American English Intonation, Connected Speech & Phrasing in English | Simon Sinek Speech Analysis

151,475 views ・ 2018-10-26

Accent's Way English with Hadar


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Hey guys, it's Hadar and this is the Accent's Way.
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And welcome to another Intonation and Speech analysis.
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The purpose of this video is to help you understand the melody patterns, the rhythm, the phrasing...
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connected speech and intonation in general, of American English.
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And to do that I have chosen an interview of Simon Sinek who discusses "The Millenial Question".
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This is a really interesting interview and it's a 15 minute long video
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so I'm not gonna analyze the entire interview or the entire answer.
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But I highly recommend you to watch it because it's very interesting and insightful
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so I'll post a link to it in the description below.
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Let's begin at the beginning.
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I have yet to give a speech or have a meeting where somebody doesn't ask me "The Millenial Question".
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So he starts slow.
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'I have yet to give a speech or have a meeting...'
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Three parts.
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Everything's connected here.
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And next chunk is
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It sounds like it's one word, everything's connected.
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'speech' is a little higher than the rest
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And then it goes really really fast.
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Although 'meeting' is a little longer than everything else, because stressed words are longer.
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'or have a meeting'
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'to give a speech or have a meeting'
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So the words that stick out are the stressed words, in this case
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'speech'
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'meeting'
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Where somebody doesn't ask me...
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A lot of sounds in a very short period of time.
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It's even hard for me.
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The secret here...
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Actually, there are two secrets.
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One: reductions.
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So you need to reduce some of the sounds, you cannot pronounce all vowels.
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And the second secret is to go very soft on your consonants.
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To pronounce those consonants very softly.
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So you'll be able to transition from one sound to another rather quickly.
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Almost like you're mumbling it, like you don't want someone to understand you.
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And again, this is a chunk, everything's connected within the chunk.
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Ask me The Millennial Question
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'The Millennial Question'
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'ta da'
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Right, so now it creates expectation.
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Ooh, what is the Millennial Question? Most of the people don't know, because he has the answer.
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So he sets it up in a way that makes it more interesting for us to listen to.
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Apparently Millennials...
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And remember that in English every syllable has a different note.
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Right, it's very musical when you break it down.
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Apparently Millennials as a generation, which is a group of people...
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'Apparently Millennials as a generation, which is a group of people'
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'group'uh-people'
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So a lot of reductions here.
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'generation'
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'group of people'
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We hear the words that stick out.
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'generation'
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'group of people'
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...which is a group of people who were born approximately 1984 and after...
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So look how he breaks it down.
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Right, this helps us understand connected speech a bit more and phrasing, because not every word is separate.
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So he connects words together but not everything is connected together.
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First of all, that's the way he thinks right, in chunks.
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Although he must have answered this question a gazillion times already, which makes me think that these
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phrasings are a tactic to show as if he's just coming up with the answer right now.
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Okay, that's a way to make it sound more natural when you take pauses
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because that's how people actually think.
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Which is a nice... reminder...
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that pauses and...
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moments to hesitate and to come up with the right... word...
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are okay and supernatural.
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It doesn't make you bad in English. Okay, just remember that.
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Anyway, let's go back.
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'(uhmm... uhh) are tough to manage...'
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Thinking of the word, okay again filler words are something that makes a speech a little more natural
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and people always use it when they speak.
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And he's a renowned speaker so him using
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'uhh...uhmm'
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just proves to us that it's a natural way of speaking, especially in an interview.
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And they're accused of being entitled...
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See how he punches those words.
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Those words that stick out are longer, higher in pitch
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but the consonants are longer, the consonants are stronger, whereas everything else is kind of reduced.
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Someone who is entitled is someone that thinks that they deserve things.
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They deserve many things, that they don't have to work hard for them.
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And narcissistic and self-interested...
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Right. So again every word is sort of separate, but every word has a different note as well.
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...unfocused, lazy....
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Right. Again, it's not
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'narcissistic'
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'entitled'
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'unfocused'
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'lazy'
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Every word has a different note it creates
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'interest'
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'engagement'
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'suspense'
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Like I'm doing right now.
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But entitled is the big one...
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Right, so he's kind of closing this part
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'I told you I can't do that.'
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'I don't know what you mean.'
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'I think I'm gonna go.'
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Right, this pattern is a pattern of closure.
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Right, that I have just ended what I was saying or what we were discussing.
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Let's get forward a bit.
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So you have an entire generation growing up with lower self-esteem than previous generations...
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So you reduce this part.
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You slow down here 'generation' is the stress word.
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Everything's connected here.
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And if it's hard say it slowly a few times.
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He speaks really fast those parts.
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Those parts are a little less important.
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...lower self-esteem than previous generations, right...
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So he's closing this part and then he says
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He's not really asking for permission or acceptance, but this is a way of speech.
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This is just to show that he is engaging with the other person, right.
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...through no fault of their own, trough no fault of their own...
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'fault'
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'fault' is the word that sticks out. It's longer and higher in pitch.
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'no' is also high in pitch.
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And then he drops down.
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He repeats it twice for emphasis.
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Right. They were dealt a bad hand...
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He slows down. He separates the words to emphasize it.
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And again that 'right', it's a filler word. It's a filler word as if he's asking for permission, but he's not really, right.
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'Right'
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Now let's add in technology.
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Right, 'a' as in cat.
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And we connect the words together, so it's not
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'add in'
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but 'add in...'
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'technology'
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So he slows down, again, on the stressed words.
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'technology'
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Notice that every syllable has a different note.
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We know that engagement with social media.
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A new idea starts higher in pitch at the beginning of the sentence, especially if the words are stressed.
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Again, make your consonants very soft so you'll be able to say these words a little faster than you're used to
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...and our cell phones...
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And again slowing down for the sake of emphasis.
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'cell phone' is a set phrase whose 'cell' is higher in pitch
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...releases a chemical called dopamine....
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Now again, let's look at how he phrases this thing.
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one chunk
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another chunk
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Right, so within each chunk, everything's connected, within each chunk there is one word
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that sticks out the most but not all the chunks are connected.
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He takes small pauses in between which helps him deliver his message.
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And also that's the way he thinks, right, in chunks.
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..that's why when you get a text, it feels good...
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The punchline.
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'it feels good'
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And every word is stressed.
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...it's as if they're standing at the foot of a mountain...
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reduced
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'standing' is stressed, higher in pitch
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Again, two reductions here.
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'foot' is not reduced
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'foot'
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'foot'
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'cook'
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'look'
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'book'
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Right. It's like a nasal 't' or just a glottal stop
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'mountain'
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...and they have this abstract concept called impact that they want to have in the world...
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reduced
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reduced
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Slower, higher in pitch.
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'in the world' is lower in pitch, but slower because these are content words.
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...which is the summit...
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'summit', higher in pitch, stressed word.
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...what they don't see is the mountain...
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Again, reduced, fast, effortless
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'don't see', slower.
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Full of purpose.
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Reduced.
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So technically what you're hearing is
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'don't see'
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'mountain'
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And still you understand what my message is just by listening to those words.
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Everything else makes sense, create all the tenses, the connections between
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the words, but they're not as important. So invest less energy in them.
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Say them softer, soften the consonants, reduce the vowels there.
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...I don't care if you go up the mountain quickly or slowly, but there's still a mountain...
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Notice those breaks, you take a mini pause and then you enter, with the next sentence, with the idea.
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Right, that's the rhythm.
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So to conclude, what we've learned here or what we saw again.
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The difference between the important and the less important, the high and the low, the long and the short.
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The effortful and the effortless.
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Okay.
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The words that you want to go for it, to punch and the words that you kind of want to reduce
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but you have to have them, so you're gonna say them, but you're not gonna push them
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or you're not gonna emphasize them.
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Okay. Repetition helps with emphasizing your point, slowing down helps with emphasizing your point.
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Taking breaks is essential because that's how we think, that's what makes it sound natural.
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'hums' and 'uhhm and 'well' are also important, not too many of them.
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But they're part of speech and that's okay to have them.
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So you know me, I always bring you back to English because that's what I'm here for.
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And a lot of people tell me, you know, I want to be a fluent speaker.
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I want to have a perfect American accent.
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I can't believe I'm still making mistakes. I get stuck in English.
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Great! You want to be up there on the summit.
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But, what about the journey? What about climbing up the mountain? You have to do it.
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You can't just expect to be up there without going through the journey.
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Without climbing up and suffering through it.
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And feeling the difficulty and the struggle, but also the accomplishment and the empowerment.
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And feeling that every time you're a little higher on your way to the top.
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It can be fun. It can be fulfilling.
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It's all about how you approach it and understanding that there is a journey to take and that it takes time.
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It can be long or short, but it takes time, there's still a mountain.
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Okay, that's it. Let me know in the comments below, what do you think about the Millennial Question.
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And if anything that he said in the video resonated with you.
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And of course, what other elements of speech do you struggle with? Let me know.
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Thank you so much for watching!
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Please share this video with your friends if you liked it.
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And have a wonderful week and I'll see you next week, in the next video.
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Bye.
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