Meeting a "Play It, Say It" Student in Real Life! ❤️

Today, I’m doing something for the first  time. I’m meeting one of you in real life.  

I’m driving to New Jersey to meet Q. She’s  been following me on YouTube for years,  

she’s been a student in my Academy and I can’t  wait to meet her. Come on this adventure with me!

I had such a fun day with Q, you  guys are going to love meeting her.

Part of meeting Q and making this video here  today for you is also announce that today starts  

my Spring Sale on Rachel’s English Academy.  You can get your first month for just $5,  

sale ends Sunday. Now, I’m going to be talking  to you about the Academy throughout this video  

and I hope by the end you’ll love it  you’ll absolutely come join me there.

Alright, let’s head. Head is short  for head out which means to leave.

Scoop my chair up, buckle in.

Okay, here’s the thing about me driving: I  hate it, I detest it, I am no good at it,  

maybe you have seen the video where I blew  out a tire because I was trying to make a  

video while driving like I am now, uhm, but I  have to it. Actually, David was going to come,  

he was going to drive me and then he got  Covid. Okay, here’s what’s very annoying  

about my neighborhood. The Mail truck has  just stopped in the middle of the street.  

It just stopped there, everyone behind it  just have to wait. Let’s take a picture.  

So, when the mail delivery person is done, we  get to start going again. I think the reason  

why I hate driving is because there was a period  of time, many years when I didn’t have to drive,  

I took a bus and I lived in New York City and  I just got bad at it. I got out of practice.

If you’re out of practice, this is something  that requires skill and you haven’t done it  

for a while. Maybe you’re playing golf  for the first time in several months  

and you’re not doing well. You could  say, “Man! I’m really out of practice!”

While I’m driving to New Jersey,  

let me show you what students get in  the Academy and why it can help you.

There are thousands of hours of  video and audio content here,  

but don’t worry I have a daily plan  for you so you don’t need to waste  

any time deciding what to study or  what order to use for the lessons.

These lessons are based on what works  to get students to hear English in a new  

way and change their habits. Leave the  sounds, rhythms, and placement of their  

native language behind. It’s not intellectual,  it’s a body/ear/voice-based approach. You see,  

I was an opera singer years ago. This is me in a  production of Madama Butterfly at the Boston Lyric  

opera. If you want to hear a clip of me singing  opera, I’ll play one at the end of this video. I  

sang all sorts of roles in various languages,  and let’s just say I learned a thing or two  

about the voice and how physical changes change  the sound, also the joy in the repetitive work  

of getting a new role, a new character, into my  voice so I could sing that character with ease.

This is the background that I bring to my lessons  in the Academy. You learn information in a video,  

and then you work with the audio to transform  your own voice. You’ve learned what makes American  

English sound American, and now you give your body  the opportunity to find that sound. The audio,  

regular pace and slow motion; the audio lets  you work with repetition to change your habits  

so you can stop doing the double work of  thinking what to say and how to say it. You  

won’t have to think about your pronunciation  anymore because you’ll have locked in the  

habit. I call it the play it, say it method.  This is what my student Alex said about it.

But you sound great!

Thank you so much, so that’s  

because of Rachel’s English I learned a  lot and started a lot of process.

Awesome.

That method Play and Say it method so it’s just  awesome. First of all, when I heard about it,  

I hate it, I thought what’s like, I don’t know  how to do it is but then I started to do it and  

that’s just awesome and I’m continuing  to do it till this day so that’s great.

That’s awesome and I’m so glad  to hear that because I know  

it’s like people, when people learn what it it is,  they’re like, “uh. I don’t want to do that.” And I  

have so many people say I started the Academy and  thought I’m too advanced for this. And then when  

I actually started doing it, I realized how much  I was changing and tweaking and how much better I  

was sounding. And so I’m glad that you have that,  thank you for sharing with everybody because other  

people here might be having that initial reaction  too like “uh, this repetition, this is boring..’

That’s the most important  so this is a major thing.

And it’s what’s let’s your body find it and  that’s what’s going to make it natural for  

yourself in conversation so thank you for  sticking with it and pushing thought that.

Thank you, thank you.

There are so many details to the American accent,  and we cover them all. This is likely the first  

time you’ll ever be working this way, with this  method, and you won’t be doing it alone. We have  

a community where you can post videos and get  feedback from a teacher. This is personalized  

feedback just for you. We also have something  called office hours every week where you can  

show up and chat with teachers to ask your  questions. And we provide very thorough support  

through email. You will not be alone on this  journey. We’ll take you through all the sounds,  

the rhythm, the melody, and the placement.  You’ll learn vocabulary, phrasal verbs,  

and idioms. We have a course that goes over all  of the 500 most common words in English.  

I want to share what my student Joel said.

So, in the time I’ve spent working with Rachel’s  English Academy, I have seen a huge improvement  

with my pronunciation. The way I speak English,  the way I understand English and the way I feel  

the language just feels completely different  now than I feel a few months ago before I start  

working in the Academy. Getting feedback  from the teachers, working with courses,  

imitating the conversations which are really  great because you got a lot of audio and a lot  

of materials to imitate real conversations  between native speakers and that’s really  

amazing. That has really helped me to get a  better accent and most important, to feel more  

comfortable when I speak English and to feel  confident with the way I speak English. So,  

I would definitely recommend Rachel’s English  Academy to anyone who’s trying to get a better  

pronunciation and to improve their accent  because it has really worked for me. After  

working with things like placement and stress  which are concepts that I have no idea of  

before joining the Academy but have a really  big impact in your pronunciation when you start  

working with them. That has really helped me to  get a better pronunciation which is everything  

that I ever wanted just becoming a little  bit more clear to be able to be understood by  

native speakers and that has something that  the Academy has helped me to achieve. So,  

I would definitely recommend Rachel’s English  Academy to anyone who has the same goals because  

the Academy can really help you if you’re really  willing to put in some time to practice every day.

I love this, but it didn’t happen overnight for  Joel. Joel dedicated his time to this learning,  

this habit training. Bravo, Joel, for  your effort. You sound absolutely amazing.

Please check us out and see if we can’t help  you find your American voice and transform  

your spoken English. It’s just $5 to start,  RachelsEnglishAcademy.com this week only.  

People DO get results. My student Tom said  this: “I currently live in Toronto. I have  

been with the academy for 13 months and tried  to practice at least one hour each day. My boss  

recently told me that my pronunciation has  improved substantially and I was promoted  

to Assistant Vice President at the beginning  of this year.” I love the real results and  

increased confidence my students get. Ok,  so, let’s see if I made it to New Jersey.

Okay, so I made it to New Jersey.  No accents. Let’s go find Q.

Q picked this really cute  little spot in New Jersey  

where we sat on a heated patio and  had views of the lake and flowers.

Hello! I have decided on that salad that  you talked about with no meat additions.

Okay.

Yeah. And I’m just going to  stick with water for today.

When you say you’re going to stick with  something, that means you’re going to keep  

using what you have. You’re not going to choose  anything else or anything in addition. I didn’t  

order another drink, I said I’m going to stick  with the water that I already had on the table.  

Or let’s say someone asked you if you’re  thinking about changing jobs. You could say,  

“No, I’m going to stick with my current  position for at least one more year.”

I coach students live in the Academy every  month and I can get to know students through  

our community group but getting to know  a student in real life was such a treat.  

She has great suggestions for how to  make the Academy better and I always  

love thinking about ways to improve the student  experience. One thing I can tell your right now,  

is that the Academy is not a magic  solution. The students who succeed  

are the students who set aside time to  train with the method and the material most  

days. Are you motivated to do the work?  What goals might you reach with better  

spoken English? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure  the work is worth it. You will see results.

Then I ordered tea and dessert.

I would like to have the white Pani. And  which dessert do you think is the best here?

Pani is my favorite flower so I was guessing I would love the tea.

What kind of red pudding?

Lemon.

Hmm.

I always love to ask the servers  at restaurants what they like on  

the menu. Sometimes it gets me to  order things I wasn’t considering.

Is that your favorite?

Okay, I’ll have that.

Thank you.

After dessert, Q and I walked around the gardens  and got some pictures with the sculptures.

Then we sat down and I got to hear  more about her experience in the US  

and improving her English. Q is a high school  teacher and she’s getting a master’s degree.

What made you sign up for the  Academy in the first place.

Most importantly is I have those thoughts,  

a lot of thoughts that I would  like people to get in English.

Right.

Some communication.

Yeah, I totally get that.

So people can understand me easier and better and  

definitely have more confidence  while I’m talking to people.

Which is so important at work right?

Yes. Not only to work but also to you  know, like everyday lives as well.

RIght. Social life too.

Yes. I, my native language, Chinese quite choppy  so sometimes I have to remind myself to say it  

very slow and put everything together in  an American way. That took me for a while  

but again definitely worth it so every time  before an interview or some important meeting,  

I will do the placement exercise. Like on  the way here today, I was doing uhuhuoh.

Uhhmuh.

While driving I was talking to myself a lot.

And I love how you said that it does  take time but it’s worth it because  

it’s totally true. People who don’t put  in time don’t really get anything out  

so you do have to commit to putting the  time in but then you get those rewards.

Yes.

You can only access the Academy courses,  teacher feedback through the community,  

live classes with me, and the teacher office  hours through a subscription. With a subscription,  

you are automatically charged every  month, and after your $5 first month,  

the price goes up to the regular price of  $37/month. I want to stress, you can cancel  

at any time. We also offer a 30-day money  back guarantee so if you don’t think this  

method works for you, just email us within  the first 30 days letting us know you’d like  

a refund and we will process that for you.  Drop any questions you have in the comments.

The whole support not only about you know,  the Academy wise but also its emotion support  

that you, we have a community that  we can grow together and you know,  

all those teachers and classmates and  people in the community are there so.

I love that you feel that.

I do, I feel that I’m not alone.

That’s awesome and it’s very  important to us that people,  

I don’t know, feel seen that  they feel apart of something.

Yes. In the Academy, you can find a lot  of interesting people just like you.  

And when those people are together, it’s such  a nice group and community and connection.

Q and I are hoping to have another meet up  sometime soon, this time with other students  

from the Academy. Also, this is amazing. Q has  her own YouTube channel where she teaches Chinese.  

She made this to supplement her classroom. I love  this. Follow her links in the video description.

I promised you the opera, here  is the opera. This is ancient,  

before it was so easy to  get a good audio recording,  

and so it’s recorded on a little audio device  during rehearsal when I was in graduate school.

If you’ve seen this opera before, let  me know in the comments. If you have  

any questions about that Academy, drop them  in the comments. Thanks for watching. I love  

being your English teacher. That’s it and  thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.