Accent Adventure Podcast: Improve English Pronunciation | Learn American English | Learn British English

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW: Hello, guys! Hello, boys and girls, and welcome back to Accent Adventure video blog! I'm Robby, accent learning enthusiast, English fluency expert, and your friend above everything else! And, now, I'm back with another Accent Adventure video blog. To tell you the truth guys, I haven't been publishing on this website for more than half a year now, which is a long, long time. And to be totally honest with you, I wasn't sure for some period of time whether I was going to continue with this blog or I was just going to let it die a slow and natural death. But, lately, I decided - why not? I just could publish a video every now and then to keep those of you happy who are keen on following my accent learning adventures, right? And currently, as you may guess, I'm speaking with the General American pronunciation. But, funnily enough, some people think that I don't sound like an American English speaker AT ALL, which is obviously not true. Yes, I know for a fact that anyone can tell right from the get-go that I'm a foreign English speaker, and I don't sound exactly like a native English speaker, and I probably never will for that matter. But, it's not even my goal. I'm just trying to sound like an American. I am trying to nail the American English sound such as the distinct "R" sound, right? "Or", "my problem", "we’re partners, remember?"  - it's one of my previous videos. That's why I was using this particular phrase, right? But, I'm just showcasing you what exactly I'm focusing on when trying to sound like an American English speaker. And I know for a fact that I'm getting the general feel of the pronunciation, if you like, when I'm speaking. And I got a comment recently saying that... Let me read it! It was on my other English Harmony channel, right, on YouTube and I received a comment saying, "Why do you have American accent? I thought you were living in the United States." So, there you have it! Some people think that I have American accent and they can definitely tell that I do sound like an American. There Are As Many Different Opinions As There Are People! And then on the opposite scale of the comments we have someone who said recently that "I have to tell you that you don't sound American at all. You might have a slight American twang, maybe, but you've got an accent that is somewhere between soft and medium, and it is a very distinctive Eastern-European sounding accent." Well, obviously, all comments and all opinions are welcome to my YouTube channel, and my blog, and everything, and I'm not knocking anyone for publishing their honest opinion on my pronunciation. But, the reason I recorded this video was just to show you guys that other people's feedback matters very little. If you're on a journey to improve your English generally or acquire an American accent, or a British accent for that matter, or you're just generally trying to improve your pronunciation and make it clearer, and basically you want to make yourself being understood with ease, right, no matter what your goal is, you should take other people's opinion and advice with a pinch of salt. Focus On Your English Pronunciation And Ignore the Naysayers! Meaning, you shouldn't take it too seriously because there are people who will think that no matter what you're doing you're not good enough. And, then, there are people who will congratulate you on your achievements and they will actually probably try to compliment you no matter what. They won't even point out your mistakes or whatever. Do you know what I mean? So, the best way would be probably to give a very constructive criticism so to speak. And I received some of those in the past. It's basically when someone tells you, "Yeah. You have done well, but here are the things that you should actually bear in mind" and they actually tell you. And I wouldn't be able to find the comment now, but I remember there was a comment saying, "You're doing well,

Hi guys! That’s me – Robby from AccentAdventure.com – and this time around we’re going to learn how to pronounce the following American phrase properly: WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU? The main focus here is on the sound created by the double TT in the middle of the word “matter” – it’s the so called FLAP T sound – and it’s actually much closer to the letter D than T! That’s the reason why I’ve transcribed the flap T sound with the letter D or with a two letter combination TD in my American Pronunciation learning program Accent Genie, and as you can see in the screenshot below – the FLAP T sound in the word “fitting” is transcribed with the two letter combination TD (just because in this case it’s not as close to D as in the word “matter”). But anyway – going back to today’s phrase WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU? – it basically becomes “What’s the maDer with you?” because Americans transform the double TT into a sound which is much closer to D (with a little hint of “R” in it probably). If you want to get it just right, however, please watch the video above where I’m looking at this phrase in depth and I’m also giving you a few useful tips on how to get the FLAP T sound just right. Other things that you have to watch out for when practicing this phrase are the W sound in the word WHAT’S and you also have to make sure to put stress on the first syllable of the word “matter”. So this is how you pronounce this phrase when speaking with American accent (the underlined syllable indicates the stressed syllable): Uat’s the maDer with you? Is it all a bit too confusing? Well, watch the video above and keep practicing till you get it right – practice is what makes one perfect, don’t you ever forget that! ;-) And of course, if you’re REALLY serious about your American accent and English pronunciation improvement in general, you definitely want to check out the Accent Genie program which is all about learning the American pronunciation in a fast and effective manner. Chat soon, Robby

Among all other English sounds that foreign English speakers may be struggling with such as the letter ‘R’ or the ‘TH’ sound, the letter ‘W’ also takes a special place with plenty of non-native English speakers not being able to get this sound right. There is, however, a fairly simple mental trick that you can use in order to get this English sound right, and it doesn’t involve hours long practicing while watching into your mouth in the mirror. All it takes for you to get the ‘W’ sound right is… Did you really think I was going to reveal this top secret information to you just like that? ;-) You’ve got to watch this video, my friends, to find out how to pronounce the English letter ‘W’ correctly, so please check it out above or alternatively playback the audio file in case you can’t access the video content! Regards, Robby