Accent Training Podcast

In order to take control of your spoken English using an American accent, it's essential to understand what makes vowels sound the way they do. What do Americans do differently from yourself, and what can you do to harness these subtleties in your own speech?
Y glides are a major key to vowel sounds, and today we dive into a number of examples that you can get started using in your daily life, right away!

Keep an ear out for these idiomatic expressions when listening to really get the hang of this

• Play along Pretending to cooperate / reinforcing a lie
  If they ask anything, just play along with what I say.
  
  
• On thin ice Someone is losing patience
  He's on thin ice, he had better not mess up again. 
  
  
• Make a killing Make a lot of money
  After making a killing on stocks, he bought a house.

Check out my instagram @en.outloud for more tips!

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When you're learning to speak clear American English, I suggest starting with words you use on a daily basis. Money idiomatic expressions are a great place topic to cover in reaching this goal. Understanding how we talk about money will not only help your casual English speech, but may also render significant results for your professional English.

Lets consider a handful of these money related idiomatic expressions here today.

Read along with the text below to really get the hang of these:
Good money - A large sum of money
I make good money / I paid good money for these tickets!

Blood money - Money obtained through crime
The officer accepted the blood money, and let them through.

Old money - Families who have been wealthy for many generations
They're old money, their family has been here for generations. 

New money - Families who are new to a wealthy lifestyle
Social media has led to many new money families!

That kind of money - An impressive sum of money
They always fly first class, I wish I had that kind of money!

Money to burn - Having extra money for leisure
I've saved for months to have money to burn on vacation.

Money talks - Money can influence people to do things
Once I paid, they snuck me in; money talks. 

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If you want to improve your English speaking in your, I have a challenge for you! When speaking English professionally, you want to ensure that you clearly pronounce STS, SKS and SPS consonant clusters. Practice with me here to make sure you're clearly pronouncing each letter.

The movement for these is subtle, so take time to focus closely on the movements of your muscles.

These exercises for accent reduction are best practiced through shadowing, so feel free to read along with the phrases below:

• She asks a lot of questions.
• I make playlists of singers with lisps.
• Tasks with risks are how philanthropists make money. 
• It’s better if he asks before he grasps the wasp’s nests.
• Security frisks people at the entrance looking for flasks.

And these Idiomatic Expressions:

1. Rat’s nests Something disorderly / Overcomplicated
   We searched for a book in the rat’s nests of offices. 
   
   
2. Rusts away Something that has become covered in rust
   He’ll watch as his car rusts away if it isn’t taken care of.
    
3. Uphill tasks A progressively more challenging task
   Planning a wedding has been a real up-hill task!

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Daniel Alfaro is an American Accent coach from Mexico with a ton to offer. He is the founder of Pronunciationandfluency.com. Daniel breaks down learning spoken English from an overwhelming task to achievable goals, then provides the strategies necessary to achieve each goal.

If you're looking into American accent training but are not sure of what to expect, here's an episode to help explain just what Coach Daniel and I do, and how we can help you!

Check out Daniel's website here:
https://www.pronunciationandfluency.com/home/

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Whaaaa? Pfft! Mhmm... Mhm? Huh? Huh.. Hmm.. Ooo!

This silly combination sounds tells a story. Tune in to learn what, and go on to retell it yourself!

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Today I bring on Accent Coach Bianca from Master an American Accent. We consider how we can set realistic and quantifiable goals to improve overall speech, and work on accent related skills.

Bianca mentions that it's essential to know you're motivation for learning something. If you don't understand why you want to learn something, you risk losing any motivation you might have had before.

Bianca also breaks down the concept of S.M.A.R.T goal setting and how it applies to you!
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Relevant
T - Time

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Today I get into detail with 3 different general rules for pronouncing the letter X. X may sound like "eks", "igz", or "Zz", depending on its position in a word. Listen on in to get a good feel for this sound!


Practice along with these phrases here:
Expert opinion
Mix in water
Exit Strategy
Luxury Suite

Examine the mixed results.  
They’re exaggerating my text.
Let Max know Xavier took the next exit. 
A spoon of mustard will relax acid reflux. 
You’re next in line, I expect you’ll do exceptionally well.
In my expertise I have extensive xylophone knowledge. 

Tricky Practice Sentence:
Pronunciation difficulties are taxing, and exacerbate expecting exactness, fixating accent exaggeration indiscriminately. 

Idiomatic Expressions With X
Go the extra mile Make more effort than is required
They always go the extra mile for their kids. 

Think outside the box Thinking creatively

You’ll have to think outside the box to fix this problem.

At the expense of (SOMEONE) Gaining from others’ losses

I won a vacation at the expense of my coworkers. 

Sit back and relax Let other people do the work

Sit back and relax and enjoy your flight. 

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Speech involves many aspects, and accent reduction takes dedication and patience. However, when we consider the sounds of the American accent, connecting our speech, and intonation, we can break speech down into categories to be better understood. 

Tune in to learn how you can improve your understanding of spoken English, and ultimately improve your communication skills and confidence!

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Today's episode practices more Spanish words than English. This may seem like craziness, but I'd like to show you how the concepts that we speak about to improve your spoken English muscle memory can be applied to ALL languages! All that it takes is a little patience, and knowing what to look for. In fact, while editing this, I realized that I, myself, have been pronouncing some words in a funny way in Spanish! 

Today I chat with my nieces. Three young ladies who speak English as a first language, but are all eager to improve their linguistic abilities! Tune in to see what you can learn from them regarding your OWN language skills, and kick things up a notch! 

Practice along with the following Spanish tongue twister:
Tres  tigres Trigaban trigo en un trigal
Que tigre trigaba mas?
Los tres igual. 

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ZH spelling is not commonly found in English, but we do say it a lot! We make the same position as an Sh, but add a little voice.

Tune in to work this one out with me here!

Practice your ZH with these idiomatic expressions!
Bon Voyage Have a good trip
I wished them a bon voyage and sent them off. 

Snap Decision A decision made in a quick moment
I made a snap decision and bought Oreos.

Beyond measure To a great Extent
Their results were beyond measure, they did great!

It’s been a pleasure It has been nice to see you
It’s been a pleasure, bon voyage!

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