My Guide to London | The River Thames

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, that I love London so.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, I think of her wherever I go.

Welcome to London!

So I started my walk along the river Thame.

I started at Westminster bridge and I'm just walking eastwards along the river.

And it is such a beautiful sunny day.

Now I promise London doesn't always shine like this, sometimes we do have rain but today

we are very very lucky.

It's the perfect day to walk along the river.

So let's explore, see what we can find.

I love walking along the river Thames because I feel connected with the city and whenever

I have been away for a long time and I come back to London this is the first thing that

I'll do.

I'll walk along the river Thames starting west, walking eastwards usually along the

South Bank because there's so much to see and do.

And we're going to have a look at some of those things now.

One of the

most popular places to come on the South Bank is this skate park and it draws a huge audience

as you can see right there.

Now the skaters come down here, they are so brave.

They are doing incredible tricks and they've become like little celebrities.

There are people coming up to them right now 'Can I take your photo with you' all that

kind of stuff, so it's a pretty cool place to hang out.

And this skate park has become a bit of an institution.

Now a couple of years ago i think they were trying to redevelop this area but it was saved

by the local community because it's so popular and I'm glad to say it's still here and more

popular than ever.

Things you don't expect to see in London, people building sandcastles next to the river.

Cool, why not?

This guy is building a huge Homer Simpson in the sand.

Why not?

It's Saturday, what am I going to do?

I'm going to build a Homer Simpson in the sand.

This is how we party in London!

This is easily the best thing I've seen all day.

These people, they are on fire!

This walk has inspired me to look at some pronunciation that I think is pretty interesting.

Now the word I want to look at is this one.

How would you say that?

Ok, now I say it in two different ways.

That's right, I know it sounds crazy but I say it in two different ways.

Sometimes I'll pronounce the /t/ so I'll say 'Water' and sometimes I won't pronounce the

/t/ I'll say 'water'.

Why?

I can hear you asking me that.

Ok, now before we get into why I do that let's look at what's happening here.

So the second time I said 'water' but I said it without the /t/ so 'water'.

Now there that's an example of glottalization.

Woah!

It's a big word.

You don't need to worry about that word particularly.

Just understand that, it's an example, an example of it is when we don't pronounce the

consonant sound in this example it's /t/.

And this is the one we are going to look at, ok?

Is the /t/ sound.

So who does this?

Well, it depends on the accent that you have.

Lots of British English accents use glottalization of the /t/.

So there are lots of them that don't say /t/.

Particularly in London and other parts of the country.

Now why do I do it?

I don't really know.

I think maybe when I want to sound more formal, if I'm talking with my grandmother I'll probably

say 'water' or maybe with my boss or whatever.

But if I'm with friends or I'm speaking very casually I'll just say 'water' and I don't

really know why I do that but I do.

It's a pattern that I've noticed in my English.

Alright let's look at some other examples.

So, the first time I say a word I'll use the /t/ and then the second time I'll use the

glottalization so without the /t/.

So let's go with the first one.

'Bottle' the first one again 'bottle'.

Ok, can you hear the difference there?

Alright, let's go with another one.

'right'.

'A lot'.

So why is this useful for you?

Well, in terms of production so you trying to say the words with the glottalization so

not saying /t/ it's up to you.

It's your choice, whether you want to have that kind of an accent is completely up to

you.

However, more importantly for you guys is the receptive skills so the listening skills.

Because people use glottalization all the time, certainly native speakers in Britain,

America and Australia as well will use it.

So, it's important for you to understand when they say 'Can you pass me the bottle?'

You don't know 'what's a bottle?'

You have to kind of know, that ah ok they use the glottalization of the /t/ so they

mean 'bottle'.

Ok, I know what to do.

So, I think in terms of listening it's really a important thing to know.

That's it for another English Hipster video.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip down the river Thames.

I'm going to do another one, because the river Thames is so long, I'm going to do another

second video real soon so look out for that.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.

Remember if you want to check out more of my videos go to Eat Sleep Dream English dot

com.

And if you have enjoyed this video or you've found it useful please click with a thumbs

up and subscribe to my page.

Alright guys, thank you so much this is Tom, the English Hipster, saying goodbye.