1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,266 Merhaba, konichiwa, anyong-hasaeyo, hello guys. 2 00:00:04,266 --> 00:00:14,166 In this video, I’m going to talk about how you can improve your pronunciation with an advanced technique called “shadowing”. 3 00:00:15,133 --> 00:00:22,199 Pronunciation is always a hot topic when talking about languages, language learning. 4 00:00:22,699 --> 00:00:27,966 And in my point of view, there are two layers in practicing pronunciation. 5 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:38,200 So in this video, I want to tell you how I practice my pronunciation and how you can also improve your pronunciation. 6 00:00:38,266 --> 00:00:46,600 So the first level in practicing your pronunciation is to pronounce the consonants and your vowels correctly. 7 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:53,600 That means separate words. When the vowel is combined with consonants, how do they make sound correctly? 8 00:00:53,600 --> 00:01:07,166 If you are lucky... your mother tongue has a lot of words that are in common with the language that you are studying, and it will be easier for you to practice this. 9 00:01:07,166 --> 00:01:17,099 You can use Youtube videos. I have seen a lot of Youtube videos that teaches how to pronounce the alphabet, the vowels. So this will be really useful for you. 10 00:01:17,466 --> 00:01:28,200 Some of the examples of this level of pronunciation is, for example, like the au, pau in Spanish…in Portuguese. 11 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:36,900 The RR in Spanish. The R in french. Where you have to use your throat like that, right. 12 00:01:36,900 --> 00:01:43,833 The ng(ง) in Thai, or the eu(อือ), vowel eu in Thai. 13 00:01:43,833 --> 00:01:49,566 These are the sounds that you have to know how to pronounce correctly. 14 00:01:49,566 --> 00:01:56,599 They are the basics, and if you can not pronounce them, you can never sound like native speakers because it’s part of the language. 15 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:05,400 However, today in this video, I want to really focus on the second level of practicing your pronunciation. 16 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:10,466 So even after you know the alphabet, you know, to pronounce the word correctly. 17 00:02:10,466 --> 00:02:22,433 But when you string them together into a phrase or into a sentence, the sound changes because in language, especially spoken language, 18 00:02:22,433 --> 00:02:33,666 there are cuts, the words transform into another words, there are a lot of changes that are going on when you string the word together. 19 00:02:33,666 --> 00:02:39,866 The flow is different from just pronouncing the word separately, one by one. 20 00:02:39,866 --> 00:02:50,466 Let me give you some examples, so in English, you might be able to pronounce "what are you doing". Correctly right like word by word. 21 00:02:50,466 --> 00:02:57,066 But when combine them together, it becomes “wadayou doin” 22 00:02:57,066 --> 00:03:03,599 So saying it fast and saying it separately sound different word, right? 23 00:03:03,599 --> 00:03:08,766 And another example from Korean “왜 그렇게 했어요?” (why do you do like that?) 24 00:03:08,766 --> 00:03:22,466 Maybe you can pronounce wae, keu, ro, kae, haes, or, yo. But in order to create a proper meaning. In order to convey the feeling that you want to convey. 25 00:03:22,466 --> 00:03:32,466 And this word means "why do you do like that?”. You have to have that “wae keu ro kae haeso yo”. In order to sound native. 26 00:03:32,466 --> 00:03:44,333 And one example from Turkish. “eve gideceğim” I’m going home. eve gideceğim turns into “gidecem” in a spoken language. 27 00:03:44,333 --> 00:03:53,833 So see, from gidecegim you cut it down to gidecem. If you say gideceğim then you will not sound like a native speaker. 28 00:03:54,333 --> 00:03:59,300 So the first example that I gave in English, “what are you doing” becomes “wadayou doin“ is like the words are combined. 29 00:03:59,300 --> 00:04:05,800 It's like the words are combined. It's how the words are combined and turned into different sounds in a sentence. 30 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:13,933 The second sentence, the second example that I gave was in Korean. “Wae keu rok kae haes so yo”. 31 00:04:13,933 --> 00:04:23,066 So this emotion that you create with mmmm. The change in the sound. The intonation at the back is very important. 32 00:04:23,066 --> 00:04:34,266 And the third example, the Turkish one. eve gideceğim becomes eve gidecem. You cut down from ceğim become cem. 33 00:04:34,266 --> 00:04:41,266 So how do you improve all that? The technique that I use is called “Shadowing”. 34 00:04:41,266 --> 00:04:44,333 So what do I mean by “shadowing”?. 35 00:04:44,333 --> 00:04:57,699 The idea is very simple, you copy, you imitate the audio or the video, the native speakers real-time with the least delay possible. 36 00:04:58,366 --> 00:05:03,233 Later in this video, I’m going to show you real examples how I practice this. 37 00:05:03,733 --> 00:05:15,500 But what I always do is I find video or audio, and I turn it on, and I listen to it, and I copy exactly what the person is saying. 38 00:05:15,500 --> 00:05:24,300 If the person is laughing, I laugh as well. I imagine that I’m that person. I imagine that I’m the speaker. I’m in the story. 39 00:05:24,300 --> 00:05:39,166 If the person is shouting, I shout. If she’s whispering, I whisper. So I do exactly what she’s doing. I copy even the slightest change in her voice. 40 00:06:29,333 --> 00:06:39,033 So this is a pretty advanced technique. If you don’t really know the text, if you don’t really understand, you might struggle to really say it. 41 00:06:39,033 --> 00:06:48,100 So what you can do is you can lower the speed down to 0.5, 0.75 in youtube you can do that very easily. 42 00:06:49,100 --> 00:06:56,733 And also, you can study from text first. So you can be listening.... If you have a transcript, that will be perfect. 43 00:06:56,733 --> 00:07:04,866 Listen to it while you are reading. And then after that, the second time, or the third time that you are doing it, do it without the text. 44 00:07:04,866 --> 00:07:13,199 Just try to listen to the sound. Copy exactly what the person is saying. You don’t have to understand everything that they say. 45 00:07:13,199 --> 00:07:22,800 Because the point is actually not learning the vocabs. I think if you get to about 95 percent or 90 percent of what you are hearing. 46 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:32,699 If you can understand about 90-95, that’s enough. You can still mimic. You can still copy. Because we are not focusing on learning vocabs now. 47 00:07:32,699 --> 00:07:40,233 We are focusing on the flow of the language. You can imagine this technique like trying to copy your friend. 48 00:07:40,233 --> 00:07:51,666 Like when your friend says, what are you doing (repeat), Hey, stop copying me (repeat), Hey I said stop (repeat). 49 00:07:51,966 --> 00:07:54,000 You know, something like that. 50 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:06,300 So how do you know if you are saying it correctly or not? I think it’s like singing. For example, if you can sing “ a whole new world”. 51 00:08:06,300 --> 00:08:16,466 And if you hear yourself singing “ a whole new world”. You know that you are saying something wrong, right? 52 00:08:16,466 --> 00:08:26,866 So it’s about practicing. You have to practice enough that you hear the change in your sound that is not like the audio. 53 00:08:26,866 --> 00:08:33,966 You’ll feel that something is off when you are speaking. But if you say you can not hear it, then what do you do? 54 00:08:33,966 --> 00:08:38,600 Then you practice more. The more you practice, the more you get it. 55 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:42,666 So to summarize, even if you know a lot of words. 56 00:08:42,666 --> 00:08:58,433 It doesn’t mean that you are pronouncing native-like. When you combine the words into sentences or phrases, the sound gets cut, the sound gets changed, it gets transformed. 57 00:08:58,666 --> 00:09:07,100 So the best way to get a more native-like accent is to mimic exactly what you hear. 58 00:09:07,100 --> 00:09:19,899 If you like my videos, I have a Patreon page where you can support me starting from one dollar. So Thank you so much, and I will see you in the next video. Bye.