Hello. Hello. Hello, sweet people. Welcome to another episode of English. My name is Foster. I am an English teacher, a podcaster, a human being trying to survive in this crazy world, in this crazy year of 2020. God bless us all. Welcome to the show, Alexia.
Hello, Foster. This couldn't be any more American of you.
God bless America. Yes.
It could be British as well. God bless the queen.
God save the queen.
Yeah. God save the queen. Exactly.
Yeah. Okay. Before we begin talking about the crown, because I know at some point we will record an episode about the new season of the crown today.
And Queen's Gambit as well.
Queen's Gambit. More Queens. Okay. My queen, Today on the show, we are continuing our conversation talking about difficult words for Brazilians to pronounce, and especially just words that Brazilians have the tendency to mispronounce. Yesterday, we started talking about different platforms that you can access on the Internet or the Internet.
And actions that you take to those platforms as well, like both an audio, both a video, etcetera.
Yes. So yesterday we kind of focused on Spotify videos, audio, that kind of thing. Today we are continuing the conversation And, yeah, let's do it. Alexia, where would you like to begin?
I think I would like to begin with the most difficult one.
Okay.
Which would be linkaging.
Linkaging.
And for those who are applying for a new job, well, outside of Brazil, you should know how to say linkaging correctly as well.
Yeah. Okay. Let's begin with the pronunciation. Say it with me, Alexia. LinkedIn.
LinkedIn. LinkedIn. LinkedIn.
When Alexia is being very ambitious about her pronunciation. This is an audio format, so you can't see her face. But there's like so much tension and just so much effort. Okay. So the first sound, linked. Linked. So imagine a link. Linked.
Linked. Linked.
Yeah. So a link.
Link.
And then imagine you are putting a T on the end. Linked. Linked. Linked in.
Linked in.
Yes. Technically, I guess you could say linked 10, but that's a little bit strange. No. Okay. So linked.
Linked.
In. In. Just like, I'm in my room. Okay. So linked in.
Linked in.
And then when we say it a little bit faster, that T gets a little bit softer and faster. So if I'm speaking normally, like at a conversational speed, I will say LinkedIn.
LinkedIn.
Yes.
LinkedIn.
Pretty good. This is what we call a stop T. So, as you know, we have many different T sounds in English. The stop T is very similar to the normal T. So just give me a moment, Alexia to do my pronunciation thing. Okay. We have a lot of different T's in English. We've talked a lot about this. I believe you can listen to episode 100 and 48, if I'm not mistaken. It's either it's around 148, 149, or 151, 152.
But we talk about the different t's in English. And this is something we talk about extensively in Sound School, our pronunciation course. So if you're interested in this kind of thing, you can check all of this out at English.com So we have many different T sounds in English. A true T. This is what you can imagine a normal T, like table. Mhmm. Time. Mhmm. Took. Okay.
Okay.
So say that table.
Table.
Okay. Now, just isolate the T sound and just say the T. Exactly. Alexia is looking at me like you are a crazy person. Okay. So, t, that's the true T sound, correct? Correct. T, t, t. So, with a stop T, everything is the exact same. So when you go, tt, think about where your tongue position is, where your tongue is touching the top of your mouth.
A stop T is the exact same thing, but we do not aspirate. Aspirate is a complicated way to say the tt. The tt. So, stop T, we don't do that, but everything else is the same. So sometimes we use a true T and say linked in. Most of the time we say LinkedIn.
Okay.
Does that make sense?
Yes. Yes.
Do you wanna try that for me?
LinkedIn.
Okay. But you don't have to say it so fast. LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Yeah. So just imagine. Try it with the true T first. Linked
in. Linked in. Linked in.
Okay. Now, try it with the stop T. Linked N.
Linked N.
Perfect. It's almost like it doesn't even exist. It's very subtle, but it's super, super important. The different variations of the T sounds in English is one of the principal ways that we speak fast.
So would be quite the opposite of saying YouTube because we are pronouncing the T here.
YouTube is a traditional true t. YouTube.
YouTube. Yes. Yeah. Here we just have to pay attention with a u. YouTube.
Yes. Okay. So let's continue to YouTube. Most Brazilians have the tendency to say. YouTube. YouTube. So first, you me and you. You. So we're not saying you, you, but we're really exaggerating the circle that we make with our lips at the end. So we say you.
You.
Perfect. You tube. YouTube. So the last sound is the b sound. There is no e at the end. In writing, there is an e, but in speaking the e is silent. YouTube.
YouTube. Okay.
So you watch videos on YouTube.
And you can watch videos on TikTok as well.
Which I think is Alexia's favorite social media platform nowadays.
I love it.
How do you say this in Portuguese? TikTok. How do you say it?
TikTok. TikTok. TikTok.
Much more difficult. Tick tock.
It's not.
Just adding extra sounds everywhere. Tick tock. Tick tock.
Tick tock.
Yes. So here, tick tock.
Tick tock.
Yeah. So an interesting thing in the tok, TikTok. Yeah. That's like a an ah sound just like TikTok. Yeah. TikTok.
TikTok. And what about an old social platform?
Mhmm. An old Yeah. Can you say that one more time?
Old.
Yes. Perfect.
An old social platform called.
Honestly, I do not even know how to pronounce this in English. I believe I would say Orcut. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, I don't know if we had this in the US or maybe it just was not as popular, but I never had. I'd never met anyone that had it before I traveled to Brazil.
Yeah. Okay. So Instagram.
Instagram. I like you. Do you want to do me a big, big favor? Mhmm. Can you be the teacher real quick and explain what do Brazilians normally say and how should they pronounce it correctly? Like what is the most common mistake that Brazilians tend to make when they say Instagram?
Well, I think that with the final m in Portuguese, we don't close our mouth. So we say without closing the mouth. Right? We are smiling when we say. Also it comes from the different regions of Brazil with the for me, it's like an x because I'm a karaoke. I'm from Rio. But it should be like insta, insta. Now insta. Right? So insta, instant, Instagram. And in English, we close our mouth when we say gram. Right?
Mhmm.
Instagram. What?
I love you so much.
Is that wrong?
That was perfect.
Okay.
Absolutely perfect. The happiest moment in a teacher's life is when the student becomes the teacher. Yes. Close your mouth with the final m and there is no shh, just Instagram.
Instagram. Excellent. And Facebook. Yeah.
We forgot about Facebook, which is probably a good thing.
I'm loving Facebook nowadays. All my communities are pretty cool. My groups.
Yeah. I'm just looking at this list of, of social media platforms and I use YouTube a lot. I watch a lot of YouTube.
I don't. It's very, very interesting because when I left, I stopped looking at YouTube at all. I mean, it's something, I don't even know the last time that I logged in to watch something on YouTube.
Yeah. I use YouTube, like when I want to learn something. Pretty much I only u well, YouTube is 3 things for me. Number 1, how to play things on guitar. The guitar world on YouTube is amazing. So they have brilliant tutorials. It's a lot easier to learn with a video and watch the person play, to listen and watch music, like when I wanna watch my favorite artist. And, fitness videos, like stretching at night. Yeah. That's the only reason I use YouTube.
Yeah. Yeah. But it those are pretty good options. So
Yes. I believe
And the dog TV nowadays for us.
Oh, yeah. We use YouTube to to put on dog TV for our dog to watch because he he kind of calms down. Okay. We're getting off topic. Just one last word about YouTube. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, at least 80% of the videos that are watched on YouTube, they come from the recommendations and not for the thing that you searched for. So, if you want to be productive on YouTube, just search for stuff, forget about the sidebar, and that really, really helps.
Yes. Yes, it does. That's very true.
Okay. I am going on a tangent, so I think that is a good place to stop for today. Alexia, any last words?
No. Just keep up the good fight.
And lose well.