests or whatever.
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Maybe not national, like district maybe.
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So I kind this illusion in my head that I was really good at English, right?
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And I kind of was in a school, from a school perspective.
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So I graduated high school, I went to university, and guess what?
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No, I did not apply to an English major or something related to English or languages.
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No, I applied for economic studies.
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I applied to be an accountant.
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Clearly, you can see that was not my calling, true vocation in life.
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However, in that first year, I discovered this work and travel program,
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which allows you to go to the United States for a summer and work there.
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And usually the jobs are in hospitality, either restaurants, hotels, amusement parks, and stuff like that.
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So I begged my parents to help me out and to come up with the money because it was quite expensive.
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And I went before going that set me up with the job was like, your English is so good.
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You're going to do amazing.
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Like there is not a lot of people with such good English coming out of high school.
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And I was like, oh yeah.
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Oh yeah.
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America, here I come.
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And then my job was a line cook in a seafood restaurant in Alaska, in a very small fishing village.
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And needless to say, I was...
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I had like a rude awakening of how badly I knew English, actually. And...
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not speaking it because I would speak it decently.
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People would understand what I would say, right?
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But it was the listening part that was terrible and the actual change of a setting, right?
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I was in a fast -paced environment.
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That was my first job ever.
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I was in a foreign country.
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I didn't think to learn kitchen vocabulary.
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I didn't think to learn what's a lid.
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There was like a lot of different tools and equipment in that kitchen that when they would ask me to bring something, I would freeze.
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Like, and I was so ashamed to ask what it is because I knew it was something simple.
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I literally cried for the first two weeks.
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It was so hard.
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It was so nerve -wracking.
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On my feet for, I don't know, nine, ten hours, my shoes would get wet from all, like, the water and, like, there was oil everywhere.
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It was just not a great environment.
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But then I made the decision that I have to come back, not to Alaska, but go back to the U .S for another summer,
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somewhere else, somewhere warmer where I would make a little bit more money.
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I would travel.
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So that's what I did.
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I went home, graduated from accounting, and then I decided to apply for a master's degree
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just to be able to go to the United States again because I had to be a student.
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However, I picked a major that made sense.
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interpretation in English.
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And it was a lot better because all the activities
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and all the curriculum and everything would be kind of focused around translation and not only written translation, but conference interpretation.
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It's like simultaneous translation.
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Like you hear me talk and I have to translate at the same time.
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And that's really hard.
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And we would do actual practical activities.
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And I love that.
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That challenged me a lot.
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So while I was in my offered an English teaching job.
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like a part -time English teaching job.
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Actually, I wasn't offered it.
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I applied for it.
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I wanted to to get a job to make some extra money.
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So I applied, I got hired, and I left for the states for a summer.
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I worked as a bartender at this time so my accent improved
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so much more because as a bartender you have to talk to people.
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You have to talk to your colleagues, you have to talk to your customers continuously.
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Like it never stops.
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Now the fact that I was surrounded by native speakers was great.
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But I couldn't really understand a lot of the things they were saying to me.
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I couldn't understand their jokes.
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I couldn't really understand their references.
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I couldn't understand, you know, their like.. comments and little notes on things.
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I would just kind of like pretend I was laughing.
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I'm sure most of the times I wouldn't, you know, my reaction wouldn't match with what they would say.
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And yeah, it was kind of awkward, but listen, I'm not from here, okay?
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You gotta adjust your speech to me.
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So it was quite difficult to do a job because not only I had to learn how to make
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that there was no time for me to go and check a book.
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I had to like remember all the recipes, take the orders, punch them in, do all the payments, make the drinks,
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you know, talk to whoever else was around me because we had like bartender assistants, talk to the guests in front of me who were watching.
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Not only that, but I was also focusing on,
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you know, catching what they sits at the bar and they want to be entertained.
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They want to talk to you.
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They want to have a good time.
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They don't understand that you're like, struggling and you're trying to do like a million things at once they just feel like
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you know you're a pro and you can handle it
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and you're there for them and you are in a way
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but you're also doing a million other things
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so in a way i wasn't at
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that time consciously trying to work on my accent
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but i had to because i would listen to what people would say
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and then i would kind of mimic what they would say right i would just continue
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that imitation game you have to remember at that time
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when i was learning english i didn't have a phone i didn't have internet like 12, 13, 14, 15, and a lot of people think like,
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"Oh my God, it took you so long to get to this level.
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I you know don't have
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that time i don't want to invest this much time you
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don't have to invest this much time anymore you have you have this
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that is so valuable that has
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so much in it you have apps for everything you have
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ai for everything you can find people to talk to real
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people native speakers to talk to at any time of the day
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or night right i didn't have any of that so you can cut my timeline,
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how long it took me to learn English into probably like five.
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So you only need a couple years.
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So you're good.
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So I left the U .S.
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I went back to Moldova.
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I continued teaching English.
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I opened my own school and then four or five years later we decided to go to Canada.
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So in 2018 we finish.
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was good at this point, right?
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Because I had studied it, I had practiced it, I had taught it, right?
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But when I arrived to Canada, a lot of people, like I would say one sentence, and they'd be like, "Oh, where are you from?" And I was like, hold on.
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I thought I had a really good accent.
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I went to the US twice.
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People were like surprised by my English.
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Oh, I thought you were from here.
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That's what they were telling me.
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But in Canada, people are like, Oh, where are you from?
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And then it was so funny.
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Later, I was watching some of my stories from 2018 on Instagram.
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And when I was speaking English, and I was like, she has an accent i can hear it now
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so in canada yes i was aware that i had an accent but i didn't really know exactly what
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it was like what the issue was
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so i wasn't really consciously working on it i was just
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kind of like going with the flow i got hired um
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at a restaurant i started serving then i started uh
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or then i got promoted into restaurant management
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so then i had to learn kind of like a different side of english
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which is more professional more polished kind of business english not super corporate but i was
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representative of a company so I had to observe and learn how people were communicating.
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So I had to upgrade my vocabulary a little bit, my expressions, the way I communicated some things, both pleasant and unpleasant.
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I learned how to choose my words carefully.
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I learned how to provide feedback.
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Anyway, that's a whole nother video.
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The point is I elevated my English because of this job.
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And if you're an English learner, you know this, you're always kind of paying attention.
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attention to what people say, how people say it, what exactly, you know, what is the expression they used, what is the word they used.
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You're always kind of aware of how people talk.
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So then in 2024, we left Canada.
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Now I'm traveling.
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I'm speaking English to people from different countries not english -speaking countries right and it's not really about how perfect
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other people's English is.
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It's about how you connect to people.
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And accent is important, yes, because you want to be clear.
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You want people to understand you.
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Because let me tell you, I've had some difficult situations.
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Accents are not the most important thing in learning a language, as long as you are clear enough so people can understand what you're saying,
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so you can connect to them, you can And even though I teach English and I have all this experience,
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I still have an accent and I'm trying to improve it by practicing English a lot.
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Like these videos that I do, you know, going live on TikTok, doing all these lessons with my students.
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This is me practicing too.
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It never stops.
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Learning never stops.
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Right.
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So if a native speaker would hear me, they would say I have an accent.
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English and they're at the beginning they would think I'm a native speaker, right?
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It's all about perception.
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The important thing is
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as long as you keep practicing you're going to be improving
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you know i still do tongue twisters every day i still try to whenever i watch tv
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and i and i see a word
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that i didn't really know how to read before how to
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say before then i practice it like for example um hierarchy hierarchy i used to say it's hierarchy
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or something you know and then i hear it And then I'm like, oh, hierarchy.
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Learning never stops.
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Anyway, thank you so much for watching.
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I'm going to be posting a lot more kind of like story vibe videos
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and just kind of explaining a little bit more about who I am, why I'm here.
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Obviously, I've had my TikTok for a long, well, not a long time, but probably a year now.
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So if you came from there or if you follow me there,
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a lot more time to ramble and yap.
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On top of that, I'm planning to post a lot more complete English lessons here.
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So yeah, if you want to keep up with that, Make sure you follow.
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Not follow.
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Subscribe.
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You subscribe here.
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Okay, love you.
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Bye!
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What You'll Learn
This video equips you with key skills to refine your American accent, including facial muscle control for accurate sound production and overcoming psychological barriers to pronunciation practice. You’ll also learn to separate accent adaptation from cultural identity, a critical mindset for confident speaking—essential for IELTS speaking practice and real-world communication.
Listen For These Sounds
The speaker highlights how native language "mouth habits" distort English sounds, like pronouncing "cat" as "kat" or "cut." Notice the clear vowel opening in "cat"—a key difference between accented and native speech. Pay attention to how she links ideas, using phrases like "First and foremost" to maintain flow, a common feature of connected speech that shadow speak practice emphasizes.
Say It Like a Native
To mirror the speaker’s rhythm, focus on stress and melody. She stresses words like "muscles," "identity," and "integrate" to emphasize key points—mimic this pattern to sound natural. Use shadowing techniques: repeat her phrases immediately after, matching her pace and tone. A reliable shadowing site can help you practice this daily. Remember, shadow speech isn’t about "pretending"—it’s about training your mouth to move like a native, enhancing clarity without losing your cultural roots. Start with short segments, like her explanation of "mouth habits," and gradually build to longer passages. This method, paired with consistent practice, will help you master the rhythm and stress of American English, whether for IELTS or everyday conversations.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if a native speaker would hear |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | could be cut · was called · was translated |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have come · haven't done · I've had |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | teacher who was · friends who spoke · people who would |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.