Speech Expert Reveals How to MASTER English Pronunciation!

Hello everyone, welcome.

I am very excited because today I'm  speaking with Hadar from Accents Way.

Now Hadar, English is not your native  language, yet you speak it without an accent.

You sound just like a native speaker.

You sound like anyone I would  speak to in North America.

So how did you do it?

Well, I am not a native speaker, that is true.

But I have trained to, I  wouldn't say eliminate my accent,  

but to acquire a new accent, which  was in my case, general American.

So I studied the standard accent.

And I did that because when I was 20I or 21I  enrolled in an acting school in New York City.

And as part of my training, we were  offered speech and pronunciation classes,  

but not just for foreign students, but for  everyone, because even the students who were  

from the US and from North America,  they each had a different accent.

So ultimately they wanted to teach general  Americans so that people would know how to  

use an, an accent, like a neutral accent that is  not necessarily identified with a specific place,  

which is what I've learned and what I've acquired.

And also later on, other dialects of English.

And I did that back then too,  

so that I would have more opportunities as  an actress in New York City or in the US.

But with time, I discovered, you know,  that the impact of doing this work,  

not just on how I sounded, but also on  my confidence and my fluency in English,  

which we, you know, we would  probably talk about later.

But that was the reason why how it  all started or why it all started.

That's really interesting.

I didn't know that, that at 20  you enrolled in acting schools.

So and interestingly that it was with other  native speakers, which I want to discuss.

But first let me ask you at 20 or 21  when you enrolled, how was your accent?

Could you tell where you were from?

Did you speak with a  noticeable accent at that time?

So yes, I would say that I had  a non-native or foreign accent.

So I had foreign features.

My vowels were like I, I didn't  distinguish between similar vowels.

I, I didn't pronounce the TH.

So definitely my pronunciation was, was  very different 'cause I was applying some  

of the sounds and other phonological  rules from my own native language.

And I would definitely hear quite a lot  like the question, where are you from?

And I hated it 'cause I was like,  why are you asking me where I'm from?

What's wrong with my English?

Have I made a mistake?

And I think that back then, for me that it was  really not, it wasn't important to change because  

I wasn't, I was ashamed of  not being a native speaker.

It is what it is, you know, that was who I was.

But I think that it felt like  I was, it was robbing potential  

opportunities and and I wanted to have equal  opportunities as other native speakers.

And I think This is why I put a lot of focus into  acquiring the general American accent that makes.

A lot of sense, especially since you  wanted to be an actor at that time.

Now, considering that my students watching  this probably don't want to become actors,  

but do you still think it's important  for them to try to reduce their accent?

Can you speak a little more of what  impact you feel that would make for them?

Yeah, absolutely.

So I think that different people have  different accents and different pronunciations.

And that's just like that's  that's humanity, right?

Even people from the same country  or even state may have different  

ways of saying things, sometimes  different words that they use.

So we definitely don't want to have a world  where there is no versatility or variety.

It's not possible and we don't want that.

We don't want everyone to sound the same.

The work that I do is important because I  

think that learning pronunciation can  help you on so many different levels.

First of all, you want to be clear.

Like intelligibility is key when  it comes to accent training or  

pronunciation training for non-native speakers.

I don't do this to for for my students  to lose their accents completely.

That is not the goal.

And also what is the message that we're sending?

They don't need to.

There is nothing to be ashamed of  by speaking having an accent in.

If anything you should be proud for being  able to speak another language right Like it.

It's just proof that you  know more than one language.

If you have an accent in a certain language,  however, if your pronunciation is preventing  

you from getting what you want and sounding  clear and causing you insecurity and it makes  

you feel self-conscious and you have to  repeat yourself and you are constantly  

facing people with like a blank look on  their face, then it's not serving you.

And that already affects your fluency and your  confidence and your ability to understand others.

Now I know that you do a lot of work  related to listening and understanding  

others because it's so important when  communicating in a second language.

And learning pronunciation can  help you with that because you're  

basically teaching yourself to hear  and to listen through your mouth.

The repetition of sounds and  practicing reductions help you.

It helps you understand how how  the language is spoken and it  

helps you understand native speakers better.

So learning pronunciation isn't helping you  is going to help you with building confidence,  

sounding clear, getting what you want,  and also understanding others better.

Now there are other benefits  for learning pronunciation,  

but I would say these are the top three when it  comes to the benefits of doing this kind of work.

You made excellent points.

And I do hear from my students a lot that they  they feel too shy or ashamed of their speech in  

order to have those conversations because of  their pronunciation, because of their accent.

And I can imagine it really impacts them.

And so let's go back to when you were in acting  school because this is so interesting to me.

So you're in acting school with  native English speakers as well.

Can you tell me what was your experience  trying to improve your pronunciation or  

reduce your ascent compared to a  native speaker trying to do that?

I just imagine if I had to learn to speak  with a Texas accent or a British accent,  

I think that would be very difficult for me.

So how do you think that that experience was  

different for you and native speakers  you were doing this training with?

That's a great question.

I think that first of all, I always felt a  little inferior 'cause it was like always,  

oh, they, it's so easy for them, right?

It wasn't just, you know, the exercises and the  sentences that we had to read, Some of them were  

so complicated to me also in a semantic level,  like I didn't understand what it meant because  

it was like all these old school vocabulary and  you know, they kind of like they just read it.

And I had to read it before everyone else like 10  times in my head to be able to say it confidently.

And even then I wasn't confident.

So I felt like I had to catch up to  even be close to where they were at.

At the same time, I feel like that gave me  an incentive and motivation to do this work.

And I worked a lot harder than  everyone else, which, you know,  

of course benefited me because I developed this.

I, I became a very diligent student.

I did the work.

It impacted not just my, my, my pronunciation,  

but also myself esteem and how I  perceived myself as as a learner.

You know, 'cause I did the work, I showed up,  

I was consistent because I  wanted to catch up with them.

And I think that because of that,  my improvement was, was pretty fast.

And I also studied privately with one, with two  of my teachers so that I could between the first  

year and the second year, I took a lot of  private classes so that I would, you know,  

at least have the same ability  to have conversational English.

And, and I think that worked.

Has that work has paid off?

The only thing that I think  was a huge struggle was how  

the language was not immediate to me, right?

Like especially when we had to improvise  or when we had to speak in class about,  

you know, about how we feel and things like that.

Like it was very easy for them to communicate.

And for me, the language was not that available.

I was self-conscious about how it sounded.

I did all this pronunciation work.

So I was always like in my head,  listening to myself from the outside.

And I felt like I wasn't fully expressive.

I wasn't able to express myself  as fully as my colleagues.

So I think that was also a  challenge that I had to face.

And I think that's the thing, like non-native  speakers, they in many situations at work, you  

know, when writing emails in a global, in global  companies, in acting schools, at universities,  

they probably need to work harder than their  native peers if the environment is in English.

But it's not necessarily a bad thing.

But we need to kind of like, understand  how to work with those thoughts and make  

sure that we don't see ourselves  as victims, but only, as, you know,  

people with the power to do those  things that we want and to change.

Yeah, I like that perspective of turning  what might be a weakness into a strength  

because if we were both in acting school, I  might not prepare as much because I'm like,  

oh, this will be easy, but then  you're taking the time to prepare.

So you might beat me because  you took the time to prepare.

Same with job interviews or giving  presentations, giving speeches.

Native speakers might just be  like, oh, I don't need to prepare.

But then you're busy working.

You're working hard.

You're going to outwork me.

So that's that's a good point for everyone.

Exactly.

It exactly, yeah.

Yeah.

Now keeping in mind my students aren't  probably going to go to acting school or  

want to invest the significant amount of time  that you have to improve their their accents.

Can you share some some strategies or  exercises from acting school that could  

be relevant to just a broader, broader audience?

Yeah, I can share the things that I've learned  myself and I kind of like modified it to,  

to to suit my students who who, who do  this work not for the purpose of, you know,  

losing their foreign accent or anything  like that or becoming an actor or actors.

First of all, I think that when  it comes to non-native speakers,  

it's really important to identify  the the top priority, right?

Like the key sounds that prevent  them from sounding clear.

So for some people, you know,  they would say, oh, my flap T,  

flap T is the sound when the T is between two  vowels, like in the word Betty, or it is right.

And those people might be like,  oh, you know, I can't get it.

It doesn't sound right.

I pronounce it like AT sound, which  is completely valid 'cause there  

are dialects to use this pronunciation  and they might want to focus on that.

But at the same time they might be  replacing the R with the L, right?

And might say light instead of right.

Something critical that if they make that  mistake, they're going to be misunderstood.

It's going to compromise their clarity.

So it's really important to  understand what are the things,  

the elements, the sounds that prevent you  from sounding clear, that get in your way.

So sometimes it could be the R sound  because you feel self-conscious,  

you feel like you're investing a lot of energy.

You avoid words with the R, right?

Like.

So if that is the case, that  probably would be a top priority.

So it's important to not go and learn all  the sounds of American English because  

some of them are not an issue, may not  be an issue, but only the key sounds  

that are that affect your clarity, affect your  confidence, intelligibility, so on and so forth.

After that, it's important to  learn how to produce it properly.

And this is where you have hundreds and thousands  of videos online that teach you specific sounds.

So you can go and learn how to produce the sound.

It's physical, it's technical, right?

What to do with the lips, what to do  with the tongue, what to do with the jaw,  

where to place the sound.

And then once you understand how to  produce a sound that might be challenging,  

let's say the dark L, the L that  appears at the end of words.

Well, let's say you say well, and then you've  learned how to pronounce the dark L Well, now it's  

not enough because it doesn't mean that you'll  be able to use it consistently when speaking.

You have to turn it into a habit.

Pronunciation is a habit.

So once you learn how to produce a certain  sound, you have to repeat it again and again.

And usually I teach it in  words, phrases, and sentences.

So it's kind of like building up so that you,  

it becomes more natural for you,  it becomes more spontaneous.

And this is how you can start  using it on your own, right?

Like you, you have to do all of that work before  

expecting yourself to use it on  your own or or for it to change.

Great.

So that's that's a start, yeah.

Identify what sounds that you need to improve.

Now what if at that point a student didn't  actually know mm hmm how their accent is?

I'm thinking back to my own experience and I  might when I'm speaking a foreign language I  

might say something but really not  know if I'm saying it correctly.

Do you have any advice to help  these students even understand  

what areas of their pronunciation  or accent they need to work on?

Sure.

So I would say that critical  mistakes or the top priority  

would be eliminating sounds and awareness is key.

So I'm going to say those things and then those  watching like our, our, our viewers might need to  

record themselves and see if they're doing those  things because you're able to hear it right?

Like, but sometimes when we speak and we're  in our head, it's a little hard to notice it.

So This is why using recordings is really good.

If you drop sounds mine instead  of mind tech instead of texts.

OK, that happens for certain  speakers if you add sounds.

So if instead of saying bus, you say bus  Oh, OK, you're adding a vowel sound at the  

end and you're changing the number of syllables,  instead of 1 syllable, it becomes two syllables.

That is going to completely affect your clarity.

The Luckily these mistakes are not very  common, but these are top priority.

If you replace one sound that exists in English  with another sound that exists in English.

What do I mean?

Rs and LS right?

If you say light instead of right  without thinking about it or you are,  

but you're not working intentionally on  it, the and wah a lot of people replace  

those sounds SA and TH OK sink instead of  think that could compromise your clarity.

So I would put all of these as top priority.

Below that there are sounds like he sounds  like the R if it's mispronounced the TH  

sheep ship vowel pair pool pull like  similar vowel sounds that people merge.

So they will say sheep and sheep  for instead of sheep and ship right.

So, so merging sounds and then reducing  the number of vowels that one uses.

So that would be, it's  important, it's not critical.

Now I would also say, so these are the things that  people need to explore and see if they're doing.

There is more, but I think that's a good start.

Another thing that I would  introduce would be prosody,  

intonation, rhythm, stress,  connected speech, right?

So if you tend to separate your words so  that you sound clear, like I'm doing now,  

speaking in the sense of staccato  because because of your first language,  

maybe that's how it is in your first language  or because you're trying to be clear.

I think it's not a sound, but it's definitely  an aspect of speech that is important for  

clarity because people are used to receiving the  language or thoughts in groups in chunks, right?

And if you separate it, it's going to  be harder for people to understand.

So I would also say this is one of the  things that students should focus on.

I think that's that's that's enough for now.

There's more, but yes, definitely  enough to get them going for sure.

And remember everyone take it one step at a time.

You're improving these things,  not immediately everything.

Just work on one thing at a time.

Now, as my students are improving these areas,  do you have any suggestions for how they can be  

better understood even with  the accent they have now?

Because I had an unfortunate situation where I was  getting gas and I was trying to work the pump and  

it wasn't working and a voice came on the intercom  and said something and I didn't understand it.

I said what?

Because that's what we say in in American English.

What?

And then he repeated himself and  I still didn't understand it.

And then he repeated it again.

And after that third time I  still didn't understand it.

And it was a non-native speaker  on the other side of the intercom.

So what could that student do or other other  students do when they're in the moment?

They aren't going to be able  to change how they pronounce  

sounds 'cause they're communicating right now.

Is there any strategies they can use to  just be clearer with the accents they have?

Yeah.

This is this is a a good a good question  and a good story because of course,  

because it was it wasn't face to face  communication, which makes it easier, right?

That makes it easier for you to  understand and I think and you  

have experience working with  non-native speakers, right.

So even you terrible.

I felt terrible that I couldn't.

Now probably most native speakers.

I think a lot of native speakers do feel bad when  they can't understand someone else because we  

want to help people, we want to be good listeners,  and I felt very badly that I couldn't understand.

And this person and I also felt like  I probably made him feel bad because  

I had to ask him to repeat himself three times.

And even after that I still  couldn't understand him.

So I felt very bad about this situation.

I can imagine and it's like it's very  uncomfortable because you don't want  

to make someone feel misunderstood  or or bad or embarrassed in any way.

So I think as if you communicate with anyone  native speaker and non-native speaker and you  

are you feel like you're not clear or someone does  not understand you, I would say the first thing.

Do not repeat saying what  you just said in the same  

way because probably something there was  not transformed or transitioned properly.

It could be the sounds, it could  be the specific words and maybe  

the mispronunciation in one of the words that  changed how you perceive the entire sentence.

It could be the stress, right?

Primary stress.

Maybe a word was the the  primary stress was misplaced.

Maybe the stress on the content word or the  keyword in the phrase was incorrect, right?

Which is also really, really important, right?

Which word you stress or you deliver the message.

So do not repeat it in the same way.

Try to use different words.

Go slower, OK?

If you are on the phone or in a radio or whatever,  

raise your pitch a little bit so you  project your voice differently, right?

Sometimes when we're down here,  

we sound a little muffled and the  voice does not carry through properly.

So you can change.

Remember when we had masks  

back in during the pandemic and we had to change  our voice to get through the to the other person?

So a lot of times I, I would notice that people  subconsciously just raise their pitch, right.

They go more nasal, they project  their voice better do that right.

So don't repeat it 1 to one.

Change something about maybe the  wording or use different words.

Slow down, change your pitch a little bit.

And also I would recommend deciding what is  the like really quickly if you can't do it.

What is the most important  word that is important here?

If if the person understands this word, would they  make sense of the rest of the sentence, Right.

So the keyword, the content word  in English needs to be longer,  

louder, higher in pitch, OK,  longer, louder, higher in pitch.

So make sure that there is at  least one word that sticks out.

Say it longer, say it slower, and  raise the pitch for it a little bit,  

and usually that would solve the problem  no matter what pronunciation mistakes  

you're making because the other  person will will make sense of it.

But they need something to work  with and I think that could help.

That's excellent advice for sure.

And I think what you said about if they  can't understand you, don't just say it  

again exactly the same way 'cause if I  couldn't understand you the first time,  

chances are I won't be able to  understand you the second time.

So I think all that advice you just gave would  

have definitely helped that  person in that situation.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think as a listener, and  I bet that you can attest to it,  

that you get stressed out when  you don't understand someone.

And that also affects your ability to understand.

So if it's repeated in the same way, it's  really hard for you to to now make sense of  

it all of a sudden because of the, the also  the, the, the, the emotional experience.

That's very true, Very true.

Now, when you were working on your  accent, were there specific mistakes  

that you think you made that slowed  down your process of reducing your  

accent faster than you could have if  you knew everything that you know now?

And could you share some of these mistakes  

that you made so my students can  avoid making these same mistakes?

I think that I didn't, I wasn't  aware of prosody intonation,  

rhythm and stress and, and, and  connected speech and all of that.

I did not learn that in school.

I learned it vicariously because  we would imitate and do shadowing.

And when we worked on accents, then  yes, like there is impact to the rhythm,  

but it wasn't something that I've learned about  

the American accent when I acquired  the general American accent, right.

So for me, I only focused on sounds  and there was still a missing link.

That was hard for me to  understand what that was like.

I sounded, all the sounds were great, but there  was still something that wasn't pulling together.

And I think that had I put more focus  on recognizing that all of that aspect,  

you know, like prosody, the, the, the,  everything that is not the sounds.

That makes a huge part of how we communicate.

I think it would have made  things easier for me early on.

I would have listened to it differently, paid  attention to nuance and and improved faster.

That's what I think.

But I also think that being in  acting school and doing this work,  

I got really good tools like the repetitions.

I, I could have practiced more between us, but,  but I think that a lot of the things that I've  

done back then, I, I teach them to my students  today because I think the, the, the beginning  

method and how I worked was, was good specifically  for, for sounds, but not for for everything else.

And So what advice would you give to  students so they can, if they're trying  

to work on their R versus L, they can watch a  YouTube video to understand the mouth position.

But how can they understand  how those sounds are are used  

in speech and the connection, the intonation, how?

What should they specifically  do to improve those areas?

So for students who are not actively  learning it, 'cause you can learn it  

and you can practice it, but if you're not,  then shadowing, for example, is a really,  

really great exercise to improve those aspects and  also to develop intuition right around the rhythm.

And even without learning and  practicing specifically rhythm,  

which you can, you know, I teach  it, but not everyone needs it.

Not everyone has access to it.

So shadowing, which means to  find a speaker that you like,  

if you have the text in front of you, even better.

You know, you do that a lot  in your on your channel.

And then you listen to a line  or two and you just imitate it.

You just repeat it and again and again and again.

And he tried to kind of like focus on the melody  

and focus on the rhythm and focus  on connecting the phrases together.

And I think this is something that is very,  very beneficial for doing this kind of work.

And also, I think just reading out  loud or speaking intentionally.

So recording yourself, answering a  question or talking about yourself,  

but focusing on a specific thing.

Now I'm focusing on making sure that my R  has like this nice deep rounded quality or  

sticking out the tongue for the TH or  using more melody when I speak, right?

So speaking freely, but being intentional about  using one thing that you're trying to change,  

you know, and going back to what you  said about focus on one thing that  

is really important when you do any kind  of work, definitely pronunciation work.

Otherwise you get overwhelmed and  confused and you don't benefit from it.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

And you have already shared  so many tips that my students  

can start using to improve their  pronunciation, reduce their accent.

So to help them not feel overwhelmed.

If they were only to do one thing, the  very first thing that they should do,  

let's say this week to start working  on their pronunciation and accent.

What should they do?

So I would choose, I would spend the week just  trying to figure out what they would want to  

focus on and practice and then put everything  on the side and then say to themselves, OK,  

for the next two weeks, 3 weeks, 4  weeks, I'm going to focus on the R.

I'm going to focus on and choose a sound like I  think that that is, if you're just starting out,  

sounds are pretty are, are, are a good place to  start because intonation could be more vague.

And if you decide to do it, then create  the like, find the resources for yourself.

You know, the right videos teaching you that and  and practice the sound with lots of repetition.

OK, so identify the sound.

I know you said one thing, but it's kind of  like identify the sound and then practice it.

Don't expect yourself to use it.

Just probably if it's the R, learn how to make it  

and then just practice a lot  of words with the R sound.

Now when we have ChatGPT and all these  IAI tools, it's so easy to generate lists  

of words, let's say with the R sound,  specifically with the R, it's easier.

With others, it's not so much.

So that's it.

I think I, I and I also think it's a lot of fun.

I'm biased a little bit, but I  do think pronunciation work can  

be fun if you have the right mindset and attitude.

I think that's a great point and I agree  especially with your shadowing exercises.

You have a lot of fun shadowing  exercises on your YouTube channel  

and even just focusing on individual sounds  it it's a nice mouth workout and I agree.

So hopefully all my students will approach it with  

that mindset is going to be fun to work  on my pronunciation, improve my accent.

So now you have your work to do.

You need to identify that one sound that you  want to improve and then commit to practicing  

that sound for one week, two weeks, or as long  as it takes to feel comfortable with that sound.

So everyone put that one sound that  you want to work on in the comments,  

publicly commit to working on that.

And Hadar has many resources to help you.

So Hadar, can you share how my  students can connect with you,  

where they can find you so they can get  the resources to improve that one sound?

Yeah, 100%.

So the best way is to just find me on my website,  which is my full name, Hadar shemesh.com.

This is where you get access to all  my videos, podcast, social media,  

but you can of course also find me on  YouTube at Accents Way English with Hadar.

And of course, I will have everything linked up  in the description so you can easily find it.

Well, thank you so much for being here Hadar,  

and sharing all your wonderful  advice and wisdom with my students.

Thank you so much Jennifer for having me.