JULIA BOORSTIN -- Interview a Broadcaster! -- American English Pronunciation

Hey Guys, welcome to the new Rachel's English

miniseries Interview a Broadcaster.

Hey Guys, I'm here with Julia Boorstin.

Julia can you tell my audience a little bit

about what you do.

J: Well, I'm a reporter for CNBC,

I'm based in Los Angeles.

I cover media, internet and

social media companies.

R: Awesome, well, thanks for joining me

here at Rachel's English.

You may or may not know that

another term for the Standard American accent

is Broadcaster English.

So people all over the world are looking to

the people in America who deliver the news as

a Standard for American English pronunciation.

So I'm curious, where did you come from?

And is there anything that you had to change

about the way you speak

when you became interested in this profession?

J: Well, I grew up in Los Angeles

and growing up my Mom was from Seattle,

she was an English teacher before I was born,

and my Dad was from Chicago,

and both of them were determined that I was

not going to sound like an L.A. Valley girl.

R: Okay.

J: So my whole life

they were obsessed with this idea

that I enunciate and I pronounce

things properly and fully

and I not use the word 'like'.

R: That's a habit that a lot of people have.

So how did they get you to break this habit?

J: Well, my Mom decided

that the best way to enforce this would be

to have my little brother

to count all the times I said the word 'like.'

So when I was thirteen years old,

we'd be driving around

and my eight year old brother

would be counting twelve, thirteen, fourteen,

and it was really annoying,

and it really did the job.

R: Yeah. J: It really got me

to stop saying the word 'like.'

The other thing that was a pet peeve of my

parents was the upward intonation and when

people talk like this .... R: Typical in California.

J: Very typical of Southern California.

People talk like this,

and they say this is what I'm going to do.

And it makes everything sound

like you're asking a question.

It makes you sound really uncertain. R: Right, so the voice goes

up in pitch at the end.

And it makes it sound like

you're asking a yes/no question.

J: Even if you're not asking a question,

you always sound unsure of yourself.

R: Right, it's a good point.

J: So my parents really encouraged me to not

adopt that habit and I'm really glad they did.

Because it has helped me.

R: Intonation matters.

Notice how Ms. Boorstin says,

when every sentence goes up in pitch at the

end, it makes you sound unsure of yourself.

Because it makes you sound like

you're asking something,

rather than making a statement.

So for example the phrase,

I'm going to the store.

Going up in pitch

makes it sound like you're asking permission.

I'm going to the store.

But, I'm going to the store.

Going down in pitch sounds like a statement.

Generally the only phrases that should go up

in pitch are yes/no questions.

Check out these videos

on intonation and questions.

So when you're preparing a text to read on

camera do you have any tips or tricks?

What do you do?

How much time do you take with the text?

J: Well, you like to take lot of time if it's

possible, every once in a while

you have to just grab a script and go with it.

R: Yeah.

J: But I like to take a little bit of time to

read through it at least once, usually twice

and read through with a pen and I try to

circle the words that are most important in

each sentence. And just really try to think

about, what's the idea I'm communicating here.

And every once in a while you'll find

yourself emphasising a random word that's not

really what the sentence is about.

R: Right. J: So, to just figure...

out what the key thing is. R: That's a great tip.

Look for the key, circle it and then go to it

when you're speaking. Fantastic! J: And I find it

really helpful. And I also like to read

things out loud. And you can hear something,

you're like, oh that doesn't really make

sense if I say it that way, what if I put the

stress on the name of the person who I'm

talking about, maybe that would work better.

R: Awesome, thank you for that tip. I love it.

Great tips here, guys. If you're preparing a

text for presentation, circle the most

important words and practice stressing them,

practice reading out loud.

R: So what do you do when you're preparing a

text, if you come across a word that you're

not sure how to pronounce.

J: Sometimes especially with foreign names,

it's really hard,

don't know how to say it. R: Right, you have no context.

J: So I really think it's important just to

call someone, I usually call the CNBC News

desk, we have lots of very smart people who

speak many languages and it's just the best

way to get a quick answer. And you could look

something up online and you'll see the

phonetic explanation of how to pronounce a

name. But it's just different, you just have

to hear it in your ear so I always try to go

for that solution. R: Right,

and for my non-native speakers out there as

you know a lot of online dictionaries have a

little icon of a speaker that you can press

to hear a native speaker saying the word,

so if the phonetics don't make sense to you,

that's a great option for actually hearing it,

so that you can then repeat it back.

J: I didn't realise that,

I'll need to check that out. R: Yes,...

So are there any words that are particularly

hard for you to pronounce in American English?

J: I don't think that I have any funny words.

But my husband thinks that I pronounce the

word 'experiment' funny, and he thinks

I always say, 'experiment'

R: Experiment. J: Experiment, R: Okay.

J: instead of experiment.

R: Right, so you're sort of

mixing Spearmint gum

J: Exactly.

R: with experiment.

J: Well, think about it. Experimenting is so

exciting and refreshing it's...

R: It is. J: ........sort of like spearmint .....

R: It is like Spearmint.

J: I'm very, very conscious of that

The word 'experiment,' has the EH as in BED

vowel in the stressed syllable. Experiment,

da-DA-da-da, experiment. Ex-pe-ri-ment.

Ms. Boorstin admits that sometimes she puts

in the EE as in SHE vowel instead. This is

not an official acceptable pronunciation,

but I'm sure she's not the only one I've

heard change the vowel this way.

R: Alright, well thank you Julia so much

for joining me here.

Follow Ms. Boorstin on Twitter and check out

her segments on TV or online, for a great

example of American English pronunciation.

That's it, and thanks so much for using

Rachel's English.