American English Imitation Exercise: Thanksgiving!

In this American English pronunciation video, I'm going to talk about Thanksgiving with

my friend Sara. And then make an awesome imitation exercise from it.

What's so great about an imitation exercise? When I make an imitation exercise, I'll take

a little bit of speech and loop it three times. When this happens, it starts to sound less

like speech and maybe a little bit more like music. This is a good thing, because as a

learner of English, you already have some ideas about speech. And some of them probably

aren't right. So, if we can get you to hear American English in a new way, it's a good

thing. Don't be so worried about what you're saying, but think more about the pitches that

you're hearing, the rhythm that you're hearing, and try to imitate that exactly.

You'll hear each phrase three times, then there will be a small pause for you to repeat.

>> Everybody, you know my friend Sara. She's been in some videos before.

[Sara, what is your favorite Thanksgiving memory?] >> Um, my favorite Thanksgiving memory is

when [my whole family, all my sisters] and their husbands---

>> [She has three sisters and one brother.]

>> It's a lot of people. >> That's a lot.

>> [A couple years ago we got together] [for my parents' fortieth wedding anniversary],

and so we [had Thanksgiving and had a good time together.]

Um, and every year I'm near my dad for Thanksgiving,

I have to watch out because he likes to [get involved in whatever I'm trying to cook.]

>> Oh. [He tries to take over?] >> Yes.

>> So, that brings me to my next question: which is,

[what is your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?]

>> Um, [my favorite thing is cranberry sauce, I love it.]

>> Love it too. >> [It goes with lots of things.]

>> So Rachel, [what are you doing for Thanksgiving this year?]

>> Well, [for Thanksgiving on Thursday], [I'm actually not planning on doing anything].

[I'm probably going to do a lot of video editing] [for Rachel's English. Gonna work.]

[The reason why I'm doing that is because] [on Friday I'm going up to Massachusetts],

[and we're going to have Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday.]

[Some friends that I used to live with when I lived in Boston.]

[So I'm still getting Thanksgiving,] [just not on Thanksgiving Day.]

>> [Will you make anything?] >> [I am going to make a corn casserole.]

[It's been requested.] [Apparently, I make a very memorable corn casserole.]

>> Thanks so much Sara for being in my video.

And happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there.

That's, it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

My question for you is: what's your favorite thing to eat for Thanksgiving, or your favorite

Thanksgiving memory? Leave a comment below the YouTube video. Or, better yet, record

your answer and post it as a video response. Next week, I'll put a link to my favorite

video response at the end of my new video.

Don't stop there. Keep learning with my fun American English in Real Life playlist, my

Reduction and Linking playlist, or any of the playlists on my channel. And don't forget

to check out Rachel's English.com, where there's lots more to work with.