Speak 10X Better in English: Do These 5 Things Every Day

Today you'll learn 5 simple yet incredibly  

powerful exercises to speak  English 10 times better.

And these exercises will only  take you 10 minutes a day.

If you do these exercises every day,  you will see results in only one week.

And if you're consistent, you'll  see amazing results in only 90 days.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course, I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started #1  understand the rhythm of words.

What's this?

Easy, right?

But say it out loud.

It's not a banana da da da banana,  because that's not the rhythm of English.

The English language is a stressed language.

This means that not all  syllables are said equally.

Da, da, da, no.

Some syllables are stressed, which means  you'll hear them louder and longer.

Other syllables are unstressed, which  means they're quicker and quieter.

Every word in English that's two or more  syllables has stressed and unstressed sounds.

Let's come back to this image.

Which syllable is the stressed syllable?

Say it out loud.

Think about which one is louder and longer.

The correct way to say this is banana banana.

So which syllable is the stressed syllable?

Banana da da da.

The middle syllable is the stressed syllable.

It's the one you hear the loudest and longest.

That also means that the unstressed  syllables need to be quicker and quieter.

So instead of BA, it sounds  like BA because it's unstressed.

It's the unstressed schwa sound.

As a tip, when you're learning new words,  

make sure you learn the correct pronunciation  and and identify the syllable stress.

The dictionary tells you which  syllable is stress by putting a mark.

It looks like an apostrophe in  front of the stressed syllable.

Now, keeping this concept in  mind, do you know who this man is?

Do you recognize him?

Just say his first name if  you know it and say it aloud.

His first name is.

I'm using this man as an example  because he has ATV show where he  

travels around the world and  competes against local chefs.

Now most of the time he's in  non-english speaking countries,  

but the show is in English and all the local  chefs have a very high proficiency of English.

However, every non-native chef that  I've seen on the show pronounces his  

name wrong because they pronounce  it as Dada Gordon Gordon Dada.

But that's not how you say his name.

But of course, he's polite and he  never corrects the local chefs.

His name is Dada Gordon Dada Gordon Gordon  because the first syllable is stressed gore,  

so the second syllable becomes that  unstressed vowel sound Din din Gordon Dada.

Again, your dictionary is your best  friend for learning correct pronunciation.

Here's the phonetic spelling.

You can see that the syllable  stress is on the 1st syllable,  

and that upside down E is the schwa, which  means it's an unstressed sound Din din Gordon.

Repeat after me.

Gordon Dada Gordon.

Now if you ever meet this celebrity chef,  you know how to say his name correctly.

For your exercise, spend one to  two minutes reading any article  

and identify the syllable stress in each word.

You can confirm if you're  correct by looking in the  

dictionary #2 Understand the rhythm of sentences.

Just like words have their own  rhythm, so do sentences in English.

Content words are stressed, which  means they're louder and longer.

Content words are nouns, main  verbs, adjectives, adverbs.

Function words are unstressed, which  means they're quieter and quicker.

Function words are articles, prepositions,  auxiliary verbs, and conjunctions.

This is also why native speakers may sound fast  

to you, or why you may struggle to  hear all the words in a sentence.

It's because not all words are said equally,  

only the words you need to understand  the meaning, the content words.

Let's take this sentence.

Which words are the content words?

Which words will you say louder and longer?

They went to the restaurant by the beach.

The content words are wind, restaurant, beach.

These are the words that you'll  hear louder and longer because  

if you only heard those 3 words,  you would understand the meaning.

Now remember you still need to  have the correct word stress.

So this word restaurant is  more than two syllables,  

so there will be a stress  sound and an unstressed sound.

Da da restaurant, restaurant.

Let's try this exercise again with a new sentence.

Here's the sentence.

Which words are the stressed words, the content  words, the ones you'll hear louder and longer.

Da da da da da da da da da da da.

The dog is running with a ball.

The dog is running with a ball.

The content words are dog, running, ball.

These are the words that  you'll hear louder and longer.

Again, if you only heard those 3 words,  you would understand the meaning, right?

There is only one word that's  more than two syllables.

So you have to think about word stress  for the word running, Dada running.

If you master this rhythm of English,  

you will absolutely speak 10  times better for your exercise.

Spend one to two minutes reading any article and  identify the content words and the function words.

Focus on one sentence at a time.

As a tip, you can combine  exercise one and two together.

You can read a sentence and identify  the syllable stress of each word.

That's more than two syllables, and you  can identify the stressed and unstressed  

words in the sentence #3 open your mouth wider.

This is a very simple way to  instantly be more easily understood.

And you can certainly do this  in your native language as well.

You just learned that certain words are said  

quicker and quieter because  you don't need to hear them.

That's true, and that's how English is spoken  in both casual and professional situations.

However, a big reason why  students aren't understood is  

because they're not pronouncing the sounds fully.

They don't open their mouths wide  enough to fully produce the sound.

This is called mumbling, and it's a problem  with many kids in their native language.

Well, at least in English,  

and kids learn to open their mouths wider  as they develop their speaking skills.

Adults mumble too, but it's  usually when they lack confidence.

Imagine you're trying to speak  with your mouth full of food.

In this case, it's impossible to fully produce  

the sounds because the food  will fall out of your mouth.

I'm sure someone has tried to talk to  you with their mouth full of food and  

you can't easily understand them, and  this could be in your native language.

The solution is simple, open your mouth wider  when you speak, the sounds will be said fully,  

and your volume will naturally increase,  which means you'll say it louder,  

and your rate of speech will decrease,  because it takes longer to say the words,  

but speaking slower will make it  easier for you to be understood.

Let's see the effect of mumbling.

I'm going to say a simple  sentence, and I'm going to mumble.

I want you to notice how my volume  is quieter, my speech is faster,  

and it's more difficult to understand the sounds.

Focus on my mouth.

Maybe we should postpone  the project until tomorrow.

I'll say it again.

Maybe we should postpone  the project until tomorrow.

So was it more difficult to understand me?

Imagine you didn't have the writing on the screen.

Now I'll say it again, and I'll open  my mouth wider than I normally would.

Maybe we should postpone  the project until tomorrow.

Maybe we should postpone  the project until tomorrow.

Notice how some sounds were still  louder and longer than others.

So doing this exercise doesn't mean you  say each sound equally loud and long,  

because that isn't how the  English language is spoken.

You still need to remember points  one and two as you do this exercise.

For this exercise, read the same  sentence you have from exercise  

one and two and say it aloud and  open your mouth wider than normal.

As a tip, when you're practicing pronunciation,  it's so important to hear your voice.

Record yourself on your phone and listen to it.

This feels strange, but trust me, doing  this will help you get comfortable with  

your voice in English and it will help  you identify areas of improvement.

You will learn so much by  listening to your own voice.

I highly recommend it.

Now you have 3 exercises that  you can do at the same time  

and they'll take take you about  four to six minutes to complete.

Let's keep going with #4 Exaggerate your sounds.

For this point, you'll choose sounds  that you know you need to improve.

Either your teacher has given  you feedback or you just feel  

awkward and uncomfortable with certain sounds.

Maybe it's the R sound, or  maybe it's the long E sound.

You're going to say that specific  sound a lot longer than it should be.

This is an exercise that you will only practice  on your own or in a classroom environment.

You will not speak this way in the  real world because it isn't natural.

This is only a practice exercise, but trust me, it  works and you'll get amazing results very quickly.

Let's use R as an example because many  students struggle with this sound.

And let's say you said the word St.

in a meeting and nobody understood you.

So you know that this sound means improvement.

This word is street.

There's no syllable stress because  it's only one syllable in a sentence.

It would be stressed because it's a content word.

It's a noun.

Now let's practice exaggerating  that R sound Street.

That's how you exaggerate it.

How long can you hold the sound?

Now, forcing your mouth to  stay in that position longer,  

you are strengthening the muscle needed  to produce that sound and your brain is  

going to get comfortable with the position of  that sound, the mouth feeling of that sound.

Let's do this together.

Let's say the word street, but  hold that R as long as you can.

But remember, when you're holding the R,  

you'll still complete the word by  vocalizing the remaining sounds.

Are you ready?

Can you hold it longer than I can?

Let's say it now street.

I could keep going for another 30 seconds  or longer, but that would be boring for you.

Remember, this is not how you would  say the word in the real world.

That would be weird.

This is how you practice certain sounds  that you need to improve for your exercise.

Identify 1 sound you need to improve and practice  exaggerating that sound in different words.

Do this for one to two minutes per day.

A very important note on this exercise, not  all sounds in English can be exaggerated,  

because some sounds are very quick  and it's impossible to hold them out.

That takes us to #5 mirror practice.

You can do this exercise for  sounds that cannot be exaggerated,  

but you can and should do  this exercise for all sounds.

The goal of this exercise is for  you to get comfortable with what  

your mouth looks like when  you say a certain sound.

That's why it's called mirror practice  because you'll do this in front of a mirror.

Now you can also use your phone because you can  see the image of yourself on your phone and that's  

ideal because you can record yourself and then  listen back, which is one of my recommendations.

So consider your phone the best mirror you have.

Let's take a sound that can't be  held out in English like the J sound.

Now remember I shared that all the  non-native speakers I heard on the  

show pronounced Gordon Dada Gordon's name  incorrectly because of syllable stress.

Many students pronounce my name incorrectly  because of the length of the J sound.

The sound that represents the  letter J in English is very fast.

You cannot hold out the sound, which means  you cannot do exercise for with the sound J,  

but you can see what your mouth looks  like when you produce the sound.

This will help you recognize when  you're not pronouncing it correctly.

Your goal is to get comfortable with  the feeling of how to produce sounds,  

but the sound changes based on how it's combined.

So let's take two very different sounds.

The first part of my name Jen and the month June.

Notice how my mouth opens wider when I say  

Jen N Jen and it stays in a more closed  position when I say June oon June, Jen, June.

After practicing this for a period of time, when  you're speaking, you'll feel the sounds in your  

mouth and you'll know if a sound isn't pronounced  simply by how it feels For your exercise.

Choose a target sound you want  to improve and practice using  

that sound in different word  combinations for one minute.

And now you have 5 simple yet powerful vocal  exercises that only take 10 minutes per day.

Do you want me to keep helping you  improve your speaking skills if you do?

Put yes, yes, yes, put yes, yes, yes,  yes, yes, yes in the comments below.

And of course, first, make  sure you like this lesson,  

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And you can get this free speaking  guide where I share 6 tips on how  

to speak English fluently and confidently.

You can click here to download it or  look for the link in the description.

And here's another lesson I know you'll love.

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