Hey, what's up? What's going on? Welcome to English with Dane, a podcast designed to improve your English. As always, I'm your host, Dane, and you can find me on Instagram and Twitter at EnglishwithDane. If you want a transcript of this episode, let me know. And if you don't use social media, send me an email at Englishwithdane at gmail.com. This episode is all about tips on how to improve your pronunciation in English.
A lot of you have written to me asking me to do an episode like this, so here it is. Let's get into it. You are listening to the 15th episode of season two of English with Dane. Hit it. I find pronunciation particularly interesting because it has become one of the least important aspects for me over the years, but at the same time, it has become one of the most important aspects for my students. And I find this gap to be growing more each day. Let me explain what I mean.
I've said this on the podcast before, but when I hear someone speak English with a strong accent, the first thing I think is, oh, this must not be their first language. Right off the bat. It's my first thought. I don't mean it in a judgmental way, but it's true. And I'm sure you're thinking the same thing when you hear someone else speak your language with a foreign accent. This does a few things, in my opinion.
It makes me appreciative that someone is trying to communicate with me in a language that maybe they aren't that comfortable with yet. And it makes me forgive any mistake they might make. And I use the word forgive in quotations because it's not the best word, but you know what I mean. Another thing it does is it makes me think that person is brave, right? Valiente. It takes a good amount of confidence to say, you know what?
I'm going to try and communicate with this person, and maybe I'll feel embarrassed, but I prefer that than not making the effort to communicate. It means they are valuing communicating with me over the thought of them feeling embarrassed, right? And this is actually a big compliment, I think, un gran cumplido. It makes me happy that they're doing it, you know?
I'm saying this because I feel like even though I've mentioned it before, pronunciation seems to be, parece ser, one of the biggest obstacles for people to practice speaking. My students often express how they feel insecure about their English because they think that they might say something the wrong way or mispronounce a word and have the other person not understand, and that situation might make them feel stupid. It's an understandable fear. It's why most people fear public speaking, right?
They might say something stupid and then everyone will know. I know, I feel it too. I totally get it. But let me ask you this. When was the last time you remember something embarrassing that someone else did? What I'm trying to say, and don't take this the wrong way, okay, is nobody is walking around thinking about you that much or at all. All right. And I want this to be a comforting thought. Next time you're in a situation in which you can use your English, if only for a moment, go for it.
Okay? Lanzate. Nobody cares. And if someone cares, I guarantee their energy is just misplaced. Okay. Um, go and do it. Don't be afraid. That said, you should have a minimum idea of at least how to pronounce words. Okay. You can't go to people and say yo instead of how are you? Okay, you understand my point. Stop worrying that you don't have perfect pronunciation because nobody cares. It's literally only you, all right? And it's stopping you from improving.
So get over yourself and just try it next time. Okay, after that motivational speech, let me give you a way to practice your pronunciation at home. Some of you aren't going to like it, all right, because it's always the first reaction. But I promise if you try it and stick to it, you'll get better. First, find a short text.
It can be from a book, from a speech, maybe a TV show, a movie, etc., whatever it is, then open the voice recording app on your phone, which most phones have, and record yourself reading that text out loud. It's always terrible to hear your own voice, tu propia voz, on a recording, trust me, I know. But you get used to it, okay? So listen to it, hate it, and then do it again. I want you to do it three times, but listen to the whole thing before each attempt, okay? Antes de cada intento.
I promise by the third time it will be better. The first time you'll feel weird doing it and you'll doubt that it helps, but trust me, listen to it, don't erase it, and try it a second time. Record it again, this time trying extra hard on those words you found difficult the first time. And then listen, take a breath, and try it one last time. This should only take you around five minutes, and it makes a big difference. All right, not only for your pronunciation, but for your confidence too.
And that's the most important thing. If you do this every day in a week, you'll see a huge improvement. Okay, this is what we're gonna do. If you follow me on Instagram, send me an audio recording, all right? Send me an audio recording of you reading that short paragraph or a few sentences or whatever it is. Practice it three times first, do the exercise, send it to me, and I'll give you my thoughts. All right? Okay, deal. All right, that's it for today's episode.
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