Why does practicing new sounds feel ARTIFICIAL?

Have you recently started working on your pronunciation or practicing pronunciation?

Or maybe you've been practicing and learning pronunciation for years.

But when you use the new sounds and when you try to incorporate the new intonation

or sounds into your day to day speech, it still feels a little fake and artificial?

If the answer is yes, then you are not alone.

Feeling fake and artificial when learning and practicing

pronunciation is part of the deal.

And today I'm going to talk about why it could feel fake and artificial,

and how you can overcome it.

But before that, I want to tell you that in just a few days, I'm going

to host a live class on how to make your English pronunciation simple

and clear with three easy steps.

It's absolutely free.

And the link to sign up is in the description below.

So make sure to grab your free seat because there are only a few

sessions available to sign up for.

Okay?

In the session, I'm going to definitely talk about feeling fake and artificial,

but I'm also going to talk about how to not invest so much energy, how to

not feel exhausted after speaking, how to practice effectively so you

can actually use it confidently when speaking, and how to overcome internal

challenges when using pronunciation.

So, I hope to see you in the live class.

Also, if you're new to my channel, my name is Hadar.

I'm a non native speaker of English, and I am here to help you speak English

with clarity, confidence, and freedom.

So check out my website for more content for you: hadarshemesh.com.

Okay.

So now let's talk about why it feels artificial to use the new pronunciation.

And when I talk about artificial, it just doesn't feel authentic,

it doesn't feel like yourself.

It's as if, you know, you're used to wearing jeans and flip flops

all day, every day, and all of a sudden you have to put yourself into

a wedding gown or a suit, right?

And it just doesn't feel comfortable.

Even though it might fit you, it just doesn't feel super comfortable.

And that is the case with new sounds.

Now, I also want to say that when it comes to working on your pronunciation,

when I teach my students to do that, I do it to give them the power and

the ownership over their own speech.

Because it's not about, "Oh, you need to do that to sound like a negative speaker."

I'm all about working on your pronunciation so you can achieve

clarity, so you can say what you think and get what you want.

But also, because I believe that working on your pronunciation definitely helps

you with understanding people better, with improving your overall fluency, it

makes you sound more effortless, and you are more in power of your own speech.

And this is why I'm obsessed with learning pronunciation myself,

I do it as I learn Spanish, and also when teaching my students and

helping them reach limitless fluency.

So if you want to find out more about that and learn with me more,

join the live class by clicking the link in the description below.

All right.

So the first reason is because you're doing something different

than what you are used to doing.

So think about the way you walk, all right?

You put one foot in front of the other, right?

That's how you walk.

Imagine that one day I would tell you, or someone would tell you,

"Listen, to stay healthy, you have to start walking like this.

At the beginning you'd be super conscious and focused on walking like this because

you would naturally want to go back to the way you've always walked, but then

you'd have to be really careful about it.

So even just the fact that you're focused on that is going

to make it feel uncomfortable.

Because your brain doesn't, or your body, doesn't know what it's like to

always focus on how you walk, right?

Because you're not used to doing it.

So you're doing something completely different, and also you're changing

something in how you operate.

And that feels artificial, simply by doing something different.

Sounds are habits, okay?

Your native sounds are habits and changing a habit requires you to do something that

while you're changing it is going to feel artificial until you make it a new habit.

This is the good thing about practicing pronunciation and learning pronunciation.

It's not just about learning how to make a sound.

You're also learning how to make it a new habit through

effective practice and repetition.

And then it becomes a habit and then it feels less artificial.

Another reason is that when you start changing the way you pronounce sounds,

so for example, if up until today, you used to say 'Sank you' with an S

instead of 'Thank you', then simply sticking the tongue out: first,

it's very different – 'thank you', and second, you're using different

muscles, you're investing different energy in pronouncing that sound.

Imagine if you were used to saying 'rrright' instead of 'right',

or 'RRRight' instead of 'right', then shifting to the 'ur' sound.

is going to require you to use different muscles.

And that alone is going to take up more energy at the beginning, until you make

it your own, until you make it a habit.

And when you invest more energy into speaking, it's going to feel artificial.

Now, it especially feels artificial when you start changing your melody.

If you're used to speaking like that, and all of a sudden you need to start speaking

like 'that', you need to start using more pitch, it's going to feel artificial.

It's already your voice, it's the most intimate thing that you create.

So changing your intonation and even changing your rhythm is going to feel

artificial because it's not yours.

However, like I said, if it serves you and you are subscribed to the idea that

it's going to help you deliver your message more clearly and get what you

want, then obviously there's going to be a phase where it feels artificial,

but if you stick through it, you're going to be able to no longer feel

artificial when using it consistently.

The last reason I noticed my students tend to avoid using new intonation

patterns, connected speech, and even new sounds is because they feel like it's

not themselves, and they feel a little artificial, and they're afraid of what

people are going to think about them.

Especially people who are close to them, and they know how

they sound and how they speak.

So, they are afraid that people are going to hear them changing.

And they're going to have an opinion about that.

And here's what I have to say.

Yes, sometimes people might have an opinion about you changing how you sound.

They may have an opinion about you becoming more fluent in English or

learning more languages or going to the university or changing your job.

People might have an opinion about every single thing you do.

However, if you operate based on what other people think of you, and what they

want for you, then you are probably not going to get the things that you want.

Because you need to operate from where you want to be in the future

or what you want for yourself.

And if you always consider what other people are going to think about you, how

you're changing, how you're improving your fluency, your pronunciation,

then you might just keep yourself stuck in the same place so that it

doesn't threaten anyone around you.

And I want you to just be aware of that.

Now, it's perfectly fine to be conscious of the people around us.

But at the same time, remember that even if people might have an opinion

about how you sound, sometimes it's even your opinion about how you sound

and your judgment towards people who are changing how they sound.

Maybe it's because you assign a meaning to it or you interpret it as something bad.

And when that is the case, then you're less likely to do it or to want to do it.

So if you think about any change in how you speak, all right, whether it's

improving your fluency or learning another language, or even changing

your pronunciation, if you focus on why you do that and why it is good

for you, it's going to be a lot easier for you to stay committed to that

decision, and overcome that feeling of being inauthentic or being artificial.

And you develop a new sense of authenticity because you're not

constantly consumed about what other people think about you.

I hope that makes sense.

So that's a little bit of mindset work that needs to be integrated

into any language work, and in particular, to pronunciation work.

Because sometimes it does feel a little different to

use a different pronunciation.

But sometimes it's good to walk into a place with a jacket rather

than with flip flops and jeans.

And sometimes putting on your jeans instead of always wearing high heels

and a dress is exactly what you need.

And the beautiful thing about pronunciation is that it's both.

It helps you make the language a lot more accessible and quick and fast

and effortless, but also more accurate and specific and clear and crisp.

So it's a combination of both things.

And with good pronunciation work you can achieve both and you can

actually feel in that language and in that new pronunciation

like you feel in your own skin.

It can become second nature to you.

Now, I can't wait to show you more about that.

So I hope you join my live class.

If you're watching this after I host my live class, then don't worry, you can

subscribe to my email list so that you can get updates about future events.

But if you're still watching this in the beginning of April, 2024,

then I hope to see you inside.

Thank you so much.

And if you want to share a little bit more about your experience

feeling fake, artificial, authentic, inauthentic in English, let

us know in the comments below.

Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day.

And I will see you, you know this, next week in the next video.

Bye.