Learn American Intonation, Rhythm & Body Language with Frozen ❄️

32,579 views ・ 2021-09-21

Accent's Way English with Hadar


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hey everyone, it's Hadar.
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Thank you so much for joining me.
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Today, we are going to talk about what you can learn about American intonation
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and rhythm from Anna and Elsa from Frozen.
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Yes, I said it.
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So, let me tell you what made me create this video.
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So, a few months ago I was lying on the couch, and my daughters
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wanted to watch Frozen 2.
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Now, I think we've seen that like a gazillion times.
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And the last thing I wanted is to hear their voices in my head
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while I'm doing other things.
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So I said, "Sure, you can watch it.
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It's that time of the day.
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But you need to use your headset because I need some quiet in my head."
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And they said, okay.
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So, there were watching with the headset on.
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And at some point, I came over and sat on the couch with them.
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And I was watching the screen, and all of a sudden, I recognized
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something that I haven't noticed before, while watching the movie.
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I noticed that the movements of Anna and Elsa and all the other characters
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had this really unique rhythm.
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And I noticed that they're using their body language while speaking.
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And they were like going back and forth, and using their
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eyebrows to express things.
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And I realized that it's connected with what exactly they're saying.
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Now, I know it sounds obvious.
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And yes, we're using our body when we're speaking, and it's always
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connected to what we're saying.
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But how is that connected to intonation and rhythm?
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So, if you haven't heard me talk about it just yet, know that the
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intonation of English, the melody of English - when we go up and down,
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and the rhythm - the long versus short in her speech, is the result of the
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content, of what it is that we're saying.
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It's not necessarily this external melody that we just put on top of
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what we're saying, going up and down.
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No, it is the result of what it is that we're saying and what we want to stress.
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So generally speaking, words that we want to stress and emphasize are
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longer, and louder, and higher in pitch.
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And we put more energy into it.
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And that energy is represented not only in our voice, but also our body,
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and our hand gestures, and our face.
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Right?
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Even me when I speak, you can see that every time I say a word that I want to
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emphasize, I'm either using a certain gesture, or I'm opening my eyes, or
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raising my eyebrows because it helps you understand that this is something
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important that I'm trying to say.
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And I'm doing it with my body, but I'm also doing it with my voice - raising
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the pitch and stretching the word when the word is important, when I
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want you to pay attention to the word.
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Now, watching Frozen 2 without the audio helped me recognize this
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ongoing rhythm that exists there too.
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And I thought it would be beautiful to bring it here and talk about it, and show
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you how this idea of rhythm and intonation is so deep and so rooted in the language.
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And once you start paying attention to it, it makes it so much more fun
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to practice English, to listen to English, and definitely to understand
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English, and to use it confidently.
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Alright.
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So, what I'm going to do now is first, I'm going to show you a clip without
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the audio, and I want you to pay close attention to the facial gestures
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- eyebrows, eyes in particular; hand gestures, right, and body movement
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of the characters while speaking.
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And I want you to guess what would be the moments where they emphasize a word.
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All right.
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So let's take a look at this clip.
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Now, let's look at it a bit closer.
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And we're going to pull out one sentence from this clip, and take a
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look at what Anna does when she speaks.
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Now let's listen to it with audio.
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"Oh, Elsa.
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When are you going to see yourself the way I see you?"
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Now, if you look at it really closely, you'll see that there are three
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moments where she leans forward.
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Now let's listen to it with audio.
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"Oh, Elsa.
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When are you going to see yourself, the way I see you?"
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Let's take the sentence and break it down.
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"Oh, Elsa" - let's put it on the side.
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"When are you going to see yourself the way I see you?"
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Now, even if you just isolate this one sentence and only listen to
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the audio, you can hear that she goes up in pitch in three words.
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"WHEN are you going to SEE yourself the way I see you?"
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WHEN are you going to SEE yourself the way I see you?"
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Now, if we also look at the video, we'll see that these are the three
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points where she moves forward.
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"WHEN are you going to SEE yourself the way I see you?"
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Let's do it together.
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WHEN are you going to SEE yourself the way I see you?"
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Now, why is it so important to recognize?
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Because in English, not every word is stressed the same - only
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the key words, the operative words that move the idea forward.
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Everything else is somewhat reduced and pronounced fast.
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And a lot of times it's reduced so much until the vowels are not even fully
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pronounced, but pronounced as a schwa.
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'When are you gonna, are you gonna, are you gonna see yourself the
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way, th', th', the way I see you?"
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Right?
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So, it's not only the reductions that matter.
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It's also the fact that it's lower in pitch.
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And lower in energy, and faster.
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"When are you going to see yourself the way I see you?"
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Let's do it again together.
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"When are you going to see yourself the way I see you?"
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Let's see what happens after.
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- What would I do without you?
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- You'll always have me.
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"What would I do without you?"
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"What would I do without you?"
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We have three stressed words: what, do, without.
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Right?
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'What' - the question, 'do' - the action, 'without' - the point
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of what she's trying to say.
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She cannot live without her, right?
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"What would I do without you?"
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Now, everything in between - 'what would I do without you', 'you' is a little lower
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in pitch; full vowel, but lower in pitch.
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- I know what you need.
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Come on, come here.
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"I know what you need".
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See how she stretches up when she says 'I'?
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And her pitch is up as well.
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"I know what you need", right?
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So the body represents the movement of the voice and the movement of the pitch.
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Now, it's not really how people speak all the time, even though now that you
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are aware of it, you'll start paying attention to the fact that people do move
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their bodies when they stress words more.
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Especially good speakers that try to convey their message in all possible ways.
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But because it's an animated movie, they need more and better ways to engage the
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people watching, the audience, right?
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And one of the ways to do it, to make it super clear also
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with a movement of the body.
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Also, it makes it a lot easier and clearer for the actors that narrate
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the scenes to do a good job because they know exactly what intonation
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it requires, based on the animation.
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It's just really interesting to think about, like how it all works together.
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Let's look at another fun scene.
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Okay.
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So there's a lot of motion and emotion in this scene.
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And I want you to see now how it works with the speech, and
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how it all fits the movement.
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Okay?
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So let's watch it with the audio now.
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- Anna, no.
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I have my powers to protect me.
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You don't.
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- Excuse me.
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I climbed the North Mountain, survived a frozen heart, and
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saved you from my ex-boyfriend.
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And I did it all without powers.
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So, you know, I'm coming.
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- Me too.
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I'll drive.
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- I'll bring the snacks.
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So, the first sentence that Elsa says: "Anna, no.
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I have my powers to protect me.
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You don't.
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Let's see how she says that.
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"Anna, no.
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I have my powers to protect me.
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You don't."
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Now, you can see that she says 'I have my powers to protect me', right?
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She uses her hand gesture to stress the word 'protect'.
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That's the key word, that's the operative word.
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This is why she doesn't want her to come with her.
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Because she's protected by her powers.
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"I have my powers to protect me.
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You don't."
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Right?
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And you can see how she moves the body according to those stressed words.
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Then Anna says:
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- Excuse me, I climbed the North Mountain, survived a frozen heart,
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and saved you from my ex-boyfriend.
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"Excuse me.
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I climbed the North Mountain, survived a frozen heart and
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saved you from my ex-boyfriend."
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So, even that part alone, you can see that every time there is a
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key word - 'climbed', 'survived', 'and' - she uses her body.
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Right?
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She either leans forward or has a somewhat bigger gesture.
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- And I did it all without powers.
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So, you know, I'm coming.
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- Me too.
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I'll drive.
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"And I did it all without powers".
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'All without powers'.
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And she drags the word.
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Because the idea is that I didn't have any powers, right?
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'ALL without powers'.
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What I'm trying to say here is that no, you don't need to sound like Elsa or Anna.
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But stretching words to emphasize what you want to say, using your body,
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using pitch to convey your message is an excellent tool to communicate.
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And it's not just about English, but English does a really good job utilizing
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those elements - length and pitch.
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And when you look at good speakers who speak English really well, you'll
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see that their body and their voice is always aligned with their message.
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Let's look at what happens after.
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- Me too.
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I'll drive.
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- I'll bring the snacks.
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"Me too.
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I'll drive".
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Right?
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There is this rising intonation, falling intonation - "Me too.
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I'll drive".
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And the same thing happens with his body.
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"Me too.
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I'll drive".
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Lifting his head up and dropping it down.
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"Me too.
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I'll drive".
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So, to conclude: this is a great tool to practice your English while
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you're watching animated movies with your kids, your nieces, your nephews,
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your neighbors, or even by yourself.
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So, it's something to pay attention to because it can help you understand so
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much more about the language, but it's not just when it comes to animated movies.
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I want you to see that the body is intrinsically connected to the voice.
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And when you start recognizing that, you become more confident in using that.
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But it's not enough because you need to put it into practice.
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Practicing using your body and using your voice is something that can definitely
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help you become a better communicator.
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In fact, in my program - New Sound, I have an entire module about the voice,
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and a few modules about prosody, which is all intonation, rhythm and stress.
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So if you liked this video and you want to go deeper into understanding
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how the language is organized and how to use it to convey a clear compelling
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message, I invite you to get on my waitlist to find out when I open doors
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for New Sound, my signature program.
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The link is going to be below.
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Now, I would love to hear from you.
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Have you ever noticed that when you watch animated movies, the movement of the
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characters is usually associated with their intonation and stressed words?
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If not, let me know as well.
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And tell me if it was helpful.
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Thank you so so much for watching.
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Don't forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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And if you want to find out more, you can come on over to my website
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at hadarshemesh.com, or follow me on Instagram at @hadar.accentsway,
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where I'm almost always available.
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Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day.
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And I will see you next week in the next video.
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Bye.
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